Steve Nash from Suns to Lakers for two first-round picks, two second-round picks, cash
Well done to the Suns for making something of this situation. It looked like they weren't going to get anything out of Nash until this went through. Lakers will come to regret Nash's contract ($25 million over three years). At least he'll be better than Sessions.
Suns now look like they're pursuing Michael Beasley. Beasley would fit in reasonably well, and I'm sure Phoenix still believe that Beasley has the potential to be one of the top scorers in the NBA.
On paper the Lakers now have the best starting five in the NBA. Who wouldn't want a team with Bynum and Gasol around the rim, with Nash and Bryant in the backcourt? It's fortunate for the league that Bynum isn't consistent and Kobe is starting to show his age. This is the kind of trade, at least for the coming season, will be regarded as a good one by both teams.
Wednesday, 4 July 2012
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
NBA Free Agency Watch
It's looking more and more likely that Eric Gordon has just signed an offer sheet from the Phoenix Suns. The deal looks to be $58 million over four years. The Hornets have to be reeling right now. Even with Anthony Davis, Gordon was the major part of the trade for Chris Paul. Unlike in the NFL, teams get nothing when they lose one of there players in Restricted Free Agency.
For the Suns this deal makes a whole lot of sense. They have a scorer who can fill the gap that looks to be left by the likely departure of Steve Nash. Suns still don't really have much to work with and look like they'll spend at least another year out of the playoffs. Unless both Anthony Davis and Austin Rivers come through right away, there is no way the Hornets are going to make the playoffs this coming season. As long as Rashard Lewis' $21 million plus salary remains on the Hornets books, they'll struggle to come close to making the playoffs. If they can't resign Chris Kaman (rumoured to be getting interest from the Pacers) or another decent centre there is no chance they'll be close to competitive this season.
It's going to be a very interesting free agency period...
For the Suns this deal makes a whole lot of sense. They have a scorer who can fill the gap that looks to be left by the likely departure of Steve Nash. Suns still don't really have much to work with and look like they'll spend at least another year out of the playoffs. Unless both Anthony Davis and Austin Rivers come through right away, there is no way the Hornets are going to make the playoffs this coming season. As long as Rashard Lewis' $21 million plus salary remains on the Hornets books, they'll struggle to come close to making the playoffs. If they can't resign Chris Kaman (rumoured to be getting interest from the Pacers) or another decent centre there is no chance they'll be close to competitive this season.
It's going to be a very interesting free agency period...
The Rugby Championship: Hello Argentina!
The expansion of the Tri-Nations to include Argentina is one of the best things to happen in World Rugby for a long while. The staggering of the tournament till later in the year allows for Argentina to avoid its usual conundrum of having all their top players still playing club Rugby in Europe at the time of the Autumn Internationals.
The best Argentina could possibly be hoping for in the tournament would be to knock over either South Africa or Australia when they trek it over the Atlantic/Pacific in order to face the Pumas. Argentina have proven that they can compete even without their big names. A second-string sides victory against Italy suggests they have the depth to at least be competitive in the tournament. France also discovered how hard it can be to win in South America, losing narrowly in the first of their two games in June. The addition of Argentina to the tri-nations adds another storyline to what is shaping up to be a great tournament.
Saturday, 23 June 2012
"Should Governments protect Independent Journalism?"
The answer to this should be obvious. But according to three out of the four individuals the Herald selected for this weeks "The Question" section, the Government should be actively involving itself in funding journalism. Don't we already have enough government involvement in journalism? Surely the ABC and SBS are enough.
Ed Coper, a media consultant, believes that the government should ensure that citizens have access to fact-based journalism. Apparently we have a "right to be informed" and the government should involve themselves in journalism to protect this "right to be informed". I've looked over the constitution and don't see any "right to be informed".
Ultimately the problem with this entire article (other than Chris Berg's contribution, which was a healthy dose of common sense) is this idea that "independent" journalism can exist, and that "independent" journalism can exist when dependent on government support.
I'm sure The Herald will continue to provide quality reporting no matter who owns the paper. The majority of people buy a paper to read the news, not the analysis which is where editors can push a particluar agenda. Get over it.
Ed Coper, a media consultant, believes that the government should ensure that citizens have access to fact-based journalism. Apparently we have a "right to be informed" and the government should involve themselves in journalism to protect this "right to be informed". I've looked over the constitution and don't see any "right to be informed".
