Photo A Day: 8.15.09

Waiting on DVD copies in some audio/ visual/ digital business in Tampa, FL. The guys here gave me good prices and worked quickly.

Photo A Day: 8.13.09

Took this in the elevator of a Frankfurt Marriott Hotel in Germany during the Court-Side camp, 2007.

Book Review: Can I Keep My Jersey?

This is a review from my Favorite Books list; the link from which will be also on the Books Page.

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“The sentence(s) he used included the following words: bitch, ever, don’t, weak, shit, bring, and in here. The order in which he used them remains unclear.”

A 300-page book I flipped through in two weeks, and could’ve read another 300 pages of in a week. Paul Shirley details 4 years f basketball travel that goes everywhere from the farms of Kansas to the steel  cold and darkness — literally and figuratively — of Russia in winter. Shirley even spent a few weeks with the LA Lakers back in the Kobe & Shaq days; the above quote is from that laugh-out-loud experience. Looks like Paul may have stepped away fro the pro game; damn shame too- cuz that means he won’t pen another one of these.

D-Listed, Part VI: Video!

This is a compilation of the bits of video I managed to record during this whirlwind of a weekend at D-League Pre-Draft Camp. Game footage? Talk to the D-League about that, haha…

D-Listed, Part V: Closing Statements

And just as quickly as it started, the D-League Pre Draft Camp 2009 is over and done. I’m happy with the way I performed out here; no mental mistakes or ugly plays/shots. It will be some time before any news on the outcome of the camp comes my way, so back to basics for me upon my return to Miami: gym, track, gym, rec leagues. Shit goes by fast, these camps that are basically “game-only,” meaning no drills or skill development stuff.

I got to see less than half the players at camp with the way the schedules worked out. The HAX has 6 or 7 full courts and we used ‘em all.  There were some players at this camp who didn’t belong out there, or at any professional basketball event, for that matter. But it’s nice that the NBDL has such an event like the Pre-Draft Camp, which affords an opportunity to be seen to a lot of dudes who otherwise may never get a chance that’s even as half as significant as the chance they got this weekend. This did bring down the overall level of game play, what with everyone receiving equal playing time. Fair is fair, however– I’ve been to some camps in which the playing-time distribution was a serious gripe for participants.

A great and well-run event by the NBDL overall, and i would expect nothing less from the NBA’s little brother.

Video will be posted on Monday. Bang Bang.

D-Listed, Part III: Lucky Me

According to professional trainer Alan Stein:  only 0.03% HS players and  1.2% of NCAA players play professional basketball. So that means I  made it!!! Funny statistic though, since almost every person I meet in my basketball travels is a pro player, used to be a pro player, is is aspiring to be a pro player.

D-Listed, Part II: Miami International

Aight, so you already know I’m on my way to Los Angeles for this D-League Pre Draft Camp. If you know about my writing patterns– or if you don’t you’ll know now– I’m gonna keep y’all updated as best I can with what goes on here while I’m actually doing the shit. I currently exist in the Miami International Airport, Terminal G, Gate G12. Today at the Camp, according to itinerary, will be arrival; handing out of materials; the ‘first official event;’ and the games begin tomorrow.

I’ll throw some blurbs out on my Twitter feed, and save my more well-developed thoughts for blog posts. I have a plan to enter a post both Friday and Saturday nights, and/or sometime in between, and Sunday afternoon from the airport as I await departure. The Friday & Saturday entries will deal mostly with off-the-court stuff, so as not to tip off any rival players/ coaches who may be reading me (from what I know of most basketball players I meet or have met, not likely). The full Monte will come at you anytime after Sunday afternoon.

Let’s Do It! Bang Bang.

D-Listed

I posted this on my Twitter and Facebook last week, and I’ll complete the circle with this blog post: I’ll be attending the D-League’s Pre-Draft Camp in Los Angeles on the 19th of this month.

For the uninformed, the D-League (or NBDL) is the official minor league of the NBA, which makes it closest thing to the NBA you can be without actually being in it (being that players signed to NBDL teams can be called up to an NBA team at any time, unlike a player signed to a European club). I’ll see what interesting stuff I can photograph and/ or film in the process and share it with the public.

