Time For Another Idiotic, Semi-Racist, Take from Bill Simmons

Since I am in a crummy mood this week I do want to thank RD for telling me to check out Twitter the other night. He told me this after the Big 10 canceled their fall sports, and said to search for Bill Simmons. Oh boy.

It is no secret that I am not a fan of Simmons. I was, but then I grew up, realized he is a mediocre, front running writer and now I have come to realize that he is too, albeit not on the surface to some, a racist. This isn't a new development either. Noam Scheiber of New York Times wrote a great piece awhile back detailing not only his racism at ESPN, Grantland and now The Ringer, but he also pointed out his sexism and his want to be famous and how that makes him treat others as if they are beneath him. I know he read this, and the replies, even though he claims he never does because since that piece, all of the sudden, The Ringer podcasting network had shows that featured writers that are not white that are on staff. It was way, way too heavy handed the way he did this too. I listen, or used to listen, to a good amount of the shows on The Ringer, and all of the sudden guys like Tyler Tines and Van Lathan and Larry Wilmore just started "randomly" popping up as guests, or with their own shows. It was a bit much.

Yet, as he is want to do, Simmons was talking on his pod, again I don't listen anymore, and I guess he had made a statement with another white guy that works there, Ryen Rusillo, comparing Luka Doncic's assists to James Harden's. RD told me this, and I didn't think it would be much. I was reeling, upset about college football, just kind of mopey. But I went on Twitter, just to see what the hubbub was all about, and man oh man was this a very, very underhanded racist comment made by Simmons. He said, "Luka's assists are like Bird's- they're not cheap assists... like the James Harden type of assists".

Let that sink in for a minute. He is saying that a white point guard, who he is comparing to another white player, has better assists than a black man that has revolutionized the way offense is played in the NBA. Also, how is any assist cheap I ask? They all do the same thing. They all lead to a bucket. It doesn't have to be fancy or whipped around the perimeter or anything. An assist is an assist is an assist. Harden, Doncic, LeBron, KD, Russ, all of their assists are the same, at least to me. It's not like these guys are hunting assists. I am not a Harden guy too. He is a great, great offensive player, I just find his brand of basketball boring. But his assists are just as important or special as anyone else's in the league. His lobs are also very useful because he gets teams to collapse on him, leaving the dunker wide open. He is such a threat from the outside, that when he up fakes from three, he usually has two or more guys open, leaving them with wide open looks. If anything, Harden's assists are the opposite of cheap. He is getting guys the cleanest looks they will ever find in the NBA. And Doncic is a great player too, but he is not on Harden's level yet. Doncic is a fine young player, one of the better players in the league, but guys like Bill Simmons, and the majority of the staff at The Ringer are so horny for a white savior in the NBA.

Simmons has made the Ringer in his racist image. The majority of his hires are writers who have, at one time, worked for him already or for the Celtics. That's why they all loved the Gordon Hayward signing when it happened, loved the Brad Stevens hire, but bristle when Marcus Smart calls someone out, or when Jaylen Brown goes on TV and talks eloquently about systemic racism. People like Simmons don't want to see that because he grew up watching a player whose nickname was "The Hick from French Lick". And Larry Bird was great, one of the best. I'm not calling him out, I'm calling out Boston fans that opine for the days when he was the star of the team. For Simmons to say this, and to take the side of Doncic, to call Harden's assists "cheap", it is lazy and hackey and he is trying so hard to be cool. Simmons is no better than anyone that works at Barstool Sports, a horrendously awful website, he just has the ESPN recognition to his name. I have to assume there has always been an underlying racism within Simmons, and now that he is older, it is starting to rear its head. He is trying to be a hip guy, but he comes off as a wannabe and a dork. He makes these grand declarations, and then tries to backtrack immediately.

Simmons is a phony, a hack, the type of guy that reminisces of his high school days, and now, a blatant racist. Since I read this quote and did some more research, I have unsubscribed from anything and everything involving his company. I don't want anything to do with him, or the myriad of white men he tends to hire time and time again. I'm not sure my unsubscribing will do much, but hey, if half the people who read this do the same, maybe we can make Bill Simmons admit he is a racist, misogynistic dickhead one day, and he will get his comeuppance. Here's hoping.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Ringer's Kevin O'Conner is a Bad Take Generator

Home to Kevin O’Conner takes

I am very tough on the website The Ringer. I feel like it is filled with hot take millennial BS that is pointless. All the majority of the hosts of the podcasts, and their writers, it is all about the quickest and hottest take out there. I don't feel like they do a ton of research, and they just want to put out stuff to get clicks on the site. Also, Bill Simmons is one of the biggest has beens in the sports writing business. He is such a non factor in the NBA world now. I do not trust a word he says anymore, and while he was once a solid writer, he has only shown since starting The Ringer, is that he wants so badly to still be in his 20's, even though he is approaching his 50's. It is sad. That much is true. Also, his interviews with Malcolm Gladwell have been horrendous and awful, in so many different ways.

While I do not read the website anymore, it feels like a total waste of time, I do subscribe to 2 of their podcasts. I listen to their NFL show, and I listen to their NBA show hosted by Chris Vernon and Kevin O'Connor. I do like Chris Vernon. I have talked about that before. He has some of the better takes on the pod, he seems to understand the NBA pretty well, and he isn't a yes man, of which this company is filled with. I also enjoy his passion for the game, and his love for his hometown team, the Memphis Grizzlies. Yes, he can be obnoxious from time to time, he can be a little loud, but again, he seems like the smartest person that is involved with the whole Ringer crew.

Then we have Kevin O'Connor. Boy oh boy do I not like him. He has one, maybe 2 good takes per episode, but everything else is so absurd and contradictory and asinine and flat out stupid. He takes credit for the few things he gets right, and when he is very wrong, which is a lot, he almost always deflects the blame. He is never wrong, it was something out of his control that caused his shit take to be off.

For example, I was listening to their most recent episode, and twice he said some shit that was so off that it made me audibly gasp and call him an idiot to my iPhone. First, Chris Vernon called him out on his "bright future Suns" comment, and when he was pushed by Vernon, he kind of just blahed his way through his speech. Vernon pointed out that when he called them the "bright future Suns", they had so many other players. In fact, the only player that is still on the team when O'Connor coined them that is Devin Booker. Every other player is gone. But O'Connor, in his infinite stupidity, tried to claim that Booker was the only reason he called them "the bright future Suns". That is false. You can go back and listen to him say he still liked Dragan Bender, gone, or any other number of players that the Suns have since traded or let go in free agency. The team is incredibly different from who O'Connor dubbed "the bright future Suns".

And then, the comment that really irked me, he said that the Knicks need to lose. I hate, hate, hate that this whole new tanking thing is what the younger generation of basketball writers are so enamored with right now. Why would any fan of any team ever want their team to lose purposely? The 76ers did it for half a decade, and when you talk to their fans, they talk about some dark thoughts during that time. I am a lifelong Michigan fan, and the Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke eras where unbearable. I'm sure Houston Astros fans are happy now, but when they were regularly losing 100 games, that couldn't have been fun. I am now rooting for the Memphis Grizzlies, and while Ja Morant has been a blast to watch so far, it stinks that they get beat pretty much every night. I think it is easy for someone like Kevin O'Connor, who is a Boston guy, to talk about how these teams should actively tank because in his whole sports fandom life, the Patriots, Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox have all been really good, or even won titles. The teams he roots for haven't had to tank, yet. So when he said that the Knicks should continue to tank, I was flabbergasted. He kept saying that this would help them get young talent, and lure free agents. I need to say, how did that work for them this past offseason? They didn't sign anyone of note, they ended up taking RJ Barrett, more on him and another O'Connor comment in a moment, and they have no real shot anymore at getting the number one pick in the upcoming draft. They did this exact same thing last year, losing because they were certain they were going to get Zion Williamson, and sign one, or both, of KD and Kyrie Irving. Well, none of that happened Mr. O'Connor. So what makes you think it will happen this offseason, or next or next? Hell, KD even said no one wants to go sign with the Knicks because they haven't been relevant since the late 90's.

As for that RJ Barrett comment, he said that the Knicks are playing him too much. What in the actual hell?! I mean, if the kid wants to play, and the team wants him to play and the coach wants him to play, let him play. Who cares? You can throw all the too many minutes thing, and the rookie wall at me, but if Barrett feels good, and they took him third overall and they want to build around him, let him play. O'Connor is obsessed with coddling the young generation coming into the NBA, especially Duke players. That is ridiculous. Also, if David Fizdale was only playing him 20 minutes a night, O'Connor would be the first one to say that the Knicks need a new coach who would let Barrett play.

Kevin O'Conner is an unreliable, porous and crappy sports writer. He is the definition of a hot take writer who thinks they are never wrong. He seems lost and confused every time Chris Vernon calls him out, and his response is to act like a child who is being wrongly scolded. I hope O'Connor reads this because I really, really want him to know how I feel about him and his crap takes. Of all the crummy writers and podcasters they have at The Ringer, O'Connor is the second worse, behind only his boss, Bill Simmons.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Love for James Harden and the Hate for Russell Westbrook Makes No Damn Sense

Two years ago I felt like I was one of the people driving the Russell Westbrook for MVP debate.

What he did that season, with the roster that was put around him, was astounding. The fact that, a season after losing KD mind you, he averaged a triple double, with his best teammate being Steven Adams, was one of the most MVP worthy things I have ever seen. He was must watch TV that year. I watched more Thunder games than usual that year just to see what Westbrook would do. I have said, to people that will listen to me, I would not enjoy playing with him, but I LOVE watching him play. He is a whirling dervish of athleticism. It's like the most insane ballet that you could ever watch. And while he's not the greatest shooter, he is really bad in fact, the way he created shots for himself and others was awesome. To see a 6 foot guard rebound like that, again, amazing.

So when major journalists, some I like, some I dislike, were saying that he wasn't deserving of the MVP I was floored. I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what else he had to do to prove that he was the MVP. A lot of these journalists actually pushed for James Harden that year. LeBron was mentioned a ton as well, but he always is. When I listened to them, or read why they felt this way, it made me even angrier. They called Westbrook a "stat hunter". They said he was bad. They called him selfish. They said he wasn't deserving because he only led the Thunder to a 6 seed and something like 45 wins that year. They said the first round series proved that he wasn't the MVP.

Well, one Mr. James Harden is currently putting up absolutely ridiculous numbers, with his 2 best teammates out injured right now, and these same journalists are praising him. They are talking abut him "carrying" his team. They are saying what he is doing is something they haven't seen since Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan. They are calling him the MVP. And while I don't refute that, I do think he has surpassed Giannis as the MVP, why does he get so much love doing almost exactly what Westbrook did 2 years ago, when they were all shaming him?

Here are the facts. James Harden is one of the most boring NBA players to watch. If Westbrook is a "stat hunter", Harden is a "foul hunter". That guy gets so many calls in his favor, calls that are absolutely and utterly insane, that is drives me up the wall. The other night he shot 27 free throws. Not the Rockets, Harden himself took 27 free throws. How is that more fun, or any better than what Westbrook was doing?

Also, lets compare the rosters were they currently are right now with the Rockets to the Thunder from 2 years ago. As I said, Westbrook's best teammate was Adams. He then had guys like Victor Oladipo, before he was a star, Domantas Sabonis, when he was a rookie, Kyle Singler, Nick Collison, Dion Waiters and Terrance Ferguson, among others. Meanwhile, Harden has players like PJ Tucker, Austin Rivers, Eric Gordon and Gerald Green. Oh, and Chris Paul will be back soon, and Clint Capela will miss a couple more weeks before he is back. I'd take that Rockets roster any day.

While Harden is putting up okay assist numbers, he is as selfish a player as there is in the NBA. I saw a stat the other day that said on his last 150 points, he has been assisted on 0 of them. You may read that and say, well no one is passing him the ball, false, he is dribbling the clock down and jacking up threes that somehow are going in. He is a ball stopper and he is a ball hog. The records also, at this same time 2 years ago when Westbrook was the MVP, are almost exactly the same. But where Harden gets credit, Westbrook got blasted. That is so unfair.

The biggest shit talkers are every single basketball writer and podcaster at The Ringer, especially their owner, Bill Simmons. Look, I get it, you guys very much dislike Westbrook. But you have got to stop making excuses for Harden because you like him. These guys and girls have trashed Westbrook since he won the MVP, but when Harden plays the exact same way, they love it. It is clear this company hates the Thunder. I mean, Simmons won't shut up about the Harden trade, which seems like a million years ago. He has KD on his podcast so much, that was one of the reasons I stopped listening to it. Simmons is a star chaser, except when it comes to Westbrook. Other writers at The Ringer always bring up how great Harden has been this past month, then I think they feel like they need to trash Westbrook just because they can.

