Game Recognizes Game: Mike Tyson's Inner Fight

Oct, 14, 2009 

By Glenn Minnis

Vibe.com

Mike Tyson lives in solitary confinement. That dank, desolate place where the heart and soul seek to escape when all other rhyme and reason ceases to run free.

It's been 14 years now since a then-28-year-old Tyson was paroled from the Indiana Youth Center after serving part of a 10-year bid born of a rape conviction. And yet, as he sat through his epiphany with Oprah this week, it seemed clear his spirit still wrestles with a sentence so stern and griping he readily admits to having never expected to see so much as his 40th birthday.

"I've lived a wild and strange life," the former champ and one-man star of the brutally honest, recently released documentary Tyson said during the critically-acclaimed film. "I've used drugs; I've had physical altercations with dangerous people; I've slept with guys' wives, they wanted to kill me. I never thought I'd live to this age. It's just a miracle."

Throughout the Oprah gabfest and the film itself, much of that imagery unfolds in the vividly uneven tones one might expect from a character who spent much of his youth in and out of detention centers and foster homes, eventually becoming one of the globe's most celebrated sports stars.

But at what cost did the Tyson legacy come? Tyson is a sobering portrait of the fast life and times of one of the sports' most ordained and gifted, yet fundamentally flawed men. In an even broader context, it touches the surface of just how one can perhaps come to have too much too soon and speaks to the undeniable burden of living up to all the newfound fame and baggage that generally begets.

In the case of Tyson himself, at least a measure of that abnormality seems born of his self-professed "baddest man on the planet" moniker. Clearly, that title grew to become a distinction for which his altar-ego knew no boundaries, billowing to the point where it clouded not only his assessment of himself as a fighter, but as a man, as well.

How else can you explain the hubris that allows one to blow through some $300 million in less than a decade? Or even his constant run-in with the law or wayward ways with so many women? Yet in the riddle that is Tyson, the now 42-year-old, heavily indebted, one-time legend comes across as being as much about heart as he is defiance.

Gilbert Arenas fails to recognize that gunplay is not a game 

 By Glenn Minnis

TheGrio.com

Think Gilbert Arenas may have taken his 'Agent Zero' persona just a bit too much to heart?

Certainly these are sobering and soul searching times for the three-time NBA All-Star, who - much like the character from the 1960's hit song 'Secret Agent Man' that bore his alter ego - now faces the very real prospect of having his name taken away and tragically replaced by a number.

Only time, and much more scrutiny, will ultimately reveal what did and didn't happen in the Washington Wizards' locker room in the days just before Christmas when Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton are alleged to have squared off, guns-at-the-ready, in a stare down so intensely defiant it would have given Tony Montana cause for pause.

But no matter the outcome, what's already indisputably known is that Arenas violated every code known to an athlete by turning the team's should-be sanctuary into a potential crime scene by storing as many as three firearms in his Verizon Center locker stall.

"I used bad judgment," admitted Arenas, who also took the time to shoot down rumors that the dispute stemmed from a $25,000 gambling debt. "I don't gamble," he insisted. "I'm a goofball, that's what I am. Even with something like this, I'm going to make fun of it. Anything I do is funny, well it's funny to me."

But in a time when firearms account for far too many deaths each year and an era in which fellow pro athletes Steve McNair, Darrent Williams and Sean Taylor all lost their lives to gunfire, Arenas may have a hard time gaining an audience to share in all the laughter.

He will be put to the test as never before today when he is expected to meet with state and perhaps even federal authorities to further articulate his side of the story. And, for his sake, it better be clear and concise.

The District of Columbia harbors some of the nation's strictest gun laws, and given Arenas' 2003 conviction for carrying a concealed weapon, the courts may not be so forgiving this time. At the very least, both he and Crittenton face stiff discipline at the hands of no-nonsense NBA Commissioner David Stern.

And all for what? A measure of false bravado? A superficial level of one-upmanship? Two careers now precipitously hang in the balance because neither man had the resolve, gumption or mindset to simply walk away.

Is it any wonder why the Wizards now roam and hover among the league's perennial bottom feeders?

Game Recognizes Game: Tell Rush Limbaugh To Get Off My (Foot)balls

Ocr. 11, 2009 

Game Recognizes Game: The Irony of "Money" Mayweather

 Sept, 20, 2009

Call it the curse of being a world-class athlete, the maddening sense of invincibility and entitlement that earnestly seems to come with the territory. Remember, Mike Tyson, Latrell Sprewell and Evander Holyfield all had it. But et tu,

Game Recognizes Game: Thank You, MJ23

Sept. 11, 2009 

By Glenn Minnis

Vibe.com

 

 Game Recognizes Game: Nine Reasons LeBron Should

Enter Dunk Contest 

Dec. 12,  2009

 

 

The Los Angeles Lakers got their rings and won their opener this week. So things are looking pretty good for the Lake Show, right? Not so fast. Check out these 10 reasons Kobe Bryant and Co. might not repeat...

 

By Glenn Minnis

Vibe.com

⑩ In keeping with his ritual of handing out inspirational tomes to all his players before the start of a new season, Phil Jackson settles on Pat Riley's "The Winner Within." The copies never arrive, getting stalled somewhere over Miami.

⑨ Kobe now has tasted No. 4, how much hungrier can he really be?

⑧ Each time the Staples Center hype man spins War's classic "Why Can't We Be Friends" during pregame this season, Khloe Kardashian-(Odom?) and Vanessa Bryant bolt the arena. Separate exits, of course.

⑦ We haven't even mentioned Ron Artest yet.

⑥ How much longer can Derek Fisher be expected to keep up with the trifecta of Chris Paul, DeRon Williams and Tony Parker?

⑤ Lamar Odom will miss at least 25 games this season tending to various injuries. He'll really just need the time to film more footage for his new reality show with Khloe.

④ Nothing the Zen Master has ever experienced, from smoking weed in the Himalayas to coaching Jordan, Rodman and Pippen in the Chi, can aptly prepare him for what's about to go through this year in Cali.

③ Jack Nicholson meets the Kardshians.

② This isn't what Pau Gasol had in mind when he convinced his parents to allow him to shun the family business of medicine for a run at the NBA. Then again, maybe is is.

① The Kardashian sisters figure to have full access to the Lakers locker room. That means all nine black players on the team's opening night roster will soon be at their mercy

Game Recognizes Game: The King Has Spoken

Oct. 9, 2009 

 

By Glenn Minnis

Vibe.com

 

How does one descend from the platitudes of favorite son and into the realm of exile about as quickly as you can utter the words "NBA tittle?"

 

Such treason is now known as the "Braylon Edwards rule," as the now-condemned, former Cleveland Browns star meets such a fate after daring to overthrow a king.

 

That would be King James, as in LeBron, as in NBA patriarch, whom Edwards' not so wisely raised the ire of this week after being involved in a late-night brawl with one of his primary subjects. Edwards allegedly clocked LBJ BFF Edward Givens outside a Cleveland nightclub Sunday night, all but assuring his banishment from the banks of Lake Erie.

 

Seems the former may have thought the town of Ohio might not have been large enough for the two men, or at least that's what the latter seems to think. "I've never crossed paths with Braylon before, but it seems like there's a little jealousy going on with me and my friends," said LeBron. "I have no idea why. "I've never said anything to Braylon, but for him to do that is very childish. My friend is 130 pounds. Seriously. It's like hitting one of my kids."

 

And with that, the 26-year-old Edwards was immediately ordered to his room to ponder the errors of his ways. Only now, he'll find that space somewhere in New York City, where the Browns shipped him less than 48-hours after his alleged tirade.

 

For Braylon's sake, let's hope from this point on LeBron shows himself to be a merciful ruler. After all, you know NYC loves The King. 

 

Game Recognizes Game: The Perfect Salute 

 Glenn Minnis

Vibe.com 

 

Now that's G. Crossover appeal at a whole other level.

As the Yankees accepted keys to the city in recognition of their record 27th world championship before throes of adoringly mesmerized supporters this week, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg eagerly stepped to the podium to pronounce the Bombers the planet's unabashed greatest. And as a testament to those lyrics, that indisputable standing, he offered the sentiments of.... Jay-Z.

Yes, it's never been more platinized that the Jigga Man and what he invariably stands for has unquestionably arrived. So much so that he was empowered enough to perform his signature N.Y. anthem "Empire State of Mind" virtually solo, or at the very least sans collaborator Alicia Keys.

The Yanks graciously basked in their newfound limelight as they breezed past their Canyon of Heroes parade, but it was clear Jay offered up equal parts star power for the demo. One by one... Jeter, A-Rod and CC, all came to regale in the vibe of the people. And in the end, Jigga capped the performance.

Go ahead and take a bow, a standing ovation. All of you. 

 

Game Recognizes Game: Ron Artest Gets Stripped.. Literally   

By Glenn Minnis

Vibe.com

By Ron Artest, or even L.A. standards, the mercurial Lakers star forward latest antics seem a bit extreme.

Artest showed for his Jimmy Kimmel Live show appearance this week dressed in a way that would make even Beyoncé or Lil Kim blush. "I was running late," said Artest, in explaining why he appeared live wearing nothing but his boxers.

In addition to such a show stopper, throughout the night Kimmel revealed such interesting nuggets as Artest majored in math while in school and computes his unorthodox uniform numbers based on an ode to Michael Jackson, introduced Lamar to Khloe and harbors aspirations of one day being a pro boxer.

And as if none of that wasn't attention grabbing enough, Artest had Kimmel's name chiseled into the back of his dome, earnestly begging the question of if the triangle of Artest, L.A. and NBA championship truly could ever go hand and hand.

Hey Kobe, Phil, good luck with that, alright.

How Tiger can earn his stripes back

 

By Glenn Minnis

The Grio.com

Judging from Tuesday morning reports of a woman being transported to a hospital from Tiger Woods' home, the ongoing drama that has become the life and times of the world's preminent golfer have yet to reach a crescendo. Some are already wondering if he'll ever truly prove worthy of an encore. What, if anything, can Tiger do to again be looked upon in the same light by his once adoring public?

Indeed, the road to redemption rarely ever comes without pitfalls and the last week or so has shown Woods' plight to hold no exception. Yet folklore has also long assured us that where there's a will, there's typically a way. Thus, herein lies a blueprint to making a way out of no way, as it relates to the restoration of the image and career of the Tiger Woods we all once thought we use to know.

1. Tiger needs to own his own story

In short, Woods needs to come out of hiding. Right or wrong, there exists a presumption of guilty until proven innocent in our society and that decree holds forth even more in the world of celebrity. How can Tiger ever again prove he's worthy of all our love and adulation when he seems so intent on never again making eye contact with any of us? Sure, he's admitted to "transgressions" but the overly vague nature of that very response seemed to only stoke the fires of outlandishness even more. Yes, Woods long ago proved he's a stud, but so many paramours?

2. Display a greater level of humanity

One of the general raps on Tiger has always been his oft standoffish nature. While some might now argue that clearly hasn't always been his way, if he's ever to completely reconnect with the public at large he needs to show the world a bit more of of his soul. At times, Woods can appear as stoic and emotionless as they come, traits that can sometimes make one seem both a bit judgmental and egotistical. And the last thing anyone wants to feel is arrogance at the hands of an admitted "transgressor."

3. Remind us of what all the fanfare was about to begin with

Simply translated that means Tiger needs to reemerge as vintage Tiger along the links. And he needs to do so like yesterday. The reality is the bulk of Tiger's greatest worshipers are athletes at heart themselves, countless men joined as one by our widespread awe with his standing as arguably the world's grandest sportsman.

While it's unlikely many of us will ever completely turn our backs on him, we need to again see his heart --- at least when it comes to the game.

4. Tiger needs to grow up

There's no denying that pro athletes and famous people in general get away with far more than any of us Regular Joe's could ever imagine. But part of what makes them most endearing to us is when they act and behave as society outlines we all should. In short, Tiger needs to drop the blatant sense of entitlement routine and humble himself enough to act and behave as all us mere mortals have to.

5. Make good with his family

Not for the media, not for the fans and not for the suits along Madison Ave., rather earnestly for the salvation of his family. Whatever, he needs to do, couple's counseling, spiritual guidance, whatever, Tiger needs to show us he truly wants the life he still professes to all he does. Being able to again sell us all his many endorsed products has to start with us being able to truly buy the story of his life.

 

 

Game Recognizes Game: A.I. Thrown to the Lions, er, Grizzlies

Sept. 15, 2009

By Glenn

Vibe.com

Some theories are simply better left unproven.

Case in point, a few years back when I was toiling long hours on a project for ESPN The Magazine and happened upon a debate between several of the mag's editors. The subject was none other than Allen Iverson--they all were adamant that the moment A.I. began to show the slightest hint he's lost a step, he'd instantly be discarded from the League in the same heartless manner ground squirrels are known to devour their young.

The idea was The Answer had simply burned too many bridges. His free-spirited nature was the direct result of far too much angst and tension among all those powerfully unforgiving beings that likewise signed his paychecks.

I thought for a moment back then about what it must feel like to be chastised for simply being who you are, vilified because your personality--no matter how innately genuine it may seem--is different from what the powers that be would have it.

Still I kept it moving, not to reminisce of such matters again until a few years later, when as sports editor for a Russell Simmons-owned Web property I met with A.I. in his hometown of Newport News, Virginia to talk Larry Brown, the City of Brotherly Love and his foray into the rap game.

It wasn't long before I was getting to know and understand an Allen Iverson far different from the one I'd long been presented with. He talked love of family, vocation and for all of mankind. He talked honor, giving back to his community and how he too had heard many of the same rumblings voiced in those ESPN offices back in the day.

"I know when I'm done playing, I'm pretty much done with basketball," The Answer reflected. "You won't see hanging around any body's arena. If that's the price for not turning my back on my friends just because some people think they're not good people, so be it. I've known most of them all my life, and I know otherwise."

But NBA GMs and execs know what they know, too, or at least what they perceive to know. So when A.I.'s numbers fell off to 18 ppg last season from 26 the year before, many of them sought to seize their moment.

Granted, Iverson just signed a one-year deal with the Memphis Grizzlies that will pair him with newbie hotshot O.J. Mayo in the backcourt, at nearly $4 million. Still, at a salary decrease of around $18 million from the season prior, you can't help but feel this may be the beginning of the end in the big payback.

