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I'm not sure if anyone has had a chance to read this yet but it's certainly worth the ten minutes of your time. One of Bill Simmons' best articles in a long while. I myself will be heading to New Orleans next November and can't wait to take it all in. I especially like this part:

If you love the league, if you care about it at all, then you're more excited about these next four months than you've been about anything since Michael, Larry and Magic were playing. Forget about the fact the West is so impossibly wide-open, or the juicy possibility of a Lakers-Celtics Finals (imagine seeing those uniforms on the same court in June again???), or the risky trades that lifted the "No Balls Association" tag and had everyone buzzing. Have you noticed what the new generation of All-Stars has in common?

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... ons/080219

It was a decent article, but I think he gives a pretty big pass to Stern by not elaborating on his criticism about the way he is handling the Seattle situation. I had been a fan of Stern but now I am disgusted by his behavior.

I think sterns handeling the seatlle situation perfectly, growing up in a city that didnt have a team, and is currently trying to attract one, your citizens dont want to chip in for an arena, fine then they dont need to have a team, I hope Seatlle leaves and fans in KC or Oklahoma city who really want a team there will be happier, then the people of seatlle who voted to say they dont really care.

You lawyers love to stick together thats for sure.

UGA Hayes wrote:It was a decent article, but I think he gives a pretty big pass to Stern by not elaborating on his criticism about the way he is handling the Seattle situation. I had been a fan of Stern but now I am disgusted by his behavior.

Yeah but the topic of the article is not Stern it's New Orleans. While I agree there is plenty of room for criticism when it comes to Stern, Simmons decided to focus on the positive aspects of his tenure. I enjoyed the read and just wanted to share.

I would disagree-the topic of the article is actually more about Stern than NO. Read it again.

UGA Hayes wrote:I would disagree-the topic of the article is actually more about Stern than NO. Read it again.

That's fine, we can agree to disagree.

He did criticize Stern on the Sonics situation in today's blog. Some ridiculously horrible ideas in there too. No better than half the crap on this board:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/bl ... e=20080220

Spin Move wrote:I think sterns handeling the seatlle situation perfectly, growing up in a city that didnt have a team, and is currently trying to attract one, your citizens dont want to chip in for an arena, fine then they dont need to have a team, I hope Seatlle leaves and fans in KC or Oklahoma city who really want a team there will be happier, then the people of seatlle who voted to say they dont really care.

Do you really have such a hard time distinguishing between the politicians not wanting to stick the taxpayers with a bill for a new stadium and the ACTUAL FANS supporting their team? Seattle has had decent to good attendance for 30 years. They are a fixture in the community. Their last owner was an incredibly rich billionaire that sold the team down the river.

I would hate for the Red Sox, Patriots, or Celtics to move (the second almost happened) simply b/c of politics and jerk off billionaires.

Seattle is a bigger market, a better NBA city, and has more tradition than at least three places that still have teams (Charlotte, Memphis and New Orleans). So even setting aside the feel-good stuff from the Gulf, there should be a way to pull off a franchise swap that satisfies all parties (Heisley with cash, OKC with a team, and the Sonic sticking around).

If Bud freaking Selig could pull it off as part of an international transaction (Montreal, Florida, Boston), then there is no excuse for David Stern not stepping up to the plate here.

^ Yeah I think his editor probably told him quick we need something to make people use the trade machine while everyone is clicking our website every 5 seconds to see if a trade has happened, and he wrote the article in five minutes. For a second I was getting cynical and thinking the trade line was a media ploy to get webhits.