Does Tim Howard play basketball?

Does Tim Howard play basketball? Because we could use his defense. I still think Team USA wins, but Harden and Curry need to go crazy, and The. Unibrow has to anchor a subpar defense. It could happen. I also think Coach K plays four shooters for long stretches against several teams. Without further ado…

Final guess for the Team USA Bball roster, which looks much different from a few weeks ago:

BIGS
Unibrow
Faried
Drummond
Plumlee

FORWARDS
Rudy Gay
Korver
Parsons
Klay Thompson (playing a lot of small forward)

GUARDS
Curry
Harden
Kyrie
Rose

Starting five:
Curry
Harden
Thompson
Faried
Unibrow

Thompson brings D and shooting. Faried scares people and runs the floor. Unibrow dominates all over. Curry shoots and/or drives and dishes. Harden scores whenever they need a tough bucket (and actually plays some D because his teammates are actually trying).

Key bench guys: Drummond, Gay, Kyrie, Parsons
Drummond brings dunks, defense and rebounds. Gay and Parsons should be the backup forwards; both are big enough to play the 4. Parsons can shoot and play off the dribble. Gay can post up the small quick guys. Kyrie is a pretty good third guard to have.

“You have one job to do” guys:
Plumlee (protect the rim when we get in foul trouble)
Korver (off-ball movement to create space, because he might hit 10 3s in 3 minutes and the other team knows it)
Rose – (10-15 minutes of point guard defense without getting hurt)

“Grab some TEAM USA swag” guys:
Gordon Hayward- almost but not quite
DeMarcus Cousins – his game just doesn’t fit
DeMar DeRozan – a lesser, younger version of Rudy Gay
Damian Lillard – makes it if Rose bows out because of injury, and probably should’ve made it over Kyrie because neither plays defense.

If my guesses are off, this post might get deleted 🙂

Glad tidings for a darksome world

Old, outdated words get a bad rap. About a week and a half ago, I was picking hymns for Sunday, and I chose one that includes this line:

“Behold how many thousands still are lying
Bound in the darksome prison house of sin,”

Darksome. I doubt I have ever used that word in conversation. I doubt I’ve ever used it period, except for the occasions when I’ve been singing, “O Zion, Haste, Your Mission High Fulfilling.”

Some might say that “darksome” is nothing more than a two-syllable version of “dark,” used to make the meter work. Maybe. Some might say it should be rendered to the dustbin of antiquity along with “thine” and “thou.” This attitude is especially common amongst my own age group, since we were reared on the NIV and NASB and think KJV-isms like the aforementioned (speaking of fun words) examples are useless and confusing. Again, maybe. After all, language is dynamic and evolving. Words take on new meanings over time. Old words get discarded when they’re no longer needed and new ones get invented or coined when the need arises. (For example, I like to demonstrate how different Biblical Hebrew is from Modern Hebrew by saying, “I never learned the Hebrew word for ‘airplane,'” since, ya know, Moses didn’t have any airplanes to write about.)

So maybe we should just ditch “darksome,” find a way to make the meter for that hymn work, and move on. But I must say that “darksome” caught my attention and made me think about that lyric more than I otherwise would have. Plus, it’s not like it’s hard to figure out the meaning. It fairly obviously means dark, but the extra syllable seems to be just a little more foreboding. Webster’s online says it means, “Gloomily somber.”

Speaking of which, I’ve been watching a lot of cop shows lately. The one I was watching tonight right before bed was about a junkie trying to get clean. I don’t know if he’s gonna make it. His chances look slim. The outlook is glum. And as I sat there watching this poor guy, the word that popped into my head was “darksome.” As in, a “darksome prison house of sin.” Maybe that’s a stretch or a coincidence. Or maybe that old hymn with the old word finally gave me a lens to see and describe an all too common situation for what it is- darksome and seemingly hopeless.

Behold how many thousands still are lying
Bound in the darksome prison house of sin,
With none to tell them of the Savior’s dying,
Or of the life He died for them to win.

Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace;
Tidings of Jesus, redemption and release.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m just a frustrated journalism major who likes fancy words. Or maybe I’m frustrated because this world is darksome and depressing and fallen, and it’s sometimes hard to find the right word to express just that.

It’s getting late, and a preacher rambling about strange old words like “darksome” the day before he has to preach borders on “gloomily somber” in its own right. Fair enough, but it’s also important to understand the darksomeness (spellcheck doesn’t like that, but let’s run with it) of this world so that you can know how much and how urgently we need to publish glad tidings, tidings of peace, tidings of Jesus, redemption and release.

Here’s a link to the full lyrics of the hymn, O Zion, Haste, Your Mission High Fulfllling: http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/z/ozionhas.htm

Why You Should Never Go to Vegas – Paul George Middle-of-the-Night Injury Machinations

I’ve added a postscript one year after this post was originally written. 

It was a freak injury, but it was gruesome, and it made a grown man cry.

