The idea that it's impossible to compete as a trans woman (maybe they mean in the rules sense?) in volleyball of all sports is laughable. Just as much, if not more so, than swimming even.
Adidas really seems to be jumping head first into the woke part of the culture war pool (the boobs tweet comes to mind).
Agree, just let this play out. We don't need Filipino Heritage Night every two weeks again like they did in Oracle when the team was in the wilderness just so they can fill the stadium.
Have to enjoy it. You don't blow this up, even if it doesn't net another championship. They've got some really good pieces for the future in Kuminga and Poole to go along with Steph, Draymond and Klay.
No, just not COUNTING on him at this point. I hope he succeeds but his health issues are worrisome. He has the skills, just needs a lot more experience
I think old, over the cap teams actually do win championships quite often, FWIW. The Warriors were the best team in the league until Draymond got hurt. I wouldn't mind seeing them attach all of their picks to Wiggins in the offseason to bring in someone new and open up minutes for Kuminga, but I hope they ride it out with their core three plus these young guys and the Loon God for as long as possible. Warriors fans will probably go the rest of our lives without ever having a player as good as Steph on the team again.
How about a review of the HBO series "Winning Time"? Has the series success had Adam McKay come knocking at your door with a "Winning Machine" sales pitch? At least then he could reconcile with Will Ferrell by casting him as Luke Walton.
Devin Booker is getting an MVP push from his contemporaries ... and it has some undertones of players not respecting the -- how should I say this -- non-AAU guys currently in the top-3 of MVP polling.
You think so? I dunno. NBA players often back the wrong players for MVP; that's nothing new. It's just especially funny in this case since it's fairly obvious Chris Paul is better & more valuable than his teammate Devin Booker.
What are your thoughts on how comfortable people are displaying (through flags, shirts, etc) overtly crude (cursing or the “let’s go Brandon”) words / phrases and being cheered on by Republican politicians and the right wing media? I’m far from a pearl clutching person, but I’m it seems like at best a shame and at worst a sign of some moral line our society is now very comfortable crossing. The stuff is just all over when I get more than 20 minutes away from home.
Others and you highlight the NBA's TV ratings issue. A deep dive into what is neccessary to correct the ratings are of great interest. Everyone is quick to diagnose an issue but few willing to provide "well researched", bold opinions/theories. There is truly a market inefficiency in this area when talking about the NBA.
Ban load management and stars sitting out with mysterious ailments, like Ben Simmon's alleged "bad" back. The top three scoring leaders have all missed 13 or more games and if you expand it to the top 21, way over half have missed ten or more. No wonder ratings are down when you turn on the game only to find out your favorite star isn't playing.
If we had more guys like Michael Jordan who came back from a broken foot in '86 instead of sitting out the remainder of the season like guys would today, ratings would shoot up.
Mayor Eric Adams "following the science" and giving vaccine exemptions to athletes who are paid millions of dollars while teachers, sanitation workers, police officers, nurses and other "heroes" from early on were fired for not complying with idiotic mandates. I'm glad Kyrie can play. The rule made no sense. But this needs to be fixed for everyone, not just the rich and powerful. (Yeah, I'm unvaccinated. You guessed it. Still have my job, but can't go to my office thanks to similarly asinine corporate rules).
Maybe this ground has been covered sufficiently by others already, but the length of the NBA season combined with load management seems like a huge crisis and I'm surprised that there isn't more discussion about it. I don't have any data to back this up, but I think one of the biggest contributors to the decline in NBA ratings is that nobody cares about the regular season anymore. Think about how many people can afford to attend only a game or two every year, and purchase tickets in advance because they want to see their home team, say the Pacers, play the Warriors and Steph, the Lakers and Lebron, the Sixers and Embiid, etc. Maybe your daughter's favorite player is Devin Booker and so you buy Suns tickets. There is a pretty high chance that the player you paid money to see is going to be out, whether he is truly injured or just resting to prevent injury. This is seems like a patently ridiculous situation that we've just gotten used to in the years since the Spurs started doing it.
I like the proposal I heard Nate Duncan make:
- Have a 58-game regular season.
