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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
Video is nasty. Looking for more in the future. Maybe you can do one to All I do is Win
Video is nasty. Looking for more in the future. Maybe you can do one to All I do is Win
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: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
That is an awesome video from the guy who deserves to be in Area 55 the most!!!
Comment
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
Day-V! Awesome video! Must have been a lot of work. Thanks!
Very professionally done. You ought to post this periodically whenever our guys are in a slump to remind them who they are and what they're capable of.
I loved it!Comment
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
Awesome video, thanks. I actually got chills a few times.Comment
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
AREA 55 NEWS YOU CAN TAKE TO THE BANK!
Rats! We just lost another one that maybe we could have won today. Our guys were in the game with Boston though -- despite horrendous shooting, lots of blown layups, a slew of technical fouls, and pretty sorry officiating. It was a loss, true, but there were some positives. It wasn’t like the L.A. game, for one thing. We actually competed. We played the storied Celtics on their parquet flooring to pretty much of a draw for just about the entire game. In my book, as ugly as some of our play was, it was progress.
Our boy Roy had 17 points (although it took him a raft of shots to get there). He also had around 14 rebounds and at least a couple of assists. Our defense was pretty good and we came up with a slew of steals and a number of blocked shots. If we had played just a tad bit better, the game was winnable. Learn from it Pacers and move on.
There were some unusual developments. Hansborough and Dahntay got some minutes. Mike Donleavy, an unlikely trouble-maker if there ever was one, got T-ed up. Josh couldn’t play because of a strange “abdominal injury” sustained after his genital area reportedly impacting with the pointed knee of Cleveland’s “Bird’s Nest” boy, Anderson Varajao (Thank you, O Chantmasters! I loved that song!).
It was irritating not being able to see the Boston game on the tube, though. It’s absence was definitely hard to figure.
But no rest for the weary. Our guys now have to suck it up, get on a plane, and get ready for an appearance from those pesky insects from the Delta, the New Orleans Hornets.
PTO Doings. At our last festive outing, PTO Prez Brickyard honored his promise and this time actually brought the grill. Consequently, Johnsonvilles were toasted and a great number consumed. Fellow 55er Vikki Koontz paid a visit and regaled those in attendance with titillating stories from her youth involving former Pacer great Chuck Person hitting on her while she was employed as an underage window-girl at Wendy’s and later, in a chance encounter at a bowling alley. Those were the days, eh Vikki?
VP/GM Casey O’Brien was absent from our pre-Cleveland soiree as the terms of his most recent Plea Agreement (involving 180 days of Home Detention) prevented his attendance. A petition attesting to his good moral character was circulated for use at his upcoming probation hearing. We’re pulling for ya, little guy. Maybe we’ll see you on an episode of Lockup!
The PTO is a good way to socialize before the game, swap stories of sexual adventures, and generally tune up for the chanting to come. Drop by and have a brat. It’s a good time.
And now a few Fun Facts about our hated foe, the New Orleans Hornets. These are abbreviated a tad because of the Colt game and our Sunday encounter with Boston. I’ll get back on track with more in-depth research after we exterminate our waspy little friends from the South on Monday night.
Remember, game time’s at 7:00 P.M. Be there, on time, in our hallowed section and be loud. Our Pacers need a home win to keep pace with the Bulls in the Central.
AND NOW A FEW NEW ORLEANS-RELATED FUN FACTS!
Fun Fact #1 – How the New Orleans Hornets Became the Hornets! Well, it happened this way: Originally, in 1989 when the NBA went on an expansion tear, Charlotte, North Carolina was, oddly enough, assigned a franchise. The new team was originally going to be called the Charlotte Spirit, but -- what else? -- a “name-the-team” contest was held that yielded "Hornets" as the winning choice. The name was supposedly derived from the city's fierce resistance to British occupation during the Revolutionary War, which prompted one no less famous than British Lord General Cornwallis (of Yorktown fame, if you remember your Revolutionary War history) to refer to the city of Charlotte as "a veritable nest of hornets."
