How Credit Card Rewards Programs Play on your Emotions

Yesterday was the end of one of our credit card billing cycles, which made me excited…absurdly excited if you can believe it. You see, it’s one of those rewards credit cards, and at the end of the billing cycle we get to cash in the rewards we earned on that card. Personally, I have had my eye on a $25 gift card from Foot Locker for weeks now.

At 1st glance, credit card reward programs – whether they are airline miles, cash, or merchandise – seem like a bad idea for credit card companies until you consider…1. Credit card companies make gazillions of dollars off of interest charges and late payment penalties. The money they are spending on these customer rewards is peanuts by comparison. 2. Most people don’t even know their cards have a rewards system, and many that do are too lazy or incompetent to figure out how to cash them in. Take my wife’s 89 year old grandmother for example, who we just recently started logging into her account and checking her rewards balance on her behalf. 3. The rewards offer an incentive for those cardholders who do actually know what the deal is to use their card more often…which brings us back to the whole making gazillions of dollars off of interest charges again.

I’m sure there’s other stuff to consider as well, but that’s a good start at least. Now, we happen to pay our credit card bill in full every month, thus avoiding giving the credit card companies any extra money, so we are getting the full benefit of these rewards. But even a nerd like me that gets super-pumped about this stuff has to admit that these companies are playing psychological warfare with me, and they are winning.

You see, if I spend $1,000 using a particular credit card one month, it might only yield $20-25 in rewards (if I’m lucky). Now, when I do get my $25 gift card in the mail to Foot Locker or Panera Bread or Home Depot or whatever, my hype level is off the charts. However, I happen to have another rewards credit card that’s attached to my bank account, and that card gives you an extra incentive to deposit the rewards you earn right into your savings. Because it gives the best benefit overall, that’s what I do. If I spent $1,000 using that card, I would also probably earn in that same $20-25 range in rewards. However, a free $25 to Outback Steakhouse? I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. $25 into my savings account? I mean, I’ll take it because $25 is $25, but Christmas it is not.

And that’s where they get you, because on the 1st card I mentioned I have the option to apply that same $25 to my credit card balance. Have I ever done it? Hell to the no! A free meal or money off a fresh pair of sneakers sounds amazing. Reducing my card payment from $1,000 to $975 that month sounds meh…even though that would probably be the most financially responsible thing to do. If you are getting the gift card for something that you would have to buy whether you had the gift card or not, that’s one thing. But would I go out to eat or buy that new shirt if I didn’t have free money? Probably not, or at least not as often…and yet I’m going to continue to do the admittedly stupid thing, and opt to get a gift card every time. Because meh sucks, but Christmas morning is awesome every single time.

Suspended or Not, It's Over for A-Rod

2 days ago, Major League Baseball handed down the largest non-gambling related suspension in the history of the sport to Alex Rodriguez for not only taking performance enhancing drugs but for allegedly covering it up and obstructing MLB’s investigation as well. It was yet another opportunity for A-Rod to showcase himself as the most pretentious, disingenuous, and scripted athlete in all of professional team sports.

Kobe Bryant comes close...he has modeled not only his game, but his entire persona (both on and off the court), off of Michael Jordan. Every word out of Kobe’s mouth is rehearsed. But while I am not a Kobe fan in the least bit, there are a great many people that love him. And at least Kobe can back it up with his 5 rings, his undeniable tenacity as a competitor, and all of the swagger that comes with that. And unless you count a couple mysterious trips to Germany to have some blood-spinning procedure done to his knee, he has never cheated. Not to mention the fact that when he’s unfiltered and unsolicited, he might be the greatest tweeter or all time…Mamba, out.

But Rodriguez has none of that really. He does have the 1 championship and some very gaudy numbers, but in the prime of his career he was mostly looked at as a supremely talented player who always seemed to choke in the postseason or any other time when it mattered. Think LeBron if LeBron never started to show up in crunch time in the playoffs.

We thought of him as the guy who got signed for not 1 but 2 ludicrous contracts, the guy who’s teams always seemed to get better once he had moved on to another franchise, the guy who did a photo shoot where he appeared to be trying to smooch himself in a mirror, the guy who once swatted a baseball away with his hand like a little girl as he was running to 1st base, and the guy who tried to act tougher than he really was…only to get suplexed to the ground by Red Sox catcher and actual tough guy Jason Varitek.