Things That Make You Go, “Hmmm…”

Here is an article I just read on Stephen Strasburg, the “the best amateur pitcher I’ve [MLB super-agent Scott Boras] seen” on ESPN.com. And here’s Sports Illustrated’s 1995 cover piece on a 19 year-old coming straight from high school named Kevin Garnett.

It is interesting to me how the piece on Strasburg discusses his fastball, how much money his super-agent will be able to fetch him in contract negotiations, and how teams with no chance of acquiring him are sending scouts to watch him anyway, because of what a treat it is just to see the kid perform. How the crux of the column is how much guaranteed money the young pitcher will receive from the team that drafts him, and how negotiation will set a new standard for top-flight draftees.

While the Garnett piece (also this, this, this, and this), paradoxically, discusses how overwhelming the whole situation may be for the young basketball player, how the money he is set to receive is “like… Monopoly money” to him, and how there is a strong possibility (along with past cases as evidence) that he might fail.

I know this issue has been talked about ad nauseum over the years, and fired up again last yer when Brandon Jennings ditched the NCAA for Europe and this year when Jeremy Tyler passed up his senior year of high school for the pros overseas. It’s just crazy that Lebron James and Kevin Garnett’s initial NBA contracts were worth less than $25 million COMBINED (note: the NBA installed a rookie pay scale in 1998;  LBJ’s rookie year was 2003-04; and KG’s yearly salaries can be seen here), and Strasburg’s agent has MLB general managers talking in the $50 million range and there is nary a word of how overwhelming that may be for Strasburg or how he may have to worry about keeping childhood friends from pulling him in all directions or how he very well may fail, or how his example of being super-talented sets a bad precedent for less-gifted amateurs who may attempt following in his footsteps.

Just interesting to me.

The Thrill Is Gone

The title of this post came from a song I was listening to by Styles P. & Talib Kweli (featuring a B.I.G. sample) of the same name.  The track, of course, deals with the artists’ issues with hip-hop, but the title can be applied to several other areas of life as well, in which things have been watered down to the point that they’re only a shadow of what they used to be.
“I have a college degree.”

There was a time when this statement, to me at least, meant that the speaker existed above a certain threshold of intelligence. That no longer is the case, as I come across a plethora of higher-educated fools who lack basic “adult” knowledge, grammatical skills, and even the ability to infer. And I’m not stating this to be funny in the least; being a bachelor’s-degree-holder, the folks I speak of make me, and you, look bad by loose association.

“I play (professional/ college) basketball.”

I covered this topic in depth here under “PGP.” But I’ll tell a story now that’s not covered there:

In Fall/Winter 2005, I frequented a certain gym in the Philadelphia area and played with/against a group of solid-to-really-good players daily. There was one guy who came in one day and appeared to have a high level of skill, even though he was missing a lot of his shots on that particular day. I didn’t know his name (found out later he was a city bball Legend), but he kept coming to the gym and we matched up vs. one another a lot, as we never seemed to be on the same teams. One afternoon we were playing spirited game of three-on-three full court, and I did a move and scored the game-winning basket, with this Legend covering me. Being the competitor he was (along with the important fact that it appeared to me that he didn’t believe anyone in that gym could get the best of him, even on a single play), the Legend disputed the play and claimed I had committed a violation on the move. After a snarky retort from me, which basically stated that the basket counted and the game was, unequivocally, over, the Legend, with a dismissive wave of his hand, stated, “Whatever, nigga. I played PRO BALL (note emphasis).” As if to say, ‘Yeah, you got me in that game, but it’s not significant because I have competed at levels much higher than where we are at the moment.’

A statement like this is what I like to call "Copping a Plea," because this Legend tried to use his pro baller (PB) status as a crutch for his lack of performance in the present moment (not to mention he had no idea who the person was he was speaking to). THIS IS NOT ALLOWED! But it happens a lot in basketball and I see it often with my own two eyes.

“I be in the gym (fill in daily or weekly frequency count);” or, “I work at a gym.”

I think this used to mean that this person had a certain amount of knowledge of the workings of the body as it applied to exercise & physical fitness. As the old cliche goes (or as I’ll paraphrase it to fit my needs), going to a gym every day don’t make you an expert of fitness any more than going to church every Sunday makes you an expert on God.

“I’m a rapper.”

