Playoff eligiblity

A lot of people (four) have either e-mailed me about this or asked me about it on t'internet in recent days, about when players have to sign with a new team by in order to be eligible for the playoffs. Apparently there's some confusion on the issue, particularly surrounding the March the 1st date.

So let's clarify.

There is NO SIGN-BY DATE for playoff eligiblity. You can sign whenever you want - even on the last of the regular season if you like - and still be eligible for the playoff roster.

The only stipulation is that you CAN'T have been on another team's roster - or on waivers from another team - on March the 1st. This makes the March 1st date a waive-by date, not a sign-by date. And that's why players frequently get waived in the run-up to it, (such as Maggy Magloire, Brent Barry and Flip Murray have so far) and then sign with a new team after it, and still appear in the playoffs.


An example of this is Anthony "The Dazzler" Carter last season with the Denver Nuggets. He and Von Wafer both signed with Denver just before the end of the last regular season, because the Nuggets needed some insurance guards for the playoff push and didn't want to sign them earlier because they were so deep into luxury tax territory. Vaekeaton didn't then play in a playoff game for them, but Carter did, and so my case is proveth thus. The Dallas Mavericks and Kevin Willis did the same thing.

So there we go. Fun stuff.

"I am not racist. Just careful."

Firstly:

For all those telling me to write more, you're preaching to the converted. Unfortunately, since the start of this last NBA season, I've been annoyingly busy. I was working ever hour God sent until December 21st, and most of those hours were also at night, which meant I missed a helluva lot of NBA action. Then I was making Christmas presents, because I am a tightarse who refuses to buy people things. Then, it was Christmas day. And then on Boxing Day, I fell ill. I have been in bed since then, with a rather rambunctious fever, the details of which I won't go into. It's basically involved lots of lying down, massive temperature fluctations, more mucus than you could shake a stick it, the constant struggle to prevent your head exploding, and a disturbing craving for oranges. I'd still be in bed now, but I have to get up, for my big ol' school assessment is in for three days time. Basically I'm just wringing it out for sympathy now, so say awww or something.

Nevertheless, I've had 7 cocktail sausages and a slice of pizza, and have mustered up enough energy to return to the computer and start tackling my long to-do list, a which should feature my really-rather-important assessment at the top, but doesn't.

Instead, I've been Googling my own name. And, after finding nothing interesting from doing that, I started to Google this website.

Part way down the list of rather strange and uninspiring hits (I really need to advertise more, I reckon. Even once would be a good start) was a piece on AOL Fanhouse linking to a blog post that I made on here nearly three months ago. The post was this'un about the NBA's preseason game played in London.

I'd never noticed the Fanhouse page before now. I read through it, and also the 7 comments people had made (I DREAM of comment numbers that high). Two of them annoyed me, and I felt that I had to respond.

I could respond via the comments system on that page, but being two and a half months late, that might be a bit pointless. No one would see it.

I could maybe try and contact the person directly. But this requires effort, which I don't have. And it also might annoy them, which I don't want.

So instead, I'll write a completely un-topical rebuttal on here, two and a half months too late, and to the interest of basically nobody. Hooray!

(The quote, by the way, is from the talk radio station on GTA San Andreas, and is used ironically.)


This is the bit that I object to.

It sounds to me like the ShamSports writer was simply uneasy with seeing so many black faces on television all at once. Is he white and uneasy not seeing a face that looked like his?

No. Not even close. (Although yes, I am white. Like that matters.)

I am not offended by the sight of black people. Not by one of them, not by one million of them. I am not offended by the sight of any minority, or even any majority. To judge people based on how they look is pathetic, trivial, and the bane of my entire existence, and it should only be done if it's not serious and rather funny.

To actually be racist is just a really, really stupid thing. You might as well just top yourself if you are.

But yes, the whole thing did annoy me. However, note this key difference below.

It did not offend me because I dislike looking at black people. It offended me because I really want the NBA to succeed over here, and it will never do so if it's continually promoted to such a tiny market.

That's a pretty key point that needs some funky text on it or something. I don't care about skin colours, I care about NBA basketball. And that's why it offends me that the people trying to sell NBA basketball here seem to care so much about skin colours.

Since when did the fact that it is mostly black people who play the sport at its highest level mean that it has a solely (or even predominantly) black viewing audience? Obviously, that's not the case. We all know this. And Five's TV executives probably know this too. So why have they chosen to appeal to an incredibly small market?

And if you don't think they have, you're just going to have to trust me that they did. I can't go through and relay to you every single poorly impersonated Dizzie Rascal impression used to overdub an advert for the game, or every instance of grime music, or who used terms like "blood" and "bling" and when, because I can't be fucked. You'll just have to trust me that these things were rife, to the point of idiocy. And if you can't trust my judgement on that, then just say nothing and move on. I at least saw all this, and even if my recollection or rants on the subject aren't entirely accurate, they be a helluva lot more informed than those living in a different continent could offer up.


Black culture doesn't offend me, alienate me, or upset me. But all this pandering to it, does. It's needless, narrow minded, and frankly a bit silly. Appeal to everybody, and then you have a wider range of potential viewers. And that's what you want, isn't it? It's sure as hell what I want, and I don't get paid to care about viewer figures.

People just need to loosen up their sphincters enough to be able to reach a point where they can see the words "black", "race" and "annoy" in the same passage and actually remain calm enough to judge the passage on its merits, rather than instantly getting the arseache and screaming racism. Seriously. It's not that hard.




Secondly:

Happy new year. Let's run this.

Transactions explained

For those wondering how or why two of today's transactions took place, I'll explain a bit:


Number 1:

   New Orleans trades David Wesley to New Jersey for Bernard Robinson, Mile Ilic and cash considerations. New Orleans then promptly waives
them both.

Wesley's contract is for one year at $1,750,000, but only $250,000 of it is guaranteed, which is why it's been passed around twice in the coming months. New Jersey traded two meaningless players on guaranteed contracts for Wesley's unguaranteed one in a bid to cut payroll, which will happen when they cut Wesley. They haven't done it immediately because there's no reason to - with the $250,000 guarantee, Wesley is essentially costing them for a short time, so they can keep him to explore trade possibilities. As for why New Orleans did it, we can only assume that New Jersey gave them enough money to make it worth their while, but it really does cement once and for all the fact that they flat old sold Cedric Simmons. And that deal still remains odd.


Number 2:

   San Antonio trades Beno Udrih to Minnesota for a protected 2008 second round pick and cash. Minnesota waives Udrih immediately.

Same sort of thing - San Antonio needed to shave some off their cap figure, so they dealt Udrih to Minnesota (Minnesota used part of a trade exception to absorb his salary), and gave the Timberwolves enough money to cut him for no cost, plus a little bit more on top for their troubles. The pick Minnesota gave up is havily protected, and so they probably won't lose it.


Updated salaries to be upped shortly.

Some points that need clarifying

People complain a lot. I know this because I am one such person. After a while you get bored of replying to each individual criticism. So here is a mass retort.

1) The web design is from 1995, because I am a shit web designer. If you want to lend your services for free to assist me with this, please do. But you won't, because no one does.

2) Similarly, because this site is a one man project, real life tends to occasionally get in the way, and thus updates sometimes fall behind. Don't complain too vociferously - it's not like you come here for news and current affairs anyway. And if you do.....don't?

3) The pictures aren't coming back. Deal with this.

4) It's because I LIKE blue.

5) There are over 900 player profiles, that only recently began being written. So yeah, there's a lot of gaps right now. About 700 or so still needed doing at last count. Please don't email me to complain about this, as if I didn't know it was there. It's getting done. It just takes a while.