Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Magic, Pacers, & Hornets

I love basketball.

Continuing my NBA countdown, today you'll be getting my number 21, 20 and 19 teams. We are just on the outside of the playoffs. These teams are okay, have been good recently but are in a downswing or they are rising, but there just not a playoff team yet. I like these teams, but they're a year or two away, or past their prime. On with the countdown.

My number 21 team is the Orlando Magic. I really like what they are doing in Orlando right now. They are building a strong, youthful team that's full of potential. They drafted my favorite player from last years draft, Elfrid Payton. First of all, he has the best hairdo in the league, but aside from that, he's a really good, really young point guard. He's going to be a star in this league and he will continue to get better and better. Victor Oladipo is a fantastic defender and he's one of the most athletic players I've seen in a long time. He may have been the best overall player in his draft class from three years ago. Nikola Vucevic looks like a really strong player. He made a huge leap last season and he should continue to get better each season. Aaron Gordon is extremely athletic, but he needs to stay healthy if he wants to become a consistent starter in the NBA. They resigned Tobias Harris last season after many, many teams tried to get him. I think he's one of the most underrated players in basketball. He's an all around great player. He's more than just a scorer now. They drafted foreign prospect Mario Herzonja, and while I don't know how good of a player he is, he's extremely confident in himself and his abilities. That's half the battle. The problem with the Magic is their bench. It's pretty thin, filled with unproven players. Guys like Shabazz Napier and CJ Watson and Evan Fournier have shown me very little in their early careers. Everyone else on the bench is average at best. They have a decent, but very young roster. They remind me a lot of the Timberwolves. They'll struggle to win 30 games this year, but if they stay together, this team will be really good in three years.

How the Magic will win it all.

The Magic will win the title if every single player takes a huge step forward and become All NBA caliber players. That won't happen this season, but Oladipo and Payton are destined to be stars. Give them three years.

My number 20 team is the Indiana Pacers. Yes, the same team that was in the east finals two years ago. They really struggled without Paul George for almost all of last season. Their roster is pretty thin as well, with a lot of cast offs from other NBA teams. George Hill is s good point guard, but he's not an All Star and he's only getting older. Paul George is back and he's a top 20 NBA player. The only problem, they'll regret playing him at the four this season, and that won't work for him on defense. Fours are too big and strong for him to guard. They'll beat him up. He'll get his on offense, but defense will punish him. They signed Monta Ellis, but I feel like his best days are behind him. He doesn't really care to play defense. Usually a rookie wouldn't be an upgrade, but Myles Turner, right now, is a better player than Roy Hibbert. That sentiment would have been crazy two years ago, but Hibbert is pretty rough to watch now a days. I think Turner can be a competent center in about three or four years. He does run awkwardly, but he has decent post skills and can rebound and be a rim protector. Their bench, with the exceptions of Jordan Hill and Rodney Stuckey, is either rookies or second and third year players, aka, my buzzword, unproven. I do like Stuckey and Hill though. Stuckey is instant offense and Hill is a good player that got out of LA(he was a Laker) so he can blossom. The Pacers are destined to take a step back. I see 34 or 35 wins this season and they will win ugly.

How the Pacers will win it all.

The Pacers will win the title if George is somehow, some way, able to handle fours on defense, George Hill plays the best basketball of his life, Myles Turner becomes all NBA defense and averages double figures, Monta Ellis contributes on both ends and Stuckey and Hill become starter quality players. I like their roster, but all that stuff isn't happening. Sorry Pacer fans. How they handle this season and offseason will say a lot about the direction the Pacers are going in.

My number 19 team is the Charlotte Hornets. With the injury to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist you may think 19 is too high, but that injury, in my opinion, doesn't change too much about this team. MKG will be hard to replace though, that's for sure. He was definitely coming into his own and his injury will be a tough pill to swallow for the Hornets. The rest of the roster is decent, but not great. They also drafted Frank Kaminsky way too early. He has bust written all over him. Another poor GM decision by Michael Jordan. Kemba Walker is an All Star in waiting. I love the intensity and passion he plays with. He's a really good basketball player. Walker is almost good enough to make the MKG injury a moot point. Almost. Al Jefferson is a good big man that's finally getting the credit he deserves. He plays the game with a mix of old and new school moves. He's an awesome basketball player. He should be a perennial All Star. They traded for Nic Batum before the draft, but I don't know how he fits. He's a good shooter, but there's no Damien Lillard to help take the pressure off. Kemba Walker is good, like I said before, but he's not on Lillard's level yet. They also traded for Jeremy Lamb, who couldn't get off the bench in Oklahoma City and signed Jeremy Lin. I think it's fair and reasonable to stop the hype on Jeremy Lin. He hasn't been very good since he left the Knicks, and he was only good for about 25 games with the Knicks. I like Jeremy Lin the person, I love the pranks he plays on people, but I don't like Jeremy Lin the basketball player. He's not that good. PJ Hairston has a lot of promise, but he can't seem to stay out of trouble. His problems will doom his career. The rest of the roster is not very good. You're grasping for straws if your ninth player off the bench is Tyler Hansborough and your tenth player is rookie Aaron Harrison. Hansborough was a college star, but his game doesn't translate to the NBA and he's an extremely dirty player. Harrison regressed in his sophomore year of college and I don't see him getting much better in the pros. The Hornets may flirt with a .500 record, but are more likely to win 35 games.

How the Hornets will win it all.

The Hornets will win the title if MKG has a miraculous recovery, Walker scores 40 points a game, Jeremy Lin finds the form he had during "Linsanity" and plays like that all season and Nic Batum becomes an All Star. Al Jefferson will be great because he's a great player, but he's in a similar situation as Boogie Cousins. At least Jefferson has a teammate almost as good as him in Kemba Walker.

So, there you have it, teams 21, 20 and 19. Come back tomorrow for teams 18, 17 and 16. We get our first playoff team tomorrow.

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He enjoys writing about basketball, but is looking forward to writing about good basketball. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Timberwolves, Suns, & Kings

I love basketball.

Continuing my NBA countdown, today I will be giving you my number 24,23, and 22 teams. We are getting to teams that are just on the outside of a playoff push. These teams are either too young, or have veterans that are too old. They may have been in the playoffs recently, but haven't been in awhile. They are still in the lottery, but in the later half of the lottery. Hell, the Heat picked in the late lottery last season. These teams are one or two players away from becoming competitive.

My number 24 team is the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yes, they had the worst record in the NBA last season, but they were fun to watch at times. They have young players throughout their entire roster. First, they traded Kevin Love last season to the Cavs in exchange for Anthony Bennett, who they just bought out, and Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins was excellent as a rookie. He showed his lock down defensive ability last season, and he found a jump shot midway through the season and he can jump out of the gym. He's probably my favorite young player to watch. Zach Lavine is a mystery to me. He has incredible hops, but can he shoot the ball? Can he play strong defense? Is he ready to take the next step? I don't know, but he's in year three, so he's either going to take a step forward, or slide back. Ricky Rubio cannot shoot the ball, doesn't want to either, but he's a wizard passing the ball. He plays out of control sometimes, and he seems to be on the trading block every year. Nikola Pecovic is not living up to his big contract. I think he's the only player on the Timberwolves that misses Kevin Love. He's been a disappointment. I think their first pick, and overall number one in the 2015 draft, Karl Anthony-Towns can slide into Pecovic's place. It's going to take time for him to develop because he's so young, but he has the look of a perennial All Star. The bench is okay, but nothing to write home about. Shabazz Muhammed has surprised me with how well he's adjusted to the pro game. He looked like a head case in college and part of his rookie year, but something must have clicked for him, and he looks like a decent bench player in the NBA. Unfortunately, for himself and the Timberwolves, they start him out of necessity. They also have Gorgui Dieng and Kevin Garnett come off the bench. Dieng was expected to make a leap last year, but it never really came together for him. He seemed nervous being the focal point of the second unit. I love Kevin Garnett, and him being back with the Timberwolves is strictly nostalgic, but he should've retired three years ago. He's going to be an excellent coach. Other than that, it's slim picking for the Timberwolves. This team is way too young to fight for any playoff spot, but give them three more years, they could be a powerhouse.

How the Timberwolves will win it all.

The Timberwolves will win the title if Wiggins becomes the elite player he will be in three years this season, Lavine becomes more than just a dunker, Pecovic regains his form from two seasons ago, and plays ten times better than that and Karl Anthony-Towns is an immediate All Star. That's not happening. The Timberwolves will be improved, but they will only get somewhere in the 20 win column. They'll be fun to watch, but give them time, about three years, they'll be legitimate playoff contenders.

My number 23 team is the Phoenix Suns. This is another team that seems to be falling apart at the seams, a la the Denver Nuggets. They were legit playoff contenders the last year and a half, but quit midway through last season. They had way too many point guards and traded Goran Dragic and Isiah Thomas for little to nothing. They did get Brandon Knight out of these trades, but I feel like they overpaid him this offseason. Who knows if he'll live up to that contract. They did sign Tyson Chandler, but that was in hopes of luring LaMarcus Aldridge, and that obviously didn't happen. Chandler is good, but who will throw him the alley oops he needs? Not Eric Bledsoe or Archie Goodwin. Bledsoe needs the ball in his hands at all times to be effective. He's really good, but not franchise player good. Archie Goodwin is young and inexperienced. He's a one and done kid, from Kentucky, so who knows what his future in the NBA holds. They did draft Devin Booker, another one and done from Kentucky, who looks to be a lock down perimeter shooter, but what else can he do? And he's not going to take shooting guard minutes away from Brandon Knight. Alex Len hasn't panned out like they hoped. He was the big man of the future, but he's been a disappointment so far. He can't guard any fives, and gets beat up by most when they're guarding him. They completely botched the Marcus Morris trade to the Pistons, pissing off his twin, Markieff in the process. I don't believe his talk of being happy now, after claiming he'd never suit up for the Suns again this summer. Other than these guys, the bench is another group of question marks. I don't understand what management is trying to do with this team. Are they going to try and make the playoffs, or are they going to tank? Who knows, but management hasn't made many good decisions the last half of this year.

How the Suns will win it all.

The Suns will win the title if Bledsoe gets the whole team involved, Knight becomes the star that they hope he will be, Tyson Chandler gets a time machine and goes back to his form during his first go around with the Mavericks, Alex Len suddenly becomes good at basketball and Booker hits 70% of his threes. They also need to trade Marcus Morris to achieve any success. The Suns are a 32 or 33 win team at best. Management needs to get their act together before this team is highly competitive again.

My number 22 team is the Sacramento Kings. Talk about a problem at the top. First of all, the coach, George Karl, doesn't like the star player, and one of the best centers in all of the NBA, DeMarcus Cousins. Their owner is out of his mind, going so far as to suggest playing 4 on 5 defense so they'll always be running fast breaks because it worked for his child's little league basketball team. And players can't wait to get out of there. They did sign Rajon Rondo, but he's not elite anymore, and he's a tough teammate. He's an extremely smart player and expects everyone on the court to be as smart as him. That's not happening, a lot of his new teammates are really athletic, and that's how they play the game, they use their athleticism. They drafted Wille Cauley-Stein number seven overall. That's way too high for a guy that only plays defense. He has no offensive ability. Ben McLemore and Rudy Gay are fine players, but not thriving within this offense. They also have Darren Collison, but what are they doing with two starting point guards. You can't play them at the same time, that won't work. They also signed Seth Curry, Steph's little brother, but he may have just been a summer league star. Who knows. The rest of the roster is not good, but not terrible. All this being said, they do have Boogie Cousins. He's a legitimate MVP candidate, and if he get his head on straight, who knows what this team's ceiling is. Unfortunately, I don't think that's happening with this team, especially after all the offseason drama. The Kings are going to win in the mid thirties once again.

How the Kings will win it all.

The Kings will win the title if Cousins becomes the newer, younger , better version of Shaq. It's possible people. They also need McLemore to continue to get better and for Rudy Gay to become a veteran leader. Cauley-Stein would have to become a double digit scorer, not happening, he's so bad at offense and Rajon Rondo somehow, some way returns to his Celtic days. That's a tall, tall order. Cousins is so good, but this team isn't ready to make the leap, especially in the West. It's just too tough. But, things can get better in Sacramento, Boogie Cousins just has to be the dominant force that he's capable of being.

There you have it, teams 24, 23 and 22. Come back tomorrow for 21, 20, 19. We are starting to get to the better teams in the NBA.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He doubled up his dependents today and all wish him the best. I said he could take a break, but NBA rankings keep him sane. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Knicks, Nuggets, & Nets

I love NBA basketball.

Another day, another basketball preview. Today I will give you my next three teams. These teams are better than the 76ers, Lakers and Trail Blazers, but not by that much. They're a step up, but they're still going to be picking in the lottery in next year's draft.

