Early NBA season thoughts

I have been tweeting about sports a lot lately, but that doesn't mean that I have only followed sports this year. I have been watching football / soccer since I was a boy but the NBA is that one sport that I have been watching a long long time, back since Larry Legend was still playing and Patrick Ewing was just drafted into the Knicks. I have since gone from watching one / two games per week to watching games online and shortcut versions on TV.

From Lebron's decision to Kobe's quest to matching MJ in a second 3peat, this has probably been the most anticipated NBA season since Jordan officially returned back in 96. (that short #45 stint doesnt really count), so its only reasonable that an avid NBA follower like I am, would have some thoughts about this NBA season that I would want to write about.

A - The Heat really isn't as good as media hyped it to be.
It may seem like there is a lack of originality here but I have been saying on FB for a LONGGGG time that the Heat is no where close to a championship team. Why?
Reason #1 - The team lacks depth and have weakest bench among all the contenders, unless you really expect them to play Lebron and Wade 48 minutes per game during playoffs, there is no way you can win a game when you have a 6 minute stretch of arroyo / miller / joel anthony / juwan howard / stackhouse / house or 4 of the above + Wade or Lebron. If Lebron or Wade has an off night, the Heat is done
Reason #2 - A premier PG and any decent PF/C will kill this heat team.
Dont believe me? Of the Heat's several losses, it has come to Rondo x 2, Deron Williams, and CP3. Small sample, yes, but it's also true that every time the Heat matches up against a GOOD PG, they lose. The best case scenario is to play Lebron at PG, Wade at SG except that Lebron came out in public and said he doesnt want to play PG. So this heat team is forever stuck with Arroyo / Eddie House / Mario Chalmers to guard CP3 / Rondo / Deron / Derrick Rose... which obviously isnt going to work. As for the PF/C position, yes, Udonis Haslem was resigned for low post toughness but when Emeka Okafor and Paul Milsap comes in and post career numbers, I think we can officially declare that Haslem's toughness/defense/whateverelse he brings to the table isnt good enough. We are only a Kwame Brown a 30/20 game away from completely certifying Heat's inside presence.
Reason #3 - Chris Bosh. I havent forgotten about him. Mr. Max Salary PF. The PF who cant really play down low, play center position, and worst yet, rebound and defense. Sure, I give Bosh the benefit of doubt for being lost on offense cos its he's a perimeter PF and Lebron and Wade never played with one before; but when Rondo dunks on you for dunk of the night and you just stand around and watch? or the fact that you haven't grabbed any rebounds? or even tried? I still dont understand why Riley went for Bosh and not Amare or Boozer. Chris Bosh might as well sign himself up for the next Dharma Initiative experiment.
Reason #4 - Heat offense. I have watched several Heat game so far, and their offense is really similar to Cav's offense last year. Meaning, pass to Lebron and let him free flow. Only difference is you upgrade Mo williams for D wade... who's been kind of out of sync offensively as well. Also, like Charles Barkley mentioned on Inside the NBA, Wade and Bosh are players that needs the ball, except that Lebron has the facilitator role now and they cant play with the ball, so they have to relearn the game in the same time. My friend Erik summed it up the best "Celtics pass the ball around 3-5 times each possession and get a good shot set up, while the Heat is always just Lebron to someone"
All these combined, the Heat is just isnt ready... and may never be.

B - The Lakers look awfully scary
Off season signing (Steve Blake, Matt Barnes, Theo Ratliff) aside, isn't Pau Gasol looking like the best player in the NBA right now? And the reason why? Because of Kobe. Somehow, Kobe learned from last year's playoffs. There is no need to go all out during the season and mess up the knees for playoffs. He has only played more than 40 minutes 1 game so far (in last night's loss) and he's been on cruise control. Just letting Pau take over... which can only mean that Lakers' chance of 3peating is greater than ever.... (Let me stab my hand with a knife before i continue... ... ok ready)

C - My Magic are done
For the team that I have been rooting for since the Penny Hardaway / Shaq days... they are once again... done. So much for the whole Dwight Howard learning the dream shake story. Latest news? Al Jefferson comes in and destroys Dwight... ughh....
(P.S. - Al Jefferson has always been one of my favorite)

This is getting kind of long so I will end it here for now... but this is purely my view of things, and this is supposed to start arguments, not end it, so feel free to comment.