- Every team plays every other team twice.
- Have two games per week, mostly on the same pair of nights so that fans have appointment viewing like in the NFL.
Teams could actually practice and game plan for specific opponents. Players would have enough time to rest that they don't need to skip games for load management. You might get something approaching playoff-level intensity in regular season games. The lower number of games would increase the stakes for the remaining 58 games.
A few other thoughts on this:
ND also speculated the Kawhi will never play a back to back again. Lots of other players routinely sit out one game in a back to back. I don't blame them for wanting to stay healthy for the playoff, elongate their careers, and avoid injury. But doesn't the sport seem broken if the best players routinely _don't play_?
After Kyrie had a bunch of huge games before the vaccine mandate was lifted, Bill Simmons speculated that he was playing so much better than everyone else not only because he is Kyrie and amazing, but also because he was well rested. I thought that was interesting.
I don't expect the NBA to actually do this because everyone is still making a lot of money right now, but I like to dream of a regular season in which the best players always play, everyone is going all out to win, the teams have opponent-specific game plans that they've implemented in practice, and I can buy tickets to a game being reasonably confident that the stars will be there to watch. :)
To clarify, I know a lot of people talk about the regular season being too long and speculate that the too-long regular season and resulting lack of intensity, load management, etc. contribute to the decline of interest in the NBA. I'm just surprised there isn't even more urgency or discussion given how ridiculous it has become. The Warriors essentially throw several games every year just to rest all of their vets at the same time. And I think that's the right thing for them to do! But that sitting healthy players is considered normal just seems bonkers to me.
with tensions bubbling between athletes and fans, it seems obvious we're headed for a flare up. since malice in palace, the NBA is obviously sensitive about physical altercations, so i'm curious how worried those around the NBA are right now in regards to the collision course we're on between "sensitive" athletes that now view themselves as a sort-of "protected class" and don't feel they should have to put up with any "harassment" at their place of work....with a small but loud number of fans from a general society hell bent on going viral and lacking respect/decency for those they view as "deserving"
i mean, resolving what constitutes harassment, and what 'rights' fans have and what 'rights' players have is MESSY as it is, but it's gonna be a disaster for the league with our political climate and an NBA media that is uninterested and/or unable (?) to have an honest conversation about everything and everyone involved.
People that don’t work with computers like to use the word ‘iteration’ because it makes them sound like a smart person who understands technology. As someone who actually works with computer languages, it pisses me off that sports media members are using words from the tech space to make themselves sound smarter.
Using sports metaphors is a tool to make something sound more relatable. Using computer programming terminology when describing sports things is making something more complicated than it needs to. In my opinion, to an unacceptable degree. People that talk about sports for a living need to be OK with the fact that they’re doing something kinda dumb and dressing up their work with words like ‘iteration’ makes them less likeable to me. It’s disrespectful to the computer programmers that people like Mina Kimes can’t stop saying ‘iteration’.
So not sure if you saw this Ethan but I just found this hilarious and thought you and the other readers would appreciate. Lebron’s picture has never been included in a loss tweet by the Lakers twitter account. Do we think this is contractual or just an unspoken agreement?
The situation with regional sports networks and league pass / streaming is ridiculous. I live in Louisville and with league pass on YouTube tv I cannot watch the grizzlies, pacers, or cavs. I read that most people in Denver cannot watch the nuggets (!). Maybe this affects only niche hard core fans but I wonder if it will be addressed in the next tv deal.
The LaMelo Ball AT&T commercial with his dad is my favorite commercial throughout March Madness. Also, these March Madness broadcasts are much better than their NBA counterparts. CBS and TBS use great color commentators and play-by-play guys. They don’t just pick an ex-player to be the color guy. Yes, they have Grant Hill but he doesn’t talk too much like Reggie Miller or sound robotic like Chris Webber used to. Marc Jackson is also not great. Ex-players need to stick to coaching and let real professionals do the TV work.
Ash Barty would've been a good fit within the Zoomer Athlete article...thoughts on similarities/differences between her and Osaka? Seems like she is more self-assured and controlling what she can by retiring, whereas Osaka wants the world to change around her.
