Archive for the 'basketball' Category

19
Feb

Great Moments in Black History: #19

Steve Nash and A’mare Stoudemire do racial harmony

In honor of tonight’s dunk contest, I present the best example of what we can accomplish when the blacks and the whites work together. Much better than “Ebony and Ivory.”

18
Feb

Great Moments in Black History: #18

Marvin Gaye crushes it at the 1983 NBA All-Star game

13
Feb

Great Moments in Black History: #12

Kobe Bryant scores 81 Points

You think he’s arrogant? Of course he is. He’s one of the best to ever lace ‘em up. He cheated on his wife? That’s got nothing to do with me…or you. You just don’t like him? Get over it. When our species has finally depleted this planet’s natural resources and fled to the live on Saturn, and our great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren are all playing rollerball or sky-cricket, someone will ask about that game they used to play way back when called basketball. And someone else will pull out their iPhone 24G–because those fuckers will probably still be on the cutting edge–and say, “Watch this. This is basketball.”

This performance was so amazing that it has obscured his other accomplishments from that year like becoming only the third player since 1964 to score 45 points or more in four consecutive games, and managing to outscore the Dallas Mavericks by himself through 3 quarters, 62-61.

07
Feb

Great Moments in Black History: #7

Miscegenation FTW!

I celebrate the night that Tommy and Gail made sweet, sweet love both as a fellow race-mixer and a basketball fan. I’m usually not one to believe in omens, but when he scored his first ever NBA points on a one-handed, fast break alley-oop, you had to know he was going to live up to the hype. I, for one, welcome our mulatto overlords.

17
Feb

Baron Davis runs New York…and Shanghai

After Ball Don’t Lie posted the follow up video, I realized that I never got around to posting the original.  Anyone who likes basketball, hip-hop, video games or smiling will enjoy wasting a few minutes of their life on these.

20
Jan

I see what you did there, Barnes & Noble

IMG00060

30
Oct

Lamar learns from Laker legends

01
Jun

Do you like college and/or pro basketball?

Do you also like logic?  If you answered yes, you’d do well to read this piece by Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports about the recent allegations that current Chicago Bull and former Memphis Tiger Derrick Rose may have had someone take his SAT for him and the idiocy of the NBA’s age limit.

If Rose sang or danced or wrote computer code, even if he hit forehands or curveballs and not free throws, his acumen at standardized questions concerning probability, diction and critical reading wouldn’t matter.

They do in basketball because NBA commissioner David Stern wanted to control long-term labor costs and use college ball to market his young stars. In 2005, his league began requiring American players (but not Europeans) to be at least one year out of high school to be drafted.

That essentially sends them to college ball, where outdated and hypocritical amateurism and academic rules exist not because they have any moral basis, but so the NCAA can avoid billions in local and federal taxes.

Isn’t it amazing how much clearer the picture gets when you follow the money?

06
Dec

A fallen Demon Deacon

Some sad news from the world of sports.  Fellow Demon Deacon and former NBA player Rodney Rogers was injured in an ATV accident last week, and is paralyzed from the shoulders down.  This is obviously a horrible story and my heart goes out to Rogers and his family.  What jumped out at me when I read the news story about the accident was this passage:

A Durham native who starred in high school football and basketball, Rogers had returned to his hometown and was working for the city public works department as a heavy machinery operator. He was promoted to a supervisory position six months ago, according to the report.

He was also volunteering as a girls’ basketball coach at a Durham middle school and had set up a computer lab at a city public housing complex, according to the report.

His agent and lawyer, James “Butch” Williams, described Rogers as “an outdoorsman, plain and simple,” according to the report. “He hunts, motorcycles, rides horses. He loves big trucks,” Williams said.

Rogers, who was financially set, took the job with the Durham DPW because he liked working with heavy trucks, Williams said, according to the report.

“Rodney isn’t the type to sit around twiddling his thumbs. There aren’t any jobs he considers too small for him,” Williams said, according to the News and Observer. “He started his own trucking company and was usually the lead driver. He’d be out there driving to the quarry at 3:30 in the morning.”

Michael Balzarano, who oversaw Rogers at the Durham DPW, said Rogers was not working for the city as a lark until he got bored. “I didn’t even know he had lots of money. He is very friendly, very concerned, very conscientious,” Balzarano said, according to the report. “We chose him because of his ethics and his attitude. He was highly motivated. He was promoted to supervisor six months ago.”

Yes.  You read that correctly.  A guy who played 12 seasons in the NBA and was financially secure was working at the Durham Public Works department for kicks.

I was lucky enough to see him play in person when I was at Wake.  The image of him unleashing one of his patented 360 degree, left-handed dunks will forever be burned into my sports memory.  I’m not a praying man, but I’ll definitely be thinking good thoughts for Rodney and his family.

26
Sep

Roundup

Image via Flickr user Nrbelex

Dwayne Perkins was one of the first people I met when I started doing stand-up in LA.  He’s one of the nicest people in this town, and he’s one of Rolling Stone’s 5 comics to watch.

This catch by Morgan State’s Edwin Baptiste is great because it’s just amazing to watch, and it also validates the theory held by my wife and I.  Namely, that athletes are more likely to have memorable names than the average person.

Former NBA player Jon Bender helps rebuild New Orleans.

Mission accomplished…for Osama bin Laden.

Given the Palin problem, now might be a good idea to (re)-familiarize yourself with Thomas Eagleton.




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