the world beyond recruiting

Or is it the NBA that got lopsided, once Lebron James decided to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to play for the Miami Heat? I guess that depends on who the Heat put around these guys…but one thing is for sure: Wow. Like it (people in Miami and/or fairweather, bandwagon NBA fans who usually just collect jerseys and sneakers) or hate it (everybody outside of Miami), it’s going to be a dominate force in the NBA for a few years. (Then again, so were the Cavs this year…and we saw what happened in the playoffs… Of course, they still weren’t this stacked.)

Here’s the celebration in Miami. I don’t buy the fact that this was a last-minute decision. In fact, I believe they did it this way on purpose. 1) To screw other teams (like the Bulls) by not allowing them to go after other options. 2) For the massive publicity/promotion/hype.

The other thing I wonder…is if Lebron petitioning to change his number to #6 this past season was a telltale sign we all overlooked. People immediately thought Chicago. What nobody realized is that the Miami Heat also randomly retired Michael Jordan’s #23 years ago as well. Interesting.

Anyway, it should be an interesting year in the NBA. The Lakers still no longer look like the most stacked team in the league…but still appear to be a formidable opponent.

The Lakers parade to celebrate their second straight championship (and 16th for the franchise) kicks off in about 15 minutes. You can watch the entire thing on a live Internet stream here.

Or click on the picture of the buses the Lakers will be riding below…

Or, you can follow the official Twitter stream of the Lakers for coverage. And check us out at Eleventh Hour if you came here for the parade and are thinking about staying.

Tonight is the night. The 2010 NBA Finals featuring the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Boston Celtics. The media couldn’t ask for a better match-up (except for maybe Kobe vs. Lebron–good thing there was no puppet show this year). (Here’s the STAPLES Center getting ready for tonight’s starting lineups. And, Ron Artest gets his own column here.)

Here is ESPN’s preview of the series:

Here’s a video that has hardly anything to do with basketball:

Here at recruiting/staffing agency Eleventh Hour, there is some conflict. We are located in Los Angeles (Marina del Rey), but President Jeff Ganter is a Boston Celtics fan. Uh oh.

(This is a blatant attempt to attract LA transplants from Boston to Eleventh Hour. My apologies…but I still think it’s a really, really good idea, Boston-originating LA transplants. You should definitely check us out.)

Best of luck to the Lakers and Celtics. And congratulations to ABC/ESPN. You guys have already won. The rest is gravy.

The Lakers have arrived at the OKC Ford Center and Game 6 of a tough first round series will be underway soon. If you are a big Lakers fan, and haven’t figured it out yet, I would suggest following the Lakers on Twitter. As is with most NBA teams, player and NBA writers, their Twitter account is great for behind-the-scenes glimpses of the team. It’s true added value for Lakers fans.

For example, today the Lakers posted a shot of all the t-shirts laid out at the Ford Center for Game 6. It’s a really cool shot, but Lakers fans who commented on it went nuts. (Click for full image, as per Twitpic’s guidelines.)

Or this twitvid of some Lakers arriving to the game…

And these aren’t even the best examples. Since it’s the official Lakers Twitter account, they obviously have unlimited access. They get the best interviews. It really gives you a different view of the franchise. The NBA has definitely done a great job with social media. I may be biased, but I believe they’ve utilized it better than any professional league in the U.S. (I’d say in the world…but I don’t really know. I’m sure there are soccer leagues out there that people are Tweeting their brains out over.)

Anyway, good luck to the Lakers tonight, courtesy of Marina del Rey, California-based recruiting/staffing agency Eleventh Hour.

Hello, Los Angeles Lakers fans (full disclosure: I’m not one). Get your Lakers car flags ready. It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for all season. It’s go time. NBA playoffs basketball are here. (Here’s the Lakers.com preview.) Coach Phil Jackson is already up to his usual mind games. Kevin Durant is not happy about it. OKC’s bearded rookie baller, James Harden, is a Los Angeles native. The Lakers Twitter feed is blowing up. And, oh yeah, on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. PST, the Lakers will take on the Oklahoma City Thunder for Game 1 of their first round playoff series at the STAPLES CENTER.

I’ll let NBATV preview the series for you here:

I’ll let you figure out if you are a diehard or a fairweather Lakers fan on your own. Either way, it’s an exciting time in the city.

March Madness is in full effect after a morning of mild upsets, including a Vanderbilt loss and a near-loss for #2 seed Villanova. And did you know that you can watch all the madness online? Sure, we all do. But since you are at work, and don’t want to decrease productivity, I’m sure you do not want to hear about it. So we won’t discuss it.

Here’s something for your next 15 minute break. A special edition of “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis” featuring Ben Stiller. If you missed Zach on SNL last week, it was probably one of the best episodes this season. Here is your dose of madness. It has nothing to do with basketball. Sorry, but let’s be honest: you didn’t come here for up-to-date sporting news.

