I really didn’t want to take away from the Knicks’ rather awesome win against the Rockets, but this thing just kept getting bigger, so I figure we have to address it:
From Dan Wolken:
In several interviews subsequent to Monday’s confrontation, which was captured on video and circulated on Twitter, Lee said he was accosted by security upon entering the building via the Garden’s 33rd Street employee entrance, which he has used every game for 28-plus years. When told he needed to leave and re-enter through a gate on 31st Street, Lee refused and invoked the name of Charles Oakley, the former Knicks great who was arrested and ejected from MSG after an incident in 2017.
Lee and Knicks owner James Dolan met at halftime of the game, but that wasn’t the end of it. Because these are the Knicks, after all, which means instead of finding a way to make up behind the scenes or simply apologize to their most famous fan, they were going to inevitably choose the thing that would needlessly escalate this story into a national debacle and further cement their reputation as the worst-run franchise, pound-for-pound, in all of professional sports.
After a Knicks spokesman told reporters Monday night that the mix-up was caused by Lee using the wrong entrance and that he and Dolan had hashed it out, Lee understandably pushed back. During an appearance on ESPN’s “First Take”, Lee said he was never informed about any changes to which entrance he was supposed to use and is done going to games the rest of this season.
“They never said when the thing changed, so why not call me?” Lee said. “When my deposit’s due for those astronomical prices for Knicks tickets and I’m one day late, my phone’s ringing off the hook. So if they change the thing, let me know! I’m being harassed by James Dolan and I don’t know why.”
Because we’re dealing with the Knicks rather than an organization that understands when it’s already lost the plot, they had to come back at Lee again with a statement Tuesday afternoon that read in part:
“The idea that Spike Lee is a victim because we have repeatedly asked him to not use our employee entrance and instead use a dedicated VIP entrance — which is used by every other celebrity who enters The Garden — is laughable. It’s disappointing that Spike would create this false controversy to perpetuate drama.”
Spike Lee gestures in a hallway at Madison Square Garden while arguing with security officers before the Knicks-Rockets game March 2.
This whole thing would be hilarious if it weren’t so pathetic, and the Knicks might have a point if their credibility hadn’t been blown on these kinds of petty vendettas before against other people with deep ties to the organization.
Dolan’s pathological resistance to ever letting something go is, well, you know, pathological.
He is such a dick. As long as he owns the Knicks, the franchise will be a joke. Just hopefully a joke that Leon Rose somehow also turns into a good team!
104 replies on “USA Today: Knicks’ ridiculous beef with Spike Lee underlines owner James Dolan’s incompetence”
Dolan had a petty vendetta against Porzingis too and that was ultimately why he was traded in such an incompetent haste. Whatever basketball justifications the trade might have had — and the majority faction has argued them very reasonably for quite a long time — they weren’t the actual justifications or reasons why the trade was made. They were, at best, accidental and post hoc.
Dolan similarly had a petty vendetta against Jeremy Lin, fueled by Carmelo Anthony a bit — and that’s why Jeremy Lin wasn’t brought back in the summer after Linsanity.
Dolan similarly had a petty vendetta against Marv Albert, but luckily, given the appeal and size of the market, he had a stable of excellent talent to fall back on, significantly mitigating the potential loss.
His vendettas are unending. Ceaseless. He couldn’t even let Kevin Durant sign with another team without publicly putting out the lie that, “Oh, I never really wanted him anyway.” Who does shit like this? What a weirdo.
And whatever we in the public see and hear about Dolan, we can rest assured that the people more in the know hear worse.
i can’t remember who it was, but, someone had posted some feedback they had received from some executive assistants they had helped place for jimmy D…
i would imagine he’s an even bigger dick to deal with if he thinks he can get away with it…
yeah, leon and stout are at least gonna earn some of their money having to babysit that dude…
I can’t begin to fathom the logic that would have Dolan stepping in personally to defend his security people for telling a guy who’s spent millions of dollars on tickets over the years that ONCE HIS TICKET HAS ALREADY BEEN SCANNED AND HE’S IN THE BUILDING, that he needed to then leave the building and re-enter at an entrance two blocks away. (At which point, as Spike rightly said, the security people would be all like, “You’ve already been scanned in, are you trying to pull some kind of scam?” Or the scanner wouldn’t work and they wouldn’t let him in and there’d be another dust-up there.)
Once he’s in the building, the only sane thing to do if there’s really a new policy, is say something like, “Hey, Spike, it’s cool, but next time can ya remember to go in the other entrance?”
