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Clearly, What Los Angeles Needs is More Basketball

At least, that’s what the Sacramento Kings think.

Bonds were approved this week, which would allow the Sacramento Kings to move to Orange County, making Southern California home to 3 NBA teams: the Clippers, Lakers and, potentially, the Kings.

Which raises the question, how can a city (yes, I am aware that the OC isn’t LA, but that is semantics, yo) which doesn’t even have its own NFL team support three basketball teams? Phil Jackson, coach of the Lakers, doesn’t think it can.

“What other metropolitan area has three teams in it?” Jackson said rhetorically. “It’s ridiculous to put another franchise in this market. It just doesn’t make sense to do that.”

Indeed it does NOT, Coach Jackson. Especially when one considers the potential implication to the Anaheim Ducks, whose practice and play schedule would be severely impacted by the move.

Even Dennis Rodman thinks this shit is ridiculous. Take heed, OC.

The Lakers and Clippers plan to raise holy hell to keep the Kings out. Which, admittedly would be fun to watch. Updates as things progress.

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Bracket Attack!

Ok, full disclosure, I don’t watch much college basketball. I have a hard time mustering any attention to it pre-mid March, you know? I think it’s decent basketball, but the tournament is so compelling because it’s so frantic and so often really, really close. Otherwise, they’re taking a lot of ill-advised shots. Or as I like to say during pick-up, “Put a tent over that circus!”

You would think such ignorance would liberate me in making my picks, but alas, it has not been so. Instead I recall every prejudice I’ve ever had about any college basketball program ever and apply it to this year’s tourney despite its obvious insignficance.

“Duke, not with that pasty Danny Ferry!”

“Michigan with those long shorts!”

“Notre Dame? Oh, the pope would like that now wouldn’t he?”

Instead of polishing up my bracket in 10 minutes, I’d spend 3 to 5 work hours reading

Brackets even I can understand. I take the one on the far right.

synopses of all the teams and constructing a wonderful fantasy land in which 3 lines of text improve my
chances of success in some statistically significant way.

But the last few years I got smart and constructed a more “effective” strategy. I decided to always pick a team that is “unpopular” (i.e. not very good) with the expectation that if they win it, I’m guaranteed to be in the money, despite getting 4 to 8 correct picks in the first round.

Brilliant, right? I could have taken the “smart” pick, Ohio State. But I live IN Ohio. You know how many Nuts there are around here? Bunch-a-million (as my friend once replied when pondering how many records the Beatles had sold). Picking them would have required me to actually know something other than that Ohio State was good. Duke? Don’t they win like every year? These choices are far too obvious! One must think outside the tiny 3/4s boxes.

And man, am I looking like a genius right now. There are upsets all OVER the place. Butler’s making another unlikely run. AND something called “VICU” (do you spell the letters or try to say it as a word?? I mean, who are those guys?) is also in the Great 8. This looks like the perfect year to have applied my airtight strategy and come out like a bandit. Seriously, that Pitt pick is looking so sweet right about now.

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Dez Bryant Kicked Out Of Dallas Shopping Mall

Here we go again, kids. Another spoiled, rotten, full of himself athlete playing Johnny Scoff-law and thinking he can just walk around with his friends. In a mall. The nerve of this man!

Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant was walking through a shopping mall with some friends when they were asked by security to pull up their pants. Apparently, Bryant’s buddies were sporting the classic “I’m in a denim potato sack race” look that the kids today love so much.

Anyway, Paul Blart and the boys would approach and, perhaps nicely or not, asked them to pull up their pants and stop revealing their underwear.

Now, before I go any further, I’d just like to say that if I’m not stealing something, I also will not take seriously anything mall security has to say. I’m sorry, mall cops. I’m sure there are dangers and whatnot, but it’s no more dangerous than me walking through the mall.

The other thing, I’m not Dez Bryant and his friends. I imagine this group first giggles, then salivates when confronted by a gaggle of shopping enforcement officers. Especially when they’re not breaking any laws. This then becomes a fashion argument, and you’re wearing a mall security uniform. This is a situation you should go nowhere near.

Security guards would then try to eject Dez and his friends from the mall, the keyword being “try”. I imagine there was a lot of giggling, pointing, making fun of haircuts, “GI JC Penney” jokes, and I’d like to think some 8 Mile-like rap battles where they’re all, “You ain’t the Five-O, you just a Jive-Ho” before sealing it with a robot move and stuff like that, until finally the police were called to remove Bryant and his posse from the mall.

