I got "That One"! (um, taken)

Barack Obama playing pickup ball on Election Night.

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You may have seen the video of Barack Obama playing pickup on Election Night (via Ball Don't Lie), but here are some more tidbits I thought were interesting...

• Obama's left-handed behind-the-back dribble and ensuing fastbreak assist suggest that he is a southpaw, indeed. A quick Google search on "Obama left-handed" easily confirms this. Now, if he was right-handed and pulled off that move, I would have to say that would have been quite tremendous.
  
  
• The facility where Obama played, Attack Athletics in Chicago, is a mecca for pro hoops training (well worth the read).
  
  
• Someone more important than Michael Jordan (more "important" as measured by security detail) actually showed up to the same facility that Jordan once frequented.
  
  
• If you were thinking of making a million bucks producing "That One" jerseys, nice try. If you search on the USPTO.gov trademark site, you'll see that "That One" has already been trademarked as of 10/12/2008 by some guy in New Orleans, a mere five days after John McCain uttered those now famous/infamous words -- the first-used-in-commerce is claimed to be that same night of Tue Oct 7, 2008, so this guy who trademarked it jumped on it quick-style.

Why I love Olympics basketball

Mohammadsamad Nikkhah of Iran.

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This is very similar to one of my NBA Vegas Summer League pieces where I admit that I love watching Summer League.

Devout dreamleaguer Andre Liu is currently in Beijing with tickets to the preliminary round of men's basketball (lucky S.O.B.!). Incidentally, I found a nice blogger giving cool first-hand accounts in Beijing. Sam Williams of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce thinks he saw the Italian basketball team at the local market, but Italy is not represented in basketball this Olympics, men's or women's, so it had to be some other tall group of Europeans.

I'm doing the next best thing: catching the games live on nbcolympics.com. Of course, you'll probably need a computer with an up-to-date chip -- my old Pentium III yields choppy video, but good thing my wife has a Vista machine -- and for the Russia vs Iran game, the bigger-screen version wouldn't load, getting stuck on "Buffer=60%".

But here's a hint in case that happens to you. Click on the upper left-hand icon to get to the smaller 4-screen splits, and the tiny version of the video seems to stream okay. You'll have to squint, though.

The video stream is quite refreshing because there are no announcers and you can hear the squeaks, clanks, swishes, and players/coaches barking. In the Germany vs Angola game, you can hear the German coaching staff yelling stuff in English. In the Russia/Iran game, you can hear Russian point guard J.R. Holden tell teammate Andrei Kirilenko, "Go through, Andrei!"

ASIDE: Speaking of J.R. Holden, why hasn't the Chinese or Iranian team picked up a point guard ringer like that? Kinda reminds me of some of our Asian American leagues or tournaments: "Oh yeah, he's a quarter-Filipino." You know what I'm talkin' 'bout, people!

ASIDE II: Holden is playing the most minutes for Russia! And his name on the roster has been all "Russian-ized": "Dzhon-Robert ZHolden" (I guess there is no "J" in Russian and maybe you can't start a word with "H"?).

ASIDE III: In the Olympic uni number 1 thru 15 format, Dirk Nowitzki is wearing #14, the reverse of his Mavs' #41. Kirilenko is #7, the 2nd half of his Jazz #47.

Sure, without announcers you won't get to know the players very well unless you open up another browser window and navigate to the game rosters (you can see the uni numbers pretty clearly), but you're watching high-level, un-adulterated basketball in its purest form.

No distracting cheerleaders, no stupid pet tricks, no trampolines aiding normal-sized people dressed in tights to make slam dunks. Hardly any commercials! You stay at the scene during almost every break and soak in the music and, okay, every once in a long while, some dancers will come out, but they're too small on the screen to see. It's not like there's a camera-man ogling them.

And the crowd cheers every basket, no matter what team. Nobody boos -- well, to be truthful, there's some guy yelling, "Brick!" when a German shoots a free throw. Overall, the fans are there to root for good play, nice hustle, and guys giving their heart and soul for no pay. Just doing their best to represent their country.

