wildyams

It was a very strange game, but LA led almost the entire game and ended up putting the TWolves away 96-90 tonight, and avanced to the NBA Finals for the 4th time in 5 years. The Lakers await the winner of the Detroit-Indiana series, with Detroit being ahead in that 3-2 and having Game 6 in Detroit. If Detroit wins tomorrow night, they will advance to face LA, with Games 1 and 2 here in Los Angeles, with Game 1 beginning on Sunday. If the Pistons (Detroit) loses the next two games, then LA will face the Pacers in Game 1 of the Finals in Indianapolis on Sunday. Either way, the Lakers have the rest of this week off to rest up. I would assume that Detroit will win tomorrow, since they are looking better than Indiana right now (who has some key injuries), and because tomorrow night's game is at home for the Pistons.

I personally am hoping the Pistons do advance to the Finals (although I'd like to see them have to go to a Game 7 to do it), because I would love to see the Lakers avenge the defeat they suffered at the hands of the Pistons back in 1989 when I was watching in frustration as an 8th grader. See, that year LA was looking to 3-peat, having won the previous two years (nobody had won 3 in a row since the Celtics had done it some 20 years earlier), and LA had not lost a game in the playoffs heading into the Finals. Because the Lakers swept the Western Conference Finals that year while Detroit battled it out in the East, LA had around 10 days off before the Finals started. In those days, Pat Riley was coaching the Lakers, and he is notorious for being a coach who pushes his players very hard. Because he was afraid they would get too loose being off for so long, he pushed the Lakers very hard, doing 2-a-day practices to keep them ready. As a result, Byron Scott (the Lakers starting 2 guard) pulled his hamstring and wasn't able to play at all. Then in Game 2 Magic Johson pulled his hamstring as well, thus depriving the Lakers of their entire starting backcourt. As a result, the Lakers were swept out of the Finals, and Detroit's "Bad Boys" (as the Pistons were known back then) celebrated their first of two NBA championships. At that time the Pistons were hands down my least favorite team in the league, and to this day I've never hated another team as much as I hated those Pistons (they were called the "Bad Boys" because they were basically all assholes, and because they played a particularly dirty brand of basketball). They were generally reviled by the fans of just about every team in the league, except of course those of the Pistons. In any event, if Detroit advances to the Finals, it will be their first trip there since the Bad Boys were there last in 1990, and I for one would love to see the Lakers avenge their last loss in the Finals by kicking the shit out of Detroit :grin

I don't think I can be too specific, but suffice it to say that today was a pretty good day at work, and that for the first time in a couple months the future looks pretty good mainly because it appears to be more certain. Anyway, even though I can't be specific, trust me I'm feeling pretty good right now.

Well, let's see, other than work-related stuff, there's not a whole lot going on with me right now, except for the upcoming NBA Finals, which will in fact feature the Lakers and the Detroit Pistons. I am guessing that it might be the most competitive Finals series since Jordan retired for the 2nd time, back in 1998. Detroit is a really horrible offensive team, however, so the Lakers might destroy them. But Detroit is arguably playing the best defense in the playoffs of any team in years these days, so they might provide a lot of strong resistance for the Lakers. Game 1 is Sunday, and I'll try to break it down a little bit more tomorrow or Saturday maybe, but I'm not really up to it now, so I'm just gonna go to bed.

Yesterday after work my good buddy Grover drove down from San Francisco for the weekend (he actually drove down before I got off work, but arrived after I got home, you get the idea). We drove around for a bit trying to figure out where to go eat. Grover said he wanted to eat at a place that wasn't too fancy, but where he could get a beer and where he could get "American food". He said "a place like Barney's Beanery, but not Barney's Beanery" :lol Well I was pretty well stumped, but eventually we decided to go eat at the Arclight, of all places. After eating, we decided to go see the new Harry Potter movie, The Principle of Kazakhstan, over at Mann's Chinese. However, after going over there to get tickets, we discovered that all shows were sold out until one that was almost 3 hours later, and we didn't really want to hang around Hollywood and Highland for 3 hours; so we figured we'd come back here to my place and see if we could get tickets for a show online somewhere else (to ensure it wouldn't be sold out), and if we had to wait a while we'd just hang out here in the meantime. On the way back here, Dave called and so instead we ended up going over to his place, where we hung out for the rest of the evening. Grover got up early to leave this morning and I'm supposed to hook up with him and Jon and possibly Dave and Jen later on, so the excitement on ye olde blog here is bound to continue.