The biggest indictment of this whole Harden Westbrook debate is something that Simmons and his buddy Joe House kept saying 2 years ago. They said anyone that voted for Westbrook as MVP was "basketball pervert". Well, if you guys thought we who rode the bus for Westbrook are "basketball perverts". what does that make you guys this year with Harden? I think that makes you, in your own words, "basketball perverts". Oh, and I cannot forget that Simmons said on "The Lowe Post" that he is more impressed by guys that average 27 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds. I believe he called it "The LeBron". Well dip shit, Westbrook, and for that matter, your boy Harden, are averaging more in all three categories. How dumb are you? How out of touch do you have to be? What happened to you as a credible writer? I'd much rather have the guys that average a triple double, or 40 points per game.

While I think Harden, where we stand right now, is the MVP, I also think these journalists need to lay the hell off of Westbrook. It was 2 years ago. Harden won his MVP. And what Westbrook did hadn't been done since Oscar Robertson was in the league. Journalists are supposed to be unbiased, and a lot of you are being exposed now. Get over it. Westbrook deserved his MVP, and if Harden keeps this up, he will deserve it too. I just want you shills to admit that he is a pain to watch, that he is selfish and that he is a better scoring, but worse passing and rebounding version of Russell Westbrook.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

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The Fanboy Crybabies Need to Get Over Giancarlo Stanton Joining the Yankees

Every time Boston does not get their way, a small violein plays while Bill Simmons whines

I know that I am a little behind with today's topic, but it is the holiday season, and life has been crazy. But, as you all know by now, Giancarlo Stanton is now a member of the New York Yankees. Derek Jeter and the crew that bought the Marlins have been gutting the roster, which they said they were going to do. So far they have traded 3 big time players, with Stanton being the biggest. From the moment that the new owners took over it was very evident that Stanton was going to be moved. I was excited for awhile because the Cardinals, my team, were heavily in the mix all the way to the end. But in the end, the Yankees got him because that is what the Yankees do. They have always been able to pull off the big move ever since I was a kid. As soon as the Yankees came to the forefront, it was a foregone conclusion to me that he would join the team. And when it happened, I was not shocked.

What irks me about this is the same thing that irked me about KD joining the Warriors last offseason. People say that the Yankees have had a few "down" years, yet they were one game away from making the World Series this past season. They also have a roster filled with young, very good players. I mean, just Aaron Judge alone, who I do not think is as good as everyone else does, won rookie of the year. They have great hitters all over their roster. Their pitching leaves a bit to be desired, but it is serviceable. Now with Stanton, they have to be the odds on favorites to make the World Series next year. I'd love to see them go down, but they just look way too good on paper to be beaten by anyone in the AL next year.

The trade is not the point of my piece today. I am an avid listener of "The Bill Simmons" podcast. Lately it has become more of a hate listen because Simmons is becoming more cocky and insufferable with every episode. He seems to think the sun rises and sets based on his opinions. But, I do like the guests, especially when they do basketball stuff. And with basketball stuff, since he and KD have become buddies lately, he has been fully on board with KD joining the Warriors. He always says that he wants the best players to play together because he loves the game in its purest form. He praises KD non stop for leaving OKC, all the while trashing Russell Westbrook any chance he gets. He has never, ever said one bad thing about KD joining a team that didn't need him, and that beat him head to head. Like I said, he praises KD's decision. In fact, he has made it his personal mission to defend KD. If anyone comes on his show and bad mouths it, he roasts them, and then tries to ham fist a Thunder jab in there somehow. He has become what he claims to have hated about ESPN, a star lover. He has made friends with one of the biggest NBA stars, and he doesn't want to rock the boat.

On a podcast recently, Simmons had one of his old college buddies on who happens to be a lifelong Yankees fan. This person, whos name escapes me right now, has been on from time to time. He isn't on as much as Joe House, who I really like, but he is on enough that I kind of know who he is. He had this buddy on after the Stanton trade was completed, and he trashed the MLB for allowing this to happen. First off, if you do not know by now, Simmons is a big time Red Sox fan, and he is from Boston. So, anything that doesn't go his way for his city, he is a big time crybaby about. This Stanton trade fits into that category. He acted like such a baby about this. He made stupid, hackney jokes about the Yankees front office. Like I said above, he trashed the MLB because Stanton used his no trade clause, which he got in his contract, to veto trades to the Cardinals and Giants. It was basically just an hour long whine fest while Simmons buddy laughed at him the whole time.

What I don't get about his whining though, how is Stanton joining the Yankees any different from KD joining the Warriors? This is exactly what he advocated for with the KD move, with one exception. The Yankees didn't beat the Marlins in a big time playoff series. Stanton didn't go to a team that was in 2 straight world champion series. Stanton didn't join a team that was an odds on favorite to not only win the title, but coast to it. As I talked about earlier, Stanton joined a team that some "experts" considered "down". So in actuality, what Stanton did wasn't nearly as weak as what KD did. KD was/is a title chaser. He couldn't beat the Warriors, so he joined them. The only similarity between the 2 players is that they won MVP's on different teams from their current team. So for Simmons to attack Stanton and the MLB and his buddy is off putting and makes him look like an idiot and a front runner himself. He only likes big time moves when it benefits him.

Look, I am not on board with either of these moves, but I have made no mistake about that. I hated when KD joined the Warriors, and I do not like that Stanton joined the Yankees. It waters down the game. It takes the drama out of sports. It makes it way easier to make predictions. That is where Simmons and I differ. I can separate myself from players and teams and be non biased. Maybe it is easier for me because I don't have a personal relationship with these guys and the people around them, but Simmons is a professional. His job as a journalist is to be non biased. But, he may be the most biased sports writer in the industry. I'm not going to stop listening to his show, but the more I do listen, the less respect I have for him and his opinions.

Get over yourself Bill Simmons. Boston sports are doing just fine. So what if the Yankees will be better than the Red Sox for awhile. You still have the Patriots and Celtics. But stop contradicting yourself based on friendships. It makes you look like a real asshole.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is still sore about the almost trade of AJ McCarron going to the Cleveland Browns. That would have been the making of a one or two win super team.

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The Bill Simmons Ego is Bringing Down "The Bill Simmons Podcast"

Next time Simmons will tell us all how he could improve sex, the US Constitution, and happiness.

I was listening to the most recent "Bill Simmons Podcast", and I've got to say, Bill Simmons is quite full of himself. I still very much enjoy his writing and his podcast, but man oh man does he think that his decisions make the sun set.

On the latest episode to get on my nerves, Simmons had 2 of his buddies, Jim Miller and Bryan Curtis, and they were talking about all things ESPN. They were talking about all the layoffs and new hires, basically all the news that has come out over the past couple of months involving ESPN.

Simmons exit from ESPN has been very well documented. He said something that needed to be said about that monster Roger Goodell, and since ESPN is in bed with the NFL, they suspended him, then let him go a few weeks after he came back. He then went into hiding for awhile before reappearing with his own company, The Ringer. I'm an enormous fan of The Ringer. I read pretty much everything they write about basketball. I listen to all their basketball podcasts. I enjoy their football stuff. Mainly though, I'm all in for The Ringer because it has Bill Simmons name on the front of it.

Simmons highly anticipated television show was a massive disappointment. This is widely known. The show is best known for a drunken rant about the Patriots coming from Ben Affleck. That's some reality show shit there. But, when pressed about the demise of his show, he never once took the blame. It was all on HBO. They put him on at the wrong time he said. They thrust him into a bad situation he said. He wanted to do so many things different he said. Basically, it was everyone else's fault. He said all of this, and even more on his own podcast, which HBO owns. I wrote awhile back that he needed to take the blame. He was a poor host. He couldn't conduct a proper interview. The only time the show was any good was when Michael Rappaport was on. He was too much of a  fan boy. He wasn't good for television. The show disappeared, and no one has missed it. But he still blames other people all the time.

Then we have the latest podcast. As I said, the three guys were talking about ESPN, and Bill Simmons kept chiming in with all that he tried to do to make that company money. He was patting himself on the back for creating "30 for 30", as he should. But, the self congratulations did not stop there. He claimed that he was the only person trying to get ESPN to get better advertising for podcasts. He complained that they only wanted Subway as a sponsor, and that "I could have gotten them so much more". What an ass. I don't deny that he may have been able to get extra sponsors, but ESPN doesn't need extra sponsors. One of my biggest gripes with his podcast is all the ad reads. They totally take me out of the flow. In fact, I don't like any ad reads on podcasts. It drives me nuts. That doesn't mean I don't want people to donate to SeedSing though. Please, if you can, donate to us so I can continue to do what I love.

Simmons also went on to say things about the people that got fired and how he could have helped keep them around. Does he think he was some kind of savior at ESPN? I guarantee on ESPN's list of important people, Bill Simmons was probably in the 40's or 50's. He complained that no one paid attention to Grantland. That's because Grantland was for hipsters, and who in the hell cares what those writers were saying back then. I know that most of his staff is filled with former Grantland writers, but they are 1,000 times better now than they were then. He griped that the higher ups wanted full control of "30 for 30", but he only wanted to do 2 seasons of it. Why would you want to end something so soon that was so successful? I would bet a ton of money that he wanted to close down shop so he could gloat to people in 25 years that he was the "genius" that created "30 for 30". I've got some news for you Bill Simmons, some other asshole would have come up with a similar idea, and it would have succeeded.

I hate ESPN with a passion, but Simmons comments on this most recent podcast really annoyed me. He is super talented, and many big time people have said as much. So why does he feel the need to constantly stroke his ego, I will never know. I'm not going to stop listening and reading his stuff, as I said, I am a big fan. But he needs to pump the brakes on giving himself all the accolades that he thinks he deserves. It is getting too be a bit too much.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He may hate hearing ad reads, but the head editor convinced Ty that reading ads is the best way to podcast. Right Ty.

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I am Going to Say it One More Time, Russell Westbrook is the NBA MVP.

If need be, will start speaking this truth out of air raid sirens

Now that the Thunder's season is officially over, I have to write one more piece as to why I think, without anymore doubt, that Russell Westbrook is definitely the MVP of the NBA this year.

Yes, his team lost in 5 games, and yes, he took a lot of shots. But, I watched every minute of all 5 of those games and I was left with the thought of, who else was going to score, or do anything of worth on offense for the Thunder? I mean Andre Roberson was their second leading scorer for gods sake. Steven Adams offense completely disappeared in the 5 games. Victor Oladipo just could never get his outside shot to go down with any consistency. Enes Kanter is such a liability on defense, the coaching staff could not count on him to play any big time minutes. After those guys, there is no one else, at all. Norris Cole was playing big minutes for them. That is a problem.

So, for the Bill Simmons of the world to go on Twitter rants after game 5 about what he would have done, I say, shut your god damn mouth. First off, Simmons has had it out for the Thunder since they traded Harden a million years ago. He has bashed them at every opportunity that he has had, and he has a lot of them. He clearly hates this team, and I'm pretty sure he dislikes Russell Westbrook the basketball player. But, for him to sit there and still argue that Westbrook's supporting cast was just fine, enough with that nonsense. They lost the third best player in the league, and it was Westbrook that single handily made that team a 47 win regular season team.

But, just to be some kind of hot take douchebag, Simmons continues to talk about how right he was all along that the Thunder just can't win a title this way, as if he was the only writer in America that predicted this. I'm a Thunder fan, at least I was until KD left them high and dry, and I picked the Rockets to win this first round series. In fact, I'd say about 95 percent of the basketball writers across the country picked the Rockets. So no Bill Simmons, you are not some kind of cleric that was the only one to pick the Rockets. The majority of people that write about and watch basketball picked the Rockets, and it is solely because they have a much, much better supporting cast. Flip these 2 players Harden and Westbrook, and I think the Rockets are just as good, and the Thunder would be lucky to be a .500 team. James Harden is an elite talent, a great scorer and very good at drawing fouls, but he plays no defense, doesn't have the heart that Westbrook has, and has proven to be a choker in big games up to this point in his career. Harden is not a closer, Westbrook is.

