NBA Stories: Steve Javie, the retired NBA referee now pastor

Steve Javie (born 1955.01.17) was my favorite NBA referee over 25 years of watching the league. He has had that rare combination of strictness and openness a referee should have but cannot be faked as it has to do with the self disciplined personality of who wears those shoes. A long time referee but also one of a kind impartial game analyst for the media after retirement, he finally retired from sports to follow a different career that doesn't involve busting any more knees on the court.

He worked more than 1,500 games, including 200-plus in the playoffs and 20 in the Finals. “Steve was the best referee I ever worked with, and I reffed with everybody,” said Joe Crawford, a friend and former NBA colleague. “He knew the rules. He got plays right. And he had guts. He was very aggressive but always under control.”

Bad knees finally forced Javie to limp away after the 2011 season, his last assignment being the decisive sixth game of that year’s NBA Finals. By then, he was on a spiritual quest. Thanks to his wife of 28 years, Mary Ellen, he’d rediscovered a faith he’d virtually abandoned as a young man. The couple had started a charity benefiting underprivileged children in Montgomery County and Philadelphia. But he needed more. “I thought, ‘I’ve got to be doing something more with my life than blowing whistles against basketball players,’ " he said.

At a St. Andrew’s event, a visiting speaker mentioned the Catholic diaconate. The possibility of becoming a deacon hung constantly around his neck like the whistles he wore as a referee. “It’s a calling,” he said. “It’s nothing I aspired to. I knew I was getting near the end of my career because my knees were failing. That realization makes you think about what you’re going to do afterwards.”

The journey Javie started in 2012 ended this June 8, when he and six others were formally ordained as deacons during an ornate ceremony at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul. The grueling process that got him there took seven years and yielded a master’s in theology, a new title, and the right to deliver homilies, wear a collar, and perform such traditional priestly duties as baptisms and marriages.

“I was at the ordination,” Crawford said. “Watching him do all the little things around the altar, you could see how prepared and calm he was. That’s how he was as a referee. Anything he gets into, he gets into all the way. He’s so devout now. As a matter of fact, he’s so devout that sometimes I have to tell him, `Steve, shut the … up.’ ”

Assigned to St. Andrew’s, his home parish and the largest in the Philadelphia archdiocese, Javie delivered his second homily last Saturday. “I’m not afraid to get up and talk in front of people because I’ve been doing that my whole life,” he said. “But talking about something really personal like faith, that’s stressful.”

Actually, Javie, who usually speaks in rapid and intense bursts, seemed more poised and conversational while addressing the parishioners, which he did not from the pulpit but from in front of the altar. “He’s very at ease, which probably comes from what he did all those years,” said Monsignor Michael Picard, St. Andrew’s pastor. “His preaching, even though he’s just starting, is really superb.”

The story of how Javie switched from the arena to the altar is one that combines love found and spirituality sought. It began in the late 1980s when the NBA’s travel demands made him a regular at Philadelphia International Airport’s US Airways counter. That’s where he met Mary Ellen.

“I was someone who except for Christmas and Easter didn’t go to Mass. But I could see she was a devout Catholic,” Javie said. “So on our second date, I thought I’d impress her and I said, `How about if we go to Mass, then get lunch afterward?’ “We’re sitting there in church, and this priest is droning on. I’m looking at my watch thinking I’ll sit here an hour then be with her the rest of the afternoon. I wasn’t paying attention, wasn’t getting anything out of it. Afterward, she asked me what I thought. I told her I didn’t get anything out of it. She looked at me and said, `What did you put into it?’ That stopped me in my tracks. She said, `Did you maybe say a prayer for somebody in your family who needed it? Did you pray to the Holy Spirit for enlightenment?’ She really got me thinking.”

The renewed devotion helped in 1999 when Javie was one of 15 referees implicated in a tax-evasion case that involved misuse of frequent-flyer miles. He was the only one acquitted on all charges.

Noticing their colleague’s newfound focus, the referees Javie worked with began to ask questions. Some even accompanied him to church.

“A lot of guys I traveled with, they struggled with all the temptations that come with being on the road,” Javie said. “I would try to talk to them about it. My thinking was we’re all sinful, but if we can talk about these things with each other, it might make our marriages and families a little more solid. “When I was a crew chief, the second guy would sometimes grab the new guy and say, ‘OK, Steve, tell him what you talked to me about.’ I’d try to mentor them, not just in basketball but in life.”

After retirement and the deacon decision, Javie ramped up his religiosity. From August through May, he took three-hour classes at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in philosophy, theology, spirituality, and homiletics. Then there were workshops, psychological examinations and, before ordination, written, practical and oral examinations. “We’ve never been blessed with children, but we’ve got nine nephews and nieces and I tell them I never studied that hard in my life," Javie said. "Those professors were brilliant. It was a really intense, extensive process.”

His new schedule is sometimes as hectic as his old one. A day after ordination, Javie had to deliver his first homily at St. Andrew’s. There are Masses, ceremonies, home and hospital visits, counseling sessions, and speaking engagements. “I made a living in sports,” he said. “They paid me to referee, and it was a good job. But this is something else, a really incredible journey. I worked in the Finals for 15 years. I worked Game 7s. But that doesn’t compare with this. It’s a feeling I can’t describe.”

Those who know Javie well, such as his fellow Whitemarsh Valley Country Club members, now feel free to move conversations beyond typical locker-room talk. “Now that they know what I’ve been through, they feel like they have permission to talk about their faith, even to complain about it,” Javie said. “They realize that I’ve changed in one way, but not socially or personality-wise. I’m just Steve Javie. I always have been. It just so happens I’m not a referee anymore. I’m serving the Lord now.”

[*Except for my introductory paragraph this article appeared on the Inquirer]

Levy's revamped 1992-93 NBA Season DLC is out now!

Welcome to the 1992-93 Season DLC! This is a project that initially started in 2015 when I was on the move throughout Europe while volunteering at different households. The internet connection was very bad or completely missing due to the poor hosting by some of the people in the volunteering network (sadly many were taking advantage of the volunteers too which tells you all about the level of decency our society got to in the 21st century).

     My initial project was based on the 1991-92 season mod created by other 2K11 gamers around 2012-2013. As it usually happens with big projects like this, the community based mod was a fiasco because player's ratings were wrong and many had wrong cyberfaces while many players from 1992 NBA were missing. That's were I decided to step in with all my knowledge about the game and 25 years of NBA watching at that time.

     As of 2020 you can forget about the previous attempt to create a playable 1992-93 NBA season. That is all gone because now I've completely revamped the 1992-93 DLC. I personally wasn't happy with the previous version so I've decided to redo it entirely starting with the player database and ending with the graphic part. It took me on and off about 5 months to complete this project between November 2019 and March 2020. So there you have it: the best retro mod ever done for an NBA 2K game! To be more convincing I am going to tell you this is the DLC I am using to play NBA 2K11 in 2020 during the global COVID-19 lockdown when governments and the World Health Organization are still looking clueless at the cousin virus of the previous SARS they ignored since 2003.

     This new version of the 1992-93 DLC includes realistic players with team rotations from the 1992-93 season, 3 teams (Bobcats, Grizzlies, Raptors) that weren't in the NBA at that time but can't be deleted from the game so...they got real players who were injured or away from the NBA during 1992 and 1993 (and that is a bunch of decent players!).

