The thrill of victory or the fear that you have to do it again, and again?
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
LeBron Doing "Everything" It Takes To Win It All
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| Delly is making the difference for a team that needs it. |
Much will be and should be said for this special trio whose decisions keep forcing the pressure on the Golden State Warriors, and they have yet to respond well to it. Desperation basketball is deceptive because a lot of confidence comes from the realization that you suddenly have very little time and nothing left to lose, as a loss seems certain.
For three games, the Warriors have been pushed to the point in which they scratch and claw their way back. The fight or flight reflex bottles fear into a fuel- a mixture of one part adrenaline and two parts pride. Fear can help you to compete with pride, but it won 't win the game for you even though many teams often confuse caged desperation as something to build upon. Such fuel can shoot you to the moon, but you had better save some fuel to finish the journey home.
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| Steph shoots 50% from the field after getting hot late. Will it carry over into the next game? |
Whether or not Golden State can actually play end game ball to start the game is actually the question we've been waiting to see every since the Warriors were favored to win this series.
Expectations were high for the Golden State Warriors so very few of their supporters are willing to give up the ghost, nor will this team. The story of these first 3 games has been fairly consistent- minus the overtime that seemed on its way for the third game as well. No player has scored at a high enough clip to allow either team to go on a real run. Every sporadic run has come from the other team getting lax or going cold. Typically, that team has been Golden State unless you are talking about the last 10 minutes of the 4th quarter.That's when the cards have turned in the direction of the Warriors, who play consistent enough in the 4th quarter to chip away at the lead Cleveland keeps compiling. The leads have only been single digits for the most part- until last night's 20 point 3rd quarter expanse. Jordan was known to beat teams in this kind of 'keep it close, lull you to sleep and turn up the heat' fashion, and coach Steve Kerr spent a few seasons playing with his Airness. In other words, this could be a tactic that the Warriors are intentionally employing at the end of games, but I doubt that. This team expected to win this series, but they don't anymore. They are in for it and every player now recognizes the challenge.
What Will It Take? EVERYTHING!
LeBron is right. For so many reasons, game 4 now becomes the most important game in this series because the Warriors were dangerous when they were less desperate than they are now.
Everything is on the line, and everything will be needed from LeBron for his team to win game 4 and avoid the dreaded split that would give this series right back into the hands of the Warriors. When the world keeps asking him to reveal the secret motivation that he should have kept secret, LeBron just smiles and declines.
The real secret is that he already told us EVERYTHING we needed to hear. Some of it he said in the post game interviews, and the rest is being spoken with each game performance.
This man is willing, and able, to do everything it takes to win the championship of the NBA. In fact, I am venturing to say that never before have we seen ONE player who can actually do everything in the game of basketball, and did it en route to a title.He might not be as titillating a shooter as Steph Curry is at moments, but he is totally capable of taking and making shots against double and triple teams just like Steph. A few times in this series he has made them from extra long range just to remind us that he can do that to- just like Steph. LeBron can certainly pass, evidenced by his high assist average in the finals along side a high volume of shots. He is not scoring at a high percentage for the first time in forever, but he has never chosen high volume shooting over high percentage shooting, and is only answering the call for his team- over and over again.
Like scratching nails on a blackboard, LeBron is enduring shooting at a/low percentage against his own will. In the post game interview with his former (and maybe future) teammate D-Wade, LeBron educated us that his shooting percentage has increased for each of the last 7 season prior to this year in which everything has been asked of him from time to time.
Although I didn't realize that statistic, I have watched LeBron add something new to his game each and every season that he has played.
After he first went to the finals and lost, I saw him come back and post people up with the Hakeem Olajuwon Dream Shake. The next year, he started raining long shots like a 2 guard. If you watch this series, you are likely to see a hook shot that rarely misses even if it doesn't touch the sky like Kareem's did. When he gets tired, he now relies on his Dirk Nowitzki fade away jumper which also seems to fall about as often as his baby hook does.
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| Dellavedova takes a break after the "And-1" bank shot that secured the game for the Cleveland Cavaliers. |
Did I mention miracles? LeBron does those too. He basically invented the Australian Delly, and turned him into a cult hero.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Like Heavyweight Boxing, LeBron Shares Plan
Where's some Jordan rules fo yo arse.
The Cavs will never let the Splashes have a brother. I heard it with my own two ears because Doris asked the question, and my wife is named Doris.
When Doris talks, I listen.
