Magic Johnson: A True Lakers Fan

I was lucky enough to have a pretty awesome seat at the Lakers game last night. I basically sat in the second row in section 118 (the section right next to the Lakers bench). This also happens to be the section with a direct diagonal view to Magic Johnson’s seats. 

Watching Magic agonize over every single play the Lakers made was almost as entertaining as watching the game itself. He literally lives and dies with how the Lakers play. There was point where the game got too much for him and he got up and started pacing back forth near the Lakers tunnel for a little bit. He was especially disgusted when the Lakers bigs would tap the rebounds instead of going up and securing the ball with two hands (Pau did this on way too many occasions last night). There were many points throughout the game that I thought Magic was going to say “enough”, run back to the locker room, throw on his Lakers #32 and come back out and show the Lakers how to grab a rebound with two hands. When the Lakers started mounting their comeback, Magic was up cheering like the rest of the fans in attendance. 

It was just amazing to see that this well accomplished multi-millionaire lived and died with every made or missed shot the Lakers made. It made me feel more comfortable in my own fanatic skin.

Magic Johnson: A True Lakers Fan

I was lucky enough to have a pretty awesome seat at the Lakers game last night. I basically sat in the second row in section 118 (the section right next to the Lakers bench). This also happens to be the section with a direct diagonal view to Magic Johnson’s seats. Watching Magic agonize over every single play the Lakers made was almost as entertaining as watching the game itself. He literally lives and dies with how the Lakers play. There was point where the game got too much for him and he got up and started pacing back forth near the Lakers tunnel for a little bit. He was especially disgusted when the Lakers bigs would tap the rebounds instead of going up and securing the ball with two hands (Pau did this on way too many occasions last night). There were many points throughout the game that I thought Magic was going to say “enough”, run back to the locker room, throw on his Lakers #32 and come back out and show the Lakers how to grab a rebound with two hands. When the Lakers started mounting their comeback, Magic was up cheering like the rest of the fans in attendance. It was just amazing to see that this well accomplished multi-millionaire lived and died with every made or missed shot the Lakers made. It made me feel more comfortable in my own fanatic skin.

The T-Shirt of All T-Shirts

P.S. You can get it at the Fly or Die Gallery in Weyburn (next to the CPK) in Westwood (Near UCLA). These guys are definitely big time Lakers fans, as they had a sale just to celebrate the arrival of Pau. If you do roll through, be sure to tell them Jones on the NBA sent you (I want to be able to get a discount next time I go in there...they have some pretty dope stuff).

The New Lamar Odom

I really should be completing an outline for my torts class, but I won’t be able to focus until I get this post up.

I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but Lamar Odom has totally transformed himself into a great fit for the Lakers system. Prior to this season, Lamar never really figured out how to fit into the Lakers system. His problem is that he had come up as a guy that always had the ball in his hands, but was then thrust into a situation with the ball dominating Kobe Bryant. This isn’t a knock on Kobe, as I have no problem with a guy with as much talent and skill as Kobe possesses dominating the ball in the fashion he does. However, the problem is that Kobe’s ball dominance left little opportunity for Lamar Odom to do his thing, making Lamar’s first three seasons with the Lakers seem a bit awkward. You see, the Lakers needed a number two scorer next to Kobe, but after they traded Caron Butler away for Kwame Brown, the only guy that had any capability of being a number two scorer was Lamar. With Kobe’s ball dominance, Lamar struggled to find his spots to score within the triangle. You could see him thinking way too much about every little move he made on the offensive side of the ball. He was great on the boards, and always gave maximum effort, but at times he just seemed completely lost out there. According to Roland Lazenby, Tex Winter had been trying to get Lamar Odom to embrace cutting within the Triangle for years. However, the man that tried to pattern himself after Magic Johnson had trouble relinquishing himself from the idea of having the ball in his hands.

Lets be real, Lamar is very talented at grabbing a rebound and leading the break the way Magic Johnson used to do. However, he’s not really a guy that is going to run a half court offense and be the ball handler off of a pick and roll the way that wing player such as Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant often do. So if Lamar wanted to figure out how to be successful on this team, he was going to have to embrace playing off the ball the way Tex Winter envisioned him doing.

Fast forward to the Paul Gasol trade. Pau is the most versatile center the triangle offense has ever seen. One of his best assets is the ability to hit cutters with accurate passes in scoring positions within the offense. He’s also very good at cutting and flashing and making himself available for passes in scoring positions within the offense. Lamar definitely picked up on Pau’s attributes and became inspired. Lamar now embraces the hard cutting off the ball that Tex Winter had been pushing him to embrace for so long. And every time he cuts, Pau rewards him with a nice dish. Lamar’s not just cutting hard when Pau gets the ball. He’s finally learned that if you cut in that system, a player as versatile as he is can be a very dangerous weapon. Many times, Lamar will cut hard receive a pass from one of his teammates and then once defenders come to help on him, he’ll find Pau or another cutter for an easy basket. With Lamar’s passing ability, you don’t want to send help his way when he is on the move, because as soon as you leave your man, Lamar’s going to find him with a pass that puts him in perfect position to score (see: highlights of Pau and Lamar cutting and finding each other against the Nuggets).

