Nitro

Lol the Khaled shit was funny as hell.

What I'm trying to say is you won't get people so scared of going to prison that they'll stop commiting crimes. Even if you call the US's prison system 'nice', there are still officers kicking the crap out of inmates, inmates killing and raping other inmates, god-awful food, disease everywhere (I saw a real nasty example of this on Beyond Scared Straight in the shower areas), rats and other rodents running around, etc... There is still the death penalty on the table in many states. Many of these inmates don't do it just to be unruly, or even just for money. According to THIS study, nearly 85% of the prison population are either substance abuse addicts or were high during their crime/commited their crime to get the drugs. I'd assume what makes up the other 15% are people with severe sex addictions (rapsts, pedophiles), and then stone-cold killers (many of whom have an addiction/urge to kill that you won't scare out of them). In other words, when such a huge amount of the prison population have these terrible addictions, a stricter prison system won't be much of a deterant. They need to satisfy their urges, despite the consequences. That's why better rehabilitation programs would be beneficial, but bottom line is no matter who you do things won't get much better either way.

Read my posts. You really have to understand the psychology and make-up of the prison population before making statements like this.

He actually got a fair amount of playing time in the middle of the season, starting and actually running point for the Pistons quite effectively (he averaged 12/5/4 in January/February in 29MPG). Early in the season he was still shaking off rust and getting his legs back, and I believe toward the end of the season he got nicked up a little bit. No other teams had interest. I actually think the Pistons were a great situation for him. They have some miracle-working trainers who had him in the best shape in years, he wasn't forced to immediately play significant minutes, got to run point rather than being a designated scorer, and basically had a year to shake off rust and get his game back. He did quite well. As for what he has left, I think he can be a significant bench player on a contending team. He still is arguably the best playmaker of all wing players not named LeBron, still is extremely intelligent, and now that he has his legs back somewhat he can actually keep defenses honest and attack the paint. I don't think he should see more than 25-30 minutes on a regular basis, and shouldn't be expected to be a big scoring punch off the bench, but he is still a very solid all-around player.

Didn't bother really listening too intently on his lyrics, but his flow is solid. His voice doesn't bother me as much as the delivery and how he is over-doing it...reminds me of why I hate listening to Meek Millz.

I think that's about right in terms of talent, although I'm not sure if either Rubio or Williams will start once the season rolls around. Rubio still is a poor shooter, inexperienced to the NBA while Ridnour is a sound veteran PG, and Darko anchors whatever semblance of a defense they have (and they certainly won't bench Love or Beasley for Williams). Really, this team has talent, but it's unbalanced. Both Beasley and Williams are tweeners at the forward positions (with Beasley being more of a SF and Williams being more of a PF), and neither can anchor a defense if you play Love at center. I think this team would be best with a free-flowing offense, with Rubio setting everything up, which makes me feel Beasley is the odd-man out. He's a ball-stopper and scorer at a very low efficiency, and offers little to nothing else, on top of all his off-court issues. I think if they got 1-2 solid veteran role players for him, then eventually signed a veteran wing that can score and do a little bit of everything, I think the team would be well on its way to building a playoff squad (assuming Williams and Rubio both aren't busts).

Since my computer's been [expletive]ed up the last few days, I didn't get a chance to share this story, so... Back in November, this girl who I've been friends with for a few years promised me VIP tickets to Rock the Bells at Governor's Island. Evidently her dad owns a fencing company and gets them for marketing purposes, so every year she goes. Anyway, since then she's been pumping it up to me, getting me excited. The lineup this year included Nas (performing all of Illmatic), Immortal Technique, Black Star, Slaughterhouse, Black Milk, various Wu-Tang sets, Lauryn Hill, Mobb Deep, and a bunch of others. Anyway, we had a bit of a falling-out a month ago, so I assumed I wasn't going and managed to accept it. Then, on Thursday, she texted me to remind me that we were going, and I got mad excited. She said her dad told her it was the 4th, but I swore that they said on the radio it was the 3rd, but I kinda assumed it was maybe a 2 day thing, or I heard it wrong. So, Saturday comes and we start talking over text about how we'll get there, and while I'm looking up various routes, I went to the main webpage for the concert and found out it WAS in fact the 3rd, with nothing for the 4th. By then it was already 3pm, and she had work 'till 7. From what I hear, Nas killed it. FML.