See if this sounds familiar: The Lakers, being the dominating team of the decade, enter into the Finals against the upstart Detroit Pistons who have been close to being in the Finals before, but who have never been there with any of their current players before. The Lakers are the heavy favorites, but the Pistons are a very tough defensive team, trying to match up against all the Hall of Fame talent the Lakers have that have given them their recent championships. Nobody gives Detroit much of a chance, but Detroit comes out and stuns everyone by stealing Game 1 here in Los Angeles.

Well this is exactly what happened tonight, but if it does sound familiar it is because it is exactly what happened back in 1988 as well. The Lakers went on to win that series against the Pistons back in 1988, although it took 7 games; so needless to say I'll be happy if history continues to repeat itself, even if it takes 7 games to do it. In my opinion, the difference between 1988 and now is that those Pistons in the 80s were for real, and were unjustly slighted by everyone. Today, however, having watched the game, I think it is once again a case of the Lakers figuring they have this thing won already and just mailing it in. LA did not look ready, and didn't look like they really tried playing at all until they fell behind by 13 with about 8 minutes to go in the game. Suddenly they started hustling, but it was too late, and they went on to lose. If the Lakers lose on Tuesday (Game 2), then I will think that Game 1 was not a fluke and that these Pistons, like the team in 1988, are for real; but for now I just don't see it.

More history here for you: back in 2001 the Lakers came into the Finals against a Larry Brown-coached team (the Philadelphia Sixers) having not lost in the playoffs. The Sixers shocked everyone and stole Game 1 at Staples Center and everyone thought the Sixers were gonna pull off the huge upset. It never happened as the loss woke up the Lakers who won in 5 games and celebrated on Philadelphia's home court. This year's Pistons are also coached by Larry Brown (2001 and now are the only time he's ever coached teams in the Finals), so we'll see what happens.

The difference in today's game was that the Lakers could not shoot the ball to save their life (credit the Pistons defense for that), and that the Lakers played WAY too selfishly, only getting 15 assists (also credit the Pistons defense for that). But even giving the Pistons defense credit does not explain why LA played the way they did. I expect LA to change things around a lot for the next game, and to come back with the right adjustments. The other big factor in the game was that Detroit shot 12 more free throws than the Lakers. I was pretty appalled at the 3 guys the league chose to ref this game, because all of them are pretty high on the Lakers "least wanted" list; but the blame for the loss has to fall to the Lakers themselves for not taking the Pistons seriously. Hopefully Detroit has the Lakers' attention now, otherwise LA could be in trouble. Games 3, 4 and 5 are in Detroit, so if LA goes back there down 0-2, then it could get ugly. No team has ever won those 3 consecutive games at home before in NBA Finals history (the Lakers won all 3 on the road in 2001, however); but LA can't let it get to that point. They need to have a split when they head to Detroit for Game 3, or else they very well could lose this series.

After work tonight I went to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, Tortas Mexico, so I could get a carne asada burrito since I hadn't eaten out after work in about 2 weeks (I've been eating at home). Well when I got in the restaurant, at first it didn't look like anyone was at the counter, but as I got right up to the register to place my order the woman working there popped up from behind the counter and I could see she was on the phone. I assumed she was on the phone taking someone's order or something, but soon I heard her say "ok, it still says it is ok to turn off my computer. Now what should I do?" I thought this was pretty funny, because apparently they were using a PC with Windows 2000 on it to run their cash register, and big surprise (:roll) it was having some problems. Well after listening to the person on the other end of the phone evidently try to explain to her how to hit the reset button on the computer, I volunteered to help. She seemed very happy that someone there could help, so she put me on the phone with the owner (who was the guy on the other end of the line) and I quickly rebooted her computer for her. The owner had smartly put the Point of Sale program in the startup items, so once the computer started, it was just a matter of time before it rebooted and got back up and running (it did have to automatically re-install the drivers for the printer they used for receipts, but I walked her through that as well). After I got the computer up and running, she took my order and I got my delicious burrito and left; but not before she gave me a free side of chips for doing a little tech support for her. :grin

Man, hard to find just one hero in tonight's HUGE Laker win. First you have Kobe who not only was the game's high scorer with 33, but he also hit an absolutely incredible 3 pointer with 2.1 seconds left in regulation that sent the game into overtime. In addition to that he either scored or was responsible for at least 8 points in the OT. But then you had Luke Walton, the apple of Britney Spears' eye, who came up with so many huge plays all game long and in OT (Luke finished with the most assists for a rookie in the Finals, 8, since Magic Johnson back in 1980). Man. With Kobe you almost expect it, because as incredible as that last shot in regulation was, it almost wasn't surprising that Kobe made it because he does that type of thing so frequently. With Luke you don't expect it because he's just a rookie and because he doesn't get too many chances to play (he didn't get off the bench in Game 1).

