≡ Fun & Games ≡
 Davis: 5-year guarantee: Good; coming home: Priceless |
= To Our Readers =
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Here at The Sports Examiner, we have changed our format to include a weekly intelligence briefing, with commentary, for the astute sports fan called “7 Days” on Mondays and a bonus posting called “Fun & Games” during the week. Thanks again for your continued support; please ask your friends to sign up for the Tip Sheet and the free newsletter.
= The Top Story =
>> A very nice piece of business education, history and current affairs writing by Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman:
When the Sonics come to Oklahoma City, most everyone west of Spokane and lots of folks east of there will look at OKC and quote Gomer Pyle.
Shame, shame, shame!
Shame on Oklahoma City for swiping the Sonics from the loving arms of Seattle. Shame on Oklahoma City for not waiting on an expansion team.
Don’t buy it. Don’t listen to it. Don’t let anyone spoil your celebration. Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty.
Because here’s what major-league ballteams do.
They move. Always have, always will.
Of the 122 major-league franchises in the four historic team sports, 40 have relocated a total of 52 times. And if you discount the 24 expansion teams that have sprouted since 1992, it’s 38 relocations in 98 franchises.
Tramel notes that “Eight franchises moved in the ‘50s, 11 in the ‘60s, nine in the ‘70s, seven in the ‘80s and eight in the ‘90s.” And the clincher, of course, is “If the NFL can leave Greater Los Angeles, where’s the calamity in the NBA leaving Seattle?”
No calamity. Late Wednesday, the city agreed to accept a $45 million buyout from the club, with another $30 million due if the state authorizes $75 million in public funds by the end of next year to renovate Key Arena and the city does not get another NBA franchise by the end of 2013. As Seattle city attorney Tom Carr said, “We have 30 million reasons why we have support for a future NBA team.”
= The National Pastime =
>> New York, N.Y.: Writing for SI.com, Tom Verducci noted that “[T]he All-Star Game, with the World Series home-field advantage at stake, seems especially important this year because home teams have held a decided edge this season. They have won 56.6 percent of the time this year, up from 54.2 percent last year and the highest percentage this decade.”
Verducci also pointed out the obvious, but it’s worth hearing again: “Half the teams in baseball are within five games of .500. The three teams with the lowest payrolls in baseball (Marlins, Rays, Athletics) are closer to a playoff spot than the three teams with the highest payrolls (Yankees, Tigers, Mets).
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Boston, Ma.: Sure, the Alex Rodriguez-Madonna thing has the New York tabloids locked in a frenzy. But the talk-of-the-town girls at the Boston Herald are more concerned about how Bostonians should salute the Yankee slugger when his team comes to town to play the Red Sox on July 25-27:
You may recall that Fenway fans greeted A-Rod with a sea of blond masks last season the day after the New York Post reported that the Yankees slugger was busted with a busty blond stripper in Toronto.
Sadly, though, we are informed that the Fenway playlist contains no Madonna music. But perhaps that is something that the ballpark maestros may want to address before the Bronx Bombers roll into town on the 25th.
(We could suggest “Crazy For You,” “Forbidden Love,” “Hanky Panky,” ‘Who’s That Girl” “Justify My Love” and, of course, the ever-popular “Like A Virgin.” Not.)
A preview might be in store this weekend as the Red Sox and Yankees tangle in the Bronx.
= The NBA =
>> Oakland, Ca.: Why did Baron Davis leave $17.8 million behind and leave Golden State to head back home to Los Angeles and the Clippers? According to Janny Hu of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Talks between Davis and the Warriors on a contract extension broke down quickly this summer. According to both team and league sources, the biggest divide was the number of guaranteed years rather than average salary.
Davis wanted a five-year extension in the neighborhood of $13 million a year, while the Warriors were only willing to guarantee an additional two years without any performance incentives.
In the end, Davis traded in his $17.8 million salary for long-term security and the chance to return home to Los Angeles, where he is expected to team with All-Star forward Elton Brand and center Chris Kaman.
Hu wrote that Brand, now seeing a backcourt partner who can make the Clippers a playoff team, is now likely to re-sign with the team with a long-term deal at about $13.5 million per year. On the other hand, Golden State now has a lot of money to spend, but on who?
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Sacramento, Ca.: “I think I made the biggest mistake by staying in my contract, and I have to live with it,” wrote Sacramento’s Ron Artest to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein shortly after deciding to finish out his current contract and play with the Kings for $7.4 million for the 2008-09 season.
That is one of the possibilities. The 6-7 Artest, 28, had a big year with the Kings, averaging 20.5 points and 5.8 rebounds a game, but his biography on the HoopsHype.com site included praise for his defensive skills and improved offense, but also this: “Takes shots he shouldn’t take . . . Not great vision of the court . . . Goes very crazy very often . . . Can be a distraction for the team.”
So who would want this guy? According to the Sacramento Bee, the Kings “are expected to entertain trade offers for Artest and take advantage of his rising value. The Lakers are a near-certain possibility for talks this summer, with a long list of contending teams needing a piece such as Artest behind them.”
Artest didn’t opt out in Sacramento because he hoped the Kings would sign him to a long-term extension, but that’s not going to happen. As Sam Amick wrote in the Bee, “The message, quite clearly, is that he was not a part of their long-term plans.”
= On Campus =
>> San Francisco, Ca.: Mark Yudof is the new president of the University of California, overseeing a 10-campus system which had 220,000 students and 170,000 faculty and staff. He’s also a sports fan, as became evident in a recent interview with the Associated Press brought to our attention by our correspondent The Kook:
Question: Your compensation for leading UC will be $925,000, which means you will be California's highest-paid state employee. Is there any legitimacy to the complaints that have been raised about the salaries of college presidents?
