Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Pacers suffer full system failure late in loss to Pistons – Sumner’s minus-23 finally makes sense

Luke Kennard scored a career high 30 while Edmond Sumner’s +/- was -23. Those two stats are related.

Thinking the Pacers would merge painlessly into a new era after debuting four new starters in last night’s season opener was foolish.

I drank the Kool-Aid too.

Thad Young, Darren Collison, and Bojan Bogdanovic have been replaced by upgrades, or so we thought.  Over time, maybe that will be true.  Last night, it wasn’t as the Pistons embarrassed the Pacers in the last six minutes to win 119-110.

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The flaws were obvious as Andre Drummond scored 32 points and grabbed 23 boards – seven on the offensive end.  Luke Kennard buried six of nine three-pointers toward a career high 30 points.  Derrick Rose crawled from his career grave to score 18 and drop nine dimes – many to Kennard.

The moral of the story was that the Pacers didn’t defend and had trouble scoring late.  That’s a terrible combination for a team with designs on home court advantage during the first round of the playoffs.

Victor Oladipo’s return is a reason for hope, but Oladipo at his pre-injury best won’t help the Pacers defend the post.  Was the problem Myles Turner, Domas Sabonis or both?  Did Kennard get crazy hot, or was Edmond Sumner just that bad a defender?  (The correct answer is both.)

Issues exist internally as well.  Aaron Holiday came off the bench in the first half for seven miserable minutes.  He missed all six shots, committed two fouls, and turned the ball over once.

Project Holiday’s performance for 35 minutes (a preposterous notion) and he goes 0-30 with 10 fouls and five turnovers.  Holiday needs to understand his role is to be a place holder and not the best player on the floor, or he’ll spend a lot of time sitting – as he did during the entire second half.

Jeremy Lamb looked a little lost starting at the two, but that might be a temporary condition.  It’s not easy being a new guy, but it’s especially tough being a new guy among a bunch of other new guys.  Malcolm Brogdon, T.J. Warren and Lamb have never played together – or with Sabonis and Turner.  Lamb needs to get comfortable quick because there is no Plan B at the two.

Oladipo’s return would help in two ways – he is a big upgrade over Jeremy Lamb, and Lamb would be a huge upgrade over Sumner.

Until then, the Pacers are going to have to figure out how Turner and/or Sabonis can stop talented bigs, hope twos are cold as Sumner tries to figure out how to defend a shooter, and find an option capable of scoring late in close games.

If they can’t do those three things, the wait for Oladipo won’t be much fun.

The hole the Pacers dig will be tough to climb out of.

If you’re a masochistic Pacers fan, take a look at the Luke Kennard highlight reel from last night, and watch how Sumner (#5) defends him.  Doug McDermott wasn’t much help either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvzs3BpMdYc

 

Chicago Cubs made the right business move by hiring David Ross as manager

Job one for David Ross will be to clean up the on field slop that doomed the 2019 Cubs, and that might not be pretty.

Grandpa Rossy just became Boss Ross.

David Ross will be named the 61st manager of the Chicago Cubs on Thursday, according to Jesse Rogers of ESPN.

He was the frontrunner for the job even before Joe Maddon was fired.  Ross is seen as a disciplinarian with deep beliefs as to how baseball should be played.  Suffice it to say, Ross’s way was not adhered to during a very sloppy 2019 season that ended with the final day of the regular season and not the playoffs for the first time since 2014.

Ross remains one of the most popular figures from the 2016 champs, and that is good for business as the Cubs launch the Marquee Network as the sole TV provider of Cubs baseball.  While his tether to the 2016 team is mostly meaningless in terms of how successful the team will perform in 2020, that tie will make this hire more popular with a fanbase that the business side of the operations wants to write checks.

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If the Cubs had hired runner-up Joe Espada, fans in Chicago wouldn’t have been able to pick him out of a lineup of major league bench coaches.  It wouldn’t have sold a single season ticket.  Espada might wind up being the next Maddon wherever he winds up, or he could be the next Mike Quade.

None of that branding/business crap means a damn thing toward the Cubs rebounding after three years of steadily declining October fortunes.  Maybe Ross will be the perfect candidate, and maybe he won’t.  Better to bet on the sure thing from a business perspective.