Ultimately the problem with this entire article (other than Chris Berg's contribution, which was a healthy dose of common sense) is this idea that "independent" journalism can exist, and that "independent" journalism can exist when dependent on government support.
I'm sure The Herald will continue to provide quality reporting no matter who owns the paper. The majority of people buy a paper to read the news, not the analysis which is where editors can push a particluar agenda. Get over it.
Friday, 4 May 2012
NBA Playoffs: Heat v Knicks
He punched a fire extinguisher and will miss at least one game. He punched a fire extinguisher. It always seems that these sort of things only ever happen in the NBA. Whether it be Ron Artest objecting to ice being thrown in his face, Delonte West giving Gordon Hayward a "Wet Willie" or Gilbert Arenas walking around the locker room with guns, the NBA is the home of crazy. But to think that Amare Stoudemire would find himself in this same group when he was playing with the Suns is just unthinkable. New York must have a weird effect on you. And the New York Knicks season seems to be proving this.
The Knicks now find themselves down by three in their series with the Heat, and Carmelo is probably already trying to call dibs on his roommate for the Olympics. The Knicks have been the most remarkable team to watch this season. The signing of Tyson Chandler. Questions over combining Amare and Melo. Is it worth giving this Harvard guy some game time? Do we get rid of the Coach or break up Amare and Melo? Who would have thought a Harvard guy could actually be good! Wait he's injured. Can someone please explain why we are playing better now then any other point in the season with Amare and Lin out? The story lines around this Knicks team have been unrivalled. The Knicks at the end of the regular season were one of the top teams in the competition. They were able to close out tight contests and could rely on Anthony to bring home the bacon. The Knicks are done in the playoffs, but should think outside of the box for game 4.
Instead of rushing back Jeremy Lin, how about playing Stoudemire off the bench and letting Novak start. Novak may have struggled so far in this series, but was on absolute fire when he wasn't contending for floor time with Stoudemire. If the Knicks can re-sign Novak in this off season, I wouldn't be surprised to see Stoudemire traded for a more physical front court player who can play both centre and the power forward position. Ryan Anderson is the sort of solid player who would compliment Tyson Chandler and could play the centre position and still keep pulling in the rebounds, especially on offence. Stoudemire would actually work well in Orlando, providing extra pace around the net that would open up space for Howard. Note that this assumes that Howard stays in Orlando. Actually, even if he left, Stoudemire would work well with an ageing Turkoglu and the other spare parts that compose the Magic.
On the other side of the series, the Heat have been satisfactory. They are meeting expectations and Lebron is playing to an expected standard. Wade is playing up to expectations and Bosh is playing at a satisfactory level. Nothing about them is interesting, they're just playing as well as a team with the leagues best small forward and one of the leagues best shooting guards should be playing. The Heat will finish the series in four games.
The Knicks now find themselves down by three in their series with the Heat, and Carmelo is probably already trying to call dibs on his roommate for the Olympics. The Knicks have been the most remarkable team to watch this season. The signing of Tyson Chandler. Questions over combining Amare and Melo. Is it worth giving this Harvard guy some game time? Do we get rid of the Coach or break up Amare and Melo? Who would have thought a Harvard guy could actually be good! Wait he's injured. Can someone please explain why we are playing better now then any other point in the season with Amare and Lin out? The story lines around this Knicks team have been unrivalled. The Knicks at the end of the regular season were one of the top teams in the competition. They were able to close out tight contests and could rely on Anthony to bring home the bacon. The Knicks are done in the playoffs, but should think outside of the box for game 4.
Instead of rushing back Jeremy Lin, how about playing Stoudemire off the bench and letting Novak start. Novak may have struggled so far in this series, but was on absolute fire when he wasn't contending for floor time with Stoudemire. If the Knicks can re-sign Novak in this off season, I wouldn't be surprised to see Stoudemire traded for a more physical front court player who can play both centre and the power forward position. Ryan Anderson is the sort of solid player who would compliment Tyson Chandler and could play the centre position and still keep pulling in the rebounds, especially on offence. Stoudemire would actually work well in Orlando, providing extra pace around the net that would open up space for Howard. Note that this assumes that Howard stays in Orlando. Actually, even if he left, Stoudemire would work well with an ageing Turkoglu and the other spare parts that compose the Magic.
