UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

One day after I busted out of the IMBC, and now I feel like replying to a TotD.

Oh well, off to more pressing matters!

One quick hitter:

- After “typing” out a comment on my blog entry for (what was supposed to be) Tuesday on my cell phone, I was tempted to enter a full blog entry via my cell. Then I crunched some numbers. Assuming a blog entry is 400 words; at 5 characters/word (I believe that’s how wpm is measured), I’ll need to “type” about 2000 characters. Also, since I don’t have a QWERTY keyboard on my cell phone, I’d have to hit certain keys multiple times to get the letters I want; never mind the capitals and punctuation. At that rate, I better hire the girl who won that texting competition, if I ever want to complete a blog entry via my cell.

So, Kobe Bryant finally demanded a trade from the Lakers, only to reverse position later in the day. When the story first broke out–I first heard about it on The Jim Rome Show this morning–I was fully in support of Kobe. If everything that has been alleged is true (a Lakers’ “insider” saying that Kobe pushed Shaq out of town, which was followed by Kobe’s adamant denial of the story and finger-pointing at Dr. Jerry Buss, exacerbated by Shaq agreeing that Dr. Buss was at fault, and topped off by the allegation that the Lakers planned on a slow rebuilding process of the team after the Shaq trade, without letting Kobe know of their plans), then Kobe has every right in the world to want out of Los Angeles.

That being said, it’s pretty clear that Kobe is badly overreacting, and judging by how quickly he backed off his trade demands, I don’t believe he was ever seriously considering leaving the Lakers. Clearly he was frustrated; wouldn’t you be if it appeared that your team pissed on the previous three seasons of your career?

Rome brought up an interesting point today: given how badly the Kobe-Lakers relationship has deteriorated, can you bring the guy back and act as if nothing happened? What if you make a bunch of deals, and he’s still not satisfied? What if he asks for a trade again, a couple of weeks from now? What if he changes his mind again tomorrow? Clearly, the entire situation is a huge mess (and Shaq’s siding with Kobe definitely cannot help), and it should be interesting to see if the situation resolves itself in the upcoming weeks.

I’ll definitely have more on this in the coming days.

- Day 2 of the NorCal trip was highlighted by visits to the SF/Oakland Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, and a huge detour to Santa Rosa, CA, site of the Charles M. Schultz Museum and Research Center. The coolest part of the museum was a gigantic mural of Peanuts comic strips that, when seen from afar, show the image of Charlie Brown trying to kick a football being held by Lucy. Of course, anyone who knows anything about Peanuts knows what happens when the kick is attempted…

We made it to Elk Grove–where my nephew lives–at around 6:30pm, and we ate dinner there. Fast forward to right now, and I’m on my laptop, about ready to sleep at another hotel. At least this one has free Wi-Fi internet!

Next time: Day 3 of the NorCal trip!

(BTW, to answer the IMBC TotD, it would have to be New York Strip steaks, IF I am permitted to age them, and cook them with butter, kosher salt, and fresh cracked pepper.)

by Peter
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D’oh! What a way to bust out of the IMBC! Darn Blogger and their timestamps!

Oh well, I’m rooting for fellow newcomer Amy to win!

- How do you spot a tourist? Well, if you’re a NorCal’er, and you see the following:

1. A woman wearing a pair of LA Dodger sandals
2. An older woman constantly whining that “It’s colder here than in LA”
3. Said women holding maps, hotel guides, etc.
4. Said women declaring “yeah, we came up from Los Angeles today, and it was a LONG drive!”
5. A guy, walking slowly behind them, shaking his head

then you could be fairly certain that they are tourists, and the guy behind them is about ready to kill himself. All we needed were the visors, huge sunglasses (oh wait, my mom did wear those), disposable cameras, and stupid grins, and we would have been 100% tourists.

(Tangent: My sister just realized that she also brought her LA Dodger T-shirt. If I make it out of here alive, that would be a minor miracle.)

