http://notasportsblog.blogspot.com/ 2010-7-7 daily 0.5 Not A Sports Blog

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Revisiting the Delonte West Slept with LeBron James’ Mom Rumor.


I was talking to a friend yesterday about the rumor. He thought there was a 75% chance it was true. I laughed and said I thought there was about a 1% chance. Today I listened to the two most recent Bill Simmons podcasts, and heard him talk about the alleged incident 3 different times. Before the podcast, I was convinced that this was just an internet rumor that had reached meme status, but Simmons seemed genuinely curious if it was true. Simmons doesn’t put much stock in blog rumors, and I imagine he has access to a lot more information then most people, so if he thinks this rumor might be true, then I’m re-evaluating my position. I’m now at 50%.

I typed up transcripts of the podcasts below:

Simmons, Joe House podcast 7/14 38:00
Simmons: He (Dan Gilbert) can leak all those stories to (Brian) Windhorst (Cav’s beat writer), and Windhorst can write a giant feature, and they (LeBron and his people) will never know the stories came from Dan Gilbert.
House: And the “A” Number One story that everyone in America is waiting to get some kind of confirmation on -
Simmons: CAREFUL! CAREFUL!
House: It’s the distraction in the playoff story.
Simmons: Yes.
House: I said it right.
Simmons: Yeah, you said it right.
House: I’m a professional, my brother.
Simmons: What happened between game 3 and game 6?
House: What happened?!
Simmons: When we were talking about the questions that should have been asked of Lebron in that special….The first question has to be ”what happened in the Boston series, how did you go from having a two game lead and you won by 30 pints on their home floor, to losing 3 games in a row and ripping your jersey off at the end of game 6. What happened?” Make him answer that question.
House: It’s a great question
Simmons: This is why they don’t allow me on studio shows.


Bill Simmons, Dave Dameshek and Kevin Hench 7/13 Part 2 14:45
Discussing why LeBron left Cleveland. Simmons says he is more on the side of LeBron just wanted to play with his friends on a great team, but he does see the other side -
Simmons: Especially if some weird things, which we can’t talk about on this podcast, but if there was any sort of real reasons why things fell apart in Cleveland, some team dissention.
Dameshek: Sure, that’s right.
Simmons: You know where I’m going with that
Dameshek : Yes
Simmons: And he needed to leave, and he felt like these are my boys, I want to play with my boys.


Bill Simmons, Dave Dameshek and Kevin Hench 7/13 Part 2 26:30
Kevin Hench: I really can’t see the Celtics beating the Cavs, I just felt like everything fell right for the Celtics. And, that thing we can’t talk about on the podcast, who knows how heavily that weighed on LeBron, but it was bizarre watching some of those sequences where he was barely participating
Simmons: He didn’t seem interested in whether they won or lost.
Kevin Hench: He didn’t seem interested in whether they won or lost. And when they got booed off the court in game 5 it was speculated, but now in retrospect it was done. A switch got flipped in his head.
Simmons: Yeah, I agree.



I imagine it went down something like this: Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Brett Favre = Poop


From Deadspin, "Elways Bitch" tells about her date with an MLB player that leaves me with a new respect for Brett Favre:

Apparently, there was/is some sort of competition centered on "who can take the largest dump" among a circle of professional athletes. Most of the participants were NFL players and PGA golfers. I do not believe Najeh Davenport was involved. This contest actually had RULES that had been DISCUSSED and VOTED on by members. The main statute was that the "entity" had to cross the water line, or some (I want to use the word that fits here, but I can't) nonsense like that. When one member of the circle produced a worthy effort, a cell phone picture of the item would then be captured and distributed to all participants in the club. The substance was then ranked on a tornado scale from F1 to F5 by all members. F5 represented the most intense deliveries, apparently a reference to the barn scene in "Twister" when Helen "Pinched Face" Hunt and her weather boy were staked down in a barn and their bodies endured incredibly violent winds.

