The RP’s Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Hoops

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]