Lebron carried his team to the NBA finals against the San Antonio Spurs. They lost but that is to be expected when your teammates aren’t there for you. He is the main talent, he doesn’t have a Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, or Tony Parker to help him. In the Eastern Conference Finals he carried his team against the Pistons. He scored 50 points in one game to keep them alive.

He has been wanting a trade to Dallas or New York, but neither deal went threw. It seems no one has enough cap room to pay for him. He would easily win a ring in Dallas or Chicago, but no such luck. He better hope he gets some better talent around him. He can ask Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnett about that miserable feeling. Just look at what happened once Garnett got surrounded by stars–a championship that’s what!

I mean this guy took his team to the playoffs in his third year with the Cavaliers. He was averaging 30.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 5.8 assist in the playoffs that year. Talk about earning your money’s worth.

James will get a better point guard this year in Mo Williams. Mo was averaging 17.2 points, 6.3 assists, and 1.2 steals a game last year. If he can keep those stats up and dish it to James enough, the team will be doing much better. They still have Ben Wallace on defense to scoop up the boards. They could still use a better shooting guard because Sacha Pavlovic is not very good. They could trade both draft picks for an good shooting guard like Mike Miller from the Minnesota Timberwolves.

I think the Cavaliers will get to the Eastern Conference Finals again this year. It will take a lot of grit and determination to get past the Boston Celtics, who are looking to repeat from last year.

Clarke Baldwin is a journalist who has worked for Dallas Morning News and other publications. You can find his site at Super Media Blog and this article at Lebron James the Best Player in the NBA.

During his first five games of the preseason, the Spaniard has done amazing things. Fernandez has surprised everyone; he has been the fourth scorer of the team with 12 points per game, he is also the third in assists with 4.0 per game and the team’s leader in steals with 2.6 per game.

The Blazers fans are impressed with Fernandez’s talent; he is just a complete player who can do anything, from scoring, passing, and dunking to defending. His efforts to help the team is a whole from start to finish; he is for the coaches and teammates someone who could be a key player for the beginning of this season 2008-2009 and quite possibly, the next Rookie of the Year.

Fernandez started his professional career with DKV Joventut in 2001, winning over the years not only championships but also recognized with personal awards as a key player. His best years so far have been the 2006 and this year 2008.

The Spaniard won the 2006 and 2008 Catalan League titles, the FIBA Eurocup 2006 and the 2008 Spanish King’s Cup and ULEB Cup Championships. In 2004, he was awarded for the first time as the Spanish King’s Cup MVP, and then in 2006 as the FIBA EuroCup Final Four MVP. Later, he was awarded with one of the most important awards, the Euroleague 2006-07 season’s Rising Star Award. Moreover, this 2008 he was recognized as the Spanish King’s Cup MVP, the ULEB Cup Final MVP, and the Catalan League Final MVP.

Internationally, Fernandez has accomplished great things for the Spanish National Team; he led the team to the 2004 Olympics Basketball Tournament and to the 2006 FIBA World Championship, scoring 9.1 points per game and winning the gold medal. He also played at the 2007 European Championship, where his country won the silver medal. Recently at the Olympics in Beijing, even though Spain lost the final game against the USA team, they played in a great way and Rudy Fernandez contributed with 22 points, playing only 18 minutes.

As everyone can notice, even with Fernandez’s young age, he has gained plenty of experience throughout the years and he has shown that he carries great basketball under his skin. Now with the Trail Blazers, Rudy will need to adjust certain things on his game so he can adapt to the energetic and strong U.S basketball. We all know this is not being a difficult job for Fernandez, since he has already shown in the preseason that basketball is basketball anywhere in the world and his experience will help him grow as a player in the NBA.

Many are foreseeing a great future for Fernandez in the NBA and have faith that he could become a player that could make a difference in the league. We hope the best for this Rookie NBA player.

About the Author

Ally White is a top senior copy writer on NBA games and sports action for the sportsbook - http://www.instantactionsports.com/

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety on your site, make sure to leave all links in place and do not modify any of the content

The nests themselves are tiny translucent cups about the size of a small egg. They are made by the male swiftlet from glutinous threads of its own saliva, which it weaves into a cup that dries to become thin and translucent like fine porcelain. Chinese parents feed bird’s nest soup, cooked with chicken broth or coconut milk, to their children in the belief that it will improve their complexions, promote growth and generally act as a tonic. Recent research has indeed shown that the nests, which taste rather like noodles, contain a water-soluble glycoprotein that may promote cell division in the immune system.

The low-down - Birds Nest Climbers of Thailand

Nest collecting is skilled and dangerous work, high up on the ceilings of the caves which abound on the Thai coast and its offshore islands. The intrepid collector shins barefoot up rickety trellises of bamboo scaffolding, ropes and bridges, tapping as he goes to make sure the bamboo is sound. He lights his way in the black caves with a torch of bark soaked in resin held between his teeth and uses a special three-pronged tool called a rada to harvest the nests. To use bare hands to pick a nest displeases and angers the gods.

If a nest is too old it cannot be made into top quality soup, but can be made into second rate soup. A nest needs to be made from fresh saliva, with no feathers or dirt. A fresh nest is white, an old one is black. A bird’s nest is made of nothing but saliva: no twigs, nothing else. It is made in a similar way to fibreglass, with the bird laying lots of threads on top of each other.

A sustainable supply of birds’ nests is ensured and the survival of the species is protected because nests are collected only when empty. The most productive island for nests is Koh Petra, from which over 100kg of nests are collected 3 times in a good year. Koh Lao Liang supplies about 30kg of nests 3 times a year. After the chicks have flown away the mother will eat the nest in order to replenish her energy supply. The collectors, of whom there are 60 in the Koh Petra Marine Park, must find the nest before the mother eats it.

