No D in Denver

“Allen Iverson is the modern day Cassius Clay.” - Id the Squid

In 2008 the Year of the Rat, the wild west saw the Denver Nuggets swept in the first round by the Los Angeles Lakers. Everyone knew it would be a dicey proposition. Denver plays no defense and Carmello Anthony has a history of tuning out. He has a low threshold for failure and when things aren’t easy things become painful. That is something that creeps up on talented people sometimes; if the win is tough giving up is an easy thing to fall into. This is called defeatism.

To my dismay my beloved Iverson, a very hard worker, walked off the court a few times this year to leave the team with minutes left in the game. I hate that because it means my quote from the top of the page must be defended instead of just accepted as the gospel. If you saw the first episode of Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith then you know why I compared Iverson with Ali; he is strong and true like a sports version of Reverend Wright, proud and unapologetic for telling it like it is. It sucks that Iverson quits sometimes, but I would say he only does to make a statement when the win is truly out of reach, like leaving the battlefield to fight the war another day. Plus I blame all the Nuggets and Sonics woes on George Karl and it serves him right for defecting to Denver after suffering the Sonics worst moment in franchise history when Robert Pack looked like Tony Parker and Dikembe Mutumbo cried clutching the ball at center court.

Watching the second game of the first round between the New Orleans Hornets and Dallas Mavericks “Ron Paul is sick” I said. Cod chuckled to himself and looked at me, “Ron Paul?” Yeah Ron Paul had like 33 points and 15 assists last game and he is even better tonight. He is a Libertarian from Texas, I said. I know the difference between Ron Paul and Chris Paul, but I purposely like to root for Ron Paul when I watch the Hornets. Maybe it is because there are “Ron Paul for President” signs with a blue background and whites letters and a red underline with one white star posted at every freeway on ramp in western Washington. A few months back I would routinely drive by Microsoft employees holding up a Ron Paul Revolution banner on the Montlake Bridge, University Bridge and on the 45th street I-5 overpass. For some reason a lot of Redmond tech yahoos supported Ron Paul. For good reason he is the only Republican candidate that talked like a normal human being about the Iraq War and American foreign policy in general and he is logical when it comes to the economy.

Back to my main point about rooting for Ron Paul in a Hornets uniform, actually it is Chris Paul whom I root for now. He is fun to watch and there is something comforting about an NBA team having success in New Orleans. It has been 20 years since the Jazz moved to Utah. I have never understood why Utah did not change the name to something that has to do with Utah or the Mormons or white people. Is Jazz even allowed in Salt Lake City? It seems like a mean joke that these freaks kept the name. The team is as white as a KKK hood. But anyway, some are predicting a meeting of the New New Orleans team and the Old New Orleans team in the playoffs, and as good as Ron Paul, oops I mean Chris Paul looks against Jason Kidd and Dallas, historically if you look at the numbers and the game tape, he struggles and gets dominated by Derron Williams, the Utah Jazz point guard.

I don’t know what this means, but I root for the New Orleans Hornets, the city , the coach Byron Scott and the Brothers Chris and Ron Paul.

Today, as I turned on sports talk radio 950 AM, Sir Mix A Lot was on the radio with Groz and Gas talking about the NBA playoffs. Mix A Lot said things are so different culturally now, not race matters but just in general, now everyone one is the same and there is no difference and exciting rivalries. He said the old Celtics were ugly physically like welders or laborers or blue collar heroes, with a flashy tinsletown rival. Now, there is nothing like that in the NBA. Everyone has braids and tattoos and it is all about celebrities and...stuff. I agree to a certain degree, but honestly it was just nice to hear an unexpected visit to Groz with Gas by a Seattle legend. Unplanned radio is always best. What Mix A Lot was articulating was profound. He put it all in perspective; Multiculturalism is not about being black or brown, but it is about difference and that is something we are suffering from. Too many people in the U.S. are scared to be themselves.

Ok for now.