I have been astounded by the subtle and not so subtle disparagement of Sarah Palin in the national press. If Sarah really was unworthy of the office of Vice President of the United States, then why is she worthy of so much effort to try and convince us all of that?

The democrats have been buzzing in an obviously choreographed effort to make people think Palin was shrill in her acceptance speech. But as an independent who saw her speech last night, and who has been following the coverage of the Palin speech since, the only shrillness I hear comes from the left.

And speaking of the left, is this the best they can do? No wonder democrats like to use the word “desperate” a lot.

Can you imagine that a POSER like Barack Obama, with his make believe presidential seal, could be 60 days away from the presidency, much less a heartbeat?

If Obama has so much political experience, then why is America much more aware of his speeches than his portfolio of reforms? Apparently Obama measures experience by the number of words spoken, not the number of actions taken.

What has Obama done for the state of Illinois? And what has he done since becoming a US Senator, other than promote himself?

Obama’s circular logic had him on TV the other day claiming he was qualified to be president, because he’s run a presidential campaign.

Uh, okay. And what exactly does Obama “campaign manager” David Plouffe do again? Bring his Poser-ness his morning coffee?

Barack Obama is a self absorbed narcissist, who has written more about himself than he has for his constituents in Illinois.

Obama is a made for TV candidate in the age of American Idol. And obviously, American Idol has a lot of fans.

Not only is Barack Obama not qualified to lead this country, he’s not even qualified to claim to know “what the American people want.”

Exactly when did Obama qualify himself to be so in touch with Americans?

Was it his $4 million income last year from writing books about himself that gives him his gift with the common person?

Was it his underage drinking in high school?

Was it his marijuana and cocaine use as an adult?

Is it his Harvard law degree that makes Obama think he is so in touch with what Americans want?

Or is it the $1.65 million house he lives in, purchased in league with a campaign campaign contributor who at the time was “under scrutiny for alleged political corruption.”

Barack Obama is a self absorbed narcissist who does more for the advancement of his career than for those he was elected to serve.

Obama supporters should be embarrassed, and find themselves a real candidate instead of the Harvard Law cardboard cut out.

Palin exposed just what a poser Barack Obama really is in her speech last night, and Joe Biden is next.

If you weren’t excited about McCain, at least Palin is someone you can genuinely be excited about, assuming you aren’t too proud to admit you were wrong about Obama.

In this article, Mark Cuban focuses most of his propositions at the NBA — which isn’t surprising since he owns an NBA franchise. However, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail,” (Abraham Maslow).

I’m sorry, Mark, but I would hate to see NBA basketball adopt international rules, and I believe most fans would as well. That is not the answer.

Mr. Cuban is right, though, in that international players do struggle to adapt to the NBA when they get there. But then again, so do college students. The difference is, at some point, the NBA’s international players will get to reuse their former game skills as they represent their countries during the summer in international competitions, whereas former collegiate players will NEVER be called upon to revert to their former NCAA game skills to represent their former schools.

Which begs the question: what on earth is the NCAA doing?

The NBA obviously sees the NCAA its primary labor pool, and judging by the way the NCAA has become a strange brew of high school and NBA basketball, it appears the NCAA regards itself as the NBA farm league as well. For example, the NCAA’s three point line is the same as the high school line, and its court size is the same as the NBA’s. But why? Why does the NCAA have its own private variation of the game of basketball?

The NCAA’s perplexing perspective of its role in basketball has caused it to create a world unto itself, a world that insists on being oblivious to how basketball is played the world over, and is doing no one any favors — particularly USA basketball.

The vast majority of college basketball players will never play in the NBA, therefore the NCAA needs to shift its focus away from being the transition between high school and the NBA, and instead educate college athletes on how the game is played around the world.

Again, the NCAA is doing basketball no favors by insisting on its own private adaptation of the game, and it needs to commit to conforming more closely to international rules.

Once accustomed to a system, returning to it isn’t that difficult. Yao Ming, Leandro Barbosa, Manu Ginobli, Dirk Nowitsky, etc. seem to have no problems moving between both the NBA and FIBA’s international basketball. In fact, they all speak both dialects fluently and are the basketball equivalent of being bilingual.