    On top of that this DLC was made from scratch on a clean, default 2K11 Roster file basically an official file which I modified into a retro mod. That means this DLC can be used to play a 100% guaranteed bug-free game in the Association Mode, something I am actually doing at the moment. To make things even more realistic and interesting, I created impeccable draft classes starting with the 1993 Draft Class that can be added to the game following the 1992-93 season. Now how cool is that? For more details about this particular part please check my post(s) about My PHX Dynasty which is an Association Mode game that makes use of these DLCs.

     If you followed the evolution of my NBA 2K11 modding throughout the years, you already know my game is now faster, teams shoot more threes, have better defensive skills, there are more dunks in transition, teammates box out and big men rebound more intelligently, all players make better use of the screens, and the CPU makes better substitutions based on the fatigue method (which triggers the real NBA stamina of each player separately).

     The 1992-93 NBA Season DLC features:

- a realistic gameplay based on my own formula that gives realistic scores, percentages and correct movement of players on the court that emulates the real NBA pace

- players with accurate bio (position, height, age, college, draft pick), appearance (eyes color, muscle & body type), skills and tendencies (including touches, isolation, post up, spot up etc.)  based on a template and several formulas I use now that take into account real stats from NBA players career (it calculates career average ratings per 36 minutes from the data sheet on https://www.basketball-reference.com)

- complete roster (14-15 players) and an accurate lineup plus correct situational (starters and bench players) for each team; historic players for 3 teams (Bobcats, Grizzlies, Raptors) that weren't in the NBA at that time but can't be deleted from the game so...they got real players who were injured or away from the NBA during 1992 and 1993

- advanced textures for player faces created specially for NBA 2K11 or in many cases taken from NBA 2K14 and applied to 2K11 faces that make players in this mod look crispy clean and more realistic than any other video game on the market in 2020 thanks to the genius in rendering of 2K11 that is so difficult to match by more recent "modern" games

- a completely new portrait system for the player's in-game photos with round action photos

- some players' names were tweaked to match the NBA 2K11 name list so the arena announcers can pronounce them; those who weren't on the 2K list in 2010 when the original game was launched will be called by the number on their jersey

- real coaches names (two per team) with real height, cyberfaces and experience years

- historically accurate courtside dornas and reserves chairs, stanchions, banners, floors and jerseys with hex edited colors for each team used in 1992-93

- a new retro TNT Sports presentation and scoreboard with the addition of my logo for the 1992-93 NBA Season DLC

- my own global textures for 2K11 that include progressive sweat, skinnier/realistic legs, simple retro accessories etc.

- sepia style background photos of the top players in the NBA in 1993 for the game menu

     If you want to understand how my version of the game works, you should go to the How To Play The Game page at the top of this blog. There are explanations about the Game Settings, Game Sliders (that also work with the Coach Mode on) and the Universal Coach Profile.

     Installation guide for my roster file:

1. Pay & get the roster file (.ROS) and the season file (.RFG) then place them into your NBA 2K11 SAVES folder.

2. Download ALL mod files (.iff, .cdf) from the links I will send you by email and install them into your NBA 2K11 GAME folder.

3. Lastly, start the the game and load the game files. To do this, go to “Options”, select “Load/save”, and load > “Roster1819″ or "Season1819". Go to “Manage Roster” to check if you have successfully updated your NBA 2K11 PC roster.

     In case you're interested in acquiring this mod, send me an email to leeunagi@gmail.com first. After that I will provide you with my PayPal account where you can send your payment for this mod. As soon as I cleared your payment, you will receive an email from me containing the Roster (.ROS) file and the Season Mode (.RFG) file along with all the links to the files contained in this DLC. I am looking forward to hearing from you. Enjoy your game, folks!

     Here are some extra screenshots from the 1992-93 Season DLC:

Levy's 2019-20 NBA Season DLC is launched

Hello, fellow NBA gamers! Here I am with another great release before the stupidity of the human race (in case you are one of those morons who abuse the term racism simply because you are a P.C. baby, it's time for you to know there is and always has been only one race on this planet; the rest is called ethnicity!) wipes all of us out with the help of a flu related virus that we should have found an antidote for since the last epidemic in 2003 but during the last 17(!) years of so-called advanced technological era, scientists and politicians were busy jerking off while watching their pile of money growing bigger.

I've created the 2019-20 NBA Season DLC after the 2020 All-Star weekend so the 2019 NBA draftees are properly configured to give realistic results in the game. It is probably the best version of NBA 2K11 visually thanks to the various patches made available by the Chinese modders and also the huge amount of work done by me which comes with a ton of experience in modding this game on a  daily basis since 2014. 

The whole database for the players was completed 100% and done separately by me. This means every tendency and move of each player you see in the game is the effect of my formulas and testing. I like realism in my game and I am against the randomness of the arcade gaming that unfortunately is preferred by the mass gamers these days. I also added new photos for each player downloaded from the best photo archives and then modified one by one with photo editing software to match the NBA 2K11 game presentation.

If you followed the evolution of my NBA 2K11 modding throughout the years, you already know my game is now faster, teams shoot more threes, have better defensive skills, there are more dunks in transition, teammates box out and big men rebound more intelligently, all players make better use of the screens, and the CPU makes better substitutions based on the fatigue method (which triggers the real NBA stamina of each player separately). 

The 2019-20 NBA season DLC contains:

- a realistic gameplay based on my own formula that gives realistic scores, percentages and correct movement of players on the court that emulates the real NBA pace

- complete roster (14-15 players) and an accurate lineup plus correct situational (starters and bench players) for each team; also a few free agents and basically every player who was active in NBA for at least 5 games this season

- advanced textures for player faces created specially for NBA 2K11 or in many cases taken from NBA 2K14 and applied to 2K11 faces (with tattoos!) that make players in this mod look crispy clean and more realistic than any other video game on the market in 2020 thanks to the genius in rendering of 2K11 that is so difficult to match

- the All-Star weekend with accurate players that you can use in the Quick Play mode and realistic jerseys, arena and court

- accurate skills and tendencies for each player using a template and several formulas based on real historical statistics of NBA players career as they are presented by https://www.basketball-reference.com (mainly career average ratings per 36 minutes)

- a completely new portrait system for the player's in-game photos with long rectangular action photos

- some players' names were tweaked to match the NBA 2K11 name list so the arena announcers can pronounce them; those who weren't on the 2K list in 2010 when the original game was launched will be called by the number on their jersey

- real coaches names (two per team) with real height, cyberfaces and experience years

- real courts and jerseys with correct colors for each team used in 2019-2020

- an NBA TV presentation and scoreboard with the addition of my logo for the 2019-20 NBA Season DLC

- my own global for 2K11 that includes the best stuff released over the years in the gaming community including progressive sweat, skinnier/realistic legs, Nike accessories, long leg pads etc.

- new canvas style background photos of the top players in the NBA this year for the game menu

- a few G-League teams with jerseys and courts to replace some now defunct D-League teams (credits to DaCrispy!)

If you want to understand how my version of the game works, you should go to the How To Play The Game link on this blog. There are explanations about the Game Settings, Game Sliders (that also work with the Coach Mode on) and the Universal Coach Profile.

Installation guide for my roster file:

1. Pay & get the roster file (.ROS) and the season file (.RFG) then place them into your NBA 2K11 SAVES folder.

2. Download ALL mod files (.iff, .cdf) from the links I will send you by email and install them into your NBA 2K11 GAME folder.

3. Lastly, start the the game and load the game files. To do this, go to “Options”, select “Load/save”, and load > “Roster1920″ or "Season1920". Go to “Manage Roster” to check if you have successfully updated your NBA 2K11 PC roster.