Even a mean grouchy owner would be at least potentially tolerable, in that he could at least be predictable, but Dolan goes way beyond that. The hills he picks to die on are just insane. The guy’s got a screw loose. And it’s obviously going to happen again.
too much time on my hands at the moment…this made me smile though…bless whomever filled in the information on wiki for JD & The Straight Shot:
it gets better:
it’s your world jimmy…keep doing what you like, and, just make sure to avoid exercise like it’s the plague and make sure not to skimp on any fried foods you come across…
The band’s YouTube channel has 851 subscribers.
And I bet upwards of 51 of them don’t work for Dolan!
Jimmy D is a HOF asshole no matter what, but Spike didn’t need to be a dick about using the right entrance.
He was already through the entrance. If it is true that this is the first time he was hearing that he couldn’t use that entrance, wouldn’t you be pissed that they introduced some new entrance procedure to you out of nowhere after you were already past the entrance? Like, if they had not let him through, that’d be one thing, but they let him through, then stopped him and told him he had to exit and re-enter. I think anyone would be irked in that situation. Now, should he be making as big of a deal about this, going on talk shows, etc.? That’s a fair question and I’d say probably not, but I think that the initial issue was legitimately annoying for him (or anyone).
The guy’s spent millions of dollars on tickets, including on some of the worst dreck the NBA has ever served up. Normal people would give him a paved alabaster path to his seats if he wanted it, with rotating Knicks City Dancers showering him with rose petals in the color of his choice.
The fantasy is that the war of words worsen, Spike *isn’t* let in next year, he plays the race card, it gains traction, other people join in with stories, Silver and the other owners can’t stand the heat, and Dolan is finally driven out. Maybe, just maybe, he’s finally picked the wrong fight-vendetta. Probably not, obviously, but something like this is ultimately the path that will get him driven out, if it ever happens. I’m not going to accuse the guy of being a racist, but what common parlance would refer to as his “record on race” isn’t very good, what with this and calling Charles Oakley an alcoholic after siccing his security goons on him. Not to mention Anucha Browne Sanders.
Spike was about the only “branding” this pitiful franchise had going for it. I’d think you’d go out of your way to keep him happy considering he’s still attending the games and bringing some goodwill after twenty years of watching the team get its ass kicked.
Farce. The Knicks can only be appreciated as comic farce.
c’mon now – is there any scenario in this world anyone can imagine jimmy D not hating spike lee…
no doubt dolan jumped/slithered at the opportunity to go after spike…
we may all think of spike as the unofficial official drake for our team, but, dollars to donuts, jimmy D sure don’t see it that way…
no spike at the garden for the rest of the year, hell – jimmy D is trying right now to figure out how to fuck with him come next year and get rid of him for good…
i don’t think this is the first time tim’s been tagged to fill in for pop…miss becky and those other spurs’ assistants had to have seen this coming…
Hard to give Pop too much shit for it. He’s been with Tim for, what, 22 years now? If he wants him to be the guy, I think that’s fair enough. If Hammon was getting passed over for one of the other assistants, it’d be a bigger insult. For Tim, the face of franchise? I don’t think it’s all that disrespectful. Although it’s still weird, since she is the nominal “head” assistant coach. Why not just make Duncan the top assistant then?
Spike’s argument was actually pretty reasonable, his ticket was scanned, and then they told him to get off the Garden and go through a different entrance. He argued on first take that he immediately thought well, my ticket is already scanned, so I can’t exit and re-enter.
Anyway all of this is meaningless as it is plain obvious Spike is going this just as an excuse to go against Dolan and I obviously would rather take his side than Dolan’s. Anything that spites Dolan or leads to conversations about how shit he is is good for the potential future of this franchise.
Alienate your most visible and most noteworthy fan who’s been following the team for 30+ years.
BRILLIANT!
This team may not have reached the bottom yet, but you can see it from where they are. Truly and utterly amazing incompetence.
since we’re on the subject 🙂
favorite spike lee film:
clockers – first time i think i ever noticed delroy lindo in a film, but, no question: thomas jefferson byrd as errol barnes stole the joint…yeah, i know that expression makes no sense – but, it works, trust me…
and, if i had to pick one more:
mo’ better blues – awesome awesome soundtrack…
I have a soft spot for Do the Right Thing, Danny Aiello was phenomenal, and virtually endless quote opportunities from every character.
I think “inside Man” is his most complete movie.
I still get bummed thinking about bleek gilliam getting roughed up…
It’s really and truly amazing how dysfunctional this team is. We can’t even put out a normal, professional press release.
That it happened the day Rose was officially announced is so Knicksian. That the PR department tried to troll Lee in the Post is uber Knicksian.*
With all of Rose’s relationship capital, how does he rationalize the continuous dysfunction and how does he convince players to come here and be a part of this.
*Why didn’t Rose or Wesley backchannel to mollify Lee and keep him from the disastrous First Take appearance?