This is a really good point I heard Redman make recently when discussing some new rap artists…

In the 90′s when a rapper came onto the scene, you just KNEW said rapper had certifiable skill, because record deals weren’t being handed out like bus schedules back then. To sign a deal, you needed to display your skill, network and be persistent, all the while fighting your way through all the other rappers who had the same goal as you had. There were no rappers starting their own labels, no rappers whose albums were available only via MySpace (or download), and rappers spurning labels to get in the game independently could be counted on one hand.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m in full support of artists making moves to get more of the money they generate to go into their own pockets and to have ownership of their work and the like. But the flip side to that coin is that any Joe off the corner can claim “rapper” status now without having had to reside in the crucible and earn his chance. And that has watered down the genre. And this fact has hurt the perception of all rappers, especially the ones who had to earn their shots. So I can completely understand the “hatin’” that comes from 90s-era rappers towards the new generation of artists who attain a measure of “fame” 60 days after deciding to rap.

“…The thrill is gone/ the shit is pathetic…”

Told Y’all I Been Networking!

Shout out to the DIME Baller’s Network for the post!

http://ballersnetwork.com/p/en/ballers/dre-baldwin-the-journey-makes-the-player/

Visuals

Good Morning! I’m not dropping the latest installment of Weltanschauung yet, but I have something better:
My latest YouTube offerings!

Details of what you see, in words, can be found on my YouTube page or my site Videos page.

You Never Know Who’s Watching

I read Rod Benson’s latest entry on Yahoo! this morning, concerning the question of whether an athlete should put his life and thoughts on the internet for public consumption. Rod talked about whether doing so may be a red flag of sorts to teams interested in his services. This of course got me to thinking the same about myself, something that crossed my mind when I opened this site on August 1, 2008: what if a team sees this and thinks I may not be as focused on my career as I should be?
The thought didn’t last long. As one of my favorite books states, “It is better to regret what you have done than what you haven’t.” I’d rather have this site, the creating of which was on my initial 10-year goal list back in 2003, and live with what comes with it than hold back on it in hopes of fitting better into the “basketball player” mold. besides that, Rod just signed in France, according to SLAMOnline.com. A business owner should be able to separate off court interests from on-court production, anyway. And if there’s one out there who can’t? As Tucker Max would say, fuck him. Or her.

Not that this is a pressing issue for me, at least as far as I know. Rod’s blog entry just caught my attention. In other news, I went to the golf driving range yesterday and hit about 70 balls. At around the 40- ball mark, the rented driver I was using blew up- the head of the club flew off and about 20 yards! As I strolled back to the rental counter with the decapitated club, the attendant there, who was talking on the phone, didn’t flinch- he just grabbed me another driver and told me- with a smile- that that happened often to the older clubs. During the course of my time on the range, I, at one time or another, almost: injured my shin by hitting a ball into it; threw out my left hip; twisted my ankle. And for some reason (most likely being that I have no fundamental golfing ability), my hands always sting when I hit with an iron.

Phu & I went to the casino and blew a couple hundred dollars in a few hours. The Hard Rock didn’t have anything other than slots, and a huge poker room- two games I’m not much for. Phu seemed to be getting into too much of a zone on the slots, though- I may need to call on some of her friends for an intervention.

Competition Round-Up

Lifted from Sportsvite.com

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Meet the “Play With The Pros” finalists and VOTE!

October 15th 2007

The judges have spoken, and the “Play With The Pros” contest has been narrowed down to four finalists. Now it’s up to the Sportsvite community (that’s you) to determine who deserves a chance to tryout for the ABA. Vote Now!

Here’s a bit more information on the contestants to help you make your decision.

Henry from Houston, TexasMarquis Henry is a 25 year-old, 6′ 2″ combo guard with a 42″ vertical. Even more impressive is the work ethic that Henry displays in his highlights. He values both talent and hard work and shows an appreciation for fundamentals. He’s even invented a new training technique called “lake dribbling”.

Henry’s basketball accomplishments include Hoop It Up championships in the Top Gun division. He has also played Baseball in Japan, Boxed competitively and loves Soccer.
NBA veteran John Thomas said Henry “looked good in the gym by himself” but wonders how he will perform when tested. Vermont Frost Heave Coach Will Voigt was impressed with Henry’s “hunger to get the opportunity to show what he can do.”

