The LeBron James circus is finally over. Weeks of rumors, innuendo and theatrics have finally ended with James following Dwyane Wade to Miami, where they will team with Chris Bosh.
There were four media winners in this story:
1. Stephen A. Smith. You have to hand it to Stephen A. He reported on his Twitter page and on his radio show on June 28 that the three were going to Miami. And while many, myself included, seriously doubted Stephen A., it seems now that the three agreed to join forces long ago and certainly before the free agency period started. No one seriously believes that the three decided a day before. No one seriously believes LeBron decided the morning of his embarrassing television special. So it seems that Stephen A. had it first and I'll give him props for it, even if he did backtrack on July 2 when Wade was reportedly about to "commit" to Chicago (which now seems like it was a staged stunt for the documentary these guys are putting together on the process). Stephen A. knew it first.
2. Alan Hahn. The Newsday reporter was the first to report after the announcement of the asinine television show to announce the decision that LeBron was going to Miami. While everyone kept refreshing ESPN.com, NBA.com or even the Cleveland Plain-Dealer's website, the place to get the news was actually Newsday (and they're behind a pay wall!). Hahn broke the news on Twitter the night before the show.
3. Skip Bayless. The ESPN gasbag has been saying for years on his unwatchable show that LeBron was more Scottie Pippen than Michael Jordan, that he was a follower and not a leader. I didn't believe it, or maybe didn't want to believe it, but I think this decision pretty much proved him right.
There is no way the competitor in Jordan would have followed any of his contemporaries on to their teams. There is no way Jordan would have joined Isiah Thomas' team or Charles Barkley's team or Patrick Ewing's team or even Hakeem Olajuwon's team (the only other alpha dog superstar to win a title during the Bulls run, and even that was because Jordan essentially sat out two years). Kobe Bryant wanted Shaquille O'Neal traded away because he wanted to lead his own team to a championship and while Bryant was criticized by many (myself included) for being selfish and for breaking up a dynasty and for being over-the-top in his demands (he not only wanted Shaq traded but also wanted a new coach instead of Phil Jackson), it does have to be said that it was fueled by his competitive drive (okay, and also his personal disdain for Shaq). Kobe had already won three titles as a second banana to Young Shaq and wanted to prove he could do it as an alpha dog.
LeBron? Well, he's essentially saying that he can't do it as an alpha dog. He's giving that up at the age of 25 (the same age Kobe decided he simply had to have his own team), with probably 8-10 great years left in his career. Jordan didn't win his first title until he was 28 and Kobe didn't win his first as an alpha dog until he was 30 but LeBron gave that up at 25 to join Wade's team, a guy who already won a title as the alpha dog with Old Shaq playing the role of second banana.
On his television show, LeBron openly talked about being happy to not have the pressure of having to dominate every night. Wanting that pressure and tackling it head on is what makes the very greatest the very greatest. LeBron said he didn't want it and in the process eliminated himself from the Jordan/Kobe/Russell/Magic/Bird/Duncan/Olajuwon/Isiah/Kareem level of all-time greats. He eliminated himself from the Shaq/Moses level of all-time greats. He eliminated himself from the Dwyane Wade level of all-time greats. And he did it at the age of 25. And while LeBron admitted it on national television on Thursday night, Bayless has been saying it for at least a couple of years. So well done, Skip. You have no idea how much it pains me to admit Stephen A. and Skip were so right in this story; they may be my two most disliked television personalities.
4. Brian Windhorst. In a story that had reporters passing along rumors as news, Windhorst, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer Cavaliers correspondent who has been covering LeBron since he was at St. Mary's-St. Vincent High School in Akron, stayed above the fray and reported nothing but news. His report in today's Plain-Dealer on the backstory of these three joining forces is easily the best-reported story I have read about this whole saga. I strongly encourage everyone to read it. Over the last few years, Windhorst became the No. 1 local media reporter in America due to his relationship with LeBron. No one's reputation has grown more than his.
Unfortunately for Windhorst, no one is going to care about his anymore. With LeBron no longer a member of the Cavaliers, he's not going to have ESPN constantly wanting him to guest write on their website or to provide updates on the team for SportsCenter or on ESPN Radio. The only time we'll hear from Windhorst on national programming or national websites will be when the Heat make their first visit to Cleveland next season. On the bright side for Windhorst, it's probably only a matter of time before one of the Miami papers makes him a huge offer to cover the Heat.
Showing posts with label Sports Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sports Media. Show all posts
July 11, 2010
July 8, 2010
Seven thoughts on LeBron going to Miami
1. I really wanted Jim Gray, Michael Wilbon or anyone else on the ESPN dog-and-pony show to ask this question of LeBron:
"You know that you can never go back to Cleveland, right?"
LeBron said all the right things about loving Cleveland and loving Ohio, missing the most important point: he is a complete pariah in that region now. He can never go back. When the Heat go to Cleveland next season, he has to take a private plane to Cleveland that arrives 90 minutes before tip, go straight to the arena and take that same private plane out of town 90 minutes later. He can't do anything more than that.
I think Cavaliers fans were prepared for LeBron leaving. I remember speculating about his departure with buddies over beers and wings on draft night 2003 (and I, even back then, thought the Bulls and Knicks would be coming after him). But to do it in this fashion? By staging a one-hour television event thanks to the persuading of Gray, whose television career has so bottomed out that he's relegated to spending the 2010-2011 season doing sideline for the Sacramento Kings, LeBron became a villain, not just in Cleveland but throughout America. He ripped the hearts out of a fanbase that did everything they could to defend him, to support him, to love him.
The fans of northeast Ohio have had their hearts ripped out more than any fanbase in sports deserves. They haven't won any kind of professional championship since the Cleveland Browns won the 1964 NFL Championship. They endured Michael Jordan crushing them for years and specifically in 1989 and 1992. They endured The Drive and The Fumble and the Mistake By The Lake. They endured blowing a 3-1 series lead in the 2007 ALCS and the Tony Fernandez error that led to them blowing Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. They endured superstars like Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee leaving. And most famously and importantly, they endured Art Modell taking their beloved Browns to Baltimore.
But none of that pain was inflicted by a native of the region. This time, their hearts have been ripped out by one of their own, one who understood the pain of Clevelanders, one of who was supposed to have felt that same pain. LeBron spoke of wanting to continue living in Akron. Good luck.
2. LeBron's legacy is secure. Forget being one of the all-time greats. When his epitaph is written, LeBron will be remembered as the guy who had to go join another superstar who already had a ring in order to win his own.
While I'm omitting many on this chain, it has to be said that if Michael Jordan and Bill Russell are at the very top of the chain, and the next tier includes Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan, and then a few chains below is Dwyane Wade, even further below that is LeBron.
Let's say LeBron wins five straight titles with the Heat. You know what that would mean? It would mean he will have one fewer than Wade. LeBron joining Wade's team is like Jordan joining Magic in 1988 because he couldn't win a title in Chicago.
The thing I hate about LeBron breaking the hearts of Cleveland most isn't that he's leaving. It's that he's essentially saying "I can't win the championship as the star player." Jordan, Russell, Magic, Bird and Duncan all proved they could. So did Kobe these last two years. Isiah Thomas proved he could do it. So did Bill Walton. And Moses Malone. And Hakeem Olajuwon. Shaquille O'Neal proved he could do it with Young Kobe. D-Wade proved he could do it with Old Shaq. LeBron? He can't prove it. Because from this point forward, LeBron will be known as the guy who decided he couldn't win the title as the undisputed alpha dog and thus joined forces with Wade, another alpha dog (who already has a ring). Jordan, Bird, Magic and Duncan never joined forces with another alpha dog. Neither did Isiah. Or Hakeem. They said "I'm the best and I'm going to prove it by beating all of the other great players in this league." (Or, in the case of Jordan, eviscerating them.)
The only way LeBron can prove that he's capable of that would be if Wade suffered a season-ending injury, missed the playoffs, and LeBron led the Heat to the title. Anything short of that and LeBron has succeeded in maintaining a legacy below that of Jordan, Magic, Russell, Duncan, Bird and Kobe.
From this day forward, LeBron goes down as another Julius Erving, someone who needed another superduperstar to team up with him in order to win a title (and I'm assuming LeBron and Wade will win a title or two or five together). As a result, their legacies aren't what they could have been.
Sorry, but it's true.
3. Why I'm upset that LeBron is with Miami: the absence of really good basketball. As bad as I feel for Cleveland, especially with the ridiculous one-hour special to announce his decision, I don't fault LeBron for leaving them. We all know the hideous roster the Cavaliers have, even with LeBron. It's why they were embarrassed by the Celtics in the playoffs.
But I'm a fan of basketball and as a fan, I have two wishes: to see who the best of the best are (and sadly, LeBron eliminated himself from that upper tier by joining Wade's team) and to see great games and especially great playoff series. Sports are nothing without competition. Let's say LeBron had signed with the Bulls. How exciting would the Eastern Conference playoffs have been with the Bulls (LeBron, Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah) and Heat (Wade and Chris Bosh) joining the Magic and Celtics (if they have another run in them) as a power packed quartet in the East? Plus, the bottom four playoff teams could have offered a push with Milwaukee and Atlanta being strong.
Now? Even though Miami has only three players of quality on the team (high quality, admittedly), they are the favorites if they can land anyone of substance. And, honestly, they should win the East. Having a team being far and above everyone else isn't nearly as entertaining as having three or four teams battling it out for the crown. Right now, the Lakers and Heat should be in the 2011 Finals (so long as the Heat can somehow find a supporting cast). And anything else would be an upset. It's unfortunate that the Finals seem so set 11 months before they occur.
4. Don't even try to compare this new "Big Three" to any other "Big Three" as a means of justification. When Magic, Kareem and James Worthy were together, Magic and Kareem were at different stages (except for maybe 1985, when Kareem had a revival in the Finals) and Worthy was never on their level. Plus, Magic and Worthy were drafted into Kareem's team; neither simply signed up for it. When Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale were together, Bird was always the No. 1 guy. The Celtics trio of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen isn't made up any player who anyone has ever considered one of the all-time elite guys. And while LeBron and Wade are very accomplished, let's not try and pretend that Chris Bosh has done anything to put his name among the other Hall of Famers mentioned; in seven seasons, he's never won a playoff series, never been a 1st Team All-NBA and only once been a 2nd Team All-NBA selection.
