Filed under: Fantasy Sports, Links, NBA, Sports | Tags: 2009-2010 season, Bill Simmons, follow, important, Mark Cuban, NBA, Ron Artest, Shaq, Social Media, Sports Guy, Top 20, Twitter
20. J.E. Skeets: @jeskeets
Skeets runs the Yahoo Sports NBA blog Ball Don’t Lie, a great source of NBA stories and articles. Some hip-hop stuff on his Twitter too.
19. Stephon Marbury: @StarburyMarbury
I know he doesn’t play in the League anymore, but this is worth it for the unintentional comedy alone. Seems like it is mostly responses to Starbury haters, but he drops some definite pearls of wisdom too.
18. Rick Kamla: @NBATVRick
From NBA TV, Kamla delivers the passion for hoops, both real-life and fantasy. I rank him as the #1 source for fantasy basketball analysis.
17. Dwyane Wade: @dwadeofficial
“Flash” is a perennial MVP candidate and a potential FA after the season. He updates regularly and it should be an interesting read as the the season progresses.
16. Henry Abbott: @TrueHoop
Henry runs ESPN’s TrueHoop Blog and he is on top of everything related to the NBA. He is a Kobe hater and a Blazers homer, so be wary, but his daily NBA links are can’t miss.
15. Blake Griffin: @blakegriffin
The consensus lock for ROY, the #1 pick will have a huge impact on the Clips. Follow Blake for the rookie perspective.
14. Kenny Smith: @TheJetOnTNT
Would love to be able to say Charles Barkley was representing the TNT family on Twitter, but the Jet will have to do. Should be some good comedy on here during TNT broadcasts, and would love to hear him Tweet on Sir Charles wanting to be a GM.
13. Dwight Howard: @DwightHoward
Superman 2.0 has over 1 million followers and has sent almost 7,000 tweets, showing that blocked shots and rebounds aren’t the only categories where he puts up huge numbers.
12. Marc Stein: @STEIN_LINE_HQ
Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash’s favourite reporter, Steiny-Mo offers insider info on the Mavs and all things NBA, as well as a little Manchester City soccer for those interested.
11. Chris Paul: @Oneandonlycp3
The league’s best point guard and a Jordan Brand athlete. Two good reasons to follow him right there. Does some contests and updates regularly.
10. Baron Davis: @Baron_Davis
B-Dizzle was looking good when I saw him in Vancouver for Nash’s charity soccer game, and all indications are that he is going to have a rebound year for the much-improved Clippers. He is also quite the character, so check his feed for random B Davis productions and general tomfoolery.
9. Chad Ford: @chadfordinsider
ESPN NBA Mock Draft master dishes some good insider knowledge.
8. Lamar Odom: @RealLamarOdom
Lamar might not have made this list a month ago, but with his new found popularity amongst the TMZ crowd, his feed should be a good source of gossip. He also has a bird’s eye view into the Lake Show and it will be interesting to see his tweets about old friend and new Laker Ron Artest.
7. Kevin Durant: @KevinDurant35
2009-10 has been anointed as the year of KD, so follow him now so you can see the rise of an NBA superstar through the prism that is Twitter. Too bad he plays for the Zombie Sonics. And if you haven’t watched “Sonicsgate”, please do yourself a favour and watch it for free here.
6. Daryl Morey: @dmorey
Morey, or “Dork Elvis”, is the only NBA GM who has a Twitter account, and he is quite active on it. Worth following for the insider access to a team from an executive POV, and that doesn’t even consider the fact that DM is a stats guru who loves himself some bball metrics. For basketball nerds only.
5. Mark Cuban: @mcuban
Pro sports most out-spoken owner is a Twitter fanatic, posting his thoughts on the Mavs, the NBA, HDNet, UFC and his blog. You never know what he is going to say next, and most of the time it is really thought-provoking stuff. Like him or not, his Twitter feed is one of the best out there.
4. Steve Nash: @the_real_nash
Captain Canada and 2-time MVP Steve Nash has quite a web presence, from his vids with Baron Davis and Vitamin Water, his movie production (ESPN 30 for 30) and his various philanthropic endeavors, he is everywhere. Well, you can get a concentrated dose of all things Nasty Nash from his Twitter feed.
