Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times reports that former Sonic owner Aubrey McClendon is facing an inquiry in the state of Oklahoma after a shareholder of Chesapeake Energy demanded tighter scrutiny of a huge bonus McClendon received in the tail-end of 2008.
As Morenson reports, McClendon was awarded $75 million by Chesapeake and a new contract in December 2008, after his old contract (a five-year deal signed in 2007), was viewed as out of date (translation - because Chesapeake's stock had dropped so precipitously, it was no longer financially viable for the soon-to-be-broke McClendon).
Anyhow, the board of directors deemed CHK's $33 billion drop in value from July to December to be meritorious of a $75 million reward to Aubrey. The shareholders, Louisiana Municipal Police Employee Retirement System, which saw their 85,000 shares drop in value from more than $6 million to less than $2 million, didn't think so.
And so, rather than file a lawsuit, the group decided to file a "books and records demand" in the State of Oklahoma. Will this filing force McClendon to return the $75 million and tear up his new contract? Unlikely. Will this filing force Chesapeake to go through a few months of uncomfortable headlines, require the conniving McClendon to fess up to poor management, and create some unsettling feelings for the board of directors? You bet.
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.
Monday, March 30
Wednesday, March 25
Donaldson To Make Announcement
Mike Seely of Seattle Weekly provides an in-depth look at James Donaldson's quest for the mayoral chair in Seattle, including news that the former Sonic will officially announce his candidacy tomorrow (March 26).
Donaldson has a tough road to travel, as incumbent Greg Nickels has deep pockets and exceptional name recognition. Still, the 7'2" Donaldson received this eye-opening bit of praise from former Tacoma mayor Brian Ebersole:"He's one of the most modest, kind, sincere, wonderful, good-to-the-core people I know. You feel like you're in the presence of greatness, like the Dalai Lama or Jesus Christ."
Alright then.
Tuesday, March 24
KeyArena News; Gelabale Signs
KeyArena will still be KeyArena, even if the Sonics are long gone. Key Bank has inked a deal with the city that will cost them $300,000 a year, down from the $1.3 million they used to pay when the Sonics were still around, Chris Sullivan reports. The city council will vote on the revised payment structure at 2 pm today.
Greg Johns at the PI notes that the city is closely following the progress in the state legislature of the two possible stadium bills currently being considered.
Former Sonic Mickael Gelabale has signed a contract with the Lakers' D-League team, the Los Angeles D-Fenders, Ridiculous Upside reports.. Gelly is hoping to resuscitate his career after a terrible knee injury last season.
Greg Johns at the PI notes that the city is closely following the progress in the state legislature of the two possible stadium bills currently being considered.
Former Sonic Mickael Gelabale has signed a contract with the Lakers' D-League team, the Los Angeles D-Fenders, Ridiculous Upside reports.. Gelly is hoping to resuscitate his career after a terrible knee injury last season.
Monday, March 23
Amazing But True
Last year, in his second season in the NBA, at the age of 24, Leon Powe played in 24 playoff games as the Celtics won the NBA title.
Juwan Howard has been a member of the league since 1994 and he currently ranks sixth among active players in regular games played. In all that time - the arrival of the internet, the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, proliferation of cell phones, and so on - Howard has played in 23 playoff games, or one fewer than Powe played in last year.
And you wonder why Juwan keeps playing ...
Juwan Howard has been a member of the league since 1994 and he currently ranks sixth among active players in regular games played. In all that time - the arrival of the internet, the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, proliferation of cell phones, and so on - Howard has played in 23 playoff games, or one fewer than Powe played in last year.
And you wonder why Juwan keeps playing ...
More Than Black and White
Came across an interesting article a few days ago on The Root detailing the dearth of black writers in the nation’s newspaper and, more specifically, how the narrowing of the country’s papers is cutting especially harshly among African-Americans.
The PI’s (well, used to be the PI’s anyways) Gary Washburn was one of those mentioned in the story, and Mr. Washburn made the following point:
“Generally, the difference for an African American in this business is, we don’t get the hookup. We don’t get ‘I went to college with your uncle,’ … You just have to deal with the climate. You can’t complain … because it ain’t gonna change any time soon.”
It’s a pessimistic (or realistic, depending on one’s attitude) analysis, and it caused me to wonder, just how many of the beat writers covering the league today are black? (Ironically, when the Sonics left town, they removed three African-American beat writers from the league; Washburn, Percy Allen, and Jayda Evans).
