Real Deal

If that's not a waste of money, neither is heroin, coke, meth, cigarettes, booze, or basically anything in this world, because there will always be people that "need it" and like it, people that say it's not a waste because they enjoy it, etc. Smoking weed is not like playing video games, though. I have a PS3 and a few games I've spent money on, and it will last me years. I won't be spending near as much as you on weed, which wouldn't last as long. Like I said, it gets people fired. It draws money out of their wallet. I have worked with people that are eating the clouds, they are so damn high, and it's like working with a pillow. They stand around, looking at the wall, going five times slower than me, and praying the clock runs twice as fast so they can get home and roll one. Yeah, there are people that can do it and not be that way, that can smoke 1-2 times a week and that's it, but there are FAR too many that are much, much worse, and if there's no real benefit (there are better ways you can deal with pain and stress), I don't see why it wouldn't be a waste of money. Same with booze and cigarettes. If I wanted to feel good, why wouldn't I just go take my money and have sex with a prostitute? That's a similar argument. It's not hurting anyone, it's my money, it's fun, relieves stress, may be a little unhealthy (just like weed), but I mean, sex = good. Would you consider that a waste of money? I doubt any of us have tried it, so I'm assuming you don't.

Sad thing is, I don't think Durant has the backbone to be able to handle a conflict like this in the locker room...at least not yet. He just doesn't seem like the guy that could step up and get everyone to shut up and listen to him. So, I'm wondering, who will do that? Perkins has been in the league longer than everyone on this team, aside from Nazr Mohammed (don't think Mo Pete will be there next season). Would Nick Collison say something? He's been with the franchise longer than the rest of the team, six year vet. It's just hard to swallow. Scott Brooks isn't Phil Jackson, so when these things happen, you'd have to wonder how detrimental they will be if they reoccur during the season.

Paul wasn't banned...he just wanted his account deleted.

...haha.

Just for kicks, what member(s) would you like to see unbanned? http://www.otrbasketball.com/forums/index.php?app=members&module=list Use the Advanced Filter button on the right, go down and where it says "Show All" (drop-down menu), select Banned. Give a reason for that member.

I've watched every single Chiefs game, every single minute he's played for them (literally). He's not as good as you're advertising. Cassel doing so well in NE was a fluke, and a big thanks to the Pats, for how well their team was constructed around him. Saying he did "nearly just as well" as Tom Brady is like me saying Vince Young is "nearly just as good" as Randall Cunningham. Brady, Rodgers, Peyton, Big Ben, Rivers, Brees, Vick, Eli, Romo, Ryan, Stafford, Bradford, Flacco, Schaub, Cutler, Sanchez...all better than Cassel. I'm sure I'm missing someone. By the end of the season, people will consider Newton better.

LMAO, yeah dude. My parents went out to a rent-to-own place to get a 52" Vizio, wanted to make payments on it (which meant they were going to spend $4k on the damn thing when it was all said and done), and I went out and just bought them a 42" out at Wal-Mart for $500. They didn't understand why, so I sat there and explained how they could stop smoking and have $3600 a year to buy whatever they wanted, lol. My dad actually did for a couple months, played this "game" I had and saved the money he spent on cigarettes....but he ended up having around $250 before he spent it on new seats and carpet for his El Camino he's restoring, and he went back to smoking. Impossible.

I'm not sure if that's the issue (sad if it is). I just noticed this on that guy's Twitter: If I recall correctly, that's the nasty slut that is obsessed with athletes and celebrities, and she's always putting them on blast and making up stories about how she has been with all of them. I'm not surprised at this. The issue, to me, is not that Selby is gay or not...but that he's sending pictures to other people, and while someone being gay isn't a big deal to me, it's a big deal if false information is put out there.

Haha, dude, that's fine. I'm not trying to say only losers smoke, nothing like that. I'm just pointing out how bad it can get, that people CAN be addicted to smoking, and that there are some that blow a lot of money on it. I get pissed because my parents buy a pack of cigarettes a day (one each), which ends up being $70 a week now, since they've gone up in price. That's $280-300 a month, which is a car payment.

Matt Cassel isn't going to be the guy for anyone. He's horrible, and I hate his attitude. He was a bitch yesterday, and I realize a couple did drop his passes, but he was also throwing them behind his receivers, in nasty coverage, 3-4 yards away from receivers, etc. He's just ignorant.