Why Sleep Why

why do we go to sleep? human nature suggest that we need sleep because we are designed that way, fair but what about the decision of why go to sleep. There are only a few reasons that makes me take off my glasses and go to sleep,
- too drunk for the night, too tired, cuddling after sex,
never have i gone to sleep without giving me a reason
the normal (and most logical) reason "oh its 12 now and i need to wake up in 8 hours" rarely happens to me, its usually 4 hours later and it becomes "shit, its 4 now and my day would be really fucked if i get less than 4 hours of sleep"

I just find that the time I spend staying up is usually the time I spend doing something I want to do, whether that be staying up typing this blog, finishing a 3 hour movie, or spending that extra 30 minutes on video game, (long working hours is a big reason to this) but why would I give up doing I want to do just to sleep earlier and go to work again

If there is one thing i wish human anatomy work differently, it will be that i wish we could sleep less and have the same recovery (WHILE maintaining the same working hours, cos I'd much rather than shot by lightning than extending the already long working hours)

Sleep is nice and I love it whenever I can put in 10+ hours but think about it, we actually don't do anything with the time we spent sleeping (other than resting our organs and eyes). I am quite surprised that scientists havent invented a pill that can make us the same energy with less amount of sleep. What I am trying to say is that sleep itself is a waste of time, just like the time we spend traveling day and night. Assuming that you live for 100 years and sleep 8 hours per day, that means you are not doing anything with 33.33% of your life. Imagine if we only need 4 hours, we would gain 16 years of awake time and would most likely been more productive.

WIthout going too far on this, I'd like to jump back to the original point, have you ever questioned why you decide to sleep last night? or the night before? i am sure thats something you never asked yourself.

(yes we have established that i am an alcoholic by now)

WTF & WTHs of NBA - July 12, 2010

On this today's edition of "The WTF and WTHs of NBA?" We have:
1. Bosh slipping up and telling us that WaBrosh deal has been in works for months
2. Celtics allowing their best perimeter defender Tony Allen to sign with the Griz, and
3. Suns targeting Turkoglu and Childress while giving up Barbosa

Honorable Mention: De Jong's Kung Fu kick @ the World Cup finals

I am not one who places too much emphasis on luck but last Saturday’s poker night has proven to be our (hkgirl & I) luckiest night ever. Based on my 20+ years of gambling experience, I have never won money. I lose the big hands and win only the small hands. The best I can do is break even for the night. But then last Saturday happened. It started with hkgirl getting a 4 of a kind hand and a straight flush within a span of 10-15 deals. An hour later, I had my first ever 4 of a kind hand and started winning money. Then the night passes by and we are at the final hand.

Final hand. No holds barred. I had a 9 and 5 suited in hearts. The order might be a bit off now but the flop completed my flush with A 3 and 4 in hearts. I forgot what the turn was but guess what the river came out to be. 2 of hearts. Straight flush. My first ever straight flush hand. Same night as my first ever 4 of a kind hand. And also the same night it happened to hkgirl.

You go look at poker probabilities (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_probability)
Straight Flush 0.0311%
4 of a kind 0.168%
and you cant explain / describe the scenario of getting all 2 straight flush and 2 4 of a kind hands in the same night other than one word – luck. It feels as if the powers that be decided to pay back all 20+ years worth of luck debt in one night.

I was going to write a bit more on how you need skills to utilize luck but then when you are that lucky, why does skills even matter?

For the sake of completing the story, my straight flush won me the hand over someone who had an A K flush and thought he had the winning hand (99% of the time he would be correct to assume that). I still feel terribly sorry for make him lose that big hand.

...in the same time (given my history of bad luck in gambling), I also see myself losing in similar fashion within the near future

IT Crowd

Technology has helped made communication easier. I still remember 10-15 years ago when I could only use letter and phone calls to call my parents back in Hong Kong. Now living in the same city, we email more than we call each other, let alone sending a letter. A twitter or facebook status update can easily let all your friends know what and how you are doing. Before? Sorry, there wasn’t such a thing. I look back and things were working fine; yet within this 10-15 years time, we have evolved into a specie that depends our lives on technology. From mobile phone & blackberries, email & word document, to Youtube & twitter, people cant imagine their lives without any of these technology nowadays. What was meant to be a tool for users is now holds the users as mental hostages. Yes the web has improved our communication and speed of many errands in our daily lives but it has also increased our lazy time and ultimately decreased our productivity. Assuming that our lifespan is 100 years old, an hour daily of aimingless browse the web / on face book / updating twitter etc results in (roughly) 4 years and 2 months total time on that. Isn’t that a bit… too much?

Next time when you go on a holiday or even on the upcoming Sunday, just try to not bring any of that technology with you. You may find that you have a lot more free time than usual.

An email I sent out to my angry supplier

All client servicing industry has always been a shit job. We try our best and give best suggestion yet we also have to give client the freedom to turn everything upside down. We can always counter propose or argue about our points all we want but ultimately the paying person has the final say. It sucks but it's also something we signed up for when we enter the industry.

With that said, I totally understand your frustration but with that said let's just complete the deal out of for pay and take this as a learning experience


... my recommendation is to not enter any client servicing industry if you want less stress