What is going on? Are we really not ready for a non-white president?

This is getting ridiculous. Unless you have been living under a rock, I assume you have heard of the foolishness going on at some of the Republican/conservative rallies. I have NO problem with criticizing a candidate for their views, their policies, or their choices for a running mate, etc. But when you attack someone because of their nation of origin, looks, something is wrong. This is not the America people fought and died for, and this is not the America that immigrants over the past hundred years have flocked to with hope for a better life. To purport vicious lies (Obama is a Muslim, he isn't American, etc.) really illustrates what I think anyone can see now: The Conservative movement is in MAJOR trouble. They don't have a candidate they can fully support, and hate that the Democratic candidate this year (apparently) has attributes and ideas that a majority of the country at this point want to support. So what do the Conservatives do? They attack him on his looks, ethnicity (false or not) and other non-issues in hopes that they can emotionally discourage people from voting for him! Now thatI bring it up, SO WHAT if Obama was a Muslim? It seems as if the media and everyone has made that lie about him into the ultimate attack on him. What is wrong with Islam? Why, in this wonderful country where we are free to worship as we see fit, is it so wrong that our president be whatever religion he wants to be? I completely agree that "Obamamania" can be rooted in feelings of pure emotion and less about issues, but please remember, for a certain minority subset of the American population, Barack Obama is the living personification of the Dream planted by Martin Luther King. THIS is what black people fought(and died) for in the 60's, a chance for one of their own to ascend to a powerful position and make them proud. This was the hope of our grandparents and great grandparents, that their descendants would be able to live and exist in a time where this was not a taboo event, where it was possible for a black american man to become the most powerful leader in the world. This is the goal of civil rights illustrated at it's finest. This isn't affirmative action, this is a very smart and articulate (and clean! Grrrr Biden) politician who has the uncanny ability to connect with an audience and motivate his voting bloc to support him in powerful ways the GOP dreams of. I heard Laura Ingrahm blasting Obama's campaign last night for "being to large." You know why it's so large? Because no candidate in American history has gotten more first time donors to support his campaign then Barack Obama. At it's core his campaign is a movement directly funded from the people of this country. The fact that Barack Obama is able to run and (thankfully) nothing has happened yet is a testimony to how far we have progressed as a nation. However, the ugly feelings of hatred and racism that have bubbled to the surface have also illustrated how far we have to go. The thought of people screaming "kill him!" at televised rallies boggles my mind. It speakes to nothing more then these people fear of someone unlike them. Below is a youtube video showing some interviews with Palin supporters outside of a rally in Strongsville, Ohio. I'm sick of this stuff. Just let us vote and let us as a country move forward. Foolishness.

Chris Paul is Saving the NBA, Crushing Dreams

Random sidebar, but an article I read this morning had me thinking—where are we right now if Chris Paul is an Atlanta Hawk? Tell me which ones are possible:

If Chris Paul was a Hawk…

· Marvin Williams and Al Horford wouldn’t be Hawks—I would still assume, though, that the Hawks would have opportunities to get better players in free agency, and they still would’ve had a pick in last year’s draft. This is probably the only given.


· Josh Childress wouldn’t have gone ANYWHERE, lol. NO WAY he leaves with Chris Paul throwing him oops for the next 10 years! So what does that mean? The overseas crisis of 2008 wouldn’t have started until later.


· David West would be Drew Gooden of the Western Conference. A misunderstood 14-7 guy.


· Dirk would’ve never been disrespected by David West. This isn’t really important, but it’s important to me...


· Tyson Chandler would likely still be a bust.


· Peja would be making about $20m less in his contract for a Sacramento team that wants to dump him


· The Hawks might’ve taken game 7 against the Celtics…KG of the Fantastic Three could still be ringless!


· The Hornets wouldn’t have been there to beat the Mavericks; the Spurs still would’ve, though


· Josh Smith would be an All-Star; Josh Smith would be Tyson Chandler. Goodness gracious


· Joe Johnson would average 28-7-7…EASY.


· Atlanta, with a legit basketball team, would become the official black center of contemporary culture. That and because of Tyler Perry.


· The Hornets would’ve sucked after Katrina, and would’ve been sold to Oklahoma City; therefore, Seattle would still have the Sonics.


In summary, he affects the careers of 3 all-stars; he possibly eliminates last year’s NBA champion (yes, of course I know they’d still have to have been 8th, but just humor me); he affects the locations of TWO franchises (and probably eliminates quite a bit of drama over the past year), and he possibly halts the entire shift of NBA players into the Euro and overseas basketball leagues.



