Random shots...take 'em, don't waste 'em.

The real world has me tied up. So many drafts of thoughts have been started, with little or no time to complete them. Here are some random thoughts to throw at you...

• Today is National Draft Day. If you're not down with draft day, then I don't know why you bother living during the months of September through January. For those who haven't drafted yet, good luck!

• Tomorrow is the MTV Video Music Awards, and I'm kind of hyped about it. Over the past few years, artists have taken performance to a whole different level - a level which demands respect and leaves absolutely no room for mediocre. With JT, Lady Gaga, and Kanye in the line-up to perform...there will be no disappointing.

• Oh, Aziz, you are so funny...

• Someone buy me a Gold iPhone when it comes out next month, please?

• If 'Blurred Lines' ends up winning the Battle for the Best Song of the Millennium then I swear I will change all my car stereo presets to Sports...or Gospel. I wouldn't be surprised if idiots take the song to win the 2011-2013 region. That is upsetting.

• It may be off-season, but Basketball Does Not Stop when it comes to the Mavericks. Mark Cuban makes sure all the fans know it. 

On if this is a rebuilding year...“Oh no. Hell no. Don’t even go there. Look, there’s no template for winning in the NBA. … Dirk’s got to be healthy and he’s working hard. He’s been in the gym every single day looking great. Then we’ve got to come together as a team. We’ve got Samuel Dalembert, Monta Ellis, Wayne Ellington, DeJuan Blair. We brought in a lot of really good players and now it’s up to Coach Carlisle to make it all work together.”

• You win some, you lose some. Challenge yourself. 

-bObD.

What's Beef??

One verse blew Twitter up last night and all day today. One verse. I got on Twitter last night around midnight like I usually do just to saturate my mind with needless information, mostly about sports, reality tv relationships and lately a lot of racial ignorance :( , but this night was different. This night was.....refreshing. Yeah, that's the word....refreshing, like a really thirsty chick on twitter getting a follow from a celebrity, the thing trending on Twitter that quenched my thirst? Yes, you all know what I'm talking about, unless you have been in twitter jail for at least 48 hours you know that Kendrick Lamar called some people out on Big Sean's song "Control". He basically called out all the new school rap kids that are popular right now on the radio and mixtapes and shits. These cats are basically guys that rap on each otha's records and break bread together, make money together, go on tour together. Shit, two of the guys that he mentions on the verse are in the same song with him. It's Big Sean's fucking song!

I'm saying all of this to say this really. This verse was a ploy. There are a few reasons for it. Big Sean is promoting his new album coming out. Now, I don't know if it hurt him or helped him, being that his verse was the weakest of the lot with Jay Elec going in hard as well with his verse. Also, being that all the guys he mentions are basically his homeboys, he is giving them credit for being around his league, but he is saying that he is still heads and heels above them. Typical gregarious battle rap talk. Also, K. Dot wants mothafuckas to step they game up and come with real bars. Of the people he mentions I think that J. Cole and Jay Electronica are the ones that can do it......That being said, the last reason he did it was to re-energize an over saturated product. To shine up a dirty gem....it's name is Hip Hop.

Maybe it will work and maybe it won't. This isn't real Beef you see. Maybe real Beef will arise from it maybe it won't. I hope it does. The competition that real Hip Hop re enforces makes REAL MC's step their game up and this is exactly what Hip Hop needs right now.....it badly needs it. We (hip hop heads), dont need any more cute dance songs or sing along hooks bruh. We need substance! Real Bars! We need Jay Z vs. Nas type beef, LL vs. Moe D type beef, Eminem vs..... uh, nevermind, no one was that stupid. Anyway, that's the type of comp that we need today. Real lyrical beef.

That dude Joel Ortiz from Em's slaughterhouse crew came right back at Kendrick, and that track was dope. I love it, because that whole crew can spit and they are on some real lyrical shit but they are slept on. Maybe, this will wake people up and then we can stop hearing rappers singing they own hooks and start hearing rappers spit bars that make the hairs on the back of ur neck stand up when you hear them, just like mine did when I heard Kendrick last night.



