ROZAY

I didn't vote, so I wont complain too much. Is there no love for the old school though? No Rakim, KRS or Big Daddy Kane? Kool G Rap? Slick Rick? Fresh Prince? Hell, I don't even like him that much, but no LL?

Don't get the hate for Em either. I probably wouldn't have him at 1, but he's definitely top 5 at the very least.

Edit: I see I'm a bit late with his signing. That's gonna be a scary secondary though.

Congratulations to Dirk and the Mavs. Very nice to see Jason Kidd go out with a ring and for a lot of the criticism that Dirk has faced since 2006 to finally go away.

As a big LeBron fan, it sucks to see him disappoint yet again. It sucks even more that I've had to deal with all the shit that comes with being a fan of the guy for the last week or so. However, I can admit that he had this coming. Hopefully he learns from it and just shut up and play ball like he can.

Still, the better team won and I'm glad that if anyone won a title other than Bron, it's Dirk.

officiating was rather poor ... unless your Miami. other than that Dallas just had too many misses. well they were going to lose at least 1 in Miami, they should recover next game.

Dallas did go to the line more than Miami, if my memory is correct. Dallas did get a lot of bullshit calls against them, though.

Two great games last night. I love the NBA playoffs. There's nothing like it to me.

I guess I'm gonna get a lot of shit for this but... I'd like to see the Heat win, although I wouldn't mind seeing Dirk and company get a ring. LeBron has been my favorite player since Magic, and I guess it would be cool to see the reaction from a lot of people that didn't give them a chance in hell. Would love to see a Heat/Mavs finals again.

Ray Allen's ankles aren't the only thing D-Wade likes to break, apparently.

Even though I'm sure everyone knew he was the obvious choice, Derrick Rose has been named MVP. Congratulations to him, he had a phenomenal year and really deserves it.

There's talk that the Knicks are going to force D'Antoni to hire a defensive coach. Hopefully he doesn't refuse like he did back in Phoenix with Thibs. Then again, hopefully he does refuse so we can get rid of him.

Z-Bo destroyed the Spurs last night in the fourth quarter. Memphis wins their first playoff series and became the second eighth seed to beat the number one seed in a seven game series.

So, the second round has OKC/Memphis and LA/Dallas for the West, and Chicago/Atlanta (who will probably end up being the reason Dwight Howard leaves next year) and Miami/Boston in the East.

Ron Artest won the NBA citizenship of the year award. I thought that was pretty cool even though the story will probably get overlooked. Ron Ron has always been a favorite of mine and it's good to see that he has come a long way since his earlier days.

So, has anyone else's first round predictions been shot to hell like mines?

Going to the Heat/Sixers game tonight, as well as game 4. Any ideas for signs to piss off Wade & James?

Fuck Ray Allen.

That is all.

Chicago over Indiana in 4

Orlando over Atlanta in 5

Boston over New York in 6

Miami over Philly in 4

San Antonio over Memphis in 6

Oklahoma City over Denver in 5

Portland over Dallas in 6

LA Lakers over New Orleans in 5

Chicago over Orlando in 6

Miami over Boston in 7

Oklahoma City over San Antonio in 7

LA Lakers over Portland in 6

Miami over Chicago in 6

LA Lakers over Oklahoma City in 7

Miami over LA Lakers in 6

So the playoffs match ups are set. In the East we have:

1. Chicago Bulls vs 8. Indiana Pacers

4. Orlando Magic vs 5. Atlanta Hawks

3. Boston Celtics vs 6. New York Knicks

2. Miami Heat vs 7. Philadelphia 76ers.

And in the West...

1. San Antonio Spurs vs 8. Memphis Grizzlies

4. Oklahoma City Thunder vs 5. Denver Nuggets

3. Dallas Mavericks vs 6. Portland Trail Blazers

2. Los Angeles Lakers vs 7. New Orleans Hornets

Predictions anyone?

God do I love Melo. That boy is clutch I tell ya.

Bring on Boston.

I know that they have the best record since the All Star break, but I think last night more than proved that the Lakers are ready for the playoffs.

Just a few weeks ago I was thinking that we definitely would lock up the sixth seed, possibly make a run at the Hawks for the fifth seed and perhaps make it to the second round.

Now I'm with naiwf and Meacon. I'm sure we'll get it together next year, but right now I can't see this team surviving the first round.

Posted what naiwf did ten minutes earlier. Very surprising move. The Nets also got Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric from the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Troy Murphy, who will likely be bought out.

In light of this recent news, all I have to say is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldiFrefbIkA

New Jersey might as well go all out and get Tayshaun Prince and Ben Wallace and convince Rasheed Wallace to come out of retirement to play for them. Then we'll get the Pistons squad that should have been.

I'd really love to have 'Melo on the Knicks, but I like the team we have now so it's no big deal to me. I can't imagine he would go to the Nets and them not ending up getting Chris Paul, though.

I should probably take back all of the things I said about Stoudemire not being much of an upgrade in the offseason. The difference between this team with him and Lee is staggering. I'm not convinced that this team wouldn't be 9-16 instead of 16-9 if you simply put Lee with this supporting cast. Amar'e may not be much of an upgrade defensively, but he at least puts in the effort and blocks a shot or two per game, and unlike Lee he actually looks invested in winning on both ends of the floor. The offense pretty much hinges on the opponents doubling him or not, and the early season MVP hype is well deserved at this point. In 25 games he's already proven to be the best Knicks player since Ewing's prime.

