16 Players on Warriors Roster

So, as of OCT 21, the GS Warriors have 16 players and only 15 are allowed to be on the team. So that mean someone has to go. It will most likely be one of the three rookies, Demarcus Nelson, Rob Kurz, Richard Hendrix, or Anthony Morrow. All four have potential. Nelson I think the Warriors will keep, because I heard Nelson wanting three point guards until Ellis returns. So that leaves Kurz, Hendrix or Morrow. I think it will be either Hendrix or Kurz, just because Warriors might not want 7 big men on the team the other five being Andris, Turiaf, Al, Wright, and Randolph. Those five will most likely be in uniform opening night. And I think that only one big man is needed for the three remaining spsots. But if I were choosing, I would not know what to do. Kurz is like another Croshere, a guy who can defend, and shoot the three, while Hendrix, by looking at his stats, he seems like a very good rebounder and shot blocker. But then again, it could be Morrow if Kurz doesn't get cut because I am not sure if the Warriors are willing to let go a second round pick.

Sebastian Janikoski's Left Leg

Raider's won today! Off the leg of Sebastian Janikowski. This guy is my favorite NFL kicker of all-time, mainly because I grew up with him since I really started to watch football.
This Poland dude is just a savage. He has this super leg and on most kick offs he just kicks it right into the end zone. And he even attempted a 76 yard field goal. Now that's just ridiculous. I mean 76 yard? Wow.
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Ray's won today as well! Yes I am somewhat of band Wagoner. But I started to like them, way early in the season not just when they started to clinch the season.
So now, I don't really know who to root for, the Rays or the Phils? I like both teams. The rays - because of being underdogs, having awesome pitching (Price, Shields, Kazmir), awesome speed (Upton, Crawford) and awesome power (Pena, Longoria.), awesome fielding (Iwamura, Bartlett), the veterans (Percival, Floyd, and maybe even Baldelli). These guys are just awesome. I have absolutely no idea how many times I just used awesome in the last paragraph, but that just emphasis how awesome the rays are.
But then again, one of my other favorite NL teams, the Phillies is as equally awesome. They basically have three MVP's in their infield, (Utley, Howard, and Rollins). That's awesome. You know what else is awesome, that they have players like Burrell who could hit 40 homers, Victorino, the spam loving Hawaiian guy, who could steel 40 bays. Then their pitching staff is just awesome too, Blanton, Hamels, Meyers, Moyer, Lidge, Madson). Just too awesome.
So I really have no idea who to root for here, but If I have to choose one, I'll go with the Rays just because their underdogs, and who doesn't want the underdogs to win the World Series (besides Phillies fans).
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Some nonsports stuff:
- I watch "All the President’s Men" this weekend. It is one of the best old movies I have ever seen. Very interesting.
- What is grammatically wrong with saying “I can’t see nothing”

Also check out my new blog:
at http://davis-fried-rice.blogspot.com
It's about Fried Rice.

team updates

So updating my favorite teams:



The Warriors beated the Bucks in China with a game winner by ROB KURZ!!!





Listen here to KURZ's game winning 3 pointer:




-Warriors looked good in preseason, especially Anthony Randolph. What intrigues me about Randolph is that he could actually a small forward, but still have in length and intangibles as a power forward. So our current future lineup for the Warriors looks like: Ellis Magette Randolph Wright Biendris, with Azubuike and Bellini coming off the bench and/or occasionally starting for Randolph or Wright.

- The Oakland Raiders are 1-4. Not that bad. Could have been 3-2, if not for some bad mistakes. Cable is the new head coach, Kiffen is out. Russell looks good, not throwing a lot of interceptions, on behalf of him not throwing a lot but also because of good decision making.

-The Oakland A's are in their off season now. Did alright this year, could have been better in the second half of the season. I still didn't see the point to trading away Harden and Blanton. And I hope all the trades that Beane pulled off actually help us in the long run.

-Cal Football - not really keeping up with them as much, but I heard Longshore is starting again; Kevin Riley will be riding the bench. Javid Best is a monster. Super fast. Too bad Raiders have DMC, they could have drafted him as their starting when he enters the league. But who knows, it could happen

-UCLA Basketball -
A lot of changes, especially with Westbrook (On Thunder), Kevin Love (T-Wolves), Lorenzo Mata, and mbah a moute (on Bucks) gone to the NBA or graduated. There are still some good players on the team there and if they reach to final four again in 2009, they will have been in the Final Four for 4 straight years (with Josh Shipp and Darren Collison being on all four teams. Ben Howland and co. have produced some mighty fine good basketball players over the last couple of years, and if all had stayed until their senior year, they might be just loaded with talent:
Some of the players include:

Love
Westbrook
mbah a moute
Affalo (pistons)
Farmar
Hollins (also had Michael fey, another 7 footer)

Then to go along with this, they just recruited more 4-5 star basketball players:
Drew Gordon
Malcolm lee
Jrue holiday
J’mison Morgan

So unless these make like Kevin love and enter draft, the bruins are pretty much set for four more years of final four successes.

