Precious Roy

fuck that

I was thinking Phil was more like Yoda. Ideally, MJ would be Obi-Wan. I find the idea of Buss as Palpatine hilarious for some reason

whoa, why does Phil get blame? He reached out to Kobe, told Kobe the truth that Shaq was #1 and Kobe was #1A, which Kobe couldn't handle, and Kobe's ego destroyed the team from the inside. As soon as Kobe got himself over with a championship and the media really started riding him as the next Jordan he got greedy, got jealous. He thought Phil favored Shaq over him (and really, who wouldn't? Shaq seems like a genuinely cool guy with interests beyond his personal world, and Kobe seems like a petulant brat). Shaq embraced the phil-osophy, Kobe didn't. Kobe was the lynchpin, and once he went bad it affected Shaq and the rest of the team. Basically.... =

He probably carried the ball, but that's not impossible....

you like to have confidence in your team and then you realize SEAN FUCKING FUCKFACE ASSHOLE HENN IS PITCHING! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I actually believe the opposite. You CAN properly translate the statistics and find good NBA caliber players in Europe. Tony Parker, Vladomir Radmanovich, Pau Gasol, Jiri Welsch, Hido Turkoglu, Andrei Kirilenko have all experienced success in the NBA. Europe does not produces as many stars, but many very capable players come from there. I think the trend of drafting high school players was more troubling. I'm on record saying 18 year old players should play if they are good enough. The problem is that rather than drafting a college player who has established a ceiling, the teams were starting to gamble on high schoolers. What's the sense of drafting a project when you only have three guaranteed years? High schoolers are easier to scout than Europeans and I think it is easier to judge their true level of ability. But if you know what to look for, you can find some gems in Europe. For teams that draft Europeans based on height, I think you will find height-based busts at every level of NBA talent, regardless of whether they are European, High School (Desagana Diop anyone?) or college. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I agree with most of what you say, but the way I look at it, the trend of gambling on high schoolers has crossed over into gambling on Euro players, and I think it's a riskier game. GMs now aren't so much translating statistics and performance as trying to project future perfomance based on observed ability in a controled environment, which is risky enough when dealing with a high schooler, much less someone playing a different style of basketball and making a transition to an entirely new country and lifestyle. It's in the opening stages, but just like they did with the high school players, they're trying to branch out and find the next big thing earlier than everyone else, with guys who don't even get significant run in the euro leagues but show "potential" becoming the flavors of the month, and it's going to result in a lot of busted picks. Wasn't Darko a 15 minute a game backup in Europe? The guys who are 6-10+ and show all-around skills in a scouting session have become more enticing to NBA scouts and GMs than they probably should be, and logic and realistic expectations have gone out the window. I know it's early for him, but Darko is the poster child on this tip. Nikoloz Tskitishvili at #5? I'm not saying don't draft Euro ballers, just don't get caught up in the fever at the expense of surer things. It's such a relatively recent thing too, didn't really begin full steam until a few years ago, but look over the last 2 or 3 drafts and you'll find more and more picks, especially in the second rd, who will never pan out or never even get called over here for more than a cup of coffee. All in all though, ignoring obvious cases on both ends, I'd feel much more confident drafting a US HS player over a young Euro player. At the rate they're going, and with the new emphasis on the NBDL, they should really expand the draft to 3 or 4 rounds, it'll make for better and smarter picks, put less pressure on franchises to gamble on pie in the sky picks, or at least take more of the risk out of it, because as is obvious from the age limit shit you can't trust the front offices to police themselves, they're like lemmings when it comes to this shit.

But the Showtime Lakers lost to the Bulls in 1991. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Eh, that team was more Cinemax than Showtime. Latenight, b-movie, borderline softporn featuring Lorenzo Lamas and Eric Roberts Cinemax...

