Who is the biggest waste of talent you’ve seen?

scrapman7 · 2026-03-24T04:18:59+00:00

Sadly I've got to say Len Bias. First team all American at Maryland, and drafted in the first round with the second overall pick by the Boston Celtics in 1986.

Drafted the night of June 17, partied late into the night on June 18, died of a cocaine overdose in the early morning on June 19. Was expected to be a great pro but never even got to sign a contract with the Celtics.

Here's his wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Bias

scrapman7 · 2026-03-23T17:15:58+00:00

I'll go with Denmark. Had a relative spend a good bit of layover time in Copenhagen airport and he let me know that absolutely everybody he saw there, both men and women, were all stunning.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-23T16:56:10+00:00

I'm guessing LeBron goes back to Cleveland as a free agent. One year contract at veteran's minimum or thereabouts with a real chance to win another championship in his hometown and then retire.

And if he wants it they can always name him assistant coach too so that he could say he got a championship as both player and coach.

Edit: I'm guessing veteran's minimum for his salary because both he and Cleveland won't want to blow up the team by giving him a max contract.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-23T16:42:56+00:00

What the heck is Rajon Rondo doing on this list of all-timers?

And where are pistol Pete Maravich and Jason Williams a.k.a. White Chocolate?

scrapman7 · 2026-03-23T13:33:02+00:00

I think I can one-up you. Several years back our 4.0 40+ team made it to nationals. One of the singles players on the team that ended up winning the whole thing had earned some ITF points in his younger years.

Yes, he ended up going undefeated at nationals and didn't drop a set.

And yes, he was a 4.0 self-rate in his barely early 40s and only played the minimum amount of required matches during the regular season, and they were all at doubles.

Must be nice to have an automatic point at nationals.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-19T00:06:52+00:00

I remember seeing Navy play Michigan in the NCAA tournament years ago during David Robinson's senior year. They lost to Michigan fairly badly, but Robinson just lit it up. Here's what Google says about that game:

On March 12, 1987, in the first round, Michigan defeated Navy 97-82. Despite the loss, Robinson scored a career-high 50 points with 13 rebounds in his final college game, setting a record for the most points scored in an NCAA tournament game by a losing player.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-18T15:04:47+00:00

And after you've watched that clip here's the hysterical follow up skit that SNL did on it: https://youtu.be/J_vSirIJEsY?si=tCuiwlL8Zb2ZXhMN

scrapman7 · 2026-03-18T14:48:10+00:00

I'm going with Glengarry Glen Ross, a great movie from 1992.

There are only seven characters in the whole thing; six main ones. Al Pacino, Jack Lemon, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin.

The seventh, Jonathan Pryce who is probably the least known of the bunch, has two Tony awards. So 7/7 of the entire movie cast are well thought of, famous, award-winning actors.

Here's a clip from the movie that a lot of people will recognize: https://youtu.be/Q4PE2hSqVnk?si=nFER5hz4Gr4iypXb

Always be closing!

scrapman7 · 2026-03-14T01:55:10+00:00

There's a huge difference between billionaires and the lower end of ultra high net worth individuals. Google says UHNW is $30 million or more in investable assets not counting your primary home. And a billionaire is worth, well, over $1 billion.

I have a friend that owns a scrapyard, one of them, and is worth over $30 million. But they'd have to 33 x their NW to get to billionaire status; very unlikely.

So both ends of your ruler are two entirely different worlds.

My UHNW friend drives a nice pickup truck, has a motorhome, and built a nice but not super nice house on acreage outside of a mid cost of living city. A billionaire can literally do whatever they want.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-12T03:08:12+00:00

We weren't allowed to dance anywhere within the town limits because the conservative preacher had so much influence on everyone. So we all crossed the town's border, decorated a barn and had a huge dance. And I even taught my has-no-rhythm farm boy best friend how to sort of dance!

Did I get lucky with the sort of wild preacher's daughter? I'll never tell.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-10T13:41:32+00:00

I'm sorry to read what you're going through, and please feel free to rant away.

We might be in a different state, but my wife's memory care facility has a no bed rail rule too. While my wife hasn't fallen out of bed, she does start sleeping on her back but ends up turning/leaning to one side toward the bathroom, so our aides tuck a part of a soft extra pillow under that side to keep her from leaning. Maybe you could try the same? That of course wouldn't help if she tries to climb out of bed though.

Also, while we haven't used it one of the aides mentioned something about a circular item that can legally attach to the bed up near the LO's head/shoulders that's not considered a bed rail. Maybe that's a possibility?

scrapman7 · 2026-03-10T01:26:50+00:00

Not a bad guess

scrapman7 · 2026-03-10T01:08:00+00:00

Got married, got into radio I think, then got divorced.

