coming
Thursday, October 31, 2013
NBA Tip-Off: 6 Business Stories To Watch This Season
The NBA season gets started Tuesday night with a trio of games
highlighted by a clash between the Derrick Rose-led Chicago Bulls and
the two-time defending champion Miami Heat. Las Vegas has the Heat
favored to win a third straight title with the Oklahoma City Thunder,
Los Angeles Clippers and Bulls among the next set of favorites. The NBA
has been on a roll in recent years thanks to a bevy of stars, success by
big market franchises and the international appeal of the game. Total
revenues for the league were expected to approach a record $5 billion last season. Here are the business stories we are tracking this season.
LeBron James
The four-time MVP is story 1a, 1b and 1c in today’s NBA. We have not seen the focus on one player in the NBA since Michael Jordan hung up his high tops for a second time in 1998 after his second three-peat with the Bulls. ESPN The Magazine devoted its entire NBA preview issue to all-things LeBron and it is hard to blame them. The immediate questions are whether James can lead the Heat to another title and win a fifth MVP (the record is six by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, while Jordan and Bill Russell each won five).
The bigger long-term question is where James will be playing next year. He is expected to exercise his early termination option in his contract to make him a free agent in the summer of 2014, setting up The Decision 2.0. Three years after James’ departure from Cleveland, the franchise value of the Cavaliers is down 9% and the value of the Heat is up 71%. James said he will not address his free agency during the season, but the Heat, followed by the Cavs are expected to be the leaders in the race for his services.
TV Contract
The NBA’s current contract with partners ABC/ESPN and TNT runs through the 2015-2016 season and is worth $930 million a year on average, but negotiations on an extension are expected to be completed over the next 12 months. Look for the NBA to double its annual take with the craving for sports programming rights at an all-time high. The addition of NBC Sports Network and Fox Sports 1 as national entities bumps up the number of players bidding on the rights packages. TV ratings were down last season, but they hit 10-year highs the previous year. The 10.4 rating for the 2013 NBA Finals was the second highest in the past decade.
David Stern’s Retirement
Commissioner Stern will retire in February after 30 years in the NBA’s top spot. The league has exploded under his watch. When he took over, CBS was paying $22 million a year for broadcast rights to games and the playoffs (outside of the Finals) were shown on tape-delay. NBA teams were worth about $400 million collectively in 1984 and now are worth more than $15 billion. Long-time deputy Adam Silver will take the reins, and he is expected to be the driving force in the next round of TV deals. Silver has been an integral part of just about every major NBA decision in recent years, including the settlement of the 2011 lockout.
Brooklyn Nets
Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is channeling another 11-figure net worth NBA owner with his spending spree this summer. Paul Allen racked up $81 million in luxury tax bills over two seasons between 2002 and 2004 in his quest for the Portland Trail Blazers to win an NBA title with outsized payrolls unsupported by the team’s revenues. Allen spent $157 million in player costs and taxes for the 2002-03 season and the team lost $85 million by Forbes’ count. The Nets’ luxury tax alone is expected to be north of $80 million this year with the addition of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry. Total players costs, including the tax, will clock in around $185 million leading to a loss of more than $50 million for Prokhorov. The Los Angeles Lakers had the NBA’s highest luxury tax bill last year at $29.3 million.
New Arenas
The NBA’s oldest arena, Madison Square Garden, just finished a three-year, $1 billion renovation that will further boost revenues for the NBA’s most valuable team. The signature features are two bridges with seating that run parallel to the floor and are located high off the ground. The Sacramento Kings, who play in the antiquated Sleep Train Arena, are on target to open their new arena for the 2016-17 season after a decade long fight to secure a new venue. Stern, who helped orchestrate the building’s approval earlier in the year after a tug-of-war for the team with Seattle, will be on hand at the Kings’ home opener Wednesday night. The only other teams playing in arenas opened before 1990 are the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks. Both teams are looking for new venues.
