Just mouthed ‘aww’ to myself while writing about a grown ass man snoring. Mortifying. I need to explode

Now, Coach Darnell just wanted a fun little hiking trip for the school. Give the kids some exercise, let the parents be involved. It's free, they get to be in nature, and it's a perfectly lovely laid-back afternoon. Unfortunately for him, the entire Close-Foster-Freeman-Swift-Stephen-Stampler-Marlowe-Swallows-Oak-Garcia-Wilson-Actually-Likely-dear-god-how-many-last-names-do-these-people-have family decided to chaperone.

 Henry: We should go to [fairly far away trail] it's a prefect one for the kids

Carol: How are we going to get there though? The school doesn't have enough minibuses

Darryl: Well, Odessey-san could probably fit about a class and some parents and teachers

Mercedes: And the journey is less than an hour so we can use our no-emission fuel source

Glenn: Guess that means I'm riding with you guys, huh

Darnell, who only knows the Odessey as Darryl's rundown car the kiddads got kidnapped in that one time: Hold on, are you seriously suggesting that we try and fit 30+ people into a 30-something year old minivan that runs on a weird fuel source that you never name and has to be changed every hour, that for some reason only Glenn use?

TJ, completely missing the multiple problems: ... she's bigger on the inside

TJ: She can fit a class

 Sparrow will not stop picking up squirrels. No one knows how he's even able to get that close to them or why they don't freak out when he picks them up (the answer is druid powers). There's a picture of him holding twenty and surrounded by more on the school's socials.

 Grant: This hike will be a great opportunity to spend time with Lincoln's new friends and see what they're like

*Sees Link with a terrifying goth girl who acts just like Terry Jr as a teen (including hating her new stepdad), a weeb who has the exact same vocal mannerisms as Glenn and cool guy energy as Nicky, and clearly Normal Oak*

Grant: You know what, never mind, maybe we should go back to homeschooling him

 (Grant: *he's just like me fr meme /negative*)

 Darnell: I don't want a repeat of soccer camp '22, Terry Jr

TJ: I did absolutely nothing wrong

Darnell: You stuck Lark on top of the flat mast saying, and I quote, "Naughty children go on the pole"

TJ: And it got him to stop setting fire to the goal posts, didn't it?

 Every single one of the s1 parents made homemade snacks. Every. Single. One.

 Henry, ranting about nature and rocks: and you know the chasm we're walking by is actually made by a waterfall slowly eroding its own overhang and slowly moving backwards along the valley

Darryl: Henry, we do this trail once a month and you mention this every single time. I did take high school geography. I know how oxbow lakes are formed

Glenn in the background: the chasm we're walking by is also where I fucked your mom WOO

Samantha: I'm pretty sure Autumn was more likely to make love here with Ronnie than you, Glenn

Glenn: Damn, Sam, still bringing out the decade-old burns

 At one point, Nicky hurts his ankle (plus his asthma is acting up) so Terry just starts giving him a piggy back unprompted.

Lark: Hey Teej, can you carry me as well for a bit

TJ: no <3

Nicky absolutely did not need to be carried the entire rest of the trail, but what was he supposed to do? Tell Terry to put him down? Obviously not an option

(Terry also could easily have carried Lark too, he was just being petty. He also knew he could have stopped carrying Nicky after like, 10 minutes, but hey, Nicky wasn’t complaining, and maybe he liked being able to be this close to him again, sue him)

 They go to a milkshake diner place after the hike (which has vegan options to appease the Swallows-Oak-Garcias). Glenn and Morgan get those couples straws and you know this meme?

They both do the thing in the bottom picture, but they share the glasses that they put the bottom end of the straws into so it still ends up looking like the top picture. Alternatively, they only share one glass, and the other straw is in an individual glass. Which of course means they get into a whole Freddie-esque tangent/rant about why the middle glass needs to be twice as big because it's being consumed at double the rate of the other two

Jodie is not jealous at all as he watches this. Nope. Nuh-uh.

Scam and Mark somehow snuck onto the trip. No one knows how. Terry spends the entire diner celebration shooting the paper coverings that come with straws at takeout places at Mark because he still hasn't forgiven her for upsetting Ron

Poor Darnell just has to keep dealing with this weird-ass blend of 4, maybe 5, different families that just keep on happening. Unfortunate downsides of being Carol’s best friend

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Right from episode one of dndads, there are strong implications that Carol is cheating on Darryl. This is because originally, she was:

{ID: A discord screenshot from 9/24/2019 of reverendanthony, with line breaks from original. so the thing about the carol/darnell thing is i was trying to figure out what darry’s Big Flaw is cause it’s super obvious with the other dads (glenn needs to be a dad not a friend, henry needs to establish boundaries and lay down the law, ron exists) so Darryl initially hit me as this really macho alpha-male bullshit bro guy and so I defaulted to a frankly kind of lazy and problematic thing to try and put that machismo to the ask, which is “my wife is cheating on me” but as matt roleplayed darryl more and it brecame clear that he’s not a one-dimensional arrogant jock guy who is way too full of pride, i tried to shift it to “our marriage is bad and my wife isn’t emotionally available because she doesn’t fel she can talk to me about this stuff” /end ID] Anthony likely also revised the plan because of the massive backlash that Carol was getting from the listenership/fandom. Even Matt mentioned on a Talking Dad that his wife hoped people didn’t think she was Carol. People hated Carol so much, it was truly unreal. Yeah, her tone is not syrup-sweet when she says “I don’t care if you’re having a good time, just find our kid,” but Henry called Darryl an “alpha jock piece of shit bozo” at the top of his lungs around the same time in the story and nobody called Henry a bitch. (The secret ingredient is misogyny!) So Anthony decided to pivot, as described above. In the story, that meant that during the Four Nights arc, Carol left a voicemail revealing that a.) Darnell has a husband and b.) she wants a divorce. In other words, Darnell didn’t start out as gay, but Anthony made him “gay” (gave him a husband) to eliminate the infidelity aspect. That’s version 2.0 of the Wilson marital dynamic: Carol didn’t cheat.  From a storytelling perspective, it seems like a significant chunk of listeners didn’t catch the pivot. Maybe because it went by fast, or because they thought “well, having a husband and a good marriage doesn’t preclude Darnell being involved with Carol, bisexuals in open marriages exist” or because they remember the scenes where it was a thing and other characters were alluding to it and didn’t realize it got retconned, who knows. There’s plenty to explore with the basic premise of infidelity in the Wilson marriage as we know it, whether it’s the journey toward accepting that you’ve grown apart from your childhood sweetheart, the pain of acknowledging that it’s time to move on, the challenge every parent faces of being honest with your kids about your emotions and struggles without making them feel like they’re responsible for your emotions and struggles…   That said, I don’t think that’s where they were going with Darryl and Carol. Note that in the original setup Anthony describes, it’s not that Darryl would feel let down or betrayed, but that Darryl’s “machismo” would be threatened. The point wasn’t to explore Darryl’s emotional growth, the point was to emasculate Darryl and to see how he would respond to that emasculation. He would be humiliated. He would be a “cuck.” This is not what unpacking toxic masculinity looks like, in my book. But that’s my editorializing. My real point is that this pivot happened in an ambiguous way, but it did happen, and while it’s possibly unclear how or why if you’re only listening to the actual show, clarity on that point - as with so many plot elements - was available behind a paywall. And now here you have it. 

Note: just a little something I wrote to get a feel of the dndads characters and neve really finished; but paeden’s hilarious and i love him. Please enjoy!

They come out to their friends first.

Nick more-or-less grins and high-fives them. At first, Terry’s unsure if it even passed through the twins’ heads, since there’s no real gain for them. He turns away once, and when he looks back, Sparrow has his arms wrapped around his torso, nuzzling him.

“Please, if you break each other’s hearts,” Lark declares, “let us eat the remains!”

“Just the shattered bits,” Sparrow reassures, and he urges Terry down until they’re at eye-height. “For now, brother and I will draw strength from your happiness.”

Grant blinks beside Terry, and they exchange a look as the twins run to ram a ball in Coach Darnell’s face. “That was almost sweet.”

“Oh, no,” Terry protests halfheartedly, “I’m pretty sure he meant that parasitically.”

Grant insists on telling Paeden, too, and Terry notices his boyfriend is far more anxious about that than their friends. Paeden wipes his mouth on his t-shirt, then spits in his Gatorade bottle. He stares at Terry as darkly as an eight-year-old can muster and points a finger gun at him.

“Big balls on you, Stampler,” Paeden says nasally, “thinking you’re good enough for my grandson.”

An exasperated sigh comes from Grant’s lips, and he drags a hand across his face. “Paeden—I keep telling you this, I’m not your grandson. Grandpa Frank died a long time ago.”

“Besides,” Terry retorts, “You’re also my uncle. Sort of.”

“Terry.” Grant casts a glance in a don’t enable him kind of way.

Paeden squints, and Terry vaguely wonders if this is their sneak preview of how their parents are going to react. Then Paeden points a finger gun to Grant. “Big fucking balls, Wilson, thinking you’re good enough for my nephew.”

Grant stares in disbelief, mouthing a wow, but Terry thinks there’s some relief there.

Then, in a surreptitious fashion, Paeden takes a swig of his Gatorade and proceeds to choke on his own spit. They spend the rest of their evening patting Grant’s adoptive brother (and Terry’s step-uncle/Grant’s grandpa) on the back before Paeden’s back to a normal shade of clammy white.

“Nailed it,” Paeden wheezes, and they take his thumbs-up as approval.

New Look Sabres: GM 66 - EDM - Numbers

Perhaps this game represents the Sabres season; at least from a standings point of view this game last night was what being a Sabres fan has felt like this season. Favorable numbers toward the start followed by an ugly decline that turns the math against you. The simplest stat in hockey is goals. In this game last night Buffalo had more of those up until the dying minutes of the second period. It ended 4-3 Edmonton. I went into this game giving some good thought to the Phil Housley criticism. I thought: You know what, this guy is in his first NHL coaching job and in spite of it being his job, you could say he still is wrapping his head around what he’s got. I was feeling very generous having those thoughts and if the game didn’t kill the good will I was trying to foster for Housley then his postgame comments did. He said his team played 55 minutes of great hockey. The other 5 were bad minutes. That would be a nice piece of analysis with a team that consistently plays well and beats the teams they should. This team does not, and that comment is stupid. The numbers that do not represent time are against those comments. Jack Eichel scored two goals in a loss. Linus Ullmark was hung out to dry as his defense let up the greater number of high danger shots. The Oilers outplayed the Sabres in every statistical category except the powerplay and shots on goal. You had me fooled, Phil! I was sitting happy halfway through this game looking at the next four to five games being winnable! Boy, am I fool! The numbers are clear. After having an 83% chance of making the playoffs at the start of December, the Sabres are now nine points out at the start of March having gone 34 games without back to back wins! The 2014-2015 Tank team that was designed to lose and drove me to watch the Rangers most of that season, that team only got as bad as 31 games in that category. This ain’t it, Phil. I don’t know who I want to replace him in any intelligent way but when he’s back behind the bench for the home opener in October I am will not be a happy camper about it. This game was the microcosm of this season and oh so appropriately that microcosm ends in a loss.

The game starts off with an unlucky shorthanded goal against when Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl teamed up for the latter’s 41st goal of the season. Edmonton maybe wasting Connor McDavid and will likely miss the playoffs this season but there are guys tearing it up there in spite of it all. I hate that Buffalo and Edmonton are still comparable in this way because on the very same powerplay Jack Eichel revives the home crowd with a tight net-front goal to draw the score even again at 1. If there is one big positive for the Sabres in this game it was a full display of Jack Eichel’s leadership. The rest of this first period is a vision of what we thought the Sabres would be in 2019 in 2015. Jack Eichel helping Montour get a great chance. Okposo getting a great chance. Sheary knocking at the door. Jeff Skinner was chopping at that net like a lumberjack because he wants to get Rocket Rickard trophy votes. Casey Mittelstadt broke through Mikko Koskinen with a point-blank blast at 13:19 into the first period. The primary assist on that was Scott Wilson who, only now gets his first NHL point of the season having missed the majority of it with a gruesome ankle injury sustained way back in Training Camp. The fun only continued when Jack Eichel made it 3-1 unassisted in a no-look smacker that earned his team a standing applause as they went to the locker room for the first intermission! The likes of Jeff Skinner, Rasmus Ristolainen and Evan Rodrigues all shined bright with beautiful chances in the second period too. While the pushback came in the second that lead remained into the second half of the middle frame and I began to foolishly let myself hope looking at the schedule. Oh what a fool I am.

Less than four minutes left in the second period the whole Sabres defense was caught puck watching when Zack Kassian got a McDavid assist on a one-timer snipe that made Ullmark look confused. It’s now 3-2 Oilers and the floodgates are opened. A puck squirted out of a battle on the wall to Darnell Nurse who wired it home for the equalizer. Credit where credit is due, Jeff Skinner starts taking shots from Ovi spots to try and get the lead back, but the Oiler kept pushing. Give me an intermission, PLEASE! The horn to end the period did not come soon enough and with a mere five seconds left in the second period Adam Larsson takes a shot on net from way out that trickles in past Ullmark. Evidently Kyle Brodziak tipped it in, and I have not seen Ullmark angrier than after that goal. Some folks I heard wanted a challenge for a kicking motion by Brodziak but gee, I just don’t have the energy to litigate shit like that when the Sabres are this bad. Boos came down and Carter Hutton replaced Ullmark in net for the third. A one goal deficit never looked so demoralizing for a team and the Sabres never looked like they were going to come back. Sure, like many times this season its been encouraging to just see the Sabres have legitimate rushes in on net; hell, Brandon Montour is worth the price just for his ability to pass the puck to the offense if nothing else. In spite of Jeff Skinner not getting the puck across the line behind the Edmonton netminder and Jason Pominville blocking his own tap in (?) the threat of a Sabres equalizer just never seemed real. It ended 4-3 Oil.

I legitimately had a moment last night where I sat down to write this reaction and for the first time this season doing that I just couldn’t. My wife and I were having a good night and I just said no for my own mental health. With 16 games left in this season the Sabres need to go 14-2 to legitimately have a chance to make the playoffs. Pardon my French: What the Fuck? I had to talk myself out of buying a Skinner jersey that probably wouldn’t fit me at this time in December we were all so into this team. They were gold at that point, the best team we’d seen since before the Harbor Center was built! Now I would rather watch MLS Review videos and blog about a soccer team that isn’t even playing this calendar year than watch this team take on clubs they should be beating by multiple goals! WHAT THE FUCK! So, let’s turn away from the frustrating team stats for the far less frustrating individual stats.  Jeff Skinner sits at 36 goals 9 back of goal leader Alex Ovechkin. He probably doesn’t have the most goals by the end of this season but if he can get north of 40 and push near 50 in these last several games its going to do a lot for how we feel going into next season when he’s inevitable signs. He should get some MVP votes. Jack Eichel sits at 25 goals. He needs to reach 30. I say that because this season has been such an encouraging step forward for him that hitting the 30-goal mark needs to happen as a bookmark if nothing else. Casey Mittelstadt just hit 10 goals and sits at 21 points with his 11 assists. He’s probably not quite the Calder Trophy contender we thought he could be but that’s ok because he’ll be a great C2 real soon. His fellow rookie Rasmus Dahlin on the other hand should get the majority of the Calder Trophy votes in my bias opinion. Dahlin has more points than all but one rookie forward has. The lone guy ahead of him in that category, Elias Petterson, has cooled off a fair bit from the first part of the season in which he was destroying worlds with his goals. What Dahlin has done puts him in an elite company among rookie D-Men in this league already and that’s more special than anything Petterson has done. Rasmus Dahlin for Calder!

I hate pushing hard for individual awards because it feels so dirty against not making the playoffs. Then again, I still feel cheated that Artemi Panarin came in out of nowhere and stole it from Jack Eichel in 2016. Those however are the things I’ll cheer for to avoid the crushing gloom of what a missed opportunity season this has become. That and I eagerly await exit interviews to see how Jason Botterill and Phil Housley envision next season. There is an outside chance that changes Botts’ opinion of Housley prompting a coaching change, but the more likely and interesting outcome is the two of them hammering out a plan of Playoffs or bust. Their comments have grown a little bit conflicting in these late phases of the season in spite of that vote of confidence a couple weeks back. All this and the Amerks will go on a run. How many times have I mentioned that? Not enough, one more time: the Rochester Americans are going to probably win the division and make a deep playoff run. Like, comment and share this blog with your friends. The end of this Sabres season, for how disappointing the lack of a playoff berth will be, will be very interesting in terms of Front Office Palace intrigue. There will be a new Will for the playoffs in 2020 at that point and how this organization fixes to get there will be fun to watch. For now, we eagerly anticipate Jeff boy. Come on, Skin man, sign on the line!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Columbus is my favorite non-Sabres Eastern Conference team to watch going into these last 15 games. They pushed all the chips in on a run this post-season and its not even for sure they make the playoffs right now.

Fantasy football mock draft: 10-team, 1/2 PPR

12:56 PM ET- ESPN.com staffWe're officially in the vacuum of space between OTAs and training camp. Seems like a good time for everyone to chill and enjoy summer, right?Not if you're aiming to win a championship.You know the top NFL competitors are hard at work right now. So, too, are fantasy folks who want to own their drafts when they count. That means taking part in some mock drafts to get a feel for things and work out the kinks, which is exactly what our experts did with our latest mock.

More people play on ESPN than anywhere else. Join or create a league in the No. 1 Fantasy Football game! Sign up for free >> Following our first one, a 10-team PPR format, we're back with this 10-team 1/2-PPR mock. For the uninitiated, that means your players will score a half-point for each catch they make.You can take a look at the results below to see where you may find good values, which positions are shallow or deep, and which draft strategies our experts tried at this point of the offseason.The participants, in order of draft position, were: Marcel Louis-Jacques, Matt Bowen, Kyle Soppe, Eric Karabell, Tom Carpenter, Field Yates, Daniel Dopp, Tristan H. Cockcroft, Mike Clay and Mike Triplett.

Round 1

1. Christian McCaffrey Car (RB1) -- Louis-Jacques 2. Dalvin Cook Min (RB2) -- Bowen 3. Derrick Henry Ten (RB3) -- Soppe 4. Alvin Kamara NO (RB4) -- Karabell 5. Saquon Barkley NYG (RB5) -- Carpenter 6. Ezekiel Elliott Dal (RB6) -- Yates 7. Jonathan Taylor Ind (RB7) -- Dopp 8. Austin Ekeler LAC (RB8) -- Cockcroft 9. Travis Kelce KC (TE1) -- Clay 10. Nick Chubb Cle (RB9) -- Triplett

Round 2

11. Aaron Jones GB (RB10) -- Triplett 12. Tyreek Hill KC (WR1) -- Clay 13. Davante Adams GB (WR2) -- Cockcroft 14. Cam Akers LAR (RB11) -- Dopp 15. Joe Mixon Cin (RB12) -- Yates 16. DK Metcalf Sea (WR3) -- Carpenter 17. Stefon Diggs Buf (WR4) -- Karabell 18. Antonio Gibson Wsh (RB13) -- Soppe 19. Najee Harris Pit (RB14) -- Bowen 20. Miles Sanders Phi (RB15) -- Louis-Jacques

Round 3

21. Calvin Ridley Atl (WR5) -- Louis-Jacques2 Related22. DeAndre Hopkins Ari (WR6) -- Bowen 23. A.J. Brown Ten (WR7) -- Soppe 24. D'Andre Swift Det (RB16) -- Karabell 25. Clyde Edwards-Helaire KC (RB17) -- Carpenter 26. Justin Jefferson Min (WR8) -- Yates 27. Terry McLaurin Wsh (WR9) -- Dopp 28. J.K. Dobbins Bal (RB18) -- Cockcroft 29. Michael Thomas NO (WR10) -- Clay 30. George Kittle SF (TE2) -- Triplett

Round 4

31. Josh Jacobs LV (RB19) -- Triplett 32. Allen Robinson II Chi (WR11) -- Clay 33. Mike Evans TB (WR12) -- Cockcroft 34. Chris Carson Sea (RB20) -- Dopp 35. David Montgomery Chi (RB21) -- Yates 36. Darren Waller LV (TE3) -- Carpenter 37. Keenan Allen LAC (WR13) -- Karabell 38. Amari Cooper Dal (WR14) -- Soppe 39. CeeDee Lamb Dal (WR15) -- Bowen 40. Diontae Johnson Pit (WR16) -- Louis-Jacques

Round 5

41. Josh Allen Buf (QB1) -- Louis-Jacques 42. Travis Etienne Jax (RB22) -- Bowen 43. Chris Godwin TB (WR17) -- Soppe 44. Adam Thielen Min (WR18) -- Karabell 45. Patrick Mahomes KC (QB2) -- Carpenter 46. Julio Jones Ten (WR19) -- Yates 47. Robert Woods LAR (WR20) -- Dopp 48. Myles Gaskin Mia (RB23) -- Cockcroft 49. DJ Moore Car (WR21) -- Clay 50. Cooper Kupp LAR (WR22) -- Triplett

Round 6

51. Kenny Golladay NYG (WR23) -- Triplett 52. Chase Edmonds Ari (RB24) -- Clay 53. Courtland Sutton Den (WR24) -- Cockcroft 54. Mark Andrews Bal (TE4) -- Dopp 55. Kyle Pitts Atl (TE5) -- Yates 56. Kareem Hunt Cle (RB25) -- Carpenter 57. Tyler Lockett Sea (WR25) -- Karabell 58. Mike Davis Atl (RB26) -- Soppe 59. Ja'Marr Chase Cin (WR26) -- Bowen 60. DJ Chark Jr. Jax (WR27) -- Louis-Jacques

Round 7

61. Brandon Aiyuk SF (WR28) -- Louis-Jacques 62. T.J. Hockenson Det (TE6) -- Bowen 63. Odell Beckham Jr. Cle (WR29) -- Soppe 64. James Robinson Jax (RB27) -- Karabell 65. JuJu Smith-Schuster Pit (WR30) -- Carpenter 66. Tee Higgins Cin (WR31) -- Yates 67. Robby Anderson Car (WR32) -- Dopp 68. Raheem Mostert SF (RB28) -- Cockcroft 69. Javonte Williams Den (RB29) -- Clay 70. Chase Claypool Pit (WR33) -- Triplett

Round 8

71. Lamar Jackson Bal (QB3) -- Triplett 72. Kyler Murray Ari (QB4) -- Clay 73. Dak Prescott Dal (QB5) -- Cockcroft 74. Brandin Cooks Hou (WR34) -- Dopp 75. Deebo Samuel SF (WR35) -- Yates 76. Jerry Jeudy Den (WR36) -- Carpenter 77. Logan Thomas Wsh (TE7) -- Karabell 78. Tyler Boyd Cin (WR37) -- Soppe 79. Curtis Samuel Wsh (WR38) -- Bowen 80. Dallas Goedert Phi (TE8) -- Louis-Jacques

