Mark Schmitt of The American Prospect and I discussed my piece on the neverending stimulus, “Mechanical Failure,” in the latest episode of bloggingheadstv:

Mark also had some interesting thoughts on the passing of George Steinbrenner, I reconsidered my initial take on LeBron, and we talked about some of the differences between baseball and basketball.

One thing I’ve found interesting about the LeBron decision — and I am by no means the first to make this observation — is that it has created a “Yankees of basketball”: a team that a lot of people want to root against due to the perception that a group of players and executives rigged the system in order to build a juggernaut. But basketball’s salary-cap structure is much more rigid than baseball’s, so the kinds of criticisms that were hurled at Steinbrenner, such as that he competed unfairly because he could spend more money than everyone else, don’t really apply in this situation. Not only did LeBron and Chris Bosh leave money on the table to sign with Miami, but now a number of role players such as Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem are taking less to sign with the Heat. Doesn’t that undercut one the most common of criticisms of modern athletes, that they’re just in it for the money and don’t really care about anything else? It’s making it a little more difficult to root against these guys.

Check out the whole thing here.