by John Walters
A Medium Happy 60th to Sugar Ray Leonard, who was every ounce the golden boy Bruce Jenner was for the USA in Montreal in 1976
Starting Five
The year was 1966 and she was 17. This would not be her final brush with greatness….
Do You Know This Teen?
My fabulous colleague Abigail Jones has been working since I think she was a teenager on a Newsweek cover story about teenagers. Specifically, she endeavored to round up the teens who appeared in an issue of Newsweek 50 summers ago and talk to them about how their views have changed over the half-century. Also, she spoke to 2016 adolescents and compared perspectivers from teens then and now (BREAKING: teens still can’t believe you won’t let them use the car or that you’re going to give them a curfew).
Anyway, the woman who was Newsweek‘s cover model in 1966 went on to become a regular on a sitcom more than a decade later. If you want to take a guess at who she is, I’ll wait and reveal her identity right before Music 101.
2. OK-C Change
Surviving Dothraki Khal Steven Adams had 16 points, 12 rebounds and one ethnic slur
The Thunder win at Golden State, 108-102, by outscoring the Dubs by 19 in the second half in methodical fashion (by 9 in the third quarter, when Russell Westbrook ‘sploded for 19 points, by and by 10 in the fourth quarter).
In the second quarter, when the Dubs led by as many as 13, comedian Norm Macdonald tweeted this:
Warriors will sweep. Bet it if you can get it.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) May 17, 2016
As soon as the game ended, black journalist Rembert Browne tweeted this:
Huge loss for rich white people that just became basketball fans
— Rembert Browne (@rembert) May 17, 2016
Interviewed by ESPN’s Chris Broussard on the court after the game, the Thunder’s Aussie-Dothraki center, Steven Adams, complimented the Dubs’ “quick little monkeys,” then The Big Lead posted an item on that video within about 14 sseconds, then my friend Jason McIntyre tweeted out that there’s nothing to see here, which begs the question as to why TBL posted something about it so quickly.
This is nothing internet. Please don’t try to make this a racial thing. Watch the video. https://t.co/J1oBhwRymH
— Jason McIntyre (@jasonrmcintyre) May 17, 2016
The Thunder have now won five of six from the Spurs and Dubs. May want to take them seriously.
3. Bill & Bill’s Big Adventure
Francesa and Simmons hung out
Big day in the Big Apple for Bill Simmons, one year and about 10 days since his abrupt and unceremonious exodus from ESPN. In the morning he accompanied former boss and good friend Jimmy Kimmel to Howard Stern’s radio show (Steve Martin was also a guest, for the first time) and was invited to don some headphone. In the afternoon he did a segment with his radio idol Mike Francesa. That’s a lot of egos in play in one day in two studios.
Here’s Simmons’ “I Believe” speech to promote his show, which is a riff on Kevin Costner’s from Bull Durham, which of course the ever-jealous (of Simmons) site Deadspin had to crucify because this is what they do before boarding the J, L, 2, D or F train back to Brooklyn each night. It’s fun to watch how angry Drew Magary is that Simmons has an HBO show and he, Drew Magary, does not.
4. Black By Popular Demand
Jack Johnson (the boxer, not the surfer/singer) was this country’s original black sports superstar
After more than a year (or two or three?) of delays, ESPN finally launched The Undefeated this morning (there’s a CP Time joke here that you really, really should not make) at 7 a.m. I wish editor-in-chief Kevin Merida and his staff lots of success and I am reminded of an anecdote from my days at SI.
Every year, before Christmas, all the magazine’s writers would be invited in to New York City for our annual Christmas party. And there’d be an afternoon meeting with the top writers and editors in our 18th floor conference room in the Time & Life Building (Don Draper’s building). Anyway, at the time, in the mid-1990s, Phil Taylor, who lived in the Bay Area, was the mag’s only African-American writer.
I didn’t see anything on Ali, who was the first trans-racial black superstar in sports, on this morning’s site
So Phil walks into the conference room and I’m seated next to staff writer Kostya Kennedy, who doesn’t say much but when he does is sneaky and caustically funny. As Phil passes by us, Kostya says, loud enough for Phil to hear, “See that? All the black writers stick together.”
Phil laughed. I laughed. But the point is that you have never been able to enter any sports department or press box and see a majority of black writers, much less even a fair representation. And yet in two of the country’s most popular team sports, there are an inordinately high number of African-American athletes. So, yeah, maybe The Undefeated is a welcome and overdue idea.