I think I was the only Knicks fan I knew that was happy to get STAT this off-season. Granted, it's not a LeBron or Wade type acquisition, but I figured he would thrive again in D'Antoni's system whether he had Nash leading the way or not. Amar'e is pretty underrated to me as far as what he can bring to the table. He's always been one of my favorites, and when healthy and motivated the guy can definitely be a game changer. I was actually initially pissed off that we didn't take him back in the 2002 draft, so it's all kind of come full circle for me when they picked him up in July.

That being said, I'm hoping and praying we can get Carmelo either from a trade or just outright signing him this off-season, provided there isn't a lockout next year. Love Amar'e, but I'd rather have Melo leading the way.

I caught the one about Mike Tyson and Tupac (forgot what it was called), as well as "Jordan Rides The Bus" and the aforementioned "Four Days in October" and "Winning Time". Those last two sting a bit, but that's just the New Yorker coming out of me. The four I've seen have all been very interesting stuff, and I may just look into getting the first season.

Also, if anyone on here has Comcast, they have quite a few of these under the ESPN section of On Demand if you want to check them out and get a free taste of what the documentaries are like.

Thanks man, appreciate you taking the time out to help me. More than likely I will end up getting the 250 GB hard drive I've seen for it when I get some more money.

As for the wi-fi, I think I'm in an area that doesn't really have strong available wireless signals. Would I be able to detect the internet I already use in my house via the wi-fi or would I need a wireless router for that? If not, I'll probably just use the ethernet cable I have to connect.

So, thanks to Amazon's Black Friday sale, I finally talked myself into buying the 4GB XBOX 360 with a $60 gift card. Got Smackdown vs. RAW 2011 and will probably get NBA 2K11 when it goes on sale for Cyber Monday.

I have a few questions, as I've never used an XBOX in my life. First, is the 4GB version decent enough to download patches for games or DLC? I don't want to go crazy with downloading as I'll probably just use the system to mainly just play the games, but I want to make sure that it's enough space for stuff I might want to get for those two games.

Second, if I understand correctly, you get a free Live Gold membership for a month when you purchase the system, right? Is it really worth it to buy a membership after that? More than likely, I won't be playing online a lot, but I suppose I would like to play against people sometime. What's the pricing and length for the membership?

Third, and it ties in with the online part. Do I need a router or anything for my internet, or do I just simply connect to it from the system?

With the same squad that got exposed by Boston and Orlando during their last two trips to the playoffs? They had no room to make any improvements. I'm not saying that it was just the rest of that team that didn't get it done because that's bullshit, but I think Lebron's best shot at winning and still being "the guy" at the same time to me would have been going to Chicago.

That said, I still see the Heat being able to turn things around this season if they can get it together and get healthy by the time the playoff push begins. They ain't getting past a healthy Boston team, though.

If LeBron stays in Cleveland they could have continued to add pieces because they would have had cap flexibility. Even if there isn't a lockout next year, "The Not So Big 3" are going to eat up huge chunks of cap space for the next 6 years and guys like Miller and Haslem are on the books too. A guy who is willing and able to do the dirty work isn't going to go play for peanuts in Miami when he can still contend in a few other places and make more money.

Did anyone that would have made a significant difference even want to come to Cleveland to play with him, though? I didn't really follow a lot of the hoopla during the free agency period besides "The Decision", but it seems that the problem wasn't so much that he wanted to leave, but that there wasn't really anyone on the market that wanted to come to the Cavaliers that could have pushed them over the hump. Not so sure if that was the case, but if it was, then I still stand by Chicago being the better fit if he was going to leave.

I definitely agree with you about Miami fucking up with spending all their money on those three guys and two other pieces. That's beyond stupid, no matter who they are. They could have just resigned Wade and got Lebron and built a much better team around them then overpaying Chris Bosh. I guess Bosh was part of the package that delivered him to Miami though, so I suppose I can see why they did it.

So, has anyone actually purchased the album? I got it yesterday on my way home from work and have been listening to it in my car ever since. I have to say that it has grown on me even more. Maybe it's because I'm listening to it on much better speakers, but the production is just amazing. 'Ye really outdid himself on this one.

I've come to really like "All Of The Lights" (minus the Fergie "verse", if you want to call it that), and I'm starting to dig "Hell Of A Life" as well. Everything else ranges from good to great, and there's really nothing to complain about except some of the unnecessary features. Rick Ross, RZA, Raekwon and Fergie fall into that category for me.

As far as his discography goes, it's 1. Graduation, 2. Late Registration, 3. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 4. College Dropout and 5. 808's & Heartbreak, in my humble opinion.

As for Nicki Minaj, I've listened to her album and it's much better than I expected. A few tracks just don't do it for me, but it's actually a very decent rookie effort. She's a good rapper, but she needs to drop a lot of the Drake and Lil Wayne punchlines that she has seem to inherit from them and just focus on her true talent. I also really don't get the Lil Kim comparisons because they rap nothing alike to me. Perhaps that is the bias coming out of me, because I never really got the big deal about Kim in the first place.