Europe: Why The Spurs Business Model Is Horrible For NBA Players And Fans

[Buddy Mignon]

You know I've been thinking about this teams success and how it came to be. While idiots praise the Spurs and their accomplishments... I can't help but to smell something foul arising in the sport I love so much. If you look at the majority of the Spurs roster you'll notice how they've done a masterful job of cherry picking talent from overseas. Their not so big three come from France, Argentina, and Haiti... all third world countries. Anyone that has experience in outsourcing work will tell you that due to the poverty stricken culture that these people are born in you can get much more labor for your dollar. On top of that... these people don't have at udes and are very low maintenance. They don't talk back, they show up for work on time, and they will take pay-cuts if forced on them without any objections. This is the Spurs business model... they have outsourced the NBA. Its great for the owners, but a horrible state for the players and fans.

When you look at players like Kobe who just took a 48 million dollar extension you would think he's coming off selfish... he's not taking one for the team, but in actuality... Kobe did take one for the team. Kobe cast the first stone at the cheap labor hiring ownership of the NBA. How many of you have ever had a technical problem and called customer service only to get some low wage earning jackass in India that can't answer your questions. Speaking to this jackass is basically a waste of your time. We've all experienced this, right? How many of you have worked for companies that used to pay a good salary, but can no longer do so due to the compe ion from slave labor overseas? Makes life harder on the American citizens, right? Inflation is constantly rising, right? In the end what you end up with is a cheaper product, and this is where the NBA is headed if teams follow the Spurs business model.

To make matters worse... the media is in full support of this, and most fans are too stupid to even realize this. Just a few season ago the NBA was in a lock out where billionaire owners decided to take back a whopping 7% of revenue from the players. And the following season you had guys like Duncan taking half of what his market value is after already giving back 7%. This should be an outcry!!! Are you guys blind to what's happening? The rich are getting richer, you jackasses, and the poor are taking less and getting poorer. The NBA has been pushing for this model for its owners for some time now. They tried to get it with the Jazz, but they could never get past Jordan. Now they have finally found success with this Spurs team to push their new business model as the only way to win a le. Notice the new mantra in the media today... they want all the superstars to take pay-cuts to make their teams better. If a team is winning then its making money. Simple logic would tell you that the owner should go into his pocket to maintain that success... but they've convinced the players that they should take 50% pay-cuts, like Jim.

I take my hat off to Kobe. He stood tall and demanded his money while everyone else bent over... Jim leading the caboose. And to rub salt in the face of all of us hard working American citizens... the third world born, slave labor pay earning Spurs players draped themselves in the flags of their third world homes when they won the le. Yet no one in the media took notice of this. the Spurs and their slave wage system, and if this is the future of the sport I love the most it won't be long before I tune out.

[ElNono]

You know me. I am a die hard homer Laker fan. I think they are going to the finals every year and I am right half the time. I think they are going to win those when they do and I am right half the time there too. Not a bad record over my lifetime if I so say so myself.

I think they have a great shot at winning it all. They are going to have a full camp for one. They brought Eddie Jordan to run the offense and are going Princeton. Regarless of what the butthurt Midget says, Nash and Howard were not lateral moves. Anyone stating so is a moron. I understand his motivation though. I find a lot of humor in it.

We improved the bench with Jamison. We resigned Hill who is a decent backup and only had a hanful of games with the team and did quite well. We could use one more backup shooter with range. I would actually welcome Barbosa as I see him as a good fit in a reserve roll. I don't think the Lakers are done.

Several points. Kobe is going to have to realize hes not going to get 25+ shots. I think he is finally at the point of his career that he will be willing to play a less ball dominant role. They have guys now that wont wilt under pressure and look to him to bail them out either. Well see. The Princeton offense is ideal for Pau's skills. He wilted last year with Bynum handling the ball more. I see a better year for him.

