The Top 6 Scripted Guilty Pleasure Shows

We've all watched a TV show before and wondered, “What the hell am I watching this crap for?” I tend to avoid things like reality television, game shows, or anything Tyler Perry has ever made, so my guilty pleasure shows are all actual scripted shows that in one way or another are a guilty pleasure. I will be spoiling potential plot twists in the shows below so read at your own risk.

6. Lost – I don't even really know where to begin with Lost. It's half the best show ever created and half the stupidest thing I've ever watched. It seems like everything the show does well it also fails at.

It's one of the more dramatic and suspenseful shows I've ever watched but it's also the most overdramatized thing maybe ever on TV. By the 6^th and final season of the show every time the scary music would cue and the LOST emblem came across the screen I'd roll my eyes. I don't know if I can think of a show that has tried to make it's introduction be as dramatic as Lost and it's a powerful vehicle in the beginning of the show but loses its luster by the end.

The acting is also completely hit or miss. Michael Emerson (Ben) and Terry O'Quinn (Locke) are some of the best TV actors I've ever seen but the show also had Harold Perrineau (Michael) and Evangeline Lilly (Kate) who might be the worst of all time. Every time Michael or Kate were on screen it's a painful experience and Kate is one of the key characters in the show for some reason I still can't figure out.

I've never seen a show like Lost where one week you can think it's fantastic and then the next think it's the worst show you've ever seen. The writers were convinced they needed to keep the viewer “lost” so the writing ended up being either legitimately intriguing or unnecessarily complex. A lot of this had to do with the flash-backs (or flash-forwards) that focused on a different character each episode. The Locke, Jack, Ben, Sawyer, and Desmond flash-backs were always awesome TV but unfortunately there were flash-backs for Michael, Kate and the rest of the mediocre cast as well.

I would attempt to analyze the plot of lost but it's just too much effort. It's convoluted and not very good, okay? If you go into the show knowing that there's going to be a lot of things you're going to have to explain by just saying, “the island is magic,” then you'll enjoy the show a lot more than trying to analytically break down each plot hole.

Lost is awesome and terrible at the same time, and it's most definitely a guilty pleasure show. At no point do you think, “Wow this is really all starting to make sense and come together.” It's definitely a pretty stupid show and has a million plot holes but it's one entertaining ride.

5. Sons of Anarchy – My friend recommended I watch this show and after seeing all 4 seasons, I'm not sure why I like it. I can't relate to any of the characters and find most of the things going on in the show to be absolutely stupid. Something about SAMCRO keeps me coming back for more despite all this though.

The main issue I've had with Sons of Anarchy so far is that I don't see why anyone would find these bikers cool at all. Outside of Jax, every character in the show is pretty stereotypical “biker dude.” Somehow these douchebags get all these hot girls to come to their bar and get involved with Mexican cartels and stuff. It just doesn't make any sense at all but I can't stop watching.

Google Images

These guys are such douches but I can't stop watching

Also, you mid as well skip the 3^rd season of the show because it's just a pile of crap. They go to Ireland in one of the stupidest plot turns I've ever seen and basically put all the drama that had been building in the first 2 seasons aside. It's like a gigantic sidebar from the rest of the show and it's not only terribly done, it's retarded.

The 4^th season is much better and I'm for no reason eagerly awaiting the 5^th season. Even though I don't really like any of the characters or relate to what the show is about at all, I can't stop watching.

4. Law and Order SVU – I can't say I religiously watch this show like some others do but I've seen enough episodes of this with my girlfriend to safely say it's a guilty pleasure show. They should change the name of it to Stereotypical Victims Unit because pretty much every episode of it is based on some ridiculous stereotype or something that has come straight out of a sensationalized media headline.

Yes, it doesn't make any logical sense or actually follow what real law enforcement would do, but it is extremely funny and entertaining to watch. There is usually an absurd plot twist coming from out of left field and it's almost always entirely implausible. It's not the worst show on TV but I can't say I ever watched SVU and said, “Wow this is quality TV.”

