comments on May's column

[Kestas <Kestutis.Kveraga@dartmouth.edu>]

"When was the last time an All-Star forward entered free agency with
virtually no place to go? That is where Mason finds himself. Come
September, there are likely to be a lot of name players in the same boat,
desperate to play, resigned to doing so for the NBA minimum wage. Welcome
to the new economy."

As someone's noted, this may be the reason Wallace backed off from signing
El-Amin (we knew he'd backed off from re-signing Stith when he drafted 3
rookies that play his position). Again, even though I would've liked to
have a real, live PG on our roster, I think it's well worth the risk. You
never know who's gonna be left without a chair when the music stops. 

On a related thought, I wonder if the players will start getting restless
when they realize that their pay is effectively being cut 10%. Or has the
lockout taught them not to mess with Stern, especially while being
represented by Louie and Dewey (Billy Hunter and Ewing)?

"Actually, TNT looked over the entire season and decided the Celtics and
the Cavaliers simply weren't worth showing at all. Boston is one of five
teams not slated to appear on NBC, TNT, or TBS"

This just infuriates me, because it's basically a huge "you suck and you
have no marketable stars" sign. For comparison, the Vince show will be on
TNT, TBS, or NBC at least 14 times, and the Shaq & Kobe show at least 24
times. Twenty-four vs. zero! I don't expect anything out of NBC (I
personally think Unabomber would've done all of us a great service had he
directed his efforts exclusively towards NBC), but I thought TNT/TBS would
be better than that. I was wrong - it's ALL about ratings, i.e., attracting
the "casual fan" with cheap basketball pyrotechnics and
hoarse-from-screaming announcers in the Kevin Harlan mode ("OHHHHH, LOOK AT
THAT MOVE BY KOBEEEEE!!!!!! [20 replays follow]). 

"Portland rookie Zach Randolph is making quite a splash in the Utah-based
summer league. In one four-game stretch, he had 19, 28, 18, and 39 points
and, in three of those games, grabbed at least 10 rebounds.Although you
never make any serious decisions based on summer league play, those are
pretty hard numbers to ignore."

Mark Berry offered Randolph's performance as an example that summer leagues
shouldn't be taken seriously.  I, on the other hand, would posit that
perhaps it's due less to the quality of of summer league play and more to
Zach Randolph's abilities. Should we have taken him in lieu of Forte?  I
guess we'll see in a few months. 
Kestas