Warriors

Warriors signed Dan Dickau! (As of OCT 19, he has been released)

While he isn't Shaun Livingtson, he is an alright sign. I think he can be a good point guard for the Warriors.

Well I am so very excited for the NBA season to start. The Warriors may have lost some key players from last year, most notably B-Diddy, Barnes, and Pietrus but hey, we are going to make a run in this deep deep Western Conference. I STILL BELIEVE!
If you don't, just look at our team:

PG Monta Ellis
SG Stephen Jackson
SF Corey Maggette
PF Al Harrington
C Andris Biedrins

C.J. Watson
Marco Belinelli
Kelenna Azubuike
Brandon Wright
Ronny Turiaf

Dan Dickau (Released) Demarus Nelson???
Marcus Williams
Anthony Morrow
Richard Hendrix
Brandon Wright

What would be awesome for the Warriors if they signed Gary Payton or some how trade for Jason Kidd, that would be very cool. But the chances of this happening are the same as Rickey Henderson batting lead off for the A's.

Random Thoughts

I hope Rays make it to the World Series. That would be just super.

Saw a free free monitor in the MSB this week. Wanted to get it, but it is too heavy and way too far from where I live.

Ate a 6 dollar guacamole burger from Carl's Jr for only 3 dollars. It was okay.

Watched Hancock, featuring Will Smith, this weekend. Good movie. Better than I expected.

Bought three movies from gamestop for only $7.99: Anger Management, Mr. Deeds, & 8 Mile. Could have gotten Rent, but I did not want a scrathed up DVD.

Waiting for High School Musical: Sing It! - for ps2. Can not wait for that.

Lastly, I emailed this to Itunes Customer Service this past week:
-----------------------
I bought this movie a while ago (December 2007), and now I accidental deleted it from my computer/ipod. Is there a way to get the movie without paying for it again?
----------------------
And not only did they respond, they actually got me my movie back:
-----------
Hello Mark,

I'm sorry to hear that you accidentally deleted 'High School Musical". I understand how frustrating that can be. I have posted the missing item to your account.

Sincerely,
Nita

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i thought that was kinda kool of itunes to do that.

school again

today is my first day of my sophomore year at UCD. 1st class was Soc4: Immigration - teacher/topics sounds intriguing. Tomorrow is my first advance calculus class and then a computer science class. yay me.

Fav ALL TIME MLB and NBA Teams

These teams are subject to change.

NBA
PG- Magic Johnson
SG- Michael Jordan
SF- Kobe Bryant
PF- Scottie Pippen
C- Yao Ming
6th - Reggie Miller
7th- Alonzo Mourning
8th- Andris Biendris
9th- Dennis Rodman
10th- Rasheed Wallace
11th- Allen Iverson
12th- Chris Mullin
IR- Jason Williams
IR- Dirk Nowitzki
IR- Steve Kerr
IR- Stephen Jackson
IR - John Stockton
************************************
MLB
C Kurt Suzuki
C Joe Mauer
1B Scott Hatteberg
IB Mark McGwire
2B Mark Ellis
SS Derek Jeter
SS Miguel Tejada
2B/SS Marco Scutaro
3B Eric Chavez
LF Rickey Henderson
CF Ken Griffey Jr.
RF Ichiro Suzuki
OF Nick Swisher
OF Rickey Henderson
OF Roberto Clemente
SP Tim Lincecum
SP Tim Hudson
SP Rich Harden
SP Greg Maddux
SP Pedro Martinez
LRP Tom Glavine
RP Rollie Fingers
RP Dennis Eckersly
RP Huston Street
CP Francisco Rodriguez
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My All-Time NFL team is still in process.

