NBA

September 11, 2015

Spencer Haywood, Hall of Famer

Congrats to Spencer Haywood on his induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
 
This is a big deal for the NBA and especially its players. It's also long overdue.
 
I am thrilled for Spencer. It was an absolute joke that Mr. Haywood was denied this honor, despite having scored over 17,000 points in the NBA.
 
As Charles Barkley remarked tonight, "Spencer should have been in the Hall of Fame a long time ago. He obviously got blackballed by challenging the NBA. And a lot of reporters held it against him. I'm just glad he got in while he's still alive."
 
This is personal for me. Spencer Haywood is among the many important heroes whose courage and conviction made professional sports what it is today. It's not perfect, but we have come a long way from the dark ages. I dedicated my book  these greats, including Spencer Haywood:

This book is dedicated to those who helped shape sports and society: Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Henry Aaron, Spencer Haywood, Curt Flood and Marvin Miller, who fought for freedom and fairness.

The following is an excerpt from  that talks about Spencer Haywood's contribution to the game...

Youths take to the courts

"I want to thank Spencer Haywood…for leading the way. Without Spencer Haywood there would be no Bill Willoughby, Darryl Dawkins, Moses Malone or myself."  —Kevin Garnett, after being named 2003-04 NBA MVP

In addition to suppressing wages though the reserve clause, owners united to control the minimum age at which players could enter their leagues. That way, the NBA and NFL could take advantage of a free farm system—college sports—without fear of any team undercutting the system by drafting a player below the minimum age.

Spencer Haywood left the University of Detroit in 1969 after two seasons. At the time, the NBA had a strict policy against drafting or signing a player until he was four years out of high school. Haywood played one season for the Denver Rockets of the ABA, was named MVP, then was signed by the Seattle SuperSonics. The NBA sued Haywood and Sonics owner Sam Schulman to keep Haywood out of the league.

At his first NBA game, lawyers served Haywood with an injunction ordering him to leave the arena. The public-address announcer said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have an illegal player on the floor.” Haywood endured racial slurs from fans. Even other NBA players turned their backs on him, thinking that by entering the league too young he had not played by the rules.

The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that because Haywood was the only wage earner capable of taking care of his family, and therefore a “hardship case,” he should be permitted to earn a living in the NBA.

Haywood’s case paved the way for young players to declare themselves eligible for the NBA Draft, even right out of high school (until 2006).

Posted at 04:59 PM in NBA | | Comments (0)

March 22, 2010

Antoine Walker's financial mess

Antoine Walker sat for an extensive interview with ESPN's Mark Schwarz for an Outside the Lines feature on his finances. Walker earned $110 million during his 13-year NBA career, but he now is essentially insolvent. It's the usual suspects: excessive spending, gambling, bad investments and questionable people. It's a sad tale that is still unfolding, but you have to appreciate Walker's willingness to share his story for the benefit of others.

Walker invested $10 million in Chicago real estate with a "old friend named Fred Billings." Walker admits he did not really know much about Billings, even though he knew him for 10 years. Said Walker, "We spent a lotta time together. Hanging out. He was kinda like a part of the crew...It cost me not going out there and handling it myself."

According to Schwarz's reporting: "Billings did not pay mortgages, hired untrained workers to make illegal repairs and is awaiting trial in Cook County for his alleged involvement in a mortgage scam. He has been charged with 13 felony counts of fraud, forgery and theft." Unfortunately, Walker faces serious charges that he was a slumlord. Walker now recognizes that real estate is a serious business, not something you completely entrust to others: "I probably should not have ventured into businesss until I got out of my [basketball] career." Walker on his lifestyle and helping others "I am not going to sugarcoat it. I lived a very expensive lifestyle. I took care of my family. I was very generous to my family and my friends...In the beginning of my career I kind of thought it was my obligation. I thought it was kind of my calling. 'OK, I make this amount of money. My job is to give back.'"

On "helping" friends and family
It was very hard for me to say 'no' to people when they come ask me for something," Walker said. "A lot of friends I grew up with would have a business venture and hit me with a sob story and I would say 'yes,' and I got burned a lot of times that way. People say 'I need to borrow $200,000 for this deal and I'll give it back to you,' and then I never hear from them."

Margaret Johnson, former girlfriend and mother of one of Walker's children "He has a big heart. He became addicted to gambling and he ran through millions taking care of more than 50 people who are nowhere to be found now that he needs the help.