Howard was an ideal pickup with regards to the way the team is constructed as is. With Nash's well known less than stellar defence and Kobe getting slower Howards D is much better than Drews. Drew played decent help D and could clog the lanes. Teams figured it out and pulled him out on the switches and he got beat. Howard is a much better one on one defender and moves much quicker. On offense. Bynum has better post moves. Howard is a better pick and roll player and will get more hustle garbage points. What would you rather have with Nash and Kobe in the back court. It is not even close to a lateral move when considering the direction they are taking. Howard can run the floor a whole lot better than Drew too.

The Lakers have a sweet squad. Brown can concentrate on D. Eddie can take the offense. Kobe if he is smart will realize he will get more total points career wise by slowing down and playing less mins with this squad and extending his career maybe another year or two. Nash, Howard, and Jamison are all very hungry. We shall see. You always need luck and the injury gods to be on your side.

I really like our chances.

[ironman2886]

1/10

[midnightpulp]

Good luck in the draft, Luva.

[Buddy Mignon]

Good luck in the draft, Luva.

I'd be shocked if we draft. Paying Kobe all that money to follow it with a lottery pick would be insane.

[Clipper Nation]

Speaking of business models:

After reading the chapter and analyzing the akatsuki leader's objectives, I gotta say I'm impressed by his business model. He's not just going to go out there and pwn everyone. He's actually going to gather allies, form armies, make money, and gradually build himself up into a viable business. Eventually, because he's got his little united nations of little ninja countries backing him, the akatsuki will end up on near equal footing with any of the five great ninja villages. Kinda like how Bill Gates built up Microsoft from the ground up and turned it into a near super monopoly with ridiculous profit.

Meanwhile, orochimaru's chilling in caves still trying to keep up a facade of power although all he really has left is one bargaining chip(sasuke), a non-existant village, and ummm...kabuto. He had a business plan too...only it was a horrible failure because of fraud and mismanagement and ended up profiting him and him alone while leaving everyone else involved to suffer horribly when it failed. And even then, he ended up getting burned by his own short-sighted planning. Kinda like how Enron was pretending all was well, while in reality, they were losing billions and their leaders were dumping its stock like crazy while encouraging employees not to panic because nothing was wrong at all. Orochimaru's ambition has little chance of being achieved, because he's got people on his ass already, little actual means to achieving it besides taking over sasuke(hey, even enron had a last grasp of possibly surviving before ultimately being shutdown)...but then what? He's still going to have people on his ass and it's just him and kabuto...and i suppose any sound that survived the invasion of konoha.

So what's my point?

Akatsuki can realistically achieve their goal because they seem to have sound strategy and a leader with a good head on their shoulders. I'm sure they'll build themselves up to the point where the goal is feasible and they're actually in high standing.

Meanwhile, i easily see orochimaru ending up like Enron's CEO Kenneth Lay...

...dying alone on some mountain.

Sorry, if no one understands any of this crap. I just really liked that business model the al came up with.

[Leetonidas]

Speaking of business models:

After reading the chapter and analyzing the akatsuki leader's objectives, I gotta say I'm impressed by his business model. He's not just going to go out there and pwn everyone. He's actually going to gather allies, form armies, make money, and gradually build himself up into a viable business. Eventually, because he's got his little united nations of little ninja countries backing him, the akatsuki will end up on near equal footing with any of the five great ninja villages. Kinda like how Bill Gates built up Microsoft from the ground up and turned it into a near super monopoly with ridiculous profit.

Meanwhile, orochimaru's chilling in caves still trying to keep up a facade of power although all he really has left is one bargaining chip(sasuke), a non-existant village, and ummm...kabuto. He had a business plan too...only it was a horrible failure because of fraud and mismanagement and ended up profiting him and him alone while leaving everyone else involved to suffer horribly when it failed. And even then, he ended up getting burned by his own short-sighted planning. Kinda like how Enron was pretending all was well, while in reality, they were losing billions and their leaders were dumping its stock like crazy while encouraging employees not to panic because nothing was wrong at all. Orochimaru's ambition has little chance of being achieved, because he's got people on his ass already, little actual means to achieving it besides taking over sasuke(hey, even enron had a last grasp of possibly surviving before ultimately being shutdown)...but then what? He's still going to have people on his ass and it's just him and kabuto...and i suppose any sound that survived the invasion of konoha.

