February 2012
1 post
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Jay-Z and The Nets and NBA Economics
David Stern would have you believe the Brooklyn-bound franchise embodies everything wrong with the league’s finances. It’s not true.
By Malcolm Gladwell originally published on September 26, 2011 For Grantland
Ten years ago, a New York real estate developer named Bruce Ratner fell in love with a building site at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in Brooklyn. It was 22...
January 2012
1 post
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December 2011
9 posts
6 tags
Concussions in Sports
Twenty-one former players sue NFL
AP -Nearly two dozen former NFL players are suing the league over severe and permanent brain damage they say is linked to concussions suffered on the job.
The complaint filed Thursday in Miami follows a similar one in Atlanta earlier this week. It is the latest in a series of recent lawsuits against the NFL by ex-players.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of...
5 tags
Racism 101: Criminal Charges Considered After...
By David Zirin
In twenty-five years of playing organized and disorganized basketball, I probably was involved in a dozen fights on the court. Call it a natural side effect of playing under the hoop, banging bodies, taking (or giving) a stray elbow and then having tempers flare. In none of those dust-ups did I ever face felony charges, mandatory jail sentences, and the prospect of a ruined life...
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Saluting a Sick System: Sports Illustrated Honors...
By Dave Zirin
In a decision that speaks to the worst impulses of a proud magazine, Sports Illustrated has chosen the two active legends of College Basketball coaching, Mike Krzyzewski and Pat Summitt, as their Sportspersons of the Year. It’s impossible to quibble with the choice of Tennessee’s Summitt, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA hoops history, after 38 seasons and eight championships...
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Steroids: Where's the Juice? Apparently Still in...
Some, alleged users, are guilty in the court of public opinion while others are considered hard working competitors, good ‘ol boys and eventually forgiven. With the news that broke this weekend about the current national league MVP, Milwaukee Brewer’s outfielder, Ryan Braun testing positive for performance enhancing drugs, It’ll be interesting to see how he will be received by...
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Joe Paterno had business ties with the charity...
Former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno had business ties with board members of The Second Mile, the charity founded by alleged child molester and former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, The Daily is reporting.
The Daily reported Monday that Paterno and three fellow investors, including longtime Second Mile board chairman Robert Poole, secured financing to build a $125...
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TOP 100 NBA Nicknames
Allen ”The Answer” Iverson
1: Bryant “Big Country” Reeves
2: “Pistol” Pete Maravich
3: Julius “Dr. J” Erving
4: Earvin “Magic” Johnson
5: Shaquille “The Diesel” O’Neal
6: Karl “The Mailman” Malone
7: George “The Iceman” Gervin
8: Darryl “Chocolate Thunder” Dawkins
9:...
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The NBA Labor Dispute: Decoded
NBA player’s union representative Derek Fisher addresses the media
Written by Chris Wilder, Special to InsideAthletics.com - Thursday December 1, 2011
The National Basketball Association’s labor lockout ended over the Thanksgiving weekend after the player’s union de-certified and sued the owners in a series of lawsuits in several states. This dispute was essentially a battle between...
November 2011
11 posts
8 tags
It Wasn't (Just) About the Money: Lockouts never...
By Charles P. Pierce POSTED NOVEMBER 28, 2011
And so, on the day after Thanksgiving, when most of America was coming out of a tryptophan-and-Tony Romo-induced coma, and when hardly anyone at all was looking, they came up with a deal. There will be a 2012 NBA season, after all — a perfectly logical 66-game package beginning with a Christmas Day multimedia extravaganza that will be what ancient...
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Syracuse Basketball Coach Bernie Fine Fired Amid...
Head coach Jim Boeheim seated to the right and Bernie Fine center : photo SI
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Bernie Fine was fired Sunday by Syracuse University after a 10-year-old voice recording of his wife emerged in which she acknowledges alleged sexual abuse and a third man accused the assistant basketball coach of molesting him nine years ago.
“At the direction of Chancellor Cantor,...
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The World Joe Paterno Made
Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. (AP Photo/Daniel Shanken)
by Dave Zirin on November 14, 2011 - 1:03pm ET
Meet John Matko. John Matko is a 34-year-old Penn State class of 2000 alumnus, distraught by the recent revelations that Coach Joe Paterno and those in charge at his alma mater allegedly shielded a serial child rapist, assistant Jerry Sandusky. He was livid that students chose to...
12 tags
NBA Players: Welcome to the 99 Percent
By Dave Zirin
If I were an NBA player, I’d be mighty confused right now. I wouldn’t be confused about why the entire 2011–12 season is now in jeopardy. I wouldn’t be confused about rejecting the ultimatums and “last, final offers” of NBA Commissioner David Stern. Instead, I’d be confused as hell by the media’s reaction to my union’s collective and unanimous stand.
The 21st century...
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The NBA Should Shut Down the Losers
The NBA isn’t losing money; the Bucks, Kings, Timberwolves and Hawks are. The NBA should shut these teams down instead of trying to blame the players for the League’s overall money woes.
The NBA was doing just fine when there were 23 teams. They have let new billionaire owners in and now they are trying to make sure these guys make money at the expense of the players. But, if you don’t...
Why a Joe Frazier Statue Should Replace Rocky
Originally published on Wednesday, November 09, 2011, 6:24 am
By: Chris Wilder, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com
Joe Frazier, the son of a South Carolina sharecropper who won Olympic gold and beat an undefeated Muhammad Ali to become one of the all-time heavyweight greats, died of liver cancer on Monday. He was 67. With him being widely recognized as the greatest fighter ever to come out of...
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Disqualify the Penn State football program for the...
Soon after Coach Joe Paterno of Penn State notched his 409th career victory and passed former Grambling University head Coach Eddie Robinson, as the winningest football coach in major college history, accusations of a child sexual abuse against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky began to rock State College to its core.
A football program, led by Coach Paterno for over 45...
“Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it...”
– Joe Paterno
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Black Coaches
Photo: Mike Tomlin Superbowl winning coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers
How soon we forget. For years, we heard little subtle attempts at justifying why we don’t have more black coaches in the NFL. You may be aware of some of them. “He’s a players coach”. Translation, he is too close to the players and can’t manage or control them. Or the other one, “He is not a good X’s and O’s guy”....
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Still Wanna Be Like Mike?
Photo: Michael Jordan shown celebrating during his days as a Chicago Bulls player
For a brief moment, I wondered if speaking out against injustice should be part of an athletes responsibility? I couldn’t help but think back to the days of Michael Jordan. Not because I long to relive his dominance on the court, which was often times at the expense of the NY Knicks and other eastern conference...