Posts from Sports

We sat down in the family room and tuned into the Opening Ceremony last night. And out came the Nexus 7. The second screen. I launched Twitter to see what folks were saying and found tweets talking about the event in the past tense. And then it occurred to me that we were watching on a tape delay. Of course we were watching on a tape delay. The opening ceremonies had happened in London in the evening which was friday afternoon New York time.

I get why NBC chose to show the opening ceremonies on tape delay in the US, but I am not sure it is the right call. Everything is live on the Internet. Everything is live on Twitter.

And now I'm thinking of the big events. Football, Basketball, Gymnastics, Swimming, Track & Field. Are these events going to be on tape delay too? Am I going to find out that Michael Phelps won his 19th medal on Twitter or on TV?

That's the challenge for NBC and all broadcasters who are carrying the Olympics. I vote for a live TV schedule and watching the games on my computer at work over a tape delay and the information coming at me before I can see it happening with my own eyes.

I think tape delay is a goner in the age of Twitter. I just don't know when the folks who make these calls will figure that out.

The opening ceremony is tonight. The London Olympics are upon us.

So I thought it would be fun to talk about everyone's favorite Summer Olympic sport.

For me, it's men's boxing. I really enjoy amateur boxing at the highest level. The athleticism of boxers always impresses me and there's a primal thing to the sport. So when men's boxing is on the next two weeks, I will do my best to tune in.

What is your favorites Summer Olympics sport?

Since AVC has a global audience, we are going to talk about the global sport today – football, or as we call it in the US, Soccer.

My son and I have been watching the EURO 2012 games since the early matches. When we got over to europe, we scouted out the best sports bars and have been going to them after dinner to watch the games. We've been taking an "anyone but Spain" approach as we like to root for the underdogs (we are Mets & Jets fans in NYC).

Portugal was our team but Spain took them out in a shootout on Wednesday night. Balotelli's big game last night was enough to get us onto Italy's bandwagon. So we'll be rooting for Italy on Sunday.

How about you?

A crazy wild regular season has come to an end and the NY Knicks are the seventh seed in the eastern conference with a record of 36-30 and a record of 18-6 under Mike Woodson, who should shed the interim before his title asap.

The prize for this late season surge is a first round series against the Miami Heat who ended the season with a 46-20 record. The first game is saturday at 3:30pm eastern in Miami. We will be watching.

So the question for everyone who cares today on Fun Friday is can Melo, Stat, and Tyson handle Dwyane, LeBron, and Chris Bosh? My take is they have a better shot than most people think. But Stat has to step up big and take some of the load off of Melo, who has been carrying the team the past month.

What do you all think?

I watched the President talk to Bill Simmons about the Chicago Bulls (and Jeremy Lin) just now. I hope Obama gets his wish to welcome the Bulls to the White House as NBA Champions.

But I don't root for the Bulls. They killed the Knicks too many times in the 90s for me to ever be able to do that.

I'm a Knicks fan. And it's been fun to go to The Garden the past couple years. It's not just Jeremy Lin. The Knicks have a lot of weapons this year. They can run their entire bench without giving up much against most teams.

But I'm also a Oklahoma City Thunder fan. I've been into Kevin Durant since his brief college career. His game is so lovely to watch. His jump shot is pure and so good, and he can explode off the dribble as well as anyone. Last year in the playoffs, particularly against the Grizzlies and the Mavs, my son and I watched every game and became hard core Thunder fans. Westbrook has a ton of talent and James Harden is one of the smartest young players in the game.

I don't root for the Heat. I don't enjoy watching LeBron. He plays basketball like a linebacker. It's not beatiful but is effective. I do enjoy watching Dwyane Wade. But as the President says in that Bill Simmons interview, it will be hard to beat the Heat this year. They are playing much better than last year.

This shortened season is fun for the fans. There are a ton of games to watch every night. The lockout sucked but I feel like NBA Basketball is having a great season post lockout. I'm expecting the Thunder to get to the finals this year and hopefully they'll be playing the Bulls instead of the Heat.

Do you like NBA Basketball? Who do you root for? And who do you think will be visiting the President at the White House this year?

It's fun friday again. And because this weekend brings us the big game, I figured we'd talk about it.

I'm rooting for the Giants. They were 7-7 and going nowhere and then something happened and they have got a winning attitude and are surging going into the big game. As a Jet fan, there is no team I dislike more than the Patriots, so a Giants win would make me very happy.

I think the Patriots are vulnerable on defense and the Giants defensive line is going to get to Brady and make him rush. Giants 27 Patriots 10.

As for commercials, which are the main event anyway, I'm hoping for something special from the E*TRADE baby and am praying that none of our portfolio companies are running ads.

And I'm sure Madonna will give us a G rated halftime show. I'm not even sure I'll watch that.

Please leave your predictions for the game in the comments and pick the winner in this Quipol.

First off, I want to state that while I am a sports fan, I am not a sports fanatic. I've been out of the country the past week and have not been reading the sports blogs and watching ESPN non stop. If others have written what I am about to write, I did not see it

I did read Dan Gilbert's letter to the Cleveland fans though.

That letter read like a man in denial about what is going on.

My view is we are witnessing yet another power grab by the real talent away from the former owners of that talent, in this case the league and its owners.

What Lebron, Dwyane, and Chris have done is decide they want to play together, play for someone they respect, and attempt to create a new basketball dynasty to rival the Celtics and Lakers who coincidentally recently played for the NBA championship.

Critics of Lebron and his amigos call the move selfish and disloyal.

I call it ballsy and impressive. The league and the owners may control the brands, the teams, the stadiums, and the TV deals. But the players and coaches are the raw talent that makes it all happen.

If Lebron, Dwyane, Chris and Pat Riley are successful in assembling a dynasty that will sit at the top of the NBA for the next decade, they could well inspire others to do the same.

What will Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard and others do when they become free agents? Sign with the highest bidder or conspire to create a new championship caliber team?

I can't help but see this move in the context of the slow but steady crumbling of institutions that held power by their control of the distribution system. But now when the most talented players have brands that are as big or bigger than the teams they play on, when more and more young people are rooting for their fantasy team and assembling it on their xbox, this move makes total sense to me.

My only question is whether this is an isolated incident or the start of a trend that could pose a serious problem for all sporting leagues.