She asked LeBron about their plan against the splash brothers, and he said
you can't stop them both. Their shooting and Kerr's offense won't allow- so the Cavs won't try. As long as Iman Shumpert and JR Smith (teehee) play smart defense, they can live with the results of jump shooting basketball. In record numbers for CBS, who own television rights to air the NBA championship round, we've viewed in to witness the reign of the jump shooters, or to bear Witness to the return of the king.
Steph can shoot faster than a triple team, so the heat is probably going back on Klay Thompson like it was in game one when Shumpert and LeBron and everyone else took turns with him. LeBron might be the only player with the experience to understand that you can not play grueling defense and shoot a great percentage from the field, so pick your poison, hit the glass, and hit your free throws since even layups get hard to come by in the Finals.
LeBron will have to adjust to the lack of whistles in the first two games, which means he better keep attacking because the NBA has vocally admitted to the calls that they missed in game 2. No matter what, the NBA will not be left with the same form of egg on their face again, although LeBron needs a blind whistle even if he has to overcome it more than most. Steph does not.
The Warriors can still win it all, but it won't come with the Double Splash that their famous shooters have enjoyed all year long. For the Warriors to win, it will take a splash bro' and a lunch bucket effort from everyone else- not just Dramond Green whose offensive production has been sacrificed for the sake of defending the King.
Or Steph could add some Magic Johnson to his skill set and totally shake up the world. To my eyes, this appears to be a season or two away for Steph.
It's coming though. Let the King bear witness.
NO DOUBT ABOUT IT ! Power Of Perception Coloring NBA Finals
If you missed the game, I feel sorry for the confusion you might have over who is leading this series.
Because I have a perspective/opinion/2 cents worth that might not be worth even that, I'll share my penny after I share what's being said.
Delly is his nickname because Matthew Dellavedova gets to being a tongue twister at times. We know him partially as a result of the injury to Kyrie Irving which pressed him into action early in the playoffs, and we know him also due to his scrappy effort in the face of the NBA MVP, Steph Curry.
The SquareBiz is that LeBron critics will have to credit him when he is done, because they will make every excuse in the world while embroiled in King hatred, including giving credit to the legendary defense of Delly on a player who even LeBron described as unguardable. How do we argue with the King?
I use that King label mostly to annoy those who just can't accept that it appears to be true. Since I am pissing folks off, let's go a step over the line and compare LeBron's level of contempt to Christ who had critics unwilling to accept what their eyes had clearly revealed. Miracles do happen, and LeBron is working on a miracle by forcing this group of scrap heap players to believe in the impossible.
What better a perspective than to see this as the unraveling of an impossible dream. If you believe in the impossible- Triple Crown Winner's, Thrilla in Manila's- then you live expecting it to be an occasional part of the viewing experience. I will admit my guilt to this prisoner of the moment perspective, but I didn't watch American Pharaoh because it was unlikely that he could win. I expect Serena to do what no one has ever done before and I expect it to be dramatic. I didn't realize #20 would be so drama filled, but it makes sense in hindsight.
Steph could be writing a story that reveals the depth of challenge that he's already overcome, but it feels a little bit smoother than I remember the NBA title challenge being. It feels like we've taken to the underdog this time, but it also feels like we've done it because, in a democracy, we have unresolved hatred for any king.
DOUBT??!!
Cleveland had one thing working against them coming into the series. While they know they can play, no one, even LeBron, thought they could win without Kyrie Irving. When he went down, the doubt froze Cleveland into a 2 point OT in game one. They could have licked their wounds and limped back to Cleveland without a win, however, the beauty of professional sports is the tape, because the tape don't lie.
On tape, Golden State has raced back twice to FORCE overtime, not the other way around. Going into this series, most of the Cavs didn't believe they could be winning in Oakland with minutes to play, and the proof is in the pudding, or in the softness that allowed 2 OT's in games they controlled until the end.
Heading home with the proof on tape, and a game stolen, the Cavs might be more in danger of being too confident now that all of the doubt has shifted to the Warriors.
Four fresh quarters of basketball have a way of providing hope, although it seems the Warriors thrive on desperation, choosing to bring their best each time LeBron or the clock tries to darken the room.
From the perspective of some, Steph Curry is the only player struggling. The Square Biz is, no one will shoot a great percentage in this series overall, even if they find moments of getting hot. Check the list- Bogut, Green, J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson- LeBron. While a couple cats can get hot at moments, and they have, the percentages say that no one is scorching, especially when the game is on the line, or these teams wouldn't be the best two defensive teams left standing that we expected.
My coach hat says that defense doesn't end until a steal or a REBOUND happens. The Cavs are forcing the most turnovers, and they are usually winning the boards. In fact, Timofey Mosgov deserves a chance to rebound and hit free throws to close out each game instead of riding him and shutting him down because of the Warriors small line-up. Last I checked, Mosgov is more reliable from the line (in the clutch) than LeBron.
