I don't listen to music much anymore, but when I do listen to hip hop specifically, I noticed it's changed to a whole different type of sound. I hear sounds from guys or groups like Chingy, D4L, Lil'Jon and Soulja Boy, just to name a few, and feel the quality declined dramatically. The beats are more intense which is more suitable for dancing, however the lyrics behind those beats are garbage. In my time, I was never a big fan of the mainstream hip hop, like Notorious Big, Tupac, Eminem but some of their music I got and even liked; I can't say the same of the hip hop today. Maybe I am just showing my age but feel the 90's was the best era in Hip Hop music; young Nas, the Genius, Method Man, Gang Starr, Group Home, RZA, Boot Camp Click, Can-I-Bus, Keith Murray, Redman, the rest of Wu-Tang, Erick Sermon, Mobb Deep, Originoo Gunn Clappaz, Channal Live, The Alkaholiks, Xzibit. Most of these guys never made it into the main stream and the ones that did where more due to their exuberant personality, i.e. Method Man and Redman doing Mountain due commercials and making movies. This group of artist created some of the most intelligent lyrical poetry ever created in hip hop history, yet really did not get noticed outside of the underground hip hop sub culture. I remember people calling this the real rap of the day versus that mainstream stuff people called hip hop. These artists didn't hide behind the beats with mediocre catch phrased filled lyrics. The beats of the underground hip hop artist were filled with infectious beats laced with sharp background sounds that blended perfectly with each other. Most importantly, their lyrics were smart and thought provoking, combining straight forward street lingo with historical metaphors put together seamlessly like the stitching in an authentic Gucci bag; I consider the hip hop of today more like a knock off.

 

 

Again, these might be the rants of a guy nearing his 30's and just not understanding the culture of the current times. I just feel the great hip hop artist of yesterday should be mentioned in conversation and the 90's should be recognized as the best era in hip hop music; in my opinion. Unfortunately I know they wont as they will go as unnoticed now as they were in their times.

 

With the eminent clash of the retooled Lakers, and soon to be retooled Suns, we are in store for the biggest shoot out since Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Virgil and Morgan Earp fought the McLaurys and Clantons at the OK Corral. 

 

As a Lakers fan I am worried what the addition of Shaq will do for a team that has mostly been criticized as a team built only for the regular season; lacking the interior defense for the long haul and slowed down pace of the playoffs.  While many pundits have already denounced Shaq as over the hill or "done", I think we all know what a motivated and scorned Shaq is capable of; you only need to think back 2 years ago where he put together a MVP caliber season when at that time, also proclaimed by some as "done". Yes, Shaq is now older, banged up and worn like a pair of some teenager's favorite jeans, he is still 7 feet tall, 320+ pounds and one of the top ten centers in the game, that is not being asked to carry a team, but play a role.  There isn't a team in the west that has the player with the girth and weight to guard Shaq and he will still demand attention, maybe not a constant double team, but with the amount of great shooters on the Suns roster, they only need smidgeon of daylight to get that shot off; Shaq will provide that. The only cause for concern would be the style that the Suns play not meshing with a old, lumbering Shaq, but I don't believe it would be an issue because D'Antoni is a good enough coach to implement both the slow down and up tempo style, throughout the course of the game as the situations changes and he sees fit; he has enough personal to fit both types of styles.

 

As a basketball fan this has to be great news.  The West already considered to be extremely deep has strengthened its talent even further.  The Lakers addition of All-Star Pau Gasol to a roster with Kobe, which was already competing for one of the top seeds in a very competitive conference, has possibly propelled them to the top of the heap.  We have a veteran filled, championship proven line-up in San Antonio. The up and coming New Orleans team that has the most balanced starting line-up in the NBA being led by MVP candidate Chris Paul. Dallas has the reigning MVP and still a force. The argument of where have all the great teams gone or this is waterdown league due to expansion can be discarded as this is turning out to be one of the greatest seasons in the NBA since the 80's. The potential match ups of western conference powerhouses will be filled with more stars than a blockbuster Hollywood movie premiere. 

 

In dedication of the Old West let me end this by saying it is time for these teams to stop barkin at a knot and gitty-up for the race to the Bonanza. Especially those teams on thier last legs, such as Phoenix, San Antonio and Dallas, as they need to make hay while the sun shines as the window begins to close quickly on their championship aspirations. Questions are still unanswered; is Gasol the Huckleberry for the Lakers? Will Shaq Pony up and put aside his usual high falutin attitude or pitch a fit and put a spoke in the wheel of the Suns hopes? Will Dallas stew in one's own juice due to their incredible disappointment that last 2 years or move past that and join the ho down. This is where we separate the men from the nancy boys, where the yellow belly's are exposed and the biggest strongest cowboy with the quickest draw is left standing.  So quite your yammerin and strap your boots for the wildest ride to the whole kit and caboodle the NBA has seen in years. The playoffs are a two whoops and a holler and it is gonna be a hog-killin' time. Yahoooo!

