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Joey Ballgame

I'd like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely nobody.

Views from the 617.

Primarily MMA and pop culture takes from down in the rabbit hole. Sports straight out of left field.

Should We Be Concerned By What Gordon Hayward’s Ex-Teammates Are Saying About Him?

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So, unless you’ve been under a rock you know we signed Gordon Hayward a little over a week ago to a max deal. He’ll be be that pure scorer we desperately needed to take pressure off IT and keep the points coming, from a bigger man at that. He’s not Durant or Curry or anyone like that but he’ll get buckets and that’s really all we care about him doing for the most part (more on that in a second).

What’s just a teeeeensy tiny bit worrisome is that since the signing two of his former teammates, one of whom wasn’t even on the Jazz last year, have come out with some, in the least not-positive things to say about Hayward and his switching teams. In and of itself this isn’t anything to really take a deeper look at, there’s always going to be teammates rubbed the wrong way – especially when you switch teams – athletes are people and not everyone gets along with everyone. However the comments aren’t of the same nature and come from two widely different people.

First on the 9th, Trevor Booker, the now non-Jazz (he’s on the Nets) in question came out doubted Hayward really wanted to be “the man” and that he, to paraphrase, did not want the pressure that comes along with such a role. Ok, for us this isn’t too much of a biggie. We have IT. We have Horford, Tatum, and Brown. Even if this is true it shouldn’t be too troubling, and Booker also complimented Hayward in his comments, but he still felt comfortable enough with his opinion, and apathetic enough with how Hayward would react, to say them.

Then, just a couple days ago Ruby Gobert, one of Hayward’s teammates for the last 4 seasons, came out to, paraphrasing again, simply say he understood blah blah blah but didn’t exactly like Hayward leaving “went down”, which can mean a million things in the Sports world. I’m guessing Gobert either expected a heads up from Hayward before things became public or didn’t expect him to leave at all and is a bit salty. The bottom line is the Stifle Tower is another ex-teammate that probably will not be making the trip to lovely New England to spend the holidays with the Hayward family.

Again, all of these comments were pretty innocuous but they do beg the question of what Hayward is like around his teammates and in the locker room. They certainly don’t suggest his Jazz teammates hated him but he doesn’t seem completely beloved by them either. We signed Gordon Hayward to fill it up and that is what he is going to due. I don’t think we need him to play a KG-esque captain role, but it wouldn’t have hurt to have gained some leadership or at least a good example of a veteran personality. We still may have, but now we are certainly allowed to wonder.

Mayweather Promotions Is Already Missing The Point

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I honestly believe one of the the aspects that makes MMA more appealing to my generation than boxing, to generalize greatly but truthfully, is the certain degree of chaos that permeates the sports. From the promotion of a fight, to the press conferences, to the weigh-ins, there is a certain degree of frenzied uncertainty that makes all that pageantry that much more fun. I mean, we’re talking about a sport where grown men and woman, barely clothed, beat the bag out of each other with limited rules and still some of the more memorable moments happen during routine pre-fight business.

That’s not to say boxing has never had it’s moments, shame on me if I ignored the masterful rhetoric of Ali or blatantly insane musings of Tyson, but in hindsight, compared to MMA, it seemed a bit rehearsed, a bit staged. Sure, Ali put on a show for the ages, seeming almost boastfully annoyed his opponent would ever meet him in the ring. Buttttt then you have Jake Shields firing a macchiato at Artem Lobov or some other SBG team member while the Diaz brothers flipped the bird and Connor McGregor returned fire with an energy drink. The headliners of that fight were making millions of dollars on a card that would rake in millions more. MMA is now a legit business and a legit sport, but the uncertainty remained and remains, it can’t be quelled.

Which brings us to McGregor’s upcoming boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. On Monday they held the first presser of a 3 country, 4 city press tour to promote a fight that is more spectacle than competition, regardless of predicted or eventual winners.  The fight itself is itself a debate probably every fan of combat sports has had over the past 20 years or so: what happens when you put the best MMA fighter and the best boxer against each other. Whether the former (McGregor now) or latter (Mayweather anymore) is true, you have a dynamite enough cross-section of the two sports in name and reputation to warrant the hullaballoo the fight itself has caused.

