Recent Acquisition: Jordan IV Oreo "Black/Tech Gray"

This is a Jordan that I have been anticipating all year, and I was lucky enough to acquire several days after release at the FootLocker in the mall.  The Jordan IV is one of my favorite silhouettes and the black/tech gray "Oreo" colorway is an awesome expression of the shoe.  There is a bit of urban swagger being a mostly black colorway, but it is extremely versatile.  I have already worn with both Tech Fleece Nike Joggers and some Polo khakis.  Drake was recently spotted wearing the shoes front court at an NBA game.  My pics above, Nike below.

Beautiful Free Throw Attempt

This does not need much introduction.

Rajon Rondo

Rondo is one of the most unique players in the league.  His shooting is generally terrible, which allows defenses to back up off him.  This gives him a much better chance at getting good looks and contributes to his extremely high assist count.  However, he is notorious for being inconsistent, some days he just doesn't have it and that is a completely fair and true criticism.  Last night, he had it.  The Celtics needed a win, and they played their hearts out against the mighty Miami Heat to try and capture one.  Unfortunately, this was not successful.  Rondo put up 44 points, 15 assists, 8 rebounds, a bunch of steals and only 3 turnovers.  He played every single minute of this 53 minute overtime game, and he scored all 12 of the Celtics OT points.  Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce fouled out of the game, and Ray Allen, although he hit a big 3, was much more of a role player than he has been in his career.  Rondo was even clearly fouled going for a layup towards the end, which ended up resulting in him not getting back on defense and then an easy dunk by Haslem.  If this call had gone the other way, and in my opinion this is a foul 75% of the time, the result may have been different.  In my opinion, the Celtics lost this game in the 3rd quarter when they allowed Miami to get a lead after being up by 15 in the first half.  C'est la Vie.

2012 NCAA March Madness

March Madness is upon us.  The two play-in games, which NCAA officials want to call the first round.. are happening this evening.  Both of these future 16-seeds are going to face quick exits in the real first round on Thursday/Friday... so why even bother?  At the office, and around the country, brackets are being filled out at a rapid pace.  My final matchup consists of the fairly mundane Kentucky v. Ohio State. This is unlikely to take place, since they are both high seeds and John Calipari's revolving door (Kentucky basketball team) is probably not going to compete with some of the midmajors like Baylor and Creighton who have a lot of seniors and continuity.  The whole country is going to be watching the tournament, and I can't wait for all the hoops action.  Here are some of my thoughts for the tournament.

UConn backers surround me at work.  Although they had a decent run in the Big East tournament and are the defending champs, I am expecting an early exit, possibly at the hands of higher seed Iowa State that many people have UConn penciled in beating.

North Carolina has the easiest 1 seed path to the final four, their conference is the weakest: Georgetown, Temple & Michigan as high seeds are a lot easier than any other conference.  Michigan State led by Tom Izzo is a bit of a suspect 1 seed, and I think they will have the toughest time making it to the final four.

My underdog picks include NC State who had an amazing ACC tournament, beating Duke, and just looking great.  They are an 11 seed, but I think they can ride the wave into the later rounds of the tournament.  I am looking for Louisville to have a big year and hopefully come out of Michigan State's bracket, after winning the Big East Tournament.

I predict Syracuse to lose in the Final Four.

For those of us who care about our environmental impact; Green NCAA March Madness.

Celtics beat Knicks in OT!

 

I know that the other day I wrote a blog post panicing about my beloved Boston Celtics.  They are now on a four game win streak in which they have competed ferociously in all games.  KG looks rejuvenated and strong.  Pierce is making it happen.  Rondo is giving his big middle finger to all the trade rumors.  Tonight, he notched his second triple double since the all star break, with the ridiculous stat line: 18 points, 17 rebounds and 20 assists, last time a player did that was Magic Johnson in 1983 with 17 rebounds and 21 assists, pretty good company!

How can you trade that guy for anything other than a star??  Why do you even trade him at all?  He's young and hes hungry.  It's going to be pretty lean without KG and Ray, but if the Celtics can pull in a scorer and a rebounder to replace those two guys, then they will compete again before Pierce retires.

I realize I am doing a complete 180* and although the Celtics are looking good in the past few games, they are not out in the clear.  The Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls are looking gargantuan in the East.  The Celtics have a 76ers, Trail Blazers, Lakers, Clippers Warriors stretch coming up, 4 out of 5 of those on the road.  This should bring them back to earth unfortunately...

Finally, nice purse Lebron LOL

Celtics Update @ NBA All Star Break

Halfway through this shortened NBA season and the All-Star break has come and gone.  Two Celtics, Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce represented the East in Orlando, where a valiant late game comeback was not enough to overcome the West; Kobe Bryant.  The Celtics are below .500, but thanks to the Bobcats and Wizards-laden Eastern Conference are on track for a 7th or 8th seed, with surprisingly good rookie Kyrie Irving threatening a game and a half behind.  This most likely means elimination at the hands of the Heat or Bulls.  The Big Three has run its course in my book, and the NBA Finals ring and several playoff runs is a pretty good return on the investment that the Celtics and Danny Ainge made.

