I know we have a pels board but (2018/19 edition) (1 Viewer)

The players really do run that league it seems. Not an NBA fan so don't follow it that close. I am a City of NO fan and really wish the Pel's FO would get it together.

I'm not sure 'run the league' is quite on the mark, but they do moreso than the NFL. That player presence is part of the reason, though, that the NBA has been surging in popularity. There are people who don't like that player-centric dynamic that exists in the NBA (esp relative to other sports), but there are a heckuva lot of people who do.

e.g. A Game and Its Culture: Why the NBA has Thrived While the NFL has Declined

Today’s NBA is a professional-sports league on the rise. Its ratings on TNT are up 20 percent from last year. Its ratings on NBATV, the league’s cable channel, are up 20 percent. ESPN and ABC’s NBA ratings are up as well, and 17 out of 30 teams have seen improvements in their local markets. Taken in isolation, these numbers are impressive. Viewed in context, they’re breathtaking.
Yet the NBA rolls on. How? It’s a league that’s political, but it’s not defined by politics. Its stars can be controversial, but they’re not defined by controversy. It’s a league that’s learned to put the main thing — the game — front and center while respecting its players’ convictions and individuality.

Second, the NBA not only has learned how to celebrate its players and respect their autonomy, it’s blessed with a generation of young stars who use that freedom to live publicly as family men, with stars such as Curry and James showcasing their domestic life on social media.

Critically, a league that respects its players earns respect in turn. It prohibits kneeling without controversy in part because the players don’t feel stifled. The NBA encourages them to develop their immense public platforms. Last September, James declared, “My voice is stronger than my knee” — a sentiment that, for him, is surely true, and a sentiment that the NFL would do well to understand.
 
I'm not sure 'run the league' is quite on the mark, but they do moreso than the NFL. That player presence is part of the reason, though, that the NBA has been surging in popularity. There are people who don't like that player-centric dynamic that exists in the NBA (esp relative to other sports), but there are a heckuva lot of people who do.

e.g. A Game and Its Culture: Why the NBA has Thrived While the NFL has Declined
yeah, trade of is NBA players make themselves available all of the time
they actively engage in league outreach as partners
 
I'm not sure 'run the league' is quite on the mark, but they do moreso than the NFL. That player presence is part of the reason, though, that the NBA has been surging in popularity. There are people who don't like that player-centric dynamic that exists in the NBA (esp relative to other sports), but there are a heckuva lot of people who do.

e.g. A Game and Its Culture: Why the NBA has Thrived While the NFL has Declined

My 15 year old cousin simply doesn't get football, or team sports really. But he really enjoys the NBA. Now I understand basketball is a team sport, but to him, you might as well be invisible if your name isn't Lebron or Dennis Rodman. He's obsessed with individual stars and personalities and the NBA presentation facilitates that.

Unfortunately, this approach has prohibited him from seeing the good in sport for its own sake. Playing school football or basketball was only ever an avenue for him to develop his own individual stardom and dominance. Of course it's part of most young boys' experience to dream of winning the game for your team. But somewhere along the line, those of us who are athletically average find value and enjoyment in the virtues of team sport and it's ability to mimic other aspects of life. For my cousin, this meant he quit sports altogether when he realized he wasn't going to be Jimmy Graham or Lebron James.

I asked him this past week what he thought of the AD situation. He said he was happy about it because AD deserves to win. From his perspective, the team serves the purpose of facilitating the success of the individual and the Pelicans can't do that for AD. As long as there's a core of fans who feel this way, the small market teams will be on the losing end of things. Thank goodness the NFL isn't stuck in that particular rut.
 
Last edited:
My 15 year old cousin simply doesn't get football, or team sports really. But he really enjoys the NBA. Now I understand basketball is a team sport, but to him, you might as well be invisible if your name isn't Lebron or Dennis Rodman. He's obsessed with individual stars and personalities and the NBA presentation facilitates that.

Unfortunately, this approach has prohibited him from seeing the good in sport for its own sake. Playing school football or basketball was only ever an avenue for him to develop his own individual stardom and dominance. Now I understand it's part of most young boys' experience to dream of winning the game for your team. But somewhere along the line, those of us who are athletically average find value and enjoyment in the virtues of team sport and it's ability to mimic other aspects of life. For my cousin, this meant he quit sports altogether when he realized he wasn't going to be Jimmy Graham or Lebron James.

