Posted by pallas on 9/26/2019 1:52:00 PM (view original):

Posted by darnoc29099 on 9/26/2019 8:56:00 AM (view original):
All right, this thread is pretty great. I'm also from Chicagoland and when Sportsbulls said CPK was his favorite pizza I cringed a little. It's ok, Sportsbulls, you're still young; I'm confident you'll come to your senses one day ;)

My interest in HD has been all over the map since 3.0 but I'm up to 3 teams for the first time in a couple years now so hopefully that's a good sign. A cool HD story is when I first started playing I posted on the forums looking for a mentor and jdno (retired now but one of the HD greats) reached out to me. We site mailed back and forth a bunch and it turned out the guy lived about 4 miles from me. Fast forward 7 years and we're good real life friends. He even got me back into playing real basketball. Once upon a time I was very good. I'm also of the pale persuasion but could dunk at 5'6" and shoot lights out. I went to University of Illinois for college and after a pickup game one of the team assistants came up to me and convinced me I NEEDED to be at the team's open tryouts (for non-scholarship players). Sadly, two days before I blew out my ankle and that was the last time I took basketball seriously. IF I had walked on that team I would have been teammates with no names like Dee Brown, Deron Williams, and Luther Head and really, who would have wanted that? Le Sigh.

In real life I'm a nurse and work in an extremely busy and complex cath lab. Among a ton of other things, that's where the docs balloon and stent you heart arteries if they have blockages. Best part of the job is getting called in for emergencies when someone is having an active heart attack-I realize that sounds morbid but the adrenaline rush mixed with making sure my patient lives is what makes the job awesome.

I've since given up basketball again and concentrate mostly on bowling and running. I'm almost good enough at bowling to compete nationally with the best in the country but just don't want to live out of a suitcase at 37 years old while having 2 kids. I'm going to attempt to bowl the Masters (same concept as the tennis and golf Masters) next year as a bucket list thing.

For the most part, I also think the HD community is pretty awesome.

I'm from the Chicagoland as well. Just across the border in Northwest Indiana.

I remember that U of I team with Brown, Williams, and Head. I remember the year they lost to that great UNC team in the championship.

My brother-in-law was the city manager in Dyer for a number of years, something like 2008-2012.

Posted by shoe3 on 9/26/2019 5:48:00 PM (view original):

Posted by pallas on 9/26/2019 1:52:00 PM (view original):

Posted by darnoc29099 on 9/26/2019 8:56:00 AM (view original):
All right, this thread is pretty great. I'm also from Chicagoland and when Sportsbulls said CPK was his favorite pizza I cringed a little. It's ok, Sportsbulls, you're still young; I'm confident you'll come to your senses one day ;)

My interest in HD has been all over the map since 3.0 but I'm up to 3 teams for the first time in a couple years now so hopefully that's a good sign. A cool HD story is when I first started playing I posted on the forums looking for a mentor and jdno (retired now but one of the HD greats) reached out to me. We site mailed back and forth a bunch and it turned out the guy lived about 4 miles from me. Fast forward 7 years and we're good real life friends. He even got me back into playing real basketball. Once upon a time I was very good. I'm also of the pale persuasion but could dunk at 5'6" and shoot lights out. I went to University of Illinois for college and after a pickup game one of the team assistants came up to me and convinced me I NEEDED to be at the team's open tryouts (for non-scholarship players). Sadly, two days before I blew out my ankle and that was the last time I took basketball seriously. IF I had walked on that team I would have been teammates with no names like Dee Brown, Deron Williams, and Luther Head and really, who would have wanted that? Le Sigh.

In real life I'm a nurse and work in an extremely busy and complex cath lab. Among a ton of other things, that's where the docs balloon and stent you heart arteries if they have blockages. Best part of the job is getting called in for emergencies when someone is having an active heart attack-I realize that sounds morbid but the adrenaline rush mixed with making sure my patient lives is what makes the job awesome.

I've since given up basketball again and concentrate mostly on bowling and running. I'm almost good enough at bowling to compete nationally with the best in the country but just don't want to live out of a suitcase at 37 years old while having 2 kids. I'm going to attempt to bowl the Masters (same concept as the tennis and golf Masters) next year as a bucket list thing.

