The royal blue with the golden yellow and the spiral ram horn on the helmet? Iconic. The Rams had one of the sharpest, simplistic logos in sports and they dumped it in favor of this??
That is some expansion team type design right here. This looks like an NFL Draft hat or one of those alternate spring training caps that MLB tries to sell you every spring.
I remember reading that one of the reasons the Patriots went away from Pat the Patriot in favor of the Flying Elvis was because of simplicity. Pat the Patriot was just kind of a bitch to put on everything and still have it look accurate. It was just too complicated of a logo to put on helmets, shirts, pins, pens, etc. So the Rams took one of the simplest designs in all of sports and axed it just because. Why go away from that? I understand they wanted to freshen things up as they go into a new stadium, but this is a Chargers move not a Rams move.
The new Rams logo looks like it’s from a tv show about pro football and they didn’t have rights from the NFL pic.twitter.com/NXL6uf0Y6X
Yahoo – After years of success with its games in London, the NFL might be considering taking its overseas relationship with the city one step further. Interest is picking up with the league, the Los Angeles Chargers and the rest of the NFL’s team owners in a possible move by the team to London, according to a report from The Athletic’s Vincent Bonsignore:
The Athletic has learned through NFL sources that the possibility of the Chargers moving to London has been broached among league personnel. The Athletic also has learned that, while the team is fully committed to Los Angeles where it will move into the new $4.5 billion stadium with the Rams next year, the Chargers would at least listen if the NFL approached them about about London as a possible option.
Finally, The Athletic has learned that NFL owners are concerned enough about the Chargers’ situation in L.A., where a crowded sports market and the presence of the more established Rams has resulted in a tepid embracement [sic] of the Chargers, that they would provide the necessary support for a relocation to London if the Chargers pursue it.
I guess a lot of this stems from the league just now starting to realize that LA can’t support two NFL teams. We all realize LA is one of the biggest media markets in the world, but that doesn’t change the fact that the NFL has put their head in the sand and ignored the fact that LA has never been a big sports town. Its a transient city so the majority of people in LA hail from somewhere else and already have a team. Not to mention its Hollywood so just about everyone out there is doing just about everything besides sitting at home watching sports. Thats what makes Boston a perfect sports town. Its cold and miserable like 8 months out of the year so you become a sports fan almost by default. In LA you can basically do whatever you want whenever you want. So trying to shoehorn not one, but two teams into LA after this same exact experiment failed in the 80s never made any sense. The Rams simply made it to market first and were better right off the bat so the Chargers were always going to be treated like a stepchild.
Now Philip Rivers would most likely be long retired before this move to London ever realistically happens, but its a pretty good example to take a look at. They moved from San Diego to LA, a gargantuan 2 hour and 43 minute drive north, and he refused to move his family. So the guy literally takes helicopters and buses to practice so he doesn’t have to uproot the Brady Bunch. Now imagine moving an entire franchise to London, which is a 10 and a half hour flight? Bananas. Granted I’ve seen stories in the past theorizing that for this to ever work logistically the team would likely have to be based on the East Coast as a sort of jumping off point. Otherwise you’re looking at 20+ international flights when you factor in pre-season as well as all the flights back to London. That doesn’t even take into account playoff games. Good luck signing big time free agents on that. My commute is an hour in traffic and I want to drive into the Charles every day because of it.
Welp, it seems like the Chargers agree because they have come out of the gates HOT to shoot these rumors down.
LA Times – Ballmer would not rule out changing the logo — and the colors, and perhaps even the nickname itself — when the Clippers move into the new arena. “We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to really step our identity up another level,” he said.
Whats the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Los Angeles?
Women, weed and weather.
Okay whats the second thing? The grizzly bear flag of course.
I’m from Boston and as much as I love the sports teams, the charmfully parochial attitude, and the 8 month long winters, I never pass up a chance to visit California. (Huntington Beach is where The 300s west coast office will be based in 2025) I’ve also always had a fondness for the California grizzly bear flag because if for no other reason it is a sharp look. You could throw these on a uniform tomorrow and Uni Watch would cum themselves. Actually, hang on a sec….
