Wildcard Wednesday || Fireworks in NBA Free Agency

Greetings everyone and thanks for stopping by for another edition of Wildcard Wednesday! Fans of the major sports like myself are currently in limbo...unless you're a die-hard baseball fan. No offense to you all who are fans of America's pastime sport, but it's just not my cup of tea. This past week was newsworthy just from the NBA, but we can't forget what the United States Women's National Soccer Team did by avenging their 2011 World Cup loss and putting on a clinic against Japan within the first 15 minutes of play. Oh my!

I don't know what it is about NBA Free Agency, but it's always exciting to hear rumors and people arguing if it's true. Stories are made up as players fly around to meet with GM's and see their presentations. I'll be honest. As a Lakers fan, I almost thought that Mitch was going to get it done and sign Lamarcus Aldridge after getting a second shot at it. Then when he (Aldridge) tweeted on July 4th that he was going to San Antonio, I was like...

But you know what? It wasn't the end of the world, because I believe in Mitch. The Lakers didn't need the homer right off the bat. Additions of Roy Hibbert, Lou Williams, and Brandon Bass provide some size and bench play. Are they automatically in playoff contention? Probably not, but it's a start. The problem with our sports society is that we set our expectations high so early. We put grades on drafts before players even set foot on the field or on the court. Players move in and out and we put in the books the next champion before training camps even begin. Whatever happened to setting a foundation and waiting 3-4 years? Rebuilding requires patience!

Big contracts for Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Kevin Love, Dwyane Wade, Paul Millsap, Brook Lopez, Draymond Green, Goran Dragic, Kawhi Leonard, and Jimmy Butler all signing with their current teams on huge deals are kind of boring. It's nice, but we always look forward to those big free agents signing with other teams and making big splashes like Lamarcus Aldridge and David West going to the Spurs and DeAndre Jordan to the Mavericks DeAndre Jordan changing his mind after his buddies convince him to stay in LA....WOW. I wouldn't say that Paul Pierce reuniting with his former Celtics head coach as a Clipper is a huge splash just because he is old. But hey, he made it work playing with the young tandem of John Wall and Bradley Beal in Washington. In my opinion, the loss of DeAndre in the middle will severely hurt the Clippers. Apparently there has been chemistry issues with DJ and CP3, hence the move to Dallas. So we'll see if Griffin and Paul can carry the Clippers on their shoulders without DeAndrre clogging the paint and grabbing 15+ rebounds per game. I still can't believe that CP3 and Blake Griffin just begged their almost ex-teammate to come back to LA. I'm just wow...I was going to publish this post earlier in the morning, but then I heard the news that something was happening between the Clippers teammates. I didn't think it was true. I thought it was some kind of joke. Some story to attract media attention, but ultimately DJ would end up still signing with the Mavericks despite their antics. Geez...I'm just amazed...

My early playoff predictions?

Western Conference:

1. Spurs
2. Warriors
3. Thunder
4. Mavericks Clippers
5. Grizzlies
6. Rockets
7. Pelicans
8. Suns/Lakers

Eastern Conference:

1. Cavaliers
2. Bulls
3. Hawks
4. Raptors
5. Heat
6. Wizards
7. 76ers
8. Timberwolves

With Portland losing a lot of its key players outside of Lillard, I see them falling out of playoff contention and probably opening that last spot for either the Suns or the Lakers. As for the East, after the first top 6 teams it's any team's opportunity who can win at least 40 games to get those last 2 spots. Draft additions from the 76er's and Timberwolves make them young and give them a good enough foundation to get into the playoffs. I'm not going to predict who will get into the Finals, because that's just dumb. You can't predict who will win when you don't know about injuries. We all saw how injuries played a huge role from this past NBA season.

That will be it for this edition of Wildcard Wednesday! NBA Free Agency is a moving stream. With the big names off the board, role-players will continue to get calls from teams throughout the off-season. Let's just remember that whatever we see on paper at the beginning of this new season will not always be what we see at the beginning of May in 2016. Injuries and trades can and will happen. I'm hoping Kobe and the Lakers can make an impact in this competitive Western Conference. As they always say, time will tell!

Catch ya later!

Wildcard Wednesday || NCAA & NBA - No More 1-and-Done's

Greetings everyone and welcome to Blog #4 of Wildcard Wednesday on Notably Notable! I hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day holiday and I would like to take a quick moment to thank those men and women who took the ultimate sacrifice for this great nation. It is in their honor that we live, breathe, and represent the United States of America by using our freedoms to change the world for the greater good.