Write a post on Enes Kanter "Freedom" in fact he would be a great podcast guest too. NBA brass sure caught up with him. Could be a good comparison piece to see what other players got run out the league too, ( aka - Mahmoud Abdul Rauf) for beliefs out of step with what the NBA found acceptable
Yo, Mark Cuban needs to chill out on the plastic surgery. He looks like a reptile. When he talks, he curses too much and in a way that strikes me as inauthentic. He has a big mess with his basketball team. Over the past two years Mark Cuban has gone from someone I don’t feel strongly about to someone who I think is a total douchebag.
Ethan- would love your take, as someone who learned to love the A’s after your ESPN exodus, on their long term search for a stadium, as well as the impact of different ownerships crying poor and playing victim for the last 25 years on the psyche of the fanbase (who seem to do the same when pressed).
What's your take on Lia Thomas and trans athlete competition?
Talked a bit about it on the last Callin. Thinking of doing a post.
To add to this one... I'd be interested to hear Ethan's take on this Adidas commercial (similar to his thoughts on Nike ads):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fujboh-W7Sk
The idea that it's impossible to compete as a trans woman (maybe they mean in the rules sense?) in volleyball of all sports is laughable. Just as much, if not more so, than swimming even.
Adidas really seems to be jumping head first into the woke part of the culture war pool (the boobs tweet comes to mind).
Hot take- it is time to blow up the warriors. Old teams that are way over the cap don’t win championships. Discuss
Hotter Take: stop and smell the roses. It may never be this good again- signed- someone who lived through decades of wilderness.
Agree, just let this play out. We don't need Filipino Heritage Night every two weeks again like they did in Oracle when the team was in the wilderness just so they can fill the stadium.
Have to enjoy it. You don't blow this up, even if it doesn't net another championship. They've got some really good pieces for the future in Kuminga and Poole to go along with Steph, Draymond and Klay.
Completely out on Wiseman having any potential?
No, just not COUNTING on him at this point. I hope he succeeds but his health issues are worrisome. He has the skills, just needs a lot more experience
I think old, over the cap teams actually do win championships quite often, FWIW. The Warriors were the best team in the league until Draymond got hurt. I wouldn't mind seeing them attach all of their picks to Wiggins in the offseason to bring in someone new and open up minutes for Kuminga, but I hope they ride it out with their core three plus these young guys and the Loon God for as long as possible. Warriors fans will probably go the rest of our lives without ever having a player as good as Steph on the team again.
These people don’t know how good they have it. Spoiled by success. I’m going to enjoy the hell out of these next 3 years
How about a review of the HBO series "Winning Time"? Has the series success had Adam McKay come knocking at your door with a "Winning Machine" sales pitch? At least then he could reconcile with Will Ferrell by casting him as Luke Walton.
I’m really starting to hate it.
Does the Jalen Rose high school not get more attention because of blue check discomfort with charter schools.
I don't have a strong view, but it seems like it's worth giving it a shot based on how poorly public schools perform in poor, minority neighbourhoods.
Devin Booker is getting an MVP push from his contemporaries ... and it has some undertones of players not respecting the -- how should I say this -- non-AAU guys currently in the top-3 of MVP polling.
You think so? I dunno. NBA players often back the wrong players for MVP; that's nothing new. It's just especially funny in this case since it's fairly obvious Chris Paul is better & more valuable than his teammate Devin Booker.
What are your thoughts on how comfortable people are displaying (through flags, shirts, etc) overtly crude (cursing or the “let’s go Brandon”) words / phrases and being cheered on by Republican politicians and the right wing media? I’m far from a pearl clutching person, but I’m it seems like at best a shame and at worst a sign of some moral line our society is now very comfortable crossing. The stuff is just all over when I get more than 20 minutes away from home.
Were you in a coma from 2016 - 2020?
Dismiss it as silliness regardless of whether you agree with it or not. We’re not a serious people.
