Jake

Remember the Soriano White Sox jerseys

If you got down on Carlos Rodon because of his contract negotiations you need to get your f***ing head on straight. This could easily be his only chance to set himself up for the rest of his life. He's a tweak of the elbow to ruing the day he got 0.5-1 million dollars less in bonus just so the few people paying any attention would like him more

The big problem there is acting like Cleveland was obviously the better basketball decision. There is substantial basketball risk there. You're depending on a complete s***head in Kyrie Irving and a big, unrefined question mark in Wiggins. Also, Dion Waiters, Anthony Bennett, and 30-45 games of Anderson Varejao. To me, he couldn't have been bulls***ting in a big way because it didn't make sense to go to Cleveland except if it meant a lot of him to succeed in Cleveland. If he wanted to win more or win with a young team, there were better options. Houston and Chicago could have accommodated him and created unbelievable juggernauts. Phoenix has a very tantalizing young core. Cleveland was only in the discussion because that's where he's from. That he even went there means there was more than desiring a public BJ from sportswriters. I also like the sleight of hand where he pretends LBJ gets more money by going to Cleveland

Re: "honeyshot girl," she said something stupid and her prospective employer decided that the only reason they hired her (her popularity) was no longer relevant. This is particularly true in Europe where folks are a bit less gung ho about the hunting (if I understand correctly, she was going to hook up with L'Oreal Belgium). This is why most parents don't feel super comfortable with their children becoming public figures...because they're children. Public figures are accountable for what they say and do in a way that exceeds normal social relations. The people we should be mad at are the people who like to ogle at young women with the benefit of a long-range camera lens and the assholes who make it their mission to distribute these images and then try to crowdsource the ogled person's identity. What the hell kind of society does that? QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 07:30 AM) I don't think the idea that politics have gotten more personal really stands up, anyway. When was the last time members of government dueled each other or beat each other on the floor of Congress? Politics and campaigns were plenty personal even back at the founding of this country. There was also the "Don't vote for the homo, vote for Cuomo" campaign back in the 70s

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 02:55 PM) No; The cap hold at the RFA price stays until the Rockets actually accept it. Basically put, there are 2 days left for Bosh to sign and the Rockets to still match Parsons. Bosh just needs to sign before the Rockets accept the offer sheet (which they now are almost down to 48 hours to do as it was signed by Parsons yesterday afternoon). That is a f***ing god-awful rule that undermines the entire purpose of cap holds

The only way the Parsons thing can work is if he agrees to not sign the offer sheet until after Bosh signs. That would constitute a shameful loophole that I find irritating the Mavericks will allow to be exploited

You can't sign Bosh if there is a 15 million cap hold on Parsons. They have no cap space if there is a 15 million cap hold.

I see absolutely no way for the Rockets to get both Parsons and Bosh. They'd be way too far over the cap and the offer sheet makes his cap hold enormous

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 01:23 PM) Stein has thrown s*** at the wall all off-season. I don't buy the report at all. If you listen to it closely, he knows he's just repeating the speculation of execs that are out of the loop

In basketball terms (not personal or financial), Wade would fit well

Stein worded it in such a way that it sounds like other GMs think that the Bulls might want to make a move for Wade and Melo

I don't know if the absurdity of the LBJ situation has clouded my judgment, but my gut is telling me Melo to Chi-town for the first time in this process. It's not a Colbert-esque gut feeling, but there's a tingle alright

Don't forget that all this "home town" stuff could pull Melo to NY too

You should read some of the stuff Dwyane was accused of by his ex-wife

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 12:01 PM) Love that people are praising Lebron for doing the "right" thing, despite the fact that he allowed his "friends" to opt out of a s***load of guaranteed money. Bosh is still going to get his, but Wade and Haslem just got royally f***ed. I'm betting that those two get much larger paydays than anticipated now.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 11:56 AM) Broussard just said that one player said LeBron told Melo to come play in Cleveland with him and Melo Said, "I don't even leave the hotel when I'm in Cleveland." Proof he needs to come play with Joakim

I'm still not a big LBJ fan or a fan of the Cavs (especially Kyrie - puke), middle America needs some wins

It's unbelievable how quickly Gordon's season went from on pace to his best ever to on pace to his worst ever. I think he's going to end up where he always does, which is at the very low end of regular starters that didn't play so bad that they absolutely have to be replaced. Maybe he'll get better with a change of scenery, but I hope we can all agree that he's not going to get better with the Sox. He's like any baseball player where he gets hot sometimes and slumps other times, but we know how it will end each year.

It's easy to get into the tent, fork over $5 when it's raining

Player has to be on your team 3 years to get the Bird Rights. If you could lower your salary commitments after 1 year deal, you could go ahead and give him the same max everyone else can, but we won't be able to do that nor will most teams going after such a player

I think the idea isn't that you have to be 100% sure an anonymous source is correct, but that you don't transparently act as a mouthpiece for their opinions

I'm just not following. I could buy an argument that politics generally have gotten too invested in "personal vitriol," but I see no argument for that being something particular to liberal politics. I might say that conservative politics in the USA tends to want to have the appearance of issue-based criticism when it is in fact a veil for personal distaste/disgust/prejudice/vitriol/ideology/etc. Liberals certainly have no problem saying, "that guy right there is nuts"

When you're over the cap, there just isn't anything you can do.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 09:34 PM) Yep. I tell people parenting is 70% awful, 30% amazing. But the 30% outweighs the 70% easily. I think that means you're bad at math

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 01:26 PM) But if Boras had done ANY negotiating on his behalf, going back to college wouldn't be an option, would it? Signing an agent ends your college status, i thought. That would leave what, Independent league? Joliet Slammers? NCAA lightened up on the baseball kids when it became apparent how anti-player their definition of amateurism was. Asking the kids to negotiate multi-million dollar contracts with industry experts with only the help of their parents is just a recipe for disaster. They could hardly access the regulations that governed their interactions with an agent without an agent to tell them what the rules were