Post by less1brain on Jul 10, 2021 8:38:51 GMT -8
At MAP in Garden Grove.
The Great Greek Dinos Trigonis is doing his Pangos thing.
Seriously, Dinos will tell you that he's great. Even if you haven't asked him if he is or not or even if you don't care.
But he won't care if you don't care. So, he's happy.
The games are open to the public, so anyone can go.
At 12:10 PM, my second view of the best 2024 in Cali and hard to believe there's 5 better than him in the US of A: The biblically-inclined Isaiah Elohim, 6-5 CG from Northridge Heritage Christian.
One thing to remember: The CBA is up in 2023. The NBAPA has already dug in their heels: The 2023 draft will include high school players. The NBA has responded just as ferociously: The 2024 draft will include high school players.
Mick Cronin might be competing with the NBA and NIKE and the ESPN Show (owned by the same folks who own TNT, TrueTV, TBS and ABC) and not just with Andy Enfield, Mark Few, Bill Self and some other college coaches.
If his staff doesn't reel The Prophet in, deal with it.
Why spin yourself in circles in the Sinai desert for 40 years?
At 1:20 PM, my first complete view of 2021 Jay'len Carter (not Jaylen Clark, don't detonate your head, mh)... wait, who? But college for him starts in October!
Or it doesn't.
4.2 GPA, class valedictorian at Manual Arts. The Arts, that plays in a league with the Shaw and the Jeff... which only played 8 games this year and never played on TV.
And he sat out the season to focus on his grades. After averaging 26.2 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 3.5 APG and 1.8 SPG as a JR.
And he's never played in a club ball or event like this before: He likes to play real basketball and doesn't want to develop bad habits.
He's 6-5.5 190 with a 36-inch vertical, a 6-9 wingspan and he can hit the 3, the turnaround midrange J and dunk it with authority. And pass off to his teammates.
Wants to be a neurosurgeon.
His Dad wants him to play in the NBA, but the young man is making alternative plans and he is 18 now...
And no college coach has seen him and no one believes that he exists. Especially the coaches who tell me, "But players from South Central have no grades."
Um...
But all of the college coaches will be at that gym today and I've invited a number of them to join me and watch him play.
He actually played last night and will be playing twice today and again on Sunday.
Along with 9 teammates.
And there are 2 more "open" events this month where he'll play.
On one of the few real basketball club teams: Rockfish.
No shoe company sponsorship. The guy who runs it has a day job not involving basketball and doesn't get paid a penny by his non-profit AAU program. Registration fees are $385 per player for all 3 events combined, so not $1,155 per player, just $385.
If they can't cover it, Dave Benezra does. And three of his players and their families just can't cover the $385. One is homeless, but has a 3.2 GPA that isn't fake. He wants to study kinesiology or become a paramedic. He provides important health care services to other homeless people in exchange for food and a tent that people look after while he goes to high school.
I'm covering his registration fee. Dave will cover the other two.
There will be other top guys playing today and throughout the summer.
I know some of the people on this message board are passionate about UCLA Basketball and contribute to their favorite school.
If 25 people are passionate about young men who play basketball who deserve a chance to go to a college (remember, if there's a parent, sometimes the parent hasn't heard of Financial Aid) and can afford to contribute $100 a year (tax-deductible) to Rockfish, well, that would cover the registration fees for 6 of the 10 players, almost 7 every year. This is a weird year, in the sense that there will be a lot of 2021 guys playing in front of coaches who are really there to see 2022, 2023 and 2024.
But of course Rockfish has its regular teams too. And some of those players and, even if they have parents, can't afford to pay $385 either.
There are young women in the same situation.
So, this isn't a one-time event.
mh will be driving and I'm sure you'll read our dueling scouting reports next week.
Speaking about that whole Moses and the Ten Commandments thing, does anybody other than me think that story reeks?
Moses's staff has apparently run out of juice. The Hebrew nation are saying the prayers, doing the rituals, making the sacrifices... and they're starving, thirsty and dying.
Moses sees something weird up on high at Mt. Sinai and use that staff as a walking stick to check it out.
Down below, things are pretty grim.
Moses's brother, Aaron, is a gifted sculptor or something, so the desperate Hebrew nation ask him to make a golden idol of the god Ba'al (not E'la), a god of Food and Water sort of God.
Up on top of the mountain, a burning bush speaks and tells Moses that it is God.
That explains a lot.
The burning bush makes 10 commandments: One of which is, "Thou shalt make thee no molten Gods." Another is "For thou shalt worship no other god; for the Lord whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." According to the King James version.
Yes, that's very apparent: Jealous (sounds like a pop star) knows what's going on down the mountain, but he's too weak to do anything about it except whisper it to Moses.
Then Moses goes down the mountain and is horrified that his brother and the Hebrew nation have breached Jealous's commandments of which they were completely in the dark on.
So God kills Moses and makes the Hebrew nation spin around in a circle for 40 years.