While people say weed isn't addictive because it doesn't contain anything like nicotine (just an example), it's a fact that it relieves stress, among other things, and anything you use, aggressively, that produces a mask for your senses will eventually cause an addiction. I mean, people are addicted to a lot of things that, really, don't ask for dangerous chemical intake (such as eating, even healthy eating). People can become addicted to working out. For my uncle, there is nothing better than smoking weed because, quite frankly, it relieves stress AND helps with the pain he would typically suffer every day (from him breaking his back years ago). He smokes all day, and this is no joke. In fact, I've seen people smoke 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day, which is asinine. My uncle does that with weed...hardly ever see him NOT smoking. Why? Because once he feels a bit of pain, he knows where to go. If you want to know how addicted he really is, he just found his way into the hospital and had 33% of his right lung removed, due to a major infection caused by sand-blasting and smoking (and a couple other things, but those two were the major causes). He was hours away from needing his entire right lung removed, and doctors told him to get his will ready, because they weren't sure he would be able to survive with the left long because of its damage. He stopped smoking cigarettes, but the day he was released, probably 30 minutes out of the hospital and on the way home, he was smoking weed and still having trouble breathing. People in their teens and 20's can say what they want about something, but when about 3-4 men in my family, ages 50+, are proof that weed is addictive and can be a burden (losing jobs, less money), and I've been there to witness it since I was able to recognize what they were smoking? I'm sure I'm right.

http://goodmenproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Adam-Morrison.jpg

Not going to defend Selby just because he's from KU (because I can't stand what he did to us), so I'll start with the logical question: what if that wasn't Selby on that Twitter account? Kind of reminds me of my friend getting his Facebook "hacked" (leaving his FB up on his phone) and people writing messages on it. Let me put it this way: if someone knew my four-digit code to get into my iPhone (or if I didn't have it locked, which was the case for a LONG time), what would stop someone from doing this same exact thing to me, using my Twitter app? I'm automatically logged in. I'm not going to assume it's him. The message(s) he supposedly sent sound weird...like those a dumbass friend would send, not really sure how to explain that, but I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about.

That, and I can go out and play ball 3-4 consecutive hours without collapsing on the court and needing oxygen. A friend of mine will sit here and admit that we can only get about an hour out of him because he smokes so much, and before anyone asks what he smokes, he hasn't smoked a cigarette in five years. Unfortunately, I know how much a bag of weed can cost, and I've seen all four of my uncles broke because of it (maybe not completely broke, but I do have one uncle that smokes more weed than anyone on this site, I would put that on my life without even knowing anyone on here personally, and he has failed many drug tests and lost jobs due to it, has sold his truck and can't stop smoking because it keeps him from having to deal with his "back pain").

Fuuuuuuuck. DHB, Ford, Murphy, Boss are all inactive. McFadden for a record 300+ rushing yards? LET'S GO DEFENSE.

Sad, huh? The Lakers really never had a better PF than Gasol. I would put Worthy, but he was primarily a small forward, and I can't say that AC Green was better than Pau. It was really either Gasol, or Odom. Clyde Lovellette put up three big seasons with the Lakers (four total, but his rookie season wasn't impressive, so I'm not going to bother with that), better scoring numbers than Pau and better rebounding, but I doubt he was the better player. Plus, this was back in the mid-50's, and his three big seasons were after Mikan was basically done, so Lovellette was starting at center for two of those three. Dukes came in during that fourth season, started at center and bumped Lovellette down to PF. So, it was one productive season of Lovellette at PF, versus Gasol winning two championships and spending four seasons (so far) as a guy that can put up around 18/12.

Yes. Nope. The current rookies will remain as such, and the 2012 draft class will be rookies as well. Yes. Nope. The NBA can't skip the draft, and if they could, they wouldn't choose to. The seniors would have a full year with nothing going on, which could be a big problem for many of them (some don't have the money to go overseas, some are financially in trouble to begin with, etc).

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Hope not, because I never knew about it, lol. Maybe in 2k11, because I didn't play much of that.

We've heard three sonic booms in the last five days. Three. Before this week, I have never heard one in my life. Funny enough, people in this town thought the first one was a meth lab explosion...it was LOUD, rattled the windows. Three in five days, though...nuts. Haven't really had anyone legitimate confirm it was a sonic boom, though. Basically, our oil refinery called the city and stated it wasn't an explosion out there (which would have blown up our city), and the police didn't find anything significant, so I'm thinking it's just assumed?

That post defense (the double team on Griffin) at around 1:45 is a bad thing. I like the player movements better, how the PG pushes the ball up the floor in front of him, how Blake grabbed the rim and how it snaps back into place when he lets go, minor things like that. Also, I love how you can roll the ball in and allow it to find its way down the court, keeping time on the clock. That's sick.

