First. Podcast. Ever.

Yes, you read that right--we're on the air! Ok, not really, not live, but hey, my good buddy Mason and I recorded a whole 70 minutes (80 with music breaks) of sports talk. Click here:

https://soundcloud.com/tsprings/springsonsports-podcast-9-1-13

Not perfect by any means, but it's a start, and we'll hope to improve on that stuff as the fall goes on. I'll give you a rundown as best I can (these are de-facto chapter marks, not the actual length of the segments):

04:20--College football opening weekend review
18:25--Homerism/announcer favoritism on broadcasts
26:50 MLB pennant race
45:10 Survivor Football picks
52:10 Sports Media picks of the week
1:03:50 NBA League Pass picks
1:12:50 Mike Budenholzer situation
1:20:30 Closing thought on NFL Concussion Lawsuit/"League of Denial"

Twitter Links

Tyler: @SpringsOnSports
Tyler's Survivor Football Pick of the Week: Houston over San Diego
Tyler's Sports Media Pick of the Week:

Water-powered jetpacks are the biggest watersports craze to hit beaches since the Jet Ski: http://t.co/BtJG1xHLR0 #free
— Commercial Appeal (@memphisnews) September 1, 2013

Mason: @masbury12
Mason's Survivor Football Pick of the Week: Indianapolis over Oakland
Mason's Sports Media Pick of the Week:

VIDEO: JaVale McGee beats kid at pop-a-shot, lets him know about it. http://t.co/peTi33fmMt "WHO SAID I CAN'T SHOOT THREES?!"
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) September 2, 2013

Kevin (guest): @mcduffin_cheese
Kevin's Survivor Football Pick of the Week: Miami over Cleveland
Kevin's Sports Media Pick of the Week:

Incredible play from my old high school. Go Tigers http://t.co/z6dULyhIQn
— Kevin Duffy (@McDuffin_cheese) September 2, 2013

Andrew (guest): @NaturalSprings

This Week's Closing Thought: League of Denial & NFL Concussion Lawsuit
If you believe in coincidence, you might believe that the NFL settling its $765 million dollar concussion lawsuit with 4500 former players last week merely happened to come one week after ESPN, the NFL’s right hand, backed away from an official partnership with PBS on a forthcoming documentary about the concussion issue. You might also have once believed that Santa Claus shows up on Christmas and gifts tend to appear under your evergreen tree shortly thereafter; for that, you would be forgiven. But make no mistake here: these were not events with mutually exclusive outcomes. To allow that documentary, entitlted, “League of Denial,” to be brought to television in October during an ongoing lawsuit would be toxic to the league’s credibility on health issues and potentially impactful with regard to in-season ratings. With ESPN’s stamp on its information and PBS Frontline’s renowned journalistic integrity and editorial control, there would very likely have been no more room for the League to dodge the important questions concerning its former players and how much or how little they have been compensated for the damage to their health caused by a career of subjecting one’s head to thousands of pounds of force with great regularity. So the NFL did what it tends to do: it leaned on the right people, and in doing so, saved itself a lot of trouble. Let’s not forget that the NFL is a non-profit organization, and it would have an awful lot to answer for if we suddenly decided that it was responsible to us, citizens of the United States, based on the fact that it refused to acknowledge that the nature of its game inevitably caused damage to its participants. No, the NFL likes the idea of coincidence: concussions, CTE, ALS, Alzheimer’s and dementia, after all, just happened to befall many a man who played football. Unfortunate, but just a coincidence, wouldn’t you say?

Memphis Grizzlies’ owners: “We have a greater opportunity than ever before”

If you’re looking for a snapshot of what the Memphis Grizzlies’ future holds, just ask minority-share owner Duncan Williams. He’ll paint you a picture. 

“We’re going into [the Grizzlies’] 12th year [in Memphis], and I have a nine-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter,” Williams said on Tuesday. “And I can tell you, they don’t buy any jerseys except Grizzlies jerseys.” 

Williams’ anecdote highlights the two-fold impact of Memphis’ only professional sports team in a light-hearted but enlightening way. Since moving east from Vancouver in 2001, the Grizzlies organization has woven itself into the fabric of the Bluff City in a way that outshines traditional standbys like Ole Miss and Tennessee football, and even, in some ways, Memphis Tigers basketball.