Another point that needs to be made, Harden has so much more around him now. His supporting cast is miles and miles ahead of the Thunder. He has shooters all over the floor, plus some big men that don't mind rebounding, playing defense and getting the occasional lob or 2 a game. When you compare the rosters, Harden has guys like Ryan Anderson, Eric Gordon, Trevor Ariza, Nene, Clint Capela and Lou Williams. That sounds a hell of a lot more enticing to me than the Thunder players I mentioned earlier. Russell Westbrook did everything that he could possibly do for this team. He scored a ton, I know he took a lot of shots, but he was still pouring in 51, 32, and 47 in 3 different playoff games. He was still attacking the glass as he has done his whole career. He was still somehow, with piss poor shooters everywhere around him, getting 10 assists a game. There were only 2 guys, Taj Gibson and Roberson, that were doing anything, and Roberson is one of the worst shooters in the league, statistically speaking. And while I love Taj Gibson and the toughness he brings to this team, he is a million years old. Steven Adams was just flat out a no show. That was disappointing to me because I thought he's take the next step. He did not. The bright lights of the playoffs seemed to have gotten to Oladipo. And, imagine how tired Roberson was from guarding Harden.

Also, imagine how tired Westbrook was from carrying this team for 87 games. People will gripe about his field goal percentage, but coming from a guy that plays basketball once a week, by the end of the night my legs are gone. The fact that Westbrook was still out there giving his all makes me love him and his game that much more, and also solidifies the fact that he is the MVP.

The MVP is a regular season award given out to the player that is their team's most valuable guy. No one this year was more valuable than Westbrook was to the Thunder. If he had skipped town like Durant did, the Thunder would have been a 15 win team at the absolute best. But, he stuck with the team that drafted him, averaged a triple double, led the league in scoring and was the guy in every game, especially their 47 regular season wins. So, I do not care what Bill Simmons, Howard Beck, Zach Lowe, Joe House, Tony Kornheiser, any of those guys have to say about him being selfish, a ball hog or obsessed with stats. Westbrook is the MVP, and a damn deserving one at that. I will argue anyone on this.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. When writing about other basketball writers, Ty always puts on his "Come At Me Bro" t-shirt. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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The SeedSing 2016 Year in Pop Culture: The Best, and Worst, in Podcasting

For my final best of list this year, I am going to go very niche, and I'm going to give you all my top 5 podcast moments, or just flat out episodes of the year. Some of these are compilations, or random appearances on certain podcasts by people I like, or just straight forward episodes. Also, all mine are comedy podcasts, except for one, because that is what I like. I do not have anything from NPR, ESPN, The AV Club, Cracked, nothing like that. Also, there is no "Serial" or anything like that on my list. That was a one hit wonder type deal, and I think the second season of "Serial" proved that very point. Anyway, lets get to it. 

At number 5, I have all of the "Doughboys" episodes during their "Tournament of Chompions". This was when Nick Wiger and Mike Mitchell, and one guest for each episode, went around to various fast food type restaurants and put the burgers in a tournament. They had franchises all over the US, places like Five Guys, Hardees, Burger King and Wendy's that they judged. But, they also went to places that some people around the US don't have, like Shake Shack and In N Out Burger. Look, I knew form the beginning of this tournament that In N Out was going to make the finals. Wiger, ever since the birth of "Doughboys", has talked about how In N Out Burger is the best place ever. He legitimately loves this place. There is no mistaking that. Mitchell knew this, so he tried to game the system by having friends of his that dislike In N Out on to "beat" whoever they matched up against. It finally happened, when John Gemberling appeared, and picked Burger King as the winner over In N Out. Wiger was audibly upset and Mitchell was audibly thrilled. But, like a whiny baby, near the end of this tournament, look, the whole thing was convoluted from the start, as I said, the matchup was going to be In N Out versus Shake Shack no matter what happened in each previous episode, they all but said this at the start, Wiger got In N Out back in, and they "won". But, what I liked about this whole series was how much Mitchell just got on Wiger's nerves. This is their whole setup for the podcast. Wiger is Mitchell's whipping boy, and he took that to a whole new level during the "Tournament of Chompions". It was funny, uncomfortable and everything I want from any episode of "Doughboys". It is a really good podcast.

At number 4, I have "The Bill Simmons Podcast" when Michael Rappaport was on the first time this year. This was one of the better episodes of "The BS" podcast, and it was all because of Rappaport. He is so lively and talkative and funny and has stories for days. When Simmons brought up the Knicks and Kristaps Porzingis, that was when this episode became great. Rappaport loves the Knicks, and he loves Porzingis even more. He really, really likes this Knicks team, but Simmons, and myself for that matter, do not think this Knicks team is that good, but do not say that to Rappaport. He went on and on and on about how they can compete, especially in the East, and talked about their potential "greatness", which involved Porzingis mainly. He loves this dude. He kept calling him the "Lativian gangbanger". He talked about how he was the next great NBA super star. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode because of Rappaport's lively conversation skills. His own podcast is great, but when he shows up on other people's stuff, it is must listen for me, especially when you talk about something in his wheelhouse, like the Knicks, or who the greatest "stick men" in Hollywood may be. Rappaport is a delight.

At number 3, I have any episode of "Comedy Bang! Bang!" that Neil Campbell is on, playing his loved character, the Timekeeper. This is one of the funniest things on podcasts right now. He is so weird, and sounds so odd, but I cannot help but belly laugh whenever the Timekeeper shows up. He is hilarious. Campbell is such a great improviser and so good on a podcast like "CBB". "CBB" is the perfect show for the talents of someone like Neil Campbell, and the Timekeeper is his greatest character. His performances are great, and any time he is on, I get giddy with excitement and listen, hoping that he will bring in the Timekeeper at some point. He was just on their holiday episode, and it was one of the funnier episodes all year of "CBB". This is always a wonderfully hilarious performance.

At number 2, I have the episode of "How Did This Get Made" where they cover the Village People movie, "Can't Stop the Music". The episode has Jason Mantzoukas and Paul Scheer, but no June Diane-Rapheal, but, they do get Cameron Esposito and Pete Holmes, and they are great substitutes for this live episode. First of all, "HDTGM" is one of the best podcast hands down, but when they do a movie this insane, and try to figure it out, it is laugh out loud funny. Mantzoukas seems legitimately confused the entire show, trying to explain this movie. Scheer is just dumbfounded the whole time, never stopping to ask any question that pops in his head. Esposito does her best to try and explain, but even she has a hard time trying to figure stuff out. At points she thinks she has something figured out, but then someone will give a counterpoint, and then she is questioning her theory. It makes for great podcasting. But, the star of this episode is Holmes. He, instead of trying to figure how this movie got made, he did what he does best, and just riffs the whole 90 minutes. He goes from doing impressions, to bad dad jokes and ends up doing some terrible, but also extremely funny, puns. Holmes is so god damn funny, and that is on full display during this 90 minute "HDTGM". I do not always love the live episodes, but this is one of their best of all time.

Finally, at number 1, I have the episode of "I Was There Too" when Matt Gourley had Marc Maron on to talk about his bit role in "Almost Famous". This was another live episode, but this was such a great, great podcast. First off, I vividly remember Maron in "Almost Famous", his catchphrase for "WTF" comes from that movie, and I loved his role as the angry club promoter. He went into this role. He talked about auditioning for the role, getting a call back, and reading with Cameron Crowe. I love these stories. Then he talked about set life. I love these stories too. But, after deep diving into his 3 minutes or so on screen, the talk divulged into stuff like cats, how he prepares for his own show, writing jokes and talking to the crowd. This is the perfect medium for Maron, and Gourley was great at letting him go on any tangent that he wanted. I really loved this episode so much,  I have listened to it 3 times, and it has never gotten old. It was far and away the best podcast of 2016, in my personal opinion.

As far as the worst podcast episode of the year, it was anytime that Bill Simmons got on his soap box and complained about his show got cancelled, and how it was not his fault. His show was bad, I know, I watched it, and it was because of him. He is not a TV host. He is a writer and a podcaster, and he is damn good at those 2 things. He doesn't need a TV show too. But, for him to blame everyone else became very tiresome very fast. I would fast forward through these 10 minute whine fests because it was so grating and uncomfortable to hear. His show was bad, and that is that. It got cancelled, and that is what it deserved. Simmons has gotten better about it lately, but anytime it is brought up, I groan because I am fearful that he is going to get into why he was great and why everyone else was wrong. He needs to get over it and let it go. It's so childish and ignorant of Simmons to whine this much.

That's it for 2016. This has been a crappy year, but at least we have the good things on these lists, so that has to be some kind of consolation. Thanks for reading.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The number one podcast in his heart is anything he does on the X Millennial Man. Check out his new one ones every Saturday. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

The Problem With "Any Given Wednesday" was the Not Ready for Prime time Host

Once again, Simmons is better heard. Let it go

Bill Simmons, who I am a big, big fan of, I need to say that before I continue, has been speaking publicly lately about his show, "Any Given Wednesday" being canceled. He has been making many, many excuses for why this show just didn't work out. I wrote 2 separate pieces, one saying the show was okay, but the second talking about how it looked like it was going to be canceled. After about 3 episodes, I started to see what others were saying about the show. Simmons' takes were stale, he was not a good host, the interviews went on far too long, his schtick wasn't good for television, that we had seen him already not do great on TV when he did ESPN's pre-game basketball show, everything they said, and as I wrote earlier this week, I do not like critics, but this was one of the few times they were right. His show just did not work out, and that should have been fine. Yeah, they canceled his show, and to have that aired in public has to be a bit embarrassing, but he is a world renowned podcaster, a great sports writer and seems to know how to run a website.

But, his comments lately have left a sour taste in my mouth. He has blamed everyone but the one person who deserves the most blame, himself. He has called out the producers of the show for giving him a bad day of the week to put out a show. He claims that his takes were stale by Wednesday, and he was already behind the eight ball when compared to shows like "PTI", or stuff on Fox Sports 1. He has said he wished HBO made it a monthly instead of a weekly show. I think that is a terrible, terrible idea. Who wants to watch one show a month about sports. I love, love, love sports, but if he is complaining about having stale takes because his show is on a Wednesday, imagine how bad and old they would be on a monthly basis. All the takes he would have given had his show been monthly would have been talked about a million times over before he released the episodes. And who only does one show a month? That is just a dumb idea.

He has also blamed the viewers for not watching his show enough. Well, when the show is not that good, why would you expect viewers to continue to tune in? The only thing that he had on his show that was even close to being remotely viral was Ben Affleck's drunken take on deflategate, and that was incredibly uncomfortable to watch. Other than that, he had boring interviews with people like Aaron Rodgers, Seth Rogen, Ricky Williams, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, basically everyone that he had on the show was not that good, except for Vince Staples. I actually want Staples to get his own show, because I think that would work out very, very well. He was funny and comfortable on screen. But, juxtapose that to how uncomfortable Simmons looked and it made for bad television.

To blame the company that gave you a humongous contract after the whole ESPN thing, that is childish, and you seem to be poking the bear. Don't publicly call out HBO because they will bury you. It is not their fault that your television show did not work, it was your fault Bill Simmons. You can also still do other things for HBO, so I say again, stop complaining about them in public.

Simmons can do something like "30 For 30" for HBO, and make it even better. HBO has to have more money than ESPN, and I'm pretty sure that HBO has more viewers than ESPN. I watch HBO a whole hell of a lot more than I watch ESPN. I'd love to see you do sports documentaries for HBO. I think that would be awesome. You could make real documentaries too, that don't need commercials for funding, or anything like that. That is where you should put your focus instead of complaining about how everyone but you ruined your show.

All this brings me to my main point for today. You and you alone Bill Simmons were the reason that "Any Given Wednesday" did not work. You just do not seem to have what it takes to be a host of a TV show, and that is okay. But, this blaming of everyone else is childish and immature. Take the blame. You have so many other money making ventures, just bite the bullet on your show being canceled, and let it go. I love your podcast, but I'm getting annoyed that you have to bring up all the reasons that don't involve you being a bad host as to why your show was canceled. The most simple explanation is usually the right one, and the simplest reason is that you were bad on TV.

I almost feel like you are doing this just to have some kind of "hot take". That should embarrass someone of your caliber because you should be above the "hot take". "Hot takes" are for someone like me, a blogger for a small, but up and coming website.

