The New Xbox One Will be a “Monitoring Device Under the Guise of a Gaming Console”

The New Xbox One Will be a “Monitoring Device Under the Guise of a Gaming Console”

Is Derrick Rose a Dark Alley Guy?

Saturday Night Fever is Iconic, so don’t give me that “I’m too young to have seen it” bullshit excuse, the movie had to have come up at some point (minus curse words) in your life while watching TV. Did it age poorly? Yeah, but while you were sitting there poking fun at the bellbottoms and Travolta doing the hustle ONE scene stuck with you –the fight scene. The reason it stuck out is because it doesn’t matter if you went to school in the 80’s like me or your rocking skinny jeans YOU have a fight story to tell. And you can remember who stood up and who folded like it was yesterday. We all have “that homie”, he’s cool on many levels, you can drink with a brotha and chase girls but when something jumps off you sees a whole different side of him. When “Bobby C” jumped in that car and sped away while his homies were getting bloody you felt the betrayal, because if you’re “with” some cats and one of you gets beat down, you all get beat down. You may be 60 years old right now but the way he behaved that night back in 1973 probably tilted the scales when if it came time to choose a best man for your wedding - I mean, can you call that dude when she takes half your shit and cheats with your boss?. NO. So When fists start flying or things get rough you want a dude who is down for whatever, and I’ll bet everyone reading this knows “that guy”- he may not be your number one ace but for lack of a better term Reggie Miller calls him a “dark alley” guy.

If need be NBA teams who are in a tight spot like to know the best player can be a “dark alley” guy. Picture Isiah Thomas limping up the court in the 1988 finals on one leg while the league’s premier perimeter defender (Michael Cooper) had no chance of checking him.

The Chicago Bulls have that guy, and his name is Joakim Noah but the problem is last night he was in a dark alley back to head with “More Heart than Height” Nate Robinson and it shouldn’t have to be this way. Yeah I know; us Bulls fans are supposed to whisper and be mindful not to rattle the soft-spoken humble hero Derrick Rose and we certainly don’t want to provoke Michael Wilbon into calling us Neanderthals-but why the hell not?. Clearly Wilbon is just being condescending, and he seems to forget a young man who came back from a broken foot with a far worse team than this one and dropped 63 on arguably the best team of All Time.  It’s not like Derrick knows what we’re saying anyway, and it’s not like his teammates who were pucking their guts out ten feet from him last Thursday night made an impact-because he’s in the tightest bubble his contract can afford. Saturday night the Bulls went to Brooklyn shorthanded and came out bloodied but victorious and like Bobby C in Saturday Night Fever Rose just stared off in the window impervious to struggle. What they got for winning that street fight is a date with LeBron James who let’s face it gives Rose the creeps even when healthy. I understand his concerns; they’ve been beaten into our heads since he was cleared to play TWO months ago. I even liked seeing him on the bench and loved hearing about his progress but how much is too much? I’m pretty sure if I were a player fighting for my life I wouldn’t take kindly to a teammate who is killing me in practice just tagging along to my funeral in Miami. If Rose can hint at playing then guess what? He can play, and that’s all a guy needs to do to let his team know he’s a dark alley guy-just ask David Lee.

The Bulls don’t need his Pyrotechnics and Acrobatics, they need his heart, just ask Willis Reed.

Reggie Rose may talk a good game, but I doubt he understands the building blocks of Michael Jordan’s greatness, he’s too young to understand that Jordan’s fate was sealed in that 63 point outburst in a loss against Boston. Michael didn’t have a brother come out and bitch about Charles Oakley at the trade deadline, he got after it. The commercials fail to convey that Jordan was determined to foretell the future and display (for the first time) his legendary defiance. Nobody is asking Rose to “be D-Rose” nor to beat Miami, we merely want him to lay the groundwork for the future and establish himself as the leader in that locker room. Max Deals aren’t doled out to cover long bouts of insecurity, this isn’t Boxing, there’s no time to go back to your old neighborhood and grow a beard because the streets are watching and mental frailty will be pounced on until you defeat it- just ask LeBron. When Jordan showed the grit to come back from a broken foot and destroy the Celtics he was sending a calling card; he was letting the Basketball Aristocracy know he was coming and it was only going to get worse for them. He’s still the biggest brand in sports but back then that was the last thing on his mind, he understood that if there was anything mental going down he would be the one imposing it, if only Isiah Thomas had gotten the memo.

