Monday Bolts – 9.15.14
Ethan Strauss of ESPN.com on the league’s globalization: “The story the NBA tells itself about the emerging, globalizing force of basketball is a good one, and I wish it were completely true. I love how the 2014 champion San Antonio Spurs dominated with an international approach. The sport is better for diversifying, for absorbing perspectives and approaches from all over. AAU camps now teach American kids the Eurostep because Manu Ginobili brought his diagonal stylings to the NBA. As thrilling as the collectivist Spurs are, they don’t boast potential international stars. Kawhi Leonard is from the Inland Empire. The horizon isn’t replete with young Manus, Yaos and Dirks. Sadly, Team USA’s success represents a failure of basketball on the global level — for now, at least. The sport hasn’t grown by leaps as it seemed it would in the mid-2000s. The NBA still uses the story of world conquest as a bulwark for the insecurity caused by football’s stateside dominance. That narrative can’t survive so many Team USA victories.”
Marc Stein of ESPN.com on Team USA’s victory: “No one out there seems capable of even pushing the Americans at the moment, which is obviously the disheartening part. Especially when another 10 or so top Americans were back at home. Krzyzewski himself admitted that, until Irving and Harden went off in the title game, this edition of Team USA “had to invent new ways to score” after Durant removed himself from the roster and took much of the intended offense with him. Ball pressure to create turnovers and offensive rebounds to generate extra possessions became the go-to sources of point production for this group, which didn’t have anyone scoring better than Harden’s 13.1 points per game — and thus no clear-cut MVP candidate — until Irving did what he did in the title game.”
KD was at the Redskins’ game yesterday.
And then he visited RGIII in the locker room after the game.
Nicole Goodkind of Yahoo Finance on sneakerwars: “While the Durant incident is certainly a blow to Nike, the company still has a $71 billion market cap. “Nike can afford to make mistakes,” says Lindzon. They’re willing to make mistakes and risk a lot in order to stay at the top, he claims, and that’s why they’re such a good bet. Nike’s stock is near all-time highs and has been for more than a year. Under Armour’s market cap comes in just under $15 billion, with the stock also approaching highs.”
Eddie Maisonet breaks down the sneakerwars on TrueHoop TV.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports tees off on Coach K: “Suddenly, this most private and personal moment turned out to be anything but that. Within minutes, that image would be flying through Twitter and Instagram for all those moms and dads to see the compassion and caring of Duke’s coach. So the NBA stars climbed onto the podium on Sunday night at the Palacio de los Deportes, and there was Mike Krzyzewski making his move to the far end, framing himself with the gold medalists. The flashes flickered, the confetti swirled and the NBA had a chance to take a long, long look at the photo and ask itself: Who benefited the most in this picture, and why the hell would we keep doing this?”