Round 9

81. David Johnson Hou (RB30) -- Louis-Jacques 82. Russell Wilson Sea (QB6) -- Bowen 83. Damien Harris NE (RB31) -- Soppe 84. Leonard Fournette TB (RB32) -- Karabell 85. Kenyan Drake LV (RB33) -- Carpenter 86. Justin Herbert LAC (QB7) -- Yates 87. DeVonta Smith Phi (WR39) -- Dopp 88. Michael Gallup Dal (WR40) -- Cockcroft 89. William Fuller V Mia (WR41) -- Clay 90. Marquise Brown Bal (WR42) -- Triplett

Round 10

91. Laviska Shenault Jr. Jax (WR43) -- Triplett 92. Melvin Gordon III Den (RB34) -- Clay 93. Michael Carter NYJ (RB35) -- Cockcroft 94. Noah Fant Den (TE9) -- Dopp 95. James Conner Ari (RB36) -- Yates 96. Jaylen Waddle Mia (WR44) -- Carpenter 97. Ronald Jones II TB (RB37) -- Karabell 98. Marvin Jones Jr. Jax (WR45) -- Soppe 99. AJ Dillon GB (RB38) -- Bowen 100. Zack Moss Buf (RB39) -- Louis-Jacques

Round 11

101. Henry Ruggs III LV (WR46) -- Louis-Jacques 102. Nyheim Hines Ind (RB40) -- Bowen 103. Tom Brady TB (QB8) -- Soppe 104. Jarvis Landry Cle (WR47) -- Karabell 105. Michael Pittman Jr. Ind (WR48) -- Carpenter 106. Jamaal Williams Det (RB41) -- Yates 107. Trey Sermon SF (RB42) -- Dopp 108. Robert Tonyan GB (TE10) -- Cockcroft 109. Antonio Brown TB (WR49) -- Clay 110. Devin Singletary Buf (RB43) -- Triplett

Round 12

111. Gus Edwards Bal (RB44) -- Triplett 112. Jalen Reagor Phi (WR50) -- Clay 113. Aaron Rodgers GB (QB9) -- Cockcroft 114. Jalen Hurts Phi (QB10) -- Dopp 115. Nelson Agholor NE (WR51) -- Yates 116. Rashod Bateman Bal (WR52) -- Carpenter 117. Ryan Tannehill Ten (QB11) -- Karabell 118. Tony Pollard Dal (RB45) -- Soppe 119. Darnell Mooney Chi (WR53) -- Bowen 120. Mike Williams LAC (WR54) -- Louis-Jacques

Round 13

121. J.D. McKissic Wsh (RB46) -- Louis-Jacques 122. Corey Davis NYJ (WR55) -- Bowen 123. Buccaneers D/ST TB (DST1) -- Soppe 124. Matthew Stafford LAR (QB12) -- Karabell 125. Alexander Mattison Min (RB47) -- Carpenter 126. Russell Gage Atl (WR56) -- Yates 127. Mecole Hardman KC (WR57) -- Dopp 128. Kadarius Toney NYG (WR58) -- Cockcroft 129. Elijah Moore NYJ (WR59) -- Clay 130. Latavius Murray NO (RB48) -- Triplett

Round 14

131. Darrell Henderson Jr. LAR (RB49) -- Triplett 132. Tarik Cohen Chi (RB50) -- Clay 133. Irv Smith Jr. Min (TE11) -- Cockcroft 134. Joe Burrow Cin (QB13) -- Dopp 135. Rondale Moore Ari (WR60) -- Yates 136. Ravens D/ST Bal (DST2) -- Carpenter 137. Steelers D/ST Pit (DST3) -- Karabell 138. Harrison Butker KC (K1) -- Soppe 139. Rams D/ST LAR (DST4) -- Bowen 140. Washington D/ST Wsh (DST5) -- Louis-Jacques

Round 15

141. Justin Tucker Bal (K2) -- Louis-Jacques 142. Terrace Marshall Jr. Car (WR61) -- Bowen 143. Mike Gesicki Mia (TE12) -- Soppe 144. James White NE (RB51) -- Karabell 145. Younghoe Koo Atl (K3) -- Carpenter 146. Broncos D/ST Den (DST6) -- Yates 147. Bills D/ST Buf (DST7) -- Dopp 148. 49ers D/ST SF (DST8) -- Cockcroft 149. Patriots D/ST NE (DST9) -- Clay 150. Colts D/ST Ind (DST10) -- Triplett

Round 16

151. Wil Lutz NO (K4) -- Triplett 152. Jason Myers Sea (K5) -- Clay 153. Matt Gay LAR (K6) -- Cockcroft 154. Matt Prater Ari (K7) -- Dopp 155. Jason Sanders Mia (K8) -- Yates 156. Read the full article

TITLELESS: 16 NBA teams who were robbed of a championship

Peja Stojakovic, Chris Webber, and Mike Bibby were an iconic trio for the Kings.

Enjoy this eclectic mix of NBA What Might Have Beens.

The cover art for our final Titleless division is meant to be taken figuratively, not literally. Some of these 16 teams were unjustly “robbed” of their chance to win a championship. Others were thwarted by unforeseen circumstances: injuries mostly, but also their own incompetence and other bizarre factors. They were “robbed” in the sense that cosmic forces conspired to destroy their title dreams or cut short potential dynasties.

Enjoy this eclectic mix of NBA What Might Have Beens.

16. 1996-97 Detroit Pistons

ERA: Young Grant Hill

RECORD: 54-28

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +5.3

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in first round to Atlanta Hawks (3-2)

KEY STAR(S): Grant Hill

COACH: Doug Collins

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Joe Dumars, Lindsey Hunter, Otis Thorpe, Terry Mills, Theo Ratliff, Aaron McKie, Grant Long, Michael Curry

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: None

With the Bulls struggling late in what proved to be his final season in Chicago, Doug Collins moved Michael Jordan to point guard and refashioned the Bulls’ offense. (Dan Devine of the Ringer has a wonderful summary of how that happened, why it didn’t continue, and how it was the precursor to the point forward movement of today.)

Years later, Collins found a new young star more willing to play along in Detroit, at least initially. He put the ball in Grant Hill’s hands and asked him to run the team as he saw fit. Hill, an often reluctant attacker in the past, thrived in his new role. Collins surrounded Hill with shooters and role-players, opened the floor for Hill to attack, and watched him emerge as a potential new face of the NBA. Detroit got off to a fast start and won 54 games before losing in a tight five-game series to a terrific Hawks team.

Alas, the run was short-lived because Collins’ grating got on Hill’s nerves the same way it got on Jordan’s. The Pistons fell apart the next season, and depending on who you believe, Hill either asked Collins to be fired or declined to endorse him. Two years later, Hill suffered the ankle injury that would forever change his NBA destiny.

15. 1990-91 Golden State Warriors

ERA: Run T-M-C

RECORD: 44-38

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +1.6

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in second round to Los Angeles Lakers (4-1)

KEY STAR(S): Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin

COACH: Don Nelson

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Mitch Richmond, Sarunas Marciulionis, Mario Elie, Rod Higgins, Alton Lister, Tom Tolbert, Tyrone Hill, Jim Petersen

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1991-92

Meet Run TMC, one of the NBA’s all-time cult favorites. With Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin forming a high-scoring trio, the Warriors upset the second-seeded Spurs in four games, using a funky strategy that involved stationing their center as far away as possible so David Robinson couldn’t provide help on their scoring studs. (Remember, this was the illegal defense era.)

They fell to the mighty Lakers in five, but not before stunning them in Game 2 behind a torrid Mullin and nearly winning Game 4 at home.

Unfortunately, Run TMC was short-lived. The Warriors inexplicably traded Richmond to Sacramento for rookie forward Billy Owens, the No. 3 pick in the 1991 draft. Golden State actually won 55 games the next year, but were smashed by the underdog Sonics in the first round. The next few years were kinda bizarre, but let’s just say they did not go as planned.

14. 2000-01 Milwaukee Bucks

ERA: “Big 3” Bucks

RECORD: 52-30

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +3.8

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in East Finals to Philadelphia 76ers (4-3)

KEY STAR(S): Ray Allen

COACH: George Karl

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Glenn Robinson, Sam Cassell, Lindsey Hunter, Ervin Johnson, Tim Thomas, Jason Caffey, Scott Williams, Darvin Ham

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: None

The “Big 3” Bucks of Ray Allen, Sam Cassell, and Glenn Robinson were an annual tease except for one memorable 2001 playoff run. The Bucks finished with the second seed in the dilapidated East and nearly knocked off Allen Iverson’s 76ers in the conference finals. That series featured some, ahem, curious refereeing decisions, including a potential missed goaltend on Allen’s game-winning tip attempt in Game 5 and a surprising league call to upgrade a common Scott Williams Game 6 foul to a flagrant, thereby forcing him to miss Game 7. Allen essentially said the series was fixed without officially saying it.

Soon, the Bucks went back to being perennial teases. Milwaukee swung a big sign-and-trade for Anthony Mason that summer, thinking an upgrade up front was the missing piece. Instead, Mason threw off their chemistry and they missed the playoffs entirely in 2002 after a late-season collapse.

13. 2017-18 Boston Celtics

ERA: Brad Stevens’ Celtics

RECORD: 55-27

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +3.6

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in East Finals to Cleveland Cavaliers (4-3)

KEY STAR(S): Kyrie Irving (injured in playoffs)

COACH: Brad Stevens

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Al Horford, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward (injured all season), Marcus Smart, Aron Baynes, Terry Rozier, Marcus Morris

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: None

Classifying these Celtics was challenging because of all the dominoes involved. Gordon Hayward shattering his leg on opening night undoubtedly set the Celtics back, but Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown may not emerge so quickly otherwise. Kyrie Irving’s late-season knee injury killed their championship upside … or did it, based on the evidence of 2019’s dysfunctional season and 2020’s good vibes with Kemba Walker in Irving’s place? What’s the point of comparing 2020’s Celtics with the 2018 version, since Al Horford’s not walking through that door? And how can we possibly quantify the degree to which Tatum’s 2020 superstar emergence relates to the flashes he showed in the 2018 playoffs?

I dunno, man. Let’s just put them here.

12. 2008-09 Portland Trail Blazers

ERA: Roy-Oden

RECORD: 54-28

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +5.3

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in first round to Houston Rockets (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): Brandon Roy

COACH: Nate McMillan

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Oden, Nicolas Batum, Travis Outlaw, Steve Blake, Rudy Fernandez, Joel Przybilla, Sergio Rodriguez, Jerryd Bayless, Channing Frye

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: None

What might have been if Greg Oden only stayed healthy? Would the trio of Oden, Brandon Roy, and LaMarcus Aldridge really have dominated the league for years to come?

We’ll never know, but the 2008-09 Blazers are the closest we’ll ever get to an answer. After missing his entire rookie season, Oden stayed relatively healthy and showed dominating flashes in 21 minutes per game behind reliable Joel Przybilla. With Roy emerging as a superstar in his third season and Aldridge becoming a burgeoning sidekick in his second, Portland won 54 regular-season games and looked to be ahead of schedule.

Portland’s run ended that year with a disappointing first-round loss to the Yao Ming-led, Tracy McGrady-less Rockets, who stole Game 1 on the Blazers’ home court and beat them in six. Oden reinjured his knee in December of the following season and played just 23 pro games thereafter.

11. 2018-19 Philadelphia 76ers

ERA: Post-Process

RECORD: 51-31

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +6

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in second round to Toronto Raptors (4-3)

KEY STAR(S): Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler

COACH: Brett Brown

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Tobias Harris, J.J. Redick, Wilson Chandler, Mike Scott, T.J. McConnell, Greg Monroe, James Ennis

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 2017-18

The post-Process 76ers era is far from over, but maybe 2019 will end up being their best shot to advance deep in the playoffs. What happens if one of the 700 bounces on Kawhi Leonard’s buzzer-beating, series-ending game-winner goes in a different direction?

Do they beat Milwaukee, a team with whom they matched up well? Does Jimmy Butler stay instead of leaving for Miami and throwing thinly veiled shots at Brett Brown’s coaching? Does that mean the 76ers don’t make the mistake of signing Al Horford in the ensuing offseason? We have nothing but time to play the what-if game.

10. 1988-89 Cleveland Cavaliers

ERA: The team Jordan always beat

RECORD: 57-25

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7.6

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in first round to Chicago Bulls (3-2)

KEY STAR(S): Brad Daugherty, Mark Price

COACH: Lenny Wilkins

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Ron Harper, Larry Nance, Craig Ehlo, Hot Rod Williams, Mike Sanders, Darnell Valentine

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1991-92, 1992-93

Before the Cavaliers became the franchise Michael Jordan tormented, they were a burgeoning young powerhouse propped up by the league itself. Ever heard of the Ted Stepien rule? It’s named after the despicable former Cavaliers owner who, among many other worse things, kept trading first-round picks for nobodies in the early 80s. The NBA eventually blocked him from trading first-rounders, but when that didn’t help, they forced Stepien out, even awarding Cleveland compensatory first-rounders to prop up the franchise’s value to potential buyers. They eventually found one in Gordon Gund, who restored normalcy to the franchise.

With the first rounders Stepien surely wanted to give up, Cleveland drafted key pieces like Brad Daugherty, Mark Price, Ron Harper, and (via a draft-day trade) Mark Price. A fifth future stud, Kevin Johnson, was traded for veteran Larry Nance. That young core stunned the league in 1989, finishing with the NBA’s second-best record behind Detroit. Because they were in the same division as the Pistons, though, they got the East No. 3 seed and a matchup with Michael Jordan’s Bulls. The rest is history.

Cleveland traded Harper just seven games into the next season for the rights to Danny Ferry, the No. 2 overall pick in the 1989 draft that refused to show for the Clippers. Ferry never lived up to the hype, and Cleveland was never quite the same.

9. 1987-88 Dallas Mavericks

ERA: Post-expansion Mavs

RECORD: 53-29

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +4.4

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in West Finals to Los Angeles Lakers (4-3)

KEY STAR(S): Mark Aguirre

COACH: John MacLeod

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Rolando Blackman, Derek Harper, Sam Perkins, Roy Tarpley, James Donaldson, Brad Davis, Detlef Schrempf

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1986-87

Even by this section’s standards, the rise and fall of the 1980s Dallas Mavericks was bizarre. The diverse cast of characters included outspoken owner Donald Carter, general manager Norm Sanju (who endorsed a Process-like rebuild before it was fashionable), talented but drug-troubled center Roy Tarpley, and the nice-but-not-superstar young core that included Rolando Blackman, Derek Harper, and Sam Perkins. But the two most notable ones were superstar Mark Aguirre and longtime coach Dick Motta.

Take the criticism Carmelo Anthony received during his career, amp it up a few exponents, and you get Aguirre. An undersized forward with remarkable scoring skills and an equally remarkable ability to leave you wanting more, Aguirre eventually wore out his welcome the year after Dallas finished one game short of the Finals. “Today should be an all-day party because he’s gone,” said Perkins on the day Dallas traded Aguirre to Detroit. Ouch!

(Related tangent: Aguirre has not had his jersey retired by the team. He was supposed to speak at Derek Harper’s ceremony in 2018, but no-showed. Fast-forward to this year, when now-owner Mark Cuban honored the late Kobe Bryant by declaring that no Maverick would ever wear No. 8 or No. 24 again. Aguirre’s number? Twenty-four.)

Calling the Aguirre-Motta relationship “combustible” is kind. For some reason, Motta decided the best way to reach Aguirre was to ride him constantly. “I’ve said things to him that I wouldn’t say to my dog,” Motta said during the 1982-83 season. (Motta later said the quote was taken out of context, supplying this odd defense: “I did cuss my dog out last night. I’d like to go on record saying that. He wet the floor … I’ve never kicked my dog once, and I’ve never had a player die on the floor from overwork or abuse. And my dog still likes me.” OK!)

Somehow, the two co-existed until 1987, when the 55-win Mavs were upset in the first round by the Sonics. Driven by his volcanic relationship with Aguirre, Motta abruptly quit after that season.

Aguirre initially welcomed veteran replacement coach John MacLeod and turned in his best season in leading Dallas to the West Finals, but after a few postseason benchings and a strange summer, he asked to be traded early in the following season.

Dallas fell apart thereafter and slowly turned into a joke of a franchise before Cuban purchased the team in 1999.

8. 2007-08 Houston Rockets

ERA: Yao and T-Mac

RECORD: 55-27

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +4.7

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in first round to Utah Jazz (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): Yao Ming (injured for playoffs), Tracy McGrady

COACH: Rick Adelman

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Shane Battier, Rafer Alston, Luis Scola, Bonzi Wells, Chuck Hayes, Luther Head, Carl Landry, Dikembe Mutombo

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 2006-07, 2008-09

Talk about duos destined for star-crossed careers: Meet Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady! This remarkable guard-big star tandem missed a combined 179 games from 2004-2009, which is more than two full seasons! Their best shot to go deep in the playoffs together was in 2007, when they lost Game 7 on their home floor to the Jazz.

The 2007-08 team, fueled by a remarkable 22-game winning streak, was the best of the bunch. Twelve of those wins came before Yao suffered yet another stress fracture in his foot, which kept him out for the rest of the season. Houston won 10 more in a row with aging Dikembe Mutombo in Yao’s place, but were running on fumes. In the end, McGrady alone didn’t have enough to avenge the team’s 2007 playoff defeat to the Jazz.

7. 1985-86 Houston Rockets

ERA: Twin Towers

RECORD: 51-31

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +2.6

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in NBA Finals to Boston Celtics (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): (H)akeem Olajuwon

COACH: Bill Fitch

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Ralph Sampson, Rodney McCray, John Lucas, Lewis Lloyd, Robert Reid, Jim Petersen, Allen Leavell, Mitchell Wiggins

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: None

But for a fleeting moment in the 1986 playoffs, the Twin Towers Rockets were more a theoretical dream than a coherent basketball team. Whoever picked “The Greatest Team That Never Was” for Grantland’s giant oral history of the 80s Rockets deserves a raise, because that was always their destiny.

Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon were never going to be a seamless on-court fit. The laid-back Sampson and drill sergeant coach Bill Fitch were never going to see eye to eye. Fitch’s hope that point guard John Lucas would stay sober was never going to pay off. Lewis Lloyd and Mitchell Wiggins were always threats to be the ones that’d get the book thrown at them to crack down on its players’ drug use. Sampson was never going to be the same physically after his scary fall late in the 1987 season.

But it’s fun to dream, isn’t it?

6. 2003-04 Indiana Pacers

ERA: Pre-Malice at the Palace

RECORD: 61-21

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +5.8

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in East Finals to Detroit Pistons (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): Jermaine O’Neal

COACH: Rick Carlisle

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Ron Artest, Reggie Miller, Al Harrington, Jamaal Tinsley, Jeff Foster, Anthony Johnson, Austin Croshere, Fred Jones

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: None

5. 2010-11 Chicago Bulls

ERA: Rose and Thibs

RECORD: 62-20

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7.3

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in East Finals to Miami Heat (4-1)

KEY STAR(S): Derrick Rose

COACH: Tom Thibodeau

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer, Taj Gibson, Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, Keith Bogans, C.J. Watson, Omer Asik, Kurt Thomas

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 2011-12

Had I known Derrick Rose’s career would be forever altered by one knee injury, I’d have spent much more time appreciating his 2011 MVP season instead of grumbling that the award should’ve gone to Dwight Howard or LeBron James. Rose might have been a tad overrated statistically, but he was an incredible thrill to watch and an inspiring foil to the hated Heatles. Looking back on it, I should have appreciated how Rose’s production and the Bulls’ combination of defense and depth complemented each other, rather than use those forces to argue against Rose’s MVP case. Live and learn.

These Bulls fell short because a pissed-off James put Rose in a straight-jacket in crunch time of Miami’s five-game East Finals victory. With nobody else there to help him score, Rose was powerless to stop the Heat.

4. 2004-05 Phoenix Suns

ERA: 7 Seconds Or Less

RECORD: 62-20

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7.1

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in West Finals to San Antonio Spurs (4-1)

KEY STAR(S): Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudemire

COACH: Brian Hill

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson (injured in WCF), Quentin Richardson, Jim Jackson, Leandro Barbosa

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 2005-06, 2006-07, 2009-10

Picking the best Suns team of the Steve Nash era was difficult. The 2010 team was a delightful surprise, the 2006 team inspired one of the best basketball books of the millennium, and the 2007 team got hosed most obviously. But the original 2004-05 version is still — Hot take alert! — the most thrilling and revolutionary basketball experience the league has seen since … ever? Let’s go with ever.

It’s easy to forget how many skeptics the Suns had while zipping through the league that season. They ran, ran, and ran some more instead of positioning themselves into set plays the coach diagrams. (I loved this Mike D’Antoni quote from a 2005 SI story: “I don’t know how you script against something when the offensive team isn’t even sure what it’s doing.”) They took threes in transition when nobody else did. They played “small” by moving Shawn Marion to power forward and Amar’e Stoudemire to center. They built their entire team around the spread pick-and-roll. They were the first to do so many things we take for granted today. But despite winning more games than anyone in the league, they were never seen as favorites and were often derided for promoting a style that wouldn’t hold up in the playoffs.

Those skeptics got the last laugh, but with mitigating circumstances. Everything changed when Joe Johnson fell face first on the floor after Jerry Stackhouse fouled him on a fast break in Game 2 of the Suns’ second-round series with Dallas.

Johnson missed the rest of the series and the beginning of the conference finals against the Spurs with a fractured orbital, only returning as a shell of himself after San Antonio took a 2-0 lead in the series. By then, it was far too late.

Why was this a bigger what-if than the controversial suspensions that doomed the Suns’ 2008 season? Well, Suns players say so:

”We should’ve won it all that year,” Marion said. “If it wasn’t for that (Johnson’s injury), I think we would have.”

The controversial suspensions to Stoudemire and Boris Diaw during the 2007 conference semifinals are the most cited bad breaks of that Suns era, but the Suns think Johnson’s bad break was worse, especially to lose his defensive option on Tony Parker.

”There’s no way you can tell me we wouldn’t have been NBA champions if I hadn’t got hurt,” Johnson said.

And I believe them. Before Johnson became known as ISO-Joe in Atlanta, he was the glue that held the Suns’ fragile ecosystem together. He shot 48 percent from three that season on four-and-a-half attempts per game. His non-stop running kept Phoenix’s transition attack going. He defended the toughest guards that Nash couldn’t. If the Suns’ main attack broke down, he provided the supplementary playmaking. We all love Boris Diaw’s game, but he was never as important as Johnson was to the Suns.

About that. Annoyed by Johnson’s salary demands, the Suns dealt him to Atlanta that summer and got Diaw back in the sign-and-trade. It wasn’t quite the James Harden trade, but it had a similar effect. Phoenix stayed in the mix for the rest of the decade, but in hindsight, the summer departure of Johnson, combined with Stoudemire’s microfracture surgery, doomed their title hopes forever.