If a collector accidentally touches a nest he will descend at once, taking it as a sign from the gods that it would be dangerous for him to continue climbing that day. During the collecting season, from February to May, the collectors work without food from sunrise until sunset, when the caves fill with flocks of bats and roosting swiftlets. Sometimes nest-gatherers have to swim underwater to reach a submerged cavern or to squeeze through tiny blowhole passages to reach a cave’s ceiling. The caves themselves are often spectacular cathedrals of stalagmites and stalactites, covered in thick carpets ofguano and seething with hordes of golden cockroaches.

Big business - Birds Nest Climbers of Thailand

Birds’ nest collecting is a lucrative business and is tightly controlled. The collectors have an exclusive government concession to collect nests in the Marine Park. The nest-collection concession, which is auctioned every 5 years, costs about THB 100,000,000. The nests are so precious that they are protected by guards during the collection season, in order to deter robbers who might steal them. The guards also protect the birds from natural predators such as snakes, cockroaches and eagles. In spite of the protection afforded by the legitimate authorities, guards have been bribed and nests robbed. One miscreant, for whom the consequences of discovery were very adverse, was detected by his sudden show of wealth, which he had spent on gold necklaces and pick-up trucks.

Western rock-climbers including Trevor Massiah, Steve Findley, Mike Weitzman and Dan Donovan have secured anchors inside some of the caves, so allowing collectors to shimmy up the ropes in total safety. The Koh Lao Liang collectors told this editor that the most useful rope put up for their benefit in 2006 was the rope that Steve and Dan put up on Lao Liang South. The rope put up by Trev and Mike was in an impressive and almost implausibly impossible place, but not terribly useful, as the birds had deserted the cave.

Mike described the process of putting up the anchor:

“At one point I saw Trev facing a 20 metre pendulum swing if he fell. What’s more, the only thing that would then prevent him plummeting 30 metres into the sea was an inadequately small metal nut jammed into a crack and then attached to the rope with a karabiner. I was more fearful for the life of my leader than I had ever been before, or have been since. I was possibly about to become an involuntary landing pad for 80kg of hard-as-limestone Antiguan/Bristolian meat and gristle. Trev was attempting to throw a sling around a thin spike of rock out of his sight, so that he could then secure the rope to the sling. He was blindly and desperately searching for the rock-spike while barely clinging on to rock that was greasy with dirty bat guano.

I was securing Trevor by feeding his rope through a small metal belay (braking) device: if he fell I would apply the brake. Doing this would arrest his fall, but only provided that the inadequately small metal nut wasn’t ripped loose. This was likely to happen if Trev fell. I also was inadequately secured, by a metal hook poorly placed in a shallow pocket of rock. I knew this hook would pop out of the pocket if I fell. Trev, in his usual understated British manner said, “I might be in for a bit of a swing here.” I thought, “If Trev comes off, we’re in for a mid-air cuddle and then a swim - and I don’t at all fancy attempting to swim all tangled up in rope and gear.”

Luckily the blind placement held, so Mike avoided his swim - and his cuddle.

Unsurprisingly, Thai nest-harvesters like the safety that Western rock-climbers and their technology have brought to their jobs. In the past between 2 and 5 people died collecting nests every 5 years; most years one of the 60 collectors died. The usual cause was that the bamboo broke or came out of the hole into which it had been jammed. Prior to collecting, birds’ nest climbers pray and brush their hair. They are forbidden to eat island animals, such as snake, iguana and birds, because these animals belong to the island. In addition they are supposed to remain celibate (that’s the collectors, not the animals).

Simon Ramsdem
siramsden@andamanadventures.com
http://www.andamanadventures.com/climbing.shtml

The best extreme and adventure sports holidays in Thailand - climbing, scuba diving and fishing.

If you check out some of the event tickets sites on the Internet, you’ll probably notice that they offer all kinds of entertainment tickets. From Broadway tickets for musicals such as Wicked to concert tickets to tours such as Dave Matthews Band.

It’s amazing that all you have to do today is turn on your computer and do a search in Google to find tickets to any event you can think of. The tickets get mailed to your house and you never have to lift a finger. The wonder of the modern day is fantastic.

Size matters

The term 20 tooth bicycle chainring actually describes the chainring in question. This means that the chainring has 20 teeth. Chainrings can also have as much as 55 rings of even more. If you watch the bike carefully in motion, you will see that the teeth functions by hooking each link of the passing chain. The width of the chainring can be as narrow as 3/16″ and as wide as 5/64″. Old models and exercise bikes usually require litle width, while hybrid bikes and any bike with nine to ten speed cassette require bigger width.

Types of chainrings

When it comes to shopping for a 20 tooth bicycle chainring, it helps to know the different types of bicycle chainrings. Classic chainrings feature an empty middle. If you own a lightweight bike, this is the option for you. The other types are spoked chainrings and disc chainrings. Bicycle chainrings are also made from various materials like aluminum, titanium and steel.

Important information

Complete information on 20 tooth bicycle chainrings is available at PickyGuide, the authority in free consumer advice. Access top-ranked, best-reviewed, and most competitively priced bicycle chainrings in PickyGuide’s recommended products section.

June 16—Early entry withdrawal deadline.

June 19—Last possible date of NBA finals.

June 26—NBA draft, New York.

July 1—Teams can begin negotiating with free agents.

July 9—Teams can begin signing free agents.