“Being a sports fan and a longtime Memphian, I can’t think of any better thing to be involved in,” minority-share owner Edward Dobbs said.

On the court, the franchise has risen from the dregs of the NBA barrel to earn playoff appearances in each of the previous two seasons. Off the court, the organization and its charitable foundation were recognized internationally by Beyond Sport as “Sport Team of the Year” for 2012, a testament to the depth of the team’s commitment to serving its community.

Earning the honor of 'Sport Team of the Year' is not easily done—it took a lot of hard work, and at least one of the Grizzlies new minority-share owners recognized that much of that effort had already been put in before they came on the scene last November.

“We were very fortunate, in coming in as a new ownership group, that we had a team that had a real identity,” Jason Levien said. In addition to having a stake in the team, Levien is also the Grizzlies’ CEO.

“They called it ‘grit and grind’: it’s about winning, selflessness, putting the team first… Our motivation is about winning, about sustained success, about having the kind of players that make this community proud, having the kind of team that makes this community proud, and doing things on and off the court which reflect positively on Memphis. We think we’re headed in that direction, and we feel very excited about it.”

Williams, Dobbs, Levien and former Grizzlies guard Elliot Perry spoke to a lunchtime crowd of a few hundred on Tuesday at the Holiday Inn on Poplar Avenue. The New Memphis Institute, as part of their “Celebrate What’s Right” lecture series, sponsored the luncheon panel of minority-share owners. Grizzlies Charitable Foundation director Jenny Koltnow moderated the discussion, and AutoZone founder Pitt Hyde, another Grizzlies stake-holder, provided the opening remarks.

“We have a greater opportunity than ever before,” Hyde said of the team’s ability to have success and affect change in the city. “It is important to all of us to make sure every seat is filled—it’s important for our image, it’s important to the team to show your support. As business people or people involved in any part of our city, you can always buy tickets, whether you’re a basketball fan or not. Give them to customers, give them to friends, go yourself—I think you’ll find that it’s easy to get addicted to the Grizzlies.”

As Perry pointed out, the addiction is sometimes a two-way street for Grizzlies players.

“What is a little bit unusual about this team is, I played on many teams in the NBA, and the players [on those teams] were not this engaged in the community,” the former University of Memphis star said. “You would have one, maybe two players who realized how to use that platform, but we can go down the list of seven, eight, nine guys who are really engaged in this community.”

That community, by the way, is growing. Levien noted that the team has recently expanded its broadcast radius into Nashville and Little Rock in order to solidify the Grizzlies’ presence as “the team of the Mid-South.” Additionally, the gameday experience at FedExForum is also being improved in a variety of ways to make sure ticket sales can be maintained and (hopefully) increased.

“One thing we really want to do is create a more exciting [game] experience,” Levien said. “Folks come to the game for two-and-a-half hours, and we want to have a better dining experience [for them]. We spend a lot of hours talking about that – what food options there are, what kind of entertainment there is for kids and families that are coming to games. We’re spending time looking at all those things to improve the quality so that we can be an even bigger and better asset for the community.”

As far as progress on the court, Levien and Perry both feel that the Grizzlies have improved their stock through recent trades.

“We feel as though, with the moves we made in the past month, we’ve added substance here,” Levien said. “We got a player in Tayshaun Prince who won an NBA championship [with the Detroit Pistons in 2004]. We got a young player we’re very excited about, Ed Davis, who is a terrific guy to watch because he’s such a great athlete, a young guy who we think is on the way up in his career. He won an NCAA championship at the University of North Carolina [in 2009]. We got a very strong outside shooter, a guy who I think has a lot upside as well, in Austin Daye.”

“I’m very optimistic about the team,” Perry said. “It’s always hard when you trade a guy like Rudy Gay, given that he was such an instrumental part of the team. I think the sky is the limit for him and he really will flourish in Toronto, but ultimately I know that if anything happens here, we have a good enough team [to withstand that adversity].”

