The Thoughts of Lamdar

Why bother getting poorly translated tattoos in languages you don’t know?  Rather than having the Chinese symbol for “gas” on your arm that only a few people can laugh at, you might as well be clear like Marcus Camby with his tattoo that says “Mr. Camby” in English so that everyone can laugh at the stupid tattoo joke.  Or maybe he was just tired of the lack of respect that he was getting, in which case his next tattoo will probably be something like, “Yes, sir.”

Well, the NBA got what it wanted.  By giving Steve Nash some extra days of rest he played like the MVP again.  With an already solid group though, I’m excited about the Clippers chances for the future.  Livingston continues to improve, and with some work on his jumper I believe he has a chance to become an elite point guard in a few years. He just possesses so many of those gifts that you just can’t teach.  Of course Elton Brand is already one of the best power forwards in the league.  Hopefully we’ll have many years ahead of us with them playing together for the Clippers.  Can’t wait till November…

Now that’s what I’m talking about.  You know Elton Brand is going to show up at every game, but if Quinton Ross and the rest of the supporting cast have another night like this, it’s going to be an exciting game 7.  Thank you Corey Maggette for reminding me why I got your action figure.

No, I’m not talking about Ron Mexico, who is now free. I’m talking about the sad state of American geographic knowledge. I remember reading an article a long time ago about an unnamed college basketball team in which over half of the players couldn’t name any of the countries that share a border with the United States. While we can all laugh about how stupid the typical athlete is, it’s not a problem that’s confined to them. In this recent study, they found that the typical 18 to 24 year old American is not much better than that, with only a third of them able to find Iraq and a half able to find India on a map. About the only consolation I can come up with is at least it’s not my generation.

Ever since I’ve liked the Cilppers (1998) they haven’t made the postseason.  That is, until this year.  Not only have they made the playoffs though, now they’re heading to the second round for what looks like a matchup with the Lakers.  If the Clips can play the way they did these past 2 games against Denver, it should be an interesting series.

It’s official.  The NBA regular season is over and the Clippers will kick off the playoffs with homecourt advantage against the Nuggets on Saturday.  I had mentioned that the Clippers were in a precarious spot a while ago, trying to slip below Memphis while staying above the Lakers and Kings, but I really had my doubts that they would be able to pull it off.  Deep in the back of my mind I was almost certain they would revert to their old methods and completely fail to make the playoffs, just like they’ve been doing ever since I started following them in the late 90’s.  We’re in unfamiliar (but really good) territory now though so we’ll have to see how it goes.

What would happen if you dropped cash on people and let them scramble for it? Maybe if they’re kids it wouldn’t be so bad. Did these guys not watch the old Tim Burton Batman movie where the Joker drops piles of cash on the people? Actually, I’m thinking they did watch it since they made them all sign waivers before participating. I guess that’s what happens when you have a sick sense of humor and some free money.

I’ve been busy with work so I haven’t really been looking at my normal news feeds, but boy, was tonight an exciting night for UCLA basketball.  Funny how 1 minute of excitement turns 39 minutes of horrible basketball into one of the greatest games.

Breaking a five game losing streak, the Clippers came out to show who the best team is in LA.  Has Lamar Odom still not been told that learning to use his right hand would make him leaps and bounds better and possibly launch him into the NBA elite?  Sadly, he doesn’t seem all that much better from the first day I saw him in college.  So much wasted potential.

The NBA dress code thing makes a lot more sense to me after seeing this.  Forget caring about the images of the players, it’s really just another way to make some licensing money.  I wonder if wearing a suit bearing the Clippers logo will be ok to wear to interviews and weddings now…

Every once in a while an all-star has issues and drops out of stardom. After this plummet from the top, a few teams usually take a chance on them, hoping they’ll get a bargain on a great player who fell due to a temporary period of hard times. Typically, the players fail to rise back to greatness and they’re quickly dumped until the next team takes a chance on them. I guess the mindset is the same as all those people that stacked money on a declining Enron since they refused to believe that you can’t go wrong with a blue chip. The Clippers are taking that chance on Vin Baker now, but hopefully he’ll turn out to be one of the few guys who really turns it around. I’m sure the Clips aren’t hoping for another all-star power forward, but I’m not too sure what they’re looking for him to contribute. He doesn’t seem like he has much playing power left, and he also doesn’t seem like a strong locker room presence to me. Dunleavy does have a history with him though so we’ll see how it goes.

Electric football is probably only funny to me since I have some childhood memories of it.  How could little plastic men dancing in circles not entertain you?  I guess there are some people out there who are really serious about it though.

This reporter wanted to get an interview from Willie Parker after the Steeler victory parade.  Unfortunately that guy he’s trying to ask for the interview is Antwaan Randle El.  Kind of reminds me of the time my old roommate went up to Terry Dehere and asked him to sign a Chris Childs Knicks jersey.  Fortunately, my roommate was spared since all the other NBA players standing around agreed they really do look alike.

The Clippers ended their 6 game road trip at Detroit tonight.  With the Pistons on a 2 game losing streak (which is their longest losing streak of the season so far) and the clippers on a 4 game win streak (with wins in 9 out of the last 10) I held hope that the Clippers could pull it out tonight.  Bad luck struck early as Sam Cassell was sidelined with back spasms.  After fighting tough, the Clippers eventually fell as the Pistons really stepped it up at the end of the game.  So now they sit 2 games behind Phoenix and 3.5 games ahead of Memphis.  I don’t want to get too excited about the postseason yet, since I’m pretty used to the Clippers falling apart towards the end of the season, but I really hope they don’t go into the playoffs in this position.  The 4th seed will probably be San Antonio or Dallas, which would be a horrible draw for a 5th seed since they are probably the 2 best teams in the west.  Since they’re in the same conference though, one of them falls to the 4th seed.  Hopefully they can beat out Phoenix, but if not, I’m hoping they can drop to the 6th seed.

Is anyone else annoyed with the espn.com site redesign that happened this year? To refresh your memory, the old menu from a year ago looked like this:

and if you’re too lazy to go look at the new one, it looks like this: