Paige joins Athletespeakers Agency

[Mdoggie]

Well if you can't acknowledge that she is a current - and future - terrific ambassador for the sport you have some serious perception issues.

Ok. I just need her to bring a championship home.

 

[Carnac]

Not only that but the bigger schools have kajillionaire donors that UConn doesn't seem to have. For example, when Penn State wanted to build a new hockey rink on campus they got Terry Pegula (owner of the Buffalo Sabres) to drop $110 million to build a new facility better than anything in our entire state. No haggling with the state, no trying to figure out where they would get the land, just boom plopped a big ol' brand new hockey facility right in the middle of campus like they were installing a new trash can. Same deal with Oklahoma State. When they wanted to upgrade football facilities, they got T. Boone Pickens to open his fat wallet to get it done. Another example, Clemson's ridiculous new facility that's half amusement park half athletic facility. These are the schools with the big time money to pay for the best facilities and top recruits. The potential for recruits to earn the most money at these schools because of NIL will just widen the gap.

Right!!! The days of gagillionair boosters having to resort to clandestine back room tactics to funnel money to players are gone forever. The new battle cry on campuses all across the country by student athletes now is: ”all you billionaire boosters, fans and supporters come on down.”

 

[Scud49]

Ok. I just need her to bring a championship home.

Last time I checked it was still a team game.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Ok. I just need her to bring a championship home.

Stewie's freshman season was better than Paige's IMO for this reason. Stewie lit up ND in the national semi-final after the team went 0-3 in the regular season, and then pretty much took the soul of Louisville in the championship game. When it counted most, Stewie stepped up big time even as a freshman. Truly elite players can put their team on their back and carry them over the finish line if they have to.

 

[Mdoggie]

Stewie's freshman season was better than Paige's IMO for this reason. Stewie lit up ND in the national semi-final after the team went 0-3 in the regular season, and then pretty much took the soul of Louisville in the championship game. When it counted most, Stewie stepped up big time even as a freshman. Truly elite players can put their team on their back and carry them over the finish line if they have to.

Be careful.

 

[CL82]

Wrong. Yours was the best and concise. Others basically said she won a lot of awards so she is the second coming. Apparently I give you the impression I don’t like PB. Wrong. What I don’t like is hype and pressure before the fact. Bring home the NCAA trophy first.

I think that your premise that if you aren't on an championship team you are a bad player is a flawed one.

 

[Mdoggie]

I think that your premise that if you aren't on an championship team you are a bad player is a flawed one.

Never said that. That premise would be incorrect. I would go as far to say if you asked Paige and/or Geno, they both would say she hasn’t done anything yet. Too bad we can’t ask them. She is a killer and she wants championships. Nothing less. “Goats” win championships. Ask Any Goat. If you can show me where I said PB is a bad player, I will PayPal you 100 dollars.

 

[Alydar]

I want championships. Everything else is gravy

Me, I like watching outstanding basketball from November to March. I savor every game. April is just the cherry. Winning and losing are different from succeeding and failing.

 

[Mdoggie]

Me, I like watching outstanding basketball from November to March. I savor every game. April is just the cherry. Winning and losing are different from succeeding and failing.

Very true and wise words, however UConn has set a standard of winning Nattys and they expect it as do the fans. These new players and recruits often say “I wanna win 4”
Alydar what you speak of is the gravy.

 

[Alydar]

Never said that. That premise would be incorrect. I would go as far to say if you asked Paige and/or Geno, they both would say she hasn’t done anything yet. Too bad we can’t ask them. She is a killer and she wants championships. Nothing less. “Goats” win championships. Ask Any Goat. If you can show me where I said PB is a bad player, I will PayPal you 100 dollars.

That's understandable for players and coaches. They have a great deal invested. To fall short of their goal feels like failure to them but we are just fans. As a fan all I invest is the cost of watching them play. I always get great value so every season has been a success for me. They owe me nothing.
I remember crying myself to sleep when my Giants lost to the Packers in 61 & 62. My investment was largely emotional but when you are a kid that's a lot and to me then 1961-1963 were failures. Nowadays I change the channel if they play like crap and wish they were relatively as good now as they were then.

 

[Alydar]

Very true and wise words, however UConn has set a standard of winning Nattys and they expect it as do the fans. These new players and recruits often say “I wanna win 4”
Alydar what you speak of is the gravy.

I don't think that winning titles is exactly the standard. (as much as the media keeps repeating that) I think that the titles are the residue of the work. If UConn has a standard it's perfection, unattainable in basketball and in golf. But as Geno might say, when perfection is the target near misses are often good enough to win titles.

 

[JoePgh]

I don't think that MDoggie is saying anything that Geno hadn't said last fall when he talked about "Paige Kardashian -- famous for being famous". However, I don't think Geno would say that now, because by now Paige has done something on the court, both individually and for UConn, although it fell short of a national championship.

But none of that has anything to do with whether Paige has "earned" whatever money she realizes from NIL. By definition, she (just like the Kardashians) HAS earned it -- simply because shoe companies or individual consumers will have freely chosen to pay her for her name, image, or likeness. Did Michael Jackson earn his gazillions through the records he made or the concerts he put on, whatever you or I may think of their artistic value? Of course he did, because people voluntarily paid him, which is the definition of "earn" in a market economy.

Even if Paige never hits another shot, grabs another rebound, or completes another pass, and even if UConn never wins another game while she is playing in Storrs, she will have earned whatever NIL money she realizes, just like every other athlete.

 

[Mdoggie]

JoeP and Alydar, voice of reason.

 

[oldude]

That's understandable for players and coaches. They have a great deal invested. To fall short of their goal feels like failure to them but we are just fans. As a fan all I invest is the cost of watching them play. I always get great value so every season has been a success for me. They owe me nothing.
I remember crying myself to sleep when my Giants lost to the Packers in 61 & 62. My investment was largely emotional but when you are a kid that's a lot and to me then 1961-1963 were failures. Nowadays I change the channel if they play like crap and wish they were relatively as good now as they were then.

For me, it was the 1963 Giants loss to the Bears that brought tears, particularly after Y.A. Tittle, my idol was injured.

 

[CL82]

Well, I’d say a bad player is someone who “hasn’t done anything”. You did say that about Paige right?

No need to send the money to me. Donate it to the UConn ticket project.

 

[JJTB]

It’s not bad yet. Wait until the season starts, and the holidays roll around. Players will be endorsing everything from soup to nuts.

Picture the turkey distributions at Thanksgiving......sponsored by Butterball at $50 a handout....somehow rings hollow to me.

 

[Alydar]

Well, I’d say a bad player is someone who “hasn’t done anything”. You did say that about Paige right?

No need to send the money to me. Donate it to the UConn ticket project.

You are confusing me with someone else. Really. She had a couple of gold medals and a room filled with awards before she arrived in Storrs. I think it was Geno who said exactly that before last season. I disagreed with him then too. Geno says a lot of provocative things for effect. So do I sometimes but disparaging Bueckers isn't on my list. Never has been.

In any case the question was whether any season in which UConn does not win the title should be considered a failed season by fans?

 

[CL82]

You are confusing me with someone else.
...
In any case the question was whether any season in which UConn does not win the title should be considered a failed season by fans?

Yep, I clicked the wrong post. I fixed it in my original post.

Regarding your second point, I guess they can, although I suspect most here are capable of a more nuanced view. But that wasn't the claim. The claim was that Paige has done nothing so far in her UConn career. And that is demonstrably false.