NBA Players

I think this is my favorite side of KD. OH WELL! (photo from Kevin Durant’s instagram @SniperJones35)

Prayers and well-wishes to everyone affected by the tornadoes in Oklahoma. According to news sources, this is one of the worst tornado occurrences in history. Thankfully, the death toll is less than many other storms past … but any loss of life (including that of animals) is such a tragic thing. 

Oklahoma Thunder star Kevin Durant (my fav player behind the illustrious Christopher Wesson Bosh) has agreed to donate 1 million dollars to relief efforts. That is awesome and I’m so happy he’s doing  that — I’m also not surprised.

When I saw Durant’s announcement it got me thinking about his image and the whole concept of the “nice guy.”  What does that mean? How fully can we understand an athlete who is burdened with that tag in part because of his own statements?

In a nutshell, I think of folks who are described as nice as being boring and having nothing else to offer up for a narrative. No intellectual curiosity of note, no tales of wild unruly nights to share, no particular physical gifts or markings, no sense of humor to speak of etc etc. In the dating world, when a guy is described as nice he might as well be a serial killer because I’ve no interest in someone unworthy of better description. 

Kevin Durant and his mother and grandmother. (photo from Kevin Durant’s instagram @sniperjones35)

But KD doesn’t really fit that mold. I think at first he provided a nice contrast to those extremely weird and very likely pathologically disturbed people who hated Lebron James. And in this “everyone-must-have-a-brand” economy we live in the media married him to this narrative. I think on some level Durant understands that in this media environment you’re either the good guy or the bad guy and he chose to help  pigeon hole himself as a dutifully humble big kid lest he become the giant selfish monster those crazies I described earlier pegged Lebron James as. Durant’s humble act is as much a product of being raised right as it is a necessity in avoiding the contrived wild-eyed ire of the Skip Baylesses of the world. 

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Well it’s not quite a come back. Okay, it’s not a comeback at all. But we will get to see Allen Iverson play against NBA teams this month. Iverson has reportedly signed with Israeli team Maccabi Haifa and will play for the team against the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves in 2 exhibition games.

Can you tell it doesn’t take much for me to follow up on Allen Iverson? Here is the original report (although I think I pretty much summed it for you). And here is my previous post on Iverson. He was in China at that point.

Here’s a photo of Lebron James thinking about how he can get more money from people willing to overpay for sneakers.

If you haven’t heard yet, Miami Heat star Lebron James has new shoes coming out that cost $300 or close to it (so says the rumors). For some reason expensive sneakers bring out a range of reactions. From the people who swear up and down that that’s alllll poor people do is buy sneakers rather than save to be not so poor OR the people who lament the fact that poor kids can’t get the shoes they think are so cool.

Neither argument makes sense.

Greg Doyel over at CBS took the second tack and wrote an entire diatribe about the price of Lebron’s shoes being further proof that he doesn’t get “it.”

That’s why this story turns my stomach. If James were somebody else — if he were, say, Kobe Bryant, the son of a professional basketball player — I’d have to find another reason to hate these shoes. And maybe I’d fail. Maybe if it were Kobe being Kobe, blithely marketing $300 shoes for children who live the affluent childhood he once lived, I’d let it slide. That’s a hypothetical, so I’m done wasting time on it.

What’s real is this:

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A few weeks ago I heard Kevin Durant rap and I thought he was good. I asked my timeline if there were any other good “rapletes” and a few people replied me saying Stephen Jackson of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs who raps under the name Stak5 was really talented. So I went and listened to some of the songs off of his “What’s a lockout” mixtape and really liked what he was doing (my favorite songs on the mixtape are Say Now and Where I’m From). I could also tell he takes it seriously and it’s not just something he’s doing for fun on the side. He’s clearly passionate about it.

I was glad to have Stephen stop by the More Than Football podcast and talk about his upcoming album. We talked a lot about music, how his life inspires his rhymes, Texas influences and support among musicians, and the guest stars on his album (one of them is Kevin Durant!). Stephen also made some really thoughtful comments regarding the infamous Malice at the Palace, and talked about Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich who I mentioned has become some sort of cult hero on the internet. Bonus: I also asked him what he thought of Tony Parker getting injured in the Drake/Chris Brown fight!

If you haven’t heard the “What’s a lockout?” mixtape you can get it here.

Highlights from the interview include:

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This is a photo of Blatche in his natural habitat.

Andray Blatche had some very embarrassing moments as a Washington Wizard and I know I’m not the only one that’s surprised he made it long enough to be let go this off-season. I thought Blatche would be sent packing out of Washington after he solicited a prostitute who just happened to be an off duty policy officer.

But alas, finding the right deal and talent for Blatche proved to be difficult and the Wizards ended up keeping him far longer than they probably wanted to. Blatche was hardly the only problem the Wizards have but if you’re being optimistic you could say this move is a step in the right direction and perhaps a commitment to patiently building a good team. Hey if the Redskins can do it, why not the Wizards? Unfortunately, the Wizards have made other moves that appeared to be steps in the right direction only to have major setbacks. Remember the excitement after Gilbert Arenas was given a monster contract?

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