lethalweapon3

phew...

Quiz question 2: Which low-round Hawks draft pick was recently a sparring partner for MMA superstar Mirko CroCop? ~lw3

(Courtesy: Wikipedia) Jorge González played in Argentina's first division league for the Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata and also for the Argentina national basketball team. He was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the third round of the 1988 NBA Draft. In 1989, Hawks owner Ted Turner offered González a job as a professional wrestler with another of his ventures, World Championship Wrestling (WCW). After a year of training, Gonzales was introduced to fans as El Gigante on May 19, 1990 at the pay-per-view Capital Combat. Wearing shorts, he competed as a face and was billed as being close to eight feet tall. Over the next two years, he feuded with Ric Flair over the WCW Title, participated in the 'Chamber Of Horrors' match in 1991 and also had a date on TBS with Missy Hyatt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWMuKY2jEcI González competed as Giant Gonzales during his World Wrestling Federation (WWF) tenure as a heel, managed by Harvey Wippleman. González grew a beard and wore a full-body suit that featured airbrushed muscles with bushy hair attached. He was introduced at the Royal Rumble in January 1993, where he eliminated Wippleman's nemesis The Undertaker from the Rumble match despite not being an official participant. Gonzalez lost to The Undertaker at WrestleMania IX via disqualification after he knocked Undertaker unconscious using chloroform. After another loss to The Undertaker at SummerSlam, Wippleman berated Gonzalez leading Gonzalez to turn on him. Though the foundation was later set for a feud with Wippleman and Adam Bomb, it never truly began, as Gonzales left the WWF in October 1993. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGk1vJveEDI After this Gonzales wrestled in New Japan Pro Wrestling until he retired. His last match was on February 8, 1995, against The Great Muta in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Gonzalez currently lives in a school in Argentina. As of October 29, 2009, Gonzalez uses a wheelchair full-time, and has to use a dialysis machine to treat kidney failure. It was revealed in an OWW radio interview with Harvey Wippleman that he was diabetic while he worked with the WWE. He also said the two are close friends. ~lw3

lol I wish but nope!

Initials for his "stage" name during the WCW years was "E.G.", changed to "G.G." during the WWF era. I'll post a Safe-for-Work video with the answer by 10:30 if nobody gets it. ~lw3

A couple more clues without completely giving it away: The last times the 5 Hawks drafted this low (#53, assuming they don't trade it up/away) it netted them: * Cenk Akyol * Josh Childress' teammate, Scoonie Penn * New Missouri State head coach Cuonzo Martin * The first Chinese man to ever sign an NBA contract, Song Tao, and: * This mystery man -- during the WWF's "let me embarrass Ted's WCW in every way possible" phase, he had this wrestler don a full body suit, complete with fake pubic hair and muscles but no nether regions. His Wrestlemania event is on YouTube, and I'd post it but I'd risk getting a warning, it's too hard on the eyes. ~lw3

Whoooo! Nope, it's not the High Priestess, who has been like the Shaq of Iraq (and Iran, and Saudi Arabia, and Bulgaria) as of late. He gets around. Here's some recent pics of Filipinos going up, over, and around him. http://www.rnhalawi.com/2010/05/smart-gilas-rp-beat-dohuk-iraq-enters.html ~lw3

Wouldn't Mo Brown's stadium (Herndon) be more adequate? It was good enough to film a popular HBCU football band movie and a popular Division I-AA football movie in it, I think capacity is somewhere over 15,000. And it's outdoors and echo-free. I enjoyed it when the Atlanta Beat played their soccer games there. Parking was a chore, but a couple shuttles from MARTA (Vine City) and the Dome parking lots would get folks to the gate in <5 minutes. ~lw3

Throwing this into the mix for the Thrashers' situation, from the Janaury AJC (Schultz) blog. The $30 mill is not all you heartless fans refusing to buy tickets and hot dogs. Same article, this might fall under the "projected profit" category: ~lw3

Quiz question: which former Hawks draft pick became a WCW pro wrestler two years later, challenging the likes of Ric Flair and, later, the Undertaker for world titles, and is presently wheelchair-bound? No, it's not "Batista." ~lw3

I doubt it's who they'd want, but if so, trade down and get him later along with someone else. I'd rather his contract be non-guaranteed. ~lw3

yep. Man, I want that style to come back... http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/pondexter_quincy00.html ~lw3

10. Maccabi Tel Aviv 9. Real Madrid 8. Olympiacos Piraeus 7. Lottomatica Roma 6. CSKA Moscow 5. Shanghai Sharks 4. New York Knicks 3. AND1 Mixtape Team, Seniors Division 2. Harlem Globetrotters 1. Atlanta Dream (see "Juwanna Mann") ~lw3

