August 2011
2 posts
8/12 David Stern
2230 DS: one of the players’ main concerns is that “you’ve got to be able to play for your career contract” - guaranteed money (which they currently have, and sometimes harmful to the product). owners want to make contracts shorter, more incentivized and aligned with continued performance.
8/10 Mike Lombardi
4930 the Jets let Braylon Edwards go. ML: ”you have to understand the dynamics of the locker room. there’s no way Braylon Edwards could walk back into the Jets locker room taking a $1M salary when he was supposed to be a beloved free agent, and he’s looking across the locker room and Santonio Holmes is making $10M a year. players never take less [money], or significantly less, to...
July 2011
4 posts
7/19 Dave Dameshek (Pittsburgh Pirates)
1430 best ballparks: Fenway, Wrigley, Dodgers. newbies: San Fran, Pittsburgh, Seattle
2230 underrated american cities: Milwaukee and Pittsburgh
27 NFL strike: “in any other sport (mlb, nba, nhl) when they go on strike or they get locked out, the fan reaction is usually threatening never to come back, sickened at millionaires bickering over money. you never hear that with football (nfl)....
7/11 Seth Meyers (ESPY's, White House, etc)
2430 SM: “when people say ‘oh i hate commercials,’ it’s like saying ‘my least favorite part of the grocery store is the checkout’”
(hulu, grantland, tv, monetizing on a product that starts out as free or must rely on advertising to survive, and the consumer’s entitled attitude to entertainment)
7/5 Mike Lombardi (NFL Future)
6 an NFL expansion team in Europe is possible (and the only major american sport able to do so because they only play one game a week. also, the nba has done a good job globalizing.. the nfl, as hot as it is, could get even bigger). the likeliest country would be Germany.. culture most receptive to american football. maybe London. maybe Vienna.
6/24 Henry Abbott (NBA Draft)
8 pickup hoops tip: run to the free throw line! easy to grab rebounds
28 HA: “not to beat a dead horse, but the Hornets do not have ‘the guy’ who takes the shot, and they’re the best [crunch time] offense ever.. ..it’s not close. they just kill.”
June 2011
0 posts
5/31 Chad Millman, Joe House (NBA Finals Preview)
58 random idea: finals be a 2-2-3, the last three games in VEGAS
May 2011
10 posts
5/20 Brian Burke, Alan Sepinwall (Hockey, TV)
31 tv: Good Times every episode: guy who thinks he’s going to get job so he buys something expensive
5/19 Charles Barkley (NBA Playoffs)
1830 barkley grandma: stand up, don’t be a punk. cause if they make an asian joke or a jewish joke with you, theyre making a black joke behind your back
2030 when you’re rich and famous your job is to bring along for the ride as many people as possible
5/18 Chuck Klosterman
53 biographies. ck” i don’t care about their life until they start having sex and doing drugs”
5/12 Sean Grande (Celtics)
15 biggest indicator of celtics succcess is two Rondo stats: FTA and rebounds
31 this isn’t the end of celtics big3
3630 celtics atl 2008 series was a 5 game series disguised as 7
3930 celtics playoffs have already been an extra season worth of games for the big three
45 westbrook in 3rd overtime (game 4 vs grizz) still in 5th gear kind of makes up for the turnovers. how do you still have...
5/11 Willie Geist (MSNBC & News)
21 Fox News clobbers everyone in the ratings but on big events & breaking news ppl go to CNN
5/10 Mike Lupica
19 “you can never assume there’s going to be justice in sports”
5/9 Jimmy Kimmel, Marc Stein (Lakers, Mavs Sweep)
40 the mavs are 10-0 against the spread in the playoffs (11-0)
5/5 Matthew Berry, Henry Abbott
1:03:30 in sports, nothing drives tv ratings like uncertainty. not ticket sales, but tv ratings. see: english premier league. the 63 NCAA games in march madness make more in revenue than the entire 1000+ game nba regular season
4/26 Jonah Keri
1930 Toronto is black vegas - place players love to visit but stop short or wanting to live (b/c of taxes and weather) - Jason Whitlock
April 2011
4 posts
4/18 Dave Jacoby, Dan Silver (Reality TV, Horror...