For the most part, I also think the HD community is pretty awesome.

I'm from the Chicagoland as well. Just across the border in Northwest Indiana.

I remember that U of I team with Brown, Williams, and Head. I remember the year they lost to that great UNC team in the championship.

My brother-in-law was the city manager in Dyer for a number of years, something like 2008-2012.

Legit where I live right now. hah

For those of you old enough...remember the Illinois Flyin' Illini team from the 80's? Marcus Liberty, Stephen Bardo, Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill and Kenny Battle? I'd venture to say that they were the original Fab 5...although those kids from Michigan changed the game as well. Black socks, attitudes. Those Illini were hyper-athletic...made me love the game even more.
Allan Houston had the sweetest jump shot, but he played with a guy at Tennessee named Lang Wiseman that was a deadly marksman.
Gary Trent...the Shaq of the MAC.
Terry Dehere from Seton Hall.
Keith Bullock from Manhattan.
Dante Calabria from UNC.
I could go on and on.

Posted by topdogggbm on 9/26/2019 1:58:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Benis on 9/26/2019 9:39:00 AM (view original):

Posted by gomiami1972 on 9/26/2019 9:32:00 AM (view original):

Posted by p6453 on 9/26/2019 9:20:00 AM (view original):
pallas...thanks for this thread. I think it's what the Forums needed. I've enjoyed it tremendously.

Yup. Things got somewhat toxic in the forums with the Fox sale/3.0. This thread kinda grounds you a little. We're all just a bunch of guys (forgive me if there are any ladies out there) playing a game we love.

A guy I work with used to play HD with his Wife years ago. Only woman I know of that has ever played HD.

There is a coach out there that I've sitemailed with a few times, to help the other coach, and I'm curious if it is a female coach, based on the name. It's "mskaukman" or something along those lines. I always wanted to ask if that name meant "Ms K....." but I just never got around to asking.

My favorite HD moment BY FAR was recently coming in at #2 on the list of highest season RPI of all time in D2, at Post. Finishing at .7509, it was the 2nd year of back to back titles (Smith is the only world that I've accomplished that.... more on that later). I had a 6 man Sr class, 5 of those were 800+ ovr, and the 6th was a 100 PER guy. The starting PG was a Jr but was also +800 ovr. I beat two D1 ranked teams by 20 points each in my two exhibition games that season. 35-0.

With the squad I had, and the competition I faced, I'm not sure if the #1 record of .7562 will ever be beaten. I personally feel like it was the best D2 team of all time.

The only negative regarding that entire season, was that benis wouldn't update the highest RPI thread without me threatening his life and stalking him for months! Kidding buddy!

Anyways, next goal is winning a title in every 1x world (the only worlds that I play in). I've got 5 worlds down, two to go. Iba and Allen.... I'm coming for you D2'ers!

Imagine if all of us posting in this thread took over an Iba DII conference for a stretch. That would be lights out.

Posted by gomiami1972 on 9/27/2019 9:27:00 AM (view original):

Posted by topdogggbm on 9/26/2019 1:58:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Benis on 9/26/2019 9:39:00 AM (view original):

Posted by gomiami1972 on 9/26/2019 9:32:00 AM (view original):

Posted by p6453 on 9/26/2019 9:20:00 AM (view original):
pallas...thanks for this thread. I think it's what the Forums needed. I've enjoyed it tremendously.

Yup. Things got somewhat toxic in the forums with the Fox sale/3.0. This thread kinda grounds you a little. We're all just a bunch of guys (forgive me if there are any ladies out there) playing a game we love.

A guy I work with used to play HD with his Wife years ago. Only woman I know of that has ever played HD.

There is a coach out there that I've sitemailed with a few times, to help the other coach, and I'm curious if it is a female coach, based on the name. It's "mskaukman" or something along those lines. I always wanted to ask if that name meant "Ms K....." but I just never got around to asking.

My favorite HD moment BY FAR was recently coming in at #2 on the list of highest season RPI of all time in D2, at Post. Finishing at .7509, it was the 2nd year of back to back titles (Smith is the only world that I've accomplished that.... more on that later). I had a 6 man Sr class, 5 of those were 800+ ovr, and the 6th was a 100 PER guy. The starting PG was a Jr but was also +800 ovr. I beat two D1 ranked teams by 20 points each in my two exhibition games that season. 35-0.

