Ramble On ... Knopfler, Red Rocks and a new Sports Museum

Mark Knopfler will tour the USA and Canada this summer, promoting his new CD, "Kill to Get Crimson." There is nothing better than a summertime concert at Red Rocks in Colorado. I will have a tough time trying to tuck that trip into a busy summertime, but a show at New York's Summerstage in Central park or a new hometown gig in Boston in July is more realistic.

***

Just to be sure you spotted it, here's a clip from a recent Richard Sandomir take-out on the Sports Museum of America in downtown New York City. My buddy, Lynn, is working the lines to secure original memorabilia to display at the museum. I hope to help him out. Click on the "Ramble On" headline above for the complete article... Here's a clip:

Luring Sports Fans of All Seasons to Lower Manhattan

By RICHARD SANDOMIR
FROM a second-floor arched window at 26 Broadway, near the start of the Canyon of Heroes ticker-tape parade route in Lower Manhattan, Philip Schwalb can see beyond the Battery to the Statue of Liberty. He watches tourists heading to Liberty and Ellis Islands and thinks about those who will honor the fallen of 9/11 at the World Trade Center Memorial when it is done.

From his perch in John D. Rockefeller’s old Standard Oil Building, Mr. Schwalb is confident that his own institution, the new Sports Museum of America, will thrive.

“For me, it’s clear,” he said last month, amid two stories of construction that is expected to be done for an early May opening. “Sports are truly transcendent, like music and art, which can take you away from the mundane. And like music and art, sports transcend cultural barriers.”

Mr. Schwalb’s ambitious plan to build a sports Smithsonian came to him as he walked through the nearly empty Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., on Sept. 10, 2001, his 39th birthday. What if this hall were near Lady Liberty and Wall Street? he asked himself. What if he made a museum that not only appealed to fans with artifacts and interactive exhibitions — the tangible manifestations of sports history found in halls of fame around the country — but also inspired and educated them?

“It’ll be flat-out fun,” Mr. Schwalb said, describing the fruits of that vision seven years ago. “But our test is to make it intellectually stimulating and emotionally moving.”

Carl Weisbrod, president of Trinity Church’s real estate division and ex-president of the Alliance for Downtown New York, is enthusiastic about the museum.

“There are few really attractive, magnetic paying attractions in Lower Manhattan,” he said. “The museum is very appealing for tourism, at a natural location that will pick up a huge amount of pedestrian traffic from the Statue of Liberty.”

Mr. Schwalb, who once worked for Edwin A. Schlossberg’s design firm, first financed his idea by borrowing $120,000 against his credit cards. The stake enabled him to create plans that led to raising $57 million in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds, a federal program created to spur post-9/11 development in Lower Manhattan, and $36 million in private investment.

Mr. Schwalb predicts that the museum will have one million visitors its first year, several times the attendance of halls of fame in more distant locales, like the one devoted to baseball in Cooperstown in upstate New York; to boxing in Canastota, even farther upstate; and to professional football in Canton, Ohio.

***

DO YOU WANT TO DANCE?

No St. John's. No New York team? Well, please do as I do. Adopt Davidson College as your NY team, with Coach Bob McKillop leading the way. (No, it's not a cop-out, Joe! - He's my high school coach!)

In case you didn't see it, Davidson earned a place in the NCAA men's basketball tournament and ran a perfect 23-0 mark in the Southern Conference. They await their opponent to be announced today on CBS' selection show.

***

Is there anything more annoying than golf fans yelling, "Get in the hole," when someone tees off on a par 3? Answer: Yes. The guy with a cell phone in his hand waving to the TV from behind the plate at a baseball game.

***

Mark Cuban should take a look at this note from Orlando's Brian Schmitz before he criticizes his own players and suggesting they skip playing with their national teams. Both Tukoglu and Steve Nash excelled with their respective NBA teams after break-out summers with their national teams, Nash's coming back in the summer of '99 when he led Canada to a nearly impossible dream of qualifying for Sydney 2000:


Turkoglu credits Turkish team for his big season

By Brian Schmitz, Sentinel Staff Writer

March 9, 2008

Magic SF Hedo Turkoglu traces his success this season to playing for the Turkish National Team last summer. He said Saturday that he plans on playing for his native country again this summer in the EuroBasket 2009 qualifier -- and hopes he can bring the NBA's most improved player award back home.

