Says Jackson : “At this point, I’m 31 years old. I have four or five years left, I want to be in a situation where I can continually be in the playoffs and get another ring. So that’s where my mind is at now.”
When Jackson was a younger cat, he played with the Spurs and played a pivotal role in their ’03 Championship season. Now, he says he’d welcome a trade back to the Spurs – or Dallas or Houston. Either them of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
If I’m RC Buford, I’m on the horn RIGHT NOW seeing what Golden State will take for Captain Jack. I was personally sad to see him go to another team, though I understood why, and I would be ecstatic to have him back in Silver and Black!
Then again, he never should have left in the first place …
I have been checking out ways to improve my site recently and have come across ads that I can place and be paid for if people CLICK on the ads.
I’m really conflicted about this type of thing.
On the one hand it can be obtrusive if not done right.
On the other hand, I could use the extra income since I am unemployed now.
So after thinking long and hard about it, I have decided to add the ad-sense widget in to this site for a trial run. If I get enough negative feedback or complaints about it, I’ll take them down and go back to being ad free.
I mean, really, what’s wrong with earning a little income? And you guys have my promise that there will be NO pop ups or intrusive ad banners on this site …. I couldn’t deal with that, either.
“When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place.”
~ Unknown~
I don’t know about what you all are going through but this month has been rough for me, personally.
I am quoting this NOT because of its relevance to basketball and sports in general, but because we ALL need some encouragement when things get tough.
It is very hard, sometimes, to see that this too shall pass … but I am told that we are never given more than what we can bear. So I hold on through all the rough stuff and hope that you all can find it inside you to keep going even when you feel like you can’t.
August 29, 2009 at 1:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
A trip to the Sports Injury Clinic on Friday revealed a clean X-Ray. No breaks, fractures or tendon tears. The doctor DID caution, however, that the ligaments were damaged and that I needed to rest up.
I am upset about that, but my recovery is gonna be way quicker than normal. I was able to get the swelling down to almost nothing over the last few days – a little bit around the ball of the ankle – and I have been moving it around consistently and going for (very painful) walks since Thursday. Today, the ball of the ankle is a light reddish-purple, but there is no swelling or bruising anywhere else on the foot. I am able to step normally (and painfully) on my foot, walk on my tip toes and walk on my heels.
All along, I am taking Aleve for the swelling and pain, massaging it and icing it during the evenings.
It IS encouraging, and with a handful of weeks left before our basketball season begins, I am trying very hard to both stay in shape AND help my body heal … it’s kind of like juggling.
Instead of my scheduled P90X workout tonight, I decided to go to the YMCA as I could not remember the last time I had played basketball this month.
Everything was going good. I had on a new shirt, new shoes, a nice pair of shorts, I had members from my team there …. life was good! And I wasn’t playing too bad either.
And then it all vanished. I went to cut through the lane, planted on my right foot and lunged with the left. The left foot’s heel went up. As did the arch. But the toe stuck to the ground and I sprained my ankle. Worse than last time. I felt a light pop and a crackling sensation afterward.
I collapsed to the floor and clutched my ankle in pain as everything up to my shins radiated with pain. I got helped off the floor and sat there for a few minutes until my ankle went numb.
I iced it after I got home, took some Aleve, elevated the ankle and used a massager on it to get the blood flowing. It hurts like a motherfucker – pardon the language. But I can put weight on it and I can rotate it some, which means no fracture and no major ligament tear – and that is a good thing. A VERY good thing. But it is still a pretty bad one.
With only 2 weeks to go til September – our practice gym opens in September – and about 10 weeks til our first game, I am concerned that this will be a nagging injury for the remainder of the season. I’ve already got problems on that leg as it is my surgery / tendinitis leg … an ankle injury added to it is just plain cold.
…. and JUST after I had restarted my off season workout regimen again … damn it.
Confirmed by both Allen Iverson and the Memphis Grizzlies GM, the deal’s full amount is currently unknown but it is definitely about money, playing time and shots, as opposed to sacrificing of one’s self for a title.
Guess we know what AI wants his legacy to be after all …. chipless and greedy …
I feel kinda bad for OJ Mayo, Haseem Thabeet and every other young Grizz on the roster as any progress they would have made (especially Mayo) will now be compromised by Iverson chucking up 21 shots a night.
Not that I dislike Iverson - far from it. But you get to a point when you play ball where you HAVE to realize that you are not the player you used to be and that maybe using younger cats to help you get to your goals is a better decision than lounging in the cellar putting up big numbers …. not that I’ve ever put up big numbers …. I’m just saying.
