RebKell's Junkie Boards

[lynxmania]

On February 10th, we officially marked 1 year since Lisa Borders took over as WNBA President. I figured the "Voices of Rebkell" should grade Borders on how they believed her first season as President went.

Lisa Borders Named WNBA President

30 Day Poll

[Ay Mate]

I voted 'C' because she was barely present at all it seemed. I would have graded her higher but the whole player fines during the BLM crap killed that. I would have graded her lower but no teams folded during her first year.

All in all, she was forgettable.

[toad455]

I have her a "C" as well. Mostly because her press conferences seemed to be written by a 6 year old and the fact that we only have 9 games on ESPN2 this season.

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[Shades]

Who said "A"? As in awful?

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Nnekalonians 1:14 - Thou shalt not accept that which is not earned

[WNBA 09]

[Nerd2]

I also voted C. What stuck in my craw was how insincere she sounded whenever she made any presentation, how she completely screwed up during BLM, how they did nothing during the Olympics although they claimed they would, and how nothing has improved yet with information release. I realize she's hired for her business acumen and not her personality but I'm getting sick of how pretty much everyone in power in the WNBA clearly looks down on the fans. We now have a joke that we might pool our money and buy a sponsorship so the Storm leadership will speak with us.

[Happycappie25]

I broke it down including some things that were likely done by Richie but as the successor she can take the credit.

top grades

Marketing: B...Did well leveraging the 20th anniversary of the league...the NT after the break but a lot of teams lost a ton of steam because of nothing during the break.

Uniforms: B- An extra year of Adidas likely was out of her control but the color vs color wasn't as horrid as I feared and did add some more team identity....so ill put it above C.

New Playoff Format: B It had an effect...still say for business reasons there needs to be one gaurenteed home game per team...this I think will rear it's ugly head this year if I'm sitting in 8th and a loss from entering a deep lottery....(remember aggriate rule only applies to chances in the lottery and enough teams packed together) would YOU win that game? but can't say it didn't create excitement early...ill give it high marks for now

Balanced Schedule: A for logistical reasons I was deeply skeptical but it WORKED...helped attendance and got people watching....I think this in time will be a bigger thing than the playoff format that needs tweaking still

Cs

Television: C Fewer games still...but more TEAMS putting more games on RSNs...Need a secondary partner (not just NBATV putting on RSN Feeds) if ESPN will only air 9 games ESPNNEWS not as big as NBATV if it means cut rate facilities...but for all the negatives...more playoffs on ESPN and ESPN2 is a big plus enough to wash the negatives for now...wait and see

Liveaccess: Much fewer technical difficulties. cost is fair. Still not same as television so C is as high as I can go...its overhyped plus some of these Crews leave a LOT to be desired.

Scheduling: last year...Too many hell weeks...too many teams having 4 days off only to have then back to back 11am games...BUT this year has been much better much fewer Back to backs (the libs are Back to Back FREE!) so an F + an A = a C which they'll have to live with

Schedule Conflicts: Still an issue but fewer...all during playoffs but I'll move a DATE take NBATV rather than play in 2nd rate college gyms...at least galen center was fitted with sparks floor...its a balancing act but given we almost had a game at Grand Canyon U...C

Bottom Grades

Social Issues: F the fines caused a near CBA crisis...and she came off as ignorant and insensitive. She did recind them and did claim she'd set up a panel to discuss but all talk no do so far...her actions before however were good that keeps this from being a total F- or multiple Fs

Officials: F- your finals were decided not by judgement calls but actual...structure...of...the...game...calls...handled well...but can't stand...CANNOT...you invest here...its out of control...this was completely a black eye...it discredits the game.

3 Bs 1 A 4 C's 0 Ds 2 F I'll call that a C to a C- 72 if you will

What to look for this year:

Expansion, lots of sniffs...will there be a bite? Talent pool says yes...fan interest...I dunno.

DC Arena Issues: Have got to speak on this...With EDD playing in a facility 2000 smaller than the rest of the league's average is not acceptable...we'll see how this pans out...but it needs to be discussed

Nike Deal: Will we see individual team fonts finally again? Can we get off these cookie cutter jerseys that look 3rd rate (not even the D LEAGUE) what new ideas if any does Nike have...or does it go backwards...Nike is nefarious for giving bottom of the barrel junk to teams and leagues it doesn't feel moves product.

Next Generation marketing: will the new generation gain attention and interest and what can they do to help this.

For a first year not bad...but need to see some new things develop...this year may be a bit of a crossroads...need to see something from her C wont cut it in 2017

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"Leave it to the NCAA women's basketball committee to turn a glass slipper into glass ceiling" Graham Hays

[myrtle]

[Shades]

The new playoff format was in the works before Borders was on board.
http://boards.rebkell.net/viewtopic.php?p=1351286#1351286

I'm pretty sure the doubling of revenue from ESPN was on Richie's watch.