On a Basketball note, the Dunc’d On podcast actually covered the Knicks Rockets game. They were impressed with Ntilikina, and it was the first thing they mentioned. They thought it was a really fun game to watch. They had a bunch of talk about the teams different characters and the nature of the match up. Overall they thought the Knicks presented problems for Houston because of their offensive rebounding and suggested since the Knicks can’t space the floor with their shooting, they score by pounding it inside, missing the shot, but getting the offensive rebound and scoring that way. They said that our outside shooting is so bad that Barrett is actually the best outside shooter in the starting lineup.
Four steals for Zion so far. Glad he has taken up the challenge. Somehow the Pels have 105 points in the third quarter.
I’d also like to confess to a crush on Naz Reid. Who can’t score efficiently for some reason but I still like him.
Oh, I have no problem with him being annoyed, but at the end of the day he shouldn’t have made such a big deal about it.
Also, go Nets!
The fountain of dyspeptic frothing just keeps overflowing – and, now, in part, because someone who spends big money on tickets is steered to a VIP entrance? Hovering above things, it’s hard initially to sympathize with folks who have millions to spend on anything, including courtside seats – when most ordinary people can’t afford health care or NBA League Pass, let alone dream of being allowed to use the gilded VIP lanes of life.
Dig it: An earnest teen named RJ decided he’d win a big game, against a heavily favored team, in the final seconds. Mitch bubbled with the reckless joy of someone, from the land of Mardi Gras, who truly loves each minute of the gig he is beginning to master. Oh…a dapper, quiet cat named Frank read the mind of an ornery, scowling superstar and forced him into the very spot where his shot has been statistically impotent! One of the best wins of the year. Damned sweet balm.
If you can’t avoid knicks humiliation just enjoy it.
I think a Spike Lee film with Original Film Score written by JD and the straight shot would settle things nicely and also would made a huge impression in avant-garde cinema.
nice post!
Y’kno…it’s bad when you’re embarrassed to be a Knicks fan and it’s NOT because of the team’s poor performance. I believe that Spike had just gone through that same entrance last Wednesday like he said and that he was never notified about the entrance change. I also believe that they asked him to go back outside and walk a few blocks to the VIP entrance. Why? That unnecessarily cold pr statement. It sounded so spiteful. Who’s mans is this(in the pr department)??!! You cannot explain this shit away, I’m sorry. Spike probably went too hard in his reaction, but the organization is supposed to be more classy than they’ve shown. This gives me a headache
I feel like every time I go to MSG I end up jawing with security. They’re fucking goons. Almost worse than cops.
I am clearly not the NBA fan I used to be. Scrolling through these lineups there are numerous guys I have never heard of. Who the heck is Mychal Mulder? Went 5-10 from 3 last night. Juan Toscano-Anderson? Has to be a made up person. Jerome Robinson was apparently a first round pick, he was a 22 last night.
And Caris Levert, a name I do know, a name I trust. Holy hell he had a night. Against the Celtics too. You love to see it.
He had a hand from DAJ too, 29 and 15 boards, and the immortal Chris Chiuzza. Actually the whole bench for the Nets apparently ran over the Celtics.
The good news about this Spike Lee saga is that it’s distracting us from the fact that the Knicks are 2 years away from being 2-3 years away from being very good, assuming Mitch, RJ, Frank, Dotson, Trier, Harkless etc… don’t come to their senses and ask for a trade or leave as soon as their contract allows.
Hope Leon gives Becky a shot. She going to do everything in her power to succeed because its bigger than her. Not sold on Tim has the temperament for a head coach. He strikes me as more of a board member or President type of guy.
JD is a certified idiot. Spike is a talented deuchebag who made millions being controversial. Everyone who knows him locally, says that Spike is a presumptuous jerk. Hope he gets a two year ban from the garden.
When asked to help shape the conversations between minorities and cops by NYPD, he asked to be paid $200K as a consultant to attend three meetings in which he just showed up completely unprepared and added zero, – if not negative value to the conversations.
We all know JD is “not liked” to put it lightly… but I’ve had enough of Spike Lee since I knew he existed… Spike Lee has no bearing on anything related to basketball, unfortunately Jimmy does, but regardless, this squabble between mega rich assholes shouldn’t be given the time of day… and hear I am giving it a moment… Best case scenario, they both go away, forever…
OT: Poor Bernie. Dems doubling down on 2016 strategy proves they are incapable of learning anything new.
Not sure why you can’t put an addition sign into posts anymore.
I wouldn’t wish the Knicks on Becky Hammon. I am sure she would be delighted to have the gig but it’s not the way to start a promising career in head coaching. She should wait for a better opportunity.
Following up on the Succession conversation the other day, great season 1. No spoilers for season 2 please!
I wonder how did Jimmy D. took over the team from his father. Is there an interesting writeup on the process? He sure doesn’t strike me as a man capable of wrestling anything from a Logan Roy type.
