Eazy EIn the year of Lavar Ball, I thought I had seen it all in the world of family members of aspiring professional athletes. Not so fast my friends! The sports gods have blessed us with Ibrahim Johnson.
Ibrahim, brother of McDonald's All-American and Texas Longhorn commit Mo Bamba, has dropped a bomb on Facebook. In a lengthy video Johnson claims that Bamba has been receiving $200 a week, vacations and a king sized bed (it's a damn travesty that a 7 foot man didn't already sleep in a king sized bed) from an investment banker known as Greer Love. Due to allegedly receiving such benefits, Johnson continues to state the NCAA has been notified of the issue and that he believes that Bamba will not be able to dress out for the already floundering Longhorn basketball program. Many of you may be asking, "why would Mo's brother do this?". It's quite simple. Ibrahim Johnson and Mo Bamba had a gentleman's agreement in which Bamba would play ball wherever Johnson went to grad school. Then upon entering the NBA draft, Mamba would hire Johnson as his agent and the two would live happily ever after. However, Bamba has since broken this agreement with intentions of seeking the services of an actual professional. This series of events ultimately leaves us with a 22 minute display of good, old fashioned, brotherly love. The public takeaway from this situation seems to be wildly in favor of Bamba, and rightfully so. It is a warped idea to throw your brother directly under the bus for the sole reason that you are no longer set to receive a cut of his hard earned paycheck. We far too often hear tragic stories of young athletes who place their financial security in the hands of friends, family and cohorts who are uneducated in the world of financial management. So let's all applaud Bamba for making the well calculated decision to stiff arm his brother. Bamba is preparing to enter a strictly business world, and he made a business decision. Kudos to him. But before I completely dive head first into a final takeaway from this wild story, I would love to know if Johnson and Mamba are actually blood related brothers. Outside of this story and his elite stature in the landscape of college basketball recruiting, I have minimal knowledge of Mo Bamba's personal life. Call me crazy, but it seems as if Mo Bamba and Ibrahim Johnson do not share the same last name. So it should be fair to raise the question of if they are actually blood related. For the sake of argument, I'm jumping the gun straight to the conclusion that these two guys are step brothers and do not share an ounce of the same blood. If there's no direct relation in their bloodlines then fuck it, feel free to hop on the team Ibrahim bandwagon. No blood, no foul done. Do you and run over everyone in your way that doesn't share your DNA, Ibrahim. Johnson saw his dreams of living the high life and taking a percentage of a potential multi million dollar salary vanish all while watching his so called "brother" sleep in a free, king sized bed. Anyone would be salty in that situation. There's only one group of people that you are obligated to owe favors to, for better or for worse, and that's family. I'm not convinced that these two are actually related. I'll need more proof to convince me other wise. Bamba didn't owe Johnson a gig as an agent and Johnson does not owe Bamba his silence. So until further notice, let's give slight props to Johnson's pettiness and decision to drop the hammer on Mamba's collegiate career. Definition of an eye for an eye move and I low key love it. PS- For everyone getting all bent out of shape that Johnson may have sabotaged Bamba's college career, take that sob story elsewhere. One year away from the wonders of a university's hardwood will not significantly change his draft stock. He's a first rounder regardless.
