The Answer

Allen Iverson has been my favorite NBA player for many years now, because of his grit and heart. Despite his occasional outbursts, he gives everything he's got to his team. He's one of the most entertaining players in the league, and also one of the most competitive.

So of course the Nuggets, who the last few years have made a habit of torturing me by talking about big moves and making the leap, but then signing guys like Reggie Evans and Howard Eisley, have been linked to Iverson in trade talks ever since we found out AI was available. Usually when you hear about the Nuggets involvement, its that "the Sixers aren't interesting in Denver's offer for Iverson."

I know they are just tormenting me, because we don't have anything anyone wants at this point. They don't want Miller and K-Mart/Camby. The Sixers want youth, and not another hobbling microfracture surgery power forward with a huge contract.

I don't care though. I'm all for throwing all our draft picks at them, and whatever else we can sweeten the deal with. AI would make us a championship contender immediately. He is exactly, exactly, exactly what the Nuggets have needed the last two seasons, a premier perimeter/driving scorer to complement Melo. Melo/AI would be the most fearsome scoring combo in the league. How long have the Nuggets needed a shooter/penetrator to spread the defense that collapses around Melo everytime he touches the ball? I know he's getting old and banged up, but come on. 33 points a game last year. People say that if you've got Melo and AI on the same court, who takes the last shot? Well, the opposing team has to be wondering the same thing.

Plus, the AI Nuggets jersey might become the best selling jersey in the NBA. And that stuff matters. I'm dead serious.

I'm all about mortaging the future, if only to give us a couple of shots right now. I'd hate to agree with the Denver Post's Mark Kiszla about anything, at anytime, but AI is the answer. Pull the trigger Denver. Make it happen.

No More Cisco

The Nuggets declined to match the Spurs offer of $3 million a year to Francisco Elson, their back-up center.

I'm not saying I didn't appreciate Elson's contributions when the Nuggets were decimated by injuries last year, because he played hard and never complained, even when he was parked on the bench. But I'm fine with him leaving. Honestly, I don't know where the Nuggets were finding these guys. With the departure of Buckner, Elson and Kiki, I think the Nuggets are really turning a corner.

Warkentein is rumored to have an excellent eye for talent, so hopefully this will mean an end to drafting people like Skeeter and signing free-agents I've never, ever heard of.

Growth in the Denver-Metro area

It is good to see that there is finally a concerted effort towards developing downtown Denver as a true urban area. Colorado's growth, especially in the Denver/Metro region has been incredibly reckless over the past couple of decades. In a region that prides itself on wide open spaces and a positive relationship with the environment, it has always been sickening to see Denver grow out instead of up.

A quick drive down US-36 or south on I-25 reveals how short-sighted development has been. The landscape is choked with sprawling clusters of duplexes and single-family homes, retail areas and office parks. There are no decent mass-transit options (light-rail is just getting on its feet), and no centralized location for businesses to locate. People are coming from every direction to and from work and home. Instead of establishing downtown Denver as a centralized hub for business, developers set up shop at every point between Denver and the outlying communities. The result is that downtown remained dead, and there was no logical place to put mass-transit.

Finally, the city of Denver and responsible and innovative developers made the committment to establish downtown as the transportation, commercial, retail and residential hub of the region. The goal is to eventually see high-rise towers and dense development replace the weedy parkings downtown, and draw people in rather than build yet another cookie-cutter community or office park on the rolling plains and foothills leading to the mountains.

Downtown Denver is finally on its way towards being a vibrant urban community, a place where people can walk to work, dinner, a play and a ballgame, without ever getting in a car. The environmental, economic and aesthetic advantages of this are enormous.

The next steps are for a retailer such as Target or a grocery store such as Whole Foods to set up shop somewhere downtown to service the needs of the growing downtown population, and for something to be done to connect the large Auraria campus with downtown. Hopefully, someone will step up to the plate sooner rather than later.

Casino Royale

I never understood the passionate criticism of the selection of Daniel Craig to play James Bond. I care more about the Bond franchise than probably anyone, and after seeing Layer Cake, I thought that Eon Productions and Sony hit a homerun. I'm extremely excited about Casino Royale, and I'm intrigued to see what they've done with this movie.

I heard it was a little rougher and darker, and that's a very good thing. The Bond franchise needed to trim the fat a little and return with a leaner, more gritty movie. Die Another Day was slick, true to the character and very entertaining, but they've taken the action sequences and gadgets about as far as they can without ruining the movie by straining believability to the breaking point. Not that films like Moonraker were too concerned with that, but I'd like to see them reign it in a bit.

Craignotbond.com needs to shut down their pathetic little site and get on board with the movie finally. They're doing more damage to the Bond franchise than anything the producers ever did. I can't believe all the childishness going on here. Listen, Sean Connery is never coming back.

The only thing that gets me fired up about the recent Bond movies are the theme songs. Sheryl Crow and Madonna's tracks have been horrendous, not just as theme songs but as music in general. And I like those artists. I find it hard to believe that St. Etienne's version of the Tomorrow Never Dies theme song was not at least 543% better than the Crow song.

