basketball

basketball / bluesky / photo / Rowan / Tuesday — Comments Off on The Good Time Blimp
23
Sep 25

The Good Time Blimp

It was a long day and a long night on campus. About 10 hours, in total, I think. I had two classes, of course. We talked about sports stories in the criticism class, of course. And in org comm we discussed branding, of course, which we’ll do for another two days, of course. When classes were over it was back to the office, where I did some work. And then we went over to one of the auditoriums for … well, you can see for yourself.

We were sitting some distance away, but in reserved VIP seats. Very Important Professors. The good seats went to our students, as it should be. Charles Barkley hasn’t played in the NBA in their lifetimes, but he’s still a hugely important sports figure locally, and nationally. Being on Inside the NBA doesn’t hurt that, nor does his huge personality.

The guy up there with him is one of of our faculty members, and an institution in local sports media. They go way back, and from time to time Barkley comes to share his wisdom and good humor. He was very generous with his time tonight. They started taking questions from two microphones on either side of the stage, this went on for a good long while, with young people nervously reading their questions from their phones for some reason. There was still no way that they were going to answer all of the questions, almost all of which is stuff Barkley probably fields a dozen times a week, but still, some of them were good, and the man has a way of making everyone feel welcome around him. As the time was drawing late, they said, we’ll just take one more, and Charles said, no no, how about we take three more questions from each side of the room, and that was another 20 or 25 minutes.

After that, there was the after-party, where you feel a bit like a hanger-on between the tables and the gladhanders and the oddly lit photo room and bar, and the more-than-reasonable food spread. Charles Barkley stood there and took pictures with everyone who wanted one. It’s not work, and he knows it, but they love him and he knows that, too. So it is work, and he’s gracious about it all. Tomorrow, he said, he has to fly to Atlanta to finally find out what his broadcast schedule will be for the upcoming season.

Anyway, I wrote some notes from his talk.

Sir Charles!

[image or embed]

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:15 PM

Says Inside the NBA will be different on the new platform, “for sure.”

Talks about post-game to studio pitches.

(The new format seems like a very in progress effort to Charles Barkley.)

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:17 PM

Says probably 200 Inside the NBA crew made the job. Keeping jobs in TV is a huge win.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:19 PM

Charles is bringing a blue collar work ethic to load management-oriented players.

He has thoughts on where the games will be aired and streamed, how fans are being left to figure that out.

He’s taking an adamant pro-fan stance,and is critical of these early days on the new platform, schedule-wise.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:23 PM

We’ve spent a lot, A LOT, of time on the showering-in-my-jersey story. One of the longtime Sixers guys is here and he confirmed the story.

So that’s settled.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:39 PM

He’s taking student questions. The first is about pushing through hard times.

“You have to make sure you just keep grinding. It ain’t good all the time, but it ain’t bad all the time … it’s always going to get better.”

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:46 PM

After a Shaq story he repeats the best advice he’s received.

You can’t make everyone happy. Says you’d go crazy trying.

And then cites a lesson he learned from football coach Herm Edwards: my last name is not my name; it’s my family’s name.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:55 PM

Can we get a Michael Jordan story?

{long pause}

“Michael Jordan’s nuts.”

Tells a 36-holes-of-golf story during the Dream Team run. MJ says he was covering the point guard.

Says he was sticking on him like it’s Game 7, screaming at the PG.

“He is going to win at all cost, no matter what.”

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:55 PM

A player asks for some on-court advice.

“Rebounding. Rebounding got me to college and the NBA.”

The coach is here, and the coach approved of that answer.

“People ask me what’s important — or offense or defense? I say, ‘Probably the ball.’”

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:00 PM

Talking about team chemistry. Says maybe five of his teams had great chemistry, because there are many agendas.

“Getting chemistry on a team is really hard. Same thing in the studio … we have to work with each other. It’s the same way on a team.”

Quotes Pat Riley: voluntary cooperation.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:04 PM

Gets asked if franchise segments from the old show will be on the new version.

He doesn’t know yet. (Production meetings are forthcoming, which is a good thing considering the season is rapidly approaching.)

Said they found about the fate of the show while golfing with some of the crew.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:08 PM

Charles talks about teachers, which is one of his favorite subjects. And he’s now naming his grade school teachers.

It’s a pretty special thing to be remember all those years later, I’d bet.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:11 PM

He does a riff about college, opportunity, cost and how we limit some people by design. I’d honestly rather get more of that than the next question about some famous funny bit from a chat he had on Inside the NBA. Where would you rather be?

(Yes, he drags Galveston. And then picks San Antonio.)

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:17 PM

“I love sports because sports has given me every single thing I have in my life.”

He lists his bucket list, sitting on the green monster, football at Notre Dame, Michigan … tells a story about playing two days of golf at Augusta National.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:24 PM

He gets asked about players being able to speak their minds — team and league policies, etc.

Charles: “Free speech is not free … Players have to be smart … I just feel a sadness.” He goes in on political leaders.

“I believe we’ve got more good people than bad people. They’re just louder.”

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:29 PM

Says Kevin McHale is the best player he played against.

Fanbases: “Philly, New York and Boston, they’re different. When they talk about your mama, they mean it.”

“I think east coast fans are most intense.”