My number 27 team is the New York Knicks. The Knicks are this low you're asking me? Absolutely. Sure, they have Carmelo Anthony, one of the most overrated "superstars" in the NBA today. Sure, Phil Jackson is running the show as the GM now. Sure they had a lottery pick, they took Kristpas Porzingis, and who knows with him. He's either the new Dirk Nowitzki, or in his GM's terms, the next Shawn Bradley. There's no middle ground for Porzingis. Time will tell how well of a GM Phil Jackson truly is. I don't think he's done a good job so far, but he is a basketball genius, so he may know something we don't know. But, you trade away Iman Shumpert and JR Smith and the team gets worse? How in the hell does that happen? They didn't get much of anything in return as well. Bad move by Phil Jackson. Carmelo Anthony is a shell of the player he was in Denver and his first couple seasons in New York. He gets hurt constantly, argues with the front office, i.e. takes a max contract from the Knicks and now, according to rumors, he wants to be traded to the Bulls who tried really hard to get him last offseason and he has ZERO interest in passing the ball, or playing defense. He fought so much with Tim Hardaway Jr last season, they traded Hardaway to the Hawks for next to nothing just to make Anthony happy. At this point in his career, he's a worse version of Kobe Bryant. Instead of leading and helping this team, he bitches and complains. It's never his fault, it's everyone else around him. He's past his prime, and he's never been to the Finals in his career. Do you remember when he and LeBron James were rookies and people actually thought that Anthony may be a better pro than James? You were all wrong. James is ten times the player that Anthony is on his best day. The rest of their roster is pretty weak. They signed Aaron Affalo this offseason to an eight million dollar contract. That's crazy. Affalo is a good defender, but that's it. He is not the player he was with the Nuggets and he is only getting older. They signed Robin Lopez, and while he's a good NBA center, he is not the answer for the Knicks. They have the aging corpse of Jose Calderon and they signed Derrick Williams. You don't remember him? He was a lottery pick four years ago and he couldn't find the court in Minnesota or Sacramento. He will struggle in New York. Langston Galloway was a "pleasant" surprise. He looks like he could end up being a good bench player in his career. But, the Knicks start him. Other than that, there's really not much to like about the Knicks and I don't like much about who I mentioned. They're a 26 or 27 win team, at best, this year.

How the Knicks will win it all.

They will win the title if Carmelo finds his form from 8 years ago, Porzingis becomes a beast immediately, Affalo travels back in time to 5 years ago and Derrick Williams suddenly becomes an All Star. That's not happening. This team is a mess and they will be for the next two or three years.

My number 26 team is the Denver Nuggets. What in the world happened to this team? They were in the playoffs two years ago and had one of the best home court advantages in all of the NBA. Then, out of nowhere, they imploded. They've traded away a ton of good players, fired a decent coach and gave up midway through last season. During last year they traded away Aaron Affalo, Timofey Mozgov and Ty Lawson. They did have Lawson all of last season, but when they drafted Emmanuel Mudiay, the writing was on the wall. They have likable NBA players, guys like Kenneth Faried, Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari. They also drafted Mudiay, and I like him a lot. I think he's going to end up being a really good NBA point guard. Kenneth Faried is a hustle and rebounding machine. This guy goes 100mph and plays with reckless abandon. Wilson Chandler is long and rangy, he's a solid defender and a pretty good three point shooter. And Gallinari, if he can stay healthy, is a good all around player. But, these guys don't mesh well together. When they play, it's like a mishmash of solid players and not so solid players. It doesn't help that everyone one of these guys, Mudiay being the exception, is always on the trading block. It's hard to play hard for a team that is always in discussions to trade you. There's some good young talent, but those guys aren't ready yet. The veterans are too old and they can't help in any phase of the game. This team signed Mike Miller for Christ sakes. He hasn't been helpful in 8 years.

How the Nuggets will win it all.

The Nuggets will win the Finals if Mudiay becomes elite immediately, not happening, Faried becomes not only a rebounding machine, but a 25 point per game player, not happening, Chandler and Gallinari put in 60 combined points a night, not happening, and Mike Miller and Gary Harris come off the bench with some instant offense, not happening. This team is too far behind almost every team in the West, minus the Lakers and Trail Blazers, and they will need some time to get back to where they were two years ago. Sorry Nuggets fans, you'll be lucky to win 30 games this season.

My number 25 team is the Brooklyn Nets. They were in the playoffs last year, barely, and they got worse in the offseason. Sure, they bought out Deron Williams, who hasn't been good in five years, but they replaced him with Jarret Jack and Shane Larkin. Those two are hardly world beaters. Larkin is inexperienced and Jack, when the Warriors traded him, they got immediately better. Joe Johnson clearly doesn't want to be on this team anymore but, his contract is so bad, no one will trade for him. He's stuck. They resigned Brook Lopez, but he's a foot injury waiting to happen. The guy can barely stay on the court as it is, and now the Nets just gave him big money.  They signed Andrea Bargnani and Thomas Robinson this offseason. Those are two lottery busts. Bargnani has been on four different teams now, and Robinson can't seem to find the court on any team he's been with. They drafted Ryan Boatright, and while he was a great college scorer, he'll find it to be much tougher sledding in the NBA. Rondae-Hollis Jefferson, their other draft pick may be good, but I don't have a big enough sampling since he was a one and done player from Arizona. The rest of the roster is filled with question marks. It's gotten so weird with their crazy owner recently, that NBA TV showed him running drills in camp, and these drills were asinine. Go look it up on Google, it's insane.

How the Nets will win it all.

The Nets will win the title if everyone, including Joe Johnson, buys into this crazy owner, believes their own hype and somehow wins games they shouldn't. That won't happen. As I said before, their best player, Joe Johnson, doesn't want to be there, Brook Lopez is one foot injury away from being done for good and everyone else on the roster is unproven. The Nets are a 30 win team. No ifs ands or buts about it. So, there are my 27, 26 and 25 teams for you. Come back tomorrow for 24, 23, and 22.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is enjoying one more day of one kid and one money. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: 76ers, Lakers, & Trailblazers

I love the NBA.

So, for the next two weeks, I'm going to do an NBA season preview. There's 30 teams in the NBA and I will select three teams a day and point out why they won't win the title, and why they just might. I will rank these teams from worst to best, in my personal opinion. Not to worry, I will keep up with some other blogs, like Greatest American Bands and Irrational Hatred for Sports Teams, but this NBA preview will be my prime focus for the next two weeks. I'm also going to be a dad for the second time in two days, so these blogs may seem a little bit shorter, but they'll be packed with pertinent information. Everything will be as informative as before, but the NBA will take up the majority of my time, as well as the new baby, and will be the focus of my blogs. So, on with teams 30, 29, 28.

First, number 30. They've been the worst team in the NBA for the past three years, you may have read my previous blog about how they're the worst run franchise in all of professional sports, the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers roster reads like the exact difference of a who's who. They do have some players that could be decent, but this is a team of "potential". I put that in quotes because, when they get a player that looks like a decent NBA player with potential, a la KJ McDaniels or Michael Carter Williams, they trade him for "assets". That means draft picks. They've had top three picks the last couple of years and taken players like Nerlens Noel, he looks like he can be decent, but only on the defensive side of the ball, he plays zero offense unless it's a put back dunk. Two years ago they took Joel Embiid, and he has yet to play a single NBA game due to two different foot surgeries. This past season they drafted Jahlil Okafor and while he's a beast on offense, he doesn't play defense, so far as to not even hustle back because he's out of shape. Other potential starters include Tony Wroten, Nik Stauskas and Isaiah Canaan. Wroten is okay, but he's a bowling ball that looks out of control 90% of the time. Stauskas cannot play defense on the NBA level, and he hasn't shown his ability to drive to the basket like he did in college, he's relegated himself to being a corner three shooter. And Canaan is a great fantasy pickup only because he shoots almost 25 times a game. He puts up useless points for a team that's going nowhere. The rest of the roster is filled with has beens and never was players. This team is going to be bad once again. They'll be lucky to win 20 games.

How the 76ers will win it all.

I did say I'd give a reason that each team could win the title, so here goes for the 76ers. They will win the title if Daryl Dawkins and Moses Malone rise up from their graves and Charles Barkley goes back in time to his twenties, and they'd still be hard pressed to make the playoffs, let alone win the title. The 76ers are an embarrassment to the NBA and basketball in general. They stink.

My number 29 team is the Los Angeles Lakers. This is a team that thinks it's still the early 2000's. They don't shoot the three because their coach says it won't win games, they play no defense because they want to be a fast break team, but they don't have the horses to run fast breaks, and they're still led by Kobe Bryant. Sure, he's one of the greatest scorers of all time, but he doesn't pass the ball, he plays no defense, and instead of helping this young roster, what a veteran of his caliber should do, he berates them and calls them soft. His contract has crippled this team too. Not only that, but his attitude as well. They tried and tried to lure big time free agents, most notably LaMarcus Aldridge, but they all balked at the Lakers offer because they didn't like the "direction" of the team. They also questioned their leadership. If that's not attacking Bryant, I don't know what is. You may say, but they signed Lou Williams and traded for Roy Hibbert and Brandon Bass. So what is my response to that. First of all, there's only one basketball being used during game play and they have three guys that want to shoot 30 times each in Kobe Bryant, Nick Young and Lou Williams. Roy Hibbert hasn't been good in three years. The Lakers got him five years too late. And Brandon Bass, he couldn't crack the Celtics starting five. They have a really good, young player in Jordan Clarkson, but until Bryant either retires or goes to another team, he won't be able to develop his game, Bryant won't allow that. Julius Randle can become a very good player, but he won't get enough touches in the post, and he's coming off a horrific leg injury. D'Angelo Russell may end up being a good point guard, but he only played one year of college basketball and he disappeared at times. He didn't look too great in the summer league games either. But, he's young and will grow after Bryant leaves. The rest of the roster is either young, or veterans with little NBA playing time or experience. Until Kobe Bryant leaves, the Lakers will be, at best, a 25 win team.

How the Lakers will win it all

The only way this team has a shot at the Finals or even the playoffs is if everyone on every team in the West gets hurt and they have to bring in players from the developmental league. The Lakers are only slightly better than the 76ers and I never thought that two of the NBA's most distinguished franchises would be this bad this early in the 21st century. Like I said, Kobe is crippling this team with his contract, his need to shoot the ball and his unwillingness to help out the younger players. They will be bad until Kobe leaves.

My number 28 team is the Portland Trail Blazers. This team may have had the worst offseason of any team in recent NBA history. First, the night before the draft, they traded Nic Batum to the Hornets for two young, inexperienced players. Then, Wes Matthews and Brook Lopez signed with different teams, Matthews to the Mavericks and Lopez to the Knicks. They did some good in retaining Damien Lillard with a max contract, but their efforts to retain LaMarcus Aldridge were not good. No one expected him to resign with Portland, and of course, he didn't. I'll talk about his new team at some point next week. The Trail Blazers lost four of their five starters from a playoff team. That's brutal. They did retain Lillard, like I said, and he's a really good offensive player. He's unguardable at times and can put up close to 50 points any night. His weakness lies on defense. His weakness is, he doesn't care to play defense. He shows no effort and they didn't need him to with guys like Lopez and Aldridge clogging the lane. Now though, he's the franchise, and they need him to do All Star work on both offense and defense. A lot will be asked of Lillard, and while he may live up to expectations, who else do they have? Guys like Meyers Leonard, Mason Plumlee and Noah Vonleh don't make up the greatest front court in basketball. Meyers Leonard is an okay offensive player, but for a 7 footer, he's a pretty crummy defender and rebounder. Plumlee is sub par at offense and defense. The fact that this guy made a USA basketball team is laughable. And is he supposed to be Brook Lopez's replacement? I'd take Lopez any day over Plumlee, any day. Vonleh may be good, but he's a young, unproven player. One year of college basketball and one year spent mostly injured or on the bench in Charlotte does not make for a good start to your professional basketball career. Time will tell with Vonleh. The new back court consists of Lillard and younger, unproven players. Guys like CJ McCollum and Phil Pressey and Gerald Henderson will try to help Lillard out, but it won't work. Phil Pressey had little to nothing to do with the Celtics run to the playoffs last year, and he just doesn't seem like an NBA player to me. Gerald Henderson is a great dunker, a decent shooter and an average three point shooter, but he doesn't play defense. Damien Lillard is the better version of Henderson. I don't understand the signing of Henderson since he's a worse version of Lillard, but I'm not a GM. CJ McCollum has the tools to be a good NBA player, but he needs more time to develop and he won't help this team that much right now. In three years a back court of Lillard and McCollum could be great, but will the Trail Blazers have the patience? I don't think so. They did sign Al Farouq-Aminu, in what might be quietly one of the better offseason signings, but he seems to only thrive when he's a role player. We will see how well he plays as a starter.

How the Trailblazers will win it all.

As I said before, every other player is too young or past their prime. It was a very, very rough offseason for Portland. The only way they win the Finals is if Damien Lillard averages close to 60 points a game, McCollum becomes an elite point guard in one season, and the front court of Aminu/Leonard/Plumlee/Vonleh all become All Stars. Does that sound totally possible? It doesn't? No duh. Portland should go into full rebuild mode and try to get this team ready to be good again in about three years. They did the right thing in locking up Lillard, but they didn't put up much of a fight for Aldridge and lost three other starters and didn't get much to replace them. Portland seems like a 25 to 30 win team at best.

So, those are the first three NBA teams. Come back tomorrow for numbers 27, 26 and 25.

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is looking forward to watching some west coast basketball this season while he is up with a crying baby. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Get all your Postseason Winners with Ty's First Annual Baseball Playoff Preview

Is this the next year Cubs fans have been waiting for?

Today marks the weekend when regular season baseball ends, AKA when I start to pay attention to major league baseball.

