Sports Podcast

Yesterday, me and my friend Andy Riggins recorded our first sports podcast!

We'll have to come up with a clever name for it soon, but for the time being I'll be posting it up just as a sports podcast. We are going to be doing one a week, discussing mostly the NBA and NFL, with some MLB and NHL topics sprinkled in.

I'll be posting it here every week.

Check out our 1st podcast.

Bill Simmons Podcast

(ESPN)

On Tuesday Bill Simmons, Marc Stein, and Ric Bucher all sat down and gave their two cents on the lockout. It's definitely an interesting conversation. Check it out here.

Union disbands; legal battle to follow

(AP)
"I've got them right where I want them..."

The NBA Players Association has decided not to accept the NBA's latest deal and has chosen to dissolve the union and prepare to file an anti-trust lawsuit against the league. Essentially, this means that the chances of losing the entire season just increased dramatically.

This is extremely saddening news for anyone who loves or is involved with the game of basketball. The fact that the players are taking legal action that could/should have been taken months ago shows that they are in over their head, and really, have been the entire time. This process could drag out for months and months. More players are already negotiating contracts with teams overseas.

I wouldn't say that I have an allegiance towards the players or the owners, but the players really do look foolish here. What did they expect to happen? They haven't had any leverage from the start, and now that they've been backed into a corner (and faced with the harsh reality that the deal that was just on the table was the best one that they were going to get), they desperately turn to the courts to bail them out.

Let's face it: they beat the owners the last time around. Bad. They had to know that the NBA was going to do as much as it could to even the odds this time around. The union should have made a few concessions, see how bad the owners were pushing, and accepted as close to 50/50 as they could have gotten before losing any games. Instead, we're here.

Man I wish I liked hockey.

Oh well, at least the Eagles are good this year, right?

Oh wait...

NBA lockout talks end in stalemate; players given a Wednesday deadline

(TMZ)
Derek's face says it all.

Now the frustration is really starting to set in.

After last night's meeting between the NBA and NBAPA, in which federal mediator George Cohen returned to the conversation, the owners offered the players a deal. Cohen got creative with the two sides and combined their views on the issues to try and make the proposal as fair as possible to both parties. For the BRI, the offer contained a system where the players have an opportunity to earn up to 51% if revenue meets a certain number, but also allows them to drop to 49%. David Stern has said that if the players do not accept the deal by Wednesday, the owners will drop their prior offer and return to the stricter stance that they started with, which is 47% BRI and a flex cap.

This whole circus will stop soon, one way or the other. If the players do not accept the deal by Wednesday, which all signs are pointing to them not doing, then the threat of decertification that they tossed around earlier in the week will become very real. If the union is decertified, it will mark the beginning of a long, tedious, grueling legal battle that would almost ensure the entire season's cancellation.

I think it's safe to say that fan's disgust with the league is at an all time high. This is exactly what the NBA needed to avoid.

This "negotiation" has gone wrong right from the start. It's not too late to fix it, but very soon, it will be.

Iverson trying one more NBA comeback

Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports has reported that Allen Iverson is ready to come back to the NBA. Iverson stated that personal issues, including the health of his family, have been the driving force behind his lack of focus and subsequent departure from the league. Iverson is now reportedly ready to embrace a backup role with any team.

Will any team want him though? And better yet, should any team want him? He can still score the basketball, that much is clear from his second stint in Philly. What's not clear is whether his ego will allow him to fully embrace a backup role. Iverson is a roll of the die for any team.

Personally, I think it would be only fitting for Iverson to end his career as a 76er. The emotion he showed when he returned to the sixers was genuine... this guy just wants to play basketball and be loved.

What do you think? Should a team take a chance on Iverson?

Yet another lockout update...when will this end

(AP)

If you've been paying attention to the NBA lockout for the past few months, you've probably realized that there's a painful pattern developing between the union and owners.

They schedule a meeting.

They meet.

They discuss all the topics, realize that they can't agree on anything, exchange barbs through the media, and don't schedule another meeting for weeks at a time.

It's a maddeningly slow and grueling process for the fans, and as more games get cancelled,  people will undoubtedly turn their attention elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Chris Sheridan wrote an article detailing the current status of the issues. It's a good, detailed read and it'll give you a sense of where things stand at the moment.

As of right now, no more meetings have been scheduled (shocking), and even though there have been rumors of a secret 82 game schedule in the works, it's becoming increasingly unlikley. In fact, it's believed that tomorrow will bring about the next round of cancellations, presumably an additional two weeks.

Hopefully they can get back to the bargaining table soon, and for the love of God, just bring us basketball again.

Something tells me this NBA world tour will not satisfy fans for long.

NBA cancels first two weeks of season

(Clark)

NBA Commissioner David Stern has announced the  cancellation of the first two weeks of the regular season. Despite reported progress with the mid-level exception, Stern says the sides are still "very, very far apart on virtually all issues". He also said that there is no chance for an 82 game season.

This is not good for the players. They claim that they can survive losing games, but I think that the deal that they will ultimately agree to will be much worse than if they'd just accepted the owner's offer of a 50/50 BRI split. By losing games, the players will be losing more money than they could have imagined.

All the fans want is basketball. The popularity of the league was at an all time high in June, and people were excited to see the how things were going to unfold this year. It's all in jeopardy now, and we've already lost a significant portion of games.

A January start to the season is looking more and more likely.

More updates on the way...