Can he do it, folks? Can he stretch the sports theme through Thursday until he gets to Follow Up Friday? Oh, it's a definite possibility.
I wrote about the NBA draft a bit yesterday, but today's NBA topic is a more timely one: the trade deadline. Today is the last day of the season that teams can make trades, whether little draft pick swaps or blockbuster deals with major superstars. The means that for the past month or so, every basketball fan has been thinking of ways to get a good player on his or her favorite team without giving up anything good. Of course it rarely plays out that way in real life, but we stay true to our teams in our imaginary deals.
As of this morning, the big trade speculation around the league is that the (my) Lakers are trying to pry Jason Kidd away from the Nets. If you don't follow basketball, all you need to know about this scenario is that Jason Kidd is a good player who could possibly fit well with the Lakers. Here's the problem: the Lakers have said that they're not going to part with three players in particular (Kobe, Odom, and Bynum). Therefore, the offer can't be anything that the Nets would actually consider, most likely. That hasn't stopped me from imagining the Nets taking two or three of our bench players for one of the best point guards in the league. More annoyingly, it hasn't stopped sports talk radio hosts from debating (for hours) whether the Lakers should give up Odom or Bynum for Kidd. They're not going to do that, and they've said as much, yet the hosts will still fill up time discussing something that shouldn't even count as a hypothetical. Deep breaths, Peter, deep breaths.
Another interesting part of the trade deadline is the valuable commodity of "expiring contracts." Those are players whose deals end after this year, and therefore their salaries will come of the books. Teams will trade for these players to free up money for the future. The funny part about all of this to me is that everyone will make fun of some egregious contract for years and then suddenly, solely by virtue of time passing, the player becomes a commodity that other teams want. In one of my dream scenarios, the Lakers are able to trade just expiring contracts of bench players for a star. "Sure, we'll give you Mihm and McKie, and we'll only take Tim Duncan off your hands in return." That's not gonna happen, but that's the kind of thing that goes on in the heads, inboxes, chatrooms, and IM boxes of NBA fans for weeks around this time of the year.
Guess what? That got me thinking. What would happen if trades were a part of real life, complete with yearly deadlines? I have obvious untradeable assets (yes, I'm including you, honey), but what could these deals look like? Would a family trade expiring contracts (paid off car, daughter about to leave for college with a full scholarship, etc.) for another family's sports car? The second family would definitely get under the salary cap with that move, maybe just in time for an addition to the family (free agent). Hmmm, now that I re-read that, it could possibly be the stupidest idea I've ever written. Normally I'd erase it, but I'm short on time this morning, so it stays. Can I trade that paragraph and an earlier post for five quality paragraphs that actually time some of this crap together?
Regardless of whether I can relate this to real life or not, it's an exciting time. Every once in a while, a big name that nobody expected to get traded will suddenly be switching jerseys. That's why we keep talking about it, because if one of these deals should happen, we'd be cool for thinking of it. My guess is that Jason Kidd stays put, as do all of the other big names that have been thrown about. It's almost always a letdown after the deadline passes, but we only have to wait for the offseason for the chatter to start up again.
Switching topics (because I can't squeeze more out of that one), my friends and I are getting our fantasy baseball league together. We've been doing this for years, and it's become a pretty standard practice by now. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Greg said that he wanted to change things up for this year. I said I'd like some changes too, but it turned out that we were on different pages. Here's how I'd describe it: Say we're a rock band. We've been together for a while and put out four pretty successful albums. We're getting a little tired of our sound though, and we want to branch out creatively. I suggest that our next album have a running theme throughout it and that we have a couple of songs that sound different from what we typically do. Nothing drastic, just something that gets our fans to turn their heads a little and say, "Wow, that's funkier than normal, but I kinda like where they're going with this." Greg says, "I was thinking along similar lines. Let's do a blues-meets-ska album and really blow this up to make it fun and interesting." See what I mean about different pages?
I wanted to tinker, he wanted to change. I fought pretty hard on this for a little while, and then something happened. Greg sent a website link with a demo of how the new system would work, and it was really cool. Now, as shocked as anyone, I'm trying to convert the others over to the new system. I'm not afraid to change my mind when provided ample evidence, and Greg presented his point so well that I suggested he run for Congress. So now I'm pumped up about fantasy baseball this year and excited about trades that will never happen in the NBA. Not too grounded in reality, one might say.
That person would be wrong though, because I get my dose of reality in the form of American Idol. I know, I know, but it's actually pretty compelling television. Tonight, the final 24 gets cut down to 20, and I have a pretty good sense of who one of the departing ones will be. I'll miss saying his name in the coming weeks, but Sundance Head had the worst performance of the two dozen.
Gentle readers, do you watch this show? I know most of America does, so let me know if you do. If so, I'll pontificate more frequently on this big ole slice of Americana. If not, I'll try to spare you the details of something that doesn't interest you (like Chris Mihm's contract). Finally, the rambling is coming to a close. I'll be back tomorrow with Follow Up Friday, where lots of space is still available. Email ptklein@gmail.com for your chance to be famous on the Internets.
