NBA Scoreboard Update

With 5 categories to go, Chad Ford holds a 2 point lead over Tim McMahon and Marc Stein in NBA Predictions.

Hollinger, Sheridan and Harper all picked the Bucks to win the Central, an egregious error.  Also, Stein/Adanda/Arnovitz/Friedell/Shelburne all casting preseason vote for coach of their year at Jerry Sloan, which in retrospect seems to be unlikely.    In addition, only about half of the votes for Rookie, were in favor of Blake Griffin (with the rest for Wall and one for Cousins).    It isn’t expected that Chad Ford’s Nate McMillan coach vote would hurt him, with his Griffin vote in the bank.

Of course, if Derrick Rose (a total of ZERO preseason MVP pick votes) wins MVP, there are really only four potential points left.  (8/25 votes were for LeBron, the only other realistic candidate, considering Durant and his 60% vote having a bit of a down year coupled with the explosion of Russell Westbrook).

(data accumulated from http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/preview2010/news/story?page=Predictions1011-MVP and related links)

Of Winters and People Left Behind

Yesterday, I got a facebook invitation to the 10 year reunion of my high school class.

Today, I became the first person to politely decline the invitation to travel (during the holidays) at the start of cold/sleet/snow season to frigid New England, to see a bunch of people I have declined to even be facebook friends with.  See there are three kinds of people, Types A, B, and C.

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The Y-axis is coolness/accomplishments, and the X axis is age, in years.  The Type B and C people are the cool kids in high school.  They started off cool, and either maintained it, or came back to the pack, but are still the smoking/drinking cool kids.  The Type A kids got a late start and are playing catch-up the whole time.   They don’t catch up to the consistent ‘C’ kids until college, and by that time, the fair share of ‘B’s have become the ones who eschew college for drinking cheap beer and smoking weed in the basement of their parents houses.   It’s fun, but that downward progression continues and by the time the 10 year reunion comes around, nobody has anything in common, and I stay in Nashville to play golf and curse the New Hampshire winters.

Of Putting Up or Shutting Up (Part 1)

NBA picks to be calculated soon:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/preview2010/news/story?page=Predictions1011-MVP

And a “save for later” file:

2011 MLB AWARDS PREDICTIONS (from ESPN)

Of Trash Talk

At some point we need to decide where “Not in our garage!!” ranks among the top-10 worst trash-talking moments ever.

(http://twitter.com/sportsguy33)

Based on the current Central Division standings, I think “not in our basement” would be more appropriate.

Of Millionaires vs. Billionaires

Remember when the NFL players sued the owners for negotiating TV contracts that pay them in case of a lockout?  This would provide ‘lockout protection’ money, allowing the owners to hard-bargain the players (http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2011/3/1/2023758/nfl-tv-contracts-case-players)

Well now apparently, the players are using their rainy-day fund to pay the players and keep them from desperately negotiating a substandard CBA deal (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6270467)

If I was an owner:

1) I’d be really freakin pissed off

2) I’d send a mass email out with the best way to use the piddling sum of $60,000 to help feed your kids and pay your mortgage, and attach a video of sitting in one yacht, watching the other sit unused.

Middle finger at: NFL owners, NFL players

Of Lessons Learned

Note to self:  never tell your girlfriend/fiance/wife/any other female in your life that she is running too slow.   You’ll spend the next three miles watching the back of her head grow smaller and smaller as you gasp for breath up the hills.  Ooops.

4 days until Oak Barrel Half-Marathon

5 days until my post bitching about peroneal tendonopathies

Of Birthdays

If birthdays were logical, wouldn’t we be the ones giving our parents the presents?