I don't know why this show appeals to me at all considering I hate cop dramas for the most part. There's something about just how absolutely ridiculous every episode is that you can't stop watching. You know it's stupid and implausible but you just can't stop.

It also has Ice T, and he's just amazing. It's not that he's a good actor or anything but literally everything that comes out of his mouth makes me laugh. He's hysterical and worth the price for admission by himself. If a show with Ice T isn't a guilty pleasure show then I do not know what is.

Google Images

Ice T is the man

3. Weeds – Weeds might be the worst show on TV right now. It's extremely disappointing because its first 2 and debatably 3 seasons are great. It started as a satire of the suburbs by portraying Nancy Botwin, a widowed mother who starts selling weed as a last resort to maintain her family and suburban paradise. While she may be doing something illicit she always seems to be doing it to support her family. The writers decided this just wouldn't do and wrote themselves into such a corner that they burned down the entire suburb that they lived in and basically started the show over again.

This apparently meant completely changing the show and re-characterizing Nancy. She suddenly makes decisions that are selfish, slutty and antagonistic to the rest of her family. Instead of somehow showing that this illicit life had changed her and turned her into this selfish monster, the show’s writers decided to try to convince us she’d always been this way. In the first three seasons we have a person who is essentially represented as a flawed but ultimately benevolent character. In the following seasons she makes absurd decisions that appear out of this character and the writers try to retroactively convince the viewer that she’s always been this way. I think the writers just hoped their audience would just be too high to notice any of this.

Outside of completely ruining the main character and destroying the entire premise of the show by moving it out of the suburbs, Weeds also is just implausible and bad. For some reason the Botwin clan can just find where to sell weed no matter where they are and in a matter of days have a weed selling operation up and running. It's like nobody on the writing staff even remotely researched drug dealing, cartels or marijuana at all. Instead they just rely on ridiculous stereotypes and hope their audience is as clueless to this stuff as they are.

I've watched 7 seasons of this piece of crap show and for some reason I have to keep watching it. It's terrible, far-fetched, illogical, and all the characters have not grown but completely changed in an irrational direction. This is a show that started as a satire of the suburbs and had the main character end up marrying the head of a “Mexican cartel” (apparently there's only one according to Weeds) and having his baby. That's all you need to know about this guilty pleasure show.

2. Entourage – This is a show that I almost left off this list but the more I kept thinking about it, the more I realized it's absolutely a guilty pleasure show. It's not good in any way other than showing shots of hollywood actors partying. Who honestly believes Adrian Grenier could be a huge actor? Why did the writers not realize that the only characters we cared about were Vince and Ari? Why did this show suck so bad and nobody realize it until the end?

Seriously, as this college humor video points out every single season of Entourage is exactly the same. Vince is up for a movie and then it flip flops back and forth from him doing the movie or not doing the movie. It always all works out and the show just follows the rest of the characters partying with star cameos in Hollywood hot spots.

Google Images

You absolutely would not be cast in this movie.

The writers also try their hardest to convince you that the other three characters in this "entourage" actually have a purpose but they all seem pretty worthless. I have no idea how E would become a manager in Hollywood without any experience and his only successful actor's career constantly being in jeopardy. Also, his drama with Sloan just seems to be to give him something to do because he doesn't actually do too much managing outside of fighting with Ari.

Turtle is even worse. He basically just fails at every business he ever does and the one time he is successful, he sells his stocks in the company. He fails to prove he's anything without Vince and that only gets further perpetuated when Vince buys the stocks that Turtle sold and agrees to help him with his restaurant. I still don't understand what the point was of any of his storylines or anything that happens in the show. At least Vince's brother Johnny Drama, is actually an actor and does stuff in the show.

Really by the end of the show the only character remotely interesting is Ari and they even decided to ruin his character. Ari is always doing absolutely over the top things to show that Hollywood agents are ruthless dicks that will do anything to help their own career and make money. In the last season he decides to say fuck that and do anything to get his wife back in a character destroying storyline. The show couldn't even let the one good character in the show keep his dignity.

After season 5 of Entourage you realize that every season is exactly the same and that the entire thing is just completely stupid. It relies on star cameos way too much and that's just because all the shows actors outside of Jeremy Piven are completely terrible. It's hard to believe all these good things could actually happen to these douchebags. Talk to most people who like Entourage and they'll tell you they liked it for the celebrities and hot girls. That's why Entourage is a guilty pleasure show. 

1. True Blood – I'm ashamed of myself for watching True Blood. I really should have stopped watching after I dubbed it the “worst show ever” after seeing the pilot. It's almost like the writers know that it's a terrible show and just try to show as much crazy shit at you as possible. It's another show where most of the acting is beyond atrocious and the main characters, Sooki Stackhouse (Anna Pacquin), Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley) and Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), are especially terrible. I'm a sucker for science fiction like this though and thus I watch this stupid show.

As of now there are vampires, werewolves, shape shifters, witchdoctors, panther people, witches, fairies, a Maenad, and now even an Efreet. Does this seem like overkill to you? I had to research all the different creatures in this show because there are so many. It's tough to keep track of and it's just getting ridiculous at this point.

Also, True Blood refuses to kill off any character in the show. The only people who seem to die are people who are introduced that season or episode. It's like just when you think one character is gone they come back in some retarded way. For example the police chief retired and completely out of his character and for absolutely no reason at all he had to come back to be ring leader of this anti-vampire hate group. I also thought finally they would kill off Tara, who's manly and just an atrocious character, but they decided to give her a more prominent role.

True Blood is just a convoluted and ridiculous show. I'm not even sure what it's about anymore. It's basically just vampires, sex, and crazy shit. There's also like 15 times per episode where you just cringe because the writing is just so bad. There is actually a scene in it where inbred panther people rape one of the shows only human male characters. With that said, I conclude that True Blood has to be the ultimate guilty pleasure show.

5 Ways to Improve NBA 2k

The NBA 2k series is probably my favorite sports videogame franchise. In my opinion, it's really only rivaled by the MLB: The Show franchise and I just find basketball games more fun to play. It just blows away on pretty much every level anything that EA Sports is offering right now.

This is not to say the game doesn't have its faults though. It just seems that 2k fixes them a little bit every year and in general makes you feel more connected to the game of basketball with each fix. The announcing and presentation are amazing and I just wish that the football games on the market were this realistic and fun to play. Here are a few ways 2k could improve upon this already awesome basketball videogame franchise.

Google Images

This is pretty awesome right? 

1. Passing – Nothing is more aggravating than watching your player throw a pass right into the defender. 2K needs to allow you to choose whether you're throwing a bounce, chest, or lob type of pass. 2K12 added a lot of emphasis on the defense being more in the passing lanes, so this year they need to allow the player to counter this defense.

Also, there's absolutely no reason that when you throw a post entry pass your player lobs the ball 30 feet into the air to let the defender get under it. What exactly is the thought process behind this being in the game at all? It's so frustrating to make this pass and watch your opponent casually steal it from you. I get that they wanted to make post entry not as easy as it has been in the past but this is absolutely a ridiculous way of going about that.

They also added somewhat of a delay to each pass thrown now and that's something that just really has to go. It's basketball, you should be able to reverse the court quickly to find the player the defense rotated off of. This is not the case when you play NBA 2k12 and allowing quicker and more accurate passes could go a long way in making this is a more realistic game.

2. Online Play – I am yet to buy an NBA 2k game where the online play actually works correctly. Even now almost a year after NBA 2k12's release, I still get lag when trying to play a game online. This is just inexcusable and I do not understand why it is never fixed. There's really not much else to say on this one but it is definitely a reason why people buy the game and there's no reason it doesn't work. Online gaming is something every other company has seemed to figure out except 2k Sports.

3. Fast Breaks – The fast break system in NBA 2k12 is simply broken. It's not based on the speed of your player and it is easily the most unrealistic thing in the game. Andrew Bynum should not be able to chase down Chris Paul on a fast break. It'd be one thing if the defender actually made a play on the ball but what happens is your player just gets inexplicably slow and gets pulled into the defender behind him like the defender has his own gravitational pull.