I did a quick study of the 30 teams, and while it’s nearly impossible to pin down the specific writers for each team, I tried my best to come up with a comprehensive list. In case you’re wondering, here are the writers I included for the study:
Atlanta: Sekou Smith, Terence Moore
Boston: Peter May, Ian Rider, Marc Spears, Steve Bulpett, Mark Murphy
Charlotte: Rick Bonnell
Chicago: John Jackson, KC Johnson
Cleveland: Brian Windhorst
Dallas: David Moore, Eddie Sefko, Jan Hubbard
Denver: Benjamin Hochman
Detroit: Vince Ellis, Chris Mccosky
Golden State: Janny Hu
Houston: Jonathan Feigen
Indiana: Mike Wells, Jeff Rabjohns
LA: Ramona Shelburne, Kurt Streeter, Art Thompson III. Kevin Ding, Janis Carr, Mike Bresnahan, Helene Elliott
Memphis: Ronald Tillery
Miami: Sarah Rothschild, Michael Wallace, Ira Winderman
Milwaukee: Charles Gardner
Minnesota: Don Seeholzer, Jerry Szgoda
New Jersey: Dave D'allesando, Al Ianazzone: Julian Garcia
New Orleans: John Reid
New York: David Boroff, Frank Isola, Mitch Lawrence, Howard Beck
Orlando: Brian Schmitz
Philadelphia: Phil Jasner, David Aldridge, Stephen A Smith, Bernard Fernandez, Kate Fagan
Phoenix: Paul Coro
Portland: Jason Quick, Joe Freeman
Sacramento: Sam Amick
Oklahoma: Darnell Mayberry
San Antonio: Jeff McDonald
Toronto: Dave Feschuk, Jeff Blair, Lance Hornby
Utah: Tim Buckley, Steve Luhm, Ross Siler
Washington: Ivan Carter, Michael Lee, Joseph D'Hippolito
(Feel free to chime in with whichever omissions you feel I’ve made in the comments).
Omissions and oversights aside, let us assume for the sake of the discussion that it is a somewhat accurate listing of who is covering the NBA for newspapers these days (and, yes, I am aware that electronic media could have been included, but if it’s nearly impossible to compile a print media list, compiling an electronic one is like convincing Dennis Rodman to wear a chastity belt). With that assumption in mind, here is the racial breakdown of those 64 writers:
White: 46
Black: 14
Asian: 2
Latino: 2
Or, by percentages:
White: 72%
Black: 22%
Asian: 3%
Latino: 3%
Compared to the rest of the newspaper business, it’s an impressive tally (according to The Root, about 13% of writers at America’s papers are black, roughly equivalent to the population as a whole).
But consider this from another perspective: roughly 75% of the league is made up of black men, meaning the percentage of people covering the league – racially speaking, anyways – is a mirror image of those they cover. And, by mirror image, of course, I mean completely opposite.
A sidebar is perhaps necessary here. I am fully aware that this is a sensitive and complicated subject. Calling a person “black” or “white” in today’s society is not so simple as it was 50 years ago, or even a decade ago. Our society grows more multi-hued every day, and, to be honest, this is an uncomfortable discussion to have. Thankfully, the point of this story is not to provide precise genealogical statistics of the NBA and those who cover it, but, rather, paint a broad picture.
Back to the point. If, as this analysis shows, the league is three-quarter black, and, if the men and women who cover them are three-quarter white, does that matter? (And, lest we forget, the folks writing blogs may be even whiter than those who write for the papers).
Obviously, we’d like to think it does not and, in many ways, I’m sure the majority of writers and players could care less.
But, honestly, a person’s heritage has to affect the way they write to some degree. Further, with the increasing proliferation of analysis pages from non-print media available to everyone (for free!), the job of a newspaper reporter has become more and more reliant upon their ability to acquire interesting quotes and anecdotes from players and coaches, and less reliant on providing analysis. I’m not saying beat reporters are incapable of providing insight – it’s just that they face much tighter time constraints than a blogger does.
Anyhow, I bring this up to make this point: If we take it as a given that a beat reporter’s primary way of proving his value to the basketball discussion is to provide insight into the inner activities of the team he (or she) covers, his (or her) ability to build relationships with the players involved is crucial.