"Any Given Wednesday" was a bad show and it was because of you Bill Simmons. It was nobody's fault but your own, and until you own up to that, people are going to continue to call you out, no matter how much you complain in public. I'll still listen and read your stuff because I like your podcast and your writing, but some people just aren't made for TV, and you are, unfortunately for you, one of those people.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Here is old sports takes on the X Millennial Man mini episodes. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Famous Fisherman and Tattoo Wearer Kevin Durant does not want to be Questioned about Basketball

All Durant fans know he averages 5.45 pounds per catch

On the most recent episode of "Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons", which has gotten so much worse with each episode, Kevin Durant was on as one of his guests, along with Nas. I was kind of excited because I thought Durant would shed some light on why he chose to go to the Warriors in free agency. Everyone that reads this site knows how I feel. I was hurt, I felt like it was a cheap move to get an easy title and it seemed a little weak. After a week or so of introspection, I started to think of other reasons why he might have left OKC. Maybe he wanted a change of scenery, may be he was tired of playing with Russ, maybe he thought OKC had gone as far as they could, or maybe he wanted to play in the most free flowing offense I have ever seen. I was still upset, being a former OKC fan, but I started to think outside of me being upset, and thought about why Kevin Durant, the basketball player, would want a change of scenery.

So, with his appearance on "AGW", I thought he just may give us a little bit of an explanation as to why he left. But, and this is a very recent development in Kevin Durant the person, he was quiet, and seemed angry any time the question of him leaving was brought up. Look, I understand that it is infuriating to answer the same question over and over again, I have a 4 year old, but, in this day and age of athletes being ultra famous, I'm sorry to say Mr. Durant, but that question will be asked one million more times. Get used to it. You can be gloomy and ask people to stop talking about it, but they won't.

Then, as he went into some kind of a half answer, he said that he was hurt by all the bad press. Really?! Hurt?! Of course people are going to be mad at your decision. Sports are irrational, and fans are the most irrational. We lose our minds at the smallest possible thing. My first reaction when I heard the news that Durant was leaving was to tell my family that he broke my heart. And when I say family, I don't just mean my wife and kids, we were on vacation and I told my parents and my brother, our head editor RD, and his wife and kid that Durant broke my heart. All these people did not care about the decision, but I did, because I was not only a huge OKC fan, but I am a huge Kevin Durant fan. I was as irrational as most people. I didn't burn jerseys or make videos chastising Durant, but I did say that he broke my heart. I don't know him personally. I have never met him. I've only ever seen him play live twice, but I felt like a kid who just lost his first crush to someone who was cooler than I am. So for Durant to say that he was hurt, get over it. Being a famous athlete means stuff like this is going to happen.

Then, he went on to complain that no one cares about him as a person. First off, that is not true. I'm sure the people he lets close to him care very much about him. Simmons seemed to care, and he is more plugged in than any NBA writer, with the lone exception being Zach Lowe. I'm sure his former teammates and his new teammates care about him. But, instead of pointing all that out, he seemed to be singling people out like me, the fan, as being people that don't; care about him outside of basketball.

Well, you know what, he is right. I could care less what he does with his free time because, as I have already said, I don't know him personally, I only know him as a basketball player. I do not care if he wants to go fishing on a Tuesday, one example he pointed out on the show, or how many Tupac or Rick James tattoos he has. That stuff does not interest me. To be quite callous, I only care how he performs on the basketball court. That is the one place that I can see him do his thing. I don't want to watch him fish. I don't want to go with him to the tattoo parlor and I don't want to be around when he is playing the victim, as he has done lately. Dude, you are an uber famous basketball player that makes millions upon millions of dollars. The common fan does not care about your personal life. that comes with the territory. When you get to the level that Kevin Durant is at, people only care about your game.

When LeBron left Cleveland the first time, I don't remember him complaining about being the villain, in fact, he took it on. It was unsuccessful, be he tried to be the villain. That made me like LeBron way more because he wasn't griping and complaining that no one cared about him as a person. LeBron understands that his personal stuff is of no interest to anyone outside of his inner circle. Kevin Durant needs to grow thicker skin it seems.

Look, I still love watching him play basketball, and even though I will be rooting against him now, I hope he is still as electric as he has been his whole career, but he needs to get over his personal pity party. You made your choice and you have to live with fans being upset. That comes with the job. I'm sorry that you may feel hurt, but I say, get over it. You are a great player, and stop trying to put the blame on other people, just go out there and play basketball as great as you've always been. People will boo you and cheer against you, and I hope that doesn't hurt your feelings, because it is coming in droves this season. You are a great player Kevin Durant, but right now, you are coming off as a bit whiny.

Get over it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He will one day leave SeedSing for the greener pastures of a big time sports blog, and he will be a villain to the head editor. Get over it RD. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

"Any Given Wednesday" is No "The Bill Simmons Podcast"

Some people are better when they are heard, and not seen.

A few weeks back I wrote a review of Bill Simmons new show, "Any Given Wednesday". I thought that it was fine, but I also thought that it had some room to grow. I am a big Bill Simmons fan, so I just assumed that I would love his show. It seemed that he was bringing his wildly popular podcast to the small screen. What could go wrong, I thought.

Well, after four episodes, the show has shown very little, to no growth. It's just the same thing over and over again. I feel like, after only four episodes, the show has become stagnant and a little boring. This show has all the potential to be great, but they cannot seem to get over the hump. Now, it is only four episodes, and a lot can change, but they have done zero so far to make this show better.

The premiere was fine. I thought Charles Barkley was funny and seemed to be having a good time. Simmons seemed a bit nervous, but who wouldn't be with a new show premiering. But, when Ben Affleck went on his rant, that premiere went off the rails. It was bizarre and incredibly awkward TV to watch. I was squirming in my seat at home. I cannot imagine how the studio audience felt. I love that Affleck is such a big fan of his team, but that rant was so, so weird. It was bad TV as well.

The Affleck weirdness was followed by the second episode which featured Simmons interviewing Malcom Gladwell and Mark Cuban. They had a heated discussion about the owners and the amount of money being thrown around in free agency and how it has gotten out of hand. Cuban, being the billionaire and owner that he is, he had no problem with it. He was defending some of the ridiculous contracts being given out to marginal players. Gladwell argued that some of these players weren't worth it, and since he is so smart, his argument was eloquent and poignant. But, that was problem that I had with this episode. Malcom Gladwell is one thousand times smarter than most people in the room, and I felt that he had to dumb down his speech just so Mark Cuban could understand what he was saying. Now, Mark Cuban is by no means a dummy, but he is nowhere near Malcolm Gladwell's intelligence level. Not many people are at his level. This conversation would have been so much better if it was two owners or two intellects. You cannot put one very smart person with a marginally smart person and except a fair argument. This was a mismatch and the interview just didn't work. Simmons kind of lost control pretty early on during the conversation.

Episode three has been the highlight of the season so far, but it wasn't because of Bill Simmons or his writing crew. This episode succeeded because of Chris Bosh. Simmons had Bosh and actor Anthony Anderson as his guests. Anthony Anderson was fine. He is a very well spoken, smart person whose acting I really enjoy. But, when Chris Bosh spoke of Kevin Durant's decision to leave OKC for Golden State, it was phenomenal. There is no one else, possibly on the planet, that can relate better to what KD did. I, and many other people, have written about KD's decision, but we don't really know how it went down, or how he feels. Chris Bosh, on the other hand, he went through exactly the same thing when he left Toronto for Miami. Bosh's speech, and the way he talked about making decisions like that, was just great. He kind of opened my mind. I mean, I'm still kind of pissed that KD left OKC, but, Chris Bosh made me understand just a little bit why players make choices like this.

The latest episode  had Aaron Rodgers on for a one on one interview for the majority of the show. This should have been a slam dunk, especially after Bosh crushed it on the show the previous episode. But, this was very, very boring TV. Aaron Rodgers, while being a great football player, he is a pretty dull person, by choice. Most interviews he does are boring. He just wants to talk about football and being QB for the Packers. and that is fine, that is his job and he is wonderful at it. But, to dedicate 20 plus minutes to an interview with him was a bad choice. It was slow. They didn't talk about any real problems, with the exception of concussions, in the NFL. Aaron Rodgers seemed very coached in a lot of his answers. When asked certain questions, Rodgers would wait, almost calculating the right answer in his head, then proceed with his answer. It was only 20 minutes, but it felt like 20 hours. The other problem with this, this episode was on the day after Tim Duncan retired and they only dedicated about 2 minutes to him. Bill Simmons is a basketball writer, and he only gave himself 120 seconds, on his own show, to talk about one of the 5 greatest players of all time. That was a big bummer to me.

There have been other people on, guys like Joe Rogan and Bill Hader, but their interview were forgettable. I had such high hopes for "Any Given Wednesday", and they can still turn it around, but it feels more like they will be cancelled before they get a second season. Simmons, who seems so comfortable on his podcast, looks and sounds incredibly uncomfortable on his TV show. TV may not be his thing, and that is fine because he will always have his podcast and his website. Some people thrive on TV, but others don't. Bill Simmons, so far, has not lived up to the expectations of being a good host on his own show. His time is running out as well. Hopefully they turn it around, but it seems unlikely.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His podcast hero is still Bill Simmons, but his tv hero will remain to be Homer. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Bill Simmons is Back with "Any Given Wednesday"

There is some new TV in the air

Last night, Bill Simmons new show, "Any Given Wednesday" premiered on HBO. This show was a long time coming for me. I'm a very big Bill Simmons fan. I like his takes. He is one of the most knowledgeable NBA writers on the planet. He isn't afraid to attack morons like Roger Goodell. And he seems like a pretty genuine, cool person.

I watched the show this afternoon, and it was just fine. I don't know why I was expecting it to be like "Real Sports", which is a great show, but I thought it as going to be more like that. "Any Given Wednesday" is the opposite of a show like "Real Sports". "Any Given Wednesday" is sports and pop culture, mixed with elements of comedy. There is no panel on this show. Simmons has people come on and talk, but it is more interview and less talking head type stuff. What the show all boils down to is, it is a live taping of his podcast. The show is very free flowing. There is a looseness to the show that I found refreshing. Simmons looked totally calm and in his element. The show is a perfect way to get his view across.

Last night, he had Charles Barkley come on to talk about LeBron James. Simmons asked, after doing a great opening monologue about why he now thought James belonged in the conversation as the best NBA player ever, and Barkley shut that notion down immediately. Barkley is definitely stuck in his old view of the NBA, but that is one of the many things that makes Charles Barkley so great. I personally agree with Simmons. I think LeBron is a top 5 all time player, but I liked hearing Barkley say he had to win a couple of more championships before he would put him past Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan. I also enjoyed Barkley letting Simmons, the studio audience and everyone watching know that his top five all time players will never change. He is set in his way. Barkley seemed just as comfortable as Simmons was, even when Simmons pushed him on stuff like Barkley holding Larry Bird's arms back so Dr. J could punch him in the face, or Barkley's many past gambling stories. After the Barkley interview, Simmons did a kind of funny spoof on the Under Armor and Steph Curry commercials. There was some decent humor in it, but it was just okay. The commercial Simmons and his writers created was a very funny closing bit to the joke.

Then, Simmons had another one on one interview with Ben Affleck. They talked about the Batman stuff and what drove Affleck to becoming a director, but when Simmons brought up the Patriots and Tom Brady and "deflategate", Affleck went off. This was at times funny and very revealing. Affleck is a true sports fan and a true Boston fan. This dude loves Tom Brady and thinks, like most of the sports watching public, that "deflategate" is so dumb and so unimportant. His speech was impassioned. I recommend people seeking it out on the internet to watch, it is bizarre and telling. I know that I was enthralled.

Once Affleck has done speaking the truth, Simmons did his first of what I'm sure will be a weekly segment, where he gave the "championship belt" to the best thing of the week. This week was the year 2016 and how it has become so unpredictable. He mentioned the Cavs winning the title, the fact that the Cubs have the best record in baseball and that he now has his own show on HBO, among other things. I very much enjoyed this part of the show. Like I said, it was basically a live taping of his podcast, and that is a good thing, in my opinion.

I will be curious to see how future episodes attack sports and pop culture news. I also hope, at some point, he goes off on ESPN. I know he did that recently in a magazine interview, but I want to see him do it live on his TV show, curse words and all, since it is on HBO. I also hope he brings on some of his recurring guests from his podcast for face to face interviews. I don't think it will happen, but I'd love to see Jalen Rose and Zach Lowe on his show, but they both work for ESPN. He can have his buddy Joe House on, or Chuck Klosterman or even more famous NBA players, like Charles Barkley. Anyway, it was a decent premiere of a show that I will watch every week because I am a Bill Simmons fan. Don't go into "Any Given Wednesday" expecting "Real Sports", it is a totally different show.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He may not have the slurred passion of Ben Affleck, but Ty is also not a fan of "deflategate". Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Final Days of ESPN

ESPN headquarters circa 2020

I think I need to take a moment today to talk about the mass exodus that is happening at ESPN right now.

I've been known to bash on ESPN on this site, but that's because they are an incompetent network that hires stupid people. They also act like they are the biggest and best thing since sliced bread. That was true about 25 years ago, but times have changed and ESPN refuses to keep up with that. They have barely changed anything about themselves since the internet has basically taken over the world. The only big difference that I have noticed, yes I still watch, but it's an anger watch, is the new set. They also have people hosting their own versions of "SportsCenter", but it's still pretty much the same. The higher ups at the company are either oblivious, or they just don't care, about the changing culture.

Nowadays, almost everything is done on the internet. I wouldn't be able to write if it weren't for the internet. In fact, a lot of people wouldn't have made it without the internet. But, ESPN doesn't seem to care. I wonder if they think it is a fad, or something that will just disappear. Sorry to break the news, but being the millennial writer and podcaster on this site, the internet is no fad and it will only continue to get bigger and bigger. I can't even fathom what it will be like when my kids are my age.

That's another thing, ESPN refuses to get with the times, what with live streaming now. Hell, if I want to watch a Michigan football, basketball or even a baseball game, I can see it in real time on the BTN2Go app. ESPN claims to have a live stream, but you have to pay for the stream, or they just have the "live" stream that is just some random person writing down what happens on each play, waiting what seems like an hour to write it, and the game is so far behind when they finally give you the info. For example, after my daughter was born, I had to watch a Michigan-Northwestern football game on my phone and I started with the ESPN "live stream". It was incredibly bad. I was getting zero updates. I couldn't find out which team had the ball or what they were doing. My dad asked me how the game was going and I could not give him a proper answer. After dealing with this nonsense for almost a half an hour, my older brother told me to go to the BTN2Go app. I downloaded it, searched the game, found it immediately, and was even able to watch it on my iPhone in a hospital room. Side note, Michigan thumped Northwestern that day. When I finally got to see the game, the first quarter was just about over and they were up 21-0. So, why does a channel, BTN, that has only been around for about 15 years have a better app and better internet capabilities that a company, ESPN, that's been around for 35 plus years? That is absolutely insane.

I think the "talent" at ESPN is starting to realize that the company will not get with the times and they have no chance of advancing any further than they already have. Sure, they fired Bill Simmons after he deservedly crushed Roger Goodell, but I guarantee that, had HBO came in and made an offer before he was let go, he would have left in a heart beat. Simmons outgrew that place, so instead of letting him leave on his own terms, they decided they would save face and fire him. That completely backfired on ESPN. Simmons has throngs of fans, me included, that will follow him to whatever network he goes to. They also decided, after letting Simmons go, it was time to shut down Grantland. Another huge mistake from ESPN. They lost a ton of great writers after doing this. Most of those writers are back with Simmons now. Grantland was huge for ESPN, but they wanted to rid themselves of everything Bill Simmons, and that was idiotic. Simmons and his staff write for the younger generation and, as I've said, we will follow him and his writers anywhere. I'm pumped for his show on HBO, I'm an avid listener of his podcast and I have subscribed to and follow The Ringer, his new site, on Twitter. 

Then, there was the news that Mike Tirico was leaving to go to NBC. This is a huge problem for ESPN. While Mike Tirico may not be the nicest, most pleasant person to be around, he was a crucial member of their staff. He was the co anchor on "Monday Night Football". He called big time college football games. He called NBA games. He was huge in college basketball. I mean, the guy is a jack of all trades. And the people at ESPN just lost him. I was legitimately shocked when I read that he was leaving. I don't know who they will replace him with, but I will bet it will someone who is incredibly under qualified.

Hell, they are even losing "journalist" that are not even mediocre, they are terrible. Last year they lost the racist piece of human garbage, Colin Cowherd. And now, the most moronic, nonsensical, I think I'm right because I'm the loudest, idiot Skip Bayless is leaving to join Cowherd at Fox Sports. This gives me a newfound hatred for Fox Sports, but damn, they can't even keep terrible people over at ESPN. Skip Bayless is a flat out dummy. The guy says some of the dumbest things I've ever heard on TV. Some, wait, everything he says is filled with stupidity and an arrogance that he should never, ever have. He is so dumb and so out of his mind. This is a guy that has said that Tim Tebow is an all time great QB, if you need a reference at how truly moronic he is. But, he too is leaving ESPN. I cannot believe they couldn't keep him on board. I wouldn't be shocked if the equally stupid and equally loud Stephen A Smith is the next to go. Yeah, they let Lou Holtz go, but he is about a million years old, so not a very big deal. Sure, they let Mark May go a year ago, but he is so much better off where he is now. They let Robert Smith go, but he was pretty good on TV and I'm sure he will find a job soon. And, after repeated racial slurs and racially insensitive things he put on the internet, they finally let Curt Schilling go.

Therein lies a huge problem for ESPN. If you bad mouth the NFL, a la Bill Simmons calling out Goodell, you get fired immediately. But, it took Schilling being incredibly racist, homophobic and mysoginistic many times before they actually fired him. Bill Simmons says one bad thing about the NFL, boom, he's gone. But, it's not until Schilling takes the side of the backwards ass people in North Carolina, he agreed with them that transgender people shouldn't be able to use the bathroom with the gender they now identify with, to fire him. Schilling is a horrible excuse for a human being. It's a travesty that it took ESPN that long to fire him. And what a crock from people that claim to be forward thinking.

It's just a matter of time now before everyone leaves ESPN, or they just shut down because they refuse to keep up with the change in the world. ESPN is an inept network and that ineptness will soon catch up to them.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He does not remember the early days of ESPN, but he sure remembers the last days. The network ended in 2006 if he recalls correctly. Ty is on the internet, follow him on twitter @tykulik.

The Winners and Losers Stay the Same After the NBA Trade Deadline

Everyone kept the hands they were dealt

The NBA trade deadline has come and gone in the last week. I know that other writers write an immediate winners and losers article only minutes after the deadline happens. Me personally, I need time to think about what happened and all the player movement. I don't think you can honestly say who won or lost a trade the moment after it happens unless it's something huge. For example, when Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups were traded to New York for basically nothing, the Knicks were clear winners, although they've only won one playoff series since Carmelo has been in New York. I agree more with a writer like Zach Lowe, my favorite NBA writer, that you need almost a full year or even two before you can really pick any winners or losers from the trade deadline. But, for the sake of argument, I will do my best to pick some teams that "won" the deadline, and who "lost" the deadline.

First of all, there were none of the big name moves that I and a lot of other sports writers thought would happen. I was certain that Al Horford was going to be a Celtic, I thought Jeff Teague would be gone, I was almost 100 percent certain that Dwight Howard would be anywhere but Houston and I figured LeBron would get his way and the Cavs would dump Kevin Love. None of those guys moved. I was even pretty sure that the Clippers would deal Blake Griffin because they are playing so well without him and he is a locker room problem, but no movement for Griffin. With that being said, the big names usually don't move at the trade deadline. Very rarely do we see superstars change teams with less than 30 games to go in the regular season. Why change chemistry now with so little time left in the season? By this point, we pretty much know who is going to be in the playoffs and who is going to be in the lottery. The big name guys get dealt in the offseason, right after the free agency dust settles. I do fully expect guys like Horford, Howard, Teague and Griffin to be on new teams starting next season. Hell, if the Knicks don't get any better, I wouldn't be shocked to see Carmelo get traded to a contender, The Knicks are going to go to a youth movement led by Kristaps Porzingis, and Carmelo will be 33 going into next season. the Knicks are no longer his team. And, depending on how the Cavs do, I think they will get swept in the Finals, or even beaten by Toronto in the Eastern Finals, Kevin Love could have a new team next year, if LeBron the GM gets his way.

This trade deadline featured no real superstars or team changing players. The best players that got traded were Tobias Harris to Detroit and Jeff Green to the Clippers. Those are not guys to build a team around. In Jeff Green's case, he is a good player that has a ton of upside, but he has also been traded four times in his short career. That's not a look that a player should strive for. He started his career in OKC and didn't get the minutes he needed and couldn't grow as a player. He was traded to Boston, were he would look like an all star one night and look like a 12th man the next night. He was then shipped to Memphis, were he played his best basketball, but that's not saying much. Sure, he was a decent slasher, but he missed more open jumpers than he made and he was wildly inconsistent on defense. Now, he is on the Clippers, where he is expected to take on the load until Blake Griffin comes back. I know LA fans and LA sports writers think this is a good trade, but I disagree. Green, while being a great talent, has never lived up to his high praise when he was a rookie. He is wildly inconsistent and he is not the game changer that fans and sports writers in LA think he can be. The only good that came from this trade was the Clippers unloading Lance Stephenson. The Clippers are the 4 seed right now, and they will stay there, Jeff Green will not help them leap frog the Thunder or the Spurs and no one is going to catch the Warriors. The Pistons getting Tobias Harris was a pretty good move for them. I like this trade a hell of a lot more than the Jeff Green move. Tobias Harris wasn't being used properly in Orlando and I think, with a coach like Stan Van Gundy, he will thrive alongside Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson. I don't like that they had to give up Brandon Jennings, who I really, really like, but he is coming off a torn ACL and the Pistons gave Reggie Jackson a lot of money this offseason. They have moved on from Brandon Jennings. This move will firmly put the Pistons in a good playoff position, especially in the East, and Harris could help them make some early round noise.

Other than those two guys, the next biggest name to move was Markieff Morris, who was traded from Phoenix to Washington. I don't really know where he fits in DC and this felt like a desperate move by a very desperate team. Morris is a very good basketball player, but he is also a whiner and can be a malcontent. Look at all the stuff he did in Phoenix after they traded his brother. The front office in Phoenix definitely deserves blame for being shady and trading his brother after they both took discounts to play together, but the NBA is a business and shady stuff happens in business all the time. I don't see Markieff Morris making the Wizards a legit threat. John Wall deserves better help than that. Other than these three, guys like Randy Foye, who is having one of his worst statistical years, got traded from Denver to OKC for DJ Augustin. I don't think either team really gained or lost anything from this trade. The Cavs acquired Channing Frye, but he will not push them over the edge. He will not stretch the Warriors or Spurs as much as people may think. And the Bulls shipped Kirk Hinrich over to Atlanta. This trade would have been good about 6 or 7 years ago, now, who cares.

If I were to pick a "winner" from this trade deadline, I think it is pretty clear that it's the Detroit Pistons. They got a proven scorer in Harris and, if he is willing to be coached up a bit, he can turn himself into a pretty good all around NBA player. Harris next to Drummond is a pretty good and formidable front court. Phoenix, while a total disaster in every other aspect of an NBA team, at least got rid of an unhappy player that was causing problems and they got a first round pick out of him, so they may be a slight winner, and that's the only time they will be called winners this year.

As far as "losers" go, no real team did anything that will help or hurt them with player acquistions, so the only "losers" I can find are, we, the fans. Now, we should know by now that the big names get moved in the offseason, but I expected at least one big time star to get traded. Why didn't the Rockets dump Dwight Howard? Was the asking price too high, or did no one want him? I know he's a free agent this summer, but why not rent him for 30 games? All credit to Bill Simmons, why didn't the Trailblazers try and get him to help them in their playoff run? He could have helped them, and he always seems to show up and play good basketball in the playoffs and they would only have to deal with him for 30 games and they could let him walk this offseason, no problem. Or, why didn't the Celtics do something? I have read they tried, but they couldn't pull anything off. They have the most assets and Danny Ainge has been chasing a star for three years now. I thought they could have gotten Horford, Love or Blake Griffin, but they got none of them. Where we sit now, they are a three seed in the East, but with their rag tag roster, they will not beat Cleveland or Toronto. Had they added a star, I wouldn't say the same thing. And, the Knicks were quiet, but they have no assets and it would have taken them moving a big name to get another big name. Phil Jackson wasn't going to do that and had they tried to trade Carmelo, he has a no trade clause and he could have voided any trade he wanted.

This was a very uneventful and very quiet trade deadline, but they have been for the last four years. There a no real winners and losers because we just don't know how these things will pan out. Look for this summer time to be very busy with lots of big named guys finding new homes. Summer is where the action will take place.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is practicing being all excited for the trade deadline as a basketball writer, and then being disappointed as a fan. Ty is on twitter, go follow him @tykulik.

Dwight Howard Deserves Better Than the Rockets

Where does it say these numbers will win an NBA title?

