Saturday, August 3, 2024

Basketball: What Is Your "Bacon Cooler" Story?


 Investigative journalist Bob Woodward describes a great story as a "bacon cooler." The bacon on your breakfast fork doesn't arrive at your mouth because of the gravity of the story. 

Years ago he had gone to Tripoli with the promise of an interview with strongman Qaddafi. He was stuck in the hotel waiting and bypassed security. Wandering near the University he learned that the government had recently publicly executed students for posting anti-Qaddafi material. Bacon cooler. 

In our lifetimes, we're bombarded with what seemed unthinkable years ago. 

  • West Coast teams to play in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
  • NIL money breaking the flimsy barrier between pro and amateur.
  • College athletes sue for union rights. 
  • The Transfer Portal becomes athletic osmosis. 
  • TV money grows exponentially in college and pro sports. 
  • Small and mid-major schools become the farm teams for the majors.
What once might pass for scandal now transacts in daylight. The players as 'the product' get compensated via a new pay scale. I'm not saying that some "institutions of higher learning" won't devise other inducements in the shadows. 

But it seems like an improvement over stories about players going hungry while their overlords feasted. 

And we know the views of multimillionaire coaches like Dabo Swinney, ranting with a 10-year, $93 million contract. "But as far as paying players, professionalizing college athletics, that's where you lose me. I’ll go do something else, because there's enough entitlement in this world as it is.”

There's no "moral high ground" just unfettered capitalism. 

Surely new abuses will arise to fill the previous void. I'm sure the major colleges are working on that already. 

Lagniappe. 3 on 3 segments at each end were a staple of the middle school practices we conducted. 

Lagniappe 2. JVG shares an approach on showing on high ball screens. 

Lagniappe 3. Think better to be happier. 



 

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