Travel hassles have made posting today a near impossibility — and to those two dozen readers whose spouses or employers have registered ESPN.com or Deadspin with Net Nanny, I sincerely apologize. Had this been a normal day at the non-office, I might’ve had something or other to say about Steve Nash’s tremendous 4th quarter against the Mavs last night, or teammate Boris Diaw playing the game of his life (in particular, hitting the game-winner while triple teamed). But others are more than on top of it, as the preceeding hyperlinks will illustrate.
Off the court, however, I’ll leave you with the following tidbit from the Akron Beacon Journal’s Brian Windhurst (from yesterday, sorry), addressing LeBron James’ choice of headwear.
Some suggested LeBron was trying to send a message by putting his Yankees cap down on the table during his Game 7 postgame press conference.
I’ve only written this about a dozen times, but here does again: LeBron’s Nike contract does not have location escalator clauses. He signed the deal for the maximum penny the night before the lottery, a lottery the Bulls, Knicks and Clippers were in. That was three years and three days ago and the deal has four more years to run. Some of his other deals do have such clauses, but even if those endorsement deals tripled they would not cover the difference in him signing with the Nets rather than the Cavs. Sure, you can argue that if he did go there he could get new deals. But that isn’t what people are writing. It should be pointed out LeBron hasn’t had a new sponsorship deal in more than two years and the word on the street is that Nike is still a long way for breaking even on his products. Don’t assume anything as far as his pitchman status goes.
Now, the reason LeBron took the hat off is because due to the new NBA dress code he is not allowed to wear a hat during an interview. He wears a Yankees hat all the time and has for years and all his buddies/staff members do as well. If you want to analyze the angle of how the hat was placed and all that junk, feel free.
Not only is Basketbawful fully capable of taking a good, long look at Dirks smooth armpits, but that’s one heck of a Bill Simmons dissection.
As always, I’m outclassed by our friends in DC. While I’m reduced to running guest editorials by a talking horse, The Daily Bacon is graced by the presence of “Love Story” producer Robert Evans.