Tag: Yahoo

The Ball Brothers Put Up BUCKETS in Lithuania, Score 60 Combined Points

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Yahoo – Two days after being held scoreless in their Lithuanian League play debut, the adventures of LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball continued on Monday as the pair got back into a groove and delivered the best performances of their brief professional careers. In Vytautus’ 130-93 win over BC Lietuvos, the Ball brothers delivered an offensive tour de force right out of their Chino Hills days by producing nearly half of Vytautus’ scoring total. LaMelo scored a game-high 31 points, dished 11 assists and recorded five steals. LiAngelo did most of his damage in the low post and at the rim, but wasn’t far behind LaMelo’s team-high, chipping in 29 points of his own.

At first glance this looks like a great sports story; the Ball brothers scored a combined 60 points and seem like they’re growing into bonafide Big Ballers. Until you see this:

“The Big Baller Brand Challenge Games have been good to the Ball brothers. The Big Baller Brand Challenge Games is a five-game exhibition that was created by the Ball family patriarch in order to get his two sons more playing time on their Lithuanian club and to build their confidence.”

Get the fuck out of here. LaVar is now setting up Lithuanian tournaments to get his sons more PT? Even the refs are wearing BBB branded jerseys. I’m legitimately not kidding, look:

Apparently this game was against a “second-division team” though. So as the infamous Winston Wolf would say:

It is cool seeing two brothers throwing each other alley oops like this though. Who knows where and when you want the ball better than your own brosef?

But then, again, you see shit like this. Up 40+ points LaMelo tries to throw an alley oop to himself off the glass (and fails miserably).

This is the AAU/Lavar Ball-ification of sports. If some kid tried that on me in a blowout I would absolutely sweep the leg. Some 35 year old pissed off player that never made it in the NBA is going to snuff one of these kids for antics like this.

All in all, 60 points is 60 points so its fun to actually see these guys put up some buckets after what seems like 2 years of shit talking from the dad. Do it against an actual team in an actual game not sponsored by your father though and I’ll consider myself impressed. Until then?

Japanese Super Prospect Shohei Ohtani is Leaving $200 Million On the Table by Coming to the MLB Early

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Yahoo – Baseball super agent Scott Boras is, in no uncertain terms, upset about the process that’s lead up to Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani’s arrival in Major League Baseball. Ohtani, after a posting agreement was finalized last week, is set to hit the open market Friday. The catch is: Since he’s an international free agent under 25, the market isn’t as open as it could be. MLB rules put a hard cap on how much teams can spend on international free agents under 25, so the most money Ohtani could possibly get is $3.5 million from the Texas Rangers. Some teams have as little as $10,000 to offer Ohtani. This isn’t about the money for Ohtani, who has long expressed his desire to play on baseball’s most competitive stage. To do so, he’s willing to leave upward of $200 million on the table. Were he over 25, Ohtani could be a true free agent and sign with any team for any amount. Since he’s a two-way star who can throw 100 mph and hit long home runs, getting upward of $200 million on the open market would be entirely plausible.

This guy is INSANE. He is leaving, literally, tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars on the table by coming to the MLB early. Because he is under 25 years old the international rules in place by MLB cap his earning potential $3.5 million. MAX. But if he had waited until he was 25 he could have entered the MLB as a true free agent and would have been free to go to the highest bidder.

Why the arbitrary age of 25?

“picking 25 years old as the cut-off means that a player like Ohtani will hit free agency around the same time as a player from the U.S. who went through the normal draft procedures.”

Just to put this into perspective, the most recent big name Japanese free agents coming MLB earned HUGE pay days. The Yankees signed Masahiro Tanaka for $155 Million. The Rangers signed Yu Darvish for $60 Million. The Red Sox even signed old friend Daisuke Matsuzaka for $51 Million and that was 10 years ago.