However, I don’t think I’m along when I say I was just as interested to see class of styles in promotion: the semi-scripted, reality tv-esque machismo of boxing vs. the “Um Jones and Cormier just put Sholler through a temporary wall” tornado of MMA. Conor McGregor did his part. He showed up in his flashy pink tie and blue suit, the pin stripes of which were actually the tiny words “Fuck You” printed over and over again. He swaggered, he jawed, he got the crowd going. He smiled that “4 years ago I was on welfare and now I have all you motherfuckers eating out of my hand” smile. It was awesome to have him back.

Mayweather….started ok. He was the silent, stoic Floyd he’s been for his last couple of fights; a bored, bothered character his promotional company has used as a foil to throw opponent after opponent at to see if anyone could topple the apathetic king. The whole production has worked of course, raking in billions, and I suppose it could work on this tour as well, matched up against Connor’s bluster and self-confidence (he honestly, to the bone believes he is winning this fight, within four rounds at that). However, he has to play the high-stakes jenga game that is an MMA promotional endeavor at least a little bit. And right here is where he made a colossal mistake.

McGregor and Mayweather sat on stage answering questions. Connor was the Connor we all know and love, laughing, taunting, soaking it all in, looking at the crowd and nodding “isn’t this great” – and interrupting. This is where Connor excels and really gets in his opponents head/ear (Please watch this to give credit and honor to the one true king of Interruptsmanship). He once called Nate Diaz a cholo. He once asked New York City who the fuck venerable, two weight UFC veteran Jeremy Stephens was. He doesn’t let you dictate inside the cage and doesn’t let you speak outside of it. It is why he, the UFC, and all his opponents and other fighters on his cards have benefited financially from his time at the top.

And Mayweather Promotions cut his mic off.

Although Floyd has never been the most articulate, loquacious guy in the world and quite frankly doesn’t seem to care to speak a whole lot anymore (to be clear, he is a master with the press, I just don’t think he gives a shit), his team’s insistence on their guy being “the A-side” and having more than his time to shine took priority over the whole reason this fight was ever made: Conor being Conor. That is the undeniable truth. There is a reason Floyd never fought BJ Penn or any of the other MMA fighters of his approximate weight and time. Floyd is only one half of the puzzle and before Conor no one else could complete it. What finally is going to give combat sports fans their answer to the questions of what boxer vs. MMA fighter would look like, and give Floyd a massive payday that he actually might need , is not just a fighter of multiple disciplines who has the skill to make fans demand and pay for it, but has the charisma. And the mouth. That was and is only Conor.

And Mayweather Promotions cut his mic off.

Moving forward, it will be interesting to see if this trend of making sure Floyd gets his close up continues. McGregor getting muted was noticed and confirmed by the man himself so they may rethink censoring him moving forward, although then again, Floyd doesn’t really give a shit. Regardless, as it stands now Mayweather Promotions has so far refused to cede any of the promotional creativity to the magnetic tight rope walk that is MMA’s. Floyd Mayweather may have a flawless record in the ring but when it comes to truly letting this dream live to be a reality he has some work to do.

His record there is now 0-1.

So a Small Contingent of White Walkers Just Rolled Into the Middle of London

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So I know I’m new to the 300 (Less than 24 hours) but I like to think although this site is 99.9% sports, it is also a celebration of fandom in general. And nothing screams fandom like the internet geeking out at HBO’s guerilla marketing tactics of sending some motherfucking White Walkers out to promote the new season of GOT that is FOUR days away.

Imagine going about your day as an Englishman/woman. Sipping some tea. Wearing a perfectly cut suit. Calling things that are good “brilliant”. Riding a subway system riddled with double entendres like “Shepherd’s Bush”. Then all of a sudden you look up and the Night King himself and a few of his undead commandos are sauntering toward you. Imagine that mixture of utter terror and unbridled excitement. OMG OMG OMG BEFORE YOU BRUTALLY DISEMBOWEL ME INTO A ZOMBIE CAN I GET A SELFIE FOR INSTA(I imagine American and English basics talk the same way)? Unreal man.

