Digby

There was no outcome that wouldn't be messy, it's true, and I'm not that upset considering this was the best regular season they've had with this group... but the flaws look pretty glaring right now and it's costing the team, and it's hard not to wonder if maybe some of that could've been avoided with an open coaching search instead of an emergency promotion. Wonder how much Stoudamire was doing as lead assistant because once he left is when the shine started to wear off of this season.

I hate to be Mr. Intangibles because that line of thinking always feels full of holes, but Mazzulla's coaching is driving me nuts -- no sense of motivation beyond the most generic coachspeak, no feel for the game in progress, a real lack of practical adjustment to the game in front of you. Obviously young and inexperienced, I'm sure he'll learn and get better with time, but absolutely the wrong guy to put in charge of a title contender squad whose main problem has always been keeping focus and poise for 48 minutes. Grant Williams, why did you go and do that. (That said, gotta think about that time the Celtics came back after losing the first 2 at home in 2017 to an 8-seed team led by Jimmy Butler.)

It's the sort of dorky nonsense that was all over the previous women's pro leagues in North America and now has slid all over the lower leagues on the men's side -- Loyal... One... Forward... campaign slogans that befit a local tourism board more than a sports team, IMO. That said, still feel like USL at large is running circles around MLS as far as new branding and design goes.

"San Diego Loyal" is a stupid name on its face, but "San Diego FC" is the sort of predictably sterile, anodyne genericism that MLS hangs its hat on.

I am surprised this came together so quickly with the stadium situation, but I suspect they must have got a very sweet lease deal to meet MLS's real-estate demands. I am not surprised that they're gonna go with "FC San Diego". This league has all the character of a stale cracker.

I do almost feel sorry for the Coyotes marketing department right now. Social media strategy for the lame-duck franchise: pretend you're crowdsourcing with the dozens of diehards you have left. It's cheap and disingenuous, but better than nothing (A's) I guess.

In the days of DirecTV Sunday Ticket and a sports bar having six different possible circuits for all its TVs, the setup behind-the-bar was considerably more complicated than a home TV. Everything times six plus different "commercial hardware" to boot. I think it was easier back then; you had your TV provider plus a couple add-ons for Sunday Ticket or whatever and that was that. Just a shedload of channels to remember. I'm not behind bars much anymore but I do think the app-ification and all the subscriptions gets thornier when you're working at that level vs. at your house... MLS has never been a big bar draw around here but I used to at least see it randomly here and there when it was on ESPN or a local broadcast station. This year the only bar I'm aware of that's bothered with it is the hardcore supporters' group bar.

Good point, I guess I block that period out of my brain due to peak LeBron heartbreaking and *checks notes* oh, a Doc Rivers playoff collapse when up 3-2.

Rigged for big markets again, smh.

I think he was a good coach for those Celtics teams... but that was 15 years ago. It's fair to wonder if his relationship with Pierce and KG made it greater than the sum of its parts, and also whether he can be as effective in the modern game (which is no longer a new concept). I know it was really Currymania that set us onto this current path, but in my mind the Celtics/Lakers finals of 2010 always felt like the last gasp of that traditional model of how things were.

Celtics haven't done white at home much these playoffs so that's nice to see. Miami's neo-traditionalism must have knocked some sense into them. I guess the Heat reds are technically "Statement" but I've always liked those more than the black ones, more distinctive even among other red teams due to the shade.

Jrue Holiday and Andre Iguodala winning rings a decade after they got Processed out of Philly.

Too many bad posts around here, which is a shame as it's distracting us from making fun of this rudderless Philly franchise.

The two teams that have focused on smart roster-building and strong culture over reactionary coach-firing keep making the Eastern Conference Finals, wow, weird

It's insane to me to have two games in a row where you could close out the series and don't break 90 points in either. Sixers fold like a cheap card table every time. Finally got the Jayson Tatum killer instinct game. Massive performance, everyone did their job, yet another Celtics/Heat ECF matchup. Rubber match!

I am not seeing what everyone else is seeing in this Reds jersey. The C logo is kind of cool but looks like an e-sports team. That much black on a baseball uniform (even the printing!) is simply awful. So many of these City Connects feel like a half-baked MLB Redesign Concept thread by a design novice whose only interest is change for its own sake.

Probably that, but it doesn't make any sense. The NYC market has two teams as it is and has never proven to be particularly special attendance-wise, so Building It And They Will Come will just be more of the same MLS entitlement nonsense that we should've moved past by now. I do think new stadiums should be built with ability to maybe expand down the road to 28-30k but that's it -- it makes a lot more sense to stay modest on capacity-wise, fill the building, charge more for tickets due to demand outpacing supply, etc. By 2026, NFL stadiums at large will be more soccer-friendly as well, so those are always going to make more sense for the rare matches that need a capacity boost -- and those are going to be major international games or sucker-bait preseason Clasicos.

from the Outfield Architect-speak might be worse than Nike-speak. I guess it reflects New York's honestly sanitizing any character it's ever had for generic silver boxy thing that could exist anywhere, but everything costs twice as much because New York. Also this: 'According to the term sheet, the team may play up to three home matches a year outside of the new stadium even after the stadium is fully operational. The reason? NYCFC’s ability to leverage a “significantly larger seating capacity”.' Why would you even say that??? Who's looking at these Citi Field games and saying, yeah, we're sure gonna miss this someday?

I keep thinking Tatum can't possibly have a worse game than the last one and then he goes and proves me wrong. Hasn't reached Kyrie's active-sabotage levels of 2019 (he's still played good defense last night, holding Philly to 86 points in an elimination game is nuts) but it's bizarre stuff. Will also need Horford to stop chucking up ill-advised threes if the ring train is to roll on. What does it take to understand when something is maybe not quite working for you?

That's definitely true. But to me it also feels like most stadiums fit into one of, like, five archetypes, your new SSS, your original low-budget SSS, the converted NFL stadium etc. Like it's a video game where most teams don't have their stadium in-game. Kinda reminds me of watching 90s SportsCenter baseball highlights and not being able to tell, at a glance, which of the donut-shaped astroturf multi-purpose venues I was looking at.

Yeah, somewhere along the way we switched from "every stadium must look like RBA" to this boxy thing. Kinda boring but fits in with the general MLS approach to branding. Still no one's beat that weird old Portland stadium.

I knew they didn't play at Snapdragon so that's about what I guessed. So that's what, half of what the NWSL team gets? Landon's no Alex Morgan, I guess. I'm sympathetic to the Loyal loyal in this case, but can also see why the empty-heart MLS business degree drones don't care.

How does the Loyal do attendance-wise? My understanding is that they do fine for USL standards but not shockingly well the way Cincy and Minnesota did when they were in the lower leagues. But I don't follow them well and don't know San Diego well enough to understand the stadium factors and such.

Hope you put money on that. Humiliating loss for players without heart and a coach in way over his head. I’d had a nagging feeling this might be the year the Sixers finally don’t crap the bed against the Celtics, but didn’t think that would happen with an injured Embiid.

The owner doesn't count as a fan. Of course the new guy is the latest iteration on the Cuban/Ballmer model of sitting courtside and stirring up :censored: because he thinks people are there to see him. Banish owners back to the suites where they can watch their asset while sitting in the Scrooge McDuck bathtub of money or whatever.