Without further ado, I introduce the California Monarchs and the below jersey that was custom designed by The 300s.
Danny Ainge refused to include Jayson Tatum in any Anthony Davis deal (as he should have). Kyrie Irving is as good as gone. Al Horford just opted out of his last year. Look around guys.
The Celtics now belong to Jayson Tatum.
If you had asked me two years ago (23 months ago but whos counting) I would have traded “every player on the Celtics roster” for Anthony Davis. But so much has changed since then. AD shot his way out of New Orleans, he demanded a trade to the Knicks or the Lakers, his agent Rich Paul tried to strong arm a deal to LA mid-season and then made it wildly clear that AD would not re-sign with Boston. Now I get it that it’s Danny Ainge’s job to call that bluff and pull the trigger on a trade because A. Davis may end up loving Boston like Kevin Garnett did and B. Davis suddenly would be sacrificing $50 Million dollars to leave Boston for LA. But, by landing in LA, Davis and Paul both get exactly what they wanted. Maybe it was a bluff, maybe it wasn’t. All I know is I’m not trading Tatum and the rest of the team for a guy who may or may not play in Boston for less than 12 months. I’m just not doing it. Tatum has shown way too much promise and you’d have to throw in heart and soul guys like Marcus Smart *just* to make the money work. Pass.
As for the Kyrie situation, I have been going back and forth on my thoughts because I hate reacting to news that hasn’t happened. I don’t want to bury a guy for a decision he hasn’t made yet. BUT, it sure seems like Kyrie is already out the door. There are reports that the Celtics are resigned to losing him in free agency. In fact Adam Himmelsbach wrote in the Globe that Kyrie has essentially “ghosted” the Celtics leading up to free agency, which would be the least surprising shit I’ve heard about him if true. Kyrie has shown that, despite all his grandiose speeches and delusions of grandeur as this elder statesman, he is just immature. A leader, or even a grown ass adult for that matter, handles last season very differently. I’m 30 and even I know that publicly criticizing younger, more impressionable co-workers is a piss poor way to inspire confidence and improve performance. Read a management book on one of your 6 hour flights for christ’s sake. Even Cleveland.com is criticizing Kyrie for making the same mistakes as the guy he so desperately wanted to get away from on the Cavs.
That doesn’t mean I think things are beyond repair though; I honestly believe Kyrie could come back, show a little embarrassment at the way everything has been handled the past 12 months, put up a good month of basketball and all would be forgiven. But, I just don’t think thats the way he’s wired.
And this is why the Boston Celtics do not kowtow to superstars. The C’s did everything they possibly could have to appease their young superstar in Kyrie Irving and he still is less than two weeks away from likely leaving them at the altar. You may need to do that in order to win an NBA title, but I’d rather live and die with guys like Marcus Smart and Isaiah Thomas than beg a superstar to please come play for our historic franchise. Why?
Woj also tweeted earlier today that Horford has reportedly opted out of his contract.
Boston Celtics center Al Horford will not exercise the $30.1M option on his 2019-20 contract and become an unrestricted free agent, league sources tell ESPN. Horford and the Celtics both have interest in working toward a new deal in July, sources tell ESPN.
To be completely honest, I fully expected this from big Al. He is 33 years old with one year left on his deal in a suddenly barren free agent market. This is his last chance to get a long term deal. So he could opt in and cash the $30M check, or he could opt out and potentially negotiate a 3-year $60M deal to stay with the C’s and secure the bag for another $30M. Nobody is going to pay Horford $30M per on his next deal so it makes perfect sense for him to opt out. Orrr he could see the writing on the wall in Boston and try to take a lesser deal to jump ship to a more clear cut contender. Except, theres not so many clear cut contenders out there now with Golden State’s rash of injuries, Kawhi’s uncertainty in Toronto, LA’s revival with AD, Philly’s 3 starters heading towards free agency [plus Ben Simmons needing a max extension next summer], Milwaukee lurking, not to mention the apparent turmoil in Houston. So theres a whole lot of second tier teams that think they have a legit shot at a title next year.
