i've got information man.

Friday, September 4, 2009

legarrette blount has a new fan named nelson

ask and you shall receive:

bob: "he was going tru warrior"

Monday, August 17, 2009

that's g: now we get to see for real

greg paulus, one of the most posterized players in recent memory (got got by deron washington, danny green, ... , and new atlanta falcon te tony gonzales), has been named the starting qb for the syracuse orange.

Syracuse is going all in on the Greg Paulus experiment.

Orange head coach Doug Marrone officially named the former Duke basketball player as his starting quarterback on Monday night, even though Paulus has not played football in four years and has never played a collegiate snap.

the actual football footage includes a couple passes, and a clip of him throwing a medicine ball around. over and over.

goddamn espn, footage exists:

he's a former high school gatorade player of the year. list of former winners include jeff george, emmit smith, robert smith, peyton manning, and the two quarterbacks currently behind aaron corp on the depth chart at usc. he's also a former gatorade male athlete of the year, an award that began in 2003.

now we get to see how d1 point guard speed (or lack thereof) translates at the quarterback position in d1 football. but just barely cause it's big east football.

to greg: good luck, bulk up, and remember to slide. win over your home city and sell those tickets. i'm looking forward to hearing about you every week on sportscenter.

also, thanks for your four years at duke. you played well, albeit consistently below expectations given that you were once a mcdonald's all-american point guard.

opposing player after wvu beat duke in 2008 second-round:

West Virginia’s Cam Thoroughman delivers final insult when told that Greg Paulus was a McDonald’s all-American: “Oh my God. Are you kidding?”

but even more disappointing was that he was a gatorade male athlete of the year:

two #1 nba picks & nba finals runner-ups, greg paulus, another #1 nba pick and ncaa championship runner-up, a #5 nba pick, the inevitable starting qb at usc once described as "a cross between joe montana and tom brady", the all-time TEXAS state hs football single season and career passing yards recordholder.

damn, what if gatorade was right? paulus probably should've picked football, but i respect his choice to play pg at duke.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

basketball nerds

i drafted and continued to update a very long blog post about john wall during the tail-end of his high-profile recruitment (it was to be titled blue chips 2: john wall). when he decided to go to kentucky instead of duke, i stopped caring and never published the post.

but i can't deny that john wall is good at basketball.

i'll save you the long read (yes, longer than this), but suffice it to say that his recruitment was crazy. he had the entire college basketball world hanging on his every word. aside from making his destination school an instant title contendor, his choice would end up affecting a number other top high school recruits, a handful of college players deciding whether to jump to the nba, and of course the fans.

the ncaa tried to shutdown "john wall, come to my school" facebook groups because they are apparently a recruiting violation and messageboards had grown men speculating, analyzing every word and phone call, praying, looking up coaches' travel plans online, etc. example:

I saw John Wall at the airport. He was wearing blue socks. Now, it's a bit hard to read because both Kentucky and Duke have blue unis, but I am pretty sure the socks were Duke blue. Clearly not Carolina blue. This has to be a good sign.

now, the reason why i revived this topic...

i read a sports illustrated article on kobe with this little nugget:

It's 2003, and Bryant is getting worked up in an interview while talking about a variation on a move: a jab-step-and-pause, where you sink deep, hesitate to let the defender relax and, instead of bringing the jab foot back, push off it. Soon enough, Bryant is out of his chair and using the reporter as a defender on the floor. Then he has the reporter trying the move. Some people are Star Wars nerds; Bryant is a basketball nerd. "I think Kobe's actually a little bit embarrassed by his love of basketball," says Downer. "People called him a loner, but it's just that basketball is all he wants to focus on. I think he's part of a dying breed that loves the game that way."

for basketball nerds, hoopmixtape's youtube channel > *.

first video i saw of john wall @ the 2008 pangos camp (where he went from unknown to college basketball wetdream):

best of his senior year:

he wasn't invited to mcdonald's game because of a new rule that doesn't allow 5th year seniors, so this is him against top talent at the jordan classic scrimmage:

killin' the reebok summer championships:

speaking of the reebok summer championships, here's someone that has a similar game and had similar hype last year that you will see in the nba next year:

more highlights from "the takeover" (video is from his junior year in high school):

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

a rough month for lebron

he was labeled a "poor sport" for acting like a baby after losing the eastern conference finals and eventually lost to kobe in the nike mvpuppets commercials.

this week, espn reported that lebron told trevor ariza that he plans on staying in cleveland past 2010 during a phone call he made to ariza to persuade him to renege on his word to the rockets and sign with the cavs instead.

mo williams' twitter:

"espn says lebron told ariza that hes here to stay in cleveland past 2010 its about time, hes been telling the team this for the longest!"

lebron's sources promptly denied he ever said that to trevor. it's a classic case of lebron's source's word vs. trevor's source's word. good tweet, mo.

now this from cbssports.com:

AKRON, Ohio -- You want to see video of Xavier's Jordan Crawford dunking on LeBron James?

If so, too bad.

Because you're not going to see it.

Thanks to Nike.

Turns out, there were at least two cameras rolling Monday night when Crawford dunked on James during a pick-up game here at the LeBron James Skills Academy. It was a two-handed jam, the kind that would've circulated quickly on YouTube. But Nike officials eliminated that possibility shortly after the dunk happened by allegedly confiscating tapes from various cameramen.

Freelance photographer Ryan Miller was one of the cameramen shooting the game.

He told CBSSports.com that Nike Basketball Senior Director Lynn Merritt took his tape.

"He just said, 'We have to take your tape,'" Miller said. "They took it from other guys, too."

Worth noting is that there is no policy against filming at the LeBron James Skills Academy, and Miller said he had been filming all day without incident. Nobody ever told him to stop. Nobody ever said there was a problem ... until after Crawford dunked on James.

"LeBron called Lynn over and told him something," Miller said. "That's how I knew his name was Lynn. LeBron said, 'Hey, Lynn. Come here.'"

Minutes later, Miller said Merritt demanded his tape.

"There's nothing I can think of besides LeBron just not wanting it online," Miller said. "It's a good story to tell people, I guess. But then again, I'm kind of pissed. I lost my tape."