Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Joe Johnson, etc. headline arguably the most sought after free agent list in NBA history. The pining and begging for James has become mind-numbing . . . club owners offering a lifetime supply of lap dances, media moguls form city to city offering clothes, alcohol and record deals. I thought I had seen it all until New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg, made a personal pitch for James (video below). Pitching to Lebron is similar to dating and the begging, pining, etc. or acting like a wimp in general won't work with women nor with James.
I read an article from Seeking Alpha, a website which covers the market, in September 2009 titled Five Reasons the Market Could Crash This Fall. I personally thought the market was increasing based on sentiment and not any long-term fundamentals and Seeking Alpha seemed to quantify my suspicions. Yesterday the market dropped a harrowing 1,000 points before eventually closing down 3.2%, leaving Wall Street baffled. The "so-called" experts have given explanations ranging from the crisis in Greece to an erroneous trade which caused shares for companies like P&G to drop 35% in a matter of minutes. However, (i) the fact that many firms have been growing earnings through cost-cutting measures and earned interest on government bail-outs and (ii) high level headlines and events that destroy market confidence like (a) the pending financial regulatory discussions batted around in the Congress and Senate, (b) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, (c) crisis in Greece and (d) the crisis between North and South Korea need to be factored into one's investment decisions. The five reasons for a market crash provided by Seeking Alpha are as follows, and I wonder if they are still relevant today:
As you all know, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics earlier this week for their second NBA championship in as many years. There are several sub-plots here: Kobe supposedly one-upping Shaq with five rings versus Shaq's four, the Lakers-Celtics' renewed rivalry, etc. But the most interesting sub-plot may be the resurrection of Ron Artest. People forget that once upon a time, Artest was the best basketball player on the planet on arguably the best team, the Indiana Pacers. In 2004 the Pacers were on pace (no pun intended) to finally get over the hump and win the NBA title, led by Artest who was having an MVP season. However, a little fight broke out with the Detroit Pistons which derailed all that and seemingly, Artest's career. I have always been an Artest fan even when he was at St John's. Artest could not only score the basketball, but he brought glamour to the finer parts of the game such as defense, rebounding, passing and hustle plays. I love to see guys who play the the game the right way get rewarded and Thursday night, watching Artest's post game interview, all seemed right with the world.
Always one to keep it real, Artest gave a shout out to his hood in Queensbridge where it all began. For more on where it all began, keep reading for MC Shan and Marley's Marl's ode to "The Bridge". Shan and Marl take me way back to that 1972 Chevy Malibu with the 350hp I used to drive . . . the whole neighborhood could hear me and my cousin Thomas before they saw us because we had the music blasting from the Pioneer speakers . . .
Referee Koman Coulibaly of Mali called off an apparent goal by Maurice Edu in the 85th minute of the USA's match against Slovenia. The goal would have given the US a 3-2 lead; however, Coulibaly called off the goal, leaving the US team and an entire nation into an uproar. Coulibaly refused to explain his call afterwards and instant replay revealed no penalty by the US, thwarting a remarkable comeback by the US from a 2-0 deficit. We understand the Coulibaly has been feverishly trying to contact Southwest Airlines for first plane ticket out of town.
Nigerian midfielder, Sani Kaita, was tossed from the match for attempting to kick Greece's Vassilis Torosidis. According to Greece striker Georgios Samaras, "the red card gave us heart to take the game." Ahead 1-0 at the time of the red card, Nigeria had to play a "man down" for the rest of the match and ended up losing 2-1 . . . earning Kaita with the moniker of "Mullet" http://clicky.me/Shockims .
Veteran White House report, Helen Thomas, is retiring from her role as columnist for Hearst News Services in the wake of controversial comments she made about Israel. Ms. Thomas began covering the White House in 1960 and fielding questions from her has become somewhat of a rite of passage for incoming U.S. Presidents. Thomas apologized for her comments, which were captured by video on the website RabbiLive.com . On the May 27 video, Ms. Thomas suggested that Israelis "should get the hell out of Palestine". Those remarks drew criticism from the Obama administration and White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, responded that " . . she should have apologized . . because obviously those remarks do not reflect certainly the opinion of most of the people here and certainly not of the administration." The following video shows Ms. Thomas questioning Mr. Gibbs over Israel's recent attack on aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip.
Armando Galarraga lost of the Detroit Tigers lost his bid for a perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning on a blown call by umpire Jim Joyce. First baseman Miguel Cabrera's throw to Galarraga beat the runner, Jason Donald, by at least two steps. However, Joyce called Donald "safe", thinking Donald had beaten the throw. "I just cost that kid a perfect game . . . it was the biggest call of my career", Joyce would later say. I understand that Southwest Airlines is negotiating to have Joyce appear in its next commercial. Keep reading the see the video.
In late April I attended a birthday party for Kevin Powell which was held at DD12, Dame Dash's art gallery in Tribeca. Powell also used the event to announce is bid to run for Congress against incumbent Ed Townes. The event was sponsored by hip hop moguls, Dash and Marc Ecko and was covered by several members of the press and African-American community. The gallery was abuzz with Powell's friends and colleagues from the hip-hop generation who marvelled at his maturation from castmember on the first season of MTV's The Real Worldto social activist and now congressional candidate. At the end of the evening, Powell spoke about why he is qualified to run for congress, his vision for Brooklyn and cited those like-minded organizations silently making a difference through the NYC. To my surprise, Powell mentioned my name and the New York Shock Exchange as one of those grass-roots organizations investing in the future of kids and ultimately, the communities in which we live.
A perennial loser since the end of the Dominique Wilkins era, the new Atlanta Hawks have played an exciting brand of basketball and developed a huge following around the country over the past three years. The Hawks have generated a lot of buzz with high draft choices (Marvin Williams, Al Horford, Josh Smith) and high profile acquisitions through free agency (Jamaal Crawford, Joe Johnson). With their fastbreaking style of play, moxie and the human highlight reel in Smith, the Hawks have consistently graced Sportcenter's nightly highlights and have been the team that other perennial leaders would rather avoid playing. They even made me a fan when they took the 2008 NBA Champions, Boston Celtics, to a seven game series that really could have gone either way. Of all the opponents the Celtics faced that year, Atlanta actually gave the Celtics their toughest challenge, albeit in an underdog role. The league and the rest of the country were salivating to see the Hawks mature and realize the promise they showed in the first round series loss to the Celtics.
However, in 2009 they were swept 4-0 in the second round of the play-offs by the Cavaliers in what I thought was a poor effort. They were bullied and intimidated by a Cavaliers team which simply played hard and played with a purpose while the Hawks merely showed up.
