A TANKING SOLUTION OF SORTS & ETC

 How about placing all the 14 teams that don't make the playoffs in on pool with none of the 14 teams given any better percentage of getting the top three pucks. Leave it to pure luck. Each ping pong ball would have the team log on it. Positional selection would be in reverse order as the ball leaves the machine. First ball out would pick 14th, etc, etc. Sure, there might be some tanking as the season draws to a close in order to assure a team getting into  the draw for the top 14 players, but, really, why would they once they know its all luck who gets the top three or four? On a  separate subject but related: The machine itself would not be the electric kind being used today, but one that functions by pulling a lever like a slot machine. On a separate but related subject: Isn't it high time the NBA teams start paying greater attention to the teaching end of their G League teams? There have been a few examples of NBA teams that have benefited by developing their own player talent. There are a lot of players, especially the young ones that are in the G leaue who have lots of physical talent but know crap about basketball. On a sperate subject but related: Why the hell do young men come out of high school and college basketball programs these day knowing crap about the game of baskball. I mean, its all about frigging athleticism. I'm personally heading in the dirction of doing away with the clock entirely in high schol and increasing the college clock to 40 seconds and the NBA to 30 seconds. The game has got to get back to a horizontal game not a bowling ball vertical game. 

LIfe comment: Okay, you guessed it. How long witll it be before the majority of American realize what a seeriously vicious human being Donald Trump is? It can't be that hard to figure out. From a purely sports perspective, it's never been a problem with athletes to recognize coaches that are simply bullshitters and glory hunters and don't really give a crap about their players. If that's so easy, why has it been so diffuclt for people to recongize Trumps negativity? 

                                                                  TIP OF THE PEN

Dont' sell description short. At it's basic composition, a story is derived into three parts: The Narrative, Dialogue and  Description. It's not quite that simplistic but for today's purpose, it will do. Often times young writers will forget the importance of description. Remember, your characters have senses. They will see and feel their surroundings. Their reactions to those surrounding often speak to their personalities. Does the rain depress them? Does the sun fail to cheer them up? Description can also create over all mood. It was a dark and stormy night. Ha. Ha. But true. Description also helps the reader to locate the character in the story. "He walked slowly and silently up the carpeted steps. Carpeted make the silence easier for the reader to understand. I'm sure I've made my point. But I must add, in closing, that too much description, like too much seasoning in cooking can ruin the stew. 

SATRUDAY NBA ALL STAR SKILLS COMPETION

Where is the All Star Game for mothers,
skill set competion for the best soup and cuddles,
And how about one for fathers,
for refing little leagues and cooking barbeques.
Lost in he gravy of family, they're taken for granted
Like a Steph Curry jumper or one rose in a dozen. 

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN ABOUT THE NBA ALL STAR GAME

 While my wife and I will be toasting our love, marriage, children and grandchildren tonight on Valentines day, I will be missing the only contest in the NBA's All Star Celebration that's at all interesting. Not that the Dunk Contest couldn't be risen from the dead with more than one leaper and lots of understudies. I leave that fix to the league. I'll also leave the skills contest to the league. I'm only interested in the All Star Game itself. Let's be clear: without a modicum of D, the game is boring, just a bunch of 3s and dunkers. Yawn! Here's my fix: Create a 4 point line. Add a 5 point box at the ends of the midcourt stripe where they meet the sideline. You want long bombs, give the fans long bombs. Create a Super Dunk Line just below the free-throw line and award 3 points for such massive dunks. Dunks within that semi circle will be only awarded 1/2 points. By diminishing the value of the dunk lesser dunk, you increase the value of the 2-pt shot, floater and such. Winners of quarters receive money for their favorite charities. Charities to be represented at the game to receive awards. At half time, bring down three fans for a 1 million dollar attempt from the midcourt stipe. 

Okay, that's enough for now. Even if you have an argument with my ideas, that's okay. My point is the NBA has some creativity mind fog. The All Star Game is about The GAME. That's the most important fix. 

An interesting aside about the Winter Olympics: Three of America's men's figure skaters have Slavic names. I hesitate to say Russian names becayse Russians are not so popular these days, But as a Russian immigrant, what can I say. It's cool the popularity of figure skating translated from the old county to the new country. Immigration? Get it Trump. That's what America is all about, you jingoistic, homophobic, racist moron. 

                                                   TIP OF THE PEN

It may be a mystery crime writing convention that the crime/murder should happen reasonably close to thre begining of the novel. I've noticed reading recent mysteries that this is beginning to get out of vogue. I'm suspicious of this trend. Unles someone can convince me otherwise I'm sticking with the quicker the crime the faster I get into the story. Note, I do NOT mean solving the crime. I want to get into my chracter(s). They will carry the story to its conclusion. 

