Fökai

After hearing "Ass Like That" for the first time, I figured this wasn't too far behind. That song makes my ears bleed. It's a shame that he didn't just retire after the genius that was his second album. Even then, everyone in the industry knew that that was his peak as an artist. EDIT: Okay, maybe after 8 Mile came out.

It's funny that, even though both the 3,000 hits and 500 homerun career stats are considered "automatic Hall-entry" numbers individually, Palmeiro reaches them BOTH and yet still gets the shaft from writers. He's soon to be in a statistical group that has Hank Aaron and Willie Mays as its only members. Possibly Barry Bonds by the end of next season. Why are all of the top writers seemingly unfazed by this?

It's more stupid than hypocritical, but he's doing it more for the benefit of the league. Metro made a good point that Lebron was the only one that played at a high level right out of the gate, which furthers the idea of imposing a 19-year-old age limit. The only excuse that Stern himself has come up with (the only one that holds water that is), is that he wants to develop the NBDL as a true minor league system, where the younger players can be sent down to develop their game at the professional (or almost-pro) level. That being said, why not just send the Greg Odens of the world to dominate the NBDL until they're fundamentally sound? You kill two birds with one stone with that solution.

Out and about: surf-brand shirts and board shorts, capped off with flip-flops (I live in Hawaii, for crying out loud). I'll occasionally wear a pair of jeans and a throwback jersey, but only at parties and get-togethers. No accessories, mostly because I feel they're a waste of money, although if I found a sweet watch at a great price, I'd wear it. As for the shoes, I've got a few pairs of Nike, And-1 and K-Swiss..though I always need more. Home: Either board shorts or basketball shorts...that's all. The seasons here are too hot to wear a shirt indoors. Fuck that noise. I'm not some contestant on "Room Raiders".

First of all, if Rey hatched the idea for this storyline, he understands that a "who's the real father" storyline extends out of the wrestling realm and into his child's real life, which is probably the last thing he wants to subject his son to. It's understandable when a writer asks the worker and his family to play along with the storyline, the worker is secretly wishing that his family wouldn't be put through said angle. As for the proposed secret, the direction of "Eddie's the father" has been so obvious that it has to be a swerve. If it comes down to Eddie using that for the big reveal, the fans will fart on it and cause irreparable damage to both characters. As for what it could be, does anyone take any stock into what Eddie did say in his promo this week? " I'm telling your little secret, Rey! I want you Dominic, because I know you’re watching; I love you Dominic. Get up real close to the television screen, because Uncle Eddie’s gonna tell you the bedtime story he was going to tell you long ago … I think it’s bedtime for Dominic …Once upon a time, in a land far far away, lived a little boy named ‘Dominic.’ And as Dominic ran out into the woods to play with his Uncle Eddie ….” EDIT: And anyway, Eddie's wife isn't in on the secret either, nor does she take much stock in how it could affect her.

For the sake of including everyone, I added an extra choice or two to each list. With that, here is my list of current favorites, in order... 6. Carlito (mostly for everything NOT associated with his ringwork). 5. Angle. 4. Benjamin. 3. Benoit. 2. JBL. 1. Eddie. ...and of all time... 11 - 6. (in no order here): Angle, Benoit, Foley, Hennig, Lesnar and Piper. 5. Flair. 4. Bret. 3. Eddie. 2. Rock. 1. Austin. Referee: Mike Chioda. Announce team: Monsoon, Heenan and Piper (man, they kicked all sorts of ass together).

Mench homer breaks up the no-no.

Oh man...Skip Bayless with another gem...

Even on the West Coast, with three different Fox Sports channels, I have to wait until ESPN brings the coverage of said game. What the fuck.

Coming from a Yankee fan, on this specific message board, that's hilarious.

Either way, you're right, it is a moot point because the cap number for next year is worthless in their case. The Knicks are looking towards the 2007-2008 season to build a serious contender, so the next two seasons will essentially be a wash, unless they can move either towards a few stars or a few expiring contracts.

