NHL Playoffs
 

Any Hockey Fans Out There????

Who do you think is going to skate with the Sanley Cup???

Can the Red Wings repeat????

Heels
 

So, what about Matt Doherty getting fired? At the least, it wasn't handled well. MJ's not happy about it either.

Heels
 

Whoever followed Dean Smith was doomed. His shoes were just too big. Haven't read much about it, up here in the northeast but it seems liek a program heading for some down years when the players start telling the administration what to do.

Heels
 

You mean, whoever followed whoever followed Dean Smith. Don't forget about Bill Guthridge!

It was very unfair of UNC to Roy Williams to fire Doherty when they did. They could have waited until tomorrow, or, better yet, a week from tomorrow.

Heels
 

Whoops! My bad. See how big those shoes are, they swallowed up Bill Guthridge too!

They should have waited until the Tourney was over before they made the move, although the AD probably wanted to network at the Final Four and shop for his new coach.

This came up today, do you think their should be a loser's bracket? In other words, have Marquette and Texas play for 3rd place before the Big Game tonight? More money for the teams and the NCAA.

Heels
 

Of course, they had that until 1980 or so, and it was eliminated. No one wants to see losers, and no one wants to lose two straight. You can come up with an interesting matchup in that game ever couple of years, but ultimately no one cares.

Seems like third-place games are out of fashion -- they ditched it in the hockey tournament as well.

ACC/Big East
 

What has happened to this? Is Miami still taking bids, or are BC and the 'Cuse realizing that maybe the switch of conferences isn't such a good idea?

http://www.hfnzone.com/
 

Every football fan should subscribe. It's great.

Clarett eligible for NFL draft
 

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slu...v=ap&type=lgns

Not surprising. Will college football die like college basketball?

Clarett eligible for NFL draft
 

No. The difference between the NFL and college football is far bigger than any other pro leage and its college equivalent. The bottom line is that 99.999999% of the college kids are not physically prepared for the pro game.

Clarett eligible for NFL draft
 

Sure, but teh players don't seem to realize that when they declare for the draft.

If the NCAA wanted to save its sports, it would decide to permit anyone who registers for the draft to maintain their college eligibility until they sign a contract. I've never understood why they want to punish folks who want to see what their market value is. Clearly it hasn't detered marginal candidates from doing so anyway, as I assume it was intended to do (i.e., you ought to be really sure of your decision).

Clarett eligible for NFL draft
 

If the NFL drags the appeals for a few more years, what good does that do him?

And even if college age kids don't realize that they're not physically able to compete, the NFL players certainly know that. And isn't that what the players union is for?

Clarett eligible for NFL draft
 

The one thing any union knows is that prices/salaries are kept up by excluding entrants. Why do you think it costs so much to get a plumber? Unions. That's why this restriction was more suspect--it wasn't for benefits among players already in the union--it was a union deciding whom to let in, in collusion with the league.

As for appeals, the league will need a stay. The District judge won't grant one, because a) she' thinks there's no likelihood of ultimate success adn b) the harms tip in his favor--let him into the draft, and decide later to void the pick , if necessary. So they have to get an appeals court to issue a stay and/or decision before mid-April (or whenever the draft is). Unless they have a dead-bang winner of an argument, which I don't understand them to have (rather, it's a net benefit proposition), they are in trouble on this one. Of course, they may win on appeal, and Clarett will be a one-off oddity.

Smokin in Atlanta
 

Blazers' Wallace traded to Hawks; Abdur-Rahim, Dickau to Portland

there better be good pot in Atlanta
But am I the only one who thinks that Portland got a waaay better deal on this one?

My favorite quote from the article..."This trade helps the franchise in many ways," Trail Blazers president Steve Patterson said. "We get a younger core of players and can remain competitive in both the Western Conference and the league.

"Another factor in the deal is that we are also acquiring three players of good character."

Smokin in Atlanta
 

Clearly, because the Hawks will now be $50 mil under the cap next year and can practically buy a title.

Portland got stuck with 1 1/2 years of big contracts.

Smokin in Atlanta
 

I wonder if anyone told 'Sheed that the Gold Club is closed?