However, LeBron (and Wade, to a lesser extent) are held to higher standards than the current Boston guys. LeBron has been considered a potential all-time, top tier guy since he was 15 years old. He's won the last two league MVP awards and singlehandedly taken an otherwise decrepit team to the Finals. This is the only "Big Three" with two guys who want to be alpha dogs. Those others didn't have a second alpha dog. The only time the double alpha dog has ever worked is when it's an inside-outside pairing (Kobe-Shaq, Doc-Moses). It's never worked with two perimeter guys who need to dominate the ball.
5. ESPN killed their journalist credibility with this debacle. Honestly, no one hurt their brand more than ESPN other than LeBron. I feel really bad for the likes of Ric Bucher, Marc Stein and Chad Ford, three guys who worked their tails off on this whole free agency story. In the end, they were trumped by an hour-long special hosted by Jim Gray, who hasn't been able to land a consistent gig with a major network since 2007. Remember the famous Happy Day "Jump The Shark" episode? I sort of feel like this is the moment where ESPN jumped the shark. This is the moment where they went from being the Worldwide Leader in Sports (at least, according to them) to being a national punchline. They've already been hammered by the New York Times.
Gray, who has no credibility left anymore (amazing, given that I once really respected him for asking tough questions, even if I didn't always agree with him for doing so--like the Pete Rose interview at the 1999 World Series), asked 16 different inane questions before asking the only question anyone watching cared about. Michael Wilbon fared much better in his line of questioning but failed to ask LeBron two key questions: 1) Are you aware that you are now a pariah in your home town, another Art Modell to Northeast Ohioans? 2) Given all the backlash you have received for coming up with this show and breaking Cleveland's hearts on national television in the process, do you still think this show was the right way to deliver your message?
Also, did anyone else notice that Chris Broussard was conspicuously absent from their set after LeBron announced he was joining the Heat? Broussard was on ESPN all day, then left once the decision was announced. Broussard is from Cleveland. Was he off crying somewhere after the announcement was officially made? Or off crying somewhere that he was a part of such a ridiculous production? Either way, I wouldn't blame him.
6. No one's legacy takes a bigger hit here than LeBron's (if the Heat win the next five titles, Wade can always say he won one without LeBron) but no one's increased more than Pat Riley's. He coached the Showtime Lakers to four titles, ending a Lakers curse against the Celtics, becoming the first team to win a deciding game in Boston and successfully shifting the Lakers from Kareem's team to Magic's team without having to get rid of Kareem or bruising his ego (even Phil Jackson failed at this with Shaq and Kobe, having to sit out a year and see Shaq be traded for the shift to successfully happen). He then turned an under-talented Knicks team into a championship contender by preaching defense and rough play (which ruined the NBA, because David Stern overreacted and now every bit of semi-physical play results in technical fouls). Then he built and coached a championship contender in Miami around Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway, then did the same with Wade and Shaq, and now has brought in Bosh and LeBron while keeping Wade.
The only thing left for Riley to do is prove he can win a championship against one of Phil Jackson's championship contenders, because he has never done that (the '94 Knicks beat the Bulls but Jordan was off playing baseball and the '06 Heat won the title while the Lakers were in rebuild mode). Riley has proven himself as great an executive as he was a coach. And I think he'll be coaching the Heat by New Year's.
7. Cleveland? They may as well fold the franchise. I enjoyed Dan Gilbert's demolition of LeBron in his statement to the Cavs fans (even if he was completely wrong for putting it out there and comes across worse than LeBron does in writing it) but, sadly, it doesn't mean much. There was all sorts of speculation out there that Bosh wanted to join forces with LeBron in Chicago, New York or Miami, but not in Cleveland, which says all you need to know about the way players view playing in that city.
It's unfortunate but the Cavs are likely to never have an era like they just did. They went to the Finals in 2007 and were a legitimate contender for three years after. They had arguably the best player in the league for the last five years, a two-time NBA. They had the 48 Special in 2007. Now? They have nothing. Their franchise just depreciated by hundreds of millions of dollars. Gilbert's best bet is to try and get rid of the likes of Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison, hoping they can find someone to take them for expiring contracts.
Cleveland is never going to hit the lottery like they did with LeBron in 2003 and they're never going to strike gold in free agency because even LeBron left them despite being a hometown boy who could get more money with the Cavaliers. The team will be fortunate to win 25 games next season.
Byron Scott is probably wishing he had an opt-out clause in his deal, one that allowed him to opt-out if LeBron left.
"You know that you can never go back to Cleveland, right?"
LeBron said all the right things about loving Cleveland and loving Ohio, missing the most important point: he is a complete pariah in that region now. He can never go back. When the Heat go to Cleveland next season, he has to take a private plane to Cleveland that arrives 90 minutes before tip, go straight to the arena and take that same private plane out of town 90 minutes later. He can't do anything more than that.
I think Cavaliers fans were prepared for LeBron leaving. I remember speculating about his departure with buddies over beers and wings on draft night 2003 (and I, even back then, thought the Bulls and Knicks would be coming after him). But to do it in this fashion? By staging a one-hour television event thanks to the persuading of Gray, whose television career has so bottomed out that he's relegated to spending the 2010-2011 season doing sideline for the Sacramento Kings, LeBron became a villain, not just in Cleveland but throughout America. He ripped the hearts out of a fanbase that did everything they could to defend him, to support him, to love him.
The fans of northeast Ohio have had their hearts ripped out more than any fanbase in sports deserves. They haven't won any kind of professional championship since the Cleveland Browns won the 1964 NFL Championship. They endured Michael Jordan crushing them for years and specifically in 1989 and 1992. They endured The Drive and The Fumble and the Mistake By The Lake. They endured blowing a 3-1 series lead in the 2007 ALCS and the Tony Fernandez error that led to them blowing Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. They endured superstars like Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee leaving. And most famously and importantly, they endured Art Modell taking their beloved Browns to Baltimore.
But none of that pain was inflicted by a native of the region. This time, their hearts have been ripped out by one of their own, one who understood the pain of Clevelanders, one of who was supposed to have felt that same pain. LeBron spoke of wanting to continue living in Akron. Good luck.
2. LeBron's legacy is secure. Forget being one of the all-time greats. When his epitaph is written, LeBron will be remembered as the guy who had to go join another superstar who already had a ring in order to win his own.
While I'm omitting many on this chain, it has to be said that if Michael Jordan and Bill Russell are at the very top of the chain, and the next tier includes Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan, and then a few chains below is Dwyane Wade, even further below that is LeBron.
Let's say LeBron wins five straight titles with the Heat. You know what that would mean? It would mean he will have one fewer than Wade. LeBron joining Wade's team is like Jordan joining Magic in 1988 because he couldn't win a title in Chicago.
The thing I hate about LeBron breaking the hearts of Cleveland most isn't that he's leaving. It's that he's essentially saying "I can't win the championship as the star player." Jordan, Russell, Magic, Bird and Duncan all proved they could. So did Kobe these last two years. Isiah Thomas proved he could do it. So did Bill Walton. And Moses Malone. And Hakeem Olajuwon. Shaquille O'Neal proved he could do it with Young Kobe. D-Wade proved he could do it with Old Shaq. LeBron? He can't prove it. Because from this point forward, LeBron will be known as the guy who decided he couldn't win the title as the undisputed alpha dog and thus joined forces with Wade, another alpha dog (who already has a ring). Jordan, Bird, Magic and Duncan never joined forces with another alpha dog. Neither did Isiah. Or Hakeem. They said "I'm the best and I'm going to prove it by beating all of the other great players in this league." (Or, in the case of Jordan, eviscerating them.)
The only way LeBron can prove that he's capable of that would be if Wade suffered a season-ending injury, missed the playoffs, and LeBron led the Heat to the title. Anything short of that and LeBron has succeeded in maintaining a legacy below that of Jordan, Magic, Russell, Duncan, Bird and Kobe.
From this day forward, LeBron goes down as another Julius Erving, someone who needed another superduperstar to team up with him in order to win a title (and I'm assuming LeBron and Wade will win a title or two or five together). As a result, their legacies aren't what they could have been.
Sorry, but it's true.
3. Why I'm upset that LeBron is with Miami: the absence of really good basketball. As bad as I feel for Cleveland, especially with the ridiculous one-hour special to announce his decision, I don't fault LeBron for leaving them. We all know the hideous roster the Cavaliers have, even with LeBron. It's why they were embarrassed by the Celtics in the playoffs.
But I'm a fan of basketball and as a fan, I have two wishes: to see who the best of the best are (and sadly, LeBron eliminated himself from that upper tier by joining Wade's team) and to see great games and especially great playoff series. Sports are nothing without competition. Let's say LeBron had signed with the Bulls. How exciting would the Eastern Conference playoffs have been with the Bulls (LeBron, Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah) and Heat (Wade and Chris Bosh) joining the Magic and Celtics (if they have another run in them) as a power packed quartet in the East? Plus, the bottom four playoff teams could have offered a push with Milwaukee and Atlanta being strong.
Now? Even though Miami has only three players of quality on the team (high quality, admittedly), they are the favorites if they can land anyone of substance. And, honestly, they should win the East. Having a team being far and above everyone else isn't nearly as entertaining as having three or four teams battling it out for the crown. Right now, the Lakers and Heat should be in the 2011 Finals (so long as the Heat can somehow find a supporting cast). And anything else would be an upset. It's unfortunate that the Finals seem so set 11 months before they occur.
4. Don't even try to compare this new "Big Three" to any other "Big Three" as a means of justification. When Magic, Kareem and James Worthy were together, Magic and Kareem were at different stages (except for maybe 1985, when Kareem had a revival in the Finals) and Worthy was never on their level. Plus, Magic and Worthy were drafted into Kareem's team; neither simply signed up for it. When Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale were together, Bird was always the No. 1 guy. The Celtics trio of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen isn't made up any player who anyone has ever considered one of the all-time elite guys. And while LeBron and Wade are very accomplished, let's not try and pretend that Chris Bosh has done anything to put his name among the other Hall of Famers mentioned; in seven seasons, he's never won a playoff series, never been a 1st Team All-NBA and only once been a 2nd Team All-NBA selection.
However, LeBron (and Wade, to a lesser extent) are held to higher standards than the current Boston guys. LeBron has been considered a potential all-time, top tier guy since he was 15 years old. He's won the last two league MVP awards and singlehandedly taken an otherwise decrepit team to the Finals. This is the only "Big Three" with two guys who want to be alpha dogs. Those others didn't have a second alpha dog. The only time the double alpha dog has ever worked is when it's an inside-outside pairing (Kobe-Shaq, Doc-Moses). It's never worked with two perimeter guys who need to dominate the ball.
