2010/11 NBA Dec |OT| of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7lMXXaUaIo PEACE

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ryutaro's mama said:
Barnes' fiancee is more than doable.
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Kenny Andersen's baby momma is cocaine personified.

Royce, Barnes' fiance, and the Olowokandi's ex are cool (and could get it) though. Its Shauni, Ex-Toine, and Eric Williams aka TEEF's wife that make me want to throw kittens.
peterb0y said:
60.6% Miami Heat
48.7% Charlotte Bobcats
47.2% No teams should be contracted

DY:lol
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Anyone want to tell this guy what Lebron's record was against Charlotte last year? Everyone knew that the Bobcats should've tanked for the 8 seed, but noooooooo gotta play the right way.

Edit: wtf are those numbers
 
Nice article.

Former NBA star Junior Bridgeman didn’t expect his children to follow him onto the basketball court or into the family business. All he expected was whatever they chose to do they gave it their all - starting at the bottom and working their way up.

After a celebrated career with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers, Junior Bridgeman was working the line at a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant in Milwaukee. “My job was to make sure what you ordered was on your tray and to thank you for coming,” he told an assembled group of active and retired professional athletes hosted by the Allied Athletes Group earlier this year in Atlanta. “A woman came in and looked at me like she recognized me.” He didn’t think anything about it until the next day, when he heard a woman call into a local talk show and say, “I think it’s a shame. I was at the Wendy’s and I saw Junior Bridgeman working behind the counter … if that’s the best these ex-athletes can do…”


Eden and Justin Bridgeman are following in the famous footsteps of their father, Junior. They know that while his name can get them in the door, it doesn’t mean it will keep them there.

A few of the athletes shifted uncomfortably in their seats, and it’s pretty easy to visualize the reaction of today’s pampered NBA stars like Kobe Bryant or LeBron James if that sentiment was broadcast on their turf.

But Bridgeman just laughed. Perhaps, it’s because the last laugh really is his. He owned that particular Wendy’s plus several others. Today his company runs 162 Wendy’s and 121 Chili’s and is No. 3 on the Restaurant Finance Monitor’s Top 200 franchisee-owned companies, with $507 million in revenue. In addition, he has other restaurant deals in the works.

And while nothing beats the high of winning a game at the very top competitive level, he says giving jobs to people and watching them develop is heart-warming, if not exactly heart-thumping.

“He’d always say each day, each opportunity was like a brand-new game,” his wife of 34 years, Doris Bridgeman, says about the restaurant business. “I knew his heart wasn’t in staying in athletics. I knew he wanted to be his own boss.”

Always practical, Bridgeman took the entry exams for law school his senior year, in case he wasn’t drafted into the NBA. He became interested in business when he served as the players association’s treasurer. He bought into three Wendy’s when he was still playing and at the end of the year, his manager came to him and told him, they’d made $1 million. “I said, ‘Great,’” and he said, “We broke even.” “Oh,” was his only response.

Bridgeman is not flashy. The 6’5” former small forward/shooting guard is more comfortable out of the limelight than in it. Perhaps because there wasn’t 24/7 media attention when he played from 1975 to 1987, Bridgeman was a hard-won cover story for Franchise Times (Notice who’s on the cover - it’s not him).

“He’s one of those E.F. Hutton types,” his wife says. “He’s relatively quiet so when words of wisdom come out of his mouth, people listen.”

Modesty, hard work and paying your dues are traits the Bridgemans passed on to their children - both through their DNA and parenting.

“They’ve all worked hard,” Paul Thompson, president of Bridgeman Foods, says about the second generation. “They know if you don’t have the passion for the restaurant business, you can’t wake up one morning and decide to get involved.”

While they had more opportunities than most kids - “We are blessed,” all three admit - they also had to work for it. They may have received a car when they turned 16, but they were “used cars, with lots of miles,” Doris stresses.

And just because two of them work for the family business doesn’t mean, they were allowed to just show up for the party. They all worked shifts at the restaurants, and the younger two even cleaned the restrooms at Bridgeman Foods’ office as teens.

Starting out

Justin Bridgeman remembers watching his dad on the basketball court, and playing with the other team members’ kids in the neighborhood. He laughs as he describes the “Billy Madison-style” birthday parties with giraffes and break dancers he attended in L.A. But this is not a name-dropping family, so don’t expect him to name names. “We realized that was their success,” he says about his parents. “We had nothing to do with it” - and therefore, nothing to gain by bragging about it.