And, to be frank, it’s not an earth-shattering revelation to point out that people are more likely to trust others of their own background. Obviously, given time, we’re all capable of building relationships with others of any cultural background, but in the mad rush of a post-game lockerroom, or in the frenetic sprint of an 82-game schedule, I don’t think it’s ridiculous to suggest that a black reporter may have a slight advantage over a white reporter in building a relationship with a roster made up of (predominantly) black athletes.
If you think all of this is moot and that beat reporters are as relevant to the future of basketball coverage as the price of printing ink, fair enough. I would argue, though: Where will the stories come from, then? Those memories we all have of our favorite players and teams, what percentage of them are built through what we read in the newspaper, in magazines, or on-line? Yes, statistical analysis has given us remarkable insights into the true building of a winning basketball team, and has enabled us to learn which statistics are overrated, underrated, or just plain irrelevant.
But being a basketball fan is more than pace factor and adjusted plus/minus, right? I’d like to think that the statistical aspect is but one slice of the pie, along with coverage from beat reporters, watching games in person, impersonating players when we were children, talking about your team with your friends, all of that … all of that goes into being a fan. Removing one of those slices shrinks the size of the pie, and, while this metaphor is beginning to give me mid-morning hunger pains, that can’t be good, can it?
I know, arguing that there should be a higher proportion of black beat writers is a dicey subject to tackle, in that figuring out how to change the percentages without resorting to affirmative action is near impossible. I guess, in the end, that I would hope the people doing the hiring – the editors – might give some consideration to what Gary Washburn said at the beginning, and that rather than hiring their cousins, or guys they golfed with at a conference in Scottsdale three years ago, they look at hiring someone who might be able to provide their readers someone who might provide stories they haven’t been hearing.
The PI’s (well, used to be the PI’s anyways) Gary Washburn was one of those mentioned in the story, and Mr. Washburn made the following point:
“Generally, the difference for an African American in this business is, we don’t get the hookup. We don’t get ‘I went to college with your uncle,’ … You just have to deal with the climate. You can’t complain … because it ain’t gonna change any time soon.”
It’s a pessimistic (or realistic, depending on one’s attitude) analysis, and it caused me to wonder, just how many of the beat writers covering the league today are black? (Ironically, when the Sonics left town, they removed three African-American beat writers from the league; Washburn, Percy Allen, and Jayda Evans).
I did a quick study of the 30 teams, and while it’s nearly impossible to pin down the specific writers for each team, I tried my best to come up with a comprehensive list. In case you’re wondering, here are the writers I included for the study:
Atlanta: Sekou Smith, Terence Moore
Boston: Peter May, Ian Rider, Marc Spears, Steve Bulpett, Mark Murphy
Charlotte: Rick Bonnell
Chicago: John Jackson, KC Johnson
Cleveland: Brian Windhorst
Dallas: David Moore, Eddie Sefko, Jan Hubbard
Denver: Benjamin Hochman
Detroit: Vince Ellis, Chris Mccosky
Golden State: Janny Hu
Houston: Jonathan Feigen
Indiana: Mike Wells, Jeff Rabjohns
LA: Ramona Shelburne, Kurt Streeter, Art Thompson III. Kevin Ding, Janis Carr, Mike Bresnahan, Helene Elliott
Memphis: Ronald Tillery
Miami: Sarah Rothschild, Michael Wallace, Ira Winderman
Milwaukee: Charles Gardner
Minnesota: Don Seeholzer, Jerry Szgoda
New Jersey: Dave D'allesando, Al Ianazzone: Julian Garcia
New Orleans: John Reid
New York: David Boroff, Frank Isola, Mitch Lawrence, Howard Beck
Orlando: Brian Schmitz
Philadelphia: Phil Jasner, David Aldridge, Stephen A Smith, Bernard Fernandez, Kate Fagan
Phoenix: Paul Coro
Portland: Jason Quick, Joe Freeman
Sacramento: Sam Amick
Oklahoma: Darnell Mayberry
San Antonio: Jeff McDonald
Toronto: Dave Feschuk, Jeff Blair, Lance Hornby
Utah: Tim Buckley, Steve Luhm, Ross Siler
Washington: Ivan Carter, Michael Lee, Joseph D'Hippolito
(Feel free to chime in with whichever omissions you feel I’ve made in the comments).