Yeah, I know all the baggage A.I. carries. The missed practices, problems with the law and issues with his posse. But I also know that over his 13-year career few have played the game any better or harder.

Still think this was just about basketball? 

 

Game Recognizes Game: Meet President Terrell Owens

Sept. 30, 2009 

 

Glenn Minnis

Vibe.com

 

Where you as shocked as I was to see Terrell Owens morph into President Barack Obama right before your very eyes?

 

The climate was certainly ripe for such a metamorphosis this week when an incorrigible band of media members peppered the Buffalo Bills star wideout with the same sort of loaded, repetitive questions our commander-and-chief now faces on the regular.

 

The missives come disguised as questions for which there are no real answers, at least not any that wouldn't lead to even greater persecution of the subject. But, then, that is the point, isn't it?

 

Try as he might to defuse it all, T.O. was simply at a loss when he took the podium Sunday following the Bills 27-7 home loss to New Orleans, his first NFL game without a single catch since his rookie season some 13-seasons ago. "T.O. this has to be frustrating for you; T.O. this has to be insulting for you; T.O."--you get the crux and aim of the interrogation.

 

Granted, not many athletes have been greater manipulators of the media or individual serve-servers than Owens over the last decade, but isn't there some limits as to just how much that should have to do with any true in-the-moment interview?

 

Besides, the job of any journalist is always to simply report the news, never create it. Somehow, all that got lost with T.O. on Sunday, just as it seems to with our new president each and every day.

 

Now, ask yourself what's the undeniable variable in both those sequences? 

 

Game Recognizes Game: In Serena's Shoes...

Sept. 18, 2009 

 

By Glenn Minnis

Vibe.com

 

Perception is everything.

 

Action speaks louder than words.

 

Three strikes and you're out.

 

Given the ever-pervasive and expressive nature by which those phrases have come to explain and exemplify so many of our everyday feelings and reactions to virtually everything around us, is it totally implausible that Serena Williams would be on the edge as she was on the U.S. Open stage last week?

 

All those elements--and the emotions born of them--came to bear for Serena in her winner-take-all, grudge match outing against Kim Clijsters.And let's not forget the likely repressed on-court nightmare of 2001 in a loss to Jennifer Capriati. The calls made and actions taken against Williams by one referee were deemed so egregious, tour officials moved to suspend the ref.

 

"She's obviously anti-Serena," Williams said of umpire Mariana Alves that night on the very same court where her meltdown against Clijsters took place. "I feel very angry and bitter right now. I felt cheated. I just feel robbed."

 

Add all those still rather raw emotions to the nightmare memories of 2000, when chants of "kick her butt Lindsay (Davenport)," reigned down incessantly on big sis Venus as she sought to win her first U.S. Open title against Davenport before a nearly all-white, not totally adoring U.S. Open crowd and... well you start to capture the potential volatility of last week's rather controversial moment.

 

Clearly, Serena Williams may have taken center court at the site of some of her most painful memories with a defensive chip on her shoulder. And yes, she may have reacted to her night's adversity in a way unbecoming of a champ of her stature. Yet when you consider these three instances she's lived through in that very venue, doesn't it all become a bit easier to understand? 

 

Game Recognizes Game: Plaxico Burress Dropped the Ball

Sept. 28, 2009 

 

By Glenn Minnis

Vibe.com 

 

Be careful what you wish for. And even more to the point, be ever prudent about what you do and how you do it once you get what you've got.

That's the harder lesson to be learned from the Plaxico Burress debacle: The clearly undeniable reality that fame, fortune and notoriety alone are not enough to absolve you of all life's trials and tribulations.

Plax had all those things and more--a man considered to be among the wealthiest of the wealthy, one who just relocated to one of the biggest cribs near all of NYC. Now ask yourself if there's anyone that would change places with him right now?

For all those with stars yet in their eyes, you need to know the score. Understand that no one can reach the aforementioned needed moment of reckoning in your stead. Yes, I may indeed be my brother's keeper, but that doesn't make me his conscious. And certainly not his salvation.

In the end, fame can and often times is quite fleeting. Plaxico Burress learned that the hard way. And while there is certainly no exact science on how one should best handle all the drama it can entail, what Plax left us with is a blueprint of how not to do so. 

 

Game Recognizes Game: So Favre, So Good

Oct. 6, 2009 

 

Glenn Minnis

Vibe.com

 

It was vintage Brett Favre last night (October 6), as the venerable vet used the Monday Night Football stage to recast himself in classic character. Call it an episode of a "relic with a cause."

 

Alas, motivation again reigned as the great equalizer, as the drunk-with-thoughts-of-revenge Favre outplayed upstart Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the point of making the New Jack look like Father of Time might convince you the 40-year-old gunslinger should at this point.

 

"You guys are going to print what you want," the Minnesota Vikings QB told a contingent of reporters in the wake of his three touchdown, 271-yards passing masterpiece. "I just did what I was expected to do today. You make the decision."

 

Consider it done, my man. What Brett Favre did was show that there are no substitutes for heart, resolve and, in the final and greater assessment, God-given ability.

 

After all the fanfare had ceased to be, Favre admitted that he took the field as nervous as he's ever been over the course of his more than two-decade-long career. But lucky for him, there wasn't much time to think about it.

Remember, time waits for no one. 

 

Put Vick on the Field, Not on a Pedestal

Shots Fired in Chicago

By: Glenn Minnis 

TheRoot.com 

My teenage son is a college student in Chicago, where so far this school year at least 36 children and teens have been murdered, a rate of about one a week. It is a sad story only made sadder because the hopelessness of the situation shares the same geographic and psychic space as the enormous hope that Barack Obama represents. Chicago gave us Obama, and now it’s taking away our children.

More sobering than the macro-ironies, of course, are the facts that there is no real, or reasonable, explanation for carnage, and that no one is immune. My son, a second-year, dean's list student, is so terrified by the violence that he worries about going to visit his grandmother (and my mom) in the South Side neighborhood where he spent so much time as a child.

Indeed, these are times and concerns far different from what I experienced on those same streets as a free-spirited, do-as-you-please, high school athlete who freely roamed the city in search of the best pickup game the season might bring. It makes one fret about whether there's any place where a kid can still really be a kid and live to talk about it. 

I live in Brooklyn now, thousands of miles away from protecting my only son. I worry that when Glenn Jr. travels to visit my mom, he has to make a point of being back home before nightfall. “I still know pretty much everyone in the neighborhood, so once I'm on the block things are pretty much as they've always been,” he insists. “It's all the travel it takes to get there that makes things so hard.”

The mean streets of the city are suddenly becoming even meaner. “For whatever reasons, in different neighborhoods certain guys feel they own the streets," adds Glenn Jr. "Then there are all the followers—guys who, although they don't know me or anything about me, are more than willing to make a name for themselves at my expense. That's where all the senselessness comes in.”

With former Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan now the secretary of education, the Obama administration should be well aware of the deadly dilemma. Still, others are starting to wonder aloud just why its response to the outbreak has been so tepid.

Had 36 kids died of swine flu in a single city, "There would be this great influx of resources that say, 'Let's stop this, let's deal with this,' " the Rev. Michael Pfleger told CNN recently. But because the epidemic is being driven by violence, “We're hiding it. We're ignoring it. We're denying the problems." Pfleger ordered that the American flag be flown upside down at St. Sabina’s parish, where he is the pastor, as a symbol of distress.

Symbolism aside, the reality remains that since 2007 a monument erected by Kids Off the Block to honor slain school-age children is now engraved with 153 names. And some of the victims have been as young as 10.

“President Obama can't walk the streets with us,” said Glenn Jr. “The sad reality is, even in this time of Obama, the only people that can govern our streets, make them safe for all of us to come and go, are the people that live there.”

Glenn Minnis is a New York writer.

How D-Wade Got His Groove Back 

 By Glenn Minnis

The thought of it all still amuses Dwyane Wade as much as it vexes him. Here stands a man so tested, so humbled by the odyssey that's been his life, gratitude and empathy essentially seem to flow from his veins. And now, a simple streak of bad luck on the NBA hardwood was suppose to break him?

“I heard all the talk about the injuries and how I was done, how the game was over for me,” says the man now largely credited with restoring world order to the hoops universe this summer by leading the USA Olympic Team back to its first gold-winning performance in nearly a decade. “What people fail to remember is I'm the proud son of an ex-con, drug-addicted mother who overcame, has been clean now for seven years and works every day as a minister in helping to restore others. I mean, there's coming back... and then there's coming back.”

Yet, semantics and philosophizing aside, it's safe to say Dwyane Wade too is on the comeback. Comeback as in regaining his footing among the game's elite; comeback as in being able to earnestly refocus his sights on the NBA's grandest prize; comeback as in reestablishing his creed as the man and player Shaquille O'Neal once called his greatest teammate ever.

Indeed, it seems not only fair but rather accurate to say greatness seems to abound from the man whose 2006 NBA Finals performance was rated as the most tantalizing of all time recently by one national publication----- Michael Jordan's six-title game changing runs notwithstanding. But understand that's not what moves Dwyane Wade. That's not what inspired him to stage the return many had long ago concluded he never would or could.

That spirit dates back to his days as a youth growing up on the streets of Englewood in Chicago watching tapes of Jordan and wondering when the next time might come when he would actually get the chance to see his mother.

By her own admission, Jolinda Wade lived the life of a rolling stone back then. "My addiction was heroin, cocaine, alcohol and cigarettes," she still remembers "Four of them beating down on me. I couldn't have him growing up around this, but I was caught. I was drowning."

Of adversity, it's often been said that which doesn't kill you tends to make you stronger. Mother and son, ordained pastor and NBA star, now stand as powerful yields of that covenant. For in the end, each used all their mounting frustration as energy in building a legacy instead of simply surrendering to one.

“Everybody thinks I'm the miraculous story in the family,” says Wade. “I think she is. She's been anointed. I think what I've done means I've been very blessed, but she's been more than blessed”

And all those blessings are now vividly reflected in the way Dwyane Wade plays the game. In Beijing, even alongside more heralded teammates Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Chris Paul, it was Wade's attack-dog style that made the difference between gold and irrelevance. It was him who refused to settle for anything less shining.

“Everybody knows all those guys are great, beyond description even,” says Wade. “But from the time when we won the title two years ago to last year when we had the worse record in the league, I've always felt I was in their class. To be great you have to feel that way and knowing that I'd been at that level before helped me in not wavering in my confidence I could get back there. ”

Perhaps it was in the knowing that's made it all the more possible for Wade to reemerge with the vengeance he has. Perhaps explains just how he was so ready to raise up the way he did in China. Just understand that between then and before, there was much work for D-Wade to put in.

“Early in the summer I went back to Chicago and hooked up with MJ's old trainer (Tim Grover),” says Wade. “The first thing he told me was 'you give six weeks, five hours a day and I'll get you back where you were.' That didn't seem quite enough for me, so I gave him eight weeks and six hours a day. I'm the type of person always looking to keep pushing forward, even when the past has been a good thing.”

And thus you have the come up in in China. The precipitous thoughts of dominance so many are not only anticipating but predicting for him this upcoming season.

“It's not about the numbers you put up as a player but what you're able to accomplish as a team,” explains Wade. “We all feel nothing short of the playoffs will be acceptable and we like our chances of reaching that goal.”

But in the end, everyone realizes that all rides and dies with the man who managed to drop 35, 8 and 4 a night on an overwhelmed Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks in so fearlessly charting his path to immortality during that unforgettable Finals run. But what would you expect from the man who so boldly made his foray along Madison Ave. by doing a Converse advertisement where he waxes poetically of priding himself on “falling down seven times and getting up eight?”

"Last year, I just didn't have my athletic ability, and it was really frustrating," Wade admits. “But this year, I'm rested and healthy. Plus, I feel like I have a little more help in perfecting the quick, running, style we want to play at.”

That help will primarily come in the form of having Shawn Marion around for a full season and the off-season addition of stud rookie forward Michael Beasley. “Everybody knows what Shawn does,” says Wade. “I mean he's 'The Matrix.' In Beasley, we have a flat out scorer that can do it with either hand, inside or out. It's clear he's going to be a beast.”

And given the elaborate plans he has, Wade will need all the help he can muster. “Eventually I want to see this franchise get back to where it was just a couple years ago when we won the title,” he says. “Miami gave me my first shot in the NBA, they'll always hold a special place with me. Loyalty has always meant a lot to me.”

Which largely explains just how the Wade family has endured and survived all their hard knocks with spirits and emotions still so in tow. Jolinda Wade celebrated her first anniversary as co-pastor of the Temple of Praise Baptist Church in Robbins, Illinois just last month. Twelve months before during the opening ceremonies, her eldest son stood brimming with pride at the center of the sanctuary he'd just purchased for his mom.

"I respect my mother so much, from the life that she used to live and to see her today in the life that she lives now,” says Wade. She did a 180 turning her life around.” And, in the process, she taught Dwyane Wade everything he needs to know about perseverance and compassion.

"I was written off in one year quicker than anyone's been written off before," Wade says of his season of injuries which have caused him to miss more than 50 games over the last two years. "But my faith kept me strong, and I just wanted to continue to prove people wrong."

And as fate would have it, game recognized game, as everyone from Bryant and James have incessantly sang his praises since returning to the States. "He's healthy, he's strong, he's ready to go,"says Bryant. "He's all the way back, last year was not a fair indication of the player that he is."

But to his credit, the last several years have served as an adequate assessment of Dwyane Wade the man, speaking volumes about his awareness, resolve and dedication as a son and family man.

"Even with everything, my family has always been able to remain close,” says Wade. “So, the price of the church means nothing to me. Knowing that my mother was going to feel alive and do some great things with it, save lives with it, makes it unbelievable. It's the dream of every man, every boy, to be able to give their mother everything they want. That was my dream and now this is her dream."

King James in the Garden?

How LeBron is giving New York fans hope for 2010.

 

By Glenn Minnis | TheRoot.com

LeBron James' basked in the fulfillment of spirited Broadway reviews this week, enlivened by the notion he has more than mastered the artful craft of showmanship.

For if ever a star has left his audience wanting more, the 23-year-old Cleveland Cavaliers star forward fits the marquee. More in the way of planned engagements, encore performances, and, yes, his self-defining monologue.

