LongLiveRalph

That's another one I've seen...SO hilarious and disturbing...

Oh no doubt, that's why is candor was surprising and respected (by me at least.) The guy with the most NBA titles in history (and with MJ/Shaq/Kobe on his rosters) would be the last one I would expect to say that "refereeing has been more than suspicious" at times. He's obviously not alluding to games being fixed, but his comments suggested the possibility that he and his assistants have sat around after games in private and said, "Jeez do you believe what they were calling out there? Hmmm....I wonder...." It doesn't even have to be a series clincher or anything like that...Imagine the Cavs are up 3-1 in a series. I could see the NBA "urging" the refs to make it difficult on the Cavaliers in game 5 on Thursday (on TNT) so that they can have LeBron on TV (on ABC) in a game 6 on Sunday afternoon. They can whistle a few make-up calls then. Definitely wouldn't surprise me.

The first episode I ever saw was the one where they were trying to bang each other's moms. I was hooked after that.

How can anybody defend him when he hasn't been accused of anything? As for his silence, it's his constitutional right. There are others more qualified to defend those than me. Thank you for yet another "my parents raised me to be accountable for my actions blah blah blah" post...It's been a page or two since someone threw that line in the water. Everyone is a saint on the sofa when it comes down to what somebody else SHOULD do. It's all very easy to say when it's not your livlihood that's affected. Let's say you have a company car. Perhaps one night you have a few cocktails and crash into a tree. Or perhaps you're completely sober but your wife is blowing you on the way home, and you crash into a tree. In either case, nobody is around, you are okay to drive home, but the car is damaged. Are you going to fess up and tell your employer you were drinking or getting blown, knowing that you will likely lose your job for being careless with company property? Or are you going to tell him that a deer darted into the street and you were avoiding it? You would tell the truth, right? Because your father raised you to be accountable for your actions. Way to avoid the broad brush sterotypes that had you giggling as you announce in your next sentence that Marshawn is "just another ghetto punk."

It's not surprising that the NBA is run by it's Entertainment division. No question I could see them fixing things to ensure a series plays that Game 7 on the Sunday ratings day, or that the Lakers advance over the Utah Jazz. Phil Jackson was incredibly candid in an interview with Michele Tafoya yesterday, saying basically: "I don't really follow the news like I should, so I'm not sure of everything Donaghy alleged. But certainly in my time in this league, I have noticed things or calls that happened during a game that were more than suspicious. I just don't think any of us ever took it to that level (i.e. that the games were fixed.)" The tone of his answers were very matter-of-fact and it didn't sound like he'd be shocked if the refs were "company men." They are NBA employees after all.

No doubt about it, good point. Certainly Lynch can relate to that scenario, as Duke is a very visable university and the DA got caught up in trying to make an example of the "big boys" who were the #1 lacrosse team in the nation at the time. Lynch is also a big fish-small pond type guy in Buffalo, and is obviously assuming that his "star player" persona could actually work against him if a DA decides to get ambitious.

Nobody is using it as an excuse or a crutch. He is also a professional football player who likely could've handled this situation by throwing some cash around. That wouldn't be an excuse for a hit-and-run either. Like you said, it's a discussion. It's an angle that exists and should not be tossed aside, especially when people are calling for him to abandon his legal counsel and sprint down to the police station to have a cup of coffee and a nice chat with the cops, and hopefully make some new friends down there. Other statistics (that can be tossed aside) include the major disparity in black vs. white criminal convictions and the disparity in length of sentence. As well as the probability that the majority of the people with access to (and interest in) a Buffalo Bills Internet message board are middle class white males. That's why I brought it up- not to create a crutch for Lynch, but to mention that some people may have experiences with the cops that extend beyond the time they came to your 5th grade class to talk about bicycle safety. Anyone who wants to can pass judgement, and is free to consider or not consider any information they want. This thread is proof of that. I'm just mentioning the MERE POSSIBILITY that Lynch has seen things play out badly when he or friends have tried to cooperate with police. He should not abandon his lawyer's advice just to appease a bunch of people who have already convicted him of this crime, and that includes people here as well as the DA and BPD.

Not sure if anyone watches this show...I've just started getting into it....Pretty damn hilarious. Here's a "sketch" clip they posted online as a promo for the show. NSFW http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/60d14b6331

If snorting blow off the prom queen's ass is wrong, I don't want to be right.

I have given my girl the greenlight to get worked by the lead singer of Incubus if she ever has the chance. I tried to claim "any bartender at Soho" but that didn't fly so I went with the hot chick from the Italian cooking show.