- So Day 1 of my NorCal trip ended with a whimper, and a ton of snoring, mostly from my mom, who proceeded to wake us all up at 7am (hotel check out time: 12pm). The trip got off to a horrible start, as Hertz screwed up our car rental. We wanted a “premium”-sized car (~a Toyota Camry), and were only offered a “standard” (~a Corolla). Angrily, my sister stormed out of Hertz, and went to Enterprise instead, where we got a Toyota Avalon for about the same price as the Corolla would have cost us at Hertz!

So we—my mom, my sister, my nephew, and I—loaded up the car and took off from Monterey Park at 1pm, already running an hour late. I tried to find the cigarette lighter jack in the car, and found that there were two: one in the center console, between the front seats, and one in the “rear” console (which should really be named the center console). Also, the jack in the center console was angled, making the DLO Transpod we brought—if you’ve ever driven up from SoCal to NorCal, or reverse, you know there are huge stretches of nothingness, and scattered radio reception throughout—tough to plug in. I removed the power adapter from the Transpod, and tried to attach that to the center console jack. It went in, but I could not find a way to hook up the Transpod itself, so I yanked the power adapter from the cigarette jack. At least, I tried to; most of the adapter came out, but the metal tip and some surrounding plastic remained in the jack.

Frantic, I stuck my finger into the jack to try to remove the broken-off pieces—smart, I know!—and quickly felt a white-hot burning sensation. I removed my finger, to see a bit of skin burnt right off! I eventually was able to remove the pieces, and found the tip intact, with a bunch of plastic melted off. Worse, neither cigarette lighter jack worked (I tried plugging in both my and my sister’s cell phone charger in both jacks, and neither turned on). I hope I didn’t ruin the jacks…

We pulled off the 5 Freeway around Santa Clarita to go find a cassette adapter for the iPod.

(Tangent: Yes, it was imperative that my sister and I had something to listen to for the trip. Either that, or we would have to listen to our mother…)

We found a Kmart, hopped in, and then I remembered that my sister brought her iPod FM transmitter as well. I also remembered that it could be powered by either the cigarette adapter OR by AAA batteries! We ran into Kmart, grabbed some AAA batteries—fortunately, they were on sale—and were on our way. At this point, it was already 2:30, and we hadn’t made it out of the Valley yet.

Not much happened during the remainder of the trip; my mom fed my nephew some doubly disgusting cereal (doubly disgusting because it was horribly sweet stuff, so much so that the kid didn’t go to sleep until almost midnight, and also because it smelled nasty), we had dinner at Denny’s, and we ended up in (believe it or not) Berkeley, to spend the night at the Golden Bear Inn.

(Tangent: I knew a bunch of people from high school that came up here for school, and yet this is the first time I’ve ever been up here.)

Tomorrow: Day 2 of the NorCal trip…and I gotta make another post about the whole Kobe/LA Lakers situation.

by Peter
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(Note: the timestamp of this post has been changed to reflect the fact that it was supposed to be posted on Tuesday; I had completed the post at around 1am on Tuesday, but as mentioned in the comments to this blog entry, Blogger reports the time the post was started, not the time the post was completed.)

- The big news here in the Los Angeles sports scene, of course, is the news that Kobe Bryant wants Jerry West back in some capacity for the Lakers. Obviously frustrated by three years without making it past the first round of the playoffs, and fueled by the lack of help he’s been getting–unless you consider Chucky Atkins and Smush Parker “help”–Kobe clearly is going to drastic measures to get himself some help. The ESPN article also says that Kobe will seek a trade if he doesn’t get the help he wants; I don’t see a direct quote suggesting that, though.

Now, I was one that bashed Kobe back in 2004, when he “chased” Shaq and Phil out of town. I called the Lakers “the LA Kobes.” I was screaming that Kobe was the GM, and not Kupchak, and that Kobe was ruining the team I cheered for.

