NBA

Seattle is getting an NHL team for the 2021-22 season

Seattle, the city famous for its burnt coffee, rain, and the home of Frasier and Niles Crane, is getting a National Hockey League team. Unlike cities that steal teams from Canada, Seattle is getting an expansion team. This from Gary Bettman, the longtime commissioner of the NHL:

Today is an exciting and historic day for our league as we expand to one of North America’s most innovative, beautiful and fastest-growing cities. And we are thrilled that Seattle, a city with a proud hockey history that includes being the home for the first American team ever to win the Stanley Cup, is finally joining the NHL.

If Seattle is so great, why did the NBA leave it for Oklahoma City?

Seattle is getting an NHL team for the 2021-22 season - Bent Corner — The Settle SuperSonics (Photo: NBC Sports)

What I find funny about this announcement is if Seattle is such a great place for a professional sports team to be, why did the NBA want to leave? The SuperSonics wanted out of Seattle so badly, they paid the city $45 million to move to Oklahoma City before the 2008-09 NBA season. Who would rather live in Oklahoma than Washington? The franchise then renamed itself after an AC/DC song. They not only wanted out of Seattle, but they also wanted to distance themselves from their own name.

The NBA can be really stupid sometimes

I think the NBA and team owners were stupid to leave Seattle. They should have stayed in Seattle. They should have retained the team’s name. The SuperSonics had a history.

Seattle is a great sports city. The NFL’s Seahawks seem to always sell out and they’re the only team in the league that considers their fans the 12th man. The soccer team, the Seattle Sounders FC, has a great fan base, one of the best in MLS.

I don’t know about the Seattle Mariners. Like most normal people, I haven’t watched a Mariners game since Ken Griffey Jr. left the team. I don’t even know if the Mariners are shown on MLB.TV. They may be blacked out for everyone’s best interest. Then again, they show Baltimore Orioles games. If they don’t blackout Orioles games, they won’t black out any bad team.

I never thought I’d say this, but I agree with Gary Bettman: a team in Seattle is good for the NHL. It will help promote the league in Asia. It will also help teams and their fans on the West Coast. They’ll have one more team in their own time zone to play. It means easier travel for teams on the West Coast as they’ll have one more team in their own backyard relatively speaking. It also means their fans won’t have to stay up late to watch their team play.

Carmelo Anthony asks for and receives free Atlanta Hawks jersey

Remember when Carmelo Anthony was supposed to be a rival for LeBron James? Remember when the two entered the NBA and were touted as the next Larry Bird and Magic Johnson? Yeah, me neither.

Anthony was drafted by the Denver Nuggets in 2003 and played for them until 2011. The Nuggets traded him to the New York Knicks in 2011. He remained there until 2017. Anthony demanded a trade. Before the 2017-18 NBA season, he was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He remained there for less than a year. Last month he was traded to the Atlanta Hawks. Five days after he became a member of the Hawks, he received a buyout offer he accepted.

Anthony is currently a free agent. Even though he never so much as dribbled a basketball for the Hawks, he wants an official Atlanta Hawks jersey and he wants it for free.

Like any normal human being with more money than common sense, nothing is stopping Anthony from going to the NBA online store and purchasing a customized jersey with his name on it. For some reason, he felt entitled to a free jersey.

The Hawks are capitulating to his request. From Twitter:

Millionaires love getting free stuff

Pampered, spoiled millionaire athletes love getting free stuff. He could have bought one for $249.99. The rumor is he plans on hogging the ball for the Houston Rockets this upcoming season. Whatever they will be paying him, I guess it won’t be enough for him to purchase a customized Hawks jersey like an adult. Not that any sane adult would ever want one.

LeBron James signs four year deal with the Lakers

LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers as a free agent for the second time in his career and signed a four year, $154 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Will fans in Cleveland burn his jerseys for the second time? I hope not. The fumes from a burning polyester jersey can’t be good for the respiratory system. Who knows what carcinogens are released into the atmosphere when flame takes to an NBA jersey.

Let’s hope Cleaveland fans aren’t as mad at LeBron this time as they were last time. He did come back and took the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals for the last four years, winning a championship in 2016. Burning a jersey is silly, Nike will only make more.

Speaking of Nike, can you imagine how many JeBron James Los Angeles Lakers jerseys they will be selling over the next few months? Personally, I want a purple one.

