The Old Fashioned… 3-Point Play

TOF3PP will generally feature commentary on two recent sports headlines (The Bucket), and one current event from American pop culture (The And 1).

The Bucket

Can it be that it was all just so simple then?

I can’t think of another former Batman and Robin tandem that are on worst speaking terms than former University of Michigan Wolverines hard court legends Chris Webber and Jalen Rose.

Kobe Bryant recently appeared on Shaquille O’Neill’s podcast and “publicly” mended fences that were once thought to be irreparably shattered. You may recall a younger Bryant letting details of some of his big brother Shaq’s off the court affairs fly while under duress in a Colorado interrogation room, thinking his budding pristine NBA career was about to come to an abrupt end.

You may even recall Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan‘s heated rivalry that spanned the grueling Bad Boys clashes with the pre-dynastic Chicago Bulls and culminated in the formation of the 1992 Olympics Dream Team roster. Somewhere in there Thomas led his defeated Pistons off the court without shaking hands with the upstart Bulls, opting not to congratulate them on capturing their first Eastern Conference championship. Lately, I’ve even heard Zeek speak highly of MJ on almost a half a dozen times in his appearances on NBA TV, or on Bill Simmons and Rose’s ESPN special for the Bad Boys  30 for 30 documentary. I haven’t heard or seen MJ comment on Thomas…

Another popular doc, The Fab Five, is what shed light on the fact there was real beef between C Webb and his former point guard Rose. Webber’s absence from the doc immediately cast shadows over the whole retelling of the Fab Five freshmen’s ground breaking run. After the doc’s airing several stories about the rift between the two made the details of the matter public. Webber’s accounts of his role in what led up to the Fab Five’s scrubbing from NCAA history differed from Rose’s – as well as the other band mates Jimmy King, Ray Jackson and Juwan Howard.

We need to get Iyanla Van Zant to intervene quickly! Both of these cats have gone on to achieve some stellar career moves.

C Webb’s TV game has been solid, both in-studio with Ernie Johnson and the gang, and court side as part of the play-by-play team for both NBA games and the NCAA’s March Madness tourney. He dated Tyra Banks as she was becoming a television boss, he had a respectable signature Nike sneaker series, and he even remarkably has production credit on a couple of hip hop icon Nasir “Nas” Jones’ releases.

Webber refused to discuss his relationship with Rose during a recent interview on CBS Sports Radio’s The Doug Gottlieb show, where the five-time NBA All-Star apparently only expected to discuss his new gig as a professor at Wake Forest.

Jalen’s continued to expand his role at ESPN – maybe not as much now following the departure of Bill Simmons from the network – handling an array of NBA duties (primarily NBA Countdown with Sage Steele and Doug Collins), he’s recently launched a radio show based on his long-running Jalen and Jacoby podcast, and his Three Tier Entertainment company produced the documentary that detailed the Wolverines back-to-back runs to the Final Four. Albeit there are no banners that reflect the unprecedented accomplishment.

Rose has also given back to his community through his Jalen Rose Leadership Academy located in Detroit, Michigan.

I am hopeful former teammate Juwan Howard, always known as the elder of the Fab Five, will eventually be able to broker a truce between these two. Both Webber and Rose have recovered professionally from at least one highly publicized run-in with the law, so they should able to give their relationship as brothers a second chance in due time.

With less than a week to go until the kickoff of the NBA’s 2015-2016 season, the Cleveland Cavaliers and PF Tristan Thompson agreed to a 5-year deal worth $82 million. I’d definitely have to side with Sacramento Kings big man DeMarcus Cousins‘ subsequent tweet: “How much?”

I’m all for any player in any league getting his/her money, but I just can’t fathom paying $16 million per year for a bench player… ON a team with one of the NBA’s best Big Three. I honestly don’t know if Thompson has a better face up game than long-time Miami Heatles role player Udonis Haslem. And UD, a three-time NBA champ, was never rewarded with such a deal.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that only six power forwards currently make more money than Thompson with the top three being teammate and Cavs starter Kevin Love, San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldrigde and Clippers All-Star Blake Griffin.

Thompson mainly earned this deal after his performance in the Cavaliers’ trip to the 2015 Finals against the Golden State Warriors, a team that intentionally played small ball in order to be able to rotate a platoon of defenders onto LeBron James – a strategy that ultimately wore James down by the Game Six series finale. Thompson dominated the offensive boards with a spirited effort, but I’d like to see Cavs coach David Blatt draw up a play for offensive rebounds throughout the 82-game season. In hindsight, following up LBJ’s lane clearing drives is basically Thompson’s responsibility each play…

Thompson cashed out. However, I feel the move puts additional pressure on the team to win it all in 2016. That’s the only acceptable payoff for a team that will likely be experiencing luxury tax problems in the near future. I can’t help but wonder just how long owner Dan Gilbert will let LBJ keep him over a barrel. (I go into this Thompson deal more in-depth with my co-host @GregRAPs [wysija_form id=”1″]in my latest Hoops & Hops series of my Pay Me No Mind podcast.)

The And 1

I’m old-fashioned in my sports views, maybe also in my choice of hip hop or R ‘n B, but I’m pretty liberal in most of my entertainment. However, I can’t believe the revolution that’s being televised on FOX’s Empire with its head game. That’s game not games, as you might presume I’m referring to Lucious Lyon’s infamous head games he continuously plays with his family members.

But I’m referring to the two scenes in season two’s fifth episode, Be True, which featured an attempted blow job and one that was interrupted. Yeah, I’m talking about that type of head. Oral sex has officially invaded prime time on network TV. There was a brief bee-jay fly by in like the second or third episode of How To Get Away With Murder.

On one hand I thought the gay community had made strides to move beyond the stereotypes of the 80’s and 90’s reckless sexual behavior, and had moved towards a norm of loving healthy relationships with sex. Now, Empire creator Lee Daniels has somewhat trampled on that trend, and in one episode the bee-jay is analogous to a fist bump. And, not many seemed to notice or take exception with the images of love and/or affection in 2015.

All these years I’ve calmly waited for an empty house, or when everybody was sound asleep to watch some porn! Muted porn at that.

Be True did well with its following per RottenTomatoes‘ Tomatometer score of 92% and a viewers rating of 8.5/10. I’m no prude or hopeless romantic by any means, and it’s been 22 years since NYPD Blue‘s Dennis Franz showed his bare behind to America, but I am a tad shocked to hear very little fallout from one of sex’s most… more taboo acts being thrown around so casually.

Oh well, I guess the bee jay once dominated the news cycle during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, and it’s played a vital role in launching the careers of a current celebrity or two.

ATTN Dynasty Commissioners: Do you want to do something cool for your league? How about a 1-hour live show dedicated to YOUR league? Team-by-team breakdowns, rankings, and more. For details and to book a show, visit: GoingFor2.com/plp.

The GoingFor2 Live Podcast