Kenny Anderson on family "Family can be your worst enemy. Family was mine. Not going to say no to mine...You know you got a 5-6 year deal and you think this thing is going to last forever. It just snowballs. Everybody's asking; everybody's taking. You got to find a way to say no."

Pitino in 1999 on Walker Rick Pitino, who coached Walker at UK and the Celtics, made this unprophetic remark when Walker signed a maximum six-year, $71 million deal with Boston in 1999: "[Antoine Walker] will never have to worry about money again in his life."

Pitino today on Walker "I didn't factor in poor investments. I didn't factor in gambling. I didn't factor in recklessness of spending."

Pitino's advice: "All the cars need to be sold. The houses need to be sold. Liquidate everything. Don't try and live a foolish way and hold on to them. It's over. That lifestyle is over."

Watch the feature. Twice if you're a pro athlete.

Let's hope Antoine can get out of this mountain of debt, although the avalanche of lawsuits will make it difficult. Walker rates a mention in the next edition of , in the chapter on "A trip down (bad) memory lane." This chapter is unfortunately getting longer.


--Marc Isenberg

Posted at 11:04 AM in Finances, Gambling, NBA | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

February 08, 2010

Let bygones eventually become bygones

Just found out the NBA will honor former NBA star Spencer Haywood during All-Star Weekend in Dallas. 

While Mr. Haywood had some great seasons on the court, his greatest contribution to NBA players was in the court. Mr. Haywood entered the League after sophomore season. Back then you didn't "declare" for the NBA Draft. You stayed in school for four years. Mr. Haywood sued the NBA over the fundamental right to be employed as a professional basketball player. And won. This is a big deal, especially to me. Not only did I feature Mr. Haywood in my book, , but I also dedicated the book to Mr. Haywood (and to Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Henry Aaron, Curt Flood and Marvin Miller). Here's what I wrote in Money Players: Youths take to the courts

I want to thank Spencer Haywood…for leading the way. Without Spencer Haywood there would be no Bill Willoughby, Darryl Dawkins, Moses Malone or myself. —Kevin Garnett, after being named 2003-04 NBA MVP In addition to suppressing wages though the reserve clause, owners united to control the minimum age at which players could enter their leagues. That way, the NBA and NFL could take advantage of a free farm system—college sports—without fear of any team undercutting the system by drafting a player below the minimum age. Spencer Haywood left the University of Detroit in 1969 after two seasons. At the time, the NBA had a strict policy against drafting or signing a player until he was four years out of high school. Haywood played one season for the Denver Rockets of the ABA, was named MVP, then was signed by the Seattle SuperSonics. The NBA sued Haywood and Sonics owner Sam Schulman to keep Haywood out of the league. At his first NBA game, lawyers served Haywood with an injunction ordering him to leave the arena. The public-address announcer reportedly said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have an illegal player on the floor.” Haywood endured racial slurs from fans. Even other NBA players turned their backs on him, thinking that by entering the league too young he had not played by the rules.

The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that because Haywood was the only wage earner capable of taking care of his family, and therefore a “hardship case,” he should be permitted to earn a living in the NBA. Haywood’s case paved the way for young players to declare themselves eligible for the NBA Draft, even right out of high school.

--Marc Isenberg

Posted at 10:54 PM in Money Players book, NBA, NBA Draft | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 04, 2009