LeBron James signs four year deal with the Lakers - Bent Corner — The Lakers official store is already selling LeBron jerseys.

Once in a generation

LeBron James is the greatest basketball player of his generation. It’s not even close. He brings a lot to the Lakers. This includes:

7th scoring: 3,1038
11th in assists: 8,208
59th in rebounds: 8,415
16th in steals: 1,865
14-time All-Star
4-time MVP
3-time NBA Champ

To me, the most remarkable thing about LeBron James is that he’s been to eight straight NBA Finals. The last time LeBron was not at the NBA Finals? In 2010 when the Lakers beat the Boston Celtics. No other player in NBA history has been to eight straight NBA Finals. Can he make it nine in a row?

That’s what Lakers fan want to find out.

I feel sorry for Los Angeles Clippers fans who live in Los Angeles. All six of them. It must suck to see the greatest player in the NBA sign with the team everyone else in Los Angeles roots for but you.

I would say I feel sorry for Cleveland fans, but that wouldn’t be true. Cleveland fans are used to disappointment and despair. Then again, they did win the NBA Championship in 2016. The Cleveland Browns also won two Super Bowls, the first in 2001 and then again in 2013. They did have to move to Baltimore and change the name from the Browns to the Ravens to make that happen. A small price to pay to be a champion.

The NFL could ban National Anthem protests if they wanted to

We’re currently in Week 9 of the National Football League 2017 schedule. It’s the ninth week in a row the league is allowing players to protest during the National Anthem. The only question at this point is why the NFL is allowing this stupid spectacle to continue.

The idea the league doesn’t have total control of what players can and cannot do while standing on the sidelines is a joke. The NFL expects us to believe there’s nothing they can do about players sitting, kneeling, or raising a fist in the air during the National Anthem?

I do not believe the NFL

The NFL bans players from wearing Beats headphones anywhere in the stadium. If a player wants to wear headphones before or after a game, they have to wear only Bose headphones. The NFL also specifies what kind of tablet device teams and players can use. They have to use a specific kind of fake iPad, the Microsoft Surface Pro, not a real iPad made by Apple.

The list of products players aren’t allowed to use on the field or the sidelines are extensive. It’s one of the things that makes the decision of the NFL not to stop players from protesting during the National Anthem so weird.

The NFL will only fine a player protesting the National Anthem if he’s wearing Beats headphones or using an iPad while doing it.

Why is it the National Basketball Association can require players to stand during the national anthem, but the NFL can not?

The NBA rulebook states:

2) Players, coaches, and trainers are to stand and line up in a dignified posture along the sidelines or on the foul line during the playing of the National Anthem.

The NFL doesn’t have such a rule because it doesn’t want it. The question is why?

Is the NFL trying to lose money?

If I was a conspiracy theory guy, I’d think the NFL was purposely trying to damage its own product so it can then leverage the damage to its advantage. The amount of money the owners pay the players is based on how much revenue the league and teams make. The less money the NFL makes, the less money it will have to share with players.

Are they trying to decrease revenue so they can play players less?

My name is John Schnatter, but you can call me Papa.

TV ratings of NFL games are down compared to last year. Sponsors are threatening to pull their ads if the protests don’t stop. Papa John’s, the official crappy chain pizza sponsor of the NFL, posted lower than expected earnings for North America this past quarter. Papa John Schnatter, the founder, and CEO of Papa John’s is blaming National Anthem protests for weaker sales. Schnatter said the following:

NFL leadership has hurt Papa John’s shareholders.

If he thinks this is true, how long until he decides Papa John’s needs to end its partnership with the NFL? It could happen sooner rather than later. Once the first big-time sponsor leaves, more will follow.

Almost all players in the NFL represent the privileged 1%

This whole National Anthem protest thing is so stupid. Maybe I’d feel differently if the people doing the protesting weren’t privileged members of the 1% and living large compared to the rest of us, the other 99%. When I was 19-years-old I had to join the Air Force, not because I wanted to, but because I had no other options. I couldn’t find a real job. I couldn’t afford to go to college. If I was going to make anything of my life, I had to enlist in the military.

In the military, you must respect the flag and the National Anthem

While in the military, I learned to respect the flag and the National Anthem. It was ingrained into my core. Every day, on every Air Force base I was ever at, the base flag was lowered before sunset. Before it was lowered, a bugle call was played over a loudspeaker. It alerted everyone to prepare for retreat, the lowering of the flag.

