Real Deal

By the way, I have no idea why Barea and Beaubois are listed. Same with Augustin and Henderson (and I know Kemba is thrown into the mix, but I don't see Henderson or Augustin being relevant).

Second one, but I'm interested to see how well he plays when he's not in BYU Jimmer mode, and he actually has a team stacked around him, as already noted. Evans is going to have to do much more with and without the ball in his hands. Even if he doesn't become a decent defensive player, he can't just put up impressive numbers on a bad team. He's got the potential to be a star guard, but that doesn't mean it gets easier from here on out.

OF COURSE, he could've meant that he would never take the MLE (which would be all they could offer), but I think it's crystal clear what he was saying. Gas on the fire. Howard vs. Miami.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/214879/Dwight_Howard_On_Possibility_Of_Joining_Heat_Never

I'm simply saying the criteria should be loosened a bit. Ellis is still considered a young player that may not be in his prime yet. It's unfair to him, and especially Curry. But, with that said...the 10 years isn't exactly MY definition of a veteran, it's the NBA's, based on the CBA (new or old).

Start him now. Thabo isn't going to cut it, honestly. I would reconsider if he had SOMETHING to contribute on the offensive end, but the Thunder have nothing going other than Durant and Westbrook, so they might as well give Harden more minutes, start him to build confidence, and see how far he goes with it.

Not necessarily a good reason to leave them out because veterans are considered to be players with 10 or more years under their belts. There are players in the NBA that have improved greatly in that span of 6-10 years. It's not me pointing out that he should've added Ellis despite his criteria, it's more me saying his criteria is a poor decision on his part.

LOL. Very ridiculous. You have to consider the fact that guys like Barea and Beaubois are just beasts, so even seeing Monta and Curry in an honorable mention would be shocking...right?

:o Welcome back.

Not surprised that you left out Fox, although you're correct, in a way. Fox would rather talk about Obama. Three times today, I've turned the channel to Fox News, and they are on Obama's ass, which is no shocker. Today, I wouldn't drop my jaw if Fox decided to talk Obama over a massive earthquake hitting the coast of our country. In fact, turn it on right now. Fourth time I've surfed channels today. They are 4/4.

http://twitter.com/#!/TruTrojan8/status/94885675823927296

If Rodman had more than just three seasons in Chicago, it would be easier for me. Love is the second or third all-time scorer in Chicago history. It's not really my place to "predict" how tough it was to play basketball in that era, or else I'm going to go and leave Kareem off the Bucks all-time list, as well as Wilt, and there's no reason to add Bill Russell to Boston, either. And I'm considering Sheed now, but I'm still recognizing Wicks as the guy that did much more. It's basically going to be a decision I'm making for our lone Blazers fan. Willis and Drexler's positions were my mistakes. I had Portland, Boston, and Atlanta completed a LONG time ago (even before I posted this topic...probably around Nov 2010), and I wasn't as dedicated to it as I am now. I knew Clyde was a primary two...but I didn't know that Willis started most of those games at the four. I completely forgot about him playing next to Rollins and Koncak (I actually never saw Tree in a Hawks uniform, since he left ATL a couple of seasons before I started watching ball, but I do remember Koncak being there forever). I'll change those up, eventually. It's not really about starting positions, although that's a big deal...it's where they started AND played at the majority of their careers. I definitely understand your stance, I just doubt I'll change that, because while it sucks leaving off certain players (such as Kareem in LA), I just can't have him at the PF position. Maybe not you, but too many people will look at that and say, "What the hell? Kareem NEVER played PF. He's one of the greatest centers of all-time." The unfortunate truth is, players will be left off. The Lakers have Kobe, Magic, Kareem, Shaq, Baylor, West, Wilt, and Mikan...and only five roster spots. Magic, Kobe, and Baylor are given...there's no way I can leave them out. Where does West fit in? I'll move Baylor to PF (secondary position), which leaves out Kareem, if I were to consider putting him there. Or I'll be leaving out Shaq. Mikan (who revolutionized basketball, like you said about Pistol Pete) is out of the equation. I had to make a decision: I'm stressing "roster" over "all-time" at this point. Not too much more, but it has to go by positions, or I might as well just make lists of the greatest players for each team, which would be much longer than warranted.

Lafayette. FAT is much, much cooler, especially when you aren't fat.