5430 “horror movies are the genre where real visual storytelling is done bc you need to frame it right, light it right, sound needs to be there, it’s not about dialogue, that’s why guys like danny boyle, peter jackson, sam raimi, oliver stone, scorsese, polanski - all these guys who are making a gazillion dollars on their movies now - started in horror movies”
scream 1...
4/14 NBA Playoff Preview (J.A. Adande, Henry...
1530 BS: Kobe’s confidence exceeds his talent at this stage in his career. JA: but that’s what you want.
5130 The Heat have the “magic” play, the play all the experts were excited about when they signed the big three, which is the LeBron-Wade high screen. they’ve been saving it for the playoffs. so have Durant-Westbrook. a two-man game.
53 Dwyane Wade has horrible...
4/13 Wright Thompson, Greg Wyshynski (Masters,...
11 the whole sport of cricket has been changing over the last ten years, going from a 5-day defensive chess match to a newer, more aggressive 3-hour form. it’s called Twenty20. certain skillset demands are changed, affecting which players prosper
1330 the india that you think of today was born in 1990, when its economy opened up. the sport of cricket has mirrored that economical and...
4/6 Chuck Klosterman (NCAA Hoops)
22 ck: the NCAA’s token response to the absurdity of not paying men’s football and basketball players is that they’re student-athletes. however, it would be reasonable for them to say “look, if you want funding for all of your collegiate sports, men’s and women’s (title IX), from mainstream to obscure, the money has to come from somewhere.” right now the...
3/29 Sean Grande, Frank Isola (Celtics & Knicks...
27 “phil jackson mocks things for a reason” - a tell. the celtics’ “our starting five have never been beaten in a playoff series (perk rondo pierce allen kg)” was mocked by phil, indicating it was probably true
1:09 FI: “when coaches arrive at the knicks, the organization will tell them ‘hey listen, don’t listen to this guy in the media, beware this...
March 2011
10 posts
3/21 Steve Kerr (NBA & NCAA)
10 the difference in quality of play of NBA and college is now SK: “so dramatic that i don’t even pay attention to it.” rookies coming into the league twenty years ago had complete post games and were ready to go. today, with only a few exceptions, players are coming in with incomplete games.
2630 another hint that this might be Kevin Garnett’s final season
31 Sacramento...
3/16 Cousin Sal, Joe House (NCAA)
2530 why aren’t there more good warm weather college basketball teams? (pac-10) shouldn’t it be harder to recruit in a crappy weather school like uconn?
3/15 Chad Millman, Mark Titus (March Madness)
15 wise guys bet against Calipari (Kentucky) if there is a hint of indecision bc they think he’s an undisciplined coach. great recruiter, collector of talent, but a roll-the-ball-out coach. same with Pitino (Louisville). if teams have time to prepare, they will defeat his team. (they also hate Bruce Pearl [Tennessee])
30 a “bet on” game is NOT a game you want to bet on....
3/14 Chad Ford (NCAA)
39 Jimmer Fredette is Stephen Curry: 30 foot range, not afraid. critics focus too much on things a player lacks, but if they have certain elite skills, they can find a place in the nba
3/11 Jackie MacMullan (Career, NBA)
8 lisa olson story
15 Reggie Lewis was the next great Celtic. Len Bias was the bridge. both died
17 Bob Ryan - “columns disguised as beat stories” - the best sportswriter ever
40 Kevin Garnett - South Carolina high school party jail nobody there for him story. shaped who he is and is wary about who to trust.
45 JM: “there are probably multiple players in the nba that are HIV...
3/9 Jalen Rose (Fab Five Documentary)
2330 “it wasn’t just about, oh, you’re the top basketball player in the state so now i’m going to do what i can to get next to you. 99.9% of the kids that ed martin was around to help influence, some of them never made it out of the hood, period, let alone make it to college, nba.”
27 fab five & jordan responsible for ushering in long shorts era in basketball....
3/8 Chris Nowinski (Concussions)
530 people have convinced themselves that muhammad ali has parkinsons, when in reality he might be the most “punch-drunk” of all
1130 soccer has the same rate of concussions as football
24 malcolm gladwell believes that once all the concussion research comes out, no parent will want their kid to play football, therefore killing the sport - going the way of boxing
3/7 Michael Smith (Mormon Culture, Late 80's...
