The "NBA narrative" is the same as kids family picnic games where the dad ensures that the game ends in a tie so that every child is a winner and there are no losers.
Monday, March 31, 2025
...the NBA has established a narrative to make everyone feel like a winner. If your team is bad, there is always the lottery. If your team is mediocre, there always is the play-in round. And if your team is good, there is the battle for seeding in the playoffs. The thing that gets lost in the entire process is that players play to win, and coaches coach to win. So if a team truly needs to or wants to tank, that is up to the front office to make sure the players most capable of helping you win do not take the court. Philadelphia on Saturday night was a prime example of that, when anyone and everyone of note was out of action. And we now are seeing more and more lottery teams decide to shut down players for the season. It’s not the right thing to do, but it’s the NBA’s way of making everyone feel like there is something better ahead.
Kevin Durant Ankle Sprain
The 36-year old, decade-long target of Pat Riley left PHO's loss against Cow Town unable to put weight on his left leg.
A trade for KD would be a grave mistake for New Miami.
That was biblical, as the saying is, rain yesterday
I went out for Chinese food about 8, the rainfall had long ceased, and two or three cars were stranded in the streets. A Dominos pizza outlet near me was shuttered. The City of Miami Beach recorded 6.23 inches of rain. It was the most intense downfall I have experiencecd down here in a non-hurricane.
Sunday, March 30, 2025
randin Podziemski drops 27 in Warriors' blowout
You think I'm making that up, don't you?I'm not.
Now the motherfucker's Christee-an name ain't "randin"...Is it? It has to be "Brandin" and the chyron-writer at the Worldwide Leader was drunk...Right? I'm not looking it up, fuck it. If I ever in the remaining years of a dissipated life have cause to type his name, it shall be randin Podziemski.
This may be the most lead polluted place on Earth.
Oh come on, Barnesboro isn't that bad.
Is there any hope?
No.
🎵 We cheer for Barnesboro,
Down where the Sulfur Creek flows
DOWN WHERE THE SULFUR CREEK FLO-O-OWS!🥹
B
A
R
N
E
S
B
O
R
O
Down where the Sulfur Creek flows🎵
#MIAvsWAS INJURY UPDATE: Duncan Robinson (left sacroiliac joint dysfunction), Kevin Love (personal reasons) and Andrew Wiggins (hamstring tendinopathy) have all been ruled out of tomorrow night’s game vs the Wizards.
Pete Thamel on Houston's obliteration of Tennessee in the NCAAM quarterfinals:
Tennessee missed its first 14 3-pointers, trailed by as many as 22 in the first half and looked at times like a directional school "buy game" opponent in an early November matchup.
Tennessee missed its first 14 3-pointers, trailed by as many as 22 in the first half and looked at times like a directional school "buy game" opponent in an early November matchup.
Good writing. Pete Thamel is a good writer.
Public Occurrences March 30, 2025
Trump threatens bombing if Iran does not make nuclear deal
"If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Trump said in a telephone interview. "It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before."
3:18 pm
Trump won’t rule out seeking a third term in the White House, tells NBC News ‘there are methods’ for doing soAny of them legal?
President
Donald Trump said in a Sunday-morning phone call that he was “not
joking” about a third term, adding that “it is far too early to think
about it.”
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., crafted a resolution calling for the extension of presidential term limits, which would allow Trump to seek another term in office.
Meanwhile, Trump ally Steve Bannon said in an interview on News Nation that he believes Trump will “run and win again in 2028.” Bannon said in the same interview that he thought “we’ll have a couple of alternatives” in determining how Trump could seek a third term despite the two-term maximum for holding the presidency.
9:58 am:
A friend wrote,
Amazing
This signal scandal which I think is a nothing burger has actually stuck to Trump and co
I don’t get why
Of all the awful shitty things they have done this is the one that sticks
Once again telling me my political instincts absolutely suck and I have no idea wtf people are thinking
Me: i think signal a beeg deal
Friend: Of all the intentional awful evil destructive things they are doing this was a mistake and if they had simply acknowledged it as such maybe this dies
But it’s not like Mr Goldberg exited the chat and called his friends in Yemen and said “ we are coming”
Splain why this has legs
Me: i allow we have overchoice, and i don't know that it has legs with the public since i don't talk to like people. however. but. a mistake? the natl sec adv chose the channel, the war plans were disseminated by waltz' choice to goldberg and they were published in entirety. goldberg DID give them to houthis. that's a little big deal, but again i don't know what normal people think. it's a bigger deal in wh bc waltz said he didn't know goldberg and turns out they have some "relationship" that even goldberg won't give details on. which is weird. and trump hates goldberg. but. maggie haberman wrote that even within those shadowed halls waltz will likely survive with trump.