Omissions and oversights aside, let us assume for the sake of the discussion that it is a somewhat accurate listing of who is covering the NBA for newspapers these days (and, yes, I am aware that electronic media could have been included, but if it’s nearly impossible to compile a print media list, compiling an electronic one is like convincing Dennis Rodman to wear a chastity belt). With that assumption in mind, here is the racial breakdown of those 64 writers:
White: 46
Black: 14
Asian: 2
Latino: 2
Or, by percentages:
White: 72%
Black: 22%
Asian: 3%
Latino: 3%
Compared to the rest of the newspaper business, it’s an impressive tally (according to The Root, about 13% of writers at America’s papers are black, roughly equivalent to the population as a whole).
But consider this from another perspective: roughly 75% of the league is made up of black men, meaning the percentage of people covering the league – racially speaking, anyways – is a mirror image of those they cover. And, by mirror image, of course, I mean completely opposite.
A sidebar is perhaps necessary here. I am fully aware that this is a sensitive and complicated subject. Calling a person “black” or “white” in today’s society is not so simple as it was 50 years ago, or even a decade ago. Our society grows more multi-hued every day, and, to be honest, this is an uncomfortable discussion to have. Thankfully, the point of this story is not to provide precise genealogical statistics of the NBA and those who cover it, but, rather, paint a broad picture.
Back to the point. If, as this analysis shows, the league is three-quarter black, and, if the men and women who cover them are three-quarter white, does that matter? (And, lest we forget, the folks writing blogs may be even whiter than those who write for the papers).
Obviously, we’d like to think it does not and, in many ways, I’m sure the majority of writers and players could care less.
But, honestly, a person’s heritage has to affect the way they write to some degree. Further, with the increasing proliferation of analysis pages from non-print media available to everyone (for free!), the job of a newspaper reporter has become more and more reliant upon their ability to acquire interesting quotes and anecdotes from players and coaches, and less reliant on providing analysis. I’m not saying beat reporters are incapable of providing insight – it’s just that they face much tighter time constraints than a blogger does.
Anyhow, I bring this up to make this point: If we take it as a given that a beat reporter’s primary way of proving his value to the basketball discussion is to provide insight into the inner activities of the team he (or she) covers, his (or her) ability to build relationships with the players involved is crucial.
And, to be frank, it’s not an earth-shattering revelation to point out that people are more likely to trust others of their own background. Obviously, given time, we’re all capable of building relationships with others of any cultural background, but in the mad rush of a post-game lockerroom, or in the frenetic sprint of an 82-game schedule, I don’t think it’s ridiculous to suggest that a black reporter may have a slight advantage over a white reporter in building a relationship with a roster made up of (predominantly) black athletes.
If you think all of this is moot and that beat reporters are as relevant to the future of basketball coverage as the price of printing ink, fair enough. I would argue, though: Where will the stories come from, then? Those memories we all have of our favorite players and teams, what percentage of them are built through what we read in the newspaper, in magazines, or on-line? Yes, statistical analysis has given us remarkable insights into the true building of a winning basketball team, and has enabled us to learn which statistics are overrated, underrated, or just plain irrelevant.
But being a basketball fan is more than pace factor and adjusted plus/minus, right? I’d like to think that the statistical aspect is but one slice of the pie, along with coverage from beat reporters, watching games in person, impersonating players when we were children, talking about your team with your friends, all of that … all of that goes into being a fan. Removing one of those slices shrinks the size of the pie, and, while this metaphor is beginning to give me mid-morning hunger pains, that can’t be good, can it?
I know, arguing that there should be a higher proportion of black beat writers is a dicey subject to tackle, in that figuring out how to change the percentages without resorting to affirmative action is near impossible. I guess, in the end, that I would hope the people doing the hiring – the editors – might give some consideration to what Gary Washburn said at the beginning, and that rather than hiring their cousins, or guys they golfed with at a conference in Scottsdale three years ago, they look at hiring someone who might be able to provide their readers someone who might provide stories they haven’t been hearing.
Thursday, March 19
KeyArena & Husky Stadium Discussed
KING-TVs Chris Daniels gives the lowdown on the state legislature's hearing on the funding for Husky Stadium and KeyArena, held yesterday in Olympia.
