Greg Anthony and the Minimum age limit

I don't like the espn's basketball show, but I turned it on and greg anthony made a point that I have been saying since the age limit discussion was started. The fact is these kids are 18 they can go to war and get shot in the face, but they can't play basketball for 48 minutes? That is a joke. Now people may say "Hey it is only 19 some high schoolers can still go." Well your high school class has to also be one year removed from graduation so when OJ Mayo graduates he still can't go into the draft even though he 19. I do not understand if you can be an artist, or a tennis player, or basically do anything else but you cannot play basketball professionally at the highest level in the world. If you have an extraordinary talent why should you be prevented from using it. Now a stupid person may ask "Hey Jared, these kids should get an education." Well first of all college is not for everyone, second why would you go to college if you can put it off and profit off a skill that is limited by time and injury why would you risk your livelihood to get an education that is not necessary at that time. Also most of these kids are coming from crappy inner-city schools and do not have any of the academic tools to succeed in college like the suburban kids do. That why players such as McGrady and LeBron went to a different high school, but most players do not have that opportunity. People complain about how high schoolers are hurting the NBA, but what about Yvjdgd Lofjhfgd from Russia who cannot speak english, cannot play, but whichever team feels he can contribute in the future. They are drafted play crappily for a couple years and take draft and roster spots from college players who deserve it. A larger percentage of international players do not make it onto an NBA roster or are out of the league within 2 years than high school players. Now I'm not saying we need to ban international players, banning an entire group of people because of something they cannot control is wrong, but why not put the responsibility on the teams' scouts and executives to make better picks. If a player you pick does not make it to the NBA, penalize the team somehow with a lost draft pick or a fine. Now this would not really affect the first 20 picks or so because the best players always go in the first third of the draft (well not always but for the most part). Now these players may or may not end up playing well in the NBA but almost always make a roster. The real problem lies later in the draft where teams take more chances. If you penalize them for taking Pierre Lopuye from France because he does not come to the NBA don't you think teams will take the reliable college senior more often. This is the thought process that will one day make me commissioner of the NBA and eventually King of Earth.

Gas companies, Chuck Woolery, and all-star fan voting

I woke up and turned on the television and there was a commercial about PGW (Philadelphia Gas Works). The purpose of the commercial was to remind people to pay their gas bills or their gas will be shut off, which is an understandable, almost commendable use of commercial time. But then it goes on to say how it is going to be so much harder to turn the gas back on and how much more expensive it will be. Well good job PGW guess who that rule most effects....wait for it....right the fucking poor who do not have enough to worry about without the gas company threatening to make it extremely difficult to have heat and hot water if something happens and they cannot pay the gas bill. Good job I hope your proud of yourself PGW.

I was watching Game Show Network and Chuck Woolery has hosted at least 63 shows. I was watching Lingo which is too stupid of a game to explain and these two girls were like (with huge attitude) "I graduated from Princeton" and then went on to say one was a model and one was a make up artist. Seriously if you graduate from Princeton don't be so proud that you have one job that requires a 5 week course at a cosmotology school and another that require not education at all. And then they lost! So the moral of the story is Princeton Sucks.

Lastly (thanks to Greg McKeever) I was made aware of the all-star voting for the baseball All star game and I was extremely angered at the NL voting (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050606&content_id=1078138&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb) but especially
the Al voting (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050605&content_id=1077695&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb#results). I mean it is getting to the point where the really popular players who got injured or have not performed as well that season are not the only problem (we call this The Vince Carter problem). But now people are exclusively voting for players on their favorite teams, and two particular teams are taking over the all-star game with their mediocre players.

First I'll go over the NL because there are not nearly as many crazy problems with the voting. The only real glaring problems are at shortstop. Most of the other positions you can argue someone else, but no one is extremely out of place like Nomar is at shortstop. His statistics: 14 games, 0 home runs, 4 rbis, .157 batting average. He must be an all-star. I would also complain about griffey, but he is a future hall-of-famer so I am not allowed.

