Give Me The Rock

It’s hard to like a team with James Posey on it, but it’s also hard to like the group of Lame-O players clustered around LeBron James.

I don’t remember where I read about it first, but someone noticed how in those There Can Be Only One commercials how they two players’ eyes always blink at the same time.

Here’s a really noticeable example.

Seriously? I am starting to think they’re fake. Or at the very least, heavily digitally edited. I mean, is it really possible that in every ad, two different people blink at the exact same time? I don’t think so. I think they probably edited it because someone found it distracting when they blinked at different times.

Whatever the case, they are really cool ads, but I do have a hard time watching them now without noticing the blinking. And now I inflict that suffering on you as well.

There is not much I can really add that hasn’t already been said about Bussinger-gate in terms of the “blogosphere vs. MSM”. But let me proffer this: This is not a “blog” problem or an “MSM” problem. This is not a necessarily a problem at all, depending on how you view American society as a whole (and the rest of the world, perhaps, I don’t know what Deadspin’s map overlay looks like). The fact is just that the generation(s) that are growing up now and consuming information are the generations that were raised from babes with The Simpsons, and grew up with South Park and The Family Guy. So the threshold is higher in the sense that sports fans are used to “crude and lewd” and many of us have absorbed that into our sense of humor. If journalists and writers in the MSM think that the style that Deadspin, With Leather, etc. have is disgusting, it is probably because those journalists and writers are of a generation that grew up and developed a different sense of what is funny and what is objectionable.

That’s my theory. For what it’s worth.

And for what it’s worth (to address another disturbingly childish and all too common attack on bloggers): I own a $500,000 home (that’s a half a million dollars in case anyone thinks I made a typo) within the city limits of Chicago, IL (3.9 miles from Wrigley Field), and I work for a Fortune 500 company (which is significantly higher in those rankings than Disney, ESPN’s parent company), and I like my job, and I’m keeping it. Oh, and my mom lives in Portland, OR (Hi Mom!), putting me about 2,126 miles from her basement.

And now I just want to go over to YardBarker and give a thumbs up to every Verified Athlete post over there just to throw the bird up at the Middle Man Media.

I’m typically one not to shill, but I’ll make an exception for this event. While it has been up for a while now, Hardwood Paroxysm is currently running the NBA Blogger Season Awards for 2008. So far so good (in fact, I like the idea so much I’ve already voted). However, one of Hardwood’s categories includes the “best nightly recap” and, surprisingly, GMTR is nowhere to se seen. Best. Nightly. Recap. As in Day X of 170. What a total shaft.

So, if you’ve got a couple spare seconds, head over to Hardwood Paroxysm and give a write-in vote to GMTR for best nightly recap. Why? I’ll give you 7 solid reasons.

1. Unlike some nightly recaps, we’ve posted EVERY SINGLE DAY this season. In fact, Nels even posted on Christmas Day. Now that is dedication.

2. We were on top of the Beno situation from day 20.

3. ESPN and Yahoo are included in the vote? Don’t vote for the machine. Not when Friday’s Tiny Dancers are included.

4. We’ve got photoshopping skillz.

5. Unlike the NBA, we don’t tank at the end of the season. We’ve given you 170 days of solid waiver wire pickups, even when they didn’t exist.

6. Mad Libs

7. The man. The myth. The Chad.

We’ve given you 170 days, give us a couple seconds. Voting is open until April 20th.

No games yesterday. I hear there was an amateur game of some kind going on last night. It started at approximately 1 in the morning on the east coast, so in all honesty I didn’t make it to the end, which is too bad because it was a hell of an ending.

Since I know everyone who reads GMTR lacks an actual job (although my Mom did leave me a long list of chores I got to get done), how about a few links to waste a little more of your time?

• Speaking of blogging and basements and losers, Fire Joe Morgan breaks down the ridiculous new Rick Reilly rant about the devil spawn as known as bloggers.
• Kelly Dywer on why the NBA provides better product than NCAA (and that’s ok)
• Hoops Fantasy has a timely post up about Mario Chalmers - 2008 NBA Draft Prospect
• The GMTR readers league has entered its championship week and it’s yours truly, I Heart Chris Paul, the number one ranked team in the league vs. the surprise 6th seed, The Scrantons. Of course The Scrantons are starting Kobe, Al Jefferson, David West, Marcus Camby, and Monta Ellis, while due to various injuries, I’m throwing out a lineup prominently featuring Chris Quinn, Francisco Garcia, and Mikki Moore. I am so screwed.
• And if you really need to get your fantasy basketball jones on today in absence of a smooth morning run down of NBA action, check out this Youtube video about “How To Win a Fantasy Basketball League.” A little on the dorky side, but still pretty funny.

