My Existential Life

Adj +/- The Best Way to Measure NBA Players Effectivness

2009-11-20T22:55:00.000-08:00

Here it is guys. The official top players in the NBA. This is based 70% on 2008-2009 rankings, but includes data from the last six years, with diminishing amount of value the farther back in time you go.

If you don't know what Adj +/- is, here is a refresher. It is a value that tracks how many points you help your team outscore the opponent by over the avg player. That means that if Kobe bryant has an adj. plus/minus of 6.00, he makes the Lakers 6 points better per 100 possessions. What's absolutely fantastic about Adj +/- is that it can separate your defensive and offensive contributions to your team.

For instance..Kevin Garnett is a very good offensive player with and offensive Adj +/- of 4.47. This means that if an avg player played PF for the Celtics instead of KG they may score 100 points per 100 possessions. But with KG, they will score 104.47. But KG's real contribution is defensive. He has an amazing defensive adj +/- of 8.74. Which means that opponents will score 8.74 points less per 100 possessions. In simple terms this means...

That if you took an average team (A) and put KG in at power forward and played against average team (B), KG's team would win 104-91 (supposing each team had 100 possessions). KG makes his team 13 points better, 4 at the offensive end, and 9 at the defensive end.

Adjusted plus/minus is quite simply, THE BEST STATISTIC WE HAVE FOR MEASURING HOW GOOD A PLAYER IS.

So here it is the top ten DEFENSIVE players in the NBA

1.Garnett, Kevin 8.74
2.Bogut, Andrew 8.21
3.Johnson, Amir 8.05
4.Hayes, Chuck 7.31
5.Przybilla, Joel 7.04
6.Iguodala, Andre 6.64
7.Hilario, Nene 6.56
8.Ming, Yao 5.7
9.Young, Thaddeus 5.7
10.Camby, Marcus 5.66

Noteables
11. Lamar Odom
12. Ron Artest
22. Tim Duncan (injury plagued)
35. Dwight Howard (overrated..defense is more than just blocks people!)
38. Shane Battier (overrated, but still good)
152. Kobe Bryant ("Kobe is a terrible off the ball defender"--Phil Jackson)

The best OFFENSIVE players in the NBA

1.Nash, Steve 11.28
2.Wade, Dwyane 10.66
3.James, LeBron 10.16
4.Paul, Chris 9.36
5.Redd, Michael 7.82
6.Anthony, Carmelo 7.73
7.Bryant, Kobe 7.57
8.Billups, Chauncey 7.36
9.Bosh, Chris 5.65
10.Carter, Vince 5.61

Steve Nash is the greatest offensive player we have seen since adj. plus minus has been calculated. Think of all the things he does that does not show up in the box score, running the offense, always making the perfect play, the hockey assist.

The Best OVERALL players in the NBA

Off def Std Total
Team Player Minutes APM APM Err APM
1. Wade, Dwyane 3,048 10.66 2.96 1.16 13.61
2. Garnett, Kevin 1,642 4.47 8.74 1.07 13.21
3. James, LeBron 3,054 10.16 3.03 1.09 13.19
4. Paul, Chris 2,888 9.36 3.35 1.42 12.71
5. Nash, Steve 2,484 11.28 -2.45 1.11 8.83
6. Odom, Lamar 2,203 3.28 5.52 0.95 8.81
7. Iguodala, Andre 3,269 1.96 6.64 1.19 8.61
8. Lewis, Rashard 2,859 5.17 2.94 0.96 8.11
9. Ming, Yao 2,454 1.59 5.70 1.03 7.29
10. Kidd, Jason 2,814 3.31 3.35 0.98 6.66
11. Gasol, Pau 2,857 4.53 2.11 0.92 6.64
12. Nowitzki, Dirk 2,977 4.83 1.67 1.16 6.50
13. Young, Thaddeus 2,580 0.67 5.70 1.08 6.37
14. Bosh, Chris 2,884 5.65 0.54 1.10 6.19
15. Johnson, Amir 906 -1.86 8.05 1.47 6.18
16. Artest, Ron 2,343 0.83 5.01 0.93 5.83
17. Parker, Tony 2,386 4.48 1.29 1.18 5.77
18. Bryant, Kobe 2,824 7.57 -1.95 1.10 5.63
19. Jamison, Antawn 3,025 4.26 1.31 1.11 5.58
20. Duncan, Tim 2,454 1.81 3.60 1.22 5.40

Notables
23. Rudy Fernandez
28. Danilo Gallinari (he's going to be a STAR people)
29. Carmelo Anthony (his defense is greatly improving, what hurts him most is that six years worth of data were used, much of which when he was a terrible defender, he will rank higher this year.)
43. Brandon Roy (below avg. defender)
96. Dwight Howard (most overrated player in the league)

Other mentionable points...Manu Ginobili ranked 4th adj. plus minus in 2007-2008...however, he was injured for most of last season and therefore is not seen towards the top of the rankings. A healthy Manu, is one of the VERY best players in the NBA. TD ranked 3rd in 2008, his injuries also contributed to his slide.

Here is the Data Set provided by Steve Ilardi for you all to look at.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AnGzTFTtSPx_dFVrZXdHNlNZQUJadllKUm1Ld294WkE&hl=en

The Military Needs To Go--Einstein Agrees

2009-09-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of the herd nature, the military system, which I abhor. That a man can take pleasure in marching in formation to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; a backbone was all he needed. This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism by order, senseless violence, and all the pestilent nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how I hate them! War seems to me a mean, contemptible thing: I would rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such an abominable business. And yet so high, in spite of everything, is my opinion of the human race that I believe this bogey would have disappeared long ago, had the sound sense of the nations not been systematically corrupted by commercial and political interests acting through the schools and the Press.--Albert Einstein

I completely agree. The kids are being thrown into battlefields, getting maimed or killed all in the interests of the ruling class (big business, politicians) looking to further advance or maintain their positions of power. I find it embarrassing, that the press, school and PA announcer at sporting events tell us to pause and 'honor the military men who serve our country' or ' support our troops'..and the sheeple actually go along with it, further perpetuating this corrupt system! Giving credence to the mentally challenged amongst our youth who sign up for service in order to 'be a part of something, or serve their country.'

Some politicians even have the honestly to admit it..

"Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy."--Henry Kissinger>

What's worse is the amount of money the US spends on the military. We spend more then the rest of the world COMBINED. This year we will spend 1 trillion dollars on direct defense related costs. But the true price of the military is far more than that, as indirect costs such as providing care for veterans , accumulated debt etc. may eventually outweigh the direct costs.

A very conservative estimate is that the military costs the average US citizen $5000 per year. Think about that..if someone came to you and gave you the choice..before the year began of either giving up $5000 and paying it to have a military service that just jeopardizes your life further (why do people attack us? Because our military meddles in their business) or letting you keep your money what would you choose?
I'd keep the money.

Pleasure, Logic, and fellatio from Jessica Alba

2009-06-18T04:49:00.000-07:00

I was sitting by the pool in my backyard one day when Jessica Alba, scantily clad in a baby blue bikini strolled up to me holding a hammer.

Jessica Alba: I have a question for you, my wise philosopher.

Me: What's that you sexy minx?

JA: If you were given the choice between pleasure and pain, what would be the logical response?

Me: Why of course pleasure would be the logical choice! What kind of silly question is that? By the way, what's with the hammer?

JA: The hammer, oh that's part of my challenge, if you can logically prove to me that pleasure is better pain than I will get down on my knees and give you a world altering blowing blow job, but if not I will smash your penis with this hammer.

Me: Woah, that could be painful, but I accept, ha, this should be easy, better start loosening up your tongue sweetheart!

JA: Then let's begin, why do you want the blow job instead of the hammer?

Me: Because it would feel better

JA: What makes it feel better?

Me: Because it would feel pleasureable and the hammer to the jewels would be painful!

JA: But why would you rather feel pleasure than pain?

Me: Because I prefer the feeling of pleasure over the feeling of pain.

JA: But why do you prefer feeling pleasure?

Me: It feels better

JA: HAHA! Don't you see the circularity of your argument. You said that you would rather feel better than worse, but when I asked you why you said it's because feeling better is more pleasureable, and when I asked you why you prefer feeling pleasure than pain you said because it feels better! That's a CIRCLE! I got you! And as you know circular arguments are irrational.

*she rears back hammer*

How ESPN,NBA,TNT and Nike Control What you Think

2009-06-02T12:38:00.001-07:00

For Basketball fans.

Let's make something clear. The NBA, ESPN,NIKE TNT and ABC are all businesses. They are out to make money. The way the TV networks do that is by getting you to watch their programs so that you can see their commercials and they get paid by the advertisements. Nike wants you to buy their clothing. From now on I will call this conglomerate of companies the CORPORATIONS.

