Fan Blog: Player Profile - Antawn Jamison

The player profile this time focuses on NBA veteran power forward, Antawn Jamison. Antawn Jamison has been in the NBA for 13 seasons. After playing at North Carolina for three years in college, Jamison was drafted with the 4th pick overall in the 1998 NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors. On the day of the draft his rights were traded from the Raptors to the Golden State Warriors for ex-college teammate Vince Carter. He played for the Warriors for five seasons before being traded to the Dallas Mavericks for one season. After his short stint with Dallas he was then traded to the Washington Wizards where he actually became a major rival to the Cavaliers and played for six seasons.


Cleveland Cavaliers
Antawn Jamison   #4
Position: Power Forward
College: North Carolina
Height: 6'9''
Weight: 235 lb
Age: 35
Birthplace: Shreveport, LA





Midway through his sixth season with the Wizards he was part of a midseason trade with the Cavaliers. Cleveland brought him in to serve the part as a power forward who could stretch the defenses with the range of his shot. He was thought to be the final piece to the puzzle for winning an NBA championship. Obviously things didn't work out that way but Jamison remains a focal point of the Cavalier offense today. He is averaging 17.4 points and 6.3 rebounds per game this season. He is no longer the All-Star player he once was in his career but he is a great person and still a worthy player that I love having on the team.

Class Blog: Reflections

I am definitely glad that I decided to take the Sports Writing for Marketing and Promotions class. As a Marketing major that would like to do something in the world of sports, I think this was the perfect class to give me an idea as to what will differentiate me from my competition. It gave me a great understanding of all the different ways to go about marketing your team or event as well as how to gain sponsorship. It was also a very good touch-up course from my marketing classes to refresh me on all the different forms of media that sports can promote themselves through.

I think the biggest thing that I learned about sports marketing is that you have to start out small. If I want to get a career in this field I have to build my network. I need to get my name out there and just meet people who are doing jobs that I would potentially want to do. This class has taught me that the more people you know, the easier it can be to get into a job. There are tons of people who have an abundance of knowledge about sports but knowing people on the inside of an organization is something that will set you apart from other potential candidates. To go along with this, I learned that it is vital to present yourself professionally wherever you go because you never know who you could meet. Even a casual night out on the town could turn out to be the night you run into someone who could be used as a lead or referral for a job. Getting your foot in the door of a professional organization can be the hardest part of the job at times and this is why networking is so key to getting in.

Fan Blog: Byron Scott

The majority of this fan blog has been dedicated to the Cavaliers players and team, but none of their success would have come without coach Byron Scott. This is Byron Scott's second season coaching the Cavaliers in which he has not had the greatest success thus far. He came to the Cavaliers with the Lebron James decision up in the air and I think he made the decision thinking that it would sway Lebron's decision in Cleveland's favor. Regardless of not having James, Byron Scott has done as good as expected with the players he has had.

Byron Scott played in the NBA for 15 years from 1983 to 1998. During his time playing in the league he played along all-time greats such as Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal,  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Reggie Miller. He won three NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1985, 1987, and 1988. After his playing career he got his first head coaching job for the New Jersey Nets in 2000. He took them to back-to-back NBA Finals and later went on to coach the New Orleans Hornets in 2004 where he won NBA Coach of the Year in 2008. Scott's style of coaching is a controlled, up-tempo paced style of offense with his primary focus on the defensive end. He has not yet won a NBA Championship as a coach but hopefully he will deliver on that with Cleveland in the near future.

Fan Blog: The End Is Near

The end of the 2012 NBA regular season is just a few days a way and that is a huge relief for Cavs fans. This season has not been a very easy one to watch but has given our young players a great learning experience under their belts. I'll be honest, the past few weeks haven't even been fun to watch. Kyrie Irving, Daniel Gibson, and Anderson Varejao have all been hurt the majority of the last two months and Ramon Sessions was traded. These are some of our best players that have missed a ton of time over the last couple months. This has resulted in poor television ratings and below average attendance.



There are only two games left in the season, one against Washington and the other against Chicago. I know many fans are just hoping for two losses to increase our playoff position and I can say that I am no different from these fans. This season has been a struggle to watch but it was leaps and bounds better than last season. There are a lot of question marks going into the offseason but I think there are even more answers which is great! The past few years have been rough for Cavs fans but I think this is a team definitely on the upswing. I think next year they will make the playoffs as a 7 or 8 seed and hopefully within 3 years the Cavs will have homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Despite the bad record this season, I would still declare this season a success.