Asked about the long-term methods for keeping the team competitive, Levien emphasized the use of advanced statistics to evaluate the team, seizing on a trend which has quickly infiltrated the NBA after being incubated in Major League Baseball over the last two decades. Recently-hired vice president of basketball operations of John Hollinger is someone Levien considers “a founding father of basketball analytics” because of Hollinger's innovative work on hoops statistics while at ESPN, and his presence in the front office, along with new director of player personnel and basketball development Stu Lash, should be a boon to general manager Chris Wallace. Levien also mentioned the creation of a decision-making system which will help guard against the kind of ill-advised, panic-stricken transactions that are too often made right on the heels of a bad loss, a devastating player injury or an ugly statistical report.

Dobbs, one of the latest additions to the minority-share ownership group, said that his initial meeting with Levien was all he needed to hear to be sure the team was on the right track.

“When I first met with Jason, I was really struck by his vision of what the team was going to be, not only from the standpoint of wins and losses, but what the team was going to be in the community and to the fans and people coming to games,” Dobbs said. “When you put all of those things together, it was almost like I couldn’t say no [to having an ownership stake].”

“I’m thrilled to be part of it. It really is a dream come true.”

What are your thoughts on the Grizzlies' prospects this season and in coming years? In what ways have you seen them benefit the Memphis community? Feel free to comment below.

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[Photo caption: Edward Dobbs, center, a minority-share owner in the Grizzlies, talks about his involvement in the team as part of the New Memphis Institute's "Celebrate What's Right" luncheon at the Holiday Inn on Poplar Avenue.]

When "Welcome Back" Means "Duck and Cover"

I'm sure you're aware that Lebron James returns to Cleveland this week (with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in tow) for the first time since leaving his hometown team this summer.  If he's hoping for the warm welcome that Donovan McNabb got when he went back to Philadelphia as a member of the Redskins, he's about as naive as James Harrison was to think that he wouldn't get fined after stating his intention to "hurt people" in his violent and often questionable collisions on the gridiron.  There's enough James-related vitriol in northern Ohio right now to light the Cuyahoga River on fire (again), though I don't think fans/arsonists will actually be dumb enough to set the Quicken Loans Arena aflame no matter how badly they want Lebron to feel their heat; in any case, he's certainly not feeling his own Heat right now, given Miami's barely .500 winning percentage nearly a quarter of the way through the season.  If James is really serious about proving his doubters wrong, he won't be affected by angry fans or needling chants, but he should definitely take note of what Michael Jordan says in the video response to his "What Should I Do?" commercial (posted below).  Jordan is as savvy and as fiery as they come, and the used-to-be-number-23 James would do well to heed anything his numerical predecessor says.  I, for one, hope James plays well and that there are no extracurricular incidents that might throw a wet towel on an already stormy night.

"...And Then We F----- Up The Endgame"

Botched end-of-game scenarios drive everyone crazy.  It would seem logical, especially for professional teams that practice regularly during the season, that coaches would make sure their teams practiced these scenarios until the Gatorade ran out, but time and again teams manage to bungle their chances of winning the game by making stupid mistakes (usually rushed decisions) or forgetting simple things that they would easily remember in a morning shoot-around. I won't claim to know what the best plan is for every time-sensitive situation, but there are certain situations in which teams seem to make bad decisions that any fan watching on TV could make.

Exhibit A: Lakers-Thunder, Friday night.  LA down 1, OKC ball, :30 to go.  Russell Westbrook misses a J and Kobe Bryant gets the rebound, :17 to go.  And then this.



Where do I start? First, Oklahoma City lets Westbrook (6'3") pick up Kobe (6'6") as he brings the ball upcourt.  Mind you, Kobe's had a lot of trouble in this series when being guarded by Kevin Durant (6'10") because of Durant's length, but Westbrook is doesn't present the same degree of difficulty.

After crossing midcourt, there is about a 3-4 second window in which Kobe is completely stationary, priming Westbrook for his next move.  If you're Westbrook and you realize that you are guarding the man who has made more shots in the last :10 of games this season than any other player in the league AND you are not the best man on the floor for the job, shouldn't you foul him instead of risking embarrassment when Kobe (more than likely) makes the winning shot? More to the point, shouldn't you foul him, so that even if he does make his free throws, you still have time to retaliate rather than watching him score at the buzzer?