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Z TrainThe age-old question that we've all been dying to know. If you haven't checked out this Reddit thread, you should. So. Who the fuck do I want to punch in the face? Let's rank them with athletes that would absolutely murder me if I punched them in the face. A man can dream. NFL: Eli Manning This is almost so cliche that it's too easy. But that's not going to stop me. Just look at his fucking face. LOOK AT HIS FUCKING FACE. You can't tell me it doesn't drive you insane that this motherfucker is the only one to beat Brady, and he did it TWICE. Also, it birthed maybe the one truly hilarious meme I've ever seen. NBA: Kevin Durant Throwing all of the bullshit about joining the greatest team of all time aside, KD still has a punchable ass face. His awful goatee looks like he wanted to be a wizard, but then dropped out halfway through. If you scanned this face on 2K, it wouldn't even register as a real face, just some kind of baby cow. Am I still mad that he ruined my July 4th last year? Yes. But just look at that face. NHL: Phil Kessel First things first, I've never seen a more passable Zach Galifianakis doppelganger. On top of that, how does this goofy fuck play professional hockey, let alone win the fucking Stanley Cup. Shout out to this guy. I thought my dumb looking face was the reason my professional sports career never took off. Guess I need to find another excuse. Dear Lord. He looks like every weird looking bully from any 90's teen movie you can think of. CFB: Baker Mayfield Baker is just one greasy dude. He looks like he could fill up one of those grease trucks you see outside of restaurants in boujee liberal cities. He looks like he has an annoying high-pitched laugh that you can absolutely picture/hate. Can't wait for another season of him "almost" winning something and inevitably winning nothing. Golf: John Daly This is not true. I don't want to punch John Daly. I just fucking love John Daly and can and will put him in any blog I can, especially this picture. I'd knock the fuck out of Phil Mickelson though. Lord have mercy. Look at those dead, crazy eyes. He looks like a weird ass fish in an animated movie. So there it is. The power rankings of punchable faces in sports. Coming from a guy with an obscenely punchable face, I think it's a "takes one to know one" type of thing.
Z Train Tommy V If you've been living in an NBA-proof bunker for the last 12 hours you might have missed the Houston Rockets trading a platter of low to mid tier assets (Patrick Beverly, Sam Decker, Lou Williams, and a Top 3 protected pick in 2018) for Chris Paul. The initial reaction of most people, including myself, was a staggering Whoa! I mean this trade seemed to come out of nowhere, but all of a sudden the Point God is now out of Los Angeles and pairing up with James Harden to create the best new backcourt in the NBA.
The first reaction most had after this initial shock was "Wait, why?" Why would Chris Paul leave a team where he's the primary ball handler to team up with James Harden, a newly suited point guard who always needs the ball? Why would he leave Lob City where he can comfortably shoot his beautiful step back midrange anytime he likes, and go to a team that shoots almost exclusively threes and layups? Whatever the reason may be the deal is now done and the better question for fans of the league becomes "How will he fit?" A lot of people fall back on the old argument of "there's only one ball" so there's no way players like Chris Paul and James Harden can fit together. I believe however that the NBA is simply much more heavily weighted on talent then it is on fit and we've seen this over the past five years. If it was based on fit Morey created almost the ideal team around James Harden to succeed. This perfect team would seem to be: 1. An off-ball guard who can defend and shoot (Patrick Beverly) 2. Shooting at the wing positions for when he kicks out (Eric Gordon, Trevor Ariza, and Ryan Anderson) 3. Athletic center who is a constant threat to lob off of the Pick and Roll (Clint Capela) Add to that team another great fit in coach Mike D'Antoni and you don't even make it to the Western Conference Finals or get a shot at the Warriors. Perhaps Daryl Morey looked over this season and decided fuck it, we're not going for fit anymore, we're going to get the best player available this off-season and make it work. Chris Paul might be correctly labelled as hot-headed or a bitch because of the way he interacts with his teammates and referees but he's still one of the most efficient point guards in the NBA. He could fit on almost any team backed by the fact that he was a 41.1 3P% shooter and had the highest DRPM in the league last year. The bigger problem for the Rockets won't be a basketball fit but a personality one. James Harden said that last year was one of the most fun years of his basketball career and Chris Paul leads the league in fun killed per 48 minutes. So while the pairing might not be perfect at first, Chris Paul to the Rockets will be a much better fit than most people think. As long as D'Antoni staggers minutes well this team has the capability of being a 60+ win team and actually competing with the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. Although the Rockets might not be able to topple the new juggernauts of the NBA, we can at least have fun watching the Point God play some Seven Seconds or Less style basketball. BradshawLook I get it, its the offseason, the NBA finals are done, the NHL finals are done and baseball doesn't really matter until September/October. In the sports world, its boring. But why in the hell does every football sports writer feel the need to post a Preseason rankings list? In the college football world, spring practice is portrayed as this major thing for teams that will give a good look at where they are at. But does it give us any real insight into how the team is going to be in the regular season? Probably not. Teams can tell you what they want about why Spring Practice is important . It's a chance to introduce some new stuff for next season and get a good look at where the team is at. But lets honest here, what is going to stick after 15 practices and then 3 long months until Fall camp? Probably not much.
