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Please excuse my near 24 hour delay in posting on this game.  I’m just flabbergasted.  The Hawks are really tied 2-2 with the Celtics right now.  This never happens, not to any of my teams.  Tech had that run to the final 4, but they were never really a heavy underdog until the final, where they were beaten handily.

My Al Horford man-crush grows every day.  I don’t care that you were a Gator Al.  I love you, and I want the world to know!!  PLEASE SPIRIT GROUP, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, NEVER LET HIM PLAY FOR ANOTHER TEAM

I need to admit this though; I didn’t watch most of the game.  I was at a going away party for Ross at Bill and Jena’s and they don’t have a tv anywhere but they’re bedroom.  I thought this was a trait solely possessed by grandmothers and English lit teachers, but it turns out I was wrong.  Alexis let me use her phone a few times to check the score, but it was still a pathetic show of fanhood.

The Hawks were trailing by 10 early in the fourth when I got in my car to drive home.  I listened as they brought it back, pumping my fist at every amazing intense Steve Holman call.  By the time I got back the Hawks were only down 2.  I made it inside to see the last 5 minutes with Pete and Els and my God were they amazing.  Joe Johnson decided to display his “I get paid max money” face and Josh Smith, while he reverted back to his awful-shooting-from-distance ways, still managed to put up great numbers and hit free throw after free throw to seal the game.

I’m not going to say I expect the Hawks to win another game, let alone the series, but I am so happy right now.  Celtics fans don’t understand, but they can’t feel the happiness I do unless they win the championship.  We were nothing coming in to this series and now, while we’re still not a legitimate title threat, we’ve sufficiently cemented ourselves on the Wu-Tang side of the Venn diagram to live by.

I can’t wait to go to the game Friday night.

Yeah, I wanted Dorsey.  I’m talking myself in to Matt Ryan though.  I’m pretty sure it’s going to suck, but whatever.  I’m mostly worried about the fact that we had to give up a 2nd rounder to draft Sam Baker to protect Ryan.  That’s a pick that will be forgotten, but could’ve been huge for the team.

I do like Sam Baker a lot though, don’t get me wrong.  He and Blaylock make up two good young O-linemen who can help this team for a while.

Also a big fan of Curtis Lofton.  He’ll play behind Brooking for a year and then take over, allowing Brooking to move back to his preferred weak-side position.

The rest of the draft was good enough for me.  Three secondary players (Chevis Jackson, Thomas DeCoud, and Wilrey Fontenot), two more linebackers (Robert James and Kroy Biermann) and a couple options to throw to (Harry Douglas, Keith Zinger).  Thomas Brown got drafted too, which should keep the UGA fans happy since Shockley’s getting cut.

As for GT players: Predator went 93rd to Indy, Deuce went 122nd to Dallas, and Durant went 168th to Washington.  Congrats to UGA for having at least one player drafted above our punter as Marcus Howard went 161st.  I’d like to see Adamm Oliver and Darrell Robertson get looks by the Falcons since we’re so weak on the D-line and didn’t draft anyone, but I really don’t see either of them having a huge impact.  What we really need are tackles and they just aren’t big enough.  Guess we’ll have to get Vance Walker next year.

Also, I think Gouda is sleeping on Colt Brennan.  For one, he didn’t play in the Pac10 it was the WAC.  And for two, just because he played poorly with 270 lb linemen and undersized receivers against a ridiculous UGA defense doesn’t make him a bum.  He’s still the most accurate QB in the country, and I hope will surprise some people.

Besides, if we were going strictly by performance against UGA then Eric Ainge would be a future hall of famer.  54/81 for 583 yds, 4 TDs, 0 INTs and a 3-0 record.  Oh yeah, and a rushing TD despite netting -13 yards in 3 years.  Damn, sign that boy up!

It started with a 5am wake up call so I could get to work by 6.  Mind you, a bunch of us had gone to the 17th floor concert Friday night, so this meant just under 3 hours of sleep.

Work went until about 4, and didn’t get that much accomplished because the trucks we had to work on were a disaster.  When we got a good truck, we had all the inventory sorted, scanned and put away in an hour.  When we got a bad truck, it took more like 5.  At this point I’m contemplating whether or not I really want to go to the Celtics/Hawks game.  What a terrible choice that would’ve been.

Al Horford is GOD.  Get some while you can.

The game was AMAZING.  We got to CNN center around 6pm for an 8 o’clock tip and started off with the customary Goran’s food and 30 oz. Sierra Nevada.  This is very possibly the best $13 you can spend at any sporting event in Atlanta.  Two Tomahawk beers at the chophouse are close though.  We later learned that you can get a 44 oz. beer there for $8.  Yikes.

