The Loaded Gloves

Kentucky vs. Wisconsin: did we witness a Culture War?

2014-04-07T12:00:00.002-07:00

We here at the “RaceCard” like to get deep into symbolism and social memes in sports. Saturday night’s Kentucky vs. Wisconsin game was simply put worth the appointment-viewing label. It was the best game of College Basketball I have seen in a while but I could not help but notice the obvious and the effect it had on me as a black viewer. Watching the game, I noticed the game was an inverted version of the 1965 Texas El Paso vs. Kentucky game that for the first time featured an all-black line up. This time it was Wisconsin in the Texas El Paso role living up to every racial stereotype by scheming buckets through back door cuts and the extra pass. They played a brilliant game, seemed to find wide open three’s and somehow even I as a Midwesterner couldn’t get down with them.

Hmmmmmm, I wonder why.

Mind you, I started my day at the gym arguing with a homeboy who argued “Brady” (not Bradley) would KO Pacquiao next Saturday. His premise was that Bradley was the superior athlete, which could not be further from the truth. Yet, when Kentucky seven footer Marcus Lee dunked on Frank Kaminsky I was “all in” with the young bruh’s from the bluegrass state. I was roped in by the optics and the eb and flow of the game, like millions of you I gave my allegiance to those who looked like me. When Dakari Johnson gave Kaminsky the “get up off me” shove under the basket Greg Anthony and Steve Kerr (both equally smart people) inherently got behind their own tribesmen. Sports can do that to you, and you don’t have to be a flaming racist to acknowledge this truth. Anthony was a Running Rebel in the early 90’s, so you cannot tell me that part of him didn’t have a paternal instinct toward Johnson. He knows what can happen, and “it” often happens to young black men in a group setting. Steve Kerr did a great job of redirecting the debate because the contrasting picture of the game was enough to open up discussions we do not want to have.

Like the fact that African American “one and done” basketball players are demonized as people when white tennis players go pro at 15. Adolph Rupp must be rolling over in his grave watching his Kentucky become the clearinghouse for black ballers who aint cracking one book. Villanova coach Jay Wright believes Coach Cal is the only one who can be successful in the model because out of 30 kids who believe they are “one and done” he gets the three who really are. Culturally the game must be an inconvenience for newly minted NBA commissioner Adam Silver who will try to push for a two-year minimum. The way the game ended proved that freshmen (Aaron Harrison) can close games out and execute in the clutch, why would anyone deny them employment?. There once was a freshman named Jordan who hit an NCAA Title Game winner who stayed around to average 13ppg and make millions for UNC. I also found the game unique because the black team represented the “establishment” while the white team was decidedly counter culture.

The reason I root for Kevin Love and will root for Doug McDermott to “ball out” is that we should always root against entrenched establishment. Basketball is beautiful, but nothing is more beautiful without inclusion and full participation. Golf, Hockey, and Boxing are dying without diversity and the NBA is the vanguard of progressivism in pro sports. Kentucky’s ability to roll out five black freshmen every year makes them an establishment outfit today just as they were it was five whites in 1965. For the culture to change in earnest all 24 players must participate in the revenue generated from the event. Team owners were not told when they could start making real money; there is no age restriction on men with the capacity to become billionaires. The game last Saturday was a contest between the “Soon to be Rich” and the “Soon to be comfortable” which keeps the status quo intact for the “I want it yesterday” crowd who build monstrosities like the one the game was played in.

Andre Ward speaks on Sergey Kovalev and reveals why he's not intimidated...

2014-03-31T10:19:00.001-07:00

Mayweather, Maidana, and the Cruel Emasculation of Adrien Broner

2014-03-28T04:07:00.001-07:00

Some time ago, I floated a theory and it goes a little something like this; Adrien Broner should get out of the little brother business and aim for a showdown against Floyd Mayweather. I did not say he was as good, nor did I say he deserved it, I merely stated that Mayweathers patronage was a ploy designed to make the boy assume shit that isn’t guaranteed. Nobody knows this better than a 37-year-old man who could have easily ended up a run of the mill black defensive fighter that nobody wants to see. Now he is an institution, and institutions crush people like Broner. It was that close to happening, until Mayweather became the best-marketed fighter of a generation. In becoming, “that guy” risks were taken and avoided all at maximum compensation and none of it easier than Adrien Broner thought it was.

I told everybody then that “Lil buddies” do not play well when Kevin Durant was working out with LeBron James. Isiah Thomas was exhibit A for this experiment and it failed, it also failed with Kobe and it will hit Broner too late. I’ve told you again and again that Broners “act” was never bound to play unless he got down to the business of hunting down the man with the Brinks Truck.Now, the man who claimed to be his “mentor” advised him to go down to 140lbs. only to circle back around and rob him of career defining redemption. How’s that “when Floyd retires I’ll take over boxing” thing working out Adrien? The Mayweather “poll” was an antiquated way of doing to Broner what he attempted to do to Maidana, this time the dry hump paid off. Mayweather was always playing chess, and I repeat he is not the least bit obligated to stop Broner from playing checkers. Yeah, he tried to give Adrien advice but this came after exposing him to a lifestyle of luxury and whispering in his ear that he would be “next”.

Only Broner could have created a demand that mirrored anything close to what boxing fans felt (and still feel) about Pacquiao, but big brother knew that it was only a matter of time before he played himself. A dominant performance in an immediate rematch against a certified knockout artist would have put Broner in a position to earn grudging respect- but now he has been reduced to a bully victim. Floyd will handle Maidana as if he were going for a walk in the park further illustrating Broner's foolishness and it’s all his fault. Broner should be in there getting that ass kicking on May 3^rd, had he been mature about why you fight, had he really accessed his “inner Floyd” he’d be more than “Hood Rich” by May 3^rd. Entering the ring against Maidana as a Mayweather Fan boy was the worst thing he could have done against a dangerous, grown assed MAN. Had he entered that fight as the #1 threat to a man he respects but wants to hurt it would have given him a significant psychological edge. If you are not fighting to be the man in your division then you are fighting to be the boy, and boys usually end up broke.

Floyd’s psychological mastery of Broner is in the fact that he took something intrinsically dangerous, structurally & designed for the young to kill off the old and turned it into Hip Hop Marketing 101. Moreover, Broner being a D-League rapper himself bought that bullshit hook line and sinker. Rappers are surrounded by protégés they promise to “put on” once “I get my shit poppin” and most weak personalities either end up being "under promoted" or never seeing the light of day. The strong, alpha personality usually cannot wait for homie to hook them up and end up becoming rich themselves by attacking the former mentor on mix tapes. They put themselves on, because they know Hip Hop is a blood sport with words, and rivalries are lucrative for all. Broner had proximity to the King and did not have the sense (or balls) to stab him, now he is doing awkward interviews with Brian Kenny and taking solace in ripping fans who hate Floyd.

Name one athlete in any sport that profited from being a fan boy of his idol? Even Kobe (the ultimate facsimile) had the good sense to go at Jordan every time he saw him.

How many fighters who say they can “beat anybody” call themselves the closest thing to the active reigning Champion in their weight division? How many world class pound for pound champions concede seniority (a cute word for superiority) to any fighter? Wilfred Benetez did not play that shit and he was 17! Sonny Liston slapped the taste of Cassius Clay’s mouth in a Vegas Casino and at the time was considered as good as Joe Louis was, and it did not matter. What if Clay had waited around out of deference to Liston and ended up being clipped by some obscure left hooker? Do you think Liston would have cared? Do you think it was hard for Floyd to take a fight that Broner absolutely needs? Of course not, and neither does Al Haymon.

Even a nice guy like Kevin Durant woke up and realized that he had to either snap out of the “LeBron’s buddy” bs and confront him directly or risk being Alex English. Broner may have as more of a BEEF with Amir Khan, who at least was man enough to try to get paid even after being reduced to a punch line-but Broner, is the bigger joke. Broner bit hard when Floyd instructed Khan to first beat him if he wanted his shot, so much so that he focused on “fucking Khan up” instead of asking himself what he deserved “if” it were to transpire. Pride and self-respect matter with men because often it is all we have, it is called masculine currency, and this young man is rather bankrupt. He is so absent of the currency that instead of getting pissed about Floyd taking his much-needed redemption (vs. Maidana) from him he is now fighting pillow fisted Carlos Molina on the undercard. Floyd is the kind of big brother who takes your girl after she dumps you and invites you to the wedding and Broner isn’t man enough to see it.

The reason I called for Broner vs. Mayweather is that “AB” was no less overmatched than anybody else was in the Golden Boy cache if we are playing by Cold War rules. To be the guy Floyd promised he would be post 2015 at the bare minimum he needed to handle this Maidana business and now he has to stand by emasculated while his “Big Bro” does it for him. If he were anything close to a grown man, he would have screamed bloody murder when Floyd mentioned Maidana in his phony poll. What good is Maidana to Broner’s sense of self when Floyd is done with him? Is that something you want to have on your resume? Boxing is not a schoolyard, it is a hard place with nobody to hide behind, and Broner seems to have a loose interpretation of what that means. To make the cringe fest worse Broner tries to emulate Mayweathers Twitter polls as if there is a hint of mystery to his career. Newsflash, Floyd took the guy you needed to fight and he will take the next guy who beats you-congrats, your Andre Berto with a shoulder roll.

Much attention was given to what Maidana did to Broner in the ring but I liked what I saw in Broner, he faught hard even when it was clear he was going to get his ass whipped. Maidana did what he had to do, but Broner’s mindset before and after the fight is his real weakness. Maidana knew what we all knew, that he wasn’t Floyd but Broner’s delusion is what put him in this bad position in the first place. Had he been his own man he would have differentiated himself from Floyd from the start and just maybe he’d be in a more advantageous place right now. Everything he has done publicly chipped away at his manhood dating all the way back to the disgusting fake marriage proposal on HBO. I was on to him and his lack of masculinity back then but nobody listens in this “Worldstar” climate. A person capable of that is a person who has no gauge on what being the man really is, nor when he is being patronized. Mayweather (with Broner’s complicity) had been chipping away at this little boys manhood for a while now, Marcos Maidana merely swept up what was left of it.

The Last and Final Word on the NFL and Nigger

2014-03-24T11:26:00.001-07:00

“The Feudal Overlord of the one world Global System is the Corporate CEO”

Carroll Quigley

The 15 yard “N Word Penalty” is unenforceable and the NFL knows it, but it sent the stronger message is that old black men DID NOT go to “Massa Goodell” to curtail the speech of young black men. The Corporate/Neo Feudalist NFL “culture” will be protected even though nobody can hear the N word; any controversy (manufactured or otherwise) will not get in the way of our Hunger Games. The cabal of the men in suits is one of Non Profit Status, Billion dollar partnerships and the blackmailing of fan-bases (ironically of the same taxes they do not pay) to erect brick and mortar monstrosities.

The “N word” penalty is only provocative in that it isolates cultural language and criminalizes benign exchanges between men who are not even speaking to the customer. Intimacies between powerless black men are now under scrutiny by liberal plantation overseers and their faithful nonprofit (a top down swindle) butlers.

The Fitz Pollard Alliance is a Non-Profit Organization that monitors and advocates for minority jobs but now they are in the “proper respect” business. This is important because they are in partnership with the (Anglo) Corporate Oligarchy that now want to define what is “hate speech”. Hate speech to CEO’s is better described as “don’t get in my way” speech, because people who are protesting are not buying- a preferred permanent state. The customers are white, and when they feel they have been shortchanged they use the word in ways that would make Incognito blush. In these free speech outbursts, gladiators have to accept the eating habits of the lion- because it is the lion that fuels the non-taxable profit. Many of these same Fitz Pollard brotha’s grew up in the 60’s and consumed Muhammad Ali, Gil Scott Heron, and Richard Pryor-all of whom used the word commercially.

That’s right, Nigga’s are scared of Revolution, but they are all about some well-funded fake reform- and our brother’s keepers shall keep the funds. One should go out on the limb and say they only objected when Tupac came along in the 90’s, because that is when they had officially reached middle age .Ironically, Tupac was of more danger to fuel an autonomous, indigenous black revolution than all of them put together, hence his FBI surveillance.

Neutered, Black Corporate bullhorns amplified to the public to espouse the virtues of intellect and progressivism when they know good and damned well that the field is not a place for that shit. The football field is “regressive”, it is not a work environment (the facility, media room and film room are) it is a fucking warzone and men in duress are brutal men physically and verbally. They know this, but they have jobs and brotha’s with jobs within the corporate matrix will say almost anything. Even the Godfather of Douchebags Bill Romanowski identified Incognito and Riley Cooper as outliers, which places the “target” squarely on censorship of Black Players.

Whereare the great activist and orators of years gone by? he is in sports, falsely telling you sports is a microcosm of society. Our following generations all took to sports journalism where they became “individuals” commissioned to make LeBron’s decision sound like a cultural happening instead of what it was a show. ESPN is 24/7 folks and so is the NFL, which is fastly becoming the opiate of a people unaware of the world around them. Today, whether a Football Player calls his teammate “my nigga” is more important than the poverty and disenfranchisement that makes one see football as his only way out.

Not unlike slavery, we need a steady supply of the poor, big, black, and strong.

Many of the black players who complained about Goodell's overreach were inarticulate (James Harrison) and written off as ignorant brutes by paid operatives of the corporate controlled media. Inherently they know you cannot render something politically safe that is built on violence (except national security) and we have all forfeited a slice of our humanity every Sunday in the fall. We are living in times of Consolidation and full spectrum surveillance and now the NFL wants to practice censorship with the approval of intelligent men who would never challenge Hip Hop directly. Because those rappers’ cannot be controlled so easily, many of them (with corporate sanction) are in the very process of becoming feudal lords themselves.

Corporate interests have merged with the state and yet nobody will challenge Roger Goodell's lack of leadership, when you wantonly use coercion instead of reason you are an autocratic dictator -not a leader. Yet in the parallel universe of the NFL, this style is lauded because the American psyche is still imprinted with the mythical danger of big black men run amuck. When so-called black men of reason side with the state they are saying, “We aren’t the elders we thought we were” so please do the hard work for us. Corporate interests make a ton of money on the fallacy of a post racial world, and bullying a workforce into biting their tongues 50 yards out of earshot of the customer sends one message… “The Gladiators are now becoming more and more mechanized folks, that way you don’t have to be reminded most of them come from places you don’t care about”.

Roger Goodell’s $44 million dollar “salary” is not a symbol of our vaunted free market system as proverbial social Darwinists would lead you to believe-he is actually a symbol of the new “game”. Corporate Feudalism is the New Normal, which is why Goodell would not “step to” the Billionaire Dan Snyder (a fellow lord) about his own blatant racism-because Snyder paid some of that 44 million! Michael Sam will be protected more than Native Americans will because the Gay Community has deeper pockets and lobbyist who can afford the patronage of the tastemakers in politics and media. Who is lobbying for the mostly black workforce who has been reduced to all manner of scrutiny by outside forces on and off the clock? Harry Carson can call “Nigga” disrespectful but he will not have to suffer the ludicrous symbolism of old white men exposing young black men to instant viral condemnation. “Schadenfreude” for those sorry saps who watch the black players participate in “acceptable violence “on Sundays. Maybe it can be collectively bargained in the future to install Orwellian styled confessional booths on the sidelines in the future.

The league already has an investigation body and routinely treats Draft Prospects like suspects complete with body language experts and background checks. Feudal Lords can ask black men if they intend to “stay clean” or if their mothers are prostitutes all for the coveted, right to get their brains scrambled for money. Next, there will be thought crimes and technology based predictive screening where they can weed out the Aaron Hernandez’s of the world-to separate those who cannot turn the violence off from the herd. If Silicone Valley can merge with the surveillance, state companies as powerful as the NFL will soon court the assistance of the Government. If Politics and Big Time Sports were incompatible, the President would not invite the Super Bowl Champion to the White House. The Rooney Rule is great but it does elimate the possibility of an African American “maverick” coming into the league without the “stamp” of approval.

Ultimately, the feudal lords with help from the NSA will be able to identify potential narcissists like Chad Johnson and T.O. and disqualify them before they apply for the privilege of gladiatorial status. “Potential for Self Aggrandizement and Distraction” Nigger please keep the helmet on and your mouth shut. The continued prohibition of African American perspective (positive and negative) will not cease until en masse we make it clear that some things we will not stifle for money. This will be impossible because nobody needs money like black folks need money; nobody is more vulnerable to Oligarchies than we are. Michael Wilbon was the only media type with the courage to point out the irony in white feudal lords telling black subjects what they cannot say to one another regardless of context. It will take more courage to identify the fascist nexus of corporate power and political correctness, and the sickening irony that as the world becomes less empathetic people with influence want the underclasses to talk nicer.

Corporations and Special interest groups are well trained by Bernay’s to speak from utopian platitudes but the truth is in the actual behavior of monoliths like the NFL. The cost of going to a game is skewing up, the players on the field are coming from poorer black neighborhoods, and yet the NFL’s response to the “Gladitorialization” (David Zirin- the Nation) is to pander to white middle class mothers. White women are not producing the “product”, but they are important because if white boys get hurt in Pop Warner mom just may force dad to give up the season tickets. Poor Black Mothers give birth to the player who is willing to risk life and limb by age ten and there’s no appeal to her maternal instincts. It may be instructive that now he must learn the syntax of the Duke of Windsor in order to get out of poverty. You also have to assure true stakeholders in America’s Hunger Game that the rich brotha’s on that field are under control, that ultimately they must be culturally sanitized for the privilege of millionaire servitude.

Who cares why they say Nigga? or if it’s generational? Alternatively, if it is the whole “Blame it On Hip Hop” meme; the bottom line is “if” the word is “taboo” to the dominant society it should not be a luxury to the powerless minority. Repressed angst because they are prohibited to use the word? One of the few things white folks have no unfettered access to despite it being thrown in their faces every day like cherry cheesecake? Older Black Folks who can recall overt racism usually fall for this stuff hook line and sinker much as they do the victimhood based rhetoric of so-called liberal “talkers”. Roger Goodell is not emotional, no corporate welfare recipient is, but he knows he can get emotional support from a certain segment of the population who are conditioned to obey and reform. That is right, obey and reform as opposed to tear down and rebuild in a self-determined structure like early Hip Hop. Our community always tended to lean toward reform politics and it always seems to be led by the brotha’s from the Non Profit sector and academia. The same people who think the word Nigger is obscene did not find anything wrong with a Militarist, tool of Wall Street using MLK’s Bible when inaugurated again in 2013.

In fact, many of them cried, So Nigga’s Please.

Let us get one thing straight, the generation that put their lives on the line for Civil Rights Legislation is directly responsible for our plight today but they do not own the young .They are “Baby Boomers”, and prone to self-congratulatory grandstanding and practicing the "politricks" they once despised just like their white counterparts. They have the impulse response of using the system to throw empty legislation at every perceived problem even when it has been a disservice to their children and grandchildren. Their obsession with integration as opposed to nation building rendered the following generations more capitalistic and less interested in one another. Poor folks were calling one another Nigga for years, but it is now unbearable for the educated class to see those same people making money. They were making money in the 70’s and becoming transcendent when New York was milked dry of resources, those same poor black children transcended them in return and created Hip Hop.

The Rappers and Athletes grew up in places the talented 10^th gave less of a shit about than white folks did because success (and foundations) demanded they forget about their origins. The same foundations divested in MLK after the “Beyond Vietnam” Speech and the well-funded class of Negroes (who ceremonially burry “Nigger” today) turned on him for messing up their paper. Those that were left behind do not talk like them and view the world with clear delineation between those who know and those who do not know. If you do not know the difference between “that nigger” and “them’s my nigga’s” then you fall in the latter. They know that if they weren’t as big and fast and violent as they are they’d be shut out from the American dream many are one major injury (or 9 baby mama’s) away from going back. They had no time to read about the history of the game or Civil Rights (the real pet peeve of former players) because they were totally focused on survival. Now they have to concern themselves with gag orders from a generation that left them behind to die 40 years ago.

When Lyndon B. Johnson a devout racist signed the Civil Rights Bill of 1965, he crowed prophetic words to insiders “I’ll have them Niggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years”. That usage of the word is the only one Black Men of a certain age should be concerned with, but few of them even know about it due to myopic talking points being fed to them. They are a cynical and pragmatic lot, willing to look the other way when white men of power throw them crumbs while becoming mean as rattlesnakes when it comes to the Hip Hop Generation. During the ESPN Propaganda piece dedicated to that “hateful word”, Jason Whitlock scoffed and giggled at the notion that the word was not still the intellectual property of white racists. The statement alone is a tip of the cap to the despotism of whites in that it suggests they can steal everything culturally from us (like Rock and Roll and soon Hip Hop) but we could never steal anything from them. Wilbon put it best when he correctly stated that “ownership don’t get a vote” but I’ll go one further and say neither do the Talented 10th.

They left these young men to Hip Hop years ago and now they want a measure of control since the sons of single mothers are earning generational wealth. I say until the Fitz Pollard Alliance can pompously concern themselves with pathologizing the rank and file they must first fulfill the obligation of all Non Profits and provide a disclosure page on their website. Prove by financial disclosure that their ideology is autonomous and not simply the continuation of the Non Profit Industrial Complex. We have had our share of 501 3C’s marketing blacks as “at risk” and victims of the system while the money always seems to make its way to the bourgeoisie. “Respect” is a vague “goal” but financials tell us the real story of just why certain sectors of our community prioritize the things they do.

This will article will be reposted on RaceCardsports.com

Richard Sherman: The Unspoken Words

2014-01-25T11:35:00.002-08:00

Richard Sherman’s timeline is our shared and gory truth about race, a truth that no amount of time will eradicate. You cannot wash it out with political correctness and you cannot shame it into nonexistence so corporations can keep printing money, cynically it just “is”. Some of the most thoughtful and intelligent black voices have had their say and they have the platform to do so. However, because of that platform, they can only say so much and Rockefeller education will never give them the full spectrum of enlightenment and bravery that Malcolm X had.

He said it plain.

To “say it plain” is not fruitful, and it requires a willingness to abandon the niceties and eloquence in which many have placed a high priority. When trying to trying to dispel a stereotype we have to accept that those who place them on us and those who contribute to our livelihoods are one and the same. Our history makes this impossible, and the sheer numbers suggest that only 13% of the population at minimum will even bother to hear Richard Sherman out. Being well spoken is now more important than being succinct and to the point, it’s as if the whole of black folks in sports have set out to prove in the next week they all are more than just “thugs”. Richard Sherman did screw up, but he screwed up in ways much more practically hurtful to black players than the hyper sensitive, ineffectual racists on Twitter.

Indirectly he messed with another Black Man’s Money

There was a sports media type who “favored anarchy” and WWE styled trash talk who (giddily) said that the post-game interview would end up as a “remember when” watershed moment. Plainly, that means more brotha’s clowning brotha’s after games, in a league that does everything in its power to avoiding paying them. Sherman may be the best, but ask Derelle Revis how long that ride may last at a fast twitch position like Cornerback. The truth is once a brotha sits down with the organization to try and “cash out” on his second deal most organizations are armed with everything from advanced metrics to reports from private investigators. Sherman’s judgment of a fellow union member’s performance on TV should not be tolerated because he is opening a Pandora’s Box to a pack of wolves.

The organization is always trying to get a brotha for as little as possible; hence, the reason ultra-white Bill Simmons makes no qualms about vilifying Rudy Gay for having a “bad contract”. He can use his platform with impunity with no regard for Gay’s wife or family when ESPN is legendary for prohibiting media on media crime. If there is a person at ESPN who thinks he is overrated we will never hear about it, must be nice. Crabtree is Sherman’s brother in the very sense that one day soon they will both be treated like pieces of meat, by calling him “mediocre” he spoke on the man’s contract. To say what he said about a fellow piece of meat in such descriptive market based terminology is a crime because it will be used in the future if the 49’ers decide they want to “go in another direction” or lowball him.

Fans already dehumanize Football players with fantasy football and other coping mechanisms, now the black players can use language to lower one another’s market value after a bad play? What if it were a poorly thrown ball by a white Quarterback? would Sherman be so willing to affect that man’s ability to make a living?. If you’re an adult you know that there are professional jealousies and brutal language on and off the field but once it bleeds onto microphones it can affect a man’s bottom line. If commentators and coaches evaluate and find a player mediocre that information will reveal itself but adding post-game interviews to the process is too much like the social Darwinism that makes “us” an ugly reflection of the dominant culture.

Moreover, it lends to the growing stereotype that blacks (for lack of ethics and racial identity) have no problem destroying other blacks for a buck-Hip Hop is built on that ratchet shit. The “him or me” mentality is evidence of a people with a strong identity based on scarcity and “not enoughness” masquerading as competition. White folks don’t suffer from crab in the barrel syndrome because they are the barrel. Peyton Manning vanquished a man who dogged him for the better part of his career but he handled it the way someone who assumes prosperity for all (of his kind) does.

“I TOLD YA’LL HE AINT A BETTER QB THAN ME! DUDE WAS BOUT THAT SYSTEM, SPYGATE WHAT! NOW CUE THAT WACK AS IM THE MAN SONG!!”

The emphasis on Sherman’s education “is” a poor reflection on us

Stop talking about Stanford, because it makes you sound historically and politically naive. Places like Stanford are renowned for high IQ’s but a lot of those high IQ’s (Prof. Stephan Schneider) are enlisted in think tanks who propagandize global initiatives (Agenda 21) that negatively affect poor people who aren’t 6’3 and run a 4.4 40. Our greatest institutions have produced some of the biggest thugs ever to walk the face of the earth and under white supremacy it is all legal. One should never forget that Sherman comes from a place that highly educated people thought it was cool to dump crack while defunding programs that produced strong children.

When black folks point to education in the face of racism what they convey is “I should be exempt” much like the stars and media types who have to suffer the inconvenience of being treated like a brotha by traffic cops once a year. Stanford will not exempt you, and when you hold it up as a shield, you further isolate those who are far more vulnerable than an athlete or Harvard Professor like Henry Louis Gates. You separate yourself from the people who truly risk themselves in times of struggle because intellectuals never do. Muhammad Ali could barely write and he often defended himself in a way that was unapologetically black. Too many blacks in media legitimize themselves through association with the dominant cultures institutions when the truth in combating racism is asserting ones value from their day of birth. The ability to assimilate within the dominant culture is not a virtue; it is a survival tactic we have mastered.

No matter where you went to school if you go Busta Rhymes in the white ladies face she’s going to recoil plain and simple, and guess what? It’s her problem not yours. Should we discuss the media being all up in a brotha’s face right after a game? Sure, but do not plan on winning that one, because if you’re from Stanford you know the media is a major contributor to the revenue generated from football.

The latent venom from white fans aint going away

A lot of white football fans where the chafe to a brotha’s wheat in high school football and basketball. However, a lot of them love the game more than they hate the brotha who put them on the bench back in the day, so now they consume it irrationally. When you are addicted to a sport where you do not see yourself and you are the financial engine of that sport you passively want those brotha’s to make you feel better about your sickness. You want to believe you can control them that your words and character attacks actually hurt, your only release is the occasional controversy, or when a player goes broke so the inner racist is can to run wild.

Fans are vicious at games because they drink, but they are also vicious because they love people they would not normally give a shit about in real life. They are vicious because they cannot stop paying black men who make them sick, that “junkie’s remorse” puts them on edge with few opportunities for relief. Black players like Richard Sherman should know this, especially in markets like Seattle and Minnesota where racial coding on sports radio is the accepted native tongue. Thug “is” code for Nigger, but I am happy to live in a world where white folks have to take the emasculating path of cryptic language and “tweets” because my grandmother didn’t.

In her day, the word came from men who had lives, resources, and power not the mouth breathers who attack Sherman on Twitter. Those same losers who call him a nigger on Twitter will tune in next Sunday to help the ratings soar just as they do when Mayweather fights some handpicked bum. There was a time in this country when black arrogance led to white violence, many died when Jack Johnson was whooping ass in 1909- now the descendants of that white trash must “tweet”. These “men” will continue to contribute to creating an uber class of black men who will send children to Ivy League institutions to become real legal thugs who may run for office on day. They will also continue to make bullshit Hip Hop and 250$ headphones billion dollar industries, because despite hating you they cannot be cool without you.

What is unspoken is those same people who call Sherman a Nigger are most likely consumers, and if you are a consumer, you can say whatever you like because economically there are no ethnic or territorial lines.

In Economics, the Buyer is always the Nigger.

PART 2 COMING NEXT WEEK

Adrien Broner: Will April Bring Bravado or Courage?

2014-01-11T10:28:00.001-08:00

The way we felt about it wasn’t "normal", it happens only a few times in the sport of boxing with the last occurrence in 2001 when Marco Antonio Barrera exposed Naseem Hamed as an HBO construction. Boxing is emotional, and the way we respond to fighters is the most visceral in sports, even more raw than Football because fighters are more psychologically accessible. We root for football players, but we can’t see ourselves in any of them; in fact we can’t see them at all. But Boxers are shirtless, and many of them aren’t as big as we are so in some way their personalities are more important to us than Football players who are encouraged to spew clichés in accordance with the corporate behemoth they represent. Football players rarely evoke hatred and though we love them it isn’t as personal as our love for boxers- which is why their mortality reminds us of our own. Few fighters have courted hatred in such a misguided, uninformed and unproductive way as Adrien Broner and I fear that he isn’t finished going down this path.

I don’t have to itemize the many things that led to that as whipping last month, the reasons are many and varied- I can only touch on the two driving expressions that he seems to struggle with inside. Bravado and Courage, both are distinct within themselves and yet somehow when one lacks character the former is easily mistaken for the later. Broner and his following grow up around Bravado and see it as a laudable characteristic, they even see it rewarded in industries like Hip Hop and the drug game. Many young black men cultivate Bravado to cope with an upbringing without men and the results have led to men who primp, preen and talk about material goods- ironically both characteristics were associated with women 50 years ago. Broner latched on to someone else’s marketing formula through lack of character and courage, it takes a brave person to be themselves and stand on their own merit but when you lack an authentic personality this is foreign to you. Broner has every reason to be arrogant about his level of talent but Floyd Mayweathers Bravado was rooted in a maniacal work ethic and resume -the courage came later when he rejected the price HBO (AKA “Boxing”) tried to put on his services.

Bravado or “Swag” is easy to perpetuate when you are fed a steady diet of mismatches and assumptions but courage is the ability to recognize that like a baby your food is being puréed for you. Marcos Maidana at the very least could understand that Broner would brag in the lead up to the fight but what Broner showed instead (low character) must have made him sleep like a baby. Maidana had already showed courage in victory and defeat, Broner didn’t even know he was being commended for having the courage to step in with the Argentinian in the first place. He was too busy showing bravado; he was too busy blustering about an easy fight to take much deserved credit for taking a hard one. When he simulated humping Maidana the gesture backfired with the same folks he wasted so much time trying to impress- because real thugs don’t act like that when it’s time to fight. Broner was so focused on humiliating Maidana (as with previous opponents) he couldn’t be bothered with putting his hands on him enough to win. Bravado is an impediment to “appropriate fear”, the kind of fear that is the driving fuel behind some of Boxing’s greatest performances.

Had Floyd Mayweather stood in front of Diego Corrales (in 2001) mugging and showing off for friends he might not be sharp and coherent enough to be the “face of boxing” in 2013.

That is why Maidana’s initial attack was so devastating, the shock on Broner’s face said it all; he’d only prepared himself mentally to show how much “swag” he had, when did he anticipate having to display courage? One never knows. Al Haymon and Floyd Mayweather can’t give you character, and Band Camp rappers are never obligated to take hard punches to the face- their services can strictly be filed under “bravado management”-an abstract. Even when showing courage Broner let his bravado keep him from laying it all on the line, he never faught to win in the middle rounds, he merely faught to save the face bravado created. His punch output was still low, and he was still “too cool for school” for a man in the ring with someone who is trying to kill him. Ali used bravado to win “round one” against Foreman but he’d long mastered his fears which allowed him to show courage when Big George unloaded on him against the ropes. Without substance bravado is eventually going to be tested, even Joe Frazier understood that he may have dusted Ali off and shut his mouth for an evening in 71’ but Ali’s courage guaranteed he’d see him again.

Courage is taking vulnerable moments and viewing them as opportunities

Opportunity that even his idol has never enjoyed- the chance to bond yourself on a deeper level with fans through defeat. Floyd Mayweather is an outlier due to his elite matchmaking talents post Top Rank, but the one thing he can’t afford is what Sugar Ray Leonard paid for in blood. Leonard is beloved for his conduct in and out of the ring in the first Duran fight; the last years ESPN Documentary about the two fights only solidified the Sugar Ray myth. How he dealt with challenge and loss is something we can all relate to, Broner had an opportunity to join us (as Prince would say) “in this thing called life”- and all he needed in that moment was a little courage. The door was open, and he could have secured Latin fans that wouldn’t just tune in out of hate but respect as they did with Shane Mosley. He couldn’t do it, and believe it or not that weakness to Bravado will make him a cinch to get KO’d if he’s ever challenged again. Bravado is rooted in delusion; the guy who makes the most noise about his “bitches” is probably the guy wounded the most by a past girlfriend- and in circles like Broner's this isn’t OK. If you can’t “feel” then you can’t get your mind right enough to overcome, and if you’re going to the club on the same night how do you find the mirror required for real transcendence?.

Broner recently stated that he would continue “as if nothing ever happened” as his mentor sits idly by endorsing the self-defeating bravado. Boys continue on as if nothing ever happened, narcissistic children simply change venues when things require courage- now that he has his rematch in April what will be different?. Sugar Ray Leonard KNEW something happened to him in Montreal, he also had the courage to be away from people who would lie to him about it. Boys full of bravado never get a real "sense of the room", which is why Broner’s antics always seemed to fall lame on the public. Leonard knew if he dealt with the loss accurately he’d come back from a place of courage and not the denial exhibited by Broner.

He's now going back to Maidana and I'm not sure he's done any self reflection. In the next fight he has to shut his mouth because there are no words that can save him from what we saw, and the only way to fix it requires a great deal of courage. This is not about money, and Floyd is no position (having avoided a prime Pacquiao) to tell Broner his payday and infamy can somehow make it easy to fool the man who beat him down. In fact when (and if) Broner subscribes to this empty course he isn’t hurting nor fooling Maidana, he’s ducking and lying the most important foe he’ll ever face….himself.

