Diatribes by Joah

Kobe Bryant: Different Animal, Same Beast

Kobe Bryant is not dying, he's retiring. That's an important distinction because I have a strong feeling this won't be the last time we'll hear his deep voice, see his intense face or be moved by his unmatched sense of poise and competitiveness. Other Lakers greats like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson have made their presence felt in social causes and discussions and business and health causes over the last three decades since their respective retirements, and I expect Kobe to take up his own causes and engage in his own share of business dealings. I'm not sure coaching or owning an NBA team is in his future like fellow Lakers alum Derek Fisher or his idol Michael Jordan, but I do think Kobe won't venture too far away from sports. His first official investment was to put millions into the Derek Jeter-owned sports news site, The Players Tribune, the same site where Kobe shared his retirement announcement, and I can envision Kobe doing more investments of the sort to stretch his fierce, athlete-driven mindset into other arenas of the game.

Kobe Bryant became my favorite athlete of all-time because he combined all the things I loved about great athletes. He had the flash and chip on his shoulder like Deion Sanders with the consistency and unsung hero status of John Stockton (his Karl Malone was Shaq, of course). He had the Jordan moves with the Kevin Garnett intensity. He had the epic interviews and quotes, once comparing himself to Pinnochio's creater Gepetto, along with the no-nonsense style of dismissing those without the competitive spirit and getting the best out of those previously coddled (Pau Gasol).

Kobe Bryant isn't the guy we've come to look to for opinions on society and civil rights nor was Jordan. Kobe Bryant isn't the guy who we expect to become a billionaire the quickest (that spot is reserved for LeBron James, who himself has stated it's a goal) nor to spoil his millions the soonest (a la basketball era peer, Allen Iverson). Kobe Bryant will have a fine retirement albeit unlikely to generate the star power that Magic Johnson's HIV-forced retirement has done nor the agony, awe and vitriol that Brett Favre's back-and-forth retirement inspired.

Kobe Bryant truly left it on the court as we've seen in the past few years with injury after injury mounting what is a final if not sudden defeat to the still-undefeated champ in sports - Father Time. He won 5 rings (2 without Shaq to Shaq's 1 without Kobe for those keeping score), the ultimate measure of a Hall of Famer who could list maybe 5 or 6 others who'd be considered his superiors or peers. He won an MVP crown and was robbed of at least two others during Steve Nash's epic run that was well-timed with Kobe's rape allegations and ensuing swing in public opinion that was the biggest scandal in sports of the 21st Century until Tiger Woods' ex-wife clubbed his SUV in Florida. He won Olympic Gold Medals for his country, including some of the most clutch play in international basketball history in the Beijing 2008 Games with guys like LeBron, Wade, Paul and Anthony on the court.

Kobe's career wasn't as illustrious as Jordan's and not as dominating as LeBron's, but it's the run of 40-point games (something only Jordan could come close to), scoring 81 points (something only Wilt ever topped), winning the dunk contest (something LeBron was too fearful to compete in) and doing whatever it took including getting 15 rebounds (a dozen more than Kevin Garnett; despite a 6-for-24 shooting performance) in an epic Game 7 against the Boston Celtics in the 2010 NBA Finals that will cement Kobe's legacy as the best NBA player (alongside Tim Duncan) between the two best players of all-time.

"Are you a different animal and the same beast?" Kobe once asked Kanye West and a slew of other mega-successful celebrities in his classic Kobe System commercials with Nike.

We know very well that Kobe Bryant was a beast on the court. When Kobe hangs it up after this season, we're going to find out how much of his own advice he's taken. Will he be a different animal? Only time will tell.

Charlie Strong's Longhorns are right on time

I don't want to speak to soon, but I must say something. I'm excited, and for good reason. Texas' win over Oklahoma was extremely impressive, especially when you dig in a little more.

Charlie Strong has had all of 1.5 legit recruiting classes. I think it's clear that the recruiting classes that preceded him going back ~5 years were not at all stellar, especially at the skill positions.

So with a team that's experienced an in-season change at Offensive Coordinator, a team led by redshirt freshman (Jerrod Heard) at Quarterback and a true freshman (Malik Jefferson) at Linebacker, we're sitting at 2 wins and 4 losses. Texas could very easily be 4-2 right now, though, as we all know.