-tshurn

The Johnny Football thing....

Okay, I admit it. I lied. I tweeted that I wouldn't post about all this Johnny Football stuff until it was resolved or whatever it was that I tweeted late one night. I'm going back on all of that because, number 1, I can't wait, and number 2, I came to the realization that this shit is just gonna drag on and on prolly. I really have a patience problem so I have to get these views off of my chest right now. Johnny Manziel likes to party. We can tell this from watching Sportscenter most nights or from his twitter feed. Either or take your pick. So what???, is what I was saying a few weeks ago. Dude is a 20 year old college student who just won the Heisman trophy. Let him do his thing. Then came SEC media day and it hit me. This guy plays a team sport. The unwanted media attention on him and his actions affect his team in a negative manor. It's hard enough for teenagers and youngmen to stay on task as it is. His coach looks so beat down that I actually feel sorry for him. My view began to change after SEC media day. Then came Wright Thompson's poignant interview and article with the Manziel family. I started thinking that Johnny Football was really heading for trouble. Not 7 days later did the latest Manziel "scandal" come out. Turns out the NCAA is investigating whether or not Johnny accepted cash for autographing merchandise. In the NCAA's eyes that action is a big no no. One that could lead to no Johnny Football this fall. I don't think ya'll heard me. THIS FALL! First and foremost, here on the rocks we are Sports fans. We want to see Johnny play against Alabama, and LSU. We want to see if he can accomplish the daunting task of equaling last season's Heisman campaign. These are the things that make sports so marketable. Now, with marketability comes the cheese...the cash. A&M is definitely taking a piece of it. The NCAA is taking a piece of it.....Now it seems as if Johnny himself, with the help of his personal assistant/best friend Uncle Nate, is getting it EARLY too. Johnny comes from a rich oil family. He has money. Johnny wants play money so he can live the NFL lifestyle now. There are no real villains or heroes in this Texas tall tale. It seems that everyday more information is coming out. If you ask this blogger of his humble opinion it would be this. Johnny will play this year, but the distractions will pull his production down a bit. Saban will be ready for A&M this year and he is a very vengeful person. Johnny football may even get hurt that game. The NCAA will have a hard time finding evidence that Manziel took money for his signature.  If he did take money it was cash. However this fiasco ends, I hope it ends with Johnny playing football again. The very thing that made us all take notice in the first place.



-tshurn

Not Top 10. Don't do it, WNBA.

A dunk contest, huh? Just because you get a talented player that can dunk with ease and at will in the league doesn't mean you can round up enough talent to hold an actual contest. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of talent in the WNBA, but due to the God-given physical limitations, dunking is not one of the more accomplished skills among women ball players. In order to have a contest, you have to have a winner and a loser. At least 2 contestants. Brittney Griner and Candace Parker...maybe a few Nate Robinson-like sleepers? Even if you had viable contestants, would they risk injury and their season? Mavericks draft pick Shane Larkin recently broke his ankle going up for a dunk, and just like that he's out 8-12 weeks.

Come on, over the years, the men's dunk contest has been getting pretty lame. Between blowing out candles and jumping over Kias, the contest has become more about the props than the athletic prowess. Air Jordan will forever have his mark soaring from behind the free throw line, and Superman will always have his cape. But until they demoralize the sport by lowering the basket (I already despise the use of a smaller ball), there should not be a women's dunk contest. Fans will just need to settle for the already impressive, occasional drop-step dunks from phenom Griner.

Here's an idea: Why don't we try getting more teams in the league first. The league stands with 12 current teams, 6 of which are independently owned. This year is a breakout year with All-Stars Brittney Griner, Elena Delle Donne, and Skylar Diggins showcasing their talents as rookies. The league has a chance to grow and expand their fan base. A dunk contest, I fear, would be disastrous and only set back the league's growth and the respect it has earned.


-bObD.