All the playoff spots are filled with the exception of the second wild card in the AL. The Angels and the Astros will take that down to the wire. Other than those two teams, in the AL, we have the division winners, the Blue Jays, the Rangers and the Royals. The Yankees have claimed the first wild card spot. In the NL, all the playoff spots are filled. The division winners are the Cardinals, the Dodgers and the Mets. The two wild card spots are filled by the Cubs and the Pirates. I know people love baseball, but let's be serious, it doesn't really get exciting until now (ed note: Wrong, it is great all year). This is the playoffs.

Up until now, we've had 162 regular season games. That's a ton of games. During the summer I'll occasionally watch Cardinals games because it's my team. I don't watch any other teams play regular season games unless they're playing the Cardinals. Now that Fall is here, football is back and baseball definitely takes the back burner, until now. Football is and always will be my number one, I'll watch every Michigan and Green Bay game, but I will watch playoff baseball, and I'll watch every team in the playoffs. Baseball is finally exciting because it's down to only 10 teams, and two of those teams are out after one game. That's exciting. So, today I'm going to give a playoff preview and predictions. This will become a yearly thing. The one time each year that I watch baseball, I'll write a blog the weekend prior to the playoffs starting with predictions.

So begins my first annual "Baseball Playoff Preview". Since I'm a Cardinals fan and have watched NL baseball most of my life, I'm going to start with the AL and save the NL for last. So on with my AL preview and predictions. I'll start with the "play in" wild card game. The Yankees claimed the first wild card spot last night, and I'm going to say that the Astros complete the meltdown, lose the second wild card spot, and the Angels will end up playing the Yankees. I think the Yankees will win the game, but both of these teams are underachievers. They both have huge stars and huge payrolls, but they barely make the playoffs, if they even do. Tanaka will outpitch Weaver and the Yankees will advance to face the Royals. That means that I think the Royals will finish with the best record in the AL. I think they will do just enough this weekend to surpass the Blue Jays for the top spot. So the division series in the AL will be Yankees-Royals and Blue Jays-Rangers. These are best of five series. In the Yankees-Royals series, I have the Royals winning in five games, but they will all be close. The Royals have better pitching and hitting and even though their closer is out for the rest of the season, their bullpen is the best in the AL. The Royals are better coached as well. Royals advance to the ALCS. In the other division series, I'm taking the Blue Jays in four. The Rangers will get one game, but the Blue Jays are the hottest team in baseball right now, they have the AL MVP in Josh Donaldson, and the Cy Young winner in David Price. I know awards aren't handed out until after the playoffs, but those two are winning those awards. The Blue Jays also have Jose Bautista to crush homers and two great starters to compliment Price in Mark Buerhle and RA Dickey. The Rangers had a nice run at the end of the season, but their run is over. The Blue Jays are a buzz saw and they will crush the Rangers. Blue Jays advance to face the Royals in the ALCS. The ALCS is best of seven, but for all the reasons I just mentioned above for the Blue Jays is why this will be a short series. The Blue Jays win in 5 games. Once again, the Royals will get one at home, but the Blue Jays are playing way too well for anyone in the AL to stop them right now. They're just way too good. They made the best move at the deadline to acquire Price and Troy Tulowitzki, and that will pay off with a trip to the World Series. Blue Jays will represent the AL in the 2015 World Series.

Now, the NL. In the "play in" wild card game we get Cubs-Pirates. This one game may be better than any series in the AL. The NL Central boasts the three best teams in baseball(the Cardinals, Cubs and Pirates). If anyone of these teams were in any other division, they'd easily be champs and avoid this "play in" wild card game. I'm going to pick the Cubs strictly because they will have Jake Arrieta on the mound, and he may be the best pitcher in all of baseball right now. The game will be close and very low scoring, but the Cubs will manage 2 runs and walk away with a 2-0 win. This makes the division series, Cardinals-Cubs and Mets-Dodgers. In the Mets-Dodgers series, we will get to see some great pitching matchups. Most pro teams have one ace and then four decent starters. The Mets and Dodgers have two aces each, and great pitchers to fill out the rotation. The Dodgers will throw Greinke and Kershaw in the first two games, but the Mets will counter with De Grom and Harvey. This will be a close, low scoring series and due to their choking in the playoffs as of the past couple of seasons, I'm picking the Mets to beat the Dodgers in five. Kershaw always seems to have a meltdown in the playoffs and the Dodgers can't recover. That will happen once again, and people will start to question if Kershaw can ever win a ring. Mets advance to the NLCS. In what will probably be the most competitive series in all the playoffs, we get Cubs-Cardinals. The Cubs have big time pitchers in Arrieta and Jon Lester and boast a pretty talented, very young lineup. The Cardinals are the Cardinals, plus they get Adam Wainwright back as a relief pitcher just in time for the playoffs. They've had injury after injury, but they still have the best record in all of baseball, winning 100 plus games. This will be close as well, but I have the Cardinals winning in five games. The Cubs are about one or two years away and the Cardinals are stacked with veterans and they have the best bullpen in all of baseball. Their pitching staff is pretty great. Cardinals advance to face the Mets in the NLCS. So we have Mets-Cardinals playing to go to the World Series, what is this, the 80's? Both teams are good, but I have the Cardinals, I know, I'm a homer advancing to the World Series, beating the Mets in seven. I wanted to pick the Mets, but the decision to almost shut down Harvey because of an innings limit, ask the Nationals how that worked for them and Strasburg, will bite them in the ass in the NLCS. It will still go the full seven, but the Cardinals will find a way to advance, it's what they do.

So the 2015 World Series will be the Blue Jays and Cardinals. This one will only go five games, and the Blue Jays will be the 2015 World Series Champions. They're the best team in baseball now, with the best player in the AL and one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. The Cardinals injuries will catch up to them, and as I said before, the Blue Jays are a buzz saw. They're the most talented team that's playing the best baseball since the franchise's peak in the 90's. The moves made at the deadline will once again pay off, this time with baseball's largest prize. David Price will win two games in the World Series for the Blue Jays and he will be the best player in all of the 2015 playoffs and take home World Series MVP.

So, there you have it, the Blue Jays will be your 2015 World Series Champs.

(ed picks: ALCS will be Blue Jays over the Yankees in 5. NLCS will have a magical run by the Cubs and they will beat the Cardinals in 7. In the bottom of the ninth of Game 7 of the World Series, the Toronto Blue Jays will be the first team since the 93 Blue Jays team to win the World Series on a walkoff home run. Maybe next year Cubs fans.)

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. Ty is way too young to remember the seething hatred all 80's Cardinals fans had for the Mets. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

You Would Not Take Alex Smith over Aaron Rodgers in Your Fantasy Draft.

NFL scout deep in thought

Last night I watched the Packers play the Chiefs on "Monday Night Football".

The Packers, and most importantly Aaron Rodgers, shredded a pretty good Chiefs defense. I know that the Chiefs have some injuries in the secondary and they start a rookie back there, but Rodgers looked invincible last night. Throws were on target. He hit receivers in stride. He moved around the pocket with a mastery I haven't seen since Brett Favre. Basically, in my opinion, Rodgers has surpassed Tom Brady and Peyton Manning as the best quarterback in football.

On the other sideline, the Chiefs have a very different situation at quarterback. Now, I'm an Alex Smith fan. I think he's a serviceable quarterback. At his best, he's a decent game manager. But, last night, he looked lost and scared. His offensive line could not block the Packers defensive line last night. When he did have time, he danced around in the pocket and usually ended up scrambling for small to no gains. When he had open receivers, he either under threw or flat out missed them. The Chiefs did break their streak of no passing touchdowns to receivers, but by that point in the game, it was moot. Jamaal Charles played well, he always does, but the Chiefs need Alex Smith to do more if they want to compete in the AFC. Jamaal Charles can only do so much, he needs help from his quarterback.

The game and the Packer win is not the point of my column today. While watching this game last night, the commentators for ESPN(the god awful team of Jon Gruden and Mike Tirico) brought up the fact that Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers were in the same draft class. One of them was the first overall pick in the 2005 draft, the other was the 24th overall pick. Watching this game, you'd think that Rodgers was clearly the first overall pick, right? Well, you'd be wrong. Alex Smith was the overall number one pick in that draft by the San Francisco 49ers. After the 49ers took Smith, 22 other teams passed on Aaron Rodgers. He had a funky delivery and he didn't have a ton of highlights as the quarterback of the Cal Bears. At least, that's what the "geniuses" said on their scouting reports. Rumors also surfaced that the Packers picked him out of spite. They didn't want the Chicago Bears to draft him, who had the next pick, which they then immediately traded after the Packers took Rodgers. People in Green Bay and fans of the Packers all over the world were furious that the Packers took Rodgers, my father and I included. We didn't want a quarterback, we had Favre. And if they were going to take a QB, why Rodgers? We all thought he wouldn't amount to much of an NFL player. He would also have to sit behind Favre until Favre was done playing. The pick didn't make any sense to anyone, except for the editor of this website, RD. He called me and my dad after the pick and said that the Packers got the steal of the draft, and that Rodgers was going to be a star. We told him he was nuts. He had no idea what he was talking about.

I'm glad that I was wrong. I'm thrilled to have Aaron Rodgers quarterbacking my team. But, Rodgers did have to sit for the first four years of his career and learn from Favre. The same couldn't be said for the first overall pick, Alex Smith. He was going to be the savior of the 49er franchise in the early 21st century. His blend of athleticism, he ran the spread at Utah before almost every team was running it in college football, was going to change the position. Unfortunately, the 49ers were not a good team and Smith's first five years were rough. The 49ers lured Jim Harbaugh away from Stanford in 2011 and that changed Smith's NFL career, for one and a half seasons. In Harbaugh's first season, he needed Smith to be a manager of the game, and that's what he got. Smith became a guy that didn't turn the ball over and could move the chains with short passes and his legs. He led the 49ers to the playoffs for the first time in a long time. During that same season, 2011, Aaron Rodgers coming off a Super Bowl win in 2010, won the MVP. He was no game manager, he was a game winner. The very next season, the 49ers had one of the best starts of any team in the NFL, and Smith was leading the way. He suffered a concussion midway through the season, and lost his starting job to second year "phenom" Colin Kaepernick. As athletic as Smith was, Kaepernick was younger and more athletic. Harbaugh rode Kaepernick all the way to the Super Bowl, the Ravens beat the 49ers, and Smith was relegated to back up duty. Meanwhile, Rodgers was putting up huge numbers, won a title, won two MVP awards, was a constant on All Pro and Pro Bowl teams, winning division titles with ease and playing in the playoffs every year. Their careers were on completely different paths. Rodgers was playing like the first overall pick, and Smith, he may as well been a fourth round pick. The 49ers traded Smith to the Chiefs the season following their Super Bowl appearance. The Chiefs have been an okay team under Smith, but they haven't had anything near the success the Packers have enjoyed with Rodgers at the helm.

Just to give you guys a taste of some of the players picked between Smith and Rodgers, names like, Cadillac Williams(out of the league), Braylon Edwards(out of the league), Cedric Benson(out of the league), Ronnie Brown(I think he's out of the league), Shawne Merriman(retired and also a women abuser) and David Pollack(out of the league due to a neck injury and a huge chauvinist). Guys who are still playing that were picked before Rodgers include some good players like Derrick Johnson(linebacker for the Chiefs), Damarcus Ware(linebacker for the Broncos) and Adam "Pac Man" Jones(DB for the Bengals). These guys are good, but I'd much rather have Aaron Rodgers. I know that not all teams need a QB when it's draft time, or that the draft is a total crap shoot, but Rodgers is, by far, the best player taken in the 2005 draft. Watching the game last night and hearing that they were in the same draft class was so shocking to me. I thought Rodgers was older than Alex Smith because he's so much better than Alex Smith. Rodgers has mastered the quarterback position, and Alex Smith struggles to be a game manager. The fact that the 49ers thought so highly of Smith and that Rodgers wasn't even on their radar is bewildering to me. I'm sure they wish they had taken Rodgers, but I'm sure a lot of teams in the 2005 draft wished they'd taken Rodgers. I guess you never truly know what you will get out of the draft, but last night, Aaron Rodgers was one thousand times better than Alex Smith, and Rodgers was picked 23 spots later than Smith.

Truly, head scratching.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He gives the editor too much credit, I just thought the Packers were being asses to the Bears. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Why is Joe Maddon so Bush League?

Birth place of the modern Cardinal Way

Who in the world does Joe Maddon think he is?

Sure, he's a good baseball coach. Good, not yet great. If he can take the Cubs to the World Series and win, then he becomes great. But where does this air of superiority come from? Does he think he's the greatest manager of all time? Does he feel like he can write the rules of baseball and everyone has to do as he says?

I bring all this up because, in the recent series with the Cardinals, not only did he call out the "Cardinal Way", but he repeatedly had his pitchers throw at Cardinal batters. I understand the first time because the Cardinals hit one of the young Cub stars, Anthony Rizzo. In baseball the unwritten rule is, you hit one of our guys, we are going to hit one of your guys. This rule has been around forever and it's not going anywhere. But, to complain about the "Cardinal Way" after that particular game, and then to go out in the next game and hit three Cardinal batters, that's down right douchey. That's like a frat boy not getting the girl he wants because she already has a boyfriend and he gets his lame frat "brothers" and they outnumber the boyfriend and beat him up.