Following up on the Dunc’d On podcast, I think they were shocked how Ntilikina played because they hardly ever watch the Knicks and dong see him play. It’s not that they said he was great, they just were shocked how much better he was than he used to be. We see him every day and he’s certainly not a great player so I think we don’t realize how much improvement he’s made since he started out.
Call me paranoid, but based on some things I’m reading. I think there’s a behind the scenes effort to get the NBA to force Dolan to sell the Knicks. I think someone or some group out there wants to buy the team and is going to use every means possible to create enough controversy to try to force it. It would not shock me if in the not so distant future Dolan is accused of something that makes him so toxic that conversations along those lines come up in a more serious way.
>Following up on the Dunc’d On podcast, <
Do you have a date on that? I don't listen to that podcast.
It appears they’ve confused Paul George for Ntilikina, somehow
The podcast is dated yesterday. They covered three games. The Knicks are the second one so I zipped through to that part. Here’s a link:
http://nateduncannba.com/podcast-episodes/gamer-milmia-hounyk-utacle/
Dong seeing must be sort of like beer goggles but affects how you feel about your favorite sports team.
I don’t want to wade into politics and I am by no means excited about Biden per say. But I gotta say, I think the idea that he can’t beat Trump is false and I also can’t say I’m surprised the Dems would rather sweat out a close race with Biden than take the gamble on Bernie.
Bernie’s whole electability premise is based on the idea that huge populist wave of non-voters, young voters, etc..would come out for him in a general if he got the nomination. So far in the primary that is not playing out (especially last night). He’s made in roads with Latino voters in particular but he is also scaring off a lot of moderates, suburbanites, etc. The Bernie ride or die crowd has handled his front runner status very poorly IMO, attacking every other candidate and those that support him. He’s not building a broad coalition within the Democratic party.
Biden is probably more likeable/popular than Hillary was. He also can probably get more AA voters and is also more appealing to working class blue collar voters in the rust belt. Plus, I think moderate suburb voters (who maybe voted for Trump last time) and traditional “Romney Republicans” who are ashamed to be associated with Trump would vote for him but might not for Sanders. Remember Hillary lost because of 80K votes in a few key swing states.
Throw in Sander’s continued insistence on trying to clarify his Castro comments (bye bye Florida) and his very aggressive anti-establishment message, and Dems are rightfully worried. You can call this cowardice if you want but it shouldn’t be surprising.
IMO, a really good VP pick for Biden, someone young, person of color, possibly female, could go a long way in mitigating his weaknesses as a candidate. The far left thinks this country needs a huge correction towards the left to fix what Trump has done but there are also a lot of people who do not want that, at least not that extreme.
Just my two cents. Its far from over. Bernie still has time.
those idiots still think dennis smith jr has a better chance than anyone on the knicks of becoming a star except for RJ
Which idiots think that?
And I agree, they are idiots if they think that
Eh, most people just will not ever categorize the type of player Mitch is/can be as a star. Even Gobert barely gets the star treatment and he’s the pinnacle of that rim runner type. I won’t say I agree with them and I think Mitch can eventually be good enough in that archetype to be considered a star (although that belief has taken a real hit this year) but I don’t think it makes you an idiot to disagree. They’re pretty high on Mitch generally (Danny Leroux in particular) but even if he becomes one of the 5 best rim running Cs in the league most people will not call him a star so that’s the disconnect.
Other than Mitch…I’m not sure they’re wrong. DSJ sucks and seems completely broken right now but he still has some crazy tools. The rest of the young guys I feel like even their 99th percentile outcomes are still more role players than stars.
edit: to be clear this was an opinion on a different “Dunc’d On” podcast from this week in response to question about which young Knick had the most “star potential”
The problem with Biden is that he looks and sounds senile half the time. That’s going to be pretty hard to hide for the last two months when most of the country that votes starts paying attention.
I still think a moderate like Biden has a better chance to beat Trump than a socialist or democratic socialist, but I’m old enough to remember Biden when he was at his political peak in the late 80s. He was sharp as a tack. The thing that derailed him was that there were other young vibrant moderates in the democrat party and there were accusations of plagiarism and wildly exaggerating his academic credentials. Now, a lot of the time he has a tough time stringing coherent sentences together. Maybe this is hyperbole, but it almost feels like he’s a few years away from having to wear a name tag and bells on his shoes so we can find him walking aimlessly around DC at 3 AM. I think it’s going to be critical for him to pick a late 40s early 50s person with plenty of experience in government for VP so people are confident that someone competent can take over…just in case.
Yeah except a huge chunk of the voting population are older baby boomers.
