Glutton For Punishing

As I was browsing around the New York Knicks website which I do at least 1 time daily, I came across this picture. First of all no homo, it is a male chest of some guy i don't know. It came from a photo album of die hard fans, who have submitted photos which embody their love for our Knickerbockers. Keep this in mind for later.

I have not been a Knick fan my entire life. When I was around 6 years old I started off as a bulls fan, simply because Michael Jordan and I had the same first name. My time as a Bulls fan would be short lived. I lived in California at the time, and my dad and I went to attend the annual Magic Johnson All-Star Game. My parents were friends with the VP of the United Negro College Fund at the time so we ended up with court side seats. After the game we were at a reception and I spotted Michael Jordan near the bar just relaxing by himself. I decided to stroll over accompanied by my dad to ask him for his autograph. He felt like being a jerk that day and said: "I only give autographs to kids I know," and walked away. The rest of the night I was devastated and although I ended up getting autographs and pictures from countless Stars that day, nothing could mend the disappointment that I felt. As soon as I got home i tore down all my MJ posters, stopped rocking all my MJ gear (except for the kicks...i mean c'mon). My family being from New York, I re-discovered my roots. My pops always knew I would, he saw my love for MJ as a phase and a fad that a lot of kids had at the time and I would grow out of it. I did and since that moment I have been a die-hard, orange and blue bleeding knick fan.

I started off in some good years. Ewing, Derek Harper, Starks, Oakley, Mason, Doc Rivers, are just a few of the names that I was ride or die for. Seeing P Ewing finally make it in 94' only to end up blowing it in Game 7 after Starks just somehow couldn't find the bucket. Being heartbroken by the man I learned to hate Michael Jordan, not like hate like Kobe hate: I'm talking personal experience hate. Watching Reggie Miller taunt Spike Lee, but being able to beat him enough through moments like LJ's 4-point play to live with it. The wars with the heat were some of the best years. The lockout year which I will always cherish...even though so many people belittle it. We played some real teams and beat them. Watching my favorite player Allan Houston knock down that shot on the road and then seeing him pump his fist like a hay maker across the entire front row of that arena. I lived it. My dad and I now living in Michigan watching that very game in silence. Leaning our bodies with the shot, then seeing it go in and yelling at the top of our lungs as I jumped into his arms like I was a baby again...Man I've LIVED IT. I was probably more emotionally tied to these players given the fact that I was a lil older at this time. Seeing the deterioration of one of the greatest centers of all time through injuries during that post season was also a tough pill to swallow. That loss to the Spurs would end any chance of Ewing winning a title. That era was coming to a close. It was time to see where the Knicks were going to go from here. This is where the Front office of the New York Knicks began their Glutton for Punishing their fans.

You can look up all the years if you want but i'm just gonna breifly deal with each of the following Era's or (errors depending on how technical u want to be). 2000-01 marked the franchise record 14th consecutive time the Knicks would make the playoffs. This time they got ousted by Toronto and Vince Carter and them. That offseason, they did the unthinkable. They traded the man who laid it all on the line for the name on the front of his chest. Patrick Ewing, gone just like that. That was the end of an Era and the beginning of a series of Errors. Van Gundy saw the culture changing and bolted. Allan Houston's knees didn't allow him to merit the 7 year max contract he received which led to a medical retirement. LJ had the same fate. Spreewell was traded. GM Scott Layden was on a mission to sign every player that he used to have in Utah. He overpaid for the likes of Howard Eisley, my cousin John Nixon II (Shandon Anderson), Clarence Weatherspoon, Terry Mills. He drafted men such as Nicolas Tskirinvithsvilli (yea something bad like that), Frederick Weis of Vince Carter jumped over him fame, and his final bow with the Macjei Lampe pick. Things got from bad to worse real soon.

Enter Isiah Thomas. We'll spare ourselves of all the details but i'll just run through the things he has done. He sign and traded for Eddy Curry (bust), Crawford (my dude), signed Jerome James (lol), Jared Jeffries, traded for the bad contracts of Stephon Marbury (Scapegoat), Anfernee Hardaway (paid for him to stay in his hometown of Memphis to rehab for a return that would never come), Brought in Moochie Norris early on...etc...man this is painful. He did draft some talented guys: Nate Robinson, David Lee, Wilson Chandler, Channing Frye (traded, falling off now), Trevor Ariza (Larry "the genius" Brown didn't like him and begged for Francis), brought in one of the most overrated guards ever in Steve Francis (wat a bum, if u like him, ur dumb), and a couple others. They proceeded to have 3 of the worst season in Franchise history. He placed himself in every possible position from President to GM to VP and finally coach...but it was clear that it had to end.

So now in closing i will deal with the so-called saviors of our franchise. Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni...this was supposed to be change we could believe in. They have made a series of moves to get rid of bad contracts and i commend them for that (although that led to the trade of cap crawford). They have proceeded to have two of the worst drafts (with good picks) in my recent memory. If Isiah didn't get someone the Knicks could use, he at the very least get cats that someone else wanted. Thats as far as i'll go with my defense of that clown, but lets be real here. Danilo Galinari? A 6'10" jump shooting forward on a roster full of forwards already. He looks like a stiff (even when healthy). Now Jordan Hill aka a glorified Renaldo Balkman. Your telling me he's a young Amare Stoudamire D'Antoni....and thats fine, but is your word really gold? I have eaten up the message from the various front office jokers for years...and i'm about done with that. So im predicting that we let David Lee walk or sign and trade for some bums. This is tragic because now in order for Jordan Hill to be considered an upgrade or serviceable replacement, he will have to get somewhere near Lee's league leading 55 double doubles. Your setting your rookie up for failure. And aren't we looking at Chris Bosh and Amare (the actual one) in 2010??? And how are we planning on drawing free agents to come here. Who are they playing with? and who am i rooting for? cause every time i start to like somebody, they are ripped away because u keep telling me to wait. Patience. 2010 will turn into 2014 which will turn into 2020. We will never be a right now team. I mean u sat on national TV and really tried to sell to me that Darko Milicic...one of the worst lottery/#2 picks of all time will be able to help this team. A proven bust? Right after drafting a probable one. So here is my message at the end of this post. You guys have been gluttons for punishing for too long. And i am no longer a glutton for that punishment. 2010 is ur last chance. Make something happen. Cause I'm not watching a press conference that off season when u try to justify signing an aging Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal to max contracts cause no one else wanted to come. That will be my last day of accepting what the NYK front office have been gluttons for: punishing me.

FACEBOOK: 25 RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME

I wrote this little list about myself on Facebook, I figured I would put up on this blog too. This should give you a little more information about who I am and where I'm coming from.

1. If people knew what was going through my head half the time...they probably wouldn't like me.
2. I really don't care about what people think about me...but if something i do is causing people to have a negative outlook on my family, i'll adjust it.
3. I try to say hi to one random person a day, sometimes people just look like their having a rough day (people say this about me, i'll address that in #4). I'm not tryna be fake by doing that, I don't think it takes much out of me to greet somebody.
4. I'm not mad/depressed/suicidal...s

ometimes people see me on campus and they think there is something wrong with me. To be honest with you I have a HORRIBLE schedule between school and all my activities, if u ever want to hear the rundown ask me. For this reason I am ALWAYS tired, hence the way i look on campus.
5. I really wish i had the time to be on the soccer team. Used to love it when I was younger.
6. Well this really isn't about me but i hear a lot of people who say that they are scared of my dad. He's a really nice dude, he's not an angry black man...just walk up to him one day and give him a hug and tell him i told u to do it...see what he does.
7. I'm prolly the most sarcastic guy you'll ever meet, which translates into non-stop laughs.
8. I am not related to Coach Luis Sanchez.
9. One day im seriously gonna find out who started the whole juicycampus.com thing...LMAO.
10. Sometimes I have the feeling that I will just randomly never get married and then one day go on the Bachelor and marry a random and then get a divorce 3 months later like the rest of the couples end up.
11. I honestly don't know why I ever started rooting for the Dallas Cowboys. I mean i liked Aikman, Smith, and Irvin...but the rest of my fam likes the Giants.
12. Meagan Good is fine.
13. AU Airpark.
14. If I had my way I would find a good paying job and use that to support an independent music label. I really feel like if i put time into it, God could do some amazing things. But i'll settle for law school.
15. I had a day when I almost died three times in the span of about 3 hours. Ask me about it one day.
16. If you never thought that you could find similarities and become really cool with someone that seems to be EXTREMELY different than you, me and ryan little would prolly change your mind.
17. I was the first person from my elementary school in Washington D.C. (Dupont Park Adventist School) to get nominated to the National Geography Bee which is moderated by the dude from Jeopardy.
18. I am extremely shy at times. But at 6'7" you can't be cause if ur in a place and you don't know anybody, its not like you can hide...so u just gotta act cool.
19. I don't feel tall, if that makes any sense, I feel like i'm an average size person until i give some people hugs...and then im reminded of how large i am...lol.
20. I don't like when I notice people getting taken advantage of...i take that personally.
21. When I was younger I used to kinda idolize my older cousins since i was one of the younger ones....but im at the stage of my life now where I depend on my immediate family, and usually look to my close core of friends for any advice or guidance.
22. One of my favorite songs ever is Kiss From a Rose by Seal.
23. I have gone up and down with my music selection. My senior year of high school I cut out all secular music and gotta kinda conservative. I'm a lot more laid back these days with my lifestyle. There are some things that I will to this day never do because of the morals that my parents instilled in me. At the end of the day, when I really need to be uplifted I turn to gospel music. There are no secular songs or artists that can come close to giving me the overall feeling that gospel song does.
24. I really wish I could play the piano.
25. Real talk hurts fake people....that's my life motto.

