Yes it is.

When this is all over, which is not going to be for a while, Trump will be re-elected President.

What infuriates me about the NBA: teams will talk openly about Tanking.

Tanking is by definition openly trying to lose games as a strategy. That's just fucked up.

The thing about this or the Cubs or any other franchise is not being fair. You can go all Bernsie on me but I do think tickets should be value added. So yes when the Cubs (just one example) are purposely dumping they should charge less. On the other hand I also believe that is any team finds themselves at the break with a big lead and heading to the playoffs they should then be able to raise prices. Fair is fair.

I'm a big dumb shitlib baby

What infuriates me about the NBA: teams will talk openly about Tanking.

Tanking is by definition openly trying to lose games as a strategy. That's just fucked up.

That's the infuriating part. Teams that are actually doing it, will never say anything about it.

Meanwhile, it's obvious to everyone what they are doing... if you don't get it, don't try to explain it or clean it up. If you're going to claim on a fucking message board that it doesn't happen or play dumb; you're part of the problem.

Mike, why do you hate Capitalism?

I'm a big dumb shitlib baby

Garnett went to Texas.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

The thing about this or the Cubs or any other franchise is not being fair. You can go all Bernsie on me but I do think tickets should be value added. So yes when the Cubs (just one example) are purposely dumping they should charge less. On the other hand I also believe that is any team finds themselves at the break with a big lead and heading to the playoffs they should then be able to raise prices. Fair is fair.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

My wife said 2 things about Bernstein today:

"He sounds like a man that was never challenged to be a man."
"He gives a lot of opinions without probably having many life experiences."

Teams already do ratchet up the prices as they get better throughout the year (variable ticket pricing!), but the thing about ratcheting is that it only goes in one direction. Teams never drop the prices in tank years.

Let 'em tank. GMs and owners can't agree on a solution. Any fix to the problem would be met with a major backlash by the fans, and players.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

Not to cross-contaminate the folders too much here, but I'm happier having gone through the Blackhawks' tank years than doing what the Calgary Flames did recently, where they tried to be just good enough to make the playoffs but never did, stalling out the development pipeline for nothing. (They finally gave up the ghost and tanked this year.) Not totally the same in basketball, where you don't have to draft for volume, but it's better to definitely punt a season and have something to show for it than to maybe punt it and have nothing. Tanking is fine. At least three teams a year should be actively trying to start from scratch.

Yep. It's the nature of basketball combined with a 7-game series. The number of possessions in the sport of basketball and the frequency of scoring makes upsets unusual. In basketball, if Lebron James dribbles off his foot and the Heat lose a possession against a lesser team, it's no big deal. They will have 100 more opportunities to score or stop the other team from scoring. In football, if a guy fumbles, it is a HUGE deal because the number of scoring opportunities and frequency of scoring is much lower. A 6-point swing is basketball is 3% of total output if the teams combine for 200 points. In football, a 14-point swing (turnover and a score) is probably about 25% of the total output.

When this is combined with the fact that basketball has 7-game series, the better team nearly ALWAYS wins a playoff series in basketball. I will agree with Nas in that the number of players playing at one time makes a large difference, too, but it is due almost completely to the number of possessions in basketball. As a result, basketball in general has a very low tolerance for parity, but the NBA also doesn't do much to help this "problem."

Are you stoned or pissed off, or both, when you create these postings?

Interesting theory. That's why the NBA eliminated the 3 and 5 game series. Upsets are fun.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

I think money was the overwhelming reason they did that.