Did the NBA kill the opening week?

Recently some people have noticed that the opening week of the NBA was like no other. Thanks to the newly formed Miami Heat people were pretty much glued to their tv's or watching the game live at a stadium. Everyone was pumped that the Heat will finally play. Others were pumped about seeing John Wall, the number one draft pick this year to play with the Wizards. A lot of hype was accumulated throughout the summer. And what does the league do? They put the most hyped teams against the NBA's best. Heat was supposed to take on the Celtics for the season opener and the Wizards led by John Wall go against the Orlando Magic. So for the first match up it was already known Celtics would win. The Celtics have an impressive record against this team. I mean last year in the playoffs they shut this team down and LeBron did not stop them from doing that again. So the league messed up this matchup because they should have gave the Heat an easy start, you know make them feel good about themselves. But hey its to late now, because the Celtics pretty much put a how to guide for taking down the Heat. For the Wizards playing Orlando is a joke. Dwight Howard is a two time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and the league decided to put him against John Wall. Howard is like a rejecting machine and it is ridiculous to think that Wizards had any chance to win. Orlando won 112-83 and once again the league messed up with the match ups. I mean peoples interest disappears after two weeks and the league knows it. So why did they not exploit their resources to keep people glued to the tv's? Well we certainly do not know now but all we do know is that the league messed up big time.

Rondo stops wearing a headband

So we are all used to seeing players with headbands, but if some look carefully they can spot that some headbands have the NBA logo upside down. Now this is sort of like a fashion statement in the NBA. So a decade ago the headband was coming back to its use in the NBA and the league decided that it wanted to have all of its players were headbands with the NBA logo. So the trick was that you could only wear the headband with logo, or else you get fined. That sounds so ridiculous and it truly is. So Rasheed Wallace decided to stick to the man, and wore his band inside out. It went well for some time until he got fined and altogether stopped. Now lets get back to Rondo. He started his upside down trend in 2007 and from there it spread. The players who wore the headband like that were J.R. Smith, Chris Wilcox, Marcus Williams, Mikki Moore, and Ben Wallace. So now the league has instated a rule that says no more upside down headbands, and guess what Rondo stopped wearing a headband altogether. During the season opener against the Heat, Rajon Rondo was without a headband. Actually he has not worn a headband since the beginning of the season. So this shows how the NBA wants to have total control in the league.

NBA is hoping to expand to EUROPE

So on October 29, David Stern the Head Commissioner of the NBA has stated that he is hoping that in 10 years the league will have a counter part in Europe. This idea is not new because David Stern has said the same thing ten years ago. Currently there are two teams that have regular season games in Europe: Raptors and Nets in London. The Commissioner envisions that Miami Heat will play the Celtics on a certain day, then they would fly off to Paris. There they would do some shopping play the teams in the European NBA and go back home. Also the Commissioner is hoping to establish five teams in Europe. So far one player has stated that this is not a good idea because it is hard to travel from USA to Europe. This player is Marcin Gortat from the Orlando Magic. When you think about it is kind of a hard thing to do because you will definitely be jet lagged. David Stern has stated that the NBA's revenue in the USA is not that good because 57% goes to the players. He also said that if they wanted to increase their revenue they would lose money.

NBA NeWs

On Friday October 22, the pre-season game between the Orlando and Heat was cancelled because of slippery floor. The floor was found slippery when arena officials found that a solution with oil was applied to the floor. This does not happen a lot but it definitely was not expected as people were waiting to watch this game. I mean I was one of those people who was watching TV and waiting for the game and then this announcement came up. The Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy said that they should go to an outside court instead. The league said it would refund people for paying tickets and their were some people who flew in from Dallas, TX and Albany, NY. Hope they get refunded because they spent quite an amount of money to come and see the game.

Our own player of the Celtics, Rajon Rondo has stated that he is preparing to save money if the cut of salary would happen. Rondo is supposed to receive $9 million this season, but that can all change next year when salary cuts will be made. I am glad that he is preparing for this salary cut. Everyone in the league should do so because that is smart. I mean we dont how much money this guys are going to lose from the cut and its better to be prepared then wait till the cut hits your pocket.

This is it for the news that have been floating around the NBA. More developments will be told when they happen.

NBA Players are about to lose some cash

So last Thursday, NBA commissioner David Stern stated that the league would cut the player salaries by a third because it is not profitable. The NBA says that it spends to much on the player salaries and their benefits, it comes out to $2.3 billion. Thats a lot of money but I dont know if the players will be agreeing to this salary cut. The league hopes to cut down costs by $750 to $800 million. The thing that will probably be a road block to this idea would be the owners of teams. An estimate was made that states that owners would lose $340-350 million this season alone. Even though this season had the biggest ticket sales in a while the league will still go through with this new plan. I personally think that the NBA players will be totally against this because for example a player with a pay of $120 million will get paid $80 million, I mean that is not bad but for some players that would end up being bad. This was all in talk during summer between the league and the NBA team owners but Stern has finally decided to finally bring this new idea to the public. So we will see eventually what happend with this new proposed idea, but right now it is known that this budget change must happen. See you guys later and until the next time I write a blog. Good day.

To Good of a Pair to Wear!