5. ESPN killed their journalist credibility with this debacle. Honestly, no one hurt their brand more than ESPN other than LeBron. I feel really bad for the likes of Ric Bucher, Marc Stein and Chad Ford, three guys who worked their tails off on this whole free agency story. In the end, they were trumped by an hour-long special hosted by Jim Gray, who hasn't been able to land a consistent gig with a major network since 2007. Remember the famous Happy Day "Jump The Shark" episode? I sort of feel like this is the moment where ESPN jumped the shark. This is the moment where they went from being the Worldwide Leader in Sports (at least, according to them) to being a national punchline. They've already been hammered by the New York Times.
Gray, who has no credibility left anymore (amazing, given that I once really respected him for asking tough questions, even if I didn't always agree with him for doing so--like the Pete Rose interview at the 1999 World Series), asked 16 different inane questions before asking the only question anyone watching cared about. Michael Wilbon fared much better in his line of questioning but failed to ask LeBron two key questions: 1) Are you aware that you are now a pariah in your home town, another Art Modell to Northeast Ohioans? 2) Given all the backlash you have received for coming up with this show and breaking Cleveland's hearts on national television in the process, do you still think this show was the right way to deliver your message?
Also, did anyone else notice that Chris Broussard was conspicuously absent from their set after LeBron announced he was joining the Heat? Broussard was on ESPN all day, then left once the decision was announced. Broussard is from Cleveland. Was he off crying somewhere after the announcement was officially made? Or off crying somewhere that he was a part of such a ridiculous production? Either way, I wouldn't blame him.
6. No one's legacy takes a bigger hit here than LeBron's (if the Heat win the next five titles, Wade can always say he won one without LeBron) but no one's increased more than Pat Riley's. He coached the Showtime Lakers to four titles, ending a Lakers curse against the Celtics, becoming the first team to win a deciding game in Boston and successfully shifting the Lakers from Kareem's team to Magic's team without having to get rid of Kareem or bruising his ego (even Phil Jackson failed at this with Shaq and Kobe, having to sit out a year and see Shaq be traded for the shift to successfully happen). He then turned an under-talented Knicks team into a championship contender by preaching defense and rough play (which ruined the NBA, because David Stern overreacted and now every bit of semi-physical play results in technical fouls). Then he built and coached a championship contender in Miami around Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway, then did the same with Wade and Shaq, and now has brought in Bosh and LeBron while keeping Wade.
The only thing left for Riley to do is prove he can win a championship against one of Phil Jackson's championship contenders, because he has never done that (the '94 Knicks beat the Bulls but Jordan was off playing baseball and the '06 Heat won the title while the Lakers were in rebuild mode). Riley has proven himself as great an executive as he was a coach. And I think he'll be coaching the Heat by New Year's.
7. Cleveland? They may as well fold the franchise. I enjoyed Dan Gilbert's demolition of LeBron in his statement to the Cavs fans (even if he was completely wrong for putting it out there and comes across worse than LeBron does in writing it) but, sadly, it doesn't mean much. There was all sorts of speculation out there that Bosh wanted to join forces with LeBron in Chicago, New York or Miami, but not in Cleveland, which says all you need to know about the way players view playing in that city.
It's unfortunate but the Cavs are likely to never have an era like they just did. They went to the Finals in 2007 and were a legitimate contender for three years after. They had arguably the best player in the league for the last five years, a two-time NBA. They had the 48 Special in 2007. Now? They have nothing. Their franchise just depreciated by hundreds of millions of dollars. Gilbert's best bet is to try and get rid of the likes of Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison, hoping they can find someone to take them for expiring contracts.
Cleveland is never going to hit the lottery like they did with LeBron in 2003 and they're never going to strike gold in free agency because even LeBron left them despite being a hometown boy who could get more money with the Cavaliers. The team will be fortunate to win 25 games next season.
Byron Scott is probably wishing he had an opt-out clause in his deal, one that allowed him to opt-out if LeBron left.
July 7, 2010
Will Newsday be right?
With LeBron TV tomorrow night, the question many have wondered is if someone will scoop LeBron's show. The first attempt at it comes from Alan Hahn of Newsday who Tweets:
"Multiple sources are telling Newsday that LeBron James has decided to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. The new Big Three is here."
Alright then. So far, no one else has gone with this and given the way this story has played out, it's hard to believe anything until the final announcement is made. I fully expect a report from Ric Bucher or Adrian Wojnarowski tomorrow saying that LeBron is seriously considering the Clippers, just to create even more buzz for the show. But we'll see. Speaking of Bucher, shortly after Hahn's Tweet he Tweeted this (over two Tweets):
"Never tweeted LeBron was in Mia. A source said he was. Passed it on to the mothership. Made a 2nd call, told he was in Akron. Killed report...But the insanity is rising: the 1 source came at me hard that LBJ to Mia is done. Only way I go w/one source on that is if it's LBJ/Mav."
"Mav," being Maverick Carter. Anyway, Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, who has been the ultimate LeBron authority since James was in high school, Tweeted this a little after the Bucher Tweets:
"Newsday has reported LeBron has decided on Heat. Only a couple of people can truly confirm this. None have to me at this point."
So that's where we are. Sounds like the east coast media is going to have to forego sleep tonight in order to chase down this LeBron-to-Miami report and LeBron wouldn't want it any other way.
UPDATE (10:41 pm): Chris Broussard of ESPN chimes in: "Sources with knowledge of the situation indeed saying LeBron will join Wade and Bosh in Miami, barring a late change of heart"
The only thing I will caution is that the dreaded "sources with knowledge of the situation" also said a LeBron/Bosh partnership in Chicago was a "done deal." Plus, LeBron has his show to promote. This could all be a smokescreen for the truth. Or it could be the truth. It's LeBron. Anything is in play at this point. What's fact is fiction and what's fiction is fact until he makes his official announcement.
"Multiple sources are telling Newsday that LeBron James has decided to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. The new Big Three is here."
Alright then. So far, no one else has gone with this and given the way this story has played out, it's hard to believe anything until the final announcement is made. I fully expect a report from Ric Bucher or Adrian Wojnarowski tomorrow saying that LeBron is seriously considering the Clippers, just to create even more buzz for the show. But we'll see. Speaking of Bucher, shortly after Hahn's Tweet he Tweeted this (over two Tweets):
"Never tweeted LeBron was in Mia. A source said he was. Passed it on to the mothership. Made a 2nd call, told he was in Akron. Killed report...But the insanity is rising: the 1 source came at me hard that LBJ to Mia is done. Only way I go w/one source on that is if it's LBJ/Mav."
"Mav," being Maverick Carter. Anyway, Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, who has been the ultimate LeBron authority since James was in high school, Tweeted this a little after the Bucher Tweets:
"Newsday has reported LeBron has decided on Heat. Only a couple of people can truly confirm this. None have to me at this point."
So that's where we are. Sounds like the east coast media is going to have to forego sleep tonight in order to chase down this LeBron-to-Miami report and LeBron wouldn't want it any other way.
UPDATE (10:41 pm): Chris Broussard of ESPN chimes in: "Sources with knowledge of the situation indeed saying LeBron will join Wade and Bosh in Miami, barring a late change of heart"
The only thing I will caution is that the dreaded "sources with knowledge of the situation" also said a LeBron/Bosh partnership in Chicago was a "done deal." Plus, LeBron has his show to promote. This could all be a smokescreen for the truth. Or it could be the truth. It's LeBron. Anything is in play at this point. What's fact is fiction and what's fiction is fact until he makes his official announcement.
LeBron TV: Free agency 2010 officially reaches the ridiculous (if it hadn't already)
In the last week, every bit of non-news has turned into news, every bit of non-news contradicting the previous bit of non-news. If anything has spoken more to the ridiculous nature of media in 2010, it's been NBA free agency and, I must say, I'm just as guilty of it as anyone.
Fans of Cleveland gave up three days of their lives last week to line the streets and show their support for LeBron James and their disdain for the Knicks, Bulls, Heat, Nets and Clippers as they attempted to woo him away from the Cavaliers. Stories such as LeBron showing up for the meetings wearing shorts, or him showing up at his basketball camp wearing a Yankees hat, became national news. On July 28, it was reported that James and Chris Bosh signing with the Bulls was a "done deal" and just one day later, Stephen A. Smith reported that James, Bosh and Dwyane Wade had held a summit and joined forces, deciding that they were going to join forces in Miami. This preceded Stephen A. retracting the report about a week later, essentially reporting that his report was incorrect.
Reports of how the teams made their pitch became major headlines, ranging from the Cavaliers showing him Family Guy-style cartoons to the Bulls brass walking across the street like they were the Beatles on the Abbey Road album to the Knicks telling LeBron how they could make him a billionaire. That the Heat met with him for nearly three hours and the Clippers for less than one was national news.
Yesterday, all of the sports websites had some variation of this headline among its top stories: "LeBron joins Twitter." No, seriously. This was considered a national sports story of importance, James joining a social media site.
But it hasn't been all about LeBron. Last Friday, ESPN's Chad Ford reported that Dwyane Wade was leaning toward committing to joining the Bulls, then it became even bigger news that Wade and Bosh were meeting the Bulls simultaneously, causing massive pain in Miami and jubilation in Chicago. And at the same time, ESPN's Chris Sheridan reported that the so-called done deal of Joe Johnson re-signing with the Hawks wasn't such a done deal because he was still considering the Knicks and Bulls too (as if anyone really cares about Joe Johnson). Bosh, meanwhile, was chronicling his free agency tour on Twitter (even posting a photo of himself having dinner with Wade while cryptically saying that "someone" was missing) while both he and Wade were making a documentary of their free agency whirlwind. Then Amar'e Stoudemire joined the Knicks (at least this was actual news) and started angling for Carmelo Anthony and Tony Parker to join him, even though neither is a free agent for another year, making New Yorkers delirious ("We're gonna get LeBron, Melo, Parker, Evan Longoria and Amar'e!").
Nothing has demonstrated non-news turning into major news more than NBA free agency 2010 and there's no doubt that LeBron, Wade and Bosh are eating it up. If anything, LeBron probably now wishes he hadn't rejected the notion of a whirlwind free agency tour where he threw out the first pitch at Wrigley, partied in Manhattan with Jay-Z and Mikhail Prokhorov, attended a Yankees game with Mike D'Antoni and had drinks poured down his and Pat Riley's throats on South Beach. It's all reaching a culmination on Thursday, with ESPN and LeBron joining forces on a one-hour television special to announce where he's going, a show that feels rather anticlimactic because everyone except Chris Sheridan (the only reporter left that feels LeBron is going to the Knicks) seems to believe his return to Cleveland is pretty much a formality at this point. It's somewhat reminiscent of Kobe Bryant's 2004 television announcement that he would stay with the Lakers, something also seen as a given at the time, especially since the Lakers had traded away nemesis Shaquille O'Neal a couple days prior.