“You have to do what's best for you,” James repeatedly answered to the seemingly never-ending probe of what he plans to do once he becomes a free-agent at the end of the 2010 season, and New York Knicks' megabucks owner James Dolan will undoubtedly instantly move to make good on his stated intention of transforming The Garden into his permanent homestead.

“When I decide to make the decision, it’s going to basically put me in a position where I feel like I can win multiple championships,” James added. “And this is the best team we’ve had since I have been here. July 1, 2010 is probably going to be one of the biggest days in NBA history.”

Plot be known, LeBron James fully realizes be it Cleveland, New York or any other landscape he deems desirable that distinction is largely rooted in the reality the game itself will always run through his hands. Everything the Knicks have done over their last whirlwind seven days--- jettisoning away leading scorers and top-feed earners Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph to create more salary cap space--- was done with that game plan in mind.

On Tuesday night, a packed house of nearly 20,000 turned out at The Garden to bare witness to the eminence of the NBA's latest version of royalty. And King James, artful ruler that is, was sure not to disappoint. As much as his teammates routinely are, the Knicks were simply reduced to his supporting cast, mere props in his masterful 26 points, four rebounds and two assists ensemble.

But beyond the obvious just what did it all mean? What might it have served as a preamble to? The non-stop chants of “LeBron, LeBron” that cascaded up and down Broadway Ave. were as rhapsodic as the thunderous applause reserved for his feats themselves. But might they have also set a tone?

"It's humbling to know that you have fans not only in Cleveland but in a big city that is a basketball mecca,” said James in the wake of the Central-Division leading Cavs 119-101 victory. "Every time I come here it's a warm feeling because you know the history, to know the fans like and respect the way I play basketball. It's two-years away and who knows. If you want to sleep until 2010 and don't wake up... go ahead.”

Just as the Knicks had learned, on this night no one was about to box LeBron James into a corner. But then the wondrous look in his eyes seemed to imitate there was no need to.

Boston's Big 3 Keep Eyes on Prize

 By Glenn Minnis

Great deeds are usually wrought at equal risk. And so marked the union of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, a trio of almost surefire Hall of Famers who came to their modern day reckoning at a time which signaled a crossroads for each of them.

“When we first got together, there was no one conversation, no one meeting or even one gesture that instantly bonded us,” recalls Allen. “We all understood we'd have to make sacrifices. I just remember when we got on the floor together things just seemed to flow. I think we all recognized and respected the great deal of individual achievements we'd been able to attain, but now we needed to know if we could establish our legacy together as champions. That vibe and connection came almost naturally.”

And so too has the history it's resulted in. Celts Nation raised it's NBA-leading 17th banner toward the heavens just eight months ago and the quest for added glory has hardly ended there. This season, Boston set sail on a record-setting pace of 27-2, a run that easily had them on course of eclipsing the League's almost mythical 70-win plateau.

“You don't think or talk about stuff like that,” insists Pierce. “To do so is to lose focus of the commitment to where we're ultimately striving to be ... and that's in the winner's circle again come next June.”

In Garnett's mind, the magic of repeat glory lies in the deed of respecting the journey that bore the euphoria. “Ray, Paul, myself and most all these other guys won our first title together last year by not taking off a single play or overlooking even one opponent,” he said. “We'll need that and more to even get back to that stage this year.

“The sacrifice has to be as real now as is was when it was all new to us,” he adds. “That's something we've talked about and are all clearly as committed to as we've ever been.” It explains why we're able to play good, honest, hard nose basketball most every night.”

And for that, Bostonians and hoops purist everywhere can exhale. 
 

A Star is Born in Chi-Town 

 By Glenn Minnis

On home game nights, Derrick Rose clocks in for his first real job by wandering past a life-size statue of his boyhood idol and the best player to ever grace the hardwood. Indeed, the house that Michael Jordan built is now the very arena in which the 20-year-old hotshot rook now toils in hopes of leading his hometown team back to the land of respectability.

Still surprised just how efficiently the League's reigning top draft pick has come to master the art of handling pressure? “Pressure is something you want as a basketball player,” explains Rose. “To feel a bit of it is to know that your team needs you and you've become important enough to become dependent on.”

But for a whole city? An entire team and franchise? Not since the days of MJ have Chicago -area fans felt justification for the level of optimism now bred by the arrival of the homegrown phenom. And with him comes a pedigree that not since the days of Jordan has been apparent.

Between his four years at nearby Simeon High and single season at the University of Memphis, teams led by Rose finished a combined 158-14, a winning clip well over 90 percent. Conversely, over the last decade the Bulls have fielded just two teams to finish better than 500.

Sense the would-be correlation, or rather the lack of it? Recent times have not been kind to the fortunes of Chicago basketball. In Derrick Rose the franchise now has a proven winner. Might history, as in the days of you know who, soon again be in our midst?

 Sunset in Phoenix

By Glenn Minnis | TheRoot.com

His near double-double averages aside, the memories are essentially all Shaquille O'Neal has left to ponder these days. And, as might be expected, playing before his hometown fans and a national TV audience on All-Star Weekend for perhaps the final time over the life of a legendary sixteen-year NBA career has left the Big Aristotle in a reflective state of mind.

“I'm the Shogun of all centers,” said O'Neal. “I've done the most, any others, the things they've done I invented. When I leave, it'll be because my time is up, not because someone is outplaying me or has done more. The only one who has even done close is Mr. (Tim) Duncan."

Clearly for superstar athletes the strange phenomena of coming face-to-face with your own physical limits, and the end of a brilliant career, can make you boastful and sentimental all in the same breath the same time.

“I can honestly say that Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were the best one-two punch ever created,” O'Neal now says of his union with the man he claimed three NBA titles alongside and bickered with incessantly. “There’s been a lot of great guard-guard duos like Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan, but the greatest little man, big man, one-two punch was Kobe and Shaquille.”

And now, how full circle is it that they'll be reunited as teammates in the valley of the sun this weekend?

 "I always did love Kobe,” O'Neal told ESPN recently of his long-simmering feud with Bryant. “It was all marketing, baby. We helped you hype it up. I'm the smartest player in the world. I know what I'm doing, brother.”

And when it comes to mastering the game itself, who can argue with him? Even now, at 36-years-old and playing for his fourth team, O'Neal continues to reinvent himself. In earning his 15th All-Star appearance, O'Neal has registered 21 double-doubles this season by assuming a role with the Suns many had concluded he could no longer hold down.
“The key for me this season has been getting opportunities,” said Shaq. “I can remember a time when I averaged 20-25 shots a game, but when I got here I was in the single-digits. Now they're going through me a little bit more. I’ve always shot a high percentage, so if I continue to take those shots my numbers will always be up there.”
But that hasn't come without a degree of controversy. After averaging 58 wins a year over the last four seasons, Phoenix has digressed from being one of the League's most explosive teams to a squad that now routinely walks the ball up the floor and perilously stands on the fringes of the playoff chase.
Rumors now also abound that 26-year-old All-Star forward Amar'e Stoudemire may now be on the trading block and two-time MVP Steve Nash has gone on record in terming the season “the toughest” over the course of his twelve-year career. All the confusion has become grave enough to have some wondering if what's now good for Shaq may ultimately be bad for the team as a whole.
"You just gotta man up," said Shaq. “It doesn't matter what type of style we play on offense, that's not our problem. You have to want to play defense, whoever your man is you just gotta say, 'he's not getting off.' Doesn't matter if we run, or slow it down, you gotta f-----g stop somebody. Excuse time is over. Period.”

Poignant words from a man who's never been shy in voicing his relevancy to the game.
 “I think I'm an unusual type of player,” O'Neal has said of his style. “I have a lot of moves on each block, and I know how to position and contort myself. I don't shoot jump shots, don't shoot fadeaways."
Soon enough, however, after the championships and the place in the records book and the self-reinventions and the genius marketing, his career, too, will fade away. But we'll always have the memories. 

 

Tomlin Praises Dungy, Preps for Big Day

 

By: Glenn Minnis, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Legend has it that within hours of ascending to the heights of a post many would have once predicted he'd never reach, Mike Tomlin was pulled aside by his star player and bluntly informed of the widespread reservations his not-so-zealous new squad had over his somewhat revolutionary come-up.

No, life for Mike Tomlin ain't been no crystal stair. But Nietzsche assured us long ago that which doesn't kill you ultimately tends to make you stronger. And now emerges Tomlin, the 36-year-old Hampton, Va. native, mere months removed from all that aforementioned drama, standing at the threshold of where just one other black man has treaded before.

How aproppriate that that man - former Indianapolis Colts legendary shot-caller Tony Dungy - is the very one who's served as one of Tomlin's biggest mentors, schooling the second-year Pittsburgh Steelers coach on all the ends and outs of a profession that was clearly crafted without either of them in mind.

“I don't have enough time to talk about the impact that Coach Dungy has had in my professional life or my personal life," said Tomlin, "and I'm sure there's a bunch of people that feel the same way that I do.
I've been blessed to be around some great coaches, some people who took personal stake in my growth and development.”

But in being molded by Dungy and all the others, Tomlin ultimately grew to become his own man. Ben Roethlisberger may well control the pocket for the would-be six-time Super Bowl champs, but it's the fiery Tomlin who indomitably controls the cadence tone.

"He took control of this team from the first day," stresses veteran linebacker Larry Foote. "Trust me, he ruffled a lot of feathers, but we couldn't do nothing but respect it. He came in and said, 'My way or the highway' — and it's his way. He demanded respect, and he earned it. Everybody jumped on ship.”

And look where the Steelers now find themselves, entrenched as the prohibitive favorites in only their third Super Bowl appearance over nearly the last three decades. And it's just the way Tomlin, who for all his heightened emotion, somehow manages to stay even-keel, always envisioned it would be.

“I'm the type who never anticipates transition being easy,” Tomlin said in a recent Sports Illustrated article. “In fact, I anticipate it being miserable. But with that misery can come great gain if you embrace the change.”

Clearly, the Southern-reared Tomlin speaks from both knowledge and experience. He remembers how his initial interview with the Steelers was widely viewed as just a token gesture, one simply in keeping with the 2003 enacted Rooney Rule mandating that at least one minority candidate be seen for all new head coaching gigs. Then there's always the once tortured legacy of his prime-time mentor to reflect upon.

Despite earning the distinction of being the youngest NFL assistant coach in history at just 25 years old in 1981, Dungy was forced to toil in obscurity for 15 seasons before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally gave him his first head coaching stint. But the rest is now history, and now the confidant, yet deferential Tomlin seems poised to add a few more chapters to all the litany.

“It’s not my story,” insists Tomlin. “It is our story — the story of the 2008 Steelers.” But ask yourself who figures any more prominently than Tomlin in the team's latest rise? Whose hand is it that seems in every detail? Whose face now seems representative of its every mission? That would be Mike Tomlin.

I..... feel like it's a good thing that he's so young and that he's so close to our generation,” said star linebacker James Farrior. “He can relate a lot better than older coaches. I feel like he can talk to the players on the level that we're on. He's able to get his point across, and that's probably the main thing."

Adds cornerback Deshea Townsend: “He allows his players to play, but he does what it takes to get us ready. That’s all you can ask from a coach — to say one thing and mean what he says. He’s that type of coach.”

Al Sharpton as Mr. Irrelevant? 

 

 By Glenn Minnis/ RISEUP Magazine 

The mirror has two faces. Now ask yourself have the masses ever been any more conflicted over just who or what it is they see then when peering into the face of the Rev. Al Sharpton? Facilitator or agitator? Prophet or fraud? Never before has such critical distinction been more categorically in the eyes of the beholder.

But here's perhaps an even more riveting and relevant thought: In this Barack Obama, 'It's Time for Change, Yes We Can' historic phase of domestic modernism, does the way you ultimately choose to answer that question truly even matter? Has the way, era or even need for the old-school civil rights activist really changed that drastically?

"The difference between an Al Sharpton and a Barack Obama is the distinction I make between those I consider to be tree shakers and jelly makers," explains Chicago Tribune syndicated columnist and national television pundit Clarence Page. “Al Sharpton has always been a master at stirring emotion and bringing attention to things happening within the communities. Thing is, he may not always stick around long enough to quite see them to fruition. Lack of follow through has always been one of my biggest criticisms of him; you wonder sometimes if he is going after an issue to do good or just make more of a name for himself. The whole showbiz element to things tends to trouble me."

Strong testimony, indeed, even Al Sharpton's willing to concede. But beyond that, the feisty Harlem minister finds the basis behind it rings as illogically as the mind-blowing thought a 23-year-old, unarmed groom-to-be can be fired upon more than 50 times by a cadre of decorated detectives less than 24 hours before one of the most defining moments in his life a mere stone's throw away from his own doorstep.

"People in need call me because they know I will come,” Sharpton says simply. “From Sean Bell, to Abner Louima, to Amadou Diallo, to Patrick Dorsimond and on down, I have never fought a case where they didn’t ask me to come. People have this picture like I’m sitting up in bed at night with a walkie-talkie. 'You hear anything? Oh, let’s run! It’s Virginia today!'

"As long as America continues to govern and conduct herself the way this country always has with regard to minorities, there will be a need for the Al Sharptons, Jesse Jacksons and Martin Luther Kings of this world,” he continues. “I never once asked for this job, but I recognize the power in and necessity behind what I do. I have an obligation to my people to be my absolute best and demanding at it.

"Think about it, for all that he does, all that he brings to the table in terms of uplifting minorities across the world, Barack Obama can't go into Queens or Harlem and picket against unjust shootings and policing in those communities the way I and others have. His place is in the White House, the Oval Office, you can't call him there to share how your son just got violated by the police. It boils down to people understanding where they can get heard when bad things like that continue to happen.”

And so Al Sharpton marches on, heart, mind and soul wholly intact, all the criticism rolling off him the same way you'd imagine overflowing oil spewed from the pit of a busted aircraft vessel might. Even when it pours from streams and places he once felt were perhaps all but sacredly in step with him.

An associate of rap legend Dr. Dre recently penned in a novel Sharpton once sought to extort a fee of $500,000 from the hip hop legend in exchange for not marching against “his activities” and to publicly mediate an ongoing dispute between fellow stars 50 Cent and The Game. More recently, rap star David Banner was even more openly critical, opining: “I hate Al Sharpton. They're killing kids in New Jersey and all across the country, and all he's got to talk about is rap lyrics? He's a permed out pimp, out charging people to do rallies.”

