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The only difference is a charge for driving without a license, and marijuana possession. Possession charges are more common in the NBA than flagrant fouls. That just shows how stupid (or bored) you are to get caught with it. The basic premise of Rasheed's antics are still the same in Detroit. He still leads the league in techs. He still instigates fights. He still flaps his gums at the media. Nick is right - the only reason those charges are unique to Portland is because it's Portland and they have little else to concentrate on besides their precious Blazers.

Or when a team can't figure out a challenge, they'll stop mid-challenge to bribe the Asian team to figure it out for them.

Let me preface this by saying I had never had a strong desire to play any of the 2D versions of Grand Theft Auto. When a large group of my friends (on a road trip for HS basketball) walked into our local Game Crazy, we were there to simply see what was being demoed that weekend. All of the consoles were unoccupied, but there was a small group of teens surrounding the store manager at the register. He fired up the PS2 in the display and we got our first glimpse of Grand Theft Auto 3. I think the only one who knew about it beforehand was one of the employees and he was begging to play it. My first thought was "it's in 3D now? and my second thought was "holy shit! That was cool" as we watched our first carjacking being done by a "Mr. Corporate" store manager who was now reduced to a giddy eight-year-old. I was the only one in my group with more than $40.00 on hand, so I scrounged for the rest and picked it up. That is the defining moment of my experiences with the last generation of consoles. The look on that manager's face is still one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

I don't see how anyone can complain. The guy was only in the company for two years, and he still gets this type of treatment. That's pretty awesome.

...why not just have a ceremony cause he retired as one of the greatest to play as a 49er? I'm just pissed at all this retiring/un-retiring crap that is going on in sports. Besides, as I just said, you can still hold a party for him retiring. There is no reason to have him "sign a contract" to have him "retire" in the 49er colors. When you've retired that's it. The only reason you "come back" is nothing more than a publicity stunt or to prove you can still be around when you are too far gone. He doesn't get paid anything for this "publicity stunt". It's just a feel-good story. What if he signed with the Niners last year and then retired? Does this really bother you? I'll admit, I'm a Niner fan to the day I die, and Jerry Rice un-retiring to then retire in a Niner uniform just feels right. You'll probably won't get it until it happens to a player you love, and given the way he respectfully exited San Francisco the first time, this is what the organization can give back to him.

The ECW guy is Punk.

And what I'd want to see is Carlito and Kennedy nowhere near the main event for their respective brand. That'd make for the first ever Wrestlemania main-event concession-stand run.

Is this the only guy here that knows why this feud isn't working? Yeah, blame Hogan. The guy that did 600,000 buys last year for Summerslam. Yep, no one wants to see Hogan anymore. The crowd tonight was hot when his music played for the first time, went crazy when he did come out, and cheered his comeback. Everything else with the impersonator, they were dead for. Now, which part is the old wrestling formula, and which one is the new WWE quasi-retarded formula? Simple wrestling formulas are hard enough for the writers to understand. These ridicuous extracurricular stuff that's stapled on are even worse. Umm, no. This was a terribly-booked angle that began with an interesting plot. What could've been "creepy slimy bastard" Orton was inexplicably transformed into "I hate old people" Orton. Why no mention of Brooke in the last month or so? Does name recognition scare this company?

There's been no fluctuation in any of TNA's projects. The ratings aren't shifting, buyrates have been steady throughout, and I don't see a first purchase being made on a B-show PPV for a Joe title win. The best move is Joe winning the title at Bound For Glory in October, which establishes the event as the "TNA Wrestlemania" that they've been pushing for the past two years. If they can't pull it off then, it should be done on a two-hour special on Spike. Doing a rematch the next month on pay-per-view will keep that steady buyrate and would offset the potential financial losses, which would be minimal.

Same with Webber. Jamal Mashburn was incredible, but his games per season were troubling. From his rookie season forward - 79, 80, 18, 69, 48 and 24 (lockout year) leading into the '99-00 season.

Didn't he write a song about it?

There was no way that was happening for someone that's Maddux's age. Colletti trades prospects that he perceives to have flaws in the first place, but I didn't see anything wrong with Guzman. So him saying that at all is odd. Maddux at any age + $2 million for Caesar Izturis isn't a good deal for the one side, regardless of what universe you're in. When I heard they got Izturis, I thought, "Oh, well I'll bet they got some other pieces with him." Hell no. Picking up $2 million of the check just makes this look like a salary dump. Man, Maddux may be a humble guy, and he would be the first one to admit he's declining, but I wonder what his reaction was to that trade. Probably something like "CESAR FUCKING IZTURIS?!?". No offense to Izturis, but players of that caliber should not be traded for a player that's a mortal lock for the HOF...even one in a decline. Selig should've just denied the trade on pure priniciple.

