The Official NBA Season Thread: Puerto Rico vs Serbia at 11:15 | USA vs South Sudan at 3

[ALNotSure]

It’s wild to me people making 20-50 million a year to play for us fans are saying they need all star game money to get hyped.

Insanity

This on Lebron. He was/is the face of the league. Never competed in anything. Doesn’t care about the all star game. Blames injuries when no one gets injured. This is on him. No stars care anymore. Jalen Brown isn’t a star, ain’t no one really thinking of him. I appreciate what he tried to do.

The entire weekend went from “the star of stars” to the “scrubs of scrubs”. The best basketball players are not competing which is outrageous.

Props to Steph, he put his 3 point shooting on the line win or lose and damn near lost.

My god we have a G league player dominating the dunk contest. It would be like a college player winning the home run derby.

Insanity.

 

[pmatic]

I think it's fascinating Dean Smith is so highly regarded (don't think I've ever seen anything bad written/said about him, ever) but his two UNC coaching understudies George Karl and Larry Brown are viewed as curmudgeons and miserable *******s.

 

[dacomeup]

The bag being guaranteed and these cats still spit in our face like this is wild

Spit in our face is wild . ASW is legitimately a glorified corporate event.

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

there used to be a time when parity for players was something i was all for
but nba players have become a corporate entity unto themselves.
my politics get in the way of granting them (and especially owners) the benefit of doubt too often these days.
maybe it's a generational thing as i see many newer ones asking for more while contributing less.

It’s a somewhat fair complaint to have I don’t think it means we’re old farts fist to the sky

Not just the asg but during the season too

 

[ALNotSure]

Furthermore Nique and Jordan and Magic etc all added to their legendary careers competing. People genuinely looked forward to the weekend. Even for 3s the best shooters were competing. Bird talking ****. Etc etc etc It was a weekend where the best of the best tried to show WHY THEY ARE THE BEST .

Instead we get concerts and led lights and all these distractions.

I have more respect for Shawn Kemp trying and losing than these guys not even trying

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Spit in our face is wild . ASW is legitimately a glorified corporate event.

A weekend long commercial

 

[ALNotSure]

Finally the shoes were whack they can’t even get that right.

Bout to join a pickleball league at this point

 

[don ramon]

old head energy: "these zillenials ain't ****. always complaining about having to do less while asking for more"

this is what i think i sound like right now and i hate it

 

[sooperhooper]

Game was a full court layup line

 

[broncos19dm]

 

[headdetective]

Nets job is a dummy mission.

Plan accordingly, Kevin

 

[adobecs4]

Melo keeps wanting Denver fans to love him here and most do for turning the franchise around. Not sure what his woe is me complex is all about. He wanted out and was moved out to his preferred destination. Had his marriage worked out and Denver not won a championship he wouldn't be talking.

This is completely false. You did exactly what you're claiming Melo is doing: create a made up narrative and running with it for talking points.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Spit in our face is wild . ASW is legitimately a glorified corporate event.

The level of inflated self-importance some NBA fans have is astounding

 

[don ramon]

Melo and him are both clowns. He beat cancer and is wasting time on made up beefs. No one in Denver cares about Melo or GK. Melo keeps wanting Denver fans to love him here and most do for turning the franchise around. Not sure what his woe is me complex is all about. He wanted out and was moved out to his preferred destination. Had his marriage worked out and Denver not won a championship he wouldn't be talking.

carmelo anthony has never acted like a victim
he's taken shots from george karl without snapping back when he was an active player
he's not an active player any longer and has every right to defend his name

this has nothing to do with the game. it's personal

 

[osh kosh bosh]

I am not pretending it doesn't matter. I just spelled out a way it does matter business-wise.

I am saying all things considered it doesn't matter to the players. And I completely understand why.

Furthermore, the players do things outside the League structure, to promote the game, for example, off-season international tours.

And I don't think the competitiveness of the game is all that consequential to the league, even in marketing.

So on balance, I would give them a pass.

All this "can't you see how they are hurting the brand" to me is just dressing up a "they are making the owners agree" argument.

This is such a bad business decision, you know it is horrible, and you have no way of quantifying it other than vibez

Sorry, not really convincing IMO

it's basically a 3 hour commercial on national TV on how much the NBA sucks.
that will generate hours and hours of national media coverage about how the NBA sucks.

I think that's really bad. you can call it vibes I guess in the sense that basically all of marketing is vibes.
but the risk of injury in a game that historically never has injuries seems like pretty small price to pay.

It is not that common, but it doesn't have to be common for players to consider the risk.

Take Devin Booker for example. His play and team record put him on the borderline of being all-NBA. The last part of the season will decide. He picked up minor lower leg injuries early in the team that made him miss a couple of games. He played with those injuries and hurt himself some more. Then

He is on track to not play enough games to qualify, even if he does nuts in the last part of the season.

Why should not think that him pulling a hamstring (which he does a lot) or turning an ankle (relatively minor injuries) would be a risk he wants to minimize? If he was playing on his Supermax contract, all NBA would be even more consequential for him.

