Whoooooo… the King has spoken.
August 30, 2007 | Filed Under Basketball Discussion | Leave a Comment
LeBron James‘ line for tonight’s (well.. yesterday’s, technically) game against Uruguay in the FIBA Americas 2007: 26 points on 11-for-11 shooting (ie. dunking) from the field including 4-for-4 from behind the arc too – all in 14 minutes of action. Oh yea, if you saw the game, you’d know he was even MORE dominant on the court than the stats sheet would suggest. When he was coming out of HS with the entire hoop nation’s hype, I couldn’t help but be at least a bit skeptical.. Now? I don’t have anything to say except – hand the man his crown.
Whatever stops you from dreamin, whatever tries to stop you from livin? Flip it.
August 24, 2007 | Filed Under A Day in the Life, Favourite Songs | Leave a Comment
i was glancing through my cd collection just earlier, felt like listening to another person’s experiences as an artist at the end of a long day.. and somehow i ended up picking up
Alicia Keys’ debut album (“songs in A minor”) over her sophomore release (“the diary of alicia keys”) to listen to.. bunch of lines & songs from this album stick out to me right now – not even necessarily coz they apply to me directly, but just because they strike a chord with some part of me at this very moment – from the things she says in her intro track (“Whatever stops you from dreamin, whatever trys to stop you from livin? Flip it“) prior to launching into the album to the entire tracks 9 & 15..
lyrics to “Goodbye” (track 9)
How do you love someone
That hurts you oh so bad
With intentions good
Was all he ever had
But how do I let go when I’ve
Loved him for so long and I’ve
Given him all that I could
Maybe love is a hopeless crime
Giving up what seems your lifetime
What went wrong with something once so good
How do you find the words to say
To say goodbye
When your heart don’t have the heart to say
To say goodbye
I know now I was naive
Never knew where this would lead
And I’m not trying to take away
From the good man that he is
But how do I let go when I’ve
Loved him for so long and I’ve
Given him all that I could
Was it something wrong that we did
Because others infiltrated
What went wrong with something once so good
How do you find the words to say
To say goodbye
When your heart don’t have the heart to say
To say goodbye
Is this the end are you sure
How should you know when you’ve never been here before
It’s so hard to just let go
When this is the one and only love I’ve ever known
So how do you find the words to say
To say goodbye
When your heart don’t have the heart to say
To say goodbye
lyrics to “Caged Bird” (track 15)
Right now I feel like a bird
Caged without a key
Everyone comes to stare at me
With so much joy and rivalry
They don’t know how I feel inside
Through my smile I cry
They don’t know what they’re doin’ to me
Keeping me from flyin’
That’s why I say that
I know why the caged bird sings
Only joy comes from song
She’s so rare and beautiful to others
Why not just set her free
So she can
Fly, fly, fly
Spreadin her wings and her song
Let her
Fly, fly fly
For the whole world to see
She’s like caged bird
Fly, fly
Ooh just let her fly
Just let her fly
Just let her fly
Spread the wings
Spread the beauty
Black Friday: The State of Professional Sport as a Social Commentary
August 22, 2007 | Filed Under A Day in the Life, Basketball Discussion | Leave a Comment
If sports, with their respective stars serving as our role models and leaders, are indeed only more interesting microcosms of our society, as many people consider them to be, I’d have to say that we in North America are all in a pretty bad state at the moment.
To say that Barry Bonds’ historic accomplishment of surpassing Hank Aaron’s all-time MLB home-run record was overshadowed by his alleged use of illegal performance-enhancing supplements would be the understatement of the year. The NFL’s “next flagship talent,” speedster Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons, has probably played in his final game due to his involvement with illegal dog fighting activities. The NBA’s recent return to respectability, primarily due to super-commissioner David Stern’s work over the past decade as well as the sudden emergence of an influx of fresh young talent (Amare Stoudemire, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade), is now suddenly lost in the mix as the rest of the sports world casts a watchful eye over former NBA official Tim Donaghy’s courtroom drama following a scrutinizing investigation into the past few years of his once-personal life over the suspicion of illegal involvement within betting circles.
Then there’s always the fact that consensus “best basketball player in the world” (Kobe Bryant) is once-again engaged in a full-time media circus himself, involving contradictory & vague off-and-on media spats imploring the LA Lakers organization to trade him at any cost, and NOW. And judging by the Miami Heat’s stunning collapse last season (they were swept in the 1st round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs by a far inferior Chicago team, if you’ve already blocked out that memory as I have), its safe to say that neither the biggest figure in the sport, self-proclaimed shogun Shaquille O’Neal (his own article is coming), nor the newly-crowned “second-coming of Jordan” in a humble but dynamic 2006 NBA Finals MVP Dwayne Wade truly has any impact on the game’s image and reputation.
Need more proof? In today’s NBA headlines: Former Minnesota Timberwolves Forward Eddie Griffin Dead at 25, Heat’s Posey to Plead Guilty to Reckless Driving, Wizards re-sign Blatche Despite His Legal Woes. Does anybody else see a problem with this culture we inspire and immerse ourselves in?
