ESPN NBA

Posted by Kelly Dwyer

• Since last week I've been working on a post either excoriating the NBA or pleading with Direct TV to give NBA TV back to those of us who subscribe to Direct TV, don't subscribe to a sports package, but also pre-order the NBA's League Pass every year. For years, or at least since I've been a customer (2000), Direct TV and the NBA have made NBA TV part of the package you receive when you buy the League Pass. Now (somebody) is making you buy the League Pass, AND a sports pack (I've had it before, essentially you get the lower-tier sports channels and every local Fox-affiliate save for the local games. It's not that great) just to get NBA TV. Meanwhile, the NFL Network chugs along, free to anyone. The problem is, I've called Direct TV a half-dozen times since last week, one final time today, and am getting varied reports (split three to three) as to who was behind the switch -- whether it was the NBA's call, Direct TV's call, or a joint decision. For someone who often went without employing Direct TV's most basic package for years during the summer time (all I had was NBA TV, and I was happy), it's been more than a little frustrating. Honestly, it stinks -- I don't want to pay extra for a channel I've been slaving over and writing about for seven years, and don't need the endless local "Tribe Talk"-type shows to tide me over. The great bulk of the NBA TV audience is made up of NBA junkies, including my man Peter Schrager (read this column, please); and either the NBA is needlessly messing with it's strongest fan base, or they didn't put up a strong enough fight when Direct TV informed them that they didn't want NBA TV as a sweetener in the NBA League Pass deal.
  
• I don't know if Henry's gone over this before, but I was made aware of a couple of pretty cool columns about the per diem NBA teams give their players on every road trip, thanks to poster R3DLiN3 from Sactown Royalty. The first is a blog post from the legendary Mark Pope, who in 2005 as a Nugget talked about ways of utilizing his massive per diem in ways beyond the occasional six-inch sub. Like paying rent, for instance. Maybe buy your own Alpaca farm. A more recent look, from (the very good) Rocky Mountain News beat man Chris Tomasson is more exhaustive: he details the yin (Jamal Sampson, also a fan of the chain sandwich shops) and yang (Reggie Evans' 85-dollar steak) inherent in eating on the road. A fascinating read, in parts, and another reason to demand that your child work on his right-to-left crossover before he or she gets dessert.
• I remember scouting Julius Hodge in high school, and thinking that he appeared to have the perfect NBA frame. His all-around contributions, even amongst the high school elite (in Nike's eyes, anyway) seemed effortless and efficient. Unfortunately, he appears to not have developed much since. That said, he still seems an NBA talent, and SuperSonics beat writer Kevin Pelton caught up with Hodge last week at the NBA's Summer League. It's a fine column, about what we've expected from Kevin for, lo, these many years. As you probably already know, Julius has dealt with some scarier stuff since being drafted out of N.C. State a few years ago, but I'll let Mr. Pelton fill you in.
• Indiana's beat writers are just as clueless as to why the Pacers have been so silent in the offseason as we are. We'll talk more about the lone recent Larry Bird move that will probably work later this afternoon.