That is interesting.  I wonder why they added that in there.  Seems like they shot themselves in the foot a little bit.  January 15th is still early enough to get him traded next season, but it's interesting that he would have to approve any trade for a year.  Basically gives him all the power to decide where he wants to go.  Seems like that should have been the only trade restriction in place so that they could have still used him in a Durant trade.  Very strange to me that they would agree to force Ayton to start next season with the team.  Seems like that isn't what anybody wanted, so I'd love to hear the justification for why it happened that way.

The Suns have reportedly matched the Indiana Pacers offer sheet to DeAndre Ayton. That means Ayton is now officially a Phoenix Suns player. I think this is Phoenix going all in on a potential Durant trade. I know they don’t want Ayton in the roster so it seems clear they just put up 9 figures for a trade piece. That gives them more time to figure out a deal. The saga continues…

I would be very curious what an alien would have to say if you tried to pay him in Bitcoin.  Imagine trying to explain they need to backup their private keys and how to connect to the network to send their funds.  They would probably think you were insane.  Perhaps a better gift to give the first alien would be some type of intricately crafted piece of golden jewelry or maybe a fine watch with a lot of moving parts.  Bitcoin may better be served as remittances for large companies. 

Durant is definitely a step up and they would immediatley become the favorites if they got him for Ayton and some picks or role players.  I think going forward though this would hurt their chances as keeping a young core together and they'd see an exodus of talent for better pay in the years to come.  With Durant you're going all in on winning a championship now while CP3 can still play at a high level.  You know if they don't win immediately Durant will be looking for his next stop.

Ya, this is bad news for Phoenix. I think it basically gives them 2 days to get Durant or else they have nothing to offer. Ayton was one of the main factors in the run to the Finals for them and they might end up losing him for nothing. This is going to set them back quite a bit. They are terrible at managing their picks. Just a reminder that they could have had DeAaron Fox & Luka Doncic and instead those two picks wound them up with nothing (or maybe Durant, we’ll see.)

I don't think they'll need to give up much to get Kyrie.  I think mostly it will be some worthless draft picks (busts happen even at the #1 spot) and getting rid of Westbrook's contract, which is the #1 reason to make the trade.

Interestingly, the Lakers seem to be hedging their Kyrie bet, or maybe just trying to apply some pressure to Brooklyn.  Today the talk is that they're looking to sign Patrick Beverly.  I can't imagine that they would do this if they're picking up Kyrie, but maybe...  More likely to me is that they're showing Brooklyn they have other options.

Agreed or at least follow through on his word.  He says one thing or gives orders and then completely backs down or refuses to accept responsibility when his threats fall on deaf ears.  Then he uses the libertarian free speech excuse when he doesn't feel like handling problems he created.  Not to mention making assumptions and flinging insults or even encouraging trolling.  I'm sure not everyone here has had the pleasure of working with him though, so his word still carries value here.  I know I went a year without getting paid and then was called tacky for going above and beyond for him.  I just chalk it up to being inexperienced and in above his head.  

A lot of talk is made about how teachers are underpaid, and I get it.  Comparing them to some other professions like car salesmen, real estate agents, financial advisors, etc.  They are criminally underpaid.  However, teachers do get some good perks.  A shortened workday and summers off, great medical insurance, great retirement benefits, etc.  So it isn't exactly all bad.  Plenty of teachers find summer jobs to really pad their income if they want to work year round.  Do they deserve more, sure, but they don't have it terribly.  Moreso I think inflation has made it so middleman jobs like salesmen/real estate agents, or other jobs that people could easily do without like financial advisors are highly overcompensated for the value they provide.

The Tommy Fury fight was banking on Tommy's family name to bring in the PPV buys.  Backfilling him with Rahman was a last minute attempt to still collect a check.  I don't think Hasim will back down from this fight.  What other chance does he have at getting this sort of payday?  If he does back out at the last minute, I don't think anyone would hold that against Jake.  It does feel a little bit like the hype is dying down though, so I hope we see another good fight to keep things going.  As much as I don't want to see Mike Tyson fight again, if this fight falls through, I think Jake has no choice but to try and bait Tyson into a fight by the end of the year to keep his name in the news.

I'll be watching the Jake Paul vs Hasim Rahman Jr fight pretty closely to see if there's another moment where Rahman will be accused of taking a dive.  I'm sure that fixed fights probably happen quite a bit in professional fighting and the best demonstration of that lately has to be Jake Paul.  Many people have questioned if his knockouts are real so if this is a topic that you're interested in, you've no doubt watched Jake's prior knockouts.  If there's another moment like the Woodley fight where people claim a dive is taken, you have to give a little credit to the conspiracy. 