The only cool thing I ever remember A-Rod doing was surprising Cal Ripken in an All-Star game by swapping positions with him. Now, that is a very distant memory. Even those other memorable-in-a-bad-way things wouldn’t even make the footnote in the Alex Rodriquez biography. A-Rod will from hence forth always be known as “Mr. PED”…the poster boy for the most tainted era in over a hundred years of professional baseball.

And as Rodriquez held his pregame press conference yesterday, in one of the most bizarre situations you will ever think of where he played his 1st game of the season on the same day that the league announced his year and a half long suspension, I couldn’t help but think of how fake and scripted it all was. Everything about A-Rod, from his fake smile, to his fake near-tears, to the way he squinted his eyes and craned his neck as he tried to fain a sense of interest while listening to each question was completely off-putting. His actual answers to those questions mattered little because you knew ahead of time they would be scripted as well. By this time, anything he says is either so generic and cliché or such a patent lie that it matters little. But what A-Rod has done is cement his place as the most universally disliked team sport athlete of his generation…good job by him.

Dwight Howard Takes His Talents to Houston

It’s been a whirlwind year for Dwight Howard here at B-Court All-Star. Last July, I correctly predicted Howard would eventually wind up in LA for the 2012-2013 season. Prior to the season, I mistakenly (like so many others) predicted big things for him and the Lakers. I picked apart his on-court wardrobe decisions, and I wondered aloud whether he was in fact worth a max contract …well, it turns out at least someone thinks so, as Howard opted to leave the Lakers and sign a 4 year $88 million deal with the Houston Rockets.

Judging Howard’s decision on its own, I think it was a smart move for him. Howard clashed with both Kobe Bryant and Coach Mike D’Antoni, and the Lakers appear to be a mess from an organizational standpoint as well. Now, was Howard as much to blame for those 2 individual clashes as Kobe and D’Antoni? Probably…but given how the Lakers are being run, the way the roster is currently constructed, and Kobe’s injury, the Lakers don’t appear to be a great destination at the moment aside from the fact that, hey, they’re the Lakers. In the Rockets, Howard joins a young flexible roster with another young budding superstar, and he’s got the chance to win right away.

So, considering all of that, Howard’s decision was actually a no-brainer regardless of what buffoonery comes out of Shaq’s mouth or any other ex-Laker greats. I’m not necessarily buying the Dwight couldn’t handle the spotlight of LA angle either because, as noted above, from a basketball standpoint LA-over-Houston just doesn’t make sense. But none of that means Howard came out of this smelling like roses either.

He claims to be a leader, but in his 1^st 2 stops, Howard has shown himself to be a coach-killer and a crappy teammate. He says he wants to be the guy and have the ball in his hands at the end of games in the clutch, but he still has no real post game to speak of, and he actually avoids the ball like it’s made of plutonium in crunch time because he’s a God-awful free throw shooter. And he wants offenses to be run through him instead of playing pick-and-roll, but you really can’t run your offense through him in terms of dumping the ball into him in the low post (see previous sentence). In that way, D’Antoni’s system should have at least been perfect for him if not anyone else (maybe not Kobe, Metta World Peace, Pau Gasol, or the Lakers role players, but him) just as he was the primary screener in Orlando as they spread the floor with shooters. Instead Howard sulked and complained that he was being misused.

When Howard is healthy, happy, and motivated he would probably still be number 3 in the world today (after LeBron James and Kevin Durant) as players that GMs would want to start their teams with. Even with all those blemishes I just brought up, he’s still a singular force in today’s NBA in terms of his shot-blocking, rebounding, and finishing around the rim…but we haven’t seen a healthy Dwight Howard in a couple of years now. He showed flashes at the end of this past season, but you still have to wonder if he will ever fully regain his pre-surgery form.

With all that being said, I still like the move from Houston’s perspective as well…that is, if Howard keeps his mouth shut and just plays. Why? Because James Harden, that’s why. Having played behind Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook for a few seasons, Harden seems content to go about his business without much fanfare. Howard can play the glamour-puss role for the Rockets, and Harden can just ball. If coach-killer, teammate-thrower-under-the-bus Dwight Howard can stay away, the Harden-Howard combo might be a match made in heaven. If a few weeks into next season, we hear rumors about Howard complaining about his role in the offense and his touches, then, Houston, we’ve got a problem…and yes, I know that is probably as cheesy and cliché a line that I could possibly end on, but I haven’t posted anything in about a month. Cut me some slack.