It would be a bunch of crap if I was using it to excuse his alleged actions. I'm not. I'm just laughing when the guy from Williamsville, NY chastises Lynch for failing to share the view that these things work themselves out fine. Just because my dad knew the judge and got me out of that misdemeanor back in the day doesn't mean that the legal system hasn't ever railroaded somebody. You're out of touch and crazy if you think the cops are your friend...And you are especially ignorant if you believe that the perception of the police where Lynch grew up is the same compared to where the majority of people on this board grew up. I'm not defending him. But it's also not a stretch to consider that he immediately thought the worst when he made the alleged poor decisions on the night in question, and it is certainly why he is listening only to his legal experts at this point.

Good post, I only disagree with the line above. The law is the law, and no proof is no proof. If they wanted to drag John Public out of his home, he can still exercise his 5th Ammendment rights, and in a situation like this, while the cops may "unofficially" come to a conclusion based on the silence, there is little recourse in the criminal justice system. Conversely, John Q Public doesn't get his name dragged through the mud on TV, radio, newspaper, and Internet before the facts come to light. No doubt Lynch's cred (and the cred of those who ride in and/or drive his car) has taken a hit, but thus far, he and his friends are only guilty of not appeasing a segment of the population who has already convicted them.

I haven't read everything in the thread, not sure if its been mentioned, but something that cannot be overlooked: Marshawn, a black male from Oakland, likely has a slightly different perception of the police and the court system than a bunch of suburban white men tearing him apart on an Internet message board. It is very easy to say, "Just turn yourself in and chances are everything will work itself out." I'm sure Lynch has seen the justice system "work itself out" on a few of his friends in his day. I'm not offering that as an excuse for anything...Just as something that needs to be considered. There is a distrust that exists in the black community with the police and the law.

I don't really care either way. They do it for Kobe, they did it for LeBron last year, they did it for Wade before that. It's just the way it is. Everyone who is a fan can make up their own mind about who is better, or the greatest, or the next...Whatever...I never get pissed at analysts, it just makes no sense. You know a guy like Jeff Van Gandy couldn't care less about choosing Kobe vs. MJ, but he has a producer yapping in his ear to play up that angle. It's not debatable that Jordan benefited from the calls. "Breathed" on him? Hahaha too funny...Hand checks were legal in those days my friend...First he had to get past the molestations of Joe Dumars or John Starks on the perimeter, only to find Charles Oakley/Patrick Ewing/Bill Laimbeer/Rick Mahorn/Dennis Rodman waiting for him under the rim. He did not hesitate to mix it up in the lane and those guys mentioned were FAR from the touch-foul type. He put the refs under pressure to make a decision one way or another, and more often than not, he got the call. Kobe has not done that thus far in this series. Kobe's fade away is one area where he falls well short of Jordan, and to continue to rely on it will get him nowhere.

Yes, good post...I'm aware of all that...However, with everyone scratching their heads about what possibly could have gone wrong for him, the Winstrol is the one bullet point where things were different from the way he approached previous races. I personally don't think it mattered much either...He's 5-for-6 in his career, every horse typically has at least one outlier...I think he just had a bad day, simple as that...It's not an easy task to beat 39 of the best 3YO's in the world for the third time in five weeks, and especially tough to do it over 1.5 miles, and even tougher when you consider that the 2-1 he went off at in the Derby was his longest odds...He was definitely the horse with the bullseye on his back. As for the stretch run, I can see both sides...He's a champion horse and I would've liked to have seen Desormeaux at least push him like a champion...Maybe halfway down the lane to see if he could at least challenge to hit the board...But at the same time, Desormeaux has repeatedly said that Big Brown is the best horse he's ever been on, and he wasn't going to jeopardize ANYTHING. He owes a lot to the horse as a professional, and if he felt that BB had no chance, then pulling him up is the right move. He likely would've finished last or thereabouts anyways with the way he was fading.

Not sure how you can say that with such certainty...He's been getting Winstrol every 30 days since he started training...Then on May 15th, he doesn't receive an injection for the first time...And this is a horse who entered the Belmont with only FIVE CAREER RACES IN HIS LIFE, and was about to run for the THIRD TIME IN FIVE WEEKS at a mile-and-a-half. He's had foot problems in the past. He had the same trainer and the same jockey. The weather could've had an effect, but that was the same for every horse. The only other difference was the Winstrol. I realize that the dosage for horses is much smaller (considering their mass) than what humans would take. But it still has an effect, or they wouldn't use it. To throw that out the window as a possible reason for his lack of usual explosion at the top of the stretch seems premature.