"Maybe I can get most improved player. . . . that would be good for everybody to be proud of," Turkoglu said.

Turkoglu, the first Turkish-born player to make an NBA roster, said he will play for the Turkish team to also lend his experience to young players. The team finished 1-5, good for 12th place, in the European Championships last summer. Turkey did not qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

" I'm going to play, probably. I'll see the situation and decide what's best for me, what's best for the national team," Turkoglu said. "Because I had a good summer last year and hopefully, having this kind of year, this experience, I can carry to the national team, help to the young guys."

Turkoglu, who turns 29 on March 19, said he hears from Turkish people who want to congratulate him for his breakout season. "I hear it all the time. I get a lot of phone calls when I go back, they're going to be like, proud. They're proud what I did so far. Even if I don't get all-star, they still call me all-star in Turkey," he said.

***

Time Magazine ran a feature with "10 Questions for NBA Commissioner David Stern." Let me say this, before you read on, 'there's nothing like a Q&A where you get a question on the relocation of the Seattle SuperSonics from a guy in Budapest. Here's the text of the Q&A:

For 24 years, the NBA commissioner has helped globalize pro basketball. And this year's compelling season could lift the league out of a ratings funk. David Stern will now take your questions



What was your lowest point as commissioner, and your highest point? —Luiz Dias, Fort Worth, Texas
The worst has probably been having to suspend players for life for failing drug tests. Another was being at the announcement that Magic [Johnson] was HIV positive, when we expected to lose him. [The best] has been watching the U.S. and the world embrace the athletes of the NBA, who had earlier been described as "too black" for us to succeed.

How will you ensure that the NBA doesn't face baseball's problem with steroids? —Mike Diaz, Brooklyn, N.Y.
We test every athlete four times, at random, between the beginning of training camp and the end of the postseason. We contract that work out to an independent agency. We think it's working pretty well, although you never know until you read the newspapers.

Why would you let the Seattle SuperSonics relocate to Oklahoma City? You're moving away from an Asian-Pacific community to a much less diverse place. Can you explain your logic? —John Holm, Budapest
I guess my logic is that there are plenty of franchises that have jumping-off points to Asia. It could be the Bay Area; it could be Portland; it could be Los Angeles. And our Asian philosophy is more about being there. We have offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.

Many commentators openly allege that star players get favorable treatment from referees. Why has there been so little response from the NBA to this problem? —Madison Welch, Arlington, Va.
The criticism is not true. We have data to demonstrate that superstars don't get that treatment. I've just been hesitant to hold a press conference to announce the obvious.

Do you think the courtside dress code you put in place [in 2005] has had a positive effect? —Michael Blackwell, Cedar Falls, Iowa
I do. I viewed it as an opportunity to say to our players that there is this issue of respect, and we just have to wake up and focus on that. It's not the draconian dress code that people came to believe it was. You would have thought I'd said you had to wear a tuxedo or tails to a game.

Can you do anything to increase the number of game telecasts in India? We get only two games a week, which stinks. —Wamiqur Rehman Gajdhar, New Delhi
I completely agree. We're having intense negotiations now. In July our Basketball Without Borders, a clinic bringing in outstanding young talent from around Asia, is going to be held in New Delhi. So we're very interested in getting more games in the Indian market.

How do you stay sane when watching a cornerstone franchise like the New York Knicks embody utter incompetence? —Brian Smith, Fort Worth, Texas
We've had teams go through bad competitive cycles. I know the Knicks have had a rough stretch, but I tend to be an optimist and think success is right around the corner.

Will the NBA attempt to push back the minimum age to 20 [from 19] when the collective-bargaining agreement expires in 2011? —Kirk Henderson, Washington
Yes, we will. We think [raising the entry age to 19] has been very constructive.

Which NBA player do you enjoy watching most? —Ryan Gill, Portland, Ore.
I refuse to answer that. That's between me, the closed door and my high-definition Dolby surround-sound television set.

When was the last time you suited up and played ball? —Burke Hair, Chicago
That's a tough one. I quit 15 years ago, after my sons began to take away my advantage of using my behind to push them away from the basket.

