The Old Fashioned 3-Point Play

The Old Fashioned 3-Point Play features two current topics from the world of sports (The Bucket), and one of the country’s major entertainment stories (The And One).

Happy New Year folks!

The 4Q of 2015 was beyond unkind. If you are a frequent visitor to the site with a great memory you may recall the RIP article in late-November regarding the untimely passing of B. Meeks, a great friend to GF2.

Quickly. Salute, to my brother, rest well and know that you are sorely missed.

The Bucket

I’ve long associated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with his world-renowned “I Have a Dream” speech, and I was fascinated with the symbolism imbued in his “mountaintop” analogy.

After the Golden State Warriors systematically trounced the Cleveland Cavaliers 132-98 at the Q earlier this week on MLK Day I quickly began to wonder: Was LeBron James‘ impressive one-man gang performance in the 2015 Finals his mountaintop, and is he now on a slow descent back to the pack? Or, is it the Cleveland Cavaliers that are in utter disarray?

The Cavs certainly don’t have to look too far for suggestions – some even quite detailed – on how to fix things, and promptly save this season’s championship aspirations.

Trade Kevin Love!

Fire coach Blatt!

Scrap the offense! 

The MLK Day game was part of the NBA’s set of featured holiday games, while maybe not as significant as the Christmas Day group just yet, this particular pairing definitely represents one of the Association’s premier match ups. The success of the broadcast was in total jeopardy as the Dubs reached 70 points at halftime. While the game – the finale of the season series which also marked the Dubs’ first return to the Q since raising the Larry O’brien trophy at the conclusion of Game 6 last June – was over with two quarters still to play, the jury is still out on the 2016 season. Just what should happen in northeast Ohio?

If I was the Cleveland Cavaliers ownership, even in the wake of this disheartening defeat, I wouldn’t do anything! Not a single thing.

The Cavs did have a terrible showing, and a loss at home by that wide of a margin is far from encouraging in terms of James finally capturing a title for the city of Cleveland and its frantic fans. You might be aware that the Browns recently named their 12th coach, former Bengals OC Hue Jackson, during Obama’s two terms as POTUS.

But seriously, if I ran the Cavs I would sit tight, win the East, survive the Eastern Conference Finals, and take my chances that King James can put it all together for another remarkable 7-game Finals run against either Golden State, San Antonio or Oklahoma City. Don’t forget that just 7 months ago the undermanned Cavs split a pair of overtime games with the Warriors to open the ’15 Finals and squandered King James’ 123 points over the first three games – a new NBA record for an individual scorer. Additionally, Cavaliers PG and 2014 All-Star Game MVP Kyrie Irving suffered a knee injury in Game 1’s OT, contributing to the 10-2 Warriors scoring advantage.

The Cavs would least covet a rematch with the Warriors, ostensibly, but at full strength and with a focused LeBron things could get interesting. We’d see what James learned facing the Dubs’ platoon of often younger rangy defenders in last year’s Finals.

As for San Antonio, the Cavs could rely on their overall youth advantage versus the aging nucleus of the Spurs. Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and The Big Fundamental Tim Duncan represent a great deal of mileage between the big three. While Charles Barkley recently declared Kawhi Leonard the best player in the Association, maybe the Cavs could steal a game or two if Duncan and Parker forget to remind Leonard of his elite status in the game.

The Cavs versus the OKC Thunder… rookie head coach Billy Donovan hasn’t dealt with the ebb and flow of the NBA’s playoffs before, and it’s just highly unlikely he passes the test of The Finals in his first crack at the daunting task. Unless we look all the way back to the year of 2015 and Golden State’s rookie coach Steve Kerr. 

Luckily for the Cavs, OKC isn’t the same type of defensive team as the Warriors or Spurs, and I give the Cavs and edge against the Thunder’s collection of softer Bigs. Who on the Thunder roster does the heavy lifting or dirty work that is required in The Finals? LeBron’s poor shooting from behind the arc should become a non-factor in this match up, as he should fare well in the both post and with penetration. The Cavs also paid their second unit’s relentless offensive rebounder Tristan Thompson handsomely, just for a scenario such as this.

Cleveland… stay the course.

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I had a bad premonition regarding the NFL Playoffs’ Wild Card Weekend showdown between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the AFC East winning Cincinnati Bengals, and we all witnessed the egregious acts that transpired in that game’s deciding moments. I fully expect the on-field display of professionalism to be commensurate with the class of the two first ballot Hall of Fame QBs that will be leading the two teams during Sunday’s AFC Championship game between the reigning Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and this year’s top-seeded Denver Broncos. With that said, if Peyton Manning fails to make it a competitive game in Sunday’s opener I will absolutely lose it.