No doubt the Celtics D has played a major role in Kobe settling for jump shots...They have that lane on lockdown, and are defending like they're playing for an NBA title. But Kobe can't shy away from the contact...As for the Jordan comparisons, anytime the analyst brings it up, the boys in the truck should just roll old playoff highlights of Jordan getting to the hoop against the Pistons and the Knicks if they want to show the difference between the two...I know KG is a monster in there, but Mike wasn't settling for one foul shot in an NBA finals game. I realize the refs aren't going to foul Kobe out of the game...But two ticky-tack fouls early certainly plays a big role in the game, namely: Kobe has to come out of the game immediately, can't risk a 3rd foul in the 1st quarter, and for the rest of the half he didn't guard Paul Pierce at all, even with Allen out of the game. It's also riskier on offense for him to drive, when Boston has three guys waiting for him in the lane. So it does directly impact the way the game plays out. (I forgott Odom's first foul- the charge- I would've called that a charge too, but his 2nd came immediately and was very soft.) Have to agree, like any good defender it really comes down to desire, and sometimes Kobe's desires tilt towards the other end of the court. But when he wants to, he can smother...Not to harp on it, but two early fouls CAN change the way an aggresive player plays...At least until midway thru the 3rd. Tis often true, that's why it's not really worth getting fired up about. I'm not sure if the league (or the refs) think that these guys can't play hard without getting into a brawl...When guys are fighting for position for a rebound, they pretty much let them go to war...So why can't you battle for position on a post-up or set a non-moving screen that is a cruncher? Let them play for a title, IMO! Fouls are fouls, but the knick-knacks happen every play...The players have a way of squaring that stuff on their own! Should be interesting in LA...When's the next game, two Sundays from now???

One of Big Brown's greatest strengths was his ability to accellerate for position, and then ease into a groove and stay in that spot. Many horses, when the jockey asks for some jump, will provide it, but then want to go all out and can't settle off the pace. They actually use more effort when the jock slows them down. But Big Brown seemed able to accelerate so as to not get boxed in or get in a bad spot, and then not fight Desormeaux when he tightened the reins again. In the Belmont, he looked very rank entering the first turn and almost ran up that horse's ass on the rail. I thought Desormeaux did a nice job getting him out of trouble and into a more comfortable position. They had to be liking their spot on the backstretch, sitting comfortably off the lead with a moderate pace. However, when Desormeaux loosened around the clubhouse turn and asked for the typical BB explosion, it just wasn't there. There's a lot of possibilities, the hoof being an obvious one. The heat/humidity is another consideration. He didn't receive his Winstrol shot on May 15th either, which certainly could have an impact in the longest race of his life. Another is the old thoroughbred "bounce" theory. He was a good horse, and still is a good horse, he just had a bad day at the worst time. He has been setting up for a bounce since his first race, and he's not the first horse to fail in the Test of Champions, racing against the best thoroughbreds in the world for the third time in five weeks.

It will be interesting to see if the Lakers are getting the calls in LA that the Celts were getting in Boston. There were some absolutely REDICULOUS calls on screens and post-ups that could definitely be called on every trip down the court if the refs wanted to nitpick. These are huge games and the refs should let the players bang a little bit for position. (Not just playing the "homer" angle either- they tagged KG for a horrible call when he was setting a screen for Allen coming around a curl.) I'm not talking about foul shot discrepency or anything like that...It's more the 2 early fouls called on Kobe and the 2 at the end of the 1st quarter called on Odom. They were all 50/50 and nobody would notice if they weren't called, but instead, those two players have to come out of the game to protect against getting a 3rd foul early in the half. I understand that the refs "protecting" star players is a beef a lot of people have with the NBA, but to call touch fouls and force a team to sit the players who actually got them to the finals is hogwash. A foul is foul, but at times the refs seem to want to impose their dominance on a game. Newsflash fellahs, nobody is paying $300 for a ticket to watch you. That will always be a sticking point for basketball, because in no other sport (except maybe the home plate ump in baseball) does a ref have so much objective impact on the game.

I'm glad the Kobe Bryant case and the Duke lacrosse case taught us to let the facts play out before our rush to convict takes over....It was hard to listen to the morality police screaming from their high horse in those instances, grandstanding about what should be done to these criminals (because apparently these people had some inside information on the case that the rest of us didn't have)... But I'm glad that's not happening here.

He's a great back and is apparently off to the early lead in the Yards after Contact stat.

LEFT FOR DEAD !!!! Overreact much??? My nephew fell off his bike last weekend and bruised his leg and needed 9 stiches. Certainly you have inside knowledge about this case, since you know Lynch was driving, and you know the girl's bruise and cut were life threatening. That's your opinion and that's fine. It is my opinion that they should press charges too: J-walking charges on the drunk girl walking in the street at 3:30am.

It's funny that you need a certificate when you have the proof hanging right off your chest. I'd like to see attempt to set the Guiness record for consecutive jumping jacks.

That's true. I can get behind any event that involves the outdoors, gambling, and drinking. The fact that you get to tool around in a motorized cart is just gravy. Shot a 41-40 for an 81 yesterday and probably had 12 beers (we had about a 45 minute rain delay just sitting under a shelter.) The drinking didn't hurt me at all as I parred the last four holes coming in...