The Lakers select...

Andrew Bynum...

I don't know much about this kid, all I know is that he's a legit 6-11 and 285 pounds, so he is probably the biggest 17 year old kid running around since Shaq was that age. It's a given that he's not going to do much for at least a year or two, anybody expecting Amare Stoudemire or LeBron James (i.e. immediate) type contributions are probably going to be disappointed. This kid has the size but is really young (remember, Amare was 19 when he came in and LeBron is basically a once-in-a-lifetime talent). On the plus side, he's relatively well-spoken and actually did well in school (a supposed 3.6 GPA and favorite class is physics). Therefore, character won't be an issue, if he works hard he should become a good center. What I'm concerned with is that by the time he gets good, his rookie contract will have expired. It would really suck if Bynum ends up being the next Eddy Curry, fat and often-uninspired.

I understand why the Lakers went with size over immediate help or even uber-athletic high school kids like Gerald Green, but most fans want immediacy, nobody wants to wait three years to see a draft pick pan out. As far as the 2nd round goes, I'm pretty happy with the Ronny Turiaf pick, that was one solid pick for the second round. That dude is basically a clone of the young Brian Grant. I don't know much about Von Wafer but it is the 2nd round after all..

What day is it?

So I'm at work and this lady calls. Normally I don't answer phones but since the entire office is away, I'm doing everything now (the beauty of a one-person law firm who hires his wife as the secretary) and I have to answer the damn phone calls. This lady asks when the boss dude will be back (this happened on Monday by the way). I tell her he should be back Wednesday (incidentally he is NOT back yet so I'm stuck answering the phones again). She then says "will he be back tomorrow?", I tell her tomorrow is Tuesday and no he won't be. Then she says, "so he'll be back Wednesday?" and I respond "yes." For the next minute or two she basically repeats the routine of "will he be back Tuesday?" followed with "so he will be back Wednesday?" and then unceremoniously hangs up. Two minutes later she calls back and asks me the same question...

Useless waste of time

Anybody think what the Chinese customs officials are doing is completely ludicrous? Seizing textbook for a Japanese school because it showed China and Taiwan as different colors on the map sounds like a monumental waste of resources to me. It amazes me how petty the world is becoming. Anybody out there actually believe there will be world peace is crazy because it seems to me everyone everywhere is only interested in holding on to grudges (and yes i know why China, Japan, and Taiwan have problems...). Add to the fact that people in other countries (yes, even the supposed "enlightened" Europeans) really don't like individuals from other different backgrounds, ethnicities, and so forth.

Gitmo = Nazis??

Did I miss something here? How is it okay for Senator Durbin to compare what happened at Gitmo to that of the acts performed by Nazis or Pol Pot???? Have people gone so incredibly insane that they cannot discern the difference between what the Nazis and Pol Pot did versus what occurred at Gitmo or even Abu Grahib (or however that's spelled).

First off, American soldiers are not working the prisoners to death, baking them in ovens, or forcing them to eat bugs for dinner. Give me a break about the Koran "abuse." If dropping a Koran into the toilet or on the floor is the extent of the abuse, well shit, every prisoner in the world should be so lucky. Furthermore, what's with the double standard? Saudi Arabaia jailed a bunch of Christians for spreading "poison" of Christianity and someone dropping a Koran is thought of as some horrendous abuse of a prisoner's rights????

Think of it this way, if you had to be a prisoner of war, you'd be the biggest dumbass in the world not to say you want to be a POW in an American POW camp. That being said, I'm not disputing that some rights (especially in the realm of the detention itself) have been violated, perhaps even grossly, but to take it to the level of Nazis and Pol Pot is irresponsible and idiotic.

Pretty pathetic

Guess those crazed religious fundamentalists are at it again. Now they want to block showings of IMAX films that reference Darwin's theory of evolution. Keep in mind Darwin's theory of evolution is not the main subject but is rather mentioned a few times (if not only once) during the movie. I think it's time to kiss goodbye to scientific advances by America thanks to nutjobs like these who are more interested in Bible-thumping than science. My cousin said it best when he stated that science has best advanced through secular means. Ever wonder why most scientific advances in recent (like the past few hundred years) history was made in the West? Because we're more secular than some countries that shall remain nameless. The 60's was an extreme liberal movement, now the 2000s is shaping out to be an extremely conservative movement. I personally think we should take everyone on the extreme left and extreme right and have them be shot. People like them are completely useless, they don't understand the definition of compromise and restraint. Once they latch onto something, they'll fight it until they die even if they are completely wrong.

Phil is BACK!

Woohoo!!! Phil Jackson is back as coach of the LakeShow. Hopefully with a new cast of players (with Kobe being pretty much the only holdover from the last Phil-led team), his triangle offense/zen philosphy will work again. Provided that Kobe doesn't wage another "psychological" war with Phil, next year's Lakers will be vastly improved. I say this because the Lakers defense will be much improved under Phil Jackson. His teams have always played great D, going all the way back to the Chicago squads, and this team has the athleticism to be a very good defensive team.

If last year's squad had even played a lick of defense, they probably would have won forty-something games. I see at least a 10 game improvement based on that alone. Obviously the lack of a power player is going to hurt. This is where the big IFs come in. IF Lamar Odom can step up, IF Kobe can share the ball, IF Caron Butler can duplicate what he did the last 15 games of last season, IF the Lakers draft a PF (Charlie Villanueva from UCONN?) or find one from somewhere, the Lakers will definitely be a team to be reckoned with. I'm not saying they're championship-material, but they can be pretty good.

Unless the Lakers pull off some major trade without losing any of their major pieces or whoever they draft simply blows up, this team is away from championship status for a couple of seasons.

Best case scenario is that Kobe plays the Jordan spot in the triangle and passes the damn rock. Lamar stops deferring so much to everyone all the time. Caron needs to become a dependable 15-ppg scorer, and whoever mans the PF or C spot plays relatively solid D. This could be pretty good, but it can also be pretty ugly if Lamar and Caron don't get the triangle.

But, have to say I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. Last year was an unmitigated disaster, the re-hiring of Phil has given me, the city of Los Angeles, and all Laker fans in the world new hope.

This is pretty funny--crazy if real

I saw this on another person's blog and read through some of her stuff. It's pretty damn funny if it's satire, if it's real then I really hope there aren't too many people like her running around. Religion is good but taking it to the extreme is no good for anyone.

The "Woman's Purpose" and the part about how she used to dress is especially funny. I love when she says God created women so that man was incomplete. Man was incomplete because he didn't have women to cheer him on and shit like that when he does well. LOL!

Can't say what she says doesn't manifest itself in real life though. Think of cheerleaders and sayings such as "behind every great man there is a great woman" (I personally like "behind every great man there is another woman").

Guess Kerry wasn't any smarter

Just released are Kerry's transcripts indicating that his grades were no better than Bush's. Wonder why Kerry played up the intellectual angle so much during the election. Well, one thing's for sure, they're both dumbasses...