In case you're interested in acquiring this mod, send me an email to leeunagi@gmail.com first. After that I will provide you with my PayPal account where you can send your payment for this mod. As soon as I cleared your payment, you will receive an email from me containing the Roster (.ROS) file and the Season Mode (.RFG) file along with all the links to the files contained in this DLC. I am looking forward to hearing from you. Enjoy your game, folks!

NBA Stories: Kobe Bryant 1978-2020

I've been listening to Ryen Russilo for years and I can say he is my favorite (ex)ESPN analyst apart from the master of all, Bill Simmons. Ryen's newest podcast dedicated to Kobe Bryant (https://youtu.be/80Nrj_p7CBc) was still informative but it started with a wrong assumption about human psychology that gives absolute power to the media and their news devourers, the ignorant and self-entitled masses. I told him that he should go back and study some Anthropology and Psychology before lecturing youngsters on the internet about human feelings. They have the tendency to gulp on the media news without filtering the information or even thinking...and later start a war based on opinions about it. 

I have to contradict Ryen Russilo. We are NOT compassionate by default! Compassion takes years or even a lifetime to master. That's why Buddhism has so many ancient texts about it and its devotees still struggle with acquiring it , not to mention most religions say almost nothing about compassion (Christian pity is not the same as it has a selfish individual goal in mind when the believer expects to be granted access to heaven based on his dees!). Our first human reaction to other's death - in this case Kobe's - is...fear of our own death which is 100% selfish. When celebrities and media anchormen saw it happened they instantly (and subconsciously) thought about the possibility of their own death which indeed is imminent. So yeah, let's stop pounding our chests for a second, stop crying about our own insecurities and talk in a NEUTRAL and OPEN and HONEST manner about the loss of a great athlete who only recently got to full maturity and had become a better person.

It is astonishing to me that media still can't deal with news in a proper, natural manner. When something terrible happens the first thing they do is run to the books and look what the best recipe for reacting to the news is. Why do people always need scripts and props in their life? Is it that difficult for them to be human?! When interviewed about Kobe's death news, some NBA players were asked what was their reaction the moment they found out and what were they doing as the media's expectation and politically correct view on those is you to be devastated and unable to go on with your everyday life. This is how humans are made into robots! 

Jerry West gave the only declaration (or interview or whatever you want to call it: https://youtu.be/-yYyT6DhMxU) I could listen to related to Kobe's basketball legacy. The rest are just fabricated, pretentious reports. Stephen A. was speaking like he was reading off a script but at least he is the only one who said Kobe was changing and planning to accomplish more after his basketball life. Unfortunately he focused on the "Mamba mentality" of Kobe Bryant - which of course everybody knows was his signature - and described it as the right tool to "not listen to anybody and conquer the world for yourself". 

It is sad the society needs more examples of extreme selfish attitude and the main lesson people learn is to force their way into the world instead of taking things naturally and adapt to the infinite situations life offers to all of us. In Alan Watts words, we are not brought into this world the way parents think when giving birth to children - which in their opinion entitles them to get the whole credit - because "we don't come into this world, we come out of it as every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe."

I took Kobe's death news very naturally: luckily it happened in the first 30 minutes since the helicopter accident had happened so there was no filtering and no censorship or other P.C. bullshit. I watched Kobe Bryant's career since he made it to the NBA following the 1996 draft (the best in the NBA history) but I never liked his extreme selfish and psychotic mentality on the basketball court (which by definition is a team sport) but I always respected his talent and impact on the game. So when I got the news, I must say I was shocked and saddened for Kobe and his daughter who both died in that crash. I was thinking he could have done so much for sports in general and the public in the future because of the way he was recently involved in business deals, either personal or just lobbying for others. Only since reaching the age of 40 (probably the last chance to get to full maturity for most people), he decided to change his approach completely and become open to others.

It is really not much to be said anymore. When life fails bringing people together, death is left to do it all. Ironically, Kobe became a better person only recently. In his own words, he just started understanding that there is more to life than just selfishness. None of the media anchormen mentioned this most important aspect! Therefore  I will add this: maybe when people change - which rarely happen - they deserve to go to a better place. R.I.P. Kobe

Then I got a reply, the typical trolling reply we all get on social media nowadays thanks to technology and the easy way for everyone to intrude in everyone's life. Here is how it went:

- It's never natural to die unnaturally.  Is me stomping on a flower or running a red light at an intersection and killing a baby considered natural?  And the Mamba mentality everyone speaks of is why Kobe is even talked about, why he had the success/fame he had and the driving force behind his championships. Otherwise this would've been just another helicopter crash we never heard about.  Kobe didn't just RECENTLY better himself...he's been growing and maturing as a person and it's common for people, especially men, to "grow up" and be wiser aka more mature as they age, particularly as they go into their 40s. You went on this judgmental rant that made no sense really.  Quick to point fingers and find supposed flaws in others...I guess that's the "natural" thing to do huh.

 My answer was straightforward as I can hardly tolerate trolls anymore:

- You went in over your head into something you don't know much about. I recommend you go back and watch all those interviews Kobe did in the last 2 years on YT and see how much he changed. That of course if you watched his whole career as an NBA (selfish) player. And BTW, you trolling doesn't take away anything from what I wrote. Why trolling? Because I was talking about having a natural reaction to the news about someone passing away while you talk about dying naturally. Can you activate your brain before making assumptions and simply just read what people write before trolling? I guess not…

A few days later of painfully bad reporting and reacting to the news about Kobe's death we got the official report on CBS News (https://youtu.be/LK0uM5OIONA) . 

There is something fishy about this official report. Some comments seemed to notice it too.

- I feel as if everyone want to blame the pilot, which is unfair. They asked him to hold out for 12 minutes, but no one is batting an eye about that. We've all went to work in bad weather; ice, snow, sleet, rain, high winds, floods, fog and every other type of hazardous road conditions. Our emotions pushes us to pinpoint blame when in actuality blame is never solely based on one entity.

- I blame the FAA. They should have refused permission to continue. The pilot just got disoriented.

- ME: Of course nobody will blame the FAA! You can see the official version and the people commenting here they already decided to blame the dead. As always.

- Bryant should have never got in that chopper. Very irresponsible.

- ME: "Mamba mentality"...gets you killed, literally.

- I swear some of y'all have selective reading/understanding and I choose to believe that instead of y'all just being pure stupid. I said it's unfair to blame the pilot SOLELY... I believe y'all can be diagnosed with selective reasoning, look it up if you don't know what it is.... SMH. I said what I said I'm not responding to the narrow minded people.

The eyewitness interview (https://youtu.be/28QYy8lrww8) states the opposite - and that middle aged guy knew what he was talking about! Comments on the video with him got thousands of likes and replies like these:

- The reporter really lucked out with this witness. He was so thorough and detailed.

- This man is a great human being. He did not pull out his phone to take pictures, or record a video. The man pulled out his phone and called 911. Had he not done that, the first responders would not have been able to get there so quickly.

- For someone who didn't technically "see the helicopter" this is the greatest witness testimony in the history of the world.

- This might be the most intelligent witness interview ever done.

- 'll give this man respect where it is due. This is why you need to pay attention to your surroundings. He did that. He didn't do anything that any of us can't do. He knew something was wrong, and he paid attention to his surroundings. He didn't throw in drama to the situation. Simply provided facts the best he could.

