Tuesday Odds and Ends

The Peculiar Twittering of A.D. Vassallo
When I was creeping around Twitter, I came across some bizarre messages from A.D. Vassallo, former Virginia Tech stand-out and NBA non-draftee. His Twitter was covered in what I think were a little over a hundred different Tweets to various NBA players, siblings of various NBA players, coaches, and owners asking for help since he went undrafted. He was desperately trying to get in touch with anyone who could help him figure out what to do and was shamelessly begging for advice from anyone with any connection to the NBA. He also talked a lot of trash about how he could take Tyler Hansbrough or anyone else from the ACC. It was the most amazingly candid and desperate thing I've seen in sometime. That was yesterday. I check back today and there were only five total Tweets on his page. The one on top announces that he's playing summer league for the Bulls. All the other Tweets appear to have been deleted. Weird. Anyway, for all you A.D. Vassallo fans, here is the new desperation-free Twitter page

Speaking of Which...
Tyler Hansbrough debuted in the NBA or at least in summer league with a pretty decent first game yesterday. Today's game was even better, apparently.Long story short on the Hansbrough front: he's doing the things that made him successful in college plus shooting the three and for some reason people seem surprised. You can keep up with the Orlando summer league here and even stream the games live to show what a stupidly hardcore NBA fan you are.

TRUTH: This blog was almost named "The Sorrows of Young Hansbrough."

Department of Nicknames
Here is a completely awesome list of Chinese nicknames for NBA players compiled on the official NBA page back in 2007. This deserves greater comment, but for now, let's let the thing speak for itself. Also, here is a pretty great list of nicknames for each and every player selected in the 2009 draft. Actually, it bears mentioning that this is a pretty great and hilarious blog. Here is some of the Blowtorch's coverage of Tyler Hansbrough.

Things FreeDarko Addressed Better Than Me
Recently I have tried to address a number of topics and, generally speaking, I think I had something new to add to the conversation, even if I was taking the discussion into a different, and, admittedly stupider direction. What's worse is when freedarko keeps fucking doing you one better, including kicking your ass from the archives. That's the worst. So, without further adieu, I display my inferiority complex and point you to some fine-n-trenchant writing from FD on topics that I've recently written about.

On Rasheed (cf. Durrr, Why Everyone Call Sheed Mercurial?)

On Ron Artest (cf. No Seriously, What's With This Mercurial Thing?)

On Kobe's Sociopathy (cf. The Internet Thinks Kobe Could Kill You and Feel Nothing)

That said, I don't think the things I said are wrong, just more tangential and less interesting than what them FD boys bring to the table.