154 thoughts on “November 29, 2012: Clippers Suck”

  1. Blake Griffin would have you believe that (a) he actually jumped over a Kia and dunked a basketball instead of jumping over a corner of its front bumper and (b) he actually drives a fucking Kia. I don't know which is more preposterous.

    1. That d-bag is on my short list of least favorite NBA players of all time. Chris Paul is up there, too. (did anyone see the video of the Clippers missing 5 threes in one minute in the loss to the Hornets? If Paul isn't warned/fined for his ridiculous flopping during that sequence, then Stern is a dick.)

      2. I love watching Griffin flop too. On that sequence where he was doing a 360, kneed Pek in the guts, and Pek took the ball away from him, his slow-motion moving of his head back like Pek had hit him in the face was fantastic. Then he just stood there, surprised he didn't get a call. Ugh. I hate him.

        1. I, for one, actually kind of enjoy his adverts. The directors seem to get the most out of his acting abilities, what with the break-the-third-window [ed: err, 4th wall? whatever] mockery.

          He does seem a bit douchey, but, as always, it is hard to judge people by what you see on TV. Dude has crazy hops and athleticism, and is slowly improving his mid-range jumper. He's no K-Lub, but he's an exciting player.

          The hatred on Chris Paul, wow. I don't think Paul is all that and a bag of chips (I think I prefer Deron Williams overall), but he's awfully good. And the Clips have a deep, talented squad.

          Isn't it too early to transfer Laker hatred to the Clips, even though they are now the better team? They haven't really done anything yet.

          1. The directors seem to get the most out of his acting abilities

            ...his what, now?

            A few actor friends and I were just having a conversation of best and worst actors among athletes. Griffin was named as worst by all of us. I've only seen a couple of his spots, but he just looks so lost. I suspect there are some spots I haven't seen, though, since I really don't see many commercials with the way I take in TV.

              2. Alright, he's come a long way since the ones I based my ranking on (mostly Subway spots where he blankly and apathetically mumbled into the camera). He still isn't anything special, but there's some inflection in his voice, where there was previously none.

            2. Griffin the worst actor? Absolutely no way. You only have to go as far as Joe Mauer to find someone worse. And there are plenty of others.

                    1. That's absurd. His deadpan comedic stylings in the McDonalds commercial convinced me that Canadians do not, in fact, drink maple syrup and fight bears. No mere actor could have sold me on such subversive ideas.

              3. I can't find the video, but Jason Giambi's deodorant commercial is the worst acting I have ever seen.

                    4. Hmm. Well, my memory is crap. I remember it much worse than that. And with far less action. I thought he just stood in one spot. Maybe there's a different one somewhere...

                    5. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. When a company nails down an athlete, normally they spend a couple of days shooting several spots and then roll them out slowly. I do vaguely remember this commercial, but I don't remember if there were others.

                    6. I still think all athletes involved in the Eastern Motors commercials (among many others Lavar Arrington, Carmelo, Ray Lewis, Alex Ovechkin) set the bar for horribleness (but that song is soooooo catchy!).

                    10. I know there was a Giambi deodorant one wherein he swung a bat, perchance at odor?
                      Though I now remember the one at spooky's link, there was certainly another.

          2. Isn't it too early to transfer Laker hatred to the Clips, even though they are now the better team? They haven't really done anything yet.

            I don't think, for me at least, that this is a Lakers-esque type of hate. Donald Sterling is more than enough reason to hate the Clippers for reasons that aren't directly basketball related.

            Also, I am basing my opinion entirely on what I see on tv because I don't have any other way to do it. We're talking irrational sports opinions here. They might be great guys in real life, but I'll never know that.

            But I suppose as for Paul, I would rather watch him play than Dwayne Wade.

            1. Donald Sterling is a reason to feel sorry for Clippers draftees, more so than hate the Clips. I mean, do you hate the Marlins?

              *note: with due respect to the moral rectitude of irrational sports opinions. I got no problem with those.

  3. Josh Harding diagnosed with MS. Depending on his symptoms, he could definitely continue his career as a goalie. However, the Wild better have a backup plan in place at all times because he could be unable to go on any given day or at any moment.