Fan Blog: Player Profile - Daniel Gibson

This fan blog is dedicated to the five year Cavalier veteran Daniel 'Boobie' Gibson. Daniel Gibson was drafted by Cleveland with the 12th pick of the 2nd round in the 2006 NBA Draft. He struggled in his rookie season in the NBA until playoffs roled around. He was the key player in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pistons. He scored a career high 31 points, 19 of those in the fourth quarter, to seal the series win and send the Cavs to the NBA Finals. By his second season he had earned a consistent starting spot and many people considered him to possibly be the running mate Lebron James would need to win a championship. In his second year he averaged 10.4 points per game.


Cleveland Cavaliers
Daniel Gibson   #1
Position: Point Guard
College: Texas
Height: 6'2''
Weight: 200 lb
Age: 26
Birthplace: Houston, TX




The Cavaliers acquired Mo Williams in 2009 which brought Daniel Gibson back to the bench. He has played from the bench pretty consistently every season since then. Last season he averaged a career high 11.6 points per game but his last 3 seasons have all been slowed down by injury. This season is no different. He is out for the season and just had surgery on his ankle. After becoming a fan favorite over his past 5 years wearing a Cavaliers uniform, there is much debate on whether this was his last. With potential star, Kyrie Irving taking over the minutes and a constantly beat-up Gibson, he is definitely a question mark going into the 2012-13 season.

Class Blog: The Future of Sports Marketing

I think the sector of arena advertisements are practically recession proof. The recent economic downturn has hurt almost every aspect of business but no matter what I think people are still going to attend sporting events. Sporting events allow people to get away from their normal life and step into an atmosphere that can allow them to forget some of their financial problems temporarily. Because of this 'escape', people will continue to attend sporting events so companies are going to continue to advertise at sporting events. Companies will continue to put ads on signs, scoreboards, walls, and even uniforms.

European soccer leagues already put companies logos on their uniforms and the NBA announced last week that they are considering doing the same thing to increase revenue. This could open up a whole new avenue for corporations to market themselves. Can you imagine some of the all time greatest highlights getting replayed for years into the future and a big logo of Microsoft on the players jersey? I mean what if Julius Erving's famous reverse lay-in was replayed all of these years with the McDonald's golden arches on his uniform? This is advertising that could last a lifetime! I think this really is the future of advertising. I don't think it will look very cool but they will find a way to make it work. I think the biggest problem with it is going to be working out agreements with jersey sponsors and player sponsors. For example, if a team is sponsored by Dell but an individual player on that team endorses Apple. This could cause some corporate conflicts that I am not sure how these rival companies would resolve it.

Fan Blog: Harrison Barnes

Harrison Barnes has become the leading candidate for the Cavaliers to draft. If the NBA Draft Lottery follows suit with the teams records, the Cavs will be drafting either 4th or 5th in this summers draft. With much need at the Small Forward/Shooting Guard position, all eyes have turned toward Harrison Barnes out of North Carolina. Barnes just finished his sophomore season at North Carolina after averaging 15.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game this season. His numbers dipped a bit from his freshman year but much of that was due to other scorers coming in on the team. Many experts thought he would leave school after his freshman year because he would've been a top 3 pick, but because of the looming lockout, he decided to come back to college for another year.

If the mock drafts are correct and Harrison Barnes does indeed come to Cleveland, they will be getting a perfect sized NBA body that can shoot and score from pretty much anywhere on the floor. He stands at about 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighs about 215 pounds. He will have to add a bit of weight once he gets into the NBA but that is pretty standard for a kid his age. I think he will be able to add another young scoring threat to the Cavs offense as well as another player that will hopefully fill out the lineup for the extended future. Barnes could solidify his place as a starter immediately because there isn't a whole lot of competition at that position. Barnes would mix great with other youngsters, Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson as well as some other key players like Anderson Varejao and Atawn Jamison. Hopefully Barnes will be the key to the puzzle to put Cleveland back in the playoffs in 2013

Class Blog: Adolph Coors Company

The Sports Sponsorship Criteria in the book revealed a lot to me about the standards that Coors looks for when looking for a sponsor. Coors has a ton of qualifications and requirements for who they allow and who they look to sponsor them. Coors creates a great medium for sponsors to help themselves as well as Coors. Coors advertises through sports, co-op events, regional events that include fairs and festivals, and other special marketing events.