Quick ones that stuck out... --I don't know much about Elvin Hayes, so I would've put Unseld and then Ewing above him (vice-versa, actually) --I agree with 909 about Worthy. I never got the chance to see Dantley or English play, though, so my list would be biased. Besides that, that is a great list, Alf. You were fair to a bunch of guys that .com writers tend to overlook for their "underrated" picks. Two quick questions for you, though: 1. Are there any players you think that could break into each list by 2010? 2. Are there any active players on the list that could move up, and how high?

30 days from July 4th is August 3rd. They could bring him back early like they did with Orton, but I really don't think they will, with having Angle returning too, with only 1 hour of live TV. Remember, we're dealing with WWE logic here. Umm, it's a run-in, not an advertised appearance. They don't need to "make time" for RVD if they want to bring him back next week for Show, if they're building Show v. RVD. Sabu for Summerslam.

It's not like they're going to run the offense through him - in fact, taking Wallace away from the Pistons could probably be bigger than anything he does in Chicago. If he puts up the numbers he has from the last two years, which will be pretty easy with Chicago's defense, he's considered a success. Unless there's a terrible injury mixed in there, Chicago won't be able to complain about his production (the amount of money is an argument for another day).

I've never seen anyone win even a decent amount of money at poker, without investing hours into the game. The one story that sticks out was this guy who had been at the table the whole day (+8 hours) and the only thing he had to show for it was the stacks of plates and beer bottles that were complimentary when you had reached a certain time limit at the same table. He broke even that day. Blackjack is definitely the crash course, the most exciting game of them all, and the easiest way to win/lose money. At least with blackjack, you can blow through your money in a half hour and still be jazzed.

Hey, I laughed. EDIT: Okay, fair enough.

Watch a few hands of blackjack before you consider getting in. There's a bunch of obvious stuff (etiquette and the like) that could get you run off the table (or even the casino) if you don't follow it. From personal experiences...with more blame attributed to my friends, we almost got booted out of a Washington casino because of it. Of course, this was at a casino that was predominantly Vietnamese both in management and in customers, so your mileage may vary. A casino in the middle of Oklahoma might not have the same problem.

Um, that's the original.

Don't know if another thread was necessary, but according to Dave, Khali is also off the card for the same reason. He is being replaced by TBS for the gimmick match with Taker.

From what I've asked around (doctors in the family), as well as search-engined, it could be from a number of factors, but the one that stood out from all of their discussions...hepatitis. Here's something I found from the Mayo Clinic website: A laboratory report of elevated liver enzymes is common. It doesn't indicate a specific disease. However, it may be due to a liver disorder, even if you don't have any symptoms of liver problems. To determine the underlying cause of elevated liver enzymes, your doctor may recommend further testing. Liver enzymes help maintain a variety of chemical and metabolic processes that occur in the liver. Normally, only very small amounts of these enzymes are present in your blood. * Medications, such as certain nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, cholesterol-lowering medications, antibiotics and anti-seizure medications * Drinking too much alcohol * Obesity * Diabetes * Elevated triglycerides * Infection, such as viral hepatitis and mononucleosis * Autoimmune disorders of the liver and bile ducts, such as autoimmune hepatitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis and primary biliary cirrhosis * Metabolic liver disease, such as hemochromatosis and Wilson's disease * Excessive use of vitamin supplements and certain herbal supplements * Tumors of the liver or bile ducts

The first thing I was thinking, too. I don't see MySpace ending anytime soon either. It's going to take a whopper of an urban legend to scare everyone away for good.

From the demo, the one issue I had with the game was the control scheme on defense. More specifically, the pre-snap controls. The "jump snap" button feels terrible, unless that was fixed by the full version. With the way it's used now, it won't work. I also didn't see a way to switch players in reverse. I don't want to make a mistake and press a button 10 or so times before the snap to get back to the player I originally had wanted. Gameplay was smooth besides that. Graphics were substandard even for an EA game on Xbox, let alone a 360.

The problem with pushing Cena aside is the lack of babyfaces behind him. Some blame can be placed on the writers for the lack of guys coming up, but everyone in the upper-midcard on RAW are all terrible faces. Literally a laundry list of flops. They're going to run with Cena until everyone tires of him. Then again, with his movie coming up soon, the show has to focus around him. They've got three months to find someone to supplant Cena after his movie comes out. If they don't, they could be in an even worse situation. That said, the next best thing they've got beyond DX for a legitimate face is Benjamin.

Being first in the NBA in "minutes played" isn't a good thing. They aren't going to get that much better in the East without more help in the backcourt and that will take time. They have one too many scrubs under long-term deals and that will affect their chances of retaining Caron next summer. If Caron leaves, Arenas is right fucked. A steady climb in minutes on a team marginally improving is bad. He can't improve his game that much more without players keying in on him. He definitely needs another shooter to keep the defense honest.