NBA Finals Wrap-up

Well the Finals are over and now our lives get a little less exciting because the only sport left to watch on TV is baseball (which is slowly self-destructing). I haven't posted about sports in a while, so I just wanted to leave a few thoughts I had about the Finals and the NBA in general.

1)I have enjoyed the NBA more this year than any other year. It has passed college football in the race to be my favorite spectator sport. I can't really put my finger on why that is. I think part of it is due to the quality of play and maybe also because I spent more time watching games and reading about it this year than I ever have before.

2)I hate the Lakers. I hate Kobe Bryant. This does not mean that I do not recognize his outstanding athletic abilities and basketball skill, it just means I don't like him. I was really disappointed that the first season of the NBA that I've cared about since my childhood had to end with Kobe hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy.

3)Can we please stop hearing about how Kobe is so much better now and how he has come to realize how much he needs his teammates, etc. Look at his playoff numbers from last year and look at them from this year. They are EXACTLY the same. He didn't play any better, he just had better help. Do you realize how much better Ariza is than Radmonovich? Not to mention the fact that the Celtics from last year would've killed the Magic from this year. Bill Simmons gets into the nitty gritty of this in his latest column which you can read here.

4)Those Nike MVP (Most Valuable Puppets) commercials with the puppet versions of LeBron and Kobe are classic! Nike marketing does it again. This series of commercials is going to go down as some of the best advertising in history. I especially love the one with Dez:



Is it bad that during the one where the Kobe puppet jumps into the car that I was kinda hoping he'd get nailed by it?

5)Phil Jackson is the greatest coach ever. He takes some of the most difficult personalities (Jordan, Kobe, Rodman, Shaq, etc.) and wins championships with them. It's crazy how successful the guy has been.

6)I'm ready for the NBA Draft to start. I might do a running diary if I can find the time.

A Couple Videos

I wanted to post a couple videos that I've found recently since it's been a while since I made a post. The first video is from Fayetteville, NC rapper, JCole. JCole opened for Wale a couple of weeks ago at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill. Despite is inexperience, he knows how to rock a crowd. He's the most recent signee to Jay-Z's new label, ROC Nation. This video is the "trailer" for his upcoming mixtape, "The Warm Up." It may seem a little over dramatic, but this dude has a really cool story and I love the fact that he's rockin' the 96 Air Penny's. Those were my favorite basketball shoes.

J Cole - The Warm Up (trailer) from bbgun on Vimeo.

I found the next video on the Billionaire Boys Club blog. This video is CRAZY!!! You have to watch it all the way to the end.

I mean this dude rides his bike better than most people can walk! It's just plain ridiculous!!!

I know y'all are probably waiting for my thoughts on this insane Bulls-Celtics series. Let me just go ahead and let you know that Bill Simmons at ESPN called it. In his column after Game 1, he said that this series could shape up to be one of the best series of all time. You can read the article here.

Since I had such a good time at the Wale concert a couple weeks ago, later this week I'll hit y'all with a megapost on all things Wale. Until then, PEACE!!!!

This is My Jam!!!

In honor of Bill Simmons' annual NBA Trade Value column, he posted a link to this video. This is John Tesh, creator of the "NBA on NBC" theme song. This song is probably in my top 10 favorite songs ever... that's right ever. If this song doesn't bring back memories of Sunday afternoons for you, then you are either a female or I don't have much in common with you and we should probably never speak. Now be prepared, this video is way corny, but just listen to the song, it's awesome.

Broken Ankles!

I can't believe I'm posting this.  If you know me or if you've ever read any part of this blog, you're probably aware of my disdain for all things Kobe Bryant.  I can't lie though, this commercial had me laughing.  I have to admit, I've warmed up to Kobe's personality a little bit, especially after watching him actually be a team player during the Olympics in Beijing.  This does not mean I'm now a Kobe fan.  I can just tolerate him now.  Here's the commercial.  Enjoy!

