Do you remember Ron Artest? He's the guy who was on the Indiana Pacers back in 2004 and started a huge brawl at an NBA game by jumping into the stands and grabbing a spectator and punching him because he thought the fan had thrown something at him. Even if you don't remember hearing about that, I'm sure that just my brief description gives you a pretty good idea of what a class act he is. (By the way, he ended up getting himself suspended for an entire year with that display of lunacy. Seems like he got off a little easy if you're asking me. I don't like to go to NBA games where I have to worry about whether or not one of the players is going to snap off and attack a fan and incite a mini riot inside of an arena. It's not South American soccer!)
Last year, Mr. Artest changed his name. And he didn't change it to Bill or Fred or anything even remotely resembling a name. Yeah, he changed it to Metta World Peace. See, that's not really a name. It's words, but not so much words that would make up the name of a person. But it does sound peaceful. It has the word "peace" right there. Metta World Peace. OK, I'm just never going to get used to that. And I'm not so sure that anyone else should get all that used to it either. They certainly shouldn't be expecting him to actually be peaceful, for cryin' out loud.
The other night, the LA Lakers (who Metta World Peace Artest plays for) were playing against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Artest makes a dunk and then to celebrate, he full force elbows a one James Harden right in the face. Real peaceful! Now, Artest (I'm not calling him anything with the word "peace" in it if he's going to be acting like that) tried to argue his case to the referee that he was just "celebrating" the dunk that he just made. The problem with that excuse is that after he lays out James Harden, he just goes on like nothing ever happened. Harden is on the floor, writhing in pain from just being elbowed in the head. Artest doesn't do anything other than walk away. Doesn't go check on him. Nothing. Just starts to whine to the ref when it becomes obvious that he's about the be ejected.
If someone is going to call themselves something as stupid as Metta World Peace, I guess I shouldn't really expect that person to behave in any sort of manner other than one filled with that same stupidity. And I guess that same stupidity is maybe why it never crossed Ron Artest's mind to check on the guy that he just leveled to the floor with an elbow to the head? I don't know what this guy's problem is, but I think he might be just a little too violent for the NBA. Maybe he should try hockey. They love to beat the crap out of each other. It sounds right up his alley. The video of this horror is below. Someone needs to elbow him in the head, preferably with a hammer. (I know that doesn't really make sense, but I really want someone to hit him in the head!)
Well, it looks like there isn't going to be an NBA season. I'm not even sure exactly what the last offer that the owners made to the players, but I know that they should have taken it. And here's why...
You might have a fabulous talent for doing something. Regardless as to what that something is, the value of your talent isn't necessarily determined by you, but rather by others who are in a position to evaluate your talent to see how it may be of benefit to them. Let's say that you can paint pictures of cats really well. You paint pictures of cats so well that no one can tell the difference between your pictures of cats and actual photographs of cats. You're THAT good! But all people who see your pictures of cats only say, "Wow! You're really good at painting cats!" And then they move on. Does that benefit you in any way? OK, your ego gets a little stroking here and there. (That's ALL that gets stroked in this scenario, all right? JUST the ego!) But it's not like you're going to make a living selling your cat pictures when no one is there to pay for your cat pictures. It doesn't mean that you don't possess an extraordinary talent. It just means that other people don't care as much as you might think that they should.
That's how this NBA thing is shaping up to look like for the players. Sure, they can play basketball really well. I don't think that I'd be exaggerating if I said that the players in the NBA were the best basketball players in the world. But that's not going to matter if they don't have a league to play in. And the owners know that. The owners seem perfectly OK with telling the players to take their offer or leave it because the owners will be fine in the end. I'm not saying that the NBA is going to fold because the two sides can't work things out, but if it did, the owners would be just fine. The players, on the other hand, probably not so much.
