Source: http://www.ridiculousupside.com/2011/11/14/2561693/nba-lockout-hurt-d-league
יום חמישי, 24 בנובמבר 2011
Union Rejects Proposal, Will Disband
– For labor updates, follow:�@daldridgetnt�|�@AschNBA THE BEAUTY AND CURSE THAT IS TWITTER – 4:53 p.m.: If you’re like most of us, one minute you love Twitter. And the next … well, you know what’s on the other side of that line. As huge a role as the social networks have played in this saga since [...]
Source: http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2011/11/14/the-4-billion-and-then-some-question/
Hardline Blazers owner nabs top superyacht spot for 2012 Olympics
The NBA lockout in many ways still exists because of the demands of hardline owners, some of whom have enough money to fund intergalactic space exploration. One of those men is Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and current overseer of an investment and project management group called Vulcan.
Despite (or perhaps especially due to) his propensity for naming companies as if he were a Bond villain, Allen enjoys the finer things in life, one of which happens to be owning a megayacht he has christened "Octopus." And while most people would imagine that being the owner of a megayacht is awesome, there are many unforeseen issues you don't really learn about until they pop up like bubbles in a glass of champagne. For instance, did you know that there's�only one megayacht parking spot for the Olympics? Of course you didn't, because you can barely pay your credit card bill(s) every month. Don't be silly!
Luckily, Allen is a veteran billionaire who knows how to plan ahead. In fact, he managed to nab the only megayacht spot for next summer's Olympiad in London. Here's a report from the website of the magazine Haute Living, which presumably boasts 1 percent of the nation's population as subscribers (via Ben Golliver):
With the 2012 Olympics in London just around the corner, the race for position among megayacht owners is well underway. Berths for about 30 yachts are being prepared around London's waterways for the big event, but most of them will only accommodate smaller vessels. Several more are expected to visit though they won't all be in town at the same time. Only one of moorings will be able to accommodate a truly enormous yacht ? and word is Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen has already snagged it for his 414 ft.�Octopus, the world's 12th largest, the�Australian reports. [...]
Mark Upton of superyacht advisory service MGMT is marketing packages for superyacht owners that include tickets for the top Olympic events as well as a concierge service featuring everything from tailors and hairdressers to sommeliers in addition to the dockage. "I am confident that we will see between 30 and 50 very large yachts in London next summer," Upton tells the paper.
It's a wonder how Allen could afford to get this spot for his megayacht, what with his need to extract gigantic concessions from the players' union during the NBA lockout. If he has enough money to throw around to own a megayacht and rent the only suitable docking spot for it in London, then surely he can afford to put a little of his own money into the NBA franchise he claims needs to be saved. Why, it's almost enough to make you believe that he has a pathological need to treat his employees like his own personal playthings. But that's impossible, right?
Octopus, by the way, has two helicopters, two submarines, a 63-foot service ship, a pool, and its own Wikipedia page. Yet, while it was the biggest megayacht in the world when it was built, its current position in 12th makes it a better fit for someone who belongs to only 10 country clubs instead of the customary 15 or 20. Is it any surprise that Allen acted so quickly to secure this dockage? How else was he going to look his fellow megayacht owners in the face? (Note: Reports suggest Paul Allen has not looked anyone in the face in six years.)
Rest assured, BDL will keep you apprised of any changes in Allen's megayacht status. In the meantime, stay tuned to the noted megayacht experts at SuperYachtTimes.com. They get scoops no other sites even sniff, probably because no one else can afford to care.
יום רביעי, 23 בנובמבר 2011
Chris Bosh possibly overestimates his role in the NBA lockout
The idea that Chris Bosh -- who if you've forgotten, enjoyed the best statistical offensive season of any power forward in the NBA during 2009-10 -- continues to lump himself in with giants like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade is the ha-ha bit. Then there's the part where Bosh blames a good chunk of the NBA's ongoing lockout on his and James' jump to Miami, along with Carmelo Anthony's trade to New York.
What comes next is stuff like this, via the Sun-Sentinel and Pro Basketball Talk:
"With us doing what we did, and Carmelo going to the Knicks, I think that has a lot to do with it. Hopefully we can keep that and guys can come and go and make the deal that's best for them and their family."
I mean, if you look at the free agents coming up in the same situations, with Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Deron Williams, they can control their own fate," he said. "They have the power to control that and I think that's a great thing. In any job you want freedom to negotiate."
It's one thing to try to deal with even supposedly ardent NBA fans like Bill Simmons as they point to stars wanting to go elsewhere as a major NBA problem. It's another to deal with fair-weather NBA fans when they complain about the same thing. It's entirely something else to reason with major NBA stars who may have actually left one of the biggest markets in North America to play for a team in one of the smaller, relative, markets. Like a Bosh, um, did.
Players have forced trades for ages. Wilt worked his way toward California, as did Kareem, all via trade. Magic and Larry were lucky to end up, via the draft, on the two most celebrated NBA teams of any era.
And just as the 1995 (Alonzo Mourning), 1999 (Kevin Garnett, though he took the money and stayed in Minnesota) and 2005 (Steve Nash) collective bargaining agreements were being discussed, stars used free agent leverage to either force trades, contract extensions, or new deals with new teams (in respective order) just as the deals were being hashed out between the league and the league's players. This is nothing new -- Bill Simmons, radio show caller, or Chris Bosh.
(Also, Dwight Howard might leave Orlando next year; but that's only because Magic GM Otis Smith is terrible at his job. It's not as if he wants to leave a warm climate, a team that does everything to pamper him, and a state with no income tax just to appear in more shoe ads. It's because the Magic have hamstrung themselves because of terrible deals.)
Carmelo Anthony forced a trade from a very good team to an average team that happened to play in New York. The Knicks hamstrung their future, signing 'Melo to a massive pre-CBA extension and jettisoning several draft picks, for the right to another scoring forward. That trade was reliant on the Knicks making a terrible deal, just as Carmelo's own Nuggets did when they sent endless amounts of assets to New Jersey and Philadelphia for Kenyon Martin in 2004 and Allen Iverson in late 2006. This is how these things work, when you take in a league like the NBA in context, instead of only allowing your brain to worm its way back to last July.
Also, the NBA's lockout is ongoing due to the insipid leadership of both sides of the table, leadership representing dual factions that have myriad and quite reasonable excuses for holding out. Neither is beholden to altruism, and save for the limiting of free agent deals from five to four years for players jumping teams, very little has popped out to impress upon us that owners are severely concerned with players jumping from small markets to big. On top of that, the NBA has been loath to disclose just how much it wants to split up revenue amongst markets both small and big, unlike the NFL. As it has been since the beginning of this -- if the team is properly run, the players will stay.
Unless Miami has cap space, of course.
The NBA lockout is impacting the city of Orlando?s coffers
The NBA's labor dispute is hitting this region hard. The city coffers are impacted, too. City government officials emphasize that the Magic are obligated to pay the city $2.8 million even if the entire season is canceled.
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