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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
remember when Bill Simmons had a show on HBO? man it was terrible. Karate Kid 3 kinda terrible.
remember when Bill Simmons had a show on HBO? man it was terrible. Karate Kid 3 kinda terrible.
The Rules of Pacers Digest
Hello everyone,
Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.
A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.
Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.
Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.
Rule #1
Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:
"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"
"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"
"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"
"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"
"He/she is just delusional"
"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"
"I'm going to take a moment to point and
/ laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"
"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good?"
In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.
We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.
Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.
That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.
A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.
There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.
Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.
In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.
Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.
If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!
All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.
Rule #2
If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.
The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.
The right places to do so are:
A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.
B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.
If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.
Rule #3
If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.
When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:
A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.
B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.
To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!
Rule #4
Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.
Rule #5
When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.
An example:
If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:
http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star
Rule #6
We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.
The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.
Rule #7
Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.
It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).
We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).
However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.
Rule #8
We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.
Rule #9
Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.
Rule #10
We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.
Rule #11
Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.
A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.
Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.
Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.
Rule #1
Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:
"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"
"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"
"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"
"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"
"He/she is just delusional"
"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"
"I'm going to take a moment to point and
/ laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*""Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good?
"In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.
We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.
Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.
That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.
A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.
There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.
Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.
In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.
Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.
If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!
All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.
Rule #2
If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.
The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.
The right places to do so are:
A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.
B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.
If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.
Rule #3
If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.
When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:
A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.
B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.
To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!
Rule #4
Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.
Rule #5
When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.
An example:
If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:
http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star
Rule #6
We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.
The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.
Rule #7
Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.
It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).
We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).
However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.
Rule #8
We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.
Rule #9
Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.
Rule #10
We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.
Rule #11
Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
Looks like the Pacers might actually have a good reason to tank next season. Marvin Bagley is reclassifying with the NCAA to play college ball this coming season. He is supposed to be very good. Instantly the #1 pick over Porter and Doncic. Dang, I wish Draft Express was still in business.Comment
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
Yeah, he sucked so bad that he averaged 15.3 points per game over a 12 year career.Originally posted by Kstat View Post
After reviewing more posts, I assume that you refer to him sucking in Phoenix...sorry about that. Yeah, his last season and he averaged 5.8 points per game, so he did suck that year.Last edited by sav; 07-31-2017, 10:34 AM.Comment
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
Ainge was not in love with picks at that time
This day in history (07) Kevin Garnett was traded to Boston for Ratliff, Big Al, Gerald Green, R Gomes, Sebastian Telfair & 2 1st rd picks pic.twitter.com/T8tOrQWPvt
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) July 31, 2017
@WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!
Comment
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
Shades of Amar'e Stoudamaire boxing with a fire extinguisher box.Originally posted by Heisenberg View PostComment
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
Marquis had been all used up in Dallas with the Mavs by the time he got to Indy. Same with Josh Howard by the time he got to the Wizards.Originally posted by dal9 View PostComment
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
Sources: Indiana has waived center Kevin Seraphin, who had guarantee date on the upcoming season of his deal.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 31, 2017
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
That is ridiculous.Originally posted by Strummer View Post
Sources: Indiana has waived center Kevin Seraphin, who had guarantee date on the upcoming season of his deal.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 31, 2017
@WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!Comment
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
Seraphin cut? Meh. Makes no difference one way or the other.{o,o}
|)__)
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
This has to be one of the biggest house cleanings I have ever seen the Pacers do. Anything comparable?{o,o}
|)__)
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
Wizards @ OKC replay is on NBATV right now.Comment
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
The biggest in my lifetime I don't recall one close to this. Maybe in 2007?Originally posted by owl View PostComment
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
I can't post this on my iPad nut pretty cool read. And props to the Pacers
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/1...l-other-sportsComment
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
Here's the article
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/1...l-other-sports
Africa Outreach USA brings opportunity to Zimbabwe youth through basketball, other sports
As a boy in Zimbabwe, Gus Chikamba had very little. He made do.
"I remember we could not afford a soccer ball, so we used to make soccer balls out of plastic, out of trash," he said. "I think I first saw a basketball at the age of 14 when I went to boarding school."
Basketball was his ticket to opportunity. He played in high school and college in Zimbabwe and believes it kept him focused and too busy to get into trouble, unlike some of his friends.
