JRGoldman

I agree, although I think it's important to note that even if Duncan had the same exact career but no rings, he would still be better than Malone, so I dismissed it for the sake of disagreeing with Kuetsar on general principal. I guess I should note that I feel like rings are often thrown out there as though nothing else matters, which is silly.

The problem was that it was completely unnecessary to acknowledge his Jewish heritage. I also think context and stereotypes are important here. Her comments, even if she had used the word "Jewish" instead of "Jew", were clearly meant to be derisive. Also, we should take in to account that the pervading stereotypes surrounding Jews center around them being furtive and dishonest, especially when it pertains to economic or financial matters. Obviously we can argue intent until the cows come home, but I read the tweet and I sure think it essentially boils down to her saying "lol jews gonna jew amirite". I'm not prepared to call Miko Grimes an anti-Semite, but I think her comment is at best ignorant and inconsiderate. It's the kind of casual anti-Semitism that gets accepted every day and is significantly frustrating, because those who say things like this don't view it as harmful.

Malone played essentially his entire career with the best PG of that generation. Duncan has played with great players throughout his career, but not a generational talent. If you only include years they played with Tim Duncan, Stockton has more All NBA teams made than Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Kawhi Leonard and David Robinson combined. Also, not for nothing, but Malone's stats got worse in the playoffs, while Duncan's got better. We can ignore ringz~!, but we probably shouldn't ignore Duncan winning a bunch of championships by going super saiyan (24/17/5/5 in the 2003 Finals? Frankly, that's probably better than Lebron this year, which is insane) while Malone routinely got faded.

I think people booed and continue to boo Roman because his quest against the authority was lazy writing at best and insulting towards fans at worst. The WWE decided that the the best way to get over the athletic attractive Samoan man who is essentially the platonic ideal of what the WWE champion should be was to....pretend that he wasn't "best for business", the exact same storyline that they did a year prior in a more believable fashion with Daniel Bryan? It served zero purpose other than play to the alleged strengths of HHH and Stephanie. The unfortunate side effect of the truly horrific booking of Reigns as a babyface is the mystifying fact that the majority of wrestling fans have somehow convinced themselves that he is a terrible worker, and all the problems of modern WWE would be fixed by giving Roman's push to ring generals such as Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Zach Ryder and Dolph Ziggler.

These are really, really great. Like, intimidatingly great. I think I would say that they are the most literary of all genre fiction? There are books that are more influential, and books that are more enjoyable reads, but I don't think there are too many sci fi or fantasy books that display the same amount of sheer craft from the author. Maybe Dhalgren? It's a short list.

I think the Shaq/Duncan comparison goes down a weird intangible path. Is caring a relevant skill? You never had to worry about Duncan using the regular season as an 82 game training camp, or ballooning up to 400 pounds. Shaq was an absolute force of nature, but he was also the NBA equivalent of Snorlax. Tim Duncan probably gets a lot of points for basically being the platonic ideal of a teammate during an era in which people decried NBA players for having a me first attitude.

Deadspin is reporting that Draymond Green has been arrested for assault. I assume he kicked or punched someone in the balls.

Tim Duncan is the Negro Casas of the NBA. He played at such a high level for so long that it almost became supernatural. It was amazing watching him from 2013 on. He basically played on one leg, and his efficiency didn't suffer at all. I think for the good of humanity we need to force him to keep playing, but take away an additional body part each year. Would you bet against Duncan being able to put up 16/8/4 in a playoff game with only one arm, one leg, one eye and no ears?

But those movies were good to start with, and the extra stuff added things to make them more interesting. That's not true for most movies that get the same treatment.

A Rondo/Wade/Butler/Gibson/Lopez lineup has like, negative spacing. The Cavs got Dunleavy in a trade due to all of this. They didn't have to give up Osman, which is interesting. This whole thing is insane. What if Whiteside backs out? Basketball is amazing.

He didn't really build an image of playing for his hometown team. He played for his hometown team. He wasn't unable to get the job done, the Cavs general management was. Lebron isn't faultless, but it's hardly fair to say it was his failure when the second best Cav during his first stint was Delonte West. Lebron was so good at basketball that people were convinced that he could win a championship with Sasha Pavlovic playing major minutes. They didn't trade for Amare Stoudemire in his prime because they were unwilling to include JJ Hickson in any trade. I'd leave too. I'm as big a Cavs fan as there is, but they squandered 7 years of a basketball force of nature. Why toil away with people who at times looked like they were taking bets on whether Lebron could get to the playoffs with a D League team? The backlash to the decision was almost purely based in Lebron having a total lack of self awareness. I also think that it was overblown in part because the sports media loves nothing more than to portray midwesterners as morons, so a town that was mostly saddened and shocked that one of their own had left was distilled to clips of assholes burning clothing. Perhaps I'm totally off base, but if Lebron was from New York and left the Knicks under the exact same circumstances, the coverage of the decision and it's aftermath would have looked decidedly different.