If the NCAA game were to closely conform to the international game, the 1 to 5 years NBA players will spend in college would effectively help Team USA to be drastically more basketball bilingual as well.

Which reminds me of an old joke. What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks just 1 language? American. Unfortunately, thanks to the NCAA, the same is true of USA basketball.

He was the best of players; he was the worst of players.

I cannot think of a another player in the NBA that sparks the intensity of debate that Kobe Bryant does. Some (like Charles Barkley) say he is selfish and a disease to a team. Others (including Larry Bird), say he is the best player in the NBA.

The debate is made more complicated by the staggering amount of misinformation actively circulating about Kobe Bryant. In fact, too often Kobe debates aren’t differences of opinion, but factual disputes. What is true? What really happened and what really HYPE-ned?!

So I’ve decided to try to provide a fresh (and painstakingly factual) look at Kobe.

My aim isn’t to persuade you to like or dislike him. Besides, it’s too late for that anyways — most people have their minds made up about Bryant.

This piece is simply a compilation of verified facts which can be researched yourself on the Internet. I’ve just put them here in one
place so that we can all easily get up to speed and begin to speak from a factual basis, and raise the I.Q. of some of the debate about Kobe.

RELEVANT TIMELINE

- October 2003 -

Shaq uses preseason games and interviews to shame Jerry Buss publicly into paying him more money. O’Neal talked about his pay (or lack thereof) a pregame interview, then in the third quarter, after making six straight shots and emphatically blocking a shot by Mike Dunleavy, Shaq turned to the Lakers bench and yelled, “Now you gonna pay me?” Later, during a timeout, O’Neal mouthed to reporters, “Pay me.” The next game, O’Neal shouted to reporters, “Show me the money! Show me the money!”

Interestingly, Shaq’s contract wasn’t even up that year, Kobe’s was.  Think about that a moment. And which selfish player was deliberately and publicly humiliating the Lakers for more money?

- April 2004 -

According to Kobe, Jerry Buss has already told Kobe that he plans to trade Shaquille O’Neal while he can still get good consideration for him.

Meanwhile, Shaq’s points per game has dropped by 6 from the previous season, and his free throw shooting dropped from 62% to 49%.

In fact, Shaq is no longer the NBA’s most dominate big man, although most people hadn’t yet figured it out.  Tim Duncan led Shaq in points per game, rebounding, blocked shots, assists and free throw percentage. About the only thing Shaq led Duncan in was turnovers per game.

- June 15, 2004 -

The Detroit Pistons defeat the Los Angeles Lakers in 5 games to win the NBA championship.

- June 17, 2004 -

The Lakers inform Phil Jackson that he is no longer their coach. Shaquille O’Neal demands to be traded. Kobe Bryant becomes an unrestricted free agent. Obviously, this was NOT a good day for Lakers fans.

- June 27, 2004 -

Shaq tells the Riverside Press-Enterprise in an interview,

“Unfortunately, it has come to this. But I want the fans to know that it’s not me. They said it’s about the money. It’s not about the money, It’s about honesty, and the honesty me and Jerry West had. That’s been gone for four years now … It ain’t about the extension. Of course, that’s what they are going to make it out to be.”

At the time, most of us scoffed at this, but now that Kobe has demanded to be traded, it is REALLY interesting to read that Shaq
claimed in 2004 that the reason he wants to be traded from the Lakers is because he has trust issues with their front office, and that he only trusts Jerry West. WOW!

- July 13, 2004 -

Jerry Buss tells Ross Siler of the Los Angeles Daily News, that he has been “on the fence” about trading O’Neal since negotiations for a two-year contract extension broke off last season.

I repeat, in July of 2004, Jerry Buss told reporters that he had been considering trading Shaq since negotiations broke off during the 2002 - 2003 season.

This means that Buss and O’Neal’s negotiations broke down just PRIOR to Shaq’s “pay me” antics during the preseason, which makes total sense. Shaq was expressing a fresh frustration over salary discussions gone bad, and his antics literally confirm Dr. Buss’s side of the story.

Buss said he offered to make O’Neal the NBA’s highest-paid player for the rest of his career but Shaq demanded more. Remember, Shaquille O’Neal’s salary was “grandfathered” because his contract was set before an NBA collective bargaining agreement put a limit on salaries. Ultimately, Buss said, O’Neal left him no choice but to make the trade.

“Shaq is the most dominant player in the game,” Buss said. “There’s no doubt about that. The question is if I wait until he isn’t the most dominant player in the game, will I get adequate replacements? And that’s just a question of judgment.

“I don’t think anybody actually knows. Maybe I’m trading him too soon, maybe I’m trading him too late. I really don’t know. It just seems to me that everything considered, the entire scenario, that it is now time.”

Having already parted with Phil Jackson, and having decided long ago that Shaq may need to go, with Karl Malone injured and contemplating retirement, and with Gary Payton not meshing at all with the Lakers, and then being soundly whipped by the Detroit Pistons, you can see why the Lakers made it no secret that re-signing Kobe Bryant was the Lakers’ top priority. Sorry if those public statements offended you, Shaq.

Also, the timing of everything unfortunately coincided with Kobe’s free agency, and left a perception that Kobe had forced the changes, a perception which Buss disputed directly in this interview.

“The decision with Phil and the decision with Shaq was made totally independent of Kobe,” he said.

- July 14, 2004 -

After listening closely to other offers from the Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks, Kobe narrowed his choices to the Clippers and the Lakers. Then after what he called a “tough decision,” Kobe decided this night to play for the Lakers. He later said, “I could see myself playing for the Clippers. [But] ultimately, it was in my heart to play for the Lakers.”

- July 15, 2004 -

Kobe Bryant signs a seven year deal worth $136.4 million

- July 16, 2004 -

At a press conference, Kobe Bryant insisted he had nothing to do with the departures of O’Neal and former head coach Phil Jackson.

“That upsets me. That angers me. That hurts me,” Kobe Bryant said. “They did what they had to do. That had nothing to do with me. In a perfect world, we would have all come back and won another (championship).”

- Summer 2004 -

At the time, the NEW Lakers could have looked something like this:

Point Guards -

Gary Payton, Derek Fisher, Chucky Atkins, Sasha Vujacic

Shooting Guards -

Kobe Bryant, Devean George, Kareem Rush

Small Forwards -

Caron Butler, Luke Walton, Brian Cook

Power Forwards -

Karl Malone, Lamar Odom, Rick Fox

Centers -

Brian Grant, Slava Medvedenko, Vlade Divac

In hindsight, the Lakers actually looked pretty good at the point guard, shooting guard, small forward and power forward positions. They were of course, severely lacking at center. However, at this time in the NBA, pretty much everyone bar Houston was lacking at center.

Had the Lakers kept Phil Jackson, they actually might have stayed an elite team. Jackson is used to overcoming weakness at the center position by “committee,” and the Lakers improved substantially over their previous team at the point guard, small forward and power forward positions.

Caron Butler, as you know, is now an all-star. Lamar Odom probably would have been an all star this season were it not for injury. Chucky Atkins isn’t great, but certainly better than Smush Parker.

It was tied at half time, and with just 1 point separating the teams going in to the 4th quarter, it looked like we were in for another close game. So what happened?

In a word: AGE.

Father Time handed this game to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

With just one day of rest between games, and travel and practices to consider, the older Pistons gave out in the fourth quarter.

Offensively, the Pistons shot 46% in the first half (18/39), but just 25% in the second half (9/36) — and just 20% in the fourth quarter (3/15).

Defensively, the dead legged Pistons were a step slow recovering from double teaming LeBron, and giving Gibson and co. wide open shots, and increasing confidence with each make.

In terms of raw hustle, the Pistons were out rebounded by 29 rebounds! (70 to 41 including team rebounds).

If you give a poor shooting team the ball often enough, eventually they will score the ball. Nevertheless, the Pistons couldn’t battle out a board to save their season. “Fatigue makes cowards of us all,” Vince Lombardi.

