Jenksismyhero

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 03:57 PM) I get depressed even reading this thread. I was so high on this team when it turned 2015 and thought they were just getting started. OTOH, we may look back at this meaningless 3 week stretch before the all star break and laugh at how scared we were. At least I hope. I think it's safe to say that even if they get back to that level, it's not going to be a cake walk to the Finals. Atlanta is really, really good. And for some reason the Wizards have the Bull's #.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 03:35 PM) It sounds like they started to believe the media and outsiders and that they could win without putting in all the effort they used to, etc, and started sleep walking through games and I presume practices. Taj has had a couple pointed quotes on this subject and said they are starting to figure out that isn't the case. I'm hoping this is more the stage where the players are getting a little more brazen and now are learning that the coach is right and are going to move back in line with the general "coach" speak and that Thibbs is almost kind of giving them this longer leash to take the beatings because it will help him down the road. Early in the season, the quotes were contradictory (between what Thibbs was saying and some of the guys)...now it seems like everyone else is moving closer to the Thibbs line which is what we've seen in years past. I think a lot of this was also stemmed by internal management pushing some of this edicts down as well. I'm also curious what would be happening if Noah was 100%, which he clearly isn't right now. He is the team leader and I think Gasol has really taken him out of his element and comfort zone and neutralized a lot of what he does well. I don't know if it is Gasol but I think it kind of is and I think the Bulls need to be more careful when Noah comes back as to how they are going to run the units. I think we should see more of Noah / Taj and than switch to the European duo (even though the defense will suffer when the Euro duo is on the court). See, i think it all has to do with (1) Rose becoming more prominent in the offense, lessening Butler's effectiveness. On top of Butler just having a down stretch. I'm concerned that the more Rose goes back to being MVP-Rose, the worse the team will actually be. It becomes one on one ball, not team ball. (2) Gasol coming back to reality and getting tired. His boxing out the last few games has been embarrassing. Cavs players were just running around him to secure the rebound. (3) Noah. Even when he played this year he hasn't been all that effective. I hope it's the injury and not that he's lost a step. (4) Mirotic coming back down to earth. That stretch of big games against a few top teams he was shooting like 60% from three. At one point he hit 13 or so in a row. Now he's down to like 30% the last two weeks. The defense has been god-awful for a Thibs team, but the offense has been equally terrible. They've been shooting some terrible %'s the last couple of weeks.

http://gizmodo.com/microsofts-wants-to-tur...holo-1680924508 Why would you want to watch a smaller, fake TV when you have an entire screen covering your eyes? I think this will be a big bust.

To someone that handles a football everyday for the last 15 years of their life, yes, that's a big difference. To an average person? Probably not.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 11:25 AM) The deflated balls were all gone by the start of the 2nd half. Weather was worse in the 2nd half. Yet despite all that, New England scores 28 points in the 2nd half (vs. 17 in the 1st half). They were better offensively in the 2nd half with the so called rightly inflated balls. Do we know that definitively? http://deadspin.com/report-nfl-was-aware-o...dium=socialflow The NFL knew about this issue with the Pats well before Sunday's game. At least in that article, it's not clear whether all of the balls were gone by halftime or not.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 12:00 PM) I watch every year, regardless of who is in the office. I feel like it is some sort of obligation, which is probably silly. It's the same every year pretty much, though this year did have a little looser feel than others. A little more hooting and hollering, a little more humor. I liked that aspect. But damn, the game of sit/stand/applaud left/right/both is just plain irritating. Stop it, we don't need to do that with every point the President makes. It's pomp and circumstance, and it's usually a series of goals most of which won't be met. But it does illustrate the priorities of the administration, which I think is worth watching. Obama struck, I thought, the right tone... but he's also a guy who has consistently talked a big compromise game without ever working to do that. Not that the GOP Congress has been any better of course, they just blockade everything he does because he's the one doing it. But, hard as this is to admit, I kind of miss the days of Clinton and Gingrich actually working together to do a few things. We haven't seen much of that lately. One other note - I hope the GOP is smart enough to see that they cannot continue to revolve their entire strategy around stopping Obama and the Dems when the economy has gotten so much stronger. It worked in November, but I'll be the farm it won't work in 2016 unless we dive into another recession by then. They need to have an affirmative theme at some point. I honestly watch the VP and Speaker reactions more than the President. "oh, oh! is he going to stand?! He is going to clap?!" But I do think you're right. the Repubs have to do something not named Keystone or repealing Obamacare. That's why I think there's a legit chance some of this middle class stuff may happen. Child tax credits, help with child care, etc. are things that Republican voters also want. The question is how many corporate tax laws are the Repubs going to throw in the same legislation?

