baldilocks

Fifteen

UPDATE: Not happy campers: the LAPD.

UPDATE (June 15, 2009): Sigh. For sure did my LAPD motorcycle cop friend have to dispose of another uniform after last night's "celebration."

Born in Sudan; Made in the USA

Gotta love this.

BEIJING - Lopez Lomong, a
former Lost Boy of Sudan who spent a decade in a Kenyan refugee camp before coming to America, will carry the United States flag during Friday's opening ceremonies in Bird's Nest Stadium.

"This is the most exciting day of my life," said the 23-year-old runner, who will compete in the 1,500 meters. "It's a great honor that my teammates chose to vote for me. The opening ceremony is the best day and the best moment of Olympic life.

"I'm here as an ambassador of my country and I will do everything I can to represent my country well."

Lomong, who fled Sudan at age 6 and was separated from his family, was sent to America after officials read his letter describing what it would mean for him to live there, and resided with a foster family in Tully, N.Y. He became a citizen a year ago last month and made the team by finishing third at the June trials. [SNIP]

"This is another amazing step for me in celebrating being an American."

Thanks, Lopez, for reminding us of how blessed we Americans are.

(Via Newser)

Celtics Win

The Boston Celtics have won the 2008 NBA Championship, beating the Los Angeles Lakers four games to two. It wasn't even that close, IMO.

Yes, Boston Celtics and fans, I must admit that yours was far-and-away the better team. Congratulations.

Is this the start of a new Celtic-Laker rivalry?

2008 Lakers Hold to Tradition

Wow. I look away for a minute--or a few years--and Kobe Bryant pulls his head out of his nether regions to put the Lakers back in the NBA Finals!

Out of one of the most competitive Western Conference seasons in NBA history, the Lakers have emerged as its champion.

They beat the San Antonio Spurs, 100-92, tonight at Staples Center in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals, winning the series, 4-1.

The Lakers advance to the NBA Finals to face the Eastern Conference champion winner between the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics. Game 6 of that series is Friday in Detroit, with the Celtics leading, 3-2.

Actually, after hanging out with Jill Stewart at a Culver City sports bar a couple of weeks ago watching Kobe, Luke Walton, Pau Gasol and company take care of the Utah Jazz, I thought it seemed likely that this new breed was ready to join its legendary predecessors--or at least try.

Nice to see that Kobe has grown up.

Now if the Celtics make it, it'll be like old times!

Milestone

Congratulations, Mr. Bonds; no asterisk.

P.S. If you want to hold onto your record for a significant amount of time, Mr. Bonds, you'd better hit a whole lot more of them, because there's a guy that's only 200 and change home runs behind you and he's quite young.

Stanley Cup Champion Ducks

Congratulations to the Anaheim Ducks for winning the Stanley Cup against the Ottawa Senators yesterday. The Ducks are the first West Coast NHL team to ever achieve this victory--one that was won in five games of what could have been a seven-game series, no less.

I will admit that I am not a hockey fan, but love for any and all local team victory/superiority is a given.

Also, there is one member of my family who is most definitely a hockey fan. It's my oldest nephew, Reed (15). Reed has played hockey for a long time in kid years and has a hockey stick in his bedroom as decoration. I don't know whether he is a Ducks fan, but I do have a good idea of what he's been looking at on the tube for the last few weeks.

Reed, a big guy, also plays football and basketball, but his mother (my sister) keeps encouraging him to keep up his hockey skills in order to be one of the few black men to have ever played in the NHL--not for the "affirmative action" factor, but merely for the novelty/coolness factor.

I will admit that it would be kind of fun to see the looks on faces of all colors if I could casually mention the fact that my nephew plays in the NHL, not to mention that it would would be nice to see at least one member of my family "gettin' seriously paid" for doing what he/she loves.

Trust me, if Reed becomes an NHL player, I will gain a new television-viewing habit.

Kobe Scores Where It Counts

As much as I still dislike Kobe Bryant, one must give the man his due as a result of his one-game, 81-point feat contributing to yesterday’s Los Angeles Lakers 122-104 rout of the Toronto Raptors. The one-game score is only second to famed Laker Wilt Chamberlain’s 1962 100-point game against the New York Knicks.

At first, I was looking for loopholes: the late Chamberlain was a center and therefore not responsible for feeding the ball to his teammates as point-guard Bryant is. Then I decided to go on the high road.

Bryant was merely showing his teammates what can be done with effort and opportunity. And I suspect that the performance was fueled by something that happened on Martin Luther King Day.

There is still a lot of acrimony among Laker fans in LA about the Shaquille O’Neal trade. Many still think that the Lakers traded the wrong man. (I suspect, however, that few teams were willing to shoulder the public-relations burden of having Kobe on their team in the wake of his rape acquittal, the sleaziness of his accuser notwithstanding.) But, during an MLK Day meeting between O’Neal’s Miami Heat and the Lakers (a Laker win), O’Neal and Bryant publicly buried the hatchet, apparently partially at the behest of the Boston Celtics’ legendary center Bill Russell, who had waged a similar public feud with Chamberlain. But Russell and Chamberlain made up before the end. When Chamberlain died all too early in 1999 at age 53, Russell was undoubtedly heartbroken, but gratified that he and his equally legendary “adversary” had remembered what was important before it was too late.