Jennings’ foreign concept now leading to big Bucks

Basketball Times
December 2009

The basketball world is buzzing about Brandon Jennings and his spectacular NBA debut. Fifty-five points in his eighth career game. Only Wilt, Earl the Pearl and Rick Barry scored more points as a rookie. It’s even more fascinating given his nontraditional path to the NBA, which cast him as a lightning rod for everything that is either right or wrong with basketball in the United States. Several writers ripped Brandon for his decision and everything he supposedly represented. Others (me included) applauded Brandon’s decision and thought Brandon would be well served going to Italy. I thought he would be a good NBA player, but no one thought he’d be this good, this soon. Jennings already is one of the most fascinating guys to enter the League since probably LeBron James debuted in 2003. Jennings’ journey to the NBA also serves as a great study in punditry and talent evaluation. When Jennings decided to go to Europe rather than go the traditional collegiate route, several pundits offered their thoughts. Ordinarily, these predictions would be quickly forgotten. How easy would have been to indict the American-to-Europe approach had Brandon flopped? Philip Tetlock, a Stanford research psychologist, recently wrote “Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?,” a book that examines the business of predictions. He looked at 82,361 predictions by 284 experts. Are some people, perhaps because of intelligence and education, better able to see the future? The book’s conclusion: A resounding no. “The best predictor, in a backward sort of way, was fame: the more feted by the media, the worse a pundit’s accuracy.” But pundits have a platform to say whatever they want, typically without much notice if they happen to be wrong. When Brandon signed with Lottomatica Roma, basketball analyst and lawyer Len Elmore said Jennings “is neither a pioneer blazing a trail for other young men to follow nor a hero” and wrote him off as “simply another impressionable young man, susceptible to the hawkers and hangers-on who tell him what he wants to hear instead of what he needs to hear.” I am friends with Jennings’ alleged “hawkers and hangers-on” who filled his head with ... really good ideas. Even respected Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was unkind, saying “(Jennings is) only doing it because he’s desperate … I’m not even sure he’ll be that wanted in Europe. He’s a thin, little guard, and European basketball is pretty good these days. It’s not like he’s going to go over there and be a star.” One pundit who got it right was ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb. He offered up a Nostradamus-like prediction, circa July 2008: “In the long run, (Brandon) might end up a lower-rated NBA prospect but a better player and more well-rounded, grounded person.” Spot on. Let’s look at the 2009 NBA draft and why Jennings might have slipped to the Milwaukee Bucks, who selected him with the 10th pick. Clarence Gaines, the former Chicago Bulls scout and son of legendary college basketball coach Clarence “Big House” Gaines, is my go-to guy for even-handed basketball analysis. Here’s a sampling of what he said: “Brandon Jennings appears to be the steal of the 2009 NBA draft. The question is why? When you’re in the draft room, it’s a lot different than analyzing it from afar and especially after the NBA season has started. “Brandon’s off to a great start, but it’s still very early in his NBA career. After reading several articles and talking to a lot of people about Jennings, it’s obvious that NBA decision makers did not really understand this kid. He’s tougher, more determined and works harder than many believed. He’s also more talented – he’s a better shooter and a better scorer than scouts thought. “But when it came down to drafting Brandon Jennings, there were some missing pieces in the evaluation process. ESPN’s Chad Ford wrote about poor workouts for teams and red flags on psychological evaluations. A lot of people underestimated Brandon Jennings as a basketball player and as a person. That’s what makes the evaluation process and the NBA draft so fascinating. A GM, not Jerry Krause, once told me that you have to separate basketball character from personal character. I used to confuse the two. The more time you can spend with a player, the better. “We’re looking to uncover information to improve the odds of making the best pick possible. But it will always be huge leap from to go from college or from Europe to the NBA. “Brandon was a high-risk pick. He didn’t put up numbers. There wasn’t much footage. There wasn’t much, if any, real hype. All he was doing was getting better. I wonder how many NBA teams scouted him in Italy. In the future, there’s no doubt NBA teams will devote more resources to scouting players who follow Brandon Jennings’s path.” Drafting players out of college is not easy. Drafting them out of Europe is even more difficult. Earlier this year, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a fascinating piece in the New Yorker on predicting successful NFL quarterbacks based on their college performance. Gladwell’s thesis: ”The problem with picking quarterbacks is that (a college quarterback’s) performance can’t be predicted. The job he’s being groomed for is so particular and specialized that there is no way to know who will succeed at it and who won’t. In fact, (there is) no connection between where a quarterback was taken in the draft – that is, how highly he was rated on the basis of his college performance – and how well he played in the pros.” NBA talent is probably easier to identify than NFL talent, but it’s far from an exact science, as we’ve learned with Jennings and so many players throughout basketball history. In the end, we can debate the failures in the system that led Jennings to being drafted 10th by the Milwaukee Bucks. But, things happen for a reason. And it’s not where Jennings starts. It’s where he finishes. Just ask NBA stars such as Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash, who were drafted 10, 13, 15, respectively. And if money matters (and it should), the NBA is about the second contract, not the first. As fans, we can all enjoy Jennings’s fantastic journey.

To enjoy more Basketball Times, check out www.basketballtimes.com and subscribe!

Posted at 08:18 AM in Euro hoops, NBA, NBA Draft | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 28, 2008

Money Players Links

Money Players is all about being the best resource for the business of being a professional athlete. Here are some links from around the web that we think are must reads for any current or aspiring professional athlete and their families.