So this eyewitness called 911 first and then when the cars went too far he called them back telling them they are in the wrong area. He has lived in that area for 17 years and that day was the worst ever in terms of fog, clouds and low visibility. Briefly, he explained the helicopter was coming down very SLOWLY with the speed of only about 5 miles/h and clearly hit the middle of that hill because the helicopter was flying too low (150 feet) and probably saw the ground at the last second which also means he had no radar and no help in navigation. So if you want to blame someone 1. blame the air traffic control and 2. whoever decided to fly that helicopter on that weather-wise atrocious day. Why always someone has to hide the truth and cover up for someone else who was in charge or at fault is mind boggling; it must be greed and the money because that's when people lie and act unnatural.

- You think the helicopter came down at 5mph with that destruction? Come on man!

- ME: Well, the eyewitness must be right because there was no explosion. So yeah, falling off the sky with minimal speed can still destroy a chopper. What would you expect, people getting off and walking into a bar? I guess that's how things in movies kids watch these days look like. No surprise indeed. Lower the standards Hollywood!

Less than a week after the accident, there was  an excellent simulation of the helicopter flight path (https://youtu.be/XSHpbGhy3Ko) made by a YouTuber who apparently is a helicopter pilot. Just before the impact, the pilot entered a very dangerous mountain area where the clouds were at a lower altitude than the hills and the path was narrowing while the only visual clue for the pilot was the mountain pass highway he was following. The disaster occurred when the pilot got scared of the mountains closing in from both sides and he decided to fly higher into the clouds and lose all visual contact. The next mistake was fatal when he realized now he couldn't see and was relying only on technology and what the instruments on board were telling him. Not happy with that he probably lost his grip and turned 180 degrees and left the clouds going straight towards the ground hoping he will be able to see clearly again but not thinking there might be a hill right next to them. This also proves the first eyewitness statement was correct about the pilot being confused because he had no idea where he was before the helicopter hit the ground.  

Just after I wrote this I found an official statement saying that "the helicopter was not equipped with a Terrain Awareness Warning System, or TAWS, which could have alerted the pilot that he was flying too close to the mountain. The NTSB recommended to the Federal Aviation Administration following a 2004 crash that all helicopters should be equipped with the system, but it was not implemented. It's unclear whether the system would've prevented the accident, which took place in heavy enough fog that the L.A. Sheriff's Department said it kept its choppers grounded."

Then the comments related to these facts started coming in:

- Time to reform FAA. Absolutely 100% Unacceptable that FAA has not implemented vital NTSB recommendations.
- I hope all nine families go after the FAA and sue them.
- Correct... FAA generates over a billion a year. I stated this on the 2nd day.
- ME: I stated on the 1st day they gave that official statement and sounded fishy because they were blaming the dead (as they always do!). They were obviously afraid people will find out it is their fault helicopters are not equipped with the proper technology for bad weather.

- I wish someone said “hey let’s just cancel everything, it’s too dangerous”.
- Unfortunately, having money is not always a blessing.
- The FAA’s helicopter flying handbook states that losing all visual references during a flight “can cause sensory overload” for a pilot, who can then lose the ability to think rationally.  This is most likely what happened. My family friend is a pilot and said that he once flew into fog and couldn’t tell that his plane was on a 40 degree angle . Up was down, down was up, fast seemed slow, etc. It was the worst experience of his life.  This is probably what happened.
      - Pilot error.  Sometimes you just have to say "I'm sorry Mr. Bryant, but right now isn't a good time to fly".

Well, people like maniacs and winners like Kobe and his signature "Mamba mentality". This is part of the bigger media and movie trend where if someone is a serial killer or does something incredibly fortunate or stupid, he or she will get recognition from the public for being special. Nobody cares about real heroes anymore, now it's all about super-heroes and villains!

We can only assume the pilot asked the "should we cancel this flight and go back?" question at least once during this flight. We all know Kobe's certain answer to that question. Unfortunately for the other passengers including his own daughter Gianna (please use the nickname Gigi ONLY if you knew her personally!), Kobe never in his life knew how to take things slowly, wisely and/or cautiously. You might hate me for saying this but then again, it is your loss for not accepting the truth and living a lie.

Someone finally agreed with me on YouTube and said this:

- It’s all about balance bro the mamba mentality is great but it can be obsessive at time and detrimental. Just like a person that’s obsessive at with the gym they’re addicted to it because they have some sort of trauma and the gym is their release but they’re still addicted no different than a drug addiction or food addiction although it’s healthier it’s still an addiction cause by a mental disorder and you should get to the root of it and stay at peace rather than go crazy doing things.
- ME: Absolutely! Now try to say this about Kobe and see if you can get out of here alive, haha!
 - It is his own Mamba mentality that killed him. Facts.
 - The thing is Kobe flew around the world to play basketball games in all sorts of weather for over half his life, there was no danger in his mind. No excuses not to get to basketball practice. He failed the no.1 rule as a parent to keep your kids safe.
 - Kobe's pilot in the past said that pilots can sometime feel intimidated because they have a VIP or Mega Star flying with them. They will try all attempts possible to get the job done. They don't want the person to feel like their incapable of doing the job. In this case I really wished he had said, "I'm sorry Mr. Bryant and other passengers but this trip can't be made at this present time due to dangerous weather situations". It could have been delayed until after the fog lifted. Or they could have just drove the 2 hours drive.

Five days later on the Inside The NBA ESPN show (https://youtu.be/NqJtsfXnvO0), Shaq was already making jokes about a pumped up Kobe in his rookie year when his Lakers teammates used to make fun of him because of his training routine without the basketball that made him look possessed by some weird unnatural force while he was practicing his dribbling moves on the court. I had to comment on their video saying this:

- ME: The hypocrisy is finally over. Now we can enjoy talking about Kobe again like real adults with good and bad, funny and silly and everything else life comes with. I'm so glad the media fabricated shit is over!

To make things funnier for us (unintentionally)  and proving how retarded the media can be, BBC England brought the news of Kobe's death to the population in the UK by showing the most recent picture of him and his daughter but then putting on LeBron James highlights thinking they must be one and the same person if the Lakers uniform they were in looks the same. Which reminded me of overpriced British Airways flights from London to USA and their English ladies employed at Heathrow Airport working behind the boarding desk who couldn't make the difference between LA (the state of Louisiana) and L.A. (the city of Los Angeles) while having the destination of our flight printed clearly on the boarding pass. Yeah, the future is bright...

NBA Stories: A shout-out to me from Bill Simmons and The Ringer podcast

2020 is a year that started auspicious for Lee Unagi and his YouTube channel. In case you wonder why I am writing this is because...that is me. My actual name is Levy Nagy but Lee Unagi is the version of the name I came up with while I was in Asia teaching English to kids who wanted a more Asian-friendly name for me as they were struggling with my natural Hungarian name in the classroom.

I went to sleep last night getting notifications from YouTube followers and got a bit surprised at the growing numbers of subscribers on my channel in only a few couple of hours. First thing I checked when I woke up was the news. Surprisingly for me, I got a shout-out on Bill Simmons' newest  episode (number 14) of The Book Of Basketball 2.0 podcast on The Ringer network. Even more surprising was that his guest was Steve Nash, my all time favorite NBA player whom me and other knowledgeable NBA fans consider the last pointgod (a point guard who played godlike basketball) in the NBA. 

There was a link to YouTube and a short 7 minute video with Bill and Steve talking face to face while some highlights of the infamous Game 4 of the 2007 NBA Playoffs Western Conference Semifinals between Phoenix and San Antonio were rolling in the background. The poster for the podcast with Robert Horry's hip checking Steve Nash into the sideline boards  was exactly the picture I cropped and used as a cover for the same very game I uploaded to YouTube in May 2019. That felt good but...must have felt awful for poor Steve!

