Superb Analytical Piece by Barry Jackson

Tax problems looming for Heat: Why big move is needed this year and the risk Miami runs

…

The financial consequences of inertia would be significant.

Heat owner Micky Arison historically has expressed willingness to pay a luxury tax only if his team is a legitimate championship contender. He has paid the tax seven times, with a $52.9 million total payment over his nearly three decades of ownership.

…

…a tax bill - an enormous one - looms next season if the Heat doesn’t substantially trim payroll and if Miami intends to either 1) keep at least two among Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, Victor Oladipo and Omer Yurtseven or 2) replace them with players earning more than the minimum.

…

If Oladipo opts into his $9.4 million player option next season, the Heat would have $171 million committed to eight players in 2023-24. With cap holds and a first round pick factored in, Miami would be about $16 million over the tax line, potentially more, before addressing Strus, Vincent, Yurtseven or adding anyone over the minimum.

If Oladipo opts out - a good possibility if he continues playing well - the Heat would still be at least $6 million over the tax line and would have only these seven players under contract: 

Jimmy Butler ($45.2 million), Bam Adebayo ($32.6 million), Kyle Lowry ($29.7 million), Tyler Herro ($27 million), Duncan Robinson ($18.2 million), Caleb Martin ($6.8 million) and Nikola Jovic ($2.4 million). An eight player would be under contract if the Heat exercises its $1.9 million team option on Haywood Highsmith.

So Miami - without trimming payroll - would be in line to pay about a $10 million tax bill if its keeps its current roster but does not re-sign Oladipo, Strus, Vincent and Yurtseven and replaces all of them with inexperienced, minimum salary players and a 2023 first-round pick. That’s not realistic.

If the Heat decided to spend $12 million to keep Oladipo - but not Strus, Vincent or Yurtseven - that would result in a tax bill topping $40 million. That’s not realistic, either. 

So something must change.

…if Oladipo opts in (a possibility if he’s injured again) and the Heat kept this same roster intact and re-signed Strus but not Vincent or Yurtseven?

If Strus signed a deal starting at $7 million next season, the Heat’s luxury tax next season - with all of its other players under contract, including Oladipo opting in - would mushroom to more than $50 million.

What if Oladipo opts out and the Heat gives him $12 million, Strus and Vincent $6 million apiece and Yurtseven $3 million?

That would be a tax bill in the range of $94 million. There’s a better chance of a snowstorm by Miami-Dade Arena than the Heat paying that kind of tax bill for a non-championship team.

That’s why the Heat must trim payroll if it has any intention of keeping even two among Oladipo, Vincent or Strus and avoid paying a big tax. Even if the Heat parts with all of those players, signing anyone above the minimum to replace them would result in a large tax bill.

How did the Heat get itself in this situation? By agreeing to pay four players [Jimmy Butler ($45.2 million), Bam Adebayo ($32.6 million), Kyle Lowry ($29.7 million), Tyler Herro ($27 million)] between $27 million and $45 million next season, and by giving Robinson a deal that pays him $18 million next season.

There appears to be no way out and Barry Jackson has become a superb NBA writer who writes these deep analytical financial pieces that are so helpful to us who can’t balance our checkbooks. But. Cognos, looking at you Zach “Miami “Heat” symphony” Lowe, wrote “No Way Out” for 601 Biscayne in 2016/17 when it was saddled with the contracts of Whiteside, Johnson & Johnson and Weighters. I trust-near totally—in Andy Elisburg. NEVER underestimate Andy.

‘Terrorism Has Returned’: Pakistan Grapples With Attack That Left 101 Dead

The attack raised fears of a new wave of militancy from the Pakistani Taliban and sparked a heated debate over the government’s ability to meet that threat amid an economic and political crisis.

 

 

FT Cleveland 97 Miami 100

AP for ESPN:

HEAT CHECK

Miami has been one of the league's steadiest franchises, missing the playoffs just three times since 2008. 

It's a model Cleveland would like to follow.

Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff admires both the Heat's consistency and ability to adapt. He credits Miami president Pat Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra for leading the way.

“They have a philosophy and are flexible enough to change with the times and keep people wanting to be a part of it," he said. “They have core values they believe in and then they do a great job of acquiring talent but finding talent in the cracks.

“Their best players aren’t always No. 1 picks. They have been able to work free agency, G League, later draft picks and turn it into talent because their player development staff is so good.”

Kind words from J.B. Indeed, Steady and Consistent are the Miami "Heat's" two middle names. This franchise will get you 45 wins every damn year (standard deviation, 5 wins) and there’s nothing you can do about it!

Yes! FT Cleveland 97 Miami 100

Thrilling game. Good win for the Bad Losses (pro).

No! 97-99, :08.7!

94-99, :08.7 “Heat” Will Win!

93-98, 1:23 “Cavs” FTO

Uber-Crunch time for the Eerie Cadavers. 3+ full 24-sec possessions left.

93-96, 1:42

92-92, 3:14, “Heat” FTO

89-92, 4:11

The Artist Paints a Tree! 87-92 4:19

Mark this score and time. If C wins this game it will have to steal these last

C-Mart Again! 87-89

87-87, 5:37

86-85: Tyler With the 3 and 1!

83-79, 7:37 4Q

Superb as the 3rd was the 4th is superbly putrid. One recent sequence: Oladipo steal from Wade, next entry

Wade steal from Oladipo.

Now nobody can make a shot. Still 81-79, 8:47 4Q. Eerie FTO.

C-Mart still perfect: 6/6 (4/4).

81-79, 10:42 4Q

Let’s check in on the “Canes”

UM puttin’ this game away. 84-76, 2:28 2H.

ANOTHER 3! 79-79 End 3

WHAT A QUARTER! Those were two teams really playing at the top of their games. BRAVO!

8 of the 18 FG’s in the 3rd have been treys!

RUBIO WITH A THREE! 76-77

LeVert With a Three! 73-77

Rainin’ Trees! 68-75, 2:57

T-Ho and K-Lo back-to-back…Now 68-77! “Heat” scortchin’!

3rd Q so far reads like very good NBA ball.

66-69, 5:11 3Q, Eerie FTO

T-Ho hit a 3-oh befo’ the TO.

O MIA NO MO! “Heat” 7-0, 61-62

Eerie! C’s 9-0 3Q, 61-55

“Cavs” on 11-1 run, lead 58-55, 10:16 3Q, MIA FTO

Miami Bad Losses (college) 56 Va Tech 57, 14:48 2H

This would be a BAD loss (at home) for the Bad Losses.

HT Eerie 52 Bad Losses (pro) 55

Cleve started out hot, hot, hot (16-5, 5:30 1Q) then went cold, cold, cold (47-54, 1:11 2Q) before scoring the last 8 of the half. Attention C-Mart Shoppers: 11 pts (4/4 (3/3)) 8 rebs. "Heat" deadly from range (43.8%) Cleve, cadavers (22.7%).

HT Miami (23) Bad Losses (college) 45 Va. Tech (13-8) 44

Eerie Lake (31-21) 28 Miami Bad Losses (pros) (28-23) 29, 9:54 2Q

Miamiuh has all starters available and playing. J-Buts, C-Mart, Bam, K-Lo, T-Lo. "Cavs" are -4.

Amazing. Updated Jan. 31

 

Syrexcuse

Dave Keil
@d_keil11

the refs in this syracuse game should go back to reffing 5th grade girls basketball where they belong

8:57 PM · Jan 30, 2023·
35 Views

Dave’s pissed ‘cause his Orangemen just lost another game of basketball. Virginia (5th) beat ancient Jim Boeheim’s team 67-62 in the Carrier Dome. Dave should be used to it. It’s their 10th loss of the season.

Lauren Walsh
@lauwalsh10

Syracuse is Syracuse-ing this game

8:53 PM · Jan 30, 2023

·
151 Views

Nick Robbins
@nickrobbins12

Syracuse basketball yet again giving away another game at home

8:59 PM · Jan 30, 2023·
66 Views

 

Thoughts and Prayers
@ThinkPrayForUS

Offering thoughts and prayers for #Syracuse #Kansas - #PrayForSyracuse

8:58 PM · Jan 30, 2023·
34 Views

Bobby Hull Dead at 84

The "Golden Jet" was the world's best hockey player in his prime. When he jumped from Chicago in the NHL to Winnipeg in the rebel WHA in 1972 it was said WHA really stood for "When Hull Arrived".

