by John Walters

The New York Nets have hired two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Steve Nash as their head coach, a move that Stephen A. Smith publicly decries as “white privilege.”

Let’s unravel SAS’ words, while acknowledging that he just gift-wrapped a “Kick Me, I’m ESPN!” sign to the bros over at OutClick The Coverage. First, SAS mentions the black men who were passed over for the job:

1. Mark Jackson: Who had NEVER been a coach when the Golden State Warriors hired him in 2011, handed him the keys to what would become the most talented NBA team of the decade, and Jackson promptly failed to get them to the NBA Finals in any of the three years he was their head coach. Moreover, Jackson actually seemed bothered by Stephen Curry’s success. What happened after the Dubs canned Jackson and replaced him with Steve Kerr, who is a spiritual brother of Nash’s (even the names are similar)? They went to five consecutive NBA Finals.
2. Tyronn Lue: Had never been a head coach until the Cavaliers elevated him to replace David Blatt, who was not smart enough to let LeBron be LeBron. Don’t know if Lue’s worthy or not, only that he’s smart enough to keep his mouth shut when LeBron is coaching speaking.

3. Sam Cassell: I have no idea if Cassell, currently an assistant with the Clippers, will be a good or bad NBA head coach. I do know that the head coach of the Clippers, Doc Rivers, is a terrific coach who, like Nash, had never coached at any level before he was hired as an NBA head coach by the Orlando Magic in 1999.

Nash, a two-time NBA MVP and one of the best players and teammates the league has ever seen, has unimpeachable character. He has always been able to relate to players of all sizes and colors. He has international life experience and will relate to players who were not born in the USA. And he will have two of the league’s top 10 players, at least before they were injured, in his starting five. So, yes, he is stepping into an excellent situation.

Will he be a great NBA coach? It’s hard to say given all the talent he’ll have around him. Phil Jackson had Michael and Scottie and then Shaq and Kobe and yes, he did alright for himself. Red Auerbach had all those Celtics greats. Gregg Popovich suddenly wasn’t as great an NBA coach without his International Trio.

Great players help make great coaches. But as far as “deserving it” goes, both Mark Jackson and Steve Kerr had never been head coaches anywhere before the Warriors hired each of them the past decade. We know who did better, and it’s not close. And it’s not because Kerr is white that he did better. But to say that Nash’s hiring is “white privilege” while also “congratulating” him on getting the job, well, that’s just b.s.

And bringing in the murder of George Floyd to punctuate your argument is simply exploiting his death. Nash’s player bona fides are far superior to those of Jackson or Rivers, both of whom landed an NBA head coaching job without ever having coached, either.

by John Walters

Political Football

We have to give President Trump credit for this one: a brilliant political maneuver, staging a chat with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren. Trump basically went Sting in “Money For Nothing” (I want my/I want my/I want my MTV!) while the newly minted commish did the Joey Bosa arms emoji. (Oooh, that’s good. We’ll use that professionally soon.)

See, the president knows that the Big Ten occupies important swing states such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. States that could be the key to the 2020 election. And he knows that people in these states love their college football. And so here’s the president, the guy who’s supposed to be reminding everyone to strap on their seat belt and go the speed limit but who is instead asking how come we can’t go faster as he sticks his head through the sun roof.

But those folks won’t care about public health. And he knows it. They just want their football. And now Trump has come out publicly and basically said, “I want you to have your football, too.” Brilliant political maneuver, if nothing else.

If the Big Ten caves and does return, Trump takes a victory lap. If not and the SEC and ACC shine (and if cases don’t skyrocket), he takes a victory lap. Notice that he didn’t phone Larry Scott (although who can blame him? Who wants to speak to Larry Scott?). He knows he’ll never get the votes in California, Oregon or Washington anyway and besides, people out West are much better able to cope without college football.

We listened to Scott Van Pelt muse aloud the other night about how bad the Big Ten might look if it remains on the sideline while the other conferences play. What SVP did not do is muse about how bad the SEC, ACC and Big 12 will look if a number of its players contract the virus. Curious, that. It’s fine to muse as SVP did but without a counterbalance, you might almost think that SVP is rooting for one outcome more than the other.

