Ladies and Gentlemen, the Highest Paid Player in all of Italy:

by Stop-n-Pop on Aug 7, 2008 8:20 AM CDT

The Euros may have Josh Childress, but when Earl Boykins is somewhere near the top of the salary mountain, there's still a looooonnnnnnggg way to go.

From CBC Sports:

Noted NBA little man Earl Boykins is the latest to jump on a big deal to play overseas, signing a one-year, $3.5 million US deal Tuesday with Italian club Vitus Bologna.

Andy Bountogianis of the Cleveland-based Mark Termini Associates Inc. sports agency, confirmed the signing.

The five-foot-five Boykins, 32, will be the highest-paid player player in the Italian league next season. He'll also participate in the sponsorship and marketing income of the team.

$20 says they put him in some sort of scooter commercial. At least he didn't bolt for New Zealand's professional league (like Rick Rickert). Had he done so, the Hobbit jokes would have been simply too hard to pass on.

BTW: Did you know that the New Zealand national team has the nickname Tall Blacks? Suns forward Sean Marks is a Tall Black. The term is cribbed from one of New Zealand's rugby teams, the All Blacks.

PS: Admit it...you snickered when you read 'Vitus Bologna'.

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Tall Blacks.......

their soccer team is called the All Whites and their cricket team are the Black Caps.

But in all seriousness, those All Blacks are very nasty boys.

And Rickert plays for the NZ Breakers, who (confusingly) play in the Australian National League. In fact last season we had a team from Singapore as well.

by Auswolf on Aug 7, 2008 8:23 PM CDT 0 recs

I've heard stories about the rugby team...

...just reading about them a bit on the internet they sound like they mean business. Their women’s team is called the Tall Ferns.

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by Stop-n-Pop on Aug 7, 2008 8:39 PM CDT up 0 recs

The All Blacks...

are the most revered team in New Zealand sport. The only reference I can think of is to imagine Green Bay has a population of 3 million and they all love the Packers. Multiply that by 100.

The haka:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMCAV6Yd0Y

It is a Maori call to arms. It may seem hokey, but if your on the field you have the knowledge they are about to try and maim you.

by Auswolf on Aug 9, 2008 5:13 AM CDT up 0 recs

That's awesome...

...I wish the NBA had more of a club feel to it. I’d love to have some songs in the stands. Instead, we get piped in crap music and a lot of people who can juggle at half time.

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by Stop-n-Pop on Aug 9, 2008 8:45 AM CDT up 0 recs

True, though I remember last year some of the French commentators were wondering if the haka at times has an adverse effect – seems to come across as an extended pre-game trash-talking session – they showed the French guys standing and watching the NZers dancing with annoyed looks on their faces…then the French went out and knocked them out of the tournament. I agree though, it does beat the canned NBA entertainment.

By the way here’s footage of the Gophers’ new Kiwi judo recruit. “You fight like a baby…a dead baby!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4fVzwEVuyk

by plinytheelder on Aug 9, 2008 2:04 PM CDT up 0 recs

There was some controversy when the All Blacks switched to a haka called Kapa o Pango which has a throat slitting gesture in it.

It fires people up. NZ played a tour match against a South African Under 21 teams a few years ago. The Saffers elected to sample the haka one inch from the nose of every Kiwi delivering it.

by Auswolf on Aug 9, 2008 6:57 PM CDT up 0 recs

I played for a military base team (Osan)...

