Rendclaw

in a battle of my teams A and B, the Pistons smacked around the Magic by 24. If this is how the Pistons are going to play for most of the season, look the fuck out. Flip Saunders, coaching a balanced offense and defense?? God forbid. The Magic made a mistake by making this game a statement game because the Pistons beat them eight times ina row, and they got slapped around pretty good And I am going to say it a lot this season, but I love Jarvis Hayes' jump shot. That's about as sweet a shot as I have seen in awhile, both midrange and from three.

I heard Iron Maiden's Powerslave and I was hooked from that moment forward. The guitar sound on that album still kick my ass to this day.

Rip, you make good points, and I am going to just have to agree to disagree. Most of the average players who came out of high school could have used two years to improve themselves (not to mention a couple of the higher echelon players), but for one reason or another (most of them financial), they busted out. I don;t fault most of them for that. Telfair is more of a bust because of all the hype surrounding since like eighth grade. He was overhyped and definitely overrated as a player. Jason Kidd could do everything but shoot when he came out of Cal. It took him a long ass time to develop a remotely consistent shot from 18 feet or more. He had a lot more talent than Telfair does coming out of high school. If anything that makes my argument for me. Kidd for all his skills, I doubt he would have been a better pro if he came into the league from high school.

There was a time where three, hell even two years in college could refine your game and make you a better team player if the coach was worth half a shit. The issue I have is out of most of that 31 who are not busts, how many are good team players who can not only get theirs but make their teammates around them better? Aside from Garnett and maybe two or three others on that list, there aren't any or the jury is still out on them. Most of them are high-flyers or ball-hogging gunners. I think out of that list Howard has the best shot of developing an all-around game, because he is not about just promoting himself and getting paid. He has a true desire to become a great player. Yeah I know, I've been on the kid's jock since he got drafted, but he has gotten a little bit better every year, which is a great thing to see especially from a center. The entire sport more or less has become a promotion machine, starting in fucking grade school now. One of the worst things ESPN did was start televising the McDonald's All-Americans Game, because the majority of those kids are going to try and do something to expose themselves to the NBA scouts and get TV coverage. And Rip, I have to disagree. Of course in today's league hardly any kid is going to stay in college the four years unless either he is a special kind of guy and/or his team is in the hunt for a national title every year, but there is an appreciable change from the high school game to the college game. This is all dependent upon the school a kid goes into, but a good one can surely raise his game to a higher level, and he might just mature along the way by the time he gets drafted. There is too big of a leap from high school to the pros for the kid to contribute in any way for at least three years. And then there is everything else surrounding the kid in the pro game and lifestyle. Not a lot of guys on that list could handle that lifestyle so well, either. If he has superstar talent like a Garnett or Kobe, thats one thing but those two also struggled BIG time in their first two or three years. With that level of talent I can understand going straight to the pros, but there is something to be said about going to college for at least two years. The money, fame, and prestige is always going to be there. I think that Kobe wouldn't have been so raw when he first came to the Lakers. The ratio was almost 1:1 in highlight reel plays to rookie mistakes. My argument is that there is a less steep learning curve with some college experience under a kid's belt, especially at a good program. And Roy is absolutely right about Telfair. Being a point guard, you HAVE to have a couple of college years under your belt. From everything I have seen about that kid, he let a lot of people around him make decisions for him. He was the kid that came up from the streets, and carried the pressure of getting his family out of the projects with him since grade school. A lot of kids have that pressure on them from the time they first pick up a basketball. Any team would be better with Udrih on it. He's a pretty solid player.