I'm trying to say that you sound like an upset frat boy Joe Maddon.

Also, why are you so against the "Cardinal Way"? This is a term I don't particularly care for, but all the Cardinals do is win, so the "Cardinal Way" must be working. Wouldn't you want to model your team after a successful team? Every other league is a copycat league, but you Mr. Maddon, like to "think outside the box". Sure, your way has gotten you to one World Series, which you lost, and won you a couple of division titles, but you've never truly won anything of importance as a manager. You act like you're the king of baseball though.

Why is that?

The only reason I can come up with is, the horrible people at ESPN love you, so they constantly do stories on you. I feel like this makes you think that your more important to the game than you truly are. No one outside of Chicago cares about you and your way of coaching. Sure, you have a good, young team that is on the verge of greatness, but you are just an okay manager. To attack the Cardinals the way you did was bush league. Spoiler alert for you Joe Maddon, the Cardinals aren't fazed by trash talk. They could care less that you called them out on ESPN. The Cardinals are an organization that goes about their business with class and style. They don't feel the need to attack other teams or players via the media unlike you Joe Maddon. It's also absurd that after you got your eye for an eye in the first game, the very next night you felt it was okay to hit three more players. What kind of amateur shit is that?! Do actions like this make you feel like you're a tough guy? It makes you look like an asshole, not a tough guy. To people outside Chicago, you're bush league. That's what a little league coach who has way too much invested in his little league team does. You're a manager of a professional sports team. Act like it for god's sakes. Don't act like a frat boy or a little brother. I thought that your schtick was okay when you were in Tampa, but now that you're in a big city, I see the true person that you are and it's an ugly, mean person.

It's funny to me that you chose the Cardinals to attack too. I guess the little fish want to attack the shark. The shark always wins Joe Maddon. The Cubs are riding their hottest streak since the early 2000's, and you're still 6 games back in the division. You guys are actually third in the division behind the Cardinals and the Pirates. But, the way you talk and the way the media talks about the Cubs, you'd think that they were in the first place. That's not the case. And how arrogant are you going to be if, the way it looks now the Cubs and the Pirates will be playing in the one game playoff, you guys lose the play in game to the Pirates? You already had your second baseman break the leg of the Pirates starting shortstop with a dirty, illegal slide, and you guys still may lose that game. If the Pirates win, are you going to call them out and say you don't care for the way they run their organization?

Well, let's look at the organization that hired you last offseason. The way the Cubs got you to be their manager is some of the shadiest shit I've ever seen or heard in my life. How many back alley deals were made? How many people in Tampa did you screw over so you could take this Cubs job? You are about as low class as they come Joe Maddon.

I hope you guys do beat the Pirates in the play in game and have to face the Cardinals in the division series. It will be that much sweeter when they kick your guys asses in the playoffs. I don't know why you think you're the greatest thing since sliced bread in baseball, and I hope you get crushing defeats in the playoffs with the Cubs, just like you did when you were with Tampa. You, Joe Maddon, are a scumbag and you deserve the worst of sports outcomes.

You're an arrogant asshole.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. The only thing he will defend more than his teams are his children, and a good steak. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

In an era of bad sports announcers, Cris Collinsworth is the worst

Mic to be used for analysis, not opinion

My beloved Packers played the Seahawks on Sunday Night football last night, and as a fan I of course was tuned in.

It was a pretty good game. Green Bay outplayed the Seahawks for three quarters, with the Seahawks briefly taking the lead early in the third, but the Packers eventually won the game. I was happy with the outcome, it's always great when your team wins, but that's not the point of today's blog. Today I want to talk about my dislike for Cris Collinsworth.

He's a god awful football announcer. I have problems with a lot of different commentators, but Collinsworth is the worst. I watch a lot of college football, so I've grown to dislike guys like AJ McDonough and Chris Spielman. They always seem to do Michigan games, and I am always upset when I see them calling the game. Lee Corso, who a lot of people like, is unwatchable to me. He's a gimmick. He was a tremendous failure as a coach and, in my opinion, he's much worse as a TV personality. I couldn't care less about his "pick of the day" bull shit. Take pretty much anyone from ESPN for that matter. Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden couldn't be more annoying calling Monday night games. They act like two best friends that speak a language only the two of them understand. It's pretty unpleasant. With college basketball on ESPN you have morons like Digger Phelps and Dick Vitale. Digger Phelps is a poor mans Lee Corso, and I've been sick of the "Dickie V" character for a decade now. Jay Bilas is just as bad. Whenever anyone bad mouths Duke, his alma mater, he's quick to defend them. I'm sorry, but if you're going to be an analyst on TV, you can't have a favorite team. You're not doing your job fairly. Same thing can be said for Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon. I watch "PTI" everyday, but the two of them are completely biased for players and teams they like. Wilbon won't say a bad thing about anyone from Chicago, or any team from Chicago. Take the recent Patrick Kane story. He plays for the Blackhawks, and was accused of sexual assault this offseason. Wilbon hasn't said one bad thing about him because, as he put it, "we don't know all of the story yet". That's horse shit. If he played for any other team in hockey you'd say he needs to be suspended, if not kicked out of the league. Kornheiser is just as bad with East Coast teams. Anyone from New York gets a pass, except for the Knicks, and he is a huge fan of all the professional teams in Washington. Forget the fact that the NFL team from Washington is terrible and the Wizards, Capitals and Nationals never live up to expectations, he still defends them to the high heavens and jumps all over teams that aren't on the East Coast for being chokers. It's such a joke.

But, with all these terrible, biased announcers and TV personalities I've mentioned, Cris Collinsworth takes the trophy for most insufferable. He is so in the bag for the Seahawks, it's hard to listen to him call a game. I'll get to last night in a minute, but let's look at last season. He and Al Michaels, I like Al Michaels and feel bad for him that Collinsworth is John Madden's replacement, called the first game of the 2014 season. It was also Green Bay and Seattle. Seattle was coming off a big Super Bowl win over Denver and you would have thought that Collinsworth was part of the team. Everything he said was praise for the Seahawks. They were the greatest defense ever, even better than the 85 Bears he said. Marshawn Lynch was the second coming of Jim Brown in his opinion. Russell Wilson was the second coming of John Elway. It was made worse by the fact that Seattle beat Green Bay pretty handily in that game last year. Collinsworth couldn't have sounded happier. Everything was praise for how great of a team the Seahawks were last season. And, that was the case since they made it to the Super Bowl, which he called with Al Michaels. Collinsworth sounded on edge the whole game. You could clearly tell that he was pulling for and wanted the Seahawks to win this game badly. Every time the Patriots scored, Collinsworth would make a claim that Seattle blew a coverage, or that New England got away with a penalty. It was never that New England was outplaying them for most of the night, it was something Seattle or the refs did wrong. He never pointed out the fact that Tom Brady picked apart Seattle's secondary. The Patriots dinked and dunked their way up and down the field all game, but you'd never know that if you listened to Collinsworth. No praise for New England during the game. Seattle had a chance to win that game as we all now know. As they drove down the field, with one of the luckiest catches I've ever seen, Collinsworth sounded almost giddy calling this drive. Then the infamous one yard line pass happened. You guys remember the face that Richard Sherman made when Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson (behold beauty)? I bet that Collinsworth wasn't just making that same face, I bet he was crying. He sounded audibly upset that the Seahawks lost that game. You can't pick sides when calling games as an announcer, especially in the Super Bowl. It's fine to have a favorite team, we all do, but when you do TV, you CANNOT be biased. It's unfair to all the watchers.

Last night was probably the worst I've ever heard from Collinsworth. Once again, whenever Green Bay did something good, or drove down the field, or stopped Seattle's drives, it was never because the Packers did something right, it was Seattle doing something wrong. When Seattle took the lead in the third, he sounded like a proud father, heaping praise on Wilson's performance. Wilson played well in the game last night, but he threw a crucial interception on a screen pass. A linebacker dropped into coverage and picked him off one handed. The linebacker fumbled at the end of the play, Green Bay clearly recovered the ball, but that's not what happened in Collinsworth's perspective. First, he claimed the running back that the screen was set up for, didn't show himself quick enough to Wilson. Then, the line left their blocks too quick. Then, what a lucky interception he kept saying. Finally, he was convinced that the Seahawks recovered the fumble. He insisted, even after the game, that the refs blew that call and cost them the game. Never mind the fact that right after the turnover Aaron Rodgers, and more importantly, James Starks drove the Packers right down the field for the go ahead touchdown and two point conversion. The Packers would later add a field goal to make it a ten point lead and they stripped Fred Jackson with thirty seconds left to seal the game. But, after it was all said and done, you would have thought that the Seahawks got screwed over by the refs if you listened to Collinsworth. He's the worst kind of announcer. Not only does he have a team he roots for, but he openly roots for them while calling their games on national TV. That is unacceptable. He needs to stop with the Seahawk love and do his job correctly. I long for the days of Keith Jackson and John Madden calling games, but, unfortunately, we seem to be moving into an era of commentators openly rooting for teams while they call games. Collinsworth has started it, and it's only going to get worse from here.

That's a bummer.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing. He does not have any strong religious beliefs, yet he does think God wanted the Packers to win because that is what matters in the world. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty remembers the greatness of Moses Malone

Another legend lost

Last week I wrote about the surprise passing of NBA legend Daryl Dawkins, AKA "Chocolate Thunder". Today, I come bearing more bad news on the NBA legend front.

As most of you know by now, Moses Malone unexpectedly passed away yesterday at the age of 60. This one hit me just as hard as Daryl Dawkins. I even mentioned Moses Malone in my article about Dawkins. If you remember, Malone was who the 76ers traded Dawkins for, and they won the title that year. Moses Malone was the first professional basketball player to make the jump from high school to the pros. He led his high school team to two straight, undefeated championship seasons. He signed to play at the University of Maryland, but gave up his college career when he was drafted in the third round by the Utah Stars of the ABA. He signed a five year contract, but spent only three seasons in the ABA. The Utah Stars folded after his rookie season and he caught on with the St. Louis Spirits for the next two years. He put up pretty good numbers while playing in the ABA, averaging 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds a game. When the ABA and NBA merged, Malone was drafted by the Portland Trailblazers, but never played a regular season game for them. He was traded to the Buffalo Braves, but only played two games with the team. He finally found a semi permanent home after being traded to the Houston Rockets.

During Moses Malone's first full season in the NBA, he put up decent numbers again. Malone averaged 13 points a game, but where he shined was rebounding, and more specifically, offensive rebounding. He finished third in the league in total rebounding at 13 a game, but he set a new offensive rebounding record, grabbing 437 total offensive boards. He would later break that record. He was also a stalwart on the defensive side of the court, blocking almost three shots a game. Malone led the Rockets to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Rockets were once in the East, only to lose to his eventual team, the 76ers in six games. During that playoff, Malone set a record with 15 offensive rebounds in one game. The 78-79 season was peak Moses Malone. He averaged 24 points and 17 rebounds a game on his way to winning the league MVP at the tender age of 23. This was the season he broke his own offensive rebounding record, grabbing 587 of them. Once again though, the Rockets were swept in the Eastern Conference Finals, this time by the Boston Celtics. Malone and the Rockets couldn't seem to get over the hump. The Rockets finally made the NBA Finals in 1981, Malone coming off another MVP season, but they were beat by the Sonics.

During the 1983 season, Malone was traded to the 76ers for Daryl Dawkins, as I mentioned before. New ownership wanted new players and Malone fit in perfectly with what the 76ers wanted to do. During the 83 season, Malone led the league in rebounding for the third straight season, collecting 15 boards a game. He also averaged 25 points per game as well. During the 83 playoffs, the 76ers only lost one game and swept the Lakers in the Finals. Malone won NBA Finals MVP and got his first, and only, NBA title. A couple more seasons and a couple more runs in the playoffs with the 76ers followed, but in the 85-86 season, the 76ers traded Malone to the Washington Bullets. His first season with the Bullets had Malone making the All Star team for the tenth consecutive season and putting up 24 points and 11 rebounds. Ultimately though, despite Malone's big numbers, the Bullets were swept in the first round by the Pistons. The same thing happened the very next season. Malone put up big numbers, but the Bullets were swept again by the Pistons in the first round.

Moses Malone played for three more teams, the Buck, Spurs and the Hawks. He put up okay numbers, but he was starting to get hurt more and he played a lot of basketball by this time in his life. He was even brought back by the 76ers to help tutor Shawn Bradley. He had a long, successful NBA career. He was such a good rebounder, he was dubbed "Chairman of the Boards" by his fellow players.

What drew me to Moses Malone was his tenacity and love for basketball. Sure, he was a great scorer, but he seemed to love playing defense and his rebounding is unmatched. He took more pride in rebounding than anything else. As a kid, I wanted to be Michael Jordan or Charles Barkley. As a I got older, into my twenties, I studied players like Daryl Dawkins and Moses Malone, and that's who I try to model my game after. Yes, I like to put the ball in the hoop, but I'd rather start a fast break with a defensive rebound, or get an offensive rebound for a put back. That's more satisfying for me.

