Nitro

My bad, volume 2. And yes, it's one of my favorite albums of all-time, and Immortal Technique is one of the most highly acclaimed underground artists ever. Lyrically it doesn't get much better than IT, and the production on that album is also very different with its heavy latin influence. Obnoxious, Point of No Return, Harlem Streets, Leaving the Past, Freedom of Speech, Peruvian Cocaine...all tremendous songs.

Wow, didn't realize it's from 2000. That's pretty fascinating as even though things started to decline around then, there were still a ton of classic rap albums from 1997-2003 (putting 2000 in the middle). Speaking of which, when was the last time an album came out that could seriously be considered a classic? I haven't taken a listen to a few of the new 2010 albums, but I think Distant Relatives could be looked back on as a classic. But besides that, it's been many, many years.

As I said, I love that album, but wouldn't claim it to be one of the most groundbreaking underground albums of all-time. Revolutionary Pt. II, Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous (I consider it underground, it was mad slept on until he died, and it's still slept on), and a few others I would consider to be ahead of Operation: Doomsday.

I'm PRETTY sure Purple was made after Illmatic. Supposedly many of the track on 'The Lost Tapes' were originally meant for 'I Am..' but when some songs off that leaked he re-tooled the album. Either way it's a brilliant song.

What's funny to me is he listed Operation: Doomsday as a benchmark classic album. I love MF Doom and that's my favorite of his albums (of any of his personas), but that's an example of personal preference at its best. We could resort to his game of calling him a moron and unknowledgable because very few people consider that a classic rap album, but we're better and smarter than that.

It IS my favorite song off The Lost Tapes. One of my favorite Nas songs all-time, actually. Flow, topic and production are all top-notch.

Good question. I'm sure LeBron is wondering as well

On basketball-reference he's listed at 6'10'', 230lbs. The 230lbs part is the bigger issue playing at Center. It isn't like he's Dennis Rodman or Charles Barkley on the boards, either. A major issue if you're playing LA or Orlando.

Here's the article link- http://www.popculturecorn.com/music/issues/feb00/article-hatehiphop.html I like the article, and agree with how many rappers create characters of what they are to get $ instead of staying true. Even Nas did that around the start of The Firm when he was playing off the Escobar crap, and it is the main reason his music kind of died from '96-'01. When he got back to spitting about real [expletive] and feelings, and also using some really creative narratives (I Gave You Power, Rewind), he was once again considered an elite rapper. Sometimes making up a persona is good if it parallells real life feelings and experiences (like old Eminem...see- Brain Damage), but overall I like to hear things spit from the heart. But good read. Don't agree with all of it, but enjoyed reading it.

Head and shoulders above Wade? You're oblivious. And the point of bringing LBJ to town is to WIN. You can win with Wade, and that's been proven. Even though LeBron is the slightly better player, and he will certainly have the bigger hype and publicity, you can do wonders with Wade. I haven't been reading the last few posts, but the Knicks aren't getting Wade IMO. They have a much better chance with LeBron. Getting neither will be a major kick in the groin to the Knicks orginization and fans because in all likelihood you ain't winning a ring without either.

I was thinking about this yesterday, and while it would be a great combo, that is not where the Magic's weakness is. Considering that they'd most likely have to give up Carter (their only perimeter slasher/scorer who can create his own shot), another role player and maybe a future draft pick, it'd be a bad move. If they are going to trade Carter, they need an Arenas or Paul back. Also, between Al and Dwight, they'd have a big blackhole in the post. Neither of them pass particularly well, and the Magic will always be at their best when the ball is moving and they are getting open 3's.