So what's my point?

Akatsuki can realistically achieve their goal because they seem to have sound strategy and a leader with a good head on their shoulders. I'm sure they'll build themselves up to the point where the goal is feasible and they're actually in high standing.

Meanwhile, i easily see orochimaru ending up like Enron's CEO Kenneth Lay...

...dying alone on some mountain.

Sorry, if no one understands any of this crap. I just really liked that business model the al came up with.

I was hoping someone would post det one

[midnightpulp]

I'd be shocked if we draft. Paying Kobe all that money to follow it with a lottery pick would be insane.

The new CBA ain't gonna let you proceed business as usual. No more 100 million payrolls for the Lakers. Buss can't afford an 80 million luxury tax hit. Time for the Lakers to actually develop talent and build a team. And now that the more attractive Hollywood franchise is across the hall, the Lakers are going to have trouble attracting high profile free agents. No one gives a about your "history."

Like I told Lkrfan. Tighten that belt. It's gonna get lean.

[Leetonidas]

srsly though this isn't even remote funny or entertaining. not sure if this is terrible attempt at trolling, genuine re ation, or more admiration for supposed models of business tbh

[Splits]

I barely knew Christine when she turned up at my door at around eight o'clock on the night of Halloween. We'd met for the first and only time three months earlier when my two roommates and I signed the lease on our apartment: Christine's aunt owned the place we were moving into, and she happened to be up from Delaware visiting at the time. But we'd only spent about five minutes together that day and we hadn't spoken much, and I hadn't thought of her since.


Yet here she was standing outside my door with a friend. And both of them were pretty tipsy.


She asked if she and her friend could come inside our apartment to change into their costumes. She couldn't change at her aunt's place, she said, because she was sleeping and she didn't want to wake her up. Would we mind if she used our bathroom instead?


It was a pretty strange request. Sure, weird stuff happens on Halloween, but I barely knew her, and it isn't every day that someone shows up at your front door and asks to change into their ladybug costume. But I told her it was fine and she was welcome to use our place to get ready.


It didn't take long before the two women—who'd clearly been drinking—were sitting on my couch, beers in hand, trying to convince my roommate and me to join them for a night on the town. Christine was in the holiday spirit dressed in her ladybug outfit. Her friend, who had a female pirate costume on, was much more quiet and reserved. She barely spoke all night.


It was a Wednesday evening, and my roommate and I hadn't been planning to go out. We both had to get up pretty early the next morning for work. But Christine was insistent that we join them, and she wasn't taking no for an answer. "Come on, guys! Let's go! Just throw something on!" she said.


The costume that I wore for the Halloween a year before—a boy scout's uniform that belonged to a friend—was still sitting in my closet. So that made it easy. But my roommate had no idea what to put on.


Christine immediately came up with an idea. She pointed to a cardboard box in the kitchen—the kind that 12-packs of Coca-Cola come in—and told him to cut a hole in the middle and put it on top of his head. We weren't sure what she was suggesting.


"You can go as a cokehead!" she said, bursting into laughter.


With our costume situation sorted out, we headed to South Street, where lots of bars in Philadelphia are located. Half an hour later, the four of us were seated at a table and knocking back beers.


It really didn't take very long for Christine to make her move. She'd grabbed my hand on the way from the apartment to South Street, so I can't say I was totally surprised when she leaned in to kiss me soon after we arrived at the bar.


I could tell when we first met that Christine was older than me. I was 25, and although I never asked her age, I'd have guessed she was in her early 30s. It was only recently that I found out her real age and learned she was in her late 30s when we hooked up. There's a 14-year gap between us, but she looks good for her age. I don't think I'd heard the word "cougar" yet at that point, but that's probably what I'd call her.


