Top Ten Actor/Rappers (In terms of acting ability)

1. Will Smith

2. LL Cool J

3. ICE Cube

4. ICE T

5. Eminem

6. 2 Pac

7. DMX

8. Method and Red

9. Ja Roule

10. Shaq

How Mickey Mouse Ruined Basketball

Okay...so this is a stretch, but bear with me here through this little history lesson.

In 1928 Walt Disney produced Steamboat Willie ... a short animated film. The star of the film was one Mortimer Mouse, who later on, due to Mrs. Disney's suggestion, became Mickey Mouse. Some consider this to be one of the most important animations of all time, as Walt Disney went on to become one of the most influential people in animation for the next 50 years.

Mickey Mouse went on to make the Disney studios millions of dollars. Disney studios went on to create more and more money. Today Disney does a lot more than animation. They own theme parks, movie studios, retail stores, TV stations, and the hearts, souls and minds of kids around the world. Disney owns ABC, and ABC owns ESPN.

Ahhhhh, that feels better. A few years back ABC won the contract to broadcast NBA games. This seemed like a great Idea. Now I would be able to watch even more NBA games because they could broadcast them on ESPN and ABC. Boy was I wrong.

It turns out that my hopes were ill founded. Nowadays, NASCAR gets more play than the NBA. Sure I could fork out all my money and get NBA TV, but I shouldn't have too.

Before ESPN started doing NBA games TNT would show about 3 to 4 games during the week and NBC would show 1 or 2 on the weekends. They were great broadcasts. Everyone knows that TNT has the best basketball studio show ever. There have been many nights when the studio show is ten times more entertaining than the game.

Now we only get TNT about once a week, and the rest of the week we have to wait for ESPN's lame show to get some airtime in between whatever division 2 football games they are showing that week. It seems like everything takes priority over the NBA. Even poker! What's poker doing on ESPN? Did I miss something? A general rule of thumb is that in order to compete most sports require that you raise your heart rate above normal. To be good at poker, you have to do just the opposite: sit there and remain as calm as possible.

Oops, I've digressed. I can make my case with out offending all of the "I love watching people's hands hold cards on TV" psychos .

When ESPN does get around to finally playing an NBA game, the studio show is uncomfortable and forced. Sort of like the way you felt when you watched Mark Cuban's reality show.

ESPN shows NBA games every once in while, but ABC never shows games. They wait until Christmas to start their sporadic NBA TV schedule. The NBA season is already one third over before a major network starts broadcasting games.

As if my case wasn't strong enough already, there is more. I'm not one hundred percent sure about this argument, but there are a lot of people who believe this one. Sports Center is responsible for all the bad shooting. How many jump shots make Sports Center?

Well there you have it, a short animation in 1928 led to the downfall of the NBA on TV. I guess I shouldn't be so hard on Mickey. As far as I know, he has been dating the same girl now for over 70 years, and he still hasn't gotten her to commit.

Lame Sports

"He just completed a hat trick at the free
throw line"



That is just one example of the lame things sports announcers say. I watch a
lot of basketball, and I am obviously biased, but there are a lot of announcers
that really tick me off. I am biased because I am Laker fan. I grew up
listening to the gold standard of announcers: the late Chick Hern.



Most people will agree that Chick was one of the greatest basketball announcers
of all time. He owns the streak for most consecutive games announced (it
spanned something like 40 years). He coined terms such as "Slam
Dunk." However, what really made Chick great was his penchant for telling
it like it was. If the Lakers were playing poorly, Chick would let you know. If
the Lakers were getting away with some fouls he would let you know. In other
words, he tried to hide any bias he may have had, and he was pretty good at.



Not only have most announcers today forgotten how to call a game in an unbiased
fashion, they have forgotten how to call a game at all. The thing that makes me
angriest is when announcers keep announcing that their team has been called for
way more fouls than the opposing team. The fact is, some teams foul way more
than other teams. This was never more apparent than the game I watched last
night between the Warriors and the Lakers. The Warriors' announcers kept
complaining about how the Warriors had been called for more fouls than the
Lakers. Well, lets see here the Lakers have Shaq, Kobe, and Karl Malone. Year
in and year out, because of the way they play, those three shoot more free
throws than 90% of the players in the league. Of course the Warriors are going
to be called for more fouls than the Lakers (by the end of the game both teams
had shot about the same amount of free throws).



The other thing that annoys me about players and announcers is how they try to
blame losses on referees. These statements are almost always absurd. The year
the Kings and the Lakers went 7 games in the Conference championship, all the
Kings fans and announcers were complaining about the foul discrepancy in the
last game. They are all morons. For the record, over the course of the series,
the Kings shot more free throws than the Lakers. In addition, many of the fouls
committed by the Kings in the last game were intentional. That’s right, they
were trying to foul so that they could get back in the game. Yes there were
some obviously bad calls in the fourth quarter, but there were bad calls
through out the game. Some were to the advantage of the Lakers and some were
not. The bottom line is that if the Kings didn't choke on the free throw line
they would have won the game.



To be fair, at times the Lakers complain about referees and try to blame losses
on them as well. It is just as dumb when they say it as when other teams say it.




I could go on and on about the dumb things people say about basketball, but I
imagine I have already exceeded the attention span of most of you so I will end
this here.

This Will Make Some People Mad

Like that annoying little rash that keeps coming back every year when the humidity rises, the press keeps running stories on princess Diana.

I could understand it if she had cured cancer, or if she had sung a duet with Sir Elton John. All of this coverage would be easier to bear if there was something of value that she had left behind like a clothing line, or a rap album. I wouldn't turn the channel if there was a story about her swearing herself to celibacy and becoming a nun in a remote African village.

However, Princess Dianna leaves us nothing more than a memory of an extremely wealthy women, who happens to be "Royal" and attractive (by British standards) . Someone who actually gave some of her time and money to those in need.

I'm not saying that her contribution is as insignificant as an endorsement from Michael Moore (everyone he endorses loses), but her contribution to society is hardly as important as other people who died before their time. At least River Phoenix gave us Stand By Me. Even Aaliyah gave us Romeo Must Die and a platinum selling album.

I would never deliberately down play the importance of anyone in the Royal family. I mean they're really important. Hundreds of tabloid reporters would go out of business without them. Network executives would run out of material for their weekly news shows. I just wish the Royals would develop some talents so all those stories about them in the news would be somewhat interesting.