Pepper McSausage Picks

A pick a day until my mom comes back to life.

So… yesterday didn’t go as planned. But that is the beauty to this, there is no plan, and nobody to hold me accountable except me. Which is hard. Discipline and consistency are very important, and I’m not very good at the former…which disrupts my pursuit of the latter. My mom wasn’t very good at the former either, and that’s why she’s not here anymore. Jabari Smith is a painful reminder of me and my mom’s shortcomings, and that means I must now project all of my feelings onto him for NOT BEING ABLE TO GET 3 MEASLY REBOUNDS IN THE SECOND HALF.

I see a lot of myself in Jabari, from a potential perspective he hasn’t really put it all together. The difference, however, is I have an inflated sense of my own potential without anyone having ever told me I was gonna be great, unlike him. It’s gotta be kinda nice being projected upon. I mean it must suck when you have to then deal with expectations like that, but to at least be seen for a moment through a lense in which you WANT to see yourself must feel great. Feels like a win in and of itself. I want to be a good gambler, and like anybody in this space I’ve had my fair share of wins, but it feels like that’s the only space, at this point of my life, where I can still find some sort of potential for myself.

I struggle thinking of my mom in pursuit of potential. It pains me to say, but it feels like she didn’t have any. She was an alcoholic hypochondriac with an anxiety disorder and a son with anger and mental impairments. She got a tough draw. But she also just became her draw. Forever she was reliant on the men in her life, and as her looks faded, those men became less and less of winners. Her last man is a fine one, but he’s a man of faith and had his own personal limitations, but that’s for a different time. This is all to say, at a certain point, my mom became a bit of a potential abyss. We talk, in sports, a lot about floor and ceiling and the irony is not lost on me that my mom’s ceiling is now six feet under. I cannot yet put into words my deep sadness and bitterness bubbling from her death, but it also feels like such a projection, but my hope and potential isn’t much higher. I can find much content in existence and forever my mom could too. Until she couldn’t. And life spiraled in a way where she was devoured by the nothingness in her existence and she reached a point of no return. Like she was in the nothing place in Get Out. And then she just goes on and dies. And I’m here refreshing the rockets/raptors gamecast to see if Jabari got another rebound, while simultaneously watching Jaylen Brown’s teammates hit every shot for Payton Pritchard, but brick all shots off his passes (lol I forgot to mention that bet lost too, but thank god that was a bonus bet :P).

Anyway, today’s pick is: STEPHON CASTLE OVER 5.5 ASSISTS

Castle’s assists number have been trending down since game 1, but he’s due. Miami is good at allowing assists to guards and they play with great haste! They’re number 1 in the league right now in pace, and Castle should athletically benefit from all the running and the extra possessions. This is a don’t overthink it pick for a guy that I’ll probably be overthinking all year as my bias (he’s a good player) creeps into every value opportunity that creeps up when Fox returns and all the cooks in San Antonio’s kitchen starts gassing up their fryers.

Good luck with your bets, and as always, I’ll see you on the other side!

Pick record: 1-1 (no thank you Jabari)