I wrote about the NBA draft a bit yesterday, but today's NBA topic is a more timely one: the trade deadline. Today is the last day of the season that teams can make trades, whether little draft pick swaps or blockbuster deals with major superstars. The means that for the past month or so, every basketball fan has been thinking of ways to get a good player on his or her favorite team without giving up anything good. Of course it rarely plays out that way in real life, but we stay true to our teams in our imaginary deals.
As of this morning, the big trade speculation around the league is that the (my) Lakers are trying to pry Jason Kidd away from the Nets. If you don't follow basketball, all you need to know about this scenario is that Jason Kidd is a good player who could possibly fit well with the Lakers. Here's the problem: the Lakers have said that they're not going to part with three players in particular (Kobe, Odom, and Bynum). Therefore, the offer can't be anything that the Nets would actually consider, most likely. That hasn't stopped me from imagining the Nets taking two or three of our bench players for one of the best point guards in the league. More annoyingly, it hasn't stopped sports talk radio hosts from debating (for hours) whether the Lakers should give up Odom or Bynum for Kidd. They're not going to do that, and they've said as much, yet the hosts will still fill up time discussing something that shouldn't even count as a hypothetical. Deep breaths, Peter, deep breaths.
Another interesting part of the trade deadline is the valuable commodity of "expiring contracts." Those are players whose deals end after this year, and therefore their salaries will come of the books. Teams will trade for these players to free up money for the future. The funny part about all of this to me is that everyone will make fun of some egregious contract for years and then suddenly, solely by virtue of time passing, the player becomes a commodity that other teams want. In one of my dream scenarios, the Lakers are able to trade just expiring contracts of bench players for a star. "Sure, we'll give you Mihm and McKie, and we'll only take Tim Duncan off your hands in return." That's not gonna happen, but that's the kind of thing that goes on in the heads, inboxes, chatrooms, and IM boxes of NBA fans for weeks around this time of the year.
Guess what? That got me thinking. What would happen if trades were a part of real life, complete with yearly deadlines? I have obvious untradeable assets (yes, I'm including you, honey), but what could these deals look like? Would a family trade expiring contracts (paid off car, daughter about to leave for college with a full scholarship, etc.) for another family's sports car? The second family would definitely get under the salary cap with that move, maybe just in time for an addition to the family (free agent). Hmmm, now that I re-read that, it could possibly be the stupidest idea I've ever written. Normally I'd erase it, but I'm short on time this morning, so it stays. Can I trade that paragraph and an earlier post for five quality paragraphs that actually time some of this crap together?
Regardless of whether I can relate this to real life or not, it's an exciting time. Every once in a while, a big name that nobody expected to get traded will suddenly be switching jerseys. That's why we keep talking about it, because if one of these deals should happen, we'd be cool for thinking of it. My guess is that Jason Kidd stays put, as do all of the other big names that have been thrown about. It's almost always a letdown after the deadline passes, but we only have to wait for the offseason for the chatter to start up again.
Switching topics (because I can't squeeze more out of that one), my friends and I are getting our fantasy baseball league together. We've been doing this for years, and it's become a pretty standard practice by now. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Greg said that he wanted to change things up for this year. I said I'd like some changes too, but it turned out that we were on different pages. Here's how I'd describe it: Say we're a rock band. We've been together for a while and put out four pretty successful albums. We're getting a little tired of our sound though, and we want to branch out creatively. I suggest that our next album have a running theme throughout it and that we have a couple of songs that sound different from what we typically do. Nothing drastic, just something that gets our fans to turn their heads a little and say, "Wow, that's funkier than normal, but I kinda like where they're going with this." Greg says, "I was thinking along similar lines. Let's do a blues-meets-ska album and really blow this up to make it fun and interesting." See what I mean about different pages?
I wanted to tinker, he wanted to change. I fought pretty hard on this for a little while, and then something happened. Greg sent a website link with a demo of how the new system would work, and it was really cool. Now, as shocked as anyone, I'm trying to convert the others over to the new system. I'm not afraid to change my mind when provided ample evidence, and Greg presented his point so well that I suggested he run for Congress. So now I'm pumped up about fantasy baseball this year and excited about trades that will never happen in the NBA. Not too grounded in reality, one might say.
That person would be wrong though, because I get my dose of reality in the form of American Idol. I know, I know, but it's actually pretty compelling television. Tonight, the final 24 gets cut down to 20, and I have a pretty good sense of who one of the departing ones will be. I'll miss saying his name in the coming weeks, but Sundance Head had the worst performance of the two dozen.
Gentle readers, do you watch this show? I know most of America does, so let me know if you do. If so, I'll pontificate more frequently on this big ole slice of Americana. If not, I'll try to spare you the details of something that doesn't interest you (like Chris Mihm's contract). Finally, the rambling is coming to a close. I'll be back tomorrow with Follow Up Friday, where lots of space is still available. Email ptklein@gmail.com for your chance to be famous on the Internets.
1 comment:
How about Anotella Barba. American Idol hottie with scandalous photos on the web. Will Idol kick her out on her rather fine ass? Time will tell.
Post a Comment