Tony Parker: French Connect

227 days ago

T. Parker the Player/Owner? – Take Poll Regardless of your position on NBA Lockout issues or NBA players leaving to play internationally, you have got to love this story! Spurs superstar...

T. Parker the Player/Owner? – Take Poll Regardless of your position on NBA Lockout issues or NBA players leaving to play internationally, you have got to love this story! Spurs superstar and NBA Finals MVP, Tony Parker, has interests in basketball that have lead him to the ownership end of the basketball business. In the [...]

NBA Preseason Really History?

228 days ago

Who’s to Blame? David Stern: “we’re looking to finalizing close to a 200 million dollar loss as well as regular season games.” Derek Fisher: “We don’t want to be locked out,...

Who’s to Blame? David Stern: “we’re looking to finalizing close to a 200 million dollar loss as well as regular season games.” Derek Fisher: “We don’t want to be locked out, but the reality is we are employees, and the owners are employers, it is their decision to make.” Adam Silver: “We are looking at [...]

Kobe – Italy Actually Happening?

234 days ago

Kobe Leaving NBA for Italy – Take Poll Kobe Bryant is a name that turns heads. What can this latest news about the imminence of the deal be about? We were...

Kobe Leaving NBA for Italy – Take Poll

Kobe Bryant is a name that turns heads. What can this latest news about the imminence of the deal be about? We were curious, so we asked some lakers fans on this Facebook thread, what they thought about Kobe’s possible NBA leave for the Italian Virtus Bologna: NBA Lockout Discussions

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MILAN (AP) – Kobe Bryant said it was “very possible” he will play in Italy during the NBA lockout, adding the country is like home because he spent part of his childhood there.

“It’s very possible. It would be a dream for me,” Kobe Bryant said of the contract off from Virtus Bologna, according to the Gazzetta dello Sport.

Virtus Bologna has made numerous contract offers to the Los Angeles Lakers star. Bryant discussed the offer with the Gazzetta dello Sport during a sponsor’s appearance in Milan on Wednesday.
“It’s very possible. It would be a dream for me,” Bryant said, according to the Gazzetta. “There’s an opportunity that we’ve been discussing over the last few days. It’s very possible and that’s good news for me.”

Virtus told The Associated Press that the latest talks are centered on a $2.5 million offer for 10 games over 40 days from Oct. 9 to Nov. 16. That would come out to about $1.5 million after taxes.
The deal would allow Bryant to return to the Lakers immediately if the lockout ends.

The 33-year-old Bryant spent several years in Italy when his father, Joe Bryant, played on five teams from 1984-91. The elder Bryant, who once owned a small part of Olimpia Milano, now coaches the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA.
“Italy is my home. It’s where my dream of playing in the NBA started. This is where I learned the fundamentals, learned to shoot, to pass and to (move) without the ball,” Kobe Bryant said, according to the Gazzetta. “All things that when I came back to America the players my age didn’t know how to do because they were only thinking about jumping and dunking.”
Turkish club Besiktas and at least one team in China have expressed interest in Bryant, a winner of five NBA championships and 13-time All-Star. However, he seems most interested in the Virtus offer.

“It’s a huge honor for me to return to Italy. It’s home for me,” Bryant said in fairly fluent Italian in a video posted on the Gazzetta website. “It’s always been a dream for me to play in Italy. We’ve got to wait and see what happens.”
Virtus also recently reached out to Manu Ginobili, who played with Bologna before joining the San Antonio Spurs in 2002. Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari rejoined his former Italian club Olimpia Milano last week.

The NBA season usually begins in late October, but owners and players have failed to agree on a new labor deal. The two sides are at odds over how to divide the league’s revenue, a salary cap structure and the length of guaranteed contracts.
Last week, NBA officials announced the postponement of training camp and the cancellation of 43 preseason games.
Virtus has won 15 Italian league titles but none since 2001, when it also won the Euroleague for the second time.

