…why do Detroit Three’s cars sell for $2,000 less than comparable Japanese models? This is the key issue–not labor costs, which including the legacy costs account for less than 10 percent of the cost of a car.
Exactly. If I could buy an American car that was as reliable as my Honda, I probably would. However, I cannot. American car makers have had an entire generation now to figure out how to beat the Japanese in the car business. For whatever reason, they’ve chosen not to.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 6
Shaquille O’Neal 4
Michael Jordan 6
Karl Malone 0
Jerry West 1
Wilt Chamberlain 2
Bob Cousy 6
John Havlicek 8
Larry Bird 3
Kevin Garnett 1
Elvin Hayes 1
Magic Johnson 5
Hakeem Olajuwon 2
Oscar Robertson 1
Bill Russell 11
Dolph Schayes 1
Isiah Thomas 2
Charles Barkley 0
Elgin Baylor 0
Kobe Bryant 3
Tim Duncan 4
Julius Erving 1
Patrick Ewing 0
Moses Malone 1
Bob Pettit 1
Paul Arizin 1
Clyde Drexler 1
Hal Greer 1
Allen Iverson 0
David Robinson 2
John Stockton 0
Do it ten times, and you’re likely to walk away with a ring or two. You’ll notice only a handful of guys on that list have five or more championships. I think it’s safe to say three rings makes you one of the all-time greats. KP thinks Oden could win ten. Right.
We won’t have the answer for another decade, at least. By then Durant will be long gone from OKC and at least one of Portland’s current big three will be gone as well, so the answer could end up being a jumbled mess. Ultimately, I think the measuring stick will be how many championships will each player decide. That is to say, if the Blazers win a championship, could they have done it without Oden? And when Durant gets his, could his team have done it without him? That will be the ultimate question.
I’m convinced of it. And I’m thinking those on the outside looking in, those who don’t see Oden in practice and night to night, you know, the ones snickering at the Blazers today, are missing the point.
Durant was the safe selection who would have made the Blazers look immediately brilliant. I suspect Pritchard knew that when he picked Oden. And it’s probably testing his patience and his ego some to watch Durant badly outperform Oden, especially on All-Star weekend where Oden sat out injured and Durant performed like Moses in sneakers.
But when the Blazers picked Oden two drafts ago, they were announcing that they were more interested in a winner who could anchor a team than a spectacular offensive player who would win lots of individual awards.
Man, that sounds an awful lot like the Bowie/Jordan argument. Jordan was a spectacular individual talent, but Bowie was the big offensive threat in the middle who was going to join with Clyde to win championships. We all know how that worked out. And as we watch Oden hobble around while Durant has a coming out party, it’s hard not to play “what if”.
Twenty-five years ago, I don’t think Jordan and Drexler would have been able to co-exist. One of them would have left. Same thing here. Either Durant or Roy would have left Portland at some point. That’s how it would have to be.
If you *really* want to play what-if, imagine if the Blazers didn’t already have Brandon Roy on the roster when they had to make the call between Oden and Durant. Then what would you have done?
Growing up, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Phoenix Suns. For me it wasn’t so much about the team or the players, it was always about the building. The Madhouse on McDowell always looked so funky on TV. It had this white ceiling that swooped down over the floor. I always dug that. Everytime the Blazers played down there, I made sure to tune in.
I finally got to see the building for myself when I moved to Phoenix in 1999. Like Portland’s Memorial Coliseum, the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum had fallen into disrepair. It was a dark shell of itself. By then it was hosting the WCHL’s Phoenix Mustangs, a franchise which folded shortly after I left. Like most things you build up into something more than it is, the building was a disappointment.
So that’s my Suns connection.
Fast forward to the present day. The Suns were considered the prototype franchise just a few seasons ago. With Steve Nash running Mike D’Antoni’s seven-second offense, the Suns were poised to dominate. Then somehow the wheels fell off. I’ve no idea how or why. The team and the city have never quite got over that game 4 against the Spurs from a couple of seasons ago. That was the one where Stoudemire and Diaw left the bench after Robert Horry hip checked Steve Nash into the scorer’s table. Ever since, the Suns have, for whatever reason, decided they needed to toughen up. So it was out with seven-seconds and in with Shaq. And in with Terry Porter and the Detroit offense. And it just hasn’t worked out.
Just halfway into his first season in Phoenix, Porter is out and if you believe the guys on Sports Business Radio, there are reports that the Suns are in talks to buy-out Shaq and send him on his way. Perhaps to the Lakers? Did you see Shaq and Kobe yukking it up at the post-game press conference tonight? If they decided to get back together for one more run, it could be lights out. They also postulated The Diesel could end up in San Antonio. Either move would be a dagger to Suns fans.
The Suns are also reportedly in financial trouble, not unlike the issues that befell the Diamondbacks. It’s all bad bad bad.