I agree to an extent, but a few things...a lot of those inmates suffer addictions, from drugs to sex (rapists, pedophiles, etc..), to whatever it is called to have the urge to kill people, etc.. And if the success rates are similar to regular drug rehabilitation (which tends to be at nice facilities, not prison), then the success rate for rehabilitation is a very generous 10%. So, I definitely do think it would be very beneficial to incorperate more of that into the prison system, but for the most part it'll fail for over 90% of the inmates.

I'm pretty sure I posted this like over a year ago lol. Great song.

That simply won't happen. It's psychological. When you get used to being institutionalized, you lose that fear, despite being around killers all day, officers who abuse their rights, rats running around everywhere, awful food, etc.. And when you lose that fear, it makes you twice as dangerous when you make it back on the streets. It'd be the same shit no matter what kind of system you put in place.

The Raptors were also awful, so I don't think Kobe's supporting cast for that one game means all that much Agreed, although I'd put Jordan's 69pt game over either...69pts (23-37 from the field, 2-6 from 3, 21-23 from the FT line), 18reb, 6ast, 4stl, only 2to. It was also only a 4pt game that went into OT.

Both are absolutely incredible, but Kobe's was simply more rare. I mean, as amazing as LeBron's 52pts were, Kobe scored 55pts in the 2nd half alone of his 81pt game. LeBron's 9 assist advantage would definitely have been made up by Kobe's 29pt advantage, and Kobe also scored considerably more efficiently.

Wtf? I don't think I've even mentioned your name or quoted one of your posts in months, and if I did it wasn't as an insult or anything. And as I said, you're like the only mod assigned to the NFL forums, so this falls partially on your shoulders, especially since you've been involved in quite a bit of it yourself.

Besides the stupid arguements, personal insults and off-topic convo, the one thing that annoys me about the NFL board is all the cliques involved (I don't post much in the NFL forum, but I do browse). It's bad enough when it's only certain individual members going at it, but when it become a tag-team in damn near every single thread it just completely ruins things. What's funny to me is that the NBA board, which involves more members than the NFL board during the season, runs free of most of this bullshit (besides anything involving the Heat). Also, one last thing...fish, besides the global mod's you are the main mod of the NFL forums, but you are also one of the main reasons for this. Set a better example or give up the position.

I'd hate to be in the same restaurant as two half-deaf people on a date...the screaming would be as annoying as assholes on blue tooths (Curb reference). Seriously, though, I'm probably not the best to ask, but see how much you can build her attraction towards you before you make a move. Just don't make the mistake of taking too long and having her lose interest. It's a fine line you'll have to toe, but considering you want to take it slow and not mess it up, I'd go that route.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihpcN_vns0k Oh, and I finished my verse to a freestyle over the "Bang Bang" instrumental by RZA. Below is the verse. About half the lines are from lines I thought of in the last 2 weeks, and half of it is stuff I wrote on the spot today. I like it.

He also had a lot of hot tracks off Doctor's Advocate and LAX, such as... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9bbp1DN5D0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXtpDu6izho

That's because he dissed your boy Jay (and also gave him a ton of props on R.E.D), and because your listening to his music with a pre-disposition that he's whack. I am not a Lil Wayne fan by any means, and I generally hate his new stuff and his whole skater style, but I still usually can take away some good in his lyrics and music. Hate blinds people from good. BTW, I meant since 2004, when Documentary dropped, that very few new rappers (i.e since 2004) have come up that are better than Game.

