I am predicting this year that Joseph ‘Jay Watt’ Watkins (Utah Runnin Utes) and Jeremy Williams (UTEP) will find themselves getting serious NBA consideration by the end of the year. In high school the two led their Hamilton H.S. school team to an undefeated 39-0 record and a state title. This team featured 8 eventual D-1 players led by the two forwards. I have an interview with Jay Watt that will drop next week to discuss the Runnin Utes’ move to the Pac 10 and how that will affect the Utes.  But for right now peep the throwback Elevator from their junior year of high school.

Lorenzen Wright A Memphis Story Gone Wrong

Lorenzen Wright was the epitome of the Memphis dream, hoop hard, D-1 ball and moving on to signing checks in the NBA. Wright played 13 long seasons, sacrificing his body on various NBA teams and he made a lot of money. But this is not about the success, this is not about his body being discovered today riddled with bullets, this article is about Memphis. I grew up here in North Memphis. Basketball was not my saving grace, although I played Juco and coached high school, basketball was an outlet. My ability to leave Memphis and stay away from the city was my saving grace. Memphis is an interesting place. The city exists as an homage to Kings. Elvis Presley the King of Rock and Roll, and the death place of Martin Luther King. Pharoah Monche had a song named “When the Gun Draws.”  He had a line that stated ‘killed Kings in Tennessee and Presidents in Dallas.’ This song, about the prominence of guns in America, is powerful and telling.

In 06 Memphis had 160 murders, In 07 the city had 132, in 08 the city had 167, and in 2009 the city had 132, but violent crime has kept Memphis in the top ten of cities across America. Memphis has become such a hotbed for crime that cable television has basically set up shop here in the city with the First 48 and Real Police Women of Memphis. What does this have to do with an NBA player being found murdered today? Everything.

Lorenzen Wright had done all of the things that removed him from a city that remains stuck in a cultural timewarp. Wright had played the right hand and could have remained away from Memphis or at least placed himself in a position to avoid the problems that make Memphis known across the land. Lorenzen’s death is symptomatic of a community that relies heavily on a corrupted system of politics and religion that has stagnated the potential of the city. Memphis has long been considered a small town in the body of a big city. With a population of 700,000  the unemployment rate hovers consistently around 10% and the amount of high school dropouts in Memphis dwarfs the rest of the state. Why does Memphis remain in this downward spiral while places in East Tennessee and middle Tennessee prosper from new technologies and businesses?

The Memphis Problem, that took one of Memphis’ success stories away is the same one that created, underperforming schools, the Lester Street murders and the highest unemployment rate in the state. Memphis is lost. It is a society that struggles with the undercurrent of racism, nihilism and self inflicted poverty due to a culture of helplessness that has been established by the slave mentality.

Lorenzen was a good guy. I am not concerned with his personal life, but when I saw him, he was always smiling, nice, responsive to fans, a very good guy.  But like so many Blacks who make it on a small scale, or a big scale, we feel a need to keep it real either by continuing to go to the places we grew up, or we think that because we are successful we are loved. Loenzen’s downfall came at the hands of someone who more than likely called him friend. Somebody who probably could have called him at talked with him about his problems.  But instead someone, and yes I’m calling it someone at that Barber Shop, knew he had something.  The mentality that left Lorenzen in a wooded area, didn’t want to work they way Lorenzen had. The mentality that left Lorenzen’s kids without their father probably took something from him that if they asked, he probably would have found a way to help, because that was the type of guy he was.

Memphis has the highest infant mortality rate in the country and a lack of resources for young people to engage in. The gangs here all are emulating big cities, the people here are all used to being given things just to get by. Memphis is a city that celebrates its athletes, but it also hurts its athletes: Penny was shot here, Antonio Burks was shot here, William Bedford descended into drugs, Baskerville Holmes committed suicide here. While Lorenzen has left us all here in a state of shock, he also left behind the Memphis problem: The one that Elliot Williams will have to avoid when he comes home, the one that Penny has learned to avoid since he was shot, the one that makes Elliot Perry seem distant. The Memphis Problem took a good guy, but the tragedy is that tomorrow a lesser known person will face the same hopelessness and no one will blink in Memphis, they will shrug their shoulders, their family will cry, the police lights will turn and somewhere a girl, boy, man, or woman, will learn that life is not certain, but death in Memphis is an unfortunate reality.

Imani Littleton hasn’t even started her first day of High School yet, and is already gaining a lot of attention. The 13 year old 6’3 (F/C) phenom also known as “Big Smoov” is an incoming freshman at The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, California, on the coast of San Diego. She is a pure athlete with natural talent; she is a well rounded player who is dominant in the post both offensively and defensively. She shows her desire to keep learning the game of basketball, and is ready to bring her impressive style of play to the high school center court. Imani is working to become a starter at The Bishop’s School in the ninth grade. She is looking like she has a promising future at the High School level and beyond.