POTUS: I want to do things, and I can do them if the Repubs don't stop me! GOP: We want to do things, and we can do them if the Dems don't stop us! What a bunch of nonsense our government is becoming.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 10:55 AM) They didn't catch it because they have too much other s*** to worry about in the micro-managed modern NFL. There are so many bulls*** rules to keep count of, how can the officials possibly worry about everything? The league enjoys revenues in the billions. They can afford to hire anyone they want, including a "ball inflation checker" guy.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jan 21, 2015 -> 10:52 AM) Are they going to kick other QBs out of the league though? Guys do this every week. QB's get the balls aired up to their liking and basically force the officials to call them on it. This goes on a ton. I thought I've been reading that this is not true and in fact NFL officials are tasked with testing the balls prior to each game? I agree with those that think this is going to be blown out of proportion (already there probably) but I also agree that the Pats should be hit hard for this. They're skirting the rules purposefully to gain an advantage. Now they've been caught twice. It's making the NFL look bad, it's delegitimizing a lot of what they've accomplished and a message should be sent. Also, deflating balls is not the same as scuffing up brand new balls. One is a slight adjustment to the surface of the ball, the other is changing the nature of the ball. 2 lbs of air is quite a lot in a football.

If the Ravens went Trestman over Gase, I don't think I want Gase anymore.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 20, 2015 -> 01:44 PM) Amidst all that chaos though? I dunno, I wasn't there, but I seem to remember pandemonium for a few days there. These guys make a living of being unseen. It wouldn't surprise me at all. With the hard-on the media had about the government's response to Katrina, you don't think someone would have written a story about 20-30 bodies found with bullet holes from rifles shot at great distances? I mean that one is totally implausible. Edit: not to mention you'd have thousands of people in and around the superdome that would be hearing those gunshots, and helicopters circling the city almost nonstop that probably would have seen him.

So, a cheating divorcee with 2 kids? Run away! Run away! Abort! Abort! Too many other, better, fish in the sea for that. You don't want/need/deserve all that baggage. You're just inviting trouble to your life with that set up.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 16, 2015 -> 03:39 PM) It's the same thing we're seeing with the NYPD and stopping enforcement of all sorts of low-level fines and what Radley Balko documented in St. Louis County. Most Americans are ideologically opposed to anything called a "tax," so we end up with all sorts of fees and fines and stuff like civil asset forfeiture in order to fund state and local governments. To be fair, civil forfeiture was a good idea in theory. It was meant to seize drug money. But obviously as with most laws, the enforcement became corrupted and abused by people. We can thank John Oliver for this move. While people were fighting this stuff it didn't become widely known until his show did a whole segment on it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 20, 2015 -> 09:18 AM) Michael Moore who conducts surprise interviews on people to catch them off balance, along with misleading and lies about what he wants to ask, plus some selective editing of those interviews for his films, should be an expert on exactly what a coward is. This. I see that someone vandalized a billboard for the movie with the word "murderer." Our country has some stupid sheeple in it.

Getting blown out by a s***ty team. Terrible.

They have looked so bad the last 2 weeks.

Lol and now one against Gasol when Lebron ran right through him

Love that foul Lebron got against Butler when Butler didn't touch him. He was "fouled" by Mosgove.

What's worse, the Bull's offense or Grant Hill's commentary?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 03:36 PM) A girl has shown me one before prior to getting down to it, it was a huge turn off. #1, how did you open that wide to show me that. Ugh, daz nasty.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 03:51 AM) http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/business...p-news&_r=0 More on the why the Oscars omission of Selma matters from a former NY Times film reporter/reviewer Birdman is definitely the most original/creative movie of the year. It might not be the best movie (I'm still going with Selma over Boyhood even though Boyhood's going to win the Oscar next month) but it's packed with a trio of great performances from Keaton, Norton and Emma Stone. This reaction is just strange to me give that a year ago this issue was supposedly put to bed when The Black Movie and The Black Director/Writer and The Black Actress and The Black Actor were all nominated and/or won at the Oscars. How'd the Academy go from being not so racist to racist again in 12 months? Should The Black Movie of every year be nominated just because? I mean this movie very well may be deserving and they could have gotten screwed out of a nomination, but a lot of movies are. I hate when people just scream "because racism."

Grand Budapest Hotel was great. Toes the line well between funny/witty/weird (e.g., The Royal Tenenbaums) and over the top and dumb (e.g., The Life Aquatic).

QUOTE (gatnom @ Jan 19, 2015 -> 10:31 AM) He wasn't the one out there missing layups and throwing the ball away. He was the one that took a dumb timeout, then didn't draw up a play in that timeout, and then didn't call another timeout right before Hill or whomever through the ball away and gave up a breakaway lay-up. His management down the stretch was pretty terrible. Failure to close out games has been a repeated issue, which to me is mostly on the inexperience of the players and partly on the coaches for not doing enough to control the mistakes. I'm hoping that game becomes a turning point. Black seems to be getting "it" just like Hill and Nunn did last year. Nunn is finally taking command of the game. Starks is hitting some shots. Starks-Nunn-Hill-Black-Egwu is your best line-up. Sub Tate for Starks if Starks isn't hitting shots. Ride that line-up from here on out. Leave Morgan and Cosby on the bench. They are worse than worthless at this point.

Come on Colts. The only like-able team left.