I've always seen the NBA as the most narcissistic of all the organized sports. (I also see it as the most thuggish, but that's a whole different post.) They seem to think that their outrageous salaries are just not enough. From what I can figure, the average NFL salary is between $770,000 and about a million dollars a season. AND the average NFL career lasts about 3.5 years. Compare that to the average NBA salary which is an astonishing $4.5 million per year and an average career of around five years. That's just absolutely insane and unsustainable in the long run. And the long run is here, but the players just don't want to accept it or something.
So, good luck players. Good luck being the best basketball players on the planet without having anywhere to play or without having anyone to watch you play. Sure, go ahead and start your own league. I'm sure that you'll have that up and running in no time. But if that doesn't work and y'all decide to stop being just greedy babies about everything, let someone know. We wouldn't mind having NBA games to watch this season, but I guarantee you that we're not going to die without them. The ball is pretty much in your court, players. And you can take your ball and go home if you want. It's your choice, but I think that you're making the wrong one.
Do you really need another reason to dislike LeBron James? Seriously, I have never seen someone's public stock drop quicker than LeBron's. Just go back a couple of years when he was still playing in Cleveland and he's this revered figure. Now, people all over the place just hate the guy. The only other sports person (or maybe person in general) that I can think of who everybody thought was great and then all of a sudden everyone couldn't stand was OJ Simpson. Don't get me wrong. It was definitely warranted. I'm just saying that he's the only other one that I could think of and look what he had to do to be reviled by the masses. Allegedly. (Ha! I crack myself up.)Whether you needed another reason or not, I think I'm going to give you one. See, LeBron didn't play all that great during the championship series against Dallas. (How come LeBron doesn't have a college degree? Because he didn't want to show up for the finals.) In fact, in the six games that they played during the series, LeBron scored a total of 18 points in all of the fourth quarters combined. (That's why you never loan LeBron a dollar. He always pays you back the seventy-five cents, but he never gives you that fourth quarter.) That's an average of three points per fourth quarter. That means that in each fourth quarter that LeBron James only scored three points more than I did when I was sitting on my couch watching the games. (I'd also like to take this moment to note that as of last night, I have exactly the same number of championship rings that LeBron James has. And truthfully, I haven't been trying all that hard, really.) And all of this after leaving Cleveland and setting up his little "dream team" in Miami with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. (Maybe LeBron should try hockey. They only play for three periods in that sport.)There are plenty of reasons to not like the guy. Here's one more: According to the Sporting News, "James insisted that the enmity he has gotten from fans and media isn’t going to stick with him." In what way LeBron? (Mind you, this is the guy who has "The Chosen One" tattooed on his back. I don't know what he thinks he was chosen to do, but I'm pretty sure that it was supposed to be a little more than just play basketball.) He responded thusly: "At the end of the day, all the people who want to see me fail, they gotta wake up tomorrow and have the same life they had when they woke up today. Same personal problems they had today. I am going to continue to live and do the things I want to do and be happy with that.” Wait. What?So, what he's saying is that at the end of the day, whether he wins or loses, all of the people who hate him are going to have to go back to their crappy little lives and their crappy little jobs and their crappy little existence and he's going to just get to keep on being awesome? Nice way to alienate yourself even more, oh, Chosen One. You know, even though the folks who hate you are going to wake up with their same lives and their same problems, so are you, LeBron. Way to make it obvious that you don't care about the fans. Way to make it obvious that you don't care about the game. Way to make it obvious that all you care about is you and YOU don't seem to care if you don't win championships. You seem to have made it pretty clear that you like your life just fine without a ring. Good. I hope it stays that way. At least it will help quell the non-argument about who is better, LeBron James or Michael Jordan. You're a jackass, LeBron.
You know what I dislike more than people not taking responsibility for their actions? Because while I can't stand that, what I can't stand even more is when some sort of celebrity or sports star doesn't want to take responsibility for their actions. And what I dislike even more than that is when anyone goes blaming something on race that is so clearly not about race. LeBron James, I'm talking to you.
