Last weekend, I picked up a new video game: NBA 2K11. This game has been given rave reviews, and since I only buy 3 video games a year (football, basketball, Call of Duty), I figured I may as well pick it up.
As you may know, the game features Michael Jordan prominently-- so much so, that you can play as Jordan throughout different stages of his career. Obviously, I had to bust into the game as soon as possible. 1984 Jordan was a ton of fun- he's faster and can jump higher than anyone else in the game. 1991 Jordan is a little slower, but a much better shooter. 1996 Jordan is a lot slower than 1984, but couldn't miss a jump shot if you tried.
I texted my buddies about how awesome this game was, and one of them responded with something I hadn't thoguht about: This was the first NBA game that had MJ in it since NBA Showdown for Super Nintendo. I couldn't believe it! Nearly 20 years have passed since we last got to play with the greatest ever and not have to pretend that #99 S. Player, a 6'6" guard from North Carolina wasn't supposed to be Jordan.
So, one the note that, after 20 years, our long national nightmare of not playing with Air Jordan is over, I give you your Links of the Week:
Enlightening read about the business that could be the biggest competitor to Amazon.com's online purchasing empire. Ebay? No. Google? No. Think diapers. [BusinessWeek]
I'm about 87% sure the BajillionHits.biz guy is a genius. Here's the "Social Media Freestyle Battle". [BajillionHits.biz]
The New Yorker suggests that, since the original Wall Street, there haven't been very good movies about business (until The Social Network, of course). You know what? I have to agree, when was the last movie about business that you can remember being very good? When was the last movie about business that you can remember? [The New Yorker]
A Sesame Street parody of the Old Spice commercials? Sure, why not. [YouTube]
Interesting take from Slate writer Jack Shafer about the phenomenon of how many in the sports media tend to carry on about athletes "going out on top" and not retiring too late. It's a trend I've always recognized, and personally, I think it started coming in to full force about 6 years ago, when Brett Favre was 34. That's when the first reports of "Brett's tired, he's contemplating retirement" started. [Slate]
Info-graphic of the week: A flowchart showing how every prominent female character in TV & movies is somehow connected, and the path to getting to (what this creator describes as) a strong female character. [OverThinkingIt.com]
From the "Who would've thought?" department: the Harvard Sports Analysis did a study and found that, in the NBA, a team's winning percentage was correlated to how many dunks that team had. It makes sense if you think about it (higher percentage, etc.), it just never occured to me before. [Harvard Sports Analysis via TheBigLead]
Crazy photo time! This week: neighborhoods! (Yay!...oh...) They're actually some pretty cool shots of some completely interesting and/or completely boring groupings of houses from a few hundred feet up. Enjoy! [Boston.com via TheBigLead]
And your video of the week goes out to all you folks out there that say, "they just don't make music like they used to." False: