9 years ago an 18 year old high school basketball phenom decided to bypass college and go straight to the pros. He was immediately castrated for doing so because so-called “basketball aficionado’s” wanted him to go to college and “learn how to play the game”. Lebron promptly won the Rookie of the Year award over Dewayne Wade who played 3 years at Marquette, and Carmelo Anthony that played 1 year at Syracuse. He did something only 2 other players in the history of the NBA had done, average over 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per game. The other 2 players that accomplished this were Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson, two of the best players the game has ever WITNESSed, pun intended. Looks like things worked out!
During his rookie season he was crowned King James by the marketing heads at Nike and as any 19 year old would have done, if put in the same situation, he accepted the title and ran with it. But regardless of what he did, anyone that knows endorsement deals know that they have a lot of control over your on and off the court image, so he had little to no input into the decision. Besides, if you were offered $90 million to endorse a shoe, and be crowned as a king, you would have made the same decision as he did with no hesitation.
Two years later, in 2005, he made another decision that had sports pundits, business execs and anybody with an opinion up in arms. The Internets was on fire. How could this young [black] athlete be so brazen? Lebron fired his agent and hired his long time friends to run his fastly growing empire. Everyone had something negative to say about this move. He was making the biggest mistake of his life, his career as a major endorser was dead in the water. How could he let these young [black] kids RUiN his career like this? But Lebron had faith in the abilities of his friends and they never skipped a beat, gaining more and more endorsements and helping their lifelong friend build an even greater empire. Once again things worked out the way he planned them!
The following year, in 2006 he led his team to the playoffs but they got knocked out in the Eastern Conference semifinals by Detroit. The next year, in 2007, he led his team to the Finals for the first time in franchise history but was defeated in 4 games by the San Antonio Spurs. The following year they were knocked out in the semifinals and the year after they got Shaq to help him out. They made it back to the conference finals but were defeated by Orlando.
In 2010, Lebron’s last year under contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, they went back to the playoffs and were defeated by Boston in the conference semifinals once again. This would be his last year wearing a Cavalier uniform; The Decider had decided to use free agency to take his talents to a new team.
NBA Officiating #NotAsBadAsFansClaim
Since the start of the NBA Finals 2012, I’ve been hearing how bad the officiating has been. Overwhelmingly this criticism has been directed at The Miami Heat, with claims of the officials being on the side of Miami over OKC. Granted the people yelling are almost always on the losing end of any given game, so the only thing they can say is the officials blew the game.
So me being me, I decided to look at the numbers to see what they say. Are the officials really that bad or are angry fans placing their frustrations about losing square in the lap of NBA referees? So here are the numbers.
In the 4 games played as of 6-19-2012 the Miami Heat has attempted 10 more free throws than the OKC Thunder; 103 – 93. Proof positive that OKC is being shafted; the NBA wants Lebron to win a championship, right! Well if you answered yeah that’s right, then you’re wrong, and here’s why.
Game 1: OKC 20 – 27, Heat 14 – 18
Game 2: OKC 19 – 26, Heat 22 – 25
Game 3: OKC 15 – 24, Heat 31 – 35
Game 4: OKC 15 – 16, Heat 18 – 25
After 3 games Miami was leading by only 1 free throw attempt; OKC was 54 – 77 and Miami was 67 – 78. 1 more attempt but 13 more made over a 3 game span. Then in Game 4 when the complaining reached epidemic proportions the Heat went 18 – 25 vs. OKC’s 15 – 16. Those dirty referee’s were trying to help Miami win, David Stern should fire all of them and then be fired.
Well here’s a little something that you need to take into account before you go all nutty and claim the NBA is rigged. Although I think that the NBA is, and always has been skewed towards their superstar players and big market teams, the officiating still isn’t as bad as fans claim it is.
Why you might ask?
10 more free throw attempts in a 4 game series amounts to 2.5 more attempts per game which boils down to 1.25 more fouls called for Miami over the 4 game period, right. Even if we just focus on the Game 4, you still have to factor in the fact that Miami was leading at the end of the game and OKC had to foul a few times to stop the clock.
So even though Miami got 4 more fouls called for them in Game 4 than OKC, which resulted in 9 free throw attempts, 6 of those attempts (3 fouls) were in the last few minutes of the game when OKC was fouling intentionally to stop the clock and get the ball back at half court.
Now let’s look back a couple of games and then you realize that each game was close till the end, all nail biters. Anybody that knows basketball knows that in the last couple minutes of a game when it’s close, teams will intentionally foul their opponents to stop the clock and get the ball back. This has been NBA strategy since I’ve been watching basketball. The same thing occurred at the end of the last 3 games, in which Miami won. So in reality, Miami really isn’t up in attempts or actual fouls being called in their favor, because NBA strategy dictates that you foul players in close games when the clock is winding down.
But that’s not what all the animosity is about is it; it’s about a bunch of Lebron hating NBA fans being pissed that their team by default, whatever team that plays The Miami Heat, is losing in the NBA Finals, and that’s about it!
“Niggas In Paris”, In Real Time!
Disclaimer: If you are offended by the usage of the word Nigga, Niggas, Nigger or any variation of the word……………….. get over it!
So Gwyneth Paltrow Tweets out, “Niggas in Paris for real”, and the Black blogosphere goes up in arms, white blogs discussed it also, but Black bloggers seem to want to keep it on the front page for propaganda purposes. After seeing it x amount of times since the incident I decide to add my hundred billion cent opinion to it, yeah I said it, 100 billion cent opinion.
My first thought was niggas please, my second thought was niggas please and my third thought was, I just used the word nigga in written format more times than in one sentence than I have since I thought I was destined to be an MC. Casual T was the name, people call me Tab so I was Casual Tab, get it, then T Slang, Tab Slang. Don’t laugh T-Pain getting money, I wish I would have thought about auto-tuning myself back then, but oh well!
As I grew older and wiser, I decided to limit my usage of the word and my MC names transformed into Reign Philosophe, yeah that’s right with an E and Wizdom Manifest, with a Z. What kind of Hip Hop titan would I have been without corrupting the English language just a little bit right? Sadly my career as the world’s greatest MC never took flight, probably because I only recorded 1 song and never went back to get it mastered, but I was cold I tell you, cold!
But anyway, back to Nigga, that infamous, diabolical 5 letter word that has caused this “uproar”. To the niggas that keep posting about how offensive it is, Niggas Please.
Historically ……………… blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. Now that you are caught up on the historical meaning and significance of the word, let’s move on shall we.
For the past 30+ years of the existence of Hip Hop, the word Nigga has been used. We, Black men, hoisted the word into the stratosphere and said that we were going to change the meaning of it. We urbanized the spelling by subtracting the E & R and added an A to take it from nigger; a term of hatred spewed by whites, to Nigga a term of endearment when spoken amongst brothers. Hip Hop, which was quickly becoming the culture and language of the worlds disenfranchised youth translated this new meaning and spelling to people from New York, to England, to Japan, Africa, China, South America, Russia, Germany, and to every crevice of this planet that had the capacity to receive radio waves. At this point the word started to take on different meanings associated with the way it was spelled and with how a non-black person used it. Continue reading
Lebron James says HI HATER’s
Armchair I used to play basketball regular job working traveling league coaches, sports pundits and everybody else I forgot to mention that think they are basketball guru’s are going to have something to say about this, but as the title says HI HATER’s!
Tonight the Miami Heat are tipping off against the Oklahoma City Thunder in what is sure to be one of the most talked about finals in recent memory. Why? Because Lebron James one of the best players the game has WITNESSed, pun intended, will be appearing in his 3rd championship series but has yet to win one. I believe this will be the one.
Lebron James has been cast as a villain every since he came into the league because he accepted a title that the league and his sponsors bestowed upon him. And that title was King James. The marketing material that followed pictured him in a crown and sitting on a throne just as a king would, and it was accompanied by a simple word. WITNESS!
Behold the best basketball player has arrived at 19 years old straight out of high school. Since then he’s been loved by many and hated by many, even though he had nothing to do with his branding, he accepted it just like any other 19 year old who thought they were the best player in the world would have done. I guess that was a mistake?
Then he realized that he would never win a championship with the team that he was on and exercised his right as a free agent to put together and become part of a team that had a far greater chance to win a title than his former team, which gained him the HATE of an entire city and the league brass. Every since that move he has been cast as a bigger villain and the aforementioned armchair, travel league and I used to play basketball, but now work a regular job super coaches and pundits can’t get enough of calling him everything but what he is, one of the best players that has ever played the game.
Here are a few myths that continue to be propped up by the league and the sports media: Continue reading
No, I Don’t Have To Accept You As You Are!
I hear this saying being thrown around all the time, the “my significant other needs to accept me, flaws and all” statement that so many women, and a few men, use to describe the fact that they have baggage and myriads of problems when going into a new relationship. I’ve heard it so much that I just had to write something about it.
Since I’m a man, my questions go out to the ladies. Why do you think a man should accept your flaws, especially a new man? What is it about your flaws that are so special that they need to be a part of the over all package? Are your flaws there to stay?
These are but a few questions that you need to ask yourself when venturing into a new relationship and if you cant answer these questions with impunity, then you will always find yourself in a relationship going bad, or no relationship at all.
As a matter of fact ask yourself this question, why should someone who is just meeting you accept the fact that you’re more than likely one of the following: an asshole, overbearing, too needy, etc.?
Really, if you met a man and a few months into the relationship you found out that he was a deadbeat dad, had no job and was a womanizer, should you accept those flaws, or should you suggest that he work on his flaws and try to become a better person?
Anyone who wants a relationship to grow should know that flaws are things that destroy relationships. When one party doesn’t want to change who they are for the betterment of the relationship all kinds of problems occur. And if you know you have flaws and are not willing to work on them, then you are an asshole, period.
And if you believe that someone is supposed to accept the fact that you’re an asshole and love you anyway, especially when they are just meeting you then you’re a bigger asshole than you think.
So in a nutshell, flaws are meant to be worked on and eradicated, and if you believe that your significant other has to accept those flaws before they become your significant other, then I’m sorry to report that you wont have a significant other for long, he’ll be your booty call specialist, you know the guy who only calls you when he’s horny in the middle of the night. If you’re okay with being the other woman or a booty call then defend your flaws tooth and nail and wonder why no one wants to make you their wife.
Well that’s at least what BW Writes!