Anyway, it was an up and down game, with LA and Detroit trading leads through most of the first half. In the second half, LA looked like they had taken control, going up by 11, but some foul trouble in the 3rd quarter allowed the Pistons to get an absolute parade to the line and as a result they were able to close the gap by the start of the 4th quarter. The 4th quarter was back and forth as well, but Detroit took a lead late into the game, even having a 6 point lead with about 40 seconds remaining. Shaq got fouled on a shot he made and he hit the ensuing free throw to cut it to 3, and that set up Kobe's final play. LA had the ball with about 10 seconds left and they inbounded it to Shaq. Surprisingly the Pistons didn't foul Shaq to send him to the line, and instead let the Lakers run their play. Shaq gave it to Luke, who in turn gave it to Kobe. Kobe did not have a good look at the shot, having to attempt a falling away 25-foot shot, but it fell with 2.1 seconds left tying the game. The Pistons fumbled away their last possession and it went to overtime. In the OT it was basically all Lakers, with LA pushing the lead to 8, which was the final margin of victory.

I'll tell you, basketball, like many sports, is something that can really make you run from one extreme to another emotion-wise. With a minute to go in the game it looked like the Lakers were done for sure. But a couple good breaks and a big miracle shot and things go the other way and LA ends up winning a must win game. That is the good news. The bad news is that the Pistons absolutely are for real, and that Game 1 was not a fluke. LA is in for maybe the hardest series they've had so far in the playoffs, especially with Karl Malone and Derek Fisher both having hurt knees (they're playing on them though, but it's clearly limiting both of them). The next three games are in Detroit (on Thursday, Sunday and then Tuesday), which means Detroit can win this series if they just don't lose any games at home. Clearly the Pistons are focused, and clearly their defense really disrupts the Lakers. LA better come with a huge effort in every game, or this big win tonight won't mean squat.

After work tonight I went with Keith and Greenspan and their friend Seamus (who I met for the first time) to the Forum to watch the And 1 Mix Tape Tour. Essentially what that is, for those who don't know, is it is a travelling "street ball" show that goes from city to city. What they do is they have a group of basketball players who are all flash (and sometimes little to no substance) who have funny nicknames who go out and play against a bunch of the best amateur local talent in a game. The game is not like a normal NBA or college (or even high school) basketball game, however, because for one thing it is pure exhibition so the rules are few and are rarely enforced. Additionally there is a DJ playing hip hop music the whole time, and in addition to the refs on the court (who are basically there to say who the ball belongs to when it goes out of bounds) there is an MC/announcer with a mic who roams around the court, and who gives a running commentary much like sportscasters on ESPN would while watching highlights. It's pretty ridiculous but it is pretty fun in it's absurdity. At halftime they had a rap "battle" between 4 different guys, and the guy who won couldn't have been more than 11 years old at the most (he was really phenomenal though, and was hands down the best part of the evening). Anyway, the performance overall was a little lackluster (which probably explains the somewhat meager turnout), but it was a good time nonetheless because the guys I went with were just a lot of fun. In any event, it was good to just get out of the house on a weeknight for a change (a somewhat rare occurrence for me lately); but now I'm off to bed.

Suffice it to say the Lakers got absolutely demolished tonight. LA set a new franchise record, for the second time this series, for fewest points ever in a playoff game. I could be wrong, but I think it's the only time the Lakers have ever scored less than 70 points in ANY game, at least since the advent of the 24 second clock some 50 years ago. I'll say this, the Lakers came out with no effort, but the reffing didn't help. The Pistons in this series have been allowed to play a LOT more physically on defense than the Lakers have. The clearest example of this is when you look at the number of free throws each team in this series has shot and how many fouls have been called on each team:

Lakers:
Called for 80 fouls in 3 games.

Pistons:
Called for 56 fouls in 3 games.

Lakers:
Shot 56 free throws in 3 games.

Pistons:
Shot 91 free throws in 3 games.

