The Streets of Where I'm From

The collected works and various creative elements of Matthew Ryan Moore

A nasty consequence of this comes with the implication that the owners are revolting against player power. That’s what the past year has been about. James, Bosh, and Wade forming their own future. Carmelo Anthony forcing a trade, but not just anywhere, to the exact team he wanted. The hints that Chris Paul would be joining Melo and Amar’e. It all points to a redesign of the power structure in the NBA, which has always been star-lead but team-controlled, to a system where manifest destiny is the norm. The lockout seeks to end all that.

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Can we just be honest and say this is about LeBron? | ProBasketballTalk

There’s more to say on this, I’ll probably tackle it on Paroxysm, but the power play is fascinating. Imagine an industry organization of employers actively working to prevent you from being able to switch jobs within the field. 

Report: By the way, the revenue sharing plan is also a fail | ProBasketballTalk

“HEY NORM! IF I WERE AN NBA BOARD OF GOVERNORS, YOU KNOW WHAT I’D DO? I’D ELECT THE OWNER OF ONE OF THE MOST PROFITABLE FRANCHISES WHO ALSO HOLDS A SIGNIFICANT COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OVER MY FELLOW OWNERS DUE TO HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL FACTORS TO PRESENT A REVENUE SHARING PLAN! MMM, I’D LOVE A PLAN PRESENTED BY A MAN WHO HAS FLIP-FLOPPED ON HIS POSITION IN THE MEETINGS IN THE LAST MONTH AND HAS NO REAL SENSE OF WHAT THE SMALL-MARKETS NEED. HEY, NORM, IF YOU WERE AN NBA SEASON, WOULD YOU EAT YOURSELF? I WOULD. I’D COVER MYSELF IN NONSENSE AND FAILURE… I’D BE DELICIOUS.”

His myth propels him forward. From Gatorade to Hanes to the newest deal with 2K Sports, Jordan doesn’t just do appearances as an athlete anymore, he does endorsements and media appearances as Michael Jordan. His image, like his game, has actually transcended himself. Which is amazing, because he was the best basketball player ever as well as the most marketable athlete in history. The idea of him is just as popular as the reality was. And that reality? It was protected. Jordan entered into the mainstream at a time when you could push his image to millions through television, magazines, billboards, and newspapers, but the internet didn’t exist. You could exert perfect control. Post-game press conferences weren’t televised live on NBA TV or ESPN. Cell phones didn’t exist, much less camera phones to record Jordan during his prolific partying and gambling days. And even now, the effect that the idea of Jordan had on kids who grew up worshipping him, most of whom now occupy these same media and blog spaces you’re reading at this moment, has caused a certain level of protection. Jordan’s not only far from perfect, he’s probably a little on the far side of the likeable line, if we’re really going to approach his personality. But he’s protected by media, and the fans, to be sure (nobody wants Jordan revealed, torn down, desecrated like modern athletes, and media’s happy to oblige), because of the image they gave him.

Watsky 13 - Hercules (by BurningZebra256)

Unbelievable song relating the history of a guy’s family and the skeletons in their closet dating back to the 1500’s. Featuring antitrust, murder, and extortion!

a bright wall in a dark room.: Contagion (2011)

brightwalldarkroom:

AWAITING THE INEVITABLE

by Matt Moore

In your standard horror movie, there’s actually a lot of hope. You hope the main character survives. It’s a driving function of the character, regardless of their background, because we all have one thing in common: we don’t want to be dead. So whether…

THE NERDS HAVE BREACHED THE CORE: Moneyball (2011)

THE NERDS HAVE BREACHED THE CORE

(Preface: I actually have not read “Moneyball,” yet, so this take is with fresh eyes on the material presented in the film, and what it says, not necessarily or at all what’s conveyed in Michael Lewis’ epic tome.)


If you’re a member of sports media, particularly a member of the new generation of bloggers, writers, tweeters, analysts, whatever, Moneyball serves as a nice reminder of the good old days. You know, 2-5 years ago depending on your frame of reference, when the west was still wild, so to speak. It’s centrally about innovation, about breaking standards that only continue to exist because they’ve always existed, and, to a limited degree, about dorks running the show (even if that dork is, in this case, an imaginary amalgam of Billy Beane’s assistants played by the ever-lovable - or at lest ever-marketable Jonah Hill). 


But what strikes a chord to this sphere is a line from the strongest scene in the movie. In the aftermath of the “triumph” of the Oakland A’s winning 20 games in a row, Hill’s character attempts to comfort Pitt’s Beane and encourages him to take pride in what they have accomplished. Beane brushes it aside and re-emphasises the need for the team to win a championship. And it is here that the film departs dramatically from every other sports movie ever made. Beane says:


“If we win, with this team, we’ll have changed the game.” 

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