Links to The Present: December 31st, 2009
2009-12-31
Just a few quick links as you get ready for the ball to drop:
-Chris Sherdian’s Daily Dime piece on LeBron’s birthday celebration and the clock malfunction has caused quite the stir in the comments today. I think he was being a bit more tongue-in-cheek than we were giving him credit for, but here’s what the fuss was about.
-I linked to this last night, but in case you missed it here’s me and Arnovitz shooting the proverbial breeze on TrueHoop. This was a lot of fun to do.
-A nice piece from Truehoop special guest editor Royce Young, who’s been absolutely killing it with Daily Thunder and did a great job with Truehoop, on learning to love the NBA.
-Also from Royce on Truehoop, a look at some new LeBron shoes that apparently say “I love NY” on the bottom and are in Knicks colors. Royce’s stint at Truehoop was one of misery, evil, and the destruction of all that is good and pure in the world.
-Hollinger’s top 10 players of the decade, with LBJ coming in at number six.
-Shaq bought LBJ a Rolls-Royce for his birthday. That’s a big-name car and certainly does some things very well, but with all the nice cars LeBron already has, will LeBron really improve his overall driving situation by allocating some of his time behind the wheel to the Rolls, especially when his other cars would allow him to be much faster on the road? This gift may look better on paper than it does on the road.
I kid. Shaq’s got a lot of money, but giving someone a Rolls is giving someone a Rolls.
Alright campers, have a great New Years. Until 2010.
Although in Royce’s defense, a number of other outlets fell for this too, including Ball Don’t Lie and Cleveland.com.
Saw that today. Bummed for Royce, rookie mistake on his first day doing TrueHoop. Got a number of other outlets too, everyone underestimated Nike a bit there.
yes, that’s correct Dr. Z.
Excellent piece of journalism by ESPN though.
Hasn’t this shoe thing been sniffed out as a hoax already?
@David: No kidding, making that shoe is marketing genius. They will sell so many of those. It also makes sense that LeBron refuses to say he’s NOT going to New York. Why turn off the 2nd biggest market in sports. Just doesn’t make sense. These shoes don’t mean he’s leaving. Just means he has business savvy.
(And if he doesn’t make money off the shoes, not sure how it works, then Nike is still smart for making this shoe)
On shoe-gate:
The logo looks like a Lion’s head, not a heart. Instead of “I love NY” I would be more likely to interpret that as something like, “I am the king of NY” with the lion standing in for King, James’ nickname.
More important question, If I’m a Nike exec, why would I NOT make that shoe, or leak the photos?
I wonder if Shaq ever bought Kobe a Rolls. How ’bout Wade? Any cars for Wade? Nash?
Pretty sneaky- how are the Cavs going to trade the Big B-Day One-Upper now? Hope Z got LBJ something nice…
That piece Royce wrote is one of the best things I’ve read basketball related in a while. Totally sums up how I feel, and I think his pre-Thunder days is what a lot of people are like now. They don’t realize how great the Association is.
John, did you happen to listen to the Simmons/Bucher/Stein podcast? If not, you need to listen to it. I was hoping you’d have a reply to it on your links to the present. Buch and Simmons really lose their perspective on Bron-Bron it seems to me.