Jules

I'm a big believer in embracing a sports fandom to a team that helped you achieve a championship. I don't see why he should have cared at all for everyone else's thought, when he had the loyal fans of Miami there to support him and embrace him. LeBron could have took the high road by staying there at Miami, since they helped him get championships that Cleveland did not. 

I think it ate at Lebron inside the whole time to be honest since he always said he would deliver the Cavs a title before he was done there. He grew up near Cleveland too so I do think it always haunted him deep down.

True and he did get the help in Miami and he did get two rings. But, I think he always felt guilty.....I think guilt eats at people inside in many ways in life. It would have been easier if going to Miami wasn't such a spectacle to begin with. 

I am just curious to see if the Cavs with Lebron can ever win it all since they have been in the finals enough now.

Some lucky lucky person at the game the other night got this on tape:

A hope your day is over the moon Bogie! 

Thanks, you're an hour early. You managed to beat everyone else. 

I hope this isn't a birthday present but I got up from a nap and seen the Saints cut Keenan Lewis.  That's a pretty big shocker, he was our best corner the past 2 seasons. 

Happy Birthday!,hope you had a great day/

I think the winner of the Packers/Giants will be your SB team from the NFC. That should be a great game. I don't trust the Cowboys because they have a rookie QB nor do I trust Atlanta in the NFC. Steelers are my only hope in the AFC of knocking off the Pats. I just cat trust KC because of Alex Smith.

cat - cant, of course I would say CAT  

I wonder if the black cat has to go through concussion protocol??

Black cats are the best! I miss mine also.

I don't have a picture of mine on this computer, but damn...most awesome animal in the world. 11 years of friendship, I'll forever miss the poor guy. 

For you two:

We are 1-3 and just let Blake Bortles beat us LOL. Pathetic really.

Losing is the New Winning?

Beating Toronto is a quality win, it's a team that always gave Boston fits.

Yeah, best win of the season IMO. Warriors were even playing hard on D.

Warriors never get a good rep for D but they play nasty D when they try. 

Boston will be lethal if they can get more offense going but it's really not their thing this year, it's all defense and a few clutch plays in the 4th.

This game was GORGEOUS for fans of defense. Shooting was off though outside of KD and Jaylen Brown for most of the game.

I love these type of games because both teams were hustling playing their butts off. It was a fun game to watch. Great Defenses.

Irving is a SuperStar and Horford is an All-Star, Brown is Good and they have the best Coach in the league. C's are for real.

When they play Atlanta, it's ugly. It's very very ugly. I am not sure ether but it's just one of those teams. They try hard against the Celtics even when they are bad.

I remember back when the Celtics won the title with KG they got allll they could handle with the Atlanta Hawks in the very first round and it went the distance. Thats when the Hawks had Pachulia and he and KG wanted to murder each other on the court.

Celtics have a stretch here of not playing very good teams so if they get complacent someone will be wanting to end this streak. Next up is the Mavs who aren't very good. And then the Heat who are kinda tough to figure out.....

Warriors sadly IMO are not even focused yet. They will more later on. When they do focus they are lethal and the defensive intensity will be turned up a notch. Last year their defense was a joke for the first few months but when the new year hit they kicked it up a notch.

This is why I wanted the Celtics (with Hayward) to fight against the Warriors in the finals, felt it would be a better series even if the Celtics lost over another Cavs/Warriors crap feast. Hayward won't be back this year.

Ironically by years end if the Celtics stay healthy with everyone else, I still would not count them out for the finals.......since they are a young team with energy and they might be able to snag the first seed again.

I have always thought LeBron has been a Top 10 player of all-time but in all honesty he is probably Top 5 and is still the best player today. Guy scores 57 with ease . He is in there with the Jordan's, Magic's, and Kobe's and actually has more physical talent than those 3. He is a lot like Shaq = a freak of nature. Tom Brady is just a winner and really his only comp were the Manning's. Eli now stinks and Peyton is retired so Tom has an easy road to the SB unless the Steelers or Chiefs can stop him. I want Chiefs but I am not sold on Alex Smith being able to pull it off. They have the Coaching and Defense and now Hunt but can Smith come through

You are rooting for the Celtics like I am OKC hoping they can knock off the Warriors but I doubt it happens. I think LeBron will get another crack at them but I don't think even he can beat that team. I thought he had good help last season with Irving and it still wasn't near enough. Not sure how Thomas will play with them?