The Pistons have shot more free throws in any 2 games than the Lakers have in all 3. The refs gotta be consisent on both ends and the Lakers gotta come out with more effort. Otherwise LA's gonna be down 3-1 on Sunday with Detroit having the opportunity to close it out in 5 on Tuesday in Detroit. :frown

I'm just now leaving work, so as you can tell it was a long day here at the office. I figured I'd make a quick entry to update a few things that have happened in the last 24 hours or so. First, I hooked up my VOIP phone last night, which was a pain in the ass because I guess most people don't have a static IP address and a router, so the device they sent me wasn't configured to detect that automatically, and there weren't clear instructions on how to set that all up. The tech support guy was pretty good (at least he knew what he was doing), but he even was a little confused that shockingly someone has a static IP and a router with more than one computer on it. In any event, right after I got that hooked up, I decided to switch my DSL to DSLExtreme, as I had previously mentioned I was planning on doing. Right before I was about to send my order online, my computer shut off with no warning. I tried to turn it back on, but it took hitting the power button and the reset button a few times before it would even start up and do the RAM check. I figured this was a bad sign, but I went ahead and finished my DSL switch order; but a few minutes after that my computer shut off again. I figured maybe it overheated, and since I was done with everything for the night, I went to bed. When I woke up this morning, I couldn't get my computer to start up at all, so basically my PC is now dead. Thankfully I still have my Mac :grin Anyway, my PC was pretty old, so I figure this is a good excuse to upgrade my system. After talking with a guy at work who is very knowledgeable about chipsets and whatnot and what the best components were to get for good deals, I ordered a new case with a new power supply, a new motherboard, a new P4 2.4 GHz processor and a gig of RAM. All 4 parts are from different vendors, so my new "computer" will be arriving in pieces over the next week or two, just about in time for my DSL to officially switch to my new provider (which should be considerably faster for the same price I was paying). In any event, while my computer and internet connection status is in somewhat disarray, I have disabled my mp3 list and all that, so if you wanted to check out what I've got you'll have to wait a week. Ok, it's late so I'm going home, but I'll be back here at work tomorrow morning! And yes, I know, it's Saturday tomorrow, but I'll be here nonetheless cause there is shit to do :grin

Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity for me. I got up at 9 and went to work, then worked till 3 when Milkshake, Cookie, J. Krue and I all went to see The Chronicles of Riddick for free on the lot. Well, none of us thought it was any good, but unfortunately it wasn't anywhere near as bad or fun as Battlefield Earth. Anyway, after that, Milkshake went home with a stomachache, Cookie went back to work, J. Krue went home to continue his screenplay, and I went to Victor's BBQ. Victor's place was pretty cool, there was some good food there, and my kick ass co-workers, so a good time was had by all. A couple former co-workers showed up as well, which made it extra fun.

At about 8:30 I had to split so I could get home so that Steve-o and Juliette could pick me up for Janeen and Trent's housewarming party; however, it turned out that Steve-o and Juliette were closer to Trent and Janeen's place than mine, so they just gave me directions and said they'd meet me there, so off I went. The party at Neen and Trent's place was great, with a mix of people I knew and people I didn't know, and all the people I didn't know seemed very friendly. Jon and Edrich were there, so I got the update on how Jon's tatoo was healing, and I talked about the Lakers' woes with Edrich. Probably the funniest moment of the night was when Jon and I decided to give my old college friend Collin a call on Jon's cellphone. A friend of Collin's had tracked me down through my page of people I've lost contact with that I'm hoping to find, and said he lived down the street from Collin, so he emailed me his phone number yesterday. Anyway, since I hadn't called him yet, and since Jon was good friends with Collin as well, I told Jon about it at the party and we called him up, even though it was about midnight or so. Jon and I didn't leave our names though, instead just left a bunch of clues about who we are (stuff he'd know about us from college) and hung up. We'll call him back, of course, when we have more time to talk, but it was pretty fun nonetheless. Anyway, that party went till about 1:30 or so, and after that I came home and crashed. It was the end of a fun-filled, exciting day :grin

Well the Lakers lost Game 4, and really could have been swept out of the Finals already, considering they had an absolute prayer answered in Game 2 to give them their one win. Once again the story of the game was Laker fouls and Piston free throws. LA had 34 fouls while Detroit only had 20, and the Pistons had 41 free throws while the Lakers only had 20. For the series this brings the totals to 76 fouls on Detroit vs. 114 fouls on the Lakers; and 132 free throws for the Pistons vs. only 78 free throws for LA. In all 5 games the Lakers have had more fouls than Detroit, and in all 5 games the Pistons have had more free throws than LA; however, in Game 2 (the one the Lakers won) the Lakers only had 2 more fouls and Detroit only had 6 more free throws, so it shows you how important it is for the calls to be more even. In the two games in Detroit, it's really been ridiculous, with the Lakers having 26 more fouls called on them than were called on Detroit and with 36 more free throws than LA has (LA's only attempted 35 total free throws in Detroit, so the Pistons have had more than twice as many free throw attempts in the last two games).