Bryant refused to leave until his attorney arrived, so he parked his car in a fire lane until a friend talked him down and got him to leave. Bryant was not charged because he did not break the law, but was issued a warning for not complying with a police request. Bryant claims his pants were pulled up and it was his friends’ asses that got all their asses in trouble (I’m paraphrasing).

This is not the first time Dez Bryant has terrorized the mall and its occupants. He once was involved in a major cutting in line incident and once parked in a fire lane. He was also involved in a major disturbance with an unknown woman in a mall eatery where security forces were deployed. The woman is believed to be alive, but hasn’t been seen at any of the kiosks she once frequented, nor has she stopped to get a cookie at either of the two conveniently located fresh cookie stands at either end of the mall. (Not to be confused with the food court, where she also hasn’t been seen.)

It’s also believed that Bryant illegally disposed of a half-full container of Dippin’ Dots, which isn’t against the law, but no one throws away Dippin’ Dots.

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Is an NBA lockout Inevitable?

For all the talk of the seemingly unstoppable NFL lockout next year, even I, the last remaining NBA fan on the planet, often forget that the NBA is very likely heading towards one as well. It’s not nearly as urgent — hell, they have a lot more time than the NFL does, and there are a lot more moving parts — but it’s there nonetheless, lurking in the shadows.

But is it inevitable? Oh man. Everyone seems to think so, and it all ties back to the astonishing inequities between the teams, owners and everyone in between. This, for the record, is why my husband thinks there should be a fan union of sorts, because while all this drama happens, who gets screwed? The fans, natch. The very people who pay everyone’s salaries and make this whole effing thing possible.

The hot mess that is the Hornets (and their recent trade) is illustrative of why this is a disaster. Teams are receiving payouts, the NBA-owned (and bailed-out) Hornets are increasing their payroll and it goes without saying that Mark Cuban is pissed, because that’s what he does. Plus, there’s speculation that the NBA only invested in the Hornets so they’d have leverage in the upcoming labor negotiations.

It’s so ugly. The whole thing gives me a headache.

Add the other recent weirdness with Carmelo Anthony getting traded to the Knicks — Carmelo, incidentally got totally screwed by The Decision, but what did he expect? That’s what you get when you’re a second-fiddle player, you screw up your old contract AND you’re negotiating in a LeBron James year, Carmelo. And I’m a Syracuse alum and a de facto fan of yours, but still. What do you want me to say?

The NBA is allegedly finally gaining back some fans, but the collective greed of the entire organization — from the owners, to the players, to the NBA itself — is making it as ugly as it can possibly get, and it’s only going to get worse. I know that’s a shocking statement. Greed! In professional sports!

And yet, as a fan … it sucks.

I blame you, buddy.

Jonna is more excited than ever that the Lakers look like crap.

Cavs Beat Lakers, a Blogger Reflects

11/30 – Cavs start 7-10: “Okay, we’re not looking that bad.  We might finish .500-ish!”

12/2 – Cavs lose to some asshole: “OK. I’ve heard trying helps, but going with a different strategy. I’m with ya.”

12/17 – Cavs lose 10 straight to drop to 7-19: “Youch. But run off a 12-game win streak, we’re right back in it.”

12/18 – Cavs beat Knicks: “That 8th win is always the toughest. Especially when it takes like 3 months to get it.”

Losing makes Christian Eyenga sleepy.

1/11 – Cavs lose to Lakers by an order of magnitude: “There is not enough beer in creation to endure this.”

12/20/10 through 02/09/11 – Cavs end up constructing Generals-esque losing streak dropping 26! in a row: “Fuck a duck.”

If you’re mathing at home, the Cavs went 1 and 36 over a 37-game span.

2/11 – Through sheer willpower and consumption of potato moonshine I lead the Cavs to their 9th victory when they beat the Clippers last Friday: “One day I will tell my grandchildren about the crappiest team I was ever a fan of winning that game that one time that I was at.”

2/16 – After laying an egg against the Wizards 3 nights before, Cavs inexplicably beat the Lakers: “I am going to stay up past 2 am writing a post about these magnificent bastards getting 10 wins in 56 games.”

Hey sometimes it takes you three games to win two and sometimes it takes 38. And it sounds like someone is feeling a little jealous.

Go Cavs!

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