It's a shame that Moses Malone passed away yesterday. In the past two weeks, we've lost two basketball legends that a lot of my generation, the Millenials, have little to no knowledge of. That's depressing to me. Instead of watching Blake Griffin or Kevin Love and saying that they're some of the best big men rebounders(they are not), go watch old games of Moses Malone. He's the best rebounder of all time. You will be missed "Chairman of the Boards". I hope you and Daryl Dawkins are playing one on one wherever you are now.

Rest in Peace.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

Let Me Respectfully Explain Why Your Team Stinks: Ty's new hatred for the Seattle Seahawks

It is insulting when you call me a Seahawk

There are some teams I really, really dislike.

Today, I'm going to go back to my irrational hatred for a football team. In two previous blogs, I've written about my irrational hatred for University of Missouri college football and the Los Angeles Clippers from the NBA. Today, I turn my attention to the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks. Good timing to, since the season started last night and truly gets underway on Sunday. The Seahawks are the first team I'll be writing about, under my irrational hatred blogs, that have won a championship. They won the Super Bowl two years ago, and played in the Super Bowl last year. They should've won that game, but I'll get to that later. Missouri football hasn't won anything of importance in over 50 years, and the Clippers have never won anything important ever in their history.

So, let's get to what I hate about the Seahawks. First, there was a time, about 10 years ago, when I actually rooted for the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. They played the Steelers, a team that will be talked about in this discussion at another time. That version of the Seahawks were coached by former Packer coach Mike Holmgren and had Shaun Alexander. I actually, kind of, liked this team. Shaun Alexander was my number one pick in my fantasy draft that year. I also liked the fact that they were a quiet team. No trash talk, no media stuff, they just went out and played football.  By the way, the Seahawks won that Super Bowl. The history books have the Steelers as the champs, but the refs screwed the Seahawks and the NFL and ESPN needed a redemption story for rapist Ben Roethlisberger.

Right after that season, I kind of forgot about the Seahawks. They were mediocre for the next 5 to 7 seasons. Then, they won, what was at the time, the worst division in football, the NFC West with a 7-9 record. This was three or four seasons ago. That was Pete Carroll's first season as head coach. Not only did they win that god awful division, but they went out and beat the New Orleans Saints in the Wild Card game. In typical Saints fashion, they had to go on the road to Seattle, Seattle won the division so they got home field, and the Saints couldn't stop the run. Go back and watch all the missed tackles on what is probably Marshawn Lynch's most famous run.  

It is after this Wild Card win and their subsequent draft  where my hatred for the Seahawks began. They started to pump their chests and say how great they were. Excuse the shit out of me, but you assholes backed your way into the playoffs that season and beat the Saints when everyone expected you to. This attitude is indicative of their head coach. Pete Carroll is a douchebag. This is the same guy who called out Mark Sanchez in front of the media when he declared for the draft. Sanchez was his quarterback at USC, they just came off a Rose Bowl win and he didn't have another decent QB on the roster. So, instead of doing what college coaches are supposed to do, support their players decisions and dreams, he acted like a dumped girlfriend. What makes this even worse, Carroll left USC within a year after Sanchez left for the NFL. Why did he care so much? I'll tell you why, he's a prick that whines like a baby when he doesn't get his way. Let's not forget how much of a cheater at USC he was. He bought Reggie Bush's family a home and a car. He had so many recruiting violations against him that, had he stayed at USC, they could've gotten the death penalty. So, he bolted for the NFL, and you'd think his cheating would stop, but nope. The Seahawks are one of the most suspicious teams in the NFL. Be it fighting between teammates in the locker room or steroids or even players using Ritalin. All these things, with the exception of the fighting, is against the rules. Does the NFL or Pete Carroll or Roger Goodell do anything about it? No, they're all too busy attacking the Patriots for under inflated footballs and stuff that happened almost a decade ago. Pete Carroll also made the worst play call ever during last year's Super Bowl. How do you not hand the ball off to Lynch on the goal line?! That call proves your ignorance and arrogance. I was elated you lost the Super Bowl in crushing fashion. You're an idiot Pete Carroll and  I hate you.

I mentioned the draft also as a reason why I hate this team. They undercut other teams and under pay their rookies. They seem to get pretty good players at a super cheap salary. How on Earth does that happen. Guys like Michael Bennett, Doug Baldwin and the majority of their offensive line are really underpaid. Marshawn Lynch is the best running back in the league right now, and they just gave him a multi million dollar extension last year. Their best secondary player, Kam Chancellor is willing to sit the whole season because, for football players, he's criminally underpaid. Richard Sherman is due for a huge raise, but will he get it? Probably not because they just gave Russell Wilson a HUGE contract.

This brings me to another big, big problem I have with the Seahawks, Russell Wilson. This guy is the most corporate, robotic piece of human trash I could ever imagine. He shows no emotions, unless he's talking about God. Let's get things straight too, he's a mediocre QB at best. This team didn't make it to two consecutive Super Bowls because of Russell Wilson, their defense and Marshawn Lynch carried them. But, you turn on ESPN or the NFL Network, and he's mentioned in the same breath as Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and old timers like Warren Moon and Fran Tarkenton. I'd take all those QB's over Wilson in a second. He's got little to no touch on his throws and he's going to get killed running the read option. He's a tick better than Colin Kaepernick, and that's not a compliment. The fact that the Seahawks gave him Aaron Rodgers money is going to cripple this team in the long run. Instead of paying the players that got them to the highest point in football, they paid a sub par QB a shit ton of money.

All his God talk needs to stop. When he first got in the league, players from other teams, it's been reported, said that he slept with their girlfriends while they were still together. That's not good in God's eye Russell Wilson. Also, if there is a God, he doesn't give a shit about you. You are the least of his problems. He's also totally sleeping with current girlfriend, musician Ciara. Nobody buys your guys bull shit. Russell Wilson is also known for clashing with teammates. He ran Golden Tate and Percy Harvin out of town. He tried to get the front office to trade Lynch in the middle of last season. Screw you Russell Wilson, have fun winning 6 or 7 games for the rest of your career. And, nobody outside of Seattle likes Marshawn Lynch or Richard Sherman. The hatred for Lynch isn't as bad for Sherman, Lynch pokes fun at himself, but his whole attitude towards media and people outside of his circle is stupid. Quit trying to be the Rasheed Wallace of the NFL. You're not as charasmatic as Rasheed Wallace. Richard Sherman on the other hand, boy the hatred is strong. Sherman is the best cover corner in the league, but he needs to stop talking. You went out and got into a fight with Skip Bayless. I can't think of a more douchey fight. You're a Stanford grad Richard Sherman, you don't have to constantly go on TV and tell us how smart you are. We know you're smart. You're also a bad sport. You lose with no dignity, and when you win, I close my ears because I can't deal with your mouth. You're like a conservative republican. You think you're correct because you're the loudest. Just shut the hell up and go out there and play football. You're a good enough football player that you don't need to run your mouth. Also, nothing made me happier than when Russell Wilson threw that pick and your smile turned to a frown. It was euphoric for me to watch you lose.

Seahawks fans are pretty ridiculous too. As I said earlier, you guys just recently became good. Before this success, I didn't know one single Seahawk fan. Now, they're coming out of the woodwork. If that's not a bandwagon fan, I don't know what is. You guys are the 21st century Dallas Cowboys. By this I mean, your fans are bandwagon fans and people that don't like you, HATE you and your fans. I hate all these actors and comedians, that I enjoy, are pounding the drum for you all over social media. Comedian Nick Thune, who I think is great, acts like there's no other team in the NFL. Or, when he does talk about a team not called the Seahawks, that team is a cheater and all their fans suck. Come back to me when the Seahawks are also rans in two years and tell me that you're still a fan. Chris Pratt, the biggest star right now and one of my favorite actors, is all over social media with his Seahawk love. Where were you five years ago?! I didn't hear or see you pumping up the Seahawks. You were like a ghost, but now that they're good, you're all over the place talking about Seahawk love. I bet the two of you couldn't name the starting QB the year before Matt Hasselbeck took over the job. You guys probably loved Hasselbeck when he was your QB, but now, you probably tell other people that he's a joke and shouldn't be in the league. I've got news for you guys, your QB's have never been elite.

So, these and many, many other reasons are why I loathe the Seahawks. It's a new hatred, but it's very strong and will only get stronger. Screw you Seattle Seahawks and screw your "12th" man bull shit. No one cares.  

You will be irrelevant in two years.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. His love for Michigan Football is much greater than all of his hatred combined (please Jim Harbaugh, start winning soon). Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Why does Roger Goodell hate the NFL?

The newest NFL mascot, Lady Justice

Here at SeedSing we have commented many times on recent scandals in the NFL (here, here, here, and here). The general consensus around our virtual office is that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is not very good at his job. Players like Tom Brady, and teams like the New England Patriots, may not be totally innocent, yet the ineptness of Goodell masks any improprieties. With the season only days away, many thought that Goodell's never ending follies would take a back seat to some real football action. That is what we hoped.

ESPN occasionally stumbles into actual journalism from time to time, usually with the people associated with Outside the Lines. Today looked like one of those stumbles with the piece Spygate to Deflategate: Inside what Split the NFL and Patriots Apart well researched and written by Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham. The article goes through a history of deception by the Patriots, and the cover ups orchestrated by Commissioner Roger Goodell's office. Nothing really new was introduced in the piece, it was just confirmation of the Patriots rule bending and Roger Goodell's complicity in the spying scandals. Now at the start of the NFL season, the media and general public are once again debating on how badly Roger Goodell managed another crisis.

Many people think that ESPN piece once again condemns the New England Patriots to the branding of being cheaters. I was living two blocks from the St. Louis Rams stadium during the 2001 - 2002 season. I would never say that I was a huge Rams fan, but as the scholar David Puddy says  "Gotta support the team". I was shocked, but not surprised, that the Patriots beat the Rams. All of these years later I honestly think not giving Marshall Faulk the ball more is what cost the Rams, not an illegal videotape of practice. Maybe the Patriots did cheat. It does look like there is a long paper trail to help indict the team. Many Patriot defenders (like some of our heroes, Bill Simmons and our very own Ty) will go on and on about how every team tries to get an edge. That may be true, but then why do we not hear about the San Diego Chargers spying. It would be nice to have the Cincinnati Bengals implicated in some beneficial cheating if it means we could win a playoff game. My point is that the Patriots level of cheating was well beyond that of an average team. The bigger the operation, the more likely you will get found out.

The Patriot's alleged cheating is minor compared to the cover up instituted by the NFL in relation to the spying allegations. The ESPN piece insinuates that many of the owners were aware of the issues with the Patriots, and those owners did little to stop the indiscretion. Why would any owner allow any other team to break the rules and achieve greater success. I would hope that all the owners want to maximize the income their teams can bring in. The idea that the owners want to "defend the shield" seems very counterproductive. If the Patriots were getting a leg up in multiple Super Bowls because of cheating, the cheating will be exposed. It takes a lot of people to pull of a major cheating operation, people will talk. People did talk. The Patriots made extra money while the other idiot owners were complicit in hiding the truth.

The Patriots and the other owners may look like cheaters and enablers, but Roger Goodell is the jester in the NFL's court of idiocy. The commissioner has been fortunate enough to be in power during an era of unprecedented revenues, this is not due to Roger Goodell. Since day one, Goodell has looked vastly over matched and has an ego that is far ahead of his competency. The ESPN piece paints a picture of a guy who can kiss the asses of his billionaire bosses, but cannot handle basic human conversation away from the comfy confines of his echo chamber. Every organization has scandal, Goodell seems surprised by the reactions to his ineptness in dealing with the scandals related to America's most popular sport. That is not the mark of a leader, it is the mark of an out of touch dictator. Roger Goodell has had the support of his billionaire bosses, and the loyalty of a sycophantic sports media. With all of these benefits, he still makes any minor crisis into a big one. Many have thought that ESPN decided to run their article to make Goodell and the NFL brass look good in light of the setback they had in federal court with the Brady suspension being thrown out. This article does not make Goodell look good, it makes him look worse than the incompetent stooge many already take him for.

If Roger Goodell is so smart, and so good at his job, why does he act in this manner. Sports media personalities I respect, like Dan Patrick, seem to go out of their way to defend the business of the NFL over the players. Goodell has people everywhere trying to make him look competent. I understand that these media personalities (I can not call them journalists) need access in order to get ratings. It is better to lose your integrity to the commissioner than it is to any player. I can not help to shake the idea that Roger Goodell hates the NFL. If he is so great, and so smart, than his actions must reflect the desire to bring football down. The ESPN article shows a paranoid, desperate, non-thinking man. Roger Goodell is either an incompetent danger, or a subversive one. The Patriots may have bent the rules, the owners may have turned their heads, but Roger Goodell has kept it all alive. Why is he still the NFL commissioner?

Why does Roger Goodell hate the NFL?

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is available to be the next NFL commissioner. His Playstation 2 memory card has quite the resume on it. Come tell RD why he is wrong by writing for us.

Ty has some gloating to do over the latest "Deflategate" news

The next NFL commissioner?

How does it feel dip shit commentators at ESPN?

How does it feel Colts and Ravens players and owners?