For whatever reason in this series, the refs have been letting the Pistons get away with murder on defense, and have been calling the Lakers for every minute amount of contact on the other end. Today was probably the most blatant example of this, even worse than Game 3. LA came out with a lot of intensity and with a good game plan; but in spite of the fact that LA was hitting around 55% of their shots and Detroit was hitting about 28% of their shots, Detroit still had a 2 point lead at halftime because they had been to the line about 15 more times than LA had. The officiating negated LA's good start, and by the time the refs decided to call things a little more even-handedly, it didn't really matter, because Detroit's shooting slump ended and they started to make their shots from the field. In spite of all of that, LA still had a great chance to win, except that for the second game in a row Kobe was a virtual non-factor, going 8-25, with most of those shots being really absurd ones from too far outside.

Oh well, the circus rolls on and the Pistons can win the NBA championship on Tuesday with a win in Game 5, thus becoming the first team in NBA history to win Games 3,4 and 5 of the Finals at home. The Lakers only chance in this series is to have a great game in Game 5, and force this series to come back to LA for the last two games with LA down 3-2. Even then, however, I don't think that any team has come back from being down 3 games to 1 in the NBA Finals since maybe the Celtics in the late 60s. LA's backs are to the walls now, and Game 5 could very well be the last time for a number of things: it could be Kobe's last game as a Laker, it could be Gary Payton's last game as a Laker, it could be Phil Jackson's last game as head coach of the Lakers, it could be Derek Fisher's last game as a Laker, it could be Rick Fox's last game of his career, and it could be Karl Malone's last game of his 19-year career. Hopefully they'll all leave it all out there on the court on Tuesday, or else it's gonna be summertime for the NBA.

LA is down by about 2 with 3 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, so clearly the Pistons are gonna be the new NBA Champions. I give them a lot of credit. I thought going into this series that LA would lose maybe one or two games, but that was it. How wrong I was. The Pistons are a hell of a team, and will continue to be for a while I'm sure if they keep all those guys there. I know I've talked about the fouls and free throws and all that, but really the Pistons outworked the Lakers in this series, and they just had more athleticism and played better as a team. The Lakers have their work cut out for them this summer and could be back next year with a hugely different look. Kobe could be on another team or in jail, Phil could be retired, Malone could be retired, Payton will almost surely be gone, Fox might retire, Derek Fisher could split, etc... The reality is that it is the official dawn of a new era in the NBA. For the last decade or two (maybe more) the teams with the veteran players who could knuckle down and scratch together the wins were a sure bet when they were surrounding a superstar; but it is looking more and more like the recipe for success in the NBA is going to be a good collection of athletic players, something the Lakers have not had for years. They've got a few young players with some skill, but none of them are really phenomenal athletes, and that is what the Lakers are going to have to go after. Don't be surprised if there are wholesale changes to the team this summer, because I don't think it's a simple case of just retooling the roster for another run like they've done every year for the last 8 years or so. The Lakers need to go get some guys who can run and play this summer, otherwise it's gonna be rebuilding time again here in LA. I hate to say it, but it could be awhile before the Lakers win another title; but that's ok. Sooner or later they'll get back to the top, because that is where they started and that is where they always seem to be.

Go Lakers.

Today was an interesting day. It was busier than usual for me, working on a lot of stuff with deadlines rapidly approaching. However, lunch was really fantastic. It seemed like old times today, cause a couple of us went to Honey Baked and even Kelly showed up to meet Matt, Steven, Amy and myself. I think it was probably the first time Kelly met a bunch of us for work since she quit almost a year ago. We talked about the animal heads on the wall, old TV shows and how to properly pronounce "pumpernickel" :lol

Half of my new computer parts showed up yesterday: the case and the processor. Now all I need is the motherboard and my new RAM. I took the RAM from my dead PC out last night and brought it into work today to see if I could put it in my computer at work (since it has the same processor that my dead PC did). I didn't get a chance to see if I could put it in my work computer yet though, so maybe I'll be able to check that out tomorrow. My other computer parts have both shipped, so maybe if I'm lucky I'll have a new PC up and running by this weekend, just in time for my new DSL connection which will supposedly switch over on Friday :grin

It's not every day that I see a guy I know personally get a mention on a blog that is so widely read as BoingBoing is, so imagine how cool it was for me to see Jason get a mention there. Jason, you sound like you have a really kick ass job going there. The rest of us are jealous :lol Have a nice trip :grin

"I mean I'm no, I can't - I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's, he's a great man. I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas..."

