Tapin2 MAXES Out Kobe Farewell for AEG, LA Team Store

Tapin2 is a new client and one that has tremendous potential in the sports industry, for teams (minor league and major league), venues (sports and other), and for merchandizing companies who can service fans directly from their app or app of team/league/venue/retailer, etc).

Here's one example (from a Tapin2 news release):

LOS ANGELES - As STAPLES Center, L.A. LIVE and AEG hosted an eventful and record-breaking week, the venues shattered industry one-night merchandise records by selling $1.2 million with an “assist” from Tap.in2 technology which powered the TEAM LA Store for in-seat delivery of officially licensed merchandise, including the exclusive “24 Collection,” commemorating retiring Los Angeles Lakers All-Star Kobe Bryant.

“Our mission for Kobe Night was to celebrate Kobe Bryant’s legacy and dazzle the fans of Los Angeles with the exclusive ‘24 Collection,’” said Sean Ryan, Vice President, AEG Merchandise.  “Tap.in2’s in-app ordering system helped us give every fan the opportunity to have a piece of LA Lakers’ history delivered to their seat in under five minutes.  The partnership with Tap.in2 has, and continues to, exceed our expectations.  Their technology coupled with their attention to detail is best-in-class.”

Using the Lakers app, fans had access to an exclusive menu of “24 Collection” items including a snakeskin Kobe Bryant Jersey, high-end bomber jackets and multiple commemorative hats.  At the arena on game night Tap.in2 and TEAM LA Store were able to deliver 300 items to fans in their seats.

“We are honored to be a part of both merchandising and sports history,” said Tap.in2 co-founder Jordan Syms. “Our in-seat delivery technology for the ‘24 Collection’ merchandise brought as much joy to the fans as Kobe’s 60-point farewell performance, mainly because the fans never missed a second of the action.  Tap.in2’s mobile ordering platform helped drive revenue for our partners, the Lakers and AEG Merchandise, and Kobe’s loyal fans caught every Black Mamba moment.”

The continued expansion of Tap.in2’s partnership with AEG Merchandise came after executing an innovative in-seat delivery program for merchandise during the regular season serving the LA Lakers, LA Clippers and the LA Kings as well as a growing number of events at STAPLES Center.

About Tap.in2

Tap.in2 transforms the fan experience at live events through real-time, data-driven tools designed to help venue operators, concessionaires and sports or entertainment properties connect guests to everything a venue has to offer. Tap.in2 enables in-seat ordering of concessions, merchandise and promotions from a fans’ mobile devices.  Tap.in2 turns any device into a personal POS to maximize a fan's live event experience. For more information, please visit www.Tapin2.co

Welcome Back and a Very Good Idea

Nice job and great idea to welcome back a player after he's worked his tail off to return to the game he loves (and dominated for a decade).

Digital Sports Desk

Check out the latest column by TERRY LYONS @DigSportsDesk (follow on Twitter) --

It's October 4th: Do you know where your NBA is?

NBA Commissioner David Stern

OCTOBER 4 - Visit DigitalSportsDesk.com - There is something deep inside the psyche of the human mind that likes, or more exactly, wants to tie things up into nice packages.  That attribute is more often affiliated with "Type A" personalities than with the masses, but maybe most reporters and their tv editors or headline writers are, indeed, "Type A's" themselves.  Such is the case when media reports flow from the on-going NBA labor negotiations, now in the 96th day of lockout mode but years into the process of dividing billions of dollars between NBA players and team owners in a system long out of whack and even longer Gerry-rigged for the deal of the day.

Quite simply, it is always overlooked that the problem still remains that the deal of the day in 2005 or 1998 became the deal for the decade and the delivery system itself has become the real problem.

All day long media reports will flame the fires of a negotiating session to take place today at high Noon, not long after the NBA Commissioner, David Stern, his outside counsel and legal staff meet with a group of team owners who are trying to negotiate their way to a 50-50 split of the revenue generated by the sport of pro basketball.  The NBA Players Association, headed by executive director Billy Hunter, his outside counsel and legal staff, along with dozens of professional basketball players will get together around 10:30am to prepare for that Noon meeting at the O.K. Corral luxury hotel that has been reserved, along with coffee, tea and cases of Diet Coke to allow the commissioner and his fellow negotiators enough caffeine to ingest until night falls and they disembark from the meetings, without real progress, sour-faced again and again.