So this guy better hope he has the juice and actually performs well in the United States or he just sold low on a winning lottery ticket. Thats half the appeal with international players. You just never know how good (or bad) they’re gonna be. It’s impossible to project how their talent will translate to playing in the MLB. Thats how absolute bums like Rusney Castillo swindled $72 Million out of the Red Sox. Imagine if that guy had come over the US and played for peanuts in hopes of getting a big pay day later? That guy would be working at the Burger King off I-95 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island instead of earning $10+ Million a year to play 2 miles down the road for the PawSox.

Remember the last guy who wanted to pitch and hit in the major leagues? Red Sox super prospect Casey Kelly? Yea, turns out he couldn’t do either one well in the pros. Godspeed, Shohei.

 

While Donald Trump and the Ball Family Celebrate, American Football Player Has Been Stuck in Chinese Prison for 14 Months

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Yahoo – Wendell Brown, 30, is a former football star in Detroit, a standout at powerhouse King High School and then a three-year starting linebacker at Ball State in Indiana where he graduated in 2009. He later played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, a number of arena teams and even a professional league in Austria. He also coached the game, at King High and then a season as an assistant at Adrian College, a D-III program in Michigan. In 2015, he found his way to Chongqing, China, a city of some 18 million in the southwest part of the country, to play and then, after an injury, coach in the American Football League of China. It seemed like an incredible opportunity. While there he taught English to adults and football to kids. He spoke at the U.S. Embassy about the game. To supplement his income, he opened a cross training business, Brown Elite Fitness. As a 6-foot, 225-pound African-American in the middle of China, he stood out. Brown is in incredible physical condition and was a cast member once on the Discovery Network reality television show, “American Muscle.” Pictures of him putting middle-aged locals through workouts and barking motivational sayings at them – “Elite!”, “All Day!”, “Eight Days a Week”— entertained his family back home. “We used to joke with him, ‘You look like Billy Blanks,’ ” Antoinette said with a laugh. Life was great until Sept. 24, 2016, when Brown attended a birthday party for a friend at a bar. As Wendell’s side tells it, he struggled to blend in when out on the town because many Chinese assumed he was either rich or famous. That night some men wanted to drink with him, but Brown declined. They got angry and a dispute broke out. Brown was later arrested for hitting a man. Brown claimed he never hit anyone and only raised his arms to block bottles being thrown at him. Regardless, Brown was taken to the Chongqing Jiangbei detention center. He had never before been arrested. Faced with no American-style bail available, no discovery process about the evidence against him and a confusing array of laws that bear little resemblance to the United States, he’s spent the past 14 months in a Chinese jail.

This is insanity. The guy got in a bar fight and has been in jail for 14 fucking months. That is absolutely criminal. This is why I don’t want to travel anywhere. I’m cool with Boston, LA, maybe sprinkle in some of the midwest. Its either ISIS bullshit or school shootings or corrupt ass foreign governments locking you up and throwing away the key. You can’t win, which is why I cringe every time somebody posts that misguided fucking Jeff Daniels speech from the Newsroom about how America isn’t the best country in the world anymore.

Um, yea it still is. You do something bad in America, you get treated fairly (for the most part) and punished accordingly with the crime. But you find yourself in a bad situation in another country like Wendell Brown did and boom you’re in jail for over a year.

Unless you’re a pseudo celebrity like LiAngelo Ball you’re basically fucked. According to this Dan Wetzel article the conviction rate of Chinese prosecutors is 99.2%. That is not okay. This is why I prefer to go somewhere I can blend in and being a 5’8″ white guy with a red beard, there’s not many places I can do that besides maybe Ireland or England.

You just know this guy was a target being a 6 foot tall black dude walking around the streets of China. Every dickhead always wants to start shit with the outsider. Doesn’t matter if its Faneuil Hall or fucking Hong Kong.

