Posts tagged ‘capital punishment’

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, but the Lost NBA Season (now in full effect) leaves us with a bit less to be thankful for this year. On the bright side, it gives us an opportunity to remember what we can of the past. Shall we?

When the Goodman and Drew Leagues faced off in their inaugural summer league exhibition game back in August, one of most intriguing battles turned out to be the face-off between Washington Wizards center JaVale McGee and Sacramento Kings big man DeMarcus Cousins. McGee showed off his athleticism and shot-blocking prowess, while Cousins countered with his strong power post-up game and rebounding dominance.

Although their physiques are obviously different, both players do have some similarities. No one can question their elite athletic ability, as they do things on the basketball court few at their size can pull off. Yet, both also sometimes think they’re guards; JaVale is famous for showcasing his dribbling “talents,” and deep down Cousins loves to launch threes.

Both have had fisticuffs with teammates that led to team-sanctioned suspensions. Goodman League commissioner Miles Rawls has nicknamed Cousins “Bad Attitude,” with good reason, and McGee constantly possesses an on-court scowl. Both love to raise the blood pressure of their coaches with mental lapses and by taking plays off. Most importantly to fans, both have potential to be solid performing anchors for their respective franchises for a long time.

The following video contains highlights of the duo from that D.C. summer evening at a packed Trinity University that I recorded with my Flip Cam, so bear with me on some of the grainy footage.

There are also interviews featuring John Wall, DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors, Craig Smith of the Los Angeles Clippers, and event MC, ex-NBA star Marques Johnson.

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[John Wall tough travels to the hoop at Capital Punishment - photo: K. Weidie]

[Editor's Note: Summertime hoops is raw, folksy, grassroots. NBA players have been putting on shows nationwide, and people have resoundingly enjoyed them. They've featured small gyms with varying levels of organization and management -- if anything, these games have given us an appreciation of the sourcing it takes to smoothly run an entertaining pro basketball event in a big arena. By the time this is all over, people will be craving the beauty of organized game play and coaching strategy battles.

Another exhibition concluded today at Washington, D.C.'s Coolidge High School, I watched it online via ilinksports.com. "The Clash of the Superstars," it was dubbed, because city alliances weren't really involved. A team featuring John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Kevin Durant beat a team with Michael Beasley, Kemba Walker, Jeff Green, Greg Monroe and others 144-128. Truth About It's Rashad Mobley and John Converse Townsend covered the match and will be providing stories at some point in the future.

Until then, let's take a look back at "Capital Punishment," held at D.C.'s Trinity University back on August 20. With the video below, TAI's Adam McGinnis brings the rawness that makes these summer hoops games likely so comforting for those mysterious basketball gods, but not comfortable enough to where they'll be content with watching them forever. -Kyle W.]

Pictures, commentary, links, more pictures…

WE HAVE HERE: JaVale McGee dunking over Gary Neal at Capital Punishment, but John Wall should also look out below…

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  [photos via urbanpartylife.com]

After recently contemplating life, today, August 22, is Andray Blatche’s birthday. He is 25-years old, which is an entire quarter of a century of life experience. Along with Blatche, the likes of former Washington Bullets Terry Catledge and Michael Curry, former Maryland Terp Obinna Ekezie, along with, naturally, SNL’s Kristen Wig, Wu-Tang’s the GZA, singer Tori Amos, football’s Bill Parcells, and John Lee Hooker of blues legend also all celebrate birthdays today.

The celebratory festivities took place this past weekend at Dream Nightclub in Miami Beach… AND DRAY GOT A WIZARDS BIRTHDAY CAKE! (Old man Wizards logo, but new colors!)

According to Basketball-Reference.com, 48 NBA players have seen over 8,600 minutes in over 380 games, scoring over 3,800 total points and snagging over 2,000 total rebounds, in their NBA careers before the age of 25.  Of those 48 players, Blatche ranks 41st in PER. Well, here’s to the future…

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[Previously, Nick Young, among others, have wondered about his seeming inability to pass. Now, we are curious about Young's absence from the hyped summertime showcase, Capital Punishment.]

Nick Young’s much ballyhooed participation in Capital Punishment certainly brought the right amount of attention to the circumstance. Young, being the Washington Wizard with the most ties to Los Angeles, was certainly missed, and curiously so. What might remain a mystery is why exactly he didn’t take advantage of the chance to represent this hometown, L.A.’s Drew League team, against his professional city, D.C.’s Goodman League team.

Given that the restricted free agent has made strides playing more within an offensive system and more intelligently on defense over the past two seasons in Washington, efforts which have only gone to greatly increase expectations that will come with the price tag of his next contract, Young might have done himself well to play in the exhibition game held in D.C. No one knows if David Stern had Chinese government-like monitors keeping track of NBA league personnel web traffic, perhaps it being undesired that they, including Wizards brass, even watch Capital Punishment, much less make contact with players. Nonetheless, Young endearing his talents in front of the DMV crowd, albeit for the West Coast squad, could only have been a positive thing. That is, unless, the constant prodding of Young by former teammate and sometimes friend Gilbert Arenas, now publicly available on Twitter, shuttered confidence weary of being overshadowed by the other talent on the court.

Indisputably, Team Drew could have used Nick Young in their 135-134 loss to Team Goodman on Saturday night. So where did it all go wrong? If not to combat the silliness with meticulousness… Read more »

Kevin Durant sure had himself a nice night in his Redskins-colored Nikes: 44 points, an M.V.P. award, and a win for D.C. over L.A.. Goodman League over Drew League, at Capital Punishment. For such a hyped event, the ending was fitting — the hometown team winning by one point, 135-134, in a game that had exciting plays, expected misses, uncontrolled flow far outweighed by entertainment (thanks in part to Goodman commissioner Miles Rawls being master of ceremonies), and the comfort of it all coming down to free-throws (especially those previously missed in abundance), and a controversial blocking/charge call that went in Durant’s favor over James Harden. How ‘NBA’ of the game indeed.

There were some hiccups around the event in total — trouble with the online streaming of the game, I’m told; crowds battled heat and unorganized entrance procedure (many with tickets seemingly were turned away due to oversold capacity, a refund for which organizers are claiming they will give). With such a small gym for an exhibition with nationwide fanfare, I was surprised some of the results and complaints weren’t worse. Otherwise, at all points the players and attendees were well within safe confines (and the fire code it seems).

Washington is a basketball town, in spite of and alongside of it being a Redskins city, as Durant’s shoe color choice goes to communicate. Hugh “Baby Shaq” Jones, local street ball legend and hometown fan favorite next to Durant, admitted before the game that he was not a Redskins fan, to no surprise likely jibing with a random polling of D.C. faithful.

“I’m sorry, I’m a Washingtonian, but I’m not a Redskins fan,” Jones said when I spoke to him before the game, the desire to know which NFL football team he was a fan of was immediately, and inconsequentially, lost. But basketball or Redskins, which is more important to the District?

“For me, basketball, but if you ask anybody else, it’s the Redskins,” Jones easily concluded without any objection from my end.

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