I understand that in previous NBA 2k games it's been a little easy to exploit the fast break and that's why the system is this way. That said, it doesn't make it any less frustrating or unrealistic for the player. I really hope 2k figures out a work around for this system because it's just dumb watching fast players not be able to go on a clear fast break.

4. Post play – Despite improving post play in NBA 2k12 it still has a long way to go before it makes any rational sense. If you have a defender who has literally no post play defense but high defensive awareness and block ratings you can play him at 4-5 with no problem. Dwight Howard should not be shut down by Andre Iguodala. It's just a stupid system and it feels like good post offensive players have never been rewarded in this sports series.

It makes the game pretty unrealistic when the person your playing against doesn't have to account for your post players. Basically the Lakers are Kobe Bryant creating havoc and Andruw Bynum and Pau Gasol just there for rebounding and defense. It's pretty ridiculous when even the CPU when you play against them doesn't throw the ball down in the post when you're playing against the Lakers.

5. Team defense – I would like to actually see rotations and real team defense as opposed to the gravitational pull defense NBA 2k12 has. If you have a player with high defensive awareness in the middle (Tyson Chandler, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnet, etc.) they will just suck up every player who goes into the paint no matter how wide open they are to the basket. Tim Duncan is easily my most hated sports videogame star due to this as he's not nearly the force on defense he once was.

It's ridiculously easy to get into the paint against even the most stingy defenders, but when you get by the original defender you either get an easy basket or you get sucked towards a player with high defensive awareness. It is just frustrating when you burn the defender and go for an uncontested lay up only to have a player warp over from 7 feet away to contest your shot. It's also ridiculous how that unless you have a star player you always miss those shots. I swear you have to be a very good player to ever get a 3 point play in the game.  

A Few Preseason Observations

The NFL Preseason is usually something you should avoid watching. You'll end up thinking players who never even reach the field in the regular season are superstars and that all your starters suck. Let me completely contradict myself and give you a few observations I have had so far.

The Wildcat – Does anyone else think it's hilarious how much publicity the Wildcat offense the Jets are going to implement has received? I get that anything Tim Tebow does is going to be the biggest thing that ever happened but does anyone remember when several teams implemented this offense a few years ago with pretty poor results? Rex Ryan seems to think teams will have to really prepare for it with Tebow as quarterback but I'm pretty sure they'll just assume it's a running play because Tebow can't throw the ball. If the Jets use this gimmick to great success this year I'll be extremely surprised.

Eli Manning and the Giants get no respect – Keeping with the New York theme, I'm a little shocked at how few people are picking the Giants to win the NFC East this year. I get the Eagles have a very good roster and by rule the Cowboys have to be overrated, but I do not see how either of these teams are clear cut better than the Giants. Did anyone watch Eli Manning play last year? In football I always go with the best quarterback and the Giants clearly have that going for them.

The worst part is the analysts point to the Giants losing Brandon Jacobs and Mario Manningham as the reasons they're going to struggle. If you watched the Giants last year you'd know that Jacobs might have been the worst running back in football and that Manningham averaged about one drop/mistake per game. Manningham had a good playoffs and got a big deal because of it. The Giants will not struggle to replace either of these guys. If critics were smart and actually watched the Giants last year they'd know that their offensive line was one of the worst in football last year and their secondary outside of Corey Webster, is question mark. Why actually do research on teams though?

Rash Conclusions – I saw Herm Edwards on Sportscenter and he literally said that after one preseason game he knows both RGIII and Andrew Luck will be elite in the NFL. Again, I do not know how going against vanilla defenses during preseason has anything to do with being a quarterback during the regular season. This reminds me of last preseason when John Beck of the Redskins threw 4 under 10 yard routes and Jon Gruden said he proved that he's the longterm starter of the Redskins on that drive. THESE GAMES ARE MEANINGLESS! Why does only Michael Wilbon see this? I'm not saying that Luck and RGIII won't be good because they'll probably both become very good but come on, they've done nothing yet.

