Archive for the "Sports" Category

I bet that hurt

David Stern you sly bastard

So I was plotting out my day for tomorrow. I don’t have to work, and already have the whole Christmas thing done, we did it this afternoon since my nephew has to go with his dad tomorrow, and I think my Brother-in-Law has to work. So I was planning out what I was going to eat, and plan out my glorious day of sitting in bed watching basketball games. Then I noticed something about the 5 basketball games that are on.

That David Stern dude, he really knows how to work the numbers.

Game #1: Boston vs. Brooklyn.

Boston has the 2nd largest international market. Brooklyn is now in the NYC Market, which is the largest market there is. Plus a new team with a swelling fan base, even if the team sucks, and watching their games on TV is annoying because it’s so fucking dark there.

Game #2: Knicks vs Lakers.

The #1 and #2 US Markets

Game #3: OKC vs Miami

A rematch of the finals, James vs Durant

Game #4: Houston Vs Chicago

The Largest international market (Houston thanks to China) against the 3rd largest Market in the US

Game #5: Nuggets Vs Clippers.

The clippers, also in L.A. which is the second largest market. The Nuggets, well not a very large market, but one of more entertaining teams to watch. The rest of the smaller markets are boring as shit, The Spurs, which a good team, and one of my favorite teams, can be super fucking boring to watch. For the most entertaining for the ones left, it would be between Denver and Golden State. Personally, I’d rather see Golden State. But I do love me some Andre Miller, and maybe JaVale McGee will do something stupid.

The Houston Rockets hate the jews

This might be the worst free throw of all damn time

Emperor Stern can blow me where the pampers is

If you watched the Spurs/Heat game last night, or read the sports page this morning, then you will know that last night in the game in Miami Spurs coach Gregg Popovich decided to sit Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Danny Green. when the Spurs hit the court they had a starting line up of: Nando De Colo (who averages 2ppg and 10 minutes), Patty Mills (who averages 4 points and 12 minutes), Tiago Splitter (who was like their star who averages 8 points and 18 minutes a game), Boris Diaw (who averages 5ppg and is 6 years passed his prime and fat), and Matt Bonner (who averages 4ppg and 11 minutes). Needless to say, this was not a Dream Team, and also needless to say David Stern was PISSED.

But here is the thing, it’s not like this isn’t something Popovich hasn’t been doing for years. He’s been doing it for a while, resting all his big names at once, and it’s never been an issue until last night, and the only reason it was, was because the game was nationally televised.

Know what I have to say to that?

And also for the hell of it

There are a number of reasons why this pisses me off. Not because Popovich did it, but because Stern got his panties in a bunch over it. Look, the goal, the ONLY goal of an NBA head coach is to win the championship. things like TV ratings and sponsorship deals are not something they worry themselves about. If they have a team that gets televised a lot, makes a shit load of revenue, that is great. But the coaches job depends in wins and losses.

So for Stern to get all bent out of shape for something Pop did to help his team in the long run? Fuck him.

There’s a bunch of things about this that piss me off. Know what? Fuck it, bullet point time.

Head Coaches have always rested older players when they play back to back games. It’s always been like that. when you have an aging player, playing back to back games takes a massive toll. Even more so, this was the second half of a back-to-back ON THE ROAD.

On the topic of rest. This was the 4th game in 5 days the Spurs had played. That is ridiculous. Stuff like that is not supposed to happen in the schedule. You are only supposed to get a few back to back games a year, and not back to back with a day off, and then back to back again. And these were all on the road. And the last game in a long road trip. Quite often when you have a 5 or 6 game road trip teams will rest their top player the last game. And the road trip the Spurs was on was fucking brutal. 6 games in 9 day. All away. At Boston, Indy, then Toronto and Washington Back to back. Toronto and Washington are not close. That’s like a 4 hour flight. Then Orlando and Miami back to back. That is outrageous. Meanwhile the Heat hadn’t played since SATURDAY. They have Sun, Mon, tues, wed off. Actually to make matter worse the Heat had only played 3 fucking games since the 18th. 3 games in 11 days, and ALL AT HOME, where as the Spurs has played 6 in 9 all on the road. How the fuck is that fair?

