The Olympics are just around the corner. You can take your swimming, your gymnastics, and your 100-meter dash. I’m psyched to watch Team USA basketball beat everyone by 100 points every game.
I have no idea why I like watching the Team USA so much. Maybe part of it dates back to be being 6 years old when the original Dream Team came out and whopped on everyone. Maybe part of it is that I am a glutton for great players playing at their best. Have you seen what Olympic Carmelo Anthony can do? Did you see this team could put Kevin Durant on the floor at the same time as Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Carmelo, and DeMarcus Cousins? Who is stopping that?
Part of it is also the FIBA rules, which I find much more entertaining than NBA or NCAA rules. For instance, under FIBA rules once the ball touches the rim, anyone can tip the ball out. That gives tall, athletic guys an insane advantage compared to NBA rules, where there is an invisible “cylinder” above the rim and if anyone touches the ball in the “cylinder” gets called for interference. Gimme chaos!
The first tipoff for Team USA is 6:00pm on Saturday, August 6th. You know where I’ll be.
But first, here are your Links of the Week:
FanGraphs put together a nice little package on baseball players and their reactions and memories of what it is exactly like to get traded, including Valpo’s Jeff Samardzija! [FanGraphs]
In terms of GoPro videos, I would like to see if someone can come up with a better application that putting it on top of a solar-powered plane as it traveled across the globe. [Mashable]
So, let’s talk about Norway. They’re looking to put in floating tunnels underwater to combat traffic. Nothing terrifying about that at all. [Alltop.com]
This week, Yahoo! was purchased by Verizon for $4.8 billion and The Ringer had a really funny take on the acquisition: “An obituary for nobody’s favorite tech company.” Did you know Yahoo had a market capitalization around $125 billion at the time of the 2000-era tech bubble? [The Ringer]
Speaking of expensive purchases, Dollar Shave Club - one of the greatest services ever invented - was purchased for $1 billion and Harvard Business Review does a good job of tackling the “why”. I am going with their "Option B: Absorbing a disruptor," since there have been so many lawsuits and stories about how DSC’s competitors were trying to slow the company’s growth so aggressively. [Harvard Business Review]
I have no idea why, but I will click on any story about Olympic athletes and their diets 100% of the time. [GQ]
This week’s reminder that college athletics make someone a ton of money, just not the athletes. [CBS Sports]
Need some inspiration? Here are 20 Content Creators Who are Setting the Bar for Creativity in 2016 - people who are finding a way to break through the ever-growing area of stories, videos, and other “content” online. [AdWeek]
OK, you got me. The new Justice League movie looks pretty cool. Have a good weekend.