8:37 PMGeorge Smith reports on ESPN News that when UConn scored the game-winning touchdown at Notre Dame Stadium, someone inside the press box yelled "goodbye Charlie (Weis)."
6:27 PMUConn defeats Notre Dame 33-30 in overtime, most like spelling the end of Charlie Weis' tenure at Notre Dame. Since 1975 at Notre Dame Stadium, Weis is 19-14, the worst losing percentage of any Irish coach, including Gerry Faust.
5:29 PMSt. Petersburg Times columnist Robyn E. Blumner is alarmed that state-funded college football coaches inject religion into their programs. She's a little late to the party, but does have a point. Wonder if ACLU will take notice.
5:07 PM Not really sure why the Sacramento Bee is reportingChris Webber calling Sacto "Cowtown" as news. That's what everyone in the state calls the city. Same thing with my hometown, Kansas City - and no one cares there.
Today we got the news that LeBron Jameswants to doff his #23 in order to facilitate the number being retired by the league. Instead, James claims he will soon switch to #6. James says the move isn’t about marketing or merch, it’s about remembrance. About honoring the legacy of Michael Jordan.
One small problem: #6 was worn by a NBA player every bit as influential as Jordan, a player who won nearly twice as many championships as Jordan and who changed the way the game was played. The player? Bill Russell. Oh yeah, and there’s the little matter of Julius Erving’s personal digit too. Like he didn’t have something to say about how the NBA game is played today?
Jordan’s number should not and will not be permanently retired, because if it is, you can get busy mothballing dozens of numbers of players who were just as influential as Jordan. And it goes without saying that Jordan is no Jackie Robinson, something that is apparently lost on the embarrassingly myoptic James.
James’ numbers game is one more fake news story that he’s manufactured for the sadly dogmatic media. Much like his recent, ridiculous claims that he’s tired of the speculation regarding his impending free agency. Jim Rome had an epic take on that yesterday, via ESPN’s Jim Rome is Burning:
But while Rome’s relentless beatdown of James brought me tears of joy, James claim that he cared more about winning than money elicited tears of laughter. Read more…
But after talking to two prominent sports marketing execs this morning, all indications are that Nike will soon swoop in to save the day, picking up the UCF sponsorship that Adidas has abruptly vacated.
(But what of the custom-made Air Jordans? All people get those before their freshman year, right?)
The immediate ramifications - financial and otherwise - are as yet unknown, but adidas says all notions of a contract extension with the school are completely off the table. And our question is pretty simple: where the hell was Michael Jordan on this one?
A couple weeks ago, we brought you news that Marcus Jordan, son of Michael Jordan, was refusing to comply with the school’s adidas shoe deal, insisting instead on wearing Nike on account of his father’s inextricable history with the brand. The story was that UCF had granted him permission to wear Nikes in exchange for signing with the school, up until some executives at adidas balked at the deal afterward.
Well, score one for the plucky underdogs at Nike; Phil Knight and his rag-tag gang of misfits have finally gotten their big break. As the SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL’s Twitter feed reported, young Marcus is in his Nikes tonight. WHEW. Thought they’d never get their way.
Odd news from ESPN today, as UCF’s Marcus Jordan - son of His Airness Michael, of course - is refusing to comply with the Golden Knights’ shoe deal. UCF has a $3 million dollar with adidas, while (not suprisingly) Jordan won’t wear anything but his dad’s Air Jordans.
(It’s an adidas logo. It’s not made of poison.)
While it’s fine and normal for Marcus to want to honor his dad (if this is, indeed, Marcus’ decision alone), it seems slightly improper to do so in this way. We’re not going to chastise Marcus much for not understanding the way endorsement and equipment deals work - he’s just a freshman in college - but there are several causes for concern here, and nearly all point right back at Dad.
Rapper Chamillionaire makes a pretty compelling case for Michael Jordan being the worst person in the world. Are you buying what he’s selling?
Let me get you started: YES.
I’m sure there’s some embellishment in there, but I have no doubt that the substance of what Chamillionaire said about his personal experience with Jordan is completely true.
The IOC’s highly anticipated 2016 Summer Olympics vote is tomorrow, and what initially appeared to be a slam dunk for the USA has turned into a legitimate two-horse race.
(Pele, representing his country by holding up a Brazilian flag. Please disregard the flag in his other hand.)
Try as President Obama might, Chicago is facing stiff competition from Rio de Janeiro for hosting rights, and it might have something to do with the fact that the Brazilian athletic community is pulling out all the stops. And by that, of course, we mean bringing Pele to Copenhagen on Friday to represent Brazil’s bid. When one thinks of Chicago’s most famous athletes, of course, the list starts and ends with Brad SellersMichael Jordan. He’s not going to Copenhagen, though, and that means it’s time for Pele to somehow overstate his importance. Mission accomplished.
Here’s the thing about Charles Barkley: he may come off as contrarian and opinionated and anti-establishment or whatever, but that’s not really the case. He’s just in the normal early stages of Cranky Old Man Syndrome, in which COMS sufferers begin alienating themselves from the changes in the world around them. It wasn’t immediately obvious; Barkley’s frequent shots at his superiors could have been just a garden-variety case of a problem with authority.
(NERRRRRRRRRRDS! AND BIRRRRRRRRRDS!)
But now that he’s going after TWITTER, well, we’re kicking ourselves that we didn’t diagnose the COMS earlier. It’s so obvious, in retrospect. He doesn’t hate authority because they tell him not to do things, he’s just not used to the culture of responsibility. And the kids, with their Twitter Tweet Twoodles or whatever they’re called? Well, Charles Barkley doesn’t much cotton to these computers today.
It’s been a while since the Bears have had a good quarterback. And it’s a shame, considering they’ve had some pretty good teams that were ultimately sabotaged by guys like Jim Miller and Rex Grossman. So we all know what a huge relief it was for the people of Chicago that they finally would have a real, legitimate star under center.
In case you haven’t heard, Nike’s at it again, reappropriating 9/11 for their own crass commercial purposes as Michael Jordan gets inducted into the Hall of Fame. Wait, I’m sorry, we’re told that is a wildly untrue statement and that Nike had nothing to do with the date of induction. We regret the error. Anyway, MJ is being inducted today; presumably, the day belongs to him.
But while Jordan grabs the headlines, there are other people being inducted today, most notably John Stockton and David Robinson, two titans of the era in their own right. And while their inductions are generally of the off-without-a-hitch variety, there’s alsoPeter Vecsey, a NEW YORK POST reporter who’s being inducted for lord knows why. And that’s the real highlight here, folks, because by all accounts, last night, he delivered the worst induction speech of all time.
