Happy Presidents' Day/NBA All-Star Weekend, all! Hope this post finds everyone doing well.

Congrats to Boston's Gerald Green for winning the Slam Dunk Contest. The skills competition was horribly, horribly depressing as the lack of effort on the part of Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Paul showed just how much $35,000 means absolutely nothing to NBA players - who could easily say that they were going to donate the money to charity if they won. Seeing them walk through the drills like their mom forced them to do the event (which is for the fans, who allow them to have such ridiculous salaries) made me lose respect for every single one of these so-called "superstars." Honestly, I'd rather watch 4 random guys picked from the crowd compete for the chance to win half that amount, with the other half going to charities. At least they would try. I know if I had the chance to win $35,000 to split between myself and a worthy charity in just under 30 seconds, I'd be running for my life and likely splitting my pants from falling while running between each of the stations.

Doesn't think $35,000 is worth breaking a sweat

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been visiting my blog since its launch in late December. I am proud to announce that my blog has turned into a legitimate side hustle for me! I looked at my bank statement (which was much, much lower than I expected) only find the following entry in my deposit history!

ACH Dep: GOOGLE ADSENSE 0.62

$0.62! I'm rich! And it's all thanks to you all who have visited my site and randomly found inspiration to click on the targeted advertisements that monopolize the top of my blog. While not like winning The Apprentice LA (one of my favorite shows on TV right now), I was still pretty proud of it.

Anyways.
Did anyone else catch the first-ever NBDL All-Star Game on NBA TV this past weekend? I turned it on hoping to catch some high-flying, And 1 mixtape-like action from some players trying to get some national exposure, only to be horribly, horribly disappointed. First, the commentary was absolutely horrible. Whoever is in charge needs to decide if the commentators are going to treat the NBDL as a legitimate league, or if they're going to constantly talk about how much these guys want to make the NBA and how hungry they are to get there. When you watch NFL Europe, at least the commentators try and treat NFL Europe like a true league, where people want to win. Watching the NBDL All-Star game, the commentators kept talking about how the league was a mere pitstop for some of the players who dreamed of cashing in on their NBA paydays. Does anyone legitimately think that they're going to attract a loyal fan base if they keep jamming the fact down the viewers throats that the players aren't happy to be there?

In addition to that, I have always had a problem with people who blatantly change their speech depending on the ethnicity of person that they're speaking with at the time. I'll admit that there is a difference between my work voice and how I speak with my friends. The NBDL commentator suddenly started saying "ballin', "droppin' dimes," and "baby," the second John Starks and Rudy Gay (both Black NBA players) sat down to provide some guest commentary during the game. As soon as they left, he returned to his upper-middle class, overexcited White man persona. Makes me sick that someone who does this has a gig doing commentary on sports when someone like John Bishop is behind the scenes editing instead of being on camera.

If you're familiar with the NBA All-Star Game, players are usually smiling and even do little dances as their names are proudly announced as members of the starting line up for the East and West squads. For the NBDL All-Star Game, I have never seen a more somber line of faces as the players' names were being announced for the East and West squads, before they played in front of a Mandalay Bay crowd that was likely only a fraction of the size of crowds these guys played in front of in college. When looking at a player like a Loren Woods, a guy who has had his shot in the NBA numerous times, you just knew he didn't want to be there, which was sad to watch. Other players like UCLA's Dijon Thompson and Syracuse's Gerry McNamara, who defined "big man on campus" during college, looked like they would rather be clipping and eating their toenails than being named to the All-Star Game. Man, what a depressing sight.

No longer the BMOC

Got a lot to take care of tonight and hopefully some very exciting news to announce by the end of this week, so I'll keep everyone updated. Have a great weekend, all.