[Mr. Russell] said he talked to Mr. (Wilt) Chamberlain at least once a week before he passed away, and I actually thought they hated each other, but he told me that wasn't the case at all. It was something I had to hear from a guy like that. My mother and father also called me and told me to shake Kobe's hand and that we were making a big deal about nothing. And even though I do act crazy sometimes, I do listen." [SNIP]

"It wasn't anything important that we talked about," O'Neal said. "We actually talked about something that was more important than basketball. His wife's having a baby and my wife's having a baby, so I just went up to him and said congratulates on the baby. We'll see each other again when you guys [the media] aren't around. We'll sit down and have a conversation." [SNIP]

As Bryant prepared to leave Staples Center, with his first win over O'Neal's Heat under his belt and the rift over, he said he looked forward to sitting down with O'Neal somewhere in South Beach or Newport Beach during the offseason and further burying their feud.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to that," said Bryant. "We'll probably talk about tricking out cars; like putting hydraulics on a '53 Impala. We'll be talking about fun stuff."

It’s stuff like this—after the team-fan brawls and the like--that might convince me to start watching the NBA again (at least the Lakers and the Heat); if Kobe’s wife and Shaquille can cut the Laker guard some forgiveness for his transgressions, maybe, just maybe I might do so also.

Meanwhile, as one of my co-workers observed, the Lakers are, for better or worse, now demonstrably Kobe’s team.

Setting the Example

Instead of chasing women during his NBA road trips, Shaquille O’Neal has been up to something far more unusual in his hotel rooms.

Shaquille O'Neal was back at the [Inglewood CA] Forum today -- not for an NBA game, but to pick up his MBA.

The Miami Heat center was perhaps the most famous and certainly the tallest of the 2,200 people receiving degrees from the University of Phoenix yesterday afternoon.

O'Neal, who now plays for the Miami Heat, spent more than a year taking classes and doing online work for a master's degree in business administration. After a decade in the NBA, he says he wants to start thinking about what he is going to do after basketball.

"It's just something to have on my résumé [for] when I go back into reality," O'Neal said. "Someday I might have to put down a basketball and have a regular 9-to-5 like everybody else."

I guess the air isn’t so thin up there after all.

Cha-Ching! (UPDATED)

For Reggie Fowler, every month is African American Heritage Month; or at least it will be for his heirs if he continues to play his cards right.

Poised and proud to become the NFL's first black owner, Reggie Fowler is ready to buy the Minnesota Vikings from Red McCombs.[SNIP]

A survey of franchise values by Forbes magazine last fall estimated the Vikings worth at about $604 million. The Arizona Republic reported Saturday that Fowler's net worth is estimated at more than $400 million--far less than Taylor's $1.9 billion. Fowler's group includes three limited partners whom he declined to identify, other than that they're based on the East Coast.

As the general partner, Fowler is required by NFL rules to put down 30 percent of the cash portion of the purchase--though he could borrow up to $125 million from the league's credit consortium. [SNIP]

A former University of Wyoming football linebacker who played briefly with the Cincinnati Bengals, Fowler said he will live in the Twin Cities area--something the San Antonio-based McCombs didn't do. He rejected any thought of moving the team.

I’m not one of those “first black this, first black that,” but I have to congratulate Mr. Fowler for this achievement and for doing the *right* things that have lead to it. Who says all athletes are dumb? (Question: have there been any other black owners/general partners of a major league sports team?)

And you gotta love this line:

Asked about becoming the league's first black owner, Fowler said he thought it was "a great thing…--but also not that big a deal. [SNIP]

"He [McCombs] did not discount the price because of that," Fowler said, laughing.

Ah, the beautiful, green bottom line.

(Thanks to Booker Rising)

UPDATE: (Found at Wizbang) Uh-oh.

In his official biography, distributed Monday by his Twin Cities public relations firm, Reggie Fowler declared that he played in the Little League World Series, implied that he earned a business administration and finance degree from the University of Wyoming and said that he played for the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL and the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.

According to officials with all of the sports organizations and official records at the NFL, CFL and University of Wyoming, none of those claims is exactly true. [SNIP]

One of Kevin's commenters asks whether Mr. Fowler's money is green or not. Most certainly it is. However, Mr. Fowler must get the approval of the other NFL owners for the transaction. Reading the article, Mr. Fowler attempts to explain some of the discrepancies. But I wonder if there is a point at which too many items from his biography require too many explanations.

We shall see.

Go Pigskin Boys!

Well, Donovan McNabb won’t have the chance to thumb a Super Bowl victory in Rush Limbaugh’s nose this year. But he, nor his team, have anything to be ashamed of in 2005. However, a win, one point or more is still a win and the better team won. At least the Eagles didn’t get beat down in their loss.

But, as it happens, a team called the Patriots have won the Super Bowl championship yet again.

Nothing like those symbolic victories.

Congratulation, Patriots fans and to all of us.