NBA could learn from the CBA

I have to guess most readers/sports fans don't know that the "CBA" is the Continental Basketball Association which is a minor league team unaffiliated with the National Basketball Association (NBA). Instead of cutting a deal with the CBA (perhaps they tried and I missed it) the NBA created their own "D-League" as their Development League for players that are not quite ready for the NBA.

My teen years are filled with fond memories of watching NBA games on Friday nights since I could "stay up late" to catch a game but now I am in my forties and have not watch an NBA game for several years. Personally I love college basketball but the NBA "game" (if you can call it that) has no appeal for me. I have to wonder how large this "lost market" is for the NBA since their "product" on the floor is pretty much worthless.

What I always loved about the CBA -- which ended its season two months early this year due to financial problems - is their point system. The CBA awarded a point for each quarter of a game that a team "won" which forced teams to play the entire game versus how most NBA games work today -- NBA players move the ball around until about the last 5 to 8 minutes of a game then they turn on the intensity to see which team can win. What a bore!!

In the CBA you must play all out each quarter because the overall point system determines who makes it to the playoffs. Here is an example to illustrate what I am talking about:

Team A Team B

1st quarter scores 15 20
2nd 20 25
3rd 25 30
4th 36 20

total points in the game 96 95

But Team B is awared "3 points" for winning 3 of the 4 quarters.

A much better model that the NBA should consider.

Todd

One Year Old

This weekend we celebrated our son's first birthday with a party for friends and family at the Pool and Yacht Club (ok - it is mostly pool with no yacht but the dock is always open for you to visit!!).

Amazing, one year old already. I can't speak more highly of parenting -- I simply love it.

Since I am already 43 years old I really stop to think about what our children's world will look like when they are adults. One example is my blackberry which our son loves to play with whenever he can grab it. By the time he is old enough to use such a device my "brand new" blackberry will become a museum piece sitting besides the rotary dial telephone and the fax machine perhaps.

My best wishes to parents and aspiring parents everywhere. If the spirit moves you to adopt a child please do so -- there is no greater thing you can do than to give a child a loving home.

Happy birthday to our little bear cub,

Todd
(reminder - I primarly blog here now: www.regularfolksunited.com )

Retirement Plans

Ah, no retirement plans for me now that I have seen the results of the class action shareholder lawsuit I was involved in for my former employer today!! Retirement was on my mind -- public employee pensions to be exact -- when I read the "Top 25 List" in the Twin Cities Business Journal recently which listed the 25 largest "Government Agencies" in Minnesota.

Here are the agencies this posting is focused on:

#5 - Teachers Retirement Association
#6 - Public Employees Retirement System
#10 - Minnesota State Retirement System

To manage these agencies there are 250 full time employees who simply process public employee pensions paid for with our tax dollars of course.

Here is a government reform idea that will no doubt be killed in a legislative committee somewhere -- let's combine these three agencies into one thereby reducing operating costs and leveraging new investment opportunities by aggregating the funds involved?

Reform is needed,

Todd
(reminder to readers -- I primarily blog here now: www.regularfolksunited.com)

Really Big Snake!!

Our local newspaper carried a Los Angeles Times article last weekend entitled,

"Huge Snake Fossil Found in Colombia"

Now I am not a herpetologist but I do admit unique stories such as this one command my attention. First I should note this newly discovered beast has been named -- Titanoboa Cerrejonesis (TC) - which is pretty catchy don't you think!!??

However, here are some data points in the article that I found most interesting:

• TC "ruled the Amazon rain forest for 2 million years before slithering into nonexistence"
• "The climate had to be 6 to 8 degrees warmer than it is today for a snake that large to survive."
• TC "could eat a large cow or a bison....if there had been any around"

Which leads me to conclude/observe -- 2 million years ago Mother Earth was not "scarred" by the SUV's we drive today so clearly this "global warming" that allowed TC to live was not caused by humans. I might be oversimplifying here but this is a great example that "climate change" has occurred throughout the earth's history regardless of whether or not human were living at the time.

However, I would guess that Al Gore has an explanation for the story of TC's warmer world or perhaps even has another "false-umentary" film planned for us to watch?

Change happens,

Todd