...in Korea and we played some club team up near Seoul and they had this insane warm up where they beat a single drum and the guys on the other team got worked up in a damn near trance over it. It was kind of silly but we kind of toyed with the idea of adopting it and throwing a few chants and handclaps/footstomps into it. It could have been badass. It would be kind of fun for the Wolves to have some sort of primal pre-game home ritual. However, Minnesotans are kind of…well, passive-aggressive and they would never go for something like this. Minnesota is filled to the brim with Swedes, Norwegians, and northern Germans and that type of outburst probably wouldn’t work here. People are much too self conscious to let themselves go to such an extent over something like the Wolves. Plus, there’s no big attachment to the team. It’s not a club style situation or a national team and there are 3 other major sports teams (all of which are currently more popular than the Wolves) to take away a large chunk of support. There’s just not that sort of fandom in the US. The NFL is the only thing that sort of comes close. It’s the only thing where people really have a regional attachment to the identity of the team. Baseball in some cities has a bit of this (see Chicago and New York) but it’s not nearly to the level of football. Football has absolutely taken over the sporting audience in this country. From high school to college to the pros, football rules the day. I think it’s a mind-numbing spectacle, but it’s the ultimate TV sport and that’s probably why it has caught on…that and gambling.

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by Stop-n-Pop on Aug 9, 2008 7:17 PM CDT up 0 recs

portland like there basketball alot

maybee couse its the only sport in town, but we get kinda silly over it. over at the BEdge, we had a 700+ comment gameday thread for the spanish game, that started at 11:30 at night, just cause one of our draft picks, rudy fernandez(played outstanding btw) was playing. we get pretty excitable over hear in ptown.

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by ptwnblzr on Aug 10, 2008 6:40 AM CDT up 0 recs

Did you ever see...

... the quick-change half-time show? Best ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AxP7FHQs5M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB-wUgnyGv0

by wyn on Aug 10, 2008 1:57 PM CDT up 0 recs

I actually don't mind the 1/2 shows....

....rather, the mind-numbing music that is pumped in throughout the entire game.

PS: the quick changers are demonic. They have unnatural powers. My favorite is the juggling dish lady.

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by Stop-n-Pop on Aug 10, 2008 5:48 PM CDT up 0 recs

Was in Paris last year for the rugby world cup, guess it’s not quite like soccer but the whole city was pretty amped up for it. Hey how is Rickert doing by the way?

by plinytheelder on Aug 8, 2008 12:05 AM CDT up 0 recs

Rickert is OK..

and the Breakers are a reasonable outfit, but the strength of domestic players has ensured that teams rely less on their imports than they used to.

by Auswolf on Aug 9, 2008 5:15 AM CDT up 0 recs

Here's a snippet from the article linked to above:

Rickert made a big impact on Breakers fans in 2007-08 before being struck down mid season with a back injury. It has been a long and painful road back for the Minnesota forward, but he now feels he is ready to get down to some unfinished business at the Breakers.
"I absolutely loved my time in Auckland last season – and was just so gutted that the injury happened when it did and kept me from being part of what was a great season," Rickert said.

"I feel I owe this club something – the players, the people involved, the fans. I’m coming back to make good on that."

Rickert will arrive in New Zealand shortly before the commencement of Breakers pre-season training on July 24, and will undergo a 3 day series of workouts and medical tests to get a final assessment on his fitness.

Rickert has no doubts this will be a mere formality.

"I wouldn’t be coming down if I wasn’t 100 percent confident of myself and where I am at physically. I’m going to be good to go, I can’t wait."

As part of the assessment of Rickert’s injury Breakers shooting guard Kirk Penney traveled from his US base in Madison, Wisconsin to work out with the big man in Minneapolis. Going through a series of tough workouts at the Gophers home gym, Penney was impressed with where Rickert was at.

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by Stop-n-Pop on Aug 8, 2008 7:04 AM CDT 0 recs

Wow Rickert still has keys to the gym? ps isn’t Penney that dude from Wisconsin, what is Rickert thinking letting him into the facilities, probably snapped a bunch of pictures

by plinytheelder on Aug 8, 2008 12:52 PM CDT up 0 recs

Penny is from Wisconsin...

...he’s also on the New Zealand national team. I think he’s as Kiwi as the Conchords :)

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by Stop-n-Pop on Aug 8, 2008 4:51 PM CDT up 0 recs

yeah I remember that guy getting interviewed by some tv network when he was at Wisconsin, the lead-in to the interview was him doing that haka dance that the rugby team does. Maybe the Gophers can recruit Jemaine

by plinytheelder on Aug 9, 2008 2:16 AM CDT up 0 recs