But, most of all, how does it feel Roger Goodell? Tom Brady, once again, beat all of you. I'm not a fan of the Patriots, I do like Tom Brady, but if it was any other player in the league, I'd be just as happy. This is a great day for the players in the NFL, especially the superstars. The fact that this whole thing, having some under inflated footballs, became this big a deal, is an absolute joke. There's much bigger fish for the NFL and its god awful commissioner to fry. Maybe, instead of trying to suspend your biggest star for under inflated footballs, you should deal with the rampant physical abuse, or the drug and alcohol problems, or the steroid use, or your biggest issue of all, your dumbass commissioner.

The commissioner tried and failed(typing those five words made me very happy) to show some "clout" and suspend the NFL's biggest star for one of the dumbest reasons I've ever heard. Who in the hell cares about a team gaining a competitive advantage. Everyone does it in all sports at any level, and if you don't agree with me, you're 1,000 percent wrong. It happens everywhere. The fact that this became such a big issue is asinine. I say again, who cares? The three questions I posed at the beginning are what made me angry in the first place and now makes me extremely happy with today's outcome. First of all, these morons at ESPN who called Tom Brady and the Patriots cheaters for under inflating footballs must feel like real idiots today. That network is full of morons, and the ones who complained about this being a "big" problem and that the Patriots would "get theirs" must be crying a river of tears today. The commentators that complained about this, people like Bill Polian(former Colts owner or GM, I don't remember) or Jerome Bettis, or Colin Cowherd all seem to have an agenda against Brady and the Patriots. In Bettis and Polian's case, I feel like they held the torch to the Patriots feet because the Patriots regularly ended their teams season in the playoffs year after year. I think they felt this "issue" would give them a good excuse of why the Patriots beat them consistently. Spoiler alert, the Patriots were and are a better team with better players and better coaches. They didn't cheat you guys out of victory, they beat you, just like Brady beat you again today off the field. In Colin Cowherd's case, he's just a douchebag that blows smoke up his listeners ass and complains about any and everything just so he can hear his own voice. Cowherd is a terrible, terrible commentator and person. He sucks. As far as things go for the Colts and Ravens, it's the same thing I said for the commentators at ESPN. They tried to finds excuses for why they got beat in the playoffs last year. And, no matter what you say Ravens fans, owners and coaches, you guys said something to the Colts after you blew two 14 point leads to the Patriots in the previous playoff game. The fact of the matter is, the Patriots beat you. No gimmicks, no tricks, they flat out beat you. In the Colts case, you guys lost the AFC Championship game by 38 points. Let me spell that for you, THIRTY EIGHT POINTS! They didn't even throw the ball all that much against you either. They ran and ran and ran the ball some more all the way to the tune of a 45 to 7 victory. They crushed you, and instead of taking the defeat, you looked for excuses. Well, Brady beat you again today. Deal with it.

Which brings me to the person who got crushed the most by the decision today, Satan himself, Roger Goodell. I ask again, how does it feel you asshole? You got crushed by the judge today and you are even more tarnished now than you were before. I didn't think that was possible with how terribly you've handled everything so far, but you trying to suspend Brady, getting the suspension overturned and now, you're trying to appeal the decision. You sir are a MORON. Every decision you make gets dumber and dumber. I hope this whole situation gets your ass fired and we never have to hear from you ever again. Nothing would make me happier than if you got fired and disappeared from the media and just faded into obscurity. The decision made by the judge today shows, that no matter how many owners you are in bed with, trying to suspend someone for something this miniscule is stupid. As I mentioned earlier, you have much, much bigger issues to deal with. That is, if you keep your job after today. You suck Roger Goodell and I'm so happy that you were made to look like a complete idiot today. This is a good day for football players and fans, and I hope this is the first step in getting Roger Goodell's punk ass out of football.

One can only hope.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor and co host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He loves his family, Michigan Football, and seeing Roger Goodell being made to look like an idiot. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Let me respectfully explain why your team stinks: Ty really dislikes the LA Clippers

It is never to early too think about basketball

Today I'm going to talk about my irrational hatred for the god awful franchise known as the Los Angeles Clippers.

I HATE THE CLIPPERS.

There's no amount of any love in my sports heart or brain for the Clippers. First of all, this is a franchise that's NEVER been to the Western Conference Finals. Not the Finals, they've never made it to their conference finals. They were mired in mediocrity for the majority of the 80's and 90's. They've become a playoff team in the 21st century, but they are best known for collapsing or flat out losing to teams that, on paper, they're better than. But, games are won on the court and not on paper. No matter what the people at ESPN say. I swear to you, when the Lakers were the best team in LA, everyone at ESPN loved them. Now that the Lakers are irrelevant and the Clippers are decent, all the ESPN employees have taken the Clippers as their "team". They all love the Clippers, but that will change as soon as the Lakers are relevant again. Bunch of sheep at ESPN.

Let's get back to why I hate the Clippers so much. Let's look at the players on the team. First, the starters. You have Chris Paul at point guard. He's a great basketball player, but I think he's extremely overrated. People always say that he is the smartest player in the game and runs his team to perfection. So, perfection to these pundits is, having a good regular season, only to crap out in the first or second round of the playoffs. I thought to be considered one of the greats, you have to at least make the Finals once and if you're lucky win the Finals. Not only has he never led his team to the Finals, they've never been to the conference finals, like I said earlier. He didn't do it with the Hornets and he sure as shit hasn't done it with the Clippers. He's also a whiny, crybaby on the court. He's constantly complaining to officials about calls or no calls. When he's not crying to the refs, he's yelling at his teammates for not doing what he told them to do. It's never his fault, it's always someone else's fault. That's not a leader, that's a whiner. He's also the dirtiest player I've seen since John Stockton. I swear. he punches someone in the balls at least 3 to 5 times a season. That's a punk move by a dirty player. Screw you Chris Paul. Shooting guard is manned by JJ Redick. This douchebag is a pile of garbage. First of all, he played at Duke, so if you're a fan of his, you're probably a rich, white privileged asshole that's never had to work for anything ever. Redick seems more concerned with how his hair looks during the game than actually playing the game. He's only good at shooting the three and, while the folks at ESPN will try to make you believe different, he's a terrible defender. He's constantly fouling people and James Harden made him his bitch in the final two games of the Western Conference Semis last season. Harden, who chokes on the biggest stage, destroyed Redick when he had the ball. Personally, I loved watching Harden own him in the playoffs. Redick is a subpar NBA player at best, but he has somehow managed to start for the Clippers the past couple of seasons. He's a glorified Jimmer Fredette. At small forward, they have a platoon of guys like Jamal Crawford or the rotting corpse of Paul Pierce or the newly acquired Lance Stephenson. Jamal Crawford is all but out the door. And good for him for getting out of that situation. This dude can shoot and, while he's a liability on defense, that's not how he's made his career. He's supposed to be instant offense off the bench. He shouldn't be a starter in the NBA. The Clippers signed both Pierce and Stephenson this offseason. While Pierce played very well for the Wizards last season, he's about 900 years old and he's played a lot of minutes in the NBA. He brings championship pedigree to this garbage franchise, but that was 7 years ago, and he had Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett on his team. I think he's well past his prime and he won't give the Clippers what they need. He's too old and has played way too much. I believe he used anything he had left in last years playoffs. The Wizards were beaten by the Hawks in 6 games during his run by the way. Lance Stephenson is a cancer and becoming a joke in the NBA. He is best known for blowing in LeBron James' ear during the playoffs two years ago. He can't shoot, he's not the defender he was three years ago and he doesn't get along with his teammates. The Pacers couldn't wait to unload him and the Hornets were more than happy to trade him one year after signing him to a three year deal. At power forward, they have probably one of the most overrated "superstars" in the league in Blake Griffin. This effin guy, I have a big problem with. First of all, the comparisons to LeBron James need to stop immediately. On his best day, Griffin isn't 1/100th the player James is. He's not even in Karl Malone's or Moses Malone's league. Those guys were all around good players. All Blake Griffin is good for is dunking. And, no matter how fancy it looks, it's still worth two points. He has gotten better at his jump shot, but he shoots it on a straight line and it's a disgusting looking shot. He plays little to no defense, he can only manage to get 5 or 6 rebounds a game and he's on the same whiner level with Chris Paul. He complains just as much, if not more, than Paul does to the refs. He's such a douche, he poured water on a Warriors fan two years ago during a playoff game. Did people call him out for this move of supreme asshole? Nope, everyone thought it was a funny joke by him. Not me. That's a bitch move of the highest caliber. He also seems more interested in his commercial acting than improving his game. He does have plenty of time to do commercials, because this team is always out of the playoffs early every year. I HATE Blake Griffin the player. He may be a good dude, but I can't stand him as a basketball player. Center position is manned by DeAndre Jordan. You know him, the guy who gave his word to the Mavericks, then changed his mind and instead of talking to the Mavericks and Mark Cuban like a grown man, he wouldn't so much as send a text message to them to tell them he changed his mind and wanted to stay in LA. I'd have no problem with his decision if he owned up to it properly, but nope, his "apology" was posted on twitter for crissakes. What have we come to in society if this is tolerated? This is what a child does, not a man making millions of dollars. But, in his "defense", he's never going to be a player to build your franchise around unless you want a team that can only win 20 to 25 games a season. All he does is dunk and rebound. He's a decent shot blocker too. Other than those things, he does nothing else good at all. People may read this and say, he's a new version of Shaq. Bull shit, Shaq was one of the best passing big men of all time and Shaq is a billion times better than DeAndre Jordan will ever be. If I were an opposing coach, I'd foul him on EVERY SINGLE POSSESION. I don't care if he shoots 100 free throws a game and the game lasts six hours long. I'd love to slow down their offensive tempo and make this joke of a free throw shooter beat me at the line. He's NEVER going to be better than a 40% shooter from the line. Never. I also hope he's happy with being Chris Paul and Blake Griffin's scapegoat for the rest of his career. It will never be their fault, it will always, somehow, be Jordan's fault. Congrats on having to deal with that for the rest of your basketball life. The bench is made up of guys like coaches son Austin Rivers, Jason Segel look alike Spencer Hawes and hotel trashing, girlfriend cheating Glen "Big Baby" Davis. Austin Rivers recently said that he was better than the majority of the guys participating in the recent Team USA scrimmage. He claimed to better than guys like Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, John Wall and Steph Curry. Um, Austin Rivers, you wouldn't be the best player on the current 76ers team, so get your head out of you ass you stupid moron. The only reason he's still in the NBA is because his dad coaches the Clippers and, as any father would, wants his son to succeed. Too bad your son is a shitty basketball player Doc Rivers. Spencer Hawes is a terrible NBA player. He can't rebound, play defense, block shots or shoot. He's a bum that the Clippers overpaid last offseason and then under utilized him when he started to play poorly. He played poorly all season, but got worse as the season progressed. Glen "Big Baby" Davis is a joke and his nick name tells you everything you need to know about him. He looks like a grown up baby and complains like one too.

The coach is Doc Rivers, another one of the most overrated people in basketball. He's won a championship, but what people forget, the year before that title, he was almost fired. The Celtics wanted to get rid of him, but instead they traded for Allen and Garnett and won a title. After that team disbanded, Rivers was traded to the Clippers to be not only the coach, but the GM too. His coaching philosphy is, complain about officiating, call out reporters that bad mouth his team and to not worry about the defensive end of the floor. He's an average NBA coach that lucked into getting two of the top 100 players of all time in their prime and win one championship. As a GM, he's terrible. He's made bad decisions left and right. He may be the worst GM in all of sports.

The last thing I want to touch on, as to why I hate the Clippers, is their ownership. First of all, they were owned by HUGE racist and all around horrible monster of a human breath, Donald Sterling. He is a worse version of Donald Trump and I loathe Donald Trump. Now, they're owned by eccentric billionaire Steve Ballmer. Every time I see this weirdo jumping up and down and screaming into a microphone on TV, I want to punch him right in the chest. He has no idea what he's doing, but if he continues to show enthusiasm, the chuckle heads at ESPN will continue to say how great he is for the game of basketball. He's the opposite of that. He's a thorn in the side of basketball, and he has forever inflated the actual worth of a team by buying the Clippers for 2 billion dollars. He's ruined it for every other potential buyer or current owner in the league. Every team that's purchased from here on out will be bought for way more than they're worth. Lots of people are going to end up losing a lot of money.

This team, while it may not seem on the surface, is still in as much turmoil as they were when Sterling owned the team. It's a different turmoil. And, if you don't agree with me, look at what season ticket holder Bill Simmons has been saying on social media about the Clippers. He believes that they may be in worse shape. These are the many reasons I hate the Clippers. They're a franchise that hasn't won anything of importance ever, yet act like they're the best team in the NBA.

I hate you Los Angeles Clippers, and I'll always hate you.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He did not get to talk about the Clippers, but hear Ty go over a few more overrated teams. When you are done listening throw Ty a follow on twitter @tykulik.

Ty's NFL Preview 2015: Super Bowl and Awards

Ty has his snacks ready for the big game.

Read where Ty previews the AFC and NFC.

Now it is time to wrap a bow on this preview and give you the Super Bowl winner, along with some awards.

The Packers Colts Super Bowl will be close for about one half and the Packers will pull away and win Super Bowl 50 by at least 10 points. So, the Packers will win Super Bowl 50.

My picks for offensive player of the year is Aaron Rodgers. He's the best QB in the game and he will have an awesome season.

Defensive player of the year will come down to two defensive lineman, Ndamokong Suh and JJ Watt. I think Suh will dethrone Watt and win defensive player of the year.