Clarkson is playing really well too so he is getting more minutes than usual.

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Kuzma and Tatum both have similar stats.

Interesting, will look this up before their game Wed. 

Gotta get to bed now, been so into the NBA.  

Have a good nights sleep Jules, chat with you tomorrow.

I still like the Lakers a bit on the side, but it was more of a Kobe Bryant thing with me who is my all time favorite NBA player.

I think with the NBA it's often a "players league" and I am not ashamed to admit I bandwagon a lot. I just have a lot of fun with a few teams.

I also been a fan of Brad Stevens for a long time going back to his Butler days. LOVE me some Brad Stevens.

As for the game this week, Celtics got a day off and then the Lakers go to Boston. Should be a big one Wednesday. Lakers have been up and down and are quite young. But they have showed up a few times this year on the big stage. Lonzo Ball isn't scoring a lot at times but he is an excellent passer out there. Lopez and Ingram will be tough to guard.

It's funny too with Kyrie Irving that he is still only 25. It's actually kinda amazing that he has been through so much already at this age in the NBA.

Celtics are a pretty young team too outside of a few vets but not as young as the baby Lakers LOL.

I also used to hear a ton about how Kyrie was this gigantic ball hog but I am not seeing this with the Celtics this year. Kyrie has his moments where yes they want him to get the ball and especially late in games. But I swear Isaiah Thomas was more of a hero ball kinda guy with the Celtics even more so over what I seen from Kyrie so far.

Kyrie seems to really be sold on the Brad Stevens system way of doing things so far. In Cleveland I swear at times there is no real system. They just kinda every week stand around with their mouths open at Lebron James. So when Kyrie had a losing record in Cleveland without Lebron I thought too much was made of this. 

And don't get me wrong, I love Lebron. But he also did want Lue as the coach and Lue is terrible.

I don't know anything about the DB but I see people complaining hard on it already. Then again for many years nobody complains more about draft picks then the draft junkies on Colts forums lol. I think some were even complaining I recall when we picked TY Hilton saying he was too small and picked too high lol.

Pacers winning is an added bonus too. Nice to see.

Dwyane Wade = Stud! Drake poked the wrong person when he poked the Bear of Paul George. We will see what happens now, YeeeeeeeeeSSSSSS

Yeah Pats win 23-21 I guess Bruce Arians should be fired  I posted that on the other Thread.

While we're at it, let's fire Pagano, Arians, Jason Garrett and Sean Peyton. Add Adam Gase just because.

Your "Just because" line was so classic TS. Well played. Ha! Ha! 

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If the Texans upset the Patriots I would buy a Brock jersey and I am not kidding, that would be the biggest upset of all-time.

I doubt Houston can win in NE. But, at the same time after being so humiliated there this season early on when that third string rookie QB was playing do you think Houston will show up and play it closer then expected? I mean how much pride does Houston have and stuff here? Can they at least show up and play a tough physical game? Defensively Houston is underrated.

The only thing I do wonder now at times about NE is if they do get the Texans/Chiefs run in the AFC then in the SB they might very well be facing an explosive offense like Cowboys/Packers/Falcons and they are not battle tested enough for it? I have no idea......

NE has a top 10 ranked 10 right now, 8th actually. But, when you analyze them they really have not been playing GOOD QBs all year.

And for some reason I do have issues trusting the Steelers since they historically seem to blow lunch vs. the Pats somehow.

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I would prefer the Chiefs because I hate the Steelers but I even hate the Pats more than I hate the Steelers LOL. Steelers are our only chance to beat the Pats IMO.

People say this every year and it never happens....

Last time Pittsburgh beat NE was in 2011. The last year they really had a defense who could scare you and had the last remaining pieces from the 2008 team. Every other time they've played NE since, they've been taken to the cleaners. Pittsburgh does not have the defense, or the coaching they did in the past when they could possibly upset NE. 