Fights in training camp – Obviously, this was a big deal after the Jets had a brawl in Cortland, New York and the media asked if this team was out of control. Seriously, there I can't think of too many training camps where a fight didn't break out. The Patriots had several this year but you didn't hear about them at all right? These are always non stories trying to get people fired up about their respective teams. It's a competitive sport with like 90 super strong athletes competing for roster spots. Do you really not expect a few fights to break out?

The Browns – I just feel sorry for Cleveland sports fans. They trade up to get Trent Richardson and he has two surgeries on his knee and it will probably be a lingering problem for him at least throughout this season. They draft 28 year old Brandon Weeden and he's just looked atrocious. Oh, and the team was purchased by a Steelers fan. (Not sure that this actually means anything. Would he just run the team into the ground out of spite?) This is a team that's one real exciting player going into the season (Trent Richardson) likely will miss Week 1. Looking at the rest of the team it looks like another real long season for another Cleveland sports team. Has any city had darker times economically and sports wise simultaneously like this? It's getting out of hand.  

There is no Magic in Orlando

The Orlando Magic might be the worst run NBA franchise. Yes, this may seem unfair considering the Magic made the playoffs last year and the finals a few years ago, but this is a team that’s been run as poor as any team in sports. They’ve had Dwight Howard, the best center in basketball, for several years and the best player they’ve managed to put around him is Hedo Turkalou. Now after trying to trade Dwight Howard for almost 2 years, they get absolutely nothing for him.

Before we get into this abomination of a trade, let’s look at their prior moves and contracts. They gave a max contract to the barely useful Rashard Lewis, and then traded Lewis for the completely useless Gilbert Arenas. Then considering Arenas in no way could help their team win, they used their amnesty clause on him eating his remaining salary.

They traded the very productive Brandon Bass for Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Brandon Bass immediately became an essential piece for a contending team with the Celtics. The rumor is that Glen Davis is a friend of Dwight Howard and that’s why the Magic traded for him then gave him a contract extension. (That’s an effective way to build a franchise)

Hedo Turkalou had one tremendous season and helped the team get to the NBA Finals and then they smartly allowed him to be overpaid by the Raptors. Then to replace Hedo they decided to sign Vince Carter, because that’s always a good idea. When that plan obviously failed they traded Carter, Mikeal Pietrus, a 1^st round pick and Marcin Gortat to Phoenix for Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkalou (previously traded to the Suns from the Raptors). Gortat is now one of the best young centers in the NBA and could've been the replacement for Howard but the Magic had to reacquire Hedo Turkalou and his atrocious contract. Jason Richardson is a quality player but we'll get to him later.

Google Images

The only Magic you'll find in Orlando is at Harry Potter World

For how active the Magic have been over the past few years they have almost nothing to show for it outside of an extremely unhappy Dwight Howard and who could blame him?. Now the Magic have finally traded Dwight Howard and Jason Richardson for Arron Affalo, Al Harrington, Moe Harkless, Nikola Vucevic and 3 late first round picks. That's the deal they get after keeping Howard hostage for 2 years!? Are you freaking serious?

How is this deal any better than getting three first round picks from Houston and getting rid of some of their bigger contracts? Hell, I even like the idea of Brook Lopez and MarShon Brooks. I like Affalo but he is not a star player you build a team around and Al Harrington is an overpaid 6^th man at best. Harkless has some potential as well but is he really the type of guy you build your team around? And who the hell is Nikola Vucevic? How do you make a 4 team trade where you're trading one of the best 3 players in the NBA and not get the 2^nd or 3^rd best player in the trade?

This has to be the worst trade I've ever seen. The Magic should've tried to clear cap space and acquire young talent in this trade and this is what they did? Affalo and Harrington have very big contracts and Harkless wasn't even a lottery pick. Also, of all the players with big contracts on their team they managed to trade away Jason Richardson, who's easily the most affordable and the most useful. Every single team in this trade benefitted in some way except the Magic and they were trading the best player in the trade. It's unbelievable that this happened.

