The Sports Thread

Topic

[Todd]

Feel free to discuss sports of all types from all over the world here. This thread is not limited by country or region.

And remember, Jeopardy! is a game show, not a sport.

• This topic was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Todd.

Replies

I am too short to ever play basketball at any good level however hard I trained.

Then you have outliers like Spud Webb who is 5’6” and played professionally in the NBA for over a decade.

Muggsy Bogues is shorter at 5’3″.

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Todd

[Al-x]

https://youtube.com/shorts/NmfF5mUrX0c?feature=share

It is easy to criticize in the stands as an observer than to get off the seat

and take the field.

It is another thing to put your money were your mouth is and participate.

So true… Even applies to forums and other social media.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Al-x.

garjones wrote:

factually what they are presenting is sound but often their conclusion is a blanket ‘exclude’ which isn’t always necessary.

I agree. And even at elite level different sports will be affected differently by the physical advantages that come with growing up biologically male, due to the nature of the skills and abilities needed. So it may be that other sports don’t have to apply quite such a broad brush when it comes to including trans athletes in their categorisations.

Dave wrote:

I agree. And even at elite level different sports will be affected differently by the physical advantages that come with growing up biologically male, due to the nature of the skills and abilities needed. So it may be that other sports don’t have to apply quite such a broad brush when it comes to including trans athletes in their categorisations.

Does it all come down to trying to fit everyone into just the two specific male and female categories? Isn’t that the problem?

Al-x wrote:

Does it all come down to trying to fit everyone into just the two specific male and female categories? Isn’t that the problem?

It is part of it in some sports, but as discussed upthread lots of sports also have more complex categorisations, different size/weight categories for example. So I think it’s a red herring to think this is all about gender.

You can look at the paralympics where they have to make objective decisions to put athletes in different categories based on their perceived inherent ability level given their attributes. None of that is done to denigrate their identity as a person, it’s just a necessary step to ensure that they can compete on something approaching a level playing field.

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Dave wrote:

So it may be that other sports don’t have to apply quite such a broad brush when it comes to including trans athletes in their categorisations.

Yeah absolutely, snooker and darts have allowed for many years men and women (and I’d assume trans as there’s no reason why not) to compete against each other.

It’s actually a very similar argument to that with PEDs. The sports most vulnerable to that are power and endurance events. The more skill you add the less it matters, you could genetically engineer a football player to be the fittest and strongest but you can’t engineer him (or her) to control the ball like Diego Maradona.

The reason Tom Brady has broken all records and can play into his 40s is all about skill to pick the right play. He’s not stronger or faster than the 25 year olds on the other team, he has more skill and knowledge.

 

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Todd, Dave

garjones wrote:

The more skill you add the less it matters, you could genetically engineer a football player to be the fittest and strongest but you can’t engineer him (or her) to control the ball like Diego Maradona.

Definitely, the more skill is a factor then the less the physical advantage matter.

But then if you bring it back around to the point about elite athletes, the absolute top 0.01%, you have to assume that everyone at the very highest level of their sport is going to be operating at around the same skill level – and so at that point the natural physical advantages associated with sex could make the difference. So it’s a complex equation.

Dave wrote:

You can look at the paralympics where they have to make objective decisions to put athletes in different categories based on their perceived inherent ability level given their attributes. None of that is done to denigrate their identity as a person, it’s just a necessary step to ensure that they can compete on something approaching a level playing field.

I understand. But then I remember I posted here in the past a link of a female athlete who expressed her concern that it wasn’t fair to compete against a transgender person. It is in either the last page or whatever.

Doesn’t the female athlete have a point to an extent?

I am all for equal participation in a sport, but I feel that limiting the sport to just the two designations is doing a disservice and leading to all these hairsplitting debates.

Al-x wrote:

Doesn’t the female athlete have a point to an extent?

Al, please read back the discussion between Dave and I again. At no point do we disregard that, I even specifically say I think the FINA decision is correct for that sport.

What we are saying is that we don’t have to have black and white dictates across all sport. Sports already discriminate in various ways, they have exclusionary policies, like weight classes, when they are needed (boxing) and don’t when they aren’t (association football).  Some more skill based sports have no gender policy at all. Like this:

A 170 finish in darts is incredible, I takes me 50 goes to hit a double to finish. Fallon Sherrock is superior at darts than 99.99% of the world’s population.

As we discussed before at elite level and in very physical sports tiny advantages make a massive difference. A layer of fat is in my mind the reason the final line-up of the 100m sprint is almost always all black and the 50m swim is all white. I am a passionate advocate of equality but I don’t think that will ever change, whatever societal improvements you make. So sport needs to adjust to be competitive but only were it needs to. Many want blanket bans because they are bigots.

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Dave

[Al-x]

garjones wrote:

Al, please read back the discussion between Dave and I again. At no point do we disregard that, I even specifically say I think the FINA decision is correct for that sport.

Ok… I will look back at those postings.

For those who don’t want to backtrack, here is the tweet I was referring to earlier

—————————

In MMA, there were two transgender fighters and their whole situation can be found here:

https://speak-mma.com/blog/transgender-mma-fighters/

—————————————————-

As for MMA, I got into a little when Rhonda Rousey was up there and lost to Holly Holms.

There is this Brazilian from Curitiba who goes by the nickname Cyborg and the injury Cyborg sustained

in a match was too rough. I had to bail after a while…got to be too much.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Al-x.

Al-x wrote:

Give Curry and the Warriors credit but…

but what? Curry is the best shooter since Larry Bird. the only thing he doesn’t have is size but I think that makes him better because he got where he is by training and discipline. He was not gifted a 6′ 8″ 250 lb. frame like LeBron.

[Al-x]

Curry, like Bird, has AMAZING hand eye coordination to make the 3s. But I have to say today’s game allows him to hoist the 3s…

In fact, the Warriors coach was the 3 point specialist on those Bulls teams and if anyone would know the difference, it is him.

————————————————-

These YT videos say a lot about Jordan (which I like as one of the best, but definitely not the GOAT)

https://youtube.com/shorts/vleuTlKkVbw?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/vleuTlKkVbw?feature=share

The first one has a quote that he said that practicing to hoist 3s would take away from his overall game.

The second has players and some analysts comparing today from just the 90s.

——————————————–

Personally, I am not that into today’s games, NBA and every sport, especially when someone says “He is the GOAT”.

