Rants and Ranks

Rasheed Wallace is on the Lakers radar.  I've read conflicting reports as to whether he has actually signed, or they are just looking at him.  All I can say is WOW.  If they are going to do this, they may as well go all out.  Not only with an Arenas signing too, but trade all the current roster except Metta World Peace and Matt Barnes for DeMarcus Cousins, Andray Blatche, Michael Beasley, JR Smith, Eddy Curry, Stephen Jackson, DeShawn Stevenson, Delonte West, Jamaal Tinsley, and Kenyon Martin.  This my friends, would be the greatest bonehead team ever assembled.  I'm pretty sure they would have to forfeit the rest of the season due to a mass murder at practice. 

As I mentioned in part one,  I didn't have too big of beef with the starters.  Carmelo is somewhat of a question mark, but since he's not past is prime I'll let him slide.   So I was interested to see if the coaches could keep up the good work.  And surprisingly they had a few blunders.  Here are the guys I totally disagreed with: Paul Pierce- This was ridiculous.  Even PP was surprised by this.  Honestly I would have picked Ray Allen, who carried the load while Pierce was out.  Even Rondo is more deserving, and he has missed a few games this year.  Steve Nash- Yeah his assist numbers are good, and he's doing things that no other 89 year old PG should do, but he's not the 4th best PG in the West, (and according to the voting he is) so he shouldn't have made it.  Dirk Nowitzki- Sure the dude has picked it up the last few games, but he admitted he wasn't ready to play at the beginning of the season, then took off games to g...

If you didn't catch part one click here. I'm a big believer in chemistry over talent.  Which is why in rounding out the starting lineups for teams, I didn't always pick the next logical choice based off of talent.  I like the teams that compliment one another, and win because of it.  I mean why get LeBron when you already got DWade?  I mean they cancel each other out.  Oh, I guess that did happen.  Well, how about this one: why draft Steph Curry when you already got Monta Ellis... hmm I guess not a good one either.  Why draft Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn with back to back picks?  Crap that's the worst one yet.  Well the NBA isn't perfect I guess, and I'm sure neither is this list, but let's check it out.  (Note: I didn't write out the order of the rest of the picks, just the starting lineup for each team, and my grade on how well the lineup will work out.) Bobcats- PG Kirk Hinrich SG Tony Allen SF LeBron James PF Dejuan Blair C Tys...

A lot of teams would like to hit the reset button on their current teams.  Start over from scratch, and hope for the best.  OK maybe not "a lot" but a few would.  I sometimes think, "If a team could select any player to start a franchise with, who would it be?"  So instead of thinking, I decided to write it all down.  Many would say that it would just go purely off of talent, and it would to an extent, but I think there would be more to it.  A struggling small market franchise would want Kobe just because he is the biggest name in basketball. That's not a backhanded compliment at Kobe, but long term you wouldn't want to build around Kobe.  He would be great for your team in more of a business sense.  More bang for the buck right now.  A large market like NYC would probably chance a younger, possibly lesser talented star, just due to the fact the people will come regardless because it's MSG, and they have a long-term investmen...

These are the flicks that I would want with me on a deserted island.  Assuming that island had electricity, a TV, and DVD player. Return of the King: This movie is iconic in so many ways.  Sure it won best picture, but even if it didn't, it's a epic in every sense of the word.  Never in my life have I been so captivated at a movie theater.  I had just seen the first two right before this was released in theaters, and just went to see it for something to do.  I instantly fell in love, and haven't looked back.  Batman Begins: When I left the theaters after watching this one, I uttered one of the biggest understatements of my life, "I think that may have been better than the first Batman." (1989)  Holy crap is it ever.  I had no hopes whatsoever that this would be good going in, and was blown away by what I saw.  Still to this day, my favorite super-hero movie, and I still feel the best super-hero movie, as I've ranted about in the pa...