“According to Brown’s friends who attended the trial, the evidence against him fell apart. The Chinese don’t release details or evidence and there is no independent media in China, however, his friends said the video surveillance showed he didn’t hit anyone, let alone with a bottle like it was alleged. It was revealed the man who claimed he was hit and had his eye injured by Brown, actually had suffered the injury in a previous incident, according to Brown’s friends. They claim Brown took the stand in his own defense and was compelling and convincing, noting that considering his size and strength, had he wanted to fight there would have been significant injuries. That was July. There is still no verdict. It’s been four months without a ruling and no one knows when, if ever, one will come.”

Now he faces 3-10 years in jail for something as small as a bar fight. As Brown said in his own defense, if he *really* wanted to fight he would have done some damage. He probably could have just caved in the faces of half a dozen Chinese dudes before any could have stopped him.

We joke about the hollow nature of internet condolences, but seriously prayers to this guy. Hey Donald, you think you can swing back into China like when Costanza forgot his hat and get Xi to spring this dude too? Lets stop letting our own people get locked up abroad for nothing.

Scientists Just Changed the Rules on Blood Pressure. Half of Americans Now Have High Blood Pressure

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Yahoo – New guidelines lower the threshold for high blood pressure, adding 30 million Americans to those who have the condition, which now plagues nearly half of U.S. adults. High pressure, which for decades has been a top reading of at least 140 or a bottom one of 90, drops to 130 over 80 in advice announced Monday by a dozen medical groups.

In the ultimate bait and switch, half of Americans now apparently have high blood pressure. Well, fuck. This is the definition of moving the goal posts. Americans are phenomenal at getting things done on deadline and finishing things just enough to be passable. Procrastination and doing the bare minimum. Thats what makes America great again.

So if you tell us for decades that our blood pressure needs to be X, then we (except for the morbidly obese) will get somewhere around that number. No ones trying to be an Olympic athlete and have even better BP for no damn reason. So when you scientists up and change the rules on us under the darkness of night, well then we’re all up shits creek.

Telling us that we’re now all suffering from high blood pressure seems like a great way to sell more high blood pressure medicine, but hey maybe thats just me being a big time conspiracy guy. Either way, my blood pressure levels are going to act as if its November 12th, 2017, right before this story broke, and not a day later.

“The change means an additional 14 percent of U.S. adults have the problem, but only 2 percent of these newly added people need medication right away; the rest should try healthier lifestyles, which get much stronger emphasis in the new advice. Poor diets, lack of exercise and other bad habits cause 90 percent of high blood pressure.”

Apparently the new norm is 120/80 vs the previous 140/90. Welp, despite my diet of GrubHub and binging episodes of Dexter somehow I’m at 121/83 so…sucks to be you guys. Good luck with getting your blood pressure under control before your heart explodes.

Russia Used Pokemon GO to Mess with US Presidential Election. Wait WHAT?

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Yahoo – Russian cyber experts used the smartphone game Pokemon Go as part of their attempts to meddle with US politics, according to an investigation by CNN. Under the banner of Don’t Shoot Us, a collective that seemed to share the aims of Black Lives Matter but which is now believed to have been run by Russians, online participants were encouraged to use the game to inflame racial tensions. Players were told to visit real-world sites where police brutality had been recorded, and give their Pokemon characters names of victims, such as Eric Garner, who died on Staten Island. The winners of the Pokemon contest would receive Amazon gift cards after sharing images on social media, the Don’t Shoot Us site said. It is believed the campaign was an attempt to encourage black activism and sow discord between Americans.

This is some next level, diabolical shit. Seriously, just when you think this guy:

is a criminal mastermind who has reached his pinnacle, he goes ahead and tops himself. Using Pokemon GO, the goddamn pocket monsters game we all played as we blindly walked into oncoming traffic to catch yet another Pikachu because he had a special new hat.

Using *that* game to “inflame racial tensions” is way beyond the usual espionage type shit. My dumb brain can’t even comprehend a plot like this. Now obviously the scheme depended on same racist assholes to do the leg work, but its crazy how an outside force can really drive a wedge between people like this.