Check out this additional video highlight of Henry on Sportsvite. You might think he’s using pirated software but we’re pretty sure he’s just sponsored by “Video Edit Magic Express”.

from Kileen, TexasCed’s highlights are short but sweet as he shows off a ridiculous alley-oop and a awe-inspiring break away windmill jam in organized games in a gym far far away. Ced is a 6′1″ guard from Brooklyn who now lives in Texas. He also goes by “Mr. American Airlines”.

John Thomas was a bit skeptical stating that Ced obviously played overseas “but there is nothing else posted that would lead me to believe that he has any skill”. Coach Voigt thought that Ced was clearly athletic.

Dre from Miami

Dre “SuperStar” Baldwin is a 6′4″, 180 lb. guard from Philadelphia and he has played both in the states and overseas.

Dre received the vote of Rockets point guard Mike Jameswho thought him to be the best player and most athletic. Coach Voigt was impressed with Dre’s athleticism and was amused by his original dunks. Blogger Will Leitch is a huge Baldwin fan and especially digs his social commentary.

There is no doubt that Dre Baldwin is better than the “random Caucasians” as he indicates in the title of his highlight video. But does Dre have what it takes to play in the ABA? Check out his blog and decide if he deserves your vote!

You can also check out Dre’s dunking exhibition in this video with commentary that is plenty colorful.

Owen from Saint Paul, MinnesotaWhat Owen lacks in talent and ability, he makes up for with his tenacious mean streak and amazing film production and editing skills are plain scary. Owen claims that “Every team needs a thug like me. I will fill that space like a can of lysol in a taco bell bathroom. I make Bill Laimbeer seem sweeter than a bag of gummy worms.” Coach Voigt isn’t sure about Owen’s skills but does think the video is pretty damn funny.
Owen currently throws his weight and attitude around for Team Ungliablach of Intramural Glory.

So vote for your favorite Sportsvite basketball player now. You are only allowed one vote and must be a Sportsvite member to be eligible. The winner will be determined when voting ends on October 31, 2007.

Sitting Tight

Time for a personal update. ive put myself out there before (more than once, or twice)- stated that something is gonna happen, and put it all on the GUI (graphical user interface, also known as your computer monitor) for all to see. so if youve been here for awhile, you know that ive lived my words, and ive come through (again). hell, ive even asked for your opinion in a roundabout way (err, sort of).
there have been times ive been right, wrong, too trigger happy, and stright up confused. bball has taken me many places, aided in me losing vauable photos, introduced me to many people, helped me with a language, seen me put old white guys on blast, and shown me so many things in life that i could never put it all in a blog (the book is on the way. i dont have a title, pubisher, or release date yet, but believe, me, it’s coming.). but dammit, i aim to put things out there in a way that is simple for you to understand, yet quite clever. i suppose it’s up to the public if im succeeding.

anywho, the summer of 2007 has seen me angling to consume a larger slice of pie than i have ever sunk my teeth into, and understandably, this offseason has seen me do more work (workouts, traveling, emailing, phoe calls, websites, waiting) than any other time between gigs put together.

with all this said. i am still, as of 11:25 PM EST on September 26, 2007, UNSIGNED. am not into any type of crisis mode- panic is not familiar to me (nor is worry, sorrow, self- pity, or any other form of woe-is-me negativity for that matter- ask Phu, she hears about it all the time).

i read the stories of successful, popular people all the time, and many of them share a common factor: going from one situaton to the next, and being viewed in a certain (not- so- bright) light, and then- BOOM- the Tipping Point at which the masses see what great treasure has been under thier noses for so long. it’s all a matter of the righ opportunity being in place.

well, the thing is for me, im a signature away from the right opportunity. what country, what league, if ill have clean drinking water, etc…… all details. the preparation is there. the work is there (next spring i’ll show you some things from the past 120 days that you wont believe). overseas, most seasons are starting within the next 14-20 days or may be underway; so as far as my next deal goes, Im not changing my MySpace display name till the parameters are met. period.

if you’re wondering where i am, email me. im most likely deciphering the foreign language or broken english of an email response.

i never said it was gonna be easy. but id still advise you to invest early. cuz when i go public, baby, we’re all getting rich!!!

(facebook readers, the links never seem to translate from my blog to facbook’s site, so see the original verion at http://drepaperwork.blogspot.com/2007/09/sitting-tight.html)