Wmcmanus

The Onion strikes again! http://www.theonion.com/article/waters-tested-as-12-year-old-says-shit-in-front-of-31953

Too easy, I suppose.

I remember Austin Carr (Mr. Cavalier) quite well. My dad was a big Notre Dame fan, so we watched all of the games. He played with a guy named Gary Novak, who was from LaSalle, IL (just a 5 minute drive, across the Illinois River from Oglesby, IL where I grew up). These are small towns, so for someone to be a 3 year starter for ND, it was a big deal. Novak (now a doctor) was a really smart player. Kind of a role guy, shooting forward, great defender and rebounder. He might have averaged 10 points, but it was really all about Carr. He was just an amazing, prolific scorer. Lots of 50+ points games. He was the best of the best in Notre Dame history.

^ Sounds like something Howard Cosell would have said.

Definitely a quiet 25 points. More like a Kobe shooting night for Curry. But even the best aren't "on" every night. Reasons aren't important, only results. So he's got 2 more chances to prove himself as the MVP he is, or at least blend in and help to make everyone else play better.

The only part of the equation I'm troubled with is the cumulative nature of the rule, over the entire span of the playoff season. It just doesn't seem "right" to me that one team (at any round in the playoffs, but particularly in the finals) can come into the series with a pre-existing edge over the other team. I'm not sure exactly when Green picked up his other 3 flagrant 1 fouls during the 2016 playoff season, but they weren't all against the Warriors. I think at least one must have been against OKC, right? Maybe more than one? So what I'm getting at is that if one team, the Warriors in this case, has been through a particularly rough series (physically, emotionally, etc) and several of their players have picked up flagrant 1 fouls along the way, then that team enters the next round of the playoffs against another team that had zero to do with those flagrant 1 fouls. Yet, certain guys are marked men from the beginning of that series and thus need to play much more cautiously. Based on what? Based on what they did wrong in games against other teams, not the team they're now competing against. Just doesn't sit well with me. Penalize a guy within the series in which he causes the infractions. Maybe suspend him for a game after committing 2 or 3 flagrant 1 fouls, rather than 4, but impose that suspension in that series, not the next series. Otherwise, the advantage accrues in favor of a team against which no harm, or very little harm, was done (in this case, the Cavs are catching an unwarranted break because of the "bad boy" label that Green carried into the series).

You're 100% right. It's a clear cut rule. You're allowed to accumulate 3, but not 4 flagrant 1 fouls, throughout all rounds of the playoffs, or it's an automatic 1 game suspension. Dreymond, of course, knew this, as did the announcers who have been referring to it during every game of the series. "The NBA determined Green’s “retalitory swipe to the groin” of LeBron James constituted a flagrant 1 foul of which Green has collected four. Four flagrants gets you an automatic one-game hiatus."

RIP, Christina. Horrific news.

Very sad. Sudden heart failure. Makes you wonder. RIP Chris.

This guy is pretty funny. #5 and #15 were my favorites, and #30 for truthiness. http://twentytwowords.com/this-is-what-happens-when-you-ask-the-wrong-guy-for-photoshop-help/

^ Aka, "rope a dope" which was a brilliant strategy.

That was really good, Steve. So sad though, because despite the obvious shock and surprise and all of the joy that it brought to him, you can also clearly see that the brain damage had set in and he already wasn't himself at that point. He had regained his title by beating Spinks that year ('78), but it seems that the head injuries probably traced back a couple of years earlier to his 3rd and final fight with Norton in September of '76 at Yankee Stadium, which I remember clearly because it was my 14th birthday. But it's really hard to pinpoint. Late in his career from age 33 onward, most of his fights went the full 15 rounds, ending with the two very sad fights against Holmes and Berbick when he was only in it for the money. Those last two fights did untold damage and it just wasn't right. Yet, I don't think anyone anywhere near the condition he was in before the Holmes fight could ever get medical clearance again, so perhaps there may be a silver lining in there somewhere.

Yes, it seems so. Reports are still conflicted, but Wikipedia now shows Ali as having died on June 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali RIP, champ. You were indeed The Greatest, no doubt about it.

http://www.theonion.com/article/gorilla-sales-skyrocket-after-latest-gorilla-attac-30860?utm_content=Main&utm_campaign=SF&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing

Cavs sending a message tonight. Raptors need to just shake it off and try again next time... but it will be a massive uphill battle to win in Cleveland in Game 7 if it gets that far.

He would get my vote, assuming he could produce a valid birth certificate.

Happy birthday, Brent. Hope you do something fun, and don't show up after all of the biscuits are gone...

Happy birthday, Raffy!

Awful news, Brent. RIP Sam. Gosh... so young.