3. Shaquille O’Neal: @THE_REAL_SHAQ
The man who put Twitter on the map. Enough said.
2. Ron Artest: @96TruwarierQB
The craziest man in the NBA also has one of the craziest Twitter feeds (go figure). He is on Twitter a lot, doing everything from sharing hip-hop tracks to announcing milkshake giveaways. I think he is on his 3rd Twitter profile by now, so make sure you keep up-to-date on the account he is currently using. But much like Ocho Cinco in the NFL, this is one athlete who everyone on Twitter should follow.
1. Bill Simmons: @sportsguy33
Say what you want about his Boston bias but the Sports Guy is THE source for all things basketball. He drops knowledge like a broken bookshelf at the Library of Congress and his articles are always good for some laugh-out-loud moments. He’s been all over Twitter lately, so expect lots of couch-side and court-side tweets throughout the season. And go buy his new book.
UPDATE: For more insight into NBA players and Twitter, check out this amazingly detailed article on the most popular players/teams on Twitter. Stats a plenty.
Filed under: Hip-hop, Links, Movies, Music, Videos | Tags: Cut Chemist, DJ Shadow, Download, Eclectic Method, Kutiman, mashup, Mike Relm, music videos, Quentin Tarantino, remix, Rip: A Remix Manifesto, Temptations
Let’s be straight. I’m well aware that the mash-up concept reached it’s apex a few years back, with DangerMouse’s “Grey Album” and almost anything by Z-Trip motivating countless heads to come-up with their own “unique” combos. Now you can find Jay-Z rapping over anything. So the style is quite played. But the video mash-up is a much more stunning and cerebral version, and it is now being incorporated in the live shows of visionaries like DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, Mike Relm and more.
Check the Eclectic Method for example. Their Temptations video (embedded above), which was commisioned by Motown Records themselves to help commemorate the labels 50th anniversary, hits you not just on a sonic level but on a visual level as well, allowing for a more complete musical experience. If you didn’t get that experience from watching the Temptations vid, check this out. It is the Eclectic Method’s tribute to one of my dopplegangers, Quentin Tarantino.
You can watch it with no video and be impressed by the audio. Or you can go vice versa, and also be impressed. But watching AND listening makes it one of the most creative forms of musical art around. I highly recommend checking out more from the Eclectic Method by perusing their website. They have tonnes of amazing videos, with the king being Lock Up Your Videos, a 45 min+ collection of music videos mashed up for maximum enjoyment. Download it for free (or pay what you’d like a la Radiohead), kick back and enjoy.
I’ve sang the praises of the video mash-up before on this blog, primarily with an earlier post on the Israeli wunder-nerd Kutiman and his amazing ThruYou YouTube project. Advocates for this most creative art form are sprouting up everywhere, and this advocacy is most apparent in a new movie entitled Rip: A Remix Manifesto (trailer below).
In Rip, filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores the mash-up and its increasing relevance on modern music and popular culture. He looks at the art form itself, the inherent copyright issues and argues for the validity and viability of this truly new medium. It’s a great movie and can be viewed for free or downloaded using the pay what you want model (US only). If you appreciate Eclectic Method, DJ Shadow, Kutiman, Girl Talk, Z-Trip or any other artist that is experimenting with video this way, do yourself a favor and check out the movie.
Filed under: Comedy, Links, Sports | Tags: AFL, Aussie Rules Football, Australia, Australian things that suck, Boomerang, commercial, Foster's Lager, G'day mate, slang, Vegemite, Yahoo Serious, Young Einstein
I saw this commercial for the upcoming Aussie Rules Football season over on Hot Clicks. Very cool commercial, so cool that it actually makes Aussie Rules Football look like an interesting sport. My exposure to AFL (as it’s known in Oz) is limited, but I have always judged it the way I have judged most things that come from Australia. Probably sucks.
Just check out the following Top 5 Worst Australian Exports and you’ll see what I mean.
