Winner of 2012/2013 B.A.S.K.E.T.B.A.L.L. Awards

Besty Award - (Best Performance By An Individual Athlete) Stephen Curry Scoring 54 Pts. @ the Knicks 2/27/13 All-Star Event Award - (Best Event During All-Star Weekend) Sprite Slam Dunk Contest Say What? Award - (Didn’t See That Coming) San Antonio Spurs getting fined $250K for sitting top four players 11/30/12 King Award – (Player of The Year) LeBron James – Miami Heat Enliven Award – (Best Fan Group) Phoenix Suns – Club Orange Tandem Award – (Best 1-2 Punch) LeBron James & Dwyane Wade – Miami Heat Best Division Award – (Best Division in The League) Southwest (San Antonio, Memphis, Houston, Dallas & New Orleans) Amateur Award – (Rookie of The Year) Damian Lillard – Portland Trailblazers Line-Up Award – (Team of The Year) Miami Heat 66 Wins Landmark Award – (Milestone Event) Gregg Popovich - 2nd head coach to win 900 games with a single team

B.A.S.K.E.T.B.A.L.L. NBA Awards

Reflections

On March 19, 1966, Texas Western Miner’s defeated the University of Kentucky Wildcats in the NCAA men’s college basketball final in College Park, Maryland. The top-ranked University of Kentucky men’s basketball team was favored in the final over the third-ranked Miners. Kentucky’s coach and like many other coaches of the time, neither recruited nor played African-American players, using exclusively a white player line-up. Coach Don Haskins, which led the Texas Western team, on the other hand had inherited an integrated team and regularly played African-American blacks.

Until that moment, at the height of the civil-rights era, no major-college team had ever started five blacks in an NCAA championship game. In fact, until Texas Western coach Don Haskins did it earlier that season, no major-college team had ever started five blacks in ANY game. For the first time that night, on the edge of the Mason-Dixon Line, a major American sports championship would be contested by one team that was all white and another whose starters were entirely black.

In 1966, American cultural and sports mythology insisted at least one white starter was necessary for success. Black athletes, prevailing wisdom implied, needed the steadying hand of a white teammate. Otherwise, games would go into complete chaos. John W. Stewart wrote in the Baltimore Sun the weekend before the title game  ”`They can do everything with the basketball, but sign it.’” Referring to the myth of the undereducated black society.

Of Texas Western’s seven black players — the Miners also had four whites and a Hispanic, none of whom played that night – all total of the group – four graduated. The other three came within a semester of their degrees. Meanwhile, only four of Kentucky’s five starters, including star players Dampier and Riley, had not earned degrees. This was huge in proving that blacks and whites if given the chance can learn and do at the same levels.

Adolph Rupp and his all-white Kentucky program were not only the epitome of college basketball at the time, but were the ideal contradiction in the form of Haskins and Texas Western. It was as if history demanded that for change finally to occur, a great hero and a great villain must meet. Rupp and Haskins fit those roles perfectly. In the years immediately after Texas Western’s title, the integration of college sports took a great leap forward. Between 1966 and 1985, the average number of blacks on college teams jumped from 2.9 to 5.7. Showing that the times were finally changing.

Overpaid or Underappreicated?

Hello folks. As the NBA playoff season is about to kick off in the next few weeks and the teams that missed the playoffs go home to reflect on what could of been, I feel like I have some reflection of my own. I want to look back on a sporting moment of my own. In March of 2011 I attended a Portland TrailBlazer’s basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks and after the game I was blessed with the opportunity to go down to the court and do a little meet and greet with a former player and take a free throw shot. As I calmly sank a nothing but net shot, I thought about the ramifications of the shot and everything that goes with it. Players nowadays are getting huge contracts and endorsement deals all before they even set foot on a basketball court. Even if the player turns out to be either a bust or an injury-riddled player, the team invests tons of money into him. Does 15,000+ loud fans cheering or booing at you and your season on the line truly change the outcome of the shot. I do not think so. Either it goes in or it does not go in, simple as that. It is amazing to me the amount of money some players demand and actually receive. Too many years of inflated contracts led to 2011-2012 NBA lockout, and did it really fix the broken model of overpay, overpay, & overpay. I think not. The fans should be partially blamed for the problem as we keep putting money into our favorite teams and athletes who help out the owners bottom dollar in what can be paid out to the players. It is like a catch 22 scenario, as we love to watch and support our teams but with the economy still in the pits and just about every person hurting for money it hard to justify the money the athletes receive. I made that free throw shot just like the "superstars" do but my modest income will not be affected by it. Someday professionals that are actually underappreicated in the healthcare, law enforcement, government, and just about any other job will hopefully get the respect and income to match their hard work and dedication. In conclusion it is a simple Yes to professional athletes being overpaid. 