Everyone is going to pile on to LeBron for doing this television thing (if Bob Ryan is on PTI tonight, you can pretty much guarantee that he's going to scream about it) but the reality of the situation is that the media that complains about this is the same media that created all of this, created the monster that is King James and that is this free agency tour. If you ask me, this is a smart move by LeBron, whose free agency has been more important to American sports fans than the NBA Finals or any game LeBron has actually played.
All I know is that this show culminates a really sad couple of weeks in the history of sports journalism and makes me happy that I chose blogging instead of news reporting as a line of work (can blogging be a profession?). I'd be embarrassed if I were a member of the news media right about now.
At this point, I believe LeBron is going to re-sign with the Cavaliers (even though even without Bosh or Wade, Chicago is the best fit for his long-term interests of winning). I believe he's going to have an opt-out in three years so he can do all of this again, only next time he'll probably decide it isn't worth such media attention (whether the media agrees or not is another story entirely). And I'll be tuned in on Thursday to watch.
Fans of Cleveland gave up three days of their lives last week to line the streets and show their support for LeBron James and their disdain for the Knicks, Bulls, Heat, Nets and Clippers as they attempted to woo him away from the Cavaliers. Stories such as LeBron showing up for the meetings wearing shorts, or him showing up at his basketball camp wearing a Yankees hat, became national news. On July 28, it was reported that James and Chris Bosh signing with the Bulls was a "done deal" and just one day later, Stephen A. Smith reported that James, Bosh and Dwyane Wade had held a summit and joined forces, deciding that they were going to join forces in Miami. This preceded Stephen A. retracting the report about a week later, essentially reporting that his report was incorrect.
Reports of how the teams made their pitch became major headlines, ranging from the Cavaliers showing him Family Guy-style cartoons to the Bulls brass walking across the street like they were the Beatles on the Abbey Road album to the Knicks telling LeBron how they could make him a billionaire. That the Heat met with him for nearly three hours and the Clippers for less than one was national news.
Yesterday, all of the sports websites had some variation of this headline among its top stories: "LeBron joins Twitter." No, seriously. This was considered a national sports story of importance, James joining a social media site.
But it hasn't been all about LeBron. Last Friday, ESPN's Chad Ford reported that Dwyane Wade was leaning toward committing to joining the Bulls, then it became even bigger news that Wade and Bosh were meeting the Bulls simultaneously, causing massive pain in Miami and jubilation in Chicago. And at the same time, ESPN's Chris Sheridan reported that the so-called done deal of Joe Johnson re-signing with the Hawks wasn't such a done deal because he was still considering the Knicks and Bulls too (as if anyone really cares about Joe Johnson). Bosh, meanwhile, was chronicling his free agency tour on Twitter (even posting a photo of himself having dinner with Wade while cryptically saying that "someone" was missing) while both he and Wade were making a documentary of their free agency whirlwind. Then Amar'e Stoudemire joined the Knicks (at least this was actual news) and started angling for Carmelo Anthony and Tony Parker to join him, even though neither is a free agent for another year, making New Yorkers delirious ("We're gonna get LeBron, Melo, Parker, Evan Longoria and Amar'e!").
Nothing has demonstrated non-news turning into major news more than NBA free agency 2010 and there's no doubt that LeBron, Wade and Bosh are eating it up. If anything, LeBron probably now wishes he hadn't rejected the notion of a whirlwind free agency tour where he threw out the first pitch at Wrigley, partied in Manhattan with Jay-Z and Mikhail Prokhorov, attended a Yankees game with Mike D'Antoni and had drinks poured down his and Pat Riley's throats on South Beach. It's all reaching a culmination on Thursday, with ESPN and LeBron joining forces on a one-hour television special to announce where he's going, a show that feels rather anticlimactic because everyone except Chris Sheridan (the only reporter left that feels LeBron is going to the Knicks) seems to believe his return to Cleveland is pretty much a formality at this point. It's somewhat reminiscent of Kobe Bryant's 2004 television announcement that he would stay with the Lakers, something also seen as a given at the time, especially since the Lakers had traded away nemesis Shaquille O'Neal a couple days prior.
Everyone is going to pile on to LeBron for doing this television thing (if Bob Ryan is on PTI tonight, you can pretty much guarantee that he's going to scream about it) but the reality of the situation is that the media that complains about this is the same media that created all of this, created the monster that is King James and that is this free agency tour. If you ask me, this is a smart move by LeBron, whose free agency has been more important to American sports fans than the NBA Finals or any game LeBron has actually played.
All I know is that this show culminates a really sad couple of weeks in the history of sports journalism and makes me happy that I chose blogging instead of news reporting as a line of work (can blogging be a profession?). I'd be embarrassed if I were a member of the news media right about now.
At this point, I believe LeBron is going to re-sign with the Cavaliers (even though even without Bosh or Wade, Chicago is the best fit for his long-term interests of winning). I believe he's going to have an opt-out in three years so he can do all of this again, only next time he'll probably decide it isn't worth such media attention (whether the media agrees or not is another story entirely). And I'll be tuned in on Thursday to watch.
July 5, 2010
Maradona says he's done
It is with great sadness that I report that Cronica newspaper in Argentina is reporting that Diego Maradona is done as the coach of Argentina's national soccer team. While nothing has officially been announced, the paper quotes Maradona as saying, "It's done, my chapter has ended."
This isn't official and a close friend of his is quoted as saying that he's still thinking about it. And let me say this: I hope he changes his mind. The World Cup has been fun but Diego Maradona made it more fun than the vuvuzelas, the horrific announcing, the U.S. miracle and Charissa Thompson's ridiculous reports on Yahoo! combined. Maradona made this event much more interesting and much more fun for a person like me that follows soccer on the periphery before really throwing myself into it once every four years.
So, Diego, I'm begging you: please come back for 2014.
This isn't official and a close friend of his is quoted as saying that he's still thinking about it. And let me say this: I hope he changes his mind. The World Cup has been fun but Diego Maradona made it more fun than the vuvuzelas, the horrific announcing, the U.S. miracle and Charissa Thompson's ridiculous reports on Yahoo! combined. Maradona made this event much more interesting and much more fun for a person like me that follows soccer on the periphery before really throwing myself into it once every four years.
So, Diego, I'm begging you: please come back for 2014.
July 3, 2010
Stephen A. starts backtracking
On Monday, Stephen A. Smith of...not really sure what he's of these days...reported on his radio show and Twitter page that LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh had decided to join forces in Miami.
Now that all indications are that he was wrong, Stephen A. has started backtracking, using the "they changed their minds!" defense for his incorrect scoop. He's spent most of the morning posting this same drivel on his Twitter page, explaining how his scoop was right but things change, get in the way, blah blah blah. Which, of course is true, but is also why it was idiotic of him to report such a thing four days before the free agency period began.
Sure, they may have been interested in joining forces but to report it so matter-of-factly as Stephen A. did (and always does) so far in advance essentially set him up to fail. Of course things could get in the way. Of course there was a good chance there would be a "monkey wrench" thrown into things, as Stephen A. currently is saying. By attempting to be the first one to break the news as opposed to waiting it out to get it right, or even tempering his words a little bit ("the big three met last night and are definitely on board to try and join forces in Miami, it may not happen but they're interested in it"), Stephen A. is in the process of making himself look even more foolish than he always does and making ESPN look even better for getting rid of him and instead relying on the likes of Marc Stein, Chad Ford, Ric Bucher, Chris Broussard, Chris Sheridan and J.A. Adande, all of whom have proven themselves as more reliable sources of information than Stephen A.
Plus, he's opened himself up to ridicule from all, such as this Tweet from Bill Simmons: "Stephen A. Smith is reporting that Stephen A. Smith's report was incorrect."
The funniest outcome, of course, would be if LeBron, Wade and Bosh do join forces in Miami so that Stephen A. can report that his report of his report being incorrect is incorrect.
Now that all indications are that he was wrong, Stephen A. has started backtracking, using the "they changed their minds!" defense for his incorrect scoop. He's spent most of the morning posting this same drivel on his Twitter page, explaining how his scoop was right but things change, get in the way, blah blah blah. Which, of course is true, but is also why it was idiotic of him to report such a thing four days before the free agency period began.
Sure, they may have been interested in joining forces but to report it so matter-of-factly as Stephen A. did (and always does) so far in advance essentially set him up to fail. Of course things could get in the way. Of course there was a good chance there would be a "monkey wrench" thrown into things, as Stephen A. currently is saying. By attempting to be the first one to break the news as opposed to waiting it out to get it right, or even tempering his words a little bit ("the big three met last night and are definitely on board to try and join forces in Miami, it may not happen but they're interested in it"), Stephen A. is in the process of making himself look even more foolish than he always does and making ESPN look even better for getting rid of him and instead relying on the likes of Marc Stein, Chad Ford, Ric Bucher, Chris Broussard, Chris Sheridan and J.A. Adande, all of whom have proven themselves as more reliable sources of information than Stephen A.
Plus, he's opened himself up to ridicule from all, such as this Tweet from Bill Simmons: "Stephen A. Smith is reporting that Stephen A. Smith's report was incorrect."
The funniest outcome, of course, would be if LeBron, Wade and Bosh do join forces in Miami so that Stephen A. can report that his report of his report being incorrect is incorrect.
July 1, 2010
Paging Rachel Nichols
Here we go again. While everyone assumes Brett Favre will play this season, he still hasn't confirmed it (probably because he doesn't want to show up until mid-August, after Vikings training camp is over). But Favre has been more than happy to drop hints about his likely return and the latest is that he's throwing passes to high schoolers in Mississippi, something he did during his last two comebacks.
Rachel Nichols, I believe you have a spot on Favre's Mississippi lawn to camp out on.
June 28, 2010
The big three free agents have met and talked about joining forces
This morning, Stephen A. Smith reported on his radio show and his Twitter page that LeBron James and Chris Bosh would be signing with the Miami Heat, joining forces with Dwyane Wade to create a super trio. All of us (and by "us" I mean "rational human beings") pretty much ignored it because we figured we should consider the source.