Griffin, who by all accounts was a kind-hearted forward with athletic gifts foreign to most other professional basketball players, died at age 25 after crashing his SUV into a freight train. No identification could be made of his identity from the charred remains found in the totalled vehicle until his lawyer was able to find an elusive set of dental records to match those of the corpse. He had battled alcoholism and had been involved with a long list of legal problems prior to his crash, but despite all of his past colleagues’ efforts to support and elevate him,
The Michael Vick storyline probably suits this discussion even more, as over the past few years Vick’s unique talents & charismatic ability on the field had led many insiders to proclaim the next big star in the NFL, one of the world’s most profitable sporting leagues backed by some of the US’s biggest media conglomerates. Just how many of you would’ve given an arm and a leg for the chance to be such an athlete, even for an instance? I know I probably would’ve.
I’ve built myself based on the old/true-school, so for me I’d choose to trade my set of unique life experiences for a chance to be Hakeem Olajuwon in the ‘94 NBA Finals, battling long-time nemesis Patrick Ewing in a defensive-minded throwback 7-game series. Shit, I’d give up all of my photography work to again live as “The Dream” for a moment in sporting history, as a jubilant Olajuwon in the prime of his career as he swishes a three-pointer from the corner late in the game to signify a complete and utter dominance of an upstart Orlando Magic squad that boasted a young but inexperienced beast in Shaquille O’Neal the very next year in 1995. (In the 4-game Finals sweep, Olajuwon averaged something ridiculous like 33 points, 12 boards and 6 assists while defending the 300-pound O’Neal each game – on another note, are there still complete, TEAM-oriented players like him anymore?)
But see, this is where the subtle point arises. Would I trade my life for that of an NBA superstar today? I probably still would, but it wouldn’t even be close to being the same discussion in my head if it were about an exceptional athlete and all-around citizen of 10-15 years ago instead (think a young Trevor Linden, anyone?). For, even as a casual observer and distant outsider from the professional sports circuit, I know that the media frenzy surrounding our professional sports is at an all-time high, even if spectator interest in these same sports have actually waned in recent years.
Can you just imagine what it’d be like to have to deal with ruthless media sharks 365-days a year as Kobe Bryant following his legal issues, his former issues with his coaches & team-mates alike, as well as the speculation around his on-going trade-demands? Sure, the money given to athletes nowadays is absurd – but isn’t it a telltale sign of problems within when sports announcers actually point out players who are happy to play their sport, who play “for the love“, versus the other 80% or 90% who end up as disillusioned “professional athletes” who don’t do their respective “jobs” properly?
At a glance it’s easy to point the fingers at these perfect figures we’ve created in our collective minds, these transcendent athletes with extraordinary physical ability, thrown on a pedestal and worshiped/hated/loved/destroyed. After all, their lives are perfect – so HOW can they screw it all up?! Well, increasingly, it seems that we as an alienated society have forgotten that we are all only human. We all make this mistake in our expectations of public figures, especially wealthy celebrities, but are we now crossing the threshold towards an increasingly-dangerous sporting environment?
The majority of our generation’s youth is largely confused by the shiny lights & “trend-setting” marketing propaganda our generation’s minds have cleverly thought up, yet, as a collective, it doesn’t seem like we are all that worried. Some of my closest friends (as well as my own girlfriend) are enthralled by The Hills, a “reality” TV show dedicated to following a unique collection of sad mindless mishaps born into fortunate situations. They might as well all be cast of alabaster, plaster or plastic given the level of personality they exhibit anyhow. I’m probably pissing off a lot of people by saying this, but The Hills definitely one of the stupidest TV shows, books, movies, or any other “works of art” I have ever encountered. Oh yea, and it’s ridiculously popular right now too – (dot dot dot, I, in my sane/insane frame of mind, can’t explain this phenomenon at all).
My point is, in this type of setting, is it really all that surprising that even those seemingly more fortunate than the norm are struggling to find themselves? Is our way of life healthy? Does anybody even care about the actual welfare of our athletes and celebrities, or even of ourselves?
I don’t know the answers to these questions, but there’s no need to mistake my angst for righteousness, as I doubt anybody else truly has a clue anyhow. For now, I’ll be content to live day-to-day, planning for the future and aware of my past, working as hard as I can along the way. Fitting eh? After all, this is all any of us not with a 3-letter moniker (beginning with G and ending with D) could ever do, anyways. Unless you don’t believe in – AHH, you don’t? (Oh, no – you didn’t just do that, Kevin…) Just messing, I guess I’ll leave that as a separate subject to address another time. =)
PS. I haven’t written seriously since high school, but I’m glad that words still spill out when they need to, I just hope that most came out in the correct order =) Thank you for reading, feel free to leave me your thoughts/criticisms on both the subject matter as well as the writing itself.