If my calculations are correct (and I believe they are), my link to my list of music and all that entails should now be back online. Anyone who wants to look at what music I have, or what have you, should note that the IP address has changed because I switched my DSL carrier to a new one that looks to be roughly 4 times faster for upload speeds and maybe 10 times faster for download speeds. Thank you, drive thru.

Don't get me wrong, I love Macs and all; but considering my Mac is a beige G3 that's probably around 6 years old or so, I am really missing having a PC here. At some point, maybe before the year is out, I really gotta upgrade my Mac as well, cause it's pretty painful when this is the only computer I've got. Yesterday Safari crapped out on me. My computer crashed while using it, and ever since then I can't open Safari. If I try to open it, it just closes immediately before even loading the window telling me it unexpectedly quit. So I figured, no problem, I'll just use Mozilla Firefox (which is my preferred browser anyway, since I do most of my browsing on a PC). Firefox 0.9 is beta, however, and even though it worked great at work on my PC there all week, about every 10-20 pages I open on it here on my Mac causes it to "unexpectedly quit". So here I am, now browsing on Mozilla Camino (which is also a beta version, 0.8). The problem with Camino is that if I scroll down on a webpage it will screw up the page and draw big blank lines through the middle of the page. If I reload the page, then it will be fine until I start scrolling up or down again; but Camino at least doesn't continually crash on me.

I need to get a new Mac and I need to upgrade to Panther, but in the meanwhile I'd just love for the remaining parts of my new Pentium 4 system to show up. The processor and case arrived last week, but since the people who shipped the RAM and the people who shipped the motherboard both needed a phone call confirmation that I really did want to ship these items to an address that was different than my mailing address, those two items are not here yet. I got tracking numbers from both places, however. One of the items is scheduled to be here by Tuesday, and unfortunately the tracking number for the other item doesn't work when I've gone to FedEx's website, so I guess we'll see with that one. I'm glad my DSL switched over and I'm glad my VOIP phone works great, but now I just need my damn PC! :grin

My apologies for this entry: some will find this to be too technical, while others will laugh at how much of a novice I am with computer hardware; which will make me come across as either dull or stupid. In that regard it's not much different than most of my entries :grin

My motherboard arrived yesterday, so I took it home and tried to set up my PC as best I could (although without the RAM I knew I wouldn't be able to turn it on). I got most of the computer built, just screwing down the motherboard and putting all the drives in and hooking up all the front panel connections. I also put the processor in, although I had a small scare with that as 2 of the pins on the processor were bent ever so slightly (but just enough to not allow the processor to slide into the slot effortlessly). I very carefully straightened the two pins and then it slid into it's slot the way it should. It started to get pretty late, so I called it a night before I hooked up the IDE cables and power cables, but that should be the easiest part; and since my RAM arrived today (a whole gig of it), I'm gonna go home shortly and finish putting my computer together, and hopefully it will work.

This is my first entry from my new PC. I've been doing nothing but working on it since I got home from work, and I'm fucking beat, so I'm now going to bed.

I know I said "no more Laker entries for a while" but in light of what has happened to the team since they got their asses handed to them in the Finals over a week ago, I feel like I should probably write something down. After the Lakers lost, essentially here is what happened: the Lakers fired Phil Jackson as coach (or more accurately just didn't renew his contract); Kobe, Karl Malone and Derek Fisher all opted out of their contracts; Gary Payton picked up his option on his contract (meaning he's signed with the Lakers for another year); and Shaq has demanded the Lakers trade him. Now, a couple of those things were not big surprises. Phil Jackson not coming back is not a surprise (it was widely assumed that he would probably retire if the Lakers did offer him a new contract), Kobe opting out was not a surprise (he's said he would all year), and Karl Malone opting out wasn't too shocking because he would have been paid the minimum allowed if he'd kept his current contract. Fisher had talked about opting out, but that was a tough decision for him, and really it was unknown what he would do up till the last minute (he even got an extension on when he had to make that decision because he was so torn). The real big shock was Shaq demanding a trade, so let me explain why he did this. To explain it, I need to first discuss Kobe's circumstances.

