I would like to take some time to show some sincere gratitude to the editors at ESPN, my editor Kyle at Truth About It, and Ryan, my former editor at Hoops Addict. They have this magical way of being able to coax another line, another paragraph, more description and more passion out of you, just when you thought you had reached your own writing limitations. They don't tell you exactly what to write, but they drop a few choice words that almost throw down the gauntlet and say, "Look I know you THOUGHT what you wrote was the sh*t, but if you did this, this and that, it would be even better, and I know you're fully capable of doing it, so just do it".

For example, I wrote two articles yesterday, the second of which was finished around 11pm or so. I was tired, hungry, and I wanted to watch the Lakers game and spend some time with my wife--in that order too. I submitted my article and got ready to sit my ass down and relax, but my main man Kyle sent this message back to me:

Very nice stuff Rashad. I would, however, like for you to tell a bit of what happened on the court. Set the scene, describe how you observed LeBron and Wade to be carrying themselves ... I know you have that good ability to analyze people in this regard. I'm going to go edit some good pictures to go with, let me know what you think. Thank you sir.

Now my first impulse was to gift wrap at GFY, and send it right back to his ass via email. The I calmed down and re-read his email, then I re-read what I had written, and I realized he was 100% right. My story had a fever, and the prescription was more words, more description, and yes, more cowbell. I took about 10-15 minutes and wrote a few more paragraphs, and resubmitted my article--and it was to Kyle's satisfaction. Win-Win. So I thank you Kyle and everyone like you who has helped me grow (pause).

Now that article was about Dwyane Wade's backhanded compliments towards the Wizards, and you can read that right here. The earlier in the day I wrote an article about how the movie Star Wars compared to the Wizards/Heat game the other night, and that can be found right here. And finally the ESPN piece I contributed to, is right here. I want you to read them, but you don't give a good goddamn, please forward them on to your basketball friends.

And finally I'm going to post a video that's funny to me..I hope no one gets offended: