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Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008 The DailyGrind
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
Friday, June 13, 2008
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.
"I want to come in not to kick them out, but to work with them so they can stay in their homes,"
explains O'Neal. Now, just think about that for a moment. Given the current economy, if 'The Diesel' can simply
get half the people now in those dire straits to tune in he'll easily
be on his way to securing an audience the size of no other.
Plans call for Shaq to buy the mortgages of homeowners
now in foreclosure due to ungodly interest rates, then sell them back to them at more affordable terms. Imagine that, a businessman
with a conscience. A jiggy gentleman.
The show would be called “Shaq's The Big Save," a sequel to his 2007 weight-loss show known as "Shaq'sBig Challenge." Can you say must-see TV?
-Glenn Minnis
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The DailyGrind SPORTS: Donaghy: It's a Game Within a Game  With such cinematic heavyweights as Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee and Jack Nicholson sitting center stage, Kobe Bryant
starred in his own drama in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, rescuing the Lakers from a 2-0 hole and restoring a level of must-see
chicness to the series.
And still it was hardly the most riveting scene of the night. That honor easily went to
disgraced, former NBA referee Tim Donaghy who now alleges that not only were other officials involved in the business of fixing
games, but they sometimes were working under direct orders from the league office to do so.
Thus, in less than
the 24-seconds it takes to access a shot-clock violation, a season of heightened promise for the league is now cloaked in
never-seen- before mystery. Donaghy alleges that during the 2002 and 2005 playoffs, the league officials implored refs to
make an inordinate number of foul calls in favor of one team to assure series advanced more games.
“He is subject to a longer sentence possibly than his co-conspirators,”
reasoned Commissioner David Stern in dismissing Donaghy's allegations. “They're baseless, this continuing flow
of allegations from an admitted felon."
In
between all the rhetoric, somewhere lies the truth. But as the league touts in its slick, new promos where it superimposes
the images of competing players into just one mug: 'There can only be one' real version.
So, who do you believe ? -Glenn Minnis
Sunday, June 8, 2008
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
Friday, June 6, 2008
The DailyGrind SPORTS:
Kobe Shooting Blanks Now?  Game 1 of the NBA Finals have come and gone, but the questions linger.Thoughts such as if it's really prudent that Kobe
Bryant be compared with Michael Jordan when he continues to struggle on the very stage MJ so thrived upon?
Entering last night's tilt with KG and the Celts, Bryant was shooting
just 38 percent from the floor over the last five games in which he's played for the chip (4-1 loss to Pistons in 2004).
Add last night's even more dreadful 9 of 26 outing and, well, you get the picture of mounting futility.
Now, no one is suggesting Kobe will continue to struggle as such over
the course of this series. In fact, I'm on the record as predicting the hardware will ultimately land in Tinseltown. But
that shouldn't confuse the facts of what has been.
This holds true in terms of Kobe's last six Final's performances and seemingly MJ's entire body of work during
such critical stages of the game. “He's so great at breaking down defenses off the dribble, but the Celts defense
just doesn't allow that play,” lamented Bryant's longtime running mate Derek Fisher.
But when you want be considered on par with the best, in the same breath
as MJ, isn't it your job to find a way?
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
The DailyGrind
SPORTS: Blame it on The Tats
 So let's be clear: It's the tats that make the man and not the man that makes the tats? And every baller choosing
to sport them is bad for the game, bad for NBA ratings and just bad for the universe?
Explaining why NBA ratings
are up this year compared to season's past, sports columnist Jason Whitlock assures us of as much on the strength of scientific
data and indisputable observations gleamed by such self-noted omniscients as ...... Jason Whitlock.
“No one
wants to watch Larry Hughes or Delonte West play basketball. You don't want to explain to your kids that some millionaire
athletes have so little self-confidence they find it necessary to cover themselves in tattoos to mask insecurities,”
notes Whitlock.
Yes, it's all about finger-pointing in Whitlock's world, the fact much of Hughes and West's
ink serve as odes to family and friends lost in the struggle having little bearing. And the hoops ratings bonanza? It shouldn't
take a genius like Whitlock to conclude most hoops fan would rather watch Kobe dueling AI, Duncan and KG in succession than
pretty much any of the other playoff pairings that have recently been offered.
B ut logic seems to always elude Whitlock,
the same man who gave us the assertions hip-hop is the new KKK and Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer engaged in a pity-party
upon defending her team against the rants of Don Imus. With the likes of Jason Whitlock serving as a national voice, tats
may be one of few true forms of expressions many have remaining.
-Glenn Minnis
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
The DailyGrind
SPORTS: Kobe's Beef Continues to Simmer
 As if trying to contend with Duncan, the prospect of an invading Eastern power and his unyielding urge to exorcise the ghost
of Shaq from all consciousness isn't enough, Kobe Bryant may now have the angst of his wife to deal with. Again.
Internet rumors of the league MVP's ongoing dalliances with an 18-year-old Laker Girl are about as rampant as his scoring
binges have been since the fight for the West began two weeks ago.
Count Vanessa Bryant among those
who's seen and heard enough. Her boil reached a fever recently when she came face-to-face with what she termed an "unethical"
ESPN reporter while sitting courtside in The Alamo.
In a truly 'pot-calling-the
kettle-black' moment where the issue of ethics, or lack thereof, seems concerned, Vanessa, her two young daughters in
tow, erupted: “F*** you! How dare you write about me and
my daughters schedule. F*** you! You f****** bitch. You have no journalism ethics.”
Seems the writer had dared to attempt to chart Vanessa's indulgent lifestyle, triggering a meltdown on par with
that displayed by her superstar husband upon his being told prior to the season that his team responsibilities, though quite
vast, do not include GM duties.
In lieu of diamonds, Kobe's MO for appeasing Vanessa the last time his name hit front street related to such sordid
matters, Bryant has ordered his attorneys to file a cease and desist letter against the blogger who first broke the naughty
details. True, not exactly eight carats, but then again silence is golden.
-Glenn Minnis
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The DailyGrind SPORTS: Mike Tyson, This is Your Life  Word on the street is the new film chroniciling the often indulgent lifestyle of former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson makes
for must-see TV.
The documenttary styled-expose played to rave reviews at the Cannes Film
Festival recently, ending with Tyson being serenaded with numerous standing ovations in appreciation of all the brutally honest
testimony he offers, much of which was gathered while he was in rehab just last year.
"I’ve lived a
wild and strange life," admits Iron Mike. "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 (41). It’s just a miracle.”
Kind of the way the then 20-year-old Tyson took
the heavyweight division by storm back in the day, blitzing Trevor Berbick in less than six minutes to secure his throne.
"I wanted to throw every punch with bad intentions," Mike says of the fateful night. Yet another evening
he recalls just as vividly centers around his 1991 encounter with an 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant that ended with
him being convicted of rape.
"I thought the conviction was wrong," he still contends. "I've
been abusive to women, but that was unfair."
Indeed, the James Toback featured film leaves
you wondering what could have been. So, just how will you choose to remember the Tyson legacy? -Glenn
Minnis
Monday, May 19, 2008
TheDaily Grind SPORTS: Barkley's Ramblings on Gambling May 18, 2008, 08:32 PM EST
 Even with a habit that by his own recollection has left him some $10 million in the hole, Charles Barkley's argument has
always been he doesn't have a gambling problem because he can more than afford to cover any expense his impulsive spree's
may incur.
And now a Las Vegas Casino is intent on calling him on his marker. The Wynn Casino has put Barkley's
transgressions on blast by threatening to sue him on four felony theft or bad check charges, each of which could net the former
NBA star anywhere from one to ten years in state prison.
“It's my mistake,” admits Sir Charles.
“I'm not broke and I'm going to take care of it. I've been gambling 20-years; I've
never had this happen. It's my fault, I let the time lapse. I screwed up.”
On that,
the two parties can agree, but everything else seems a crapshot. Barkley contends casino officials never contacted him before
going public, they insist countless overtures went ignored.
Either way, how many convinced the need for intervention
in Sir Charles' kingdom has reared its ugly head? -Glenn Minnis
4:30 pm edt
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It's
been a labor of love putting all this together over the last several years. Not to mention a lot of work. But hey, what does
folklore tell us? Something about anything worth having is worth fighting for. Yeah, right. You be the judge.
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