Thursday, May 31, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
perspective...
A lifelong Knick fan can only keep quiet for so long.
Yes, this Jeremy Lin business is insane, but i will not use puns, that's for the NY Post and Joe Schad. I choose perspective.
The Dallas Mavericks had a lot to say about the Knick point guard before and after they had their lassos handed to them, and there is some truth to what many skeptics are saying about Lin.
Can the 20+ points and 7-10 assists a game last over the long haul? In the playoffs?
Why not?
A major point Mav guards Jason Terry and Jason Kidd seem to harp on was the fact that Knick coach Mike D'Antoni's system is built for active point guards that can hold their dribble/ Kidd went as far to mention that the system has Lin playing a lot like Steve Nash.
Lest i remind Kidd that Nash was not an MVP until he was coached by Mike D'Antoni. Oh, and the two were more or less exchanged for each other and while Kidd now has a ring, he also has Dirk Nowitski. Nash never had a player of that caliber and scope on his roster.
Is Lin a product of the D'Antoni system? Of course he is. Is the system the reason why Lin is having so much success? Well, kind of.
D'Antoni's system requires a point guard that can keep the dribble, drive deep into the lane and make one of three decisions all in the matter of 5-7 seconds. Not every guard can do this. Tony Douglas couldn't. Ray Felton was just getting the hang of it before they went and shelved the hole system so Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony could play a two man game for a month and a half. Is it so hard to believe that a Harvard graduate could have the mind and skill set to make split second evaluations and decisions? Isn't that what intelligence quotient is about? Not just the ability to store facts and figures but to use them in moment-to-moment decision making of all kinds to great success. Is it so hard to believe that a starting point guard from a Palo Alto high school could win a state championship in California and have the skill set to back that up? How about getting the grades and everything else that goes with being accepted by the oldest university in the country? how about being coached at Harvard by a former point guard who was raised in a system still run by the winningest coach in college basketball history? Isn't it possible that this coach would have been able to impart some nuance about the point guard position to a talented kid willing to put the work in?
The idea that the success that Lin has had is fleeting, that it will disappear is foolhardy. The skills to succeed are in place, just as they were for Nash. Is Lin and MVP? i won't go that far. He sure has the potential to be one though. If a South African/Canadian who prefers soccer can become an MVP so can a kid from Harvard—those kids from Harvard tend to be pretty successful.
i, for one, am just glad that the Knicks have a point guard to get the ball to the waiting hands of all-stars like Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, while energizing role players such as Tyson Chandler (whose contributions are not to be dismissed), Jared Jefferies, Landry Fields and Steve Novak to play to their fullest potential and allowing Iman Shumpert to learn how to play the NBA game without being under the lights and scrutiny of the Garden's watchful and discerning eye. With the addition of JR Smith and the entry of Baron Davis into the lineup it only increases the chances of Lin's success, applying more ball handling and giving Lin crucial minutes of rest he has not been afforded as of yet.
And why not in New York? Why shouldn't the team that has always driven the city more than any other, (all respect to the Rangers who are currently killing it in the NHL), corner the banner headlines across the nation and be the lead of every highlight show? Why shouldn't Madison Square Garden, the best building in all of sports not be the focal point of attention this Spring?
Why not? i choose this perspective...
Yes, this Jeremy Lin business is insane, but i will not use puns, that's for the NY Post and Joe Schad. I choose perspective.
The Dallas Mavericks had a lot to say about the Knick point guard before and after they had their lassos handed to them, and there is some truth to what many skeptics are saying about Lin.
Can the 20+ points and 7-10 assists a game last over the long haul? In the playoffs?
Why not?
A major point Mav guards Jason Terry and Jason Kidd seem to harp on was the fact that Knick coach Mike D'Antoni's system is built for active point guards that can hold their dribble/ Kidd went as far to mention that the system has Lin playing a lot like Steve Nash.
Lest i remind Kidd that Nash was not an MVP until he was coached by Mike D'Antoni. Oh, and the two were more or less exchanged for each other and while Kidd now has a ring, he also has Dirk Nowitski. Nash never had a player of that caliber and scope on his roster.
Is Lin a product of the D'Antoni system? Of course he is. Is the system the reason why Lin is having so much success? Well, kind of.
