If you missed the McDonald's All-American Game last night, you missed an appalling 4-for-17 performance by OJ Mayo, who has a legitimate chance to replace Vince Carter as my least favorite NBA star of all-time before everything's said and done. Really, they're expecting him to play point guard at USC? That's the worst basketball-related idea since the Pacers teamed up Stephen Jackson and Ron Artest.
Fortunately, the game featured my new favorite incoming recruit: UCLA's Kevin Love, a 6-foot-9 power forward who studied Wes Unseld/Bill Walton tapes as a kid and throws the best outlet pass in 30 years. I've heard about him for months, hoped the stories were true and didn't want to jinx it by saying anything. But screw it. With Durant fleeing to the pros, I'm dumping Texas and jumping on the UCLA bandwagon. Hell, I'd even get season tickets if it were remotely possible to get UCLA season tickets. It's been so long since we've seen a big guy grab a rebound, look down the court and whistle a 50-foot pass to start a fast break in the same motion ... . I just feel Love will become a revelation for a whole new generation of fans.
As you know, I'm a huge basketball dork and have over 300 classic games burned to DVD. Other than the Celtics and MJ's Bulls, you know which team is featured the most in my DVD's? Walton's Portland team from '77. Why? Because they were built around a premise that doesn't exist anymore -- a passing big man and quick guards. Every time the other team missed, the guards took off and Walton hit them in stride with a 45-foot outlet. For this reason, they couldn't be stopped -- they were starting every game with 30 free points. Remember, they won the '77 title without a perimeter player who could create his own shot in a halfcourt offense. That will never, ever, EVER happen again. Unless Kevin Love or somebody like him is involved.
The bigger picture: With Mayo joining a loaded USC team and Love playing 20 minutes away for a Final Four team, that's looming as a dynamite rivalry and the most intriguing media subplot for the 2007-08 season. After all, Love represents everything good about basketball (unselfishness, teamwork, professionalism) and Mayo represents everything we've come to despise (showboating, selfishness, over-hype). If Love were black, this would be a much easier topic to discuss. But he's white. So even though there's a natural inclination to embrace Love's game and disparage Mayo's game -- you know, assuming you give a crap about basketball and care about where it's headed as a sport -- there's also a natural inclination to hold back because nobody wants to sound like the white media guy supporting the Great White Hope over the Black Superstar Du' Jour.
So here's the answer to make it easier for everybody: There's room for both guys.
Like it or not, Mayo's style of game resonates with a certain demographic, with his final high school dunk symbolizing the divide between traditional fans and the budding generation that was weaned on Slam Magazine and me-first "superstars" like Stephon Marbury and Vince Carter (neither of whom have played on a 50-win NBA team, by the way). Head over to YouTube and you'll find an unedited clip of the dunk that makes Mayo look like an attention-seeking a-hole, as well as a heavily edited clip of the same dunk that lionizes it. Is it alarming that a 19 year-old kid throwing himself a halfcourt alley-oop in the final minute of a 40-point win, dunking it, tossing the ball into the stands and getting thrown out of his final high school game, then soaking in a standing overation could be considered a beautiful moment by some people? Probably not. That's just our culture now. Rappers sing songs with their own name as the chorus. Wanna-be celebrities intentionally leak sex tapes to make themselves famous. Rich teenagers make fools of themselves on "My Super Sweet 16" and don't even get that they're the joke.
So OJ Mayo fits into all of that. It's not a good thing or a bad thing; it's just the way things are. But the sport of basketball is headed for a crossroads of sorts, personified by the fact that Kobe Bryant's recent streak of 50-point games received far more national attention than the incredible Suns-Mavs game two weeks ago. Nobody wants to be the next Steve Nash; everyone wants to be the next LeBron James, the next Gilbert Arenas, the next Vince Carter. Those guys make the most money and get the most magazine covers and commercials. Just look at what happened to LeBron's all-around game when he reached the pros -- blessed with an innate passing gene that gave him a choice between becoming the next Magic or the next MJ, he said "Screw it, I'm going for my points" and went the MJ Route. I will always be disappointed about that choice.
Again, it's not a black/white thing as much as a philosophical thing -- we glorify scoring and dunking and allowed an infrastructure in which AAU games and summer camps matter more than high school games. Winning and losing doesn't matter nearly as much as how you did and how you looked. We're seeing the effects in the NBA right now; it's been one of the worst regular seasons in recent memory, mainly because the vast majority of players don't seem like they give a crap. For instance, the Celtics had the youngest team in the league this season. During their 18-game losing streak, nobody ever got kicked out of a game, knocked someone into a basket support, threw a frustrated punch ... hell, even the coach didn't get kicked out of a game. There was a passive, pathetic, indifferent response to everything that was happening. Not a single person stepped up. As somebody who travels with the team told me, "If you were with these guys every night and saw how little these losses affected them, you'd never want to follow sports again ... the losses just bounce right off these guys."
Why? Because they've been playing 100-plus games every year since they were 14-years-old. Because the final score never really mattered for most of those games. Because they were taught at an early age that it's all about how YOU looked, not how your team looked.
