What Would You Brag About?

I'm not going to lie, I didn't expect my "Distractions, Distractions" post to be so highly scrutinized by the Bashette Brothers (Spotlight and Scott), calling my post "A self-indulgent humble brag." At first, I was a little confused. Then after re-reading over my daily meals I realized not only was a I bragging, but it had nothing to do with what the post was supposed to be about. Do I care? No. Will everyone be surprised that despite eating that daily, that I look the exact same? Probably.

Anyway, last night I was talking to some scrub in PCTI and I had a great idea for a blog post. If everyone were going to make a post like I did bragging, what would they brag about? I don't know everyone extremely well quite yet, but I'm confident I can offer some sort of insight into what each guy is impressed by themselves about.

Ian Van Horne-Beer Drinking

Anyone that has spent any time with the Bruiser knows the dude prides himself on being able to flawlessly execute any sort of beer drinking scenerio. Whether it's chugging for time, funneling, flip cup, beer pong, etc... Dude is fluid and really good in all facets. Additionally, he looks at ease and comfortable with a solo cup in his hand-A very important look that not everyone can pull off.

Michael Beasley-Fluid Hips

It's more specific then this. If you want to see a work of art, catch Beas on a dance floor with a lady he is interested and watch his hip action. Fluid and quick, he shakes it to perfection. The best part is not the overall ability he possesses, but watching whatever girl he is with go wild watching him. At that moment, she knows she is the luckiest girl at the bar at that specific time.

Wes Murray-Well Cultured

I haven't really dug deep into Wes yet but from what I've gathered, the guy has been there done that. If he hasn't, you can count on the fact that he knows about it. A prime example of my claim is he immediately commented on the post about potential destinations, saying he refuses to go to Cincy until the waterfront casino is up and running. He loves posting pictures of being on the Grand Canyon, overlooking the water in Seattle, etc. Clearly, he is impressed by his well-traveled ways, and appears to be a guy that fits in perfectly with my high school friends, none of which I like.

Ben Wilson-Knowledge of Music

I don't know where Wilson and I went wrong but it doesn't surprise me that the one thing that stands out about him is something that I would hate more than anything. NOTHING makes me more angry than people that claim to know everything about music. The only thing worse, are the people that think they have a better knowledge than the next person because they like bands no one else has heard of (I assume Wilson is like that). I didn't know this about Ben until last year when I said we need music and everyone starts going nuts about how Wilson is the guy to solve our problem. I turned to him and said "You have an extensive library?" and his response was "You want it, I got it." To expand on how impressed he is by his music knowledge are the posts and video updates about The Tabernacle (Not sure if that's music or a museum) and OAR. Music sucks.

Michael Orr-Sarcasm

I've known Smo since 4th grade and never once have I heard the kid brag. Therefore, I'm answering this based upon what myself and most people that really know him would brag about on his behalf, and that's his sarcasm. It's interesting that Smo is so popular in PCTI considering so few people actually know the real Smo. He does a great job of portraying himself when you first meet him as Mr. Nice Guy. Is he nice? Sure. However, there is a much darker side to this guy. Never in my life have I seen anyone execute sarcasm the way this guy does. Listening to him rip someone (Or himself for that matter) apart is one of the great experiences you will have. Whether or not he is proud of it is one thing, but it has to be noted that he is too good at it to not warrant recognition.

Josh Stephens-Basketball Talent

Listen, he can't do the things he does on the court and not clearly be impressed by himself. What I mean by that is you can't shoot the shots he does and not care when his teammates yell at him without really being confident and impressed by his abilities on the court. He is so confident that despite being an accomplished post player in HS that by all means was tough to stop, he decided the game was too easy so he re-invented himself as a SG in college. It's not an exciting answer, but it can't be denied.

Dumb Ass Brent Carney-Prowess With Women

Look, you don't get a nickname like "Big Pun" without gaining a ridiculous amount of notoriety for your abilities with females. There were some great moments after earning the nickname where one girl said "He thinks because he is Brent Carney he can get anyone he wants" and another said "I avoided him because no other women would" that made the nickname that much more fitting and fantastic. He has since been slowed by a relationship, but never will his prowess be forgotten by him.

Joe Thompson-Humor

It takes a guy that is unbelievably confident in his ability to make people laugh to move to LA and study Improv Comedy. Granted, everyone likes making people laugh.. But to decide you're going to devote your life to it shows that you're sure you're good at it. Another one of Thompson's traits that he loves about himself are the white lies he likes to tell, then laugh at you for believing him. He has gotten me on that over 5,000 times the last few years, and he enjoys it more every time. I'm not sure if he is using me as a practice dummy for his acting career, but there is no doubt he is in the right industry.