Pittsburgh has to survive Kansas City too. Ben is already pretending to be hurt, so if they lose, they've got their cards on the table to blame it on. 

I'm taking the Chiefs in this game too. I've thought all along Pittsburgh was overrated...They're overrated almost every year. 

Go back to that game Sunday and they were doing everything to keep Miami alive...if not for Moore turning the ball over before the half and again on their first drive in the second half. Pittsburgh left that game wide open on the table until the end of the 3rd quarter. If the Dolphins offense had been coached better and more prepared, it probably could've been a close game. 

KC is more battle tested anyway. 

KC has beaten 3 elite quarterbacks and one of them twice (Carr, Brees and Ryan)

I think they're more than ready to go toe to toe with Ben since they have the experience and know what to expect from a pass happy offense. They did shut down the Saints, Falcons and even the Raiders twice. 

Steve Kerr may return for game 2 I seen. Oh good...........

Seriously just get nasty Cavs. I mean for real, throw punches even and get ejected I don't care. Start getting crazy dirty on those clowns. Since in a way you got to get this jolt of mean going on since this Cavs team is TOO DAMN NICE. I love the Cavs to death but they are like choir boys at times with charity work and being angels and helping old ladies cross the street. 

Nice guys finish last.

See Kobe was a mean dude once too, he used to get after people. I want to see Kyrie get MEAN. Just aggressive. One thing he don't have is Kobe's aggressive "I want to win and kill you" mentality.

I don't know but whenever the Cavs lose I swear I feel like I ramble about them being soft.

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Ugh I love Kobe but my God was he a frustrating player. When he was good he was very good but when he was bad you wanted to die. And he also btw when bad would keep taking shots all the time. Kyrie isn't a ball hog though.

 

But tonight the Cavs had loads of Kobe's on a bad shooting night chucking up shots that didn't go in. I was starting to have flashbacks..........it sorta looked to me like the Lakers vs. the Celtics in 2008 even.

Soooooo true. When he was off, he just wouldn't stop. That's where Kobe would frustrate me the most. The only time in his career he actually wasn't a ball hog, was the height of the Shaq era. 

Kobe would do that though; keep missing and keep taking so many shots. It would make you want to punch the TV at times. I used to get REALLY mad cause he would do this when Odom was playing well. You mention the 2008 Boston series and I keep thinking back to that and I remember Odom and Gasol were playing really well and Kobe just refused to pass the ball to them at times, it was so frustrating. I swear there was one game in that series where Kobe was just BAD and those guys were playing great and he just screwed it all up by refusing to get them involved. 

Probably why I cherish the Shaq years so much, those years, he actually would pass the ball and let Shaq do what he did best, and that was dominate and slam home those violent dunks. 

It actually disturbs me since Kobe retired, there is this big mythology about him being the greatest scorer ever and the one about how he "carried Shaq" omg, that makes me want to punch holes in walls. That is so damn wrong...Shaq got all 3 Finals MVP's in those championships...Kobe had some memorable games in those Finals, but take Shaq off those teams, they would have never got there...Kobe's fans make Shaq sound like a scrub when they talk trash about him, it's sickening...Kobe didn't even get the last 2 rings, until they got him another awesome center (Pau Gasol) to help out. 

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I read tons of Cavs stuff on Kevin Love and they need to get off his aazzz at times. I mean do they even realize what position he plays?

Cavs fans treat Kevin Love like he is Bosh with the Heat. 

But they seem to forget, Bosh wasn't an elite scorer...Bosh's job was to get rebounds, steals, and mostly, just play all around good defense. 

Remember how everyone used to say Bosh was the overrated one of the big 3? Everyone acted like he was supposed to score gobs of points, but he never did. Occasionally he would get a big 3 pointer like Love does, but Bosh's sole job was defense. Bosh wasn't overrated, people just didn't analyze him as a defensive player. 

I think Cavs fans are way too hard on Kevin Love. For the Bosh role, he does it good...he's not supposed to score tons. 

Imaging though if Kevin Love could've went to Miami to replace Bosh, that would have been crazy...the Heat wouldn't have skipped a beat after losing Bosh. 

