By Jonathan Miller, on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET Some random Valentines Day musings on the latest professional sports phenomenon, Jeremy Lin — the Harvard grad and current New York Knicks basketball point guard, who came out of seemingly nowhere to light up a sports nation frozen in the post-Super Bowl, pre-March Madness tundra of February:
- A recent Sunday ritual of mine — donning a Tom Brady jersey and stepping up to the bar at my neighbor Buffalo Wild Wings — continually was challenged by by fellow Kentuckians who’ve wondered how I became a New England Patriots fan. The first reason — my man-crush on Pretty Boy Brady (as revealed in this piece about Pretty Boys I Begrudgingly Admire) — is not sports bar-appropriate. Neither is the other — my seven year tour of Harvard University — so I would mumble something about living in Boston. Next year, I know I can lift my head up proudly in this basketball-fanatic town and announce, “I went to the same school as Jeremy Lin!”
- One previously unremarked consequence of our Twitter and Facebook dominated world is how quickly jokes now become old and clichéd. Over the weekend, I must have read 500 tweets struggling for a laugh by adding appending “Lin” to a word or making some pun with a word that can be transformed somehow to use “lin.” (I.e., “Linsanity” “Blew up like the Lin-denburg”) Yesterday, I received an email from a fellow Harvard alum (see now I don’t need to hide it!) who passed on this bon mot: Jeremy Lin’s ball-handling is so sick; the other teams are in need of some insu-Lin. My response? That joke’s so February 10.
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The RP: I Heart Jeremy Lin
By Artur Davis, on Mon Jan 30, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET 
Artur Davis‘ First Reponse
[The RP’s Provocation, Artur Davis’s Rebuttal #1; Ron Granieri’s Rebuttal #2; Natasha Dow Schüll’s Analysis; Spectrum Gaming Group’s Analysis; Jason Grill’s Rebuttal #3; The RP’s First Defense; Jason Grill’s First Response]
I would add just a little to Jonathan’s arguments against sports gambling, which I think are entirely correct. The NCAA struggles to police the rules that exist today; it is a notoriously weak investigator without subpoena power, and I cant’t imagine the strains it would face if policing the ties between amateurs and more powerful, more nationalized gambling interests were part of it’s charter.
It’s worth examining the question of why the current regime of legalized sports betting in a few jurisdictions doesn’t pose the same risks. In fairness to Jason Grill’s case, there are enormous sums of gambling money at work today, and it’s been over 25 years since there was a bona-fide betting scandal in college sports. The true answer is that we don’t know what changing the scale of sports betting would do to incentivize corruption; in my mind, however, that’s a strike in it’s own right. If we guess wrong, the likelihood is an irreparable stain on amateur athletics. It’s also likely that, as I have argued in the context of legalizing marijuana, criminals are far more likely to bend their business model to profit from looser regulations, than they are to forfeit a lucrative market altogether.
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The RPs Debate Gambling: Artur Davis Responds
By Jason Grill, on Mon Jan 30, 2012 at 2:00 PM ET  Jason Grill‘s First Response
[The RP’s Provocation, Artur Davis’s Rebuttal #1; Ron Granieri’s Rebuttal #2; Natasha Dow Schüll’s Analysis; Spectrum Gaming Group’s Analysis; Jason Grill’s Rebuttal #3; The RP’s First Defense]
Sports gambling & betting is widespread and common place in our country and it’s being done illegally every minute.
It’s immoral not to legalize it and give states the option to reap the economic benefits of it for all of its citizens and visitors.
On Jonathan’s college argument:
The FBI estimates that more than $2.5 billion is illegally wagered annually on the NCAA basketball tournament each year. However, Nevada sportsbook operators estimate close to $90 million or less than 4 percent of illegal betting on March Madness is wagered legally on the tournament in their state.
