NBA All Star 2007

With the NBA All Star weekend starting on Friday, I thought maybe it’s time I wrote something about it. Now every year we get together to watch All Star Saturday which showcases the Dunk Contest. Now in recent years the dunks have not been too great although I enjoyed Josh Smith’s dunks and last year Andre Iguodala’s dunk off the back of the backboard. Although many people tune in for the dunk contest, I also like watching the 3-point shootout and even the Skills Competition between the leagues premier guards. Now the one thing I find stupid is the Shooting competition where you have one current NBA player, one retired NBA player and a WNBA player. Now I don’t mind watching the current NBA players and the old timers but a WNBA player? Don’t they have their own All Star Game? And showing them off at the NBA All Star Game isn’t going to make anyone watch that league since majority of those girls couldn’t dunk if their lives depended on it. Now having a competition between people like Steve Kerr and Brent Barry I wouldn’t mind watching since those two can shoot the lights out when no one is guarding them but including the WNBA players is just ridiculous. I propose that Zeke (Isiah Thomas) be the new Commissioner of the WNBA so he can run that league into the ground and we can all just erase any thoughts we ever had of the WNBA out of our minds. I say the over/under for the amount of years Zeke takes to run that league into the ground has to be 1.5years. If he does ever become the commissioner of that league I’m pretty sure Vegas would release odds to how long he would take to run that league into the ground. And don’t act like you don’t want to see that.

Anyways, let’s move onto the important stuff since I wasted way too much time talking about the WNBA when it can be summed up in one word, I’m sure many of you know what that one word is.

Friday Night:

McDonald’s All Star Celebrity Game

Now this game usually sucks ass since half of the people in it can’t shoot or jump or drive. But it’s always entertaining to see man dem try and fail. Nevertheless I predict that the West Team will win since they got Jamie Foxx, Reggie Bush and Bow Wow. The East time has Nelly, Taye Diggs and some other people that I don’t recognize without a picture. Now if you really want, you can check out the complete rosters here.

T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam

Now the Rookie Challenge I get but I still don’t know what the Youth Jam is. Guess I’ll just have to tune in to find out. Now this game between the sophomores and the Rookies isn’t always boring and actually ends up being an entertaining game. Now this year the Home Team, Toronto Raptors, got two representing the Red & White, Andrea Bargnani & Jorge Garbajosa. Bargnani will be the MVP of this game. If you want to check out the rest of the rosters, you can do so here.

Saturday:

On Saturday afternoon the teams usually run some sort of practices and they are televised on Raptors TV. Now the only reason I mention this is because last year the teams had contests such as makin the most shots from half court and stuff like that. And if you don’t have Raptors TV, no worries, there’s a free preview going on until Sunday.

Now Saturday Night starts off with the NBADL having their All Star game as well and it will be on NBA TV. Now this game will pretty much be garbage but I seen on the rosters that James White, product of University of Cincinnati, is going to be in it. This guy should have been in the Dunk Competition has he can jump out of the building. I also recognized a couple of other names with Raptor relations. First off there’s Stephen Graham (Brother of Joey Graham) and Loren Woods. All the Raptor fans know how Loren Woods kept the end of the bench very warm. Other than that it’s mostly a bunch of nobody’s but here are the rosters for the game. I’m taking a guess and saying the East wins it.

The Haier Shooting Stars are usually the first thing on NBA All Star Saturdays and they haven’t released the rosters of all the teams but the Spurs will be coming back to defend their title from last year and their team consists of Tony Parker, Steve Kerr and Kendra Wecker. Like seriously, who in the blue hell is Kendra Wecker? Anyone heard of her? My point exactly, no need for WNBA up in here. I don’t really care who wins this.

Now onto the good stuff:

Chuckster vs. Dick Bavetta. Dick Bavetta was the referee at the Lakers-Raptors game we hit up and the old man can move but there is no way Charles is losing this race. I got Charles to win by the length of two of his stomachs.

The Playstation Skills Challenge should be entertaining since you have Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James & Chris Paul. Now the original roster had Steve Nash but he got injured. D-Wade came within 0.3 seconds of breaking the all time record last year. This year I say my main man Kobe wins it, whereas the majority of people will say D-Wade since the whole Kobe-Wade rivalry thing. LeBron just seems too disinterested in doing anything this year. I think if he had to sign a contract this year he’d be too lazy to do even that.

