Mark Cuban on Josh Howard (updated)

Josh realizes his comments were wrong, he understands why people are upset. He knows he has made a mistake, has apologized and will work with us.

Fuck you, Cuban. There was nothing wrong with Josh's comments, and he shouldn't apologize. Its just a fucking song, and someone refusing to mindlessly respect nationalistic symbols is actually refreshing. And there are a million tragic reasons why black people especially wouldn't be swelling with American pride. But I guess the uppity negro must be silenced.

update: In an email, Cuban told me that Howard was just messing around with friends and wasn't being serious. He seemed to imply that if Howard had meant those comments to express a serious political opinion, he'd be supportive of him. Since he wasn't serious, his "mistake" was saying something highly inflammatory without thinking about it. This is the same point Abbott made to me in emails as well. I think it might be worth going back and looking at what they said and seeing if they criticized the message itself, which I think they did. Hopefully they're backtracking on that. Too tired now to think more about it, but figured I ought to make that update since I've come down pretty hard on these guys.

CUBAN!

I like it when people make stand for what is right.

Mark Cuban feels FANTASTIC

Maybe I need an entire section of this blog dedicated to Mark Cuban.

Beware the wrath of Cuban

I've said it before and I'll probably say it again, but I love Mark Cuban. His enthusiasm might sometimes cross the line into obnoxiousness, but so would yours if you were a billionaire. Mine does and I'm barely an $11,000aire. If I gave out high honors on this blog, Mark would be the See For Yourself equivalent of a Man Beard.

My latest source of Cuban-love is a project of his, Sharesleth.com. Basically he's trying to find a way to take down corporate crooks and make money while doing it.

This post tells you what they're all about:

• "independent Web-based reporting aimed at exposing securities fraud and corporate chicanery"
• "looking for companies that were built for fraud, for executives who are enriching themselves at shareholder expense, and for businesses whose behavior runs counter to their stated objectives or to the public interest"

and best of all:

Unlike mainstream media outlets, we'’re going to have a clear bias -– against deception and corruption. We'’re going to depart from the traditional "“he said, she said" model of journalism, with its false balance and toothless objectivity. We'’re going to name names and show our evidence, by linking to documents, photographs and other information. We think that approach provides greater transparency than most newspapers, broadcast outlets and Internet news sites currently offer.

Their first investigative piece is out. Check it out for yourself, but it sure looks to me like Xethanol Corporation is a huge scam.

If you ever invest money in the stock market, you really ought to take a glance at the story. There are tons of people out there trying to rip you off (and then after you pick your broker there are tons of companies like Xethanol).

links adspar likes 1

Reaction to my new template was lukewarm at best, so that change won't be happening any time soon. But since I want something new, I'm hereby starting a recurring feature, creatively titled links adspar likes. These should keep you busy with good reading material while you're bored at work, and it makes me feel productive because most of the links are educational and/or thought-provoking.



The Political Brain
by Michael Shermer

adspar's quick summary:
An Emory University study using MRI brain scans shows that people with strong political leanings automatically turn off the parts of their brains used for reasoning when they take in political information. Basically, we have built-in mechanisms that make us really really biased. Luckily, the scientific method has devised ways to help correct these biases.

why you should read it:
I'm pretty sure I've referenced this study before, but it is worth another mention. The unreason exposed by this study is a big part of the reason why everything about politics is so fucked up. Learn how to recognize and overcome your own biases.


Restoring Nature's Backbone
by Henry Nicholls

adspar's quick summary:
This Public Library of Science journal article explores the idea of large-scale "rewilding," suggesting that rather than simply attempting to preserve existing wildlife, that we attempt to restore "whole ecologies to something of their former glory." An example mentioned is seeding North America with elephants to replace extinct species of mammoths.

why you should read it:
We all know that we've been ravaging our environment with car exhaust and deforestation and greenhouse gases and whatnot, but maybe killing every large mammal in our path for the last 30,000 years has caused some problems too. I had never really thought about that, and had never heard of the idea of using close substitute species to replace the destroyed ones. The ecological argument and information in the article is fascinating.