The closest equation to the Ross hire I can recall is the St. Louis Cardinals hiring Mike Matheny after the retirement of Tony LaRussa.  Matheny was a winner with the Cards – who went to the playoffs four out of his five years as a catcher.  Matheny was 41 without any managerial experience at any level when he was hired.  Ross is 42, a winner, and has never managed.  Both suffered severe concussions and were defensive stalwarts as players.

The Cubs hope the similarities don’t end there.  Matheny led the Cardinals to the postseason during his first four seasons in St. Louis, including a World Series run in 2013.  The Cubs would take that in a heartbeat.

Some fans and media hoped the Cubs would reach outside the family for a fresh voice like Espada, but that doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense.  This five-year run is the franchise’s most successful since 1906-1910.  Embracing the success achieved rather than running from recent struggles Ross had zero to do with makes a little more sense.

Ross joins an interesting list of former Cubs players who have managed the team following the end of their playing careers – Johnny Evers, Charlie Grimm, Jim Marshall, Joey Amalfitano, and Lee Elia among them.

 

Indiana Pacers grand experiment to be unveiled tonight against the Detroit Pistons

If Pacers president Kevin Pritchard’s experiment pays off, it could change the way NBA rosters are built.

It’s opening night, so finally we get to see what Pacers president Kevin Pritchard has built.  It theory, it’s pretty damn cool.  In practice, take your best guess.

There is no way to predict how this Indiana Pacers team will gel and compete – especially early in the season.

Pritchard is trying to re-invent small market basketball.  This roster is a compilation of players whose total needs to be greater than the sum of its parts.

What Billy Beane did as a baseball general manager, Pritchard is trying to do for basketball.  While other teams aggregate stars in their chase for a championship, Pritchard is weighing heavily the mindset of players as he invites them to this hoops purist party.

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With an inability to attract top tier free agents and an intolerance for tanking so top draft picks can be utilized, the road to a Lawrence O’Brien Trophy is unclear for the Pacers.  So Pritchard is trying to change the game.

There are so many new pieces, it’s impossible to know what will happen this season.  Add the unclear timeline for Victor Oladipo’s rehab, and the questions far outnumber the answers.

And here are some of the questions:

  • Can Domas Sabonis guard opposing fours while starting next to elite rim protector Myles Turner?
  • When will Oladipo be back?
  • When Oladipo returns, will he be happy being one of five players grinding out wins, or will he crave the evolution toward becoming Vic the brand?
  • Are reports of Jeremy Lamb’s defensive liabilities overblown?
  • Can the Pacers combination of comparable parts compete with teams built around one or two elite level players?
  • Is T.J. Leaf ready to defend back-up fours?
  • Can Goga Bitadze ramp up his development to contribute on both ends off the bench?

That’s a lot of questions, and I’ve only just scratched the surface.  Add questions about how much the guys who are gone will be missed, and we could be here pondering answers until tonight’s tipoff.

Thad Young was a versatile leader.  Darren Collison was very steady as a point guard.  Bojan Bogdanovic was an underrated defender and elite level shooter who forced defenses to spread the floor.  Have the Pacers upgraded with their replacements?

My educated guess is that they have, and the Pacers will win 50 games to finish third in the Eastern Conference.  I love the way these guys work together and support each other.  In a league filled with business owners and brand managers, the Pacers appear to have a keen understanding that basketball is best played by a team of five, rather than five guys individuals looking to get theirs.

When the Pacers tip-off this season tonight against the Detroit Pistons, fans will get their first real look at Malcolm Brogdon as the leader of this team.  While Oladipo is the most talented and charismatic player, Brogdon will be the leader.  He’s a we-first adult who will set the tone on both ends.

Brogdon will not only be a key to the Pacers success – his absence will negatively impact the Milwaukee Bucks.  He is a cultural change agent who may never make an all-star team, but might be the most valuable Pacer for the next decade.

As national experts kowtow to LeBron James and Anthony Davis with the Lakers, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George with the Clippers, Russell Westbrook and James Harden with the Rockets, and Giannis Antetokounmpo with the Bucks, Pritchard’s Pacers are comfortably under the radar as underdogs.

