Zach Galifianakis

has a music video.

it is awesome.

I rarely get coments

So I'll respond. (the comment: "apparently you've never heard of kobe bryant or elton brand")

My point was and still is, that the NBA promotes big market teams with stars over better, smaller market teams.

Yes, the Lakers have Kobe and the Clippers have Elton Brand (who is great, but I wouldn't say a star), but my point was that ESPN showed 4 teams from a total of two cities. If you don't live on either of those coasts.... have fun!

(and I did say that I gave ESPN a pass on the Lakers-Clippers game cause it was the only late game, but it still doesn't excuse showing the Knicks)

When I turn on ABC or ESPN I see a lot of big market shitty teams, the Celtics, the Lakers, the Sixers, the Rockets and the Knicks. All of these teams have some great individual players (Pierce, Kobe, Iverson, McGrady/Yao and Francis/Marbury) but the teams are mediocre.

There are some great young teams who you rarely see on TV, the Bucks, the Grizzlies, the Nets get some TV time, the Hornets (and maybe if you showed Chris Paul, he'd be star). Add those teams to a regular rotation of the Spurs and Pistons (who both get a decent amount of time), the Cavaliers, the Mavericks, the Heat and the Nets. Those are good-great teams, most young. But they aren't in the power markets; you're New Yorks, Bostons, Phillys or Los Angeles. And those cities happen to have great players, but notso great teams.

I guess my point is this: if you want to build and expand the NBA watching audience, I'm not sure having the Knicks and the Lakers on all the time is the best way to do it.

Punk Rock

now this is rock and roll

Random Lyric

Maybe I'll
Quit playin solitaire cause
I'm tired of losing
To no one

Friday Random 10

Jack Johnson - Supposed to Be
The Coral - Goodbye
Dispatch - Elias
Ben Lee - Something Borrowed, Something Blue
George Harrison - Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
God Street Wine - Nightengale
The Animals - We Gotta Get Out of This Place
Smash Mouth - Heave Ho
Nick Drake - One of These Things First
John Lennon - Watching the Wheels

If You like the NBA at all

Read this column by Simmons. It is a delight:

Simmons: Jim Paxson, let's start with you. Last February, you traded a 2007 first-round pick to Boston for Jiri Welsch. Four months later, after you were fired by the Cavs, they traded Welsch to Milwaukee for a 2006 second round pick. To my knowledge, that's never happened before. Walk us through that.

Paxson: Absolutely. When you're making a bad trade, there are some inherent elements that need to be there. First, are you putting your own short-team interests ahead of the long-term interests of the team? With the Welsch trade, there were rumors I might get fired, and we needed another body to make the playoffs … really, why would I care about protecting future No. 1 picks if I was probably getting canned?

I hate ESPN

Not really, but I'm pissed. First, ESPN has a monopoly on sports news. There is no other network that can compete. There's no MSNBC to ESPN's CNN. So when TO goes off and ESPN goes nuts, theres no other network to turn to, just to see highlights. But thats not why I'm pissed at this moment.

This is why.

The NBA, more than any other sport plays to the Big Market Idea. They always play the Lakers or the Knicks or Rockets (cause of Yao). Nevermind that these teams suck. Or that they are horrendous to watch. They're in big markets (or have the most popular basketball player in the world) so ABC and ESPN shows them.

Tonight's 8:00 game on ESPN is the Knicks vs the Nets. Now who outside of NYC would actually watch that? The Nets are decent, though they have no big man and they can't play defense, but they can run and score; so they are kind of entertaining. The Knicks are horrible, everyone knew they'd be horrible. They should never be on national TV, they have the worst record in the NBA (with the highest payroll, though thats neither here nor there).

At 7:30 the Cavs play the Wizards. Two young and exciting teams; this game has two of the top scorers in the NBA with LeBron James and Gilbert Arenas. Both of these teams will be in the playoffs (they may even meet). If you're a basketball fan, this is a much better game than the Knicks vs Nets, it isn't even close.

"But Ben," you say, "you just love the Cavs, of course you'd rather watch them than the Knicks and the Nets." Well alright dear reader, how about this game: the Spurs play the Grizzlies at 8:00 tonight. The Spurs just happen to be the defending NBA champions and the Grizzlies are one of the top young teams in the league. Plus, Memphis has Pao Gasol and his hobo beard. That facial hair monstrosity alone is a better reason to watch SA vs Memphis.

Then there's the late game: Lakers vs Clippers. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee, that is awesome. Two teams from LA, and the good team is the CLIPPERS.

Now to be fair, that is the only late game tonight. However, ESPN has a chance to show teams from 4 different markets (2 games, 4 teams) and they end up showing 4 teams from a total of 2 cities. Well done. Instead of showing good basketball, they decide to show shitty basketball from the biggest markets. I'm not sure that's the best way to win new fans.

The NBA, its Faaaaaaaaaaantasitc.

Francis Trade part 2

Have anyone seen any analysis saying the Francis deal is good for the Knicks?

The Sports Guy's readers don't.

Scottie Pippen doesn't.

The Daily Dime is lukewarm at best.

Jack McCallum doesn't like it either.

and even Sean Deveney thinks its retarded.

Francis to the Knicks

Does anyone think this is a good deal for the Knicks? Anyone? First off, the Knicks traded two guys who contracts come off the books after the season for a guy who has 4 years and $49 million left. Why? Does anyone think Marbury and Francis can co-exist? Anyone?

Also, how many shoot first point guards are needed on a winning team. Because, from what I can tell, history shows us that if you want to win a championship, having exactly 0 shoot first point guards is a good way to go. From my count, the Knicks now have 4.

Well done.

The Magic cleaned up with the deal, they now have two max contracts coming off the books after the season (Hill and Hardaway). Now they have one great young big man, one great questionable young big man and a ton of capspace.

Also, there's this little tidbit in the trade article:

Thomas has been given the go-ahead by owner James Dolan of Cablevision to spend whatever it takes in an effort at making Madison Square Garden the basketball mecca it once was.

When is the last time that the Knicks were one of basketballs elite teams? The lockout year the Knicks made the finals and lost. But that was an 8 seed, not exactly tearing it up. And the Knicks of the mid 90s almost killed basketball as we know it. Thug ball, slow down, walk it up, ugly, ugly basketball.

I'm just saying that Madison Square Garden hasn't been a "basketball mecca" since I've been following basketball, which was the 91-92 season.

Trading Gooden

Bud Shaw is against it.

I mostly agree, unless the Cavs are really floored, then I don't believe that Drew is going anywhere. And Chris Duhon doesn't floor anyone.

Kenyon to the Cavs?

Chad Forde has a rumor that has the Cavs trading Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes and Damon Jones to the Nuggets for Kenyon Martin, Andre Miller and Voshon Lenard.

This is probably a made up rumor with no basis in fact, however I kinda like the deal.

The Cavs would be getting a point guard and a power forward who can play both ends of the floor. Martin especially would give the Cavs a nice defensive mentality. Hughes would be missed, but he hasn't done much here anyways. So their starting 5 could be Miller, Pavlovic, James, Martin and Z. Imagine having Varejao come off the bench to play the 4 and move James to 2 and Martin to 3. Try scoring on that big lineup.

The problem I have with the deal is the long term salaries. Jones is a bad signing, but he's only got 3 years, Hughes has got 4 left and Gooden is a FA after the year. Martin has 5 years remaining, Miller has four while Lenard is gone after the year. I just worry that a trade like this could really hamper the Cavs ability to have future moves or signings.

Also, I'm not ready to give up on Hughes yet. True, who knows when he'll b healthy and who knows when if he'll really mesh, but less than a full season (which he's missed half of) I think is a bit early to be trading him. As for Gooden, I like him, I think some Cavs fans overrate him, but I think he fits this team well. I think the Cavs should hold onto him and let him walk after this season, like they did with Ricky Davis and the Clippers did with Elton Brand. Since other teams can't sign him to as big of a deal as the Cavaliers can, let some team sign Drew, and then match the offer. That way he has a nice team friendly deal, while still on the Cavs.

Also, ESPN.com has a trade generator thingy which is kinda fun to play with. It let me trade Gooden, Jones and Hughes to Minnesota for KG and I also learned that Kirk Hinrich is a free agent after this season (I want him in a Cleveland uniform before too long).

Here's the Deal

On Friday, we went out for Nicks birthday (I met up after I got out of work). Good time was had by all and I went to bed in preparation to work at 10 AM on Saturday morning.

I woke up at 7:20 on Saturday in a lot of pain. I wasn't sure what it was. I tried to get up and around, but I ended up crawling around on the ground. I managed to go downstairs and take some pills (ibuprofen) I had.

Still hurt like hell.

Finally it dawned on me what actually hurt. My shoulder. My left one. The same one I injured almost a month ago.

It was dislocated.

So I called home, delirious, and told them, between shouts of pain, that I hurt real bad and my shoulder was dislocated. Then I called 911 and had them meet me outside. Curbside pickup.

Then I went to the hospital and sat around for a little while. They weren't as helpful or cool as the last time. Anyway, 5 hours, 2 x-rays and not too many drugs later, I was on my way to Hudson with my parents (who drove down to pick me up).

So, to recap, I dislocated my shoulder while SLEEPING and had to go to the hospital. I can't drive. It hurts without me moving it. I hate the pills I have to take. I hate having to miss work and class.

Good times.

IPod Video

I just got one, 60 gigs, which is more than my C drive.

This thing is pretty badass, I got the complete catalogues for the Beatles, OAR, Dispatch, Jack Johnson, Reel Big Fish along with a bunch of other random albums, and I've only taken up 10 gigs. This thing is huge!

I'll make mix cds and playlists every now and then, but I'm an album guy. I like listening to a CD all the way through, every track. And the iPod lets me do that, it reads the albums and the tacks from the MP3 tags, it is awesome. I can't crank 5-6 albums a day at least, I'll listen to an album on the way two or from class. Another 2 while working out and a few more while studying.

I tried to upload some of my music videos, but it looks like I can only use certain formats (I haven't really dug that deep yet).

So far I've downloaded some of the Battlestar Galactica episodes (I've heard a lot about the show and I wanted to check it out). The video plays great, I can watch the episodes while I ride the bike at the gym for 45 minutes (I'm still not allowed to run).

I've really re-discovered some great albums I haven't listened to in awhile.

The first is Better Book Ends by The Littlest Man Band. These guys are great, they're a solo project from Scott of Reel Big Fish. The entire album is pretty kick ass, a bit mellow, but gorgious harmonies and melodies. I recomend It's You, Better Man, Always Sayin', Happened Again and Wrong Bed.

I've also gotten to listen to Royal Crown Revue's Mugzy's Move. If any album can be traced back to the start of the Neo-Swing movement of the 90s, this is it. There are some great tunes on here, Hey Pachuco! (from The Mask soundtrack and marching bands everywhere), Mugzy's Move, Beyond the Sea, Datin with no Dough, The Rise and Fall of the Great Mondello and Barflies at the Beach.

Ringo is considered Ringo Starr's first real solo record. It's the last album that has all four Beatles appear on it (albiet not all on the same track). Lennon, Harrison and McCartney all penned some tunes for Ringo. Lennon's I'm the Greatest has a lot of Beatle references and Ringo pulls off the song much better than I believe Lennon could've (sounds too egotistic with Lennon singing), Harrison plays guitar on the track as well. Photograph is another greatsong on here (one of Ringos hits). It was written by George and is a really great song. Ringo also had a minor hit with a cover of You're Sixteen (You're Beautiful, and You're Mine). Oh My My is another great song, not as big as the others, but along with Devil Woman, one of the more rockin tunes on the record. McCartney's Six O'Clock is okay, its not bad; it does have Paul, Linda and Ringo, so its still pretty neat. The origional closer (the reissue has some additional singles) has Ringo's farewell to the listener and he thanks all who helped make the record, including the big 3, its kind of neat. Then there are two of my favorite tracks of all of the solo Beatle years, Ringo's megahit, It Don't Come Easy. This song just kicks ass, thats all I can say, just listen to it. The final track is called Early 1970, which is real cute song in which Ringo talks about visiting all the other Beatles. For a Beatle fan like myself, its great.

Well, I could go on, but thats what I've been listenin to on the iPod. I also bought Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah!, and honestly... meh

Random Lyric

Now it’s over I’m dead and I haven’t done anything that I want
Or, I’m still alive and there’s nothing I want to do
I will never say the wordProcrastinate again;
I’ll never see myself in the mirror with my eyes closed

I hate Record Companies

Apparently, ripping a CD you own to your ipod is now illegal. Or at least they say it is.

World B. Free

cast your vote to let the Cavaliers know that you want World B. Free's number retired. Joe Tait and Terry Pluto think his number should be retired. Those are the two foremost Cavalier experts around. If they think it, I'd go with them.

hmm... maybe Wade is better

right... 43 pts, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, 4 blocks and 2 steals.

Hughes

Looks like Larry Hughes will miss the rest of the season, due to a second surgery on his finger.

This is a huge blow to the Cavaliers playoff aspirations (not making it, cause they will, but getting the 4th seed or advancing). The Plain Dealer has a list of replacements, and it doesn't look good, the top two are Jimmy Jackson and Ricky Davis....

OSU Fired O'Brien Improperly

Now, if this was a real world situation, I could see that. But sports teams fire coaches for any number of reasons, poor play, poor conduct by players or we have a chance to get Larry Brown.

I was unaware that coaches could dispute their firings in court. O'Brien screwed up by giving money to a player, so OSU fired him. Maybe they were also sick of his teams play, I dunno. But so far it looks like it has worked out for OSU.

Kinda like when the Pistons fired Carlise for Brown. Carlise wasn't that bad, he had two 50 win years. But the Pistsons got Larry Brown, who they thought was better than Carlise, so did it matter how Carlise left? They wanted him replaced, so they replaced him.

Maybe I'm comparing apples to oranges here, but it seems to me O'Brien did something wrong, and OSU decided to fire him. Even though what he did wrong wasn't all 'that bad'. I dunno, it sounds justified to me.

Paul Begala

is smarter than I am