They are very aware of various aspects of human psychology. With two very prominent features.

1)Humans have a disposition towards Idolatry. We love having favorite players and we worship them and debate about them endlessly. Even though Basketball is a team sports involving 14 players, coaching staff, GM, Owners and trainers we rarely ever argue over who was better the 2008 Celtics or one of the past celtic teams. But we'll endlessly debate who was better Shaq or Karee or Wilt, Kobe vs West etc.. These companies know this, and in order to get peope interested in their product they need STARS. So what do they do..They MANUFACTURE them. They will literally engineer a Star player so that people will fall in love with them and follow them and watch their games.

How do they do this?

2)There is a basic psychological principle called the "Mere Exposure Effect"..it states that the more familiar you are with something the more you are going to like it. The more you hear or see something, the better you think it is.

To show you how this works, let's take another sport you are not too familiar with and I'll show you how they helped 'manufacture' a star. If someone were to ask you at any point from 1999-2005 who the best cyclist in the world was, what would you answer? Lance Armstrong...right? But did you know that cycling has a system just like tennis in which they have current world rankings based on a point system? Well guess what? During his entire career from 1992 to present day, Lance Armstrong was only ranked #1 in the world for a total of one month. But because he was American, because he recovered from cancer and because he had huge sponsorships with NIKE you heard his name constantly and assumed he was the best in the world, maybe even the greatest ever. Yet in 2003 he was ranked 8th, 2004 7th and in 2005 4th. Never number one. Mere exposure effect in action.

Basketball does the same thing. They MANUFACTURE stars, by using the Mere exposure effect they create stars in order for you tune into their games. How do they do this?

Well first off the player has to be pretty good. Second he has to somewhat affable or at least controversial and exciting to watch. Then the CORPORATIONS will schedule that players games on National television. For instance ABC will have a sunday game between the Lakers and Heat. And since ABC and ESPN are both run by Disney ESPN will be in cahoots and hype up the game on Sportscenter. They'll run a segment on how great Kobe Bryant is and have different analysts argue about how good he is etc..all with the idea of getting his name out more..the more you hear his name the better you think he is...mere exposure effect..the better you think he is the more likely you will watch his game..after watching his game where the announcers who work for these companies endlessly hype up the stars you will think he is even better because of more exposure to that star through the watching of the game and the endless hype by the announcers.

On top of that you will then talk with your friends or go on message boards and discuss these players more and more, all the while feeding in on more exposure and what you have is a giant spiral of how great you think this players is. And unbeknownst to you all of this was planned in advance by some people in business suits sitting around a board room thinking of ways to make themselves more money.

It works something like this...

"Hey Michael Jordan sold incredibly well, he made us lots of cash. But he's gone now, we need a second coming. This Kobe Bryant plays sort of like him, let's make him the next huge star, we'll tell everyone he is the next Jordan and forever compare the two. He'll sell like Jordan! Call up ABC let's get his game scheduled for TV. Call ESPN have them run a piece on him on Sportscenter!"

"Hey Magic/Bird sold well in the 80's. We need another friendly rivalry. How about Carmelo/Lebron? It doesn't matter that one is way better than the other, we'll make Carmelo a Star. He's got a shoe contract, let's have Kornheiser and Wilbon talk about him on PTI, we'll say he's one of the best players in the league, and if we say, because we are experts people will believe us!"

You all are sheep and you don't know it.

Too much beauty in the World

2008-07-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

I have moments in my life where I am so full of gratitude, wonder and curiosity that I find it overwhelming. I become entranced by every little detail of the world and my existence. From the pleasure of wearing socks to the lightbulbs brightening the room that I feel a spate of positive emotions flooding my body.

Is the world actually beautiful? Well I am a nihilist regarding all things pertaining to value. I do, however, believe that this attitude is the OPTIMAL mental psychology one should develop. Absolute wonder, curiosity and gratitude about the world around you.

If one can be amazed, as one should, by the in inhalations and exhalations of one's own breath, just as they might be with the complexity and grandeur of the universe at large with its with it's spiraling galaxies and exploding stars- they will find a neverending plethora of interesting phenomena to be engaged in...

Think for a moment how astounding it is that you have the sense of vision, and how incredible it is that you have this ability to the SEE the world and all the glorious things that come just from being able to look at things - Sunsets, Oceans, Mountain ranges, things on a woman's body that resemble mountain ranges.