(As an aside, I also hate it when NBAers whine about wanting to be traded, as if they are the ones in charge, not the GM. They demand the big bucks, then quit on the team, forcing the team to trade the star for fifty cents on the dollar. The star then gets exactly what he wishes, while leaving his old team in a heap.)

All that being said, I’m on Kobe’s side. Call me whatever you want, but the Lakers’ front office has had three full years to get the guy help, and all they were able to do is sign superb athletes like Aaron McKie, Vlade Divac, Vladimir Radmonovic, and then compound the pretty awful trade for Shaq by trading Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins for Kwame Brown. Then, they had a chance at Jason Kidd, but decided to keep superstar-in-waiting (maybe) Andrew Bynum, ignoring the fact that you no longer need a true center to win in this league.

When Allen Iverson whined his way out of Philly, he did so while insisting that it was best for everyone to go their separate ways. I hope Kobe doesn’t offer the same BS; I want him to demand a trade, pointing fingers at Kupchak on the way out the door!

People who say that Kobe chased Shaq out of town–myself included–need to stop. If Dr. Jerry Buss had given Shaq the huge extension he wanted (I believe it was somewhere in the vicinity of $25-30 million/season), the Lakers would probably be in worse shape than they are now. Never mind the fact that his contract would have become absolutely unmovable (as opposed to tradeable for fifty cents on the dollar, which is exactly what the Lakers did get); does this look like a player worth a max contract today? Worse, if the Lakers had extended Shaq, would they have re-signed Kobe? Probably not; we would probably have had to overpay a second-tier free agent, not anyone even close to #24.

(Yeah, I know…the Lakers replaced Shaq with Odom, Brown, and Vlad, if you do a strict comparison via salaries. Am I suggesting that Shaq is less valuable than Odom, Brown, and Vlad? Maybe.)

(EDITED due to some strange errors)

So what do I think will happen? I think the Lakers will be mediocre next year, playing for a lower playoff seed. If they make the playoffs, they’ll be another first round exit. They’ll then re-tool in the following offseason, and maybe Kobe will finally be surrounded by players he can trust.

Or, maybe Kobe will never sniff another championship again, until he leaves the team to ride the coattails of an up-and-comer, kinda like a former Laker did…

Hope this all makes sense. Until next time!

by Peter
2 Comments »

- So, for the third straight day, I had BBQed food. Visiting my dad–we came to Monterey Park so that my mom and sister could pack for our trip to NorCal–he decided to cook roast beef. He bought a huge beef roast into his trusty Ronco Rotisserie, similar to this one. Unfortunately, he badly undercooked it (he threw in a 6lb. roast for about an hour, when beef roasts generally take 18min/lb. to cook), so he decided to slice it up and finish the roast on a small, portable grill.

Unfortunately, he proceeded to cook the hell out of most of the remaining slices–nobody in my family, save for my sister, likes their beef with even a hint of pink–and he enjoyed his delicious shoe leather for dinner, along with the rest of the family. I salvaged a couple of slices, grilled it for a few seconds, and enjoyed my medium-rare roast beef, with some salad, bread, and this delicious feta cheese spread.

- Barry Bonds may not share mementos of his historic home run chase with the MLB Hall of Fame. Oh noes! It’s not as if Bonds already has few people actually cheering for him; is he on a mission to be booed by the entire MLB, outside of San Francisco? ” “I’m not worried about the Hall,” the San Francisco slugger said during a recent homer drought. “I take care of me,” ” whined Bonds. This is exhibit A as to why Bonds is hated; it’s not a race thing for me, it’s a jerk thing.

Then again, maybe Bonds doesn’t really owe the Hall of Fame anything, not with the witch hunt the MLB has employed in order to bust people for using performance enhancers. Yes, we have no concrete evidence that Bonds cheated–his growing melon and the fact that he got much better as he got older aren’t concrete enough, apparently–but I wonder how many people out there really believe that he did not cheat.