"If we go West, we go to the Red Sea and Pharaoh is pissed. If we go North, we drown. If we go South, we drown (seriously, it takes about a week to walk across the Sinai). If we go East... let's try that."
And they did. And Aaron became the first Rebbe.
And Joshua got a powerful trumpet and the walls of Jericho fell down and the Hebrew nation slaughtered the inhabitants and took their promised land from the people already living there.
The ancient Romans were inveterate collectors of books, especially books of religion. Using the decay rates of rare earth isotopes or the oxidation rate of iron, you can be pretty certain of when a certain book was actually in existence.
128 different versions of the Tanakh existed between 50-85 in the century in which the Romans tossed about 55% of the Jews out of the Promised Land (they didn't expel anyone from the Kingdom of Arimathea, just the ones from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, so only about 55% of the Israelis are crusaders unless the Philistines have a beef with the earlier crusade) (the Arabs treated them pretty badly as well).
In some of the versions, the commandment was "Thou shalt not worship any other gods and goddesses before worshipping me first. After that, you can worship all of the others too."
And Moses did die of old age. But it didn't take 40 years to get to the Promised Land.
It did take 40 years to conquer it.
But those are religious books.
History books from many sources make it quite clear that the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Arimathea were often allied with the Kingdom of Egypt against the Emperor of "Babylon Empire" or something Babylonian in nature. In the mid 6th to late 5th centuries BC/BCE/BME. A lot of warfare there.
And Nebuchadnezzer II did cart off the entire population of the City of Jerusalem (but not anyone else) and held them in captivity for 20 years and treated them like slaves. Before sending them back home.
Was this before or after Joseph became de facto ruler of Egypt or before or after the Jews became slaves in Egypt?
Or did none of those latter events ever take place?
Archeological and DNA evidence shows the Jews migrated from Persia to the Sinai around 1,000 BC/BCE/BME.
Moses got his staff on Mt. Sinai.
He got the Commandments there.
The Jewish god was a mountain god who lived on top of Mt. Sinai. He wasn't Zeus, Jove or Odin.
Nor did he create human beings. He certainly didn't create Cain's wife, since she lived in the land of Nod.
But she apparently was Jewish or there wouldn't be any Jews.
He was the god of the Hebrew nation.
Whatever.
Frankly, if it was me, I'd have unzipped my fly and put out the fire in that burning bush and spared everyone the trouble.
But enough talk of strife and division, slaughter and religion, truth and revision: I go to watch basketball today, live, in person, for the first time since January of 2020.
Thank goodness.
The Great Greek Dinos Trigonis is doing his Pangos thing.
Seriously, Dinos will tell you that he's great. Even if you haven't asked him if he is or not or even if you don't care.
But he won't care if you don't care. So, he's happy.
The games are open to the public, so anyone can go.
At 12:10 PM, my second view of the best 2024 in Cali and hard to believe there's 5 better than him in the US of A: The biblically-inclined Isaiah Elohim, 6-5 CG from Northridge Heritage Christian.
One thing to remember: The CBA is up in 2023. The NBAPA has already dug in their heels: The 2023 draft will include high school players. The NBA has responded just as ferociously: The 2024 draft will include high school players.
Mick Cronin might be competing with the NBA and NIKE and the ESPN Show (owned by the same folks who own TNT, TrueTV, TBS and ABC) and not just with Andy Enfield, Mark Few, Bill Self and some other college coaches.
If his staff doesn't reel The Prophet in, deal with it.
Why spin yourself in circles in the Sinai desert for 40 years?
At 1:20 PM, my first complete view of 2021 Jay'len Carter (not Jaylen Clark, don't detonate your head, mh)... wait, who? But college for him starts in October!
Or it doesn't.
4.2 GPA, class valedictorian at Manual Arts. The Arts, that plays in a league with the Shaw and the Jeff... which only played 8 games this year and never played on TV.
And he sat out the season to focus on his grades. After averaging 26.2 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 3.5 APG and 1.8 SPG as a JR.
And he's never played in a club ball or event like this before: He likes to play real basketball and doesn't want to develop bad habits.
He's 6-5.5 190 with a 36-inch vertical, a 6-9 wingspan and he can hit the 3, the turnaround midrange J and dunk it with authority. And pass off to his teammates.
Wants to be a neurosurgeon.
His Dad wants him to play in the NBA, but the young man is making alternative plans and he is 18 now...
And no college coach has seen him and no one believes that he exists. Especially the coaches who tell me, "But players from South Central have no grades."
Um...
But all of the college coaches will be at that gym today and I've invited a number of them to join me and watch him play.
He actually played last night and will be playing twice today and again on Sunday.
Along with 9 teammates.
And there are 2 more "open" events this month where he'll play.
On one of the few real basketball club teams: Rockfish.
No shoe company sponsorship. The guy who runs it has a day job not involving basketball and doesn't get paid a penny by his non-profit AAU program. Registration fees are $385 per player for all 3 events combined, so not $1,155 per player, just $385.
