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Wu-Tang
Foul Monday, the flagship artist on Ron Artest’s Tru Warier record label, has a new video for his track “Trucks Lined Up.” Honestly, the beat isn’t that bad and they have a nice, 90s Queensbridge aesthetic going with the whole standing in front of some SUVs thing and rhyming into the camera. I feel like Mobb Deep did that in like half the videos off their first two albums.
Check it out over at NESW sports.
Meanwhile, this combined with the ongoing feelings of triumph resonating throughout mainstream hip hop since the release of Only Built for Cuban Linx II (which is amazing) and Blueprint 3 (which is pretty hot) last week has me reminiscing about a simpler, bygone time when Ron Artest was appearing in rap videos without holding a mic. Along with St. John’s University teammate Reggie Jesse, Tru Warier made his MTV debut in fellow QB native Nas’ 1999 video for the DJ Premier-blessed trunk rattler “Nas Is Like.” (Artest pops up at 1:26 in the below video.)
Little did we know at the time, but I think it’s now pretty obvious that Esco was describing Ron with the whole “Iron Mike/Messiah-type” line.
You know what Ron’s like. You watch him on League Pass every night.
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Much like President Bush Part Deux, I’m a big Misty May fan. And much like every real American, I’m a big Shaq fan.
Thus, here’s a video of those two — plus her tall, blond partner and some dude — squaring off in a rock ‘em, sock ‘em game of beach volleyball on Big Aristotle’s new show Shaq Vs., which features him trying to beat pro athletes from other sports at those other sports. It’s an idea he reportedly stole from Steve Nash, whose only public comment on the matter thus far has been: “I don’t want nobody sound like nobody from my clan, man. Keep it real — getcha own shit, man. And be original.” (video via Hooped Up)
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While hanging out at Belmont Park race track this weekend, I ran into this treasure trove of mid-90s memories. Rodman wearing #91 and jorts: Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Meanwhile, the dude whose name I don’t know that runs the website called “A Stern Warning” found this Japanese commercial for Dunlop featuring The Worm himself. (via NESW Sports)
Suffice it to say, I had a pretty good weekend.
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Much like the RZA is the abbot of the Wu Tang Clan, Henry Abbott is the abbot of the ballersphere.
And, along with four other “thoughts that won’t change basketball forever,” he has an idea on how teams can try to gain a few extra possessions.
Here’s the set-up.
Another little conundrum to do with possessions. By the definition that is commonly used, both teams have the same number of possessions in a game. My team has it, then your team has it, and back and forth.
Except … not exactly.
At the end of quarters, things can get a tad uneven, because at the beginning of the next quarter, the possession goes to a team that is predetermined. (A team wins the jump ball at the beginning of the game, and thus earns the ball to begin the first and fourth quarters. The other team gets it to begin the second and third.)
Which means that there are extra possessions up for grabs at the end of quarters. Whoever has it last in any quarter has gained a possession they might have never had.
So … if the other team has the ball with 23 seconds left to close a quarter, should you foul to get the ball back? You get a free possession out of the deal, which almost never happens.
The Spurs have done this from time to time, and I can see the point of it.
Of course, it’s not really a free possession, though. That’s the thing. You’re sending somebody to the line to get that possession. So, you’re giving up somewhere between zero and two points, and getting another foul on one of your guys. There’s a lot of figuring to do there. Depends who you foul, how well they are shooting, and how likely you think you are, in that moment, to make a bucket.
So…
Should you foul or should you not foul?
Here’s what I would do, if I were an NBA coach: I’d train my team to play a special brand of psycho defense. This is defense where you don’t care if you get called for a foul. Bumping, screaming, slapping, banging, poking … Five guys should bring it crazy hard (except when somebody is shooting — which is nearly impossible to predict in the NBA and is the downfall of my plan) when the other team has the ball in the waning moments of a quarter. You get called for a foul, so what? That’s your semi-intentional foul, and you get a possession for it. But if you don’t get called for a foul? Against that defense, I don’t like the other teams’ chances. Besides, I bet it’s great for your team to practice that kind of defense anyway. Good for everyone on the court, offense and defense, to get used to that brand of intensity.
Of his non-revolutionary ideas, this was the one I found most interesting. But the other four are decent as well. Check em out.
The sharpest motherfucka in the whole Clan. He always on point, razorsharp...with the first cup, with the bullets, whateva -- and he train like a pro.
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