Sunday Links

Catching up on some links that I had hoped to blog about during the past month:

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Jason Friedman of the Houston Press has an extensive and provocative look at Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, a 35-year-old with expertise on the intersection between basketball, statistics, and economics and who taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while previously working for Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics. I spoke with Jason for his story, as I know Daryl and think the world of his abilities. He's phenomenally bright and possesses outstanding insight on basketball. The story examines how Daryl will be using statistical analysis as one tool in evaluating basketball talent. I suspects the Rockets--which are currently tied in first place in the Western Conference--are in for some great years ahead.

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Aditi Kinkhabwala, a columnist for SI.com (archive) and beat writer for The Record, has a couple of great pieces on her blog, Scarlet Knights Newzer, regarding controversial comments by Rutgers University English professor William C. Dowling, who has criticized his school's sports program because, in his words,

If you were giving the scholarship to an intellectually brilliant kid who happens to play a sport, that's fine. But they give it to a functional illiterate who can't read a cereal box, and then make him spend 50 hours a week on physical skills. That's not opportunity. If you want to give financial help to minorities, go find the ones who are at the library after school.

Aditi has two great pieces in response to Professor Dowling's remarks. She interviewed me for her second one and asked about whether Professor Dowling may have committed slander (I opined that he did not--for more, click here).

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The Sports Practice Group at Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP is now publishing an excellent monthly newsletter on sports law issues. One article discusses legal issues of fantasy sports and another examines AT&T and NASCAR settling a logo dispute. The entire first issue is available at this link. For more information, feel free to contact Rob Freeman (chair of the Group) or Peter Scher (an associate in the Group).

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Nate Jones, a 1L at UCLA Law and author of the Jones on the NBA blog, tells me about what should be a terrific event hosted by the UCLA Sports Law Federation this Wednesday:

Leigh Steinberg: A Legend in the Game

Join the Sports Law Federation as we host legendary sports agent, Leigh Steinberg, on Wednesday, November 14th, Rm. 1430 at 6pm. During the course of his 30+ year career, Mr. Steinberg has negotiated over $1 billion in contracts, representing athletes, including NFL quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Leinart, Troy Aikman, Steve Young and Warren Moon.

Mr. Steinberg will discuss the relevance of the law to his work as a sports agent as well as the future of representing top athletes.

Come meet the inspiration behind the hit film, Jerry Maguire, and a sports agent hall of famer. Refreshments will be served!

If you are in the LA area and would like to attend, just give Nate an e-mail and he will set you up.

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Keeping the California theme going, Tracie Parry-Bowers, the chief articles editor for the Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review has let me know about her publication accepting article submissions for its next two issues. This journal publishes articles on entertainment, sports, and communications law and is well-regarded. For more information, click here.

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Andrew Smith, the symposium chairman for the Entertainment and Sports Law Society of St. John's University School of Law and to whom I've offered insight for his sports law paper on fixing the NBA lottery system, emails me about his organization's plans for what should be an intriguing symposium in February:

I am currently organizing our first, and hopefully annual, Entertainment & Sports Law Symposium for the spring. We are aiming for mid-February and it will be a joint symposium for both sports and entertainment. We have finalized the general topic of "Legal Issues Facing the NBA" with sub-topics including the growing influx of foreign players, the potential of a European division, also the Tim Donaghy scandal, and ways to remedy any gambling concerns.

I am in the process of contacting potential speakers in the New York area. I was wondering if at all possible you could post a link on your website to our new blog where your readers could learn about our symposium and contact me if they are interested in attending or speaking. Our address is http://sjueasl.blogspot.com/

This event sounds very interesting and if my schedule permits, I hope to be a panelist or moderator at it. Please contact Andrew by e-mail if you have an interest in attending or speaking at the event.

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Thanks to Juiced Sports for naming Sports Law Blog one of the top 50 "most influential sports bloggers" (okay, we're ranked 49, but we've made the top 100 list).

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Hope you all have enjoyed the weekend. I had the good fortune of watching the annual flag football tournament at Mississippi College School of Law on Saturday. The 3Ls dominated the competition. It seems the 1Ls are spending more time studying than practicing football, and I suspect that's a good thing.

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