Really? He was 2nd in MVP voting in 2008 behind a top 10 player all-time in Kobe Bryant, and that year led his team to within 1 game of beating the defending champion Spurs in the Conference semi's. That kind of excellence is something none of the PG's of the last decade besides Kidd, Nash and D-Will could have done. My big thing with putting Paul that high is despite only playing 5 years, he's been a top 5 player in the league for at least 3 of them IMO. The gap in level of play between he and those PG's you listed is so large that it easily makes up for him playing only half the decase. He's led the league in assists twice (would have been 3x if he wasn't hurt this year), led the league in steals twice, been on the All-NBA 1st Team and All-NBA Defensive 1st team, single-handedly brought the Hornets back to prominence as the best player in team history...the list goes on and on. Check his stats over the last 3 seasons- 2007-2008: 21.1PPG, 11.6APG, 4.0RPG, 48.8% FG, 36.9% 3PT, 85.1% FT, 2.7SPG, 2.5 TO 2008-2009: 22.8PPG, 11.0APG, 5.5RPG, 50.3% FG, 36.4% 3PT, 86.8% FT, 2.8SPG, 3.0 TO 2009-2010: 18.7PPG, 10.7APG, 4.2RPG, 49.3% FG, 40.9% 3PT, 84.7% FT, 2.1SPG, 2.5 TO Those are all-timer type numbers. Isiah type scoring numbers, Nash efficiency and assists, and Kidd-level defense. His level of play is SO far ahead of Marbury, Parker, Billups, Davis and all of them that I have no issue putting him ahead of those players in the all-decade list. After all, if we were making an all-decade team for the '80's, would you not put MJ high up, if not at the very top of the list despite playing only 6 years that decade? Of course, because his level of play was so much higher than most of his competition. Same with Paul.

First off, before I say ANYTHING, quote me where I ridicule or hate soccer. It's not my cup of tea, sure, but all the points I have made are factual. I do not care if anyone like or hates soccer, nor do I like or hate soccer. I don't watch it every single day, but I'll tune into the World Cup occasionally, and got to see The NY Red Bulls 2 years back. Not to mention I played the sport until 4th grade. With that said... First off, you keep failing to realize where you posted this. You posted it in, "General NBA Discussion" on a site devoted to basketball. You can talk about the issue of flopping in soccer all you want, but very few will follow you in that regard. Most people reading this top care strictly about flopping in the NBA. That is why I said, "Let's get over this soccer crap" or whatever because I didn't even realize we were talking about soccer too, since it's, you know...General NBA Discussion. Secondly, you are continuing to ignore the importance of context. Yes, they are two contact sports, and they both have issues with flopping. It ends there. How can you reasonably compare them or say, "The NBA should do this, the NBA should do that because soccer does..." if they are two totally different sports, have a totally different set of rules (including what constitues a foul), totally different orginization running them, each require a totally different breed of athlete, and each have a totally different refereeing situation. All of these factors have a direct impact on the flopping situation in each sport. To directly compare and contrast is trivial and pointless. Treat each as its own entity. All this is nice, but only proves that the NBA is not as physical as the '80's/'90's NBA. Has absolutely nothing to do with proving soccer is a more physical sport. And yes, some players get superstar calls. But for every superstar call they get, they get hit legitimitely hard about 5 other times. And again, there are how many superstars in the league? 5-7? Maybe include 3 others since they were once superstars and get that benefit? That's 10 players in a pool of over 300. Aka less than 3%. And probably less than 20% of the calls they get are "superstar" calls. That's a very, very low number of "superstar" calls league-wide. And once again...context. How often is a star player in soccer fouled? Not too often, nothing like in the NBA, whether you want to talk old school or new school NBA. If you want to compare players getting superstar calls in the NBA, then compare it to rushing the passer in the NFL for players like Manning and Brady. A much, much better comparison. Still pointless, but it makes so much more sense. What are you talking about? I ACKNOWLEDGED THERE IS PHYSICALITY IN SOCCER, AND SPECIFIED THOSE SITUATIONS!!!! The problem is... Let's take yesterday's England vs. Germany soccer match for example. There were 13 fouls, 0 penalty kicks and 10 corner kicks. In the average NBA game you are gonna get at least 30 fouls, and that's in 42+ less minutes than in soccer where it's a struggle to exceed 30 fouls. Now, in the NBA there is similar physicality to those free/corner EVERY TIME DOWN THE FLOOR! So, those 10-15 corner/free kicks and 13-30 fouls in 90+ minutes are supposed to show me soccer is more physical than constant off-ball physicality and 30-50 fouls in 48min of an NBA game? More importantly, it's supposed to show me that flopping in the NBA and soccer are the same to referee when they are completely different in terms of number of penalties called and scenarios where there is physicality? Totally ignoring the fact that NBA players are much bigger and stronger, further making how they are affected and how they will react when fouled different. Along with ignoring your own point that one sport is more about upper body, another is about lower body, which further complicates the comparison. Where's your logic? You are spending entirely too much time trying to play me off as a hater (which you cannot find proof of) rather than refuting my points (which you haven't). 80% of your post has nothing to do with the points I brought up, and the other 20% I refuted.