Maybe the one who wins the most in a given era, but GOAT takes a LOT of variables to determine as they all aren’t in the same era..

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Al-x.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Al-x.

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garjones wrote:

This is where I differ from the Institute of Science in Sport because factually what they are presenting is sound but often their conclusion is a blanket ‘exclude’ which isn’t always necessary. At elite power/endurance events it may have to be but over 99% of the population of the world are excluded from that anyway by virtue often of genetics, I am too short to ever play basketball at any good level however hard I trained. It was a debate here a while back but in truth I am also probably too white to win the 100m, the margins are so fine at that level. I’m definitely too old for either, which isn’t ageism, just fact most athletes decline around their mid 30s.

It is a question in the sense that the “ends” of sport competition are a bit vague at heart. Most elite athletes definitely are born with physical advantages that have no concern for fairness. We won’t see any 5’4″ centers in the NBA or 120 lbs linemen in the NFL, and that’s just two of the obvious physical advantages that eliminate the majority of athletes from the elite competitions.

Trying to make sports fair in some way is a kind of real life Harrison Bergeron experiment, and that is in some ways what the hormone therapy for trans athletes seems like. We don’t want athletes using performance enhancing therapies, but we do want these athletes using a performance inhibiting therapy.

Again, though, illicit use of steroids, growth hormones and other drugs specifically designed to improve performance has had and will continue to have a far greater effect on sports than the inclusion or exclusion of trans athletes. Hell, in baseball (and basketball, too) the illicit application of specially designed semi-adhesives is turning out to be a much bigger advantage to pitchers than any amount of drug therapy.

However, that is a tough line. As mentioned earlier, technological improvements account for much of the gains in many sports, so it is really only “unfair” because some people and some teams take advantage of it when it is forbidden. So, when a team or player is punished, the sense is that “he just got caught” rather than he was “really” cheating since it is available and likely utilized by everyone.

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Todd

Yeah it’s interesting because if you look at equality laws in most western countries you would not be able to discriminate (legally and openly anyway) in a hiring situation by gender, race or sexuality in 99% of cases. There are only really 3 places that’s allowed:

Some sensitive jobs that have to go through an approval process to discriminate – e.g. working in a women’s refuge, care home, changing facilities etc

Performing arts – you can advertise for specific age, race and gender. This can be a tricky area at times but we also know why I can’t be cast as Ms Marvel with any credibility.

Sports – where many but not all segregate by sex, by weight, by age , by disability level.  There we are talking mainly about elite or very competitive sports, nobody is stopping a mixed age or gender group having a game of soccer or baseball (see X-Men comics of the 80s).

That’s why I’m not sure this should be the hill to die on for trans rights activists. There’s an ideal of complete equality but they are fighting it on one of 3 areas where that doesn’t exist for everyone and it becomes a rallying point for bigots because it’s to me the only one of their many arguments that has any level of validity.

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Rocket, Al-x, Todd, Dave

garjones wrote:

This can be a tricky area at times but we also know why I can’t be cast as Ms Marvel with any credibility.

Is it because you’ve also just been cast as Power Girl and they don’t want to confuse people?

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Rocket, Al-x, Todd, garjones

Dave! That news is under embargo!

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Rocket, Todd, Dave

Dave wrote:

garjones wrote:

This can be a tricky area at times but we also know why I can’t be cast as Ms Marvel with any credibility.

Is it because you’ve also just been cast as Power Girl and they don’t want to confuse people?

Did Gar get breast implants or did he just pad the bra?

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Al-x

Todd wrote:

Dave wrote:

garjones wrote:

This can be a tricky area at times but we also know why I can’t be cast as Ms Marvel with any credibility.

Is it because you’ve also just been cast as Power Girl and they don’t want to confuse people?

Did Gar get breast implants or did he just pad the bra?

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Todd

Todd wrote:

Did Gar get breast implants or did he just pad the bra?

Why should he?

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Todd

You guys starting to get into “manboobs” talk?

🤣🤣🤣

garjones wrote:

That’s why I’m not sure this should be the hill to die on for trans rights activists. There’s an ideal of complete equality but they are fighting it on one of 3 areas where that doesn’t exist for everyone and it becomes a rallying point for bigots because it’s to me the only one of their many arguments that has any level of validity.

Currently, it seems like Ezra Miller is the poster child for every argument against transgenderism, but yeah, I think there are more valid arguments for discrimination in sports, BUT it still has such a minor effect on sports – especially in the many amateur sports and competitions where participation is the primary goal rather than victories and stats – the attention it gets seems exaggerated.

Anonymous wrote:

Currently, it seems like Ezra Miller is the poster child for every argument against transgenderism

I don’t think it’s anything to do with being transgender, more like the poster child for being a dickhead.

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To get this thread back on track, Here is some wonderful news: AVS are Stanley Cup Champions 2022

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Chris D, Todd, njerry, Sean Robinson

Well done to AVS, are they shipping company like DHL?

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Todd, Dave

garjones wrote:

Well done to AVS, are they shipping company like DHL?

No I’m pretty sure they provide my antivirus software.

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Todd, garjones

The top Google result for AVS suggests AVS Fencing & Landscaping, so I presume the blokes in that photo won an industry award for a particularly striking rooftop terrace refresh.

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saga wrote:

The top Google result for AVS suggests AVS Fencing & Landscaping

Don’t fall into the same trap as Rudi Giuliani.

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Todd

Dave wrote:

saga wrote:

The top Google result for AVS suggests AVS Fencing & Landscaping

Don’t fall into the same trap as Rudi Giuliani.

I think you meant to say, “Don’t fall into the same trap as Rudi Giuliani again.”

The Brooklyn Nets had this roster with the Big 3 superstars and added in this former star guard as

head coach. They were supposed to be like the Miami Heat team years ago when they had Lebron, Wade,  and

Bosch.

 

Now, the Nets are all broken up, about all 3 are gone. Just did not work out!

for @totallynotanders  this is Gabriel Landeskog, Captain of the Colorado Avalanche, and a faithful Swedish son

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Sean Robinson

[Sean Robinson]

Grier hired by Sharks, first Black general manager in NHL history

Was hockey operations adviser for Rangers, played 14 seasons in League

Mike Grier became the first Black general manager in NHL history when he was hired by the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.

The 47-year-old replaces Doug Wilson, who stepped down April 7 after 19 seasons to focus on his health. Assistant GM Joe Will held the position while San Jose conducted its search.

