I feel like NBC could've done the sponsorships differently during the opening ceremonies and not had commercials while teams were walking in...

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

>I feel like NBC could've done the sponsorships differently
>during the opening ceremonies and not had commercials while
>teams were walking in...

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

gathering to protest because of COVID just doesn't seem right

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

I’ve had it for a few months because I got a 4.99 a month promotional deal. It crashes and skips all the time. The setup makes zero sense and is hard to use. I hate it.

====================================
Life in the completeness of its unity is negative. (c) ABK

<--- Big Baller World Order

.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

..a record label, and as a muthafuckin' crew. © Pac


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

No wonder Toyota backed out of all advertising along with other huge Japanese brands

The public is incensed at their government for letting this bullshit slide

>I feel like NBC could've done the sponsorships differently
>during the opening ceremonies and not had commercials while
>teams were walking in...

-------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...

>I feel like NBC could've done the sponsorships differently
>during the opening ceremonies and not had commercials while
>teams were walking in...

<--- Big Baller World Order

Dude is just exceptionally fun to watch out there. An absolute savant. And he's 22! The next decade of Luka Ball is gonna be fun as shit.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

U of A Suns fans are peak annoying. they blindly defend Ayton when he never played like a first overall pick until this summer. and they constantly hate on Luka to try and defend their position that Ayton is worth the pick.

-----------------------------------------

MVP favorite coming into the season, despite his stats the Mavs have to be a top 4 seed in the west to do that, and I know people will say Russ did it on a 6 seed but he did something historical

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

Dude deserved almost every single tech he got . Shit was downright petulant


>MVP favorite coming into the season, despite his stats the
>Mavs have to be a top 4 seed in the west to do that, and I
>know people will say Russ did it on a 6 seed but he did
>something historical

-------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...

Yes, media narratives cause people to hate all sorts of shit they shouldn't hate, from sports to politics and well beyond. That doesn't mean that defiance of one's own eyeballs is justifiable, lol.

He did 29-9-9 as a 21 year old and dragged his team, by himself, to a 7 seed. And most outlets pegged the Mavs as a team likely to improve in 2020-21, so considering he finished 4th in MVP voting in 2020, and people thought his team was going to finish better than it did in 2020 (and it did, fwiw)? Luka is a reasonable name to put in your top 5 favorites going into 2020-21. In fact, your list would kind of be crazy if it *didn't* have Luka on it, considering the context.

So if a quarter to a third of every sports outlet's team of NBA writers want to pick Luka as their preseason favorite... I think that's pretty damn reasonable given the context, lol. If 100% of writers picked Luka, that'd be one thing, okay, that'd be weird... but that wasn't the case preseason on ESPN (36%), The Ringer (25%), Sports Illustrated (25%), NY Times (33%), and so forth. The NBA GMs didn't pick Luka-- they predicted Giannis to win a third straight. Even Vegas betting markets had Giannis as the favorite preseason, not Luka. (I can post links to all of these if you want, but if you just Google "NBA MVP preseason prediction" with the name of an outlet, they're easy links to find. Here's the preseason Vegas numbers link: https://www.actionnetwork.com/nba/nba-mvp-betting-odds-giannis-antetokounmpo-luka-doncic-lebron-james-step-curry-2021)

And even if the media predicted some outlandish shit-- as they're capable of doing, especially on ESPN!-- we can always just... change the channel and enjoy the beautiful basketball being played. Lord knows I started enjoying sports far more once I stopped watching ESPN talking heads shows and started watching basketball games on mute (a few announcers notwithstanding). Wade out into the water now and again in order to find a few writers you trust, read them, and toss the rest of the noise into the dumpster.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

Hilariously apt that your description of just enjoying sports without the additional, mostly unrelated effort to do media criticism is based on wandering into open water. I felt the same way. Like "am ... am I allowed to just not give a shit?"

Turns out the answer is "yes". The best part of any athletic contest is incredible athletes coming together to try and be amazing. People who get paid to comment on sports are very stupid and very boring. They are hired because of this, not in spite of this.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

>Like "am ... am I allowed to just not give a shit?" Turns out the answer is "yes".

There's got to be some sort of DABDA-esque five stage cycle that breaks down how those who grow up in the 24 hour sports media coverage era learn to process sports. Something like: We let hot takes influence how we watch. We get angry at hot takes that don't align with what we see when we watch. We successfully detach hot takes from the watching experience.

Lord knows when I started posting on this site in, like, senior year of high school, I was definitely in the first stage of this.

>People who get paid to comment on sports are very stupid and very boring. They are hired because of this, not in spite of this.

I was stoned, talking to a friend about Charlie Kirk. And my friend said, "I could do what Charlie Kirk does better than Charlie Kirk does it. I'd be fucking great at it. I'd just have to not give a shit about people or myself." I think about that a lot whenever I turn on ESPN. Just a sea of grifters, all of whom are perfectly aware they're grifting, and none of whom give a shit.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

>>Like "am ... am I allowed to just not give a shit?" Turns
>out the answer is "yes".
>
>There's got to be some sort of DABDA-esque five stage cycle
>that breaks down how those who grow up in the 24 hour sports
>media coverage era learn to process sports. Something like: We
>let hot takes influence how we watch. We get angry at hot
>takes that don't align with what we see when we watch. We
>successfully detach hot takes from the watching experience.
>
>Lord knows when I started posting on this site in, like,
>senior year of high school, I was definitely in the first
>stage of this.
>
>>People who get paid to comment on sports are very stupid and
>very boring. They are hired because of this, not in spite of
>this.
>
>I was stoned, talking to a friend about Charlie Kirk. And my
>friend said, "I could do what Charlie Kirk does better than
>Charlie Kirk does it. I'd be fucking great at it. I'd just
>have to not give a shit about people or myself." I think about
>that a lot whenever I turn on ESPN. Just a sea of grifters,
>all of whom are perfectly aware they're grifting, and none of
>whom give a shit.

ESPN has really gone to shit, they had success with the original Sports Reporters show and when PTI first started 20 years ago but they ran the "talking head" concept completely into the ground

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

Generally, most people aren't extraordinary at more than one thing. The coolest thing that Usain Bolt or Clayton Kershaw had/s to offer the public was being otherworldly talented. Doesn't mean they can't be intelligent, thoughtful people. But the world is full of those and forming parasocial relationships with the ones who can run 100m in under 10.00 or throw a curveball that makes my stomach turn is a weird thing to do.

I'll admit to following pretty much every runner and baseball player that I enjoy watching on instagram though. If they want to post cool pictures of their awesome lives, I'm up for it. But once we enter the universe of text and ideas - dangerous ground that tempts me to start having opinions. Gotta keep that wall up.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

>There's got to be some sort of DABDA-esque five stage cycle
>that breaks down how those who grow up in the 24 hour sports
>media coverage era learn to process sports.

I kinda don't know what planet I'm on.

I'm thinking, 'was I also like this at their age?'. I definitely was not.

Talking with them just makes me feel like I'm on some espn argument show...and it's not enjoyable. Lately I just avoid the topic of sports with them entirely and that really sucks.

sports narratives don't flip at the drop of a dime lol

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

It's honestly damaging, both to our ability to understand sports and, in some cases, our ability to straight up enjoy the nigh-magical athletic feats we get to witness.

And yeah, anyone who said Giannis was "overrated" or whatever after he won two straight MVPs just... doesn't watch basketball. Or, if they do, they watch it badly, clouded by whatever screaming talking head they choose to spend their afternoons listening to on a regular basis.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

people like Kobe, Iverson and Jordan

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

Let it happen
Folks trying to crown dude
The season after the greatest player of his generation won a chip
He’s put up back to back 1st round Ls
We all see the potential…but potential never won $hit
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pFptt7Cargc

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

>I feel like NBC could've done the sponsorships differently
>during the opening ceremonies and not had commercials while
>teams were walking in...

