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What makes it? This poll is closed. |
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| The dejected look on his face |
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45 | 16.36% |
| The Kentucky Final Four shirt underneath his jersey |
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124 | 45.09% |
| The fact that Tayshaun Prince hasn't been good since before LeBron left Cleveland |
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106 | 38.55% |
| Total: | 275 votes | ||
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Noctone posted:Simmons is such a frustrating writer. He shows flashes of poignant, insightful thought from time to time, but he rarely ever is able to keep himself on a sane track for an entire article. I don't know if he used to be better and working for ESPN has broken his mind or if he just has a fundamental lack of self-awareness or what, but he's like a fractured reflection of a good writer. He wrote a really great piece about LBJ way back around the time Grantland launched, but that's literally the only article of his that's stuck in my mind over the years. It's hilarious that the two best highlights of the Spurs season are Duncan blocking Durant, and Duncan dunking on Ibaka. That video didn't even have Parker's game winning three did it?
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 03:24 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 06:10 |
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UnfurledSails posted:He's encouraging them to speculate more, and not blindly trust suspicious athletes right until their true nature is revealed. The amount of known cheaters is disturbingly few, given the apparent holes in the testing procedures. Media should not pull all their punches just because talking about whether someone is cheating or not may "damage" that person. That's what I got out of it too. That instead of looking the other way when a player recovers from a serious injury in 13 weeks instead of 6 months, maybe we should be asking questions. I thought the article was much deeper than that though. Touched on a lot of topics that don't get brought up. For instance, what is a PED? Mornacale posted:He correctly points out that there's really no clear difference between taking HGH and getting cutting-edge surgery, but then somehow concludes that the reasoned response is a massive invasion of privacy. Wouldn't forcing an independent neurologist to examine you to determine whether or not you are allowed to go back to work be a massive invasion of privacy too? Is testing any different than giving an airline pilot a breathalyzer? There is always a line between safety and privacy when it comes to testing. You're going to have to give up one to get the other. I think it's a worthy discussion to have, especially in light of the developments in CTE. And I think the article doesn't necessarily demand people start doing stuff, it just says we shouldn't be looking the other way when things don't pass the sniff test. The media is in a no-win situation anyway. You're someone who self-admits that you don't care about PEDs so I don't think any article on the topic would satisfy you. But a lot of people do think it's an important issue. Whether for the fairness and legitimacy of a sport, or to the overall long-term health of the participants.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 03:25 |
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Mornacale posted:Reading this article makes me feel like I am in the Twilight Zone. Is this really the common experience of sports fans, constantly wondering about who may or may be doing 'roids? Because I don't give a gently caress, at all, about anyone doing them. I mean, I guess if that's really what people want to talk about, then the media should cover it, but I wonder if it isn't the media that created the narrative in the first place. The sports media ramming the whole roid controversy down our throat makes me angry. This is exactly why i was really pissed about the whole baseball HOF voting. Not so much that those idiots refused to vote anyone in, but the soapbox they all jumped up on.Hearing those fools explaining over and over again why they chose not to vote made me sick. Guess what assholes, when i'm older and telling my kids stories about Barry Bonds or Kobe Bryant i won't remember the controversies or the sports writers who spun them, only the greatness of the players.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 03:46 |
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I think we can all agree that PEDs in sports is a fraught issue that involves rethinking the notion of "cheating" versus athletic attainment within the context of a history of sports in America that is essentially a history of PEDs, and that the person to write an interesting, nuanced take on the subject is probably not the person who spends most of his time comparing various NBA players to Teen Wolf.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 03:51 |
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The worst writers are always the ones that won't vote for a guy because some other player in the past didn't get unanimous votes.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 03:56 |
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Raptors blow out the Clips by 27 points. Best part of the game hands down was when Jonas held the ball to wait out the clock and Caron stole it from him and drove to the basket. Pissed myself watching it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX5KRzJid8s
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 03:57 |
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MourningView posted:He is openly encouraging legitimate media outlets (most prominently his own) to make what are potentially incredibly damaging allegations against athletes with absolutely no concrete evidence. In what universe is this a good or sane thing? Yeah, this is definitely crazy Simmons. That being said, I do think that more scrutiny is warranted from the public to offset the horrible lack of testing. Serena Williams recently dodged testing by hiding in her Safe Room and calling the police, then claiming that the tester outside her gate scared her. But like the Lance stories, that won't be talked about unless she gets caught. And it makes sense that the NBA has very little testing. Lebron is an incredible athlete, but I don't believe for a second that he's clean.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:00 |