Here comes part one of my All-Star Game rant.  Why two parts?  This first one is a warning.  The second is the inevitable results of the All-Star Game voting, that will surely result in some ridiculous choices.  I touched on this a bit last year , but I feel so strongly about this, I need to revisit and probably in much greater detail.  If the voting ended today, the starters would be: East: Rose, Wade, James, Anthony, Howard West: Paul, Bryant, Durant, Griffin, Bynum I honestly can't complain about that list.  But I'm sure this may be the only time I don't.  I drives me up the wall, such as past years when Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, and Yao Ming were voted starters, even though they weren't playing anywhere near All-Star levels, or in Yao's case, not playing at all.  This has always bothered me, ever since I was a little kid.  Remember when Penny Hardaway and Grant Hill would get voted in, even though they had been hu...

Kobe now has 4 (and counting?) straight 40+ point games (3 wins).  Has he found the fountain of youth?  Is he hogging the ball more?  How about all that, and then some.  From what I can tell it's a perfect storm of things.  The first thing attributing to the cause is due to the lack of bench.  Now, the last few years the bench, minus Odom, hasn't been that great anyway.  However, this bench is all on the injured list.  Kapono, McRoberts, Barnes, Murphy, now Steve Blake have all missed game(s) within the past few weeks.  Even Gasol is banged up.  The loss of Odom also puts more ball handling duties on Kobe.  Let's face it, if Odom was in the game, 99% of the time he was bringing the ball up the floor.  So, since Kobe now shares it with Fisher exclusively, he would theoretically have the ball in his hands more, thus meaning (for him anyway)to shoot more.  (The fact that Blake is now out for...

Nothing is better in music than a good guitar riff.  I don't need a four minute guitar solo, just a catchy riff that I can hum to all day.  Here are some of my favorites (in no particular order), some are well-known, others you probably have never heard of (or will again).  Click the link for the song. Peaches - Presidents of the United States of America Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones Reply - Staind Everlong - Foo Fighters 10 Ton Brick - Hurt Jumpin' Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones Monster - Skillet Beat It - Michael Jackson You Really Got Me - The Kinks In Bloom - Nirvana China Grove - The Doobie Brothers Where the River Flows - Collective Soul Come As You Are - Nirvana Man in the Box - Alice in Chains Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd Times Like These - Foo Fighters Superstition - Stevie Wonder Over Now - Alice in Chains Walking in Circles - Our Lady Peace Stacked Actors - Foo Fighters December - Collective Soul Glycerine -...

The Beatles are the most iconic band in the world.  They have some of the most famous songs in the world,  ( Yesterday for example is the most covered song of all-time) but that's not what this is about.  I'm going to bet money that everyone that listens to music could list at least ONE Beatle song.  Even if you don't know the name, when you heard one, you would know one.  Odds are though, you know many.  You may not however recognize these overlooked gems.  (So there will be no Hey Jude , Help!, or Revolution .  Or if you are even more clever, no I Am the Walrus , While My Guitar Gently Weeps , or Eleanor Rigby .) Click the song title for a listen. Glass Onion : Not only does Ringo rock the drums, but Lennon name-drops several other Beatle songs in this little diddy.  No Reply : I love the way they shout "I SAW THE LIGHT" and "I NEARLY DIED".   I'm So Tired : The way this song is structured, you can almos...

After listening to country Christmas music for 8+ hours today I was reminded of how much I hated country music (Not that I really needed a reminder).  I have no problem with Christmas music, I can "jingle bell rock" with the best of them, but hearing that twang and yee-haws inserted in there was enough to make me cry. You know that something is wrong when fans of country "music" say that Christmas country sucks.  Now you can say that is because it's "Christmas" music, but in my mind the words don't matter as much as the sound of the music, so all the fiddles and banjos should make it tolerable for a country fan regardless if it's a Christmas song or not.  I realize most people may not look at music this way, but it's my rant and I need to rationalize it somehow dammit!  (For example, it doesn't matter how great lyrics are, if Macy Gray is singing it, it's pretty much going to sound like a cat getting pushed through a car engine.  ...