Seventy Grifters

 So... today's, um, basketball "game."

If you've been conned by a grifter once, that's on the grifter.

If it happens twice, that's maybe on you.

Three times?

You have to start to wonder if you *like* to be taken advantage of.

(By the way, this counts even if Boston goes on to win the championship. You tell me if they do; I'm done with the NBA for awhile. If my playoffs are watching Al Freaking Horford, Jimmy Butler after he got away, Jokic breaking through after he finally didn't win an MVP, and LeBron and the Laker fans for the 9 millionth time... I get it. Lakers-Celtics forever and it's Bill Simmons' world and we're just the idiots stepping on rakes.)

Blow this team up. Fire the coach. Toss the GM. Sell the team to owners that didn't hire all of these people. Play the young guys and lose 60+ games, it's better than this. Hell, move the team to Camden or Seattle for all I care right now.

I have too little time on this planet left to be grifted, over and over, by people who seem to care less about the games than I do. A lot less.

Don't go to their games anymore. Don't watch them on television. Don't give them an arena (dear God in heaven, don't do that). They are bad people, bad faith actors, and they've more or less made me stop liking the NBA. I feel stupid for watching today, and the only saving grace is I stopped watching sooner than usual.

Burn it down, or don't. Find another mark, you asshats. I'm out.

Overdue thoughts on the Sixers

Take it down, gentlemen

I haven't posted about sports for a while because money and time and the local sports teams have been doing well without me, but I had a night off and I'm catching up on some things. Here's some thoughts on the Sixers run so far.

> I don't know how to watch a Sixers playoff run when Doc Rivers is the best coach. Brooklyn was clearly overmatched, but Boston has 2 of the 3 best players on the floor, home court advantage and a far more athletic bench. They've turned all of that into a do-or-die road game tonight, mostly because their rookie coach couldn't call a timeout and draw up a play in the last seconds of overtime on Game 4. 

> I try not to get into Mo Men Tum and mental gyrations around What It All Means, but if you want to tell the narrative that Boston's guys are Cancun bound, I can't say you are wrong. They are also a .500 team at home in the playoffs, which is an amazing thing to say about a team that less than a week ago was the odds-on favorite to win the Championship.

> Game Five was pure porn for Sixer fans. Tyrese Maxey, the most adorable young player for this team in decades, broke out of a near series-long funk. Tobias Harris had the quinessential Tobias Harris game, where he sabotaged what should have been a big statistical breakout with foul trouble. Joel Embiid had a signature chasedown block, Danuel House came off the bench to provide transition buckets and athletic defense, and James Harden gave them what they needed when they needed it. Even the maddeningly slow half court offense and walk it up sets worked out. PJ Tucker is on the team to dispense Effective Angry Old Man Energy and hustle plays. They have the best won-loss record of any team in the playoffs. If they just get this one. they'll have home court for the rest of the year.

Now, they just have to do it again, at home, in front of a fan base that has seen them come up small in this moment so many times that we're all struggling to believe that this time is the time. I almost didn't want to post, for fear that my silence is the jinx. I haven't wanted to watch Heat-Knicks because it feels like Looking Ahead when they've still achieved, well, nothing. 

But they've been the much better team in 7 out of the last 8 quarters, and that's a lot of data. Every game he's played, Embiid has been better. Everyone just played a great game. They're at home. Al Horford suddenly turned into his actual age in the last game. There's only so many times Marcus Smart can grift a ref. Their coach went to Payton Pritchard for an offensive spark in Game 5, as if that was going to work. Their stars keep taking quarters off. They don't seem into it.

Go Sixers.

So, this happened: my first royal flush in a live poker game

That's my K-Q suited pairing up so nicely with the board.

It also made me $420, because we've got a side pot set up to reward such things, and it hadn't paid off for over 16 months.

(Details of hand: I raised pre-flop, a small stack went all in, I called for not much more, and everyone at the table didn't see it was a Royal for a few seconds, because once the 4 hit, I had the hand won.)

It's a weird feeling to hit a hand like this in the middle of a tournament, and then just have the, you know, next hand happen because of course that's what happens. Life, and poker, is in progress, and while we stopped for a minute or two to take pictures and say Woo Hoo, there's really nothing more to be said. It happened. Next hand. 

Take your big win and your life achievement unlocked and be on your way..