Grier played for the Sharks from 2006-09.

“Really excited to work and to be back in the Bay Area,” he said. “I know there’s been lots of ups and downs but I’m ready to work hard and get at it and get this thing back on the tracks. We’re going to start winning some games in the “Shark Tank” and get it going again. See you soon.”

_________________________________________________

NHL releases 2022-23 regular-season schedule

Lightning visit Rangers in North America opener Oct. 11 after Predators face Sharks in Prague on Oct. 7

The 2022-23 NHL season will begin in North America with back-to-back doubleheaders televised in the United States, starting with the New York Rangers hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning on Oct. 11. The Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche will raise their banner the next night before their game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Oct. 11 doubleheader, which will also feature the Vegas Golden Knights facing the Los Angeles Kings, will be on ESPN, and the Oct. 12 doubleheader, which will also include the Boston Bruins taking on the Washington Capitals, will be on TNT.

The NHL released its 1,312-game schedule, 82 for each team, on Wednesday.

The NHL previously announced the Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks will begin the regular season with two games in the 2022 NHL Global Series at O2 Arena in Prague on Oct. 7 and 8 (each at 2 p.m. ET). Those will be NHL’s first games in Europe since 2019, following a two-season break because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Global Series also includes two games between the Avalanche and the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland, on Nov. 4 and 5.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Sean Robinson.

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Todd

Nice news about the Sharks…

Also:

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Todd

Tomorrow morning will be the Wimbledon Mens Finals

Novak Djokovic v Nick Kyrgios

I posted about Kyrgios and his remarks to Ben Stiller in the crowd
in one match. He does these between the legs shots sometimes.
I want to respect him, but from what I have read, he is just a
modern day @$$hole like McEnroe, Connors, Nastase. Thing is, I know
Connors and McEnroe were very talented and won…

The NHL 2022 Entry Draft is now complete and in the books.

NHL Draft picks 2022: Complete results, list of selections from Rounds 1-7 – Sporting News

Considered a weak draft, before the expected ‘once-a-generation’ draft of 2023, which is expected top rival 2003.
How do you really know?

History was made when the top Two picks were from Slovakia.

Montreal Canadiens (host team for the draft) made a daring choice by making forward Juraj Slafkovsky the first Slovak ever to be drafted first overall.
With the second pick, the New Jersey Devils followed up by selecting Slovak defenseman Simon Nemec.

Before this week, only two players from the Central European nation with a population of less than 5.5 million had ever been selected in the top 10: forwards Marian Gaborik at No. 3 in 2000 and Robert Petrovicky at No. 9 in 1992.

Two non-North Americans from the same country have been chosen with the top two picks just once before. Russians Alex Ovechkin (No. 1, Washington) and Evgeni Malkin (No. 2, Pittsburgh) topped the 2004 draft and have both had long, successful careers, won Stanley Cups are on track for eventual induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

________________________________

Vancouver drafted 15th overall, and were gifted winger Jonathan Lekkerimaki (from Sweden, where we love to draft from).
Every ranking had him in the Top Ten.
Slight, needs to put on weight, but we’re fine at forward so no rush and let him grow into what he can be.
Good pick.

Did you know his favorite player is fellow Swede Elias Pettersson?
Well, if things turn out right they will be teammates as Pettersson was drafted by the Canucks in 2017, fifth overall.

So with no pick in the second round, Vancouver used it’s 3rd round pick to draft yet another Swede, Elias Pettersson.

The third round of the NHL Draft saw Vancouver become the site of a major oddity, as the Canucks now have two players with the exact same name: Elias Pettersson, a defenseman from Orebro HK in the SHL, joins center Elias Pettersson, the No. 5-overall pick in the 2017 Draft.

The move marks only the second time in NHL history that a team has featured two players with the same name, a distinction which — oddly enough — belongs to the 1988-89 Canucks. Vancouver featured two players both named Greg Adams.

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Rocket

Sean Robinson wrote:

Considered a weak draft, before the expected ‘once-a-generation’ draft of 2023, which is expected top rival 2003. How do you really know?

And many people questioned Sakic’s moves when The AVs gave away picks to end up with only 2: a 6th and 7th.  HAHA

He also signed the goalie he got for those traded picks to 3 year deal.

Let’s go Georgie!

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Sean Robinson

In other AVs news. The guy who dented the cup on the ice is the first one to get his day with the cup.

“Hopefully, it stays undented and in good shape,” Aube-Kubel said jokingly during the morning gathering.

I can see the keeper of the cup going” let’s get this guy out of the way before he can do any more damage”

I know the situation of South American soccer players playing in the European Leagues to supplement
their income. The same is with WNBA players, which is why Brittney Griner was overseas. There are a
lot of issues brought up with this like how underpaid women players are (admittedly, they will NEVER
get Lebron James or Michael Jordan contracts), if this was a white cis basketball star like a Paige Beuckers,
and so on. So it goes. but this Lebron quote does say “Whoa!” imho.

10 unvaccinated Kansas City Royals can’t play in series vs. Toronto Blue Jays due to Canadian COVID rules

The Kansas City Royals will be without 10 of the 26 players on their active roster for their four-game series in Toronto due to Canadian restrictions on travelers who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19. The series begins Thursday.

“Many teams have been affected by the restrictions, though the Royals have a far bigger contingent of unvaccinated players than any other team we’ve seen to this point,” writes CBSSports.com’s Matt Snyder.

“Pretty much every team thus far that has visited the Jays in Toronto has had a set of players who haven’t gotten the vaccine and were then placed on the restricted list, but this is on another level,” Snyder continues. “In fact, only 25 players in total have been placed on the restricted list before series in Toronto for this reason so far, reports ESPN. The Royals will push that number to 35 in one fell swoop.”

More in link…

What the Fuck? Bunch of jerks.

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Todd

Sean Robinson wrote:

What the Fuck? Bunch of jerks.

one of them, Andrew Benintendi(?), was having a good year and rumored to be traded to NYY. NYY heard he wasn’t vaxxed and ended the discussion. going to worst to first might have been nice but antivax and it is all over with.

That LeBron quote reminds me again how much of an idiot he is. What is she going to do? stay in Russian Jail….