With the squad I had, and the competition I faced, I'm not sure if the #1 record of .7562 will ever be beaten. I personally feel like it was the best D2 team of all time.

The only negative regarding that entire season, was that benis wouldn't update the highest RPI thread without me threatening his life and stalking him for months! Kidding buddy!

Anyways, next goal is winning a title in every 1x world (the only worlds that I play in). I've got 5 worlds down, two to go. Iba and Allen.... I'm coming for you D2'ers!

Imagine if all of us posting in this thread took over an Iba DII conference for a stretch. That would be lights out.

Count Pallas out! With the same effort that he's mentioned in the past, to bring me to D1, I've equaled that effort for him to join a D2 power conference.... he respectfully declined

Posted by topdogggbm on 9/27/2019 11:07:00 AM (view original):

Posted by gomiami1972 on 9/27/2019 9:27:00 AM (view original):

Posted by topdogggbm on 9/26/2019 1:58:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Benis on 9/26/2019 9:39:00 AM (view original):

Posted by gomiami1972 on 9/26/2019 9:32:00 AM (view original):

Posted by p6453 on 9/26/2019 9:20:00 AM (view original):
pallas...thanks for this thread. I think it's what the Forums needed. I've enjoyed it tremendously.

Yup. Things got somewhat toxic in the forums with the Fox sale/3.0. This thread kinda grounds you a little. We're all just a bunch of guys (forgive me if there are any ladies out there) playing a game we love.

A guy I work with used to play HD with his Wife years ago. Only woman I know of that has ever played HD.

There is a coach out there that I've sitemailed with a few times, to help the other coach, and I'm curious if it is a female coach, based on the name. It's "mskaukman" or something along those lines. I always wanted to ask if that name meant "Ms K....." but I just never got around to asking.

My favorite HD moment BY FAR was recently coming in at #2 on the list of highest season RPI of all time in D2, at Post. Finishing at .7509, it was the 2nd year of back to back titles (Smith is the only world that I've accomplished that.... more on that later). I had a 6 man Sr class, 5 of those were 800+ ovr, and the 6th was a 100 PER guy. The starting PG was a Jr but was also +800 ovr. I beat two D1 ranked teams by 20 points each in my two exhibition games that season. 35-0.

With the squad I had, and the competition I faced, I'm not sure if the #1 record of .7562 will ever be beaten. I personally feel like it was the best D2 team of all time.

The only negative regarding that entire season, was that benis wouldn't update the highest RPI thread without me threatening his life and stalking him for months! Kidding buddy!

Anyways, next goal is winning a title in every 1x world (the only worlds that I play in). I've got 5 worlds down, two to go. Iba and Allen.... I'm coming for you D2'ers!

Imagine if all of us posting in this thread took over an Iba DII conference for a stretch. That would be lights out.

Count Pallas out! With the same effort that he's mentioned in the past, to bring me to D1, I've equaled that effort for him to join a D2 power conference.... he respectfully declined

This is true. And also, I'm at OSU in Iba. They're going to have to drag me out out there.

Posted by p6453 on 9/27/2019 8:59:00 AM (view original):
For those of you old enough...remember the Illinois Flyin' Illini team from the 80's? Marcus Liberty, Stephen Bardo, Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill and Kenny Battle? I'd venture to say that they were the original Fab 5...although those kids from Michigan changed the game as well. Black socks, attitudes. Those Illini were hyper-athletic...made me love the game even more.
Allan Houston had the sweetest jump shot, but he played with a guy at Tennessee named Lang Wiseman that was a deadly marksman.
Gary Trent...the Shaq of the MAC.
Terry Dehere from Seton Hall.
Keith Bullock from Manhattan.
Dante Calabria from UNC.
I could go on and on.

Right, the 89 Illini team was fantastic.

The Elite-8 weekend in 1989 had 3 Big East teams, each with a legit shot to advance, which would've been the second time in history that a conference sent three to the Final Four (along with of course the 1985 Big East).

