NBA Draft Free Tee Shirt Contest

UPDATE: We changed the cutoff from all 30 first round picks to 20/30. But we still don't think anybody can do it. Prove us wrong!

Hey basketball fans, great and easy opportunity for you to win a brand new tee shirt (that is possibly sexually suggestive) and show off your skill as an NBA talent judge. All you have to do is correctly pick 20 out of the 30 first round picks next Thursday's NBA Draft and you'll be entered (if there's more than one winning entry) for a chance to win your very own Bullets Blog Tee. They look like this (without the rectangular border around the logo):

The winner will be announced on our Twitter page. If you don't already follow us, please do @bulletsblog. In fact, we'll give you a break and consider your entry a winner if you get 19 out of 30 correct but only if you follow us on Twitter. 

Trust me when I say that you will always be the center of attention when you wear this (possibly sexual) shirt out. All you have to do to enter is copy the following form, paste it into an email, fill it out with your picks (just the first and last name will work), and send it to bulletsblog@gmail.com. Boom. Free tee shirt.

Name:
1. New Orleans -
2. Charlotte -
3. Washington -
4. Cleveland -
5. Sacramento -
6. Portland -
7. Golden State -
8. Toronto -
9. Detroit -
10. New Orleans -
11. Portland -
12. Milwaukee -
13. Phoenix -
14. Houston -
15. Philadelphia -
16. Houston -
17. Dallas -
18. Minnesota -
19. Orlando -
20. Denver -
21. Boston -
22. Boston -
23. Atlanta -
24. Cleveland -
25. Memphis -
26. Indiana -
27. Miami -
28. Oklahoma City -
29. Chicago -
30. Golden State -

Notes:

• If teams trade draft picks (will will likely happen), the number of the pick is what matters.

Fantasy Euro 2012 Update

We are halfway (ish) through the first Bullets Blog soccer fantasy game ever. Personally, I'm in love. But that could just be because I'm crushing everyone with no regard for human life. Here's where everyone stands:

1. Team Jay (103 points, 8 players remaining)
2. Team Brendan (70 points, 10 players remaining)
3. Team Alex (67 points, 8 players remaining)
4. Team Toph (57 points, 8 players remaining)

Poor Chris. 

The silver lining for him, of course, is that he got the first pick in the one-round-supplemental-player draft. Which played out like this:

1. Team Chris - Fernando Torres (F, Spain)
2. Team Alex - Wayne Rooney (F, England)
3. Team Brendan - Mats Hummels (D, Germany)
4. Team Jay - Cesc Fabregas (M, Spain)

Torres and Rooney were the obvious first two picks. Hummels was a pretty easy choice. I took Fabregas because dickhead Toph took Torres. 

The 14 Best Fantasy Scorers

1. 23 points - Iker Casillas, G, Spain (Brendan) - 2 shutouts, 1 one-goalers, 10 saves
2. 21 points - Joe Hart, G, England (Alex) - 1 shutout, 1 one-goaler, 13 saves
3. 17 points - Maarten Stekelenburg, G, Netherlands (Jay) - 1 one-goaler, 14 saves
4. 15 points - Mario Gomez, F, Germany (Jay) - 3 goals, 1 assist (first pick in the draft)
5. 14 points - David Silva, M, Spain (Jay) - 1 goal, 3 assists
6. (tie) 13 points - Sergio Ramos, D, Spain (Brendan) and Gerard Pique D, Spain (Alex) - 2 shutouts, 1 one-goaler apiece

6. (tie) 13 points - Hugo Lloris, G, France (Toph) - 1 shutout, 1 one-goaler, 5 saves
9. (tie) 11 points - Andrea Pirlo, M, Italy (Brendan) - 1 goal, 2 assists 

9. (tie) 11 points - Philipp Lahm, D, Germany (Jay) and Giorgio Chiellini, D, Italy (Jay) - 1 shutout, 2 one-goalers each

12. (tie) 9 points - Andrei Arshavin, F, Russia (Jay) - 3 assists

12. (tie) 9 points - Ignashevich, D, Russia (Toph) and Anyukov, D, Russia (Toph) - 3 one-goalers

So yeah, needless to say Toph is in last place. 