The media feed the frenzy.  They try to transcribe the confusing legalese and new-fangled labor relations descriptions for maximum salary levels clamped on teams, superstar players, veteran free agent players, in-coming rookie players and everyone in between. Terms like "hard" cap or "soft" cap or "Flex" cap, "Base year compensation" (and even once, the translation of "Basure") get volleyed around as though they have some significant meaning in the world of sports finance.  But, at the end of the day, there is a very large number that is actually the only number that matters.  It is the number of dollars to be paid by NBA team owners to the entire group of players.  The owners only wish they could write one check and dump it on Hunter's doorstep to leave him with the problem of how to divide the purse.

Somehow, that fact -- the very root of the issue -- is not often surfaced because the smaller pieces of the puzzle and the delivery mechanism have long become the sticking point for the negotiation.  Just how will the money be divided? How can the 30 NBA clubs remain competitive within the system? How will the agents react to the finer points of the negotiations? Everyone manipulates the discussion to try to gain an advantage, and not always for their cause or in the best interest of their clients, but rather, for themselves.

Reports leak from within the negotiating room, most regularly from someone backstabbing Stern through Yahoo Sports.  Apparently a few of the NBA's newest team owners are pushing for better returns of their $400-million plus investments. They feel more of a sense of urgency than their more established peers who got in with ground-floor franchise investments to see their values soar to unimaginable heights. They paid Muggsy Bogues money and, years later, it was Yao Ming money.  They celebrated with the commissioner and they all rejoiced. But, that was once upon a time.

Along came Mark Cuban and he dared question the authority.

Before Cuban struck internet gold with broadcast.com being gobbled-up by some Yahoo who paid billions for something that had the shelf-life of a Poloroid camera, there were whacky team owners, for sure.  Donald Sterling of the San Diego/LA Clippers, Cleveland's Ted Stepien, and Charlotte/New Orleans' George Shinn to name a few.  They were mocked and chastised by media, team executives and their co-owners if they dared to question the system or speak a word of negativity.  But as the older generation of NBA team owners passed the torch (Cleveland's Gund brothers, Phoenix's Jerry Colangelo) or passed away (Washington's Abe Pollin, Detroit's Bill Davidson, Utah's Larry Miller), the vibe began to change within the ranks of ownership and scrutiny fell upon the Commissioner and NBA league office like never before.

The sweetheart deal of 2005 that media once reported as a Stern TKO on Hunter had become a one-sided 57-percent of revenue debacle for the NBA owners of the year 2011.  Six years and a worldwide financial meltdown will do that, you know?

The new investors within the NBA ownership ranks, mostly all of them listed on the Forbes 400, want a system that provides their basketball LLCs with a profit or at least the chance of making one if they don't screw up and guarantee 10 or, God forbid, 17-millions of dollars to a Stephon Marbury, Gilbert Arenas, Rashard Lewis, Eddy Curry, Michael Redd or Andrei Kirilenko, all guaranteed, of course, under the collective bargaining agreement they attempt to alter.  But, to date, there have not been reports or proclamations to blow-up the entire system and start over.  Maybe the maximum team salary system, and all of the thousands of Bird-brained exceptions needs to fly to coop.  Once they seemed like a good idea, a suggestion that was made in a meeting held in 1980-something. Maybe the free agent spending by Stepien that provoked such a system can some way be regulated to allow for free agent movement without dire consequences for small market teams or clubs whose players suffer major injuries?

What would that new system look like?  Maybe Mark Cuban or Robert Sarver have the answer and they haven't spoken up.  They have the answers to everything else, so let's hear it, eh?  Or maybe, the ultra-silent Michael Jordan, owner of the Charlotte Bobcats can share some insight from labor negotiations of the past where Jordan's agent, David Falk, had the union by its coat tails.

Maybe they can create 12 salary slots per team, 11 at different pay scales and one that covers the 12th-to-14th/15th man?  On the LA Lakers, Kobe would get the top slot, Pau would get #2, and so on.  If you change teams, you accept a slot - either higher, equal or lower than the slot you have?  Trades would have to be for even money and even slots.  Plain and simple.  And, yes, that would go down as a "hard cap" and a "blood issue" in the negotiating room, so it wouldn't fly for Hunter, his players or their agents.