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Sean Robinson

Well… Lebron has his reasons for saying what he said given his experiences…

————————

In NY, the Yankee fans have this debate about signing this young hitter Aaron Judge.
They are pretty much in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.
If they don’t sign him, other teams will sign him at top dollar and for all that power to go elsewhere…
If they do sign him at top dollar (30M/yr) that would mean that for the next 5-7 years, the first 100M of the payroll
would have to go to just 3 players (Judge, Cole, and Giancarlo), before they even get to spending on the other
37+ players on the roster. Sounds very disproportionate, eh? Never mind the concept of diminishing returns where
you will be contractually obligated to paying top dollar to the athlete when they are way past their prime and
giving even less of a sports performance.

So… They are stuck…

Al-x wrote:

Well… Lebron has his reasons for saying what he said given his experiences…

I don’t understand that statement; has LeBron James been treated poorly by the US as a country or by Americans? I admit I haven’t paid much attention to his personal life, but my impression is that he has been praised by NBA fans as one of the greatest players of all time. The only controversy I can recall was related to his free-agency decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and sign with the Miami Heat, but even that was a minor bump in the road of his financial and professional successes.

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[Al-x]

Let me just say that each person’s experiences and perspectives are different. Having said that,
I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss him as an “idiot”.

I mean… Whatever happened to the forum standards of providing valid counterarguments, with links, etc. for all
to see? Now it is all just insults, trolling…all for clout.

Lebron did make some comments about Boston fans being “racist AF”. There is a long history there as to how
non whites have been treated there. In the 70s, when this bussing of black kids to some white schools and the
riots over that. In basketball, how Bill Russel was treated, then how attendance suddenly rose very high when the main stars
were the two star white players John Havlichek and Dave Cowans in the 70s…

I see Lebron’s point, BUT… LA is really no better when you consider the 60s Watts riots, Rodney King, how LA police chief
Darryl Gates ran things in LA…

Both cities are a mess.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by Al-x.

It is equally tough to exactly determine where discrimination was involved as well. In the Griner case, what should the United States actually do? She may have been targeted but she wasn’t framed. She admitted to having the cannabis in her possession. Her biggest problem is her high profile.

What will it take to bring Brittney Griner home? (yahoo.com)

Though a one-to-one prisoner swap may be the simplest way to get Griner back to the U.S., some experts worry about the implications of exchanging an American charged with a minor drug crime for a Russian who was such a prolific weapons smuggler he earned the moniker “Merchant of Death.” They argue that conceding to Moscow’s demands to release Bout might motivate the Russians, or other foreign adversary, to detain other Americans in hopes of leveraging a similar deal.

Some high-level American diplomats, including the former Russian ambassador, say it’s still worth releasing Bout if that’s what it takes to free Griner. Others argue that this imbalance creates room for the U.S. to make additional demands, specifically the release of Paul Whelan — an American citizen who has been in Russian detention on disputed espionage charges since 2018.

It doesn’t sound like racism is the driving force here, but that the benefits of freeing Griner might not outweigh the consequences of freeing an arms dealer. As the Paul Whelan case shows, it is not just Griner and it is not something the United States could handle quickly in any case.

The WNBA controversy is also a bit more complex. It is less about equal rights and more about worker’s rights and economic pressure.

Is the WNBA Profitable? (Quick Answer & Reasons Why) (dunkorthree.com)

To kick off this article we first need to address the core question at hand: is the WNBA profitable. In a word? No. Unfortunately, where the NBA is a money-making machine (which we’ll see later on) the WNBA is nowhere near as profitable on a yearly basis.

In terms of raw numbers, the WNBA generates roughly $60 million in revenue every season. That may sound like a lot, but when matched up against the $70 million the league costs to run, it actually loses roughly $10 million with each passing year.

So, when you have a pool of (-$10 million) to keep the league running, it is hard to argue that it is sexism that prevents women players from earning as much as NBA players.

How Much Money Do WNBA Players Make?

The average WNBA player makes roughly $130,000 a year, and rookie or first-time contracts have a minimum of $57,000 a year. That’s not anything close to NBA players, but it’s still pretty good pay for playing a game.

Does the NBA Make More than the WNBA?

Yes. A lot more. While the WNBA pulls in around $60 million each year, the NBA generates a staggering $8 billion in revenue. That puts it as one of the most successful businesses in the world.

Are WNBA Games Expensive?

Compared to other sporting events, they are quite cheap. The average ticket price for any WNBA game sits right around $17. Add a little extra for food and you get a solid outing without paying too much.

Who is the Highest Paid WNBA Player?

Both Skylar Diggins-Smith and Brittney Griner have $221,000 contracts. That makes them the league’s top earners.

Final Words

At the end of the day, the WNBA is not nearly as popular as its male counterpart. It still does a good job of bringing in fans, especially for a female league, but it still hasn’t been able to earn enough money to stay profitable over time.

Now, I agree with a lot of basketball fans that it is very hard to compare the energy and explosiveness of an NBA game to a WNBA game. I also agree that physical changes to the game could improve that. There are differences. Quarters are shorter, the ball is smaller and the 3-point line is closer. Some have suggested a shorter court or lowering the basket to 9 feet would also help, but a lot of players and others are against that. There is a good argument in that it would increase expenses to significantly change the court for every WNBA game as these are usually standardized for the venues and possibly not even able to change. Lowering the rim is likely possible and practical, but though that would help bring more dunks, it is hard to say how that would affect shooting from players used to a 10′ basket. On the other hand, it’s easy enough to find out. Just do it for a few exhibition games and see how it works. Again though, would players intentionally perform poorly if they opposed it?

Personally, I don’t think it is a good idea to point to racism or sexism as the central problem whenever the news reports on stories like these. Especially when there are so many other factors, it is not clear how either actually plays into the arguments and debate.

Also, it is important to point out that while LeBron James or Griner aren’t idiots and they are notable celebrities and leaders in their professions, their experiences are exceptional. They are going to receive special treatment that cannot be applied widely outside their own specific circumstances. Also, they are no more well informed than anyone else in the debates of racism or sexism in the nation on the whole and probably a lot less well informed than the average political organizer or community activist in our neighborhoods.

 

 

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Todd

The Houston Comets won the WNBA title four years in a row (1997 – 2000, the first four years of the league’s existence).

By 2008, they had been disbanded because they couldn’t find any buyers. The asking price? $10 million.

