Could it be that J.O’Neal is on the last train out of Indy before the inevitable implosion? Seems that is a real possibly after reading this report from Mr. Skeets.
It seems like only yesterday that the Warriors successfully gutted almost all of his team’s identity. Jettisoning the Dubs into play-off contention, while the flavorless (AMC) Pacers got Dumb-lever and da’ Murph. Poor chumps. Sitting idle in the lowly East with a lack of “go-ness” that feels worthy of that 70’s 2-doored hatch back’s name.
It’s almost enough to feel bad for ‘em. But, then again, not quite.
While J.E.’s post about O’Neal’s interview on SportNews didn’t speculate on any possible destinations for the aging center, I couldn’t help but chuckle as I read through some of the reader’s comments. One fan even suggested trading Big Al back to Indianapolis. Man, I don’t know what brand of sticky green space invaders that dude is smokin’, but I can tell you it must be strong.
Admittedly, the FTB crew has been known to muse about a formidable big in Oakland. But I, like Mr. Meschery, have given into the fact that unless the Warriors are willing to spend above the cap, what we would need to “give” would cancel out whatever we “got”.
G. Dolin
PS.
Oh, and the Celtics are going to the finals. I can’t help but wonder what would have become of the Warriors if we had landed that free-agent?
Well, Happy Friday. I’ll raise a glass to the wishful thinking.
First and last chances are hard to come by. How about a 125th anniversary? What if it comes in a convenient adult-beverage format? The Oakland Museum has some cool exhibits, but a Sunday outing Oakland’s oldest establishment of ill-repute might hold more allure. At least on this coming Sunday.
Jack London Square is the place to be. And 125 years of history is the thing. Put it in a glass and feel the long pull of something greater than yourself. Congrats to the Heinold crew for holding it down for the home town. For real. A century plus is nothing to trifle with.
It’s spring and love is in the air, and on the road. A month or so back, some friends of mine decided that they were going to tie the knot in the exact location where they first met - on AC Transit, the Transbay Bus, going back to Oakland… the lower deck. It gets none more Baytastic than that. Don’t try to claim some East Bay status just because you wear an A’s cap and eat at The Smokehouse three nights a week. Until you get married on AC Transit, you’re just a tourist. Yes, the bar has been raised pretty high my friend.
So the way it went down (for those of you about to spend 10 grand and hella C02 on your wedding) is like this:
Bus Fare (Transbay) for 20 of your closest friends and family: $65
Extra Cake (to give to the nice bus driver): $12
iPod portable stereo (to set the mood): $77
Most Unforgettable Wedding: Priceless
The best part about this is they didn’t even reserve a bus (I don’t think that’s possible anyway). The guests all dressed in white and met up at the Transbay Terminal and just paid their fare and got on the bus like some Public Transportation Love Cult or something. Yep, it’s so easy anyone can do it. That’s why it’s called “Public Transit.” So, if your fiancé is coming at you with banquet hall rental information for The Fairmont or The Claremont, say “Baby, we can go to Fremont,” and then hand their ass a transfer. Oh, and don’t forget to set up your Ultimate Eco-Wedding Registry here: Offsettherest.com
Tonight in San Francisco, Baron Davis hosted a benefit for the TeamPlay arm of The Baron Davis Foundation. Us FTB’ers popped up on the scene, crispy and clean, to snap a few photos and cop the message. It’s unfair to try and distill it down into a short late-night post, but here goes.
The basic premise of TeamPlay (a public-private 501cthreezy partnership) is to create a mentorship program that bridges the gap in the space-time continuum between working professionals and inner-city youth through the use of technology. While in-person mentorship activities are still the primary goal, the connectivity that technology now provides is being considered as a very real mechanism for meaningful social change. With the MySpace generation now matriculating through a broken inner-city educational system, it is more important than ever for society’s card-carrying contributors to find a way to bridge the geo-political gap between the ‘hood and wherever it is that you’re doing your thang, and give something meaningful back. Primarily, the legitimate opportunities that come from sustained interaction. By targeting what the group calls “influential students” (and don’t take the quotes the wrong way), they hope to create a halo effect that can spotlight new avenues out of the neighborhood, avenues that don’t necessarily involve hoop dreams, dope beats or well-timed humor. This aspect of the public-facing mission is actually a construct that I suspect only a few in the audience could truly grasp. But the ultimate goal of the TeamPlay vision seems to be a particularly strident brand of integrationism that also happens to be the cornerstone of my personal politick.
