Is Amazon primed for the NBA?
Is Amazon primed for the NBA?
Put Bill White in the Hall of Fame
Good morning, all!
The NBA launches another season tonight, and although the regular season is much too long, the league has overtaken MLB in many quarters as the USA’s second most popular sport. I once heard the inimitable Brent Musburger tell “Mad Dog” Russo the interest in the NBA around the world is off the charts. He stated the driving force for that was betting on the games. And you wonder why wagering is legalized in most states in the USA?
Anyway, several stories emerged last week of Amazon’s interest in adding the NBA to its sports lineup. Amazon’s sports coverage includes the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package and New York Yankees baseball. They would love to carry a primetime NBA Game of the Week. At this rate, my Amazon yearly prime membership will jump even more. Just a few short years ago the annual rate to be an Amazon Prime member was $99. Now it is up to $145. Jeff Bezos has to pay for the rights to those games somehow, and he is doing it off the backs of his customers. So what else is new?
Something tells me Bezos will get what he wants and in two years the NBA will be on Amazon available to all Prime members. On the surface this potential move leads me to think Amazon will role out tier pricing for its expanded sports package, but on second thought I think not. Amazon is able to pay these huge rights fees, by among other ways, raising the annual Prime membership for everyone, including those who would not watch a sporting event, if it was taking place across the street from their house. But as long as we are talking bets, bet on Amazon eventually getting the NBA and bet on your Prime membership increasing again.
Of Bill White in the Hall of Fame and other thoughts…
Baseball’s Era Committee has received eight candidates nominated for the Hall of Fame. These are players no longer eligible to be elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, along with managers, umpires and executives. It is the committee that will make the choice. Rather than write about the process, here is a link to the criteria. The latest nominees are Cito Gaston, Jim Leyland, Davey Johnson, Lou Piniella, Ed Montague, Joe West, Hank Peters and Bill White. I am rooting for Bill White. Not only did this eight-time All-Star with the Giants, Cardinals and Phillies have a stellar career, he became a notable broadcaster with the New York Yankees - including broadcasting World Series games on CBS - and was the first African-American to become league president, when he became National League president in 1989. White will turn 90 on January 28. I hope he makes it.
While we’re on the subject, why wasn’t Billy Martin nominated?
Look for a busy week in the NFL. The league’s trade deadline is one week from today and already there have been some trades. Expect more.
If the Phillies don’t defeat the Diamondbacks in the deciding game of the NLCS tonight, there are going to be a lot of upset people.
Let’s just say there are a lot of upset opinion makers, who never ran out of content ideas, as long as they had Bill Belichick’s contract status to write or talk about. As the Patriots continued to nosedive, all we heard was would Belichick be fired or would owner Robert Kraft give him a new contract after this season.? As it turns out, Belichick signed a new deal over the summer. The story emerged before Sunday’s upset win over the Bills by the Patriots. Belichick may have some matters on his plate, including talking about Taylor Swift, during his radio segment, but worrying about a new contract isn’t one of them.
It’s two months until Christmas Eve and the Christmas ads are running rampant. Just sayin.’
That is it for this week’s newsletter. As always, thank you for your support and pray for peace.
SPORTSCASTER DAN