Punking me?? This guy couldnt punk a 12 year old. his comebacks and remarks are pathetic and I never once got offended in this whole thread. He isnt capable of saying anything to offend me. I pretty much laughed my way through the whole thread. And I never thought he was using playful banter either. Im not even sure what you mean by that.
He did his best to provoke me and I had some fun at his expense. Simple as that.
This is what I saw, at the start of this thread:
1a. DocBar did a nice thing, letting you know a guy you cared about is actually on a team (UFL team).
1b. Mike threw a quick jab in there right away.
2. You replied to DocBar.
3. Mike came back in and said this:
Mussop. Let me be clear. I'm not trying to provoke you. I'm having fun at your expense. Know that your reaction did bring a smile to my face.
Mike
4. You replied with:
I'll be you're huckleberry anytime mike.
At this point, I think (just my viewpoint here) that you thought he'd spar a little...but Mike had a roll of quarters balled up in his fists.
5. I had said, earlier on, how Mike put his words together in a way that almost made it seem nice. Mike replied to ME with this:
You know... its kind of like dealing with a w.... nevermind. That would be rude.
Mike
Now if a man had said THAT to me, I'd get a little offended by it. I reckon it didn't set well with you, either. I think that's the point where you grabbed for the tire iron.
6. Then Mike and a few others went on for awhile with a back-and-forth routine, which was interrupted with you trying to serve up some one-liner retorts to Mike. It fell flat.
7. It then got to where Mike was bored with it. I think you started out thinking he was being coy and a bit playful about things, but then you saw he was digging in his claws and it came off as you trying to one-up him.
Just my observation. No better or worse than somebody else's viewpoint, I suppose. I think you should let it go. Don't let this define you. I say this because I, too, have almost let stuff like this define me as well. It's a slippery slope and it doesn't help when we hang onto a thin thread at the same time.
You are passionate about the player and wanting to see him land somewhere. He DID land somewhere, some people are teasing you about it, I suggest we all look at this like we're a bunch of friends hazing one another into the fraternity. Win-win.