27.2.11
26.2.11
Sacramento kings should stay
The commissioner was working late on Wednesday, a conference call cutting into his evening commute out of midtown Manhattan. Far from the big city, out in the sticks in Sacramento, David Stern wanted to send word: The NBA isn't letting the Sacramento Kings leave without a fight.
The Maloof brothers had visited his office on Monday, determined for Stern to get between their franchise and city and between the acrimony and the risk of the regrettable resolution of exiting Sacramento. It's turned so nasty between Sacramento and the Maloofs that the Kings owners threw their hands into the air and gave up.
Essentially, they asked Stern: Step down out of the Olympic Tower, take over the new arena initiative and save the Kings in Sacramento.
"The NBA has never done anything to this scope," Stern said.
Maybe that's because the NBA has never had as profound of a franchise crisis as it does now. Stern has called this a "model" franchise in the sport, "a spectacular success story," and there's a genuine urgency for the commissioner's plans to visit Sacramento in early December and begin probing the possibilities with the politicians and developers and Kings ownership.
Make no mistake: The biggest issue in the NBA isn't about toy store basketballs and bad behavior technical fouls, but the stability of its most successful franchises. Sacramento has a league-best streak of 317 sellouts at Arco Arena, which has been the loudest arena in the league and the most anchored to its franchise. Pound for pound, cowbell for cowbell, there's a good case to be made for Sacramento as the best market in the NBA.
So, there's no salvation awaiting the Maloofs and Kings elsewhere, no city that'll ever love this team and cherish it and, yes, support it the way Sacramento has done in good times and bad. It won't be Las Vegas, where the Maloofs run the Palms Casino. Nor Anaheim. Nor St. Louis. Nowhere else.
The Maloofs lost a confusing public vote on a downtown arena initiative last week, a referendum that was never clear to anyone – not the citizens, nor the Maloofs, nor the commissioner. In the end, the campaign was punctuated with allegations that the Kings owners sabotaged the vote because they themselves didn't want to move downtown.
Especially in the West, the climate for public and private arena-stadium partnerships has never been worse. Good relationships go awry over building issues; love affairs between cities and teams turn traumatic. Nothing had ever come between Sacramento and its team – not Garry St. Jean coaching, not Olden Polynice playing center, nothing until this.
The NBA could live with the New Jersey Nets leaving East Rutherford for Brooklyn, but Sacramento is a soul-bearer for the sport, a beacon of possibility for small-market teams. "Some skeptics questioned whether the NBA could succeed in Sacramento," the commissioner remembered. It's flourished there, and it is everyone's responsibility to make sure this unravels no further.
Once, the NBA had a beautiful thing going in Charlotte, but when the city grew to disdain its owner, George Shinn, the people refused to ever vote him the public funding needed to build an arena. Charlotte never should've lost the Hornets, and it's a painful memory that was still on Stern's mind this week.
"It sort of dawned on me in listening that there is really nothing more important than this," Stern said. "Maybe I could have been more helpful in some other cities, like the first time that the Hornets left Charlotte."
If he didn't do enough to save Shinn from his political mess, Stern sounds determined not to make the same mistake with the Maloofs. He goes back with their father, George, to the early 1980s when he owned the Houston Rockets. His kids, Gavin and Joe, were the whiz kids who breathed life into one of the NBA's worst basketball operations. Sacramento was dying for a winner, and the Maloofs gave it to them.
Now this seven-year fight for a new arena to replace Arco has grown acrimonious, and Stern concedes that part of his job here is to "diffuse" the two sides. These are the worst fights in sports now: communities vs. owners, public vs. private funding. The arena issue has also raged in Seattle and Portland, two longtime thriving NBA cities.
Yet nowhere could the Maloofs move the Kings and ever replicate what's happened in Sacramento. Through everything there, the fans are still the loudest in the league and still selling out night after night. Just look at Memphis now. The Grizzlies were a novelty for a couple years, a hot ticket under Jerry West and Hubie Brown, but they're gasping for air now, ranking last in attendance this season.
As a sports town, the whole identity of Sacramento is wrapped up in its pride for the Kings. A recent Sacramento Bee poll found that six out of 10 citizens declared themselves Kings fans. Still, this has turned terrible. Public officials are decrying the Maloofs as duplicitous, and newspaper columnists are taking sides with city officials and developers here, the owners there.
All of it has been polarizing, and all of it needs the commissioner's political savvy and his deft deal-making.
