Damaramu

Oh I'm not surprised, just annoyed. We have these two kids here. One's a QB on the football team(that got recruited by Arkansas, then he de-committed and is going to Kansas now) and a basketball player that's going to play at the local JUCO next year. These two kids are the best athletes Dodge City has ever produced. So everyone worships them and expects me to. Here's the problem, kids like these are a dime a dozen in Texas. If either of these kids were in Texas they'd be riding the pine or playing for a shit team. It's really annoying that everyone is so in love with them just because we're in bumfuck western Kansas. I swear, and Slayer can probably atest to this, eastern and western Kansas are like two different states and I live on the wrong side. And that brings me to another thing that annoys me: Dodge City. This place is so shitty. The people are anti-progress. Anytime there's a proposal for something new or something to better the town it's defeated because they don't want to change, despite the fact that their "rival city" is exploding by leaps and bounds because they're willing to think forward. They brought in an outside consultant from Chicago to tell them how to improve tourism and she told them they needed to improve downtown and they fired her because they thought downtown was just fine. Well Dodge doesn't even really have a downtown and what is considered downtown is half closed or it's a mexican store! And that's another thing. This town is 70% hispanic because of the two meat packing plants. I don't mind that, but sometimes I feel like I live in Mexico with all the spanish signs and businesses. But, that's not even the big problem. The thing that annoys me more is the pissed off rednecks in this town. They think every Mexican person is illegal. The guy could have a birth certificate proving he was born in the US, a degree from Harvard law and he could speak perfect English with no accent and they'd say "Quit yapping in Spanish you fucking spic! Get back to work on a roof or something!" I swear they're the most ignorant people. If ANYTHING goes wrong in this town they immediately blame the "illegals" or whatever. Most of Dodge's hispanic population is legal, but every pissed off redneck thinks that if you're hispanic you must be here illegally. They claim Dodge was so much better in the old days before the "illegal problem". Well here's the thing. The meat packing plants opened in the 70's. Mexican and Koreans started moving here then. Dodge didn't fall apart until the late 90's. And what happened in the mid-90's? The four year university here in Dodge closed! So the population stagnated and things went downhill. But, don't tell the pissed off redneck that he's part of the problem. It's just easier for him to blame the "illegals".

Because once they hosted the Hornets everyone realized they were able to support an NBA city and everyone felt they were the most deserving city. The whole Hornets deal skyrocketed them up to #1 on the list of cities that need an NBA team.

After working as a prep sports writer I've figured out what annoys me the most in this world: parents. Because little junior is a star and he never screws up. If he messes up in a game then it's everyone else's fault. If he does well then it needs to be a 3-page article. I had just moved to the area. This is my first full-time gig. I didn't know enough about the teams or the area to do an All-Area football team. Plus, I didn't get out to enough games. However the coaches do their own All-Area team and they sent that to me and I printed it in the paper. I had a kids dad go "So I was disappointed to see you didn't do an All-Area football team." I explained the situation to him and then told him I did print the coaches team. He responded with "Well you know that kind of thing looks really good to a college coach!" and I've heard horror stories about parents accusing sports writers of costing their kid a D-1 scholarship because they didn't make a big enough deal about his 2 TD passes in the rivalry game or whatever mediocre accomplishment junior sonofabitch came up with. Since we're in Kansas I just wanted to say "Look dude, if Ron Prince or Mark Mangino are looking at me for who they should recruit then they don't deserve their job."

Not to mention the actual headache of severe whiplash. It's been nearly two years, and I still don't get your desire to be violently rear-ended on the expressway. Damn, I forgot this was the same thread. I hate being tailgated, what can I say? I'm full of hate....the Emperor would love me.

It's an Onion article. Just wanting to make sure. I wouldn't put anything past the circus that is the New York Knicks.

Please tell me that's an Onion article.