Also, Joe has a stutter. He isn’t senile but when he’s under pressure, he fumbles words and that comes across as being senile. But he isn’t. You’ll notice that when he’s confident and doing well, he sounds a lot better. He’s been interviewed about it and talks pretty openly about it, how he stuttered really bad as a kid and has had to have speech therapy his whole life to be able to minimize it.
Let’s not do the politics thing again.
>Eh, most people just will not ever categorize the type of player Mitch is/can be as a star. Even Gobert barely gets the star treatment and he’s the pinnacle of that rim runner type. <<
People generally regard players as "stars" when they have a diverse enough skillset on offense to impact a game almost every night regardless of the matchup or game plan. Basically, it's guys that are legitimate #1 and #2 options on a good team. On rare occasions, a guy can have such a huge impact on defense, he can be a 3rd option type on offense and still be considered a star. But if you are very limited on offense, they aren't going to put a lot weight on your efficiency. If all you can do is dunk/putback or just shoot spot up 3s, they won't care much if your TS% is over 60% because a player like that (while very valuable) can usually be taken out of the game by a good defense or tough matchup when the playoffs start and things get serious.
That explains my confusion. I didn’t hear that podcast.
Dennis Smith, Jr. plays point guard the way a nap-deprived preschooler plays with his toys.
Strat, there is a PE fund that owns a significant amount of MSG stock that is actively trying to wrestle control of the Knicks from Dolan. The name of the fund is Silver something or other. Not sure if there is any behind the scenes shenanigans of the type you describe. But this much is a fact.
On politics: I agree w @swiftandabundant. Was kind of hoping Biden would win and choose a young vibrant VP and ride off into the sunset after 3 years, allow his VP to be an incumbent and roll the dice with that. Ha. I’m more an idealist than the Bernie Bros.
I looked up the top 10 owners of MSG stock. I think it’s Clearbridge.
https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=MSG&subView=institutional
Joe just feels like a typical establishment candidate. He’s too sleepy to excite people…Needs Michele Obama as his VP. Barack would turn out voting lines in PA again; she’d deliver MI and all the women votes.
For forty years he’s hobbled workers, aimed to cut social security, championed NAFTA, cleared the path to war, and doesn’t give a fuck about college debt. Plus, whatever is going on with his mental capacity. Running Biden is elder abuse at this point.
On politics, it’s everywhere and inescapable these days. I’ll be brief.
Biden is a good fellow. There’s no doubt that he’s winning the nomination and Trump is worried. They’re equally senile but one person is the devil incarnate while the other is a nice guy. I’m blaming Bernie today for what could happen in November. He put Trump in office in the first place and his candidacy, which had no shot, ever, could be the reason that Trump gets reelected. I would vote for pond scum over Trump. Perhaps the only person that I wouldn’t vote for against Trump is James Dolan.
See how I brought it all together about the Knicks!
It very well could be Kerry v Bush redux. I’m not excited about Biden. But I also am not hopeful that Bernie can actually win.
I wish Warren had more traction. I think she is the smartest, most capable candidate who also could actually achieve some progressive goals.
Biden a nice guy? Why cause he knows Barry? Tell Anita Hill that.
Bernie has the best shot at beating Trump.
that’s a pretty damn good idea…
Has anyone heard Biden speak lately? it’s not good
‘Chelle as VP? What an awful idea, what are her qualifications? Cuomo will prob end up on Joe’s staff and we’ll be left with Kathy.
On the Mitch/Dennis Smith thing, what is more likely-that Mitch cuts down on his fouling and diversifies his offensive game enough to become a conventional media star or Dennis Smith learns how to shoot, play defense, run an offense and stop turning the ball over too much. I understand the anti-mitch argument, but it’s just much more likely that a good 21 year old grows into being a star than a terrible 22 year old does, no matter the archetype.
People really wanted Bernie to win the nomination… Seriously? Sanders against Trump, that’s the best they can come up with? There is something seriously wrong with the politics in this country (or deep seated anger on both sides to nuke each other) if the best they can come up with is a real communist versus a Trump.
But with Sanders, he was never ever going to beat Trump. What a horrible candidate.
– He wouldn’t get middle America (why do the D’s keep forgetting about 80% of the country), people above 65, most likely to vote, remember a time when socialism was anti-American (as it should still be), and young people under 35- the Bernie group- don’t vote enough.
– $90T is real money and you should not lean on billionaires and wall street since they keep the country going (AND ARE NOT INHERENTLY BAD DAMMIT)
– Capitalism isn’t only good – it’s very good- and the main reason this is the best time and place to be alive in human history, and responsible for almost every advance of the past 150 years
– Billionaires like Bezos, Bloomberg, etc are not bad people for making money and having people work for them. Wall street is responsible for a huge chunk of our economy and shouldn’t be friggin taxed for it unless you want a depression
– Student loan debt isn’t a crime against humanity, and the federal govt has NO BUSINESS paying it off. I worked my ass off through undergrad, med school, and residency, made nothing, had a family to take care of, and just paid it off without any help. The issue is high tuition fees. The govt’s job isn’t to spend as much as possible on problems.
