by John Walters
A Medium Happy 47th to Anna Heche, who is the answer to two questions: 1) Is the hot worth the crazy? and 2) What if Gwyneth Paltrow and Phoebe from “Friends” had a baby?
Starting Five
Westbrook is leaving Golden State and Curry behind
Russell Athletic
The line last night for Russell Westbrook: 36 rebounds, 11 rebounds, 11 assists. The last time a player had a triple double in the playoffs and scored at least 35 points was 1969, Jerry West of the Los Angeles Lakers. That’s good company, Russ. You’ve been the best player of the postseason.
Every All-Star Game, West got to wear his name on the back and front of his jersey
I still think Stephen Curry is not close to 100%. But give the Thunder credit. They have the will to win and a second straight blowout of the world champions by more than 20 points shows that.
2. So AA’s Don’t Like AA?
“If Draymond scores 3 points and commits 5 turnovers in 7 minutes while the Warriors are outscored by 9 points, what is his VO2 Max? Wait, lemme try that again the pages were stuck together”
In a cover piece for The Undefeated yesterday, Michael Wilbon asserted, and I quote, “Conclusion: Advanced analytics and black folks hardly ever mix.”
Wilbon quotes perhaps 6 people in his story in coming to that conclusion. So I know at least one black folk who doesn’t get advanced analytics all that much.
It’s a day later and there has been almost no outcry to Wilbon’s assertion. But what if I, or another white writer, had written that? With that little research? Hmmm. I tweeted that I was working on my story on how white folks never seem to rob convenience stores (an assertion I can probably make with stronger analytical proof) and that temporarily set Twitter on fire.
Look, there are things a black writer is able to write on the black experience that a white writer just cannot know. Got it. But there is nothing that Wilbon brought to this story because he was black that a white writer could not. Make a lazy assertion. Take to a few people. Pronounce assertion true. The only difference here is that because he’s black, this isn’t the first topic on ATH, PTI and BET.
3. Harvey Danger
With last night’s 7-4 loss at Washington, Matt Harvey of the Mets is now 3-7 with a 6.08 ERA. The Dark Knight has allowed at least 5 runs in each of his last three starts, all losses. and Citi Field fans are in DefCon 3 panic mode. Has anyone yet written an 8,000-word think piece on how Terry Collins’ decision to allow him to pitch the 9th against K.C. last October ruined his career? No?
4. Donald Trump and the Case of The Grudgingly Donated $1 Million
There was a debate last winter. Donald Trump opted out. Instead, he decided to hold a fundraiser for military veterans. Great p.r. move for a man who avoided military service four different times. Trump boasted that he’d raised “$6 million for vets.”
Then the media, “terrible people,” “nasty,” were rude enough to inquire about the details of his largesse. That’s when things got messy. You should read this story by the Washington Post. It turns out that Trump donated $1 million only last week, which happened to coincide with the media ramping up efforts to exact details from him about the donations to vets. When a reporter asked if one had a causal effect on the other, Trump replied, ““You know, you’re a nasty guy. You’re really a nasty guy.”
Donald Trump is calling someone else a nasty guy. Wow. On top of everything else, he’s thin-skinned and shows an utter lack of self-awareness. People actually want him to be this nation’s leader?
Read this story, too, by RedState.com, which I would assume is a conservative publication.
And read this story, too.
5. SNL Wrap
McKinnon is SNL’s MVP
Elizabeth Banks: “It’s just, no matter what I do, I can’t win.”
Kenan Thompson: “That’s the blackest thing you’ve said all day.”
Probably the best exchange in a skit on SNL all season, from “Black Jeopardy.”
SNL wrapped its 41st season on Saturday, and Rolling Stone listed and ranked its Top 10 skits. No disagreement here, though I think Kate McKinnon’s Olga Povlatsky deserved a spot in the Top 10. Also, McKinnon was the cast MVP this season, while Taran Killam won the “Where Did He Go?” award. Most Improved (Not Ready For Prime Time) Player: Colin Jost.
Music 101
Reach Out (I’ll Be There)
As a huge fan of music, I can’t be happier that I was born in 1966, the best year in the history of popular music. This Motown tune by The Four Tops held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart for two weeks in October of ’66. Levi Stubbs just growled those lyrics, man. He bashed that door down.
Remote Patrol
Jimmy Kimmel Live
ABC 11:35 p.m.
Donald Trump is the guest. Will Guillermo be deported? You could do the entire hour with Mean Tweets, both by Trump and/or directed at him. Kimmel has never made a secret about the fact that his childhood idol was David Letterman. I gotta be thinking he’s having many “What Would Dave Do?” thoughts today.