And maybe it will be an echo chamber. When I was invited to meet Merida last week with a few other journalists (some of whom disrespectfully kept checking their cell phones as he spoke to us in a conference room at ABC), I was amused by the fact that I could look out the 22nd floor windows in one direction and see Trump Tower and look in the other direction, west, and see the glass-walled high-rise abominations he has built along the Hudson River. And I wondered, in an increasingly polarized America, how this site will be received by anyone outside the 12% of Americans who are black.
But maybe that’s not the point. Maybe it’s supposed to be a niche site. We’ll see. Meanwhile, there are one-third more Hispanic Americans than African-Americans and that ethnic group is very well represented in our national pastime, if not by an ESPN site. Yet.
5. Sasha Fierce? No
Frere-Jones has some ‘splainin’ to do….
This is Sasha Frere-Jones (we shared a masthead once at The Daily, now defunct). He was recently let go by the Los Angeles Times as its music critic for allegedly filing a $5,000 expense report (seriously, dude?) for a strip club that he visited, apparently without an interview subject. There were other alleged transgressions as well.
Newsweek Teen?
Does this mean that was Andy Travis driving the motorcycle?
It’s Jan Smithers, alias Bailey Quarters, the Maryann to Jennifer’s Ginger on WKRP in Cincinnati. Here she is today:
Music 101
Oh, Sweet Nuthin’
Is there a better title for a song from a band that positively reveled in nihilism? This was the final track on Loaded, the fourth and final Velvet Underground album that featured Lou Reed. It was released in November of 1970, and would sound just as natural being played by the Allman Brothers band or Black Crowes, the latter of whom covered it.
Remote Patrol
Game 1: Raptors at Cavaliers
8:30 p.m. ESPN
Kryie Irving have each made 28 threes in the postseason, more than anyone in the Eastern Conference, despite playing just 8 games
I’m not going to watch this game…but I want Susie B. to think that I am even the least bit interested in what happens in the Eastern Conference prior to the Cavs advancing to the NBA Finals. Toronto takes, at most, one game in this series. But if I had to wager, I’d say fewer than that.
Simmons’ promo is pretty brutal. What I’m going to say about it is a slam that would cut the guy pretty deep: it reminds me of a promo ESPN would have done with Rick Reilly. Honestly, those thoughts are like a mailed-in Reilly column during his ESPN days, or one of those god-awful “event summary” on-screen essays Reilly would do. Awful. It’s distressing that Simmons would sign off on that and it doesn’t bode well.
I’m a big fan of Simmons the writer, and, from what I hear, his podcasts are very good, but so far he just has zero Q factor on TV. If neither Costas nor Buck could even come close to having an entertaining TV show, with their camera comfort off the charts, I doubt Simmons will be able to pull it off. I think I’d rather sit in a bar and talk sports and pop culture with Simmons over those two, but his “TV presence” so far has left a lot to be desired.
I think a better comparison is probably Rome, who’s never really worked on TV either. Both Simmons and Rome excel when they’re past the headlines and just talking about sports and life how people actually talk about it. They’re both funny and entertaining, but it’s kind of hard to get to what they’re good at in quick TV segments, there’s just not enough time. Funny that the one person who’s having success in this arena is another Boston blogger (I’ve never seen her show.)
I also think Drew Magary is a funny guy, but his take down of the promo on Deadspin was no better than the promo itself. Talk about a tired, used up trope.
Went to The Undefeated and was bored senseless by the cover story on Beast Mode. He loves his home town and wants to keep it real? That’s a sentence, not a long-form, front page story.
I immediately guessed Pam Dawber, (sort of in keeping with Bailey’s character, nobody ever picked Bailey).
I spent six hours with Sugar Ray at a poolside cabana at the MGM in the 1990’s doing satellite interviews. Great guy. It never came up that we shared the same birthday though.
Velvet Underground on my birthday? Boo.
I just watched & must say I didn’t think it was so bad; thought it was original, very “Bill” or “BS” if you prefer. 😉 Plus, TOTALLY AGREE with his last “belief” – that billionaires should pay for their own “fucking stadiums”. AMEN!
Bill and Bill? I got Simmons but who is the other one. I know, I’m dense.
Happy Birthday, Bill H!
I laughed at the irony of what Simmons said about Kanye. Talk about an utter lack of self-awareness. And I think Bill falls a little short of genius, but I agree that he’s a terrific humorist. He was never a reporter, never a journalist per se. He’s a humorist and a damn good one, especially in the role of outsider or underdog, which he no longer is.