"The Kings and Sacramento are an NBA success story and I'm not interested in seeing the success end in failure," Stern said. "We don't accept that."
The NBA shouldn't now, nor ever. This is a fight the NBA can't lose because here's something no one would've once ever believed about Sacramento:
This is a city the league can't replace.
Adrian Wojnarowski is the NBA columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Follow him on Twitter. Send Adrian a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Updated on Friday, Nov 17, 2006 2:57 am, EST
The Maloof brothers had visited his office on Monday, determined for Stern to get between their franchise and city and between the acrimony and the risk of the regrettable resolution of exiting Sacramento. It's turned so nasty between Sacramento and the Maloofs that the Kings owners threw their hands into the air and gave up.
Essentially, they asked Stern: Step down out of the Olympic Tower, take over the new arena initiative and save the Kings in Sacramento.
"The NBA has never done anything to this scope," Stern said.
Maybe that's because the NBA has never had as profound of a franchise crisis as it does now. Stern has called this a "model" franchise in the sport, "a spectacular success story," and there's a genuine urgency for the commissioner's plans to visit Sacramento in early December and begin probing the possibilities with the politicians and developers and Kings ownership.
Make no mistake: The biggest issue in the NBA isn't about toy store basketballs and bad behavior technical fouls, but the stability of its most successful franchises. Sacramento has a league-best streak of 317 sellouts at Arco Arena, which has been the loudest arena in the league and the most anchored to its franchise. Pound for pound, cowbell for cowbell, there's a good case to be made for Sacramento as the best market in the NBA.
So, there's no salvation awaiting the Maloofs and Kings elsewhere, no city that'll ever love this team and cherish it and, yes, support it the way Sacramento has done in good times and bad. It won't be Las Vegas, where the Maloofs run the Palms Casino. Nor Anaheim. Nor St. Louis. Nowhere else.
The Maloofs lost a confusing public vote on a downtown arena initiative last week, a referendum that was never clear to anyone – not the citizens, nor the Maloofs, nor the commissioner. In the end, the campaign was punctuated with allegations that the Kings owners sabotaged the vote because they themselves didn't want to move downtown.
Especially in the West, the climate for public and private arena-stadium partnerships has never been worse. Good relationships go awry over building issues; love affairs between cities and teams turn traumatic. Nothing had ever come between Sacramento and its team – not Garry St. Jean coaching, not Olden Polynice playing center, nothing until this.
The NBA could live with the New Jersey Nets leaving East Rutherford for Brooklyn, but Sacramento is a soul-bearer for the sport, a beacon of possibility for small-market teams. "Some skeptics questioned whether the NBA could succeed in Sacramento," the commissioner remembered. It's flourished there, and it is everyone's responsibility to make sure this unravels no further.
Once, the NBA had a beautiful thing going in Charlotte, but when the city grew to disdain its owner, George Shinn, the people refused to ever vote him the public funding needed to build an arena. Charlotte never should've lost the Hornets, and it's a painful memory that was still on Stern's mind this week.
"It sort of dawned on me in listening that there is really nothing more important than this," Stern said. "Maybe I could have been more helpful in some other cities, like the first time that the Hornets left Charlotte."
If he didn't do enough to save Shinn from his political mess, Stern sounds determined not to make the same mistake with the Maloofs. He goes back with their father, George, to the early 1980s when he owned the Houston Rockets. His kids, Gavin and Joe, were the whiz kids who breathed life into one of the NBA's worst basketball operations. Sacramento was dying for a winner, and the Maloofs gave it to them.
Now this seven-year fight for a new arena to replace Arco has grown acrimonious, and Stern concedes that part of his job here is to "diffuse" the two sides. These are the worst fights in sports now: communities vs. owners, public vs. private funding. The arena issue has also raged in Seattle and Portland, two longtime thriving NBA cities.
Yet nowhere could the Maloofs move the Kings and ever replicate what's happened in Sacramento. Through everything there, the fans are still the loudest in the league and still selling out night after night. Just look at Memphis now. The Grizzlies were a novelty for a couple years, a hot ticket under Jerry West and Hubie Brown, but they're gasping for air now, ranking last in attendance this season.
As a sports town, the whole identity of Sacramento is wrapped up in its pride for the Kings. A recent Sacramento Bee poll found that six out of 10 citizens declared themselves Kings fans. Still, this has turned terrible. Public officials are decrying the Maloofs as duplicitous, and newspaper columnists are taking sides with city officials and developers here, the owners there.
All of it has been polarizing, and all of it needs the commissioner's political savvy and his deft deal-making.