With the NBA trade deadline this Thursday, one name is being thrown around and it's a forgone conclusion that Dwight Howard is going to be traded from Houston to any number of teams. Boston, Atlanta and Toronto have all been brought up as potential landing spots. If you watch ESPN or Fox Sports News or any number of sports media outlets, they are all saying the same thing about Dwight Howard. He's a malcontent, he complains too much, he can't coexist with another star, he's too much of a diva, he's lost his dominant form from five years ago, basically he is the problem they all say. This was the case when he left Orlando in free agency. He didn't like Stan Van Gundy and he quit playing mid way through his last season. He then signed with the Lakers and his one season there was an absolute train wreck. He didn't like playing with Kobe Bryant, coaching was sub par at best and he looked genuinely unhappy that whole season.

Then the big blockbuster deal when he joined the Rockets. He was the missing piece that this team needed, or so it was thought. His first year there, they did okay, but they bowed out of the first round of the playoffs to a Thunder team that didn't have Russell Westbrook. Then, he missed the majority of the first half of last season due to many injuries. The Rockets played surprisingly well in his absence, with James Harden coming on very strong, heavily involved in the MVP race. In fact, Harden was the players choice for MVP last year. But, when they needed Dwight Howard the most, he came up pretty big for the team. He was a key cog in their run to the Western Conference Finals last year. In their three game win streak to complete their comeback against the Clippers, it was Howard, not Harden, that made the difference. He was a force on defense. He was rebounding at an extremely high rate and he was getting whatever he wanted in the post. He made DeAndre Jordan look like a rookie at times during that series. He seemed to be regaining his dominating form.

Then, this past offseason happened. James Harden decided partying and dating a Kardashian was more important than staying in playing shape. Dwight Howard seemed disinterested in even playing basketball. The Rockets traded for Ty Lawson, a deal I still very much liked at the time, but he was coming off multiple DWI and DUI offenses. Basically, this team was in the news for all the wrong reasons. The season started and they limped out of the gate. The Rockets started 4-7 and fired Kevin McHale, a move I still disagree with. Sure, it's up to the coach to come up with a good game plan and the Rockets had little to no interest in playing defense, but the players also have to be invested in getting better and staying in shape. It was clear that Harden and Howard had not done their job. But, instead of taking it on themselves, Harden and Howard blamed coaching, thus the firing of Kevin McHale happened. But, JB Bickerstaff is not the answer at head coach, and to his credit, he was put in a terrible situation. He said it himself, and I couldn't agree more, he is coaching a "broken team".

So now, sitting at 27-28 coming out of the All Star break, the Rockets are looking to make deals, although I think it's a moot point. This team, if they make the playoffs, will be out in the first round. There were reports last week saying that both Harden and Howard met late into the night with GM Daryl Morey, but I believe Harden was the only player present at that meeting. I truly believe he told Morey that it was him or Howard, that one of them has to go.

Now we get to the part where I actually defend Dwight Howard, something I never thought I would say. Sure, Howard is whiny and arrogant and self righteous, but he can still be dominant if put in the right situation. The way the Rockets run their offense is terrible for a big man like Howard. They give the ball to Harden at the top of the key, he dribbles for 15-20 seconds, then he either jacks up a contested three, or he tries to drive to the basket to draw a foul. I don't see how anyone, with Harden being the exception, would like playing in that type of offense. The Rockets are boring and they are predictable. And when you are a big man, you need touches to stay motivated. I don't care if it's just an easy dump pass to him in the high post and he kicks it back out, at least he got his hands on the ball during that possession. It's asking an awful lot, to tell your big man, hey we need you to play hovering defense, rebound at a very high rate and hustle down on offense, but there's only a 25 percent chance you will touch the ball. Any big man would laugh in the coaches face if they asked them to do that. I don't think that Howard is the real problem and I don't think getting rid of him will solve all their problems.

In my opinion, the two main problems on the Rockets are Harden and, way more importantly, Daryl Morey. Harden has been a diva since his last year in OKC. He didn't show up in the finals and when they didn't offer him a max contract, he said he felt disrespected and left in a huff. The Thunder, when healthy, are a much better team without Harden, no matter what Bill Simmons says (he does seem to have had a change of heart). And the fact that he wanted to make his "brand" bigger this offseason, that that was more important than staying in shape, tells me a lot about James Harden the player and person. He really screwed this team this offseason and he's screwing them over during the season.

Forget about the players, Daryl Morey and his analytic nonsense have been the main culprit that has caused this mess in Houston. He thought pairing a three point shooting, ball dominant two guard and a ball dominant, really good rebounding center would work because the numbers told him so. Numbers were wrong. He took a chance on Ty Lawson, even though they already have Patrick Beverly, because the numbers said having two point guards would make them more explosive. Numbers were wrong. He thought firing McHale would solve problems because McHale wasn't taking his analytics serious and that JB Bickerstaff, according to the numbers, would turn this team around. Numbers were wrong. This whole craze of analytics and numbers is about as useful as "moneyball" was in baseball. Sure, you will have a decent regular season, making the playoffs regularly, but, how many World Series have the Oakland A's won since Billy Beane took over as GM? Zero, that's how many. In fact, I don't even think they've made an ALCS in his time. The way to build a team is through developing draft picks and pairing veterans that know how to play the game. This numbers nonsense needs to go. The Warriors and Spurs don't use analytics, they just develop players and win titles.

So yes, if the Rockets do trade Dwight Howard, I hope it comes back to haunt them. I hope he gets on a team that feeds him the ball and I hope he dunks it all over James Harden and Daryl Morey and I hope he laughs while he's doing it. I cannot believe that I defended Dwight Howard, but all the problems with the Rockets don't solely lie on him. James Harden and Daryl Morey deserve the majority of the blame.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. The numbers tell him that it is time to stop watching the Rockets. Ty is on twitter, go follow him @tykulik.

We Need To Stop Making Excuses For Violent Athletes

Violent people belong behind a fence with razor wire, not in our arenas and stadiums.

With the news coming out last week that Blake Griffin will miss the majority of the regular season after punching the Clippers equipment manager, repeatedly, and breaking his shooting hand, I ask everyone today, why do we let athletes get away with heinous acts like this? Why did Blake Griffin feel the need to punch this guy so many times, in the face, to the point of injuring himself? And why are their people out their defending him? I heard Charles Barkley, my all time favorite basketball player, on Bill Simmons podcast recently say that "this stuff happens all the time" and that we "shouldn't overreact to this news". That's insane! If any regular Joe did this at their job, they'd be fired immediately, no questions asked. But, we as a society, feel like it's okay to give professional athletes a pass and that is very disturbing.

In the last two years, we've had far too many incidents involving violent behavior coming from pro athletes. And yes, football is the main culprit, but it's spilling over into other pro sports. The athletes that are involved in these incidents are pretty famous too. Kids are supposed to look up to these people. I've written about how terrible Hope Solo, Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice are on the site before, but lets not forget about Aroldis Chapman's domestic violence charge that was recently dropped. A trade was voided because the Dodgers didn't want that PR mess. He was basically a sitting duck until the New York Yankees traded for him and the whole story went away. Or what about all the off season, in season and now post season stuff that's coming out about Greg Hardy? He abuses multiple women, still gets a contract from the Dallas Cowboys, has multiple fights with multiple teammates during the season and now, in the offseason, he can't seem to stop partying. Why does he still get a free pass from the morons over at ESPN? Also, in the college ranks, look at former Missouri QB Matty Mauk. He had to get suspended four times before they kicked him off the team and they only kicked him off when a video of him doing cocaine surfaced. He's not some hot shot QB that's going to help Missouri win many games, but he was a division one caliber QB so he got way more chances than any other non student athlete at Missouri gets because he's good at sports. Why the double standard? It's not fair to the 95 percent of students that don't play sports. They slip up once, they're expelled. But, if you're competent at football, you get way too many chances. That doesn't seem fair.

Now, there's this new story about Johnny Manziel physically assaulting his ex girlfriend that ESPN and Jerry Jones will certainly try to cover up. How many chances does this punk get? He has made mistake after mistake since his sophomore year of college, but everyone seems to write it off. He can showboat and anchors think it's him getting in opponents head, not him being a selfish asshole. Then he slips in the draft because of "character issues", but that's not his fault either. When he does get on the field in the NFL, he looks lost and slow, but it's never his fault, it's coaching and system. When he goes to rehab, but then is spotted 6 months later drinking on the bye week, it's said that he's a young kid and young kids make mistakes. And now we have the second time that he's been brought up on physical abuse charges. People seem to have already forgotten that he was charged with pushing his ex girlfriend's head into the car window before the season started and now there is this new story of him assaulting her at, you guessed it, a bar. Why does this born with a silver spoon, spoiled punk keep getting second, third and fourth chances. He's not a good pro and he's an even worse person. He needs to be in a real rehab, getting real help. I don't need to hear Tony Kornheiser and Ron Jaworski make anymore excuses for Johnny Manziel. I'm fed up with it.

Which brings me to Blake Griffin. The stuff I've heard, from people I really respect, people like Charles Barkley, Bill Simmons, Zach Lowe and Kevin Pelton, just to name a few, is downright absurd and kind of disturbing. Like I said with Barkley earlier, he claims this happens all the time. That doesn't make it right. That is not a viable excuse for someone to physically attack someone smaller than them. The only repercussion that Simmons, Lowe and Pelton can seem to find is to trade him to a different team. Oh yeah, go let him beat up some other team's equipment manager, that will solve his anger problem. These same guys will say, "he apologized, it's over", are dead wrong. You know how many times physical abusers apologize, then do the same exact thing a month later? The vast majority of them. My mom works in a battered women and children's center and she's told me some of the guys have apologized upwards of 10 to 15 times, only to abuse again and again. In fact, and I'll give Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon credit here, they are the only two sports anchors I've heard say that Blake Griffin needs to be suspended immediately for at least, the rest of the season. I agree, except they should have added, suspended without pay. It's like I said earlier, anyone that works a regular job, if they physically attacked someone, they'd get fired that instance, without hesitation. But, there's that double standard with pro sports. I've also heard some of the people that are pro Blake Griffin say that they've been mad enough at a friend to hit them, but they never say that they actually hit them. This is no real friendship if Blake Griffin thinks it's okay to punch this guy until he breaks his hand. This is a sickening act done by a disturbed man child.

I wish we as a society made these abusive athletes responsible for their heinous actions. Instead, we sweep it under the rug and forget about. and therein lies the problem. Everyone needs to be held accountable by the horrible things they do, pro athlete or not.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He was once so mad at the head editor that Ty beat him by 80 on NCAA Football 2006. No hitting, just humiliation. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Do Not Change the Rules for Bad Free Throw Shooters

Plenty of open hoops to practice some free throws

So, I was reading one of my favorite websites this morning, Deadspin, and I read an article entitled, "NBA Teams Have Found Creative New Ways to Intentionally Foul " about the intentional fouling that is going on in the NBA right now to put poor free throw shooters at the line. This isn't the first I've heard about people wanting this rule changed. This is probably the one hundredth time I've heard people griping about the "hack a whoever" strategy that teams are employing. Like I said, Deadspin did a whole piece on it today, it's a great read, and I've heard sports writers and journalists I really admire like Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons also complaining about this strategy.

Well, I'm here today to tell everyone that I side with Jalen Rose on this topic. He was on some kind of NBA countdown show on ESPN and he said something along the lines that these guys are pro athletes and they should learn how to shoot free throws. He doesn't mind the "hack a whoever" strategy and neither do I. I 100 percent agree with Rose's assessment. These guys get paid millions upon millions of dollars and they can't make more than 40 percent of a shot that is about 13 feet from the rim and zero defense on them. It's a "free throw", defense is not allowed. I coach 9, 10 and 11 year olds that are better free throw shooters than these guys that get paid real money to play basketball, that's a shame. It's upsetting that such an easy shot has become so hard for particular big men, I'll get to some of them in a minute, that it literally slows this fast paced game to a halt. NBA games should take no more than 2 to 2 1/2 hours, but with this big men unable to shoot free throws, the games are stretching to 3 plus hours sometimes. That's ridiculous.

Let's look at three particular poor free throw shooting big men. First, I want to point out Shaquille O'Neal. The reason Shaq is first, no one made a stink when teams were "hack-a-shaqing" throughout his Lakers run. It was deemed "smart coaching" and a "good strategy" at the time. What's baffling about Shaq, he was a decent free throw shooter in college and his first couple of pro seasons. Then, he put more muscle on his body and he just stopped working on free throws in practice. It got so bad for him, he was literally shot putting the ball to the hoop. Still, he was about a 50 percent free throw shooter, even at his worst. It was bad, but not as bad as some current players. Shaq was also bigger than anyone playing at the time, so most of his attempts at the free throw line came on "and one" plays. He'd make his shot, usually a dunk, and only have to shoot one free throw. I mentioned Shaq first because of the double standard that is coming up with the next two players I'm going to mention.