Side note:  Best rap lyric referencing Kobe Bryant:  "I ordered that Kobe beef like I was Shaquille O'Neal." -Kanye West

2008 Year in Review

2008 has been a crazy year. I graduated from college. My wife and I moved into a new apartment (which is nice but we're now trying to get out of it). My wife got a great job and I got hired by a professional sports team.

Here is my list of favorites of 2008:

Favorite New Artist: Wale - This dude is incredible. I love his lyrics and his style. I really enjoyed his Seinfeld-themed mixtape called "The Mixtape About Nothing." I'm really looking forward to his first official album release in March 09.

Favorite Album: Rising Down by The Roots - The Roots are seriously the only group that consistently lives up to my expectations. As I stated in my review of the album, Rising Down was the perfect continuation of 2007's Game Theory and restored my faith in hip-hop.

Favorite Athlete: Kevin Garnett - The way that he willed the Boston Celtics to their 17th NBA Title was so fun to watch. KG is one of those guys who deserves to win more than anyone else because he cares more than anyone else. He has been the leader of the Celtics' Title Defense this season as well. I love his intensity.

Favorite Team: Alabama Crimson Tide Football - I've always been a big Crimson Tide fan. This year was a dream season until the SEC title game. I know everyone on this planet except for me hates Nick Saban but I think he's done a great job guiding Alabama back into the national spotlight.

Favorite Movie: Traitor - I LOVED this movie. Great acting by Don Cheadle. This movie was also extremely relevant to our current events. I know everyone else is going to scream that Dark Knight was way better but Traitor gets my vote. My dad calls it "The Black Bourne."

Favorite TV Show: The Office - Still the best sitcom on TV. I can't wait to see how the rest of Season 5 plays out. What a great cast! A close second was ESPN's E:60 which had some great stories this year.

Post some of your favorites in the comments section.

JJ Hickson

This morning I was watching SportsCenter and eating my daily bowl of Apple Cinnamon Cheerio's, when all of the sudden, I see this nasty dunk by a rookie on the Cleavland Cavs. He dunked all over the Charlotte Bobcats' big defensive stopper, Emeka Okafor, who by the way just got an absurd contract extension for being so mediocre. Anyway, I then realized that this fearless, high-flying rookie was none other than JJ Hickson who stayed for one year at NC State. It just made me realize that State is going to be horrible in basketball this year and that Sydney Low didn't get nearly enough out of this guy. Kind of sad.

Old School Kicks

I know y'all remember Penny Hardaway. He was my favorite basketball player as a kid and I literally obsessed over his signature Nike Basketball shoes, the Air Penny's. This video gives a brief history of the shoes and Penny's impact. Enjoy:

Step Brothers

2 of my favorite NBA point guards, Steve Nash & Baron Davis, goofing off together in LA. Enjoy!

ROC Boys in Da Building Tonight!!!

If you missed the USA Men's Basketball Team take on China in the 2008 Beijing Olympics two days ago, then you missed a ridiculous dunk by LeBron James off an alley-oop from Kobe Bryant. Unfortunately, NBC is really stingy and all the Olympic highlight videos are copyright protected. I was inspired by the LeBron Dunk though, so here's a great highlight video of his best plays from the past year. The song is one of my favorites too, Jay-Z's "Roc Boys." A fitting track since Jay-Z and LeBron are tight friends.

And speaking of Jay-Z... there's been a ton of rumors floating around the internet about him working on a new album to be called "The Blueprint 3." At first, hip-hop/pop producer Timbaland said in an MTV article that he was producing the entire album. Then Jay-Z came out and said that wasn't entirely true. Recently, Kanye West brought out Jay-Z as a guest for the last show of the Glow in the Dark Tour and the two performed a song entitled "Jockin' Jay-Z" produced by Kanye that is rumored to be the lead single for the new album. The latest rumor is that Kanye West will be producing the entire album. That would basically be my dream album but I'm not getting my hopes up just yet. To tide us all over though, here's an clip of "Jockin' Jay-Z" was aired on Funk Master Flex's radio show this morning. Just click the link below and then click "free user". This will start your download. Your Welcome!!!!

