NBA season opener thoughts 10/28

Last night I watched 2 of the 3 NBA season opener games. Here are some thoughts.

-Great win for the Spurs. Dallas will make the playoffs and normally plays them hard. They won without Kawhi Leonard and Tiago Splitter.

-I’m not sure Matt Bonner is an NBA player anymore. If the whole team is healthy I don’t think he gets any playing time.

-Speaking of still being in the NBA, how are Austin Daye and Charlie Villanueva still on rosters?

-It’s just one game, but Chandler Parsons looked bad. Without Dwight Howard inside to draw away defenders it will be interesting to see if he can create space and score on his own.

-Devin Harris on the other hand looked great. He has the potential to be a great scoring 6^th man. He could play a Jason Terry type role for them this season off the bench.

-The Rockets CRUSHED the Lakers. It wasn’t even close. The score says they won by 18, but it was a lot worse.

-Trevor Ariza is an upgrade over Chandler Parsons. He’s a better 3 point shooter and a better defender. Those two things will help the Rockets be better this season.

-I’m not sure who is going to score off the bench for them though.

-The Lakers are bad. VERY bad! This is the worst Lakers team I’ve ever seen.

-Julius Randle is likely out for the season, which sucks. I was really looking forward to watching him play.

-Kobe Bryant and Carlos Boozer are the only starters on the Lakers. Byron Scott needs to tinker with the other three positons to see who is going to play the best this season.

 

Washington Football Team

For 25 years I lived in Northern Virginia. That means I supported the Washington Redskins as my home town football team. I’m still close by in Maryland and follow the team, but I no longer support them. This is for two reasons; I don’t think Daniel Snyder is a good owner and I’m mature enough to realize the team name is racist. This isn’t an article about Daniel Snyder though, so I’ll skip over that. This is about the team name. Many people don’t view it as racist or demeaning. Those people are wrong. Some view the name as representing pride or tradition. Those people are also wrong. I didn’t always think of the team name as being bad. For most of my life I didn’t think about the team name at all. Once you reach a certain intelligence level though, you should be able to comprehend why the term “Redskin” is bad. As a society we should not be calling different ethnicities by the color of their skin. Walk around a crowded area and call out, “Hey, black skin”, “Hey, yellow skin”, “Hey, brown skin”, etc. Gauge people’s reactions. See what kind of looks you receive. If you are not willing to engage in this exercise, ask yourself why. It should become apparent that merely identifying people by the color of their skin is wrong. That is why I will not support my home town Washington Football Team until the name is changed.

 

A Ryan Reynolds Rant

Ryan Reynolds is a Hollywood star. He’s a big time celebrity. He’s famous for his good looks and physique. He’s also a talented actor. Why don’t his movies do better at the box office though? One could argue script, direction, or marketing are the reason for this. I believe it’s something else though. I think his popularity works against him. While he’s well known, I’m not sure he is well liked. It’s possible his brand of sarcastic acting doesn’t resonate with movie going fans. He’s been in 9 movies since 2010. Only 3 have performed well for him. 2 are animated and 1 was opposite fan favorite Denzel Washington. 33% success is not a good percentage in Hollywood. This is why I don’t think he should be cast as Deadpool, even though he probably will be.

We as fans want the movie to succeed, so we can see the character in other X-Men movies and sequels. Ryan Reynolds’ movies don’t tend to perform well. While it’s possible the character is bigger than the actor, I don’t think the movie studio should take that chance. This may be why he hasn’t been officially announced by the studio to be playing Deadpool yet. They are probably looking at other options. They don’t need a famous actor as much as they need a memorable voice who can deliver the lines of dialogue. This could be quite a few people. Deadpool should be wearing his mask most of the movie and a stunt man will likely perform all the action scenes. That means if you cast Ryan Reynolds, you primarily want his name on the marquee. That may scare away more fans than it brings in.