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Sure, but it's in large part because the refs are doing a bad job when adjudicating what should be pretty easy stuff to process. And the players have been loudly talking about it for a while. But hey, Silver says everything is fine as he dives deeper into the gambling and TV money so move along and shut up. https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/3493155/adam-silver-needs-to-grow-up-and-fix-his-officiating-problem

Er..what? This is one of the most uneducated takes I’ve seen from you in, well, this week. In terms of the strike zone, there are maybe a dozen - twenty tops - borderline calls a game. Whereas a NBA game averages around 200 possessions and at least two thirds of them always lead to complaining one way or another from the players, coaches, and/or bench. If NBA officials adopted the standards for complaining that MLB umpires use, every player would be tossed by the end of the first half. And every coach before the first TV timeout. As for the NFL, like I said, pass interference or illegal contact is a subjective thing on nearly every pass. But still, passes only account for 60 percent of plays, tops. The rest of it is pretty straightforward and much less subjective than officiating a basketball game. There’s also holding in the NFL, which happens on most plays and is only called when it’s particularly egregious. But in that way it’s like traveling/carrying in the NBA.

How can the blob media ever write sentences like, "People wonder what sort of administration he will bring to a second term in the White House." We know exactly what will happen for he and his all-the-way-uppers-and-bumpers-into-his-dentures have been telling us for years. Believe what They tell you. https://www.rawstory.com/trump-threat-biden/

Not true. Basketball has multiple uncalled violations on every play. See how screens work. (That screen call on I think NY in the opening round being a play that’s almost never callled but happens on every play) Also travelling which multiple instances of it happen every play. Baseball there’s multiple issues happen behind the plate with reffing but that’s more due to ref incompetence (cough Angel) than anything else. We can see from umpire tracking that the good ones are actually quite accurate, it’s mainly bad refs bringing the sport down. Also we’ve kind of seen it with basketball this post season how judgement calls on 50/50 plays swing the game. For example if the ref judges more defense allowed to have teams like the Wolves do better or offense to let Denver do their thing. Ref incompetence/errors in other sports tend to help/hurt both teams in more equal manners.

Nah. Umps in baseball get a ton of calls wrong behind the plate all the time. And the NFL is impossible to call because there's several fouls on every play. Basketball is pretty straight forward outside of block/charge situations. If player A on team Y does something that is a foul, then when player B on team Z does the same thing immediately after it should be a foul too. But not in the NBA.

Yeah I have no idea why someone would think basketball was the easiest to ref. The fact that it’s the sport with the most hand movement into others players bodies/zones make it very subjective to call. Add in things like screens, travelling, etc and it’s very tough. Baseball is much simpler. Hockey is simpler just because stick stuff is easier to judge than hand stuff. Football can be complex but like DMC the complexity lies in a few interactions. (Receiver/CB, OL/DL) The rest is just simple formation rules or other simple stuff like don’t hit the kicker or qb.

Baseball is obviously easier. By far really when you consider the strike zone can now be determined better by cameras. The NFL is also pretty easy outside of pass interference and the ever changing rules on what constitutes a catch. Basketball is actually pretty clearly the toughest sport to officiate between the three.

Of the major team sports basketball is probably the easiest to ref. That it's so bad should be an indictment on the league especially when so many players are pointing out how bad it's been recently. But I guess they're whining too.

If you’re gonna keep whining about officiating and still are “retired” you should try out. See how it goes!

NBA officiation will always confuse me. Brunson draws a debatable charging foul because the Pacers' player kinda extended his arm, then the following possession Brunson does the same thing three times in a few seconds and nothing.

Yeah I just used The Ringer’s rankings. It’s been updated recently and takes into account most aspects. It’s true there’s very few international players in the back half of the Top 100 beyond what I mentioned. Which, again, emphasizes that most of the best players in the world still come from the states. I expect the current status quo of the top five all being international won’t last too long and is probably an anomaly.

Credit to OG for giving it the old college try.

For the edification of Sanderson’s fans. My son has started reading Mistborn he loves it.

Well fifteen at halftime is not bad. That’s what Dallas was at yesterday. Provided they come out in the second half focused on defence NY should be able to make this a close game in the fourth. I think they need to be within ten entering the fourth though.

I'm glad the game is growing internationally, but 15 of the top 50 seems a bit high. I just looked at another list, this one a top 100, and maybe 20 or so foreign players were on it. Which is still good, but not the argument to bolster Team World (was kind of surprised Mobley was at 59, but to each their own). PB at 33 seems about right given his age. But man, there are a stunning amount of names between 51-100 that are excellent players (and some weird ones in the top 50 I just can't explain). Go to hell with Kawhi at 6th.

Paul was being trained as a Mentat. When he took the water of life… he got more data for prediction than any other Mentat ever. He doesn’t “see” the future… he predicts it… the images he sees are predictions. He may have been able to stop the Jihad but to do so would have required he, Chani, the Fremen, and his sister die. He wasn’t willing to make that choice… as such… he accepted the Jihad as the cost of victory… a fundamentally selfish choice.

Isn't this a pretty weird reason, though? Like, a human doctor could have made the same mistake and then what, they would have had a jihad against all doctors? I am about to listen to the first "Dune" book, since I clearly don't remember it as well as I thought, but how does this make sense? From everything seen in the films and what I remember from the book, Paul's prescience and leadership, Atreides family atomics and Jessica's training were absolutely crucial for the Fremen victory and consequently their ability to leave the planet en masse. I know that it is canon, I just can't wrap my mind around it. Frankly, I also struggle to understand how they could have sterilized 40(?) planets and killed billions of people (per Messiah). Did they use atomics? Because yea, there are millions of Fremen and they are the greatest fighters evar, but completely devastating whole planets without WMDs sounds impossible. I have recently listened to "Messiah" and "Children" and a half of "God Emperor" and I dunno, the claims that Paul couldn't do anything about the jihad seem a bit unconvincing given that he was actively contributing to it with his calculations and strategic leadership. Reminds me of the Tolstoy quote that I always disiked: "In historic events, the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and like labels they have but the smallest connection with the event itself. Every act of theirs, which appears to them an act of their own will, is in an historical sense involuntary and is related to the whole course of history and predestined from eternity." Naturally, if it is all predestined and involuntary, there is no real personal responsibility or any avenue for enacting specific changes to society. And isn't it convenient how Dune humanity allegedly needed tyrannical but selfless charismatic leaders to teach it not to trust other charismatic leaders and all their atrocities are excused thereby? While of course nobody can check how necessarily it all was or wasn't? Ahem. Anyway, I liked Dune part 2, though I initially struggled with how Villneuve villified Jessica, reducing Paul's responsibility for his decisions, and created a conflict with Chani. After reading some other reactions, I can accept that it was a decent way to externalise his dillemma without resorting to the inner monolog, rather than the "it's always the mother's fault!" trope, that it appeared to me as initially. Interesting stuff about Giedi prime, I thought that it was that way because the arena part was a sort of official video documentary, or perhaps how Feyd experienced it. Were Jessica's tatoos explained, BTW? There is a link somewhere in this thread, but it requires creating a NYT account to read, so maybe somebody could kindly summarise? TIA.

I wish!

Enjoyed the last season of Young Sheldon. Thought the way they dealt with the “funeral” episode was good. As was the insertion of the Rubberband Man. Nothing special and mostly understated, which was appropriate.

Hey, what happens in genchat stays in genchat.

As long as you don’t mention protesters you’re fine.

Considering this is entirely hypothetical anyway it’s just interesting to see how many international players are among the best. In addition to the aforementioned, there’s Porzingis, Siakam, and Sengun. Pretty cool that fifteen of the top 50-ish players are international. The US still obviously dominates, but this is a great reflection of Gen Z. I vividly recall the efforts twenty years ago to make it a world game, and it seems to have borne fruit.

Hmm you probably shouldn’t let your opponents shoot 80% if you want to win the game.

And it still grossly simplified and short changed characters…