Anyway, if i have this right, on the Saturday, Duke beat Georgetown (Alonzo Mourning was on that Hoya team along with Charles Smith (not to be confused with the Charles Smith who played on Pitt and later the Knicks)) in a tight game. Mid-2nd, Georgetown erased a 10 point deficit in what seemed like 30 seconds.

Then Seton Hall blew out UNLV out west (before crushing Duke the following weekend).

On the Sunday (it was Easter actually), Illinois beat Syracuse i think by 3. The Orangemen had Derrick Coleman, Billy Owens, Sherman Douglas, and Stevie Thompson. Fantastic game, back in the day when Syracuse played man-to-man almost always.

I remember Illinois being amazing. Kendall Gill and Kenny Battle along with the others you named.

DON'T. LET. IT. DIE.

IT'S. ALIVE!!!!
Brooks Burgers in Naples Florida has awesome burgers. The Farm burger, with barbecue pulled pork, cheddar cheese and a fried egg is a diet killer but worth it. As you can tell, when I'm in Naples I eat...that's what vacation is for. In 30-some days we'll be on the Carnival cruise ship Magic sailing the high seas towards paradise. Last November we brought home like 9 pounds of coffee. Dominican Republic coffee is the best. Speaking of cruises, we usually don't get the Wi-Fi package and our last cruise was the beginning of either conference or nonconference play. I had to set it and forget it for a week. Luckily it worked out...I'm begging for Wi-Fi this time.

Here's a topic that will surely spark things back up..... athletes as role models.

At one point in my life, I used to say that my favorite athletes in sports, were Barry Bonds, Allen Iverson, Mike Tyson, and Michael Vick. Now before some of you stone me for this, hear me out.... none of those people are role model citizens. But at the time of their peaks, I was an adult (except for Tyson. But keep reading). So I never looked up to them as great people. I just loved their performance on the field/court. It had nothing at all to do with what kind of human being they were. If those athletes were on my television, I would watch with amazement. If they were in my home, sure, it's a totally different standard. Me personally, I'm able to separate the two obviously. For me, sports is entertainment. And i don't wanna grow up to be just like these guys. Their talent can not be discredited. But neither can their downfalls in their personal lives.

So my question... what are some of your thoughts about athletes as role models? As a parent, how do you feel about your childrens interest in athletes like this? Where is a line drawn for you? Do you even have a line or do you have an issue with EVERY athlete that isn't perfect in life?

Posted by topdogggbm on 9/29/2019 10:22:00 AM (view original):
Here's a topic that will surely spark things back up..... athletes as role models.

At one point in my life, I used to say that my favorite athletes in sports, were Barry Bonds, Allen Iverson, Mike Tyson, and Michael Vick. Now before some of you stone me for this, hear me out.... none of those people are role model citizens. But at the time of their peaks, I was an adult (except for Tyson. But keep reading). So I never looked up to them as great people. I just loved their performance on the field/court. It had nothing at all to do with what kind of human being they were. If those athletes were on my television, I would watch with amazement. If they were in my home, sure, it's a totally different standard. Me personally, I'm able to separate the two obviously. For me, sports is entertainment. And i don't wanna grow up to be just like these guys. Their talent can not be discredited. But neither can their downfalls in their personal lives.

So my question... what are some of your thoughts about athletes as role models? As a parent, how do you feel about your childrens interest in athletes like this? Where is a line drawn for you? Do you even have a line or do you have an issue with EVERY athlete that isn't perfect in life?

Great topic toppdogg,

As a kid i read "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton, which let us know that athletes are humans like all of us. So i don't think athletes should need to be role models anymore than the average person. My kids don't expect them to be either. I think they can appreciate talent in a sport separate from actions off the field.

Athletes and musicians and actors are tossed into the public arena at such a young age, and they're expected to be perfect. In other fields (politics, science, business, art, etc), a person usually is middle aged and typically should be better prepared for the attention. But even still, those other fields have people that have made mistakes too.

Thinking about it... some of the bad boys of sports or entertainment in the past are today some of the most interesting and honest people. Nowadays I like listening to interviews with Mike Tyson and John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors and Snoop Dogg, etc.

Posted by topdogggbm on 9/29/2019 10:22:00 AM (view original):
Here's a topic that will surely spark things back up..... athletes as role models.