Smokin in Atlanta
 

Big contracts, but good players. And at least guys who will get to play the whole game and not have to watch from the locker room.

NCAA Hoops pool
 

Anyone interested in joining the LawTalkers NCAA Hoops bracket contest, see here.

(Cross-posted for anyone who doesn't read the FB but reads this.)

No Limit Holdem
 

I played in a couple of satellite tables for the Friday tournement at Bellagio this week. Really fun. Alas neither Mr Man nor I qualified, but we did pretty well for our first time playing with real poker players (some of them were quite good)... I did not play any dollar limit holdem however, as I've spent more time learning the no limit tournament style of play.

I'm afraid we are still hooked.

No Limit Holdem
 

That's great, keep at it. The more I read and play, the more I realize how bad a player I am.

Professional Sports Statistics
 

Does anyone know if the NFLPA, MLBPA, etc actually have any rights to their statistics? I know that the NFLPA has threatened many websites for using their stats and images for fantasy football purposes, but the only case law (in Florida) suggests that websites can't use their images, but doesn't mention statistics. Anyone?

Professional Sports Statistics
 

I think they are limited to images and player names. The stats are compiled and bought from organizations like Stats, Inc. and SABR. Besides, they are in the public domain... Anybody can compile them on their own.

FYI, my fantasy baseball league can't use Barry Bonds' name this year because he is not in the MLBPA and thus they can't license his name... What a jerk.

Professional Sports Statistics
 

They should just use a fantasy name then, like Harry Honds, or "Roid Rager" though that might not be specific enough.

Professional Sports Statistics
 

So, if I were to start up a fantasy site, I could use stats but not names? Apparently only 12 of the 200 online leagues are actually licensed by the NFLPA. The NFLPA usually sends cease and desist letters to non-licensed sites, but has only gone to court with Gridiron.com, which was using images as well. I believe the court ordered Gridiron to stop using the images, but didn't comment on the names.

Professional Sports Statistics
 

What is this, law school? The general rule is that databases that simply aggregate data in a fashion that does not constitute a unique expression (like a phone book or a list of baseball stats) is not protectable under the seminal Feist decision by the Supreme Court. So that's good. However, there is a prominant case arising out of the Seventh Circuit, ProCD v. somebody that held that the content of a database can be protected by contract, and that contract can be in the form of a shinkwrap (and presumably, clickwrap) license. So that's bad.

As to likenesses, the use for commercial purposes of a person's likeness is more or less prohibited in just about every state. If the circumstances are right, one can even shoehorn in a Federal Lanham Act Sec 47 (15 USC 1125) claim based on false endorsement or false advertising. There might be some question here as to whether the use is a commercial exploitation or a fair use for news reporting; I'd probably draw the line where it would be okay to show an action photo of whomever had a really good day today (with permission from the photographer, of course), but not necessarily stock photos of the players on the stat sheets. Although there is case law to support even the second use, for example, the case where the New Kids on the Block sued USA Today (don't remember the exact caption).

The real question is whether one is willing to roll the dice. If you are found out, you will be sued, and the cost of defense ($500k-$1500k) will exceed the settlement offer (maybe $several hundred K), which will still be large enough to hurt most small e-businesses.

Standard legal advice over the internet disclaimers apply, even though we are (supposedly) all attorneys here: IAAL, BIANYL, ask counsel familiar with your local jursidiction, etc.

Professional Sports Statistics
 

Well, I killed that discussion.

So, any predictions for the 2004 World Series?

I'm thinking Boston and Chicago, if both can hold together their pitching staffs.

Of course, I have to root for the hometown Orioles, who in any other year would have a chance at taking the ALEast, but look to come in third at best. Of course, if they - like the Cubs last year -suddenly pull a couple of great young pitchers out of their ass, they might be interesting.

Professional Sports Statistics
 

Not sure yet, but the bad karma is already rearing its head against the Cubs... Prior's currently out until mid-May.

I'm thinking Boston or NY, probably Boston, against somebody other than the Cubs, probably Philly, but it's really early yet. Maybe Houston or St. Louis.

Professional Sports Statistics
 

Agree. W/out Prior*, the Cubs are no longer the NL favorite. Houston has both the arms and the bats.

