AV Monday: Amy K Nelson Interviews Dan Haren

I have only seen two so far, but I am really enjoying these Amy K Nelson interviews. They tend to be of players who have recently enjoyed career peaks, so everyone being interviewed is happy and honest. I am not saying every video should be that way, but we need a few of those stories. This time, it's Dan Haren, the starter for the America League All-Star Game; take a look. http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/ivp/index?id=2927568

AV Monday: Darko Milicic Video

I'm switching Audio Visual day to Monday from Wednesday, because I finally realized that during the summer months, there are no big sporting events occurring during the weekend. So writing a recap column on Monday of the big weekend sports news is a wasted effort.

I decided to try my hand once more at making athlete videos. This one is dedicated to Darko Milicic for his free-agent troubles. After his agent went off on the Magic as if they had left Darko with a knife in his back in Disneyland, I kind of get the feeling that Darko's getting a little desperate. Maybe, just maybe, he's the one big man who won't get overpaid this summer. Forgive me if I'm not overcome by sadness on his behalf.

Music by LA Symphony, "The Money Song".

Linked Bias: Living with Addiction

I have a feeling that a lot of people missed this post the first time through, so I wanted to point it out. You should read Jack Cobra's take on Josh Hamilton, especially if you are going through issues related to an addiction in your life. Oh, some of you may laugh at Josh Hamilton's reference to the devil; but if you've ever been addicted to something/someone and couldn't control yourself, or directly know someone who has, it's not so funny.

Bloggolalia: Should Increasing Traffic be Our #1 Goal?

Recently, the fine writers at You Been Blinded and Five Tool Tool have posted about how to increase traffic to your blog. I think that their ideas are very useful for bloggers, and I thank them for sharing. I wanted to push the topic a little further. For me, getting a lot of traffic for your blog is similar to wanting to have a lot of people visit your store if you're a small business owner. It's a worthy goal, especially when you're starting out your blog. But after you've been around for a little while, hits by themselves can be less rewarding. If your customers at, say, a bookstore are just sitting there reading books and not buying anything, who cares if you have 100 or 500 customers a day? Here's some other things to consider in your blogging. (Of course, if you just blog to have fun, ignore uptight, stuffy folk like myself and stop reading pronto).

* Goal of increasing comments. Without funny or insightful comments, my posts are not the same. I don't want one-time visitors; I want traffic that returns again and again. This is why Deadspin links may not actually be that great; Deadspin links to some 20? blogs a day, and if people are coming to you from deadspin, chances are they already are reading a ton of sports blogs. How are they going to fit you into that schedule? Ínstead, find people who will be loyal to your blog and comment again and again. Talk to your commenters, reward them (Best comment of the week contests, ala WL?), etc. I also wonder, on the really odd side of things; what if, once you write about Kobe, you go drop a post into the lakers forums and let fans know you're talking about their guy? Yes, it's playing with fire, but hey, if you want comments, you have to get a reaction out of people.

* Goal of increasing revenue. Many bloggers have some kind of "If you want to advertise, send me an e-mail" section. But I wonder; what if you would actually go after advertisers yourself? For example, if you post on geographic topics (i.e. Chicago sports), why not give a local sports bar or two a call? They might give you a try, if it costs 1/10th or 1/100th the price it would for a local paper. And what about other forms of revenue? If you take an interesting video of a sporting event and post it on revver.com, you get paid through revenue sharing. That's what the guys who did the Kobe video are doing (once they realized people wouldn't cough up $1.99), and they have 100,000 views.

* Goal of better blog content. There are people out there who are too busy to write their own blog. But they have interesting news facts and tidbits, or they are good at writing themselves and know how to improve your blog. If you can find some way to reward those people or let it be known that you want content from readers, you can tap into their skills. Also, a lot of times us writers are so busy trying to get EVERY LAST DETAIL AND JOKE out of a story because I MUST PROVE THAT I AM SO FUNNY OR SMART, that we don't give the reader anything to do. Like what I'm doing on this post, for example (hypocrite alert!). Leave some questions open on your blog for people to answer, don't tell all the jokes yourself, or just take the "Yes" side of an issue and invite commenters to write the "No" side for you. Deadspin does this nicely, and that's part of why it's so popular, in my opinion.

Do you think I'm right in saying we overemphasize traffic; or does traffic lead to these goals anyway? Note: see original post and comments at BallHype.

Oh, and Fan Friday brought to you by Dan; this may be the silliest Red Sox fan video yet.

