Here We Go Again- More From Scoop

Friday, December 15, 2006

So Scoop tries to follow up on the piece he wrote about 3 days ago by backing it up with....umm.....evidence??? Yeah....I guess that's what he was trying to do. Let's revisit shall we?

Awful Announcing: Zero Teams Interested in Allen Iverson

Recap:


  • No teams want to trade for A.I.
  • A.I. "cosigned" his walking papers to Billy King???
  • Allen Iverson has "defied the odds"
  • Used Race Card in comparing Iverson to Nash
  • "Hypocritical Value" is a major factor in trying to trade for Iverson.
Here we go again.......

Scoop Jackson: Unanswered
We have now reached the "why" point. The bigger-picture moment. The footnote.

Why is it taking so long? Why are we still talking about Allen Iverson not being traded?

It has been a week. Seven days with no end in sight.

Or has it been longer?

Do we add the previous four years to this week to emphasize the point?

That is the question that we need to be asking -- of general managers around the League, team owners and coaches, but also to ourselves
Dammit Scoop. Why did you have to go back to the one sentence crap? Anywho, you're an idiot. How is something that's the bigger picture a footnote?!?!?!?!?! It's a footnote because it's not part of the bigger picture you ass. Good lord. And why do I need to ask that question to myself? GMs on the other hand don't ask the question they automatically do it. Why would you ever make a trade without taking past performance into account? Hmm, maybe because you don't want to end up having to continue pay someone like Bryant Reeves or Vin Baker. (I know unfair comparison, but come on already.)
Why isn't he in another team's uniform, in another team's arena, on the court, balling?
That's not a sentence. I strike it from the record.
Why does an ultraluxe superstar in the NBA, a sports icon, a global phenomenon, not have any takers? Not just after a week, but after four years of the Sixers trying to move him.
Do you really even watch basketball Scoop? I'm being serious.....do you??? It hasn't been other teams it's the Sixers who didn't want to let him go. Because their team (and attendance) would be shit without him. Where have you been the last four years? (P.S.- Ultraluxe is not a word)
And even when the trade finally does happen (and it most likely will within the next week), we still need to ask the one-word question: Why? Why it took so long?
You seriously don't watch basketball or understand the business of it. It's because the Sixers are trying to get the most out of the deal. Not because no one wants him. He's on the market for 40 cents on the dollar and they are trying to get 50. Also, if he's going to an Eastern team....why give him to them so quickly? Just so he can burn you?
Are Sixers owner Ed Snider and GM Billy King asking for something that is so unreasonable in return that teams are finding it an insult to deal with them? (Word is they asked Charlotte for Raymond Felton, Sean May and Adam Morrison, for which Iverson killed the deal because he would have been worse off than he is in Philly.)
That is the biggest bunch of b.s. I've ever heard. First of all asking for that is ridiculous. Even if this was two years ago Charlotte would never do that. Second if Bernie Bickerstaff even thought about considering that he should kill himself because he's dumber than Billy King. Scoop probably just plugged that into the ESPN Trade Machine and was like...."Yeah man, that's shocking. People won't suspect I made that up for a second"
Either there is something about Iverson that we (the public) are severely naive about or King and Snider are a worse combination than Mitch Kupchak and Jerry Buss back when they decided to trade Shaq.
Hahahaha okay Scoop. First of all that wasn't THAT bad of a trade. How many games has Shaq played in this year? Plus the Lakers got Odom and are in the West. What a dumb comparison.
Personally, I think it's more the former than the latter.
Wait what? What don't we know about Allen? He cheated on his wife, he isn't always there for the team, and he's anywhere from the second to fifth best basketball player in the league. If you think this doesn't have everything to do with Billy King being the worst GM in sports (besides Isiah) then you are just flat out blind.
Why Nash and not Iverson?

Basically, they are one and the same. Same amount of time in the League; both are two of the three best players (along with Kobe Bryant) out of arguably the best draft class ever (1996); both have (although different) brilliance that overrides the flaws in their games; both of their bodies have taken about the same amount of beating over the years; one is ranked 11th and the other 13th on John Hollinger's PER system; they are comparable in height, weight, position and responsibility when on the court. One player has the label of being able to make those around him better but has never taken a team to the NBA Finals, the other a label of being selfish but has taken a CBA squad to the Finals.

One has one MVP, the other two.

One has a contract that pays him 18.2 million dollars this year making it difficult to trade him, and the other has a contract of 10.5. That's right the MVP of the league isn't even in the top 30 in the NBA and is 3rd.....3rd!!! On his own team (Marion- 15M, Amare- 12M)

Are you sure you want to pull that race card I KNOW you're itching to grab for???

And before anyone goes there, the analogy is not necessary based on color (although I'd be a hypocrite to say that this has nothing to do with color). I could pose the same question about Gilbert Arenas or Kevin Garnett. Carmelo Anthony, for that matter. But even that's not it. The question of "Why?" with AI is not a question of him being black, but the type of black person he is.
Why did you do that? I warned you it was a bad move. First, I don't even know the comparison, or reason you brought these players into the discussion. But okay. Kevin Garnett is making $21 Million Dollars this year. And haven't teams been trying to trade for him for years? Gilbert Arenas would never be traded by the Wizards....he's a bargain at $11M this year.....WHICH IS STILL MORE THAN STEVE NASH!?!?!?!?!?! And Melo????? Why even bring him up? He hasn't done anything in his young career. Sure he looks good this year, but let's wait until the playoffs.

