So I ran into LeBron James on the street last night...

I left work yesterday a little before five p.m. and starting walking in the direction of home.  Along the way I passed the Four Seasons Hotel on Boylston Street.  There was a bus parked out front and several people with basketballs in their hands standing behind some police barricades.  Here's my thought process:

"Hmm that's weird... wait, the Cavs are in town.  LeBron is here.  They're probably staying at this hotel and heading over to the Garden momentarily."

I figured I'd give it a few minutes and see what happened.  First Cleveland's center Anderson Varejao came out.  After that a bunch of people nobody recognized got on the bus, including former Celtics assistant coach Tyron Lue.  I felt like saying "Hey Tyron, good to see you back in Boston!"  But, that's not really my style.  Then LeBron emerged, and the people went nuts--one women in particular:




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Checking in on the Sixers quest to be the worst team in NBA history

ESPN.com has an article on it's front page this morning entitled "Could these 76ers be worst ever?"  This is something I've been saying all season.  I think I first mentioned it on The Bob Sullivan Show two weeks ago (at the 104-minute mark), then I sent out this tweet a few days later:

The 2014-15 Philadelphia 76ers are going to be the worst team in NBA history. Just wanted to get that on the record.
— Mark Vandeusen (@LucidSportsFan) November 6, 2014

I also brought it up in a post on who would win first, the 76ers or Lakers (LA won one immediately after).

Last night the 0-8 Sixers lost in Dallas by 53 points.  At halftime the score was 73-29 (reminiscent of a game last year against the Clippers in which they trailed 89-33 at one point).  ESPN's article says that the 44-point halftime deficit is the second largest in NBA history.  It also mentions that Philly has been outscored by 143 points so far (17.9 per night), the third worst margin after eight games in league history.  And, dating back to last February the 76ers have lost 40 of their last 44.


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All the best stats I've seen lately

I witnessed a disappointing performance by the Celtics last night at the TD Garden, made worse by the fact that Rajon Rondo couldn't grab the 10th rebound he needed for his second triple-double of the season.  This was due in large part to the fact that the Thunder didn't really miss any shots down the stretch.

Anthony Morrow and Reggie Jackson were a combined 16-for-20 shooting in the second half with one turnover #thunder #celtics
— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) November 13, 2014

Morrow went 8-for-8 in the 4th quarter.

#Celtics bench tonight totaled just 15 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 68 minutes. Haven't checked, but guessing all are season lows.
— Mark Vandeusen (@LucidSportsFan) November 13, 2014

That was likely because two of it's prominent members were out with injuries.

The #Celtics are win-less this year when guys named Marcus don't play. #Smart #Thornton
— Mark Vandeusen (@LucidSportsFan) November 13, 2014

Searching hard for a silver lining, I found these two nuggets:

With 12 assists in Wed., @RajonRondo has 4,305 which ties him for 4th place on the #Celtics all-time list w/ @paulpierce34. #Celticstalk
— A. Sherrod Blakely (@SherrodbCSN) November 13, 2014

#Celtics @RajonRondo tied a career high for 3-pointers tonight with 4. He also did it last February against the Spurs http://t.co/bNNYT8BabB
— Mark Vandeusen (@LucidSportsFan) November 13, 2014

Although two of those threes were in garbage time.

Shifting to the Red Sox, there have been lots of reports suggesting they may soon sign Pablo Sandoval.  I'm not sure it's a good idea to spend $100 million on a guy who hits under .300 with fewer than 20 homers and 80 RBI per season.  I elaborated on this for Bleacher Report.

In another B/R article entitled 3 Free Agents the Red Sox Need to Avoid at All Costs I wrote about why Boston shouldn't spend $200 million on Max Scherzer.  Both Jon Lester and James Shields would be cheaper (Shields significantly), and the three pitchers have very similar numbers over the past six seasons:

Since 2009 - IP, K, ERA, WHIP: #Scherzer: 1183.1, 1255, 3.61, 1.22 #Lester: 1241.1, 1195, 3.52, 1.24 #Shields: 1355.2, 1178, 3.62, 1.23
— Mark Vandeusen (@LucidSportsFan) November 13, 2014

Switching back to the NBA, Kobe Bryant just set the all-time record for most missed shots in a career, passing John Havlicek.  At the pace he's on so far this year, Kobe may set set new standards for misses in a single season as well.  If you only read one other thing today, it should be Stat Central: Kobe Bryant Missing Shots At Historic Rate In 2014-15 on HoopsHabit.com.


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Derrick Rose's absurd comments are not at all surprising

Here's what Derrick Rose said after practice yesterday (he's played in four of Chicago's eight games this season):

"I know a lot of people get mad when they see me sit out or whatever, but I think a lot of people don't understand that ... when I sit out it's not because of this year. I'm thinking about long term. I'm thinking about after I'm done with basketball. Having graduations to go to, having meetings to go to, I don't want to be in my meetings all sore or be at my son's graduation all sore just because of something I did in the past. [I'm] just learning and being smart."

A really important meeting?  Is Rose limping?!

Why bother to try and earn the $18.9 million you're getting paid to play basketball this season when you have "meetings to go to" many years from now that you don't want to be "sore" during?

The outrage to Rose's statement is justified, but in all honesty we shouldn't be surprised.  This is a guy who chose not to be a hero and rejoin his team when they were up 1-0 on the Miami Heat in the 2013 playoffs--two months after he'd been medically cleared to play.

That "basketball is everything" commercial Rose made a year ago has now gone from "a little obnoxious and embarrassing" to "completely disgraceful."

It's also pretty funny/ironic Rose made these comments on the same day Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo talked about how pissed off he was to be held out of a game in Chicago.


RELATED: Derick Rose "won't rule out a playoff return." Hahahahahaha

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Wait, the Patriots didn't win this week?

The Patriots didn't win this past weekend.  Granted they had a bye, but it's the first time they haven't come away with a victory since this happened back in September:



It made my blood boil when Trent Dilfer said that (and probably Tom Brady's too).  I was kind of hoping Steve Levy would slap him across the face to knock some sense into him.

In case you missed it, here's Dilfer's admission of wrongdoing last week after New England waxed Denver and improved to an AFC-best 7-2.

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I'm not sure I believe Facebook when it tells me it can stop Ebola

The other day when I opened up Facebook on my computer this is what I saw:

So all Facebook needs to stop Ebola is a little help from me, huh?  I knew Zuckerburg was a smart guy, but I had no idea his website had become that powerful.  I also didn't realize that Facebook had diversified into the fighting-Ebola business in the first place.

I'm not convinced they actually need my money though.  Can't I just help the cause by posting #StopEbola as my status and tweeting that out a bunch of times?  I think if 10 million people do that simultaneously all those hashtags combined will kill the disease for sure.


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Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls

If you want to debate with me on whether or not Wannabe qualifies as "old" I'll understand.  It came out in 1996 and became huge in the U.S. in 1997 (I like to make picks of the 20-years-and-older variety).

But, don't for one second try to tell me that it's not awesome.

Yeah, a lot of people may mock the Spice Girls now, but they sold over 100 million albums worldwide--making them the most successful female group ever.



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