-Spread a bit thin lately. Graduating early, working the PBT job, and putting my heart and soul into my twice-weekly crosstalks with Rob Mahoney, which are some of the best things I’ve ever done. Mahoney is a special talent, a friend, and a joy to work with. Here’s our last one. (Sorry, it’s about the Heat.) The next one goes up at approximately 12 PM (EST) tomorrow.
-Dampier on the Heat would just be unfair. Man oh man, that team would be scary with a true center.
-Brockman Burger. Jeremy Schmidt is skinny as a rail, and I can assure you he’s eaten this. I witnessed his gastric habits in Vegas; the man is a freak of nature.
=Memphis finally signed their rookies. Good for them.
John, I respectfully disagree that the Heat are good for basketball. In fact, they are the biggest threat to the NBA’s existence as we know it. It sets a dangerous precedent for small and mid-market teams when the players begin to join forces like this. What it is possibly setting up (and if he Melo or CP3 rumors to Orlando or NY come to fruition) are 3-5 mega teams and then 25-27 also rans with no chance of competing. For years.
Sure, the Heat will garner wonderful ratings this year. Everyone outside southern Miami wants to see them fail. But what happens if they win this year? And next year? And the year after that? People are going to start tuning out because the game just isn’t fun anymore. In this new NBA, what does a Pacers fan have really to look forward to? What about a Cavs fan, or a Bucks fan? Rooting for a solid but unspectacular team that will be first round fodder? The NFL succeeds because of parity, and because every team feels they have a shot (even the Browns). In fact, the NFL completely changed their CBA in response to a number of dynasties in the early 90′s that threatened to take over the game (specifically the 49ers and the Cowboys).
If you like the NBA, this is not great for the league.
December 16th, huh?
Erick Dampier is, and always will be, terrible. Don’t really see how upgrading from truly awful to terrible helps Miami… not that they’d be in trouble either way. You could put my dog at center and they’d still finish first in the East.
I agree with jim on this one. One only has to point to the demise of baseball attendance and popularity over the last decade or so as “America’s Past-time”. It’s just not all that compelling when you know going in that the Globetrotters are going to beat the Generals…especially in the regular season.
The regular season will be a joke other than when the really good teams play (“Yanks/Sox” – MLB again anyone?). And the only thing the average Joe will turn into will be the post-season. I will still happily tune in to every Cavs game as I always have since I’m a life-long fan, but my optimism will be about the same as it would be watching the Indians…
There will always be the fans who just enjoy basketball and love their team, but a lack of any suspense is a *very* bad thing in competitive sports.
I disagree with Jim on this one, for one reason: salary cap.
Does the existence of the salary cap mean that ‘super teams’ can’t really happen? Apparently not. But it does mean that:
1. Players will have to accept pay cuts to be a part of a ‘super team,’ which makes them an unstable long-term proposition.
2. A ‘super team’ can happen anywhere, not just in a big market. Miami is not a big basketball market. Orlando (one of Jim’s other possible ‘super teams’) is not a big market for anything. If LeBron had played his cards differently, Cleveland could be the home of the burgeoning ‘super team’ right now.
I don’t think Dwight Howard is losing any sleep over Dampier.