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The RPs Debate Gambling: Jason Grill Responds
By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Thu Jan 19, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
The polls were not kind to North Carolina after their shellacking at the hands of the mighty Seminoles of Florida State. North Carolina dropped 5 spots to #8. The most interesting state in college basketball is my home: Kentucky, which contains not only #2 Kentucky, but also the intriguing #10 Murray State Racers, who may finish the season undefeated (they play no team in the top half of Division 1 RPI), and the faltering #21 Louisville Cardinals, who will likely not be ranked after their loss tonight at the hands of Marquette. [ESPN]
USA Basketball announced its 20 man roster for the 2012 Olympic games. The roster must be cut to 12 before the games start, and that’s a shame, because this team is EPIC. [USA Basketball]
Dwight Howard is on that 20 man roster, and its almost a given that he will be on the 12 man roster, as he is the best big man in the world. He also desperately wants out of Orlando. He has stated that he is open to trades to a few very good teams (and the Nets), but now says he is open to playing for the LA Clippers. CP3, Blake Griffin, and Dwight Howard would be a very fun team to watch. [Deadspin]
Here is an interesting piece about Ricky Rubio and the translation of European basketball statistics into NBA performance. The post makes the case that Euro hoops are less about numbers and therefore opaque. Given Rubio’s stats for Barcelona and his play in the NBA this year, as well as the Brandon Jennings episode from a few years ago, I tend to agree. [Sheriden Hoops]
Last night, there was a battle between two top 10 teams in the Big XII(minus II), wherein Kansas shellacked #3 Baylor. That conference goes through Lawrence, Kansas, which is a shame, because that is a very boring place. [Rock Chalk Talk]
By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Tue Jan 3, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is mad the the NBA didn’t have his team play in DC–he wanted to meet the President. But, when you are Mark Cuban, you can pretty much do whatever you want, so he scheduled a meeting between his team and Mr. Obama himself. [ESPN Dallas]
Deadspin is famous for taking sports journalism to places it never deigned to go before–like publishing leads about major NBA trades put out by rappers who haven’t been famous for years. [Deadspin]
Sacramento Kings 2nd year player Demarcus Cousins and coach Paul Westphal don’t get along, and never really have. The coach released a statement last week saying that Cousins would be staying home for a road trip because of Cousins’ trade demand. Cousins, for his part, denies requesting a trade. Here is a “debate” between a couple of Kings fans about what to do. [Sac Town Royalty]
Who doesn’t love those NBA commercials where they paste enlarged heads of stars onto small bodies? I know I do. The latest one is set to “Happy Together” by the Turtles. It’s supposed to imply that “all is well” with the NBA’s players and owners. Does anybody actually believe that? [The Big Lead]
Time Warner Cable and Madison Square Garden have been in a contract dispute for a long time now, and fans in New York city paid the price last week when they began missing Knicks games. Here is a good rundown of what is happening. [All Sports Everything]
Two of the best college games of last weekend were played within a 80 miles radius of my apartment this weekend–when #3 Kentucky beat #2 Louisville, and when #15 Indiana took down #2 Ohio State. For my money, those teams are out of order, and should be Kentucky-Ohio State-Indiana-Louisville. But nobody asked me. Here are game rundowns by the victor’s blogs. [Kentucky Sports Radio] [The Crimson Quarry]
By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Tue Sep 20, 2011 at 3:30 PM ET
Conference alignment is the news of the week. Here is a great rundown about what the new conferences mean for college basketball. [Rush The Court]
Different coaches had different reactions to the realignment. Jim Boeheim, coach of Syracuse, gave Andy Katz a massive rant about the hypocrisy of such moves, saying: “there are two reasons we are doing this [moving to the ACC]: money and football.” Rick Pitino, coach of of Louisville, was much more introspective–preferring to compare this switch to The Godfather. [Pitino-Deadspin] [Boeheim-The Big Lead]
Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has always been one to voice his opinion. He has a new blog post about being Patriotic. His view: the most patriotic thing you can do is to get obnoxiously rich, then pay lots of taxes and hire people. [blog maverick]
The NBA lockout is still happening. Here is some news about it. [ESPN]
People have speculated that NBA Players don’t have the desire for the lockout to continue for very long, because they need to make more money. Billy Hunter, the NBAPA leader, disagrees. In addition to being well prepared for the lockout, Kobe Bryant has apparently offered to loan players money who need it. Good for him. [USA Today]
By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Tue Sep 13, 2011 at 3:30 PM ET
The Lockout is serious business–serious enough to make the NBA fine (Bobcats owner/best player ever) Michael Jordan $100,000 [Black Sports Online]
In case you missed it (and you probably did) FIBA held its regional Olympic qualifying tournaments in Europe and the Americas last week. The John Calipari coached Dominican Republic team was competitive, but failed to make the Olympics after their starting point guard, former Louisville guard Edgar Sosa, went down with a nasty broken leg. Beware this footage. [Deadspin]
Here is a sad story about a high school basketball player killed because of gang violence. [Wall Street Journal]
Somebody calculated the fair market value of college athletes. They are worth more than 6 figures. Nobody should be surprised. [AP]
By Jeff Smith, on Mon Aug 15, 2011 at 9:30 AM ET 
Last weekend, on my last day in St. Louis before moving to NYC, I co-hosted a free 3-on-3 basketball tournament and community fair in North St. Louis. The event is in its sixth year; I started it during my first state Senate campaign in 2006, and it eventually attracted several thousand people each year. Dozens of businesses sponsor the event, which features a traveling health clinic, free school supplies, and brand-new bicycles and iPods for the winning teams in each age group.
North St. Louis is struggling. It’s about 95% black, and unemployment among men in their 20s approaches 50% in many neighborhoods. Parts of it resemble the Detroit that you see on the news or the Baltimore on The Wire, but people forget that families live there. It’s a community fighting to regain its lost glory – ironically, the days of segregation, when black doctors, lawyers, teachers, principals, and morticians lived among the laborers and housekeepers, in larger homes but in close proximity.