And while the Washington State cranks were out in full force with their nonsensical rantings about "unfair advantages" for the UW (hey, Wazzu fans, tell you what; if the Huskies agree to not accept funding for Husky Stadium, will you agree to not accept any funding for WSU? Yeah, didn't think so), there was some positive news for those hoping to see the state act on funding KeyArena's renovation.
The cunning way the bill's sponsors included arts funding and other projects along with the funding for the Key has enabled it to capture the mind of King County Council Chair Dow Constantine, and sponsoring senators Ed Murray and Jeanie Kohl-Welles also testified in support of the bill.
Unfortunately, Rep. Margarita Prentice, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, indicated she was less than enthused about the bill's prospects (she was more enthusiastic about Husky Stadium), but did not rule out the possibility of it getting through.
Of strategical note, because the Key's funding would come from the local hotel/motel tax and not from the state, any monies spent would not be included as part of the state's massive, $9 billion deficit. Of course, that's semantics, and a savvy politician would point out that any money raised by the tax could be going to build roads, pay for teachers, and other such frivolities.
And while the Washington State cranks were out in full force with their nonsensical rantings about "unfair advantages" for the UW (hey, Wazzu fans, tell you what; if the Huskies agree to not accept funding for Husky Stadium, will you agree to not accept any funding for WSU? Yeah, didn't think so), there was some positive news for those hoping to see the state act on funding KeyArena's renovation.
The cunning way the bill's sponsors included arts funding and other projects along with the funding for the Key has enabled it to capture the mind of King County Council Chair Dow Constantine, and sponsoring senators Ed Murray and Jeanie Kohl-Welles also testified in support of the bill.
Unfortunately, Rep. Margarita Prentice, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, indicated she was less than enthused about the bill's prospects (she was more enthusiastic about Husky Stadium), but did not rule out the possibility of it getting through.
Of strategical note, because the Key's funding would come from the local hotel/motel tax and not from the state, any monies spent would not be included as part of the state's massive, $9 billion deficit. Of course, that's semantics, and a savvy politician would point out that any money raised by the tax could be going to build roads, pay for teachers, and other such frivolities.
Wednesday, March 18
Aubrey's Wine Sale Nets $2.2 Mil
Well, at least one thing has gone well for Aubrey McClendon in the past eight months - he was able to unload part of his wine collection in New York this past weekend, and the WSJ reports it earned him (or, rather, Sotheby's) $2.2 million.
Just think, if the next auction (slated for Hong Kong for the other half of the wine collection) is as successful, maybe the Sonix could afford Tyson Chandler after all.
Just think, if the next auction (slated for Hong Kong for the other half of the wine collection) is as successful, maybe the Sonix could afford Tyson Chandler after all.
Tuesday, March 17
The Dulcet Tones of KC Jones
In this video, KC Jones is either:
1. Announcing that Portland, Maine's new D-League team is going to be nicknamed the Blackbirds
2. Infreakingsane
3. All of the above
Bonus points for noticing the semi-panicked look on the gentleman behind KC's right shoulder. I'm guessing "this wasn't on the script" and "my God, how much longer is he going to keep this up" floated through his thought processes at some point.
1. Announcing that Portland, Maine's new D-League team is going to be nicknamed the Blackbirds
2. Infreakingsane
3. All of the above
Bonus points for noticing the semi-panicked look on the gentleman behind KC's right shoulder. I'm guessing "this wasn't on the script" and "my God, how much longer is he going to keep this up" floated through his thought processes at some point.
Drew Carey's Got Your Back
"Here comes this evil NBA owner who takes the SuperSonics, screws the city with this duplicitous deal he put together and takes them to Oklahoma. The whole city hates this guy. One of their major sports is gone now. And we come in like, 'Hey, is yo man not treatin' you right? Come and see us.'"
—Drew Carey, part-owner of Seattle Sounders
(Via AP)
Attendance Report
I've tried all sorts of ways to show how massive an impact the Sonics' move has had on NBA attendance, and how by removing that particular aspect from the equation totally alters the picture of the league's health.
Unfortunately, the graphs I've thrown up there haven't adequately captured just how much of an outlier the Sonix are this season. The graph below, though, goes a long way to showing that uniqueness. Listed below are all the teams, with their corresponding attendance from last year to this year.
Unfortunately, the graphs I've thrown up there haven't adequately captured just how much of an outlier the Sonix are this season. The graph below, though, goes a long way to showing that uniqueness. Listed below are all the teams, with their corresponding attendance from last year to this year.
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