March Madness is coming
Not often you get to talk about March Madness in July, but with the announcement that Portland would host the first two rounds of the greatest sporting event on the planet in 2008, suddenly college hoops is about the best thing going right now. Let's just say that it will take a lot to keep me away from those games. I'm already seriously considering trying to make it up to Spokane this spring to check out some NCAA tourney action with my buddy Clint, but to have them at home would just be great.
That said, I can't leave this subject without commenting on how stupid and lame the NCAA is. In case you didn't hear, Portland only got to host the tourney because it agreed to cancel its popular "sports action" lottery game which allowed you to legally bet on NFL games while making a donation to our State's coffers. I didn't play sports action much because I prefer non sanctioned betting with friends where the all important bragging rights come into play....I mean, that is what I would prefer, if I were a betting man. But the game was popular and fun and most significantly for this post, completely unrelated to colleges or college sports.
The NCAA is about the most hypocritical organization around right now and consistently places the interest of its own draconian and absurd rules ahead of the interests of college students and college athletes, so it comes as no surprise that the NCAA would force a State to cancel a prominent source of revenue for its educational system, that poses exactly zero risk of harming college students or the colleges themselves, before bestowing the honor of hosting the tourney.
Betting on pro football has nothing to do with whether a state would be a good host for a couple rounds of college basketball. The NCAA uses the popularity of men's hoops and football as a huge club to bully cities, companies, governments, and sometimes the students themselves into following its misguided attempts to control aspects of life well outside its jurisdiction with no understanding of the devastating unintended consequences that follow.
Other thoughts on the sports world...
I hope France loses in the world cup. As you know if you know me or read this blog, I don't care a lick about soccer, but I always root against France. No other Country flaunts its unearned high standing in the international community while contributing so little quite like France.
While I'm talking about soccer, I watched enough of the world cup (a combined 20 minutes or so) to see one of the biggest problems with the game. Offsides. When the two teams all have all their players in position the game is about as enjoyable to watch as a homeless guy cleaning his toenails with a pencil. However, on those rare occasions when something breaks down and there is a rush of only a handful of guys running full steam at the goal it borders on exciting. That is until offsides is called and everyone is forced to come back together and just kick the ball around until finally it rolls out of bounds.
I have had some soccer players try to defend this rule by comparing it to better sports like American Football. They say, for example, in football, you don't allow a reciever to line up on the other side of the defense before the ball is snapped. that would be offsides. My retort is always some version of, "you know, they might if every game was ending in a zero to zero tie." If the game had gotten so bogged down that no one could score more than once or twice a game and shutouts were the norm, you can bet the rules committee would step in and make some changes so that the viewers wouldn't begin to prefer getting trampled by hooligans to watching the game. Just a thought. They need to get rid of offsides. While we're here, a shotclock wouldn't be such a bad thing either.
Back to hoops...
If Boston trades for AI, they will ensure that Paul Pierce never sees a conference finals before retirement.
LBJ has still not signed that extension with Cleveland. I think it's kind of funny that this could become the biggest sports story of the summer and it is getting precious little discussion. Make no mistake, if he doesn't resign with Cleveland now, there is no way, no way he won't leave in '08. Even if Cleveland is good by then, there will almost certainly be a team in a bigger flashier market that is good enough to lure him with bigger money, fame, etc. Cleveland better be sweating this. In thinking about where else he might go, here are a few ideas in order of how likely I think they are:
1. New York - I think Stern would have people murdered to make this happen. Isaiah will be gone by then and they will hold the mother of all fire sales to get enough under the cap to offer him everything. Nike will double his endorsement money. Spike Lee will promise him a two picture deal. Even though, it seems impossible with NY's current roster and cap problems, I wouldn't count them out.
2. New Jersey - Same huge market and Bron Bron's buddy Sean Carter, the incomparable and inconquerable, Jay-Z, owns part of that team. Plus they will be in Brooklyn by then and will likely have a better team to offer than NY.
3. Chicago - Allegedly, this is one of the cities that would make James' endorsement contracts skyrocket, so there's a hundred million reasons or so right from the start. Plus, Chicago looks to be very, very good and maybe close to a championship if they haven't already won one. Cleveland should be hoping Chicago trades for KG soon.
4. The Lakers - Just because they are the Lakers and no matter how lame their management and fans are, they still have hollywood and all the glitz, money and surgically enhanced female companions any young athlete could ever ask for. They just usually get their way. On the plus side, Kobe will probably still be there, and I don't think James would want to play with Kobe or go to be Kobe's wingman and Kobe couldn't have it any other way.
I just don't see anybody else being able to offer enough insentive to lure Lebron away from his home, his first team, an owner willing to spend, etc unless things go horribly wrong in Cleveland and unless Larry Hughes comes back at full force and Z stays healthy and good another 2-3 years (or gets traded for better help), that could be a real possiblity.
