The Tournament

[wlu_lax6]

Very intrigued to see what some of the ex-pros do in this. How fat have they gotten. Will the $1 million prize motivate some guys to play hard or is this just ugly pickup hoops.

Royce White, Nate Robinson and Brian Scalabrine

Love the alumni teams (Notre Dame defending champs, UVA, Drexel,Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Cuse playing). DMV team has Juan Dixon and Chris Wright, Austin Freemean

http://www.thetournament.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[brian]

This looks really dumb.

[mister d]

It's super dumb unless the kids from La Salle's 2013 tourney team go on a run.

[Rex]

I guess it's okay as far as stupid contrived ESPN summer programming goes. At least this involves an actual sport.

[Shirley]

Yeah, I don't really see what's so dumb about it, other than the over-hyped website. It would be more fun if it was limited to actual alumni of schools - or maybe cities/regions, I think. The "Syracuse" team now has players from several different schools.

[DSafetyGuy]

Yeah, I don't really see what's so dumb about it, other than the over-hyped website. It would be more fun if it was limited to actual alumni of schools - or maybe cities/regions, I think. The "Syracuse" team now has players from several different schools.

Shirley, it was never intended to be an alumni tournament. Some guys put together alumni teams out of their own volition last year, such as the Notre Dame team, but it was truly intended to be an open tournament where anyone could put together a team to participate, as long as they could shoulder the costs. This year's Syracuse team had a couple guys back out due to other commitments, so the former team manager who put together the squad had to get a couple non-Syracuse guys to fill out the roster.

It's not an ESPN-prodcuced thing. They picked up the later rounds in part because of the notoriety of the event and $1 million prize.

Only having seen stuff about the Syracuse guys, most of them are already playing overseas and all of them have graduated within the last eight years (or more recently), so out of shape is likely not an issue.

[Ryan]

Winner.

[DSafetyGuy]

Winner.

I hope this gets repeated on a less grander scale.

[wlu_lax6]

Except for ESPN coverage and the scale, this is not different than any other "Club" tournament you can sign up for. There are lots of these types of things for Lacrosse, Soccer, Etc. I feel like I read an article last year about a team whose ringers all backed out at the last minute but still made a pretty good run.

I would love to see a team made up of the basketball junkies who play at Cal Ripken's house (there are some good stories about those games) or some of these no-names against a team of older NBA vets (I know MJ has lots to lose in something like this but it would be fun to see his competitive fire). I am sort of shocked that some financially troubled ex-NBA guys could not figure out how to play with some sponsorship or have that Chinese Shoe company put a team in. Where are some of the And 1 guys?

[Ryan]

They don't want to lose.

[wlu_lax6]

Winner.

How is Mark the Shark Titus not on the team bench and writing about this for Grantland?

[govmentchedda]

Winner.

How is Mark the Shark Titus not on the team bench and writing about this for Grantland?

Club Trillion!

[Giff]

Winner.

I hope this gets repeated on a less grander scale.

I was there. That sucked.

[Shirley]

Winner.

Yeah, that's a pretty stacked team. I mean, Rapaport and Scalabrine?

[Ryan]

Winner.

Yeah, that's a pretty stacked team. I mean, Rapaport and Scalabrine?

They can do the Killer Bees swapout behind the bench.

[DSafetyGuy]

It's super dumb unless the kids from La Salle's 2013 tourney team go on a run.

They did. To the second round. And got bounced by Boeheim's Army in OT.

But, the real reason I am bumping this thread is because many of you will enjoy the fact that Eric Devendorf got thrown out of the game.

[mister d]

Smith invited him back into the dressing rooms and Devendorf declined. Shocking. That dude finally getting punched in his stupid mouth would have totally offset the loss.

[mister d]

(Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I had a "non-conference road game" joke all queued up if we won.)

[DSafetyGuy]

Well, Devendorf does yoga now, so it makes sense that he would choose not to fight.

Their next game is against a team with a lot of former Villanova players on it, so your hopes of him getting hit are likely very alive.

[mister d]

I doubt yoga teaches you to antagonize a larger person but then flee when they respond.

[DSafetyGuy]

Actually, the LaSalle player (Steven Smith) is reportedly the one who started things in the first of their two double technicals.

[wlu_lax6]

So Boeheims Army (with Hakim Warrick) goes down to Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Michael Sweetney.
Ant's Alumni (2013-14 NBA D-League championship) move on to the final four
Team 23 beat a 5 man LAUNFD (Nick Young's team)
Those 3 and Overseas Elite (DJ Kennedy, Kabongo, Travis Bader, Kyle Fogg) go to New York for the final four.

[DSafetyGuy]

So Boeheims Army (with Hakim Warrick) goes down to Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Michael Sweetney.
Ant's Alumni (2013-14 NBA D-League championship) move on to the final four
Team 23 beat a 5 man LAUNFD (Nick Young's team)
Those 3 and Overseas Elite (DJ Kennedy, Kabongo, Travis Bader, Kyle Fogg) go to New York for the final four.

Dude is over 350. In the second half, he was sitting on the bench with a dark blue warm-up t-shirt on and he looked like a refrigerator under a tarp.

[wlu_lax6]

So Boeheims Army (with Hakim Warrick) goes down to Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Michael Sweetney.
Ant's Alumni (2013-14 NBA D-League championship) move on to the final four
Team 23 beat a 5 man LAUNFD (Nick Young's team)
Those 3 and Overseas Elite (DJ Kennedy, Kabongo, Travis Bader, Kyle Fogg) go to New York for the final four.

Dude is over 350. In the second half, he was sitting on the bench with a dark blue warm-up t-shirt on and he looked like a refrigerator under a tarp.

Only played 8 minutes. However, Pops gave him a ton of credit for grabbing the clipboard and showing the team the seams in the 2-3 Cuse zone.

[wlu_lax6]

2016 version is ramping up. Over 50 players with NBA experience in. Cuse Alums are back. So are Alum from Kentucky, La Salle, Gonzaga, MSU, VCU, Bradley, Marquette, Temple, Nova, BC, Utah, Utah State, EKU)

Winner's Purse is $2 Million
http://thetournament.com/