The End of Marriage
by oneman on the Savage Minds blog

adspar's quick summary:
An anthropologist says that "...if the institution of marriage is going to survive, it does need defending. Not because marriage is the only or best source of truly moral living, but precisely the opposite: marriage is increasingly irrelevant in modern society."

why you should read it:
Traditions can be nice, but we need to know when to let go. If you've ever thought that marriage is a goofy idea, read this.


Rockstars' Ramblings
specifically the Doggerel Index

adspar's quick summary:
The Doggerel series is where the author of this blog "rambles on about words and phrases that are misused, abused, or just plain meaningless."

why you should read it:
This blog is fun and right-on-the-money.



The fraud of primitive authenticity
by Spengler

adspar's quick summary:
This sprawling commentary in the Asia Times Online is presumably inspired by Nicholas Wade's Before the Dawn. Spengler wonders why it is that popular culture typically portrays primitive people as "peace-loving folk living in harmony with nature" and not the nasty, violent savages they really were. He concludes that as Americans move beyond Christianity, we're left without inspiration, so we'll take whatever we can get.

why you should read it:
The 2nd to last paragraph ends with one of the most incisive comments I've ever read. I truly felt shocked when I read it. You need to read the rest of the article to understand the quote properly, so I don't want to post it here yet. (Now I've built it up too much and you'll be disappointed. Sorry.) There's also a criticism of Jared Diamond that I don't really agree with, but I'll admit that could be my politically biased brain at work. Maybe I'll write more about that later.


Making Money in Basketball...
by Mark Cuban

adspar's quick summary:
Mark thinks that minor-league basketball teams should be signing high school kids and build around a business model of developing basketball players in a way that AAU, high school, and NCAA basketball can't do.

why you should read it:
A self-made billionaire freely sharing his business thoughts is a pretty sweet deal. Interesting especially for fans of basketball on any level.


That's all for the first formal edition of links adspar likes. In case you care, I've taken to using del.icio.us to organize my links, so you can find all the stuff for this under my link1 tag. Links I gather for the 2nd edition of links adspar likes will be under link2, etc.

I admit it - I like American Idol now

For years I refused to watch American Idol and thought it was crap. Now I'm hooked. This would fall under guilty pleasures. And I'm very gay.

Some of the contestants remind me of people.

Chris looks like Vin Diesel.


Taylor looks and acts like Mark Cuban.



Elliott looks like that fawn thing from the Narnia movie.



And Kevin looks like a Peanuts character.

Yet another reason to love Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban:

Now that The Apprentice is moving to Monday nights and riding on the coattails of NBC’s newest hit, Deal or No Deal, the Donald is doing the right thing and trying to get a viewership boost from an appearance on the Howie Mandel hosted show.

Of course, being the fun loving guy that I am, and as someone who is always trying to look out for the best interests of Donald Trump, I have decided to make an open offer to Howie Mandel.

Howie, if you can get Mr Trump to pull a rubber glove completely over his head and blow it up on your show, not only will I watch it, I will donate 1 million dollars to the charity of your choice.

What could be better than that ? Money for a great cause that you love. For the Donald, the thing he loves more than anything, bragging rights. Is there any doubt that by Tuesday afternoon he would be able to say that he was responsible for the most watched television show in the history of TV ?

Is it possible that any human being on the planet would be able to resist watching Donald Trump blow up a rubber glove over his head ? I dont think so. Combatants around the world would lay down their arms and all enjoy a moment of shared laughter.

I dont have the power to cause the end to wars. If only for a moment. You do Donald.

I dont have the power to create the unquestionable number one moment in TV history You do Donald.

Sieze the moment Donald.

Be a mensch Howie. History awaits you !

Cuban is the man

Great investment advice from Mark Cuban:

So here is my investment advice for anyone who doesn’t have enough saved to walk away from their job and retire…

1. If interest rates stay where they are or go higher, look at 5 year or shorter maturity vehicles. It doesnt matter if its a bank CD, a money market fund, a tax free fund, treasuries or combinations there of. Bottom line is this, 4plus percent taxed, or up to 6 plus percent tax free equivalent (depending on your tax bracket), is not a bad way to go. If rates go down, do the same thing, evenif you earn a lower rate. At the end of the year, you are guaranteed to have more than you started with.