The Only Players to Not Score Any Fantasy Points In Group Play

Team Jay

• Niko Kranjcar, M, Croatia (eliminated)(played for like 3 minutes total)

Team Brendan

• Roman Sharonov, D, Russia (eliminated)(did not play in any of Russia's games)
• Florent Malouda, M, France
• Dirk Kuyt, M, Netherlands (eliminated)
• Jermain Defoe, F, England (has yet to play, I think)

Team Alex

• Luca Modric, M, Croatia (eliminated)(Alex's first pick and the second overall)
• Thomas Muller, F, Germany

Team Toph

• Xavi Hernandez, M, Spain
• Miroslav Klose, F, Germany
• Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, M, Netherlands (eliminated)(highest goal total in qualifiers)

The Best-Paid Benchwarmers in Sports

As a follow-up to the other day's article (I assume, at least), Forbes posted their list of the most overpaid bench players in sports. It's a great list if you want to get really angry at the entire business of professional sports. You'll see what I mean. 

1. Gilbert Arenas, Memphis Grizzlies - $19.3 million - 4.2 points, 1.1 assists, 1.1 rebounds

No big deal here. Just Gilbert Arenas making more than Dirk, Carmelo, DH12, CP3, LeBron, Wade, Bosh, and Durant. You could have paid Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, AND Nikola Pekovic this past season for that much. 

2. Travis Hafner, Cleveland Indians - $13 million - .242 BA, 6 Home Runs, 23 RBI

I don't want to harp of Hafner too much because baseball players get into slumps (especially power guys like Hafner). But I'm sure everyone in Cleveland feels the same way about him that Philly fans feel about Ryan Howard. 

3. Mehmet Okur, New Jersey Nets - $10.9 million - 7.6 points, 4.8 rebounds

In general, NBA centers are overpaid. The top guys get about what they deserve, but average guys get paid like elite guys because there's so few guys that are even average. It's a shame that a team like New Jersey gets sucked into bad contracts (Okur, Gerald Wallace's $9.5 million, Travis Outlaw's gross overpayment) because they're destined for mediocrity for the next 3 years at least. 

4. Jason Smith, St. Louis Rams - $10 million - Played in 29 of 48 possible games

I hate football. Two reasons why: a 308-pound man can make $10 million a year to push other 300-pound men around; that man doesn't even have to do his job to get paid. I'm assuming his contract was signed before the new CBA that prevents egregious contracts. But how could anyone ever think that giving a 22-year old kid a $50 million dollar contract (with like half of it guaranteed) was a good idea? I hate football. 

5. Aubrey Huff, San Francisco Giants - $10 million - .155 BA, 1 Home Run, 5 RBI, Injured

Hey I mean sometimes when you win a championship you have to give your twelfth-best player a $10 million per year contract, right?

6. Chone Figgins, Seattle Mariners - $9.5 million - .185 BA, 2 Home Runs, 9 RBI

I liked Chone Figgins when he was a bargain second baseman in Los Angeles. He's just not good enough to be the third-highest player on a team behind Ichiro and King Felix. 

7. Boris Diaw, San Antonio Spurs - $9 million - 6.4 points, 4.9 rebounds

8. Carl Landry, New Orleans Hornets - $9 million - 12.5 points, 5.2 rebounds

Two poor signings of power forwards. Diaw feels like a better deal because the Spurs did so well, but neither guy is worth $9 mil. Maybe half that? Maybe?

9. Sidney Rice, Seattle Seahawks - $9 million - 32 receptions, 484 yards, 2 touchdowns

You know, I always thought Sidney was better than two catches per game. I know he was hurt, and maybe the fact that he didn't have a real quarterback also hurt. 

10. Lamar Odom, Dallas Mavericks - $8.9 million - 6.6 points, 4.2 rebounds

I think this is the worst contract of all because Lamar brings the Kardashians with him. I can't imagine paying money to someone who chose to marry Khloe "Kardashian". Especially when that money is almost $9 million and that someone was the fourth- or fifth-best player on a championship team two years ago. 

I really need to be in charge of an NBA team. That's my takeaway. 

Somebody That I Used To Know (Tiesto Remix)

So I was driving to class today (only because SUNY Albany has air conditioning for days) and I decided to plug my phone into my car and listen to the FratMusic App. Side note: here's a shameless plug for the $1.99 FratMusic app. You should buy it if the following conditions apply to you:

• You own an iPhone (if not.. go buy one)
• You enjoy any kind of music that could be played at a party, but especially EDM/house/dance music
• You like to discover new songs to add to your party/driving/study playlists (some kids study with techno.. to each his own, I guess)
• You have $1.99 available to you

It's a really convenient app. 

But anyways, I was listening to the Top 10 playlist and I stumbled upon Tiesto's Remix of Somebody That I Used To Know (originally by Gotye and Kimbra). 

I mean to be honest I have no idea how they haven't all worked together before, right? Here's the song. And just know that I absolutely love it. 

