Basketball thread

[MissBarbara]

Oh you silly Brits!

Basketball is the sport where the tall guys try to throw a big orange ball through a hoop. Baseball is the sport where the guys in silly-looking uniforms and goofy socks try to hit a little white ball with a stick.

Now, you know.

 

And your view on cricket & rugby would be ...........

Rugby is a sport for manly men. They do everything that American football players do, except without all the padding and protection.

Any rugby, of course, is not just a men's sport, as these members of the Oxford University women's rugby team can attest:








I'll admit I don't understand cricket at all. I watched a cricket match for about an hour a couple of summers ago in Central Park, and I didn't get what was going on. But, despite my ignorance of the game and failure to understand it, I know that it is the second or third most popular sport on the planet.

And, in the interest of equal time:

[ObiDongKenobi]

England cricket team

         James Anderson.            Stuart Broad.                Alastair Cook (Capt.)

[Pornhubby]

Head Coaches sacked for really no damn good reason: 2019 NBA champion coach Nick Nurse, 2021 champion coach Mike Budenholzer, 2021 Western Conference champion and 2022 coach of the year Monty Williams, and most recently 2008 NBA champion coach Doc Rivers were all fired.

What are these owners smoking? My fucking God, you win championships, but not every season. You’ve got to build a team. Budenholzer has the best record in Bucs history, and he got sacked. It just makes no sense to me.

Fucking billionaire owners who think they can just buy anything they want. I think they’re all in for a real shock. Only 1 team out of 30 is going to win the NBA each year.  Statistically, that’s 3.33%.

[Pornhubby]

Sad night.

Dallas lost.
San Antonio lost.
Minnesota lost.
Detroit lost.

Lots of losing. Glad I fell asleep at 7 pm.

[staci]

And the WINNER is - PH, who got a much needed full nights sleep.

[MintJulie]

Sad night.

Dallas lost.
San Antonio lost.
Minnesota lost.
Detroit lost.

Lots of losing. Glad I fell asleep at 7 pm.

Basketball is so far outside the circle of things I do care about.  But I have heard about our new player from last year that will hopefully make Detroit relevant again.  Hopefully soon.  I enjoyed watching.    I'm an extreme band wagon Pistons fan.  I'll watch when they're really good, or I don't care one bit.  Right now the latter.   Dan still gets his sports center updates on occasion. 

[Pornhubby]

Basketball is so far outside the circle of things I do care about. 

Somebody told me once that, “Anything important in basketball happens in the final three minutes.” I have never forgotten that. Watch the last three minutes and you’ll see everything that matters in a game.

[msslave]

I agree but I've always felt it was the last two minutes. I'll give you that extra minute. Those high scores and close games get pretty boring.
 Seems like the teams just keep trading baskets until the end when they get serious about defense.

[Pornhubby]

Seems like the teams just keep trading baskets until the end when they get serious about defense.

[msslave]

Love it. Kitty BB

[Rainwater]

I'll admit I haven't watched an NBA game in many years, probably not since the 1990's era, and as it turns out I am probably all the happier for it.  I happened to catch the last few minutes of a TV sports program the other night and I saw the NBA scores at the bottom of the screen and said to my wife, "What the hell! Are they not playing defense anymore?" The scores were all up in the 140's and 130's.

I expressed this to a couple of co=workers the following day.  The Euro-step was explained to me, that I was indeed right about the lack of emphasis on defense, and that basically fouls were called for minimal contact.  I joked what next?  Are they going to lower the rim to 8 ft so everyone can dunk and call fouls for looking wrong at someone?

I guess I haven't missed much. 

[Pornhubby]

According to Spotrac, Caitlin Clark signed a four-year $338,000 contract, which will pay $76,535 this year and increase through 2027, topping out at $97,582 in 2027. Needless to say, this is not the salary one expects college basketball's top scorer of all time to make in her first year playing professionally.

TIL. Just disgusting.

Even the average NBA rookie benchwarmer will make $10,132,300.

Similarly, Nike paid Tiger Woods $40,000,000 his first year.

By comparison, Clark recorded 3,000+ points, 900+ assists, and 800+ rebounds in her college career. She is the all-time NCAA scorer, mens or womens.

In her last game, the audience was 14.2 million. She sold out every home game with an audience of 13,000 plus.

Here’s a thought. Forgo her salary and simply pay her $1 per head and give her 1% of Fever ownership.

Ether way, both win and maybe we will begin to come close to what a superstar female athlete is actually worth.

[msslave]

I too felt this was a huge disgrace in the sports world. More and more people are turning out for women's sports. Clark will be filling the arena for the Fever. As she makes a few thousands the Fever will be taking money to the bank by the truckload.

Here in Minnesota where Iowa is a noted rival, "The Barn", our arena was popping at the seams when Clark and her Hawkeye's came to town.

Hang your head in shame WNBA

[MintJulie]

It is a shame.  She will be making others way more than they are paying her. Happy that she will still get her money through advertising, it's the other players down the bench that might still be working another job when not at the court that I feel sorry for. 

[Pornhubby]

More people watched the women’s NCAA final, than watched the men’s. First time in history.

[msslave]

Well I don't know what to say. Since the team was formed I've always considered them losers. Seemed to me they just rarely won any games or got into the playoffs.

Imagine my surprise when I picked up the paper this morning to find they won the second game of the first round of playoffs. Wolf's are up 2 games to 0 over the Sun's.

Guess I just never bothered to pay attention.
So from a get on the bandwagon fan,

GO TIMBERWOLVES!!!
 

[Pornhubby]

I saw Caitlin Clark got a $22 million deal with Nike. Feel a little better now.

Dallas is tied 1-1 in their first round series with the LA Clippers. Exciting come from behind win last night for NBA scoring leader Luka Doncic.

[purpleshoes]

The deal with Nike is for eight years, and up to $28 million. I can't help but wonder how that will be broken up into payments. Will she get a lump sum once a year, or a monthly check? Twenty-eight million over eight years works out to 3-1/2 million per year, or just under $300,000 per month. Not bad for someone whose day job only pays $75,000 a year. And that's just one of her contracts.

She also has endorsement deals with Buick, State Farm, Bose, Shoot Away (they make basketball shooting machines), Hy-Vee (which as of January has Caitlyn's Crunch Time cereal on its store shelves), H&R Block, Panini America (trading cards and signed memorabilia), Goldman-Sachs and The Vinyl Studio ( a woman-owned clothing company founded in Iowa) according to Sporting News.

[msslave]

So glad Clark is getting good paydays from endorsements. I'm still burning at the low py woman are receiving. I knew it was not up to par with men's sports but when I saw her pay I hit the ceiling.

Champions like her deserve so much more. Maybe with her endorsement money she can buy the team and fire the head office so they can start fresh with fair pay.

[msslave]

Another hard fought game between our Timberwolves and Toe's Mavericks. With 6.5 minutes to play Wolves.ahead.by 2.