Dear Friends,
Living with a large family, and even at this point, a semi-large family, is not without its trying moments. We are messy people. Rhondi tries, but even she (and forgive me, my love), has lowered her expectations and has given up a bit. If she had it her way, we’d be a lot more organized and a lot neater.
Having said that, though, last night I had to clean my toilet. Someone…most likely a teenager…exploded in my bathroom and didn’t clean it up. Rhondi’s mom spent the night last night after a Christmas event for work, so I figured I would make the toilet look a bit more presentable for her comfort. The guest room is closest to my bathroom.
I don’t mind cleaning up after people. I do it all day long at work. 4th graders are fucking slobs. Terrible slobs. Disgusting, sometimes, too. I don’t have any blatant booger eaters this year, but I’m guessing a few of them were champion snot gobblers as recently as 2020. I love my children and I don’t mind putting a little elbow grease in so Gramma doesn’t think we are gross, but still. If you foul a throne, have the decency to at least spray out the bowl with the handheld bidet afterwards.
I know Rhondi will appreciate my effort, but probably point out that the rest of the bathroom is less than spotless.
Honestly, I don’t care that much about my bathroom. When company is coming over, though, I straighten up a bit. I like you people, so I will wipe up the stray beard trimmings and make sure there aren’t any blatant stains anywhere. That’s about it, though. I’m probably not going to get the soft scrub out more than once every three months or so.
*****
Switching gears now… I have to vent about my beloved Phoenix Suns. They got royally ripped by the Celtics the other night and I fear the Pelicans are going to do it again to them tonight in New Orleans. Right now, they have no zip, no drive, no heart. Even Devin Booker has been shooting terribly lately and making terrible decisions defensively.
It brings me to the conclusion that this is a very good team that lacks discipline and drive. They believe their press clippings way too much when things are going well and then another good team will smack them in the mouth and they don’t know which end is up. There is no real leader on the team right now. Booker is very good but leading by example is not always the easiest thing to do. Often people don’t realize they are being led.
Chris Paul is not their leader anymore. The team has tuned his old, tired, injury prone ass out. He can’t back up the talk anymore and I think he may be smart enough to not even try. He’s also done as even a “very good” player in the league. He’s just decent. The Suns don’t need “decent” from him. They need the CP3 of two years ago and he’s long gone.
That being said, the Suns can still have a very good season. They have Booker. Deandre Ayton can dominate most other centers. He’s a very skilled offensive player and not too shabby on the defensive side when engaged. He could and should be the Robin to Booker’s Batman.
There are also some nice pieces after that. Mikal Bridges is very good player. Good on D and getting better and better all the time offensively. Too often, though, he seems to have no confidence in his shot at all and is streaky as fuck. This is the conundrum of the $20 million dollar NBA guy. Should you be able to carry a team on the regular if you are making that kind of dough?
The Suns need another player they can count on. Sadly, it’s not Cameron Johnson. He’s a great role player but is way too injury prone. He can’t be counted on at all and probably never will be “That guy” you can pencil in for 15 and 5. That’s points and rebounds to the uninitiated. I’d take 5 assists, though, too, but the Suns really need another good rebounder to compliment Ayton.
There is so much conjecture about what type of trade that should be looking for as they try to move that malcontent Jae Crowder, but I don’t see them getting a player as good as him. It’s not like Crowder was the be all, end all, but he is a decent player who is getting paid a lot of fucking money to sit home right now. It’s ridiculous. I hope these guys know how lucky they are.
As I’ve mentioned before, it is getting harder and harder to take sports seriously. I follow my teams less and less every year outside of the Suns. I wonder how many years would go by before I stopped looking at the scores if we were to move East? Would I eventually stop giving a shit about the Suns all together?
Watching pro basketball is fun for me. I loved playing the game as a younger guy and would often go up to the park and get into pick up games in my 20s. When I lived in Berkeley during 1991, I watched a lot of Warriors games. Those were the days of Run TMC (Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Chris Mullin). They were a really fun team to watch. I’m sure if I would have stayed living up there for the long haul, I would have eventually changed my allegiances to the Warriors. How fun would it have been to be a fan of theirs for twenty plus years around the time they started dominating. It’s got to be great for old friends who live up there and still follow them.
Alas, though, I am stuck here watching a pretty darn good team that doesn’t have what it takes, yet again, to win it all. Even worse, they don’t have a lot of heart and that is very discouraging. I’m better off spending the time making my bathroom clean for my mother-in-law. At least I can control that…
See you tomorrow.
Tim, Mitch, and Chris. No D, but a lot of O.
One can only hope that our kids can learn discipline and drive, but if the Suns are having difficulties with these two necessities, how can we expect kids to show these qualities?