3. 1994-95 Orlando Magic

ERA: Penny and Shaq

RECORD: 57-25

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7.1

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in NBA Finals to Houston Rockets (4-0)

KEY STAR(S): Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway

COACH: Brian Hill

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Horace Grant, Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott, Donald Royal, Brian Shaw, Anthony Bowie

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1995-96

You already know about Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway, the 1995 win over the Bulls, the four missed Nick Anderson free throws, and the unceremonious end to the Shaq era the next summer. If not, watch the 30 for 30.

So let’s talk about the move that turned the young Magic into serious title contenders: the 1994 free-agent signing of Horace Grant. Cue Michael Buffer, because … let’s get ready to lawsuuuuiiiiitttttt!

In the summer of 1994, Grant, the critical third piece of the first Chicago Bulls three-peat, was a free agent. Tired of doing the dirty work without receiving enough credit, Grant wanted to leave and yearned to join up with Hardaway and O’Neal in Orlando. There was just one problem: Orlando didn’t have any salary-cap space to sign him. Kinda an issue.

But Grant and the Magic designed a clever, mutually beneficial way around this dilemma. First, Orlando traded point guard Scott Skiles and a first-round pick to Washington to open up Skiles’ $2.1 million salary slot. Then, they signed Grant to a six-year, $22 million deal that included a first-year salary of just over $2 million (fancy that!) and an opt-out provision after the first year. Left unspoken: Orlando would invite Grant to exercise that option and give him a much bigger contract thereafter. Convenient and successful. Everyone got what they wanted and nobody got hurt.

Unfortunately for the Magic, salary-cap circumvention was a growing concern for the NBA. The league tried to prevent the Blazers from doing a similar move with Chris Dudley the previous summer, but lost in court. Buoyed by the ruling, other contenders, most notably the Phoenix Suns, inked quality veterans for below-market contracts that were either for one year or contained opt-out clauses like Grant’s. (This is how Phoenix got perennial all-star Danny Manning to sign a one-year, $1 million deal.) Using evidence of a reported five-year, $20 million offer from the Bulls as proof that Grant signed below his market value in Orlando, the NBA voided Grant’s deal, along with two other giant new contracts for Toni Kukoc and A.C. Green signed one summer after agreeing to miniscule short-term deals from the Bulls and Suns the previous summer.

The Magic sued the league, and the case went before the same judge that ruled in the Blazers’ favor for Dudley. This time, the judge sided in favor of the NBA, making Grant a free agent again just weeks before training camp. (He did not do the same for Kukoc and Green because it would violate the precedent set in the Dudley case. Oddly, the Manning deal was allowed to slip through, as was a similar Magic one-year deal to bring veteran point guard Brian Shaw in to spell Hardaway.) The league said they’d allow Grant to sign with Orlando if the opt-out clause was after the second year instead. Two weeks later, the Magic and Grant agreed. That’s how close Orlando’s “missing piece” signing came to falling apart.

The epilogue to this story shouldn’t surprise you. Though O’Neal left Orlando after the 1996 season, the Magic still gave the 31-year-old Grant a new five-year, $50 million deal, even though he was coming off a devastating elbow injury. After all of that, they still successfully circumvented the salary cap. Glad the lawyers got paid, though. (Shaw, by the way, got a one-year, $9 million deal after the 1995 season, while Manning inked a six-year, $40 million deal with Phoenix despite tearing his ACL. These teams were not subtle!)

2. 2011-12 Oklahoma City Thunder

ERA: Pre-Harden trade

RECORD: 47-19 (58-win pace)

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +6.2

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in NBA Finals to Miami Heat (4-1)

KEY STAR(S): Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden

COACH: Scott Brooks

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins, Thabo Sefolosha, Nick Collison, Derek Fisher, Eric Maynor, Daequan Cook, Reggie Jackson

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 2010-11

We’re still waiting for the tell-all book or documentary that explains once and for all why the Thunder traded James Harden to the Rockets. We have many theories and circumstantial explanations, but no absolute truth. All I know is that these words from Andrew Sharp, published on our website on Oct. 28, 2012, were prophetic.

“So if you want to say the Thunder chose long-term flexibility over a short term shot at a title, that’s fine. Just don’t overlook the second part of that sentence. If basketball is a business, there’s a good chance this was a bad business decision. Because what happens if KD and co. aren’t good enough to win it all in the next few years? Doesn’t OKC end up spending to compete with the best, and eventually paying the luxury tax because of somebody else? And it may not work. There are no guarantees at finding a core that clicks on the court the way last year’s did.”

Every word of that paragraph came true, including the prediction that OKC would end up going over the luxury tax for a worse player than Harden. What might have been, indeed.

1. 2001-02 Sacramento Kings

ERA: The beautiful game Kings

RECORD: 61-21

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7.6

PLAYOFF RESULT: “Lost” in West Finals to Los Angeles Lakers (4-3)

KEY STAR(S): Chris Webber

COACH: Rick Adelman

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Peja Stojakovic, Mike Bibby, Vlade Divac, Doug Christie, Bobby Jackson, Hedo Turkoglu, Scott Pollard

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 2000-01, 2002-03, 2003-04

Just watch this video.

Black&Blue

To support the Blue Lives Matter movement is to express to the world around you that you have no idea what Black Lives Matter even means, and to suggest that authority is more important than personal freedoms or happiness.

Let’s say someone in support of Blue Lives Matter is a centrist and not fully aware of what the two sides truly stand for.  Here’s your cheat sheet. 

History of Black Lives Matter:

2013: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi respond to the acquittal of George Zimmerman by kickstarting the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and movement.

2014: Police kill 1,039 people including Dontre Hamilton, Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Laquan McDonald, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, Antonio Martin, Jerame Reid

2014 July: Eric Garner dies in New York City, after a New York City Police Department officer put him in a chokehold while arresting him.

2014 August: Mike Brown is murdered in Ferguson by police officer Darren Wilson; Darnell Moore and Patrisse Cullors organize a national ride during Labor Day weekend in protest.

2014 November: A New York City Police Department officer shoots and kills Akai Gurley, a 28-year-old African-American man.  

2014 November: Alicia Garza organizes a response to the grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson for the death of Mike Brown; fourteen Black Lives Matter activists are arrested.

2014 November: Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy is shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer.

2014 December: 2,000–3,000 people gather at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota to protest the killings of unarmed black men by police.  At least twenty members of the protest are arrested.

2014 December: In Wisconsin, BLM protests the police shooting of Dontre Hamilton, who died in April.

2014 December: Black Lives Matter protests the shooting of John Crawford III.

2014 December: The shooting of Renisha McBride is protested by Black Lives Matter.

2014 December: In response to the decision by the grand jury not to indict Darren Wilson on any charges related to the death of Michael Brown, a protest march was held in Berkeley, California.

2015: Police kill 1,134 people including Charley Leundeu Keunang, Tony Robinson, Anthony Hill, Meagan Hockaday, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, William Chapman, Jonathan Sanders, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose, Jeremy McDole, Corey Jones, and Jamar Clark as well as the killing of The Charleston Nine.

2015 March: BLM protests at Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office, demanding reforms within the Chicago Police Department.

2015 March: Charley Leundeu Keunang, a 43-year-old Cameroonian national, is fatally shot by Los Angeles Police Department officers. The LAPD arrests fourteen following BLM demonstrations.

2015 April: Black Lives Matter across the United States protests over the death of Freddie Gray which includes the 2015 Baltimore protests.

2015 April: After the shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, Black Lives Matter protests Scott's death and calls for citizen oversight of police.

2015 May: A nationwide protest, Say Her Name, decries the police killing of black women and girls, which includes the deaths of Meagan Hockaday, Aiyana Jones, Rekia Boyd, and others.

2015 May: In Cleveland, Ohio, an officer is acquitted at trial in the shooting of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.

2015 May: In Madison, Wisconsin BLM protests after the officer was not charged in the shooting of Tony Robinson.

2015 June: Dylann Roof's shooting in a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

2015 June: A video is released showing an officer pinning a girl—at a pool party in McKinney, Texas—to the ground with his knees.

2015 July: Sandra Bland, an African-American woman, is allegedly found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas.

2015 July: Samuel DuBose is shot and killed by a University of Cincinnati police officer.

2015 July: Jonathan Sanders dies while being arrested by police in Mississippi.

2015 August: In Charlotte, North Carolina, a judge declares a mistrial in the trial of a white Charlotte police officer who killed an unarmed black man, Jonathan Ferrell.

2015 September: BLM protests the shooting of Jeremy McDole.

2015 October: Black Lives Matters activists are arrested during a protest of a police chiefs conference in Chicago.

2015 November: Jamar Clark is shot by Minneapolis Police Department.

2015 November: A group of men carrying firearms and body armor confront a BLM march, and begin calling the protesters racial slurs.  After protesters ask the armed men to leave, the men open fire, shooting five protesters.

2016: Police kill 963 people including Bruce Kelley Jr., Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Joseph Mann, Abdirahman Abdi, Paul O'Neal, Korryn Gaines, Sylville Smith, Terence Crutcher, Keith Lamont Scott, Alfred Olango, and Deborah Danner.

2016 January: Mario Woods is shot by San Francisco Police officers

2016 January: Bruce Kelley Jr. is shot after fatally stabbing a police dog while trying to escape from police.

2016 February: Abdullahi Omar Mohamed, a 17-year-old Somali refugee, is shot and injured by Salt Lake City, Utah police.

2016 June: Conviction and sentencing of Jasmine Richards for a 2015 incident in which she attempted to stop a police officer from arresting another woman

2016 July 5: Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, is shot several times at point-blank range while pinned to the ground by two white Baton Rouge Police Department officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

2016 July 6: Philando Castile is fatally shot by Jeronimo Yanez, a St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer, after being pulled over in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul. Castile was driving a car with his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter as passengers when he was pulled over by Yanez and another officer.  A video of the shooting is instantly uploaded and shared via social media.

2016 July 8: More than 100 people are arrested at Black Lives Matter protests across the United States.

2016 July 28: Chicago Police Department officers shoot Paul O'Neal in the back and kill him following a car chase.

2016 August 1: In Randallstown, Maryland police officers shoot and kill Korryn Gaines, a 23-year-old African-American woman, also shooting and injuring her five-year-old son.

2016 August: Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers kneels during the national anthem, as opposed to the tradition of standing, before his team's third preseason game.  During a post-game interview he explains his position stating, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

2016 September: Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma is shot to death by police officers

2016 September: Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina is shot to death by police officers.

2017: Police kill 987 people

2017 January: Hector Navarrete, a 31-year-old Hispanic man, is shot in a vehicle in Northglenn, Colo. after police falsely accused Navarrete of kidnapping his girlfriend.  The police stated Navarrete tried to ram their vehicle, but the girlfriend and witness to the encounter stated this was a false accusation.

2017 January 10: Darrion Barnhill, an unarmed 23-year-old black man, is shocked with a stun gun and shot in Reagan, Tenn. when police broke into his home for outstanding warrants.  Although unarmed, the police opened fire.

2017 February: A month-long "Black Lives Matter" art exhibition is organized by three Richmond, Virginia artists at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond in the Byrd Park area of the city. The show features more than 30 diverse multicultural artists on a theme exploring racial equality and justice.

2017 February 5: Nana Adomako, an unarmed 45-year-old black man, is shot in Fremont, Calif.  Captain Sean Washington, tasked with investigating the murder stated, "My observations of the video it was such a sudden and violent attack that I think Officer Taylor did a fantastic job trying to survive that particular situation by going through and considering the tools that he had available for him at the time," 

2017 February 8: Chad Robertson, an unarmed 25-year-old black man, is shot in Chicago, Ill. by an Amtrak officer with only 18 months on the job.  He shot Robertson in the back as he was fleeing under the suspected possession of marijuana.  The officer’s lawyer claimed he "really believed he was about to be shot," and stated Robertson reached into his pocket while charging at the officer.  Yet, none of the six witnesses in the 300 block area saw Robertson turn or gesture toward the officer.  Following the shooting, Robertson’s heartbroken sister stated, "He had dreams and aspirations. I'm devastated. I'm devastated that his life was taken."

2017 February: Virginia Commonwealth University's James Branch Cabell Library focuses on a month-long schedule of events relating to Black history and showed photos from the church's "Black Lives Matter" exhibition on its outdoor screen.  The VCU schedule of events also includes: the Real Life Film Series The Angry Heart: The Impact of Racism on Heart Disease among African-Americans; Keith Knight presented the 14th Annual VCU Libraries Black History Month lecture; Lawrence Ross, author of the book Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America's Campuses talked about how his book related to the "Black Lives Matter" movement; and Velma P. Scantlebury, M.D., the first black female transplant surgeon in the United States, discussed "Health Equity in Kidney Transplantation: Experiences from a surgeon's perspective."

2017 February 10: Jocques Clemmons is shot in Nashville, Tennessee, and incites a BLM protest.

2017 March 19: Alteria Woods, an pregnant unarmed 21-year-old black woman, is shot in her home in Gifford, Fla.

2017 April 29: Jordan Edwards, an unarmed 15-year-old black male, is shot in Balch Springs, Tex. during a routine traffic stop following a report to police that there may have been a party in the area where underaged drinking may have occurred.  Edwards was in the passenger seat of his 16-year-old brother’s car when the officer fired through the passenger window.  False claims were made by police through the following days that Edward’s car was backing up towards the officer, but later admitted the car was pulling forward.  The officer’s life was not in any danger, but he decided rather than allow car of young boys to pull away from a traffic stop he would rather discharge his weapon.

2017 May: The district attorney of Davidson County decides not to prosecute police officer Joshua Lippert, the officer who shot and killed Daniel Hambrick during a chase, shooting the unarmed man in the back.

2017 June 2: Marc Brandon Davis, an unarmed 34-year-old black man, is shot in Petal, Miss. after a car accident.  When officers arrived an alleged “altercation” broke out between Davis, who was just in a car accident, and one of the officers who remains unnamed. The family of the deceased soon sued the city claiming excessive force, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and battery and assault in the death of 34-year-old Marc Brandon Davis.  Petal Mayor, Hal Marx, refutes the lawsuit saying he's confident the officer "did nothing wrong."

2017 June 8: David Jones, an unarmed 30-year-old black man, is shocked with a stun gun and shot in Philadelphia, Pa. after fleeing a traffic stop.  Jones purposefully ditched his legally owned weapon and was shot in the back nearly 25-feet from where the gun dropped.  Jones was in a populated area as the officer fired in the direction of traffic.

2017 June 29: Aaron Bailey, an unarmed 45-year-old black man, is shot in his vehicle in Indianapolis, Ind. during a routine traffic stop.  Driving on a suspended license, Bailey fled the scene and crashed his car.  The officer fired his weapon 11 times, 4 bullets striking Bailey in the back of the head.

2017 July 6: Dejuan Guillory, an unarmed 27-year-old black man, is shot in Mamou, La. when an Evangeline Parish sheriff's deputy started a physical confrontation with both Guillory and his girlfriend.  The deputy first shot Guillory in his back while Guillory was face down, then fired several more times.

2017 July 7: Brian Easley, an unarmed 33-year-old black man and a former lance corporal in the Marine Corps is shot in Marietta, Ga.  Easley was living in a $25-a-night hotel, scraping by on a small monthly disability check from the Department of Veterans Affairs.  After returning from his 2005 tours of Kuwait and Iraq he found himself honorably discharged and returning home suffering from both physically ailments and mental illness.  In the summer of 2017 his usual disability check from the VA had mysteriously failed to materialize, and rent was due. If he couldn’t cover it, he’d be on the street, and the thought terrified him. On July 7 at around 9:30 a.m, the Marine veteran entered the Wells Fargo branch and claimed that the backpack slung over his shoulder contained C-4 explosive. He allowed several employees and customers to exit and then began making calls, dialing 911 to let the authorities know what was happening, and a local news station, WSB-TV, to explain his predicament. “They took everything,” he told the assignment editor who picked up the phone. “With my last little bit of money I got I’ve been able to hold up at a hotel, but I’m going to be out on the street and I’m going to have nothing. I’m not going to have any money for food or anything. I’m just going to be homeless, and I’m going to starve.” He continued to speak to the editor on the phone, “I already told them if I detonate this bomb, I’ll let them go first,” he promised. “These ladies are very nice, and they’ve been very helpful and supportive.”  He allowed the editor to speak with the hostages. One described her captor as “very respectful.”  Around 12:15 p.m. a single shot rang out, adding Easley’s name to the list of 236 mentally ill people killed by police in 2017.  As the hostages were whisked to safety, a robot entered the bank and retrieved Easley’s backpack, placing it in a “total containment vessel.” It was eventually deemed harmless, and inside investigators found a Bible, some papers, and other incidentals.  On his body they found a wallet and a broken cross pendant.

2017 July 19: Farhad Jabbari, an unarmed 38-year-old man, is shot in Saginaw, Mich. after he is pulled over for drunk driving.  Dash cam footage shows a clear picture of the encounter. “You just blew a 0.61, legal limit is .08, you are double the legal limit,” the officer tells Jabbari.  Jabbari is placed in handcuffs and placed in the back of the police cruiser.  “So I'm going to jail now?” Jabbari asks. “Yep, we will do the test right there,” the officer replies.  “I'm not going to jail,” Jabbari says.  Seconds later, Jabbari is able to slip out of one handcuff.  “What are you doing, uh uh, keep them on,” the officer says.  “I'm committing suicide,” Jabbari responds.  The officer opens the back seat of the car and is pulled in by Jabbari.  The officer fires five gunshots, killing Jabbari.

2017 September 27: At the College of William & Mary, students associated with Black Lives Matter protested an ACLU event because the ACLU had fought for the right of Unite the Right rally to be held in Charlottesville, Virginia.  William & Mary's president Taylor Reveley responded with a statement defending the college's commitment to open debate.

2017 October 19: Dewboy Lister, an unarmed 55-year-old black man, is shot in Corpus Christi, Tex. Lister spent the last years of his life mentoring the youth in his community.  He helped young men in Corpus Christi get jobs, he instilled in them respect for others and encouraged them to help after Hurricane Harvey struck the area.  He was shot in the torso during a traffic stop.  About him, Listers friends said, "He was a great man. He’s always a phone call away when families are in need.  He helped a lot of men around my age [21] land jobs at the local docks and ports.  He would constantly tell us to obey but know our rights. He was all about family and helping.”

2017 November 13: Calvin Toney, an unarmed 24-year-old black man, is shot in an apartment building in Baton Rouge, La. during a routine DCF meeting with an officer escort.  The footage was never released and Toney’s family was never given closure.  Toney was pronounced dead after a bullet wound to the chest, but paramedics found Toney’s body in handcuffs.  The official statement is that Toney was handcuffed after being shot, but without the body cam footage there is no corroborating evidence to this statement.  The family has been left without answers as to why their son was murdered.

2017 November 18: Lawrence Hawkins, an unarmed 56-year-old black man, is shot in Prichard, Ala.  Lakeisha Williams witnessed the event and stated a Prichard officer followed Hawkins closely all the way to his driveway without the patrol lights turned on.  Williams said, "It was ridiculous how he did that. He didn't turn on no lights until after that man was shot over there (the driveway)." Williams said Hawkins ran a stop light but didn't deserve to get shot.  She said, "He just got out of his truck and reaching out to get his cell phone." Williams continued, "The police was saying something and then all I heard was pow, pow, pow."

2017 December 1: Keita O'Neil, an unarmed 42-year-old black man, is shot on a street in San Francisco, Calif. by an officer on his fourth day on the job.  Body camera footage shows the officer drawing his pistol from the passenger seat while the cruiser is still moving. The video then shows him opening the side door and firing a single shot through the window as O’Neil, who was unarmed, runs by in the opposite direction.  O’Neil was later pronounced dead at San Francisco General Hospital.

2017 December 6: Jean Pedro Pierre, an unarmed 42-year-old black man, with a history of medical problems, including mental illness, is shot in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla.  Pierre’s family states the cops’ video footage misrepresents the man, who was a father of five, an entrepreneur and former political candidate in Haiti.  “They didn’t have to kill him at all,” said Ralph Fenelon, Pierre’s son.  “They had tasers, they had other weapons. They didn’t have to shoot him.”

2018: Police kill 1,165 people

History of Blue Lives Matter:

2014: The FBI reports 51 law enforcement officers were 'feloniously' killed in the line of duty.

2014 December: The homicides of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in Brooklyn, New York kickstart a counter movement to Black Lives Matter, which the authorities believe to be “anti-police”.

2015: National statistics Report 42 police officers were shot and killed.

2016: National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reports 64 officers were killed in firearm-related incidents.

2016 July 7: A BLM protest was held in Dallas, Texas that was organized to protest the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. At the end of the peaceful protest, Micah Xavier Johnson opened fire in an ambush, killing five police officers and wounding seven others and two civilians. The gunman was then killed by a robot-delivered bomb. Before he died, according to police, Johnson said that "he was upset about Black Lives Matter", and that "he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers."

2017: National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reports 44 officers killed in fire-arm related incidents.

2018: National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reports 52 officers killed in fire-arm related incidents.

Homicide Comparisons:

According to the FBI, which publishes the data in the Uniform Crime Reports, from 1980–2014, an average of 64 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed per year.

Updated estimates from the Bureau of Justice Statistics released in 2015 estimate the number of killings by police officers to be around 930 per year, or 1,240 if assuming that non-reporting local agencies kill people at the same rate as reporting agencies.

The numbers show why support for Blue Lives Matter is a disingenuous cause. Especially as most of those in favor of Blue Lives Matter are police officers themselves showing support for their “boys in blue.”  A police officer who is in support of Blue Lives Matter, and flaunts the Blues Lives Matter flag and merchandise, overall dismisses the deaths of the very citizens they’ve vowed to protect.

The initial response of centrists to the statement “Black Lives Matter” was “All Lives Matter”.  However, this is how disenfranchisement works.  Similar tactics are used against feminism, stating that feminists are anti-men.  As bell hooks stated in her collection of essays Feminism is for Everyone, “Conservative mass media constantly represented feminist women as man-haters. And when there was an anti-male faction or sentiment in the movement, they highlighted it as a way of discrediting feminism. Embedded in the portrayal of feminists as man-hating was the assumption that all feminists were lesbians. Appealing to homophobia, mass media intensified anti-feminist sentiment among men.”  We see this tactic being used today by groups like Blue Lives Matter to hijack a movement and portray it as chaotic and violent.