The Real "Race to the MVP" rankings.

 

Maurice Brooks from NBA.com has weekly rankings for his opinion on the NBA MVP race. The guy is usually way off and doesn't seem to be watching the games. My guess is he only watches highlights, checks box scores and compares them to the team's record. This is why I have constructed my own rankings since I believe I pay more attention to individual games and intangibles that you can't see in box scores or game highlights. No disrespect to Maurice Brooks as he is a talented writer, just not a talented rankologist.
My criteria for MVP is as follows, in the order of importance.

 

1. Teams record, I personally think they should have separate awards for the player of the year and "MVP" but they don't so you have to consider record because how valuable are you if your team is only winning twice every 3 weeks?

2. Statistics, this apparently has become less and less important. Case in point, Kobe is having the worse statistical year in his career since the days he was backing up Eddie Jones and has received more MVP talk then ever; the talk is well deserved though.

3. The quality of players around you. It is not fair if you are going to get automatic consideration for MVP because your team has a great record as a result of having, let say, 3 all stars on your team. This is where the very unintelligent, lack of critical thinking argument of "best player on best team" comes in. That point of view is for lazy people that don't want to do the research and watch the games.

4. Intangibles, these are the things we have to look at, some are controversial but are taken into consideration whether you want to believe it or not.

a. Closing out games, does your team look for you at the end of games? Is the ball in YOUR hands to close out the games? Is it evident that you want the ball at end of close games?

b. Leadership, are you heavily involved verbally with the players throughout the game? Active verbally on defense? In players face when the do bad and giving them praise when they do good? Working with young players to help them get better, is that evident that it is working?

c. Pay your dues. This doesn't sound right but seniority is taken into consideration. I remember Karl Malone won his 2nd MVP award in the strike shorten season of 1998-1999 when Tim Duncan was more deserving; being he had better numbers on a better team. Tim got the real MVP award in the finals.

 

1. Dwight Howard, Center, Orlando Magic, team record 23-14, important stats: 22.4 ppg, 15.2 rpg, 60.5 fg%, 2.6 bpg.

 

His numbers on monsterous, He is a load in the paint and the focal point of every teams game plan against the Magic. His presence, like many great big men in the past, has opened up opportunities in the perimeter that, as a result provided guys like Hedu Turkoglu to have career years. His numbers are even better than Karl Malone, Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitski when they won theirs. Also, they are close to Moses Malone numbers when he won the award back to back in 82 & 83; except Howard is putting up hitting a better field goal percentage and blocking more shots.

 

2. Kobe Bryant, Guard, L.A. Lakers, team record 23-11, important stats: 26.4 ppg, 6 rpg, 5.0 apg, 2.1 spg.

a. The time has come to recognize Kobe as the MVP of this league and not just the best player. Consensus of NBA people, which include analyst, coaches, GM's and former/current players, say Kobe is the best player in the league, he now has his team on pace to win 55 games and home court advantage in the 1st round of the playoffs. In addition he is doing this without another all-star on his team or someone averaging at least 14 points per game.

 

3. Chris Paul, Guard, New Orleans Hornets, team record 23-12, important stats: 21.9 ppg, 10.2 apg, 2.9 spg.

a. He is the epitome of the word leader and you can see it in every game. Due to an inconsistent, lackluster of talent bench he is asked to play more minutes. With his drive to win, and toughness he actually is the one that asked to play more. The team looks to him at the closing of games and he definitely wants that responsibility. There isn't a player in this league that disrupts more defensive schemes then this guy.

4. Lebron James, Guard/Forward, Clevland Cavs, team record 18-18, important stats: 29.1 ppg, 48.0 fg%, 7.5 apg, 7.4 apg.

a. Sick, sick numbers that we haven't seen since probably before my time, I hear Magic with more points or some guy named the Big O. The poor guy has a roster filled of sub par, over rated or under achieving talent but somehow has managed to get this team to .500. He is the undisputed leader of this team and the only real threat; teams know this and prepare defensive schemes in hopes of stopping, or at least slowing him down, but have failed miserably up to this point. If his team can improve their record he has to be one of the favorites, just like Kobe should have been with his unbelievable year in 2005-2006.

