Let me begin today with some notes taken during yesterday’s orgy of college basketball on four different networks. These are personal observations and questions and nothing more than that.
- Louisville loves to run up and down the court but hates to play defense.
- This SIU-Edwardsville/Houston game is in the books with 12:00 to play in the first half. Not worth watching any more of this. Cougars’ defense is smothering.
- Does the Alabama St. team even practice boxing out for rebounds?
- McNeese St. almost squandered a 20-point lead in the final 8 minutes because they don’t seem to know how to play from ahead.
- People who go to Yale and who are associated with Yale are presumed to be intelligent. So, why did Yale try to run and gun against Texas A&M’s better athletes?
- Arkansas/Kansas might be the best game of the day. [Aside: After the last game ended, this was indeed the best game of the day.]
- Drake showed how to play against a team that is bigger and more athletic – – and win the game.
- Gonzaga has a 20-point lead on Georgia and knows how to play from ahead. Zags will win going away. [Aside: Final score is Gonzaga 89 Georgia 68.]
- St. John’s plays exactly the way Rick Pitino’s old Louisville teams used to play. Not much of a surprise there.
And here are some notes on some ads shown during the games:
- Geico brought back the little pig who cried wee-wee-wee all the way home. That is not another “giant step for humanity”.
- AT&T sidelined “Lily” to give us “Blake and Joe”. Give me “Lily”.
- Capital One ads with Charles Barkley and Samuel L. Jackson are back with the additions of “Capital One Guy” and Jennifer Garner. Best ads of the day.
Moving on … Yesterday, there were reports that the Boston Celtics were sold for $6.1B. I have read that report in a half-dozen places and I still have to go back and look at that number to be sure I have not produced a typographical error. That price is higher than the one that the Washington Commanders commanded about a year ago – – and the Commanders are an NFL franchise not an NBA franchise. I am stunned. The previous high-water mark for an NBA franchise was the Brooklyn Nets for $3.3B back in 2018.
Moreover, the sale price does not include the TD Garden – – nee the Boston Garden – – because that facility is owned by the Boston Bruins. So, technically, this $6.1B acquisition is a renter and not a landlord. Wow.
The sellers here made a tidy profit on the deal. The Grousbeck family bought the Celtics in 2002 for what is today chump change; they paid $360M for the team. The sale yesterday did not quite bring back a twenty-fold increase – – but it was close. If standard capital gains taxes apply here – – and I will not be surprised to learn that they do not – – then the tax on the gain here would amount to $1.148B. Twenty years ago, that tax amount would have purchased a franchise in either the NFL, MLB or the NBA. Time marches on.
This transaction will have a ripple effect. Naturally, it sets a negotiating starting point for any other NBA franchise that goes up for sale in the near future. But it also has a more immediate beneficial effect for current NBA owners. The league is going to expand one of these days – – probably adding 2 new teams. Up until yesterday, the league could only point to the sale of the Nets as a way to evaluate what a current franchise might be worth; now they have the precedent of a $6.1B arms-length transaction to use as the asking price for an expansion franchise.
I am not going to pretend to be an economic guru or anything of the sort, but is it possible that sports franchises are in a state related to an “economic bubble” however one defines that state? Just asking…
Finally, let me close with this statement from comedian Steve Martin:
“I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
I watched a lot of college basketball this year. Louisville and Clemson (for a bit over half the game) looked as if they didn’t actually care for being there. If either team had played with anything resembling the passion of Alabama State they would have won with ease.
Doug:
Clemson got their comeuppance in the tournament this year. Scoring only 13 points in the first half of their game against McNeese was criminal.