Author Archives: Bella

NBA cancels first two weeks of 2011-2012 season

The National Basketball Association (NBA) commenced a lockout of its players since July 1 until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached with the National Basketball Players Association. Unfortunately, according to the news “NBA cancels first two weeks of season; sides still far apart” published by the NBA.com, up to now the prospect of negotiation seemed gloomy.

David Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, said both sides are “very far apart on virtually all issues”, which means the new NBA season will start until both sides can come to an agreement about the labour dispute.

Since the dispute arose, heaps of the players chose to go abroad such as JR Smith signed with the Zhejiang Golden Bulls in China. Kenyon Martin opted to sign a one-year contract with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association. And lots of overseas players would like to go back to their countries. Then as long as the negotiation done, most of the players will come back. But they still have a long way to go. The league won’t be able to play a full 82-game season in 2011-2012. Stern has said the league’s 30 teams together lost $300 million in each of the past three seasons. That’s the main reason both of sides could not settle down. All the owners are trying to find a way to make the largest income.

As most news published by NBA official website (e.g. the news mentioned in my first post), this piece is also a formal, credible and informative one. The correspondent uses various reliable sources, such as David Stern and Union president Derek Fisher. A video of “labour update” is attached to report more information for viewers.

NBA 2K12 Released

When “lockout”, “contract negotiations” and “playing overseas” have being the key words of NBA, what can ease the NBA fans’ hunger for the game? The answer is the video game. After last year’s NBA 2K11, which have sold over 5 million copies worldwide and received over 20 Sports Game of Year awards, the 2k Sports released its successor NBA 2K12 on Oct 4. The article “NBA 2K12 Review” evaluated the game from all aspects.

(Click the images for original ones.)

According to the game review, compared with privious games of this series, the graphics of 2K12 looks more realistic and theoperation are more flexible. The shooting remains smooth and well designed, and most players have their own animations to gauge the proper time to release a shot. Passing and defense are also impoved for better multi- sensory effect. The most important thing is they have improved skills of the playersthan 2k 11.so you will feel like the real players in real NBA games.Moreover, the best feature of 2K12 is the Greastese mode. And the designers also add the top 15 legend players of the NBA history. You can go as far back as Bill Russell’s 64-65 Celtics, through the modern days, and also use legend teams against with the current teams .

The author also introduced other features of the game, such as My Player, the Association Mode and playing online and drew the conclusion that, “Despite a few minor things, NBA 2K12 is easily the best pro basketball game on the market”. Published in the game section of a digital website, the article offered the readers, obvious mostly of whom are video games players, an overview of the game to decide whether to buy it.

Now let’s enjoy the game with its fantastic intro.

Two-year ban for water polo star‎

At the height of the Canadian riots after the Stanley Cup loss of the Vancouver Canucks to the Boston Bruins, reports of violence, looting and arson were plentiful (2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup riot). One story however stood out from the usual pack as it was not the usual teenagers and groups of troublemakers making headlines but instead a future Canadian Olympic candidate being in the centre of media scrutiny. Prior to the start of the riots, Nathan Kotylak was on his way to representing the Canadian water polo team in the 2012 London Olympics. Instead of making headlines for his performance in the water pool, he has found himself in the middle of a media frenzy after pictures taken by witnesses emerged online showing him participating in the torching of a police vehicle. The 18-year-old from Maple Ridge, B.C has apologized to the Canadian Sports Committee in June but was still banned from the professional until 2013 and will not be eligible for any funding by the sporting committee for two years.

The new “Water polo player suspended for role in Vancouver riot”, reported by CBC sports (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), focuses on the individual Nathan Kotylak in particular detail as the article tries to convey to its readers the mindset of the individual. In this particular case not only do they give a story or report on the situation of the arson but as well as separate section underneath giving a brief background story on the criminal at hand. In particular the article attempts to allow the responder to relate to Nathan by using a much more sympathetic tone and language such as constantly saying ‘apologetic’ and ‘taking responsibility’. To support this point the author even places a small photo with a clear water background behind Nathan to create an innocent image and feel for the readers.

More information:

Nathan Kotylak apology video. Click here.

