The UCLA Sports Law Federation (that I am active member of) is producing a panel discussion on NCAA compliance and other legal issues surrounding amateur sports. Here's the event flyer. We would love for you to join us:
As I’ve mentioned before, I became a diehard NBA fan during the 1990-91 season. That’s the season that I watched or listened to every Lakers game and watched the majority of the NBA’s nationally televised games. Anyhow, that’s 18 full seasons of fandom right there. Throughout that time there have been tons of memorable moments. So I’ve decided to revisit all of those memorable moments with a series of posts called the Jones on the NBA History of the NBA. These might not be the consensus most memorable moments during this time, but they are mine. I’m going to go season by season, from 1990-91 to 2007-08. Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy this series of posts. The first post will be up on Monday, and they'll continue all the way through to the start of the season. Enjoy!
Please check out MISIEK's YouTube page. My man has mixes for an plethora of NBA role players. I'm talking BJ Armstrong, John Paxson, and Lucious Harris mixes. I only have one request for MISIEK: Can we please get a Sedale Threatt or Terry Teagle mix? Peep the BJ mix below:
It’s NBA Stadiums blog day. Today bloggers from around the NBA blogosphere tell stories about their favorite NBA stadiums and look back at some of their most memorable NBA stadium experiences. Here’s a running thread of what everyone has contributed:
Forum Blue and Gold appropriately takes a look a back at one of my favorite stadiums, the Great Western Forum. Whenever I hear the Forum mentioned, I think of Chick Hearn announcing to his listeners that the game was a sell out with “seventeen thousand five-o-five in attendance”. Speaking of Chick, you should definitely read this SI piece from 1984 on Chick Hearn. "Painting word pictures that have made him the Michelangelo of broadcasters, Chick Hearn is the enduring voice of the Lakers." I've said it before, Magic and Chick are the main reasons I'm a basketball fan.
Rob from Upside and Motor compares and contrasts his experiences at the old Reunion Arena to the state of the art American Airlines Arena. Reading his post, I couldn't help but think back about how I used to think Rolando Blackman was a Basketball God before I even watched him play. I didn't have cable in my early stages of fandom (late 80s, early 90s), so I imagined things in my head based on the few times I would see a player play against the Lakers on television and based on the player stats I would pick up on those free Hoops basketball cards I'd get from McDonalds. Blackman had tremendous stats and played well against the Lakers. That's why when the Knicks picked him up in 1992 I immediately thought: "Ewing's stats and previous success against the Lakers + Blackman's stats and previous success against = Championship!" Let's just say my analysis has evolved a bit since then.
Brandon from BallerBlogger runs down some memorable moments at Denver's Pepsi Center. I know that there have been at least three games between the Lakers and Nuggets in that building where the game was won on a buzzer beating bucket.
Speaking of sitting front row, I got a chance to sit on the floor at the Staples Center for the first time this season. I have to say that floor seats are highly overrated and overpriced. At Laker home games last season, floor seats were $2300 per ticket. And there's a waiting list for those seats a mile long. Yet with floor seats, you don't get the best view of the court, and you've always got some camera guy, security guard, or arena official blocking your way during timeouts and between quarters. I think the best seats are about 5 rows up at center court. At Lakers games last season, those seats were about $250 per ticket. While both are kind of obnoxiously expensive, it's almost inexcusable to pay for floor seats at the Staples Center unless you're some movie star or recording artist that needs the camera time to promote a new movie or album.
We're deep into the off-season, and there's not that much exciting news going on. That's why it's a perfect time for the NBA blogosphere to throw something original in the direction of our readers (Hey, there are only so many Monta Ellis lied to the Warriors posts I can read before my head explodes). That's why the NBA blogosphere is going to come together next Monday (September 15th) for an NBA Stadiums Blog Day. Basically, next Monday a bunch of us NBA bloggers are going to be posting our favorite stories about our favorite NBA stadiums and our favorite NBA stadium experiences. Here are the blog participants so far:
This is also an opportunity for readers to get involved as well. If you don't have a blog, but would like to submit a story about your favorite NBA stadium or favorite NBA stadium experience, please email me at jonesonthenba [at] gmail.com. I'll post the stories here on the day of the event. Submissions should be stories about being at a stadium during a big game or big moment in NBA history. Stories should also contain information about what made/makes games at your favorite stadium unique (fans, hot dog guys, concessions, player introductions, lighting, seating, scoreboards, cheerleaders, mascots, celebrity fans, etc.) If people are as nostalgic as I am, I'm sure we're going to get tons of stories about the Forum, Boston Garden, Madison Square Garden (I could write and entire blog post just about MSG's awesome P.A. Man Mike Walcheski), Chicago Stadium, and the Spectrum. Check back Monday for links to all the action.
One of the best aspects of being an NBA fan over the years has been to enjoy seeing the evolution of NBA player introductions. Here’s a look back at NBA player introductions over the years.
