We can do better than Black Thanksgiving

Ok, so last week Michael Wilbon referred to NBA All-Star Weekend as Black Thanksgiving, and then CNN had a story about Black Thanksgiving, which inevitably led to some articles about the Black Thanksgiving controversy. So what did I do?  I googled Black Thanksgiving, and the first picture that came up was the one above.  Just as I suspected, Black Thanksgiving takes place on Thanksgiving Day and involves family, food and football.

So what should we call NBA All-Star Weekend?  Well we could call just it NBA All-Star Weekend, that would work.  I have heard it called the Black Superbowl, which makes way more sense than Black Thanksgiving.  Since you know, it is sporting event, with tons of parties and tons of black celebrities go to it every year.  I mean besides the NBA stars, John Legend, Diddy, Lil' Wayne, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder (seems like a waste of court side seats), Spike Lee, Gabrielle Union, Justin Bieber and countless others were all there. Or we could go with the World Series of Groupies, since every twitter ho and basketball slut on the planet makes the pilgrimage to All-Star Weekend every year and all have conveniently forgotten to take their birth control. 


Whatever we call it, I think we can all agree it looks like an awesome time and on a personal note, not going to the 2007 All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas may be my number one regret in life.  I mean that was the weekend that all white people learned what "making it rain" means.


PS - I don't think Ciara dresses like this for her Thanksgiving dinner and if she does, I want to go to there.

Derrick Rose is not friends with these douche bags

 

If you watched the lead up to the All-Star game last night you may have noticed something about our guy Derrick Rose that I have been noticing lately.  He doesn't really seem to like or fit in with Lebron and his crew at all. These all seem to be the guys that bow to the thrown of King James and want to create super teams with other stars, like Lebron did.  This group includes guys like Wade, Bosh, Howard, Chris Paul, Amar'e, Carmelo and a few others.

Before the game last night there was the super awkward interview that David Aldridge had with Rose and Lebron, where you can tell that neither one of them wanted to be there. When Aldridge asked Rose if Lebron gave him any advice, Rose just said, "He's a busy guy". Then during the starter introductions the other four guys came out doing cheesy dances (or doing some terrible air-guitar if you are Dwight Howard) and Rose just came out and kind of looked at them, like I'm the young one here but you guys are acting like kids. And then when all the East starters did the Lebron chalk throw you could tell Derrick didn't want to do it, but he played along because he didn't want people to talk so he just mailed it in, and did a half-assed chalk throw in the background.

Now I'm not saying he hates these guys, but he definitely doesn't want to be buddies with this Lebron led crew of guys.   During the off season last year Rose wasn't going out of his way to recruit Lebron like everyone else in the league. He said it would be great to add him to the team, but that he liked his teammates and they could win without Lebron. And it seems like if you don't think that Lebron is the awesomest dude on the planet, then Lebron probably doesn't like you too much.

This isn't to say that Rose is some kind of loner. His teammates all seem to like him and he is good friends with Durant and Westbrook.  Maybe its as simple as these superstar cliques formed down the lines of the last two USA Basketball teams (well and the Celtics as their own clique, we know nobody likes them), but however it happened its kind of nice to see that these guys aren't all buddies anymore.  We might get more old school basketball rivalries going forward, and that is something I am very excited about.

So Derrick is going to keep doing his thing and he knows he doesn't have to kiss Lebron's ass to be a star in the league. He has done it his own way, with his teammates and they are all going to show Lebron and the super friends how good they are without him when they play on Thursday.

Bieber got invited to the block party

Bieber, you can't bring that weak shit in Scottie Pippen's house!  


I love Scottie just being the guy taking the celebrity game way to seriously.  Somebody has to be that guy, and Scottie stepped up.  Bieber did have the last laugh though, winning the MVP, and surprisingly showing some nice basketball skills.  

Or did he have the last laugh...

It's time for Blake Griffin to save the dunk contest

I know I may be the only person who still cares about the dunk contest so I will keep this short, but Blake Griffin is about to kill it Saturday night and make me wish I was still 12 years old with a 7 foot basketball hoop outside to try to copy all his moves on.  Ok, maybe I would do the same thing right now if I had a 9 foot hoop, or actually an 8 foot hoop or screw it, just bring back the 7 foot hoop.


Have a great weekend and may it be as awesome as all of Blake's dunks.

ChicagBro of the Week: Derrick Rose

It is only fitting that the first ChicagBro Sports ChicagBro of the Week is Derrick Rose.  It was really easy for the panel of one (aka me) to come to this decision.  Hometown boy playing for the hometown team is the leading candidate for the NBA MVP award going into the all-star break.  Last night he was just out of control posting 42 points (a career-high), 8 assists and 5 boards while leading the Bulls to a 109-99 win against the league leading San Antonio Spurs, with the whole league watching. DRose is for real and Bulls are for real and that game last night proved it to any of the few people who weren't believers.  So Derrick have fun over the all-star weekend and get some rest because you have work to do in the second half and a ring to win.

PS - Everybody laughed when Derrick asked why he couldn't be MVP this year, but nobody is laughing now. 

This man deserves a raise!?

Chicago Tribune - Illinois head football coach Ron Zook will get a $250,000-a-year raise after his team's 7-6 season.

Illini Athletic Director Ron Guenther said Wednesday that Zook's annual salary will be increased from $1.5 million to $1.75 million once approved by university trustees.
Guenther said Zook's staff will get raises, too. That includes offensive coordinator Paul Petrino and defensive coordinator Vic Koenning. Petrino will get a $50,000 raise to $525,000 a year and Koenning will be paid $342,000, a $17,000 bump. 

Petrino and Koenning were hired after most of Zook's staff was fired over the three-win 2009 season. 

Guenther said Tuesday that Illinois' Texas Bowl win is the first step toward regular bowl appearances. He noted few Illinois coaches have been that successful but said there's no reason it can't happen. 

Um...Ron Zook sucks.  Ron Guenther knows that, right?  I guess not. This just goes to prove what every underachieving cubicle monkey thinks.  If you set the bar really low, people will be impressed if you just don't fuck up.

Its true the team did better this year, but its not like they had a great year.  They went 6-6 in the regular season and beat a crappy Baylor team in the Texas Bowl.  The problem with that is  Zook actually coached less this year.  In order to keep his job last year they made him hire new assistants and defer some of the control of the team over to them.  But I guess shit like this happens all the time in the world.  If anything just give the raises to Petrino and Koenning, because those are the guys that turned the team around and you don't want them running off to take a head coaching job at Western Illinois or something.

PS - You know who is jumping up and down after reading this?  Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuce.  Nothing spells a raise in the Illini athletic department like a second straight NIT appearance.

Hey JJ, you might want to sit out for a minute

Oh Kirk, don't do him like that.  That is some straight up white on white crime.  I don't remember the last time a white guy broke some ankles with a crossover dribble like that.  I guess there does need to be an asterisk next to it to though because JJ Redick probably one of the worst defenders in the league.  Either way it would be nice to still have Hinrich on the Bulls, he is exactly the type of role player the team could use right now.  He's a backup point guard who can play the two, hit open jumpers and play tough defense. Plus now he wears that sweet face mask, and everybody knows face mask guys pick it up a level in the playoffs.

Also, how long before his Redick's teammates stop making fun of him for this?  They aren't stopping this year for sure.  Like you know Dwight Howard and him are going to be walking towards each other in the hallway and Dwight is just gonna stumble backwards and fall and grab JJ's ankle.

PS - I'm sorry for the terrible music at the very end of the video.  I don't know who thought that was a good idea.