So to Tatum, Brown and the other young guys: you all privately and publicly battled with Kyrie last year for mostly petty reasons. Kyrie is definitely to blame for that, but Tatum, Brown and co. aren’t without fault. Either way the team suffered as a result. Tatum, Brown and the young guys reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals without Kyrie (and Hayward) so I get it. Well now Kyrie is all but gone so here you go. It’s your team now Jayson. Jaylen can be your 1A, but this is your team.
Tatum has the best pedigree, the highest ceiling, has shown the most elite offensive flashes, and has the length to play D, can be a spot up shooter or get to the rim. I am excited to see what a 3rd year Jayson Tatum looks like with the ball in his hands a lot more. I think Tatum will be an All-NBA player before long….but he better be. Danny just bet the next decade of the Celtics’ fortunes on Tatum being that good. Because if he’s not, we have become the Atlanta Hawks.
What if I told you that the LA deal for AD has been in place for months but because @MagicJohnson openly tampered multiple times the only way that the @NBA / Adam Silver wouldn’t be forced to veto the trade would be for Magic to step down?! Hmmmmmmmm
It helps if you read the above tweet in the ESPN 30 for 30 voice, but this is the most outrageous yet completely based in logic conspiracy theory I’ve heard in a long long time. So from here on our I will act as if this is fact.
In reality I know the Lakers get generational superstar talent every few years like we’re living in Groundhog Day despite completely mismanaging their entire franchise. They just always have and always will. Players like to be in sunny Cali, near beaches and models and other famous elites. I get it. Doesn’t mean it won’t forever piss me off though.
Whether its AD or Dwight Howard (when he was good) or Pau Gasol or Chris Paul or Shaq and on and on we go. The Lakers always fall ass backwards into supreme talent because they were fortunate enough to move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, where there are no lakes.
But Magic Johnson has tampered his ass off for years while pretending to be a legitimate basketball executive for the Lakers. The league has gone pretty easy on him in my opinion, but I’ve already written too many words about Earvin being bad at his job to get into it all over again.
This theory goes right up there with MJ retiring to play baseball because of a gambling suspension and the Knicks using a frozen envelope to land Patrick Ewing. It just makes too much sense to not be true.
Remember when Red wrote a wonderful blog regarding the schadenfreude we as Boston fans were feeling as we watched the entire LA Lakers organization implode? That was not even a fortnight (apparently we’re just using that now, shouts GOT) ago and already it seems that Red’s musing were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Below what doomed Jack Dawson to an icy grave lay even greater and more fundamentally devastating risks to Lakers basketball mortality.
That’s saying something. I mean Red already touched on the fact that Pelinka was a tumor in that organization. Jeanie Buss is listening to everyone and everything except logic and basketball sense. Add that to the fact that it seems like NBA players have woken up to the fact that playing for noted top-5 global narcissist Lebron James maybe isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and man, things were already pretty bad.
Now out comes these stories where Pelinka seems like not just a piece of shit, but an absolute lunatic. First you have all the stories of Pelinka quoting the Bible in reference to players like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Just sort of out there references better fit for a WWE ring than the NBA. Now you have this story about Pelinka arranging for Kobe to have dinner with Heather Ledger after he was so enamored with Ledger’s performance in “The Dark Knight.” The only problem is the only time Kobe was in New York after the movie came out was a full year after Ledger died. So that would have been tough to say the least.
To recap, the Lakers are owned and operated by an increasingly isolated owner getting bad advice from possibly worse advisors. Their star player is an egomaniac who doesn’t seem to have the clout or magnetism in the league he once did to get players to come play with him, and the other guy involved is a snakelike pathological liar who quotes the Bible in reference to point guards. Got it.
Red already said the Lakers were a dumpster fire. That fire has now spread.
