Month: June 2015

The NBA is big business, which is why the Houston Rockets turn to international lawyer Mike Goldberg of the international law firm Baker Botts for its key deals. We were lucky enough to learn that Mike Goldberg was on a business trip to London and we took the opportunity to ask him for an interview. Fortunately, he managed to carve out just enough time for an exclusive interview with the Beast of Sport. We met on a sunny afternoon in June at the Waldorf Hotel in Central London where he was speaking at a conference.

To get the ball rolling, I asked Mr Goldberg what he liked best about his job for the Rockets? He said that one of the best things was being able to give Rockets t-shirts to good young bloggers/vloggers/reporters like me. (He then gave me an awesome Rockets t-shirt.)

We also asked him if he plays Basketball himself? He said that he did and that he loves to play. In fact he told us that the last shot he took was a three pointer at Toyota Center (The home of the Rockets), but then he said he just walked off the court because there was no way he was taking another shot in case he missed!

We then got down to the serious questions and I asked him if he gets any special perks (like good seats, talking to players and stuff like that).  He responded that he did. One of the cool things is that he gets to park his car were the players park their cars. He also gets to have front row seats so that he can get up close to the players and listen to the manager’s team talk (which is extremely  cool).

I was curious to find out what was the most exciting thing he ever did as a lawyer for the Rockets, so that was my next question. The answer was really interesting. Mr Goldberg was involved in the the signings of Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. The Yao Ming deal was especially interesting because, although it was not a trade, he had to go to China and conduct negotiations with the Chinese Government. Even here at the Beast of Sport HQ we think that must have been so cool!  Here is some press from the time about Mr Goldberg’s role in the signing:  http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/story?id=1399417

Next I asked him what was the most the Rockets had ever agreed to pay a player?  He told me that the salary cap was $20 million, meaning that 1 player could cost at most 20 million a year, but he added that the salary cap was going up somewhere along the lines of $50 million.

We were then curious to learn what the difference was between a lawyer and an agent. He said that he usually negotiated with the players’ agents, so they are on the other side of the negotiations.

Then to cap it off, we asked if the players’ contracts are secret or can everybody read them? He told me that everybody cannot read them but, most of the time, the information leaks out one way or another. It is normally the player’s agent that leak the salary information. You also have to give the contracts to the NBA so they can approve them.

Mike Goldberg is a big part of the Rockets organization and we are so grateful that he gave us an interview (and a cool t-shirt).

The Beast of Sport

From the Deputy Beast of Sport

The women’s FIFA World Cup continued yesterday in Winnipeg, Canada. In the first game, Nigeria played Sweden and the awesome game ended in a 3-3 draw. The U.S. and Australia went head to head in the second game. The U.S. girls were victorious with a 3-1 win. Coming up today, England will play France, Spain face Costa Rica and Columbia battle Mexico. Stay tuned for more about this exciting tournament from DBOS. I love soccer and play on the Eagles team in London!

Last week, I told you about Game 1 of the NBA Championship series and (as you would know if you read the blog post) Golden State won Game 1. Game 2 took place in San Francisco, Golden State’s home court, so Cleveland was playing away again. Lebron James notched his second straight triple double in Game 2 and the fifth of his career. James had 39 points, 11 assists and 16 rebounds in Game 2 as the Cavaliers overcame the Warriors 95-93. It was an amazing game and, like Game 1 before it, went into overtime. Only this time, the Cavaliers managed to hold off the Warriors and tie the series at one game apiece. Curry struggled in Game 2 posting only 19 points in the total game. Lebron was totally in control and the Cavs managed to gut out a crucial Game 2 win.  

On June 5, the Oakland Athletics called up a special pitcher from a triple A team in Nashville, Tennessee. Pat Venditte was called up to pitch in relief for the Oakland Athletics against the Boston Red Sox. He started the inning Lefty and got Brock Holt to ground out and then he switched hands to get an inning ending double play with his right hand. Venditte is ambidextrous and has a special glove with two thumb holes so he can decide if he wants to pitch right or left. I find this really interesting because believe it or not I am ambidextrous too! I play for the London Sports team the Kansas City Royals in London, England. Venditte is highly thought of in the Athletics organization and I will look forward to seeing him develop as a pitcher. 

