The cultural influence of Michael Jordan and Muhammed Ali: Some Ideas for my new book
- What would the world be like like if MJ or Ali had not existed.
- MJ has had a massive impact on fashion and cultural, especially as he was one of the first black sport stars to start to earn massive amounts of money
- Ali was the first black sports personality that stood up to the white corporate power structure, losing his title due to his refusal to join the US military and fight in Vietnam, as he said ''Charlie ain't ever called me nigger''
Friday, July 27, 2007
The future of the NBA:
Portland Trailblazers and the Seattle Supersonics meet in the NBA Summer League
Las Vegas 15/07/07
The Trailblazers and Supersonics meet for the first time since they took the first two picks in the draft. A match up that in a few short years will see these two transformed from basement dwellers to probably the premier two in the league due to some wise drafting and trading.
Lets start with the Trailblazers after trading up in last years draft they acquired Brandon Roy (rookie of the year) and La Marcus Aldridge (check that) two potential talents at the 2 and 4 spots. At the one they have Jarret Jack, Sergio Rodriguez, two young talents and with the free agent acquisition of Steve Blake, a player who has proved he can run a team, who should be the wise veteran that the team will need in a couple of years when all the young talent around him develops. This years first round pick though was the real coup of the draft offering them the choice of Oden or Durant, the former a Big man with the potential of O'Neil or Duncan and the latter a 2/3 who could have the scoring potential of Bryant or Jordan. In the end they chose Oden and this allowed them to dispense of Randolph thus dumping a player who often caused trouble and acquiring contracts that can be dropped soon freeing up cap money down the line.
Up in Seattle this year they gained the second pick and with it they took Durant allowing a team with ageing talent in Lewis and Allen to immediately transform into a young team with plenty of potential. They also traded Allen to Boston allowing them to acquire Jeff Green with Boston's pick. This allowed them to acquire their future 3 and 4 spot and like Portland the chance to free up cap room in two years when the contracts they acquired from Boston expire, another smart move. Unlike Portland though they do not have as much young potential looking very week at the 1 and 5 spots, but the extra cap room available in two years should help if their young GM can continue to make smart moves.
On to the game itself and it begins with a little disappointment in my hearth as Oden is out having his tonsils removed. I guess we will just have to wait a little longer to see him and Durant in action in the same game. But there is still enough talent on display to make the game a worthwhile fixture as Durant, Green and a whole host of trailblazers with future potential are on display.
From the beginning Portland show that for at least next season they will hold the advantage over their northern neighbours taking a early lead with Sergio Rodriguez running the team from the one and some contributions from the big Brit Joel Freeland. Half time saw Portland go to the locker with a 10 point lead. It wasn't all bad for Seattle though as Green showed his stuff while Durant, getting of to a slow start but still knocking down shots and getting to the line. In the second half Durant finally showed his stuff adjusting to the Portland's defence and along with Green finally managed to tie the game up late in the 4th. Talent wise though, even without Oden, Portland finally proved too strong pulling away once more for the win.
In conclusion Portland showed that as a team they are nearer the complete package than Seattle, but in Durant and Green, my man of the match, they have two huge talents to build around. Pity the Eastern conference, at this rate no team over there will be able to win the championship for about ten years especially with the West's current dominance in the form of San Antonio, Phoenix and Dallas.
Portland Trailblazers and the Seattle Supersonics meet in the NBA Summer League
Las Vegas 15/07/07
The Trailblazers and Supersonics meet for the first time since they took the first two picks in the draft. A match up that in a few short years will see these two transformed from basement dwellers to probably the premier two in the league due to some wise drafting and trading.
Lets start with the Trailblazers after trading up in last years draft they acquired Brandon Roy (rookie of the year) and La Marcus Aldridge (check that) two potential talents at the 2 and 4 spots. At the one they have Jarret Jack, Sergio Rodriguez, two young talents and with the free agent acquisition of Steve Blake, a player who has proved he can run a team, who should be the wise veteran that the team will need in a couple of years when all the young talent around him develops. This years first round pick though was the real coup of the draft offering them the choice of Oden or Durant, the former a Big man with the potential of O'Neil or Duncan and the latter a 2/3 who could have the scoring potential of Bryant or Jordan. In the end they chose Oden and this allowed them to dispense of Randolph thus dumping a player who often caused trouble and acquiring contracts that can be dropped soon freeing up cap money down the line.
Up in Seattle this year they gained the second pick and with it they took Durant allowing a team with ageing talent in Lewis and Allen to immediately transform into a young team with plenty of potential. They also traded Allen to Boston allowing them to acquire Jeff Green with Boston's pick. This allowed them to acquire their future 3 and 4 spot and like Portland the chance to free up cap room in two years when the contracts they acquired from Boston expire, another smart move. Unlike Portland though they do not have as much young potential looking very week at the 1 and 5 spots, but the extra cap room available in two years should help if their young GM can continue to make smart moves.
On to the game itself and it begins with a little disappointment in my hearth as Oden is out having his tonsils removed. I guess we will just have to wait a little longer to see him and Durant in action in the same game. But there is still enough talent on display to make the game a worthwhile fixture as Durant, Green and a whole host of trailblazers with future potential are on display.