The Foot Locker Three Point Shootout is always fun since some players can light it up and while players just end up missing everything since they are in game shooters like Antoine Walker. We all remember that horrible shooting display he put on. This year we got the defending champion Dirk Nowitzki, Damon “I’m the best shooter in the world” Jones, Jason Kapono, Mike Miller, Jason Terry and Agent 0 aka Gilbert Arenas. Now Gilbert might end up saying he’s going to win it all and then stink up the joint. Last year at the all star game he said he will be the All Star game MVP and didn’t come thru and just this week he said he was going to drop 50 on Portland and doesn’t even hit double digits. I say Damon Jones will win this with ease. He wanted to be in this competition very badly and I don’t think he will disappoint.

Now the Main Event of the evening. The Sprite Rising Stars Slam Dunk competition. You have the defending thief of the year Nate Robinson, The NBADL alumnus Gerald Green, Chicago’s Tyrus Thomas and the athletic freak Dwight Howard. Now I’ll be pissed if Nate Robinson or Gerald Green win this event, mainly because these two guys have HUGEEE egos and their egos will only get bigger if one of them wins. Tyrus Thomas doesn’t deserve to win especially after the comments he made about why he’s in the dunk contest in the first place so it’s only fitting that Dwight Howard takes the title. Now some might say that a 7 footer can’t win it but if you have seen D-How’s high school dunks on YouTube, you’d know this man is capable of anything. Especially after that ridiculous game winning alley-oop against the Spurs. Now the word is that Gerald Green has a dunk that will be top 10 ALL TIME in NBA dunk contest history. Couple of his teammates have been saying that this dunk will be remembered for all time and will be up there with the Jordan’s and the Carter’s.

Tony Allen said that if Green nailed the “crazy” dunk he has planned, it will go down as “one of the top 10 in history.” Green did divulge that Paul Pierce would be present at the contest and incorporated into one of his dunks

Now maybe it’s just hype or maybe he does have one dunk that will leave you speechless but nevertheless, I have Dwight Howard coming away with the crown. He also said that he’d like to be back in the dunk contest in the upcoming years. Finally someone who actually wants to be in the dunk contest for more than one year.

Sunday:

2007 NBA All Star Game.

Now I personally don’t think this game will be very exciting for the simple fact that it’s in Vegas and the night before majority of the players will be out partying. Michael Jordan’s 44^th birthday party is on Saturday and so is Paris Hilton’s 26^th birthday party. According to Sal from the Best Damn Sports Show, there are tons of parties happening that Saturday and majority of the NBA All Stars are going to be hittin them up. Now with that said, the East is going to win it and Chris Bosh is going to be MVP. First time All Star and he will dominate to bring the MVP trophy north of the border. You can check out the complete rosters here.

And for all the girls that are mad over my WNBA comments, I bring you the same video that someone sent to me to put in the other post.

Down… but not out

Alright, here it is. I was messing around with my computer thinking I was an All Star and what not when in reality I didn’t know what I was doing. And as a result of that, i burnt out something in my computer and now no monitor will work with it. Thus, my computer is out of commission and so am I. It could be for a day or two or it could be much longer but the fact is I don’t have home base to work with and because of that I can’t post some of the stuff that I wanted to. Anyways, bare with me as I may be down for the moment but I ain’t out. And no worries, when I do come back, I’ll be back with a bang!

In other words, The Pind is being blackmailed by the Punjab Police (you know who you are) for some serious flow and until I pay up, I ain’t gettin my Pind back.

SikhiToTheMax – Respek

Someone actually used my blogs email address and requested that I post the following. I’m assuming the email account was a made up one since the name on the email was Ronald McDonald. Guess someone wants to be heard but not shitted on but nevertheless, here it is.

