I’m in Las Vegas and from 6-7pm ET, I’ll be doing a live chat over at FanHouse. Fire away with any questions …
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Things have been slow around these parts (well, on the front page at least — the comments have been raging forward at full strength) the last few days, and that will likely continue another 24 hours or so. I moved this past weekend, and between navigating mountains of boxes and not having a reliable internet connection, it is what it is. Come draft night, though, things should be back to normal.
As mentioned earlier this week, I was part of a panel of Detroit sports bloggers on WDET’s Detroit Today Wednesday morning with host Craig Fahle along with Billfer of The Detroit Tigers Weblog, Big Al from the Wayne Fontes Experience and Matt Slaer from the On the Wings. I think it went well, and I appreciate the opportunity. In case you missed it, here’s the clip:
The last topic we discussed was the “should bloggers have access?” question. I didn’t have time to delve into my situation of having one foot in, one foot out in terms of access this year (ie, credentialed for other outlets but not for DBB), but that’s probably a good thing — I’m a better writer than speaker, and it’s a topic that deserves a thoughtful explanation (which unfortunately I don’t have the time to offer right now).
(Speaking of access, I was at the Palace on Tuesday for FanHouse. These are already a day old, but in case you missed them, here’s my post on the game, as well as Mo Cheeks’ role as a teacher and Flip Saunders on why young teams can be so dangerous.)
Update: The panel has been bumped to tomorrow at 10am. I feel like Matt Damon.
I’ve been invited to appear on a panel of Detroit sports bloggers on WDET’s Detroit Today program on Tuesday morning. It should be a lot of fun, especially given the company I’ll be sharing — host Craig Fahle will be moderating, and Billfer from the Detroit Tigers Weblog, Big Al from the Wayne Fontes Experience and Side Lion Report and Bruce McLeod from Red Wings Corner and the Macomb Daily are also scheduled to appear.
If you’d like to tune in, I’m told we’ll kick things off at 11am, so set your dial to 101.9 FM or listen to the online stream. I’ll also try to post an mp3 of the show later.
I’m guessing most of you have long-since tuned out that big, shiny Blogfest graphic to the right, but if you look at it again you’ll see that there’s a new time listed: the NBA has bumped up the 4/13 game between the Pistons and Raptors to 1pm so that ABC could televise it as the first half of a doubleheader.
So if you already bought your Blogfest tickets, take note of the new time. If you haven’t yet bought tickets, rejoice in the fact that the earlier time means it’ll be that much easier to come from out of town and still have time to drive/fly home and get a good night’s rest for work on Monday. The original deadline to buy tickets was 3/28, but you can still get your orders in (PDF) if you get your order in soon.
Remember the deal: a $35 ticket for just $30 plus a free hat, not to mention the chance to rub elbows with me and Natalie. (What, that’s not convincing? Um, did I mention the free hat?)
I’m giving away two tickets to see the Pistons and Nuggets this coming Tuesday, March 18. Not just any two tickets, but two tickets to watch the game in a suite with me and several other Detroit Bad Boys commenters complete with a pre-game tour that will get you so close to the floor you’ll be looking for the extra zeros on your paycheck — all courtesy of the fine folks at Pistons.com.
I debated with how to give the tickets away since the internet has essentially made even the most obscure trivia questions solvable, but that’s what I’m doing. You’ll have to dig a little for the answers, but if you get them, email them to matt detroitbadboys by 2:30 pm Wednesday (3/12) (contest over!), at which point I’ll randomly draw one name out of all of the correct entries. Make sense?
Here goes:
- Amir Johnson was drafted 56th overall in 2005. How many other players have the Pistons drafted 56th overall, what were their names and where did they go to school?
- When was the last time the Nuggets beat the Pistons at the Palace, and who led the Nuggets in scoring?
- The Pistons and Nuggets were involved in the NBA’s highest scoring game on December 13, 1983 when the Pistons won in Denver, 186-184. When did the lowest scoring game between these two teams take place, what was the final score and who led the Pistons in scoring?
I know, I know, too easy, right? If you know the answers, please don’t reveal them in the comments, since that’ll make it that much more difficult for everyone to win. And thanks again to the Pistons organization for making this all happen.
Update:
Wow, this was harder than I thought. I’m going to go answer the questions in reverse order:
3. On November 16 2002, the Pistons beat the Nuggets 74-53 behind a team-high 19 points from Cliff Robinson. Incidentally, the 74 points scored by Detroit were the fewest they’ve ever scored against Denver, and they’ve never held Denver to fewer than 53 points.