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Cavs fans treat Kevin Love like he is Bosh with the Heat. 

 

But they seem to forget, Bosh wasn't an elite scorer...Bosh's job was to get rebounds, steals, and mostly, just play all around good defense. 

 

Remember how everyone used to say Bosh was the overrated one of the big 3? Everyone acted like he was supposed to score gobs of points, but he never did. Occasionally he would get a big 3 pointer like Love does, but Bosh's sole job was defense. Bosh wasn't overrated, people just didn't analyze him as a defensive player. 

 

I think Cavs fans are way too hard on Kevin Love. For the Bosh role, he does it good...he's not supposed to score tons. 

 

Cavs fans are giving Love more credit today, apparently the stats and heavy analysis say he won the matchup vs. Draymond despite being pushed, shoved, bitten, doused with gasoline, threatened with death and jersey pulled.

The thing is, yes Love can score more points too as the series goes on but he is the only one at times who seems to be able to rebound vs. the Warriors. When Curry is getting rebounds? You got an issue.

Which brings up an excellent point someone made on their forums, why not move Love to center if TT continues to struggle? Apparently and I missed this.........Love was at center most of the time in game 7 last year out of desperation. If Love is at center he can score more too since you cannot expect him to always hit those damn 3's. I know everyone wants him to rain 3's but this isn't Boston where their big men were crap and you could kinda just dance around at the perimeter in high heels. The Cavs need something going in the paint. Lebron or Love and better yet both.........has to happen.......INSIDE. 

And you could COULD move Tristan Thompson to PF and have HIM chase after Durant the whole game if he can keep up, which would free up Lebron to beast out more on offense Since Lebron will get tired if he is forced to guard Durant for too many minutes. Someone else I feel has to split time with guarding Durant. If TT won't score much then he could be used in another role to give Lebron more freedom.

AND then...........you could also even take useless JR Smith and move him to guard Curry, which sounds scary but hey it can't hurt since it would make it easier on Kyrie so he could just deal with a slumping Klay Thompson and score more maybe.

And then you got to pray that someone shows up from the bench. Anyone.......

Now none of this may happen but who knows. I could see Love going to center in this series eventually though since it has happened before. They say TT will rebound in game 2 maybe, but he has a tough time vs. the Warriors a lot for some reason.

JR Smith to me is the glaring weakness from game 1. I mean he is a guard.......and he was literally useless. You expect A GUARD to score a lot more then 3 damn points. If you took Wade and replaced JR Smith with Wade, then the Cavs then instantly are a much better team with 25 extra points. I know JR Smith loves Lebron James and loves Ohio, but seriously........they got to find a better role for him at times since he was crap in game 1. So if he can't score worth a damn then make him play heavy D and free up Lebron or Kyrie.

Just some thoughts since they clearly have to work something out. They claim focus for game 2 is to be more psychical to try and disrupt the Warriors offense. Which sounds good but that could also mean a ton more foul trouble. Then again maybe you just got to get in foul trouble and risk it.

Most Cavs fans claim game 1 in the finals for Lebron is often "the feel out game" to see what is going on so I will try to ride this optimism and hope they are not behind 20 in the third quarter and it's raining 3's on them.

Simply put, to beat TEAM USA you got to make some adjustments......like now.

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Soooooo true. When he was off, he just wouldn't stop. That's where Kobe would frustrate me the most. The only time in his career he actually wasn't a ball hog, was the height of the Shaq era. 

 

Kobe would do that though; keep missing and keep taking so many shots. It would make you want to punch the TV at times. I used to get REALLY mad cause he would do this when Odom was playing well. You mention the 2008 Boston series and I keep thinking back to that and I remember Odom and Gasol were playing really well and Kobe just refused to pass the ball to them at times, it was so frustrating. I swear there was one game in that series where Kobe was just BAD and those guys were playing great and he just screwed it all up by refusing to get them involved. 

 

To be fair to Kyrie, he can't ball hog like Kobe did since if he did Lebron would throw him on the highway. What Lebron tries to do at times IMO is find another guy on the team who is "hot" that night or "feeling it". And sadly it wasn't happening in game 1.