Their parents weren’t impressed by L.A.’s siren call, either.

“We looked at our stay in L.A. as a long vacation,” Doris Bridgeman says.

Both Justin, 31, and his younger sister Eden, 24, describe their upbringing as “normal.”

“The chauffeur was my mom … the cook was my mom,” Eden says. “And we were the maids and butler,” Justin adds, laughing. None of the siblings were expected to play basketball - “The shorts were too long and the jerseys too baggy. I was a girly-girl,” Eden says, although she has the height which leads strangers to speculate about her innate ability to dunk. As the oldest, Justin says, he felt pressure about following in his dad’s footsteps in sports, but it came from himself or well-meaning acquaintances, never from his dad.

The middle child, Ryan, 28, did play basketball, but when we talked on the phone - he’s currently in Los Angeles with a yearlong internship with Taco Bells’ finance department - Ryan didn’t notice any of the boys or fathers on his team being particularly impressed that a professional athlete was helping coach.

While most kids are enamored with pro athletes, for Justin and Ryan, Junior Bridgeman was ... well, Dad. “When I was young, I didn’t think about Dad (what he did for a living),” Justin says, nonplussed. “It’s not like he was an astronaut or a fighter pilot.” (Somewhere an astronaut’s kid is telling a reporter, “It’s not like Dad was a professional basketball player or anything.”)

When the two brothers collected trading cards, Ryan always looked for their father’s cards in the packs of basketball cards, while Justin went after the more lucrative baseball stars with a high face value. “He collected for love, I collected for profits,” Justin says, grinning. Ironically, it’s Ryan who went into the finance side of the business. Ryan defends himself, saying it’s pretty unique to have your father’s trading card.

The second generation of a business is often criticized for expecting to waltz into the corner office before the ink is dry on their college diploma. Not so here.

Justin is a general manager for a Chili’s in Chicago and Eden is a marketing manager for 49 Chili’s. Ryan has an internship in order to learn the business, before moving back to Louisville and getting involved in the family business. Both Ryan and Justin have MBAs, and Eden is looking into getting hers.

“I wouldn’t want to start at the top without experience, because this is an experience-driven business,” Justin says.

“The boys wanted to prove themselves elsewhere first,” Doris says. It was only because of the economy and the timing of the job opening in marketing that led Eden to take the job straight out of college, she adds.

“Your name may get you in the door,” Eden says, “but it won’t keep you there.”

Which is why Justin and Eden headed to Chicago and Ryan is learning the ropes at Taco Bell.



It’s Chili’s in Chicago

One nugget of advice Bridgeman gave his fellow athletes was that being a franchisee isn’t like sitting on the bench and collecting a paycheck. He admitted that when he first got into Wendy’s, he didn’t realize how much your success depended on being hands on. Just because your franchisor trains you on how to run the restaurant, doesn’t mean it will also teach you how to run a business, he cautions.

“In order to be successful, you’ve got to know what you’re doing and I didn’t know what I was doing,” he says. “I went back for training.” He also started putting in 12- to 14-hour days.

Fast food can be a challenge. “In Louisville, we had eight cameras in our restaurant to see what people are doing,” Bridgeman says. “One on the register, one of the drive-thru, one on the entry, one on the back door. We tell them, ‘Look, we have cameras, we don’t want to catch you doing anything wrong so we’re telling you we’re watching you.’ The first week, we fired eight people.”

But while people can be the greatest challenge, they also can be the greatest reward. It’s the people - employees and customers - who make the entire family want to be in the business.

“It’s about the people, not money,” Eden says. “He (her father) could take the money and invest it in something a lot less stressful.”

So why would the siblings want to follow their father into such a stressful business?
Justin and Ryan started working at Wendy’s in high school. Justin was the only one of the three who both opened and closed the restaurant, he says. Because he had friends who also worked at the same Wendy’s, it was fun, but the only perk he received was that his schedule was designed around all his other activities. By the time Eden was old enough to work, Chili’s had been added to the portfolio and she filled in as hostess and ran food orders.

All three were exposed to sports and music lessons and in Eden’s case, dance. Justin excelled at music and art. “He’s our Renaissance man,” Eden says, teasing, but also proud. Ryan was the athlete, who, apparently, didn’t appreciate the musical training.