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Chris D

Al-x wrote:

Lebron did make some comments about Boston fans being “racist AF”

IMO, that is another idiot comment. If you follow Boston sports at all, you know that they are racist. Saying what he did is like “water is wet” or “the sky is blue”. I realize i don’t have the same perspective as you Al and I never will but I like to judge people on what they say and do not what color they are. If you notice in that same post I call out a dipshit white boy as well as the idiot LeBron. As far as defending my statement, it is my opinion that he says stupid things that cause him to be viewed as an idiot. You might say it is because of his limited education but the man is worth $1 Billion he has the means to improve that.  I don’t have time or desire to prove my statement is a fact and i don’t give a damn about clout.

Another opinion of mine is IF you live in NYC and you COMPLAIN about the Yankees, it just means you are a JEALOUS Mets fan. It has been that way since the 60s

 

Rocket wrote:

Another opinion of mine is IF you live in NYC and you COMPLAIN about the Yankees, it just means you are a JEALOUS Mets fan. It has been that way since the 60s

As a New Yorker and a Mets fan for over 50 years, I can confirm that the above statement is absolutely true. Fucking Yankees, they suck because they win championships!!

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Rocket

I am a Met fan, and I do not approve of these messages.

Todd wrote:

The Houston Comets won the WNBA title four years in a row (1997 – 2000, the first four years of the league’s existence).

By 2008, they had been disbanded because they couldn’t find any buyers. The asking price? $10 million.

Yeah, the obvious problem here with the WNBA and with women’s soccer is that they probably were intended to create a league of professional women athletes that would attract a new and profitable base of women fans. If an athlete wants to make more money, they got to sell more tickets. They need to expand their fan base to get those endorsement deals,

besides if more women went to see the games that would naturally get more men going to see them, but NBA fans don’t have any obligation to give a crap about the WNBA. As far as entertainment value, there is no comparison so until the sport finds its unique hook to start pulling in the crowds – that potential profit and audience will always be 10 years away.

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Todd

Anonymous wrote:

Todd wrote:

The Houston Comets won the WNBA title four years in a row (1997 – 2000, the first four years of the league’s existence).

By 2008, they had been disbanded because they couldn’t find any buyers. The asking price? $10 million.

Yeah, the obvious problem here with the WNBA and with women’s soccer is that they probably were intended to create a league of professional women athletes that would attract a new and profitable base of women fans. If an athlete wants to make more money, they got to sell more tickets. They need to expand their fan base to get those endorsement deals,

besides if more women went to see the games that would naturally get more men going to see them, but NBA fans don’t have any obligation to give a crap about the WNBA. As far as entertainment value, there is no comparison so until the sport finds its unique hook to start pulling in the crowds – that potential profit and audience will always be 10 years away.

Disclaimer: About the only time I watch any sports is if someone else is watching. I very, very, very rarely watch sports on my own. (The only exception was UFC but when ESPN got the contract and the vast majority of fights went on streaming services and very expensive pay per view, I pretty much stopped watching it.) I keep up with scores via push notices on my phone. During the pandemic lockdown, I didn’t miss sports at all.

That being said, I can honestly say that I have never watched a complete WNBA game. I may have seen bits and pieces over the years but that’s about it. I will be honest, I thought the league had folded years ago. I just didn’t hear anythng about them. It could that I live in a city without a team. I don’t even know when their season is or where I can watch games on TV.

This may sound cold but I think the Brittney Griner arrest in Russia is the most I’ve seen the WNBA mentioned in the mainstream press.

The Wikipedia page for the WNBA has a lot of interesting information. There are currently 12 teams. Six teams have folded over the history of the league. Average regular season attendance has been in steady decline for years. I can see why they are losing money.

The women’s basketball is great to see fundamental skills of team defense, passing, shooting, layups, and so on.
Unfortunately, there is no “showmanship” like the NBA personalities.

Tbh, the NBA became very popular since the 80s with the rivalry between the Larry Bird Celtics and the Magic Johnson Lakers. Add in all the hip hop motif in the marketing, a fast paced sport, and it was a product that was deceptive in making some think that race relations were improving.

As far as women’s soccer, people get behind (like “USA!”) when it comes to the womens World Cup, and a few of them like Hope Solo years ago, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe are popular in media appearances and soundbites on womens acceptance. Can that transfer to the WNBA? Sue Bird a star player (and Rapinoe’s partner) was asked that and she said plainly “We are not cute white girls. We are lesbians, tattoes etc.” So there’s that as far as marketing…

Al-x wrote:

The women’s basketball is great to see fundamental skills of team defense, passing, shooting, layups, and so on. Unfortunately, there is no “showmanship” like the NBA personalities.

However, you don’t always get that. I think the women’s games in the NCAA are much more interesting and entertaining than the WNBA, and that’s a problem. An average WNBA game should feel like a tournament NCAA game, but it rarely even feels like a regular NCAA game.

Al-x wrote:

Tbh, the NBA became very popular since the 80s with the rivalry between the Larry Bird Celtics and the Magic Johnson Lakers. Add in all the hip hop motif in the marketing, a fast paced sport, and it was a product that was deceptive in making some think that race relations were improving. As far as women’s soccer, people get behind (like “USA!”) when it comes to the womens World Cup, and a few of them like Hope Solo years ago, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe are popular in media appearances and soundbites on womens acceptance. Can that transfer to the WNBA? Sue Bird a star player (and Rapinoe’s partner) was asked that and she said plainly “We are not cute white girls. We are lesbians, tattoes etc.” So there’s that as far as marketing…

Yeah, a lot of the success of the NBA is basically putting on a show with personalities in a lot of the same way that pro wrestling is popular – only the NBA is actually a competitive sport and not an athletic stage show.

Look at the other forms of entertainment massive numbers of women got into while the WNBA was struggling to get people to their games – especially reality TV like Keeping up with the Kardashians or the Bachelor. It’s about women competing against each other in the most vicious, most dramatic and often scripted ways possible.

Still, I’d say though about a third of all NBA fans are women and probably 75% of all WNBA fans are women, in real numbers I’d also bet that 1/3 of NBA fans is probably a considerably larger than the entire WNBA fanbase. If the NBA could get only its own women fans interested in paying to see and follow the WNBA, they’d be profitable.

Anonymous wrote:

besides if more women went to see the games that would naturally get more men going to see them, but NBA fans don’t have any obligation to give a crap about the WNBA. As far as entertainment value, there is no comparison so until the sport finds its unique hook to start pulling in the crowds – that potential profit and audience will always be 10 years away.

I’m not sure the WNBA has that ten years. If the attendance numbers in Wikipedia article I linked above and they are operating in the red are any indication, time is truly running out for the league. And to be honest, I’m not sure how to turn it around at this point. Hell, it’s competing against the NBA Summer League! There really is no incentive to watch women’s basketball when you can watch professional men’s essentially year round.

Sadly, I’m not sure how they can turn it around. Some sort of stunt could bring new eyes but then they would have to keep that momentum going, which is hard to pull off. I’m not sure rule and court changes would make a difference.

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Todd wrote:

I’m not sure the WNBA has that ten years. If the attendance numbers in Wikipedia article I linked above and they are operating in the red are any indication, time is truly running out for the league. And to be honest, I’m not sure how to turn it around at this point. Hell, it’s competing against the NBA Summer League! There really is no incentive to watch women’s basketball when you can watch professional men’s essentially year round. Sadly, I’m not sure how they can turn it around. Some sort of stunt could bring new eyes but then they would have to keep that momentum going, which is hard to pull off. I’m not sure rule and court changes would make a difference.

Yeah, but I think it’s been like this from the beginning. Any normal business would have closed down ten years ago, never mind the next ten years. And after covid and controversy, it has even less of a chance, but it is still in business somehow.

Well, it’s because the NBA doesn’t want to take the blame for actively shutting it down so maybe they are just letting it drag out and die on its own. If there really is no viability at some point – no players who really want to join and no venues that will take the games – no one can blame them for closing shop on it.

Honestly, though, I think it is probably not worth it to be an athlete in the league. I’d actually say that the majority of professional athletes would be better off leaving their sports. For every success – like most businesses – there are a hundred people struggling just to stay in it and there is hardly any long term career option for them anyway.

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Todd

Todd wrote:

Sadly, I’m not sure how they can turn it around. Some sort of stunt could bring new eyes but then they would have to keep that momentum going, which is hard to pull off. I’m not sure rule and court changes would make a difference.

Thinking more on it – there is an interesting different take on it.

Technically, the WNBA as a league loses $10 million a year. However, when businesses talk about their marketing and advertising budgets, they don’t say that they are “losing” $50 million on this commercial or “losing” $30 million a year on some marketing program. Though they certainly are “spending” that much and far more on PR and ads.

Even though it may have had little interest or success as a professional sport, as a marketing program promoting the NBA’s reputation and basketball to young women, $10 million is incredibly cheap for what the WNBA achieves and could achieve in return.

In that light, the players’ demands for a better pay structure is more a negotiation by contracted promoters to increase their commissions for “selling” the reputation and interests of the NBA.

Instead of gender disparity or sexism – and instead of looking just as the profit-loss and comparing the WNBA with the NBA, this basically becomes a negotiation between an employer (the NBA) and their employees or contract promoters (the players) and all those hot social or economic takes are really just tactics and talking points in a fight that comes down to compensation and labor.

The promotion staff wants to get paid more for their work, and the NBA doesn’t really care if the games are good or who wins. They’re only paying $10 million dollars in the end for an entire sports league with a worldwide network of community outreach player-to-fan contact and media coverage. Hell, the NBA could even think that the controversies the sports generates only improves the value of the league. As a sport, it may not be great, but it could be worth it to the NBA anyway.

Cynically, the NBA could also want to control the only serious women’s leagues to prevent some potential competitor from grabbing the best players and giving it a serious shot.

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Todd

To be honest while there are issues of inequality it is difficult in many sports to justify equal pay in the same way as other businesses. Essentially it’s hard to argue that if a female bank manager or doctor does the same job they don’t get paid the same but in US sports in particular the collective bargaining agreements for pay are based on a percentage of revenue.

There is a very valid argument in US women’s soccer they get paid more than the men as they perform better and are more famous but if you say the best WNBA player should earn as much as LeBron then realistically that league goes bust the next day.

As a rugby fan there has been a recent move to professional contracts for women but while support is growing their best attendances at games are around 16,000 at £10 a head compared to a men’s game selling 82,000 at £150 a head. The best female player in England probably gets around £40k while the best male one gets £1,000,000 but if you demanded the female player also gets a million the league would be disbanded, there isn’t the money to pay for it.

It works in tennis, they do have equal pay because there is roughly equal interest, the main courts sell out for both and the TV ratings are similar but there is a clash in many sports between the desirable theory of equal pay and the economic ability to actually do it.

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Todd, Dave

What’s going on in the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox game?

News had a highlight of the Boston guy completely losing sight of the ball which led to an inside the park home run for Toronto.

But the bigger thing is right now, as I type, Top of the 6th, it’s 27 – 3 for Toronto, and it’s not a typo.

Thats a NFL (or low scoring CFL) score.

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Todd

Sean Robinson wrote:

Thats a NFL (or low scoring CFL) score.

Or the score for an average WNBA game.

Toronto’s Raimel Tapia hits inside-the-park grand slam as Blue Jays set franchise mark for runs scored in 28-5 rout of Boston Red Sox (espn.com)

 

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Todd, Sean Robinson

How many times are we all watching this tonight? 🤯pic.twitter.com/Z5UHyBbb8Z

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) July 26, 2022

[Rocket]

Dave wrote:

How many times are we all watching this tonight? 🤯pic.twitter.com/Z5UHyBbb8Z

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) July 26, 2022

I did watch it live and i have to say those last 2 goals were not classics imo. That back heel should’ve been stopped and the last goal could’ve been stopped with a little more effort from the Swedish keeper.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by Rocket.

Rocket wrote:

I did watch it live and i have to say those last 2 goals were not classics imo. That back heel should’ve been stopped and the last goal could’ve been stopped with a little more effort from the Swedish keeper.

The fourth goal was more due to a mistake by the keeper, but the third one (in that video above) was actually less of a keeper error than it might have first appeared. She was expecting Russo to turn and strike again (and so was preparing to dive one way or the other) but was wrongfooted by the backheel which instead went straight down the middle. I think it was an inspired move at lightning speed, really brilliant.

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Rocket, garjones

I tend to agree, it never looks good when a keeper is nutmegged but nobody would be set to defend a backheel like that. You could watch a thousand games and not see that move attempted. I think I’d err on the side of praising the strike.

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Rocket

So Your squad is playing Germany. Is it “coming home”?  

Baseball is likely the one major sport with the weirdest trivia:

MLB leans on longtime mud supplier, not Rawlings, to coat balls – Sports Illustrated

Mud is a family business; it has been for more than half a century. For decades, baseball’s official rule book has required that every ball be rubbed before being used in a game. Bintliff’s mud is the only substance allowed. Originally marketed as “magic,” it’s just a little thicker than chocolate pudding—a tiny dab is enough to remove the factory gloss from a new ball without mucking up the seams or getting the cover too filthy. Equipment managers rub it on before every game, allowing pitchers to get a dependable grip. The mud is found only along a short stretch of that tributary of the Delaware, with the precise location kept secret from everyone, including MLB.

More baseball weirdness: Baseball Has A Baseball Problem – YouTube

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Todd

Rocket wrote:

So Your squad is playing Germany. Is it “coming home”?  

Yes.

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Rocket, Ben, Todd

And with no fucking penalties.

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Rocket, Dave

Ben wrote:

And with no fucking penalties.

it was close. That German goal in the 78th minute was very concerning. Congratulations on the championship.

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Todd

Rocket wrote:

So Your squad is playing Germany. Is it “coming home”?  

I’m predicting “no”.

It’s weird that baseball always has the most complex cheating scandals.

MLB Pitchers Are Cheating Again But It’s Ok Now – YouTube

The story about the whistle-cheating is pretty interesting. In baseball, you kinda have to be a top-level player just to implement the cheats.

It may be the nature of bat and ball games because cricket has also been rife with similar cheating and fixing scandals over the years.

Players have been caught ripping at the seam of the ball, attaching sticky tape, rubbing sandpaper on it and even biting it to basically make it move less predictably. Generally the same concept the baseball guys are applying.

 

 

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Al-x

Formula 1 went on its summer break after this Sunday’s Hungarian GP, meaning that the summer silly season of driver moves and rumours has begun. Only three days in and it’s already excellent. Just ::chef’s kiss::

To start Aston Martin were recently publicly confident that Sebastian Vettel – whose two year contract finishes at the end of this season – would extend his contract. Except in the middle of last week, he announced his retirement (which isn’t a huge shock really – he’s been publicly mulling the hypocrisy of environmental advocacy while being in F1 and driving for team sponsored by Aramco, as well as doing the kinds of things you do before leaving, like bringing his kids to a race for the first time and taking out the 1992 Championship Williams car he bought a few years back for a demonstration).

On Monday, Aston Martin announced that they’d signed Fernando Alonso on a “multi-year” contract. This is a bit of surprise, as Alonso is currently with Alpine. They’re the team he won his championships with back in the 00s, he’s on this third stint with them and they’re the ones who brought him back in from his sabbatical. It’s like his F1 home, in a way. Also, more crucially, they’re currently doing rather better than Aston Martin and have better long term prospects.

But it seems Alonso was jumped before he was pushed. Alpine have under contract through their young driver system a guy called Oscar Piastri. Piastri won F2 last season but couldn’t get a drive in F1 this year. He’s under contract with Alpine, but there’s a clause that says they had to secure him a drive (not necessarily with them) before the Austrian or British GP (back in June or so) otherwise he’s allowed to look elsewhere. So there were strong rumours for a while that Piastri would be placed at Williams next year in exchange for an engine deal (Alpine are just Renault under a stupid name), satisfying all corners and tidying everything up.

Except that deal never seemed to happen and there’s been no announcement from Williams or Alpine about it.

Yesterday, with Alonso out of the picture, Alpine announced that they’re replacing him with their hot new talent Oscar Piastri! Problem solved, everyone’s happy.

Until today, when Piastri publicly announced (via Twitter) that he hasn’t signed with Alpine, he doesn’t have a contract with them for 2023 and definitely won’t be racing with them next year. Which is unexpected, to say the least.

For Piastri to go so scorched earth on having a drive with Alpine he’s presumably got to have something better lined up (or is a incredibly ballsy negotiator or is just an idiot; one of the three). But there aren’t really any open seats for next season better than the one with Alpine.

The closest there is to an open seat higher up is Daniel Ricciardo’s at McLaren, who has been under a lot of pressure this season due to some really bad results on his part. But the team are insistent they’ll keep him if he wants to stay and he’s been insistent he’ll be there next season (the extension clause in his contract is on his choice, not McLaren). But I’m not sure I’d put money on that right now.

I saw an amusing contest in the Commonwealth Games yesterday in weightlifting.

I’m not exactly an expert in the sport but it seems the order you compete is in the weight you opt to lift, so they show multiple rounds of guys working their way through various failures and successes in the clean and jerk with an Indian guy getting as high as 191kg and then failing 198kg.

Then this massive Samoan guy appeared, his first lift was 200kg which he took 10 seconds to easily do (he initially set his first at 210kg but took it down after the others failed) and with that instantly won gold. A real mic drop moment to travel halfway around the world to do 10 seconds work, piss over all his competitors and go home with a gold medal. 😂

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Martin Smith, Rocket, Dave

Serena Williams announces she will retire after 2022 US Open

JRCarter wrote:

Serena Williams announces she will retire after 2022 US Open

Didn’t she already retire? If so, she’s clearly the Alan Moore of tennis.

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Al-x

Anonymous wrote:

Didn’t she already retire? If so, she’s clearly the Alan Moore of tennis.

This is her first official announcement; she has previously dropped out of competition while she recovered from injuries and while she became a mother. Her intention was to come back to the sport to achieve some unmet goals, but her recent experiences upon returning to the circuit were less than optimum.

Anonymous wrote:

JRCarter wrote:

Serena Williams announces she will retire after 2022 US Open

Didn’t she already retire? If so, she’s clearly the Alan Moore of tennis.

No, that would have been a headline that read “Serena Williams announces she loathes tennis industry and everyone in it, wants her name taken off all former trophies, and is preparing to set loose a snake-god on Wimbledon”.

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Todd

njerry wrote:

she has previously dropped out of competition while she recovered from injuries and while she became a mother

Ah, I have probably misremembered or conflated this with retiring. Thanks!

NFL season starts Thursday Sept. 8th

Bills against the Rams

Should be a great game. I still remember the Bills and Chiefs going at it!

Any predictions for the season.

It will be a while before I get into football tbh. I am still into the Mets.

The Jets lost a key offensive lineman at a practice game scrimmage
Gone for the entire season… But I refuse to say the Jets are snake bitten.

The Giants lack organizational direction.

Al-x wrote:

I am still into the Mets.

It’s a good time for that.

I’m 30 minutes in to this and I am not abandoning it. Fuck I love sports.

https://t.co/wZCjRZSBfl pic.twitter.com/s53ovJJIVV

— Pumpkin Escobar (@ThatGuyEdub) August 9, 2022

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Todd

I used to watch kabaddi all the time usually on the television sets of Indian or Pakistani restaurants while having lunch or dinner. It was very unusually and played in a dirt arena that looked like it was better suited for rodeo or bullfighting, but it was both fascinating and hilariously strange.

Played between two teams of seven players, the objective of the game is for a single player on offence, referred to as a “raider”, to run into the opposing team’s half of a court, touch out as many of their defenders as possible, and return to their own half of the court, all without being tackled by the defenders, and in a single breath

I thought it might take off. I should check and see if there is a local kabaddi league in Los Angeles.

Pro Kabaddi 2022: Teams, squads, players list of 12 participating teams in PKL-Sports News , Firstpost

Opinion: Why the Pro Kabaddi League has become so popular (khelnow.com)

365 Highlights | Best Match 443 | Shahkot VS Sarhala Ranuan | Nawanshahr | Kabaddi Cup | 2019 – YouTube

Nice work if you can get it!

The Denver Broncos extend Russell Wilson for 5 years, $245 Million.
So that makes $296 Million over the next 7 years.

I hope it works out for them.

https://www-espn-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34500536/russell-wilson-denver-broncos-agree-5-year-extension-worth-245-million-including-165-million-guaranteed-sources-say?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&platform=amp&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16620499850828&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.espn.com%2Fnfl%2Fstory%2F_%2Fid%2F34500536%2Frussell-wilson-denver-broncos-agree-5-year-extension-worth-245-million-including-165-million-guaranteed-sources-say

Sean Robinson wrote:

The Denver Broncos extend Russell Wilson for 5 years, $245 Million.
So that makes $296 Million over the next 7 years.

I hope it works out for them.

That’s just obscene. I hope this deal ends up bankrupting the team.

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Sean Robinson

Well, next Thursday, it all starts:

Bills – Rams

Dave wrote:

So it seems like they made the correct decision according to their rules, but that maybe there is an argument for the rules themselves to be revised/relaxed to allow caps that don’t conform to the shape of the head as long as they clearly offer no competitive advantage. Obviously that’s a more complicated decision though, so any such rule change and subsequent fresh decision will likely take a while, probably not in time for the Olympics. So I think there’s an argument here that more flexibility in the rules could be desirable to account for variation in headwear for different hair types provided it confers no advantage.

Hey, look how it turned out.

Swimming caps designed for natural black hair finally permitted by Fina

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Al-x

Not sure if any of you NY people are NY Football Giant fans but that was a nice win yesterday. I am hoping for good things because I like their new Coach.

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njerry, Al-x

Rocket wrote:

Not sure if any of you NY people are NY Football Giant fans but that was a nice win yesterday.

It was a great come-from-behind win in the second half. The Jets, on the other hand…..

For what it’s worth, Don, I’m pretty sure this is going to be the Bills’ year.

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Al-x

njerry wrote:

It was a great come-from-behind win in the second half. The Jets, on the other hand…..

For what it’s worth, Don, I’m pretty sure this is going to be the Bills’ year.

I like it that the Giants won yesterday.

Those Bills mean business. They are not taking prisoners. Have to see how the league does this season.

Wow… Cowboys’ Dak Prescott messed up his hand and will be out for a few games.

Still too early for me. I am still into the Mets.

Wow on this:

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Todd

[Sean Robinson]

Nathan MacKinnon is entering the last year of his deal with the Colorado Avalanche, and today they signed him to an 8-year extension.

$100.8 Million, $12.6 M per (surpassing Conor McDavid’s $12.5 M) becoming the NHL’s highest paid player.

He said he was ready to move past the title of the NHL’s most underpaid star.

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/34630487/colorado-avalanche-give-nathan-mackinnon-eight-year-extension

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by Sean Robinson.

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Todd

[Al-x]

I heard stories about him, but not like this:

——————-

I get it now that with martial arts, there is no one “style” that is complete and fits all.
So you have to mix and match, therefore MMA. It’s been said that Muy Thai is good for close range
with elbows, knees, and strong leg kicks, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is for grappling and ground wrestling,
etc…

No wonder Bruce Lee when he saw the shortfalls of just using one style, decided to get into
other styles and combined it all, calling it Jeet Kun Do.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by Al-x.

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Todd

Mutual RESPECT!

The Seattle Mariners! Sweeping the best of three in two games, no business doing what they did today. Just didn’t cave, but that blunder by Toronto is huge, and they seemed to feed into it. If you expect to lose, you’ll find a way to make that happen.

For the record, the Toronto Blue Jays do not fly the flag of Canada for all of us.
I am free to pick a team that is not the centre-of-the-universe.

Geographically, I will always support Seattle.

There’s also the fact they’ve never been to the World Series, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
Not saying they’ll go all the way.
Jeez, to do that, they would have to win games they have no business winning.
Kinda like what happened today…

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njerry, Todd

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Todd

Congrats to the Houston Astros.
Swept Seattle in 3 games, and in psychological cruel fashion.
Came back to win game one, and game 3 was a marathon 18 Innings.
Seattle don’t sleep for a long time after this.

A record 6th straight trip to the ALCS for Houston.

That’s creepy weird good and I wonder if they have sex with the same satanic goat Tom Brady does.
Sickos

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Todd

If this year’s World Series goes to a Game 7, it will take place on November 5th. Which will be during Week 9 of the NFL regular season. Which is just wrong.

Meanwhile, both the NY Giants and Jets won again today. Which means the apocalypse is getting closer.

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Chris D, Sean Robinson, Todd

Phillies beat the Padres 4-3 in Game 5 to advance to the World Series.

The Astros completed there sweep of the Yankees, 6-5. They will also go to the WS. It is very satisfying to see the Yankees get their asses handed to them in such a fitting fashion.

Just remember, if the Phillies win the World Series, there will be global economic chaos.

GO ASTROS!!!

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Sean Robinson

It is a little strange to see the more expensive teams and the teams that won over 100 like the Mets, Dodgers, and Braves are sitting down while the Phillies who didn’t even win 90 are there.

It just worked out that way.

I would feel good for Dusty Baker given everything he went through in his life.

I just want it to be over so I can get into the off season ie. Who is available in free agency, trades etc.

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Todd