“A source confirmed to CNN that the Don’t Shoot Us Facebook page was one of the 470 accounts taken down after the company determined they were linked to the Internet Research Agency – a Kremlin-linked “troll farm”. The Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts belonging to the campaign are currently suspended. The group’s YouTube channel and website were both still active as of Thursday morning.”

Little late for that now, wouldn’t ya say Zuckerberg? The next time people scream Fake News, I don’t want you to argue with them about the validity of a specific news story, I want you to point them to this. To the goddamn Russian Government using a kid’s game to plant the seed of doubt in people and draw the darkest shit out of our country in the middle of a monumentally historic period. THAT is whats nuts.

Some real deus ex machina shit from ya boy Putin. Bravo, you election meddling motherfucker.

 

Groom Jumps Into Lake and Saves a Little Kid Before His Wedding

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Yahoo -Brittany and Clayton Cook were taking full advantage of the warm September weather on their wedding day, posing for pictures at Victoria Park in London, Ontario, after their ceremony. As often happens, the spectacle of the bride and groom drew the attention of three children, who excitedly watched the photo shoot. But while Brittany posed for a couple of solo pics, Clay suddenly noticed something was wrong…“I saw the kids around, and there were three of them, and then there were two, so I thought, ‘I better just double-check to make sure all the kids were OK,’” he recounts to Yahoo Lifestyle. “When I went over there, he was struggling a bit, so I tried to just get him out of there. I jumped down, reached as far as I could and plucked him out.”

What a wild story, good thing this guy Clay was johnny on the spot here. Dude was in the middle of his wedding day photos (kind of a big deal to the ladies) and notices theres suddenly one less kid watching them. Springs into action and jumps into the lake to save this kid. Great, heroic story, but I just laughed thinking about how the wife is probably sneaky pissed her husband is soaked and ruined the pictures.

Not to mention the bridesmaids definitely went WILD for this guy after he did his best Superman impression. Nothing women like more than having to bat away the floozies on their own wedding day. Probably still gives the guy shit about it to this day.

“I guess if you are going to take anything away from it, it’s the importance of having your kids learn how to swim at an early age.”

Love the wife’s moral of the story too. Not be careful. Not be kind to others. Teach your fucking kids how to swim. Straight to the point. Respect it.

 

Millennials Are Apparently Moving Out of the City for “Surban” Lifestyle. I Doubt It.

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Yahoo – While millennials might have once shuddered at the thought of trekking out to the ‘burbs, millennials (who make up 42% of all homebuyers — more than any other generation), are trading in the hustle and bustle of cities for less chaotic communities. And many of these “surban” environments provide millennials with the kinds of amenities they got in the city, including boutique fitness options, high-quality grocery stores and popular restaurants.

In comes the so called “surban” lifestyle as millennials are looking for the amenities of the city living with more space coupled with the suburban location.

Listen putting a Starbucks in my development is not gonna make me move out to the burbs. Do you think I live in the city because I enjoy paying through the teeth for my apartment?

No, its convenience. Always has been always will be. I used to live on the South Shore and the commute from there to downtown Boston might as well be the Trail of Tears.

Drive to the T, pay to park, get on the overcrowded train, ride that for an hour, walk to your office then do it all again the other way at 5 pm. So I said fuck that noise and moved to the city to be closer to work, the bars, the food etc. Uber legit just became allowed in my suburban hometown so I’m not exactly itching to go back to that way of life.

“Almost half of millennial homeowners live in the suburbs, and the majority stay in the same metropolitan area when they buy a home, according to research from Zillow.”

Do the people who write these articles even take a glance at home prices before hitting send? The reason most millennial homeowners (which I still believe is an urban legend) buy homes outside of the city is because the cheapest house in Boston goes for like $800k. Suburbs it is!

“While there has been a long-perpetuated myth that millennials don’t want to buy homes, the reality is that the desire to become a homebuyer still exists — the timing has just been delayed.”