We just beat the #10 ranked team in the country in rival Oklahoma on neutral ground and didn't look extremely lucky in doing it while becoming the first team this year to keep the Sooners under 20 (or even 30) points. Going back to 2014, the only teams in the last 2 seasons to keep Oklahoma under 20 or 30 points are Clemson in last year's Citrus Bowl (they won 40-6) and Baylor last November (they won 48-14). Baylor is currently undefeated and ranked #2, the highest for a Big 12 team, and Clemson, also undefeated, is the highest ranked ACC team at #6. OU put up 30 points on both TCU and Oklahoma State the last time they played them, and both of those teams are currently undefeated and ranked in the top 15.

Again, Texas' win over Oklahoma was extremely impressive. Consider that this win was in response to a butt-kicking they received by one of the top 3 teams in the country, the Heisman-hopeful Trevone Boykin-led TCU team that - along with Baylor and A&M - has benefited tremendously in recent years from Texas' obviously lackluster efforts on the recruiting trail in the pre-Strong years.

Before the epic victory in Dallas and before being trounced in Fort Worth, we played three straight games at home at DKR.

We lost 30-27 against Oklahoma State, the final result of a punter blunder and some unfortunate calls by the refs.

We lost 45-44 to a ranked Cal Bears team that is led by Jared Goff, who is becoming the consensus pick as the guy most likely to be the first Quarterback taken in next year's NFL draft. The same Cal team that came within one possession of beating Utah, the last undefeated team in the Pac-12. And Texas missed pushing Cal to overtime on a missed extra point, an extreme rarity in the game. Jerrod Heard may not have outplayed Goff in the game, but he definitely went toe-to-toe and outshined him statistically.

Before that, Texas beat Rice 42-28, in Jerrod Heard's first start and a game in which Rice scored 14 points in the game's final 7 minutes to make it look a bit more respectable after giving up 3 touchdowns to Texas in the 1st and 3rd quarters.

And in the season's opener in an away game, Texas lost 38-3 to a Notre Dame team whose lone loss is a two points defeat (24-22) at Clemson.

To recap, Texas and its young team lost on the road to a very good Notre Dame squad in the season opener, changed Offensive play callers, then played three very solid offensive games at home against Rice, then a ranked Cal team that is a touchdown away from being the best in the Pac-12 Conference and survived in Austin on a missed extra point, then a currently-undefeated Oklahoma State team that got the benefit of some ref calls and a punter blunder, then got beat badly on the road against national title contender TCU, then responded with a win on neutral ground with a solid defensive and offensive showing against an Oklahoma team with aspirations of winning the Big 12.

I don't know about you, but this isn't just progress, this is a major leap forward. Sure, Texas isn't ahead of schedule like the Top 10 teams at Florida or Michigan, but we're right on time with the rebuild if you ask me.

Give Heard, Jefferson and crew more reps this season, more experience winning and finishing games, give our special teams guys some more hugs, and give Strong one more recruiting class and there's no reason Texas can't be right back in the conversation as one of the best teams in the conference (and nation) in another season. Hook 'em!

Excited for the post-ESPN Bill Simmons

I am beyond excited to see what Bill Simmons does post-ESPN. I know ESPN did a lot for his career, but truthfully, I think he did just as much if not more for ESPN. Without Simmons, I could see ESPN still struggling to find an online voice to match the broadcast voice it had in Stu Scott and being in a much stiffer competition with Fox Sports for broadcast dominance and with SI and SB Nation online. These are the three options I think Bill Simmons should consider (not that I have inside info):

1. Take VC money and build his own brand. This is a sexy option for someone like him who seems to want the control, but he'll ultimately have to answer to a board of directors and be expected to generate an exit within 5-10 years meaning this isn't the lifelong option most likely.

2. Take a $10mm-$20mm/year deal with Marissa Mayer's Yahoo. This is a very interesting option because Yahoo does have a solid foundation of users that aren't necessarily the most tech-savvy, but are very much into pop culture and sports like Simmons so maybe this is a way to get into tech without being expected to generate an exit or have a board of directors.