We get to see the fruits of Pritchard’s experiment tonight.  Social media and international TV ratings are built by signing stars.  Can a championship team be built without anyone either craving or deserving of the spotlight?

The Pacers are giving it a shot.  And they are pretty good shooters.

 

Until Dan Dakich returns next Monday, let’s hope his fill-ins share his aversion to boring us

Indiana sportstalk radio will be a lot less interesting this week with Dan suspended.

There are people who are celebrating Dan Dakich’s five-day suspension as a valid consequence for the behavior of a guy who irritates them – and they are misguided.

Dan is the best thing to happen to Indiana sports media since Mayflower trucks rolled into town carrying all of the worldly belongings of the Indianapolis Colts.

In a town filled with nice and polite people – not that there is anything wrong with that – Dan tells the truth regardless of how people feel about it.  He has enough respect for listeners to be honest with them, and the small sliver of listeners who are repelled by Dan should instead be thrilled with his unvarnished insight.

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If you are irritated by Dan, you should understand that irritation can be a very good thing for people.

Dan challenges callers, listeners, friends, and family.  That’s what he does.  That’s who he is.  For people who listen to Dan rather than reflexively disagree, they embrace his unique takes.

The moment I realized Dan was different in a great way was during game seven of the NLCS between the Cubs and Marlins at Wrigley Field.  Juan Pierre led off the game with a triple, and Pudge Rodiguez came to the plate with one out.  Dan leaned over and said, “Boys, I don’t know art and I don’t know music, but I know sports and Kerry Wood needs to hit Rodriguez with a fastball.”

I looked at him like he was nuts.  Willingly putting another runner on base in the top of the first seemed crazy.

“Pudge is hotter than hell.  He’s going to get on anyway, so send a message to Miguel Cabrera.  Put some fear into the 20-year-old,” Dan said.

Wood wound up walking Pudge, and Cabrera hit a 1-2 pitch into the bleachers for a three-run homer.  I looked at Dan, and he repeated, “Boys, I don’t know art and I don’t know music, but I know sports.”  The Cubs lost 9-6.

I’m not saying Dan was right.  Baseball people would give him the same look I did, but what he said was sure as hell different and interesting, and Cabrera’s dinger made his point seem a lot less crazy.

A life immersed in sports has made Dan insightful, and his fearlessness makes him dramatic.  An intolerance for tedium makes his show unpredictable.

When Dan coached at Bowling Green, he hosted Falcon Basketball with Dan Dakich.  As you might guess, this was a show about his Falcons.  I didn’t care about Bowling Green hoops, but I rarely missed the show.  Dan is a friend, so I wanted to see his work, but the real reason I watched was that Dan always made the show fun.  It was not the typical coach’s show because Dan was a atypical coach.

During one show, Dan told his amiable but disposable co-host that he was not needed.  Dan decided the questions he would ask himself would be more interesting that those asked by the co-host, so Dan asked Dan questions.  The segment was funny and more interesting than the typical Q&A with the broadcaster guy.

That’s why Dan’s radio show is as popular and polarizing as it is.  There are people who embrace Dan’s allergy to boredom, and there are others who see Dan dismissing the broadcaster as unfair and mean-spirited.  They feel the same way about the callers Dan goes after when they are either wrong or boring.

Dan understands that life is short.  In 100 years no one is going to remember any of us, so why not have some fun telling an interesting version of the truth?

A lot of people will spend some idle moments trying to figure out what Dan did to earn this suspension.  I’m going to spend my energy embracing the opportunity we will have to hear him not bore us when he’s back next Monday.

Domas Sabonis signs extension – hope Pacers fans love this roster!

Domas can pick up a check now that he’s earning similar cash to Victor Oladipo and Myles Turner.

The Pacers and Domas Sabonis have agreed to a four-year contract extension worth $74.9-million, according to reports.  With bonuses, Sabonis could earn up to $85-million.

