Donald Sterling Banned from the NBA

Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball franchise of the NBA is facing a life-time ban over an audio recording that has surfaced through ‘TMZ’ which has now been proven to be the voice of Donald Sterling himself and “mistress” V. Stiviano.  The leaked conversation that is now floating all over the internet has depicted Sterling as a racist that should have no place in the NBA as he appeared to be uncomfortable and irritated with the fact that Stiviano had been associating herself with African-Americans and in particular a photo in which she posed alongside Magic Johnson, that she made public through Instagram and other social media.

Donald Sterling and V. Stiviano
(source: http://ab.co/1olyQBf)

Sterling’s comments to Stiviano:

"It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people", and, "You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want", but "the little I ask you is ... not to bring them to my games."[1]

The newly appointed NBA commissioner (as of 1^st February 2014) Adam Silver had to make a big decision early into his career as commissioner, and that was to take serious action. Prior to this incident Sterling had a poor reputation to begin with among st association, the punishment imposed by Silver included a lifetime banishment from the NBA and Clippers organization and a $2.5 million fine, which may not seem like much in comparison to Sterling’s $1.9 billion net worth, however it was the maximum amount that could be imposed as of the guidelines. 

"Mr Sterling may not attend any NBA games or practices, he may not be present at any Clippers facility and he may not participate in any business or player-personnel decision involving the team"

Currently Sterling is the rightful owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, however Adam Silver and the other NBA team owners are showing their support in dismissing Sterling and are now planning on forcing him to sell the Clippers by voting him out. Sterling had signed moral and ethical contracts with the NBA which and this has recently emerged to be part of the legal strategy to banish Donald Sterling on the grounds of "fail(s) or refuse(s) to fulfill its contractual obligations to the Association”[2] as part of the leagues constitution, furthermore the owners finance committee consisting of 10 owners have already agreed on voting Sterling out, as the rest of the owners have not yet formally voted, but it is highly likely that we will see the support of 75% of owners that need to be in agreement to remove Sterling of his ownership of the Clippers.

Clippers show their support against by wearing warm up jerseys inside out, hiding the Clippers logo.
(source: http://bit.ly/1nEAP1g)

With a rallying amount of support from almost everyone involved in the NBA and the fans, we are witnessing a form of unity against Sterling’s unacceptable remarks and behavior as teams have shown their support by speaking out or through making a statement which may not seem like much, however it does represent the harmonious nature of the league.

Sterling, very familiar with the legal system and also a lawyer by trade will not go down without a fight as he has no intention to sell the Clippers therefore we will most likely see this go to court which may take a lifetime to settle whilst being a very messy legal case. It is believed that the estimated value of the Clippers  may exceed $1 Billion USD with many high valued people showing their interest in buying the franchise. 

[1]  "L.A. Clippers owner to GF: Don't bring black people to my games ... including Magic Johnson". TMZ.com. EHM Productions. April 25, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2014.

[2] http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/10892918/nba-legal-strategy-remove-donald-sterling-los-angeles-clippers-owner-emerges

HOW TO: Alley-Oop

On of the most effectively offensive plays on the court, an alley-oop is passing the ball to your friend for them to score. But a lot more comes into it when perfecting it. To utilise this skill takes practice in teamwork,timing and precision all at once, as the most important feature is to effectively co-ordinate with your teammate whom you are setting the ball up for or receiving the ball from. If you are not on the same level as your teammate, this move will surely fail.

We'll run through the process acting on both sides of this technique - the player setting up for the other player to score, and vice versa in each step outlined below.

Source: http://bit.ly/1osFwxC

Step 1: Signal

The first step is ensuring a signal has been made for the alley-oop to take place. For the receiver, this could possibly be pointing to the net, giving a number or sign with their fingers, or saying it to your teammate before your next offensive possession. For the passer, all involved is simply identifying when the signal has been made to know it's time to move onto Step 2.

Step 2: Timing

By far the most crucial aspect of the play, where you have to be certain that before the passer is ready to make their move, so is the receiver. The best way both teammates can act on the move together is keep an eye on each other. If you lose focus on what part they've reached in the process, you can perform a sequence too early or too late. 

Example for passer: not seeing your teammate and passing the ball too late

Example for receiver: not seeing your teammate held up and running too early

The best take on this issue is for the receiver to steadily maintain control of the ball whilst holding off opponents, keeping an eye out for their teammate. As soon as they see their teammate make the run for it, so do they, moving to Step 3.

Step 3: Set Up

Now that both players are on the move, what’s left is the pass and the score to make. The aim in the final part of this play for the passer is 2 a) lure the defense towards themselves, away from their teammate and b) clear the area around the net making it easier for their teammate to make the run and jump.

As the receiver progresses towards the net, they should seem as if they are heading for the net or making an individual big play, acting as a ploy or distraction, right before the last part, Step 4.

Step 4: Pass

The final move to be made by both players. This part we will run through separately in both roles.

Passer: the final step is to make the pass to the receiver. Fair warning this is not a simple ‘just throw it to the player’ pass. The ball needs to be gently tossed towards the net so that your teammate can simply dunk or shoot the ball in simply by guiding it from they contacted it. If the player has to take control or abruptly slow down/speedup their run and contact, the pass could have been better.

Reciever: the final step is jumping at the right time to contact the ball and get the points. This needs to be carefully timed right from Step 1 when the receiver first makes the signal. The aim is for all to go well and the receiver to be perfectly in motion so that they coincide with the ball’s motion where all they simply have to do is dunk it in the net or lob it in.

And that’s the alley-oop guys, and be ready for our video to come out soon which will show you how to do this with your teammate perfectly.

HOW TO: Layup

Welcome to the start of the 'How To' series on this blog, where over the next few weeks we'll be describing, showing and hopefully helping you perfect the skill of a number of basketball techniques. We'll cover most basics including dribbling, 3-pointers and doing a layup. Today, we're starting off with one of the most effective shots in basketball to be made, the layup.

Before our upcoming video on how to do a simple lay up, we've provided a step by step tutorial below to walk you through the fundamentals of a layup.

Step 1

Source: http://bit.ly/1lrLCrL

Pick the side you'll be shooting from, for beginners its easier to do a layup coming in from the side of their preferred hand. (left handed players will come from the left and vice versa for right handed players.)

Step 2

Dribble in towards the basket with the hand from the side your coming from.

Step 3

Dribble in one step in front of the free throw line or on the three throw line depending on the length of your stride.

Step 4

Take two steps towards the basket.

Step 5

When about one and half meters from the basket jump off the opposite foot in relation to the shooting arm. e.g if you are doing a right handed layup, aim to always jump of the left foot.

Step 6

Throw the ball towards the backboard top corner with the hand furthest from the basket. (right hand if your coming in from the right and left hand if your coming in from the left) If you are successful the ball should swish through the net.

So guys that's how you perform a simple layup, of course there are more complex and better looking ways to do a layup but that'll be for a later day. The video will be coming soon showing you how we do layups with consistent updates on what we're working on so follow us on twitter at @isys100bfriday.

NBA 2014 Playoffs Round 1 Saturday Recap and Results

Source: http://bit.ly/1qEEXCO

It was a  big weekend in the NBA, with the first round of the 2014 playoffs commencing on the Saturday (April 19th). With 8 teams from each conference ready to match up against each other to win the 2014 NBA championship. 

Here are the teams (ranked by seed) that have made it to the playoffs 

Eastern Conference

1. Indiana Pacers
2. Miami Heat
3. Toronto Raptors
4. Chicago Bulls
5. Washington Wizards
6. Brooklyn Nets
7. Charlotte Bobcats
8. Atlanta Hawks

Western Conference

1. San Antonio Spurs
2. Oklahoma City Thunder
3. Los Angeles Clippers
4. Houston Rockets
5. Portland Trailblazers
6. Golden State Warriors
7. Memphis Grizzlies
8. Dallas Mavericks

Source: http://bit.ly/1hMVWts

Saturday Night Games - April 19th 2014 (19/4/14)

Brooklyn Nets (94) vs Toronto Raptors (87)

The Toronto Raptors host the Brooklyn Nets at the Air Canada Centre, Toronto. The Nets showed early dominance against the Raptors with consistent field goal shooting from Joe Johnson (24pts) and Deron Williams (24 pts), reinforced with Paul Pierce's shooting performance in the 4th quarter giving the edge to what had become a close contest throughout the 3rd and 4th quarters. The Brooklyn Nets take the win over the Toronto Raptors with with a score of 94-87. The nets now lead the best out of 7 series 1-0 against the Raptors.

Golden State Warriors (109) vs Los Angeles Clippers (105)

Both teams picking up early fouls led to a shaky start to the round 1 game between the GS Warriors and the LA Clippers, with Blake Griffin and Andre Iguodala landing into some trouble with fouls, resulting in both players being fouled out. Griffin, the Clippers star had only 19 minutes on court, whilst Iguodala only 20 minutes. With a poor start by the Warriors, having gone 0-8 in the first, they managed to close up the gap as the scores were tied at 52 points by half time. The Golden State Warriors managed to sneak the win over the Los Angeles Clippers with a score of 109-105.

Atlanta Hawks (101) vs Indiana Pacers (93)

The number 8 east seed, Atlanta Hawks are matched up against the number 1, Indiana Pacers in the eastern conference playoffs. The Pacers, struggled to reflect their dominance that they had in their season against the Hawks, as the Atlanta point guard Jeff Teague led the Hawks with 28 points, a career high for him in the playoffs. Paul Millsap also sparked up the fire for his team by scoring two 3 pointers while getting to the free throw line on multiple occasions, he finished with 25 points. The Pacers managed to keep the score close together with a steady and controlled start, however with only scoring 16 points in the 3rd, they unfortunately could not close the gap, even with an impressive 4th quarter performance. Final score, 101 - 93 with Atlanta Hawks winning and now leading the series 1-0

Oklahoma City Thunder (100) vs Memphis Grizzlies(86)

The OKC Thunder met the Memphis Grizzlies for round 1 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma, as the Thunder started of powerful with an 8-0 scoring run after the tip off, resulting in some extremely poor shooting performance by the Grizzlies, making only 5 of 29 in the first quarter. The Thunder continued to increase their lead by half time with a huge 22 point advantage due to their consistent defense, on the other hand,  the Grizzlies managed to upped the ante after half time with a 17-4 run to start of the 3rd quarter as they slowly attempted to close the deficit between the scores, however it was not sufficient enough as the Thunder maintained composure throughout the 4th to take the win over the Grizzlies with a score of 100-86.