Stern is all about revenue. The Spurs next game is tomorrow at home. Their main players have been back in San Antonio since yesterday. So they got to spend 2 days at home, sleep in their own bed, train with at their own practice facility, see their own doctors. So come Saturday they should be fresh, so they can put on a good show for their home crowed. You know, the ones who are paying to see them

On the topic of the game meant nothing, it actually meant less than nothing. A November inter-confrence game? Who the fuck cares. Meanwhile the game Saturday, which the team would want their best players rested for is against the Grizzlies. You know, a team that is not only in their conference, but in their division. It’s a rivalry game, but more than that, these are 2 of the West’s top teams, this game could be important when it comes to playoff seeding and home court advantage in the playoffs. How pissed would Spurs fans be if their team came back, was tired as shit on Saturday, got their ass kicked by Memphis, and then when the season ends they both have 58-24 records, but the Griz have the tie breaker because of that game, so the Spurs could have a #1 seed, but end up with a 4 seed

The vast majority of non-freak injuries, stuff like torn or pulled muscles, sprains, strains, back spasms, those are things that are caused almost exclusively by fatigue. the Spurs have played 17 games so far this season. More than any other team. Most are at 13/14. So they are the most fatigued team, so played the most games, plus just had monster road trip. Who wouldn’t rest them?

There were a bunch of things I saw on TV, and read in the news with NBA execs who were saying that it was unacceptable to rest the best players because…. “there will be some kid in the crowd, it is his first NBA game, his dad bought tickets months before, they have been waiting for this game for months, then they get there and their favorite player is not playing”. that is a motherfucking bullshit excuse. For a number of reasons. what about when a player is hurt? I bet there were lots of people who bought tickets to see the Lakers to watch Steve Nash. He hasn’t played in a month, so should the Lakers be sanctioned? What about the Bulls? Odds are Rose isn’t going to play all year. Ok, forget injuries. What about suspensions? Stern just suspended Rando for 2 games from his bitch slap fight the other night. He won’t play tonight, which is at home. there are probably WAY MORE kids going to their first Celtics game and have been waiting for it for months who are Rondo fans, than kids in Miami wanting to see Tony Parker. that is a stupid fucking argument. Every year in the Preseason the Raptors play a game here. A few years ago that game was against Cleveland. The game sold out, everyone was excited to see Lebron James. guess who didn’t play? Guess who didn’t even travel with the team to the game? That’s even worse. We are a large city without an NBA team (any more they are the Kings now) and get ONE game a year for an exhibition, and the ONE person people wanted to see didn’t even play. I seriously doubt there were many people there who wanted to see Larry Hughes.

How is it that Stern says some players are worth watching, and others aren’t? this is the NBA, these are the best players in the world. How is the team the Spurs put on the court last night any different from the teams the Hornets and Bobcats put on the floor EVERY FUCKING NIGHT last year any different? Boris Diaw has started most of his career, Tiago Splitter would start on half the teams in the league. Sooooooo…. what? All you care is about the people with high Jersey sales? This is a professional sport, not WWE. One of the reasons the Spurs have been as good as they have been, for as long as they have been, is because they know the resources they have. How do you know what the rolls and skills of your players unless you play them. There were players last night who played 30 minutes, in the flow of a single game, that under normal circumstances wouldn’t get 30 minutes a month. How can you ever evaluate what you have unless you see them. Look at Jeremy Lin. A nothing in the league, the 13th man, no playing time, in and out of the league. No one realized what he could do until he got a shot, and it was really only a 1 game shot due to injury, and look what that turned in to. There are tons of other examples in the league of players who were bench warmers and when they got a chance to show what they could do ended up being legit players. Sticking with Houston, Asik, Or in Phoenix Gradic and Gortat. Eric Bledsoe, They are all over the place. Come playoff time, if Duncan, Parker, Ginobili get hurt, get in foul trouble, get ejected, whatever, they need to know what person on their bench can step up and fill the roll. and what better way to find out who that person is, that to play them again Miami? Put their feet to the fire. It’s a brilliant long term move