Fatigue was a factor!

Remember, on Thursday night, the Pistons and Cavs played an intense, DOUBLE OVERTIME game. Then next day they traveled to another city, and probably held a practice. Then on Saturday, they played each other again with no real rest.

You could say that the double overtime game hurt the Pistons twice. Even superbly conditioned athletes need time to recover, and the older you are, the more time you need.

Daniel Gibson is 21 years old. LeBron James is 22. Drew Gooden is 25. On the other hand, Billups is 30, Wallace is 32 and Webber is 34. The Pistons are like a decade older than the Cavs!

The Pistons were tired, and to the Cavs’ credit, they were prepared to take advantage of it. The Cavaliers’ role players stepped up in a big way, particularly rookie Daniel Gibson who had 31 points on 9 shot attempts!

It is tempting to say the Spurs will have no real problems with the Cavs, but the Dallas / Golden State series keeps me from saying it. The Warriors were 4-0 against the Mavs in the regular season, and then made history in the playoffs showing it was no fluke. The Cavs’ 2-0 record against the Spurs may mean something, or mean nothing at all.

One thing I know: Popovich is one of the all-time great basketball coaches, and it is hard to imagine him failing to make adjustments.

Speaking of fatigue, I’m exhausted. Good night.

As a point of disclosure, I should inform you that I am a Jazz fan, and I am a Spurs fan — and I am a Krispy Kreme fan.

At any rate, the bipartisan crowd of 8 at my house thought the officials did their usual shaky job of calling the game, however, rather than just moan about it like we all tend to do, the raucous crowd at Energy Solutions Arena really got themselves worked up over it.

And I mean REALLY worked up. The abuse this crowd heaped on the officials was criminal. It knew no gender, male and female alike were equally ugly.  And from what the cameras let us see, it knew no race, it knew no age — and unfortunately, it knew no boundaries. I found myself embarrassed for them, because they lacked the good sense to be embarrassed themselves for their behavior.

And it wasn’t just a few bad apples giving the whole bunch a bad rap.  While may have been just a handful of fans who threw things on the floor, thousands were screaming, “Ref you suck,” and humiliating this crew within earshot of the internationally piped ESPN microphones.

In time, it looked to me like the refs had just had ENOUGH of the abuse,  and in the fourth quarter they defiantly decided the crowd wouldn’t get what it demanded.

In a game where both teams were clearly playing physically, the Spurs shot 16 free throws in the fourth quarter before the Jazz shot their first, with just 3:21 remaining in the game.  And by the time the quarter was done, the Spurs shot 25 free throws, and the Jazz shot 2. Keep in mind, in the regular season the Jazz led the NBA in free throw attempts.

If you are a Jazz fan — or a Suns fan for that matter, you might think there is an NBA conspiracy to get the Spurs to the Finals.

Thankfully, the Jazz PLAYERS are quite a bit classier and smarter than  that. To the Jazz players’ credit, they did not get caught up in the whinging.  In the post game, Carlos Boozer simply said that the Jazz were shooting jump shots and the Spurs were shooting free throws.

Carlos is correct.  In the fourth quarter, the Jazz attempted 10 shots outside the paint, while the Spurs attempted 4.

The Jazz shot 250% more outside shots than the Spurs in the fourth quarter, no wonder they didn’t get to the free throw line!

Now NBA refs deserve some measure of grief for how they do their job, although I have to say they did a better job than usual of ignoring flopping.

But the Spurs deserve no ire.  They are a class act — especially coach Gregg Popovich. I hated to see the Spurs players being pelted with things as they walked to the locker room, and I was sorry the on court post game interviews canceled because of security reasons.  The fans were way out of line, and frankly, the Energy Solutions Arena security didn’t seem to be that interested in protected the Spurs as well.

Now, about the game.

In the fourth quarter, I noticed that the Jazz was running its offense out of position.  In the fourth quarter, their spacing was much closer than it normally is, and it looked to me like Deron Williams and Derek Fischer were the main offenders … they were cheating and coming in rather than staying out where they are supposed to be.  Did you notice that the Jazz kept throwing the ball away by throwing it too far out?  Throwing it to where Deron Williams was supposed to be?