  • Sports agent C. Lamont Smith talks to Sports Agent Blog’s Darren Heitner about his new venture, jocklife.com. According to Smith, “Jocklife.com is for athletes of all levels: high school, college, and professional. The whole gist of the Jocklife platform is to bring some balance and fairness to the coverage of athletes…give athletes the opportunity to define themselves. Today, athletes are really defined by the coverage they get and the stories written about them. Very few times do they have the opportunity to define themselves in an extended fashion.”

  • Slam Magazine’s Lang Whitaker interviews NBA agents Lon Babby and Jim Tanner. Tanner and Babby are known in NBA circles for their fee structure (hourly rather than percentage based) that saves their clients a lot of money.  They also are known as the agents that negotiated Josh Childress’ ground breaking deal with Greek professional team Olimpiacos.

  • A nice piece by SI’s Kevin Armstrong on top high school basketball player Jordan Hamilton and his tight knit family. Hamilton’s mother mentions his intentions to sign a National Letter of Intent in the near future. Hopefully, she understands both the positives and the negatives of such a move.

  • According to reports, Stephon Marbury has just spent $45 million to purchase a new private jet. Stephon has made a lot of money throughout his career (approximately $150 million), but this could turn out to be a purchase Steph will regret. Stephon probably has plans to lease the plane out when he is not utilizing it, but Scottie Pippen tried to do the same thing, and that didn’t end well for him. Stephon might want to put down the Bankruptcy Tonic and pick up a copy of .

  • The Wall Street Journal with a report on how budget cuts in college athletic departments could hurt the U.S. in future Olympics.

  • Another article on Baylor hiring the former AAU coach of top recruit John Wall. We first told you about this story in a previous set of Money Players Links.

-Nate Jones

For more in-depth information on the business of being a professional athlete, purchase , written by our own Marc Isenberg.

Posted at 09:36 PM in AAU, Agents, Finances, Links, Money, NBA, NCAA sports, Recruiting, Tonic | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 26, 2008

Money Players Links

Money Players is all about being the best resource for the business of being a professional athlete. Here are some links from around the web that we think are must reads for any current or aspiring professional athlete and their families.

  • Lester Munson with a great tribute to the late Gene Upshaw. Munson gives a very thorough breakdown of how Upshaw fought for and gained free agency rights for NFL players. You have to wonder what benefits NFL players would have today without the work of Gene Upshaw.
     
  • On Ball Don’t Lie, . With more and more professional athletes starting their own blogs, one has to wonder if blogs help or hurt them. Some might say that Gilbert Arenas has both hurt and helped himself a ton with his NBA.com blog.

  • More on Jameer Nelson’s “Building Magic” team building event. We have no idea if this will translate to wins, but this definitely shows that Jameer Nelson is a leader, through and through.

  • According to bankruptcy papers, Michael Vick is losing $12K per month. Michael is going through tough times now, but he’ll have a chance to rebuild his life in the near future. Hopefully he’ll come out and be willing teach young up and coming athletes about the mistakes he has made, so that they won’t make the same mistakes in the future.

  • According to NCAA President, Myles Brand, "NCAA amateurism regulations preclude individuals from receiving cash or the equivalent thereof (e.g. trust fund), as an award for participation in competition at any time, even if such an award is permitted under the rules governing an amateur non-collegiate event in which the individual participates."  The NCAA has dug its heels in on the amateur issue and shows no signs of relenting. Interestingly, the International Olympic Committee, which for many decades insisted that the amateurism was a core belief, dramatically relaxed its amateur rules. In 1974, the word "amateurism" was removed from the Olympic Charter, which eventually paved the way for the participation of athletes who received compensation, either through playing or endorsements. Regulating amateur athletes in a marketplace that places a high value on elite student-athletes is becoming increasingly difficult. The NCAA is in a tough situation. What do you think the NCAA and its membership should do? 

  • Speaking of Brand, the Indianapolis Star gives us a report on Dr. Brand’s NCAA salary.  With an annual salary of $971,000, the NCAA President makes more than every public university president in the country. But he also makes less than ever major sports commissioner in the country. His job has similar requirements to both of those groups, so his salary being in between the two might be right on point.

  • Brand was also in the Huffington Post this past week talking about the topic of pay for play in college sports.  In response, Brian Grummell of AOL’s Fanhouse gives us his take on the topic.  The comments section on Brand’s Huffington piece are also worth taking a close look at.