D'Antoni's system requires a point guard that can keep the dribble, drive deep into the lane and make one of three decisions all in the matter of 5-7 seconds. Not every guard can do this. Tony Douglas couldn't. Ray Felton was just getting the hang of it before they went and shelved the hole system so Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony could play a two man game for a month and a half. Is it so hard to believe that a Harvard graduate could have the mind and skill set to make split second evaluations and decisions? Isn't that what intelligence quotient is about? Not just the ability to store facts and figures but to use them in moment-to-moment decision making of all kinds to great success. Is it so hard to believe that a starting point guard from a Palo Alto high school could win a state championship in California and have the skill set to back that up? How about getting the grades and everything else that goes with being accepted by the oldest university in the country? how about being coached at Harvard by a former point guard who was raised in a system still run by the winningest coach in college basketball history? Isn't it possible that this coach would have been able to impart some nuance about the point guard position to a talented kid willing to put the work in?
The idea that the success that Lin has had is fleeting, that it will disappear is foolhardy. The skills to succeed are in place, just as they were for Nash. Is Lin and MVP? i won't go that far. He sure has the potential to be one though. If a South African/Canadian who prefers soccer can become an MVP so can a kid from Harvard—those kids from Harvard tend to be pretty successful.
i, for one, am just glad that the Knicks have a point guard to get the ball to the waiting hands of all-stars like Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, while energizing role players such as Tyson Chandler (whose contributions are not to be dismissed), Jared Jefferies, Landry Fields and Steve Novak to play to their fullest potential and allowing Iman Shumpert to learn how to play the NBA game without being under the lights and scrutiny of the Garden's watchful and discerning eye. With the addition of JR Smith and the entry of Baron Davis into the lineup it only increases the chances of Lin's success, applying more ball handling and giving Lin crucial minutes of rest he has not been afforded as of yet.
And why not in New York? Why shouldn't the team that has always driven the city more than any other, (all respect to the Rangers who are currently killing it in the NHL), corner the banner headlines across the nation and be the lead of every highlight show? Why shouldn't Madison Square Garden, the best building in all of sports not be the focal point of attention this Spring?
Why not? i choose this perspective...
Thursday, February 2, 2012
requiem...
he was a stubborn cautionary tale of a man with a lot to teach.
he was a storyteller who rarely painted himself as the hero.
he was my uncle, my boss, my friend and my purgatorial confidant.
he was gone this morning and the world is a little heavier for me today.
i'm sure the sun will be a little brighter with Dan working the lights....
he was a storyteller who rarely painted himself as the hero.
he was my uncle, my boss, my friend and my purgatorial confidant.
he was gone this morning and the world is a little heavier for me today.
i'm sure the sun will be a little brighter with Dan working the lights....
Saturday, November 5, 2011
short form...
short form constellation stylings at http://constellationoflogic.tumblr.com/
its all i have the strength for currently...
enjoy or don't...
its all i have the strength for currently...
enjoy or don't...
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
death or cake...
To keep the dream alive over the past few years I have worked as a writer providing content for websites and affiliate marketers that for the most part has been inane pseudo-SEO-speak, and the content is dreck. However, occasionally I get to nudge in an opinion here or claim social doctrine there and in the case of the current allegations levied against the University of Miami football and basketball programs I found a subject that could cross all boundaries and enter into the Constellation...
For my take on the matter I present this...
For those of you who don't have the time or inclination to give me the shameless hit I sum it up thusly...
For my take on the matter I present this...
For those of you who don't have the time or inclination to give me the shameless hit I sum it up thusly...
"These particular allegations attack the ideology and morality of higher learning and should merit more than just a loss of bowl eligibility or scholarships but instead become a monument to the consequences of egregious behavior in the manner that SMU penalty was proposed to be and failed."
I'm speaking of course of the 1987 "death penalty " given to Southern Methodist university merely for playing players. I use the term "merely" because in the case of "the U" players weren't just alleged to be paid, they were given access to prostitution, paid in a bounty like fashion to injure opposing players and possibly in one case given access to an abortion...
College athletics is corrupt, it was before SMU and it is now, we all know it. The athletes know it, the parents know it, the coaches, the NCAA and so on. But in the 25 years since the institution of the SMU penalty the problem has metastasized like cancer. The "death penalty" was supposed to put a stop to these kinds of things, but instead has allowed the deferment of them to leaches dressed as boosters and the culture is morally bankrupt. I don't have to go too deep into the sociology of the issue for you to understand the breadth of consequences that comes from melding education with compensation. There are a million stories of pay-for-play and worse in the naked city of college athletics, but it seems the NCAA settles for the death or cake rational...
if you offer death and cake, the answer is cake every time...
put 'em to death...
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
peripherals...
Actor Francesco Quinn was found dead in his home of an apparent heart attack last Friday evening...
