It is interesting to see how the media had a huge circle jerk over this one basketball player and didn't even mention this week's suicide bomber in Pakistan. Surprising how mass killings get boring and un-newsworthy after a while. I want to take a page from Flack and unconnect for a while. If it wasn't for my podcast feeds and three forums (this one , Groucho and TGC) I'd never log on.


THE
BAD NEWS SCARES
AARDVARK


(think little league baseball with Walter Matthau)

Yeah, it's like, I completely respect your passion and interest for the sport, it just really seems like the entire thing is now organized to fuck fans in smaller cities. And that enrages me. Sport "works" when everyone in the 30-32 cities involved has a chance to eventually win when the ownership and management is competent.

I REALLY hope Durant ups again with OKC when given the chance. That he signed the way he did is a good sign. That he didn't grow up a fan of the Bulls, Cowboys and Yankees is also a good sign. God, LeBron James sucks.

I almost forgot; LeBron James sucks.

"Why I Like the NBA", by Flack.

Growing up in Oklahoma, we had no professional sport teams in our state. The closest thing we had to a pro team were the Oklahoma City 89ers, who are a AAA affiliate of the Texas Rangers. Basically what that means is, if you ever get a decent player, they'll be gone next year.

But we did have college football, oh goddamn did we. I don't know if you've ever heard of Barry Switzer and this little thing called the Wishbone offense, but I'll guarantee you that every other team in the Big 12 [i]got to see it quite a bit[/i]. In the 70s, Switzer's record at OU was 73–7–2. OU consistently set records for the most averaged yards and points with their offense. Plus, you had Billy Sims, Spencer Tillman, Brian Bosworth, Steve Owens, Keith Jackson, Jamelle Holieway, Josh Heupel, Adrian Peterson, Jason White, Sam Bradford ... yeah.

But still there were no PRO teams here and everybody I knew as a kid here loved the Dallas Cowboys because Dallas is only 4 hours away and they were America's Team and you were supposed to love them, and I didn't. I hate liking a team just because you're supposed to or because that's who everybody else likes. So instead since my dad was from Chicago, we followed Chicago teams. We were fans of the Bulls and the Bears and the Blackhawks. And yeah, I wore a Blackhawks shirt to high school one time and people made fun of me because they didn't know who they were. So eat it, all you out of the wood Blackhawk fans.

And I don't know why but for some reason God gave us the 1985 Bears. I have pictures of me as a little kid in Bears shirts and vests and jerseys and finally, [i]finally[/i], I could stick it in all those stupid Cowboys fans faces. So what if you had Roger Staubach. Did you have the Bears Shuffling Crew, and were they shuffling on down, doing it for you? No, I don't think so. We went to Chicago one time and my dad met Mike Singletary and got his picture with him and I was the coolest kid in 7th grade for like 12 minutes.

And then God was like "well ho ho you've had your fun" and McMahon got weirder and Walter Payton got old and the Fridge got fat and well, there went that. And as a Chicago fan we were like, God, throw us a bone, will ya? And so after praying for a long time he sent his only son, Michael Jordan, to earth to play basketball. And all of a sudden, we were back on top again. And it kind of sucked a little when all the other kids started liking the Bulls and I would be like NO YOU DO NOT LIKE THE BULLS ONLY I LIKE THE BULLS but I guess word about that Jordan guy got around because pretty soon he had some shoes or something and the whole world started watching the Bulls. So I don't know if you heard of that Jordan guy, but it was a pretty good time to be a Bulls fan.

I still followed the Bears but it was hard when they wouldn't win a single game for me. So it was a lot more fun to watch the Bulls. And eventually Jordan retired, but I had watched the Bulls play so much that I not only knew their team, but I knew all the other teams that played them. I guess that's what got me hooked, and I was always a little jealous of other cities who got to follow a team for a whole season. They don't even show a lot of the games here in Oklahoma, so it's hard to follow a team for a whole year.

Guys, I live in a state where sometimes on the way to work I have to yield to guys driving tractors down the middle of the road. It's not uncommon to see guys wearing cowboy hats, and my high school was on Garth Brooks Blvd. Yes, I was excited to see an NBA team finally come to Oklahoma. The two years the Hornets were here were great (watching Chris Paul's rookie year was amazing) and now that we have the Thunder, you bet I'm going to watch and support my fellow Okies like Nenad Krstić, Serge Ibaka, Thabo Sefolosha and Mustafa Shakur. You're [i]goddamn right[/i] I love this team, maybe for all the wrong reasons.

Go Bears! Go Bulls! Go Blackhawks! GO THUNDER!

I have no idea why anyone would choose to follow the NBA unless they were a fan of Boston, LA or the Heat.

(And I say this with the understanding that Flack likes the Thunder, and Durant just signed an extension, quietly. THAT BEING SAID, the first extension these guys sign pretty much forces them to re-sign with the team that drafted them. Also, the fact that he's doing so in Oklahoma City kind of makes my larger point, which I'll make as soon as I get out of these parenthes--)

This is the greatest skullfucking of a "small market" of all-time. I mean, the entire concept of the small market changes from sport to sport - Pittsburgh is one of the model NFL franchises, whereas the Pirates are a joke - but it's ridiculous that teams control who they draft for a maximum of seven years. A guy is in arbitration in baseball for at least his first six seasons. (I can't remember exactly.) For a while there, at least, you weren't completely unrestricted in hockey until you were 31. But herp derp, here's the NBA where a guy who is 24 leaves the team that drafted him high and dry.

And yes, James is a piece of shit for leaving the city he grew up in. You kind of have a responsibility there. If making text adventures could save Rochester, NY, I would move back until the place didn't become a crime-riddled cesspool [i]thanks to my talents[/i]. 99.99% of the time, sports are irrelevant to the greater good, but the rust belt is dying and at least people in Cleveland could watch one of their own play basketball. Now, Christ, they don't even have that.

(And to have a tv show to announce the decision? What a piece of shit!)

I don't have any problem with the game of basketb-- oh. The OTHER thing. This is how amazing it is - the game was literally fixed to stop Sacramento from making the finals [b]one[/b] year. The thought of them being in the finals for a SINGLE SEASON was so abhorrent to the commissioner, he ordered the game fixed. No idea why a fan of a small market team would bother with that.

(And I say the same thing about following baseball. The Jays have the odds stacked against them just like any small market team in the NBA. I'm a moron for giving MLB a second's thought. I admit that.)

I didnt think it was possible for any athlete to become a bigger joke/prick than Arod, but Mr. James you absolutley are the king!