3. Go to Fox or Sports Illustrated and compete with ESPN head on. I think this is what Simmons may ultimately do. He loves sports, he loves the competition, and I could see him taking a bunch of great talent with him.

A potential 4th option would be Simmons figuring out a way to get athletes to back him on a venture; perhaps he could join Derek Jeter's The Players Journal as its editor-in-chief. Simmons mostly seems to want to rub elbows with and share stories amongst famous athletes and entertainers, so I'm betting he would entertain this option to.

Regardless of what he does, I will definitely be spending less time on ESPN.com and much more time wherever he ends up.

What Stuart Scott meant to me

I’d like to share a few words about Stuart Scott and what he meant to me.

I didn’t grow up on Howard Cosell, but I know he meant something to a generation of sports fans at a time when sports ascended beyond the field of play (or ring) and into the depths of society thanks to cultural and politically outspoken athletes like Muhammad Ali.

I grew up reading all of Rick Reilly’s columns in Sports Illustrated and, when the Internet blew up, that slowly transitioned to reading all of Bill Simmons’ columns and mailbags. Chris Berman, Dan Patrick, Linda Cohn and Keith Olbermann are ESPN Legends.

But as a Black kid growing up in the late 80s and 90s, there was something important about identifying with people of color. When my brothers and I weren’t watching BET’s Rap City or Fox shows like Martin, In Living Colour or New York Undercover, ESPN held my attention. With the exception of Bob Costas’s NBA Finals and Olympic coverage on NBC, ESPN is the network I most associate with nearly all of my sports memories growing up. Stuart Scott was the main reason.

Sure, we watched Full House and Saved by the Bell like all kids who grew up in the 90s, but there was something about the 90s, particularly the latter half of the decade, that symbolized something special for Black teens like me. It was an era in which Black Tokenism (the era of Bryant Gumbel and The Cosby Show) went from being a nice-to-have to an era when all the other cultures in America began realizing us Black Americans had something so awesome that they wanted it for themselves, too.

Everything from music (hip-hop and R&B) and fashion (sneaker culture and streetwear) to which celebrities were considered the most attractive (from Denzel Washington and Halle Berry all the way to present-day with Idris Elba and Beyonce) has been impacted by this era. And by “impacted” I primarily mean assimilated.

More than anyone other than Michael Jordan, Stuart Scott is the guy who ushered in this era I speak of. Stuart Scott is the man who represented the evolution from Black Tokenism (Oprah) to Black Assimilation (Jay-Z).

In many ways, being Black is still looked upon as a negative as evidenced by the events of the past year (Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner), but Stuart Scott and the era he represents symbolized a transition for us Black males.

For the first time ever perhaps, white guys wanted to be more like us instead of us constantly striving to be more like them. Scott Van Pelt and Trey Wingo stood on the shoulders of Stu Scott to make their metaphors sing louder and puns dig deeper on SportsCenter.

Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant had to compete with Larry Bird and Steve Nash for MVPs, Chris Rock battled with Seinfeld, Sandler and others for the comedy title, and no Black politician commanded a room – even one full of Black people - like Bill Clinton (and that may still be true), but there was absolutely no match for Stuart Scott.

Stu connected with our culture through sports and music in a way that no one else has come close to and at a time when assimilating was at an all-time high with the likes of Eminem, Justin Timberlake, and Iggy Azalea blurring the lines on what is or is not “Black Culture”.

Surely, if Stu Scott – an Alpha Phi Alpha man who grew up in Chicago and North Carolina – could get a lead anchor gig on SportsCenter at ESPN, then Black teens like me could go into politics or tech or any industry where the executives are primarily middle-aged white males and ascend to similar heights.

And here’s a thought! One day, maybe we won’t even have to be the talent! Maybe we could set our sights higher. Right now, there’s a young Black man or woman aspiring to be the next John Skipper, the president and real shot caller at ESPN and the only guy who can make Twitter-happy, clout-carrying Bill Simmons be silent.

No, Stuart Scott wasn’t a revolutionary. Stuart Scott wasn’t a political activist or cultural commentator. Like Michael Jordan, he came at a time and was simply so good that he didn’t have to be.

Instead, Stuart Scott was a symbol of societal progress with a smile rather than a fist, a subtle leader who’s true worth took years not just seasons to be realized, a man whose fight wasn’t against a fractured, racist system, but a merciless, colorblind disease.

