Why I Love the NBA - Grizzly Men: Shane Battier and the Gasol Brothers

The NBA expanded to add the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995.
The Grizzlies never put together a good enough team to even make the playoffs the entire time they were in Vancouver. In 2001 they moved to Memphis and drafted Shane Battier, an Uncle Tom from Duke as Jalen Rose would say. The Grizzlies also were able to trade their only star, the forgettable Shareef Abdul-Rahim, for the Atlanta Hawks' 1st round pick Pau Gasol.
Battier and Gasol would turn the Grizzlies' franchise, if not around, at least significantly rotated.
Between 2003 and 2006 the Grizzlies would make the playoffs 3 consecutive times and be swept 4-0 in the 1st round every year.  In 2006 Memphis traded Battier for the Houston Rockets' 1st round pick, my alma mater Uconn's Rudy Gay, who has since become the Grizzlies' maximum salaried franchise player. In 2008 the Grizzlies would trade Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers who had been struggling to find a star compliment to Kobe Bryant since trading Shaquille O'Neil. One of the players the Grizzlies would receive in return was Pau's rookie younger brother Marc. Pau would help the Lakers reach the NBA finals every year since then, winning the NBA championship in the last 2 years. The Lakers already had a dominant 7 foot center in Andrew Bynum and thus were able to play Pau at power forward (for the brief periods of the season where Bynum is not injured). Many teams in the NBA do not have a true center and play a shot blocking power forward at center, as has often been the case in the career of such power forwards as Emeka Okafor who has been forced to play out of position at center his entire NBA career.
Two years ago Memphis acquired the talented yet troublesome Zach Randoph from the Knicks. Randolph quickly developed alongside Marc Gasol to help the Grizzlies almost make the playoffs last year. While not as dominant as the Lakers' frontcourt, Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph comprised what was essentially the only other front court in the league with 2 centers playing the 4 and 5.
This year Memphis has been determined to make the playoffs. And for the first half of the year it seemed as if Gay, Randolph, Gasol, and their finally breaking out point guard Mike Conley were leading them to that goal.
But just before this year's trade deadline, Gay went down.
Rudy dislocated his shoulder so bad that it would require season ending surgery a few weeks later. At the trade deadline the Rockets, who had taken on a lot of salary over the last few years, decided to dump Battier's contract. The Grizzlies, with their sudden need for a new starting small forward, were eager to take him back. Immediately after the trade there was turmoil amongst the team and even a full on fight aboard the Grizzlies' plane. But the team rebounded from that experience to become closer and finish the season very strongly, nabbing the last playoff spot in the western conference. As the 8th seed, the Grizzlies were matched up in the 1st round of the playoffs against the team with the best record in the NBA, the devil's own boring ass San Antonio Spurs.
Tonight in game 1 of their playoff series, Gasol, Conley and Randolph gave great performances, and Shane Battier hit the game winning shot to beat the Goliath Spurs and give the Grizzlies their 1st ever playoff win.
Earlier today Battier's wife gave birth to their first daughter.
This is why I love the NBA, the stories.
It's my soap opera.
I love stories.
Stories are one of the reasons why I'm fascinated by history and politics. History particularly so. If you know the stories of history, you can understand and anticipate how the story will continue.

On a related note, heres a video of Uconn winning the NCAA tournament over Battier's Duke Uncle Toms in 1999

Just when they say you can't;
you can.

I Won the Internet

After two weeks the Huffington Post's Justin Bieber-as-Politician Photoshop Contest has been scrolled off of the bottom of their comedy page by newer posts.

And at the end of this run the winner as selected by internet is non other than THIS GUY!

My McCain getting Beiber fever picture ran away with the top spot and my Christine O'Donnell Bieber was as high as 2nd place for a while but has currently slipped to 5th.

It appears that huff post did not deem my other two pictures worthy of consideration by the public. The Beiber waiving photo with McCain I understand cuz the humor of that photo was more in Beibers gate and I had to cut it off a bunch to make the proportions not overly off kilt. However I really like the Beiber nazi one. I could understand a claim that this could be found offensive. I would counter that this contest should certainly fall under the too ridiculous to be offended by category. I am home on that range to quote Joanna.