Timothy Bradley: The Time is NOW to become Mayweather Foil

2014-01-09T11:33:00.003-08:00

In a recent interview Larry Merchant gave to Chris Robinson (follow @hustle boss) the veteran Boxing scion theorized Tim Bradley possibly becoming a future opponent for Floyd Mayweather Jr. Currently Mr. Bradley is waiting on that call from Manny Pacquiao to finish a little business in 2014 but Merchant believes the WBA Welterweight Champ could possibly challenge the current trade sanctions levied on Boxing fans by Monopolistic promoters- you call it a “Cold War”. I call it Bullshit. The truth is Bradley, like any other “precedent” case looks good enough on paper to force the hands of “Boxing” because he isn’t in debt to Bob Arum or the IRS. I’m going to venture to say that Arum owns Manny’s ass like King once owned Tyson and he will fight out his days as a deterrent to big fights as opposed to being a maker of such fights-enter the uber credible Tim Bradley. What Merchant didn’t do is make the itemized list of “things” Bradley would have to execute besides buying one house and one car to elicit the ire and interest of Floyd Mayweather, which is where I come in.

‘Positioning” in the marketplace is hard when you don’t have the benefit of a built in ethnic fan base, even the great Mayweather requires foes to bring fans when he’s supposed to be the face of boxing. Why else does Amir Khan merit discussion? And why else would Golden Boy be prudent to keep Danny Garcia in the Barclays Center for the foreseeable future? Bradley is suffering from the oldest of maladies and it can be traced back as far as Charley Burley and Marvin Hagler. He’s going to have to make himself worth the risk to a fighter who resembles Jack Johnson in his propensity to profit from tribal passions in Floyd Mayweather and it can’t be done without planning. As of now on a mainstream level he’s seen as “that guy who didn’t beat Manny Pacquiao” and he has to change that perception before setting out on the Mayweather campaign. Yes, I said campaign and campaigns require more than a few well-placed quotes here and there. Here is the blueprint for making Tim Bradley a candidate for a super fight with Mayweather beyond his sterling resume.

#1 beat the Breaks off of Manny Pacquiao

A tall order if Manny turns in a 6 week camp, but if it turns out to be a war then that’s all the better. The general public will endorse Bradley if ESPN jams highlights from a slug fest down their throats, remember this is a highlight generation and there’s no advertisement like a quip from a Sports Center anchor. If he repeats the next level FOY performance against Manny Pacquiao Floyd Mayweathers name will come attached with the clips and he’ll be forced to explain it away to a less than receptive audience. A decisive win over Pacquiao is a game changer, it puts Arum in a position to where he has to choose to put his golden goose back together again while letting Bradley cross the street Miguel Cotto style. Arum isn’t a believer in black fighters as “draws” which is why Floyd hates him, trust me he’ll be too busy looking for another punching bag for Manny try to leverage Bradley. And after beating "Pacman" decisively Bradley can easily co-opt his fans with a gracious demeanor and respect for the Champion of the Philippines. Hell if he can he should go there and support Manny’s political efforts and bond with the people who would gladly transfer their hopes of beating Mayweather onto Bradley in the short term.

#2 Call Floyd out early and often

I know I know, everybody calls him out but Tim Bradley will be the most decorated welterweight to call him out in years. Remember, there’s no shame in calling him out when you consider the fact that he is actually listening to everyone but the guy you just beat Pacquiao once and for all. Calling out Floyd will be greeted with derision by his propaganda arm but all one has to do is point out that Amir Khan, Juan Manuel Marquez and Ricky Hatton were all “heard” (by Floyd) because they all had no shot. Bradley has no better platform than post fight once he handles Pacquiao to let it be known and do it in a colorful and unmistakable way. This will assure face time on ESPN’s “First Take” and Bradley must find a way to lead Stephen A. Smith (A Mayweather “fan”) to the water because he’s not hard to convince. Hell even where a Floyd Who? T-shirt to Max Kellermans “Face off” if you have to, remember Floyd will start saying Bradley’s trying to “get paid” but make it clear to every hot microphone within 50 feet that he deserves to get paid. Turn his words against him, Bradley shouldn’t be the least bit shy about reiterating Mayweather's “they call it prize fighting” mantra.

#3 Hire an Aggressive PR Firm

There has to be some outlay in order to bring the money home, and hiring a professional group is a wise investment. Picture it as a real campaign, a product that needs to be sold just like any other new product. Ali was his own PR machine who had no problem showing up in Denver and Philly to harass Sonny Liston and Joe Frazier because they had what he wanted. Floyd’s backyard is Vegas so why wouldn’t an aggressive firm run spots in Vegas? why wouldn’t Bradley do something charitable in Sin City and invite Floyd out to help?. Go on a Hip Hop Radio (Power 105, Hot 97) media tour and piss all over his backyard, this is the one constituency his opponents haven’t exploited in the call out stage so Bradley should be the first. A firm can stress the importance of doing more than press releases, how getting out there as a public figure is the way to sell anything in 2014. If Bradley can get some kind of cameo on a BET or "TVOne" type of show it would work wonders. Hell put on a suit and make yourself a presence at Black Hollywood Gala’s and hobnob with the celebrity set. At this point he’s a “who”? With black people and he needs to at least become “that dude who thinks he can whoop Floyd” by the fall- a serious upgrade. If Floyd is playing for anybody its black folks, specifically young black males so Bradley should appeal to the "WorldStarHipHop" crowd because if they “think” Floyd is on some punk shit they’ll call him on it.

#4 Frame Yourself as the Contrast to Mayweather

Believe it or not the fights that capture our imagination present us with two opposing forces like boxer vs. puncher or flashy vs. down to earth grinder. Bradley is a grinder with the opposite personality to Floyd, shine a spotlight on it! Mayweather cornered the market on “flashy, obnoxious African American” so Bradley has to bring attention to the differences between himself and the Grand Rapids native. HBO’s “Real Sports” can do a feature on him to create the kind of framing needed to polarize and make people choose sides. If they can play the race card by bringing in Michael Eric Dyson to lob Mayweather fat juicy softballs bring in someone else to draw the very real conflict ( us vs. them) now bubbling in the black community. Facebook is filled with young black men posing with stacks of money that they didn’t get by hard work and dedication thanks to Floyd, so why not highlight this fact? Tim Bradley can present himself as the alternative and become a celebrity for his overtly non celebrity image if he “puts Floyds name in his mouth”. Bradley’s very lifestyle isn’t vulnerable to Mayweather’s usual claims aimed at Pacquiao, with resume in hand he can sell himself on integrity alone and put Floyd’s hypocrisy “all out on front street”. Even if he’s embraced by the conservative right as the kind of athlete African Americans “should” root for it’s better than anonymity and it also tears a page out of the Mayweather book on self-promotion. Make “the rounds”, late night or any non-boxing forum your firm can arrange because it’s about finding a supportive mainstream tribe. Floyd found the vicarious video game playing “ballers” back in 2007; in 2014 Bradley has to find his.

#5 Send Joel Diaz “after” the babbling Mayweather’s

It’s the worst kept secret in all of Boxing, the Mayweather’s aren’t elite trainers but their involvement with Floyd gives them license to comment on any other trainer in the business. Diaz should hit them where it hurts and make it clear that at this point training Floyd Mayweather is like coaching LeBron James which is why you can switch the babbling brothers in and out between rounds if you wanted to. I’m not sure he’d notice. Floyd may be a major league shit talker but he got it from these two, and his uncle and father aren’t as secure in their position as he is. Diaz may be a class act but getting muddy can lead him to the only fight that makes sense if Bradley beats Pacquiao in impressive fashion. The uncle and the father talk shit more consistently than Floyd so Diaz should get the running chatter going now before Bradley steps in with Pacquiao. Any claims of Cold War go out of the window after Floyd steps in with Amir Khan, by my estimation once that farce is signed Diaz can say the following to the babbling Mayweather’s.

“How can you talk so much shit about who can’t fight and take on Guerrero, Canelo and Khan in succession?” Diaz may be the trainer of the #2 fighter pound for pound in Boxing by spring and you’d have to be a fool to let any one of these guys (Floyd Sr. or Roger) tell you he don’t deserve the shot. More importantly Diaz can point out that “his” guy doesn’t quit which is more than you can say for ALL of Mayweather’s recent opponents with the exclusion of Miguel Cotto. Bradley made his bones not caring about obstacles and Floyd’s trainers are masters at hypothetical obstacles that don’t mean shit to guys like the desert storm. If he starts now he can break down all of the obstacles figurative and literal that makes this fight a long shot because the truth is he’s probably the last fighter “worthy” of fighting Floyd Mayweather.

Amir Khan: Cold War Profiteer

2014-01-02T11:00:00.002-08:00

“War is a Racket, Always has been and always will be. Few profit and many end up paying”

Smedley Butler

Truer words have ever been spoken, only a select few know the truth behind a war and yet in boxing everybody “knows”. When rich men in suits posture and feign disgust while both providing a watered down service at inflationary prices only boxing fans believe they deserve that product. Now that Floyd Mayweather is searching to do business in this so called hostile environment we are confronted with a “product” guaranteed to be overvalued in this surreal marketplace- Amir Khan. Yes, he of quick hands British accent and shaky chin is now available to you at a 75$ clip because Golden Boy is taking their act global! War usually leads to shortage of supply in commodities and in this case the shortage is of welterweights who the public believes can beat Mayweather. But it won’t matter once the Showtime hype machine starts rolling, when they’re done with him many of you reading this will believe he’s competent at your own peril. And those of you already committed to the (cough) “war” will say he’s even more live than Pacquiao, Hall of Fame credentials be damned.

Cue the lights and camera’s because the boy can talk shit too, a great “fight selling” tool when you’re woefully overmatched and lacking credentials. War profiteers often exploit the largess of the state by overselling them commodities they really don’t need like mosquito nets and second tier junior welterweights. Few contractors profit from the delusional premise that Khan should be on this stage but War offers advancement to he who is willing to propagandize a meritless cause. Floyd Mayweather has an online propaganda arm in full bloom for those acolytes willing to obsess on Manny Pacquiao’s finances and Virgil Hunter calls Khans “troubling speed”. He also has family members as disinformation agents belittling Manny Pacquiao just enough to keep you from focusing on the fact that turning Khan into a threat will be a feat insurmountable by even Don Draper himself. Amir Khan will profit greatly from all of this because anyone approaching truthful analysis about the Brits “level” will be shot down and called a “broke hater”- and many of you can’t stomach the thought. This synthetic War apparatus will protect him as it will those who engage in staging “Pacquiao vs. Marquez 10” in 2015. Once a profiteer has his claws into the revenue stream of phony war it’ll be hard to get him off of the Government dole-which is why we still care about what Victor Ortiz is going to “do” in the future.

Khan is so intent on getting his Government bailout that he’s hinted at fighting Pacquiao if the Mayweather deal falls through; he’s no stranger to the fact that these two have been “using” one another to market themselves for years. Remember, in fake wars profiteers have no real allegiance and will sell pieces of themselves to whoever is willing to overpay; only Miguel Cotto swam this political swamp having delivered valuable services. Shane Mosley? not so much. The “state” (Top Rank/Golden Boy) only appear to be at a stalemate much like Democrats and Republicans but the truth is war allows them to inflate value and further control those already under contract. They also have the ability to govern with the consent of the fans who don’t realize our PPV “buys” are construed as votes for the continuation of shadow Government. They are behind the scenes a single monopolistic force who leverages one another as the NFL leverages existing franchises with the threat of expansion to LA.

War profiteers are shameless creatures who exploit the suffering of the whole to become one of the benefiting few. Khan is a product of this designed chaos, he’s seen guys of his ilk line up and get paid so he wants his handout too-and why not? He’s got 1.4 million twitter followers mate. This war seems to be designed to deny the historic and important and replace it with rhetorical fan chatter and a ton of rushed, not ready for primetime puppies. You know how I can tell Danny Garcia will be an All Time Great? because he’s clearly better than Khan and Broner and yet he isn’t itching to get at Mayweather. Somehow (unlike the guy he beat handily) Garcia knows the machine can turn him into a credible B side for a career high payday but he’s content with the long play that he may possibly be Floyd in 5 years. Without a bunch of youngsters with instant gratification issues this war is at a standstill, under peacetime coherence the Brandon Rios’s and Amir Khans of the world sort themselves amongst each other while Manny and Floyd tend to historic business. But no, we are led to believe that incredibly wealthy men simply don’t like one another while men with similar grievances make BILLIONS with one another in every other industry daily. The belief in a War that makes grown men act like middle school girls is the belief in the cover story being fed the uninitiated-when the truth is somehow this thing is more profitable for all involved parties this way. One would have to suspend his faculties of reason to accept Amir Khan as anything more than another line item of the overhead needed to keep the charade (I mean war) going.

Amir Khan is doing his part by acting as if he wants Mayweather more than he wants money, when you sign a bout agreement before your number is called son it’s about the money. By round 4 like most Mayweather foes Khan will run out of answers and his true colors will show. He’ll behave like the paid patsy he is and start protecting future paydays as opposed to fighting with little regard for tomorrow, you know like the guy he barely survived back in 2011. Back then he was fighting for more, back then he at least had the inkling that he might be special. That ship has sailed, and all that’s left is to exploit the Cold War to get paid like he’s special. In May he’ll be reminding us of our complicity and apathy, and our willingness to accept anything power tells us is reality- and yes “power” includes the networks who KNOW their use of the phrase “Cold War” is legitimizing to the promoters. Speaking truth to power is hard in wartime, and few benefit from pointing out the obvious-those who tell you to accept life as a casualty are usually those who like to call themselves the winners. But history can be cruel to many Wars and boxing history is only kind to wars that occur in the squared circle.

The History of Boxing will not forgive for the things we obsess upon daily, and there’s no room for larva like Tommy Summers or even the esteemed Al Haymon. History is for the fighters and what they did and didn’t do; history is cold and devoid of nuance much like accounting. Maybe one day there will be a book about these fascinating times (look for a subsidiary of Ring Magazine to publish it) but characters like Khan won’t register in real history books. When independent historians who aren’t beholden to the machine look at it they will examine it as political scientist does this country “after” JFK. Without the “WAR” you cannot justify how soon guys like Khan and Ortiz have reached this PPV status, with the War Mayweather and Pacquiao function as tools meant to add value to the whole stable of Welterweight talent regardless of whether they’re ready or not. “Bigger Checks Sooner” is what I call it. The model works, and we’ll never know if any of them could have grown into fighters who could legitimately retire Mayweather or Pacquiao because it don’t pay as well nor as soon. Amir Khan is perfect for this climate and if he’s OK with being “cash out” insert opponent here then more power to him.

But just don’t tell me it’s a War.

@AdrienBroner Will Never "Run" Boxing, And Floyd Mayweather knows it!!

2013-12-14T12:05:00.001-08:00

Power isn’t complicated, but it is to those who will never come close to achieving it. If it is “given”, it’s counterfeit and can easily be stripped from you-which are why men who really want it see the “giver” as an impediment to be eliminated. Kobe Bryant is powerful because he vanquished Shaq, if he hadn’t he’d never be perceived as he is now; as a Don. Our laws are written by the powerful, and many of these people made the hard decision to take what some told them to wait for- if you can’t make that decision then you weren’t meant to be powerful in the first place.

In music the most talented step away from lifelong friends and family members to take power, ever heard of a dude named Michael Jackson? Powerful people look at their watches and the same time is always displayed 24/7 and that time is now- it’s a timezone unshared with the powerless. Floyd Mayweathers watch is always on now, and when you operate in that reality there’s a good chance there is no tomorrow for the likes of Adrien Broner.

In this buildup to a fight Broner should be applauded for taking the Cincinnati native did everything in his “power” to let you know he will be handed something from Mayweather. Something nobody else inherited, something many have had to hurt idols and friends to achieve. Muhammad Ali had the power despite his former sparring partner being heavyweight champion of the world, and even though Holmes felt deeply for the champ he had to take what was his or forever take crumbs. Rocky Marciano’s handlers knew it best, they knew he’d never be “that guy” unless he mugged Joe Louis and with that crime came financial power.

Boxing is the roughest business in sports and entertainment so it baffles me that Adrien Broner, normally an objectionable personality would be so soft in this of all matters. Did he not do his dirt on the streets like he claims? Did anyone ever “pass down” a slab of concrete to him and his crew? Especially if that concrete was the only place to get money?. What are the chances Floyd Mayweather retires and Adrien Broner collects even a 20 million dollar payday in his next fight?, only powerful people know someone of much greater financial stature has to be destroyed for this to happen.
John Gotti knew it, in fact so do most Monarchs.

Being the best pound for pound fighter in the world is fluid and everyone is eligible, but being the money man is something contingent on lowering the financial viability of other money men. In organized crime “bosses” are routinely murdered and the wisdom from law enforcement went as such; if you want to know who killed the boss all you have to do is find out who the new boss is. Oscar De La Hoya was the boss, and Floyd Mayweather (already the superior fighter) knew then that his financial future rested on beating him on a huge stage. Adrien Broner is talented (like Floyd) and may be as obnoxious but how will he convey that on a bigger stage when he believes it will be handed to him? At this rate Floyd will leave with the stage and Adrien will remain a bitter facsimile of his mentor wondering why things aren’t unfolding as Floyd said they would. What if Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia don’t become big enough foils to reach the kind of financial solvency he believes he deserves?

