Paul S
01-02-2004, 09:05 PM
Lets look at the last four big NBA decisions.
PRO - Memphis gets a team!!!
CON - Vancouver loses' a team and the 'big global expansion' idea suddenly gets cut in half because one of the two foreign teams is suddenly moved to the media hub of Memphis Tennessee.
PRO - New Orleans gets (another) team!!!
CON - Charlotte had such ridiculously awful ownership the state of NC gave the moving vans a police escort to the state line to ensure they actually left.
PRO - WBNA!!!!! Womens Basketball finally has a pro league.
CON - The NBA is losing a bundle of money. THey would have cut their losses years ago but they always find reasons that it wasn't working in the past and now will suddenly take off. Remember 1/ competition from the other womans league ABA/ABL 2/ Womens sports fans can't decide between the pro soccer or pro basketball. 3/ The economy's in the dumps and people don't have the 15 bucks available.
All those issues that were stopping the league in the past are all gone. Problems???? Well ok they're still around but there's a new idea that just might solve.................blah blah blah
and finally we get to the point of the post from the get-go. Realizing this is a message board for minor leagues and not anti-NBA rants we get to the "piece' de resita'nce " (or in American "cut to the chase")
PRO - NBDL is annoucned. Providing great basketball to all fans for resonable prices.
CON - Well lets be honest. Damn near everything is a con when we talk about the NBDL. THe best part of the entire debacle was the ESPN show 'Down Low. Life in the D League' which premiered during the opening week with a player driving to the first tryouts/practises' and talking about how he can't wait to play in the NBDL because he'll get dental insurance and now can get his teeth professionally cleaned. Ya, if you don't believe me watch the first episode, he then continues to talk about all the other leagues he was in during his pro career about getting dropped from teams in the USBL, CBA, IBA and in Israel. (This is the time to remember the song and dance about great exciting basketball- he's still listing off teams that he was cut from though) I mean how exciting can it be with the guys who have been fired from every other league. He remembers the worst was in Winnipeg when the team wouldn't fly him out for 3 days after cutting him and he had to live in the hotel with the other players and he mooped around watching Canadian tv for the entire time. We then dramatically move to the Mexican player who the NBDL either forgot/couldn't be bothered or just plain didn't get a US visa for. So he had to watch the first 3 games in the stand with one eye on the game and another spying a back door lest the INS show up. Lucky for him the INS and absolutely nobody else showed up to the games. We now are 3 years into the NBDL and David 'finger on the pulse' Stern has maybe/kinda/sorta/we think/possibly figured out there is a problem with attendance and is rumoured to be thinking about buying into the CBA. Not that anyone has a firm idea mind you because Stern in his typical fashion is so coy that nobody can tell if he's playing his cards close to his chest or is absolutely oblivious to the whole situation.
If there was ever a reason for the CBA to be wary of anything its the NBDL. Its actually possible that if the CBA was to sign any kind of piece of paper from the NBA about the D League that we would be in the entirely unbelievable who would have thunk it position that someone would be running the CBA even more poorly than Isiah Thomas. That name ring a bell????????? Remember when the NBA wanted to buy the league for around 7-8 million bucks and he wanted more. So they started there own (obviously highly successful) league.
This things a disaster. If I was the CBA and a letter showed up from the NBA simply write "RETURN TO SENDER" on the envelope. If a phone call comes through one day and its David Sterns secretary looking to set up a conference call or a meeting, simply put on your best Chinese accent and shout "WONG NUMBA" into the phone.
But they won't. No the idea of money and of all the success of the South and basketball (Atlanta Hawks sizzling attendance, the Charlotte Bobcats, the Kentucky Colonels and Kentucky Pro-Cats, everyones favorite Elvis impersonator who runs the GBA and the Caucasian Basketball League) will make there eyes water with anticipation. No they'll do it. All it'll take is one call and they'll be hooked.
Hopefully the Meisenheimer family will heed the warning and keep the USBL ticking along with the profits of helicopters.