Anyway, Barry, you’re in desperate need for some positive PR. Do the right thing, and at least offer that gigantic piece of armor you wear on your arm to the HOF, when you finally hit the record-breaker. Just don’t expect many people outside of San Francisco to cheer.

- Finally, here’s a list of ten ways to blow a job interview. Browsing quickly over the list, is there anything there that is surprising? Don’t be rude to the receptionist? Don’t use inappropriate language? Don’t be late to the interview? Did this article really need to be drafted?!?

Maybe someone should write an article entitled “How to make a sandwich” and put in such important rules as “Put your meat, veggies, and condiments between the bread” and “Never cut your sandwich horizontally.”

Later tonight, I will blog about this entire Kobe Bryant/LA Lakers situation. That will serve as Tuesday’s blog entry. As for the rest of the week, we’ll see if I have a chance to blog, or if it’s bye-bye for me and the IMBC.

by Peter
4 Comments »

One thing I love about barbecues is the leftover food. Leftover BBQ is nearly as good the day after, as it is fresh off the grill. We had some leftover chicken, spare ribs, and some extra steak that was abused from a couple days ago.

Today’s getaway day; I leave for my parents’ place in Monterey Park for a couple of days, and then it’s off to NorCal. I just hope I don’t get any sicker!

- Call it West Coast bias, or call it LA Dodger bias, but Russell Martin is my early favorite for National League MVP.

(Whoa! What a catch!)

.315 batting average, 33 RBI, 31 Runs, clutch hitting, and don’t forget the fact that he’s a second year player manning one of the best pitching staffs in baseball! Of course, because he’s playing in Los Angeles, he’ll get zero consideration for MVP. Congrats, Carlos Beltran.

(Ok, I’m not serious about giving Martin the MVP. Sure, he’s playing out of his head, but even I wouldn’t really give him the MVP…at least, not unless he starts hitting for power.)

- A rare, valuable dog has gone missing, and now his owners have hired a detective to locate the missing pooch, as well as a publicist, presumably to get the word out about the doggy. The owners have also put up a $2,500 reward for information about the whereabouts of the pooch. The dog was lost on a routine walk, and the owners believed the dog was either stolen or killed by coyotes.

(By the way, I find it hilarious that the dog has his own agent, and now his own publicist. I’m guessing he also has his own masseuse, and a weekly appointment at a doggy spa.)

One question, though: if the dog is so special, why such a small reward?!? $2,500? Come on, that dog should have a reward worth at least $10,000, right? By the way, I think it’s time for me to go down a new career path; I bet there’s lots of money to be had in the doggy detective field. If doggy spas, doggy water, and doggy hotels, people are gonna pay for doggy detectives, right?

Actually, this gives me a great television idea! CSI: Pooch!

That’s all I’ve got for today.

by Peter
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- So we had our Memorial Day BBQ a couple days early, and I am stuffed from all the food. I’m also a bit tipsy from the red wine *hic*.

New York Strip steaks, coated with a bit of oil, with black pepper and kosher salt; italian squash, seasoned the same way; pork spare ribs and chicken wings, marinated in soy sauce and garlic; roasted corn; and potato salad! Ugh…and after that, we went out to get some ice cream!

- Speaking of my New York Strip, I bought myself four thick, juicy New York Strip steaks from my local supermarket on Wednesday, and was planning on freezing them overnight–yeah, I know, that’s a sin in itself. On Thursday, I pulled the steaks out of the freezer, to find one steak intact, in a zip lock bag!

I asked my mom (who’s up here, visiting for the week) about the steaks, and she said that she had “prepared” them for me. By prepared, I found out that three of the steaks were cut up, fileted (sp?), and frozen. Some of them were even already marinated! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

(Fortunately, I had a couple extra steaks, but they were in the freezer for a while. They still came out OK, though.)

Also, I had purchased a rack of pork spare ribs, which I planned on slow-cooking (a la baby back ribs). I had also found those cut up and marinated.