“If Ryan ever touches a piano...” Eden begins, “it would be to move it,” Justin finishes. They both laugh. (Note to future interviewees: Try not to be in California when your siblings are being interviewed in Chicago.)

Justin originally wanted to work in the music business, but halfway into his schooling he discovered “the music industry isn’t for people who love music,” he says.



Y kids join the organization

The second generation brings a fresh perspective to successful family-owned businesses. In most cases the kids didn’t grow up worrying about money, enough food to eat or whether they’d be able to go to college.

But their challenge is to be seen as a contributor, not a legacy. And as Eden points out, they put more pressure on themselves to earn their spot in the business than their parents or coworkers do. “It’s all about family pride,” she says.

Although operations may not seem as creative as marketing, Justin says he enjoys the problem-solving aspect of it - such as, “What’s going to drive our age group into a Chili’s?” As someone who thrives on the nightlife, Chicago was a good landing spot for Justin, who appreciates trendy restaurants that stay open after his job ends for the day.

“I like the experience of people coming together around food (and drink). That’s what makes life,” he says.

And while the two of them have no control over the menu at Chili’s, they can alter the atmosphere. Justin is concerned with repeat visits and creating a spot where people like to hang out more than just occasionally.

That means friendly, efficient staff who make people feel welcome.

“I would rather have a busy day, stress with things constantly moving around, than when we can count the number of people (sitting at tables),” Justin says.“Every day’s a new day at the restaurant,” Eden echoes. “It’s fast-paced and you’re constantly having to come up with new things.”

The three siblings are interested in someday taking over the company, although their father plays the details of his business close to his vest, Ryan says.

“What dad has created - his time and effort - I don’t want that to go away,” Ryan says. And for Eden, the decision is easy: “We’re the owner’s children. We’re a team ... and we have the ear of the top man,” she says.

And like an orchestra, they all play a different instrument. And they play nicely. Justin and Eden both majored in marketing, but he chose operations, and never blinked when the position in marketing opened up.

“She’s better at it,” he says about his sister.

The winning secret at Bridgeman Foods and ERJ Dining, the Chili’s side of the business, is that “Junior’s allowed people to work with him, not for him,” Thompson says. Thompson has been with Bridgeman since the first day the company started in May of 1988. He was working for Wendy’s International, when Bridgeman needed an operator after buying his first Wendy’s. Neither of them thought the business would ever grow to its current size, he says.

The reason Bridgeman has been so successful at business, Thompson says, is the same reason he was successful on the court - teamwork. “He tries to instill that we’re all in this together,” he says. “You hire good people and give them a vision.”

It’s not about the money or the glory, it’s about giving people jobs and opportunities so their kids can go to college and they can afford a decent home and lifestyle.

“Every Christmas, every manager with a kid 12 and under, we buy the kids a present,” Bridgeman says. The tradition is because as a child he remembers getting a present from the steel mill that employed his father. It’s all about: “Who have you helped?” Bridgeman says.

Having a deep bench

No formal succession plan has been put in place - mostly because their father is having too much fun right now running the plays.

If Junior Bridgeman ever does decide to retire, perhaps a good third career would be running a day care. He and his wife - “the backbone of the family,” as his daughter puts it - seem to have a pretty good track record raising the next generation of hard-working siblings who get along famously.

“I am the most blessed person in the room,” Bridgeman said at the AAG Summit. “And for those who are given the most, the most is expected.”

Let’s hope his fellow athletes, like his children, follow in his footsteps.
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The Crimson Blur said:
Contract the league to two teams. 82 games between the same 30 guys.

They say the league needs a genuine rivalry right?
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This is the best post you have ever made..


Take that as you will
 
Blackace said:
This is the best post you have ever made..


Take that as you will
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You get a chance to check out Silas' debut?

Bobcats still can't get the Larry's old man smell out of the building, guys got exhausted, Tyrus was fucking stupid, and Detroit made one hell of a second half adjustment by slowing down the ball at half-court, but Silas did more for the Bobcats in a week than LB did since March.

Oakley gets to hit people in the face for each turnover they commit. JAX getting his gangsta tested as I type this.
 
Adam Blade said:
ESPN poll on which team to contract.

You all get one guess as to which team is number one on the voters' list to contract...
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I did my part to kick Miami out of the league.

Btw, we never fully addressed Lebron's laughable attempt to "clarify" is earlier statements. Some just posted a twitter comment. Here's the full story in all its unglory.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/news/story?id=5960277

MIAMI -- LeBron James welcomes the New Jersey Nets and the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of the NBA, and said that he never intended to advocate contraction in recent comments he made about the league's "watered down" talent level compared to the 1980s.

