Laker Apologists

I get it. Most Laker fans don't like the Clippers. But let's not get the story twisted on how much better they would be if this or that.

Let's break it down:

1. Lakers trade Gasol and Odom for CP3.
Laker fans: This is a new era for the Lakers!
Reality: Wait, CP3 is an Alpha, Kobe is an Alpha, what happened to last Laker Alpha not named Kobe? And... do we forget that they lose Gasol too?

2. Stern blocks the trade.
Laker fans: Man, the NBA is out to get the Lakers.
Reality: Well, it could go either way but at the time, the NBA owned Charlotte, they had the right to make that decision and wanted a younger player and a draft pick for the Hornets.

3. CP3 gets traded to the Clippers for Eric Gordon.
Laker fans: See, they don't block that trade.
Reality: Was it one sided? Probably... but at least it was a younger player and Charlotte got a 1st round draft pick.

4. Lakers trade for Nash AND Dwight Howard.
Laker fans: This is the dream team, not a Big 3 but a Big FOUR!
Reality: So had the CP3 trade gone through, you would only have CP3, Kobe and Dwight... no Gasol.

5. Lakers fire Brown and hire Mike D'Antoni instead of Phil Jackson.
Laker fans: Run and gun is back!
Reality: Really? With this older team and and two bigs you really are going to go up tempo offense?

6. Lakers season with their Big Four is a bust.
Laker fans: This is the NBA's fault, if they didn't block the CP3 trade, we would have had CP3 instead of the non playing Nash and we would have a better record than the Clippers.
Reality: Who knows how well the team would have played with 2 Alpha players and no Gasol.

7. Kobe tears Achilles, Lakers don't advance past the 2nd round:
Laker fans: It's okay, Kobe will be back next season, Dwight will re-sign.
Reality: Maybe that up tempo offense wasn't so good for aging stars and bigs who like to be in the post.

8. Dwight does not sign with the Lakers, CP3 immediately signs with the Clippers as soon as the deadline passes.
Laker fans: See, if we had CP3, both he and Dwight would have signed with the Lakers.
Reality: Yeah right. Seeing how Kobe treated Dwight when trying to recruit him, not sure if that was going to happen.

9. Lakers have a dismal 13/14 season where Kobe and Nash barely play, they don't sell out the games for the first time in decades and they don't make it to the post season.
Laker fans: It's the NBA's fault for not letting the CP3 trade happen.
Reality: Back to that again?

10. Lakers only get the 7th pick in the draft, end up with Julius Randle.
Laker fans: Julius Randle is the next big thing.
Reality: So 14/15 is going to be another lottery year?

11. Donald Sterling loses ownership of the Clippers, Steve Ballmer spends $2b to buy the them
Laker fans: So what, he overpaid, the Clippers suck.
Reality: Clippers have had the better regular season record for the last 2 years that CP3 has been here and have been the Pacific Division champs in both those seasons.

Laker fans: That's because the NBA didn't let CP3 become a Laker.
Reality: I doubt CP3 would have stayed one.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the Lakers, but the Kobe era is done. The Lakers will be good again, but not for at least 2 or 3 years.

P.S. For those Laker fans complaining on why the NBA let the Love trade happen... the NBA doesn't own either the TWolves or the Cavs... it's NOT the same thing.

A Sequel Or Not A Sequel

So Warner Bros officially announced the title of the upcoming Man of Steel "sequel":

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice

But is this really a sequel? Here is what I posted on ScreenRant:

I will submit that ‘Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice’ is not a Man of Steel sequel. 

It follows Man of Steel, but to be a true sequel, it should heavily be about Superman (in my opinion). 

It’s more like Avengers, it followed Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America but was a sequel to none of them.

But I may be wrong, BvSDoJ might be a Supes-centric storyline and then I will retract my submission.

Dr. Mindbender disagreed with me:

I don’t get this logic at all. It follows Man of Steel, therefore it’s the sequel. This “true sequel” stuff sounds closed minded, just my opinion.

Let me 'splain:

@Dr. Mindbender:
I think the 2nd part of my post frames why I have that opinion. 

Do you consider ‘The Avengers’ a sequel? 

For me, I don’t think Warner/DC is really following a sequel formula. Each movie is another one set in the DC universe featuring the same or different heroes. To me, this is more like a series. 

To further explain, a sequel should focus on the premise of the first movie. If BvSDoJ is mainly about Superman, then I concede. But it seems it’s more like a prequel (if you will) to Justice League (hence the ‘Dawn of Justice’ subtitle). Based on that, I can’t really consider this a “true” sequel. 

Back to my Avengers analogy, if we were to use the fact that “it follows” the movie before it, then The Avengers was really Iron Man 3 and Iron Man 3 should be Iron Man 4 right? I’m being hyperbolic here but I hope that illustrates what I’m saying.

Is it really a Man of Steel sequel? Or a Batman cash grab? :)

New Batsuit and Batmobile

So Zack Snyder gave us a sneak preview of the upcoming Batsuit and Batmobile on Twitter, ScreenRant posted a lighter version to see more details:

http://screenrant.com/batman-vs-superman-ben-affleck-costume-batmobile/

Commentor jstaggs posted a link to a color version he Photoshopped:

Looks good to me. Just wish they used the white eye lenses.

And I like the bulkier Batman... more intimidating.

Batman's Cowl

I don't know why I keep thinking about this but I do hope that in the next iteration of Batman on film, they fix his cowl. What do I mean? Well... I don't really like that open eyeholes version where the actor has to wear black makeup. I would prefer something like they did in The Dark Knight with the sonic eyes version of the cowl:

To me, that's a more realistic version of the BatCowl as the covered eyepieces do quite a few things:

1. Conceal's Bruce's identity: The eyes are actually one of best ways to figure out who someone is. It's the same reason why Spiderman uses reflective eyepieces over his mask.

2. Protects Batman's eyes: If I were a villain, I would use a 3 Stooges eyepoke to take Batman out.

3. Can provide technological functionality: Much like the sonar eyes, you can use the eyepieces as a Heads Up Display (HUD) like Iron Man. Or you can enable night vision or infrared vision.

4. Looks more menacing: For criminals, I think that white empty eye look would strike more fear than just a lispy "I'm Batman!". Think Darth Vader.

I understand that for film, people want to see the actor's face to get a better portrayal of their emotions, that's why Spidey gets his mask ripped off (like in every movie) and Iron Man always shows an internal view of Stark's face in the armor but they could do a similar thing for Bats. Heck, I would even go as far as making the cowl more of a helmet so that Bats can even seal it to prevent being exposed to gas etc etc (and even the suit more like armor but that's another time).

And this would actually also allow for the cowl to be worn by several people to throw off suspicion or in the case where Bruce is incapacitated (in the old TV show, did Alfred wear the suit one time?).

#FixTheCowl

My 2014 TV Watch List

So this is what I'm watching this season:

The Blacklist (just started): Spader eats this series up but I do like the different subplots brewing
Revolution: I think I'm the only one who watches this show, funny how Charlie went from nice girl to bad girl
Arrow: If you haven't watched this, you should.
The Tomorrow People: Arrow's cousin, reminds me of the movies Push and Jumper
The Vampire Diaries: Yeah I know, but if you can get past the romantic drama stuff, it's pretty good.
The Originals: Ditto above
The Walking Dead: Who doesn't watch this show?
Justified: Modern Western
Banshee: Justified on PEDs. Lots of violence (and sex) so be warned.
Agents of SHIELD: Have heard bad things about this but finally DVR binged and I really like it
Helix: Another SyFy show that will probably only last one season
Modern Family, Big Bang Theory and Brooklyn 99: Have to have some sitcoms on here
American Idol and The Voice: Just like sitcoms, need to round out with reality shows.
NBA and UFC are my sports shows
HGTV: Renovation Realities, Love It or List It (and Too), House Hunters, Property Bros and Buying and Selling
Food Network: Chopped and Diners, Drive-ins and Dives

What I haven't watched in a long time is The Amazing Race and Survivor. Might start again but just don't have the time. Most of the stuff I watch is DVRed and I watch it late at night or on the weekends, the sports, HGTV and Food Network are on outside of primetime like when we are eating or nothing else is on.

Is that list a nerdy list?

Tweeting vs. Blogging

As I've mentioned before, it's really hard to blog constantly.

It takes effort, organization and more importantly... time.

Really interesting blog posts can be all text but others rely on images and videos to get your point across and then you have to find and post those things.

Twitter... or microblogging... seems to be suited to the casual blogger like myself. Short posts about different things, and at most times, responses to those you follow.

I don't think I'm tweeting right, but it's not like I have followers, here or there. A long time ago, when I used to do notebook reviews, it was easy to get views. Now, with so much out there, I'll be lucky if one person responds to a blog post. I've actually got more responses on Twitter than on this blog.

And then again, most of my online interaction is in different forums/message boards. I don't do Facebook because I prefer the anonymity that blogs, forums and Twitter affords me.

So I added a Follow gadget here... not like it will get me any followers but moreso that anyone who does come here will know where I went. Heh.