Real Deal

Spain blew that lead they had in the fourth, and ended up losing to France. Batum was key...dude is an excellent defensive player...and France just started attacking the rim.

Nevermind what I said...I don't know why I said Jackson was gone. I meant Chandler.

Trade Billups to Charlotte for Erick Dampier (expiring), DJ Augustin and a first-round pick. The Bobcats need a good starting point guard, and it reunites him with Larry Brown. Charlotte is always going to be defensively active as long as Wallace and Brown are involved, so bringing in Billups does nothing but help. Lawson will start for Denver, they drop $13 million from their payroll, and Augustin backs up Lawson. The first-rounder could be nice, if the Bobcats struggle (they will be without Chandler and Felton).

How many players actually get suspended without playing a single NBA game, regular season OR preseason?

You mean because of his grades, right? Otherwise, I don't see how.

ESPN Classic live at noon EDT ESPN2 re-air at 11 p.m. EDT

http://turkey2010.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/10/fwcm/p/schedule.html

Nasty roster. They take LA to seven. Can't say they'd come out on top, though, but they would be in the Finals once Bryant starts truly declining.

Anyone see this guy? Dude is an amazing receiver. I've actually watched him practice, because... http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5311226 I also had no idea he was Cris Carter's son. Would be sick to see him play here for a while and eventually go to the NFL, just like Brandon Jacobs.

Overrating Kevin Martin a little, aren't we?

Go figure.

Guess they were wrong, also, because it was stated from the start that it wouldn't be completed until late Fall (projected), and it's nearly impossible to build something that large so quickly, let alone finalize the sale, find and hire the crew, plan the architecture, and actually do the work AND open the building. Not sure who started that rumor about 9/11, but it was ridiculous and just something to release to the public to gather more negativity around the project.

A mosque, and a floor for prayer in a community center, are two different things. A mosque would not be open to the public, to go in and play basketball, to swim, or whatever. Otherwise, like I said, a YMCA must be a church. And there was never any plans to open it on 9/11. Ever. When it was proposed and the plans were laid out, there was no way they would've been able to build the 13-14 story building and open it up that quickly. They even stated this.from the very beginning. But I'm assuming you heard about this on Fox News, because that's actually where I heard about it opening up on 9/11...and I laughed, because they said just ONE week ago that it was going to open on 9/11. Absolutely amazing to build it that quick, lol.

I don't think they'll be bad defensively, I just don't think they'll be better than a team with Artest, Kobe, Barnes, Blake, Gasol, Drew and Ratliff. Top three isn't out of reach for Miami, but telling us who they gained doesn't give me much, given the fact they lost three of their best defenders from last season (and again, this is what the Heat fans were saying all year long about Jermaine, Richardson and Wright). Should be Boston, LA and Miami, in that order (assuming Miami breaks the top three). Tomorrow, I'll put LA on top. The next day...Boston. Charlotte may have lost too many pieces to be top three (they were #1 last season). Losing Felton and Chandler could bump them out of the top five, actually (although Felton wasn't THAT good of a defender, he's still better than any point they have). Not sure what will happen with the Bucks...their defensive rating was second in the league. Orlando was third.

Discuss the topic or don't post.

No, I'm saying a mosque is a prayer center, and that's not what is being built. Again, if nobody knew who was building it, nobody would care and nobody would be calling it a mosque even after it was built. Once they found out it was a Muslim, now it's a mosque? There is nothing anyone can say that proves it's not a community center. If this is a mosque, the YMCA is a church. As for the rest of your post, I've already stated everything I needed to. Yes, people are ignorant if they associate Muslims with terrorists...I don't care who they lost.

Lakers were 4th, Heat was 6th, based on overall defensive ratings. And you guys lost Jermaine O'Neal, Quentin Richardson, and Dorell Wright...all three good defenders, and I definitely remember the OTR Heat fans telling us how important all three were to your defense.

It sucks mainly because we will all have to "snail mail" topics back and forth, on letters, and we will have to write our posts out. And it just wouldn't be the same without a banner on each letter, so I'll need to draw them out with a pencil for each topic letter. Blah. Lots of work.

Bosh will have to prove to me he can defend at the four. I saw this argument before, with Amare: people saying he can defend Duncan well, said he would be a better defender if he wasn't guarding centers, saying he showed signs of his defense here and there...but it was all a hoax. Cleveland fans were saying the same thing about Carlos Boozer when he was there, and many believed he just needed time to develop. Never happened. James and Wade aren't first-team defenders. Wade may be a second-team defender (no, not talking official teams and their voting, talking about top 10). I wouldn't say LeBron is a better defender than Howard, Artest, Kobe, Afflalo, Sefolosha, Hinrich, Wade, Allen, Oden, Battier, or Wallace (and that's just 10 players, there are more...Roy, Granger come to mind). Still a good defender, just not a stellar one.

Don't know how you follow the WNBA...just too difficult for me to stick with it. Sparks game is Saturday, right? I think I saw it advertised on ESPN2 this morning. Not sure why I'm going to try and watch it, though. The Storm are going to advance. No Parker, and Seattle is too good not to lose this time around.

Well, he's not as good of a defender as he was a few years back, but he's definitely better than Nash in that regard. Other than that, though...yeah, I agree.

Then you need to read the definition of a mosque. It's a house of prayer, and strictly that. Nothing more. The community center has two floors (of the 13 or so) available for prayer. The rest are going to be used for many activities available to the public (which means, everyone). Ever heard of Charles Manson and his beliefs? Hear about a place in Texas called Waco? I can provide a lot of "religious" incidents in the states that would fit the bill quite nicely. Ignorant people associate Islam with terror, and the reality is that we have ignorant people everywhere. My neighbor is a racist, and he associates robbery with blacks because we've actually had a few blacks rob neighbors down the street. Doesn't mean much, but hey, we have incidents! One attack that happened in 2001 shouldn't mean we disrespect and spit on Muslims. There are plenty of them living here, just like you and me. Have you ever heard of a YMCA? There's a place for prayer in those. Ever heard of a JCC? There are 350+ JCC's in the states and in Canada...Jewish community centers that include a place for worship, NOT strictly a place of worship. Two different things. The Muslim Jihad was never our concern. Jihad has both violent and non-violent meanings, and the warfare has been traced back to Muhammad and the Qu’ran, way before any of our time. Even in the 1700-1800's, it was never our concern...the West Africa incidents, Sudan, and early stages of the Ottoman Empire. We didn't send troops over to stabilize the countries in need, and spend billions of dollars for no reason. If you don't care about them building one, why are you so adamant about this not going up? I doubt you could care less about the well-being of Muslims. That's DEFINITELY not the reason you started this topic.

Really? There are more people. A guy flew his personal plane into a building not too long ago because he was mad at the government. People shoot up schools. There are plenty of incidents I could find if this were actually important. I'm not for opening it up on 9/11. I'm for putting the building up, though, because our country allows it. People will cause trouble? That's life, and it's sad. I'm sure some of you would actually like that, though. We have something against Muslims, fine...so that means we should've never been in Iraq in the first place, because just what group of people are we protecting and spending trillions of dollars for?

By the way, it's not a mosque. I think the definition of the word proves that it isn't because it contradicts what it will contain. If we had no idea who was building it, nobody would even know what the building is. Since we found out it was a Muslim, NOW it's a mosque, for some reason.

Fine, I'll re-state it: are all Americans serial killers? One incident, of course. When Timothy McVeigh (an American) proved he was a terrorist because of what he did in Oklahoma City, does that make Americans terrorists as well?