Etan Thomas Speaks His Mind
SLAMonline.com launched a fascinating new feature today — a weekly column written by Washington Wizards center (and poet) Etan Thomas.
In his virgin post, Etan talks about the frequent, unabashed stereotyping and profiling he’s experienced — both on and off the basketball court.
Here’s a quick on-court example to make you go click:
We were playing a home game against Cleveland, and after a timeout a referee with dark, slicked-back hair (who shall remain nameless) approached me. He said that he had heard that I write poetry, have a book, speak at universities, am into politics, etcetera, and he asked me if this was true.
I replied, Yes.
To my surprise, he responded: “You’re not as dumb as you look.”
Type Casting [SLAMonline.com]
More Than An Athlete: Poems By Etan Thomas [Amazon]
[Note: A quick look tells us James Capers, Ken Mauer, and Mark Ayotte officiated the last Cavs at Wiz game. I’m thinking Mauer’s the slick-dick Etan’s referring too…]
Comments (9)You Know He Thought About It
I’ve been laughing about this for the last 10 minutes. From Dave D’Alessando’s Nets blog:
Sometimes in the postgame clamor, we have to go directly from the court to the locker room, without stopping off at the press room to drop off our stuff (laptop, bag, mascot costume, recyclable beer cans, etc.).
So when you arrive in the locker room, you look for a place to store your stuff. That was the case at Verizon last night, when one of our guys chose Marcus Williams’ locker stall to dump it.
“This your locker?” the scribe asks the rook.
“Yep,” rook responds.
“I’m putting my stuff here,” he tells the rook, matter-of-factly. “Don’t steal my laptop.”
Brilliant!
One To Savor, No Time To Do It [Nets Blast via The Big Lead]
Comments (2)A Carnival And An Interview
Good morning, Internet acquaintances. I’m wearing extremely thin socks today. (“The More You Know…“)
Here are two must-reads your retinas should succumb to this morn:
1. The Carnival of the NBA — No. Zero-Three-Seven! — is now up and running laps at The Rising Suns. It’s very well done, even if it is slightly creepy. (Shut up. I scare easily, okay?)
2. The Chauncey Billups of the NBA Blogosphere, lowpost.net’s Jason Gurney has posted a fantastic interview he did with… Hmmm… the Elton Brand of the NBA Blogosphere? … True Hoop’s Henry Abbott. Check it out.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of money to go spend…
Comments (1)HoopsAddict: The Magazine
I’ve taken way too long to pimp this, but here she is anyways…
Yeah, I highly suggest you pick up this fantastic little ball magazine created and edited by fellow Canadian blogger Ryan McNeil from HoopsAddict.com. Some of the articles in this inaugural magazine — which are also available online — include:
- “Josh Smith: Soaring To New Heights” — an interview with the Atlanta Hawks forward by Alex Labidou
- “The NBA You Won’t Read About in the Official Program” — an expose on William Wesley by Henry Abbott
- “The Evolution of a Franchise” — a look at the Toronto Raptors first ten years called by Dave Randall & Adam Francis
Lots of other good stuff in there too, kids. Check it out.
Great work Ryan, Matt and co. I look forward to Issue #2…
Comments (0)Wanted: A Kelly Dwyer Blog
Look, Shanoff’s got a blog. (A mighty fine one I might add.) Why doesn’t SI.com’s NBA writer Kelly Dwyer? Seriously. Dwyer’s writing is so consistently funny, that he honestly hurts my Alonzo missing parts.
I mean, just look at some of these observations Dwyer had on last night’s games:
- I’m telling you, he’s good, he’s tall, he’s 20: Andris Biedrins can play. He averaged six points, nine boards and 2.4 blocks in the preseason, while playing just 22 minutes, and came through with six points and three blocks in 16 minutes on Wednesday night. And yes, that first line was a rip-off of a Kids in the Hall skit, which I sadly cannot find on YouTube. Maybe Mark Cuban was right. In the meantime, these are the Daves I know.
- Don’t know how I missed it until early last year, when Tom Ziller pointed it out to me: Sacto play-by-play guy (TV and radio’s Grant Napear) truly hates Kenny Thomas. Remember that one Colombo where Colombo actually lost his shit? Where he started going off on Leonard Nimoy, who was playing the bad guy, telling Spock how he KNEW he was the murderer, and how he was going to get him by hook or by crook? No? Well, Napear’s a lot like Colombo in this instance, if you could guess at it, after having, y’know, never seen this particular episode. And, I reckon, Thomas couldn’t be Spock. Not sure who Spock is. But Napear hates Kenny Thomas.
- Irishmen don’t tan. For further proof, look for me every July, or Pat Burke right now. I will not argybargy this.
- Lenny Wilkens is now doing color commentary for Seattle SuperSonics telecasts. While this may not excite you offhand, please note that this means Craig Ehlo is NOT doing color commentary for SuperSonics telecasts.
This is a man that should be blogging, folks.
And as if that wasn’t reason enough, Dwyer goes and sends me this cryptic message:
Carnac: Sam Mitchell, a wok, three puppies, a bottle of Dewar’s and Ace Frehley’s first solo album.
KD: I don’t understand …
Carnac: The best Halloween party this side of Bangkok!
Yeah… um… I have no idea either. But who fuckin’ cares? That’s mint.
*Slowly steps down off of Dwyer’s cock.*
OK, I’m done. But Dwyer should really start a blog. No?
Kelly Dwyer Archive [SI.com]
Look Who Has League Pass [True Hoop]
[Note: That guy in the photo is not Kelly Dwyer. With that said, I do imagine KD as a suit-and-no-shoes (or socks!) type of fella.]
[Update: Dwyer sends in this correction: “I actually never am without shoes. Creeps out the girlfriend. I’m always with a kitten, too. Like a pirate, with his bird, but with a kitten instead.”]
Comments (9)About
The Basketball Jones is a NBA blog and podcast, written and recorded five times a week by J.E. Skeets, Tas Melas and Jason Doyle. Comments, questions and cold hard cash are always welcome and much appreciated. Contact us.
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