Jay-Z "Jockin' Jay-Z" (produced by Kanye West)

NBA Finals Game 6 Diary

First off, I gotta give my boy Greg a big 25th birthday shoutout!!! Happy birthday bro!

Now to the game. I started watching a little late. We're about half way through the 2nd Quarter. Let's get into it.

9:47 - Powe just scored after a horrible turnover by LA. Isn't this Celtics crowd 100x better than LA's crowd? I mean seriously, did it ever seem like LA's crowd was into any game at all? I don't think so.

9:49 - What the heck are these stupid commercials with the "couch surfer" for T-Mobile? I do not understand these. Is the guy a professional loafer or is his hobby being a hobo? Either way it does not make me want to change my wireless service to T-Mobile.

9:52 - Poor Ray Allen can't catch a break. First, is kid is sick in the hospital, now he's stuck in the locker room because goofy Lamar Odom hit him in the eye. They do not want him to enjoy this, even if he wins do they?

9:55 - Great rebounding by the Celtics leads to a Posey 3. But why is Garnett chilling out at the 3 point line?

9:56 - 3 by Eddie House. The Human Microwave is what I like to call him.

9:58 - Notice that when the NBA commercial comes on and they talk about fear, they show Kevin Garnett. I'm telling you, I love KG but dude has faded into obscurity in the Finals.

10:00 - I never want a pick to be set on me by Big Baby Davis! Ever!

10:01 - Ray comes out of the tunnel. We've seen this before.

10:02 - Posey with another 3 and the Celtics are up 14. Why did it take Doc Rivers the entire series to decide to put Posey on Kobe. Really, I should put my toughest, best defender on the other team's best player? Really, that works?!

10:05 - KG shoots a turnaround fade away jumper over Kobe. Why not go right at him?

10:08 - Mike Breen tells us that Kobe said that Paul Pierce was his favorite player in the NBA. I wonder if that was a compliment or a backhanded remark in the direction of his teammates?

10:14 - The Celtics are one of the only NBA teams that OVER pass. Completely unrelated side note: Jordan Farmar is my least favorite point guard in the NBA.

10:17 - KG with a ridiculous and 1. Marc Jackson refers to it as a "kiss" off the glass. I would say more like a punch to the face off the glass.

10:18 - Boston up by 23 at halftime. Kobe has 14 but only 3 in the 2nd Quarter. I just hope the Celtics didn't spend all their energy on this run. I hope they got some left for the second half.

10:31 - I'm kind of tired of hearing about how great these finals are just because it's a Celtics/Lakers match up. There's been several times in this series that I turned off the tv because the basketball was so bad. Bill Simmons even got an email from a reader talking about how there were times in this series that the 10 players on the court were probably the 10 worst players to ever appear in the NBA Finals. These sound bytes from Doc and Phil are hilarious. They aren't saying anything meaningful.

10:35 - Let's show Kobe being a good dad to his daughters so everyone will forget what a jerk he is to his teammates. Dwayne Wade should stick to commentating. I've said this over and over again lately, D-Wade is the new Penny Hardaway. Ridiculous in his first 3 years in the league, successful because he played with Shaq, compared to Jordan, gets injured a ton, ends up hardly playing for the rest of his injury plagued career. It's gonna happen. You watch!

10:44 - I could watch Ray Allen shoot all day, and I wouldn't mind if I never saw Radmonovic shoot again.

10:45 - I'm not a fan of the huge NBA Finals Trophy painted on midcourt. It looks stupid.

10:47 - Danny Ainge won NBA executive of the year because Kevin McHale is his friend and David Stern needed to take attention off the Donnaghy Scandal.

10:49 - Wow, I actually liked a comment Jeff VanGundy made. He told Mike Breen that the ball wasn't bouncing the Celtics' way but that they were pursuing it.

10:52 - If they say something about the 17th title on the 17th of June one more time, I'm going to throw my computer at my tv.

10:53 - Marc Jackson just called Ray Allen "Jesus Shuttlesworth" his character's name from the Spike Lee directed "He Got Game." haha. I agree with Bill Simmons that the LA jumbotron operator really messed up by not showing the scene from that movie where Denzel puts it on Jesus Shuttlesworth in their one-on-one pick up game. Denzel is a huge Laker fan. The crowd would've gone nuts... oh wait, the game was in LA, the crowd there never goes nuts.