Black Lives Matter was never about the prospect that one life is more important than another.  Rather, it aims to highlight the most affected and yet least represented group of people.  The movement portrays the sentiment that no one is free while others are oppressed.  Or as Audre Lorde said, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter

https://blacklivesmatter.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Lives_Matter

https://www.odmp.org/

https://thinkprogress.org/who-police-killed-in-2014-44e56b4037a1/

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/12/30/373985338/report-number-of-police-officers-killed-spikes-in-2014

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/31/the-counted-police-killings-2015-young-black-men

http://www.aapf.org/sayhernamereport/

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/12/29/461402091/number-of-police-officers-killed-by-gunfire-fell-14-percent-in-2015-study-says

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/

http://www.espn.com/blog/san-francisco-49ers/post/_/id/18957/transcript-of-colin-kaepernicks-comments-about-sitting-during-national-anthem

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/30/507536360/number-of-police-officers-killed-by-firearms-rose-in-2016-study-finds

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2017/

https://www.theroot.com/here-s-how-many-people-police-killed-in-2018-1831469528

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-amtrak-shooting-charges-20170217-story.html

https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/14/us/louisiana-fatal-police-shooting/index.html

https://taskandpurpose.com/didnt-kill-death-lance-corporal-brian-easley

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-new-estimate-of-killings-by-police-is-way-higher-and-still-too-low/

Lotuses Quotes

Official Website: Lotuses Quotes

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• A flower can’t grow without rain. (Alexion) Too much rain and it drowns. (Danger) And yet the most beautiful of the lotus flowers are the ones that grow in the deepest mud. (Alexion) – Sherrilyn Kenyon • A little child paddles a little boat, Drifting about, and picking white lotuses. He does not know how to hide his tracks, And duckweed’s opened up along his path. – Bai Juyi • A man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never moistened by water; so a man ought to live in the world – his heart to God and his hands to work. – Swami Vivekananda • An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon the sea. – Herman Melville • And her sweet red lips on these lips of mine Burned like the ruby fire set In the swinging lamp of a crimson shrine, Or the bleeding wounds of the pomegranate, Or the heart of the lotus drenched and wet With the spilt-out blood of the rose-red wine. – Oscar Wilde • And just for a moment I had reached the point of ecstasy that I always wanted to reach, which was the complete step across chronological time into timeless shadows, and wonderment in the bleakness of the mortal realm, and the sensation of death kicking at my heels to move on, wiht a phantom dogging its own heels, and myself hurrying to a plank where all the angels dove off and flew into the holy void of uncreated emptiness, the potent and inconceivable radiancies shining in bright Mind Essence, innumerable lotus-lands falling open in the magic mothswarm of heaven. – Sal Paradise – Jack Kerouac • As a lotus flower is born in water, grows in water and rises out of water to stand above it unsoiled, so I, born in the world, raised in the world having overcome the world, live unsoiled by the world – Gautama Buddha • As a water bead on a lotus leaf, as water on a red lily, does not adhere, so the sage does not adhere to the seen, the heard, or the sensed. – Gautama Buddha • At this moment, is there anything lacking? Nirvana is right here now before our eyes. This place is the lotus land. This body now is the Buddha. – Hakuin Ekaku

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Lotus', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_lotus').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_lotus img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Be like a lotus. Let the beauty of your heart speak. – Amit Ray • Because people learn from their mistakes, Danger. Pain and failure are a natural part of life. It’s kind of like a parent who watches their child fall down while learning to walk. Instead of coddling the child, you set them back on their feet and let them try again. They have to stumble before they can run. (Alexion) Do you really believe that we need to have our hearts ripped out? (Danger) A flower can’t grow without rain. (Alexion) Too much rain and it drowns. (Danger) And yet the most beautiful of the lotus flowers are the ones that grow in the deepest mud. (Alexion) – Sherrilyn Kenyon • But when one masters this wretched desire, which is so hard to overcome, then one’s sorrows just drop off, like a drop of water off a lotus. – Gautama Buddha • By means of microscopic observation and astronomical projection the lotus flower can become the foundation for an entire theory of the universe and an agent whereby we may perceive Truth. – Yukio Mishima • Cut brambles long enough, Sprout after sprout, And the lotus will bloom Of its own accord: Already waiting in the clearing, The single image of light. The day you see this, That day you will become it. – Sun Bu’er • Cut out the love of self, like an autumn lotus with thy hand! – Gautama Buddha • Deep within the self is the Light of God. It radiates throughout the expanse of His creation. Through the Guru’s teachings, the darkness of spiritual ignorance is dispelled. The heart lotus flower blooms forth and eternal peace is obtained, as one’s light merges into the Supreme Light. – Guru Amar Das • Did either the nonexistent or the measured response after a series of attacks on Americans the past decade – in Lebanon, Africa, Saudi Arabia, New York, and Yemen – suggest to our terrorist enemies that it was wrong and unwise to kill reasonable and affable people, or did the easy killing imply that self-absorbed and pampered Lotus-eaters would not much care who or how many were butchered as long as it was within reasonable numbers and spread out over time? – Victor Davis Hanson • Do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna’s Lotus sounding rough? – Murray Walker • Do not go to the garden of flowers! O friend! go not there; In your body is the garden of flowers. Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the infinite beauty. – Kabir • Drop guilt! – because to be guilty is to live in hell. Not being guilty, you will have the freshness of dewdrops in the early morning sun, you will have the freshness of lotus petals in the lake, you will have the freshness of the stars in the night. Once guilt disappears you will have a totally different kind of life, luminous and radiant. You will have a dance to your feet and your heart will be singing a thousand and one songs. – Rajneesh • Drop jealousy and love wells up. Jealousy means that I am the owner. It is an ego trip, and wherever there is ego there is poison, and the poison kills the very source of love. One has to become aware of just these few things and discard them and one’s life becomes a lotus of love. And then there is no need to go in any search of god, god will come in search of you. This is my observation, that god always comes seeking the true seeker. Whenever the disciple is ready the master appears. – Rajneesh • Egypt loved the lotus because it never dies. It is the same for people who are loved. – Anita Diament • Egypt loved the lotus becuase it never dies. It is the same for people who are loved. Thus can something as insignificant as a name-two syllables, one high, one sweet- summon up the innumerable smiles, tears, sighs and dreams of a human life. – Anita Diament • English Bohemianism is a curiously unluscious fruit. … Inside this hothouse, huge lascivious orchids slide sensuously up the sweating windows, passion-flowers cross-pollinate in wild heliotrope abandon, lotuses writhe with poppies in the sweet warm beds, kumquats ripen, open and plop flatly to the floor-and outside, in a neat, trimly-hoed kitchen-garden, English bohemians sit in cold orderly rows, like carrots. – Alan Coren • Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted. – Sylvia Plath • Every green herb, from the lotus to the darnel, is rich with delicate aids to help incurious man. – Martin Farquhar Tupper • God cannot be found outside you, because there is no God who can ever be outside you. God is the ultimate fragrance of your consciousness. When your consciousness opens like a lotus, the fragrance that is released is God – better to call it godliness. – Rajneesh • God is the Sun and when His rays fall upon your heart, not impeded by the clouds of egoism, the lotus blooms and the petals unfold. – Sathya Sai Baba • Great people will always be mocked by those who feel smaller than them. However, a lion does not flinch at laughter coming from a hyena. A gorilla does not budge from a banana thrown at it by a monkey. A nightingale does not stop singing its beautiful song at the intrusion of an annoying woodpecker. Whenever you should question your self-worth, remember the lotus flower. Even though it plunges to life from beneath the mud, it does not allow the dirt that surrounds it to affect its growth or beauty. – Suzy Kassem • Heat lingers As days are still long; Early mornings are cool While autumn is still young. Dew on the lotus Scatters pure perfume; Wind on the bamboos Gives off a gentle tinkling. I am idle and lonely, Lying down all day, Sick and decayed; No one asks for me; Thin dusk before my gates, Cassia blossoms inch deep. – Bai Juyi • I also have a lot of preserved foods, things that will keep for a long time like dried fish, seaweed or lotus seed. – Martin Yan • I embrace my body, and I embrace everything about myself. Coming full circle is a celebration of freedom and happiness because that’s what [my new album] ‘Lotus’ is representing. I’m embracing everything that I’ve grown to be and learned to be. – Christina Aguilera • I got things like the lotus position long before anybody else did, or at least in the mainstream. But I had fun. I guess my legs are pretty flexible, so I used to get a kick out of doing things like that. I would get into a full lotus with my legs and then roll around. – John Astin • I have a strong antipathy to everything connected with gardens, gardening and gardeners. . . . Gardening seems to me a kind of admission of defeat. . . . Man was made for better things than pruning his rose trees. The state of mind of the confirmed gardener seems to me as reprehensible as that of the confirmed alcoholic. Both have capitulated to the world. Both have become lotus eaters and drifters. – Colin Wilson • I saw Lotus F1 racing as the best choice for me to progress my career, after considering several other options that were available to me. – Heikki Kovalainen • I sit cross-legged on the rock The valleys and streams are cold and damp Sitting quietly is beautiful The cliffs are lost in mist and fog I rest happily in this place At dusk the tree shadows are low I look into my mind A white lotus emerges from the dark mud – Hanshan • I think it’s more, at least at the time, a sense of abstraction. My mind doesn’t really work in a way where there’s a definitive sense of something. I go one way and then it opens up into a million different ideas, and somehow, when you look at the art, Buddhist art, or particularly Tibetan art, you know, it’s a similar thing. All of a sudden there are a million lotus leaves and you’re following one to the next and to another, and I related to that, and it felt simple and easy to me. And it made me feel smart. – Jake Gyllenhaal • I want you to learn the lesson of the lotus. This flower springs forth from muddy waters. It raises its delicate petals to the sun and perfumes the world while, at the same time, its roots cling to the elemental muck, the very essence of the mortal experience. Without that soil, the flower would wither and die. – Colleen Houck • I was in yoga the other day. I was in full lotus position. My chakras were all aligned. My mind is cleared of all clatter and I’m looking out of my third eye and everything that I’m supposed to be doing. It’s amazing what comes up, when you sit in that silence. “Mama keeps whites bright like the sunlight, Mama’s got the magic of Clorox 2.” – Ellen DeGeneres • I will allow only my Lord to possess my sacred lotus pond, and every night you can make blossom in me flowers of fire. – Huang E • If the bees which seek the liquid oozing from the head of a lust-intoxicated elephant are driven away by the flapping of his ears, then the elephant has lost only the ornament of his head. The bees are quite happy in the lotus filled lake. – Chanakya • If we take shelter of the lotus feet of the spiritual master, we can become free from illusion, fear and distress. If we wholeheartedly beg for his mercy without any deceit then the spiritual master bestows all auspiciousness upon us. – Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati • If you come to Plum Village in the summertime, you see many lotus flowers. Without the mud the lotus flowers cannot grow. You cannot separate lotus flowers from the mud. It is the same with understanding and love. These are two kinds of flowers that grow on the ground of suffering – Nhat Hanh • If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful – and strong. • If you sleep, Desire grows in you Like a vine in the forest. Like a monkey in the forest You jump from tree to tree, Never finding the fruit – From life to life, Never finding peace. If you are filled with desire Your sorrows swell Like the grass after the rain. But if you subdue desire Your sorrows shall fall from you Like drops of water from a lotus flower. – Gautama Buddha • I’m always very interested in breeding. Raising cacti is breeding. My lotus plant collection is breeding. The insects are breeding. – Takashi Murakami • I’m delighted to be coming back to Formula 1 after a two-year break, and I’m grateful to Lotus Renault GP for offering me this opportunity. – Kimi Raikkonen • I’m influenced by the music of the ’60s. It’s a mishmash of everything. To me, psychedelic can be all the way to a DJ. House music can be very psychedelic. ‘Flying Lotus’ is very psychedelic. Even though it’s urban and technological, it’s also mind-expanding, anything-can-go mishmash. – Anton Newcombe • In 1879 the Bengali scholar S.M. Tagore compiled a more extensive list of ruby colors from the Purana sacred texts: ‘like the China rose, like blood, like the seeds of the pomegranate, like red lead, like the red lotus, like saffron, like the resin of certain trees, like the eyes of the Greek partridge or the Indian crane…and like the interior of the half-blown water lily.’ With so many gorgeous descriptive possibilities it is curious that in English the two ancient names for rubies have come to sound incredibly ugly. – Victoria Finlay • In Egypt, I loved the perfume of the lotus. A flower would bloom in the pool at dawn, filling the entire garden with a blue musk so powerful it seemed that even the fish and ducks would swoon. By night, the flower might wither but the perfume lasted. Fainter and fainter, but never quite gone. Even many days later, the lotus remained in the garden. Months would pass and a bee would alight near the spot where the lotus had blossomed, and its essence was released again, momentary but undeniable. – Anita Diament • In Savasana or in meditation, the light of the eyes is drawn towards the lotus of the heart, so that the seat of the intelligence of the head is brought into contact with the seat of the intelligence of the heart, which is called the mind. Thus one passes from the individualistic state of consciousness to the universal state of consciousness. It is the merging of the intellect of the brain with the intellect of the soul. – B.K.S. Iyengar • In the land of the lotus-eaters there is no action. Action arises only from need, from dissatisfaction. It is purposeful striving towards something. Its ultimate end is always to get rid of a condition which is conceived to be deficient-to fulfill a need, to achieve satisfaction, to increase happiness. – Ludwig von Mises • In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha says to light up one corner – not the whole world. Just make it clear where you are. – Shunryu Suzuki • In the Lotus Sutra, it is said everything is emptiness – this world is empty, hell is empty, heaven is empty, God is empty, everything is emptiness. Emptiness is the nature of all things, nothingness, so be attuned to nothingness and you will achieve. – Rajneesh • It does not matter if you are a rose or a lotus or a marigold. What matters is that you are flowering. – Rajneesh • It is the north wind that lashes men into Vikings; it is the soft, luscious south wind which lulls them to lotus dreams. – Ouida • It is the plight of man. And while the blame lies partly on the river ” Lotus gestures towards the dark waters before us “most of the blame lies on man’s inclination to tune into the noise that blares all around him instead of the beautiful silence that lies deep within. – Alyson Noel • It was an easy choice to return with Lotus Renault GP as I have been impressed by the scope of the team’s ambition. – Kimi Raikkonen • It’s a mining town in lotus land. – F. Scott Fitzgerald • It’s like growing lotus flowers. You cannot grow lotus flowers on marble. You have to grow them on the mud. Without mud you cannot have lotus flowers. Without suffering, you have no way to learn how to be understanding and compassionate. – Nhat Hanh • Just think, Vishnu sleeps in the cosmic ocean, and the lotus of the universe grows from his navel. On the lotus sits Brahma, the creator. Brahma opens his eyes, and a world comes into being, governed by an Indra. Brahma closes his eyes, and a world goes out of being. The life of a Brahma is 432,000 years. When he dies, the lotus goes back, and another lotus is formed, and another Brahma. Then think of the galaxies beyond galaxies in infinite space, each a lotus, with a Brahma sitting on it, opening his eyes, closing his eyes. – Joseph Campbell • Life is like a rain drop on a lotus leaf. Everybody realises that you’re either very lucky person or you’re not. – George Harrison • Like the lotus flower that is born out of mud, we must honor the darkest parts of ourselves and the most painful of our life’s experiences, because they are what allow us to birth our most beautiful self. – Debbie Ford • Like the lotus which thrives in mud, the potential for realization grows in the rich soil of everyday life – Dalai Lama • Lotus-land as it appears in ‘Free Will’ is simply a metaphor for an idealized background, a ‘land of milk and honey.’ It is sometimes also used as a pejorative name for Los Angeles, though that was not in my mind when I wrote it. – Neil Peart • Love is born in sexuality but sexuality is not love. The lotus is born in the mud, but the lotus is not just mud. And if mud remains mud of course there are bound to be tears on the cheeks. – Rajneesh • Love is the lotus, lust is the mud the lotus arises out of. – Rajneesh • May the honey-sweet flute music that flows from Lord Mukunda’s lotus mouth fill me with bliss. – Rupa Goswami • May we live like the lotus, at home in muddy water. – Gautama Buddha • Meditation is your awakening. The moment you awake, sleep disappears and with it all the dreams, all the projections, all expectations, all desires. Suddenly you are in a state of desirelessness, non-ambition, unfathomable silence. And only in this silence, blossoms flower in your being. Only in this silence the lotuses open their petals. – Rajneesh • Microsoft has had two goals in the last 10 years. One was to copy the Mac, and the other was to copy Lotus’ success in the spreadsheet – basically, the applications business. And over the course of the last 10 years, Microsoft accomplished both of those goals. And now they are completely lost. – Steve Jobs • My mother always said I must be part Mongolian because of my lotus-pale complexion and squid-ink black hair. – Diane Ackerman • My sole literary ambition is to write one good novel, then retire to my hut in the desert, assume the lotus position, compose my mind and senses, and sink into meditation, contemplating my novel. – Edward Abbey • Nay, do not grieve tho’ life be full of sadness, Dawn will not veil her spleandor for your grief, Nor spring deny their bright, appointed beauty To lotus blossom and ashoka leaf.

Nay, do not pine, tho’ life be dark with trouble, Time will not pause or tarry on his way; To-day that seems so long, so strange, so bitter, Will soon be some forgotten yesterday.

Nay, do not weep; new hopes, new dreams, new faces, The unspent joy of all the unborn years, Will prove your heart a traitor to its sorrow, And make your eyes unfaithful to their tears. – Sarojini Naidu • Number theorists are like lotus-eaters — having once tasted of this food they can never give it up. – Leopold Kronecker • O! Lover, Enjoyment on the soft body of a lotus is always risky and inconsistent because its route is always surrounded by thorns. – Manmohan Acharya • On the top of the head is a Chakra – Sahasradala or the thousand-petalled lotus. There is a Chakra in the middle of the forehead between the eyebrows and one in the heart-centre. The region between the navel and head constitutes the mental field. From navel downward extending till the terminus of the spinal chord, mūlādhāra, is the seat of the vital. – Sri Aurobindo • One thing is certain: you can never become anything other than yourself, and unless you become yourself you cannot be happy. Happiness happens only when a rosebush grows roseflowers; when it flowers, when it has its own individuality. You may be a rosebush and trying to flower as lotus flower – that is creating insanity. Erase the mind. And the way to erase it is not by fight: the way to erase it is just to become aware. – Rajneesh • Only the other day I was inquiring of an entire bed of old-fashioned roses, forced to listen to my ramblings on the meaning of the universe as I sat cross-legged in the lotus position in front of them. • Our first duty is to satisfy the spiritual master, who can arrange for the Lord’s mercy. A common man must first begin to serve the spiritual master or the devotee. Then, through the mercy of the devotee, the Lord will be satisfied. Unless one receives the dust of a devotee’s lotus feet on one’s head, there is no possibility of advancement. Unless one approaches a pure devotee, he cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. – A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada • Over the eons I’ve been a fan of, and sucker for, each latest automated system to ‘simplify’ and ‘bring order to’ my life. Very early on this led me to the beautiful-and-doomed Lotus Agenda for my DOS computers, and Actioneer for the early Palm. – James Fallows • Remember Mother Earth knows who these people are that are going to become the one heart. Really the better way to say it is one lotus. This place in the heart has always been referred to as the lotus. And when you find your way there, Mother Earth will completely take care of you and protect you and provide everything for you. Even though everything outside seems to be insane, it will be miraculous. – Drunvalo Melchizedek • Sandalwood, tagara, lotus, jasmine – the fragrance of virtue is unrivalled by such kinds of perfume. – Gautama Buddha • Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’ Say not, ‘ I have found the path of the soul.’ Say rather, ‘I have met the soul walking upon my path.’ For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. – Khalil Gibran • So as you are, in whatever conditions you are, in whatever situations you are, whatever may be the surroundings, like a dirty mire full of creatures and filth, you can become like lotuses. When you become like lotuses, all that is filth, all that is horrible can become fragrant. And this is what we have to achieve. – Nirmala Srivastava • The #lotus comes from the #murkiest #water.. but #grows into the #purest thing.- Nita Ambani • The banyan tree does not mean awakening, nor does the hill, nor the saint, nor the European couple. The lotus is a symbol of regeneration. – Swami Vivekananda • The Bible represents a fundamental guidepost for millions of people on the planet, in much the same way the Koran, Torah, and Pali Canon offer guidance to people of other religions. If you and I could dig up documentation that contradicted the holy stories of Islamic belief, Judaic belief, Buddhist belief, pagan belief, should we do that? Should we wave a flag and tell the Buddhists that the Buddha did not come from a lotus blossom? Or that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin birth? Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical. – Dan Brown • The crown chakra is located several inches above the head, but it is not connected. The crown chakra, also known as the thousand-petal lotus of light, references the planes of light, of enlightenment. – Frederick Lenz • The honey in the flower or lotus does not crave for bees; they do not plead with the bees to come. Since they have tasted the sweetness, they themselves search for the flowers and rush in. They come because of the attachment between themselves and sweetness. So, too, is the relationship between the woman who knows the limits and the respect she evokes. – Sathya Sai Baba • The lotus flower is troubled At the sun’s resplendent light; With sunken head and sadly She dreamily waits for the night. – Heinrich Heine • The lotus grows in muddy waters but this flower does not show any trace of it: So we have to live in the world. – B.K.S. Iyengar • The lotus’ stem is as long as the depth of water, So men’s height is just as great as their inner strength. – Thiruvalluvar • The one who wanders independent in the world, free from opinions and viewpoints, does not grasp them and enter into disputations and arguments. As the lotus rises on its stalk unsoiled by the mud and the water, so the wise one speaks of peace and is unstained by the opinions of the world. – Gautama Buddha • The seated lotus postures are an amazing way to go into meditation, or simply just to take a moment to ground oneself. – Christy Turlington • The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. – Khalil Gibran • The thousand petal lotus of light, the crown center, really does not become operative until one is on the verge of enlightenment itself. Then you really don’t have to meditate on it. The thousand petals gradually light up. – Frederick Lenz • The truth is that there are no good men, or bad men,’ he said. ‘It is the deeds that have goodness or badness in them. There are good deeds, and bad deeds. Men are just men – it is what they do, or refuse to do, that links them to good and evil. The truth is that an instant of real love, in the heart of anyone – the noblest man alive or the most wicked – has the whole purpose and process and meaning of life within the lotus-folds of its passion. The truth is that we are all, every one of us, every atom, every galaxy, and every particle of matter in the universe, moving toward God. – Gregory David Roberts • The ultimate source of energy, the sun is ready to set. The leaves of the blooming lotus flower in the pond are losing their lustre. A bumblebee, sitting on that lotus is enjoying the romantic pleasure and murmuring passionate songs. – Manmohan Acharya • Their love as a dragonfly, skimming over echo park, stoppin to visit the lotus. Eating dreams and drinking blue sky. – Janet Fitch • There are still some terrible cliches in the presentation of Indian fiction. The lotus flower. The hennaed hands. In mainland Europe, people still slap these images on my books and I go bananas. – Hari Kunzru • There is a beautiful expression of this in the Chandogya Upanishad: ‘There is this City of Brahman, (that is the body), and in this city there is a shrine, and in that shrine there is a small lotus, and in that lotus there is a small space, (akasa). Now what exists within that small space, that is to be sought, that is to be understood.’ This is the great discovery of the Upanishads, this inner shrine, this guha, or cave of the heart, where the inner meaning of life, of all human existence, is to be found. – Bede Griffiths • There is the mud, and there is the lotus that grows out of the mud. We need the mud in order to make the lotus. – Nhat Hanh • There’s a kind of training, when you are sitting in a session in the Japanese tradition or any of the Buddhist traditions, taking your lotus posture or whatever it is. That’s what you’re doing. – Anne Waldman • There’s just so much stuff that sounds like Flying Lotus now – I really like what he does, but I don’t want to be like him. The new stuff is more experimental. – Gold Panda • To be beautiful means to be yourself.You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. When you are born a lotus flower, be a beautiful lotus flower, don’t try to be a magnolia flower. If you crave acceptance and recognition and try to change yourself to fit what other people want you to be, you will suffer all your life. True happiness and true power lie in understanding yourself, accepting yourself, having confidence in yourself. -Nhat Hanh • To the sky, I rise / Spread my wings, and fly / I leave the past behind / And say goodbye to the scared child inside / I sing for freedom, and for love / I look at my reflection / Embrace the woman I’ve become / The unbreakable lotus in me / I now set free – Christina Aguilera • Water surrounds the lotus flower, but does not wet its petals. – Gautama Buddha • Waterlilies always come in Buddhist sculpture. The Buddhas all stand on lotus pedestals, because the lotus is grown from the mud. The mud represents the stained world, a dirty world, but growing from the dirt is such a beautiful, pure thing. This is the way the spirit should be. – Hiroshi Sugimoto • When I go from hence, let this be my parting word, that what I have seen is unsurpassable. I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus that expands on the ocean of light, and thus I am blessed—let this be my parting word. In this playhouse of infinite forms I have had my play and here have I caught sight of him who is formless. My whole body and my limbs have thrilled with his touch who is beyond touch; and if the end comes here, let it come—let this be my parting word. – Rabindranath Tagore • When I notice a rear wheel overtaking me, I know I’m sitting in a Lotus. – Graham Hill • When one, abandoning greed, feels no greed for what would merit greed, greed gets shed from him – like a drop of water from a lotus leaf. – Gautama Buddha • When we speak of the dust of the lotus feet of the Spiritual Master, we are speaking of humble approach to serve his instructions. Unless we humbly serve the instructions of the great soul, it is Krishna’s arrangement the He never reveals Himself. – Radhanath Swami • When you sit in the full lotus position, your left foot is on your right thigh and your right foot is on your left thigh. When we cross our legs like this, even though we have a right leg and a left leg, they become one. The position expresses the oneness of duality: not two and not one. This is the most important teaching: not two, and not one. Our body and mind are not two and not one. If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one. – Shunryu Suzuki • Whenever you should doubt your self-worth, remember the lotus flower. Even though it plunges to life from beneath the mud, it does not allow the dirt that surrounds it to affect its growth or beauty. – Suzy Kassem • Worship of The Lotus Feet of The Spiritual Master: There is no work as auspicious as serving the spiritual master. Of all worship, the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the greatest but the worship of the lotus feet of the spiritual master is even greater than the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Unless this is firmly realized we cannot understand what saintly association means, we cannot understand what the shelter of a spiritual master means, we cannot understand that we are dependent and he is our maintainer. – Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati • YOU are the big drop of dew under the lotus leaf, I am the smaller one on its upper side,’ said the dewdrop to the lake. – Rabindranath Tagore • You can purify your existence by feeling deep within yourself a beautiful rose or lotus, or any other flower that you like. A flower is all purity. Try to identify yourself with the consciousness of the flower or with the purity of the flower. Today it is imagination, but if you continue imagining for five days, or ten days, or a month or two, then you are bound to see and feel the flower within you. First you may feel it, then you are bound to see the existence of the flower, and then automatically the fragrance and the purity of the flower will enter into you to purify you. – Sri Chinmoy • You can remain in the world for any number of years, but don’t let the world take hold. Don’t let the world take hold of the inside world. There is the example of the lotus. It stays deep down in the mud. It comes up to the light, and it can’t stay without water because it would die. But it does not get mixed up either with the mud or the water. You have seen the lotus; even if the water comes it just goes off again. Now, when they talk of God, they always say ‘the lotus eyes, the lotus feet’ because of this inner significance. – Sathya Sai Baba • You have to measure your success by the way your audience responds to your games. No matter how small that audience is, it’s yours. Your game is part of the lives and the memories of those people in a way that WordPerfect or Lotus 1-2-3 or Windows can never be. – Orson Scott Card • You like being vague, don’t you? (Amanda) It was a choice of being a Dark-Hunter or a prophet. Personally I like the slash-and-kill stuff much more than prayers and the lotus position. (Acheron) – Sherrilyn Kenyon • You must be a lotus, unfolding its petals when the sun rises in the sky, unaffected by the slush where it is born or even the water which sustains it! – Sai Baba • YOUR HEART IS FULL of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout. Just as a lotus flower springs from the mire to bloom splendidly, the interaction of the cosmic breath causes the flower of the spirit to bloom and bear fruit in this world. – Morihei Ueshiba