"That's crazy, because I had no idea what the word 'contraction' meant before I saw it on the Internet," James said after the Miami Heat's practice Monday. "I never even mentioned that. That word never even came out of my mouth. I was just saying how the league was back in the '80s and how it could be good again. I never said, 'Let's take some of the teams out.' "

[...]

James, who was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday, said he was speaking only in hypothetical terms when he suggested what it might be like to remove Love, the league's leading rebounder, from the struggling Timberwolves, or to see some of the Nets' better players on teams that could contend for a championship.

"Imagine if you could take Kevin Love off Minnesota and add him to another team and you shrink the [league]," James said Thursday. "Looking at some of the teams that aren't that great, you take Brook Lopez or you take Devin Harris off these teams that aren't that good right now and you add him to a team that could be really good. Not saying let's take New Jersey and let's take Minnesota out of the league. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I'm not stupid, it would be great for the league."

[...]
"I'm with the players, and the players know that," James said Monday. "I've been with the players. It's not about getting guys out of the league or knocking teams out. I didn't mean to upset nobody. I didn't tell Avery Johnson to leave either. I didn't say let's abandon the Nets, and not let them move to Brooklyn or let's tear down the Target Center in Minnesota. I never said that."
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There ladies and gentlemen is the face of the NBA! :lol He says he doesn't know what the word "contraction" is, but what he described was exactly contraction. :lol He's probably too stupid to even realize this. Someone needs to tell him to stop talking.
 
DY_nasty said:
1) In what way does Miami play better with Bosh? He doesn't rebound or defend nearly as well as Haslem, no one will debate that, and his offense, although much better, has been reduced to barely more than that of Big Z in Cleveland. He is easily a better scorer, but is he going to be asked to do that with Wade and Lebron? No. And even when both Wade and Lebron are off the court, Bosh isn't able to maintain the pace alone. Even against shitty teams.

2) :lol
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1). Obviously he's talking about this year. The comparisons are hard to make because Haslem got hurt way too early in the season. But Haslem would never be a 19-9 guy on this Heat team.

2.) I laughed too.
 
reilo said:
Oh shit, that fall looked nasty. Any word on his elbow?
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He didn't play in the last couple of minutes, but I don't think it was that serious. I haven't heard anything about it.

I wonder if the Mavs will sit Dirk against Toronto.
 
Doomsayer said:
To even further this, Gilbert got LeBron everything he wanted. He made trades and signed players to LeBrons liking. LeBron is a glorified role player, plain and simple.
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:lol

This troll post is actually better than srlys post.
 
It makes me curious about Lebron's thoughts on "contraception". It would probably go something like this:

On Thursday:

Not saying let's stop using condoms. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I'm not stupid, it would be great for the league."

Lebron later clarifies his anti-contraception stance:

""That's crazy, because I had no idea what the word 'contraception' meant before I saw it on the Internet," James said after the Miami Heat's practice Monday. "I never even mentioned that. That word never even came out of my mouth. I was just saying how it was fun to bareback in the '80s and how it could be good again. I never said, 'Let's take condoms out of the league' "
 
Watching the game, I thought LaMarcus handily outplayed Utah's front-line, but I just realized that Aldridge outplayed both Millsap and Jefferson statistically tonight, too...

Aldridge: 10-19FG, 6-8FT, 2BLK, 0TO, 26PTS
Millsap + Jefferson: 10-22FG, 2-3FT, 3BL, 5TO, 22PTS

He needs to do that every game. He's been doing it the past 5 or 6 or so games, but I want to see him play like this all year long.
 
charsace said:
lol what. The team Lebron had the last 2 years was built to win a title. They had shooting, team defense and rebounding. If you put a decent volume scorer on the cavs right now they would be in the playoff hunt.
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Crazy talk. They basically have the same team now without Lebron and are on track to win less than 25 games. :lol

Blackace said:
Shit LBJ isn't nearly as good as any of those players. He isn't even as good of a scorer as Wilkins or King...
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I disagree. Lebron is way better than you are giving him credit for. Scoring around 30 points a game doesn't come easy.