We decided, after Super Bowl XLIV (congratulations, New Orleans), people needed a day to recover before we posted our links. Yeah…that’s it…

In all seriousness, here are some links that aren’t serious. But some are. I think. Or maybe not. I guess it depends on your industry of employment. Whatever the case, here you go:

• Are you ready for Jack Bauer on the big screen? Get ready. (I wonder if it will be shorter than a ‘24′ season premiere.)
• Daily Variety: Stars line up for Soderbergh project
• NBC’s SNL decided to bash their own show ‘Burn Notice’ (NBCU/USA)
• ‘Dear John’ has taken down ‘Avatar.’ The reign is over? (I only included this because I wanted to brag about meeting Channing Tatum. He lived next door to a girl I dated. Really nice guy in real life. You’ve gotta root for him.)
• AdAge: What Will Happen to Media When All the Billionaires Bail?
• Here’s a good spoof of Google’s Super Bowl ad (which I thought was great). (And here’s the Tiger Woods version.)
• One of my favorite Super Bowl ads: Lebron James vs. Dwight Howard (ala the classic Jordan vs. Bird spot).
• Unfortunately, I believe I’ve been a victim of the new “2 A.M. Worm.” (The Onion)

Brian Laesch was rarely inspired during the Super Bowl commercials this year.

The Balloon Boy’s father (a.k.a. the poor man’s Bruce Jenner) just called me. He said he wanted to be mentioned in this post. Geez. Some people just can’t get enough publicity. I’ll let the lesser, CNN, cover him. We will continue to tackle the real, pressing issues.

Here are your links for the 21st day in August in the year 2009:

• The Lebron James movie, “More Than A Game,” may be in 33rd place (with limited release) on Daily Variety’s Box Office list, but I think it should be first. I saw it this weekend. Great documentary. Of course, maybe everybody didn’t played high school basketball like I did.
• Here’s another weird ad that will never be on television but is featured on CREATIVITY. I’m a big fan of New Balance shoes, so I won’t hold them accountable for this stupid advertisement. (Do I get a free pair now?)
• Here’s an interesting interview with Twitter Co-Founder, Dom Sagolla. He answers every question in 140 characters or less. Hey-oh! (No? Nothing on that one? OK.)
• Barnes & Noble has launched it competitor to Amazon’s Kindle: Nook.
• Burger King has added the quarter-pound double cheeseburger to it’s $1 Menu. I guess it’s not really “creative” but it does make me hungry.
• Vanilla Ice is back…and promoting South African beer.
• ADFREAK (via College Humor): Pixar lamp’s future suddenly not very bright
• Adidas is making a push with their “Basketball is a Brotherhood” campaign to remind fans (and kids who remind their parents to buy basketball shoes) that they have NBA All-Stars on their roster too. It’s not all Nike.
• Bing has signed a deal with Twitter and Facebook to include status updates in their results. Wow. I can’t wait to see more status updates! (Not really.)
• Are you ready for Google’s new music service? It will be interesting. But, are you ready for cragislist’s new music service, in which you download text files of the song lyrics and sing them yourself? It’s going to revolutionize the digital music industry. (I mean, Google. I made up the craigslist thing.)
• Did I mention that Eleventh Hour is on Twitter?

Brian Laesch wrote this using a computer.

Speaking of basketball and being creative (two of my favorite things), the NBA has launched a new video version of their rule book on NBA.com. The video rulebook displays video from actual NBA games and discusses the accompanying rule or violation with a text “Commentary” to the side of each video.

From my understanding, the video rulebook is not complete, but will be contributed to continually. And it is not meant to take the place of the Official NBA Rulebook:

Note: The NBA Video Rulebook website is not meant to be a substitute for the Official NBA Rulebook. If there is any discrepancy in the language between the explanations listed on this site, and what is written in the Official Rulebook, the Official Rulebook takes precedence.

Still, from a fan’s standpoint, I really like it. I think it’s an innovative edition to a professional sports league’s official website. The internet (and society in general) has become more of a “visual learning” type of place. I wouldn’t be surprised if other leagues followed suit. This will help fans understand more of the calls they see on the floor. It’s helped me already. I really didn’t know about “dislodging an opponent in the post with the knee” until I checked out this video. Rather than adding another silly player blog (not that there’s anything wrong with that), or an insignificant celebrity’s perspective of the game, I believe this is a feature that adds real value to the site, and celebrates the core of the NBA: actual basketball.

I’m so pumped that I’m going to march on Washington, with a fist in the air, in support of this new NBA.com feature…

Too passionate?

Sorry, I really like basketball.

Brian Laesch once scored 36 points in a Hollywood industry rec league game. He’s bragging about that right now.

I wish I had a clever tie-in to associate Michael Jordan’s induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame today with this blog and Eleventh Hour, but honestly, I don’t.

I could try…

Michael Jordan was recruited by Dean Smith to play at North Carolina?…

Michael Jordan turned Nike into a athletic shoe marketing/advertising phenomena?…

Michael Jordan became one of the biggest brands in the world?…

You get the drift…but no.

I’m not doing that to the greatest basketball player of all time. This post is about one thing: the enjoyment that Michael Jordan playing basketball brought to people. Plain and simple.

So I’ll start with Michael Jordan’s one-on-one conversation with Michael Wilbon:

And I’ll finish with the highlight video ESPN put together that also features greats David Robinson, John Stockton, Jerry Sloan and Vivian Stringer:

There isn’t much I can add. And I know it’s the anniversary of 9/11, but with all due respect to America (and I mean that, obviously), this is all I could watch today…

Brian Laesch is a huge Chicago Bulls/Michael Jordan fan, and met Michael Jordan once.