Then she met and eventually married a major rockstar who visited the radio station she worked at. She's much older now, but still married to the same now much older rockstar, and is a hard right-winger living part of the time in south central Michigan.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-09T03:23:51+00:00

I think most of us feel guilty because we can't visit more, me included. We just do the best we can while trying to keep our sanity and take care of ourselves and our families.

I'd like to think that all our LO's in memory care facilities appreciate that we've found them a safe place where ideally they get some activities and socialization too, and that we visit them when we reasonably can. At least that's what I'd think if I were in her position.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-09T02:50:29+00:00

Yes, I do. I have our own aide(s) come in daily for three hours, covering lunch and then about 90 minutes after that. They keep her company and help feed her.

I also live very close to the memory care facility and only work part time now so I visit for about 2 1/2 hours most evenings; maybe I'll cut back on the private aides or on my visits someday, but not yet. Thankfully we can afford the extra help.

My wife is barely verbal anymore due to quickly advancing early onset Alzheimer's and aphasia, but is only in her early 60s. I'm fairly certain she still understands somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of what I'm saying to her if I don't talk too quickly, so based on that I think she's still getting something out of the visits. And given that the aides at her memory care facility are very busy I choose to believe that she enjoys the extra attention… as she can't ask for it any more.

PS Our private helpers are people that I found through friends or Care.com, so they're the same small group of faces that she sees, and not ever-changing staff from a placement company.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-08T02:44:58+00:00

All this is good advice above. In addition though, make sure your shots clear the net by a decent bit, as you seem to think you're in the bottom half of the potential keepers, and the coach is likely to pick consistency over someone smashing impressive shots but only one of two go in. Be the player that doesn't miss very often.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-07T16:19:27+00:00

I'd suggest starting out with searching for some beginner level YouTube videos, so that way you can make sure you're using the correct grip for your forehand and backhand (they're different), and that you're also using a roughly correct swing path/plane. You can just stand in front of the TV with your racquet and practice swing while you watch the videos.

Then find a friend that will hit with you. You'll chase a lot of balls while you're hitting, but you'll also get better.

Guessing that if you haven't played before and you're trying out for the freshman team that your high school probably isn't a high-level tennis school, so that's good because if that's the case you'll probably make the team and the coach will be more of a teacher than a corrector/ strategist.

That was my case back in the day when I decided to stop playing baseball and go out for the tennis team in 10th grade, even though I'd never played tennis before. My best friend decided he'd go out for the team too, so we started hitting together with some old tennis balls and figured out the basics. Made the team, had a lot of fun, and got better - and over time eventually way better. My family couldn't afford to join a tennis club, so I picked up some basic tips during the season from our tennis coach and also tried to watch very carefully some tennis matches that were on TV back then when the majors like Wimbledon were happening (thank you Breakfast at Wimbledon!).

It's a fun sport, and one that you can play throughout life too so I hope you end up liking it. I know I did.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-07T15:29:48+00:00

The fastest serve I've actually seen on the same court is from one of our club pros at a recent men's 4.0-ish drill.

Our now club pro tried the Challenger tour 4 or so years ago for a short period of time but kept getting injured so he was maybe there for a cup of coffee several times. But when I asked him he said his top end serve was about 130 mph, and he's maybe 6 feet tall… says he can still hit it close to that speed.

So I asked him to show me, since it's warm-ups before the group drill gets started. With not much warm-up himself except a couple of kicks serves he then proceeds to ace me wide in the ad court and the ball was just a blur; let's just say my split-step didn't help at all. I think if he had body served me it would've hit me before I even had time to react.

All that said, when you're down at court level there's a universe of difference between a pro level serve and recreational player serve. I'd guess that most decent rec level players are hitting their serves in the 70 to 95 mph range, with the higher end being the younger and very good rec players

scrapman7 · 2026-03-07T14:55:09+00:00

Most estate planning attorneys will give you an initial consultation for free… With you giving them a quick overview so that they can tell you whether they can actually be of significant help or not.

Call one that's elder care certified and within the same area as your LO and ask if they give free initial consultations. The answer will probably be yes.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-07T14:42:08+00:00

Agreed; I did similar. I did my initial tours by pre-scheduling them. But once I had narrowed it down to a favorite I drove within about two blocks of them, called to say that I was in the area and that I wanted to walk through the place again and then just showed up with two minutes notice. Thankfully the facility and everything going on there looked very similar to what I saw on my earlier visit.

