J.J. Redick v. Mike Gansey

If you heard this sentence "This guy is more athletic, almost as good of a shooter, and a better perimeter defender" you'd think he'd be picked somewhere around the other guy if not higher. Well Mike Gansey is just that to J.J. Redick. You cannot use conference as an excuse either because Gansey played in the Big East. I understand Redick was the second leading scorer in the nation with one of the best teams, but after watching both, Redick in person, I just do not understand why people regard him so highly. He cannot play defense, can hardly create his own shot, cannot really pass that well, but he is apparently the greatest shooter ever. Meanwhile Gansey shot better from the field, the same from beyond the arc, and is a better athlete and defender. This is proof of the problems with NBA scouting and the ESPN generation. All year Redick was getting attention for throwing up threes and competing with a complete player with less team support in Morrison for the NCAA scoring title. Duke had about 25 regular season games on national television while West Virginia had eleven games, and even with those games Redick was still on ESPN every night while Pittsnogle was always named when ESPN wanted to break up the Duke brown-nosing. The fact is scouts/G.M.'s do not do nearly enough scouting before the draft, and then when a name keeps coming up like Redick they buy into it. I feel bad for the Magic who could have gotten a complete player instead got a shooter who may or may not be effective in the NBA like Redick, while a more athletic player like Gansey does not even get drafted. But again I am just some punk at a computer.

And they thought Lance Armstrong was doping?

Lance Armstrong has probably been tested for steroids more than any other athlete in the world. Now we find out that nine riders, including the two favorites, have been banned from the race because of doping. Good job France, fine work going after a guy who did not do it and miss an entire doping ring. When I think of ring I think of massive amounts of cocaine and a drug dealer sitting in a dark room while fat corrupt police officers help him distribute the drugs, but apparently they also have rings involving athlete men wearing full body spandex. Now I'm not a hate everyone who hates us, stick a boot in your ass American but from America I say to France "Haha you were wrong in your face you were looking for the wrong guy, why don't you surrender you cheese eating surrender monkey haha." No offense to Germany and Italy.

Japanese Prime Minister Loves Elvis!

Oh yeah and theres some war going on.

Ryan Madson will no longer do inteviews

Madson struck out seven and walked one in his 14th big league start. Afterward, the right-hander told the a team public relations official that he wouldn't talk to reporters until he backed up this fine effort with another one.

His standoff will last indefinitely.

CNN hires six year old to review children's books

Next they will have a python review Snakes on a Plane.

And Now Pitching for the Baltimore Orioles King Hippo

Just punch him in the face when he starts grunting then in the stomach over and over.

If I were Sixers GM...

The Sixers have earned the reputation for one of the worst run organizations in the league. They not only sign players to long-term contracts, but significantly overpay for those players (e.g. McKie, Snow, Dalembert, Korver). They misread talent, less so now than when Larry Brown was here but letting Larry Hughes, Raja Bell, and Bruce Bowen all go is inexcusable. Let's just say the other departments are on the same level as management. So I figured if there was someone in there who understood player talent and the salary cap like me. Since I am not a fan of trading Iverson (actually I know it almost has to be done, but I love him) I will do two scenarios with and without trading him.

Without trading him...
I would trade Dalembert as quickly as possible, he's a good blocker and athlete but his contract is an embarassment along with his desire. I'd trade him to a San Antonio or another team for a late draft pick and a spare part or two. If to San Antonio it would probably be for Brent Barry and that Oberto guy. I would then draft with the 13th pick a point guard like Marcus Williams and then trade something for a second round pick and draft a big man like Steve Smith. Then I would sign a defensive swingman (Greg Buckner) in the offseason. Clearly if I had more control and more knowledge of what teams are willing to trade this would be easier but as an outsider this is the way I see it. The lineup would look like this

Williams Barry
Iverson Free Agent/Green
Iguodala Korver
Webber Smith
Hunter Oberto

Yeah I know that team is not very exciting, but it would get us to the playoffs. I also would never ever let Korver play more than 25 minutes a game, and ask if he knows what defense or move on offense means. I would also take Webber out back club in his knees if we didn't have to pay his contract since it is uninsured because of his knees.

If we trade Iverson...
First if the Hawks came up to me and said "we'll give you Josh Smith and the number 5 for Iverson" and the Celtics said "we'll give you Wally and the 7th pick for Iverson" I'd laugh at Danny Ainge and shake hands with Billy Knight. I would still trade Dalembert for the same spare parts, but the trade would mean less since we would be getting multiple players for Iverson. If we had to trade with the Celtics then I'd have Wally and Korver fight to the death and the winner will be known as the most overrated player in the league. I would push the Celtics to include Al Jefferson or Gerald Green and a second round pick and throw Korver in on our side. Then I would draft Cedric Simmons or Shelden Williams as the first pick and Marcus Williams as our second pick. In the second round I'd take either Gansey or Novak to take over as guy who can only shoot threes. Then sign or trade for a defensive minded swingman player so the lineup would look like this...

Williams Barry
Smith/Wally Free Agent/Green
Iguodala G. Green
Webber Simmons/Shelden
Hunter Oberto

So now we have a much younger lineup that will not only be exciting to watch now, but help us be a contender sooner than expected. Also it helps us get out of our salary cap hell. As Simmons or Shelden develops I'd also start shaving back Webber's minutes so he is more effective when he plays, is fresher as the season goes on, and so he isn't on the court as much to slow everything up.

Basically the Sixers have dug themselves a deep hole and will have difficulty getting out of it, it depends whether King has the balls to take the risks to get us out of it, or the Sixers have the balls to fire him.

Stop Snitchin' Tour De France Edition

Apparently the stop snitchin' campaign is gaining universal appeal.

More World Cup v. ESPN

So I watched the Italy v. Australia game today which was an alright game as a whole. It ended awesomely though with a penalty kick in the 94th minute (which is actually listed 90th minutes since it was in stoppage time). So I turn to ESPNews after the game because I am bored and they show "highlights" from the game. I put that in quotations since all they showed was the final shot and the stupid bitch who was describing it said the shot was in the "75th minute" This is a joke, we are in the round of 16 and you just spent 30 seconds describing a game that ended on a penalty shot. Also don't dumb down or confuse the simple viewers by calling the quarterfinals "the elite eight"

Also from watching the world cup, soccer players are, for the most part, pretty tough but I have never seen a sport where flopping is rewarded so much and refs are almost as terrible as in the NBA.

We have to wait for the Autopsy...

I was reading the Downbeach Current (which covers Ventnor, Margate, and Longport) and one of the articles read "Autopsy reveals 34-year-old murder victim shot multiple times in the head." Now I understand even when the cause of death may be blatantly obvious they still do an autopsy to check if he died another way (like if he fell off a building whether he had a heart attack before). Now I've got no fancy doctoring degree, but I wouldn't need an Autopsy to reveal that someone was shot multiple times in the head, but that's just me.

And did you see that super crazy manager go crazy at that crazy minor league game! Well I have too about five or six times since last night. I learned it is really not that entertaining to watch some guy throw a temper tantrum during a class A minor league game, but apparently ESPN still needs to show the video 350 times in case Jesus comes back and needs to immediately see the video of the manager going nuts.

My Dad's reaction to commercials, and the World Cup

So my family decides to watch TV one night and the commercials come on. First there were commercials with 9 year olds riding dirtbikes which illicited this reaction from the Diddy "9 year olds riding motorcycles what the hell is going on." So we continue to watch and there is a father's day commercial...a local one for a restaurant. So the father and grandfather are trying to figure out where to go and the kid, cute as a button, says "Hooters still has 50 cent wings and beer" and the family (grandfather, father, and two boys) is magically transported to Hooters where the usual well endowed women are serving wings and beer to the family (I assume the kids got beer too since nothing else in the commercial made sense). My dad then reacts to the commercial like this "First kids on motorcycles and now Father's Day at Hooters what is wrong with these commercials!"

I am a casual soccer fan, something rare in the United States. I feel people are either really into soccer or not at all, but I've noticed our generation more than the others seem to be following the World Cup, which bodes well for the future of the sport of the United States. The issue is the fact that compared to other countries, we don't even notice the Cup. This is part of the reason why other countries hate us, the biggest sporting event in the world is taking place and just because we don't dominate every year we as a country just don't care. But we are not given a chance to care when the World Cup gets less attention than the Yankees and Red Sox or even a NASCAR race. This is by far the most popular sporting event, if not most popular event in the world period. I understand that everything in the United States runs on money and the World Cup just is not as marketable as Barry Bonds or the NBA Finals right now, but maybe we can step away from a few dollars and enlighten this country on the "beautiful game". Maybe in the grand scheme of things a sport does not matter, but maybe we can take this opportunity as a country to connect with the rest of the world, something we seem to never do.