Happen to notice a familiar name in that specific blurp?
James White!
What I found amusing during the Cadaver-Faker game yesterday was when one of the announcers talked about "Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, you could talk about their accomplishments all day" or some crap like that.
Yes, do tell, what exactly HAS LeBron accomplished besides a unique way of throwing tal power into the air?
yeah i saw that too and even though LA is the best team in the nba now, ur gonna tell me that you dont even feature an article about the Spurs-Celtcs game? Unbelievable. ESPN is getting it up the ass from Lebron and Kobe that idk how the hole isnt in catastrophic condition now.
Tim Duncan had another great game yesterday. He is the only player in the nba to have 20 pts 10 reb and 5 assists a total of 5 times. But no espn dare not report that for fear it might lose the fan base. It upsets me that espn is unappreciating greatness at work. What has kobe done the last 4 years???? NOTHING. What has lebron done the last 4 years??? NOTHING!
oh but they put a featured article on the d league dunk contest. Screw that dude.
Its high time we start getting respect for teams that actually have done something when it counts, the playoffs. Not stroking the abnormally long of kobe and lebron.
Agreed. But as FWD points out below is the "why" to the "what it is". I've long believed that due to the financial condition of the NBA in the late 70's: it was drowing in red ink, several franchises in dire straights on the verge of collapse, TV revenues down and half empty arenas that something had to be done to survive. So a MARKETING change was conceived and the players now became the primary product to promote instead of the teams. This worked out beautifully with Magic, Bird and then Jordon coming into the league at that time. It also didn't hurt for those players to all go to large market areas - LA, Boston and Chicago either.
I also think that the league and media figured out that the average fan is basically uneducated about the ins and outs of BB and what was needed to attract them is exciting entertainment - facial dunks, wicked crossovers, 3 pt shooting, between the legs passing...etc rather than basic fundamental BB. I remember the ESPN highlight reels back in the 80's being all about that stuff. It's was MJ, Magic, Bird, Dominique...etc.
It's amazing how few teams in the NBA are avidly promoted vs. the NFL. A four time Super Bowl champ winning at a .600 + clip for over a decade is a must see team. Period!
But I guess not so much in the NBA.
James White!!!!
But if there wasn't those attributes to the game we'd basically be watching a WNBA game. I know what you're saying, "it's what we've been trained to like," but hey, that's our entire culture. Everything is bigger, better, and flashier and that sells. Like I said, it's not right, but it is what it is
Not even first take on ESPN mentioned the spurs win. But they did a college team from some state win before the lakers highlights
The A-Roid scandal has bumped us all to the back page...god I'm sick of baseball already and it's not even spring training. This steroid scandal is like a turd that won't flush
they could try and throw us a bone from time to time. it's not like we're asking them to crown the spurs as champions.
Absolutely. The common fan wants excitement and the inner beauty of the game - regardless of sport - is really of no concern to them. Americans demand instant gratification and by God they had better get it or they will go elsewhere.
Look ot the changes ins uted by the NFL and NBA to increase the offensive production thereby supplying the satisfaction to fulfill that all desired gratification.
Seeing as the Spurs (with a worse record) have just leap-frogged over the Celtics and Cavs and Magic, I don't know how much more respect you guys want.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerr...n=2009&week=15
1 (4) Lakers 41-9 If the past seven days say anything, it's that this team is better than last season's Lakers -- even if Bynum can't come back -- because of Pau and Ariza ... and if the Odom we saw in Boston and Cleveland sticks around.
2 (5) Spurs 34-15 Looks like that Popovich fellow knew just what he was doing when he ordered Timmy, Manu and Tony to skip the game in Denver, gas up during the four days off that followed and then leave it all on the floor in Boston.
3 (1) Celtics 42-11 Can't see the Celtics sliding into another 2-7 funk after their second streak-busting loss to the Lakers. But Boston just allowed 100 points in three successive games, which is something else we didn't expect to see.
4 (3) Cavaliers 39-10 First Mo Williams is snubbed again for an All-Star spot, then LeBron is stripped of his MSG triple-double, then the home winning streak is halted by the Lakers. Weeks don't get much more deflating for teams up here.
5 (2) Magic 38-12 Jameer is obviously borderline irreplaceable for the Magic, but all of us will feel the loss, too. Hard to see how the second round of the East playoffs can be as tasty as we thought with Orlando missing such a major piece.
Yeah, but it's not exactly like the Pittsburgh Steelers, among the favorite NFL teams for fans and the media alike, have ever played a tremendously exciting brand of football.
If NBA coverage applied to the NFL, Larry Fitzgerald and the exciting, fast-paced, air-it-out-at-all-costs Cardinals would have been mega-stars long before their Super Bowl run in 2008-09.
I stand by what I think has been my point all along: yes, fans want to see superstars, but in the NBA the determination about who is a superstar depends substantially upon the extent to which ESPN and other such outlets decree that certain players shall be superstars.
Huge difference between ESPN in general and Stein, who actually covers the league and is highly conversant about its minor stars and role players while being focused -- as his weekly power rankings would suggest -- upon the quality of teams and not just their star power.
What I'm talking about here has less to do with the Spurs specifically than it does with the way in which major media outlets, for the most part, cover the NBA. It's star-making at its finest followed by a rejection of almost anyone who doesn't qualify as a star.