I asked him this past week what he thought of the AD situation. He said he was happy about it because AD deserves to win. From his perspective, the team serves the purpose of facilitating the success of the individual and the Pelicans can't do that for AD. As long as there's a core of fans who feel this way, the small market teams will be on the losing end of things. Thank goodness the NFL isn't stuck in that particular rut.
but maybe this is the perspective of a longtime saints fan
we put value in many things other than winning, because...well....

but i bet player first is the natural order of things. I was a Reds fan b/c i loved Pete Rose. when he went to the Phillies so did i
I would imagine little kids on Rome weren't necessarily fans of the gladiatorial arts, bu they could give you all of Maximus's stats from his slave days on
 
but maybe this is the perspective of a longtime saints fan
we put value in many things other than winning, because...well....

but i bet player first is the natural order of things. I was a Reds fan b/c i loved Pete Rose. when he went to the Phillies so did i
I would imagine little kids on Rome weren't necessarily fans of the gladiatorial arts, bu they could give you all of Maximus's stats from his slave days on

I liked Jose Conseco when I was a kid. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with having heroes. Also, I was pretty good in little league, so it's not like I just got used to losing and was forced to finding some moral victory. I'm just observing that when taken to the extreme, the sport itself loses its purpose. So my cousin wanted nothing to do with playing if he couldn't be the star. It also made him uncoachable.

It's about balance and perspective, and I think the NBA is lacking in that area. It's hard for me to connect to the league. As a fan, I latch onto team and regional identities rather than players. The NBA is so heavily weighted to the latter that it's hard for me to be interested.
 
Unfortunately, this approach has prohibited him from seeing the good in sport for its own sake. Playing school football or basketball was only ever an avenue for him to develop his own individual stardom and dominance. Of course it's part of most young boys' experience to dream of winning the game for your team. But somewhere along the line, those of us who are athletically average find value and enjoyment in the virtues of team sport and it's ability to mimic other aspects of life. For my cousin, this meant he quit sports altogether when he realized he wasn't going to be Jimmy Graham or Lebron James.

I've coached high school basketball for years. The vast majority of players I've coached and we've played against are definitely aware of the fact that they are not going pro. And that they are not going to play Div-1 in the US. And even those that are that athletically gifted were mostly team-first guys.

Part of that is our program, and the kids that sign up to play 40-50 games a year all over the province.

But part of it is the nature of most kids in my general experience when it comes to team sports.

All of these guys watch the NBA and talk about individual players, but what's interesting is that the guys who really enjoy basketball and follow teams do so with a knowledge of peripheral and role players who make their teams better, by feeding into a team-first mentality.

So I firmly believe, based on my experience anyway, that most of our kids "find value and enjoyment in the virtues of team sport" and the life lessons it can teach by extension.

Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area has become a hotbed of talent. The number of NCAA coaches we see in gyms has exponentially increased in the past 5 years. The 2019 draft could feature 10 to 12 Canadians.

We have had kids from our school 'graduate' to top US prep programs, like Oak Hill. Last year, I watched 9 kids in the NCAA tournament that I'd coached against. And when we played most of them and talked with their coaches, these kids - while certainly possessing egos (you have to) - there was team basketball being played around them.

I think team-first basketball is still the prevailing attitude toward the sport - I don't think the NBA could actually function without peripheral/role players not understanding what their job is to do on the floor and if they don't do it, how they might be replaced. There are huge luminaries for whom these rules don't apply, obviously, and their stars blaze brightly. But for the vast majority, I think they get it.

And talking with a few players who have aspirations of NBA or even pro ball in Europe - having an outside to slightly less than outside possible shot - they have been keenly aware about checking their ego and the nature of disposibility for a lot of talent on NBA rosters.
 
I liked Jose Conseco when I was a kid. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with having heroes. Also, I was pretty good in little league, so it's not like I just got used to losing and was forced to finding some moral victory. I'm just observing that when taken to the extreme, the sport itself loses its purpose. So my cousin wanted nothing to do with playing if he couldn't be the star. It also made him uncoachable.

It's about balance and perspective, and I think the NBA is lacking in that area. It's hard for me to connect to the league. As a fan, I latch onto team and regional identities rather than players. The NBA is so heavily weighted to the latter that it's hard for me to be interested.
fwiw, my wife is saying the same thing about "ensembles" vs "lead roles"
'kids these days just want to be stars, they don't appreciate the value of the cast'

i just think that's what old people do:p
imma go tell her that brb
 
I should also add that it does suck... and that's not lost on me.

New Orleans is losing AD.

Toronto is going to lose Kawhi.