This Coors section allowed me to learn that sponsors have to go through a lot of requirements to become a sponsor. I used to think it was the other way around. Coors has developed a great idea of what kind of events they want to be sponsoring and what kind of image they want to have. For example, their target age is 24 so they are going to sponsor events that 24 year olds are going to be the primary attendees. It is apparent that Coors has put a lot of time and effort into these sponsorship criteria and it really seems to be working for them because they have become a major beverage company.

Fan Blog: Dan Gilbert

The importance of an owner in sports is often times overlooked. I think often times an owner is thought to just be a rich businessman that divies up a lot of money to own the majority of a team. Sometimes I do think this is true but it is without a doubt that in order to have a successful sports franchise, you must have a passionate, driven, and successful owner. Although he can be controversial at times, I think Dan Gilbert fits all of these criteria.

Dan Gilbert was born in raised in Detroit, Michigan in 1962. Dan graduated with a Bachelor's Degree from Michigan State University, a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University Law School and is a member of the State Bar of Michigan. Additional to ownership of the Cavs, Gilbert is also the chairman and founder of Quicken Loans Inc., the Lake Erie Monsters, the Cleveland Gladiators, the Canton Charge, and has many other business and investment ventures.

Dan Gilbert has issued some controversial statements in the past, particularly relating to the exit of former Cleveland star, Lebron James. The night James decided to 'take his talents to South Beach' Gilbert released a statement to Cleveland fans. In the statement he accused Lebron of betrayal, self-promotion, and disloyalty. He also guaranteed a Cavaliers championship before Lebron James as well as reassured that he and the other Cavaliers management would be working harder now than ever to get the city of Cleveland the championship they deserve. To many outside people this statement was viewed as a low cheap shot on Lebron. But as a huge Cavs fan I applaud Gilbert for this. He was probably the only manager in sports that actually wrote an open letter to his fans stating what 99% of the American population was feeling. Did he get caught up in the moment, absolutely. But it is this kind of drive and dedication that you want in an owner. This letter certainly showed his fire and passion to be the best and he is exactly the kind of guy I want in charge of my team!

Class Blog: Celebrity Endorsements

It seems like celebrity endorsements are everywhere in today's world of advertising. Athletes endorse anything from the very products that they use on the field or court all the way to products that have nothing to do with their perfomance. Derek Jeter endorses Gillette razors, Lebron James endorses Sprite and State Farm, Dwayne Wade endorses T-Mobile, and even Peyton Manning endorses DirecTV, Sony, and Sprint. The point I am trying to make is that none of these products have anything to do with what these athletes do in their respective sports. Companies give these stars millions of dollars because they know they will bring publicity and a spotlight onto their product. I mean how exciting can you possibly make a commercial or a billboard featuring Gillette razors. But when you throw Derek Jeter into the mix, then you have a ground to gain interest in your product.

When Kelloggs decided to drop Michael Phelps but Speedo did not, I think this says a lot about how effective a celebrity endorsement can be when it is in the right field. Of course Speedo isn't going to drop Michael Phelps, they should come hand in hand together! I cannot name another swimmer or another swimsuit manufacturer in the whole world of the top of my head. The reason for this is because they are both the best at what they do. Michael Phelps is the biggest possible endorser of a swimming product like Speedo could possibly ask for, and the same for Speedo about getting Michael Phelps. How this compares with Kelloggs is that they could probably live without Michael Phelps. Phelps' swimming ability really has nothing to do with breakfast cereal anyways. Kelloggs can always find another celebrity endorser and they could still have a great reason as to why that new person is a better person to represent their product, Speedo cannot do this. It is like if Nike wanted to drop Michael Jordan, it just wouldn't make any business sense.