Ah, refreshing! I highly recommend you check out a game or two.

Even the Chinese music (cool stuff, very catchy, very hip-hoppy at times) during timeouts make you feel like you're there.

Still, "Lucky Liu" has got it better right now. I'll try to direct him to this blogpost so he can give us some quick insights in the Comments below.

Vegas Summer League report

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Just got back from Vegas and witnessing the Vegas NBA Summer League, one of my new favorite pasttimes.

Here's a list of blog entries I did on Golden State Of Mind, in chronological order...

• Why I love Summer League


• A rave review of Jerryd Bayless


• Completely disagreeing with TrueHoop's assessment of Arron Afflalo


• A collection of notes from Day 7


• Anthony Randolph perhaps marking a new Mully-ball era


• My highly acclaimed Randy/Marco follow-up (15+ recommendations!!!)


• Scathing scouting report of DJ Strawberry


• Man-crush scouting report of Dominic McGuire


• Interesting observation that the Knicks epitomize the NBA circus


• And closing thoughts in the Summer League Wrap-Up

Oh, and here's the direct link to all my posts at GSOM...

http://www.sbnation.com/users/dreamleague/blog.

Whew! I'm tired...

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Silicon Valley Celtics

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I love reading stories on how NBA teams were purchased or the quirkiness of owners and ownership groups. You know, just daydreaming about if it's even remotely possible something like that could happen to me or another dreamleaguer.

Those of you in the Bay Area may have recently read the San Jose Mercury News article by Scott Duke Harris about the ownership group of the Boston Celtics, which is comprised of some venture capitalists from Silicon Valley. My favorite quote is about renowned VC Jim Breyer and how he used to be the paperboy of one of his senior partners of "Banner 17" (read the article if you want to know why it's called that)...

"I was the Sunday Boston Globe delivery boy for the Grousbecks,' recalled Breyer, now better known as an early investor in Facebook and a director of Walmart.com. "I remember that they gave me excellent tips at Christmas."

There's actually a better article written a few weeks earlier in the Wall Street Journal by Peter Lattman. My favorite quote...

Is this good business or good fun? It depends who you ask. Earlier that night, Mr. [James Pallotta], the hedge-fund investor, described his investment philosophy above the din of the Boston crowd:

"Am I hoping for a return? Are you kidding me? I don't care if I ever get my money back. I used to sneak in when I was a kid. It's much better to be able to walk in through the front door."

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NBA China: 12 arenas

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This is really staggering news. Last week, John Lombardo of the SportsBusiness Journal reported that NBA China has entered the following agreement with AEG...

The two will join forces to develop and operate up to 12 arenas in China, representing another key step in the NBA’s vision for its own league in Asia, while adding more facilities to the global expansion effort under Tim Leiweke at AEG.

Who is AEG? Well, let's just say the Staples Center is one of the many different sports arenas around the globe that they run (yeah, 'nuff said).

Logic would dictate that the NBA expects to have at least 12 franchises in various cities in China. Oh yeah, and with only the Beijing Olympic arena built, NBA China with its projected Chinese audience is currently worth -- I kid you not -- $2.3 billion!...

Read the rest of the story

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NBA's "There Can Be Only One" split-screens revealed

(Click here to see the Kobe/Shaq split-screen commercial)

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[From Stephen B. Snyde in the Un-bulletedHoop chronicles...]

Here's another one that BulletedHoop...er, TrueHoop, missed.

Brian Helfrich of the SportsBusiness Daily interviewed Goodby Silverstein & Partners’ Jamie Barrett, one of the creators of the split-screen spots.

I've been wondering how they pulled that off. Here's the secret:

The director team, [Jonathan] Dayton and [Valerie] Farris, used a nice little trick where we prerecorded each script and had the players listen to the recording in their ear while performing, so they didn’t have to use a TelePrompTer. When you see Kobe Bryant, for example, deliver the “Fear” script, he has a pea-sized earplug and he’s listening to the script and repeating it as he hears it. It actually happens to be my voice, because I read it with the pacing that we wanted so it would time out the right way and have the right pauses.