I know that I've had been posting on a weekly basis recently, but that's kind of what happens when my schedule lines up nicely and I have some time on my hands between both of my jobs. Let's also add in the fact that there's so much to write about for Wildcard Wednesday, I'll probably never run out of topics.

Before I get to my main topic about the 1-and-Done controversy between the NBA and the NCAA, I would like to recap a couple of things that I did this past Memorial Day holiday:

Disneyland's Diamond Celebration

Roxanne and I were planning on attending the 24-hour Disney Day on the back end of the celebration. However, by the time I got off work at 2:30PM we already saw on Twitter that Disneyland reached full capacity and ended up letting people in around 2:30AM. Roxanne even had friends waiting for almost 5 hours just to get in at 2:30AM. That probably would've been us if we left San Diego around 3-3:30. Anyways...we ditched our Friday plans and ended up going to Disneyland on Sunday. We had a blast and enjoyed the new Paint the Night Parade as well as the Disneyland Forever fireworks show. We took our seats on Main Street around 4:30PM and waited the 4 hours, but it was totally worth it.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Some people don't like referring to Rotten Tomatoes for movie reviews because they can sometimes be a little bias. Trust me when I say this...I was on the edge of my seat more for this movie than I was for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Now, don't get me wrong, Age of Ultron was entertaining, but Mad Max: Fury Road took the action to a whole other level of intensity with "I don't even know what's going on, but OH MY GOD WATCH OUT!" kind of feelings. What more can I say.


NCAA-NBA 1-AND-DONE CONTROVERSY
A lot has come up the past couple of years when it comes to the NBA's draft eligibility and the rules set for up-and-coming NCAA players. Everyone has their own spin on it. I haven't read their opinions because I don't want to skew my own views. For those who aren't caught up in sports, basically the NBA set a rule in 2005 that set an age limit at 19 for players to be eligible to enter the NBA. There are some outliers for this situation, but that is the basic age limit. In addition to this, a player must be "one year out of high school". Hence, the the 1-and-done. The reason why the NBA created this rule was because there was an influx of players coming out of high school showing little to no experience that they can play on the professional level.

Here are some reason why I DO NOT LIKE 1-and-done's to enter the NBA draft:

• These players do not complete their education
• These players do not have experience playing on the professional level
• As players come in and out of college,  NCAA coaches are forced to change their system as different line-ups appear

You'll see these reasons appear throughout the rest of this blog when I show my proposal on how to change things up.

First, I would like to point out that the NCAA is money-making machine and is making billions of dollars off these college athletes through TV deals and merchandise from basketball, to football, to volleyball, to softball, and even to lacrosse. Yet, these players do not see a percent of that. Yes, they are most likely receiving an athletic scholarship, but it's only fair for the players to receive a lump sum of that money. How can we change that? Here's my proposal:

A player will decide if he/she wants to pursue their degree. If they do want to pursue their degree, they will receive their 4-year academic scholarship as normal. However, if a player decides to be a player full-time, then the school will be obligated to pay that player as if they were a staff member of the college/university. No taking classes, just focusing on playing that sport full-time for the school.

Well, there are a lot of counter-arguments you can bring up like "...sports aren't all year..." or "...it's dumb to possibly have some players playing as students and some playing as 'staff' members...". These are valid arguments, but the point that I'm trying to make with this proposal is to pay the players when they earn it.

Second, let's talk about the whole education aspect of players who go 1-and-done. Let's be real here, if you know that you're a good athlete and you have agents saying that you'll be an automatic 1st round draft pick, why wouldn't you go to the NBA as soon as possible? With this "one year out of high school", players are using this one year to play in college sports to take advantage of the media outlets to showcase their talents. You hear a lot of players saying that they're not thinking about entering the draft because they're focused on the college season you should already know in the back of their minds that they're thinking about shaking hands with Adam Silver when their name is announced on draft day. So, if they're only going to be playing for one year and they know that they're going to be leaving after one year...what do these players even study? Should they even take these classes seriously if they know they're going to make millions of dollars for the NBA? Wouldn't you think it's a complete waste of time for these professors to grade their papers and teach them about philosophy when all they're thinking about is life on the basketball court? Imagine you're John Smith and you're looking sign-up for classes and you are 1 spot short of getting into the class. What if that 1 spot is taken by a college basketball player who has the potential to be the #1 draft pick in next year's draft? Is that player really going to using that knowledge about American History to good use in the NBA? Probably not. But there was also Jane Adams who tried to apply for X University, however admissions already filled up the student body. One of those students is a college freshman who isn't even planning on attending 4-years of college to get his degree when Jane Adams wanted to get her Bachelor's in Biology. I know it took me a while to get to my point, but these are things that we don't really think about when it comes to these college athletes shortening their academic scholarships to pursue their dreams. Do I blame them? No, because that is what they've wanted to do since they were a little kid. But let's also remind these kids that there is life after basketball. Most players play 12-16 years before they hang it up. They retire before they're 40...now what?

