10/28/08
by: Scott
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So I took the plunge and ordered the Super Sports Pack from my cable provider, Cogeco. They have an introductory deal where I only have to pay $19.99 for the first four months and then $29.99 for the next two months before I have the option to cancel — coincidentally right at the end of the NBA regular season. The way I figured it, I'd get the TV package and then, surely, somebody would help me figure out how to activate my Broadband subscription so I could achieve my dream of watching one NBA game on TV while I watch a different one on my computer. Plus, it's a pretty good deal when you consider all the extra games from different sports I'll theoretically be able to watch — if I didn't have a family and a job, I mean.
Since I wasn't making any headway with Cogeco or the NBA, I posted in this thread in the RealGM Raptors board thinking that, surely, one of the thousands of Canadian NBA fans who surf and post there would be able to show me the way. Well, what I learned was that, apparently, League Pass Broadband is not actually available in Canada. This information isn't available on NBA.com's main page for League Pass Broadband or on the Customer Support page for League Pass, but RealGM poster "booonani" found this page indicating that Canada is not one of the 19 countries where you're allowed to access this service. It's worth noting that 18 of those countries don't have an actual NBA team.
If this is the final word on this matter — and I fear it is — then it would seem I spent $140 for nothing. Oh sure, I'll still get some enjoyment out of my Super Sports Pack — but my primary motivation for ordering it was to get the NBA League Pass Broadband access that I was led to believe would accompany my subscription. If there was a "SUCKER" stamp nearby, I think I would have to stamp it on my forehead right about now.
It's too late in the day to do a shootaround, but I will pass on the news that Wednesday night's Raptors game (which I'll be liveblogging, by the way) has been bumped back to 6pm ET because of the World Series. I also want to link to this video of Andrew Bynum "making it rain" in a nightclub on his 21st birthday. We all know what happened to Pacman Jones in that Vegas strip club when he made it rain, so I'm sure most of us would agree that this is a pretty stupid activity for anyone to be engaging in these days — particularly somebody as high-profile as a pro athlete. But the larger point I'd like to make is that "making it rain" is pretty much the most arrogant, disrespectful way somebody can send the message to people that "I have so much more money than you peons that I can just throw my cash in the air and enjoy the feeling of superiority I get from watching you scramble to pick up this small sampling of my riches."
I think that Andrew Bynum, the basketball player, is one of the great young talents in the NBA and he may end up justifying the $85 million contract extension he's seeking. But Andrew Bynum the person is obviously an immature, arrogant prick if he sees nothing wrong with "making it rain" in the world we're living in right now. In our society, some people respond to this form of disrespect by reaching for their nines. It seems it's only a matter of time before somebody gets shot because of something like this — and I won't feel bad for that guy when it happens. 
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