Now that they have removed the doubt from being normal peasants and not the King of basketball, this will elevate a few Cav players to legends themselves, especially if the Cavs can achieve this impossible goal.
Unfortunately for the Warriors, every player they are facing now will play and score absent the doubt of never winning at this level. In other words, they now face a whole new team. Good luck with that.
Postscript:
Jemelle Hill of ESPN's His and Hers says the media (who mostly picked Steph to win ironically) are now giving Steph a pass- the kind of pass other stars have never been given (ie., LeBron James and James Harden) since he has performed poorly thus far.
Is she right?
I believe that either we've been too nice, or too tough on other players......or some shade of grey in the middle. Does that cliche still have the same meaning after that movie? Never mind.
Monday, June 8, 2015
Fear And Insecurity Impacting Caitlyn Jenner's Story
Rev. Franklin Graham on Caitlyn Jenner
Franklin also noted that, in announcing his identity shift, Jenner also expressed regret over mistakes he made as a father. Any suggestion that mere cosmetic changes will restore any of his past regrets, however, is a notion Franklin finds impossible.
“I have news for them,” he wrote “—changing the outside doesn’t change the inside. No man-made modification can fix what’s wrong with the heart. Only God can fix the human heart. If we ask for His forgiveness and accept by faith His Son, Jesus Christ, He will wipe the slate clean.”
westernjournalism.com B. Christopher Agee June 5, 2015
I started with this quote because I am a Christian, and for years the Christian response has been the definitive stamp on matters of LGBT advancement, but its simply not working that way anymore. Nobody finds church terribly sacred these days, even if we claim a belief in God. In some ways, church has become the most judgemental environment in the land even though salvation claims to offer freedom from judgement. In reality, God's judgements are already complete and we are the generation of fulfillment. Grace is a miracle so complex, that it doesn't comport with a mind that has been conditioned to earn everything you get.
The American Dream itself is almost a contradiction to the idea of Grace because Grace essentially makes a lotto winner out of every believer, not just those who've been scratching at this thing for years. If there is any reason for the failure in the ministry of Grace, it is the ministers assigned to its message. I'm not talking about Franklin Graham or his famous father Billy. Grace is a spirit that came to dwell inside the House of God, His true church. Emmanuel (God With Us) was a divine gift of a savior that has taken up residence in the hearts of man, claiming them as his true church. Unless that gift resides in the house of the father's of our world, it may not reach the hearts of the children.
In the Western Journalism article, Franklin Graham prefaced his critique of Jenner by talking about his failure as Bruce the father. The article reads:
“In Vanity Fair’s cover story about Bruce Jenner’s gender change,” Franklin wrote, “the author talks as if Bruce and his newly chose identity of ‘Caitlyn’ are two separate people.
He went on to quote Jenner’s son, Burt, who declared: “I have high hopes that Caitlyn is a better person than Bruce.”
Amen brother! Amen!
The truth about us men is that we are more lady like than we ever want the world to know. In that I mean, we are just as prone towards insecurity and fear as any human being, but we are the least allowed to admit it. Bruce grew up in America with the same expectations that every man in America endures. Man Up! Be tough! Shake it off and move forward without acknowledging your pain or your fears or your insecurities. And for God's sake, please don't come out of the closet when you are a muscular manly Olympic hero. We are all not quite ready for all of that.
What aspect of who Bruce has become is impacted by who Bruce HAD to be for the sake of a society not ready for its greatest Olympic hero to be anything but macho. Does his conversion actually mean that our greatest Olympic legend was always a woman anyway? NO. It just means that he lived a very long life of dishonesty with himself and clearly a life of dishonesty with the world, especially his own family.
Burt Jenner (Bruce's son) looks forward to a better relationship with Caitlyn than he was able to achieve with Bruce, or whoever that person was all of those years that struggled to live an authentic life. The World Health Organization has declared transexualism as a mental illness. I will do them one better by declaring a life without authenticity as a mental illness waiting to explode. What if Bruce were more free to be a little Caitlyn like during the years that he was on the cover of Wheaties and not Vanity Fair? Would that version of himself been more sensitive to the children he'd brought into this earth?
People who are unable to embrace their own fear and insecurity (men) will all suffer degrees of mental illness as a result. How that illness gets manifested might be abuse of drugs or people, or it might become a desperate search for an embracing of your fears and insecurity as a means of overcoming them.
Is Jenner suffering from a mental illness?
Maybe!