Imani has been playing club basketball with Lady EBO run by head coach Marlon Wells who is also head coach of The Bishop’s Knights ladies varsity basketball team. Only weeks into the club basketball season, Imani was spotted playing with the Lady EBO 16U team at the Las Vegas Invitational. While she is fresh out of middle school, Imani has already received letters of interest from the University of Richmond, Virginia Tech, University of Virginia, San Diego State University and The University of Las Vegas to name a few. She is not only working hard on the court, she is also working hard in the classroom with a 3.75 GPA.

In addition to playing club basketball, Imani has already helped to lead the Knights to an impressive 21-1 record (thus far), during some Spring/Summer league tournaments in San Diego. Imani along with a strong cast of team mates are looking to take the Knights on a run at the San Diego CIF Division IV title, with hopes to make it deep in to the State brackets. Imani is definitely a player to watch in the upcoming 2010-11 basketball season in San Diego.

Tristan Lamb
“I Got it on Tape” Productions
San Diego section, Sports Writer

If you had to ask who is President Orender, there lies the problem. Take a second to look her name up… okay now that you know you can probably figure out where this letter is headed.

Dear President Orender,

I love basketball. I love sports period, but basketball has always held a special place in my life. I love the college game, both men’s and women’s hoops are timeless in their ability to elevate the student athlete to star status while making us cheer like teen girls at an Eclipse movie.  I am writing you because I love basketball and although you openly state that ratings are higher for the WNBA this year, I can ask everyone on my facebook page or in person who is leading the WNBA in the standings and __________ silence.

I know that the WNBA feels the need to show that it can stand on it’s own without requiring the NBA to help gain acceptance, but the reality is that a product has to sell to remain a viable entity. We can argue all day about the fundamentals in the WNBA, Candace Parker, Diana Turasi, Candace Parker, oh my bad, I’m stuck on Candace Parker, but this is what I mean. We can discuss the fact that the WNBA has had its stars and while it is not drawing huge numbers it has a following, but the game is hurting and you know it.

This is how I want it to be fixed. Complete this season and take a break for two months and figure out a way to get Stern to let you play this fall. Basketball in the summer takes place in summer leagues and streetball games, for girls the AAU circuit replaces an interest in the WNBA.  Here is your logical proposition: NBA games currently take 2-4 hours to complete. With commercial breaks and PSA’s this makes the game drag on far too long. Many fans tune out the regular season in the NBA causing the NBA to lose money during the season. The NBA can still keep the time of the games the same but instead of too many television commercials and timeouts, make the NBA game 1.5 hours and the WNBA game 1.5 hours and that is a three hour night of entertainment. Keep ticket prices the same and propose a revenue split on ticket sales of 80/20.  The commercial advertisement should increase because you will have a greater market base, both men and women as opposed to just men primarily and while (no homo) I really like this guy imagine the possibilities in marketing for companies with a male/female sport base.

This would benefit the game because in marketing and promotions you could literally cut the cost and the added benefits of family night at the game will be more appealing.  If I can pay for two games for the price of one, then I feel that my dollar is stretching further.

Basically Prez, I want the WNBA to succeed, but to do so some serious decisions have to be made. I think the first is switching the season and moving to a high school styled format for the games. It’s what we are used to and as far as business is concerned the marketabilty of a Lakers/Sparks family night would be fantastic.

Sincerely,

Chris B. (future WNBA sponsor with ARCH www.arch-usa.com)

MJ drops his thoughts on The Decision

When the GOAT makes a public statement it has to be considered a statement that makes LeBron appear to be under a lot more pressure. I am amazed that Jordan Brand and Nike would allow MJ to make a statement at all. What am I talking about? This past weekend Jordan made a statement about LeBron going to South Beach. Let’s just say it wasn’t a flattering statement and while he tried to make it sound better, by default it condemns the kid. But I have to be fair. By the time MJ was 25 he had only been in the league 3 years.

LeBron however is a seven year vet who was on the verge of entering Dominique and Barkley status. I guess the desire to win trumps doing “the right way”, if there is a right way. The NBA is a business and although the entertainment value makes the show sometimes more important than the game, Jordan in is 7th year came face to face with demons (Pistons) that he eventually exorcised.

Had LeBron put Cleveland on the map, like Barkley said with just one championship, he may have surpassed Jordan as an icon in a sense. He is now relegated to second fiddle on a team that may be destined for underachievement.