Sheed's a heat-magnet, but his stable-mates clearly aren't over enough to warrant another title run. Their title win over the Lakers was only over because the Lakers were great heels, and their match with the Spurs was fundamentally good, but only smart fans really cared about it. The marks were apathetic to the whole thing. After that heatless "money match," it's no wonder Stern panicked and put the strap on the much more over Miami Heat, even if they weren't as technically sound as Detroit. Although it did lead to that awesome swerve with Miami turning heel toward the end of the match. Nice try. It's stopped being funny about two or three years ago. Cease and desist. To some extent, Sheed is right. I was truly happy when the Spurs swept the Cavs, because he might say something to the contrary, but David felt he NEEDED LBJ in the Finals. We all found out that LeBron is not the next Jordan, but more of a Jordan/Magic hybrid. 30% Jordan, 70% Magic. Problem is that he doesn't have the killer instinct that either one of those players. I have to agree with the refs blowing their whistles like they're directing rush hour traffic. Hell, the preseason is fucking unwatchable because the ref's are calling mostly everything, but the calls that they don;t blow the whistles on are the ones that SHOULD be called. I sat there during the Piston game and just shook my head at times because of the refs. The NBA is becoming less watchable because no one in the league is allowed to have a personality past a certain point (especially on the court), and this is the borne fruit of the Magic/Bird/Jordan era, when Stern decided to start marketing the players instead of the teams they're on. This is continuation of that, and the majority of NBA fans have gone right along with the pablum that Stern has fed them for the last 20+ years. So when great TEAMS rise up and win, because there either isn't a true superstar (like the Pistons) or a very low-key one (like the Spurs), they're labeled as boring and the masses go right along with it. Also take into account that shooting percentages have gone down steadily of the years. Kids busting out of college and high school to go pro not having a decent jump shot from 14-18 feet, and getting drafted because of their potential instead of their game and their fundamental knowledge, as well as some players getting better defensively or teams having defensive specialists. (And yes, there are exceptions to this rule, I know (Kobe, Howard, Stoudamire, McGrady, et al)). So watching some teams clank it up because they can't hit the broad side of a barn from 15 feet can make a game pretty unwatchable.

Oh its still there but they no longer offer it in a value meal. You have to buy the burger, fries, and drink separately. Trust me, I tried. Fuck that noise.

Fuck the Baconator right off the planet, because they took my favorite burger off the menu (Big Bacon Classic) in favor of that. The Chicken Club is good enough to write home about, so I have switched to that. There is only one Wendy's I know of in my area that serves Coke products, the rest of them do Pepsi. I went to a Fuddrucker's several months ago and the place was a fucking disaster. Then again I went close to closing, so I should have expected that the service would fall right off the table.

I'm interested to see how he fares and I agree with the Sapp comparison, in that he is so big and powerful he's going to be a handful for anyone, even if the skill level is in the opponent's favor. And also, this smacks of a touch of desperation from Dana. He could not sign Fedor, Randy quit because of that and other issues, so now he has to make a splash to get his shine back. I agree that he needs at least two or three tomato cans to pound on before he gets a shot at higher level talent. Build him up just like Paul Heyman did in the E, as an unstoppable force. Until Gonzaga blasts him back to Minnesota with another high kick.

Settle down, Francis. It's still the preseason. I'll agree with you if they run off 9 of 12 or so to start out the season.

Varejao wants to go and play the marginally easier game in his home country. He has seen that he is not going to the the majority of calls when he flops around in the league, and he doesn't have much offense, so he is asking for a ridiculous amount of money in order to be told to get lost. Pavlovic I am not sure about, but neither one is worth the money they are asking by any stretch of the imagination. Buss is not going to trade Kobe, because there is no reason for anyone to watch the Lakers if he did. Especially in a front-running town like L.A. Once Kobe goes, the franchise goes down for at least 5-7 years afterward. I went to the Pistons game tonight, and I'll be damned if Jarvis Hayes is not that shooter that the Pistons needed. He had 24 points, and his jumper was devastating. Another fan and myself were amazed by his touch. Rodney Stuckey is going to struggle mightily until he finds his way, which is pretty much what has been expected. It was a good game, and the young guys off the bench played some good defense in the last several minutes. AI and Melo didn;t play so it might be a different story when they play again in Grand Rapids. A good night was had.

