Trap Draw: Chop Sessions

That song, and the whole album, is a banger.

1 Like

I loved the Blackhawks beat writer in 2011-2012 than handed various Canucks (I remember Bieksa, Kessler and Sedins) an iPod playing Chelsea Dagger to get their reactions.

5 Likes

Feel like @Randy could have been a heckuva EuroLeague player. Interesting read below from Bloomberg on potential partnership discussions with the NBA, Middle East, or with PE money.


We just broke the news that the NBA (and some of its teams) are busy deepening their relationship with the Middle East.

The Gulf’s draw is clear: states there are throwing money to develop sports and tourism, and basketball is a new game in town. In Europe, the sport has deeper roots, and a lot more supporters. But the mood here is a bit more tense.

The EuroLeague has some die-hard fans but has never really hit the big time. Global sports marketing agency IMG has been helping manage commercial operations since 2016 but the EuroLeague remains hobbled by competing interests among the 13 teams that own it. Now, with IMG’s deal coming to an end next season (although it has an option to extend), rumors are swirling about what the league will look like going forward.

The prospect of keeping its structure intact may hinge on the NBA’s plans for Europe. At this summer’s Paris Olympics, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he held talks with FIBA, basketball’s global governing body, about expanding into Europe either with an annual tournament or an NBA-operated league.

So what happens if some EuroLeague teams decide they’d be better off under the NBA’s umbrella? Some teams are now naturally considering whether or not to withdraw from the EuroLeague in favor of a potential NBA Europe, according to people familiar with the matter.

London-based fund BC Partners has been in talks for an investment of around $300 million to $400 million into EuroLeague. It’s unclear what happens here if teams do decide to join a rival NBA league. Do they stay or go?

The EuroLeague and BC Partners declined to comment.

Europe fits into the NBA’s renewed international push as it seeks to expand its pool of investors to include more money from the Middle East.

Operating in Europe would require less heavy lifting than the NBA’s African league, where it set up its only professional league outside of the US from scratch in 2021. The NBA has a significant international office in London, and has a tradition of playing regular season games in Paris. The San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers will square off there twice in January.

The league is likely to focus on western Europe, where the infrastructure is better and the markets are bigger. The NBA already has a recognizable brand and a growing number of European stars like Victor Wembanyama to showcase.

Silver can probably count on FIBA to help. There’s enough bad blood between FIBA and EuroLeague to justify a Wikipedia page. The two have been feuding on and off for more than two decades over control of European basketball.

EuroLeague has created an impressive product that’s one of the most popular professional sports associations on the planet. Attendance soared 18% last season to a record of more than 10,000 a game.

But it’s always been an awkward marriage of teams representing very different markets. The most passionate fans are in some of its smallest or least developed countries, like Serbia, Israel and Greece. The league is relatively weak compared to the teams, which creates competition issues.

This year the league announced its first salary cap in an attempt to level the playing field. But if the NBA moves into Europe, it’ll be facing competition issues of another type all together.

2 Likes

Lotta people on here better disavow the NBA…

2 Likes

The current state of the game being 3 pointers and layups is doing enough work for me to disavow it without any outside factors

7 Likes

Buddy of mine is a bruins fan and we worked together. He had a habit of forgetting to lock his computer when he left his desk and one day I changed every single windows action sound to that song. When he came back to his desk by the time the song started playing he was doomed and the song played for 3 hours straight

3 Likes

https://refuge.nolayingup.com/t/worst-random-pairing-puh-pah-take-a-picture-of-me-as-i-hit-the-ball-into-the-lake/6975/5548?u=bigdessertguy

@Tron Your boy is completely out of control.

4 Likes

Oh boy.

10 Likes

Just another high school football recruiting scandal story.

1 Like

Just when I thought CLT couldn’t get any worse

4 Likes

A real damned it they do, damned if they don’t situation. If they kept block times the same, people would bitch about every flight being late.

2 Likes

I’m fine with how they do it now. It’s easier to plan an expected time that way

3 Likes

2024 geopolitics:
IMG_8038

7 Likes

Buddy who is Korean American and first generation American sent me this thread when I asked what was going on. He said it’s a lot to explain, but Korea is going through a similar kind of culture war that we’ve been going through here, with a big part of it being men angry that women want to be treated as equals and be less subservient, and they elected a right wing leader who is very corrupt and possibly facing an impeachment like proceeding, but is now trying to seize total power despite not really having the backing of his own party

11 Likes

honestly it sounds like a total mess that misogyny is creating in South Korea

4 Likes

Presidential issues are par for the course there

Honestly an impressive run

11 Likes

Clearly Moon Jae-in wasn’t trying hard enough.

4 Likes

Kim Dae-jung was a certified menace

17 Likes

I thought South Korea had its shit together

2 Likes