S50 Breaking Free; Pelicans Presser
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2021 11:17 pm
Pels Media Day!
You ever just get the realization that burning yourself at both ends is just exhausting, draining, and just really exasperating? Now, after doing this for 50 seasons, and literal years, that brain would tell you to “shut the hell up” because you’re addicted to this thing that you’ve cared about more than some actual past relationships, or memories that are real embarrassing to tell in public so you just write it down in a diary, or notebook, and just forget about it. Or try to at least and the brain has a funny way of reminding you every so often mentally, that just will never go away.
Shut up, brain...
People fumble words in front of another person out of fear or mental instability. Take your pick, really. Excuses. Inane ramblings. At the end of the day, your brain is consistently using brain cells on certain thoughts, fears, emotions, reactions, on how to deal when you’re in front of another person. One bullet point comes to mind and then the brain can make that thought completely disappear.
Season 50...
You analyze everything. You have stats. You see the same faces. You wave, and social distance, if you’re in the middle of a pandemic even though you’re in front of a mini webcam that is streaming and broadcasting your face for various reporters, fans in New Orleans, New York City, hell, even a country like Malaysia if people were so curious to click on a button on a webpage or link off a social media platform. Ain’t technology simplistic, and great?
Hey everybody...
The red light on the camera is just blinking. It hasn’t started yet. All you see is a reflection of your face. There’s other blank screens on the application. It can feel like an abyss before the light remains on for recording purposes. You’re almost frantically searching for another sound. Even if it’s water dripping from a leaky faucet in the bathroom next door. You just want to know that something is happening.
So, who’s ready for some Pelicans basketball?
Hell of an intro... You’d kill it at the Belaggio with that opener... Then you notice faces pop up in those empty boxes littered across the screens. You see the attendance pop up with various reporters from around the league, eager to ask questions about the team and all the change that’s taken place in a fast offseason.
I’m very excited.
Once again, only a secret genius would come up with that material. The light goes from blinking, to a piercing, and consistent red.
So where do I begin...
Your brain starts to flash up memories of Game 5 & 6 in Chicago and New Orleans of the conference finals. How close your team came to the finals only to fall to a better team. Through no fault of Jordan Johnson and Ben Franklin, I knew it was the end of the road. This tandem, trio, had taken my team to heights I didn’t expect it would take me when they signed their contracts. It was a lot of fun chasing those riders in the sky. The 60 + win seasons, two game 7’s against a great TWolves team, and 2 wins away from an NBA Title. The chase was over. But I can’t stop smiling after all this time.
I feel like a kid again...
There’s that youthful vigor. That childlike joy of handling the team for that very first season. What an idiot I was. Calling out far more experienced GM’s when all I had was a background in writing about wrestling promos. Who, in any right mind, would trust a guy like me, to ever run a basketball team in an online computer game, with random strangers, from another state, that you didn’t even know... But had an affinity for the same pro basketball team you enjoyed.
I finally feel free...
With this being the end of the road for this team, you reach a realization that you have to let the game work for you. You constantly compete not just with others, but with yourself to prove something to yourself that you belong. Belong to what? Belong to this idea that you’re a great GM in a computer game where 25 other guys are all striving for the same thing? It doesn’t exactly work out that way due to paying the tax, breaking down teams, finding the right moment for a trade to materialize. It’s all different. But your brain is telling you it has to be this or that. The world isn’t always black and white. People play this game for different motives and reasoning but they play it because it’s a genuine joy getting to play it and talk to a majority of the people playing it with you.
I know I’m not a man of many words...
So what do you do when your brain can’t quite find the words to describe what you did this past offseason? You have that internal moment where you’re tired of trying to prove something to somebody and it turns your whole perspective, mood, who you are as a person and gives you the wake up alarm to snap out of it. You don’t need to be that person. That’s when you can finally...
Break free.
You ever just get the realization that burning yourself at both ends is just exhausting, draining, and just really exasperating? Now, after doing this for 50 seasons, and literal years, that brain would tell you to “shut the hell up” because you’re addicted to this thing that you’ve cared about more than some actual past relationships, or memories that are real embarrassing to tell in public so you just write it down in a diary, or notebook, and just forget about it. Or try to at least and the brain has a funny way of reminding you every so often mentally, that just will never go away.
Shut up, brain...
People fumble words in front of another person out of fear or mental instability. Take your pick, really. Excuses. Inane ramblings. At the end of the day, your brain is consistently using brain cells on certain thoughts, fears, emotions, reactions, on how to deal when you’re in front of another person. One bullet point comes to mind and then the brain can make that thought completely disappear.
Season 50...
You analyze everything. You have stats. You see the same faces. You wave, and social distance, if you’re in the middle of a pandemic even though you’re in front of a mini webcam that is streaming and broadcasting your face for various reporters, fans in New Orleans, New York City, hell, even a country like Malaysia if people were so curious to click on a button on a webpage or link off a social media platform. Ain’t technology simplistic, and great?
Hey everybody...
The red light on the camera is just blinking. It hasn’t started yet. All you see is a reflection of your face. There’s other blank screens on the application. It can feel like an abyss before the light remains on for recording purposes. You’re almost frantically searching for another sound. Even if it’s water dripping from a leaky faucet in the bathroom next door. You just want to know that something is happening.
So, who’s ready for some Pelicans basketball?
Hell of an intro... You’d kill it at the Belaggio with that opener... Then you notice faces pop up in those empty boxes littered across the screens. You see the attendance pop up with various reporters from around the league, eager to ask questions about the team and all the change that’s taken place in a fast offseason.
I’m very excited.
Once again, only a secret genius would come up with that material. The light goes from blinking, to a piercing, and consistent red.
So where do I begin...
Your brain starts to flash up memories of Game 5 & 6 in Chicago and New Orleans of the conference finals. How close your team came to the finals only to fall to a better team. Through no fault of Jordan Johnson and Ben Franklin, I knew it was the end of the road. This tandem, trio, had taken my team to heights I didn’t expect it would take me when they signed their contracts. It was a lot of fun chasing those riders in the sky. The 60 + win seasons, two game 7’s against a great TWolves team, and 2 wins away from an NBA Title. The chase was over. But I can’t stop smiling after all this time.
I feel like a kid again...
There’s that youthful vigor. That childlike joy of handling the team for that very first season. What an idiot I was. Calling out far more experienced GM’s when all I had was a background in writing about wrestling promos. Who, in any right mind, would trust a guy like me, to ever run a basketball team in an online computer game, with random strangers, from another state, that you didn’t even know... But had an affinity for the same pro basketball team you enjoyed.
I finally feel free...
With this being the end of the road for this team, you reach a realization that you have to let the game work for you. You constantly compete not just with others, but with yourself to prove something to yourself that you belong. Belong to what? Belong to this idea that you’re a great GM in a computer game where 25 other guys are all striving for the same thing? It doesn’t exactly work out that way due to paying the tax, breaking down teams, finding the right moment for a trade to materialize. It’s all different. But your brain is telling you it has to be this or that. The world isn’t always black and white. People play this game for different motives and reasoning but they play it because it’s a genuine joy getting to play it and talk to a majority of the people playing it with you.
I know I’m not a man of many words...
So what do you do when your brain can’t quite find the words to describe what you did this past offseason? You have that internal moment where you’re tired of trying to prove something to somebody and it turns your whole perspective, mood, who you are as a person and gives you the wake up alarm to snap out of it. You don’t need to be that person. That’s when you can finally...
Break free.