The compulsion to be a woman in a world that oppresses them is sort of like a white man wanting to be black. Even the rapper M&M is only enjoying a closeness to the black experience. He's not looking to lose credit points or add extra police harassment to his life as well. For a man to give up his societal privilege for the challenge of womanhood might cause the return of Bruce all by itself. Transsexuals often look back on the change with regret after years of enduring life as a woman with its obvious drawbacks. Regardless of what motivates him to decorate his exterior in whatever form he chooses, the struggle is his and I think we can all look past a man that nobody really knew or liked very much as we get to know the honest person he's trying to become.
The truth about all of this stuff is that men are afraid and insecure of anything they don't fully understand. When we stand in front of a beautiful woman who we believe to be a woman, we admire her, maybe even flirt with her to get her attention because beauty inspires our senses. Less than pretty women can get a lot of attention with a little liquor, but all women have a powerful beauty that has been said to rule the world. On the other hand, a man's power is his might and we use it to beat down our fears and insecurities until one day we discover that the more sensitive species, our women (first mom, then our wives), have run our lives all along.
The real problem with anyone who cares how Bruce presents himself to the world is them. If you get uncomfortable with a manish looking woman,
or a man dressed like a woman, the problem is you. Bruce and Caitlyn might very well be struggling with fear and insecurities, but it feels like he's facing them instead of suppressing them like most of us men do. Caitlyn claims that she's not gay just because she made the change, though it feels odd to wonder who she'll choose for a sexual relationship, a man or woman.
Never mind all that. I never cared who Bruce had sex with before and I don't care about Caitlyn's sex life either. Obviously, some people do, because instead of focusing on the authentic exterior that Caitlyn is trying to express, we are advancing this criticism to the bedroom behavior it must suggest.
Like one of Graham's Facebook followers for whom the topic is especially relevant. She wrote:
Thank you for this post. My son is a declared homosexual & I pray for him every day. When my son first told me he was gay, I wept almost every day as I prayed that God would make him a heterosexual, but then I realized that the heart is where the change begins. My prayer is different today since God revealed this truth to me – the heart is where the change begins. Please keep my son in your prayers. - Westernjournalism.com
How do we know that Franklin Graham is living a sexually pure life, and do we care? Young girls who have developed bodies will get labeled a slut if their clothes get tight to the point of being physically revealing. In our world, we blame them for the rape that might follow, not the twisted view of the rapist who assumes too much.
Nothing is more raping than the judgement of others, especially those who have no idea or right to comment about your sex life just because of the fashion choice you find most fulfilling. Even if you are totally right in your assessment Franklin Graham, you are totally wrong in your judgement, and all of the Caitlyn's of the world are probably not going to join your church and may never discover the kind of Grace that doesn't care what you wear or why you are wearing it.
You know, the kind that changes our heart.
 |
| Remember Annie Lenox? |
Franklin also noted that, in announcing his identity shift, Jenner also expressed regret over mistakes he made as a father. Any suggestion that mere cosmetic changes will restore any of his past regrets, however, is a notion Franklin finds impossible.
“I have news for them,” he wrote “—changing the outside doesn’t change the inside. No man-made modification can fix what’s wrong with the heart. Only God can fix the human heart. If we ask for His forgiveness and accept by faith His Son, Jesus Christ, He will wipe the slate clean.”
westernjournalism.com B. Christopher Agee June 5, 2015
I started with this quote because I am a Christian, and for years the Christian response has been the definitive stamp on matters of LGBT advancement, but its simply not working that way anymore. Nobody finds church terribly sacred these days, even if we claim a belief in God. In some ways, church has become the most judgemental environment in the land even though salvation claims to offer freedom from judgement. In reality, God's judgements are already complete and we are the generation of fulfillment. Grace is a miracle so complex, that it doesn't comport with a mind that has been conditioned to earn everything you get.
The American Dream itself is almost a contradiction to the idea of Grace because Grace essentially makes a lotto winner out of every believer, not just those who've been scratching at this thing for years. If there is any reason for the failure in the ministry of Grace, it is the ministers assigned to its message. I'm not talking about Franklin Graham or his famous father Billy. Grace is a spirit that came to dwell inside the House of God, His true church. Emmanuel (God With Us) was a divine gift of a savior that has taken up residence in the hearts of man, claiming them as his true church. Unless that gift resides in the house of the father's of our world, it may not reach the hearts of the children.
In the Western Journalism article, Franklin Graham prefaced his critique of Jenner by talking about his failure as Bruce the father. The article reads:
“In Vanity Fair’s cover story about Bruce Jenner’s gender change,” Franklin wrote, “the author talks as if Bruce and his newly chose identity of ‘Caitlyn’ are two separate people.