Aggressive is another word I'd use to describe her. At the bar, she confessed to me that her aunt really hadn't been sleeping. She hadn't even gone to her apartment to check, she said. She had remembered me from our five-minute meeting the previous summer, and used the story about her aunt as an excuse to knock on my door. She'd set her sights on me from the beginning.


Christine was pretty intense, and she was pretty outspoken that night, but we didn't talk politics much. Her aunt had told me that Christine ran for Senate a year earlier and had lost, so I knew a bit about her background. But the most political she got that night was when she said she attended lots of events in Washington that attracted congressmen and senators. "It would be nice to have a good-looking young man to attend those with me," she added.


We'd probably knocked back five Heinekens when Christine leaned over and whispered in my ear that she wanted to go back to my place. Before we could go, though, she told me to ask her friend if she'd mind if I drove Christine home later that evening. That was odd. I guess Christine didn't want to come across as a in her friend's eyes for going home with me, so she wanted me to bring it up her friend first.


I did what I was told and asked her friend if she had any objection to me hanging out with Christine a little longer provided I took her home later on in the evening. She didn't, and a few minutes after that, we were all headed back to my apartment. Christine's friend got in her car and went home. My roommate went to his bedroom and went to sleep. And Christine and I got cozy on the couch and popped open another beer.


Things got physical on the couch pretty quickly. It wasn't long before we'd moved from the living room to my bed.


I won't get into the nitty gritty details of what happened between the sheets that evening. But I will say that it wasn't half as exciting as I'd been hoping it would be. Christine was a decent kisser, but as soon as soon as her clothes came off and she was naked in my bed, Christine informed me that she was a virgin.


"You've got to be kidding," I said. She didn't explain at the time that she was a "born-again virgin." She made it seem like she'd never had sex in her life, which seemed pretty improbable for a woman her age. And she made it clear that she was planning on staying a virgin that night. But there were signs that she wasn't very experienced sexually. When her underwear came off, I immediately noticed that the waxing trend had completely passed her by.


Obviously, that was a big turnoff, and I quickly lost interest. I said goodnight, rolled over, and went to sleep. It was almost four o'clock in the morning. I had to get up at 6:30 to go to work.


Christine wasn't in the best of shape when my alarm clock went off three hours later. I was hungover and exhausted and we'd both had about the same amount to drink, so I'm guessing she was feeling even worse. I got up and started to get dressed and told Christine she'd need to get up, too. But she clearly didn't want to budge, and even after I'd reminded her a few times, she was still under the covers. Did she think I was going to leave for work and let her sleep in my bed?


When she finally did get up and dressed and we got in the car, Christine couldn't remember exactly where her friend lived. We circled around for about 20 minutes before we found it, and I dropped her off in the parking lot next to her car, as she asked me to. We said goodbye and exchanged phone numbers and email addresses. But there wasn't a whole lot of back and forth. I didn't even try to give her a kiss goodbye.


I wasn't planning on contacting Christine after our night together. Things hadn't gone so great—especially the part that took place in my bedroom—and I didn't see any reason to try and see her again. But two or three days later, she emailed me to ask me if I wanted to hang out again. I made an excuse. But she didn't take a hint and emailed or called a few more times over the next couple of weeks before I was forced to make it clear to her that I wasn't interested.


Things worked out for the best, though. A few weeks later, Christine started dating my roommate. They went out for over a year, and it was a little awkward the first few times Christine came over to visit him at our apartment and we all had to make conversation in the living room. But that passed pretty quickly. And in case you're wondering, he never had sex with her either, as far as I know.


When I heard several months ago that Christine had decided to run again, I didn't take it very seriously. And I never expected in a million years that she'd end up winning the primary. But she did, and the morning after the election, I sat in disbelief as I watched the news on TV. For a second, I thought I might be hearing things and I went over to my computer and pulled up CNN.com to check if it was true. It was.


God, I hope the same thing doesn't happen next week.