Meanwhile, Alabama coach Nick Saban’s walk to Foster Hall has created some embittered Tide fans. The Tide is Turning? And in South Bend, Notre Dame Football’s official Twitter account tweeted a “Black Lives Matter” statement that, alas, drew the wrath of many an NDNation poster. We’re not on the Twitter so we can’t reproduce any of this (gladly), but if you are go to Notre Dame Football, find the tweet, and then look at the replies below. Who knew Matt Schlapp had so many surrogate Twitter accounts?

Goodbye, Newman!

At Georgia, quarterback Jamie Newman, a transfer from Wake Forest who was slated to start for the Bulldogs, has decided to opt out of the 2020 season without ever playing a down between the hedges.

Thus, the presumptive starter will be USC transfer J.T. Daniels, who lost his starting job for the Trojans last season when he suffered a season-ending injury in the first half of their opener. Daniels’ replacement at ‘SC, Kedon Slovis, who would’ve had an outside shot at the Heisman this season, won’t play at all because all of the Pac-12 schools have chosen not to play.

The football does indeed take funny bounces.

There’s Only Us/There’s Only This/Forget Regret/Or Life Is Yours To Miss*

*On second thought the judges prefer “Walk Like An Eviction”

If you earn less than $99,000 a year (sorry, Susie B.), are a renter (sorry again, Susie B.) and have suffered financial losses this year (failing to invest in Zoom does not count), you won’t have to pay the rent before December 31st. President Trump signed one of those things he signed without needing approval from Congress that says the rent is not due for the next four months.

Of course, this is not rent forgiveness. It’s simply rent abeyance. You’ll have to pay all four months plus the next month’s rent come January 1st. Happy New Year!

Ballooney Bin

Yesterday, magician David Blaine floated above what looks to be Lake Powell in Arizona. We still think the Taiwan Toddler’s stunt was cooler. And certainly more spontaneous.

Tower Of Babel-On

Today is apparently Skyscraper Day. Trees are, of course, the original skyscrapers so let’s give them their props. As for man-made types, the Great Pyramid at Giza (Egypt) was the world’s tallest man-made structure (455 feet tall) at the time of Christ’s birth.

You Bible readers may recall that Jesus spent his earliest years in Egypt (following his birth in Bethlehem) and thus, who knows, Joseph and Mary may have loaded up the family donkey and taken their Son on a family vacation to see the Great Pyramid. But there is no historical record of such.

The tallest building in the world currently is the Burj Khalifa, which is not a rapper from Pittsburgh but an edifice in Dubai. It stands 2,722 feet tall and has been the planet’s tallest man-made structure since its construction finished in 2009.

by John Walters

Make America Hate Again

President Trump visited Kenosha, made no real attempt to speak to the parents of Jacob Blake, answered a question that was directed to a pair of black pastors, and continued his program of behaving as if none of this would be happening if he were president (he is president).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evjG02nY-6E

You know who keeps showing up in video clips doing terrific work on the president’s shameless gas lighting (I mean, besides Daniel Dale?). CNN’s Brianna Keilar. In the clip above, she points out not only the egregious disinformation campaign by the White House but also by Fox News.

Kenosha: A Bunch Of Dopes (And Criminals)

This was sent to us as a comment but it’s so good we thought we’d share it here so that no one misses it. Called “Anatomy Of A Catastrophe,” it shows how the stupidity that led to two deaths, another person being shot, and a 17 year-old being charged with two counts of homicide was really just a pandemic of moron behavior from all parties.

Venus Descending

At the U.S. Open Venus Williams, 40, loses her opening match in straight sets to Karolina Muchova, 6-3, 7-5. Is Williams, a winner of seven Grand Slam singles titles, done?

Little sis won her opening match.

Rockies > Wasatch

In the NBA’s first-round Battle of the Mountain Ranges, the Denver Nuggets outlast the Utah Jazz in Game 7, 80-78, on a Nikola Jokic tear-drop hook shot with :22 on the clock.

The Serbian seven-footer finished with 30 points, though teammate Jamal Murray was the series’ breakout star. Bring on the Clippers!

Gas Up!

One of our favorite sites, The Discoverer Blog, has put out a list of “The Best Road Trip In Each State.” Above, Seward Highway in Alaska. Though we imagine Alaska has a plethora of fantastic road trips.

Congrats on your AMZN 100-bagger, Susie B. If you’re not there this morning, you’re darn close.

by John Walters

Zoombie Apocalypse

Was there an easier Pandemic Portfolio (can we trademark that?) pick than Zoom (ZM)? There’s no company that went from “Never heard of it” to “I’ll send you an invite link” more swiftly in the past six months and so, yesterday, after the market closed, Zoom announced its quarterly earnings report.