But now I and everyone else may have to take this a little more seriously because ESPN.com's Marc Stein and Chris Broussard are reporting that the three met over the weekend in Miami to discuss their futures, focusing on potentially joining forces in Miami.
While this is no means the certainty Stephen A. said, one of their sources did say Miami is now considered the frontrunner (as opposed to Chicago, which reportedly was a "done deal" for LeBron and Bosh as recently as yesterday) and that Cleveland is still very much in the picture to retain LeBron.
It's worth noting that to happen, the three would either have to take less money than the max or Miami would have to find a way to unload Michael Beasley. I, for one, hope it doesn't happen for several reasons: I love watching Wade and LeBron go head-to-head and the idea of them battling for Eastern Conference supremacy for the next decade really appeals to me. I'm not sure the two of their games really mesh well together. If they sign all three, they'll have no money to sign anyone for anything other than the minimum.
Here's another thing I would consider if I were LeBron: if I joined forces with Wade and we won six championships together, I'd end up with one fewer than Wade and his legacy would probably be greater than mine since he won without me. Considering my goal of "Global Icon," do I want that?
New reports come at us every day so I'm sure tomorrow, we'll hear LeBron is leaning toward joining the Nets so he can play for good friend Jay-Z. All I know is that if he signs with any of the Cavs, Bulls, Heat or Mavericks I won't be surprised. And I wouldn't really be all that shocked if he signed with the Nets either. I'd be mildly surprised if he signed with the Knicks and absolutely shocked if he signed with the Clippers.
I'm usually shocked when Stephen A. is right but maybe he really does know something this time.
But now I and everyone else may have to take this a little more seriously because ESPN.com's Marc Stein and Chris Broussard are reporting that the three met over the weekend in Miami to discuss their futures, focusing on potentially joining forces in Miami.
While this is no means the certainty Stephen A. said, one of their sources did say Miami is now considered the frontrunner (as opposed to Chicago, which reportedly was a "done deal" for LeBron and Bosh as recently as yesterday) and that Cleveland is still very much in the picture to retain LeBron.
It's worth noting that to happen, the three would either have to take less money than the max or Miami would have to find a way to unload Michael Beasley. I, for one, hope it doesn't happen for several reasons: I love watching Wade and LeBron go head-to-head and the idea of them battling for Eastern Conference supremacy for the next decade really appeals to me. I'm not sure the two of their games really mesh well together. If they sign all three, they'll have no money to sign anyone for anything other than the minimum.
Here's another thing I would consider if I were LeBron: if I joined forces with Wade and we won six championships together, I'd end up with one fewer than Wade and his legacy would probably be greater than mine since he won without me. Considering my goal of "Global Icon," do I want that?
New reports come at us every day so I'm sure tomorrow, we'll hear LeBron is leaning toward joining the Nets so he can play for good friend Jay-Z. All I know is that if he signs with any of the Cavs, Bulls, Heat or Mavericks I won't be surprised. And I wouldn't really be all that shocked if he signed with the Nets either. I'd be mildly surprised if he signed with the Knicks and absolutely shocked if he signed with the Clippers.
I'm usually shocked when Stephen A. is right but maybe he really does know something this time.
Has Erin Andrews re-signed with ESPN?
"Erin Andrews will be staying at ESPN, according to Jim Miller, who is teaming with Tom Shales to write the definitive book on the network."
Miller and Shales wrote the outstanding "Live From New York," chronicling the history of "Saturday Night Live," so ignoring their scoop isn't wise. However SportsByBrooks has followed up on this and discovered that no new deal has been signed.
So it remains to be seen what will become of the ESPN sideline princess who has clearly made a name for herself as a celebrity through the disgusting peephole situation she was victimized in and her recent turn on "Dancing With The Stars," in which she placed second. Her contract situation has been a hotly debated topic of late, with Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch doing an excellent job of examining her career prospects within sports.
If I were advising Andrews, I would tell her to use this opportunity to cross over into entertainment while maintaining a role in sports, since she seems to really love them. ESPN and ABC are corporate cousins. If I were her, I would seek some opportunities to host shows rather than just report from the sidelines (maybe anchor SportsCenter from time to time), increase the profile of her sideline gig (to say, the NBA Finals, Monday Night Football or the ABC Saturday night college football package), and also get some entertainment opportunities on ABC with appearances on a show like "The View" and the ability to host red carpet events such as prior to the Academy Awards (are those on ABC?).
Her star will never be brighter than it is right now so she has to take advantage of it.
It's official: Kerr back with TNT
Not that this comes as any surprise, as I figured this would be the case the moment he left the Suns general manager post, but Steve Kerr is back with TNT. The five-time NBA champion previously served as a game analyst alongside Marv Albert for TNT before leaving for his job with the Suns.
It has not yet been said who Kerr will be working with at TNT this time around. Last season, Albert worked with Reggie Miller and Mike Fratello while Kevin Harlan worked with Doug Collins. Once the conference finals came around, Albert and Collins joined forces. But Collins is now off to coach the 76ers and while he'll no doubt be seeking a television gig somewhere for the 2012-13 season, TNT for now will have to decide how to set up their broadcasts.
I thought Kerr and Albert were excellent together with Fratello when they were a threesome and I hope TNT goes back to that. Miller is really best off in the studio and should just Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson while TNT looks for a new partner for Harlan (perhaps NBA TV's Kevin McHale?).
It has not yet been said who Kerr will be working with at TNT this time around. Last season, Albert worked with Reggie Miller and Mike Fratello while Kevin Harlan worked with Doug Collins. Once the conference finals came around, Albert and Collins joined forces. But Collins is now off to coach the 76ers and while he'll no doubt be seeking a television gig somewhere for the 2012-13 season, TNT for now will have to decide how to set up their broadcasts.
I thought Kerr and Albert were excellent together with Fratello when they were a threesome and I hope TNT goes back to that. Miller is really best off in the studio and should just Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson while TNT looks for a new partner for Harlan (perhaps NBA TV's Kevin McHale?).
June 25, 2010
The NHL draft: 1st 14 picks
Always enjoy the comedy of the NHL draft. Let’s recap it, live blog, stream-of-conscious, Simmons draft diary style…
Versus is on the air with the NHL draft, stealing the TSN Canada feed instead of sending their own broadcast team. Really? They’re too cheap to send out their own crew? This is the American television carrier of the NHL?
On the bright side, Versus decision to just beam us the TSN feed allows us the opportunity to not hear the nonsense that comes out from Brian Engblom and Keith Jones, although the draft does seem to miss Engblom’s mullet.
The draft is at the Staples Center in LA. What do you think is a bigger deal to the Staples people, hosting Game 7 of the NBA Finals last Thursday or the NHL draft eight days later? Yeah, I thought so.
Thoroughly enjoyed the interview with top picks Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin. The two hit the town last night and saw Jennifer Love Hewitt. They admitted she was looking good.
One of the best things about the NBA draft is the personality the players show when interviewed, their flamboyant outfits (like Urkel last night) and their natural ability to communicate. The NHL draft is the same way, only the exact opposite. These kids have no personality, no style, nothing. They looked terrified during their interviews. And this fear, in contrast to the NBA draft, is one of the best things about the NHL draft.
Gary Bettman takes to the podium and gets booed. Loudly. Most despised commissioner in sports. Even people in LA who have never heard of him despise him.
Bettman rambles on about how great this draft is for California. He seems to have lost his voice. I have images of him partying at STK last night, doing body shots off waitresses and waking up next to Lindsay Lohan. This could have happened, right?
Oilers GM Steve Tambellini comes up to the podium and pretends people in LA care about hockey. He then does everything possible to delay the drama: Hall or Seguin. Finally, he selects Hall as Edmontonians throughout Canada rejoice. He’s their next Gretzky, which means he could be traded to the Kings in 10 years.
TSN’s Bob McKenzie compares Hall to Mark Messier, Jari Kurri and Glenn Anderson. No pressure there, kid.
Seguin pretends to be happy for Hall, whom he claims is his friend. Let’s hope these two have an Ovechkin-Crosby type rivalry where Ovechkin is clearly the antagonist.
A woman in the Hall entourage (could be a sister, could be a crazy aunt, could be a stripper he met at Crazy Girls last night) is wearing a black leather outfit that reveals way too much cleavage for someone as large as she is.
Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton is sold out and rocking to celebrate a draft. Clearly, there isn’t much to do in Edmonton on a Friday night.
Versus/TSN cuts to Toronto GM Brian Burke who idiotically traded away this pick last year for Phil Kessel. Apparently he didn’t realize that a crummy roster would likely result in a lousy season and a high draft pick.
As Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli announces the pick of Seguin, team owner Jeremy Jacobs starts initiating trade talks for three years from now when Seguin is up for a new contract.
Love how TSN breaks out the home movies to show highlights of the prospects. That always kills me.
Bettman smiles as Seguin walks to the podium. He’s probably thinking to himself, “this is the last time this guy is going to be happy to see me,” and is probably proud of it. One of my favorite subplots of the Stanley Cup presentation each year is how the winning captain holds back his emotion and excitement when he has to go up to Bettman to get the Cup.
TSN interviews Seguin and Chiarelli together, just as they did Hall and Tambellini. Apparently the general managers become the player’s father upon drafting him.
Interviewer James Duthie reveals that Seguin and his father got matching tattoos. Maybe there’s hope for the NHL prospects after all.
Panthers GM Dale Tallon gets ready to announce their pick. This is the same guy who the Blackhawks fired as GM just before the season started and they won the Cup. Will he make mention of this? Sadly, he doesn’t. On the bright side, Tallon doesn’t go through the usual show of thanking LA, thanking the commissioner and saying hello to the fans watching back in Florida (probably because he knows there are no fans in Florida). Florida takes Erik Gudbranson which is a name you would never see in any of the other sports.
Upon reaching the podium, Gudbranson tells Tallon “I didn’t know Florida still had a team.”
Gudbranson reveals that Florida is the right fit for him. You mean a teenager who has lived in Canada his whole life is excited about going to South Beach? Shocking! Who cares if the team hasn’t made the playoffs in a decade?
The announcer declares that this is the 10th time in their 11-year history that Columbus has picked in the top 10. Donald Sterling smiles as he watches his protégé franchise at work.
Watching this draft makes me appreciate all of the excess ESPN uses during their draft coverage of the NFL and NBA.
Suddenly there is a delay on the floor as the Jackets get ready to make their pick. Did they lose their draft card?