Obviously the first thing the Lakers need to do is rid themselves of Russell Westbrook's contract.  That has to be the #1 thing.  It's probably difficult for them to work with the Nets because the Nets don't want Westbrook and Durant on the same roster.  Imagine all the talk on sports broadcasts...  I don't believe they want that distraction, so they're trying to do a Durant deal first.  They're willing to give Kyrie away to get rid of his attitude, so obviously they need to focus on Durant first.  That's the trade piece they want to maximize.  I think doing a Westbrook deal first takes a little of their leverage away from Durant talks, as the league knows the Nets won't want those two playing together.

Dwayne Wade seem pretty confident that Mitchell will end up in a Heat uniform. I think he’s a great player, but he’s really undersized for his position and isn’t the most efficient guy. I think any team with him as their #1 scoring option will struggle to reach the Finals. He’s no doubt a great talent though that I think would thrive in a secondary role. He’ll need to work on his defense at some point if he wants to be one of the top players in the league.

Passive income seems to be the lure that shitcoins are using these days to get your money.  They promise massive interest on coins in order to get your money, but a 50% interest rate doesn't do much when the coin is crashing.  So many people see a yield and throw in their money without even knowing where the yield is coming from.  9 times out of 10, they're just dumping their coins on you in the form of yield while they already got your money when you bought in.  I know Bitcoin is boring because there's no yield, but eventually when you've figured out that YOU are the yield, you will smarten up and look for a strong currency instead of a big yield.

DeFi still has a lot of growing pains ahead of it.  The amount of money being stolen from smart contracts is astounding.  Perhaps this is why Bitcoin has been so slow to move towards useful smart contracts.  It's hard to say if these hacks are the result of incompetence or shady behavior by founders who allow backdoors to steal funds from their own creations.  At least that's the way this scam was being done with Bitcoin back in the day.  In any event, the more of these hacks that occur, the more hardened the community.  Hopefully at some point people are educated and experienced enough to discover these types of loopholes before it's too late.

I would imagine this is the case, otherwise he probably wouldn't have been willing to attach himself to the brand.  I'm sure he's being paid for doing these streams (maybe through referral links on occasions) but I'm also sure he has so much money that if he feels like dropping a million dollars into Stake because he wants to gamble more, he can do that.  I can only imagine the rewards he's getting from his massive volume as well as all the referral money from his fans.  It would be interesting to learn just how much money he's made from his partnership with Stake, but I imagine it's more than any of us think.

Biden is saying that 92% of democrats would vote for him again is either delusional, or he really thinks that 92% of democrats are so stupid that they can't see he's running the country into the ground.  Maybe he just thinks that 92% of democrats are so emotionally driven that they would vote for whatever moron the liberals throw up on the ballot.  Either way, I refuse to believe that a majority of this country is so stupid they would vote for this guy again.  You'd have to be completely ignoring all the evidence of what a horrible leader he is and what he's been up to in Ukraine with his son for the last 8 years.  I hope this is the darkest time for our country, because I've never witnessed such a mess of leadership in my lifetime.

What your memory seems to lack is that it was later admitted that Goat AKA El Cabron was a con artist that was just launching fictitious companies on the GLBSE (exchange) in order to raise funds to funnel into pirate@40's ponzi scheme.  He also ran a mining company that never mined any coins or owned any equipment, and I believe the last thing he was selling was rights to farmland in Thailand.  Goat AKA El Cabron was one of the first scammers on this forum and even though he was admittedly running fake companies and taking investor funds, he still managed to fling insults at honest people here (think the original Vod) until he was eventually banned from the forum by theymos.  This was back when theymos gave a shit.

People use Tether instead of Bitcoin because it is more like the currency they're used to spending.  They don't want to watch exchange rates or worry about making conversions to spend money.  They just want to pay and go about their day without worrying that their savings could be worth 20% what they saved when it's time to spend. 

Tether will also likely be replaced by central bank digital currency in the future, not to mention the other issues that people have brought up already.  Tether is cool, but it's no Bitcoin.

That's a good point.  This is why Durant has requested a trade and will not be playing on the Nets next year.  I also think this will be a good trade for the Nets because they want a guy that will actually be on the floor after the Kyrie experience last year.  Westbrook will likely play all 82 games for the Nets and I think their management will appreciate that and the picks much more than another year of Kyrie drama.  Plus, it'll clear cap space in the future since Russ only has 1 year left on his contract.

Just my take on the situation… If you have to ask whether or not crypto has capitulated then my thinking is that it hasn’t. My guess is that when capitulation does happen, it will be obvious and there will be nobody left wondering whether or not capitulation occurred. Very likely this event will happen in the next ~3 months. Be prepared.