Earth to Bill: basketball never had a crossroads

[From our new guest blogger, Stephen B. Snyde. Every Friday, we plan to have Stevie B. take us through the week that was in the hoop world. One blog post per thought. We'll still have our longer stories every now and then, but who wants to sit there and read 10,000 words from Bill Simmons to cap off the work week? Oh, what a coinkeydink. Stevie B.'s talking about Bill to lead off...]

ESPN.com's Bill Simmons was grossed out by O.J. Mayo's performance at the McDonald's All-America game the other night. He said that "basketball is headed for a crossroads", referencing the score-at-all-costs attitudes of today's star players, starting with Kobe Bryant's 50-point streak last week.

Hey Bill, I guess you missed that dossier called Sole Influence (Wetzel/Yaeger, Warner Books, 2000). Basketball isn't heading for a crossroads, it already had one almost 10 years ago, when adidas landed Kobe and Phil Knight vowed never again to let that happen to Nike. Only problem is, nobody had a choice of roads. Knight was so powerful, even he could not have imagined the dominoes that would later fall because of his decision. Three letters: A-A-U. It was like the Road Runner painting a fake alternate route for us Wile E. Coyotes.

Crossroads? Meep-meep!!

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