Others and you highlight the NBA's TV ratings issue. A deep dive into what is neccessary to correct the ratings are of great interest. Everyone is quick to diagnose an issue but few willing to provide "well researched", bold opinions/theories. There is truly a market inefficiency in this area when talking about the NBA.
Ban load management and stars sitting out with mysterious ailments, like Ben Simmon's alleged "bad" back. The top three scoring leaders have all missed 13 or more games and if you expand it to the top 21, way over half have missed ten or more. No wonder ratings are down when you turn on the game only to find out your favorite star isn't playing.
If we had more guys like Michael Jordan who came back from a broken foot in '86 instead of sitting out the remainder of the season like guys would today, ratings would shoot up.
Source: https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2022_per_game.html#per_game_stats::pts_per_g
I agree with you in general but FWIW Simmons back injury looks legit. He had to get an epidural.
Mayor Eric Adams "following the science" and giving vaccine exemptions to athletes who are paid millions of dollars while teachers, sanitation workers, police officers, nurses and other "heroes" from early on were fired for not complying with idiotic mandates. I'm glad Kyrie can play. The rule made no sense. But this needs to be fixed for everyone, not just the rich and powerful. (Yeah, I'm unvaccinated. You guessed it. Still have my job, but can't go to my office thanks to similarly asinine corporate rules).
Just finished listening to Basketball Illuminati, what do I have do around here to get Radio Ethan onto this feed.
Maybe this ground has been covered sufficiently by others already, but the length of the NBA season combined with load management seems like a huge crisis and I'm surprised that there isn't more discussion about it. I don't have any data to back this up, but I think one of the biggest contributors to the decline in NBA ratings is that nobody cares about the regular season anymore. Think about how many people can afford to attend only a game or two every year, and purchase tickets in advance because they want to see their home team, say the Pacers, play the Warriors and Steph, the Lakers and Lebron, the Sixers and Embiid, etc. Maybe your daughter's favorite player is Devin Booker and so you buy Suns tickets. There is a pretty high chance that the player you paid money to see is going to be out, whether he is truly injured or just resting to prevent injury. This is seems like a patently ridiculous situation that we've just gotten used to in the years since the Spurs started doing it.
I like the proposal I heard Nate Duncan make:
- Have a 58-game regular season.
- Every team plays every other team twice.
- Have two games per week, mostly on the same pair of nights so that fans have appointment viewing like in the NFL.
Teams could actually practice and game plan for specific opponents. Players would have enough time to rest that they don't need to skip games for load management. You might get something approaching playoff-level intensity in regular season games. The lower number of games would increase the stakes for the remaining 58 games.
A few other thoughts on this:
ND also speculated the Kawhi will never play a back to back again. Lots of other players routinely sit out one game in a back to back. I don't blame them for wanting to stay healthy for the playoff, elongate their careers, and avoid injury. But doesn't the sport seem broken if the best players routinely _don't play_?
After Kyrie had a bunch of huge games before the vaccine mandate was lifted, Bill Simmons speculated that he was playing so much better than everyone else not only because he is Kyrie and amazing, but also because he was well rested. I thought that was interesting.
I don't expect the NBA to actually do this because everyone is still making a lot of money right now, but I like to dream of a regular season in which the best players always play, everyone is going all out to win, the teams have opponent-specific game plans that they've implemented in practice, and I can buy tickets to a game being reasonably confident that the stars will be there to watch. :)
To clarify, I know a lot of people talk about the regular season being too long and speculate that the too-long regular season and resulting lack of intensity, load management, etc. contribute to the decline of interest in the NBA. I'm just surprised there isn't even more urgency or discussion given how ridiculous it has become. The Warriors essentially throw several games every year just to rest all of their vets at the same time. And I think that's the right thing for them to do! But that sitting healthy players is considered normal just seems bonkers to me.
with tensions bubbling between athletes and fans, it seems obvious we're headed for a flare up. since malice in palace, the NBA is obviously sensitive about physical altercations, so i'm curious how worried those around the NBA are right now in regards to the collision course we're on between "sensitive" athletes that now view themselves as a sort-of "protected class" and don't feel they should have to put up with any "harassment" at their place of work....with a small but loud number of fans from a general society hell bent on going viral and lacking respect/decency for those they view as "deserving"
i mean, resolving what constitutes harassment, and what 'rights' fans have and what 'rights' players have is MESSY as it is, but it's gonna be a disaster for the league with our political climate and an NBA media that is uninterested and/or unable (?) to have an honest conversation about everything and everyone involved.
