Keep your eye on the tiger, man
This blog is not dead. Just on hiatus. I think that’s a Mrs. Doubtfire quote.
I started www.BasketballMoses.com and that’s where I wanna post right now. I’m not saying I’ll never update this blog, but I have far more energy writing about the NBA than I do about anything else at the moment.
Good day.
mad men pumpkin
The entire purpose of this blog post is to get this image into the Google image search results for MAD MEN PUMPKIN. As of now, the results yield nothing of the sort. It is our mission.
I don’t know if it came with the start of NBA free agency or if it’s been there for longer, but I’ve felt pushed in a certain direction lately. It’s stirred something in me to develop more from the sports writing standpoint, especially because there is an abundance of stupidity to be read out there (cougheverythingonESPNcough). And I feel like I wanna combat the stupid.
This drive isn’t so much coming from increased blog traffic or reader comments (since neither exist), but from face to face interactions with people that I know who tell me how much they enjoy the Twitter commentary or looked forward to sports-specific blog posts in response to something that happened. And I’m not talking about close friends, but surprising sources of encouragement that lead me to believe there could be more out there that I’ve not heard about.
So I’m trying to figure out what this means. The simple answer would probably mean a different or additional blog. I’m not sure yet.
I’d also have to determine what the focus would be. The NBA? The Bulls? Chicago sports? I’m leaning more towards basketball right now, but want to keep an open mind.
In other words…help.
(if the picture and title of this blog made you think I was feeling pushed to play more basketball, well that’s true too)
I was listening to Eminem’s new album tonight and a line from the song “No Love” turned my thoughts to LeBron James and his now infamous decision.
Look at these rappers, how I treat ‘em
So why the f*ck would I join ‘em, when I beat ‘em
Maybe you can see the correlation. LeBron hadn’t won a ring, but his teams were far better than Wade’s Heat and Bosh’s Raptors. Yet, he joined them because he felt like he couldn’t be The Man on a championship team. Fine.
But LeBron has long been intertwined with the hip-hop community. He’s very close with Jay-Z, his More Than a Game documentary featured a hip-hop soundtrack, he’s often referenced in songs, and he can even be seen rapping along to an Eminem verse while waiting to inbound the ball in the final minute of a close contest with the Lakers.
There is a bravado to hip-hop that makes me wonder what his friends in the music business think about his decision. Rap is inherently competitive. From freestyle battles to ‘diss’ records to claims of being the best rapper alive…it’s not an industry in which it’s acceptable to shy away from challenges.
Not that he’d *ever* say it, but I wonder if Jay-Z thinks LeBron’s decision is lame like many of us do. Not that it matters what Jay-Z thinks, but I’m curious.
I just find it interesting that an NBA superstar so closely connected to the hip-hop industry chose a path that most rappers would consider weak, unassertive, and cowardly.
During the LeBron hysteria we received reports (as in, tweets) of what each team was lugging into their meeting with the former King. The Nets and Knicks put on the biggest spectacle. Miami’s Pat Riley showed LeBron his championship ring (not a euphemism). The Cavs had a loose meeting with James filled with inside jokes and reminiscing about his time Cleveland.
And the Bulls went in like grown ups without the silly videos or other shenanigans because they knew what everyone else seemed to know: They had the best team in place for James to win.
I’ve heard accusations of the Bulls remaining a small-time team. That’s unfair and wrong. They sat in the high stakes poker game and went all in like major markets are supposed to do. It just didn’t work out. Cleveland, New York, and New Jersey know what that’s like.
But small-time would have meant re-signing Ben Gordon and not taking a shot at James. Small time would be holding onto John Salmons and/or Kirk Hinrich. Small-time is being satisfied with just making the playoffs.
They did everything they could have done and in the end, James took the easy way out. Fine. Move on.
The Bulls will be a good team next season. Maybe a really good team. They added an All Star power forward and…this may be my favorite part…THEY HAVE A REAL COACH. They’re going to be fun.
But…they might need a little more. To get past the Miami Heat (who I don’t see as unbeatable) they’ll need another piece.
Fortunately, in the NBA, pieces becomes available. You just need the assets to get them.
The door is not shut on the Bulls for several years. They may need a little more help breaking through, but this isn’t over.
Before LeBron made his decision, I said that choosing Miami would immediately eliminate him from any ‘Greatest of All Time’ discussions that he was heading towards. He forfeited that on Thursday night. He surrendered his chance to be part of a Michael/Kobe/LeBron discussion. It’s just Michael and Kobe now.
It’s disappointing that the most physically gifted athlete in NBA history is not a killer like Michael was and Kobe is.
In fact, should the Heat and Lakers meet in next season’s NBA Finals, I’m rooting *hard* for L.A. And that’s not because he rejected the Bulls. It’s because I have a million times more respect for Kobe than I do LeBron.