The NY Post article. Although if I recall correctly, the Post's source was ASG itself. ~lw3

Falcons OK with their DE depth? If not, should they make a run at this guy? http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2010/06/defensive_end_bobby_mccray_spe.html ~lw3

The French National Team: biggest waste of precious airplane fuel ever? ~lw3

Agreed, not if Joe bails. If he doesn't return or accept a SNT, Chillz doesn't return from Piraeus, and we want to somehow keep Craw as a sixth man, then your starting SG next year is _________? ~lw3

Hawks should offer the BAE and that's it. During the Hawks first-round funk I remember saying, "Well, it could be worse, we could have Jerm Daddy swinging and missing from 2 feet in front of the net." If we're really all about stepping up in the playoffs from here on out, then you don't go after the tallest and richest man on the floor going 9-for-44 over the course of 5 playoff games. Hope he saved up his $20+ million salary over the years because he's about to take quite a paycut. That said, he'll get paid a little more than the MLE by a team like New York, looking to fill out its depleted rosters with anything around 7-feet tall that moves. ~lw3

He's a "Pondexter" like the WNBA's Cappie, and not a "Poindexter" like ROTN's Arnold. Still, a very good talent, but I hope the Hawks can get more than him by trading down. ~lw3

AI would get a booty-in-the-seat for a couple games... just not 40+ games. Same with Starbury, Shaq, and T-Mac. The flies drawn to this particular honey would consist not of the "hipster" crowd but the "ex-hip": the O.G.'s living off the salad days of Freaknik, and the chickenheads still rocking Mariah Carey's Wilma Flintstone outfits, thrilled with the possibility that these guys are eligible bachelors who haven't gone totally bankrupt yet. There's enough disposable income among this motley crew to show out for a game or two, but not enough to fill out the arena with season ticket holders. And the minute the team starts losing, UniverSoul Circus would outdraw them. Crippled and flawed as he may be, AI/Shaq/T-Mac coming to town periodically is still (barely) a draw. AI/Shaq/T-Mac living and playing in town year-round is not. We're about ten years too late for that. You may be onto something with the polar bears, though! :-) ~lw3

The short contract is problematic, but not so much for the reason cited. Hawks win 55-60 games next year and sneak into the ECFs, and while A$G would be lauded for being so penny-wise, Drew would be eagerly coveted by the franchises with much more than play-money in their pockets. Drew would rightfully demand a raise that he won't get here. So it's fail to progress, and he's a goner... succeed, and he's a goner. But Drew knows this, and he valued "getting the foot in the door" to be above the risk that his stay in Atlanta will be short. ~lw3

(((Marvin and BK slams in three... two... one...))) But in the meantime... The "pull factor" is coming from those who think LeBron wants an Olympic-level point guard to pair with. Just pretending it's true, this could be a good development for the Hawks; unless Mister Johnson wants to become "Joe the Passer," Mister James is not perceiving him to be the Robin for his Batman. Only a team that has cap space for two free agents AND enough valuable commodities on the roster to snare Paul's $15 million salary (New Jersey? Chicago?) would allow for the CP3-Joe-Bron triumvirate to occur. Atlanta fails the first test, so entertaining Paul trades would not work under this scenario. Cleveland could re-sign LeBron and trade for Paul, but would they have room to sign Joe as well? The "push factor" would be from an outgoing owner who, were he to trade and not get an acknowledged "star" personality in return, would now become persona not grata in two metropolitan areas, arguably the most hated man in Louisiana not named Hayward. Paul is recovering from injury, and the NOLA area, recovering from several more important things, has no interest in rushing his return. The Hornets remain in the bottom half of the league attendance-wise WITH Paul, never getting above 15th since the team returned full-time post-Katrina. Trading him while keeping overpriced guys on the roster like MoPete and Posey (and probably Peja, unless he heads to Europe) would prove disastrous for marketability and make the incumbent GM Bower's life a daily hell until his contract ends two years from now. Hornets fans will not be interested in shipping Paul out at least until they see how he recovers next season from his current injury. ~lw3

Even the Big "TEN" logo is outdated. Remember how they snuck the "11" in the "TEN" lettering to account for Penn State? I'm going for the Heartland Athletic Conference ("da hack") for the Big "12". Or maybe they should simply add quotation marks around the numbers. ~lw3

Best wishes to Gimpy in his future endeavors. ~lw3

Let's not stop with AI and T-Mac. Georgia Tech's Own, Starbury is healthy (well, physically at least), and led China in assists last season. Bring Him Home! :tongue: We can party like it's 1999! Wh00t! ~lw3