What do people like to advise college students before they get their first big-time job? Get an internship. Get that entry-level experience. A college player may seem to dominate in the NCAA, but in the NBA players are faster, stronger, and smarter. Nothing the NCAA can match up with. It's very important to the NBA that they develop their players and prepare them for the professional level. That's why they have their own Development League and I believe utilizing this asset will be key to my next proposal.

• If a player wants to avoid attending college after high school with a desire to play in the NBA, they are required to complete 3 years in the NBA Development League before teams can reach out and sign them.
• If a player decides to cut it short after one year of playing college basketball with a desire to play in the NBA, they are required to complete 2 years in the NBA Development League before teams can reach out and sign them.
• If a player decides to cut it short after 2 years of playing college basketball with a desire to play in the NBA, they are required to complete 1 year in the NBA Development League before teams can reach out and sign them.
• If a player decides to cut it short after 3 years of playing college basketball with a desire to play in the NBA, they are allowed to sign with a team as an undrafted player.
• If a player completes their 4-year degree with a desire to play in the NBA, they are allowed to enter the NBA draft. 

What does this proposal work on? It focuses on education and a player to gain experience. I truly believe that a player coming out of college requires discipline and hard work in order to play in the NBA. I don't think it's fair for veteran players who have put in their time to lose their spot to a rookie just because a younger player has displayed excellent talent in college. These younger players need to earn their spot. This proposal should also help build on the NBA Development League not just for media attention but to also expand teams by creating more opportunities for players who want to grow and build on their fundamentals as professionals.

One main argument here is about injuries. If a player with major potential happens to injure themselves playing in a D-League game, then what does that to that player's chances to get into the NBA? Fair argument. Can't really say much there because injuries can happen at any moment. All I can say is that if a player really is that good...they'll work their way up. Just like how any normal working class human being. 

Well, if you've made it this far through the blog you either jumped right to the last paragraph 'cause you were bored from the meat of the content or my proposals might have interested you in the slightest. Either way I'm glad you're sitting there reading NotablyNotable.com and I hope you're enjoying reading all of our content. That's pretty much all I want to say about this topic. My problems with it and my some-what solutions to said problems. Please leave a comment in the section below your thoughts on how we can change this 1-and-done process.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wildcard Wednesday || MARVEL'S Avengers: Age of Deflating Floyd "Money" Mayweather

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping for by for Blog #2 of Wildcard Wednesday. The difficult part about having a blog about Disney, sports, and entertainment is that a lot goes on in a week. I went from wanting to talk about the Chargers 2015 draft selections, then I was on a roll to vent my hatred for Floyd "Money" Mayweather and everything he stands for. I watched Avengers: Age of Ultron opening weekend and boy am I willing to spend another $15 to watch it again. Earlier last week I finished watching Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. I was bored so what did I turn to? The Netflix exclusive Marvel's Daredevil. I am now on episode 9, but I am 100% certain I will finish this season by the time you read this (there are only 13 episodes. HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT). This past weekend showcased back-to-back-to-back buzzer-beaters by Paul Pierce, Derrick Rose, and LeBron James in the NBA Playoffs. How about that Hack-a-Jordan huh? Now, there's this whole DEFLATE-GATE fiasco.

I'll make a few quick points on everything because I really want to give you thoughts about Floyd Mayweather before I explode.

Chargers 2015 Draft
Melvin Gordan III? Approve 110%. The Chargers made the sacrifice to get their impact guy and it will pay 10-fold when he looks to fill in the big shoes of LaDainian Tomlinson. Chargers added depth and filled in key defensive holes for the remainder of the draft. Others may argue that they should've drafted an offensive lineman, but they really just need to mend together and build chemistry after going through 5 centers and too many different starting o-lines.

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Lights, camera, ACTION! Right from the get go. Some critics say that there was "too much" action and not enough time to build the plot. Who cares? It's not like this movie is going to be nominated for an Oscar. Here's your plot. Ultron...bad. Avengers...good. Round 1...FIGHT! And then for the finisher...wait for it...THANOS!