No, I definitely see your point. All of that COULD happen, but there are really only two examples of all-star players coming together on one team via free agency or trade demand, and that's Miami and New York (Boston and Minnesota worked trades that I suspected McHale had a big part of, but that's for another discussion). I mean, who knows if Dwight will really leave? If he does, though, it's not because he wants to join forces with another superstar, it's because the Orlando Magic were dumb enough to set fire to a decent team that they could've improved, and their decisions to take hold of Arenas and Turkoglu's toxic contracts make it even worse. Same with Chris Paul and what has happened to him in New Orleans. Minnesota could've had Stephen Curry with Kevin Love, and instead of having to wait on Rubio, they could've selected DeMar DeRozan in that same draft...but, instead, they took Rubio and Flynn. Then, the following year, they take Wesley Johnson over DeMarcus Cousins...and for what reason? I don't even know. They didn't need Johnson. Milwaukee was excited to get Jennings, yes, but what have they done before and after that? Bogut was a nice pick, but let's see...Jennings would've been in the 2009 draft with Blake and Curry, so in the 2008, the Bucks took Joe Alexander, who should've never been drafted. I don't remember very many after him, but Brook Lopez, Roy Hibbert and JaVale McGee were all selected after Alexander, and so was George Hill. Many others who would've contributed more. I never understood bringing Shaq to Cleveland. Never understood Jamison there. Sadly, these are teams that have much better selections than teams like the Lakers and Mavericks, who are always selecting late first and second-rounders. The NBA works like this: free agency provides the bigger markets with a way to acquire a superstar, but in return, it will cost them a max contract for 5-6 seasons (and, most of the time, double the contract because of luxury tax). That's why you see teams like Dallas trying to actually build a legitimate team, and not stack the roster with LeBron and Wade. All the while, you have small market teams that feast on the NBA Draft and the ability to overpay players. Unfortunately, they end up overpaying role players, which hurts them tremendously when they finally land someone like Jennings because, despite what anyone would want, the Bucks have wasted money and picks trying to build around someone they THINK is a franchise player, when in fact, he's not. Cleveland was fortunate to land that #1 pick AND have the #4 as well. What if one of those foreign bigs they passed on ends up being an all-star? Poor international scouting is to blame, or Gilbert just not wanting to take a chance. I mean, Tristan Thompson can be decent, but it's a long shot, and quite frankly, after losing Hickson the way they did (instead of getting Amare, which was another mistake), you'd have to wonder what's going to become of Varejao, who is an underrated defensive player.

Easy answer (no pun intended). That game against the Lakers was amazing, not to mention the fact that LA would've swept the entire playoff run if they didn't lose that game, which is jaw-dropping.

Sounds about right, but there's something wrong with that. What advantage has anyone had over the Spurs? They have won four championships since 1999, and they are a small market team. Everyone likes to talk about how small-market teams have a disadvantage. The truth is, small-market teams don't know how to spend their money wisely. Instead of blowing it all in free agency, they need to hire better scouts and look to land a gem in the NBA Draft. San Antonio is a great example (a small-market team) of how well that worked out for them. Over the last decade or so, the Spurs have had the best scouts (and definitely the best international scouts) we've ever seen in the league. Again...four championships since 1999, not all because of Tim Duncan. It wasn't too long ago that Malone and Stockton were playing for the Utah Jazz, a small-market team that would have two rings if it wasn't for MJ. What happens with the Kings if Horry doesn't put them away? Do they win an NBA title? Take a look at how loaded that team really was, and they are considered a small-market team. These teams may not have $100 million to spend on their players. It's not that creating the problem, though. The problem lies in the economy itself, and the fact that these players are making FAR too much money. Overpaid players such as Gilbert Arenas are causing small market teams to spend less and less, while the "big dogs" like the Knicks...well, they just don't care. Your very own Cleveland Cavaliers were in the NBA Finals in 2007. They were one all-star away from winning it all, really (a real all-star, not Mo Williams). Cleveland is not LA or NY. The fact is, the Cavaliers landed LeBron James, and they were lucky to have him for seven seasons. Had they played it smart and traded picks and decent players to bring in a second scoring option, that would've put a smile on James' face, and there's a huge chance he would've stayed for another 5-6 years, long enough to win them a ring. The Grizzlies were shopping Pau Gasol...look what the Lakers got him for. Cleveland could've offered, but they decided not to. The Indiana Pacers were in the NBA Finals this last decade. I could go on and on, but there's no reason to. When it comes to who's winning what, it has little to do with the salary cap and everything to do with the owners and their careless spending + poor decision-making. Certain aspects of the CBA can be changed to help keep lottery picks in town, contracts can be changed up a bit, amnesty clauses can be instituted every season, but there's no reason for a hard cap OR tossing the cap completely out the door.

Buy it for me?