2. This one tripped up a lot of people. The most popular answer was March 19, 1995 when the Pistons lost 99-88, with Jalen Rose scoring 20 for Denver. However, the last time the Pistons actually lost to the Nuggets at the Palace was in the preseason last year: October 22, 2006 when the Nuggets won 124-105 behind 19 points from Kenyon Martin.
1. The question about the draft was tricky, and it’s my fault because I didn’t account for how screwy the NBA did things back then with territorial picks, etc. So with that in mind, I would have accepted any two of the following:
1962, John Bradley out of Lawrence Tech
1964, Jerry Jackson out of Ohio
1968, Carl Fuller out of Bethune-Cookman
So the winner is … Matt Parks. Congrats! And thanks to everyone who entered, as well as the Pistons for offering up the prize in the first place.
For the second year in a row, readers, writers and lurkers of Need4Sheed and Detroit Bad Boys will be getting together at the Palace to take in a game.
Last year we witnessed the sinking ship that was the reigning champion Miami Heat. This year, we’ll be watching the up-and-coming Toronto Raptors, led by the red-hot Carlos Delfino (oh, and some guy named Chris Bosh). So mark your calendars: 6pm 1pm on Sunday, April 13. (Note the new time! The NBA bumped up the game so that it could be the first half of a nationally televised doubleheader.)
Last year was a lot of fun, but logistics got in the way — we didn’t announce it until after the game was already sold out, which predictably limited the turnout. But this year is different: not only do you have a month and a half warning, but the Pistons stepped up to the plate by not only setting aside a block of tickets so we can all sit together but also tossing in some free swag.
For $30 a ticket, you’ll get a good seat, a free hat and a chance to mingle and exchange awkward high-fives with internet friends. Just download this PDF, fax or mail it in and you’ll be good to go.
I hope to see a lot of you guys out there — it should be a good game, and it’ll be cool to put faces to names. You guys are the reason this site exists, so it’s about time we finally met, eh?
Update: If you’re on Facebook, you can confirm you’re coming on this event page.
For all the attention Amir Johnson gets on this site, he’s long overdue for his own t-shirt. Just like the rest of the DBB shirts, when you wear this in public you’ll get a knowing nod of approval from Pistons fans and a confused stare from everybody else.
Fortunately, DBB reader Sauce1977 put the wheels in motion earlier this week by creating a rockin’ animated .gif, which was then adapted (with his blessing) into the final design for the shirt (which, as usual, comes in an assortment of styles and sizes). This one is a little more expensive than the rest of the shirts in the DBB store, but that’s because I opted for a different printing method that should produce a graphic that won’t ever fade.
Also, I liked the clean look of the logo so much that I opted not to brand it with this site’s URL, so that means when you see another fan lusting after it, it’s up to you to tell them where you got it. Chances are he’ll be so grateful that he’ll buy you a beer, so it’s really win-win. So go buy one.
So yeah, DBB looks a little funny right now, huh? I had to upgrade some things, and of course, upgrading rarely goes without a few hiccups. Hopefully things will be back to normal by morning, though.
Update: No such luck, though it’s getting there.
2nd Update: It’s close enough for now.
I’m going with the latter — what about you? I’ll be taking off soon for tonight’s game between the Cavs and Pistons at the Palace. As usual, check out HOOPSWORLD for my pre-game, halftime and post-game reports.
Random display of self-awareness: I’ve been linking to those HW game blogs for a while, but in case you haven’t checked them out, please do. You probably noticed I’m not doing quite as many game recap-ish posts on DBB this year, but that’s mostly because when I’m at the games for HOOPSWORLD, I’m writing about it on their site.
The link I posted above features nothing but a preview now, but in time it’ll also have another pre-game post just before tip-off, halftime observations and my post-game reports. So check it out now and reload throughout the night. All told, I usually end up writing somewhere around 1,200-1,500 words about the game for HW. It’s as much or more than I ever wrote before, but now I’m actually in the room getting quotes directly from the players and coaches instead of second-hand from one of the beat reporters (whom I respect more than ever, by the way — the jobs they do despite a looming deadline is actually quite impressive when you see it in action.)
As such, if you ever have questions about the game that you want me to ask one of the players, leave a comment on the HOOPSWORLD game post and I’ll see what I can do. I wish there was a way I could better integrate/highlight my experiences with HW on DBB, but right now that’s not possible, so frequent links will have to do.
Okay, enough of that, back to regular business: feel free to discuss the game, the good ol’ days when you read my content on DBB and DBB alone, how funny it is that Varejao thinks he’s worth $9 million a year, etc in the comments.
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