There were other moments from that The Undefeated meeting that I’ll have to get into later, but I just could not help feeling that, you know, why is segregation ever a good thing? I really liked Kevin Fletcher, though, one of the staff writers. Seemed like a great guy. I felt a little isolated in the room: respected, or at least well-known media writers were there, and the questions were tame, about target audiences, advertisers, etc., and then I just asked, “So what is The Undefeated angle?” after Merida talked about what gives a story an Undefeated angle or what makes something an Undefeated story. I felt like the elephant in the room needed to be addressed and everyone was afraid to address it. And Kevin here had a chance to be very blunt and I would have respected that more. But the answer was rather lengthy and amorphous. Granted, I’m not the demo they’re after….
While I’m happy to know you think the Cavs are a cinch to make the Finals ( I take NOTHING for granted till the trophy is hoisted!), I can only groan that you apparently have sipped the SAME KOOLAID as the rest of the NBA media that the Western Conference is so much better or just so much more “entertaining” than the East. NOT TRUE! 1st of all, except for the top 3 (THREE) teams, the Western Conference was MEDIOCRE at best this year. The Eastern Conf as a whole was stronger (look at the W-L records!). And then the Spurs, the MUCH-lauded/acclaimed “2nd best team in the league overall” didn’t even make it to the Conference Finals. For pete’s sake, they won 67 games & the Thunder only won 55! They FAILED.
Of course, I’m HOPING the Cavs easily dispense of the dinosaurs but with the entire Great White North delirious with joy that their team has actually gotten this far for the VERY 1ST TIME, to say the Toronto crowd will be LOUD will be an understatement.
Fingers crossed. Go Cavs! Go LEBRON! 🙂
Susie B.,
“They only won 55 games….They FAILED.”
The Cleveland Cavaliers “only” won 57 games, yet were first in the East. You make this way too easy on us.
The point I was trying to make is that the SPURS won 12 MORE GAMES than the THUNDER. And then LOST to them in the playoffs. FAILURE. Plus, yes, the VAUNTED Spurs won 67 games, 10 more than the Cavs, which led the mewling media to anoint them the “2nd best team in the league” all damn season long. And then they FAILED to even get to the conference finals. While the Cavs are still playing. And winning.
Are you trying to tell us that YOU think the Western conference was so much better than the East this year? They were not. Fact. Look at the W-L records of ALL the teams that made the playoffs, not just the top 2 of each conference. The point is the media are LAZY & fall back on OLD facts that are no longer true but they just keep spinning the fantasy. Remind me of stock analysts. (RIMM anyone in 2008/2009?)
I do not understand the purpose of ‘The Undefeated’. I’m willing to listen but for now, I totally agree with you jdubs -how/why is segregation a good thing?
Alright, against my better judgment, I’ll address this:
1. The Spurs did not FAIL, Susie B. Far from it. They went 67-15 and 41-1 at home and they were the NBA’s 2nd-best team all season, without a doubt.
2. There were/are four teams good enough to win the NBA Finals: CLE, GSW, SAS and OKC. That’s it.
3. The Thunder beat the Spurs. It happens. They’re playing together well at the right time. Not unlike the Cavs, they’re playing their best ball of the year right now. Timing is everything.
4. Anyone with eyes and a little basketball sense knows that the East, once again, was far weaker than the West. The Cavs are great, and right now I think they’ll win the NBA Finals. The next best team in the East would be, at best, 4th or probably 5th best in the West. I’d take the Clippers, if healthy, over anyone else in the East, myself. You can come at me with records, depth, blah blah blah, but it’s apparent to anyone.
5. Please be smarter than “The media (i.e., JW) anointed the Spurs as the second-best team.” One, they were. Two, if you’re going to criticize someone for going out on a limb, don’t do it unless you ventured out on a limb yourself. Otherwise, zip it.
6. We all have weak (Taylor) or blind (Swift) spots. Yours is LeBron and the Cavs. You irrationally defend him/them at every opportunity. It takes away from the good sense and intelligence you bring to every other position.
Okay, now that I’ve lost my most loyal reader, I’ll move on with my day….
The Spurs FAILED. No other way to say it. If you have the 2nd best record in the league & don’t get to your conference finals (& had no injuries as an excuse), you have FAILED. BTW, the execrable Grizzlies, the team that suited up, what , 50 different players this year, made the playoffs for the Western conference, but hey yeah, that conference is SO much “better”.
As for my FANDOM of LeBron (hello, “DEFINTION please”…getting you ready for your fave TV event – the National Spelling Bee), you’re right I proclaim his exceptional play every chance I get, mostly as a response to all the crap that many in the media churn out ad nauseam.
I’ve chattered away here the past few years about LBJ & his teams because it was FUN, because there was ROOM in the comment section (ahem), and because I & other commenters were not personally attacked as on most male dominated sports websites. At least until today.