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Season 1
I didn't watch the show on a weekly basis, but seeing how even the Season 2 timeline matched up with Age of Ultron makes me want to watch Season 3 when it ties in with Captain America: Civil War. Season 1 starts off really slow up to the first 5 episodes, then it just gets awesome. I started to appreciation the things that Marvel has done to tie in their TV series to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and then all of a sudden I was engulfed into another perspective that wasn't shown in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Marvel's Daredevil (Netflix Exclusive)
Man this show is dark. Literally and emotionally. But I guess that's reflective of Matthew Murdock and his gift. I'll probably be done with this show by the time you're reading this, but it's 13 episodes of a deep plot stirring in Hell's Kitchen. If you're not subscribed to Netflix, I would definitely say that $7.99 for that first month is worth it just for this show.

2015 NBA Playoffs
After seeing 5 out of 8 first round playoff matchups going 5 games or less we actually have some good playoff basketball for the conference semi-finals. Both #1 seeds are being tested by the #5's. After Derrick Rose banks in a 3-point buzzer beater to keep home-court advantage, LeBron James strikes back with a buzzer beater of his own to make it a 3-game series. What was said after the game just goes to show that David Blatt means nothing to that team. LeBron James is really the coach of that team and he'll do whatever he wants because he's LeBron James. Lastly, here are my quick thoughts about the Hack-A-Whoever shenanigans. There is no need to change the rules. If a team wants to rack up personal fouls and risk being in the bonus early in the quarter that's their problem. If you have a professional basketball player (who is getting paid millions of dollars by the way) that can't shoot more than 50% at the free throw line then that's your problem. How about you put that player in the gym and don't let him leave until he makes 50 in a row.

Deflate-Gate
I could care less about the pressure inside a football. The QB still needs to throw the ball. The receiver still needs to get open and catch the ball. If you're going to care about the pressure inside the ball, then I expect every team will have an inspection for every game. And for the sake of the fans they should show on the screen the pressure of the ball that is being used. If they really want to take it that far, maybe they should regulate how sticky a receivers gloves are because that gives a competitive advantage. Maybe should regulate the length of a players cleats because that also gives a player a competitive edge on the field. It's all bogus. The obvious issue here is the cover-up. If Brady was innocent why didn't he just give up his phone? Even Ted Wells explained that he offered Brady and his agent to be in the same room and Brady's agent would just read the messages off the phone with Wells not putting a finger on the device. If you can't even allow that, then something is obviously fishy.


Floyd "Money" Mayweather: The False Idol
This isn't a bitter Filipino complaining about how "The Fight of the Century" turned out to be a chicken run. This is more about a human being disappointed at another human being's character, lifestyle, and the media attention the latter receives.

I don't use the word hate a lot, but man do I hate Floyd "Money" Mayweather and everything he stands for. He is known to be THE highest paid athlete in the world. More than Kobe Bryant. More than LeBron James. More than Tiger Woods. More than Cristiano Ronaldo. You know what's even crazier? That's all from salary/winnings. $0 in endorsements (http://www.forbes.com/athletes/list/#tab:overall). What makes matters worse is that he is undefeated in his sport. Haters can't even prove that he "sucks" because no one has even been able to take him down. Unfortunately, Floyd is also a smart businessman. He has brainwashed groups of confused losers into believing that money is everything; hence "The Money Team". I'll be honest with you...that May 2nd bout between Pacquiao and Mayweather was the first time I've seen Mayweather fight (those slow motion highlight clips don't count). Not only was I pissed about Mayweather's fighting style, but I was pissed about the commentators reaction during and after the fight. Why? Because they are pretty much down on bended knee praising Mayweather like he is some kind of boxing God. All I can hear and read about Mayweather was "...what a smart boxer!", "...look at his technique!", "...this is just another day in the office". Wow, are you kidding me? It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to learn how to run away from a flurry of punches. It wouldn't take me more than a day to learn how to hug my opponent whenever I'm in trouble against the ropes. These analysts/commentators praise this kind of boxing? That doesn't sound like greatness to me. That doesn't sound like "the best ever" to me. It sounds like you can plug in anyone with speed and agility and they could just be like Mayweather. Sorry y'all, I hope you're still with me on this because I have one more point I would like to make. Last year Ray Rice knocked out his wife and after further investigation was suspended indefinitely by the NFL. As of December 1, 2014 Rice has become a free agent and has yet to be signed by an NFL team. Mayweather has been charged not once, not twice, but numerous times of domestic-violence. This guy obviously has a problem. Look at his history and the "punishments" he has received:

• 2002: 6-month suspension -- 2 days of house arrest -- 48 hours of community service
• 2004: 12-month jail sentence  -- $1,000 fine OR 100 hours of community service
• 2005: 90-day jail sentence
• 2010: $3,000 bail
• 2011: 90-day jail sentence -- 100 hours of community service -- 12-month domestic violence program -- $2,500 fine

Not only do I believe that Mayweather's style of boxing will eventually kill the sport (if it hasn't already), but letting this despicable human-being continue to represent the sport sickens me. I imagine that the only reason why WBO and other boxing organizations haven't banned Mayweather from the sport (just like how Adam Silver did to Donald Sterling) is because they crave the amount of amount of money Mayweather brings each and every time he steps into the ring.

It's disappointing that businesses care more about the $$$ than the image that they present to fans or even aspiring young boxers. It's disappointing that God has "blessed" this man with a $200 million paycheck after the May 2nd hug-fest. It's disappointing that the poor will put more value on $5 while  this man will continue to eat $1,000 meals or even take a picture of himself with stacks of money on his bed asking his followers for a caption.

Sigh...

Give this man some humble juice. He might need a gold-plated goblet with 20-carot diamonds sprinkled all over it in order to drink it though. 

Wildcard Wednesday Introduction

Greetings everyone and welcome to the Wildcard Wednesday edition of Notably Notable. I think a little introduction of myself will help set an outline for what Wildcard Wednesday's are going to be about. My name is Jayme Ross Eva and I am a 24-year old Filipino-American from San Diego, CA. I  graduated from the University of San Diego (...and no I didn't spell UCSD wrong...they're different universities) with a BS/BA in Mechanical Engineering in May 2012 with aspirations to become a Walt Disney Imagineer. Shortly after graduation I participated in the Fall 2012 Disney College Program from June 2012 to January 2013 as a Store Operations Host.  Now I am currently a full-time Maintenance Mechanic at AQUATICA San Diego (SeaWorld's Water Park) and I have been been a Disney Store Cast Member since August 2013. On my free-time I am an assistant coach for NFL Flag San Diego where I occasionally submit game highlights.

As you can see, I have a little bit of a Disney background and that is actually going to be one of the few topics I will be talking about on Wildcard Wednesdays. Since I didn't state it before, I will state it now and probably every time I post something Disney related:

Please note that as a Cast Member: All content represent my views/opinions and are in no way affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

There is always news surrounding the world of Disney so I will spread my opinions on some trending stories that are Disney-related. I might even share some Cast Member experiences and "confessions".

Next on my list of things that I would like to talk about on Wildcard Wednesdays is going to be about sports. I know "sports" can be very vague, but that is kind of the reason why we have it under Wildcard Wednesdays. I follow XTRA Sports 1360 here in San Diego and about 90% of the time I'm watching ESPN or some other sports-related activity. Why? To me, watching sports is like how other people watching their favorite reality show. However, in my opinion, sports is one true reality show. It's the one thing that you can watch that is unscripted and the emotions are real (besides all that flopping that goes on). There may be some that would like to argue that games are fixed and there's a conspiracy for every controversial call, but that's a topic for another day. There are so many things we can talk about sports, but I will specifically focus on the major sports: football, basketball, and baseball. Sorry Soccer (futbol) fans. I played soccer for 8 years when I was in grade school, but I just don't follow it. I would also like to add that I follow the San Diego Chargers, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the San Diego Padres. A good amount of sports recap will feature those 3 teams, but I will also cover other trending/controversial topics that are surrounding the world of sports.

The last topic that will be covered on Wildcard Wednesdays will be "Entertainment". Yes, another vague topic, but what I had in mind was that I would be covering newly released movies and reviewing some TV shows that I'm currently watching right now. The movie lineup for Summer 2015 looks pretty exciting with Avengers: Age of Ultron leading it off. I normally don't watch movies opening weekend just to avoid the huge crows, but hopefully I can put up an afterthoughts post on Avengers 2 in the next couple of weeks. Like many other people I don't like waiting week-to-week for shows. I'm more of a binge-watcher; however the only 2 shows that I keep up with weekly are the Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

And there you have it. A little introduction of Wildcard Wednesdays. I hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am. Now, this past weekend was a huge weekend for Wildcard Wednesdays, Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, NBA Playoffs, NFL Draft, NHL Playoffs, Kentucky Derby, and MLB. My focus for Blog #2 will be on the Chargers 2015 draft selections.

Catch ya later!