DL528: Carmelo, All-Star Ratings, Bissinger v NBA Fans, Wahl v Blatter (v Simmons), Me v Me

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We talk about Carmelo going to the Knicks and wonder if the Dolans were reading Bleacher Report last week and saw the headline that had him going to the Lakers and thought “what…when did that happen?” which ultimately got a deal done in New York. Hey, it could happen. I mean, it’s entirely plausible they’d read B/R, so that’s a start.

I kid. They probably don’t even read. But is this a good trade for NY? Of course it is.

This trade seems to fit into the grand master plan that has NBA teams becoming good — and relevant — in the right markets again. That can, and will, help ratings as much as the product on the court. Of course, not everyone agrees. Enter Buzz Bissinger, who penned (typed?) a column for The Daily Beast ripping the NBA, claiming the league is losing popularity because white fans can’t root for black athletes.

I swear this wasn’t written eight years ago. Or in the 50′s.

My editor thinks I should write something about professional basketball.READ MORE

Call of the Day: USMNT, Egypt & The Lesson That Sports Isn’t As Important As Life or Politics

I wanted the headline to read: Call of the Day: USMNT, Egypt & The Lesson That Sports Isn’t Always As Important As Life but opted to take out the word “always” because when faced with actual life and death situations, sports is never as important as that. I’ve long said that sports, ultimately, is a distraction from real life, but there is no distraction from this:

The U.N. human rights chief said on Tuesday she had unconfirmed reports that up to 300 people may have been killed in Egypt’s unrest and called for calm during the day’s protests which could be a “pivotal moment”.

“Casualties have been mounting on a daily basis, with unconfirmed reports suggesting as many as 300 people may have been killed so far, more than 3,000 injured and hundreds arrested,” [United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi] Pillay said in a statement. Her spokesman said that the unconfirmed toll came from non-governmental organisations.

The statement also noted that Tuesday is likely to be a pivotal moment for the conflict-ridden nation, which includes a seriesREAD MORE

DL511: Turn Into The Skid (Oh, Plus, SOTU, Bleacher Report Reboot & Andy Gray)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Nick and I talk about the State of the Union, Bleacher Report hiring King Kaufman to unsully their name (note: not a word, don’t care) and a brief rant on Andy Gray and Richard Keys being dumb enough to say how they feel in front of microphones.

On a day like today, this is certainly a ‘steer into the skid’ kind of show.

We talk more about the nature of the State of the Union than anything Obama actually said. How different is the instant connection to the people than in year’s past? Heck, we’re pretty sure Biden was even reading tweets (or, as someone said on Twitter, playing Angry Birds) during the speech.

The State of the Union, ultimately, means nothing. It’s an annual pep rally, but with the change in how our politics are covered, is the President on TV so much (read: every single day) that the State of the Union has totally lost it’s luster?

Great speech, expertly read, but what does it mean?

Well, for starters it means that whoever had to followREAD MORE

DL499: Here Are Ten (Or Eleven) Of Our Favorite Show Memories

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I always hated when, around the holiday season, my favorite shows would be listed in the TV Guide as *NEW* but wouldn’t be anything more than a damn clip show with five minutes of “new” material only used to transition from one clip to the next.

So, with that, I ask this: what would you do, baby, without us? IT’S A CLIP SHOW!

The difference in our situation, of course, is that we’ve been gaining listeners over the course of the last few years, so you, dear reader, may not have been around to hear Rick Telander talk about running into Jay Mariotti in a sauna, or Ian Eagle tell the story of when Bill Raftery invented the term “Onions,” or when Tony Kornheiser called me a narcissist. (Note: all in the show).

There are hundreds of clips we could have pulled. Some of the notables NOT in the show include: Norman Chad telling us that Kornheiser is dead to him, Annie Duke talking about just getting back from speaking in front ofREAD MORE

DL497: Talking FIFA Bribes, Blatter’s Anti-Gay Remarks & Other Conspiratorial Debates

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Drexel beat Louisville. Jon Tannenwald and I talk about that.

Mostly, though, we cover the two huge stories surrounding FIFA and head honcho Sepp Blatter. First, the rumor put out on Twitter by Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter that FIFA officials were paid $10 million for their votes. Here are a few of his tweets:

Soccer scandal: Brits, U.S. (Including Bill Clinton) wasted time going to Zurich to win World Cup. Fix was in for Qatar!!