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Sometimes u gotta vent....

Sorry it has been so long guys....between basketball practice/games, classes/homework and studying for the LSAT/GMAT I've been SWAMPED!!!!! But I found a little spare time to vent a little bit so we'll see where this goes. First of all I want to shout-out all of my fellow Andrews Cardinals. As of last night we surpassed our schools previous best win total (11-last year) by getting our 12th win of the season. We have definitely been through a lot as I explained to you guys a couple posts ago. It is definitely a good feeling to know that our hard work (training camp since September...WOW) is beginning to pay off. We still have some ways to go but we are in pretty good position to make it to the USCAA national tournament. The coaches poll got released today and we're back up to 6th in the nation!!!!!! A couple more wins should solidify that so lets just keep pushing team!

I'll begin this next section of the blog with this: being a nice guy is out of style. Yea yea, I know this sounds cliche and may sound like a played out realization...but its the inconvenient truth in relationships (or the lack thereof). Now usually when someone says this its a revelation that they are not currently having any luck with females and therefore they have to try and figure out whats wrong with them instead of looking in the mirror. This is not the case with me, and I'm not even proclaiming that I'm a nice guy. That would be for you to tell me...but anyways: I have just come to the realization that being squeaky clean is not in these days. I see many of my fellow men straight up dumbfounded when they think about what they have to offer and then at the same time see who females are settling for these days. I think the fault lies on each side and I will deal with both of them as best I can. I'll start with the men: MAN UP. I know that you feel like its not fair or your being bamboozled, hoodwinked, and just outright played for a fool. Honestly, at some point you gotta stop wallowing in the pity of your previous screw ups and be more vigilant. Vigilance, persistence, and a genuine swagger are the 3 keys to me in changing your fortunes. When I say vigilance, I don't want you to get the wrong idea, i don't want u holding females at gunpoint. In order to beat the "enemy" (which would be "bad guys") you have to match or supersede what they are offering. These dudes that you are up against go hard, they don't play games, they see what they want and they go for broke. You have to use your same "nice guy" genuine approach with the same sense of urgency. If you seem uninterested how do you expect her to be? Persistence shows that you are serious about what you have to offer. If you give up on a potential relationship you are sending a message to the female that you don't really even believe in what your "selling." If you don't think your good enough or on a certain level, you will give up easily and girls will read into that and word spreads a lot faster and farther than you think. Females want a man that is confident in himself. They want to be able to confide in you and your confidence can improve the mutual swag that you can have together...women don't want dead weight. Being genuine should be a given. Don't be fake and sell out to the "dark side" because they're getting all the play. In the end you'll end up worse off because women can smell a fake dude a mile away and will lose whatever respect they had for you. My honest opinion is that you have to be yourself- while at the same time having a realistic mix of "both sides." You can't be so squeaky clean that you look like a robot and you can't be so bad that you look like a threat on campus. Be you, be confident in you, and sooner or later you'll find a girl that u didn't have to do anything special to get; it will be just because of who you are.

I just have a little something for the ladies. I don't really mean for this part of the blog to apply to all of you and I am not i repeat NOT talking about any one person in particular. I do feel that some of the blame for this disappointment that has been felt on both ends. The first thing I'll say is that you lose credibility if after you spend hours bashing a guy for how much of a dog he is and then you turn around and try to get with that same person. Then after he does the same thing to you that you have been warned about..in fact warned others about you want to tell the world about your woes. Honestly I'm sick of hearing it, and I'm sure some of your friends are too. You all are beautiful! You deserve better, but if you'd like to settle I have no qualms with that...we just don't want to hear about it when it blows up. But yo that's all I have to say, I'd appreciate some feedback and other points of view it may help future blogs. God bless!

MY PRESIDENT IS BLACK JAY-Z REMIX

If u aint on this yet....im sorry. Shoutout to Battle Axe and Tes for puttin me on this joint but this remix is amazing. Jay-z really outdid himself and i feel like I gotta put something up on the eve of this historic day...enjoy the video....OBAMA!!!!!


Jay-Z My President is black Remix LIVE 1-18-09 from pleasedontstare on Vimeo.

GUESS WHO'S BIZAAAACK!!!!