If even half of these are true, Chris Paul is the most important athlete this side of Darko Milicic in reshaping the history of this decade of basketball. Wait, what did I just say?? LOL

Alright…back to work.

25 years in, the only feeling is one of.....Thankfulness.

"I woke up early on my born day, I'm twenty years of blessing/
The essence of adolescent leaves my body now I'm fresh in/ My physical frame is celebrated cause I made it/ One quarter through life some God-ly like thing created/ Got rhymes 365 days annual plus some/ ...... Don't go against the grain simple and plain"
Nas- Illmatic, 1994

Today is my 25th year of existence on Earth. As I have gotten older birthdays have become less about gifts and more about the legacy and life you lead. Are you the best person you can be in this world? Do you help others and try to make other people's lives better? I woke up early this morning and thought about what I've done in my life, and thanked God for letting me see 25. I don't have to tell you some discouraging statistic about African American men in this country reaching this age due to gang violence, prison, or something else. Even living "the right way"my life could have quickly come to an end before this day. When I think about all those I know who didn't make it to a quarter century, my birthday to me really becomes a day of thanksgiving that I would be allowed to not only exist this long but really, truly, have a chance to interact and make a difference (hopefully) in my friends and peers around me. Truthfully, I should have this mentality every day, but on days such as today it gathers a greater meaning for me. To all those who remembered and sent emails, texts, phone calls, facebook messages, smoke signals, message by courier, or carrier pigeon, Thank you. And thank you for indirectly affecting me and helping me be the person I am.

Episode 2: The best sneaker advertisement campaigns EVER: Charles Barkley (Nike Force)

I was a Barkley fan to a certain extent. As far as Power Forwards go, my favorite will always be Shawn Kemp, who I am sure at some point will be on this list of campaigns. However, when it came to footwear, Charles Barkley's line is one of Nike's greatest. For today's episode, here is one of his early commercials playing Godzilla one on one (is Godzilla channeling Hakeem or Horace Grant? lol) and destroying him as expected. Also pictured is a vintage pair of the Nike Alpha force II, which was an early shoe he wore. Interestingly enough, he was tabbed by Nike early on in his career to headline the breakaway Force line of sneakers (compared with Michael Jordan's flight line) along with Moses Malone. Another shoe that he wore was my personal favorite, the Nike Air Force Max B. This shoe also became famous for being worn by the Fab 5 at Michigan around the time of it's release. I've embedded a rare commercial for the shoe from around 1993. It took several years for Nike to give Charles his very own signature shoe as he was their main Force guy, but when it finally happened, it was a BIG deal. That will be the next episode. For now, lets watch Charles save (or destroy) Tokyo:


Barkley of Seville (Air force Max B)

When Boredom Attacks: The OKC Story

A month or so ago, in a week of boredom at work, I set out on the epic quest to create the new name of the Oklahoma City Sonics franchise. I knew at the time, however, that these ideas would border on ridiculous and completely lack any possibility of being better than the actual name that was chosen. In the end, I created a list of just over 200 names…a few of them may have been used by other people, but I tried to be original as possible.

I’m cleaning off my computer at work, and I don’t have a reason to either keep this here or take it home, so ladies & gentlemen, here is THE list of potential-yet-completely-incorrect names for the OKC franchise!

(A few of my favorites have been bolded)



(…and by favorites, I don’t mean that they’re good)


1. Oklahoma City Algorithms
2. Oklahoma City Ambivalence
3. Oklahoma City Analysis
4. Oklahoma City Anointed
5. Oklahoma City Anteaters
6. Oklahoma City Badges
7. Oklahoma City Barbers
8. Oklahoma City Barnburners
9. Oklahoma City Beer
10. Oklahoma City Bennettiers
11. Oklahoma City Black-eyed peas
12. Oklahoma City Boilermakers
13. Oklahoma City Bonanza
14. Oklahoma City Boredom
15. Oklahoma City Bricklayers
16. Oklahoma City Bubbas
17. Oklahoma City Bullfrogs
18. Oklahoma City Bush-bashers
19. Oklahoma City Carpenters
20. Oklahoma City Cars
21. Oklahoma City Cats in Hats
22. Oklahoma City Charmin
23. Oklahoma City Chosen
24. Oklahoma City Circlers
25. Oklahoma City Climate
26. Oklahoma City Comquats
27. Oklahoma City Conquerors
28. Oklahoma City Conquest
29. Oklahoma City Conquistadores
30. Oklahoma City Conservatives
31. Oklahoma City Corkscrew
32. Oklahoma City Cornbread (Announcer: “The Cornbread is hot tonight!”)
33. Oklahoma City Corncollectors (don't piss off the huskers)
34. Oklahoma City Crew
35. Oklahoma City Cubicle
36. Oklahoma City Cult
37. Oklahoma City Cyclones
38. Oklahoma City Daffodils (new idea—I want them to be OCD!)
39. Oklahoma City Dallas
40. Oklahoma City Dark Knights
41. Oklahoma City Dastardly
42. Oklahoma City Davidson Harleys
43. Oklahoma City Dawn
44. Oklahoma City Day
45. Oklahoma City Dealbreakers
46. Oklahoma City Dealers
47. Oklahoma City Deeds
48. Oklahoma City Demon Barbers
49. Oklahoma City Demons
50. Oklahoma City Dentures
51. Oklahoma City Department of Defense
52. Oklahoma City Destruction
53. Oklahoma City Deviants
54. Oklahoma City Dial-up
55. Oklahoma City Dirt
56. Oklahoma City Disaster
57. Oklahoma City Dishwashers
58. Oklahoma City Doctors
59. Oklahoma City Dog Groomers
60. Oklahoma City Doggie Droppings
61. Oklahoma City Dogpile
62. Oklahoma City Dogs
63. Oklahoma City Dollars
64. Oklahoma City Dominion
65. Oklahoma City Doodoo Bugs
66. Oklahoma City Douchebags
67. Oklahoma City Drama Queens
68. Oklahoma City Dreadlocks
69. Oklahoma City Dream
70. Oklahoma City Dream Team
71. Oklahoma City Dreamers
72. Oklahoma City Drillers
73. Oklahoma City Drillers
74. Oklahoma City Drinkers
75. Oklahoma City Drinks
76. Oklahoma City Drivers
77. Oklahoma City Drummers
78. Oklahoma City Ducks
79. Oklahoma City Dummies
80. Oklahoma City Durants (just BEG him to stay!)
81. Oklahoma City Dynasty
82. Oklahoma City Dysentery
83. Oklahoma City Fantastic Fifteen
84. Oklahoma City Flycatchers
85. Oklahoma City Focus
86. Oklahoma City Foster Care
87. Oklahoma City Gain
88. Oklahoma City Globehikers
89. Oklahoma City Goliaths
90. Oklahoma City Googlers (easy sponsorship opportunity)
91. Oklahoma City Gorillas
92. Oklahoma City Gunners
93. Oklahoma City Hammer
94. Oklahoma City Hands
95. Oklahoma City Hicks
96. Oklahoma City High
97. Oklahoma City Hillbillies
98. Oklahoma City Hiltons
99. Oklahoma City Homogeneous
100. Oklahoma City Honeybees
101. Oklahoma City Hoopsterators
102. Oklahoma City Hounds
103. Oklahoma City Humblers
104. Oklahoma City Humdingers
105. Oklahoma City Hummers
106. Oklahoma City Hunters
107. Oklahoma City Huts
108. Oklahoma City Hypochondriacs
109. Oklahoma City Idiots
110. Oklahoma City Inbred
111. Oklahoma City Indian Blanket
112. Oklahoma City Insurmountable
113. Oklahoma City Internet
114. Oklahoma City Jordans (the jerseys will be awesome)
115. Oklahoma City Kansas City Shuffle
116. Oklahoma City Lady Trojans
117. Oklahoma City Legend
118. Oklahoma City Masochists
119. Oklahoma City Meditation
120. Oklahoma City Mentos
121. Oklahoma City Microsoft
122. Oklahoma City Middle-of-nowhere-dwellers
123. Oklahoma City Might
124. Oklahoma City Milk
125. Oklahoma City Miracle
126. Oklahoma City Missile Toe
127. Oklahoma City Mittens
128. Oklahoma City Monopoly
129. Oklahoma City Mountaineers
130. Oklahoma City Movers
131. Oklahoma City NASCARs
132. Oklahoma City Newspaper
133. Oklahoma City Oilermakers (PISS OFF PURDUE!)
134. Oklahoma City Oilers
135. Oklahoma City Okra
136. Oklahoma City Oligarchy
137. Oklahoma City Only-Game-In-Town
138. Oklahoma City Open
139. Oklahoma City Oven
140. Oklahoma City Paper
141. Oklahoma City People
142. Oklahoma City Perdition
143. Oklahoma City Polyps
144. Oklahoma City Postal Workers
145. Oklahoma City Predictors
146. Oklahoma City Pseudonyms (our name suggests that we go by other names…?)
147. Oklahoma City Pumpernickel
148. Oklahoma City Quakers
149. Oklahoma City Ranchers
150. Oklahoma City Razors
151. Oklahoma City Red
152. Oklahoma City Redbuds
153. Oklahoma City Remembrance
154. Oklahoma City Residents
155. Oklahoma City Rippers
156. Oklahoma City Salvation
157. Oklahoma City Scissortails
158. Oklahoma City Seal
159. Oklahoma City Seamen
160. Oklahoma City See Ya Seattles
161. Oklahoma City Serpents
162. Oklahoma City Seuss’s
163. Oklahoma City Sewage
164. Oklahoma City Shakers
165. Oklahoma City Shalom
166. Oklahoma City Shawshankers
167. Oklahoma City Shimmer
168. Oklahoma City Shotgunners
169. Oklahoma City Shroud
170. Oklahoma City Shuffle
171. Oklahoma City Siamese
172. Oklahoma City Simpletons
173. Oklahoma City Simpsons (OC Simpsons)
174. Oklahoma City Sleuths
175. Oklahoma City Slickers
176. Oklahoma City Smash
177. Oklahoma City Solomons
178. Oklahoma City Soniqs (LOL change one letter? That would be horrible!)
179. Oklahoma City Sophocles
180. Oklahoma City Soul
181. Oklahoma City Sour
182. Oklahoma City Spasm
183. Oklahoma City Speech Pathologists
184. Oklahoma City Square dance
185. Oklahoma City Staplers
186. Oklahoma City Starbucks
187. Oklahoma City Statesmen
188. Oklahoma City Stealth
189. Oklahoma City Stolen
190. Oklahoma City Stormchasers
191. Oklahoma City Summer Sand!
192. Oklahoma City Sundries
193. Oklahoma City Sunset
194. Oklahoma City SuperS
195. Oklahoma City Suppositories
196. Oklahoma City Surgeons
197. Oklahoma City Swallowtail (state bird…creepy name)
198. Oklahoma City Sweet Tarts
199. Oklahoma City Syringes (promote safe injections!)
200. Oklahoma City Thorough
201. Oklahoma City Tronics
202. Oklahoma City Tropics (Reference a crap Will Ferrell movie!)
203. Oklahoma City Turntables
204. Oklahoma City Tycoons
205. Oklahoma City Unknown
206. Oklahoma City Used Car Salesmen
207. Oklahoma City Village People (“People of the Village” also acceptable)
208. Oklahoma City Volvos
209. Oklahoma City Website
210. Oklahoma City Wheels
211. Oklahoma City Wild Turkeys
212. Oklahoma City Winners
213. Oklahoma City World
214. Oklahoma City Wrath (Grapes of Wrath was there)
215. Oklahoma City X (and then they'd be the X-Men!)
216. Oklahoma City Yes-Men
217. Oklahoma City Young
218. Oklahoma City Zulu


