Author: Esoteric

Senior moment: Parting ways with Nolan and Singler

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Black/white Kobe Vs: A good look Four years ago, following Duke basketball’s weakest season since I enrolled there in 1997, my dad and I got really excited about the potential of the team’s incoming freshman class.

In late 2007, right after my second marathon, my dad — who isn’t really a sports fan, but got into Duke basketball when I started there — surprised me with Beckett-graded basketball cards he had won on eBay of Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler and Taylor King in McDonald’s All-American jerseys. We arranged the cards under the glass of my coffee table with some other Duke cards we’ve collected over the years, a sort of makeshift micro-Hall of Fame.

And we began to follow their careers together.

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Masterpiece theater: National title is greatness as usual for Hurley

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Watching I’ll never forget this: Back in 2002, my first year home from college, I had this running route I liked that took me through six towns in North Jersey. That winter, on one of those runs, I passed a mid-60’s gentleman in a St. Anthony’s varsity jacket, and I stopped to talk to him.

The man told me that though he hadn’t attended St. Anthony’s, he had become a fan of their style of play over the years. He described how it was crisper and more precise than anyone else’s. He said he tried to make it to as many games as he could, and I vowed to him I’d check it out sometime.

At that time, basically all I knew about St. Anthony’s was Bobby Hurley had gone there, and his dad coached there. And I didn’t know a thing about Bob other than he was Bobby’s father.

Obviously, I had a lot to learn.

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Dark fantasy: Kobe/Rodriguez prove ad wizards for Nike

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Up in lights With all due respect to Blake Griffin and his somewhat disappointing sponsored dunk over (the hood of) a car — a Kia, no less — I think my favorite thing to come out of last weekend was the very-late-Friday-night release of Kobe Bryant’s new Nike ad/short film, The Black Mamba.

Swallowed up in all the Carmelo Anthony hysteria was one of the smartest, funniest and most unique sneaker ad campaigns in quite some time. (Video after the jump)

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Dolan out punishment: Knicks trade their soul for Carmelo

Esoteric 5 Comments

Dream team It’s unbelievable that I can’t enjoy a night in which the Knicks acquired a superstar ballplayer who I’ve always liked, but tonight’s events crystallize why I haven’t been fully able to embrace their climb back to respectability the past few years.

And it’s a perfect example of the flawed nature of being a fan: You simply can’t control who owns the team, and that’s the single most important component of a winning franchise.

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Prime cuts: Talking big-time dunks and ‘Nova with Tyrone Johnson

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All Tyrone, all the time

One of our favorite players at the Primetime Shootout this past weekend was Montrose Christian point guard Tyrone Johnson, who was sensational in outclassing Findlay Prep’s Myck Kabongo in a Montrose rout.

Johnson, playing at home after transferring from Plainfield High School last year, played brilliantly on Saturday, tallying 25 points and eight assists as Montrose surprised everyone by bouncing back from an upset loss to Linden on Friday night with a 63-37 takedown of Findlay.

He was superb in general, but the lasting memory for everyone in attendance was Johnson’s ridiculous dunk in traffic over Findlay Prep’s Amir Garrett, sending the crowd at Kean University to its feet with a raucous celebration.

Terry Rains of Blue Devil Nation and I caught up with Johnson following the game and talked to him about his dunk, his matchup with Kabongo, how he prepares for games and what he’s working on before heading to Villanova next year.

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Prime cuts: Getting to know fresh-to-death PG Makai Mason

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makai2

One of my favorite things about high school basketball is discovering and subsequently following a talented player before he blows up. It’s almost like investing in a stock before it skyrockets in value, or going to see an underground rapper before he gets a deal.

Watching him against St. Anthony’s on Saturday, I became more and more impressed with Hotchkiss freshman point guard Makai Mason. Mason is a good shooter with nice handle, every pass he threw was a bounce pass, and he didn’t appear daunted in the least in facing off with the No. 2 team in the nation. I honestly had to keep checking the program and asking people around me, “Are we sure this kid’s a freshman?”

Hotchkiss ended up losing a tightly contested game, 74-63, but Mason ended up with 12 points, 2 assists, 3 steals and 2 three-pointers. As he gets older and his body gets stronger, I expect to hear very big things about him — he’s already very impressive and still has three years of high school to go.

Terry Rains of Blue Devil Nation and I caught up with Makai on Saturday and discussed what college and pro point guards he identifies with, his lofty expectations for his own game, and whether he’s considering any schools at such an early stage.

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Prime cuts: St. Pat’s sophomore Colbert gives us his report

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Super soph I went to a good half-dozen St. Patrick games last season, primarily to watch Kyrie Irving and secondarily to see Michael Gilchrist. I ended up becoming a fan of the program in general, and besides the two players I mentioned, I grew to really like freshman Austin Colbert.

In particular, I watched him against Trenton Catholic in a game Gilchrist missed with an injury, and Colbert was a force off the bench, scoring 11 points as St. Pat’s didn’t miss a beat. After that game, I talked to Austin for a few minutes and found him to be very gracious with a terrific temperament. (He even put up with me asking him if I could see his St. Pat’s Jordans.)

Colbert hasn’t put up big numbers this season as a sophomore, but it doesn’t mean he’s slipping at all — he’s still a top 10 sophomore in America on most lists — it’s more that he fits a role within the regimented system of the absolutely loaded No. 1 team in the country. We were, however, disappointed not to see very much of Austin against St. Thomas More on Sunday, mostly sitting in favor of freshman Dakari Johnson, who had the requisite size to bang with No. 1 Junior Andre Drummond. Austin’s time will come.

Terry Rains of Blue Devil Nation and I caught up with Austin on Saturday night and talked about what colleges are on his list, his experiences in St. Patrick’s game vs. Winter Park and Austin Rivers, playing with Michael Gilchrist, and what his goals are for the rest of the year.

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