1,700 Now Dead in Myanmar Quake
Trump Will "never take military force off the table" to Acquire GreenlandNUUK, Greenland Appropriate venue.
8:42 a.m.
Un Trump congressthing Elsie Stephanik
Trump congressthing Elsie Stephanik
Trump UN Elsie Stephanik
Trump Un UN Elsie Stephanik
Trump congressthing Elsie Stephanik
😳
Can't say I have ever seen this before. In the above vid, taken at 3:40, the rain clearly is blowing from my left to my right, West to East. Seven minutes later it just as clearly began blowing in the exact opposite direction, r-l, East to West.
Swedish Secret Weapon
Barry Jackson, Miami Herald:
In the third start of his career, Larsson was a defensive dynamo on one end (four steals, two blocks) and had a role in 25 points on the other end, with 14 points and four assists (including three threes), to go with six rebounds in 30 minutes.
Larsson seemingly has supplanted 2024 Heat first-round pick Jaime Jaquez Jr. as the wing of choice when Andrew Wiggins is sidelined by injury. ...
With Larsson, the Heat can always expect hustle plays, defensive grit and ability to blend in on offense. But what he produced on Saturday was far more, ...across-the-board production...
Toronto’s Jamal Shead -- who was picked one spot after Larsson and is averaging 6.8 points and 3.9 assists -- has been better than the 6-5 Larsson, but at only 6 feet, he must shoot threes far more efficiently than his current 33 percent to become an NBA starter.
Larsson seemingly has supplanted 2024 Heat first-round pick Jaime Jaquez Jr. as the wing of choice when Andrew Wiggins is sidelined by injury. ...
There's the rub with one-trick pony 3J. In December 2023 he was the Association's young star. He did a commercial with JBIII, had a big game on national television on Christmas Day that had the cognos swooning, and other GM's fuming at genius Pat Riley's draft steal. I swooned. I saw 3J in a Summer League game at my pizza joint and thought there never was such a "Heat" Culture guy. He played with endless energy. 601 Biscayne trumpeted his four years in college and maturity as producing a ready now guy. But he is 24, ancient for a second-year player, he has not diversified his offensive game, and has not shown the growth in the NBA's leap year. He still plays very hard.
With Larsson, the Heat can always expect hustle plays, defensive grit and ability to blend in on offense. But what he produced on Saturday was far more, ...across-the-board production...
...
“Pelle is just an ignitable player. He makes things happen – the steals, the deflections, the hard plays. Those are momentum shifting plays that he has a knack for."-Head Coach Erik Spoelstra....
...for No. 44 pick Larsson, only one player drafted after him has been significantly better: Golden State center Quinten Post, the 52nd overall selection who is averaging 8.7 points and shooting 42.9 percent on threes.
I do see Pelle as different in those very important areas from 3J. I don't know why 3J's hyper-energy didn't translate like that. When you don't have tangibles, apparently Pelle doesn't have even one trick, you have to survive on intangibles. At least with no tricks teams can't take anything away. You can't take away a player's "hustle" the way you an a spin move in the paint. So, maybe Pelle succeeds where 3J didn't. But here's the thing. Guess how old Pelle is? 24.
I am sincerely bummed that New Miami apparently is destined for the trash bin of "Heat" history. I love Davion and would love Wiggs if he wasn't emulating J-Buts with availability. I truly think Andrew and Tyler in the backcourt and Bam and Kel'el inside would give even elite teams (Cleveland, Beans, Okies) fits. Eeminds me of the breakup of one of my favorite teams, the last Finals team with the Artist, the Composer and C-Mart.
Ira makes an irrefutable point though: if Jimmy-Bam Tyler couldn't win Larry O'Brien Tyler-Andrew-Davion won't...I guess it's irrefutable. Kel'el-Bam makes it a little different in my mind.
I just hope Riley-Elisburg aren't still obsessed with KD. That's 10 yrs and counting. I think KD on us would be like Joel and Paul George John Ringo on Philly. We'd be one injury from catastrophe.
I know the JBIII trade gave us some cap maneuverability and with Duncan Donut's expiring contract and getting rid of Scary Terry somehow I thought we could go the free agent route. But no cogno has said. Because of the new CBA I gather and I don't understand the new CBA except that it's "punitive" on FA super teams.