ON THE COURT ON VALENTINES' DAY 2026   By Tom Meschery

That the court turns into a heart,
That the ball flies like cupid's  arrow
That as the ball swishes 

through the hoop like love. 

That its  skirt dances the samba. 

That it was a ten year romance.

That I had to kiss it goodbye

That I still remembering the dance

That passed from my life with a sigh. 

OLYMPICS, STUPID BOWL & MORE

 I say it and say it proudly: Bad Bunny Rules, sticking it to our fake presidant. Donald's response,,"I didn't unserstand a word." Awh, gee whiz, Not a word? Poor baby. What the F--k? Bad Bunny was singing and rapping in Spanish, you moron. A side note: I'm a huge GA GA fan. 

The game itself was a bore made so particularly by the SeaHawks staunch defense and so many commercials that the game itself felt like an afterthought. Yawn! By the way, has any company ever done their own independant servey of how much their ad on Super Sunday improved their sales the next day or week or month or year. The Ad biz has been perpertrating this Emporer's New Clothes hoax for decades. I do have to say I appreciate how the ad companies have bought in to racial equality. Must drive a guy like Trump nuts to see mixed race couples buying mattresses. 

Norway rules the Winter Olympics, but Ilya Malinin rules Men's figure skating. A back flip on on one skate? Snow boarder Cloe Kim wins the silver in the half pipe. She's Korean American. Just sayin' if Donald Rump doesn't know. I was saddened by Lindsey Vonn's injury, but she was heroic even giving it a shot at her age. 

I'm getting slightly sick of hearing all the sides trying to find solutions to teams sitting stars. If the NBA and owners and players would get off some of their profits - to say the money is extraordinary is an understatement - the solution is easy: Reduced the season by ten. Forget Play-ins. They just water down the meaning of the regular season; reduced the first round of the playoff back to best of five; rule that no player, including super stars shall sit out games unless verifiably injured, variable by a doctor who could lose his/her license. Eventually the leaugue is going to have to face doing what's good for the game or good for their money. 

                                                   TIP OF THE PEN

About dialogue: It is often a good idea to attribute your own philosophies about life to one of your characters rather than present them to the reader as an omniscient voice. This is true even when you are writing from an omniscient point of view and it's easy to sound God like. Or as someone once told me, look at me, look at me, see how profound I am. 

Here's a short poem haiku style about the Winter Olympics Men's Free Style figure skating:

Malinin,
 Golden Boy, falls
Twice on his ego

TRADE DEADLINE APPROACHING

 It's the end of January and we've paid our bills. Now the only other thing to worry about is the NBA trade deadline. In my case I'm most concerned with the Golden State Warriors, my #1 team and the Sacramento Kings, my #2 team because Sacto is the city in which I make my home these days and the basketball home for my wife's grandchildren. Let's begin with the Warriors.

There is lot's of speculation that the ownership of the Warriors is seeking to obtain Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Buck. Holy Greek Holiday, wouldn't that be gigantic. Imagine Giannis and Steph together. Wouldn't that guarantee another championship parade down Market Street? Notice, I placed a question mark at the end of that sentence. It's a question worth asking. Sports cognoscenti figure the Warriors would have to give two to three first round draft choices, and players: Probably Butler, if the bucks aren't scared away by a 37-year-old with two major ACL injuries. 

On to the Kings. Strong rumors the Kings want to trade Domatas Sabonis. Also in their trade sights is DeMar DeRozen and Zach Levine. Unlike the Warriors complicated situations, the Kings decision should be easy. Fire the incompetent Doug Christie. Then, trade all three players for as many first round draft choices as they can get and a few young upside players. They desperately need a top-notch point guard. This year's draft is one of the best in recent history. In the top four is the young point guard from U of Kansas, Darryn Peterson. Right now, I'd rather be the Sacramento Kings GM that Mike Dunlevy, the Dub's GM because things are pretty straight forward for the Kings. They're heading for the bottom of the NBA and will, with some trade capital, wind up with a lot of good young players to build around their young core of Raynaud, Murry, Ellis, Clifford, and Cardwell. If they do that, the Kings have a solid future that their fans can get behind. 

So, back to the Warriors. If the Warriors acquire Giannis for the players I mentioned and the draft choice they'd have to give up, would the Warriors have a future? If you consider the future as NOW, which at my ancient condition, I have to do, then maybe they do. Enough to win a championship? Possibly, but unlikely, not with OKC, Denver, and Detroit around. What happens after Steph retires? 

While we're on the topic of the Giannis trade, the talking heads have yet to mention the Lakers as a landing  spot for the Greek super star. How about a Laker package of Reeves, Hashimura,  Knecht, Vanderbilt, and first round picks for this coming draft and 2028. Imagine Steph with Giannis, now imagine Giannis with Luka, the  two European players joining forces. 

As for LIFE: 

Have we had enough to the Trump Magas? Is ICE turning into the Gestapo? Be careful America. 

As for LITERATURE:

                                                     TIP OF THE PEN

As I wrote from the start, these tips are not in any chronological order. They come to me as I'm writing my mysteries. Here's one that might be useful to a writer after he or she has finished his or her first draft. PUT IT ASIDE for a while, at least two weeks before going on to the second draft. The chances are you'll find some really funky MISTAKEES and possibly some AWFUL mistakes made in the first writing. Be particularly aware of chronological mistakes. I made one with day of the week in a recent new series I am writing that screwed up my entire plot and required a month to fix. 

MORE LITERATURE: 

For all you ballers out there, who inspired you? Did you have a gym or playground that you called home? Home where the heart is. This is my pome about the players and the playground that was my home learing how to hoop.

JULIOUS KAHN PLAYGROUND #2

 

No one said a word when my ups came.
In the eighth grad and already six feet
with a sweet jumper. Who’d planted
that seed is no longer living, this memory
being written when nature has reversed itself.
He could have been Les Brillant,
a guard I admired from Linclon High
or Goose Grider, a center, from Lowell.
Names such as these, don’t need bodies.
Each afternoon, I played until the sun
began to set. Walking the twelve block home,
drimbbling, I threw the ball ahead
of me with such a backward spin
that it always striking the cement,
returned to me, on a bounce as it
always has ever since, like a pet I’d trained.

 Championship? 

BBACK ON MY SOAP BOX & ETC

 Basketball has been good to me from the first day I felt that pebbly surface of the ball when I was eleven years old to now, at 86 years young sitting in front of our TV watching the NBA and cheering for my Dubs. However, these days between cheers, I find myself nodding off. It is not old age that brings on the yawns, it's the game, its endless drive and kick offenses. My eyes begin to glaze over. 

I wonder if anybody out there in Blog-reader-land is experiencing the same kind on boredom I am. Please respond and tell me how you're feeling. 

As I see it, most of the offensive action centers around a player in a one-on-one situation or dribbling off a screen and diving to the paint looking for a layup or a kick pass to the corner to a player waiting in the corner with his hands out as if praying for the ball like a beggar holding out his hands for alms. It's that pitiful in my mind. Begging, because he knows the 3 pt corner shot is a cheat. It is the easiest 3 at 22 feet from the basket than the 23.9 feet that is the normal three point distance. That's one foot and nine inches closer to the hoop. Yep, a cheat and the NBA game has been diminished by it. That cheat shot makes help defense more difficult, often impossible. It has taken away the natural movement of the game and boiled it down to a few repetitious driving dives, corner shots and end to end fast breaks. 

If you see this as a problem, as I do, then the fix is simple: Widen the court so the corner three is 23.9 feet from the basket. Surely, the rich NBA can manage a little additional construction costs. To save the game? It might mean eliminating a rich folk front row seating. Just as well. No more wiping beer spilled on the floor when a player lands out of bounds on someone fan's lap. 

WRITE THE NBA: NO MORE CORNER CHEATS. FLOOD THE INTERNET. CALL YOUR LOCAL SPORTS SHOW; SAVE THE GAME. 

WAtched the 49ers beat a rugged Chigago Bears team and get closer to first seed in the Western Conference. For the sake of poetry and our 49erss, it's time to repost my ode to Christian McCaffery.

McCaffrey (With apologies to T.S. Elliot

)McCaffrey’s the running back
Who’s a mystery to none at all
He breaks through any D line
He keeps his fans in awe
 
He’s the bafflement of tacklers
Defensive coaches’ despair
For when they look to find him
McCaffrey’s not there.
 
 
McCaffrey, McCaffrey,
There’s no one like McCaffrey,
He breaks the rules of velocity
His powers of misdirection
Would make magicians stare
For when the tacklers look for him
McCaffrey’s not there.
 
Defenders seek him running
Or receiving, which is hardly rare
But they are left with weeping
‘Cause McCaffrey’s never there

                                                                    TIP OF THE PEN

Thnking back to yesterday's TIP. I explained how important it was to get all the characteristics of your characters, all of them, fixed in your mind and stored somewhere where you can refer to them from time to time. Believe me, it is easy to forget  dates and types of clothing, favorite cigar brands, shades of lipstick, It is also a good idea to re-read your dialogue as you go along down the writing road. After every chapter, I do not write further until I have read the dialogue aloud. Your ear will tell you mistakes in tone and language that your eyes won't. Consistency is essential. However, do not go overboard with dialect or time period slang, accents, etc. Intro these only at specific times to remind your reader the character talking is a teen or a cop from the Big Apple. Write in contemporary English for a sort of centrist audience. 

unless my math is wrong