Author: Christopher Pierznik

Christopher Pierznik is the author of 9 books and has contributed to numerous websites on a variety of topics including music, sports, movies, TV, personal finance, and life. He works in corporate finance and lives in northern New Jersey with his family. His dream is to one day be a member of the Wu-Tang Clan.

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Greatness Hip-Hop MLB NFL Rap

Bo Jackson and Lauryn Hill: Legendary Even Without Longevity

Some people are too talented to be confined to just one lane. 

Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson was the rare two-sport athlete. He could have been a Hall of Famer in both baseball and football. 

Lauryn Hill was the rare two-discipline musical artist. She could have had the greatest career as both a rapper and a singer.

They also shared several other traits in common: reaching incredible heights; colleagues accusing them of being difficult; focusing on their families; and, above all, not being interested in living up to the outsized expectations created by their early acts of brilliance.

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Health Life

My Only Goal: Improve Daily

by Christopher Pierznik

In my moments of quiet reflection, I always ask myself the same few questions.

Am I improving? Are my choices and actions moving me closer to the person I want to be? Have I made progress over the past day/week/month/year?

These are often followed by questions of self-flagellation: Why did I say that? What was I thinking? Why did I make that decision?

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Greatness MLB NBA NFL Sports

G.O.T.E. Is the New G.O.A.T.

Comparing eras is futile, so let’s celebrate the Greatest Of Their Era

via ESPN

The great thing about sports is that results are objective. There are won-loss records, tournaments, playoffs, and championships. The winner is decided on the field of play.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t subjective debates. Quite the contrary. The never ending sports debates all come down to one question: Who is the best? Who’s the best player? What was the toughest era? What’s the best team? Could the best team from a prior era beat the top squad from today’s game?

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Craft Beer I Was There Life Nostalgia Philadelphia

Saying Goodbye to My Favorite Place – and My Youth

Photo by Christopher Pierznik

For most of us, life is not like a sitcom. We don’t meet up with our friends every single day at Central Perk or MacLaren’s or Cheers, but we do have our spots that we prefer over all others. We may not go there all the time, but we feel most comfortable there. It is where we are in our element, where we invite everyone to join us. It is our home field, as it were.

Mine was Memphis Taproom.

So I was quite dismayed a few weeks ago when I read the news that it would be closing its doors for good.

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Business Career Knowledge Life

The Best Thing You Can Do for Your Boss – and Yourself

Clear the path

Ancient Rome was a crowded place. There were all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds and social statuses jostling in the streets. It would have been difficult to make your way through the mass of humanity.

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Writing

The Lost John Grisham Story – “The Birthday” (1995)

Of the numerous casualties of the digital revolution, one of the most disheartening is the demise of the magazine.

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Writing

My Best Writing of 2022

As both my personal and professional lives became not just busier, but also more complex, my writing output — and my readership and reach — has declined. 

However, I do feel like almost everything I do publish these days is worthy of being clicked on and read. I couldn’t always honestly say that. Still, some things are better than others so I’ve collected the best things I wrote this year — a tradition that dates all the way back to 2015. It’s like my own personal literary version of Spotify Wrapped.

So please take a look below and, if something strikes you as interesting, please give it a click. 

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Books NBA Reviews

A Near-Perfect Primer on the Modern NBA — “Spaced Out” Reviewed

Three is more than two.

That simple mathematical fact, which had been largely overlooked for decades, has completely changed the National Basketball Association. Today’s game is nothing but guys shooting from deep. There’s no more to it than that.

Right?

Maybe not.

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NBA

The Top Two Picks in the NBA Draft Rarely Become the Two Best Players

Victor Wenbanyama and Scoot Henderson are projected to be the top two picks in the 2023 NBA Draft

The 2023 NBA Draft is shaping up to be one of the rare instances in which there are multiple prizes.

In fact, experts are saying that this draft class may even have four or five players that could help transform a franchise. However, there is an absolute consensus that Victor Wenbanyama and Scoot Henderson should go first and second in the draft, respectively.

While Wenbanyama appears to be a generational talent and is the most hyped prospect since LeBron James, Henderson would be the top pick in almost any other year, so whatever team ends up in the second spot will have a hell of a consolation prize.

Still, that team should be wary. Rarely do the top two picks end up being the two best players in that class.

In fact, it has not happened more than five times since 1960. Five times in sixty years.

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Life

Twitter Quitter

I have been thinking about it for years.

I used to be a Twitter superuser, tweeting multiple times per day, interacting with both close friends and complete strangers, using it as a place to get both information and laughs, and everything in between. 

In recent years, though, it stopped being fun. There are a multitude of reasons for that. The vitriol. The anger. The constant arguing over race, politics, and culture. The bad began outweighing the good. 

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