NBA 10/11 Discussion

[Mr bEn]

Just read LBJ is announcing his decision Friday morning (our time).

It's being broadcast on ESPN over there, but hasn't been added to our programming yet.

[Mr bEn]

ESPN Pacific has picked up the broadcast - 11am EST time tomorrow for Decision 2010.

[Mr bEn]

LBJ to the Heat.

[1711mark]

Yeh , the Heat are looking pretty good, apparently trying to sign Derek fisher and Mike Miller.

[Jazz]

I started playing ball when I was 8. Played in a league in Redcliffe. I haven't thought of this in a very long time. We played at the Redcliffe Trots. I kid you not. The betting ring for the trots had a shed cover and some bright spark had put retractable backboards around the betting ring, so when the trots weren’t on, kids could play basketball on the concrete. I remember learning the game there and dribbling the ball with foam taped to my hand to make sure I used my fingertips. There was only like 4 teams and one of them was a girl’s team - Stacey, my sister would dominate.
I had myself a basketball jones early on, loved the game but had no idea of the history or anything. I soaked up everything I could. My earliest memory of any basketball gear, even before my first real kicks, was of my sister buying me a hat from K-Mart. It was a corduroy purple Utah Jazz hat. I had no idea of the team, its players, it’s actually ironic name. So being a kid with no idea and rocking the hat, I claimed them as my own.

Over the years, I devoured anything I could about the team, NBA Mags, One on One mags, eventually seeing some games on channel 2 finals, then channel 10 exploded during the basketball boom period with Bill Woods and Mr Magic Steve Carfino ruining many kids hoops dreams of being cool…

So basically I’ve been following Utah for 23 years. In that whole time of my basketball LIFE, Jerry Sloan has been coaching the team. Doing it his way, hard nosed, uncompromising. He was the perfect fit for a demographic of the white/very white Salt Lake City. In the last 23 years, the league has undertaken vast changes. One of the most prominent has been the increase of rights for players and the taking away of powers of coaches and owners. If a team struggles, the coaches are the first to be shown the door. If a star player makes noise in the media, the coach will be shown the door. Jerry ran Utah for 23 years as a coaches team, in a players league. Only one season did the Jazz have a losing record and that was after 2 hall of famers left the club, there’s no disgrace in that.

However with the news coming out today that it looks like Deron had an argument with Jerry which escalated to Jerry requesting Deron be suspended (with Deron becoming a free agent next year), then Jerry resigning as well as his assistant coach…well that just smells like Jerry put an ultimatum to the Jazz GM and said that he would walk if he wasn’t backed. Well it looks like the Players league finally got Jerry Sloan.

I have no idea what he will do next. He’s already in the hall of fame; he’s got nothing to prove. All I know is that all great things come to an end, I’m just amazed that through a random purchase of a crap hat at K-Mart, I got to be a part of the ride.

[number55]

GREAT post, one of the best seen here in a long time. A friend of mine is a fan of the Jazz for pretty much the same reason - the first time he saw a game on tv it was the Jazz Stockton/Malone era team belting someone and it was love from then on.

I really hope Sloan left for his own reasons and not some punk point guard and an ultimatum...if this makes me old-school then so be it.

All I know is that all great things come to an end, I’m just amazed that through a random purchase of a crap hat at K-Mart, I got to be a part of the ride.

[Livingthedream]

Its funny how we all come to associate ourselves with teams. Ive been following the knicks since the Stark / Ewing days. We have had many a season without anything to smile about and now things are slowly starting to turn around (thanks to Donnie Walsh). That said the love that you get for players even when your losing, made the latest melo trade hard to swallow (esp when we lost to the cavs!). nevertheless you keep following your team through thick/thin

The Jazz though have just given up DWill for a pretty good package under the assumption he wasnt planning to re-sign. So they tried to keep some leverage. You have to hope now that Dwill wasnt the reason for Sloans departure given they are now both gone. Still the jazz have a bright future, but wow talk about alot of change in 1 season. No Boozer, No DWill and No Sloan!

The scary part now is the direction the NBA is heading. Contraction! It seems the stars arent only worried about getting paid now (under current CBA your current team can pay you more than the open market teams to give you an incentive to stay put and keep the talent level accross the league) but also winning. Even if that means less money aka. Boston, Miami.

We have already seen goes like DWill, CP3 and Dwight Howard all saying they may leave thier current teams if the players around them rent championship calibre!

With the new CBA looming i expect a hard cap so you cant be the lakers (payroll of 110mil after luxery tax when the soft cap is at 55mil). On the flip side ball clubs arent loyal to players so why should players be loyal to them. By this there are very few players in this league that are untradable. The price just has to be right!

[Unregistered]

Has anyone got any details on where to buy tickets for this? Have heard that they will be coming for 2 nights, November 8 & 9, Melbourne only (Rod Laver Arena).

[Mr bEn]

Tour hasn't been locked in and confirmed yet. Big news, so as soon as tickets are about to go on sale you'll know about it on here or somewhere else.