– If you believe the government is corrupt, etc, you shouldn’t be in the business of quadrupling its size.
He’s not a “real communist” you dipshit. He’s the only one who’s been on message for over 40 years fighting to make this country of ours a better place.
Having worked in the high tech advanced materials industry my entire adult life, it has become very obvious that a majority of technical advancements have come on the back of government funding from DOD, DOE, NIH, NASA, ect… That has been the case for a very large majority of technical advancements in the past 100+ years.
Has anyone heard Trump speak lately? Or ever?
Isn’t that what Communists theoretically fight for?
While I agree specifically about Mitch & DSJ I really do believe that certain prospect types have significantly higher probabilities of becoming stars than others in way that is separate from how productive a player currently is. So I don’t think it’s some insane idiotic opinion.
I also think it’s worth saying re:Mitch that I think these super athletic Cs may have pretty different aging curves from most players. Mitch is probably never going to be significantly better from a pure athleticism standpoint than he is right now. He can put on weight and that will surely help him in some ways although it may hinder him in others but he’s probably quite close to his purely physical peak. For most players the growth through their mid-20s comes primarily from an improving skill level and the benefits of experience. The second part will help Mitch of course but skill level is significantly less relevant for his player type – he doesn’t dribble, he makes very few passes, he never shoots outside of dunking. Maybe in time those become parts of his game and thus his growth there starts to matter but I look at a guy like Drummond who arguably peaked at age 20 and I do wonder if we will eventually be saying the same thing about Mitch.
Guys, I’ve been canvassing for Bernie every other weekend for the past 3 months or so. If my opinionated ass can resist the urge to talk politics on kblogger I think all you can as well.
Nobody comes here for the lukewarm political takes.
there’s a lot of bad things you can do in life, but, a man who is unable/unwilling to support his child is way up there…
dad beat dad bernie….
1. Your anger and disrespect is part of the problem, not helping you reach your solution.
2. He’s called for the nationalization of swaths of the economy- banks, energy sector, utilities, factories, and has pushed for nationalization of healthcare (yes this is now more popular), and higher education. He has never redacted any of his statements calling for nationalization of major parts of the economy.
3. He’s praised communist leaders for 40 years, has visited communist countries a ton of times, and I’m not only talking about the stupid ‘literacy rates’ thing. There is literally no communist country he did not praise (he has praised Cuba for literacy rates and lack of homeless, was “physically nauseated” by JFK’s “hatred for the Cuban revolution,” China for “taken more people out of extreme poverty than any country in history,” at many times praised Ortega, a murderer; refused to call Maduro a dictator and refused to acknowledge his opponent who won an election; said many good things about Chavez, comparing his poverty rates to the US; I’m not even gonna start with the deep love he had and propagandizing he had done for the USSR – just look it up.)
Yeah I’m not saying Mitch is a sure thing, I’m just saying the duncd on guy doesn’t understand the odds of DSJ becoming a star are practically nil
Rubs hands as he prepares for people to debate communism…..
Biden does have a speech impediment and a Trumpian gift for malapropism. I still think he represents the better chance to beat Trump. Young people don’t vote. Suburban mothers and old people vote and those people prefer Biden.
Biden is absolutely a crap candidate and a lousy politician generally but he’s a better option than Trump. I respect the Bern for his uncompromising stances and for his leadership in a lot of areas (and definitely for being right about the Iraq war) but he has some major issues. In particular, you have to wonder how a guy who has expressed open admiration for Cuba and Castro is going to do in Florida.
You do realize that all of the above contract with the ‘private sector’ a ton, and those are the companies that actually advance the technology. But I’m in the medical field, so I recognize as an example big pharma in the US has achieved more than pharma anywhere else in the world, and pharma in socialist countries have not done a percent of that. Now, i hate pharma, and believe that it is raping the healthcare field to the detriment of those with the smallest voice- patients and providers (whose salaries don’t even keep up with inflation anymore). Medical technologies have been developed solely by the private sector, and very few technologies have come from socialist countries.
Seriously, this. There’s got to be at least like (*checks math*) 100 different websites on the internet. Some of those are even for/about politics. This just isn’t the place for it and it contributes nothing except for spamming the threads and creating a toxic environment. If you’re desperate to argue about politics with the same people you talk basketball with why don’t you exchange emails and then you can argue to your heart’s content somewhere we don’t all have to read it.
Points taken, ok, I’m done.
