Deron is a maestro on the mic. Always cracks me up
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Shots fired. Somewhere Mo Williams ponders retirement again
In praising K. Irving, LBJ said Cavs haven't had "a great point guard here probably since Andre Miller, maybe Terrell Brandon, Mark Price"
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Re: NBA Off Topic
Meh, I wouldn't consider those shots.
More like shooting water out of a Super Soaker 500.#RespectTheCultureComment
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OH GOD THERES WATER EVERYWHERE
Sent from my PC36100 using TapatalkFollow me on Twitter@DrewGarrisonSBNComment
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Too Old To Game Club
Urban Meyer is lol.Comment
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Re: NBA Off Topic
Ya'll leave my man Mo alone.
#RespectTheCultureComment
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Re: NBA Off Topic
Thoughts on this?While the Trail Blazers and Clippers were fumbling around the basketball court on Thursday night, weary, turning the ball over, and missing free throws, Nate McMillan, mercifully, called a timeout.
The Rose Garden Arena public address announcer, Mark Mason, took the opportunity to ask for season ticket holders of 20-plus years to stand up. The idea was, to recognize the most loyal customers. And so Harvey Platt, a season ticket holder since 1972, rose to his feet, and looked around. He noticed only a few others were standing.
Platt also noted that he was watching a game that featured one team playing its third game in three nights, and the other playing for the third time in four nights. There were 30 combined turnovers (many unforced), 14 missed free throws, and 38 percent shooting. The Clippers won 74-71 in a rubber-legged game that ends up the poster-child of this NBA season.
Said Platt: "I thought to myself, 'How sad and desperate this NBA season has become.' A far cry from 1972 or any other year I can remember.
"The sports world would have been so better off without this event."
No knock on the Blazers. No knock on the Clippers. No criticism for the teams here. Just an indictment of the whole sad, second-class debacle. A fatigued scene that keeps replaying itself, over and over, across the NBA, and ultimately one that shouldn't have gone down this way.
The players are exhausted. All of them. They've played too many games in too many nights, and the lack of rest is manifesting itself in ridiculous play. I walk into the home and visiting locker rooms on game night and the players faces look mostly blank. It's unfair to fans such as Platt who are paying the same premium prices for their NBA tickets, and it's time for the league to take better care of its customers, isn't it?
My email in-box was littered after Thursday's game with heartfelt pleas from Blazers fans who have seen enough. Subject line: "Ugly," followed by "Ridiculous," followed by "This stinks." Blazers fans love their team, they're emotionally leveraged in this, and they feel let down and unsatisfied by what they see. What's become evident in the past month is that the 66-game lockout resolution was nothing more than an NBA money grab.
The league crammed as many dates into the calendar as they possibly could. The result has been a giant turnover, followed by an air ball, followed by a clanging free throw. And while I don't think the players have a right to complain about being fatigued – they're getting paid, and they played a part in the lockout – fans certainly hold that right.
The owners lost only eight regular-season home dates in the lockout. The players lost only about 20 percent of their pro-rated salary. Fans lost so much more because the quality of performance is a whisper of what it should be. Consider that free-agent guard J.R. Smith agreed to terms with the Knicks on Friday morning and signed a deal that will pay him about $1 million for two months works. No big loss for Smith. I'm not sure the games will be worth watching, but he'll get paid, just as the other players and owners and the NBA itself will.
The suckers?
Fans.
The product is inferior right now. The prices remain inflated. The league is mowing through the schedule, determined, but well aware that the product is frayed and crumbling.
Commissioner David Stern is clinging to the feel-good Jeremy Lin story, rushing him into All-Star weekend because he has little else. But I'm thinking that when the public address announcer asks for the 20-plus year season-ticket holders to stand during next season, that they'll be even fewer left.
Platt knows good business. He also knows the Blazers at their best. His parents, Isadore and Morrie, founded Platt Electric in 1953 and were Blazers season-ticket holders who were there from the inaugural season in 1970. Harvey is the company chairman now, and the family's Blazers season-ticket holder. He's seen enough.
"56 games would have been OK," Platt said. "We did 50 in 1999."
Maybe the Blazers, 16-15, turn this season around. Maybe they don't. Maybe McMillan gets swept into the wreckage, blamed for the losses. Maybe he doesn't. But what's obvious is that the play is substandard and that the NBA franchises might take some time in the next week to contact their most loyal customers and offer what they most want.
Not a refund.
An apology and acknowledgement.
"I am more interested in someone thinking about the consequences of this ridiculous scheduling," Platt said.
Poor product. Injuries. Officiating. Basically, a miserable entertainment experience. And maybe the NBA will get the message, and Stern will announce that he, too, sees that the play on the court hasn't been what it could have been. That they were probably too ambitious in the scheduling.
That they're sorry. And will do better, moving forward.
It's not just how you make the basketball better. It's how you keep the customers coming back#RespectTheCultureComment
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Re: NBA Off Topic
I've like Mo Williams since he was with us down in Tuscaloosa. But what Rajon Rondo did to him in that last Cav/Celtics series was downright shameful. I hated to see it happen to him but it is what it is.Comment
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Re: NBA Off Topic
I already said the regular season is even more painful to go through this year, with the 60 games in 5 nights type ridiculousness going on.
Last year if OKC/Dallas were matching up, I'd have it circled on my mental calendar. This year, it's like, whatever.
Not to be all negative, but it's just how I feel about this year. None of the games seem special. None. It's not the way it's supposed to be. I hardly remember what happened in the past week. Way too many games in a short period of time. Every game seems so blah, ugly, I've become numb to the NBA to be honest. Very indifferent towards each game, probably won't come back until the playoffs.Comment
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Re: NBA Off Topic
^ thats kind of depressing. i haven't been watching as much NBA this season (its still early). don't know if thats a product of the bad play or that i'm watching more soccer and less sports in general, but the bulls typically still look good
lol.
what i really wanted to say was something my dad mentioned to me around thanksgiving at a high school game, and that is that the rims should be raised. at first i dismissed the idea as crazy, why fix what isn't broken? .. but maybe it is broken.. ? when the game was invented, or even 30 years ago players were generally smaller and less athletic. the 10 foot rim was geared towards those players. these days players grow up taking supplements as well as PED's to improve their athletic performance along with diet and specialized work out routines. taller players are becoming more athletic and more coordinated, the players of today are different than the players of yesterday...
so... give this a legitimate thought.. should the rims be raised? if so, how much?
i would say yes and a few inches would be sufficient. you'd still have the supreme athletes being able to make the supreme athletic plays, but IMO in regards to these plays, less is more.Comment
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Re: NBA Off Topic
Raising the rims isnt going to improve the general level of play in this era of bball. The real problem is player skill and understanding of the game.Comment
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Re: NBA Off Topic
Raise the rims?
God no.Comment
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Re: NBA Off Topic
Come on now Cubs. Raise the rims? Raising rims ain't gonna make JaVale McGee smarter. Raising rims isn't going to stop dudes dribbling the air out of the ball for 20 seconds and chucking. Boozer isn't going to play competent defense because the rims are higher. The only thing raising the rims is going to do is add on to existing problems with the NBA.Comment
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Re: NBA Off Topic
its not gonna fix everything thats wrong with the nba no of course not. but are you going to deny that players today are bigger stronger and faster than they were in yesteryear?
and no its not going to make Javale McGee smarter, but maybe owners and GM's will place more of an emphasis on intelligence and skills rather than athleticismComment
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