It’s not a myth that we don’t want to buy homes, we just straight up can’t afford to do so. Semantics though. Ask any millennial why they might not want to buy a  house though? Well whats the No. 1 thing thats set back an entire generation? Huge, crippling student loans debt.

So even if I could afford to buy a house why would I jump right back into another 30 year repayment plan? We’re all a little skeptical of getting on the books for another pipe dream. I can live the American dream just fine from my 2-bedroom apartment plus I can leave that place in 12 months or less at the drop of a hat.

 

James Van Der Beek Had To Go Into Therapy After Doing “Rules Of Attraction”

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Yahoo – One thing actors often say they most enjoy about their craft is the opportunity to become a character that’s wildly different from who they are in real life. But leaving that role behind when the project is done can be a more difficult challenge. James Van Der Beekexperienced that firsthand during the making of his cult 2002 film, The Rules of Attraction. In a recent Facebook Live interview with Yahoo TV, the actor — who is currently executive producing and starring in Viceland‘s new mockumentary series, What Would Diplo Do? — revealed that he had a hard time shaking his dark-hearted Attraction character, Sean Bateman. “I did end up going into therapy for the first time after that,” he explained. “I didn’t know how to process that stuff as an actor at that point. You learn to channel something without it sticking to you.”

“Rules of Attraction” is really worth seeing. While I don’t think I really give any true “spoilers” below it’s something you should go into blind, so feel free to skip this one for now if you haven’t seen it and pay the $2.99 on demand this weekend.

So for those of you who don’t know or haven’t seen it, “Rules Of Attraction” was a movie that came out in 2002 based on a book by Bret Easton-Ellis, who also wrote “American Psycho” and I’m sure you’ve at least heard how that one turns out. It also occurs in the same “universe” as “American Psycho”, a la the Kevin Smith movies, so keep that in mind. Anyway, ROA (I’m not writing “Rules Of Attraction” another 10000 times) follows a group of hard partying students at a yuppie, fictional, New England liberal arts college and their interactions with each other. It became – and continues to be – a cult/sleeper classic in that no one really saw it upon first release but since then a ton of people have caught wind of it via word of mouth and absolutely love it. Think “Boondock Saints”or, more recently, “That Akwarkward Moment” (Ya I know its on TV all the time but who saw it in theaters? Fuckin thought so.).

As a movie, ROA was known for a few different things. One was obviously the cast – a who’s who of those late 90’s early 2000’s actors such as Van Der Beek, Jessica Biel, and the kid who played Sunshine in “Remember The Titans” – as well as the fact that they were largely playing characters that weren’t their type, at least at the time. While they all had played parts that had partied and bent the rules quite a bit, it was always with a certain lightheartedness and sense of Americana. ROA was just dark, as I’ll get into in a bit.  The second thing it was known for was the way it was shot. The movie often goes often into short bursts of listed activities to take you through a character’s psyche and background. It also uses a lot of focused and close up shots of character’s facial expressions and body language to convey their intentions and personas. Last but not least, as I alluded to earlier, ROA is known for being completely and utterly fucked. While many movies feature horny young men out to get messed up and bang as many chicks as possible, ROA features malicious manipulative behavior on the part of, and mind games played by, some of the male characters for the sole purpose of seeing just how badly they can psychologically fuck up the women (and sometimes men) in their lives. It also should be noted that, on an island, the females are not exactly the picture of stability, either. When it comes to the boys though, I am talking purely sociopathic behavior, particularly on the part of Van Der Beek’s character.