At one point in my life, I used to say that my favorite athletes in sports, were Barry Bonds, Allen Iverson, Mike Tyson, and Michael Vick. Now before some of you stone me for this, hear me out.... none of those people are role model citizens. But at the time of their peaks, I was an adult (except for Tyson. But keep reading). So I never looked up to them as great people. I just loved their performance on the field/court. It had nothing at all to do with what kind of human being they were. If those athletes were on my television, I would watch with amazement. If they were in my home, sure, it's a totally different standard. Me personally, I'm able to separate the two obviously. For me, sports is entertainment. And i don't wanna grow up to be just like these guys. Their talent can not be discredited. But neither can their downfalls in their personal lives.

So my question... what are some of your thoughts about athletes as role models? As a parent, how do you feel about your childrens interest in athletes like this? Where is a line drawn for you? Do you even have a line or do you have an issue with EVERY athlete that isn't perfect in life?

i agree completely - i am fine with athletes not being great people. they aren't being paid to be great people. frankly, neither are most people. in the interest of being a successful species, i think it is really important we are able to distinguish between competence and decency, and in general put the most competent people for the job, in important jobs (sports counts because it is important to a lot of people).

i hate the entire culture to force people out of their jobs, and companies out of their markets, based on them being less-that-stellar individuals. if someone needs to be sent to prison, send them to prison (i guess), but if we start saying 'you can't be an ******* or have done something really dumb once and hold a role with any visibility', who is going to be left? i'm not saying if there is some dude who like, got away with murder, or rape, that that person can't be blackballed from society. but our society is setting an unreasonable standard, blackballing people for stuff ordinary americans are doing every day. most of the interesting people in this world have done a number of stupid things; its often a matter of who got caught. i think we need to recognize how widely imperfect humans are and offer the same wide range of understanding and forgiveness to others, that we'd like to be treated with ourselves.

i don't want to make this a present-day thing, but i think the single most important area for this way of thinking is with politicans. the reason for that is, i don't want the couple hundred people who more or less set the rules for the rest of us, to be these boring *** church going dudes with well kept hair, who never took a risk, never got really close to dying or destroying their lives, and who won't sympathize with the imperfect among us. i have nothing against the pious; i just don't want them telling me how to live. i think we need an incredibly diverse group to represent us, both in terms of normal diversity stuff but also in terms of experiences. congress needs former gang bangers, former drunk drivers, former prositution seekers, gamblers, drug addicts, all of it. maybe some current ones, too. and besides, if you exclude those folks, you don't really end with a bunch of pious dudes - you end with a bunch of fakers who pretend to be all perfect and sit there judging us, while cheating on their wives and whatnot, and they frankly are the worst of the lot. **** those people.

stepping back a second, i do think the whole 'hey you are famous, you have to be perfect' thing comes down to the some role model for the kids stuff, but what is behind that? i think we try to sell kids on this delusion that the world is great and people are great, in the hopes they will buy it and be these great people. why do kids think their parents know everything, instead of being told something more along the lines of, hey most of us are idiots making this up as we go, so we are going to screw up a lot, sorry about that. if we could present a more nuanced view of reality, maybe we wouldn't need to demand our public figures put up an unrealistic public persona. maybe we could tolerate them putting up a persona that remotely resembles an actual person. maybe our kids would come to understand things like empathy and forgiveness on a more personal level, if we didn't spend so much time selling them some bullshit fantasy instead of telling them how things are. people aren't perfect, our kids aren't going to be perfect, and if we'd all accept that from the get-go instead of pressuring everyone to be some model citizen, this whole human experience might be a little bit easier for all of us.

i'll end this rant with a quote - "It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues." - abe lincoln

Well stated. Both of you. I surely didn't expect those responses for the first two that came up. I expected to hear.... if you like Mike Vick, you need to go to "wherever".....

I've always separated the athlete from the person. The difficulty is just with kids. People talk about athletes being role models. And I just don't see that. Kids are naive, and just like what they like. They aren't intelligent enough to make decisions like "I don't like Floyd Mayweather because he beats women". They don't see that side of it. Once they become old enough to hear the other side of the story on athletes, then it's time to discuss with them, as you said, athletes are human too. And it's ok to want to grow up to play sports like a certain athlete. But it's obviously not ok to mimic that persons real life if that person has a bad rep for one or many things

Posted by topdogggbm on 9/29/2019 10:22:00 AM (view original):
Here's a topic that will surely spark things back up..... athletes as role models.