Tankapalooza
Several teams, including the Philadelphia 76ers, Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns and Orlando Magic, stripped down their rosters with hopes of landing one of multiple elite prizes of the 2014 draft led by Canadian Andrew Wiggins (check out the highlights here to see why everyone is wiggy for Wiggins). One GM admitted in an ESPN piece that his team was tanking. The payoff from landing a huge talent can be massive in the NBA. The Cavs went from one of the NBA’s least valuable teams to the top 10 after drafting James.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2013/10/29/nba-tip-off-6-business-stories-to-watch-this-season/
LeBron James
The four-time MVP is story 1a, 1b and 1c in today’s NBA. We have not seen the focus on one player in the NBA since Michael Jordan hung up his high tops for a second time in 1998 after his second three-peat with the Bulls. ESPN The Magazine devoted its entire NBA preview issue to all-things LeBron and it is hard to blame them. The immediate questions are whether James can lead the Heat to another title and win a fifth MVP (the record is six by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, while Jordan and Bill Russell each won five).
The bigger long-term question is where James will be playing next year. He is expected to exercise his early termination option in his contract to make him a free agent in the summer of 2014, setting up The Decision 2.0. Three years after James’ departure from Cleveland, the franchise value of the Cavaliers is down 9% and the value of the Heat is up 71%. James said he will not address his free agency during the season, but the Heat, followed by the Cavs are expected to be the leaders in the race for his services.
TV Contract
The NBA’s current contract with partners ABC/ESPN and TNT runs through the 2015-2016 season and is worth $930 million a year on average, but negotiations on an extension are expected to be completed over the next 12 months. Look for the NBA to double its annual take with the craving for sports programming rights at an all-time high. The addition of NBC Sports Network and Fox Sports 1 as national entities bumps up the number of players bidding on the rights packages. TV ratings were down last season, but they hit 10-year highs the previous year. The 10.4 rating for the 2013 NBA Finals was the second highest in the past decade.
David Stern’s Retirement
Commissioner Stern will retire in February after 30 years in the NBA’s top spot. The league has exploded under his watch. When he took over, CBS was paying $22 million a year for broadcast rights to games and the playoffs (outside of the Finals) were shown on tape-delay. NBA teams were worth about $400 million collectively in 1984 and now are worth more than $15 billion. Long-time deputy Adam Silver will take the reins, and he is expected to be the driving force in the next round of TV deals. Silver has been an integral part of just about every major NBA decision in recent years, including the settlement of the 2011 lockout.
Brooklyn Nets
Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is channeling another 11-figure net worth NBA owner with his spending spree this summer. Paul Allen racked up $81 million in luxury tax bills over two seasons between 2002 and 2004 in his quest for the Portland Trail Blazers to win an NBA title with outsized payrolls unsupported by the team’s revenues. Allen spent $157 million in player costs and taxes for the 2002-03 season and the team lost $85 million by Forbes’ count. The Nets’ luxury tax alone is expected to be north of $80 million this year with the addition of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry. Total players costs, including the tax, will clock in around $185 million leading to a loss of more than $50 million for Prokhorov. The Los Angeles Lakers had the NBA’s highest luxury tax bill last year at $29.3 million.
New Arenas
The NBA’s oldest arena, Madison Square Garden, just finished a three-year, $1 billion renovation that will further boost revenues for the NBA’s most valuable team. The signature features are two bridges with seating that run parallel to the floor and are located high off the ground. The Sacramento Kings, who play in the antiquated Sleep Train Arena, are on target to open their new arena for the 2016-17 season after a decade long fight to secure a new venue. Stern, who helped orchestrate the building’s approval earlier in the year after a tug-of-war for the team with Seattle, will be on hand at the Kings’ home opener Wednesday night. The only other teams playing in arenas opened before 1990 are the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks. Both teams are looking for new venues.