AV Wednesday: Pure Sports

Every so often, I like to post videos that don't have anything to do with professional athletes. I call those videos "pure sports" as they are of competition from the D III college level on down. Here are two videos of amateur athletes in action.

The first is of Andy, a reporter for his high school, getting pulverized while trying to return a female volleyball player's spikes. Yes, I think this is funny:


The second is of a girl's basketball team in Greece. I'm not sure what the ages are, but what I did notice is that the quality of play is improving in women's basketball leagues. Some of those moves or shots I would have some trouble executing; I haven't been always able to say that in the past.

If Sitcom Stars were NBA Draft Prospects: Seinfeld and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Inspired by NBA Draft reports, here is a breakdown of your 90's sitcom ballers from Seinfeld and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Add your own sitcom star breakdown in the comments!

C: Cosmo Kramer
Strengths: Unorthodox post moves, height, ability to think outside the box; the best highlight video of the five with the exception of Will Smith. His behind-the-backboard lay-up is nearly unstoppable.
Weaknesses: The nightlife and ladies; who can forget watching him mouth his phone number to the cheerleaders before making those foul shots to beat Ohio State? Says what's on his mind at any time; may anger conservative fan base. Intensity is a question mark, as is intelligence.
School: Talented big men have to go to Georgetown, only because the sight of Kramer posing with, say, Patrick Ewing makes me laugh.
Reminds you of: Kwame Brown, Keith Van Horn, Zydrunas Ilguskas

PF: Will Smith
Strengths: Explosive moves off the dribble, possesses an unusual ability to get to the hole through multiple defenders, bulletproof fro to protect him from concussions, extensive post game featuring an excellent drop step and jump hook, shot-blocking ability off the charts. Made his reputation off excellent pre-draft workout against Isiah Thomas:

Weaknesses: Questionable home life and hints of trouble in his past, rumors of William Wesley funding to get him to California and bigger media audience, question as to whether anyone at all played defense in his conference:

School: Will Smith is definitely Pac-10: what about Cal or Washington?
Reminds you of: Rashard Lewis, Drew Gooden

SF: Jerry Seinfeld
Strengths: Does more with nothing than anyone before or since, deadly mid-range jump shot, plays tough defense, attended school all four years, managed to lead a cast of losers and misfits to the conference title, Jewish heritage makes him a potential drawing card for NBA team with space on the bench
Weaknesses: Under pressure his game falls apart, a complimentary player rather than a star. Is he really that good, or is the competition that bad?
School: White, preppy, over-achiever with questionable skills for the pro game? Do I even have to type out Duke?
Reminds you of: Shane Battier, Danny Ferry

SG: Carlton Banks
Strengths: Fundamentally sound in all aspects of the game, inspiring Charley Rosen to write about his jump shot for 2 straight weeks until Charley had a heart attack while watching Carlton's 12-14 shooting night; intelligent kid from wealthy two-parent home; already dresses to match NBA dress code
Weaknesses: Maturity, toughness, height, one too many sweaters for post-game interviews, can fall back on finance degree if struggles in the NBA, completely incapable of forming a complete sentence when interviewed by Erin Andrews. Gonzaga isn't an all-male school, right? Not so sure after that interview.
School: Gonzaga; do you really think THE Carlton Banks would go to a large public institution?
Reminds you of: Cuttino Mobley, Rip Hamilton

PG: George Costanza
Strengths: Teardrop floater in lane with either hand, high basketball and sports IQ (wants to be a coach or front-office worker some day), fiery on-court personality (led team to come-from-behind wins in several games)
Weaknesses: Defense, dysfunctional home life, shorter than Rachel Nichols in that ESPN interview, led conference in technical fouls ('roid rage? HGH?), and what's with the balding? I really don't believe he's only 22.
School: Winona State; your classic small-school star that may not be able to make the jump to a bigger pond.
Reminds you of: Khalid El-Amin, Tony Parker

Minutae: Volleyball and Basketball Video

I am too tired and busy to put words together today, sorry. I have four posts that I really like, all half-written, and don't want to ruin any of them by putting up junk. How about we just meet here tomorrow, and I'll have something better up? In the meantime, here are some videos of young basketball and volleyball players prepping for the pros. I'm always interested in the "minor league" portion of professional athlete's rise to the pros, and these videos show some insight.

The first is female college volleyball players preparing for the beach volleyball game, courtesy of CSTV.com:


The second is a promo video for Barking Abbey Basketball Academy, an English basketball school. It's lengthy, but interesting if you want another look at how basketball players in other countries are trained.