What else in this room reminds me of you?
The windowsill with a crucified pit of an avocado still sits in water.
What else in this room reminds me of the relationship I’ve ruined.
The tables I made strong enough to hold your magazines,
but not your tired legs.
One more week in this apartment,
one more week of being haunted by the ghost of what should have been.
What else in this fucking empty room reminds me of fucking you?
An orphaned couch where I spent some long nights
while you went out with our friends.
What I wouldn’t do to be a ghost like you, to be somewhere new.
To leave everything,
the way you left everything that reminded you of me.
One more week in this apartment, one more week of being haunted.
‘I’m 29, I’ve been playing 10 years, I’ve been through so much,’ he said quietly. ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever get this close again.’
This quote gives me chills. This quote shows you how sometimes, just sometimes, nba players aren’t in it for just money (although i’m sure its a nice bonus). This quote came from the most enigmatic Laker- Lamar Odom. Chastised from the moment he donned the forum blue and gold, Lamar has time and time again proven his love for the game and last night was no different.
Lamar was involved in almost every play that changed the game. Lamar was a force on offense and the glass. If you want to see why basketball is my favorite sport, get that TNT isocam out and make them follow odom for last nights 48 minutes. Fucking brilliant. Watch this play and see the passion, I’m too exhausted from cheering to continue talking about it:
A few other massive plays that might be overlooked:
2nd Quarter 0:03 remaining: Kobe has the ball at the top of the key, yo-yoing as usual and winding down the clock. Everyone knows he’s driving left where Sasha would be wide open in the corner. What every one doesn’t know is that Sasha will actually make this shot. Denver made the correct play by having JR Smith slide over to help, but Sasha finally stepped up and hit a clutch three to send us into the break tied. (Interesting fact: this game was tied at the end of every quarter, can’t remember that happening… ever)
3rd Quarter 4:16 remaining: This won’t be overlooked, but it cannot be overstated: Shannon Brown had the intensity changing play of the game. His dunk over Birdman after laying it up soft ALL SERIES LONG was a momentum shifter. Everyone in denver cringed when this happened. The utter excitement of seeing Brown challenge their BIRDMAN on a dunk attempt, to the utter depression of having him be on a poster in the next “amazing” NBA commercial. Go do some more lines Birdman.
3rd Quarter 3:26 remaining: Lamar Odom steps up to nail a wide open triple to knot the score at 73-73. Whenever Lamar rises up, you’re almost terrified, but damn did this one look pretty. He held the follow through nicely, and swished the 24 footer to the right of the top of the key. This play would be huge because Chauncey would come down to hit a clutch three of his own on the next play.
3rd Quarter 2:06 remaining: Kobe didn’t assert himself shooting in this game, but this shot was huge. With 2:06 on the clock kobe rose up for a contested three after chauncey had just hit a dagger three to put the Nuggets back up. Kobe tied the score at 76-76 and this is how the quarter would end.
If the Nuggets only knew that the Lakers would go on an 11-0 run to start the 4th, maybe they would have taken some better shots towards the end of the third, but who knows.
I do have to touch on one final note from the game: George Karl. First of all, i’ve been confused by a lot of his substitutions and strategies this whole series (I’m confused by Phil too, but Phil has 11 rings). I also thought it was funny that he had nothing to say about the officiating in Denver, but always has complaints in LA. Let’s face it: the calls have been bad in both conference finals series throughout the first 8 games. What made him think tonight would be any different? For him to sit up there on his presser after the game, and blatantly blame the ref’s for his teams loss is bullshit and cowardly. At least when Phil does it, he says that they LOST THE GAME, NOT THE REFS. I wish I could find the presser so that everyone could see how pathetic this looked. He went on to discuss how the Lakers paid for this win in fines and that his team was already thinking about the officials before the game tipped! Way to have then ready to play.
Sometimes I’m amazed at how fast things change in the sports world. I was reading a ridiculous article on the LA Times website and saw this :
What the hell? Trying to be assertive?
Look, I know Pau hasn’t set the world on fire with his amazing play so far, but he definitely hasn’t had a BAD game. He’s missed some foul shots, and got a lot of burn.
When we win, the Nuggets handed us the game. When the Nuggets win, they’ve mastered our team and Carmelo is the next Michael Jordan + Lebron James hybrid freak of nature. The truth is that this series has been played well by both teams, which are playing sporadic but great basketball.