I agree on the tailgaters thing though. What's really irritating is when they have the option to go around you but they speed up on your ass and sit there like you should get out of the way because they're in such a god damn hurry. Then they decide to finally go around you after several miles of riding your bumper and they do the old "speed up to nearly hit you then change lanes to where they almost clip the corner of your bumper". If I had more balls(and a shitty car) I'd slam on my brakes when they did that so they would hit my bumper. Then again I'd have to deal with the headache of higher insurance and all that shit.

You gotta be shittin' me.

When the Nuggets are down 5 it feels like they're actually down 20. I bet they'd still lose if it was just Kobe and Pau playing them. Ok I wouldn't go that far.....well.....maybe.

Also on the fitness track, I feel like I'm fighting a circular argument sometimes. I talk about wanting to run a mile quicker and get in better cardiovascular shape and I'm told "Well you need to lose weight first" and I say "Well I'm working on that. I kind of figured they were tied together." But some people act like they aren't tied together. Like I have to start working on losing weight before I can work on improving the cardio and the mile time. I kind of figured the mile time and cardio would get better as I lose weight......as any sane person would too. But, I read things online with people asking "Well how do I improve my mile time?" or "How do I do XX?" and the answers are like "Well here's 10 tips" and one of the tips is always "lose weight" as if you're not going to lose weight training to run a mile in 8 minutes or dunk a basketball or whatever(both goals of mine). And that leads me to another thing that pisses me off. I'm reading about all these supplements and shakes and heart rate monitors and what not. Whatever happened to just working out? If you're overweight shouldn't you just hit the gym? I know that I was talking about some NFL training things, but at least that's a workout. Instead I hear people talk more about the equipment they're buying to assist and they supplements they're taking than actually getting in the gym and working out.

I almost feel like this show should be put on hold. I mean, they're getting some pretty shitty people on this show. I really haven't enjoyed a season since 3.

I was thinking more of a dominant silver jersey with red trim.....more burgundy than red actually.

I honestly don't see how the city is boring. I really don't know what people want exactly. Unless people still have that perception that we're fighting Indians and going to the bathroom in outhouses. I had a friend in HS move from San Diego and she seriously thought that. She said she was shocked to arrive and find out it was an actual state with actual cities. So I'm not sure where the "boring" thing is coming from. Plus, Chris Paul said it was a great city and he had fun there. I know a lot of the Hornets had a lot of fun in the city.

Bennett already said he'd leave the colors, name and history behind. I'm still with 909, Mustangs sounds good. Then again when I think of Mustangs I think of SMU's colors and I don't know if I can picture it in the NBA. Maybe silver and red? That'd be kind of cool.

Yeah that's real classy, make fun of a bunch of people getting killed. Let's start in on 9/11 next. Let's not punish the city because one guy is an asshole. I would have no problem with referring to Swift and Sene as the broken, useless remnants of the twin towers, if you really want to go that route. Seemed less applicable, though. I don't want to punish the city, but I would like to see everything go really poorly for the franchise as soon as it gets dragged out of Seattle. None of the center prospects they wasted time drafting ever pan out. Durant leaves after his rookie deal is up. Sprewell shows up at the grocery store in an afro wig and a balaclava and chokes PJ Carlesimo again. 30 wins becomes a goal for a landmark season. The people of OKC aren't at fault, but the best thing to happen short of the move somehow falling through would be for this relocation project to fail miserably, embarrass Stern, and change future NBA operations accordingly. Uhhh.....no. I don't wish for my city to fall flat on its face like that. That would be a HORRIBLE thing to happen. Besides the people are going to support the team and it'll have high attendance so it'll pan out at the beginning at least.

Well not in my eyes, but probably in some crazy fans eyes. The state is mostly Sooners fans anyway.

Yeah that's real classy, make fun of a bunch of people getting killed. Let's start in on 9/11 next. Let's not punish the city because one guy is an asshole.

Very true. Speaking as someone who got caught in late November/early December in both OKC and the Pacific NW, Oklahoma is WAY worse in terms of weather than Seattle is. The temperature usually averages between 30-40 degrees in the winter and 70-85 in the summer. Right now every day is pretty much in the 50's, with occasional warm days in the 60's. Those are great temperatures for me. I prefer it to be between 90-100 in the summer actually.