One thing I noticed is that they had to time the eyeblinks perfectly. I'll bet Barrett had to say, "Blink," as well in her scripts.

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Chris Paul "uncivilized" with Right Guard

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[Stephen B. Snyde reporting from our new Un-bulletedHoop files...]

Remember those Right Guard commercials with Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen back in the day where Sir Charles would say, "Anything less would be uncivilized!"?

Well, according to Terry Lefton of the SportsBusiness Journal, Chris Paul just signed with Right Guard, now owned by Dial Corp. via sale by Gilette in 2006. The "uncivilized" campaign was under a different advertising firm, so chances are, Paul's Right Guard commercials -- targeted for later this year -- will probably not be a sequel to Barkley's and Pippen's.

Paul is respresented by Octagon and currently only endorses Nike Jordan brand and 2K Sports.

Incidentally, where was this little nugget in BulletedHoop...er, TrueHoop? I don't know about you, but I'm increasingly disappointed by TrueHoop to the point that I'd start a rival blog called TruerHoop, if not for the facts that TrueHoop is already a trademark, and -- mind you -- ESPN ain't payin' me a fulltime salary. I'll save that for a rainy day rant [insert Stephen A. Smith glare here].

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dreamleaguers rejoice: Erik Spoelstra!

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Remember when what's-his-name was named coach of the Miami Heat the other week? You said, "Ho hum, see ya later (again) Pat Riley, who's the whipping boy this time? Oh, it really is some boy. Whatever."

Well, I think you need to reconsider that. So last month's post here on dreamblogue commented on Rex Walters, legendary Asian league baller, becoming head coach of USF in NCAA's D-1.

Who woulda thunk that another Asian-American (Filipino, in this case) would trump that by being named head coach of the freakin' Miami Heat by none other than hall-of-famer Riley. Please welcome Erik Spoelstra!

Nick Vicera wrote a great article in Filipinas Magazine two years ago on Spoelstra, who actually started out as the Heat's video coordinator. It even closes with Spoelstra saying this:

"...there is one thing that I am definitely interested in doing in the future, and that is helping develop basketball in the Philippines. I have been talking recently with the NBA about me putting together basketball clinics in my mother’s home country, hopefully in one of these next couple of off-seasons. It will be a wonderful chance for me to see some of my family over there and get reconnected with my roots"

You da man, Erik, you da man. (Props to Joel Sales, Sr. for referencing the above article.)

And not only does the man respect his bloodlines, but he also seems to be a very humble, smart, down-to-earth, and common-sense guy, interviewed by Kerry Eggers in the Portland Tribune:

“A lot of people are saying that [I was Dwayne Wade's personal coach], but I don’t want to overstate it,” Spoelstra cautions. “Really, it’s a relationship that has developed over Dwyane’s five years in Miami. It’s really been more because of him, because he is so determined as a player to improve...”

...Player relationships are one reason many believe Spoelstra will succeed as Miami’s head coach...

...Spoelstra would like to be more up-tempo with the offense, “but it will depend upon the personnel we gather throughout this summer,” he says. “We have a young, athletic core. I would like to find ways to take advantage of that. It doesn’t mean running up and down wild and at random, but I would like to take advantage of the speed and athleticism by attacking early in the (shot) clock and in transition.”

Mr. Spoelstra, I think you just picked up about 2,000 fans from dreamleague over here.

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More Asian Americans on the rise in college ball

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There are maybe three or four "franchises" in the history of organized Asian American basketball leagues in the USA: (1) the Japanese-centric Nippon Athletic Union of Northern and Southern California, borne out of the Japanese internment camps of World War II, (2) the Chinese National Tournament borne out of the East Coast, (3) the IndoPak tournament circuit, and (4) the East and West Coast Filipino leagues started by immigrants to large metros.

Guess what, perhaps Asian American basketball's greatest player ever has returned home. Rex Walters was named the head coach of USF yesterday (Rex is 50% Japanese, 50% Caucasian).

