I think if a game goes into OT, team owners should kick everyone out if they don't pay for an extra 5 min of basketball. #YouGetWhatYouPayFor

Golden State fans should all get a refund for last year's game 7 loss. They were like -300 favorites! Fans paid for a win and got a soul crushing loss instead? Lawsuit!!1

LeBron sitting out 5 regular season games on the road in one year is costing the league hundreds of mirrions? Interesting take. You realize everyone still paid for that game in Memphis where LeBron sat out, right? No one really lost anything other than some minor bad PR which is now being blown out of proportion.

You'd think the TV networks would see Pop doing it years ago and maybe plan ahead that others would catch on. Oops.

If it were just 5 random games probably not but it's been some of the most high profile marquee regular season games the networks get all year. Considering they have now already realized they've overpaid then when it comes time to negotiate the next contract it could easily cost the league hundreds of millions of dollars. These contracts are worth billions.

It's really only happened twice. Cavs-Clips where the big 3 sat out and then Warriors-Spurs.

A new TV deal will probably be lower than this one no matter what. The networks are bleeding subs/talent and ESPN legitimately might be busto within 5 years if they don't do something drastic. It's kind of ironic that the league is getting fat off of a huge, unsustainable TV deal caused by the networks overpaying, and now it may swing the other way with the players having to take the hit down the road. I keep thinking back to the Mozgov and Deng contracts for the Lakers. Moz got like 16 million a year and barely played, and has been shut down for a few weeks now. To me, that screams that salaries are in bubble territory. When Mozgov is making like 9x or whatever of someone like Dedmon or Biyombo who are both far more useful, that's not a good sign. Stuff like that probably isn't sustainable in the long run. Just paying guys huge sums of cash to essentially fill a team/make the salary floor or ride the bench probably won't be a thing in a few years or once the new TV deal comes around.

A clause like "if 1 star player (determined by x y z metrics) sits for rest during a prime time game, it costs the network 5% less" etc might help a bit, but then you get into things like stars playing 1 min then sitting, or faking injuries or whatever.

Isn't the league doing away with b2b's next year anyway?

Not that you're wrong but Biyombo got paid and makes more than Moz. And Dedmon is a bad example because he's a guy who is basically having his first productive year ever in a near ideal situation. He'll get a raise next time he's up.

Eliminate max salaries and just have a hard cap and you'd see better, more accurate contracts.

It's not that players are making too much, it's that the wrong ones are.

AC Green never took a day off from basketball or abstinence and won a bunch of rings. This proves you can win without having sex, so players have no excuse for boning groupies on the road.

I don't see why having some terrible contracts out there is a net negative for the league. Rewards good team building

I like your style.

I feel like Thunder fans should be able to sue Durant for the playoffs last year, including missed Finals utility. He knew he was leaving too.

Sage Steele replaced by Michelle Beadle on NBA Countdown with two weeks left in the regular season seems like strange timing. Guessing she's gone in the upcoming ESPN layoffs and they knew they'd be during the playoffs so make the switch now?

catching up on Simmons pod-

Ballmer ep. (and all others?) sponsored by SeatGeek yet BS repeatedly says StubHub when talking about secondary ticket market.

Nash ep. BS again on his cringeworthy casual fan 'Wow, like, can you imagine if Westbrook or LeBron grew up playing soccer?' and Nash kindly trying to get across 'uh you know soccer has sick athletes like Pogba already, right?'

after all the water she's carried for the white establishment!? damn, that's cold

I use like Simmons pod but now for some reason I like it less. I don't know if he changed or I have.

http://deadspin.com/bill-simmons-is-...ter-1703163076

Nah, that's not it. I haven't matured at all. I'm 41 and I think 99% of the stuff on Deadspin is hilarious.

Writing is a craft and it will suffer if you don't do it every day. That's basically what happened w/ Simmons.

Not sure if you guys saw, but Simmons pal, Lombardi wrote possibly the worst article of all time:

https://theringer.com/2017-nfl-draft...y-6e0d45a52fa5

Super lol at crib factor

loooooool

Albert Burneko is far and away the worst hack at Deadspin, lol at him calling anyone out for being a bad writer.

Yeah, but would you say that to his face?

I think he's great.

Who are your favorite sportswriters besides Burny?

Oh, I don't think of him as a sportswriter, I just enjoy reading his stuff (e.g., his foodspin stuff). That being said, his take on Lombardi (who I think is pretty terrible) was great.

Also, I had always thought his last name was Burnenko, not Burneko, so this exchange was useful for something.