From the beginning Portland show that for at least next season they will hold the advantage over their northern neighbours taking a early lead with Sergio Rodriguez running the team from the one and some contributions from the big Brit Joel Freeland. Half time saw Portland go to the locker with a 10 point lead. It wasn't all bad for Seattle though as Green showed his stuff while Durant, getting of to a slow start but still knocking down shots and getting to the line. In the second half Durant finally showed his stuff adjusting to the Portland's defence and along with Green finally managed to tie the game up late in the 4th. Talent wise though, even without Oden, Portland finally proved too strong pulling away once more for the win.
In conclusion Portland showed that as a team they are nearer the complete package than Seattle, but in Durant and Green, my man of the match, they have two huge talents to build around. Pity the Eastern conference, at this rate no team over there will be able to win the championship for about ten years especially with the West's current dominance in the form of San Antonio, Phoenix and Dallas.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Antiworld probably the worst festival in the world ever
Well lets begin with the good points:
- it stopped raining late Thursday night
- err that's it...
Now that we got that out of the the way let me tell you a little story of what could be described as a huge fuck up. From the very beginning the festival was a half million over budget with ticket sales hovering around the 4000 mark, for an event that could hold up to 12000 people. According to my source the promoters where aware of this problem more than a month ahead of the festival but decided to push ahead with it anyway.
Thus by the time the punters turned up the line up had been cut in half as a cost cutting measure...hmmm £110 pound a ticket and half the acts gone, a good start. Overall the music was pretty poor with the trance being mainly commercial Israeli acts. As for as the other types of music was concerned nothing stood out either. Now so far the main problems could be put down to my tastes in music which tend to favour hip hop and its ilk, but I do like my squelchy psy-trance and having a little boogie in the sunshine, but there wasn't even much of that.
But lets move on to moment that really gives Antiworld its special place in the world of festivals. At approximately 2 pm on the Sunday the music topped, that's right the festival was cancelled. Apparently the night before the sewage disposal company managed to dump all the shit into the staff canteen, forcing the council to give the promoters 24 hours notice to shut down.
Now this was 24 hours from Sunday afternoon, so you may think why did the music have to stop, the police on site stated that they where not going to stop the event at this point and that the punters where allowed to stay on site till 1pm the next day, but hell why continue when you can pull the plug blaming the sewage disposal company and in the process save some money. How much money. who knows? but my sources revealed to me that this allowed them to get out of paying a 22 grand electricity bill, and other things such as peoples wages, also they cancelled the rest of Sundays acts, saving a bit more money and I imagine the promotion company will declare its self bankrupt so that the punters that wasted their money on this festival wont be getting any kind of compensation.
Now I don't know how much of this was down to inexperience on the part of the promoters but when when acts such as Evil Nine canceled due to his agent advising him that he probably wouldn't get paid it suggests that the promoters knew problems where afoot but carried on regardless.
In hindsight putting on a electronic festival 2 weeks after Glastonbury and 2 weeks before Glade shows a certain amount of arrogance on the part of the promoters especially considering their reputation is built around running a trance night in London, this was a very big step up and I guess their lack of experience showed in the end.
Well lets begin with the good points:
- it stopped raining late Thursday night
- err that's it...
Now that we got that out of the the way let me tell you a little story of what could be described as a huge fuck up. From the very beginning the festival was a half million over budget with ticket sales hovering around the 4000 mark, for an event that could hold up to 12000 people. According to my source the promoters where aware of this problem more than a month ahead of the festival but decided to push ahead with it anyway.
Thus by the time the punters turned up the line up had been cut in half as a cost cutting measure...hmmm £110 pound a ticket and half the acts gone, a good start. Overall the music was pretty poor with the trance being mainly commercial Israeli acts. As for as the other types of music was concerned nothing stood out either. Now so far the main problems could be put down to my tastes in music which tend to favour hip hop and its ilk, but I do like my squelchy psy-trance and having a little boogie in the sunshine, but there wasn't even much of that.
But lets move on to moment that really gives Antiworld its special place in the world of festivals. At approximately 2 pm on the Sunday the music topped, that's right the festival was cancelled. Apparently the night before the sewage disposal company managed to dump all the shit into the staff canteen, forcing the council to give the promoters 24 hours notice to shut down.
Now this was 24 hours from Sunday afternoon, so you may think why did the music have to stop, the police on site stated that they where not going to stop the event at this point and that the punters where allowed to stay on site till 1pm the next day, but hell why continue when you can pull the plug blaming the sewage disposal company and in the process save some money. How much money. who knows? but my sources revealed to me that this allowed them to get out of paying a 22 grand electricity bill, and other things such as peoples wages, also they cancelled the rest of Sundays acts, saving a bit more money and I imagine the promotion company will declare its self bankrupt so that the punters that wasted their money on this festival wont be getting any kind of compensation.
Now I don't know how much of this was down to inexperience on the part of the promoters but when when acts such as Evil Nine canceled due to his agent advising him that he probably wouldn't get paid it suggests that the promoters knew problems where afoot but carried on regardless.
In hindsight putting on a electronic festival 2 weeks after Glastonbury and 2 weeks before Glade shows a certain amount of arrogance on the part of the promoters especially considering their reputation is built around running a trance night in London, this was a very big step up and I guess their lack of experience showed in the end.
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