- My mom, stubborn as she is, kept insisting that the best way to cook with a charcoal grill is to cook with the lid off.

For the record, I have this Weber grill; I’m pretty sure the lid is included for a reason :P.

After scorching the first batch of food that she was in charge of–I was responsible for the steaks, and boy, did my piece turn out excellent–and subsequently blaming me for putting too much charcoal in the BBQ, I insisted that she needed to cook the food with the lid on. She claimed that I was insulting her intelligence, and proceeded to scorch another batch of food, shouting once again, “you put too much charcoal in the grill!”

A few minutes later, after cooking the third batch of food–I told you we had a lot of food, didn’t I?–she walked back into the house with a slight grin on her face. She told me, “if you put the lid on the grill, it cooks better!”

(me bangs head on wall)

Yes, being the childish person that I am, I enjoyed my moral victory over my mother for the remainder of the day. And yes, that third batch of food was quite tasty.

- A little non-BBQ related item: it appears that I will be going out on a trip up to NorCal starting Tuesday. Whether or not I’ll be able to blog every day during my trip remains to be seen. If I can’t do it, I’ve enjoyed my run!

Food coma’s kicking in…zzzzz…

by Peter
2 Comments »

- So Buy.com continues to impress me. They emailed me back today, saying that the $18 credit was a “courtesy” to me, and they would continue to process my RMA once the item was received. A little problem with that, though; they received my item on the 21st. A few hours later, I got another email from Buy.com, saying that they received my return, and will process the RMA within 5-7 business days.

I have since started a dispute with PayPal (how foolish of me, I know, to pay via PayPal instead of a credit card!), and will escalate it to a claim, assuming I don’t see the rest of my money back in my account by next week.

- Damn, talk about doing Princess Leia’s bikini costume justice!. Too bad I don’t get the G4 Network, and no, I’m not paying $15 a month for access to that channel.

BTW, check out picture #5. LOL @ the Storm Trooper!

- (stolen from somewhere) Here’s a nice, compact list of ways to tick people off. I have personally done #2 to friends a number of times, as well as #8 over the phone. I’ve also done #14, and #24, and I used to do #32 while working in a lab, except I said it was for “research.”

- Japanese patients at risk for diabetes, obesity, and those with heart problems are using their cell phone cameras to photograph their meals, sending them to health experts for analysis and recommendations. Talk about a novel way to use existing technology! Quoted from the article:

Osaka is using a system developed by Asahi Kasei Corp., a Tokyo-based chemical and medical equipment manufacturer. The system is operating at about 150 health care providers and local governments around the country, company official Naoki Yoshimura said.

Nutritionists can work with photos from one day’s meals to several weeks’ worth, he said. Results come back in three days. Participants also can log onto a Web site to get further dietary information and upload photos from digital cameras.

I gotta ask one question, though: do these guys really need a physician to tell them that a slice of banana-cream pie is unhealthy? Is it really necessary to send a doctor a picture of that fourth slice of pepperoni pizza, so that he could tell you what you already know? And whatever happened to the taste test for healthiness of foods: if it tastes good, it’s probably bad for you, and vice versa?

(Tangent: Yeah, I know, there are a number of healthy, good tasting foods.)

Actually, maybe the Japanese have something here. They should work on making all doctor visits done via telecommunication. I’m sure lots of people out there can’t stand the annual visit with “Dr. Jellyfingers.”

(That last sentence made me curl up in the fetal position, by the way).

- Sony is in development of a new television screen that is so thin that it’s flexible. Sony has yet to decide what to do with the technology: “”In the future, it could get wrapped around a lamppost or a person’s wrist, even worn as clothing,” said Sony spokesman Chisato Kitsukawa. “Perhaps it can be put up like wallpaper.”"