Fan Blog: Quicken Loans Arena

This entire blog post is dedicated to the Cleveland Cavaliers home basketball court, Quicken Loans Arena. The Q is located at 1 Center Court Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavs also share this venue with the Cleveland Gladiators (arena football) and the Lake Erie Monsters (minor league hockey). The arena is commonly referred to as The Q and until 2005 it was named Gund Arena after former team owner, Gordon Gund. Ground broke for the arena on April 27, 1992 and was then opened on October 17, 1994. Before the opening of Gund Arena the Cavaliers played in the Coliseum at Richfield. The building of the arena was part of the Gateway Project which was a project to revitalize downtown Cleveland.
                                                                            
                                                                              Coliseum at Richfield >
       Quicken Loans Arena
For basketball Quicken Loans Arena seats 20,562 people which includes 92 luxury suites. After the 2005 NBA season The Q underwent renovations that added new seats, new scoreboards, state of the art sound systems, as well as new locker rooms. The arena is also known as a 'sibling' to Progressive Field which is the Cleveland Indians field becasue it is right across the street and was built about the same time. The Q has become known as one of the most intimidating environments in the NBA and has hosted many notable events over the years. Some of these include NCAA Men's Basketball tournament games, WWE events, NBA Playoff games, the 1997 NBA All-Star Game, and many concerts.

Class Blog: Olympics

As most people know, the Olympics take place this Summer in London. The Olympics have become one of the most viewed events throughout the world so it is no wonder that sponsors are more than ready to line up and pay up to get their name out there. The 2008 Beijing Olympic games attracted a record 4.7 billion viewers on television alone. Think of how many times a commercial would have to run on a normally programmed show in order to reach that viewership. It would take years! The exposure the Olympics can create for a company is second to none. Even outside of television advertising there are a great number of people that will be attending the games as well. Advertising through billboards, sponsoring events, product samples, and anything else to give the people in attendance a 'hands-on' experience with your company will most certainly be profitable for companies. Some of the The Olypmic Sponsors (TOP) for this years Olympic games include huge companies such as Coca-Cola, Acer, McDonalds, Procter and Gamble, General Electric, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung, DOW, Atos, and of course Visa. All of these companies are sure to get their money's worth during the course of this years London Olympics.

Fan Blog: Lester Hudson

Lester Hudson has taken Cleveland by Storm! After having two straight games scoring over 20 points, Lester Hudson just signed his second 10 day contract with the Cavaliers. The night after signing that contract he exploded for a 25 point, 8 rebound, and 6 assist game to lead the Cavs to victory over the Charlotte Bobcats. He has proven to be a clutch performer over these past few games. Tonight against the Bobcats he had 14 points in the fourth quarter alone! Last game against the New Jersey Nets, Hudson also hit a game tying fadeaway three pointer from the corner with 0.3 seconds left to send it into overtime. Lester Hudson has only been in Cleveland for about two weeks, but he is definitely making them a memorable two weeks.

For those of you who don't know who Lester Hudson is, here is a little about him. Lester Hudson was drafted in the second round of the 2009 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. He played his college ball at the little-known school of Tennessee-Martin. In college, Hudson became the only NCAA men's player to every record a quadruple double! (25 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals) The 27 year old Hudson has spent the majority of his bried NBA career bopping around from team to team and spending the bulk of his time in the NBA Development League. With the Cavaliers recently trading Ramon Sessions and then follow up injuries of Daniel Gibson and Kyrie Irving, the Cavs were scrambling to find a point guard to finish out the season with. That is where Lester Hudson came in.

Since signing the brief contract with the Cavs, Hudson has played in 6 games. So far in Lester's NBA career he has only made appearances in 42 total games and in those games he is averaging a horrible 3.6 points, 1.3 assists and 1 rebound per game. So far during his stint with the Cavs his numbers have exploded to averaging 19 points, 4.8 assists, and 4.4 rebounds per game. Although the Cavaliers season is down the drain, Hudson has created a late season buzz around the team. Hopefully he can gain the team a bit of momentum heading into the offseason.