Yahoo – In 2004, the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Chargers made a trade that would forever change the course of both franchises. Moments after the Chargers selected Eli Manning with the first pick in the NFL draft, the team traded him to the Giants for Philip Rivers…
“[The trade] was the most satisfying moment for me in my career and I really mean that. I would say that if I was ever fortunate to win a Super Bowl, I’m sure it would’ve trumped that, but I don’t know that. I gotta tell you there was a lot of highs and lows in the business, but that moment was the greatest high for me as an executive for an organization.”
As Smith explains, the deal netted the Chargers with enough draft picks to select Shawne Merriman and kicker Nate Kaeding. Both guys played big roles in the team’s success from 2004 to 2009. More importantly, though, Smith was happy he took some of the power away from Manning and his agent, Tom Condon.
“When I heard emphatically from Tom Condon and Archie Manning ‘don’t take us,’ that hit me — call me a traditionalist — it hit me the wrong way,” Smith said. “I decided I was not going to play this game with them and I flipped it, in my view, to an unknown where they didn’t know what I’m going to do or how this is going to unfold — they really didn’t.”
I hated the Chargers growing up. Hated them. Shawne Merriman was an arrogant dickhead who could dish it but couldn’t take it when the Pats did his Lights Out dance in San Diego after an upset. LaDanian Tomlinson was the greatest runningback I’ve ever seen, but all he did was complain about how “classy” the Patriots were. All while sitting on the sidelines in his Darth Vader outfit while Philip Rivers played on a torn ACL. So aside from the Peyton Manning Colts and the Rex Ryan Jets the mid 2000s Chargers were my most hated football team.
BUT, I now LOVE AJ Smith. The architect of one of the most hated teams of my youth is an A+ grudge holder and I have to respect the spite. Oh whats that Eli, you don’t want me to draft you No. 1 overall in the NFL? In fact you won’t even play for my team if I do draft you? Well fuck you because now I’m doing it.
AJ Smith wasn’t going to let some rich kid and the Manning Mafia tell him how to do his job. I bet he would have ate the draft pick and let Manning sit the year out if he didn’t get the trade offer he wanted. Just spite that whole family because you ain’t John Elway, kid.
Now obviously this trade was the rare trade that worked out swimmingly for both sides. The Chargers got Philip Rivers and a boatload of picks that turned into franchise cornerstones and the Giants got Eli and 2 Super Bowls (kill me) out of it. Big Z made the point that the Giants might actually have won more Super Bowls with Rivers under center because aside from two month long hot streaks by Eli Manning, Rivers is clearly the better player. Rivers has a better career Completion %, more TDs, 60+ less INTs, and a better QB Rating.
I’d still rather have two SB rings, but I respect the shit out of AJ Smith for deriving so much pleasure out of something so small. An early candidate for The 300s 2019 Hater of the Year.
I remember seeing this idea a few years back when Jaromir Jagr was playing for the Bruins en route to finishing his NHL career having played for 9 teams over 24 years.
Well I would say we’ve officially reached that point with Ryan Fitzpatrick. Everyone’s favorite gigantic bearded, wedding ring wearing, smart as hell, bridge quarterback will join his 8th NFL team in Miami this season. It also will mark him playing for 3/4ths of the AFC East. So who knows, maybe if he kicks around for a couple of more years he could complete the rounds and be a veteran backup QB to the next great Patriots signal caller? We can only hope.
So if 7 of my other friends want to create the greatest Halloween costume of the season, the Ryan Fitzpatrick group costume is the way to go boys.
The C’s finished off their tour of Cali with a dud against a red hot Clippers team after an otherwise successful trip. I said after that Warriors game that if they could rattle off 5-6 wins, I’d be pacified. Well that didn’t happen, but I do have more confidence in this team thanks to the way they performed throughout the trip. This team is going to have issues throughout the rest of the season, and unless they sweep through the rest of the season, I’m always going to have doubts about their chances at winning a title. After all, before all the mayhem that this season has brought, I was convinced this team was going to win it all this year. However, I saw enough on this trip to think that this team is still capable of a title run, despite what all the doubters may say.