PRO - Memphis gets a team!!!
CON - Vancouver loses' a team and the 'big global expansion' idea suddenly gets cut in half because one of the two foreign teams is suddenly moved to the media hub of Memphis Tennessee.
PRO - New Orleans gets (another) team!!!
CON - Charlotte had such ridiculously awful ownership the state of NC gave the moving vans a police escort to the state line to ensure they actually left.
PRO - WBNA!!!!! Womens Basketball finally has a pro league.
CON - The NBA is losing a bundle of money. THey would have cut their losses years ago but they always find reasons that it wasn't working in the past and now will suddenly take off. Remember 1/ competition from the other womans league ABA/ABL 2/ Womens sports fans can't decide between the pro soccer or pro basketball. 3/ The economy's in the dumps and people don't have the 15 bucks available.
All those issues that were stopping the league in the past are all gone. Problems???? Well ok they're still around but there's a new idea that just might solve.................blah blah blah
and finally we get to the point of the post from the get-go. Realizing this is a message board for minor leagues and not anti-NBA rants we get to the "piece' de resita'nce " (or in American "cut to the chase")
PRO - NBDL is annoucned. Providing great basketball to all fans for resonable prices.
CON - Well lets be honest. Damn near everything is a con when we talk about the NBDL. THe best part of the entire debacle was the ESPN show 'Down Low. Life in the D League' which premiered during the opening week with a player driving to the first tryouts/practises' and talking about how he can't wait to play in the NBDL because he'll get dental insurance and now can get his teeth professionally cleaned. Ya, if you don't believe me watch the first episode, he then continues to talk about all the other leagues he was in during his pro career about getting dropped from teams in the USBL, CBA, IBA and in Israel. (This is the time to remember the song and dance about great exciting basketball- he's still listing off teams that he was cut from though) I mean how exciting can it be with the guys who have been fired from every other league. He remembers the worst was in Winnipeg when the team wouldn't fly him out for 3 days after cutting him and he had to live in the hotel with the other players and he mooped around watching Canadian tv for the entire time. We then dramatically move to the Mexican player who the NBDL either forgot/couldn't be bothered or just plain didn't get a US visa for. So he had to watch the first 3 games in the stand with one eye on the game and another spying a back door lest the INS show up. Lucky for him the INS and absolutely nobody else showed up to the games. We now are 3 years into the NBDL and David 'finger on the pulse' Stern has maybe/kinda/sorta/we think/possibly figured out there is a problem with attendance and is rumoured to be thinking about buying into the CBA. Not that anyone has a firm idea mind you because Stern in his typical fashion is so coy that nobody can tell if he's playing his cards close to his chest or is absolutely oblivious to the whole situation.
If there was ever a reason for the CBA to be wary of anything its the NBDL. Its actually possible that if the CBA was to sign any kind of piece of paper from the NBA about the D League that we would be in the entirely unbelievable who would have thunk it position that someone would be running the CBA even more poorly than Isiah Thomas. That name ring a bell????????? Remember when the NBA wanted to buy the league for around 7-8 million bucks and he wanted more. So they started there own (obviously highly successful) league.
This things a disaster. If I was the CBA and a letter showed up from the NBA simply write "RETURN TO SENDER" on the envelope. If a phone call comes through one day and its David Sterns secretary looking to set up a conference call or a meeting, simply put on your best Chinese accent and shout "WONG NUMBA" into the phone.
But they won't. No the idea of money and of all the success of the South and basketball (Atlanta Hawks sizzling attendance, the Charlotte Bobcats, the Kentucky Colonels and Kentucky Pro-Cats, everyones favorite Elvis impersonator who runs the GBA and the Caucasian Basketball League) will make there eyes water with anticipation. No they'll do it. All it'll take is one call and they'll be hooked.
Hopefully the Meisenheimer family will heed the warning and keep the USBL ticking along with the profits of helicopters.