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Lotuses Quotes

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• A flower can’t grow without rain. (Alexion) Too much rain and it drowns. (Danger) And yet the most beautiful of the lotus flowers are the ones that grow in the deepest mud. (Alexion) – Sherrilyn Kenyon • A little child paddles a little boat, Drifting about, and picking white lotuses. He does not know how to hide his tracks, And duckweed’s opened up along his path. – Bai Juyi • A man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never moistened by water; so a man ought to live in the world – his heart to God and his hands to work. – Swami Vivekananda • An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon the sea. – Herman Melville • And her sweet red lips on these lips of mine Burned like the ruby fire set In the swinging lamp of a crimson shrine, Or the bleeding wounds of the pomegranate, Or the heart of the lotus drenched and wet With the spilt-out blood of the rose-red wine. – Oscar Wilde • And just for a moment I had reached the point of ecstasy that I always wanted to reach, which was the complete step across chronological time into timeless shadows, and wonderment in the bleakness of the mortal realm, and the sensation of death kicking at my heels to move on, wiht a phantom dogging its own heels, and myself hurrying to a plank where all the angels dove off and flew into the holy void of uncreated emptiness, the potent and inconceivable radiancies shining in bright Mind Essence, innumerable lotus-lands falling open in the magic mothswarm of heaven. – Sal Paradise – Jack Kerouac • As a lotus flower is born in water, grows in water and rises out of water to stand above it unsoiled, so I, born in the world, raised in the world having overcome the world, live unsoiled by the world – Gautama Buddha • As a water bead on a lotus leaf, as water on a red lily, does not adhere, so the sage does not adhere to the seen, the heard, or the sensed. – Gautama Buddha • At this moment, is there anything lacking? Nirvana is right here now before our eyes. This place is the lotus land. This body now is the Buddha. – Hakuin Ekaku

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Lotus', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_lotus').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_lotus img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Be like a lotus. Let the beauty of your heart speak. – Amit Ray • Because people learn from their mistakes, Danger. Pain and failure are a natural part of life. It’s kind of like a parent who watches their child fall down while learning to walk. Instead of coddling the child, you set them back on their feet and let them try again. They have to stumble before they can run. (Alexion) Do you really believe that we need to have our hearts ripped out? (Danger) A flower can’t grow without rain. (Alexion) Too much rain and it drowns. (Danger) And yet the most beautiful of the lotus flowers are the ones that grow in the deepest mud. (Alexion) – Sherrilyn Kenyon • But when one masters this wretched desire, which is so hard to overcome, then one’s sorrows just drop off, like a drop of water off a lotus. – Gautama Buddha • By means of microscopic observation and astronomical projection the lotus flower can become the foundation for an entire theory of the universe and an agent whereby we may perceive Truth. – Yukio Mishima • Cut brambles long enough, Sprout after sprout, And the lotus will bloom Of its own accord: Already waiting in the clearing, The single image of light. The day you see this, That day you will become it. – Sun Bu’er • Cut out the love of self, like an autumn lotus with thy hand! – Gautama Buddha • Deep within the self is the Light of God. It radiates throughout the expanse of His creation. Through the Guru’s teachings, the darkness of spiritual ignorance is dispelled. The heart lotus flower blooms forth and eternal peace is obtained, as one’s light merges into the Supreme Light. – Guru Amar Das • Did either the nonexistent or the measured response after a series of attacks on Americans the past decade – in Lebanon, Africa, Saudi Arabia, New York, and Yemen – suggest to our terrorist enemies that it was wrong and unwise to kill reasonable and affable people, or did the easy killing imply that self-absorbed and pampered Lotus-eaters would not much care who or how many were butchered as long as it was within reasonable numbers and spread out over time? – Victor Davis Hanson • Do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna’s Lotus sounding rough? – Murray Walker • Do not go to the garden of flowers! O friend! go not there; In your body is the garden of flowers. Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the infinite beauty. – Kabir • Drop guilt! – because to be guilty is to live in hell. Not being guilty, you will have the freshness of dewdrops in the early morning sun, you will have the freshness of lotus petals in the lake, you will have the freshness of the stars in the night. Once guilt disappears you will have a totally different kind of life, luminous and radiant. You will have a dance to your feet and your heart will be singing a thousand and one songs. – Rajneesh • Drop jealousy and love wells up. Jealousy means that I am the owner. It is an ego trip, and wherever there is ego there is poison, and the poison kills the very source of love. One has to become aware of just these few things and discard them and one’s life becomes a lotus of love. And then there is no need to go in any search of god, god will come in search of you. This is my observation, that god always comes seeking the true seeker. Whenever the disciple is ready the master appears. – Rajneesh • Egypt loved the lotus because it never dies. It is the same for people who are loved. – Anita Diament • Egypt loved the lotus becuase it never dies. It is the same for people who are loved. Thus can something as insignificant as a name-two syllables, one high, one sweet- summon up the innumerable smiles, tears, sighs and dreams of a human life. – Anita Diament • English Bohemianism is a curiously unluscious fruit. … Inside this hothouse, huge lascivious orchids slide sensuously up the sweating windows, passion-flowers cross-pollinate in wild heliotrope abandon, lotuses writhe with poppies in the sweet warm beds, kumquats ripen, open and plop flatly to the floor-and outside, in a neat, trimly-hoed kitchen-garden, English bohemians sit in cold orderly rows, like carrots. – Alan Coren • Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted. – Sylvia Plath • Every green herb, from the lotus to the darnel, is rich with delicate aids to help incurious man. – Martin Farquhar Tupper • God cannot be found outside you, because there is no God who can ever be outside you. God is the ultimate fragrance of your consciousness. When your consciousness opens like a lotus, the fragrance that is released is God – better to call it godliness. – Rajneesh • God is the Sun and when His rays fall upon your heart, not impeded by the clouds of egoism, the lotus blooms and the petals unfold. – Sathya Sai Baba • Great people will always be mocked by those who feel smaller than them. However, a lion does not flinch at laughter coming from a hyena. A gorilla does not budge from a banana thrown at it by a monkey. A nightingale does not stop singing its beautiful song at the intrusion of an annoying woodpecker. Whenever you should question your self-worth, remember the lotus flower. Even though it plunges to life from beneath the mud, it does not allow the dirt that surrounds it to affect its growth or beauty. – Suzy Kassem • Heat lingers As days are still long; Early mornings are cool While autumn is still young. Dew on the lotus Scatters pure perfume; Wind on the bamboos Gives off a gentle tinkling. I am idle and lonely, Lying down all day, Sick and decayed; No one asks for me; Thin dusk before my gates, Cassia blossoms inch deep. – Bai Juyi • I also have a lot of preserved foods, things that will keep for a long time like dried fish, seaweed or lotus seed. – Martin Yan • I embrace my body, and I embrace everything about myself. Coming full circle is a celebration of freedom and happiness because that’s what [my new album] ‘Lotus’ is representing. I’m embracing everything that I’ve grown to be and learned to be. – Christina Aguilera • I got things like the lotus position long before anybody else did, or at least in the mainstream. But I had fun. I guess my legs are pretty flexible, so I used to get a kick out of doing things like that. I would get into a full lotus with my legs and then roll around. – John Astin • I have a strong antipathy to everything connected with gardens, gardening and gardeners. . . . Gardening seems to me a kind of admission of defeat. . . . Man was made for better things than pruning his rose trees. The state of mind of the confirmed gardener seems to me as reprehensible as that of the confirmed alcoholic. Both have capitulated to the world. Both have become lotus eaters and drifters. – Colin Wilson • I saw Lotus F1 racing as the best choice for me to progress my career, after considering several other options that were available to me. – Heikki Kovalainen • I sit cross-legged on the rock The valleys and streams are cold and damp Sitting quietly is beautiful The cliffs are lost in mist and fog I rest happily in this place At dusk the tree shadows are low I look into my mind A white lotus emerges from the dark mud – Hanshan • I think it’s more, at least at the time, a sense of abstraction. My mind doesn’t really work in a way where there’s a definitive sense of something. I go one way and then it opens up into a million different ideas, and somehow, when you look at the art, Buddhist art, or particularly Tibetan art, you know, it’s a similar thing. All of a sudden there are a million lotus leaves and you’re following one to the next and to another, and I related to that, and it felt simple and easy to me. And it made me feel smart. – Jake Gyllenhaal • I want you to learn the lesson of the lotus. This flower springs forth from muddy waters. It raises its delicate petals to the sun and perfumes the world while, at the same time, its roots cling to the elemental muck, the very essence of the mortal experience. Without that soil, the flower would wither and die. – Colleen Houck • I was in yoga the other day. I was in full lotus position. My chakras were all aligned. My mind is cleared of all clatter and I’m looking out of my third eye and everything that I’m supposed to be doing. It’s amazing what comes up, when you sit in that silence. “Mama keeps whites bright like the sunlight, Mama’s got the magic of Clorox 2.” – Ellen DeGeneres • I will allow only my Lord to possess my sacred lotus pond, and every night you can make blossom in me flowers of fire. – Huang E • If the bees which seek the liquid oozing from the head of a lust-intoxicated elephant are driven away by the flapping of his ears, then the elephant has lost only the ornament of his head. The bees are quite happy in the lotus filled lake. – Chanakya • If we take shelter of the lotus feet of the spiritual master, we can become free from illusion, fear and distress. If we wholeheartedly beg for his mercy without any deceit then the spiritual master bestows all auspiciousness upon us. – Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati • If you come to Plum Village in the summertime, you see many lotus flowers. Without the mud the lotus flowers cannot grow. You cannot separate lotus flowers from the mud. It is the same with understanding and love. These are two kinds of flowers that grow on the ground of suffering – Nhat Hanh • If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful – and strong. • If you sleep, Desire grows in you Like a vine in the forest. Like a monkey in the forest You jump from tree to tree, Never finding the fruit – From life to life, Never finding peace. If you are filled with desire Your sorrows swell Like the grass after the rain. But if you subdue desire Your sorrows shall fall from you Like drops of water from a lotus flower. – Gautama Buddha • I’m always very interested in breeding. Raising cacti is breeding. My lotus plant collection is breeding. The insects are breeding. – Takashi Murakami • I’m delighted to be coming back to Formula 1 after a two-year break, and I’m grateful to Lotus Renault GP for offering me this opportunity. – Kimi Raikkonen • I’m influenced by the music of the ’60s. It’s a mishmash of everything. To me, psychedelic can be all the way to a DJ. House music can be very psychedelic. ‘Flying Lotus’ is very psychedelic. Even though it’s urban and technological, it’s also mind-expanding, anything-can-go mishmash. – Anton Newcombe • In 1879 the Bengali scholar S.M. Tagore compiled a more extensive list of ruby colors from the Purana sacred texts: ‘like the China rose, like blood, like the seeds of the pomegranate, like red lead, like the red lotus, like saffron, like the resin of certain trees, like the eyes of the Greek partridge or the Indian crane…and like the interior of the half-blown water lily.’ With so many gorgeous descriptive possibilities it is curious that in English the two ancient names for rubies have come to sound incredibly ugly. – Victoria Finlay • In Egypt, I loved the perfume of the lotus. A flower would bloom in the pool at dawn, filling the entire garden with a blue musk so powerful it seemed that even the fish and ducks would swoon. By night, the flower might wither but the perfume lasted. Fainter and fainter, but never quite gone. Even many days later, the lotus remained in the garden. Months would pass and a bee would alight near the spot where the lotus had blossomed, and its essence was released again, momentary but undeniable. – Anita Diament • In Savasana or in meditation, the light of the eyes is drawn towards the lotus of the heart, so that the seat of the intelligence of the head is brought into contact with the seat of the intelligence of the heart, which is called the mind. Thus one passes from the individualistic state of consciousness to the universal state of consciousness. It is the merging of the intellect of the brain with the intellect of the soul. – B.K.S. Iyengar • In the land of the lotus-eaters there is no action. Action arises only from need, from dissatisfaction. It is purposeful striving towards something. Its ultimate end is always to get rid of a condition which is conceived to be deficient-to fulfill a need, to achieve satisfaction, to increase happiness. – Ludwig von Mises • In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha says to light up one corner – not the whole world. Just make it clear where you are. – Shunryu Suzuki • In the Lotus Sutra, it is said everything is emptiness – this world is empty, hell is empty, heaven is empty, God is empty, everything is emptiness. Emptiness is the nature of all things, nothingness, so be attuned to nothingness and you will achieve. – Rajneesh • It does not matter if you are a rose or a lotus or a marigold. What matters is that you are flowering. – Rajneesh • It is the north wind that lashes men into Vikings; it is the soft, luscious south wind which lulls them to lotus dreams. – Ouida • It is the plight of man. And while the blame lies partly on the river ” Lotus gestures towards the dark waters before us “most of the blame lies on man’s inclination to tune into the noise that blares all around him instead of the beautiful silence that lies deep within. – Alyson Noel • It was an easy choice to return with Lotus Renault GP as I have been impressed by the scope of the team’s ambition. – Kimi Raikkonen • It’s a mining town in lotus land. – F. Scott Fitzgerald • It’s like growing lotus flowers. You cannot grow lotus flowers on marble. You have to grow them on the mud. Without mud you cannot have lotus flowers. Without suffering, you have no way to learn how to be understanding and compassionate. – Nhat Hanh • Just think, Vishnu sleeps in the cosmic ocean, and the lotus of the universe grows from his navel. On the lotus sits Brahma, the creator. Brahma opens his eyes, and a world comes into being, governed by an Indra. Brahma closes his eyes, and a world goes out of being. The life of a Brahma is 432,000 years. When he dies, the lotus goes back, and another lotus is formed, and another Brahma. Then think of the galaxies beyond galaxies in infinite space, each a lotus, with a Brahma sitting on it, opening his eyes, closing his eyes. – Joseph Campbell • Life is like a rain drop on a lotus leaf. Everybody realises that you’re either very lucky person or you’re not. – George Harrison • Like the lotus flower that is born out of mud, we must honor the darkest parts of ourselves and the most painful of our life’s experiences, because they are what allow us to birth our most beautiful self. – Debbie Ford • Like the lotus which thrives in mud, the potential for realization grows in the rich soil of everyday life – Dalai Lama • Lotus-land as it appears in ‘Free Will’ is simply a metaphor for an idealized background, a ‘land of milk and honey.’ It is sometimes also used as a pejorative name for Los Angeles, though that was not in my mind when I wrote it. – Neil Peart • Love is born in sexuality but sexuality is not love. The lotus is born in the mud, but the lotus is not just mud. And if mud remains mud of course there are bound to be tears on the cheeks. – Rajneesh • Love is the lotus, lust is the mud the lotus arises out of. – Rajneesh • May the honey-sweet flute music that flows from Lord Mukunda’s lotus mouth fill me with bliss. – Rupa Goswami • May we live like the lotus, at home in muddy water. – Gautama Buddha • Meditation is your awakening. The moment you awake, sleep disappears and with it all the dreams, all the projections, all expectations, all desires. Suddenly you are in a state of desirelessness, non-ambition, unfathomable silence. And only in this silence, blossoms flower in your being. Only in this silence the lotuses open their petals. – Rajneesh • Microsoft has had two goals in the last 10 years. One was to copy the Mac, and the other was to copy Lotus’ success in the spreadsheet – basically, the applications business. And over the course of the last 10 years, Microsoft accomplished both of those goals. And now they are completely lost. – Steve Jobs • My mother always said I must be part Mongolian because of my lotus-pale complexion and squid-ink black hair. – Diane Ackerman • My sole literary ambition is to write one good novel, then retire to my hut in the desert, assume the lotus position, compose my mind and senses, and sink into meditation, contemplating my novel. – Edward Abbey • Nay, do not grieve tho’ life be full of sadness, Dawn will not veil her spleandor for your grief, Nor spring deny their bright, appointed beauty To lotus blossom and ashoka leaf.

Nay, do not pine, tho’ life be dark with trouble, Time will not pause or tarry on his way; To-day that seems so long, so strange, so bitter, Will soon be some forgotten yesterday.