Like I said before, when people were intentionally fouling Shaq, it wasn't that big of a deal. I don't recall anyone saying they needed to change the rule. Now, we have two of the absolute worst free throw shooters I've seen in my 20 plus years of watching NBA basketball, DeAndre Jordan and Andre Drummond. When these two step to the line, look away because you'll see something very ugly. The kids I coach are told to not watch the two of them play because of how poorly they shoot the ball. Now, I don't like DeAndre Jordan, that's been well chronicled on the site, but I think Andre Drummond has potential to be a game changing type of player. He has perennial all star potential and he puts up huge rebound numbers. But, his free throw shooting is so atrocious and that's holding him back from being a big time player. Just go back a couple of weeks and look at his free throw stat. He was 13 for 36. That is downright terrible. His team still won the game, but man, that's a bad, horrendous stat line. Just awful. DeAndre Jordan, he's so bad at free throw shooting, he's been pulled in critical moments of critical playoff games because his coach doesn't trust his free throw shooting. He has decent form, but the shot always goes wide, either left or right, doesn't matter, it's ALWAYS wide. I mean, he has even air balled multiple free throws in a single game multiple times. You are getting paid huge money DeAndre Jordan to play basketball, so you should never, ever air ball a free throw. Never. That is awful. How does an almost seven footer air ball a free throw? It's just appalling.

Now, these guys that want the rule changed think it's unfair to the other players on the court and it's unfair to the fan. I say, practice your god damn free throws. It's the second easiest shot in basketball, behind the layup/dunk. There's no one guarding you. You get 10 seconds to shoot the ball. All you have to deal with is some dumbass fans yelling stupid shit at you. I know you guys can dunk and rebound. I sure as hell hope you'd be good at that. Andre Drummond and DeAndre Jordan are both close to seven feet tall, they should be able to dunk and rebound with ease. When you're a pro, your game should be well rounded. I mean, at least Shaq made 50 percent of his free throws. Drummond and Jordan both shoot in the low 40's and I believe Drummond dipped into the mid 30's after his 23 missed free throws the other night. I'd suggest, instead of working on your next alley oop, or outlet pass off a rebound, which they both excel at, spend all of your practice time on free throws. Also, go into the gym on off days and work on your free throw shooting. You guys are pro athletes. Your only job is to make your game better.

This is why I agree with Jalen Rose. Everything I said above, he's said multiple times on multiple sports shows. The NBA shouldn't have to change their rules so these pathetic free throw shooters gain another advantage. These guys should work on their free throw shooting, or they should get used to sitting on the bench in crunch time. It's as simple as that. I really like you, everyone at Deadspin, Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons, but to suggest changing the rule is asinine. I am 100 percent on Jalen Rose's side. Learn how to shoot a god damn free throw.

That's your job.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. In 1998 he hit one hundred percent of his free throws, 2 for 2. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The SeedSing (half) year in Pop Culture: The Top Five Podcasts of 2015

Time to remember the mic's best guests

Continuing my week long best of 2015 countdown today I'll pick my top five podcast episodes of the year. I'm a very, very big fan of podcast, mostly comedy podcast. Comedy podcasts are very well represented in this countdown, but there's one pretty serious, not very comedic episode that tops my list. I could've easily done a top 25, 50 or even 100 for this topic, so paring it down to five was tough. Here it goes.

My number five podcast episode of 2015 was the return of "Go Bayside" when they critically deconstructed the "Saved By the Bell: Hawaiian Style" movie. By they I mean the excellent and very hilarious host, April Richardson and her equally as funny best friend, Millie De Chirico. I was so pleasantly surprised and happy when my podcast app showed me that there was a new "Go Bayside". I put time away to go on a hike so I would not be bothered while I listened. April Richardson took a long time off after she finished doing all the pertinent episodes of "Saved By the Bell", but she promised to return to do this movie and the one when Kelly and Zack get married. This episode made it well worth the wait. Richardson and De Chirico come out hot from the start, just chastising the racism in this movie. It was so funny. I loved how upset they both got t the fact that there was a principal's convention in the exact same spot of Hawaii that the students were vacationing in. They couldn't fathom a world that in all of Hawaii these people picked the same spot to vacation in. I couldn't agree more with them. They constantly bad mouthed Kelly's vacation boyfriend for being a creep and this actor totally deserved it, he was terrible. My favorite thing in the whole episode was how they kept going back to the piece of paper that the hotel lease was written on that was literally, a plain sheet of paper. They kept asking why this wasn't a more important document that they would keep in a special place and I found myself asking the same questions. It's baffling. This was such a great episode of my all time favorite podcast and I can't wait until April Richardson does the wedding of Zack and Kelly on what I assume will be the final episode ever of "Go Bayside".

Number four is the episode of "Doughboys" where they talk about In and Out Burger. "Doughboys" has been my new favorite podcast and this episode takes the cake. In most episodes, there's a back and forth between Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger and the guest just chimes in with whomever they are friends with. It's all very funny, but this episode was bizarre in the best possible way. Their guest was Armen Weitzman. Comedy fans know who Weitzman is, and how weird he can be, but he was off the handles in this particular "Doughboys". He would go back and forth between talking about the food to talking straight nonsense. While I was listening, I was enthralled at how wacky this episode was becoming. Even Mitchell and Wiger seemed to be taken aback at where all this was going. They even stopped their bickering towards each other and let Weitzman go on some long, strange rants. The best part was Weitzman explaining why his basketball podcast with Mitchell never came to fruition. This was the most bizarre thing in a completely absurd episode. I loved every second and I've listened to it multiple times just to hear the craziness. Not every episode is like this one, but I'm glad they have this, because it's one for the ages.

Coming in at number three I have "The Bill Simmons Podcast" episode with Michael Rappaport. As we all know by now, Simmons was fired from ESPN, took a social media hiatus for a couple of months and finally announced he'd be returning with a podcast and a TV show soon. The podcast was first and his early episodes were with friends and former athletes. It was basically the same thing as the "B.S. Report". Then, he had Michael Rappaport on and it was magical. He talked about everything fro his love for Knicks basketball to Rocky's trainer being a ladies man. He professed his love for Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis, calling him the "Latvian Gangster". He also kept calling Latvia, Lativia. He added an "I" that didn't need to be there. He also pushed Simmons to say something bad about ESPN. I loved how he was all in his business trying to get Simmons to say anything about his firing and what led to it. Simmons didn't say anything on air, but I like to imagine he crushed ESPN off air. Rappaport was a great relief from all the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics love that flooded the first month of Bill Simmons new podcast. He was lively, constantly cursing and just being himself. I loved it and I know most of his listeners did too. I can't wait for part two because there needs to be a part two.

My number two podcast episode was Comedy Bang Bang's fourth edition of "Farts and Procreation". This was bittersweet. Harris Wittels unfortunately overdosed and died the week before this episode came out. It was tragic and he has been greatly missed. He died way too young and had a horrible addiction problem. I didn't even know him and I miss him, so I can't even imagine what was going through Scott Aukerman's head when he did the intro. Well, his intro was an absolutely beautiful homage to his friend. He spoke of the good and the bad times they had and their close friendship. These two were very good friends. I'll admit, the intro brought me to tears. Then, they played their annual episode and it was as funny as one could've hoped for. Wittels, Chelsea Peretti and Adam Scott were as goofy and funny as they were on the previous three. Aukerman did his thing as the host, keeping the pace. Wittels did his classic "Harrison's Foam Corner" where he tells jokes that aren't ready for the stage yet and it was, once again, riotous. Peretti and Scott were great too. This was a great sendoff to the great career of Harris Wittels that was cut way too short. This is another episode I go back and listen to because it reminds me how truly talented Harris Wittels was. He was a great comedy writer nd he will be deeply missed.

And that brings us to my number one podcast episode of 2015, the "WTF with Marc Maron" episode where he interviewed President Barack Obama. This was a watermark moment in podcast history. I know that Obama was on other podcast, but not a comedian's podcast that thousands of hard core comedy fans listen to. This was a huge deal to me because I am an Obama supporter and I'm a Maron fan, so put those two together, I'm immediately on board. Maron did a great job with the interview, asking him all types of questions. Obama was even better, answering everything and telling more. He spoke of his father not really being around. He spoke of his love for his mom. He praised his wife. He talked about being a dad to teenage girls. He came off as a regular guy, not the President and I loved that. This was easily the best one hour of podcasting I listened to every year. And, I'm glad it was Maron that got the interview. He's gotten some big time people to be on his show, but he got the President and to people of my generation, this was great for us to hear this powerful man sound like an everyday guy. Maron and Obama did a great job with this episode. I mean, how could anything else be number one beside this episode.

So there you have my top five podcast episodes of 2015. Come back tomorrow where I wrap it up with my top five sports moments of 2015.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Next year his top five podcasts will all be ones he is a featured guest on. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik. 

The Warriors may be the best team in NBA history

Steph Curry would average over 60% on these rims

As you all know by now, I'm a HUGE NBA fan. It is on my TV whenever possible. I wrote a ten part season preview. I love the NBA almost as much as college football.

NBA basketball is getting back to the good ole days. Sure, teams don't shoot the midrange jump shot as well anymore, and if you turn on ESPN, all they show are Clippers highlights and the men's college game is becoming borderline unwatchable, with all the one and done players, but the NBA has gotten a wee bit better. It's more enjoyable to watch games now than it was 5 or 6 years ago. Most of the teams have become pretty competitive, save for the 76ers, Lakers and Nets. The East has even improved from last year. The West is still much better though and will continue to be for awhile. The Spurs signed LaMarcus Aldridge and resigned Kawhi Leonard. They also still have Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli and Tim Duncan. When the Thunder are at full strength, Durant has missed the past 10 days, they're as competitive as any team in the league. The Clippers look bad right now, much to my delight, but they will fix things and still win in the 50's. The Mavericks have played surprisingly well 15 games into the season. Dirk is still Dirk, and Wes Matthews, coming off a torn ACL, looks pretty good. The Pelicans had a terrible start, a possible playoff hopes crushing start, but Anthony Davis is back completely healthy, and they've won their past two, beating the Spurs in one of those games. The Rockets are a mess, I'll give you that. Firing Kevin McHale may prove to be a huge misstep. It's not his fault that Dwight Howard doesn't care about basketball that much anymore. And what in the world has happened to James Harden? He was the MVP runner up last year, but this year, teammates are griping about playing with him, calling him a diva and a ball hog, and he spent the entire offseason partying and not staying in shape. It's gotten so bad with him that even Bill Simmons has cooled on the Thunder trading him being the worst thing that ever happened in the NBA, and he hasn't shut up about it for five straight years. The Grizzlies and Jazz are .500 teams right now, but they, much like the Clippers, will figure it out.

All these teams pale in comparison to what the Golden State Warriors are doing right now. As you all know, the Warriors beat the Nuggets last night and tied for the best start in NBA history at 15-0. Sure, they've had some close calls to inferior teams, the Nets, but other than two or three games, they've been blowing out teams. Each win seems to be by at least ten, and the starters rest almost all of the fourth quarter. Steph Curry has been unbelievable to start the year too. He's averaging something like 33 or 34 points a game, shooting almost 50 percent from three, 60 percent from two and 90 percent from the free throw line. That's incredible! I don't know that there's ever been a 60, 90, 50 player ever. It would be astounding if Curry can accomplish that this year. He's also stepped up his game on defense as well this year. Sure, he won't be first team all defense, but second or third team is a real possibility. But, it's not just Curry winning these games. You're probably thinking, well it's him and Klay Thompson scoring in bunches. Nope, Thompson has, I don't want to say struggled, but he hasn't been scoring like he normally does. He still is playing absolute lock down defense though. That part of his game has never wavered. He's one of the best, if not the best, maybe a step behind Kawhi Leonard, the best defender in the NBA. Harrison Barnes, who turned down an extension, betting on himself, has been a beast so far. His numbers may not show it, I think he's a 14 point per game and 5 or 6 rebound per game player statistically, but what he's doing for the Warriors is awesome. He's already had two of the best dunks of the year, he's is getting to the line more frequently, and he's hitting midrange and floaters on a regular basis. He's going to get paid this offseason if he keeps this up. Draymond Green is proving that he's an elite defender, rebounder and he's becoming a pretty good scorer. He's also a total pain in the ass with the opposition, and the Warriors love that about him. I've never seen a guy under 6'8 that can guard centers like he does. It's amazing. He made the right decision to stay in Golden State. This is the perfect team for him to be on. The other players on the team are doing whatever they need to do to help this team to continue to dominate. Andrew Bogut is protecting the rim and grabbing rebounds like he has his whole career. Andre Iguodala is knocking down open threes and dominating on defense like he has his whole career. He's also taken to being a sixth man better than anyone who used to be a franchise player that I've ever seen. He clearly just wants to win. Shaun Livingston is still a point guard in a 6'7 players body. He has command of the second unit and he finds the open man every time. Festus Ezeli is still crushing it on defense for the second unit and he seems to have found a bit of a scoring touch lately. Mo Speights and Leandro Barbosa still play out of control at times, but they are both instant offense off the bench for a team that has a ton of offensive weapons. The only other bench player that kind of contributes is James Michael McAdoo and in his limited playing time, he hustles his ass off. That's great for an 11 or 12th man off the bench. You usually don't see a lot of hustle from guys that deep on the bench.