I don't think the injury risk is some "I might tear my ACL out there" type of stuff. But more on the margin. All it has to do in seem like a credible risk. And unless you can show it to be 0%, then it is credible.

The risk of injury doesn't have to be common, it just has to be a real consideration for it to be impactful on player judgment


Most of the time, players would not get injured in a competitive game. But when it does happen, that player gonna look foolish and he will get nothing extra from the fans, Adam Silver, or anyone else than some hoop equivalent of "thoughts and prayers"

-I think off-season runs count as off-season training in players' minds too. And again, we see 100% of the all-star game. But a small fraction of NBA players playing offseason. Like Jokic clearly doesn't take this game seriously, post his Rico Hines runs for me then.

If he feels he's at risk for injury he shouldn't play.
again the entire history of the NBA, players were totally capable of calibrating their effort, to get a good work out in, try a bit and not injure themselves.
it's hard for me to understand what has changed. were the previous players stupid? were they more durable?

Im not asking for playoff effort, or regular season effort, but something close to pro am effort is totally reasonable.

like would you find it acceptable if each team just took turns taking half court shots all game? i mean that would lower the risk of injury to zero ritgh?
clearly there's a balance to strike. and I don't understand how 80 year of nba players could find that balance, but these players can't.

whatever balance their is to strike I think the players are not even close to the acceptable range.

-I think off-season runs count as off-season training in players' minds too. And again, we see 100% of the all-star game. But a small fraction of NBA players playing offseason. Like Jokic clearly doesn't take this game seriously, post his Rico Hines runs for me then.

jokic is notable because he's highly unusual, most NBA players hoop during the summer at some point.
and tbh I think he's exaggerating a lot of that, Aaron Gordon talked about going to sombor, he said they worked out.
again i think it's more about being cool, it's cool to be "aw shucks I don't even hoop during the off season"

The same logic can be applied to your idea of fines. Do you think a $50,000 fine gonna make players try harder?

You are gonna have to fine them huge amounts.

Amounts that the Player's Association will probably have to agree to.

What do you think the Player's Association gonna be more open to, bonuses or fines?

I think the fines are about shame, I think the flopping fines worked under the same principle.
getting a reputation for egregious totally fake flopping was something players wanted to avoid. and I think it worked.

Nah, I disagree. I just think the players, given market conditions, know there isn't a real need to give a damn.

fair enough, I think it's highly anti social behaviour spured on by group social dynamics.

 

[headdetective]

Spit in our face is wild . ASW is legitimately a glorified corporate event.

That’s what it’s clearly turned into, which is why people are complaining.

Imagine people expecting paid basketball players to play basketball.

 

[rolaholic]

Yea I still don't know what Melo did to cause any animosity from that fanbase

Answering specific questions that are being asked about his time in Denver on a podcast doesn't sound that bad tbh

 

[dacomeup]

The level of inflated self-importance some NBA fans have is astounding

It’s comical. The vast majority of the league is on vacation and 24 guys are representing the league to corporate sponsors. The game gets worse and the entire weekend gets bigger and more corporatized. I don’t think most people understand the business of sports at all.

 

[dacomeup]

That’s what it’s clearly turned into, which is why people are complaining.

Imagine people expecting paid basketball players to play basketball.

Then you should be complaining to Adam Silver and the Governors. Hate to break it to you, but the players aren’t the reason that it’s turned into a glorified corporate event.

 

[headdetective]

As a kid I told myself imma hit up all star weekend once I’m old enough to have the bread for it.

Not for the experience. It was cause I thought I was gon see the best vs the best.

I got the bread now but at this point, you couldn’t pay me to go to that joint.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

Spit in our face is wild . ASW is legitimately a glorified corporate event.

the amount of money sports generates is dependant on the audience believing it's not just like any other job.
you don't get stadiums full of people living and dying on the outcome of children's games because they think it's just like "a corporate event"

reminding fans that it is a just millionaires at a corporate event, breaks the illusions that generates the money.

it degrades the fan experience, and hurts the product.


imo it's like the equivalent of telling people mad about some wrestling storyline
"wrestling is fake"

or people charged up about the ending of Sopranos.
"you know its a tv show it's just millionaires playing pretend"

 

[headdetective]

the players aren’t the reason that it’s turned into a glorified corporate event.

Nah bro, the players play. They get all the blame cause it’s either in them or it ain’t and it doesn’t have anything to do with money or corporate.

These cats like 20+ million a piece.

 

[getback]

Spit in our face is wild . ASW is legitimately a glorified corporate event.

Exactly. It's like a Gala with a little exhibition.

 

[aepps20]

carmelo anthony has never acted like a victim
he's taken shots from george karl without snapping back when he was an active player
he's not an active player any longer and has every right to defend his name

this has nothing to do with the game. it's personal

This all started with Melo's podcast adventures last week and other times. From his revisionist history on the rebuild to not understanding why his jersey wasn't retired. The facts are that he told the team he wouldn't resign and he was moved to his preferred destination. GK hates him and is joining in but all this stuff about the team wanting to rebuild doesn't hold water.

 

[ALNotSure]