Both are as good as gone, unless Thomas re-ups for cheap. The amnesty clause only provides the Knicks relief from the luxury tax, which the Knicks are over with or without Houston.

Well, actually... credit: hoopshype.com Tim Thomas: makes $13.9 million this year, contract expires at the end of this season. Penny Hardaway: makes $15.7 million this year, contract expires at the end of this season. Malik Rose: makes $20 million over next three years, a paltry sum - contract expires at end of 2007-2008 season. Jerome Williams: makes $20 million over next three years, a paltry sum. The last year (2007-2008) is a team option. Contract expires at the end of next season. Maurice Taylor: the other "bad signee". His contract expires at the end of next season - will make $16 million until said time. Under contract for 2006-2007: Stephon Marbury Maurice Taylor Shandon Anderson Jamal Crawford Quentin Richardson Jerome Williams Malik Rose Mike Sweetney (This group will count for about $65 million towards the cap. Below are the players with figures unreported to hoopshype.) Channing Frye ® Nate Robinson ® David Lee ® Trevor Ariza Jackie Butler Jerome James Under contract for 2007-2008: Marbury Crawford Q Jerome Williams Malik Rose Sweetney all players on second list above. (THIS group will account for only $42 million towards the cap.) Considering that Isiah wants to move Marbury's bad contract to anyone who wants it (Philly and Dalmbert, for example), he's going to have a very good (and cheap) squad in the 2007 season. That being said, Isiah has done a miraculous job correcting all of Layden's fuck-ups.

That's your marker - it's a tool you can use on your map (using the map during the paused menu) to get to things easier - sort of like a GPS. For example, if you're going to a very specific place in San Fierro, but are in Los Santos, you can go the map screen and pinpoint the exact place you need to get to before you start driving, press circle to activate the marker, which will then turn up on your driving map. No more checking the menu map over and over and over again. On a personal note, I don't think I ran into the casino heist mission, yet the game allowed me to move on to the return to Los Santos. Does this affect how my game ends (or even if it ends), or is it simply a side mission off of the main storyline?

Well, to play fantasy booker for a second - how do you book his time off? How about when he comes back? Even if guys are brought up to his level, will the fans believe that these wrestlers are on HHH's "level"? I didn't mean it in that way, per se. "Sharing the spotlight" meaning that even if HHH is the challenger, people won't be so inclined to believe that he's automatically taking the title. Yes, there is that little fact that he's married to the head writer, but the paying customer need to believe that he can lose on any given night, or that people can beat him cleanly and move up to his level as a recognized superstar. Additionally, he needs a reality check on how to cement a star. When he loses to the next man, he needs to admit to the crowd that that wrestler was the better man. If he doesn't do that, he makes both the challenger and himself look terrible. So you have faith in the company to book the Cena/Jericho match stronger than they would the HBK/Hogan match? Just asking.

HHH/Angle would overshadow Cena/Jericho, and not just from a "HHH will hog the screentime" point-of-view. The character sorely needed a break, while in the meantime, you have the top of the card open to establish those who the company needs (Cena, Jericho, HBK, Carlito, Shelton), so when Helmsley comes back, you have a whole new slate of programs to work off of Even if Helmsley is taking on Cena, HBK or Benjamin when he comes back, the others will be primed to share the spotlight with him. Predictably, the company isn't enamored with their current stars, so they decide that HBK/Hogan is good for the "future" of the company. EDIT: WHY NOT HAVE HBK/CENA? HBK/JERICHO? HBK/SHELTON? HBK/ANYONE WITH BOTH HIPS?