In the old Boston Garden, the player introductions were pretty straightforward. Pretty much what you would expect for the Celtics (Forward to about 2:10 on the video below to see the introduction of the 1984 Celtics):
During Showtime there wasn’t much flash going on with their introductions. Although, I must say that I enjoy the simplicity of these intros much more than I do some of the highly obnoxious pre-game displays we see today.
The Pistons were one of the first teams to get a little funky with their starting line ups, introducing their Bad Boys to the tune of “The Final Countdown” (which they still use today).
Then the game started to change significantly. With the electrifying P.A. announcing of Ray Clay, the Chicago Stadium lights dimmed, and "Sirius" blasting in the background, the Chicago Bulls introductions of the early nineties took the starting line up game to an entirely different level. The Bulls player intros were so good that I would get upset if a Bulls home game was on TNT back then, as they would always pass on showing the introduction of the starters in favor of commercials.
After Clay and the Bulls revolutionized the game, everyone in the league started to follow suit. There were a lot of pretenders out there, but none really could ever hold a candle to Ray. However, I must say that if the Bulls player intros were the best, the New York Knicks probably were right under them.
Kind of sad to see how electric of a place the Garden used to be. The rabid New York City fans, the Knicks Garden theme ("Drive" by Edd Kalehoff), and Mike Walcheski had that place rocking. The mediocre Knicks now come out to some generic hip-hop music. Maybe the Knicks would start to win again if they went back to the old music? Actually, I don’t even think that magical theme could help that squad. These old Garden intros are so good, I think I might have to throw up another one just for fun. I especially love how Walcheski says “Paaaa-trick Ewing”.
The Sonic also had a pretty darn good player introductions. I know Key Arena was considered small (Thus, the former Sonics move to OKC), but in its day that place got loud! And you have to like any player introduction session that includes Squach and utilizes Pink Floyd’s “Run Like Hell” as its background theme.
Not to be out done, the Bulls stepped up their player introduction game a bit in 1995 when they moved into the state of the art United Center. Here’s Ray clay announcing the Bulls starters during the 1996 NBA Finals:
After the late nineties, player introductions fell off a bit. Everyone tried to capture the Ray Clay model and failed miserably. That changed a bit when Mason arrived as the P.A. man for the new millennium version of the Detroit Bad Boys. He definitely put some fun and originality back into player introductions.
With the arrival of KG, the Celtics also stepped up their player intro game a bit.
I think the key to having good player introductions is to have a quality P.A. man and find a theme that is original timeless (See: the Knicks and "Drive”, the Bulls and “Sirius”, the Pistons and “the Final Countdown”, and the Sonics and “Run Like Hell”). Seeing every team use Kanye West’s Stronger as their theme this year was highly disappointing. I mean, how unoriginal could you be? Plus you know that no team is going to utilize that track beyond one season.
No matter what teams do, it will be hard for them to conduct player introductions as well as the Knicks and Bulls were conducting their starting line up introductions in the nineties. If teams want to get their crowds hyped, they might want use those productions as the standard to follow.
"It's a little weird when people walk past you and they scream and start crying," Bryant said. "That freaks you out."
The Denver Post's Mark Kiszla has picked up on this and seems to be outraged at the Chinese selection of Kobe as their number one sports hero:
"Sure, the man can hoop. But he's not exactly the finest example of American virtue. So why does China go absolutely gaga for Kobe?"
Come on man, what exactly is the finest example of American virtue? Would you prefer the Chinese admire the Iraq war, Ward Connerly, or the greed and selfishness that led to the sub-prime mortgage crisis? I hate when columnists get all high and mighty like that. But I guess it has something to do with him writing for a paper in Colorado, and thus having to take a tone of disgust with anything associate with Bryant.
"Who would ever have thought that different countries have different perceptions of celebrity, right and wrong, and what's appealing on the basketball court? This is all new to me, coming from America, where everyone always feels the exact same way about what athletes are important and why. Oh, and we also all agree that the NBA is the greatest sport of all, too."
A commenter on Shoals' post serves up this perspective:
"I think the Chinese just have the luxury of being able to watch games without all the extra **** that we have to put up with - ESPN fawning over certain athletes, legal problems, etc etc. When we watch Kobe play, it´s tainted by Colorado, and Shaq, and his supposed selfishness. I bet if we could forget about all that superfluousness, we´d love him that much too."
Maybe it's time we all stop listening to talk radio and reading columnists like Kiszla, and start turning down the volume when we watch Kobe on television.
A straight up basketball junkie. I'm currently in my first year of law school at UCLA Law. My two professional passions are the business of professional basketball and education reform. Following law school, I'm looking to enter the world of professional athlete management, with an eye toward promoting athlete advocacy and autonomy and a goal of encouraging athletes to use their status and power to implement change within the communities they come from. I’m also in the process of starting an education foundation (The Almetris Duren Foundation) targeted toward creating higher education opportunities for socio-economically deprived blacks.
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