While we're here, why isn't SF a big hoops market? It is one of the coolest, largest cities in America. Why doesn't it get mentioned in the same breath as NY and LA in terms of big markets that could use its clout to lure free agents? Is it because GS has sucked so bad for so long? Is it because the team actually plays in Oakland? Is it because it is called "Golden State" so people don't realize how close to San Francisco it is? The thing is, people in SF don't even really care about the Warriors. Personally, unless you play in a state with only one metro area and a relatively small population, I think you have to name your team after the city. No California Angels. No Golden State Warriors. No New England Patriots. We could get away with that in Oregon maybe, because people in Oregon identify themselves with the state more than a particular city. but people in Cali don't think of themselves as from California, they think of themselves as from LA or SF or Sac or Oakland, etc. i think a San Francisco basketball team carrying that city's name could be huge.
In other news...
I don't think I like the experiment of moving Roy to the Point in Portland. I Think we should be looking at Blake and Jack as the tandem there and focusing on making Roy a scorer and defender who, along with Webster can play the two or three. Both those guys have the size and ability to swing between shooting guard and small forward. We have some good point guards already. Let's let Roy play his natural position.
I also don't think the Blazers should rush to trade Zebo. let's see how he plays with the new kids once we get rid of Miles. If he's still a blackhole on offense who shows up every other game to take bad shots and not defend, then we try to get his scoring average up and trade him when he has some value. If the other guys are playing well and he's helping us stay competitive in games, we keep him unless the right deal comes along. Right now, though, there just aren't that many guys out there who can score in the low block. We have one of them. Granted he's overpaid, but we won't get equal value in a trade before the season and his presence and scoring will alow some of the newbies to develop at a more natural rate.
Why doesn't NBA.com run streaming video of the summer league games? I would watch. I would love to see the new Blazers, the rappers trying out for a team, the veterans coming off an injury, the walk-ons playing their guts out for a spot in the NBDL. What's not to like exactly?
Finally, it is officially time to start thinking about fantasy football. I'm going to start today to try to find a date for our draft and confront the fact that I have terrible, terrible keepers to help me rebound from my second straight year missing the playoffs in the league I run with a buddy of mine. How bad do you have to be to not be able to fix your own league? It is just so depressing.
Now I have to decide whether to keep Hassleback or Deuce McCallister to go along with Larry Fitzgerald. Deuce is probably washed up, but with all the best players out of the draft as keepers elsewhere, going into the draft without an RB on the roster is going to be rough.
Oh well.
More later.
Not often you get to talk about March Madness in July, but with the announcement that Portland would host the first two rounds of the greatest sporting event on the planet in 2008, suddenly college hoops is about the best thing going right now. Let's just say that it will take a lot to keep me away from those games. I'm already seriously considering trying to make it up to Spokane this spring to check out some NCAA tourney action with my buddy Clint, but to have them at home would just be great.
That said, I can't leave this subject without commenting on how stupid and lame the NCAA is. In case you didn't hear, Portland only got to host the tourney because it agreed to cancel its popular "sports action" lottery game which allowed you to legally bet on NFL games while making a donation to our State's coffers. I didn't play sports action much because I prefer non sanctioned betting with friends where the all important bragging rights come into play....I mean, that is what I would prefer, if I were a betting man. But the game was popular and fun and most significantly for this post, completely unrelated to colleges or college sports.
The NCAA is about the most hypocritical organization around right now and consistently places the interest of its own draconian and absurd rules ahead of the interests of college students and college athletes, so it comes as no surprise that the NCAA would force a State to cancel a prominent source of revenue for its educational system, that poses exactly zero risk of harming college students or the colleges themselves, before bestowing the honor of hosting the tourney.
Betting on pro football has nothing to do with whether a state would be a good host for a couple rounds of college basketball. The NCAA uses the popularity of men's hoops and football as a huge club to bully cities, companies, governments, and sometimes the students themselves into following its misguided attempts to control aspects of life well outside its jurisdiction with no understanding of the devastating unintended consequences that follow.
Other thoughts on the sports world...
I hope France loses in the world cup. As you know if you know me or read this blog, I don't care a lick about soccer, but I always root against France. No other Country flaunts its unearned high standing in the international community while contributing so little quite like France.
While I'm talking about soccer, I watched enough of the world cup (a combined 20 minutes or so) to see one of the biggest problems with the game. Offsides. When the two teams all have all their players in position the game is about as enjoyable to watch as a homeless guy cleaning his toenails with a pencil. However, on those rare occasions when something breaks down and there is a rush of only a handful of guys running full steam at the goal it borders on exciting. That is until offsides is called and everyone is forced to come back together and just kick the ball around until finally it rolls out of bounds.
I have had some soccer players try to defend this rule by comparing it to better sports like American Football. They say, for example, in football, you don't allow a reciever to line up on the other side of the defense before the ball is snapped. that would be offsides. My retort is always some version of, "you know, they might if every game was ending in a zero to zero tie." If the game had gotten so bogged down that no one could score more than once or twice a game and shutouts were the norm, you can bet the rules committee would step in and make some changes so that the viewers wouldn't begin to prefer getting trampled by hooligans to watching the game. Just a thought. They need to get rid of offsides. While we're here, a shotclock wouldn't be such a bad thing either.