Nay, do not weep; new hopes, new dreams, new faces, The unspent joy of all the unborn years, Will prove your heart a traitor to its sorrow, And make your eyes unfaithful to their tears. – Sarojini Naidu • Number theorists are like lotus-eaters — having once tasted of this food they can never give it up. – Leopold Kronecker • O! Lover, Enjoyment on the soft body of a lotus is always risky and inconsistent because its route is always surrounded by thorns. – Manmohan Acharya • On the top of the head is a Chakra – Sahasradala or the thousand-petalled lotus. There is a Chakra in the middle of the forehead between the eyebrows and one in the heart-centre. The region between the navel and head constitutes the mental field. From navel downward extending till the terminus of the spinal chord, mūlādhāra, is the seat of the vital. – Sri Aurobindo • One thing is certain: you can never become anything other than yourself, and unless you become yourself you cannot be happy. Happiness happens only when a rosebush grows roseflowers; when it flowers, when it has its own individuality. You may be a rosebush and trying to flower as lotus flower – that is creating insanity. Erase the mind. And the way to erase it is not by fight: the way to erase it is just to become aware. – Rajneesh • Only the other day I was inquiring of an entire bed of old-fashioned roses, forced to listen to my ramblings on the meaning of the universe as I sat cross-legged in the lotus position in front of them. • Our first duty is to satisfy the spiritual master, who can arrange for the Lord’s mercy. A common man must first begin to serve the spiritual master or the devotee. Then, through the mercy of the devotee, the Lord will be satisfied. Unless one receives the dust of a devotee’s lotus feet on one’s head, there is no possibility of advancement. Unless one approaches a pure devotee, he cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. – A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada • Over the eons I’ve been a fan of, and sucker for, each latest automated system to ‘simplify’ and ‘bring order to’ my life. Very early on this led me to the beautiful-and-doomed Lotus Agenda for my DOS computers, and Actioneer for the early Palm. – James Fallows • Remember Mother Earth knows who these people are that are going to become the one heart. Really the better way to say it is one lotus. This place in the heart has always been referred to as the lotus. And when you find your way there, Mother Earth will completely take care of you and protect you and provide everything for you. Even though everything outside seems to be insane, it will be miraculous. – Drunvalo Melchizedek • Sandalwood, tagara, lotus, jasmine – the fragrance of virtue is unrivalled by such kinds of perfume. – Gautama Buddha • Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’ Say not, ‘ I have found the path of the soul.’ Say rather, ‘I have met the soul walking upon my path.’ For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. – Khalil Gibran • So as you are, in whatever conditions you are, in whatever situations you are, whatever may be the surroundings, like a dirty mire full of creatures and filth, you can become like lotuses. When you become like lotuses, all that is filth, all that is horrible can become fragrant. And this is what we have to achieve. – Nirmala Srivastava • The #lotus comes from the #murkiest #water.. but #grows into the #purest thing.- Nita Ambani • The banyan tree does not mean awakening, nor does the hill, nor the saint, nor the European couple. The lotus is a symbol of regeneration. – Swami Vivekananda • The Bible represents a fundamental guidepost for millions of people on the planet, in much the same way the Koran, Torah, and Pali Canon offer guidance to people of other religions. If you and I could dig up documentation that contradicted the holy stories of Islamic belief, Judaic belief, Buddhist belief, pagan belief, should we do that? Should we wave a flag and tell the Buddhists that the Buddha did not come from a lotus blossom? Or that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin birth? Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical. – Dan Brown • The crown chakra is located several inches above the head, but it is not connected. The crown chakra, also known as the thousand-petal lotus of light, references the planes of light, of enlightenment. – Frederick Lenz • The honey in the flower or lotus does not crave for bees; they do not plead with the bees to come. Since they have tasted the sweetness, they themselves search for the flowers and rush in. They come because of the attachment between themselves and sweetness. So, too, is the relationship between the woman who knows the limits and the respect she evokes. – Sathya Sai Baba • The lotus flower is troubled At the sun’s resplendent light; With sunken head and sadly She dreamily waits for the night. – Heinrich Heine • The lotus grows in muddy waters but this flower does not show any trace of it: So we have to live in the world. – B.K.S. Iyengar • The lotus’ stem is as long as the depth of water, So men’s height is just as great as their inner strength. – Thiruvalluvar • The one who wanders independent in the world, free from opinions and viewpoints, does not grasp them and enter into disputations and arguments. As the lotus rises on its stalk unsoiled by the mud and the water, so the wise one speaks of peace and is unstained by the opinions of the world. – Gautama Buddha • The seated lotus postures are an amazing way to go into meditation, or simply just to take a moment to ground oneself. – Christy Turlington • The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. – Khalil Gibran • The thousand petal lotus of light, the crown center, really does not become operative until one is on the verge of enlightenment itself. Then you really don’t have to meditate on it. The thousand petals gradually light up. – Frederick Lenz • The truth is that there are no good men, or bad men,’ he said. ‘It is the deeds that have goodness or badness in them. There are good deeds, and bad deeds. Men are just men – it is what they do, or refuse to do, that links them to good and evil. The truth is that an instant of real love, in the heart of anyone – the noblest man alive or the most wicked – has the whole purpose and process and meaning of life within the lotus-folds of its passion. The truth is that we are all, every one of us, every atom, every galaxy, and every particle of matter in the universe, moving toward God. – Gregory David Roberts • The ultimate source of energy, the sun is ready to set. The leaves of the blooming lotus flower in the pond are losing their lustre. A bumblebee, sitting on that lotus is enjoying the romantic pleasure and murmuring passionate songs. – Manmohan Acharya • Their love as a dragonfly, skimming over echo park, stoppin to visit the lotus. Eating dreams and drinking blue sky. – Janet Fitch • There are still some terrible cliches in the presentation of Indian fiction. The lotus flower. The hennaed hands. In mainland Europe, people still slap these images on my books and I go bananas. – Hari Kunzru • There is a beautiful expression of this in the Chandogya Upanishad: ‘There is this City of Brahman, (that is the body), and in this city there is a shrine, and in that shrine there is a small lotus, and in that lotus there is a small space, (akasa). Now what exists within that small space, that is to be sought, that is to be understood.’ This is the great discovery of the Upanishads, this inner shrine, this guha, or cave of the heart, where the inner meaning of life, of all human existence, is to be found. – Bede Griffiths • There is the mud, and there is the lotus that grows out of the mud. We need the mud in order to make the lotus. – Nhat Hanh • There’s a kind of training, when you are sitting in a session in the Japanese tradition or any of the Buddhist traditions, taking your lotus posture or whatever it is. That’s what you’re doing. – Anne Waldman • There’s just so much stuff that sounds like Flying Lotus now – I really like what he does, but I don’t want to be like him. The new stuff is more experimental. – Gold Panda • To be beautiful means to be yourself.You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. When you are born a lotus flower, be a beautiful lotus flower, don’t try to be a magnolia flower. If you crave acceptance and recognition and try to change yourself to fit what other people want you to be, you will suffer all your life. True happiness and true power lie in understanding yourself, accepting yourself, having confidence in yourself. -Nhat Hanh • To the sky, I rise / Spread my wings, and fly / I leave the past behind / And say goodbye to the scared child inside / I sing for freedom, and for love / I look at my reflection / Embrace the woman I’ve become / The unbreakable lotus in me / I now set free – Christina Aguilera • Water surrounds the lotus flower, but does not wet its petals. – Gautama Buddha • Waterlilies always come in Buddhist sculpture. The Buddhas all stand on lotus pedestals, because the lotus is grown from the mud. The mud represents the stained world, a dirty world, but growing from the dirt is such a beautiful, pure thing. This is the way the spirit should be. – Hiroshi Sugimoto • When I go from hence, let this be my parting word, that what I have seen is unsurpassable. I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus that expands on the ocean of light, and thus I am blessed—let this be my parting word. In this playhouse of infinite forms I have had my play and here have I caught sight of him who is formless. My whole body and my limbs have thrilled with his touch who is beyond touch; and if the end comes here, let it come—let this be my parting word. – Rabindranath Tagore • When I notice a rear wheel overtaking me, I know I’m sitting in a Lotus. – Graham Hill • When one, abandoning greed, feels no greed for what would merit greed, greed gets shed from him – like a drop of water from a lotus leaf. – Gautama Buddha • When we speak of the dust of the lotus feet of the Spiritual Master, we are speaking of humble approach to serve his instructions. Unless we humbly serve the instructions of the great soul, it is Krishna’s arrangement the He never reveals Himself. – Radhanath Swami • When you sit in the full lotus position, your left foot is on your right thigh and your right foot is on your left thigh. When we cross our legs like this, even though we have a right leg and a left leg, they become one. The position expresses the oneness of duality: not two and not one. This is the most important teaching: not two, and not one. Our body and mind are not two and not one. If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one. – Shunryu Suzuki • Whenever you should doubt your self-worth, remember the lotus flower. Even though it plunges to life from beneath the mud, it does not allow the dirt that surrounds it to affect its growth or beauty. – Suzy Kassem • Worship of The Lotus Feet of The Spiritual Master: There is no work as auspicious as serving the spiritual master. Of all worship, the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the greatest but the worship of the lotus feet of the spiritual master is even greater than the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Unless this is firmly realized we cannot understand what saintly association means, we cannot understand what the shelter of a spiritual master means, we cannot understand that we are dependent and he is our maintainer. – Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati • YOU are the big drop of dew under the lotus leaf, I am the smaller one on its upper side,’ said the dewdrop to the lake. – Rabindranath Tagore • You can purify your existence by feeling deep within yourself a beautiful rose or lotus, or any other flower that you like. A flower is all purity. Try to identify yourself with the consciousness of the flower or with the purity of the flower. Today it is imagination, but if you continue imagining for five days, or ten days, or a month or two, then you are bound to see and feel the flower within you. First you may feel it, then you are bound to see the existence of the flower, and then automatically the fragrance and the purity of the flower will enter into you to purify you. – Sri Chinmoy • You can remain in the world for any number of years, but don’t let the world take hold. Don’t let the world take hold of the inside world. There is the example of the lotus. It stays deep down in the mud. It comes up to the light, and it can’t stay without water because it would die. But it does not get mixed up either with the mud or the water. You have seen the lotus; even if the water comes it just goes off again. Now, when they talk of God, they always say ‘the lotus eyes, the lotus feet’ because of this inner significance. – Sathya Sai Baba • You have to measure your success by the way your audience responds to your games. No matter how small that audience is, it’s yours. Your game is part of the lives and the memories of those people in a way that WordPerfect or Lotus 1-2-3 or Windows can never be. – Orson Scott Card • You like being vague, don’t you? (Amanda) It was a choice of being a Dark-Hunter or a prophet. Personally I like the slash-and-kill stuff much more than prayers and the lotus position. (Acheron) – Sherrilyn Kenyon • You must be a lotus, unfolding its petals when the sun rises in the sky, unaffected by the slush where it is born or even the water which sustains it! – Sai Baba • YOUR HEART IS FULL of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout. Just as a lotus flower springs from the mire to bloom splendidly, the interaction of the cosmic breath causes the flower of the spirit to bloom and bear fruit in this world. – Morihei Ueshiba

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Top 300 Keeper League Skaters – April 2019

Here are the Top 300 skaters to own in your points-only keeper leagues – April edition!

  As with every year for the last 17 years, my April, May and June adjustments are casual. The July and August editions are my "audit" rankings because, thanks to the Fantasy Guide, every detail of every player within every team is analyzed top to bottom. April? Not so much. I go over every player on my spreadsheet and wipe the slate clean for the season just completed, and I make my best guess – no formulas – at how they will do next year. I tweak the 3YP, I adjust the team offense value (i.e. for Columbus I tweaked it downward because I expect them to lose a lot of offense this summer).

  What's left is that the young players improve, the older players slip. The injured players get a clean slate and move up, the over-achievers of 2018-19 move down. The late-season surges of some promising young players get a bit of a bump. Doing the April rankings are always a lot of fun. My goal is to do my best to get these as close to what I come up with in August after extensive analysis as I can. The players I'm 'way' off on I take it hard. I want to be a savant with this – I want spew out an accurate player value without doing the work (and then prove myself right after doing the work in the summer).

  As always, players between +/- 5.0 in the ratings should be considered equal. Click on any player name to be taken to his incredible stats page (with charts, game logs, graphs, fancy stats – everything you need, even customizable date windows you can look at).

  Late Playoff Draft? Pick up my 13th Annual Playoff Draft List Here

  April Player Team DEF? Rating March Feb Change 1 Nikita Kucherov TBL   312.9 2 2 1 2 Connor McDavid EDM   308.6 1 1 -1 3 Johnny Gaudreau CGY   208.4 4 5 1 4 Patrick Kane CHI   207.9 5 11 1 5 Nathan MacKinnon COL   202.9 3 3 -2 6 Leon Draisaitl EDM   201.0 13 17 7 7 Sidney Crosby PIT   189.1 7 6 0 8 Mitchell Marner TOR   185.1 8 8 0 9 Mikko Rantanen COL   177.6 6 4 -3 10 John Tavares TOR   172.8 14 13 4 11 Auston Matthews TOR   167.8 16 12 5 12 Steven Stamkos TBL   167.2 19 23 7 13 Jack Eichel BUF   164.1 12 15 -1 14 Mark Scheifele WPG   162.9 10 7 -4 15 Brayden Point TBL   160.5 11 10 -4 16 Brad Marchand BOS   158.0 18 19 2 17 Blake Wheeler WPG   152.6 9 9 -8 18 Artemi Panarin CBJ   150.8 15 16 -3 19 Aleksander Barkov FLA   150.7 27 29 8 20 Sebastian Aho CAR   147.8 22 25 2 21 Alex Ovechkin WAS   147.7 17 18 -4 22 Sean Monahan CGY   147.2 20 21 -2 23 Claude Giroux PHI   144.5 21 22 -2 24 David Pastrnak BOS   143.9 25 14 1 25 Jonathan Huberdeau FLA   143.2 28 28 3 26 Elias Lindholm CGY   141.6 23 34 -3 27 Evgeni Malkin PIT   139.4 24 24 -3 28 Phil Kessel PIT   135.3 26 20 -2 29 Taylor Hall NJD   134.0 47 40 18 30 Nicklas Backstrom WAS   131.3 32 26 2 31 Elias Pettersson VAN   130.9 40 39 9 32 Matthew Tkachuk CGY   130.3 35 27 3 33 Jake Guentzel PIT   128.8 42 42 9 34 Alex DeBrincat CHI   126.6 38 51 4 35 Erik Karlsson SJS y 125.0 56 30 21 36 Evgeny Kuznetsov WAS   124.4 31 36 -5 37 Tyler Seguin DAL   124.3 33 35 -4 38 Mathew Barzal NYI   124.1 37 32 -1 39 Gabriel Landeskog COL   124.0 30 33 -9 40 Brent Burns SJS y 121.8 29 31 -11 41 Vladimir Tarasenko STL   118.9 46 60 5 42 Sean Couturier PHI   117.8 50 69 8 43 Ryan O'Reilly STL   114.3 43 45 0 44 Dylan Larkin DET   113.1 55 57 11 45 Tomas Hertl SJS   113.1 68 80 23 46 Jakub Voracek PHI   112.1 39 44 -7 47 Patrice Bergeron BOS   111.9 44 41 -3 48 Mark Stone VGK   110.7 36 37 -12 49 Morgan Rielly TOR y 110.5 34 38 -15 50 Kyle Connor WPG   110.4 70 54 20 51 Teuvo Teravainen CAR   109.4 53 70 2 52 John Carlson WAS y 109.1 48 43 -4 53 Anze Kopitar LAK   107.6 64 63 11 54 Mika Zibanejad NYR   107.5 58 67 4 55 Patrik Laine WPG   107.4 52 59 -3 56 Dylan Strome CHI   106.6 111 138 55 57 Sam Reinhart BUF   102.8 59 62 2 58 Logan Couture SJS   101.6 51 50 -7 59 Max Domi MON   101.2 57 58 -2 60 Matt Duchene CBJ   100.3 41 46 -19 61 Jonathan Drouin MON   100.3 71 83 10 62 Clayton Keller ARI   99.4 79 64 17 63 Nikolaj Ehlers WPG   99.2 91 89 28 64 Ryan Johansen NSH   99.1 61 52 -3 65 Jonathan Toews CHI   98.6 49 73 -16 66 Jonathan Marchessault VGK   97.5 74 78 8 67 Alexander Radulov DAL   97.4 63 53 -4 68 Brock Boeser VAN   97.2 73 66 5 69 Timo Meier SJS   97.2 62 49 -7 70 Mikael Granlund NSH   96.4 54 48 -16 71 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins EDM   96.1 67 56 -4 72 Nico Hischier NJD   95.5 78 79 6 73 William Nylander TOR   94.8 114 111 41 74 Cam Atkinson CBJ   93.0 45 47 -29 75 William Karlsson VGK   92.2 83 84 8 76 Viktor Arvidsson NSH   90.3 98 87 22 77 Mark Giordano CGY y 89.9 80 90 3 78 Vincent Trocheck FLA   89.7 102 96 24 79 Mike Hoffman FLA   89.2 72 71 -7 80 Victor Hedman TBL y 88.6 77 76 -3 81 Jamie Benn DAL   88.6 69 55 -12 82 Bo Horvat VAN   87.4 81 74 -1 83 Ryan Getzlaf ANA   86.9 82 77 -1 84 Kevin Labanc SJS   86.8 110 120 26 85 Filip Forsberg NSH   86.7 76 82 -9 86 Thomas Chabot OTT y 85.3 75 61 -11 87 Evgenii Dadonov FLA   84.3 84 75 -3 88 Josh Bailey NYI   83.8 86 88 -2 89 Tyson Barrie COL y 82.4 87 81 -2 90 Anthony Mantha DET   82.2 141 144 51 91 John Klingberg DAL y 81.4 112 100 21 92 Pierre-Luc Dubois CBJ   81.0 65 68 -27 93 Jeff Skinner BUF   80.9 66 65 -27 94 Nick Schmaltz ARI   75.8 179 177 85 95 Rasmus Dahlin BUF y 75.3 99 129 4 96 J.T. Miller TBL   75.1 109 103 13 97 Torey Krug BOS y 74.7 92 97 -5 98 Joe Pavelski SJS   74.3 60 72 -38 99 Alex Tuch VGK   73.9 126 86 27 100 Chris Kreider NYR   73.6 95 91 -5 101 Kevin Hayes WPG   73.3 90 107 -11 102 Rickard Rakell ANA   72.8 132 109 30 103 Keith Yandle FLA y 72.6 89 92 -14 104 Christian Dvorak ARI   72.4 157 153 53 105 Brayden Schenn STL   72.1 94 95 -11 106 Roman Josi NSH y 71.6 96 104 -10 107 Alex Galchenyuk ARI   70.8 115 117 8 108 Andreas Athanasiou DET   70.4 122 119 14 109 Kris Letang PIT y 69.7 85 85 -24 110 David Krejci BOS   69.5 88 131 -22 111 Anders Lee NYI   69.4 101 102 -10 112 Seth Jones CBJ y 67.7 93 101 -19 113 Jakub Vrana WAS   66.4 129 132 16 114 Kyle Palmieri NJD   66.3 104 98 -10 115 Travis Konecny PHI   65.7 113 124 -2 116 Yanni Gourde TBL   65.5 105 106 -11 117 Nino Niederreiter CAR   64.6 116 135 -1 118 Evander Kane SJS   64.6 103 105 -15 119 Jacob Trouba WPG y 64.2 143 151 24 120 Shayne Gostisbehere PHI y 64.0 128 127 8 121 Jason Zucker MIN   63.5 140 134 19 122 Zach Werenski CBJ y 63.1 118 123 -4 123 Gustav Nyquist SJS   63.1 108 94 -15 124 Erik Gustafsson CHI y 62.7 119 163 -5 125 P.K. Subban NSH y 62.4 133 128 8 126 Oliver Ekman-Larsson ARI y 62.1 123 122 -3 127 Andrei Svechnikov CAR   61.8 159 149 32 128 Tyler Johnson TBL   61.0 107 93 -21 129 Kevin Fiala MIN   60.9 121 115 -8 130 Reilly Smith VGK   60.5 144 126 14 131 Oliver Bjorkstrand CBJ   59.7 168 184 37 132 Zach Parise MIN   58.1 97 99 -35 133 Tomas Tatar MON   57.7 106 113 -27 134 Vinnie Hinostroza ARI   57.3 198 224 64 135 Andreas Johnsson TOR   57.1 124 173 -11 136 Jaden Schwartz STL   56.8 130 118 -6 137 Matt Dumba MIN y 56.2 178 175 41 138 Tyler Bertuzzi DET   55.9 196 191 58 139 Ryan Dzingel CBJ   55.8 100 112 -39 140 Drew Doughty LAK y 55.7 146 137 6 141 Nazem Kadri TOR   54.7 120 114 -21 142 Troy Terry ANA   54.0 267 271 125 143 James van Riemsdyk PHI   53.9 152 182 9 144 Brandon Saad CHI   53.7 131 143 -13 145 Mats Zuccarello DAL   53.4 142 141 -3 146 Nick Ritchie ANA   53.4 165 156 19 147 Max Pacioretty VGK   53.4 138 125 -9 148 Brendan Gallagher MON   52.5 137 142 -11 149 Jesperi Kotkaniemi MON   52.4 180 186 31 150 Chris Tierney OTT   52.4 139 130 -11 151 Kasperi Kapanen TOR   52.3 125 171 -26 152 David Perron STL   52.3 134 110 -18 153 Jakob Silfverberg ANA   52.1 191 157 38 154 Eric Staal MIN   51.4 117 116 -37 155 Danton Heinen BOS   51.0 192 197 37 156 Tom Wilson WAS   49.6 127 121 -29 157 Phillip Danault MON   49.6 136 139 -21 158 Jesper Bratt NJD   49.2 158 179 0 159 Derek Stepan ARI   49.1 166 158 7 160 Ryan Donato MIN   48.9 236 263 76 161 Dougie Hamilton CAR y 48.3 173 169 12 162 Alexander Kerfoot COL   48.1 147 133 -15 163 Tyler Toffoli LAK   48.0 161 147 -2 164 Charlie Coyle BOS   47.9 151 150 -13 165 Anthony Cirelli TBL   47.2 233 236 68 166 Ryan Ellis NSH y 47.1 153 165 -13 167 Erik Haula VGK   46.9 184 188 17 168 Colin White OTT   46.8 164 152 -4 169 Brady Tkachuk OTT   45.1 156 155 -13 170 Artturi Lehkonen MON   45.1 169 167 -1 171 Maxime Comtois ANA   44.8 290 293 119 172 Jimmy Vesey NYR   44.3 155 170 -17 173 Jared McCann PIT   44.1 301 310 128 174 Robert Thomas STL   43.3 248 230 74 175 Pavel Buchnevich NYR   42.9 185 220 10 176 Mark Jankowski CGY   42.5 187 192 11 177 Anthony Beauvillier NYI   42.4 201 190 24 178 Ondrej Palat TBL   42.3 148 146 -30 179 Mikael Backlund CGY   41.7 163 164 -16 180 Rasmus Ristolainen BUF y 41.6 145 145 -35 181 Jordan Eberle NYI   41.4 162 161 -19 182 Alex Pietrangelo STL y 41.0 176 196 -6 183 Nolan Patrick PHI   41.0 189 212 6 184 Brendan Perlini CHI   40.9 227 238 43 185 Charlie McAvoy BOS y 40.8 292 269 107 186 Drake Batherson OTT   40.4 251 250 65 187 Dustin Byfuglien WPG y 40.3 135 108 -52 188 T.J. Oshie WAS   39.3 171 194 -17 189 Marcus Johansson BOS   38.4 172 198 -17 190 Alexander Wennberg CBJ   37.9 170 148 -20 191 Josh Morrissey WPG y 37.9 149 136 -42 192 J.T. Compher COL   37.8 200 176 8 193 Jake Gardiner TOR y 37.8 177 168 -16 194 Nikolay Goldobin VAN   37.4 193 174 -1 195 Ryan Pulock NYI y 37.1 207 208 12 196 Jake DeBrusk BOS   36.8 195 218 -1 197 Mattias Ekholm NSH y 36.3 154 154 -43 198 Bryan Little WPG   35.9 174 160 -24 199 Darnell Nurse EDM y 35.4 215 222 16 200 Jack Roslovic WPG   34.8 203 206 3 201 Ryan Suter MIN y 34.6 167 166 -34 202 Alex Killorn TBL   33.9 188 180 -14 203 Micheal Ferland CAR   33.5 183 200 -20 204 Brett Connolly WAS   33.5 216 242 12 205 Ondrej Kase ANA   32.8 265 201 60 206 Sven Baertschi VAN   32.6 222 215 16 207 Craig Smith NSH   32.3 224 202 17 208 Henrik Borgstrom FLA   32.1 204 207 -4 209 Dominik Kahun CHI   32.1 231 291 22 210 Ryan Poehling MON   31.8 377 NR 167 211 Shea Theodore VGK y 31.8 202 205 -9 212 Daniel Sprong ANA   30.8 256 256 44 213 Casey Mittelstadt BUF   30.5 197 203 -16 214 Brandon Montour BUF y 30.5 220 204 6 215 Nick Foligno CBJ   30.5 160 140 -55 216 Vladislav Namestnikov NYR   29.8 199 213 -17 217 Nick Bjugstad PIT   29.5 270 219 53 218 Mikhail Sergachev TBL y 29.3 252 251 34 219 Zach Hyman TOR   29.3 205 225 -14 220 Paul Stastny VGK   28.9 240 268 20 221 Ryan McDonagh TBL y 28.9 212 217 -9 222 Aaron Ekblad FLA y 28.7 239 223 17 223 Jake Muzzin TOR y 28.7 194 221 -29 224 Conor Garland ARI   28.7 237 240 13 225 Tanner Pearson VAN   28.5 353 323 128 226 Kyle Turris NSH   28.4 262 172 36 227 Adam Henrique ANA   28.4 213 211 -14 228 Frank Vatrano FLA   28.2 268 272 40 229 Bobby Ryan OTT   27.9 214 189 -15 230 Jean-Gabriel Pageau OTT   27.7 397 382 167 231 Eeli Tolvanen NSH   27.6 190 195 -41 232 Christian Fischer ARI   27.0 217 210 -15 233 Joonas Donskoi SJS   27.0 209 199 -24 234 Tyson Jost COL   27.0 255 253 21 235 Tony DeAngelo NYR y 26.7 254 350 19 236 Dustin Brown LAK   26.3 206 178 -30 237 Ivan Provorov PHI y 26.3 286 288 49 238 Jordan Greenway MIN   26.0 299 299 61 239 Kailer Yamamoto EDM   25.9 218 226 -21 240 Corey Perry ANA   25.9 446 416 206 241 Travis Sanheim PHI y 25.7 280 432 39 242 Connor Brown TOR   25.6 285 287 43 243 Shea Weber MON y 25.5 272 290 29 244 Sam Steel ANA   24.6 230 234 -14 245 Will Butcher NJD y 24.5 367 338 122 246 Filip Chytil NYR   24.3 336 335 90 247 Tage Thompson BUF   24.3 226 229 -21 248 Carl Soderberg COL   24.2 181 209 -67 249 Vince Dunn STL y 24.2 358 343 109 250 Andre Burakovsky WAS   24.2 242 244 -8 251 Joe Thornton SJS   24.2 221 247 -30 252 Brett Howden NYR   24.1 311 309 59 253 Zach Aston-Reese PIT   23.9 314 312 61 254 Noah Hanifin CGY y 23.9 210 183 -44 255 Kirill Kaprizov MIN   23.3 289 292 34 256 Ryan Strome NYR   23.3 404 402 148 257 Patric Hornqvist PIT   23.3 245 162 -12 258 Damon Severson NJD y 23.0 246 246 -12 259 Josh Anderson CBJ   23.0 211 257 -48 260 Jeremy Bracco TOR   22.8 258 NR -2 261 Pavel Zacha NJD   22.8 243 245 -18 262 Miro Heiskanen DAL y 22.4 276 325 14 263 Sam Bennett CGY   22.4 293 329 30 264 Boone Jenner CBJ   22.3 223 232 -41 265 Kristian Vesalainen WPG   22.2 247 248 -18 266 Jordan Kyrou STL   22.0 249 249 -17 267 Andrew Mangiapane CGY   22.0 273 276 6 268 Aleksi Heponiemi FLA   21.9 241 243 -27 269 Dylan Sikura CHI   21.6 253 252 -16 270 Blake Coleman NJD   21.0 250 214 -20 271 Scott Laughton PHI   20.9 408 408 137 272 Filip Zadina DET   20.7 261 262 -11 273 Derek Ryan CGY   20.7 394 429 121 274 Calle Jarnkrok NSH   20.5 288 254 14 275 Tyler Myers WPG y 20.4 333 333 58 276 Justin Schultz PIT y 20.3 389 359 113 277 Richard Panik ARI   20.2 345 318 68 278 Jeff Carter LAK   20.1 208 181 -70 279 Conor Sheary BUF   19.9 186 185 -93 280 Esa Lindell DAL y 19.9 275 303 -5 281 Taro Hirose DET   19.9 NR NR NEW 282 Joshua Ho-Sang NYI   19.7 257 258 -25 283 Martin Necas CAR   19.6 232 235 -51 284 Vitali Kravtsov NYR   19.6 340 340 56 285 Vitali Abramov OTT   19.5 263 265 -22 286 Michael McLeod NJD   19.5 298 298 12 287 Jason Robertson DAL   19.5 264 266 -23 288 Mike Matheson FLA y 19.5 308 284 20 289 Gabriel Vilardi LAK   18.8 309 307 20 290 Evan Bouchard EDM y 18.7 271 275 -19 291 Nicolas Roy CAR   18.6 274 277 -17 292 Carl Grundstrom LAK   18.6 303 NR 11 293 Dominik Simon PIT   18.5 383 260 90 294 Logan Brown OTT   18.5 277 279 -17 295 Boris Katchouk TBL   18.4 278 280 -17 296 Jordan Staal CAR   18.2 477 371 181 297 Devin Shore ANA   18.1 244 237 -53 298 Sammy Blais STL   18.0 328 327 30 299 Cody Eakin VGK   17.9 238 233 -61 300 Bryan Rust PIT   17.9 219 216 -81                                 April Player Team DEF? Rating March Feb Change 240 Corey Perry ANA   25.9 446 416 206 296 Jordan Staal CAR   18.2 477 371 181 210 Ryan Poehling MON   31.8 377 NR 167 230 Jean-Gabriel Pageau OTT   27.7 397 382 167 256 Ryan Strome NYR   23.3 404 402 148 271 Scott Laughton PHI   20.9 408 408 137 310 Travis Dermott TOR y 17.5 443 438 133 309 Rasmus Andersson CGY y 17.5 439 434 130 173 Jared McCann PIT   44.1 301 310 128 225 Tanner Pearson VAN   28.5 353 323 128                 April Player Team DEF? Rating March Feb Change 348 Brock Nelson NYI   15.0 150 159 -198 600 Thomas Vanek DET   -1.3 433 390 -167 474 Travis Zajac NJD   6.0 316 281 -158 496 Patrick Marleau TOR   5.1 354 354 -142 358 Ilya Kovalchuk LAK   14.5 225 227 -133 314 Jeff Petry MON y 17.0 182 193 -132 306 Wayne Simmonds NSH   17.7 175 187 -131 610 Jason Pominville BUF   -2.3 479 549 -131                 April Player Team DEF? Rating March Feb Change 281 Taro Hirose DET   19.9 NR NR NEW 324 Filip Chlapik OTT   16.6 NR NR NEW 344 Rocco Grimaldi NSH   15.5 NR NR NEW 369 Alexandre Texier CBJ   13.1 NR NR NEW 430 Erik Cernak TBL y 9.0 NR NR NEW 435 Calle Rosen TOR y 8.6 NR NR NEW 459 Joel Persson EDM y 6.8 NR NR NEW 465 Chad Krys CHI y 6.6 NR NR NEW 494 Travis Boyd WAS   5.2 NR NR NEW 500 Philippe Myers PHI y 4.9 NR NR NEW 518 Ian Mitchell CHI y 3.9 NR NR NEW 521 Joel L'Esperance DAL   3.8 NR NR NEW 545 Rasmus Sandin TOR y 2.7 NR NR NEW

