Keep in mind: people become wealthy and then become NFL football owners, not the other way around. The values of what pro teams are sold for has almost no relationship to how much money those businesses produce.

Don’t forget about how their most identifiable chant is a homophobic slur, or how positively indignant they become when someone like Arjen Robben flops on them... as if they play with any pride at all.

Fair, my assumption is that we’re scoping this Paderborn club and I am assuming (I don’t follow them closely) that any 1. Bundesliga level players have already been transferred out.

1. The primary point of my comment is that Haisley is such a comical MLS hater that no matter the scenario, if it involved MLS he’d write a dismissive headline. His MLS headline for Messi’s goal against Bayern would have been “Overrated, Out-Of-Position Defender Trips Over Feet in Hilarious Indictment of US Youth…

Another great counterpoint to all of it is the Shaq Vs. series. He got completely and utterly owned in all of these competitions despite being 37-years old and (not to long before) one of the greatest athletes in the world.

I think we should rewrite this if it were a Bill Haisley piece about the MLS:

Wait, what?

1. Because you’re short on point guards to begin with, are trying desperately to trade Deron and SB is an above average backup point guard who is inexpensive.

Poor Freddy. Only 26 years old.

Big fan of USWNT here, but where do you imagine this salary parity coming from, given how much more lucrative the men’s teams are than women’s teams? In other words, what does NYCFC’s payroll have to do with the Portland Thorns payroll? They’re two totally different entities.

I think the “retirement league” is a bit unfair as a label. Pirlo is old, but he anchored one of the World’s best five clubs this year. Like Gerrard, he’s not starting next year at his current club, but that MLS is now more attractive than going to start for mid-table Serie A or Premiership teams really does say a lot…

I was merely imagining a future reality in which LeBron has won a few more titles and the gambling problem is out in the open ;)

.... if dreams were horses then beggars would ride. Seattle sells more seats per game than Spurs. If and when Spurs expand their seating (and assuming that Seattle doesn’t expand there’s at a greater rate) then your statement will be something other than wishful hypothetical.

One other point I would add is that future generations will also look at the 90s as the last time someone or something could be as disproportionately famous and beyond reproach as Michael Jordan. Everything is too fractured, democratized and accessible now.

When I say objective, I mean people who weren’t overly influenced by the overlap of that player’s career and their formative years. Our generation has an almost 9/11 truther-level distorted reality when it comes to Jordan. One-third of basketball fans think MJ could beat LeBron in a one-on-one game today. While…

The historical point is hard because we’re still so close to MJ. We start by assuming the default that MJ is the greatest and then asking ourselves if someone we’re still watching play has surpassed him.

Fair. But then again you have to balance that against who LeBron has played in the Finals vs. the teams MJ played. Even if you give MJ credit for beating a Lakers team on the decline, and utilize some magical thinking on the quality of the Sonics and Jazz, it just doesn’t compare to what LeBron has had to face— with…

MJ was great. He never took a bad team to the Finals. James has done so twice.

I think you’re missing the point. As the previous stats demonstrate, 9-hole AL hitters are terrible, but not as terrible as the NL pitchers. The question isn’t whether pitchers are objectively bad hitters (we all agree here), it’s whether so much is gained by allowing a .235 hitter to hit in the 9-spot instead of the…

Do take a look at the league averages this season: AL teams have a batting average that is .001 points lower on average than NL teams and a slugging percentage that is .007 points higher. AL teams have (on average) 6 more RBIs and 0 more triples through 52 games played. AND THAT’S WITH A PITCHER HITTING IN THE NL.