"The Kings and Sacramento are an NBA success story and I'm not interested in seeing the success end in failure," Stern said. "We don't accept that."
The NBA shouldn't now, nor ever. This is a fight the NBA can't lose because here's something no one would've once ever believed about Sacramento:
This is a city the league can't replace.
Adrian Wojnarowski is the NBA columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Follow him on Twitter. Send Adrian a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Updated on Friday, Nov 17, 2006 2:57 am, EST
23.2.11
23
I have come this far.
I have come this far to hear.
I have come this far to listen.
I have come this far to become.
I have come this far to become something great.
I have come this far to become something greater than ever to be.
It started from birth, the destiny and earnest given down below from the power above.
It started with love, the unconditional, constant, deep support from two unique, dedicated parents.
It started with following, the steering leadership from peers, older and younger, wiser yet humble.
It started from one person and has now reached over a million.
I have come this far to hear.
I have come this far to listen.
I have come this far to become.
I have come this far to become something great.
I have come this far to become something greater than ever to be.
It started from birth, the destiny and earnest given down below from the power above.
It started with love, the unconditional, constant, deep support from two unique, dedicated parents.
It started with following, the steering leadership from peers, older and younger, wiser yet humble.
It started from one person and has now reached over a million.
It might’ve been the best that things didn’t fall together.
It might’ve been the worst that the greatest things fell apart.
It might’ve been the teachings I never wanted to learn.
It might’ve been the studying I never thought I would need.
It might’ve been the karma that came back to bite me.
It might’ve been the luck that made the surprise.
It might’ve been the worst that the greatest things fell apart.
It might’ve been the teachings I never wanted to learn.
It might’ve been the studying I never thought I would need.
It might’ve been the karma that came back to bite me.
It might’ve been the luck that made the surprise.
Whatever it was, it has come.
What it was, I now understand.
Whatever it was, has now become.
What it was, I now understand.
Whatever it was, has now become.
Hardship. Challenge. Destruction. Earthquake
Doubter. Question. Deletion. Tornadoes.
Controversy. Hurricanes. Demolition.
Haters. Imitators. Duplicators. Non-believers.
Whatever you got, bring it.
Doubter. Question. Deletion. Tornadoes.
Controversy. Hurricanes. Demolition.
Haters. Imitators. Duplicators. Non-believers.
Whatever you got, bring it.
Failure. Homo. Weirdo. Emo. Loser.
Weak. Stupid. Dumb. Pussy.
Things that made you feel better.
are things that fuel my fire.
Weak. Stupid. Dumb. Pussy.
Things that made you feel better.
are things that fuel my fire.
They say the best revenge is revenge itself.
I say the best revenge is success in life.
I am who I am and it is what it is.
You can take it or leave it. Like it or hate it.
I say the best revenge is success in life.
I am who I am and it is what it is.
You can take it or leave it. Like it or hate it.
Whatever you hate on is what I strive on.
Whatever I have learned has helped me become.
Whatever it is you thought you knew about me, think again.
Whatever I have learned has helped me become.
Whatever it is you thought you knew about me, think again.
Through all the pain, through all the agony
I remember.
Through all the storms, through all the disaster,
I have stood tall.
Through all the rumors, through all the lies
I have overcome.
I remember.
Through all the storms, through all the disaster,
I have stood tall.
Through all the rumors, through all the lies
I have overcome.
Whatever today is, today is today.
Whatever today is, I have accounted for all the earlier days.
Whether this is my destiny or this is a short pit stop.
Don’t think I haven’t forgotten. Don’t think I haven’t tried.
Don’t think I’ll ever give up, don’t think I’ll ever fade out.
I will be the bigger man. I will be the last man standing.
Whatever today is, I have accounted for all the earlier days.
Whether this is my destiny or this is a short pit stop.
Don’t think I haven’t forgotten. Don’t think I haven’t tried.
Don’t think I’ll ever give up, don’t think I’ll ever fade out.
I will be the bigger man. I will be the last man standing.
23 years I have been blessed. 23 years I have been fortunate.
And in those 23 years I have learned life is bigger than me.
It’s bigger than you.
And in those 23 years I have learned life is bigger than me.
It’s bigger than you.
It’s not about you and you friends. It’s not about my friends and me.
It’s about the world and impact you have on the world.
I finally know what it means to have sacrificed and to have failed.
I finally know what it means to give more than life.
We do things we want to do, not things we need to do.