There were rumors over the weekend that Sabonis might be dealt prior to today’s 6 p.m. deadline for the extension.  That trade never materialized, and now the Pacers roster is set for the time being – and that time might extend through next season as 11 players are signed through 2020-2021.

Questions persist about how both Sabonis and Myles Turner can play at the same time.  Sabonis will have to defend the opponent’s starting four, and there is no question he is more comfortable defending the five.

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From an offensive perspective, Sabonis is a very energetic and adept option as part of the Pacers pick and roll as well as with his back to the basket on the block.

The Pacers are picked by experts to win anywhere from 42-to-48 games, but people internally are more optimistic.

Victor Oladipo is still working to come back from the surgery to repair his quad tendon.  Regardless of when he returns, the Pacers has a good chance to improve upon the 48 wins they posted during each of the past two seasons.

With Oladipo at the two, Malcolm Brogdon at the point, T.J. Warren at the three, and Sabonis and Turner as bigs, the Pacers will have a banned attack they should be able to score with anyone.

Sabonis and his teammates will open the season against Detroit Wednesday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

NBA zero-tolerance policy for idiot fans misses the mark – need physical disincentive

The look on the fan’s face says it all. He wants no part of Ron Artest. Doubt he’s said a word to anyone since that night in 2004.

There is one consequence that ensures an idiot will keep his mouth shut in a situation where he might otherwise spew racial epithets and profanity – the threat he will get his ass kicked.

In major league sports, the last time I can remember a player going into the stands to issue a physical counter-measure against a fan was The Brawl.  Members of the Indiana Pacers answered fearless ignorance from fans with a little idiocy of their own.

This problem is not unique to the NBA, but because of the proximity to players and a lack of a physical barrier between participants and fans, it’s the league where it can become most dangerous.

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Since The Brawl, basketball fans have been emboldened by the NBA’s insistence that players accommodate loud mouths rather than confront them.  The predictable result has been that fans have become louder and more foolish.

The NBA is trying to curb fan misbehavior by enacting a zero tolerance policy that mandates fans who get personal, profane, sexual, and/or racial are disciplined through a variety of potential punishments – including being banned from arenas.

What the NBA should do is relax the penalties for players who answer the n-word with a shot the the jaw of the perpetrator.  If the NBA wants quiet, a smack will bring silence.  Maybe it’s time to bring Artest back to the NBA as the director of fan discipline.

Back in the day, the threat of violence was enough to keep fans civil.  In the 1980s at a game between the Lakers and Pacers at Market Square Arena, a fan heckled Magic Johnson in the same way the NBA is trying to prevent.  During a stoppage in play, Magic glared at the loudmouth fan and said, “Hey m*****f****r, you want to say that to my face, come find me after the game!”

The fan shut his mouth, and so did everyone else who sat in that section.  The threat of violence communicated without Magic’s trademark smile was enough.

No one is advocating brawls between fans and players, but the threat of one is a better counter-measure than being banned from an arena.  Wanton violence against fans in NBA arenas where loudmouths assault players would be rare.  It likely wouldn’t take more than one punch per year to compel compliance among morons.

That’s what happened after the Malice at the Palace.  As soon as Ron Artest went into the stands to seek and destroy the buffoon who threw ice at him as he lay on the scorer’s table, fan behavior straightened up for a quite a while.

The fear of being dropped by a huge and angry professional athlete drove an evolution to courtesy and decency.

If the NBA truly wants recklessly verbal fans to be dissuaded from barking at players, lessen the penalty for physical responses from players.  Instead of the season-long suspension Artest received for his role in the Brawl, ding a guy $5,000.  Knowing that five grand is tip money for players would likely quiet all but the dumbest fans.

The NBA’s zero tolerance policy for fan misbehavior assumes fans will listen to reason, but idiots who shout the n-word in a crowded arena are not reasonable.

The potential for a swift and severe disincentive will get the job done.

This might be the year fans who doubt Tom Allen eat their words #iufb

Tom Allen claps a lot, cheers a lot, and might just be about to win a lot.

Indiana beat Maryland 34-28 yesterday, putting its season win total at five.

For those IU grads who had trouble getting through M-014 (a non-credit basic math course), that leaves the Hoosiers one win shy of bowl eligibility.

