Elgin Baylor resigns

[jemagee]

Discussions of substance, basketball isn't substance

If a team puts a player option in a contract and the player plays at an all star level, common sense should tell them that matter what he tells them they should be prepared for him to opt out and decide what to do about it.

The Heat ownership might consider going into luxury tax land for Boozer

Would the Jazz?

[westkoast]

Discussions of substance, basketball isn't substance

You obviously haven't been posting here enough then.  When the basketball season starts there is a lot of discussions that go on that have a lot of substance.

[jemagee]

You obviously haven't been posting here enough then.  When the basketball season starts there is a lot of discussions that go on that have a lot of substance.

Hence the smiley face, primarily anything involving politics/religion are the areas i would avoid

[Ted]

Hence the smiley face, primarily anything involving politics/religion are the areas i would avoid

I don't know why either of those topics should scare you.

We are all pretty open-minded people here. For example, WoW and I differ on faith and religion (and a bit on politics) about as much as two people can, and yet I have a lot of respect for him and can carry on an open conversation with him about almost anything. Although I can't guarantee he would agree. He'd probably say I'm a child marrying hedonist, but then again, he may mean that as a compliment.

[jemagee]

Hence the smiley face, primarily anything involving politics/religion are the areas i would avoid

I don't know why either of those topics should scare you.

We are all pretty open-minded people here. For example, WoW and I differ on faith and religion (and a bit on politics) about as much as two people can, and yet I have a lot of respect for him and can carry on an open conversation with him about almost anything. Although I can't guarantee he would agree. He'd probably say I'm a child marrying hedonist, but then again, he may mean that as a compliment.

It's not worth getting into, but there was a thread a week or so ago where you made some comments that I found out of bounds, dbodner made a request for civility and the only way for me to stay civil would be to avoid the conversations of those topics with you.

[westkoast]

Hence the smiley face, primarily anything involving politics/religion are the areas i would avoid

I don't know why either of those topics should scare you.

We are all pretty open-minded people here. For example, WoW and I differ on faith and religion (and a bit on politics) about as much as two people can, and yet I have a lot of respect for him and can carry on an open conversation with him about almost anything. Although I can't guarantee he would agree. He'd probably say I'm a child marrying hedonist, but then again, he may mean that as a compliment.

It's not worth getting into, but there was a thread a week or so ago where you made some comments that I found out of bounds, dbodner made a request for civility and the only way for me to stay civil would be to avoid the conversations of those topics with you.

The only difference between you and WOW is you can legally marry all your baby mothers

[Ted]

Hence the smiley face, primarily anything involving politics/religion are the areas i would avoid

I don't know why either of those topics should scare you.

We are all pretty open-minded people here. For example, WoW and I differ on faith and religion (and a bit on politics) about as much as two people can, and yet I have a lot of respect for him and can carry on an open conversation with him about almost anything. Although I can't guarantee he would agree. He'd probably say I'm a child marrying hedonist, but then again, he may mean that as a compliment.

It's not worth getting into, but there was a thread a week or so ago where you made some comments that I found out of bounds, dbodner made a request for civility and the only way for me to stay civil would be to avoid the conversations of those topics with you.

The only difference between you and WOW is you can legally marry all your baby mothers

Oh snap. Where is WoW?

[WayOutWest]

He trusted Brand's word.

Yeah, what is it with Duke power forwards keeping their word? Careful Sixers, the Jazz may be on the verge of paying the piper for signing Boozer. You may regret signing a power forward with no integrity, too.

The Jazz gave Boozer the option to opt out of his contract, 'paying the piper'?  It's a business, if Boozer thinks he can earn more money on the open market...then he has the right to, the Jazz have the right to be in the bidding to keep him.  I love how it's ALWAYS on the players when they seek out best deal....the teams put themselves into position, and teams don't keep their words either, we all know that, but no one ever calls them out on it.

As for the Brand situation, I think everyone ignore the power of a wife, a mother, and the arrival of their first child and how the pull of home gets stronger as the arrival of that child is born.  Brand had also said as much as a year ago that he wouldn't mind playing in Philadelphia.  Philadelphia offered more money.  The clippers made an offer and said 'that's all we can afford' - and then suddenly when there was another player in the mix, offering more money and the clippers magically found more money to offer Elton Brand.

I'm not saying Brand is blameless in this, but the Clippers have no one to blame but themselves and the relative cheapness of Donald Sterling...he took a risk lowballing Brand relative to what they could pay him, the sixers made a move to create enough cap room to make a competitive offer and then instead of negotiating the clippers (per usual for a cluster frack of an organization) and acted like petulant children.

The clippers are as much to blame for Elton Brand not being in Clipperland any more as Elton Brand is.  Mike Dunleavy shouldn't be running a basketball franchise anyway, and after the poor treatment of Elgin Baylor I hope the clippers somehow become a laughing stock on and off the court in terms of the financial success of the franchise, cause it couldn't happen to a nicer backstabbing mean owner than Donald Sterling.