I don't see anything wrong with OKC. I don't get all the shitting on it. It's certainly better to live in than some other cities. It's just still got that perception to it that it's in some backwoods state. It's grown a lot over the past 10 years...a lot. There's plenty to do. Plus the arena is right in the heart of Bricktown within walking distance of a ton of restaurants. It's a nice city and if I remember right a lot of the Hornets talked about how much they liked it. Chris Paul even talks about how much he liked it to this day. So I don't think they'll have any problem drawing free agents. It's a great place to live and it's got plenty to do. Not to mention it's like the third largest city in the country area wise so there's ton to do in the area. You don't just have to stay in the metro area, go down to Moore and Norman or up to Edmond and there's a ton to do. I don't exactly get what you guys are expecting there to be to do. There's places to eat, shop, hang out, drink, see strippers, there's theater, other sporting events, etc. I don't see what else you think it needs. I'd also rathere live here than Seattle because it doesn't rain a ton and it doesn't stay cold. It gets good and hot when it needs to and stays hot for a while. Once again I don't agree with what Bennett is doing but to act like OKC is some backwoods hick town that has no business having a team is pretty asinine and ignorant.

AmericanDragon that photo you posted may be one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. I've got a friend that thinks she's convincing Tito that he's bigger than the sport and doesn't need it anymore. I think he had already convinced himself about the bigger than part. Oh and Hawk, I think Forrest has been training with Couture since before the Tito fight. I'm pretty sure he was training with him when he lost to Jardine. I do agree he has gotten better. He was much more aggressive. Against Bonnar(No. 2), Tito and Jardine he would rock the guy or land a damaging blow then back off. He never seemed to want to go for the kill.

The thing is, I think this is the only major sport OKC can support so I'm happy we're getting one. We already have a minor league baseball team and a lot of people have said we have one of the nicest minor league parks in the country. I don't think people really want to build an MLB stadium and get rid of that(since the redhawks draw good attendance and people have fun going). Plus we'd never support an NFL team. Not only are we too small of a market, but they'd never get past OU or OSU. But, this is something we can really support. And we have the arena to do it. Hell we even voted to pay to upgrade the arena. Teke does make a good point about the sale, even though it's wrong, he probably shouldn't have sold it. I mean, most people should've realized what he was going to do when he bought the team. I know in OKC the day he bought it everyone was like "Well that's it. The Sonics are coming to OKC." even though he was supposedly making a "good faith effort" to keep the team there. It was pretty apparent, when you found out where Bennett was from, what was going to happen.

Well that's not the only thing. Everything else has gotten more expensive too. I remember just a year ago being able to buy a 2-liter of coke for .98. Now it's 1.38. Everything at the grocery store has gone up like that. Of course they blame it on the increased shipping costs, and in some cases it may be true, but other times I think they're looking for an excuse.

Well, I think it was gradual but last year's SA-PHX series pretty much cinched it for me.

Well I'm glad OKC is getting an NBA team, but I'd rather have had the Hornets obviously and I think most of OKC feels the same way. And Clay is being a big jerk and painting the city in a bad light. Because, when I turn on ESPN they're painting the entire city with a broad brush and acting like we're all a bunch of Clay Bennett's and we're all a bunch of thiefs and cheats. Jemele Hill was one person in particular. She suggested calling the team the "OKC Shysters" or "OKC Snake Oil Salesman". What the fuck? It's not our fault Bennett is an asshole. The people of NO did the same thing. They kept accusing us of stealing their team and basically just putting all the fans down. OKC need a team, but they don't need it in a way that's going to make the city look bad. That being said, it looks like the Sonics are coming and there's not much anyone can do. Bennett's got Stern on his side and that's not a good thing because Stern has that "My word is final. I am the dictator of this league" mentality. So he'll do whatever he can to make himself look tough in this situation. Bennett did say he'd leave the colors, name and history behind though.

If Game 2 of SA-PHX goes like Game 1 then that bodes very badly for the two teams in the next round, they could very well be beat up. This is an exhausting series to even watch.