The all-time lineups take into consideration time spent with the team, production with that particular team, and primary positions. I can't stick Kareem at the four. He's known as one of the greatest centers ever. Bob Love was a PF. This is according to ESPN and a couple of older Bulls fans. Plus, it was Chet Walker who started at the SF slot, with Love at the four. In fact, all of the positions I ripped were from ESPN and fans that were my age or a bit older (and one very old Lakers fan). Moving Kareem to PF, Mourning to PF, Lucas to C (Embry was starting at center, Lucas was the PF), and even Kobe at SF (which would be painful), it just doesn't make sense to me because, for those respective teams, these players should be recognized for the positions they played in AND against. I did change my mind about Jason Kidd, by the way. Harper makes more sense. It's hard to put Sheed in over Wicks because Wallace CHOSE not to use his talents as much as he could've. He wouldn't rebound the ball as much as we knew he could. He didn't force his way into the post enough. What Portland did shouldn't rewrite history...they were a very deep team. Pippen and Co. did quite a bit for that team, and while Sheed probably led in scoring almost every season, he didn't climb too high in that department, and Wicks put up numbers that Sheed may have been capable of (scoring-wise) but decided against because he was too obsessed with being a Larry Bird instead of a nasty, physical post player. I don't know. Petrie and Paxson, I don't mind. It's basically one or the other, not a big deal to me. Petrie put up more impressive numbers, Paxson was there a little longer. I don't consider the team's success a big factor unless the team itself was complete trash (in the case of Kevin Martin when he was in Sacramento). Sticking guys in positions they never played in (or rarely played)...it's just wrong. I don't see why any Heat fan would want to acknowledge Alonzo Mourning as the greatest PF to play for their franchise, when the only time he played PF was when SVG and Riley experimented with Zo and Shaq in the five together. Same with Kareem and others. Maybe if I was looking to put together an all-time roster that can play together and win games, but that's not the point...best players at their positions.

After I finished up selecting Fat Lever as the greatest PG in Denver Nuggets history (out of him, Michael Adams, NVE, and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf), I went to find pictures of him...and, wow, you'd think he played back in 1950. Let's put this into perspective... Lever had a season with Denver where he logged approx. 20 PPG, 9 RPG, 8 APG, and 2 SPG on 46% FG. How many players in league history have done that? Well...just three (rounding the numbers, by the way...nobody has put up 20/9/8/2). Magic, Larry, and Lever. Magic, Larry and Fat's rare seasons He wasn't a regular season warrior. In 1988, Lever put up 17/9/7 in the playoffs. Two years later, he dropped 17/11/7. In his career with the Nuggets, he averaged 17 PPG, 7.6 RPG, and 7.5 APG, and even more important, the Nuggets didn't miss the playoffs the entire time he was there. Those are serious numbers for a guy that very few recognize today.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/6789672/nba-houston-rockets-replace-yao-ming-defensive-impact It's an Insider article, and I tossed my membership out the window last month (didn't think I'd need it due to the lockout), but I'm sure the info proves that Yao had turned into a legitimate defensive anchor for the Rockets over the last 2-3 years (that he was healthy), far more than what Hayes can do (because he's more of a man-to-man defender) and possibly 20 times more than Scola (ha). Hasheem is the answer? :o

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/6784244/shaquille-oneal-says-miami-heat-led-big-2-leaves-chris-bosh Ha...Bosh.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/6790722/reports-derrick-rose-kobe-bryant-manila-exhibitions

Maybe we can limit it to sports in general, and have a system where we group you guys based on your knowledge of each (baseball fans here, football fans over there), and that will help us with our first round or two. Our finalists will have to debate multiple topics, multiple sports? I don't know.

You mean the mental injury suffered when he was split from Cuttino Mobley? That's when he really started showing decline...the day Mobley left Orlando for Sactown, in a trade.

My computer monitor is darker than normal (using an QptiQuest monitor since my beauty's capacitors blew for a second time), and I only have one eye as well, so leave me alone.

...also, why not make Bird's cover mostly green, and Magic's mostly Laker gold? I'm not liking the red with those two.

What is Jordan's jersey number? LOL.

We can delay the tourney a little bit, it's going to take a couple of days to set up anyway. For those who will need to wait until August (I guess?), it's nearly a week or two away, so I don't think it'll be a problem.

Thought I was going to get these schedules done tonight... LOL Might jump back over to the rosters. The schedules are going to be the toughest part to date.