Class Blog: Honda Center

Signage and advertising within a sports arena can be very effective. Sometimes these advertisements at sporting events could almost be considered a sort of subliminal messaging because they actually do go unnoticed at times. Just think about in a basketball arena how many different sponsors they have on the scoreboard! Baseball and hockey both advertise heavily on their scoreboards as well but they can even put them into the walls around the field and rink. The NHL has taken it to a whole new level and even put advertisements under the ice. I don't know exaclty how effective some of these are but they definitely create a recognizable logo and brand for the companies who place them. Some of these logos become part of the game and the arena themselves so you can hardly think about watching the game without tying that logo with it. I know that's how I feel when attending a Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Indians games. The tallest building in downtown Cleveland is this huge Key Bank building. So naturally, Progressive Field (Indians) and Quicken Loans Arena (Cavs) have tons of things sponsored by Key Bank. Progressive Field always has a huge Key Bank logo on the giant scoreboard in left field. At many home playoff games the Cavaliers offer every fan a free shirt and they are almost always sponsored by Key Bank. It is almost like Key Bank comes hand in hand with these downtown Cleveland Sports. I don't think all this adertising has taken away from the games being played yet but I think it could if they start doing sponsored animations and visual effects on televised games. For example, if the simulated first down line in football started to get sponsored by a company or something, I think that could get very distracting to viewers.

Fan Blog: Cavs Struggles Down the Stretch

Coming into April, the last month of the NBA regular season, the Cavs are beginning to show their inexperience to playing a longer season than college. Most of these players were just playing college within the last few years and because of the strike, NBA teams have been cramming 66 games into a relatively short period of time. These young Cavaliers seem to be not used to this amount of games especially in such a short time. Cleveland has lost their last eight games and 11 of their last 12. The frustrating thing about this is that the majority of these games have not even been close. In the NBA, it is one thing to lose games but a complete different situation if you're not even competing. I think that is why many of the fans are frustrated by this. Cavalier's majority owner, Dan Gilbert, even tweeted after a recent blowout loss to the Milwaukee Bucks,

"One of those nights where I can't find the words to match the emotions (at least non-profane words). Cavs fans deserve better. Much better."



Frustrations are at a season high right now so it is vital to close the season on a strong note and at least finish by playing hard. Injuries have been a part of the issue but the veterans should be able to pull the young guys through to the finish. Cavs fans have seen some flashes of what's to come in the future from this team so there are some things to be positive about. It's just playing for pride at this point and knowing that even though playoffs are no longer a possibility, the team can still use these last few weeks to gain experience and practice for upcoming years. If you would've told me at the beginning of the year that because of the lockout-shortened season the Cavs would play 16 less games and still win more than all of last year, I would've said you were crazy. But they have the chance to do just that. The Cavs are only two wins away from having the same record and three wins away from beating that. With a shortened season like this and so much youth on the team, I guess that's all we can ask for, to keep improving every day!

Class Blog: Naming Rights

Naming rights are something that are taking over the sporting industry. It seems as though pretty much all teams are sponsored by some major company and even most games and events have a title sponsor. College football is where this seems to be most prominent. Every single bowl game has some sort of major sponsor affiliated with it. They range anywhere from the classic Tostito's Fiesta Bowl or the Rose Bowl presented by Vizio or even the Allstate Sugar Bowl all the way to the ridiculous sounding Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl or even the Franklin American Mortgage Music Bowl. Although some of these are classic sponsors and some are some of the most insane sounding things ever, every one of these sponsors do serve a major purpose in the involvement in these games. Sponsors get their name out their everytime the sporting event is shown and in return they should see an increase in business because of this sponsorship. Even professional teams are sponsored by companies. It was huge recent news that the NFL officially changed their uniforms from Reebok to Nike. Who knows, it might not be too much longer till American professional sports teams wear giant sponsor logos on their uniforms like European soccer teams already do.

The Ohio State vs. Michigan matchup is one particular event that could benefit immensely by getting a sponsor for the game. I'm sure every year the campus officials are contacted by multiple Fortune 500 companies to sponsor this humongous rivalry game. Michigan Football is sponsored by Adidas and Ohio State is sponsored by Nike so it would almost have to be a company that each school could mutually agree on such as Gatorade or Verizon Wireless or something like that. I think the major reason as to why this game has not taken on a sponsorship is because of the history and tradition that this game as well as college football has taken on. Just like many classic college stadiums like Ohio State's Horseshoe, The Big House of Michigan, or even Notre Dame Stadium, these places do not have sponsors because it would take away from the classic appeal that makes these programs what they are all about. Of course there is a lot of money if any of these schools ever decided to sponsor The Big Game, but in my opinion you can't put a price on tradition and history.