Monthly Archives: June 2011

Congrats to John Carlson

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He makes the NHL 2010-11 All Rookie team. We are proud of John, or as some like to call him “Captain America”. We shouldn’t forget how many other first year players we had on our team last season; Carlson, Alzner, Neuvirth, Holtby and Johansson.

Drafting well and playing young players are still critical to our ongoing success. These players are quite skilled and talented. They have won championships in the AHL or international settings. They are winners and they all have upside still. I believe this has been under reported and not as appreciated by some. We played a lot of young players last year. They all gained experience. We are well positioned to improve just from these young players maturing. Thank you.

You Say Foreign. We Should Say Global.

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Basketball is a global game. You don’t need much to play. A ball, some hard top, a backboard and a basket.

I remember my last trip to China. Walking near the downtown section to a meeting early in the morning and coming to a playground. It was just packed with young men. Running hard on 3 on 3 play. 8:30 in the morning and about 300 teenagers going at it hard in the playground. Basketball is universal. Bejing was just like Brooklyn in the summer to my eyes.

Think of some of the great winners of late. Ginobli and Parker in San Antonio.

Gasol in LA. Nowitzki in Dallas.

The list goes on and on.

We drafted Kevin Seraphin in last year’s draft. We think he has great upside.

There will be many globally trained players picked this year in the NBA draft.

Having scouts and good relationships in Europe is a key deliverable and investment that we have been making. Twenty percent of the NBA is now made up of players that are part of the global movement.

DC is a global city. Players feel comfortable here. We want to create a big tent; we want to rebuild our team utilizing every tool of the trade.

Wish us well this evening. Read this one and let us see how the draft actually unfolds this evening.

National Press Club

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I will be speaking at the National Press Club in July.

I enjoy the people there and I have always been welcomed at the club.

I wanted to give you all a heads up though on some matters. I will NOT talk at all in any way about the following subjects at the Press Club event:

NBA CBA discussions;

NHL future CBA discussions;

Groupon IPO.

I will talk about sports, technology, DC economy, politics and whatever else jumps into my mind and other matters.

But for this period of time these three subjects are off limits. I won’t talk about them nor will I respond to any questions on these three subjects. Thank you for having empathy about these matters.

John Legend-Sade Concert

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I went with my wife and friends and partners to the Sade and John Legend concert last night at Verizon Center.

John Legend is a true talent. Very capable singer, composer and pianist. I was quite impressed.

But Sade blew us all away. What a beautiful and talented woman. What an entertainer. This was a great concert. Very romantic. High production value and she sings like an angel.

She has remained relevant. Her band is great and she has oodles of charisma and world class talent. I loved this show as did my wife and the sold out crowd. Well done Sade!