If by the five-minute mark in the first quarter the story becomes all about the flight of Manning’s wounded duck passes, or an on-screen graphic illustrating the surgical procedure he underwent following his final season as an Indianapolis Colt, or Twitter explodes with an endless stream of Jason Whitlock tweets about the lack of courage exhibited by the broadcast team for not clearly calling out the diminished arm strength of #18 I just might not make it back to watch Cam Newton give away a football to some lucky kid in the NFC bracket’s finale.

Manning’s postseason struggles are well-known, according to Pro-Football-Reference the 39-year-old veteran is 12-13 in the NFL playoffs – only 7 of those games weren’t played at home or on a neutral field. I would truly like the narrative for sports talk radio’s debates on the greatest QB’s of all-time over the next 5-10 years to reflect that Manning’s ‘offs record was shaky, but that he managed to go 3-2 versus the New England Patriots’ Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. And, furthermore, a second Super Bowl ring would probably squash the ridiculous Eli Manning is the best Manning quarterback argument.

Manning doesn’t have Terrell Davis as his workhorse running back like John Elway had at a similar juncture in his career, but RBs Ronnie Hillman and C.J. Anderson (15-113 and a walk-off TD run in OT Nov. 29 against the Pats) will undoubtedly have to make some plays at Sports Authority Field Sunday. With that said, I’m placing the onus for a Broncos’ trip to SB50 on their exceptional defensive unit (ranked #1 in the regular season), and the WR corps that collectively dropped 7 balls in the divisional round versus the Steelers.

Manning’s W-L record against Brady is shot, the series between the HOF’ers currently stands at 5-11; fortunately for Peyton, being able to work a final game at Levi’s Stadium into a Nationwide jingle would go a long ways towards summing the rivalry up with only the memory of this Sunday’s final game.

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The And 1

Initially I planned to talk about the unbridled joy I experienced in recently clicking on the snippets available in iTunes for new California artist Anderson .Paak’s latest album Malibu. If you fancied Dr. Dre’s 2015 triumphant return project Compton, or either of The Game’s two Documentary releases, you are probably well aware of this singer-rapper with a unique voice who brings to mind a mixture of D’Angelo, Kendrick, The Pharcyde, Bilal, and maybe even a little of Outkast’s Andre 3000. Just at least check out the 9th Wonder produced “The Season/Carry Me”, “Room In Here” (featuring The Game & Sonyae Elise) and/or “Am I Wrong” (featuring Schoolboy Q) to name a few, and holler at a brother!

This whole #OscarsSoWhite topic trending on Twitter and social media that has caused both Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett-Smith to announce their plans to boycott late-February’s 88th Academy Awards ceremony (hosted by Chris Rock) is somewhat off-putting.

I only have a brief thought to offer.

In the clothing/apparel game, from the mid-90’s to the mid-00’s successful urban/hip-hop clothing brands like the LL-Cool-J-fronted-Daymond-John-et-al created  FUBU, Dame Dash and Shawn “Jay Z” Carter’s Rocawear, Russell Simmons’ Phat Farm, and Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Sean John all seemingly followed one model. Each brand (sorry for the snub ENYCE and Akademiks) spent a summer or two selling deluxe tees, and sometimes ball caps, to establish some initial market share.

In the third or fourth year lush fleece sweatsuits and sweaters hit the shelves. The subsequent season, crazy detailed denim – jeans and then jeans-jacket sets – hit the racks. After that lavish coats popped up in stores, and eventually brands like Sean John and FUBU made their entrance into the men’s suit game. Diddy even furnished the clothing for some of the broadcast teams in the booth for NFL games for several seasons!

Hip hop was all grown up… and sexy.

I honestly don’t know if any actors or actresses of color (minorities) had any Oscar-worthy performances in 2015. Well, I did think Idris Elba was going to possibly be nominated for his portrayal of an African commandant who led an army of child soldiers in a couple of seiges in Netflix’s gritty Beasts of No Nation – except for the fact that it was a Netflix original film. Nonetheless, my thought is that after a few decades of dozens of projects written and directed by Blacks when are our movies going to consistently represent the silver screen equivalent to Sean John’s 3-piece suits?

If you’ve caught a NBA game on TV lately I know you’ve seen the previews for the upcoming Marlon Wayans and Mike Epps project Fifty Shades of Black …[wysija_form id=”1″]

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