Here is our regular look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT) — done in bullet point form. Because bloggers love bullet points more than we love reheated pizza for breakfast...
Did Nate Wolters Have A Turnover Last Night? pic.twitter.com/UTanVRRCIG
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) November 13, 2013
• If you read one thing today, it should be Howard Beck’s interview at Bleacher Report with Dr. J about his very honest, forthcoming new autobiography.
• The NBA and its players union have donated $250,000 toward UNICEF’s relief efforts in the Philippines, helping people whose lives were turned upside down by Typhoon Haiyan.
• The Phoenix Suns couldn’t reach a deal on a contract extension for Eric Bledsoe, which means next summer the market gets to set his price (the Suns have the right to match). With is fast start this season, Bledsoe is earning himself a lot of money. A lot.
• The NBA is in negotiations with the Silna family to end it getting a share of NBA television revenues. If you don’t know the story, the Silna brothers owned the Spirit of St. Louis ABA team and agreed to fold their squad when the NBA and ABA merged, but they wanted a small share of the NBA’s national broadcast revenue (1/7th of the money from the four ABA teams headed to the NBA). At the time in 1976 that was nothing at all and so they got it in perpetuity. Since then sports broadcast rights in general and the NBA in particular have skyrocketed. This result is an estimated $300 million paid to the family in the last three plus decades, including $19 million last season. And a judge now said that Internet revenue should count in that stream. So the league has motivation to settle the deal, but why would the Silna family?
• Here are pictures of Michael Jordan playing beer pong.
• Martell Webster is serious about his sleep.
• I’m going to miss hoopdata, it was a fantastic site. Joe Treutlein and everyone involved really broke ground.
• Indiana State University unveiled a Larry Bird Statue. My only question is why did it take so long?
• Jamal Crawford now has an endorsement deal with BrandBlack.
• NBA television ratings for the first week of this season in games broadcast on national cable networks was up 8% compared to the same time period last year.
• Houston sent Isaiah Canaan to the D-League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
• Finally, not even the guy with the mop can escape the wrath of Joey Crawford.