Rants and Ranks

Turtle mania is sweeping the nation just like it's 1991 all over again.  I was looking forward to the new movie, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.  I also enjoyed it thoroughly, so I'm not too surprised that it is as big of hit as it has become.  That being said, I'm extremely nostalgic.  Much to the chagrin of my wife, I will seek out old shows or movies that I watched as a kid and see if they hold up.  My biggest hope is to see if they give me the same feeling they did as a kid.  (We all want to be a kid again right?)  Usually the answer is "no," but every so often I'm reminded of why I did like it initially.  And in an even more rare scenario, they are just as good as I remembered.  I hope I'm not a total lame-ass for doing this, but over the years I've checked out things from my youth, if nothing else for just a laugh.  The following is some of the things I've checked out and whether or not it stands the test o...

His goofiness could always make me laugh. Robin Williams was one of my favorite actors.  As a kid I enjoyed his goofy shenanigans on the big screen, but as I grew older I really appreciated his more dramatic roles.  It's pretty incredible really, not too many comedians could make that transition.  These movies I consider his best individual performances, not necessarily my favorite movies of his.  1. Dead Poets Society 2. Good Will Hunting 3. Patch Adams 4. Jack 5. Mrs. Doubtfire 6. Hook 7. Aladdin 8. Happy Feet 9. Night at the Museum (Teddy Roosevelt rules!) 10. Insomnia I would like to point out that I've never seen Jumanji or Good Morning, Vietnam which are two fan favorites.  So that is why they aren't included. 

Last week I was going to write about who I thought would make the final 12 man lineup.  I was going to base those predictions off the scrimmage last Friday.  In probably the biggest sports story in the last few weeks, Paul George snapped his leg and changed my mind about writing such a piece. That was a major bummer.  I'm a big George fan, and I feel really bad for the Pacers.  I would think that Larry Bird has probably broken a few pieces of a furniture in the past week, and I can't blame him.  The way this Pacers team is constructed now, they may not even make the playoffs. So that was obviously a major blow to the team.  PG was all but penciled in to start.  Now Kevin Durant withdraws!?!?  Holy moly, that is news.  So you lose the best player on the team, (who happens to be the reigning MVP) now what? Team USA was already lacking power forwards, with Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Blake Griffin not playing for one reason or anoth...

It's not breaking news by any means, but the shooting guard position in the NBA is all but dead.  Quick, name a superstar SG besides James Harden?  You really can't.  One would argue the same for the center, but although they may not all be superstars, I can list a few quality centers off the top of my head; (Howard, Asik, Hibbert, Pekovic, Noah, Jefferson etc.)  I can't do that for SG's.  I really have to think about it.  I honestly don't even think I could argue who is the second best SG after Harden.  Now for those still arguing Kobe is number one, I'm excluding him from this blog for one big reason.  We have no idea what Kobe is going to be like when he returns.  Could he return to scoring 27 PPG?  With Kobe anything is possible, but I would wager that is highly unlikely due to his age and mileage on his body.  He's not a spring chicken anymore.  I'm as big of Kobe fan as anyone, but people saying he's still the be...

Hey there NBA fans.  As sports enthusiasts, we all love a good debate.  Well this bad boy is my argument brought to the table (in eBook form no less).  This book focuses on the great players of this century.  Who really were great?  Who were overblown?  Who didn't get the respect they deserved?  Without going into too much detail on how they were graded, (plenty of time to discuss that in the book) we see who achieved what, and just how prestigious we, as fans, feel that that achievement really is. Go ahead and clink the above link and give it a read.  You may find it insightful, humorous, thought-provoking, or just a plain excellent read overall.  You can find other titles by yours truly by clicking here.          Here's a sample, talking about Kobe Bryant in the 2008 season: Kobe flew off the handle in the summer prior to the ’08 season.   He was demanding to be trad...

I don't know what to think.  My all time favorite band released a new single , quite frankly, I'm not digging it.  We've all had this scenario where our band of choice shows their new stuff and we go, "Ew, I'm not sure where I'm liking where they are headed."  Normally I wouldn't be so concerned because Heavyweight, the first single from the last album Curve, wasn't a knockout by any means.  In fact, it may be one of my least favorite songs on that CD.  But, they just lost their original drummer, Jeremy Taggart as well.  Speculation is running wild that he left due to creative differences.  And after hearing Won't Turn Back, I wouldn't blame him.  If this does set the tone for the new album direction, then I suppose you can count me out.  Again, this is all rumor at this point, the dude may have just been burnt out and ready for a change.  (CM Punk anyone?) The OLP cynics can just use this for more fuel for their fire.  When O...

Seriously I'm shocked.  I still thought Miami was the front-runners for the LBJ Sweepstakes Part II.  I mean really, should he stayed they would have got nice additions in free agency like they did 3 of the 4 years he was there.  Unfortunately for Miami, Wade, Riley, and Heat fans everywhere, the year they didn't add anyone was the year they got stomped by the Spurs right before he could opt-out. On paper the Cleveland team looked promising.  But we also said that before last year, and they didn't even make the playoffs in the less than appealing Eastern Conference. Allegedly Dion Waiters and Kyrie Irving hate each other, Bennett disappointed big time, and Luol Deng couldn't wait to leave the moment he was traded there.  Can LeBron fix all that? If you're wining, I would assume that would shut up both Kyrie and Dion. If not, I'm sure LeBron could just say "see ya" to one of them, and they would be gone the next day.  One would reasonably assume it ...

I had been throwing out my draft lottery remixes for the past few months, enjoying writing with a hindsight of 20/20 about how NBA draft lotteries should have played out.  My initial interest in doing this was from a SLAM magazine from nearly ten years ago talking about my beloved '96 draft. They redid the draft on how it should have went.  I thought that was a cool concept.  I highly doubt SLAM was the first to do this, but it was the first I had ever seen.  Bill Simmons frequently makes mention "if player X was drafted knowing what we know now, he would have went first," or "player Y would have been a late first-round pick instead of a lottery pick if...".  So it got me thinking about ranking them myself.  It would help me remember players I forgot, remind me how "blank" used to be good before he declined drastically and we forgot he was good in the first place.  Etc. etc. etc. Well Mr. Simmons one upped me by redoing every d...

I'm sure you're wondering what the title means.  Not too long ago I was listening to something that specifically pointed out that the wrestling quality in WWE from Summerslam 2002 through Wrestlemania XIX in March 2003 was arguably the greatest stretch of in-ring product WWE has ever produced.   I knew that that general era in WWE was good, but I never really looked at it using those bookends.  The more I thought about it, the more true it seemed.  Why was this the case? Was it a random series of events?  Did WWE finally get their heads out of their asses?  When I look back, it all makes perfect sense so I'm going to recap it for anyone who wasn't  watching, or just forgot.  If your a fan of good wrestling, odds are you remember a few of these matches quite fondly.  First we need the back story.  courtesy: wwe.com A ton of things happened in '02.  Hulk and the nWo returned.  Triple H returned from his qua...