There were a surprisingly small number of Celtics fans there, and maybe a handful that didn’t have a brand new jersey straight from bandwagon.com showing how they live and die with the team.  Needless to say, I’ve never talked so much unwarranted smack that didn’t come back to bite me.  GT @ Auburn to open 2005 was close, but this wins.

From Marvin hitting his first jumpshot to take the 2-0 lead, to Zaza stopping Garnett on 3 straight possessions (which will never happen again), to Marvin hitting a HUGE layup to go into halftime tied, to Josh Smith hitting 3 3′s (a month’s quota in one night), to the dunks, to BIG AL it was awesome.  The second half was so great.  I have never seen a Hawks team come out of halftime and play like that.  And to do it against the best regular season team in the NBA is just mindblowing.  I almost don’t know if I should be happy it happened or mad that we couldn’t do it in our first 84 games.

Every bucket was a reason to jump up and high five the Kleins, the Corbis and Brad.  Hell, just about every play was.  We made friends with the groups of people around us.  We ran 3 different groups of Celtics fans out of the section over the course of the first half.  We were high fiving 8 year old kids and buying beers for 60 year old grandmothers.  On the way out we were starting chants in the concourse, the two best received being “AL HOR-FORD” and “SUCK IT, BOS-TON.”  It was the best time I’ve ever had at a live sporting event.

And, since I was the driver, the rest of the group twisted my arm into going to the Cheetah afterwards, where you get in free with a ticket stub from any pro or college game.

It was a good day.

I have 8 tickets for a screening of Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanemo Bay tonight at 7:30 at Atlantic Station.

I’m taking one.  If you want one of the other seven, text me or something.

This is just….wow.

WOW

I mean, what in the….WOWOWOW

Link

John Paulson earned a record $3.7 billion last year to top Alpha’s ranking of the 50 most highly paid hedge fund managers.

For a quick rundown of what you can buy with that.

-618,729 Neorest toilets.
-A Nintendo Wii for every student in every school from the SEC, ACC, Big Ten and Pac10.
-Every luxury suite for every game for every NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL team.
-All 400 Ferrari Enzos produced.  9 times each.

It’s good to be the king.

I am officially running the day-to-day operations of a warehouse again, just like Heidelberg last summer.  The client managed to fill up the brand new 600,000 sq ft warehouse in just under 3 months.  Not bad guys, you should be proud.  It takes a lot to plan your production and relocation so poorly.

So now I’m working with a supervisor a few forklift drivers and a some temps in an overflow building back in Fairburn praise Jeebus.  Lithia Springs is not a fun place to work, even with Aaron working there.  Basically, we receive all of the overseas product, house it here, and then ship whatever is going out in the next 24-36 hours to the main warehouse.  Not a terrible gig, but we have to be out in 3 weeks so another account can move in.

More importantly, as of today, we are officially cut off from the main building.  They’re them, we’re us.  Let’s just say there was some miscommunication on Friday and we ended up shipping 3 more truckloads than we should’ve.  That’s not a terrible thing because we can handle the work, but now we’ve flooded the main building with slow-moving product they didn’t need, which is exactly what got us in to the space issue in the first place.

Needless to say, now I’m the one running reports and choosing the product to send over.  It’s an interesting problem trying to cube out a truck, fill up a honeycombed warehouse, and make sure all the short product is getting over to the warehouse with only 1 driver, a 90-120 minute round trip, and 70,000 sq ft of space to empty into 600,000 without increasing the number of bays used.

Oh yeah, and the Hawks looked awful.  Ugh.  If there is any other way this series could suck, now the whole country is going to see how bad Josh Smith is.  Maybe not being on national TV all year was a blessing in disguise.

Ok people.  Enough of this garbage.  There is only a so-called race here because people don’t understand stats.  I know how you commoners feel.  I was once like you too.  I used to think averaging 25 points a game was great no matter the shot total.  I used to think hitting 40 home runs was great, even if it came with a .327 OBP.  I’ve learned though, and you can too!

We’re going to be using the wonderful basketball-reference site for these facts: (Durant Horford)

Common pro-Al argument #1 is that the Hawks are going to the playoffs and the Sonics suck.  Common pro-Communism response #1 is that the Hawks get to play in the East and didn’t lose their two stars in the off-season.

Common pro-Communism argument #2 is that Durant dropped 20 per.  Common pro-Al response #2 is that Al reounds like a man beast and basically averaged a double double.

Neither of these matter.

The Sonics went 20-62 this year.  Kevin Durant earned a pathetic 6 win shares and an astounding 34 loss shares (the season leader and 21st ALL TIME).  Yes, it takes a bad team to get that many losses in the first place, but it takes a special kind of player to earn that many loss shares.  Enjoy your company with Toine, Big Dog and Lattrell, Kevin.