The poor spacing of the Jazz was the best thing that could have happened to the Spurs defense. It shortened the distance Spurs defenders had to travel to get to Jazz players, allowing them to swarm Boozer and not pay a penalty for it. It definitely made both shooting and passing much harder for the Jazz.  This resulted in desperate outside shots by Williams, Kirilenko, Fischer and Brown.

It was a 1 point game going into the fourth quarter.  If Sloan would have had his attention on his players rather than the refs, I truly think he could have made adjustments and been competitive in the fourth quarter — or at least been on the sidelines in the fourth quarter.  That was quite a mental lapse for such an experienced coach.

Instead, the team lost all composure, broke down, became frustrated, and then stupid.  In the end, the Jazz fouled the Spurs like a canary fouls the newspaper on the bottom of its cage.

Now, about the Jazz fans.

Generally speaking, the home team will get a friendlier whistle, but there is an old saying about biting the hand that feeds you. If there is a game 6 in this series, Jazz fans may want to remember that one.

The fans didn’t want to see the fact that there were legitimate basketball reasons for the foul disparity.  The poor spacing and outside shooting of the Jazz gave the officials little reason to call fouls.

But likewise there were legitimate human (and humane) reasons for the foul disparity: the Jazz fans gave the officials little reason to call fouls as well.

Unfortunately for Utah, if fans in San Antonio, Dallas, Oakland, or Detroit are obnoxious, people just think their fans are obnoxious.  However, if Utah fans are obnoxious, people connect the dots in weird ways and refuse vote for Mitt Romney. Fair or not, Utah fans are judged differently and need to be aware of that and behave differently.

Look on the bright side: at least it wasn’t a 26 point loss!

I have 3 children attending college in Utah, and 4 more who want to when they graduate high school.  It is my personal experience that Utahans are honestly among the greatest people I have ever known — until you get them at a sporting event or behind the wheel of a car.

Once they remedy those two things, there will be no limit to the amount of good these people will do in the world.

In the meantime, I am impressed that both the Jazz and Spurs players conducted themselves so well under those circumstances.  The Spurs are probably the team of today, but the Jazz may well be the team of tomorrow.

I like the Pistons, but to me, they have yet to show their A game in this series. I mean holy cow, this is a team with 3 All-Stars, and still they needed a good amount of dumb luck to eek out their two HOME wins … against a team that got to the Eastern Conference Finals by pretty much getting a bye in the first round (the Wizards), and then needing 6 games to get past New Jersey, a .500 team.

I seriously don’t think the Pistons have earned any of the praise they’ve received so far for this series. In fact, I wonder if they are in trouble and if they’ll right the ship before it capsizes.

At home, Detroit struggled to play catch up, then had just one field goal in the last 5 minutes of the game — and that bucket could easily have been waved off for a possible offensive foul that preceded it.

Is that a team in control of the series?!!!

Additionally, 15% of the Pistons points came from the free throw line; does anyone think the Pistons will get those friendly whistles in Cleveland?

The Pistons could well get it together, but so far I don’t think Detroit is in control at all, and I’m surprised more people aren’t saying it.

This series could so easily be 0-2 for the Pistons, with the next two games in hostile territory.

Cleveland should feel pretty good about their chances. True, their shooting percentage went south in the fourth quarter, and they choked on big plays which should have given them the win, and that needs addressing, but in reality, the Cleveland Cavaliers played the consensus soon-to-be Eastern Conference Champs dead even for 45 minutes a game on the road. The Cavs have to believe they can do this; they have to solve the remaining 3 minutes.

And frankly, the Detroit Pistons may well win this series, but if the Pistons were all they were cracked up to be, it just seams these dangerously close games would not have happened.

In an hour, game 2 of the Western Conference Finals tips off, and I’m sitting here wondering, “Are all the pundits right?”

According to all the experts, the Cleveland Cavaliers are a one man team, so if you stop him, you stop the Cavs. However, in game one the Pistons did shut down LeBron James, and yet the game was so close it literally came down to the very last shot.