Check out the article here.

Derrick Rose does it the right way

Alright, the last post I made about sneakers and LeBron James I have to admit that I was reaching a bit. However after reading this article, LeBron James is suspect. This dude should not be called the King anymore. Instead that title should be given to Derrick Rose, who epitomizes Chicago Basketball and true king status in his approach to LeBron James, ”

For everything the Bulls tried to sell – from owner Jerry Reinsdorf to GM Gar Forman to coach Tom Thibodeau – there had been one thing that troubled James’ about the Bulls pitch: Derrick Rose(notes) never called and tried to recruit him.

Chicago officials never directly requested Rose to reach out with a call, and the young point guard felt James could’ve always reached out to him had he wanted to discuss the possibility of playing together. James needed to be courted, needed to be wooed and apparently it surprised him there was a star who wasn’t falling over himself to do that.”

I think Derrick Rose is going to be a brilliant PG and will lead Chicago back to some of their glory days. As a matter of fact I think he will win at least two rings similar to Isaiah and Detroit.  Read that article and you will no longer be called a hater for being irritated by LeBron James. You will simply have proof that the NBA as a business is starting to suck and that this Miami team is not going to be as well liked as we all think.

Oh and the shoes, if Nike had as much influence on James’ actions, I still would have to think Rose didn’t need Nike influencing his team.

pic from thelebronjame.com website

After last night’s “Decision”, I watched on ESPN3 online, I had an epiphany.  No it wasn’t about how awesome this Miami Heat team will be.  It was not about Dan Gilbert and his frustration, the letter to Cleveland or LeBron bailing on a city where he could have truly become ‘legendary’.  Finally it was not about how my Knicks missed out on a Bron, Amare pairing and losing David Lee in a sign and trade.  All of these things never really crossed my mind.  In all honesty, because I’ve been reading so many books that deal with the shoe industry and specifically in regard to Nike, this move to the Heat justifies what originally looked like a bunch of ridiculous moves by Nike in the last few years.

While most people saw this as a betrayal by the hometown hero or a blowoff of the much hyped LBJ to NYC campaigns; I saw it as something different last night. For the past five years or so, really since Wade and Melo and James came into the league we, sneakerheads and hoops fans, saw some of the most disappointing collabos on shoes that have ever existed. For some reason the majority of us thought that Jordan Brand and Nike were insane for ruining the Jordan Brand with Fusions, the combining of classic Jordan models with Nike models. But follow me now… Nike is notorious for helping their players to develop their brands to maximize their contracts and their lifetime value. In the 80′s they were able to bring needed attention to tennis with John McEnroe’s bad boy campaigns and later with Agassi’s tennis line. Both if these items saved tennis as much as they saved Nike. They were able to maximize from Bo Jackson’s decision to play baseball and football “Bo Knows” campaign. Even Jordan’s early campaigns where the OG Jordan 1 was banned for the NBA in the end became a business decision that brought more people to the NBA game because of the controversy. Don’t think for a second that David Stern didn’t recognize that a riff over shoes wouldn’t drive drama. Think about it, a shoe caused Michael Jordan to be froze out in the All Star game by Converse’s and Adidas’ main players.

banned in the nba

Last night was a great spectacle, but spectacle and sport is the business of Nike. Now I’m not saying Nike conspired for this to happen in some odd theoretical sense… maybe I am but think about this. Those fusion shoes were hideous, until about a couple of years ago they didn’t make a lot of sense until they started taking the LeBron line and mashing it up, something they have never done with Kobe’s shoes.  Before I get off on a tangent, think about it: Jordan, Pippen and Worm, all had successful lines with Nike.  When we look at the Big Three from any team that won, the more glamorous teams were all driven by the Nike machine. When you think about there aren’t many teams with a Big Three.  Which really reinforces the idea that Nike and the NBA had a lot to do with this pairing. In a league where Nike has most of the players under contract it could be argued that this is coincidence, but even the Lakers Big Three Kobe, Pau and Odom wear Nikes and they are in a glamorous market and they won the finals this year. I digress.

The fusions were a bad idea, but they seemed to be timed with the entry into the league of LB and Wade. Who knew Wade would join Jordan Brand? Well Nike owns Converse don’t they? In the Olympic photo you had one adidas guy and he covered the Nike emblem with a basketball in the picture.  Jordan in the Olympics did the same thing when he had to wear the Reebok warm up. Think I’m lying? look it up.  The point is for Nike this is a coup d etat.

