Undrafted Free Agent

Check out the full A-Rod Chronicles here! undrafted.substack.com/p/the-a-rod-ch…

@KnechtWrld @MatthewSitman Was it “terrible”? IIRC, it was about the only line of attack that really stuck to Obama in 08

@MatthewSitman was right but was still a terrible political ad

The McCain campaign's "celebrity" ad in the summer of 2008 was onto something...

Dangerously close to understanding one of the fundamental issues with capitalism

LeBron is clearly having fun here, but it’s nice to see him push back on this lie about him being a billionaire… undrafted.substack.com/p/on-billionai…

@adamjohnsonCHI Cuomo was checked out in a way that felt contemptuous and insulting, but honestly Mills felt relatable. Almost bordering on absenteeism, and I stand in solidarity…

i didn't think it was possible for a candidate to be more checked out than Andrew Cuomo. I was wrong, levels of checked out not seen since the dad from Home Alone

@wayofthek @RobSilver You actually do not “Have to” do that. In fact, many star players get away with breaking the rules All the time!

@UndraftedJ @RobSilver You have to discipline the player for betting on sport he actively plays in. There is no way around it. This is a solution that allowed that to happen while the league saving face.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist but nobody will ever convince me that Jordan played minor league baseball for any reason other than he got caught betting on basketball- a lot.

@wayofthek @francis2408 @RobSilver His dad was murdered

@UndraftedJ @francis2408 @RobSilver Yeah and MJ really wanted to retire from basketball to play minor league baseball. Nothing to see there!

@wayofthek @RobSilver No, in your analogy it would be like the MLB issuing a bunch of fake steroid suspensions by having Sammy Sosa go play hockey for a year

@UndraftedJ @RobSilver It’s the same reason why MLB turned a blind eye to steroids in the 90s after the strike. The league wanted eyeballs on the league and the home run chase was what the league needed to win fans back.

@francis2408 @wayofthek @RobSilver Yeah, this conspiracy theory is so insane because it posits that David Stern took such a strong anti-gambling stance that he was willing to suspend Michael Jordan at the peak of his popularity and success BUT was unwilling to tell anyone about it AND that MJ just rolled with it

@wayofthek @UndraftedJ @RobSilver Stern ain't suspending his cash cow.

@wayofthek @RobSilver Yes, but if they were too scared to actually ANNOUNCE the suspension, then they would just not suspend him at all. Coming up with an insane cover story about a retirement + a new baseball career makes absolutely no sense at all.

@UndraftedJ @RobSilver Because you cannot gamble on games you played in or in the league you play for. That has always been against the rules.

@wayofthek @RobSilver So then why suspend him at all?

@UndraftedJ @RobSilver The league was a financial disaster in the early 80s & most teams started to become profitable by the end of the decade. Having your best player betting on games & naming that as the reason why he is suspended would have put a nail in the coffin for the league.

They all really care about women’s sports, you see

@brescia_frank Ok but at least platoon them so he can stay healthy for this postseason…

@UndraftedJ Bernie is a seasoned Marxist veteran. True, he may have lost a step or two, but his throwing arm is one of the best. ⚾️

Seems crazy to have AOC at DH. At Bernie’s age, he should not be playing the field anyway

@DKThomp Well, yeah, but the fact that the best team basically never finishes below the 5th seed (and honestly rarely outside the top 2) is evidence that the regular season “matters” insofar that it strongly predicts the playoffs in a way that the preseason never does

My point about the value of seeding is not that "this year's 8th seed could win the championship." I'm saying "If the Thunder, Spurs, and Nuggets entered the playoffs as the 8th, 7th, and 6th seeds, everybody would still pick one of them to make the conference finals" x.com/LiorKozai/stat…

I think one way to get at the NBA's problem is to start w the question: What would it look like for a professional sport's regular season to be the equivalent of a pre-season exhibition period—that is, something that genuinely, truly does not matter at all? 1. For starters, seeding wouldn't matter ... bc home court advantage would barely exist, in which case the best teams could win the championship as an 8th seed just as easily as they could win as the 1st seed. 2. The playoff series would be long enough that (a) the best teams had ample opportunity to prove their superiority [unlike in March Madness, or the NFL playoffs, where 20 bad minutes can end the best team's season] and (b) you're giving casual fans a LOT of basketball to watch so they don't feel bad about skipping most of the regular season. 3. Also, you'd let the vast majority of the teams make the playoffs -- maybe by adding a "play-in" that extends potential playoff qualification to, like, 2/3rds of the league. 4. You'd have several teams that recognize (and practically celebrate!) the futility of the regular season by spending much of this period *actively and flagrantly trying to lose* bc the draft is so much more valuable than the outcome of any particular week, or month, of regular-season competition. In fact, you'd have fans actively rooting for about 1/3rd of the league to throw away most of the regular season bc they only really care about getting a high draft pick. 5. Finally, you'd have a sport where it was basically impossible to win a championship without a top 10 (or, really, top 5!?) player, in which case many franchises are rationally fixated on throwing away regular seasons to maximize their chance to draft or trade for a top 10 guy. ... okay, I think you get my point :) I love listening to basketball podcasts in the autumn and winter, and I love watching playoff basketball in the spring. But I think there are very deep structural reasons why the NBA regular season, for many casual fans, feels like a prolonged preview of an actual sport that begins in April.

@BMcCarthy32 Kind of seems like everyone’s answer of just whichever sport they follow most closely, because it allows them to see the gaps most clearly

This is like War Games. The only way to win, is not to play. The answer is all sports. The gap is so incredibly large in all of them. Spend time in different sports and you see the same exact dynamics.

Wait, does Doc Rivers think his resume is GOOD??

I still can’t believe me & @stantonispookie ran into AOC today

Comrade Jay Bilas, come on Citations

@BWDBWDBWD It will always be hilarious that the move that triggered the famous "Evil Empire" comment was... the signing of Jose Contreras

This cover is an amazing relic. I suspect two of these guys are among the most hated players in Yankees history.