Hey everyone sorry I have not been keeping up with my blog duties. Well this week I got the perfect news for you guys. The NBA Commissioner David J. Stern announced yesterday that a pair of basketball shoes under the brand name Athletic Propulsion Lab. The name of this outlawed shoe is Concept 1. So we won't be seeing this shoe during this season. The reason this shoe is illegal in NBA because it supposedly lets the basketball player to jump higher with the new Load N' Launch feature. So there is a sort of launch pad type of thing in the forefront of the shoe. So when you jump it boosts your height and you can dunk easier. Now everyone is a bit disappointed with this because its is only a shoe. But the NBA keeps stating it has unfair advantages. Let me remind you that this is not the first time a shoe was banned in the NBA. Michael Jordan had one of his Nike shoes banned 25 years ago. But back then people were not offended by it enhancing abilities, but rather its new design and color. This is only illegal in the NBA and so anyone outside of the league can buy the shoe. It has hefty price of $300 but on the positive side you will soar to the basketball hoop or at least get near it. It all depends on your height and jumping abilities. This is it for today, tune back tomorrow. Have a great day!

Miami Heat is Considered to be an All Star Team

Not a lot has been happening on the referee front and so for now I decided to talk about whats been happening in the league. Lately the most talked thing was the Miami Heat. Everyone considers them to be a dominant team in the NBA now due to them acquiring LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Some say they represent Goliath now. Yet so far as I watched this team they have done an excellent job on the court, but there star player got a injury on the first preseason game. That kind makes me want to rethink about their status. Also last night LeBron James got a cramp and had to leave the game. I mean two injuries already and everyone is supposed to fear this team. Well the first game of the season is between the Celtics and the Heat. Hopefully, the Celtics will not be intimidated and send back this team to South Beach. Also everyone is saying that this team will most definitely make it to the Finals. Amid all this talking about the Miami Heat everyone is forgetting the champs of last year, LA Lakers. I mean will the Heat possibly be able to fight off the 2 consecutive years champs. So far I dont think so because this team doesn't have enough experience. I also think the Celtics will definitely out do this team in the season opener, because they just have so much experience. In the end, this team has been hyped up to much and the season will show if anything said will come true.

Info on Refs is Hard to Find!

Lately there have not been a lot of news about the refs in the league. It might be because it is still the preseason. But for now I will talk about what is happening with the Celtics since I am out of info on the refs. As you all may know Shaq has joined the Celtics. It was said today that he will be sitting in Harvard Square in order for his fans to be able to get a picture with him. He said he will just act like a statue. He won't move and he said that he won't talk since he is a statue. That sounds really cool and kind of creative. The time has not been given but he said that he will do that for an hour. So you should check that out. So far the Celtics are 2 for 2 in the preseason. That kind of shows how motivated they are to go back to the Finals and take down the LA Lakers. Lets hope this year the Celtics will be able to take home the trophy and have 19 Final wins. Hopefully the Miami Heat will not be as good as they are being hyped. 

This has been it for this week. Hopefully new info and news will be out by next week. But for now this is all I have got for you this week. Sorry for this font and everything my computer is malfunctioning. Hope you will be able to read all of this. 

Two Players Ejected For Patting Each Other

On Thursday, two players were ejected from a game between the Toronto Raptors and Phoenix Suns. The players were Grant Hill and Reggie Evans. The reason they got kicked out was because each patted the others butt. This may sound ridiculous that such a thing would get players kicked out but hey it did happen and a lot of people were laughing at this. Referee Bill Kennedy was the one who called for the ejection. Oh boy did people boo him when he did that. This call makes no sense at all. Some speculate that he may have over reacted a bit, maybe a lot. Well when the players were walking of people were cheering for them and at the same time booing the ref. One might wonder is this what the power of refs come to. I mean a little thing like that can cause to get ejected from a game. The players will also have to pay a price for this technical foul as it is called. The players in the league will probably refrain from patting other peoples butts as it a gesture in sports. This incident has shown us that some refs abuse their powers.

Also people say that Bill Kennedy is quick with his own calls but the call he made outdid his abilities. I mean people are already calling this the worst ejection of the preseason. I mean we haven't even got to the real season yet. In the end I hope that such calls won't be called during the regular season, because it will make the games boring.

New harsh laws in the NBA!

Recently people have found out that a a ref now has full rights to give out technicals, if he feels like a player is not happy with what ever happened on the court. So lets say a player tries to show his anger by going at the ref, bam he gets a technical. How about if he turns around and waves at air in frustration, bam he just gets a technical. Any sign of the person trying to go against the call results in him having a technical, I guess this might make the game harder for the players. They have to be more balanced now in order to not get a technical.

Another recent news is that the NBA is increasing the amount of money you pay for a technical. So the way it will go this year is that first five technicals of a player or a coach will result in a $2000 pay. If a player or coach goes beyond the five technical calls he will pay $3000 for the next five. If that continues the pay would rise to $4000 for the next five technical calls. When a player or coach reaches 16 technical calls, they will have to pay $5000 and get suspended for one game. After that if he gets two more technicals he will once again be suspended and pay $5000. All the money that is collected from the technical fouls goes to the NBA charity. I guess it is a good cause, yet I think the price for a technical is just to high.

All of this has been done in order to make the refs have more control over the game.