As you may or may not care to recall, back in July, LeBron James turned making a simple choice into a one hour spectacle on ESPN titled "The Decision" when he announced what team he had chosen to play for next year, as his contract in Cleveland was up. The thing was, he had already decided where he was going to play. He was going to go to Miami and play for the heat along with his buddies Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and, hopefully, win a title. He had orchestrated this whole thing to put himself on what he considers the best possible team which could win a championship. And he did so in a fashion that made him look like a self-important d-bag.
That sort of egocentric behavior didn't go over well with a lot of people. Couldn't he have just announced his choice via a press conference like a regular athlete. Oh, don't give me that crap about him not being "regular". He's a person who plays basketball really, really well. And we all know it. We don't need him to stage some one hour long "special" where he called all of the shots and all of the questions that were asked of him were giant softballs. We didn't need it, but he, apparently did.
Lately, LeBron has been feeling a little bit of the backlash from his decision to not stay in Cleveland. People were not happy that he left and took the only realistic chances that Cleveland has to win a title with him. People are also not happy that he, basically, got together with Wade and Bosh and decided that they should all play on the same team together, instead of against each other. And look, I can see why he did it. What NBA player doesn't want to win a championship? They all do. I get that. But what ever happened to competing against each other in order to prove your greatness in your quest to get that title?
But if LeBron thinks that he felt backlash for "The Decision", he's really going to be surprised when people react to his take on WHY there was a bit of a backlash. Of course, he doesn't think it was because he made a d-bag move with that one hour ESPN special. No, he thinks that the problem that people have with him (wait for it) is because of his race. You may now scream at the top of your lungs.
Race?! RACE?! You think that people don't like what you did because of your RACE?! You, sir, are a complete moron! Do you really think that? Apparently he does. According to The Huffington Post, James was speaking with CNN's Soledad O'Brien and she mentioned to him that his "...brand and name were "tarnished" because of his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers in such a public fashion". I would have thought that the words "in such a public fashion" would have been reason enough for people to not be happy with him, but I guess that Soledad needed to kick it up a notch (because that would have simply been too boring) and continued her inquiry by asking "...if race played a role in the backlash." Good Lord. Well, I guess I hate her, too.
WHY on earth would you jump to that conclusion? Why?! Is it JUST because he's black? It has to be because there's no indication AT ALL that ANYTHING that has come out of his way of handling things has been because of his race. But he heard that and saw the chance to jump on it and he did when he responded, "I think so at times...It's always, you know, a race factor." Go eff yourself. Sir. And don't go eff yourself because you're black. Go eff yourself because you're a freaking moron to make such an idiotic assertion. Screw you.
And that's my reaction. Now let's look at how some of the NBA's legends reacted to "The Decision". Let's start with Michael Jordan who said, "There's no way, with hindsight, I would've ever called up Larry [Bird], called up Magic [Johnson] and said, 'Hey, look, let's get together and play on one team...But that's ... things are different. I can't say that's a bad thing. It's an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys."
Hmmm. OK. We've heard from MJ. How about if we hear from another MJ? That being the great Magic Johnson who said that he would not have done what James did because you don't join your rivals. "We didn’t think about it because that’s not what we were about...From college, I was trying to figure out how to beat Larry Bird.”
Maybe LeBron took up the old adage, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Because that's exactly what he did. And you know who else wasn't real happy about it and thought that it was kind of a wussy move? Charles Barkley. And whenever Sir Charles opens his mouth, you know you're going to get an earful of honesty. He said, "I thought that his little one-hour special was a punk move. I thought them dancing around on the stage was a punk move, and I thought he should’ve stayed in Cleveland. Him joining Dwyane Wade’s team was very disappointing to me … That one-hour special, them jumping around on stage like punks, that wasn’t cool to me. From a basketball standpoint, I wish he had stayed in Cleveland."
