“That's as nervous as I've been ever in a hockey game.” - Dylan Larkin, of USA Men’s Hockey, as the Boys move on to the semis.
🎙 Leading Off
It’s NFL List season. Free Agents? You get a list. Draft targets? You get a list. Emerging new sports media analyst writers? Where is that List. Am I on that list? Haven’t seen it. Yet. Neither here nor there. Here’s a tickle:
And that’s not even the draft. NFL free agency is right around the corner (March) and you’ll be disappointed with a majority of the names. This isn’t the MLB or NBA. Some of these names (George Pickens) will be franchised tagged before free agency starts. Not into Franchise Tags - no problem. Allow me to introduce the NFL’s Transition Tag. The transition tag allows a team to retain a player on a one year deal set at the average of the top 10 salaries across the league for that position. If you transition tag a guard, he earns the average of the top 10 highest paid guards. It also grants the team an option to match any offer sheet the team signs with another franchise. A hybrid restricted free agency franchise tag tool. Very cool. So cool that it’s only been used six times in the last 10 years. And now, if Quay Walker gets slapped with the tag, you’ll know what it means.
🏈 Hard In The Paint
(Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Howard Beck (a professional, pros-pro if I will) covered the strife with the NBA that I’m feeling. I feel seen. I’ve linked the article below. He’s not the only NBA writer to sound the alarm on the League’s issues. Ethan Strauss outlined the NBA’s tendency to introduce Gimmicks instead of Reforms. Here’s his list:
- The NBA Cup
- The Play-In Games
- Every iteration of new All-Star game
On one hand, the NBA tries. On the other, they haven’t cracked any code to make a compelling full season of Basketball Action. The League is in a precocious position, but the optimist in me sees a light. The NBA boasts incredibly stable media partners after turning over broadcast rights to Peacock, Prime, and ESPN. Altogether, players are so well compensated that I can’t see labor issues similar to the MLB. For this moment, the NBA could take a really, really big swing at fixing their issues and lean on the stability of the business model they’ve created. As mad as fans are, they’re giving Adam Silver license to change things. Things need to change. No less than a quarter of the league has punted on the season. Tuesday NBA games carry no cultural weight but all of us need Sport to get us through Winter.
Bill Simmons (leading mind) proposed a 70 game season. It would require the owners and players sacrificing millions of dollars. I’m largely in favor of 40 minute games. With the league wide scoring inflation, historical records would largely remain valid, players would see less physical demands, and games would be competitive sooner. Silver’s at least investigated the idea. Ultimately, it’s not my job to fix the NBA (wish it was). The NBA isn’t in that dissimilar a place as the MLB was a few years ago. Before shifting defenses were banned, steals were non-existant, and we didn’t have a pitch clock. Is Adam Silver the right man to cook up innovations on that level? IDK. His acumen is almost exclusively developing products to sell to TV partners.
Simmons, Beck, and myself are tired of critiquing the game though. Another offseason of blown achilles won’t help either. So let’s keep our eyes and ears on to the streets, because changes are coming to the Association.
📻 Over The Air
🔗 Howard Beck: The Cracks Are Spreading Fast – (Ringer)
🔗 Restructured Mahomes Contract – (Spotrac)
📡 JumboTron: Thursday’s Must Watch
All times PST
Game 1: Pistons vs Knicks, 4:30pm Prime, huge.
Game 2: Celtics vs Warriors , 7:00pm Prime, slightly less huge.
☎️ The Phone Line
Best thing on the timeline today:
🎵 Walkup Song
▶️ For the NBA League Office, get to work:
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