By Zach Braziller

James Dolan isn’t happy about the NBA’s new revenue sharing plan and is letting his dissatisfaction be known.

In a letter shared with the league’s Board of Governors, the Knicks’ owner was critical of a new $74.6 billion media deal that he says makes Regional Sports Networks “unviable,” and penalizes franchises like the Knicks that bring in the most revenue and rewards others that do not.

“The NBA has made the move to an NFL model — deemphasizing and depowering the local market,” Dolan wrote in the letter that was obtained by ESPN. “Soon, your only revenue concern will be the sale of tickets and what color next year’s jersey will be. Don’t worry, because due to revenue pooling, you are guaranteed to be neither a success nor a failure.

“Of course, to get there, the league must take down the successful franchises and redistribute to the less successful. This new media deal goes a long way to accomplishing that goal.”

Dolan was also unhappy with the idea that the NBA will retain eight percent of the media deal without “sufficient justification” for that percentage or transparency into how it came to that figure.

By comparison, he pointed out that the league is only retaining 0.5 percent in the current media deal for 2024-25.

The new deal, which includes platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Peacock and NBC along with ESPN and ABC, will make games available on a streaming service or local channel seven days a week.

That means fewer games for Regional Sports Networks like MSG, which televises a majority of the Knicks’ games.

This isn’t necessarily new for Dolan, who has expressed his displeasure with revenue sharing models in the past.

Last November, he resigned his positions on the league’s influential advisory/finance and media committees.

“The increased number of exclusive and non-exclusive games means that national partners would have the ability to air nearly half of the regular season and all postseason games. This reduction in available games for RSNs risks rendering the entire RSN model unviable,” he wrote. “The inclusion of streaming partners in the proposal allows fans in all NBA markets to bypass their RSN to watch certain games in their local market. The proposal offers no local protections for RSNs.”

Dolan believes other owners agree with him, at least those in a similar position to him.

“Once again, pride of ownership is what is sacrificed,” he wrote. “We are well on our way to becoming a one size fits all, characterless organization. Just remember we did this on the backs of owners like Jerry Buss.”

Skip Bayless
Shannon Sharpe
Spencer Tillman

All not being extended

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/15/...case-trump-dismissed-aileen-cannon/index.html

That’s surprising and on the first day of the RNC?

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/14/media/msnbc-morning-joe-pulled-trump-assassination/index.html

Morning Joe pulled because they can’t trust what their own guests might say.

There isn't as much pressure on coaches to recruit players in high school and that's changed the intensity of Peach Jam​

By Gary Parrish

Back when the internet forums were getting popular, in the late 90s, I used to go to Redman.com often. That was the heyday when Maven knew everything that was happening. If not for Maven, the RU naked ft stuff may have stayed under the covers. (Of course, his source had SHU ties as I remember.)

Maven, Tom from Simsbury and Paul Massell were the three guys I remember from those days as the main Redman guys. Saw a blurb from Zack today, Paul Massell passed away. RIP.

Since it's slow during the summer and there's not a lot to discuss...I'll post birthdays of famous people.

Today....

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When you vote against something and then celebrate it in your district with photo op or bash spending when your district is rewarded

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Richard Simmons, Dr. Ruth and now Shannen Doherty all passed way in last 24 hours

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It is like an AI algorithm. Slowly house members on dem side promoting biden has a great legacy but time to move on...this is jfk without the assassination of bullets

Jalen Brunson shows he’ll do whatever it takes to win with $113 million Knicks gift​

By Mike Vaccaro

Jalen Brunson was already good in this town. There isn’t a restaurant anywhere on the island of Manhattan that wouldn’t buy his dinner the second he walked in the door. There isn’t a saloon anywhere in any of the five boroughs where he’d have to reach for his wallet when he orders a beer. If the proprietors don’t pick up the check, the customers will line up to do it.

That’s where he was when he was merely the best basketball player the Knicks have employed since Patrick Ewing. And all of that was prologue, until just before 5 o’clock Friday afternoon.

Now we are talking about a different level. Now we are having a separate conversation. Look, it’s impossible in good conscience to get too carried away when a man agrees to a contract extension that will pay him $156.5 million. We aren’t going to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Jalen Brunson’s great-grandkids are taken care of if he doesn’t ever earn another nickel after this contract.