    from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/hockey-rankings/top-300-keeper-league-skaters-april-2019/

Hey-O! The only thing I love more than the football season is the couple weeks leading up to it. So much hope...so much promise...mmmmm yeah. I’m no Pro Football Focus but I do have doodles to go along with my much less researched opinions so it pretty much evens out. I’ll break my 2017 Preview down by Division, including The Ed’s All-Division teams and Divisional Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Breakout Player of the Year, and the most important new comer to each division. Just a heads up, I added a FLEX position on offense which is available for any RB, WR, or TE. On Defense I was pretty open ended about Edge, labeling them either LB or DL. This was just so I didn’t leave out any top tier players in a division that happened to be full of good D-Linemen and thin on Linebackers and vice versa.

We’ll start our tour with the NFC West. The division that was seen for a brief moment as the new tough guy division. The Niners/Seahawks rivalry was the new Steelers/Ravens (puh-leeeeez). This was the lunch pale division for the length of a tuna melt sandwich and a cup of joe barely enjoyed with greasy hands on a steel beam sixty stories up. But then Jim Harbaugh left and we all woke up and remembered what this was...a group of goddamn west coast elites (amirite? right?!). Even the Legion of Boom just kinda bitches about stuff now. Let’s take a look at how the ol’ NFC West is gonna shake out.

All NFC West Crew:

QB - Russell Wilson, Seahawks

RB - Dirt Johnson, Cardinals

TE - Jimmy Graham, Seahawks

WR - Doug Baldwin, Seahawks

WR - Larry Fitzgerald, Cardinals

FLEX - John Brown, Cardinals

OL - Jared Veldheer, Cardinals

OL - Mike Iupati, Cardinals

OL - Andrew Whitworth, Rams

OL - Justin Britt, Seahawks

OL - Joe Staley, 49ers

DL - Mike Bennett, Seahawks

DL - Aaron Donald, Rams

DL - Chandler Jones, Cardinals

DL - Markus Golden, Cardinals

LB - Deone Bucannon, Cardinals

LB - K.J. Wright, Seahawks

LB - Bobby Wagner, Seahawks

DB - Richard Sherman, Seahawks

DB - Patrick Peterson, Cardinals

DB - Earl Thomas, Seahawks

DB - Kam Chancellor, Seahawks

Offensive Player of the Year - DangerRuss Wilson, QB - Seahawks

Defensive Player of the Year - Aaron Donald, DL - Rams

Rookie of the Year - Reuben Foster, LB - 49ers

Breakout Player of the Year - Robert Nkemdiche, DL - Cardinals

Comeback Player of the Year - Robert Quinn, DL - Rams

New Comer of the Year - Andrew Whitworth, OL - Rams

This division was actually pretty easy. There weren’t too many tough choices. The offensive Flex position could’ve gone to a couple different guys. I thought about calling a Todd Gurley return which is very likely but that team is going to be shit and they’ll be abandoning the power running attack before half most games. In that Arizona offense John Brown is going to get his deep looks one way or the other. Even if the second best looking and second best quarterback of the Hanson Brothers (not sure if any of them can play or not, I just have a hard time saying Blaine Gabbert is the best quarterback in any group of people) ends up playing, the rock is going deep in the desert. Carlos Hyde was also a thought but he’s starting to feel like the Sam Bradford of running backs. Every year is ‘the year it all comes together’. The only really tough choice was going with both the Arizona edge guys over the other two edge rushers in Seattle or Robert Quinn. But Cliff Avril and Frank Clark are going to be rotational players (very good ones to be fair) and Quinn is coming off a couple down seasons. I gotta give the edge (no pun intended) to the Arizona boys. I wanted to put Navarro Bowman at linebacker over Deone Bucannon but I just can’t believe at this point he will put together a full 16 game season while Bucannon is a dynamic talent with the potential to hit an elite level of play.

As far as rookies in this division go there are a few good ones. Solomon Thomas is my bet to be the best of the bunch but I get a feeling they are really going to stretch his abilities thin in a variety of roles as a rookie. Hasaan Reddick is another one that will be good but he is switching positions and is likely to play behind Karlos Dansby early on. Budda Baker is going to be a fun player to watch and a great compliment to the Honey Badger (the nickname combos should be great) but is a guy Arizona will have to move around to find his best position as a pro. He will also probably start out playing behind a veteran (Antoine Bethea). Gerald Everett will get touches for the Rams but he’ll have to transition from a small school to the NFL at a position that already sees a lot of guys struggle with that jump. Reuben Foster is not only pro-ready but actually going to a more simple defense where he will just be asked to chase and tackle. At the combine he really showed how well suited he was for playing linebacker in the NFL. We didn’t get to see him run a 40 or do reps of 225 because he got kicked out of the combine for going ape shit on some lunch lady asking ‘DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!?!!’ showing supreme confidence and blind rage.

Former first round O-linemen like Josh Garnett and D.J. Humphries were options as breakout candidates but it’s tough to picture guys like that making as big an impact as stat getters (gatherers?) like pass rushers, running backs, etc.. Maurice Alexander was a thought. He should be really good as a full time starter for L.A. this year in place of departed T.J. McDonald. However, he may end up playing high safety too often to really rack up tackles in the box. Instead, I think Robert Nkemdiche has a Jadeveon Clowney kind of impact this year. He may not be a double digit sack guy yet but like Clowney he should start hitting his stride as a dominant run defender. Give him some time to get them dreads out and he’ll be a damn spitting image of former Cardinals bad ass, Darnell Dockett.

Comeback player in this division wasn’t close in my opinion. Robert Quinn is a former All-Pro pass rusher who is still young enough to bounce back from a couple down seasons. It helps he plays with maybe the best defensive player in the league, Aaron Donald and will fill the rock star position in Wade Phillip’s super aggressive defense. He will have the green light to get down field this season and I suspect he gets back to form.

San Fran has loaded up with new faces but they are mostly all just place holders on a bad team. The Seahawks will win this division regardless so I’m looking to the future when it comes to this division’s best new comer. Less-pretty-and-probably-less-good-at-Quarterback-Ryan Gosling (I find myself having the same problem with Jared Goff as I do Blaine Gabbert) has zero chance of being worth all of those draft picks if they don’t at least give him a chance to throw the ball. So bringing in one of this generation’s best offensive linemen was a smart move for the Rams (awful move for Whitworth however). We should get a better look at Goff as an honest to god QB and not just the face of the organization this year.

Dirt ‘David’ Johnson was the only real contender for the NFC West’s Offensive Player of the Year but as soon as Carson Palmer goes down in week 6 this team will start going to shit real quick. It’s hard to pass over the best QB in the division playing for the best team in the division (Russ Wilson).

There are some truly elite defenders in this division. Maybe more so than any other in football and yet it wasn’t even close. Aaron Donald was the best defensive player in football last year and as long as J.J. Watt is having constant back problems Khalil Mack is the only real contender for that title.

Seahawks win this division. Even with an absolute shit offensive line they should sweep the Rams and 49ers and I’d guess split the Cardinals series. Next up...The AFC West.

New article has been published on The Daily Digest

New article has been published on http://www.thedailydigest.org/2017/04/03/drew-pooters-when-liberals-dont-want-to-hear-what-exists/

Drew Pooters: When Liberals Don’t Want To Hear What EXISTS

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Drew Pooters

First, a couple interesting reaction(s) to my paper on “Why War Is Inevitable”:

“Stephan Brühl · Friends with Tim Darnell

  this is total nonsense, and putting Obama, Pelosi, Warren, etc. in one line with the names of Hitler and Stalin is a wrongful trivialization of the atrocities these criminals (H. and S.) had performed.”

“Stephan Brühl · Friends with Tim Darnell

this is the typical right wing crap which shows that you don’t esteem humanity. You only can bath in your arrogance and gun obsession”

  Let’s go back to the original statement, shall we?

  “Further, just like their pre-Civil War slave holding idols, life is cheap and it means nothing to them – be it the unborn, the old, the politically incorrect, and those the regime have no use for – just ask John C. Calhoun, Mao, Hitler, Pol-Pot, Idi Amin, Harry Reid, Robert Byrd, Margaret Sanger, Woodrow Wilson, Stalin, Lyndon Banes Johnson, Robert Mugabe, Nancy Pelosi, Fidel Castro, Barack Obama, Nikolai Ceausescu of Romania, Dianne Feinstein with Chuck Schumer (both no doubt on the list of “want to meet in person” of ISIS; you’d think they of ALL people would know the dangers they push), Hideki Tojo, and Elizabeth Warren. They all have three things in common: The first is that they THINK they know better for everyone, second, that some lives are worth more than others by their own measure of worth, and the third, “you have no rights except at our whim, as we’ve made you so ignorant WE control knowledge”.

  ALL have supported organizations that eliminated those that the State (or particular groups) did not want nor found useful, from gulags to mass murder. There was NO RESPECT FOR LIFE FROM ANY OF THESE INDIVIDUALS – ONLY LIVES THAT THEY FELT MATTERED TO THEM ONLY, and usually in a selfish “to-their-own-ends” way. Seventy MILLION aborted babies, mostly of “inferior” blacks – a word Margaret, Adolf, and Southern Democrats used if you will do your homework – IS a holocaust that our government funded. Period. End of Story.

  Systematic killing – be it to create or sustain terror, design, or governmental goals is STILL systematic killing, be it Armenians, Jews, Chinese, Filipinos or the unborn (which it IS funny – if YOU kill a pregnant woman here you get charged with TWO murders, but SHE and a GOVERNMENT FUNDED agency can kill the same fetus legally with and without her permission (as in the case of “suspected” mental retardation issues, which is still going on here). So just WHO doesn’t hold humanity in a higher esteem? YOU do. Period. End of story. LEFT wing Socialism policies have killed more than wars have – and some stats make the Germans and Russians look like pikers, which makes me wonder just where in hell you got your “education” – the records are all out there, and the wonderful folks at the University of Hawaii (.edu) have put forth a great listing of such killings, albeit within the 20th Century. When you opened your mouth about the refugees, you still keep ignoring their aims, since they don’t fit within your thinking processes – it would just ruin you r day if you had to realize, like I have they are in a “soft” conquest of Europe, and with declining birth rates of European nations like your own, and theirs is on the increase, you WILL be a Caliphate by the time of 2088. Maybe before then if Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opens the flood gates to force more into there. But let’s review the Muslim standpoint, shall we?

    -Speaking at Kanal D TV”s Arena program, PM Erdogan commented on the term “moderate Islam”, often used in the West to describe AKP and said, “˜These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.”

  So much for the idea of people who will practice their religion without violence against others who are not of it.

  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said women cannot be treated as equal to men, and has accused feminists of rejecting motherhood.

  “You cannot put women and men on an equal footing,” he told a meeting in Istanbul. “It is against nature.” He also said feminists did not grasp the importance of motherhood in Islam. His comments often seek to appeal to his pious core supporters, says the BBC’s Mark Lowen in Istanbul, but they anger more liberal voters. Mr. Erdogan has previously urged women to have three children, and has lashed out against abortion and birth by Caesarean section.”

  If you get the math, you’ll be outnumbered here shortly “Mr. Custer”.

  “Turkish PM Davutoglu In Switzerland: “I Kiss The Foreheads Of My Brothers Who Carried The Tekbir To Zurich”; “Islam Is Europe’s Indigenous Religion”; “Turkey Is The Cure For Europe”; “No One Will Be Able To Stop” The Rise Of Islam In Europe

  While in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Zurich to speak to a large gathering of Turks living in Europe:[8] “I am saying this here from Zurich. Islam is Europe’s indigenous religion, and will continue to be so. Despite the roadblocks, prejudices and many provocations, Turkey will continue to walk on the road to EU membership. We will walk this road mainly for you [Turks in Europe]. Since you represent our culture, our traditions, our language and our religion here, and since we have brothers, [i.e.] the 45 million Muslims here [in Europe], Turkey will be part of Europe. We will never beg or make special requests; we will enter with honor, with our heads high. We will enter the EU with our language, our traditions, and our religion [Islam]. You live proudly with our culture in Europe. Would we ever sacrifice one iota of that culture? With Allah’s grace, we will never bow our heads. We are the grandchildren of the heroes who fought at Gallipoli, who never bowed their heads.

  “In 2002, when we [AKP] came to power, they [the EU] said that Turkey was too poor, too weak a country, that would become a burden on Europe. Thank Allah, today Turkey is the rising power of the world, the presiding member of the G20. We want nothing from them. We reached this point with our sweat, and thanks to the taxes paid by our people, thanks to our moral and hardworking people. May Allah never make us need anything from anyone.

  “And now the same [European] circles are saying that we are too strong to be accepted. So strong that we would change the character of Europe, and occupy one fourth of the European Parliament. I say from here now: ‘We are not a burden on Europe. Turkey is the cure for Europe!’ Turkey is the cure for their disease of racism. We are the cure to their economic slowdown, we are the cure to their loss of power.

  “I again call this out from Zurich: Islam is Europe’s indigenous religion, and it will continue to be its indigenous religion. From Andalusia to the Ottomans, and, half a century ago with the holy march of our people who came here from every corner of Anatolia. The sound of the azan [Islamic call to prayer], brought by these heroes to Europe, the domes of the mosques with which they dotted this continent, will all be protected. We will continue to fight against all the hands that reach out to harm them [the mosques]. I kiss the foreheads of my brothers who carried the tekbir [i.e. the call “Allahu Akbar”] to Zurich. May Allah bless those who raised you. Blessed be those who came here with just a suitcase, in poverty, but with rich hearts filled with their faith [Islam]. How holy those people were, who came and sowed the seeds here, which will, with Allah’s help, continue to grow into a huge tree of justice in the center of Europe. No one will be able to stop this.”

  Wow – with thinking like that, it’s apparent that Germany will cease to be a nation eventually, but live in your denial all you want; it’s not right wing or left wing – it’s THEIR point of view. You can’t handle it? It’s still YOUR problem. But let’s see just how well their assimilation is working out in YOUR country, eh?

  “Germany hits back after Turkish PM tells immigrants to resist assimilation”: Recep Tayyip Erdogan told 10,000 in Düsseldorf that children of Turkish immigrants should learn Turkish before German. “You must integrate, but I am against assimilation … no one may ignore the rights of minorities,” he said, adding that individuals should have the right to practise their own faith. “Our children must learn German but they must learn Turkish first,” said Erdogan. Erdogan’s rhetoric seemed to go down well in Düsseldorf. “The Germans will never accept us but Erdogan does,” one man told Der Spiegel. Another said: “Finally someone feels responsible for us. For the first time a Turkish prime minister is not forgetting his countrymen abroad.” On Saturday, Erdogan made an even sharper criticism of German immigration policy, telling the Rheinische Post newspaper that forced integration requiring immigrants to suppress their culture and language violated international law.

    And The Guardian is hardly a right wing newspaper. Even your own Chancellor said that multiculturalism isn’t working, as I recall – BECAUSE of the lack of assimilation into German culture. She’s not exactly right wing, either.

  “The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has courted growing anti-immigrant opinion in Germany by claiming the country’s attempts to create a multicultural society have “utterly failed”. Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democratic Union party, Merkel said the idea of people from different cultural backgrounds living happily “side by side” did not work. She said the onus was on immigrants to do more to integrate into German society. “This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed,” Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, west of Berlin, yesterday. Her remarks will stir a debate about immigration in a country which is home to around 4 million Muslims.”

