Free agency is here and, right now, my TL is all LeBron, all day. Where's he going, what are the Warriors doing, etc. That's fine. He's LJ. I get it! But I'll tell you what I'm actually watching, and it isn't LJ and marquee guys. It's the OGs.
Don't get me wrong, I love this young NBA. These kids are so skilled it's almost unfair, and athletic in a way that's crazy. Different game now. A better one in a lot of ways, and I mean that.
Here's my thing, though. When I came into the league I didn't know anything, not really, and it was the vets who raised me. Guys like Ervin Johnson and Lindsey Hunter and Ray Allen taught me how to carry myself, how to be a pro on the nights nobody's watching. Taught me about money. Shoot, taught me about golf, about how to be a man. I needed that. Most of these young guys need it too, whether they know it yet or not.
So yeah. Harrison Barnes going back to San Antonio, that one was obvious. Russell Westbrook getting tied to DC? I love it for AJ Dybantsa and them. And if you've got a young roster you're trying to grow, you have to call a Khris Middleton or a Mike Conley. Get somebody in that locker room who's seen it, lived it, and can pass on that knowledge.
They can still give you minutes, sure. But that's not really why you sign them. You bring them in for the kid who's got all the talent in the world and no idea what to do with it yet. The vet pulls him aside when the coaches can't. Shows him the little things nobody teaches you in college. Shows him how to play the game, but also live the life.
Each one teach one. That's how it used to worked in the NBA. Let's make sure the young guys get that same guidance.
"I'm a black American. I'm proud to be a black American. I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am. I have a lot of pride in who I am and dignity.."
-Michael Jackson
(The 1993 Oprah Winfrey Interview
Timestamp: 24:11)
The Supreme Court used the 14th Amendment—created strictly for the descendants of Freed slaves—to secure citizenship for everybody else. Since they gave our exclusive legal protection to the rest of the globe, they owe us a new one. Pass an Foundation Black American Special Protection Bill.
Barack is not Black American. He’s African American. He has no ties to chattel slavery in America. So of course he can see the good in people who enslaved our ancestors.
By a 6-3 margin the Supreme Court rejected Trump's 14th Amendment EO.
To support this they cited a case from 1898 of an asian who the court ruled was a citizen even though his parents weren't.
That was 2 years AFTER Plessy V Ferguson.
Prioritizing these other groups IS the law.
Can we keep a bean? There was never going to be a Michael Jackson that didn’t come out of Black America. There hasn’t been a James Brown, a Whitney, a Prince or a Beyonce that was non-FBA either. Some of that spark comes from the soil. ✨
“Greatness” is not a word I’d ever use to describe a slave owner.
But it’s easy to have these cold, totally theoretical conversations when the slaves in question were not your ancestors.
It’s easy to talk this way when the impacts of chattel slavery, a failed Reconstruction, Jim Crow, redlining & convict leasing don’t manifest in your actual life because you’re Kenyan/white rather than #ADOS.
American Descendants of Slavery know what we lost when our family was ran off farms. When our ancestors had their labor stolen. We listen to elders speak on how the KKK burned crosses in their yards. And we listen as inheritors of that legacy of plunder—that began with slavery—not just as analytical bystanders or disinterested spectators.
Lineage really does matter.
Eddie Murphy may be the star of Coming to America (38 years today), but the movie gets hijacked effortlessly by Randy Watson and Sexual Chocolate.
The voice. The swagger. The all-time mic drop.
Here’s how the kid from “That’s My Momma” became a legend.
Extremely shameful that Kohen Wiley’s murder has not gained more attention. This baby was killed by the police, and nothing has been done, and it’s being swept under the rug.