KG is too old and immobile to be the impact MVP player that he was in the past.  Ray's shooting is still stellar, but his struggles handling the ball and aging knees show that his age is also starting to catch up.  Pierce started the season of out shape, coming off an injury, but he is also in the end of his prime.  Rondo is still exciting, but his poor shooting (and fear that comes with it) and his bad attitude (see video of him throwing a ball at a ref) are hurting the team.  Weak bench play, save the injured Brandon Bass, and the lack of a solid, healthy center spell mediocrity for Celtics nation.  Seriously, we picked up Chris Wilcox and Keyon Dooling in the offseason and thought we had a chance?

Bill Simmons, the sports guy, advocates blowing up the team in his latest column, trading Rondo + JO for Pau Gasol, although I think the Lakers would balk at trading him.  He also suggest maximizing value on KG and moving him to Dallas for Shawn Marion and Lamar Odom.  Finally, trading Ray to the Clippers for Mo Williams and Eric Bledsoe, although I don't see a ton of value in this move.  This plan is feasible, but it involves a lot of moving pieces and ifs, which means its not gonna happen.

I have little confidence in the Celtics for the next 3 years as Miami/NYK/OKC and whoever gets Derron Williams/D.Howard will dominate for the time being.  If the Celtics bottom out and acquire some draft picks, they have the ability to come back strong, but the short to medium outlook is not great.

Larry Bird on Bill Simmons B.S. Report

 

Larry Legend was on Bill Simmons' BS Report podcast today. I am a huge fan of Bill Simmons and I have read both his book and mentioned his work on here in the past. He is from the Boston area and went to school at Holy Cross. His hilarious writing style and gambling references can be seen at Grantland, and definitely worth checking out.

It must have been special for Bill to be able to chat with his idol Larry, and you can clearly sense how genuinely excited he is to pick the Legend's brain about Indianapolis and the Celtics' history. Larry mentions how he thinks that the Colts and Peyton Manning should try to make it work, so that Manning is a Colt for life. Larry relishes his experience and believes that elite players should stay in their market, unless a trade is made. Bird is a bit of a parallel to Peyton, both are loved in their respective cities by sports fans and are transcendent athletes.

I also found that it was interesting that Bird said that he would have retired after they drafted Len Bias, had Len not passed away. I never watched the Bird, I was a baby when he was a champion, but my parents and grandparents speak of him reverently. I love that he was a reknowned trash talker, which I think is hilarious. I also admire that he is still passionate about basketball, and is still a GM for the Pacers. It seems that they are having a ton of success, relatively speaking, and Bird's strategic acquisition of talent is the genesis of that success.

Here is a link to the podcast.

Superbowl...

The Patriots v. Giants Superbowl is just a few days away.  I am extremely excited for the game, and the only concern I have is regarding the health of Rob Gronkowski's ankle.  If that's alright, then I the Giants parade will come to an end. 

Celtics began to pick up some speed, beating the Orlando Magic twice, and sending their season into a tailspin.  Then they were able to win in an upset at home against the Indiana Pacers who are looking strong.  However, #1 pick Kyrie Irving and the Cleveland Caveliers were 11 points behind with 4 minutes to go.  The Celtics were not able to score a single point, and Kyrie scored a basket on a botched pick and roll defense play by Avery Bradley with 2.6 seconds to go, and won the game by 1.  The Celtics play Cleveland again tonight, and hopefully are able to enact some revenge.

I have been drinking some great beer lately as well.  Sierra Nevada's new spring seasonal, the Ruthless Rye IPA is a hit.  I love buying the Sierra Nevada 12 packs, and having a nice hoppy beer available all the time for the bargain price of $1.08/beer.  Another great beer I tried this weekend was Stone Brewing's collaboration with Vermont brewpub-turned-cannery The Alchemist and Ninkasi of the Pacific Northwest.  It is called "More Brown than Black IPA" and is filled to the brim with hops, but the dark malts offset this a little bit, really a great beer all around.

I have been dealing with a virus/flu of some sort that's left me quite congested.  I think that I am coming out on the right side and am going to hit the gym tonight.  Cheers!

Basketball is upon us

ATerrificLife readers all know that the NBA is by far my favorite professional sports league, and that I love basketball!

I had my first Fantasy Basketball draft with my Fantasy Football league and a few other buddies on Monday.  I had second pick, and took Lebron James, and then proceeded to grab a number of bigs, my team is fairly risky, since there are a number of injury risks, but I have plenty of backups, so it should be fine.  I do not have any 3 pointers, but I hope to counter that by dominating FG%, Points, Rebounds and Assists and hoping that Tony Allen and some of my other guys can come up with steals and FT% get myself into the championship.  Looking for Ty Lawson to have a breakout year as well!

As far as real basketball, my Celtics are in pretty tough shape this year.  They failed to acquire Chris Paul and recently lost Jeff Green for the season (hope you are alright man!) which means our 5th best player is Brandon Bass, who will be coming off the bench.  I think the C's are going to struggle regular season, and sneak into the playoffs, where they will probably do some damage for the last time.  The lack of depth and athelticism of our star players, and New York, Miami and Chicago all young and bound to improve on already impressive seasons last year, and the surging Indiana Pacers and Philly 76ers are going to present a number of challenges.  In the West, it is going to be exciting to see the Clippers and Thunder who are being touted as favorites to win the Conference.  Scrappy Memphis, quiet Portland, aging San Antonio and the angry Lakers are all going to be in the mix as well.

