Forgive me if there's already a thread on the NBA season -- and if there really isn't one, why the hell not. Anyhow, while watching the SA Spurs play, I noticed on the crawl that the Lakers traded Steve Blake today. I'm always happy to see a Terrapin escape Kobe-world.
Best center in the NBA I've found that there are similarities in supporting Fulham and supporting the Sacramento Kings. Demarcus Cousins has clearly been the best center in the NBA this season but, because he doesn't play for one of the "big" teams, he hasn't been recognized. The Kings are a small market team and, because they're in California, their home games end after midnight in the east -- two reasons why they don't get much attention. DMC had some trouble learning to control his emotions at the beginning of his career and got a lot of technicals. He's matured and is doing much better this year, but you wouldn't know it from most of the national media coverage, and his treatment by the refs has been appalling at times. He should have been in the All Star game, but wasn't, and he ought to be the first team center on the all-NBA team team at the end of the year, but probably won't. I'll stop ranting, but check out these stats comparing NBA centers this season.
One of the reasons this thread is so sparsely populated, is that the Lakers suck so bad that not even Vegas Justin can fool himself into believing that Kobe is God anymore.
The playoffs (on the court itself) have been great so far, but history is about to be made at 11 am pst when the new Commissioner has the press conference today about how the league intends to handle Donald Sterling; The GOOD: • The games and many of the series have been the best in recent memory. The West: As a Trail Blazer fan the series w/Houston has been great, and Portland lucky to be up 3-1 w/3 games going to overtime. The Memphis/OKC and Dallas/San Antonio series have been equally as good. The East: Miami cruised in a sweep, Washington has the best young backcourt no one has been paying attention to, and Toronto is giving the Nets all they want. Great Stuff The BAD: • They deserve their own special mention. Indiana looked like the best team in the NBA for the first three/four months of the season, but the gamble of trading Danny Granger in February has blown up in their face. Not sure it's fair to say, but they look they've literally quit against a bad Atlanta team. The Hawks are so terrible they haven't been able to put the Pacers away. The UGLY: • Big Shocker, it's the Donald Sterling debacle :shock: To say this guy is a racist is a little unfair since this scumbag hasn't found a race he hasn't sued or screwed over in his business dealings (well chronicled over the years). At 80 years old, this miserable excuse for a human being is having karma bite him in the arse. Southern California has been buzzing on every conceivable media outlet over this story. It's going to be fascinating what will happen inside and outside of Staples Center tonight depending on what transpires earlier in the day.
I'll root for Don's Spurs since otherwise I dont give a shit. As to the 'racist story' what a crock off shit. Rich old bigot* white guy who is tired of hearing how his trophy GF is prolly getting laid by black guys she's hanging with. The words in the tape tell the tale. And yes I'm still sick and tired of people who dont know the difference between racist and bigot. Because it's easier to think that way. Especially for closet racist Rich White Progressives. UPDATE: Well, the hammer fell and Sterling's out. Jesse Jackson and Big Al Sharpton must be dancing a jig. Race Extortion is back, big time. Personally I dont give a shit. Some guys are too invested in their toys if you get my meaning. OT: And btw Rancher Free Grazer Cliven Bundy doesnt deserve support, either. He did so much wrong {and on wrong basis} that he deserves no consideration whatsoever. Has nothing to do with his bigotry. The law is the law. Alex Jones and ass-buddy Ron Paul will disagree with me, I'm sure.
Is there anyone out there who can tell me what Sterling said? Cause all I have heard is references to his "despicable racists comments"?, but no quotes as to what he actually said. I haven't looked too hard but I have listened to probably 20min+ of news coverage on the subject which I couldn't avoid.
http://www.tmz.com/2014/04/26/donal...wner-black-people-racist-audio-magic-johnson/ It appears they broke it. Not exactly a bastion of journalism, but, hey, the water is purest at the source.
Funny, I was just going to post about the playoffs. I am LOVING the fact that the best team in the Eastern Division is having its collective ass handed to it by a 38-44 team. Mind you, I'm not so nuts about having the similar thing happening here in the west, but there's a lot more parity visible in the first round than I've seen in a long time. The OKC Thunder have had -- what -- 4 straight overtime games? Good stuff. As for the Dallas-SA thing, this is the main story in the NBA now -- NOT the Republican bigot that every right-winger wants to be a Democrat bigot -- and get ready for this because I didn't think it possible: Popovich is being outcoached. Yep, it's a bit of a stunner. They have man-marked Tony Parker pretty much out of existence and Pop hasn't been able to react to it. The PLAYERS have reacted, of course, by doing what we do best when under pressure: turn the damn ball over. Oh, and about Sterling: would anyone like to tell me how the NBA commissioner has the right to tell the owner of a company that he can't go into the offices of the business he owns? What if he says to his non-playing employees, "Sorry, guys. I can't get into my office to sign your pay checks? I guess you're just out of luck." If Sterling pays the fine and relinquishes control of his franchise, he's completely senile. I don't believe that it is within the purview of the head of a league to restrict the business activity of an owner. This is the NBA commissioner grandstanding. Racism and bigotry are diseases that are not restricted to sports. Nothing is being cured here. Nothing is being improved here. It's all just show. And the sad thing is, there's a great show going on in a half dozen cities right now.