In the NBA there is a salary cap and there are rules governing what teams can pay players what amounts, so when a player like Kobe becomes an unrestricted free agent, even though he can technically go play for any team he wants to, every team will not be allowed to pay him the same amount. The league realized years ago that just letting players leave their team because some other team could offer more money was a bad idea, so they have it arranged so that a team who has had a player for 3 or more seasons will always be able to offer them more money than any other team out there. This is true of Kobe this summer as well. Even though he opted out of his contract with the Lakers (which had one more year left on it), he can still sign a new contract with the Lakers for $143 million; or he can sign with any other team in the league for whatever they could afford to pay him. The most any other team can offer Kobe is a $98 million deal, so clearly he'd have to forgo a lot of money if he wanted to leave the Lakers (in reality, most teams in the league could only offer Kobe a $5 million, as that is the most any team over the salary cap can offer a free agent, and easily two-thirds of the teams are over the cap).

Because Kobe can get more from the Lakers, clearly he would most want to sign a contract with the Lakers; however, if he wanted to leave the Lakers and get their contract, he could have the Lakers orchestrate what is called a "sign and trade", which is quite simply Kobe signing the Lakers deal and then having them trade him with the new deal in tact to another team. A lot of free agents do this because it is both beneficial to the player (he gets more money and the team he wants to play for) and for the team (they don't lose the player outright for nothing, and instead can get something back in trade). Sometimes, however, players will want to leave but the teams won't want them to leave (believing the player they have is better than what they could get in a trade for them), and if this happens then you get a lot of posturing and threats, where the player can threaten to just accept less money and leave to sign somewhere else (and thus the team gets nothing in return). This will usually force the team, if they believe the player really will do it, to go ahead and give in to a sign and trade deal. The

Lakers right now are potentially in this situation. Kobe has opted out, and if he goes to the Lakers and says "sign me and trade me or I'm gonna sign somewhere else" then it's up to the Lakers to either do as he wishes or to call his bluff and hope he stays with the Lakers for the bigger paycheck. Kobe has not indicated, yet, that he wants to sign with any other teams; however, when the Lakers general manager was asked if they would sign and trade Kobe, he said no. The Lakers have said that under no circumstances will they trade Kobe, meaning that if he does ask for a trade they will call his bluff and dare him to take less, even if it means they'll get nothing back. Now, immediately after being asked about Kobe, the Lakers GM (Mitch Kupchak) was asked what he would do if Shaq asked to be traded. Kupchak said that if Shaq asked for a trade (Shaq is signed for 2 more years, so if he wants to leave he has to get the Lakers to trade him), he would do as Shaquille wished. Shaq took this as a personal insult, that the Lakers were saying that no matter what they are going to do everything in their power to keep Kobe in LA, but would be willing to trade Shaq, so Shaq got pissed and has demanded the Lakers trade him, and has put his house in LA up for sale.

That is really all that is concrete facts right now, although believe me there is rampant speculation about everything going on with the Lakers right now. There are rumors about who will be the Lakers new coach, there are rumors about whether Kobe will re-sign with LA or not, and there are literally dozens or hundreds of rumors about where Shaq could be traded to, and who the Lakers would get in return. My personal feelings are that I have no idea who will be the Lakers new coach, and I have no idea where Shaq will be traded (if the Lakers do end up trading him at all). However, as for Kobe, I do think Kobe will re-sign with the Lakers. Over the years here, any problems Kobe has supposedly had have been with either Shaq or Phil Jackson. Phil won't be there next year, and it doesn't look like Shaq will either, so it really makes little sense for Kobe to leave the team now unless he hates the city of Los Angeles, or something like that. But not renewing Phil's contract and saying that they are willing to trade Shaq, the Lakers have essentially said "this is Kobe's team." It's hard to imagine him leaving for $45 million less somewhere else.