Being associated with powerful people is healthy, and trying to mimic their formula (like Broner clearly does) is intelligent but believing they can bestow power upon you is what welfare recipients do. Broner pointedly tells us nobody ever gave him nothing but in the same breath believes Floyd and a volatile, unpredictable marketplace will. Having a shoulder roll and a shitty demeanor isn’t the formula for PPV success, the power will have to come from defeating a handful of recognizable names starting with Floyd himself. Zab Judah was Floyd’s best friend at one time and now he’s a footnote in Mayweathers quest for power, because the path to power isn’t easy and it is littered with broken relationships and friends. Adrien Broner is still young, still surrounded by people he feels he owes and relationships mean a lot to the young- until it’s time to pull your pants up and be a man. Young black men are often cursed with this over-emotionality in spades and sometimes they never grow out of it enough to become pragmatic, powerful people. It’s not in Floyd’s nature to share power let alone “pass it on”, because he knows that betrayal on all levels lay behind every substantial fortune.

Will it take a jail cell to make this young man see that rich and powerful are two totally different things? He says he’s “just being young and having fun” but Broner is a “live dog” to get himself in something that Mayweather the powerful could easily get himself out of. Mayweather is a proven stimulus program for Nevada so if he goes to jail there his power is a factor in the legal proceedings. Broner isn’t valuable to any local economies, at this time he’s an addendum to the Mayweather deal, a protégé or “spin off” act like Tha Dogg Pound or G-Unit -whether he can flourish outside of Mayweathers brand is yet to be seen. Real stars aren’t content with being called anyone’s “little brother” no matter how talented the older star is, and I’ve never seen a real star contented being with a cheap knock off. The only time someone is content with this distinction is if deep down they know they aren’t of the big brothers caliber, so they’ll gladly take whatever they can get from the association. If there is any hope of Broner being the face of boxing there must be underlining tension and ambition, because he’ll never reach his destination under Floyd Mayweather.

The only way to get there is over Floyd’s prone body.

Boxing: Where the Customer is Always Wrong

2013-12-11T11:13:00.001-08:00

On Monday the WBC did something that Alphabet Organizations always do, they ranked Manny Pacquiao as Floyd Mayweather #1 challenger and mandatory defense. Now In the old days (Pre Twitter) there would be an outcry about the organization itself, their ranking practices and the arbitrary, political way they go about their business-back then the makers of the trinkets were uniformly challenged by fans at every turn. But today, if you are an alphabet crew life must be good because there’s a new villain in town that nobody ever counted on arriving-the boxing fan. Yep, the fan aka “the customer” have shown themselves to be undeserving of an organized coherent fight game because they’ve broken every cardinal rule in the book when it comes to being a paying customer. They’ve started to identify with the very people who ask them for premium costs in exchange for a defective service.

For one, paying customers don’t personalize the people behind a given service especially if those people are committed to providing “pieces” of a service. When you pay a PPV price in 2013 it is complicity understood that you are only watching ½ of what the promoter can offer you in a particular weight class, and yet they demand inflationary prices when most of your salaries have flat lined. If you pay a cable subscription fee and buy PPV’s from both premium networks you are not out of your sorts to demand these entities work in conjunction (with one another) to provide the customer the best Boxing has to offer-YOU’RE THE CUSTOMER.

The NFL is a conglomerate of megalomaniacs who agree to a schedule and provide packages of content to several networks for billions of dollars but none of it would work if the customers weren’t provided competitive conclusions. You can see any team on one of 4 different networks throughout the season and everybody makes sure these megalomaniacs profit equally from providing a product that consumers trust. This is why a football ref makes a bad call and has to consider relocating while Steve Smoger can sleep like a baby after almost letting Glen Tapia get his career shortened on live television.

Boxing fans allow two programmers and two promotional teams to pick sides and refuse to do business with one another- this refusal is akin to colluding together in order to put promotional interests ahead of providing financially vested consumers a reliable product. Not only will these two firms refuse to enter into negotiations to provide the best programming to the customers who pay at the gate and through PPV they work in monopoly to assure no outside promoters try to answer the demand of the marketplace. The sad part is boxing fans now work in conjunction with these firms, pitting sides amongst themselves and defending the destructive polarization and the players who provide the limited services they receive.

Even the Mafia understood war was bad for business, and they often killed one another for the right to take your union dues to build casinos. Union members didn’t bicker with one another over which Mobster had the most swag or deserved to exploit them-the ones who knew what was happening to their dues didn’t glamorize the likes of Bugsy Segal.

Boxing fans piggyback the juvenile stances and statements of warring factions as if they are paid to do so, because (now) the argument over who deserves to fight whom is more rewarding than the actual fight. The players have worn the fan down, and through Stockholm syndrome the fan now identifies with the business entities who blatantly tell them “YOU WILL NOT GET THE PRODUCT YOU PAY FOR”. Customers should never allow themselves to be treated as oppressed victims unable to do something about current conditions, boxing isn’t the NFL folks-it’s a poorly built house of cards, and it would be catastrophic to any PPV to come up 500.000 buys short of projections. These are numbers the NFL picks its teeth with and yet they care about what you think, because they know if they give you “your” football it’s like a license to print money. Unlike the “old boy” network in boxing who can only feast on short sighted bank robberies. If people can use Twitter for Global Protest they can certainly use it to #OccupyBoxing. Twitter tricked fans into thinking these people “know” them and thus they’ve become fantasy managers, fake assed Al Haymons and spokespersons for entities who do nothing but fleece them- and if you point this out to them in the most objective terms they regurgitate worn out slogans (Courtesy TMT) and call you a “hater” – another term that should be stricken from adult discourse. It is a disturbing trend when “men” are willing to blindly give their money to a polarized system and accept a false Cold War scenario as a reason fights can’t be made- and nobody blinked when Big Bad Bernard Hopkins used the “term” to rationalize calling out a man 25 lbs. lighter than him. In a just system he wouldn’t be viable, in a just system he’d have to prove he’s an “Alien” by facing a “Superman”…. or go home.

When a man spends his money for something empathy for the seller should be a non-factor, do you have sympathy for the poor schmuck who served you cold French fries yesterday? Hell no you don’t. Then you shouldn’t have feelings one way or another about men who are supposed to bring you a damned sport- stop advocating for Floyd Mayweathers “business” and handle your own finances with discriminating taste. Twitter has revealed fight fans who are more fans of the cold war than of boxing, grown men who think it’s cool that Mayweather ( after 4 years!) can say “Pacquiao who?” while telling you Amir “Chinny” Khan is up next for your 75$. Men don’t allow someone to tell them “I don’t want to make Bob Arum any money” because MEN know that ultimately before it becomes Floyds or Bobs “money” it was theirs!. The answer to Manny who? Is Manny “Better than Amir Khan” Pacquiao that’s who, men don’t sit around gossiping over the fucking details if they have no direct involvement in them- men say “work it out” or you get nothing. Since when did guys feel it was their job to play school yard insult games over two guys they’ll never meet? Since when did men think gossiping over another guys finances and who deserves what in a fight was even manly? There are websites devoted to keeping these ridiculous "divisions within divisions" going, actual propaganda jackals who parrot men who don’t want to provide unified champions in every weight class in exchange for your dollars.

And you visit them every day looking for the silly next put down you can retweet to your friends.

Manny Pacquiao is a boxer, a fine one who I’d rather see fight Floyd Mayweather on May 3^rd 2014 than anyone else- I’m too busy as an adult worrying about filling out my own tax forms than to worry about his. In fact, I don’t care about Vegas getting the fight nor who “needs” whom- like any smart consumer I know that all parties involved need me not the other way around. If you ever noticed Boxing is the one sport that mirrors our two party political system where palms are greased and nothing ever gets done. Sports are supposed to deliver us from that, which is why mainstream sports fans will always choose the socialism of the NFL over the corporate fascist dictatorship of boxing. Sport is supposed to deliver you into a purely merit driven matrix where Champions are people who have defeated all capable challengers through direct confrontation- Boxing used to be the purest expression of this principle. Being the paying customer can either be an empowering experience or one of manipulation and subjugation and it’s clear which path fight fans have chosen. We are more informed than ever, but now we’ve developed a habitualized taste for minutiae and bullshit, we’ve replaced the great addiction to action fights with a “jones” for press releases and company warfare.

Smart men of Arum and Schaefer’s ilk have often known the true path to domination is by subjecting less smart people to a chaotic environment. Through sleight of hand we’ve all lost track of the ball (the truth) and now focus only on the shell game played by a mere handful of people. Middle Class fighters have no choice but to sign on to this paradigm because they know the market will not fund nor facilitate a competing model to what we have now. The misguided will sign up for this farce the same way obscure, unsigned rap groups enlisted to shoot at one another back in 1996 on the behalf of two millionaires. I was there, and I saw people get hurt that were never afforded the dignity of a documentary of compilation CD. I am a conscientious objector to the “Cold War” in Boxing, I am not an apologist for Mayweather or Pacquiao- I am a customer and I refuse to say a foul word about either man via social media. I deserve to see the best fighters in each division face one another (within a reasonable period of time) no matter the network or Promotional Firm In exchange for my (monthly) subscription dollars. I don’t care about any of the ancillary issues surrounding the promoter’s “job” to create a PPV star; if those issues interfere with providing the customer with a valuable product then customers should divest themselves until said party does. Instead of defending the self-interest of Floyd Mayweather fans should try imitating it, your budget will look a lot better and you just may exude a little more self-respect in other parts of your life.

And if you choose to do nothing at all, at least have the decency to stop rooting for people who mean you no good.

Camacho Whitaker Doubleheader

2013-11-22T04:46:00.001-08:00

If Richie Incognito is an Honorary “Black Man” what does it say about Brotha’s?

2013-11-11T11:46:00.002-08:00

It was fishy from the start, and as the black Dolphins kept opening their mouths the possibility of something truly unsettling began to manifest. The NFL is a bottom line business, productivity is king and guys like Richie Incognito sprinkle the league like undetected maggots. To make matters worse the league is largely black, and many of those brotha’s saw far more violence in their neighborhoods growing up than what they’ve seen on this here “job”. This reality breeds a certain ethos, a culture not dissimilar to that in jail or Hip Hop, a funhouse mirror where ethically everything is blurred-in other words there are no good or bad guys. The concept of “good guys” is something they sell in commercials, something that salves the consciences about what it is we are truly addicted to watching every Sunday. Controlled, State Sanctioned assault.

Unfortunately Good Guys would probably get exposed as weak if they are not so willing to sacrifice humanity and brain cells- like Jonathan Martin is being exposed now. Real intellectuals don’t participate in the high speed collision of bones, tissue, ligaments and brain matter-warning: the men who take this on for an occupation aren’t privy to your idea of what is civil nor politically correct.

And this is often at odds with the billion dollar partnerships and corporate largess curried by the suits in New York.

It’s Gladiatorial, and men like Incognito are insulated and preferred to men like Jon Martin. And there will be jackasses like Incognito in the future; as long as Football “is” what it is you will need the Richie Incognito’s of the world to be human battering rams for our entertainment. You will also need him to scapegoat when every team probably has two of him, that’s 60 (if you’re counting) douchebags folks. What I have a problem with is the racial aspect of this hazing story, the fact that Incognito was given honorary black man status and sanctioned by black teammates in his slurring of Jonathan Martin.

I won’t take an angle that will make it easy for you to dismiss me as an old dude, because I too have had white friends that I considered “honorary” but not for their propensity for degeneracy. No, it’s the standard I’m bothered by, and the fact that this clown being an honorary brotha says everything about the brotha’s that granted him such distinction. In segments of the Black Community we have this irrational need to delegitimize intelligent (or sensitive) blacks as inauthentic and then wonder why said target isn’t comfortable. If Martin was “soft” and unproductive there’s no way he would have avoided being out of the league soon, but I sense his black teammates wanted him gone sooner and Incognito was the instrument they used to facilitate that.

When the inept, faceless Coordinator masquerading as a coach went to Incognito to “toughen” Martin up he knew it could get ugly but what he didn’t know about is the low cultural standards of his black players. Many black players come from troubled backgrounds and the low self-esteem is dripping off of them like HGH, you can see it the way they act on the field and some of the stupid shit they get themselves into off the field.

What kind of person would look at a scumbag like Incognito and see a kinship? Someone from a screwed up environment that’s who; and the NFL depends on screwed up places for natural resources. We created the culture of envy in our music, relationships and language; remember it was black folks who introduced the concept of “hating” to the lexicon. Money is not a cure all for the broken psyche and if you are broken you gravitate to other people who are just as broken as you be they any ethnicity creed or religion-enter trash like Incognito. The Black Community is essentially fatherless, and that’s a whole lot of broken young men gravitating to sports for identity and masculinity. Men like Incognito are the kind of white peers you find in football, his story isn’t emotionally threatening to brotha’s but Jonathan Martins can be viewed as a deep source of envy.

The father teaches you to be a self-respecting black man first, this may encompass standing up for yourself but being cartoonish “hard” is something embraced mostly by the fatherless. Jonathan Martin was an outlier, a Stanford man in a locker room of black men who went to Football factories, his “Cosby Kid” background was so resented by the black men he worked with they looked the other way while Incognito called him a Nigger. Which speaks of brotha’s willing to prioritize being gladiatorial over being a self-respecting black man.

I repeat, if he couldn’t “ball” he wouldn’t be there long anyway, but it was the self-hatred of his black teammates that turned this into a hate crime. We’ve struggled with it in our community long before Football became a haven for the descendants of Slaveries “eugenics” programs. We struggled with it when W.E.B Du Bois was calling Marcus Garvey a “monkey” and when Malcolm X called Martin Luther King a “House Negro”. ESPN struggled with it when Hugh Douglass, the big, tough “real” brotha attacked light skinned Michael Smith with the same slur. What does it say about us when we identify louts like Incognito and say to ourselves; “you know, that dude reminds me of a black man” I think I’ll give him honorary distinction.

Why wasn’t Ryan Tannehill, a seemingly great guy (who ran a 4.6 40 yard dash) and family man given “black guy” distinction? Is it because he’s too well adjusted? Why don’t Brotha’s give Payton Manning that distinction? is it because he’s authoritarian and black men don’t see themselves that way?. Too organized? What do you think of yourself if you think Richie Incognito is black?, I’m pretty sure there’s many Italian Americans who wouldn’t spit on his ass if he was on fire!- because they have the good sense to decry trash like “Mob Wives” while “we” love us some “Basketball Wives”.

Had Jonathan Martin killed Incognito’s “whole family” as his text message suggested would he then be black enough? “hard” enough to garner the respect of “real” brotha’s in the locker room. Do those African American “brotha’s” understand what the term (brotha) denotes? Do they understand what brotha’s have had to do in order to create an environment for them to showcase their talents for white consumers who idolize them? Real Brotha’s boycott the 1965 AFL All Star Game in New Orleans because local merchants called them “niggers”-how would Richie fare in that locker room?. Real Brotha’s like Jim Brown said things with conviction to the white establishment, and ruled a locker room that was 90% white finally retiring abruptly when Art Modell (and the Cleveland Media) addressed him as if he were chattel because he didn’t report to camp when they wanted him to. Real Brotha’s are on some regal shit, and “Incognito’s” stay clear of them. Real Brotha’s made it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame from small, Historically Black Institutions where young MEN were trained in every way (Mentally, Physically, Spiritually) to crush guys like Incognito. Real Black Men don’t frivolously associate with empty bullies, and they certainly don’t make him feel comfortable enough to do what they do and say what Incognito said. Real Black men don’t follow someone who is obviously mediocre; because real men can see for all his bluster this “guy” has never been a part of a dominant offensive line-he’s a clown. But then again I’m referring to real black men, while the Dolphins have shown themselves to be Nigga’s and Nigga’s are all about some substandard bullshit.

Open Letter To Adrien "Raw Dog" Broner: If You Really Had a "Big Brother"

2013-11-03T09:49:00.001-08:00

I’m alone on this topic, but I feel I make enough valid points that people understand because we’ve all had complicated, duplicitous friendships-we all have had experiences with loved ones who want us to succeed on very limited terms. Mr. Broner, I’m not writing this in judgment of your conduct because I was once young, dumb and destructive like you-however I wasn’t young in the digital age. Also, I wasn’t rich, or semi (sorry kid) famous and I certainly didn’t have someone of Floyd Mayweather's caliber advocating and kinda pulling for me. A lot of young brotha’s have nobody, we come from poor family structures and the few of us with talent (like you) end up not having the skills to step out of destructive patterns of behavior into “responsible” wealth. By then Homies become dependents, and parental figures end up brushing our hair as we say things on TV that make us look like the sexually irresponsible savages bigots make us out to be- no I get it, it’s all “WorldStar” right?. At some point realize your mimicking what you “think” your “idol” did to get rich (flushing 20 dollar bills) and now all of a sudden you find yourself boning a couple of skanks on somebodies cellphone. Did Floyd, you know your idol tell you he’s been there, done that? did he point out that most brotha’s don’t really get to his level without his with sex tapes?.

Did he even bother to tell you before you leaked it that Ray J went back to the Chitlin circuit after going that route? That the whole purpose of the tape is useless if you’re not banging an heir of some sort?