HD, The Clippers will run just fine without Sterling, so the front office staff needn't worry about their checks. In fact if Sterling intends to fight the NBA (given his history of litigating at the drop of the hat he will) any slip ups in regards of running a franchise properly he'd give the NBA the ammunition to come in and run the organization (see New Orleans Hornets). A sports franchise is not a normal business where the stupidity of the owner for the most part doesn't result in loss of ownership. He is a partner with 29 other owners in a public trust, the NBA he will sue, and he will lose. Can he drag it out? Yes, but that's all he is capable of. Adam Silver is 3 months on the job after following a legend and frankly needed to put his stamp on the job. He did the maximum he could do, and smartly shifted the burden to the 29 other owners. At the end of his tenure, he will have been on the right side of history. I will agree HD that this isn't a cure-all, however will disagree that the league isn't a better place. Donald Sterling is a vile a human being and has discriminated against every race or creed throughout is lifetime (more so in his other business dealings), him exposed is indeed a very good thing. The games: Still think the Spurs will pull it out, but not surprised Rick Carlysle is matching wits w/Pop. The big difference is Parker doesn't look 100% to me. He is lacking his usual explosiveness, and Montae Ellis of the Mavs has outplayed him or any of the other point guards the Spurs have. OKC has major matchup issues w/Memphis. For all those that think the NBA doesn't play defense, watch Tony Allen of the Grizzlies play. He has made Durant work for everything he has gotten so far. Add that OKC can't guard either Gasol or Randolph and you can why this might only go one more game. Indiana has the best record in the east, but Miami is the best team in the east, the Pacers have been bad for 2 months now, and something stinks in the locker room.
Joe has it right. Sterling isn't simply a business owner. All NBA owners sign what's essentially a constitution to be a member of the League, and must follow the bylaws. Obviously, Silver and those in the League office feel his conduct violates those bylaws, giving them the grounds to impose the punishment that's been handed down. My initial thought was similar to Joe's -- that Sterling would fight this to the bitter end (which he certainly can). But now I'm not so sure. He's a disgusting person, but he's also a businessman and he has to see the writing on the wall. I think at this point he'll play the petulant child role and take his ball and go home. Except his ball is the $700 million+ he stands to make in the sale.
Fog, I get the distinction but I think you've picked the wrong example to make the point. Sterling has a long, public and well documented history of discrimination. While his comments in this instance tend more toward bigotry than racism, his actions in total would suggest he's a racist. Clearly the commissioner and the other owners believe the league's constitution affords them the ability to force him out. As Joe said, pro sports leagues are a different kettle of fish. They almost always include clauses for "actions detrimental to the league". And Sterling should be glad for that. He can sell the team now and get pretty close to market value and far more than what he paid for it. In the real world, he'd be subject to market forces. The team is already losing sponsors and business partners en masse. If he remained in place as the owner, they likely wouldn't return. Based on player reaction to this, the team would have a hard time retaining coaches and players (especially after their contracts expire) and signing new ones. You might even see players breach their contract to make a statement. They would most likely take a pretty big hit in attendance as well. Those things would kill the value of the franchise and likely force him to sell for far less. Or worse, what if he's unable to field a team? Would the league be forced to contract the franchise? They could just replace it with an expansion team and he'd be out with nothing. Don got one part of this right. The guy is completely senile. Forget what you think of his views, this has been an epic display of stupidity on his part. Back to the actual playoffs....the Bullets won a series!!!!! Yeah, I know, they don't call them that anymore but I don't care. I went to Washington Bullets summer camps as a kid. The name change was political correctness run amok, so they'll always be the Bullets to me. As for the Spurs, I'm concerned. They've been outplayed. Maybe they took Dallas lightly after beating them 10 times in a row. But after the disappointment of last year, I really expected them to come out in this first series and make a statement. Not let an inferior team look like they want it more. Hopefully they get it sorted because the window for this team winning titles has got to be almost closed. Prior to last year, most people thought it already was.
I've known for decades that Sterling is a scumbag, and that's true for the vast majority of people who closely follow the NBA. My wife, on the other hand, had never heard of him until the other morning when she was reading the paper and asked 'do you believe this guy ...?' That sums up why we have a firestorm about this -- his scumbaggery is suddenly much more visible. A lot of people who have been quietly (or not so quietly) seething about this guy have taken this opportunity to pile on. This is the messy way these things usually get taken care of. You could certainly argue about the details of how it happened, but it appears that, ultimately, justice will be done.