To be fair, some guys break out of that mindset or never get corrupted in the first place. At the same time, it's definitely a mindset. And it's depressing.
Which brings me back to that McDonald's game. When Mayo bricked the game-winning three-pointer with five seconds left and soaked in those scattered boos and a few "ov-er-ra-ted" chants, do you think he was more upset that his team lost, or that he would have been the hero if he made the three? Call me crazy, but I'm going with the latter. Meanwhile, Kevin Love's team came out on top. He finished with 13 points and 6 rebounds and jumpstarted at least 5-6 fast breaks that directly led to layups or dunks. Looking at the stat sheet, you'd never guess that he was one of the key guys in the game. But he was. And that's why I'm looking forward to the Kevin Love Era and preparing myself to hate everything about the OJ Mayo Era.
It's not a white thing or a black thing ... it's a basketball thing.
so, Kevin Love is just concerned with winning?
Quote:
"You know I come out here to New York and I get the McDonald's national player of the year award," says Love, who averaged 34 points, 18 rebounds, and six assists this season. "I also find out that I have won the Naismith Award, the Wooden Award, and the Parade player of the year awards. Back home in Oregon, though, I only tie for state player of the year with Kyle Singler. Go figure."
Having won the Beaver State's top individual award the previous two years, Love shared the award with his rival this year. "My team lost to his in the state playoffs, but it wasn't like he outplayed me," says Love, who led Lake Oswego to its first Class 4A state title as a junior and lost, 58-54, to Singler's South Medford (Ore.) team in the Class 6A title game this season. "I just think it's ironic."
he's an asshole. worried about having to share awards and shyt. worrying about who outplayed who when his team fukking lost.
but, he'll get the cracker pass
__________________ You gotta deal with Ether for the rest of your life.
--The General
Bird also fathered a baby girl, Corrie Bird, in 1977. He was married to her mother but not at the time of birth. He has only seen her several times.
good find with the quotes from love......he sounds cockier than oj.
damn the white writer getting kind of bold......diss lebron to suck off nash. what has lebron done wrong?
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by doeboy
Since you idiots like to quote Superhead so much, don't leave out where she said Jay-Z was packing. Maybe Jay satisfied Nas' baby mother in ways Nas never could. How you like that lil boy?
good find with the quotes from love......he sounds cockier than oj.
damn the white writer getting kind of bold......diss lebron to suck off nash. what has lebron done wrong?
he's a cocky *****. but, with his dad having played in the league, he's learned to be a bit more savvy with his.
Just look at what happened to LeBron's all-around game when he reached the pros -- blessed with an innate passing gene that gave him a choice between becoming the next Magic or the next MJ, he said "Screw it, I'm going for my points" and went the MJ Route. I will always be disappointed about that choice.
^^^^^^^^^^ Thats supposed to be a bad thing? WTF does he mean by that, they both were them and MJ did get 6 rings being what he was. Who would not want to be like him?
__________________
"I remember one time Kevin Garnett was mushing him, and shoving him in the face; and Tim Duncan didn't do anything, he didn't react. He just kicked Kevin Garnett's ass, and won the damn championship. You know what I'm sayin'? That's gangsta. Ron Artest.
He is.
But, we all know the one thing alot of white people hate is a young black kid with tons of confidence.
"I'm a cracker's worst nightmare/young, black, and rich with a fresh pair of Nike Airs" - Jim Jones
Sad, but true.
theres confidence and there is is being asshole mayo is walking that fine line..
He is.
But, we all know the one thing alot of white people hate is a young black kid with tons of confidence.
"I'm a cracker's worst nightmare/young, black, and rich with a fresh pair of Nike Airs" - Jim Jones
Sad, but true.
So you don't see a problem with throwing the ball of the backboard and dunking it during a 40 point blowout and then flingin the ball into the stands? What about shoving referees?
Black folks won't be content until they turn the NBA into And1.......
he's a cocky *****. but, with his dad having played in the league, he's learned to be a bit more savvy with his.
no doubt, but this shyt irritates the fukk outta me
he said "singlers team won, but its not like he outplayed me"
thats shytting on your teammates plain and simple, thats blaming the loss on your teammates. find me an example of mayo doing that. plus if loves dad was in the nba im sure he grew up in a more stable environment than oj, went to better schools, didnt have as many adults trying to use and manipulate him. theres no excuse for him to be a big classless stiff.........but nobody judges him. i looked at his videos and when love was ranked number 1 in his class I was shocked as fukk. he will be a disappointment
hes sucking him off over OUTLET PASSES
come on this shyt is out of hand, its entertaining though so whatever
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by doeboy
Since you idiots like to quote Superhead so much, don't leave out where she said Jay-Z was packing. Maybe Jay satisfied Nas' baby mother in ways Nas never could. How you like that lil boy?
Since you idiots like to quote Superhead so much, don't leave out where she said Jay-Z was packing. Maybe Jay satisfied Nas' baby mother in ways Nas never could. How you like that lil boy?
<--- Lotame Behavioral Tags --- >
<--- Lotame Behavioral Tags --- >
Racist Bill Simmons at it again