If you attend weekly keertan programs or a Rehansabai once in a while, you know that SikhiToTheMax has had a huge effect on the sangat. A couple of years ago, keertan programs used to be quieter then an Atlanta Hawks home game, hosted by the Atlanta Public Library. Then one day something magical happened. A screen appeared. It had writing on it. It gave out an ambient blue light. Everyone was drawn to it, and what it had to say. SikhiToTheMax told us what we were singing about. It gave everyone a chance to participate in the keertan, not just the people on the white chaddar. The youth was the luckiest demographic. The translations were beautiful; they were telling us stories of our Guru’s and lessons for our lives.

Although Gurmukhi is not really too complicated once you get down to reading enough of it, the second generation youth of North America grew up with the emphasis put on learning English. No one wanted to be in ESL. Usually and unfortunately, this came at the cost of an understanding for our own language. I only know a small group of people that were lucky enough to integrate Gurmukhi and English in their youth. The majority of us were left with an understanding of basic Punjabi, and recognized a few words in Gurbani. Then SikhiToTheMax came along, and I honestly think it was a better tutor then anyone else around. Slowly but surely we began to remember the meanings of words and phrases. It made singing the Guru’s praises ten times more uplifting.

Of course, everything in the world has its advantages and disadvantages. So let’s break it down.

What’s Really Good

1. Say what? For real??

Who knew that all these words we were singing every week had such amazing messages behind them. All along, Guru Sahib was giving us a chance to learn the history, the values and virtues of being a Gur Ka Sikh. For most, the first time with SikhiToTheMax was a revelation. It made you feel complete, sort of like when the Leafs and Raptors win on the same night and it feels like all is well in the world.

2. Time flew like it was nothing at all … nothing at all … nothing at all (Damn you Flanders!)

Rehansabai’s are not easy to sit through folks. You’ve got to work your way into them. It’s like trying to listen to Glen Healy comment on TSN broadcasts, or Chuck Swirsky yelling MP3 download for the fifth time in two minutes – takes some getting used to. And you need some bionic knees. SikhiToTheMax made it much easier. The majority of the time, you stare at the screen singing along and reading the meanings. Before you know it, your outside in the -20 degree weather trying to break the ice on your front windshield so you can get home to the best night’s sleep of your life … after doing amrit vela of course.

3. I aint cryin’ fool, I got something in my eye!

Face it, we’ve all had that weird feeling at least once during a Rehansabai where you read a meaning that’s so amazing or enlightening, you just feel all tingly and a brother (or sister) gets all emotional. If you haven’t already, read the meanings to this shabad.

kwgw krMg FMFoilAw sglw KwieAw mwsu ]

kaagaa kara(n)g dta(n)dtoliaa sagalaa khaaeiaa maas ||

The crows have searched my skeleton, and eaten all my flesh.

ey duie nYnw miq Cuhau ipr dyKn kI Aws ]91]

eae dhue nainaa math shhuho pir dhaekhan kee aas ||91||

But please do not touch these eyes; I hope to see my Lord. ||91||

 

You have a blessed soul asking for the crows slowing eating the flesh away from his body not to take his eyes, because they have such a longing to see their Guru. Tingly I tell you.

Of course, there is a downside to every great thing. Here are a few disadvantages

1. All was quiet, not a creature was stirring…

There is a reason none of us know how to long divide anymore: the calculator. For this reason, a keertan without a SikhiToTheMax program and screen is like an orchestra without a conductor. We all lose focus and no one seems to remember a single line of gurbani by memory. We became so reliant on the screen, that we just become straight up dumb without it.

2. Okay c’mon, that was funny and you know it.

Most of the people reading this blog are young adults. MOST of us are still immature moorakhs. Hopefully with time it will change, but as of right now, when you read a translation that is funny to you, it’s hard not to smile or laugh. Its wrong, but it’s the truth. We are all victims of our immaturity, and translation involving “sperm” or “Ganika the prostitute” will usually break our concentration.

3. That little scroll bar

Recently, this has not been much of a problem but everyone knows about that scroll bar. When it’s really early in the morning and the bar is so skinny you can barely see it, your endurance seems to go from 88 to 54 (relating to NHL hockey videogame stats). You just know your in for a battle of mind vs. body and can’t wait to hear “Nanak”, signaling the shabad is coming to a close. Again, its wrong but it’s the truth. We all need to try and get it out of our minds, and when that little box is hidden, it makes it much easier.