10:56 - I wonder what Kobe just whispered to Lamar Odom, I'm gonna kick your tail after this game if we lose. Maybe he desperately apologized for being a bad teammate in hopes of getting Odom to play hard... Nah I wouldn't count on that.

11:01 - Are the Celtics really up 31 points? This is crazy.

11:03 - I almost wonder if all the talk about the Western Conference being so much better than the Eastern Conference will be silenced if the Celtics win. Especially since it took 7 games for the the Celtics to get through both of the first two rounds. Obviously teams in the east are more physical and more defensively oriented (with the Spurs being an exception and it was mainly injuries that killed them). I wonder if the Lakers would have breezed through the Eastern Conference Playoffs the way they did in the West. I'm thinking maybe not.

11:08 - Right before Rondo strips the ball away from Kobe, I was asking myself why the Lakers aren't giving Kobe the ball every time down the court. But I guess that would be the obvious thing to do.

11:10 - And now we're all aware of VanGundy's man crush on John Havlicek.

11:12 - Someone needs to show Vuya-dork or whatever his name is, the video of an ancient Ray Allen blowing right by him at the end of game 4 to remind him that he's a horrible defender and encourage him to stop acting like a fool on defense. Please do it NOW!!!!

11:14 - I want this last quarter to fly by so I can watch the trophy presentation and get to bed at a reasonable hour.

11:20 - Farmar commits a stupid flagrant foul on Rondo. Why foul there? Why? sometimes I wonder what's going through these guys' heads when they play basketball.

11:22 - Phil Jackson looks like someone just tried to pluck the hairs in his soul patch.

11:23 - I hope everyone realizes that Andrew Bynum is going to comeback next year and be horrible!!!!

11:24 - Vujacic is going to have nightmares of Ray Allen for years to come.

11:25 - Phil Jackson calls a timeout after another Ray Allen 3-pointer. This gives me a chance to say: Please stop with the Kobe - MJ comparisons!!!!! It's not even close! Would His Airness ever let his team get beat by 30 points in the Finals?! Would he ever let his team blow a huge lead at home in the Finals? NOOOOOOO!!!!! All you're doing by comparing the two is tainting Jordan's legacy and ruining Kobe's chance of ever living up to expectations. Please stop!

11:31 - Doc and Rondo embrace each other as Rondo comes out of the game. One thing you gotta hand to Doc Rivers is that these guys love playing for him. He's not the most overwhelming pre-game speaker, but his players do love him. That says a lot about a coach.

11:35 - David Stern obviously allowed this game to go un-fixed if you will in order to dispel all the accusations made by Donnaghy. If these things hadn't come out when they did then you better believe a series of this historical magnitude would find a way to go 7 games.

11:40 - My favorite stat of the night: 25 All-Star appearances between KG, Pierce and Allen, 1 Championship won together by sacrificing individual glory. I love team sports!!!

11:42 - I love that they just showed that Kobe has 1 assist.

11:45 - I'm sorry but I'm the guy that would say all those things about the WNBA.

11:47 - Turiaf = 6 Fouls

11:49 - 40 point lead? This is crazy? I know I already said that but really I did not expect this at all.

11:51 - Gatorade shower on the basketball court? This celebration is getting out of hand! But when you're up by 40 points for the whole second half, you just have too much time to think about it.

11:54 - Ball game. Celtics are Champs and the Lakers look like they didn't even deserve to be there. I'm happy for the Big 3 though. They're all good guys and hard players. What a great team.

Thanks for reading this if you stuck with it and read the whole thing. It's the first time I've tried a long post like this. Let me know what you think.

Peace. Congrats Celtics.

