*still by John Walters and not ChatGPT
Scoring King James
LeBron James needed 36 points to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (in attendance) as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. He reached that in three quarters, and finished with 38 as the Lakers lost to the OKC Thunder at home, 133-130.
James now has scored 38,890 career regular-season points. He remains behind Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and contemporary Kevin Durant in career scoring average. Something curious to behold: at the moment James passed Jabbar, his career scoring average was 27.23 points per game—and the date was 2/7/23.
The SOTU and The STFU
The State of the Union address? Didn’t watch. Trying to avoid being triggered in any direction these days. What?!? It’s a Cary Grant marathon on TCM? We’re gonna party with C.K. Dexter Haven, thank you very much.
Cam A Lot
The winner of the Kyrie Irving trade? Nets rookie Cam Thomas, who last night versus Phoenix recorded his third consecutive 44-points-or-more game. The 21 year-old just became the youngest player in NBA history to pull off a trio of consecutive 40-point games (reread that sentence once more, please).
Thomas, a 6’3″ guard out of LSU, still has a career average of below 10 ppg despite this past week’s scoring barrage. Which sort of lets you know why he was muzzled before this week.
It’s nice to see a player from LSU suiting up for the Nets who can actually score.
The Conversation
Well, that was an uncomfortable movie with a wallop of an ending. To think that this film based in San Francisco came out as the Zodiac was also out there terrorizing the city is something else. Also, another film we should have added to the early ’70s mystery/thriller/paranoia genre: The Parallax View, which is even more discomfiting than this.
The lesson of this film, which Gene Wilder learned but later Dustin Hoffman would not: never break Teri Garr’s heart.
Freak Solo
An experienced climber yesterday took to the sunny streets of Phoenix and ascended the tallest structure between Los Angeles and Dallas, the 40-story Chase Tower in downtown Phoenix. He’s a pro-lifer trying to gather support for the cause. Repeatedly he was enjoined to terminate his ascent but, in keeping with is beliefs, refused to abort the mission.
Dollar Quiz
- Which NBA player, who is both retired and eligible for the Hall of Fame, scored the most points in his career (>20,000) without being inducted into the Hall?
- This is a toughie, but you know the names: What non-quarterback was named to the most Pro Bowls (one of three players are possible), 14?
- Eleven human beings have walked on the surface of the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first. Who was the last?
- Both Slovenia and Slovakia border this country. What is it?
- What is the chemical symbol (one letter) for Tungsten?
1. Tom Chambers
2. Tony Gonzalez
3. Gene Cernan
4. Austria
5. W (I wouldn’t have known this if it wasn’t on a recent episode of Jeopardy.)
I am bending the knee, TJ
Immaculate
TJ is AI
Is TJ just ChatGPT in disguise?
I’m a KC Chiefs fan so I knew Gonzalez. Not sure who the other names might be.
I’ve seen the doc on Cernan, “Last Man on the Moon”.
Wife is currently watching The Empress on Netflix, so
I’m getting re-educated on Austria-Hungary.
I recall the Chambers stat from an online article when he didn’t make the Hall recently, ’20 or ’21.
Couldn’t tell ya what I had for lunch yesterday and I routinely misplace my car keys. I’m not well-versed in literature or movies. Only thing I knew about Liberty Valance yesterday was the Gene Pitney song.
Aren’t there twelve men who walked on the moon (six missions x 2, no repeats?)
Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt were crew mates on Apollo 17. Cernan walked on the moon before Schmitt (so Cernan was the 11th and Schmitt was the 12th and last to accomplish the feat of walking on the moon, which is a different question) but as it turned out Cernan re-boarded the lunar module after Schmitt, so he’s the most recent man to walk on the moon.