Tankapalooza
Several teams, including the Philadelphia 76ers, Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns and Orlando Magic, stripped down their rosters with hopes of landing one of multiple elite prizes of the 2014 draft led by Canadian Andrew Wiggins (check out the highlights here to see why everyone is wiggy for Wiggins). One GM admitted in an ESPN piece that his team was tanking. The payoff from landing a huge talent can be massive in the NBA. The Cavs went from one of the NBA’s least valuable teams to the top 10 after drafting James.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2013/10/29/nba-tip-off-6-business-stories-to-watch-this-season/
Uber is delivering kittens for National Cat Day
Celebrate National Cat Day with an Uber-delivered kitten!
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
In honor of the venerated holiday National Cat Day, startup Uber is temporarily expanding past taxi-hailing to ... kitten delivery service.
Uber usually lets its app users order a taxi, black car or SUV to come pick them up at their current location. Tuesday's promotion added a "Kittens!" option to the list. (Yes, exclamation point included.)Uber, which partnered with Internet meme site Cheezburger for the kitten service, will donate all of the fees to one animal shelter in each city,. Each of the kittens is available to adopt from the shelters: the Seattle Humane Society, New York's ASPCA and San Francisco's SPCA .
Truer words were never spoken.
News of Uber's Cat Day celebration quickly gained traction in blogs and social media, with people complaining they had been trying for hours to score a kitten, with no success. Some expressed concern that transporting shelter kittens back and forth is cruel, but most simply LOLed at the stunt.
Adding to the hilarity: "Uber for cats" is a semi-often-used joke for ridiculous and derivative startup ideas. CNN.com joked about "Mewber" in a post in May.
The real Uber is exciting to venture capitalists, though. The company is worth a reported
http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/29/technology/uber-kittens/
Seahawks hold Rams with goal-line stand to win ugly on the road
In a game that was ugly from start to finish, even Golden Tate’s 80-yard touchdown had room for improvement. (Michael Conroy/AP)
The game had a weird feel from the start. The Edward Jones Dome was half-full at best because most everyone in St. Louis was concentrating on the World Series performance of the Cardinals, who were also in town — the first time a World Series and a Monday Night Football Game crossed paths in the same city since 1986. And both teams played to that strange feeling.
Seattle had gained minus-1 yard at the end of the first quarter, quarterback Russell Wilson was sacked seven times and hit ceaselessly by St. Louis’ fierce front four, and a Seahawks run defense that is usually fairly stout gave up 200 yards on the ground over 37 plays — three fewer than Seattle’s offense had overall. It was only because of a defense that came up big when it had to, against Rams backup quarterback Kellen Clemens, that the Seahawks were able to escape with a narrow victory.
The crucible for the Rams came on a goal-line stand that ended the game. St. Louis had the ball for the final 5:41 of the game, and got the ball to the Seattle six-yard line with 46 seconds left on the clock. Given that the Seahawks seemed to have few answers for the Rams’ run game, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer’s playcalling from then on was curious, to say the least. After a Daryl Richardson run for four yards, Clemens threw incomplete to receiver Chris Givens. Then, another Richardson run for no gain that put the ball at the Seattle 1-yard line following an offside penalty on defensive end Chris Clemons, the Rams went with a Clemens pass to Brian Quick, which had no chance.
SI FLASHBACK: Distance on 4th-and-1 may be short, but the memories are long
That final drive summed up a night of missed opportunities for the Rams — they outgained the Seahawks, 339 yards to 135, and brought four drives inside the Seattle 15. But all they could amass were three field goals, and that final burst of futility.
As it has been through the last few games, the Seahawks were upended time and time again by a patchwork offensive line missing both of its starting tackles (Russell Okung, Breno Giacomini), and backups Paul McQuistan and Michael Bowie were not up to the task of containing Chris Long and Robert Quinn, the Rams’ defensive end combo. Quinn and Long may be the league’s best duo when it comes to quarterback disruption, and Seattle’s offensive line proved to be an easy mark. Quinn finished with three sacks, four tackles for loss, and five total quarterback hits, and Long matched Quinn’s effort with three sacks of his own. Wilson rarely had time to run the Seahawks’ staple pass play — the play-action deep ball — because he was trying to avoid getting hit on every play. Thus, screens and simple slants were the order of the day. And running back Marshawn Lynch, usually the epicenter of Seattle’s power offense, was muted — he gained just 23 yards on eight carries.
