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Entries with the tag: nba

Bill Guerin’s Advice to NBA Players

by Alanah McGinley on 10/21/11 at 01:59 PM ET
Comments (2)

From Mac Engel at the Toronto Star:

“I learned a big lesson: It’s not a partnership. It’s their league, and you are going to play when they want,” he said.

Today, Guerin has hindsight and his experience serves as a giant caution to any player who thinks losing a game, much less an entire season, to this lockout is a good idea. His message is simple: Get what you can; start playing; you are not going to win what you think.

“It is not worth it to any of them to burn games or to burn an entire year. Burning a year was ridiculous,” Guerin said. “It wasn’t worth me giving up $9 million a year, or 82 games plus the playoffs, then having a crappy year and being bought out. ... Guys in the NBA making $15 million or however much better think long and hard about this.”

continued…

Filed in: NHL Talk, NHL Business of Hockey | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: bill+guerin, labor+dispute, nba,

NBA Lockout Won’t Help The NHL

by Paul on 09/22/11 at 04:57 PM ET
Comments (5)

from Tom Van Riper of Forbes,

As NBA labor talks drag on with few hopeful signs, some talk has naturally turned to the potential value of basketball’s lockout to the NHL.

Unfortunately for the hockey, there isn’t much. The last lengthy NBA labor war – the one chopped the 1998-99 season down to 50 games – resulted in a flat attendance year for the NHL from the year before. Tempting as it is to pit hockey and hoops as winter competitors, there’s nothing beyond the time of year and the sharing of the arenas (in some cities) to compare the two. A Philadelphia 76ers fans is no more likely to substitute a Flyers game at the Wachovia Center than he is to check out the Indoor LaCross league’s Wings (an exaggeration there, perhaps, but just a small one).

They’re simply two different sports playing to two different fan bases. Not only is basketball far more popular in the U.S., it’s demographics differ substantially.

continued

Filed in: NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: NBA,

Is The NHL System Working?

by Paul on 08/29/10 at 10:35 AM ET
Comments (8)

from Terry Frei of the Denver Post,

Last season, the Avalanche’s Matt Duchene — the No. 3 choice in the 2009 draft — made $900,000 in salary and his cap hit, because of potential bonuses, was $3.4 million. It’s a bit tricky because the NHL draft age is 18 (oversimplifying), and only the very elite step right into the NHL rather than remaining in major junior hockey or heading to college for a year or four.

That kind of “reasonable” deal makes the NFL jealous, not so much because of the dollar figure (everyone knows the NFL figures would be multiplied many-fold), but the concept of making rookies, even the most accomplished and highly prized, wait their turns.

There isn’t a lot of cross-ownership in the NBA and NHL, but I’m surprised that Stan Kroenke and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, for example, haven’t more forcefully said in NBA meetings: “You know, the hockey system is working. It’s relatively simple, it has held up, and it makes sense for everybody.” Now Kroenke can go into NFL meetings and say the same things.

The horses are out of the barns in some ways. The football and basketball players associations aren’t going to just say: “Sure!”

But the NHL has a system that’s working.

more

Filed in: NHL Teams | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: NBA, NFL,

There Is A Difference

by Paul on 07/08/10 at 11:08 AM ET
Comments (1)

from Adam Proteau of The Hockey News,

I rag on NHL players a lot – and with good reason. Their boring nicknames roll off an assembly line, they’re far from the most worldly of individuals, and their union-maintaining abilities leave much to be desired.

But after witnessing the NBA’s orgy of egoism the last few weeks, I appreciate NHLers a little bit more than I used to.

Don’t get me wrong – this isn’t going to be one of the thinly veiled bigoted rants that often get tossed at NBA players. I covered the Toronto Raptors for a bunch of years – during the Vince Carter Era, mostly – and I found, in many aspects, basketball players and hockey players share the same experiences: the shortened childhoods; the temptations that come when the exuberance of youth and large sums of money are locked in the same room together; the drive to provide for families that sacrificed in the hope their prodigal sons would prosper.

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: NBA,

The Snowbird Ticket Exchange

by Alanah McGinley on 02/05/09 at 02:43 PM ET
Comments (3)

From WCBS News Radio:

Ever had to eat tickets to a sporting event which took place while you were on vacation?  Get this. New Jersey Nets season ticket holders can get in on the “Snowbird Exchange Program.”

[NJ Nets Press Release]:  As cold weather takes hold of the Metropolitan area, the Nets and the Florida Panthers have launched the first-ever Snowbird Ticket Exchange Plan in which south Florida-bound Nets season ticket holders can exchange their unused game tickets for Florida Panthers hockey game tickets at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla.

More on this from the Associated Press.

 

Filed in: NHL Teams, Florida Panthers | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: nba, new+jersey+nets, snowbird+ticket+exchange,

Baltimore a Long Shot for NHL Franchise

by Alanah McGinley on 07/25/08 at 10:18 AM ET
Comments (4)

From Childs Walker at the Baltimore Sun,

A new arena is a poor risk for Baltimore if the city is counting on attracting an NHL or NBA franchise, sports business experts say, but some agree with city leaders that a proposed 18,500-seat venue could be profitable without such an anchor tenant.

Neither the NBA nor the NHL offers many relocation or expansion prospects, analysts said, and the presence of basketball and hockey teams in Washington make the odds even longer for Baltimore. [...]

NHL spokesman Frank Brown said the league has no plans for expansion or relocation, though several cities have expressed interest. He said questions about the Capitals’ sharing a market with another team are “way too hypothetical for me to answer.

read on

Filed in: NHL Teams, Washington Capitals, NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: arenas, expansion, frank+brown, nba, nhl,

Proud to be a Hockey Journalist

by Alanah McGinley on 06/03/08 at 11:54 AM ET
Comments (0)

From Adrian Dater at the ‘All Things Avs’ blog in the Denver Post,

I’m more proud than ever to cover the NHL, after watching last night’s triple OT thriller. It’s still the game of Real Men.

And that’s why, even though I bled green as a kid and have a virtual shrine to Larry Bird from where I write this, I probably won’t watch more than a few minutes of the C’s-Lakers Finals coming up in about 12 more days, or whenever they start a series in the NBA now.

I didn’t watch a full NBA game all year, and I’m not about to start now. The game is unwatchable to me now, and so are the god-awful broadcasts. I don’t need every 2-3 pass possession broken down 23 different ways by the men in pancake makeup, or the ditzy sideline reporter reporting that “Kevin Garnett told me the Celtics need to come out strong in the third quarter if they want to get back into this game. Guys, back to you.”

continued…

Filed in: NHL Teams, Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: hockey+fans, nba,

NBA Playoffs Better Than the NHL Playoffs?

by Alanah McGinley on 05/14/08 at 10:52 AM ET
Comments (21)

From Tom Jones at Tampa Bay.com,

First, I’m a hockey guy. I covered the NHL for 15 years and if the choice is between watching a hockey game on television and watching another event live from the first row, I’d probably pick the hockey game. To me, it’s the best sport there is, and there’s nothing like the passion, drama and intensity of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Except this year. (And, to be honest, last season, too, because I wrote about this same subject.)  Quite frankly, the NBA playoffs have been better than the NHL playoffs. Here are five reasons why:

continued…  and he’s got a couple good points, but I have a feeling that hockey fans are going to disagree strongly with some others…

Filed in: NHL Talk, NHL Playoff Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: nba, playoffs,