 media and deflecting them away from paying attention to his players. It looks like the old Phil is gone and the new Phil Jackson likes to use the media to shine a spotlight directly on his best players.
Earlier in the season Jackson commented to the media about his star player, Carmelo Anthony.
. “That is one of the things we work with. But he’s adjusted to [the triangle], he knows what he can do, and he’s willing to see its success.”
No doubt that reporters were not going to let this slide as they rushed to ask Anthony what he thought about Phil Jackson’s comments..”
It seems as if it should have ended there, but the lights of New York shine a little brighter on its stars and things didn’t quite sit well with ‘Melo. It quickly turned into a “He said He said” ordeal. Neither side wanted to say that they wanted out. Carmelo holds all the cards right now with his no trade clause, but has hinted that he might consider a trade for the right circumstances. This week it became clear that Phil Jackson was ready to say goodbye to his star player as he began to shop for offers around the league. Some thought Cleveland would be where he landed, but the Cav’s are not willing to give up Kevin Love for Carmelo and he doesn’t really fit their needs.
Who is to blame for all this unrest?
In my opinion the blame all lands smack dab on the back of superstar Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors. That’s right Dub-Nation it’s all your fault the league is in turmoil. The moment that Durant signed with the Warriors during the offseason it became a game changer across the league. Immediately there wasn’t a team anywhere that was built to beat this powerhouse of a team in a 7-game series. It created panic in front offices and has wreaked havoc in the locker rooms. Stars like LeBron, D-Wade, Carmelo are working on the back-end of their careers and standing out West is a team that looks to be the hands on favorite to be in the Championship this year and possibly years to come. So yeah there has been a lot of whining and complaining in the league here recently, but we are nearing the trade deadline and if anyone wants a chance to run with the Warriors, they better be ready to make a deal.
A lot can happen between now and the trade deadline, but it is certainly getting interesting. If it’s a bright spot you’re looking for in all this and just want to see what it’s like when a player just loves the game and plays it well.
You might as well give Joel Embiid a follow on twitter @JoelEmbiid.
No doubt he has what it takes to ease all this stress for the NBA fans and he might just give you a good laugh along the way too. Plus he might have a little advice for some of these veterans that can’t seem to find their happiness. That advice is “Trust the Process” fellas. Maybe if they all did that they might remember how lucky they really are.“Olive trees are angels anciently wakened from the sky under the earth.” Willis Barnstone, American poet.
Olives have played a pivotal role in the survival and pleasure of mankind throughout the ages, symbolizing fertility, wisdom and peace. Although historians are unable to pinpoint the precise origins of the olive tree, it is believed that in 6000 B.C. farmers in Asia Minor cultivated the craft of grafting, replanting, and domesticating olive shoots. Greek Islanders were also able to tame wild olive trees for domestic harvesting around the same time. It is also believed that ancient Egyptians planted olive trees in the Nile Delta during the 18th Dynasty, about the time of Tutankhamen.
In ancient mythology olive trees were created by Athena, the goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill. When Zeus solicited a deity to rule over the region of Attica, Athena was chosen for creating a gift that was considered to be the most valuable to humanity — the olive tree.
Throughout history olive trees played an important role in civilizations: Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans used them for cultural inspiration in art and literature. At the time of the Peloponnesian Wars {431-404 BC} the also olive tree was also used as a symbol of peace.
The journey of the olive tree all the way to the new world of the Americas was convoluted. During the eighth and fifth centuries B.C. olives were brought to Sicily by Greek colonists and the city of Syracuse {Siracusa} was built upon the wealth from oil and wine. Trade routes were developed by the Greeks and Phoenicians and as a result, olives made their way west to France, Spain, and Tunisia. The Romans planted olive trees in France as well as North Africa and by the tenth century groves fringed across Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean. Italian immigrants brought olive trees to South America, southern Africa, and Australia and the olive was finally introduced to the New World in the 1500s by Spanish missionaries.
In the year 1524 Franciscan missionary, Father Martin de Valencia, began planting olive trees in California soon after his arrival. These trees eventually became a major contributor to the settlement called Alta California in what was referred to as New Spain. The olive trees in Baja California came from Dominican, Franciscan and Jesuit priests who initially brought the trees with them from Mexico City. Along with olives, the missionaries planted other trees that were familiar to them, such as pears, figs, pomegranates, nuts, peaches, and dates. Through cultivation, the trees belonging to Mission San Diego produced cuttings that were utilized to produce olive orchards throughout California. By 1834 there were a reported 467 trees produced from these cuttings.
Currently, there are an estimated 800 million olive trees planted throughout the world. They can be found on six continents and ninety percent are located on the fringe of the Mediterranean. Throughout the world, olive and olive oil businesses produce a turnover of $10 billion. The world consumes approximately 2 million metric tons of olive oil annually. Olives provide a minimum of 200 million workdays every year and are grown by 7 million families for harvest.
Varieties of olive trees grown in the United States include hybrids such as Kalamata, Manzanillo, Sevillano, Ascolano, Mission and Barovini. The olives are typically harvested in October and November. Topography, geography and climate play a major role in the growing of olives and most trees are grown in the warm, temperate climates and well drained, fertile soils of California and Arizona. The traditional methods of harvesting olives are to pick them by hand or through the utilization of a handheld rake, but technological advancements have made olive harvesting much simpler and less time consuming. Lightweight battery-operated mechanical pickers allow harvesters to pick the olives while standing at ground level. The pickers have vibrating tongs that allow farmers to remove the olives from the branches. This improves both the safety in the orchard during harvest season and harvest productivity. The most efficient harvesting maneuver is the utilization of tree shakers known as shaker bars. These tools are attached to the bottom of the olive tree or the backs of tractors before shaking the olives from the trees and onto large nets where they can be gathered easily.
Olives are harvested once the tree has flowered. They are initially hard and green but through the passing of time change to a yellow-green hue before turning a purplish red and finally black. These pigment variations coincide with the chemical changes that take place within the fruit, and a direct result of the high levels of chlorophyll found in unripe olives give the fruit a green pigmentation.
Harvested olives are then cleaned and made into olive oil or cured for consumption. Traditionally, stone wheels are used to grind both the olive flesh and pits into pulp which will eventually generate the oil. Modern technology has created a gentler means of producing olive oil through the utilization of metal grinders, which produce what is known as cold-pressed olive oil — the most sought after in the world. Olives lose flavor from the friction and heat caused by grinding and if the pulp temperature exceeds twenty-seven degrees it can no longer be considered cold-pressed oil.
The pulp is then deposited between stacked hemp mats which are then placed into a hydraulic press where the oil is squeezed from the pulp. Recycled pulp is often used as fertilizer or animal feed. The oil is then stored in steel tanks and later deposited into glass containers to be shipped to grocery stores and restaurants. Olive oil is typically stored in green glass bottles to avoid harmful ultraviolet rays that can cause the oil quality to deteriorate.
Olives are inedible unless they are pickled. They are often stuffed with ingredients from pimentos to almonds and from sun-dried tomatoes to blue or soft cheese. From the fields, olives are placed in brine to ferment for nine months, which softens and sweetens the bitter and hard flesh. They are then placed onto a conveyer belt where workers can remove leaves and debris and they are sorted by size according to width. They are then poured into a drum which will rotate and deposit them into individual pockets and this procedure lines them up for the pitting process.
Pitting machines can pit nine hundred olives per minute. A coring knife is pressed into one end of the olive and pushes the core through the other end. As the pit is removed it creates a hole that is appropriately sized for stuffing. The olives are then inspected by workers, who remove any with