Media lessons, Cuban style!

May 18th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanE

Everyone’s favorite professional owner Mark Cuba - what? You don’t like Cuban? Well we do. He went to IU, he responds to our e-mails, and he actually cares about his team’s performance, not just its profitability.

Anyway, Cuban’s blog is an extension of that entertainment, and Mark is talking media shop in his last two posts over there, extolling all the virtues of blogs in comparison to newspapers.

This interests us not only because it’s Cuban speaking, but because we kinda pull double-duty in this area; we manage this little blog here, and we aspire to careers in the newspaper business, working for The Man.

Cuban’s most interesting point is that newspapers - available via the Web - are the best spot to go for in-depth coverage of any specific large-market team, especially when that team is in the playoffs. ESPN.com and wire services, Cuban says, maintain their boring, generalized regular-season coverage.

It’s true. If ESPN didn’t have their columnists to illuminate our lives on a daily basis, very little on the site would be of any real interest. For the passing fan, it’s fine, but for anyone desiring serious detail, the formula doesn’t work.

Leave it to Marky Mark - so sexy in that photo - to point it out.

Matt Leinart : Just a normal dude

May 11th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

If you haven’t caught it by now, new Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart has been writing a draft diary for ESPN over the past couple weeks. In his latest edition, Leinart laments over his celebrity status and his relationship with the media.

It’s all this media attention. I guess you could say it’s my fault, but at the same time, I’m just being a normal dude…..Celebrities are really just normal people. They’re just as normal as any other human being. The media portrays them in a certain way. It constantly involves their private life and it sucks. It really does. I’ve gotten a taste of that. It’s always: Who am I dating? I’m not dating anyone. I’m really not. There’s no time for me to date anybody. I hang out with people. I have a good time. I turned 23 years old today. What people don’t even realize is that I was in a relationship for a year that just ended a few months back. It’s a joke.Everywhere I go and everybody I talk to gets out in the media. It makes me look a certain way when in reality I’m just a normal guy. I’m having a good time. I realize I have to make good choices and I’ve done all the right things. It just sucks. I’m not going to sit in my house every night, play with my thumbs and not go out.

Postmen translation:

Guys, I’m 23. When I can rope in any girl I want, why the hell would I be in a relationship? I mean, Paris Hilton was probably the easiest score I’ve had in awhile. (Okay, okay, not like that should be news to anyone or anything.)

It’s annoying that the media is always around because it limits the fun I can have. I mean, once these pictures surfaced on the Internet, I realized I had to be more careful. Which really just sucks.

O yeah, and celebrities are just normal people. I’m a normal dude.

Love,
Matt

If only we could all be Matt Leinart.

We Recommend: Hopping on the Wayback Machine - to 1998

May 9th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanE

Ah yes, it was a more innocent time. The internet had boomed and busted, and available fonts numbered in the hundreds, not the thousands. Simpler days, indeed.

Yes, the year was 1998, Bill Clinton was mired in scandal, and most news Web sites were starting to figure out what pornographers had known for years - the internet is a cash cow.

Thanks to the Wayback Machine, you can visit some of your favorite sites circa 1998 and beyond. Want to see Google Beta? No, not Gmail Beta - the actual Google. You know, the multi-billion dollar software conglomerate that blows our minds all the time? It was ugly back then! (Also, it had an exclamation point then. Apparently today’s engine is far less enthusiastic.)

This is too much fun. Be sure to check out some old ESPN pages too. Gross.

Skip Bayless chimes in on the ‘next MJ’

May 8th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

After numerous commenters (and by ‘numerous’ I mean three) blasted me for my LeBron James comments last week, I felt it necessary to respond in a post. Because, well, the detractors (if they even ever come back to this site) will be more likely to see this post then to dig back through the site and look up the comments under the LeBron post from last week.

And I think, barring injuries and if he gets a few championships under his belt, he will be perhaps THE best of all-time.

Dictionary.com defines the word perhaps as ‘maybe; possibly.’ So, yeah, nowhere did I say he was better than MJ right now, just that if he wins a few titles there’s a good chance he will mentioned right up there with Jordan, PERHAPS even better than him after all is said and done.

And yes, commenter Romes, Steve Kerr is right. The Cavs do look a lot like the late 80’s Bulls where everyone watched Jordan do everything. And once Jordan got good players around him, they were able to win championships. Which if LeBron gets teammates of the same caliber as Pippen etc., he’ll have an excellent shot at winning a few titles as well. In essence, all you are doing is strengthening my arugment.

Anywho, everyone’s favorite robot Skip Bayless just wrote a column about the whole ‘Next MJ’ thing in regards to Kobe and King James. After a bunch of whimsy rhetoric, he says Kobe has no shot at MJ’s throne and LeBron will never ‘quite be Jordan.’

Even with a solid first half by King James last night, the Pistons routed the Cavs 113-86. And no matter how good LeBron plays, it’s going to be insanely difficult to beat a team that actually plays defense (unlike the Wizards) and has a fluid and cohesive starting five.

But let us not forget it took MJ three tries before he got past Detroit.

(Also, due to lack of resources, I won’t be able to get my Derby video up until tomorrow. It’s worth the wait, trust us.)

It’s draft day…

April 29th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

Finally. Thanks to ESPN’s crazy coverage of this thing before it started, we’re already sick of it and it’s still an hour away. We wonder how excited Mel Kiper Jr. is right now. Dickie V. Duke-North Carolina excited? Maybe ESPN should set up a crotch cam.

Last night, the Texans announced they would be selecting Mario Williams with the first pick and not Mr. Reggie Bush. We’re really not sure about this one. Sure, Mario Williams is good. But is he No. 1 pick good? Is he better than Reggie Bush? We aren’t so sure. But, hey, we’re no experts.

But anywho, sit back, relax and enjoy the draft on this late April Saturday afternoon. We all owe it to Mel after all his hard work, don’t we?

With the first pick in the 1984 NBA Draft…

April 28th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

Via the mighty mjd, we caught wind of ESPN’s famed Page 2’s compilation of the 100 worst draft picks of all time. Ryan Leaf (surprise, surprise) ranks second on this list, with Sam Bowie (you know, the dude picked before a certain Michael Jordan) being the all-time worst draft pick.

We have to admit, this is a pretty cool list and must have required an insane amount of research. The piece is written by the lead editor of Page 2, Mr. David Schoenfield. And unless we’re told otherwise, we’re going to assume he compiled all of it. (Although there’s a good chance he had some help.)

We can just imagine him in his nerdy little glasses staying up for the last 300 hours cranking this sucker out. This probably isn’t true at all; it’s just a fantasy of ours really.