This is a little eerie because I was gonna post our NYC commish's recent article on some ballers of our Asian league/tourney circuits of today -- from the potential of Xiro Navaulath, to the token-Asian-guy-at-a-world-class-program Matt Lee, and the steady starter of a small D-1 Jeremy Lin, who actually has not appeared in an Asian league/tourney yet (...and props to Ryan Reyes, although we are talking about D-1 here, not pro) -- who have made it to the D-1 level.

And just last week I also recently came close to hiring a new ref in our Bay Area league, Joe Belfry (he called me back too late, but you'll see him soon in stripes on our courts), former teammate of John Tofi. Tofi started at UTEP and is now, according to Belfry, playing professionally in Italy.

Here's the report from NYC... Read the rest of the story

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Gun violence overlaps into our basketball community (again)

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I'm almost too depressed to type this. I think I'll just do a little stream of consciouness -- I can't really think about organizing paragraphs and coming up with a good way to express this. When someone you know dies and you know you will never see that person again, let alone say hello to him/her, that's a bitter pill to swallow. When that someone dies by gun violence, simply put it just feels worse. And I can hardly imagine how it feels when that someone is someone close to you, as in, an immediate family member.

Jason DelaCruz was shot and killed at around 2am outside a pizza and bar area of San Francisco. Jason is the brother of former Vegas tourney MVP Jeremy DelaCruz. Jeremy's been my teammate before in dreamleague and a long-time member of renowned Filipino tourney team the Bay Area Wizards, as well as the Bay Area Heads. Dozens more here in the Bay's Asian American basketball community probably know Jeremy and Jason better than I do. I never really met Jason, but I did see him make a couple cameo appearances on the court with his brother's strong NL-caliber teams. The thing I most remember about him: he's the spittin' image of Jeremy...

Read the rest of the story

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More clicks of fame: Matt Lee and Seth Robles

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Been awhile since the last post (the 38-team LA tourney followed immediately by our Bay Area league which now has 125 teams got very tiring in Feb-Mar), but here are a couple more "clicks of fame" -- you know, instead of 15 seconds of fame on the boob tube, it's a click of fame on the YouTube. Thanks to dreamleaguer Torrent Lee for keeping a pulse on Matt.

(1) To add to his previous half-court buzzer-beater, UCLA's Matt Lee (who has made a couple cameos in dreamleague) with two alley oops -- using a left hand scoop for one of them, no less!

(2) Seth Robles of Dream League Bay Area's San Jose Jollybee getting indirect props from Bill Simmons in his weekly article (#12 YouTube link at the bottom). Seth worked hard on a video rap compilation of last year's Warriors ouster of the Mavericks.

Incidentally, Seth's brother is none other than Golden State of Mind's Tony.psd, who has recently finished our WE BELIEVE- and Stephen Jackson-inspired league t-shirts for the Bay Area. Hey, maybe even the New York dreamleaguers might wanna get their hands on this given the blah-zay of the Knicks and Nets this year.

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Courtside Chat With Jeff Staple

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[From NYC commish Brian Yang...]

Over the holidays, we had a chance to catch up with Jeff Staple, the man behind Staple Design, The Reed Space, and the Nike Recess Federation. If you haven't heard of any of these things, shame on you. If you have, and you may even own some of their designs, well, we'll let Jeff explain who/how/what it all is.

All we can tell you is that Jeff, he's the hardest working man in America. Scratch that, maybe the world. (He finally found time to answer these questions while on his way to Melbourne!)...

Read the rest of the story

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Look for Yi (and Lebron) to max in 2010

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With thanks to TrueHoop for all the links today, I've been inspired by this article on BrewHoop, the Bucks' resident blog, and others reporting on the Bucks' newfound revenue through on-court signage and whatnot by Chinese-based firms, to say this:

When Yi Jianlian's rookie contract expires after the 2009-2010 season, barring any NBA salary rules I'm not sure about (hey if I'm not getting paid to know all the rules, I won't know all the rules), the kid deserves a MAXIMUM CONTRACT.