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s0meb0dy0 posted:
 Lebron doesn't even lift weights, scrub.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:02 |
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Simmons definitely gets crazy at times, like the Obama comment. I took from the article mostly that the player unions need to stop blocking testing of their players, which puts the media in the tough spot of either never talking about it or trying to discuss it with hunches and little proof.s0meb0dy0 posted:Serena Williams recently dodged testing by hiding in her Safe Room and calling the police, then claiming that the tester outside her gate scared her. But like the Lance stories, that won't be talked about unless she gets caught. Hah, yeah Tennis is pretty bad. The conspiracy is that Nadal is currently serving a secret suspension for PED's, and pretending it's an injury.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:09 |
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Genderman posted:Raptors blow out the Clips by 27 points. Best part of the game hands down was when Jonas held the ball to wait out the clock and Caron stole it from him and drove to the basket. Pissed myself watching it That's amazing. I was reading your post when they just showed it on ESPN in the middle of the third quarter of the LA game, and said "Here's the steal of the night..."
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:16 |
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Quick shoutout to Blinkman987 for being a dear and hooking me up with a ladies' Clippers jersey from the Staples Center store and mailing it all the way to Toronto when I couldn't find anything online. She was super excited before the game: And I was super excited after the game. 
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:17 |
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Too bad you didnt get pizza. Also I have that exact Raptors shirt quote:Quincy Acy @QuincyAcy
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:24 |
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s0meb0dy0 posted:And it makes sense that the NBA has very little testing. Lebron is an incredible athlete, but I don't believe for a second that he's clean.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:36 |
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Noctone posted:This got me curious...and unless current or pre-draft numbers were fabricated, LBJ weighs virtually the same now as he did when he was drafted. That can't be right. Unfortunately, NBA heights and weights are notoriously inaccurate. Towards the end of his career, Shaqs weight was estimated to be like 50lbs over his reported weight.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:49 |
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Noctone posted:This got me curious...and unless current or pre-draft numbers were fabricated, LBJ weighs virtually the same now as he did when he was drafted. That can't be right. Yeah, you'll never see the officially listed height and weight numbers changed throughout a players career. The height numbers are all imaginary anyway, and the weights change alot because most players get weighed at the combine when they're 19 or 20 years old and will naturally add bulk as they get deeper into their 20's. I'm pretty sure Shaq was listed at 300lbs thru his career, when he was pushing 350 into his 30's.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:52 |
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Shaq had to be pushing like 400 at one point. You have to be seriously big to be 7'2" and still look noticeably heavy.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:53 |
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Looks like Tayshaun was pretty impressive in his Grizzlies debut. 7-11 for 14 points. Now that the Grizzlies have someone with championship experience on their team maybe they can take it to the next level.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:53 |
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roundmidnight posted:Quick shoutout to Blinkman987 for being a dear and hooking me up with a ladies' Clippers jersey from the Staples Center store and mailing it all the way to Toronto when I couldn't find anything online. She was super excited before the game: That's a great sign.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 04:54 |
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Libertine posted:Looks like Tayshaun was pretty impressive in his Grizzlies debut. 7-11 for 14 points. Now that the Grizzlies have someone with championship experience on their team maybe they can take it to the next level. I think you're being sarcastic but that was seriously a long talking point on one of the ESPN podcasts that the "Grizzlies finally have a veteran champion that will give them experience in the playoffs." The same Grizzlies where 4 of the 5 starters have been in the playoffs the last two years
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 05:16 |
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Tae posted:I think you're being sarcastic but that was seriously a long talking point on one of the ESPN podcasts that the "Grizzlies finally have a veteran champion that will give them experience in the playoffs." Look You don't acquire true veteran experience until you get a ring. Or at the very least lose in the Finals.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 05:20 |
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So it looks like Noah is going to be out for a little while with plantar fascitis. Shocking to see him go down with an injury attributed to overuse! Boozer is nursing an injury too. And Thibs sort of realized he can't play Nazr in a game. Is there any big man out there they can sign? I can't imagine their cheapness will allow them to throw Taj and Deng out there for 48 minutes like they did tonight at the 4 and 5. Kenyon Martin on a 10-day?