DL speed is slow as FUCK, 5kb per for me, and I can support about 100x that. I'm not surprised though, I figured the delay involved something like this. I'll just let someone else do the dirty work and wait for a torrent

Ditto, and didn't the character give himself up at the end? I can't wait to see what the motivation for dragging it up as an old woman is this time, hopefully it involves infiltrating an Al Queda ring

If Darko ends up having a bigger impact in the league than Wade or Bosh I'll eat my shorts. And ESPN talking heads are just that, I don't pay a whole lot of credence to what they say. Picking young foreign players is a huge gamble, the leagues over there are so different and none of the guys come over with NBA ready physiques. What works in a Euro league doesn't necessarly translate to the NBA. If you compare the success/failure ratio of 1st rd high school picks to 1st rd Euro picks the edge is going to the high school kids. Picking big euro guys with "5 tool" skills is a silly trend that hopefully passes.

Jordan was more HOLY SHIT~! dominant on the first teams, and Ho Grant and Paxson were rocks of consistency, but I think Pippen was a better player during the second run after getting a chance to lead a team while Jordan was gone, MJ was a fucking genius after the rust came off, Kukoc was a third wheel that they'd never had before and his play during that run is still taken for granted, and Rodman and Harper could have shut down Ho and Paxson, which is why I give the second edition the nod

Which Bulls team? I'll give you the first edition, but I think either the 72 win team or the year that after could have taken em, I'd say it's 50/50 if they played several series. Once Kukoc came into his own and Rodman was on his game they were pretty F'n nasty and would be good enough for at least a championship or two if they were in the same era

I'm shocked that Will Smith has never hosted. Not just because he's always in the type of movies that people get booked on SNL for, but because he'd probably be great in that environment, and could probably get a host/music spot like I think J-Lo and maybe one or two other people have recently. Pacino and Depp, doesn't surprise me at all, that's not either of their style, and they don't really do roles where hosting a comedy show would be appropriate. Don't get me wrong, I think both guys are HILARIOUS and would be great doing sketch comedy, but their humour is more tongue in cheek and a product of their acting ability than intentional work for laughs. Like DeNiro, he never would have hosted until he realized that he had a goldmine once "stereotypical DeNiro character" became a running joke and started taking comedy roles based on that. Pacino could do the same thing, but he probably takes himself too seriously to go down that road, and Depp hasn't reached that point yet. Benicio would be great, I'm kind of surprised he hasn't done it yet. Ditto with Hoffman.

Fuck, I say you wait til Sept. 1 to actually start HYPING a .400 chase, unless a dude is hitting like .450 and already has it near locked up. Anyone hovering between .370 and .400 has NOTHING done in June as far as that milestone is concerned. The two closest guys to .400 I can remember were Olerud and Gwynn, and their hype began around the all-star break, and by mid Sept. they were pretty much out of contention for it. I still believe we'll see a .400 hitter some day, hopefully while I'm still around, but it's not happening this season, and it won't be Derrek Lee.

I thought he was in persuit of the triple crown at ESPN. Acting like he has even the slimmest of chances at .400 is just silly.

Can any Mets fans tell me why Beltran isn't running? I know about the hammy and all, but even before that he wasn't running AT ALL, and this is one of the best base stealers in baseball history % wise. I would think in the pursuit of him as a FA that would be one of the main reasons you'd pay him all that money. I wouldn't really care, but I did draft him in a few fantasy leagues on the basis of his near 40-40 history, and at this pace he won't even break 10 SBs.

WHOOMP THERE IT IS!

#2 pick And hindsight being 20/20, Dumars has to know he'd have been better off with Melo, Wade or Bosh, but he'll never admit it...

I've been voting Abreu, Cabrera, Lee on all my ballots. The only other guy I considered was Bay.

You've gotta admit though, not getting any run has earned Darko one of the coolest nicknames in sports, "the human victory cigar"

I'd root for Satan himself if it got the Knicks the Larry O' trophy

Games 6 and 7 were in Houston, not NY. And I'll take credit for picking the Spurs in 7 now

If it's me, I bean hitter after virtual hitter in an attempt to induce a bench clearing brawl, and maybe a game of street fighter...

You call that useless? EDIT* After a little research, as far as the modern era goes there is no topping the uselessness of Fennis Dembo, 89 Pistons. The guy played ONE YEAR in the league and put a whopping two minutes and two points towards that ring. I guess he figured it was all downhill from there.