2. Evaluate your lifestyle. People forget that sometimes the best investment they can make is in wisely buying things they know they will use. If you track what you use and consume, whether its gas vs bus fare, buying bulk quantities or other discretionary spending, you can save more and earn a far greater return than you could in the stock market. If you can save 10pct per month on a hundred dollar per month budget, thats 120 bucks you can put in the bank. Thats the equivalent of earning 12 pct on a 1k dollar investment. If you can cut 100 bucks per month off 1k dollar monthly budget, thats like earning 12 pct on 10k dollars. Thats pretty darn good. Spend smart, put your savings in risk averse, interest earning offerings.

3. Invest in yourself. Do the things that can get you closer to your goals and dreams. It wont come from a brokerage commercial. It will come from preparing yourself , working hard and standing apart from your competition. You Inc is the best stock you can ever buy…if you are willing to do the work.

I'd rather get lucky than work hard, because I'm lazy. That's a nice fantasy but a really stupid plan. Mark's advice, in the form of a blog entry that took him less than an hour to throw together, is better than any of the bullshit I learned about investing in college. It is pretty cool that a self-made billionaire regularly blogs his thoughts on this kind of thing.

In response to "chez"

In response to my recent gem of an entry "Fuck Comcast," someone left this gem of a comment:

Chez said...

seems to me a serious card player, with a sole income source being from an online activity, would have had an emergency plan in place.

hmmm, guess not.

failure = when a lack of preparation meets a roadblock while the person in question is involved in an idiotic plan

Wow, I have a heckler. I'’m big time now. Allow me to respond.


a serious card player

Is he talking about me?



sole income source being from an online activity, would have had an emergency plan in place.

1. While I prefer online play for the most part, I'm quite comfortable making the 3 hour drive and playing in Atlantic City for a few days until the internet connection is back up. I would have done this but I had a trip to the Boston area planned for last weekend.
2. I had about 4 offers from people in my area to let me use their computer to play if I wanted.
3. At any point I could have switched to Verizon DSL. In fact I still might do that. But in spite of their awful service in response to this situation, Comcast's product is a better overall value while everything is up and running.
4. I've been running pretty hot the last few weeks, so taking an unexpected week of vacation is well short of a financial emergency.

a lack of preparation

I set aside 6 months of living expenses before I quit my job. If I lose my bankroll, I have 6 months to find a job. If poker is outlawed in the United States, I could comfortably live off my bankroll for at least a year if I had to. That is enough preparation for me at this point in my life.

roadblock

A roadblock would be somehow losing my entire bankroll. A roadblock would be a nationwide ban on poker. A roadblock would be breaking both of my hands. Losing my internet connection for a few days is a pothole.



while the person in question is involved in an idiotic plan

My plan is not to waste 50 hours a week at a job I don't like if I don't have to. My plan is to play poker an average of 20~30 hours per week to support myself and to use the extra free time to read, write, and figure out what I want to do with my life. I'm definitely an idiot though, so maybe thats why this seems like a good plan to me.


failure = when a lack of preparation meets a roadblock while the person in question is involved in an idiotic plan

Here are some other quotes about failure:

"I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying."
-Michael Jordan

"With every effort, I learned a lot. With every mistake and failure, not only mine, but of those around me, I learned what not to do."
-Mark Cuban

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
-Sir Winston Churchill

"The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail."
-Napoleon Hill

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt


Anyway, thanks to Chez for stopping by and using the internet for its highest purpose - to anonymously insult strangers with no threat of negative consequences for rude behavior.