With games remaining against Nebraska, Northwestern and Purdue – games Indiana has at least a 52.3% chance of winning, according to ESPNs Matchup Predictor – it seems reasonable to expect the Hoosiers to go bowling.

Going to a bowl is base level achievement for most Power Five football programs, but at IU it’s progress.  Real progress.

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For those who are cynical about IU Football, and who can blame the cynics after 24 straight seasons with six or more losses, this year might bring the kind of success that requires a recalibration toward optimism.

Indiana still has to win that elusive sixth game, but they look like a team with a good chance to surpass expectations (8-4 could happen).

Quarterback Michael Penix will bounce back from his mild concussion and if he doesn’t get in another fender bender, he should be ready to lead what has been a very productive offense as long as it’s not facing Ohio State.

No one saw IU as a team that could score virtually at will, but here they are scoring at least 31 points against six of seven opponents.

It’s very close to the time for IU fans who have been justifiably dubious of Tom Allen as a head coach to admit that Fred Glass might have been right when he quickly handed him the reins of the program after Kevin Wilson was fired.

I was one of those guys.

Allen’s oddly euphoric behavior of the sidelines bothers people who prefer coaches to focus on what’s coming rather than celebrating what has been.  And he might be a bigger fan of clapping than former hoops coach Tom Crean.

Aesthetics aside, it appears Indiana is on the precipice of a level of success it hasn’t enjoyed in a quarter century.

Before admitting I was wrong, I’ll wait until the Hoosiers win six, but there is reason to feel good about Indiana Football, which is something I don’t believe I’ve ever written.

John Calipari is right to not want an NBA Draft expansion, but for all the wrong reasons

Calipari should get his facts straight about the effect of an expanded NBA Draft if he is going to talk about it.

As I scanned sports stories this morning, I dug into one because Kentucky Basketball coach John Calipari and I would finally agree on something.

Calipari came out against expanding the NBA Draft.  I assumed he believed it would be bad for college players because it would make sticking on an NBA roster more difficult than with the current two round format.

There is a benefit to not being drafted late in the second round because by being undrafted, players get to sign as a free agent with the employer of their choice.  They get to pick the situation that gives them what they believe is the best chance to make an NBA roster.

No such luck.

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Here is what Calipari said about why he is against expanding the draft to a third round, “If anybody supports more rounds in the draft, those more rounds are to get kids to go to the G League, you do not care about college basketball or you’re trying to ruin college basketball.”  He continued, “After two years they don’t perform, what? The NBA is going to take care of them and hire them? No. It’s entertainment. You’re done.

“If they’re not going to the NBA, if we’re really about young people, we should encourage them to go to college.  And the reason is their way out is through education. Their way to break through to the American dream is education.”

There is a lot of wrong to unpack there.

Let’s start with the positive about Calipari’s argument (and I’m stretching to paint this as positive) – if he is talking about opening up the draft to four rounds while also allowing high school players to jump – high school kids going in the third or fourth round could be a tremendous mistake for those kids.  But it would still be better for those players to be free agents, and the likelihood of their jumping would be diminished by an expansion of the draft.

An expansion of the draft would actually discourage student-athletes or high school students from jumping, if they are getting good advice about the next step in their careers.  There was a reason the NBA reduced the draft to two rounds.  It caused teams and players more harm than good.

If they expand it, an athlete projected to be taken in the third round might be – should be – more likely to remain in college than those who fall just outside the second round are today.

That Calipari doesn’t understand that is odd.  I would assume he spends a lot of time thinking about this, and as one of the authority figures counted on by his players for con=unsel, he should have a better grasp of that situation.

As far as players taking advantage of the lift provided by an education, that still exists for anyone who jumps to pro basketball early.

Many schools, Kentucky among them, have adopted a policy that allows student athletes who leave early to pursue a professional opportunity to return to finish work toward a degree as though they are still on scholarship.

So what the hell is Calipari talking about when he champions education for athletes who opt to jump?

Calipari sees any change to the status quo as a threat to his $8,500,000 annual take from Kentucky.  I get that.  It’s selfish and myopic, but understandable.