I Have A Mild Clue What Is Going On In The UFC

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Editor’s Note: Introducing Danny Coughlin, who will be our resident MMA guy covering everything from the UFC to the upcoming mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor.

So, a year in it doesn’t take a genius to see things in the largest, and yes, most talent laden MMA organization are just different. It’s a straight up Wizard of Oz situation in terms of exactly why or who is causing it to be this way. Maybe it was like this during the Zuffa era (The Fertittas as owners, Dana White ostensibly had more direct power/say) but I feel like we got to know that regime enough to kind of be able to deduce why they made certain decisions. Not the case with the new owners.

At a high level, or maybe more accurately at a fundamentally business level, there are two separate strategies that are most likely to be causing these changes. One would be if WME-IMG were looking at their new property as a straight up M&A situation. Here they would cut costs by making such moves as reducing non-essential staff (they have) while trying to jack up revenue, which nets out a ballooned profit, which would allow them to flip the company for a higher price than they bought it for. This would also explain letting some non-headliner/PPV buy-driving but subjectively expensive fighters walk to places like Bellator without a fight while putting on more, but (probably, I aint into research) cheaper  (or “watered down” as some bitter fans like to call them) shows. Again, less costs, more revenue.

The other business strategy is just to put together a long term earner of a business, which I think would seemingly be (see below) the more plausible scenario here. Let’s face it – it would take God-fucking-knows-what to make the UFC that much more valuable than $4 billion dollars in order to flip it for a profit when you take into consideration things like interest. On the flip side, putting on a larger amount of cheap, entertaining-enough-to-make-a-solid-nut shows to keep the cash flowing in? Throwing a few top-heavy/pomp-heavy Conor/Jon Jones/Diaz ragers  every year to churn some serious cheddah? Could work….

RECORD SCRATCH. What throws a wrench into strategy/idea two is the fact that if WME-IMG just wanted a profitable ATM of a business then why the fuck would they change what they inherited – A business and entertainment model/example that grew in value from $2 million to $4 BILLION in a fairly short amount of time – in the first place?

The answer to that question is most likely the answer to the overall question of “what the fuck in general is going on?” And the answer is our old friend ego. The same ego that made Bernie Madoff think he could endlessly swindle people out of 31231 kajillion dollars. The same ego that made good ol’ Eldrick Woods think he could piss on every hooker whose named ended in “i” within a 100 mile radius of Jupiter, FL. The same ego that made Det. The Rock and Samuel L think they could survive a quick 20 story leap off a building to expedite chasing down a perp. WME-IMG brass might not have the public swagger of Dana and Lorenzo, (and Frank, Joe Silva, etc.) but remember figurehead Ari Emanuel is the guy they based ARI FUCKING GOLD on. This is more than dollars and sense to him too, just like the Zuffa boys. But different men mean different egos. And WME-IMG want to succeed in their own way.

The best, and most entertaining IMNSHO, way to explain it would be to compare the egos of Moe Green and Michael Corleone. Moe Green wanted to prove to everyone he had the biggest dick and the most cash. He was flamboyant (Mayweather-McGregor), he was stubborn (Letting multiple top-10 guys walk). He cared less about his reputation (fighterpayfighterpayfighterpay) among his peers and the public than he did his bottom line. He rubbed the list of those bottom line accomplishments in everyone’s faces. WME-IMG and Ari might be plotting to do just that.

Michael Corleone was serious, surly even. He was a bit petty, sure (Dana), but in the end he not only wanted to be rich, which he sure as fuck did, but he wanted to be seen as legit (Zuffa) and build the biggest and baddest organization of it’s kind the world had seen. Kind of like how Zuffa stared across the pacific at Pride, tugged on it’s balls and put the UFC on it’s back. Pride fell. Strikeforce fell a few years later. The UFC were the undisputed kings of the realm.

In the end, only time will tell what WME-IMG’s end game really is. This is all just blogger speculation. It’s worth noting that should it happen, it wouldn’t be the first time the Fertitta’s had sold a business only to buy it back once the buyer realized they couldn’t run it as well. The question is by the time WME-IMG sets its strategy in place, will the UFC, or Bellator, or someone new, be the family in charge?