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Welcome. You have stumbled upon my little slice of sports heaven. My brand is kthompson2k11 sports and I plan on providing my followers with up to date sports news, insight with analysis and off the wall sports "taboo" pieces. Unlike some of those large blog sites that have their parent companies holding their hands and telling them what to say or not to say, I plan on giving the readers the real sports stories and as unbiased as possible. The theme of my sports blog is all things related to the Big Four of the sports world in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and seasonally talks about college football. My target audience is both the male and female demographic with ages ranging from 5 to 95 years old. Basically showing if you love sports it does not matter what your age or sex is, kthompson2k11 sports is here for them. Having easy Internet access to sports stories in this digital age, I feel that tackling stories outside the national sports scene would be the best use of my time. It seems like some of the real issues facing the sports leagues are continually brushed under the rug and ignored until a lockout or labor dispute rears it ugly head around. As technology is changing the ways we interact with the different sports, kthompson2k11 sports is connected with all of the social media outlets and updates can be seen from any of my sites as I have them all working together.

Peyton Manning going to San Francisco, Tennessee, or Miami?

San Francisco, Tennessee, and Miami. All three of those teams are a joke for Manning. 1st off San Fran is committed to Alex Smith so no go on that team. Tennessee? Seriously? They have too many holes to be able to compete for the Super Bowl let alone the playoffs in their division (Texans). Their best player Chris Johnson was up and down last year and who are their receivers again? And lastly Miami, too much turn over on this team year in and year out. This team has no solid long term foundation in place outside Chris Long and Brandon Marshall. Reggie Bush just had his first real healthy season outside his career injury status and part-time running back bloodlines, is he able to come back and compete at a high level for a second straight year, I doubt it. Besides the weather in Miami thats about it for Manning in Miami. The real choices are Seattle and Kansas City. Both of these teams are young and exciting TEAMS. Both of these teams have playmakers on both sides of the ball and with the presence of Manning both can easily win their weak divisions. Seattle has a solid defense with five pro-bowlers on it, and their good offense has the "beast" running back, young complete receivers and plenty of creative control within their system to allow Carroll to give full reigns to Manning. The Kansas City Chiefs on the flip side have established playmakers all over the offense side of the ball and retain an average to semi-good defense with the return of Berry. In recap Seattle and Kansas CIty should be Manning's final two teams to go to. Both have the cap room to bring in other pieces and are the most complete teams ready to take that next step towards the playoffs and the Super Bowl with they're missing piece really only being a quarterback of Manning's abilities. I give the edge to Seattle for three things-premier neck specialist already on the teams payroll, excellent stadium that gives Manning a chance to go 7-1 or 8-0 at home and the weather being better than Kansas City's (rain instead of freezing rain and snow) can be in December and January.

The Walt Disney Company

Kyle Thompson

Introduction to Management

Ms. Harkins

2/1/12

 The Walt Disney Company

     For this assignment I choose the Walt Disney Company http://corporate.disney.go.com/  The Walt Disney Company was founded back in 1923 by Walt and Roy Disney. Walt and Roy had a studio called Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. Walt and Roy established themselves as the leader in the American animation industry with their franchise mascot named Steamboat Willie aka later named Mickey Mouse. Over the years the Disney company expanded its market into live-action film production, television, radio, theatre, publishing, online media and later travel. Since 1986, the Walt Disney Company has created new divisions of the company in order to market more mature content than it typically associates with its flagship family-oriented brands. Disney owns and operates the ABC network, the Disney Channel, ESPN, A & E Television, and the ABC Family channel. In addition to the media side of things, the Walt Disney Company owns 14 theme parks around the world.

     In current news the Walt Disney Company will be dedicating their fourth cruise ship (the Disney Dream) in the New York Harbor on March 31st of 2012. This announcement made on January 29th 2012, is years and years of planning and building towards Disney's global market growth strategy. This ship marks the beginning of new tour destinations, sea ports, and different countries in the attempt to further the Disney name and experience. Some of the sites where the ship will leave from are the Bahamas from New York, Canada up the New England coast, Alaska from Seattle, Western Caribbean from Galveston, and Hawaii from Los Angeles.  

     This cruise ship marks several effective management practices. With so much being thought of what the customer's focus is, the layout and design of the ship encompasses everything the customer wants and needs in a once in a lifetime type of experience. The management at Disney has made the main mission with this new cruise ship to be that the overall creativity and innovation be highlighted to match what the fans have grown to expect from the worldwide leader in animation. Looking upward into the ship's atrium lobby guests can view a chandelier 22 feet wide and 13 feet long this chandelier sparkles with over 88,680 Swarovski crystal beads and a 24kt gold plated design. The stern for the Dream is 14 feet long, weighing 2,500 pounds and was built over 15,000 miles away in Germany. The stern is of Sorcerer Mickey Mouse and is made of stainless steel and fiberglass.  Another industry first is Disney Dreams - AquaDuck. The AquaDuck is the very first water coaster on a seaboard vessel.

     Working for the Walt Disney Company and in particular the Disney Cruise ships would be a wonderful life experience. With so much culture to explore and different parts of the world to visit just the beginning. A company that runs all of its operations with its consumers in the forefront, makes for a fun and exciting team to be part of. The Walt Disney Company is known for its family-friendly aspect in its management and operations guidelines making for a clean and simple concept that has a proven success record. 

     

Sources:            

http://youtu.be/WM9C8_Ly814       

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/12/looking-ahead-to-a-new-year-for-disney-cruise-line/        

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/tag/disney-fantasy/            

http://dclnews.com/fact-sheets/2011/09/29/disney-dream-fun-facts/       

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(Sean Gallup, Getty Images)

January 29, 2012|By Jason Garcia and Sara K. Clarke, Orlando Sentinel