Early Thursday morning international basketball website FIBA.com provided an english translation of some of Parker’s remarks. That post was then picked up by eagle-eyed sports bloggers Jorge Sierra of Hoopshype.com, Tom Ziller @ SBNation, Matt Moore @ CBSSports.com and Kurt Hellin @ NBCSports.com.

Struck by Parker’s remarkably candid comments, I sought out the original report on the L’Equipe.fr site. I then obtained the video of Parker making his comments in french from the post, added translated subtitles to the clip, and re-posted the video so it could be disseminated across the United States and Canada. (With full credit and web link to L’Equipe.)

I posted the translated video around midday Thursday. Soon after, venerable SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS sports reporter Tim Griffin posted a blog entry that linked my Parker post and the subtitled video that originated from L’Equipe.

San Antonio ABC affiliate KSAT-TV then re-posted my translated L’Equipe video on its Facebook page, along with this question to its Facebook friends: “We’re interested in your thoughts on Tony Parker saying the Spurs are no longer championship contenders as presently constructed.”

After that social networking entry - based solely on the translated video - received hundreds of responses, KSAT-TV sports anchor Greg Simmons led his evening San Antonio sportscast with the story, which included the airing of my translated version of the L’Equipe video of Parker.

During his report, anchor Simmons pitched to the subtitled clip with this:

“The reaction is strong right back here in San Antonio.

“Appearing before reporters in Paris, T.P. 9 (Parker) said he felt the window of opportunity for another NBA Championship for the Spurs, with the big three and current support group, has closed. You can listen and read for yourself.”

KSAT then aired the subtitled L’Equipe video of Parker.

Coming out of the clip, Simmons then pitched to fan reaction of Parker’s statements, which obviously had already made the rounds within the city:

“Those statements may have been made in France but they are being heard loud and clear right here in San Antonio by Spurs fans.”

Simmons then featured on-camera comments from Spurs fans and responses from the aforementioned KSAT Facebook entry.

If you know anything about television news you understand that without video of Parker’s comments, KSAT would not have played up the story as it did, which included fanning out around town for fan reaction and reaching out to its thousands of followers on Facebook. That’s not to say that Parker’s comments wouldn’t have been mentioned on the same S.A. sportscast, but it would not have been presented in such dramatic fashion.

Without chasing down the french connection to the story - and providing a subsequent translation of the Parker video - what’s the odds it ends up in the living rooms of tens of thousands of San Antonians?

Or is featured the next day on sports TV’s most-watched, and influential daily show: ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption with Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser.

Friday afternoon I was alerted by SbB readers - via my well-trafficked Twitter and Facebook accounts - that I’d gotten a mention from Wilbon on PTI.

The subject of the plug was the translated L’Equipe video of Parker.

“Tony Parker spending time back home in France and perhaps that’s why he felt comfortable enough to say what he said about the Spurs in a recent interview unearthed by Sports by Brooks.

“Quote, ‘I don’t think this current team will play for the title in the future. We are aging, we must be realistic. It was sort of our last chance this season.’ Close quote.”

After affirming Parker’s dim view of San Antonio’s future, Kornheiser said that the Spurs guard wouldn’t have said such negative things about his NBA team had he not been speaking in his native tongue - while  across the pond:

“What interests me though is I suspect that not only did he say this in France, he said it in French. I suspect that he did not think, because he’s in a foreign country, that it would be unearthed back in the United States.

“I don’t think he’d have told a San Antonio reporter this exact thing.”

That exchange followed SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS reporter Mike Monroe noting that Parker’s indelicate assessment had reached Spurs General Manager R.C. Buford.

“Who knows what the motivation is to say something like that,” Buford said. “I’m not going to get caught up in comments. All I can say is that we’re going to continue to build our team and try to be as good as we can be in the future.”

Buford probably would’ve been asked about Parker’s comments had the translated video of the guard’s remarks not gone viral. But with anglo-enabled video, millions more were made aware of the story.

For too long we’ve heard the people who ultimately control big media web operations, the same suits with no clue how to mine online’s tangible, financial value, tell us about how valuable video will be to the web.

When will that be?

If you’re talking online viewership of major league and major college sports, we’re very close, with ESPN3 leading the way.

If you’re talking online viewership of anything besides the above, welcome to 1983.

If you don’t believe me, checkout the ‘view’ statistics of videos posted to the the official Youtube accounts of all the big sports media players.

Gone organic, most original TV bits are reduced to double-to-triple-digits when consigned to online.

Those paltry numbers tell you that, like the circulation of the monopoly-enabled (and later, addled) newspapers the past century, viewership of original online sports programming is solely based on the venue. If ESPN provides a video top-front placement on ESPN.com, or directs a prime-time SportsCenter audience to the web, you will see huge online views.

But there’s no middle ground.

The reason I detailed the process by which the Tony Parker video eventually ended up on ESPN’s highest-profile daily show was to illustrate what will drive people to watch online-only videos. With or without plugs from shows like PTI. (Which I did appreciate by the way.)

For an online sports video to grab the attention of more than blood relatives, it must have something a web user can’t get anywhere else that is relevant to the viewer. (See proprietary.) Why would any right-thinking sports fan seek out video of a sports reporter and/or columnist and/or talk show host doing anything other than breaking a story or dishing privileged information?

What made the Parker video so valuable was that it contained content that - though not altogether proprietary - was a revelation to english-speaking NBA fans and national and local (S.A.) electronic media.