I can't wait for Christmas day!

Fantasy Basketball Preview

I am extremely excited for the NBA season. I am a huge NBA fan, and my Celtics are my favorite team in the league. The Rondo trade rumors are a bit hyped this week, and I hope that he stays. I think Rondo is great for the other guys and he truly can be a difference maker in many games. He is also fun to watch, I simply wish that he could shoot better. His FG and FT percentages are extremely poor, which brings me to fantasy basketball. I am doing fairly well in my Fantasy Football league, and have a crucial matchup this weekend to determine playoffs (more on that later.) I play with a similar pool of friends for NBA and I am pretty hyped for this year, beginning on Christmas.

I am going to go avoid injury prone guys this year, since we are going to have a shortened season, and people will be playing more often. With a higher frequency of games, the edge will definitely be on the well conditioned guys who will play more minutes. I am going to avoid Derek Rose, Arame, CP3 and others. I am targeting Carmelo Anthony fairly early, and hope to get him, since I think under D'Antoni he might score 10,000 points this season! Drafts for this and hopefully one or two other leagues will be held fairly soon, so I will be prepping even more.

My draft strategy is to read a ton of fantasy analysts predictions and projections, since I respect these guys who do this for a living. I like to indentify players who have a lot of upside, think Jimmy Graham and L. Blounte in the NFL. I also like to identify non-sexy players like Matt Forte in the NFL who can really make a difference, although fairly quietly. I make power rankings for the first 4 rounds, then decide on a few guys that I am interested in during later rounds. I do consider team needs, but not until later rounds, since trades are always a way to pick up some positional pieces later on with a trade offer.

Another interesting aspect for this year is that we are going to be instituting a "keeper" option. We are each going to hold onto 3 players for next year, which means the players we are picking early on are going to be extremely important. For this reason, I am going to try hard to get Kevin Love, since he is a young, tough player who puts up a ton of stats. This rule means 30 players will be held out of the draft next season, which will make things extremely interesting. It will also have a big effect on trades, since they must be considered in the long term as well as the short term. I think there should be a penalty for holding onto certain players, but I do not have a great system.

I will add more thoughts over the next few weeks leading up to the season, but I can't give out too much, because other league members could definitely be ghosting my site!

Link Dump

It's not Tuesday, but hey, its my blog and I can do what I want! 

I don't think that I will be watching the WNBA with my favorite league missing at least the first two weeks of the regular season, but this article presents the argument at least.  In all seriousness, I will probably be watching a lot more college basketball and maybe some NHL hockey as well. I might need to pick up NBA 2k12 for the Xbox 360 as well!

Huffington Post put up an article on Craft Beer that is a great primer.  Although it is a little basic for me, I think its definitely a great resource for those people who want to know a little more about their beer than the lowest common denominator (Budweiser/Coors/Miller)

I have been watching the Meltdown series on the financial crisis of 2008.  This is especially relevant these days with the #OccupyWallStreet movement and the pending European sovereign default. Part 1, 2, 3, & 4.

This is not my style, but Giuseppe at AnAffordableWardrobe, got a classic piece of headgear repaired at shop in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, which I have a personal affinity for.  Enjoy.

Last, but certainly not least, is a guide to eating healthy on the cheap from NerdFitness.  You have all scene some of my recent paleo meals and recipes, and this is a great compendium of tips.

Bill Simmons rolls out Grantland.com

Bill Simmons has launched his new website today Grantland.com named after Grantland Rice, a writer known for his elegant prose. For those who aren't familiar with Simmons, he is arguably the most popular personality in the ESPN stable, at least in my neck of the woods. Simmons was born in raised in New England, went to college at Holy Cross, and is one of the most vocal Boston sports fans of all time. His columns, podcasts, and twitter are account are among the most read throughout the internet. His writing style is often crude and he is not known for conciseness, but he is really funny and he hits on a lot of topics that I am interested in. I think he overdoes the popular culture aspect, but I can't really blame him, as that is his passion, especially living in Los Angeles.

Grantland is supposed to be an outlet for more creative, unfettered sports and pop culture writing. It has been advertised as free from the corporate overlords, which means everything will be a little more raw. This will not be Sportscenter, and if you have read anything by Simmons, you know there will be mentions of betting on sports, Simmon's friends, and certainly never less than 1000 words per article. I am actually currently reading his book on basketball, which I do recommend if you are as big of a basketball fan as I am. I look forward to following this site, and its promise of podcasts in addition to the B.S. Report is very appealing for me, as I listen to podcasts regularly during the day job and working out.

In other matters, Bruins are going to need to continue the offensive effort of Game 3 tonight. I am looking forward to Tyler Seguin being effective, in replacement of the injured Nathan Horton.

Bill Russell

11 Championship rings

Reading Simmon's book now, now I hate Wilt and love Bill Russell even more