59 Now Dead in Taliban Mosque Suicide Attack in Pakistan, Over 150 Wounded

Joao Cancelo Out at City

FernandinhoAfter a training ground argument with Pep over omission from the starting XI vs Arsenal in the FA Cup, Cancelo is being loaned out to Bayern. Cancelo can sign with Munich after his loan expires or go anywhere else. Anywhere else but City. They're done with him.

Less than two years ago Cancelo was heralded as City's "New Talisman", its "unlikely secret weapon,"  and "the most influential footballer in England." More than anyone else it was The Guardian's superb soccer writer Jonathan Liew who first brought Cancelo to my attention. He could play anywhere in any role: it was "positionless" soccer, like Erik Spoelstra's positionless basketball. Now he's taking his talents to Munich.

Trust in Pep. And I do. Yet, I wonder if more than depth is being lost at City with Cancelo's departure on top of those of Fernandinho, Raheem Sterling and Gabriel DeJesus: indispensable quality, or maybe a whole new way of playing football.

Wow

 

Taliban Suicide Bomber Kills ~50 Inside Pakistan Mosque

 

FT 23-20 KANSAS CITY vs PHILADELPHIA in SUPER BOWL!

20-20, :48 4Q

20-13, 2:08 3Q

13-13, 6:55 3Q

HT KC 13 Cincy 6

 

Miami "Bad Losses"

Miami Herald
@MiamiHerald
Heat defense struggles in bad loss to struggling Hornets to open important trip

3:40 PM · Jan 29, 2023·

2,488 Views

 

UM loss to Pitt--"Bad Loss"; "Heat" loss to Chazz--"Bad Loss"

13-3, 3:53 2Q

 

Boring! KC 6 Cincy 3, 8:36 2Q

Iowa Intra-Squad! Chieves 6 Pumpkins-With-Stretch-Marks 0, 13:42 2Q

KC (14-3) 3 Cincy (12-4) 0, 8:50 1Q (AFC Championship)

“Eagles” to Super Bowl!

31-7 the final in Philadelphia.

HT Phila. 21 SF 7

Purdy’s replacement Josh Johnson just fumbled at the SF 30. Phil ball.🙄

Eggs 14 Frisco 7, 1:36 2Q

Brock Purdy Out of NFC Championship With Elbow Injury

Josh Johnson (???) is the SF QB now. Purdy was hurt on the "Niners" first drive.

Ooh! OUCH! Oh God that is painful to even look at. Yikes.

Purdy, who became the fifth rookie quarterback to start a conference championship game, was 2-of-2 for 19 yards at the time of the injury. (Espo)

Phil 7 San Fran 7, 6:39 2Q

Now THAT'S Consistency! LolHeat

"Heat" winning .549 of their games through 51 which translates over 82 games to...45 wins, their average every year from 2014/15-2021/2.

Miami Harold dba Enlightened Purveyor of Garbage
@hottakeharry

Heat score 117 for the first time in 1.5 weeks, but also give up 122 to one of the worst offenses in the league and lose.
3:39 PM · Jan 29, 2023·
214 Views

Nobody's reading about the "Heat", why should they with the NFL on and crap like this.

Lynn
@LYNNuminati

Basketball is my forever first love. But good lord the Miami Heat make it difficult
3:38 PM · Jan 29, 2023·
447 Views

I hear you, Lynn!

Bally Sports Florida & Bally Sports Sun
@BallySportsFL

"I see a path for our team to be great, but it's going to require much more consistency..." Erik Spoelstra meets with the media following today's loss to Charlotte.
@MiamiHEAT | #HEATCulture
3:51 PM · Jan 29, 2023·
291 Views

End 1Q: Eggles 7 Frisco 0 (NFC Championship)

Phil scored on its first drive.

Can You Believe This?

 

LolHeat. They just can't sustain. Three game win streak, pfft! "Different team", pfft! You're playing one of the sorriest teams in the Association and you let them shoot 54% against you, 37.5% from three. Same ol' no-D, inconsistent Miami.