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 05:24 |
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 05:27 |
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Tae posted:I think you're being sarcastic but that was seriously a long talking point on one of the ESPN podcasts that the "Grizzlies finally have a veteran champion that will give them experience in the playoffs." Isn't Tony Allen a NBA champion and also an actual good defender?
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 05:28 |
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So I just read in the papers that Dennis Rodman released a childern's book called "Dennis the Wild Bull."cisneros posted:Isn't Tony Allen a NBA champion and also an actual good defender? ESPN fact-checking is a myth.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 05:29 |
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Tae posted:I think you're being sarcastic but that was seriously a long talking point on one of the ESPN podcasts that the "Grizzlies finally have a veteran champion that will give them experience in the playoffs." Yeah I'm loving around. I totally forgot about Tony Allen having been on the Celtics actually.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 05:31 |
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As I was scrolling down, I thought this was a stitched up wound and was reminded of Amare's hand. Ugh. Cut that loving hair Bynum. Tae posted:So I just read in the papers that Dennis Rodman released a childern's book called "Dennis the Wild Bull." No joke, my (former) friend saw Rodman smoking either crack or crystal meth at the aforementioned (former) friend's show one time. In the alley behind the venue. He tried to send footage of cranked up Rodman to TMZ, because it was literally hours before Rodman had that automobile accident. They didn't accept it because they "couldn't verify the time". They were going to pay something ridiculous, like $150 per 5 seconds of footage, too. escape artist fucked around with this message at Feb 2, 2013 around 05:34 |
| # ? Feb 2, 2013 05:32 |
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escape artist posted:Ugh. Cut that loving hair Bynum.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 05:43 |
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cisneros posted:Isn't Tony Allen a NBA champion and also an actual good defender? No, actually, he sucks. quote:“DeMar is a great player, he’s by far the best two-guard I’ve ever played with,” Gay said in the post-game dressing room. “I think for us to be really good, we have to have that kind of interaction together and it’s just the start of it. The more practice, the better we’ll get.”
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 05:45 |
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I'm a Wayne Ellington guy myself. I think you're selling him short, Rudy!
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 05:55 |
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Niwrad posted:So it looks like Noah is going to be out for a little while with plantar fascitis. Shocking to see him go down with an injury attributed to overuse! Boozer is nursing an injury too. And Thibs sort of realized he can't play Nazr in a game. Is there any big man out there they can sign? I can't imagine their cheapness will allow them to throw Taj and Deng out there for 48 minutes like they did tonight at the 4 and 5. Kenyon Martin on a 10-day? It seems like a disproportionate amount of Bulls have been getting that over the last couple of years. Melvin Ely may be better than Nazr at this juncture. The B_36 posted:Yeah, you'll never see the officially listed height and weight numbers changed throughout a players career. The height numbers are all imaginary anyway, and the weights change alot because most players get weighed at the combine when they're 19 or 20 years old and will naturally add bulk as they get deeper into their 20's. I'm pretty sure Shaq was listed at 300lbs thru his career, when he was pushing 350 into his 30's. They should do weigh-ins before every game and announce it during the intros. "Playing center, 400 pounds, Shaquille O'Neal! Tae posted:The worst writers are always the ones that won't vote for a guy because some other player in the past didn't get unanimous votes. There's going to be some old curmudgeons that don't vote Maddux in at 100% for this reason. Although I haven't been paying attention to voting lately. I hope Maddux hasn't come up on one of those more recent witch-hunts.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 06:05 |
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Noctone posted:Shut up grandpa, Bynum's ridiculous hair styles own. I know they do, I just didn't like the surprise of scrolling down and seeing what I thought was a  picture in such high resolution. By far, my favorite hair style is this:  I don't feel it's ridiculousness can be topped, unless he goes for a Jheri-curled mullet or something.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 06:49 |
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escape artist posted:I know they do, I just didn't like the surprise of scrolling down and seeing what I thought was a Nothing says 'I bring the ruckus in the paint' like a mini-van mom haircut with sporting earing
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 06:51 |
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Genderman posted:quote: Sick burn on O.J. Mayo there.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 07:17 |