On the topic of bench player, and the worth of players. Again how is Pop sitting his starts any different from NOT playing bench players at all? Look at teams like the Knicks a few years back, of Dallas under Don Nelson, or any don Nelson team for that matter, or ANY team in the playoffs when they switch up to 8 man rotations. You have 4 or 5 people every game that aren’t going to play. there might be some kid in the stands who wants to see them. what about when they get tickets for their family to come to the game, and when they get out there, you sit on the end of the bench all night and get a DNP – Coaches decision. That is why NP – Coaches decision is an official line in a box score

Terrel Harris, James Jones, and Dexter Pittman are all on the Active list for Miami and did not play last night due to DNP – Coaches decision. Are the heat going to get serious sanctions as well?

In closing. Meh

Rajon Rondo fights like a little bitch

If you watched the Celtics/Nets game last night, then you saw the little brawl that happened near the end of the first half. Kris Humphries fowls Kevin Garnett, Garnett falls down and goes boom, and Rondo attacks Humphries like a rabid pit bull.

Look, We’d all like to kick the shit out of Kris Humphries.

But fuck it, when you charge someone you KNOW you’re going to get ejected, you KNOW you are going to get fined, and you KNOW that you are going to get suspended.

So get your fucking moneys worth.

Now I’m not saying he needs to go all Kermit Washington on him. If you are a youngin, or don’t know your basketball history this will fill you in. Long story short, Kermit Washington punched Rudy Tomjanovich in the face during a game and almost killed him.

But what did Rando do? Nah, he just did a bunch of slapping, pushing, and scratching. LOTS of fucking scratching. that’s actually Humphries arm up there.

Now, on top of this, how fucking stupid is Rondo?

The the Celtics need him to win.

And here is the worst part. The Celtics haven’t been doing too great this year, and you know why? Because Rondo has been too busy worrying about getting the record for most games in a row with 10 assists.

He was up to like 37 or something last night, the record is 45 by Magic Johnson.

Rondo has played like shit this year, and actually making the team worse because he has been so caught up with the assist record. He’d pass up wide open shots, just to pass the ball to someone in hopes they would take a shitty shot and make it. I’ve seen him at least 20 times dribble down the shot close to like 2 or 3 seconds, then fire it off to Pierce of Terry and FORCE them to take a last second shot. It’s a garbage shot, but if they make it he gets an assist.

His relentless pursuit of the record has totally fucked up the flow of the offense.

Last night, he only had 3 assists before getting ejected.

Streak over.

So basically, it was all for nothing. Sacrifices good play all season to chase his own personal glory, and ends up not getting it in the long run because he would instead rather act like a little thug bitch.

Besides, you’re not an enforcer Rondo. That is what Jason Collins is for, cause it sure as hell isn’t for anything else

Dude, EA Sports: Fo Realz?

I can remember a time when in the gaming world when it came to sports game, EA sports was the proverbial shit. Everything they did was A+ #1 dynamite. But they they started to slip. Then the 2k series of stuff came out, and I guess I started to get spoiled by those, because the NBA 2k series in my mind is the best basketball game out there. But then the EA stuff started going down hill, and fast. And what the hell ever happened to the NBA Live series? NBA Live 95 was some good shit. NBA Live 10, well, that was just straight up shit. and they haven’t made another one since. Not that I’m really missing it since I got my 2k.

With the Madden series, I still think 2005 for the Playstation was the best one. Each year since that it got a little worse and worse. I wasn’t that much of a fan of Madden 12 on the PS3. On the Wii is was basically unplayable. But on the Ps3 it just felt…. off. It even though there were more features, it actually felt slimmed down.