Notes

Some poker notes

• With last weekend's rebuy bonus at PartyPoker, I decided it was a good time to move from $3/6 to $5/10. I've always been very conservative about moving up in limits, so even though I've put in some time at this limit previously, this jump was a big deal for me. I had a good first weekend there, partially confirming my theory that the bonus would cause an infusion of loose money. It was a good way to ease the transition.
• The last few days I've felt like I've hit another wave of very tough beats. It seems like all my big pairs and flopped sets get cracked, and I'm not hitting any draws.
• I'm really having a tough time playing my AK, AQ, KQ type hands. Lately it seems like either I raise and everyone folds, or I get a couple calls and miss. I'm having a tough time playing the hand when I miss the flop, especially because people call flop bets with almost anything. When I bet, I always seem to get check-raised, and when I check I always seem to let a weaker hand catch a card to beat me. But I think I've been getting away from rule #3:

3.) Assume your opponents are morons unless you have overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Act accordingly. This means that 99% of the actions you are faced with are pretty straight-forward. You can't bluff a calling station, and you can't check-raise someone who is afraid of their shadow. Bluff sparingly. Bet for value. Don't get fancy, jackass.

• I'm doing much much better dealing with this tough little stretch. I've managed not to get as emotionally frustrated, and most importantly, I've been able to keep plugging away and putting in more hours, hours where I'm still playing well. I keep making adjustments in my game, and I'm feeling pretty confident in spite of a little bad luck.
• 21 of the 29 hours I've played in the last 6 days have been at $5/10, good for 5,293 hands and a win rate of 0.9 BB per 100 hands, which works out to about $22/hour. My VP$IP is under 13%, which means I'm being very conservative about my starting hands, more conservative than I've ever been in full-handed games. My overall aggression factor is at 1.82, which is as aggressive as I've ever played in full-handed games. Only my river aggression factor is below 1.5, which I think I think I'm ok with, since when there are no more cards coming I'm not using aggression to protect made hands any more, and I don't run into too many situations where my opponents are likely to fold a better hand than mine.
• Last week (I track my weeks Wednesday through Tuesday), I made an effort to put in more hours, and got in 40 hours last week and averaged about $18.75/hour. Kind of like a crappy full-time job.

