I leaned back like I'm rich...

- Authors’ Mugs: My internet girlfriend Trigger hit me off with this shit. Shit is hot. Mildly related question: Is “pretentious” the most over-used adjective in the world? The most over-used noun-that-is-basically-an-adjective is “hipster,” right? Discuss.

- Robots on the Moon: Japanese people are on some next shit… again.

- Race, Reality, and Hip-Hop: O-dub’s got a cute little piece about Race and hip-hop. We can talk about some of this stuff all day, every day… so, um, let’s do it. In semi-related news, I was skimming through Michael Eric Dyson’s book about why Bill Cosby is a freaking idiot (which should’ve been the title) at Border’s yesterday, and Dyson is killing the Jello man. Peep this for a basic breakdown of Cosby’s counterproductive idiocy.

- Catchdubs is HYPE: I know Mr. Barat is hype for this shit and if you like shoes as much as that corny-ass smut I dated a few months ago, then this shit is for you. In the mean time, read this Scoop Jackson piece about shoes and go vote for your favorite jawns.

- Thoughts on the NBA’s new Age Limit: In a recent messageboard discussion, I responded to this:

“Not sure if this was touched upon but the real reason why the NBA wants the age limit is to protect the GMs and executives who are choosing these players.....nothing better for a GM than being able to see a player an extra year or two on the court before he is eligible for the draft....thereby lowering the risk of the GMs on picking a dud”

…with this:


I find this reasoning so hilarious. It's like these GMs can't fucking help themselves and absolutely HAVE to draft based on potential... which is absolutely not the case. The only people forcing these GMs to fucking draft these high-schoolers is, well, nobody. The high-school draft picks almost never arrive to a lot of fanfare, and they almost never pan-out-- at least not for several years. And, yet and still, we have to protect these GMs from their own dumb asses? Fucking ridiculous. Fuck them.

Honestly, the age limit is on some "sanctity of the game" bullshit. It may or may not be racially motivated to some degree, but I think it's an attempt to make the league more marketable to white folks. I feel like there's a lot of backlash against these young, athletic mugs who "lack fundamentals" and are just "athletic" "ballers." The "lack fundamentals" shit is kinda true to an extent, but it's also kinda bullshit. I mean, a lot of these players don't necessarily "lack fundamentals" so much as they do excel in other ways...and let's be honest here, you can only really say they "lack fundamentals" if the "fundamentals" are still "fundamental"... which they simply aren't. That's just a long-winded way of saying that the game has changed and you don't effing need the same set of "fundamentals" to be successful in the league that people like Larry Brown think you need. Shit, look at Amare Stoudemire. Sure, inevitably they lost to the Spurs, but he fucking DOMINATED the "Big Fundamental" in that series.

I mostly feel like the age limit is just an attempt to slow down the changes the NBA is inevitably going through as the league becomes more based on absolutely inhuman athletic ability and prowess. 20 years from now, there's gonna be a heck of a lot more players like Magic Johnson and Amare Stoudemire and Kevin Garnett, and for some reason, that scares the NBA-- which is odd because you know damn well that David Stern wanted a Suns/Miami final, yet, he's still gonna do dumb shit like instill an age-limit as an attempt to promote the style of play that nobody likes to watch but everyone claims to like to watch.

It's the ambivalence of the white sports fan: in reality they want to watch the tremendous athletes but love to bitch about how the game has been watered down by these same athletes that don't “respect the game” or "play the right way." I hope every motherfucker that ever said that dumb shit is glued to the TV set watching this finals.

Now, as for the Finals? They’ve been surprisingly almost-good. Sort’ve. Unfortunately, besides Bob Horry, there haven’t been any super-human feats of athletic glory a la Allen Iverson in Game 1 against the Lakers a few years ago, countless Jordan play-off games, and Magic’s rookie year game 6 where he threw up something like 40, 15, and 7 to win the ‘chip (out of position, playing Center, I might add). These Finals were 4 blow-outs, then a close game that was saved by the heroics of one weird-ass dude named Big Shot Bob Horry, and then a boring-ass close game where Duncan choked and good ol’ fashion defense and execution won. Sure, that’s all well and good, and at least the game was close and thus--by its very nature of being close--interesting. But where’s the super-humanity? This is the fucking NBA, for God’s sake. Make me say “UHNNNN!” I’m sorta half-disappointed that Bethlehem Shoals over at Free Darko is sorta half-abandoning his “this finals sucks” crusade by saying something sorta half-good about the Pistons. But, I can sort’ve feel his pleasantly-surprised tone, because, well, I expected these Finals to suck more than they do. But, they still kinda suck, don’t they? I totally agree with this point, however:

“At what point do we start criticizing Duncan, if not for choking at key points in this series then at least for not asserting his presence (himself?) more? I know that's not the kind of player or person he is, but the greatest power forward ever (no sarcasm there) should be putting his unmistakable stamp on each and every game.”

-e