After the bugle call was complete, the National Anthem was played and the flag was lowered, removed, and folded up. While the National Anthem played, you were to stop whatever you were doing, turn to face the music, and stand at attention. You were required to salute if you were in uniform. You were required to salute or put your hand on your heart if you were in civilian clothes. You were required to pull off to the side of the when driving a motor vehicle.

The Air Force could court marshall someone for not standing at attention during retreat. You could go to jail for not honoring the flag and the National Anthem.

I think this is why I find these National Anthem protests so disgusting. They not only disrespect our country, they disrespect anyone who served in the military. It’s not about freedom of speech. When players are on the sideline before a game, they’re at work. Your employer puts expectations on you when you are on the job. Respecting the National Anthem should be one of those expectations.

NFL players can disrespect the country on their own time

If players want to disrespect the National Anthem on their own time, I have no problem with that. They can burn the American flag on their own time and I would not complain. My problem is when they protest while everyone in attendance is standing and showing respect to our country. Standing for the National Anthem is a something all Americans share together. The National Anthem protests shit all over that.

There is a time and place for everything. Before a game when everyone else is standing in respect is not the right time or the right place. It’s the wrong time and the wrong place.

Clippers whine about not having a home court advantage

The Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers last night 110-106 last night in Los Angeles. After the game, many of the Clippers players and coaches complained about how the crowed seemed to be rooting for the visiting Warriors and not the Clippers, technically the home team.

This from Clippers forward and Kia pitchman Blake Griffin:

“Home-court advantage is just not there for us. If that’s how it feels in the playoffs, it’s not looking good. I don’t know what we could do, but it would be great if it wasn’t that way. It’s kind of like when we play the Lakers. I don’t know, maybe worse. It’s one of those things where it would be great if it wasn’t like that.”

I know what they can do. If the Clippers want a true home-court advantage, they need to get their own home court.

The Los Angeles Clippers are the only team in the NBA without their own stadium. They play in the Staples Center, home of the Lakers and in hockey, the Kings. It’s why the seats are purple and there are championship banners belonging to the Lakers and Kings hanging from the rafters. Surrounding the Staples Center are statues of former Lakers greats. There’s even a statue for Wayne Gretzky, honoring the time he played hockey in Los Angeles.

There are no Clippers greats in statue form surrounding the Staples Center. Mostly it’s because it’s not their home, but also it’s because there has never been a Clippers great.

Technically, the Clippers play their home games in Los Angeles, but I’ve never known anyone from southern California who claimed to be a Clippers fan. Not really. In fact, it could be argued that they are the third most popular basketball team in Los Angeles: the Lakers are first, the UCLA Bruins are second, and the Clippers are a very distant third.

Clippers Number One Fan, Shelly Sterling

Why would anyone want to be a Clippers fan? Look at who’s legally the Clipper’s number one fan. It’s none other than Shelly Sterling, wife of racist scumbag Donald Sterling. In fact, if the Clippers ever win a championship, it’s in Shelly Sterling’s contract with the NBA that she receive three championship rings.

If that’s not enough to always root against the Clippers, then I don’t know what is.

Derrick Rose to have knee surgery… again

Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose has a torn meniscus in his right knee and will undergo surgery to repair it. It’s the same exact injury he had in 2013. This was after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in 2012.

It’s unclear when he injured his knee this time. He had played well before the All-Star break, but not so much since. He’s averaged less than 11 points a game with a 23.5 shooting percentage in the three games since the All-Star break.

Rose is 26. It’s clear at this point in his career that he has crummy knees, right?

Then again, maybe it’s something esle. He’s paid a lot of money by Adidas to wear their shoes. He even has his own line of shoes and clothing with Adidas. What if it’s not his knees that are the problem, but the shoes he’s wearing? When you hurt yourself and you don’t know how you did it or even when you did it, it just might be your shoes.

If and when Derrick Rose comes back, it might be a good idea to wear different shoes, shoes not designed by Adidas. Maybe he ought to wear Jordans. When was the last time someone blew out a knee wearing Jordans? It might be a good idea to take some of the millions Adidas has paid him to hire some lawyers to get him out of his contract with Adidas.