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM

At the after-party, surrounded by brilliant scholars and talented educators, I talked volleyball and ChatGPT with our new dean. It felt just as natural as you’d imagine.

basketball / Friday / IU — Comments Off on Shooty hoops, and the last day before vacation
11
Mar 22

Shooty hoops, and the last day before vacation

There was a game in the daytime. And people took time to watch it. There were 10 tall men running around on a glossy wooden floor. Five guys wore red and the other five wore white. There was this big orange ball and none of the guys wanted it, no matter what color they were wearing. They would throw the ball back and forth and back and forth until, eventually, one of them would put the ball in this big orange hoop. That made a guy in the opposite uniform take the ball and he’d bounce the ball back the other way, and he’d pass it to his friends, but his friends didn’t want the ball. And, really, they were all just too polite to say much about it. So they’d just look for a way to put it in that big orange hoop.

And at the end of it all, the guys wearing red were happier than the guys wearing white.

And what it was was basketball. And when Indiana won that meant they would advance to the finals in the Big Ten conference tournament and, presumably, clinch their bid to March Madness.

No meetings were canceled in the making of that game.

I did have two meetings today, though. That took up a quarter of the day. And the rest of the day was spent thinking of sun and sand and shade and being in the water. Which is where I’ll be until this time next week.

basketball / IU / television / Thursday / Twitter / video — Comments Off on There was basketball
10
Mar 22

There was basketball

I had a meeting canceled today because the people in the meeting wanted to watch the basketball game. And yet I still somehow had that meeting? Not sure how that happened.

At least they saw a good one?

If that’s not for you, maybe this is. Ernest Shackleton’s lost ship, Endurance, has been found after 107 years. This 4k footage shows the preserved vessel almost 10,000 feet below the surface. Shackleton was on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, when his ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed. The crew escaped, camped on the ice, watching their vessel and their means of survival destroyed before them. And then the ice beneath them started to crumble. As it disintegrated, they launched lifeboats, and endured (see what I did there?) a miserable 720 mile, stormy journey to escape. And now, 107 years later.

Also, just last month, the British Film Institute (BFI) released restored footage of that expedition, including when the ship’s mast collapsed. Shackleton was adamant the film be saved, and it’s now a key part of early 20th century Antarctic exploration history.

Isn’t that something?

Here’s something else. More sports! These are the shows the sports gang produced last night. First up, let’s talk-talk-talk about basketball.

And you can also get the highlights and look ahead to all of the other sports in full swing around here.

And here’s still more sports talk, but this time with a broader range of subjects.

And now I have to go do laundry tonight, so I can pack tomorrow.

basketball / IU / photo / television / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on Counting days
9
Mar 22

Counting days

I went to a meeting at 9:30 this morning. I left work just after 8 p.m. In between I had to start writing things for next week, set up a meeting, opened a studio for another project, answered every email and probably some that weren’t sent. So a perfectly average 10-and-a-half-hour day.

Spring break next week will be fun. I am looking forward to taking a few days off, to be sure.

But we have to get through a few more days, first. And the studio wrapped up the day. It was sports, tonight.

And there was a lot of basketball. Both of IU’s teams are looking for a spot in March Madness. The women are a sure lock, as we learn from this panel talking about what’s to come.

The women are likely poised to make a deep run in the tournament. The men need to do a little work in their conference tournament to get a dance card. These next few days will be key for them. And those sports shows will be online tomorrow, or so, and I can share them with you then.

Tonight, though, you can check out the two shows the news division produced last night.

They brought in one of the nation’s foremost experts on Russia and Vladimir Putin for an in-studio interview. This is good stuff.

And the dance team is, like the rest of us, dancing toward spring break.

Two more days!

basketball / Friday / IU / photo / video — Comments Off on She shoots …
6
Jan 17

She shoots …

No, this was not spooky at all this morning:

coat rack

My office has the three coat hooks behind the door. I’m not sure why there are three. It is a small office — just me in here — and it surely won’t get three-coats-cold. But it has been plenty chilly the last few days. So gloves and a scarf came to work today, as did the heavy leather jacket. And so I used all the hooks. Didn’t want any of them to be left out, lest the mishape a coat, so I used them all and created an unholy beast.

But at least its a warm and inviting one.

Here’s something else a bit weird. In the microwave the cook sensor found something it didn’t like last night:

toes

Oh, sure, we made scissors jokes and Big Lebowski jokes and then this morning I noticed the other corner of the clock display. Clearly the magnetron inside knows something is wrong. You wonder if the cathode or the anode has the bigger problem with cooking toes.

(I had to read a bit about magnetrons to make a joke, so it seemed like there should be some internal conflict there.)

This morning, Allie is securing the perimeter from birds:

toes

The Yankee put a bird feeder right outside that window and it seems to be working for everyone. This is the morning routine now: push a hooman (me) off the bed, enjoy the heated blanket for an extra half hour after he gets up, set up camp guarding the library windows from the offensive birds.

Those birds are a morning problem. They don’t seem to be an issue later in the day.

She does a great job keeping the birds outside.

At work we got to tour the Cuban Center at Assembly Hall. There’s a giant green screen room and some high end broadcasting gear going in. They are building up facilities to run all of the video screens in the athletic facilities from there. The original scoreboards are on display outside of the newly renovated gym. Inside the actual court there are 28 cameras making the new FreeD technology. You’ve seen this, the cameras in certain venues where you can see a key play in the game from a revolving series of angles.

It takes two people to run, a pilot and a navigator, and right now there are 11 people in the world that know how to do this.

Eleven. That’s the legitimate number. And if you want to get into the technology, IU is the only place in the world to do it. Soon, major soccer leagues and Major League Baseball will have this technology in all of their stadiums. And it all started with a small Israeli company, recently purchased by Intel, and the Cuban Center here at IU.

Also, being Indiana, there’s basketball, of course:

By transitive properties The Yankee is now a five-time national champion.