And they chose…the Thunder…


…


…I’m creative enough to run an NBA team?!!

breaking the silence

Clifton Jessup, through his attorneys, issued the following statement this afternoon:

“The blog is in turmoil. Readership is down, and people are losing faith in us. Much-if-not all of this can be attributed to the work of one man: incumbent writer and career character assassin Steven LaiHing.


His deliberate and caustic behavior has caused a rift amongst the Page3 staff and writers. Specifically, his consistent attacks on my skills and basketball awareness in his Top 10 lists have caused tremendous personal and public agony. With no pun intended, his portrayals of me have been both flagrant…and foul.


Can the blog go on? Yes, I would say it is possible. But there are many questions that remain. Steven LaiHing is more than up to the task as a writer. Where the blog may come up short is as a result of his failure as a human being. Yes, I mean it—he’s not human.


With the help of God—and, possibly, professional counselors—I think things can improve, and this blog can improve and grow with time.


It’s already been two years....Why not.”

(Just kiddin'...we'll be back.)

Email intercepted from Page 3 worker (completely false):

Attention all contributors/editors/writers for Page 3 blog!!
Due to the unforeseen (and much criticized) 2 month gap in updating/posting, and the several complaints from our massive reader base, we will be assembling the ENTIRE team tonight at 7 on a conference call to discuss updates/ strategies for maintenance/ moving the blog into a larger market share of sports/adventist/life blogs on the web at this time. If you are West of the Missisippi, use the Dallas access number (214). If you are East of the Missisippi, use the AL access number (256). Of special note will be the presence of head writers Clifton (yes, he still hasn't found a soulmate) and Steven (yes, he still has the jumper after all the extra pounds added). Be on your P's and Q's people. The blog is BACK!