Who Knew?

The Jobless Rate Is at a Half-Century Low. 

 

 

‘Shortness of breath’: How police first described what happened to Tyre Nichols

 

The first time Memphis police described what happened between their officers and Tyre Nichols — the 29-year-old who died of his injuries after being beaten by police — they wrote that “a confrontation occurred” following a traffic stop. Nichols fled on foot, and then “another confrontation occurred.”

“Afterward, the suspect complained of having a shortness of breath,” reads the statement posted on the Memphis Police Department’s Twitter account the morning after Nichols was beaten on Jan. 7. “The suspect was transported to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition.”

That is police-speak that I am familiar with. I don't know how many times I read that "the suspect was contacted by these officers and resisted and was redirected to the ground." That is almost art.

#LolMiami

The Canes Suffer A Bad Loss To Overachieving Pitt, 71-68

Pitt played out of their minds. Miami choked. The refs were trash. It was an all-around bad day.

...

This was a BAD loss to an unimpressive team

Bad officiating and Pitt playing out of their asses aside, Miami had no business losing this matchup. After their slow start, the Canes took control of the game. They maintained control until the last two minutes, before Wong lost his mind and the refs decided Miami was not going to have a chance to win. I’m fired up about this loss. It stung. ...

I must be the most color-blind motherfucker in America

And I don't mean that as a humblebrag. After first appearance it never registered with me that Barack Obama was Black, "Black-ish." That he identified Black. Obama was so much like some of my legal colleagues that I identified him as a lawyer, not a Black man. I swear I could read Obama's mind. I knew what he was thinking and how he was thinking it because he thought like a lawyer. I had to catch myself sometime when I'd read something that mentioned his race, "Oh yeah, he's Black. 'Allegedly'. 'Sorta.' Who knew?" Not me.

Similarly, my colorblindness caused me to read entirely wrongly the reaction to the Tyre Nichols murder. I advised publicly and privately, to my family and N-1, loudly and in bold to "STAY HOME". I thought this was going to be riots like it was 1999. I was exasperated with official Memphis' unpreparedness. When I deconstructed the videos I counted the blows not the race of the cops. Never, EVER thought race was the, or a, reason for the lack of riots. Blind as Stevie Wonder. 

It's race all the way down. LeBron James tweeted "WE'RE OUR OWN WORST ENEMY!" Black cops shouldn't be beating to death innocent Black civilians! Should Black cops be beating to death only white citizens? Well...If the cops had been white we could understand it. Really? I read a NYT article that quoted BLM and other Black leaders. The standard paradigm didn’t explain this. It troubled them differently that they didn’t know exactly how to react to this.  If the cops had been white Tyre Nichols would still be dead. Were those 13 blows colorblind or were they because Nichols was Black? (Some say yes. I agree.) Or because the cops were Black? (I haven’t heard anyone say that.) There would have been riots if the cops had been white. There were none because the cops were Black. Really? They need a new paradigm.

It's cop culture, others said. I agreed with that. I've seen it. A particular personality is attracted to policing and police culture reinforces it. Cops, especially in street crime units like these "Scorpions" act with "implied impunity," Benjamin Crump, lawyer and spokesman for the Nichols family said. I agreed. I have seen it. They are meanest, the orneriest, the most violent and they do act with "implied impunity." Black, brown, and white.

I read Crump say that the quick firings and arrests of the cops "set a new standard." Swift action; complete transparency: release the tapes even on a Friday night; immediate, repeated condemnation of the cops by other law enforcement. I thought that was right, right-ish, in retrospect. An addendum to Crump's statement however made clear another of his points: In the future we want white cops judged just as swiftly and condemned just as vociferously. Forget poisoning the jury pool for the cops' trial. Race got folded in on itself. Had the cops been white, Crump asked, would they have been immediately fired, indicted, the vids released? We don't want these Black cops singled out! Really? Every way they looked at it, right-side up, upside-down, it was race. LAWD. I did not see that.

FT in Beans: Beans 125 "Lakers" 121

LAL's second season of discontent continues. They fall to 23-26 while Beans, leaders in the Eastern Conference, rise to 35-15.