How are LeBron James and the Miami Heat in 2014 and 2015 supposed to have any reservations about a team led by a guy who can sit there and watch his boys getting housed with no response? How can he sit there after what the Bulls were able to accomplish as a GROUP against this team in Game 1 and worry about aesthetics and your former dominant self? A diminished Rose needs to get out there and run some off guard (while Nate goes all “Nate”) in limited minutes and get used to being a ball mover because clearly Miami has zero problems dealing with the ball dominant version of himself that he’s waiting on. Fighting isn’t about winning; it’s about a willingness to fight which is why the Celtics were able to turn a 3 year project into 6 years. Joakim Noah Is Derricks “brother” and he’ll protect him till the end but you can’t tell me he isn’t wondering if he may have to be the big brother from here on out.

If this is the case that’s fine, but if it is please don’t ask us to invest in the idea of someone who has been obviously miscast. It isn’t hard, and it isn’t even a threat to this amazing future Rose’s people seem to presume is going to occur since he’s won the MVP- fighting is more muscle memory than anything going on in his knee. Luol Deng didn’t project the spinal tap situation going off the rails but everybody in that locker room knows he made every effort to knuckle up. Kirk Hinrich may not be worthy of Rose’s older brothers respect but damnit he’s willing, so despite what Miami brings he isn’t on that “Bobby C” shit, if he can practice he’ll be there. Dwayne Wade was hurt last year and everybody said he was finished but LeBron knew he was more hurt than he let on. LeBron is looking at a banged up Wade this year as well but he’s comforted by the fact that Wade will dig deep when he has to.

James has never benefitted from a healthy Dwayne Wade, and if he re-signs with Miami after 2014 he never will. But I’m not sure health is what he values in Wade and I can easily see him resigning despite the physical frailties of his road dog because he will never have to deal with what the Bulls are dealing with now. Because despite the funny glasses and the fact that Wade dresses and plays a pampered athlete on TV his core is all Chicago, at his core when the going gets tough Dwayne Wade is a two fisted “Dark Alley Guy”.

 

 

 

Can Robert Guerrero Pay the “Talent Tax” Victory Requires?

 

Watching Ruben Guerrero  rant about Floyd Mayweather being a “woman beater” is entertaining and at first glance leads one to think; ok now this fight is sold but then what?. All of Mayweather’s fights (since 2007) have been sold one way or another, and if you’re into the soap opera aspect of a PPV “event” Floyd is Boxing’s premiere leading man. Opponents tend to get invited to guest star in “As the Money turns” and catch the pre-fight fever; the contagion that propels them into the narrative of the event, some call it fifteen minutes of fame but I call it 12 rounds of reality. Call me a cynic but each time an opponent decides to become a  costar despite the obvious circumstances the  script is always the same, “I’m not like the rest, I’m gonna beat Floyd up, blah blah blah”. It really isn’t hard to write you know, you don’t have to watch more than one episode of mob wives to know that somebody is going to say “do you know who I am!?” boobs will pop out and shoes will be thrown-it’s formulaic. Golden Boy Promotions (sorry TMT, until you promote a stand-alone card without Floyd you’re a front) is even savvy enough to make sure there’s an “insert Mexican (or Latin) opponent” for Cinco Di Mayo and Mexican Independence Day every year to guarantee the really “Money” in boxing will be at the party. It works, but I haven’t tuned in to any of the CBS/Showtime All Access shows because I wanted to present you with a pragmatic, boiled down thesis on what is really important in this tonight.

TAXES

Floyd “is” slowing down, what happened in those moments when Miguel Cotto put him on his heels last May was a real function of age- and so what, the point is what is Guerrero gonna do about it?. This theme is as old as Boxing, and like our Tax code difficult to get around, when there is a huge deficit in talent the less talented fighter has to be able to absorb the taxes levied by the powers that be to come out on top-period end of story. Carmen Basillio paid in full when he defeated Sugar Ray Robinson in 1957, and Miguel Cotto tried to pay in increments and got what he deserved in 2012, a pat on the head. Floyd Mayweathers gifts and acumen is not only greater than Guerrero’s, his ability to deploy them is the closest thing we have to institutional control in boxing- if you challenge the system you will be taxed into further deficits until you become a victim. What Guerrero is attempting tonight is nothing short of Revolution, and Revolutionaries don’t sleep nor do they take a step back when tagged by a straight right hand. When you are toppling a regime that can’t understand anything but control you have to create Marshall Law in the ring, beating Mayweather by points is like asking a Dictator to nicely to step down-aint happening. Rocky Marciano never enjoyed one advantage going into any Championship fight, but he prospered because the man across the ring knew he was willing to die- he actually overpaid the talent Tax to the point of intimidation. Ali called Frazier a Guerilla to degrade him; I call him one because he dragged Ali into the jungle, disarmed him of his fancy weaponry and tried to club him to death. Bravado is often ignorance, but a smart fighter knows what he is facing and understands that he must pay for the right to be competitive with a superior force, and this understanding gave us the Joe Frazier’s of the world.