US-China Goodwill Basketball Game Ends in Brawl

If you have seen the video above, you may be shocked by the brawl just right happened during a basketball match. The so-called “bench-clearing brawl” erupted during an exhibition game between the Hoyas and the Bayi Rockets, a China Basketball Association (CBA) team, in Beijing on Aug 18. The brawl turned the goodwill trip of Geogetown’s basketball team, which was a 10-day trip to China to be an athletic, cultural and educational exchange designed to promote the school internationally,  into embarrassing circumstances. More than that, the Chinese Media coverage even has been scrubbed away on the Internet. For example, the search for the key words such as “Georgetown”, “Bayi Rockets”, and “Bayi basketball” revealed no results in weibo-search for some period after the brawl. The videos uploaded to Chinese video-sharing websites were quickly deleted as well.

Unlike Chinese Media coverage, SB nation, a sports network, focused on the fight with continuous updating the articles, images and videos and the main title is “Geogetown Basketball Brawl in China: Hoyas, Bayi Rockets Fight during Heated Exhibition”. Under the main title, articles from the network’s authors were collected to track the violence. They quoted the fans on the ground and recorded both sides’ response including the fans’ comments in the internet. Readers can easily have a thorough understanding of the ugly brawl.

Via the news story, I found the sbnation.com was an interesting sports website. According to its description, SB Nation is a collection of over 300 individual communities, each offering high quality year-round coverage and conversation led by fans who are passionate about their favorite teams, leagues or sports. And it is also the largest and fastest-growing network of fan-centric online sports communities. People track the current sports affairs and share their ideas in the perspective of sports lovers. If you are tired of the traditional sports coverage, the creative network would be a good place to offer you fresh information.

Mike Modano is a one-of-a-kind icon

(For original news story click here.)

The author, Jim Reeves began his article by giving a detailed description of the icon Mike Modano, an American professional ice hockey player, of the Dallas Stars. For many years Modano had been the face of the franchise until his much controversial free agent signing to the rival Detroit redwings in 2009. Now 41, Modano has been offered by the Dallas Stars a one day contract so that he may retire as a Stars player where he has spent the majority of his glorious career. Jim reeves towards the second half of the article goes into further detail about Modano’s illustrious career and achievements through his time with the Stars.

The article is clearly intended for the Dallas Stars fans that have respected and cheered for the player during his career. It is important to note that many of Modano’s achievements with the teams prior and after his stay with Dallas were mentioned. Nor were any of his famous off field behaviors and drama. The articles is focused on giving the fans a trip down ‘memory-lane’ starting with many of Modano’s characteristic facial appearances as well as a list of his many famous moments as a Dallas Stars player. The article also further emphasizes this point with a ‘detailed’ description of Modano’s work ethic and contribution of the rink with going as far as hailing him “…..always loved to vacation in Cabo, but he never once took a long weekend there during the playoffs.”. To conclude, Jim Reeves article works in that it is written in a way where their target audiences, Mike Modano fans, are kept in the positive light of the player’s career. Not once touching on his controversial negative sides, the author continuously outlines the positive aspects and numerous records of the player’s career and even going as far with the heading “Mike Modano is a one-of-a-kind icon”.

 

Liu Xiang “hand in hand” with Robles

On Aug 29, perhaps the most controversial topic of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships in Daegu, South Korea was the men’s 110 meter hurdles final. Dayron Robles, the Olympic champion and world recorder holder, was first cross the line at 13.14 second. However, the video showed that Robles made contact with China’s Liu Xiang at the last two hurdles, causing him to trip on the final hurdle and finish in 13.27 second. As a result, Robles was disqualified, lifting Jason Richardson the gold and Liu the silver. After that, Liu said Robles was not intentional and Robles also apologized to Liu. Interestingly, it is not the only disqualification in the track and field event. The day before this, the famous Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt was disqualified for a false start in the men’s 100 meter.

This is the video link  of the 110 meter hurdles final：

 

Back to the 110 meter hurdles race, a piece of online news about this topic caught my attention – Robles collides with Liu Xiang in final 110m hurdles race angers Chinese audience. Unlike other medias focusing on what happened during the race, the story gave the readers the overview of violent emotional reaction of Chinese audience, especially the netizens. Indeed, Liu Xiang is one of the Chinese people’s favorite athletes and people were regretful for that night’s loss. On the Internet, the videos of that race soon became the most viewed and discussed ones. The author even translated some comments from weibo – microblog, Chinese version of Twitter. People were sorry for Liu and angry with Robles saying, “That’s a shame. Or else he (Liu Xiang) would be the champion for sure.” Chinese netizens even gave Robles a nickname, “luó bo sī”, that means radish in Chinese and the similar pronunciation with “Robles”. Comments, cartoons and mixed videos, netizens with their sense of humor made fun of the controversy as well.

