Real Deal

Yes sir.

Haha, I remember that.

Six divisions in the league, one or two "division leaders" for each. You'll be responsible for... 1) moving Gameday topics (no matter the teams or division, all leaders will be expected to help each day) 2) recruiting for your division (bringing in fans for all five teams) 3) editing topic titles for those five team forums, opening and closing topics, merging when necessary To be a Division Leader, you must be a responsible and respected member here on OTR. You must be dedicated, have a fairly clean record (no recent suspensions or bans), and should be active as a poster. Members considered before anyone else will be those who have been posting longer, posting more content and are active in basketball discussion, no previous bans or suspensions whatsoever, and show they are able to moderate a message board without running into any personal problems with members. ATLANTIC DIVISION (Celtics, Nets, Knicks, Sixers, Raptors) CENTRAL (Bulls, Cavs, Pistons, Pacers, Bucks) SOUTHEAST (Hawks, Bobcats, Heat, Magic, Wizards) NORTHWEST (Nuggets, Wolves, Thunder, Blazers, Jazz) PACIFIC (Warriors, Clippers, Lakers, Suns, Kings) SOUTHWEST (Mavs, Rockets, Grizzlies, Hornets, Spurs) You don't necessarily have to have a favorite team in the division you're applying for. You should understand that, if you apply, you may not get your first selection. To apply, select TWO divisions, and put them in the order you want them in. 1) Pacific 2) Northwest Also, add why you want the position, and why you think you'd be good for the job. PM me your application. Eventually, Division Leaders will be spread out to represent a single team, if we have enough members and activity to cover all 30. Those Division Leaders will select their team first.

Evans scored the game-winning layup with 1.9 seconds left. http://www.nba.com/games/20101019/SACLAC/gameinfo.html

http://www.nba.com/games/20101019/GSWPHX/gameinfo.html

I wouldn't be too down about it. The Knicks still have the best shot at it, if Denver decides they want to part with Melo by making him happy. Sort of depends on how the Nuggets and Melo go about all of this. He COULD be a force to reckon with until February, help the organization win as many games as possible, then request a trade again. Denver would probably deal him to whatever team he wished. Or, he could be a problem up until February, and Denver deals him to a desperate team that will take the chance (Golden State), yet offer less JUST BECAUSE they are taking the chance, and Denver settles for less. The Knicks should still be leading the pack, though. Always a good thing, because the possibility that Melo stays in Denver after this season is slim to none, at this point.