I am not completely giving up yet on this series btw. I am nuts and so be it. I won't go down easy. If they lose the series easy they lose it but I still hope they can make the Warriors have to go the distance to 6 or 7 if need be. I mean if the series can somehow SOMEHOW go longer then most expect, then the Warriors will wear down a bit and get frustrated. At the very least TRY to make them earn the title. And if you can get it to go longer, the longer a big underdog hangs around the tougher the favorite has it to win.

Also, Kevin Durant often slows down as a series goes on. He had his big hot "I AM HERE IN THE FINALS OMG LOOK AT ME I AM SO AWESOME AND IN THE FINALS MOM" night. That crap better end or else it will be a short series.

Also yeah in the 2008 finals, yeah Kobe went into ball hog mode at times. And if you ask me that series was honestly winnable for the Lakers if they had gotten other guys going on offense more. Since Kobe as good as he often was, he would go into pain in the aazzz mode.

Paul Pierce said once that Kobe had the mentality of a basketball serial killer as in "He never stops." I think what PP means is you think Kobe may pass it around if he is missing shots but no he keeps going.........and going...........and going.........and then going...........

I still maintain though that nobody was beating Boston that year. It was their time. Problem is they still deserved another ring IMO since it is a shame KG only got one. Just glad he got that one though at least. So I am glad now looking back they won.

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I am exhausted now. I swear watching the Saints is like climbing into a washing machine and going through one cycle and then getting out all disheveled. This team is tiring.  

 

They are easier to watch and follow on game center on NFL.com where they should just type "Saints just gave up BIG AZZZ play.......". 

That is precisely accurate how I feel. Saints games have become so EXHAUSTING...Gone are the days that we were a "fun team" to watch. The fun days were when Brees could go all Dan Marino out there with big numbers and we actually win games, and not be stuck watching them lose in bad ways. 

I can't get over looking at Brees numbers to this game and the fact we lost so bad. Even though he had a pick, I do not want to harshly criticize him here, cause he did show up and try to win. 

I'm getting some rest since the cold meds are knocking me out, have a good night Jules! I'll be around tomorrow evening 

I am sick as hell tonight...might be tomorrow or so before I can properly do replies and such...My whole body is aching and I've barely been able to sit around and enjoy this day. Seems I can never stay a few weeks without getting a bad sickness. 

No problem, rest up. I won't deduct your reply payment if it's not good enough. ;) 

I hope you feel better, you been through the mill this year for sure.

I am going to bed soon myself but I been up LATE lately. And I been a mad chatterbox so you can ignore some of it. I been chatty alllllllllllllllllllll week.

Sent it to Monkey a few days ago but now your turn.

Bob Dylan; the rarest exception to having a crappy voice yet writing songs that defined your decade. Put him up next to the Beatles and the Stones and above everyone else, he belongs there in praise. 

I love Bob Dylan.

*sigh*

I read Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash had a lot of respect for one another too. I actually prefer Dylan's  "it ain't me babe" covered by Johnny Cash and June Carter instead.

Holy crap did Dylan write the best lyrics.......like the God of lyrics if you could have a God of lyrics.

Tangled up in Blues is my fave by him...nice set of classic songs, Lady!

And another TD pass tonight.

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2017/05/kevin_love_fires_a_long_outlet.html

I definitely think the Colts Offense was better because they did have Peyton but their Offense reminds me of that somewhat. Ryan is Very Good but I agree not Great or near a Brees or Peyton all-time. Brees like Peyton will be 1st ballot HOFamers. Mike Tomlin has won a SB so I cant bash him to much but he isn't anymore than a Good Coach at best. Regarding Jason Garrett, I don't think he is any better than Pagano. He is just Jerry's yes man and always blows it in the Playoffs.

Mike Tomlin won a Super Bowl with Bill Cowher's team....That defense in 2008 was the healthiest they ever were, but it was still the 2004-2005 defense that Cowher designed...All Tomlin did was get them some good receivers like Holmes and Sanders; but the Pittsburgh offense was still mediocre in 2008, so it wasn't like he did much. Anyone could've won that SB with that healthy defense. 