Columbus selects Ryan Johansen, not to be confused with Calle Johansson. Pierre McGuire tells us that this is “excellent, excellent news” for the franchise. “This kid is really good!” I should hope so—he is the fourth overall pick, after all.
Johansen is sporting a done-up hairdo that makes me think he just now started using hair product. “But Mom, we’re going to LA, all the stars use hair gel!” In a weird way, Johansen reminds me of a 20-year-old Corey Haim who I think told his mother the same thing 25 years ago.
Johansen is definitely the youngest looking of the first four picks. He looks like he would be afraid of a razor.
Alyssa Milano makes her way to the TSN desk and Duthie looks like a 14-year-old boy talking to a cute girl for the first time. Amazingly, Milano doesn’t promote her Touch clothing line but does pretend to care about hockey.
Kevin Connolly from Entourage is on the stage. Bob McKenzie spots it, Pierre McGuire has no clue who he’s talking about.
Islanders GM Garth Snow makes the latest selection in a long line of failed draft picks on the Island, Nino Niederreiter. Yes, that’s really his name. No, really. Says McGuire: “He may be from Switzerland but he doesn’t have holes in him like Swiss cheese and he isn’t soft like melting chocolate.” Okay then.
TSN puts up a graphic showing that Nino is the highest drafted Swiss player ever. The previous highly drafted Swiss players on the graphic all have had distinctly undistinguished careers. Islanders fans respond by putting in their DVDs of the early 1980s.
Steve Yzerman gets ready to make his first pick as GM of the Lightning and rumor has it they want injury-prone Brett Connolly. Rumor is he had an MRI on his hip but refused to give it to teams. McKenzie corrects the rest of the desk and says the true story is that teams wanted him to take an MRI but he refused. Sounds like just the guy to take in the top 10 of the draft.
Yzerman sounds terrified. I would be too if I were him—I just selected Connolly with the sixth overall pick. In his home movie highlights, there are no fans in the stands.
McKenzie reports that there isn’t much structure to Connolly’s right hand because he crushed it in a steel gate when he was a kid. The Lightning are now banking on a guy with chronic hip injuries and a damaged hand to help carry them to the promised land. I have to say, this isn’t looking like a good start to Yzerman’s GM career.
Yzerman is being interviewed right now and looks like he just got cold-cocked by Claude Lemieux. Could a black eye from a ’97 Wings-Avalanche brawl have not healed yet?
TSN profiles prospect Jeff Skinner by telling us about his figure skating career and showing home movies of him doing double axels. Fans of every team immediately start rooting for their team to take someone else.
The TSN announcers break down the top six picks by nationality and beams when declaring that no American has been picked yet. Gotta love Canadians proud.
The Hurricanes take Skinner! Too many jokes…too many jokes…
How soon until someone creates one of those crazy Johnny Weir outfits and puts a Hurricanes logo on it with Skinner’s name on the back?
McGuire praises the pick by saying “Anytime you draft someone from the Kitchener Rangers, you know he has strong fundamentals.” I guess that’s settled. McKenzie is positively giddy about the accomplishments of Skinner’s brothers and sisters.
TSN cuts to Cam Fowler sitting in the crowd, looking like he needs to drop a deuce but is unable to. TSN had him ranked No. 4 on their board but now wonder if he’ll fall out of the top 10. Brandon Gormley is also falling, much to the dismay of McGuire.
Atlanta GM Rick Dudley has a goatee, a bald spot and a comb-over. Definitely the appropriate look for an NHL GM. The Thrashers take Alexander Burmistrov, who has a legitimately hot woman in his party. My guess is he met her last night when he went to the Saddle Ranch.
McKenzie tells us Burmistrov has a real “zest for life.” So maybe he really did meet that girl at the Saddle Ranch last night. The Russian players always have more personality than the Canadians do.
This draft is moving way too slow for my tastes.
Wild GM Chuck Fletcher looks like he let his kids cut his hair. Minnesota selects Mikael Granlund from Finland who looks a little like Zack Morris. Why isn’t Kelly Kapowski part of his entourage? McKenzie tells us he has to play in Finland for another year so Minnesota makes a pick that won’t help them at all this year or develop a North American game this year.
Rangers GM Glen Sather looks like a washed up Vegas lounge act. Which, come to think of it, is sort of what he is at this point. The Blueshirts take Dylan McIlrath who is nicknamed the “Undertaker” and “is a whole lot of fury and a whole lot of anger and a whole lot of mean” according to McGuire. A graphic shows he got into 19 fights last year, three times more than anyone else in his league. This is definitely my favorite pick of the draft.
Beau Bennett, a prospect from California, tells us that most of his friends don’t know what hockey is. Probably would be wise to not hold the draft in LA anymore.
The Stars take Jack Campbell, the first U.S. born player in the draft and the first goalie selected. In his photo, Campbell has the most acne I’ve seen since I was in high school and everyone had it. McGuire kills the pick because the team just signed another goalie, Kari Lehtonen, to a long-term deal. Channeling his inner Mel Kiper Jr. The NBA draft lacked such a character last night.
With the Ducks on the clock, the fans in LA boo. There’s a Kings-Ducks rivalry? Who knew? Both McKenzie and McGuire assume one of the falling defensemen, Gormley or Fowler, has to go here since they traded away Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer just retired. “They need defense!” McGuire says emphatically.
The booing fans make the announcers long for a Kings-Ducks series. Probably won’t create quite the same local vitriol as Lakers-Celtics.
The Ducks take Cam Fowler, who McGuire says will be “a difference maker” and a “winner” although not as good as Pronger or Niedermayer. McGuire says he could be the next Francois Beauchemin though. Oh. That leaves Gormley as the one sliding defenseman.
Fowler says “they’re definitely going to get 100 percent out of me so I’m excited.” He looks like he’s excited to hit the Sunset Strip tonight.
The Coyotes are on the clock. Shouldn’t Bettman just announce the pick? He’s the only person left who believes the move from Winnipeg to Phoenix was a good idea as proven by their being no buyer for a team the NHL had to take over.
Phoenix picks Gormley as instructed by Bettman. Keith Gretzky announces the pick, probably his consolation prize for being Wayne’s brother. McKenzie and McGuire both approve.
McKenzie tells us that Gormley’s father is a fisherman, just like Brad Richards’ father. Why he felt we needed to know this is beyond me.
With the Blues on the clock, John Davidson makes his way up to the podium. He looks like he’s aged about 40 years since leaving the TV booth. He has to be regretting that career move. St. Louis takes Jaden Schwartz. Apparently this is a fitting pick because he’s buddies with Gormley.
McKenzie tells us that the Blues went “off the board a little bit” to take Schwartz. This analysis is the NHL draft equivalent of Mel Kiper Jr. ripping the Colts for taking Trev Alberts in 1994.
Schwartz’s sister has cancer and apparently needs a bone-marrow transplant to live. That puts a damper on the whole evening. That sounds like my cue to wrap this up.
Versus is on the air with the NHL draft, stealing the TSN Canada feed instead of sending their own broadcast team. Really? They’re too cheap to send out their own crew? This is the American television carrier of the NHL?
On the bright side, Versus decision to just beam us the TSN feed allows us the opportunity to not hear the nonsense that comes out from Brian Engblom and Keith Jones, although the draft does seem to miss Engblom’s mullet.
The draft is at the Staples Center in LA. What do you think is a bigger deal to the Staples people, hosting Game 7 of the NBA Finals last Thursday or the NHL draft eight days later? Yeah, I thought so.
Thoroughly enjoyed the interview with top picks Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin. The two hit the town last night and saw Jennifer Love Hewitt. They admitted she was looking good.
One of the best things about the NBA draft is the personality the players show when interviewed, their flamboyant outfits (like Urkel last night) and their natural ability to communicate. The NHL draft is the same way, only the exact opposite. These kids have no personality, no style, nothing. They looked terrified during their interviews. And this fear, in contrast to the NBA draft, is one of the best things about the NHL draft.
Gary Bettman takes to the podium and gets booed. Loudly. Most despised commissioner in sports. Even people in LA who have never heard of him despise him.
Bettman rambles on about how great this draft is for California. He seems to have lost his voice. I have images of him partying at STK last night, doing body shots off waitresses and waking up next to Lindsay Lohan. This could have happened, right?
Oilers GM Steve Tambellini comes up to the podium and pretends people in LA care about hockey. He then does everything possible to delay the drama: Hall or Seguin. Finally, he selects Hall as Edmontonians throughout Canada rejoice. He’s their next Gretzky, which means he could be traded to the Kings in 10 years.
TSN’s Bob McKenzie compares Hall to Mark Messier, Jari Kurri and Glenn Anderson. No pressure there, kid.
Seguin pretends to be happy for Hall, whom he claims is his friend. Let’s hope these two have an Ovechkin-Crosby type rivalry where Ovechkin is clearly the antagonist.
A woman in the Hall entourage (could be a sister, could be a crazy aunt, could be a stripper he met at Crazy Girls last night) is wearing a black leather outfit that reveals way too much cleavage for someone as large as she is.
Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton is sold out and rocking to celebrate a draft. Clearly, there isn’t much to do in Edmonton on a Friday night.
Versus/TSN cuts to Toronto GM Brian Burke who idiotically traded away this pick last year for Phil Kessel. Apparently he didn’t realize that a crummy roster would likely result in a lousy season and a high draft pick.
As Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli announces the pick of Seguin, team owner Jeremy Jacobs starts initiating trade talks for three years from now when Seguin is up for a new contract.
Love how TSN breaks out the home movies to show highlights of the prospects. That always kills me.
Bettman smiles as Seguin walks to the podium. He’s probably thinking to himself, “this is the last time this guy is going to be happy to see me,” and is probably proud of it. One of my favorite subplots of the Stanley Cup presentation each year is how the winning captain holds back his emotion and excitement when he has to go up to Bettman to get the Cup.
TSN interviews Seguin and Chiarelli together, just as they did Hall and Tambellini. Apparently the general managers become the player’s father upon drafting him.
Interviewer James Duthie reveals that Seguin and his father got matching tattoos. Maybe there’s hope for the NHL prospects after all.
Panthers GM Dale Tallon gets ready to announce their pick. This is the same guy who the Blackhawks fired as GM just before the season started and they won the Cup. Will he make mention of this? Sadly, he doesn’t. On the bright side, Tallon doesn’t go through the usual show of thanking LA, thanking the commissioner and saying hello to the fans watching back in Florida (probably because he knows there are no fans in Florida). Florida takes Erik Gudbranson which is a name you would never see in any of the other sports.
