Pick Me Up

There's no way you can watch this video and not be at least a little happier after it ends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXe8PFKsOIc

Thanks DMB!

Criticism and Grains of Salt

When Decca Records rejected the Beatles after their 1962 audition, they famously said, "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."

Zen Master calls it quits

A sad day for basketball. Who knows for sure, but it looks like Phil Jackson might really be done this time.


Another fantastic piece by the Sports Guy...

We talked about their last three years in Chicago together, when Michael's fame trapped him in hotel suites and casinos, surrounded by only a couple of trusted friends. We talked about Michael playing 36 holes of golf before playoff games, how he stayed up until all hours, how he needed only an hour of sleep and he was fine. We talked about Michael and Scottie as a tandem, how much ground they covered, how well they connected, how they compared to LeBron and Wade, how they loved eviscerating teams on the road more than anything. We talked about Michael's controversial Hall of Fame speech, which Jackson loved because, as he put it (while laughing), "that was Michael," the guy who became the greatest player ever by fueling himself with so many petty slights and grudges.

We talked about Michael's steadfast refusal to blow random, meaningless road games in Sacramento, Vancouver, Cleveland or wherever, how those were the nights that made him truly special, when his entire team was dragging, when the NBA schedule demanded a Chicago loss, yet Michael just couldn't allow it.

I never asked Jackson to compare Michael and Kobe simply because the question didn't need to be asked. Jackson made his answer clear over the years, doing his best never to frame it in a way that antagonized Kobe. You know, "There will never be another Michael Jordan," stuff like that. His own career is harder to assess. You can't deny Jackson's timing (first Jordan, then Shaq and a young Kobe, then Kobe), and if we learned anything about NBA coaching over the years, it's that you're only as good as your players. But that belittles what Jackson accomplished, because clearly, eleven titles mean something.

He never gets enough credit for successfully handling two of the three most difficult NBA superstars ever: Jordan and Kobe (with Wilt being the third). Jordan's ongoing ruthlessness threatened the basic concept of a "team" -- instead of being supportive, he was withering. He had to win all the time, every time. If he sensed someone might be a weak link, Jordan shattered their confidence rather than building it up. During any times of real struggle on a basketball court, he trusted himself over everyone else and played accordingly. Jackson tempered his most unlikable qualities while accentuating the good ones, steering him toward a team framework without compromising the ferocity that defined him.

full article:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/110513&sportCat=nba