Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 17:48:00 -0400
Former NFL linebacker Derrick Brooks (and former FSU board of trustees member) appeared to confirm rumors that Florida State is at least mulling a move from the ACC to the Big 12 (via Orlando Sentinel).
But why would Florida State make the jump to the Big 12?
In a memo obtained by ESPN, FSU president Eric Barron outlined the pros and cons of making the move, highlighting the larger, but unequal television revenue in the Big 12 (Texas takes home home more revenue thanks to their own Longhorn Network).
But the real reason might be a lesson in how geography is viewed from the ESPN offices in Bristol, Connecticut. And how to best maximize the ratings in Florida, which is home to three of the 20 largest television markets (Miami, Orlando, Tampa).
ESPN just inked a new 15-year, $3.6 billion television contract with the ACC, which currently has two schools in Florida (FSU, Miami). ESPN is also currently negotiating a new deal with the Big 12, which has no schools in Florida.
So if FSU were to move to the Big 12, it would give both conferences a foothold in the key state, and the Big 12 would likely gain more of a ratings boost than the ACC would lose.
Would Florida State be better off in the Big 12? Maybe. Would the Big 12 be better off with Florida State? Probably.
But in the end, the biggest winner would be ESPN.
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 17:12:00 -0400
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 16:36:00 -0400
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 16:12:00 -0400
Deion and Pilar Sanders are currently going through a very messy divorce. Between Pilar calling Deion a 'narcissistic bully,' and Deion live-tweeting an alleged assault, their divorce has been anything but private.
On Tuesday, a judge ordered Deion to pay for Pilar's legal fees totaling about $275,000, according to NBC.
In addition to her legal fees, Deion will pay $10,500 a month in child support and $3,500 a month for Pilar's mortgage, until their divorce is finalized.
As of now, the two will share custody of their four children for the summer.
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 15:43:00 -0400
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 15:14:00 -0400
Rachel Jonat spent most of her young adult life dreaming of Olympic medals and crossing finish lines.
But the games came and went and she began a new chapter as a wife and mother. Both roles forced her to take a hard look at the debt she and her husband were facing: $82,000 in total.
They clawed their way out one step at a time, attributing most of their success to the practice of minimalism. "I've always lived with debt."
Since opening her first line of credit at 17, Jonat says she's been in a constant state of debt.
The bills only piled higher as she did everything possible to fund her dream of rowing professionally in the Olympics. She eventually qualified in 2003 – with some collateral damage along the way.
"I had financed my Olympic dream with credit cards," she says. "My mom stepped in and took out a second mortgage on her home to help me with that. I've always lived with debt. It just seemed normal."
The newlyweds kept the debt cycle going
The couple married in 2007.
Their wedding expenses went straight to plastic, but it was when they started renovating their new home in 2009 that things started to get scary.
"That's when we really hit the big numbers," she recalls. "We decided to tally up our debt and start paying it off. That was our scary moment. It was a huge number but we decided to do whatever we could."
Then they discovered Minimalism
At the time, her husband's income was erratic at best and she was on maternity leave from work at a bank.
Then her sister started sending along links to articles on Minimalism.
From what Jonat could tell, it looked like nothing but 20-somethings backpacking across some developing nation or another – not exactly the ideal lifestyle for a couple with a newborn.
But something about the idea grabbed her. "It was definitely very new to me, this idea that your stuff 'owned' you," she says.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 15:01:00 -0400
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 14:57:54 -0400
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 13:43:00 -0400
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 12:44:00 -0400
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 12:27:00 -0400
 Laurie Fine, the wife of accused child molester and now fired Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, is suing ESPN for libel and defamation of character, she and her attorney announced at a press conference Wednesday.
The lawsuit states ESPN "spitefully destroyed Laurie Fine's reputation in an attempt to capitalize financially in the wake of the Penn State sex abuse scandal."
Laurie Fine is specifically suing ESPN for falsely reporting she was sexually involved with one of her husband's accusers while he was still in high school, knowingly permitting the sexual molestation of children in her home, and witnessing the sexual molestation of children without stopping it, among other things.
She and her attorney also claim ESPN doctored the now infamous tape in which Laurie Fine speaks to Bernie Fine's main accuser, Bobby Davis, about knowing everything that was going on.
Laurie Fine also denies reports from an affidavit that she had sex with multiple basketball players.