Maybe "max" contracts can only be provided to players who have at least two championship rings?  Maybe a player contract is guaranteed for a year or two, but it is converted to a front office/player development job if the player is injured and can no longer perform?  How about starting all over with a 60-game season, and everyone's contract cut by a third?  Every suggestion would get laughed out of the room, yet every suggestion addresses the major issues that face the league today; Ticket prices too high, too many games for ticket buyers to attend/too long a season and so on.

So, the big meeting of October 4th, a day after training camps were scheduled to begin, becomes the new focal point.  The "smaller" meeting yesterday was to "set the table" for the meeting du jour. The commissioner noted the exact times, 10:30am and Noon "sharp," he said. If they break early, "it will be bad."  If it breaks later in the day "not as bad."  Why?

"It can't end tomorrow.  There is a long negotiation ahead of us because there are, literally, hundreds of other issues that haven't been addressed yet, the so-called B-level issues," said Adam Silver, Stern's deputy commissioner.

ADB: Journey to the Ring ...

Listen in to a great interview with NBA photographer Andrew D. Bernstein his new photo book on the amazing journey the LA Lakers took to capture the 201o NBA championship.  Good stuff - even for a Boston guy.

Can't believe he remembered to load the camera!  Click below to buy one and think about a great stocking stuffer for Christmas time.

Kobe on Sina.com ...

The impact of the USA Basketball team at the Beijing Olympic Games is still very evident as Olympian Kobe Bryant signed a deal with the Chinese web portal sina.com. See the story on the English version of the site by clicking on headline above.

Across the Pond - Team USA ...

Click on the headline above for the latest on Team USA...

Ref Tells of Undercover Mob Bust and Life After the Feds head testimony ...

On busy Sunday mornings, I always try to read but often have to put aside the great New York Sunday papers. If I get a second or two, I might glance at the Internet and check some of my usual favorites, such as CNN.com, ESPN.com and Boston.com.

As the day slows down, there's nothing better than settling-in on the couch with a cold "Diet Coke" and a game or PGA tourney on TV, and take some quality time to read a nice pile of papers.

On Sunday January 27th, I did just that .. a real busy day, but at about 5:00pm it was clear sailing. As I was was flipping through the New York's hometown paper, often read from back to front I must admit, I made my way to the front "news" section. A full page story, complete with terrific photos from COVERT and a cover photo of the book itself met my eyes, along with a real "teaser" headline, blaring: "Ref and the Mob." The subhead told the whole story: "In new book, ex-undercover tells of blowing whistle on hoods."

As Law and Order says... Here are their stories:

Former undercover cop tells mob story

BY CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, January 27th 2008, 4:00 AM

Thirty years ago, Bobby Covert died and an NBA referee was born.

Now the true story of Bob Delaney, the New Jersey state trooper who helped cripple the mob by going undercover as corrupt trucking firm owner Bobby Covert, is being told.

Fittingly, Delaney's memoir of risk, redemption and professional refereeing is called "Covert," a name filched from Newark's death rolls.

"It took me a while to shed the persona of Bobby Covert," said Delaney, 56. "I guess I had to live it before I could write it."

What a story it is.

Delaney recounts his basketball-filled childhood in Paterson, N.J., and how he had to shed his past to "enter the dark side" and infiltrate the Mafia.

"I was about to get a lesson in the ways of the mob," he writes.

His uncanny ability to blend in - and play the Bobby Covert role while swimming with sharks for three years - enabled him and two other wired undercovers to gather enough evidence to indict 30 members of the Genovese and Bruno crime families.

Delaney, with help from St. Petersburg Times writer Dave Scheiber, describes a world like a "Sopranos" episode.

Killers laugh about breaking the legs of a man with a baseball bat. Mob chiefs test underlings by pretending to shoot other hoods in front of them.

In this world, mob bigs get misty-eyed listening to "The Godfather" theme song but shed no tears for the businessmen they ruin by forcing them to pay protection money and give hoods no-show jobs.

Delaney admits he took a liking to some of the made men he busted and found himself feeling torn up inside when one of the handcuffed hoods turned to him and said, "How could you do this to me?"

Later, Delaney discovered he was suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and that the ordeal of having to live a lie - or die - sapped his hormone levels. Talking it through with a therapist helped, Delaney writes, but he found real relief on the hardwood floors.

"The game of basketball is therapy for me," he told the Daily News in a telephone interview from Chicago, just before the Bulls played the Charlotte Hornets. "I'm on an island and all I have to worry about is the game at hand."

Out there, Delaney added, the "concentration level is so high you're aware of the fans, but during the course of the game you tune them out."