Of course, when the Hornets relocated to New Orleans, the Hornets name didn’t transfer so well. The principal insect denizen of New Orleans is a monster sized cockroach commonly known as a Palmetto Bug. I know this because I went to Tulane for a year and used to regularly have to battle the suckers for room supremacy. The New Orleans Cockroaches, however, would not have met Commissioner Stern’s rulez for NBA wholesomeness.
What happened to the Hornets on moving to New Orleans is sorta like what happened in 1979 when New Orleans’ first NBA franchise, the Jazz, moved to Salt Lake City and, as a result, wound up doing its syncopated Dixieland riffs in a musical setting previously dominated by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Or, it's kind of like what happened when the Minneapolis Lakers relocated to arid Los Angeles. For some reason, when most NBA teams move, they just seem to keep their chosen nicknames. The only exception that comes to mind to this general rule is the Seattle Supersonics, who abandoned their Sonics sobriquet and became the Thunder on moving to Oklahoma City. (It’s a shame. I sort of like the anomalous sound of the Oklahoma City Supersonics actually). Anyway, you get the picture. Just standard NBA weirdness.
Fun Fact #2 – Meet Hugo – The Hornets’ Mascot and Watch Him Jump Through the Dreaded “Ring of Fire”!
Here’s Hugo: http://tinyurl.com/23vq9xw (Cute fuzzy pants, eh?)
The Hugo moniker was selected from a pool of more than 6,000 fan suggestions, and he was inaugurated for promo purposes as part of the Charlotte Hornets' first season. Despite the aftermath of the damage resulting from Hurricane Hugo in September 1989, the Charlotte Hornets announced that the Hugo moniker would remain, and the mascot's name would not be changed to Hoser or Hank. Wise decision.
Hugo has reportedly won several NBA Mascot Dunk Contests. However, the highlight of Hugo’s storied career occurred during a break between the first and second quarters in Game 1 of the 2008 Western Conference Playoff series between the Hornets and the San Antonio Spurs. Here, Hugo jumped onto a trampoline, proceeded through a “ring of fire,” and then dunked a basketball to the joy of thousands of awed fans. Afterwards, when it came time to put the “ring of fire” away, the New Orleans Arena crew that was responsible for cleaning up after the stunt used the wrong kind of fire extinguisher and found that they couldn’t put out the fire. As a result the entire arena filled with smoke, and the floor became covered with slippery chemicals which proved extremely difficult to remove from the playing surface. It took a 19-minute game delay to finally make the arena floor suitable for resumed play.
First, here’s some mood music:
http://tinyurl.com/yqh2kc
Now, watch the video. Enjoy:
http://tinyurl.com/2antolq
After this fiasco, NBA Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Stu Jackson canceled any further “ring of fire” halftime shows and later fined the Hornets organization for the mishap. So Boomer, take heed! Avoid silly pyrotechnics!
Fun Fact #3 – Say Hello (and Goodbye!) to Hornets Owner George Shinn! I apologize. This Fun Fact is real long, but when I researched it, I found it so intriguing I just couldn’t stop!
See, one of the things that I’ve picked up on in assembling these pre-game Fun Facts is this: While NBA Commish David Stern has imposed a lot of strict rules to penalize players for their on- and off-court misdeeds, drug use, and general fashion faux pas, there is still no NBA “Code-O-Conduct” (repeat “Mess-O-Fish” with me a few times here and you’ll maybe get my sarcastic witticism) operative aimed at corralling the ongoing foibles of NBA team owners.
Let us focus on former New Orleans Hornets owner, George Shinn, for a moment. You’ll see what I mean!
George in a standard pose (Great tie!): http://tinyurl.com/38znfu6
Back in 1985, the NBA was planning to expand by four teams. Enter, George Shinn, a self-made millionaire from Kannapolis, North Carolina.
George came up the hard way. He was originally just a poor student (not monetarily poor, what I mean here is that he was sorta dumb – he graduated last in his high school class of 293). However, George went on to attend Evans Business College in Concord, North Carolina. While there, he noticed that his school wasn’t particularly well run. Cannily, George scrounged up some money, and then he bought the school. He parlayed that purchase into a string of similar acquisitions of private, 18-24 month-graduation track, business and vocational training establishments and, pretty soon, “God’s Little Idiot” (as George likes to call himself), was swimming in bucks -- becoming sort of a second-rate education baron.
