Free Ballin’

I arrived in Miami on December 28th ’08, without a place to stay.  I had floated numerous couchsurfing requests out to Miami CSers and received only one reply, negative.  She did direct me to an acquaintence, Brian, a recent couchsurfer, and I had an email out to him.  Without any other prospects, I checked into [...]

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Why are you here? I’ve asked so many people that question, over the last four months. Are you originally from Sacramento? Do you have family near Greenville? Was it Orlando, death, or tiki? I want to know why people are where they are. Family, school, work, and work-release are common answers. But people move to [...]

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I’ll be heading to Toronto in a few weeks, and I was really hoping to see Jermaine O’Neal play.  I’m a huge fan of his, and I wanted to see what he had, at this point.  I’ve read all season about how disappointing he has been, but his numbers indicate more of a mixed bag.  [...]

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If the Orlando Magic weren’t hooking me up—media/concourse tickets for Friday’s Magic/Hawks game—I’d let forth some bile about Florida, from the utter indifference of Miami Heat non-fans, to the outrageous prices of Ferrari rentals in Miami Beach.  $3,000 a day?  What do they think I’m made of money?  (Yes, I checked.  Figured, you know, maybe [...]

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I’m sitting in the Miami Beach Regional Public Library, in a private study room, catching my breath and taking some time to put some words down. I don’t have as much time here as I’d like, because it’s Dec. 31st and the library closes at 5PM; normally it closes at 9PM. Did I mention it’s [...]

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This post by Ian Ayres on the NY Times Freakonomics blog, about offensive rebounds, seems ill-considered. He notes that the Celtics had an extraordinary offensive rebounding edge over the Lakers in the Finals and wondered “whether Lakers’ low number of offensive rebounds was just a matter of bad luck.” This comment assumes that getting offensive [...]

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