Nike has always helped to shape their athletic rosters to maximize shoes sells.  If LeBron had gone to NYC the colorways would have been horrible. All I have to do is show you my high school picture of me wearing Adidas Ewings with a green and white uniform. Nike doesn’t sell as many shoes in those colors.  Nike was actually suffering from the LBJ colorways for Cleveland.  Had LeBron gone to Chicago their best player gets his own signature Adidas line this year. That would have hurt LeBron’s and Nike’s shoe sells as well. Adidas already owns the jersey rights. Had he gone to the Clippers Boom Dizzle wears Li Ning and Gordon wears Adidas. The Nets, ugly colorway.  So was last night really about basketball or was it the biggest culmination of Nike marketing history?

The Jordan influenced LeBron 7

Sometimes an epiphany can give you the true meaning of a story that took years to create. LeBron is a marketing phenom. Jordan pulled Wade away from Converse just in time to launch one of the ugliest Jordan creations ever the 2010. It did not perform well but it did lay the groundwork for a sneaker that could become the diamond rated sneaker in history. Above is a collabo of the Jordan 11 and the LeBron 7. This sneaker was not released when it was designed, but in the true OG colors Wade can wear this sneaker next year as a JB rep and LB can obviously rock this shoe. While the LB8 is getting ready to drop, don’t think for a minute that Nike has not considered the possibilities of a similar shoe to this one for next season. Think about it, LeBron chooses a team that of course will have collection of some of the best talent in the league.  That is a no brainer. But what takes a considerable amount of brains is to choose a team where the colorway of his shoes will now match the most successful colorway of any shoe ever created.  The posters and marketing for this is going to be bigger than Bo, bigger than Deion, and I will say it right now, bigger than Jordan. While many don’t check the stock market these are yesterdays totals for Nike they closed at 68.56 per share yesterday.  This morning the high was 70.48 and I will bet that by tonight the shares will have hit the years high of close to 78 dollars. 

Think about this, with the push of LiNing and Peak into the NBA market David Stern has gotten into the international market he has been longing for.  At the same time, Nike has a real threat from Under Armour who has been holding on to Brandon Jennings shoes due to financial strain, but with Brandon Jenning becoming more high profile after a successful rookie season and UA’s entrance into high school and college hoops, they will launch a challenger to Nike’s dominance.  Why do you think articles like this are being written click here. 

Yep, the new Big Three came together yesterday, but us sneakerheads realized that those ugly fusions were serving a purpose that will now make total and complete sense to everyone now.

CCB Camp 2006 Latavious Williams

Congratulations to the Big Fella. This is a great story and while he is a second round draft pick, he deserves the success that he will certainly attain.  Who am I talking about? Last night with the 48th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, former Starkville H.S. player and recent NBDL player, Latavious Williams made it to his ultimate destination.  Now I am claiming something that can’t be made a fact yet, but when you are one of the first people to recognize that a guy is going to be a pro, you have to feel pretty good about it.  Before Tay became a nationally ranked player in high school, Coach Moses James brought Tay and the Starkville crew up to Memphis for the first big CCB Camp.  This was when I was at the top of my game and provided full uniforms, and shoes, and video highlights for every player.  It was from this point that Tay became a nationally ranked player and began playing on high powered AAU teams. His performance in the camp changed a lot of perceptions of him just as a post player.  He displayed the skill set which made him a very good player straight of high school in the NBDL and this same skill set, now stronger will land him in the starting lineup for the Miami Heat by December of this year.  Congratulations Latavious you deserve everything that is coming your way.

The Ole Miss Camp was dominated by the Ashland H.S. team coached by Ken Wells. In the three point shootout Darius Dukes, who plays for the Memphis YOMCA team placed second, but placed first where it counts the most in the real games. Kid went Ray Allen throughout the tourney as he dropped 7 threes in one game and throughout the 10 games of the camp he made 45 threes. 45 threes in one weekend is a ridiculous number.

Ashland went undefeated and beat teams from Memphis, Alabama and Mississippi. Players who stood out where 6-4 Forward Jamarcus Popular class of 2011, 6-4 Jeremy Williams WF Class of 2011, who delivered a soul crushing dunk that made the whole gym jump out of their seats And 1 style. 5-9 PG Moreno Glover who established the tempo. Glover began getting looks from several colleges in attendance. 6-0 Ted Parker Combo Guard, and of course 6-1 SG Darius Dukes who Ole Miss was enamored with but could not make any statements to him directly. Word is they are probably going to offer by the end of Dukes’ junior year. Great team camp overall and a very good perfomance by the SIP’s Ashland H.S. Blue Devils.

All American Juco Showcase NCAA Certified

Since I am not posting any info for my own camps right now, here is one for the JUCO players out there looking for some shine. The All American JUCO Showcase