"My life has been destroyed through the defamation I have suffered, and this will last a lifetime," Laurie Fine said at Wednesday's press conference.
One interesting nugget revealed at the press conference is that Laurie Fine's attorney claims he has yet to interview her husband Bernie.
ESPN says it hasn't had a chance to "review the complaint" and stands by its reporting.
Read the lawsuit in its entirety here →
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 11:45:00 -0400
With Chris Bosh out, the Miami Heat lost a very ugly game to the Indiana Pacers Tuesday night, 78-75.
Losing to the Pacers by only three points should be encouraging for Miami, seeing as they were only a few late game mistakes from pulling this one out.
But the biggest issue with the Heat's loss is that it exposed one major flaw in their game: Miami CAN'T rebound.
The Pacers out rebounded the Heat 50 to 40 Tuesday night.
Miami took the rebounding margin 45-38 in Game 1 even though Bosh only played 16 minutes.
In the three regular season games Bosh sat out due to injury, Miami was out-rebounded by an average of 7 rebounds per game. The rest of the season the Heat normally out-rebounded opponents by about 2 rebounds per game. (Bosh also didn't play in six games at the end of the season, but that was in order to rest him for the playoffs.)
The Heat went 1-2 in those three regular season games, so their overall record with Bosh sitting out with an injury is 1-3 this year.
Yes, even with Bosh in the lineup Miami is a poor rebounding team (21st in the league in rebounds per game) and it's mainly due to how few offensive rebounds they have because of how well they've shot the ball this year.
As the four games Bosh has sat out have proved, however, having Bosh out of the lineup gives opposing teams the rebounding edge and keeps the game closer.
The Heat are a juggernaut, i.e. they still have LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, so keeping it close is probably the only way opposing teams can pull out a W.
Miami will likely get through Indiana, even if it ends up being tougher than they expected.
The bigger issue is how long Bosh is out and how effective he can be upon returning.
An NBA Finals date with either the Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers, or San Antonio Spurs would be a huge problem with Bosh out of the lineup or ineffective. All three of those Western Conference teams rank among the top ten teams in rebounding.
Oh and there are also offensive problems the Heat face with Bosh out (via SB Nation): Miami averages nearly 9 points fewer per 100 possessions when Bosh isn't on the floor.
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 11:09:00 -0400
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 10:46:00 -0400
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 10:23:19 -0400
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 10:12:00 -0400
The Los Angeles Lakers looked absolutely awful against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first game of their second-round game in the NBA Playoffs.
It's largely up in the air if that's going to change heading into Game 2 on Wednesday night, but there are some factors the Lakers should key in on according to the experts.
Putting it bluntly, Los Angeles didn't look particularly adept at doing anything in its loss in Oklahoma City. That could change with a couple of major adjustments, though -- and our friends at SB Nation's Silver Screen and Roll think they know what it'll take to even the series at one game apiece before the seven-game matchup heads to Hollywood.
Foremost among the items that need to be fixed is the Lakers' pick-and-roll defense.
Ben Rosales of Silver Screen and Roll noted that there are three things that the Lakers will need to fix in order to have a chance at victory on Wednesday night: offensive execution, defensive intensity and a better effort overall.
Although teams generally need to do each of those to win games, Rosales goes into solid detail to describe what exactly the Lakers need to fix with each.
The most interesting points came when Rosales discussed the defensive effort:
Foremost among the items that need to be fixed is the Lakers' pick-and-roll defense. Westbrook may not consistently hit all those midrange jumpers off the dribble for the rest of the series, but either way, the Lakers need to trap him far harder before that even becomes an option. As yours truly and others noted before the series, Perkins and Serge Ibaka are not offensive powerhouses.
[...]
Finally, the Lakers need to take far better care of the defensive boards, as while Westbrook and Kevin Durant inevitably scoring is acceptable, the putbacks and easy points gotten by everyone else is not. It will be difficult for the Lakers to pull a game out even if they limit these kinds of opportunities because the Thunder are simply that much of an offensive powerhouse, but they certainly have no chance if they do not.
As the above blockquote points out, shutting down the Thunder's high-octane offense is certainly a tall task. If the Lakers are able to slow them down, however, it's not hard to believe that Kobe Bryant can go into hero mode and will Los Angeles to a win on the other end. Rosales touched on the things the Black Mamba will need to change from Game 1 in order for his team to be more successful on the offensive end.