Whatever we learn, whatever we adopt, it’s because we follow.
But at some point, at some time, it is up to us to lead.
It is up to me and you to make a change, to make a difference.
Someday, you’ll realize it’s not about you or your people.
It’s about how you and your people have made the world a better place.
It’s about the world and impact you have on the world.
I finally know what it means to have sacrificed and to have failed.
I finally know what it means to give more than life.
We do things we want to do, not things we need to do.
Whatever we learn, whatever we adopt, it’s because we follow.
But at some point, at some time, it is up to us to lead.
It is up to me and you to make a change, to make a difference.
Someday, you’ll realize it’s not about you or your people.
It’s about how you and your people have made the world a better place.
It's time for you to change. It's time for you to become bigger.
Not your head, not your body
Not your legs, not your arms.
Your smile and your heart.
Not your head, not your body
Not your legs, not your arms.
Your smile and your heart.
I thank you family for all your support.
I thank you friends for all of your ideas.
Now it’s time for me to shine bright. It’s time for you to shine light.
And together, we’ll flash the good life. Together, we’ll flash the bright lights.
I know who I am. I know what I’m about.
I thank you friends for all of your ideas.
Now it’s time for me to shine bright. It’s time for you to shine light.
And together, we’ll flash the good life. Together, we’ll flash the bright lights.
I know who I am. I know what I’m about.
Do you?
14.2.11
Happy valentine's day 2011..
If we all had great valentine's each and every year,
None of the special or memorable ones would be remembered.
If they were all the same, none of the ones we treasure,
Or the ones that took our breath away..
Will bring us smiles.
We might have had one great one, maybe five.
Either way, those were great..
So we shouldn't say, oh I'm not a valentine's day person,
Or hate the day.
Because deep down inside, we each have had that one tine,
That one memory, that one moment,
In which we will remember and cherish forever.
Happy valentine's day world.
None of the special or memorable ones would be remembered.
If they were all the same, none of the ones we treasure,
Or the ones that took our breath away..
Will bring us smiles.
We might have had one great one, maybe five.
Either way, those were great..
So we shouldn't say, oh I'm not a valentine's day person,
Or hate the day.
Because deep down inside, we each have had that one tine,
That one memory, that one moment,
In which we will remember and cherish forever.
Happy valentine's day world.
9.2.11
Number 2 of February after 10 days!?
If I could go back…
I would’ve tried harder to becoming the best I could be.
I would’ve tried out for the basketball team and the baseball team
I would’ve tried out for the soccer team or the football team.
I would’ve tried out for the basketball team and the baseball team
I would’ve tried out for the soccer team or the football team.
If I could go back
I wouldn’t ask for all the attention from the entire school.
I wouldn’t try to be the popular on the block.
I wouldn’t be the one who acted a fool.
If I could go back
I wouldn’t try to be the popular on the block.
I wouldn’t be the one who acted a fool.
If I could go back
I wouldn’t mug people because I didn’t agree with who they were.
Despise somebody if they had better clothes than me.
Hate that I lost the one I wanted to someone who I thought was of a lesser.
Despise somebody if they had better clothes than me.
Hate that I lost the one I wanted to someone who I thought was of a lesser.
If I could go back
I would cherish the time more with friends.
I would care more about my family and school work instead of the job.
I would ride the wave like it would never end.
I would care more about my family and school work instead of the job.
I would ride the wave like it would never end.
If I could go back
I would make smarter choices and better decisions.
I would accept challenges and conquer them head on.
I would worry less about quantity and more about precision.
I would accept challenges and conquer them head on.
I would worry less about quantity and more about precision.
If I could go back
I would participate more in all the school activities
and stop worrying about after outside festivities
instead of running away from all the opportunities.
and stop worrying about after outside festivities
instead of running away from all the opportunities.
If I could go back,
I would work harder in school, where the grades and schooling mattered.
I would be brighter with people, being the best person I could possibly be.
I would be lighter with the people and in depth with the ones who mattered.
I would be brighter with people, being the best person I could possibly be.
I would be lighter with the people and in depth with the ones who mattered.
If I could go back,
I would date the girl I wanted to date because I liked her
And not worry about the competition and his satisfaction.
I wouldn’t hide in the darkness and in the shadows as a secret lover.
I wouldn’t be sitting here thinking why I didn’t love her.
And not worry about the competition and his satisfaction.
I wouldn’t hide in the darkness and in the shadows as a secret lover.
I wouldn’t be sitting here thinking why I didn’t love her.
8.2.11
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