The simple fact that someone took all of your guys' hard work, that's it. Nothing else. OTR only gives back to me by providing me with discussion and knowledge. I actually lose time and money doing it, just like someone trying to get rich would. Nearly six years has gone by, and I've seen nothing from it, and never will. It doesn't compare. Nope, didn't care. Made that decision off the wall one day, and already had it up and preparing it for everyone a couple of days later. I told Harry one day that I didn't even want to be on staff at JBB anymore, and that he should be glad he's not. I didn't want anything to do with sites at one point, until Dee, Erin and Jesse were getting hated on (sexually and racially) in AIM chats by a couple of JBB staff members. There was no dream, no goal, no nothing. No relation whatsoever to getting rich. You can't say that because it's an inaccurate statement. Those paralyzed may believe they will walk again, but nothing they do guarantees it. Chances are pretty slim to none for a lot of people in that position. I actually hope everyone reads the following, even though it's a book. Setting your mind to something doesn't mean it'll happen. You expect someone to, say, continue their dream of inventing something valuable to all of us, but at some point, they are going to need to focus on their well-being, their family, and that takes a paycheck. Nobody in their right mind is going to live a lonely life, mooching off of others and not doing anything to get by, just to try and invent something and avoid holding down a full-time job. Someone I know (a landlord) has numerous houses. I'll relate it to one of your own comments from earlier. Let's just say he makes $10k a month on rent, $120k a year. In eight years, he'll have a million? No, because he's probably spending at least $60k a year just living and providing for his family, maybe more than that. Double that 8.3 years and you get nearly 17. Also, he has taxes to pay on his houses, along with repairs/maintenance every year if he's a good landlord (he owns the houses, you don't). He also has to pay off his loans. He didn't steal 15-20 houses for free...some cost anywhere between $50k to $150k in my area. That 17 years turns into many, many more. Dan (the landlord I know) is in his mid-40s, has been doing this since he was in his 20s, and he's definitely not rich. He's still paying on a couple of his houses. People that live in this fantasy land don't realize what it's like to be down and out. People can definitely recover, but it takes a long time, and things rarely change. When I say down and out, I'm not talking about not having money to buy an ESPN magazine until Friday, I'm talking about things like having to work on the weekends despite having major spinal cord surgery (my dad), designing sites and staring at a computer despite having one eye patched and the other blurry, needing to blow up text 4x larger just to read it (me). Unfortunate events get in the way, and that's life. However, even without those unfortunate events, it's extremely difficult to get rich. There are families that go years without having a major situation to tend to, but while this guy wishes he was the CEO of the production factory he works for, he needs the manual labor because, without it, he has no money for a house, a car, food, gas, or anything. Most everyone doesn't get rich because life happens. Nobody ever turns down the opportunity, and not even crackheads give up trying to make as much money as they can. People end up realizing that they have to stop living through their dreams and start living for themselves, their family and even others around them. There's a guy I went to high school with, almost 10 years ago, that is still trying to rap and make money. Most everyone I know thinks he's just a bum sitting in a studio his dad bought him when he was 17, not working and still living with his parents, no girlfriend. Why do we think that? Because it's true. He's actually a decent rapper, but as stated over and over again, life is eventually going to consume him, or else he's going to be 17 for the rest of that life. Right now, it would be nice to be rich. I'd pay everything off...my house, my car, my medical bills, maybe go overseas and try to get an artificial lens implanted (in clinical trials right now). But, at some point, it hit me that it's not going to happen, and that I need to start providing for myself and for my girlfriend immediately, and helping out my parents (mainly my dad) in the process. How about you tell us, in just one sentence, what will make you rich. It shouldn't take more than one sentence. I just want to know what you're going to sell, invent, or manage, and how many years you think it'll take. Nothing more. You'll keep preaching how anything can be accomplished as long as we set our minds to it, but that's a parent talking to their young and naive kids. A parent dreams their kids become bigger than they are, so they will feed them BS to make both parties feel comfortable and confident. I spent years of my life (and still do to this day) working on my game (basketball). I took 300 shots a night, every night, for months at a time, and would dribble in the basement for hours when it was cold outside, go to the gym and just work out and shoot the ball, shoot free throws, do defensive slides, all outside of school. It never turned me into a potential Division I college basketball player, skill-wise. I believe I'm pretty good, but not to that level, and I know I've reached my peak, 110% sure of it, even though I still work on my game to this day. Still go out to the park, nearly every day, and shoot the ball and play pick-up games. Not everyone can be rich. Not everyone has that opportunity. You need to try and find a way to meet people that are far, far less fortunate than you or the average person...young adults that grew up struggling, little education, then no money for college and maybe one parent to feed them and push them to get a job at McDonald's. Maybe he's no super freak of an athlete, has no rap skills...just a typical human, like most of us, but in an extremely binding situation that, really, he has to live for and live with. There may be a couple of people on here that relate to exactly what I said, too. If ANYONE on this site knows about dreams crashing down and people struggling in general, it's me. My diabetes didn't seem to exist at one point, I was so wrapped up in making money, becoming an excellent basketball player, staying up late for college, and riding my financial wave through fantasy land. I needed to save up what I could to get my education, and part of the resolution was to not buy as much insulin and test strips (talking hundreds of dollars a month) or eat the right foods (more hundreds), so I was skipping shots and not testing my blood sugars often. I won't need to tell you the result of that once again. Set the bar too high, and you'll be walking under it the rest of your life. I'm honestly done talking about it. I'm sure everyone else will be as well.

That's pretty much it.

Discussion over.

I actually take offense to that. You wouldn't know a [expletive]ing thing about struggling, dude. Say what you want. I don't even read 80% of what you're typing because it's complete and utter crap. A thousand people are billionaires, and almost 7 billion aren't. If it's about words and mindsets, there would be more, simple as that. Here's what you need to drill into your skull: billionaires aren't the only people that try. I honestly don't care what you say pertaining to this subject anymore, because right now, you sound like a stuck-up, know-it-all, pyramid and get-rich-quick scheme promoter that, truly, has absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Real talk. And the majority of this site, and the majority of people in the states and around the world (you know, the billions of people that work their asses off for their families, many trying harder than you can imagine) would agree and say the same exact thing to you. I hope to God you remember these few posts when you're thinking about how incredibly difficult it is to become a millionaire (let alone a billionaire) in 10-20 years.