Golden Wallabies conquer All Blacks

All Australian sport fans had an exciting night on 27th Aug. Because the Wallabies beat world NO.1 All Blacks at Suncrop Stadium, being the victory of Tri-nations. The Australian national rugby union team didn’t grab the champion in Tri-nations since 2002. Consequently, beating All Blacks, which had won seven champions of the decade, is believed to be “a significant result” for Wallabies. The result also boosted the public and team’s confidence of trying to win the Rugby World Cup in the next month.

The news Golden Wallabies conquer All Blacks  was posted on the website of The Sydney Morning Herald. It is under the section “Rugby Heaven”, and obviously all rugby news are collected here. Between the headline and photograph, the words “Australia 25 New Zealand 20” are striking. The reader can get the most important information – the result of the match at the first sight. Then, unlike other news usually along with one or two pictures, the article provides an album of photographs. Large quantity of photos would have a better visual effect for the readers. The article, precisely the news records the match in general and shows the statistics. Fans who missed the event last night can easily get the general idea of the match in today’s sport front page. Additionally, at the bottom there is a small poll to collect the viewers’ idea about “Who will win the Rugby World Cup in 2011” (Undoubtedly, Australia gets the most votes.) This design contributes to the interaction between editor and readers.

For this online story the advantage is that The Sydney Morning Herald has thousands of viewers every day. So it can be quickly found by people to inform public exciting sport news. On the other hand, I am quite appreciate the layout of The Sydney Morning Herald. When you browse an article, you can find the related information on both the right and left columns, including relevant news, heated topics and photos.

Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari family

Fernando Alonso, one of the most famous motor racing players, recently spent his holiday with his boss and fellows to hike on an Italian mountain. The news story “Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari family” uses the holiday as background to narrate the ups and downs the ace suffered. The story appears at the sport column of The Australian, and is quoted from a British newspaper The Times.

This Spanish player has been a hero in his nation, because he achieved his first Formula One world champion at the age of 24 in 2005 which has set a new record of the youngest champion at that time. (The record was broken by Lewis Hamilton in 2008.) After experiencing the time in Renault and McLaren, Alonso switched to Ferrari in 2010 and started a new career life. I quite enjoy the style of the article. Making full use of the detailed descriptions and narrations, the author presents a whole and accessible story of the respectable racing driver.

The whole page seem to be simply and common, just as thousands of traditional online news. Obviously, the most of viewers are racing fans or sports enthusiasts. So probably it is unnecessary for designers to come up with ideas to attract new audiences. Having relatively stable targeted readers, the layout has less influence on the hits.

Then, I find there is a row of useful tools in front of the article, including “increase text size”, “decrease text size ”, ”print”, ”email” and ”share”. The design of flexible word size makes the text more accessible to aged and short sight people. In my opinion, it is a key point for a successful website whether the interactive tools can exert their function.

The Greatest

“If Michael Jordan Never Was, Would Kobe Bryant Be Considered the Greatest Ever?” This story appears at bleacherreport.com, which is a famous American sports network. (The details of this website quoted from Wikipedia are presented at the bottom.)

We put the article aside first. I have to admit that I am attracted by the layout, especially the color design. As we can see, this page is under the category of specific NBA team, the L.A Lakers. Unlike the flat or dull layout of other sport websites, it adopts the symbolic color of the team as the background. And other teams’ pages are the same. For the fans, the little change makes a big different. It promotes their desire to take part in this open community, as leaving comments, discussing or sharing with others.

As I mentioned above, the special of the website is the interaction with audiences. It is just like a big social community to accept all people to express his opinions. Despite having less official news, the web provides a platform for people to exchange their ideas and thoughts about the latest sport events. Probably that is why the network can be successful.

Well, back to the article itself. The topic seems to be somehow boring and meaningless. Not just the topic has been arguing between for many years, the author doesn’t give specific comparison with the two great players. Lack of convincing data and photos, the conclusion the author makes is just for amusement. However, we should not be so strict with the writer because he is not a professional one. For this website, participation is the most important thing.


Bleacher Report is a website that provides news and fans’ opinions of sporting events.

The website was launched in February 2008 by California-based entrepreneurs Dave Finocchio, Zander Freund, Bryan Goldberg, and Dave Nemetz. The purpose of the website was to provide a platform for bloggers and amateur sports writers to publish their work where visitors could find their articles easily.

Bleacher Report describes itself as an open source system … in which the tools to create, refine, and review content are available to all members, regardless of rank or experience” whose goal “is to provide in-depth coverage, opinion, and analysis on everything and anything that matters in sports.