*that injury isn't going away any time soon.

I'll pick Boston.

WPT
 

cover story in Dallas' weekly rag this week about Clonie Gowen, winner of WPT's Ladies' Night show - http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues...l/1/index.html

WPT
 

In somewhat related news, finally got set up at TruePoker and downloaded the software. One question, how do you reload your play money? Starting with 1000 seems kind of low. Do you have to blow through that first?

WPT
 

you might now. used to be that you could win all kinds of play money playing in tournaments there (I think I have around $50k in play money), but they cut the money awards in play money tournaments, so I don't know how you build now other than playing (and winning) a lot of regular games.

WPT
 

Great, if we get the chance to play you'll have to level the chip count, or you could just bludgeon me with your chip lead...

Currently reading Hellmuth's book, by the way.

John Thompson
 

Is John Thompson the happiest man alive today? He finally can avoid the embarrasment of being responsible for US basketball's sole legitimate loss in Olympic play.

Absofuckinglutely pathetic. The critics have said this team was put together to market the NBA, not to win a gold medal. It's doing neither, by showing what a lousy game NBA basketball has become.

GOOD Olympics basketball
 

Yeah, but did anyone else catch the Serbia-Argentina game? Great game, complete with a controversial buzzer-beating off balance toss-up jump shot to win the game. Argentina raced out ahead by I think 20 points at one point, only to have Serbia catch up and be 3 points up with a minute left.

Best last two minutes to a basketball game I've seen in a long time.

WPT
 

they took all my extra play chips away. not sure how that happened. went on hiatus and when I came back they were gone. any way, if we set up a No Limit table, we'll start everyone with the same amount and when they're gone, they're gone.

Because I can't help myself
 

And I really really hate the Sacramento Kings.

Who in the hell gave TNT the right to PLAYOFFS BASKETBALL WHEN THERE IS NO HD FEED? I mean really. What the hell? And what's the deal in Arco? Do they have to play the music the whole damn time? Out of courtesy, don't other areanas turn off the music, like, during the game? And if you're going to do a stupid interview during a game can we just watch the game and not have the screen minimized to look like a 13" TV? What the hell is wrong with people?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABP...2002259886.jpg
Ray Allen schooling Cutino Mobley.

Because I can't help myself
 

Aren't there very specific rules for this? I think the NFL has them, and thought the NBA did. Like, music only for first 6 seconds of possession. Has to be "equal" for both teams (i.e., noise on defense and offense), and so forth. Not that music operators, any less than clock operators, don't bend the rules for the home team.

Because I can't help myself
 

Just about everybody is doing the all music, all the time thing now. It sucks. Definitely not just an Arco thing.

Ray was damn good last night. But the Sonics ain't going beyond the second round. They're lucky the Kings didn't get healthy a couple of weeks earlier.

I hate the Sonics. I even hate Luke, despite his Duck status, mainly because he's a bible-thumping little freak. What is truly amazing is that, even with Pippie Long Fortson and Bo Derek Radmonovich (sp?), this is not the ugliest Sonic team in memory. Hard to top a team with permed-out Sikma, DJ, JJ, and Fred Brown. That was one ugly team.

Because I can't help myself
 

Detlef Schrempf was no walk in the park. Olden Polynice either.

That said, it's nice to see Lenny Wilkens back in Seattle - even if only to work for Fox.
I do not pay much attention to Luke Ridnour except for the fact that he is so incredibly predictable. Dribble to the top of the key and pass left. Every. Time.

I don't think I've seen the music thing done quite so obnoxiously or loud as Arco. They guys here (who also hate the Kings) say that it's part of the "Arco is the loudest arena, we love the home team" schtick.

We can beat the Spurs. We've done it. Whether we step it up enough to do it now, is another thing. Don't harsh my buzz dude, last night was one of the best Sonic games I have ever seen. And I've seen a LOT.

eta, at least we are IN the playoffs.

Because I can't help myself
 

I totally thought there were rules for this. That's why I was so surprised to hear the damn music almost the whole game. And through the stereo, not in dolby digital, it was obnoxious. And on top of that, it was the same 5 songs.