If dipshit was too angry, I apologize, for real. But really, its maddening to hear people call him a full on commie. He’s just not. And he’s not going to turn us in to Venezuela. The bank quote was from 1970s, for chrissake. He’s the only one on that stage that has the best interests of the working class in mind. He’s trying to un fuck us from Reagan who llaid the groundwork for the last 40yrs of wage stagnation, burgeoning racist politics (who knew it would make such a comeback), shit court picks, admittedly generic yet ever-creeping imperialism, etc .
But yeah, lets keep it to hoops.
That’s not at all how I took the segment but I guess to each his own. Although Nate was extremely high on DSJ initially, they’ve been pretty strongly out on DSJ this season, going as far as to call him a write-off. I thought it was very clear in the segment that they were saying DSJ is an extreme long-shot but that still arguably represented the best odds. I didn’t take it as a positive statement on DSJ but I guess I would have to go back and re-listen.
Free market capitalism is the goose that lays the golden eggs.
For an economic system to function properly, you need measurements of economic success and failure. In the same way we look at TS%, rebounds steals, assists etc.. for basketball, companies look at revenues, profits, profit margins, “return on invested capital” etc.. to figure out what the demands of consumers are and how to allocate wealth to meet those needs and create greater wealth. Those that don’t meet requirements are out of the league and those that excel get max contracts. Allocating that wealth properly DOES generate jobs and provide the resources to solve our problems,.
It’s one thing to argue that some of the accounting is flawed (for ex, how do we measure the cost of environment damage) or that the system has become corrupt because of the power of corporations over government to write laws and rules that benefit themselves at the expense of others.
It’e entirely different thing to say let’s kill the goose that’s laying the golden eggs and allocate our wealth based on idealistic notions instead of economic reality.
I know I come off as far right on this forum because it’s left leaning, but I DO understand the arguments from the left. What I also understand that we should be debating how to make the current system less corrupt. with better accounting, and with a a greater sense of responsibility to those less fortunate BUT WITHOUT killing the goose.
Yeah but if that goose is dying and shits out an egg every few years that wipes out peoples futures, we should not go out of our way to protect the people who tend the goose.
I listened to that podcast.
I think their assessment of Frank improving and the Knicks spacing issues was generally correct, but I didn’t hear anything that we haven’t been discussing here for awhile.
I didn’t listen to any comments on Mitch and DSjr.
I sort of understand why some people are still holding out for hope for DSJr. He’s still young, very athletic, and shows flashes of brilliance, but I just don’t get a positive vibe about his game, work ethic, basketball IQ. or behavior when things aren’t going well. I got that negative vibe in Dallas (which is partially probably why Dallas gave up on him) and still feel the same.
Mitch is more of a question mark. He has to expand his game to become a real star player, but we don’t know if he can yet.
I’m going tonight…packin extra hand sanitizer
>Yeah but if that goose is dying and shits out an egg every few years that wipes out peoples futures, we should not go out of our way to protect the people who tend the goose.<
I hear you. I am arguing for addressing the problems without killing the goose. I am strongly opposed to killing the goose just because the people tending to it now are corrupt or incompetent. Throw those bums out, tweak the rules so we get a better distribution of wealth and keep that goose happy!!!
That’s just not true, except it a very narrow definition of “the best interests of the working class.”
Simply skip over political posts if you so choose, that’s so much easier that trying to govern the conversation here.
I’m fine with DSJ called the young knick with the most star potential as long as we’re talking about cinema. And especially comedy. He’s a slapstick comedy natural phenomenon imo.
He tries to look supercool but he makes shaqtin a fool plays all season long.
His out of control passes while he’s in the air belong in the HOF of bball bloopers.
anyone who puts their interests before their own child is a suspect character…way to live your dream guy…what’s important to bernie, is bernie…
I really like mayor pete…amy was interesting too…was hoping for at least warren, that’s an intelligent human….hmmmm, jimmy carter is an intelligent human…
gonna get biden whom doesn’t exactly exude competence…there’s no doubt in my mind dude loses whatever about a half dozen times a day…i’m not so sure how accurate he might be in even guessing what day it is…him and trump on stage together ain’t gonna work so well…
it’s those supreme court justices, they are just so freaking important…they more than anything determine our future…
I hope he picks a good vp…
crazy money for bloomberg to spend…I’m not sure I really understand the end game there…
Saying DSJ is a extreme longshot to become a star but has a better chance than Mitch is what I was taking exception to.