Blackace said:
You and me both... Wilkins would have taken Cle to the promise land
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In his dreams. :lol Wilkins was a better Blake Griffin and I doubt the Cavs with Griffin would even make the playoffs.
 
mckmas8808 said:
In his dreams. :lol Wilkins was a better Blake Griffin and I doubt the Cavs with Griffin would even make the playoffs.
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STOP.SHITTING.UP.THE.THREAD

Your "jokes" get a score that exactly equal to amount of Finals games won by your boy LeBron.
 
I understand Kemp/Griffin comparisons, but Wilkins? They're totally different players. And the Cavs would be damn good with 'Nique on their team now. Not sure why anyone would think it would be a precipitous drop off from LeBron's team.
 
This is somebody's sig on RealGM:


turbozoneweemsisamazing.jpg



It just feels right.
 
mckmas8808 said:
Crazy talk. They basically have the same team now without Lebron and are on track to win less than 25 games. :lol

I disagree. Lebron is way better than you are giving him credit for. Scoring around 30 points a game doesn't come easy.

In his dreams. :lol Wilkins was a better Blake Griffin and I doubt the Cavs with Griffin would even make the playoffs.
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Number of times Wilkins scored 29-30PPG+:

1986: 30.3PPG
1987: 29.0PPG
1988: 30.7PPG
1993: 29.9PPG

Number of times Lebron scored 29-30PPG+:

2006: 31.4PPG
2008: 30.0PPG
2010: 29.7PPG

It's not that far fetched. It surely isn't a laughing matter.
 
mckmas8808 said:
Scoring around 30 points a game doesn't come easy.
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Reading this, reminded me of a certain quote again...

Lebron said:
"If I really wanted to," James said, "if I really wanted to be the scoring [champion] every single year -- every single year -- I could really do it. But it doesn't matter."
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He can do it whenever he wants! Except when he doesn't!
 
reilo said:
RT @samickAOL: Kings G Tyreke Evans is considering a left foot procedure involving lasers to heal his plantar fasciitis. It would put him out 3-4 months.
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Wow. Holy crap. I hope he does it though. And get those personal issues fixed too.
 
Number of scoring titles:

Lebron: 1
Durant: 1
Kobe: 2
Iverson: 4 (One season he averaged 33PPG and lost to Kobe, lol)
McGrady: 2
Jordan: 10 (He made it easy, huh)
 
reilo said:
Reading this, reminded me of a certain quote again...

He can do it whenever he wants! Except when he doesn't!
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Don't get mad because he spoils you with his great play.

He could have won the championship in 2007 but he promised it to Tim Duncan.

LeBron, if nothing else, is a man of his word.
 
DY_nasty said:
I tried to keep watching Basketball Wives this season, but I can't... these skanks are just too much.
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Me and the wife watch it sometimes. Those hoes are terrible. The Football wives aren't that bad though.
 
reilo said:
Reading this, reminded me of a certain quote again...


He can do it whenever he wants! Except when he doesn't!
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It takes real talent to choose NOT to lead the league in scoring every year. Not many players have that choice.
 
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=wallace_michael&page=arenas-101227

I still catch up with some of those guys after every game. Especially [Wizards guard] Nick Young. Because I loved his talents from when he was little. I talk to him after games. He makes jokes about stuff. He was telling me about Rashard Lewis (traded to Washington in deal for Arenas). Nick was like, 'I don't know if he's going to make it two weeks here. He feels like the world just ended.' And I'm like, 'Man, I feel like the world just started for me over here. I can see why he's mad.'
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I wish I could get paid 120 million dollars to feel like the world ended.
 
ryutaro's mama said:
STOP.SHITTING.UP.THE.THREAD
Your "jokes" get a score that exactly equal to amount of Finals games won by your boy LeBron.
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Your post are the worse.

Gigglepoo said:
I understand Kemp/Griffin comparisons, but Wilkins? They're totally different players. And the Cavs would be damn good with 'Nique on their team now. Not sure why anyone would think it would be a precipitous drop off from LeBron's team.
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Because Lebron was a way better passer, defender, and 3 point shooter than Wilkins that's why.
 
reilo said:
Number of times Wilkins scored 29-30PPG+:

1986: 30.3PPG
1987: 29.0PPG
1988: 30.7PPG
1993: 29.9PPG

Number of times Lebron scored 29-30PPG+:

2006: 31.4PPG
2008: 30.0PPG
2010: 29.7PPG

It's not that far fetched. It surely isn't a laughing matter.
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And how many assist did Wilkins have?
 
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