Brian Burke guest speaker at Sports Law Society (UofC)

[J epworth]

Originally Posted by Five-hole

He started off with a brief discussion about finding a job in pro sports as a lawyer (or otherwise) that I’ll skip unless anybody’s really curious. He then gave a brief bio which you can skip if you want but it tells you a lot about his approach to the position IMO.

Thanks a lot for this post. My girlfriend is currently in law school with the aspirations of a job in pro sports as a lawyer. I'm sure most the stuff Burke said she's already heard in her sports law class, but wondering if you could elaborate a bit more on this, and anything else he said about how women should "break the last barrier" on sports teams.

[Dagger]

Whilst I have denounced much of Burke's methods in evaluating a player specifically in disregarding newer metrics, if he is reading as many thesis' every year I appreciate that he's at least not being a neanderthal.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Dagger

Whilst I have denounced much of Burke's methods in evaluating a player specifically in disregarding newer metrics, if he is reading as many thesis' every year I appreciate that he's at least not being a neanderthal.

Burke is brash, Burke is abrasive be he has always been anything but a neanderthal.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Cole436

Heh. Nice jab at Feaster.

I suppose but it does worry me, moneyball means different things to different people ; but dismissing it out of hand as he is doing is worrisome to me

[ricosuave]

Thank you!

[JiriHrdina]

Posts like this make CP what it is

[Flamboyant 14]

Wow,This is great.The side we never see of Burke.

[Vulcan]

I wasn't a fan of Burke's. He left Vancouver in a poor position but that was partly the fact that the cap came in as he left and Nonis had to do some damage control.

In Anaheim, he inherited a team on the way up and all he did was fill in the blanks with a couple of star defencemen that partly through luck fell into his hands.

I changed my opinion with his work in Toronto, he did a reasonably good job of rebuilding that team and I'm optimistic he'll do a good job in Calgary. He's got the experience, the smarts, the planning and the contacts to do well. Even if he doesn't have many quick results, I'm far more confident of his stewardship than the amateur hour we got rid of.

[Passe La Puck]

Originally Posted by looooob

I suppose but it does worry me, moneyball means different things to different people ; but dismissing it out of hand as he is doing is worrisome to me

Reading ~10 thesis a year isn't exactly dismissing out of hand.

[Enoch Root]

Great write up - thanks!

I like BB because he is so honest with himself. He is what he is and he is comfortable with that. If you disagree with him, he doesn't care (though he does respect different viewpoints - as long as it isn't idiotic).

He is a confident leader and that makes him a good pres.

If he makes a good choice in the GM search, we are in good hands

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Passe La Puck

Reading ~10 thesis a year isn't exactly dismissing out of hand.

well there seem to be two overlapping but not identical discussions

regarding hockey analytics, (which I am not entirely sold on myself, although I remain open to learning and hearing more about) he does apparently read 10 theses a year- which is impressive- it sounds as if he may not read them with an open mind, but I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't alot of gold in what he's given. I also agree with him that hockey and baseball are very different

his answer to moneyball (slightly different but certainly related to hockey analytics) was apparently that it was horsebleep- I think that is dismissing it out of hand; I'm not sure its as simple as to say that its about fouling off pitches, or boring baseball or hockey (give me stolen bases over walks, or truculence over whatever the equivalent of a walk is)- but more about identifying value in places that other teams aren't looking- and in a cap world and in sports that is important (IMO),

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Awesome post, well written. Much appreciated.

[strombad]

Really fantastic, thanks very much!

[Calgary Highlander]

Haha, I was sitting next to Five-Hole and briefly considered taking notes until I saw he had Notepad open, CP in the background, and a look on his face that said "I'm going to get down every word that comes out of Burke's mouth." I can't think of a single detail he missed.

Media Burke and Brian Burke are two completely different people. That old guy who is always so damn ornery with the media simply wasn't there. He was hilarious and so unbelievably candid with some of his answers I was tempted to ask him a direct question about the team, like if he was shopping Backlund for Kadri or Gardiner. With the media, Burke is often dismissive with questions but he gave an honest and straightforward response to every question (and some of them weren't that great).

Also, in regard to hockey analytics debate, he said the Flames were always looking out for the next new thing and trying to stay ahead of the curve, but would only implement something they felt was sufficiently substantiated. So the Flames are looking out for this stuff, they just haven't found anything they like yet, and that's completely fair in my opnion.

[JurassicTunga12]

Thanks a bunch for writing this! Awesome read.

[CaramonLS]

Thank you for doing this. Excellent information.

[Freeway]

Great read.

[transplant99]

Awesome stuff...thanks a million!

[greentree]

"He started off with a joke for us law students: what’s the difference between a hooker and a lawyer?"
I know lawyers who've been gassed for "hooker" jokes. Not saying he's going to draw heat, but just saying.

[Clever_Iggy]

Great post.

This post will be a great resource for setting the record straight on Burke's positions in the future.