16 “boston always drafted tall, and they drafted white” (smith drafted in 1989, 13th overall pick)
19 ppl always forget (celtic) reggie lewis was the guy who guarded michael jordan the best in that era. he also scored on him at will. MS: “how did you know that?!”
21 in that era, teams went out to dinner together, they conversed more with each other and with reporters....
2/28 William Goldman, Dan Silver (Oscars, Knicks)
10 talk about how movies “open” (opening weekend box office). by this definition, there is only one movie star today and that is Will Smith. every one of his movies open. DiCaprio no longer does, neither does Pachino or DeNiro. there are no female stars. the two biggest movie stars ever, __ and john wayne, wouldn’t be able to find work today. movies “do business” =...
February 2011
4 posts
2/21 Jason Sudeikis
16 to keep the audience on their side, snl cast members will often “break” (character) intentionally
1:04 berklee mention!
1:05 going through a period when he was frustrated with Second City and comedy, and feeling the need to be “silent and anonymous.” literally going through a “blue” stage by wanting to join the blue man group (arrested development??)....
2/17 Jimmy Kimmel (Coaching NBA Celebrity Game)
2030 JK: (on the first year of his show, trying to stay afloat) “i take a perverse pleasure in when things are [bad] and we’re stuck with somebody terrible [for a guest on the show]. i feel as if a prank has been pulled on me and it’s there for everyone else’s enjoyment.”
2730 a new trend amongst nba teams - during timeouts, the head coach and assistant coaches walk...
1/28 Henry Abbott (NBA)
1hr4m “the story on [blake griffin]’s jumping is, when he hurt his kneecap and did surgery last year they found like tendonitis in the knee or something so they fixed that, too, and he hadn’t realized that he had it, it’s just something he always played with. and once it healed.. it was like they gave him the shoes from ‘Like Mike’ “
1/31 Chad Millman (NFL Mega-Playoff Pod)
PART II
4730 ever since the Fridge scored the TD against the Pats in the ‘85 super bowl, prop bets took off due to the publicity. vegas lost a ton of money that year (odds were 100-1 for that prop bet) but it helped fans understand and get acquainted to betting. money has poured in since then. (the state of nevada usually makes around $90M / year from super bowl betting)
49 vegas cannot do...
January 2011
2 posts
1/19 Patton Oswalt
130 satellite radio tours for promoting books are antiquated. “publicists still think the internet is prodigy net”
230 “morning zoo” radio culture. first of all, for a comic promoting a gig, the 6am radio promo does not bring people to the venue at night. bs: did that for promoting book in 2005, had no interest since. morning / satellite radio does not care about guests....
1/14 Adam Carolla
12 if you’re molested, your voice stays trapped at whatever age it happened. dr drew can tell, quickly, if someone was molested and at what age, all at once.
PART II
36 podcasting is not like blogs. you can’t read 20 a day. a podcast is like a 40 minute investment, so you can listen to only a select few a day. because of this, only a few are going to come out on top. right now...
December 2010
4 posts
12/17 Ted Leonsis (Owning Washington Capitals &...
giving away free tickets does not work (only 20 or 40% of people who get free tickets show up, and when they do they don’t spend money at the arena). instead, spend your time investing in developing a good product.
12/15 Ric Bucher, Joe House (NBA)
2 bs: carmelo going to the knicks. rb: nets
8 carmelo is not on basketball terms with george karl and chauncey, both denver icons
13 bs doesn’t believe the nets will be in brooklyn in 2012
1630 the bulls love playing with each other, exciting and dangerous team
1830 miami heat, simplified: 3rd quarter’s lebron’s, 4th quarter’s wade’s. that’s not gonna work in...
12/9 Connor Shell and John Dahl (30 for 30 Series...
130 this project is 3.5 years old
2 “i was known and still am know to send emails from time to time to people that i probably shouldn’t, to people who work much higher in the espn food chain.. the basic message being, ‘why are we the world-wide leader, and why is hbo kicking our butts when it comes to sports docs. we have the resources, money and tape vault.’ when hbo does...