I wonder if people would pay for a TV screen on one’s sleeve. If people pay for TV-quality video on cell phones and iPods, why wouldn’t people pay for displays on clothing? Of course, I wouldn’t want a coaxial cable running down my clothes, hooked up to the display on my shirt sleeve :P. Actually, the idea of using this stuff kinda like wallpaper would be a great idea; projector-sized displays without the need of a standalone projector, with television-like quality. If they could implement touch-screen technology with this super-thin display, now THAT would be incredible!

(I know…me, pimping that evil company, Sony? I must be crazy!)

That’s all I’ve got for today. Happy blogging!

by Peter
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Today’s blog will take me on a trip down Memory Lane. Pardon me if I get a bit emotional *sniff*.

- (from Krunk) Here’s CRACKED.com’s list of 15 (Painfully) Unforgettable Cartoon Theme Songs. My thoughts on this list:

• Haha, I completely forgot that Steven Spielberg is the genius behind Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs. I may be in the minority here, but I actually liked Tiny Toon Adventures more than Animaniacs.
• Speaking of Tiny Toon Adventures, why is that at the beginning of the list?
• The second and third comments are spot on! How are Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers and Darkwing Duck not on this list? And what about Conan the Adventurer?

I remember, back in elementary school, coming home every day to catch The Disney Afternoon; more specifically, Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck, as well as Tiny Toon Adventures and, eventually, Animanics on FOX. I recall never starting on my homework until 5pm.

(Yeah, as a kid, I watched too much TV. Don’t get me started on how much TV I watch now.)

And yes, I’ll admit it; when the show first came out, I watched Power Rangers. What can I say? Lots of my friends watched the show too!

(Wow, I never noticed how ridiculously cheesy the intro to that show was! Actually, what’s really sad is that I remember a show similar to Power Rangers, called VR Troopers. Now that was a cheesy intro!)

In my defense, the only reason why I watched Power Rangers was because of the Pink Ranger. Didn’t every adolescent male around that time watch the show for the same reason? Didn’t they???

- Trading card company Upper Deck is trying to buy out the last major trading card company out there, Topps. This is terrible news for an already dying market; dying because trading cards have gotten so unaffordable, only adults could afford packs these days. Back in the early 90s, I would often visit this card shop with my cousins–I forget the name–and usually spent $10-20 per visit there. I remember getting a whole assortment of stuff; some cheaper $1 packs, and a couple of the “premium” packs that went for $3-5 each. I remember opening each premium pack as if it was a Christmas present, being careful not to harm the foil packaging.

(Of course, I had to open the packs carefully, for fear of damaging the fancy cards that were stuffed inside.)

I remember back in 1993, buying a pack of Fleer Ultra Basketball for $3–Shaq’s rookie year–and pulling out an insert card of Shaq. That card was worth $75 at the time, and it’s still one of the top five insert cards I’ve ever pulled out of a deck of cards. I still have the card today, even though it’s probably not worth $5, just because of the sentiment behind it. In 1998, when my interest in trading cards was waning, I pulled a Ken Griffey Jr. card numbered to 100 (there were only 100 copies of that card in existence). That card, valued at $100-150 at the time, was probably the coolest card I’ve ever pulled out of a pack, and it was nothing more than a regular card with the letters in gold-colored foil, with a stamped number on the back (also in gold).

I stopped collecting as a hobby years ago, when the prices of premium packs got ridiculous; premium packs now range anywhere from $25-100 each. Back in the day, a rare card was a limited-print, glossy looking card. Today, only cards have a piece of memorabilia or an autograph on it–swatches of jersey, pieces of ball, shoelaces, nets, sticks, etc.–have any value in the market. What made getting rare cards back in the day so much fun were the improbable odds of getting one; the odds of getting one card similar to the Shaq card I pulled in 1993 was 1:72 (if there were 10 cards in that set, that would make the odds of me pulling Shaq’s card itself 1:720). Nowadays, with these expensive packs, the odds of pulling inserts are sometimes 1:1. What fun is that to guarantee yourself a card with a piece of memorabilia on it in every pack?

