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“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”― Stephen Hawking -
Yeah...Isiah has been the death of franchises...and whole fucking leagues (CBA anyone?)...
He should get credit for nothing but being a fucking douchebag..."Van Halen was one of the most hallelujah, tailgate, backyard, BBQ, arrive four hours early to the gig just for the parking lot bands. And still to this day is. It's an attitude. I think it's a spirit more than anything else is."Comment
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I just don't get it. How is what he is supposedly doing (advising the Knicks while coaching a college team) even remotely legal? The man goes against league rules again and again, yet nothing ever comes of it. Maybe that's why Dolan loves the guy, as they seem to be made for each other.
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”― Stephen HawkingComment
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Why is there a thread about Cameltoe in the sports forum ??Comment
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The NBA has made Carmelo's 'dream come true.'
Don't you all just have disney-like warm and fuzzies..."Van Halen was one of the most hallelujah, tailgate, backyard, BBQ, arrive four hours early to the gig just for the parking lot bands. And still to this day is. It's an attitude. I think it's a spirit more than anything else is."Comment
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I blame the entire system...
I am trying to figure our how Carmello could think any differently given his upbringing, background and how the system treated him from the moment he was identified as a talent.
The NBA should make a stand and say no player may be drafted unless successfully completing 3 years of college/university, including significant professional conduct training.
This is at the core of the issue. As much as I believe in a strong CBA to minimize any impact rogue players and owners may have on the game, it goes much further. This could be part of the new CBA.
How else can you explain the the NHL still has huge character guys in it? The very nature of their upbringing - parents waking up at 3:00 AM to drive their kids to a tournamnent.
There is no coddling of these kids for the most part. They work their asses off and come to the league in a culture that revolves around respect for the game and the cities they play in.
Last year Alexandre Burrows could have asked for the moon with the year he had. He could not forget his humble beginnings (he came from ball hockey...ball hockey!) and wanted to reward the Canucks by giving him the opportunitysigpicRoth Army CanadaComment
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Now we're reaching the root of the issue..."Van Halen was one of the most hallelujah, tailgate, backyard, BBQ, arrive four hours early to the gig just for the parking lot bands. And still to this day is. It's an attitude. I think it's a spirit more than anything else is."Comment
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Not a big Whitlock fan...but this is more or less my point...
This whole NBA scenario — from LeBron’s Decision to Melo’s Madness to Deron’s Escape — reminds me of the American housing bubble.
You don’t need to read Michael Lewis’ latest book to see the NBA is headed for collapse.
That is not a statement about the product. The product is strong. We’re in the middle of one of the best NBA seasons in quite some time. Every night, there seems to be at least one must-see matchup, and the television networks — ABC, ESPN and TNT — trumpet the record number of viewers.
There are six legitimate championship teams — the Celtics, Spurs, Heat, Lakers, Bulls and Mavericks. There is a seemingly endless list of compelling superstars worth paying to see — James, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, Dwyane Wade, Amar’e Stoudemire, Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki, etc.
We’re at the height of the bubble. We’re at the brink of collapse.
For close to a decade, NBA players have walked the thin line between love and hate with their customers. The players crossed it when Ron Artest and several Indiana Pacers climbed into the stands to brawl with spectators. Commissioner David Stern instituted a string of new rules — dress code, tougher restrictions prohibiting fighting, 19-year-old age requirement for the draft — to push the players back on the other side of the line.
Those Band-Aid policies are starting to break. The players, many of whom have never grasped the need to understand and satisfy their customer base, are beginning to unwittingly push back.
Soaked in the arrogance of fame, wealth, immaturity and business ignorance, the players have dramatically reshaped the league with their free-agent and impending free-agent maneuvers.
In doing so — in destroying basketball in Cleveland, Utah and Denver — LeBron, Melo, Amar’e and Deron reinforced the perception among fans that teams don’t matter.
“As a player, you have to do what’s best for you,” Wade told reporters in reaction to the Carmelo trade to New York. “You can’t think about what someone’s going to feel or think on the outside. You have to do what’s best for you, and that’s what some players are doing. I’m happy for those players that felt that they wanted to be somewhere and they got their wish.”