As well, with Pau, Lamar doesn’t have to score 20 points anymore for Lakers fans to say he had a good game. I mean 16, 10, and 5 out of Lamar has Lakers fans jumping for joy. But guess what? He’s been doing that for years (not as comfortably, accurately, or consistently as he is now), but before Pau’s arrival, Lakers fans were never happy with those numbers because of his lack of break out scoring ability. Maybe it is that he doesn’t look as sleepy as he used to out there on the floor. Lamar never just stands around and Kobe watches the way he and other Lakers did in the past before the arrival of Pau. He’s in constant motion out there now, and finally realizes that he’s more of an asset to the Lakers running off the ball below fifteen feet than isolated with the ball above the three point line.

The best part about this for Lamar is that he still gets to have his point forward fun. In his new role, he can still get rebounds, push the ball hard, and create fast break scoring opportunities for himself or his teammates.

Maybe shaving those Stars in his head at the beginning of the year did work out for Lamar, because he's finally starting to reach his All-Star potential. Keep it up, L.O.

Obama and Hoops

Glad I finally got a chance to see this:

If Barack is looking for cats to play with the next time he comes to L.A., I definitely would be up to join the party. I might just have to put the famous Nate Jones spin move on him. But knowing me, I would be the person that would end up breaking his nose or hurting him. Anyhow, if any one on the Obama campaign is listening, I'm not joking about wanting to play him the next time he is in L.A.

Why the NBA’s Executive of the Year Award Needs an Adjustment

I was just thinking, how in the world can the NBA hand out an Executive of the Year award? Think about it…how many GMs are really able to make their teams good in just one year? Good GMs are ones that have been making moves over the years to put their team in a position to be successful. Basically, outside of Danny Ainge and his Celtics remake, it’s almost impossible to judge a GM based on one year’s work. For example, Mitch Kupchak has been building this Lakers squad for years. Yes, he made the Gasol and Ariza trades this year, but he’s been building this team for years. He acquired Walton in 2003, Odom and Vujacic in 2004, Bynum and Turiaf in 2005, Farmar and Radmanovic in 2006, and Fisher this past off-season. In other words, it took years to build this Lakers team. The same could be said for the Hornets Jeff Bower. He picked up David West in 2003, Chris Paul in 2005, Peja Stojakovic and Tyson Chandler in 2006, and MoPete and Julian Wright this off-season. And what about what Sam Presti is doing for the Sonics? This season, he picked up Kevin Durant and Jeff Green and was able to take a trade exception and turn it into three first round picks. He’s also created a ton of cap space, setting up the Sonics for a very bright future. Obviously his team is heading in the right direction, but we probably won’t see the positive results of his wheeling and dealing for at least a few seasons. So as you can see, it doesn’t really make that sense to give an Executive of the Year Award, when building a team takes years. Maybe, they should just give an Executive of the Decade award instead.

R.I.P. Warriors

I can't believe we are going to have to go through this years playoffs without the Warriors. No Monta! No Captain Jack! No B-Diddy! I think I'm going to have a heart attack hear. It's just crazy that a 48 win team (a very entertaining one) won't be in the playoffs. Guess we'll just have to wait until next year to see more of this:

Thoughts on the NBA, the NCAA, and Raising the Age Limit

There have been rumblings about the NBA possibly considering raising the age limit from 19 to 20 years of age. I’ve seen some opinions throughout the internets on this possibility, and felt it was time to put my own opinions on the matter out there.

First of all, as has been proven time and time again there is no proof that players coming directly out of high school into the pros fair worse or cause the league more trouble than players that have gone to college for any amount of time. I think its fair to say that since the 19 year old/plus one limit has been put into place there has really been no difference between kids that go to school for one year and kids that stay in school two, three, or four years. So why are people insisting on or even supporting a possible age limit increase?

Here’s what it comes down to:

1. The NBA trying to appease white society’s urge to serve as a paternal figure over inner city black males that have a chance to make millions of dollars at an early age

How else can you explain it? You often hear supporters of the age limit say that these kids need a college education. Yet, why is it perceptively okay for tennis, golf, and baseball stars to jump from high school to the pros right away? I mean, some tennis and golf stars turn pro before they even turn 18. And why is it okay for European players to enter the draft when they turn 18 without any objection from anyone?

