Legends of the Game
The Basketball Hall of Fame inducted its 2020 class yesterday headlined by Kevin Garnett, Rudy Tomjanovich, Tamika Catchings, Tim Duncan and the late Kobe Bryant.
I was particularly interested in hearing from Garnett, Duncan and Kobe’s widow, Vanessa. I thought KG’s speech was fine except for not mentioning former teammates Ray Allen & Rajon Rondo. I understand the hard feelings but at some point you have to put the pettiness away. Rondo & in particular Ray Allen played a large part in the Celtics’ 2008 championship and a big reason the Celtics remained a threat during their run together.
Tim Duncan was especially gracious and kind in his speech. Even with this great honor Duncan remained humbled & shy describing this moment as the most nervous he’s ever been:
Kobe Bryant tragically passed away mere months before he was announced as a 2020 member of the Hall of Fame. His wife Vanessa accepted the honor on his behalf as Kobe’s ‘big brother’ Michael Jordan presented him. It was an emotional, intimate and beautiful speech given by Vanessa:
While I enjoyed the speeches and career retrospectives of the inductees it still maddens me the Hall of Fame doesn’t make this ceremony a BIG deal. This should’ve been on primetime television on a major network.
J. Cole – Offseason Review
J. Cole teased fans last weekend by releasing the track interlude from his new album Offseason. Yesterday the album dropped and once again the Fayetteville, NC emcee was in his element as far as lyrics went. The album starts out with the bombastic 95.south as Cole raps that his ‘pen & paper is lethal’. amari & let.go.my.hand continues the stellar wordplay while pride.is.the.devil may be the album’s stand out track.
The album does suffer from a beat production standpoint and that has been J. Cole’s achilles heel since after 2014’s Forest Hill Drive album. Cole as a lyricist is second to none but like his mentor Nas his catalogue ultimately suffers inconsistent beat selections.
Overall Offseason is a solid album but still has Jermaine searching to top Forest Hills Drive.
Grade: B–
Superheroes Galore
Super hero stories have been all the rage in 2021. The year started with Marvel’s critically acclaimed WandaVision and continued with Falcon & The Winter Soldier. Not to be outdone by Disney+, Amazon Prime premiered the animated series, Invincible. So massive of a hit was it that Amazon gave the green light for Seasons 2 & 3… before Season 1 was halfway over.
Netflix has now entered the fray with Jupiter’s Legacy. Based off of the graphic novel comic books, this series explores 6 ordinary humans granted super powers and how they grapple with upholding the values they swore to honor.
The acting & drama has been very good. I like Josh Duhamel’s turn as The Utopian/Sheldon and Ben Daniels as Brainwave/Walter. The two play well off of each other and give good insight to the character’s persona.
At the risk of revealing spoilers all I can say is check out both Invincible & Jupiter’s Legacy.
As if that weren’t enough, Disney+/Marvel will get back into the game in June with the highly anticipated series, Loki.
And with the next slate of Marvel movies coming this year(Black Widow, Shang Chi & The Legend of the Ten Rings, The Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home), 2021 is shaping up to be great year for super heroes.
America’s Reopening…. Sort Of
Over 156 million Americans have had at least one COVID vaccine shot and over 121 million Americans have been fully vaccinated and now the Biden Administration is looking to start the process of opening the country back up. Some states like Texas & Florida have already decided to open up fully. Sporting events are now pushing to go to 50-60% capacity. The CDC recently announced that children as young as 12 years old can get the vaccine and have now stated that fully vaccinated Americans need not wear a mask anymore.
That may sound like music to people ears but I’m not ready to throw confetti just yet. I still plan on wearing masks even though I’m fully vaccinated. Why? Because at the end of the day I just don’t trust people, especially Americans, to do the right thing. We as Americans are so spoiled & entitled we refuse to listen to anything. And while 121 million adults are fully vaccinated there are still millions of people who still choose to believe that COVID is a hoax. They choose to be ignorant. I’m not speaking about those who can’t get the vaccine due to medical reasons or those who make educated choices in not taking the vaccine but rather those who continue to choose ignorance over intelligence. Those people are the reason I will still mask up.
The bottom line is we’re not out of the woods yet. Please… don’t stop looking after your fellow human being. Please do the right thing.
Final Thoughts
- The violence in the Middle East is gut-wrenching. The people of Palestine deserve to live in peace. The violence that is happening there is wrong and the people of Israel & Palestine must learn how to live peacefully.
- The Bulls were officially eliminated from playoff contention over the weekend. The fact this team made to the last weekend of the season before knowing its fate speaks to the job the new front office & coach Billy Donovan have done with this group. I’m interested in seeing what moves will be made in the offseason.
- Despite two major injuries to Eloy Jiminez & Luis Robert, the Chicago White Sox have the 2nd best record in baseball. I’m still holding on to this team making it to the World Series this year.
- Speaking of the Bulls & the Hall of Fame, former Bulls F Toni Kukoc will be among the 2021 Class to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame. He will be joined by Paul Pierce, Chris Webber and Chris Bosh. Congratulations, Toni!!
- Finally… here’s a little ether courtesy of MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross:
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