The first couple years of the tournament, people weren’t sure about me. Who is this white guy coming up in our neighborhood? Just another politician sniffing around for votes, making more promises? Using us for a photo-op? Well, he can dribble…but we’ve been fooled before. Remember that Schoemehl boy, when he first ran for Mayor…then turned around and closed City Hospital?
The next few years, people began to see that my commitment was genuine. As the group of city charter schools I’d co-founded a decade earlier grew to 3000 students, people noted my involvement. Others saw the legislative work I did on behalf of incarcerated fathers struggling to pay child support.
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Jeff Smith: Leaving St. Louis
By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Wed Jul 27, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET
The NBA lockout persists, much to my chagrin. Things don’t seem to be calming down, either, as the NBA’s financials truths appear to be less and less similar to those that they report. [ESPN]
The Big Lead did a very interesting interview with Minnesota Timberwolves star Kevin Love. He talks about volleyball, the Minnesota coaching search, the Ricky Rubio saga, and the lockout. A good read, for sure. [The Big Lead]
Deadspin recently broke a strange story about Ron “Metta World Peace” Artest and his apparent propensity for sexting. It’s a silly thing to read, but its news, and so I will link it. I personally agree more with Bomani Jones’ take. [Deadspin only pseudo-safe for work]
The lockout has seen a few player say that they will play overseas. While the biggest name to take this path so far has been Deron Williams, a club in Turkey is said to be pursuing a giant prize–Kobe Bryant. [Reuters]
The scandal-chasing Pete Thamel smells blood in the water at the University of Connecticut, and has penned an article taking on the UCONN athletic department and its men’s basketball program. I am selfishly happy about this, at it means he will probably stay off the back of the University of Kentucky (at least for a little while.) [New York Times]
Speaking of my beloved Wildcats, there are currently no suspects in the tragic shooting of Desmond Allison, who played for the University of Kentucky’s 1999 “Team Turmoil.” A sad story, for sure. [Louisville Courier-Journal]
By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Wed Jul 6, 2011 at 3:30 AM ET The Politics of Basketball I write about basketball in this space every other week. I do this because I enjoy basketball a lot–and I am extremely distraught at the prospect of not being able to enjoy my favorite sport being playing professionally over the next year.
If you haven’t heard, the NBA officially went into a lockout last week. The Association joined the National Football League in such a move, meaning that two out of the United State’s four big sports are now not actively operating. The NFL lockout is pretty easy to explain: there is a huge pie, and the owners don’t want to share it. The NFL lockout will end as soon as the owners realize that losing the good will they have built since the advent of fantasy football would be an incredibly bad idea.
The NBA lockout is a little bit more complicated. On paper, some NBA franchises are losing money. Many NBA owners also own NHL franchises, and remember the 2004-2005 hockey lockout (which eliminated an entire season) as something that bred a more profitable, more fun league. Lots of basketball players who also aren’t very good (relatively speaking) earn way too much money. This all potentially points to a work stoppage which could eliminate a significant chunk of next season. Michael Wilbon sure thinks so.
Though at first glance owners of NBA franchises seem to have many good points about the problems facing the league, many of their points don’t hold up under scrutiny. Matthew Yglesias, a blogger for the left-leaning blog Think Progress, has actually compiled some very interesting and informative posts about the NBA which lead readers to believe that the problems of NBA owners aren’t as big as they would make you believe. Chief among his points are that NBA owners have all increased their utility by owning an NBA team, and that the reason for financial difficulty does not rest with the players. For his justification, read his posts. Seriously, they are good.
Then, Deadspin uncovered some financial documents about the New Jersey Nets which really drove the point home that the NBA probably isn’t actually losing money. It involves a ridiculous concept called the “Roster depreciation allowance.” Again, this post is amazing for explaining how brazen NBA owners actually are and you really ought to read the whole thing.
However, despite whether or not NBA teams are losing money or not, and whether or not owners are suffering or not, they state that they are (and on paper they certainly are). But, the reason that they are is entirely the fault of the owners themselves. In 2004, when the Memphis Grizzlies offered a mediocre Brian Cardinal $37 million for six years, or when the Pistons offered the incredibly mediocre tandem of Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon $35 million and $55 million respectively, what were these men supposed to do? Not take the money? When businesses make bad decisions, we all know what happens–that business loses money. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as much as it is an opportunity–an opportunity to get new leadership and make better decisions. The NBA ought to operate on that principle–just like the rest of America does.
But it doesn’t. Owners (who aren’t actually losing money) state that they are losing money because they make bad decisions, and then blame the players for their contracts which management offered to them. And this is the reason why basketball might be canceled next year. I hope not, but this is nothing but a big barrel of frustration.
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