In actuality, Spring practice is in place purely for the fact that it makes sure the players don't get fat and to make sure they don't do anything dumb. You can't honestly tell me that without any sort of organized practice during the off-season, that a bunch of 18-22 year olds, who just went through hell in the fall, would make it through the off-season without an arrest or an injury. Nope. So we bring in Spring practice. Alright makes sense. The issue with Spring practice is that journalists try to put together some rankings (that will all be shit come week 2 of the season) that are there purely because they have nothing to write about. Those rankings are all terrible and mean absolutely nothing. Because these rankings are all shit, I'm not gonna write a blog ranking the teams in College Football. It is just too damn early and if anyone tells you otherwise, then they are dead wrong. One thing we can rank are the games that I really want to watch each week for the 2017-2018 season. So lets start out weeks 1-4. Week 1: Alabama vs. Florida State How could you not be excited about this game. Of course Alabama is going to have nothing but 5 star recruits on the field again. Florida State lost Dalvin Cook, but they should be great too. Both teams have so much to prove in this opening game. Alabama is coming of the loss to Clemson in the National Championship and Florida State is coming off of a disappointing 10-3 season. Most teams would kill for a 10-3 season, but when you're Florida State, expectations are so much higher. This game could start Alabama off already down and having to fight back. You know what I would like to see? Alabama not in the playoff again. If they're the best team, so be it, but I'm tired of seeing them every year. Florida State will for sure put up a great fight and they have a solid defense. Alabama's offense could be better this year as Jalen Hurt is a sophomore. This game will either be extremely close or a blowout. Regardless, two premier football programs in the brand new Mercedes-Benz stadium in Atlanta is a hell of a start to the college football season. Other Notable Games: NC State vs. South Carolina, BYU vs. LSU, West Virginia vs. Virginia Tech, Tennessee vs. Georgia Tech, Texas A&M vs. UCLA Week 2: Georgia vs. Notre Dame The shit games you have the first week are definitely made up for in week 2. Like come on you have Georgia vs. Notre Dame and Oklahoma vs. Ohio State in the same week. These are some pretty damn awesome games and the only reason I have the Georgia vs. Notre Dame game as the better one is that I have an ungodly hate towards Ohio State and Oklahoma. Its like Hitler and Osama Bin Laden playing each other. I hope both teams go 0-12 this year. But back to the game at hand. Georgia has a lot to prove this year after a pretty mediocre start to the Kirby Smart era. If they can get their offense out of the toilet, then Georgia could be a real playoff contender this year. This game has the potential to be one of the best games of the year. Notre Dame I'm sure will be extremely overrated again this year, but they will still more than likely put up some sort of fight against Georgia. I mean when you're Brian Kelly and you go 4-8 the season before, you either have a damn good season or Notre Dame sends you packing. With Chip Long as the new OC, expect something better out of Notre Dame. Other Notable Games: East Carolina vs. West Virginia, Pittsburgh vs. Penn State, Auburn vs. Clemson, Stanford vs. USC, Oklahoma vs. Ohio State Week 3: Miami vs. Florida State The games this week are pretty "eh." But when you have a rivalry game and a team thats gonna be good like Florida State, plus a team that is on the rise like Miami, you can damn well be sure that I wanna watch that. Florida State was absolutely a good team last year. They pretty much shit the bed against Louisville and made Lamar Jackson look like he actually deserved the Heisman, but apart from that game, if a few plays went there way the rest of the season, they could have had a shot at the playoff. They lost Dalvin Cook, but we'll see what happens there. The rest of the team is still stacked. Miami is on the rise after improving last year. Mark Richt is a hell of a coach, so don't expect to see Miami down for too long. If Miami can get their shit together, this has the potential to be a fantastic game. Other Notable Games: Oklahoma State vs. Pittsburgh, Notre Dame vs. Boston College, Clemson vs. Louisville, Tennessee vs. Florida, Ole Miss vs. Cal Week 4: Oklahoma vs. Baylor Who