Matthew

Hmmmm, now I'm interested in getting it, thanks.

The Norm Van Lier & Jerry Sloan backcourt tandem could never exist nowadays.....

Completely agree, Stern keeps his head buried in the sand about the integrity issues the league has, e.g., officiating of the games, the whole Charlotte bs of a NBA owned team getting the no.1 draft pick, nixing the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers, etc. Stern needs to retire after the season and let a new person take over as Commissioner. I'm wondering -- has anybody in this thread who has spouted conspiracy theories about NBA refereeing ever attempted to referee a basketball game? Of any sort, at any level. I would say basketball is the most difficult to officiate of the four major professional sports. There is constant motion, everywhere on the court, in all directions. (Except maybe when the Heat get into one of their lulls on offense -- then everyone just stands around for 15 seconds.) What's more, there is so much about the game that is open to interpretation. Multiple fouls could plausibly be called on every single possession. It is up to the referees to interpret the game according to some reasonable standard appropriate for the game, to keep that standard fair throughout the game (although they may adjust in order to clamp down on a game that gets too heated, etc), to incorporate into their officiating whatever directives have been handed down by Stern & Co this week, and to effectively discern between "real" fouls, "flops", and "flops" intended to sell a "real" foul. All while running up and down the court with the players for 48 minutes. It is not an easy job. It is very easy, meanwhile, to notice after watching a slow-motion instant replay three or five times that of course that ref was wrong, gosh what was that bonehead thinking? If you want to argue that there should be more instant replay, a ref in a booth just to review calls immediately, etc, I'm all for it. I wonder where they will find more refs though, given how apparently incompetent this batch is. Does anybody have any tales of elite basketball referees who have been shut out of the NBA because of David Stern's massive conspiracy to make refereeing bad? Of course, the best source for the NBA ref conspiracy theory stuff is Tim Donaghy - a gambling addict who fixed games and then tried to make money and third-rate fame off a sensationalist "tell-all" book. He is pretty much the only person with any real connection to the game who insists there is massive conspiracy and corruption. He insists this in opposition to what pretty much everybody else involved with the game, broadcasting it, intelligently analyzing it, etc, say. Somehow, conspiracy theorists twist this into evidence for the existence of a conspiracy. The entire rational world disagreeing with Donaghy proves there is a conspiracy -- it's a massive conspiracy to disagree with him to cover up the massive refereeing conspiracy! Donaghy had a column on Deadspin a year or two ago during the playoffs. He was supposed to put together a highlight reel each night of bad calls that proved refs were corrupt. His reels indicated nothing of the sort. The column quietly disappeared. Read: http://espn.go.com/b...onable-punditry http://sports.espn.g...tory?id=4603209 http://espn.go.com/b...up-weaker-teams http://espn.go.com/b...ld-he-be-caught http://espn.go.com/b...claims-on-trial http://espn.go.com/b...of-dick-bavetta (Of course that's on ESPN...so it's part of the conspiracy.) As for the bullshit about the lottery being rigged in Charlotte's favor: http://nba-point-for...-seem-that-way/ (That's on Sports Illustrated though...not ESPN, not as closely aligned, but still. Conspiracy!) I'm not talking about any conspiracy theories, what I am saying is the the quality of the officiating is horrible, and that was a conscious decision made by Stern and the owners with the NBA referee strike in 1995. The outcome of that was to strive to have refs with no personality, and no guts, but a bunch of pliable nobodies who worship the superstars of the league. You do not need a conspiracy theory when the refs are crap and treat players like LaBron with kid gloves. Of course, the lottery was not "fixed," but frick-on-a-stick, anyone knows that the whole situation stinks to high heaven when the Commissioner of the NBA is making personnel decisions on a trade by some mysterious "player value" equation. These are conflict of interest cases that are, and should be, easily avoided, especially in today's blog-o-fanatic atmosphere. edit for spelling

I only know of Bob James through his CTI days, so I was interested in finding out that he recorded an album for ESP: Explosions. Any thought on this album? Worth looking into? Hard to believe James as an avant-garde artist.