Big-ticket athletes pay attention to what other athletes in every sport earn. It’s why AAV is every bit as common an acronym in sports these days as RBI and PPG and QBR. It’s why athletes whose agents have already made them rich drop those agents in favor of Scott Boras, who (usually) makes them even more preposterously rich.

Yes, there have been exceptions. It was estimated by Business Insider that Tom Brady left between $60 million-$100 million on the table through the years for the same reason Brunson is leaving $113 million on that same table now: trying to help the Patriots (and the Knicks) squeeze as much talent as they could under the NFL (and NBA) salary caps.

Brady can open up his safe-deposit box and empty out his seven Super Bowl rings if he ever wonders if it was worth it. Brunson hopes that his largesse will be similarly rewarded; New York City, and Knicks, fans, would likely sign for one-seventh of Brady’s total at this point.

LeBron James has taken a few million less here and a few million less there over the years to help his teams’ flexibility. Patrick Mahomes restructured his massive deal with the Chiefs to keep them a destination for talent. Hell, when Reggie Jackson became a Yankee, he did so for $2.9 million — which was $2.1 million less than the Expos had guaranteed him, about $1.6 million less than the Padres.

Reggie bet on himself, and bet on the Yankees, and bet on New York, same as Brunson is doing for the Knicks. Although even inflation doesn’t convert $2.1 million in 1976 to $113 million in 2024 (for the record, it would be about $13 million).

And here’s the thing: if Brunson hadn’t agreed to this, would you really have held that against him? Yankees fans still adore Aaron Judge, but the only reason he’s a Yankee is because Hal Steinbrenner agreed to match penny for penny the $360 million offer he had in his pocket from the Giants. No need to begrudge Judge; if anything there have been times this year he’s seemed underpaid.

So forget Brunson’s willingness to part (or at least wait to earn back) with that $113 million, and how rare that is. Here’s the real takeaways:

1. He wants to be here. He wants to win a title as a Knick. He wants the Canyon of Heroes. And he wants to maximize the Knicks’ ability to do that.

2. He’s not just a leader because he scores the most, or because he’s the one who takes the technical free throws, or because he’s the one who patiently answers every question after every game without ducking out the side door to the bus.

Teammates notice this kind of stuff. Not surprisingly, Josh Hart took about 15 seconds to take to X and write “Build him a statue” and added an emoji with a teardrop.

That statue? It’ll be a given if the Knicks do win a third championship on Brunson’s watch, and the reason mostly will be because of what he does on the court to make that possible. Still, what he did Friday afternoon sent a message, both to his team and to whoever else across the league might be the final few ingredients allowing a date with the Canyon:

Some guys say they’ll do whatever it takes to win.

Some guys actually do those things. In this case, 113 million of those things.

PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting

The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.

setonhall.rivals.com

By Zack Cziryak


TROVE: The Hall was able to kind of shake it off and go on to win the NIT Championship. That’s obviously a fun and awesome experience for the fans but how significant is it in the broader college basketball landscape?

FANTA: "It's not at the level that that making a Sweet 16 is. It's not at the level of making a run in the NCAA Tournament. But I do think it's important. I think it still carries weight. I think the NIT is going to be in a state of change here coming up with Fox Sports announcing that they're putting on a tournament of their own that's going to be around Final Four week, the Crown in Las Vegas, that's going to cause some differences with the NIT. But I think the NIT matters. It has significance for your program and your brand, and to win it the way that they did, with toughness and in dramatic fashion in an isolated TV window, that was big for the program and its brand.

Look, I'm not going to sit here and say the NIT is this massive moment that changes everything. But it is a historic moment for the program to be able to say they ended the season on a win. You appreciate that. And I think it was great for the program's momentum in their brand. Again I say, as this is happening as they're winning games in the NIT, if they could do it with their current state of affairs financially, think of what could happen if we boost that. I think it serves as a great example of what's possible under Shaheen Holloway in the postseason."

Maybe I'm bias but here's how I would rank the Big East coaches currently

1. Hurley
Three peat?

2. Pitino
Not likable but still a blue blood

3. McDermott
Quietly just keeps on keeping on

4. Smart
Found a home

5. Holloway
With more money he would be battling Hurley at the top

6. Miller
Look out this season

7. Cooley
Shine off the rose?

8. English
Moving on up

9. Matta
On past performance

10. Holzman
Ditto

11. Neptune
Hot seat?

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA -- College athletes whose efforts primarily benefit their schools may qualify as employees deserving of pay under federal wage-and-hour laws, a U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday in a setback to the NCAA.