So I discovered this secret society at the end of our third date. As my date strode out of the bathroom, he was starting at his cell phone in rapture. He handed me his cell phone as he sat down, providing no context as to what I was about to observe. So when I first glanced at the picture, I had to really peer at it to comprehend what I was looking at … and when realization set in, I started shaking my head violently, literally throwing the phone at him across the table. I thought he was presenting me a snapshot of the intestinal sculpture he had just carved out … at a white tablecloth steakhouse where they offer you black napkins if you're wearing black (which is a thoughtful gesture). And I'm sitting there stunned, wondering how the hell he went from "kind of boring" to THIS in one bathroom trip. I thought he was the most fucked-up human being I had ever encountered.

And then he stated, completely straight-faced, "Favre just dropped an F-5."

And continuing the poop themed post:

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

March Madness


Final 4:
UConn over West Virginia Louisville
North Carolina over Duke

Championship Game:
North Carolina over UConn


*Update 3-21-09, 1:19 AM: Fuck West Virginia

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Ipod Inspiration


Perhaps Steve Jobs' wife had something to do with the design of the ipod.

From a cool blog called aref-adib.com where there a lot of other excellent Look-alikes

The "Stimulus" Still Sucks


February 11, 2009: President Obama says that if his Stimulus package is passed, the CEO of Catepillar will rehire some of the 22,000 people that were laid off in January.

February 17, 2009: Obama signs the $787,000,000,000 stimulus package.

March 17, 2009: Catepillar announces they are cutting 2,400 more jobs.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Poor Little Kid

This video is pretty old. I've seen it at least 50 times, but I've laughed everytime.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Fantasy March Madness


There is no doubting that fantasy sports are awesome. They make watching sports about ten times as much fun, and it makes even the crappiest games fun to watch. That’s why I want to share Fantasy March Madness with you.

It is a little complicated, so try to keep up while I explain it:
1. Ten people draft, Ten rounds
2. The only stat that matters is points
3. Most points win

It’s fun because you have to consider how far a team is going to go in the tournament to determine how many points a player is going to score. It makes every game interesting because you are either rooting for one of your players to score or rooting for other peoples players to not score. Even after your bracket is busted you can still root for the players you drafted.

So, call 9 friends/neighbors/strangers/bloggers and have a draft. Trust me, you’ll have fun.

If anyone is interested, I’ll post some drafting advice. And honestly, I’m sort of a badass at it. I was runner up two years ago and won it last year (Stephen Curry in the 7th round FTW)

Friday, March 6, 2009

Politicians are Smart


Charlie Albertson, a North Carolina State Senator, is proposing a bill that would get rid of athletic programs at schools that don't perform academically.
"Senate Bill 377 would bar interscholastic athletics at schools where more than half of the students score below the 50th percentile on end-of-grade or end-of-course tests for at least two straight years."
At first glance this sounds like a reasonable request. Schools primary objective should be educating its students, and if they are not doing their primary job, they shouldn't be wasting money on athletics. However, this bill is clearly not the best way to go about it.

If you didn't catch the statistical error in the news report, re-read it. Mr. Albertson wants more than half of the students in his state to score above the 50% mark. This does not mean answering more than 50% of the questions correctly. It means he wants more half the students taking the test to do better than 50% of the students that take the test. (If that last sentence didn't make since don't blame me, blame Mr. Albertson's bill)

I haven't spent a lot of time reading about ways to improve public schools - I figure I'll think about it more once I have kids. However, when that day comes, I'll probably start with the Cato Blog.

2 Great Commercials

Here are two commercials that crack my wife up:



Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Niagara Falls in The Winter


My wife and I recently took a vacation to Niagara Falls. We really enjoyed it, so I wanted to share about our experience.

