David Stern is on a mission to make the NBA a global league, and he gave us a glimpse of his European expansion plans earlier this year. In 2007 the league appointed Timothy Chen, the former head of Microsoft’s China division, to oversee NBA China. Although the Chinese market represents the fastest growing group of NBA fans, the broadcast of playoff games have been suspended.

The official word is that the games are being put on hold while the country is mourning the earthquake victims. Of course, this is the NBA, so conspiracy theories can’t be far behind. From Danwei:

Neither the newspaper nor SARFT’s media administrator has offered an explanation for the suspension. The only official explanation came from Jiang Heping, director of CCTV’s Olympic Channel, who said that the NBA was “too entertaining” for this special time when the country is mourning for the victims of the earthquake.

It seems that many have found Mr Jiang’s explanation unconvincing; people tend to believe that there has been a ban issued on broadcasting NBA games. There are a number of alternate theories on the internet, all highly speculative: Some people are arguing the ban is politically-motivated ?some NBA players have been protesting the role the Chinese government plays in Darfur?while the others think politics is unlikely the issue. After all, the last time NBA was banned in China was in 1999, after an American missile hit China’s embassy in Yugoslavia, and relations with the US are not nearly as tense as they were then.

The Beijing News also ran an article today about the NBA ban. In the article, an insider from CCTV is quoted as saying that NBA broadcasts will resume on June 6, though no official orders have been announced to the public. The article also refers to NBA’s announcement on May 28 of a 14 million-yuan donation to China’s earthquake relief.

I don’t know why the NBA game broadcasts have been suspended. To me, a little entertainment might be a good to help ease the pain of such a tragic event. And I’m willing to bet everything I’ve got that if Yao Ming and the Rockets were playing not only would the games be shown, they’d probably be on a continuous loop.

NBA broadcasting suspended in China. Courtesy of Danwei

NBA, China, playoffs, broadcast

Stephen A.Smith is one of the countless number of pundits on television, sports or otherwise, that gets paid to spout opinions that they may or may not truly believe. In Stephen’s case, he believes everything he says and thinks every word is important.

SAS put down his Blackberry and Cheezy Doodles for a few minutes to join Chris McKendry on Sportscenter before game one of the Cavs/Wiz series. The conversation covered the NBA playoffs, Isiah Thomas, and the New York Knicks. After Chris McKendry made the mistake of calling the Knicks a dog of a team, Stephen A. set her straight and then explained how to fix New York’s embarrassment of a basketball team.

Let’s stop that stuff about the dog. We’re calling them dogs because of their record but if you took LeBron James off of the Cleveland Cavaliers what are the Cleveland Cavaliers? They couldn’t shine the New York Knicks’ shoes despite how bad they’ve looked this year. You’ve got talent, what you’re lacking is a true point guard and a leader. If you get a leader to put along with the talent that they have, the New York Knicks can actually be respectable. Keep in mind y’all, the Atlanta Hawks are in the postseason this year.. They’re not even a .500 team. Trust me. The New York Knicks will be able to compete for a playoff spot if they got a leader. Derrick Rose. Memphis. I keep saying that. Derrick Rose Memphis. I don’t care what you gotta do. Fix the ping pong balls, do something. Get him. Get him.

I’m sure David Stern had no problem with the broadcast partner of his league suggesting that the draft lottery is fixed or be fixed.. After all, it was Stern who fixed the ’85 draft.

FFwd to the 4:40 mark for the envelopes being brought out, and about the 5:30 point to see the bent Knicks envelope.

Whether the 1985 NBA draft was rigged or not, it was worth it for Patrick Ewing. I don’t see the Knicks getting the same ROI for Derrick Rose.

Tags: Stephen A. Smith, ESPN, 1985 Draft, New York Knicks

To hear the critics tell it, allowing high schoolers into the NBA ruins the league. For some reason, high school basketball players are deemed to be less worthy prepared to deal with professional life than young tennis, hockey, and baseball players. ESPN’s True Hoop author Henry Abott wrote about the issue, and refers to Michael McCann’s paper that refutes the idea of high school players damaging the NBA.

It’s pointed out on True Hoop that the top three candidates for NBA MVP (LeBron, KG, Kobe) didn’t go to college. I have Chris Paul in my top three and King James out, but that’s not the point right now. If you look at the playoff standings, six of the 16 teams that currently qualify are headed by players that didn’t go to college. Boston-Garnett, Orlando-Howard, Cleveland-James, LA Lakers-Bryant, Houston-McGrady, and Dallas-Nowitzki. Phoenix and San Antonio rely heavily on Amare Stoudemire and Tony Parker respectively so you could say that eight current playoff teams are dependent on players without college experience.

Whenever this subject is brought up a guy like Leon Smith, Kwame Brown, or Korleone Young will be used as the argument for players attending college. Drafting a player with or without college experience is a crapshoot. There’s truly no way of telling who will perform well on the next level or handle the money and fame with maturity. According to McCann’s paper, the high school class of NBA player tends to be a better player and get in less trouble than players that took the college route. Some of that is probably due to the smaller volume of high school to the NBA players than college to the NBA, but it also shows that more factors determine whether a player is successful than attending college.

Commissioner David Stern is saying that he’d like to change the minimum age for the league from 19 to 20 when the collective bargaining agreement expires in 2011. He says setting an age requirement of 19 has been very constructive. I guess that’s his story and he’s sticking to it, but I don’t see the support for his argument.

NBA Players Need College? Prove It. Courtesy of True Hoop

Illegal Defense: The Irrational Economics of Banning High School Players from the NBA Draft. Courtesy of Michael McCann

Tags: NBA, MVP, high school players, college

Harold Reynolds talks about his departure from ESPN. Courtesy of DeadSpin

A new Tupac documentary. Courtesy of Nah Right

Elijah Dukes’ ex-wife airs him out. **YBB UPDATE**Elijah Dukes goes batshit crazy**END UPDATE** Courtesy of The Big Lead

Hillary and Barack don’t care about Hip Hop. Courtesy of Dallas Penn

Here’s what Lakers management and David Stern are thinking. Courtesy of The Starting Five

Nothing good happens on a date to the strip club. Courtesy of Leave The Man Alone

Would you do…Serena Williams? Courtesy of The Big Picture

What the hell is Chris Cooley wearing? Courtesy of Mr. Irrelevant

Why are rap sales falling? Courtesy of Oh Word

A 70′s tv/today’s NBA mash-up. Courtesy of With Malice

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A study conducted by Justin Wolfers, an assistant professor of business and public policy at the Wharton School, and Joseph Price, a Cornell graduate student in economics reports that during the 13 seasons from 1991 through 2004, white referees called fouls at a greater rate against black players than against white players. The study also found that black refs called more fouls against white players.

The duo of Wolfers and Price did a lot of research for their study and even submitted the results to the NBA. David Stern had his own team of nerds do some research and they came up with some different results:

“We think our cut at the data is more powerful, more robust, and demonstrates that there is no bias.”

Of course you do Mr. Stern. Unfortunately for Stern the New York Times had 3 independent experts compare the Wolfers-Price paper to the NBA report, and all 3 concluded that the Wolfers and Price study was “far more sound”.

I decided to do my own study and here’s what I discovered:

• Violet Palmer calls fouls against males 100% of the time.
• 12 of the top 20 most foul prone players (min. of 40 games) are black, 5 are foreign born, 3 are white Americans, 2 are O’Neals, 2 are Warriors, 2 are Cavaliers, and 17 are big men (6’9″+).
• Joey Crawford hates Tim Duncan regardless of color.
• Dirk Nowitzki (12) and Chris Kaman (8) led non-blacks in technical fouls.
• Euros don’t foul flagrantly.
• Rasheed Wallace (21 techs) was ejected 1 time while Chucky Atkins (4 techs) was ejected twice.
• I have too much time on my hands.

While I’m poking fun at the study, it does have some interesting information. I can’t wait for the next report: BASEBALL UMPIRES CALL MORE STRIKES AGAINST LATINOS

Study of NBA Sees Racial Bias in Calling Fouls. Thank you The New York Times

NBA players foul statistics. Thank you NBA.com

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Everybody in the NBA including superstar players, coaches and ball boys know that David Stern isn’t messing around this year. Remember how many techs were called the first few weeks of the season when the league was stressing it’s new “behavior policy”? The policy now extends to NBA refs. One of the NBA’s finest, Joey Crawford, has been suspended for the rest of the regular season (two days) and the playoffs for his ejection of Tim Duncan on Sunday. David Stern on the suspension:

“Joey Crawford’s handling of this situation failed to meet the standards of professionalism and game management we expect of NBA referees. Especially in light of similar prior acts by this official, a significant suspension is warranted. Although Joey is consistently rated as one of our top referees, he must be held accountable for his actions on the floor, and we will have further discussions with him following the season to be sure he understands his responsibilities.”

All of the details aren’t in yet on this story, but something major had to go down for Stern to hand out an Artest type suspension. Here’s Tim Duncan’s account:

“He looked at me and said, ‘Do you want to fight? Do you want to fight?’ If he wants to fight, we can fight. I don’t have any problem with him, but we can do it if he wants to. I have no reason why in the middle of a game he would yell at me, ‘Do you want to fight?”

I’m not sure (ok I’m positive they’re not) if Tim Duncan and Joey Crawford are in the same weight division, but there has to be a way to get the two of them on the De La Hoya/Mayweather undercard.

NBA suspends Joey Crawford. Swacked from ESPN.com

Tim Duncan ejected by Joey Crawford. Swacked from Youtube.com

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