Monday, August 31, 2009

Question Of The Day

Saw this as a sidebar when I read that Ricky Rubio's spending the next two years in the Euroleagues. I'll get to that in another entry.

Here is the Question of the Day; Are stories about a player's struggles with emotional and/or substance issues news?

Answer: Yes.

Because substance abuse issues directly impact a player's performance, and a player's performance is always news. I don't assign addicts any moral stigma -- I've got family that're in recovery. However, athletes with drug and alcohol problems have a duty -- to their organizations, coaches, teammates, fans, family, friends, and selves -- to seek help for their illness, to treat it by whatever means necessary, to recognize that recovery is a lifetime process (addiction never goes away), to recognize signs of a relapse, and to repeat all of the above when relapses happen. The same goes for emotional problems. An athlete is responsible for keeping him/herself functioning at the highest possible level. That's their job.

Yes, I'm looking at you, Josh Hamilton.
-BJ

Sunday, August 30, 2009

I'm Guessing They Rock-Paper-Scissors

Fresh grist for the rumor mill; Fisher knows a guy who says the Warriors and the Mavericks are talking business. Several of the Warriors -- including Captain Jack his ownself -- have gone public with a desire to be Elsewhere and the front office is looking to downsize payroll. Which the Mavericks can help them do.

I think Stephen Jackson's a dick, to be honest. But he's a dick I'd want on my side. Trouble is his contract is a vat of sick with a basketball floating in it -- four years, $36 million. Monta Ellis is also wishing for a Get Out Of San Francisco Bay Free card, he can probably be had for reasonable, and his stats aren't bad.

When everything the Mavs have been doing this offseason has been about having plus eating, how willing is the Organization to take long-term deals? Last year's talent acquisition . . . didn't go well. To put it mildly, the state of affairs these days is rather more uncertain, in every imaginable respect.
-BJ

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Go You (gulp!) Lions!

Why is Iverson still unemployed?

If you've read Kitchen Confidential, you know the answer to that. In production-driven environments, one can get away with being unpleasant, rude, crude, filthy, psychotic, possibly homicidal . . . if and only if you can bring something to the table no one else can. Allen Iverson is Adam Real Last Name Unknown if Adam ever lost the power to make the magic bread. I might be reading this wrong, but in a system that made him pay for behaving like an asshole, he blew away like a bad fart smell.

Football season tuning up. Don't really give a shit. Bracing for unwelcome Cowboys overload in the coming months. I am not a Cowboys fan and watching them fuck up last year was a source of amusement, bemusement, and exasperation. By the way, the guy that called into the radio show comparing Tony Romo to Dirk Nowitzki should've had his talking priviledges revoked.

In other news, Nowitzki and Barea will not be playing for their respective national teams this summer -- Dirk because he promised Mr. Cuban that if Germany made the Olympics last year he'd take this year off, JJ because he hasn't recovered enough from an operation on his shoulder right after the season ended. My first loyalty is to the Mavericks, so cutting down any injury risk is a good thing. It still sucks they're not able to play.

About ten more weeks . . .
-BJ

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Beat The Check To The Bank

For those who do business mostly by debit cards and don't remember when delays in bank processing worked as much in your favor as for the banks', let me explain:

In the days of yore, when one wrote a paper check, one could count on a delay of at least one full business day before the funds were actually subtracted from your balance. This is because checks had to be physically shipped to a processing center, have the information on them encoded by a data entry person, and go through a special machine. Meaning, you could write a check to pay your phone bill at AT&T's office on Thursday, make a deposit on Friday, and the odds were in your favor the check wouldn't bounce. These days, with Check 21 making electronic presentment legal, a check can clear the same day it's written. You can still try and play the game, but the window of opportunity is much smaller -- for the record no bank I know of honors postdated checks, the check is legal the day it clears, not the day you dated it.

The breaking news of the day is the Organization et al are pulling another Sign And Trade Holy Shit with Drew Gooden's contract. The details are still being researched by the Good King Of Numbers over on DallasBasketball (David Lord, folks, let's give him a hand). The figures we all of the great unwashed were given said Gooden was signed for most of the MLE -- about four and a half miles. Which is what it is and that's what'll be reported for cap purposes.

But . . . there's a window, from December 15 to January 10, when the Mavs can trade him, the receiving team can waive him, and a grand total of $5.725 million falls off their books. If I'm reading it right (and I'm not saying I am, cap rules confuse me), all the Mavs would be out in such a scenario is $1.9 million.

What this means is, between Greg Buckner (similar situation, his contract becomes guaranteed in November), Drew Gooden, and Erick Dampier (next summer), the Mavs are finding a way to create a little player-mobility wiggle room while still forking over almost $82 millions in payroll.

In other news, the schedule for the regular season was released last week.

Whelt, it's official, sports fans, the Mavs are no longer media darlings. No ABC Sunday matinees this year. Understandable, but it sucks. We've got back-to-backs coming out the wazoo, with twenty in all. Season opener is against the Wizards at home, first road game is against the Lakers. The Nuggets aren't coming to town until the end of March -- I've got a bullwhip saved just for them. And the Spurs are in town for the regular season finale.

Is the offseason over yet?
-BJ

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Saying Goodbye

Up until recently, a traditional center was a necessity for a Western Conference team because most of the traditional centers played in the West. With Yao out for the duration and Shaq in Cleveland fucking up their way of life, has the Organization rethought that?

I ask because word's come down that Minnesota's made young Mr. Hollins an offer that the Mavs have no interest in matching -- capped with a Best Wishes tweet from The Boss.

I'm unsure of the wisdom of letting go an athletic young center who plays his guts out -- you will always have a soft spot in my heart for posterizing Timmy Duncan, man. On the other hand, I see a rationale -- young Mr. Hollins is practically an infant in NBA terms and he's going to cost time and money more efficiently utilitzed elsewhere.

All that's by the way. Fare well, Ryan Hollins, and go in peace.
-BJ