Turns out the company did more in revenue in the most recent quarter than it did in all of 2019. Shares of the stock, which were up more than 8% yesterday, soared more than 40% after hours and in pre-market trading.

You could have bought a share of Zoom for around $115 in April. Today the price of a share will open around $445. It’s the wild, wild West here in portfolio land.

A Pad-Rays World Series?

The hottest team in the American League? The Tampa Bay Rays, who have, with last night’s win at Yankee Stadium, have taken 7 of 8 from the Yankees this season. Tampa Bay has the A.L.’s best record at 25-11?

In the N.L., the Dodgers still have the best overall record (26-10) but down the coast, the San Diego Padres (22-15) are baseball’s most fun team. And they just added Cleveland Indians ace Mike Clevinger before the deadline (the Indians are in first place, so Clevinger must have been some kind of clubhouse cancer for the Tribe to dispose of him).

Second-year Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis, Jr., is tied for the MLB lead in home runs (13) and lead baseball in RBI. The Padres have long been baseball’s most forgettable club, at least west of Miami. Not this season.

A Murder In Portland

From what we’ve seen in Kenosha, and now with this NY Times story containing footage footage of the man being shot to death on the street in Portland, a common theme emerges: all three victims were being aggressors in situations that ultimately led to their deaths.

This is not to say that any of the men “deserved” to die. But when you add warm summer nights, male testosterone, dueling narratives of “justice” versus “law and order,” and then spend an evening mixing that cocktail, what do you expect to happen?

Joseph Rosenbaum, the 36 year-old first victim of Kyle Rittenhouse (we’d say “alleged” but he actually is heard saying, “I shot somebody”), was reaching for the barrel of Rittenhouse’s gun when he was shot five times. Anthony Huber, 26, ran after Rittenhouse in the street as people yelled, “Get that dude!” and “He shot him.” Rittenhouse tripped and fell, Huber awkwardly swung at his head with his skateboard while lunging for his gun, and he too was fatally shot.

In Portland, Aaron Danielson apparently sprayed mace at his assailant before he was shot and killed (the alleged gun man, tall and in a white T-shirt, has yet to be identified or captured).

There’s nothing cinematic about these deaths. People are shot and they fall rather quickly. And they don’t move again. They’re gone. Meanwhile, the president keeps stoking the hatred because exploiting the racial and cultural divide stokes fear in white suburban moms, which is exactly what Trump wants.

We loved this explanation of it all from Trevor Noah, and if you think a late-night comic is in over his head commenting on this, then we suggest you go read Noah’s memoir, Born A Crime. He’s got more life insight into what’s happening than any cable news pundit.

Noah basically says that while no one wants to live in a world of violence, of stores being burned, of looting, that what too many white people fail to understand is that too many of the police (and your president) have broken the social contract. They are no longer “protect and serve” officers. They are “control and dominate” officers (my quotes). And that while no one wants to see looting of stores, too many cops have for too long been looting the bodies of black men.

Finally, Noah makes the excellent point that folks on the right point out that George Floyd had committed crimes. That he was no saint. True, And Floyd had paid for those crimes with jail time. The cop who ended his life had been written up 18 times for his bad behavior but had never paid for any of it. And so if you want to claim that George Floyd’s past led him to that moment, what about Derek Chauvin’s?

Sweet Evolution, Alabama

In Tuscaloosa, Alabama coach Nick Saban leads a march of Crimson Tide football players to protest social injustice. Egads! What will the SEC ball cap bros who faithfully read OutClick The Coverage each morning think?!?

The symbolic March of the loafer-clad Saban and dozens of his players, some clad in “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts, proceeded a short distance from the school’s athletic dorms to Foster Hall, where 57 years ago then-governor George Wallace stood at the door in an attempt to block the entry of two black students.

As far as political tidal shifts go, this may be far more profound than anything Joe Biden said yesterday in Pittsburgh. When you lose the Crimson Tide football team, what do you have left? Jim Harbaugh? Dabo?

Up

What is this, in Taiwan? Is it the filming of a prequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Do we have the wrong Asian country and was that terribly insensitive of us?

Anyway, there was a kite festival in Taiwan and this three year-old exceeded lofty expectations. Nobody died so it’s all in good fun.

by John Walters

Portland

In Portland a white man who belonged to a group called Patriot Prayer was fatally shot in the chest on Saturday night. The name of the victim has not been released and no suspects have been identified.