Heat-Spurs, Game 7: The Champ is Here (Again)

Extra bullets. No intros. No time…no f***ing time for that s***!

1. Not a bad encore for the Game 6 thriller. Tuesday night’s game will go down as an instant classic, and given that a letdown was somewhat expected last night. Game 7 was much sloppier and poorly played offensively (especially early on). The effort and intensity was there all night, and the level of play picked up as the game went on, but the physical and emotional toll of Game 6 was telling. Still, you would be hard-pressed to ask for a better ending to a truly epic series.

2. LeBron James saved his best for last. Having been dared by the Spurs to shoot the ball from the outside all series long, James finally truly obliged last night. He scored 37 points, including 5 3’s. The 3’s were huge, but to me the more crucial shots toLeBron’s game are those pull-up 16-18 footers, which he was burying last night as well…this included the last dagger midrange jumper with under 30 seconds to play, a shot that pretty much iced the game for good. James struggled for much of the series offensively, but if any questions still remained about his clutchness they should surely be answered now. His legacy also seems to be cemented now as well…but that is another blog post saved for another day in a summer where only baseball, tennis, and golf remain.

3. Oh, and Dwyane Wade wasn’t too shabby either. James actually started slowly on offense. The Spurs strategy against Wade was basically the same one they employed for James, but Wade was the one that started the game off drilling midrange jumpers whenever Spur defenders backed off. After some actually wondered aloud whether it would serve Miami better to bring Wade off the bench in Game 7, Wade delivered his typical D-Wade thanks for doubting me, f*** you performance. WhileLeBron had a line of 37 points and 12 rebounds, Wade had a double-double himself with 23 and 10. I still wonder how rapidly he will decline over the next couple of years, but he looked like vintage Flash for one more night at least when his team needed him the most.

4. Shane Battier made up for the Heat’s others. Let’s just say that Chris Bosh, Ray Allen, and Mike Miller earned their championship rings in Game 6. Game 7 saw them go a combined 0 for 14 with 5 turnovers. Bosh’s doughnut is slightly unfair because he had the unenviable task of guarding Tim Duncan 1-on-1 again, and I thought he got a couple of bogus foul calls that caused him not to get his usual minutes, but still…Battier’s 18 points on 6 for 8 shooting on 3’s couldn’t have come at a better time for Miami.

5. The Spurs were valiant in defeat. There were several instances in the 4th quarter where it looked like Miami dealt a knockout blow, stretching the lead to 5 or 6 after hitting a big shot…and San Antonio continued to answer with a big play of their own. I’m not sure if he’s the type of player you canactually build a team around, but Kawhi Leonard is very verygood, and Tim Duncan was a warrior again with 24 points and 12 rebounds…

6. …and yet, the Spurs have to be kicking themselves. They were down 1 heading into the 4th quarter. They were down 2 when Duncan missed the bunny and the put-back late in the game. They were still down only 4 when they turned the ball over with like 20 seconds left. And let’s not even bring up the sequence of events that led to them choking away Game 6…yeesh.

7. Tony Parker, Danny Green, and Gary Neal were non-factors. Green and Neal are still great shooters, but they had to regress back to the mean a little bit eventually, right? Especially after Miami shifted a more defensive attention their way in Games 6 and 7. But Parker seemed to be completely shut down once the Heat decided to put LeBron on him on a more regular basis. So much so that Gregg Popovich actually thought better to leave him on the bench for the critical play with 20 seconds left down only 4 referenced above.

8. Was Manu Ginobili on the take? Ok, that’s probably not fair. But after having his best game of the year in Game 5 he was awful in Game 6. He was slightly better in Game 7, but he had 3 crucial 4th quarter turnovers that could have been the difference in the series. You have to wonder what his plans are for the future, because as a big time player I would say he’s done.

9. Could we see a rematch in next season’s Finals? Possibly…you would have to think back-to-back rings would be enough for Pat Riley to bring the band back 1 more year. Yes, Chicago and Indiana will presumably be better after getting D-Rose and Granger back, but you would still have to look at Miami as the favorite in the East regardless. The West is a lotdicier to navigate. The Thunder will be back. Memphis will be there. What are the Clippers going to look like next season? Could Houston land Dwight Howard? Despite Kobe’s injury and all the Dwight-drama, you know the Lakers will always be up to stuff. However, Tim Duncan had his best season in 4 years, Tony Parker is still Tony Parker, and the Spurs have a habit of finding great surrounding pieces. Once again, it will mostlycome down to health though.

