Did you know

Nets fans can now lay claim to the world's most expensive basketball arena ever built. According to Wikipedia construction cost for Barclays Center will top out at $1 billion dollars, if you thought that was a typo wrong, I correctly typed $1 billion dollars. The figure must be considered a projection because we are still 11 months away from the building's completed date, who knows the cost could rise even more. Now if the Nets can only provide fans a team that might match the cost of the arena.

The journey

A couple of months ago the Orange County Register published several photos of Laker Coach Mike Brown's home. This $3 million dollar home contains 15 rooms and covers 9,500 square feet. Get this the home came with a 350-gallon aquarium and a temperature-controlled fur closet. Anaheim Hills is almost an 80-mile roundtrip from Staples Center, an 80-mile drive in Los Angeles traffic----ugly! Once upon a time a friend was giving me the blues about Kobe Bryant, he informed me Bryant sometimes utilized a helicopter for trips to practice and games. If that is the case instead of carpooling maybe Coach Brown could hitch a copter ride with Bryant?

Do you share my doubts

In the past there have been many uncomplimentary stories emanating from me regarding Ricky Rubio. After receiving so much hype I questioned if he was a good as the Wolves and others claimed. My primary concern was the game Rubio's agents kept playing "maybe he will maybe he won't." He "wants to play in a warmer climate, he wants to play in New York City" all sorts of stories floating about. In any event while all this back and forth was going on Rubio's overall game (at least numbers) didn't appear to improve if anything his game tailed off. Even more distressing is what I'm reading in the Sporting News, Rubio was injured during a portion of last season so he gets a pass for last seasons poor numbers. As for the EuroBasket games that's a totally different story. He's averaging 3.0 points and 2.0 assists to date and is shooting only 29% from the field. (Sean Deveney, Sporting News, September 2, 2011)

Is this true

Interesting if the story is true. Texas A&M had a chance to become part of the Longhorn Network. That's the story the Associated Press story is reporting. Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds is supposed to have pitched the idea to A&M four years ago but he claims they weren't interested. He said they did this because they (Texas) were unsure if they could carry a network by themselves. I guess that's all water under the bridge as A&M has made their break for the door.

Big versus small

Their is an argument that says only the Lakers, Celtics and Bulls can win NBA Championships. The cynics state "small market teams cannot compete" with their larger brethren. This statement is a little confusing in one regard, these "small markets" they point out are not really small. They use Milwaukee as an example, it's metro populace is 1,751,316. I think many of us might find difficulty referring to it as small, it's small comparing it to Chicago or New York. In my view there are several reasons why these teams don't compete. First and foremost many of these teams are incompetent (example the Wolves) in the front office, if you check their history most have a continued pattern of poor trades and even poorer draft choices. In addition an almost continual pattern of hiring and firing head coaches certainly cannot add to any teams stability.

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."

- Plato (427-347 B.C.)