His Daddy (Mayweather Sr.) doesn’t know you like that, and the old man had no problem saying you aren’t exactly his son-in fact most view you as a knock off from the waist up. Not between the ears. When Floyd was your age he probably didn’t have a manager that could shove him down the throat of programmers and force him into PPV in his mid-20’s- do you honestly think you are working as hard as he did?. I mean how many older people take a liking to a cheap imitation (of themselves) who won’t have to work as hard to get paid-how old were you when your big brother was seriously at risk of becoming another underpaid black defensive specialist who can’t draw flies?. Do you think he really wants your career to be easier than his? so you can do this?. He created the climate that allows you to coon for WorldStarHipHop, but acting like your Big Brother for a couple of years don’t guarantee you’ll be around as long. Do you know how many “next Michael Jordan’s, Michael Jacksons and Oscar De La Hoya’s” have come along? Hell Floyd has beaten about 4 of them. Do you think annoying black males benefit from sextapes the way pretty white girls do? You do know porn is about women right?, that no man of any real substance shows his face in these things, while Kim Kardashian took off Ray J became one of Floyds male groupies-kinda like you. These are things a Big Brother says to you, have you even noticed that as the zero’s added up on Floyd’s checks his conduct (before camera’s) mellowed? It’s called “Covert Corporate conduct” little brotha.

And he won’t tell you about it.

Floyd Mayweather is not your mentor, if he were this video wouldn’t be out there, in fact he didn’t get to be where he is for so long keeping future threats from destroying themselves. You may learn this too late, you may learn this when your lifestyle catches up to you and you’re an old 30 while he’s still a pristine 42 with no reason to step down. By then you’ll realize what I’m saying now, and you’ll be bitter but unable to do anything about it, if Bernard Hopkins can do what he’s doing your "Big Brother” (with “help” you can’t afford) is more than capable of pulling the trick.

Payton Manning gave his little brother everything he has between the ears even at his own expense; do you think Eli could get away with acting the way you act today? Even with 2 Super Bowl rings? Not a chance. In fact the function of a Big Brother is to keep you from making some of the mistakes he made, sort of like a father without the lingering guilt of wanting to make him proud. How can Floyd be a Big Brother when he’s not really far removed from the same kind of chick? only a lot smarter. The only thing he can teach you outside of the ring is how to go from skanks with lay away tattoo’s to swapping DNA with Ray J (The Godfather of SIMPIN) through a “dime piece” who sets you up to be robbed while you’re in the ring.

Ever think of Giving B-HOP a Call?

Adrien, the best thing you can do is seek out older men who have made the transition from the hood in more than just money, because there’s nothing more detrimental than the lingering taste for trash. Your Big Brother won’t tell you he’s seen cats like you come and go, it’s not his job to stop you from playin yourself, but he will have a job for you washing his cars if you waste your talent chasing hood rats. He will help you when you’re washed up and no longer a threat and you can be his next Ishe Smith (no offense) at the rate you’re going. You see Adrien 17 years is a long time bruh, longer than Hopkins at middleweight and Joe Louis at Heavyweight, being a champion right now may be fitting but being immortal is completely different- and it isn’t a birthright. But I’m sure Floyd won’t tell you that, that’s right! Because he isn’t your big brother- he loves you like he loves any other flunky, from a distance. If he has imported anything to you it would be to get your money, and you little brother are really not good at that since he is clearly the “Boxing Bank”. He knows the longer you’re “at large” you won’t wake up to the hard cold facts, he also knows as long as you remain too stupid to walk through the front door of a bank (as he did in 2007) but willing to go around the block (literally and figuratively) for a beastie you will ultimately get what you deserve.

Nothing.

LeBron James Commercial: Further Proof We Have no "FACE OF BOXING"

2013-11-02T12:51:00.001-07:00

My perspective is boxing, my sentiments are boxing, and as a sports lover I view other sports with my Boxing goggles on. As a niche sport we draw the eyeballs and interest of the sports world twice a year in correlation with the self-ordained “Face of Boxing” Floyd Mayweather's "Mexican stimulus plan". It’s a great gig for all of those involved but when you see LeBron James’ latest commercial you realize how far we’ve fallen in relevance-and this is relative to the overall lack of a real face to keep the sport in the more acceptable segments of our society. Actually we haven’t had that kind of figure since Ray Leonard, so even party animal Oscar De La Hoya failed to put a civilized face on the fight game.

Consider this, LeBron James circa 2010 was a pariah due to his exit from Middle America and now he’s in two of the most heartwarming commercials on air today! The commercial that highlights LeBron playing with his sons while his wife records them with the new LG Galaxy smartphone is one of the more humanizing pieces of propaganda I’ve seen in years. Mind you, he’s tattooed, he “knows” rappers and he wants his money the same as Floyd Mayweather- he just chose to not make these traits a significant part of his persona. Our guy markets himself on it not realizing elite products “whisper” exclusivity- Floyd could have easily been in Diddy’s vodka commercials but he exudes the kind of wealth classy wealth avoids .LeBron can actually sell his character, and thus the brand as well as his sport, even in Football season. We have a “face” with a rather contentious relationship with women (aka “family), a man who loves his kids (like any parent) but most of his private footage is filled with stooges and blank faced booty models staring at their phones. Just a bunch of people sitting around listening to him talk shit. If there is anything likeable about any Boxer Madison Avenue wouldn’t know it, LeBron’s “family” commercial made me think of Andre Ward who isn’t anonymous due to style alone. He’s also in a sport that sends the clear message that black boxers have to be jackasses to get merely noticed, something resorted to by Floyd- because black folks are NBA fans.

When Floyd tells you “Boxing isn’t a gentleman’s game” he’s right but that isn’t the point, and it certainly isn’t an excuse for why he isn’t in that damned commercial- he isn’t marketable because he’s unlikeable. And believe it or not, that makes Boxing unlikeable- commercials often lie, and we don’t even have representatives smart enough to lie to people who want to be lied to.

Once upon a time(more like 1981) an African American BOXER smiled and did a commercial for a soft drink that is still on the shelves at your local grocery store. His then adorable son made the commercial iconic by answering kids who called Sugar Ray Champ “no, that’s just my dad” and it worked-so much so that LeBron James and Samsung used the formula today. Money don't make you the face of an industry, in fact if that industry is marginalized and you are the “face” you shouldn’t brag about it. Even the President is experiencing some shame due to the Affordable Health Care Act bearing his name, if he was a Boxer he’d be bragging about the shit. Floyd Mayweather is the leader in boxing generating earnings, nothing more, to be the “face” of something you have to be an ambassador and we haven’t really had one since Sugar Ray Leonard. In terms of endorsement, our sport resembles the Dave Chappelle skit “When keeping it real” goes horribly wrong- and with Adrien Broner “on deck” look for this trend to continue into the foreseeable future.

Basketball gets cute Family Commercials, We get Sex Tapes.

Mayweather vs Canelo Post Fight Press Conference EXCLUSIVE

2013-09-16T11:04:00.001-07:00

CANELO: IN OVER HIS HEAD; UNTIL HE ISN'T, BOXING AND PRODIGY

2013-09-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

Flunky De jure Leonard Ellerbe would say the former, that the red headed Mexican is yet another version of “insert Latin opponent here” and many of you agree. Picking Floyd to win at this stage in his career isn’t the mark of “knowing some shit about boxing” as Uncle Roger would say; it would merely be seen as a sign of playing it safe. But where’s the imagination in that? And what can be more exciting than seeing a young man grow into himself before your eyes? History would illustrate that Floyd Mayweather (despite the issue of size) is as safe a bet as a primed Mike Tyson or Sonny Liston, but time tells us conventional wisdom is often offset when a prodigy arrives. We can plan on reliable veterans like Miguel Cotto putting on a great show, but we never know when a youngster decides he is more than what you’ve labeled him as. Canelo asked for Floyd, and Floyd “asked” (no I’m not buying it Leonard) that he chop off a leg which is telling given the fact that Floyd reminds us that he beat De La Hoya “at his weight” of 154 lbs. That concession alone is foretelling, evidence that Mayweather wasn’t too secure against the unforeseen, that unpredictable element a prodigious youth can provide.

Floyd is a genius at messaging, but the trait we love and hate about young folks is that they don’t listen. Canelo is famously serine, a byproduct of being thrown into an adult setting so young like many Mexican greats.

Ultimately the “Money Team” got around to letting all opponents know they aren’t used to being “under the bright lights” and they are in over their heads. Usually this may be a fact with anyone giving up huge advantages in Big Fight experience and skill, except in the rare case of the prodigy, something Floyd knows all about. He may be comfortable with “the stage” but the stage will always be in concert with nature, when the time has come it (the stage) will send no notice. Floyd himself was “the kid” all the way back in 1998 when he stepped in against Genaro Hernandez and looking back on it we forget the common wisdom that he was moving a bit too fast. What we didn’t know then and still don’t know now is the exact time a “would be” prodigy blossoms, but when they do it is always at the expense of an All Time Great. Could “All Access” or “24/7” have been able to capture a hint of anything in 1964 when Cassius Clay bloomed into a big, athletic postmodern heavyweight? I doubt it, because even Clay wasn’t as sure as history leads you to believe. We only see the prospect being “moved” (Mayweather points out Canelo’s presence on undercards) with expertise up a ladder but we never see any hard evidence of greatness, Canelo like most is a “subject” of projections-even Floyd himself contends he’ll be “great someday”. We however tend to be like Floyd, watching and calculating based on data (analyzing past performances against common foes) so we have to remain cold and analytical about something that really isn’t when youth is involved. Ever notice men raising daughters always find out too late she’s developed into a young woman right under the same roof? because we look at hard evidence like birth certificates-we don’t do day to day.

In Boxing a youngster coming of age can be extremely dangerous to elders.

Young people have the benefit of contempt for authority and “order”, a 30 year old is more likely to start mentally spending his money when Floyd Mayweather starts whipping counters over his jab than a prodigy who inherently is willing to die. When faced with assured destruction an experienced “man” (Cotto, Guerrero) knows how to subdue his internal adrenalin just enough to lack urgency- while young George Foreman did what he “did” to Joe Frazier because he was scared shitless. Even Bernard Hopkins had to learn which youngsters it was ok to mess with, Mayweather just might be messing with the wrong kid.

Cotto didn’t think he was conceding, because only a 23 year old version of himself can tell him this. Alvarez in his youth is less likely to “think” Saturday night and I applaud this because it’s the “thinking” that gets Mayweather opponents in trouble. Floyd’s father can predict fatigue with a world of credibility but since when has he or his son been 23? Do they even remember what that sense of immortality feels like? Floyd’s underrated chin is rarely checked, and when it has been it has been at the hands of “men” like Judah and Mosley who either peeter out or admire their work- Canelo is a boy and vicious boys break things.

There is no prodigy (Tyson, Chavez Sr., Louis etc.) in the history of Boxing you wanted to “see” at 23 regardless of “who” they were facing-the only question is will Canelo join this group.

“If” Canelo is a prodigy he will be childlike, precocious and destructive, unaware that he isn’t “supposed” to be doing what he’s doing- because revolutions are always initiated by the young. Most of Boxing’s vandalism is committed by young men hell-bent on letting you know they “exist”, what better way to announce this than to piss on a monument?. 30 year olds succumb to chess players like Floyd, but a prodigious 23 year old may just have the balls (and youthful clarity) to flip the damned chess board over. It never crossed Wilfred Benitez’s mind he was only 17 when he did what he did to Antonio Cervantes in 1976, and given what followed he didn’t have any reverence for the feat afterwards. He thought he’d do stuff like that forever, but age taught him that forever is written in blood. Canelo is so young that he (like Yusiel Puig) can do a lot of things “wrong” but end up doing the big things right, like most new music genres that coincidently always kill off superior musicians with guts and intensity alone.

It’s up to Canelo if he is to be Johnny Rotten, Kirk Cobain or Grandmaster Flash. And it will be our pleasure to lie about it 10 years from now (as we do with Floyd) and say “I told you so”.

Floyd playing the “Resume Card”

Floyd likes to hold his resume against every opponent reminding them of his legacy and all of the great fighters he’s defeated. 21-0 in Championship bouts is worthy of a TMT T Shirt but it too can be debased in a blood sport like Boxing, if Canelo is committed to putting Floyd on his ass there’s no piece of paper in the world that will save him. Mayweather's confidence (and comfort) is well founded because 17 years is a long time, so long that his critics can’t even talk to a whole segment of his fan base who were 10 years old in 2002-many of them (like Canelo) are 23.

Let’s play a little “name game”, what do Doug Jones, Andy Price, Pete Ranzany and Tony Pep all have in common? These were all guys who faught Ray Leonard, Cassius Clay, and Floyd Mayweather before they “became” who they are and none of them were of the caliber of Austin Trout. In fact none of these men have a victory over a fighter the caliber of Miguel Cotto before facing the 3 prodigies listed above.

Canelo may suffer from our perception of what a prodigy “is” because we generally associate this moniker with athletic, slick boxers. Prodigious fighters simply have to be talented and mature beyond their years, had Cotto (32) punched in the combination (and variation) of a “green” Canelo in his 2012 bout with Floyd he may have again been the opponent this past May. Even Shane Mosley warns not of power (Floyd has seen it all) but maturity, the kind of “grown man” skills that won’t tip his hand so early in a fight like older contemporaries. When Floyd was young legendary trainers spoke of subtleties and nuance unseen since the 1940’s and Canelo (if prodigious) may possess some of the same intricacy. In terms of confidence Floyd may be looking at the closest facsimile of himself (between the ears) since he started his bankable run as Boxing’s PPV star.

Prodigy is not of our making, and seeing one emerge is one of the more magical aspects in Boxing because they come along so rarely. Canelo Alvarez “is” in way over his head, until he isn’t; and that alone is why this is not just another fight.

This is The One

A Mafia Primer For Billie Jean King

2013-08-31T11:45:00.003-07:00

By all accounts the late Bobby Riggs was a hustler, the kind of guy who was neither above throwing a tennis match nor taking it to the grave. Given what the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match symbolically meant to our society we seemed to be alarmed by this despite claiming we’ve “matured” as a country. As a proud father of a beautiful young woman I could care less if the match was (unbeknownst to King) “fixed”; there are far more egregious crimes that have over time led to unintended positive outcomes- like the original eugenics based aims of Planned Parenthood for example. The only thing I find disturbing is how adamant and defiant King is all these years later, as if the revelation would somehow erase the irrefutable progress women have made as a result of this landmark event. Her response is so naïve that it serves as a primer in what wrestlers used to call “living the bit” and King dare I say is taking her role as female trailblazer to extreme levels of tunnel vision. So, in the spirit of history and as a little education for my feminist friends who may not be so aware of the Organized Crime resume allow me to present a few of the Mobs “Greatest Hits”.

At the time of “The Battle of the Sexes” the Mob controlled most aspects of human activity in this country through the takeover of unions. In fact you couldn’t do anything in New York including building a skyscraper without paying a Mob Tax. Even the tennis outfit on Kings back had to be transported somewhere, and the Mob controlled the trucking via the garment district. If they chose to squeeze the manufacturer of Kings Garments she wouldn’t receive them no matter how much she was able to pay or the apparel company that endorsed her. All illegal gambling was still being controlled by the mob in 73’, and they probably had their tentacles into the unions of the cameramen who recorded the event. The Chicago Mob shut down the movie industry back in the 40’s by way of union, and even Francis Ford Coppola ceded editorial approval to gangsters when making “The Godfather” only 2 years before your match. That’s right Billie; if Vinnie in Yonkers isn’t satisfied with a kickback the event never happens, and maybe Title 9 is pushed backed 5 years. In fact if certain factions of the Mob wanted you to play the match in Sinatra’s backyard we’d have timeless footage of “Ole Blue Eyes” serenading you with “The Lady is a Tramp” after the match. Your selling them short if you think they couldn’t fix a tennis match in 1973 especially one involving a compulsive gambler who ended up working at the Tropicana ( A Vegas Mob joint) when he couldn’t swing a racket anymore.

The Mob was commissioned during World War Two to protect the New York Harbor from the Germans, imagine the most powerful country in the world needed Lucky Luciano- a guy already in Prison for “Compulsory Prostitution” to flex his street muscle on the waterfront. The Mob also had boots on ground in the “Bay of Pigs” because they lost millions in Cuba when Castro took over; do they teach this history to tennis prodigies? Santo Traficante and Carlos Marcello (mentioned in ESPN’s Outside the Lines piece) are alleged to have had an interest in killing President Kennedy due to that “Bay of Pigs” fiasco and Bobby Kennedy’s dogged persecution of Mob bosses. They also succeeded in “whacking” Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak in 1938 and he was sitting next to President Roosevelt when they did it! By lone “nut” of course, your match was just another easy score Billie- not even outside of the realm of “daily chores”.

They are rumored to have fixed the elections of 1948 (Dewey Defeats Truman!) and 1960 so fixing a tennis match is not a problem. The Organization worked on the outer fringes of the criminal world and worked with the CIA for the better part of your life Billie, don’t think for one minute that what you were doing for women was too “big” for men who have taken aim at Political figures foreign and domestic.

But let’s get back to Sports.