http://www.nba.com/games/20101018/OKCSAS/gameinfo.html

http://www.nba.com/games/20101018/NOHMEM/gameinfo.html

Let me give you a dose of reality, to show you how absolutely ignorant your words are right now. I graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA, absolutely obliterated the COMPASS test by scoring perfect on both the math and English (writing essay and skills) sections (the test was required for our college), dove into two years of community college and left for UNM after that. While I was in school (HS and college), I was ranked the top trumpet player in the state of Kansas for two years. I had a free ride with a music scholarship, free ride for my grades. Got an art scholarship as well, and won a poetry contest as a senior in high school to win another. My mindset was to stand on a pile of money by getting into computer programming and writing software for a big company, such as Microsoft. Things changed in my life, but my focus never did, at least for years. Came back to Kansas and got a job at a refinery as a systems analyst, and got an offer to become an inspector, making more than enough money and having a chance to be shipped off to a much larger company out on the east coast. Woke up blind in both eyes, dream ruined. Now I'm in major debt, I'm 27 years old and I have one eye. I will never get to inspect at an oil refinery because of the dangerous chemicals involved that could ruin my other eye. Playing a trumpet, even though it would never make me money, is impossible due to the sensitive blood vessels in my eye. Getting loans for ANYTHING? Impossible, and you'd know that once you see my credit report, due to all of my medical bills. Couldn't work for two years because, at one point, there was no way I was going to get the surgeries needed without Medicaid. The surgeries, everything I've gone through, and the way I had to recover and the meds I had to take...I now have high blood pressure, along with my diabetes. So let me turn this into something you should relate to: you are in your 20's. You aren't rich. Everyone wants to be rich, or extremely wealthy, or have enough money to live comfortably. People do anything necessary for money. You claim all it takes is to be focused and to be determined, and to believe? Bull[expletive]. You're dead wrong. Ask a single mother with two kids how much she will do to provide for them, and then ask yourself why she's still struggling. How many billionaires do you know, personally? None? Just one? There are 1,011 in the world that are said to have $1 billion or more in investable assets, out of almost 7 billion people. You really think you'll be one just by what you think you can achieve in life? You're saying that a thousand people just needed the right mindset, and the rest didn't try hard enough? You're full of it, dude.

I can't watch 3D movies. I only have one eye.

I figured he'd still go with it, though...much better hitter as a lefty, statistically. Series over, anyway.

Not a fan of baseball as much as basketball and football, so I don't know any "advanced" rules or anything. Why did the DH for the Yanks (the last batter) not hit as a lefty?

I think I'm going to be rich. My mind is made up, guys. Before, I didn't want to be...but now? Yep...gonna get it done, not going to stop until I get rich.

http://www.nba.com/games/20101018/ORLATL/gameinfo.html

http://www.nba.com/games/20101018/PORGSW/gameinfo.html

Fisher and Blake, and on-ball defense. But I really need to see the Heat before I make my prediction. If we're talking any other team, then the Lakers don't exactly need Drew to be 100% healthy.

Well, what I meant was that, by handing out the suspensions instead of fines, it's going to take away a lot of hits up high, in the chest and shoulder area. This weekend, I saw just one of those helmet-to-helmet hits that, to me, was intentional (Meriweather's hit on Heap). I'm sure I could argue that Harrison's helmet-to-helmets were intentional, since he's brain dead and doesn't care who he cripples, but most of these concussed QB's and those other hits had targets in the chest and shoulder area. When Jackson was demolished, it was an attempt to cause a fumble. Robinson hurt himself doing it. So, logically, this will lessen the amount of hits up high, almost certainly. QB's like McNabb and almost all RB's will love this, also, because a spin move will throw someone off your waist easier than escaping a guy slamming into your upper body and wrapping you up (more to grab up high, easier to alter a player's balance as well). Tell me what happens when the Jets are at the one, and they send Tomlinson over the pack, and Polamalu dives (like he did at Collins earlier in the season) and cracks helmets with him? I don't see very many coaches changing their philosophy when it comes to tackling a ball-handler or sacking a QB, but I do see players changing, and it could ruin the game.

I actually agree, for the most part. I just thought you were leading into a conclusion that Eminem isn't arguably on that level, which is why I stated that he's the best lyricist, but not necessarily the best rapper. Nas can change his style, that's fine...but I know a lot of people that aren't so happy about it. We saw Eminem change a little, and I didn't like it. I'm sure Weezy disciples were pumping their fists when he decided he was going to dive into the rock scene, too, but it was garbage, in my opinion (although that change is a little different). I can't knock a rapper for not being able to change his style. Maybe you and I have two definitions of a change of style, though...but Eminem is best when he's unleashed and not holding back, speaking his mind through his music, taking out his anger. Pac was best when he related to others through his music. I welcome changes, but not those that make you feel as if you don't even know the person anymore.

Just a poll to ask what our community thinks about dropping the word censor. But first, realize that this does NOT mean you will be allowed to personally attack anyone, and racist comments will still get you banned (I may continue to censor a couple of racial slurs, actually). Vote and explain, please.

I decided not to go there, but...yeah.

They made a good point last night on one of the post-game shows on ESPN. I forgot who said it, but he stated that it could be a mistake, because players will take this as the league telling them to hit lower. Problem is, those are going to be career-ending knee/leg injuries. I understand that the helmet-to-helmet hits are a problem, but this is really the first week of football that we've seen that many dangerous hits at once. I think that the real solution is to somehow develop a new football helmet (to prevent concussions), or a neck support that all players are required to wear (to prevent neck/spinal cord injuries). I'm sure some will laugh, but I don't see how that's impossible seeing how technology has boosted since the 70s and 80s. The NFL might as well tell players not to hit high, and by doing that, they are telling them to hit lower. Why not just change the game and force players to re-learn the sport? It doesn't make much sense to me. Players wear pads and helmets to prevent injuries. If they aren't protected enough, fix it by innovation, not by elimination.