As harsh as those accusations and assessments may sound, they pale in comparisons to the breadth and scope of those recently leveled against the colorful clergymen by the right-wing New York Post. In a series of scathing articles, one of which was headlined: “Sharpton's Shakedown: Getting Rich Off Racism,” the tabloid alleged that such large-scale corporations as Anheuser-Busch, Colgate-Palmolive, Macy's, PepsiCo, General Motors, Wal-Mart, FedEx, Continental Airlines and Chase have all recently made sizable donations to his National Action Network Organization in an effort to fend off varying boycott threats of some sort.

In another article, the paper sums up matters with the assertion: “The cash flows even as the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn has been conducting a grand-jury investigation of NAN's finances.” It furthered alleged that the organization owes more than $1.9 million in unpaid payroll taxes.

Yet, in the face of all that possible damnation, the Rev. Al Sharpton calmly hums a homily. “It's like playing football, they only tackle or attack you if you're the one carrying the ball,” contends the man who founded the tax-exempt, non-profit NAN in 1991 and has since built it to encompass 45 chapters across the country.

"As a civil rights activist, the ball is often in my hands, so the hits keep coming. It's all part of the territory, as is the reality of always being under constant scrutiny and criticism. “All civil rights leaders are vilified, from Martin Luther King on down,” he adds. “I know most of us are never given much credit until we're dead.”

And the ever- spirited Sharpton is very much full of life and purpose, has been ever since he preached his first sermon at just four-years-old, giving instant rise to the cause and battle he's convinced he was born to wage. Nicole Paultree-Bell, finance to Sean Bell and the mother of his two young children, has come to find life-sustaining strength and solace in his mission.

"When Sean was killed, I had no one to turn to in terms of seeking answers and getting any level of justice,” says Paultree-Bell. “Rev. Sharpton was a godsend to me as he has been to many others in gaining any kind of understanding when things like what happened to Sean come about. You never get a real understanding, but he gives you as much of it as there is and he sticks his neck out to be able to do it for you.

“That's all I've been able to get, all I had left and he's the only one that's been able to offer even a piece of it to me. For me, he'll always hold a dear and special place.”

But as heartfelt and time-consuming as all those tear-jerking encounters may have been, Sharpton still found time to regularly break free for trips down to Jena, Louisiana where a series of marches and demonstrations spearheaded by NAN proved instrumental in having charges reduced against six black teens charged with beating a white classmate soon after several nooses where found hanging from a slew of nearby trees adjacent to the high school they all attended.

It's that dogged pursuit of a sense of righteousness, insists Al Sharpton, that has always been his aim and motivation, even though things haven't always worked out quite so succinctly. For far more than any of the countless demonstrations he's led, the hundreds of marches he's orchestrated that have included mayors, congressman and other religious leaders from all walks, there will always be those who will seek to solely tie his legacy and body of work to the case of Tawanna Brawley .

In 1987, a then 15-year-old Brawley alleged she was attacked and raped by a group of six white men that included state prosecutor Steven Pagones and several police officers after she was found stuffed in a plastic garbage bag, unconscious and smeared in feces near an apartment building where her family once resided.

Along with attorneys Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason, the effusive Sharpton quickly became the face and voice of the case. Soon he openly oozed of how authorities were trying to cover things up to protect all the whites involved, causing a sharp racial divide nationally in how most perceived the case.

Eventually, a New York State grand jury was convened to hear evidence, ultimately releasing a 170-page report in which it detailed testimony from nearly 200 witnesses that concluded no abduction, rape or attack ever occurred. Pagones later sued Sharpton for defamation, ultimately winning a $65,000 judgment against him, and Maddox was eventually disbarred by the State Supreme Court.

And yet, even now, some twenty years later, Al Sharpton remains largely unrepentant for those acts. “I had no reason to disbelieve anything Tawanna Brawley told me, so why should I feel the need to apologize for anything” he asks. “The fact is a jury didn't believe her. Well, a jury did believe O.J. Simpson and how many people that publicly condemned him do you see making apologies? As people, we're all entitled to believe what we believe, even when a jury determines it believes otherwise.”

But in Juan Williams' mind, more than any one episode, it's the culture he says Sharpton has helped foster that most renders him counter-productive to what should be in the hearts and minds of most blacks.

In his 2006 novel, entitled "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America -- and What We Can Do About It," and a flurry of subsequent interviews, he asserted: "Many African-American leaders have lost touch with a hallmark of the civil rights movement -- the tradition of self-empowerment. They've embraced the notion of "victimhood." I think it's a terrible signal to our young people about who black people are."

As for Sharpton in particular, Williams is even more brash and critical, charging the minister readily engages in " rent a demonstrations," where he's been known to receive thousands of dollars for organizing or spearheading assorted protest rallies.

“Black voices of leadership have always been about the notion of empowerment," Williams continued in a National Public Radio interview. "Now we have a generation of leadership that delights in victimhood and I think it's a turnoff to the larger society.”

Quite predictably, Sharpton passionately begs to differ. “Why would anyone delight in being discriminated against and made to feel less than equal? Delight in their children being subjected to unequal opportunities, below standard health care and education? There's no glory or future in any of that. Which is why we're still striving to change it, and change only comes through struggle and pointing out when and where all these wrongs occur.

“The thing Juan Williams and all the other critics need to understand is we bring heat to these issues only to change the climate that allow them to exist and continue,” adds Sharpton. “Jena wasn't an issue until we went into Jena and made it one as was needed; there was no one fighting (Don) Imus until we took on the cause. Somehow the misconception becomes the issues got hot and then I came in. No, we made them that way , now who's suppose to lead the demonstrations after our group has done all the heavy lifting?”

Another instance in which Sharpton, the NAN and others would leave no stone unturned is in the case of Harlemite Korey Wise. In 1989, a then 16-year-old Wise was convicted along with four other black and Hispanic teens in the brutal rape and beating of a 28-year white jogger inside Central Park.

Though the teens and their families publicly proclaimed their innocence from the very beginning, all were soon convicted and served varying sentences of up to thirteen years after detectives testified at trial that each of them had confessed to being involved in the attack. More than a decade later, convictions for each were dismissed after a confession and DNA evidence tied an already jailed and convicted serial killer solely to the crime.

“I remember Korey's  grandmother calling me up and all she kept saying to me 'is my grandson didn't do it,'” recalls Sharpton. “I believed that then and I never stopped believing it. We here at the NAN make it a practice to never get involved in a case without seeing it all the way through. Even when they convicted Korey , we never felt we were finished because we still believed in his and the rest of all those kids innocence.”

And even now Sharpton and the NAN remain a keen part of their lives. “When I got home no one would give me a job," says Wise, now a licensed carpenter. "Rev. Sharpton took me under his wing and made me one of his personal assistants. During those first two years back, he's the only one that would give me work."

And perhaps even more importantly, Wise remembers Sharpton and the NAN giving him an oft needed sense of balance. "Some of the things people have said about him, it would take a really evil person to be that way. And I know that's not him, even when I would get angry about all the things I've been through it was him who would always talk back toward the light."

And if a recent national Gallup poll is any indication, apparently more than a few others have come to share Wise's vision of Sharpton, somewhat explaining the stunning 50 percent overall approval rating he received from his largely African American constituency. It's something Page was sure to take note of.

“Those that somehow think this whole emergence of Obama will mean the end of Sharpton are wildly mistaken,” he says. “I remember in the 1960s, when Thurgood Marshall was named to the Supreme Court and many said the same thing about there no longer being a need for King. That way of thinking this time around will prove to be as off the mark as it was almost 50-years ago.

“The bottom line is if you're black and your unarmed son is shot and killed the night before his wedding by a team of officers, who are you going to call?”

And Al Sharpton prides himself on always being there to answer the call, primarily because... well,he still feels it's his calling, has been since he delivered his first sermon steeped in the rudiments of “social ministry” when he was just twelve years old.

“As Black leaders, we all have our lots in life and this is where I have always fell in,” says Sharpton, who nonetheless has previously made runs for public office ranging from president to mayor of NYC. “Barack Obama, for example, is the extension of a pattern among blacks where every generation has sought to make itself more viable within the mainstream.

“Now, that doesn't mean we aren't still in the minority in virtually every way imaginable, that we still won't need someone to carry the banner for us in terms of advocating for fairness and equality,” he adds. “If we don't do that, history has shown it will never happen. To some that might seem a harsh assessment, but there's no denying someone's got to carry that banner.”

And Al Sharpton wants you to know he's still on the job. No matter where you may stand on the question of his services.

 

Banks Go Central

By Glenn Minnis

(Originally published in December issue of The Source  Magazine)

 Desperate times elicit desperate measures. How else to explain all the growing collabos now being choreographed to appease the world's vast appetite for cheddar in a single serving?

With the global economy spiraling dangerously out of control, central banks spanning the globe have band to take the unprecedented step of lowering benchmark interest rates that threaten to keep credit markets iced and move this nation closer to its first global recession in nearly four decades.

The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the central bank of Canada form the nucleus of a consortium of leading institutions that have reduced primary lending rates by a half percentage point. Domestically, the move is designed to spur economic growth by reenergizing a fragmented job market torn asunder by a severe housing slump only equated by further declines in the generally stabilizing manufacturing and construction sectors.

 What's it all mean in the world of the common man, beyond all the typical day-to-day struggle and strife, that is? Consider that thousands upon thousands of such everyday people awoke one recent morning shook with fear over what the largest bank meltdown in history would mean to their already burned-through budgets.

In a deal valued at nearly $2 billion, J.P. Morgan Chase became the second largest bank in the U.S. by assuming control of Washington Mutual and its $307 billion in assets. Chase execs immediately began the public relations campaign of assuring all business would remain as usual, as it will continue to maintain and honor the accounts of all WaMu's former customers.

Nowadays it's become painfully ironic to even utter the terms Wall Street and honor in the same breath. Long stoked by a “greed is good” mentality so selfishly prevalent it would give Gordon Gekko pause, overseers of the world's financial capital are widely viewed as being most responsible for steering this nation into the path of its most frightening pecuniary direction since The Great  Depression.

And it still may not be over. What else are we to think when you consider the $840 billion bailout package now being injected into many of those same fumbling financial empires has yet to pay any real dividends for common folks? The ever-fluctuating stock market has only added to the panic that gravely illustrates this era.
 
Where we go from here and when we get there is any body's guess. Perhaps the wisest investment seems the simplest, a theme that long ago virtually became an anthem for much of hip hop nation: Just do you.
10:34 am est

Sweetwater Runs Deep

The story of Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton, John (Originally published in Feb., 

 
2008, Black History Month issue of Hoop Magazine).

By GLENN MINNIS/Hoop Magazine

The question of if Nate “Sweetwater” Clifton  ever fully garnered the distinction he so richly deserves by virtue of being one of just three trailblazing hoopsters to revolutionize the NBA game and rid it of its long-standing color-barrier has been bounded about as ferociously as the former New York Knicks big man once waxed the glass.

Yet, it's also often in those moments that many of his biggest supporters are shook by thoughts of what they long sensed to be even his truer nature. Reflect upon memories when they're moved to visualize him at the apex of his element, smiling, joking, taunting, “just being Sweets.” It's then that all those other matters don't really seem to nearly as much.

“The kind of dude he was, Sweets could get along with the devil” says boyhood friend Jim Watkins, who introduced Clifton to the world of sports after he migrated North to Chicago from Little Rock, Arkansas with his family at just eight-years old. “Sweets was happy with himself, that's something very few people can say.”

But most would wholly agree with that former assessment--- provided the acquaintance didn't take place on a  basketball court. For it's there, that the 6-6 235 pound behemoth with the hands of a magician and the feet of a ballerina took no prisoners.

It's become the legend of Clifton Nathaiel, “Sweetwater's” outright birth name which he changed by reversing his names after he become a high school star at Chicago's Dusable High and sportswriters complained the name  was too long to lend itself to clever headlines.

Ever the trendsetter, Clifton's game ultimately evolved to resemble a montage of  Dwight Howard's strength, Amare Stoudemire's athleticism and Rasheed Wallace's skill.

"As NBA players his story and that of a few other guys is not only one we all should know but stand proudly behind,” said recently retired sharpshooter Allan Houston. “Stepping aside from the game as I am now, I'm often a bit reflective and the way those guys made a way for us is part of what I generally think about.”

The memories also abound for longtime New York Amsterdam News Sports Editor Howie Evans. “Nate was always ahead of his time,” he said.  “I've been covering hoops and sports in New York for for more than forty years and with his skill set and personality if he were to come along today he'd be a mega-millionaire star on and off the court.”

But, as fate would have it, Sweetwater Clifton happened upon us just when he did, and now the realm for which he will always be most remembered lies in the social vernacular. It's in that arena where he, Earl Lloyd and Chuck Cooper formed the trailblazing trifecta ultimately responsible for eradicating decades of hardwood segregation.

In 1950, Clifton became the first African-American to officially sign a NBA contract, Lloyd the first to play in one of its games and Cooper the first to be drafted into the league.

And in the case of Sweetwater, who could have forecasted such fortitude? Though always huge for his age, Clifton grew up as a fun-loving, playful spirit who earned the nickname “Sweetwater” based on his unwavering love of soft drinks. With his migrant family always strapped for cash, soon he began quenching his youthful thirst by filling empty bottles with water and pouring sugar directly into them.

''That just Sweets being Sweets,” said Watkins. “He never became  big shot, never left town. He still played softball in our league during the summer each of those seven years he spent with the Knicks.”

Indeed, as a teen, Clifton excelled in multiple sports and though he would go on to once be rated one of the two best high school players in Illinois hoops history,  early on he garnered as much acclaim as a slugging first baseman. So savvy on the diamond did he become that he ultimately played in the Cleveland Indians' farm system and in its first season with the Knicks missed all of training camp because he was playing minor league ball. 

After high school, Clifton would go on to play a season of hoops at Xavier University before being drafted into the army in 1944. Upon serving three years, he returned home and to the hardwood becoming the first black player to ball with the Dayton Metropolitans.

Soon, the legendary New York Rens were his team of consequence and shortly thereafter  he inked a contract with the world famous Harlem Globetrotters in July of 1948 at an annual salary of $10,000, easily thought to be highest salary paid to a black basketball player of that era.