Did they beat an undermanned Warriors team? Yes. Did the defense take an early flight home from LA and forget they still had to play the Clippers? Absolutely. But here’s what I saw outside of that Clippers game. I saw a team that was finally playing together, with key guys stepping up when starters were out. Against the Kings, everyone stepped up down the stretch and fought hard in Kyrie’s absence. People were hustling, diving for balls, making the extra pass, and playing four quarters of basketball. The energy was there.
I understand the middle two games we won weren’t against great teams. The Lakers have been devastated by injuries and an awful GM, but if LeBron is on the court you can’t mail it in. We all know he’s good enough to win games on his own. The Kings would be competing for the 5 seed right now if they were in the East, and have one of the best young backcourts in basketball (De’Aaron Fox is fast as fuck; I didn’t realize just how fast until watching this game). But the Celtics seemed to gain a little swagger back, and it seems like the guys are finally starting to come around on each other. Gordon Hayward seemed to find his shot again. There was a lot to feel positive about. At even with the stinker last night, 3-1 is pretty good. Seriously, who actually thought we’d go 4-0 on this trip? If I remember correctly, we’d only be the fourth team in history to go sweep a California road trip 4-0.
That having been said, we need to figure out what’s going on with this defense. There are games where they look great, and then there are games where nobody rotates, everyone looks slow, and people like Lou Williams (all 32 years and 6’1″ of him) get to the hoop with ease. That kind of shit can’t happen when you’re playing the Sixers, Bucks or any of the other top teams in the league. We’d play well enough offensively, but 140 points? Ouch. The Celtics somehow rank 5th in the league in Defensive Rating on the season, but over the past 15 games they’re down to a mediocre 16th.
“For me, I think because of how fixated I was on trying to prove other people wrong, I got into a lot of habits that were bad, like reading stuff and reacting emotionally. That’s just not who I am.” – Kyrie Irving
As a fan, this interview with Yahoo Sports was just as important as a winning record on the road trip. Don’t get me wrong, the W’s are great, but Kyrie holding himself accountable is a major step forward to giving me faith in the Celtics as a team. Hopefully the younger guys feel the same way. It’s not easy being Kyrie, and this is exactly the response I wanted after my initial post. Now it’s time for the media to do their part and cut him a little more slack and not take his words out of context (I’m still salty about that “can’t wait to be done with this” nonsense). As Al Horford said in reference to Kyrie and the team bonding on the plane ride:
“He’s the one who got that ball rolling…We spent a good amount of time together, we talked, we laughed, stuff like that. It just happened to be extended. As opposed to an hour or two hours, almost seven hours. You’d think we’d get sick of each other but, actually, it made the plane ride go quicker. We were just hanging out and talking.”
There’s only 14 games left. Time for the final push. Let’s go Green!
As any NBA fan knows, first ballot HOFer in waiting Dirk Nowitzki is playing what is almost definitely his final season. The guy has been one of the greatest scorers in NBA history with an absolutely unstoppable patented fadeaway:
Dirk’s legacy is something my good friend Mark Cuban and I talked about at length when we ran into each other my first time in Vegas.
While Dirk hasn’t officially announced his retirement, most fans expect this to be his last go round. So last night with time winding down in a game between the Mavs and the Clippers, Doc Rivers literally called a timeout, grabbed the PA mic, and told Clippers fans to get up and give Dirk a standing ovation.
Doc Rivers called timeout with 9 secs left, grabbed the mic, and told fans to give an ovation to Dirk. Classy 🙌. (via @dallasmavs) pic.twitter.com/KwmlwufY2T
Reminds of the old days when even Kobe Bryant was wildly cheered in his final games in Boston. Kobe was the first athlete I went from hating to begrudgingly respecting to flat out liking. The same became true of A-Rod years later. So even if we hate your ass, Boston is still the greatest sports city in the world.
“For me, I think because of how fixated I was on trying to prove other people wrong, I got into a lot of habits that were bad, like reading stuff and reacting emotionally. That’s just not who I am.” – Kyrie Irving
The 300s 