If you grew up a generation before me watching Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown, you lived through the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Howard Cosell probably broke the news to you on air.

If you grew up like me watching Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, you lived through the murders of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. Years before Facebook and Twitter, it may have been Stuart Scott to break that news to you or maybe even the 9/11 attacks or news of Jordan’s (final) retirement.

And, here in the year 2015, I can whole-heartedly say that for the last 20 years, there’s no man or woman, Black or white, I would rather have had major news – sports or otherwise - broken to me than my man, our man Stu.

Rest in peace. God was probably your biggest fan all along.

My top 15 NBA players re-ranked

Now that Kobe passed Jordan on the scoring list, here's my new ranking of my top 15 NBA players ever:

1. MJ – best basketball player ever
2. Russell – best winner in sports history
3. Wilt – best Center ever
4. Kobe – best Laker ever, got robbed of at least one MVP by Nash
5. Magic – best PG ever
6. Kareem – most consistently great player
7. Duncan – best PF ever even though he’s really a Center
8. Bird – best SF ever even though he’s really a shooting PF
9. Big O – defined a style of play many would use for decades
10. Jerry West – the logo for a reason
11. LeBron – will crack the top 10 if he wins a title in Cleveland
12. Shaq – a force no one could handle
13. Hakeem – two titles in the Jordan-less years
14. Malone – scoring machine, better for longer than Barkley
15. Stockton – all-time leader in assists and steals
(16. Dirk - best international player ever)

On the Tony Stewart Situation

I can relate to the Tony Stewart situation somewhat. Labor Day 2006 I was driving from Brooklyn home to D.C. and hit a guy along I-78 in Pennsylvania. He had, for a reason unbeknownst to me, decided to bring his truck to a complete stop on an extremely busy Interstate highway on a very busy traffic day with the holiday. What's worse is he was standing next to his car. This wasn't the shoulder; this was a lane of traffic with a metal guardrail along the side of the lane. I didn't see this, of course, because I was two cars behind and facing an incline in the highway. It was broad daylight, but there was no way to see beyond the car in front of me so I kept my safe distance as we traveled along at around 60-65 mph. When the car in front of me suddenly swerved into the lane to the left (we were in the far right lane, the slow lane) I immediately hit my brakes to maintain a safe distance and once the stopped truck appeared considered (this happened in like 0.7 seconds) swerving into the left lane as well. Unfortunately, directly next to my Mazda 3 was a large pickup truck with a boat attached to the back. I couldn't get over. That's when I saw the driver standing next to the truck, on the passenger side. Perhaps he was fixing a flat tire; I never learned what he was doing. All I know is I slammed on the brakes, an impact with the stopped truck imminent, and my car jack knifed across two lanes of the highway before turning at a 90-degree angle and slamming directly into the side of the parked truck. By the time I came conscious I saw people standing next to me outside the car and I immediately said and repeated multiple times, "Oh my God...Oh my God...is he dead? Is he dead?"

I never saw the man. I only saw two total vehicles, a couple of ambulances, a fire truck and some police sirens. I was checked for injuries, which thankfully I hadn't sustained and the rest - talking to insurance, getting a rental car - was a blur until I ended back up in Brooklyn to spend another night with my then-girlfriend who's father was in town for the weekend as well.

It wasn't until six months or a year later that I learned the man had gotten caught between his parked truck and the guardrail when my car impacted. He had survived, but nearly lost both of his legs.

I almost killed a man, and although I wouldn't do anything differently than what I did that Labor Day, I asked God for forgiveness for being part of such a devastating injury to another human being. I've been hit head on in a car by a drunk driver - the day of my high school graduation - so I know the pain (physical and mental) of being in a major car accident.

I don't know if Tony Stewart tried to hit the guy. The video only shows a fan's point of view, not the ones that matter - those of Kevin Ward Jr. standing outside his car in the middle of a race or of noted hothead but stellar driver Stewart on the middle of a dirt track with low light with a swerving car in front of him. In NASCAR there is no "minimum safe distance"...you just go as fast as you can. I pray for Ward's family. I also pray for Stewart and the weight he's going to carry for the rest of his life.