…. I wonder if he’ll still be vehemently opposed to practice ….
So I decided to finally come out of my injury filled stupor and start my off season regimen of P90X and a diet again!
It’s been about 10 weeks since I worked out last thanks to knee tendinitis that got pretty uncomfortable. But this last week I finally saw some daylight and my knee pain began to go away, sort of. Enough to let me work out again anyway.
I’m glad to be gearing up again, but MAN does it ever bite into my time …. and life is moving at such incredible speeds now that it is hard to keep up …
So the Tim Duncan Robot and Obi Wan Ginobili are resting for the coming season …. this is good news for me. With the addition of Theo Ratliff, Antonio McDyess and Richard Jefferson, as well as stalwarts such as Ginobili, Duncan, Parker and Finley, the Spurs look to be making another SERIOUS run at a chip and NOT squandering the remaining years of the Tim Duncan era.
I love Tim Duncan.
I think they are a clutch 3 point shooter (like Kyle Korver, Sean Elliot, Jeff Hornacek) away from a Finals lock, but they are definitely Conference Finals material at the very least.
For those who are interested we are currently in the process of setting up our annual NFL Fantasy League. We’ve got about a week long window before the draft and teams are finalized.
If you are interested in participating, flash me a quick message to let me know, or check the Shaka Dula Forums under Fantasy 2010.
Reports are that he’s a weed addict, but weed addicts don’t check in to rehab centers. Could it be a crack or coke addiction?
Plus he’s got a mental health issue that he needs help with as his last few Twitter Teets have been pretty erratic …
I feel like the whole world is against me I can’t win for losin 12:37 PM Aug 24th from web
Feelin like it’s not worth livin!!!!!!! I’m done 12:37 PM Aug 24th from web
Plus he got a CRAZY big Tattoo on his back that simply says“SupercoolBeas – God’s Son” – as you can see above.
The part that gets me is that apparently, the scouts and NBA execs KNEW that he had issues and STILL brought him on board! How you gonna get this kid THAT kind of life without treating him FIRST?!?!
It’s just irresponsible!
But he’s at a rehab center now, getting checked out. Which is a good thing, as people who start spouting suicidal NEED to be observed closely.
Now the only question remains whether or not he’ll be available come the start of the NBA season … and whether he’ll go the Vin Baker route or the Juwan Howard route ….
It’s not that I mind at all, I am just surprised to see that out of 27,000 fans, 20% (5,400 people) ranked the Toronto Raptors as their #2 favourite team in the NBA.
It’s actually a very cool thing to see since I always thought that the Raps were not known OR liked. I guess all those Chris Bosh commercials and appearances on network news weather shows is starting to pay off! Imagine what will happen now that we have Hedo on board!
I am back from the madness that was the month of August. Over the last few weeks I’ve had to plan a bachelor party (surprisingly, no basketball involved), a speech, a powerpoint presentation, I’ve gone on vacation for a week, nearly missed my brother’s wedding, had to tussle a drunken DJ at said wedding (long story for another post) and attended the NBA Cares Tour at our local Wal-Mart (what fun!) and many many more things that slip my mind now.
But Life is finally starting to slow down.
I am greatly looking forward to all of the posting I will be able to do from here on out, as there is nothing more than basketball season and a rare trip to the lake ahead for the next 7 or 8 months.
The NBA has been a bit boring recently as barely anything worth noting has happened And my other things have gotten so busy that I simply don’t have the time to keep up with all the demands. So what is a responsible young man to do?
Run away to a different country, of course!
We’re off on our watery adventure. But we will bring back lots of pictures and more than a few basketball related stories.
August 16, 2009 at 7:49 pm · Filed under Funny, Personal
I’m not too much at liberty to talk about the proceedings of a certain bachelor party. All I can say is that there are moments that live on in legend (or infamy, as the case may be) and they become the stuff that we aspire to one day challenge insomuch as its scope.
For one moment, on Saturday August 15th, 2009, a certain individual achieved that status by doing something that defied explanation.
I’ve got a photo album coming about those events. And they will be available to a very exclusive and select group of people by way of password. Lest anyone forget the madness and outlandishness that one young man was able to tap into.
What is EPIC?
Those who were there know exactly what I am talking about. Those who weren’t ….. you’ll have to wait to find out what the legend is.