10. But this night was all about the Miami Heat. Watching the Heat was really interesting during the postgame festivities. After last year’s series clincher against OKC, you could sense the unbridled joy and relief from the whole team. The series with the Spurs was probably their toughest as a group to date, but whereas last year’s time looked like they finally got the chance to exhale, this year’s team exuded a quiet confidence…not the brash cockiness they exhibited when James and Bosh 1st teamed up with Wade, but a man that was hard, but we knew we had this look. That was definitely not the vibe you got from this team 2 years ago, but the completed transformation was something pretty cool to see.

Heat-Spurs, Game 6: A Game for the Ages

I think I should be allowed to say this without making it a bullet, but that was probably the most dramatic NBA Finals game I’ve ever seen. So tense was it that I basically forfeited all hope of sleep later that night and productivity today, as I turned to Krissy once the 1st overtime started and said, “I guess I’m going in late to work tomorrow.” To say the least, just a wild finish…

1. You could have written a novel about LeBron James’ night. Starting out an ugly 3 for 12 as Miami trailed by double digits entering the 4th quarter, the Heat surrounded James with 1 big and 3 shooters, and let him go to work. He still threw in a couple of turnovers and missed shots at the end of regulation for good measure, but the Heat wouldn’t have even been in that position to begin with without him. His block on Tim Duncan (his 3rd great block of the series) and his 3 to pull Miami within 2 with under a minute to play will be remembered as his signature plays of the night. Despite the shaky 1st half shooting, James still finished with a triple-double.

2. Let the headband fables begin! This is one of those things that people tend to get carried away with, but at some point in the 4th quarter James lost his trademark headband, and from that point on it was like release the Kraken! James gets a lot of flack because as his hairline has receded like a low tide over the years, his headband seems to travel farther and farther up his forehead. It was like the headband was part tribute to LeBron’s youthful exuberance, part vanity object…but did anyone else notice the huge gash on the back of James’ head that the headband also seems to serve to cover up? The mysterious scar was almost the most fascinating part for me. Anyway, I think it would be kind of cool if from hence forth LeBron ditched the headband and rocked his balding dome. Male pattern baldness or not, it’s a much more mature grown-up look (like when Melo ditched the cornrows…still sporting a headband and double arm sleeves, but I will pick my battles), but I suspect we will see the usual head accessory again come Thursday night.

3. Tim Duncan turned back the clock for one night at least. Miami was obviously tired of the barrage of Danny Green 3’s through the 1st 5 games of the series, and TD reaped the benefits, as whenever he got a post touch in the 1st half he was afforded ample time and space to operate. Personally, I don’t think Chris Bosh did a terrible job defending either (not great, but not terrible), but even a 37 year old Duncan is going to work over almost anyone on the low block if you don’t send help, and he abused Bosh in single coverage for much of the game.

4. Please don’t tell me anything about the refs. I don’t want to hear a word about how Bosh’s block at the end of the game or Ray Allen’s strip on Manu Ginobili should have been fouls. Did you watch the game (or any game this series for that matter)? Both teams are finesse teams that aren’t really interested in playing bully-ball anyway, but nothing was a foul last night…as in all night. So please, save your officiating complaints for somebody else…at the same time, if I don’t see Joey Crawford’s cueball head for a few months, that couldn’t come soon enough.

5. Can the Spurs recover in time for Game 7? They wasted a 30 point game from Duncan, a 10 point lead heading into the 4th quarter, and a 5 point lead with less than a minute to play. Now, they will be forced to turn around in less than 48 hours and win a Game 7 on the road. One might think that it all could be emotionally, physically, psychologically too much to overcome. And yet, if there’s any team professional and tough enough to do it, it’s the Spurs, and I have a feeling we are in for an almost equally wild game on Thursday night.

Heat-Spurs, Game 5: A Manu Ginobili sighting

I’m falling asleep in my chair as I write this, so forgive me if something isn’t factually correct…like if I write that last night’s game hinged on the David Robinson-Alonzo Mourning matchup or something.