Outside of being almost Anthony Quinn—Francesco was his son, he played Rhah in the 1986 film "Platoon." Aside from that film being one of the greatest depictions of good and evil ever created, the characters, born from Oliver Stone, were as rich as you've ever seen in a military film. Rhah, along with Keith David's portrayal of King, are two of my favorites. A delayed RIP to Rhah...
Outside of being almost Anthony Quinn—Francesco was his son, he played Rhah in the 1986 film "Platoon." Aside from that film being one of the greatest depictions of good and evil ever created, the characters, born from Oliver Stone, were as rich as you've ever seen in a military film. Rhah, along with Keith David's portrayal of King, are two of my favorites. A delayed RIP to Rhah...
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
facebook gold..
Because some things should stretch beyond 216 friends...
This gentleman here, who I know to be of sound mind, linked this to facebook which moved me to comment about our Commander-in-Chief...
(edited for poor grammar, induced by rage)
He has been governing for a second term, which always leads to sell-outs and back-downs. At least W shoved shit in our faces and then asked us to vote for him. I might have a little more respect for W then Obama right now, because if Obama had shoved tax code up their asses back in December along with a debt ceiling rise, I would have gotten an Obama tramp stamp tattoo. Now, after caving then, he allows a body of government with worse job security than a Washington Wizards coach partake in political extortion against his and his party's principles, not to mention principles of economic logic.
Honestly, I'm on the fence about the deal that was made simply because a deal was made and the immediate repercussions, (that is my already poor credit becoming full on go-to-the-mattresses economics), were avoided. But man-alive is there a sensible motherfucker in the Senate or the White House that doesn't get the fact the house of Representatives is akin to a political joke. They have two years before they have to get re-elected that makes for a year of policy rattling. I guarantee you in 2012 there will be another congressional bloodletting because at the end of the day, that's the only place where a normal, everyday kind of voter can hope to effect real change at Federal level. The fucker that has an office in your neighborhood. That office is never furnished well and the lights ever on—no one gets too comfortable in a congressional representative's office, it might as well be a P.O. Box. The Tea Party succeeded, they rushed in a ton of yahoo's and made a mockery of the process and in turn made the professionals look like amateurs...
Oh well, I think the idea of a man getting an Obama tramp-stamp tattoo is pretty clever, considering it would be my first ink, and the Wizards comment is interchangeable with the Oakland Raiders or the old Pop Steinbrenner Yankees. I do stick to my old haunts when it comes to references...
Maybe its not facebook gold, but it got me back on this horse for a day...
Clint Eastwood getting hammered slugging Pabst. It's like this...It's like that...
Now, that's facebook gold...
This gentleman here, who I know to be of sound mind, linked this to facebook which moved me to comment about our Commander-in-Chief...
(edited for poor grammar, induced by rage)
He has been governing for a second term, which always leads to sell-outs and back-downs. At least W shoved shit in our faces and then asked us to vote for him. I might have a little more respect for W then Obama right now, because if Obama had shoved tax code up their asses back in December along with a debt ceiling rise, I would have gotten an Obama tramp stamp tattoo. Now, after caving then, he allows a body of government with worse job security than a Washington Wizards coach partake in political extortion against his and his party's principles, not to mention principles of economic logic.
Honestly, I'm on the fence about the deal that was made simply because a deal was made and the immediate repercussions, (that is my already poor credit becoming full on go-to-the-mattresses economics), were avoided. But man-alive is there a sensible motherfucker in the Senate or the White House that doesn't get the fact the house of Representatives is akin to a political joke. They have two years before they have to get re-elected that makes for a year of policy rattling. I guarantee you in 2012 there will be another congressional bloodletting because at the end of the day, that's the only place where a normal, everyday kind of voter can hope to effect real change at Federal level. The fucker that has an office in your neighborhood. That office is never furnished well and the lights ever on—no one gets too comfortable in a congressional representative's office, it might as well be a P.O. Box. The Tea Party succeeded, they rushed in a ton of yahoo's and made a mockery of the process and in turn made the professionals look like amateurs...
Oh well, I think the idea of a man getting an Obama tramp-stamp tattoo is pretty clever, considering it would be my first ink, and the Wizards comment is interchangeable with the Oakland Raiders or the old Pop Steinbrenner Yankees. I do stick to my old haunts when it comes to references...
Maybe its not facebook gold, but it got me back on this horse for a day...
Clint Eastwood getting hammered slugging Pabst. It's like this...It's like that...
Now, that's facebook gold...
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