    1. I havent read about hockey in a while (thank you lockout), but I think the Wild have 2 young goalies in the pipeline.

      I got to admit, I dont know a whole lot about MS. Does being an athlete help manage it, or do the symptoms come and go whenever they want?

      1. From what I've observed, MS doesn't seem to care how active or healthy you are. Granted, my sample size is small and I don't have a slovenly, lazy person to compare to.

        Sarah used to be very active and now is rather lazy, but that wasn't a choice. It was forced upon her.

      2. MS just comes and goes in spurts and can affect the body in innumerable ways (because it attacks the brain). Sheenie really beefed up her strength training after her diagnosis with the hopes that, when the next attack comes, she'll have a higher resevoir of strength and any decrease will take her back to where she began initially.

        For the past two months, her right hand has been twitching almost continuously. She is taking a muscle relaxer, but it knocks her out, so she can only take it at night (she almost fell asleep while driving the one time she tried in the morning). It basically looks like her hand is playing the piano. All things considered, it's not the worst symptom, but it still is annoying as hell for her (and terrifying because it just reminds her daily that she may lose control of her muscles randomly).

        1. my understanding is that there are at least two variants. My UCLA buddy has a version that appears to be not-so-progressive, and, indeed, comes and goes in spurts. He's managed it pretty well over the 5 or so years since his diagnosis.

  4. The only close friend I have with MS is also a hockey goalie. Weird.

    Yeah, at some point it'll ravage him beyond the ability to play, most likely. It's a cruel thing.

    1. A college buddy of mine lived with MS for about 20 years. He did okay for the first half of that, but the second half was not so good. He died this past spring.

      1. Citizens who play my games over at CdL probably know I'm talking about Sarah B. She's been living with it for years, but the hospital stays are becoming longer and more frequent. She puts on a hopeful face on FB, but she's made side comments to me about her mortality. It sucks.

        1. Yup, Sheenie and I talked with her about it at Old Chicago and she's definitely had a much rougher experience than Sheenie. Definitely feel for her because it hasn't been easy for Sheenie but, all things considered, it could be a helluva lot worse.

  5. Girls had their first JV hoops game last night. Shut out in the 3rd quarter, as they missed a bunch of easy ones and generally looked disheveled. Lost 25-16 after trailing 13-12 at the half.

    Oy. Waaay too many possessions where our PG picked up her dribble at half court, despite very little ball pressure. Waaay too many flat, cross-court passes. No understanding of how to set up in the post and pass back out for a good shot.

    I guess that comes with not hiring coaches until a couple days before practice starts. We have two parent volunteers coaching the JV (they are doing a great job, but have their work cut out for them), and a parent as the varsity head coach. They lost 62-10.

    On the bright side, the Girl played pretty well. Only made one shot, but had quite a few rebounds and played excellent defense in the post (starting center, despite being only 5'6 1/2". We are small, but slow).

    the games were against neighboring Davisville, which (a) has only one high school, despite being bigger than our town, which has 2; and (b) is coached by the club coach, who therefore basically coaches her girls year-round. The Girl played 2 years for that club. That coach is excellent; she runs very tight, sophisticated practices. But she's also got some serious talent. Their varsity features a good half-dozen sophomores (and at least one freshman), and a half dozen girls taller than our tallest girl. She has two girls (a sophomore and a freshman) who might have D-I talent.

    1. Does the average ESPN viewer notice or care if the network has any integrity?

      I've seen too many comments on ESPN's sites and in their magazines that suggest their fans are slavish boobs that believe anything they say to think that any amount of journalistic negligence will matter.

      2. Does the average ESPN viewer notice or care if the network has any integrity?

        probably not
        but it doesnt make it the right thing to do.

        1. At this point, yes, I think so.

          My cousin is the dope who named her kid Espn a couple of years ago, that showed up on every "Worst name" list you'll see. Poor kid.

      1. With all the RTs and Shares I saw of his, I've got a dozen friends and relatives that should score about $5 each.

    2. Holy crap. I daydreamed this LTE a couple of days ago, right up to the fact that it was Runner.

      ...which begs the question, why didn't I buy a ticket?

          1. I bought one yesterday. You can't win if you don't play. I know, I know...won't win anyway. But, for $2, I'll take a "won't" over a "can't".