As mentioned, in 1985 the planets aligned, and the NBA decided to expand. George, by now a fat cat, assembled a group of prominent local business men in the Charlotte, North Carolina area and formed a consortium (headed by George, of course) aimed at persuading the NBA to put a team in Charlotte with George at the helm. Many scoffed at this idea at the time. A columnist from the Sacramento Bee joked, “The only franchise Charlotte is going to get is one with golden arches.”
But George outfoxed the skeptics. He sold his string-o-schools and came up with $32 Million to put on the table. That interested the high rollers that run the NBA. George also had another ace in the hole – the Charlotte Coliseum - a state-of-the-art arena then under construction that, when completed, would seat almost 24,000 spectators – the largest basketball-specific arena ever to serve as a full-time home for an NBA team.
The idea of an NBA team proved wildly popular in Charlotte. So, in 1987, when David Stern announced the award of a franchise to George, the town threw a parade for him with lots of bands and majorettes twirling batons down Tryon Street. There was even talk of nominating George for governor.
Unfortunately, Charlotte didn’t reckon on the antics of “God’s Little Idiot.”
Somewhere along on his path to financial success, George supposedly “got religion.” He became a preachy sort of family-values guy with a penchant for preaching the Gospel of Success. He started writing a bunch of motivational books -- urging his readers to be like him, get on the good side of God, and then make money. The books had titles like: The Miracle of Motivation, The American Dream Still Works! and You Gotta Believe! - The Story of the Charlotte Hornets.
When things got underway in Charlotte in 1989, at first all seemed well. The Hornets quickly got some good draft picks -- signing rookie Alonzo Mourning in 1992, among others -- and the team lead the NBA in season ticket sales (21,000+) and had sellout crowds for its first 7 or 8 seasons.
But then things began to go awry.
It perhaps began when George fired the Hornets’ first ever coach, Dick Harter, choosing to do it on the same day that Harter’s brother died of cancer. Then George started making bonehead trades (for example, after drafting Kobe Bryant in 1996, George traded him to L.A. for Vlade Divac). Fans came to regard him as a cheapskate. (When Mourning’s original rookie contract expired and he was then demanding to be paid as the star he had become, George traded him to Miami for Glenn Rice, Matt Geiger, Khalid Reeves, and a draft pick) Slowly, as the team deteriorated, the home-town enthusiasm began to abate. Self-professedly religious, George responded by piping pre-game prayers into the Coliseum over its public address system (Charlotte’s in The Bible Belt, y’see).
Perhaps this should have been a warning to Charlotte.
Ticket sales declined and fans lost interest when the Hornets, although semi-competitive, never really seemed to go anywhere. Revenues at the Coliseum began to dwindle. This caused George – who, while wealthy, was not as rich as most NBA owners – to become concerned about losing his shirt on his investment. This prompted him to start looking around for other sources of remuneration. This manifested itself when George suddenly became discontent with the city’s once top-o-the line arena (which was then only 10 years old). George began complaining that the Coliseum only had a limited number of luxury boxes available to rent out and that this just wouldn’t do. This prompted him to issue an ultimatum to the city fathers: unless the city built a new arena for the team -- at no cost to George -- the Hornets would leave town! This was not well received by either city officials or by the Hornet’s now-meager fan base. George’s popularity (as well as that of his team) in Charlotte began to ebb even further.
God’s Little Idiot’s personal behavior didn’t help matters. Right around the time George was trying to shake down the city for a new arena, he became embroiled in a sexual escapade. As is so often the case, it was a woman! The tale is perhaps most colorfully recounted in an article I found in The Village Voice:
“Shinn was accused of kidnapping and sexual assault by a Charlotte woman (in 1997). He allegedly offered to drive the woman to his lawyer for help with her child custody problems. Instead, she charged, he drove her to his home. In the car Shinn allegedly grabbed her breast and put his hand up her underwear. She asked to be taken home, but he refused. (As NBA Commissioner David Stern once said of Shinn, "He doesn't know how to take no for an answer.")