QB Rich Gannon
QB Donavan McNabb
QB Steve Young
RB Charlie Garner
RB Maurice Drew Jones
RB Justin Fargas
RB Clinton Portis
RB Reggie Bush
FB Mike Alstot
FB Jon Richie
WR Randy Moss
WR Steve Smith
WR Hines Ward
WR Jerry Rice
WR Tim Brown
WR Torry Holt
WR Larry Fitzgerald
TE Tony Gonzalez
TE Antonio Gates
TE Chris Cooley
LT Lincoln Kennedy
LT
LG Steve Wisnewski
LG
C
C
RG
RG
RT
RT
LE Julius Peppers
LE Derrick Burgess
RE Dwight Freeny
RE Haloti Ngata
DT Warren Sapp
DT Ted Washington
DT Tony Sirigusa
LOLB Terrell Suggs
LOLB Manny Lawson
MLB Kirk Morrison
MLB Ray Lewis
ROLB Bill Romanowski
ROLB Thomas Howard
CB Charles Woodson
CB Nnamdi Asomugha
CB Dante Hall
CB Deion Sanders
CB Ronde Barber
FS Rod Woodson
FS
SS Jon Lynch
SS Troy Polamalu
K Sebastian Janikowski
P Shane Lechler
KR Dante Hall
PR Devin Hester

The Office

You may not know, but I am a fan of the NBC show, The Office, starring Steve Carrell. Look at this its preakin punny.

Love Triangle

Found this video online...Pretty amusing.


http://view.break.com/566379 - Watch more free videos

Earthquake

I just felt this really big earthquake around 9:00 PM on September 5, 2008. No big damages, just a lot of shaking for like 15 seconds. It was around a 4.0 magnitude.

I live very close to the Hayward Fault, so I am kinda used to small earthquakes, but this was the largest I ever felt since the 1989 Earthquake (which I felt, but I was not aware of it, being that I was 11 months old). Oh and by the way, the Oakland A's beat the San Francisco Giants in the 1989 World Series where one game of the World Series was interuptted by the massive earthquake - postponing the game for ten days.

Non-Sports Post

Today, I was thinking of some non sports stuff to write about. I came up with the following:

-music trends (specifcially something on how boy bands just disentigrated into thin air)

-why certain people do not like sports

-the topics that were discuseed in my economics and US history classes today (which were monopoly and the Vietnam War, respectively)

-and something about Kool-Aid, and artficially flavored juice drinks (which I was drinking at the time)

Then I started to think of not doing a non-sports post, and actually doing a sports relating post.

I then decided not to do that idea.

Suddenly I came with an idea of summarizing my day, or my summer, in ten words (but not in a sentence though, like: fun happy boring...blah blah blah)

I again decided not to follow up on that new idea.

And finally I came up with just posting all of my ideas of what I could of wrote about in this non-sports post. This basically took me half an hour to write. What a waste of time, but who cares, it's a non-sports post, hehe.

Patrick Ewing Jr.

To start off my random player of the day, I would first like to apologize for the title of my blog, not accurately reflecting the content of it. As of tomorrow, I will attempt to do my best of posting sports and not sports relating topics to the best of my abilities.

Patrick Ewing. Perhaps one of the greatest NBA centers of all time. Well, like a majority of human beings, he has children. One of them is Patrick Ewing Jr. He was drafted by the Sacramento Kings in the 2008 NBA draft, then traded to the Houston Rockets in the Ron Artest deal (which really helped the Rockets chances of advancing to the next round of the playoffs, but it all really depends on Yao's health), then recently was just traded to his father's team, the New York Knicks.
Ewing Jr. has a chance of making the team, and probably will as he will most likely become a fan favorite, and possibly the organization's favorite. The New York Knicks did not trade for Ewing Jr. to better the team, I think that they did this trade just for the heck of it. They only had to trade away draft rights of a basketball player who might never play in the NBA. By this, you can tell the Houston Rockets were in no means "desperate" to keep Ewing Jr.
But, this little part of me wants Ewing Jr. to not only make the team, but to actually play and succeed. Maybe not to the extent of his father, but at least to the success of a solid role player. I feel this way because it must be difficult being a professional athlete whose father/mother was exceptional at that sport, while they might not be exceptionally as their parent was.
There are many other notable athletes who probably faced some of the same pressures as Ewing Jr. at one point in their lives are:

Jeffrey and Marcus Jordan (College and High School Basketball) - Sons of MJ
Ken Griffey Jr. (MLB) - Son of Ken Griffey
Barry Bonds (MLB) - Son Bobby Bonds
Stephen Curry (College Basketball) - Son Dell Curry
Brett Hull (NHL) - Son of Bobby Hull
Mike Dunleavy Jr. (NBA) - Son of Mike Dunleavy
Laila Ali (Boxing) - Daughert of Cassius Clay or otherwise known as, Muhammad Ali
Moises Alou (MLB) - Son of Felipe Alou
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Nascar) - Son of Dale Earnhardt
Eli and Peyton Manning (NFL) - Sons of Peyton Manning

Oh and did you know, Denzel Washington (the actor) has a son playing in the NFL name John David Washington Jr.?