 Ancient rivals LAL and Beans are headed to OT. It is the second OT game the teams have played this year, Beans winning the Dec. 13 game 122-118.

Pitt-Miami, Finis

 

PITTSBURGH -- — Pittsburgh has spent the better part of a decade as an afterthought. Bottoming out in the Atlantic Coast Conference will do that.

The program's long, slow rise back to relevance under Jeff Capel appears to finally be gaining traction.

The latest proof came in a 71-68 victory over No. 20 Miami on Saturday, a game that required a stirring late rally, a handful of defensive stops and something intangible but just as important: belief.

[Players on Pitt teams under Jeff have not had that. More often they have spun off in all directions and torpedoed promising seasons.]

...

"I have so much appreciation for this team and what we’re doing,” said [Jamarius] Burton, who finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three steals, two of them in the final minute.

Burton is one of the few holdovers from a group that shuffled through an 11-win season a year ago, usually in front of a sparse crowd at the Petersen Events Center. Capel retooled through the transfer portal in the offseason, and after a sluggish start Pitt has recovered to win 14 of 17 while building a resume that could have it in NCAA tournament consideration for the first time since 2016.

This may have been the most improbable of the bunch.

Miami led by as much as 11 and went up 68-60 on a Norchad Omier dunk with 2:26 to go. The Hurricanes wouldn't score again as Pitt closed on an 11-0 run.

[I watched ~10' of highlights and Miami was in control for most of the game and were clearly the better team with the better players, veterans, who knew Jim Larranaga's expectations. The "Hurricanes" just blew themselves in that last 2 1/2 minutes, a combination of cold-shooting and tenacious "Panther" defense. The "Panthers" tilted Miami with their "No Quit Pitt" (Harry, trademark that).]

...the first sellout crowd at Pitt since 2019 erupted.

The finish perhaps shouldn't have been a surprise. Pitt is 5-1 in conference play in games decided by three points or less, as a group thrown together over the summer — many of them making essentially their last stand as college players — has organically gelled into a selfless and cohesive unit.

[The ultimate tribute to the Pitt kids and to Coach Jeff's ability to mold them.]

“I think the belief is there, it’s strong,” Capel said. "They believe in each other more than anything and as a coach, that’s really cool to see.”

[Jeff is on a one-year contract at a reduced salary--this year is his audition to continue coaching in Pittsburgh.]

 

BIG PICTURE

Miami: The experienced Hurricanes seemed firmly in control for long stretches but their inability to execute in the final seconds was surprising for a team that reached the Elite Eight last season.

[Pitt rattled Miami and Pitt hasn't rattled many opponents in recent years. A Larranaga Miami team is among the least in the country I would not expect to get unsettled by any team. But these "Panthers" did it.]

Pittsburgh: On a day the program honored the 2003 team that won the school's first Big East championship, the current Panthers borrowed a page from that storied group's book and used suffocating defense down the stretch to win.

A conference title for Pitt may be asking a bit much, but they have forced their way into the NCAA tournament conversation, a welcome change for a program that's been synonymous with losing since Jamie Dixon left for TCU in the spring of 2016.

[An inspirational win, one that instills and augments belief, like the Miami "Heat's" 3-game win streak. They have 3 wins over top-25 programs and play at North Carolina Wednesday. Like the "Heat" there is opportunity here for Pitt and unlike the "Heat" there are not many opportunities left for the "Panthers" to make cognos overlook those 7 demerits.]

Okay? “Finnish people”:

You see anybody there who looks like Federiko Federiko? And I bet there’s not even one named Federiko or Federika Federiko. CALL ME A STEREOTYPER.

All-Name

In the Pitt-Miami game:

Norchad Omier, UM

Woogla Poplar, UM. Man, I want to be named Woogla Poplar.

Okay, this is the best, though. Tell me a typical Finnish name. I don't know, frigging Tuumu Saalanni or something.

Anybody say Federiko Federiko? 

 

Federiko Federiko

• Class
  Sophomore
• HT/WT
  6' 11", 220 lbs
• Birthplace
  Helsinki, Finland

   

  Do a word-image association in your mind. I'll give the word...

