- 04:00 PM
- 04/19/24
| Name: | kareem |
|---|---|
| Member since: | November 11, 2003 |
| Last visit: | November 29, 2004 |
lew has posted 9 links and 6 comments to SportsFilter and 0 links and 1 comment to the Locker Room.
Raptors Hire GM: The Raptors have hired the Minnesota T'Wolves' VP of Player Personnel, Rob Babcock, as their new GM. The Raps' interim GM Jack McCloskey apparently has close ties to Babcock, so Babcock's signing is being billed as somthing of a coup for McCloskey. If this is indeed a 'coup', it's a sign that the Raptors' reign of futility won't come to an end anytime soon. McCloskey has no incentive for Babcock to do a good job--he's outta there once Babcock comes on board--and while I'm sure Babcock is qualified, if he's not the best candidate for the job, McCloskey has done nobody but Babcock a favor with his patronage hiring.
posted by lew to basketball at 10:09 AM on June 05, 2004 - 4 comments
ESPN is reporting the Raptors' GM, Glen Grunwald, has been fired. No link yet.
posted by lew to basketball at 09:47 AM on April 01, 2004 - 5 comments
Cherry Weighs In: What Canadians have been waiting to hear for the whole week: Don Cherry's take on the Bertuzzi affair. You won't believe who he holds responsible, either.
posted by lew to hockey at 10:43 AM on March 14, 2004 - 14 comments
Gonchar to Bruins: TSN is reporting that Gonchar has been traded to the Bruins for "either two players and a draft pick or two draft picks and one player".
posted by lew to hockey at 09:56 AM on March 03, 2004 - 60 comments
Rasheed Traded to Pistons: Rasheed Wallace was traded to the Detoit Pistons in a three-team deal today involving Atlanta, Boston, and Detroit, reports Chad Ford of ESPN.com. The news was broken during a live chat with Ford, so you'll have to scroll down to the bottom of the story to get the details. Ford says a story is pending.
posted by lew to basketball at 01:12 PM on February 19, 2004 - 28 comments
camcanuck: unless the wifi is encrypted...
posted by lew at 12:32 PM on April 23, 2004
That's quite a conspiracy theory, Scott. From all indications, I've heard that Grunwald was ok with O'Neill's hiring. And looking at the season objectively, O'Neill has put together a reasonable season (especially when is comes to team defense) given the team's lack of height, lack of point guard, injuries, and general player turmoil (AD, Vince's motivation, etc). In case you're interested, there's a summary of the Grunwald events on my site, TotalRaptor.com.
posted by lew at 01:34 PM on April 01, 2004
Barnett was egregiously taken out of context on this quote. He was responding to a question about Hnida's ability as a football player, but the media construed it as a reply to her allegations that she was raped. I wish I could find the article that I read this in, but I seem to have lost it...
posted by lew at 12:48 PM on February 24, 2004
Vito90: see mkn's comments. His victories are more of a testament to his longevity than his talent. According to basketballreference.com, Wilkens has averaged 43 wins a season in his coaching career. That's a winning percentage of .524. Wilkens floated through his years in Toronto. The problem was not a lack of talent; the problem was that Wilkens didn't give a crap. He had his $5 mil either way, and he showed that he either had no ability or did not care to even try to motivate his players. His substitution patterns were terrible and his timeout calling (or lack thereof) was questionable. He passed blame after every loss, but never took responsibility for the decisions he made. If the coach isn't going to be accountable, how on earth can he expect his players to be? I hope you are not a Knicks fan, because you are going to be very, very disappointed with Isiah's latest move.
posted by lew at 10:00 PM on January 14, 2004
I think he should have gotten far more than one game--five or even 10 would not have been out of the question, in my mind. As the NHL, how can you tolerate behavior like that? Roenick's behavior was f'ing embarrassing, and the league's response was even more so. As a fan of the NHL I'm disgusted that they didn't throw the book at Roenick. If Sundin's unintentional stick-tossing incident merited a one game suspension (and he is as mild-mannered as they come), how on earth can Campbell justify giving Roenick (a guy with a history) the same penalty when his attack was intentional, and on top of that, targeted towards the guys who are supposed to maintain order? The NHL should take a lesson from the NBA.
posted by lew at 09:47 PM on January 14, 2004
lilnemo -> The Raps definitely didn't give up too much; most analyses dictate that the Raptors won the Talent portion of the trade (with the Bulls getting the Salary nod). While rebounding and post defence will pose major problems, Antonio Davis wanted nothing to do with Toronto and the Raptors need scoring *now*. Scott -> I don't think GG had the option of holding out for a better deal. As you no doubt know, in today's NBA you generally need to take on a big contract if you give one up... and GG's back was up against the wall--Davis was moping his way out of town while the Raptors scored fewer points than any team in the history of the NBA. Combine those factors with the Raptors losing 2000 season tickets last year, and all of a sudden you have a situation that unfortunately can't wait for 2006-2007 to sign a player.
posted by lew at 05:15 PM on December 01, 2003
Calling all ESPN outsiders
I'm Kareem--thanks for the insightful comments. Some new stuff that I have not heard yet from others. > Filtering comments - I should have known. They just don't get it. For the record, comments are manually approved so that spam does not get through. I don't filter any comments, and especially not ones that aren't favorable towards ESPN (how else are we supposed to figure out what will make you guys come back?) Admittedly, one of the big competitive hurdles we face is one most of you mention: we charge for our analysis, while it is offered for free on sites like Sportsline, Yahoo, CNNSI, etc. That being said, I would take our analysts head-to-head with anybody's (Chad Ford has a tremendous NBA network that he allows us to be a part of, for example). One of the big draws we offer is that you get an ESPN The Magazine subscription free with your Insider subscription. We also have Insider tools that appeal to Fantasy players, and a vast array of Fantasy-specific content. But none of that really speaks to the point all of you raise: it's hard to compete with Free. Either we need to do a better job of marketing the content that we do have, or we need to show you guys why it's so compelling that you should pay for it. Thanks for your suggestions--if you have more, please feel free to email me at kareem at reemer dot com. Thanks! kareem