Put people together. Share the experiences. Everyone benefits.
Turman
PS. We scored some face time with the beard too. Much more on this to come, but what is mid-major sports-blog marketing without a teaser or two? Off to the editing suite! Huzzah!
PPS. Somewhere, in another galaxy KG had a lot of points and Boston won to take a 3-2 lead in the East.
Do you ever get annoyed when someone starts a conversation like this,”If I was Chris Mullin the first thing I’d do is…”
Well, why should I be any different. So, here’s my unsolicited 2 cents regarding some of the off-season moves I think the Dubs should make.
1) Lock up Boom Dizzle (FOR THE REST OF HIS DAMN CAREER!!!)
2) Give the young pups (Monte and Andris) legit veteran contracts
3) Trade 10 basketballs, a case of talcum powder , 5 It’s-It’s, and an Extra Large Milano Roastano Round Table Pizza for Jason Maxiell. It’s not unprecedented.
4) Give B. Wright an I.V. filled with pulled pork BBQ (He is from Tennessee. And Yes Turman, that is a Warriors need to bulk up comment)
5) CHANGE THE DAMN LOGO!!!!
FTBers let me hear it. If you had carte blanche what would you do???
Did he not accept Tim to be his friend on Facebook? Did he cut him off driving into the Oracle parking lot? Did he call his mama a b@#ch? Seriously, what could possibly motivate Kawakami to dedicate so much time to the Baron Davis contract issue on his “Talking Points” blog for the San Jose Mercury News? There has to be something more than Kawakami’s mosquito’s-sized sphincter that would induce his epic exegeses on the subject. We all know BD had a reputation coming from The Hornets, but the fact is that conflicts of personality and such have been mostly absent since his arrival, at least on the surface (but of course with Kawakami-Vision, one can see far below the surface into the minds of coaches, players and general managers). It’s dismaying to me that in some blog-chatter, there are a few Dubsfans seriously thinking it would be cool to have a Stephon Marbury or Ron Artest trade - Are you F-ing kidding me? Oh yeah, let’s trade “can be moody” for “complete psychopath.” That’s a great idea. Here’s what I know, and what the average fan knows (which is apparently negligible to TK) - Since Baron donned a Warriors’ Jersey,
1. The Warriors have a winning record and have continued to improve.
2. Attendance is through the roof.
3. Golden State is back on the national sports radar.
I’ll take that trend over the unknown of a Baronless Warriors. Everything the coaches and players have said up until this point is that this team has great chemistry and they all enjoy playing together. What’s so hard about taking that at face value? Maybe Nellie benched Baron in the Phoenix game just to give Kawakami something to write about for the next four months? That would be awesome if Baron and Nellie planned the whole thing at half-time just to mess with some no-life havin’, write a billion words a day blogger/quasi-journalist dude.
Yes, Baron is our avatar, but not because we think he can deliver us a championship (are you kidding, we’re true Warriors fans remember?). We chose Baron because he has a swagger that we felt resonated with the East Bay Culture that we know. It’s that value-add that’s hella important to us as fans. But for people like T. Kawakami it’s more important to play armchair GM and pretend to “know” what will make a championship team. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out after this year’s championship between the Lakers and Celtics (unless The Pistons prove me wrong) that to get all the way, you need to have at least two superstars AND a bunch of great role players. Merely trading Baron Davis for Elton Brand doesn’t even get us close. So, unless we’re really talking about doing super duper big things, why bitch about the squad we got? That’s why Kawakami’s brain diarrhea on BD can only be explained by some personal vendetta-type ish or a severe case of pogonophobia, otherwise his talking points on this matter are utterly pointless.
Most of us know JingleTown without knowing it’s JingleTown. Yeah, you know that time when you were trying to find the bridge to Alameda and you got off the 880 and then got back on the 880, and then got back off the 880 again only to be lost somewhere between Home Depot and Big Lots? Yep, you were in JingleTown my friend and you didn’t even know it. JingleTown is the Bermuda Triangle of Oakland. Many-a-lost hipster trying to find their way to The Lucky 13 in Alameda got lost there never to be heard from again. It’s also where 80% of the best music in Oakland is born. Studio 880, a nondescript brick warehouse by the freeway, is the home to Zion-I, Blackalicious and, of course, Green Day. Green Day, playing under the alias “Foxboro Hot Tubs,” even have a song called “27th Ave Shuffle” on their debut album “Stop, Drop, and Roll.” And they released this alter-ego band on their new imprint called, you guessed it, “Jingle Town Records.” And if that’s not Town-centric enough for you, they also have a song called “Ruby Room” and one called “Broadway” which I believe is neither George Benson’s nor Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s Broadway. Coming from the man who penned the lyric “Said that I’d meet you at the Berkeley Marina” I think it’s safe to say that this song is about Broadway Auto Row.
