Monday Bolts – 9.8.14
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports: “Once the NBA delivered its proclamation on Sunday, there were some unmistakable sighs of relief throughout the league. As one high-ranking team official texted within moments of the Levenson announcement, “It isn’t my guy!” Everyone’s heart stopped pounding so furiously, thrilled they had survived one more round of cuts in the roulette the post-Donald Sterling era has brought the NBA. Yes, they survived the weekend, but Monday will come, and all around the NBA they’ll start wondering and starting worrying again: Am I next?”
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “But once Silver acted on Sterling’s comments, recorded by an associate and leaked to the gossip site TMZ, the communication of everyone in the league — past, present, future, verbal and written — is now fair game. Whether that is appropriate or Orwellian is going to be decided as the NBA walks a perilous tightrope between privacy and core values. What’s clear now is that this is a different world in the post-Sterling NBA, and everyone in a position of power in the league must be held to the same standard.”
J.A. Adande of ESPN.com: “That brings us back to the gap, which we got a rare chance to see in written form when the Atlanta Hawks released the 2012 email that Bruce Levenson cited as his reason for selling his controlling interest in the team. Amazingly, Levenson managed to both call out racist thinking and play into its hands as he enumerated the challenges in attracting white fans to Hawks games — which he traced back to the large presence of black fans at Philips Arena. (Apparently he has never been to events such as, say, the Made In America festivals, where the presence of black fans doesn’t seem to deter white fans at all.) Levenson also said black fans are less likely to buy jerseys and even less likely to cheer loudly during intros than white fans.”
Ty Lawson clowned James Harden.
Darnell Mayberry on Reggie Jackson: “But this is not the James Harden situation reincarnated. Harden had at least one team willing to pony up a max contract, which effectively gave him the upper hand. Jackson has yet to prove he’s worthy of such a commitment, and he plays the league’s most stacked position. Those things make this a totally different negotiation. And despite Jackson’s stated desires to start and be fairly compensated, there is something else that could help the Thunder retain its sixth man. Supply and demand.”
Adam Silver says 10 a.m. games might be coming: “Maybe when the audience gets big enough in China and you’re reaching 100 million people in China, to say, ‘So maybe once in a while a team will play at 10:00 on Saturday morning,’ ” Silver said, mentioning the possibility of such games perhaps once every two months. We’re not there yet. But, you know, I am watching the market closely.”
