Bill Simmons 2006 All Star Article

Bill Simmons latest article on the 2006 Black Superbowl has to be one the best sports articles I have read this year.

One of the main reasons I enjoyed the article was his outtakes of Charles Oakley and Michael Jordan. Jordan and Oakley were both drafted together for the Chicago Bulls

I am a basketball fan because of the Jordan. In high school I never played basketball mainly tennis and Aussie Rules Football. Jordan's shot over Craig Elo was when I started following Jordan and started playing basketball.



Jordan playing the card game Bid Wist

We got to see MJ's legendary competitive streak in action. He was trash-talking nonstop, snickering sarcastically, cackling with every good card, badgering his opponents to the point that I actually thought one of them would start crying. This wasn't Corporate MJ, the one you and I know. This was Urban MJ, the one that comes out for the black Super Bowl. We never get to see this one.

Pesonally I am usually quite calm and relaxed but when I play cards I become a raving lunatic, talking trash and getting excited. Something about competition just gets me going.

MJ's wife shows up.

Everyone makes room for her. She sneaks in and sits down right next to him. And poor MJ looks like somebody who took a no-hitter into the ninth, then gave up a triple off the left-field wall. The trash-talking stops. He slumps in his seat like a little kid. The cigar goes out. No more hangin' with the boys. Time to be a husband again. Watching the whole thing unfold, I lean over to Sully just to say, "Look at that, he's just like us."
And he was. Just your average guy getting derailed by his wife. For once in my life, I didn't want to be like Mike.

I never wanted to be like Mike as I love what made me me.
But do I get derailed by my wife? When don’t I get derailed by my wife.


Other Interesting Points from the Article

Simmons had the guts to call the article 2006 Black Superbowl but ESPN didnt. Its bad that in my last post, I had reservations about calling commentators black, we are who we are and sometimes worrying about the sensitivities of other's stops us writing what we want to right about.

On the question of what makes Oakley more intimidating than everyone else?" the comment from a current NBA player was "There's a lotta tough guys in the league, but Oak don't give a f---.".
Article always improves when someone put in that phrase, which came into my radar in the film menace II society. Phrase was when Caine said “Now O-Dog was the craziest n----a alive. America's nightmare. Young, black, and didn't give a f---”.


Lebron James talks about himself in the third person.

Andre’s dunk was the best Simmons has ever seen.

Simmons has made up with Elgin Baylor the Clippers GM. I wonder if that was the condition in getting David Stern’s Interview. BUt I have written before that the Sports Guy is now a force in US Sports and it would be stupid for Baylor to keep fueding with Simmons.


Snoop Dog bouncers didnt know who Roger Clemens is so wouldn’t let Clemens son see Snoop Dog for an autograph.

I want to know who is “Worldwide Wes” who is supposed to be the NBA's version of the Wolf in "Pulp Fiction"