Man, so much to say! Its been a long while since the last post went out and I'm gonna get to a lot of different topics in this one. First of all the pictures above will be the direction of this blog so bear with me and it will all be made clear soon. I'll start out with the picture of me in the basketball jersey. That picture really isn't related to what I am going to say but it is the most recent picture I have of myself in that Cardinal uniform. It has been a rocky 2 or so months for our team; and I guess I use this picture because it represents the last time our team was NORMAL. This was the game against LMC in which we (surprisingly to some) got our first win ever against them. The next day we had a front page news article in our local newspaper the Herald Palladium talking about the impact of our new coach Fred Paulsen and how our program looked so serious. Since then our team has been anything but that. The next day our athletic director was pressured to fire our coach. After an emotional meeting with all parties involved, he was able to convince the school to give coach a second chance. Things seemed to be regaining normalcy but its just gotten wierder ever since. Instead of moving to 8-4 in our next game against a beatable team, we lost in DISSAPOINTING FASHION. Then Christmas break happened. Long story short not everyone came back, and we played a game after break with 7 guys against another bad team and lost again. We then went out west the past thursday to Walla Walla to play a double header against them. We went there 7-6 with 9 guys due to the fact that some guys still were not allowed to travel with us (emphasis on coaches decision there). Now Walla Walla was a winless team up to this point. Lets just say that the same thursday we traveled there was the first day we had to play them. We arrived there 5:30 local time (we left for chicago at 6:00 am MICHIGAN TIME) and then played at 7.....jetlag is an understatement. They ended up beating us in that first game by 7. So now we were 7-7 reeling from this BAD 3 game losing streak all games we should of had. Then came saturday night. We went into that gym and honestly just decided that we weren't gonna let them beat us. They had a good crowd that liked to talk a lot of junk so it felt literally AMAZING to shut them up. 18 point win....pindrop silence except for the away locker room where we were going CRAZY!!!!! So now we are 8 and 7, we aren't totally happy with that but starting tommorow we are supposed to have our full team back to practice. I honestly can't wait and I am longing for the day when we can have that same feeling back that we had in that LMC locker room, togetherness; toughness; brotherhood; family; thats cardinal basketball.

Moving to the next picture this is just a quick public service announcement for the haters at large. I highly recommend this book swag for dummies because your need to hate (which essentially equals a lack of swag) can be cured by this good read. Like honestly i'll cut right to the chase the whole juicycampus.com thing honestly gave me a nice chuckle. And at the end of the day no blog i write or anything I say will ever really stop you from hating. But i'm really trying to save your life...cause a life without some sort of swag is gonna leave you empty. Cause when u graduate (if you ever do)...all those people u spent time hating on in college are gonna be gone making moves, more importantly not remembering any of the things you've said about them. And to address it directly, I know my dad has thick skin and I wont sweat it. Since I know him and actually listen to the things he says in sermons, I understand where he is coming from. I know what his motives are, I know what kind of person he is. So I use the same logic to analyze the haters. My dad puts his name on everything he's said and stands by it. His haters don't. He makes sure u can put a face to his name. His haters won't. In everything he does he strives to promote unity within our campus, our church, our world by helping us to realize that we cannot keep repeating the mistakes of the past. His haters don't care, they strive to criticize such talk because they like the divided state of our campus, our church, our world, our lives. So the next time you wanna say something about him, you would sound a lot more intelligent if you listened with a clear open mind. When it comes down to it; real talk hurts fake people...enough said.

Lastly, I will direct your attention to the elderly black male at the top of the page. His name is James Presley. He is from Sledge, Mississippi. He is 78 years old. He is also the grandson of a slave. You can read more about him here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/12/grandson.of.slaves/index.html on CNN.com. When you ask him about slavery and the hardships that his family has gone through he can tell you about many of the experiences of his forefathers. He still lives and Sledge and he continues to participate in the family trade: picking cotton. On November 4th, 2008 he was able to make a vote that literally brought tears to his eyes. He never thought he would see that day that a black man would run his country. There are so many stories about the inspiration of Barack Obama and what his inauguration will mean to all of us. But when you really think about a man who was brought up in the slave mindset of submission and inferiority being able to help elect a black man to the highest office in that same land, it has to send chills up and down your spine. The Presley family is a living witness of the progress that we have seen in this country but they continue to be a reminder of how far we have come from in the now election of Barack Obama. I'll leave you with James Presley's message to the world: "The important thing in life is to try to live and do the best you can," he says. "We done had it bad. Let us help give our children a better life, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren. Let's try to give them a better life than we had. But anyway, just keep the good work going, is all I say."
GOD BLESS AND KEEP TUNING IN!