   

  FINNISH PERSON!
  

  

  If you tell me he was the first image that popped into your noggin' I'll tell you you lie like a rug.
  

"No Quit Pitt"!

Harry G. Psaros
@PittGuru
I’m an eternal optimist but I thought the game was over countless times, especially when #Miami went up by 8 points with two minutes left. Bottom line: NO QUIT #PITT. #H2P
6:06 PM · Jan 28, 2023·
1,117 Views

Well done, Harry!

Cale Berger
@cale_berger
First sellout at the Pete since 2019 #H2P
6:07 PM · Jan 28, 2023 from Pittsburgh, PA·
229 Views

Bennett Conlin
@BennettConlin
Did not anticipate Pitt being an NCAA Tournament team in November. Good for the Panthers.
6:08 PM · Jan 28, 2023·
137 Views

Jon Rothstein
@JonRothstein
Things you didn't think you'd tweet: Jeff Capel has Pitt right in the NCAA Tournament picture without John Hugley. Put that man near the TOP of the ACC Coach of the Year race alongside Brad Brownell and Kevin Keatts.
6:03 PM · Jan 28, 2023·
25.5K Views

That Sports Guy
@Jason_Shetler
Third time this season that the Pitt Panthers have knocked off a Top 25 opponent. #25 UNC on Dec 30th #11 Virginia on Jan 3rd #20 Miami today
6:08 PM · Jan 28, 2023·
64 Views

PITT WINS!

LIGHT IT UP!

 71-68 the final. "Panthers" get their 15th win of the season in an immense comeback in the last 2 1/2 mins. H2P!

OMG Pitt 69 UMG 68, :08 :o

Pitt BB 32 Miami (20th) 41, 16:01 2H, Pitt TO

HT Pitt "Dribbling Panthers" 28 Miami Gardens (20th) 33

Pitt will not win this game. Jim Larranaga has one of his veteran teams and when he does the "Dribbling Hurricanes" destroy opponents.

It has not been a garden party for Mario Cristobal. The "Tackling Gardeners" had a shockingly bad season and their off-season is careening badly. Super QB Jake Garcia entered the transfer portal and will not be back. This week offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, a Broyles award winner at Michigan under Jim Harbaugh, was fired. LolUMG.

45

The "Heat" have won three straight, one a thrilling comeback win over East-leading and bitter rival Boston. All three wins were at home.

Now they begin a 4-game road trip. Starting tomorrow in Charlotte they play all Eastern Conference teams, Cleveland, New York, and Milwaukee are the others. Erik Spoelstra said recently that he had seen something different in this team and I agreed. This is a chance for Miami to show it is a different team than the one that has stumbled around Middlesbrough like a drunk who can't make his way home; to build on this 3-dub momentum; to shoulder it's way toward the top four. It's a long season, boy, and 32 are left to play, but top four is keeping it real. It won't be the last chance for them but it is a chance. We need that perspective: top four. 

We need this perspective: Post-LBJ through 2021/22, eight seasons, the "Heat's" win percentage expressed as a decimal was .543, 45 wins per season. After fifty games of 2022/23 the cumulative post-LBJ win decimal is .544, 45 wins. This season, through 50 games, the "Heat" is playing .560 ball. Projected over the 82-game season that's... 46 wins. That is the "Heat's" orbit. The win total wobbles from season to season but its tether rope anchors at 45 wins. There is no chance Miami will win the Eastern Conference, far less win the Finals.

You know you’re onto something when you swing your legs out of bed in the morning and say in your head, “God, I love my life.”

FT Carnival 110 Disney 105

The “Heat” did not spit the bit. The “Heat” are comin’.

102-98, 1:17

Florida Symphony

Disney has got two Wagners and Carnival has a Strus. They also have The Artist, Vincent, who just hit two treys to put the Carny in the lead. It’s now 86-85 with 7:40 to play.

Miami 76 Disney 81, 10:40 4Q

“Magic” led by 9 at HT.

No riots in the news. One person was arrested in Times Square protesting. Some roads have been temporarily blocked in different cities. No riots. Not even any massive protests.

I hear police sirens now but not the cacophony I would expect if riots were underway.

