"duh" statement of the night regarding bball from me:

if you're having trouble playing defense against somebody, try making them play defense a bit more.

it sounds stupid at first, and kinda obvious, and nba players do say it all the time in press conferences, but the more i thought about it, the more it's meaning has hit upon me.

you see, sometimes you're going up against a good scorer, and it seems that no matter what you do, you can't contain him.

well, assuming he's the one guarding you on the other end, one of the ways you can wear him out is to start trying to score more on him, make him chase you around screens more, etc. that may help wear him out, and make your defense a bit easier; it won't solve the entire puzzle, you still have to play good defense, but it may help you out some.

so even if you are unselfish and don't want to see yourself as the main scorer of your team, just learning some simple effective stuff to throw at your opponent when you're on the offensive end if you're coming up puzzled about how to stop your opponent's offense will help a lot.

it's kinda hit me this late, b/c i don't consider myself the main scorer on any team i play when i'm playing bball. part of that does have to do with my abilities. but if i'm playing against people i don't know, chances are that i might end up guarding someone who is very aggressive and demanding of the ball. in cases like those, it might be good to play a bit more offense on him, in the motive of trying to wear him down more.

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fyi, i really thought(and hoped) chicago should've won game 5. no real excuses they shouldn't have. but dwyane wade's will to win should in all due respects be commended. fought through an incredibly painful injury knowing the offense on the heat depended upon him. and it seemed that when the heat saw him come back, their confidence and will to win came back. they went on a defensive rout(although, knowing chicago's not that great offensively, i want to say it's more that chicago struggled rather than heat locked them down.) it's just a shame that this will probably hurt them down the road; even if they beat the bulls and move on, you could say this puts the nail in the hopes that the heat will make it to the finals yet again. i don't think you even need detroit to knock the heat out of the eastern race. the nets can do it. i want to say indiana could do it as well, but that's stretching it. however, i do think indiana can take this weakened heat team to 7 games.

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you said it, ron, now make your promise. (just looking to see if "infinite intensity" 93 is going to step up and fulfill his promise of the kings getting into the 2nd round, or were those just empty threats to the league.)


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this world is so full of people making the most stupidest comments out of ignorance. they just say whatever they want without any thought to it. that's probably what boils me so much. i'm all for free speech and it's great to live in a country that supports it; you should never be afraid of saying something because you know someone's not going to like what you said. but i am also for saying SOUND SPEECH, because free speech is IMO not a ticket to saying ANYTHING, but more like a ticket to saying WHAT IS RIGHT REGARDLESS OF WHETHER PEOPLE AGREE WITH YOU OR NOT. in other countries, you can get arrested, tortured, even killed for saying stuff, even if it is right. here you cannot. i do not believe the founding fathers of this nation allowed free speech so idiots can say the stupidest things. they allowed it so that the balance of power in speech would never be tipped into the hands of the person with the most military and monetary resources. think about that for more than a few seconds before you start saying something really stupid on impulse the next time.

in like vein of the same subject, sometimes i argue with myself regarding christianity like this:

+: it's simply not right for me to hate upon another person just because they have the most ignorant thoughts. that does not make myself any better. that's wrong.
-: i conceed with that, and know it. but does that make what they thought ok? am i supposed to just tolerate what they said? it's still wrong regardless.
...
so then, how am i supposed to loathe their thoughts, but not them? especially when it seems like the way they act and think DEFINES them?
+: but do you think your hating on them will ever change their actions and their thinking?
-: maybe... without a clear sense of what is right and wrong and why, i don't think i would ever get to a point where i disliked something about them in the first place. but you are right that if i never confront them directly in love, they have a much lower chance of changing the way they think.

THAT is probably why it is so tough to "hate the sin, not the sinner." because we can only define a person based upon their looks, their method of thinking, and the way they act. we keep saying love unconditionally, but in order to overlook all those things and simply love them(remember that unconditional love would mean we also don't necessarily love them just for the things that we see good in them), would be no different, then say, trying to love any living organism unconditionally.

although, i think in the end values and personality both help. values, will define how much you think what they're doing is not ok. personality, will determine angry or understanding you'll be. although, we do know what is impossible with men is possible with God.