              1. Expected value of buying a bag of Skittles == value of Skittles X 1.0 - cost of Skittles + psychic benefits of having a bag of Skittles
                Expected value of a lottery ticket == $jackpot X 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 - cost of lottery ticket + psychic benefits of having a lottery ticket that might win.

                Arguably, then, the EV of the lottery ticket can exceed the EV of the Skittles purchase. Depends on how you internally value the psychic benefits.

                Of course, the psychic benefits of having a lottery ticket that might win are almost identical to the psychic benefits of anticipating the purchase of a lottery ticket that might win. Me, I can get plenty of utils out of daydreaming about being rich without spending a dime on the actual ticket.

                2. But, you're failing to include the physical cost of consuming the skittles and the psychic costs of having consumed skittles. (Though there are psychic costs to having purchased a ticket as well, I'll assume that the psychic benefits on that item are net.)

                  For most, I'd offer that buying the lottery ticket over the skittles is the healthier and therefore most valuable choice.
                  Better yet would be savings, but that wasn't a choice.

        2. My big brother's wife is incredibly lucky (or just damn good) at games of chance. I'm typing slowly because my fingers are crossed...

      2. FanGraphs headline: Nationals Steal Denard Span from Twins

        with a conclusion:

        For the Twins, they get a boom-or-bust prospect and lose one of their best players. They don’t really free up much salary to improve the roster already in place, so this is a clear win-later kind of move. Josh Willingham is clearly next on the chopping block, as the Twins are likely to make more moves to improve their future. Hopefully they get more back for him than they did for Span, though, because collecting lottery ticket pitching prospects isn’t a great way to rebuild.

        *sigh*

    2. Meyer went 10-6 with a 2.86 ERA with 45 walks and 139 strikeouts in 25 starts between Single-A Hagerstown and Single-A Potomac last season.— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) November 29, 2012

      1. If they're going to trade an outfielder for a pitcher who is a couple years out, I would've preferred it was Revere. In the short term, Span is the better player for the Twins to have on the team.

        1. I think the Twins are making it perfectly clear that they don't really care about the short term.

          1. Maybe they're clearing payroll for a run at Grienke. (that or I should lay off the mid-afternoon sauce)

          2. And they're making it perfectly clear that they don't really care about my interest in the team. My mlb.tv subscription renewal was already in question, and this trade certainly helped me make the decision to cancel.

                1. It'll be easy to not be invested in the results this season, but it was that way last year too. I'm just glad to see that the Twins are realizing how far away they are from being serious competitors. That type of honesty tends to help in the long run.

                2. My internet connection keeps me from following another team through MLB.tv. Maybe I'll buy the DirecTV package though.

      2. Twins in the short run is a losing hand anyway. Obviously we're not looking at a sure thing in Meyer, but frankly, he sounds like there's a lot more upside than anything that was being seriously tossed around in the Span-to-Braves discussions. Meyer was ranked as the Nat's #6 prospect last year, and I'd bet he easily slots into the Twins top 10, right?

        Twins should be looking at 2015 anyway, and this shows they are.

        1. I know full well that I'm looking at the upside here, but at the very least I don't feel like this is the type of fleecing we've seen in recent seasons, and it show the Twins looking long-term, which I like. My biggest problem with this is that there wasn't another prospect - of any stripe - included.

          2. yeah, thats what Im confused about. The Twins didnt get at least two players (one that preferably helps in 2013) in return. Span is a good player, with a team friendly contract.

            1. I'm thinking the Twins must really see Meyer as a true #1 in the future, to make it worth it. If they're right about that, then, yeah. If they're wrong, then, boo.

              I think the biggest question is whether he needs TJ before or after he makes the majors.

            2. Yeah, I think even calling Span "good" is selling him short here. Great player, steal of a contract. Trade him for a lottery ticket. Frown.

              2. Eh, I like Span, but I wouldn't call him great. He's a roughly three win player. His contract is nice, but he would still be in his arb years anyway. The $4.75 million due to him next year and $6.5 million the following would be great if they were free agent prices. But they aren't. Arbitration roughly follows a 40/60/80% free agent scale. Span signed a long-term contract early, so those would need to be discounted even more. The free agent equivalent would be $8-9 million, which makes the contract good, but not a steal.