I've listened to it a few times, so I feel like I've thought about it enough to respond finally. I think this is the first album that suffers from the "tour to record" style that Swans uses, in that a lot of songs that I heard evolve over the past couple years of touring are in my opinion inferior as studio tracks. I like this album a good amount, but it almost feels a bit too dynamic, if that makes sense? One of the things I've always respected and admired about Swans is the fact that Gira isn't afraid to push songs to their breaking points, explore far beyond the point that most artists would. This album feels very curated, as though for the first time in his life he has actually taken the audience listening experience in to account. In this respect, I think TBK will always be an album I view as a superior product, in that it sounds less of a compromise. I think you can listen to the four newer Swans albums in order and see why M. Gira has said this will be the final one with this lineup, while it doesn't sound like a final act or anything, I listen to it and get the distinct impression that he has pushed this sound as far as he thinks is interesting. The albums strikes me as caught in between him wanting to make another TBK/Seer and him wanting to make something different, more classic. I look forward to him taking some time to figure out the next step.

The idea behind doing the 2 year/ opt out contract is knowing that the cap will jump again, so he can continue to sign a large deal year on year and keeps some leverage in how the team is put together. Players like Durant and Lebron are basically bullet proof, so they don't need the security that a five year max contract brings. They could get hurt for a year or play poorly and still have 29 teams ready to pay them the max.

Yes, I could also see GSW beating the Rockets 204-96.

If the Warriors roll with Ezili and Varejao as the 5 for the season and have to play the Wolves in the playoffs, KAT may put up 35/17/5/5 or something insane. It is Thibs destiny to valiant fall against a team with 4 times the talent of his own, while he rages and sweats on the sideline.

In no world is Durant the third best player on that team. He's a top 3 player in the NBA. Also, I wish we'd stop citing "Oh, (80s superstar) wouldn't have teamed up with (rival)". Do you know why they didn't ever do that? Because the NBA landscape was different back then, and the Lakers and Celtics had 5 hall of famers already. They were super teams. The only reason I'm upset about this is because I don't want Joe Lacob to have nice things happen to him.

His defensive rating per 100 possessions is consistently 108, which is not great. For reference, that's significantly worse than Kevin Love most years.

The point is valid, but I'd be interested to see what the lineups were like for both. I would bet that Chandler is putting up those numbers against starters while Leuer is doing so against mostly reserves. Also, this is completely anecdotal, but watching both players, it looks like Parsons can be useful as a ball handler in pick and rolls, while Leuer is more limited in his role. That could be totally untrue.

It's not that the above average players and fringe all stars are overpaid, it's that the NBA cap makes them paid the same as the superstars. I think Chandler Parsons is a good basketball player, and there aren't a lot of good basketball players. You need guys like Chandler Parsons for your team to be good. It's just the NBA makes it so that he earns the same amount as Lebron James and Kevin Durant, when those dudes should be making significantly more.

Is this referring to Frank the Clown? I don't dislike him because I'm jealous he's dating Noelle Foley. I dislike him because he loudly and constantly complains that the WWE needs to pay attention to him because he buys tickets. He's the wrestling fan equivalent of a dude who thinks a woman is a bitch because she didn't fuck him after he bought her a drink. He has a gross sense of entitlement. Dress up how you want, date who you want, but don't expect celebrity status because of it.

It's a bit hard to explain what they skipped, but I will try. The first three volumes of Manga (The Black Swordsman Arc) takes place after the Golden Age Arc (3-13) which is what the anime has covered previously, both the 1997 series and the movie trilogy. This Manga opens like the Black swordsman Arc, but skips around a bunch and sort of crams characters in. It's clear they want to get to a major story called the Conviction Arc, so I'm going to reserve judgement until they slow down and tell that story, but I didn't love the first episode. The animation style is interesting, but looks wonky and cheap some times. The sound effects for the sword fight were almost laughable. Again, I totally understand the idea that they need to introduce characters and cram a lot in there, because the trilogy and the 1997 anime both left out a ton of stuff that is important later in the series. I can forgive less than stellar animation as long as they slow down and tell a really compelling story once they get to a point where they are all caught up. I did think the first episode was a great introduction to the tone of the world, I thought things looked appropriately horrific, and I though the characterization of Puck was pretty good. I give it an incomplete.

I don't like Dwight, but he is a 3 time Defensive Player of the Year, an 8 time all star, was the best player on a NBA Finals team, beat Lebron in the playoffs, and was probably the second best player in the NBA for a three year period (09 season through 11 season). He is a first ballot hall of famer. He's a whiny garbage baby that consistently wants to do things he shouldn't do, but it's not fair to say he hasn't lived up to his potential.

I'm so excited to get home and watch it. Can't wait.

They should bring back the Anonymous Raw GM, but have it run live by Bobby Heenan. He could make Cole read jokes.

They fight for the 7th or 8th seed depending on health. If you get 70+ games from Melo, Rose, Noah and some from Gordon, they could get in.