2. The NBA’s urge to have players marketed by the national stage of the NCAA before reaching the NBA
For the NBA it’s all about the free marketing that they get from the NCAA. Greg Oden and Kevin Durant came into the league with more fan fare than Dwight Howard, because they both got the national stage of playing for major division one college basketball programs. In fact, fans in Orlando were calling for the Magic to pick Emeka Okafor over Dwight Howard in the 2004 draft because of the name recognition and familiarity with basketball fans he had after leading the UConn Huskies to the 2004 NCAA Championship. So for the NBA, it helps to have guys that are already packaged to sell that have familiarity with fans through the NCAA. I mean, do you think Magic versus Bird would have become the rivalry it did in the NBA if those two hadn’t played each other on the stage of the NCAA Finals?

3. The NCAA’s urge to keep its exploitive system going
The NCAA treats these kids like second class kids or slave laborers that should be happy that they are being thrown a bone in the form of a scholarship. But the truth of the matter is that the scholarship notion is a complete farce. First, students playing revenue generating sports never get a chance to be a real student. They are first and foremost an athlete and spend most of their days training and preparing for games. They aren’t a normal part of the student body, and thus aren’t really getting the full college experience. Next, take all of the scholarships given to the athletes playing revenue generating sports and add them up and it won’t even come close to matching the fair share of the revenue that these athlete’s generate (see: here and here).

Why do people get so upset about young inner city black males getting paid their fair share of the revenue they generate? We live in a society where CEOs that drive companies to near bankruptcy still get compensated millions of dollars, yet people get angry at the suggestion of giving these athletes their fair share of the billions they generate? The warm and fuzzy feeling that the sham of amateurism gives many of these fans as well as the blind allegiance that many of these guys have to their institution of higher learning is what makes most people okay with the current system. Or as Stephen Colbert once said: "The NCAA basketball tournament has everything I like: corporate sponsorship, unpaid labor and blind partisan allegiance."

And it’s sad because everyone around the players is making money except the players themselves. The shoe companies (and other sponsors), the schools, the NCAA, Wes Wesley and the Pump brothers of the world, and the coaches are all making a ton of dough. Yet the people that are the most responsible for the NCAA basketball revenue being generated are not given a dime beyond a scholarship that can be revoked from them at any time, and that they don’t really get a chance to utilize because of their commitments as a big time NCAA athlete.

Coaches not just making millions of dollars from their contracts. From what I’ve been told many of them get to keep all or part of the shoe money their school gets for having their players where a specific brand. Read that again. Coaches get paid for the players wearing a brand. Don’t you think it would be more fair for players to get paid for that? How would you feel if you had a son in high school that was forced to wear a specific brand of shoes so that the high school coach could get paid? Not very fair, right?

While the NCAA limits the amount of tickets that the players and their family can get to tournament games, they have allowed coaches to give away their tickets to Pump brothers so that they can turn around and re-sell them on the market for a big time profit. The NCAA has now got into their own little ticket re-marketing game, by allocating a block of tickets to the website Razorgator. And guess who doesn’t get a piece of that? You guessed it, the players!

The NCAA also allows the Pumps to make tons of money serving as a coaches employment placement firm for schools. I’m sure the Pumps also get paid for sending certain players to certain schools. People have accused Wes Wesley of making money off of the same thing with Memphis and Oregon. (Just a note, I have no problem with what Wesley or the Pumps do for a living. All I care about is making sure that the players get their fair share!)

The NCAA and their member schools market tickets, jerseys, video games, and tons of other products that get most of their value based off of the work that the players put forth. You don’t think it’s fair for the players to get paid a portion of that?

And lets not even get into the television deals. The NCAA has a much documented $6 Billion deal with CBS for the television and internet broadcast rights to the NCAA tournament. As well, each conference has individual television rights deals. And with ESPN Classic, players are forced to have this sham of amateurism allow the NCAA to sell their likenesses without adequate compensation years after the individual has stopped playing NCAA basketball. You’re telling me that the players shouldn’t be entitled to their fair piece of all of this?

In the NBA the players are entitled to 56% of basketball related income. From what I’ve heard every year players not only get their salaries but a check for their slice of licensing from jerseys and memorabilia that gets cut to them at the beginning of each season (this pie is split up amongst the players equally). There is no reason for these NCAA players that are generating the same type of income not to have the same sort of deal going.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see salary negotiations and such for each individual player. I just want there to be a financial entity representing college basketball players where their fair share of the money is collected and put into a fund and invested and then distributed to the players in the forms of adequate living stipends for the year and then either a lump sum or monthly payment for their share of what’s been generated over the time they’ve been in school (Take the total amount that is owed to the players as a whole over that time and divide it by the number of players playing ball at that time and you’ve got your number). Because you’re not playing players individually more than another player, you won’t see the aspects of the NBA distribution of salary that many fans loath creep in here. Players still shouldn't be allowed to market themselves individually (through endorsment deals and such) while they are in college, and should still be required to attend classes (But I think the classes should be geared more toward the business of basketball...but this is a talk for an entirely different time).