Anthony Hopkins-TV Watching

You don't find guy's that have TV swag like Hops. It takes a special person to not only sit down and watch TV for long periods of time, but to be impressed by himself for it. I'm not sure why, but when he tells me he likes Californication I can't help but to think Hops either 1-Wanted to be like Dave Duchovny or 2-Thinks he could be like Dave Duchovny. Regardless, let's throw it up to Hops for having bragging rights on what is in my opinion the least appealing trait outside of passion for music.

Jeff Sabin-Cross Fit

I don't think it's any secret at this point that Sabin loves Cross Fit. It's one thing to do it to get into good shape, it's another thing to do it to be able to brag about doing 50 power cleans during one trip to the gym. Sabin will talk about his Cross Fit accomplishments to anyone that will listen (Wife, kids, PCTI members, hoop friends, bosses, admin assistants, etc) and think it has officially triumphed everything but PCTI in his life. It's going to be a scary time for the PCTI blog the first time he enters himself into the Cross Fit competition.

Spotlight-Being a Renegade

"RENEGADE! Never been afraid to say what's on my mind at, any given time of day, cause I'm a RENEGADE! Never been afraid to talk about anything (ANYTHING) anything (ANYTHING), RENEGADE!" I know there is a lot to the man they call Spotlight, but all I can go on is what I've learned about him since we stumbled upon each other two years ago. He graciously accepted an invite to a fantasy baseball league last year in which he knew next to no one and within two weeks was sending hate mail to each GM anytime they didn't accept one of his trades. On the first fantasy hoops email chain he was on he was invited by Sabin to join forces as they were the old veterans in the league. Spotlight immediately declined saying he wanted no affiliation to the old man. As far as PCTI goes, I don't think it's any secret that he has been no different. The guy prides himself on taking shots at anyone and everyone, promoting himself as the second coming, and not caring about what feathers he ruffles along the way.

Brian Eskildsen-Having an Unwarranted Rep as a Bad Boy

Well, this is pretty easy. There is no question ESK has fallen in love with his reputation the last few months and is going to do everything he can to hold on to it. Then again, who wouldn't want to be known as a bad ass when they aren't one? The best part about this rep is that the storyline came from real life opinions from real life PCTI members. This isn't something I thought up myself and decided it should be promoted. D/A Brent talked for months about how no-nonsense ESK was and how he doesn't mess around. If you want a back up of ESK's attempts to garner this rep, look no further than watching the 15 second clip when he busted his lip. He calmy walks around for about five seconds touching his lip... Then out of nowhere let's out a ground breaking ****... Then walks around for 30 seconds with a tough guy face on like someone was about to pay. He comes back the next day with an attitude trying to cheap shot at a select few and VOILA, the bad boy is born. Dude is going to ride this out as long as possible.

Josh Pitto-Softball/Women

I'm not sure if anyone has had the pleasure of having this conversation with Pitto, but dude is DANGEROUSLY impressed by how good he is at softball. To my knowledge he plays a few times a week and occasionally travels for it. I'm a little confused because I'm not sure his measurables match up to anything that could be an accomplished player on the diamond. It wouldn't surprise me if he prided himself on being a pitcher that uses masterful spin, something I find to be the most overrated quirk in softball. In addition to softball, Pitto has accomplished what no one else has. Make a girl fall so in love with him that she follows the PCTI blog. Not that I blame her because this blog is fantastic, but damn how smooth does he have to be to get her interested? Donley, Hops and myself are all married and we can't get our women to even consider trying. BC couldn't get his girl to show up for a half in PCTI-II. Pitto-Whatever you're trick is, please fill us in.

Bryan McKinney-Metablolism Speed

At first, I was going to say you wouldn't have guessed this from looking at him but last year the no exercise and excessive eating finally caught up. Despite that, he was still relatively skinny (Just fat for him). I consider myself one of the leaders in lack of portion control in the entire country. I can put down any amount of anything you put in front of me without a problem. The difference is that when I do, you can tell. McKinney is another story. I loved to eat as often as possible and yet this guy can sometimes annoy me with how often he is hungry. He will throw down a steak, five pieces of bread, some pasta and beer and start asking if I'm hungry in another 30 minutes. He probably eats 4-5 FULL meals each day and somehow continues to be outrageously thin. I personally hate it about him, but it's definitely something he should be proud of because I have never seen anything move so fast.

Scott Donley-His Body

Don't let his lack of response to Sabin's hype of him being chiseled out of stone fool you into thinking Scott doesn't enjoy it. I can guarantee you that dude spends quite a bit of time behind the mirror looking at himself thinking "How could anyone not be impressed by this?" He likes to say PCTI has changed the way he conducts his workouts, but I highly doubt he skips over the beach workouts and focuses on his core. The guy enjoys himself, no other way of looking at it.

If you made it this far, congrats. If you only read your segment, I don't blame you.