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NFL Mock Draft 2009 Draft of 2009 Lacks Star Power NFL Draft 2009: Getting Started Super Bowl Well Worth Tuning In For
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| NBA | |
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Prospects On Center Stage NBA Preview 2008/09: Final Call
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Tanking: Right Or Wrong? By Ron Jumper This time of year, every team is fighting for position. Some teams are fighting for playoff position, while others are fighting for lottery position. Those fighting for the latter are doing what I like to call tanking, which means losing at all costs. Where should fans draw the line? Should fans try to see the big picture or ask for their money back? The Milwaukee Bucks, on the other hand, don’t seem to care what anyone thinks. They are going to be tanking games and they really don’t care who knows it. They don’t even try to hide the fact they DO NOT want to win games. It is clear they want to have as good a chance as they can to come out a winner in the Oden-Durant sweepstakes. As we’ll discuss later, is that really so wrong? It became apparent that the Bucks were throwing away games in several outings. My favorite tank came against Dallas. The Bucks took Michael Redd out of the game with 33 seconds left in the 3rd quarter with the Bucks winning 82-77. Redd didn’t get back into the game until 4:35 left in the 4th quarter with the score tied at 95. Besides keeping your best player out of the game for nearly 8 minutes, the kicker is that Redd only took one shot in that last 4:35 when he had scored 34 points on 14-19 shooting from the floor through the first 3 quarters. It truly ranks as my all-time favorite tank. It was like they were trying for the first 3 quarters then looked up to see they were winning and panicked “Wait, we were sure we could try to win this game and we wouldn’t have a chance, I mean it is Dallas at home.” As they were seeing this you could probably hear a coach lean over and say, “we really should get Michael out of the game, he really is on fire tonight.” Man, you just have to love the NBA. If I’m a Bucks season-ticket holder, what do I think about all of this? Am I supposed to just sit back and know it is for the best? The flip side is that tickets to sporting events are not cheap. When the tanking began, the Bucks had 10 home games remaining. An NBA team plays 41 home games, so 10 is almost 25% of the home games! If you got the checkbook out to buy season tickets, would you be happy to know that 25% of your money could have been better used as toilet paper? For those that try to find the positive, let us refresh shall we? Take the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003. Quick. Name the starting 5. Name the coach. Name something that has to do with that team. I bet you are struggling. Then the Cavs won the lottery and drafted Lebron James. Attendance went up 7,000 the next season, which works out to be an extra $12 million annually. Obviously, that doesn’t even count concessions, parking, gift shop, and sponsorship revenue. Just by adding Lebron James, Cleveland is on television all the time and the fans love their Cavs. The franchise was worth around $240 million pre-Lebron but has become worth a whopping $360 million post-Lebron, which leads me to my next point. What would you do? If you owned the Bucks right now, you have to be saying to yourself something like “You know, we really aren’t a popular team around the NBA and we really don’t have any exciting players to market. It would be nice to have a boost in attendance and make a fortune selling jerseys. Wait, we could draft Greg Oden or Kevin Durant!” It is a tough call to make for league owners…Oh, who am I kidding…it is all about the money people! With somewhere in the ballpark of $300 million invested, what else would it be about? Every move made by every league owner gears toward making money and increasing the value of their franchise. This is just the way the NBA works. Always has, always will… April 9, 2007 |
| NCAA Football | |
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Be Careful What You Wish For
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| NCAA Basketball | |
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Jumpology: My Bracket Jumpology: Scouting The Heavyweights Jumpology: Reviewing The Bracket
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