1. Manu Ginobili finally showed up. So much for the last bullet from my Game 4 post. I did give the caveat that while we shouldn’t expect more from Ginobili anymore at this stage of his career that it didn’t mean he didn’t have a 20 point game left in him. He was inserted into the starting lineup to match Miami’s small-ball unit and played the hero with 24 points and 10 assists.

Ginobili!!!

2. If the Finals ended today, Danny Green would be the series MVP…no, really. Green leads San Antonio in scoring through the 1st 5 games of the Finals, and he’s already set the Finals record for 3’s made with 2 potential games left to the play. Plus, he’s been responsible for at least 2 he’s shooting that from where comments a game (which are going in more often than not).

3. LeBron James continues to struggle in this series. It’s a far cry from the disappearing act he gave in the Finals 2 years ago, and he’s still putting up decent numbers (25 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals last night), but other than Game 4 he hasn’t dominated the way I expected either. And I don’t think it has anything to do with him being too passive or anything like that…it more seems to be a combination of him just not being able to put the ball in the basket, good individual defense being played against him, and the Spurs’ overall defensive strategy, which he just hasn’t been able to figure out.

4. I think Eric Spoelstra is a good coach, but he’s going up against a coaching mastermind in Gregg Popovich. Spoelstra was lauded for going small in Game 4, but Popovich gave a very effective counter (starting Ginobili) last night. This series has been back-and-forth, so it should be interesting to see what adjustments Miami comes out with in Game 5. Spoelstra has made some decisions that I don’t really understand though throughout the postseason. He loves Udonis Haslem, but other than 1 game against Indy, Haslem appears to not be able to play anymore. He’s an undersized big guy who also happens to be slow and extremely limited offensively. He’s got great heart and toughness, but loyalty aside you would think that if Miami was going to play this 1 big at a time scheme logic would dictate that Chris Anderson would be that 2nd big guy. However, he hasn’t so much as sniffed the court the past couple of games. Similarly, while Mike Miller has shot the lights out since getting more playing time, and Shane Battier has been in a severe slump this postseason, Battier is the much better defender of the 2. San Antonio constantly tried to get Miller on an island against either Parker or Ginobili in Game 5, and Miller often gets lost in defensive rotations as well.

5. Will the win-a-game/lose-a-game pattern continue in this series? That is the question going into Tuesday night. This is also the same position Miami found themselves in 2 years ago in the Finals against Dallas: down 3-2 and heading home. The Heat are not the same team as they were then, and it’s hard to imagine them at least not forcing a Game 7, but the situation is eerily similar.

Heat-Spurs, Game 4: And Back and Forth We Go

Do I need an introductory paragraph at this point? No, I didn't think so.

1. Before I get into anything about this game specifically, I'm tired of everyone's overreactions from game to game. After Game 1, everyone was on the Spurs' d***. After Game 2, people pronounced San Antonio dead even though the series was only tied at 1-1. After the Game 3 beatdown, the media was quick to throw dirt on Miami's grave. Now, after the Heat evened the series at 2-2, the talking heads are picking the Heat in 6. Really? It's embarrassing how quickly everyone flip-flops back and forth. I'm putting Sportscenter on mute whenever anything about this series comes up from now on.

2. If Miami's Big 3 plays like that, they are going to be almost impossible to beat. I don't need to go through all the stats, do I? They all individually had their best games of the series at the same time. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade got to the basket and got their midrange game going as well. Chris Bosh actually did some decent work in the paint. 85 combined points and swarming defense will do the trick.

3. Aside from that, turnovers killed the Spurs. They doubled up the Heat's number of cough-ups, 18-9. That's not going to get it done.

4. Miami's decision to go small in their starting lineup with Mike Miller forced San Antonio's hand. Not only that, Shane Battjer saw more time. Udonis Haslem's minutes were reduced. Chris Anderson didn't even enter the game. This forced the Spurs to matchup, and their complimentary bigs (Tiago Splitter, Boris Diaw, and Matt Bonner) were rendered irrelevant.

5. Don't expect more from Many Ginobili. Many people are wondering what has happened to the Spurs' Big 3, but nothing's happened to it. There is no Big 3 there anymore. Anyone who has watched them play this year knows this. That doesn't mean he's still not a good player. It doesn't mean that he can't put a 20 point game together. But it's stupid to wait around for it. San Antonio's most likely going to have to get contributions from other people (such as the Game 3 heroes) to have a chance to win the series.