hey everyone. just wanted to let you know that i'm the new online editor at hoopmag.com ... come check it out! also, please add hoop's facebook & twitter pages when you get a chance. thanks, ... darryl howerton

granted, i still haven't seen "somewhere," "the king's speech," "winter's bone," "the kids are all right," "the ghost writer," "carlos" or "a prophet" just yet, but the films & performances listed below are my favorites that i saw in the 2010 calendar year ... happy new year, everyone! [update: i saw "somewhere" and LOVED IT! ... moved it up to #2 on my list here] 1. "the social network" 2. "somewhere" 2. "the fighter" 3. "the book of eli" 4. "the town" 5. "love and other drugs" 6. "machete" 7. "true grit" 8. "chloe" 9. "the next three days" 10. "grown ups" favorite performances 2010 amy adams in "the fighter" ben affleck in "the town" christian bale in "the fighter" stephen dorff in "somewhere" jesse eisenberg in "the social network" elle fanning in "somewhere" john franco in "127 hours" andrew garfield in "the social network" greta gerwig in "greenberg" rebecca hall in "the town" armie hammer in "the social network" anne hathaway in "love and other drugs" mila kunis in "the book of eli" & "black swan" melissa leo in "the fighter" rooney mara in "the social network" chloe moretz in "kick-ass" chris pontius in "somewhere" natalie portman in "black swan" amanda seyfried in "chloe" hailee steinfeld in "true grit" justin timberlake in "the social network" danny trejo in "machete" mark wahlberg in "the fighter" denzel washington in "the book of eli" mia wasikowska in "alica in wonderland" naomi ...

featuring mark zuckerberg. from time. ... photo from time time person of the year 2011: darryl howerton???, lol ... photo from time's facebook "create your own person of the year cover"

i'd been wondering for awhile how adjusted plus-minus team projections would stack up with expert opinions ... so before the season started, i put together an extensive apm team projection preview based primarily on three-year apm scores and playing-time percentages ... and now that we're almost a month into 2010-11, i am now here to compare how my apm predictions are faring against espn's 93 best basketball minds, espn's foremost projection expert john hollinger, along with kevin pelton's schoene predictions. and sad to say--even though the season is far from over--hollinger and espn's consensus opinions both are beating my apm numbers ... i determined this by using my give-or-take-5 grading system on pace wins versus projected wins to see who is projecting best ... and that analysis gave me the following tallies (like golf, low score wins): hollinger, 69; espn, 82; apm, 97; schoene, 131. next question is, how did i determine these following pace-win totals? well, by combining actual 2010-11 records (so far) with each team's simple rating system score ... with that, i was able to put together a master key to serve as an unbiased source to grade our projections against, using these current season numbers as pace win ...

Here’s my attempt at an unbiased look at the upcoming NBA season, using my 3Score version of time-weighed three-year adjusted plus-minus numbers—based on the one-year and two-year numbers posted by Aaron Barzilai at his website BasketballValue.com—as a predictive element for the 2010-11 campaign. Adjustments may have been made for players on the rise (24 and younger) or on the decline (32 and older), but these exceptions all had to meet certain criteria for the pre-determined increases or decreases. When adjusted plus-minus numbers were not available for limited role players, I used raw +/- numbers from Roland Beech’s 82Games.com, with most of these players being marginalized in the deep bench section of each team. For rookies, I used various college/overseas plus-minus tools and advanced statistics metrics, along with John Hollinger’s Draft Rater, to properly place collegiate and foreign rookies in pre-determined slots where past rookies graded out in APM. For team playing-time assessments, I started out with a three-year average as a base score for everyone, trying to keep that number fixed for most top rotation players, while making adjustments as needed for second-stringers and such. Adjustments were also made for players on the rise, players on the decline and players who would have ...

man's best friend he was ... always there. always there waiting. waiting, alongside his little brother ... by the window. at the door. on my laptop. then on my lap ... always there. waiting for me to come home. always waiting with unconditional love. now he's in Heaven where the loving live eternally. probably playing with grandma right now. i'll see you someday, joshua. i know you'll be waiting for me. because you are always there. love, darryl

everybody is now talking about kobe's place in history ... i think by looking at the most accomplished nba mvps in basketball history, it's easy to see kobe is now a top 10 all-timer ... and at age 31, he has plenty of time to climb even higher on this list as he stacks up even more nba accomplishments in the future ... i can't put kobe up there just yet with russell, jordan & kareem. but kobe has certainly entered the pantheon of magic, duncan, shaq, wilt & bird. take a look yourself & rank kobe where you see fit in comparison to his fellow nba legends ... MEDAL COUNTS OF THE NBA MVPs players.............rings..mvp..top5...russell...allnba...years LeBron James......0.......2.......5.........0.........6..........7 Kobe Bryant.........5.......1.......8.........2........12........14 Dirk Nowitzki........0.......1.......3.........0........10........12 Steve Nash..........0.......2.......3.........0.........7........14 Kevin Garnett.......1.......1.......4.........0.........9........15 Tim Duncan.........4.......2.......9.........3........13........13 Allen Iverson........0.......1.......3.........0.........7........14 Shaquille O’Neal..4.......1.......8.........3........14........17 Karl Malone ........0.......2.......8.........0........14*.......19 Michael Jordan...6.......5.......10........6........11*.......15 David Robinson...2.......1.......5.........0........10........14 H. Olajuwon.........2.......1.......6.........2........12*......18 Charles Barkley...0.......1.......4.........0........11*.......16 Magic Johnson....5.......3.......9.........3........10*.......13 Larry Bird............3.......3.......9.........2........10*......13 Moses Malone@..1.......3.......5.........1.........8*.......19 Julius Erving@....1.......1.......5.........0.........7*.......11 K. Abdul-Jabbar...6.......6.....15.........2........15*.......20 Bill Walton...........1.......1.......2.........1.........2*.......10 Bob McAdoo........2.......1.......3.........0.........2*.......14 Dave Cowens......2.......1.......4.........0.........3*.......10 Willis Reed..........2.......1.......3.........2.........5*.......10 Wes Unseld ........1.......1.......1.........1.........1*.......13 Wilt Chamberlain..2.......5.....10.........1#......10*.......14 Bill Russell........11.......5......11........0#......11*.......13 Oscar Robertson..1.......1.......9.........0#......11*.......14 Bob Pettit............1.......2+.....8.........0#......11*.......11 Bob Cousy..........6.......1+.....4+........0#......12*......14 * In the 1988-89 season, the NBA expanded its All-NBA teams from two teams to three teams. # The NBA did not have a Russell NBA Finals MVP award until the 1968-69 season. @ Only NBA honors are included above ... for the record, Malone had an additional 2 ABA seasons ... Erving had 5 additional ABA seasons with 2 ABA rings, ...