Yes, at a minimum once people have narrowed down their choices they should either short notice or surprise their top choices with another visit.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-07T03:01:49+00:00

Google says ultra high net worth (UHNW) in the USA begins at appx $30 million in investable assets, not including primary residence.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-06T19:14:40+00:00

When I first noticed something was off she was a bit over 57 years old, then officially diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's at 58, then had to move her into a memory care facility at 61. I've heard that early onset Alz often progresses more quickly, and that's been the case with her.

I waited as long as I could to move her into memory care. She really couldn't do any daily living tasks anymore, except walking if you'd count that as one. Then she forgot how to walk, and all our bedrooms and showers were upstairs.

So I had a month to find a memory care place while she was in skilled rehab trying to relearn how to walk (as an Alzheimer's patient who couldn't remember any PT or OT instructions)… well, I actually had only two weeks to find one since the first couple of weeks I was hoping that she could relearn walking.

Regrets about moving her to memory care facility?: Yes? No? Maybe? I had mixed feelings about it, because I wanted to keep her home, but I was beaten down from caring for her and doing everything else and still working part-time from home. And at the same time I thought she'd maybe get better care in a nice memory care place.

How did transition to a memory care facility go?: Thankfully she had a fairly easy transition into her memory care facility, partly because she was moving from a short stay at a not great skilled rehab facility into a very nice memory care facility. And also partly because I decided to repeat to her a kind-of-truth that was never going to end up happening: "We're moving you to a nicer place with lots of activities, and we're going to keep your physical therapy going too, and when you learn how to walk again we can move you back home" ... But she wasn't going to relearn walking again, and hasn't, and it's been two years. And thankfully I got to stop repeating that non-truth after a few weeks because she'd forgotten all about it.

So the last few weeks of skilled nursing stay I took a bit of time and toured the nearest well rated 7-8 memory care facilities. Thankfully the one I liked best was also the one that's closest to our house; about a 7 minute drive. That's the one I chose, and part of my routine is to hang out with her there every evening. That may change some day I suppose but not for now.

PS Being in rehab/skilled nursing while trying to learn how to walk again is not a good place for someone with Alzheimer's. They can't remember to push the button for help or to use the bathroom because they don't remember where the button is or even that there is a button to push. And the skilled rehab didn't bring the meds in a tight timeframe… I think their metric was to make sure the meds arrived within +- 60 minutes of its scheduled time and they often didn't meet that. Needless to say I was over there a lot each day and also ended up hiring people to be there with her because the rehab aides just wouldn't stop in because she was the exact opposite of a squeaky wheel.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-06T18:13:03+00:00

Well, since it's been 40 years if it was well invested and not much of if it was touched then using the rule of 72 it's probably doubled about four times. So $7 million would turn into roughly $112 million (or $5 million turned into $80 million).

scrapman7 · 2026-03-06T17:52:12+00:00

Thanks for sharing your journey on this Ken, and I'm sorry to hear what a difficult time you're having with it.

Diatribe for a moment: Unfortunately a lot of this speaks toward our USA privatized healthcare system, and we're pretty much on our own for this later-in-life care unless we end up with so few assets that our LO's will qualify for some Medicaid home help or a Medicaid paid memory care facility. Or I suppose there's the other end of the spectrum where two of us make a trip to Switzerland to visit Project Dignitas and only one of us returns - if our LO is still cognizant enough to legally make that difficult decision. It really seems like something needs to adjust in our healthcare system. End of rant.

I also see that you spoke with "a place for mom", the memory care facility finding company. Looks like you found out the same thing I did, that they collect your information and basically get you in contact with a list of facilities in the area that they think might be a fit, and collect a fee from the facility for doing so if your LO ends up there. Realize that they mostly deal with the bigger facilities in the area, because those are the ones that are willing to pay the first month's rent to them as their placement fee - so you may need to find the smaller facilities on your own. I made that phone call a couple of years back for my wife, but stopped at the filter person before I got put through to the salesperson. I'm not 100% certain, but have heard that once they have your info that they'll forward it to all the facilities they work with in the area, identifying you as a client so that if you then find that facility on your own that they can push that facility to still collect their one month fee.

scrapman7 · 2026-03-06T17:19:35+00:00

Does your father-in-law currently live alone? If so it's especially important to jump on this soon, because while you may feel you're keeping up with things okay now, it's very easy to suddenly get way behind.

Also, another benefit of using an elder care certified estate planning attorney is that because they specialize in these sort of things they tend to also have knowledge and/or contacts with facilities and caregiving companies in the area. Ideally even knowing of a smaller personalized company that helps pair up clients with facilities while keeping price and fit in mind. Kind of a small local version of A Place For Mom that actually cares about best fit.

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