Years ago, as the Amar’e Stoudemire of his team in Asian-American basketball tournaments, standing 6′4″ he was the only player over six feet — or maybe even 5′10″ — on the fabled Alpine Striders club from Los Angeles. He helped anchor Coach Tony Wong’s team every year at the Las Vegas Invitational (“LVI”) tournament.

Then he was gone.

He got burnt out. Playing for Alpine can be like playing for Bobby Knight. Although there will be lots of winning, things can feel a little too business-like. Such is the life of competitive basketball, at any level.

So he took a break from basketball. And now he’s back, making a few cameos in tournaments on a new team, but mostly with a burgeoning career as a supermodel.

Here’s his recent ten-page spread in GQ China, shot in Manhattan several months ago…

http://asianmodelsblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/daniel-liu-hana-mayeda-editorial-for-gq.html

Read/listen to how he became a supermodel: Daniel Liu Redefines The Male Supermodel : NPR

Thanks to NEAATO for the Facebook post. I then asked Asian-American entertainment “human hub” Brian Yang how Daniel was doing and he replied:

D is killin it. In current campaigns for J Crew and Hilfiger. His GQ China spread was en fuego. A bona fide male supermodel!

(Click image to view commercial.)

Soooo, about that commercial… Well, Poor Man’s Commish is in it!

Actually it’s just a “spec” commercial, meaning they’re submitting it in a contest for Doritos.

If it wins, it will be shown during the Superbowl next February.

More on this later, as I’ve got some behind-the-scenes stuff to share, but in the meantime…

• Click on the image on the left or goto http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/5458
• Wait till the upload number counts up from 0 to 100
• Click “Skip Intro” on the bottom right when the television screen comes up
• Enjoy!

I

Click to view Evolve's work.

UPDATE!: “It is a spec commercial for Doritos. It is about a 70 year old asian lady that eats Doritos and schools all of the young guys at pick up basketball. It is very important that everyone wear dull colors like grey, brown, black, white and that they have clothing that doesn’t have brand names and logos on it.”

Anybody wanna be in a basketball commercial along with the Poor Man’s Commish himself? No, just as an extra, silly! Should be fun, though.

It’s tomorrow afternoon in the Potrero Hill district of SF. Leave a comment or shoot an email to info-at-dreamleague-dot-org if you’re interested.

They’re looking for three more ballers of the following ethnicities: Asian, Latino, Caucasian, and/or African-American “pickup” baller.

Kinda weird, but the happy-go-lucky Poor Man’s Commish has been a bit of a magnet for basketball commercials in the past few years. We had the LeBron James one for Microsoft, the one with Jerry Rice, and the one with Jason Kidd.
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Golf phenom and undercover asianballer.

Every now and then, an interesting hoops-related article will slip under the radar. But never fear, Poor Man’s Commish is here to make sure nothing falls through the cracks, as I check you with the first of many blindside picks!

Anthony Kim, ’sup mang? Golf phenom. Asian-Amillionaire kickin’ it wit NBA superstars. Closet balla! Who knew? Thanks to PGAtour.com’s recent interview, it is written:
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Bill Simmons.

One of Poor Man’s Commish’s jobs is to not only pass on stories that happen in Dream League and that could only come through a hoops commish, but also things that other places may have missed. Like something that makes you ROTFL or LMFAO.  Take Bill Simmons, for example. (Btw, thanks to JoJo Pierce for teaching me those acronyms last year.)

Over the years, it has gotten increasingly more difficult to read Bill Simmons’s columns. They are just too long (kinda like my blogposts, but I’m working on that, I assure you — not to mention, they’re still one-fifth of Simmons’s rants). Then came the podcast. Since I don’t live in that wonderful Concrete Jungle where you must walk and take a subway everywhere, I didn’t have an iPod and therefore had no clue as to what this fuss about podcasts was all about.

But dude is funny and his latest two-part NBA Preview for 2009-10 (both Part 1 and Part 2) is a blast, worth the long read. Now, remember, here on Poor Man, we have a penchant for the following…
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