Rendclaw

But Penny always had a knock against him for all his ability.... He wasn't a leader. When Shaq went off to LA, all of the attention focused on Penny and he out and out crumbled under it. Some of it wasn't fair but when yu are touted as the next Magic Johnson because of your ability to pass the ball, you're bound to fail unless you have the mental strength. Penny didn't. Especially after the ridiculous scrutiny he was under because of the knee operations, going to seek another opinion, and rehabbing in Houston rather than Orlando... it was a shame. But to be even-handed about it, Penny's attitude started to really suck during that time, and even before all of that went down, there were flashes of child-like petulance from him... I hope LeBron has enough mental strength to be great in this league, because that is exactly what is expected from him, from the moment he signs the contract. You think the hype is ridiculous now? Wait until he actually starts to succeed.

medium works fine for me..

this has the making of it being worse than the first movie. Hell the best part about the first movie was.... welll... errr.. Never mind.

thanks, IDRM I would say just to hit me up when I'm on AIM, but I'm on at "weird hours".

i still need that site where you can store pics so that I can join in the picture-showing fun... btw Game, I haven't seen one of you..

wow.....

crotch psychology???

::just snickers at the bitter and broken yankee-haters and Red Sox fans::

Kobe's doing a better job passing NOW? Even though the Lakers got their asses handed to them... You say he's a terrible passer (which is wrong), the Lakers win 3 titles in a row, now they lose and you say he's getting better. Is this confusing to anyone else? What I am saying is that Kobe did a little bit better of a job of playing a team game this season.... at least to my eyes he did. He still has a way to go in containing himself, and still has a very itchy trigger finger, but one step along the path is better than no step at all. Once he becomes more of a team player, he will TRULY be dangerous. That point alone is why i think T-Mc is a better player than Kobe, but thats another debate for another day, and I have already spoken my piece on it. I will say it again; The Lakers' success can be attributed to Phil Jackson and Shaquille O'Neal. Even though I cannot stand the man, Jackson is a good coach, even though a deaf, dumb and blind chimpanzee could figure out that the ball has to go through Shaq's hands on EVERY PLAY, whether he puts up a shot or passes out of a double team. I saw it when I was watching him getting doubled when he was in Orlando. 95% of the plays were drawn up with him in mind. He would get the ball into the post, then when the inevitable double-team came, he would find the wide-open player for a jump shot. Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott, Penny Hardaway and sundry others owe their careers to Shaq. That's the truth of it. Kobe has his rings, as I have said before, but he would have NONE if it weren't for Shaq. He only passes when he really has no choice, and even then he might try for the ridiculous circus shot. Aside from aging bench players and the other teams in the Western Conference losing their fear of the Lakers, the reason why they lost is because Shaq has been out of shape throughout the entire season, and did not get his toe operated on WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE. As much as I hate to admit it, if Shaq had kept himself in shape, i think the Lakers might have gotten past the Spurs. It would have still gone seven games, but they might have won.

::marks out for the mention of the Fastball special::

the Cavs are going to get LeBron... you just watch. The "Local boy done good" story is just too huge to pass up...

I didn;t know *what* to think of code red... but like dew, I would only drink it for the caffiene.... Livewire is a better effort, though...

:;cracks up again when he sees the second half of the banner::

Wow.

my thing with Carrey is that he should stick to what he is good at, which is MAKING PEOPLE LAUGH. Robin Williams and Tom Hanks did the same damned thing and Hanks was the only one well rounded enough to pull it off... now there isn't a thing he can do wrong in Hollywood, the town is that much on his jock. I actually liked the trailers for Bruce Almighty, just because Carrey is being FUNNY again. There was no other actor who could have taken Ace Ventura and made it funny, nor made The Mask as funny as it was. I seriously DESPISE comedian-actors who feel that they have to "be taken seriously". In the realm of movies, making people laugh until they hurt is so much more important than playing the ultra-serious roles.

Jason Whitlock wrote a hell of an article on the ESPN website. IMO, he summed it up perfectly.

I could not find that link, by the way... would you mind telling me where it is?

And Rosen is absolutely right about his weight... I was in Orlando in 93, right when Shaq started his NBA career and even though he was strictly power back in those days, every dozen games or so you would see a wrinkle of something new he would do in the post. Up until he left to go to LA (something the Magic fan in me will never forgive because his motivations were transparent as hell), the only thing that didn't improve dramatically from season to season was his free-throw shooting... now the last couple of years he is getting bigger and bigger and the well-documented problems with his toe are just one of several telltale signs that he is carrying too much weight. Everything Rosen said about his offensive footwork, jumping and rebounding is absolutely true. and I am sorry that you think I am on the "Kobe is too selfish and doesn't pass" bandwagon alkeiper, but the truth is the truth. For all his talent, he is too damned selfish on the court. Until he stops jacking it up 30 times a night and gets into an offensive flow with his teammates and *helps to give them confidence*, the Lakers are going to struggle to win anything more than what they have, Shaq's weight and health problems notwithstanding. If Kobe had as much respect for the game as he *says* he does, he would go to Magic Johnson over the summer and ask him to teach him what he knows in making one's teammates better. If Shaq wants to win more championships, he needs to get down around 300 lbs and *stay* there. He was much more of a monster when he was at that weight than when he was heavier because his quickness made his strength that much more of a weapon.

I'm talking about centers... West was ten times the player that Kobe is for the simple fact that while west could shoot the lights out and he earned every syllable of the gloss "Mr. Clutch", he still gave up the ball when he knew that he didn't have a good shot, and was much more fundamentally sound than Kobe could *ever* be. There is a reason why its Jerry West's profile on the NBA logo and along with George Gervin, why my custom-made Magic jersey has the number 44 on it. But my point is that with Shaq behind him, winning three rings wasn't as hard for Kobe and the Lakers as it should have been. The supporting cast merely had to play their roles and not get torched by the opposition, and the Lakers because a Juggernaut for three years. You take Shaq away from the Lakers, and they would have perhaps made it to the finals, depending on the level of Kobe's (and the NBA's) obsession with being (or surpassing) Michael Jordan, but they would have fallen short. Kobe has immense talent, but he needs to check himself and his ego and play *with* Shaq and his teammates. He has done a better job of it this year, which is why I lay more of the blame of the Lakers' collapse on Shaq not getting the operation in the off season so he could be ready for training camp, and waiting until it was too late.

acutally the supermarket brawl was *funny*, overbooked though it may have been.. and it led to one of the funniest promos i have heard from a non-wrestler, when LL Cool J, basically put Booker in his place. I wish I had that on my computer... But what does that say when a guest star can cut a better promo that half or even three-quarters of the roster?

oh I knew that it was, but it about killed me, I was laughing so hard.

Edge rules the world. That "eatin sticks" crack had me biting my lip to keep in the laughter, and no, the Christian crackback wasn't gold, it was platinum.

I thought I would never see a more disturbing banner than Rudo's Pride FC shaving commercial.... I think I just found it... ::shudders::

I about fell out of my chair when I saw that.

in my experience with the site, I use the "view your last ten posts" feature a lot.. it helps me to keep track of the conversations that I have participated in. As I have slowly become more involved with threads and responding to them, i am finding that 10 posts does not go back far enough, as at last count I think I am averaging 6 posts per visit. Is there a way to increase said number?