If you haven’t already seen them, look up the photo galleries of abandoned Olympic venues in Athens, Beijing, and Rio. The pictures from Rio were taken just 6 months after the olympics were over. Tokyo has had to build the same very specific venues and then some, but hasn’t even been able to recoup some of those costs with ticket sales. It’s really sad. Some cities are able to convert the venues or make them public spaces, so maybe Tokyo can avoid that fate, but it’s still tough to watch. I really enjoyed the street skateboarding competition, but it probably cost millions to build that park and it was only used for 2 days.

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

>If you haven’t already seen them, look up the photo
>galleries of abandoned Olympic venues in Athens, Beijing, and
>Rio.

the ingenuity in tokyo and all over japan is on another level. there's really nothing like it. i highly doubt they let the venues go to shit.

>the ingenuity in tokyo and all over japan is on another level.
>there's really nothing like it. i highly doubt they let the
>venues go to shit.

To convert some of these venues into something useful.

like everyone already knows how stupid it is to host if you dont have the infrastructure in place. But they keep on bidding stupid amounts of money to host. Then spend all this money to build shit with no plans for the arenas after the 2 weeks. I think people bidding are lining their pockets and friends pockets. I dont know if its the IOC selling false dreams or the idiots who are doing the bidding. Either way at this point its stupid to host if you arent LA or another big city that has shit already in place.

November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

Some valid points and it’s definitely both sides to blame, but with all the new “modern” events— even cities like LA don’t have the facilities needed. Tokyo is a world class city that is as modern as any including US cities— but they have to build “cool” new stadiums and courses for this.

---
"though time has passed, im still the future" (c) black thought

You're entirely right, just that it's a both/and not an either/or.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

>You're entirely right, just that it's a both/and not an
>either/or.

Rich people want the shiny, big event so they can make a profit, then leave it to other people to figure out the mess it leaves behind. Once a city wins the bid it’s a runaway train. There’s been a ton of pushback in LA regarding the olympics and we’re 7 years out, yet it feels unstoppable.

>There’s been a ton of pushback in LA regarding the
>olympics and we’re 7 years out, yet it feels unstoppable.

It probably is. If they didn't pull the plug on this one in spite of a year and a half leadup of a world historical pandemic and a local reaction that has been openly hostile, then I can't imagine a scenario where a city that won the bid backs off of it.

Short of violence. Violence might not be THE answer, but if all of our institutions are increasingly designed to operate on autopilot to clear the lane for capital, then it's at least AN answer.

You know. Hypothetically.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

>Short of violence. Violence might not be THE answer, but if
>all of our institutions are increasingly designed to operate
>on autopilot to clear the lane for capital, then it's at least
>AN answer.
>
>You know. Hypothetically.

Like Walleye said “socializing the costs, privatizing the profits”

I think people bidding are lining their pockets and
>friends pockets. I dont know if its the IOC selling false
>dreams or the idiots who are doing the bidding.

I wouldn’t even call the bidders idiots, I’d call them bad actors. They know how it’s gonna go down and they don’t care. The politicians who push for it will be out of office and working for the private sector by the time the mess needs to be cleaned up (or moved on to a higher office). The businesspeople who push for it have no reason to act in good faith cause they largely won’t be footing the bill. And at this point the IOC is so corrupt I don’t even think they’re selling false dreams.

Either way at
>this point its stupid to host if you arent LA or another big
>city that has shit already in place.

Even LA ain’t ready for this shit. They’re trying to expand the transit system to be able to handle it, and of course, that’s very costly. LA certainly does need an expanded transit system, but if it’s just being built to handle 2 weeks of olympics rather than everyday life in Los Angeles, I doubt the expansion will be useful.