Cena made it very clear that the "cheap" comment was based on how Jericho would waste everyone's time blathering on about his past accomplishments - seriously, the Jericho character hasn't done anything worthwhile in over two years. The entire promo built up to that one insult. Additionally, I can't believe how people want to paint Cena in a bad light, especially the posts about Cena being complacent, when it's really about character development. The guy was just beginning on a STRONG heel run, maybe with a program against Benoit or a continued one with Angle, when they allowed the fans to make the call. The character was not finished being told when they did the face turn, which is unlike any of the company's past successful characters. If you look at ALL of the past stars of the Attitude era, did any of these not look complacent through a face run? -- Austin did all of his work in late 1996/1997 and the summer of 2001. The best memories of him are during his heel runs. -- Rocky is obvious. -- Kane is obvious. -- HHH is obvious, bombed as a top face. -- Angle is obvious, bombed as a top face. -- Taker is obvious, doing the same schtick for years, making slight adjustments during an occasional heel turn. ...and so on and so on. It's debatable whether Cena needs another heel run to cement his character. Why is he now playing to the crowd? What defined his heel character and what defines his face character? With that, could he survive as star doing a tweener character?

Actually, I've lived here (Hana, Maui, Hawaii) all of my life. I had spent the last two years in Oregon attending a university, which is where I had a broadband connection. I moved back to Hawaii a few weeks ago, back to a dial-up connection (for at least a few weeks, until we move up to broadband) - hence why I'm nowhere to be seen on XBL. My disappearance from TSM can attributed to the fact that my last computer crapped out on me in May. Fortunately, I just purchased a new desktop (3.0 GHZ, 200 GB, 1 gig of RAM, 19" LCD for $1249), so you should see a lot of me on here. Give me a few weeks and I'll be back on XBL.

Trade in a few games that are useless to you now (see below). I'd easily pay $50 for the new draft classes for Madden, and the online play. EA hinted a year or so back that they would turn the previous editions off when a new season begins. All are great changes. OH GOD YES. A easily-accessible scramble button? Please let this carry over to Madden.

If UPN felt that badly about the angle, they could have told WWE to take it off, and given the circumstances, it would have been a reasonable request. They wanted to play both sides of the fence with the angle, and are now feeling some heat for it, and are just trying to avoid that happening again this week. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sorry if I'm not adding to the conversation, but...thank you, this needed to be said.

Really. I can't see how anyone believes any of this was even a worked shoot. The last week, which includes the new commentary on Edge, as well as tonight's angle, was a complete work. Matt and Amy agreed to be civil to each other for the sake of the program, but he didn't say anything about taking liberties on Edge when he was able to.

I know it's a work, but at the same time I think Matt probably took a few liberties for himself when he got a few free shots at Edge. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You know, guys like Stan Hansen, Vader, Steiners, Bulldogs, Valentine, Benoit etc would sometimes use 'stiff' punches and chops and the like. Its not all that uncommon in wrestling, and is only used to add a sense of 'realism' to the action. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Everything up until this week was a shoot. You don't think Matt planned on being a little snug with his punches?

The possibility of seeing Harrington as a Bull a year earlier than expected (the Bulls were going to offer him a contract at the end of the 2005-2006 season) has me excited. If we keep Chandler and Duhon, we have a great six-deep nucelus regardless of where we are with Curry. If I'm Paxson, I'm trying my damndest to unload Curry in a sign-and-trade, because I doubt Curry willl sign a clause-laden contract that depends entirely on his heart problem. The Bulls have at least two teams that covet Curry (Cavaliers, Hawks), and a few that are willing to sign him to an offer sheet, so it's also an issue on finding a replacement at the 4 or 5 if Paxson decides to not match an offer on Curry. EDIT: I don't know what the Bulls will do with their rotation if they sign Jaric. He's going to command a lot of cash for a bench player, especially on a team who already has a solid 2 fighting for minutes off the bench (Gordon).

The Beverly D'Angelo joke was begging for the usual cameo, but the ensuing "...and I don't think I would know where to find her anyway" line caught me off-guard for a big laugh. My vote is for the Breakfast Machine, though, closely followed by the final segment with Stewie realizing the boyfriend was still in the trunk.

Judging by when they initially had their surgeries, RVD should be ready to do a Summerslam program. Orton, on the other hand, could do a program for No Mercy, but that's really pushing it considering the severity of his injury. His first major match will most likely be at Survivor Series against Batista.