Two generational players gone from the two teams I root most for, because they can't compete with the other, flashier markets.
 
fwiw, my wife is saying the same thing about "ensembles" vs "lead roles"
'kids these days just want to be stars, they don't appreciate the value of the cast'

i just think that's what old people do:p
imma go tell her that brb

RIP GMR
 
Well, in the good side, we got the “L”.
Yeah... it's a shame that it benefits the Pels for the season to crash the rest of the way. That's usually not a good business plan. But from this point forward it's really all about the future anyway.
 
From my favorite source, The Onion

(Link NSFW language) https://sports.theonion.com/adam-silver-sends-league-wide-memo-just-asking-players-1832465757

Adam Silver Sends League-Wide Memo Just Asking Players Where The F*** They Want To Play

‘Enough Already, Let’s All Hash This Out,’ Says NBA Commissioner
NEW YORK—In response to a litany of high-profile trades and a general sense of dissatisfaction from many star players, NBA commissioner Adam Silver sent out a league-wide message Friday simply asking players “where the f*** [they] want to play basketball.” “Look, we’re just going to put all this bul****t to rest and figure it out now, so everyone send me a list of their top three preferred teams and I’ll try my best to make everyone happy,” said Silver in the memo, insisting that once all 494 players were moved to the team of their choice, he didn’t want to hear any more complaints or demands until everyone was a free agent again in five years. “Everybody’s constantly griping about getting traded or leaving in free agency, and we’re all sick of your s***. We’re going to make this as painless as possible—do you want to play for the Lakers? Fine, go play for the Lakers. Do you want to be a Knick? Great, pack your bags. Let us know now, so we can all just focus on basketball.” At press time, Silver sent a follow-up message to explain that everyone can’t choose to play for the Warriors.
 
DzQsGBuX4AAx8gm.jpg
 
My whole beef with all of this is the narrative that Davis and his agent has put forth that our roster is trash and he can't win a championship here. That is BS. If they just said what they meant, I would respect them a little, they just want an easier path for more championships for the king. We were well on our way to being legitimate championship contenders and if Davis would have performed better last year, we could have made the finals.

What they need to understand is that winning The Finals is not supposed to be easy, it is hard and it takes a certain level of commitment to achieve that goal. Instead of taking the hard road to success, these guys have chosen to take the easy path by banding together to form all-star teams to win.

This is why the NBA is a joke league. In all honesty, there are not enough quality players field 30 teams and the way the NBA is set up, there are maybe 4 to 8 teams that have a chance to make it to the finals leaving the others as just a farm team for the contenders. Who wants watch that? Say what you want about how the NFL runs its league, but they did get the idea of parity right in the sense that all 32 teams have a legitimate shot at the SB. The NBA, on the other hand, it's more so about the individual who gets to play for the title than which team.
In my opinion, it’s just too difficult to sell an NBA team in New Orleans, even during the Pelicans playoff run, it wasn’t uncommon to see a half empty arena. Compare that to the Saints that sell out even during 7-9 seasons. New Orleans is just not an NBA town. It’s an NFL city. I know it looks like I’m picking on NOLA, but I’m not. There are a bunch of cities with NBA teams that are overshadowed by their NFL counterparts. New Orleans can really only support one team.

And frankly, I think the NBA would be better if they just contracted a few teams. Give Seattle a team. The NBA has been built by big market teams dominating the Association. L.A., Boston, and Chicago. The Knicks and 76ers always having a presence.
 
In my opinion, it’s just too difficult to sell an NBA team in New Orleans, even during the Pelicans playoff run, it wasn’t uncommon to see a half empty arena. Compare that to the Saints that sell out even during 7-9 seasons. New Orleans is just not an NBA town. It’s an NFL city. I know it looks like I’m picking on NOLA, but I’m not. There are a bunch of cities with NBA teams that are overshadowed by their NFL counterparts. New Orleans can really only support one team.

And frankly, I think the NBA would be better if they just contracted a few teams. Give Seattle a team. The NBA has been built by big market teams dominating the Association. L.A., Boston, and Chicago. The Knicks and 76ers always having a presence.

The problem with this argument is that historically the Saints were similar. The number of blackout games when I was kid were quite high and even had to have private businesses step into to purchase tickets so games could be broadcasted up into the early 2000s. The Saints did not have the level of ticket sales and wait list for season tickets until they became a part of the rebirth process post Katrina. That paired with the team actually winning over the last 12 seasons has led to the common statement that New Orleans is only a football town when historically the support (in the form of ticket sales) were not always there.

If the Pelicans can win consistently, they can draw people in. The arena for the playoffs last season was incredible. It just hasn't been sustainable success.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

     

    Twitter

    Back
    Top Bottom