He has a solid flow, usually good subject matter, some nice metaphores and punchlines, and decent rhyme schemes. He has made 4 albums that are all solid at worst, a buncha good mixtapes, and one of my favorite diss songs ever in 300 Bars. There's very few rappers who have come up since his first album dropped that I'd call better than him.

Yes, he's absolutely a good lyracist. I don't even know how you could argue him not being a good lyracist, especially in today's game. Prove me wrong.

If Kobe went to the Clippers it would have been career suicide. Their management is awful and Kobe would have consistently filled the seats despite the team being stuck in mediocrity, giving Sterling the excuse to not spend big to put the right pieces around him.

Yeah, I didn't get it too bad. Some streets have trees/huge branches that came down, which along with the lost power made the roads a little tricky to maneuver through, but otherwise there was no issues.

Quentin Richardson was never, ever the best 3pt shooter in the league. He shot 35-38% from 3 with the Clippers, and never led the league in 3pt FG's with them either. The only reason he led the league with the Suns was because he was taking over 8 attempts every game.

In his prime, Eminem absolutely blew Jay away lyrically. He had better wordplay, better/more complex rhyme schemes, a more complex flow/a wider array of flows (although I can understand people preferring Jay's slower flow), better use of multi-syllable rhymes, was a better story-teller, and was better with songs with unique concepts (Stan for instance). I also feel that Em was much better at connecting with the listener with his lyrics, and had that rare ability to make it feel like he's personally talking to you...Jay is more of a poet, and some of his songs are extended metaphores for something else (which is the only way his lyrics could go way over your head), but I feel there are other rappers out there who have had a similar style to Jay and did it better. I just can't say that anyone's taken a similar style to Em and done it as well as he has, although I'd say Pun was the only one who had a similar style and did it at a similar level. Overall, Em was a more talented and versatile than Jay lyracist, and that's no knock on Jay as you can make a case for Em being the most talented lyracist of all-time (although Nas, Pun, Big L, Biggie and a few others are in the conversation). In terms of career, whether it be rap or basketball, I look at prime years the most, while taking into consideration quantity. Give me SSLP, MMLP, TES, and all the freestyles and mixtape/diss songs Em released from 1999-2004 (because those are some of my favorites works from Em) over Jay's 3 best albums and his non-album work. To me, that means more than Jay having a longer discography. I can understand people preferring Jay over Eminem, specifically because of production. Jay has always been blessed with amazing production of the more soulful variety, while Em had Dre and his own more "in-your-face" production earlier in his career, and now he basically just goes along with what's trending. I can also understand people not liking Em's subject matter, while Jay is more of a classic hip-hop style. However, I have no idea how anyone can say Jay is the better rapper...he simply isn't. One hot album? Illmatic, It Was Written, Stillmatic, The Lost Tapes, God's Son and Distant Relatives are all hot albums (although Distant Relatives is an acquired taste considering Damian's part in the album, but Nas himself is amazing on it). No one cares about Nas? He's in pretty much everyone's top 10 and he has a gigantic army of fanboys. Unlike rappers like Rakim and KRS, he has stayed very relevant in hip-hop, even if he isn't on a bunch of radio songs or the VMA's (keep in mind, Illmatic had little mainstream success, so that speaks volumes to how much that really means). And yes, Nas still raps. Lyrically, his new single murdered anything from Jay on Watch the Throne. On the one upload of it on Youtube, the song has 2300 likes and 30 dislikes, so obviously he's still killin' it and people are still enjoying it. Lol, he dissed a genre which, after that release, is still thriving 2-3 years later. And he dissed T-Pain...so what? T-Pain isn't even really a rapper, 'nor is he elite. If you're going to use him dissing T-Pain, then I have 0 issue using "The Warning" by Eminem, which is an absolutely viscious diss song against Mariah Carey, or his various disses to weak rappers like Benzino or Everlast.

Oh, I get it...he dissed Jay so anything we say positive about him you'll come back with stupid comments like, "he's a cornball." I don't care who he is as a person away from the mic or who he name-drops; he's a very good lyracist with more of an old-school style. That's why I like him.