That pretty much sums up the mentality of the modern-day American and modern-day pro athlete. Pleasing the individual takes precedence over everything else. It doesn’t matter that the collective strength of the NBA made Wade rich. Wade and other NBA players must be concerned only with themselves. That’s the American way.
The problem for basketball players is that they’re perceived differently than other pro athletes and Americans hold higher expectations for athletes than they do for themselves.
If NBA players were smart, they’d consider the health of the entire league.
They won’t. They can’t. They’re too young, too uneducated, too compromised by a society that intellectually cripples its physically gifted, beautiful and famous. You can’t see the big picture when you’re surrounded by male and female groupies.
It’s up to David Stern and the owners to protect the future of the league. They have to protect the players from themselves.
The problems facing the NBA are not unique. The problems are just more acute in the NBA as opposed to the NFL and major league baseball.
It’s easiest to see the break from traditional sports values in the NBA. The embrace of rebellious, hip-hop music culture, which is in direct opposition to the patriotism associated with sports, and the devastation of college basketball because of early entrants into the NBA put pro basketball players at odds with their fan base.
American sports fans love basketball. It is our most beautiful and graceful game. They don’t like or respect the participants. The fans don’t believe the players share their values. Fans care about the teams. The players don’t.
As the NBA heads for labor unrest in an attempt to negotiate a new collective-bargaining agreement, Stern and the owners should be super aggressive in addressing this fundamental problem.
A franchise tag for the league’s biggest stars won’t fix it.
Tying a significant percentage of player compensation to wins and losses is the solution, along with financial incentives for players to stay in college and pursue an actual education while there.
I’ve written in detail about these ideas in the past.
American basketball is in need of a major overhaul. Everything should be on the table. People should think outside the box. Money has changed pro sports. It’s long past time for the rules governing construction of teams and compensation of players to be fundamentally changed to reflect today’s reality.
The teams have to matter. Winning has to matter. It can’t simply be about players re-creating their AAU teams in their favorite NBA cities. That bubble is going to burst. The thin line between love and hate soon is going to be crossed irrevocably."Van Halen was one of the most hallelujah, tailgate, backyard, BBQ, arrive four hours early to the gig just for the parking lot bands. And still to this day is. It's an attitude. I think it's a spirit more than anything else is."Comment
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This is a great post. And although I really don't follow sports you've hit on some important points here. I would consider myself a Nuggets fan on the basis that basketball for the most part is fast paced entertainment and I did enjoy the moments seeing Carmello play.
The downside to much of what goes on in the NBA is a lack of player character and development. Many refer to the NBA as "thug ball" or "gangster ball" based on the hip-hop/gang culture that surrounds it. Personally, I prefer watching college basketball for the same reasons. Part of it could be changing in that the league is now taking in a influx of European and Asian players who have a little bit more respect for the game then the tattoos and Escaldes still it's the thug like characters who get the attention.
Now, I'm not calling every player in the NBA who sports tattoos and never went to college or attend college for a year a thug but the NBA as a whole needs to change their criteria. I can't think of any players who were for the most part to considered "positive role models" (I know cliche) for the sport except for maybe David Robinson. Even in after game interviews many NBA players seem to lack any other outside culture than shooting a ball at a hoop. I'm not saying they need a degree in art history as a prerequisite to play the game but when all they can speak is "yeah, you know...?, you know what I'm saying?..." ad nauseum it does seem a little bit unsettling. Then again, you can make this argument for a lot of sports athletes but no where does it predominate as much as it does in the NBA.
And you're right, the NBA is as much to blame for this as anyone taking in any player who can ball and bring people in the seats to simply line the pockets of the owners with more money. Should NBA players have degrees? I think so. And not only that but an understanding of handling finances, fame and that of their time in the league (as in any league) is limited to how well they perform for the owners.
As for Carmello, I've lost all respect for the dude. It's not that he didn't want to play in Denver but to go to a press conference giving no respect to the Nuggets franchise, coach Carl, or the Denver fans in general is inexcusable. Maybe he didn't want to say anything because he was hurt by Denver fans booing him? Huh. If the rumors about the New York sports press are true that they are the most brutal critics of an athlete who doesn't live up to the hype it'll be interesting to see how Mello is going to act in if he fails in the Big Apple.Comment
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This moron had his arm raised and walked onto the court when he was introduced for the first time.
That's all I needed to see to know what type of player he is.Comment
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