Bologna opens the Italian league against Roma on Oct. 9. It did not qualify for this season’s Euroleague, although the team has big ambitions after signing former Clemson point guard Terrell McIntyre, who led Siena to four consecutive Italian titles before transferring to Malaga in Spain last season.

From: USA Today Sports


Economic Impacts?

238 days ago

Video Games no longer Realistic? How will video games sell and release if the season is delayed? The video game is a reflection of the real thing, we don’t know the...

Video Games no longer Realistic?

How will video games sell and release if the season is delayed? The video game is a reflection of the real thing, we don’t know the final rosters yet, player movement hasn’t kicked in, we don’t even know when it begins. So how can EA and 2k produce a good product?

In a recent article written up by video game vendors, the topics of how the Video Game industry would be affected by the delay of the NBA season?

Well it seems a few weeks are definitely going to be cut out of the season this year. The Game version of the 2012 season is supposed to launch on Oct. 4th. I wonder if it will sell as well with the season not starting when it is supposed to?

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=A2KLOzFbX35OjhMA7ydNbK5_?slug=ycn-9172841

NBA lockout continues, jeopardizes NBA season: A fan’s take
By Mark Hawkins, Yahoo! Contributor Network Sep 23, 11:24 am EDT

With time running out, the NBA and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) met on Thursday, Sept. 22,in an effort to strike a deal in time for the NBA season to begin as scheduled. After negotiating for approximately five hours, the two sides failed to strike a deal or even make any appreciable progress.
After the meeting, there were no indications from either party that a deal would be forthcoming anytime soon. Both NBA Commissioner David Stern and union president Derek Fisher(notes) of the Los Angeles Lakers expressed the sentiment that “the calendar is not our friend.”

Stern, who celebrated his 69th birthday on Thursday, represented the league along with NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, head of the labor relations committee; San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt; and NBA Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Dan Rube. The union was represented by Fisher, NBPA Executive Director Billy Hunter, union Deputy General Counsel Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy.

Neither side revealed details of the meeting, but both sides did say that they hope to meet again next week. But next week may prove to be too late.

With training camps scheduled to open Oct. 3, any chances of the 2011-2012 NBA season (preseason included) being played as scheduled were placed in serious jeopardy when the NBA and NBPA failed to strike a deal Thursday. By the time the parties meet next week, there will basically be no chance of the preseason beginning on Oct. 9 as scheduled.
The NBA lockout has gotten to the point where NBA fans are counting down the days before they are likely to hear the dreaded announcement that games will be canceled instead of counting down the days until opening night. Unfortunately, NBA fans may get that dreaded announcement as early as Friday, Sept. 23.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports and Ric Bucher of ESPN have both reported that David Stern, after a conference call with members of the NBA’s labor relations committee on Friday, is expected to officially cancel training camps and the first slate of preseason games until further notice. Even after the postponement of training camps and cancellation of preseason games, there will still be a little time for the parties to try to work out a deal in time to save the regular-season opener.
The NBA champion Dallas Mavericks and the Chicago Bulls are scheduled to open the regular season on Nov. 1. From the time that a deal is made, the NBA would need at least four weeks to prepare for the regular season. Two weeks for the deal to be put in writing and ratified, one week for a free-agency period and another week for truncated training camps and a few preseason games. Based on that four-week window, the NBA and NBPA have until Oct. 4, at the absolute latest, to work out a deal that will salvage opening night.

Unfortunately, one of the principal negotiators does not seem to believe that is likely. In an interview with Chris Sheridan, Billy Hunter said, “I really don’t think they are ready to do a deal. My position is that they said two years ago they were prepared to lockout for a year to get what they wanted, and I think they way they’ve negotiated gives every indication that that’s bearing out.”

The parties are scheduled to meet again sometime next week, and according to Hunter they both “agree that the only way to get a deal is to keep talking.” But with just 11 days between now and Oct. 4, those talks are up against a calendar that is not a friend of the NBA, NBPA or NBA fans.