NBA Notes

• Ok, when I picked the Dallas Mavericks to win the NBA title, I might have been getting carried away a little bit. They have a rookie head coach, their point guards have very limited experience, and they still don't have much offensive post presence. But I still think that they are a very dangerous team. Dirk had the best season of his career, and Michael Finley still is a very good player. Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse, Josh Howard, Eric Dampier and the rest of the supporting cast are fitting their roles well and the Mavs actually play some defense now. But T-Mac is off his ass and it looks likely that Houston will win the series, in spite of the Mavs stealing a game in Houston tonight. If Dallas loses, I just hope that my boy Mark Cuban doesn't tear the team apart again. After another tumultuous offseason, they pretty much stood pat during the season, making only the excellent acquisition of Keith Van Horn. This is a great nucleus that he should give a few seasons to grow into their potential.
• How fun would a Rockets-Suns series be? I say that the Rockets are likely to win their series now because I really like Houston's team, especially their backcourt. Bob Sura, Jon Barry and David Wesley are a great collection of veteran guards to play with McGrady and Yao. Suddenly Yao is playing with some aggression, and T-Mac is being a leader and playing excellent defense. Matching that team up against the Suns small-ball squad would be very very interesting.
• My predictions suck, which is why I don't bet sports. I love watching and analyzing, which is why I still make predictions. But I don't take too much pride in correct predictions or feel too bad about misses, cause its all a crapshoot to me, because I don't watch or read enough to really have a good idea what is going on. The media seems to think they always have to make bold predictions, which I guess is fine. But I'd rather hear them discuss strategic analysis.
• Another thing that media always does that drives me crazy is when they feel the need to establish the importance of a playoff game. They say "this is a must-win game!" These are the fucking playoffs, every game is important. You want to win every game you play. They asked Kenyon Martin if splitting 2 games in San Antonio was a "successful road trip" and he got all pissed off at the question, and rightfully so. Umm, the one they lost was a failure and the one they won was a success. What the hell is a "successful roadtrip." I know what a successful game is, and what a successful series is. Stop trying to invent more artificial subsets of basketball! And then you get segments on ESPN where the experts try to tell me about the importance of each game in a 7 game series. THEY ARE ALL IMPORTANT, YOU STUPID ASSHOLES!
• I've never liked Jermaine O'Neal as a player or a person. He is a talented player, and when he has time to plan his words in advance, he usually says good things and seems like a good guy. But I think he's a dumb player and a punk. I'll always remember his absurdly stupid foul on Kobe Bryant as Kobe was shooting a desperation shot falling out of bounds as the clock expired that ruined what should have been MJ's game winning shot in his last All Star game. Watching him in the Detroit brawl earlier this year, and in the scuffle with Antoine Walker last night, he really comes off as a jackass who is always looking for an excuse to hit someone. And he recently made comments that the NBA's proposed 20 year old age limit for players is motivated by racism. While it is true that more black men than others will be affected by such a rule, even disproportionately to the ratio of black men to others in the league (the one good point Scoop Jackson made in an otherwise worthless commentary on this issue), it is ridiculous to suggest David Stern and the team owners would adopt it for racist reasons. I don't know if an age limit is in the league's best interests, but I am sure that the league's best interests, and thus their own personal financial interests, are all they care about. And if they adopt it, how would an age limit even hurt black men? Sure, there are some 18 year olds who are ready for the league, but unless they suffer a career-ending injury in those 2 years, they'll still get their payday. And for every preps-to-pros superstar, there have got to be many more guys who declared for the draft and lost their chance to get a free college education that could have improved their lives. It is at least a reasonable argument that by encouraging 2 extra years of maturation and education before they are eligible for the league, in the long run you'd be helping more black men than you hurt. The opposite could also be reasonably argued. Maybe an age limit would hurt more players than it helps, I don't know. But if it is adopted, it won't be because the man is trying to keep 'em down. God knows black people have faced and continue to face unfair discrimination, but playing the race card on this issue and accusing the owners and commissioner of a league that has made millionaires out of thousands of young black men is grossly irresponsible and classless.
• Speaking of NBA players who came in right out of high school, Jermaine O'Neal noted that those guys are some of the biggest stars in the league. Lebron, KG, Jermaine, Amare, Kobe, T-Mac. These guys are the faces of the NBA. But I think it is worth pointing out that the superstars that win the titles are college players. Shaq, Duncan, Jordan, Pippen, David Robinson, Hakeem. Yeah, Kobe has his rings, but this year is proving that those were Shaq's teams more than Kobe's. This might change over the next decade, but so far the way to build a winning team has been with college players, not the high school guys.

Other Notes

• Happy 50th birthday to my Mommy.
  
• Happy 81st birthday to my Grandfather

NBA v NCAA part 2

Continuing my thoughts about why I prefer the NBA to NCAA basketball, I want to address the common criticism, "NBA players don't play hard," and ways that it is true and false, and why the parts that are true don't bother me. Before I get to that though, another quick point about NBA culture.

Basketball players are much more visible to their audience than other sports. They aren't covered in pads and helmets like football players, and the fans and cameras are closer to them than baseball players. There are fewer player on the team, and fewer on the court at any given time, so the superstars are much more recognizable. You can see their bare arms and bare legs, and you know their faces. So if not being able to relate to young black men is going to turn you off to a game, basketball has a natural disadvantage, because the individuals are more visible, and this helps form a stronger and more identifiable culture.

It might be a lot easier for a casual fan to focus on only the game in other sports, without being distracted by Allen Iverson's tattoos, Ben Wallace's afro, Chris Anderson's hairdo, Doug Christie's wife, Scott Pollard's hideous visage, or Dirk Nowitzki's fascinating facial hair.

Now to the main issue.

It basically boils down to: the NBA season is really really long, so you have to know how to pace yourself. The teams that play in the NBA finals basically play the equivalent of an entire college basketball season in the playoffs alone. There is more intensity in every game of the college season because almost nobody can go that hard for 82 games and still be ready for the playoffs. But the intensity of NBA playoff basketball is every bit as good as any other sport.