Again, if Brandon Roy pulls off the exact same game that Kobe did at MSG last week, do you think the coverage is the same? Tony Parker? Dirk Nowitzki? Joe Johnson?
I think you points are well founded. And it's not just you.http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailyd...ge=dime-090209
I know I should let it go, but it just irks me. Until I read closely, I thought there was no mention at all of our win in Boston. It is stuffed at the bottom of #3, below Steve Nash's picture...mixed in with a bunch of meaningless Elias stats. It is actually a tidbit about two players in the Spurs front court having at least 23pts each, so it really doesn't single out the fact that we just beat one of the best teams in the NBA on their home floor.
Whatever.
I can honestly say this, not as a Spurs fan, but a pro basketball fan. I'm quite sick of the 24x7 Kobe/Lebron news cycle. From their statistical exploits of this past week to the unnecessary attention on the summer of 2010 and the burning question of "What will LeBron do?".
Just this past week, the 4-letter network took this star-indulgence to a new level - even for them. They ran highlights of Kobe and Lebron's exploits a full 48 hours after the games had concluded!
On Sunday, while the Spurs/Celtics were playing, guess what game NBATV was broadcasting? A replay of the Fakers/Knicks game in MSG last week. Of course, ABC continued the excessive fanfare by spending practically all of their NBA Shootaround pregame segments previewing the 2nd game of the double-header. All this while, virtually ignoring the Spurs/Celtics tilt until they were ready to tipoff.
My point is the league is filled with other stories, news & notes, and features that would be useful to the NBA viewing fan. There are trade rumors galore, game highlights from the previous night, injury reports and such. All of which gets pushed aside for more forced coverage of Kobe/Lebron, and their respective teams.
Again, this has nothing to do with my love for the Spurs. , I love the Dallas Cowboys, but I'm so sick of them being the subject of every fricking NFL storyline that I'm ready to puke. No team, player or coach should warrant that much overblown coverage - in any sport.
This is why I say Duncan needs to go on a rampage, go pick on some point guards or start talking trash. The Spurs go out of their way to fly under the radar, and it starts with their Superstar.
The Lakers were supposed to lose in Cleveland. Nobody's surprised the Celtics lost to the Spurs. Not much of a story.
Talking about the Spurs being good is like saying water is wet. There's just not much excitement there.
Here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/column...PERDiem-090209
Happy now?
That's the problem, the media is expecting the next Jordan giving less accomplished players the coverage they've yet to deserve just so they could try and say "I told you so, we knew all along this kid was a star". They force feed this to America showing that individual accolades are far greater than team work and dedication. Feed in swines Kobe & Lebron > team work and sportsmanship.
What is the first and primary letter in ESPN?
E
Entertainment. Sports is secondary.
Although this year is looking to be an exception due to the youth injection, the Spurs of the last 10 years play a boring (but effective) brand of basketball. Very defensive, slow-paced games with lots of fouls and flopping and O/U's of 175 points. For a casual fan that's hard to watch--whether you've been trained to dislike it or not. The 80's were the an hesis of this and the defensive, bogged-down trend started with Daly's Pistons and Riley's Knicks.
Slight retraction from the bull feeder?
It should be noted that the league does have a say with which network to partner with every few years, and they have chosen to go with networks that have selected to market individual stars than those that has deeper basketball knowledge.
Networks such as NBC and TNT, though with their flaws, are generally more knowledgeable in the game of basketball than that of ABC and ESPN.
It is no secret that the league has been trying desperately to look for the next Jordan since his Airness retired after the 1998 (the Washington stint doesn't count), or even before. This is no different from when the waves of "next Magics' came in during the mid-90s (Penny Hardaway, Steve Smith, Lamar Odom, Danny Manning, Walt Williams, and such).
While the chosen one, Jordan, successfully dominated the 90s, the next appointed one (Kobe or LeBron) was not as successful in their pursuit of a championship as Jordan was, and this is playing out much like Jordan's 1st 7 years in the league.
We will see where this take us. Frankly, I would be very surprised if Kobe or LeBron was not able to win a championship with them as the featured player.
Allanon,
Then its up to the media to be creative and find a way to sell the Spurs to the general public.
The media are creative when they want be and becomes lazy when it's a team that doesn't have any drama and plays the sport efficently and well.
Sell that.....
It seemed to me yesterday there was only one game on ABC. I'm not a Kobe or Lebron hater and they deserved pub. But, there was a first game between the last 2 CHAMPIONS and it was treated as an afterthought!!
That's ridiculous!!
Also, I thought the first game was better start to finish than the second game.
Unfortunately, you are right!
But..the funny part about all of this is that Tony and Manu are very entertaining players.
Even, if I wasn't a Spurs fan...I would enjoy watching them play basketball.
All true Marhill, but as we all know, sex sells. Spurs go about their business but they ain't sexy.
Spurs want a story, Duncan should have clotheslined KG. Or Tony Parker should have released his new rap album. Guaranteed story right there.
Or Pop should have sat out the Big 3 again to defy NBA scheduling on Sundays.
Instead, the Spurs just went out and beat a team they were supposed to beat.
The two best teams come from the West right now, and it scares the media. No story.
I said this before the game as well.Also, I thought the first game was better start to finish than the second game.
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