Ever heard of the 1919 Black Sox Scandal? Who do you think fixed that series? Arnold Rothstein, the Godfather of illegal gambling-also a man who viewed athletes as “rubes”. The ran the “action” in horseracing and often fed J Edgar Hoover “winners” that he gladly cashed in at the ticket booth, later he would stalk any movement pushing for civil rights. What about that little 1951 College Basketball point shaving scandal that entangled Adolph Rupp’s “holier than thou” Kentucky basketball machine?- ask Connie Hawkins if the mob was prevalent in sports during your time. The Mob ran Boxing when Don King was in diapers (or jail) from the 1930’s through the rise of Cassius Clay- I’m sure you were old enough to remember when “The Greatest” knocked Sonny Liston loopy with a slap to the head. Unlike you he had the termerity to yell "Get up you bum, aint nobody gonna believe this!”

Sonny Liston didn’t even get a shot at the title until he was well past his prime, he was a union leg breaker for the same kind of men who wouldn’t give a rats ass about the social implications of your tennis match Ms. King. In 1960 the Senate Subcommittee convened an investigation into Boxing and determined Liston should severe ties with the Mob, and they still may have fixed both of his fights with Ali- someone we’ll talk about 100 years from now. If you were “in” to these guys as Bobby “The Happy Hustler” Riggs was the impetus would be to get out of the red before something bad happened, something a lot of sheltered, self-congratulatory hippies don’t understand.

I only hope this little primer can enlighten and serve as a little slice of reality to those who are so “cause” oriented they lose track of harsh truths that will never be changed. Bad men sometimes profit from much needed social change, in fact they often fund it for ulterior gains. The Prophets of the 60’s and 70’s were merely human; many of them were brave but were too young and powerless to control the swirling corruption that surrounded them.

If Gloria Steinem can cash a CIA check Billie Jean King can be victim of a gambling coup, the bottom line is my daughter is better for both women having “done their thing”. Ms. King you should be contented in the fruits of the game not the game itself, because without the game the world would be a much different place for millions of women. You my dear are unforgettable, and the shadowy men who may have impacted that particular event are relegated to Biography Channel documentaries and hackneyed Mob movies. History is written by the winners, but we no longer have to blindly take their words as truth, isn’t that what your generation was about? Your victory was much bigger in the prism of history but in 1973 the Mafia was “King”- accept your long-term contribution with the grace and dignity the manicured greens of tennis enforce, you have nothing to be ashamed of Billie.

Love, Set, Match….King

Johnny Football: Still Wanna Cast him As Antibellum Saviour?

2013-08-31T11:29:00.001-07:00

It’s been a while since black Sports writers have floated the Plantation terminology to describe the NCAA hustle as defacto minor leagues without the pay. The truth is somewhere in the middle because minor league baseball players and D-League “tweeners” don’t travel like the SEC. Colin Cowherd, these guys are working the glue gun at the Nike Factory and I find it hard to believe the average BMOC is somehow “exploited” as he climbs from beneath his hottie pyramid just in time for practice. Jalen Rose won’t talk about the free Nikes, the test takers, lifelong contacts nor the groupies magically appearing in C-Webb’s room- because it would cramp his image as Freedom Fighter. Today we’ll see someone we love to see in the second half of the Texas A&M vs. Rice Football game and I wonder how my fellow brotha’s and sista’s feel about casting him as the one to free all of the slaves chained to the training table.

One Half Suspensions, he’ll be back in the game for I run a spellcheck on this bitch.

When “we” (Black Folks) want to drop napalm we use language to paint endless rows of cotton and an overseer’s whip, we use it to make a point but when things go sideways we back away from it- because it wasn’t fair in the first place. But since the NCAA is a Plantation/Slave labor system lets have some fun, let’s play this shit through and talk about what just happened in the case of the “white slave” that basically let “Massa” know by way of class “they’ll be no whipping here boss”. That’s right, Black and Progressive Sports journalists were quick to cast Manziel as anti-establishment and today proves once and for all he is “establishment”. How do you "Fight the Power" when your daddy “is” the power? I find it imposable that Sports writers are too sheltered to know that if Big Oil can dictate to a President ( and participate in killing one) they give a shit about a bunch of low level crooks like the NCAA. From day one the kid was going to do what he wanted to do, the “whipping” post are for African American athletes who don’t come from “Fuck You” money, sorry Dez Bryant it was never gonna be “fair” and you should know that.

Texas A&M’s Coach Kevin Sumlin certainly wasn’t going to take a lead in this fiasco; his only choice was to be emasculated by the process by a 20 year old who can buy him if he wanted. The NCAA can barely hire Black Coaches let alone allow one they just paid hush money to “be” a moral leader in the vein of a Bear Bryant, in the Plantation system Coach Sumlin was just happy to be there. In ways the handling of this is a reflection of our legal system which is why “Lil Football” never as much as broke a sweat, he’s 20, you think he don’t know there’s different rules for the white and rich? The NCAA will “Stop and Frisk” the poor and the black while telling them they should be thankful they’re giving the brotha a chance to make them money-Manziel knows better. He’s so blatant he often appears on ESPN wearing Bohemian Grove ( a creepy conference for right wing “elites”) apparel- he’s nobodies “slave” he’s from a class of people who view people making $100,000 a year as slaves. All the brotha’s on his team have to kick ass today if they have any hope of getting out of the hell they’ve been subscribed to by birth. All Johnny has to do is make sure he don’t kill his damn fool self in coming years and he’ll be fine, there’s nothing to escape and the world is his plantation.

In Closing

During indentured Servitude Whites and Blacks new to this country banded together and went at the landed gentry-we had numbers and they knew it. Race and the purgatory of slavery was created to separate us, it also gave poor exploited whites something (white supremacy) they could hold onto despite being hungry as hell. Johnny Manziel was never a poster child for reforming the NCAA system; he’s an outlier, a rich white kid who can play some damned ball. He was never going to make a big sacrifice to change anything; he’s the product of the kind of men who create such a sweet hustle. It’s not slavery, it’s a racket and American Rackets with staying power are carried out by white men in suites-those carried out by black men in saggy jeans (or Italians in Fedora’s) eventually expire. Reckless behavior will always be about “who” is doing said reckless behavior, Tyrell Pryor’s “reckless” is that of a streetwise borderline criminal “adult” while Manziels Pro styled signing session is the folly of a cute kid. Before Black people giggle at Manziel's attorneys “yeah but can you prove it?” swag understand that if he were black and poor he would be living under a more circumstantial standard of proof. This is true of his teammates who can’t possibly want to follow someone who threw a hurtful reality in their faces, one they always knew was there but nothing they wanted to see in their Quarterback.

Who wants to pick Cotton next to someone who can walk on and off the Plantation at will? And how would William C. Roden and other critics of the NCAA “frame” this. This story was always a class story, another reminder that institutions are put in place for the benefit and protection of the rich not the soon to be rich. Johnny Manziel can openly brand himself and profit from his fame because Oil Money trumps the lightweight money the NCAA mob is making off of the “Black Gold” in poor neighborhoods. Black folks love them some Johnny Football and the fact that he will kick it with LeBron because he can but never forget when LeBron exercised his right to "brand" in Miami after honoring a contract his former owner damned near called him a “runaway”. Manziel may be too small and erratic to ever be a pro, or he may be in the tradition of Drew Breese and Russell Wilson-but one thing he’ll never be is “property”.

He was Never going to be anybody’s “Boy” because he’s a future “Good Ole Boy” in shoulder pads.

HUGH DOUGLASS EXITING STAGE LEFT AFTER BLACK ON BLACK SLUR

2013-08-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

ESPN is a corporate media giant who I do not resent; in fact if there was any corporate behemoth I would allow to RSDI chip me it would be them-fuck Facebook. But ESPN is refreshingly augmented by websites like Deadspin who call them on their shit and force them to do stuff that in their usual cold corporate matrix they’d rather keep from you. Colin Cowherd dismisses it as “gotcha media” but what he’s missing is some “gotcha” is extremely important and can lead to much larger discussions on society and ethics. In fact, you almost have to have video evidence of something occurring or monoliths like ESPN will kill the story with the astonishing frequency-it are what they call “the good old days”. Can anyone explain how the network was “posted” up at Eagles training camp to document “racial controversy” when they had one in their own house? They chose Riley Cooper oversaturation, and it’s unfortunate because there wasn’t much anyone outside of the Eagles locker room could learn from it.

What Hugh Douglass said to Michael Smith at the Black Journalist Convention was a slur, but it was in a controlled setting filled with super smart folks who don’t pull out the IPhone when something bad happens. Hugh Douglass was drunk off his ass, and threatening but ESPN is using the fact that his conduct didn’t go “viral” as an invitation to go “old school”- when institutions hid everything from the ignorant masses because they could. But since it was important for us to grow up a little and realize that “Good ole Boys” can be NFL wide outs why shouldn’t we be mature enough to discuss “what black people do to other black people”?

Not one Black ESPN “on air” personality known for intellectual invectives took aim at Hugh Douglass last week- you see it’s much easier when the target for outrage is external so this matter was deemed “internal”. The personalities all “seem” like they are socially conscious African Americans who feel deeply for the community- and yet all of them agreed to a gag order from on high. Michael Wilbon can take on “the” Roger Goodell for not suspending Riley Cooper but not Hugh Douglass for perpetuating the worst in Plantation psyche jobs devouring the mentality of black folks?. Some of us grew up hearing “Uncle Tom” and “House Nigga” from people we knew more than hearing what we heard from “goobers” like Riley Cooper. For all we know many of the black on air talent probably didn’t believe Rob Parker deserved annihilation for his silly RG3 statement, but unlike Douglass Parker’s nonsense was disseminated by millions on air. “Cornball Brotha” is merely code for what Douglass actually said to Smith, something no black man should have to take from another, Smith was within the code of arms to “square up” against Douglass as reported and he shouldn’t have to hold his tongue about it. If ESPN can talk extensively about the N word they can open up the Outside the Lines studio for one black man calling another Black Man “Uncle Tom” and “House Nigga”. The Philadelphia Eagles as a brand didn’t matter enough to spare when the story had social relevance so why the hypocrisy when it’s the ESPN brand?

Douglass is gone now, fired unceremoniously, nothing to talk about here folks, besides if blacks stopped hating one another who knows what might happen.

I know I’m talking foolishness; it’s a “dog eat dog” corporate environment where nobody is in the business of showing their own warts to elicit “conversation”. Douglass just kind of disappeared and all that’s left is Smith doing one hell of a job of not mentioning him on a “His and hers” (Aug. 8^th) podcast on the topic of “forgiveness” as it pertains to Riley Cooper. How he could talk about forgiveness for racial slurs while not even hinting in the slightest how he may have some forgiving to do? It must be hard to swallow; until direct deposit kicks in. Listening to @LebatardShow on “790 the Ticket” last week was a tsunami on race, from Riley Cooper to why the white leprechaun “Johnny Football” is the face of NCAA reform despite brotha’s being vilified for the same acts for years- and not a peep about Hugh Douglass. Lebatard admitted it (Manziel) was a “blind spot” and brought in the brilliant Bomani Jones to add black perspective on the topic and it was magic, that is if you like cringe worthy stuff like “race talk”. And yet even he whiffed last week on Hugh Douglass, the one host in Sports Radio who revels in pointing out racial dynamics, the Cuban American who mourns the death of “journalism” has no idea what happened at a journalism conference where most of his friends where.

Such is the nature of “Uncle Tom”, liberals don’t know what to do with the things we do to one another, despite the fact that some of them have endured the same kinds of hazing. Michael Smith wasn’t hearing this for the first time, and had Barack Obama grown up in Chicago instead of Hawai’i he would have surely heard it from some idiot at school. ESPN as a publicly traded company has every right to protect their corporate perception, but you would think a network that has the balls to put on a roundtable regarding race would allow people of color to speak honestly about the ugliness of what Douglass said. Many of us hated when Bill O’ Reilly took the gloves off and called us out on our unwillingness to confront those who destroy our community head on- and he’s right.

God forbid we say anything to Lil Wayne, he’s paid son!

We won’t confront anyone within the community who hurts the community; because our outrage is selective and we nurture a climate that leads to silence in the face of blacks who hate other blacks. Can you imagine if black folks went after glorification of sex and criminality the way they went after Stand your Ground? Hugh Douglass was no drunker than Riley Cooper and his destructive words were more hurtful because many of us have to deal with that pathology in our own damned families. Many of us have to deal with pent up resentments from people we love about aesthetics we can’t control like skin color and diction - it would have been nice to see sports “once again” do what society often can’t. Many of ESPN’s talent had to endure having their authenticity questioned growing up; many of them were surrounded by ignorance just like that shown by Douglass- they deserved to speak their piece last week. If ESPN can ‘kill” this story to the point where nobody can even discuss “what black folks do to one another” shouldn’t they forfeit the right to sensationalize what others may (or may not) do to us?.

Who was safer, the security guard 20 feet from Riley Cooper surrounded by cellphones or Michael Smith face to face with a 290 lb. ex-Football player and a room full of “company men”?.

The Devil and Riley Cooper, A Letter of Thanks

2013-08-08T05:11:00.001-07:00

Dear Riley,

First off I’d like to send my condolences and prayers to you Riley because you will need them in these unforgiving times. I also send them to the poor woman who was merely trying to do her job on the day she was unfairly slurred by you. We live in a time when technology has robbed us from the opportunity to endeavor perspective and nuance, and the right to take a fully developed picture of a situation and give it context. Sound bites can tear through a person’s humanity and 140 characters can ruin a lifetime of goodwill- Riley, you will have a long fight ahead of you and for that I wish you emotional stamina and a true conviction for change. I don’t have to look at your video more than once to put myself in your shoes; and I’m sad to say there are anonymous MILLIONS old enough to be your parents who may be in your shoes at some bar tonight.

It is part of a sick irony that technology now gives us tremendous access to people we would have never been able to access in the past and yet we are no closer to people like you. I’m sure right now part of this bubble you live in makes you recoil in horror because there has to be something evil about the worst moments of a person’s life being uploaded and “shared” in perpetuity-something the devil had to have made. And yet in your darkest moment I do offer this shred of light, you may have provided some black people clarification on a word that seems to keep us all hostages due to its complicated, and mystifying contextual history.

The Word NIGGER

You see Riley your young enough to be my son and Black folks your age grew up hearing the word from people they admire, Rappers who have money and access to a larger culture-people who can afford to be “Nigga’s”. A lot of them can’t speak well, have over-tattooed their bodies conspicuously and can hardly make it through an interview but them view the word as a benign replacement for “friend”, “male” or “person”. They aren’t to blame Riley, and I’m sure you’ve sweated and bled with a lot of “Nigga’s” yourself, those 20 something’s were born that way based on what “we” of Generation X led them to believe. We “OG’s” had little regard for our parents struggles when we were coming up in the 1980’s and we took full advantage of the right to be ignorant, aimless and unobligated to history. Black people in the 80’s were hell-bent on transcending race so we left the word and it’s context to the young who (in typical rebellion) commoditized it and made it “chic”-you know like a pair of Jordan’s.

There was more actual racism back then, and frankly the way you said that “word” reminded me of the way I used to hear it (old school) from the Corvettes that patrolled the white neighborhoods in my Midwestern hometown. It never seemed to soften then, and we had little respect for the fact that we had the “right” to confront those guys in the Corvette once we saw them again- we didn’t realize 20 years previous we’d have died for even thinking about retribution. We were a generation full of inconsistency and hypocrisy Riley, we’d hunt those white boys down while at the same time poking fun at any older person who actually “lived” through Jim Crow. So I thank you for saying it with malice and vicious (yet fitting) intent, the way the word was always meant to be said because at this unique time in our history in America we needed to hear it.

Limousine Liberals and intellectuals can talk until they’re blue in the face but nothing is more effective than the darkness WE ALL have in our human spirit. We all have prejudices and hang-ups and they come up when we’re “letting off steam”. They come out when we are amongst the tribe that “trendies” at MSNBC tries to tell us no longer exists, our racial tribe. They also come up in Black barbershops as quickly as they do at Kenny Chesney concerts, vile words come up when we are comfortable. I would assume you have a lot of “steam” competing in a violent competitive game, and playing a position that is stereotypically played by blacks- welcome to the “not so welcome” minority Riley. I’m sure in your environment you’ve seen all kinds of “darkness” and yet Football gives you all (like Mike Vick) a chance to grow and work together for a common cause, despite some of the faults and prejudices you’ve picked up along the way. No wonder some view Football as the one true “religion” in America. Black folks are far from an NFL team, because an NFL team is intolerant of any lack of unity and focus- “Nigger” is one of the hundreds of things we can’t seem to agree upon, and if we were a “team” we’d be 8-8, talented yet often our own worst enemy. You grew up around “us” I’m sure of it, so there’s no doubt our conundrum about identity confused you in some way indirectly. I’m pretty sure our hang-ups about the word only contributed to the antilocution you experienced growing up around your white peers, we may no longer be “strange fruit” Riley, but we are still a strange people.

Just look at a former Eagle Hugh Douglass, and how easily alcohol caused him to use hurtful slurs towards another black man, words that date all the way back to Bullwhip days.

