Ron Artest gets hit by a cup right before the malice.

Whenever I see an anonymous insult posted as a comment, it reminds me of Ron Artest when he got hit by some random cup (although they eventually figured out who it was), which ignited the “malice at the palace”.

On Dream League’s YouTube account, I recently uploaded a clip of Brady Morningstar (3 million views in 3 days, who woulda thunk?!) where he was about to shoot a free throw with no one else on the blocks, and the ball slipped out and he tried to save the situation by quickly catching the slip and throwing it up for a shot, while losing his balance.

I probably see one airball free throw per season in our leagues, so I posted it and shared on Facebook and Twitter, to poke fun to our hoops community. However, I said in the video description that I think Morningstar is a fantastic player. I saw him play in a few closed scrimmages this past summer and he was solid and held his own. I had no idea who he was and was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was a starter for what is now the #1 college team in the nation: Kansas.

But soon the influx of YouTube comments came in and many of them were sh*tting on him, about 50% of them.
continue reading "Nobody likes to be called out by Mister Nobody"

Jeremy Lin, pre-game intros, family.

NOTE: This is Part 4 of a four-part series of blogposts. Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 were published in the three days prior. I re-titled this post because I felt it was the most interesting of the four.

From deity to defeated

After Friday night’s win over Columbia, there were hundreds of fans lined up to meet Jeremy Lin, to get autographs and take pictures. He was very accommodating. He was a hero. I could only shake my head and smile in astonishment.

Even the Santa Clara post-game hadn’t been that frenzied, at least from my vantage point, although I did overhear his teammate mentioning autograph-seekers outside the team bus. I think the fans were not found in droves on the Leavey Center floor after the Santa Clara game primarily because of the long post-game press conference. The scene at Leavey ended up being picture-taking sessions mostly with family and extended family, and reconnecting with long-lost former teammates and even former opponents, such as Anthony Goods of Stanford fame, who played against Jeremy in the first home-coming three years prior.

Even as his friend, after the Columbia game it was nearly impossible to navigate the waters just to say hello. At one point, after autographing a sign and some t-shirts, Jeremy was rescued by Coach Tommy Amaker, who called him over from about ten yards away to take pictures with Jeremy’s relatives. Even his flat-mate Cheng Ho (running back for Harvard football team) told Jeremy rather abruptly, “Eh, you’re too popular. I’ll just see you later.”
continue reading "From deity to defeated: Coast-to-coast to see Jeremy Lin (4/4)"

Jeremy Lin is not afraid to attack the rim (via Pablo Torre via SI, click for Pablo's blog).

NOTE: This is Part 3 of 4. Part 1 and Part 2 were posted in the past two days. Part 4 will post tomorrow.

Back to that vaunted Cornell team

Unfortunately as it relates to competing against a team like Cornell, Harvard doesn’t and didn’t have anyone else with the smallish-stocky or longish-quick blueprint — see the last few paragraphs of the previous post — against Cornell. Nor did they have anyone posing a threat down low (usually this would be Keith Wright or Kyle Casey), or nailing shots outside (Oliver McNally, Christian Webster, Dee Giger, or Andrew Van Nest).

The Cornell defense was just too intense and smothering. They can be that way and scramble-and-gamble on the defensive perimeter because Jeff Foote can protect the rim. It’s like in high school when your varsity squad scrimmaged the JV kids. The varsity guys would risk — and most likely win — every overplay on the perimeter, knowing that they had a physically superior team.
continue reading "There and back again: Coast-to-coast to see Jeremy Lin (3/4)"