If they can't cover it, Dave Benezra does. And three of his players and their families just can't cover the $385. One is homeless, but has a 3.2 GPA that isn't fake. He wants to study kinesiology or become a paramedic. He provides important health care services to other homeless people in exchange for food and a tent that people look after while he goes to high school.
I'm covering his registration fee. Dave will cover the other two.
There will be other top guys playing today and throughout the summer.
I know some of the people on this message board are passionate about UCLA Basketball and contribute to their favorite school.
If 25 people are passionate about young men who play basketball who deserve a chance to go to a college (remember, if there's a parent, sometimes the parent hasn't heard of Financial Aid) and can afford to contribute $100 a year (tax-deductible) to Rockfish, well, that would cover the registration fees for 6 of the 10 players, almost 7 every year. This is a weird year, in the sense that there will be a lot of 2021 guys playing in front of coaches who are really there to see 2022, 2023 and 2024.
But of course Rockfish has its regular teams too. And some of those players and, even if they have parents, can't afford to pay $385 either.
There are young women in the same situation.
So, this isn't a one-time event.
mh will be driving and I'm sure you'll read our dueling scouting reports next week.
Speaking about that whole Moses and the Ten Commandments thing, does anybody other than me think that story reeks?
Moses's staff has apparently run out of juice. The Hebrew nation are saying the prayers, doing the rituals, making the sacrifices... and they're starving, thirsty and dying.
Moses sees something weird up on high at Mt. Sinai and use that staff as a walking stick to check it out.
Down below, things are pretty grim.
Moses's brother, Aaron, is a gifted sculptor or something, so the desperate Hebrew nation ask him to make a golden idol of the god Ba'al (not E'la), a god of Food and Water sort of God.
Up on top of the mountain, a burning bush speaks and tells Moses that it is God.
That explains a lot.
The burning bush makes 10 commandments: One of which is, "Thou shalt make thee no molten Gods." Another is "For thou shalt worship no other god; for the Lord whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." According to the King James version.
Yes, that's very apparent: Jealous (sounds like a pop star) knows what's going on down the mountain, but he's too weak to do anything about it except whisper it to Moses.
Then Moses goes down the mountain and is horrified that his brother and the Hebrew nation have breached Jealous's commandments of which they were completely in the dark on.
So God kills Moses and makes the Hebrew nation spin around in a circle for 40 years.
"If we go West, we go to the Red Sea and Pharaoh is pissed. If we go North, we drown. If we go South, we drown (seriously, it takes about a week to walk across the Sinai). If we go East... let's try that."
And they did. And Aaron became the first Rebbe.
And Joshua got a powerful trumpet and the walls of Jericho fell down and the Hebrew nation slaughtered the inhabitants and took their promised land from the people already living there.
The ancient Romans were inveterate collectors of books, especially books of religion. Using the decay rates of rare earth isotopes or the oxidation rate of iron, you can be pretty certain of when a certain book was actually in existence.
128 different versions of the Tanakh existed between 50-85 in the century in which the Romans tossed about 55% of the Jews out of the Promised Land (they didn't expel anyone from the Kingdom of Arimathea, just the ones from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, so only about 55% of the Israelis are crusaders unless the Philistines have a beef with the earlier crusade) (the Arabs treated them pretty badly as well).
In some of the versions, the commandment was "Thou shalt not worship any other gods and goddesses before worshipping me first. After that, you can worship all of the others too."
And Moses did die of old age. But it didn't take 40 years to get to the Promised Land.
It did take 40 years to conquer it.
But those are religious books.
History books from many sources make it quite clear that the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Arimathea were often allied with the Kingdom of Egypt against the Emperor of "Babylon Empire" or something Babylonian in nature. In the mid 6th to late 5th centuries BC/BCE/BME. A lot of warfare there.
And Nebuchadnezzer II did cart off the entire population of the City of Jerusalem (but not anyone else) and held them in captivity for 20 years and treated them like slaves. Before sending them back home.
Was this before or after Joseph became de facto ruler of Egypt or before or after the Jews became slaves in Egypt?
Or did none of those latter events ever take place?
Archeological and DNA evidence shows the Jews migrated from Persia to the Sinai around 1,000 BC/BCE/BME.
Moses got his staff on Mt. Sinai.
He got the Commandments there.
The Jewish god was a mountain god who lived on top of Mt. Sinai. He wasn't Zeus, Jove or Odin.
Nor did he create human beings. He certainly didn't create Cain's wife, since she lived in the land of Nod.
But she apparently was Jewish or there wouldn't be any Jews.
He was the god of the Hebrew nation.
Whatever.
Frankly, if it was me, I'd have unzipped my fly and put out the fire in that burning bush and spared everyone the trouble.
But enough talk of strife and division, slaughter and religion, truth and revision: I go to watch basketball today, live, in person, for the first time since January of 2020.
Thank goodness.