Real Deal

Yeah, you can pretty much do whatever you want on that thing. How about sending me your old one? Thanks.

Gaga is a female Boy George. Gwen isn't that hot, but it's not a difficult choice between the two. I would probably take a 50-year old Gwen over Gaga.

Harris is a legit combo guard. Keep him and draft Wall, which takes the pressure off of Devin a bit, helps him stay healthy, and go straight for LeBron in FA. Bring CDR off the bench as the sixth man, start Lopez with whatever power forward you decide can run with the five, and you have a very, very scary team that jumps from worst in the East to one of the best in the NBA. C - Lopez PF - your neighbor SF - LeBron SG - Harris PG - Wall Sixth - Douglas-Roberts Hell, you could even play LeBron at the four quite a bit (especially against a few small East teams) and start CDR.

Too bad you guys weren't die-hard fans when Barkley was traded to Phoenix. I know a 48-year old Sixers fan (friends with my dad) who used to live in Chestnut Hill (not even sure where that's at), and he said a ton of older Philly fans stopped watching basketball after the Sixers traded Barkley for Hornacek, and it started after Barkley won the MVP that following year. This current state that they are in has to be up there, though, with the younger audience (which I'll go ahead and say that includes me as well, since I wasn't THAT big of an NBA fan in 1992). Eddie Jordan had three all-star caliber players in Washington, and he managed to win less than 46 games every year, and despite the injury-plagued seasons, there were one or two where they were all healthy enough to win 50. Actually, I can't remember the one year that Eddie actually coached well, in Washington or Sacramento.

Well, again, East teams play each other 3-4 times a year (same with the West). Opposing conferences play each other only twice. So while the Heat would play the Nets four times, the Spurs only play the Nets twice...and in the same fashion, the Heat play the Lakers twice, yet the Spurs play LA four times. And that is where winning percentages come into play.

Dude was licking the blood off his gloves, too, which is really crazy.

JaMarcus Russell = Ryan Leaf.

If Wade wanted to contend, he'd do whatever it takes. He's a combo guard anyways.

Gasol has never attempted more than 15 shots per game in his career, even as a primary option in Memphis. Right now, he's at 12 per, one less than what he took last season as an NBA champion. With the addition of Ron Artest, and a healthy Bynum, I'm not sure what he expected this year...but averaging nearly the same amount as last year isn't that big of a deal. But yeah, with that said, he deserves more shots. Bynum is getting 12, Artest with 11, Gasol with 12, Kobe with almost 22. That has to change now that Kobe is injured. Otherwise, it was working, and it gave us the best record in the league.

Yeah, Bynum averaged just 6 PPG, 4 RPG on 46% shooting in the 2009 Playoffs. I can't say he really contributed like a HOF'er, let alone an all-star or even a very good sixth man. Odom has no shot at the Hall, and Fisher isn't even close. Gasol was a second-round virgin until he became a Laker, and everyone was determined to make this a point right when the trade happened, claiming that he was too soft to go up against the likes of other great power forwards, and the Lakers, despite being contenders, still needed a solid second option. Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, David Robinson, John Stockton...those are HOF'ers. Gasol would only get in because of his success in international play, while guys like Fisher and Odom have absolutely no chance at all.

Yeah, and man, we close that paint up quickly on defense, and I LOVE that. That's something we haven't done as well (consistently, at least) in the past, and that's one of the reasons why Derrick Rose came out of his shell for about 20 minutes of that championship game in 2008. John Wall is the best freshman in college basketball, hands down...and I worry about that...but I'm still confident we can make it happen. And credit has to go to Bill Self...I rarely give him props, but he's doing a great job.

Damn Diego. He has no patience. He was acting like he wanted to get the fight over with, quickly, every 30 seconds...and every rush he made at Penn, he'd get stuck in the jaw. He didn't come into this fight smart enough to beat Penn, simple as that, and because of it, he didn't land hardly anything (with the exception of a nasty uppercut against the cage, but he failed to capitalize on it). Diego may be good at 155, but he's not good enough to beat Penn. In fact, I think he's lost too much weight. As far as the Kongo fight goes...saw that coming from a mile. The only chance Kongo had against Mir was keeping it a slugfest, but once he hit the dirt, that was all she wrote. Mir is just too good of a submission artist for his weight, and it could've been a simple armbar, ankle lock or the choke...Kongo was still done at that point. The Fitch fight was weak. Pierce decided to fight with less than a minute to go, and by then, it was too late. Garcia and Johnson surprised me. I figured Johnson was going to get bloodied quickly, and it almost looked like it was his fate, but that nasty kick and triangle was wicked. I'm sad that Guida lost, but he needs to cover up against someone like Kenny. I know he loves getting punched, but the cut was way too much for him to overcome, and it came from one of Florian's elbows to begin with (no surprise there). The Buentello/Struve fight was just odd. Both were gassed, and neither wanted to jump on any chance of winning once they landed something nice. It was worth $50, but I'm just disappointed in Diego getting crushed. The cut on his head was insane, came from BJ's shin, and right when it opened up, I think everyone knew the fight was over.

Love the Jayhawks, and I think they are playing amazing defense and scoring buckets from all over the court...but man, these games get boring QUICK. As much as I enjoy us winning all the time, I don't like watching blowouts.

Well, I still think it lies on the fact that dominant centers are too hard to find. Kobe is just as dominant. I don't think anyone here can name me one single player that can lock him up all by themselves in two consecutive games (to avoid the fluke). The fact is, Kobe has done more with less, because since Shaq's first year or two in Orlando, he has never went a season without a star guard. Kobe does more on the court than O'Neal does. But today, you want a dominant center, mainly because there are less in the league, and because there are plenty of all-star caliber guards to select from...so if I'm building a team, I take Shaq. The only problem is, I'd have to be guaranteed to get that all-star teammate, or else I take Kobe. I trust that Bryant would do more work, and find more success, in that situation of being alone...while Shaq had no chance at beating the Bulls in the first round with Wade being injured (champs were swept), and his play in Phoenix was just ugly when Nash decided to just dump him the ball and let him do whatever he wanted.

They don't? I could've swore I paid for one of my shirts via Paypal.

Wow, this is a bad thing for Kobe. He's gotta heal up as fast as he can. I don't even know why he shot 24 times to begin with.

According to him, yes.

Kobe says he's playing.

The thing that bugs me is that we start our five or six game road trip. We don't play the likes of Boston or Orlando on the road yet, but Utah is 10-3 at home, Milwaukee at 8-3, and Detroit probably has a winning record at home as well. Without Kobe, that might be a struggle, because we are thin at the two. Shannon Brown will have to start, and that means we play Vujacic off the bench, and we all know how that goes.

Depends on what you need for your team. To build around? Probably Shaq, but only because dominant centers are much more difficult to acquire in the league. Kobe is the greater player, though.

Would be nice if that were true, but I'm really worried right now. He actually started playing much more with his left after he got hurt. If it were the pinkie, it would be different. You don't use the pinkie when you shoot the basketball (you aren't supposed to, anyways, just part of the base, not the push-off, if that makes sense). But the index finger is most important, even with dribbling and pointing it to tell Sasha Vujacic where to go. All jokes aside, it's a bad deal. When Jordan busted his index finger up, he had to go through extensive shooting programs to redefine his jumper, and his percentages dropped below 50% all three years of the second dynasty. Bryant dislocated this same finger, but this is a fracture, so it's much worse. Dislocations need the tape. This will need a splint.

It's based on the RPI (Relative Power Index), which is...

Just ordered it tonight, first time I've purchased a UFC PPV, so it better be sick. There were just too many good fights on the card. Diego and Penn is my fight, though. I have been pulling for Sanchez since he first started fighting, and I hope he pulls out a victory tonight. Florian and Guida will be interesting. Guida's chin is one of the best I've seen in the last few years. I wouldn't be surprised if Guida won it. Mir and Kongo are just two big ass dudes about to throw down. I'm taking Mir, but Kongo is a monster, and if Kongo starts connecting with Mir's chin, that could change everything. Mir needs to work him against the cage, get him down and make him tap. Fitch and Pierce will be fun. Johnson and Garcia is probably an underrated fight. Looks to be a pretty damn good card.

Defenses are doubling him more, teams are putting better defenders on him, or he's just missing more jumpers. One of the three.

We play East teams only twice, all West teams 3-4 times. And even then, there's the difference between teams in the conference. We may play Denver four times this year, while another West team plays them just three.