[Kool Bob Love]

The new CBA ain't gonna let you proceed business as usual. No more 100 million payrolls for the Lakers. Buss can't afford an 80 million luxury tax hit. Time for the Lakers to actually develop talent and build a team. And now that the more attractive Hollywood franchise is across the hall, the Lakers are going to have trouble attracting high profile free agents. No one gives a about your "history."

Like I told Lkrfan. Tighten that belt. It's gonna get lean.

Dawg you gotta chill. That hurt me and I consider myself a top tier laker hater. Lawd.

[Kool Bob Love]

I'd be shocked if we draft. Paying Kobe all that money to follow it with a lottery pick would be insane.

Lakaluva: Underneath the arrogance and frontrunning, he's a good guy. Someone I wouldn't mind having a beer with, actually. But in light of this new information, his image of a badass playboy is shattered. Nothing he says from here on out will be taken seriously.

[IrisHockey]

Lakaluva is arguably the most feared man in ST history

[Leetonidas]

Lakaluva is arguably the most feared man in ST history

[Wiz]

Lakaluva is arguably the most feared man in ST history

And you're one of the biggest gots in ST history

[IrisHockey]

That was his shtick from when I joined..

Lakaluva (pinked)
the most feared on ST

[Leetonidas]

tbh rakaruva isn't as re ed as Kool, he's actually got some interesting insights on other topics imho but after being exposed as a naruto fan boy he is nothing more than a running ST joke, sadly.

[RD2191]

This thread delivers.

[DMC]

This thread delivers.

pizza

[Franklin]

the Spurs do pay 9m/yr to Splitter (re from a 3rd world country, who's supposed to be a cheap labor in your theory) though, when he's probably only worth 3m/yr at MOST.

[Thread]

the Spurs do pay 9m/yr to Splitter (re from a 3rd world country, who's supposed to be a cheap labor in your theory) though, when he's probably only worth 3m/yr at MOST.

The passes he made in the Finals past made it even.

[ErnestLynch]

It's a global market. Get over it.

[Cry Havoc]

The passes he made in the Finals past made it even.

A rift appears in the ranks.

[Thread]

A rift appears in the ranks.

Just because your people lock step doesn't mean we do.

[ezau]

Speaking of business models:

After reading the chapter and analyzing the akatsuki leader's objectives, I gotta say I'm impressed by his business model. He's not just going to go out there and pwn everyone. He's actually going to gather allies, form armies, make money, and gradually build himself up into a viable business. Eventually, because he's got his little united nations of little ninja countries backing him, the akatsuki will end up on near equal footing with any of the five great ninja villages. Kinda like how Bill Gates built up Microsoft from the ground up and turned it into a near super monopoly with ridiculous profit.

Meanwhile, orochimaru's chilling in caves still trying to keep up a facade of power although all he really has left is one bargaining chip(sasuke), a non-existant village, and ummm...kabuto. He had a business plan too...only it was a horrible failure because of fraud and mismanagement and ended up profiting him and him alone while leaving everyone else involved to suffer horribly when it failed. And even then, he ended up getting burned by his own short-sighted planning. Kinda like how Enron was pretending all was well, while in reality, they were losing billions and their leaders were dumping its stock like crazy while encouraging employees not to panic because nothing was wrong at all. Orochimaru's ambition has little chance of being achieved, because he's got people on his ass already, little actual means to achieving it besides taking over sasuke(hey, even enron had a last grasp of possibly surviving before ultimately being shutdown)...but then what? He's still going to have people on his ass and it's just him and kabuto...and i suppose any sound that survived the invasion of konoha.

So what's my point?

Akatsuki can realistically achieve their goal because they seem to have sound strategy and a leader with a good head on their shoulders. I'm sure they'll build themselves up to the point where the goal is feasible and they're actually in high standing.

Meanwhile, i easily see orochimaru ending up like Enron's CEO Kenneth Lay...

...dying alone on some mountain.

Sorry, if no one understands any of this crap. I just really liked that business model the al came up with.