'If it ain't ruff', it ain't right'...but this is so wrong...

A letter to the Detroit Pistons:

To whom it may concern,

Instead of the Pistons, I address this letter to whom it may concern because it has recently become apparent to me that it may not concern you at all. You don't seem to be concerned that we are down 3-1 and that you're being out hustled on every single play. You don't seem to be concerned that this season, the greatest regular season in Detroit Pistons history, may come to an end tomorrow night. I wish the lack of concern was because of an arrogance about your superiority over Miami, but instead it appears to be a feeling of indifference. You don't care if we win or lose. You don't care if you get to the finals and you certainly don't care if our only real rival in the east coast blows us away in 5 games.

I have been a fan of the Pistons for 23 years; My entire life. I was there with the bad boys and going back-to-back. I was there for the 62 loss seasons in the 90's, and I was there to see the dark days when Joe D wore those ugly teal jerseys. I was there when we traded Grant Hill. I was there when Lindsay was our starting point guard. I was there when the Jerome Williams was our marquee player. I have never in my life seen less heart and desire in a Pistons team than I have during these playoffs. It truly hurts to watch.

Down 3-1, I know this story line well. I was there 4 years ago against Orlando for game 7. Right after losing game 4 and being down 3-1 I made a bet with a friend of mine that you would come back and win the series. You did. I was there for game 7 two years ago against the Nets. Down 3-2 but you won.














(Me, neil, rushi and muki at Game 7 against the nets)

After that Orlando series 4 years ago, you went on to lose to Boston in the second round; I was there and I was on my feet cheering because you played with heart and you played with love. Down 3-2 to the Spurs last year in the finals, a loss in game 7, but you left your hearts on the floor and that's all a fan could ask for. A loss is easier to stomach when it hurts us fans just as much as it hurts you.

These 2006 Playoffs have been nothing short of ridiculous. Every single team played with all the heart and emotion they had except for you. Are you telling me that Chicago is a better team than us? They made Miami look like chumps and that series could have gone either way. You think the Cavs have anything that matches up to the talent we have? So how did they take us to a game 7? How did Phoenix come back from being down 3-1? How did the Clippers take the Suns to 7 games? All of these teams have something you don't: Heart. Watch 5 minutes of the Dallas Mavericks and you will know what I'm talking about. Watch 5 seconds of any game in the last 4 seasons and you will know exactly what I'm talking about. Picture Tayshaun flying out of what was seemingly half court to block a Reggie Miller layup and put and end to his career and cement that series as ours. I can honestly say that not one single play this entire playoff run has embodied heart. Not only do we not deserve to win this series like this but we don't even deserve to be here. Lebron would kill himself before he let anything like this happen to his team.

Ben Wallace bitching about Flip? Are you serious?? Tayshaun unhappy about the sub rotation?? Who are you people? Last time I checked the Detroit Pistons don't point fingers at anyone but themselves. It used to be people saying things like "my bad, I should have played better." Now it's, "You need to play better." I'm not sure if Flip's inexperience in the playoffs is showing or not, but even Valdemort, oops I mean, Larry Brown, once said, "You can't coach heart."

3 years ago when the nets swept us in the Eastern Confrence Finals, we played like we had accomplished what we wanted, and played like it. It wasn't without heart but without desire. This year your heart and desire has captured me all season, I probably only missed 3 or 4 of the 96 games played so far. All season all you could say was that the only thing you cared about was winning a championship. You finally got the 'respect' you always claimed to not get. You would be hard pressed to find a reporter who would dare say we weren't at least going to the finals. I was trying to think of the exact moment you lost your love and I think it was Game 3 against the Bucks. Right after Game 2 you thought the title was yours. You let up for a minute, content with the way things were going, and you lost your focus. That shift from being an insatiable force that won 64 games turned into a fat kid who just ate some cake. You were satisfied. That's why Lebron took us to 7, that's why D-Wade plays like it's literally life or death. He is hungry and he has heart. I have seen more heart from D-Wade than all of you combined, all except for Lindsay. It's not age or tired legs, Shaq has to be more tired than all of you yet he plays like he's got hot coals under his feet.