And you clearly missed that you posted this topic in the, "General NBA Discussion" forum on a website devoted to basketball. No one cares about flopping in soccer here except you and maybe 1-2 other people. Three things... -Stop generalizing. For every "touch foul" Wade gets called for him, he gets hit hard legitimitely about 5 other times. When you take it to the rim at a rate that ranks among the all-time greats, you're going to get hit hard a lot. That's why despite his very thick physical frame, he's had his fair share of injuries. Then you have players like LeBron and Shaq who are physical marvels and take enormous punishment yet manage to stay relatively healthy. -How many superstars are there in the league? 5-7 MAYBE? For every "superstar" call, and for every foul called because someone flops, there are about 35 other legit fouls called in the game. That's what you're really overlooking. -The hand-check rule is called rarely. It does get called, but not that often. The entire Lakers-Celtics series when Kobe faced up he was getting hand-checked. T-Mac always used to get hand-checked. And again, most of the physicality in the NBA is OFF-BALL! Take a look at that Celtics-Lakers series and watch all the physical play going on in and around the paint. So you are using the absolute worst case scenario injuries to prove your point? In soccer, will you see a soccer player breaking his leg every game? Every 5 games? 10 games? No. All of what you just said does nothing to refute... *That in an average NBA game there are more than twice the number of fouls compared to soccer. That NBA players are bigger and stronger in both the upper AND lower body, which makes taking a hit from an NBA player a lot more painful. And most importantly, as opposed to soccer, ON EVERY POSSESSION NBA players with and without the ball have to deal with physicality. If you refute those points, you may have a case for FIFA being as physical as the NBA. Maybe. Also, you know NOTHING about an NBA training regimen...even Kobe, a shooting guard, has been seen squatting over 400lbs for reps. I highly doubt there are more than 5-6 pro soccer players that can squat over 400lbs...many NBA players can. Why? Because vertical jump is cloesly associated with overall power output, and power = strength x speed. You need to have incredible lower body strength to defend post players, cut through traffic, finish strong at the rim, etc... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...wow...REALLY?!? First off, how do you go from Stockton/Malone to Arron Afflalo, a 3rd year player who's played 75+ games only once? I know the answer, don't bother. But it doesn't make you saying that any less mind-blowing. Secondly, you REALLY think NBA players can go 10 games without many bruises to their entire body?!?! Think Dwight Howard doesn't have bruises from getting hacked all the time? Or his defenders don't have bruises from all of Howard's elbows, hipchecks and other tactics? You don't think that players like D-Wade or LeBron, who get hit HARD a few times every game don't have a ton of bruises? You think because Wade and LeBron get a few "superstar" calls a game that they don't also a ton of clean shots each and every game? AND ONCE AGAIN REMEMBER- CONTEXT! STOP COMPARING THE SITUATION OF FLOPPING IN THE NBA TO THE SITUATION OF FLOPPING IN SOCCER! JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE BOTH CONTACT SPORTS MEANS NOTHING! NO COORELATION!