It gets even worse though. Weeks before this trade they signed Jameer Nelson, a 30-year-old point guard who hasn’t been good in 3 years, to a 3 year 25 million dollar deal. What in the blue hell is this team doing? Are they trying to rebuild or are they trying to compete by overpaying Nelson, Affalo, Turkalou, Harrington, and Glen Davis to be the core of their team? If you are a Magic fan you have my complete permission to trade in your team and get a new one. This is not a team that deserves to have fans or to be cheered for. They wasted the best center in the NBA and they managed to get just about nothing in return for him. They don't have a lot of cap flexibility and Arron Affalo is probably the only player you can even consider a B/B- player on their entire roster. This has to be some of the worst management of a successful franchise we've ever seen in modern sports.

The Magic will now be remembered as the team that had two of the best centers in NBA history and lost both of them. The team that signed Vince Carter, overpaid Rashard Lewis, and traded for Gilbert Arenas and Glen Davis. The team that put the entire country through this ridiculous Dwight Howard saga and then got nothing in return for him. At least the Magic will be remembered in the history books, but probably not in the way they had in mind.  

The New York Jets: The New “Heels” of the NFL

The media has turned the Jets into the Miami Heat. They're the villains of the NFL now. You're either a Jets fan or you completely hate this team. They have an outspoken and obnoxiously perceived head coach in Rex Ryan and the most polarizing and popular player in the NFL in Tim Tebow. This is a team that is always going to give the media a headline and that's why we've seen ESPN basically relocate their headquarters to Cortland, New York.

Every day there is a new meaningless story on ESPN regarding this team. We all seen the stories, Tim Tebow runs in the rain, Tim Tebow dominates at the goal line, Mark Sanchez gets called Tim, Tim Tebow gets called Mark, and the recent “brawl” and aftermath surrounding it. None of these stories are actually a big deal or even remotely different than what normally goes on during a training camp yet of course the headlines now is, “Are the Jets out of control?”

Getty Images

Mark Tebow and Tim Sanchez

ESPN is about making money and there is a ton of money to be had covering teams people perceive as villainous. Look at how many negative stories that were written about the Miami Heat despite them making two NBA Finals and winning one. Mainstream sports coverage has turned into professional wrestling and the media is always looking for a “heel” to grab headlines because that's what people want to read. (A “heel” for those who don't know, is a professional wrestling term for the wrestler who is perceived from the fans as a bad guy. He's usually doing despicable acts to the good guy wrestler, the “face,” in order to get the crowd more involved in the fake wrestling match.)

Sports fans love being outraged. It's almost the entire point of this blog. Some part of me while being disgusted with sports news coverage, loves hating on it. I'm not alone in this and people love hating on teams and players whether they're the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox or whether they're Tim Tebow, Carmelo Anthony, and Lebron James. Negative news sells and the Jets were already a guaranteed polarizing and headlining making team and then they added Tim Tebow. Whether you buy the negative news or like hating it you're making organizations like ESPN money and that's all that matters.

It's important to remember as sports fans though that these narratives are as made up as the WWE. They are ultimately meaningless in the grand scheme of things. They say teams can't win a Super Bowl with the chemistry the Jets have but the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2007 despite multiple fall outs between Eli Manning, Plaxico Burress, and Jeremy Shockey. Hell, Michael Strahan skipped training camp that year and received negative press for it during that entire offseason. Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin literally came to blows in the Yankees' dugout in 77' and the Yankees went on to win the World Series that year. Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal clearly didn't get along and that didn't stop them from winning three NBA titles with the Lakers.

Togetherness, chemistry, and a winning attitude can be seen as important but ultimately they do not decide who wins games in the end. We focus on them as a society because they are something we can all relate to and understand. Sure, these things can contribute to a team winning but we tend to lean on these things because they are easier to understand than a statistical analysis of the games we love. We rarely ever know exactly what players think about each other and the only way we perceive chemistry is by seeing them play for 2 hours at a time.

We want heroes, we want villains, and we want to think that togetherness and chemistry is what wins in sports. We've been trained to think this way despite the reality of this being a falsehood sitting right before our eyes. We want to read about the Jets being a mess and how impossible it will be for this team to win with all the distractions. This entire situation is not very different than the stories about how the Miami Heat and Lebron James would never be able to handle the pressure on them after “The Decision.”