Not too shabby a performance for the Cavs — especially on the road! And it turns out that the Pistons aren’t the only team in the East that can play defense.

Also according to virtually everyone, the Spurs will dispatch the Jazz without fanfare. At a glance, game one of the Western Conference Finals did little to challenge that notion, but upon closer examination, this might be a competitive series after all.

Game One was close after the first quarter, and the Jazz outscored the Spurs in both the 3rd and the 4th quarter. The difference was a tremendous let down on the part of the Jazz in the 2nd quarter where they only scored 16 points (to the Spurs’ 31).

In other words, when Boozer, Fischer, Okur and Kirilinko, four out of the 5 Utah starters, were on the bench with foul trouble, the Spurs made a run. That was the difference in the game. Consequently, it looks to me like the Jazz weren’t as far from being the Spurs on the road as one might think.

All this has me wondering, are the pundits right? I think, based solely on their game ones, both Cleveland and Utah have very good chances of advancing to the NBA Finals.

Speaking of NBA Finals, how’s this for weird: the Pistons have been in the Eastern Conference Finals EVERY year for the last 5 years, and the Spurs have been in the Western Conference Finals 3 of the last 5 years, yet they have never met in the NBA Finals. Weird, huh?

Also, if it turns out that the Spurs and the Pistons aren’t in the Finals, then that means Carlos Boozer meets his old team, the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals. You think he’ll get booed?

Cisco isn’t the only one who should be suing Apple for using the name, “iPhone.” Apple’s own shareholders should be as well. Apple is one of the world’s most famously creative companies; it is just impossible to believe that “iPhone” was the best they could come up with.

Dear Mr. Jobs,

I retired 2 years ago at the age of 43 to spend more time with my wife and children, and to pursue some other goals. However, because we have 9 Windows PCs in our home — I’m not as retired as I hoped I would be.

Consequently, this last Christmas I became a first time Mac owner when I bought a 15 inch MacBook Pro for my wife, and a 17 inch MacBook Pro for me. As a former IBMer and hardcore IT guy, I thought the transition and integration of our new Macs would be at least a little bit hard, but it has been a blast. In fact, we are so impressed that we’ve decided to move our PCs out and replace them with Macs. Incidentally, I also bought 8 new iPods as “stocking stuffers” for the family and they were more excited about the iPods than their other gifts which cost much more.

At any rate, like the rest of the world (who doesn’t work for Motorola, Microsoft, or T-Mobile), I am excited about Apple’s latest product announcements. However, one thing disappointed me about the iPhone announcement: its name. In fact, I think the world was surprised by it.

Apple is one of the world’s most famously creative companies, and it is just impossible to believe that “iPhone” is the best you could come up with. Not only is it not really that good of a name, it isn’t even original.

In fact, Cisco isn’t the only one who should be suing Apple for using the name iPhone, Apple’s own shareholders should be as well.

As a former marketing major and a former CEO of a small company, I get why iPhone has some appeal to Apple. However, while this product name may fit an overall branding strategy, this product name doesn’t even fit the product! After all, it isn’t just a phone, is it?

Apple, of all companies, should be able to rise to the challenge of coming up with something great and original — it’s what you guys do!

And frankly, it is what we expect.

To get the ball rolling, here are some ideas I thought up this morning.

If you are wanting to stick to the strategy of product names beginning with the letter “i” then how ’bout:

iQuad - it’s a phone, a PDA, an Internet device and an iPod … that’s 4.
iPad
iPaw
iPal
iSay
iNewton

On the other hand, it may be better for Apple to continue with the secondary branding you have already started with products like the iPod Nano and the iPod Shuffle, and go with a name such as:

the iPod Quad
the iPod Pad
the iPod Phone
the iPod Newton

As you can tell, I like the idea of bringing back the Newton. The Newton was a device ahead of its time and it would be nice for it to take a bow now that its time has come.

Anyway, please think about it.

Most of us, if not all, would much rather see Apple resolve the iPhone name dispute with its creativity, rather than its legal department. The latter is just too Redmondian a business tactic.