The way I see it, there are 2 possible solutions:

1) Have a singular Olympic city so that they can get more than 2 weeks use out of these very expensive and very specific venues.

2) Have a host country instead of a host city. Obviously this would spread out the events, so this isn’t ideal, but neither is building a fencing arena every 4 years.

Streaming has definitely lowered my attention span
I’m not here for the backstories, narratives and 5 minute ad blocks every other minute
Let’s be real, a lot of these events only last a minute or two
I feel like I could watch the majority of the olympics in an hour or two
The NBC coverage is unwatchable

With my cable package and streaming services…I’ve got all of the networks covering the games
Why can’t I pull up a team US bball game if I want to?

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

You can watch 2 hours of judo if you want

_______________________________________

I watched a couple of minutes of women's beach volleyball

Brandi Wilkerson...claude have mercy

My TV viewing time is mostly reduced to 8-10PM

It would be dope if I could pull up the day of gymnastics, etc...on demand

otherwise...yeah, I'm gonna pass on 2 hours of judo at 4am...thanks

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

_______________________________________

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

in 2021.

---

>The NBC coverage is unwatchable

last night i just said fuck it and switched to baseball and kept it there.

this morning i watched women's weightlifting on the app and it felt like an entirely different world...like I was watching an actual sporting event.

I like watching things on TV in primetime though.

---

because a lot of people are assholes.

Watched her vault...off the f'n mat
I wonder if she has/had Covid
She looks like Tatum when he was struggling with long haul covid

She's still the GOAT...but I feel for her...haters gonna hate

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

That sucks for the team, and for her, but man, if you ain't happy you ain't healthy, period.

Don't do shit if you ain't feeling it, period.

I hope she gets her head/heart right for the rest of the competition...if that's what she wants.

https://www.npr.org/sections/tokyo-olympics-live-updates/2021/07/26/1020696340/after-a-rough-day-for-team-usa-simone-biles-says-the-pressure-is-getting-to-her

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

questioning how this fits under the category of 'mental health' seems fair.

she wasn't at her best physically or mentally and didn't feel like she had it in her to give it a go. totally understandable and i would never knock it.

but making it into something way bigger than that or having to tiptoe around the issue or fall over myself congratulating her for her commitment to mental health...I dunno.

I think it was Daggett that made the 'lost' comment...on her warmup vault
She's suppose to do 2.5 rotations...you can clearly see her throw her arms away from her body to stop the rotating and she starts spotting her landing mid-air...she looked lost in the air

I think part of your issue is how easy she has made this look for a decade
I think we all do not appreciate how truly dangerous these events are
The potential for serious injury was evident

I don't know what you need to see it...but this isn't about you.

I don't know much about her personally, but I would describe her as bubbly
Has it been mentioned that this is her first time as captain?
Raisman was captain in 12' and 16'
You can absolutely see a different affect on her face and there was no evidence of the previous bubbly personality, IMO
She looked completely stressed the fok out in qualifying
and she made comments to that effect

Do better.

+1, as another poster had mentioned
NBC decided to run a Nasser story, with a Biles interview on the subject...as she was stepping on the mat...

My fear for her is the bottom feeders in the US are going to pile on her for pulling out

She did what was right for her and it's no one's place to question.

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

then the only here with an 'issue' is you.

you need to calm down and dial it back with the condescension.


>My fear for her is the bottom feeders in the US are going to pile on her for pulling out
>She did what was right for her and it's no one's place to question.

"she wasn't at her best physically or mentally and didn't feel like she had it in her to give it a go. totally understandable and i would never knock it."

(c) you
You didn't address any of my points
You didn't answer any of questions

We could have discussed the issue...but you chose to deflect

+2, it's not entirely clear to me who made the decision to withdraw from all competition
She withdrew from the team all-around
Some of the reporting makes it sound like it was a team USA decision to not have her compete at all subsequently

It's not about me either

bye.

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

>You didn't address any of my points
>You didn't answer any of questions
>We could have discussed the issue...but you chose to
>deflect

I didn't deflect anything.

You posted a spastic off-topic and condescending rant that was full of projections about things that I never said. This wasn't worthy of a response. What question(s) did you ask that I avoided? I see a grand total of one question in your response which had nothing to do with the topic at hand.

You accused me of 'questioning' her decision to pull out when it's spelled out in plain English that I did nothing of the sort. Quite the opposite in fact.

If someone doesn't want to engage with you then consider the possibility that your approach was seriously off-putting. Which it was.

you arent one of them

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

she didn't look like her usual unbeatable self on sunday night.

after watching super freaks biles and raisman in the last olympics this year's team looks very mortal.

100 percent.

---------------------

http://www.last.fm/user/dagu85

but was quite happy to be able to turn it off once gymnastics was over so I could get to bed early.

have no interest in watching people flop around in a pool. just my feelings on the matter.

Not having Phelps around trying to win absolutely everything kills almost all of my interest.

---------------------

http://www.last.fm/user/dagu85

I cannot stand that guy and he's absolutely everywhere.

---------------------

http://www.last.fm/user/dagu85

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1420274109749993472

---

More like she doesn’t want to lose the ability to walk and move her limbs.

Folks acting like gymnastics is baseball or shooting FT’s.

Losing your self in the air while twisting and turning has to be scary as hell.

I hate fans who question athletes who step back for mental health reasons or don’t push themselves one they have an injury. I used to be one of those fans as well.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

None of us can comprehend the amount of pressure she’s been under for the last 5 years. Add to that the fact that she’s part of the reason there was a necessary shakeup in USA gymnastics due to the abuse her and others faced, and yeah, there’s bound to be a lot going on in her mind. She was probably conflicted about even competing for USA, but she loves gymnastics and wants to compete, so she gave it a go. She’s already done more than enough for this country, and her teammates ain’t mad at her, so everyone else should leave her be.

Also has contributed to this. Athletes, especially world class athletes are always under an immense amount of pressure but they typically always have their family, friends, loved ones and fans there to help support them.

Correct if I’m wrong, but I don’t think any of her family or BF were allowed to come with her and that would make things like this even more difficult to deal with. Sure you can talk to your coaches and teammates but it isn’t the same as talking and being with your family and loved ones when you need that extra support.

The Clay Travises, the Piers Morgans, the Jason Whitlocks, the usual right-wing brigade of backwards-ass morons. I've (thankfully) yet to see an intelligent person questioning her motivations.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

if she has the yips and she lost the edge needed to compete at that level, but is able to function as a normal human being, she isnt experiencing a "mental health" issue. she would be experiencing an "athlete who doesnt have it anymore" issue.

the emotional fallout of that could certainly *become* a mental health issue, and i hope she has the support around her to help her process the fact that she is unable to do the thing she loves, potentially permanently.

but gymnastics is definitely like every other sport in the basic sense of requiring mind/body synchronicity. the difference between kicking a field goal and doing a vault, at its core, is minimal. and when kickers lose it, its on to the next one without any hand wringing about "mental health".

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

>but gymnastics is definitely like every other sport in the
>basic sense of requiring mind/body synchronicity. the
>difference between kicking a field goal and doing a vault, at
>its core, is minimal. and when kickers lose it, its on to the
>next one without any hand wringing about "mental health".

missing a bunch of field goals doesn't get you paralyzed. being off on a vault or racing at 200 mph does.

--------

no longer being able to safely race an F-1 car isnt a mental health crisis either

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

>no longer being able to safely race an F-1 car isnt a mental
>health crisis either
>

no one knows what's going on in her brain besides her, so trying to diagnose her on a message board is super weird. also I don't know why she necessarily needs to be going through a crisis in order to be making an informed decision. mental health is a complicated matter and there's really no reason to believe she's lying or stretching the truth.