He went on to quote Jenner’s son, Burt, who declared: “I have high hopes that Caitlyn is a better person than Bruce.”
Amen brother! Amen!
The truth about us men is that we are more lady like than we ever want the world to know. In that I mean, we are just as prone towards insecurity and fear as any human being, but we are the least allowed to admit it. Bruce grew up in America with the same expectations that every man in America endures. Man Up! Be tough! Shake it off and move forward without acknowledging your pain or your fears or your insecurities. And for God's sake, please don't come out of the closet when you are a muscular manly Olympic hero. We are all not quite ready for all of that.
What aspect of who Bruce has become is impacted by who Bruce HAD to be for the sake of a society not ready for its greatest Olympic hero to be anything but macho. Does his conversion actually mean that our greatest Olympic legend was always a woman anyway? NO. It just means that he lived a very long life of dishonesty with himself and clearly a life of dishonesty with the world, especially his own family.
Burt Jenner (Bruce's son) looks forward to a better relationship with Caitlyn than he was able to achieve with Bruce, or whoever that person was all of those years that struggled to live an authentic life. The World Health Organization has declared transexualism as a mental illness. I will do them one better by declaring a life without authenticity as a mental illness waiting to explode. What if Bruce were more free to be a little Caitlyn like during the years that he was on the cover of Wheaties and not Vanity Fair? Would that version of himself been more sensitive to the children he'd brought into this earth?
People who are unable to embrace their own fear and insecurity (men) will all suffer degrees of mental illness as a result. How that illness gets manifested might be abuse of drugs or people, or it might become a desperate search for an embracing of your fears and insecurity as a means of overcoming them.
Is Jenner suffering from a mental illness?
Maybe!
The compulsion to be a woman in a world that oppresses them is sort of like a white man wanting to be black. Even the rapper M&M is only enjoying a closeness to the black experience. He's not looking to lose credit points or add extra police harassment to his life as well. For a man to give up his societal privilege for the challenge of womanhood might cause the return of Bruce all by itself. Transsexuals often look back on the change with regret after years of enduring life as a woman with its obvious drawbacks. Regardless of what motivates him to decorate his exterior in whatever form he chooses, the struggle is his and I think we can all look past a man that nobody really knew or liked very much as we get to know the honest person he's trying to become.
The truth about all of this stuff is that men are afraid and insecure of anything they don't fully understand. When we stand in front of a beautiful woman who we believe to be a woman, we admire her, maybe even flirt with her to get her attention because beauty inspires our senses. Less than pretty women can get a lot of attention with a little liquor, but all women have a powerful beauty that has been said to rule the world. On the other hand, a man's power is his might and we use it to beat down our fears and insecurities until one day we discover that the more sensitive species, our women (first mom, then our wives), have run our lives all along.
 |
| Annie Lenox, a beautiful woman, made young men in her era feel uncomofortable, as if an attraction to her meant you also could be attracted to men. |
or a man dressed like a woman, the problem is you. Bruce and Caitlyn might very well be struggling with fear and insecurities, but it feels like he's facing them instead of suppressing them like most of us men do. Caitlyn claims that she's not gay just because she made the change, though it feels odd to wonder who she'll choose for a sexual relationship, a man or woman.
Never mind all that. I never cared who Bruce had sex with before and I don't care about Caitlyn's sex life either. Obviously, some people do, because instead of focusing on the authentic exterior that Caitlyn is trying to express, we are advancing this criticism to the bedroom behavior it must suggest.
Like one of Graham's Facebook followers for whom the topic is especially relevant. She wrote:
Thank you for this post. My son is a declared homosexual & I pray for him every day. When my son first told me he was gay, I wept almost every day as I prayed that God would make him a heterosexual, but then I realized that the heart is where the change begins. My prayer is different today since God revealed this truth to me – the heart is where the change begins. Please keep my son in your prayers. - Westernjournalism.com
How do we know that Franklin Graham is living a sexually pure life, and do we care? Young girls who have developed bodies will get labeled a slut if their clothes get tight to the point of being physically revealing. In our world, we blame them for the rape that might follow, not the twisted view of the rapist who assumes too much.
Nothing is more raping than the judgement of others, especially those who have no idea or right to comment about your sex life just because of the fashion choice you find most fulfilling. Even if you are totally right in your assessment Franklin Graham, you are totally wrong in your judgement, and all of the Caitlyn's of the world are probably not going to join your church and may never discover the kind of Grace that doesn't care what you wear or why you are wearing it.
You know, the kind that changes our heart.
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