Samir Goodman,
Associate of development
Page 3 blog


To ANYONE who has taken the time to read this non-updated blog in the past 2 months , I APOLOGIZE. Life just sort of caught up and things got hectic. We will be rolling out more posts very soon, and we haven't forgotten about your support. Thanks for even clicking the link to the blog accidentally.

-Steven

An angry ranting Word document that became a blog post about Avery Johnson

So after reading one-too-many comments about how Avery Johnson screwed & screwed UP the Mavs, I just ended up throwing this on paper...or in Word...this wasn't intended to be a post, and it has not been edited. If it lacks coherence or seems to lack any sort of reasoning, well, I was pissed at the time. Sue me.

 

List of Avery Johnson accomplishments:

• Made the NBA Finals for the first time in Mavs history
• Coach of the Year in his first full season
• NBA Finals in his 2nd full season
• Made a championship contending team a team that legitimately SHOULD have a championship (and for not having one, it’s his fault)
• Climbed to the top of the toughest conference in basketball using an entire cast of SOFT players (Dirk is the leader…Damp is the “big man”…who’s scared of that???)
• 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-highest regular season win percentage in NBA history
• Coached Dirk into an MVP season for the first time in Mavs history
• Posted 2 of the 3 best regular season records in Mavs history
• Made the Mavs a Top-10 defensive team…at one time…while still keeping them in the top-8 offensively
• Made Devin Harris a strong defensive point guard
• Made Josh Howard a proven 2nd man
• Sent Steve Nash away for nothing…oh wait, that wasn’t…him…
• Sent Michael Finley away and paid him $20 million to be a Spur…CRAP! Not him again…
• Helped Brandon Bass blossom as a tough-as-nails player
• Made Erick Dampier show up for half a season…which is a HUUUGE accomplishment!

What Avery could NOT do:

• Make Dirk tough enough to make clutch free throws or dominate Stephen Jackson
• Make Josh Howard smart
• Make Devin Harris experienced (or keep him a Maverick)
• Make Damp care all the time
• Make Jet Terry taller
• Make Jason Kidd 25 again
• Keep Devin George from sucking
• Give Jerry Stackhouse workable knees
• Keep Mark Cuban from tinkering and over-tinkering
• Remove the traces of Mavs past that had poisoned the current players (fun-before-winning Nellie, lazy Antoine Walker, etc.)
• Get Diop back in time for the playoffs
• Make a team of guys who had the opposite of his mentality HAVE his mentality. These were Don Nelson guys—guys who believe that the game should be enjoyed as much as it is won. Avery believes in WINNING first and enjoyment after, not during, the winning. The team and the coach just weren’t in the same book (on the same page doesn’t seem quite enough).

Overall, the Mavs were 35-17 before the trade for Jason Kidd—still at the top of the league. Well….they were 16-14 the rest of the way. You can blame Avery if you want…but trading a $6 million, 24-year-old point guard for a $21 million, 34-year-old one (AND your best defensive big man!) seems like it would have…a bit of an effect on things.

 

Cuban is still in my good graces for the way he supported Josh Howard in the last few weeks, so I won’t bash him. Plus he said that he did what he had to do—more than half of the Mavericks squad didn’t want to play for Avery anymore.

 

And THAT…explains a whole lot.

 

Avery was a tough guy—a lot like Larry Brown, but somehow he got there a lot earlier in life. He was a screamer. He was a schemer. He was a perfectionist. He wanted to win games. He was a Spur. He didn’t care how it looked or felt when they won—he just wanted them to fight to get the wins. That was all he’d ever known.

 

So when he took control of a team like the Mavs…we should’ve known eventually things would boil over.

It boiled over with Avery’s stern, intense demeanor completely exhausting the fun-loving Mavericks bunch, who obviously were more than content with the amount of success they had experienced thus far.

 

Is Avery completely free from blame? That’s an obvious NO. But when you look at things, if you had a guy like Dirk as your best player, wouldn’t YOU push him? And if you were having the kind of success Johnson had with that team, wouldn’t you continue to do things YOUR way?

 

I guess Rick Carlisle will figure things out soon enough…

 

Oh…and when you count up all of the conference finals and NBA Finals losses between Dirk and the Mavs, Jason Kidd, and Rick Carlisle in this decade, you’ll start to ask yourself… “Does anybody know what it takes to WIN a championship around here???”

 

Avery did…