Thank you to any and all out there in the world who voted. Humor you can believe in.

biebers

The Huffington Post is having a Justin-Bieber-As-Politician Photoshop Contest.
I thought I'd toss a couple in there:

Ventrillaquwissm Revelation

My Favorite Albums of 2010!

In alphabetical order by album title (not counting definite articles):


Janelle Monae - The Archandroid
The first 6 tracks of this album are a medley and they set the pace for this high energy tour around this indie-va's (new word?) vast musical influences. I saw a free outdoor show of her's this summer in Hartford with Sky and Mariclare, it was easily one of the best shows I saw all year.
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Black Dub - Black Dub
This group's debut proves theres still some fresh soul coming out of America. "Ring The Alarm" is a high energy jam that, while not quite the same pace as the rest of the album, was one of my favorite tracks of the year.
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Vampire Weekend - Contra
Could Vampire Weekend top their indie royalty anointing self titled debut? The answer in Contra is a resounding yes. Even the rampant licensing of their songs for commercial use couldn't damped this wonderful album for me (which I believe is a first).
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Aloe Blacc - Good Things
If this list had to be smaller, this album would still be on it. Blacc introduces himself to the world with a funky soulful explosion. He commits what is usually a musical no-no, covering a beloved song (The Velvet Underground and Nico's "Femme Fatale") but switching up the melody, Blacc however does not disappoint. For a great short film of some gorilla performances check out A Take Away Show, Part One and Part Two
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Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
One of the 5 albums on this list I discovered through working in the music section at Barnes and Noble. Local Natives sound like Animal Collective with the instruments of a standard 5 piece rock band rather than synthesizers. We play this album so often at work that today I found it off to the side with a note on it asking to please stop playing it and take it home, done.
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Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me
Certainly in the mix for favorite album of the year, this opus is 3 discs of beauty. It's really amazing to me that Joanna Newsom has been able to outdo herself with every album. Also, Good Intentions Paving Company is essentially a perfect song.
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Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
If you had told me earlier this year that I would make a top ten albums list of 2010 and Drake would not be on it, but Kanye would, I would suggest that you have mistaken me for a fool. But as much as Drake's debut album Thank Me Later disappointed, Kanye's album appointed. While he may not have the lyrical prowess of Aesop Rock or Can-I-Bus, and the content of his lyrics can border on the absurd("no more drugs for me, pussy and religion is all I need"), Kanye is certainly one of the more clever lyricists out there today("I'm living in the future so the present is my past, my presence is a present, kiss my ass"). Combined with his ever improving self production skills, the result is the tightest hip hop album of the year. Still waiting for what should be a deservingly cool video for Monster.
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Ray Charles - Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters
This album of newly discovered tracks from Ray Charles opens up strong with the soul purging Loves Gonna Bite You Back. Listening to this album makes me realize how amazing it is that Ray can sing some sexually direct stuff very soulfully and smoothly. Wait till you hear him croon "WHY ARE WE TALKIN'? We should be GETTIN' IT ON!"
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Herons! - So Long!
The long awaited debut release from Herons! was released this fall, but I've had the privilege to listen to it for over a year now. I've had the greater privilege of being friends with all the lovely folks that make of this group including it's musical genius songwriter Benjamin Kritikos, one of the flappiest men I have ever known.
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Sia - We Are Born
This Australian indie-va takes her upbeat 21st century funky jazz-folk and rubs 70s disco all over it to create We Are Born. This is really just one of the happier albums I've heard in a long time.
"Oh how we fought, and still we won the fight"
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Honorable Mention

Here's the thing, I haven't actually ever heard this album. It came out in 2010 but I haven't been able to get my ears on it yet. However, judging from how much I love all three of their other albums I have no doubt that this one belongs on this list

Republic of Loose - Bounce at the Devil