“We’ve got a long haul here,” head coach Pete Carroll said of his offensive line. “We’re halfway through the season, these are the guys we’re going with, and we’ve got to fix it. We knew that these guys would be a difficult matchup for us, and it just didn’t work out as well as we’d like. Russell did an excellent job again — he was pounded all night long. You could tell that he did a better job of being aware when he was getting hit, and getting the ball to the ground. Not a great positive, but it’s an improvement.”
The Rams defeated themselves more than the Seahawks did — they committed eight penalties for 53 yards, and several of those infractions wiped out big plays and killed extended drives. Their yards turned into empty calories, and the Seahawks proved to be the kind of team you don’t want hanging around for too long.
Clemens, seeing his first serious regular-season action since 2011, fared decently for his inexperience in place of Sam Bradford, out for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL in his left knee suffered against the Carolina Panthers last week. Clemens threw two howling interceptions, and appeared to be off track with his receivers at times, but he did enough to avoid losing. And the Rams’ running backs — who still haven’t scored a rushing touchdown all season — did enough to win.
Until it counted, that is.
Meanwhile, Wilson proved once again that even under constant duress, he will find ways to make it work. He completed just 10 passes on the night, but two were touchdowns to receiver Golden Tate. Of course, even the one pure splash play the Seahawks had still looked uglier than it should have. When Tate made an amazing jackknifing adjustment to catch Wilson’s pass in front of cornerback Janoris Jenkins with 3:45 left in the third quarter, he hot-dogged it all the way to the end zone, almost running out of bounds and nearly getting caught from behind on what eventually became an 80-yard score. Carroll did not hesitate to speak to Tate about it when Tate hit the sideline.
“That has nothing to do with our football,” the coach said. “That’s not the way we want to play. He has at times demonstrated more maturity than that, and we said something about it. He’s a playful, wonderful, spirited guy, but that was not the right thing to do. He knew it, and he apologized to everybody, but it kind of washes away a fantastic football play.”
And there were not enough fantastic football plays on either side to go around. For the Seahawks, the relief is that after a stretch in which they played four of five games on the road, they have three of their next four at home, and a bye to break it up. As for the Rams, their 3-5 record is a painful reminder of what might have been.http://nfl.si.com/2013/10/29/seatttle-seahawks-st-louis-rams-golden-tate/
Mark Chapman of Comstock Park High School named Detroit Lions HS football Coach of the Week
Coach Chapman led his Panthers to a 34-7 victory over Sparta on October 25 to end the regular season undefeated at 9-0. Comstock Park is currently ranked number #8 in Division 4. In his 23rd year of coaching and his 4th season as a head coach at Comstock Park, Chapman has directed the Panthers to playoff appearances in each of his 4 seasons, including state semifinal appearances in each of the last 2 seasons. Chapman is 39-8 at Comstock Park during this time. Chapman spent 3 years as a head coach at Grant (MI) High School, 9 years as an assistant coach at Grand Rapids Christian High School and 7 years as an assistant coach at Kenowa Hills High School. This Friday, Comstock Park will host the 6-3 Fremont Packers in a Division 4 pre-district playoff game.
Detroit, MI—The Detroit Lions have named Mark Chapman of Comstock Park High School the week nine recipient of the 2013 High School Football Coach of the Week Program.Coach Chapman led his Panthers to a 34-7 victory over Sparta on October 25 to end the regular season undefeated at 9-0. Comstock Park is currently ranked number #8 in Division 4. In his 23rd year of coaching and his 4th season as a head coach at Comstock Park, Chapman has directed the Panthers to playoff appearances in each of his 4 seasons, including state semifinal appearances in each of the last 2 seasons. Chapman is 39-8 at Comstock Park during this time. Chapman spent 3 years as a head coach at Grant (MI) High School, 9 years as an assistant coach at Grand Rapids Christian High School and 7 years as an assistant coach at Kenowa Hills High School. This Friday, Comstock Park will host the 6-3 Fremont Packers in a Division 4 pre-district playoff game.
