Sunday, July 30, 2023

Lakers to Retire LeBron's Number

The Lakers say they will retire LeBron’s number when he retires – because they “always retire the player’s number when he enters the hall of fame”. But which number? LeBron has only been with the Lakers for 5 seasons, and 2023-2024 will be season six. James wore 23 his first 3 seasons with the Lakers but changed to 6 to honor Bill Russell. Since the NBA is retiring Russell’s number 6 leaguewide, James is switching back to 23 next season. The Lakers did not retire the numbers for Karl Malone or Gary Payton.

Get this: the Miami Heat retired 23 for Michael Jordan even though he never played for the Heat. The Heat also retired 13 for Dan Marino, and now 6 for Bill Russell. Not sure what they’ll do when LeBron retires.

Players whose number was retired by two teams: Hank Aaron. Greg Maddux. Probably Wayne Gretzky. Also Jackie Robinson and Bill Russell. Not sure about Kareem. Can you think of anyone else?

Bill Russell played 3 years in college and won 2 national championships. Played in one Olympics and won the gold medal. Played 13 seasons with the Celtics and won 11 NBA championships. That’s 14 championships in 17 opportunities. But like Babe Ruth, today’s know-it-all kids throw shade on Russell, saying it wasn’t as tough back then, playing against a bunch of short white boys.

Vendor brought in pizza for lunch Thursday, from Pizanos in downtown Norcross. Brad only likes meat on his pizza (no vegetables), and they didn’t disappoint. Good stuff. Highly recommended.

Speaking of food, the annual JFBC men’s dinner is September 14. They will look at impactful movie scenes and characters to make connections to the Gospel. Click here to register

Loving that K-rom com King of the Land, about the petulant son of a hotel owner and a young lady just hired by the hotel. Rated TV-14 so hopefully it won’t get too bad for C. She watched with interest, though you have to read the subtitles.

Our longtime switchboard operator Margo passed away recently. She worked with us for 29 years. Steve Apollo hired her over when we were all at the gold building, and she eventually moved over to corporate when the offices consolidated. A year or so ago she learned she had cancer, and moved back to Jersey to be near family. Margo was a quiet, dignified lady. When the guys would cut up Margo would look down and quietly chuckle, which I always liked to see. Back in the late 90’s my young kids would occasionally make an appearance in the office, so since then Margo would ask how they were doing. Shane would go over and wreak havoc in the sales office, and ask Margo if anyone needed to be let go. Margo will be missed.

I used to know the entire Bulls roster. Before that I knew just about all the Pistons, Celtics, Lakers, & Hawks. Most of the Sixers. They had a great starting 5 - Dr J, Moses Malone, Bobby Jones, Barkley, Mo Cheeks, Anthony Toney.

North Point’s assistant pastor is delivering a series of messages on friendship. I wanted to listen, and share it with certain people in my life. The first message is called “Image is Everything”.

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://northpoint.org/messages/friendology/image-is-everything?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=email_this&utm_source=email__;!!AE29DT8V!Si4KgB0rSUHZmtMNkfA69TIBgd0scYak7Lo8ObUeAtpPXY-pFxEPAXRz12GFFrlHsuTbJkH9aR1wtDGnzV0$

BAD JOKE: the recycling service from my waste management company is so bad, I’m going to fire them and start throwing all my plastic into the ocean.

DENISON: cultural scholar Walter Russell Mead explained the narrative that fuels many young Americans’ resentment of their country. “America is a nation founded on “the atrocities of slavery, the destruction of indigenous peoples, the economic exploitation of poor people and immigrants, and the failure to offer equal opportunities to women. Our traditional sexual morality was “deeply immoral” in that “it repressed women”. The result was a “new synthesis that found its voice among the so-called woke”. If this is unfamiliar to you, you are probably not a young adult educated in a university where this narrative is conventional wisdom. In this view, evangelical Christians, with our defense of biblical sexuality and popularity among older white Americans, are especially part of the problem – and dangerous to the solution. For people who subscribe to this narrative, perception quickly becomes reality. They do not attend our worship services or live by biblical morality as we understand it. So because our faith is viewed as irrelevant to their lives, it becomes so.

Season 2: the episode when Jerry has to pay extra for illegal cable. Still a deal all these years later.

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