The main reason I'm singling out the Warriors today is, I feel like I didn't give them enough love in my preseason preview. I had them as the second best team coming into this season behind the Spurs. Time will tell, but the Warriors, right now, are far and away the best team in the NBA. They may be historically one of the greatest teams of all time if they continue to play like this. I never thought, not only would I say it, but see a team that has a chance to win as many games as the Chicago Bulls did in the 95-96 season. That was the team that went 72-10. That was unreal to watch that team play because they could've won 75 or 76 games that year. The Warriors won't win all 82 games, that's impossible, but I think they have a real chance to tie, or even surpass the Bulls team that won 72 games. Their schedule will get tougher and players will get injuries, it's a long season, but they seem to have a goal in mind. This offseason a lot of people said that they didn't earn the title, they didn't have to play all the tough teams, they faced teams with key injuries and so on and so forth. The thing that was said that really got to them, in my opinion was, that they were "lucky", and that they weren't "true" champions. First of all, that's bull shit. Any team that's won a title in any sport needs luck, be it with health of their players, bounces going their way, a player on a hot streak, any kind of luck has been involved with every champion in every sport. But saying they weren't "true" champions, that just gave a team that won 67 games and a title last year, a chip on their shoulder. Now, they don't just want to beat you, they want to destroy you. That's the killer instinct that people talk about when it comes to champions. Sure, they won last year, but they want to continue to win and they want to crush you while doing it.

I'm not a Warriors fan, I'm indifferent when it comes to the Warriors. They're a ton of fun to watch, and Steph Curry has surpassed LeBron James and Kevin Durant as the best basketball player in the world, but I'm a Thunder fan, so that's who I root for.

Oh, they are also doing this without Steve Kerr. Luke Walton has been the interim head coach while Kerr's back heals. That's crazy.

I just want to apologize to the Warriors fan base and the Warriors organization for not ranking them as the preseason number one team in the NBA. They're doing something magical right now, and this could be a historic season. Just sit back and realize when you watch the Warriors this year, you could be watching a historically great NBA team. Maybe the greatest of all time. The rest of this season will be the judge.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has seen one team go 82-0 in an NBA season, his Oklahoma City Thunder on NBA 2K13. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Why does Roger Goodell hate the NFL?

The newest NFL mascot, Lady Justice

Here at SeedSing we have commented many times on recent scandals in the NFL (here, here, here, and here). The general consensus around our virtual office is that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is not very good at his job. Players like Tom Brady, and teams like the New England Patriots, may not be totally innocent, yet the ineptness of Goodell masks any improprieties. With the season only days away, many thought that Goodell's never ending follies would take a back seat to some real football action. That is what we hoped.

ESPN occasionally stumbles into actual journalism from time to time, usually with the people associated with Outside the Lines. Today looked like one of those stumbles with the piece Spygate to Deflategate: Inside what Split the NFL and Patriots Apart well researched and written by Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham. The article goes through a history of deception by the Patriots, and the cover ups orchestrated by Commissioner Roger Goodell's office. Nothing really new was introduced in the piece, it was just confirmation of the Patriots rule bending and Roger Goodell's complicity in the spying scandals. Now at the start of the NFL season, the media and general public are once again debating on how badly Roger Goodell managed another crisis.

Many people think that ESPN piece once again condemns the New England Patriots to the branding of being cheaters. I was living two blocks from the St. Louis Rams stadium during the 2001 - 2002 season. I would never say that I was a huge Rams fan, but as the scholar David Puddy says  "Gotta support the team". I was shocked, but not surprised, that the Patriots beat the Rams. All of these years later I honestly think not giving Marshall Faulk the ball more is what cost the Rams, not an illegal videotape of practice. Maybe the Patriots did cheat. It does look like there is a long paper trail to help indict the team. Many Patriot defenders (like some of our heroes, Bill Simmons and our very own Ty) will go on and on about how every team tries to get an edge. That may be true, but then why do we not hear about the San Diego Chargers spying. It would be nice to have the Cincinnati Bengals implicated in some beneficial cheating if it means we could win a playoff game. My point is that the Patriots level of cheating was well beyond that of an average team. The bigger the operation, the more likely you will get found out.

The Patriot's alleged cheating is minor compared to the cover up instituted by the NFL in relation to the spying allegations. The ESPN piece insinuates that many of the owners were aware of the issues with the Patriots, and those owners did little to stop the indiscretion. Why would any owner allow any other team to break the rules and achieve greater success. I would hope that all the owners want to maximize the income their teams can bring in. The idea that the owners want to "defend the shield" seems very counterproductive. If the Patriots were getting a leg up in multiple Super Bowls because of cheating, the cheating will be exposed. It takes a lot of people to pull of a major cheating operation, people will talk. People did talk. The Patriots made extra money while the other idiot owners were complicit in hiding the truth.

The Patriots and the other owners may look like cheaters and enablers, but Roger Goodell is the jester in the NFL's court of idiocy. The commissioner has been fortunate enough to be in power during an era of unprecedented revenues, this is not due to Roger Goodell. Since day one, Goodell has looked vastly over matched and has an ego that is far ahead of his competency. The ESPN piece paints a picture of a guy who can kiss the asses of his billionaire bosses, but cannot handle basic human conversation away from the comfy confines of his echo chamber. Every organization has scandal, Goodell seems surprised by the reactions to his ineptness in dealing with the scandals related to America's most popular sport. That is not the mark of a leader, it is the mark of an out of touch dictator. Roger Goodell has had the support of his billionaire bosses, and the loyalty of a sycophantic sports media. With all of these benefits, he still makes any minor crisis into a big one. Many have thought that ESPN decided to run their article to make Goodell and the NFL brass look good in light of the setback they had in federal court with the Brady suspension being thrown out. This article does not make Goodell look good, it makes him look worse than the incompetent stooge many already take him for.

If Roger Goodell is so smart, and so good at his job, why does he act in this manner. Sports media personalities I respect, like Dan Patrick, seem to go out of their way to defend the business of the NFL over the players. Goodell has people everywhere trying to make him look competent. I understand that these media personalities (I can not call them journalists) need access in order to get ratings. It is better to lose your integrity to the commissioner than it is to any player. I can not help to shake the idea that Roger Goodell hates the NFL. If he is so great, and so smart, than his actions must reflect the desire to bring football down. The ESPN article shows a paranoid, desperate, non-thinking man. Roger Goodell is either an incompetent danger, or a subversive one. The Patriots may have bent the rules, the owners may have turned their heads, but Roger Goodell has kept it all alive. Why is he still the NFL commissioner?

Why does Roger Goodell hate the NFL?

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is available to be the next NFL commissioner. His Playstation 2 memory card has quite the resume on it. Come tell RD why he is wrong by writing for us.

Ty remembers the greatness of Daryl Dawkins, Chocolate Thunder

We found one backboard spared by Chocolate Thunder

Last week, Daryl Dawkins, a true basketball legend unexpectedly passed away.

Daryl Dawkins was only 58 years old and died of an apparent heart attack. I didn't quite know how to digest this news. It's a real bummer that he passed away, but why was I letting it effect me? I didn't know him personally, I was just a big fan of his. I took the weekend to let it all sink in. I've come to the conclusion that, it upset me so much because he was one of the primary reasons I got into to basketball. I can remember being a young kid, maybe 8 or 9 years old, and starting to get heavily into basketball. This was right around the time that one of my all time favorite players, Shawn Kemp, was at the peak of his game. He was leading the Sonics to 50 plus win seasons and deep runs in the playoffs. What I liked so much about Kemp was how ferociously he dunked a basketball. He attacked the rim with fervor. That rim was going to bear the brunt of Kemp's anger. I loved it. My father, who was my basketball coach all the way up to high school, told me that if I liked Shawn Kemp and dunking so much, I needed to watch this former player, Daryl Dawkins. At that time, I thought, oh, this is just some old player my dad likes and he will show me how fundamentally sound he was as a player, and while he may be able to dunk, there's no way he'd be on Shawn Kemp's level. I couldn't have been more wrong. With my dad being the coolest person I know, he showed me videos of Daryl Dawkins shattering backboards. There was no fundamental talk, or coach speak coming from him, he wanted to show me who the first, true ferocious dunker they had in the NBA. For all the power Kemp brought to dunking, he was not on Daryl Dawkins level. I'd never seen a backboard shatter before. I had heard about it, but seeing it on a taped VHS video was insanely awesome. I couldn't believe that a player could do that.

Not only did my father want to show me videotapes of Daryl Dawkins, but I also learned from him that, Dawkins went straight to the NBA out of high school, much like Shawn Kemp did. This was way before the Kevin Garnett's, Kobe Bryant's and LeBron James of the world were doing it. Going to the pros straight from high school was a very foreign concept until about 15 years ago. The fact that Daryl Dawkins was ABA and NBA ready at the age of 18 is incredible. Basketball back then was rough and a grown mans game. Some 18 year old punk kid didn't belong in the league. Well, Dawkins and Moses Malone changed that idea. Instead of playing in the ABA, Dawkins renounced his NCAA eligibility and declared for the 1975 NBA draft. He was the fifth overall pick to the Philadelphia 76ers(this was when they weren't a joke of a franchise). He was so big and grown looking, that Walt Frazier, according to Wikipedia, said that he bets his high school teachers called him, "Mr. Daryl". That's insane. His first two years in the league were tough because he was so raw. He had huge expectations, but it takes players, especially 18 year old kids, to develop. Remember, Kobe and Garnett weren't stars right away either. But, by his third season, he was getting regular minutes and earned respect from former NBA legends like, Julius Erving, Doug Collins and World B Free. They were all on the same team too. The following season, Dawkins was part of a nucleus that led the 76ers to the Finals, which they lost in 6 games to the Lakers. He averaged 14 points, and almost 9 rebounds a game. That may not sound like a lot, but when you remember who his teammates were, that's pretty damn impressive. This was also the season that saw him shatter his first backboard. It was so amazing and had never been seen before, that he earned what might be the coolest nickname of all time in any sport. Teammates and opponents began to call him, "Chocolate Thunder". Damn, that's a kick ass nickname. He shattered another backboard that same season and the NBA made a rule that if you shatter the board, you'd be fined and suspended. That was a stupid rule.

Dawkins became so famous for his dunks, he started naming them. Some of the names were, "The Rim Wrecker" and the "Look Out Below". He was so innovative and cool. If he had played in today's NBA, he'd be ultra famous. Unfortunately for him and the 76ers, their postseasons were met with facing hall of famers. They lost to a Laker team led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and they consistently faced the famous Larry Bird led Celtic teams. It was never easy for them. Dawkins was eventually traded to the Houston Rockets for Moses Malone. The year he was traded, the 76ers won the title, led by Moses Malone. After half a season in Houston, Dawkins joined the Nets. He played well for two seasons, but then injuries crept up on his body. He tried to make several comebacks, but he was never the electric player that he was while on the 76ers. He even played for the Harlem Globetrotters, spent time overseas and coached for awhile, but all us basketball fans remember him shattering backboards while playing in Philadelphia. So, when the news came of his death, as I said earlier, I was upset. I had heard him just recently on Bill Simmons former podcast, "The BS Report" during All Star Weekend and he sounded like he was in good health. I guess it goes to show, you never know what is going to happen.

Daryl Dawkins was a great, legendary basketball player and dunker. He was eccentric, smart and a star in his short career. I love that my father showed me those videos and I'm so happy that I got to see him shatter those backboards. He had the coolest nickname of all time too. You will be missed "Chocolate Thunder", and I hope you're shattering backboards wherever you are right now.

Rest In Peace.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and co host of the X Millennial Man. He named his biggest dunk The Duece. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.