If I’m ever going to appear on an SbB-produced video, I’m only going to do so if I can provide viewers new and relevant information that that they consider valuable.

That’s precisely what KSAT-TV in San Antonio did in providing the Parker video to its audience. Not only was it new information, but it was highly valuable to the audience and a critical component of that particular type of journalistic enterprise.

To this point, web-centric video that is proprietary has never been made a priority by big media. The reliance remains, to this day, on distribution to fuel usage.

The Parker video, along with dozens of other original video pieces I’ve posted to Youtube.com, Dailymotion.com and Facebook that have garnered millions of views, prove that with strategic ingredients, the value of web video can be measured by more than institutional distribution.

Follow Brooks on Twitter or join him on Facebook for real-time updates.

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“It was sort of our last chance this season.  .. We are aging. We must be realistic.

“We can’t count on trades to happen. We’re going to have to rely on the draft but Pop (Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich) has made many good choices.“

Parker also gave fresh perspective on the four-year contract extension he signed with the club before the season, and if Joakim Noah will play for France - with Parker - in this summer’s European Championship tournament.

Follow Brooks on Twitter or join him on Facebook for real-time updates.

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Casablanca’s “Blind Vice” postings detail what he claims are the secret sexual proclivities of anonymous celebrities. While Casablanca does not name anyone in the entries, he does occasionally confirm certain celebrities who have appeared in past posts by adding them to his “Blind Vice Gallery” of photos. Though identified, the celebs are not directly connected to any of the innumerable past Blind Vice entries.

Longoria’s photo was added to the Blind Vice gallery by Casablanca three months ago amid  speculation by some EOnline.com readers that she and husband Tony Parker appeared as “Secretia Ohio” and “Chester Shorts-off” in two previous Blind Vice posts by Casablanca originating early in the year.

On Feb. 5, 2010, Casablanca wrote the following about “Secretia” and “Chester”: (more…)

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Who is telling the truth? If you read Ted Casablanca’s “Blind Vice” feature at EOnline, perhaps neither.

Easily offended? Stop reading.

For the rest of you, right this way …

(more…)

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The MENDOZA SUN reported on the presser last Thursday:

The best Argentine basketball player of all time, arrived around noon to our province to participate in various recreational and business activities. Just set foot Mendoza, Manu gave a press conference in a central hotel, where he treated the crowd and politely answered all questions from reporters.

With regard to the law of marriage between same sex, NBA player was in favor: “I am all for marriage. I think we all have the same rights. Although in reality with regard to adoption do not feel able to give an opinion. ”

He preferred not to comment on gay couples adopting.

Ginobili went into more detail on the adoption issue in a video (below) at the presser: (more…)

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(KENS video)

Local and federal authorities are searching for former Spurs player Alvin Robertson, who is wanted in connection with a sex trafficking ring that allegedly forced a 14-year-old girl to have sex with men throughout San Antonio and Corpus Christi.

Authorities announced charges against seven people tied to the ring on Friday morning. Of the seven, Robertson is the only one who hasn’t been arrested, said Deputy Ino Badillo, a spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.

Formal charges against Robertson: “trafficking of persons under 18 for prostitution, sexual assault of a child and sexual performance of a child. McIntosh is charged with sexual performance of a child and trafficking of persons under 18 for prostitution.”

Robertson has a lengthy rap sheet which includes assault, evading and resisting arrest, criminal mischief, burglary, and violating numerous restraining orders.

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(”Shaken” in what way? Do tell, Eva.)

Of Mexican heritage and fiercely proud of it, Eva Longoria Parker always thought her ancestral makeup was mostly Mexican-Indian with a smattering of European blood. But she discovered that the opposite is true, among other surprising revelations, when she agreed to participate in the four-part PBS series Faces of America, which debuts Feb.10.

As one of 12 celebrities of various backgrounds who agreed to have their DNA tested for the series, hosted by historian, author and Harvard scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., Longoria Parker was “a little shaken” to learn that she’s actually 70% European, 27% Asian/indigenous, and 3% African. “Most people don’t realize Mexico has a large slave population,” Gates told her, offering a possible explanation for the African percentage.

Wait, what?

(more…)

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(SKREEEEEEE!)

Note: There is a poll within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Now, granted, it’s probably not in PETA’s mission statement to arrange cruel and unusual “death matches,” even if both sides were practically spoiling for the fight. But this is the sort of thing they could use to really bolster their national presence. I say do it; Manu already has his rabies shots and everything. Satisfy our bloodlust, then you can lecture everybody about the sanctity of all life afterward.

*unless it results in steak or bacon, of course.

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(One more time for the PETA kooks)

Team officials could not locate the bat after Saturday’s game against Sacramento, so it could not be tested for disease. Which meant Ginobili will spend the next month getting a series of precautionary shots to protect against rabies.

While we all wince, the PETA kooks are high-fiving over early-bird Veggie burgers on L.A.’s Westside.  (more…)

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Lo and behold, here we are. Surprisingly, though, PETA had a reasoned, nuanced reaction that caused everybody to gain respect for their maturity in the field of animal ethics. In an op-ed posted at OPPOSINGVIEWS.COM, PETA released a statement acknowledging that the bat was causing a nuisance in an area where it never should have been in the first place, and that Ginobili’s actions, while unfortunately fatal, were a brief and expedient end to the situation.

Hahahaha, just kidding, they compared Manu to Michael Vick and basically pretended he was Satan.

(more…)

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