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Niwrad posted:Wouldn't forcing an independent neurologist to examine you to determine whether or not you are allowed to go back to work be a massive invasion of privacy too? Is testing any different than giving an airline pilot a breathalyzer? I think the line between a concussion exam and a blood test is pretty drat broad. Concussion exams are non-invasive medical procedures that are clearly in the interest of players' health. Indeed, the reason they're specifically an independent neurologist is in order to protect the players from their own teams. Blood testing, on the other hand, is invasive and adversarial. (Let's be clear that I don't believe for one second that any pro sports league in the world cares about steroids primarily from a health standpoint. Steroid testing is 100% about owners believing they will make more money off a sport with stricter drug policies.) A breathalyzer, on the other hand, is adversarial but not nearly invasive. So, I certainly support any union that stands against it--if management wants power over workers it ought to be ready to make concessions elsewhere--but I think it's less insane for an outsider to suggest. It's one thing to breathe into a device, but asserting that an employer ought to have the right to your bodily fluids is an entire new level. And that's really what I think is so nuts about the Simmons piece. It's not that he thinks blood testing would be good for sports, or even good for players. It's his insistence that players aren't entitled to control over their own bodies on an exceedingly personal level, that refusing to give others this level of power over them is evidence of something to hide. It's a disturbingly authoritarian mindset. That said, I'll go on the record that I'm neutral--maybe even slightly positive--about Simmons's thesis that the media ought to be more skeptical of these things. I don't personally think steroids are a big deal, but I understand that some people do, so doing actual journalism when there's cause for suspicion is reasonable. But there's a whole hell of a lot of room between "ask Ray Lewis some hard questions about his 'miraculous' recovery" and saying that the U.S. President has his priorities out of order because he's not intervening in pro sports. I guess that's what I don't get: how does he get across the gap from "the media needs to stop being 100% credulous" to "it's the players' fault for resisting blood testing"?
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 07:47 |
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Forgot to post this, The Wizards had 3 Free Throws against the Grizzlies. 
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 08:15 |
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Mornacale posted:And that's really what I think is so nuts about the Simmons piece. It's not that he thinks blood testing would be good for sports, or even good for players. It's his insistence that players aren't entitled to control over their own bodies on an exceedingly personal level, that refusing to give others this level of power over them is evidence of something to hide. It's a disturbingly authoritarian mindset. And yet this position you hold goes against what you said in your first paragraph. You're saying that players should be entitled to control over their own bodies and have a right to refuse testing of their blood. But then say that they shouldn't have control over their own bodies when it comes to a concussion test. We can argue whether a vial of blood is more invasive than a CAT scan, but they both are there to serve the same purpose. As it relates to the NBA, I think it comes down to safety. The Marquez example is a good one because it shows the dangers of what can happen when someone is given an advantage. While it may not be boxing, basketball is still a physical sport. What is the damage a player who is able to maintain 15 more pounds of muscle over his career able to do with all the picks he sets and banging in the paint? That has to add up over the years to opposing players. Or the damage a player might be doing by finding ways to extend their careers too long by masking ailments through the use of PEDs. If a player puts on an extra 5000 minutes to their career that their body couldn't really handle, would better testing have saved them a replacement knee or hip at a young age? Stringent testing is a safety issue to me. Not for the players themselves, but for the other players out there that can be impacted by its use indirectly.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 08:23 |
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Now if a super PED'd Ron Artest went loose in the stands, he would be shot like a circus elephant.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 08:32 |
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morestuff posted:We might see James White in the dunk contest. loving finally! I know they're the same dunks, they're still awesome.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 09:52 |
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I think we should stop listening to sports writers when they talk about PED's period. They're dramatically uninformed and prone to lapsing into maudlin whining about "the state of the game!!!" and "our precious records!!!" and "______ hero of my youth didn't take drugs!!!". That and calling on the President of the loving US to get involved in drug testing, because he doesn't have better things to do. Actually, we should probably stop paying attention to sports writers in general, they're almost all terrible at their jobs.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 10:20 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 06:10 |
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Delonte West apparently backed out of the D-League contract he had already signed, and his agent (Dan Fegan) wants to sever ties with him. I wonder if that's the end of his NBA career.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2013 11:06 |
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