J. T. O'Sullivan

While UCD might not be like the Miami Hurricanes or the USC Trojans in terms of getting football players into the NFL, we still produce some pretty good players. For instance, like J.T. O'Sullivan:

J. T. O'Sullivan is the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. He attended college that I currently attend, UC DAVIS!!! But he is not the only former Aggie now starting for a professional team. Mark Grieb, of the San Jose Sabercats in the Arena Football League also attended UCD. Ken O'Brien a quarterback who played in the NFL for the New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame as of 1997, also attended UCD.

GO AGGIES!

2000-2005 MLB, NBA, and NFL Drafts (Picks 1-5)

The 2003 NBA drafts might be one of the best NBA drafts ever. That Draft consisted of the three players above, Melo, Lebron and Wade, with a lot more talent such as Chris Kaman, Chris Bosh, and Josh Howard.
The 1984 NBA draft was not so bad either. There was Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, and someone name Michael Jordan aswell.
Now looking back at the 2000 to 2005 rookie drafts for the three major sports, many of the teams did not do so good drafting. When a team has a top 5 pick, that player should end up 5 - 10 years later still on the team, as one of their franchise players, or at the very least a starter on their team or another team, not in retirement, the minor leagues, a bench warmer, or in another league. But exactly how well did the teams do? Here are the 2000 to 2005 rookie drafts for the MLB, NBA, and the NFL. Players in red indicates a successful pick.

2000 MLB Draft:
Adrian Gonzalez
Adam Johnson
Luis Montanez
Mike Stodolka
Justin Wayne
2001 MLB Draft:
Joe Mauer
Mark Prior
Dewon Brazelton
Gavin Floyd
Mark Teixeira
2002 MLB Draft:
Bryan Bullington
BJ Upton
Chris Gruler
Adam Loewen
Clint Everts
2003 MLB Draft:
Delmon Young
Rickie Weeks
Kyle Sleeth
Tim Stauffer
Chris Lubanski
2004 MLB Draft (Success unknown):
Matt Bush
Steven Jarees
Philip Humber
Jeff Niemann
Mark Rojers
2005 MLB Draft:
Justin Upton
Alex Gordon
Jeff Clement
Ryan Zimmerman
Ryan Braun

2000 NBA Draft:
Kenyon Martin
Stromile Swift
Darius Miles
Marcus Fizer
Mike Miller
2001 NBA Draft:
Kwame Brown
Tyson Chandler
Pau Gasol
Eddy Curry
Jason Richardson
2002 NBA Draft:
Yao Ming
Jay Williams
Mike Dunleavy
Drew Gooden
Nikoloz Tskitishvili
2003 NBA Draft:
Lebron James
Darko Milicic
Carmelo Anthony
Chris Bosh
Dwayne Wade
2004 NBA Draft:
Dwight Howard
Emeka Okafor
Ben Gorden
Shaun Livingtson
Devin Harris
2005 NBA Draft:
Andrew Bogut
Marvin Williams
Deron Williams
Chris Paul
Raymond Felton

2000 NFL Draft:
Courtney Brown
LaVar Arrington
Chris Samuels
Peter Warrick
Jamal Lewis
2001 NFL Draft:
Michael Vick
Leonard Davis
Gerrad Warren
Justin Smith
Ladainain Tomlinson
2002 NFL Draft:
David Carr
Juluis Peppers
Joey Harrington
Mike Williams
Quinten Jammer
2003 NFL Draft:
Carson Palmer
Charles Rogers
Andre Johnson
Dewayne Robertson
Terence Newman
2004 NFL Draft:
Eli Manning
Robert Gallery
Larry Fitzgerald
Philip Rivers
Sean Taylor (Rest In Peace)
2005 NFL Draft:
Alex Smith
Ronnie Brown
Braylon Edwards
Cedric Benson
Cadillac Williams

Now here is the success rates of choosing a "good" player between 2000-2005 drafts:

MLB (Not Including 2004 Draft):
48%
NBA:
70%
NFL:
46.67%

Overall: 55.29%

While some teams chose a decent starter with their top 5 pick, most should not be considered a success. For example, the San Diego Chargers drafted Quentin Jammer with the fifth overall pick, but they could of gotten Dwight Freeny instead. So in reality, the success rate of choosing the right player is considerably lower.

