The Finger Wag – Athletes using Twitter and Social Media to their Disadvantage

After the Lakers won the championship, Ty Lawson was quick to notice that Kim Kardashian + Reggie Bush = Championship….

Khloe Kardashian + Lamar Odom = Championship…

Kim Kardashian + Ray J = vH1’s smash hit, For the Love of Ray J.

Well, the last one not so much (and probably not the highest rated program to come out of that relationship).

Well anyway, Ty was a little more graphic in tracing out this latest athlete superstition.

According to Huffington Post and TMZ and a million other shitty websites, Lawson tweeted, “I heard if u hit a kardashian i win a championship .. Kim k holla me!!! I need ya for 17 min.”

It appears as though he’s since deleted it, but still retweeted a friend’s retweet of his initially tweeted tweet.  (re-re-tweet?)

TyLawson3

(ty lawson)

RT @gLaDiAtOr_24: LMAO RT @TyLawson3: I heard if u hit a kardashian u win a championship.. Kim k holla me!!! I need ya for 17 min On 7:26 PM Jun 21st 2010 from Echofon

The theory falls apart in two areas though.  First, I’m certain there are other athletes that “hit” a Kardashian and remain ring-less.

Second, all you’re guaranteed to get if you nail a Kardashian is a gigantic baby…

I’m told that baby is five months old. Look at the size of that Armenian offspring!  Can you imagine what’s going to happen when Lamar and Khloe have one?

There’s an offshoot to this theory currently rumbling around the internet… If you spend a night with Kris Kardashian they put you straight into the hall of fame.

Here’s what I don’t get.  There are two parts to Craig Sager’s job: Speak clearly, and don’t look like a blind person who banged his tailor’s wife.

Craig only succeeds on one of these.  So why is he still there?  How did he get started doing this?

Did he show up at his first game in a regular suit, then slowly slip in ties with obnoxious patterns and white-trash-couch-cushion blazers?

Or did he don his full regalia on the first day and scream, “You can’t fire me! DO YOU KNOW WHO MY FATHER IS!”

What is the corporate structure over there that allows him to get away with this?

In case you haven’t seen Craig before…

Don Cherry’s at least got a flamboyant personality to match his wild suits.  Sager’s got all the originality of the Cleveland Cav’s offensive strategy.

I’ll never understand this man.

Fortunately, anyone who was anyone was watching the Lakers play the Suns last night.  And they all had something to say about The Artist Formerly Known as Craig Sager.

blakegriffin

(Blake Griffin)

I got dizzy after looking at craig sager's suit... Missed party of the game On 1:39 AM May 18th 2010 from UberTwitter

Blake Griffin’s equilibrium has been thrown off, he took a tumble, and he’ll miss next season for the Clippers.  Thanks, Craig.

ROYALTIVEY

(Royal Ivey)

Craig C'mon Son your suit game is bogus!!!! #quitwithurcircusantics On 1:28 AM May 18th 2010 from UberTwitter

Royal Ivey gets the award for Best-Sager-Related-Hashtag.

NBATVChris

(Chris Webber)

if you watch the pre game with players walking into arena or post game, who's outfits are outlandishly garbage? On 12:59 AM May 18th 2010 from TweetDeck

NBATVChris

(Chris Webber)

Sager doesn't count, his outfits are terrible I mean a hooper.. Kobe's m.j. jacket, D. Wades school boy look.. etc... On 1:05 AM May 18th 2010 from TweetDeck

Chris Weber disqualifies Craig for performance-enhancing-duds.

Uconn42

(Donyell Marshall)

What the hell Does Craig Sager have on On 12:57 AM May 18th 2010 from web

Donyell Marshall questions Craig’s outift.  And Marshall has a sense of style.  He’s obviously a fan of the classic Three Wolves t-shirt.

boomtho

(boomtho)

Craig Sager stole a costume from "Alice in Wonderland" and wore it to the Laker game. He's gonna get caught, I just know it. On 1:39 AM May 18th 2010 from Echofon

I’ll buy it.  Fortunately we finally got a tweet with a pic of Sager’s suit…

Adaye5

(Austin Daye)

Is Sager serious wit that suit lmao http://yfrog.com/5u807vj On 1:32 AM May 18th 2010 from Twitterrific

And the twit pic…

At this point, it seems like everyone on Twitter is watching this basketball game.  At least everyone involved in basketball is.  Well, almost everyone…

CJMiles34

(C.J. Miles)

3 ninjas #classic On 12:54 AM May 18th 2010 from Echofon

Last night the Cleveland Cavilers had their asses handed to them. In the third quarter of the game Boston just flat out took it to the Cavs who looked like they were playing more to not lose than they were to win.

All the NBA talk for the next few days will center on where LeBron will be playing ball next year. This is partially because the next NBA game isn’t until sometime in July I believe and partially because this is LeBron Freakin’ James we are talking about here.