How has being the commissioner of the NBA affected your personal life? —Raphael Katz, New York City
Early on, it affected my ride on the train, because everyone had a solution that they wanted to propose to me. Over the years, it's effected my ability to go places privately. It's very intense, it takes away form other aspects. It is difficult, to a certain measure, for kids and spouses to deal with celebrity, in terms of the demands it makes on you and the absence of privacy.

The Seattle Sonics are probably going to move to Oklahoma City. You appear to be sending the message that communities need to shoulder enormous financial burdens to build arenas (which some think are unnecessary), while you let team owners make enormous profits. We are losing confidence in you and the league. How do you respond? —Tim DeJong, Cleveland
I welcome the criticism. I would say that a good number of our franchises are not profitable. So there are many owners who would raise their eyebrows at the charge that they are making enormous profits. I think that the ideal partnership is a private/public corporate partnership, and in Seattle, basically, the City Council said, "No." In fact, it engineered legislation that would make it difficult if not impossible for them to give any aid to the building of a new arena. And the state legislature said, "No." So we never got to the debate as to what the fair shouldering of responsibility should be, because we never were engaged in it. So that's my answer there. And, in an interesting kind of way, it's ok if somebody says they don't want to spend the money, they don't want to do the legislation, they don't want to have a referendum.

Do you feel the NBA has lost ground in popularity to other sports because it has become too synonymous with hip-hop ostentation? —Jens Jensen, Chicago
I don't think so. I think one watches the Grammys, one watches the fashion shows, and the reality is that sports, music, fashion - they're global trends. I knew that to be the fact when I saw Lee Iacocca appear in a Chrysler ad with Snoop Dogg. Or when water was being advertised by 50 Cent. You know, c'mon guys. We don't court it, we don't overly promote it. Charles Barkley took me to task for having Big & Rich at the Denver All-Star Game (in 2005) because they weren't hip-hop. I'm waiting to be criticized for having Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr. as half-time entertainment [at the 2008 All-Star game] in New Orleans because it wasn't hip enough. We go with the flow, and do not have a hip-hop agenda.

What steps have you undertaken to minimize incidents or allegations of game fixing by the referees? —J. Raphael Licauco, Manila, Philippines
We're putting in new and more sophisticated computer programming and screens, to see what irregularities pop out. We're doing new background checks, in a deeper way, on a more continual basis. We're cutting off pre-game information for the referees, once they go into the locker room. We're in the process of setting up hotlines to receive particular types of information. And we're looking into a greater group of activities, some of which I would rather not publicize, but really go to insuring our game against betting irregularities.

How come the NBA is not targeting African countries like Sudan for prospective players? —Tarig Abdalla, Khartoum, Sudan
Actually, we have players from Africa. We've conducted our Basketball Without Borders program there - this will be our fourth year in South Africa. We have players from the Sudan, we have players from Senegal, we've had players from Nigeria. We actually have more games available in Africa over the air, both terrestrially and by satellite, than we do in India. We just made a deal with a telephone company so that folks in Africa can see the NBA on their cell phones when they're not watching it on TV. I think Africa is going to be the hidden gem for us.

***

Bob Knight's commentary on ESPN makes me sick. He treats his co-workers (i.e. Mike Greenberg) in a condescending manner and with a lack of respect, much the same way he's treated media members and even his players over the years.

It's either Knight's way or the highway, of course.

Greenberg, in a Friday morning interview on the Mike & Mike radio show, avoided any type of confrontation with Knight as they discussed 'the things to look for' in an eventual NCAA champion. Knight chastised Greenberg for his lead-in question about 'why UConn lost to West Virginia,' stating that he had just told the audience that 'guard play, taking away the post play, not allowing easy baskets and some fire power' were the attributes to look for in an eventual champion.

Knight's insight - right on the money, I agree - was lost in the fact that he treated his co-worker as if he had a learning disability. I am sure Knight didn't even notice his condescending ways. Greenberg certainly allowed it to happen in the spirit of 'good radio.'

***

If I were to do an 'expose' on the Spitzer situation, you would be sure to see the headline: "KRISTEN: WE HARDLY KNEW YE"

Did you see the "Client #9" tee shirts on sale?