So what was your point again.....I forget. My head hurts.
His Cablinasian is that of Michael Vick, Barry Bonds, Ray Lewis, Jeremy Shockey and Mike Tyson … with something extra. With something none of them ever had or ever will have: his personality, his existence, his way of life, his means of survival, his being. And that extra has everything to do with who he is as a person. And that extra is what most of the NBA teams are afraid of.
That's right.....I remember now. You were busy making no sense. What the hell does "extra" mean???? You have to f'ing define it........it could be anything from illigetimate children to cotton candy for fans in the front row! And there's not a chance it's the "extra something" Mike Tyson has.

Anyway(s), Scoop....friend......can you wrap this up for me so I can go cry in a corner because you have a writing job at ESPN and I write for 500 people?
They are afraid of his contract ($59 million over the next three years), his age (31 going on 40 in their minds), his play (a career 42 percent shooter and under 2-1 assist/turnover ratio), his lifestyle and habits (choose your own facts and adjectives). But mostly they're afraid that the words "mercurial" and "magnet for trouble" that have followed him throughout his career will follow him to their team.
Thank God.....I'm glad you finally realized that. I can take a break now......Oh wait.....there's more.....
And even with all that, we have to ask whether it should have taken this long?

Why?

Is the fear of Iverson so deeply rooted in things that have nothing to do with the game of basketball that what was initially a sweepstakes has become a rummage sale?

At the end of every day, every day Iverson remains untraded, a sociological issue in sports goes unanswered. Further reminding us that professional sports is not a game.

Seriously, WHAT IN THE HELL are you talking about!?!? What sociological issue? And, $59 million dollars is a hell of a lot to pay someone you are comparing to having a personality like Mike Tysons!!!! Ugh.

A change of venue for Iverson apparently will be based on a change of mind of someone else. And even though that GM and owner will never admit it, the fact that it took this long to trade one of the most meaningful players in the history of the game is all the evidence most of us should need to prove them wrong.
I'm done. I can't read him anymore. Let me know when he writes something that makes sense.


Posted by Awful Announcing- at 3:12 PM

7 Comments:

First, I just discovered your blog and enjoy what you are doing. Keep up the good work.

I'm not sure that Scoop even likes basketball as a sport. He just likes it as a springboard for his crazy rants. Also, I don't think Iverson and Nash's games are as similar as Scoop says, but I could be the crazy one.

Hank said...
Dec 15, 2006, 5:07:00 PM  

God, this is insane.

Aside from the money numbers (definitely significant), the crucial issue as to why Nash would be dealt in two days while AI still sits on the block is very simple: Nash will make your team better with his passing. AI, not so much.

It's just a difference in their games -- but based on his columns, I'm not sure Scoop watches a lot of the games. I don't watch as much as I should at this point in the season, but then again, I'm not paid to write about it.

Signal to Noise said...
Dec 15, 2006, 10:55:00 PM  

Wait, no comparison to Ron Artest? Scoop, you're getting rusty.

Sooze said...
Dec 16, 2006, 2:07:00 AM  

Remember when you used to talk about the announcing? Now is the time to strike, given all of the meaningless games in the NFL and all of the inane / rambling / hype -machine jackassess spewing ridiculousness all over each and ever one of them. Right now - the last two weeks and until after the Super Bowl post-game is over - is when your site has the most potential. Ripping into the ESPN.com guys and all of this other stuff is monotonous (and way, way prone to rambling in itself) but more importantly, doesn't play to your strengths as a writer or a news destination. Criticize piss-poor announcing and make us all laugh like you did for the first 8 weeks of the season. Please. Sorry.

Anonymous said...
Dec 16, 2006, 5:24:00 AM  

"He attended Luther South High School in Chicago, was educated at Xavier University (LA) and received a Master in Arts degree from Howard University before becoming a journalist."

You have got to be shitting me. He's illiterate. That can't be right, his education history must be O'Leary'd.

Or not, I've seen some grad students from black universities and they were barely literate. It's the crackpot ideas that they have jammed into their minds, using words correctly and in a logical pattern is unimportant. The same could be said for most English/journalism programs in the US. The administrators couldn't care less for logic and thinking, just about toeing the line.

E Buzz said...
Dec 16, 2006, 9:43:00 AM  

I'm going to do this comment in Scoop-speak (ie a lot of one sentence paragraphs).

Scoop forgets one thing when comparing the sociological reasons behind Nash/Iverson.

A few years ago when Nash was a FA his own team wouldn't resign him for less than what AI is making now.

Did he really just say AI and Nash are basically one in the same?

Has he ever watched them play?

Seriously, aside from the fact that they are short in NBA terms, their games are not in the least bit similar.

I will now shoot myself.

twins15 said...
Dec 17, 2006, 3:13:00 AM  

I give you guys credit for reading all of Scoop's article. I didn't have it in me.

Anonymous said...
Dec 17, 2006, 10:59:00 PM  

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