Other sports

I followed the Knicks back in the 70’s. Everyone in WV was a Laker fan (Jerry West) so I had to be perverse, so i rooted for the Knicks. I stopped following them long ago, but i kinda got interested in them a little bit the last couple years.

There’s something off-putting about NBA basketball to me, but i cant quite put my finger on it. There’s all this pushing and shoving and elbowing on every single play. And the players double-dribble and travel constantly and its never called. I dunno.

And yet, obviously there’s some amazing passing and when a team starts ‘flowing’ its pretty cool. My favorite part of the sport is the passing.

A role player, with 19 dogs. I thought he would be the key to knicks chances this year.

joemad wrote:

i’m not sure if the Knicks had a strong “Clutch Gene” or if the Spurs had a bigger “Choke Gene”

Spurs gift wrapped it in game 2, game 4, and game 5. … Spurs average age = 23… 2nd youngest team to play in NBA finals and it showed with the lack of routine execution in the final moments of each game…they blew it big time.

at the onset of the NBA playoffs, I wanted to see the Knicks win it all,……outside of the Yankees, I’ve always been infatuated with New York……, but as this final series evolved, I found myself pulling for the Spurs to extend the series.

Well, ‘choking’ and ‘clutching’ are interesting concepts aren’t they. Think of Sam Darnold, for example. Apparently one can go from one to the other, maybe.

I heard a lot of ‘choker’ talk from the media, but if the Spurs were chokers, why didnt they choke in game 7, on the road in Oklahoma against the champs?

My own view is Wemby just wore down as the playoffs went on, and each game went on. Plus, he is just not a ‘big man’. He’s a tall skinny man. He reminds me more of a Ralph Sampson than a powerful center. I dont know if he’s going to have the great future so many people think he is. I can picture a lot of injuries in his future.

At any rate 8 straight new champions in the NBA, now.

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Iran 2
New Zealand 2
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Iranian team has become political pawn at this World Cup |
Nancy Armour
USA TODAY

“…Iran was banished to Tijuana, Mexico, at the eleventh hour, barred from having its base camp in Arizona as it planned. That resulted in a longer-than-expected trip to Los Angeles, where it plays its first World Cup game, against New Zealand, on Monday, June 15…”

Zooey wrote:

I wrote an article on yellow school buses for Parenting Magazine when I worked there 37 years ago. The only thing I remember is that the colors were chosen for high visibility, even in the fog.

I also wrote an article on the daycare center at CIA headquarters in Langley which pissed off the editor-in-chief so much that my contract was not renewed. It was loaded with jokes about “security blankets” and Big Brother, and he completely revised it to remove all of them. I also pissed off his secretary by dismissing “The Sun Also Rises,” saying it was a story about a bunch of Americans travelling all over Europe, unable to find quite enough alcohol to drink, and then going home. I said it should have been named “Tequila Sunrises Also.” The secretary’s name was Brett, and her parents named her after the character in that novel.

I was not well-loved at Parenting Magazine.

I dunno about this Hemingway guy.

“She was built with curves like the hull of a racing yacht.”
Ernest Hemingway, Tequila Sunrise Also.

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Every time i see a media-person talking about Jaylen Brown, they always imply that he’s a pain in the ass. But everytime i listen to Jaylen Brown he sounds like a young-critical-thinker.
I dunno.

Jaylen Brown on the NBA union.

bad-boy Draymond Green on Jaylen Brown, fwiw.

There are 15 teams in the WNBA. Only one of fifteen has an animal name. The Lynx.

What kind of name is ‘Fever,’ btw. Thats a symptom, right?

And do you really wanna call a California team the ‘Sparks’ ?

And why is Chicago the ‘Sky’? What is the special relationship between Chicago and the sky?

And why is Connecticut the ‘Sun’? What does the sun have to do with Connecticut?

And what does Portland have to do with Fire?

Atlanta Dream
Chicago Sky
Connecticut Sun
Dallas Wings
Golden State Valkyries
Indiana Fever
Las Vegas Aces
Los Angeles Sparks
Minnesota Lynx
New York Liberty
Phoenix Mercury
Portland Fire
Seattle Storm
Toronto Tempo

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Valkyrie
The ‘Choosers of the Slain’
Valkyries act as the assistants to Odin, the All-Father. Their main job is to find the bravest soldiers who died in combat. They divide these fallen heroes into two groups:

Valhalla: Odin’s grand hall in the sky. The warriors who go here are called the Einherjar.

Fólkvangr: A beautiful field ruled by the goddess Freyja

Spain vs Argentina. Thats the World Cup final in soccer.

Now i think we all have to agree to root for the least imperialist-murderous nation in these matters.

So which nation-state has the least bloody history: Argentina or Spain?

I have no idea.

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zn wrote:

Spain has somehow emerged from its long horrifying history to become a decently proggressive place.

The current Argentinian government is under a right-wing libertarian and is hostile to human rights groups and likes to prop up positive myths about the old 70s and 80s military dictatorships.

Looked at through the lens of history, every place is bloody. If history is the only metric, then we have to root for a giant asteroid strike.

Would that lead to dystopian soccer or post-apocalyptic soccer?

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Um…the espn-UK experts didnt like the ‘thuggery’ and ‘dark arts’ that Argentina displayed.

After espn’s recent firings, their two big stars are now Pat McAfee and Stephen A Smith. Gag me.

McAfee is expected to get about 60 million dollars per year, btw.

I remember when espn first started, it was fun. Lots of witty folks. I liked Keith Olberman when he was paired with Dan Patrick.

Now its down to two idiot mega stars.