For a small premium over your standard on-court signage fees, you can advertise your brand to about 200 million Chinese. Wow.

Memo to the Warriors: better free up some cap space, otherwise Atma Brother ONE's dream of a "Yi Movement" over at Golden State Of Mind will never come to fruition. I think it's fair to say that owner Chris Cohan can only drop the ball on this one. It's pure marketing to tout the power of the Bay Area market and how it relates to Yi. Assuming Yi is merely as good as he is now and without a debilitating injury (knock on wood), Yi's play would be the icing on the cake, not the other way around. Think ROI.

Btw, why is Yi playing in the Rookie/Sophomores Game instead of Joakim Noah or the miffed Al Thornton? What, you forgot there was signage at the Rookie/Soph Game? You forgot this was a corporate sponsor thank-you weekend, not a real All-Star gathering?

Yes, as a sophomore count on Yi being at All-Star Weekend no matter what in 2009. I mean, I really hope he improves, but he might be the one of the few max-contract guys not to make the All-Star Game in 2010 (Stephon Marbury, et. al.?), barring an upsurge in his fan voting -- he needs to more than double his votes this year. You heard it here first.

Speaking of ROI and 2010, here's hoping my comment to Sports Business Radio's post about Lebron not being a good investment -- seconded by Cavs beatwriter Brian Windhorst -- gets posted...

You really need to talk to someone in the shoe industry before talking about Nike/Lebron's ROI. I don't have those resources, so my speculation is hereby just as good as yours.

Look, if Starburys can have a RETAIL price of $15, that would suggest that Nike's cost of goods can't be more than $15 per shoe -- okay, let's be conservative, let's DOUBLE that to $30. Economies of scale, baby.

If Lebron's shoes are selling for $150+, do the math. That's a nice profit margin.

Let's look at it another way. If Nike Golf is bringing in $600 mil and Nike's revenues are $2 bil, then perhaps we can safely say Jordan and Lebron brands are bringing in at least $1 bil. Then perhaps we can safely say Jordan is bringing in 2/3rds of that, so maybe Lebron is bringing in $333 mil.

Invest $90 mil to get $333 mil? I'd say that's a pretty good ROI. In fact, I'd say that $90 mil to get only $90 mil would have been good ROI in terms of merely the marketing. Like you said, Lebron will win MVPs and championsips. You can see why Reebok was willing to pay up for Lebron.

In 2010, what Lebron goes for will be more Lebron than Nike. Especially with Adidas unwilling to go for one-guy stratospheric numbers (hence the 1-of-5 "team" campaign with KG, Chauncey, Gil, et. al.). Esp. when you know LRMR has got to know the real numbers. It's entirely what the brand can bear without jeopardizing Lebron's ability to rake it in in the future. And right now I'd speculate that Nike the brand with $2 bil in revenues can bear a lot.

$90 mil was pretty much how it balanced out at the time. In 2010, I'm sure the forces of supply and demand will yield a larger number.

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Matt Lee's 15 seconds of fame

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One of the three non-Pacific-Islander Asian guys currently playing in college D-1 basketball, Matt Lee, hit a buzzer-beating (albiet non-consequential) trey on regional TV coverage over the holidays. This for the fabled UCLA Bruins, the #7-ranked team at the time!

You can catch the video clip by clicking on the picture above or at BruinsNation.com.

For us dreamleaguers in the Bay Area who have seen Lee, brother of stalwart power forward Jon G. Lee, make cameo appearances during the summer in league and tournament play, the shot comes as no surprise.

Okay, maybe it was really just 5 seconds of fame, not 15.

Speaking of Asians in D-1, I just found out that Japeth Aguilar became the first player recruited out of the Philippines to receive a D-1 scholarship. He's currently at Western Kentucky and has been injured of late.

There's also KJ Matsui of Columbia and Jeremy Lin of Harvard, whom we interviewed last year.

And there's also two other Fil-Ams playing college ball in California, although I don't remember their names off-hand (at St. Mary's?). If you know of any others, please leave your info in the comments.

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