There's a swamp behind there.
(Currently called the Izod Center, I attended most Nets games when it was the Continental Arena).
The Barclays Center has The Vault—an exclusive club that Jay-Z designed.
The Continental Arena had a lot of empty seats.
But that big white complex in the swamp certainly has some distinctive traits. Here are six.
Tas Melas, Trey Kerby, J.E. Skeets, Leigh Ellis, Matt Osten, and Jason Doyle. You can catch the Starters on NBA TV at 6:00 PM EST.
I was searching for NBA podcasts in late 2006 when I came across The Basketball Jones. It featured three Canadian friends (Tas Melas, J.E. Skeets, and Jason Doyle) who met in college, (or university as they call it) talking about professional basketball in an irreverent, humorous tone—a refreshing contrast to the talking heads of the major cable stations.
In 2010, they were hired by The Score—a Canadian sports network which consequently led to NBA TV moving them down from Toronto to Atlanta where they host the show, renamed The Starters.
I sat down with Melas (via Google Hangouts) in mid-October.
Godfrey Chan: How long long have you been friends with JE Skeets?
Tas Melas: A decade. Somewhere around that margin.
Was he somebody you knew from college?
Us Canadians we call it “university” sometimes. It was in college where I met Skeets along with Jason Doyle, and Matt Osten, our two producers. We started to like each other.
Philadelphia's Little Big League
We had another music listening party back in March. It’s taken me six months to finally post it. Better late than never. We’ve got 91.1 WBOR Maine DJ Eric Funderburke, Kathleen Funderburke, Kevin Moore, New Yorker cartoonist Drew Dernavich, Michael Yong, Brian Horne, Christine Berardi, Nathan Sinclair, Scott Berardi, and myself. (note: Spotify playlist is incomplete due to limited availability)
Steph Curry has brought the Warriors national games up 11 games to 26 this season.
The NBA national TV schedule has a few surprises, some expected consistency, and an indication of how of they market their teams. This is the second season I’ve compiled this, and I compared the number of televised games to last season’s.
The National opened up for Yo La Tengo in December 2010
Maxwell’s will be closing at the end of July. Ever since moving to Hoboken in 2000, I’ve seen some great shows there including The National, Yo La Tengo, and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. I caught up with co-owner/booker Todd Abramson on some experiences with bands such as Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr., and The Smashing Pumpkins.
Tyler Hansbrough & J.J. Redick have key roles but don't start.
Did you enjoy March Madness? There’s actually another basketball tournament that involves only 16 teams with much better players. On top of that, some of the guys you rooted for when they were in college are in this one too!
If you’re an NCAA, casual NBA fan, or somewhere in between, I present to you a handy-dandy guide of what teams and players to watch for.
Jonny Flynn peaked in college.
(Throughout March Madness, I’ll be attempting to cover other college alumni. I’ll take requests, but won’t necessarily grant them.)
Jim Boeheim is one of college basketball’s finest coaches, and Syracuse has a renowned basketball program. Other than Carmelo Anthony though, SU churns out below average NBA players. I’m guessing this has something to do with Boeheim’s zone defense, which is only used sparingly in the NBA to throw an opponent off.
All-Star Weekend is getting old. Here’s a surefire way to increase interest among the casual fan. Take the best parts of college basketball and implement it in to the NBA All-Star game.
Have a 16 team tournament on college alumni or continental origin, March Madness style.
Kevin Moore has been compiling a favorite 20 album list since 2009. He was inspired by Eric Funderburk.
He compiles a list at the beginning of the year and crosses them out until he reaches 20. That list then gets ranked in order of preference.
“It is part of the grassroots sharing of music. I actually prefer finding out music by this method as opposed to blogs, magazines or websites. Sharing music with a fellow music lover who shares similar interests is such a rewarding experience. That is why I continue to make my favorite list each year as well as listening to other friends’ music lists too.”