For a brief spell in the first quarter, the ball movement looked solid. Bigs were throwing some sweet interior passes, shooters were being found, and the ball was being hammered towards the rim. All that eventually dissipated as the game went on and it's difficult to assign that completely to the Thunder.
Aside from Thabo Sefolosha's superb individual defense on Kobe Bryant, who did his share in stifling the overall flow by trying his utmost to crank difficult shots over Sefolosha. Indeed, the seminal moment of the game for Kobe was when he had Derek Fisher (!) on him in the high post and instead of blasting right past him towards the rim, he settled for a fadeaway shot that missed. That's unacceptable.
Whether or not the Lakers are able to adjust enough is anyone's guess, but at least now we've provided them with a blueprint that might help them head back to Los Angeles without their tail between their legs.
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 09:51:00 -0400
LeBron James didn't take a shot in the final minute of the Heat's loss to the Pacers last night, and now the whole "LEBRON IS A CHOKER" debate is back in full swing.
Basically, two distinct factions have emerged overnight:
1. LeBron disappeared when it mattered most, missed crucial free throws, and lost his team the game. He choked. For the most part, fans hold this view.
2. LeBron made the correct basketball plays, did what his coach asked, and the stats say it's crazy to think he has to force bad shots at the end of games. He didn't choke. For the most part, basketball junkies/bloggers hold this view.
But they're both wrong.
Here's why the second group is wrong:
LeBron bricked two free throws with 54 seconds left that would have tied the game. And it's not the first time he's done this. LBJ is 10/17 (59%) on free throws in the final minute of one-possession games this season, according to ESPN Stats & Info. That's an atrocious number. So if you define "choking" as "a player performing below his average at the end of games," then LeBron absolutely choked from the free throw line last night.
But here's why the first group is wrong:
The second piece of alleged evidence in LeBron's choke job — that he refused to take the final shot — makes no sense. The Heat needed a three-pointer to tie the game with 8.3 seconds left last night, and LeBron has no business taking threes — especially contested ones.
LeBron took the fewest number of three-pointers (on a per minute basis) of his career this year, and only shot 36%. Statistically, the Heat have three different players (James Jones, Mike Miller, and Mario Chalmers) who should be taking threes over LeBron when they need one.
Add to this equation the fact that the defense is totally focused on LeBron and Wade at the end of games, and Erik Spoelstra's choice to draw up a play for Chalmers last night was much more likely to result in a quality shot. Ultimately, the Heat got a clean look from one of their best three-point shooters (Chalmers), but the shot just didn't go in. That has nothing to do with LeBron.
The years-long debate about the clutch-ness of LeBron has pushed both groups to the extremes. There's no middle ground when it comes to LBJ, meaning the truth about what happened last night — LeBron bricked two free throws but otherwise didn't do all that badly in the final minute — has been lost.
Here's the final play:
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 09:50:31 -0400
Hall of fame NBA player Charles Barkley is best-known for being one of the best big men in NBA history. But he also has a portfolio of ad campaigns that includes Nike, Taco Bell, T-Mobile, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Right Guard, Weight Watchers and CDW.
The Alabama native's commentary on TNT's Inside the NBA, coupled with his outspokenness and brash demeanor have long made him a favorite in the sports world.
Before Barkley put the headphones on, he was also beloved on Madison Avenue. Charles Barkley takes on Godzilla
With barely any dialogue, Godzilla vs. Barkley is classic 1990's advertising gold. Dark Horse Comics produced an actual comic for the 1992 Nike spot, and Nike made a trailer for the ad itself.
Anything Less Would Be Uncivilized
Fans who didn't follow Barkley before he was on TNT might have forgotten about the athlete's ads for Right Guard filmed when in the 1990s, when he was playing for the 76ers, Suns, and Rockets. The giant all star turned into a pretentious equestrian for the "Anything Less Would be Uncivilized" campaign, and it is truly some of his most memorable work.
I'm Not A Role Model
Barkley created controversy with his "I'm not a role model" campaign in 1993, which seemed to take a shot at fellow athlete Michael Jordan who, well, was. In 2008, Barkley would live up to his proclamation with a DUI arrest.
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Posted on Wed, 16 May 2012 09:25:00 -0400
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Posted on Tue, 15 May 2012 23:01:00 -0400
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