It was during that two year span he spent with the Trotters that he transformed the hardwood into his own stage. Ever flamboyant, one of Clifton's signature moves became palming the ball with his ten inch spanning hands and shakin'-and-bakin' his way past all his would-be, dramatically overmatched defenders.

Ultimately all the excitement he generated was not only enough to ingratiate him with hoop's fans far and wide, but also capture the eye of one of the NBA's signature franchises.

In 1950, just after the Boston Celtics drafted Cooper, just before Lloyd took the floor for the Washington Capitals, and in the midst of a personal contract dispute with Globetrotters' owner Abe Saperstein, the 27-year-old Clifton's contract was sold to the Knicks for $12,500.

And with that, much of the Globetrotter like magic seemed to transition itself  to the streets of Manhattan and the borders of Broadway, as the Knicks reached the NBA Finals in each of Clifton's  first three seasons.

 Under the tutelage of Knicks coach Joe Lapchick, Clifton excelled, even if sometimes begrudgingly, as the team's new enforcer, often guarding opposing centers from his forward post and averaging 10 points,  6 rebounds and 2 assists over the course of his seven-year stead with the team.

For the most part, the team's style was a far cry from the up-and-down, razzle, dazzle like wizardry Clifton had perfected as a member of the Trotters. But he didn't allow any of it to change the essence of who he was as Sweetwater.

“Around Chicago and in the army, I was used to playing with white players, and I could get along," Clifton was quoted as saying by They Cleared the Lane author Ron Thomas. "I figured everybody had to make a living and nobody gave me any dirt. They [the Knicks] were a great bunch of guys."

 And teammates viewed him in the same light, often jokingly ragging him about his somewhat suspect age with teammate Ernie Vandeweghe ultimately giving him the added nickname “Methuselah.”

Old-age or not, none of that mattered came the big game, as Sweets quickly earned the reputation of  a prime time player by regularly dueling much taller and heralded players such as George Mikan and Vern Mikkelsen to virtual standstills.

Beyond that, Sweetwather fitted in as just one of the guys, often joining teammates in card games and at church gatherings. Only once did an opposing player (Bob Harris of the Celtics) insult him with a racial slur, and Clifton promptly knocked him out cold with a one-two punch combination.

But for others, there were times when the game of inclusion seemed a bit more openly dramatic. But by then, Sweetwater had easily gained and earned most all their loyalties.

“I remember when my dad was coaching the Knicks and the phone rang at our home,” modern day human rights activist and noted sports historian Richard Lapchick once recalled of the immediate aftermath of Clifton joining the team. “I heard my dad pick up and the caller said two words. ... I hung the phone up."

The two words young Richard Lapchick overheard that eye-opening evening were “nigger lover” and by then the latter of them was a commonplace insult in the day-to-day, NBA travels of Sweetwater Clifton, Earl Lloyd and Chuck Cooper. But by then each man refused to turn back. They'd simply traveled too far that.

Still, all the racial slurs, incessant threats and other forms of abuse took its toll, as did the countless lonely nights born of being forced to eat alone after not being allowed service in many of  the same restaurants their teammates dined in.

Yet somehow, Sweetwater Clifton managed to take it all in stride. Live and learn from it,even. After retiring from the league following the 1958 season, Clifton spent the rest of his days driving a taxi on his hometown streets of Chicago and spreading the gospel about all the many places he'd been and seen.

''It's not that he couldn't do anything else; that's what he wanted to do,'' said Leon Wright, a teammate at DuSable High School. ''He had a lot of avenues open to him, but he would never been comfortable in a shirt and tie in an office; the worst thing in the world for him would be a 9-to-5.''

And never let it be said that Nate “Sweetwater” Clifton ever took the easy route in anything.

 

 

 

By Glenn Minnis/ RISEUP Magazine 

 

Still sobered by the rousing LeBron James' Vogue cover issue that erupted mere hours before, a perplexed Russell Simmons pensively looked on, perhaps now himself in search of solace, as Illinois Senator and leading Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama sought to cleanse his own spirit on the delicate intricacies of race in this country.

“It's like he read all our minds,” says Simmons, a self-styled business mogul and entrepreneur. “I found myself listening in awe, unable to comprehend how this man running for president is honest enough to speak about race in America. What it'll all mean is anyone's guess. That's just the nature of the world we live in.”

And yet it all left the Foundation of Ethnic Studies chairman with one corrigible assessment: Just where do most of the perceptions we hold about race and ethnicity derive from? And what seems to propagate them to the point they now seem so irreversibly stitched in our consciousness?

It insists Simmons and others like him, who make the task of uplifting the entertainment media's often rigid view of subjects such as themselves a part of their life's work, stems from the movies we watch, the radio broadcasts we listen to and the words we read from the plethora of magazines, web sites and other forms of print media now so prevalent.

And certainly, in the case of minorities, no one can dispute that the media has been known to paint more darkened perceptions and illicit more grave illusions than even Van Gogh himself. And the instances are as apparent as the examples are endless, says Gregory Lee Jr., chairman of the National Association of Black Journalist (NABJ) Task Force.

Which all leads back to Vogue's much heralded decision to salute the 23-year-old James as only the third overall and first African-American male to ever grace the cover of the publication widely viewed as the industry's bible as it relates to all things fashionable.

James' pose, with the exquisitely coiffed super model Giselle Bundchen in arm, however, struck many as being anything but dapper, as his bulging muscles, rippling tattoos and bared teeth are as prominently displaced as his face itself. The high-brow glossy immediately elicited comparisons to the similarity staged, indisputably racially-tinged King Kong movie scene of yesteryear where the hulking-sized ape instantly becomes smitten with the petite, immaculately coutured leading lady.

"It's a great issue that Vogue has made trivial," Dr. John Hoberman, University of Texas professor and author of “Darwin's Athletes: How Sports Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race,” told ESPN. "It's exploitative. It's going for the primitive, racial emotion as opposed to something tasteful and edifying.”

Adds Lee Jr.: “The first time I saw the LeBron cover I didn't sense all the ramifications. That took a second look. Still, my primary issue with Vogue and publications like that is the makeup. With the very few people of color they have, it reasons that they'd drop the ball when interacting with subjects they know little about.”

NABJ task force members also note that the snapshot bares uncanny resemblance to Army recruitment paraphernalia used during World War 1, which again display an oversize ape carting off yet another distressed damsel under the banner: “Destroy This Mad Brute. Enlist U.S. Army.”

Certainly controversy stemming from African Americans donning magazine covers hardly falls under the headline of earth-shattering revelations. In 2002, Sp

orts Illustrated made the dastardly decision to feature Charles Barkley draped in chains from head-to-toe in a snippet reminiscent of a runaway slave fighting capture. Three years prior, ESPN featured Ricky Williams dressed in a full-length wedding dress, replete with matching head garb.

“True these guys were simply following direction in taking those poses,” says Lee Jr. “But those same people would have never asked guys like Peyton Manning or Troy Aikman to present themselves in those kinds of ways.”

Then there was Golf Week Magazine's call mere months ago to display a noose on its cover as a decree of in-depth coverage on the issue of PGA Tour racism after Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman flippantly retorted that young golfers “should lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley” as a measure of both resistance and solidarity to his dominance.

And, lest we forget, Time Magazine's equally astonishing decision of a decade ago when editors took the heightened liberty of darkening O.J. Simpson's mug shot, unbelievably as if a multiple-count murder suspect needed to or even could be made to look any more grimacing.

Perhaps just as tellingly, Rolling Stone Magazine took just the opposite angle this spring when in endorsing Obama's candidacy in a cover profile editors were accused of drastically “whitening” his skin.

“The only way things are going to change is more African-Americans are in the decision-making,” says Simmons, who, in addition to having produced movies, owned record labels and web sites, once published a magazine entitled 'One World' and serves as chairman for the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. Simmons is also a noted philanthropist, his widespread giving being recently chronicled in an Uptown Magazine cover piece.

“We have to unify,” he adds. “And the entertainment media has played a huge role in being a divider. I'm willing to put resources I have into seeing that change.”

Acclaimed filmmaker and Morehouse College alum Spike Lee is another who has displayed a propensity for putting his money were his mouth is on the issue by helping fund the launch of a sports journalism program at his alma mater by raising more than $1 million in seed money.

The program began in earnest last year with 20 students. Its launch was expedited by donations from the likes of Major League Baseball, ESPN and filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

“Many of the social gains this country has gone through took place in sports before the rest of the public,” an oft-chagrined Lee told Associated Press just last year. “Historically, the black athlete has been demonized. If we can get our graduates into positions... hopefully we’ll get a more balanced view.”

As someone who works within the journalism industry, Lee Jr. looks forward to the day. “There are too many times I can turn off the picture, listen to the words and know what race the athletes are the announcers are referring to. There are all kinds of buzz words, references like 'smart, leader, athletic, immature and selfish' that just let you know.”

Spike Lee likewise insists his rationale stems from rather harsh, first-hand experiences. Like the time in 1992 when he agreed to be interviewed for an Esquire Magazine profile, only to be reduced to sullen indignation soon after when the article headline blared: “Why Spike Lee Hates Your Cracker Ass.”

Responded Lee in a subsequent Village Voice piece: “She spent three days with me trying to prove how liberal she was and that's all she wrote. I never said I hated anyone's cracker ass.”

Still, the episode was enough to have Lee expressing his rather innate preference of being interviewed by black writers when his much anticipated biopic “Malcolm X” hit the big screen later that year, a film the director openly trumpeted as a “spiritual journey” for Blacks.”

“I'm doing what every person in Hollywood does,” Lee told the New York Times. “Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, whoever. People throw their weight around. Black journalists would be more responsive and sympathetic to Malcolm X.”

Don Imus was certainly responsive last year on the morning of April 5, though not very sympathetic. The 66-year-old, self-described shock jock seemed in rare form for one yet in the midst of morning java when he ridiculed the heavily African-American Rutgers women's hoops team as “some nappy headed hos.”

Imus ultimately bit the bullet for his forked tongue, but by then his evil refrain had spun the globe a million times over. “No other group has to deal with that,” says Simmons. “Just for showing up to do your job.”

But then, Simmons points out, the other side of the equator allows for the proliferation of such powers as Oprah Winfrey and Tyra Banks, currently two of the most pervasive presences in the entertainment universe. The former is in the throes of building her own network, while the latter simply serves as the persona of an emerging one. There's everything from the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” to Harpo Entertainment, to the “Tyra Banks Show” and “America's Next Top Model.”

Still, monumental experiences and fierce accomplishments aside, both largely self-made divas might be wise in seeking the counsel of the likes of Black Entertainment Television exec and film legend Reginald Hudlin in truly encompassing all the nuisances of such a loaded endeavor.

Since taken over at B.E.T., Hudlin, whose works range from “House Party,” to “Everybody Hates Chris” to “Boomerang,” has tussled with the daunting task of upgrading programming at the Viacom-owned station still criticized over decisions to cut quality shows such as “Lead Story,” “Teen Summit” and “BET Tonight With Ed Gordon” in favor of more rap videos and lowbrow comedies.

While several of those particular decisions predate Hudlin's arrival, the atmosphere that made

them fly seems to still permeate.

“I don't think there's any conflict in profitable entertainment and social consciousness,” chastened Hudlin in alluding to issues that have long dogged B.E.T. “People want everything, they want their guilty pleasures and they want socially relevant content. They want to be served a balanced meal.”

But somewhere, somehow the menu Hudlin speaks of seems to have drastically changed enroute to the headquarters of sister station VH1. Morphed into a non-sequitur, even. How else, critics contend, can one explain such distasteful reality show concoctions as “The Flavor of Love and, “I Love New York.”

The shows premise center around the main characters, “Flav” and “New York,” putting a bevy of potential live-in paramours through the rigors and indignations of talent show competitions, multiple date settings and elimination nights, all in the heartfelt hope of finding “love.” At one point this season, 'Flav's search even had him “seriously” considering twin sisters as potential life mates.

It's all enough to seemingly keep Simmons and those of his mindset in perpetual movement, forever striving to color the societal landscape anew. How else to combat myths like those in a recent Time Magazine post entitled: “A Visit to Obama's Chicago Church."

The original piece, which stemmed from the recently dissected rantings of retired Trinity United Church of Christ stalwart Rev. Jeremiah Wright, described the heavily black, South Side community as "a sprawl of cracked sidewalks and boarded buildings that inspires fear among the city's middle classes, and even its wizened cabbies."

The fact that much of the South Side generally boasts longtime black middle-class neighborhoods Chatham, Avalon and Roseland seemed to evaporate to mere dust amid the writer's rather blatant quest to paint the area and in a gravely distinguishable light. They'd be no gray areas here, all the doctors, architects and prominent journalists of note that comprise Trinity's pulpit be damned.

What's more, a subsequent Chicago Tribune analysis of some of Wright's speeches, used as incendiary sound and video bites attesting to his racist nature. concluded that “for more than 30 years, Wright walked churchgoers along a winding road from rage to reconciliation, employing a style that validated both. Examining the full content of Wright's sermons and delivery style, yields a far more complex message.””

But in the case of the Time Magazine article, Simmons thought the message was clear. “Those are the kinds of irresponsible statements that spread the stereotypes about how we all live as black people,” he says. “It paints us as being just a monolithic group and that couldn't be further from the truth.”

In fact, the levity of such a broadly spread misnomer brings to mind the Blaxploitation film era of the 1970s, a period when many ignorantly believed all African-Americans lived in ghettos and everyone survived as either pimps, drug dealers or hit men. It's a picture Spike Lee still maintains inspired him to spend his adult life making films of such riveting magnitude.

Lee's 1989 “Do the Right Thing,” where he chronicles the interactions of residents in a racially divided Brooklyn neighborhood on the hottest day of the year, has been classified “culturally significant” and selected for National Film Registry preservation by the Library of Congress. But to him it was simply a case of holding true to his mission.

And a great deal of that calls for being brutally honest with himself. “You get into that position and you know your films have to make money no matter who you are,” Lee told Slate.com in a 2005 interview. “But I can confidently say that if there had been a gatekeeper at MGM, I don't think “Soul Plane” could have gotten made.”