For me, it’s pretty simple. You want to force the players to wear a specific brand? Give them half the money. You want to sell the television rights to watch them play basketball to CBS? No problem, just give them half the money.

If the NBA wants to have the platform of their players being marketed by the NCAA machine before they reach the league, then they should work with the NCAA to make sure these players are adequately compensated so that there is incentive for them to stay in school for how many ever years the NBA would like. If the NCAA would like make sure that players stay in school for four years, they should be willing to create incentives for them to do so.

I’m really not concerned about the guys that are going to make it to the pros and make tons of money. But the reality is that a ton of guys never make it to the pros and many of the ones that do never make a significant amount of money. It’s only fair that these players have an opportunity to see their fair share of the billions that they help generate while playing college basketball. College Basketball players (and revenue generating athletes in general) need to start to realize the power that they hold. They need to get organized and start using their power as unit to get things done that will uplift them all. And old players that have been screwed over from the past need to come out and speak up. The guys off of those big time NCAA programs that are struggling today because they never got their fair share of the pot need to come out and speak up about what happened to them because they never got their fair cut of the revenue they generated.

Current NBA Players: Please stay strong!
Current NBA players: Please don’t allow the NBA to con you into bargaining a higher age limit into existence. There is a myth out there that allowing high school players to come into the league hurts veteran players because it makes it so teams have to cut veteran players to make room for these young guys coming into the league and because teams have to pay veteran players less in order to pay the young guys coming into the league. This myth is false for a few reasons. First, the players conceded to a rookie scale which sets salaries for first round picks for up to four years, ensuring that veteran players won’t have their salaries compressed by the entry of high school guys. Second, and most important, there are only sixty players drafted each year. No matter if they come from high school or college after one, two, three, or four years, there are still going to be sixty new guys entering the pot each year. So high school players coming into the league would hurt a veteran just as much as if nothing but college seniors were allowed to enter the draft.

Now I can understand the players agreeing to the limit if the NBA does something drastic and gives the players back the guaranteed years they took back in the during the formation of the last agreement. But outside of a large financial concession such as that, there is no way they should the NBA to block out these young players for another year. Especially considering how many of these players took advantage of the opportunity to jump into the league out of high school or after one year of college. It would be very Ward Connerlyish for players that have taken advantage of that opportunity to block future young players from having the same opportunity.

European Opportunities

If the NBA keeps trying to raise the age limit, while the NCAA continues to refuse to pay players, guys might actually start thinking harder about going oversees to play out the two years before they come into the league. As John Hollinger pointed out in this blog post, this could be an opportunity for top stars to make some money while they become age eligible to play in the NBA. Top prep players haven’t been so willing to do this with just the 19/plus one age restriction because it was only a year. But if they are forced to wait out two years, I think you are going to see more and more guys vying for that option. And if I were running these Euroleague teams, I’d be actively recruiting some of these young guys to come over and play for one to two years. If they could sign some top level prep talent, they could probably start selling packages of games on television or on the internet. It would just be a giant step in the right direction for the Euroleague. Just something the NBA and the NCAA might want to consider.

I have a few questions for you folks out there that might be a little bit more informed about this than me. First, can anyone tell me exactly how the NCAA’s financial structure breaks down? Out of the total pot of revenue, how much money do the schools keep and how much does the NCAA itself keep? And what does the NCAA do with all of the money they’ve earned over the years? Does it go into a fund? Does it go to pay their executives? I’m really interested in knowing this. Checking out the links at the end of this sports law blog post really helped me out, but I’m still craving more information. These two posts (post #1 and post #2) by David Berri, also really helped me out big time. So was this Tom Ferry article from 2001.

Also what happened with this investigation by congress? I mean, I want to know why the NCAA is still tax exempt (at least for the revenue generating sports). If congress is wants to spend their time worry about steroids, why don’t they spend some more time trying to correct the NCAA’s unfair financial structure?

adidas Needs Gilbert on the Court ASAP

See Rovell's post on the ads the three stripes put together for Gilbert this season. I have no doubt in my mind that this guy can sell product. Its just a shame that he's lost a lot of his marketing luster due to being on the bench the entire season. It remains to be seen if he can garner the marketing momentum he had before his injury last season. I'm of the opinion that he certainly can.