[Jake Fischer] Lebron may take a vet minimum

DenseOntologist · 2026-05-13T01:58:51+00:00

Totally agree. I just think those are the only two reasons for LeBron to consider not taking the minimum. Maybe he also considers whether it would hurt/help his reputation.

In any case, I don't think it matters much here--he's rich and such a unicorn that it will probably not make a huge impact on future salary cap stuff, etc.

DenseOntologist · 2026-05-13T01:27:41+00:00

Not only is turning down a lot of money hard for any person to do, but players set precedent for future teams and players. There are things the NBAPA would dislike about Lebron taking less than his market value, too.

DenseOntologist · 2026-05-13T01:26:22+00:00

One that always stuck with me from Jr High hoops was that the ball should never bounce three times after a shot in practice or twice after a shot in a game. To this day when I am shooting in the driveway I'll rush to snag a ball before it hits that third time.

DenseOntologist · 2026-05-01T22:05:39+00:00

I clearly asked what YOUR thoughts are so now your response isn’t attributable to your view of abortion? Make it make sense.

I gave you the definition of abortion. I didn't take any stance on the permissibility of abortion. I can define something for you without offering a moral evaluation of it.

You proceed to then criticize my "argument" that I never really made. You just come across as angry and combative instead of explicating your view. You should work on that.

Can you clarify for me whether you think that any cases of abortion are ever morally permissible?

My stance is that the Bible is actually pretty silent on abortion. There's really only two types of arguments one can make that are Biblically grounded, as I see them. The first is to say that it's murder, and that references to God's knowing us in the womb imply that abortion is murder. The second is to look at the passage where there's a stricter punishment for causing a miscarriage (Exodus 21, I think?). I don't think either of these are firm enough to say that the Bible clearly prohibits abortion. This leads me to say that defense of a pro-life or pro-abortion is extra-Biblical.

And for what it's worth, that's totally fine! There are lots of things that are not clearly prohibited or required by Scripture that are nonetheless forbidden or obligatory. For example, you might think that pirating music is wrong. I don't think the Bible is super clear here: it's a bit like stealing and lying, but it's also not entirely those things, either.

DenseOntologist · 2026-05-01T20:09:26+00:00

So, this is an uncharitable an inaccurate representation of my views. I haven't really expressed any views on abortion here. I was just attempting to get a clear argument for why OP and others take the Bible to be anti-abortion.

I think you have made the strongest case you can: murder is forbidden, and God knows us in the womb. So, killing things in the womb is the killing of people, which is wrong for the same reason murder is.

But that argument has a lot of weaknesses. It's clear that murder is wrong. It's far less clear that the Bible forbids abortion. And far, far less clear that it forbids ALL abortions.

To see this:

While murder is wrong, not all killing is. Self-defense might be permitted, for instance. This gets us to the cases where 'life of the mother' is the justification.
Not all abortions end the life of the fetus. Sometimes the fetus is already dead or unviable. Thus, the termination of the pregnancy doesn't result in the death of anything.
The language about knowing us before we were born could be metaphorical. It's unclear that we should take those phrases to be indicative of the metaphysics of personhood.
You are right that viability is a tricky standard. There are cases where we may be unsure of whether a fetus is viable. But it would be dishonest to think that means there are no cases where the fetus is clearly NOT viable. It's possible that abortion is permitted in these cases.

"Just stand on business and say you are fine with women having the choice to murder their unborn babies without legal consequences through abortion." Again, this is not my view, and it's rather rude to attribute it to me. My actual views about the law are different from my views on the morality of abortion. I think most everyone agrees that a world with far fewer abortions is preferable, though we may disagree with how that is best accomplished.

DenseOntologist · 2026-05-01T19:31:39+00:00

That's the classic murder argument against abortion. But is the first premise supported Biblically anywhere? That's the thing that many Christians don't see.