The MVP will be won by Aaron Rodgers again. He's going to bring home a lot of hardware this season.

The offensive rookie of the year will be Melvin Gordon. I see him going for about 1,200 rushing yards, 500 plus receiving yards and 10 or more touchdowns. He's going to be really good.

The defensive rookie of the year will be Steelers rookie linebacker Bud Dupree. He's a beast and has the nose for the football. He's also in a great situation to succeed playing for the Steelers.

Coach of the year will be Jeff Fisher. If he can get the Rams to the playoffs it will be a no brainer. He's just a good coach too.

So, that's my NFL preview. Tell me why I'm right or wrong in the comment section and hopefully I've prepared you for the upcoming season. Football is right around the corner.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. His football knowledge was gained by being the commissioner of his fantasy league the last three years. He is eager to replace the current NFL commissioner when he ends up getting fired. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty's NFL Preview 2015: NFC

Game is on, get ready to...why is Ty's drink still green?

The NFC is also made up of four divisions as well, the East, West, North and South. The NFC East is made up of the, Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, the team from the region of Washington DC and the New York Giants. The Cowboys completely shocked me last season. I didn't see them playing that well at all, especially on defense. DeMarco Murray was awesome, but he's gone to the Eagles and Dez Bryant is good, but he's got Tony Romo throwing him the ball. That's a bummer. Jason Witten is reliable, but old. The defense will take a step back for sure. The offensive line is good, but as I mentioned before, DeMarco Murray is gone and Darren McFadden won't ease the loss. The Cowboys are going to take a big step back this season and probably only win 9 games. That may be enough to win this division. The Eagles have had a very odd offseason. Chip Kelly traded away a lot of great players like, LeSean McCoy and Jeremy Maclin and Nick Foles. The only one he really "replaced" was McCoy by signing Murray. Sam Bradford seems to be their starting QB, but he CANNOT stay healthy (I am from St. Louis, I know this). He's a liability. They also brought in Tim Freakin Tebow. That guy is not an NFL quarterback, he's just not good. The Eagles defense is pretty good and should keep them in games. They will either win 11 or 5 games, who knows. I will split the difference and say they get to 10 wins, but barely. The New York Giants aren't a very good football team, and the recent news that Eli Manning wants to be the highest paid player in football is laughable. Sure, he's won two super bowls, but what have you done for me lately besides lead the league in interceptions and stupid faces. They have no running game. They do have Odell Beckham JR and Victor Ortiz, but that doesn't matter when Eli is throwing it to the other team. Their defense is not good either. They will be lucky to get to 7 wins this year. Until they are willing to change their name, the team from Washington will get no love from me. They stink anyway and 4 wins would be a shocker. The Eagles will win this division and get the pleasure of being blown out by whoever they play in the first round of the playoffs.

The NFC West is one of the best, if not the best, divisions in the NFL. First, you have the Seattle Seahawks. They have the best defense in the league and it's not even close. All three phases are lights out, and while I may not like the players in the secondary, they are shut down corners and the safeties are heavy hitters. The offense is run by the overrated Russel Wilson. That offense is truly run by Marshawn Lynch. He's the current best running back in the league. He's truly a beast. They don't have great receivers, but they traded for Jimmy Graham this offseason and that will only make them better. They will easily get to 11 wins this year. The St.Louis Rams are up and coming, but I don't know how they'll play with expectations. They also have a great defense and one of the best defensive lines in the league. They drafted a great running back in Todd Gurley and replaced the oft injured Sam Bradford with Nick Foles. He's an upgrade at QB. The receivers are small, but explosive. If they can put it all together, they won't be able to challenge the Seahawks yet, but they could win 9 or 10 games. The Arizona Cardinals are another good team in this division. If Carson Palmer can stay healthy, they should be good on offense with him throwing to Michael Floyd and Larry Fitzgerald. The running game was in flux, but they just signed Chris Johnson to a one year deal. If he can do half as good as when he was with the Titans, they should be set. Their defense is awesome led by cornerback Patrick Peterson. They are really good, but they seem to get bitten by the injury bug every season. They should win 10 games, barring any big injury, but someone will inevitably get hurt, so they'll probably only get 8 or 9 wins. The San Francisco 49ers round out the division. This team seems to have gone into rebuild mode. They changed coaches, lost Frank Gore, Patrick Willis retired along with a lot of players on defense and Michael Crabtree left in free agency. They still have Anquan Boldin and Colin Kaepernick, but this team is going to take a huge step back. They will only get 5 or 6 wins this year. This division will be won by the Seahawks again, but it will be very tough.

The NFC South is the exact opposite of the West. This division could be won by a team with 8 or fewer wins. The teams are, the New Orleans Saints, the Atlanta Falcons, the Carolina Panthers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Saints still have Drew Brees, but he's old and they got rid of his best weapons. Their defense is terrible as well. 6 or 7 wins would be ideal for them. The Falcons have Matt Ryan,  Roddy White and Julio Jones, but they have no running game and they don't even try to run the ball and this is a team with another pretty bad defense. If Matt Ryan plays well and gets the ball to either White or Jones, they could outscore teams on their way to 8 wins, but 6 wins seems more likely. The Panthers do have Cam Newton and while he's inaccurate, he has a big arm and he's hard to tackle when he's in the open field. They have a so so running game led by DeAngelo Williams and they have upgraded at receiver with Kelvin Benjamin and rookie Devin Funchess. They do have a decent defense led by linebacker Luke Kuechly. They could win 9 games this year. The Buccaneers are still in rebuild mode and will be led by rookie QB Jameis Winston. Rookie QB's struggle and while he does have Vincent Jackson and the big receiver from Texas A&M, they have no run game and a god awful defense. 3 or 4 wins is the bar for the Bucs. The Panthers will win this division with only 9 wins this year.

The final NFC division, the NFC North should and will be won by the Green Bay Packers. The defense improved last season and will take another step in the right direction this season. They have the best QB in the league in Aaron Rodgers and he has weapons on offense like Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb. They also have a good running game led by Eddie Lacy. The Packers should win 12 games and the division easily. The Minnesota Vikings will be better. They get child abuser Adrian Peterson back and, while he hits little children, he's a good running back. But, he's a terrible person. Teddy Bridgewater looks like he's going to be good and if he can get some help from receivers the offense could look good. The defense is decent, but nothing to write home about. They could get to 9 wins this season. The Detroit Lions will continue to baffle me. Matthew Stafford is so inconsistent, but when you have a receiver like Calvin Johnson, he'll make you look good. They got a great running back in the draft in Ameer Abdullah. He'll immediately be better for them than Reggie Bush was. The defense lost Suh and Nick Fairley, so they'll take a step back. 8 or 9 wins seems like their destiny. The Chicago Bears round out the division and they're a total mess. They did hire John Fox, but he won't be able to fix the mess that is the Bears in one season. They have no defense, no receivers, a shitty QB in Jay Cutler and poor Matt Forte can only do so much. The Bears are like a worse version of the Chiefs. At least the Chiefs are competitive. The Bears will be lucky to get 5 wins this year.

So, the NFC playoff teams will be the Seahawks, the Packers, the Panthers and the Eagles, the four division winners. The two wild card teams will be, I'm going to go out on a big limb here, and pick the Rams and the Vikings. I even see the Vikings beating the Eagles in the first round and the Rams fighting, but losing late to the Panthers in the playoffs. The Vikings will see their season end at the hands of the Seahawks and the Panthers will get mercy killed by the Packers. This sets up a rematch of the NFC title game from last year, and the Packers will avenge their loss with a big win and advance to face the Colts in Super Bowl 50. 

Coming up next, Super Bowl and awards.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and co-host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The editor appreciates his hopes for the Vikings. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Let me respectfully explain why your team stinks: Ty tries to be rational about his Missouri football hatred

Plenty of seats left for Missouri fans at the WhoCares.com Bowl

Today I'm going to revisit a previous blog I wrote about hate watching sports.

When I say hate watching, it doesn't mean that I don't enjoy watching sports, sports are in fact, my favorite thing to watch, I mean to say, watching teams I hate and root against them. As the readers know by now, my teams are the Cardinals(MLB), The Thunder(NBA), the Packers(NFL) and, most importantly, the Michigan Wolverines(all things NCAA). It would be easy for me to pick on the Cubs, Clippers, Bears or any of Michigan's main rivals, be it Ohio State, Notre Dame or Michigan State. In fact, I'm sure that I'll write about all of those teams at some point very soon.

Today though, I want to go off the map and choose a team that I have a complete irrational hatred of, the Missouri Tigers football team. You'd think that I'd like them, or at the very least, not even care about them, because I'm from Missouri. Born and raised in St. Louis in fact. But, for many reasons, I actively root against the University of Missouri football team. For one, I loathe that they call themselves Mizzou. You're intentionally spelling the name of your school wrong so your dumbass student sections can go back and forth with the chant, "M-I-Z" from one side, and the other, "Z-O-U". That's stupid and promotes poor spelling. You're college students, you should be able to spell properly and come up with a better chant. I once saw a comedian that said he flunked out of college because he spelled Missouri, M I Z Z O U, because that's what they taught him at the university. Another problem I have with them, they get happy about a 7-5 or 8-4 season(ed note: 7-5 seasons do not come cheap). They feel as if they've accomplished something by going to lower level bowl games. I'm a Michigan fan and yes, they've been down for five of the past seven seasons, but I've never taken pride in them when they only win 7 or 8 games. That's a lost season in my opinion. But, you see the Missouri coaches and players talk after a 7 or 8 win season, and they're all smiles. Getting to a bowl game isn't tough anymore. If I remember correctly, I think there's 39 bowl games. That means 76 of the 128 teams go to a bowl game. That means almost 60 percent of the teams in division one go to bowl games. The only important ones are the four that make the playoffs. All the rest, in my opinion, are pointless. They have so many because it's a ratings boost and everyone loves football. So, Missouri football, don't act like the "Go Daddy Bowl"(yes, that's a real bowl game) is some kind of accomplishment. It's not. 

I don't like their coach, Gary Pinkel either. He acts like he's a top coach in the country. You don't even rank in the top eight of your conference. I'd take Mark Richt, Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Kevin Sumlin, Gus Malzahn, Les Miles, Hugh Freeze, and Dan Mullen before I'd even consider you. I also hate how arrogant he acts in press conferences. You're not that good of a coach, and the fact that you have a lot of wins at Missouri doesn't make you special. If you were such a good coach, big time programs that have had recent openings for head coach, like Michigan, Florida, Nebraska or Wisconsin would have been banging on your door. Apparently they had no interest, because your name was never brought up. And stop saying in press conferences that you'd never leave Missouri. That's a lie and if any big time program showed interest in you, you'd be an idiot not to take it. No, I think you have found that people are happy with 6 or 7 wins a year, and you're afraid of failure if you left for a bigger job. You're not happy, you're comfortable. Those are two very different things.

Missouri football, when they do have a good, or even a great season, always seems to choke on the biggest stage. I remember about six years ago, Missouri made it all the way to the number one ranking in the country. They were voted the top team by the BCS prior to championship week. Guess what happened in the Big 12 championship game? An under manned, probably less talented Oklahoma Sooners team beat them by three touchdowns. That's embarrassing. Two seasons ago, with 11 wins going into the SEC championship game(why the University of Missouri is in the SEC will always be a mystery to me, they should be in the Big Ten or stayed in the Big 12, but that's a blog for another day) they played what looked like an even match in Auburn. Auburn had a great running game, but Missouri was explosive on offense and had a stout defense led by SEC co defensive player of the year Michael Sam. There was no way Auburn would control the ground game and beat Missouri, right? Nope, Auburn ran for over 500 yards on them that day and turned a close game into a late rout. Another disappointment for Missouri football. Last season, they somehow made the SEC championship game again(they got a lot of teams at the right time, be it with injuries or suspensions to star players, or in Florida's case, an inept offense). But, they ran into Alabama and lost by 28 points. They looked like they didn't belong on the same field as Alabama. It was like watching a power house high school varsity team playing a lowly all Freshman squad. You know what it looked like actually, it looked like Missouri playing Alabama. It looked exactly how it should have looked. (ed note: Go Tigers?)

When I really look at my irrational hatred for Missouri football, my biggest gripe is with their bandwagon fans. Missouri fans are the absolute worst. They love you when you're good, and they hate you, or even worse, won't mention you when you're down. When I was in high school, NOBODY talked about Missouri football. I can almost guarantee that I went to more Missouri games than friends of mine that are now "die-hard" fans. That's embarrassing. A guy who dislikes a team has seen more games than a supposed "die-hard" fan. Full disclosure, I went to those games to root against them too. Being a Michigan fan, I have stuck by their side no matter what. Good season, bad season, bad and good coaching hires, up and down years my fandom never wavers. That's what true fans do, you stick with your team no matter what. Missouri fans now are even worse. I've been to a couple games in the past couple of years to see stars on other teams(Jadaveon Clowney and Dez Bryant) and, in two games that Missouri should have won, they lost both and their stupid, stupid fans didn't know how to handle it. I heard complaints like, "I can't believe that kicker can't kick it to the end zone every time, they should cut him", or "since they're running the ball so well, they need to pass more, that will fake out the defense", or, probably the worst I've ever heard at any sporting event I've ever been to, "it's not Gary Pinkel's fault, the players were just not prepared, that's on them". ARE YOU OUT OF YOU'RE MIND! THE COACHES MAIN JOB IS PLAYER PREPERATION! YOU MORONS! Also, touch backs on every kick off is almost impossible, and it's best to stick with what's working. These players are smart and will figure stuff out, it's not a video game. I prefer my fans to be knowledgeable and understanding I guess. I just wish that these bandwagon, idiotic Missouri fans knew the smallest detail about football so they don't look so stupid. I also feel bad for true Missouri fans like two of my older brothers. They've been fans for as long as I can remember and if more of their current fans were like them, I wouldn't hate Missouri fans so much, but that, unfortunately, is not the case. I'm going to paint a broad brush, but the majority of Missouri fans are not knowledgeable when it comes to football and they're the definition of bandwagon fans.

