Soccer, Sports and Politics - Part Deux

Thank God they didn’t let him walk out with the athletes.

 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

 

Gotta hand it to him, that's some really good pee-manship



https://www.thetimes.com/sport/wint...or-writing-f-ice-in-snow-with-urine-8n7bkwcgt

 

Isnot that the handwriting of Melania Trump?

 

This makes sense actually

 

Well, you know who ain't there. The Steeler Rooneys are so clean they scrub Mickey, Andy, and Wayne of their sins.

 

As mentioned, the McCaskeys aren't there, either. They're not rapey/pedo-y, just good old fashioned money grabbing àssholes busying themselves with trying to freeload a stadium off someone.

 

But the game itself doesn't fit. Every WG sport OTTOMH happens outdoors on ice, indoors on ice, or outdoors in snow, with those surfaces being crucial to the gameplay. Basketball's just a game that happens to take place during (our) winter and runs thru (our) late spring/early summer, or sometime in March for HS and college.

 

Basketball is played indoors because of wind and rain, not because it’s played on ice.

But I know that when I was a kid I wondered the same thing.

 

@roby Can we get a translation here? Something about dolls, raw potatoes & combs?

 

Is nothing sacred?

 

That noise you hear is Dante Alighieri rolling in his grave

 

Time for a change, put them on an icerink and get them some irons under their soles.
Did I just invent a new sport?

 

Not one that'll stand the test of time.

 

the first Olympic tournament, Berlin, 1936, was played outdoors.


And there’s no more reason for hoops to be an indoor game than there is for tennis, since that game is also subject to wind and rain

Strangely enough, most of the early pro basketball in the US was played on courts built over ice rinks so the owners could have events on nights the hockey team was idle or out of town. That’s still the case for teams that share an arena with a hockey team.
.

 

One of the fun websites to peruse is the ARISF - the Association of IOC Recognized International Sports Federations - where you can see all of the candidate sports for inclusion in an Olympics. Some are winter friendly, such as Bandy. And SkiMo is still in the ARISF despite debuting this time around.

 

Wind? Yeah. Rain, not so much, unless it's on clay.

I remember watching what I imagine was the 1985 Montreal Open or whatever they used to get ready for the US Open, a final between Lendl and McEnroe. At some point in the match, about ten raindrops fell. Both men walked immediately to their chairs without a word between them. You're not gonna see much high-level hard or grass court tennis played in the rain, or with the surface still wet. Grass is already slick enough in the first couple of rounds of any tournament. Borg used to say he feared the early rounds most, because by the time the quarters or so rolled around, the grass has been worn almost to dirt, and we all know what Borg does on clay. They send those guys out there with heat blowers and rollers to make sure nobody's career gets derailed over a pulled/torn muscle or shattered elbow from slipping and falling. The ball also gets heavier when it's soaked.

The arena here does sort of the reverse, even tho hockey has been the main sports usage, with bball coming in second. I think the lowest level is concrete. They lay a hockey floor over that, then they flood it and freeze it. If there's a basketball game, they build a bball floor over the concrete. I assume (but am not certain) that the neither the hockey floor nor the ice stay in place/frozen year round like you're describing.

 

forgot to point out that I see the biggest difference as the normal WG surface being snow or ice, whether indoors or out, and the surface playing such a role in the game. Without ice, curling is just long-distance shove-and-hope shuffleboard, for example. I mean, it could be done, but it would take a total reinvention of the equipment and rules. There's no "wintry" component to bball, and not much you could do to the rules without making it suck.

 

A tennis court is much bigger than a basketball hoop, so wind doesn’t make it impossible to keep a shot in play. Basketball in the wind is limited to dunks and layups. (OK, An exaggeration, but wind puts an end to the outside jump shot as an effective tool.)

 

Gee hate it when this happens



https://bsky.app/profile/cjzero.bsky.social/post/3mecsmbyvhc2q

 

We made Stephen Miller cry. Which is good.

There’s something modern and odd about that shot. He could have been just as open 3 feet closer, maybe even 5 feet closer. But he has trained so much to shoot from exactly that distance, just behind the line, that he’s more comfortable shooting that than a 16 footer.

And I’ll bet he’s more accurate on an open 3 than an open 16 footer.

That’s why Caleb Wilson is such a good scorer…he has a tremendous midrange game for a freshman. He might be the best scorer in the pros of any of this year’s freshmen because of that. He’ll be a 3 level scorer if he can shoot the NBA 3, and keeps working on that mid range game.

 

This is a very cool viewpoint

COURTESY of @gee__brooks
UNBELIEVABLE pic.twitter.com/oFMtbYF6qM

— Blue Heaven (@uncsportsphotos) February 8, 2026