2013-14 NBA Thread part 1

Ainge has repeatedly said he's not trading Rondo, if that means anything. Under the right circumstances, it wouldn't.

 

OK, I've been under a rock, NBA-wise.

But what the hell is the deal with these T-shirt jerseys? I think they look tacky ... Brooklyn looks like they're tall kids in an eighth-grade gym class.

 

Just turned on Bulls/Nets, only to see that miserable little Nazi Joey Crawford working.

Can't even stomach to watch him work.

 

The Nets are a shitshow. No plan offensively and the defense is indifferent at best. Pierce has been putrid.

 

King, Kidd, Garnett and Pierce the 4 Horses Asses of the Apocalypse.

 

It's a marketing gimmick. NBA believes it can sell a ton of replicas of the t-shirt jersey.

 

Five games on Christmas Day, meaning one-third of the league's beat writers have to work on the holiday, and half of those one-third are on the road and had to travel on Christmas Eve. I hope their ratings are absolute shit.

 

Awe, those poor, poor writers. Give me a break.

 

Yeah, they're lucky to have a great job. I'll grant you that. But there is absolutely no evidence that the NBA is any kind of a draw on Christmas Day. And unless there is, there's no reason to have five games.

 

Although, with the Clippers-Warriors, you did get a little WWE thrown in.

 

NBA:Christmas::NFL:Thanksgiving. Not that the ratings are awesome, but the NBA has played Christmas Day games for forever. It's the one holiday there's not much else going on in sports, so for that reason the NBA has the day to itself for anyone who just wants sports on in the background. Plus, it's almost an Opening Day II, in that people who aren't the hardest core start paying attention to the league right around then.

Also, it was nice for the NBA to identify with a lot of viewers were sitting around in pajamas all day by making its own players dress in sleepwear.

 

The issue with ratings might be in who played. Chicago v. Brooklyn looked great when the season started, but both teams are a shitshow now, especially the Nets. The Knicks were much more horrid that advertised, and with Carmelo out yesterday, the fork was stuck in them at tipoff. Heat-Lakers (with no Kobe) turned out to be at least semi-competitive, in the sense that Miami did what good teams do this time of year to lesser squads -- screw around a little bit in the first three quarters, then turn on the jets in the fourth quarter. Houston-San Antonio was semi-interesting for a fairly one-sided game because of James Harden's performance, and it turned out the last game -- Warriors-Clippers, was by far the best.

The NBA has to be having heart attacks at headquarters, because both New York teams are set up to be bad for a very, very long time.