Jordan LE Rare MVP hologram upper deck basketball card
Here's ANOTHER chance to win A FREE RARE MICHAEL JORDAN HOLOGRAM BASKETBALL CARDWWW.MassAuthentics.Ecrater.com by naming the person who signed this piece of authentic sports memorabilia. it's baseball, football, basketball or hockey and can be a coach, player or hall of fame inductee for any of the 4 sports. Anyone following my blog is eligable to guess once/per contest. Please make sure you sign up to follow before you make your guess and post all answers in the comments section of this blog. Whoever has the correct answer in the comments section first here will be declared the winner.
As the first minutes passed Pius Heinz got a feel for those around him at his initial table, sizing up his peripherial opponents that were only numbers on his way to the prize....being named the 2011 WSOP Champion. As minutes turned to hours, hours rolled by until break then repeat, hours into days, days into weeks and then it was over, he had made it, he was part of the "November 9", Pius Heinz was entering the final stage of his journey after weeks of waiting in anticipation, sharpening his mind and body, thinking through every scenario.
Starting the day in 7th place wasn't ideal obviously but his aggressive style and poker gods teamed up to push him to the lead, and then into a commanding position of half the chips in play with 3 players left including himself. However, with a couple days off before play resumed Heinz chose to get away and relax to refocus and formulate his plan but things didn't work out as anyone expected due to Lamb being eliminated by Staszko 4 hands in. Between Heinz losing a hand to Staszko and that knockout the lead was now gone that he had worked so diligently to build.
The heads up match went jab for jab as they made their way around 100 hands in until Heinz was looking to fading but he says he never lost his confidence that he started with inside. After a double up and another double up and then the fateful hand that made another young-gun a multi-millionaire.....Add Pius Heinz to the German Millionaires List!
In the ESPN article linked below written by ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein and the associated press it says that the average NBA player is losing $220,000 for each pay check that is missed during the lockout. Today is the 140th day without a labor agreement between the players and owners and Tuesday was the day that the first paycheck for players. Normally most players receive 1/12th of their pay on November 15th under the previous collective bargaining agreement. Now that the players have voted to file "disclaimer of interest" which will in effect disband the union. They are planning to file an anti-trust lawsuit and then seek a summary judgement which would claim that the owners shutdown and lockout was illegal.
NBA commissioner David Stern did an interview live on ESPN about an hour after the news of the players decision broke and made several inflammitory but expected comments such as stating repeatedly that the players were just using this as a negotiating tactic, saying that the unions outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler "got his way, and were about to go into the nuclear winter of the NBA"
My Take:
As i'm sure most of you know that have dealt with any part of our legal/court system it's quite the drawn out process. Just the simple task of setting a date to begin can sometimes be time consuming because of the large number of attorney's on each side having to coordinate schedules along with the other trials and cases on the docket already. I'm not sure who it benefits most if this drags out beyond the entire season but I would think it would be the owners due to their very very deep pockets and immense reserve funds they often have available. Remember, most of these owners are billionaires and there are a very select few players that will ever come within eyesight of that figure, probably only 1 or 2 in the NBA today and that's Kobe Bryant and Lebron James largely because of endorsement deals.
Now let's talk about that $220,000 figure that was mentioned. The fact of the matter is although NBA players all make very good money, over half of them are making less then that probably. The number get's skewed because of the salaries of say Shaquille O'Neal gets factored in at 22 million or Kevin Garnett at 20 million or Kobe at 19 million ect ect. These are not figures coming up for this year but i'm just speaking in generalities. If you have a player that's going into his 3rd year and he's a 10th-11th man, that 180k after taxes is down to 120k. Let's just hope some of these young men were smart with their money, didn't buy multiple cars, houses, extend his hand to long lost cousins, aunts and uncles so he can make it through this....because I'm not worried about Kobe putting food on his sons plate, but as much as it pains me to say, I almost felt bad for the guy making close to 200k.
Against Michigan State and Tom Izzo, watched by Bob Knight, Mike Krzyzewski became the winningest coach all time in Men's division 1 college basketball history on Tuesday night. To add in a little unique fact to history, the man Coach K passed to set the wins record is also his mentor in basketball, coaching and life, and Knight is actually Krzyzewski's college coach and the coach who held the all-time wins record himself....until Tuesday night. Bob Knight held the historical mark since he surpassed the legendary Dean Smith of North Carolina lore. All 3 men will always have their own spot in college basketball history for their own special reasons.
