I know this probably belongs in the BB sub-forum, and if the mods feel strongly about it, I guess they can always move it, but I figured it wouldn't get much traffic there. so did anyone catch Rome's interview with NBA Commish David Stern? they both got a little testy. here's a link to it - though at this point it's all over the Internets. I think it's a cheap publicity stunt by Rome, and Stern called him out on it. yeah, the beating your wife question was a bit on the edge, but Rome asked Stern an absurd question that Stern couldn't answer correctly no matter how he answered it, and even by entertaining the question, he would lend credibility and legitimacy to an absurd claim - that the NBA lottery was fixed. so rather than answering the question, Stern retorted with an absurd question of his own (when did you stop beating your wife) to demonstrated the absurdity of Rome's question. by asking the question the way he asked it, Rome basically asked Stern if he was a crook, and his league crooked. what exactly did Rome expect? did he expect Stern to address the question seriously, especially given how he phrased it? of course not! yeah, Stern's response was a bit edgy, not exactly what you would expect from a league exec, but Rome and Stern have had back-and-forths like that before, so this wasn't totally out of nowhere. the funny part is that Rome understood the beating your wife comments for what it was (even though his "clones" don't seem to have a clue about it, and think the comment was about domestic violence), and although he didn't like it, it wasn't what really upset him. what upset him most was when Stern called his question a "cheap thrill" and then to make it worse, told Rome that he basically made a career of cheap thrills. which really offended Rome, but in my opinion, Stern was spot on (let's just ask "Chris" Everett what he thinks). Rome is like a stripper-turned-actress, who's trying desperately to hide his stripper past. he's trying very hard to transform himself into a serious sports journalist; the Barbara Walters of the sports world, but he will never be fit to even untie the shoes of even Bob Costas. still if you look at all the publicity he's getting from this, it proves Stern's comment about cheap thrills to be exactly spot on.
Sit next to Jim Rome, don't be surprised if you catch fleas. Why Stern would talk with that guy, I have no idea.
yeah, I don't quite get that either. only thing I can think of is that he gets some kind of thrill out of the back-and-forth, which are usually pretty lively, and get testy at times. I think that's why Stern didn't hesitate to go there yesterday - but he probably didn't realize that so many dummies out there would not understand his retort (it's a common debate tactic) and would misconstrue it completely. and of course, that's what the media will focus on - oh Stern called Jim Rome a wife beater! NBA commish accuses Rome of domestic violence, etc.
Jim Rome: the last man in Los Angeles with a goatee. Still, I like to see more public figures invoke the "Have you stopped beating your wife?" fallacy. Especially when it's also a legitimate question.
How about Garbage? My 18 year laughs at my Garbage CD. Mind you he loves the Beatles but he says Garbage is so ... dated.
We all know Jim Rome is a dick, but David Stern is a total moron. He should have just said "no, of course it's not fixed" and leave it at that. At least Sepp Blatter knows how to tell lies without messing things up, we have to give him that.
The NBA is more cartoon than sports league. So, getting into a slap fight with a mickey mouse journalist is quite appropriate. Perhaps they can bring in Meta World Peace to moderate the next discussion between the two.
It has been awhile since I paid attention to the NBA, so I had no idea who Metta World Peace was when he got himself in the news for routine felony assault (oops, sorry Mr. Stern. A flagrant foul) a couple months back. Color me unsurprised when I found out it was The A-hole Formerly Known As Ron Artest.
The league is an absolute joke. Virtually everyone involved has admitted that there are two sets of rules. One for superstars and one for everyone else. That is no different than figure skating or gymnastics where the favorites are slotted and receive higher points from judges for equal or lesser performances. To me, all of these "sports" are good entertainment to see the incredible athletic ability of the performers, but they aren't serious sports competition. I watched the Bulls glory years, and coming from chicago, I can say that they were a joke in many ways. Did you see how Jordan literally tossed Craig Ehlo out of the way before hitting his famous shot against Cleveland? That ain't sport. That's "reality" tv where the Bulls were scripted to win.
You're confused. MJ wasn't a superstar at the time; that was a legit shot against the Cavs. It was Bryon Russell of the Utah Jazz in 1998 whom Jordan fouled to get space to hit a game winning shot.
Easy mistake to make, though. Most people would assume some violence would be necessary to make Ehlo's jock fly that far.
Too fast for Ehlo to catch. He's thinking of the push-off against Utah, MJ's final shot for the Bulls. Probably a foul but the referees tend to swallow their whistles late. Probably helped by being MJ but other players have had similar calls. To me, the superstar call thing is overstated ... it happens a bit, but these happen to be the best players so they do get fouled a lot. The only exception being Blake Griffin. His most celebrated dunks tend to be outrageous offensive fouls, he gets them by forearming his mark out of the way. Nobody on Planet Earth is allowed to do anything like that but Blake Griffin. That drives me nuts, to the extent that I wish for the Clippers to lose each and every game by wide margins, and I have no connection with the Clippers and previously no bad feelings, in fact I kinda liked them because they weren't the Lakers. Blake Griffin, public enemy.
I've always wondered why I never see that shot over Ehlo shown from the regular tv view that people get on tv. Now I get it, it looks about 1/10th as spectacular from that angle - plus you don't see Jordan's wild spastic celebration. Definitely no foul, although Ehlo looks like he gets collapses or falls out of the way to avoid Jordan's legs when he's celebrating.
Jim Rome is shit on a stick. He's the Morton Downey of sportscasters, but with a shitty goatee instead of fake horse teeth.
Ehlo's at least 25 feet away from MJ when he falls down, so he's in no danger even if Jordan stole Manute Bol's legs. It was a "I can't believe that just happened" reaction.
Okay, okay, so I was misremembering! It was the Utah game I was thinking of, but this only serves to demonstrate how little I care about this league. P.S. I love college basketball, so it's not the sport itself, its the NBA that sucks.