Because women think he's good-looking. The first was excellent, the second was meh, and I couldn;t bring myself to watch Tokyo Drift because I can't stand drifting in general.

I was behind Bisping before UFC 75. He can make all the apologies he wants after the fact, but I want see him get blasted in the face by Rashad.

Better late than never, eh Rip?

Until every last drop of that potential is realized, he's terrible in my book. I know what he is trying to do, it doesn't matter until he actually does it. Effort doesn't count for shit in sports until the positive results come from that effort. When the Knicks become a better team and become a legit threat to make the playoffs, I'll jump off of Isaiah. For example, Matt Millen has been *trying* to make the Lions good for years. Until quite possibly this year, he has done a piss-poor job of it.

I still got almost seven years on you, junior. Old fuck indeed. As she's laughing because she gets half his shit. Ain't Love Grand?

I don't know, every time I think of Ed Norton, I think of his smarmy, "I want to knock you teeth down your throat for all the trouble you caused" character in Rounders, or his "I actually cheered when Charlize Theron drilled you with a right cross" character in The Italian Job. I think this might be a touch of miscasting as they are once again going for star power rather than people who can play the role the best (re: Daredevil, Ghost Rider). Liv Tyler can play Betty Ross well, though Jennifer Connelly did a great job, and no one is going to top Sam Elliot's portrayal of General Ross. I did a survey on this movie a couple of months ago, and I wasn't really encouraged by what it told me about the movie. I was more excited by the knowledge that Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh are going to be in the the new Mummy movie, or that the Hellboy sequel is not too far away.

Yeah, because it ain't you being degraded. I love how people wait for a long-ass time, THEN sue. If it had happened to me, I would have been on the phone to a lawyer the next fucking day. And considering everything that Isaiah has done to the Knicks franchise already, this is another drop in the bucket. I still say that he has to have some sort of leverage on Dolan that prevents him from being fired. Naked pictures or something, because no one else would suck as an executive this bad for this long THEN on top of it be involved in a sexual harrassment case and still have his job, innocent or not. At some point you have to cut him loose, citing that hes just not worth the trouble anymore.

All things being equal, Isaiah should have known better. You might get away with that in the locker room, but being an executive, you cannot talk to people like that, because they just might turn around and sue you. I still say lets wait until the appeal.

Let's see what happens on the appeal.

plus fucking one.

Oh, I used to mark out like a little bitch when The Dudleys and Taz were cutting promos. I haven't watched any of their promos since like.. 2002, so maybe if i go back they won't be as fantastic as i thought. Taz cut great promos back in 1997, on the Pitbulls and Chris Candido. Those "torn towel over the head" promos made me an instant Taz mark right on the spot. That, and him punking out Paul Varelans in 1996.

Bret Hart and Chris Benoit, Owen tribute match.

Go and look at Jerry Lynn's myspace page... he has a spot with Red where he delivers the cradle piledriver and Red just goes sailing through the air like he's a rag doll.... funniest thing I have seen in a wrestling match in a while.

The Suns *are* Steve Nash's team. And this is also showing how inept the Lakers' front office really is. Everything that is to be done in the offseason should be moving towards one goal: Keeping Kobe. They didn't draft any real help for him, and now it seems to be that they are balking at trading for a player that just might be a great compliment to Kobe. Kupchak should have pulled the trigger on this deal yesterday, since *something* needs to be shown to Kobe that they are trying to surround him with good players. And Marion, this guy is weird. I don't know why he would leave Phoenix at all, considering everything that is going for him there... it seems to me that he wants to feel appreciated rather than win games and constantly be in the hunt for a title.

It's the Lions, he is going to do well. It was funny to hear all the talk about how the Lions were going to be playoff bound if they got past the Eagles. Listening to all the cornbread eating (and yes, I used a local sports station radio term because it fits, dh86 knows what I mean) and then watching the Eagles destroy them was comedy gold to me.