The Ely Perspective

My thoughts on current events, sports, politics and whatever else I want to talk about.

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The NBA is a Cluster!

The NBA Playoffs are over, and I couldn't have scripted it better myself. I'm not saying it is rigged, that it was designed that way, that officials are instructed give special privileges to...

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Wow, This chart is hard to look at. Single mothers with a salary of $9,000 earns the same income(with government benefits) as if their salary was $64,000. About $55,000 for both after taxes. Just as concerning is all the income cliffs. Completely jacks the incentive to work.

If my wife and I never got married it seems that we could double our combined income without any lifestyle changes. Is it worth having the state recognize our marriage?

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Includes pros, cons and examples. Awesome. I used to use method 3, but method 4 is great.

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So the Obama Administration is telling private companies to break the law and not give their employees the required 60-day notice before letting-them-go. This is before an anticipated lay-off 120,000 employees. It is being done to keep the unemployment numbers temporarily better before the end of the current election season. The administration is saying they will pay, with taxpayer money, the legal fees that will assuredly arise when the fired employees sue for not receiving the legally required notice. Corruption? Whatcha think?

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NBA Officiating, Superstars, And Big Markets

Here are some interesting stats from the Pacers-Heat game one

Paul George - 6 fouls

Roy Hibbert - 5 fouls

George Hill - 5 fouls

16 fouls between the three in 80 mins of play

Dwayne Wade - 1 foul

LeBron James - 1 foul

2 fouls between the two in 83 mins of play

16 to 2 fouls in the same minutes.

Riiiiggghhhtttt! Call me a conspiracy theorist but that doesn't seem quite right! Are the Pacers really that much more prone to foul? They foul 8 times for every 1 time a Miami Superstar fouls in the same time on the floor? Are the Pacers really that much more aggressive players? I thought this was the playoffs. You know, where they let the players play a little. And does James and Wade just not know how to foul? Am I the only one that sees this? Why isn't this crap a national story. The NBA is freaking rigged and it is glaringly obvious!!!! And people tell me Miami is an exciting team to watch. I'm telling you watching 2 guys shoot free throws all game isn't exactly exciting basketball to me. And am I the only one that gets tired of seeing LeBron James get foul calls when there is absolutely no contact? Literally zero contact on a drive?

What do you think about the officiating in the NBA? Take the poll here.

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Bulls Fans Are Annoying, Pacers Fans Are Invisible

Bulls fans seemed to find necessary to chant over and over: "MVP, MVP, MVP". This in game 3 where Derrick Rose shoots an extremely poor 4/18(22%) with 5 turnovers on only 2 assist and 3 boards. Rose did have 21 points but he wasn't void of help from the officiating crew. 13 of those points were from free throw line. Most of those are from drives that could be considered charging, that is if you aren't a superstar for a large market team, otherwise they become blocking fouls. Regardless, it only accredits the quality of the defense (of Dahntay Jones and Paul George) by continually pointing out that the player with the worst statistical performance in the game is the league MVP. Even after the game you could hear the mindless chants of "MVP,MVP,MVP" from the drunk Bulls fans fill the streets and walkways of Indianapolis. Way to go, keep shooting 22% and turning over the ball, MVP.

Another chant they seem to like is "Pacers suck, Pacers suck". Not only is this a snotty and classless thing to do, it also makes them look stupid. The Bulls had the #1 record in the regular season while the Pacers had the #19th record. That being said the Bulls won all 3 games by the skin of their teeth. The Bulls have the definite advantage in getting the NBA's superstar handicap, plus having home-court advantage in the series but they still haven't won a game by more than 6 points. This series could easily have ended up 3-0 in favor of the 8th seeded Pacers and yet "they suck"? What does that say for the #1 ranked Bulls? Its simple, either the Bulls are overrated, the Pacers are underrated, or both. You choose Bulls fans. But I wonder what you will be saying next season when we get a better lottery pick and have lots of extra salary space to get some pieces to get us over that 4-6 point 4th quarter bump. A win is a win but good teams don't struggle against sucky ones, especially when you have no injuries and you are in the Playoffs.

 But worse than the way Bulls fans behave was the Bulls to Pacer fan ratio at last nights game. It was literally like 1:1 in the sold out Conseco Fieldhouse. Indiana is supposed to be the "Basketball State" yet they won't support the Pacers like it their team. Ok, yeah I know some Pacer players had a brawl like 6 years ago. The Pacers were also pretty good then, but the fans said they didn't want the bad guys anymore. So the team responded and got rid of Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, and Jamaal Tinsley. In the rebuilding process the Pacers had some pretty poor seasons and some pretty bad play, but the organization did what we asked. We should have supported them then but now the Pacers are clean, young, in the Playoffs and are getting better daily but we still won't support them. This one is on us. So no, Indiana isn't the Ultimate Basketball State but the State of fair-weather fans and its just kinda sad because I think we might lose this team. Thing is, once Peyton Manning is gone, the same thing will likely happen with the Colts. So there is something we could  learn from Chicago fans... Chicago Cubs fans, that is. They support their team even when they are bad... year, after year, after year....