I’m not talking about myself, by the way. Yes, I really wish Paul George, one of the NBA’s on-the-rise stars and the best player on my favorite team, wouldn’t have shattered his lower right leg on Friday during a glorified scrimmage for Team USA in Sin City. Yes, the ripple effects are huge. (What happens to Team USA, now that one of its top 6 guys is out? What happens to the Pacers, who just lost Lance Stephenson, another young mini-star, in free agency and are just two years removed from franchise player Danny Granger’s career-altering injury? What happens to NBA guys in the Olympics and world championships? Word is that this will be a rallying cry to let the millionaire ballers rest over the summer and remove one more injury risk. Owners wanna protect their investments/assets.) But after I moved through the stages of grief in short order, including bargaining and denial simultaneously, I slept. Well, I slept until my daughter woke up, but that’s the cost of having the world’s cutest 15-month-old. But Kyrie Irving, the #1 overall pick 4 years ago, was crying like a baby on his dad’s shoulder, according to ESPN’s Mark Jones, as he contemplated Paul George’s fate.

If you saw the injury, you understand why. It was so bad that ESPN wouldn’t show the replay more than twice- once right afterwards and once on SportsCenter. I tried to watch a second time, and I jerked my head away at the last second. It was every bit as bad as Joe Theisman’s famous leg injury, only Lawrence Taylor wasn’t involved.

It’s so bad that the whole NBA seems to be praying for Paul George on Twitter. One of his teammates lives in Vegas (Why, CJ Watson? Why?) and made his way to the hospital. Kobe is apparently going to Vegas, just because. George has already had surgery. As I guessed, it was a compound tib-fib fracture. And, yes, that means the bone came through his skin. A ball boy shielded the scene with a towel so that cameras couldn’t show that part on TV.

It all adds up to this – Everyone feels terrible for Paul George.

And this is where I’m gonna take an interesting turn for a Pacers fan – How bad is it really? While I wouldn’t wish that injury on my worst enemy, George still has a guaranteed contract worth between $90-$100 million. Then there’s the Papa John’s money, the Nike money and the Gatorade money. Is that cold? Am I morbid? Do I have something against him? No, no and no. I hope he recovers fully after what is probably gonna be a lost season for him (and his team, possibly). I hope he has no lasting effects. I hope his offense finally catches up with his otherworldly defense. I hope he plays for Team USA in 2016 and wins gold. (Actually, maybe he should take the summer off.)

But as I was scanning social media, waiting for my daughter to fall back asleep, looking for just one link that said George’s injury wasn’t as bad as first feared, I noticed something. It was from Voice of the Martyrs. It was about Iraqi Christians who fled their homes recently. The last 200 Christians in Mosal fled home and left behind most of their worldly possessions as their Muslim persecutors robbed them of what they carried on their persons at security checkpoints.

The word “tragedy” is gonna get tossed around the Paul George situation, and I have no problem with that. Sure, he’s a millionaire. But he’s also a young man whose life just changed in an instant, all because he hustled and tried to block a shot during a scrimmage. That is tragic. Nobody’s life is inherently better because of that injury. It’s a crappy sign of a fallen world. Injuries happen. Careers get put on hold, as Team USA’s Derrick Rose can no doubt attest after two lost seasons of his own. (P.s. Rose looked fabulous Friday. I hope he’s really back.)

Is the gruesome, freak injury that Paul George suffered (that made Kyrie Irving cry) – is it tragic? Of course it is.

But so is the thought of 200 Christians being forced from their homes because they aren’t Muslim. Compound leg fractures are gruesome. So are the things that happen to Christians when they fall into the hands of terrorists.

In the meantime, get well soon, Paul George. And come quickly, Lord Jesus. (And please let my daughter stay asleep, if you don’t come back soon.)
Postscript: Let me attempt to update you on some of those points from above, one year later. 

• Here’s a great story by Scott Agness, summarizing George’s last year: Paul George Injury, One Year Later.
• One Agness highlight: “George made his debut in the No. 13 jersey on April 15th, at home against the Miami Heat and scored 13 points.” PG-13 with 13 points in his post-injury debut? Yep, it really happened. 
• The Pacers definitely missed Paul George. They also missed Lance Stephenson, and the Charlotte Hornets (Lance’s new team) missed him, too. Love you, Lance. Good luck with Doc and co. in L.A. Listen to Doc, CP3 and DeAndre. (The first two for their acumen. The last one because he’s big and scary.)
• Team USA won gold, but not with ease. One of Coach K’s better international coaching jobs, depending on your feelings about the Plumlee brothers. 
• The Pacers still played Top-10 defense for 90% of the season and still struggled to score, though George Hill improved, Rodney Stuckey was a nice sixth-man addition, and C.J. Miles got hot from deep a few times. Overall? They gritted and grinded to 38 wins, losing the season finale (which would’ve clinched the eighth spot in the East) to the original Grit-N-Grinders, the Memphis Grizzlies. 
• Despite what you read above, I thought last year was some of Frank Vogel’s best coaching. 
• Oh, btw, George came back to play a handful of games at what Larry Bird described as 65% health. It was nice to see. 
• George is headed to Team USA’s minicamp later this summer. Attendance is all-but-mandatory for consideration for the 2016 Olympic team. 
• Kyrie Irving, who has battled his own injuries and who cried on his dad’s shoulder at the sight of George’s compound fracture, battled injuries again this year, particularly in the NBA Finals. He was banged up going in, played splendidly in Game 1, then hurt his knee in OT and missed the rest of the series. Some numbskull suggested that Cleveland would’ve beaten Golden State if he was healthy. I disagree, but he would’ve made it even more interesting. Get well, Kyrie. 
• My daughter (2 years and 3 months old today) is still the most adorable thing in the world. She still doesn’t sleep well. 
• ISIS – Still wreaking havoc. There are still things more important than basketball. 
• Come quickly, Lord Jesus!