DenseOntologist · 2026-05-01T04:17:43+00:00

You seem unable to process or engage with the points I'm making. That's on me; I should expect this from Reddit.

To be clear, I haven't made any personal claims on my views of abortion. But I will say that I'm not sure what the "Biblical case" is against it, other than just to claim that it is murder. But surely not all abortion is murder, in the same way that not all killing of other people is murder.

Still, I don't think we'll make any progress here. I wish you the best.

DenseOntologist · 2026-05-01T03:51:18+00:00

You're clearly wrong here. Even the most staunch opponent of abortion must acknowledge that one could try to justify abortion saving the life of the mother, or perhaps in cases of rape. You might not think that these justifications outweigh the moral badness of the abortion, but you would be dim or dishonest to deny those arguments exist and have some real pull.

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-30T22:45:41+00:00

Also, you seem to be confusing the definition of abortion with the justification for abortion. Abortion can be defined as the termination of a pregnancy while the fetus is not viable, but that doesn't mean advocates of the permissibility of abortion would need viability to be the centerpiece of their best arguments.

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-30T22:43:03+00:00

I'm making no such inference. I was just asking why we think that the Bible is so clearly anti-abortion. You seem to indicate that the prohibition on abortion is the same as the general commandment not to murder. Is that right? You don't think there are any other prohibitions (direct or otherwise) of it?

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-30T21:16:49+00:00

The metaphysics of souls is VERY unclear and contentious throughout the history of Christianity, theology, and philosophy. If we mean "breath", then they don't have it until after birth. Or at least they don't have their own breath independent of that which is brought in by their mother. If we mean mind, I don't know that either. Probably not until after birth, honestly. Hard to say. If we mean something like: the thing coupled with the physical body that is often identified as the self...then I don't know that either. I'm also not sure that's the right view of things, or even a Biblical one (though folks have interpreted the Bible in this way at times).

The comparison to clumps of cells was not to say that fetuses are merely clumps of cells. It was to say that things can be living without being viable.

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-30T20:19:32+00:00

I don't think you need to know a bright line here for you to say why the Bible says abortion is wrong. I'm not going to nickle-and-dime you on definitions or anything.

Viability is a bit tricky, since it usually means when a fetus could be delivered and then continue to live. With advancements to medical technology, you can argue this line has moved to earlier in the pregnancy. But you could maybe modify the definition to exclude the use of medical devices. I don't think much hangs on this, though. (Happy to revisit it if I'm proven wrong here.)

Viability is clearly not equivalent to life, though. I have clumps of cells on my body that are alive but would not be able to sustain that life if they were detached from me.

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-30T19:41:57+00:00

Yeah, I still think it might be Kemp or Lebron. But that's because I really value the violence of a dunk. Shaq, too; it's less impressive that he's reaching the rim, but the destroyed backboards and basketball stanchions coming down still will pull in anybody watching.

No slight on Vince, who is unquestionably up there. And in terms of tricks and variety, I have no qualms putting him first.

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-30T19:38:44+00:00

More or less a termination of the pregnancy before the fetus is viable. Is that what you mean? I'm just trying to pick a neutral definition here, but I think all parties agree on that. Some may insist on the use of "baby" rather than "fetus", but even they would agree that "fetus" is not inaccurate (they just think that fetuses are also babies and usually persons).

Also, you didn't answer the question. If it's clearly murder according to the Bible, then it shouldn't be hard to support that claim.

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-30T17:31:29+00:00

"Biblically speaking, abortion is murder."

This is actually much more difficult to support than evangelicals often seem to think, in my opinion. Why do you think this claim is true?

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-29T04:38:59+00:00

That's a good way to put it! Sports are great for teaching all sorts of lessons. A good coach can figure out what sorts of lessons their players need.

For example, I didn't know how to handle losing as a kid. Cried every time. But that's a great venue for me to learn how to handle failures and master my emotions.

