Dafydd Rhys Bowen

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@Tom_Gatti This is funny.
Mine had a meltdown when I opened his little cereal bar and, brace yourself this is horrible, PUSHED IT OUT TO MAKE IT EASIER TO HOLD AND EAT. Cue meltdown. The worse thing was the withering look and tut from his mother “he likes to push it out himself.” 😐

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@mrianleslie And a tie-in deal to be one of the answers to today's Connections? Smart work👌🏼😉

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@Jomboy_ I'll never know why we need the closeups of the fielding on balls that reach the outfield, and following the ball back to the base/plate. So much more exciting when you can see the runner approaching the base/plate and the throw chasing him down

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@HadleyFreeman Woody Harrelson for me

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@FootballCliches It's almost STFU🤦🏻

[Sonia Sodha @soniasodha]

I know parents whose 6-year-old children are set school homework on 'educational' games that require them to use screens. It really undermines parents keeping screens away from their kids.

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@WorldWideWob Ridiculous

[Adam Hurrey @FootballCliches]

@dafbow

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@FootballCliches do you do videos??
Can you identify this match (who this guy seems to be watching on his flight to Dubai)?
https://t.co/ARO1w18G2G

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@FootballCliches Too hot atm but we'll all think of something Adam!👍🏼😅😅

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@FootballCliches His usage reminds me of this

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@FootballCliches Surely he needs to rediscover these 3+ players' respective mojos, not relocate them?!

[Rob Perez @WorldWideWob]

I see we have some new players in the NBA jersey arena. Its ethos, and our fight, has been centered around one key principle: home basketball teams wear white at every level of the game, in every league in the world. It is quite simply a basketball tradition, without it being a written requirement.

What Nike has done has not only oversaturated the market with mostly unpopular designs, but uniforms that get left behind after just one season. The constant turnover has one goal: sell as many jerseys as possible, at any cost, even at the expense of the franchise’s brand equity. It is a statistical fact and focus group tested/proven that children like new jerseys, and their parents buy them.

Non-white City Edition/Classic uniforms are often worn at home, it has a minimum appearance mandate because of the NBA’s partnership with Nike, forcing the away opponent to have to wear their home whites when they’re chosen.

Every NBA game that’s played where the home team is not wearing white is a papercut to the sport’s tradition. Not the NBA’s, but basketball’s. It won’t be a tradition that’s destroyed overnight, but as children grow up and it becomes more-and-more accepted because it was never something they cared about or understood, the home whites will eventually be perceived to be just another option.

You will rarely, if ever, see an NHL home team in their away white sweaters. Even though it’s the opposite of basketball, NHL/hockey have always maintained the tradition of the home team’s fashion look.

I like to think they do this because it is something their paying customers appreciate and continue to support with their wallets.

What the NBA doesn’t understand is the sales spreadsheet may suggest that this new jersey strategy is working because so many people are buying them, but what they are sacrificing to achieve these short-term results is the legacy of the sport that made them so cool in the first place.

This business strategy, undoubtedly, will lead to apathetic fashion, market dilution, and diminishing returns with no ability to revert back — because that culture, both literally and figuratively, will be dead.

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@REALDJPREMIER Played some gangstarr to my kids (6,10) in the car yesterday. They loved it🫶🏼

[Marc A. Ross @marcaross]

I was at the Detroit @tigers home opener today. Someone near me challenged nearly every pitch.

Welcome to the ABS era. The robot umpire has arrived, and it's already changing how fans watch baseball.

Here's what's interesting: the technology is probably more accurate than any human umpire who has ever lived. Twelve Hawk-Eye cameras. Instant review. Objective geometry. The ball either crossed the plate or it didn't.

So why does it feel so wrong?

Behavioral economics has an answer. Daniel Kahneman built a career explaining why humans are not rational actors. We don't optimize for accuracy. We optimize for comfort, familiarity, and narrative. The human umpire, for all his limitations, gave us someone to blame, someone to argue with, and a villain for the story. The robot gives us a verdict. Verdicts don't make great theater.

There's also loss aversion at work. Fans and players aren't just gaining accuracy. They feel they're losing something: the drama, the discretion, the human texture of the game. Losses loom larger than equivalent gains. Always.

And the ABS Challenge System adds a wrinkle. By letting players appeal, Major League Baseball (@MLB) preserved the illusion of human agency while embedding the machine. That's smart design. But it also gamifies every pitch. The incentive is to challenge, even when the call was right. So now we have more conflict, not less.

Accuracy without trust is a management problem, not a technology problem.

MLB is learning what every executive already knows.

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

@HumanRiskLtd
@rorysutherland @Gerald_Ashley @sebs_tweets
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[Shams Charania @ShamsCharania]

Statement from Luka Doncic’s agent Bill Duffy of WME Basketball: "This season, Luka Dončić has performed at a historic level, leading the league in scoring, carrying the Lakers to third place in the Western Conference and placing himself in the middle of one of the most tightly contested MVP races in memory. To ensure that Luka’s incredible accomplishments this season are rightly honored and he can be considered for the league’s end-of-season awards, we intend to apply for an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge” to the 65-game rule. Luka missed two games this season for the birth of his second child in Slovenia. His daughter was born on Dec. 4 on another continent, and yet he was back in the United States competing with his team on Dec. 6. Luka has gone to great lengths to show up for his team and this league this season. His record-breaking season deserves to be noted in the history books, despite last night’s unfortunate injury and other extraordinary circumstances. We look forward to working with the NBAPA and the league office to ensure a fair outcome in this matter."

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@Layo_FH I think the best tribute to your blog, in the spirit in which it was meant, is that @FootballCliches himself replied in a way that, to me, suggests that he read it, agreed with bits, disagreed with others, thought, "listen, fair play" and moved on. I enjoyed it. And i 💙 the pod!

[Dafydd Rhys Bowen @dafbow]

@FootballCliches @Layo_FH So weird that this response (which is funny and great and a lowkey classy touch, and exactly in keeping with the spirit of the pod and the gang (and tbf the original post as well i.e. no malice) hasn't gotten any replies🤷🏻

[Chris Mannix @SIChrisMannix]

This was the play. Reads it, blows it up, forces a low percentage possession.