rolling "dave zirin sons a sports writer/figure and my commie ass self-righteously otms him"

i mean how many death threats is tiger getting u know?

i dont really want to do that

was tiger arrested? was his passport revoked? did the fbi tap tigers phone?

Saying no act/event can be compared to the Nazis/Holocaust because doing so insults the memory and importance is pretty dumb too.

The conditions of their downfall play into the difficulty of the comeback, but nothing about that means you're comparing the causes or importance of those events. Nowhere does Simmons suggest that fucking porn stars and being a conscientous objector are equivalent acts. Only that Tiger faces the greatest difficulty in rebuilding his career since Ali.

lots of people get death threats, its not imo that telling of a stat

Saying no act/event can be compared to the Nazis/Holocaust because doing so insults the memory and importance is pretty dumb too.

whoa there buddy where did i say that? there are a lot of things that make for good comparison to naziism; health-care reform is not one of them. there are a lot of things that are good comparisons to alis stand and subsequent comeback; tiger woods is not one of them

The conditions of their downfall play into the difficulty of the comeback, but nothing about that means you're comparing the causes or importance of those events. Nowhere does Simmons suggest that fucking porn stars and being a conscientous objector are equivalent acts. Only that Tiger faces the greatest difficulty in rebuilding his career since Ali.

you are implicitly comparing the two acts if you are comparing their outcomes!

arent u supposed to be on your way to nepal

they have the internet there

death threats are not an officially recognized 'stat' anyway

this is great and all, but i just want to say:

America already has a ILBB, ILH and ILNFL? Although I'd be in favour of killing these for a more general ILS

― 80085 (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 9:07 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

NEVER

yah srsly plz no bb in mah h&nfl

btw the interesting angle of the comparison that neither simmons or zirin explored is what it means for society that ali was taking a principled religious stand and tiger is at the center of a media-created shitstorm abuot who he has sex with.

because in terms of difficulty of comeback, simmons might be right. i don't know, i wasn't there for ali.

imo the point no one is considering is: tiger is a nerd who fucks skanky chicks and plays a boring sport so who cares

i mean at least ali was cool

btw the interesting angle of the comparison that neither simmons or zirin explored is what it means for society that ali was taking a principled religious stand and tiger is at the center of a media-created shitstorm abuot who he has sex with.

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, March 2, 2010 10:27 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think we should all thank god that bill simmons didnt take up the question of what it meant for society

or zirin for that matter

People (like Zirin) are conflating the reason for the hurdle with the height of the hurdle; Simmon's doesn't equate the backstories, only the size of the challenge ahead.

― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, March 2, 2010 10:44 PM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark

agree with this

imo the point no one is considering is: tiger is a nerd who fucks skanky chicks and plays a boring sport so who cares

― ice cr?m, Tuesday, March 2, 2010 10:29 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

actually now im imagining michael manns 'tiger' and its pretty awesome

yeah fair enough max i guess i'm just saying there's material there.

cant believe ppl are defending bill simmons dumb comparison

Finding a comparison offensive before you even think about the merits is precisely that kind of 'this cannot be compared' nonsense IMO.

What sports events can we compare to Ali's comeback, max?

heres the thing! i thought about the merits! and it took me about 3 seconds!

i disagree completely w/his opinion, but i will defend w/my life his right to troll the internet

tbh i dunno if theres been anything quite as nationally impt in this country since that event? for a bunch of reasons obviously. but most athletes arent anywhere as to close to ali in terms of the willingness to take stands--its not a very common occurrence.

when they came for bill simmons I did not speak up

i'm not defending his comparison in that i'm not sure simmons or zirin or any of us have the information to actually make it. but it could be made.

in fact it was made

and it was dumb

the lakers/celtics finals was kind of like world war II guys

actually scratch that, it was more like star wars

would be sweet imo if tiger came back in total beast mode, just all ftw

lol what does beast mode look like, in golf

glowering, holes in one, menacing throat slashing gestures in phil mickelsons direction

ok, i'm sold

cool lets make this happen, ill phone in a death threat asap

imma go cut letters out of the newspaper so i can glue them to a postcard

right on

oh boy

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100303

lol awesom

because in terms of difficulty of comeback, simmons might be right. i don't know, i wasn't there for ali.