The court, in the latest challenge to the NCAA's long-held notion of "amateurism" in college sports, said a test should be developed to differentiate between students who play college sports for fun and those whose effort "crosses the legal line into work."

"With professional athletes as the clearest indicators, playing sports can certainly constitute compensable work," U.S. Circuit Judge L. Felipe Restrepo wrote. "Ultimately, the touchstone remains whether the cumulative circumstances of the relationship between the athlete and college or NCAA reveal an economic reality that is that of an employee-employer."

A colleague, in a concurring opinion, questioned the difficulty of such a process, noting that nearly 200,000 students compete on nearly 6,700 Division I teams. The NCAA had hoped to have the case dismissed, but it will instead go back to the trial judge for fact-finding.

The ruling follows a 2021 Supreme Court decision that led the NCAA to amend its rules to allow athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness. In May, the NCAA announced a nearly $2.8 billion revenue-sharing plan that could steer millions of dollars directly to athletes by next year.

The Division I athletes and former athletes behind the suit in Philadelphia are seeking more modest hourly wages similar to those earned by their peers in work-study programs. They argue that colleges are violating fair labor practices by failing to pay them for the time they dedicate to their sports, which they say can average 30 or more hours per week.

Lawyer Paul McDonald, representing the plaintiffs, has suggested that athletes might make $2,000 per month or $10,000 per year for participating in NCAA sports. He said many students need the money for everyday expenses.

"This notion that college athletes cannot be both students and employees is just not accurate when you have student employees on campuses," McDonald said Thursday. "It's just beyond belief, the idea that the athletes would not meet the same criteria as employees."

A district judge had refused to throw out the case, prompting the Indianapolis-based NCAA to ask the appeals court to stop it from going to trial.

Defendants include the NCAA and member schools including Duke University, Villanova University and the University of Oregon.

The NCAA, in a statement, said it has been expanding core benefits for athletes, from health care to career preparation, and wants to help schools steer more direct financial benefits to their athletes.

However, it noted what it called student concerns that the employment model could "harm their experiences and needlessly cost countless student-athletes opportunities in women's sports, Olympic sports, and sports at the HBCU and Division II and Division III levels." The statement was issued by NCAA spokesperson Meghan Durham Wright.

The unanimous Supreme Court decision that spawned the NIL payments lifted the ban on college compensation beyond full-ride scholarships. Schools recruiting top athletes now can offer tens of thousands of dollars in education-related benefits such as study-abroad programs, computers and graduate scholarships.

"Traditions alone cannot justify the NCAA's decision to build a massive money-raising enterprise on the backs of student athletes who are not fairly compensated," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion. "The NCAA is not above the law."

But that case did not resolve whether college athletes are employees entitled to direct pay -- the key issue before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court panel.

Baylor University president Linda Livingstone, speaking at the NCAA convention last year, said that model would turn coaches into their players' bosses.

"Turning student-athletes into employees will have a sprawling, staggering and potentially catastrophic impact on college sports broadly," said Livingstone, chairperson of the NCAA's board of governors. "We need Congress to affirm student-athletes' unique relationship with their universities."

But the relationship has faced increasing scrutiny.

In 2021, a top lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board said in a memo that college athletes should be treated as school employees.

And players have taken to social media to argue for a cut of some of the hundreds of millions of dollars that NCAA schools earn on sports, including a campaign on the eve of the 2021 NCAA basketball tournament that carried the hashtag #NotNCAAProperty.

The NCAA, at its convention, compared the athletes to students who perform in theater groups, orchestras and other campus activities without pay.

McDonald has said those types of campus groups are student-led, while athletes have their time controlled by their coaches in a way that resembles employment.

"The most controlled kids on any campus are the student-athletes," he said earlier this year.

Couldn't get out for the semi-final, so I bought 2 tix before Indiana State game ended today knowing they would be gobbled up at decent price. Airfare out of Newark now is at $500+... maybe it wasn't meant to be!

I paid $98 per ticket which included fee's and if I can't justify the airfare pricing in the morning, happy to sell for what I paid.

WHAT A WIN!!!

For the older readers

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