                1. It seems to me too that relative value is worth talking about too - 3 wins being the difference between 96 and 99 losses is a heck of a lot less valuable than 3 wins being the difference between WC and Division champs.

                2. There's really no way for us to know, but if they're banking the money too, and get a better free agent pitcher in a year or two because of it, it really does make this a better deal.

                    2. I think some are having difficulty recognizing that it is OK to be OK with a trade while still being sad that a good and popular player is gone.

        2. I agree. Definitely in rebuild mode.

          I don't think I trust Gleeman's opinion on pitching prospects. I think Terry Ryan has had enough success to get the benefit of the doubt.

          1. I'm not so sure Terry gets a pass on this as the value of the trade is years down the road. From a PR perspective this trade won't inspire increasingly skeptical fans to come out to the ballpark. I'm fine with them trading anyone on the roster, but they need to give fans more reasons than Joe Mauer to be interested.

            2. Meyer will probably start in AA next year. He's a former college pitcher and the Twins have a history of moving their top college prospects quickly through the minors (Baker, Slowey, Garza, Gibson, etc.). Meyer might even be a September callup in 2013. I don't think it is unrealistic to think he could be a full-time member of the rotation before the All-Star Game at Target Field.

          2. LEN3:

            Twins general manager Terry Ryan said the club is not in rebuilding mode and will continue to look to add quality arms to the rotation. But Meyer gives them the potential staff ace that every team covets.

    4. at least Span gets to play with a somewhat likable team in the Nats and not the Mets or Braves.

    5. They had him under contract for his age 29-31 seasons at a grand total of $21 million, and only the first two years and $12 million was guaranteed. 3/21 for a +3 win player in his prime is a significant value, and the Twins sold him off for an A-ball pitching prospect who may end up in relief.

      Oy.

      2. As for whether Meyer will be a starter or reliever, Ryan said: "Starter, starter, starter, starter. We're looking for starting pitching."

    8. So, Nishioka (HPR's favorite) and Span (CER's favorite) gone in the same year?
      Team needs a new #1 and #2.

    9. I like this. As much as I like Span, speedy, left-handed outfielders with little power are not something the Twins need to hold on to, even at a good price. Fans have been begging the Twins to go get an ace-type pitcher with a power arm that doesn't pitch to contact. The Twins' 2015 rotation could be Barrios, Meyer, Gibson, Diamond and Hendricks. Plus, they'll have their first-rounder this year waiting in the wings, assuming they go after another starter. This is a classic TR trade. He moved a guy he has replacements all ready for. Now Revere moves to center and Parmelee in RF. If either struggles or is injured, you have Hicks and Arcia and even Benson in AAA. I don't think the Twins are in full rebuild mode, but I think they saw a guy they really like being offered and couldn't pass it up. And after these last two seasons, they need to think for the future not just the upcoming season.

      "Every organization is looking for these types of pitchers," Twins general manager Terry Ryan said. "It's not just the Twins and because of our plight. Every club in the game wants pitching of this nature. He's got stuff, and he throws it over."

      1. Terry's quote does little to inspire considering every pitcher has stuff and they most can throw it over. The quality of said stuff is what separates the mice from the aces.

        [edited for AMR's sake]

        1. Duderino has stuff but he can't throw it over.
          Ankiel had stuff and could throw it over and then he couldn't.

    10. Really, there's no way to know whether this is a good trade or not. It's entirely possible that three years from now, we'll be bragging about the steal Terry Ryan made. It's also entirely possible that three years from now Alex Meyer will be a punch line. All we can really do is wait and see.

  11. whats going to be real awesome next year is Ben Revere leading off the game and chopping one a little past the pitcher on two pitches

    1. How can he come after the Spurs (who are trying to ensure their health for the playoffs) after letting crap like the Wolves shutting KG down stand?

      2. That's BS. You don't rest all four guys on one night. And we're months away from the playoffs. This was completely the team making a statement in a nationally televised game that they don't like their schedule. You could easily rest a different guy each night. And it's not like this is baseball. You could just cut their minutes when you need to and save them for the final minutes of the game or whatever.

    2. what I dont get about this is that the Spurs rested players last year, and Stern didnt have a problem with it

      1. Last year the schedule was more compact, so there were a lot more back-to-backs, etc., so they probably got a pass because of that.

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