So if what you care about is intensity in your sporting experience, the average college basketball season game might be better than your average NBA regular season game. But there are exceptions. Part of AI's popularity is because he's one of the smallest guys in the league but he play his heart out every night. His 6'0" 170lb body gets pounded guys 9 inches taller and 100 pounds heavier every game, and he keeps on coming. Ron Artest is the most feared defender in the NBA and a talented offensive player because he's so completely insane that he doesn't know how to give anything other than all he has. There are lots of players that you can count on to consistently give you a high level effort. And its fun to make fun of the players who never try at all.

Given the schedule, you have to make some trade-offs. Everyone knows that Shaq likes to take a few "injury" vacations during the regular season. After 12 years in the league, he knows his body well enjoy to figure out what he needs to do to be ready for a playoff run. Anytime you face a trade-off, the way you solve the problem is strategy. At the individual level, Shaq has a strategy.

You need strategy in the NBA, the game within the game played by the front office. You have to figure out how to have Shaq ready for the playoffs, and if you'd rather sacrifice a top seed for it. You have to figure out if its worth it to bring Alonzo Mourning in to back him up, and how much to play Zo in the meantime. You have to figure out who you want on the floor in the closing minutes of a playoff game, and that means sometimes you might want to risk losing a regular season game to test which players can take the heat later.

You have to figure out if a one-legged Chris Webber with a horrible monster contract is worth 3 role players with smaller contracts, and the implications for this year and for the future. You have to figure out if you want to trade for Antoine Walker less than 2 years after you ran him out of town, and you have to figure out if you want to pick up Gary Payton again.

I love Mark Cuban because he had a business strategy that made sense and a basketball strategy that may or may not make sense. He saw that the consumers (fans) of his product (Mavs basketball) enjoy a fast-paced offensively explosive team, so they invested in players that brought that kind of basketball to Dallas. After a few years of contending, but not reaching the championship level, they've had to make a few more strategic choices. They decided that defense was important after all, so they didn't pay aging defensive liability Steve Nash, brought in legit post presence Eric Dampier and gave that a shot. I don't know if it will work or not, but the games are fun to watch and its fascinating to see how the strategy will pay off.

You just don't need strategy in college ball. You have do have tactics, the gameplan. But mostly you just send the players out there twice a week to run the offense and play as hard as they can. 19 year olds don't run out of gas playing 32 minutes twice a week, and if your team isn't going to make the tournament, you can't trade your senior point guard to a contender for a freshman small forward and a letter of intent from a prized recruit big man. To be fair, there is some element of strategy in college recruiting, but I've always been turned off by recruiting. That's just me. But there is infinitely more strategy in building a pro team than in building a college team.

And then you get to one of my favorite part of the NBA - the playoff series. In a 7 game series, pro coaches get to play mind games that college coaches can't do. Bill Simmons is dead on when he blasts Rick Adleman (Sacramento) or Don Nelson (Dallas) for hilariously awful strategic coaching decisions.

A million years ago, when I loved baseball, I loved the format of the 3 or 4 game regular season series, and the 7 game playoff series. It is fun to see the adjustments managers make within games and between games. I can still almost enjoy the baseball playoffs because I love the strategy and can still appreciate the game.

If you are running an NBA team, you're playing a big poker game with basketball players instead of cards. NCAA basketball is more like a game of war: high card wins. (To be a bit more fair, and to use a more geeky poker analogy - the NBA is like a poker tournament where everyone starts with lots of chips and the blinds are small. It gives you the opportunity for lots of skillful postflop play, multiway pots, pushing someone off a draw, feeler bets, and all the other nuances that a skillful player loves. NCAA is more like the all-in crapshoot of a tournament where the blinds go up way too fast. There is some skill in reading hands, but mostly you just push in all you got and pray that it works out. And that can be fun and exhilarating, and if that's your thing, good for you.) College ball is a street fight - its all heart and little bit of muscle. NBA is like a title fight between two savvy heavyweight prize fighters, the sweet science. It is as much a chess match as it is a fistfight.

I love strategy. Thats why I loved game theory classes in college. That's why I love poker. I love the NBA because I get the strategy and basketball together.