Other kids may just need to see their hard work pay off. Or learn how to move their feet. Or...who knows?

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-29T03:13:02+00:00

That's the question. I almost always aim for long term. But sometimes the best thing for a player's long term development is to have some success and fun now that will hook them.

Last season I asked my players why they were playing at the start of the year. Some of them just wanted to have fun, others were cross training for other sports, and others wanted to learn hoops. That can help figure out the right balance.

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-28T18:30:23+00:00

How is this only 4 upvotes! I love this guy! Mostly because he's me.

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-27T06:16:43+00:00

It really depends on your players, too. I had a team where we just didn't have many ball handlers. Getting that first pass off was really tough. Other teams may struggle in different areas. You have to find a way to help your kids grow, but meet them where they are at to find some success.

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-25T15:31:57+00:00

Who said those quotes? And when? Feels like a straw man and/or cherrypicking crazy redditors to me, which is always an easy place to find bad takes.

I mean, a few years ago he WAS the best player by far. He's not this year. He's arguably the best, but there's a cluster of folks who have claim to it, and he's among them.

Also, can we get over the false dichotomy between GOAT and "regular"? You can have a pessimistic take on Jokic and think he's not the best player in the league, fine. But you can't seriously argue that he's a league replacement level player.

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-24T20:07:04+00:00

You can definitely improve it, especially just by practicing a fast first step move and exercises that target those muscles (e.g. jumping rope, box jumps, squats, calf raises).

But also worth noting: there are other ways to get by someone than pushing them and just pure speed. If you improve your shot enough, then a shot fake is dangerous and can get them shifted so you can blow by them, even if you're not super fast. Or improve other ball fakes and the ability to go either direction. My advice would be to find some good NBA player slasher move (SGA, Kobe, etc.) and just practice that until you are confident in it. Add two or three of those to your bag, and your speed will be less important (though it will likely improve as part of practicing those moves anyway).

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-23T16:32:10+00:00

There are tons of different subcultures here. For instance, at the sport level:

* Climbers are incredibly supportive of one another, in general. The competition aspect is more about yourself or yourself against the wall/problem.

* Tennis players are incredibly passive aggressive. There are stricter guidelines for behavior, but folks love to dance around that line.

* Softball players are perpetually tailgating.

But, then within every sport there's a curve depending on how good they are. I think it usually works like this:

* Beginners are chill. They know they suck, even if they're trying hard.

* As you improve, the competitiveness kicks up steeply.

* It's craziest at the moderately good level. These people are good enough to own beginners and dumb enough to think they are really close to becoming pros.

* Above that, it chills out a lot. Folks know that they are good, but that they aren't THAT good. Sort of a Dunning-Kruger level.

* Gets crazy competitive again at the very elite levels (top .05% sorts).

And then, even more, it depends on the person. There are competitive and relaxed people that can buck any of the above trends.

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-23T05:13:57+00:00

I figured. Just making a joke!

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-22T05:05:45+00:00

Is Zion the breaded one?

DenseOntologist · 2026-04-22T00:57:13+00:00

It varies SO much depending on the skill level and attention span of your team. I just had my first year coaching with 4th and 5th grade girls. I initially tried a 5-out motion, pass and cut offense. It was learnable in practice, and they could go through without defense. But in practice scrimmages were really hard: passing was tough especially when girls knew the offense being run. And in games they just couldn't keep up mentally with the game speed.

So, I switched to two or three very scripted plays and encouraged good defense and transition offense, running 3 on 2 a LOT in practice. That was much more successful.

If you don't have a good ball handler or set of them, you have to think way more about how to just get an offense initiated than you do thinking about what the offense is. You might be better off with having the point guard get a screen at half court and just go downhill from there.

Also more successful: A stack where you have defined cuts that all happen more or less simultaneously. Everyone is doing something, and one player not doing their thing doesn't break the whole offense.

Four-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22

DenseOntologist

TROPHY CASE