I forgive you Riley, and I know your contrition will aide you in your sensitivity moving forward even though I don’t believe one can be trained to be politically correct at all times. If we could all be cured of hateful words (and attitudes) in 4 days we would all be mandated under compulsory service to do so, in my case the 12 day package would suffice. Life isn’t politically correct and I’m sure NFL locker rooms can be the least “correct” places in the world so hopefully your teammates practice some empathy like they do “special teams”. Forgiveness is a subjective art, and I’ve made the decision to view what you did as not uncommon and certainly not out of the realm of youth- but I don’t to trust you to hold on to the ball either. I choose to focus more on viewing your viciousness and tenor as a “gift” to the confused community I hail from; a reminder that nothing inherently ugly can ever be spruced up to resemble something beautiful. Thanks to you the lipstick put on this “pig” by countless Rappers and 2 apathetic generations will never make that “pig” anything more than a pig. You aren’t a Rapper, nor did you rationalize what you said, you were one drunk pissed off dude who went for the vilest thing you can say in a moment of rage and I can totally relate to that.

I can also relate to how disgusted you are in yourself right now; and all of your real friends will see that and honor it-trust me I know. However I can’t relate to power, the kind that stems from being white, male and wealthy like yourself- I have more in common with the security guard you yelled at and like her I won’t forget. I also won’t forget that your mistake can be a “teachable moment” for us all, and we never get too old for self-examination. Instead of hating you we should see this as a moment of catharsis for ourselves, a moment too valuable to put a value on, and we all know Rappers don't do anything for free. Apathy is the opiate for a myriad of sins, and without apathy the devil is never able to do his “work”, in other words evil isn’t something you play zone against- and for too long Blacks have played “Cover 2” on this word while you proved we should always be in “press cover man to man”. And for this we (who see this for what it is) thank you and I for one wish you nothing less than redemption.

Sincerely,

A Black Man

What if the Next Athlete to "Come Out" is Someone you dont Like?

2013-07-31T04:39:00.004-07:00

So far the whole “Gay” issue in sports has belonged to nice men like Jason Collins and Robbie Rogers, and I like many nod in acknowledgment just happy these men decided to free themselves from fear and a life of limitations. But it has also been a good year for MSNBC, the Political “left” and those who view the world in coalitions, segments, and blocks-call me cynical but they take my buzz away. Then I stepped back and realized that artificially there really was nothing for anyone to gain in creating a real discussion about tolerance because we’re focusing on sexuality-not likeability. Back then, Chris Broussard played a patsy rolled out by ESPN to make sure they had some ownership of a feel good story that was about to trample them en route to mainstream prominence. It all made me laugh, because Jason Collins was impossible to discourage or dislike before the announcement which kind of makes real progress on the matter impossible. We all sound like Rachel Maddow when talking about a great guy like Jason but tolerance is about not allowing your bias to overwhelm you when it is confirmed…all up in your face.

Why the hell do you think we stereotype? And why do you feel good when you resist it?

Jason Collins is a great Citizen because positions 8-12 on an NBA bench are reserved for guys who will be mainlined into the front office-consider it kind of like an executive internship for jocks. It’s July 31^st and I’m still waiting to see his name roll across the transaction ticker on ESPN, but if your savvy on all things corporate and political you know it will. Ever wonder why once "Badboys" who could play never get any “bench jockey” gigs at 4 Million per while Juwan Howard can speak more at the Heat Championship parade than LeBron? It’s because Juwan was wearing suits as far back as 1992! Want a clear picture of the rank and file NBA roster? And just how obvious Jason Collins was to be Gay Jackie Robinson? as recently as this past play-offs ( source: Dan Lebatard, Miami Herald) a PLAYOFF roster in flight took a poll and by 7-3 decided they would much rather a daughter be in porn than a son who is gay. That’s what makes tolerance so hard, there’s a reciprocal aspect of it that nobody wants to consider when they are thinking about the freedoms they want for nice people. The NBA is easily the league with the makeup of athletes that test our bounds of tolerance, if it wasn’t there wouldn’t have been a dress code enforced in 2003. What if the next athlete to come out is not somebody President Obama or Clinton wants to call? somebody none of you “want” in your locker room (or home) but somebody you need?.

A guy who is better athlete than person.

Would you still sing kumbaya if the next “out” athlete went to 4 different High Schools as a “gun for hire” under the auspices of some shady AAU coach?, the kind that made sure he had “spending money” during his one semester in College?. He don’t know no damned Clintons or Kennedy’s, but he do know “Mooky an nem”, who just happens to be going through his money trying to start a record company. Shake your head if you want to but it would take the same amount of courage for him to come out as you to accept him, in his case he put a gun on the card table when he told teammates on a road trip and asked “if any of ya’ll bitches wanna do something about it”.

He actually “knew” Aaron Hernandez and don’t understand why everybody’s lying on him, he was even dumb enough to endorse A-Rod being a clean athlete. He got “outed” in a police report, and it wasn’t ESPN’s Bill Simmons or super cute Alex Wagner waiting on him when he got out it was TMZ. When there’s no political points to score are there any people tripping over themselves to be more PC than the next person? Especially when there is less than PC thoughts running through your head about the Gay athletes conduct? Would Ellen DeGeneres want to be seen with a guy who has a string of jilted baby daddy’s trying to sue him for child support? It isn’t ideal, but neither is tolerance.

Jason Collins probably grand marshalled several pride parades this summer, but would he stop for any “photo ops” with a fellow Gay Player everybody knows is going to be broke in 10 years? A thug? While Collins was smart enough to enjoy the accolades the Stanford grad probably utilized the attention avenues to future income. That’s how Stanford and Duke guys view the NBA, as an opportunity, what if the next “out” player grew up viewing the NBA as lifesaver for his whole damned family?. This fictional player is more likely to pay too many bar tabs at the Pride Parade than have someone introduce him to an openly Gay congressman and you Proud Political wonks know it- I just wonder how many of you will be there if the next one reminds you of Allen Iverson. He’s not nice to look at (like Rogers) nor does he make you “feel safe” like well-spoken blacks (like Collins) do, he’s like Sonny Liston- forcing you to cringe when you look at yourself and your prejudices in the mirror. Like Collins he’s popular in the locker room but for the wrong damned reasons and his contract is big and cumbersome making him impossible to trade. He’s the Gay spokesman for kids in the hood because that’s where the natural resources that make the NBA and NFL rich come from. Gay kids growing up in the hood respect him because he came from the same place and the hood is where the REAL outreach is needed. But nobody wants to go there unless you can build a show around it. The few times you allow him to be interviewed will most definitely be the last because he’s blunt and to the point, more Tupac than Colin Powell because despite appearances being Gay isn’t synonymous with intelligence.

Being Gay is Human

Will you feel the same way about a Gay Player if kids in disadvantaged communities look up to him for his tats and his game? The kids who struggle the most growing up Gay aren’t interested in neither Senate Seats nor Legislation, they simply don’t want to die tomorrow-what if the next Gay player can speak to that in terms that aren’t “made for TV”?. If the next Gay player is someone who isn’t eligible for the executive end of the bench and merely tolerated because he can flat out get buckets would you feel so good about yourself then? Can you be supportive of someone who tried to get the Male/Male symbol tattooed on his neck and ended up with some form of Prince’s symbol? Would you “Jackie Robinson” him the way you do Collins and Rogers or would you just hope he goes away. How would the self-proclaimed progressive among us feel if the next Gay player exhibited all of the behaviors people hate having to see in Rappers and heterosexual black males?. Is it frightening to think about? Especially to those who equate tolerance with education, environment and travel? Those who don’t realize pro sports are played by the impoverished?

Tolerance isn’t that Black and White, and Pro Locker rooms are filled with all sorts of men-not just the kind of men who serve the better angels of your belief system. There is a Gay Athlete out there who only wants to spend money, get laid and party just like his coworkers, so what are the benefits of him being “out” as opposed to a Stanford man like Collins?. When he comes out he’ll get a lot of negative feedback from fellow players not for his orientation but for his penchant for cheap fouls and yelling at refs-will it be judged homophobic or jerk phobic? Will Gay Rights Organizations be so quick to aid a player who tends to flip off fans? Can the writers who are legendary for holding grudges separate his right to be treated equally and the times he stiffed them for interviews? I doubt it. Tolerance is well and fine when dealing with someone you find transcendent or “special”, which is why the African American community is so apathetic- because Obama and Oprah routinely extinguish racism until someone gets shot. Tolerance is about looking a Tea Party loon in the face and saying “your voice is as good as mine” without attacking what intellectual level you believe he’s operating on. Tolerance isn’t a front ended, fluffy sort of thing because it’s most important when you want to choke the shit out of somebody- I think Buddhists call it “sacred pause”.

Tolerance is about “like” because we tolerate a lot more bullshit from people we think we like- and those we don’t have a small margin of error. Every workplace in America is about “like” and few outside of sports are purely merit driven, in other words a Gay Player that you don’t like will not be accepted politically despite merit in his profession. How can the enlightened “swells” rant and rave about a guy who got busted buying PED’s in a Miami “port a potty”? A guy with an entourage of loud obnoxious homies who want you to respect them as “managers” despite meeting said athlete in a club a month ago. When we can look at him with objectivity and not view him as detriment nor asset but as human that will be the day we are truly worth our liberal views. Until that day comes we haven’t been truly tested, and by the looks of things in everyday American life “off camera” we’ve come a long way on most groups outside of the mainstream- but we haven’t come that far on people we simply don’t like.

Tolerance only wears well when it’s hard to fit into, but when it fits nicely like Robbie Rogers’ “Halsey44” line of apparel it isn’t really “tolerance” at all….It’s Fashion.

Jay Z in Sports is a Business Man

2013-07-17T09:54:00.001-07:00

Jay Z is perfect for Sports, and that aint a compliment it’s merely a statement of fact, and the most important fact is Mr. Carter has been a representative of “establishment” America for some time now. Corporate America isn’t mom and apple pie as they want you to believe, corporate America is filled with guys like Russian oligarch/gangster Mikhail Prokhorov who walked into the NBA under the flimsiest of vetting processes; because he could. So If you’re listening to Jay Z and counting the “Nigga’s” used you aren’t listening hard enough, because he’s been telling you he’s the chosen & ordained voice of the global/corporate elite for some time now, One World Government is here and your black ass aint coming.

Who else brags about knowing Mayor “Stop and Frisk” Bloomberg?, a Billionaire who with the help of private transnational banks would love to put us all on a calorie count, and through draconian “sustainability” initiatives one day we’ll all be RSDI chipped Nigga’s.“Hov” has been a good lil “boy” for Corporate interests for years now, he didn’t create “Nigga music” (that’s nuthin but a G thang Babay) he only raised the price on a publicly traded stock and cashed in on it- and in return he gets to pantomime “power” for poor folks while the real elite kick it at Bilderberg.

You see the real elite talk about taxing all manner of human activity while Jay Z (as a satellite) is used to make the idea of one big underclass some “hot” shit, & they’ll wait last to tell him he’s about 50 Billion short of really being “down” but until then he can certainly be in Sports. He runs the latest phase of his career like a sports team; let me guess ya’ll really thought Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Kanye were the best music has to offer? If you believed that you believed he owned the Nets. Corporate America is all about hegemony, Jay Z neutered and homogenized something that used to really scare white people because it actually had the potential to reform us, just ask Professor Griff. Why can’t a Corporate Rapper be a “Step and Fetch it” for the Sports agency behind all of the conspiratorial player movement in the NBA? He’s perfect for it- he’s cool and everywhere he goes fans think something big is about to happen. He’s been telling the Nigga’s who made him rich for years he’s no longer one of them, and the NBA is the perfect landing spot because it’s filled with young men projecting the same message. Nigga’s already buy bullshit to vicariously live through Rappers and Ballers; without Jay Z bringing an air of “now” and conspiracy how else will the NBA rule Twitter in the offseason?

I’ve been at games in the good seats, and yes it is Corporate and white but trust me the days of Allen Iverson are long gone. Iverson may have embodied some questionable shit but he wasn’t interested in projecting monopoly and consolidation of wealth like Mr. Magna Carter-the direction the NBA wanted to go in landed right in that safe place where Jay Z resides. White folks don’t fear Jay Z and Corporate type’s aint afraid to “buy” him listen to his lyrics, he’s shoutin out Warren Buffet for Christ sakes- he sold the soul of Hip Hop years ago and didn’t blink, so being in Corporate America is being amongst peers. There’s nothing subversive about a former criminal who is now a corporate shill, he isn’t being detained at an airport for listening to Stokely Carmichael (a 1967 recording) like Talib Kweli was in 2010, because Hip Hops disintegration of substance (and positive influence) in the 90’s was a hostile corporate takeover, Jay Z was simply an instrument of choice.

You’ll see his face in coming years a lot when it’s time to normalize something that isn’t for the benefit of poor people, some of you were outraged when Edward Snowden exposed the NSA but didn’t blink when the Magna Carta “app” was used as a surveillance tool. It’s the “Cool Factor” and the corporate elite have learned you can do anything you want to the populace if you send a smooth brotha (like Jay Z and Obama) as the person to help you do it. You don’t question his symbolism which can easily be traced to Kabbalistic, Masonic, and Luciferian origins and you certainly don’t question the Roc hand sign, because it makes a lot of powerless people feel they’re a part of something- this is why Jay’s penchant for giggling on recordings when he’s talking about how much better he is than his fans always goes undetected. It’s uniquely American to make people feel like they’re invested in you philosophically when the truth is the “have not’s” are only giving you their money….money. There’s no money in “Fight the Power” only commitment, Jay Z warns America that they “made him” so in his world (not Brooklyn) he “is” the Power. I know, I’m just "hatin", but ask yourself something; how much $ is spent on lighting and video production? And why would anyone invest so heavily in projecting something that meant nothing? Jay Z is a branding genius, and he has every right to merge his successful brand with Sports which (like Entertainment) is always in the business of making something out of nothing- how else would you explain Tim Tebow? Huh?. Why not merge the mind-numbing effect of Hip Hop and Celebrity with the equally addictive opiate of sports? we’re good and dumbed down now, why wouldn’t we want our damned Jay Z?!.

Jay Z adroitly niggerized pop culture but he was always more prosperity minister than revolutionary- he never “really” wanted to change the game, he merely wanted to play. Tupac profited from Nigga too, but he was “worthy” of surveillance by the Government as someone who could influence young black men in ways akin to Huey P. Newton and Fred Hampton. Corporate America is always best served when black folks keep their points of reference limited-which is why there’s no surprise Jay Z and P- Diddy ushered in the “Age of Bling” when Tupac was murdered. What is safer than empty headed materialism and focusing on getting rich as opposed to being smart enough to get wealthy? Jay Z will always keep the “customer” riveted on buying a lifestyle instead of making the connection between Greece, Turkey and Youngstown Ohio. Sports are a part of that diversion, and Jay Z is a reflection of the boundary lines being erased in banking and industry right now.

Globalization is the new catchphrase for the landed gentry, who make money all over the word- Jay Z and Kanye have been ambassadors of “Nigga” in places their under informed fans can’t even find on a map- they took “it” (Nigga) on the road like the 92’ Dream Team baby. The NBA is trying to go Global, and players like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony may deliberately engineer moves to LA and New York before they are done- because it’s just a market to them and a loyalty to those who can’t afford to go to the game. Jay Z is a part of that pathos, so implying Roc Nation shouldn’t contribute to erasing the idea of Franchise Loyalty (AKA Boundaries) in Sports is not seeing the future.

LeBron put himself next to Jay Z back when he was in Cleveland, and now he’s the gold standard- because it was legitimizing to him back then to be associated with the corporate icon. The NBA isn’t selling to the market their athletes come from, but Jay Z is perfect for that because he isn’t selling to the streets anymore- he’s clearly selling elitist values with catchy slang. Listen hard when Jay says “In real life I’m much more distinguished, I’m like a bloke from London England”. Ali walked among poor black folks from Harlem to Zimbabwe; he loved us and lost 3 years of his prime because the Government wanted to teach him a lesson-LeBron is no Ali, and Ali said the word “nigga” in reference to black opponents in front of camera’s. Ali spoke truth to power, he didn’t ask to be what he is now, it just so happens he turned out to be on the right side of history, but he was never, ever a “Brand” man. Ali for all his faults attempted faith to his God, while Jay Z on Magna Carta rapped that when a “bitch” asked if he was “GOD” he didn’t demure- LeBron, who wants to be a Billionaire will NEVER be as organically compelling as Ali.

The true sign of “progress” is in criminality, and the types of white collar crime the minority class is allowed to get away with-like Chris Rock said “you can get rich but don’t hurt anybody”. A lot of our athletes have gone broke under the stewardship of white agents and managers while black family members and “homies” are stereotyped. If Jay Z can get into the business, make commissions while his athletes go broke at the same clip and never take the “rap”-that will be equality and progress. Jay Z “earned” his way into the oligarchy with no less criminal conduct than Joe Kennedy- and as Magna Carta states his daughter will “never meet a poor person”, something the underprivileged ignorantly applaud. He isn’t big enough to be the root of cultural depreciation, he’s merely a weak projection of the fruit of it- his only crime being the bastardization of language, something Corporate America commits in the reporting of the “news” nightly. Something Politicians do in front of Teleprompters every time they open their mouths, did you know the word “growth” meant Corporate Profits? and “Labor Flexibility” lower wages and longer hours?