Another quite shocking thing for me after listening to Bill Simmon's latest podcast with Steve Nash was to find out Steve never really watched the Suns games over the last years and especially the fact the game I uploaded - which Bill asked him to watch entirely so they can talk about in this episode on his podcast - gave a whole lot of anxiety to Steve Nash because of the way things were handled back then by the referees, David Stern who died only a couple of days ago, and the over aggressive Spurs players including Bruce Bowen and Robert Horry. I am really sorry my upload brought sadness and desperation to Steve Nash who evidently was lost for words a few times on the podcast. Also I couldn't not notice Nash wasn't really prepared to have this conversation with Bill despite he is in general a great spokesman and well informed.

On the same 7 minute short video from the podcast, people commented on YouTube saying that Steve Nash is underrated although him and the Suns revolutionized basketball and shaped it the way it is played nowadays.

• The problem is you bring on a player and it turns into a boring interview. With another NBA writer/historian it’s an awesome back and forth conversation between knowledgeable people. Nash admits he doesn't think about this stuff and can’t remember half of this stuff 👍 but as player interviews go this one isn’t bad.

• This was the best podcast in the series so far. Well done!
• Nash is underrated.
• True but the man did win not one, but TWO MVP’s.
• Yeah. But he still does not get enough credit for it.
• People spent a decade slandering him because a white boy won an MVP over Kobe, sad people!
• He is definitely properly rated.

• ME: He is underrated! Just because you and me appreciate him doesn't mean the majority of the people do the same. He has been underrated all his career starting at the draft and when signed with Phoenix in 1996 (the best draft in the NBA history!) and booed by Phoenix fans (yes, you read it correctly!).

• Nash is underrated because he played on one of the best teams in the NBA, but really was FAR better than the other two of the "big three". Stoudemire and Marion were both fine, but neither had any chops on their own: Nash was the engine and soul of that team. Think abut it: they were mostly even with the Spurs, who had a "big three" who could each create by themselves of play off the ball. Stoudemire and Marion could really create efficiently by themselves. Each brought something. But Nash was the key. Reminds me of Barkley in Phoenix. KJ was never enough as a second fiddle. Same with Nash. Both first ballot HoF-ers.
• Dude would thrive in today’s NBA, was just a little to early.
• Since 2000 I don’t think there is a pointguard that has gotten more people paid than Nash. A lot of players owe him a few steak dinners for what he did to their career.
• Steve Nash is the player that really "changed the game." Everyone else took the league he made to the next level. Congratulations to them, but don't erase what Steve and those Suns did.

• That Horry hip check killed the series. As Simmons wrote in his book "even a washed up Horry could swing a series". LOL

• One of the most controversial plays in NBA history and no one even scored.
• Refs always ruining something.

• Make no mistake, the Suns CRUSHED Cleveland twice that same year. San Antonio went on to sweep them but Phoenix would have as well. David Stern decided the championship when he suspended the Suns' leading scorer and his main back up at the same time.

• Probably one of the greatest teams to never make a finals. Though once or twice they were clearly screwed.
• Thinking about that series just made me sick. The league hated the Suns.

On that last note, let me add this. The now defunct and much praised David Stern by the media people who didn’t really know him, helped the Spurs back then and robbed the Suns of their chance to advance to the next round. Spurs were a great team but they were preferred by Stern as they better fit the NBA's international marketing agenda (which ironically was the biggest achievement of David Stern's career as NBA commissioner). 

When fans discuss the commissioner's decision to penalize the Suns by the book, they all realize the law was applied wrongfully - and Phoenix fans knew it back then already. One of the comments on my Game 4 video clearly states the undeniable facts. The rule IS NOT if you “leave the bench you get suspended” or “step on the court when a foul has occurred”; according to Stu Jackson, VP of officiating, the rule it is: “if you leave the bench DURING AN ALTERCATION, you get suspended.” If you check the tape, the “altercation” (assuming it rises to the level) had not happened yet when Boris and Amare came off the bench. It’s only well after Amare and Boris come to check on Nash and are right by his side that the altercation takes place. So the suspension of Amare Stoudamire and Boris Diaw was...unlawful but made by David Stern in a "horry" (you get the pun!).

A few more things about me and the passion for basketball and the NBA. I've been listening and reading Bill Simmons analysis and comments about the NBA for about 15 years, never really missing any of his podcasts. Steve Nash is the player I tried to emulate unintentionally during my 13 years of amateur basketball playing. He was my doppelganger in the NBA. I had played football brilliantly until high school when I fell in love with basketball. Technically speaking I turned long 25 meter leg shots on the football field I used to kick (and destroyed a few rusty goal posts!) into later well known long threes on the basketball court opposing teams were afraid of in the 90s because they didn't know how to guard them so far from the basket. I played basketball at semi-pro level until graduating from college when I got my spinal cord injury just like Steve(!), not to mention I am white European and had long hair for years. 

I've watched Steve's career from day 1 and knew right away he would turn out to be THIS good. The rest is just hate and envy coming from low IQ players like Shaq & co. and their so-called "fans" who just jumped on bandwagons like Lakers, Heat and Warriors at the time. Life is unfair but worth living as long as you keep in mind what Steve Nash always said (but not many listened): "Let's have some fun out there!".

15 Years After The Malice at The Palace

     There are a few YouTubers who brought back the story of The Malice at The Palace but I disliked their videos because they always have a quantitative approach (bring a lot of useless information) and sacrifice quality (a clear, easy to follow storyline). They fail  at being consistent because they fall victims to the new millennial trend of entertaining the uneducated masses. In other words they go too far and ruin a story by forgetting  the power of a message lays in its simplicity.

     2004 was still a good year for NBA basketball. Not as great as the 90s but still competitive with players still being loyal to their teams and listening to their coaches. There was some misinformation in the flash news but not as much mainstream media hyping up sports or  social media creating fake news like they are nowadays.

     The team spirit was high back in the days indeed but...1. NBA players should be able to refrain themselves in these situations (and I am sure this is in their signed contract!), 2. the league should have pulled up  6 or 7 digits fines for  the home team organization for not being able to secure the premises. So yeah, the real wrong doers of the brawl were 1. Ron Artest, 2. Detroit Pistons organization, and 3. the NBA. Historically, this went terribly wrong because the league sacrificed the whole Indiana Pacers team only to find a scapegoat.

     Players taking part in this incident were interviewed and everybody knows now the fight was caused by the previous year playoffs elimination of Indiana which might have won that year finals if that didn't happen in the Eastern Conference Finals. So they were still upset about it and took revenge in this game where Ron Artest was hyped up by Jamal Tinsley during that last free throw (Stephen Jackson named it "putting a pack of batteries in his back"). 

     An angry Ron took it out on Ben Wallace who just lost his brother days before so was very fragile mentally. That led to the fight although Ron Artest still denies he cause it but admits it he was suffering of multiple personality disorder ("I was hearing things and had at least 3 personalities at that time").

     And...of course that infamous beer from the stands and the loosen security at the arena. Now the crazy thing is later in his career Ron Artest contacted the disgruntled Detroit fan (John Green) who threw the beer following a $50 bet and...they have become friends simply because Ron "doesn't like to hold grudges". Maybe there is some peace in the world of...Metta after all.  

