The Desire

Tweet The ball was batted out towards the corner right towards the team bench, in seven seconds they would advance to the playoffs all the ball had to do was go out of bounds...


James woke up suddenly, he quickly hit the sleep button on his alarm something he got quite good at turning it off rapidly over the summer.  He sat up in bed and glanced at the clock display, in bright red letters it read 6:30.  He quickly jumped out knowing that if he lingered any longer he would lose valuable time.  Getting dressed with the clothes he prepared the night before he quietly opened his door and went to the kitchen.  When he opened the fridge he recalled the dream he had, or rather, the nightmare.

Number 17 of the other team runs down the ball, The coach is sure he stepped on the sideline but the refs are having none of it.  Even if they had blown the whistle no one would have heard it over the crowd noise.  17 whipped a pass to the top of the key to his point guard, James is looking at it all from the bench, no one is in position except Tommy who runs out to contest the open 3.  The point guard fakes out the whole gym by making one more pass to the other sideline, a spot occupied by number 3, there is no one within 10 feet of him, the clock reads 2 seconds.


James quickly shrugged it off, he hated thinking about something that had happened over 5 months ago but for some reason even when he avoided thinking about it he would dream about it.  He quickly tried to focus on what had to be done today, the dream only serving as motivation and nothing else.  He slammed the fridge door a bit harder than he would have liked, he wolfed down the meal he made for himself last night, over the summer he learned that these little things like picking out clothes and making a meal in advance would save him a lot of time.  Getting to his door he stepped out "Good" he thought, it had rained, running in cloudy cooler conditions gave him a sense of peace for reasons he did not quite understand, but to him it did not matter.  School was starting up again in twelve days and he was determined to make all of them count.

Number 3 catches the ball in stride and plants his feet.  The look on his face at realizing how much room he had told it all.  For a brief second James hoped he would step inside the 3 point line and tie the game, they deserved overtime at the very least.  They earned the right to make the playoffs with how they played their last 10 games.  Number 3 apparently did not feel the same way,  Launching a 3 in front of the loudest section of their home crowd.  

Throwback Thursdays #5

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Has there ever been such a great movie that really has no business being this good? Realistically speaking, the accents used by Al Pacino and especially Steven Bauer (he played Manny, Tony Montana's best friend) are laughable and if they were used in a movie today would definitely be ridiculed. Also, the iconic last scene is quite ridiculous but everyone shrugs it off by saying "he was on a lot of coke". Despite all of this, I love Scarface and everything about it. It is solely responsible for 60% of all ill-advised purchases by rappers and pro athletes (watch any Cribs episode and you'll see this), the inspiration for one of the best video games of all time - GTA: Vice City (Fuck you Lance) and even an awful song by Future (the remix by Drake is bearable only because of Drizzy's verse). The one thing Scarface has done that I hate is it has let every single guy think they can do a Tony Montana impression. You can't. No one can do it but Al Pacino. Anyone else who does it sounds like a mentally challenged Latino speaking broken English. That's my mini-rant of the week. Hit the jump for the songs.

Sleazy Serge and Shameless Spain

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What is up with these Spanish scam artists? Serge Ibaka obtaining Spanish citizenship in order to compete in the upcoming Eurobasket as well as the London Olympics is more outrageous than the home cooking every international team encountered against Turkey at the past World Championships.

Ibaka probably passed many of the technicalities which keep other players from playing for European nations. He spent 2007-2009 playing in the Spanish ACB, and probably learned a little bit of Spanish. But he was born in the Republic of Congo and is far more Congolese than he is Spanish. Let us take a look at some other players who could have potentially participated in this same type of sleazy movement:

Jan Vesely

Vesely was born and raised in the Czech Republic. In 2008 he made his move to Partizan Belgrade and played there up until this past season (2010/2011). Vesely helped his team win 9 club trophies and has become fluent in Serbian during his time with Partizan. Jan is a perfect example of somebody who could have decided to play for a superior basketball nation but chose to stay true to his roots.

Anthony Parker

As a Toronto native, I have grown familiar with Parker's story while he played for the Raptors. He spent the years 2000-2002 and 2003-2006 in Tel Aviv playing for Macabi. Like Vesely, Parker spent more time abroad than Ibaka. But how absurd would it be if Parker decided to play in an International competition for Israel. Parker is a player who will never be selected for the U.S. Senior men's national team, so this would be his only opportunity to play for a national team.

Josh Childress

Childress played for one of the best club teams in Europe from 2008-2010, Olympiacos. Like Parker, Childress will never be selected for the U.S. team, but he could be an extremely useful addition to the Greek national team. Greece's best wing players have recently retired or are in their twilight years, so he could step right in and be a star. By the way, he wouldn't be the only black guy on the team (see Sofoklis Schortsanitis).

Spain's "Golden Generation" in basketball is beginning to age. They failed to defend their World Championship title in Turkey, falling at the hands of an over achieving Serbian side in the quarter finals. The addition of Ibaka will be a nice addition moving forward. He will be great front court partner with Marc Gasol, and Rubio will have two great players to run the pick and roll with. Spain is the only team to really challenge the redeem team and they have experienced tremendous success in the past 4-6 years. However, this is a ridiculous acquisition which should never have been allowed to happen.

Until next time,

Stevan Sauce Manojlovic

Pick-Up Basketball Across the Pond

Tweet As I am vacationing home in my country of Serbia, I have not had much chances to write during this rather dull time of the sports year.  Champions league qualifying begins tomorrow and I may write some things about that, as well as taking a shot at a Premier League season preview.  In the mean time, here are some observations and differences about pick-up basketball here in Europe vs. back in Canada.


I decided to leave my house at around 5pm, the court is a 2-minute walk and I wanted to get as much runs in as possible.  I was back home at 5:15; outside temperature: 42 degrees Celsius... probably better to wait this out a bit.  By the time the outside temperature dropped to levels where I could inhale without passing out, it was 6:30pm.  There were about 9 guys on the court, 10 with me, perfect for some 5-on-5.

Difference #1: Nobody here plays 5-on-5

Its all about 3 on 3 half court.  Did I suggest some 5 on 5? Yes.  Did I get laughed at? Yes.  Apparently the Idea of 4 guys watching (with more coming) while 6 guys play is very appealing, oh well.  To be fair, games are played to 15 (ones and two's) and actually move very quickly because of...

Difference #2:  No clearing after missed baskets.

Yeah...

If you do not have your team-mates in a position to rebound and you put up a shot and miss you give the other team a point.  If you rebound and (conditioned by years of Canadian pick-up) head out to clear, your teammates, and people watching yell at you incessantly, while your opponents ramp up the shit talk for your stupidity.  You would think that this would mean many more inside shots and rough-housing in the paint but you would be wrong because of...