Dean Smith did things the right way and went out on top, he coached one of if not the very best player the world has ever seen, MICHAEL JORDAN. Bob Knight coached at Indiana with an iron fist and it was his way or the highway for decades until new marching orders came down and it was supposed to be a "kinder+gentler" Bob Knight. I think whoever came up with the guidelines for that knew exactly what they were doing.....the moment that was signed it spelled the beginning of the end of the Knight era as a Hoosier. He packed his temper and his basketball and started to build a team to call his own at Texas Tech and then walked into the sunset leaving his son, Pat Knight in charge. But when you hire someone based on name recognition you have to take the good with the bad and Knight#2 didn't fare as well in the wins column and is on to the next coaching stop...
Coach K is Duke Basketball, when you think of the classic UNC vs. Duke games it's the battle of 2 of the best ever to march the sidelines....Dean Smith vs. Mike Krzyzewski, Goliath vs. Goliath and on occasion even David vs. Goliath or Goliath vs. David. Lately it seems like the Tar Heels have had the upper hand overall but Duke has been a solid top 5-10 team nearly ever year for the last decade and pulls a #1 seed for the NCAA tournament more often then not. I've heard the sentiment players win games....coaches just lose them. Well, if that holds true then I can guarantee you this, Duke is in good shape because coach k always gets top players into that Duke uniform in front of the Cameron Crazies and he's NEVER going to lose a game for you!
As the coach of Duke University ties the infamous Bob Knight for a record 902 division 1 men's college basketball wins it's interesting to see what he has built at the now historic university. Coach K is revered, respected and admired throughout the country and now all over the world with the ever expanding media coverage with the internet bringing everything everwhere in a matter of seconds. However, there is also some murmmers behind the scenes about some of the advantages that have been built in and established for coach that even other big time programs don't have. Jealousy breeds contempt and it's hard to put on the good soldier face when you've busted your ass recruiting a kid since he was a freshmen in high school and as he has developed so has his name recognition across the country and then BAM...in steps coach K driving up to the AAU tournament in a limo and that suite wearing his championship rings and all in a flash it's over. All of that hard work was for nothing and your on to the next recruit on the list, left with a feeling of you were just THIS close to getting that program changer.
Coach K has an endorsement deal with American Express which gives him even more exposure then he already has. Think about how much more he is in the spotlight and in nationally television primetime games then a team like Virginia, or NC State, both ACC teams from the same part of the country but with huge recruiting disadvantages. Then factor in that even the casual fan that isn't interested in sports probably has seen his spot at one time or another and it's enough of an edge that many teams can't compete.
Don't get me wrong, when he took over the program it was no where near the powerhouse that it is today. He has put in thousands of hours of hard work to get to this point where he is today, and when that record is his only, he will look back with fondness of all the student athletes that helped him get to this point, perrenial all-americans that went on to have great NBA careers like Grant Hill, Shane Battier, Elton Brand and many more. Duke has one of the highest success rate of putting players into the NBA with teams like North Carolina and more recently Kentucky.
Turning down offers to become an NBA head coach time and time again has allowed him to name his price in regards to salary. It was rumored at one point years ago that the Lakers wanted him to replace Phil Jackson when he was debating retirement and 10 million per year was on the table as a starting point. That was an absolutely unheard of coaching salary at the time and it still is pretty ridiculous. The rumors started again this past year when Jackson finally did retire but again, Coach stayed true to his heart and his players, honored his committment to Duke and now he returns with another ranked team to start the year. Now let's see where they are ranked when the year is over.....CAN HE BE #1 AGAIN...WITH THE WINS RECORD AND A CHAMPIONSHIP??
SUMMARY:After the latest round of negotiations between the players union and the team owners of the NBA talks broke down and the players rejected the owners offer which they have stated repeatedly will be the highest they will go. David Stern has stated that offers from here on out will only go down and continue to go down the longer this players out.
MY TAKE:The thing that the fans now have to understand is that the legal process takes time. I'm sure many of you have dealt with the court system in one way or another, whether thats a traffic ticket or something else so you have an idea of the different delays there can be such as conflict of schedules, lawyers, defendent's, and jury's. There is a 45 day window where its still up in the air, after 45 days the players union will completely dissolve and will be de-certified. That will leave the NBA up against possibly hundreds of millions of dollars in anti-trust law suits.
What in the hell is wrong with these ppl??? ARE THEY LIVING IN THE SAME WORLD THAT WE ARE? I understand this is their livlihood but come on, everyone involved is millionaires.LITERALLY MILLIONAIRES!
Do they not see the unrest going on with their fellow man? Look at the protests, look at the level of homelessness, look at the unemployment rate, look at the disturbing trend showing up with universities all of the US.
So who's side do you take? YOU THINK THE OWNERS SHOULD HOLD THEIR GROUND AND LOWER THE OFFER EVEN? OR DO THE PLAYERS DESERVE MORE AND THIS IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO?