In other words, Kevin Durant was responsible for 30% of his teams wins, and 55% of his teams losses.  His “winning percentage” of 15% makes his team’s 24% look downright respectable!  Oh, and of those win-shares, only 0.6 of them were due to his so-called offensive prowess.  I guess taking 17 shots a game, shooting 43%, turning the ball over 3 times for every 2.5 assists and grabbing less than 1 offensive board a game hurts you there, huh?

Now for the ROYAL (great nickname, imo).  The Hawks finished a still awful but good enough for extra play 37-45.  Al Horford earned 16 win shares to only 12 loss shares.  Big Al was responsible for 43% of the Hawks wins and only 27% of their losses.  Meanwhile, his overall contribution was +4 wins and a 57% “winning percentage.”  Rock on big man.

Oh yeah, and he does it on both sides of the floor too.  In fact, his 6.4 offensive win shares and 9.4 defensive win shares each eclipse Durant’s numbers individually.  Hell, his defensive win shares alone account for 25% of the Hawks’ wins, only 5% of Durant’s total.

Don’t hate the player.  Hate the overhyped “phenom” destined to average 29 points on a non-contender the rest of his career.

Oh yeah, and Beasley was a better college player.

Only the very basics at this time.  Leading scorers, assist men, and a breakdown of goals in every ten minute block of game.  Tomorrow I’ll add more such as:

• Type of shot (head or foot)
• Location of goal (inside the six, inside the box, outside the box)
• Buildup (left side, right side, center)
• Scenario (run of play, set piece, penalty, corner, own goal

Also, I’m going to go through all of the players database and make sure all the new guys (I’m looking at you Amado Guevara and Laurent Robert).

So, what I’m trying to say is check it out now, and come back tomorrow too.

Oh yeah, and my scripting idea from this post worked like a friggin champ.  I’m very happy about that.

Remember when I said that the goals section of the MLS page would be up this weekend?  Remember when it wasn’t?

Surprisingly, I messed up.  Technically the first two weeks were finished Sunday.  Just in time for seven more week three games.  But, I did write a good first batch of queries, and I have all of the goals through week three ready now, so I’ll put the page up tonight.  The next fun step is going to be adding the new players to their teams, and working on the detailed stats.  That might take a while unless I find a way to automate some of it.  We’ll see what happens.

Also, Sportsman’s Day pictures are just about ready and when they are, I will write up the event.  What’s Sportsman’s Day you might ask?  The greatest Saturday in history.

Finally, I briefly mentioned book Hackers and Painters a while ago in a post about productivity.  Well, I stumbled across the authors webpage the other day and he has some more really great essays about everything from learning to program, to how to start a startup, to what to do to keep a business successful and everything in between.  Check it out if you want some good reads.

So, just before the midpoint of the season I was pretty high on the Hawks chances.  It appears they will reward my years of fanhood by actually making the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade.  Yeah, we’ll get thrashed by the Celtics in round 1, but it’s an improvement (and it keeps Phoenix out of the lottery, suck it tuq).

Now, however, there are more pressing issues.  Namely, offloading the Human Turnover otherwise known as Josh Smith.  In that same post referenced earlier I said:

Josh Smith hasn’t exactly stopped making his “way too athletic for his own human body” mistakes, but he’s doing a much better job doing what he’s good at, which is keeping himself within 15 feet and embarrassing people.

God was I wrong.  I’m sorry.  I’m an idiot.  Now it’s time to get rid of him.

Yes, he makes the box scores look like his own personal playground.  Yes, he could very possibly put up a quadruple-double before his career is over.  Yes, he makes me want to slit my freaking throat.

He takes the worst 3 point shots this side of Manute Bol, and does a tremendous job of committing offensive fouls and turnovers on the fast break.  On top of that, he’s going to command an 8-figure salary next year, making it scarily obvious that the Hawks are going to turn into a bootleg version of the New Jersey Nets with 3 overpaid “stars.”  Only pretty much everyone alive would rather have had Kidd, Jefferson and Carter than Bibby, Johnson and Smith.

Not to mention that it would require us to give up on the prospect of signing Josh Childress.  We’re already down to the minimum 12 players after selling off 4 players and our lone 2008 draft pick for Bibby.  We can’t lose a solid player like Chill to keep the Human Turnover around.  Not to mention, there are still plenty of stupid GMs out there who will do a sign and trade for Josh and maybe let us pick up a servicable big man to play beside Al and a draft pick.  Besides, Josh doesn’t fill the small or power forward slot well at all on defense because all he wants to do is leave his man wide open while trying to block shots.

It’s okay though because he’ll get that bucket back by launching a fade away three on the next possession.

Ugh.  Billy Knight is going to mess this up.  I can already tell.