Matt, I still have a hard time calling them the Wizards. Became aware of the NBA as a kid in Portland in the mid 70's, where the Blazers were kings. The rivalry w/the Super Sonics was huge, and the Bullets were the best team in the east for awhile (The Big E, Elvin Hayes was awesome). I think you are going to be :banana-dance: for another round as Washington gets the Hawks or Pacers. Lost in the Sterling mess was the passing of one of the true innovators as a coach, and by all accounts a wonderful man off the court, Dr. Jack Ramsay. As the author so brilliantly puts it at the end of his article, he was and indeed still is Portland's 'coach'. http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10852 ... fect-match
This is what Kareem Abdul Jabbar thinks about it. Glad someone finally said what I was thinking although Joe and Lax alluded to some of it. http://time.com/79590/donald-sterling-kareem-abdul-jabbar-racism/
Well done folks, I just read Kareem's piece an hour ago and was coming here to link it. I consider HIS opinion to be the most germane and thoughtful of any of them. And thta goes way back... he never did jump on the bandwagon, his views were always his own no matter the issue. Look... the issue was never if Sterling's a scumbag. Throw in slumlord if you want. The issue is how he got away with it.. and what would be the opinion of everyone if he was an old rich black guy. Evidently the NAACP considered him an honorary one. Look a little deeper and you might get the impression that Sterling also had an issue with the golddigger about how the people she brought into his private box acted. Tyler Perry could make a movie about this with himself playing 'Black Sterling' and it would probably make money Back to Kareem... sorta sad that honesty is in such short supply.
here's a couple of interesting things about this "affair" that I leaned of today 1. CA law was broken when the phone conversation was recorded w/o Sterling's permission. CA law was ALSO broken when the conversation was broadcast. Arguably, CA law was ALSO broken when the NBA used this evidence. If Sterling wants to sue, he's got good grounds. 2. The league has very set standards about owner behavior, but most of them deal with gambling or shady business practices. There IS a mandated $2.5m max fine for gambling or shady business practices. 3. There is nothing SPECIFIC in the agreement about bigoted/racist/harmful/disrespecting speech. There IS, however, a general catch-all under which the Commish could use this example. The problem is that the max fine for this general catch-all is $1m, NOT $2.5m. So, to sum up, the NBA Commissioner used a non-specific clause to levy a fine of unauthorized size while continuing to perpetuate law breaking in the process. It seems to me that the only legal basis for a fine here is one levied on the Commissioner. And, all of this, of course, is dumbshow, since not a single opinion or workplace will be the slightest bit affected. The only "winner" here is the NBA commissioner, who has shown -- just like his counterparts in the NHL, MLS, MLB, & NFL that he's a headline grabbing figurehead nonentity. And then, of course, there's the whole "freedom of speech" thing. As has been pointed out constantly by those on the left -- and occasionally the right -- NOBODY attempts to censor or punish opinions which are non-controversial and happy smiley. It is the worst and most outrageous speech that needs protecting under the Bill of Rights. Sterling's an asshole. So is the late Minister from Oklahoma. So is the idiot who burns a flag. So is the greater idiot in New York who can't make money running a casino. But all them assholes are allowed to prove -- over and over -- their ass-hattitude in this country. I see nothing to celebrate in the NBA's actions re-Sterling. Absolutely nothing at all. I AM rather pleased by Tony Parker's play last night, however.
These were not phone conversations, but rather recorded talks at the woman's house. Reportedly there are over a hundred hours of recordings, that the woman says were done with full knowledge of Sterling who is said to have requested the tapings so he could remember what was said later. The guy is going to sue no matter what, but the fact he has not come out and said he was secretly taped, but only to admit (so far) that it was his voice is quite telling. The guy is so kooky (he forced out all the other companies in the 8 story office building he owns and keeps his personal company because he didn't want to share the elevator) that it's plausible that he was well aware of the tapes. Her lawyers have now come out and said a friend leaked the tapes to TMZ or Deadspin or whomever had it first without 'her knowledge' :roll: • OKC w/a gut check performance in Memphis, and the injury to Mike Connelly has to be a major concern for the Grizz. • Atlanta is so bad that they gagged a 5 point lead against Indiana w/a few minutes left and the Pacers ready to go on vacation. Now for the Pacers they will have to wait and see what happens w/the stupid rule where if a guy steps on the court even if they are nowhere near the scuffle, they are subject to a suspension aka the 'Robert Horry gets away with a Cheapshot Rule' (when Phoenix got screwed). Paul George was technically on the court, and if Indiana loses their best player they are in trouble in game 7.