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I definitely think the Colts Offense was better because they did have Peyton but their Offense reminds me of that somewhat. Ryan is Very Good but I agree not Great or near a Brees or Peyton all-time. Brees like Peyton will be 1st ballot HOFamers.

Brees has a ring with a B-C grade receiving core. The 2009 team was led by Colston, Moore, Meachem, and Devery Henderson. Names that no one knows of except Saints fans. Colston is the only receiver in NFL history to post 1,000 yard seasons consistently and never make the pro bowl. Brees has made it work most of the time with non-big name guys. 

Ryan didn't get great until he had Julio Jones...Take away his great receivers, he's an average QB. They had Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez years ago and still couldn't ever win a playoff game. 

You know what's hilarious? This Falcons team isn't even as good as their other Super Bowl team. No one gives credit to the 1998 Vikings cause purple tears are cried over the choke fest Vikings for missing that field goal. Even though Randy Moss dropped big passes, and even in OT, they turned the ball over. Not entirely the kicker's fault. But that Falcons team from 1998 was 14-2 and had a top ranked defense and secondary....They were the team to knock Minnesota out, and they were so much better than this team. They actually had a great defense that year. 

No one gives credit to the 1998 Falcons*** Typo 

I think my brain can't handle it anymore after tonight's debate crap show. 

It took Kaine until the very end to start bringing up the history of homophobia and anti-women's rights and outright bigotry of Pence and Trump, when he should've been nailing them from the very beginning, not waiting until the final 20 minutes. Ughhhhhh, I feel like this was screwed up from the get go. 

I'd rather discuss Stone Hands right now than what I just witnessed. Holy crap that was bad. Kaine IMO messed this up. 

I am kinda sick so I forgot about the debate.   Ugh. Heading to bed soon. I was watching preseason NBA.  Knicks and Rockets......

Okay......Stone Hands for President!!!!!!!!!!!!

The good news about the debate - it wasn't good enough to give Trump a jump in polls. Trump pretty much has killed any opportunity he's had of making this a close race, when he bashed soldiers with PTSD and mental problems. And Joe Biden slammed him for it. Kaine should've been doing that in the debates, but I do expect Hillary to bring it up in the next debate. 

Brees isn't the problem nor is Luck with us IMO. Both of our Defenses are just bad, cant stop anyone. Glad you guys beat the Seahawks last week, Saints haven't played all that bad this season, like the Colts they have lost a couple of real close games they should've won.

Oh god, it felt so wonderful to beat Seattle. I hate that team with a passion. And to know that Sherman ran off to blame the refs and make a big deal about it, THAT was the icing on the cake for me. Especially after everyone knows he should've been flagged for putting his hands all over Julio Jones a few weeks ago. 

No team gets away with push offs and shoves on receivers more than Seattle. That team for the past 3 years, has gotten away with playing dirty more than any other NFC team. To beat them at their own game, and listen to them whine about it, that was solid gold. 

So much irony of Seattle blaming refs, when they win at least 1 game every year at home with some very controversial stuff in it. This year it was the Atlanta game, last year it was Detroit. And no one is ever going to forget the Green Bay game with the hail mary- interception. 

Sadly Seattle won't go away, but I hope that team never wins another SB ever again. 

One last note on Seattle (and cause I gotta go to bed soon, meds are kicking in) 

They allowed the Saints to score on 6 consecutive drives. Last time that happened, was in 2011. 

Weather they are the #1 ranked defense or not, I don't see where they are bullet proof or they wouldn't have allowed the 6 consecutive scoring drives...and for them to blame the refs, they are sooooo lucky that 4 of those drives resulted in field goals. That could've been a blow out game. 

Oh God you play the Chiefs next? Hmmm........

But, sadly the Saints may still win the division now for all we know but maybe just let the Falcons get it?

My message was kinda short tonight but I will finish it tomorrow. Time to get some sleep. I am shocked still.

Minnie pics were the best part of tonight!

And I am glad the Saints won and Brees deserves to have a trip to the playoffs this year.

Hey Jules, 

That cat picture of yours would make a perfect mascot. I'm surprised that stadium security allowed a Super Dome fan to walk in with that. 

Drew Brees had a monster game yesterday. Wow!