Saturday, March 29, 2025
4DDW! FT Phila. 95 New Miami 118
Six New Miamians in DF's: Herro 30 and 7 asts; A Burks 20; Bam 16 and 7 boards; Pelle, the Swedish Assassin, with the most complete stat line, 14, 6 boards, 4 asts, 4 steals, 2 blocks +25; Kel'el 13, 14 rebs, 2 asts, 1 steal, 2 blocks; Hi-Ho 13, 6, 3, 2.
Four straight double digit wins, this one on the road over a decimated, tragic team. New Miami now 33-41.
22-28, 2:50, Phil FTO
This isn't basketball, it's Horse. Phil, 8 of 14 shots from beyond, NM 8/14. Basketball the way that it should be played has the rhythms of poetry in the ball movement. This is the rat-a-tat-tat of the machine gun, rhythmic but hardly poetic.
Phil 14 New Miami 17, 6:44 1Q, Phil Mandatory FTO
It's been a shooting range so far. Phil. 5 of 9 shots from range; NM 5 of 8. Both teams shooting 80% from Jersey.
Six Crises
This "Heat" season has turned Erik Spoelstra into a philosopher and Ira Winderman from homer pencil to serious reporter. Here, Ira takes a rare anayltical, in-season, look-back at where it all went wrong, "the Miami Heat spending these final two weeks of the season not only having to accept the reality of a third consecutive trip to the play-in round,*(see bottom) but for the first time likely having to start that trip from the bottom of the play-in round...18 games in the balance, games that otherwise could have had the Heat in the thick of where they thought they would be, chasing homecourt advantage in the first round." Eighteen games, where the team went 0-18, grouped in six clusters:
1) The "Detroit debacles" that included a blown 8-point lead in OT. 0-3
2) The "Sacramento screwups", a blown 15-point lead at home and a 17-point blow out there. For numerologists, 17 is the death number for the "Heat" this season.
3) The "Butler burden" games, the most populous category. "...Butler appeared to turn an ankle 7:19 into the 104-97 Dec. 20 home loss to the Thunder, only to be listed out with an illness that Butler said forced him to miss the next five games, as well"; " "...when the Heat announced a seven-game Butler suspension, it was as if the Heat were in a Butler-induced daze, falling 136-100 Jan. 4 to the Jazz". 0-5, "with that a conservative estimate".
4) The "fourth failures". Twenty-two and sixteen-point blows. 0-2
5) The "streak stingers." Seventeen-point blow in Cleveland; 17-point blow to Male Cows in Bang Bus; 17-point blow to Queens, also in the Bus. 0-4.
6) "Letting go of the rope", the most ominous category. "Eventually all the losing took a toll to the degree that there seemed to be capitulation." Blow-out losses to Memphis and Manny Hatty. 0-2.
*Now for my, inevitable critique. "...third consecutive trip to the play-in round". Channeling Brian Windhorst, "Now why is that?" Missing from Ira's list is the architect of it all, not only this season, but the two prior consecutive appearances in the ignoble play-in, and the now 11-year average 45-37 record, Ladies and gentlemen, Heaters and Haters, I give you Pat Riley. Who gave Erik Spoelstra James Johnson and Tyler Johnson, Dion Weighters and Terry Rozier, Justise Winslow? Pat Riley. Who signed Duncan Robinson to a 16M/year, five-year contract? Pat Riley. Who drove away Shaq, LeBron, D-Wade? Pat Riley. Who fired the first shot in the Butler War? Pat Riley. He broke it, he owns it. Yet, Ira never mentions him. National commentators, including Windhorst, are unanimous that Pat Riley is apportioned some blame for making Butler a "burden". Not Ira. We were a play-in two consecutive seasons before Ira's six crises; we are a play-in now with them. Who has headed this franchise for the entire decade of mediocrity? Pat Riley.
Friday, March 28, 2025
Public Occurrences March 28, 2025
Utah becomes 1st state to ban fluoride in public drinking water
The law is set to go into effect on May 7.
ABC NEWS
The law is set to go into effect on May 7.
ABC NEWS
9:05 pm
Columbia Prez Who Caved to Trump's Demands Resigns
I'm going to lose Eleven, I just know it. She raced past me and got outside twice today, once just now when I came back from emptying her litter. She clearly WANTS to be outside. She looked around so excitedly. I was afraid tonight that she was going to jump onto the outside railing and since it's windy out, she'd get blown off.
Losing eleven, even if she was alive and safe, would grieve me every minute I was here without her. This is HER place. Everything here has her mark on it. I must have 500 photos of her in my camera roll. She has been with me 24/7 for almost a year and a half. I'd be heartbroken.
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