Upon reaching the podium, Gudbranson tells Tallon “I didn’t know Florida still had a team.”
Gudbranson reveals that Florida is the right fit for him. You mean a teenager who has lived in Canada his whole life is excited about going to South Beach? Shocking! Who cares if the team hasn’t made the playoffs in a decade?
The announcer declares that this is the 10th time in their 11-year history that Columbus has picked in the top 10. Donald Sterling smiles as he watches his protégé franchise at work.
Watching this draft makes me appreciate all of the excess ESPN uses during their draft coverage of the NFL and NBA.
Suddenly there is a delay on the floor as the Jackets get ready to make their pick. Did they lose their draft card?
Columbus selects Ryan Johansen, not to be confused with Calle Johansson. Pierre McGuire tells us that this is “excellent, excellent news” for the franchise. “This kid is really good!” I should hope so—he is the fourth overall pick, after all.
Johansen is sporting a done-up hairdo that makes me think he just now started using hair product. “But Mom, we’re going to LA, all the stars use hair gel!” In a weird way, Johansen reminds me of a 20-year-old Corey Haim who I think told his mother the same thing 25 years ago.
Johansen is definitely the youngest looking of the first four picks. He looks like he would be afraid of a razor.
Alyssa Milano makes her way to the TSN desk and Duthie looks like a 14-year-old boy talking to a cute girl for the first time. Amazingly, Milano doesn’t promote her Touch clothing line but does pretend to care about hockey.
Kevin Connolly from Entourage is on the stage. Bob McKenzie spots it, Pierre McGuire has no clue who he’s talking about.
Islanders GM Garth Snow makes the latest selection in a long line of failed draft picks on the Island, Nino Niederreiter. Yes, that’s really his name. No, really. Says McGuire: “He may be from Switzerland but he doesn’t have holes in him like Swiss cheese and he isn’t soft like melting chocolate.” Okay then.
TSN puts up a graphic showing that Nino is the highest drafted Swiss player ever. The previous highly drafted Swiss players on the graphic all have had distinctly undistinguished careers. Islanders fans respond by putting in their DVDs of the early 1980s.
Steve Yzerman gets ready to make his first pick as GM of the Lightning and rumor has it they want injury-prone Brett Connolly. Rumor is he had an MRI on his hip but refused to give it to teams. McKenzie corrects the rest of the desk and says the true story is that teams wanted him to take an MRI but he refused. Sounds like just the guy to take in the top 10 of the draft.
Yzerman sounds terrified. I would be too if I were him—I just selected Connolly with the sixth overall pick. In his home movie highlights, there are no fans in the stands.
McKenzie reports that there isn’t much structure to Connolly’s right hand because he crushed it in a steel gate when he was a kid. The Lightning are now banking on a guy with chronic hip injuries and a damaged hand to help carry them to the promised land. I have to say, this isn’t looking like a good start to Yzerman’s GM career.
Yzerman is being interviewed right now and looks like he just got cold-cocked by Claude Lemieux. Could a black eye from a ’97 Wings-Avalanche brawl have not healed yet?
TSN profiles prospect Jeff Skinner by telling us about his figure skating career and showing home movies of him doing double axels. Fans of every team immediately start rooting for their team to take someone else.
The TSN announcers break down the top six picks by nationality and beams when declaring that no American has been picked yet. Gotta love Canadians proud.
The Hurricanes take Skinner! Too many jokes…too many jokes…
How soon until someone creates one of those crazy Johnny Weir outfits and puts a Hurricanes logo on it with Skinner’s name on the back?
McGuire praises the pick by saying “Anytime you draft someone from the Kitchener Rangers, you know he has strong fundamentals.” I guess that’s settled. McKenzie is positively giddy about the accomplishments of Skinner’s brothers and sisters.
TSN cuts to Cam Fowler sitting in the crowd, looking like he needs to drop a deuce but is unable to. TSN had him ranked No. 4 on their board but now wonder if he’ll fall out of the top 10. Brandon Gormley is also falling, much to the dismay of McGuire.
Atlanta GM Rick Dudley has a goatee, a bald spot and a comb-over. Definitely the appropriate look for an NHL GM. The Thrashers take Alexander Burmistrov, who has a legitimately hot woman in his party. My guess is he met her last night when he went to the Saddle Ranch.
McKenzie tells us Burmistrov has a real “zest for life.” So maybe he really did meet that girl at the Saddle Ranch last night. The Russian players always have more personality than the Canadians do.
This draft is moving way too slow for my tastes.
Wild GM Chuck Fletcher looks like he let his kids cut his hair. Minnesota selects Mikael Granlund from Finland who looks a little like Zack Morris. Why isn’t Kelly Kapowski part of his entourage? McKenzie tells us he has to play in Finland for another year so Minnesota makes a pick that won’t help them at all this year or develop a North American game this year.
Rangers GM Glen Sather looks like a washed up Vegas lounge act. Which, come to think of it, is sort of what he is at this point. The Blueshirts take Dylan McIlrath who is nicknamed the “Undertaker” and “is a whole lot of fury and a whole lot of anger and a whole lot of mean” according to McGuire. A graphic shows he got into 19 fights last year, three times more than anyone else in his league. This is definitely my favorite pick of the draft.
Beau Bennett, a prospect from California, tells us that most of his friends don’t know what hockey is. Probably would be wise to not hold the draft in LA anymore.
The Stars take Jack Campbell, the first U.S. born player in the draft and the first goalie selected. In his photo, Campbell has the most acne I’ve seen since I was in high school and everyone had it. McGuire kills the pick because the team just signed another goalie, Kari Lehtonen, to a long-term deal. Channeling his inner Mel Kiper Jr. The NBA draft lacked such a character last night.
With the Ducks on the clock, the fans in LA boo. There’s a Kings-Ducks rivalry? Who knew? Both McKenzie and McGuire assume one of the falling defensemen, Gormley or Fowler, has to go here since they traded away Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer just retired. “They need defense!” McGuire says emphatically.
The booing fans make the announcers long for a Kings-Ducks series. Probably won’t create quite the same local vitriol as Lakers-Celtics.
The Ducks take Cam Fowler, who McGuire says will be “a difference maker” and a “winner” although not as good as Pronger or Niedermayer. McGuire says he could be the next Francois Beauchemin though. Oh. That leaves Gormley as the one sliding defenseman.
Fowler says “they’re definitely going to get 100 percent out of me so I’m excited.” He looks like he’s excited to hit the Sunset Strip tonight.
The Coyotes are on the clock. Shouldn’t Bettman just announce the pick? He’s the only person left who believes the move from Winnipeg to Phoenix was a good idea as proven by their being no buyer for a team the NHL had to take over.
Phoenix picks Gormley as instructed by Bettman. Keith Gretzky announces the pick, probably his consolation prize for being Wayne’s brother. McKenzie and McGuire both approve.
McKenzie tells us that Gormley’s father is a fisherman, just like Brad Richards’ father. Why he felt we needed to know this is beyond me.
With the Blues on the clock, John Davidson makes his way up to the podium. He looks like he’s aged about 40 years since leaving the TV booth. He has to be regretting that career move. St. Louis takes Jaden Schwartz. Apparently this is a fitting pick because he’s buddies with Gormley.
McKenzie tells us that the Blues went “off the board a little bit” to take Schwartz. This analysis is the NHL draft equivalent of Mel Kiper Jr. ripping the Colts for taking Trev Alberts in 1994.
Schwartz’s sister has cancer and apparently needs a bone-marrow transplant to live. That puts a damper on the whole evening. That sounds like my cue to wrap this up.
June 20, 2010
June 16, 2010
Chip Brown gets the last word
Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com was the person all over the college realignment story that ended up being for naught. His reporting first got the story into the public eye and he was always the first to break the big news, culminating with Monday when he and ESPN's Joe Schad had contradicting reports but his was right.
So it's probably worth reading Brown's recap and analysis of all that went down (which wasn't much, other than Texas gaining even more control in a smaller conference). Brown didn't include himself in the list of winners but he probably should have. No one outside of Austin, Texas had ever heard of him before a couple weeks ago and now everyone knows who he is. One figures it to only be a matter of time before ESPN hires him.
So it's probably worth reading Brown's recap and analysis of all that went down (which wasn't much, other than Texas gaining even more control in a smaller conference). Brown didn't include himself in the list of winners but he probably should have. No one outside of Austin, Texas had ever heard of him before a couple weeks ago and now everyone knows who he is. One figures it to only be a matter of time before ESPN hires him.
June 15, 2010
Kerr leaving post as Suns GM; TNT awaits
Ironic, isn't it? Steve Kerr was hired by Suns owner Robert Sarver to cut back payroll and, in doing so, Kerr also built the best Suns team since 1993. How is Kerr rewarded? By failing to work out a new deal to remain as Suns general manager. Thus, Kerr is out and the Suns are looking for a new GM.
Kerr has said the decision was solely his but he also had previously said that he intended to work out a new deal to remain with the team, what with his contract expiring at the end of the month. So something happened, whether it was Sarver going cheap in his attempt to keep Kerr or Kerr himself deciding he wanted to return to television.
Speaking of television, Kerr is now positioned to return to TNT as their lead analyst and leaving the Suns now probably gives him a leg up on the position over Doc Rivers, who is rumored to retire as Celtics coach following the NBA Finals. With Doug Collins leaving the post to go fail as Sixers coach, the spot is open and now Kerr is in position to take back the job. So maybe Kerr is leaving now to make sure he gets in the Turner ears before Doc does. Oh, that sly Steve Kerr!
June 14, 2010
Brown vs. Schad: Who do you believe?
As the Big 12 world turns continues today with conflicting reports! Oh happy day! Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, who has been ahead of everyone else in this entire conference realignment story, is reporting that conference commissioner Dan Beebe has somehow convinced Texas to stay, saving a 10-team conference that is now minus Nebraska and Colorado.
Contradicting this report is ESPN's Joe Schad, who reports that the move of Texas to the Pac-10 or Pac-16 or whatever it's supposed to be called is imminent. All sources agree that Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech will stick with Texas, so if Schad is right, those four will all go to the Pac-10 and if Brown is right, those four will stay in the Big 12.
But wither Texas A&M? It appears that they are still considering all options, including joining Texas in the Pac-16, sticking with Texas in the 10-team Big 12 and venturing out on their own to the SEC.