Damon Dash, Carters Co Conspirator recently expressed regret for pimping drug (and Nigga) culture on to the youth but like Jay and Joe Kennedy Dash aint returning no checks ya’ll. Jay Z will always be more NATO than NAACP because if you brag about driving through the hood with Oprah you have definitely arrived, but the “where” is subjective yo. Big time Sports isn’t above reproach due to corporate ties it’s the exact opposite, in fact Corporatization is inherently filled with moral dichotomies that put athletes in positions as to not offend the rich white guy in row one despite the fact that his “Corporation” decimated the community said player came from through outsourcing or downsizing. Jay Z is playing in the only 2 growth industries rooted in customers being removed from reality, because only a sports/rap fan would miss the sacrilege of “Jigga” disrespecting Belafonte on record- and many of those same folks let “Weezy’s” Emmett Till rhyme go “poof” because they’re plugged into ESPN intravenously. So yes, Jay Z is the perfect Nigga for Sports, he’s on an SMS basis with the POTUS! A diamond encrusted, Tom Ford suit wearing role model for the economically/politically disenfranchised “never will be’s”.

Just like many of the Athletes.

The word Nigga isn’t the pejorative here, the word Corporate “is” and Jay Z belongs in that misanthropic cutthroat setting. He’s nothing to be neither afraid of nor angry at, because at his core he’s just a Nigga who says Nigga in public for money. I’m more interested in the Nigga’s on Wall Street and the Federal Reserve and the Nigga’s who litter the White House staff supposedly in charge of “jobs”. I’m more interested in those who say the word in private or “off the record” at think tank retreats shielded by media “blackouts”, the ones who control economic destinies and resources- the Nigga’s who can honestly claim “untold” wealth, and the Nigga’s who view Jay Z as an “employee”.

@DwightHoward Grew into his "Big Man" Pants

2013-07-06T13:54:00.002-07:00

Some people and organizations believe they are karma resistant; Americans love those who live by the “get it done now and to hell with consequences” creed- and if you win just rewrite the history with your own rationale. In sports the winners can always re frame the discussion and the fans eat it up because we want to believe in the hero’s created off of the backs of those who got screwed in the deal. Yesterday Dwight Howard chose the Houston Rockets, and many of you believe he’s a “loser” for shunning the #Lakers; I believe this shift in power was sown in 2003 when Kobe Bryant showed a much better version of Howard (@SHAQ) the door. Michael Jordan recently identified Kobe Bryant as being similarly “cursed” and he was right, what else would make a man in his position walk into a “pitch” meeting and talk “at” someone who is in no mood (nor need) of his bullshit. “I’m gonna win more Championships so you can roll with me or with guys who don’t know how to do it”. Really? Two years ago we thought LeBron and Chris Bosh wouldn’t “know” how to do “it”, and they seem to have figured it out despite Kobe having done “it” 5 times. In case you were wondering Dwight Howard is 27 years old and he is about to join a 23 year old (@JHarden13) who isn’t the least bit “scurd” of Kobe’s ass-and yet Kobe and the Lakers just didn’t get “it”. The Lakers as a brand is convinced they are immortal, and that is a recipe for disaster in a world much faster than the one they tossed Shaquille O’Neal off into TEN years ago.

I knew Howard would leave, because the 2008 “coup” engineered by the under 30 NBA crowd was not designed for the purpose of elevating Kobe-but excising his tyranny once and for all. And it worked- but will Laker Nation “Get it”. Clearly they don’t, because if they did they would have understood Bryant had no more business in that pitch meeting than Jordan at the HOF Podium- they remind me of the Narcissistic spouse who can’t say those three words (I need you) that women need to hear. And there are all indications they’ll remain delusional as a fan base into the 2014 Free Agency season that Kobe Bryant will step to LeBron James- a player who has been his superior since 2007 with the same type arrogance. Who will have the balls to step in and tell Kobe, “look, you can’t teach LeBron James shit, in fact you’re off the books & we don’t need you”. I can hear Kobe now, “we got cap space and we’re the Lakers” to the approval of an audience that still believes LA and New York are the center of an ever changing universe- just ask Carmelo how that premise is working out. Brands have staying power, but management styles change daily; @dmorey was “Obama like” in the relentless 24/7/365 campaign to get Howard dating as far back as 2011- his campaign didn’t stop despite the Lakers leasing the center in 2013!. He knew they (LA) was “slippin” and once he got the young stud the Rockets were a player. Remember, back in 2011 the IPhone was a status symbol and now based on Jay Z’s involvement it’s your mom’s phone- shit can change. When you put up a Billboard you’ve already crossed into the modern frontier, and I’m OK with it, but don’t put a prompt (STAY) on the damned thing when we all know you need to be putting in a plea. Have the good sense to beg when it’s time to beg! The Lakers were archaic in their pompous need to maintain dignity when we don’t live in dignified times, hell 40% of the celebrities that attend their games are famous for absolutely nothing-this aint the 1980’s man.

And let’s get something straight, the Laker Big Man Tradition is a Myth!

Hakeem Olajuwon is a God in Houston, and Yao is beloved despite promise unfulfilled, and I’m sure they told Howard how much better it is to be a Rocket “Big” than a Laker. Historically the Lakers “get” the big man, but getting him and loving him are two different things, just ask yourself why Laker big men all seem to have the same chip on their shoulder?. George Mikan was a Minneapolis Laker, and he remained a Minnesota mainstay for years, even heading a task force that was instrumental in the Timberwolves coming to fruition. He ran for Congress in Minnesota and did his business in Minnesota; his statue is in front of the Target Center where it belongs. The only thing he “did” as an LA Laker was a photo-shoot when Shaquille O Neal was acquired-so like all things in “La La land” his role as an “LA Laker” was make believe. Wilt came there for the party, the movies and the chicks, and he wasn’t welcomed back as a presence after his playing days because Jerry West was more beloved-the “true” Laker. Wilt was 1-3 in “purple and gold” championship play, noted for sitting out with injury against Boston in 69’ and allowing Willis Reed to limp around for a couple of minutes in 71’ to inspire the Knicks. He openly clashed with Butch Van Breda Koff and didn’t “mesh” well with West and Baylor-and Howard was told to shut up and be a good Laker? The same people who point to the rafters talking about the “Bigman” tradition would have “killed” Wilt if he were playing today, the problem is many can’t even remember Kareem’s moody ass.

Kareem was not embraced by Wilt and was overshadowed by Magic Johnson within 5 years of showing up, despite being a champion Bruin and Laker, he had to wait behind a Hockey Player and underachieving Boxer to get a freaking statue!. Kareem had to resort to coaching for free to get his career started, and he wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy towards Shaquille O’Neal either. Andrew Bynum couldn’t wait to get away from him, and he had to hear about Howard for two years despite being a two time champ and walking “double/ double”. The Lakers were Howards 4^th trade option last year, and when he got there the first thing he asked for (Phil Jackson) was tabled in favor of Jim Buss’s ego- nice start. Someone clearly don’t want you, yet you buy an audition date and then have the nerve to try and get all “dog” the next day? When Mike D’Antoni came in on a Wednesday another accomplished Bigman (Pau Gasol) was on the bench by Friday- and he was directly responsible for making Kobe “Mr. Immortal/Winner/Killer guy”. He bailed Kobe’s ass out when Kobe realized that being like Mike was actually kind of hard, and in return he got called “soft” whenever the team failed. It took Kobe half the season to even notice Gasol’s benching, he was too busy chucking it up and usurping D’Antoni’s authority for his own purposes-way to take care of the “big dogs” Kobe.

And now #Lakers have to pretend they haven’t been talking to him like a chump for 3 years and openly considering putting an Amnesty tag on his ass. They’ve been trading him for years, and now he’s probably looking at Dwight and thinking “damn, I wish I were you”. The Lakers have always been hostile towards Big men in indulgence of “fan favorite” guards-it’s the worst kept secret in Basketball history. Dwight Howard didn't want to be on that list, he stared the Mamba in the face and said "no thanks".

Bynum has to be getting a chuckle out of the #Lakers being told like an old cougar that they may be “hot” but not “young people hot”…because there’s is a difference. Shaq was so bitter from his treatment at the hands of Kobe and the Lakers he dogged Howard incessantly to make himself feel better, now you tell me who the hell needs that shit? If the Laker Bigman Tradition was so great you could get them in the same room over the last 30 years, and not just when you want the next bigman either - they’re like Hefners wives-far apart and aware of just how empty it all was. LeBron is in Miami winning on family, sharing the ball, and trust while Dwight Howard was expected to be a Dennis Rodman to Kobe’s “Jordan”; it was never going down like that ya’ll. When Kobe said he could “teach” @DwightHoward how to be a “champ” I’m sure Howard was thinking about how the “up and under” moves (McHale) and footwork (@DR34M) he will learn in Houston could get him “there” soooooo much faster.

And you shouldn’t blame him, the Lakers will be alright once they establish a plan for turning the Kobe page but until then they’ll have to absorb this “L”. Hopefully they look in the mirror and at #24, but given what we’ve seen all of last year I doubt it. They allowed him to call Howard a “3^rd option” before he got off the plane and they facilitated the bullshit character assassinations from fans before and after the so called betrayal. They alienated the only Alpha Male (Phil Jackson) who could tell Kobe his 30 shots to Dwight’s 5 were not productive Basketball and they refuse to accept that handing the financial and spiritual keys over to an MJ knockoff may just might end badly. Tradition is a slippery slope, and the one thing bedrock brands have to do is realize when “not” to depend so much on history- sometimes it’s best to follow for a while and get (young and)hungry again. Maybe then they’ll have the courage to move Kobe along to make room for the next Laker great instead of assuming the next class of elite (Draft and FA’s of 2014) is clamoring to rebuild a delusional empire.

A Little Insight on Shaq and Kareem

Shaq is throwing shade but he's secretly relieved, Howard is now reviled in LA and he can now benefit from a resurgence of the LA love he wasn't getting. In my opinion Kobes first 3 Rings came by way of playing with the dominant O'Neal but it's easy to forget how the city unanimously sided with Bryant over the years. That "little" city Howard went to just happens to be the home of the one man that made Shaq look like a damned fool on the basketball court, a man a whole 2 inches shorter than Howard. It's not like there was any love waiting on Howard in LA, why hang out in a city where all previous Centers are threatened by one another when you can hang with Hakeem the Dream- a model of serenity?. In Houston Dwight will get nothing but love, guidance and instruction from a guy that beat Kareem when he was still a kid and took Shaq to school in the finals. There was nothing positive to be learned from Kareem and Shaq' just a lot of sniping and cold shoulders.

Adrien Broner and the lines of Demarcation

2013-06-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

Have you ever looked at two extremely talented people given the same opportunities and the same support and wonder why one is a success and the other a pariah? What if neither was lazy, both applied themselves according to the same endeavor and yet one of them isn’t what his talent suggested he’d be. Many entertainers with “A list” talent achieve Cult status but never reach the top of the money pyramid, despite everyone acknowledging them as a cut above the rest. The NBA draft is coming up in a week and GM’s can’t wait to get their hands on a baller with max contract potential at the top of the second round, delaying the fiscal reality of having to pay him for a couple of years- a win for everyone involved but the player. Boxing is filled with guys who do special things, and often lack of appeal and the political power wielded by promoters keep “fighter A” from being what all signs predicted he’d be in the beginning. There’s more Ricardo Williams’ than Mayweathers, more burnouts than legends- and it’s not always the luck of the draw, a random setback in the hardest game-theres foretelling. Simply being with the right people is only half of the battle, just ask Victor Ortiz- maintaining the kind of market excitement needed will generally dictate whether you get to play in the oncoming Post Mayweather PPV Playpen. And simply being able to fight and being rude enough to say “anything” won’t get that number one position filled no matter what Al Haymon tells you.

Which brings me to Adrien Broner

I’ve never seen a fighter so young set the bar so high for turning my stomach while actually coming up refreshingly short of what I believed he was capable of. While it was disgusting to inject “the girl who will go unnamed on my blog” into the least gracious post fight interview ever I was mildly surprised he didn’t sink lower- and I shouldn’t feel that way about someone who has everything lined up to be the next guy they tell you is the "face" of Boxing. Sorry Paulie, it’s the right connections in combination with clean and effective punching that made Saturday look like heated sparring between a Junior Middleweight and Light Welterweight- punches to the face always beat punches to the elbows. The judging is not what we should be judging, it’s the missed opportunity (by Broner) to show your “inner Mayweather” and shift into a mode of conduct that underlies the brashness- intelligent people call it nuance, my Mama called it “acting like you got some damned sense”. Markets are volatile and what Al Haymon and Floyd Mayweather say now won’t matter in 2023, there’s no guarantee that being an asshole ala Mayweather circa 2006 is a sound business model in 2014. Boxing is fluid, like Hip Hop. There’s something a little alarming and startlingly naive for Adrien Broner to believe Mayweather like riches await him, especially when he’s eliminated Floyd from ever being an opponent. If he is a student of Mayweathers rise to stardom you would think he noticed the way Floyd subtly mixed a thoughtful intelligence in with the “wrasslin heal” he portrays, that Broner's “Problem” may be in his “dumbed down” interpretation of something already patently dumb in the first place. Rolling your shoulders is no guaranteed trip to the cover of Forbes, and what people have to deal with behind the scenes may be just as important as the greatness exhibited when the lights come on.

Many fighters maximize earnings by being a jerk before the fight, Ali lifted it from Gorgeous George and Mayweather turned it into a modern art form- but dammit if your black you better be smart and Broner appears to be a dull bulb. How else can you explain his brand of humor? The fake wedding proposal center ring was more than crass-it was an invitation for “confirmation bias” against young black men-he may as well eat a bucket of chicken! Dudes that even laughed at it are less likely to marry, maintain a job nor ever be head of household- and it doesn’t take Michael Eric Dyson to figure that one out; it was gutter humor at a time when you should make us feel not so dirty about watching fights. That his Father stood there laughing was only further evidence that something is deeply wrong here, I mean if you can’t check that behavior why are you even around dad? There are lines of demarcation to being “that guy” and gold grills often cross it, even among the worst of us some can get away with “it” and some can’t- and cunning beats talent every day of the week. In history most criminals are arrested or die like Tony Montana and a select few pass away peacefully sunbathing in the Cayman Islands having committed the same crimes; because the endgame is in the details, the boring everyday precautions that guys like Jay Z and Floyd Mayweather Never Tell You.

Mayweather will simply sit back, call him “family” and watch him hang himself.

Broner can move among sharks in the streets of Cincinnati and anyone from 135-154 lbs. including “his idol” but I want him to think bigger than that- because the real sharks are in suits. Interviews aren’t about impressing your boys, or keeping it “real” and stupid, Broner should be mindful that the man he’s mimicking was shut out of the big money until he was 30…because he couldn’t draw and nobody was doing him any favors. After that interview would any of you bet on him keeping his nose clean for 7 years? What if there’s no De La Hoya? What if Canelo Alvarez decides losing to one loudmouth legend was enough and he need not lose to that legends “mini me” in 2016. Broner had the opportunity Saturday to co-opt an important Northeast audience the way Floyd did in Atlantic City when he defeated Arturo Gatti back in 2005- but he chose to stay in the schoolyard, what’s next prank calls? “I took your belt and your girl” is one of those "one liners" that feel good in the moment, but it’s more fitting of UStream or YouTube at best- and Paulie's over the top response only let the Middle School Class Clown off the hook. All it takes is one pointed comment or a condescending look (See Merchant vs. Mayweather) from an “adult” in the room and Broner is the object of much deserved ridicule. The Twitter audience aint your friend bro, and had Paulie gave a measured “ grow up clown” and stayed away from going all Alex Jones on Boxing Broner's silliness would be under the hot light of the microscope.

We should be asking, what’s wrong with this dude?

We don’t demand fighters act like they love one another after such a heated promotion but we do like to believe each combatant is a man when it’s over. In fact we like to be reassured that neither man is small, because it makes us feel a little bit smaller for wasting our time watching them. When someone of Broner's talent “went there” it reminded us that there’s no sure thing in Boxing, that sometimes something happens after a fight that may be the first ripple in the water of that guy (later) being overwhelmed by his own bullshit. We aren’t seeing transcendent discipline like a Floyd Mayweather; we’re seeing a good little fighter doing his interpretation of Floyd-minus the character that is way more important than you think. Boxing owes talent absolutely nothing, and there’s a way to be the “bad guy” without coming off as a bad guy, a way to leave a slither of something fans can grab onto when they want someone to love. As of this writing Broner is what Malignaggi says he is, a “rapper who can fight a little bit” and there’s no assurance the PPV waters will part for an asshole who can’t even fake it long enough to get to where he’s going. The one person Broner should get “personal” with is the person who can make him rich no matter what we think- but he won’t realize it until that person is retired and telling us he knew there was something wrong with the kid.

Trash talk is funny, it can tell you a man’s IQ, his motivation and whether or not he can handle himself when things don’t go his way. Most importantly the line of demarcation is drawn by those listening to it, and subconscious decisions are made- time will only tell if this Broner individual is just “talking shit” or full of it.

I’ll play the “Choose my next Opponent” game Broner wants us to play by picking the winner of Matthysse vs. Garcia. Garcia can box with him and touch him and Matthysse will dare him to stand there and talk as he did against Malignaggi. @brothaboxing

Chad Johnson slapping his lawyer's ass

2013-06-14T05:17:00.001-07:00