But if he is going to try to portray himself as concerned for the student-athlete, he should understand the facts and represent them accurately.

Right or wrong, people listen to Calipari.  He has an obligation to be right once in a while.

Jags deal Ramsey to the Rams in a trade Colts GM Chris Ballard would never make

Jalen Ramsey goes to the Rams in a deal Chris Ballard would never make.

The Jacksonville Jaguars dealt problem cornerback Jalen Ramsey to the Rams for two 1st round picks and a 4th.  Jags are obviously angling for the future, while the Rams want to win right now.

Ramsey is a shut down corner displeased with how he was treated by the Jaguars, and the Rams feel he can put them over the hump as they pursue the city’s first NFL championship since the Raiders won in 1983.

The Colts don’t play that.  GM Chris Ballard will not mortgage the future to win now, nor will he forfeit the present to gather the resources to win down the road.

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Ballard believes in building through drafting talent that fits within the culture of the locker room, and that over time that is the most likely way to compile a championship level roster.  There is no indulgence in panic for the Colts organization.  They embrace their system of prudence while teams like the Jaguars and Rams react to immediate emotional tumult.

There are examples of win-now deals working out – the Cubs trading Gleyber Torres for the three-month rental of Aroldys Chapman comes to mind.  The Cubs needed a closer to win the World Series, and the Yankees coveted Torres.  The Cubs won their first series since 1908, and the Yankees got a second baseman who may rake the Yanks to another crown while Chapman re-signed with the Yanks and has been their closer since returning in 2017.

The Cubs would love to have Torres, but would they go back in time and un-make that trade?  Not a chance.

During Ballard’s almost three years running the football operation for the Colts, he has shown a unique faculty for finding very talented players who bring an almost collegiate team-first attitude to football.

He’s doing it differently from his peers.  That’s a great way to either succeed or fail big.  Ballard’s trust for his operation is resolute, and a scenario where he would overreact by dealing multiple firsts for a talented malcontent is unfathomable.

We see the same sober leadership from Ballard during free agency.  During the first few days – as teams engage in frenzied bidding that destroys salary cap management strategies, Ballard patiently waits for prices to drop.  When they do, he grabs guys like Justin Houston and Eric Ebron who not only fill physical needs, but bring leadership to the locker room.

Colts fans saw the opposite during the grim regime of GM Ryan Grigson.  He spent on overrated free agents like a Powerball winner, and the Colts foundered.  Ballard took the reins, and suddenly wins returned to Indy.

The Jags may or may not reap the benefits of the Rams panicky move to acquire the best corner in the NFL.

Ramsey might be the piece the Rams need to hoist their first Lombardi Trophy.

Ballard will continue to slowly and surely build his roster through draft weekend patience.

We’ll see which tack is right is five years.

My money is on Ballard as hysterics rarely win big in the NFL.

LeBron James ignores human rights and gets pragmatic in his criticism of Daryl Morey

LeBron angry about human rights getting in the way of his fun in China.

“I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke. And so many people could have been harmed not only financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and say and what we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that, too.”  LeBron James with a very pragmatic comment yesterday.

Being careful about voicing our beliefs is not mentioned in the First Amendment of the U.S. Consititution.

The First Amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

It does not say, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion as long as the state and LeBron agree with it, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech unless LeBron happens to be in the country about which you are talking, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble in a place and time that does not inconvenience LeBron, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

James was talking about a since deleted tweet from Houston general manager Daryl Morey, “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong.”  Protests in Hong Kong continue against a piece of legislation that would allow extradition of criminal suspects to China where they would stand trial.  The bill is dead, but the protests continue.

So it’s Morey’s fault that China is a totalitarian state that demands strict adherence to its demand of support and obedience?

LeBron’s trip to China was less fun than it should have been, so Morey was wrong?  Swallowing American beliefs is the price of doing business with China, I guess.  Beliefs are great for LeBron until they get in the way of cash.

I’m no fan of kneeling during the National Anthem, but Colin Kaepernick voicing his concerns for African-Americans being mistreated by police is in principle more American that LeBron kowtowing to the Chinese in an effort to not offend them – or their cash.

Theses are weird times.