The AL all-star team, like every fucking media outlet, is overrun by red sox and yankess. Tino Martinez who is batting .237 is ahead of Kevin Millar who is batting .254 and neither has more than 30 rbis. The best player at the position is in 4th place named Teixeira for all the idiot people voting, and he plays for the Rangers who play in the state of Texas. Every position is like this, but what is even worse is in every position there is at least one yankee and one red sock in the top 4 vote getters. Now seriously how about the asshole red sox and yankee fans realize the fucking baseball world does not revolve around them. At almost every position there is at least one person better than the one the red sox and yankees fans voted for. But they should get most of the all-stars because they are the best teams in baseball right......oh yeah the RED SOX ARE 4 GAMES OUT AND THE YANKEES ARE SEVEN GAMES OUT. Seriously this is insulting as a fan of baseball, and someone who is a fan of a team south of new york. I cannot wait until september when people have to talk about the cardinals, the white sox, and other teams than the Yankees and Red Sox. The again we have to deal with months of "what can they do now" stories during the offseason. Fans should really have to take a test before voting, because it seems more and more the minority of real fans are being alienated by people who just know the names in the sport go online without knowing how they performed and voting. Real fans don't care about voting because they know their vote does not count because it is over powered by idiot people who do not really follow the game closely. I mean just look how many times Vince Carter has been voted into the NBA all-star game without deserving it. I understand that the point of all-star voting is to get fans involved in the sport, get them to watch the all-star game since they are supposed to want to watch the player they voted for, and try to make them into real fans. But the real fans are the only people who watch the game, theyve tried to add meaning to it, but how can you hang homefield advantage on one game that shouldnt count. The all-star game is entertainment and now real fans do not want to watch it because the best players are not in it. Baseball is the second worse sport at marketing itself to fans, and are in for a NHL like awakening if it does not do a better job. It is mostly Bud Selig's fault because he is a shitty commissioner, and has been lucky that baseball has brought itself back without any real NFL or NBA style marketing. The MLB does not exploit their fan base, and thats the reason it is the third most popular sport instead of second.

Overall I think fans should not be allowed to vote for all-stars. The best players should always make it, and the coaches and writers know that better than idiot fake fans. Also I think baseball needs the Yankees and Red Sox to be bad so fans will realize there are 28 other teams in the league. When they were talking about the Phillies on ESPNEWS they said the Phillies bullpen was good before picking up Urbina (which isnt true we may have been average at best) and called Ryan Madson, Ryan Madison. Calling someone by their wrong name is a mortal sin in reporting and it is a joke just because he isnt a yankee or red sox people cannot pronounce his name right. Also why is there 30 teams in the MLB, 6 divisions and 6 teams in the NL central and 4 in the AL west.

Tobacco companies

I was watching one of those "Truth" commercial paid for by people who have nothing better to do then try to tell me what to do. Then I heard that a settlement against the tobacco industry was reduced from 130 million to 10 million, and I'm probably one of the few people in America that said good. As you've seen the truth commercials prove that the tobacco industry is dishonest, wow good job you've showed me that corporations lie and try to trick the consumer into using their product. What they do is certainly dispicable, but it is nothing out of the ordinary for a corporation. And each commercial they tell me something most people should already know about the tactics by advertisers to try to get consumers to use their products. Then again most people are idiots and probably do not, I apologize for having way too much faith in the American race for a second. But to single out the tobacco industry is still unfair, every industry does it.

Let's first go over the advertising side of the industry and then examine the product itself. The tobacco industry clearly is using advertising to entice people to use their product, especially in previous decades, but what industry has not. No one is suing McDonalds for making them eat their food and making them get fat, so why can they sue big tobacco. If you that dumb that your willing to admit your too dumb to make your own decision and you let advertisements make them for you then I'm surprised your still alive anyway and have not fallen over a cliff. Unless you are going to criticize all industries and their advertisers than what right do you have to go after tobacco.

