This may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back which then caused that camel to fall on the puppy holding a bouquet of flowers for his puppy girlfriend while they nuzzled wet puppy noses in a field of porcelain angels surrounded by butterflies and rainbows, and ice cream.

Did you hear what JaVale McGee did?

Maybe you read about it. Maybe somebody told you. Or, you can listen to JaVale McGee himself over a tape recorder, via the L.A. Times website, saying, “There’s definitely some guys in there saying that they’re ready to fold, but there are some guys, a majority of us, are ready to stand strong,” when asked by a reporter outside of a National Basketball Players Association meeting if players are standing strong against the NBA lockout, or if some are saying that they’re ready to go back to work.

Maybe McGee was earnest and right, but a negotiator with media concerns in mind he is not.

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Links, commentary, a D.C. photo…

[Key Elementary School - NW Washington, DC - photo: K. Weidie]

Eventually, soon, I would like to make a more comprehensive post regarding Javaris Crittenton’s Tweets on this here site. There’s a problem with his Tweets… in that it’s Twitter. It would be very hard to gather context from each and every one of Crittenton’s Tweets, much less the small sample used for my piece on TrueHoop, or even from any number of people publishing thoughts and ideas on the social media tool.

To put it clearly: Nothing can be gathered, inferred, or deduced from Crittenton’s Tweets. They are simply an additional window into the life of a figure whom so many people are now trying to futilely gain information about. Yes, the Tweets came directly from his mind, but we don’t know what kind of filter he was putting his thoughts through… just like we don’t know what type of filter athletes, or anyone, puts themselves through during interviews and other media interactions.

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“Don’t show that weirdo no love homie.”

That’s what Javaris Crittenton wrote on Twitter in response to a Tweet sent by @TazWube on August 14. A piece I’ve written regarding Crittenton’s now-defunct Twitter account resides on ESPN’s TrueHoop.

Wube is a famed D.C. club promoter with a Wikipedia page that reads like a press release. His exact Tweet:

@TazWube #np Spend it/2 chainz– he says he brings all his guns to work–gibert arenas… Makes me remember I miss Agent O.. 6’4 and unstoppable!!

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Commentary, links, randomness…

Unfortunately, good people, John Wall tragically lost his right arm in Tuesday’s earthquake. (#Moment of Silence)

Seems like the Jerry Stackhouse owned by @n1coolguy didn’t fare so well either.

 But hey, Stackhouse has long been a fixer-upper … See? Good as new.

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Links, commentary, stuff…

Andray Blatche. You might be aware of his various exploits that seem trapped in an devolving time continuum.

Blatche, inherently, is a sympathetic figure. He literally loafed into an NBA career, to the envy of millions, by likely being just smart of enough to realize that if he worked just a little bit to enhance his natural talents, he would get there. And he did.

He’s not a bad guy, nor is he misunderstood like a lot of athletes like to claim. It is, however, true to an extent in that lay people, the “commoners” to which LeBron referred in his infamous quote, don’t know the pressure of money, exposure, expectations, high critique, and high reward, which I am assuming is widely accepted in bounties of tangible goods and women. But to say that some of these pro athletes are misunderstood is to say that they, themselves, are complicated figures. Often, we know, that is not the case. Rather, it’s their situations within the business of the game they love (or “like”) to play which provides varying complex ways to digest someone who is simply human.

Blatche is a human after all. He means well, but the means by which he gets caught up in “the life,” as some like to call it (being a highly paid professional athlete, that is) doesn’t always bode well for him. Whose fault is it? Well, according to my own sliding scale of reason, the older Blatche gets, the more he is solely to blame for his situation(s).

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[Fort Stevens Rec Center - NW Washington, DC - photo: K. Weidie]

As I get ready to take an extended summer vacation off to a location across the ocean, I can’t help how different this NBA summer feels. Yes, the lockout… But I’m also thinking about NBA players — who they are, how they are, where they are. Oh yea, and they’re also jumping across the pond lately.

NBA players are… themselves, for better or worse. Real people. I’ve known this. Covering the Wizards closely over the past couple of seasons has enforced this. It’s not breaking news.

It’s the coverage and opt-in exposure surrounding professional athletes as a whole, much less NBA players, that is vastly different now. Although, delving through the late David Halberstam’s brilliant book The Breaks Of The Game — about the world of pro basketball and the 1979-80 Portland Trailblazers — has helped me realize that while the times change fast, many principles simply get updated and don’t change much.

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Nick Young might be the epitome of good-natured balance. A much more mild brand of Gilbert Arenas funnies with a goofy innocence wrapped inside of a Los Angeles box, he is. But Nick clearly loves the game of basketball too, and this past season gave a small glimpse of how hard he’s willing to work for it. The future is uncertain for free agent Young, and all of the league for that matter. So as we think about the impending NBA lockout and what a sharp turn from the goodwill currently being offered by a great NBA Finals (and entire playoffs) it will be, much appreciation can be given to NBA players who Tweet. At least they will go a long way toward keeping fans close to the game during the basketball downtime, however this whole thing plays out.

All of this is to say that Nick Young is on Twitter, under the handle @NickSwagyPYoung, so let the entertainment commence. And ladies, watch out for the Cuddler…

The Highlights:

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Of course Gilbert Arenas might be back on Twitter. Of course, he might not be.

Of course close members of the media are reaching out to the @agentzeroshow Twitter account. Of course it is responding.

Of course it sounds like typical Gilly. Of course, well-studied imposters can be quick to deceive. Read more »

We have to assume that many of those on LeBron’s “list” (i.e., his mental notes) are of the media variety, or jersey burning blokes from Cleveland. Of course, there are also the Barkleys and the Jordans of the world who have criticized LeBron – I guess James changed his jersey number because he wanted to include No. 23 amongst his note taking.

Now, it seems that JaVale McGee could possibly be making a similar, but different list. Or perhaps he’s just venting some frustrations on the Twitter machine. Or maybe he’s simply proclaiming his curiosities about so-called reporters and their credentials (somewhat of an anti-shoutout alert). I invite you to decipher a listing of recent, consecutive Tweets by @bigdaddywookie.

Reporters who never played the game of basketball or never succeeded in it… Shouldn’t b able to report on it #FACT
@bigdaddywookie

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[Intersecting paths, Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. - taken by Kyle Weidie]

I recently wrote a piece for SB Nation DC about a Twitter interaction — a musical enlightenment — between the WizzNutzz and Mike James, while the former was in glorious Wheaton, Maryland and the latter was in Kenya, Africa. So go read that now … but there’s also more to the story (after you read) …

@WZZTNZZ further Tweets:

@Truth_About_It u like benga jams we gav @mikejames7? then u LUV @AlexMinoff Extra Golden, strait outta Nairobi NW, near Adams Morgan

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