Where to Stay? Sheraton on the Falls
We stayed at the Sheraton on the Falls hotel, and I highly recommend it. But only if you get a falls view room. If you don’t get a room with a view of the falls, you might as well stay at the Days Inn, which I don’t recommend. We had a package deal with our airfare and hotel, so I don’t know exactly how much the room cost, but I think it was about $30 more a night to have falls view room. I was a little hesitant to upgrade, but it was easily the best spent money of the whole trip. Floor to ceiling windows with a spectacular view of the falls, and there was a door in the middle of the window that opened (it had a railing). It was great because it allowed for excellent pictures as well as fresh cool air. We kept the (fake) fireplace on the whole time and opened the door when it got too hot.

How Many Nights? No more than 3
Don’t stay more than 3 nights. We flew in on Saturday and flew out on Tuesday. We could have done everything, and been perfectly satisfied with our trip if we only stayed 2 nights, but we were bored. However, if we stayed another night, we probably would have been searching for things to do.


Need a Rental Car? No
We flew into Buffalo international airport, and took a taxi to Niagara Falls. It was about a 45 minute ride, and cost $85. Taking a taxi is the best way to go. A rental car is too expensive, too much trouble, and not necessary. (Don’t forget $15 per day to park it!). If you stay at the Sheridan, everything but the butterfly conservatory is within a 15 minute walk. A rental car is especially unnecessary during the summer when the “People Mover” shuttle is running.



Are the falls really that cool? Yes
I arrived with high expectations, and I was not disappointed. It is a truly awesome experience to watch the water rushing over the cliff and crash to the bottom. It is fast and loud and violent and powerful, and strangely graceful and calm. And, since we went during the winter the falls were partially frozen, which was really neat. It can almost turn a cold hearted economist into an environmentalist. Almost.

Is Niagara Falls strictly for Honeymooners? Not at all
I was under the impression that Niagara Falls is a honeymooner’s city. I would say that impression is way off base. It would be a neat place for a honeymoon, but it was REALLY kid friendly. I think it might be the Putt Putt/Arcade/Haunted House/Wax Museum/capital of the world.

Do’s and Don’ts

Do walk to the American side.
It is a very short walk and it is really worth it. There is an observation deck that lets you get a cool look at the American falls, and an elevator that takes you to the bottom. It was closed because the walkway was covered in snow and ice while we were there, so we didn’t get to do it. The park was open so we walked all around there. All the shops were closed, but there looked like there were some cool places to eat lunch with good views of the falls.


Don’t do the Sky Wheel; Do the Skylon Tower.
The Skylon tower costs $2 more and it is 10 times as cool. The view is way better, you can stay as long as you like, and you can view the observatory from inside and outside. There is also a revolving restaurant. We ate lunch at the revolving restaurant, and I recommend that too. It is a little expensive, about $30 a plate, but if you eat at the restaurant you can go to the observation deck free. The food is good, not great, but you are paying for the view. We ate lunch and didn’t have to wait at all. If you want to eat dinner there you have to make reservations. Also, they only light the falls up at night during the summer, so if you go to the restaurant at night in the winter, you probably won’t be able to see anything.

Do eat dinner at the Spicy Olive.
It is a couple blocks down Clifton Street, and it is a really nice restaurant. Cheap prices, and great food. Service was a little slow, but they were short staffed and we were not in any rush.

Do stay in Canada.
There is no debate on this one. Also, do me a favor, spend the extra money and get a falls view room at the Sheraton. Totally worth it. I promise, when you are looking back at your pictures 6 months after you take the vacation you will regret it if you don’t.

Don’t do the indoor water park.
We were planning on doing it, but decided not to once we went and looked at it. We had never even heard of an indoor water park before, so we thought it would be cool. I guess if you have kids you might want to check it out, but it was about $45 a person, and it is not very big. I’m guessing it’s even less appealing in the summer.


Do the Journey Behind the Falls.This is the elevator to the bottom of the falls on the Canadian side. It only costs $10, and it is pretty cool. A lot of it was frozen when we went, so we didn’t get the full effect, but it was still cool in its own way. For example they have peep holes where you can see behind the falls, but it was completely frozen. Probably would have been better in the summer, but it was still cool. The bottom observation dock was completely covered in ice and snow too, so it was closed. If you go in the Summer be prepared to get wet because the falls are even more powerful and everything is open.