knows what the hell Baylor is gonna be like this year. Do they deserve to have a football program anymore? Probably not. Do they have one? Yes. So much sketchy stuff going on there that should never have happened. But they still might have a good football team, so I wanna watch this game. They have a new coach, Matt Rhule, who was at Temple before. If you remember Temple came out of nowhere and was actually a good team for the last two seasons. If he can do the same thing at Baylor, they might can turn the team around. I mean they play in the Big 12, where if your defense has a pulse, you can probably be ok. Oklahoma is Oklahoma and they are an elite football program. Baker Mayfield is back and although I hate his face and most everything he does, he's not a terrible quarterback. They did lose Joe Mixon, which is probably a good thing. I'm not really too in favor of having people who knock out women on your team. We'll see what happens with Baylor in the first few weeks, so I might change my opinion about this game later on. Other Notable Games: Virginia vs. Boise State, UCLA vs. Stanford, Arkansas vs. Texas A&M, TCU vs. Oklahoma State, Notre Dame vs. Michigan State I'll be talking about weeks 5-8 next, so be on the lookout. We've got another exciting season of College Football on the way and I think everyone can agree that we're ready to get out of the off season. Z TrainI want to open with this: I'm a big PG13 guy. I think he's an awesome player and a superstar. Is the whole "changing your number to give yourself a nickname" gig a douchebag move? Yeah, absolutely. But I gave myself the nickname Z Train in high school. I digress.
Trying to recruit him to go to the Cavs is so stupid. It's textbook desperation coming from the hype train. But like I also kind of like it? Here goes. The Cavs front office is in full-blown panic mode thinking LeBron is going to leave for LA (he will) that they're willing to do anything to keep him. Literally anything. Even mortgaging their rebounding and member of their core group of a year ago, for a guy who is absolutely leaving for LA even more so than Bronny. Not to mention destroying their organization's foreseeable future (and even distant with the picks they're sending out). Yes, George is a cut-price asset at this point, and yes, trades are the only way they can get better with the negative infinity cap space they're sporting, but this one just doesn't completely add up. Even if LBJ and George stayed past 2018 (they won't, have you been to Cleveland?), it's just a weird mix of players. Irving and LeBron need the ball to succeed. Love adjusted so well to coming off the ball, being a solid pick man and utilizing his on-ball time in the post and facilitating. But George needs the ball much more than Love. He's a creator off the screen, and uses a lot of his pump fakes to drive. So who gives up the touches? Kyrie? Probably not. LeBron? LOLOLOL. No chance. Who plays the third fiddle? Kyrie or Paul? Offensively, it feels like this could go into clusterfuck mode really fast. And this isn't even mentioning rebounding. They're trading away their best rebounder for George, who isn't shabby, but he's not a double-double guy. But on the other hand... I kinda like it. No it doesn't make sense with the holes at rebounding and losing depth and size, but in the NBA, sense is usually just thrown to the wind. Crazy 3-pointers, small-ball lineups, and lengthy players all reign king now. So... I kinda like it. PG13 is a good, rangy defender. He can play the 2, 3 and 4, and gives the Cavs another guy who could guard Durant, Thompson, even Curry and Draymond. Not many guys can do that. The NBA is a star-powered league. As a Hawks fan in denial, always crying "Fuck you, basketball is a team game!", this is a big step for me (side note: thank fucking goodness we're going into rebuild mode, I'm tired of second round playoff losses, probably a blog shitting on Dwight Howard coming soon from someone at NBS). Let me take these baby steps slowly. But from that perspective, you've gotta love the added length, versatility and defense that PG13 brings. He can create and shoot. He's a bona fide superstar. All you have to do is totally forget about rebounding, who actually gets touches on offense, the fact that he and LeBron will probably just go team up on the Lakers (so fucking excited for that). If it happens, this move is something you can waffle back and forth on all season long, and then claim you knew it all along from the beginning, regardless of what happens. |