Concerning Shaq, and whether he gets traded or not, people need to keep some things in mind: Shaq is by far the most expensive player in the league, and at 32 years old he is no longer in his prime. This is as good a time as any to get rid of him if the Lakers were going to do it, because in a couple years he will be older, slower, and even more expensive (contracts in the NBA go up every year). This means he will contribute less while costing more, which is not good. Because of size of Shaq's contract, if the Lakers do trade Shaq, they will end up getting a number of expensive players in return; and generally the expensive players are the ones who are the most talented. The bottom line is that if Shaq is not in a Laker uniform next year, unless he retires (that's an incredibly remote possibility, as he would have to forgo about $60 million to do it), the Lakers will have at least 2 very good players in his place (they'll probably get more than that, but that would be at the very minimum). However, if you believe what the Lakers are saying, then if Kobe isn't in a Lakers uniform (and assuming he's not wearing a Colorado prison uniform instead) then LA won't have received anyone for him.

So there you go. The Lakers are kinda all over the place right now, and nothing is for certain, but I wanted to kinda bring everyone up to speed (considering the length of this entry I doubt anyone even read this far, but whatever).

Longest. Entry. Ever.

As you may know, I used to work at Dodger Stadium while I was in high school and college. I worked there for 7 years as a vendor, walking up and down the stands selling everything from peanuts to ice cream to sodas to cotton candy. I even sold burritos and pizzas there :grin Anyway, I haven't been back there for a game since I quit working there, back in either 96 or 97; and I haven't been to a game as a fan since I was maybe 13 or 14, and I want to go. Now I'm not a big baseball guy, and what I learned from working there that whole time was that at a baseball game you're mainly there to hang out with your friends and soak up the atmosphere (or take pictures of the people around you while they're eating, if you're Steve-o :lol ), and you only really pay attention to the game at a few key moments. Generally about 98% of the time you're at a regular season game though is spent paying little attention to the game. Anyway, I think it would be a good time, and I'm interested in going.

I have one weird request when going to a game, however, and that is that I want to sit up in the top section (a/k/a the "nosebleeds" or "the roof"), and it's not because the tickets are cheap (although $6 a ticket is pretty nice, compared to $60 a ticket for field level seats): I want to sit up on the top because it's so relaxed up there. I used to love working that level because there's a great view and just the general atmosphere up there is really laid back. Also, I personally would rather go see the Dodgers play some crappy team, cause I don't want to go when it's like a real rabid sports crowd who is howling for blood; so I checked the schedule and I'm thinking maybe going to see the Dodgers play the Pittsburg Pirates in early August would be fun (the Pirates have the league's 3rd worst record right now and are last in their division). Is anyone else interested in going?

Well last night I played poker with Jon, Dave and Pierre, and I lost my ass (Koga showed as well, but didn't want to play). Actually, I didn't lose my ass, but I lost the $20 buy-in amount and I was the first one eliminated. But hey, it was my first time playing poker for money, and it was only my second time playing hold-em poker. The other three guys either play frequently or watch a lot of it on TV, so I was definitely far and away the novice at the table. The money wasn't important though cause I had a great time and did learn a lot about how to play hold-em poker. Also, we had dinner at The Hat, so that made the evening extra fun :grin

PS - I got linked on BoingBoing!

I absolutely have to give John credit for the newest feature here on my blog. As you may have noticed, over there in the right hand column I now have something called "RadioBlog" which is essentially a playlist of songs that I chose that anyone can listen to while this website is open. Just click whichever song you want to listen to and it should start streaming in right away (note that if you're on a dialub connection it's gonna take a while to stream in, and as such you might not want to use it). It's pretty self-explanatory: there's a volume control and you can have the songs crossfade from one into the next by clicking the crossfade button. Anyway, I figured it's a pretty cool feature to have on my site here, so there you go. But I would never have even heard of this thing if it wasn't for John's entry about it about a week ago, so thanks John :grin If you guys have any requests, just leave me a comment or an email or something and I'll see what I can do.

Yesterday at my Dad's place we had another Halo-fest, this time with Paola taking Steven's place. Steven was busy, but after the last time we all got together we discovered that Paola is a big Halo fan, so it worked out nicely. Next time we're gonna need another additon so we can play 4 on 4 instead of 3 on 3. All the regulars showed up: Matt, James, Jenn and Josh. This time it was a pretty balanced affair, with the team I was on dominating the early games; then the other team dominating for a while before each team going back and forth till we finished. We definitely seem to all not only be getting better as individuals, but we definitely seemed to have a lot more of a team-oriented approach going, with people having more clearly defined roles. It was really interesting, and by the end the games were really taking a long time because there was so much strategizing involved. Either that or because we all were becoming so sneaky :lol In any event, it was a great time as always, and this time it was highlighted by Paola whipping up some of her amazing cuisine for our pre-fragfest feast, as well as some fantastically delicious cookies that James and Jenn brought :grin