OK. So we have Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley chiming in saying that that's not how they would have handled things and that the competition between rivals is very important to them. Hmm. What do Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley all have in common other than having been in the NBA? Oh, that's right! They're BLACK. Do you want to explain that, LeBron? No, he doesn't. Oh, but it's because of race. Of course. Just for that comment alone, LeBron, I hope you never win a championship. And if you don't, go ahead and blame that on race, too. That will draw people back to your side again. Sure.
And the ridiculousness just keeps right on going in Arizona over their illegal immigration law (which is no different than the Federal immigration laws that have been in place for years). Only this time, it's taken a whole new twist. This time, we have the idiocy over protesting this new law and it has been combined with sports. Yeah, what could possibly go wrong with that sort of a combination, right?
See, according toESPN, the NBA's Phoenix Suns wore " "Los Suns" on their jerseys in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals on Wednesday night." Uh, what? Now, if that kind of sounds like a language other than English, you'd be correct. That would be a touch of Spanish. Technically, I would have thought that the jerseys would have read "Los Soles", as "soles" is the plural of "sun" which is "sol", but if it's the name of a team or something like that, you leave it alone. Why you're allowed to Spanish-ize part of the name, but not the other part isn't exactly clear to me. But that's the reason why it was "Los Suns".
This ridiculous idea was the brainstorm of the owner (or propietario) of the Suns, Robert Starver. He said that it was "...to honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the state of Arizona, and our nation." Uh-huh. Never mind that you need to read, write and speak English to become a citizen. Never mind that language is one of the key elements that holds together a society. Never mind all of that. Go right on ahead with dividing people up into groups based upon race and not upon citizenship. What could possibly go wrong there?
See, when I first heard that they were going to do this, I wasn't all that concerned about it because I didn't think that there was any way in hell that David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA, would let it happen. You can't just make your jersey say whatever you want, can you? Apparently you can. That's because David Stern toldNBA.com "We think it's appropriate what the Suns are doing." You do? How on earth is it appropriate for a sports team to make any sort of a political statement? You're not politicians. You're not activists. You're sports guys who get paid a ridiculous amount of money whether you win OR lose. If you want to express your dislike for the new law on your own time, that's your business. But for you to want to do it when you're at work? I have a hard time seeing how that's appropriate.
And I guess that I'm never going to understand how it's appropriate in the mind of David Stern because his mind clearly does not work like that of a sane individual. That's because, according to NBA Fanhouse, "...on Monday (Danny) Ainge tossed a towel skyward" during a playoff game. It didn't hurt anyone. It didn't obstruct any play or anything like that. But according to someone named Terrence Moore, Ainge was "spitting on the so-called "integrity of the game" -- which Stern and other commissioners of other leagues always say they must protect." Yep. And that's why Danny Ainge "...has been fined $25,000 for creating an unauthorized distraction and for conduct detrimental to the game." Wait. What now?
Danny Ainge gets fined $25,000 for throwing a towel in the air, but the Phoenix Suns are allowed to change their jerseys so that they read "Los Suns" and that's perfectly OK?! How is that NOT an unauthorized distraction? Is there some sort of clause in the NBA rules that says that making a political statement on the court is an authorized distraction? What a maroon.
I would like nothing more than for Phoenix Suns season ticket holders to give up their seats. Let those who are in the country illegally purchase them for next season and see how that turns out for them. I'm going to mention AGAIN that the majority of Arizona residents are in FAVOR of this legislation. It's not like it's unpopular amongst the masses or anything. It does seem, however, to be extremely unpopular amongst the uninformed and the clueless. That seems obvious.