12/2 The Miz (Real World, WWE)
42 “So there’s a lesson out here for the kids. I always get asked questions about ‘how do i do this, how do i get into it.’ you just gotta come up with ideas that people aren’t doing, bust your butt. basically it.”
Miz: i always tell people that are coming up, why don’t you do a .com show? it’ll help your character “yeah! i should i should i...
November 2010
5 posts
11/24 JackO, Marc Stein, Joe House (Jeter, NBA)
jacko: the yankees literally have a license to print money. this is the team that gave kei igawa a $40M contract plus $10M just to talk to him (he’s in the minors). jeter is not worth 15/year (and definitely not 20) but so what? this is where you’re going to draw the line? with fricking derek jeter?
?? jeter is the one yankee that red sox fans kind of respect / fear / wish they had...
11/18 Mike Lombardi, Casey Wasserman (NFL, LA...
4630 oh yeah, cities have to pay teams to move to their city
5130 LA hasn’t had a final four since the 60’s, because all of its venues are too small. it hasn’t had a superbowl since early 2000s (san diego), but it used to be once every three years.
special football games aren’t taking place in california anymore
5530 the long standing belief that la cannot support an...
11/11 Buster Olney (MLB Offseason), Dave Dameshek...
2630 Gold Glove voting is comical - exactly as un-researched as it seems to the outsider. voters gathered in the room and say “hey who’s a good shortstop out there?” one person says jeter and then everybody goes oh yeah okay lets vote for him.
PART II
550 Aaron Rodgers should ask out Jenn Sterger lol.
11/10 Bill Carter ("The War for Late Night")
7 Leno’s 10pm show had a “Pay & Play” contract, which was peculiar. NBC had to pay him and air his show, instead of “Pay or Play” which could pay him and not air his show.
9 BS: ABC is geared more towards women
1130 Median age of Conan’s Tonight Show: 36. Median age of Leno’s Tonight Show: 56
12 The myth of the Tonight Show as an institution. As...
11/1 Adam Carolla (new book)
28 “Happy Madison” is the name of Adam Sandler’s office lol
October 2010
3 posts
10/19 Joe House (NBA Preview Over/Under)
PART I
23.5 - MINNESOTA - under 25.5 - NEW JERSEY - over 26.5 - TORONTO - under (LOCK) 27.5 - SACRAMENTO - under 29.5 - CLEVELAND - under (LOCK) 30.5 - GOLDEN STATE - over 31.5 - DETROIT - under* 34.5 - INDIANA - under 34.5 - WASHINGTON - over 35.5 - NEW YORK - over (LOCK) 35.5 - PHILADELPHIA - under (LOCK) 36.5 - L.A. CLIPPERS - over 38.5 - MEMPHIS - over 39.5 - CHARLOTTE - under* 40.5 - NEW...
10/18 Cousin Sal, Alan Sepinwall, JackO (Week 7...
Matthew Weiner (creator and writer of Mad Men) is even more internet and blog-aware than the Lost guys.. if the consensus is “he’s going to end the season on the famous 1965 blackout” it’s almost as if he doesn’t write that in out of spite. he is also deadly serious about not having episodes leak. episodes used to be given in advance to the press (like alan) so that...
10/11 Buster Olney (MLB Playoffs)
30 - Roy Halladay talk. seriously nobody has anything bad to say about him and it couldn’t have happened to a better person. work ethic, the way he treats others. the way he handled himself on the trading block. JP Richardi, his GM on the Blue Jays, was not getting great offers back (offseason 2009-10) and he was screaming IT’S ROY HALLADAY! 33 - similarities btwn halladay and...
September 2010
7 posts
9/25 SPECIAL BS REPORT WITHDRAWL PTI EDITION
“California takes a backseat to no one. Not Florida, not Texas, not Ohio, in producing great football players. There’s talented players on this Boise State team. They’re from California..” - Brent Musburger
9/20 Alan Sepinwall (Fall TV)
1030 - “before friends you could run any sitcom of people any size or age as long as they were funny and it worked. then Friends comes along and all of a sudden all sitcoms have to feature young and good looking people. and that pretty much killed the sitcom right there.”
“TV Executives are so dumb.” There’s a lot of “this show is so bad i think...