Jan. 27, 2023, 8:13 p.m. ET2 hours ago

2 hours ago

Jacey Fortin

The four videos released on Friday did not show what prompted police officers to perform a traffic stop on Tyre Nichols in the first place. Each piece of footage begins after his car has already been stopped in an intersection.

 

Right.

 

Tyre Nichols Vids

There are four, three from the former officers' body cams, and one where you can see the terminal incident best from a pole cam. The videos start with the stop of Mr. Nichols' car in the middle of a multi-lane highway. The former cops grab him out of his vehicle. There is no reason, such as a car chase, from the vids for the stop. The body cam footage begins with one former cop pulling Nichols out of his car. Nichols can be heard saying "I didn't do anything wrong" as he's surrounded and grabbed by three or four former cops who order him to the ground. "Okay, okay!" Nichols can be heard saying. He seems genuinely mystified as to the reason for all of this. "You guys are really doing a lot right now," he says. One former cop tases Nichols and one pepper sprays him right in the face. The biggest, most heavyset former cop, who does most of the direct sadism, catches some pepper spray in his eyes and in another body cam vid a fellow officer, a white man, repeatedly flushes the Black, heavyset sadist's eyes out. The encounter happens at around 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 7. Somehow after the initial round of roughing up, tasing and pepper spraying Mr. Nichols is able to break free! Oh, he is heard to yell for his "Mom! Mom!" a few times on the first body cam vid. He was ~100 yards from her home at some time. Anyway, Mr. Nichols takes off running, a couple of officers, one Black, the other, the white cop, give chase but halt out of breath. The pole cam--I didn't know those things could be swung--is on the corner of Castlegate Lane and Something in a residential neighborhood. The pole cam begins at 8:32. The pole camera initially is pointing in the opposite direction down Castlegate Lane. When a pale blue light from a police vehicle shines on a stack of boxes by the curb the pole cam is swung in the opposite direction and is directly across narrow, residential Castlegate. My point in mentioning the swing of the pole cam is that it clearly is being manually directed by a human. That is, a person, in the control room or whatever, actually sees this happen. I don't know if the operator immediately notified superiors. When the pole cam swings into position it offers a bird's eye vantage of the beating and Mr. Nichols is on the ground surrounded by three former cops standing over him. This is the portion of the videos that has drawn apt, eerie comparisons to the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles in 1991. Same eerie light too, this time though, in color. The police are handcuffing Mr. Nichols as he lies, it appears, face down on the corner. It's dark out and the pole cam does not have zoom capability. It appears he is face down. Then the former cops get him up! Mr. Nichols is clearly handcuffed behind his back and is lifted to a sitting position, then they stand him up! The sadism begins as he sits and continues as they have him upright. I have watched this part twice and I think they got him standing just so that they could punch him in the head. I think this because Mr. Nichols was on the ground, then picked up, then sadistically beaten then laid back down on the street again. In both the sitting and standing positions I counted three kicks to the head, all by the same heavyset cop who, I think was the one who got pepper-sprayed earlier, and one knee, maybe to the head, I could not tell, and maybe by the same heavyset cop; three baton strikes by a white skin-headed officer, one of which interrupts big fat Black cop's attempt at another kick; and then when they have Mr. Nichols standing (held up by the other cops) six punches directly to the head and face. Mr. Nichols is totally defenseless, his hands are cuffed behind his back and his head completely unprotected. The big, fat, Black cop delivers most of the punches and he takes aim at Nichols' head, winds up and punches. Nichols' head can be seen to jerk to the side from the force of two of the punches. Another punch by the big, fat, Black cop is an uppercut to the head. Thirteen combined kicks, baton strikes, punches to a defenseless man who is handcuffed, in custody and controlled by the police. Not that anything would justify it, but for what? It is entirely unclear why the police stopped the Nichols vehicle in the first place and the Police Chief has said she can find no reason for the stop. I do not think that there will be riots from this. Why do I think not? I don't know. I haven't heard any police sirens in Miami Beach is one reason, I guess. But I have not checked the news while typing this post.