     The NBA didn't take the blame nor punished the Detroit Pistons organization. Instead they have found their scapegoat in the Indiana Pacers team's players completely ignoring the huge amount of alcohol consumed by the Detroit fans at the game who were basically rioting inside the Detroit arena. 

     This whole ghetto style brawl had several consequences short and long term. It cost the league and its players tens of millions of dollars that year. Indiana Pacers lost their chance to win the league that year although they have come back strong in playoff time. It shaped for what is better - but probably worse - the future of the NBA imposing strict regulations and bringing more hypocrisy to their face (culminating with the  2019 China incident) and contributing to the widespread PC culture we live in.

     YouTube comments about the incident:

• All because some stupid uncivilized low life threw a beer can.

• I still blame the Pistons fan for this entire situation. You throw beer in another mans face, you deserve to get rocked.
• Piston fans throws beer at Artest, Artest fights back, Pistons fans surprised Pikachu face.
• If it never happened then there wouldn't be metta world peace.
• I don't think anyone can control their temper if they got a beer thrown on them.
• That fan in Detroit is literally the reason why the NBA rules went super strict and why the league is so soft now.
• This is why my dad calls them the Detroit Piss.
• I remember watching this on TV and I've never had so much adrenaline pumping while watching a sports game. It was insane!
• 12 year olds commenting today: "I watched it live"...an event that happened 15 years ago.

• I was born that day! No wonder I’m so aggressive sometimes.

     Here is the full game on YouTube if the uploader still has it. 

     And the boxscore for the game: 2004.11.19~IND@DET (The Malice at the Palace)

NBA Stories: The 2018-19 NBA season

Here we are at the end of the 2018-2019 NBA season. Watching it was terribly painful for me... There were only a few teams I was watching in regular season because I tried to save myself from boredom. So I kept an eye on LeBron's Lakers, Kawhi's Toronto and J.J. Reddick's Philadelphia 76ers. I looked at J.J. Reddick as an NBA copy of me when I played basketball because that's the role and style of play I used to have. I also listened to his podcast on Bill Simmons' The Ringer network while customising  NBA2K11 on my computer for months. All my work is acquirable on my blog.

The NBA players I have the biggest respect for and watched this season are LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard. I said it earlier: LeBron is the last totally dominant player in the NBA therefore I always put him on the same category with Michael Jordan. I give LeBron a slight advantage over MJ because of his superior teamwork (he is an altruist and made all his teammates better players when he played for different team because of his adaptability which MJ never had). And of course LeBron James is that very rare player in NBA history (along with Magic Johnson) who could play all positions on the court because of his outstanding passing skills and also the ability to dominate the paint area.

Kawhi is the only player apart from Michael Jordan who can play equally well in offense and defense. MJ was even better at that but Kawhi's career is only midway through so better brace yourselves for what's about to come! I am against all these "best" scenarios because I only look at individuals and rarely compare them. There is no such thing as "the best" because players do different things on the court, they have different roles. But people forget some players are more complete than other players so it's good to remind them that sometimes.

I stopped watching the 76ers when they had become an annoying bunch of thrash talkers on social media led by Joel 'Big Mouth' Embiid. Not just that their game had flaws but now the players were becoming cocky after bringing Jimmy Butler. I am completely against this macho attitude we see today on social media and in real life. I think this slows down and even stops the natural evolution of a human being and basketball players in particular. Just have a look at Kawhi Leonard who is exactly the opposite of that! He was quiet for years, managed to escape Poppovich 's 'prison' in San Antonio, and now he is the best player in the world. People still argue about that only because Kawhi is...NOT on social media at all so he doesn't fit the profile of the moron millennial posting crap on the internet every 5 minutes.

This season Toronto Raptors were the biggest surprise...of the decade! Their performance is comparable to that of the Dallas Mavericks in 2011 when they shockingly but well deserved beat Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. But Dallas was expected to have a major impact in that season; Toronto wasn't! In fact many didn't even know Toronto were this good this year. They surprised me too with their playoff run but the truth is  I knew they could survive the playoff defensively when they traded for veteran player Marc Gasol who once was the best defensive player in the world. I couldn't bet Toronto's offense would come on top of other's but I should have trusted the power of the defense which can bring down the opposing teams offense like it used to be in the good old 90s NBA. Sadly nowadays nobody is allowed to play defense by the league because...it is "detrimental to the entertaining flow of the game" (quoting NBA commissioner). But with excellent defense in the end Toronto has won the NBA Finals. I am surprised the NBA comish didn't rig the series or Donald 'Duck' Trump didn't bomb Canada to stop a non-American team from winning in the Finals.

There were problems within the Golden State locker room during this season. They translated to awkward moments on the court especially between K. Durant and Draymond Green. Players started blaming each other for lack of interest in playing or even staying  long term with the team. The main player was KD who got injured earlier in the season and missed quite a few games. Bob Myers of Warriors came to the press conference after game 5 faking tears in his eyes while saying KD was misunderstood because nobody knows how hard he wanted to play. He tried to talk people into believing the only one to blame for KD's major injury was...KD because of his ambition to play. In case you didn't get it, the general manager pretended that nobody in his organization pressured KD to come back. We are talking the decisive game of the 2019 NBA Finals here! The one that if Warriors lost, they lost the Finals to Toronto. And with that they lost the opportunity to win 3 championships in a row which would have made them comparable to the 90s Chicago Bulls of Michael Jordan. That's also when a team is reasonably called a 'dynasty'.  So for all clueless Warriors fans out there: your team is no dynasty team so now you can stop being delusional!

Now, Kevin Durant is an introvert. If you know anything about introverts...of course nobody understands him! What the GM was trying to hide is that Bob Myers himself contributed to KD's Achilles tendon injury that looks like a career ending injury if we look at the players who's careers were cut short over the years. Bob Myers threw an already injury prone KD in for 46 minutes in the Houston game earlier this year playoffs. That's where the problem started. Kevin Durant played with an injured calf in game 5 versus Toronto - and calf IS RELATED to Achilles. You don't have to be a doctor to know that! A mechanic also knows if there is a rusty or loose piece in the car, something else will be affected and probably brake down. These people are paid tens of millions of dollars to PREVENT this kind of things. The sad part is everybody takes his doe and disappears afterwards without caring too much... So yeah, congratulations for probably destroying KD's career, Golden State Moroniers! YouTubers comments on this topic: 

• Damn, KD risked his career for the warriors to stay alive in this series. RESPECT

• As someone who wants Raptors to beat GSW. It sucks seeing such a great player have to go through this. I had a feeling he was goin to get hurt tonight's. Last game with the Warriors...
• If not for those 11 points Raptors would have won it tonight. He saved the warriors so they can fight for another day. Prayers for KD. Damn Achilles is always a career ending injury.
• GSW training staff fired. Whole team with injuries. Come on man, KD wasn't supposed to be back like that. He didn't reach a full recovery, you could have seen it on his face.
• Not a different injury.   Its a extended injury.  Playing with a injured calf can lead to a Achilles injury.  The GSW should blame themselves.
• You can tell that the staff cleared him to play because Kerr said he was not going to be on a minutes restriction (which as a coach who used to be a player on a championship team, he should've known better than to do this). Restricting minutes is the least he could've done.
• When you realize you’re gonna be paying 31 million for a guy who won’t be playing on your team next season.

• Dumb move. This could ruin his career. I blame GSW coach, management and medical staff. All of them. They should have protect their player.