  THAT was seven years ago, hot shot – has anything changed? Nope. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7470/germany-migrants-crime

  But hey – here’s how one Muslim (and some others I know) view YOU: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10091/muslims-liberals-leftists

  http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/260393/muslim-migrants-increase-crime-germany-65-daniel-greenfield

  And, best of all, your OWN country justifies why our 2nd Amendment is a good thing; let’s look at the crime stats for just ONE YEAR in Germany from these “refugees”:

  “Here’s a little background from Soeren Kern, Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. and Senior Fellow at Gates Institute–– mind you this does not include 2016:

  · The actual number of crimes in Germany committed by migrants in 2015 may exceed 400,000.

  · The report does not include crime data from North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany and also the state with the largest number of migrants. North Rhine-Westphalia’s biggest city is Cologne, where, on New Year’s Eve, hundreds of German women were sexually assaulted by migrants.

  · “For years the policy has been to leave the [German] population in the dark about the actual crime situation… The citizens are being played for fools. Rather than tell the truth, they [government officials] are evading responsibility and passing blame onto the citizens and the police.” — André Schulz, director, Association of Criminal Police, Germany.

  · 10% of the migrants from the chaos in Iraq and Syria have reached Europe so far: “Eight to ten million migrants are still on the way.” — Gerd Müller, Development Minister.

  Migrants committed 208,344 crimes in 2015, according to a confidential police report that was leaked to the German newspaper, Bild. This figure represents an 80% increase over 2014 and works out to around 570 crimes committed by migrants every day, or 23 crimes each hour, between January and December 2015. The actual number of migrant crimes is far higher, however, because the report, produced by the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA), includes only crimes that have been solved (aufgeklärten Straftaten). According to Statista, the German statistics agency, on average only around half of all crimes committed in Germany in any given year are solved (Aufklärungsquote). This implies that the actual number of crimes committed by migrants in 2015 may exceed 400,000. Moreover, the report — “Crime in the Context of Immigration” (Kriminalität im Kontext von Zuwanderung) — includes data from only 13 of Germany’s 16 federal states. The report does not include crime data from North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany and also the state with the largest number of migrants. North Rhine-Westphalia’s biggest city is Cologne, where, on New Year’s Eve, hundreds of German women were sexually assaulted by migrants. It is not yet clear why those crimes were not included in the report. The report also lacks crime data from Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany, and Bremen, the second most populous city in Northern Germany. Further, many crimes are simply not reported or are deliberately overlooked: political leaders across Germany have ordered police to turn a blind eye to crimes perpetrated by migrants, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.

  According to the report, most of the crimes were committed by migrants from: Syria (24%), Albania (17%), Kosovo (14%), Serbia (11%), Afghanistan (11%), Iraq (9%), Eritrea (4%), Macedonia (4%), Pakistan (4%) and Nigeria (2%). Most of the migrant crimes involved theft (Diebstahl): 85,035 incidents in 2015, nearly twice as many as in 2014 (44,793). Those were followed by property and forgery crimes (Vermögens- und Fälschungsdelikte): 52,167 incidents in 2015. In addition, in 2015, migrants were involved in 36,010 reported cases of assault, battery and robbery (Rohheitsdelikte: Körperverletzung, Raub, räuberische Erpressung), roughly twice as many as in 2014 (18,678). There were also, in 2015, 28,712 reported incidents of fare evasion on public transportation (Beförderungserschleichung). There were 1,688 reported sexual assaults against women and children, including 458 rapes or acts of sexual coercion (Vergewaltigungen oder sexuelle Nötigungshandlungen). According to the report, migrants were accused of 240 attempted murders (Totschlagsversuch), in 2015, compared to 127 in 2014. In two-thirds of the cases, the perpetrators and victims were of the same nationality. There were 28 actual murders: migrants killed 27 other migrants, as well as one German. Finally, the report said that 266 individuals were suspected of being jihadists posing as migrants; 80 of these were determined not to be jihadists; 186 cases are still being investigated. The infiltration of jihadists into the country, according to the report, is “a growing trend.” The report leaves far more questions than answers. It remains unclear, for example, how German police define the term “migrant” (Zuwanderer) when compiling crime statistics. Does this term refer only to those migrants who arrived in Germany in 2015, or to anyone with a migrant background?

  Also, for reasons that are not given, the report fails to include offenses committed by North Africans, long known to be responsible for an increase in crimes in cities and towns across Germany. A confidential report, leaked to Die Welt, reveals that Hamburg police have effectively capitulated to the migrant youths, who outnumber and overwhelm them. The document states:

  “Even the smallest issue can quickly lead to aggressive offensive and defensive behavior. The youths come together in groups to stand up for each other and also to fight each other…

  “When dealing with others, the youths are often irreverent and show a lack of respect for local values and norms. The youths congregate mainly in the downtown area, where they can be seen almost every day. During the daytime, they hang out mostly in the St. George district, but in the evenings they carry out their activities in the Binnenalster, Flora- and Sternschanzenpark and St. Pauli [all across central Hamburg]. They usually appear in groups; up to 30 youths have been observed on weekend nights in St. Pauli. The behavior of these highly delinquent youths towards police officers can be characterized as aggressive, disrespectful and condescending. They are signaling that they are indifferent to police measures…

  “The youths quickly become conspicuous, mainly in the domains of pickpocketing or street robbery. They also break into homes and vehicles, but the crimes are often reported as trespassing or vandalism because the youths are just looking for a place to sleep. Shoplifting for obtaining food is commonplace. When they are arrested, they resist and assault [the police officers]. The youths have no respect for state institutions.”

  The paper reports that German authorities are reluctant to deport the youths back to their countries of origin because they are minors. As a result, as more unaccompanied minors arrive in Hamburg each day, the crime problem not only persists, but continues to grow. Meanwhile, in a bid to save the city’s tourism industry, Hamburg police have launched a crackdown on purse-snatchers. More than 20,000 purses — roughly 55 a day — are stolen in the city each year. According to Norman Großmann, the director of the federal police inspector’s office in Hamburg, 90% of the purses are stolen by males between the ages of 20 and 30 who come from North Africa or the Balkans. In Stuttgart, police are fighting a losing battle against migrant gangs from North Africa who are dedicated to the fine art of pickpocketing. In Dresden, migrants from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia have effectively taken control over the iconic Wiener Platz, a large public square in front of the central train station. There they sell drugs and pickpocket passersby, usually with impunity. Police raids on the square have become a game of “whack-a-mole,” with a never-ending number of migrants replacing those who have been arrested.

  (Well, so much for my wanting to go back to the areas of Rhine Main Air Base and Stuttgart!)

German authorities have repeatedly been accused of underreporting the true scale of the crime problem in the country. For example, up to 90% of the sex crimes committed in Germany in 2014 do not appear in the official statistics, according to the head of the Association of Criminal Police (Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter, BDK), André Schulz. He said:

  “For years the policy has been to leave the [German] population in the dark about the actual crime situation… The citizens are being played for fools. Rather than tell the truth, they [government officials] are evading responsibility and passing blame onto the citizens and the police.”

In an apparent effort to defuse escalating political tensions, Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge, BAMF) on February 16 said it was expecting only 500,000 new migrants to arrive in the country in 2016. In December 2015, however, BAMF director Frank-Jürgen Weise told Bild that “this figure [500,000] is only being used for ‘resource planning’ because at this time we cannot say how many people will come in 2016.”

  Look, pal, I can unload day after day, article after article, and effectively nuke your point of view back to the Stone Age. Your left wing Nazis used gun control to strip people of their ability for self-defense, and that’s how they were able to herd them to extermination camps, the same way the British did in India, the Chinese Communists in China and the Communists in Russia – seems that the ability to disarm people to get them killed is pretty much a left wing thing, given the historical records.

  So, with all due respect, when my grandparents saw the writing on the wall (they were Catholic) and left Germany in 1933 to come here – they saw that if you cannot defend yourself, you could be killed without a second thought by those in power. Guess they had a gun obsession like your current countrymen who are scrambling to buy anything that shoots right now. The Jews that once lived in Europe now have organizations here like Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership – a group dedicated to the preservation of gun rights in the United States and “to encourage Americans to understand and defend all of the Bill of Rights for everyone”. But I guess they just have some sort of unhealthy gun obsession and no reason to own one, right? Damn – your own left wing liberal past not only gives everyone else a reason to have self-protection against murder by government, but self-protection when your own philosophies will get you killed, sooner or later…but you don’t have to listen to me – your own countrymen have reported ALL these sourced crimes you didn’t have in the 1980’s, 1990’s, and early 2000’s. What changed?

  Simple – THEY came, and brought their ideas of world domination via religion with them – surely your should have recognized this, since the left wing’s religion is statism. But, I guess that’s why I just a historian/political science/military researcher…I don’t believe in unicorns and rainbows like you do, Stephan, but at least my cousin Gunther out in Bonn does. You REALLY screwed up when you decided not to ask first, but shoot off your yap – Sun Tzu would be telling you that you deserved your defeat.

Ramblings: Oilers Anti-Clutch? Hamilton’s Third-Quarter Tendencies, the 45/55 Theory and More (Feb 04)

Ramblings: Oilers Anti-Clutch? Hamilton’s Third-Quarter Tendencies, the 45/55 Theory and More (Feb 04)

***

The Devils have returned Mackenzie Blackwood to the AHL, reinforcing the idea that fantasy owners should, indeed, follow the contract. Cory Schneider is back from his second conditioning stint and at $6 million per year for another three seasons after this one. Both of his AHL stints were underwhelming, as he posted a 2-4-0 record and a 0.881 SV%. But because of his contract, he will get two of the next four starts for sure. If Schneider is healthy next season but still doesn’t find his game, then the Devils will again be in playoff trouble. Because the team will keep throwing him out there at the expense of a better goaltender on the sidelines (Blackwood). But if he struggles with injuries again, Blackwood becomes the guy and the Devils will be in the playoff hunt. Yes, despite this being a billion dollar business, politics and optics matter. And that’s the balancing act that fantasy owners get to enjoy.

  Blackwood went 6-4-0 with a SV% of 0.926. But he lost two of his last three games and four games ago he allowed five in a win. So sending him down could be great timing in terms of maintaining confidence.

*

One of the main pieces in Ottawa’s Jason Spezza trade, Nick Paul, has been placed on waivers.

*

Ian touched on Corey Perry’s return in Sunday’s Ramblings but I want to dig a little deeper due to Patrick Eaves returning as well. Here were the line combos for the Ducks on Saturday:

  #1

27.1%

GETZLAF,RYAN – PERRY,COREY – RAKELL,RICKARD

#2

26.2%

GRANT,DEREK – RITCHIE,NICK – SPRONG,DANIEL

#3

20.5%

EAVES,PATRICK – GIBBONS,BRIAN – ROWNEY,CARTER

#4

17.1%

HENRIQUE,ADAM – SHORE,DEVIN – SILFVERBERG,JAKOB

  So Eaves is getting buried, making him useless, Perry is still riding the wave of his Hart trophy from a hundred years ago even though he’s now a second-liner at best, a third-liner most probably. And Randy Carlyle stubbornly stuck to his line combos despite his team getting their asses handed to them. Bottom line: I don’t have any interest in any skater on this team except Rakell. Even Getzlaf has just four points in his last 17 games.

*

My reaction, as a Scheifele owner, to Saturday’s game in progress:

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Winnipeg scores 9 goals. How much money, in thousands, do you bet on Scheifele getting at least 1 point?</p>— Dobber (@DobberHockey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DobberHockey/status/1091884663608492032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2019</a></blockquote>

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}

*

When the Oilers have a one- or two-goal lead heading into the third period, immediately scramble for your phone, jump online and throw everything you can on an Edmonton loss. Bank on it! The most un-clutch team in pro sports.

After blowing a two-goal lead on Saturday in front of Cam Talbot, the Oilers blew a one-goal lead to Montreal on Sunday in front of Mikko Koskinen. In both cases it went to overtime. Now, if games were 40 minutes long they’d be golden.

Darnell Nurse picked up two assists including another one on the power play, further solidifying his PP spot for when Oscar Klefbom returns. Klefbom will likely get a taste of the PP and cut into Nurse’s ice time, but the cream will rise to the top. Klefbom was a game time decision Saturday but didn’t end up playing either weekend games.

This just in, Ty Rattie was back on the Connor McDavid line. But then again, so was Milan Lucic. Rattie had four shots on goal but zero points, so back to the fourth line for Rattie I’m sure (knowing Ken Hitchcock).

Carey Price returned from his suspension to lock down his fifth consecutive win. I’m not really sure of the point in suspending a goalie for one game when the goalie’s team is about to play back-to-back days. The NHL needs to examine this, and if the goalie deserves one game and next up are back-to-backs…then they need to give him two games.

With two points Sunday, Max Domi has eight in his last seven games. That being said, it’s interesting to note that Domi has just one power-play point in his last 32 games. He’s doing it all at even strength.

*

The Caps have lost eight of their last nine games. And I can’t help but think that a big part of that is Tom Wilson taking some of the edge off his game. Dialing it back so that he’s a little further behind the line instead of always pushing against it. He has five points in his last 15 games after starting with 19 in 18.

*

After five goals in his last four games, new Carolina forward Nino Niederreiter was held off the score sheet Sunday. His arrival and subsequent chemistry with Sebastian Aho has allowed Coach Rod Brind’Amour to separate Aho and Teuvo Teravainen. With the offense spread out the Canes seem to be playing better (3-2-1) thanks to secondary scoring. Micheal Ferland (two points Sunday) has stayed with Teravainen, and the domino effect of El Nino’s arrival is Lucas Wallmark becoming the third member of the trio. Now, as soon as Brind’Amour decides to put Andrei Svechnikov on the Aho-Nino line instead of Justin Williams, I think the Hurricanes would have a decent one-two punch.

That being said, without a solid goaltender, the players are still probably a pipe dream.

Dougie Hamilton, by quarter so far this year:

  Quarter

GP

G

A

PTS

SOG

PPP

PPTOI

TOI

1

20

3

4

7

74

1

2:16

20:12

2

21

3

4

7

60

3

2:16

19:16

3

11

3

4

7

29

1

1:08

19:02

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0:0

0:0

  And now check out last year’s quarterly breakdown:

  Quarter

GP

G

A

PTS

SOG

PPP

PPTOI

TOI

1

19

2

6

8

65

1

2:13

20:02

2

22

3

6

9

56

3

2:05

21:14

3

22

9

12

21

74

7

2:04

21:02

4

19

3

3

6

75

1

3:11

22:09

  That pop last year in the third quarter is interesting. And with two points Sunday he has five in his last four games in this, his third, quarter. These quarterly charts are side-by-side in his Frozen Tools player profile (under the career tab). I find them very handy. It’s still hard to believe that so many DobberHockey readers have yet to check out these profiles.

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My theory on Erik Gustafsson’s odds of long-term success is something I’ll coin the 45/55 theory. It’s one I apply to a defenseman is lesser-touted and/or a late-bloomer enjoying really strong success for a team with a handful of high-quality offensive prospect defensemen on the way. Will Henri Jokiharju, Adam Boqvist, Ian Mitchell or Chad Krys steal the spotlight? Well, if he finishes the season with 45 points, I think he’s vulnerable. If he gets to 55, he’s bulletproof. There’s something prestigious about a defenseman hitting the 55-point mark that keeps him safe from reduced PP time and faltering coach confidence. Gustafsson’s current pace is 54, but that is with a slow start due to gaining coach’s confidence (and thus ice time) so I’d accept 54. If he reaches those lofty totals come April, then the next wave of highly-skilled kids will have to be the Ivan Provorov to Gustafsson’s Gostisbehere (say that three times fast). Or the Sam Girard to Gustafsson’s Tyson Barrie. And so on.

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See you next Monday.

  from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-oilers-anti-clutch-hamiltons-third-quarter-tendencies-the-4555-theory-and-more-feb-04/

Ramblings: Healthy Scratches, Hot Goalies (Oct 17)

Healthy Scratches, Hot Goalies, plus more…

First, a quick thought about the Mike Matheson two-game suspension: I never thought I’d write this, but the NHL issuing a suspension here is a step in the right direction. Comparing apples to oranges as well as a very small sample size, the NHL generally seems to be tougher on suspensions this season – case in point the Tom Wilson 20-game suspension. In the past I know this would have gotten completely ignored and shrugged off as “part of the game,” but this matters when you consider the careers of star players cut short by head injuries (Lindros, Kariya, Lafontaine, etc.) and what we now know about head injuries. There have been a ton of takes about the hit and the Canucks’ (lack of) response afterward, so I won’t dive into this one any further.

So who took over Elias Pettersson’s spot on the first-unit power play on Tuesday? No one! The Canucks didn’t receive a single power play against Pittsburgh. In fact, there was only one penalty in the entire game.

But there was something happening with goaltending in this game, specifically Canucks’ goaltending. In case you haven’t noticed, Anders Nilsson started his third consecutive game. He also earned his third consecutive win, posting a 1.67 GAA and .943 SV% over that span. Yes, I’m as surprised as you are. And yes, I’d expect him to start the Canucks’ next game Thursday in Winnipeg, which will be a tall order for the 6’6” goalie. But if you need to ride a hot hand in net, he’s worth a gamble. Remember that after last season, he backstopped Sweden to a World Hockey Championship. So there’s that.

The more long-term question is whether Nilsson will unseat Jacob Markstrom as the de facto number one in Van City. I’d say that Nilsson would need more consistency than we’re used to with him before I would proclaim that he will be the guy two months from now. He could also easily force a timeshare with Markstrom, which might be the more likely scenario here. The Canucks are playing well right now, but their defense is the envy of no team. So over an entire season, I still wouldn’t consider either Nilsson or Markstrom to be a must-own.

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You may have heard of this by now since it was Monday’s news, but Brandon Saad could be a healthy scratch for Thursday’s game. As Mike Clifford mentioned, Saad has scored just 12 goals in his last 76 games last season, and he has not scored a goal in five games this season. Saad was demoted to the fourth line on Saturday alongside Marcus Kruger and David Kampf – not exactly Jonathan Toews or Patrick Kane. Think the Hawks would like to have a do-over on that Artemi Panarin trade?

I mentioned that you should probably hold Kevin Shattenkirk in spite of his healthy scratch last week because of his 50+ point upside on the blueline, but I’m not going to tell you to do the same with Saad. Unless you play in a very deep league, Saad is most likely replaceable given the number of available forward scoring options. Saad could very well become fantasy relevant again at some point, but it’s been a calendar year since he’s been able to produce at a 50-point pace.

Speaking of Rangers and healthy scratches, Pavel Buchnevich was a healthy scratch for Tuesday’s game against Colorado. Buchnevich is already in new coach David Quinn’s doghouse, playing just 11 minutes on the Rangers’ fourth line on Saturday.  

David Quinn answered a lot of questions about Pavel Buchnevich. The gist of it was they need more out of him consistently, he needs to be harder to play against, more willing to pay a price to score, and that skill alone isn’t enough.

— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) October 16, 2018

If you own Buchnevich and are wondering whether to drop him, it appears that the scratch isn’t due to a lack of scoring (unlike Saad). Buchnevich had scored two goals and added an assist in his five games, which isn’t drop-worthy on its own. In fact, Buchnevich could rebound from this and become a more complete player who competes harder, assuming the coach’s message gets through. If you’re in a league where every game played matters and there’s an equal or better option, then make the move. Otherwise, I’d be fine with holding here.

On a side note, if you’re a Shattenkirk and/or Buchnevich owner, you’ll know by now that David Quinn doesn’t care about your fantasy team. I say that facetiously, though. Sarcasm doesn’t translate well over the internet sometimes.

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Tampa Bay has a very favorable schedule with three games still remaining this week (vs. DET, @MIN, @CHI), so there’s still plenty left to gain this week with a Tyler Johnson pickup. In Tuesday’s game against the Canes, Johnson scored three goals with a plus-2 and six shots on goal. Reuniting Johnson with old Triplets linemates Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat has proven favorable. In fact, part of me wishes they had never been split up. With his hat trick, Johnson now has five points in his last two games. And he’s owned in only 30 percent of Yahoo leagues.

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Let’s just rename them the Edmonton McDavids. Connor McDavid scored two goals and added two assists in the Oilers’ 5-4 come-from-behind victory over the Jets. In case you missed it, McDavid recorded points on all of the Oilers’ first nine goals of the season before the string was snapped with Darnell Nurse’s overtime goal. Obviously McDavid should be in your lineup every time he plays, but his magic has started to rub off on linemates Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (3 A on Tuesday) and Ty Rattie (1 G and 5 SOG on Tuesday).

In that same game, Nikolaj Ehlers finally recorded his first point of the season (an assist). In a head-scratcher of a move, someone in one of my leagues (and a fairly deep one at that) decided to drop Ehlers. I decided to use a waiver claim on him (I was 5th), but lost out to someone with higher priority. Moral of story: It’s way too early for something like this to be happening. Ehlers has scored 25 goals and 60 points in back-to-back seasons, and he’s on a line with Patrik Laine. Some fantasy owners place more emphasis than they should on the first few games of the season, so this might be a great time to attempt to buy low.

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The Devils remain undefeated, thanks to two red hot players:

Kyle Palmieri scored again, giving him seven goals on the season, which is tied for second in the NHL. He’s actually cooled off, as this is the first game in which he did not score two goals. He will of course cool off. But he’s playing on the Devils’ top line, so it’s safe to say that he should be owned in just about every league format at this point.

Keith Kinkaid stopped all 24 shots he faced in earning the shutout over Dallas – his second shutout of the season. Even though Cory Schneider is still recovering from a hip injury, has Kinkaid earned the starting job for good? Even though Schneider has the larger paycheque with the longer term, this job could be Kinkaid’s to lose even when Schneider returns. Either way, Kinkaid is the perfect third goalie to own right now.

Even though the Stars were shutout by the Devils, Jamie Benn still recorded 7 PIM for his owners that count that stat. Included was this fight with Miles Wood.

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I’ll say this about Benn: He’s a GREAT fighter. I saw Benn in a fight with 6’7” Nikita Tryamkin in a live game a couple of seasons ago. He definitely held his own with the tall Russian.

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Although Semyon Varlamov hasn’t earned wins over his last two starts, he’s exceeded my expectations over his first five games. Over each of his five starts (the first three being wins), he hasn’t posted a save percentage lower than .927. Meanwhile, Philipp Grubauer allowed four goals in his only start. It’s early and the goaltending duties could still shift more toward the upstart Grubauer as the season wears on. But Varlamov is showing no signs of letting up, keeping in the Avalanche in games where they have allowed 40 shots or more. After a shaky preseason, Varly is proving that there’s still something left as he plays for a starting job somewhere next season.

While on the Avs, I should mention that Nathan MacKinnon scored again, giving him goals in each of his first five games. He’s simply continuing where he left off last season.

*

It took him six games, but William Karlsson scored his first goal of the season on Tuesday. His shooting accuracy (9 percent) is still way down from his 23 percent from last season, so the scoring pace should pick up. Still, he’s going to have a very, very tough time repeating last season’s 43 goals. To his credit, Karlsson already has six assists, so maybe we see more of a playmaking version of Wild Bill this season while linemate Jonathan Marchessault focuses more on goals.

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For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-healthy-scratches-hot-goalies-oct-17/