The last I heard, Tony Christie was writing the theme song, and Robbie Williams had been batted about as the performer. That's old news though, so I don't know what the more recent developments are. The Goldfrapp rumor was unfortunately untrue.

Here's a short list of groups who could write and perform a song better than any in recent memory: Portishead/Beth Gibbons, Morcheeba, St. Etienne, Goldfrapp...

There's an entire legion of musicians who take inspiration from the classic Bond and spy-thriller music, why not use one of them?

Here's the trailer:

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/casinoroyale/site/

Miami Vice movie

Comes out 7.28.06

Simply put, Michael Mann is the man. I'm a little skeptical about the casting of Farrell and Foxx, but Mann must know what he's doing. The plot sounds intriguing, and I imagine the movie has a relationship to the city of Miami similar to Collateral's with Los Angeles. Mann painstakingly researches his movies and projects to make them as real and believable as possible, from the vocabularly of cops and criminals to the way they handle their weapons. I don't know if Miami Vice will work, but it will look and feel great.

There's a good chance this blog will turn into an ode to Michael Mann at some point, but I'll resist the urge as long as possible.

Nuggets News: J.R. Smith

The Nuggets are about to sign J.R. Smith, formerly of the Hornets to shore up their woeful shooting guard problems. Smith is somewhat notorious at this point for supposedly having a bad attitude and not being as accurate from behind the arc as he thinks he is.

I'm pretty excited about this though, for a variety of reasons:

1) Even if he wasn't as accurate as he could be, he still shot better from 3 than anyone from last year's team.

2) He's an offensive threat, and at least demands attention on the perimeter. He should stop defenses from packing the lane against the Nuggets and double- or triple-teaming Melo.

3) He's an incredible athlete, and definitely brings some excitement to a team that needs some.

4) His contract is small, and he's got a lot to prove.

I'm a little worried about how he'll get along with Karl, because Smith is a pretty awful defender right now. But it seems like a kid with that much athleticism just needs some motivation to be a good defender. He's 6'6", so it's not as though he is physically incapable of guarding other 2's in the NBA.

Good move by the Nuggets.

Here's some highlight mixes of J.R. on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CumeGVCEftE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_wYrAVqWos

The 117 Best Comedies

In response to Bravo's atrocious list, here is the actual list of Best Comedies:

1. Raising Arizona
2. Ghostbusters
3. Anchorman
4. Wedding Crashers
5. National Lampoon’s Vacation
6. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
7. Caddyshack
8. The Blues Brothers
9. There’s Something About Mary
10. Three Amigos
11. Office Space
12. Animal House
13. Rushmore
14. The Big Lebowski
15. Money Pit
16. Old School
17. Dr. Strangelove
18. Naked Gun
19. Airplane!
20. Naked Gun 2 ½
21. Spies Like Us
22. National Lampoon’s European Vacation
23. The Addams Family
24. Fletch
25. Groundhog Day
26. Super Troopers
27. Meet the Parents
28. Billy Madison
29. Better Off Dead
30. The Life Aquatic
31. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
32. Dumb and Dumber
33. Clerks
34. The Jerk
35. Best in Show
36. This is Spinal Tap
37. Wayne’s World
38. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
39. Election
40. Kingpin
41. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
42. Tommy Boy
43. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
44. So I Married an Ax Murderer
45. Friday
46. What About Bob?
47. The Princess Bride
48. My Cousin Vinny
49. Swingers
50. Trading Places
51. Sixteen Candles
52. Back to the Future I
53. Uncle Buck
54. High Fidelity
55. Brewster’s Millions
56. The Royal Tenenbaums
57. Van Wilder
58. Stripes
59. Blazing Saddles
60. PCU
61. Bad News Bears
62. The Return of the Pink Panther
63. Coming to America
64. Waiting for Guffman
65. L.A. Story
66. Bottle Rocket
67. Next Friday
68. American Pie
69. Young Frankenstein
70. The Pink Panther
71. Hot Shots!
72. Kentucky Fried Movie
73. Major League
74. Sean of the Dead
75. Fast Times at Ridgemont High
76. A Mighty Wind
77. Planes, Trains and Automobiles
78. Happy Gilmore
79. Mallrats
80. Being John Malkovich
81. Evil Dead II
82. Grosse Point Blank
83. The Waterboy
84. Hot Shots: Part Deux
85. Ace Venture: Pet Detective
86. Back to School
87. Napoleon Dynamite
88. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
89. Naked Gun 33 1/3
90. National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation
91. Weird Science
92. Liar, Liar
93. Revenge of the Nerds
94. Strange Brew
95. Grumpy Old Men
96. Scrooged
97. Mr. Mom
98. Friday After Next
99. Spaceballs
100. Club Paradise
101. Men in Black
102. Beetlejuice
103. Dragnet
104. Zoolander
105. Loaded Weapon I
106. Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
107. Me, Myself and Irene
108. Not Another Teen Movie
109. Cable Guy
110. Summer Rental
111. Saving Silverman
112. Clueless
113. Team America: World Police
114. Mars Attacks!
115. Home Alone
116. A Christmas Story
117. Big