Does the Jalen Rose high school not get more attention because of blue check discomfort with charter schools.
I don't have a strong view, but it seems like it's worth giving it a shot based on how poorly public schools perform in poor, minority neighbourhoods.
I think part of the reason jalen and lebrons charter schools don’t get more attention is bc they’re still pretty low achieving schools.
LeBron's school is actually a public school. But you are right, it is facing challenges. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/documentary-reveals-challenges-inside-lebron-james-school-for-vulnerable-students/2021/09
Would like a deep dive on the origins of coaching basketball outside the united states.
People that don’t work with computers like to use the word ‘iteration’ because it makes them sound like a smart person who understands technology. As someone who actually works with computer languages, it pisses me off that sports media members are using words from the tech space to make themselves sound smarter.
Seems only fair given how much the rest of us use sports metaphors
Using sports metaphors is a tool to make something sound more relatable. Using computer programming terminology when describing sports things is making something more complicated than it needs to. In my opinion, to an unacceptable degree. People that talk about sports for a living need to be OK with the fact that they’re doing something kinda dumb and dressing up their work with words like ‘iteration’ makes them less likeable to me. It’s disrespectful to the computer programmers that people like Mina Kimes can’t stop saying ‘iteration’.
Michael Jordan, David Stern, Hornets ownership. And what Silver will do to get LeBron a team in Vegas.
So not sure if you saw this Ethan but I just found this hilarious and thought you and the other readers would appreciate. Lebron’s picture has never been included in a loss tweet by the Lakers twitter account. Do we think this is contractual or just an unspoken agreement?
https://twitter.com/kot4q/status/1508267758831779849?s=21&t=JtVqu6YR5AfqjEHAQ18yjQ
The situation with regional sports networks and league pass / streaming is ridiculous. I live in Louisville and with league pass on YouTube tv I cannot watch the grizzlies, pacers, or cavs. I read that most people in Denver cannot watch the nuggets (!). Maybe this affects only niche hard core fans but I wonder if it will be addressed in the next tv deal.
The LaMelo Ball AT&T commercial with his dad is my favorite commercial throughout March Madness. Also, these March Madness broadcasts are much better than their NBA counterparts. CBS and TBS use great color commentators and play-by-play guys. They don’t just pick an ex-player to be the color guy. Yes, they have Grant Hill but he doesn’t talk too much like Reggie Miller or sound robotic like Chris Webber used to. Marc Jackson is also not great. Ex-players need to stick to coaching and let real professionals do the TV work.
Ash Barty would've been a good fit within the Zoomer Athlete article...thoughts on similarities/differences between her and Osaka? Seems like she is more self-assured and controlling what she can by retiring, whereas Osaka wants the world to change around her.
Write a post on Enes Kanter "Freedom" in fact he would be a great podcast guest too. NBA brass sure caught up with him. Could be a good comparison piece to see what other players got run out the league too, ( aka - Mahmoud Abdul Rauf) for beliefs out of step with what the NBA found acceptable
Yo, Mark Cuban needs to chill out on the plastic surgery. He looks like a reptile. When he talks, he curses too much and in a way that strikes me as inauthentic. He has a big mess with his basketball team. Over the past two years Mark Cuban has gone from someone I don’t feel strongly about to someone who I think is a total douchebag.
Ethan- would love your take, as someone who learned to love the A’s after your ESPN exodus, on their long term search for a stadium, as well as the impact of different ownerships crying poor and playing victim for the last 25 years on the psyche of the fanbase (who seem to do the same when pressed).
Honestly, I’m disappointed by the A’s situation but there’s something about it that also bores me. Just a lack of ambition all around.
It’s SAD. I’m out honestly, especially since I moved away a few years ago