Jan. 27, 2023, 3:36 p.m. ET18 minutes ago

18 minutes ago

Eliza Fawcett and Jesus Jiménez

Release of police video is timed with public reaction in mind.

Explain the reasoning.

“Friday at 6 p.m., very, very few people will be at work,” said Frank Colvett Jr., a councilman from the city’s east side. “Everyone will have had plenty of time to get home from school, from their jobs, and just stay home.”

Mr. Colvett, Jr., you know your city, I do not. What I know, Mr. Colvett, Jr. is that even if you are right that there is no violence in your city tonight your reasoning will still be faulty to a degree that insults human reasoning.

Van Lathan Jr
@VanLathan

The #TyreNichols video is going to trigger and enrage us who care. Y’all make sure y’all hold space for yourselves. It feels like this will be excruciating

3:39 PM · Jan 27, 2023·
4,516 Views


Listen to Van.

 

Will the "Heat" be fired off the inspiration of the white hot comeback win over Beans or will they flame out? 

C-Mart, the Composer, and Hubert Horatio Highsmith are day-to-day (but aren't we all) as are "Kevon Harris" (no relation (I don't think)) and "Jonathan Isaac" for Disney. Special half-time highlights of Tyre Nichols-Memphis "Scorpions" game.

Tua Tagovailoa still in concussion protocol

 It was a month yesterday.

 

Why doesn't the city of Memphis give 58,000 free tickets to the public to the Liberty Bowl where they can watch the big Tyre Nichols "Skateboarders" vs  Memphis "Scorpions" game on the Jumbotrons? Half-time entertainment by the Memphis P.D. Prancing Horse Band.

Memphis P.D. Annual Horse Show Tonight

Oh lovely

Jan. 27, 2023, 1:19 p.m. ET6 minutes ago

6 minutes ago

Remy Tumin

All five of the fired Memphis police officers charged with murder in the death of Tyre Nichols have now posted bail and been released from the Shelby County jail, according to jail records.

You five guys going to the protest or staying home?

Jan. 27, 2023, 11:46 a.m. ET1 hour ago

1 hour ago

Jessica Jaglois

Reporting from Memphis

The video footage of the encounter that led to Tyre Nichols's death will be released on the city website this evening after 6 p.m. local time, said Lt. Karen Rudolph, a Memphis Police Department spokeswoman. The video will be broken into downloadable segments, she said.

Jan. 27, 2023, 11:47 a.m. ET1 hour ago

1 hour ago

Jessica Jaglois

Reporting from Memphis

Regarding the timing of the release, which some officials have questioned, Lieutenant Rudolph said: “It was in consideration of businesses, schools, etc. So those who want to protest can freely, and those who don’t can get home.”

They WANT them to protest—or not, whatever they want. What world am I living in? What world is Memphis in? A world where those who want to protest and those who want to go home will say a friendly goodbye to each other and “Have a good weekend”? Where school kids will say to each other, “Are you going out tonight”? Where adults don’t go to Happy Hour on Friday nights and get happy on alcohol? 

Friday Night Fire

Jan. 27, 2023, 11:58 a.m. ET1 hour ago

1 hour ago

Glenn Thrush

Reporting from Washington, D.C.

 “I have seen the video myself, and I will tell you I was appalled. I am struggling to find a stronger word, but I will just tell you, I was appalled.” —FBI Director Christopher Wray at a news conference Friday. Mr. Wray, along with the attorney general, Merrick B. Garland, urged a “peaceful and nonviolent” response once the video is released.

Pragmatism asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true make in any one's actual life? What experiences [may] be different from those which would obtain if the belief were false?...What, in short, is the truth's cash-value in experiential terms?" The moment pragmatism asks this question, it sees the answer: TRUE IDEAS ARE THOSE THAT WE CAN ASSIMILATE, VALIDATE, CORROBORATE, AND VERIFY. FALSE IDEAS ARE THOSE THAT WE CANNOT. That is the practical difference it makes to us to have true ideas; that therefore is the meaning of truth, for it is all that truth is known as. 'The truth of an idea is not a stagnant property inherent in it. Truth HAPPENS to an idea.-(original emphasis)The Meaning of Truth, A Sequel to Pragmatism, William James, 1909.

Do you "buy" that?