You are completely wrong.  Brand asked for X amount of dollars and help.  Clippers gave him X amount of dollars and signed Davis.  After Brand's agent took control of the situation, Brand ended up in Philly.  I was ultra pissed at the Clippers for losing Brand, I cancelled my season tickets and decided it was all the Clippers fault for being cheap again.  Then I heard/saw an interview with Brand, they played the HARSH comments Dunleavy made about Brand and Elton agreed with EVERYTHING Dunleavy said.  It's obvious the Clippers had ZERO fault in the situation, the only thing you can blame the Clippers for is trusting Brand to be a man of his word.  If you take away all the hurt fellings comments Dunleavy made about Brand, it came down to "Brand asked for X amount of dollars and help and the Clippers gave him EXACTLY what Brand asked for yet he still left."  Brand said that is correct.  I hate the Brandless-Clippers but I don't blame them for losing him.  I've lost a lot of respect for Brand as a person but I still admire him as a player.  Tim Duncan is nearly the lone person I respect beyond the basketball court.

[Ted]

It's not worth getting into, but there was a thread a week or so ago where you made some comments that I found out of bounds, dbodner made a request for civility and the only way for me to stay civil would be to avoid the conversations of those topics with you.

This is the thread in which Derek made his request for civility:

http://forums.phillyarena.net/index.php?topic=4936.60

This is my first post in that thread:

Did anyone else see the last episode of Jim Cramer? He talked about the bailout in some depth, and he seemed to make some sense to me. Granted he spent NO TIME assigning blame, but did make a couple of points that stuck with me.

1. The bailout needs to unwind these financial "papers" down to individual loans, if that happens, it will work. It will keep people who deserve help from losing their homes, but won't reward the institutions and borrowers who made ridiculous transactions.

2. The 700 billion is not falling into some bottomless abyss. The money spent will be purchasing financial instruments backed by real assets (homes with some market value, that is). Whether these assets are valued as highly as they were when the initial transaction was made is one thing, but then again, the bailout agency is not going to be paying original value on these instruments either.

I know Cramer is part of the Wall Street establishment, but he seems to at least have the individual investor's interest in mind. Personally, I do not yet understand the situation well enough to come out for or against the bailout. And besides, it seems like it is going to happen whether I like it or not; so, it now seems more important to figure out how I can get through it in good shape rather than figure out who to blame: Jesus, Mohammed, Bill Clinton, George Bush, or Barney Frank. By the way, who the heck is Barney Frank?

This is my second post in that thread:

Are there other alternatives to the Paulson plan out there?

It seems like most people agree that something has to be done. And it also seems like 9 out of 10 people are against the bailout. What is their alternative? And what do they foresee if the government does nothing and allows the crisis to run its course?

There is no third post. The previous two posts are the sum total of my contributions to that thread. There was one somewhat personal post in the Yom Kippur vs. Christmas thread where I reacted to your characterization of Christmas. But I deleted it moments after posting it, because I decided it was not my style.

So . . . What are you talking about?

[WayOutWest]

The only difference between you and WOW is you can legally marry all your baby mothers

You're such an OCP (Orange County Kittycat)!  The term is "baby's moma(s)".  And yes, the fundamental difference between Ted and I is that I would be thrown in jail for trying to bang...err...marry a 14 year old girl, let alone 6 of them.  The other difference is Ted is under the impression that the last 8 years are worth continuing for at least another 4.  

P.S. I do respect Ted's "tolerance" of speak-first-think-second-hypocritical-cry-babies.

[WayOutWest]

There is no third post. The previous two posts are the sum total of my contributions to that thread. There was one somewhat personal post in the Yom Kippur vs. Christmas thread where I reacted to your characterization of Christmas. But I deleted it moments after posting it, because I decided it was not my style.

So . . . What are you talking about?

Not your style huh?  I guess j-dog should keep an eye on his future 12 year old daughter then...

[Ted]

Not your style huh?  I guess j-dog should keep an eye on his future 12 year old daughter then...

Jemagee for a father-in-law? No way in hell.

[jemagee]

Since you don't seem to want to let it go - the quote below is the 'culprit' - for a variety of reasons i won't get into because of the request for civility and my tendency to get banned

And by the way, if more people DID believe that Jesus is Lord and abortion is murder and started acting like it, then maybe our country would have a strong enough moral compass not to accept what is passing as government and actually make a few sacrifices in order to do something about it, instead of looking at it from the self-centered view.

[WayOutWest]

Since you don't seem to want to let it go - the quote below is the 'culprit' - for a variety of reasons i won't get into because of the request for civility and my tendency to get banned

And by the way, if more people DID believe that Jesus is Lord and abortion is murder and started acting like it, then maybe our country would have a strong enough moral compass not to accept what is passing as government and actually make a few sacrifices in order to do something about it, instead of looking at it from the self-centered view.

Getting banned?  LOL!  You MUST be new around here.  Just refrain from curse words, that's pretty much what we've all agreed to, it's really difficult for me but I can do it for the most part.  Just cause I can't stand most Christians, Jews and car bombing Muslims doesn't mean we can't have a good debate on here once in a while.  Heck, if all the white men were wipped off my beutiful hemisphere I would be elated but it would make some discussions pretty boring.  Then again, why would I want to be discussing anything when there would be all those white women to "console"?

Nevermind...scratch ALL that, I have to begin work on my master dating plan ASAP!

[jemagee]

Getting banned?  LOL!  You MUST be new around here.  Just refrain from curse words, that's pretty much what we've all agreed to, it's really difficult for me but I can do it for the most part.

I've been told differently by the HGIC, and I'll just stick to it, until I can get my own basketball site up