And don’t even get me started on the Super Star mode. Another place where NBA2k blows it out of the water. In NBA 2k you start off as a bumb, you have to work your way up to even get playing time.

In Madden 12, I was a QB, got drafted by the Packers, and they benched Aaron Rodgers for me. I’d get eleventy billion skill points per game and by the end of the season I wad a 97 rating. Lame.

But anyhow, so I got Madden 13 just for shits and giggles. Figured it had to be an improvement over 12. I’ll say visually it’s more pleasing, looks sleeker, feels more substantial. the game play is a little better.

But some of the technical aspects are annoying as fuck, and some downright ridiculous.

I’ve been playing Franchise Mode with the Bills. Figured if I’m going to torture myself in real life being a Bills fan, might as well do it virtually as well.

For starters, just like every other Madden version, the commentary will make you want to kill yourself after a couple games. They keep repeating the same shit over and over, even in the same game.

Although I will say I like the combo of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms this year over Gus Johnson and Chris Collinsworth.

But worse than that, there are bugs in it that keep fucking up.

75% of the time when ever i sack a quarterback with Marcell Dareus the commentators say Marques Colston. that doesn’t even make sense.

There have been a few times I’ve run the ball with Fred Jackson, and after the run they will say “Well the coach can’t be happy with that fumble” even though there was no fumble.

I’ve had games where Kyle Williams somehow managed to lose tackles during the game. He’ll have 5 at half time, get a few more, and then at the end of the game have like 3.

On one play, it was 4th and 17 and I went for it, I ended up throwing an incomplete pass to Johnson. I hit pause, and the option to challenge the play was there. I used it, and it over turned the play, gave me 1st down like 30 yards down field. The incomplete pass I threw wasn’t something close to the line, it was 5 yards over his head.

Also I noticed when I rush the QB from the line, I can usually go about a half yard over the line before the ball is snapped and they never call offside.

I’ve only been called for holding once, actually that is the only penalty I ever got. I even went into the settings to make sure I wasn’t in some sort of arcade mode or something or that the sliders were really low.

Also I played an entire season, and only had 1 person injured all year. C.J Spiller. 4 times.

I’d say the game is a wee bit better than 12, but over all, I am not all that impressed

I’m not impressed

So if you follow sports, you probably heard today about how some dude from some college I never heard of score 138 points last night. Now most people might hear that and think ON MY GOD!!!!

I’m not one of those people. To me, this seems like bullshit. I’m not saying Bullshit because I don’t think it happened, I know it happened, there is video of it. But I’m saying Bullshit in the way it happened.

Jack Taylor ( the dude who did it) goes to Grinnell College. Grinnell College is basically the equivalent of a minor league baseball team. You know how minor league teams always try to have gimmicks to get people in the stands, like “worlds smallest batter’ or “worlds oldest batter” or have some player who retired 50 years ago pitch an inning, or have some local whore get fucked by a donkey. That is basically Grinnell College. they are like the dad who makes 1000 pitches of the wiffle ball and records all of them hoping for the moment the kid hits a line drive into his nut, so he can send the video to America’s funniest home videos.

Grinnell College is a fucking side show. It’s a D3 college, where I can get more people to pay to watch me masturbate in my back yard than they can get going to one of their games. They have been hell-motherfucking-bend on getting some sort of thing to go viral lately. Most people probably didn’t know, cause no one gives a shit about Grinnell College, but this is the same place that had another player score 89 points in a came 2 days ago (Griffin Lentsch). But no one gave a shit about that because it was under 100. Griffin Lentsch didn’t even play last night

This is just fucking stupid. If you have a single person on the team taking all the shots, yeah, no shit, you are going to score over 100 points.

In a post game interview Jack Taylor said, and I quote “I felt like anything I threw up was going in”

Lets take a look at the numbers

He was 52-for-108 (48%) and from 3 he was 27-71 (38%), and 7-10 (70%) for Free throws

That is average AT BEST

I’m pretty sure, literally ANY guard who is in the NCAA playing in D1 could score 138 points if they were given 108 shots, 71 of which were 3 pointers. Actually, if they didn’t their scholarship should be revoked.