My favorite person in sports media is Dan Bernstein. And this is what he wrote today about LeBron’s decision.
Lebron James made his decision, and now we make ours.
I have decided that my assessment of him as a competitor and sportsman was wrong.
I have decided to remove him from discussions regarding the greatest champions of NBA history — regardless of the number of titles won by the Heat — since he has made it clear he wants us to do so.
I have decided that the positioning of children near oneself to deflect, dilute or absorb negativity is repugnant.
I have decided that his description of the process as “humbling” is an insult to anyone who has been even casually aware of what has transpired.
I have decided that it would please me to see Stuart Scott’s face and fingers eaten by a chimpanzee.
And I have decided what is most discordant — the existence of an hour-long television special indulging the vainglory of a self-titled “king,” who later explained his choice of teams thusly: “We don’t have the pressure of going out and scoring 30 every night or shooting a high percentage.”
I have decided that I have little respect for that.
You may be quick to dismiss these thoughts as mere sour grapes upon the Bulls being spurned, but there were several other possible choices that would have allowed him to retain his trajectory toward the Mount Rushmore of the NBA. Instead, he stepped off that path.
And his words were even worse than the decision itself.
That about sums it up. LeBron will get his championships. But he’s no longer The King.
When the first episode of Nurse Jackie aired last year, I wondered how Edie Falco would be able to carry a new series after having played a lead role in an iconic series for the better part of a decade. As talented as The Sopranos cast was, I often felt like Falco was the best actor on the show. And she has the Emmys to prove it.
But I didn’t know if I would be able to truly detach Carmela Soprano from Jackie Peyton or if Nurse Jackie would always kinda feel like watching Nurse Carmela. My concern was less with Falco as an actor and more about my own love for her work on The Sopranos.
All that said, I’ve never felt an overlap between the two characters. With Nurse Jackie, Falco has created a new, complex, compelling character to follow every week.
In the season finale, Jackie reaches an emotional precipice (or two) and Falco brings the character to a place she’s never been before.
I’ve seen Carmela Soprano have breakdowns, but not Jackie. And because this was new territory, I wondered if it would bring back memories of Carmela at her most fragile. But Falco is too good.
As with most episodes of the series, the finale was smart, darkly funny, uncomfortable, layered, and the last 10 seconds of the episode stayed true to the show and who Jackie is.
Can’t wait for Season Three.
My two favorite hip hop artists of all time have released new music. In one case I’m very encouraged. In the other….yeesh.
Eminem (thankfully) broke his usual formula of making his lead single a barrage of celebrity insults and parodies. “Not Afraid” is a reflective, self-aware, and self-critical song with a big chorus that suggests he’s grown a lot as an artist in the last year. He trashes his last album and acknowledges he overused stupid accents.
I’m very excited to hear the rest of Recovery on June 22nd.
And then there’s my favorite hip-hop group of all time: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.
Three years ago they released Strength & Loyalty which brought them back to a level I never thought they’d reach again. For that reason and a few others I had high hopes for Uni5: The World’s Enemy. And dear God have I been disappointed.
I think the reason may be simple. They didn’t spend a lot of money on accomplished producers like they did for the previous album. S&L featured tracks produced by will.i.am, Jermaine Dupri, Akon, and several by Swizz Beatz who also served as Executive Producer. That’s big time.
But the group left Interscope to form their own label and I’m wondering if they lost the financial ability to stack their record with solid producers.
The result is a collection of messy, forgettable, uninspired songs that combine to create a giant ball of hip-hop blech. The big single for this album is called “Rebirth”.
“Rebirth” sucks. In addition to a horrendous video, the chorus suggests that artists everywhere are trying to sound like Bone Thugs. That may have been true in 1997 when they were at their hottest, but not in 2010.
I waited three years for this album. I’ll probably just go back and listen to their earlier work.
This is one of about four or five Gorillaz songs that are currently consuming my brain. But thumbs down to not allowing the official video to be embedded. Go hear to watch it in better quality.
Oh, and the other songs consuming my life…
Last November I wrote about the long shot possibility that the Bulls could sign LeBron James in the much talked-about summer of 2010.
It’s still very possible that it won’t happen and I’m trying to keep my hopes and expectations separate from each other. Do I hope LeBron joins the Bulls? It would be my favorite sports moment since Jordan’s shot against the Jazz. Do I expect him to? Well, that’s a different story.
However…
There has been a huge shift in all the LeBron talk since the Cavaliers were eliminated by the Celtics last week. And that shift has pointed to the Bulls as a very possible destination for James.
Here are some examples of what’s been said recently:
Remember that all of this has happened within the last week or so.
Do I think it’s going to happen? I’ll believe (or BULLieve, if you wish) it when I see it. But clearly there’s some legitimacy to it. This is no longer pie-in-the-sky silliness. This could be a reality.