The World's Highest-Paid Athletes

Today Forbes posted a list of the highest-paid athletes over the past year (combining salary, winnings, and endorsements). Link here. You may be surprised. Let's break it down by sport (I only did the top 26 and I left out football and baseball because I'm lazy and I hate football):

Boxing
1. Floyd Mayweather - $85 million in winnings, $0 in endorsements
2. Manny Pacquiao - $56 million in winnings, $6 million in endorsements
24. Wladimir Klitschko - $24 million in winnings, $4 million in endorsements
Well, there's surprise number one for me. I had no idea boxers made this much money. Floyd only fought twice! I'm also surprised that Money doesn't have a single endorsement. Like, nobody could find a product that they wanted the best boxer of our time to endorse? Even the big stupid Russian supplemented his winnings with some ad money. Nike? PowerBar? J. Crew?

Golf
3. Tiger Woods - $4.4 million in winnings, $55 million in endorsements
7. Phil Mickelson - $4.8 million in winnings, $43 million in endorsements
I thought Tiger's sponsors all dropped him when the whole Thanksgiving scandal thing happened? I mean $55 million isn't a bad payday for having once been the most intimidating  golfer ever. Why does Nike still pay him so much money? Throw 10% of that money at Pat Cantlay and give the rest to Mayweather. Tiger is now just an above-average golfer. He's no more intimidating that Luke Donald or Lee Westwood. But he's still more intimidating than Ian Poulter.

Basketball
4. LeBron James - $13 million in salary, $40 million in endorsements
6. Kobe Bryant - $20.3 million in salary, $32 million in endorsements
I don't care what anybody has to say about LeBron or Kobe. There is no way that Kobe is worth 156% as much as LeBron per year. If you want to get into the legacy/what he's done for the Lakers/he's their whole team, that's fine. Kobe is worth more. But LeBron James brings more value to the basketball court than Kobe Bryant. It's science.

Tennis
5. Roger Federer - $7.7 million in winnings, $45 million in endorsements
16. Rafael Nadal - $8.2 million in winnings, $25 million in endorsements
26. Maria Sharapova - $5.9 million in winnings, $22 million in endorsements
I think whoever is in charge of sponsoring tennis players has it all backwards. The smokeshow blonde should get the largest chunk of the pie. Then the devastatingly handsome Spaniard. Then the almost-washed-up Switzerlander (Switz? Swit?). Side note: Maria Sharapova made $6 million this year by playing women's tennis? Sign me up! I'll be the Juwanna Man of tennis. Except I can't play tennis.

Soccer
8. David Beckham - $9 million in salary, $37 million in endorsements
9. Cristiano Ronaldo - $20.5 million in salary, $22 million in endorsements
11. Lionel Messi - $20 million in salary, $19 million in endorsements
Let's be honest. Beckham's salary is basically an endorsement from the LA Galaxy/the MLS. No way anybody that plays soccer in America deserves $9 million to play soccer. In America. Also, it's fitting that Ronaldo makes slightly more than Messi. Not accurate, but fitting; Ronaldo gets all the publicity and Messi just puts his head down and goes to work. But let's be honest. Cristiano should be making three times the endorsement money. At least.

Fantasy US Open Recap

Woof.

That's about all I can say about the US Open in terms of my fantasy team. And everyone's fantasy team. I guess Team Toph gets a pass, but when 5 out of the 6 teams combined to have 15 players +9 or worse... Not good.

Because so many players that got drafted missed the cut, we had to create four tiers of scoring. Let's start from the bottom:

The Bottom Tier - All Players Missed Cut
Just kidding. That'd be impossibly bad.

The Fourth Tier - 3 Players Missed Cut
6. Team Jay (+39)

• Luke Donald (+11)(MC)
• Hunter Mahan (+10)
• Louis Oosthuizen (+9)(MC)
• Martin Laird (+9)(MC)

The Third Tier - 2 Players Missed Cut

5. Team Alex (+42)

• Lee Westwood (+5)
• Bubba Watson (+9)(MC)
• Jason Day (+15)
• Peter Hanson (+13)(MC)

The Second Tier - 1 Player Missed Cut

4. Team Trevor (+42)

• Rory McIlroy (+10)(MC)
• Rickie Fowler (+11)
• Charl Schwartzel (+10)
• Ian Poulter (+11)

3. Team Trova (+29)

• Tiger Woods (+7)
• Padraig Harrington (+3)
• Francesco Molinari (+9)
• Geoff Ogilvy (+10)(MC)

The Top Tier - All Players Made Cut

2. Team Dave (+38)

• Phil Mickelson (+16)
• KJ Choi (+6)
• Adam Scott (+6)
• Sergio Garcia (+10)

1. Team Toph

• Justin Rose (+7)
• Martin Kaymer (+6)
• Graeme McDowell (+2)
• Matt Kuchar (+8)

And now for some fun bullets of fact:

• Nobody in the whole tournament finished below par overall. 
• The lowest round (of drafted players) was Lee Westwood's Saturday 67. 
• The highest round (odp) was Luke Donald's Thursday 79. 
• The lowest team score for a single day was Chris' Saturday 279 (-1). 
• The highest? Jay's opening day 305 (+25).
• US Open champion Webb Simpson was not drafted. But he will be next time. 