And Spike Lee wants to feel just as confident that when minorities venture to the movie theaters to spend their hard earned dollars, they're being well spent on material that sheds a truer reflection of the subjects starring back at them.

“All I'm saying is that there would be more variety and diversity as far as subject matter,” he continued. “I would hopefully see a greater picture of African-Americans' experience vs. one that's limited to comedies and hip-hop, drug, gangsta, shoot 'em up films.”

The celebrity/media power now wielded by Oprah and Tyra is certainly a move in a more conscionable direction. Harlemite Quincy Troupe, who penned the novel that spurred the Will Smith-starring blockbuster film “The Pursuit of Happyness” and is now being consulted on another film about the life of jazz trumpeter Miles Davis stemming from another of his books, likewise has come to know a bit about the Hollywood way.

“I've been one of the fortunate ones in that I've worked with the same person and he's someone who's stayed true to the characters as I've originally written and defined them. He's someone who hasn't taken the common way out, which is to turn the characters into stereotypes and caricatures for the sake of digestible consumption,” says Troupe, who also wrote “James Baldwin: The Legacy,” featuring the last known Baldwin interview.

The aim of institutions like Accuracy In Media is to assure that experiences such as those reflected upon by Troupe don't continue to be such isolated episodes. The Washington-based, grassroots non-profit touts itself as a “citizens watchdog of the media that critiques botched and bungled news stories on important issues that received slanted coverage.”

Indeed, those seem words to live by a mandate we'd all be wise to underwrite.

 

 

Remember The Time: John Carlos Reflects 

By Glenn Minnis/ RISEUP Magazine

John Carlos still recalls the time as if it were just yesterday. Maybe that's because there are still so many instances when he feels as if he's yet living in those moments.

Indeed, the parallels between now and four decades ago, when Carlos and Olympic teammate Tommie Smith took to the winner's circle at the 1968 Mexico City Games as intent on making  a statement about the struggles of finding a place within a society that largely viewed them as less than equal as accepting their medals, are boundless.    

How, they often wondered aloud, can you rise to praise and salute the nature of the man, yet so disrespect the culture that bore him? Now with the Beijing Games of 2008 upon us, John Carlos doesn't quite move the way he once did. But clearly the 63-year-old former sprint star remains adept at turning heads.

"Things have truly come full circle over the last forty years,” says Carlos, who along with Smith , dawned black gloves and raised them to the heavens back then in protest of widespread racism and poverty here in America as "The Star-Spangled Banner" played during the awards presentation.

“Again we find ourselves in the middle of a very politicized season,” Carlos adds. “One filled with much strife over issues like war, human rights and genocide. In '68, a young man named Bobby Kennedy came along with a beautiful vision and mandate for change that would put America on a higher path. This time it's Barack Obama's vision, hopefully the world can stay true to the mandate this time, truly make this a land where we all can start to grow, learn and prosper.”

To that end, John Carlos feels a people can never genuinely move forward without first understanding where it is they come from. Hence, his need to set the record straight on just what he, Smith and all the others involved in their movement and the night of October 16, 1968 were truly trying to illustrate.

“It wasn't so much a matter of us being defiant,” says Carlos. “As black men, we just wanted to feel we could make a place for ourselves in this land. We wanted to know four ourselves and our people that if we followed the letter of the land we too could have the chance to make lives for ourselves and family. This wasn't a movement about separation or even preaching all hatred of one group to raise another.”

But given the turbulent, race-torn times of 60's, Carlos remembers their message being received in just those tones. Before nightfall, he and Smith had been suspended from the national team and kicked out and banned from the Olympic Village. By the time they arrived back in the States, they were widely ostracized as unappreciative, uppity, rabble-rousers unworthy of American praise or distinction. Soon they would lose both their medals and standing in society altogether.

“We were the ones cast as hate-mongers, race-baiters,” he says. To this day, the biggest myth about what we did remains that we were some sort of card carrying Black Panther militants. The name of our organization was the Olympic Project for Human Rights and we were simply a group of Black men, many of which were college students, who wanted change.”

None of that is too say John Carlos regrets any of what he came to do. In fact, he swears he'd do it all again in five minutes. Today.

"It's about right and wrong,” he declares

 

 

Morgan State's Bozeman Can't Lose

 

By: Glenn Minnis, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Todd Bozeman is convinced he can't lose. Even pitted against the likely national player of the year on the game's grandest stage, the third-year Morgan State and MEAC coach of the year still feels destiny lies on his side.

And just why shouldn't he? Ask yourself, who in the history of the collegiate ranks, player or coach, has ever staged a more improbable comeback, somehow managed to make a way out of no way, more so than the tireless 45-year-old?

But the rapture of somehow turning exile into exultation only scratches the surface in the modern day rise of Todd Bozeman. At 29 years old, he became only the second University of California coach in more than three decades to lead the Golden Bears into the land of the NCAA Tournament. Three more trips in just four years would follow, and soon the program figured prominently in most all conversations when the subject of the game's biggest players was broached.

Over his short tenure, Bozeman recruited seven eventual NBA hoopers, surefire Hall of Fame point guard Jason Kidd among them, to the Berkley campus. But how does such an ambitious upstart manage to keep the music playing in the ultra-competitive arena of college basketball without ever coming to skip a beat? Like so many veterans before him, the young, still evolving Bozeman struggled with coming to grips with the the rhyme and reason of all that. And soon, the world would know just how much.

In 1996, Bozeman was first suspended than ultimately forced to resign after the parents of former Cal player Jelani Gardner went public with revelations he provided them with $30,000 to travel to and from home to see their son play. In addition to a death-penalty like eight-year ban, the NCAA placed him in “show cause” status, meaning no college could again hire him without first showing reasonable cause to the governing body and gaining NCAA approval.

For more than a decade, Todd Bozeman scurried about, trying to stay true to the game by scouting for any NBA team that would have him and coaching on the amateur circuit. And now, today in downtown Kansas City in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament against Blake Griffin and powerhouse Oklahoma (27-5), all comes full circle for Bozeman, who will lead Morgan State into the field of 64 for the first time in school history and just less than three-years after his tenure began a dismal 4-26.

"I always believed it would happen," Bozeman says of his return. "I never wavered on that, I just didn't know when. I was just determined to stay the course and ride it out. At Cal, I made a bad judgment, and I use it as a life lesson for my family/players/other young coaches. I've moved on. I was punished accordingly and now I'm here to show everyone I can rebound from all this.”

And in that rationalization potentially lies the rapid-fire emergence of one of the nation's fastest growing mid-major powers. Junior guard Reggie Holmes, senior forward Marquise Kately and freshmen center Kevin Thompson were named to all conference teams this season, and all eagerly attest to the wizardry of Bozeman.

“In the past, coaches would let me get away with everything," says Holmes, the team's leading scorer at 17 points per game. “He's such an intense guy, he doesn't let me get away with anything.”

Perhaps that's because Bozeman has learned rules are not meant to be broken.

"My energy, my passion, that's all the same," insists Bozeman, who adopted his then 15-year-old nephew after his older brother succumbed to a pulmonary embolism two years ago. "Now I'm just older and wiser."

But for Bozeman that seems to make a world of difference.

 

 

 NFLers May Not Agree with Plax’s Actions, but They Understand

 

By: Glenn Minnis, BlackAmericaWeb.com

 

Is NFL Owners Secretly Spying on Players Crossing the Line?

By: Glenn Minnis, BlackAmericaWeb.com

  What would George Orwell think?

Young, gifted and black pro athletes everywhere best beware, for chances are Big Brother really is watching. That revelation comes courtesy of a recent Wall Street Journal expose that finds a litany of NFL owners, empowered by a nod from league commissioner Roger Goodell, have commenced the covert practice of employing secret security details and dispatching them to designated clubs and targeted provinces to essentially spy on their players.

During one recent road trip, the San Diego Chargers not only conducted player bed checks, but placed guards in the hotel lobbies to make sure players didn't stray far from the premises. And the Seattle Seahawks have gone as far as to declare entire entertainment districts off-limits to players, while other teams have begun installing video-surveillance equipment in locker rooms and even dictating what players can and can't discuss when speaking to the media.

Such underhanded deception and bouts of open dictatorship are legitimized under a sweeping new personal-conduct policy enacted in late 2007 that not only allows but invites such latitude. It all makes for a brave, if not always forthright, new world for NFL chieftains as their aggressively implemented new bylaws have positioned them a step outside the current reach of NBA and MLB execs in the game of putting forth the desired image for a rather select fan clientèle. Yet, a far more critical assessment instantly begs the question of when does mere investment morph into overstretched ownership?

“This is what's known as natural progression,” says John Carlos, who used the 1968 Summer Olympics stage to call attention to the plight of African-Americans across the globe by lifting his gloved fist in unison with Tommie Smith in a Black Power salute. “For so long, the black athlete has been viewed as nothing more than a source of entertainment for the masses. It's to be expected that at some point the powers-that-be would come to the conclusion they're rightfully entitled to control every aspect of his life as they see fit.”

Certainly, in most of these instances, the financial investment at hand can be of mind-boggling proportions, but even then should it come at the expense of one's sense of being or peace of mind? Furthermore, it's keen to remember here that for every Adam “Pacman” Jones or even Larry Johnson there is a Langston Walker to consider, a distinction that can be as sobering as all of the league's new found powers of espionage.

A University of California Berkley graduate with a degree in economics, Walker just also happens to play offensive linemen for the Buffalo Bills. But none of that helped him feel is as if he wasn't not vulnerable to being snared by the NFL web of McCarthyism during a recent night of good natured celebration.

When someone intentionally spilled a drink on him at a Los Angeles bar, Walker's overriding concern was if a mole might be in the house documenting his every move, ever ready to  turn him in to the league's discipline czars.

"When you start not to trust your own organization or governing body, who can you trust?" he rhetorically asked a Journal reporter. And what of the instances when management strives to manipulate your every thought or even control what you speak?

Cleveland Browns star tight end Kellen Winslow
                  
 

FACEOFF: Obama vs. McCain 

By Glenn Minnis

(Originally published on cover of October issue of The Source Magazine)
 FACEOFF: Obama vs. McCain

His expressions, deliberately crafted and artfully articulated as they are , resonate as an ode of sorts to the growing mass of disciples that have come to view him as new age deliverer of all things inspirational.

Barack Obama will be the first to tell you he's no messiah, but he readily embraces his role as a vessel of hope that extends far beyond all the modern day trials and tribulations we all ultimately come to bear.

That hope clearly springs eternal amid the swelling crowds of thousands that turn out on the regular in search of upliftment and enlightenment from his powerfully radiant reflections. But if nothing else, the last eight years have convinced us that sustained hope for the masses and politics can indeed make for strange bedfellows.

Even for the likes of Barack Obama, the most practical of questions becomes what an administration under his stewardship would mean for a nation that now so perilously teeters on the brink?  For some of  Hip-Hop nation it may also mean a higher measure of accountability.                                   

“Obama is the beginning of Black people not having excuses no more,” says David Banner. “We can't blame it on the man because the man is about to be a Black man. So this is our opportunity to squash all the excuses and stand up and work harder. If this man gets in office, it's time for us to stand up and work harder because now the opportunity and spotlight is on us.”

Diddy agrees: “Not just as a Black man but as an American, Senator Obama becoming the Democratic nominee for president is history in the making and proof that we do live in the greatest country in the world.”

Indeed, Obama's platform is firmly constructed around a reinvestment in people. It seeks a restoration in the human spirit in the form of new opportunities and chances to fulfill life dreams for the hard working and industrious. It thrives on strength derived from a system that genuinely seeks to educate all of its young and earnestly care for each of its seniors.

If it's true that President George W. Bush's eight tortuous years in office have effectively earned him the legacy of the “War-time President,” Obama's vision seems destined to cast him in the historical role of new age agent of change armed with the noblest of causes.

L.A. Clippers star Baron Davis realizes that bucking the trends of the last eight years won't come without huge sacrifice. But the man who just spent his summer inking a five-year, “65 million deal to hoop for his hometown team thinks it's a mission well worth any investment.

“I know he said he's gonna raise the taxes on the top income bracket, but his ideas about recharging our education system by investing in early education and raising teacher's salaries are seriously inspiring,” says Davis. “It's what I try to provide with my non-profit, teaching kids leadership skills that show them the right way out of the cycle of poverty and violence. I wouldn't be where I am today without the teachers and mentors who showed me a positive definition of success, and Barack is planning to do it across the whole country.”

We can only hope that the Illinois senator will experience that same level of crossover appeal and cooperation if and when he inherits the Oval Office. But being the first African-American so poised means his challenge beyond doing just that will far exceed simply partisan politics. And the fact that it's all primed to play out at perhaps the most volatile time this country has ever witnessed merely adds to all the drama.

Yet societal conventionalism and prejudicial biases aside, it's just as clear Obama stands to inherit a set of problems as unique to any president that's come before him as his appearance will be to longtime spectators around the grounds of the White House.

Besides the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan now afloat, there's the matter of the recession to deal with, not to mention the reality that this year will end with a budget deficit (pegged at around $410 billion) more than twice what it was just 12 months prior. And one's left with the distinct impression all the red ink is far from subsiding.

In the final analysis, it would be keen of any Obama presidency to begin its term by re-regulating a system that's long run amok. But then who better in tune for such a spirited task than the man who's built his very platform preaching the gospel of change?

No matter who you support, John McCain is a war hero and longtime seasoned senator who's truly battle tested. And it's the soldier in him that just won't let him walk away from a presidential race that more and more pundits are increasingly forecasting he can't win.

As it relates to the latter point, McCain's saving grace might be that despite all of his George W. Bush ties, his plan offers somewhat of a diversion from a president that has waddled through some of the lowest approval ratings of any two-term commander-in-chief.

Where Bush has shown a propensity for ruling with an iron fist, McCain prides himself on his “bipartisan nature.”

Indeed, he has been part of certain political achievement s involving both Republicans and Democrats. It is his independence that has led to certain problems within his own party. Not even Bush himself has escaped his wrath, the Arizona senator is quick to point out, often alluding to how over the years he's repeatedly clashed with the president over matters like tax cuts, judicial appointments, campaign finance reform and the conduct of the military in the handling of the Iraq War.

