Real Deal

No TP, no win. Tony Parker, not toilet paper. The Spurs needed this, though. Detroit shouldn't be winning any games against the Spurs, in Detroit or in Texas.

So I'm assuming I need to spend my money on this one, right?

Technically, no. They aren't really "rankings" in a sense that all of you are ranked based on your abilities. That #1 spot could've gone to the worst here. Maybe Smitty is the worst. I think he is. Don't bodyslam me, Justin.

Alright, well, because we are doing this with just 13 members, I needed to "re-order" the seedings. So, we're doing this by the member number divided by the number you chose. (1)Smitty - 0.70 (2)NeTs15VC - 1.00 OR 1.07 (doesn't matter if he chose 14 or 15) (3)Riot - 1.42 (4)Legacy - 2.75 (5)Confidence - 6 (6)YugoRocketsFan - 8.43 (7)deestillballin - 9.50 (8)s.t.a.t. - 10.91 (9).50. - 11.22 (10)Dabearfan101 - 12.69 (11)Swish - 22.75 (12)iBoldin - 31.67 (13)Fish7718 - 33 (14)Air Rondo - 218.50 So here's our first round match-ups... (1)Smitty vs. (14)Air Rondo (2)NeTs15VC vs. (13)Fish7718 (3)Riot vs. (12)iBoldin (4)Legacy vs. (11)Swish (5)Confidence vs. (10)Dabearfan101 (6)YugoRocketsFan vs. (9).50. (7)deestillballin vs. (8)s.t.a.t. Number 13 was the first-round bye number...so the winner of the match-up between (2)NeTs15VC and (13)Fish7718 gets the second round bye. After each round, we play it out like any other tourney bracket. The winner of #1 and #14 will play the winner of #7 and #8, and so on... I'll create the topic for the first match-up tomorrow.

Well, for the most part, from the trial up to the second year without Shaq, he was being booed everywhere. He started lighting teams up, scoring that 81, dominating games, and chants followed him to almost every arena with the exception of Denver, Boston, and our West rivals. Eventually, you hear MVP chants everywhere now...but a lot of those are Lakers fans as well.

So what if Mrs. Claus was busy rounding up the elves for Christmas? Maybe that's why there was no Mrs. Claus with Santa in the commercial? I mean, you're assuming it's a dig at the black Santa. I'm assuming it's because Mrs. Claus is busy gathering elves, or out grocery shopping, or getting her hair done. It's a HUGE stretch. Santa is "bling-bling" in the commercial because it's a rap video, and that's what you tend to see in most of them. Why is he black? Because there is only one white rapper that is well-known by the majority of people that listen to rap music. This is funny, though. My mom loves country music. She watches CMT (a channel for her videos) all the time. They had a Christmas special on there, and the Santa was white, had on cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. What for? Probably because the Christmas special was country music. Would CMT have a reason to make that Santa Claus black, with a Wu-Tang chain and Ray-Bans? Surely not. Basically, using your argument, you'd have to come to the conclusion that blacks insult themselves...or else there is no insult.

Wow, here we go...

Camby blew it there. He acted like the clock was going to expire, didn't really care to get the board.

Racism exists because of those who continue to nitpick at things like this. Erick...no Mrs. Claus? Really? Come on man...that's foolish. I might as well point out that LeBron and Kobe live together in the commercials, which may hint that they have ran out on their wife and kids, and shacked up together as homosexuals. That's how far you're going with it. Another example: the kid looking up to LeBron and Kobe was black. Maybe that means that white kids shouldn't look up to a sport "dominated by the black man," right? The little boy slapping the man eating Doritos (Super Bowl commercial)...maybe that was encouraging black kids to act out against their mother's boyfriends? She was in what seemed to be a nice home with her son, and since that guy was just a friend, the boy's father ran out on him, and the mother took him for all he's worth? You can twist anything like this, in any direction, and that's why racism will never die.

When your favorite player gets booed out of 29 other arenas, 48 minutes a game, four years, for cheating on his wife, getting called a rapist even after the smoke cleared...I think you'd finally understand how minor all of this is.

Well, he's got money because he's a cardiologist. That's all that matters. My doctor sang a different tune. He admitted that it would hurt his earnings a bit, but he also said that universal health care would encourage people to go to the doctor when they need to, which in turn makes for less sick people at work, school and other social businesses and events. Healthier crowd. And it also gives the opportunity for a patient to get treated with Option A, instead of the dreaded Option B. He has to force his patients into that second treatment option because most can't afford the better one, and as a doctor and as a human being who CARES about those he has to treat, I guess he can't go wrong with that way of thinking. People are selfish, so I guess, actually, I have to live with that.

Man, we can't choke in this one. I'll never stop hearing it from my cousins if we do.