Soccer scandal cont: Press in FIFA nations shld probe how FIFA members spend their new $10 million apiece. Qatar bribed way to victory.

I didn’t read about $10 mil apiece soccer bribes. I heard it from very well-placed source. Hope Twitter can flush out more

Um…wow.

This isn’t just some crackpot Twitterer. This is a respected Newsweek journalist. So why the hell isn’t Newsweek doing this investigation? Why would Alter put it out on Twitter and then ask us to “flush out more.” What the hell is that? Is that what journalism has become?

Besides, even if it’s true, who can police it?READ MORE

What The Simpsons Monorail Episode Can Teach Us About FIFA & The IOC

In one of the many conversations this week trying to wrap my brain around the fact that FIFA awarded the World Cup to both Russia and Qatar — on the heels of an event in South Africa and in the midst of Brazil feverishly trying to stay on schedule for the 2014 World Cup — I came to the realization that FIFA, and the International Olympic Committee for that matter — are a lot like Lyle Lanley.

Who is Lyle Lanley? Well he’s sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook, and by gum it put them on the map.

Can’t you just hear Sepp Blatter making the mule with a spinning wheel joke? “You know a town with money…”

The context came during my conversation with James from Unprofessional Foul, in which we tried to figure out why FIFA insists on awarding the tournament to countries without a proper infrastructure to handle the number of games, and tourists. FIFA awarded 2018 to Russia over established European powerhouses like England and Spain who both have the stadiums (orREAD MORE

Spain’s Commercial To Introduce Its New Kit Is Skin-Ripping Fantastic

The tagline for the new Spain kit is: It Comes From Within. This is so much cooler than pulling the new shirts out of each other’s ears. Or worse yet…ah, nevermind.

I’m sure this is everywhere on the internet, but I just caught it at Off the Post so they get the link. As the headline indicates, this ad is skin-ripping fantastic.

It does make you wonder why American sports teams (other than soccer) don’t change up their uniform every year to sell more of them. Forget about Kobe needing to change his number halfway through his career. He’d sell so many more jerseys if the Lakers added a racing stripe or something every few seasons. Sure, there’s something to be said about tradition in uniforms, but how cool would it be if everyone got to make commercials like this to sell new crap?

Really cool.

DL458: Cliff Lee, AJ Burnett, Cole Hamels, Wayne Rooney, Sepp Blatter, Dexter Morgan & Don Draper

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The show starts like this:

Me: “The world belongs to Clifton Pfieffer Lee.”

Nick: (groaning sound).

It’s not that we don’t like Lee, and that we aren’t grateful for his time in Philadelphia, but we both have a serious case of Lee Fatigue, so much so that we’ve been rooting FOR the Yankees. Seriously, this is for no other reason than the Phillies fans hammering home how terrible it was to let Lee go. The man has done nothing wrong, but other fans have ruined him for us. It’s an odd feeling, but we don’t think we’re alone.

We preview the games today, including the crazy idea that AJ Burnett still might pitch game four and if Joe Girardi’s name swirling around the Cubs job may have something to do with his decision. There really is no pressure on Girardi right now, so maybe he does go with Burnett. Crazy.

SPECULATION STATION, SOCCER EDITION:

Jon Tannenwald from Philly.com’s The Goalkeeper joins the show to talk about Americans invading the EPL and if the English fans will everREAD MORE

Call of the Day, International: “YOKOYOMAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Grant Wahl tweeted this out earlier and the video certainly doesn’t disappoint. Let’s make it the Call of the Day, International (hey, isn’t that exactly what the headline says?

The goal itself is incredible, but the call is what makes watching soccer in other languages fantastic. Listen closely and you can hear the echo of the play-by-play man’s voice, clearly indicating he’s in a sound booth watching on TV. That’s one excited sound booth.

I took two years of Japanese in high school — didn’t know THAT, did you — and all I seem to remember how to say is where is my jacket? (Jacket-o wa, doko desu ka?) From what I can tell, the call is a lot of Yokoyama (the young lady who scored the amazing goal), some celebratory words about it being fantastic (maybe the best?) and a comparison to Maradona.

Whatever else he says…it’s awesome.