I'm all for a good tattoo. The key words there are "good" and "tattoo". The "tattoo" being that of the singular variety, as people can get a little carried away once they decide to venture into the land of multiple tattoos. It's like they start thinking "If one is good, covering my entire body, including my face, would be better!" And that's really just not the case. But the other key word is "good". A tattoo must be "good". Who's to decide what qualifies as "good" or not? Definitely not the person getting the tattoo, because even those with the most hideous tattoos or the stupidest tattoos you've ever seen in your life will be the people who think that they're just great. So they don't count. Who does that leave? If my calculations are correct (and I believe that they are), it leaves you, me and anyone else who uses the Internet. (So as you can see I've really narrowed it down.)
I don't know why I never thought about Obama-mania seeping into the world of tattooing, but apparently it has. People have actually had Obama-themed tattoos permanently emblazoned on their skin. In general, getting a tattoo depicting a person is a risky move to start with. You don't know if you're still going to feel the same way about that person several years down the road. What if they do something heinous and there you are with their mug permanently etched on your body, leaving people to wonder why you chose a bodily tribute to a pedophile, for instance. It will leave you ruing the day that you decided to get that John Wayne Gacy clown tat on your forearm. (It can just get awkward, is what I'm trying to say.)
I became aware of the oddity of permanent tattoos of political figures when I saw a photo of what I deemed to be a very poorly done tattoo of a very poorly thought out idea. And the fellow who is now sporting this statement for the rest of his existence is NBA player Gilbert Arenas. Below is his inked tribute to our President-elect, a tribute to a man that I call Barry, one Barack Obama. Behold!
"In believe we charge"? What the hell does that mean? Oh, wait. Start at the bottom and work your way up? "Change we believe in." OK, that....um...kind of makes sense. Why the heck did he have it going in that direction, though? And that does look like "charge" from over here, doesn't it? It's either "charge" or "chapge" and "chapge" makes even less sense than "charge" does.
According to the folks over there at NBC Washington, and a one Dan Hellie, "He told me he got it so he could look at it during games and see the, 'We Believe.' " Well, what about the 'In Change" or the "Change In"? You don't need the "change", you just need to "believe"? What are you going to "believe" in if there isn't any "change"? I'm so confused. Not as confused as Mr. 'We Believe, But Not In Change" there, but still confused.
And on the other side of the "In" pinky finger there you will find a tattoo of the number 44, presumedly representing Barry being the 44th US President. (Is he sure he needs both 4's? Maybe he only needs to look at one of those during a game!)
So after I marvelled in this for a while, I started wondering how many other political themed tattoos are out there, just wandering around on their respective owners. (Please note, that word is "respective", NOT "respected". Some of these you can't respect. You just can't. And nor should you.) Fortunately, there were less than I had feared there would be. Unfortunately, some of them were downright scary. Behold! Political themed tattoos you never knew existed until now!
In sticking with the Obama theme......
I can see the resemblance, but only to the extent that the tattoo below looks like it could be of one of Barry's distant cousins or something like that. The hairline is wrong, the jaw is too thin, so many problems. And that's just with the tattoo!
The tattoo artist who did this one clearly has artistic abilities which far surpass that of those responsible for the above tattoo. But the artistic abilities don't change the fact that it really doesn't look like Barry very much. It kind of looks like Earle Hyman, the guy that played Cliff's Dad on "The Cosby Show."
See?
If you wanted the tattoo below of Barry on your body, a tattoo shop in Oklahoma was offering to do it for free. It was their way of contributing to his efforts. They claim to have done about 100 of them. Go figure. (It looks kind of small. I wouldn't be surprised if it looks like a big glob in a few years that will appear to read "Obama Zoos".)
This one is probably the best, and while it doesn't look exactly like him, it looks more like him than the other ones do. He does look more confused in this rendition, however. It's as if the tattoo is thinking "I can't believe you're getting my head tattooed on your leg, man."
I'm not sure what this one is supposed to represent, exactly, but it reminds me of something out of 'A Clockwork Orange' or 'The Wall'. I don't think it's good, but I'm not really sure. This chap decided to just go with the Obama campaign logo. Nice of him to show it off like that. It wouldn't appear that anyone ever would have known about it otherwise. (Might I recommend some time in the sun, my good boy? Perhaps a few moments in a tanning bed?)
I then started looking for more tattoos of other political figures. To my dismay, I couldn't find any of either Joe Biden or John McCain. I thought that since McCain had been a Navy guy that there would be other Navy guys out there sporting a McCain tat, but to no avail. Surprisingly, I did find one guy who has a Sarah Palin tattoo. Behold! A tattoo of Sarah Palin that doesn't look a lot like Sarah Palin but you know it's her because the guy with the tattoo said so! She looks a little frightened and unsure and I can't say that I blame her. The guy who had this "artwork" implanted on his body is pretty darned proud of it, too. He even made a short little video clip which he put on YouTube.
I found tattooed tributes to other political figures from this past year's campaigning. I would like to know a little bit more about the dude who had this Ron Paul tattoo done. I'm sure that the EVOL, which spells "LOVE" backwards is of some significance, but whatever it is was completely lost on me (probably because I was still in disbelief that there was a Ron Paul tattoo out there.).
I don't know what scared the hell out of me more, the actual tattoo or the actual Hillary.
I'm going to assume/hope that the photo below was the inspiration for the frightening tattoo. (Why would you do that to yourself? The guy must have lost a bet.)
And would you have ever thought that someone would have a tattoo of our current President? Well, in fact, someone does. And it's on the bottom of their foot. I think it had something to do with "stomping out Bush" or "stomping on Bush". Either way, Bush was involved and there was some stomping going on.
At this point, I've found way more political tattoos that I thought that I would've. Since I was on a roll, I kept looking. Can't really say if that was a good idea or not, considering what I found. We have.........
A couple tributes to Ronald Reagan (very surprised that there weren't more of these out there. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Republican that wants to swoon about Reagan. And that's only good in the way that you really shouldn't be swinging around dead cats. It serves no purpose other than to see what you can or cannot hit and really, there's probably better ways of doing that.)
Here's JFK in a UFO, which prompted me to ask WTF? And finally, what is easily the worst and likely the most regrettable political tattoo ever. The Howard Dean Truth & Hope '04 tattoo (complete with brightly colored flying birds!). What were you people thinking?Sphere: Related Content
Do you remember Ron Artest? He's the guy who was on the Indiana Pacers back in 2004 and started a huge brawl at an NBA game by jumping into the stands and grabbing a spectator and punching him because he thought the fan had thrown something at him. Even if you don't remember hearing about that, I'm sure that just my brief description gives you a pretty good idea of what a class act he is. (By the way, he ended up getting himself suspended for an entire year with that display of lunacy. Seems like he got off a little easy if you're asking me. I don't like to go to NBA games where I have to worry about whether or not one of the players is going to snap off and attack a fan and incite a mini riot inside of an arena. It's not South American soccer!)
remotely resembling a name. Yeah, he changed it to Metta World Peace. See, that's not really a name. It's words, but not so much words that would make up the name of a person. But it does sound peaceful. It has the word "peace" right there. Metta World Peace. OK, I'm just never going to get used to that. And I'm not so sure that anyone else should get all that used to it either. They certainly shouldn't be expecting him to actually be peaceful, for cryin' out loud. 
The other night, the LA Lakers (who 
If someone is going to call themselves something as stupid as Metta World Peace, I guess I shouldn't really expect that person to behave in any sort of manner other than one filled with that same stupidity. And I guess that same stupidity is maybe why it never crossed Ron Artest's mind to check on the guy that he just leveled to the floor with an elbow to the head? I don't know what this guy's problem is, but I think he might be just a little too violent for the NBA. Maybe he should try hockey. They love to beat the crap out of each other. It sounds right up his alley. The video of this horror is below. Someone needs to elbow him in the head, preferably with a hammer. (I know that doesn't really make sense, but I really want someone to hit him in the head!)
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