In conclusion, I know some of the post was tongue in cheek, but mostly I just want to thank the creators of SikhiToTheMax. It is an amazing learning tool, and we don’t appreciate it enough.

One more thing, I’m posting without my name because I don’t want to be associated with Gagandeep Singh in any way but I needed an outlet to write this and Gagan has been known to be a man of the people. I hope he doesn’t turn me down.

Gagan may be a little too dark for his own good, but his hearts in the right place. And for all the bibian going all crazy for the last post, the video illustrates what I think of Sarpanch Gagan. I also think its better that we concentrate on the ideas of the blog, not who writes it. This keeps your minds open and judgments closed.

Stupid Drivers

Now we all know there are some dumbass drivers out there. The ones that are doing 50 where the speed limit is 80 or the ones that are doing 100 where its a school zone, but the stupidest drivers are the ones that can’t even back up their car. Now the only reason I bring this up is because some dumbass hit my car while it was parked on the road. Now I don’t know for sure that someone was backing up when they hit it but the way it was hit, I’m pretty damn sure. The way I see it is if you can’t back up your car without hitting something, you don’t deserve to drive. One of the first things you learn when you first get you license is that always look behind to make sure nothing is there when backing up. Usually you just look behind you by turning your head back OR you can look through you rearview and people also check their side mirrors to make sure. So if you can’t back up without hitting something, just rip up your license and throw it away because the world doesn’t need idiot drivers like you. You can also include girls in that bracket of people who don’t deserve to drive. I’m pretty sure it was a female who was backing up that hit my car and as soon as I find out, I’ll let y’all know. Now statistics might show that males are in more accidents than females but it’s usually the women’s fault that a guys in an accident in the first place. Either they bitching at you in the car or on the phone or it’s because you didn’t want to hit their car that you ended up being in an accident. All you girls can say I’m being stereotypical and what not but let’s face it, majority of you are bad drivers. You’re scared to drive at night, you’re scared to go over the speed limit, you’re scared to drive on the highways and if you’re talking on a cell phone while driving, well then you’re just an accident waiting to happen. Maybe I’m just pissed off about my car being hit, maybe not but nevertheless the world needs less stupid drivers.

And on another note, congrats to the Colts for being Superbowl XLI champions and ya boy Payton Manning for the MVP

Superbowl XLI

We are just hours away from one of the most anticipated Superbowl games in a little while. The mighty Colts Offense takes on the mighty Bears Defense, which brings us back to the age old questions, will offense succeed or defense?

My pick: Bears +7 (If you don’t undertand the +7, google it)

The reason I’m picking the Bears to cover is because well, you can’t give 7 points in a Superbowl game especially where one team has one of the defenses in the league. Even though the Colts will win it, there is no way they win this game by more than 7 points.

Overall it should be an interesting game since Lovie Smith learned from Tony Dungy back in the Tampa Bay days and both of the teams run a very simple Cover 2 Defense. The Bears have the advantage on the Defensive side because of their front four, their quick linebackers and their good cornerbacks. The Colts have the offensive advantage due to the name everyone knows, Payton Manning and their receiving core of Harrison and Wayne. I believe the key in this game will be the play of Bears QB Rex Grossman and his ability to complete the shorter passes instead of looking for the long bomb. The Cover 2 Defense pretty much takes away most of the deep bombs and thus takes away the main thing Grossman likes to do. The Colts do have a decent defense led by DE Dwight Freeney and DB Nick Harper. I think the Colts will stack 8 in the box to stop the run and dare Grossman to beat them through the air and thus he’s the key just like tons of “experts” have already pointed out. The one thing that the Bears also have is the underdog card, the no one believed in us card. The same card the Heat used last year in the NBA Finals, the same card Agent 0 has been using in the NBA since he entered. Everyone has pretty much written the Bears off coming into this Superbowl and making them 7 point underdogs. That will only motivate them even more. That said, I still say Grossman won’t be able to handle the pressure and chokes and Payton Manning plays good enough to win. I’m predicting a 3 point victory for the Colts with Adam Vinatieri connecting on several field goals to further prove that he’s the greatest clutch kicker in the history of the Superbowl. Anyways, have fun watching the Superbowl on your big screen HDTV that you rented from Future Shop/Best Buy for the weekend. Enjoy it while you have it.

Deal or No Deal?

I actually wanted to write something serious, something different for once but then I realized that just ain’t my style. So once again I bring you another comedic clip, this one is of Political Comedy. Now many of you may or may not have seen the political cartoons in the newspapers (If you don’t read the news or the newspaper, start reading son, shit is important) and they are sometimes quite funny and other times just plain stupid. This clip itself is one of the funnier ones I’ve seen in some time when dealing with politics on an international level.

Mac OS X or Vista

I was planning on writing something about this topic but then I realized why write when someone has already made a video of it. Like come on, would you rather read the book or watch the movie?

Sikh elected to City Council in California

Harpreet Singh Sandhu from Richmond, California was elected to the City Council. This is the first time in the city that an Asian has been on the council let alone a Sikh.

Richmond, California (KP) – An Amritdhari Singh has been appointed as council member of a large Northern California city last week. Bhai Harpreet Singh Sandu, a well known Sikh activist who has served as president of El Sobrante Gurdwara Sahib’s management committee for many years, was sworn in as a council member in the presence of Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, members of the California Sikh community and city officials gathered at City Hall in Richmond, California.

During the swearing-in ceremony Harpreet Singh said, “I will work not only for the development of the city but also for the country”. He ended his speech with the Sikh daily prayer “Nanak Naam Chardikala Tere Bhane Sarbat Da Bhalla”, explaining its meaning: “For the Good of All”

Harpreet Singh is the first Asian to ever serve on the council; local Sikh community members praised Singh as an outstanding member of their local community.

According to a Northern California newspaper, Contra Costa Times, Harpreet Singh is best known in the community as a strong advocate for creating safer working conditions for West County taxi drivers. The time stated that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, taxi drivers in West County, most of them being Sikhs, increasingly became victims of attacks. One driver was killed in 2003, and one was shot in the face in what appeared to be hate crimes, Singh said.

“Harpreet has served the Sikh community in very important ways,” said Jaideep Singh, co-founder and managing director of the Sikh American Legal and Defense Fund based in Washington, D.C. while talking to Contra Costa Times. “He has been a liaison between Sikh immigrants and government agencies, and he has been a particularly strong advocate for Sikh taxi drivers who have been the frequent victims of robbery and homicide.”

Source – Panthic Weekly

Now the best thing out of all this was when he was sworn in, gotta give him props for bringing along a Nihang Singh and being sworn in on Gurbani instead of the bible.

It’s On… like Donkey Kong

The NBA All Star Weekend is coming up on February 16th, 17th and 18th. Along with the usual Rookie Challenge Game, Slam Dunk Competition, 3-Point Competition, Skills Challenge and the Haier Shooting Stars, there is one more event being added on just for this year.

This year only, Hall of Famer Charles Barkley will be in an event. He’ll be racing the 67 year old Referee Dick Bavetta. That’s right, Chuck will be going head to head against a 67 year old man in a race that will be the length of the NBA court.

Now this all came to be as a couple of weeks Charles was doing colour commentary for a game and started to make fun of Dick Bavetta because he’s so old. Marv Albert started to say that Dick could beat Charles in a race and then Charles being himself, went off and just started to straight shit on Bavetta. And from all that, TNT is making this race happen. This could very well be the best All Star moment in years. I’m putting my money on Charles to win this, like he said himself, ain’t no way in hell is he losing to a 67 year old man.

And Kevin Garnett stating who he’s going with in the most anticipated race in NBA history.

I got Charles to win this, who you got?

A New Day in Oshawa

Recently, Stephen Colbert made fun of the Oshawa Generals of the OHL because he says they mocked him and because they are the rivals of his team, the Saginaw Spirit. This prompted the Oshawa mayor, John Gray, to issue a challenge to Stephen Colbert. Check it out.

Last night, the Saginaw Spirit beat the Oshawa Generals 5-4 and thus, Stephen Colbert won the bet. March 20th in Oshawa will forever be known as Stephen Colbert Day.

And now a clip of Colbert punking Brampton. Enjoy it, because I definitely did.