On the other side of the series, the Heat have been satisfactory. They are meeting expectations and Lebron is playing to an expected standard. Wade is playing up to expectations and Bosh is playing at a satisfactory level. Nothing about them is interesting, they're just playing as well as a team with the leagues best small forward and one of the leagues best shooting guards should be playing. The Heat will finish the series in four games.
Monday, 20 February 2012
Q&A
This evening I had the opportunity to attend Q&A in the ABC's Ultimo Studios. Hearing that British Conservative and European Parliament member Dan Hannan was on the panel, I jumped at the opportunity to join the studio audience.
The panel appeared looked promising. Bill Shorten and Julie Bishop were in attendance representing their respective sides of politics, Annabel Crab represented the media, while Eva Cox represented an outside left-wing point of view.
Dan Hannan is a truly spectacular politician with a stunning ability to deliver a speech. Dan Hannan gained fame for a spectacularly aggressive verbal assault at Gordon Brown on the floor of the European Parliament. More recently he wowed young conservatives from across America while delivering a speech at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference).
The producers of Q&A would have been well aware of Hannan's ability to talk about the philosophical side of politics, the clash of ideas, something that has been missing so badly from Q&A. Instead of directing conversation towards the big questions, Q&A finds itself focusing on the latest news story. This is evident in the emails sent out to those attending outlining the recent news stories that may be worthy of discussion. As a result Q&A became a panel of four. With Cox and Hannan being left to watch as Jones directed the duel between Bishop and Shorten, while Crabb added humour on the side.
It was almost cringe worthy to watch as Jones asked Hannan for an 'outsiders' perspective on the debates of today, with it taking until the second half of the show for the more urgent topic of the European debt crisis to be addressed. Julie Bishop, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, wasn't even asked a question on the devastating situation in Syria.
Q&A has been excellent in the past. But oddly only when they have a single panellist. Take the episode in Old Parliament House where an apparently 'popular with the youth' Prime Minister found himself under a constant assault from all sides of politics. Take the election episodes where Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard had a show each where they appeared by themselves. These episodes were truly engaging. The most interesting had to be the John Howard episode. Howard faced fierce criticism, laments at his disappearance from the national stage, and even a pair of stinky shoes.
Maintaining a single panellist is obviously impossible due to the inability to constantly provide such a high profile guest. If Q&A keeps going, they need to discuss issues relevant to all panellists. A discussion of ideas rather than the news would be a good place to start.
And most importantly Q&A should never do another Melbourne Writers Festival Special again. It sucks every single year.
The panel appeared looked promising. Bill Shorten and Julie Bishop were in attendance representing their respective sides of politics, Annabel Crab represented the media, while Eva Cox represented an outside left-wing point of view.
Dan Hannan is a truly spectacular politician with a stunning ability to deliver a speech. Dan Hannan gained fame for a spectacularly aggressive verbal assault at Gordon Brown on the floor of the European Parliament. More recently he wowed young conservatives from across America while delivering a speech at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference).
The producers of Q&A would have been well aware of Hannan's ability to talk about the philosophical side of politics, the clash of ideas, something that has been missing so badly from Q&A. Instead of directing conversation towards the big questions, Q&A finds itself focusing on the latest news story. This is evident in the emails sent out to those attending outlining the recent news stories that may be worthy of discussion. As a result Q&A became a panel of four. With Cox and Hannan being left to watch as Jones directed the duel between Bishop and Shorten, while Crabb added humour on the side.
It was almost cringe worthy to watch as Jones asked Hannan for an 'outsiders' perspective on the debates of today, with it taking until the second half of the show for the more urgent topic of the European debt crisis to be addressed. Julie Bishop, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, wasn't even asked a question on the devastating situation in Syria.
Q&A has been excellent in the past. But oddly only when they have a single panellist. Take the episode in Old Parliament House where an apparently 'popular with the youth' Prime Minister found himself under a constant assault from all sides of politics. Take the election episodes where Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard had a show each where they appeared by themselves. These episodes were truly engaging. The most interesting had to be the John Howard episode. Howard faced fierce criticism, laments at his disappearance from the national stage, and even a pair of stinky shoes.
Maintaining a single panellist is obviously impossible due to the inability to constantly provide such a high profile guest. If Q&A keeps going, they need to discuss issues relevant to all panellists. A discussion of ideas rather than the news would be a good place to start.
And most importantly Q&A should never do another Melbourne Writers Festival Special again. It sucks every single year.
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Dead Set Classic for the Ages
First heard this about three years ago. Dead set classic. Kerry O'Keefe is indefatigable.
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