Yudof: I actually think they're fairly exaggerated. This is a $20 billion system. Texas is $11 billion. I'm not defending every president's salary. Some of them may be overpaid. But I'm a big believer in markets. We pay football coaches several times more.
Question: Speaking of that, it seems like a safe bet that college football issues will take up less of your time in this job than at football-mad Texas. How relieved are you about that?
Yudof: I enjoy football. I'm still a fan of the University of Texas. I'll be rooting for Berkeley and UCLA and the others. I enjoy the popcorn. It's good to be the president. Maybe I can get good seats.
Maybe he will be able to explain why Cal, despite being one of the nation’s premiere public universities, is so consistently lousy.
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: One of the raps on UCLA, a reason why the school hasn’t produced like it should in major sports like basketball and football, is an unwillingness to pay its coaches “market” prices.
So much for that theory. The new, seven-year contract for basketball head coach Ben Howland lifts his guaranteed income to $1.97 million per year and will increase over the life of the deal to $2.3 million, not including up to $235,000 in incentives.
That’s on top of the $1.5 million being paid to new football coach Rick Neuheisel, coordinator salaries of more than $300,000 being paid to Norm Chow and DeWayne Walker and around $200,000 per year for the top assistant football coaches.
Legendary athletic director J.D. Morgan was well known for being penurious, paying a paltry $32,500 a year to John Wooden at the height of the latter’s famed career and letting a future Hall of Fame football coach go in Dick Vermeil when he wouldn’t come up with $100,000 for Vermeil in 1976, who would have stayed for that amount (a fraction of what the Philadelphia Eagles did pay him). But current athletic director Dan Guerrero, as he did at UC Irvine, is bringing in a lot more money in Westwood with a lot more on the way, including enough to refurbish Pauley Pavilion for about $100 million by 2010 or so.
And if Neuheisel can create a long-term winner in Westwood? Color the Bruins blue and green!
= Soccer =
>> Zurich, Switzerland: The newest FIFA World Rankings are out and, to no one’s surprise, European champion Spain is ranked no. 1, followed by Italy and Germany, with Brazil fourth. It’s the first time the Brazilians have fallen out of the top three since November 1993.
The United States plunged from 21st to 30th in the latest rankings, now ranking behind countries such as Paraguay (25th) and the Ivory Coast (28th).
= Track & Field =
>> Eugene, Or.: Although he already ran in the 800 meters and didn’t qualify for a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team, this weekend’s 1,500 meters is Lopez Lomong’s best chance for a ticket to Beijing.
Lomong’s story is a great one, if not that well known. He was born on January 1, 1985 in Sudan and lived there until age six. But after soldiers hauled him and other children away from their village, he spent the next ten years in refugee camps in Kenya before finding his way to the U.S. thanks to a relief agency program that brought “lost” children to America. He eventually ended up at Northern Arizona University and now has a chance to make the U.S. Olympic team.
He told John Crumpacker of the San Francisco Chronicle that “I’m so thankful. This is payback for the people who helped me though my childhood. Now I’m an American citizen and I can go out and compete.” The men’s 1,500 final is the final event of the meet on Sunday.
= The Five-Ring Circus =
>> Beijing, China: The latest flap in Beijing isn’t about Darfur, Tibet or Taiwan, but over the late-night habits of basketball star Yi Jianlian.
Seems Yi was out enjoying the Beijing nightlife with his girlfriend, a Chinese pop star named Shi Yanfei last week instead of lifting extra weights or doing things basketball stars are supposed to do in training. “The Olympic Games preparations are our priority, we must carry out the training schedule of the team and we cannot let Yi Jianlian become distracted,” said one Chinese basketball official.
Does Shi know this?
≡ ¶ ≡
>> London, England: It doesn’t take much to upset the British if you believe the tabloid headlines. The latest is a finding of “deadly asbestos” at the site of the main stadium for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The city’s Olympic Delivery Authority said “there has been a discovery of some small samples of asbestos within the Olympic Stadium site and work has been halted in one section of the site as a precautionary measure. Work on the rest of the Olympic Stadium site and the rest of the Olympic Park continues as normal.”
That’s a relief, but only for today. In the meantime, the ODA is denying media reports that the private-sector developers, Carillion and Igloo, who are expected to contribute up to half the cost of the $500 million media center, will abandon the project, leaving taxpayers to fill the bill. “We are confident of a significant investment from the private sector,” said a spokesperson. Permits for building this venue, to be the home of the Main Press Center and International Broadcast Center, are due in the fall.
= Potpourri =
>> Sydney, Australia: Usually it’s a team or player who gets criticized, but now the Sydney sporting public is under the microscope.
This year’s deciding “State of Origin” rugby series match between the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons is being held in Sydney this year, but the Wednesday night match at ANZ Stadium did not sell out ahead of time. That led the Daily Telegraph to comment “In an embarrassing performance by NSW sports fans, tickets are still available for tonight’s State of Origin decider.
“As of [Tuesday] night, 76,000 tickets had been sold, with thousands of seats at the 83,000-capacity ANZ Stadium still available.
“And [Steve Mortimer] who captained NSW to its first-ever series win said the no-show was ‘an insult and an embarrassment.’”
Mortimer added that the lack of a sell-out “casts doubt” on Sydney’s claim to be the country’s sports capital. These guys are serious!
~ Rich Perelman
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