NBA Finals Update

So the most anticipated NBA Finals in recent history are in full swing. By now you've already heard all the Celtics vs. Lakers hype and you've had time to digest the first two wins by the Celtics. The first game had the drama of Paul Pierce coming back from what seemed to be a season ending knee injury only to nail 2 huge three-pointers and lead the Celtics to a 10-point win. It seemed almost magical. A writer couldn't have written a better story. Well that was until game two.

Game two, Leon Powe bursts onto the scene. The Celtics' reserve forward who was buried on the Boston bench during the Eastern Conference Finals against the Detroit Pistons, exploded for 21 points thanks to some super helpful calls by the officiating crew. This didn't really bother me because I'm not exactly the biggest Lakers fan (or Kobe fan for that matter), but it made me wonder about the integrity of the game, especially when the halftime special was on none other than Leon Powe! Did anyone else find that a little suspicious? I know my NBA conspiracy theories are widely known and mostly disagreed with, but come on. The first time this dude has gotten serious minutes since March and he blows up for 21 against Kobe and the Lakers, and he also just happens to be the focus of the halftime heart-wrenching story. Hmmm. I just don't know. I'm hoping that ABC has already filmed all of the halftime specials and that they just pick the one that involves the player that is playing the best at halftime of that particular game.

Basically all of this boils down to money. The NBA is interested is making as much money as possible. If you think the most hyped series in Finals history is not going 7 games, then you got something else coming. Can you imagine how many people will be tuning in to ABC for that final game!?!?! David Stern is seeing nothing but dollar signs right now. Don't be surprised to see the Lakers win at least two now that the series shifts to L.A.

Tomorrow: N*E*R*D "Seeing Sounds" Record Review

NBA Playoffs, Kanye Concert, Etc.

So the NBA Playoffs are starting up soon. The LA Lakers locked up home court advantage in the west. I hate the Lakers in case you didn't know. I find Kobe Bryant to be an arrogant jerk. Everyone is saying he deserves the MVP this year but no one remembers that he has the most help of any of the other candidates except for Kevin Garnett and he has the best coach in the NBA in Phil Jackson. I do admire Kobe's skills but does a guy that leads the league in technical fouls deserve to get the MVP award? Even though I can't stand him, I do have to admit that the following video is very cool.

Some people are debating if this is real or not. Personally, I've watched it several times (a couple of times in slow motion) and I'm convinced that it is real and that Kobe's an idiot and doesn't care as much about winning a championship as everyone thinks. Chris Paul gets my vote for MVP. As Bill Simmons has said numerous times, Chris Paul is having the best season of any point guard...EVER! If Steve Nash won it the past two years and Chris Paul has better numbers than Nash did those two years during this season, then I think he deserves it. Plus he has basically brought basketball back to New Orleans.

I'm very excited because in a little over 2 weeks, my buddy Zach and I are going to the Glow in the Dark Tour at Walnut Creek. The line up is Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco (see below), N*E*R*D, and Rhianna. I'm hearing that visually this will be the greatest concert in the last 50 years. Kanye has gotten video director Hype Williams to design holograms, Jim Henson's Mumpet Shop to design puppets, and world renown lighting crews to provide lights for the show. You can see some pics of the rehersal at Kanye's blog and I'll be sure to post more after the concert goes down. I'm way excited for that.

I'm also excited because the Carolina RailHawks 2008 Season Opener is quickly approaching. The final cuts have been made and the team is now fully assembled. They've played their last exhibition game. They open on the road this weekend in Atlanta against the rival SilverBacks. That game can be seen on the internet at www.usllive.com. The home opener is Saturday 26 April at 7:30 p.m. I hope to see some of y'all out there.

One other thing. The Roots new album Rising Down, comes out in two weeks. These guys are some of the hardest-working, most genuine artists out there. I encourage everyone who is into hip-hop music to go out and buy their album on 29 April. Don't be a jerk and steal it over the internet. Support good music.

I'm out!

The NBA...Where Rejection Happens

Oh my gosh! This is so funny. I feel bad for this guy but you gotta realize that very few women dream about being proposed to at half court of a meaningless February NBA game. My favorite parts of this video are 1) Tracy MacGrady's reaction and 2) the Rockets Mascot's reaction. This was just too funny not to post.