Check out this link to learn more about his special glove: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-the-baseball-glove-that-ambidextrous-pitcher-pat-venditte-uses-2015-06-08

Here is a picture of me pitching lefty.

Yesterday, the Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Championship Series.  LeBron James was dominating and it looked as if the Cavaliers were cruising.   But then, the Warriors responded and the lead went back and forth.  LeBron James had 44 points in the game and Stephen Curry had 26 points.  With one second left in the game, LeBron James missed the buzzer beater and the game went into overtime.  The Warriors owned the overtime with the Cavaliers, only scoring 2 points to the Warriors 10.  The final score was Golden State 108 — Cleveland Cavaliers 100.  Game 2 will be at 2 o’clock in the morning on Monday 8, where the Cavaliers will be looking to even the series at one game apiece.  Here are the highlights of game 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgiOzwHU_-Ym 

Stay tuned for the results later in the week.

The Beast of Sport

​​Since getting to 10 games over 500 (with 500 being the same amounts of wins and losses) the Giants have lost four in a row. It was surprising when the drop started against the Atlanta Braves because they looked to be dominating. Tim Lincecum struggled and the Braves routed the Giants 7-0. Everybody expected them to win the next game though because Madison Bumgarner was pitching. It looked as if they were in charge after Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford launched back-to-back homeruns. Bumgarner was cruising along and even though he gave up a run in the fifth he still wasn’t giving up many hits. Then in the seventh inning Bumgarner gave up a single and then former dodger Juan Uribe went deep to give the Braves a 3-2 lead. The Giants would take a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the seventh but lose 7-5. Then Giants now opened a series against the Pirates and even though Ryan Volgelesong pitched well the Pirates still managed to win 4-3. Hope that the Giants might win the next game behind Chris Heston quickly evaporated as Heston only lasted 3.2 innings as the Giants lost 7-4. The Giants will search for a much needed with Tim Hudson pitching tonight.

Don’t go anywhere! Stay tuned for the results later this week.

On Saturday night Juventus will play Barcelona in the Champions League Final. Messi is largely regarded as the most talented player in the world and personally I think so too.  But you can’t forget Pirlo. Even though Messi is younger than Pirlo, Pirlo is very creative and in most games he completes every single pass that he tries. Messi also scores more than Pirlo but Pirlo has more assists than Messi. Both these players are awesome in their own way and I think that it will be a great honor to watch them play against each other. I think that Pirlo is going to perform better than Messi on the day because he has more experience.

Stay tuned for the game on Saturday.
 
 

By The Deputy Beast of Sport

The oldest girl to ever do a marathon at the age of 92 is so cool. Check out the story on ABC News here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/cancer-survivor-harriette-thompson-92-nc-oldest-woman/story?id=31443167

On the 20th of May the Houston Rockets began the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors. This was a best of seven series and the winner would get to play the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals. (The two teams playing in that were the Cleveland  Cavaliers and the Atlanta Hawks.) The series opened in Golden State where even though James Harden had 28 points they could not overcome the Warriors as Steph Curry had 34 points. The final score was 106 to 110 in Golden State’s favour. Game 2 was even closer than Game 1 with The Warriors winning 99 to 98. James Harden was very frustrated with himself even though he had 38 points in the game because he blew the game winner with seven seconds left. Game 3 was a nightmare for the Rockets as Stephen Curry had 40 points for the Warriors and James Harden only had 15 points for the Rockets. When the buzzer sounded the final score was 115 to 80 with the Rockets losing yet again. They hoped that their elimination resistance would continue as they had come back from being down 3 games to 1 earlier in the Post Season. They did win Game 4 128 to 115 with James Harden posting 45 points. Unfortunately The Rally facing elimination ended for the Rockets as the got creamed 104 to 90 with James Harden  posting only 14 points, he also had 14 turnovers. Golden State did deserve to win the series and will play the Cleveland Cavaliers on June 5 for the NBA Championship. Lots of people thought that there would be a Game 7 between these to titans but the way Golden State performed the Rockets hardly had a real chance to show off their great basketball. Golden State really expressed themselves on the court and in the end the best team won.

This week we will get a chance to interview a member of the Houston Rockets management team and ask him key questions about new possible players and his hopes for next year.  Stay tuned for that interview later in the week.