Each Day is a Lifetime, 8.6.08

-It's raining basketball and politics!!!!! My proper crack at the Darfur issue, and a fake LeBron interview that's probably better (and more succinct) than the post. And, in the kind of gnashing irony that can only come from online basketball journalism, at some point today you can read both my earnest, Obama-esque takes on Team USA and the latest installment in my ongoing satire of basketball patriotism. (BS)

SHOALS ALSO SAYS: I agree with Henry on this: Team USA could at least sign the truce letter. Even if saying "hey Sudan, do the right thing" doesn't impress me much. Or maybe that's exactly why they should do it...

-What the hell is going on in Dubai????. Relevant because Shoals had the call of the week last week when he proclaimed that "[Michael] Jordan should move to Dubai. It's the only place he makes sense." (Dr LIC).




















-So wait, the Kings have "an unofficial-official gag order" on all Artest-related matters until Ron Ron's officially gone? I know that's supposed to keep anything from jeopardizing the deal, but really, it just seems like a token gesture, a polite send-off. It would be more suspicious—and always has been—when it appears Artest has no skeletons in the closet. That's just not right, and it disturbs the flame-throwing basketball equilibrium. (BS)

-While Oregonian report is a day old, I wanted to point out how much more grown Oden looks. We've heard that he got too jacked up from lifting weights, and he never really struck me as a scrawny kid with a shoulder-span (NEW DRAFT JARGON ALERT) that would fill out. And Oden always looked about 6,000 years old. But he really is looking like a teen whose body is maturing. For some reason, this makes me think about Young Shaq vs. Prime Shaq with both awe and sadness. (BS)



















-If anyone has video of the club show Polvo played in Chicago at the Subterranean, please get in touch. I need it for something important. (BS)

-This Amir Johnson giggles skit is even better for being filmed off the jumbotron. We haven't forgotten Marquis Daniels. (BS)

-I know it's pretty lame to link to the Leader, but (a) this article about baseball closers is amazingly well written, and (b) this completely illustrates the disparity between the amount of good sports writing on baseball compared to basketball. I mean, ESPN's basketball analogy to this, is Hollinger, whose exclusive formula is essentially gaffled from baseball's sabermetrics, and has a really difficult time relating this formula to the actual goings-ons of a basketball game (can someone tell me what PER predicts?), much less the business of basketball. I'm putting out a call for more substantive hoops writing that actually uses statistics to make interesting points, not just to appear science- y.(Dr LIC)

-More solid gold from the masters (Dr LIC):



UPDATE: Portraits in Patriotism II now up.