Let’s look at the other quotes in the image while we’re at it:
1. Lakers show split personality in loss
Really? Did they? Yeah, the Nuggets made a run at the end of the first half, but you can’t say we gave it away- they started making their shots. I just hate this whole “Jekyll and Hyde” nickname shit. Every game has ups and downs.
2. Nuggets deliver a powerful message in Game 2
I think the message delivered was “both teams are playing and competing at a high level, these will be close games decided by late game execution.” Thanks.
3. Sadly for Lakers, Nuggets decide to play
“Sadly for Lakers” ???? I guess they didn’t decide to play in the first game when we won. I guess they didn’t decide to play while we had chances to make plays (the illegal jump ball). This is the most ridiculous statement of the image.
I can’t wait to see what the “blogosphere” will have to say after games 3&4.
What is “a slingbox?”
Only one of the coolest ideas in quite a while. The idea is simple but the implementation is really genius. It’s basically a box that plugs in between your cable box/dvr/dvd/etc and your tv which allows you to then stream your tv to any wifi enabled computer (there are mobile implementations of this but i’ll get to that in a minute).
Where would you use a slingbox?
Think about the people who are trapped at work all day. You could easily watch your TV during lunch ! I know web streaming is huge right now and you can get a lot of that media online anyway, but there’s still something about watching live TV.
When I was in Australia, I used my slingbox pretty much every day during the trip. Even across the planet the stream was good and a great experience. I don’t know what I would have done without it. I would have missed crucial Manny being Manny moments in the dodgers playoff run. I would have missed the first Lakers preseason games. I would have missed the Presidential debates live and in HD.
So what is wrong with the device? Honestly, not much. The few gripes I DO have though are definitely legitimate. A product that is so universally accepted across multiple platforms should do everything it can to keep its user base satisfied. What do I mean? Well basically the Mac support for Sling sucks. I hate the fact that I cannot give them my money for a Slingbox HD because the mac player is not at version 2.0 yet. How is this possible? How can you not hire a few competent mac developers to get this product out? I have read a few places that the mac HD sling support will be web based only- I cannot confirm this as i’ve emailed them countless times for comment. If this is true, I will be let down. I don’t even think I will upgrade. Sometimes you do not want to use a website for everything. It could be a revenue grab hoping that the increased traffic will in turn kick up advertising revenue on the new sling.com streaming site. If they shaft mac users out of a TRUE desktop application to push traffic to a beta portal, i’ll be livid. The windows 2.0 Slingplayer software has been out for probably 2-3 months now, and we still haven’t received any concrete information regarding mac support. How is this possible? I know many mac users who enjoy slingbox and are not upgrading because of this.
So what do I hope to get out of this? Well my dream scenario is that someone at sling media reads this post and finally clears up some of the confusion. I know this will never happen… and until then I will be using my old slingbox and not streaming anything in HD.
At this point I don’t even know if i’ll upgrade when they finally DO release the mac player. Sigh.
What can I say? I decided to play in these today (indoor of course) and these are far and above the best basketball shoe i’ve ever played in. Here are some things that set it apart from other shoes i’ve played in:
1. First of all, these are incredibly light. They feel like you’re wearing ultra light running shoes or something. You don’t even notice them at all- it’s pretty impressive. I was playing in AF25′s before and they are 3-4 times lighter. Impressive (yes i said it again).
2. The Fit. Overall these shoes grip your feel unlike any other basketball shoe i’ve worn. When making cuts, stopping on D, crossovers, etc your foot never moves. How many people can say that about their shoe? I feel like i’m swimming in most of my shoes, but not these. It’s almost like they’re molded to your foot? I have no idea.
3. The Low. Yes, they are low-tops. Does that matter? Negative. You’re going to fuck up your ankle regardless of what shoe you wear. If you are playing basketball and not taping your ankles anyway, you’re ignorant as fuck. that’s on you if you get crossed up, not the shoe. The weight, fit, cut, etc are all enhanced by having the low-top.
I love my Slingbox.
What can I say? I decided to play in these today (indoor of course) and these are far and above the best basketball shoe i’ve ever played in. Here are some things that set it apart from other shoes i’ve played in:
Who is reading this?