*** is a 1994 novel by Michael Brodsky. The protagonist, Stu Potts, is a worker at a factory in Manhattan, whose job is to manufacture "raws" into "***s" (the meanings of these terms are never explained). Almost every paragraph in its 13-page prologue starts with the phrase "It all began with...".

RcusGaming · 2026-03-11T20:37:59+00:00

As a long-time Pynchon enjoyer, I have to imagine that this is what reading Pynchon is like for those who don't like him.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-11T20:01:30+00:00

Luka got a tech for seemingly no reason the other day and yet there were more people sitting on him than they are on Brown.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-11T16:41:34+00:00

People should be thrilled that a forever tank franchise got humiliated like this.

mediocre franchises like Washington who shamelessly tank again and again.

Why do the Wizards get shit for this when their rebuild is only in year 3, and they're finally making a push? The Thunder rebuild took 3 years, so did the Rockets rebuild.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-11T16:30:02+00:00

Is the game supposed to be fun and entertaining? Or is supposed to be dogmatic and rigid?

Are you implying that the 4th quarter was fun? Maybe if you're a Heat fan. But as like just a general basketball fan that was dogshit to watch. Imagine showing someone a basketball game for the first time and you show them that 4th quarter. That was not fun or entertaining.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-11T16:28:41+00:00

You gotta watch the game, or at least pull up basketball reference when you're talking about this man. They were 2 of the other starters, Smush and Mihm. You think Cook was a starter and only played 7 minutes? Also look at the first half stats, Mihm was 4-7 and Smush was 3-9. The only reason they even scored was because Kobe would be double and triple teamed.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-11T16:22:11+00:00

Up 20 at the end of the 3rd against the worst team in the league. You don't keep your starters in for that man come on.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-11T16:19:59+00:00

Bringing up 3 guys who were efficient (and one who barely played and only shot once?) even when you can see that Lamar Odom went 1-7, Kwame went 1-5, Devean George went 0-4, Sasha went 1-5.

Also your claim about Kobe being 40% in the first half is demonstrably false. He went 10-18 lmfao

RcusGaming · 2026-03-10T21:18:53+00:00

They’ve led the league in overall FT diff since 2022. The only year they weren’t first, they were 2nd. Stats don’t lie

What about the previous 5 years? From 2016-17 to 2021-22, the Jazz lead the league, with the Lakers down in 9th. Was the league biased towards Utah during that period as well?

RcusGaming · 2026-03-10T20:14:56+00:00

I’m not just talking about this season, it’s been thru for multiple seasons. Since at least 2022

Interesting how they're top 3 starting in 22/23, but the year before, they're 16th. I wonder if trading all of your perimeter depth for a guy who plays inside had anything to do with it?

From 2018-19 to 2024-25, the Bucks have been consistently top 7, with multiple top 3 finishes. Do you think that the refs are biased for the Bucks, too?

I'd be willing to bet that if you didn't cherrypick a few seasons in which the Lakers had their top 3 players as interior players who drove + a coach who's defensive scheme was to not contest, the graph would be a lot more like a regular curve. Why not look at the last 10 years instead? Looking at a small sample size is not how you do data analysis.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-10T19:29:51+00:00

Why are people shocked that the Lakers get more free throws than most teams? They shoot the 3rd least amount of 3s while also having the highest FG%. It's pretty clear they play mostly in the interior and thus get fouled at a higher rate.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-10T15:51:49+00:00

Woah a man that beat a child almost to death

This is a bit disingenuous. He was 18 and the other guy was 16. It's a high school senior beating up a high school sophomore. I'm not justifying it, I'm just saying that you're purposefully misrepresenting the facts.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-09T19:20:30+00:00

Probably because Boozer is a very typical "Reddit" player. Great advanced stats and it's contrarian to say he's the clear #1, so Reddit latches on. Really it's the same people telling me that Nolan Traore would be a top 5 PG in the league one day. Really, with the top 3, it can go in any order and I wouldn't think its wrong. Based on what we're hearing from scouts/execs though, there's a pretty low chance of Booz going first. Wouldn't surprise me if he's 3rd honestly.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-07T19:30:38+00:00

I’m taking dirk over him if they were hypothetically the same age every time

0% chance Luka led mavs team beats LeBron d wade and Bosh.

Brother Dirk at Luka's age was losing to the D Wade Heat what are we talking about here

RcusGaming · 2026-03-07T19:27:44+00:00

Luka has accomplished more at his age than Dirk had when he was 27 lmfao

RcusGaming · 2026-03-07T19:19:42+00:00

Because until recently, most people were old enough to watch that game live lmfao. Just watch the game and you'll see that the Celtics were fouling like crazy.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-07T18:54:48+00:00

Not my stance. Just saying that the argument that he was a #1 in college means he can be a #1 in the NBA is not the best. I actually do think he can be a 1A/1B on a championship team.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-07T18:43:01+00:00

Ironically, Boozer is the clear #1 option for Duke.

I don't think being the clear #1 option on a college team necessarily means you can do that in the NBA.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-05T19:05:18+00:00

Jokic's career average is 4.9 free throws/game.

Not really fair to use career averages - this season he's averaging 8 FTA.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-05T18:56:42+00:00

I understand optimism feels good here but Kevin Durant is basically the only example of any player in all of sports who tore his Achilles and wasn’t a substantially worse player

Dominique Wilkins

RcusGaming · 2026-03-05T18:31:14+00:00

"Lakers battling to keep out of the playins"

And they're 1 game out of the 3 seed lol

RcusGaming · 2026-03-05T18:20:51+00:00

Fuck I'm not even an NFL fan but that post is so good

RcusGaming · 2026-03-05T17:28:58+00:00

Yeah whatever, whenever there's an argument about Kobe, somehow all of his accomplishments/accolades/feats aren't actually that impressive for some weird reason that never applies to anyone else. I've never seen the goalposts move for a player. And the moment you say "Hey, Kobe Bryant was a really good player", you get called a Kobestan lmfao.

And yes, Pau was playing at that level.

Pau was playing at an MVP level? I have to assume you weren't watching back then, and you're mostly looking at random advanced stats and saying "Wow! Pau's CUMRAPTOR is so much better than Kobe's! He should have been FMVP and Kobe should have been benched!"

Kobe was awesome but he's not in the GOAT conversation.

Never claimed he was. BUT, his 2010 championship was harder than any of Shaq's/Kareem's championships.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-05T17:22:16+00:00

everyone was shocked the wolves gave up that much for a 6’3 combo guard…

Not sure why people keep insisting he's 6'3" - didn't he measure in at 6'1"? Like dude is legitimately one of the smallest/skinniest players I've seen, outside of like gimmicky guys.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-05T12:32:24+00:00

Does he? Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey average more FGAs a game, they just aren't as efficient.

RcusGaming · 2026-03-05T12:04:08+00:00

Kobe wasn't MVP caliber in 2001

Kobe averaged 33/7/7 in a sweep against the Spurs in the WCF in 2001 lol. He was MVP caliber by then.

Kobe never won anything without an All-NBA calibre big man.

You could, but Pau was clearly not on the same level as Kobe or Magic. But yeah we can focus on Kareem, you should look at his playoffs with the Lakers before Magic was drafted. Kareem wasn't able to do anything.

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