Completely agree, Stern keeps his head buried in the sand about the integrity issues the league has, e.g., officiating of the games, the whole Charlotte bs of a NBA owned team getting the no.1 draft pick, nixing the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers, etc. Stern needs to retire after the season and let a new person take over as Commissioner.

Gladly sent my small contribution. Many thanks for the board!

ESPN is still saying they might resume -- I mean, they showed pictures of two guys poking the ground with three pronged sticks, what more is needed?

I was listening to Stanley Turrentine / Milt Jackson's album Cherry this morning, and absolutely loved this version of I Remember You

I don't go to Wounded Bird too much for jazz cds, but I have the Farrell's, and to my ears, they sound okay (though I'm having an operation on both ears next week, so I might not be the best source), they are nice to have nonetheless. Most of my WB buys have been rock cds of obscure 70s rock bands -- hey, there's no accounting for taste! I just wish CTI will release new remasters as I thought they did a great job last year. edit for spelling (which I'm hopeless at)

Hehe, people were probably freakin' out in sports book parlors when LaBron hit the free throws to put it over the line -- I always hated action like that on my bet.

Really? I'd take the under thinking Miami will make some adjustments and come up with a big defensive effort tonight.

Best Buy seems to b having an in-store sale of the Complete Sopranos Box Set for $59.99. I was able to get it even cheaper with my Reward certificates.

The Sopranos: The Complete Series. Season One. Bought this today, as Best Buy was selling it for $59.99, and i had my Rewards certificates with me, so it cost me $34.00. Not too bad, and people I know just rave about this, so it will be interesting to see what all the fuss is about.

Very good game between Denmark & Portugal, with Portugal winning at the end, no thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo -- I'm sorry, this is probably the American in me, but he strikes me as a total prima donna lightweight.

It looks like OKC is in a good position to win this series, they seem to match up well, with Durant & Westbrook being the equal of James & Wade. The cast of characters surrounding KD / JW looks much better than anything Miami has to offer. Seems like OKC in six. Edit to change: when this series to win this series

I'd say a seperate post with the labels would suffice, but that's just me....

Nice picture, thanks for posting

Those Shocking, Shaking Days: Indonesian Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock And Funk: 1970-1978. This is the real deal in terms of comps, obscure bands, giving there own twist on rock, and it's all from Indonesia. A lot of the music here deals with the politics of Indonesia at the time, which was very repressive. It is worth the buy, and I've had repeated listens to the cd, and I'm not tired of it yet. Below are two of my favorites.

I hate this final, I'm an old Sonic fan, and I hate LaBron -- can you root for both teams to lose?

I should add, that I know these two goofballs did break in and give a beat-down on DW, in fact Stan Love was convicted of that and put on six month probation (reason enough not to like Kevin Love), but that it damaged DL's vocal cords is I'm wondering about. Stan Love is an interesting case, he comes off as a nice guy, but his behavior around the Beach Boys leads me to believe he's kind of a scruffy character -- has the Mike Love ahole gene in him. I actually remember watching SL playing for the Lakers, gosh, I'm old.

Yeah, Bobby V & Dustin, the Red Sox problems are all about the umpires....

Speaking of Dennis Wilson, is the story really true that Stan Love & Rocky Pamplin, kicked down Dennis’ door and beat the living crap out of him, messing up his larnyx and ruining his voice. I had always read it was drugs, smoking, etc. that killed his voice.

Giants / Rangers was much ado about nothing, three boring games. Lincecum looks lost on the mound, which does not bode well for the future -- imagine, Zito is having a better year than The Freak. Astros up next for the Giants, so they're still in good shape for the week.

Finally able to get my first listen to the album this afternoon. It's pleasant enough, and it's nice that the Boys' are still able to put out a nice album. There is a "classic" feel to a lot of the music, with typical Wilson touches throughout. I did not like "Summer's Gone" which I felt was too derivative, I was expecting a dog to bark at the very end, it just seemed like all of Wilson's signature sounds (I almost said pet sounds) were in it.

Forward into the past... The Beach Boys: That's Why God Made The Radio Paul McCartney: Ram (the new remaster)