108 shots AS A TEAM, by itself is a ridiculous number. That means they had to have gone out there with a plan for him to shoot every single time down the court within 5 seconds.

Really, this does not impress me at all, I can do better on NBA2k13 playing on the rookie level.

Lets take an NBA player. Not even a super star player. O.J. Mayo.

Taking his season average. Taking 71 3 pointers, and 37 2 pointers. From the same amount he would have score 171 points. And it’s not like we are talking Kobe or Lebron here.

Also know how many assists he had?

The answer is zero

also showing what a joke the game was, David Larson from the opposing team (Faith Baptist Bible) scored 70 points

However his 70 was on 34-44 shooting. THAT is actually pretty fucking impressive.

But as far as this Taylor dude goes, fuck you dude, you are a novelty. Maybe some shitty ass D1 school will give you and offer, I’m looking at you UC Davis (1-17) and Northern Illinois Huskies (2-16).

But after that no one will give a shit after Thursday

Them Knickerbockers

I admit, I’m a Knicks fan

For the most part in basketball, I’m really more of a favorite player person that a favorite team person. There are some players and teams I hate. that is what made the Heat winning the championship so bittersweet. I hate the Heat, I’m not much of a fan of James. However, I was happy to see Mike Miller and Juwan Howard finally win titles. I’ve been big fans of theirs for their entire careers. So it was sort of a give/take.

Team wise, the only teams I’m actually a fan of and root far are the Spurs, Knicks, and Suns. I’ve never really had any sort of personal conflict, since when the Knicks were good, the Spurs sucked. when the Spurs were good, the Knicks sucked. And the Suns, well, they are the Suns. Really just a major cocktease you can’t really take seriously. And now they suck suck suck.

But for the Knicks, they are actually good this year. They interest me, because they confuse the hell out of me. The team they have RIGHT NOW, using the Rotations they use RIGHT NOW, and the health they have RIGHT NOW, I honest to God think this team could make a run at the title.

But again, RIGHT NOW

Lets face facts, this team is old as dirt. How much longer till Jason Kidd’s back starts to be a problem, or Rasheed Wallace’s back and knees. And Kurt Thomas’s ankles. It’s going to happen.

The thing about the team right now is their balance is perfect. What is going to happen when Stoudemire and Shumpert come back from their injuries? These are starters

Anthony has been playing the 4, he is going to have to go back playing the 3. Shumpert plays the 2. That means Ronnie Brewer and Jason Kidd are going to have to head to the bench.

But here is the thing, one of the reasons the Knicks have been doing so good thus far is because their defense has been out of it’s mind. Every Knicks game is televised here, so I’ve seen all of them. Seriously, their D is insane. BUT the anchors of it are Kidd and Brewer. Neither are going to score you a lot of points, but when you have Anthony, JR smith, and Felton on the floor you don’t need it. If it wasn’t for Kidds defense last week they would have lost to the Mavs.

But when those 2 come back, right off the bat, Chris Copeland and James white… You guys are either getting send to the D League, or waived. No question about that.

However, once you dump those 2, you have a legitimate 13 man rotation. I know it sounds good, but you CANNOT have that in the NBA. You really need a 9 or MAYBE 10 man rotation to get enough playing time with different rotations for players to get comfortable with each other. the 11 and 12 guys, you can play once every few games for the last 5 minutes of the game in garbage time.

But the thing is, this is a team of massive egos. and right now they are essentially using a 9 Man rotation. they got JR Smith, Rasheed Wallace, Steve Novak, and Pablo Prigioni coming off the bench. Kurt Thomas barely plays (he is 40 after all), and Camby is only playing more than 5 minutes if Chandler and Wallace both get in foul trouble.

That works.

But what about when Stoudemire and Shumpert come back?