I realize I'm acting like Kobe made the shot, but effectively he did.  If the shot had gone in, there would have been roughly 2.5 seconds left on the clock, which is ample time to run a decent inbounds play from halfcourt, but it seems like having 5-8 seconds and the ball while being down by 1 or 2 is a better option.  In that scenario, there is at least time for the player receiving the inbounds pass to consider dishing to a teammate rather than just shooting.        

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On another note, here's ESPN's preview of Madden 11. The video below isn't tied to the article, but it gives a decent taste of the action.  The new system for calling plays looks good, but the lack of a turbo button will take some getting used to.

Heroes, Woes and Throwin 'Bows

The Capitals finally got it right. After switching goalies and taking a solid week to warm up to playoff hockey, Washington posted a tight 2-1 home victory last night at the Verizon Center, courtesy of a Sergei Federov "pull-up" top corner wrister with five and change to play. And to think, I used to hate that guy when he was a Red Wing. Varlamov had a super game (again!) and the Caps owned the night until being upstaged a little later by the Hurricanes' final minute comeback to top the Devils in Jersey. Nonetheless, a great series, if a little close for comfort. Brashear's absence was not a factor. Can't wait to take it to Sid the Kid on Saturday.

Orioles lost again today to negate a good 6 IP by Uehara (4 hits, 1 ER) before giving up 2 jacks in the 7th and leaving the game after being hit with a line drive. (He'll be fine. He has to be fine. We can't afford for him to be anything else.) I know it's a day game after a night game, but seriously, 1 run? We can do better. When you're 1-3 hitters are hitting over .350 and the next closest is .272, you know you need more balance. Especially with this rotation.

And 1
The buzz surrounding two egregioius fouls committed in last night's NBA games is off the charts. In case you didn't know, Dwight Howard's already been suspended for the mean right elbow he threw Sam Dalembert in the opening quarter. (Howard was not ejected and went on to be the difference maker in the gme, which the Magic won.) Rajon Rondo committed a foul in similar bad taste on Brad Miller to prevent Miller's game tying lay-up. To distinguish, Rondo's foul was in the final seconds of the game, but if you foul someone who's about a foot taller and 60 lbs heavier, you must have gone all out to do it. And he did. Miller came up spitting blood. Howard's foul was definitely worse, being totally unprovoked and not relevant to the situaton (the game gets loose during the last few ticks), but Rondo doesn't get off the hook for being the lesser of two evils. The NBA has stated the foul will stand as it was called, although I think he deserves at least a flagrant 1 or 2 - he practically slapped the guy! C'mon, now. Wanna know who said what to whom? Here's a transcript of all the dialogue immediately post-assault:

Brad "Cameron Frye" Miller: Why'd you hit me?
Rajon "Ferris Bueller" Rondo: Where's your brain?
Miller: Why'd you hit me?
Rondo: Where's your brain?
Miller: Why'd you hit me?
Rondo: Where's your brain?
Miller: I asked you first!
Rondo: Did you really just attempt to take it to the hole underhanded? With the game on the line? LEBRON doesn't take it underhanded EVER! What was I supposed to do?
Miller: I spared you from having to defend another ludicrous Ben Gordon floater, and you flipped out.
Rondo: I lightly slapped you.
Miller: You hit me. Look, just don't guard Gordon if you don't want me to participate in your stupid crap. You made me look bad in front of John Paxson - that man could squash my nuts into oblivion! A-a-a-and then, then, because of you, I miss the free throw. Wonderful.

(Ok, you got me. I just needed an excuse to squeeze the phrase "squash my nuts into oblivion" into my post. I gotta watch that again soon - too many good lines.)
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Pulled an all-nighter last night to finish that Humanities paper and I am just WIPED. Gotta make it to Friday and I might be alright. Spanish presentation in the morning and then an insane amount of stuff to do this weekend. Might try to make it out to Memphis in May (Memphis' annual music festival) for one night, but probably not. My finals are all blitzing me in the same 48 hour window next Monday through Wednesday and then I'm free. Sort of. Don't get home til the 18th and no O's games til the week after that. You watch, though - my goal is to make at least 4 games in the 28 days I have before I'm off to my summer job. We'll see. Hang tight.