stevesbets

And I’m watching seriously hoping they take Ty Lawson. Please not Maynor one time….

I’ve been reminded by many that my blog has been broken when it comes to recent updates. I’ve always been told that late is better than never so I’m going to pick things up by blogging 3 times a week every week for the summer so check back often for more updates.

With my extended absence I have much to discuss.

I have frequently been criticized, mainly by friends’ parents for “wasting” money on designer jeans. This is a topic that I find so absurd it is worthy of a blog paragraph. Simply because something is available for cheaper does not mean that a more expensive version is a waste. Jeans are the most important articles of clothing that I own since I wear them pretty much every day year round. I would say any given pair I wear approximately 40-50 times per year and they last for several years. At a price tag averaging $220 per pair, that means that these jeans are costing me less than a dollar per use. I do not drink a morning cup of coffee every day, but I know many of these same people do, mostly from starbucks. They pay $3 there per day making their “use” of coffee a far more expensive habit with less staying power than nice jeans. To counter, one may say that even if they do end up being a value, if you can get an even better value like $40 jeans then it is silly not to. Quite simply, the two products are not substitutes. Unlike some more expensive fashion items, expensive jeans look better, feel better, fit better and last longer than their cheaper counterparts. I hope this blog entry puts to rest the “wastefulness of designer jeans” debate.

For this next paragraph, I’m going to discuss Terminator Salvation. If you have not yet seen it, you may want to skip this paragraph. I was greatly looking forward to this movie’s release since the first two movies in the series are two of my all time favorites and the lead, Christian Bale is one of my favorite actors. The first two movies struck an emotional cord concerning what sets us apart from machines and twisted my mind around the consequences of time travel. This movie is nothing but overblown action sequences, plot points that hardly make any sense and an ending that sets up for a sequel but offers nothing else of value. There is no emotional attachment to many characters, and the idea of what sets us apart from the first two movies in the series is totally cast aside as most of the humans are more robotic than the terminators chasing after them. The director “McG” should never be allowed near another movie. Examples of things simply not making sense: The terminators are desperate to stop John Connor (even though they really didnt show what made him so great), so they go after his father Kyle Reese to prevent him from going back in time to conceive John. They catch him, and use him as bait to catch John despite many chances to kill him. Perhaps they “can’t” due to the time travelling paradoxes it may cause, but this movie presented no such thought or dilemmas. Even dumber to me was the final fight sequence where John is in a terminator factory, and yet the only thing that seems to stand in his way of escape is a single machine. I understand that if there were hundreds of terminators around, there would have been no way John could have escaped and then the good guys can’t win, but given this, maybe they shouldn’t have thrown him down in a Terminator factory to begin with. I’m basically very sad about this movie because it could have been so great and was just totally ruined by a seeming lack of thought and effort.

Finally I need to discuss the NBA playoffs since they are my favorite annual sporting event and the Lakers were just crowned champion. I am so beyond sick of how terrible 80% of the coaches are in the league. My beloved Sixers are my first example, they had a first round exit against the Orlando Magic, a team that I actually think they matched up very well against. It was awhile ago, but the most memorable example of poor coaching to me was that they had the 1-4 players switch on every screen rather than showing and fighting through them. So if 6 10 Rashard Lewis set a screen for the much shorter Rafer Alston, Thaddeus Young would switch to Alston and the 6 3 Miller would be stuck on Lewis who could easily post him up and score in the post. While it took Magic coach Stan Van Gundy far too long to figure out just how easy it was to capatalize on this, they eventually did and it is a big reason why the Howardless Magic manhandled the Sixers in Philly during game 6. My friend and I vowed to stop buying tickets until the Sixers get a decent coach. While the jury is out on Eddie Jordan, we are not holding our breath. Next season I am going to blog after every sixers game I watch and comment mainly just on coaching. There is just no excuse for the insane level of dumbness that most teams exhibit. On this topic I would be remiss if I didn’t mention The Magic’s historic collapse at the end of game 4 of the NBA finals. Up 3 with Dwight Howard at the line to shoot 2 with 11 seconds left, it seemed impossible for them to lose. Stan Van Gundy found a way. Many people blame Howard for missing both free throws. But no one is ever coached to miss free throws, the Magic were however coached defensively to do so much wrong on that last possession that I really wonder if NBA coaches are hired by any standard other than nepotism and connections. Firstly, I NEVER understand why teams don’t foul when they are up 3 with hardly any time left. If the opponent has two shots and you are up 3, you can’t lose. No SVG commented that he didnt’ want to get into a FT shooting contest since his team was not shooting well that game so I will ignore the fact that they didn’t foul which by itself is simply inexcusable. Even if you aren’t going to foul though. There is one thing and one thing only to defend and any 5 year old could tell you that it is the area between the half court line and the 3 point line. The Magic pressed and played man to man defense and the Lakers ended up getting Fisher an open long 3 pointer over the shorter Jameer Nelson. If I were coaching, I would line my 5 most athletic players up across half court, have them each take a zone around the 3 point line and guard nothing else. If the Lakers want to take 6 seconds off the clock and score 2, great! If they want to attempt a 3 from beyond half court, great! ANY open 3 from inside half court is simply unacceptable. I almost feel cliched saying it since everyone is, but I just cannot believe that on the biggest stage in the world, million dollar athletes are directed by million dollar coaches who seem too dumb to tie their shoes. I’m convinced that this happens because sadly, in many arenas you look better failing conventionally than succeeding unconventionally. I strongly hope that Eddie Jordan makes decisions that no coaches ever make because they make sense, because they are smart, because they win games and not because it is what every other robotic coach who can’t think for himself does.