Ok, Amar’e takes over at the 4. Shump at the 2. JR Smith and Rasheed Wallace have been the first guys off the bench so far, depending on if a front court of back court person needs to be replaced. Also Smith is 2nd on the team in minutes since well Kidd and Brewer can’t exactly play 35 minutes a game. But now what do you do? Brewer can’t play the 4 or 5, so he’s not going to replace Wallace. But then for the first guard off the bench, do you go Kidd or Smith?

I don’t see any way to win here. Kidd is not going to want to go from Starting and playing 28 minutes a night, to being the 2nd guard off the bench and playing 15. Brewer sure as hell isn’t going to want to go from playing 28 and starting to being 9th man and getting maybe 8-10 on a good night.

What about Prigioni? this dude is a 35 year old rookie, and actually pretty good. He would have Kidd, Smith, and Brewer in front of him off the bench. 4th guard off the bench? That’s going to end up with a lot of “Did No Play: Coaches Decision” in the box scores. Is a 35 year old rookie going to want that? Dude was a massive star in Europe, he is probably going to want to get something significant from over here.

what about Camby and Thomas? They are essentially out of the line up. Unless Chandler fouls out, they will only play in garbage time. I know Howard was happy with that in Miami, but again he was playing for a championship. Thomas might be ok with it, but I can see Camby becoming a bitch about it.

Then we have the bigger issue here. Stoudemire and Anthony cannot co-exist. Stoudemire fucks up everything. Right now Carmelo is playing the 4. He is a threat from 3, he can Handel the ball. So when the opposing 4 is playing him, you fuck up everything defensive for the team. They are going to have generally your strongest front court player playing totally out of position in your defensive set. You want someone like Kevin Love 30 feet from the basket? Nah, don’t think so. Not only does it open up all sorts of lanes for the back court players where they can run pick and rolls, or cut to the basket, or back door screens when the next thing you know you have Felton under the basket all by himself.

With Stoudemire, that ain’t gonna happen. He’s going to get the ball in the post about 10 feet away, next thing you know you have the other teams 4 and 5 clogging the lane. Can’t drive to the basket, that shit is going to get sent back. If you kick it out to someone on the wing, if you miss, you got the other teams’s defense in perfect position for the rebound. Not only that, but when they get the board, the defensive guards get to release when the shot goes up since they have their front court under the hoop, so when Kevin love, or Al Jefferson, Z.Bo get the board, their wing players are already passed half court, and you just gave yourself an easy as hell fast break.

This is why Small ball has become so popular in the NBA with people like Anthony, James, Durant running the 4. You fuck up the D.

I just don’t see any way for it to work properly once the injured players get back. I really don’t. It completely changes the entire scheme they are running right now. Maybe is Amar’e came off the bench instead, but I don’t see ANY FUCKING CHANCE of that happening.

Honestly, if I were the Knicks, I’d trade him. He is a completely worthless asset at this point.

But here is the problem with that. He has a MAX contract. A retarded one at that. Finding another team to actually take on that contract is going to be next to impossible. Remember why he signed with the Knicks? they were the only one who would give him that sort of money. the suns told him to Blow them where the Pampers is.

Even if they find a team dumb enough to trade for him, it’s really just going to bring in basically the same person in return. Matched up who could have even be traded for? Josh Smith? Pau Gasol? Just as useless.

If I were the GM, I’d find some team that is way under the salary cap (like the Bobcats) so you don’t have to have the dollar for dollar match in the trade to cover cap space, and then trade his ass for like Hakim Warrick. He’s a totally under rated player, and is used to sitting his ass on the bench and only coming up when needed.

But I don’t see that happening. One thing I have leared over the years from being a Knicks fan, if that their ownership is retarded. Dolan like to be the Jerry Jones of the NBA, and has no fucking idea what he is doing.

So while times are good right now in Midtown, I expect them to probably end up with like a 4th or 5th seed in the East and get knocked out in the 2nd round of the playoffs by the Celtics or Heat.