In recent years only Zab Judah had the talent to avoid paying taxes for 4 rounds, he too was a “potential” elitist, but he lacked the mental toughness to take what he wanted- because the elite rarely ask for anything. Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. had no business doing what he did to Meldrick Taylor but you could see his timely payments accruing over the fight until Taylor ran out of the tyrannical zeal to impose his talent on the legend. When a man can make you pay for even lifting your glove to strike him you have to be more than willing to pay happily while getting in position to make him wish he were someplace else. Few have the stomach for it; Victor Ortiz was more gifted than Guerrero but fell apart mentally once he realized Floyd couldn’t be bullied. Guerrero can’t use Andre Berto as a template for the greatest defensive fighter in a generation; Berto never had the discipline to control the pace of a bout with his guile and defense alone. When opponents of Mayweather reach a threshold where they have nothing left to give and punch stats diminish with every round he vacates onerous Taxation and begins all out brutal exploitation. In the late rounds all Mayweather opponents resemble what they are: low wage earners there to be exploited by the sophistication and menace of the ruling class. For any of them to be more than that is not in Floyds hands either, he’s merely talented of enough to convince you that this is the case. If you can’t overcome this you become another thing he owns, something else he bought outright with little more than a bloody nose or a couple of months in jail.

Only Jose Louis Castillo and Emanuel Burton made it clear that their humanity was to be respected and he is not in control of how things would unfold.

Roy Jones is no blue collar grinder, but he recently commented that Guerrero had to make it ugly and I agree. But I believe making it ugly and keeping it ugly is the difference between being another guy happy to draw a check and a guy who gave us one of Boxing’s “remember when” evenings. Keeping it ugly is about the truth, and the truth is something all underdogs live with when they look in the mirror. Floyd Mayweather is all of the negative things Guerrero’s father said he was, but it is the unprecedented aspects of him that his son must reconcile with to march forward tonight. Floyd may be an infantile person trying to own people outside of the ring but his ability to do so with one person inside it is something that can’t be taken lightly.

This is a man who has been in perpetual training camp for the better part of 20 years, and there isn’t one existing photo of him in a vinyl suit which makes him deceptively strong. His legendary pad workout may be shrugged off and mocked but it is an exercise in punch placement which is why he gets the knuckle part of the glove on his foe at an efficient rate. Despite losing his legs the right hand is practically glued to his right check and he NEVER brings it back low and never lets it go unless there’s a clean opening with no answer. Floyd will also left arm bar for leverage and change stances in a blink as to generate maximum leverage when he wants to throw straight right hands to the body. And, he can bring it when hurt, just ask Shane Mosley; he can go from lying on the ropes to walking you down depending on what you show him- chaos is up to the man who wants to beat him. Not only can he bring it when he’s been rocked he’s still somehow able to change the trajectory of shots mid punch while coming forward- you know, from a straight right into a whipping half hook/half uppercut concoction all while remaining incredibly composed. Guerrero should be willing to be the antitheses to Floyd, because remaining calm will find him in the center of the ring in a frustrating conversation where Floyd is finishing his sentences.

When all of this is coming at you or even backing away something has to be beating in your chest that makes you more than just “a good little fighter”-which is what Floyd will dismissively call him afterwards. Will Guerrero’s personal ordeal with his wife’s’ health give him the 20/20 eyesight to find Floyd through swollen eyes? Or will it be the fear of Billionaire tyrant, mayor Bloomberg putting him on the shelf for a couple of years on trumped up gun charges? Damnit It better be something. Something has to make up for the gap in talent he will rudely be faced with 45 seconds into round one, something has to give him the reserves to pay copious taxes better men have tried to avoid with no success. Tax Cheats never prosper no matter how unfair it seems, and Boxing is no different. Floyd Mayweather is a human, but so are representatives of the Federal Reserve and we still haven’t figured out they’re actually counterfeiters. You’re gonna have to prove he isn’t a better man than you because all the evidence says he is. Robert Guerrero is an outsider in Boxing’s gated Community, the only question is will he naively ask for an entry pass into where he’s been “told” he belongs  or will he have the God Given sense to pick up the nearest rock he can find and bust his way in illegally.