Quote Of The Day | Tracy McGrady
“I’ve never been a guy to be criticized and go home and go in my closet and boo-hoo cry. I was criticized when I was a young fella coming into this league, criticized by my own coach (Butch Carter), saying I wouldn’t last three years in this league. Here I am, 12 years, seven-time All-Star, two-time scoring champ. I don’t worry about that. I’m not going to go in the closet and hide from it. I’m going to stand there and face it. I’m 29 years old. I’m young. It ain’t over for me. Right now, it’s a real hard time for me. I know it’s going to come back. I’ve got to be patient. I’ve got to take everything that’s thrown at me. I’m taking that. I just keep going.”
Kobe Bryant is the Lakers' Standout Film Student
There are few things more important to Kobe Bryant before a game than his portable DVD player.It goes wherever he goes before tipoff. On the padded table in the trainer's room. On the floor for a pregame stretching routine. Perched in front of his locker. The Lakers' 10-time All-Star stares at his 10-inch screen, watching basketball clips of the players he'll be guarding.It is part of his longtime commitment to studying video, one of the foundations of a career still going strong in its 13th season.The Lakers have had their stars over the last few decades -- Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West, Shaquille O'Neal -- but few have studied game video (or film, as it was called back in the day) more diligently than Bryant, who looks for the slightest advantage while sizing up an opponent. "Hands down, he's the biggest video fiend we've ever had," said Chris Bodaken, the Lakers' director of video services. "I didn't know if it was possible to be more competitive than Magic was, but I think he might be. It carries over into his preparation, and this is part of that."Bodaken, 40, began working in the Lakers' editing room in 1989 as an intern and is now one of two full-time staffers who use eight digital video recorders, five laptop computers and 18 DVD burners to record, edit and copy footage for Lakers coaches and players. NBA teams are inundated with video, part of an effort to keep up with the competition in the digital age. The Lakers' video staff has been even busier this season because Bryant, 30, has dialed up his requests after winning his first NBA most-valuable-player award. Bryant previously studied clips from entire games, watching them at his home or on the way to home games in his car (he is typically driven by one of his bodyguards). Now his pregame routine also includes clips of individual players he will guard.Bodaken's co-worker, Patrick O'Keefe, 28, is in charge of compiling Bryant's video montages. After conferring with Bryant, O'Keefe takes a little more than an hour to scroll through an opponent's last few games and find key plays from the players Bryant will guard, presenting him with eight to 12 minutes of edited footage.The goal is for Bryant to pick up tendencies of rival players. Have they added any new moves? Have they been aggressively driving to the basket or have they been satisfied to drift from the hoop and settle for outside jump shots? Before games, Bryant slips in custom-made earpieces with "KB" monograms on each side. Then he turns on his DVD player and tries to find ways to take away comfort zones from opponents. For the Christmas Day game against Boston, he received 12 edited minutes of three Celtics starters: Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen. Less than 48 hours later, he received 11 minutes of three Golden State players: Stephen Jackson, Kelenna Azubuike and Marco Belinelli."It's a blueprint," said Bryant, an eight-time member of the NBA all-defensive team. "So if something goes down, it's not something you haven't seen before. Everybody's got tendencies. If he scores 40 on Monday, he's going to try to do it on Tuesday. You've got to take him out of his spots. That's the key."Bryant has studied basketball footage since he was a 6-year-old in Italy, where his father, Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, played professionally after an eight-year NBA career.Bryant's grandfather would send video tapes to Italy of NBA games, and Bryant would eagerly pop them into the bulky tape machines of the 1980s. NBA games were not televised in Europe, so Bryant depended on the boxes from his grandfather to be able to imitate U.S. professionals."When I saw a hot move, I could rewind it and go back and watch it and learn from it," Bryant said. "It started real early."It continued at Lower Merion (Pa.) High, where Bryant played high school basketball after his family moved to Philadelphia. Bryant said his high school coach, Gregg Downer, was a "big believer" in breaking down video. "He had everybody watching game film even back then when it wasn't as popular to do it," Bryant said. "He would scout out our opponents' games, videotape our opponents' games, and we would watch game tape of them." Continue Reading + {Via LA Times}
Michael Jackson 'Transplant' Claim Denied
A spokesman for Michael Jackson has denied reports the singer is suffering from a rare respiratory disease and needs a lung transplant. Dr Tohme Tohme said in a statement issued to Reuters that stories claiming the singer was unwell were not true. He added that author Ian Halperin made the claims to promote his unauthorised biography of the 50-year-old singer. "The writer's wild allegations concerning Mr Jackson's health are a total fabrication," he said. Halperin claimed in the Sunday Express that Jackson was suffering from an illness that affected the blood and lungs. He told the newspaper the singer could barely speak, suffers from emphysema, internal bleeding, and has lost 95% of the vision in his left eye. Dr Tohme told Reuters: "Concerning this author's allegations, we would hope in the future that legitimate media will not continue to be exploited by such an obvious attempt to promote this unauthorised biography. "Mr Jackson is in fine health and finalising negotiations with a major entertainment company and television network for both a world tour and a series of specials and appearances." Jackson recently settled a legal dispute over a music contract between himself and an Arab sheik. The King of Bahrain's son, Sheikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, was suing Jackson for £4.7m, claiming he reneged on a music contract. In November, Jackson's lawyer told the High Court the singer was unable to travel to London to give evidence because he was unwell. But medical experts said Jackson was fit enough to travel, and the case was settled just before he was due to travel to the UK. Via BBC
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