"Can't ask for more than 2 and 0. Any immediate concerns? I thought we looked good out there, though it's early days, obviously, and Honolulu aren't exactly the best team in the conference."

A1.

"We got the results that we wanted, simply as that. It was a pair of good, professional performances and we started off the season on the correct foot."

A2.

"I don't know yet. We have a lot of strong opponents ahead of us - a lot of big games, teams that have turned a corner, teams that have built on past successes. I like the look of our outfit just now and I think we have a solid shot at finishing high in the conference."

A3.

"I was loving our bench this week - Joey, Sunshine, Echo, they all put in strong shifts. Echo especially; he was a block machine! DeShawn, our captain, led by example with some great numbers, and Harry Allan... well, welcome to Hollywood my friend. Great performances from him during this week. Overall, really happy."

A4.

"I think some people are going to point to the centre position and say that's where we're still fallible. Honestly, between Reg and Echo I believe that we have it covered okay. Echo is a very underrated player and Reg has stepped it up a lot since last year."

A5.

"Well we have the old rivalry - Las Vegas, and we welcome Wyoming. Both teams that have played well during the  opening games, like us. I believe we have a great shot at both games here. Aces are strong, always have been, but they also only have two players under 28 years old, and that can be pretty significant in the FBL. I'll tell you one thing - Allan vs. Flan Bulous is a match-up I'm dying to see. It should be a great contest. Wyoming have a decent outfit, built around a great player in Mason Griffin - I should know I signed the guy. Still, I feel that man for man, we really have the edge on Wyoming, especially comparing our benches. If we play to our best we should be going home with a win."

Obviously my flag is nailed to the mast as a Tottenham supporter, but I feel the main reason that we've been reliant on Bale is because of a couple frustrating injuries and, well, Levy being a tight git. I appreciate that in that him being stubborn and sticking to his guns is what kept Modric around for another season and was what got us a mint for him, but when what we obviously needed was another striker, he refused to meet the price on Damaio. Supply and demand, y'know...

In any case, Defoe got hurt just as he was in his flow, Kaboul has been out for almost the entire season and tbh is probably our best defender alongside Vertonghen. At the time Sandro got injured, he was aroundabouts the top in the league for tackles and interceptions per game. He's like Parker (who has lost a step) but better. We've also looked limp without Lennon on occasion... Obviously Bale is the lynchpin, but we missed Sandro particularly in a bad way.

Screw Adebayor though. Do not understand him the slightest. Tries hard for a season or two, can't be bothered after that. Inexplicable.

Being left handed is a vague bit of trivia.

Not bringing up something like homosexuality makes it into a taboo and implies there's something wrong with it. Could not agree less with your friend.

And you know what is great for furthering your prospects at a career? Revealing you're part of a discriminated minority that has some of the strongest and deepest seated sets of prejudices against it!

To be fair I posted it in the NBA thread cause I wasn't sure about how things really work in this forum, I post so rarely.

In seriousness though, I am absolutely thrilled about this, in spite of it not being a sport I follow. I personally hold the belief that it's likely there are quite a lot of closeted athletes - just because purely as a percentage of the population LGBT people are significant enough (and professional sports leagues are large enough) that they MUST be out there - having an active player come out is a huge step in terms of providing a positive role model and example for younger (and future) players.

I know very very little about pro basketball when it doesn't include the prefix 'Fantasy', but I obviously have a very LGBT-attuned outlook, and as such...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/news/20130429/jason-collins-gay-nba-player/

This is awesome. 

I enjoyed WM quite a lot, I have no earthly idea how you can be that overwhelmingly negative about what wasn't a terrible show at all. There wasn't anything that blew my socks off, but I didn't look at any of the matches and go like "Man that was terrible".


Actually the only issues I had with it were that I feel they had the perfect spots to end the Punk/Taker match and the Rock/Cena match and put them on just /before/ the actual finish. (also yes, assuming that the leg drop is Fandango's finisher, having it get kicked out of the first time it ever got used in a match is... not good booking)

"Oh the 13th FU really did me in....the first 12 were nothing".

Erm. Accrued damage over the match? I never understand this as a criticism, that a finisher gets kicked out of and then gets used to finish anyway somehow doesn't make sense. Does that mean the tombstone doesn't count any more? The tombstone gets kicked out of at least once every single Mania, and that doesn't diminish it as a move... actually the fact that one useage of a move doesn't end the match and another does... that's just called selling.

Anyway, I personally just feel the exchange of attempted Rock/Cena finishes should've happened BEFORE the end, and the actual finish should've been the attempted People's Elbow. I unashamedly marked out when Cena hit the ropes and then STOPPED himself, have Rock that little smirk, and 'you can't see me'd him. If he'd AA'd and won there that would've been beyond awesome... possibly because it'd have been incredibly heel, but it would've been amazing.

And Taker eating the GTS, hitting the ropes and then tombstoning I just feel would've been a more emphatic ending than the one that they had *shrugs*.

Also, regarding Bork/HHH, whilst yes Triple H won and eh, didn't really need to, it kind've cuts both ways. Neither of them are there full time, it's not like you can argue that HHH was denying Brock rub. Also, Brock survived the kimura for something like five straight minutes, THEN needed to get DDT'd, THEN got hit with the sledgehammer, THEN had to get pedigree'd on steps to get pinned. He still looks like a monster from that. Having said that, the Tons of Funk/Rhodes Scholars match should've gone on after Punk/Taker... because the crowd were burned to death after that match and it hurt the beginning of this one.