  • The New York Times investigates if endorsement opportunities disappear for Olympic athletes that are injured before they have a chance to perform.

  • Speaking of the Olympics, CNBC’s Darren Rovell has been doing an excellent job of covering the business side of the Olympics. We highly recommend rummaging through his blog archives over the last couple of weeks to soak up all of the information you can. You can start with this post on the most marketable non-team sport athletes following the Olympics.

  • Check back Thursday for another set of must read Money Players Links.

-Nate Jones

For more in-depth information on the business of being a professional athlete, purchase , written by our own Marc Isenberg.

 

 

Posted at 02:48 PM in Finances, Links, Michael Vick, Money, NBA, NCAA sports, NFL, Weblogs | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 22, 2008

Marc Isenberg Speaks to the Orlando Magic on the Business of Being a Professional Basketball Player

For the past three off-seasons, Jameer Nelson has organized an event that he calls the “Building Magic Week”, where he flies his Orlando Magic teammates into his hometown of Philadelphia for team/camaraderie building sessions. Jameer usually spends his own money to house his teammates in a hotel, pay for their meals, and provide basketball training and conditioning sessions. This year he added a little wrinkle to the “Building Magic” sessions, hiring our own Marc Isenberg to speak to the team about the business of being a Professional Basketball player.  You can read a full write up on this year’s “Building Magic Week” and Marc’s participation at the event on the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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-Nate Jones

Posted at 09:03 AM in Going pro, Isenberg media quotes, Money, NBA | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 18, 2008

Money Players Links

Money Players is all about being the best resource for the business of being a professional athlete. Here are some links from around the web that we think are must reads for any current or aspiring professional athlete and their families.

  • Sean Deveney reports on the National Basketball Players Association's high-growth entrepreneurship program. This summer the program offered NBA players four days of intense business classes and workshops at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, one of the nation's best business schools. This is something that any NBA Player with an interest in investing in or starting a business should get involved in. The gold in the article comes from, program director, Professor Steve Rogers: "Every single athlete is approached with get-rich ideas all the time," Rogers said. "But they don't have the tools to evaluate those ideas. Their focus is basketball. They should be saying no to these deals almost every time. At big venture capital firms, they will get 3,000 business plans per year, and they'll say yes to, maybe, eight of them. Of those eight, not all are going to work out. Sometimes a solid, legitimate business idea just doesn't work. What makes things harder for high-profile people like athletes is that a lot of the people who are offering them these deals are not legitimate. That's where this program is aimed to help."

  • Speaking of athlete’s not being prepared to make sound business investments, Valley Wag composed a list of the worst athlete-backed internet startups of all time.

  • Sam Smith gives us thoughts on the exodus of NBA players to Europe this summer. The comment section of the post is really pretty interesting.

  • The Economist has a great special report on the globalization of sports.

  • A lesson to be learned: Chose your agents and your business managers wisely. These are just accusations at this point, but $500K is a lot of money to lose.

  • An outstanding breakdown by CBS Sportsline’s Gary Parrish on the quid pro quo aspect of college basketball recruiting. I would also recommend reading Parrish’s article on the Elite Camps.

  • Sticking with the theme of Parrish’s article, Baylor hires the AAU coach of top recruit, John Wall, as their player development head.

  • Tom Ziller of Fanhouse looks at the production of the 2004 NBA draft class last season versus the contract extensions they received. Just a hint: The order of salaries isn’t in step with who produces the most.

  • Forbes has a cover story on the most powerful coach in sports: "[Saban] was given total control of the football program: recruiting, coaching, business administration and public relations. There are coaches at other universities who have similar salaries, like Charlie Weis at Notre Dame and Pete Carroll at the University of Southern California. But no coach, including those in the professional leagues, can match Saban's combination of money, control and influence. Saban, now entering his second year as the coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, is the most powerful coach in sports.”

--Nate Jones

For more in-depth information on the business of being a professional athlete, purchase , written by our own Marc Isenberg.

Posted at 08:57 AM in AAU, Agents, Amateurism, Capitalism, Coaching, Fraud, Going pro, High school, Links, Money, NBA, NCAA sports, Recruiting | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

July 09, 2008

The Brandon Jennings Experiment

Those who follow college basketball are split on the implications of star basketball player Brandon Jennings' decision to go off overseas, rather than follow the traditional, established path to the NBA. I have a tough time criticizing someone who decides that college basketball and college are not for him. I think it is premature to judge Brandon, mostly because the public and the media does not know all the factors that went into his decision. Clearly, he is not academically motivated, which for 99.999% of the population is not a good thing, but in Brandon's situation this may turn out to be fine. Hopefully, he is motivated to learn about those things that most directly impact his responsibilities and opportunities as a professional basketball player. The college basketball community and media will be watching to see how the Brandon Jennings Experiment turns out. If he succeeds in Europe, basketball's most likely "one and done" prospects will have a viable option. If Brandon fails he might end up becoming a cautionary tale, although the population of one does is still not a sufficient sample to reach any meaningful conclusion.

Let's look at a sampling of opinions:

ESPN's Doug Gottlieb (subscription required) thinks Brandon is getting in over his head, writing "Jennings is not ready for the culture shock of playing overseas, for the challenge of playing grown men as opposed to over-matched high schoolers, for the huge drop in the NBA draft stock. Yet that might not be enough to deter him from skipping school. And in the long run, he might end up a lower-rated NBA prospect but a better player and more well-rounded, grounded person."
Jason Whitlock "Why risk being the next O.J. Mayo, the USC one-and-done-er done in by sloppy ESPN reporting, a former, opportunistic friend/ex-drug-dealer and antiquated NCAA rules?" Comment: The problem going forward is every top basketball must be prepared to the get the full O.J. Mayo Treatment. If they have any skeletons in their closet or even just some questionable associations, the media and rival fan sites will bury the kid.

Sports agent David Bauman (and an Emory classmate of mine) on how the college basketball might change if Brandon succeeds: "College would be a bunch of nobodies. TV interest would drop and the overall product would suffer."

Comment: College basketball will be fine, even if the top 5 to 7 players bypass college. In fact, I think it might be even better. The focus can turn to those who want to be in college and have the ability, the interest and the motivation to do the academic work.

Several interesting comments from a Washington Post article on the topic:

Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim
"[Jennings is] only doing it because he's desperate. He wants to be a one-and-done player. So he doesn't sit out [a year] some place, he wants to go play. I'm not even sure he'll be that wanted in Europe. He's a thin, little guard, and European basketball is pretty good these days. It's not like he's going to go over there and be a star."

Comment: Sour grapes. Was Syracuse's most famous one-and-done any more academically prepared and motivated than Brandon? From my perspective it is inappropriate for a college coach to comment on a player's academic background, especially since he has no direct connection to him. Also, while I respect Boeheim's coaching ability and also his international experience, since when did he become an expert on European professional basketball?

NCAA president Myles Brand
"Before the rule took effect and we had some young men jump from high school to the pros, we had a successful game and March Madness pulled in millions of dollars. After the rule, we've had some success and March Madness has pulled in millions of dollars. Either way for us is fine. It's up to the young man."

Comment: Agreed! For those who accuse the NCAA of being a monopoly, the argument weakens if players have viable options.

--Marc Isenberg

UPDATE: Sporting News college basketball writer Mike DeCourcy emailed: "Any idea if this David Bauman fellow was living in Singapore or something from 1995-2005, a period during which college basketball missed out on Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James -- and still landed a $6 billion TV contract for its postseason tournament alone?"

Comment: College basketball is a marketing juggernaut. The D-League unquestionably has more talented basketball players, but how many people follow the league? The college basketball consumer is not savvy enough to figure this out, nor do they even care. DeCourcy also writes one of the more well-reasoned articles on the topic. David may not understand the popularity of college basketball, but he certainly understands NBA free agency.

Posted at 07:54 AM in Going pro, NBA, NCAA sports, OJ Mayo, One and done | | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

June 05, 2008

Lakers-Celtics: Looking carefully at the Celts (not so) uniforms

A great tip from my friend Jeff "The Hawkeye" Fellenzer: Did you notice in the montage of photos on the first page, bottom left photo, of the series coverage in this week's Sports Illustrated, that Celtics players in the early '60s apparently wore road jerseys with either "Boston" or "Celtics" on them at the same time? Sanders' jersey says "Boston," Russell's says "Celtics." Typical Russ...his own man. I'd never noticed that before, or remembered it. A uniform that wasn't, well, uniform!

If anyone has a digital image, please email . Thanks.

Great footage from Lakers-Celtics finals past.

Let the games begin. Prediction: Lakers in 7 games. And I'll take 7 overtimes.

 

Posted at 10:55 AM in NBA | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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