Current Pick Distribution

ICH Standings

Current Pick Distribution

ICH Standings

Current Pick Distribution
ICH Standings

Rank	Name	Score
1	Mike	34

]]> http://borderlinefantastic.com/ich-nba-picks-week-6/feed/ 0 http://borderlinefantastic.com/ich-nba-picks-week-5/ http://borderlinefantastic.com/ich-nba-picks-week-5/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:19:34 +0000 Mike http://borderlinefantastic.com/?p=2119 Make your picks!

Current Pick Distribution

Current Pick Distribution

Current Pick Distribution

Make your picks!

Last year I had the highest ICH Score for Basketball Picks with 23. Yea, 23. That topped the second place person by 23. Yea, I guess no one else made any picks.

Basketball Picks

In case you haven’t heard of Paul Shirley, he’s a basketball player. He’s good enough for it to be his primary occupation. The book, Can I Keep My Jersey?, recounts 4 years of his basketball life as he played for 11 teams in 5 different countries. In fact, that’s the subtitle: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond. He has a lot to say about everyone involved in the game, from players and coaches to management. A lot of interesting commentary about what goes on behind the scenes.

The entire is him recounting his experiences, sort of like a diary or writing home from the road. It’s written in a very familiar way and makes you feel like he’s really letting you get to know him.

It’s really interesting to see how, even though he gets to play basketball for a living, life isn’t perfect. He has to travel the world to find a job. While some places are nice to visit, many places you don’t want to spend more than 20 minutes in. Not every team in the world is based in a wonderful city. Also, not every team has the finances of an NBA team so traveling and lodging on the road is almost always a good time.

I think a common comment about Paul Shirley is that he’s someone you’d want to hang out with. I mean, why not, he played in the NBA and he seems normal. Two things concern me about him: he might complain more that I do, I don’t need complaint encouragement, and we disagree greatly on his musical tastes. I think we could get past that.

He currently does a weekly podcast with his brother called Off Topic with Matt and Paul Shirley.

That’s all for my book report today. Wagers on when the next one will be? I should point out I had some books on CD and an audible account for a few months. So I listened to Born Standing Up by Steve Martin (which I should really talk about soon, it was excellent) and When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. I’m almost done with Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell and have her newest book, The Wordy Shipmates, loaded on the iPhone and ready to go. I’m also open to suggestions from the crowd.