I will love cheering against the Jets and Tim Tebow but let's not irrationally talk about this team. The Jets didn't fail last year because of being “out of control” but because of atrocious offensive and special teams play. Their defense was one of the best in the NFL yet the Jets as a team were 20^th in points allowed. That plays completely into turnovers, field position and poor offensive execution. Were there some issues in the Jets locker room? Of course there were, but that's never stopped anyone else from winning before and I don't see why the Jets would be any different. These guys are professional athletes, it's required that they like one another to win.

You can either study a team and rationally break them down or you can irrationally allow the media to write your opinion for you. The Jets locker room is not as insane as people make it out to be and while I will make fun of the Jets for trading for Tim Tebow, it's only because he's a horrible quarterback. The one thing I will say about the Jets is they clearly wanted this when they traded for Tim Tebow and hopefully for the sports media, they can continue to play the “heel” everyone wants them to be. I know that's what's going to make money.

5 Thoughts on Team USA Basketball

I've managed to watch all of Team USA's Olympic Basketball games so far. It's been a pretty one sided affair but it's definitely been interesting to watch. Here are a few of my thoughts.

1. Kobe Bryant is not the one of the best players on this team – I'm not really sure what Kobe Bryant is giving the United States outside of leadership right now. He is too slow to really make an impact on defense and he is determined to be a star on offense when he never gets an open shot. I've only seen him hurt this team while he's been on the court so far and I don't think anyone has the balls to tell him that. The idea that he's playing more minutes than Carmelo Anthony, Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook, or even James Harden is ridiculous.

I know this will cause the Kobe defenders to go crazy and claim none of those players are better than Kobe. I'm not arguing that they are. I'm arguing that on this specific team he shouldn't be playing more than those other guys. All he's been doing is taking contested shots and looking out of sync with everyone else. It's really strange to watch.

2. And you thought flopping was bad in the NBA – After watching all of Team USA's games and a collection of the other games, I can safely say that flopping is way worse overseas. Watching Spain and Argentina play is just a painful process as their players just fall all over the court. Manu Ginobli and Luis Scola are on Argentina so you can imagine what that is like to watch. I almost pulled all the hair out of my head during the first half of the USA-Argentina game.

One play of note was at the very end of the 1st half when Lebron James fell down at half court on defense and Ginobli went out of his way to go towards James and proceeded to fall down as if James had just scissor kicked him from the ground. This seemed significant at the time as it made the game a 1 point game going into the half. Don't they give refs a training session on Ginobli before games? It's crazy how many flop calls this guys had go in his favor throughout his career.

Google Images

They seriously don't warn officials about this guy?

The runner up flop came when the replacement point guard for Argentina, Facundo Campazo, just fell down as Kevin Durant came near him when Durant didn't even have the ball on a fast break. I don't even understand how this could've possibly been interpreted as a foul.

3. Dream Team Comparisons are silly – This 92' vs 2012 team argument is just absolutely ridiculous. It's stupid to compare them  because the 92' team played in a much more physical hand checking era and the 2012 team actually has to play against real competition. I hear people saying that the 92' team could actually play defense and the 2012 team clearly lacks in that department, but who did the 92' team ever have to play defense against? Defense is a team concept and just because you have 5 good defensive players on the court doesn't make you a great defensive team.

They are both awesome teams with awesome players on them and we'll never see them play. We don't need to rank them and it's awfully silly to rank them before the Olympics are over this year, don't you think?

4. The lack of big men – Why is Tyson Chandler the only legitimate post defender on this team? It just doesn't make any sense to me. Everyone is criticizing this teams defense and how could we begin to think they'll be a good defensive team when they have Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant defending the paint for large chunks of time.

Wouldn't it just make sense to have Joakim Noah, Demarcus Cousins, or even Roy Hibbert on this team? It's not like this team has really struggled thus far but why even remotely have a weakness when you don't have to? I love the idea of having Noah and Chandler just there for defensive purposes. This could be the downfall of this team against Spain but I honestly can't see anyone matching up to the USA. Instead of carrying a useful center, Team USA is carrying Anthony Davis who is only on the team to play during mop up time. It makes no freaking sense at all.