Or what about your LIMBS, you can pick stuff up, use your hands to eat, drink , type. With your legs you can walk places of even RUN. How awesome is it to be able to RUN.

The next time you are sick, don't dwell on how bad you feel. Instead you should marvel at your bodies immune system and how it evolved to fight off the infectious intruder. The complexity of your bodies white bloods cells attacking the invading virus and ridding it from your body. THAT IS FUCKING INCREDIBLE.....JUST THINK ABOUT IT.

The wonders of technology are endless...cars, planes, how the fuck does a cell phone work? How grateful am I for Alexander Graham Bell and every other ingenious inventor who sweat blood and tears to give me a technology that makes my life easier.

With a little ingenuity one can come with an infinite lists of things to wonder, be curious and most importantly GRATEFUL about.

I'll leave you with this... Although if you haven't seen American Beauty...Don't watch it. It's the very ending. And you would be ruining the greatest movie ever made...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYrgHju3d-E&feature=related

MEME's

2008-04-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

As I promised by my last post, I will bring up the subject of memes. But only a short intro at the moment, for I plan to write a much larger and more in depth philosophical post on memes as soon as I finish a book that I'm reading and I have time to go back and brush up my thinking on books I've already read.

The Definition of a meme: " consists of any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity"

"Hey Jude" is a meme. The Macarena dance is a meme. Christianity is a meme. A thetan is an imaginary soul to do with scientology, but is also a meme.

So you might ask..what's the big deal? Well Richard Dawkins revolutionary idea was that meme's are also subject to the laws of natural selection just like genes. Meme's do not desire to be replicated and passed on from human to human..no more than the common cold virus 'wants' to pass from person to person. But based on their fitness (their ability to spread aka replicate themselves in the minds of humans) they either continue to get passed on, or they die out.

"Hey Jude" still exists because people enjoy it a lot and still play it. A lot of memes exist because they are helpful to human beings (getting vaccination shots) would be one while others such as bloodletting die out because they are found out to be not helpful to humans.

So far so good. Good memes that help out humans last, while bad memes eventually die out...but its not so simple. Some memes are good at getting themselves replicated, but by their design are harmful to the human minds they infiltrate.

A perfect example of this is the Muslim meme of "if you suicide yourself for the muslim faith you will be awarded 72 virgins in heaven." This meme destroys the mind it gets passed on to, but it gets the person who killed themselves some recognition and on the news and more people find out about the "72 virgins in heaven" meme, which further spreads the meme.

These memes are called meme viruses.

Christianity is one such meme virus. It is so powerful that unlike other memes like "Hey Jude" it takes over the mind it infiltrates and gets the human to devote his or her life in service of the meme, getting the person to spend his life proselytezing and further trying to spread the meme.

Your Life Purpose Was Programmed at Birth

2008-04-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

I'm about to tell you something so incredible as to be completely mindblowing. You are going to have difficulty wrapping your head around it at first and you won't believe it. But it is absolutely true and should you so require or request furthing reading on the subject I will happily point you in the right direction.

I'm about to tell your life purpose. You do have one. You are just unaware that you do. I am literally , and I'm not just fucking around here with hyperbole. I'm about to tell you the most astonishing thing you have ever heard in your life.

I will go so far as to say if you read this. Your life will never be the same. You have been warned.Here it is ...are you ready?You were programmed at birth to live your life and fulfill a purpose. Who did the programming? Your genes, and what was the purpose they programmed you for? To make replicas of themselves.Every part of your entire existence is programmed with instructions to complete this task. You are programmed to feel hungry so you will eat and tired when you need sleep, and fear (the flight or fight response) when you feel danger. All of this is in order to grow up and survive. The goal is to make it to the age where you are capable of reproducing. When you get to this age you are programmed to start looking around for someone to reproduce with..you need a member of the opposite sex to complete your mission. But it can't just be any member of the opposite sex, it has to be a member with good, healthy genes. This way you'll have good healthy offspring who have a better chance of giving you grandchildren and further replicating your genes. This is why you are attracted to healthy looking males or females, not fat disgusting sick ones.

But it is not enough for you to be attracted to the female, for then you would just have sex with her and leave and she would be all alone to raise the child. the child and therefore your genes would have a better chance of surviving if you were around to help. So your genes programmed you with the ability to feel an emotion..we call it Love. This emotion you'll feel around your spouse and your offspring is so powerful that it will ensure you stick around to raise them.

This is the life purpose that you have been programmed for. To replicate the genes in your body. Almost everything you do, whether conscious or unconscious is directed toward this aim.