So, those are my reasons, albeit irrational, for why I root against Missouri football. It makes no sense, but that's the great thing about sports. You can still watch, even when your team isn't playing and find something to either like, or even better, hate about the teams that are playing. It's cathartic and very pleasing to root against teams you have no stake in. Take my word and try it out.

You'll probably like it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is eagerly waiting for Urban Meyer to retire for "health reasons" once Harbaugh gets Michigan up  and running. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik

Ty wonders when we will all get over MMA.

Scenes from the next great MMA match.

I've never understood the love for the "sport" of MMA.

Why do people like this? What is so appealing of watching people kick the shit out of each other? I used to love boxing. I was a big fan. My favorites were the heavy weights. You may read that sentence and say, if you like boxing, you should like MMA. It's the same thing, right? No. Boxing takes skill. There's a science to boxing. You have to wait and watch and prepare for what your opponent is doing. You counter punch and attack based on when your opponent is tired. It's not the same with MMA. These "fighters" go into an octagon and just try to destroy each other. There's no science or skill to this. In MMA your allowed to kick, punch, wrestle, etc. You can basically do everything except kick the person in the crotch. It's glorified back yard brawling. People pay just as much on Pay Per View for an MMA fight as you do for a title boxing match. At least in boxing, most fights go, at the least, 5 rounds. In MMA, your lucky if the main event lasts one minute. That's insane. You get a thirty second fight that you paid ninety dollars for. What a ripoff.

All the love that's being given to these MMA "stars" is dumb. It reminds me a lot of the poker craze that happened about a decade ago. Tell me one "famous" poker star today. The same will be said for MMA. I don't see any of these "fighters" becoming stars. You may say to me, look at Ronda Rousey, she's a star. She didn't become a house hold name until she started acting. Acting made her a star and she just happens to be an MMA fighter. I remember people I knew telling me about a new MMA fighter named Kimbo Slice. He was going to be the next big thing. He was some back yard brawler that was becoming an MMA fighter. I swear to you, within a week of him starting in MMA, I had already forgotten about him. Apparently he wasn't much of a fighter either. I guess he lost his first couple of matches. People told me, he'd be a better fit for boxing. MMA was too tough for him they said. Bull shit. If he tried to box, he'd get destroyed. Boxers would crush him and crush his spirit, way worse than any MMA fighter could do.

I see this "sport" losing steam within the next five to six years. It just doesn't have lasting power. I think people will become bored with it and it will morph into some kind of wrestling clone. Better yet, a wrestling wannabe. MMA will NEVER be on the same level as boxing.

Never.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and co-host of The X Millennial Man Podcast. The only octagon that he is afraid of is the stop sign he just rolled through. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

Deflategate punishment part 2: Ty thinks that there may be something wrong with the NFL commissioner.

The art department sent the wrong deflated football picture.

With the Tom Brady suspension being upheld, I want to follow up on this whole "deflategate" situation that I've written a few pieces on already.

Since Roger Goodell has taken over as commissioner of the NFL, he's done EVERYTHING wrong. He has not made a single decision that isn't absolutely absurd. He's a moron that is a total whipping boy for all the owners. They say jump and he says how high. He's the owners puppet and they are more than willing to be his puppet master. First of all, Tom Brady got the same amount of games that Greg Hardy, a man who physically and violently abused a woman, got. Hardy's suspension was actually reduced. He was supposed to get ten games, still not enough for his heinous, appalling crime, and Goodell reduced it to 4 games. So, Brady gets the same suspension as a guy that beats up women. How, in any world, does underinflating footballs warrant the same suspension as a woman abuser? What in the hell is Roger Goodell thinking. I'm pretty certain that owners of teams like the Colts and the Ravens, teams the Patriots routinely crush in the playoffs, pushed Goodell to uphold the suspension. And, being the moronic puppet that he is, he kept the suspension at four games.

What Tom Brady and the Patriots staff did was unethical, but was it really cheating, and worth their QB getting suspended? How is underinflating a football any different than Aaron Rodgers telling the Packers staff that he prefers his footballs over inflated? Or, how is this different than baseball teams stealing signs or watering down the base paths? These are both unethical, but everyone looks the other way and it's just accepted. No fuss, no muss. So, why with Brady does he deserve the full suspension? Is it because he's probably the most recognizable pro football player and people felt that it was time to stick it to the Patriots because they're winners?

How about what the St. Louis Cardinals, who I'm a huge fan of, did with their hacking scandal. They hacked an opposing team computers to get information about prospects and potential trades and NOBODY is batting an eye. St. Louis took a slap on the wrist and the story is not even in the news anymore. What the Cardinals did was about ten thousand times more unethical than the Patriots, but since the Cardinals haven't won a World Series in a couple of years, it gets swept under the rug. The Patriots won the Super Bowl last season, so the lead on every sports channel has been about this dumb ass "deflategate" story, that isn't even really a story. Did the underinflated footballs help them beat the Colts by 38 points in the AFC Championship game? The Patriots barely even threw the ball in that game. When the NFL had complete control of the size and weight of the footballs in the Super Bowl, Tom Brady picked apart the "Legion of Boom"(that's a weak ass nickname) for almost four hundred yards and four touchdowns. So this talk of Brady not being an elite QB is totally unwarranted. Underinflated footballs don't take anything away from him that he's accomplished. Yes, what he did was wrong and unethical, but who doesn't do stupid shit like this to gain an edge? Any team that says they're 100 percent clean and follow all the directions are god damn liars. With all the rules in place, it's impossible.

What this all really boils down to is, how much of a dumb shit Roger Goodell truly is. He doesn't know how to handle small situations, let alone big ones. He makes the wrong choice every time. He handled the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson situations totally wrong. He handled the Richie Incognito bullying situation totally wrong. That guy is a complete piece of human garbage that should never be allowed back in the league, but he's back with the Bills this season. He reduces suspensions for players that are caught with DUI's or drugs.

Roger Goodell is a trash person that can't handle the job that he has. He's an abomination to the USA's most popular sport. He has handled the whole concussion thing terribly. The fact that he and the NFL won't let Junior Seau's family speak at his Hall of Fame induction is wrong on every level. Seau committed suicide and was later found to have the brain disease CTE after many hard blows to the head. I think that Goodell is terrified that his family will talk about CTE and he doesn't want that for his brand. He's afraid of the truth and the fact that he won't let Seau's family speak just makes him look worse.

I've said it many times and I will say it once again, Roger Goodell is ruining America's new past time and he doesn't seem to care one bit. He's an asshole that has no right and no ability to do the job he has. PLEASE do something people of the NFL and gets this dumb shit out of your league before he completely ruins it. Until then, you guys have to deal with the idiot and the problems he brings to the NFL that you hired.

Goodell is the cancer and you need to get rid of him and his disease NOW.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor and co-host of The X Millennial Man Podcast. He is really tired of morons being on his TV, so please leave Mr Goodell. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

NBA offseason part II: Sorry Cleveland, you will again be the runner up.

LaMarcus Aldridge has made the best basketball decision for himself and has, reportedly, signed a four year eighty million dollar deal with the Spurs.

This makes the Spurs the top contender for the title next season, in my opinion. Putting Aldridge in the starting lineup next to Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Danny Green and Kwahi Leonard will make this a very difficult team to beat. The main contenders coming out of the Western Conference to the Spurs will be, the reigning champs, Golden State and, if they're at full health, Oklahoma City. It's those three teams and everyone else. Memphis continues to get older and they still have yet to sign Marc Gasol, but that seems like a formality at this point. The Clippers lost their best rebounder and rim protector and I don't think Paul Pierce or Lance Stephenson are going to make that much of a difference. Portland is going to take a huge step back now that Damien Lilliard is the only remaining starter from last season still on the team(Wes Matthews signed with Dallas, Aldidge to the Spurs, Robin Lopez to the Knicks and they traded Nic Batum to the Hornets). The Pelicans will be good again, but Anthony Davis is going to need help from his other teammates. He also needs them to be healthy for an entire season. Houston will be fine, but they'll need Harden to play defense like he did this past season if they want to make the conference finals again. I think it would really help to have Dwight Howard healthy for a full season. Dallas signed some big names like DeAndre Jordan and Wes Matthews, but they also lost Monta Ellis and Tyson Chandler. And if OKC can stay healthy, Phoenix will still be on the outside looking in. So, that leaves OKC and Golden State as the Spurs biggest competition. Golden State is the reigning champ, and until they get beat, will still be champs. They return just about everyone from last year. The lone exception is David Lee and, while he played an integral part in the finals, I don't think he'll be missed all that much. The Warriors are lethal offensively and great on defense. I just think they'll be hard pressed to match up against a huge and very skilled Spurs front court and, as good as a defender Draymond Green is, he can't keep pace with Kwahi Leonard. For the Warriors to beat the Spurs in the playoffs, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson will have to shoot about 70% from the field and about 65% from three. Which is pretty impossible. Which brings me to the wild card team, the Thunder. Before last season started, almost every writer picked the Thunder to win the title, but then the injury bug crushed that dream. Westbrook and Ibaka missed extended time and Kevin Durant only played in 27 games all season. They were able to get rid of Reggie Jackson and traded for Enes Kanter and DJ Augustin. It remains to be seen if they'll resign Kanter, he's asking for way too much in my opinion. They drafted Cameron Payne to back up Westbrook. I think Payne is in the perfect situation for him. He will run the second unit with a lot of confidence and the young man can shoot and find the open guy. But, put their lineup against the Spurs and I think they matchup the best with them. Westbrook is better than Danny Green and Ibaka can immobilize an aging Duncan. The best matchup will be Kwahi Leonard and Kevin Durant. These two almost cancel each other out since Leonard is so good on defense and Durant is so good on offense. I think the Spurs just have too much firepower for the Thunder to beat them in a seven game series. As I said before, Aldridge made the best decision for himself and he may just wind up with a title next season.

As for the east (Cleveland), better luck in 2017.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for Seed Sing.  He does not know if LaMarcus Aldridge and his girlfriend will go back to Portland and visit Women and Women First bookstore. Follow him on twitter @tykulik

The good teams get better and the bad teams stay the same. The early story of the 2015 NBA offseason.

With NBA free agency officially underway, we've finally gotten our first bit of big news and a new team for a, some might say, not me, big time player. DeAndre Jordan will be a member of the Dallas Mavericks next season after, reportedly, agreeing to a four year, eighty million dollar deal. He turned down a bigger offer from the Clippers to move closer to home and wants to be "the man". I think this is a great deal for him, but in the long run might not be so good for Dallas. Jordan is a unique player who is probably the best rebounder in the game right now and an excellent rim protector. The problem lies with his offense. Yeah he's an electric dunker, but he's 6'10. I should hope he'd be a good dunker. But, that's all he can really do on offense. He can't stretch defenses because he can't shoot and his free throw shooting is among the leagues worst. But, good for you DeAndre, now you don't have to get thrown under the bus by Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.

Other than Jordan moving to Dallas, the only other "big" named players that have left for new teams are, Greg Monroe to Milwaukee, Tyson Chandler to Phoenix and Monta Ellis to Indiana. Some may say what about Wes Matthews to Dallas, but he's coming off a torn ACL, so that's a wait and see for me. Other than the six players I've mentioned, everyone else of importance has resigned with their current teams. Dwayne Wade and Goran Dragic are back with the Heat. Kevin Love and Iman Shumpert and soon to be Tristan Thompson are back with the Cavs. Damien Lilliard is back in Portland. Draymond Green is back with the Warriors. Kwahi Leonard is still a Spur and Anthony Davis got paid and then some to remain a Pelican. I'm sure I'm missing some other players, but these are the notable ones and I think NBA fans will agree with me.

The next two dominoes to fall will be David West and the biggest name of all this offseason, LaMarcus Aldridge. David West will be a good get for whoever signs him. But Aldridge, now he's a team changer, depending on where he signs. It looks to be down to three teams, the Lakers, Suns and Spurs. He'd be foolish to sign with the Lakers because that team is going nowhere. Phoenix is still a year or three away from contending. The Spurs seem like the best fit for him and how awesome would it be to have Tim Duncan "pass the torch" to Aldridge and start a new era of dominant Spurs basketball. If Aldridge truly only cares about winning titles, the Spurs are the team for him to go to. If he wants the money, it will be the Lakers. Make the right choice Mr Aldridge and sign with the Spurs. I guarantee you won't regret it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for Seed Sing.  He is skeptical of any players desire to win on the Lakers, including Kobe. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.