Comments on: The Barkley Corollary

By: ticktock6

ticktock6 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:51:00 +0000

If the football guys can do a credible rendition of the 3-syllable “New Orleans,” there’s no reason the basketball guys can’t at least make an attempt.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:47:17 +0000

Haha. Sheesh, low blow. Thanks for the explanation. Y’all know us Texans ain’t say things too good. Promise I will (try to) say my team’s city correctly.

By: mW

mW — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:04:26 +0000

@ Mark: there’s really two exceptable ways, but the first is too hard and usually we skip right to the second. Let me prefatorily say “Orleans” said like “Lean” as in “I”m leaning on the wall” is just wrong.

The first acceptable way derives from the French, which would be “Oar-Lee-AHN.” New Orleanians, tending to put their own spin on all things, typically pronounce things with neither the grammatically correct French or English diction. It is a rolling of the vowel sounds and is old-New Orleans, as: “OAR-Lee-Ens,” but with a barely perceptible emphasis. You really can’t say it if you aren’t bred to say it. I can’t.

The easiest, and most commonly used, but still acceptible, is “OAR-Lins” Now, in both this and the above, the “Or” isn’t necessarily dragged out or drawled like “oar” would be, but the latter is more illustrative of the correct sound.

All of which, however, in the basketball context, is far superior to “SHAR-Lit.”

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:07:17 +0000

Nice comments atthehive. I remember hearing of Bron Bron’s Nike contract giving him a bonus if he ends up in a big community like NYC, Chicago, or LA (and similarly with their big-name athletes). While this may fuel the Bron Bron brand name, I too wonder if it would be better putting his face on a larger city. First, those cities are always going to have good ticket sales, so wouldn’t the league benefit with BronBron in a lesser populace city, promoting that franchise?

Nobody’s wrong in this instance, but with all the funding going into BronBron’s public relations, his comments regarding Barkley only reiterate the limitations of human composure.

And inform me, guys. Is New Orleans with a heavy ‘E’ (lean) or more ‘I’ (lin)? I don’t want to be a Hubie.

By: StefanC

StefanC — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:43:39 +0000

This may be my first time saying this, but I agree with Barkley. 2010 is 2 years away, LJ needs to shut up and play ball this year. And it’s not like his team sucks and has no chance of winning it all either! How would we feel if CP3 was talking about where he will end up when his contract expires!?

LeBron, shut up!

By: ticktock6

ticktock6 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:49:25 +0000

Amen. I’m so tired of hearing about it. And he just encourages his own soap opera… “Guess July 2010 is gonna be a great day… hint hint.” He is NOT putting a stop to it. If I was his teammate, I’d be pissed.

By: mW

mW — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:00:13 +0000

Interesting take on his “advantage” of going to NYC, atthehive. I’d love to hear someone give some feedback on that one too.

As for Hubie, I’m okay with him in general. Just man, practice to learn how to pronounce things right. We’re talking about practice. As for JVG, my absolute favorite.

By: atthehive

atthehive — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:13:28 +0000

Great pair of posts, mW. Thought provoking stuff. I figure I’ll roll my comment(s) into one monster, right here. I’m with you on the Barkley thing, and I agree with Barkley. If I was a Cavs fan, I’d be pissed to hear LBJ saying stuff like that (and giving a 2x length press conference in NY. What was up with that?). Let’s watch basketball. I could care less if LeBron goes to New York.

Which brings me to another point. Am I the only person who doesn’t understand why NY would give him more “marketing” than Cleveland? He’s plastered 24/7 on ESPN’s cover page, he’s all over Sports Center, he’s made the MLB cover pages a couple times on CC Sabathia stories (!!), he’s known around the world, his shoe line is the best selling of any NBA athlete, he’s guaranteed a max-plus deal regardless of he chooses CLE, NYK, DET… hell, Charlotte. What does New York provide above and beyond that? Am I missing something here?

I agree on the perception deal as well. Take last Friday’s OKC-NOH game for instance. The whole game, Hubie and whoever he was with kept comparing OKC and NOH. Comparing the players, comparing the coaches… every time the Thunder did something inexplicably retarded, they’d go out of their way to mention something like “Oh, well, the Hornets don’t get to the free throw line well either…” I think to most people, the Hornets are still not “there” yet. Whatever “there” is. And apparently Game 7 of the Western Semis doesn’t qualify you.

I gotta say I love Hubie. I love how he pronounces everything wrong (including New Orleeeeeeeeeeens). He even pronounces Pau’s last name as Gasal even though he friggin COACHED him for like two years. Him and JVG make listening to commentary bearable.