In his house, Shinn allegedly pushed the woman onto his bed and forced her to perform oral sex. Shinn's accuser claimed he later offered her $200 and told her they'd have to "do this again sometime." In 1999, a prosecutor ultimately decided he didn't have enough evidence to charge Shinn, but said that he thought "something did in fact transpire between Mr. Shinn and this victim."
The woman later filed a civil suit. Sadly further tales of George’s female troubles came out in that forum. There were additional allegations of unwanted sexual advances from George by two former female employees of the Hornets (one was a front office worker and the other a comely member of the Hornet’s dance troupe – “The Honeybees”). The Honeybee claimed that George “had become obsessed with her.” George, undaunted, slapped a slander suit on his original accuser. Said his attorney at the time: "They met, she gave him a (enter here a slang word for oral sex), she left." Veni, vidi, vici, eh George?
George then had a long civil trial for the sexual assault claim that ended only in December 1999. Eventually the jury rejected the victim’s allegations of rape, but in the process, family-man George admitted to having two sexual relationships outside his marriage (leading to an expensive divorce – but hey, that’s another story). Unfortunately for George, his trial was broadcast nationwide on Court TV. It drew some of that cable network's highest ratings at the time. As a result of all this, George became a pariah in Charlotte and sensitive fans began staying home in droves. Attendance at Hornet games plummeted, with numbers becoming among the worst in the NBA. George became a recluse and tried to stay out of the public eye. But he didn’t give up on his demand for new digs for his team.
The city fathers, at first, refused to build George his new arena. This lead George to consider moving his team to either Norfolk, Louisville, St. Louis, or Memphis. (Norfolk?) Of these, only St. Louis had a larger media market than Charlotte. This threat had its desired effect and the town relented. A plan to raise taxes for a new arena in Uptown (which would eventually become the Charlotte Bobcats Arena, and later the Time Warner Cable Arena) was put to a non-binding referendum. Temporarily satisfied, George showed his good faith by withdrawing his application with the NBA to move the team. Polls showed that the referendum was actually on its way to passage. However, fate intervened again to stymie George’s arena plans. Just days before the referendum, Charlotte’s Mayor, Pat McCrory, vetoed an unrelated living wage ordinance. This veto prompted many of the city's black ministers to then oppose the arena referendum, as they felt it was immoral for the city to build new luxury suites for George when its employees were not being paid enough to live on.
After the referendum failed, city leaders devised a new plan to get around the ministers by building a new arena in a way that did not require voter support. However, by this time George’s antics on Court TV had alienated too many members of the city council. Accordingly, the good fathers of Charlotte made it known that they would not even consider building a new basketball palace unless George sold the team to somebody else first.
When the NBA got word of the city's demand, hackles were raised. Sure, George had alienated fans, but “league officials” (write David Stern’s name in here. David Stern had always been George’s buddy) felt a demand like this would anger other team owners.
The Charlotte city council continued to insist, however, that George had to sell the Hornets to someone else before a new arena would be built. This caused George to renew his request to the NBA to OK moving his team to greener pastures. And yup, you guessed it – off to New Orleans went the Hornets!
Although New Orleans was a much smaller TV market, a deal was quickly made with Crescent City elders for the Hornets to play at the New Orleans Arena, right next door to the Louisiana Superdome. So, right before the Hornets were eliminated from the playoffs, the NBA approved the deal. As a sop to Charlotte, the NBA promised it would eventually get another new team (and, indeed, another actually did take to the court in Charlotte two years later as the Bobcats).
In a 2008 interview with the Charlotte Observer, George (who never returned to Charlotte after the Hornets moved -- whether out of remorse or fear, his motivations are unclear) admitted that the "bad judgment I made in my life" played a role in the Hornets' departure. He emphasized, however, that he was making amends by "committing" to New Orleans. As George put it at the time: "I've made enough mistakes in my life. I'm not going to make one here. This city needs us here. We're going to make this (New Orleans) thing work."
