Adarq.org

^cool website. i enjoyed reading this one

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/bad-news-cavs-fans-the-warriors-dont-care-how-good-your-team-is/

from that article:

But better news for the Cavs is that the Warriors haven’t really kept this phenomenon going in the playoffs.

yup... i'm honestly shocked that GSW got beaten as bad as they did.. I thought it would be much closer. Steph is having a really bad series right now.

They had Shumpert face guarding him the entire length of the court -> THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT. I absolutely loved seeing that. *TRY* and lock him down the entire length of the court.. this is something you might see in college or h.s. bball. When you can't contain a guy, you try and face guard him the entire length of the floor, with various (more athletic) defenders to keep them fresh. That's just rugged, aggressive defense.

The absence of Love might also help, but like I said in an earlier post, more-so on the road. At home he can be lights-out.. on the road however, he can be a brickhouse. I liked seeing Jefferson in there for the overall energy/aggressiveness.

Cavs looked good tonight.. but GSW looked bad. The real test will be, who wins when both teams are firing on all cylinders.. hope we see that before the playoffs are over.

Finally.. monstrous Lebron dunks can lead to series victories. I'd like to see someone (538) drop some stats on that. Every series I remember where Lebron ended up doing some extra crazy dunk, ie, vs Boston while on CLE & MIA, he ends up on the winning end.

pc!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwCElql6fB0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwCElql6fB0</a>

haven't actually watched this yet, but looks like he's 44 y/o and dunk obsessed. pretty cool. saw some of his other vids, he's getting up pretty good.

edit: pretty cool.. dude is preparing for a dunk contest.

hi. LEBRON ALLEY OOP DUNK. bye.

damn, lean as fuck

ya seriously..

the pic itself is really sick.. the leanness+athleticism almost makes it look like some professional physique model fitness photo.

shredded.

now scoob just make sure you are listening to your body. if your knee is hurting, don't blindly brute force your way through it.. there's no awards for training through pain or making things worse. So just listen to your body more, in order to become more consistent by being healthier, which will allow you to go harder each workout.

also, please practice some self lobs at the end of each jump session.. you don't even need to try and dunk the ball.. if you just practiced the lob, run up, grab it in the air and try to lay it up (or just literally grab it and that's it, or hit the ball and the rim), you'll get better at self lobbing. If you eventually want to land some nasty run-up dunks with maximum vertical jump, you should SLOWLY try to acquire this skill.. Even if it's only 2-5 reps.

lots of people want to dunk, but don't practice lobbing.. that's fine, especially if your goal is to only dunk off of a dribble. but lobbing is one of the most fun ways to dunk because you can use your maximal running vert (and even get a little higher than usual) by chasing the ball in the air.

i'll give you an example.. I want to be able to run-up from half court or further on my single leg jumping. I want to be able to generate serious speed and just launch. I couldn't even do a weak jump initially, when I ran out from that far. My steps would get messed up, i'd feel hesitant, it's scary, i'd abort etc.. But in most of my SLRVJ sessions i've been practicing it slowly.. very slow runups + very light jump, faster runups + light jump, maximum speed runup + extremely light jump.. I've made alot of progress over the months. It's definitely not something I could do right from the start; i've just been slowly chipping away at it. And i'm not at max-speed runup + maximum effort jump yet, not even close.. but i'm getting there. So, point being, even though it felt so weird & impossible in the beginning, I know it's something that will eventually help me, if I can handle that kind of speed + jumping with maximum effort. So slowly chipping away at something like that may take a while, but after several months (or who knows how long), we'll eventually get it & reap the rewards.

pc!

i regret that i have but one upvote to give for t0ddday's posts in this thread.

it is in times like these, that the "golden upvote" should exist.

This is the 2nd week of the so call AFTER EXAM intensive routine.
I consider this as LEANING OUT with Strength Phase.
so I am Aiming to Get stronger while getting lighter.  (meaning lifting heavier and eating cleaner)
Last week was good, I manage to complete all the planned session. and I had been adding weight to my 5x5 squat for 2 constitutive session (10lb each).

