By: Max Costanzo
none of these pictures are mine unless I state.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

NEW URL AND BLOG I WILL NO LONGER BE USING THIS ONE

 http://maxcostanzosaboutthegame.wordpress.com/     <------------------- Follow this one

Friday, December 16, 2011

Season Kickoff

Last night the Miami Heat played in the American Airlines Arena, against themselves what they called a "Red and Black scrimmage". It was the first chance for fans to see their first glimpse of this years Heat team, which includes Eddy Curry, Shane Battier, Norris Cole. Also they extended head coach Erik Spolstra's contract.

Now today Lebron opened his highly anticipated store "Unknwn" in Aventura Mall, which I was lucky enough to go to  go to and even be one of the first ten people to go in. I was able to get two exclusive Lebron shoes called the Cannons and Free gums (only 150 released pairs). It was an amazing store which contains more than just basketball clothing and gear. Lebron had a private viewing tonight for people with special invitation's to attend at the store, which I wasn't invited to.




Now, Their first game is Christmas day against the NBA champions Dallas Mavericks. Its an NBA finals rematch. Where lebron will debue his Christmas Day Lebron 9's which come out the 26th, lets just hope that he has improved which I'm sure he has on his finishing performance, Bosh has gotten bigger (this was a big off-season for him), and wade has gotten healthier. This could be a redemption for them. I'm predicting that they will go to the Finals and win, but then all people who hate the Heat will use the lockout and this shortened season as an excuse. All in all, I expect a bigger, better, stronger Miami Heat.      

Paul a Clipper

Chris Paul finally signed with LA....The LA Clippers that is. He will have the luxury of playing aside Blake Griffin, De Andrea Jordan, and Chauncey Billups. Many questions now arise since the signing of Paul, the biggest one, which team owns LA now? Obviously history wise the Lakers do, due to all the hall of famers they've had, and all the championships they've won. But when we talk present day, some are saying its the end of the Kobe era, and when you subtract Odom from that roster (because he was traded to out of all places, Dallas another big western conference contender, and NBA champions) Griffin and Paul seem like a dynamic duo. Are the clippers now the team to beat? I guess we'll find out.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Merry Christmas from the NBA

  December 25 aka Christmas day its going down. A NBA Finals rematch will take place because the NBAPA (Player Association), and the Owners have reached a tentative agreement and the Lockout has ended. This means the shorted NBA season will begin DEC 25. But anyways lets talk about the contents of this deal shall we? Lets start with the biggest factor of the whole deal, Luxury Tax.  In case you didn't know, Luxury tax is when a team has spent more money on players the allowed, they get taxed therefore, that money is the "Luxury Tax."Team that don't pay luxury tax such as the Clippers and 20 other teams will split the 50% of the luxury tax they get from team like the Heat, Spurs, etc. The other 50% goes to the actual league.  Compared to last year when the teams got 100% of the luxury tax money. This new agreement is set to last 10 years but either side can opt out after a Meir 6 years, but only the first two years of this deal will allow big stars that are free agents to join teams that are already over the cap such as Miami, L.A, and Dallas and others. Now for the rest of the agreement stars can still go to teams that are over the cap  as long as the team doesn't go 4 million into the luxury tax.  Now lets go into a major contributor or what could be a major contributor of that luxury tax. If a star player of a team such as Wade, Lebron, or Kobe reach certain standards set by the league their Max salary can be 30% of the teams payroll instead of the 25% it was in the past years. This is where I have a problem with this whole deal isn't the reason the Owners had locked-out the players in the first time because they decided they were getting paid more than they should? So really they did nothing other than set limits. But whatever, the agreement says that they players and owners split the revenue the league makes 50/50, unlike the 57/ 43 it was in the past with players taking the majority of the 9 billion. Yet because the season was shortened the Owners said here you go because, its our fault this happened you can have 51.2% of what we make this year. I'm just saying I'm not going to be surprised to see another lockout in the next 6 to 10 years, but until then as ESPN says "Play ball".

Thursday, October 20, 2011

RIP Dan Wheldon

     Just 5 days ago, Dan Wheldon was alive and well, but then something terrible happened. Dan and 14 other drivers were involved in a horrific car crash last Sunday at the Las Vegas Motorsport speedway. If you have seen the video of the crash, his car is the one that goes airborne and basically turns into a ball of fire after hitting the wall. He was alive when the medics took him away, but soon later died. His cause of death was declared from head trauma. You might remember the Indy 500, yea he was the winner. My prayers and thoughts go out to his wife and two children. Nothing can describe it better than what one of the racers said, "everyone lost a piece of racing in them today."

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

2 weeks at least!

   Now that the NBAPA and Owners did not reach an agreement by Monday the first two weeks of the season are cancelled. According to NBA commissioner David Stern, The two parties are vary far away from each other. The great thing is that we won't have to wait until the lockout is done to see superstars like James, Wade, Melo, Amare, Rando, and may others play the game. This past weekend the superstars held a charity game in the FIU stadium (in Miami),during the time they spent together according to Amare, they discussed and decided that they will travel around the country and play a bunch of these charity games. If u happen to live in Europe, your in luck because many superstars are playing overseas and maybe be playing in a town near u! But on the other hand we want the NBA back on, and we are 103 days into this lockout, you have to wonder when will this end? According to Derek Fisher us as fans, "Must be patient." There maybe no season at all, and if there isn't i might go crazy literally!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Tigers take it!

    In today's highly anticipated game (1)LSU took on (17)UF . As soon as the game started is when the Gators  started losing, the second play of the game LSU QB Jarrett Lee heaved a pass down field and found Rueben Randle for the 46 yard score. At the end of the first it was 14-0 Tigers. The only time the Florida scored in the first half was off a field goal. The finals score was 41 to 11, It was as if LSU was playing little kids out there, It was sad to watch.  What really killed Florida was third downs they only converted on 2 of their 11 times, also the Gators had two turnovers both int's while LSU had none. LSU running back Spencer Ware had two of the teams five touchdowns, he also racked up 109 yard tremendous day for the Sophomore, who has scored half of his career Td's in this game. He has also triple the amount of Td's he had last year (1) . O and boy do i feel bad for the freshman Punter of LSU he had completely faked the defense out on a fake punt, and scored. How often do u hear of a punter scoring? Exactly, but then disaster when the refs called it back under the new rules the league has he some how was called for a penalty.  At the end of the day I dont think Florida should even be rated. At the end of the day I think that today really showed that Florida shouldn't even really be rated while LSU stays steady at number 1.