"They did other things, and they fell through the cracks of life," he said.
Today, Chikamba, 47, lives in Indianapolis, a world away from where he grew up. Yet he has never forgotten how far he has come from kicking makeshift balls on dusty fields.
Even after coming to the U.S. in 2000 to earn his MBA and then launching a career -- he's now a retirement planner for Capital Group -- Chikamba kept thinking about ways to help a new generation of kids back home. That crystallized in 2008 when he and his wife, Madeline, returned for a visit.
Indiana Pacers head coach Jim O'Brien and the daughter of Hall of Fame coach Jack Ramsay.
From the moment she met Chikamba, O'Brien was impressed not only by the way he did business, but by his passion for basketball. Gus and Madeline had been trying to get their Zimbabwe sports plan rolling for more than two years, but it was stalled.
Portland Trail Blazers relished.
Children carry bricks for the new basketball court at Arnoldine Primary School. The local community always provides labor for Africa Outreach USA projects. Courtesy Africa Outreach USA
Jack Ramsay died in 2014, before he had a chance to visit Zimbabwe and see in person kids using his fundamentals. But his son recalls spending an afternoon with his dad watching some DVDs that had been delivered to his home.
"It was dozens of African kids playing basketball, doing drills and really working, sweating buckets," Chris says. "A lot of the kids didn't have shoes. Boys and girls, ages 5 to 18 or 19, really working hard."
The courts were a mixture of dirt and asphalt. The baskets were rickety.
"After about 20 minutes of this, the camera panned over, and on the fence there was a sign and it said, 'Jack Ramsay Grassroots Basketball Initiative Zimbabwe, Africa Outreach USA.' I said, 'Dad, this is your thing?' And he goes, 'Yeah, I guess it is.'
"We were just so impressed by how hard these kids were working and how much they seemed to be enjoying it. ... Those kids inspired us."
Paving the way to success
In northeast Zimbabwe, there is a dusty court at Clare Secondary School in the village of Nyazura. It's in the Makoni District of Manicaland Province. It is here that Nash Majoni -- a mathematics teacher at the school -- coaches boys and girls to play basketball the Ramsay way.
On this court, he coaches passing, defense and teamwork, but there are no shooting drills.
Until Africa Outreach USA got involved, basketball was played only on dirt at Arnoldine Primary School. Courtesy Africa Outreach USA
"We practice on an open dirty surface that has no hoops," Majoni said.
But a concrete court is coming within a few months. It's part of the Pave-a-Dirt-Court piece of the Africa Outreach program. So far, 31 schools have concrete courts that also can be used for volleyball and tennis. The first constructed was at Clare Primary School, just a few miles from Clare Secondary.
Majoni, who coordinates the Africa Outreach USA program in Manicaland, met Chikamba in 2012.
"I told him I had a community that was passionate for sport but didn't have facilities," Majoni said. "I shared with him my story, then he said he could work with me."
Since that first court went in, other schools have gotten in line, eager to build their own. Africa Outreach USA donates $1,500 to each school, enough to cover the materials. But a key feature of the program is that local residents have to donate the work.
"What we try to avoid is sending the wrong message to the communities in Zimbabwe," Chikamba said. "We don't want them thinking that people are going to come from the United States, build a basketball court, provide sneakers and basketballs. We want them to invest sweat equity in the whole process."
Workers start out by digging around the perimeter for the new court at Arnoldine Primary School. Courtesy Africa Outreach USA
So, community members must dig the foundation, donate bricks -- which are used for stabilization under the court -- and pour the concrete. Bags of cement are delivered as each stage of construction is verified. It's manual labor, aided with ox-drawn or donkey-drawn carts.
Chikamba is amazed, time and again, at the talent and energy of the builders. So is Majoni, who watches courts come together with the help of parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and neighbors. Majoni says families see the positive impact of courts and sports programs in neighboring communities and want courts for their local schools.
Part of the reason is academics. In order to participate in the sports programs, students have to be on solid academic footing. Majoni says at Clare, test pass rates have jumped significantly since the sports programs were initiated. Also, he has seen older kids who have dropped out of school return because of their interest in playing basketball, soccer or volleyball.