Also to note, many of MLB players cannot be considered a successful pick or a failed pick because they might be in the minor leagues and still have a possibility to break through.

In conclusion, NFL teams, at times, have no idea who is right player to draft, while NBA teams have a much better sense in whom to draft, and they should even have a better sense in whom to draft because with the rule of having high school players having to wait one year after graduation to enter the draft, and as for MLB teams, most of the time they need to be extremely lucky to get an All-Star with the a top 5 pick, let alone a major league player.

Guidelines for drafting players (picks 1-5)
-Draft the best overall players which means:
-Never draft based on need
-Never draft based on high potential, unless the opportunity cost is worth it
-Trade your pick for a lower/higher pick to get the desired player
-MLB teams should treasure a lot of more picks than having the top 5 picks

Hopefully the 2006, 2007 and 2008 drafts will learn from history, and have a much higher success rate at picking the right player, especially the NFL.

Mariah Carey Throws Out First Pitch

One word: Dammmm. And as for the pitch, man she wasn't even trying...


By the way, my top 5 Mariah Carey songs (in no particular order):
Hero
One Sweet Day
Dream Lover
I'll Be There
Fantasy

Marco Scutaro

As an Oakland Athletics fan, Marco Scutaro was and forever will be one of my favorite Athletics of all-time. This guy was a savage when he played for us. He would just have clutch hit after clutch hit. I don't see why Billy Beane traded Marco Scutaro last season, he was not a starter like Nick Swisher and Dan Haren and it wasn't like he was going to start for the Toronto BlueJays.
Trading Marco Scutaro frustrated me at that time. But what also got me frustrated was how Billy Beane traded Swisher last season, as well as Rich Harden and Joe Blanton this year. And a couple of years before that he traded away Tim Hudson. And the list goes on and on of people Beanes and traded. There is also another list that of all the free agents that were also not signed like Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, and Barry Zito. It is not that I don't agree with the Moneyball strategy, it's just that I hate seeing my favorite players leaving our team to go to another team. It is like the A's is a minor league team to the rest of the MLB teams. And it also seems like the Moneyball strategy just keeps on going around and around in a circle. It starts from getting a lot of young players on the team, then those players start performing and the team makes the playoffs but they end up coming up short of the World Series. Then we trade all the good players away, for young prospects, and then we keep the not so good players or injury plagued guys (like how we kept Barry Zito and Eric Chavez instead of Tim Hudson and Miguel Tejada.) But I do understand that the A's are not as financially well off as other teams, so I guess Billy Beane knows what he is doing trading away beloved players like Marco Scutaro.

Play of the Decade

When surfing YouTube one day, I stumbled upon this video.



It is of former NBA guard Isiah Rider, who played for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Portland Trailblazers, ATL Hawks, LA Lakers, and Denver Nuggets, trying to save the ball from going out of bounds and the ball winds up going inside the hoop for a three pointer. This just looks freakin impossible to replicate.

Also the Rasheed Wallace 3/4 of the court shot was pretty ridiculous as well.



This should be this decade's play of the decade.

My First Blog

Hello. This is my very first blog which means I am kind of a "newb" at these certain things. Also to note, I am not a very good writer, so please excuse my grammar, punctuation, spelling , etc. In my blog, I will first start off with a random person/athlete that popped into my head, whom I wish to discuss, followed by some links pertaining to that person. After that, I will write about some randomness and/or followed by more links that i also might want to discuss. I hope you enjoy.

My first player is no other than, Fat Lever. Some of you guys might have never heard of him. He is a former NBA basketball player who played for the Portland Trailblazers, Dallas Mavericks, and Denver Nuggets.



Why I bring him up is because when I was a young child, I collected hundreds of basketball cards. But what stood out Lever from all the rest of the cards was that his first name was FAT! I couldn’t believe this. I would always just make fun of his first name because it was FAT and I wouldn't even bother to look on the reverse side of card to see his statistics. But after a decade or so later, I decided to research him on Wikipedia, and to my surprise his name is not actually Fat, and that it actually stands for Lafayette. Also to my surprise, was that how good he was for a 6 foot 3 point guard named Fat. For 4 years out of his 11 years as a basketball player, he averaged around 20 ppg, 8 apg, and 9 rpg. This is amazing! During those four years, he had played basketball at a level somewhere from a Jason Kidd level to an Oscar Robertson level(really good guards who can score, dish out assists, and rebound.)

Now here is a general lesson that you should learn from : Do not judge a basketball player based on his/her height, weight, and name, judge them on how many points, assists, and rebounds they get in a basketball game.