Shaq and Kobe. The ultimate inside-out duo. Shaq was as dominant as any player in NBA history during the 3-peat, and even though Kobe was still on the rise, he was still a top 3 player in the league.

Michael Jordan, with Kobe close behind. Jordan's perfect blend of versatility (why MJ>Kareem or Wilt), productiveness and efficiency (why MJ>Kobe) are unmatched.

T-Mac died after that 2008 Jazz series. Now he's just Tracy; the man who can't shoot, run, jump or stay anywhere near in shape. I always loved T-Mac, but you can only take so much dissapointment lol. Wade in the anti-McGrady...takes the ball to the rim, works hard, is humble, good with media and teammates, overachieves, etc... Nice, fresh change.

In March/April he averaged 17.2PPG and 9.0RPG. It's even worse if you look at his February. In no month did he crack 20PPG. Definately not the 23/11 he was producing in '08-'09.

Well tearing an ACL is a major issue, and last year he clearly was not quite himself. Aside from his ACL tear, he also tore a miniscus in that same knee when he was with Boston, and had some ankle problems as well. The main reason I said that was because half his 6 season career he hasn't played in more than 70 games. Add in a torn ACL, and he's somewhat of a risk. I do believe that because of that risk, and last year's struggles will severely hurt his trade value, and unless you get the right deal it'd be a major mistake to just kind of give him away.

The Knicks. They've basically bombed the last few seasons in hopes of luring LeBron or Wade, and they also have very little to develop besides Gallo. Suffering so much losing with the future completely dependant on 1 of 2 players...if they fail getting Wade or Bron, then it'll be a travesty for Knicks fans. Of course they will likely get at least one or two of the other big name FA's to keep them competitive. But after all this insane hype over the last 2-3 years? It'll be a weak consolation prize.

I know it's all opinion, I was just taken back by Steph's positioning and having Cassell quite so high. Certainly don't have to debate it if you don't want to. And yes, I knew what your criterea was which is what I was questioning your picks by.

Read my post that you claim is too long and you'll understand. If 305 words is too long for you, have your mommy heat you up some warm milk and take a nap somewhere around the 150th word. I know it's hard work to, you know, read and write posts with substance. Maybe when you're out of middle school it'll click for you.

If you're gonna laugh your [expletive]ing [expletive] off at something I say, then back it up. If you're gonna lie about the things you said, then back it up. Do neither, and you deserve no respect and should never be taken seriously.

Proved my point.

You stated LeBron not wanting to go to Newark as fact. You stated Brooklyn is not the draw for LeBron if the Nets are playing 2 seasons in Newark as fact. You never said, "I think..." or "In my opinion..." or anything like that. Both are unfounded because neither of those statements have any backing to them whatsoever. Sucks getting nit-picked, doesn't it? You love doing it all the time...no substance, just trying to twist people's words up. Instead of trying to bypass entire posts to nit-pick one or two lines, and then saying "goodybe" or "ttyl," how about you actually debate the main points the poster is trying to get across? You honestly don't think LeBron will get some love from EVERY aspect if he goes to the Nets instead of the Knicks? He was selling out stadiums and dominating the national and local media market while he was in CLEVELAND. LeBron will be the greatest player to ever play in the tri-state area. Hell, he was getting MVP chants and large ovations at the Garden years before this FA mess started (I'm talking back in 2007). The man will dominate the market And LeBron would also certainly get love from NYC for the simple fact that he'd be playing there is 2 years...when he's 27 and in his prime. Even when he's playing in NJ many people from NY will look at him as "their own" because he'll be there in a short while. Lastly, when the Nets were a Finals team the Garden had a ton of fans cheering for the Nets. Judging by the fact that when LeBron was with Cleveland he got louder ovations at MSG than Knicks players did, I think it'd be a safe bet that he'd get PLENTY of NY love if he was on the Nets.