"The parents are supportive," Majoni said. "They know their kids spend most of their time between books and sports. There's not that extra time that they will be playing around, fooling around, engaging in drugs, because it's either they are in class or after class they are in practice. They go home, they're tired and they just go to sleep."
Africa Outreach USA provides the materials for new courts, but members of the local community pour the concrete. Courtesy Africa Outreach USA
Majoni can point to specific boys and girls who are getting more opportunities because of the basketball program he coaches at Clare and at nearby Kriste Mambo Secondary School for girls.
One, a boy whom Majoni began coaching in Grade 5, is getting scholarship offers from Zimbabwe schools. "The last time Gus came around, he brought him some sneakers," Majoni said. "For your information, he keeps them safe. He only uses them during the game."
A girl at Clare, who lost both her parents and lives with an aunt, has been selected to the under-17 national team, a long shot considering she comes from a school with a dirt practice court. "The girls are motivated," Majoni said. "Even if they don't have a court at school, they can be able to stand with other schools with confidence."
A recent graduate of Kriste Mambo plays for her university team.
The success stories, he says, are leading younger students to follow.
His students have little access to NBA or WNBA games, yet they are interested in them. They have favorite teams and players they idolize. Majoni and other coaches will download games for their athletes to watch.
"I have one kid who's always telling me, 'Coach, can you tell me what these guys require for us to join the WNBA?'" he said. "I've been telling them you have to work very hard, and I show them videos of those girls and they're like, 'Ah, I can try to be Maya Moore!'"
Adding education to the equation
When Gus and Madeline Chikamba first launched their program in Zimbabwe they put on a basketball camp, partnered with a local coach and donated 100 new basketballs provided by the Pacers.
Later, it occurred to Gus that there was no way to verify the balls would ever get where they were needed. So the Chikambas decided they would work through schools, Gus said, for these three reasons: "We thought if we partner with schools as a way of verifying where all the donated materials go, that's one. Secondly, schools will deliver the maximum participation. Thirdly, the school concept ties into the education component we want to address."
With the concrete in place, lines are painted at center court. Courtesy Africa Outreach USA
Another element is that it's a way to ensure that females can be involved, whether it's in participation or leadership. Soccer is the No. 1 sport in Zimbabwe, yet girls traditionally haven't had much opportunity to play it.
Chikamba says girls haven't received the same opportunities in sports or education in Zimbabwe because many fathers have believed their daughters would have no options but to marry young, so school and sports were superfluous. Yet Chikamba says his father made certain his four daughters received good educations, and each has been successful in their lives and communities.
"If we break that paradigm, if we break that cultural concept to where we begin to empower the girl child at a relatively young age, you will be amazed what she can do," Chikamba said. "In Africa we have a saying: 'When you educate a woman, you educate the entire village.'"
Majoni says he and other coaches regularly talk to their athletes about topics such as gender equity and HIV/AIDS awareness. When they go to tournaments, coaches carve out time for lectures and discussion.
"Before we start the tournament, we discuss issues about life," Majoni said. "We teach them life skills."
Barbara Soria, who works with Chikamba at Capital Group, has led fundraising efforts as a board member. She says as the program has gained momentum over the past three years, Americans who have donated are excited by the payoff.
More than 30 hard courts that can be used for basketball, volleyball and tennis have been installed thanks to Africa Outreach USA. Courtesy Africa Outreach USA
"For somebody to say, 'For $1,500 I can sponsor a basketball court,' and we literally send them a link where they can watch the development of the building of the court," she said. "It's tangible."
Others donate to pay for trophies or medals, sports equipment, clean-water projects or to sponsor a student-athlete's tuition at a rural school.
It's possible that someday Africa Outreach USA will produce athletes who go to the United States to play in college or the pros. If that happens, Chikamba believes the positive ripple effects in Zimbabwe would be significant.
The true focus, however, is to give kids opportunities for a better life.
"Being born and raised out of Africa," Chikamba said, "the concept is to empower those communities, including the academic institutions, to really raise these kids so they can contribute back to the community."Comment
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Re: NBA 2017 Offseason Thread
OKC on again. Vs NOLA. Really enjoy watching Oladipo/Sabonis play. Oladipo is a playmakerOriginally posted by I Love P View PostComment
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