This is an exciting topic for me, my favorite team, the Chicago Bulls, have the cap space to sign LeBron or another great free agent. Let’s start this discussion with a list of free agents heading into this summer:

Here are the players that are 100% going to be free agents:

Joe Johnson
Carlos Boozer
David Lee
Ray Allen
Marcus Camby
Raymond Felton

Here are the players who can opt out of their contract this year:

LeBron James
Dwyane Wade
Chris Bosh
Amar’e Stoudemire
Dirk Nowitzki
Paul Pierce
Yao Ming
Mike Redd

For the sake of this post I am only listing the premium free agents, so I did not list Shaq and T-Mac.

This is quite a list, with James, Wade, Bosh, and Nowitzki alone you have 4 of the top 10 players in the NBA that could all wind up in different places next year.

Now who are the teams with the most cap space who could actually sign some of these guys:

New York Knicks
Miami Heat
New Jersey Nets
L.A. Clippers
Chicago Bulls
Sacramento Kings
Washington Wizards
Minnesota Timberwolves

The interesting thing here is that the Knicks and Heat can most likely sign two players at a max contract this summer while the others can only sign one. I say it’s interesting because all that can change depending on where the cap ends up. The cap was recently projected to grow to a number where the other teams may be able to sign two max players also. However, this was based on 2010 playoff revenue estimates. As I am sure you know, there were three sweeps in the second round this year so revenue will definitely be down from Stern’s projections.

So now let’s take a look at the available cities and try to rate them (These are my own totally biased opinions):

* These are ranked 1-3 with 1 being the best

Current Team: I ranked these based on who the team is made up of now. You will notice I gave the Nets a 1 rating even though they stunk on ice last year. However, the Nets have a good young core and a very good chance at landing a major John Wall-type rookie in the draft. I also gave the Heat a 3 because as of now, they don’t have Dwayne Wade.

Major City: I ranked these based on the best cities to be a basketball star in. So some cities you may want to live in (Miami) but they don’t give a shit about the NBA.

Cap Room: Should be self explanatory

So based on my rankings the best cities to go to if you are an NBA free agent are as follows:

Chicago Bulls (4)
New Jersey Nets (4)
New York Knicks (4)
L.A. Clippers (5)
Washington Wizards (7)
Miami Heat (8)
Minnesota Timberwolves (8)

I would tend to move the Nets down the list because they won’t be in Brooklyn for another two years, spending the next two in Newark of all places.

Here is what I wonder, who is going to sign first? Will LeBron, the obvious cream of this free agency crop, wait it out to see who goes where and determine if he wants to shack up with another top tier free agent?

Another LeBron question is this, will the Cavs let him go in a
sign-and-trade? The Cavs can offer LeBron about 30 million more than any other team thanks to the Larry Bird rule. In essence, the Larry Bird exception allows teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents, at an amount up to the maximum salary. To qualify as a Bird free agent, a player must have played three seasons without being waived or changing teams as a free agent. (from wikipedia)

If the Cavs determine LeBron is going somewhere else it may be in their best interest to sign LeBron for the max then deal him to
another team for some pieces as opposed to getting nothing in return. The latest rumor of this happening is in a trade with the Bulls to get Loul Deng in return.

It’s going to be a fun offseason in the NBA and thanks to no games until Monday, we can start it now. Thanks NBA for sticking it to the fans.

And that’s pretty much all you need to know.

Although I wish I could hear Craig Sager repeat that line.

DickieV

(Dick Vitale)

just thinking out loud-Who would u want to be your pg Rondo (Celtics) ex Kentucky star or #1 NBA choice John Wall? On 3:12 AM May 10th 2010 from mobile web

Now I respect Dickie V and what he has done for college hoops. I also respect that is basically an ambassador for the game and tries to promote it whenever he can. That being said, this is just silly.

Dickie was on Mike and Mike saying John Wall, in his opinion, has what it takes to be an all time great point guard in the NBA.

Let’s review a list of all-time great point guards, picked by ESPN:

Magic Johnson
Oscar Robertson
Isaiah Thomas
John Stockton
Bob Cousy
Walt Frazier
Jason Kidd
Tiny Archibald
Steve Nash
Gary Payton

Now, that’s some good players there. Here is the question though how many championships between those guys?

17

17 World Titles between the best 10 point guards of all time. The
average is less than two per. Now let’s take out the number one best of the current three-point era of the NBA and the number one best of the non-three point era – Magic and Bob Cousy.

6

Now we are down to six titles between 8 of the very best 10 guys to
ever play the position in the history of the game.

My point here is, the difference between Jason Kidd and BJ Armstrong is that BJ Armstrong is an NBA Champion while Jason Kidd is not. It’s not that BJ Armstrong is any better than Kidd, in fact he much worse, the fact of the matter is that point guards don’t make a tremendous difference on your ability to win a championship. Playoffs? Sure, they can get a team there. The issue at point here is the all important ring and unless a guy is going to be Magic Johnson you shouldn’t risk your franchise in order to get or keep them. In fact, I would argue paying a max contract for a point guard does nothing more than hurt your team in having money to get a second tier guy to work with them.

All this being said, you have a proven point guard at a relatively low price for the next few years thanks to the extension. You should never, under any circumstances trade him for an unproven (at the NBA level) talent, unless you know 100% this guy is the next Magic Johnson. On that note, even Magic Johnson couldn’t win Boston a title next year when Pierce, Allen and Doc Rivers leave town.