Alas, despite myself I can't help but have hope. Hope that you realize all of this on your own and stop bitching about what is happening and make a change. The Pistons are bigger than the 12 of you. You represent us. The second you put on that jersey you owe it to ME to play with heart. If I could do absolutely anything in the world it would be to be a Detroit Piston but because of an obvious lack of skill I am sitting here typing. You owe it to every single fan who schedules their life around you. I plan my meals, socializing, homework, work, weekends and future around you and it's not to watch you play like you're wasting your time because that is a waste of my time. You owe it to Hooper, everyone who works at the Palace, that 4 year old kid who did the starting line up better than Mason himself, to the Spare Tires, to Automotion, to my boy Rushi who I know loves you as much as I do, and to everyone who ever said anything good about you this season, because you are making everyone wonder why they thought you embodied what a team was and what heart was.

As for Game 5 tomorrow at the Palace, you have one game to win us back. Win or lose, you have to play like your life is on the line, not like your back is against the wall. If you leave everything you have on the floor then there will be no need to worry because we will win the series...

-Marty (Fan since 1982)

It's Gonna be Bananas at the Palace...

So game 7 was a success, mostly due to the pistons clip I compiled. Some random people sent me messages saying things like, "Deeetroit Basketballlll." It was actually kind of creepy but I guess the support was nice. Anyways, when I watch the Pistons on National TV I am always amazed at how little the broadcasters know about the Pistons. They say things that constantly contradict earlier statements they've made. For example Mark Jackson (formerly of the Indiana Pacers) was doing pre-game analysis for ABC and at the begginging of the show he said that a slower-peaced game would be beneficial to the Cavs; at half-time however he said the slower-pace was better suited for the Pistons, and the Cavs would do better in a faster-paced game (this theory was then put to rest by Hubie Brown who, during the game, said that the fast-paced game was better for the Pistons. I do not fault the commentators for their lack of knowledge. They cover only a limited number of games for each team and analyse so many that they all must blur together. I do think that there should be a national commentator for each team though. For example, the could have Reggie Miller be an analyst for 5 teams and bring him in every time one of those 5 teams are on TV. This would not only stop me from getting pissed at Al Michaels for being a dumb bitch, but also make him sound more knowledgable at the same time.

Moving on... I am getting more and more excited about moving to NYC. I have been working on overcoming my apprehension of moving halfway across the country by myself to a place where I don't know anyone (except for a handful of friends from highschool whom I will most likely not see very much). I am a homebody. I go home as much as I can and I enjoy spending time with my parents in PH. I go home almost one night every weekend unless I am very busy. Next year I can already picture getting homesick for my mom's food and the lake and nature in general. I have accepted the fact that I can't go home every weekend and that is just a part of growing up and making a home for myself, but I don't know how I am going to live life without as much nature as I have surrounding me now. Michigan is a beautiful state and there is a Great Lake within 1 and 1/2 hours from any point in the state. NYC is a concrete jungle; central park is nice and relatively close but I am beggining to realize that I won't be able to do even simple things that I love, like having a bbq in my yard or reading on a chair outside my apartment, or crunching leaves wherever I walk in the fall, or tossing a baseball around. These are things that, while possible in NYC, will require planning. Instead of sitting outside my apartment to read or just sit in the sun with a glass of wine, I am going to have to walk 20 or 30 minutes to the park to get some actual natural tranquility (needless to say I won't be able to bring a bottle of wine with me..)

Anyways I don't really have a point but for all of you people not living in a big city, don't take it for granted. I plan on cramming as much nature under my barefeet as I possibly can this summer because who knows how long I will end up living there and I will need the memories to get me through the maze of concrete that is Manhattan. As always, get your feet off the ground and keep reaching for the stars. Go big or go home. Carpe diem bitches...

i'm out
-m, p&z

oh ps - If you like basketball and reading, I recently bought "The Sixth Man," by Chris Palmer and so far it is vey good. I also reccommend figuring out your summer and planning a weekend where you can fish/golf/camp or pretty much spend 72 hours doing anything in the sun...

Go Pistons!!!

Okay, so after a day of moping around I decided that the only thing to do after last nights loss was to get hype. I was almost ready to throw in the towel but I am sure the boys in blue aren't. I don't understand the last 3 games the Pistons played but it definitely wasn't Piston basketball. So I downloaded a bunch of clips from need4sheed.com and put together a mix to get me hype. Anyways if you are feeling lost and unsure of yourself and what your life means, then just watch the clip and hopefully everything will be illuminated...

No. 24...

Sorry, it's been a while since I last blogged. I've been about as busy as it gets for me. I finished undergrad and then I worked an ass load last week. I have been meaning to blog but I haven't had the chance to (or I've been to lazy to) until now. I've jotted down a few things to mention and then I'll stop boring you.