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, March 2, 2010 10:28 AM (Yesterday)

dude i'm drawing a pretty clear distinction between being thrown in jail & receiving death threats and going to fake rehab & coming back to a legion of adoring/forgiving sportswriters and other old white ppl

yeah but that's not addressing the 'difficulty of coming back,' only the hardships of the falling out. again, reason for hurdle vs. height of hurdle

no i think it is, remind me again what the height of tiger's hurdle is? he's going to be embarassed for a few months, but he's NOT RECEIVING DEATH THREATS AND 90% OF SPORTSWRITERS ARE GOING TO BE SUCKING HIS DICK!

...

didn't mean to internet yell but please tell me what tiger's "hurdle" is here? his self-imposed exile? his unnecessary fake "apologies"?

simmons most compelling point is the argument about "72/7" media culture, which i think is definitely tiger's biggest "hurdle" that no one before him (in the sports world) has really had to face. i think you're overrating the importance of sportswriters -- in the 'real world' the omnipresence of tmz/US weekly/people + 'real news' stations like cnn are going to be setting public opinion more than bob ryan

also another thing that i think is important in this equation is the nature of golf, which simmons touches on. there's no "crowd noise to drain out thoughts" or anything like that. it's lots of SILENCE, within extreme proximity to a mob of people and lots of idle time just standing around thinking

yeah my initial reaction is that 'golf is a lot harder to excel in than boxing'

what is public opinion exactly? that he's a sleazeball? scary!

I mean a large part of tiger's appeal to me has been how utterly consistent in his dominance he's been, imo golf is one of the hardest games in the world to be consistently good in, and to have performed at tiger's level for the past 15 years or w/e is utterly unimaginable to me. golf is probably the toughest of the sports to maintain your mental composure

public opinion = his legacy

and if you don't think that athletes are influenced by public opinion, then you're crazy

OK, that's definitely an important point, and Zirin (and Perkins) should have made it.

ha curmudgeon just posted what i was gonna post

When Miami Heat owner Micky Arison struck a deal with Miami-Dade County to build the $213 million American Airlines Arena in 1997, he was supposed to return 40 percent of all profits beyond $14 million to the county. It was deemed a fair exchange for the $38 million worth of land and the $6.4 million annual subsidy (through 2027) he received for the new stadium.
But according to the Miami New Times, Arison has yet to return a single penny to the county – even after the arrival of LeBron James and Chris Bosh propelled the Heat to the NBA finals and the arena to a record $60 million in revenue last year.
That’s because Arison reported expenses of $47.8 million at the arena, $12 million of which came from “depreciation and amortization.” Even though revenues rose $15 million in 2011, team profits still couldn’t surpass the $14 million threshold.
The New Times speculates that Arison is using accounting tricks to ensure that profits don’t exceed $14 million, and he never has to share any of his winnings with the taxpayers that built his arena. [Miami New Times]

While Bennett said all the right things about keeping the Sonics in Seattle, a team executive dinner on September 9, 2006, tells you all you need to know about the man and his motives. On that fine evening, the Sonics management, all held over from the previous ownership regime, all Pacific Northwesters, gathered in Oklahoma to meet the new boss. Bennett made sure they were sent to a top restaurant, and picked up the bill. As the Seattle execs sat down, four plates of a deep fried appetizer were put on the table. After filling their mouths with the crispy goodness, one asked the waitress what this curious dish with a nutty flavor actually was. It was lamb testicles. Bennett laughed at their discomfort and the message was clear: the Sonics could eat his balls. (See Sonicsgate.com for a full accounting of this theft.)

didnt know mr. t was a minority owner of the thunder

Wow.

Does Zirin not know who Aubrey McClendon is? Probably no CEO has gotten more bad press the last few months and he doesn't mention any of it. Or the fact that he funded the Swift Boat ads. etc etc.

The American Airlines Arena the Heat play in is owned by Miami County. The Heat pay zero rent to use the arena and several politicians have publicly lambasted the deal that created this illogical arrangement. Basically, Heat majority owner Micky Arison used his dough to influence decision makers and push the deal through at the expense of the taxyers who funded the arena's construction.

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, June 12, 2012 12:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

i have no idea if mickey arison is a good/bad person, but this is how every single stadium in america comes to fruition. pretty unremarkable, especially compared to bennett/mclendon.

i don't really think that people should choose their rooting interests based on the politics or actions of a team's owner because almost all of them are shitty rich bastards. but the OKC owner are a special type of shitty rich bastard, so it adds a silver lining to any misfortune that the team should experience.

Yes, although Wiki says there are some who hold Arison, the Carnival cruise line owner, and one of the wealthiest men in the world, responsible for that cruise ship that crashed in Italy killing 32 people.