Now off to the actual product. It is clearly addictive, and that is probably the biggest problem with my argument because it is not psychologically addicting like alcohol, nicotine is physically addicting. But by now every one who can read, or has a TV, or has one brain cell knows that they are dangerous. So thanks truth maybe if you get a time machine and go back to 1942 you'll might make an impact, but its 2005 everyone knows what smoking does it is on every carton so stop wasting my time and shut the hell up. Now I come from a family of smokers, and like everyone we've had our share of tragedies, but thankfully none from smoking. Now not to sound cocky but my family, like the families of all my friends, seem to possess more common sense than the average American so I can't speak for all the complete idiots in America (there are a lot the people who voted for Bush the second time make up a large portion of the complete idiots in America), but everyone I know who smokes realizes how bad it is. The argument for much of the lawsuit said they smoked before any of health reports came out. But I am going to make an argument against that, and I am going to make it as simple as possible YOU WERE BREATHING IN THE SMOKE OF TOBACCO ON FIRE, AND IT MADE YOU FEEL GOOD, DID YOU ACTUALLY THINK IT WAS GOOD FOR YOU TO BREATHE IN LARGE AMOUNTS OF SMOKE DAILY? I mean seriously were people that dumb that they did not realize this, I mean maybe my family are geniuses and knew this before. The bigger problem is peer pressure, but clearly is it much easier to blame the media and the big bad industries then the people around us. Why not blame the parents for letting their kids smoke, or their friends for getting them to try it. Or god forbid blame yourself for doing starting to smoke. I am just tired of people blaming outside forces for their problems. If some kid beats up or shoots another kid, it is tv's, or video games', or music's fault but you can never blame the parents who were never around while the kid loaded up his AK-47. How about for one time we blame our immediate environment. Why isn't everyone dropping dead immediately after touching a cigarette, oooo wait you have to make the conscious decision for years to smoke and it really does take more than one cigarette to get addicted. How about we start blaming the parents, the friends, their immediate environment instead of pointing the finger. I realize how much harder it is to take the blame for your own problems, but I am tired of America being a country of cowards and maybe we will finally start owning up to our mistakes.....then again Bush is still the president and we are still fighting a useless war so I don't have high hopes.

Finals prediction

Spurs versus Pistons, defense versus defense (translation it is going to be a boring series). Both teams rely on defense and both try to grind it out and better teams in low scoring games. I hate both teams so this is going to be unbiased. Actually that's a lie I hate the Spurs more, but I'll do my best. Heres my analysis position by position:

Point Guard: Billups versus Parker (Advantage Billups) Actually this is a push. Billups is the better shooter and Parker is better at driving to the basket. Billups has been a little better in the playoffs, but they are at similar skill levels. But Tony Parker is French so he loses.

Shooting Guard: Hamilton versus Bowen (advantage Hamilton). Bowen is one of the top 5 defenders in the league (he plays dirty but he gets the job done). But Hamilton is the best at turning the corner around screens and getting the quick shot off. He is also a solid defender and does a lot of the little things.

Small Foward: Prince versus Ginobili (advantage Ginobili) Ginobili walks, he flops but he is a very good player. I hate Tayshaun as much as Manu but Tayshaun deserves respect too he is gonna give Ginobili problems with his length and Prince is solid on offense too. I just think Ginobili is a better overall player and more important to his respective teams's success.

Power Forward: Rasheed versus Duncan (advantage Duncan) He is boring, he is not flashy but he wins. Two in his first seven years in the league. But Rasheed is the best defensive player Duncan has faced, and Rasheed is not so bad on offense either. But unfortunately for Rasheed, Duncan maybe the best power forward ever so Duncan wins.

Center; Nazr versus Ben (advantage Ben) Nazr has been a huge pick-up for the Spurs, but Ben is reigning defensive player of the year so he gets the edge.

Bench: Brent Barry and his twin brother and Robert Horry versus McDyess and Hunter (advantage Spurs) As good as McDyess has been as a backup...comeon.

Both teams have experience and both teams play similar(boring) styles. Some people may say this is great basketball, but thats bullshit anyone who plays, watches, or had sex with a nba player knows offense is more entertaining. And this series will be tough to watch.

The Pistons got a huge lift last series by beating Miami. They had to go 7 games but they caught a break with the Wade injury and made it through (much to my disappointment). But overall the bench for the Spurs bench comes into play and the Spurs are just the overall better team. It kills me to say this but even though the Pistons have a chance....

Spurs in 7