First of all let's talk about basketball for a second. I don't know what to say about the last two Pistons games. It's hard to win a game when you shoot 30% on the road of a playoff game. Sheed's gurantee didn't work for the first time ever, but I'm not really sure if that means anything. It's not that losing these games mean anything, we are still going to win the series but it would have been nice to do it in 4 or 5 and had some time off to chill out before Miami. What I really wanted to talk about is Lebron. Now while I admit that for only being 21 he is unbelieveable. But I am confounded at the amount of ridiculous hype he gets. He is NOT the best player in the NBA. Kobe Bryant is. 'Bron is maybe top 5, definitely top 10. He does not have the talent that someone like D-Wade has, or even the desire that someone like Ben Wallace has. He does what he has to do and nothing more. He can't take over a game with the blink of an eye the way Chauncey can and he can't defend nearly as good as someone like Bruce Bowen. I don't see the comparison to being the next MJ. The only similarity is that Lebron wears the number 23, as do a lot of highschool boys who would like to play out some fantasy of being MJ. Next year Kobe is changing his number from 8 to 24. Logically speaking Kobe -no. 24 - is the next Jordan -no. 23. 24 is next in line after 23. Any other 23 is just a rip off the original. This is also my 24th blog. Just think about it.

At work we have two very busy periods of about a week and a half. It is the time between people moving out to when new tenants move in. It happens right after school ends and then again the week or so before school begins. It is a very long 10 days. Very long. In order to get the apartments ready there are a multitude of things that happen including but not limited to, checking people out, assessing apts after they move out, painting, maintenance, moving furniture, cleaning and finally re-arranging furniture and making sure the pats are spotless. I had the lucky task of moving furniture for the entire time. Think about it for a second. The one thing most people hate about moving is picking shit up, moving it, and the putting it somewhere else. I did that from 8 to 5 from saturday through friday. Thats a lot of complaining i can tell you that much. Anyways at the end of the week there is always a company party to thank everyone for all of our hard work. DTN (my management co.) loves to drink. Needless to say I threw up and had one of those days on Sunday when all you can utter is a stern proclomation vowing to never drink again. Now what happens at DTN parties stays at DTN parties but my roommate is like a fucking magnet for ridiculous drama with chicks that have never even been in the picture, I mean seriously, he can go from barely knowing a girl to waking up to drama. Anyways, I hope my future NYC friends have as much silly drama as all my friends here do.

I wanted to talk about the season finale of Grey's Anatomy but I still haven't been able to gather my thoughts about it. So much went down and has yet to go down that I am seriously considering never watching TV again. I mean seriously, with everything coming out on dvd I would be better off waiting 5 or 6 years or however long this show will air, then renting all of the seasons and watching them at one time. No cliffhangers, no commercials and no months of agonizing over who Meredith is going to choose and if Izzy really quit and if Burke is going to be ok and if the Chief is going to resign. The show is actually that good. So good that I might never watch an ongoing drama with story lines that flow from week to week ever again. I think I'll stick to shows like Macgyver, something I can watch on dvd and I know all the story lines and exactly what's going to happen.

Anyways, sorry I had nothing insightful to say I'll blog again in a day or two and blow your mind with some thoughts about life and stuff. I haven't really been challenging my own mind with anything lately so I have nothing to offer you. As always, get your feet off the ground and reach for the stars. Carpe diem bitches. Go big or go home.

-m, p and z.

oh ps - Some of you may know that I have been Everclear's #1 fan for almost a decade now, well I just found out that they are going to have a new album coming out. I was actually under the impression that the last album they made was going to be their final album, so I did some research and found out some stuff. Craig Montoya and Greg Eklund (the bassist and guitarist) left the band after the their last cd came out (it was called Slowmotion Daydream and it flopped selling only 100,000 copies - personally I thought it was their worst album so I wasn't surprised). Art Aelxakis (lead singer/guitar - who I got to meet while he was on a solo tour) got four other guys and kept the name everclear. I have only heard one song off the new album and although the 5 second intro is the most ridiculous piece of shit I have ever heard in my life, the actual song is pretty good, it's very Everclear sounding so I am keeping my hopes up as to how good the album is going to be. Anyways here's the link to the song/site if you wanna give it a listen.

UPDATE: The "Pistons," or at least some team claiming to be them, just lost game 5. So many thoughts going through my head right now but I just want to say that everything I thought I knew about the world is absolutely wrong....