Meh for the bird kingdom.
It was too expensive ($17) for what it was. I guess I’m just not that into birds, but if you are its pretty cool. If you do decide to do it, spend the extra $2 and get a cup of nectar. The birds will be all over you like the crazy lady from Home Alone 2.

Do pack granola bars for breakfast.
We always do this on vacation, and it seems to really save us money. It cost us three bucks for breakfast for the whole vacation. If you must eat out for breakfast, we recommend Tim Horton’s. It’s close to the Sheraton and it is just different enough from Dunkin Donuts that you get a “Canadian” meal. We did it our last morning there. 1 coffee, 1 hot chocolate, and 4 donuts for less than $7 was a pretty good deal.

Don’t forget to pick up 222s and Cuban cigars.
We actually didn’t get either one, but you should if you want to. Both are legal in Canada, and no problem getting across the border. Our bag’s were never inspected when we crossed. I’ve smoke a Cuban cigar before, and I wasn’t impressed, so I wasn’t interested in them. I did try to get a bottle of 222’s, but they said a pharmacist had to give it to me and it was night so the pharmacy was closed.
Chris Berman on 222s

Do remember the currency difference.
Everything is in Canadian dollars, so it’s not quite as expensive as it seems. Currency exchange rate. $1 US dollar = $1.25 Canadian Dollar. So if a dinner entry costs $15 it really only costs about $11.75.

If you were planning on going to Niagara Falls, I hope this helped you. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me: notasportsblog@gmail.com

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Yes, They are the Same Size

Check out this neat optical illusion:



I saw this video and thought it was fake, but I wanted to be sure. I did some googling and found out that it is called a Jastrow Illusion. I still didn't think it was real so I found this similar optical illusion:




I still didn't believe they were the same size, so I copied and pasted it into Microsoft Paint and cut out the bottom image and dragged it ontop of the top image. They turned out to be the exact same size, and I was a little amazed.

From: Random Good Stuff
and Might Optical Illusions

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Funny Stuff for a Sunday Afternoon

Jeff Green and Joel Przybilla are special friends.



Cole Hamels = James Van Der Beek

More excellent pictures like these can be found at LOL Jocks


Also, this funny video that is sweeping the internet is also modled after lol cats.

Obama's Elf



From BoingBoing

Friday, February 27, 2009

Canadian Health Care

I recently went to Niagara Falls, and while making small talk with the taxi driver, the topic of Canadian Health Care came up. He immigrant to the United States from the Philippians, but he eventually moved to Canada because he thought they had a better health care. He said that before he had kids it was worth the risk of not having great health insurance because he and his wife were healthy and had no history of major illness. However, once he was ready to have kids he wanted to move to Canada to make sure their healthcare needs would be taken care of. He made sure to mention that he did not have to pay hospital bills for the childbirth.

This got me thinking. There have been plenty of stories about pregnant Mexican women coming to the United States illegally to have children so they will born US citizens. I wonder if there are very many Americans going to Canada to have their children so that they can take advantage of the Canadian health care?

*Full review of Niagra Falls coming soon.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Does Hannah Storm read NASB?

I started this blog last December, and within the first week I took a picture of Hannah Storm in a low cut shirt. It got picked up on a lot of sites and directed a lot of traffic this way. Unfortuantly, since then there hasn't been a lot of traffic, and there hasn't been a lot of cleavage.

No, I don’t think Hannah Storm reads my site, but she probably reads Deadspin . Or at least somebody at ESPN does. And judging by the lack of cleavage recently, perhaps someone saw the posts about her revealing outfits and told her to tone it down. If that’s true, I feel terrible. Honestly. If I had anything to do with ESPN showing less tits, I deeply and sincerely regret it. I mean the only thing better in life than sports is tits, and having sports and tits together is better than pie and ice cream. So Hannah, the weather is getting warmer, do your part to help the blogconomy and show us some skin.