 

5. Paul Pierce, Forward, Boston Celtics, team record 29-4, important stats, 21.2 ppg, 4.9 apg, 1.55 spg.

a. I would say due to my criteria, rule # 3, he should not be this far up on the list being he has 2 future Hall of Famers on his team. However, by watching their games, and more specifically the ending of them, he is the "no doubt" leader of this team. He is the one with the ball at the end of games and if the game is close, it is on his shoulders. The other day against the close win over the Detroit Pistons, in the last 6 minutes of the game that ball touched Pierce's hands on every possession and he obviously wanted it that way. It either led to him scoring or finding "Big Baby" for a little chip shot up close. Garnett is the best overall player on this team and the emotional leader, but like in Minnesota he defers too much on offense, luckily for him, he has guys now that are worthy of deferring to.

I don't care about The Mitchell Report which lists MLB players who took illegal enhancing drugs. In a society that is built on capitalism which provides an individual the ability to make their own opportunities which are extremely competitive, this should not be a surprise to anyone. I, and I am sure most, have made a life out of cheating in one way or another, in some form or another; from copying and pasting really good descriptive lines from the internet for your resume that in no possible way pertain to what you did in your last jobs or reflect who you really are as a person; to claiming you contributed money to charities like United Way or the Salvation Army on your taxes when you cant even gather the decency to hide your change from the bum that asked for a quarter because he claims his car ran out of gas and needs to get his family back home, Instead you tell him NO!!!, then right in front of him, you drop $8 worth of quarters in that claw machine in hopes of pulling that stuffed animal of Dino for your kid whom you haven't paid child support for in 2 years.

 

No, I am interested more in who didn't take them and if they were on my favorite team. If I am going to fight through horrible, bottleneck traffic, sit through long and boring games with the sun beating down on me. Then once at those games I have to sit in tight areas with minimal arm and leg room like a catholic confessional; have to tippy toe and suck in my gut to get to my seat and in turn while at my seat having people pass by me by sticking there rear end in my face; stand in long lines to pay for overpriced beer and dogs; have to share a urinal troff with "well endowed and no need to use my hands while I pee" guy to my left and "peeky, cant see me" guy to my right; and you are telling me you can't rub on a little cream, splash on a little clear like old spice after shave cologne? What is a little prickly syringe in the bum if it can result in playing a few more games a year; to turning those lazy fly balls into 3 run home runs; to turning those lazy weak grounders into laser line drives into the gap or even turn that fat, lofty 83 mph fastball into a rocket 95 mph fastball with movement while being well into your 40's? That is the least you could do! I don't care if you take your syringe with you and inject in the on deck circle. Just put up those numbers!

 

Also, who ratted these guys out anyway? What punk sat down and started spelling out letter by letter the names and addresses of their peers and fellow abusers. Where is Tony Soprano, Pauly or Silvio when you need them to quiet this guy with persuasive tactics? Isn't there an equivalent to Stephen Jackson or Charles Oakley in the MLB?

 

In the end this is mainly a nondescript list of "washed ups", "who cares", "could-ofs", "should-ofs" and "neverweres", that is brought to the forefront and likely will be perpetuated by the media. I hope this list is bludgeoned, buried and forgotten like Joe Pesci's character, Nicky and his brother Dominick Santoro, in the movie Casino.

At the Gym I see both guys and girl completely oblivious to the fact that they are sharing space with other people. They are attached to a pair of earphones that appear to control their movements and prevent them from making eye contact or socializing with any other club members. They awkwardly make head gyrations from time to time, but can't seem to understand the reason as they are not following any specific pattern. There is music playing in the GYM but it does not coincide with the possessed club members head and body movements. When 1st seeing this type of reaction I wasn't sure what to do; should I go and try to help. One of the individuals was moving his head and body so violently that my 1st instinct was to go and perform the Heimlich maneuver or toss two hand full's of holy water in the poor guys face. In one instance I do see one of the consumed club members make a valiant break from its master but apparently it was only to consume itself with another one of its apparent commanders, the cell phone. Throughout the day I noticed that this was fast coming into an epidemic as people walking the streets, waiting in lines for coffee and even some in cars were affected by this disease that makes these poor souls aloof. After some getting more exposure to these sights I now realize that this contraption, that was connected to peoples heads that looked to be under a spell, was actually technology called an I-Pod or MP3 Player. This device is something that is very small, relative to the old walkmans I had been use to, and they are easily hidden in arm bands, waist clips and in coat pockets. I wonder now, going by the behavior of the people subdued by these I Pods, what will become of society in the future. Will we become a society of isolation from one another that common courtesies and salutation will become instinct? Will we be led by a bunch of indifferent, unsociable humans that are incapable of relating to other people, let alone a large group of contingents? Is the pool from the I Pod generation where the leaders lie, or is this only the group that will create a burden on society by filling the lower and working classes; Or is it the anti-I Pod generation that will become our future leaders of this nation? Only time will tell but it is concerning and I wanted to document my preliminary observations in order to have something to look back on and see if my initial concerns were mere melodrama or a premonition of danger.