Now don't get it twisted here, that's not to say all would be well for Joe Hip-Hop or the working or middle classes if the 72-year-old self-proclaimed “maverick.” For one, McCAin has consistently expressed a dogged willingness to “seriously consider” reinstating the military draft if elected. This, coupled with his somewhat ambivalent stance on the issues of military and police torture, could yet make for more troubling times for many of the boys in the hood.

Yet, not much of that has put much of a dent in the level of support McCain has garnered from Hollywood. High rollers like Robert Duvall (The Godfather), John Elway and Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan from Forest Gump) have all come out stomping for McCain.

And is it really any wonder? Much like his Republican predecessor Bush, the bulk of McCain's tax plans go the furthest in aiding the five percent or so of Americans who constitute the affluent. That's music to the ears to the likes of Puerto-Rican born, now U.S. citizen reggaeton star Daddy Yankee, who is on record as one of McCain's biggest celebrity endorsers.

“I don't care who I piss off,” boldly declares Daddy Yankee. “This about my ideals, not making friends. Senator McCain is the kind of man whose promises you can actually believe in.”

Wonder if Yankee is aware of McCain's stance on immigration reform. how it seems to readily fluctuate, prompting the question of if one is so easily swayed what can truly be expected in the way of conviction during these historically defining times?

But know that John McCain won't just walk away. He is a skilled and formidable opponent. One who believes in himself and his vision. The onus for sending him packing falls on us.

D'Antoni and Isiah the same man?

Who told Mike
D'Antoni that
reviving the
Knicks would
be easy?

In true Halloween fashion, Mike D'Antoni is apparently now masked as Isiah Thomas along the Knicks sideline.

At first glance, maybe you can't see all the resemblances. But know that the spirit of the atmosphere created in both men's wake is quickly becoming one in the same. And, just as Thomas routinely quarreled and bickered with players, D'Antoni now finds himself engaged in several staredowns with some of his own men.

D'Antoni benched presumed opening-night starters Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson and Zach Randolph during the team's preseason match against Boston Tuesday night, sending a strong message to one and all that no job is safe and no man is bigger than the team.

Apparently that holds true even when the player stands nearly seven feet and weighs in at more than 300 pounds. One-time franchise “cornerstone” Eddy Curry didn't make it off the bench against the defending champs, and that might easily qualify as the highlight of his night.

“He's going to have to play better than what he has shown me," D'Antoni explained in the aftermath. "He is going to have to pick it up. He missed a couple of weeks early and that set him back. There is plenty of time for him to work and get back into the rotation but he has to make a heck of an effort. I think he knows that and hopefully, he will do that."

At the very least, Curry has a hands-on-example of just how to go about making that happen. That would be courtesy of Stephon Marbury, the one-time team pariah who has not only earned a spot on the roster but may soon find himself back in the starting lineup.

Marbury started at shooting guard against Boston and was just one of three Knicks players to score in double figures. "I just let it play out," he said. "I know what I can do on the court. If I just go out and I play at the level that I'm capable of playing, I'll let everything else take care of itself. I can't control nothing else."

Like Thomas, that all falls in D'Antoni's hands. And, much like the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. 

John Isaacs: He is legend 

John Isaacs deserves to be in
Springfield

For far longer than any one should have to remember, the 94-year-old Isaacs has proudly stood as a viable candidate for induction into the NBA Hall of Fame. For those of you with any lingering questions about his platform consider that the longtime Bronx native once toiled as the star point guard for the legendary Harlem Rens. Know that over the course of their 25-year existence, the Rens compiled a staggering 83 percent (2,318-381) winning percentage.

In basketball parlance the late 1920s is a period known as the "Black Five Era," a time otherwise typified by Jim Crow laws when top-flight African-American teams like the Rens roamed the earth taking on all comers. Rutgers football All-American Paul Robeson was even part of the mix, starring on a team from Newark, and Jackie Robinson, long before he would join the Dodgers, balled with a squad from Los Angeles.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Rens were the most dominant team on the hardwood. During the '32-33 season, they raced to a 112-8 record, including a history-making 88-game winning streak. As they barnstormed the country, they formed some of the most intense and competitive rivalries the game has ever known, including fabled histories with the likes of the Harlem Globetrotters and the Original Celtics.

“The way they handled and passed the basketball was just amazing,” legendary Hall of Fame coach John Wooden once said of the Rens, named after the famed Harlem Renaissance Casino they played their home games in and shared with such big-ticket acts as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Fatha Hines and the Chick Webb Band. “To this day, I have never seen a team play better team basketball,” added Wooden.

And much of that rhythm and precision started with John Isaacs, the Rens courageously fearless point guard who signed a pro contract right out of Textile High in the Bronx at a rate of $150 a month plus $3 a day meal money. To this day, Isaacs is clear about the dynamics that went into his decision.

"Coming out of high school, I didn't have a lot of options," explains the only living member from the legendary team. "It was either the Rens or the standing offer I had with NYU—New York Unemployment," recalls the 6-1, 190-pound Isaacs, who also later starred for the Washington Bears.

Long an admirer of his game and exploits, I got to know “Mr. I” personally just over a year ago when I was commissioned by Hoop Magazine, the official NBA publication, to pen a cover piece on the Rens for Black History Month. The interview and introduction were both arranged by Claude Johnson, an Isaacs confidante and  nationally known hoops historian who founded BlackFive.com, a vintage sports licensing company dedicated to researching, preserving, promoting, and teaching about the history of African American basketball teams.

Johnson has long been vocal in his insistence that Isaacs deserves the same fate as fellow “Black Fives”-era stars William “Pop” Gates and Charles “Tarzan” Cooper in being enshrined in the NBA Hall of Fame. Thus, I was genuinely touched this week when he reached out to ask that I join a committee he was forming to have Isaacs take his rightful place in Springfield.

And it's a good thing, too, for the man who earned the name 'The Boy Wonder' based on all his wizardry would never do so for himself. “I look at the Hall of Fame the same way I played the game,” says Isaac. “You do what you're suppose to do and hope that everything else takes care of itself.”

Thus, how could I say no when Johnson came calling, when the time has more than come to take care of John Isaacs in a way he's come to deserve? Sure, the Rens as a team are already a part of the Hall's lore, but is that really enough of a distinction for a man many credit with being the inventor of the pick-and-roll play and even more agree has clearly been one of the greatest to ever perfect it?

“Mr. I”  won't dare bemoan the point, but for manning it the way he did all those years it's now incumbent upon all Hall voters to do so for him.

Minaya's revival plan

by Glenn Minnis

Omar Minaya has work to do

Painfully, the Mets four-year GM had been here before, experience teaching him the only way to alleviate the problem is to come out swinging. If only his players had taken that approach on Sunday, in the midst of any of their season-ending showdowns with the Marlins when the team managed just five runs.

But all that darkness seemed for another day on Monday, as Minaya sought to appease by gazing into the future. Hope sprung eternal as management did little to conceal its interest in the likes of soon-to-be free agent pitcher CC Sabathia.

As impressive as that pairing would be, any real movement aimed at improving the Mets fortunes would have to start with upgrading the team's bullpen. The Mets blew a team record 30 save chances this year, and many of those came with closer Billy Wagner still in uniform.

Can you say Frankie Rodriguez? The Anaheim fireballer notched an MLB-record 62 saves this season and is expected to net a king's ransom in free agency this winter. But you have to pay the cost to be the boss and with NYC faced with its first non-playoff fall in 13 seasons, the Mets have a chance to perhaps put a dent in the vice-like stranglehold the Yankees have long held over the city's fan base.

“We have to be open to everything because the bottom line is, we're not playing this week," said Minaya. "We owe it to the fans to really review everything, review why we just can't get over that barrier."

Does that mean hit machine Manny Ramirez may even be in the mix? He is a free agent, you know.

 

Saving Our Streets-- A Response to Community Violence

Glenn Minnis | TheRoot.com

An eerie chill still permeates the air. All across Harlem USA, it's known as the 'Memorial Day Shootout.' no one wants to remember.

As families, friends and acquaintances celebrated the season's most picturesque evening late that Monday, a scene erupted on the borders of Marcus Garvey Park every bit as frightening as any snippet from a war movie. And when the far-too-real, ten minutes of mayhem had ended, seven teens lay bullet-riddled and bloodied along a three-block stretch in the heart of the neighborhood Malcolm X, James Baldwin and Billie Holiday once strolled for inspiration.

In time, all the victims are expected to heal and survive, but what about the new image of prosperity and goodwill being cultivated in Harlem?

"It had gotten a little better, and now it's getting worse again," said Jackie Rowe-Adams, a lifelong borough resident who lost two young sons to street violence, which has made her acutely aware of such issues.

"Guns are flowing like water, and it's like a river," adds Adams, founder of Harlem Mothers SAVE (Stop Another Violent End). "Years ago the older kids had guns, and now it's the babies that have them."

Maybe more disturbing is the growing trend in many major cities where neighborhood violence seems to be on the rise as rapidly as the summer temperatures themselves. Last weekend in Washington, D.C., seven people were killed and seven others injured in a string of shootings that prompted authorities to flood the streets with military-style patrols.

Five weeks earlier in Chicago, 36 people were shot, nine of them fatally, in a weekend so treacherous that longtime Mayor Richard Daley implored citizens: "Know where your children are. It's going to be a long summer and parents better capture this responsibility."

At a time when many of these urban neighborhoods seem to be enjoying some kind of upswing, this sudden surge in violence raised questions about the causes. In the Harlem shooting, six of the victims were found sprawled near the doorway of a new luxury condo building where all of the $1 million plus units had sold instantly.

Gov. David Paterson, who was born and reared in Harlem, has attended several community meetings in response to the shootings, promising to make bringing jobs to Harlem a primary focus.

And the Rev. Al Sharpton is now also coordinating a high-level community summit to address the violence. The forum is slated to bring together community and religious leaders, law enforcement, young people and elected officials, including Gov. Paterson and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"Last year alone, nearly one black child a day under the age of 17 was shot and killed in New York City, mostly by other black city residents," says Sharpton, who hopes that what ever plans are eventually put in place in Harlem will serve as blueprints for other neighborhood and cities griped by similar problems.

"Shootings and violence within our community by one of our own is an outrage and an issue that we must confront as diligently and as passionately as a sensational case of police misconduct or brutality," Sharpton says.

In either case, we are left prisoners in our own neighborhoods and victims in our own communities. And that is something we should not forget on Memorial Day or at any other time.

Anger, Anguish, Calm Follow Acquittal.

By Glenn Minnis | TheRoot.com

The aftermath of a stunning decision in the Sean Bell case.

Sean Bell's parents Valerie and William Bell

And God said let there be peace.

Thus, in the face of anguish most would find unimaginable, the family of Sean Bell and the people of Queens County gathered early Friday to share solidarity as much as to point fingers.

Tensions ran high outside the State Supreme Court in Queens after Justice Arthur Cooperman rendered his stunning acquittal of New York City detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper. But then, what would you expect when three of NYC's finest and most decorated lawmen are completely absolved and exonerated in the death of a young man who died in a hail of unreturned gunfire on an otherwise peaceful November night in his own neighborhood? Tensions were unavoidable.

Groom-to-be and father of two, Sean Bell, 23, died on what was to be his wedding day on Thanksgiving weekend, 2006.  Tears flowed in Queens on Friday as freely as the bullets flew that dreadful night. Chants of "No Justice, No Peace," and "Murderers" seemed to stretch for miles, often drowning out both impromptu and planned demonstrations. One poignant scene played out after another amid the most somber of backdrops.

Just as Pat Lynch, the outspoken President of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, began to rant about how the verdict sends a message to officers everywhere that they will be fairly treated for confronting all the challenges they face in trying to protect and serve, a rendition of KRS One's legendary 'Who Protects Us From You?' began to blare from the heavens.

"My heart cried out for justice, but my experiences had prepared me for this moment," chimed the Rev. Herbert Daugherty of Harlem.

In time, William and Valerie Bell, the parents of Sean, and Nicole Paultre Bell, the woman he was hours away from wedding, limped from the courtroom, clearly shaken by what had transpired.

They said nothing as they made their way, hand in hand, through droves of equally stunned supporters. But there are times when those who say the least actually reveal the most. Their look said it all: Anguish. Emptiness. Anger. The justice they sought for their beloved had not been rendered. They could choose to rail against the system. Instead, they quietly just walked away.

Glenn Minnis is a New York writer.

(Check out my commentary  on the Sean Bell verdict on Washington's WHUR 96.3 FM Radio at 7 p.m. PEACE)  

5:07 pm est

The Real Deal With Holyfield

 

 

But there's no denying that as recently as two weeks ago, the "Real Deal's" 54,000-square-foot, 109-room, 17-bathroom home was set for auction due to a $10 million loan default.

Holyfield's most recent moves have answered questions that have long perplexed much of the sports world. Thing is, those same responses have also left us even more confused.

All the "Why-does-Holyfield-keep-fighting?" questions have now given way to thoughts of how can any one human manage to blow through some $200 million in riches before so much as embarking on life's golden years?

In Holyfield's case, the answer to both questions is pretty much the same: The four-time heavyweight champ still fights because he feels he needs to and he spent and squandered so lavishly because, well, he felt he needed to do that too.

Consider it the curse of being a world-class athlete, the maddening sense of invincibility and entitlement that seem as commonplace as all the adulation itself. It's a formula that's proven as deadly as any opponent. One that can cut short careers as quickly as it depletes bank accounts.

Michael Vick and Mike Tyson both had it.So did Marion Jones and Latrell Sprewell. In fact, so do roughly two in every three NBA players, according to a recently published Toronto Star article that assures that some 60 percent of them are guaranteed to be destitute within five years of retiring.

With that, it becomes clear that the same indomitable spirit most athletes take to the field with them is the same mindset they carry into their everyday existence.

But in the real world, such "a-world-is-mine" mentality doesn't translate quite the same. And clearly there can be a price to pay for that. Like the Wu Tang Clan said, "Cash rules everything around me," but too many of these guys actually start to believe that.

Sociology professor Todd Boyd said on a segment of ESPN's Outside The Lines, when attempting to delve into the mind of the modern day athlete, "You find that there are many people who are depending on this person, who are looking up to this person and who see this person's success as their own success," he said. "As you go up the ladder, it's not always easy to simply say to them, 'OK, now I'm in this new position. Would you back off?'"

Lest, before long, it can all end just as it has for Holyfield, Vick and Sprewell, a trio that collectively grossed upwards of half a billion dollars over their careers…only now find themselves forced into the throes of bankruptcy.

In the Toronto Star article, the Raptors' forward Jason Kapono tried to shed some light on just how things begin to spiral out of control.

"A lot of players get in trouble because they want everyone around them to lead the same lifestyle," he said. "You buy this big house for people, and they no longer want to drive the low-end car to go with the big house. So the big house leads to the big car, to the better clothes, to the better restaurants and stuff. It's a snowball effect. You see how guys live."

And now we see how it can all end. Here's to hoping a picture is truly worth thousand words.

Big Time Sports, No Small-Time Game 

By Glenn Minnis The Root.com

Just ask Clemson tailback Ray Ray McElrathbey who lost his football scholarship, no doubt to somone who can help the Tigers win RIGHT NOW.

The Fall of Starbury

 Things haven't been the same since Stephon Marbury came home 

By Glenn Minnis, AOLBlackVoices.com

As an artist whose style, and main selling-point, has long been based on an aesthetic of variance, it has become almost unbearable to watch Stephon Marbury's flair and wizardry reduced to irresolution, his flow and effervescence rendered so bland as to be inconsequential.

Mets Look to be Repeat Offenders

In classic SI cover-jinx fashion, fate not kind to Mets

As historical meltdowns go, the Mets swoon of 2008 seems destined to rank right up there with... their dive of 2007.

Sense the pattern here? One might argue that rarely has a team gift with so much ultimately gave back so little. But let's take the Metropolitans out of the equation for just a moment. Not since the brawling, falling Knicks of the late 1990s have the locals been left feeling more assured that a congregation had ever done more to make certain it missed out on its calling.

But even those Knicks, didn't go out without a fight. The same can't be said of the listless crew of 40 that now call Shea Stadium home. For two seasons running now, the Mets have arguably ranked as the NL's most skilled and polished team. But chemistry has been a far different matter.

In Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and David Wright the Mets have three super-star caliber players, all of whom, nonetheless, seem to lack the requisite residue needed to chart a consistent winner. Translation? So often, it's the little things that end up counting the most and none of these guys appear to excel at them.

And now, as the school of hard knocks would only have it, The Boys of Shea again find themselves facing the prospect of seeing another season explode in their faces. And what do the Mets do? They decide it's a perfect time to alert the world their somewhat maligned GM, Omar Minaya, the man responsible for putting all these combustible parts together, will be returning to oversee the project for at least four more seasons.

Strange mix, these Mets are.

Yankees make call: It's Roger and out

Roger's at a loss

So let's get this straight, Roger Clemens is heartbroken, moved to tears even, over just how the Yanks could decide not to invite him to take part in the Stadium's final game ceremonies?

How's this for a clue, Roger: Not only does MLB and management remember how you nearly blew up all that planning a year or so ahead of schedule, but virtually the entire sport itself.

Yet, in what rates as even an extreme case of 'Roger being Roger,' it not only strikes the Rocket as conceivable but quite justifiable that Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, his all but proven steroid-popping-partners in crime, can't be seen in public nor get a job in the game respectively, while he's worthy of a soldier's welcome.

Word on the street is that Clemens watched the festivities while sitting at home with his wife and mother-in-law, so shaken by his chagrined omission he literally needed to lean on them for support.

Tear-jerking emotions aside, let's get real here, Roger.  Or at the very least about as authentic as those mid-90 MPH fastballs you were still whizzing by men less than half your age on the regular just a few short months ago. You threw down the gauntlet long ago, or at least it seems your version of it.

But, oh, there's irony. Consider this for starters: The man who staked his claim to fame, his would-be Hall of Fame career, on the strength of bringing nothing but heat may ultimately come to be most remembered for the nasty curve he seems to have long thrown all of baseball. Now that strikes me, bitter as it may be, as the very essence of the word.

The irony that's become the harsh reality isn't lost on Yankees fans. Quite frankly, one of the world's highest paid athletes, he once of the exorbitant $252 million dollar contract, simply is not a money ballplayer.

As it relates to clutch performance, Alex Rodriguez will never be confused with Derek Jeter. And while that, in and of itself, might not be an indictment of him witness-bearing Bronx Bombers' faithful will readily testify it's proving to be murder on them.

If you're scoring at home, this season will mark the first time in the last 13 the Yanks apparent birthright of advancing to play October baseball has been aborted. Aborted as in no ticker-tape parade; aborted as in the team has now yet to see a World Series since Rodriguez was whisked to town as the planet saviour some five years ago.

Oh, but there's been fanfare. Thing is, far too much of it has been about the means of how one comes to rock and own diamonds then what a player is genuinely doing upon one to truly warrant all the riches and attention in the first place.

With the cross-town rival Mets and the much despised Red Sox both seemingly on their way to extra-innings play (think post season) Yanks fans awoke this morning only to be reminded of how the then very much still  married A-Rod spent the critical part of his season convincing himself that none other than the mercurial Madonna herself “is his f—cking soulmate, dude.”

It's now all ended in divorce for A-Rod, and one only wishes fate could be so kind to the Bombers. That cumulative .300 batting average, 40-plus homers and 125 RBI of the last two seasons? About as hollow as numbers printed on a five-year-old Enron ledger sheet.

This was a stage thought to be built for Alex Rodriguez. But somewhere between practice and theory, things went woefully awry. Somewhere between expense and value, A-Rod ceased to be a bargain. And now Yankee fans are left paying the price.

Can you feel Isiah's pain?

Much of the NYC hoops world has been in a state of euphoria since the installation of Mike D'Antoni as the new Knicks head coach. And I must admit for a moment there I too, was caught up in the dizzying prospect of witnessing the rudiments of D'Antoni's self-described "it takes only seven seconds to get off a good shot" offense up close and personal.

But then, in a one-man's-paradise-is-another's-torment sort of way, I thought of Isiah Thomas. Not so much Thomas the coach/GM of the last few seasons, mind you.  But rather Isiah, the man and effusive spirit he once so seemed to embody.

I can recall a time a few years back when Thomas went out of his way -- as few such high profile sports figures ever have over the course of my more than 10-year sportswriting career -- to make certain I had everything I needed for a cover piece I'd been commissioned to do chronicling his purchase of the Continental Basketball Association. Coaches, players, even owners, Isiah made them all readily available to me, even going as far as to phone my home five times himself over just a few hours to make certain everyone was adhering to the game plan.

It was during one of those talks I got to know Thomas a bit outside the lines of the caricature much of the public now so routinely paints him in. We talked about our Chicago upbringings, our respective large families and, yes, we talked nonstop hoops.

Say what you will about Thomas' tenure as coach/GM here, most still concede he knows the game as well as virtually anyone whose ever been around it. Thing is teaching it to others, imparting any of all you know and have done, requires a completely different skill set. And the deed of striving to pull that all off here in New York, New York, no less, simply adds a dimension not many of us can ever truly account for until being in the midst of.

So out went Isiah for parts unknown. And in from Phoenix comes Mike D'Antoni.  Here's hoping he doesn't soon find himself yearning for one of those seamless nights in the desert.
 

Star, Facilitator, Gene Upshaw Changed the Game

By: Glenn Minnis, BlackAmericaWeb.com

HARLEM REVIVAL

The story of John Isaacs and the legendary Harlem Rens (Originally published in Feb., 
 

2008, Black History Month issue of Hoop Magazine.

By GLENN MINNIS/Hoop Magazine

THERE LIVES A FABLE, BORN OF THE LATE•1930s HOOPS SCENE, THAT EVEN TODAY RADIATES SO PROFOUNDLY IT BREEDS ADDED DIMENSION TO THE GAME'S FOREVER TECHNICALLYCOLORED LANDSCAPE.
After knocking off the Oshkosh All-Stars 34-25 to win the first integrated world professional basketball tournament before more than 20,000 less-than-supportive spectators at Chicago Stadium in 1939, beaming New York Renaissance owner Bob Douglas—known as "The Father of Black Professional Basketball"—bestowed victory jackets upon his proud players bearing the inscription "N.Y. Rens Colored World Champions."

Legend has it within seconds, point guard

John Isaacs grabbed a single-edged razor

blade from his perplexed owner's office and began to schematically remove the word "colored" from his otherwise beloved adornment, prompting Douglas to chime, "You're ruining the jacket."

With all the spirit and feistiness he had displayed in leading the Rens to what many back then would characterize as an improbable feat, Isaacs responded, "No, I just made it real."

In many ways, it's those same words that ring so true in gauging the vast and soulful impact Isaacs and all his African-American brethren have had on shaping the entire game of hoops. Simply put, they made it real, adding more authenticity to its makeup with each smashed barrier, the likes of which they demolished during that defining evening in the house Michael Jordan also once called home.

In basketball parlance, it's a period known as the "Black Five Era," a time otherwise typified by Jim Crow laws when top-flight African-American teams like the Rens roamed the earth taking on all comers. Rutgers football All-American Paul Robeson was even part of the mix, starring on a team from Newark, and Jackie Robinson, long before he would join the Dodgers, balled with a squad from Los Angeles.

"They gave their lives, withstood all the pain and hostilities, so that we might be able to do the things in basketball that we're able to do today," says  Knicks guard Stephon Marbury, who as a native New Yorker grew up learning the game on many of the same asphalt courts on which Isaacs himself mastered it during his youth.

"The way they handled and passed the basketball was just amazing," legendary Hall of Fame coach John Wooden once said of the Rens, named after the legendary Harlem Renaissance Casino they played their home games in and shared with such acts as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, EllaFitzgerald, Fatha Hines and the Chick Webb Band."To this day, I have never seen a team play better team basketball,"  Wooden added.

And much of that rhythm and precision started with John Isaacs, the Rens' courageously fearless point guard. Isaacs signed a pro contract right out of Textile High in the Bronx, courtesy of Douglas. At a rate of $150 a month plus $3 a day meal money, it didn't take Isaacs long to prove his worth, earning himself the nickname "Boy Wonder" from the man who signed his checks.

"Coming out of high school, I didn't have a lot of options," explains the now-93-year-old Isaacs and the only living member from the legendary team, "It was either the Rens or the standing offer I had with NYU—New York Unemployment. As far as the Boy Wonder nickname goes, after I had my appendix removed," recalls the 6-1, 190-pound Isaacs, who also later starred for the Washington Bears, "the thinking was that I would be out of action fora long while, but within two weeks I was back running the show. That's when he gave me that name, and it stuck.'"
 
And with good reason, for there were few who could run the show quite like Isaacs. As much as he set the tone with his brash and hard-nosed style, it was also Isaacs who provided the Rens with many of the schemes and strategies Wooden and countless others would soon come to marvel at. It was Isaacs who introduced the team to the pick-and­roll play they became famous for mastering.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Rens were the most dominant team on the hardwood. During the '32-33 season, they raced to a 112-8 record, including a history-making 88-game winning streak. As they barnstormed the country, they formed some of the most intense and competitive rivalries the game has ever known, including histories with the likes of the Harlem Globetrotters andthe Original Celtics.

In fact, it was the Celtics who broke the Rens' winning streak in 1933, adding to a rivalry that saw the two teams square off at least seven more times over the next year or so. In each of those instances, it was the Rens who emerged victorious. By the time they folded in1949, the Rens had compiled an overall record of 2,318-381, a staggering 83 percent clip over their 25-year existence.

"What those guys did is truly amazing, and we're blessed that they were able to come before us and pave the way that they have," says New Jersey Nets point guard Jason Kidd. "To know that a black team is known as one of the best to ever play team basketball says a lot about the different ways we're able to get things done. I've made a great career for myself out of seeing and understanding how the game could be played just as they played it."

Black Magic: John Isaacs and Harlem Rens (part 3)

Black Magic: John Isaacs and Harlem Rens (part 4)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

SPORTS: The Celtic Celebration

So how is it that the player of his era and arguably the best coach in history can team up to mercifully humiliate themselves in the one arena that matters most to them?

Not even diehard Bostonians could have seen Tuesday night's massacre coming. Not with title-magnets Kobe and Phil manning the opposition, keen on enhancing their respective legacies.

But, in the end, the quartet of Doc Rivers, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen clearly wanted their first rings a bit more than Bryant or Jackson simply wanted to add another.

“I'm so hyped right now,” screamed a jubilant Garnett. “Any thing's possible.”  Well, maybe not any thing, at least not where the Lakers were concerned on this night or in this series.

The Celts manhandled Kobe and company from the opening tip, particularly over the last three games where they outscored them by 40 points, leaving Lamar Odom wondering just who the guys wearing the purple and gold along aside him truly are.

"We need to get stronger, nastier,” said Odom. “It's a mindset and they did better." Right now, that seems quite the understatement. But then after Tuesday, what more needs to be said?

-Glenn Minnis 

The DailyGrind

SPORTS: Shaquille O'Neal Wants to Save Your Home

Shaquille O'Neal as your next American idol?

No, don't sleep. If the self-dubbed 'Big Aristole' is able to pull off his latest concoction his popularity may easily come to trump that now reserved for the top-rated show. This week, Shaq shared plans for a reality show of his own where he would work with homeowners facing foreclosure to save their homes.

The DailyGrind

SPORTS: Sins of The Father Behind Son's Decision?

So what would make one of the best pound-for-pound fighters to ever bless the canvas walk away from the game with a more than $20 million payday in his midst? 

Welcome to the fast and furious world of 31-year-old Floyd “Money” Mayweather, where plans and logic seem to change direction as quickly as the savvy southpaw throws a punch.

“I loved competing and winning and wanted to continue for the fans. However, after many sleepless nights and intense soul-searching I realized I could no longer base my decision on anything but my own personal happiness, which I no longer could find with boxing," reasoned Mayweather.

Perhaps that all has much to do with Floyd Mayweather Sr.'s recent announcement he planned to train his son's longtime nemesis  Oscar De La Hoya for what would have been their much anticipated rematch this September. Or it could just as easily be another way for the six-divisions, undefeated  champ to express his mounting discontent with De La Hoya's huge purse, rumored to  be roughly twice the size of his.

Either way, it leaves one wondering what could possibly be next for Floyd Mayweather? A recurring role on 'Dancing With the Stars'? A collabo with his on-again, off-again bud 50 Cent?

Stay tuned.

-Glenn Minnis