• Let KD rest until his full recovery. Don't end one great player's career over one championship. There will be another championships in the future.
• Kinda too late isn't it? Warriors were just thinking about now. They didn't want to get eliminated.
• Probably a partial tear the first time that went full rupture. The Warriors fucked KD. They lied about the initial injury and forced him back. If I was him, I would leave at the earliest point.
• ME: Basically it's the Kawhi scenario at Spurs one year ago.
• That's why Leonard sat out that season with the Spurs. He knew his body though they said other wise.
• Just reading through the comments you can see how screwed up people are in this world.
• ME: At least they are saying something and are passionate as opposed to bandwagonners who just get on board with the winning team every year. I would take the first ones over the second ANY DAY.
• You should see what doesn't even go In the comments. The world always been like this. We just have the internet now. It's a lot worse.

So GSW had won game 5 because of Raptors' coach mistake who called a time out with 3 minutes left to play when his team was on fire. It was another J.R. Smith but this time coming from a coach.

• Coach Nurse calling a Timeout when Klaw was on a run. WTF?
• Kerr: Oh crap Kawhi is on fire, he just scored 10 points in a row, Raptors have a 6 point lead 3 mins to go, next possession I'm going to call time out to see if it will stem the tide.
• Nurse: Don't worry coach I got your back, I will call timeout and place Kawhi on ice!
• Kerr couldn’t even call one, they were down to their last timeout at that point (3+ mins left)
• Nick Nurse > JR Smith
• Nurse had a brain freeze and cost his team a potential championship.
• He did EXACTLY what was in his nature to do... he ‘Nursed’ the Warriors back to health!
• I would like to flush Nurse's head down the toilet. When he should've called a timeout with 15 sec left he chose not to! You have to make sure the ball is in Kawhis hands at the end.
• Nick should be sacked that was possible one of the worst time out calls ever when they were flowing and had them on their heels.
• Don't y'all know 7 games is more lucrative for the NBA than 5...?

Next, game 6 and...the Canadian Toronto Raptors  wins the American NBA title! Surprised? Hell, yeah. It was Klay Thompson's turn to break his leg (literally!) when he torn his ACL at the end of the game. All Warriors fans are now crying on the internet. Well, not all of them because some of them already left the sinking ship like rats and are becoming Raptors fans overnight. These millennials have no gratitude nor honor; they want instant gratification and be on the winning side every time they feel like losers in private. On Facebook people started sharing thoughts:

• Congrats TORONTO RAPTORS for winning the 2019 NBA Finals! What you did was a historic run! Kudos to the Warriors for fighting valiantly despite injuries.

• Warriors indeed!

• ME: Losers nevertheless. Their bandwagonners too. Even BIGGER losers.
• No one's asking for your opinion.
• ME: It's not an opinion, they actually lost! You are using the wrong cliché here. You delusional kids can't differentiate between reality and your fantasy anymore, FFS.
• You don't get to tell people how to look or how they should look on Warriors, you just don't. Not because you hate them means we have to hate them too.
• ME: Another cliché: if you don't love what the moronic masses love, it means you hate... Typical Asian "logic" (these guys are from the Philippines)! If you really want to understand me or anything in life look up the word PITY in the English dictionary. That's how I feel about your bandwagon: I pity the fool(s)!

Praising Jeremy Lin for winning  the NBA titles after playing…1 minute in the whole playoff sounds crazy even if it's been made sarcastically. Patrick McCaw who played for the Warriors and won 2 titles there and now winning another one to become the only NBA player after Kobe to get 3 in a row...after only sitting on the bench most of the year!

• Congrats my man Linsanity for winning a championship ring. Thank you for your great contribution, Averaging 300 claps, 250 high fives, 55 buttock slaps and 15 hugs per game. Just kidding. You deserve it.
• Jeremy took a nap courtside and woke up with a ring on his finger.
• Jeremy Lin getting a $100m endorsement deal in China after this!
• But deep inside, Jeremy Lin's mom wants him to be a doctor.
• When You Get An A+ For A Class Project To Pass The Year And Didn’t Do A Single Thing
• Congrats to Patrick McCaw for being a 3peat Champ in his first 3 years.
• The lucky charm if McCaw got trade on other teams. and and became a champion for sure some of the teams will hire him.
• Confirmed: Lebron calls McCaw few seconds after Game 6.

• "Three peat for Dummies", author: Patrick Mccaw. Available in bookstores.

• If Patrick McGraw goes somewhere next year and they win a championship they going to be bidding him max contracts for his luck.
• Be scared when Patrick McCaw unleashes his special ability: sitting. He'll get you 3 championships in a row.

• ME: He should change his name (like Ron Artest did with his) to Holy Cow so when we say 'holy cow' we know we refer to him as the luckiest guy in NBA history. Everybody envying him now. Or "hating" as you love to say it. "Toxic!"

Watching this year's finals and playoffs was painful. First it was the new style of officiating giving players more freedom of movement to the point commentators started laughing at Giannis taking double eurosteps! Then the players tendency to shoot threes. For example in game 3 of the Eastern final the two teams combined had 89 three point shot attempt, a record for a game in the NBA! At least 10 of them were...bricks! Those who should have never done it - mainly centers - obviously missed them by a mile with the ball literally going into the stands a few times. If that happened at a semi-pro level in the 90s when I played, coaches would have benched you for the next game while at the pro level player were forced to pack their gear and leave the team! Then comes the bad lines from the commentators who are paid to hype this new kind of non-competitive basketball. Yes, even in the playoff some players forgot to stay close to their opponent or run back in defense after losing the ball at the other end, something they did consistently over 82 games in the season.

I find it hard to listen to the game commentary of great 3 point shooter but nevertheless punk Reggie Miller, whinny Chris Webber who's voice always sounds apologetic perhaps because of lying under the oath and destroying his college team's coach career and life a few years before, Marv Albert who now sounds like he ate a whole cookie jar so he has to shout ten times louder so he can hear himself while chewing. I want Doug Collins back! Kevin McHale! Hubie Brown!  Jeff Van Gundy but maybe without his nemesis Mark Jackson who still sounds like a possessed preacher sometimes which was the reason why back in the day the Warriors got rid of him as headcoach.

Game Of Thrones was basically what the NBA is today: lowering the standards to a point where there are no rules so non-skilled players can get a pay check. A lame show to entertain the incapable who of course believe this is the biggest show on Earth. I love it how everybody comes out the closet now. I am expecting a big wave of Toronto Raptors bandwagoners the next couple of years because that's what the 'heard' aka 90% of the people do. 

Kawhi Leonard was phenomenal this playoff! He is the player I rooted for from the beginning of the season when I said he is the only player who shows similarity to Michael Jordan because of his both outstanding offensive and defensive skills. I watched the NBA since 1991 and here is my opinion. Kawhi has surpassed Kobe already (better passer, better defender etc.) and is the ONLY player who comes close to MJ (tenacity, competitive but without hurting his team like Kobe, better teamplayer than MJ and same defensive skills if not better!). If he was a sociopath like MJ and Kobe, everybody would acknowledge him. History proves you have to be a serial killer to be remembered. Kawhi is not. And that's why he is the only player I follow in this millennial era.

After winning in the 2019 Finals Kawhi basically said "FUCK YOU MEDIA, ALL OF YOU!" for spreading rumours about him faking the injury when he was in San Antonio, and trying to destroy the game of basketball. Of course nobody listens, ever... He is he only player in the NBA I like since Steve Nash retired (who's career I followed from day 1).

• This surely makes Popovich, the Spurs' medical staff and their fans look like fools. I wonder what is Gregg Popovich thinking right now what did I just do? LOL stupid!

