Gilbert Arenas would fit in Portland

I'm referencing only the city of course, not the Blazers. That would be terrible. Anyways, you have to appreciate how well the man would fit with this city:

• Gilbert Arenas is weird. And proud of it. So is Portland. (By the way, that is far from the strangest thing I've seen here. I'm not even sure what earns that distinction anymore. Once I saw fifty or so people walking around downtown dressed as Pirates. I asked the bartender what the reason was. He shrugged and said "Its Saturday." Christ.)
  
• Adidas North American Headquarters is based in Portland. They pay Gilbert lots of money. They wouldn't even have to mail him his checks anymore! Think of the postage savings!
  
• Arenas gets Obama tattoos. Portland sells Obama tote bags.
  

Again, I'm not advocating for him to join the Trailblazers. Again, what a horrible idea. Think about how jealous Channing Frye would get. But maybe Gilbert could live here in the off-season and enjoy our beautiful summers. And hang out with me. Yeah.

A little Hibachi to hold you over

Hi, yes, its been slow around here. DeceptivleyQuick season preview(s) coming soon, promise. In the mean time, enjoy the best thing ever:


Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

I want NBA Live 08

All things quiet for a minute on the Blazer front. The Garnett Trade was pretty exciting. Other than that, NBA Live 08 has been on my brain. Many people aren't so high on the franchise, but its always been good enough for me (although I admit almost sticking my head in the oven every year when I'm reminded how much Franchise Mode or Dynasty Mode or whatever they call That Mode is limited).

Here's why I'm excited:

The "as is" Blazers won't suck this year, so that should be fun. It will still be awesome to take terrible players and develop them so they can do this, makes me miss Luke Schenscher. I might actually have to stray from my long tradition of Baron Davis-centric team selection, although that will probably be better than ever also (thanks Mavs!), so maybe not.

Gilbert Arenas on the cover is the first time I've been excited about who's on the cover of a video game, my favorite result of The Year of the Takeover so far. It is odd to me though that he's in the gold alternate uni. Gross. Odd. Why?

I bought a Wii, so I guess the controls could be cool. Or they could suck. Seriously, if I want to play basketball I'll go outside. I buy NBA Live to play a video game. Apparently theres some confusion on this issue. This could be a huge mistake. There's a lot of comedy (and perhaps horror) listening to who I assume is some guy who worked on the game and has never before seen actual basketball (or the sun) describe it:

So the countdown is on to October 2. Another grown man too excited about the release of a video game. Please believe there will be a multi-post review up on release day.

Arenas wants you to understand...

Another great blog from Gilbert....


http://www.nba.com/blog/gilbert_arenas.html


I've been a big fan of his, but I'm not claiming it was always like that. It was not until his second season in the League that I noticed him and decided to pay attention. It wasn't for any of the goofy stuff you hear about, at that point all I knew was what I saw on the court. His game was enough for me. Analysts started talking about him when they could, and the chatter has been on the incline ever since, although it seems to have plateaued in the last couple months.

Then with his increased shine, I learned more stories. A lot of people didn't know how to take it. All I saw was a man that wasn't afraid to have fun with the growing spotlight that his game put him under, he's himself. Its pretty sad, but in a world of vanilla press conferences and players viewing themselves as a brand, guys like Gilbert are incredibly refreshing and probably doing the league a world of good.

There's a lot of things I want to say about Mr. Arenas, but I'm way too tired right now to really get into it. Hopefully this blog will remind me to circle back to that one day.