Celtics down 3 starters against the surging Cavs tonight. Will superstar Jayson Tatum be able to overcome the odds?
oh shit, yeah basketball…watched the game against the rockets last night…couple of “keen” insights:
– first time I’ve ever seen scott perry smile…it was weird…he couldn’t keep his hands off leon…same thing for what looked like his daughter sitting/standing next to him…I take that all as a very good sign…
– leon rose does not seem opposed to having a good time…man was mills such a grim dude…
– clyde is really not such a big fan of either julius or elf…they just do a lot of bad b-ball IQ stuff…clyde’s got a pretty low tolerance for that kinda shit…
clyde just has it all too together at times…clyde does not seem to suffer fools so well…
– cool to see mike breen get that curt gowdy award…him and clyde make a pretty fierce team…
– back to julius, it’s weird man, whenever you hear him speak he doesn’t sound like a rock at all…he seems very thoughtful and measured when he speaks…
then he gets out on the court and just forces the action on defense and offense way too much…
Stars score pointz and Mitch will probably never be a big time scorer in that sense. Unless he really learns to shoot 3’s and develops some post moves.
What he could be, though, is a DPOY (tyson chandler type) who gives super efficient offense, amazing defense and good rebounding. If he can add a jump shot or corner 3 to that he could be an even better Tyson Chandler, which is a franchise level player, if not a “star” in the traditional NBA sense.
But I would say RJ has the best chance of being a star out of our young players. If he can get his FT and regular shooting numbers up, the sky is the limit for him. He also has that star clutch quality that people love.
Jayson Tatum is jacked. I wish I used his trainer. And Brad Stevens should go to Halloween as Pete Buttigieg.
It’s definitely that time of the year where you can start dreaming of the Celtics losing in the playoffs….
He has a speech impediment.
On the VP, he’s already hinted that Kamala Harris would be his running mate. I think she’s an outstanding choice.
As for Bloomberg, he woke up one day and realized he’s not taking that loot to the grave. He sees removal of Trump as the end game. By entering the race to begin with, he took focus off of Biden and helped identify the need for a strong centrist candidate. He’s already vowed to keep his staff employed by working for the Democratic candidate.
Another off-subject post, but this time sports. Did any of you catch the fact that Mo Wilkerson got arrested for a second DWI? This one might mean jail.
thanks go ny…that makes sense then about bloomberg…what better way to blow some excess cash than in having a large influence on your country’s upcoming presidential election…particularly if you hate the other guy – I don’t know enough to know though if that’s even true..
thoughts on kamela: kind of an attractive woman (sorry, I’m still human)…stern and not so warm a personality though…probably would make iman seem easy going…and – I hate those hillary looking pantsuits…it just screams lawyer so loud…
only thing that matters though is winning…that’s it…
whoever the next republican candidate is after trump is gonna benefit a lot from just not being trump…if biden does win can’t see him repeating…
I’ve been thinkin about the draft today, and here’s my “just get the damn talent and worry about the rest later” idea (entirely contingent on landing a top 2 pick):
1. Draft Edwards
2. Trade either the Clips pick and this year’s 2nd (or Knox), or one of the Dallas picks and our 2nd (or Knox) to move up and draft Haliburton or Anthony.
3. Start Mitch/Randle(if he doesn’t get traded)/RJ/Edwards/Haliburton or Anthony and let them boys play.
4(should be #1). Have Silver and the league office step in like they did with Donald Sterling.
That is all.
LOL
“He has a speech impediment.”
Saying “Super Thursday” instead of “Super Tuesday” when you’ve been running for President for 30 years isn’t a speech impediment. You used to know better and now your brain can’t process the information properly and you say super Thursday because you don’t remember.
He didn’t bollix the first line of the Declaration because of a speech impediment but because at his best he wasn’t very sharp and now he is in cognitive decline.
He actually said during the debate Bernie was responsible for 150.000.000 gun deaths in America.
He may actually win because the number of ostriches in the country is palpable and then there will be a real problem because someone else will be the functioning president of the US. Way to come up with a real candidate guys……out of a country of 340M this is the best we can do…….
I defy any sane person to watch this and think this man should be titular king of the world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4ytSI4PFm4
Looks like Mitch is out tonight with hamstring soreness…..so get ready for another Taj breakout game.
“crazy money for bloomberg to spend…I’m not sure I really understand the end game there…”
He’s a gazillionare data driven businessman. He’s done a neat LBO of the democrat party. He donated 100 M to the 2018 congressional campaign committee which delivered the house and impeachment.
He has a raging hard on for Trump because even thought he has 20 times Trump’s money, Trump got the Willy Wonka “Golden Ticket” and he didn’t and he can’t let that stand.
Joe may have lost his fastball, but he’ll be running against a guy who throws only spitballs and curves, steals signs and juices. I’ll go with the demented good guy over the slightly less demented bad guy. But first he has to get by the Demautocratic Narcissocialist.
i spent the better part of the last few months volunteering for mayor pete.. one of the best experiences of my life which i highly recommend doing if you like politics at all…
oh and i agree that politics should be banned here…