In addition to the accomplishments on the field, Chapman, the football coaching staff and the members of the Comstock Park Athletic Department are First Aid and CPR certified and trained as first responders. All sports follow the Michigan High School Athletic Association guidelines for concussion protocol and heat awareness. Student-athletes are also administered the ImPACT baseline concussion test at the beginning of the season.
Each week throughout the 2013 nine-week high school football regular season, one coach that best develops his players’ character, discipline, and football skill in addition to emphasizing player health and safety in their program, will be recognized for his commitment to the team, school, and community. The winner is selected by a panel of high school football media members—Mick McCabe (Detroit Free Press), Hugh Bernreuter (Saginaw News), Bret Bakita (WOOD Radio-106.9 FM, ESPN 96.1 FM-Fox 17/Grand Rapids) and Scott DeCamp (Mlive.com/Muskegon).
This season’s program will award $11,000 to aid in the development and promotion of high school football in the state of Michigan thanks to contributions from the Detroit Lions and the National Football League.
Each winning coach throughout the regular season will receive a $1,000 donation to his school’s football program. At the conclusion of the 2013 Michigan High School Football season, the Lions will also select the High School Football Coach of the Year. This season’s Coach of the Year will receive a $2,000 donation to his team’s football program.
In addition to the monetary award, all winners receive a certificate signed by Lions’ head coach Jim Schwartz and National Football League (NFL) commissioner Roger Goodell. Winning coaches also receive a personalized game ball and a Detroit Lions “Coach of the Week” hat.
Currently in its’ 17th year, the Detroit Lions High School Coach of the Week program has awarded $312,000 to high school football programs throughout the state of Michigan. For more information on the Detroit Lions High School Coach of the Week program, contact Chris Fritzsching, Lions’ Director of Youth Football, at
http://www.detroitlions.com/news/article-1/Mark-Chapman-of-Comstock-Park-High-School-named-Detroit-Lions-HS-football-Coach-of-the-Week/177ab1d7-a0c6-4b17-b913-e35943caf1b3
Bruce Irvin picks off Kellen Clemens (GIF)
Plays like this one will certainly help.
“He’s really excited to be here,’’ linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. said, according to the Seattle Times’ Bob Condotta. “He really understands what he did wrong, and he is very happy to be back playing football. Just talking to him, he really appreciates this game a little bit more. Sometimes things have got to happen to you to appreciate it, and we are expecting a lot from him.”
Irvin recorded 8 sacks last year, and was apologetic about the situation to begin the season.
”I want to apologize to my teammates, coaches and Seahawks fans for making a mistake when I took a substance that is prohibited in the NFL without a medical exemption,” Irvin said in a statement released by the team, via foxsports.com and the Associated Press. ”I am extremely disappointed in the poor judgment I showed and take full responsibility for my actions. I will not appeal the discipline and instead will focus my energy on preparing for the season so I can begin earning your trust and respect again. I look forward to contributing to the team the moment I return.”
Seattle trails the St. Louis Rams 3-0 in the second quarter on Monday Night Football.http://fansided.com/2013/10/28/bruce-irvin-picks-kellen-clemens-gif/
World Series Game 4 ends in first-ever game-ending pickoff
Kolten Wong pinch-ran for the hobbled Craig, then Matt Carpenter popped out to second for the second out of the inning. The ever-dangerous Carlos Beltran came to the plate next, but wound up staying there.
One night after they lost the first World Series game to ever end on an obstruction call, the Red Sox won the first World Series game to ever end on a pickoff.
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