So I was searching through my own picture archives here at home and I happened to stumble onto some old CLASSIC pictures (shown above) that showed how much of a powerhouse we were at one point.
I love this picture.
And since we haven’t reached the century mark in quite some time AND since Slip & Slide did manage to put up like 5 or 6 of these in a row, I felt it was time to put these up for public display.
I am going away on vacation for a week to Wisconsin (go, cheeseheads!) so the site may not be updated for a number of days. I will be bringing a laptop with me and may find a place that has wi-fi so that I can check e-mails and maybe post something on here if I find something that attracts me away from my vacation long enough.
I’m gonna try to post a lot of new content this weekend so that you people have something to read while I am away, though.
This is an interesting move by both the Cavs AND Powe. I am not sure that Cleveland is right for him right now as they have a backlog of guys at the Forward position: JJ Hickson, Darnell Jackson, Jamario Moon, LeBron James, Anthony Parker and Andersen Varejao are all under contracts right now.
But the move has potential for Powe as none of the Forwards listed (except for Moon and Parker – both former Raptors, I might add) are versatile enough to create their own shots. So there is definitely a bunch of minutes that he could steal from people provided that he is also able to play tenacious defense and rebound like Varejao.
Literally given away (for a second round pick in 2016), Rasaul Butler now goes to a team that has so many other issues that he could simply wind up disappearing from the NBA landscape altogether! And he has the gall to text “excited about being a Clipper”? You should be mortified, dude!
And to think, The Hornets offloading Butler and Chandler is ALL about cutting payroll and luxury tax issues …. such a shame …
I am not sure that this is a good fit for White Chocolate. But what the hell do I know? This is assuming that he still has any gas left in his legs for another NBA go around … he must really need the cash …
I truly am sad to see Oberto in colors other than Spurs grey and black, but at least he is playing with a team that has an ounce of upside (as opposed to Memphis, Minnesota or Los Angeles – take your pick).
Good to hear that GilsArena is recovering and close to 100% too …. I will LOVE to see him back on the court. It’s gonna be an awesome fantasy season if I can get him in and if he can provide stats like he used to …
So I assumed it was “the European Market” that would pull all the NBA players away, but I was wrong. It’s just Olympiakos. After pulling away Josh Childress last season, they were able to pry Von Wafer AND Linas Kleiza away from the L ….
Wafer is not a star player, but he is an easily recognizable name.
Not that the L is shaking at Wafer and Kleiza leaving, but it makes you wonder what kind of deals the Spartans are pulling to get these guys out there …
Of ALL the vices that are available as a professional (and as an adult) none are more alluring than the opposite sex. Or so it appears to be the case with a number of athletes and coaches that have fallen to the temptations of the flesh recently. I was looking at the NCAA pages of SportingNews.com and saw one headline that led to another and another. Here are some of the ones that caught my eye …..
—–
Most recetly, Coach Rick Pitino has been embroiled in asoap-opera style sexual indiscretion that spans 6 years and a $10 Million Dollar extortion.
Meanwhile, Sacramento Kings Center Justin Williams, in his second year in the L, and his girlfriend HAD also been accused of sexual assault on a woman, but it was determined that it was, after all, a consensual threesome.
Oh, and Baron Davis apparently lost his laptop with a bunch of … erm … “personal” photos of himself. I want to add something witty about intelligence and care of one’s possessions, but the stupidity of the whole thing leaves me speechless.
Also, Ruben Patterson was fined $1000 for failing to register as a sexual offender in Cincinnati. Remember that one? The one in 2001 where he entered a modified guilty plea in Washington state to third-degree attempted rape for allegedly forcing his children’s nanny to perform a sex act on him? Yeah, I thought y’all might remember that one.
The associate men’s basketball coach at Maine has resigned after beingcharged with making sexual advances on a member of the women’s soccer team.
Finally, a formerhigh school girls basketball coach was sentenced to 20 yearsprobation for a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl. The offending coach was FEMALE and she forced her player to “commit sex acts” with the victim in a gym restroom. Day-um, right?
In other sports ….
And these are just the most current ones in the NBA! In the NFL, Ben Rothleisberger is also entrenched in a sexual assault scandal.
David Frost (a former coach of the junior A Quinte Hawks, accused of four counts of sexual exploitation relating to two of his former players) also seems to be in the clear for the moment as threesomes that he “forced his players to perform” never actually happened.
And the women’s soccer coach (James Riverso, 28) at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y. has quit his job after allegations that he texted sexually explicit messagesto a girl (16 years old) he once coached at a youth soccer club.