Back to hoops...
If Boston trades for AI, they will ensure that Paul Pierce never sees a conference finals before retirement.
LBJ has still not signed that extension with Cleveland. I think it's kind of funny that this could become the biggest sports story of the summer and it is getting precious little discussion. Make no mistake, if he doesn't resign with Cleveland now, there is no way, no way he won't leave in '08. Even if Cleveland is good by then, there will almost certainly be a team in a bigger flashier market that is good enough to lure him with bigger money, fame, etc. Cleveland better be sweating this. In thinking about where else he might go, here are a few ideas in order of how likely I think they are:
1. New York - I think Stern would have people murdered to make this happen. Isaiah will be gone by then and they will hold the mother of all fire sales to get enough under the cap to offer him everything. Nike will double his endorsement money. Spike Lee will promise him a two picture deal. Even though, it seems impossible with NY's current roster and cap problems, I wouldn't count them out.
2. New Jersey - Same huge market and Bron Bron's buddy Sean Carter, the incomparable and inconquerable, Jay-Z, owns part of that team. Plus they will be in Brooklyn by then and will likely have a better team to offer than NY.
3. Chicago - Allegedly, this is one of the cities that would make James' endorsement contracts skyrocket, so there's a hundred million reasons or so right from the start. Plus, Chicago looks to be very, very good and maybe close to a championship if they haven't already won one. Cleveland should be hoping Chicago trades for KG soon.
4. The Lakers - Just because they are the Lakers and no matter how lame their management and fans are, they still have hollywood and all the glitz, money and surgically enhanced female companions any young athlete could ever ask for. They just usually get their way. On the plus side, Kobe will probably still be there, and I don't think James would want to play with Kobe or go to be Kobe's wingman and Kobe couldn't have it any other way.
I just don't see anybody else being able to offer enough insentive to lure Lebron away from his home, his first team, an owner willing to spend, etc unless things go horribly wrong in Cleveland and unless Larry Hughes comes back at full force and Z stays healthy and good another 2-3 years (or gets traded for better help), that could be a real possiblity.
While we're here, why isn't SF a big hoops market? It is one of the coolest, largest cities in America. Why doesn't it get mentioned in the same breath as NY and LA in terms of big markets that could use its clout to lure free agents? Is it because GS has sucked so bad for so long? Is it because the team actually plays in Oakland? Is it because it is called "Golden State" so people don't realize how close to San Francisco it is? The thing is, people in SF don't even really care about the Warriors. Personally, unless you play in a state with only one metro area and a relatively small population, I think you have to name your team after the city. No California Angels. No Golden State Warriors. No New England Patriots. We could get away with that in Oregon maybe, because people in Oregon identify themselves with the state more than a particular city. but people in Cali don't think of themselves as from California, they think of themselves as from LA or SF or Sac or Oakland, etc. i think a San Francisco basketball team carrying that city's name could be huge.
In other news...
I don't think I like the experiment of moving Roy to the Point in Portland. I Think we should be looking at Blake and Jack as the tandem there and focusing on making Roy a scorer and defender who, along with Webster can play the two or three. Both those guys have the size and ability to swing between shooting guard and small forward. We have some good point guards already. Let's let Roy play his natural position.
I also don't think the Blazers should rush to trade Zebo. let's see how he plays with the new kids once we get rid of Miles. If he's still a blackhole on offense who shows up every other game to take bad shots and not defend, then we try to get his scoring average up and trade him when he has some value. If the other guys are playing well and he's helping us stay competitive in games, we keep him unless the right deal comes along. Right now, though, there just aren't that many guys out there who can score in the low block. We have one of them. Granted he's overpaid, but we won't get equal value in a trade before the season and his presence and scoring will alow some of the newbies to develop at a more natural rate.
Why doesn't NBA.com run streaming video of the summer league games? I would watch. I would love to see the new Blazers, the rappers trying out for a team, the veterans coming off an injury, the walk-ons playing their guts out for a spot in the NBDL. What's not to like exactly?
Finally, it is officially time to start thinking about fantasy football. I'm going to start today to try to find a date for our draft and confront the fact that I have terrible, terrible keepers to help me rebound from my second straight year missing the playoffs in the league I run with a buddy of mine. How bad do you have to be to not be able to fix your own league? It is just so depressing.
Now I have to decide whether to keep Hassleback or Deuce McCallister to go along with Larry Fitzgerald. Deuce is probably washed up, but with all the best players out of the draft as keepers elsewhere, going into the draft without an RB on the roster is going to be rough.
Oh well.
More later.
Comments
If I am incorrect, oh well, I gave it a shot.
We're about to start trying to schedule the draft, so you'll be getting the annual, "here's the deal" email shortly.
Good suggestion about QB scoring. Makes some sense I think. I will submit it to the rules committee.
Glad to see you're still checking in. Looking forward to the Mariner game in a couple weeks.