I feel awful for the fans down there. During the week leading up to the Super Bowl, I mentioned to my buddy Jerome, who lives down there, that you could stack a Lombardi Trophy and a Stanley Cup on top of the 2001 World Series victory and they wouldn’t come close to equalling what a Suns championship would mean to the folks in Phoenix. They love their Suns more than anything. To watch this season play out has got to be almost as painful for them as watching the Blazers go through the Steve Patterson era was for us.
For the first time tonight, The Simpsons will be doing their thing in HD. I won’t be participating in hi-definition because I have yet to take the leap.
A friend of mine called yesterday to let me know she had a tax refund burning a hole in her pocket and she was on the hunt for a new TV. She gratefully accepted my request to come tag along. There’s nothing I love more than the hunt for technology.
We met up at the Circuit City around 3. We waded through boxes and half broken down display racks as we tried to find a deal on a TV. There were none to be found. Just a lot of signs with the “original” price crossed out and the “new” price scribbled in. Evidently they don’t fear being able to liquidate their TV stock, because those “blow-out” prices were more than the regular price down the road at Fry’s. Where they do have deals though is on video games, cds, and dvds. Also if you’re in the market for a new computer, you might want to stop in. They had a couple of nice machines in there priced to move.
We headed over to Video Only to see what they had. I’d been in there a time or two and had been completely unimpressed by their service. They’re commissioned and it shows. So it came as kind of a shock yesterday when our salesman chose to leave us alone when we asked. Freaking weird. He also got a pretty good chuckle when I asked where the restroom was because my “brother”, my friend’s five-year-old son, had to go. Yes, good times.
We found two units that caught our eye. The first was a 42″ 720p LCD for $750. The other a 42″ 1080p LCD for $850. As we took the prices down, the salesman came over to ask what his competition was. We were honest and told him we’d just started. As we headed toward the door, he asked us to give him the last shot. We promised we would.
After that came the Best Buy. They moved the store out of a strip mall up near I5 and 79th street and down south of the border a few months ago. They moved it into the old Comp USA that was there. Because of that, it feels a little dark and cramped.
As we started walking through their display, we were decended upon by a salesguy who no matter how many times we said we were just browsing wouldn’t walk away. He kept pestering us with questions about what we were looking for, asking whether we knew the difference between 720p and 1080p, and what price point we were looking at. All good questions, Isuppose, but I’m not there to get educated. And I’m also not there to get badgered. The guy had obviously read his sales manuals. “Get the customer to talk”. “Keep asking questions”. I finally cut him off and we made our way toward the door. That’s the only way to deal with the salesguy who won’t stop talking and let me come up with my own questions.
My friend thought she’d done something wrong, but I explained that I’d just had enough of the salesguy. Fair enough, she said.
Our last stop was Target. They don’t have many models, but the ones they have are pretty cheap. They had two brand name 42″ 1080p models for $799. That was all the ammunition we needed for our return to Video Only.
Before we stepped back in, I went over our plan. I asked my friend if she was willing to walk out the door over the $50 we were about to ask for. She told me as long as I did the talking for her, she’d stand by whatever decision I made.
As we walked back in the door, our salesguy friend was there to greet us. I told him what we’d found. He put up a token argument about how we were comparing cheap Chinese products to higher quality Korean products. I reminded him we were just talking about $50. He asked for a minute and went to find his manager.
Another couple watched us as we stood cooling our heels. They had their eye on the same set and were curious what the result would be. After a minute or two, our guy came back with his manager. All I heard from the manager was “I’ll approve it” and just like that we got our TV for $799. The salesguy immediately walked over to the other couple and offered them the same deal which they took. Everybody won. What a great day.
Reading Balloon Juice’s DaveJ, one wonders whether it might better serve the Republican party than the Democrats to end radio’s Fairness Doctrine. When they run out of other stuff to talk about, right-wing talk show hosts bring out the Fairness Doctrine and how Pelosi and Feinstein want to bring it back. But a few more losses of reliably Republican seats, like AZ-5, might start convincing Republicans they need to find a new constituency.
Ultimately Republicans will only cower before Rush and Sean for so long. A return of the Fairness Doctrine might be applauded by more people than we believe.
I realize we’re talking girls basketball here and I know we’re talking about two below-average teams, but really…14 combined points in the first half? I’ve seen both West Linn and Lake Oswego play this season. Both employ ball control offenses that lull the crowd and themselves to sleep. And who really wants to play in or watch a game like that? No one, that’s who.
A 30-second shot clock would solve this. It would get things moving and take some of the control out of these coaches hands. More importantly, kids would have more fun. And that’s really what high school athletics should be about.
Leno wouldn’t have been able to handle this in a million years. He would have yanked the show and put in a rerun instead. Kudos to Dave for hanging in there.
Apparently there’s a pretty lively discussion out there about whether this was a put on. Perhaps. Why everyone chooses to do this to Dave and not, say…Ellen, is mystifying.
Even weirder, the winning ticket was one of twenty he purchased for that particular drawing. If you’ve spent any time behind “that guy” at the Plaid Pantry, you know the $20-at-a-time lottery players are generally…how should I put it…unique.
