Arena The NBA Thread

lol do any of you guys follow Chris Burssard on Twitter? Dude just got hacked big time.

 

How?

 

Only according to sources. Or "sources", rather.

 

Uh, Deets? I pretty much refused to follow anything Brussard did after his anti - gay spiel on ESPN following Jason Collins coming out as gay.

 

Just your normal hacking ... sent out spam

 

Ah.

 

I'm just gonna leave this here...

 

now why can't american sports news be more like that?

 

I lost it once I saw how The Notorious D.N.P. was animated.

 

The World Cup tips off tomorrow I have interest for about four reasons.

First, it's Team USA. You know us over patriotic Americans.
Second, it's a chance to see Kyrie Irving play in games with actual pressure and stakes. At least once we get to the knockout games.
Third, it's top level basketball.
Fourth, it's conceivable the US could lose, it wouldn't a monumental (provided said upset against Spain in the final)

Really, anything other than USA vs Spain in the final would require a big upset, and would be a huge disappointment.

Team USA shouldn't be challenged in the least in group play.

 

#5: unless you live in the NOLA market its your best chance to see Anthony Davis

 

True. He has a real chance to take the leap this year. Kid might be the third best player in the league.

 

FTFY

 

Spurs Attempting To Land Ray Allen

 

http://time.com/3296175/bruce-levenson-atlanta-hawks-racist-email-kareem-abdul-jabbar/]Kareem[/url] on the Barry Levenson situation


Though I think Kareem makes some good points there, given the standard Silver set with how he handled the Sterling fiasco, it makes since in this current NBA climate for Levenson to step down, sell the team, etc.

 

no. it really doesn't make any sense at all. that... being stupidly over-sensitive to be blunt. if you didn't do anything wrong, then you shouldn't have to do anything about it. let's just say i agree with kareem 100% there, and levenson shouldn't have even needed to make an apology for anything. he's just doing his job for crying out loud. i mean, it's not racist/sexist to have focus adds for every other ethnic group/women out there, but as soon as you try and focus on getting white/caucasians it is? WTF? that's just stupid, and not actually doing anything but making people overly sensitive to the issue, which means that the issue will probably just become a bigger one moving forward. i'm sorry, focusing on whites and how to get them to come to something isn't racist, just like it isn't racist to try to do the same with latinos, blacks, asians, native americans, or women. it's simple business that literally every company in the world has to deal with, because they have to figure out to appeal to different groups of people. if that's racist then literally all advertising is racist because it's trying to appeal to specific demographics. all entertainment is racist, because it's all trying to appeal to specific demographics. this is just some absolute BS.

 

I agree inherently with you... all am I saying is, from Silver's perspective -to keep up appearances, post-Sterling so-to-speak-, Levenson's ouster is of no surprise.

 

but it's not the same thing. that's the problem. to be frank, silver needs to send a message that just doing business isn't going to get you outed from the NBA, and show a clear demarkation between what is and isn't acceptable. if levenson is outed, then he's not doing that at all. he's saying that focusing on demographics at all will get you outed, basically. although we all know that's not the real problem here. it's that he was trying to figure out how to get more white people interested. if it was ANY OTHER DEMOGRAPHIC he'd be lauded for it as a progressive thinker. which is just stupid.

EDIT

and this just hit me. depending on how you read this situation, and what comes out of it, there will probably be people that take this to mean that every other demographic is more important. that white fans are the least important group of fans. and you know that there'll be people that take it that way, and be insulted and probably be turned off from the NBA as a whole, since that's quite possibly the message that silver could send. inadvertently, yes, but it's certainly there if you're being overly sensitive about it. which any issue of race always causes.

 

http://grantland.com/features/nba-court-design-power-rankings/]Zach[/url] Lowe's rankings of all 30 court designs


So, yeah, he rates the Lakers current design as the best (I'll just say this: they may have stunk so bad in many respects for much of the past couple of seasons, but at the very least the new court is so nice to look at, especially the 'Lakers' lettering on each baseline... the old "block" version was so aesthetically ugly), but the entirety of this list made me more giddy than it should have; also, I think he rates the Clippers court too low: for all the crap I like to give that organization, their recent aesthetic changes (happened with the uni's as well) were well done, as I see it... the candy cursive logo is very pleasing to look at, and what's not to like about a red, white & blue color scheme? Also, the Hornets new court? Instantly fantastic.. can't wait to see that this season.

 

I wish the Hornets would have gone back to the honeycomb free-throw line (and the original logo as well) but yeah it's still a nice look.
I'm uncertain when we reached the age where everything on the court has to be facing the same way. They used to have the logos near the free throw line, arena names, and other things facing opposite sides of the court, so the people sitting in those seats on the other side of the arena had things facing them as well. Now it all faces one way (for TV purposes I guess).
Also, apparently the Rose Garden in Portland has a different name??? The latest to sell out their classic name just so get more money from another company having their name on the arena. It's already bad enough we have to see Chase above Madison Square Garden. Ugh!!!

 

I believe this will be the 2nd season of it being the 'Moda Center', but that's okay... because they've got such a great name, logo, and nice franchise colors, Portland gets a pass from that ; there's much more to dislike about the Knicks court than the 'Chase' logo; I'm with Lowe concerning the triangle underneath the 'Knicks' lettering.



And speaking of old-school courts, I miss this one tremendously from the Lakers Forum era:






Here it is during a game -specifically, game #1 of Magic's '96 comeback... that may not have amounted to much, but I can legitimately claim that I saw Magic Johnson on-the-court for the Lakers; a special highlight of my childhood- :


.


Used for much of the 90's (the early 90's featured the yellow & red court from the Showtime era); the purple (I much prefer this look for the Lakers, even with their jerseys... it's also a hope of mine that one day, for whatever reason, they'll wear their road purple uni's for a home game at Staples; their usage at Staples for Clippers home games doesn't count here ) 'round the court, the "upside down" logos look so very nice, more so in my humble opinion than what they've -as much as I love it- currently got.


In fact, here's how that particular design could look if ever used at Staples:


.


Ideally of course, it would be purple rather than the yellow, also with one of those Laker logos being "upside down", but still...

 

There's one thing I don't get, however, concerning Lowe's praise for a certain iconic mid-court logo for a particular Eastern Conference franchise:


.




That would look so much better without the hideous white circle. Never mind my inherent anti-Boston bias here, for the pleasantness/iconicness of their aesthetic can't be denied, save for the white circle. At the very least, that circle ought to be smaller. Ideally, the only white involved -aside from the lettering in the name- should be right underneath the leprechaun, between the lettering, and thus nowhere else.

 

Down goes Spain. And, with them, any chance the USA doesn't win the World Cup.