In the past, the LO’B has been a massive decal sticker placed on top of the hard wood and not only didn’t look as clean, sometimes led to traction issues. Painting it on the court is a huge upgrade for its return.
Things change FAST in the NBA.
At one point this season, OKC was 26-3, on track for a 73-win pace. It seemed unthinkable that anyone else could win the title.
Now they're not even in the Finals.
The tough part for OKC is THIS was the year to knock off the Spurs. Wemby will not be a baby deer on offense next year and Harper and Castle are gonna come back even better. Sam is smart and knows what they have now won’t be good enough. Even if healthy.
There’s a woman courtside here in San Antonio who brought a mini Oscar trophy to present to SGA whenever he hits the deck. More sights/sounds/analysis on the @TheAthletic live blog here.
https://t.co/E8oH0QM43k
It's always Game 2 this and Game 2 that.
No one talks about Rashard Lewis nailing a 3-pointer over Zydrunas Ilgauskas to complete a 20-point comeback in Game 1 or his fading away shot in overtime of Game 4 or Dwight Howard's 40-14 game to clinch it in Game 6.
Choosing Billy Donovan as Head Coach for the Orlando Magic would be catastrophic
The combination of poor results for a decade, an offense that does not fit the roster, a coach style your stars explicitly asked you not to hire, and a personality that could dial the passion of the team back significantly, should be more than enough reason for the Orlando’s front office to not take the bait on Billy Donovan…again
Full article is in the comments ⬇️
I have had several people ask me about this segment on Torre's podcast so I thought I would respond here as opposed to DM's.
To assert (first 20 sec) that nobody is making money on their NFL packages is misleading in my mind.
Let's look at it how TV networks look at it...On a rights fee and production cost basis versus ad revenue generated, then yes, they lose money. But when retrans consent fee payments are included, they make money. Retrans fees are paid to the network by distributors and local stations. Amounts allocable to the NFL are generally assumed to be 60% (or more) of a network's retrans revenue (for a network like FOX I would put the number higher due to less entertainment programming).
For simple, but effective illustration purposes let's look at CBS. They generate something like $2.5 billion in total retrans payments each year. So, we will allocate (60%) $1.5B to NFL (by the way, those fees are going up in 2027 due to contracts expiring). Throw in about $1.35 billion for ad revenue in a typical NFL season. There are also lead in/out bumps to other programming that while not necessarily allocated to the NFL P&L, do provide additional financial benefits.
So, we have $2.85B in total revenue less $2.1B in rights fees which equals to a $750m surplus. Now I'm not sure of their exact season long production costs, but I guarantee you it is not $750 million. Let's assume $200m in a non-Super Bowl year. Nets them $550 million for the year. Are these exact numbers? No, but they are pretty close.
So, what about a Super Bowl year? Figure an additional $30m or so in production for a Super Bowl year, but an astounding $700m in extra ad revenue. There is no additional Super Bowl rights fee. It is baked into the yearly fees.
That being said, there is only so much $ to devote to the sports ecosystem for the linear networks. If NFL rights fees increase networks will start to cut other sports rights fees before they walk from the NFL.
I do agree with John's analysis that the Tech streamer's don't necessarily need an NFL package in order to exist. Netflix's business is just fine without sports. They seem to like the "big event" concept for now. YouTube, Prime Video and AppleTV are such small portions of the total business of Google, Amazon and Apple it would be considered negligible in the overall scheme of things. Just my opinion of course.😎
BREAKING: The New Orleans Pelicans are hiring Jamahl Mosley as the franchise's new head coach on a five-year contract, sources tell ESPN. Mosley accepts the Pelicans job after five seasons in Orlando where he guided the Magic to three consecutive playoff berths.
Former ESPN president John Skipper on the "dangerous scenario" the NFL is headed towards — where tech and streaming giants don't need an NFL package in order to exist.