Your genes are in control. The entire purpose of your life is to do what they want you to do.

The only exception is that of when your brain gets hijacked by memes. That is an evernmore mindblowing discussion, and perhaps the topic of my next post.

Me The Writer Vs Me in Real Life

2008-04-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

For those that know me in real life, there are numerous adjectives that probably come to mind when they think of me...

cool, funny, a leader of men... and I'll stop there.....for pigheaded would not definetely be one of them.. but for sure these people would notice a disconnect between Jevan the writer and Jevan the abnormally well endowed living person.

Why is that?

You see, I only write when I'm in a certain state of mind..a state of mind that DEMANDS that something creative flow out of me, that I put my thoughts into physical reality and make them concrete. Something more than just fleeting images in my brain. My mind tends to be very chaotic, more chaotic than other people..perhaps..I don't know, I'd love to live inside someone else's brain for a while (but that's a whole different post) and find out.

I only write when I'm in the mood for writing, and I'm rarely in the mood for writing..but when I am and I actually put my pen to the paper, or in this case, beautiful yet masculine fingers to the keyboard..this is what flows out. 90% unedited, ...I just write whatever comes to mind.

Jevan the writer tends to be a fairly intense individual, with a knack for hyperbole. Writing is just more interesting that way...but if you ever met me on the street you wouldn't be meeting the same person..you'd be meeting a ...well to be honest you'd be too enchanted by my gorgeous eyes to notice anything else...

The Allure of Being a Writer

2008-03-30T20:26:00.000-07:00

I just read two chapter's in Neil Strauss's book the Stylelife diaries. AWESOME.

I don't know how happy he really is on the inside, but the man is just fucking awesome. He's a world famous writer and a pick up artist. He has adventures all around the world, with celebrities, with gorgeous women, performing illicit acts his mother shouldn't be reading about.

And above all he is has ability to tell his stories in an engaging way. It's not possible to put his book down. Well, ok , I just did, but only because I felt the sudden compulsion to write something. He inspired me to write. I want to write like him. I want to have his life.

Maybe he's seduced me?

Or maybe being a writer is the coolest job on earth. I would love to be able to write about any topic I chose...to go on wild, weird adventures, solving esoteric and quotidian problems alike, writing about them in a way that is not only fulfilling and fun for me, but intoxicating to the reader.

Right now my Hindu next door neighbors are blasting "We are family" and it's nearing midnight on a Sunday ...

Ok..time to play devil's advocate. Is being a writer really the shit? How many people actually get to write about what they like? For every Neil Strauss how many writers out there are living in the parents basement and eating Ramen Noodles? Why did Hemingway kill himself? Why was F. Scott Fitzgerald a pathetic alcoholic? What is it about the writing profession the drives people to depression?

The writer's mind is constantly thinking, constantly documenting, analyzing and trying to code events in the real world with the perfectly worded sentences. To be a good writer one has to have an overactive mind. Perhaps overactive minds aren't happy minds..

Nietzsche wasn't happy.

But he had syphillis..so he had an excuse..

but he had syphillis because he fucked a whore because no self respecting actual female would have sex with him...

Shit..maybe being a writer sucks...

but then why is writing this blog so fun? Why is writing one of the funnest activities I engage in? It challenges my brain while allowing me to playful at the same time. I can unload my thoughts into cyberspace and allow others a brief, if not somewhat distorted simulcrum of my mind.

Writing it awesome. When I get to write about what I want..

Maybe one day someone will pay me to hear my stories. But for now you get to read them for free. So enjoy.

A God Amongst Mere Mortals

2008-03-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

What would it be like to walk through the world without any sense of fear. Knowing that you're a supreme being, and that everyone else is inferior to you.

I have video evidence of just such a specimen. I was about to preface specimen with the word 'human', but to call him human would be a lie. This is no mere mortal.

I present to you...the Techno Viking..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgeGdM_HAUw

It's your world techno Viking. We just live in it.

The Dawn

2008-03-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

One Day You Are Going To Fucking Die

....Let that sink into your brain. One day you are going to fucking die. That's it. The end. That short brief period where you were matter that became living consciousness will no longer exist. You are going to die and you don't know when. You have a death sentence... You are dying right now. You... are ...going ..to... fucking.. die.

How are you living your life? How should you be living your life? Who are you? Who should you be?

I don't know the answers. But I'm on a search to find out. Come journey with me.

This is the Dawn.