ESPN is in an innovator's dilemma. The faster they cultivate a direct-to-consumer digital online property, the faster they're going to cannibalize their cable-TV network. | | | | Abel Tasman went from worst to first at the Kentucky Oaks.
(Alex Evers/Eclipse Sportswire/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “ESPN is in an innovator's dilemma. The faster they cultivate a direct-to-consumer digital online property, the faster they're going to cannibalize their cable-TV network.”
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| | rantnrave:// The sports ecosystem has an odd relationship with iconoclasts and disruptors. Respect is harder to come if you don't operate under the same old rules. Think of SAM HINKIE's 76ERS, the MONEYBALL A'S, or BILL BELICHICK going for it on 4th-and-2. Different is treated with great cynicism and derision. LAVAR BALL is like them -- different -- and he isn't getting much respect either. He and BIG BALLER BRAND are being treated like a carnival. Being different is earning him and his company free marketing but not acceptance. Ball is trying to upend a paradigm -- of how NCAA athletes should act, of how the shoe game works. Playing by the rules would be simpler for him and his son. They could take a deal from NIKE or ADIDAS and turn down the volume. Instead, Ball is turning it up. The only way he'll get respect is the only way anyone does in sports: by winning. But for Ball, winning is hard to define. Is it turning Big Baller Brand into a major apparel company? Turning a profit? If LONZO BALL becomes an ALL-STAR but his shoes flop, how will we view this experiment? The Balls want to be the disruptors lionized in SILICON VALLEY and the gurus sports fans talk about at the bar. Lavar is too outlandish at times and Lonzo could be a bust, but we should still respect what they're doing... If you think $495 is steep for a shoe, it pales in comparison to this $1,425 sneaker. Fashion is pain on your wallet... ELIUD KIPCHOGE didn't break two hours in the marathon but he did come close. His 2:00:25 beat the world record by two and a half minutes -- but won't count for offiial record-keeping because he had pacers. He did push the human body to a place it hadn't reached before. So, what's next?... I spent last week on the West Coast and it gave me major time zone envy. NBA playoff games at 4 pm. A late game that ends before I get sleepy. This isn't breaking news but this East Coast resident is jealous. I hear baseball fans of previous generations wishing MLB would put on postseason games more frequently during the daytime. I know it's anachronistic joy at this point, but I can't help but think how great it would be. | | | - Mike Vorkunov, curator |
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 | The Outline |
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 | Esquire |
| Royce White's anxiety disorder derailed his promising NBA career, and the league did little to help. Now flourishing in the Canadian league, his new goal is to transform how professional sports-and the culture at large-think about mental health. | | |
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 | VSB |
| I want to want him to win. But I don't. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| Controversy surrounding one of Speer’s projects has invited what he has worked his entire career to avoid: comparisons to his father, Hitler’s favorite architect. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| Colin Allred avoided being a distraction in the NFL. Now he’s ready to distract the Trump administration with a run for a House seat. | | |
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 | SB*Nation |
| Big Baller Brand has been criticized and ridiculed -- but like LaVar Ball, it could be underestimated. | | |
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 | Quartz |
| You can’t judge a people by their dictator. | | |
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 | The Hairpin |
| As a rule I like my opinion pieces to be airtight and unimpeachable. As a reader, you’ve come to expect this from me. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| The price tag for the least expensive model doesn’t go over well as the basketball star and his father try a different business model. | | |
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 | Slate |
| The franchise is still recovering from that original sin. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| Network points to weekly slot for ‘E:60’ and relaunch of ‘Outside the Lines’ as evidence of commitment. | | |
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 | Seattle Sounders FC |
| It was a bone-chilling December night in Toronto featuring combative Lake Ontario winds funneling themselves through the heart of BMO Field. Gone were 90 minutes of scoreless soccer and fast-approaching was a penalty-kick finish to the 21st edition of the MLS Cup championship. | | |
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 | CBSSports.com |
| Baseball, and the entire sports market, is in a bubble, and dwindling TV viewers could cause it to burst. | | |
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 | WBUR |
| Three years ago, golf writer James Dodson was invited to play golf with Donald Trump. Rain cut short the outing, but Dodson came away with stories ... and a cheeseburger. | | |
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 | Sports Illustrated |
| Nobody has watched over the 45th president’s first 100 days more closely than one heartbroken father whose escapist dream for his son started on an L.A. football field, ended with two blasts from a .45 and was ultimately turned into a political rallying cry. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| From a breakout 'Thrasher' part to signing with Nike, how a queer California girl grew up to be one of the best skaters on the planet. | | |
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 | Variety |
| Mark Lazarus is the chairman of NBC Broadcasting and Sports, but his job might be more accurately described as the executive in charge of NBCUniversal’s most expensive programming. Lazarus has the … | | |
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 | Daily Dot |
| The TV network has a plan, and it starts by letting you watch for free. | | |
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 | The Street |
| FloSports, a streaming service based in Austin, Texas, is betting that sports fans want more from their viewing that what they're getting from traditional TV. | | |
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 | Bleacher Report |
| Every aspiring manager in Italy must pass through here. It is the only place in the country where it is possible to obtain either a UEFA A licence—a pre-requisite for anyone who intends to coach at a professional level—or the subsequent UEFA Pro—mandatory for first-team managers in the country's top two divisions. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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