Sprinting in HIIT is painless now, no more Core Oblique or Foot pain.. so i am getting better.

nice!!



scoob,

if you were to introspect your training + performance over the years, what would you say has worked and has not worked for you?

ie:

what type of training/schedule has gotten you to your highest vertical jump?

what type of training/schedule has not resulted in much improvement at all? or even worse, caused you to get worse?

you are great at taking advice from others; coaches, peers etc.. but you often combine lots of different ideas/suggestions at once, which can occasionally result in chaos. forget everyone for a second and, if you could, just take some time to look back on what has worked best for you & what hasn't worked well.

pc!

Quote from: maxent on June 08, 2016, 04:36:46 am

I hear you ghettoranger but unlike you I am still pretty high on Lebron. I hope he gets it together and does justice to his gifts and ends with a legacy worthy of best ever player. However, he may never get there which is sad to me as a fan. I grew up worshipping MJ but I had no idea what he was /really/ like -- and it shattered my world view when i discovered he was nothing like the clean cut image he had sold us all those years ago. I must have seen Come Fly With Me at least a hundred times .. had it on VHS and played it all the time. Lol. I sometimes think i could have done with a better role model but that's not for this conversation lol.

So when ppl talk about LBJ's ego i don't agree. He's pretty humble and down to earth when you compare him to Jordan and somehow Jordan (or Kobe) gets a pass??

I do agree that Lebron shud never have so much influence over personnel and management decisions. I felt even in Miami days he got away with exerting too much influence but it was nothing like what he did with the Cavs on his 2nd tenure there. I was indifferent to the Cavs previously but after that I can't accept a team which allows one player so much abuse of power. And Lebron as GM / coach sucks -- he should have surrounded himself with better staff who would have advised him to make better decisions. That's kinda tragic to me, i really really wanted him to end his career as GOAT.

I'll probably get some flak for playing the race card...  But sorry I see no other explanation for the Lebron hate...

Racism isn't always some overt thing where you hate the members of a certain race.  A basketball fan can love Tim Duncan and hate Lebron and this can be born out of racism...  Allen Iverson is the most racially polarizing basketball star of all time - this doesn't mean his detractors were not fans of any black players...

I think Andrew is on to something with his Serena example, people don't like to see her succeed because of racism and use excuses to tear her down.  The idea that Lebron is any less humble than other stars in laughable...

I challenge you all to do this to understand the Lebron hate.  Substitute the word humble for the word obedient.   I think you see a lot of truth in the Lebron hate now.   Lebron isn't obedient and that makes people really mad.  He didn't obey his owner, he didn't obey a white agent, or a white coach, he did it his way and this makes people mad. 

Jordan and Kobe did it under a white "zen master" who was wise and they obeyed and were rewarded (at least this is the narrative).

The substituting of humble for obedient is pure gold. This is exactly what i've witnessed in person (at work) or in other settings. In my personal experience, these things are mostly said by whites, but also by "non-blacks" (latino, asian etc). There are people who know exactly what they are doing when they say these things. I think these are usually the ones who put these narratives out in the media/sports world to begin with. Then there's most everyone else who hear these narratives, slurp them up, and perpetuate them.

I've said before on many occasions; I absolutely hate the fact that the fans & team owners think they own the players. I really respected Lebron for leaving Cleveland.. and after what he had to put up with from those former-fans who turned so badly on him, and the the Cavs owner, I was shocked to see him end up going back to Cleveland. But that's damn admirable that he'd go back to try and win them a championship after all that Cleveland's "fans" put him through. They turned their backs on him so quick when he announced he was leaving; "oooh but it was how he announced it, that's why I hate him". Give me a break. Then they open their arms for him when he decides to come back? It's easy to cheer for him when you feel like he's "yours".