(Tangent: Between 1999 and 2001, I realized that trading cards was an affordable investment, rather than just a fun hobby. Between Yahoo! Auctions and eBay, I made about $2,000 during my senior year in high school (1999-2000) buying and reselling trading cards. While I don’t regret making that kind of money, I do have to point to that time period as the time when I stopped looking at trading cards as a hobby.)

I’ll still buy a pack every now and then, but I won’t touch those ridiculously expensive packs with a ten-foot pole. I hope, if Upper Deck does acquire Topps, they use the Topps brand to reintroduce affordable, marketable packs for the collector (in the form of $1-2 packs), while keeping the Upper Deck brand for the investor (the more expensive stuff). Bring back the days of holograms, parallel sets, and fancy (non-memorabilia) inserts for the casual collector!

I have the urge to swing by Target and pick up a box of cards, just for fun.

by Peter
1 Comment »

One quick rant: Buy.com finally issued me a refund on my order! I’m still not through with them, though; instead of crediting me $29.98, they came up with the idea of refunding me $18 instead!

I gotta contact their “support” yet again tomorrow.

- Anyway, the NBA Draft Lottery happened yesterday, and three prevailing themes arose from the proceedings in Secaucus, NJ:

1. Portland, Seattle, and Atlanta (even though the Hawks missed out on the top two picks) are the big winners.
2. The Celtics got screwed! If you don’t believe me, go ask a Boston Celtics fan.
3. The lottery system needs a fix. If you don’t believe me, go ask a Boston Celtics fan. However, perhaps the system can be tweaked slightly.

Portland gets to add Greg Oden to a lineup including this past year’s ROY (Brandon Roy, who was fleeced from Minnesota last year), skilled big man LaMarcus Aldridge, Zach Randolph, and Jarrett Jack. Even in the loaded Western Conference, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this team contend for a title in the next few years. Yes, Greg Oden can be that good in the pros, assuming he develops a consistent offense.

As for Seattle, not a bad consolation prize in Kevin Durant, eh? First of all, Durant allows the Sonics to let F Rashard Lewis go. Also, Durant may be the big name that will keep the Sonics from leaving Seattle. Atlanta wins as well, even though they will miss out on Oden and Durant. By landing the third pick, they get to keep the pick (had the pick dropped outside the top three, it would have gone to Phoenix). Also, they get Indiana’s pick, giving the Hawks two top-15 picks. Hopefully Atlanta doesn’t blow these picks, the same way they have blown their high picks in recent years.

By the way, Celtics fans, YOU DID NOT GET SCREWED BY THE NBA JUST BECAUSE YOU DID NOT GET A TOP TWO PICK! A lottery is just that; a lottery. There is an element of luck involved! Just because a coin is supposed to land on heads as often as it is supposed to land on tails doesn’t mean you can always expect one of each result with two coin flips. And no, just because you guys got “screwed” by the NBA lottery doesn’t mean the lottery needs to be fixed next season. More on fixing the lottery later…

If anything, the fact that the Celtics tried to intentionally lose games this year, only to miss out on a top-2 pick, is simply a case of bad karma (please don’t deny the tanking your team did, Celtics fan). All is not lost, though, Celtic fan; just because Oden and Durant are clearly the two best prospects in this year’s draft, they’re still nothing more than prospects. Who says Oden and Durant will pan out? Besides, you still have the #5 pick; you are still likely to get a nice player (Horford, Brandan Wright, Jianlian, etc.).

Don’t worry, Celtic fan: Bill Simmons feels for you.

(As an aside, thanks Bill for realizing that the announcement of Milwaukee picking #6 sealed your Celtics’ fate at #5, unlike some people who wrote that the Celtics’ nightmare was made official when the Celtics were announced at #5).