The only definite Borders thing that stands out to me is the fining of the players, and then retracting the fines later and clumsily flipping her viewpoint on that issue. She's as bad as I anticipated, because after months of searching, Silver chose somebody who resided on the Duke board of regents with him. Nice job, Silver. Kinda like a Donald Trump move.

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Nnekalonians 1:14 - Thou shalt not accept that which is not earned

[ClayK]

So if you're give Borders an F for officials, presumably you have some steps she should have taken, or should take, to improve the quality.

What are those steps? It's not like she hired the officials, trained the officials or graded the officials, nor did she set up the process to acquire them.

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Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā

[Shades]

Frequent written tests, and by taking the tests they're hopefully reminded of the rules. How can a crew of three all forget about the rule of reviewing the play of Nnekalonians 1:14 right away, that very well could have cost the Lynx not only the game but the Championship?

As Reeve would say "GET THE SIMPLE THINGS RIGHT!"

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Nnekalonians 1:14 - Thou shalt not accept that which is not earned

[ClayK]

[tfan]

Maybe the fans should get the training. Show them how they complain much more about calls against their team's players. Have them ref some games and then show them video of the calls they make.

[Nerd2]

They used to have a talk that Dee Kantner would go around and do where they explained to the fans what to look for. I know that they have an observer at games grade and critique the fans - I've talked to the guy who does it for Storm games. But the big issue I think is pay. I seem to recall hearing that the refs in the WNBA get a couple hundred less per game than they would in the NCAAs making many of them unwilling to work over the summer and learn a new set of rules. Didn't Thibault and the Sun try to force a higher wage to be paid?

[Nerd2]

One of the things I wonder is what exactly her job is. She clearly has a background as a business executive and has a mandate to increase the business success. We generally do not hear from all the other sports commissioners regularly either - it's usually when there is a punishment or other important news item. So a statement like "she was barely present at all" makes me wonder if she was even supposed to be.

[Nerd2]

ESPN dropping the number of regular-season games to 9 is horrible. There's really two types of fan bases: the 12 local markets where there is a team and the general fans. The increase in TV coverage that they keep touting only affects the local markets. Any of these games that also get put onto NBATV have a very limited additional audience because it's just not carried on every cable subscription. ESPN is the primary way of growing the audience nationwide.

[wbj]

Given how much influence the NBA has on the enterprise and how much the TV deal (sharing some revenue) frankly drives the survival of the teams at this point more than anything else, not a lot is actually expected from the league president except to do well with PR and events as needed....unfortunately that did not go so well when life went off script last year via the player protests which actually required decision making and leadership which is not actually her best skill, but even then we will never know how much that was NBA driven throughout....

She is a better speaker and presence publicly than Laurel was, so that is an improvement in a key basic area that matters for this job given how many things are not really in her control otherwise financially or strategically, so that has to at least get a B.

The painfully bad website and information sharing to me is the shining F grade - one would think if nothing else as a theoretically engaged fan that the new leader would make that a little pet project if nothing else simply to get it up to base level non-embarrassing standards. I am actually surprised on this one - would not cost much money at all and could have been a success story for her and actually a way to engage the hardcore fans in the effort too. Social media usage has certainly improved and in my view that is the league's best hope for cost-effectively engaging fans and future fans given that any other brand building efforts are simply too expensive in the long run.

If anything positive happens to occur I think you will see the league president suddenly appear. If anything negative happens it will absolutely be someone else's fault. Expect continued high level themes, positive platitudes, some nice speeches, and not much else unless someone else on the staff manages to get something done.

Frankly, doing no harm and getting a passing grade is all the NBA really needs here, so from that perspective I think outside of the brief protest debacle they would be very pleased.

[StevenHW]

I agree with some of the posters on this board that the WNBA President has a limited impact on what happens during the year, especially when some of the changes went underway with her predecessor. For that alone, I am tempted to put in a new grade that wasn't listed as an option: "INC" for incomplete. I think a grade should be revealed after the 2017 season.

HappyCappie had an interesting breakdown on the grade by listing all the things what happened to the WNBA this season. But I am not going to assume that the current WNBA President Lisa Borders had an overriding hand in all of those things.

I also don't believe that expansion of teams is always the league's president's job. The league itself does not determine which cities should get a WNBA team.

That said, I think 2017 should be an interesting year, because this will be the first season without Renee Brown as the league's vice president. She was listed as the "chief of basketball operations" in at least one article that I've read, so the upcoming season will be a year in transition. I suspect Renee's position had as much impact on the business side of the WNBA, and perhaps more so, than the WNBA's president.

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"The more I see of the moneyed classes, the more I understand the guillotine." -- George Bernard Shaw