• What I hate with the system is they thought these athletes are robots or superhumans. If they say they're in pain, believe it. How can you even doubt an athlete who's refusing to play because of an injury when his life is all about playing? TRUST IS SIGNIFICANT.
• Nick Wright was completely wrong about the Raptors. This is why you shouldn't believe what these so call analysts have to say. I bet FS1 management mandates that no on on the network calls out Skip Bayless on his Kawhi hating. That's right. Keep dancing on that hater Skip Payless!
• There is so much BS in the world. Kawhi proved it.
• Kawhi is like a video game character, the more you win with him, the more abilities and features you unlock.
• Kawhi, you live. Talk to the people, bro. Kawhi: baaahh that shows he's the G.O.A.T.
• What I didn't expect this season: Jeremy Lin wins a ring. Raptors getting the cup. Kawhi being happy.
• The longer he's apart from Pop the more emotions he regains.
• Very classy of Masai to give appreciation to Casey and DeRozan for their role in getting the team close to championship position.
• Lets remember one of these guys was undrafted and one was a late first rounder. The highest pick on the raptors was 15th Kawhi Leonard. Take that in! Tanking is for losers. These guys used to share peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Now they share a championship.
• What I'm really impressed is on how each Raptor player respond to interviewers in such humble ways. Love the whole teams humbleness as opposed to the Warriors Cocky attitude! A humble and deserving team as 2019 NBA CHAMPS! The NBA not only won a city. They made a whole nation feeling good about themselves.
• The fact that these guys are only 25 and are so self-aware and poised is great to see. They'll only get better.

Now after winning it, there are two moments that for me are a turn off and a downgrade of this moment: 1. the locker room celebration with hundreds(!) of champagne bottles showing the destroyed facilities at Oracle Arena despite covering the walls in plastic, and 2. the championship parade with the hyped speeches and a weird Kawhi and a gay, annoying Drake. The title of the video is 'Kawhi Leonard SHOCKS Canada After His Speech & ROBOTIC LAUGH'. 

• ME: There's NOTHING shocking here! Also faking that laugh this time was 1 billion times worse than the genuine original and funny one. Click bait shit!
• Did they really have to start this video with...Drake?! Btw get those Golden State tattoos removed, you bandwagon fan! You cant convince me Drake isn't a full-blown woman.
• There's 12-15 players on the Raptors roster and they interview Drake!? WTF... Interview the team, the men who put all the hard work in!

Serge Ibaka celebrating in the locker room after the game was a hilarious character. There were hundreds, yes hundreds of bottles of champagne in that room! It makes you think back in the 90s the winning team got one big bottle and they passed it from one player to another in the name of teamwork. Anyway, Ibaka had no clue how to drink from his bottle.

• Ibaka has absolutely no idea how to drink champagne.
• Lol...he eats it.
• I'm surprised he didn't sprinkle black pepper in it and tell everyone it taste like filet mignon.
• Nothing like leaving a mess at somebody else's house…

• ME: Especially when not the "hard-working Americans" will have to clean it up but Filipinos and Venezuela and the rest of the...(il)legal immigrants.

Steph Curry doing advertising for his shoe brand in every each way showed how much greed there is in the world and especially how the game of pro basketball has become a business shifting from fun to despair simply because wanting more money is the norm now.

First there was this little story of him being contacted by a teen girl who complained there were no Curry shoes for her age which the documentary inadvertently used to prove how rich people always find ways to become richer. Curry took the hint and allegedly teamed up with the teenager to expand his business. First he promised he will do this to help the youngsters but as the story goes on he ends up adding a new branch to his business instead selling shoes for the teens at the same price as for adults! The irony is he put that teenage girl and her family to work instead of giving them...let's say a $100 million for the idea. Really there is no end when it comes to greed...

In a different video by ESPN at the end of the 2019 season, they show Curry going to Japan to pump up his shoe brand while getting a vary warm - you might call it 'traditional' - welcome at a high school where they organized a brief basketball shootout for him involving kids.

• ME: Advertising much, former bankrupt ESPN? Everybody getting their dough these days feeding off the game of basketball. Shiiiet!
• Curry's shoes trying to get in Japan before *Rui Hachimura’s shoe [*who is a 2019 NBA draftee with Japanese ancestry]
• Imagine Rui going back after his first season. He's going to get an emperor's welcome.
• ME: Too bad you didn't know for the first time in Japan's history the emperor stepped down. Ignorance is bliss indeed.

At the 2019 NBA Awards, Shaquille O'Neal 's opening monologue was quite funny but somehow the audience didn't get the jokes or perhaps they weren't educated enough. And then finally someone got the chance to make fun of Shaq, who by general consent is the most annoying character at ESPN. 

Some YouTubers got the same impression after watching it.

• The crowd got some money and think they too cool to laugh.
• Athletes don't know how to cheer because they're so used to other people cheering for them.
• At least the LOGO, Giannis and Chuck were laughing, everyone else so damn serious.
• Crowd is ass but this was really good.
• These young guys need to really pay respects & homage to these legends of entertainment, instead over there looking like Simon Cowell judging American Idol.

Giannis getting the season MVP trophy and crying got me thinking… I wish NBA kids nowadays - yes, I am talking about the players! - pretended less to be macho assholes and become more respectful towards everybody so we can get rid of the idiotic hypes and the brainwashing media. Bring back the real competitive NBA so we can forget the last decade of shameful soap opera basketball league! BTW this is the first time in NBA history when the MVP award goes to a player who can't shoot the ball. He doesn't have a jump shot, shoots bricks from three, airballed several free throw attempts against Toronto. Shameful! But yeah, for somebody who can only score if he drives to the basket and dunks the ball(!), he is quite good in the new money-hungry NBA. I remember the story at the beginning of the 2018-19 NBA season when Giannis was trying to organize a yard sale for pennies at his hundreds of thousand dollar rented house with his tens of million dollar salary. That tells you he is a first generation rich guy. Not very bright either.

Driven by a similar story, we have Joel 'Big Mouth' Embiid and his nasty personality because of talking shit to everyone and unintentionally competing with president Trump at posting crap on social media all year long. At the end when his team Philadelphia lost in the playoffs, he was giving this tantrum with a hysterical crying like a freaking caged alligator. By the way, I wrote this 3 weeks before Shaq made fun of him at the 2019 NBA Awards! As for Embiid, he has to learn to defend and use the paint area properly. Right now he is very slow and does stupid fouls. He looks like an 18 wheeler truck with a couple of flat tires. He should also stop jacking up 3s. His team is losing because of him. No wonder on July the 1st, half of his teammates left Philadelphia and got traded to other teams.

As a final thought I have to say these players don't understand that they choose a lifestyle and an attitude and with that come consequences. They all like to pose as immortals but when the day comes they all turn into financial and emotional ashes. Vince Carter and his NBA players guests on his 'Wing It' podcast were complaining about the media and fans forgetting the players are humans too. That's fair but I would add NBA players are the first benefiting from the demigod status when they pose on social media as celebrities. Of course they hit the bottom hard because they fall from high! Just to give you an idea, 70% of the former NBA players lost all their money and most of them had become criminals with many of them being imprisoned for life for their crimes like tax evasion, money laundering, drug dealing, murder! 

The problem is nobody cares about education - and this is obvious when we deal with wealthy people. Of course they have diplomas bought with big money but sadly institutions don't teach how to live only how to be pretentious so people can show off with a title and their stamped piece of paper. The future is...NOT bright despite all the glamour and the spotlights nowadays  you see live and online.