He broke his finger playing for the national team. Now the reports say he’s out for ONLY 3 weeks?!??!? What the hell? Is he gonna have HGH injected into his finger to help the healing?!?!?
Last I heard, breaks were 6-8 weeks for a full heal. Hoh man, this could be a recurring problem if not handled right. Not that I mind. He is a Laker, after all.
The deal, a 2 year – $6 Million Dollar deal is LUDICROUS for a bench player (Marcin Gortat, you listening?) and Davis had, what, ONE crowning moment in his NBA (the buzzer beater) to his name when he signs this contract?
Unbelievable. Davis got away with Highway Robbery.
2 years – $12.2 Million Dollars. Talk about another guy who got away with robbery! Good for Kleiza though. I remember his play a LOT more than that bum, Davis.
And wow, huh? Talk about a big move for both Olympiakos AND the Nuggs! Kleiza was sometimes the ONLY bright spot for that Nuggets team and now, they are one very versatile forward down!
Okay, I am glad for Rambis. It’s good to see new blood helming NBA franchises. That being said, what has Rambis done to deserve it?
Reports say that he took over the Laker D last year and that he’s good with the young cats coming in to the L. He stays late, comes in early ….
Look, all I know is that he’s got X amount of chips as a player and coach NOT because of his own skill (though he was a decent role player in his day) but because of his coexistence with guys like Kareem, Magic, Kobe, Shaq and most importantly, Phil Jackson.
I’m not mad, don’t get me wrong, but I will be looking very closely at the Wolves and seeing their progress (or lack thereof) and watching the calendar to see how long he is able to last.
I’ve always liked Brian Hill as a coach. He comes across as a knowledgeable, hard nosed, intelligent coach. All the things that are frowned on in today’s NBA coaches. Good to see he still gets work, though. Even if it is as an assista=nt under an unproven schlep (sorry Coach Keuster. I don’t know you well enough yet).
My buddies on the forums reminded me that I have yet to comment on the Ben Wallace to Detroit announcement. I was asked what I thought about it and here is what I posted on the Shaka Dula Message Boards:
“I think it’s GREAT! Ben Wallace gets a chance at playing one more decent year in a market he enjoyed and where he was loved. He gets a chance at having his jersey retired as a Piston and he gets the benefit of an appropriate retirement at the end of the season.
It’s a swansong, basically. And it’s way better than fading away this year after being bought out in Phoenix.
It’s a classy move by Detroit.”
I’m just glad that I get to see Big Ben for one more year. Guys like him don’t come around too often and we should appreciate them while they’re still around.
So I am sitting here trying to figure out WHAT I wanna post about ….
Among many things I am gonna post about soon, I’m first gonna post this personal nugget: I find myself unemployed at this point in time once again and battling many emotions.
I knew it would come to this when I took the job at the company eighteen months ago. I kept telling my wife that this position was a short term thing with long term possibilities, if things panned out as I thought they might. I had many many clues that things were not well when I first took the job, but I took it because of the possibilities for professional growth and the money. But things like mismanagement of funds and projects to disputes between the various trades and office people, who all wanted power for themselves, and an owner who was more interested in the bottom line than how his operation ran were all signs that things were not well. But through it all, things were somewhat stable for me in my department until the arrival of an architect that would serve as my supervisor.
I’ve always had a thing against people of his particular profession. Cocky, know it alls with big egos and self esteem issues, they’ve always been the source of way too many issues for me. When this particular chap came in, I knew that things were gonna go downhill quickly. And he didn’t disappoint. He laid off 3 people in a span of 3 days and he reworked the entire department and half the company in his own image. I told my wife when this guy arrived that my days at the company were numbered and that I would be unemployed by September.
In recent months, the company had Hydro cut the power to the building (because they wouldn’t pay the bill), employee paycheques started bouncing (including 3 in a row for me) and there was a shortage of work (because suppliers refused to do business with them). Ultimately, this was the reason why I was let go. Shortage of work.
In reality, I could have quit MONTHS ago. But I stayed because I wanted a severance – the money.
But now that I got it, I feel kind of sour about the whole thing. It has more to do with the fact that they have NO clue as to what it was that I did and what it was that I was able to do for them.
So I sit here on a Saturday Night pondering my next move … go back to school, find another job in my field or just say screw it and become a full time blogger …. haha. Right.
For now, I’m gonna stay home and be a house husband. But I don’t know if our financial situation can support that for too long. I guess we’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?