One voice he couldn't tune out was that of Pat Kelly, the mob informant who helped Delaney bag the bad guys.

Kelly got Delaney's attention at a Phoenix Suns game by yelling "Alamo Trucking" - the name of a fictitious firm Delaney ran in Jersey City.

"My mind was still spinning," Delaney writes. "I mean, this guy was in the Witness Relocation program and here he was sitting courtside."

It was a happy reunion for Delaney, who had watched his back for many years.

"I have been living a 9/11 lifestyle since 1978," he said. "Realistically, these events took place 30 years ago and many of the people we put away have either been in prison or have died."

Delaney said his exploits have given him serious cred with some NBA players.

"I called a foul on Kobe Bryant," he said. "He came over to me and I thought he was going to talk about it. Instead, he said to me, 'That must have been wild to wear a wire.'"

by: csiemaszko@nydailynews.com

Also, see this trailer:

An answer to my USA question...

Peter May of the Boston Globe, one of the few writers who has witnessed nearly every USA Basketball training camp, Americas qualifying tournament and his share of World Championship and Olympics Games, had this to say in today's Globe:

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/articles/2007/07/22/this_time_its_not_about_him/

There are two unmistakable plotlines as USA Basketball gets ready for next month's Olympic qualifier. One is, "We learned from last year." The other is the presence of Kobe Bryant. The two are not unrelated.

Team USA is forced to be here because it did not prevail at last year's world championships in Japan, despite the presence of a new management team (Jerry Colangelo, Mike Krzyzewski) and a roster led by Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Carmelo Anthony. This time around, with a distinctly less-imposing field and an upgraded roster, the United States needs only to finish first or second to qualify for Beijing. Given that the US has a 26-0 record in zone qualifiers, that half of Argentina's usual roster is elsewhere, and that the only other team with any cachet is Brazil, the Yanks' chances are, well, as they say here, off the books.

But, of course, to listen to the players and coaches, the future of Western civilization is at stake and, frankly, that is how it should be. The US cannot assume anything anymore in international basketball, even finishing in the top two in a qualifier on its own turf against a field that would have trouble winning the NIT. So, the 2007 team is a lot different than the 2006 team, and it starts with Bryant, who is bleeding red, white, and blue. He missed the Worlds last year because of an injury and has been pointing to this tournament ever since, his first experience with USA Basketball.

"I think he was really down in the dumps last year," Colangelo said of Bryant. "He wanted badly to play and it didn't happen for him. During the course of this year he made it very clear that this was big to him, that this was important to him."

And it is. While Bryant is indisputably the alpha male on the team, Kobe is all USA, all the time right now. So his earlier pleas for help from the Lakers, and the back-and-forth that ensued, is, for now, not up for discussion. Colangelo said simply, "It's not even a conversation piece for us. And it shouldn't be." Bryant deflected most of the Laker-related questions on the first day of media availability, saying he didn't want to be a distraction. You know, just one of the guys for now.

"I understand the interest in the [Lakers] situation, and when the time is right I will address those questions," Bryant said. "The right thing now is to handle it the right way, going forward."

So there. You won't get him dissin' Andrew Bynum (to whom he said he apologized) or wondering why USA Basketball teammate Jason Kidd didn't join him last February (because the Lakers would not surrender Bynum). He did endorse the signings of Luke Walton, Chris Mihm, and Derek Fisher, a close friend. He said he has lost 19 pounds. He admitted that if he had do it over, he would do it differently. Which means, apparently, that he wouldn't call every Los Angeles radio station to rip the Lakers.

But that's as far as he's going to go while wearing the USA shirt. He is taking the proverbial high road.

"At this time, with what we're trying to accomplish here, I want to keep the focus on this team, not take any attention," he said. "I don't want to be a distraction."

But he is a distraction in another sort of way -- a good way for Colangelo and Coach K. Along with Kidd and Chauncey Billups, he adds a veteran hue to this team, something it lacked at the Worlds. And Colangelo said Bryant brings something else.

"There's a toughness and an edge to Kobe and that's something we didn't have last year," Colangelo said. "I think to be really successful on this level you have to have an edge. I think we've got a little bit of that now."

Colangelo also made sure that everyone, including Bryant, had to check their egos at the door. (No small request.) At a team meeting Thursday, Colangelo told the players that while a few had won NBA titles and most have been on All-Star teams, only one of them, Kidd, had a gold medal.