Brown's report contradicts all of his other reports that indicated Texas was as good as gone to the Pac-10, which is fantastic irony in and of itself. Skeptics among us believe that both Brown and Schad are correct in their latest scoops. Brown would be right that Texas would in fact be willing to stay in a 10-team Big 12 (Beebe, presumably, has guaranteed big dollars in a new television deal while also allowing Texas to start their own network). Schad would be right that Texas and the others are gone because Texas A&M is gone (most believe A&M is as good as gone to the SEC). If there's no Texas A&M, there's no 10-team conference, paving the way for Texas (and the others) to leave.
This sounds like the dream scenario for Texas, which can then leave and publicly place the blame for the death of the conference on Texas A&M, Nebraska and Colorado for jumping ship, even though all three (well, maybe not Colorado) jumped ship because Texas' indecisiveness put the conference on shaky ground in the first place.
I don't foresee Texas successfully escaping blame for the collapse of the conference under this scenario because, you know, most people have a brain and know that all of this talk would have ended months ago if Texas had just stated they had no intention of leaving.
Contradicting this report is ESPN's Joe Schad, who reports that the move of Texas to the Pac-10 or Pac-16 or whatever it's supposed to be called is imminent. All sources agree that Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech will stick with Texas, so if Schad is right, those four will all go to the Pac-10 and if Brown is right, those four will stay in the Big 12.
But wither Texas A&M? It appears that they are still considering all options, including joining Texas in the Pac-16, sticking with Texas in the 10-team Big 12 and venturing out on their own to the SEC.
Brown's report contradicts all of his other reports that indicated Texas was as good as gone to the Pac-10, which is fantastic irony in and of itself. Skeptics among us believe that both Brown and Schad are correct in their latest scoops. Brown would be right that Texas would in fact be willing to stay in a 10-team Big 12 (Beebe, presumably, has guaranteed big dollars in a new television deal while also allowing Texas to start their own network). Schad would be right that Texas and the others are gone because Texas A&M is gone (most believe A&M is as good as gone to the SEC). If there's no Texas A&M, there's no 10-team conference, paving the way for Texas (and the others) to leave.
This sounds like the dream scenario for Texas, which can then leave and publicly place the blame for the death of the conference on Texas A&M, Nebraska and Colorado for jumping ship, even though all three (well, maybe not Colorado) jumped ship because Texas' indecisiveness put the conference on shaky ground in the first place.
I don't foresee Texas successfully escaping blame for the collapse of the conference under this scenario because, you know, most people have a brain and know that all of this talk would have ended months ago if Texas had just stated they had no intention of leaving.
June 12, 2010
Another Cubs manager is mad at Steve Stone
The pressure to end the Cubs hilarious World Series drought--headed toward 102 years come October--apparently is quite tough on their managers and they seem to take their frustration out on Steve Stone.
The long-time Chicago baseball announcer left the Cubs booth following the 2004 season when then-manager Dusty Baker and players on the team, most notably Moises Alou and Kent Mercker, grew angry when Stone and then-partner Chip Caray had to audacity to call them out on their hideous play and bad attitude. Alou tried to get them kicked off the team's charter and Mercker called the booth to complain about Stone's commentary. The Cubs were universally predicted to win the National League pennant in 2004 and instead turned into the biggest group of underachievers in the franchise's sorry history as well as the most unlikeable as they choked away a wild card lead in the season's final week. Caray left to broadcast Braves games following the campaign and Stone resigned, briefly joined ESPN and now broadcasts White Sox games.
But working for the White Sox hasn't stopped Stone from commenting on the Cubs. The popular local announcer said on Comcast Sportsnet this week that Lou Piniella "doesn't have a great grasp on what to do with young players," something the Cubs have a few of right now (Tyler Colvin and Starlin Castro being the stars of the youth movement). Piniella has turned into a raging lunatic in response:
"Steve Stone? He has enough problems doing what he does with the White Sox. What job has he had in baseball besides talking on television or radio? What has he done?
"Why isn't he a farm director and bring some kids around? Why isn't he a general manager (or) put the uniform on and be a pitching coach? Why hasn't he been a field manager? There are 30 teams out there that could use a guy's expertise like that. I'm tired of some of these guys, I really am."
Fired back Stone regarding Piniella's comments about his not having credibility because he hasn't worked in a front office or on the field: "That might be one of the dumber things he has said."
And with that, another Cubs season continues to unravel and go down the drain. They are 27-34 and Piniella seems headed out the door at season's end when his contract expires. Piniella came to the Cubs with the reputation of being one of the game's best managers but with the postseason flops of 2007 and 2008, the missed postseason last year and the horrific start to this season, even that reputation could be in jeopardy. Dusty Baker, in fact, came to the Cubs with the same stellar reputation after a string of strong seasons with the Giants that culminated in reaching the 2002 World Series. That reputation took an enormous hit in 2004 and, in fact, has spent the last few years being regarded as one of the game's poorer managers, what with the mismanagement of rosters and especially of pitching staffs. Only now, with the Reds leading the NL Central after a 15-year playoff drought, is his rep starting to be salvaged.
Clearly, the trouble with the Cubs all these years has been the candor of Stone. One thing I'm fairly sure of: Stone will still be around, offering his honest opinions in Chicago, long after Piniella is gone (I fully expect Piniella to be working for Fox or ESPN or Turner or the MLB Network at this point next season). And the next Cubs manager will be the next who can blame his team's eternal misfortune on a local broadcaster.
June 10, 2010
June 6, 2010
Wait...what??
Did you know that the Stanley Cup Final and the NBA Finals are going head-to-head tonight? That's right, both start at 8 pm ET.
If you're the NHL, and you're Gary Bettman, how on earth do you allow this? Given the inroads the NHL has made in popularity this year, how on earth do you allow your Final series to go head-to-head with the NBA? David Stern can live with this because he knows more casual fans will gravitate toward the NBA Finals than the Stanley Cup Final, especially given the Lakers-Celtics matchup and the presence of Kobe Bryant. How can Bettman have allowed this?
Shouldn't Bettman have called Stern (his old boss at the NBA, by the way) and worked with him to schedule the NHL games around the NBA games? Not only would that have been in the best interests of the NHL but it also would have been in the best interests of the fans who would like to watch both (like me). Now most fans will have to either go to a sports bar, set two televisions next to each other, or record one on the DVR, hope the other doesn't tell us the score of the other and shut ourselves off from the outside world in order to avoid the result. Really smooth.
There is no reason why these games have to go head-to-head when both sports always offer an off-day between every game. I hope Bettman will be proud when this really, really exciting Stanley Cup Final featuring two major markets and currently tied at two games a piece draws a rating below 1.0 tonight. I'm sure the suits at NBC will be thrilled too. At least they're not paying for the NHL rights.
If you're the NHL, and you're Gary Bettman, how on earth do you allow this? Given the inroads the NHL has made in popularity this year, how on earth do you allow your Final series to go head-to-head with the NBA? David Stern can live with this because he knows more casual fans will gravitate toward the NBA Finals than the Stanley Cup Final, especially given the Lakers-Celtics matchup and the presence of Kobe Bryant. How can Bettman have allowed this?
Shouldn't Bettman have called Stern (his old boss at the NBA, by the way) and worked with him to schedule the NHL games around the NBA games? Not only would that have been in the best interests of the NHL but it also would have been in the best interests of the fans who would like to watch both (like me). Now most fans will have to either go to a sports bar, set two televisions next to each other, or record one on the DVR, hope the other doesn't tell us the score of the other and shut ourselves off from the outside world in order to avoid the result. Really smooth.
There is no reason why these games have to go head-to-head when both sports always offer an off-day between every game. I hope Bettman will be proud when this really, really exciting Stanley Cup Final featuring two major markets and currently tied at two games a piece draws a rating below 1.0 tonight. I'm sure the suits at NBC will be thrilled too. At least they're not paying for the NHL rights.
Marv Albert leaves MNF radio; who should replace him?
Marv Albert has decided the time is right to give up football play-by-play. The voice of Monday Night Football and the Super Bowl on Westwood One radio, the Marvelous one has decided to give up the post.
Marv and Boomer Esiason were a nice listen but Albert has decided to cut back and concentrate on his basketball duties, where he is the unquestioned Voice of the NBA (even if he doesn't get to call the NBA Finals anymore). Esiason will continue on in the role.
So the big question is: who should take Marv's place? In the past couple of years, Westwood One has used the likes of Kevin Harlan, Dave Sims, Dick Enberg, Ian Eagle and Larry Kahn on NFL games. You can pretty much forget about Enberg. He wants to do baseball full-time and at his age, he would be a short-term guy and Westwood One needs to hire someone more long-term. Forget about Kahn too since his name recognition is low. Also, you may as well forget about Joe Buck and Jim Nantz, since they are the faces of their networks and probably wouldn't want to do it anyway. Besides, Buck would be unavailable for Mondays in October because of baseball's postseason and neither could call the Super Bowl for Westwood One when their network is covering the game; Buck will already be calling the next Super Bowl for Fox Sports.
That leaves Harlan, Sims and Eagle as logical in-house candidates and Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is stumping for Harlan, who does the Packers preseason games and whose father Bob was once the CEO of the Packers.
Harlan does a nice job on lower-tier CBS telecasts with Solomon Wilcots and I enjoy him calling NBA games for TNT and March Madness games for CBS. Still, he would be my second choice. My top choice? Marv's son, Fox's Kenny Albert.
Kenny Albert has steadily rose up the charts in recent years and is now Fox's No. 2 NFL announcer, working with Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa. He also seems to have ascended to their No. 2 baseball role, usually working with Tim McCarver when Buck decides he cannot be bothered to call a game. He also is NBC's No. 2 hockey announcer during the Olympics and he and Joe Micheletti did an outstanding job on the games NBC deemed lesser profile. He also calls New York Rangers and New York Knicks games for MSG.
That sounds like quite a full plate. It also sounds like a guy who likes to work and who wouldn't want to be able to call the Super Bowl? Clearly, that isn't going to happen at Fox anytime soon, where Buck is the clear No. 1 voice. Kenny Albert isn't much of an entertainer in the booth but that also makes him ideal for radio, where the description of the action is paramount. He also works really well with analysts, something he clearly inherited from his father who is probably the best ever at bringing the most out of his analysts.
The only possible drawback is that Kenny Albert probably would be unavailable to call a divisional playoff game for Westwood One because of his Fox job but that seems like a minor inconvenience to me. Use Harlan, Eagle, Sims and Kahn on the divisional games. Have Harlan and Kenny Albert call the wild card and conference championship games and give Kenny Albert Monday Night Football and the Super Bowl. Sounds like a plan to me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)