I think this is so clear in the criticism that Lebron exerts too much power over personnel decisions.  Never mind that Kobe ran Shaq out of town and embarrassed and clowned Smush Parker and his new supporting cast - the idea that Lebron makes decisions as the GM really pisses people off? 

I find this ridiculous.  First of he isn't the GM.  You all realize that right?  If he has bad ideas and the owner and the general manager do what he says then THEY are bad at their jobs!  If I call Obama on the line and suggest we bomb Canada and he listens to me - I am not that bad politician, he is the bad politician.

Second... Is he bad?  Let's see the GM team of him Pat Riley and D wade all converged and set up a team to go to four straight finals and win two.  That's damn impressive. 

During those four years Cleveland was absolutely terrible despite a number one pick and an angry letter from a petulant idiot owner who sounded like a spurned slave owner that he would win a title before Lebron.... Not very humble...

But you know what is humble?  Not taking the racist attacks by Daniel Gilbert personally and returning to shitty ass Cleveland to play for an owner who disrespected you because you realize winning a title is something you want to do for the people of the city and you can move on from the past.   Think Jordan would play for Krause again??? Hah. 

Since his return to Cleveland they have made back to back finals.  Sure they didn't win the first time and probably won't win this...  But they are going up against a warriors juggernaut.  Sometimes you peak when someone really good peaks.  Second isn't so bad...  I mean the Jazz of 97,98 were one of the great NBA teams.  Jerry Sloan did an excellent job and their management assembled excellent teams, they are not failures because they went against MJ and the Bulls and lost.   The warriors are equal to the Bulls.  Sure Kobe and Shaq won three in a row... But seriously the Nets, Pacers and 76ers?   Then they lost to the Pistons who LBJ beat single handedly.   Basketball has up and down times.  The 90s were amazing.  The early aughts were terrible.  Teams are really good right now.  The Thunder have made the finals once and never won.  They are light years better than teams like the 2004 pistons and nets and pacers... Timing is everything...

such a great post

One thing that I really like about this thread is how; in other settings (youtube, facebook, x-forum, in person) normally these things are said about Lebron and they pretty much go un-checked. It's great to see all of the points that have been brought up to defend Lebron; mostly his character and achievements. As for the debate on whether or not he should have improved his free throws, footwork, jumper, post up game, left hand etc, more by now; that's still up in the air. But, to simply say he hasn't improved or won more championships because of his ego, character, not practicing hard enough, etc; I think those have been shot down fairly well.

There's an ongoing character/achievement assassination of Lebron, that seemed to begin with him leaving Cleveland. I hope people who shoot down his character/achievements so easily, without a strong argument, realize at some point that they've just been sucked into this campaign or that they need to address some deeply rooted racism that they never knew they had.



And I can't say it enough.. I've witnessed this same exact thing with Serena Williams and it drives me up the wall. It's just much more obvious in the case of Serena. Apparently, that "one moment" where she freaked out on the line judge calling her for a foot fault during a serve, was "the moment". That allowed everyone who wanted to hate her, to openly voice their disgust for her, every time she takes the court. To diminish her accomplishments, every chance they get. To openly voice their frustration that a black female tennis player is dominating in a mostly "white" sport.

Serena would fall under the category of "disobedient". She's vocal, aggressive, powerful, confident, and she's been destroying her opponents for a very long time - even while spending much of her energy in off-the-court endeavors such as fashion etc. If you ever wanted to see people lash out at "the disobedient black", look no further. It's disgraceful.

As you can see I get heated on this topic. Just witnessing it in person, in so many different settings, stays with you.



Finally, just look at what Raptor said in reaction to Draymond's kick.. That's a great example of some of the stuff we're talking about here.. obviously more blatant. If he wasn't as blatant with his remarks, he could have easily disguised it using other excuses/attacks for years to come, ie much more subtle, all over one action which I perceive to be the trigger that allowed him to just let loose his hate. In this day&age, you can't convince me that calling a black person an ape/monkey in an attack, doesn't have deeply rooted hate based on race.



pc!