At one point in my life, I used to say that my favorite athletes in sports, were Barry Bonds, Allen Iverson, Mike Tyson, and Michael Vick. Now before some of you stone me for this, hear me out.... none of those people are role model citizens. But at the time of their peaks, I was an adult (except for Tyson. But keep reading). So I never looked up to them as great people. I just loved their performance on the field/court. It had nothing at all to do with what kind of human being they were. If those athletes were on my television, I would watch with amazement. If they were in my home, sure, it's a totally different standard. Me personally, I'm able to separate the two obviously. For me, sports is entertainment. And i don't wanna grow up to be just like these guys. Their talent can not be discredited. But neither can their downfalls in their personal lives.

So my question... what are some of your thoughts about athletes as role models? As a parent, how do you feel about your childrens interest in athletes like this? Where is a line drawn for you? Do you even have a line or do you have an issue with EVERY athlete that isn't perfect in life?

Reasonable people can disagree exactly where the line is, but it’s somewhere after smoking some weed and occasionally driving off at idle speed with traffic control officers clinging to the hood of your car (Randy Moss), and well before the terrible human being **** like beating women and children. It’s not reasonable for society to expect public figures to abstain from things like booze, gambling, and sex out of marriage; it is completely reasonable for society to expect public figures to abstain from rape.

I am pretty clear with my kids that athletes, actors, musicians, and YouTube personalities are not proper role models. Neither are CEOs, cops, military, lawyers, doctors, teachers, preachers, or self help-gurus. Hero worship in general is ridiculous. Treat everyone with respect, take what you need, leave their rest.

Posted by topdogggbm on 9/29/2019 1:04:00 PM (view original):
Well stated. Both of you. I surely didn't expect those responses for the first two that came up. I expected to hear.... if you like Mike Vick, you need to go to "wherever".....

I've always separated the athlete from the person. The difficulty is just with kids. People talk about athletes being role models. And I just don't see that. Kids are naive, and just like what they like. They aren't intelligent enough to make decisions like "I don't like Floyd Mayweather because he beats women". They don't see that side of it. Once they become old enough to hear the other side of the story on athletes, then it's time to discuss with them, as you said, athletes are human too. And it's ok to want to grow up to play sports like a certain athlete. But it's obviously not ok to mimic that persons real life if that person has a bad rep for one or many things

i actually disagree with part of that, although i think some parents make it a reality through hover parenting and treating kids like they are less capable than they are. kids are pretty smart and impressively resilient. my kids are still a little too young to grasp that much more than a good vs evil understanding of morality, but they are starting to (6 and 7). to me, the hope is, by the time the kids can relate to and start forming an adult-like understanding of concepts like rape or someone beating their girlfriend (which my kids cannot), we have already prepared them to have a somewhat nuanced view of human morality. that way, when they start to grasp 'hey, that person i otherwise like is kind of a piece of ****', they can properly process that information. i could be wrong, but it seems to me there is ample time to make that happen - for most kids.

in short, i don't think my kid liking some athlete, who later is discovered to be far less than perfect, is an excuse for them to emulate that behavior. kids don't even relate to the really bad stuff an athlete might do, to the point where they really could emulate it, until they are decently older - and by then, they need to know better, which is mostly on the parents.

the world is a dangerous place - our kids are going to be exposed to stuff WAY worse than 'hey that cool baseball player actually is a complete *******'. they need to be ready, and that cannot happen if they are overly sheltered. we have a similar problem with the modern nanny state, which dictates how we drive, which freedoms we can exercise, which substances we can imbibe, and so on.

i think we have to play the long game - teach a man to fish - and try to encourage our kids (and adults) to confront dangerous situations in a responsible manner. you can keep your kid in a bubble for a while, but eventually, the real world is going to come calling. its better to introduce that danger slowly, and in a relatively controlled manner - that way when something really bad does come along, there's a lot better chance of surviving it mostly intact. if our society would buy into that mentality, i think it would mostly eliminate the problem we are talking about here.