An Untitled Post About LeBron James

Game 1 of the Finals is in the books. The Thunder smacked the Heat in the second half and towards the end it looked like the Heat won't ever be able to beat OKC. Cue the LeBron haters on Twitter:

"The loud mouthed clown fails to deliver"

"LeBron take notes"

"Kevin Durant is definitely better than LeBron"

"Good job, good effort"

All of you, shut up.

LeBron had 30-9-4 with 4 steals. That's pretty much standard for him. Even the supporting cast did well (Chalmers with 12-6 and Battier with 16 is pretty much as good as they're gonna do). This loss falls squarely on Wade. But for whatever reason, LeBron shoulders the blame. Should he have shot better than 11-24? I mean, maybe. I guess he has to, if Dwyane Wade is going to continue to be a steaming pile of average on the court.

I want to take a step back from Game 1. Colin Cowherd had a great piece on The Herd this morning where he talked about comparing LeBron to Jordan (he's not the first to do so). Michael Jordan didn't win a title until he was on the same team as Scottie Pippin, Horace Grant, Bill Cartwright, BJ Armstrong, and John Paxson. The only other sure-fire Hall of Famer was Pippen (I think people only know Horace because of the glasses), but they were a team with a lot of rebounders, a lot of role players, and they all bought into winning.

Then you add Toni Kukoc, Ron Harper, Steve Kerr, and Dennis Rodman into the picture and it really seems like it would have been a struggle for the team to not win the title. I don't want to take anything away from MJ (not that I could if I wanted to) because his attitude paved the way for the whole team - much like Tim Duncan has done in San Antonio.

I just want to make it known that I think LeBron James needs better people around him, on the court and off, and he could head and shoulders above everyone else in the NBA. Let's track his mistakes:

• Being from Ohio (not entirely his fault)
• Saying he wanted better players around him in Cleveland but never actually naming any role players that he would have liked to add
• The logistics of The Decision (the start of the "LeBron is a Dickhead" movement)
• The choice he made in The Decision (New York, bro. Come on, Are you stupid?)
• Teaming up with a player who plays literally the exact same style of game as him
• "Not 5, not 6, not 7"
• Shoulder bumping Spoelstra (sets a bad example for the rest of his team)
• Choking in the Finals last year
• That press conference where he told all the poor people that weren't as rich or talented as him to fuck off
• Proposing to his ugly-ass girlfriend (by far the worst-looking of the Big Three WAGs)

But this season (aside from the proposal) he's been pretty much right where he needs to be. He sort of learned how to use his size down low. He stopped shooting from long range so much. He put the team on his back at times. But it's still a shit team. And it's a team that won't ever let him be as good as Jordan. Physically, LeBron is better than MJ. Mentally, Jordan is probably a top-3 person (in any walk of life) ever. LeBron can never match him. 

But in terms of championships (which everyone in the NBA loves to use as a measuring stick), LeBron could surpass Jordan. He won't, because he's stuck in Miami for three more years. Two more years? Whatever, it's that many years that he won't be able to be as dominant as he potentially could. Because emotionally, he's a bitch. And that rubs off on his teammates.

His coach looks like a 25 year old. LeBron looks like a 40 year old. Dwyane Wade is actually 30 years old. They don't respect him because they're two of the ten best players in the NBA (or so I'm told, because watching Wade makes me strongly question that). They play on a team full of dickheads because the leaders of the team act like dickheads. Chris Bosh probably isn't a dickhead but he's like that kid in college orientation that gets in with the scumbag kids and starts acting like a scumbag. I guess you'd call that peer pressure? 

When I sat down to write this post, I had a goal. It was to defend LeBron in the short term and simultaneously bash him in the long term and for what he's done in the past. I honestly have no idea if I've accomplished that. But being saddled to an over-the-hill Dwyane Wade, an injured (maybe?) Chris Bosh, and a bunch of nobodies is 100% not the best place for LeBron to challenge Jordan as the best basketball player of all time. 

But you know, Wade could come out in Game 2 and drop 50 points and dunk right in Kevin Durant's grill and stare into the camera and tell me to fuck myself. 

But seriously. How do you turn down the Knicks when you're in that situation?