Earlier in the evening a caravan of approximately 600 vehicles (mostly Chevy trucks?) entered the city, the sight of protests and often vandalism the past three months, as part of a pro-Trump rally.

Meanwhile the president is planning on visiting Kenosha, Wisc., on Tuesday.

Trump keeps stumping on “law and order” which, of course, is a dog-whistle for “stamp out free speech.” Here’s what we know: the president is taking the side of vigilante groups and, hilariously enough for a man who refuses to comply with legal decisions and pardons convicted criminals right-and-left, pretends to care about upholding the law.

What he really wants is to stoke a race war and promote white fear. Here’s Oregon governor Kate Brown: “But despite the President’s jeers and tweets, this is a matter of life and death. Whether it’s his completely incompetent response to the pandemic, where nearly 200,000 have died, or his outright encouragement of violence in our streets: it should be clear to everyone by now that no one is truly safe with Donald Trump as President.”

It’s incredible how little respect Trump commands from many politicians. It’s even more incredible that they’re right.

Buffett at 90

Billionaire Warren Buffett, who unlike fellow super-rich peers Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, never created a mega-company out of thin air (other than his own holding company, Berkshire Hathaway), turned 90 yesterday. What do you get for the man who owns everything?

Being the savvy investment guru that he is, Buffett issued a 2:1 split on himself, which means that there are now two Warren Buffetts who are each 45 years old.

If you ever saw the Netflix documentary on Buffett, you know he has a genius for understanding how to grow wealth and a void of knowledge in places the rest of us would take for granted. His ex-wife tells the story of being sick and nauseous in bed, and sending Warren down to the kitchen for a pot so that she’d have somewhere to vomit. He returned with a frying pan.

It should be noted that Buffett, the world’s third-richest man with a net worth of around $80 billion, has given away most of his earthly wealth while still here.

Gone Too Soon

Actor Chadwick Boseman, who portrayed both Jackie Robinson and James Brown in biopics, died over the weekend of colon cancer. He was only 43.

The Howard University grad gained international fame when he played the lead role of King T’Challa in Black Panther. That film was released in 2018, some two years after his first cancer diagnosis. Baseman’s illness was kept secret.

He also played an ill-fated soldier in Spike Lee’s Da’ 5 Bloods, released earlier this year on Netflix. Our personal favorite memory of Boseman comes from this SNL sketch, where the South Carolina native reprised his T’Challa/Black Panther character for the recurring “Black Jeopardy!” sketch.

The Tip Of The Iceberg

After last week’s Republican National Convention, we got to thinking about the 1997 film Titanic. We remembered how at the time Billy Zane’s pretentious and superficial Cal Hockley was the villain and Leo DiCaprio’s penniless but adventurous Jack Dawson was the hero.

And we wondered how anyone watching Titanic in 2020 could do anything but see that Cal is Trump’s Republican party and Jack is Joe Biden’s Democratic party.

Cal is slimy, insincere, dishonest and corrupt. He literally frames Jack Dawson for stealing a watch, knowing that it will result in his likely death. He only cares to possess things, not to actually love them.

Jack is, as he says, happy “with the air in my lungs” and “taking life as it comes.” He is more comfortable in steerage, but his lust for life attracts Rose (I’m not sure what she’s a metaphor for, but pretty sure Titanic is the good ol’ USA and the iceberg is November 3rd). And that scene in which Titanic’s crew are locking the steerage folks on the stairwell as the ship begins to sink, well, that’s good ol’ “law and order” (as is the officer shooting the male steerage passenger who comes too close to the lifeboat, as Micah notes).

Anyway, what has happened to us as a country that so many Americans are now identifying as Cal? Worth noting: Cal, coward that he is, does survive. Jack, our hero, dies nobly. But he does die. Maybe that’s all that matters to these people.

p.s. We’ve often wondered if Zane was too good a villain for his own good in this film. He was so loathsome, it only proves what a fantastic job he did. But did it hurt his career? Was he so inextricably linked to Cal that casting directors were unable to see him as anyone else? How many other big roles did Zane land after this?

Putt-Putt Golf

Two magnificent putts to close the BMW Open or whatever in Somewheresville, Illinois, yesterday. First, Dustin Johnson buries a 45-footer to force a playoff, and then Jon Rahm takes him out in the playoff hole with a 66-footer. Wowza.