5. No Announcing is the best announcing – Watching the Olympics live without announcing made me realize how completely unnecessary announcing is. It's so much better just hearing the crowd, the players, and basketball bouncing. I feel like I'm more connected to the game this way and that's sad because the entire point of announcing is so the viewer feels more connected to the game.
After having to hear Doug Collins' color commentary during the previous games, it's been a welcome relief.

I'm a little confused to why these games haven't really been on TV or why the announcing disappeared suddenly. Do we really not have enough announcers to do 7 olympic basketball games a day? Is it that challenging? It's the freaking Olympics. I'm not complaining but I'm just confused to what exactly is happening here.

OUYA: A Bold New Direction for Videogames?

When it comes to creativity and innovation, the videogame industry is on life support. I've wrote about this a bit earlier in the month in regards to Nintendo and its new console the Wii U. The only innovation we see in videogames is the innovation in marketing and the way the Big Three (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) turn their consumers into fanboys and defenders of their product. If you really think about this generation of videogame consoles, can you honestly name one unique game that couldn't of existed on the prior consoles? 

While graphics have improved, gamers are still subjected to a slew of sequels, remakes, and rehashes instead of genuinely new games. The industry doesn't want to spend the money to make genuinely new games so they live off gimmicks, in-game purchases, downloadable content, pre-order content, trophies/achievements, and really anyway to get you to spend your money in their digital stores.

On the other side of all this bullshit is the new console announced a few weeks ago called the “OUYA.” It's a small project based on the Android operating system with a focus on being cheap, open source, and bringing free-to-play and inexpensive games to your HD TV. It's going to debut next March for 99$, and only after a few weeks, some of the bigger game developers have already announced they'll be releasing their Android based games for it.

OUYA mon!

The best part of the OUYA is the idea of a collaborative console. The entire thing is open source, meaning anyone can change, alter, or do anything they want to their OUYA without voiding an agreement or warranty. This means you actually own the product you buy and can do with it how you please, which is something that drives me crazy about the current consoles. (Seriously, why doesn't my Wii play DVD movies when the games are on DVDs and why can't I legally make it do so myself?) The reason why our phones are completely awesome these days is because of the collaborative and open source nature of their development and the OUYA is bringing this idea to console gaming. It's the games without all the strings attached that come with the modern consoles. 

Google Images

I've got no strings so I have fun. I'm not tied up to anyone. They've got strings but you can see there are no strings on me!

So far, the OUYA has been an internet success and has raised a crap load of money. They have over 45,000 backers on Kickstarter but I worry about this console breaking into the industry because of the negativity that surrounds anything different. Consumers for some reason defend the Big Three with a fervor and passion I will never be able to comprehend. I doubt this console will attract the Call of Duty, Madden, Assassin's Creed, Halo, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto etc. gamers and the OUYA has already generated a lot of negativity because of this. People don't want innovation or real freedom with their consoles or games, (or anything really) they want to play the same thing they played before with a shiny coat of paint.

The current game industry has carefully created this fanboy culture and it acts as a defense mechanism against anything trying to enter the gaming market. These consumers defend their gaming “brand” and for some reason they don't see that these companies are getting filthy rich off of business practices that are questionably ethical at best. The games could and should be cheaper, and we deserve to be treated like the loyal customers we are. What we have right now is an industry that knows they have loyal customers just because people like videogames, so they do whatever despicable thing that they can think of to make more money. It isn't right, and I for one do not like feeling like a cash cow. Hopefully there are more things like the OUYA that look to change this in the future. 

In general there is this public conception that if something is cheaper or free that it is somehow inferior. The people who are currently supporting the OUYA may not know if it's going to be successful commercially and they probably don't care. Just because something sells does not mean it is actually good. I bet a lot of OUYA supporters are just tired of the the downright awful practices of the current videogame industry and see the OUYA as a vehicle for changing it. I know I do.