Aries Season

It felt good to wake up this morning as an employed member of society again. Sure it's as an associate of H Hilfiger - the new "upscale" line of Tommy Hilfiger - but it cuts down on an excess of idle time spent primarily debating whether to watch one of my Netflix choices or check to see if I have any new MySpace messages, oh and I get paid for it - so I'll classify it as a success for now. Besides, any company headline that claims to be "inspired by luxury, understated refinement and sophistication and encompasses the ease and spirit of the good life" has to be something I can relate to right? Check it out at http://jonesbeach.tommy.com/hilfiger/

So with today being the final day of the NBA regular season, I feel it would be a perfect time to express my extreme displeasure with the performance of my beloved Philadelphia 76ers in 2005-06. If you had told me back in November that Allen Iverson would average a career-high 33 points per game on 45% shooting, and Chris Webber would only miss 7 games and put up 20 and 10 night in and night out in the Eastern Conference, I would have pegged us as Atlantic Division Champs with a #3 seed and a good chance to make some noise in the playoffs. But instead we will finish as a sub-40 win team and the only playoff game we'll see will be on ABC as Bill Walton tells us how 'when you're 6'10 and you grab an offensive board, you gotta throw it down!'

The entire season our Achilles heel was defense and the inability to protect a lead. A classic example was the Nuggets game we lost at the Wachovia Center back in March. (As a side note, I watched this game at Dulles Airport on a Thursday night that I was supposed to spend in Montreal at my friend Parks' bachelor party. But I got dominated because my plane had electrical problems and couldn't leave that night - No Biggieee!! Fortunately for me, there were no more flights going out that night to Montreal, and they couldn't get me on one the next day either. Not out of Dulles, Reagan or even BWI. Fortunately there was a 1020 AM flight out of Philly Friday morning that I could get on...all I had to do was wake up at 4 AM, cab it to Union Station, take a 5 AM bus to Illadelph, get on their Metro system for a 20 minute ride to the airport, and then hop on a plane to Canada. Oh, did I mention that the $20 bottle of Crown I bought at the Duty Free shop that was supposed to be given to me as I boarded at Dulles was conveniently missing by the time my original flight was canceled? Good times.)

The pic above is the aftermath of of US Air, Montreal, Bachelor Party, Strippers, and no sleep.

Anyway, as far as that Nuggets game was concerned, we had a 15 point 3rd quarter lead that was trimmed to single digits by the start of the 4th, and I watched helplessly as guys like Matt Barnes and my boy Kyle Korver couldn't make shots or stop Carmelo Anthony and Ruben Patterson. Denver went on a 13-0 run to take control of the game and we took the L. It's disappointing for me to see AI now, at age 30 and playing the best basketball of his career, not have the supporting cast to even make the playoffs, much less be a legit title contender. I understand that he's a difficult player to play alongside because of his style and the number of shots he takes, but come on. Your telling me that the Lakers or the Cavaliers have it any different? I don't want to see AI in another jersey next year, but I think he deserves to be on a 50-55 win team at this stage in his career. If that's somewhere else, I'll definitely be disappointed, but I'll support him nonetheless.

As it is Wednesday I guess I'll make it my movie recommendation day. Check out Lucky Number Slevin with Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman, Sir Ben Kingsley (I don't know why he's a Knight either) and Bruce Willis. It's tight, trust me.

Lastly, it's Rap Lyric Trivia time (i.e. I give a few verses from a hip-hop track, you name the song, artist, album, etc... It'll be fun. I'll post the answer tomorrow.):

Drink a Heineken, as we go inside the mind again
Nevermindin men droppin gem, can he shine again
Most definite, let this be my last will and testament
For the pessimist, exercise for the Exorcist