Personally, I think the NBA Draft Lottery doesn’t need to be changed; people whining that it’s unfair and stupid don’t offer enough compelling reasons for me to change my stance. One idea that’s floating around is to give the worst team in the league the #1 pick, the second worst #2, and so on. That’s nice and all, but how does that prevent tanking? In fact, I see no feasible solution that will prevent tanking.

That being said, I think the lottery could be tweaked a bit. Right now, the lottery is weighted in favor of the worst teams; I think the NBA should weigh it even more in favor of those bad teams. Yeah, this won’t prevent teams from tanking, but it’ll give the worst of the worst a better chance at getting the help they need.

Another suggestion I was kicking around is to have two different lotteries for all non-playoff teams. The first lottery could be held for, say, the first five picks, and the odds of winning could be heavily weighted in favor of the teams with the worst records. A second lottery could then be held to determine who picks 6-14, again heavily favoring the worst teams. This will add a bit more excitement to the lottery, as well as offer the best of the worst teams (the teams that didn’t tank) a chance to get a better draft pick. As it stands now, the best of the lottery teams has only a 0.5% chance of winning the lottery; with my suggestion, the best team has a decent shot at any pick from 6-14.

I’m feeling a lot worse than I have felt in the past couple of days, so I’m going to go to bed early tonight.

Happy blogging!

by Peter
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- After seeing the season finale of Heroes a second time, I can safely say that the finale was a pretty big letdown. It didn’t help that I was thinking the episode was two hours long (and it turns out, I wasn’t the only one that thought so).

(Warning: Spoilers to follow.)

To see the big confrontation between Peter and Sylar consist of nothing more than a couple punches was downright disappointing. Couldn’t they have had one long, extended, fight? And, assuming Sylar was able to crawl down the manhole, how the heck did he survive the stab by Hiro?

“Save the cheerleader, save the world” happened alright, but not necessarily the way I expected it to. I (and probably many others) believed that Claire’s survival ensured that Sylar could not become immortal, but one can argue that it was Claire that finally convinced Nathan that what he was doing–allowing NYC to get destroyed for his own benefit–was wrong.

Speaking of the Petrelli family, something tells me neither Peter nor Nathan is dead. I’m thinking that Peter did not actually explode; he just radiated an immense amount of energy. I’m also thinking that Nathan had escaped before Peter went off. It would surprise me if they were both dead after this episode. By the way, I wonder if Nathan and Peter’s mom is under the influence of a darker individual. I wouldn’t be as surprised, though, if either Officer Parkman or D.L. were dead at the end of the finale.

I wonder who this guy that’s “worse than the Boogeyman” is. Maybe it’s the Haitian! Most likely, though, he will be a new character.

All in all, the finale seemed rushed, and somewhat disappointing. I think they spent entirely too much time on the Petrelli family back story that it just didn’t leave enough for the resolution. If anything, the producers should have split this last episode into two. The first one could have ended with Claire’s jumping out of the window, and the second could have built up towards the final battle. If only the producers were given a full two-hours for the finale!

Don’t get me wrong; I love the show as a whole, and I’m definitely going to watch next season’s episodes. The season, as a whole, was quite excellent, and it really picked up speed in the later episodes, especially starting with “Five Years Gone.” The finale, though, left quite a bit to be desired.

- One non-Heroes topic: check out this list of the 10 Reasons It Doesn’t Pay To Be “The Computer Guy.” One major reason seems to be left out: the fact that, if you fix someone’s computer, and something goes wrong later (even if it’s completely unrelated to whatever you fixed before), you conveniently become the scapegoat. Reasons #3 and #4 sorta touch upon this, but I feel that this should have its own entry on the list.

Reason #8 is another favorite of mine; I hate having to give product recommendations! And I’m not talking about comparisons that actually require me to do research–the Intel Core 2 Duo E4320 v the E6600, e.g. I’m talking about those horrible apples and oranges comparisons, like “Should I get the 4GB iPod Nano or a Creative blah blah 60GB player?”

Also, I LOLed at reasons #5 and #7.

by Peter
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