The former Dawson Leery plays the main character, Sean Bateman. Remember I mentioned how Easton-Ellis’ stories often occurred in the same universe? Ya well Sean is Patrick Bateman’s little brother. That give you a clearer picture of things? You see what we’re dealing with? So you can see how after playing average, middle-American, deep-thinking guys such as Dawson and Mox that James Van Der Beek walked away from diving into the cold, scary parts of himself to play Sean Bateman a little shaken up. It also really shows how committed some actors are and how much they let their characters consume them, really becoming this fictional person, in order to put on a performance. For a guy like Van Der Beek, who I think was kind of written off as a pretty boy to play light, superficial characters this just goes to show he at least is damn dedicated to his craft. Story-wise, for me at least and I don’t mean to be insensitive, this hearkens back to Heath Ledger playing the Joker, and how the depths of depravity he brought himself to in order to pull off such a complete clinic of a performance may have been what drove him to the drugs that killed him.

I guess it goes to show, anything that us mere mortals can’t imagine doing, from sports to movies to music, takes a commitment-level the result of which can have some pretty drastic consequences. Crazy.

Sansa Stark is Straight Out of Mean Girls and I Kind of Dig It

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Yah00 – Sophie Turner has been in the spotlight since her teens after being cast as the ill-fated princess Sansa Stark in the hit HBO fantasy series, aged 14. It meant that she swiftly built up a considerable following on Twitter (1.34 million), Instagram (5.4 million) and Facebook (2 million), which she says helped her in auditions…She told Porter: “A lot of what I have achieved is about timing and luck, but it is also, and I hate to say it, about a big social-media following…”I auditioned for a project and it was between me and another girl who is a far better actress than I am, far better, but I had the followers, so I got the job. It’s not right, but it is part of the movie industry now.”

Oh you’re a better actress than me? Welp, my Insta game is fire flames so good luck sweetheart. There’s a reason the “best” actors do Broadway and not the most popular ones. Sansa Stark is just straight up Mean Girls-ing the competition.

Totally reminds me of the scene where Ramsay’s side piece Miranda is talking about all the horrible things that have happened to all of Lord Bolton’s former girlfriends and Sansa just straight up puts Miranda through the mental ringer.

Psychological warfare is the name of the game and she learned from the best, Cersei Lannister, who I just assume is as calculated and ruthless in real life.

PS – Lena Headey legit seems like a down to earth girl that can straight up laugh off people cussing her out in public because she is so good as Cersei on Thrones that they can’t disassociate her from the character.

Tim Tebow, You Have Got To Be Kidding Me

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Yahoo -After a tough start to his baseball career, New York Mets outfielder Tim Tebow is starting to knock the rust off. The 29-year-old added to his impressive stat line with the St. Lucie Mets on Sunday, belting a monstrous home run..Tebow has been putting up some strong numbers since his promotion. In 25 games, he’s hitting .317/.398/.549, with four home runs. He’s even managed to cut down on his strikeout rate. At Columbia, Tebow struck out in 28.2 percent of his plate appearances. That’s down to 19.3 percent now. His walk rate has remained stable despite the increase in competition.

Editors Note: I am fully on Team Tim Tebow. I have a Tim Tebow No. 5 Patriots t-shirt so Joey Ballgame is on his own here. #GoTebowGo

This is officially re-Goddam-diculous. From personal punt protector to AA Star. From a guy who was told to “shut the fuck up” when he tried to get his team to pray before the senior bowl to a .317/.398/.549 slash line after hitting .220 BEFORE he was called up.

My feelings for Tebow at this point make an apt contrast to my feelings for a one Conor McGregor, in case you don’t hear about him enough. I’ve stopped doubting Conor Mac and I love it. Anything he says he is going to do now I just sort of shrug and say “probably”, then laugh and smirk as people get themselves all worked up telling him he can’t. It’s a riot and a lot of fun. I’ve also stopped doubting Tim Tebow and I hate it. GTFO with suddenly being good at professional baseball you strange Jesus freak boy band lookin ass motherfucker. Do you not remember this spring training, mere months ago, when Max Scherzer made you look like a child? I hope you do. I hope you sit on top of toilet with a bat having a mental breakdown like Pyle in “Full Metal Jacket” just reliving that moment. Because I am getting sick and tired of this whole Tebow narrative. Fuckin evangelical Roy Hobbs.