Cheers,
Tom Pittman

1. The first screen was the movie screen,
2. The second screen was the television screen,
3. The third screen was the computer screen, and
4. The fourth screen belongs to portable digital devices such as telephones, PDAs and cameras.

Consequently, portable electronic devices are sometimes referred to as the “fourth screen.”

That sounded good to me, then I figured out that the emergence of screens might not have been so straight forward.

According to Wikipedia articles, the movie screen was born in the 1880s. However, “the origins of what would become today’s television system can be traced back to” 1873. Apparently, the television predates movies. Of course television wasn’t any kind of a commercial enterprise in 1873; if it were, then Regis Philbin would have been famous much sooner.

Meanwhile computer screens were in use pretty much parallel with television screens, it’s just that television screens were prominently placed in front of families in their homes, while the computers of the day (and their operators) were kept in back rooms well out of sight of mainstream modern culture. It wasn’t until computers started coming out of the closet (so to speak) that the public at large began to recognize the computer component of the screen age.

I could muddy murky waters more merely mentioning that the fourth screen could arguably be considered the first! Models of Kodak’s Box Brownie camera, as well as other early cameras, had viewer screens roughly the size of the screens of early digital cameras.

So let’s recap:

• The “first screen” could have actually been the fourth,
• The “second screen” probably tied with the third,
• The “third screen” was tied with the second but people didn’t know it, and
• The “fourth screen” was probably the first.

Is everyone clear on that now?

At any rate, whatever the order of the screens, welcome to the SCREEN AGE.

Speaking of the screen age, when are airlines going to get with the program and replace those “No Smoking” icons in airplanes with icons indicating it is not a time to be using the electronic devices we’ve brought on board with us?

Cheers!

I’m sure you have probably noticed that the NBA has been diseased for awhile now.

The NBA is infected with an increasing number of people whoare so repugnant that most of us would hate to have to deal with their egos and selfishness in our personal, everyday lives, but because we don’t have to, and because their physical gifts help our beloved teams, these goons are instead adored.

To be sure, there still are some classy people in the NBA who are both good players and good men, but like a cancer growing in an otherwise healthy body, the good players who aren’t also good people are weakening the league, and it is beginning to succumb.

I feel for David Stern on this one; it is a hard nut to crack.

Most businesses don’t want to hire arrogant, self-centered jerks and then lean on them to be nice, they would rather just hire nice people. Unfortunately for professional sports, they have to hire these donkeys, and then hire coaches who not only know the game, but who might also know ways to keep these “heroes” from poisoning their own teams.

But just as the cold tablet that makes our sniffles go away for a time does nothing to cure the actual virus making us sick, the symptomatic treatments the NBA has been applying, such as dress codes and cracking down on poor sportsmanship, are not curing the problem.

A Neanderthal with a tie is still a Neanderthal.

These players are not gentlemen. They are not sportsmen. They are not role models. They are in some cases the lesser element of society who we’ve made rich, pampered, and egotistical because they have athletic gifts. It takes desire, determination and diligence to be a good person — just as it does to be a good player. Unfortunately for their spouses, children, and fans, many players put much more work into being a good player than a good person.

Choirboy Steve Nash is verbally abusive to a rookie reporter, but he is okay in our book because he can pass. Dirk Nowitzki slaps towels to the floor out of the hands of ball boys and treats them like worms, but we cheer him because he is a 7 footer that can shoot 3 pointers. And if Carmelo Anthony can lead Team U.S.A. to an Olympic Gold Medal, how many of us Americans are willing to overlook the fact that after the brawling had subsided, Carmelo Anthony broke away to sucker punch Mandy Collins in the face? Hmm… Hey, Melo, whatever happened to “B MORE?!”

As fans, we’ve decided not see what jerks our favorite players are. So long as they play well for us, we’re fine with that. On the other hand, we have also reserved the right be appalled when we can’t help but see what jerks they are. Until then, we will cheer them, pay to see them, and pay to own their jerseys and sneakers, and beat up total strangers in blogs defending them. That being the case, why should they change?

The NBA is rotting from the inside out. We are all witnesses — and accomplices.