Well, we all know how well he made that thing work. Hurricane Katrina hit, and with New Orleans depopulated, George then started playing most of the Hornets’ games in Oklahoma City. There entertainment-starved Okies welcomed the team with proverbial Great Plains enthusiasm. With the New Orleans arena full of empty seats, George started flirting with the idea of permanently moving the team to OKC. He began hinting in the press that he actually would move unless the State of Louisiana started subsidizing his Hornets with real money - $7 Million was the opening amount requested. George's threat to relocate to OKC flopped, of course, because Seattle Sonics team owner, Clay Bennett (an owner cut from the same cloth as George), moved his team there first.
Now stuck in New Orleans and seriously strapped for cash, George started shopping his prize players – Tyson Chandler was one of them – for pennies on the dollar to other teams in order to reduce his payroll costs. This didn’t do much for the quality of the Hornets’ play and further compounded attendance problems in N.O. As a result, in April of this year, with the Hornets in the red to the tune of $111 Million, George started looking around for another fat cat to buy him out. However there were no takers. There was talk of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.
Fortunately for George his old friend, NBA Commission David Stern came to the rescue, providing George with the sporting world’s answer to the Wall Street Bailout. The NBA bought George out, and as a result, the league acquired the Hornets. The idea is that the league will now market the team to another fat cat buyer. Although the Commish has publicly expressed his heartfelt desire to keep the Hornets in New Orleans, pundits are skeptical that a buyer willing to do this can truly be found. There’s lots of talk that the Hornets may now go to St. Louis, Anaheim, Seattle, or even Chicago!
And where is George now? Well, he’s doin’ just fine. Remember, he was bailed out. Business Week recently listed his net worth at $100 Million.
And what does all this mean?
To me, it's like some sort of a strange NBA Rubik’s Cube.
Charlotte Hornets go to New Orleans.
New Orleans Hornets play in Oklahoma City.
Charlotte Bobcats form.
Seattle moves to Oklahoma City.
New Orleans Hornets move to Seattle?
The combinations and permutations never end.
But enough of this drivel, 55ers. I’m going to bed. Just count your blessings, and be glad the Pacers had Mel Simon, and not George Shinn, for an owner.
Time for a home win, 55ers. Be loud and vocal Monday night and let’s take down New Orleans.
Go Pacers! Go Area 55!
Joe Murphy – Indy Hoya
.Last edited by IndyHoya; 12-20-2010, 08:51 AM.Comment
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
I'm staying home tonight guys. I'll be there 100% definitely on the 26th.
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
If any of you guys ever are unable to go, I just wanted to let you know that I'm always available in case you don't want your tickets to go to waste
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
Want my ticket for tonight?Originally posted by Day-V View PostIf any of you guys ever are unable to go, I just wanted to let you know that I'm always available in case you don't want your tickets to go to wasteComment
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
Awesome. I appreciate it. Have you let him know yet?Originally posted by greenway84Comment
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
He took it from me on twitter earlier this morning. I think he's trying to work some kind of scalping business.Originally posted by greenway84
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
That sounds like a plan. My fear is that the ushers won't let me in.
Do you guys tailgate tonight? Or is that just for the weekend games?Comment
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
Yep, will be PTOing at ~6:00 tonight. Come and have a beer or something.Comment
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
Where do you guys normally tailgate at again? I think I know the general area.Comment
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
It is in the Anthem parking lot behind Conseco.
Here is our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.763...N&hl=en&tab=wl
Head down Pennsylvania as if going to Conseco, pass the Fieldhouse, take the first left onto South St., then take another left at the second stoplight (Alabama St.). Go straight and you will see the parking lot entrance. There is an attendant who you have to pay to park, but you can find somewhere else to park and walk in for no charge.Comment
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Re: Area 55 season thread for 2010-11
Ok, sounds good. I'll be there around that time. I'll be in a Gray Colts hoodie and Yellow Colts hat. I'll try to be there around 6-ish.Comment
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