Yeah, that 16-0 run (led by Curry) was awesome. The fans were into it, and it reminded me of "We Believe" days in Oakland (not as big of an impact, of course, but yeah).

I never, ever watch hockey, can admit I know little to nothing about it. But...Miller was a beast, and I had a feeling Crosby was going to score on that power play. Nash (right?) set him up perfectly.

Come on guys, let's get some entries in. None so far...deadline is Monday. If you enter, you'll have a big chance of winning, with the lack of participation.

Lakers have been inconsistent only BECAUSE of those injuries. With Bryant banged up for almost every game of the season, Gasol out for 17 games, Artest out with his concussion and now Bynum playing hurt...it's hard to be consistent. In a seven-game series, both healthy, the Lakers would take it in five. Healthy, they are the #1 ranked defensive team in the NBA...and 2-3 when they aren't healthy. Just for kicks, the Lakers played a terrible, terrible game against the Celtics in their first meeting this season, in Boston. Kobe's shot was off because of the finger, and there was more one-on-one play than anything else, lacking triangle execution. Problem was, the Celtics couldn't pull away with a decent lead, and when LA went looking for a dagger, it was Bryant stepping up. Truth is, the Celtics should've ran out of the building with a double-digit win that night. Even without Bryant, in LA the other night...the Lakers were one basket from winning, and that was with an ailing Bynum. Boston is too slow to keep up with out second unit, and the only weakness they can exploit is at the point guard position...but that's not enough.

Charlotte needs to find a way to win games on the road. They can take almost any team in the league to seven games, it seems...but hell, they will NEVER stand a chance at a Game 7 in someone else's house, especially against a top four team in the conference.

Philly is a mess. Absolutely no defense. Even Iguodala doesn't seem to care. And their offense is far too inconsistent to keep up with. Iverson will either turn the ball over multiple times, or shoot poorly. If he does good, it's Iggy who turns it over (five times tonight) or shoots poorly. Sometimes, I think Speights is a bench player. Then, he has a good game, and I wonder if he should be starting. Dalembert is trash. Young played a solid game, but no defense from him, either. I watched about 30 minutes of the 48. I was rooting for Chicago...but even after a while, it wasn't even fun.

Well, I've criticized McGrady quite a bit lately. I still think I had a reason to, because quite frankly, he wasn't playing his best in Houston. If that was intentionally, so be it (and it seems like it was, but I'll reserve judgment until he plays 10-15 games).

That poor defender by the name of Kevin Durant doesn't have a problem winning, though. Durant gets 36, 27 consecutive games, tying Iverson (second of all-time, next to Jordan). Nine straight wins for the Thunder. How does that feel, Seattle?

Haha, no big deal...just a hectic weekend, and now no access to anything for another 2-3 days.

I started the star trackers back in 2005, but we eventually moved them out of subforums and placed them as pinned topics, then moved them into their own forum (just one, for all star trackers). And we did have a news subforum for every single team, actually. I used them when the home page was being updated with RSS feeds for every team. The problem was, the forums were filled with duplicate topics, and nobody really knew what topics to reply to...which led to duplicate posts as well (replied in one, copy and pasted into another). It sounded like a fabulous idea back then, turned out to be a nuisance. I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to give it a second chance.

I'm out of town right now, but I'll be back home Monday or Tuesday, and I'll have Blatche in there that day.

Update your system BIOS, update Windows, and run the Windows file checker. It sounds like Lkr could be right, especially if the stuff above doesn't work. You ruled out the mouse by using speakers that won't work. You ruled out driver issues by reinstalling the drivers. Not a good sign, really.

Republicans don't have a plan because, quite frankly, they don't have a plan for ANYTHING. "Let's not make it too complicated. Hell, let's just not MAKE IT at all. The country is fine!" I have to at least hand it to Dems because they are the only ones that notice the problems. Or, well, at least want to fix them. I'm sure the Republicans notice, but they are too in over their heads in how much money they can retain, how long they can suck the middle class and lower class dry, and how awesome it is to see big-time CEO's getting their money, because that's all it's about for them. This country is [expletive] up and has been since early 2000. Some just don't notice because they are too busy living their big city lives, making their big city money, and looking down on those who are less fortunate than they are. Hell no, don't expect ANYONE like that to help you, because they don't need help themselves. I had to go blind to see for myself. How funny is that? There are ignorant, careless, worthless people that want to wipe Medicaid off the map, completely, for this country. That wouldn't be good for them, though, once they go bankrupt, come down with cancer, and have to pay out-of-pocket for their chemo and radiation treatments, sitting at home and taking three hydros a day, jobless and needing a $600-700 check at the beginning of every month, having to live with someone else because, even if they DID get that check, it wouldn't cover the $1,100-1,200 it costs to live, per month, in a small city. But perfect health? No big deal. Who gives a [expletive] about everyone else outside of the family, right?