If anyone is interested, I took some pictures of Hannah Storm on Sports Center since I originally posted the pictures of her looking cleavagey. It might be worth a look.

Also, I have one more Hannah Storm related post coming soon.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Bill Simmons Podcast


I've been listening to Simmons' Podcast since this Summer and its been pretty good. However, his most recent one is by far the best one yet. Adam Carolla is on there with him, and he is hilarious. I'm not sure the topic of sports ever comes up, so everyone should enjoy it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/simmons/index

I also still plan on writing a Bill Simmons post at sometime in the future.

The NFL Combine Happened

Here are the results of the NFL Combine.

I didn’t get a chance to watch any of it, but that isn’t going to stop me from having an opinion about it. Here is what jumped out at me:



David Buehler is a badass. He had 25 reps of 225 on bench press. That's the 45 pound bar plus two 45 pound plates on each side. Doing that once impresses me - doing that 25 times REALLY impresses me. Oh, I forgot to mention, he is a kicker. Yeah, one of those fags. He also ran a 4.6 40 yard dash. One other little thing that should be mentioned, he ended the regular season by missing all 3 field goal attempts against UCLA. So, maybe he should spend a little more time kicking footballs instead of bench pressing. I'm guessing he thinks no chicks want to hook up with the dorky kicker. Hey kid, I got news for you. Just being on an NFL team is enough to get pletny of poon. Do you think Jeff Reed has ever been inside the Steelers weightroom?

I think the 3 Cone and the Shuttle Run translate much better to the NFL than the 40 Yard Dash. I expected Pat White to have the best 40 time for QBs, but I pretty surprised that Mark Sanchez and Chase Daniel both had faster shuttle runs than White.

So who is going to be good? Any bum can tell you Michael Crabtree, Matt Stafford, and Andre Smith are going to be good (Mel Kiper). It takes a real keen eye to tell you who else is going to have NFL success.


On the Radar, but barely: Javon Ringer, RB Michigan State
He had excellent times, on the two events I think are the most important (3 cone and shuttle), and he had 390 caries his senior year. He is not affraid of being tackled.


Hey, I think I’ve heard of him: Rhett Bomar, QB Sam Houston
He is the guy that got kicked out off Oklahoma because he was being paid for working at a place he never worked. Whoops. Oklahma's athletic department was shocked, and Bomar landed in Division II where he totally redeemed himself (/Dumb and Dumber’d)


Who the hell is that guy: Nathan Brown, QB Central Arkansas
Basically this is going to be the next Tom Brady. Except not as tall, handsome, or talented, so maybe he is the next Jeff Garcia. Actually, that is an excellent comparison. It is my firm prediction that many NFL teams will regret not drafting him, there will be rumors about his sexuality, and he will bang a smokin hot playmate.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Get Poor Quick

If you fall for this trick, you deserve to have your information stolen. In related news, if you are worried your cash might be counterfit, mail it to me, and I will inspect it for free.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Damn Astigmatism


Framing the Debate

When I was in college, I spent a summer interning for a US senator. While I was there I learned that one of the most important things about passing legislation is the way the debate is framed. Unfortunately, the Democratic party did a great job with the recent "Stimulus" legislation.

Just by having the bill called the "Stimulus Package", it infers that the bill will be good for the economy. The Democrats have the battle halfway won before the debate begins. Instead, if it was called the "Deficit Spending Package”, I'm pretty sure it would have had a lot more trouble passing.

This is especially important with the next piece of legislation the Democrat's are trying to pass, the "Fairness Doctrine". Unsurprisingly, I don't think this law would be "fair" at all. Instead, I suggest the "Government Censorship Doctrine." I'm guessing that bill would have a little more trouble passing. Fortunately, it won’t matter if congress passes it or not because Obama has said he doesn’t support it.