betED.com - The View from the Couch - by Gavin McDougald!
October 31st, 2007 - Scary Season
Ever heard this before?
?Honestly, who cares about [insert sport here] anymore? Wake me in [month playoffs start] when I may give a crap. [Insert sport here] died after [insert hall of fame athlete here] retired anyway!?
The start of just about any sport's regular season reaps those kinds of rants online, in bars or around water coolers but none seemingly more so than the NBA.
And this year there has been an extra line tagged on as well:
?Plus, it's dirty.?
League commissioner David Stern spoke to reporters last week in his annual "Season Tip-Off" conference call and he knew he was in for it before the first question was even asked.
?I'm going to be brief and upbeat at the beginning, and open it up to long and downbeat questions,? Stern said. ?Let me say we are actually looking forward to the season.?
For him games played in anger have to be a huge relief. At least his players are less liable to get in trouble now that their time will be otherwise occupied. The same cannot be said for some team executives and officials however. They got into trouble while they were on the job.
The NBA's off-season was tainted by a high-profile sexual harassment case, a referee betting scandal and topped off with a strip club shooting. All that wiped out any goodwill left over from San Antonio the Good's playoff romp in June. Not that there was much buzz in the summer about their easy four-game sweep over LeBron and the Cavaliers.
Sweeps are like that. I can barely remember the World Series and it ended just a few days ago.
Stern's reprieve from pressure will most likely be short lived. He is steward over a game that has as many problems, if not more, on the court as it does off. In a few weeks, Stern could look longingly back at the harassment lawsuit against Isiah Thomas and the New York Knicks and disgraced former ref Tim Donaghy's guilty plea in a federal gambling case as the ?good old days.?
What can be done about the imbalance of power from the West to the East? Then there is the ridiculously long regular season where most games go uncontested for three-quarters, followed by an almost as long post-season, almost equally as devoid of highlights. In the 15-playoff series last season, only one made it to a 7th game, and that was in the opening round.
The aforementioned all-powerful and PR-nightmarish Spurs earned most of their press due to a celebrity wedding rather than winning the title.
The most exciting team in the league, the Phoenix Suns, are still smarting from their playoff departure from the post season, which some theorize, especially them, was orchestrated by Donaghy and his friends. How with they deal with tough calls made on Steve Nash et al all season long?
Kobe wants out of L.A. and Lakers owner Jerry Buss wants a fair trade. Will the Lakers and Kobe finally find true love, or will the off-season acrimony continue on a daily basis? Since there isn't a team in the league with the disposable players to trade fairly for Kobe, the answer is probably gonna be ?Yes!?
In the east all the talk - and the hope for some competition for the West - has been about Boston due to their off-season acquisitions. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen join Paul Pierce to form the latest ?Big Three? to hit the parquet floor. Heralded by some as a return of the Larry Bird-Kevin McHale-Robert Parish era, unfortunately for Boston there are no Nate ?Tiny? Archibald's, Dennis Mitchell's or Bill Walton's to back them up. Many are predicting the Celtics will represent the East in the NBA Championships. It's more likely they won't even get out of their division due to that no-big-name team in Toronto, the Raptors.
That's just what the Stern and league needs. The power in the East being from, of all places, Canada!
The NBA is a league that has been searching for a new identity for years, since that [hall of fame athlete] namely, Michael Jordan, retired. Unfortunately, for the NBA, they are mostly identified with things that are bad.
Stern wrapped up his comments saying, ?I think it's fair to say we had what I would call an 'interesting' year with lots of interesting issues,? adding, ?we're actually feeling pretty good.?
He's not known as the best commissioner in sports for nothing.
Cheers - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
Bet on the NBA Action at betED.com here!
October 31st, 2007 - Scary Season
Ever heard this before?
?Honestly, who cares about [insert sport here] anymore? Wake me in [month playoffs start] when I may give a crap. [Insert sport here] died after [insert hall of fame athlete here] retired anyway!?
The start of just about any sport's regular season reaps those kinds of rants online, in bars or around water coolers but none seemingly more so than the NBA.
And this year there has been an extra line tagged on as well:
?Plus, it's dirty.?
League commissioner David Stern spoke to reporters last week in his annual "Season Tip-Off" conference call and he knew he was in for it before the first question was even asked.
?I'm going to be brief and upbeat at the beginning, and open it up to long and downbeat questions,? Stern said. ?Let me say we are actually looking forward to the season.?
For him games played in anger have to be a huge relief. At least his players are less liable to get in trouble now that their time will be otherwise occupied. The same cannot be said for some team executives and officials however. They got into trouble while they were on the job.
The NBA's off-season was tainted by a high-profile sexual harassment case, a referee betting scandal and topped off with a strip club shooting. All that wiped out any goodwill left over from San Antonio the Good's playoff romp in June. Not that there was much buzz in the summer about their easy four-game sweep over LeBron and the Cavaliers.
Sweeps are like that. I can barely remember the World Series and it ended just a few days ago.
Stern's reprieve from pressure will most likely be short lived. He is steward over a game that has as many problems, if not more, on the court as it does off. In a few weeks, Stern could look longingly back at the harassment lawsuit against Isiah Thomas and the New York Knicks and disgraced former ref Tim Donaghy's guilty plea in a federal gambling case as the ?good old days.?
What can be done about the imbalance of power from the West to the East? Then there is the ridiculously long regular season where most games go uncontested for three-quarters, followed by an almost as long post-season, almost equally as devoid of highlights. In the 15-playoff series last season, only one made it to a 7th game, and that was in the opening round.
The aforementioned all-powerful and PR-nightmarish Spurs earned most of their press due to a celebrity wedding rather than winning the title.
The most exciting team in the league, the Phoenix Suns, are still smarting from their playoff departure from the post season, which some theorize, especially them, was orchestrated by Donaghy and his friends. How with they deal with tough calls made on Steve Nash et al all season long?
Kobe wants out of L.A. and Lakers owner Jerry Buss wants a fair trade. Will the Lakers and Kobe finally find true love, or will the off-season acrimony continue on a daily basis? Since there isn't a team in the league with the disposable players to trade fairly for Kobe, the answer is probably gonna be ?Yes!?
In the east all the talk - and the hope for some competition for the West - has been about Boston due to their off-season acquisitions. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen join Paul Pierce to form the latest ?Big Three? to hit the parquet floor. Heralded by some as a return of the Larry Bird-Kevin McHale-Robert Parish era, unfortunately for Boston there are no Nate ?Tiny? Archibald's, Dennis Mitchell's or Bill Walton's to back them up. Many are predicting the Celtics will represent the East in the NBA Championships. It's more likely they won't even get out of their division due to that no-big-name team in Toronto, the Raptors.
That's just what the Stern and league needs. The power in the East being from, of all places, Canada!
The NBA is a league that has been searching for a new identity for years, since that [hall of fame athlete] namely, Michael Jordan, retired. Unfortunately, for the NBA, they are mostly identified with things that are bad.
Stern wrapped up his comments saying, ?I think it's fair to say we had what I would call an 'interesting' year with lots of interesting issues,? adding, ?we're actually feeling pretty good.?
He's not known as the best commissioner in sports for nothing.
Cheers - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
Bet on the NBA Action at betED.com here!