It’s April 5th, and thanks to With Malice, we have a new holiday to enjoy: Unsung Player Day (with the gap between Easter and Memorial Day, April is sorely lacking in holidays). I loves me a good holiday (although I’m not sure why he made this one for a Saturday. The first rule for any good holiday is to make it on a WEEKDAY. That’s why Thanksgiving is awesome. Well, that and stuffing and mashed potatoes). But Unsung Player Day is here, which means “we should recognize the guys who toil and work hard every day, for no recognition.”

This being a fantasy basketball blog, that means it’s the day to recognize a good and useful fantasy guy who doesn’t get any attention, respect, or possibly even play.

So, in the bon esprit of the day, what do you think of when you hear the name Ryan Gomes? Have you even heard the name Ryan Gomes? (Unless you’re a basketball fan from Minnesota, the name probably doesn’t come up often in conversation.) At best, Gomes is thought of as a lower level “glue guy,” or as Empty the Bench puts it, a guy who manages “to be pivotal in a good team’s performance each night with hustle, defense, leadership, selfless play, grit and all-around games that complement the big scorers and big names on their squad.” To sum that up even further, Kelly Dwyer on Yahoo’s Sports Blog recently called Gomes “a little ball of energy.”

To be honest, that sounds a lot like the Ryan Gomes I use to watch on the Celtics. Doc Rivers primarily used Gomes, who is 6-7, to backup Al Jefferson at PF and, on occasion, Kendrick Perkins at center. Now Gomes, who has no business playing power forward much less center, not only held is own on the court, but provided an offensive and defensive spark on a 2006-07 Celtics’ team that sorely lacked motivation (or was tanking, your choice). Gomes always seemed to be in the exact right position to grab a rebound over a bigger opponent, block a shot out of nowhere, or score a put back off an all too often Celtics miss. To sum it up, he was in fact a little ball of energy.

In the summer of 2007, Gomes was a throwaway piece in the famous KG-to-the-Celtics trade. So throwaway that he was less important than Theo Ratliff and his huge expiring contract. I went back to research what was said about Gomes and the trade at the time and the number of words written about him would comfortably fit into Paris Hilton’s vocabulary. Gomes was lucky to have his name mentioned as part of the trade. If he was talked about at all, it was to say that he was “a good bench player.” In October of 2007, Bill Simmons wrote a novel on Gomes by calling him “an intangibles guy who’s useless on a bad team.”

But it was hard to argue with the wisdom of the crowd. “Energy” and “intangibles” are usually not standard categories in fantasy and, as a result, Gomes presence on the Celtics didn’t always add up to much attention in the world of fantasy basketball.

And the story was the same for Gomes in his first two months with the Wolves. He was indeed a little ball of energy on and off the bench, averaging 25 minutes, 10 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.8 steals and almost no blocks a game though mid-December. It was a role that was eerily similar to his on the Celtics: an energy guy on a bad team. And his stats left him hanging out at number 152 on the GMTR player rater.

But as the Wolves got comfortable playing together (or possibly continued sucking together) Gomes saw more playing time. Since March 7, Gomes has been a solid starter for the Wolves, averaging 32 minutes, 17 points, 6.5 boards, and 1 steal a game. And given those extra minutes, he is currently ranked number 80 on the rater going back the past two weeks. So while Minnesota Timberwolves fans have already been showing the love to Ryan Gomes, now it’s time for fantasy owners to do the same. He’s more than a little ball of energy; he’s a guy who is talented enough to be in the league for a long time.

The latest NBA Carnival - Carnival of the NBA 55 - is up at Daily Basketball. This on is presented in a sweet calendar format for easy browsing. As mentioned in the Carnival:

The theme for this “issue” of the Carnival is “Make up your own NBA holiday.” … Bloggers for struggling teams wasted no time in degrading their coaches, with holidays right after the end of the season.

I’m a little disappointed no one created “Celebrate an NBA Dancer Day”. Now, that would be a holiday we can all enjoy.

In other linkage related news, Hardwood Paroxysm has a great interview with D-League President Dan Reed about the past, present, and future of the D-League. Unlike Isiah Thomas, the man at least has a coherent plan.

Also, Blake at Hoops Addict has an interesting article with ideas about how to better develop the D-League.

And since I can’t stop talking about the D-League, apparently Portland, Maine is getting its own D-League team in 2009. Really? Maine? Seriously? So New York can’t get a D-League team, but Maine can? I can see possibly why this league is having some problems. Still, as a current resident of the state, I’m saving my pennies for some season tickets. I just hope Rod Benson is still in the league then.

Finally, I am so stoked that Mad Libs is making a comeback, I’ve broke out the TMNT PJ’s for the occasion. Nels had an inspired Day 148 post and now Jeff W has a great Smitch vs.Oak Mad Libs post on The Score.com. I’m anxiously looking forward to the next Mad Libs post.