Next to maybe Too $hort, I don’t know if anyone represents the Bay harder in song. In fact, I want to believe that the name “Foxboro Hot Tubs” has something to do with the Raiders playoff game against the Patriots at Foxboro Stadium, but that might be reaching a bit. Beyond the fact that you should own this album for its Bayness (just like you should own Rancid’s “And Out Come the Wolves” because of the BART-inspired tune “Daly City Train,”) this album is worth buying for the music. It’s not a typical Green Day joint. It’s “The Raconteurs” meets “The Exploding Hearts.” In fact, it almost sounds like an homage to the tragic, short-lived “Hearts.”
I would also like to point out that “The Foxboro Hot Tubs” played their first show at The Stork Club on Telegraph in Oakland. Ironic, since I think Green Day’s last show in the Bay was sold out at AT&T Park. Perhaps they asked themselves after that show, “Now we’re on top of the world, where do we go from here?” And the answer came to them on the drive home that night, “Oh yeah, back to Oakland.”
Two nights ago, Baron Davis and consigliere Cash Warren received the Youth Mentoring Connection (YMC) Humanitarian Award for their documentary “Made In America.” It examines the history of gang life in South Central LA. As far as the assembled paparazzi were concerned, this news was apparently secondary. Most of the cameras were focused elsewhere, since the aforementioned Cash Man was secretly married to his squeeze, starlet Jessica Alba, a day earlier. At least if you choose to beleive the celeblogsphere and/or Entertainment Tonight. Which I pretty much do.
But no matter what, it’s been a big couple of days for the “Beard Pack.” With C-Warren sporting newfound beardosity (as documented in the I Beat You dot com best-beard contest), it would appear that the two beards have now formed some sort of unstoppable Voltron-like, young-Hollywood alliance. Web sites, acclaimed documentaries, betrothed starlets, secret weddings and award-show speeches. It’s all in a long weekend. Full press release after the jump.
Facts. Dennis Richmond was born in 1943. Dennis Richmond is a Vietnam vet. Dennis Richmond’s first job at KTVU was as a typist. Dennis Richmond studied journalism at Columbia. Dennis Richmond broadcast the aftermath of the 1989 Loma-Prieta Earthquake from the Channel 2 parking lot. Dennis Richmond went on a ride-along with the Blue Angels without throwing up. Dennis Richmond has been in four movies. Dennis Richmond lives in San Ramon.
Other facts. Dennis Richmond’s mustache is made of a super-light carbon fiber weave commonly used in high-performance cars. Dennis Richmond does not blink. Because he can’t. An assistant puts Visine in his eyes at commercials. After telecasts Dennis Richmond drinks a blend of Grey Goose and Arctic Freeze Gatorade he likes to call the “Midnight Rambler.” Dennis Richmond once beat Mark Ibanez unconscious at a commercial break with a sack of oranges. Dennis Richmond has done the news while sleeping. Twice. Dennis Richmond has a jet pack that he only uses in the most dire emergencies in order to broadcast “on location.” Dennis Richmond got really yoked in the 1980s when he started working out and gave his old suits (see above) to my boy Hank so he could teach English in Japan with dignity.
Okay, the last one was real. Dennis, you will be missed. I have no idea what manner of Botox margaritas you’re drinking at Yoshi’s after work, but I can’t believe you’re 65 in a couple of days. I’m pretty sure you could kick my ass just by saying, “Turman, I’m going to kick your ass,” in that patented Richmond gravitas. But anyway, you’ve been the Kent Brockman of the Bay for as long as I can remember. And my grandfather used to run KRON 4. Ponder for a minute all of the anchors who have run through that shop in the time you’ve been holding it down. From Fred LaCoss to Pete Wilson and then some. Good show D. We at the FTB will miss you. It’s only a couple of minutes to 10:00 and I’m sad already.
Turman
PS. Yo, Dennis, do me a favor though and put in a good word for my boy John Sasaki on your way out the door. Berkeley High represent!
PPS. Stupid Spurs. Way to lose your momentum straight out of the gate. Must have been the crappy night’s sleep you got when David Stern grounded your plane. That would be my excuse anyway. Now Stern, stop messing with the FAA.