5) Foster’s Lager
Aussie’s love to brag about all the beer they drink, but the beer that they have used as their showcase International brand is Foster’s Lager, and it is brutal. Not only does the beer taste like kangaroo piss and the commercials suck but… and this is worst of all, Australian’s don’t even like Foster’s. Nobody drinks it, so stop selling it.
4) Boomerang
I love it when people go to Australia and they bring back a boomerang as a souvenir. Talk about worthless. Have you ever tried to throw one of those things? Once you learn how to throw it, you wish you hadn’t. When that thing comes whipping back at you, don’t treat it like a frisbee or you’ll be tits up. The only thing it’s good for is hunting, but at least with a bow and arrow you don’t have to worry about missing your target and having the arrow turn around and come for you.
3) Yahoo Serious
Yahoo Serious might be the worst “movie star” of all-time. He writes, directs, produces, stars in, and has composed the scores for all his own movies (only three made in 20 years, all of which were awful), sued Yahoo! for trademark infingement (case was thrown out, probably due to the fact that Yahoo is an idiot), has an ex-wife named LuLu and maintains one of the stupidest websites on the Internet (of which there are millions of stupid sites). If you don’t believe me, go rent “Mr. Accident“.
2) Australian Slang
This one is obvious. There are the classics like “G’day Mate”, “barbie”, and “A dingo ate my baby” but there are also lesser-known phrases like “ridgie didge”, “drongo”, “fair dinkum” and “dry as a dead dingo’s donger” . Learn how to speak like an isolated convict here.
1) Vegemite
I have actually tried Australia’s favorite brown yeast paste and it is something awful. Especially when the world is full of delicious spreads like peanut butter, nutella, jam, apple butter, honey, cream cheese, hummus and even marmalade. It’s touted for it’s high levels of vitamin B, but i’d rather get my vit B from a banana, some potatoes or a pill before I’d eat Vegemite. There was a rumor going around that the Americans had banned Vegemite, but unfortunately it wasn’t true. As long as it is confined to import food stores I’m fine, but when I start seeing it at Safeway I’m going to lose it.
Honorable Mention: Men at Work, Russell Crowe, Paul Hogan, Olivia Newton-John, Silverchair
Filed under: Links, Predictions, Sports | Tags: Caddyshack, golf, knee, machine, match play, PGA Tour, return, Tiger returns, Tiger Woods
TW is poised to return to the PGA Tour later today, and you can follow all of his progress from the WGC Accenture Match Play on a slick new site whipped up by PGATour.com. Turns out people don’t give a crap about professional golf unless the G.O.A.T. is playing, so the PGA set up a slick little microsite where you can follow every Tiger detail throughout his comeback.
Click here to follow Tiger.
You’ll be able to watch each hole individually, view his updated scorecard, read commentary from an on-course blogger and find out what he ate for breakfast (we made that last one up).
Eldrick is scheduled to tee off at 2pm EST.
Filed under: Athletes F'ing Up, Links, MLB, Sports | Tags: AIDS, Athletes with AIDS, Carl Everett, Catch Da Taste, Magic Johnson, Roberto Alomar
Breaking News: According to a $15 million lawsuit filed by a former girlfriend, Roberto “Catch Da Taste” Alomar caught way more than da taste. He might have caught da AIDS. And, allegedly, he insisted on his then girlfriend having unprotected sex with him. He must have gone to the Carl Everett School of Science. Brutal.
And sorry for no video of Alomar’s greatest commercial ever. Someone needs to do YouTube a favour and scour their ’93 Blue Jays VHS tapes to uncover it. Please.
Now that two of my childhood heroes have AIDS, who’s next? Daniel Caruso? Michelangelo?
I hope this isn’t true.
Filed under: Gear, Kicks, Links, NBA, Sports, T of the Month | Tags: 23, air jordan, Jordan brand, Michael Jordan, MJ, Nike, t-shirt
Rhymin’ & Stealin’ has a deep, smoldering love for great t-shirts. Our love knows no bounds, so we decided to spread it with all.
This is the first in a monthly series that is dedicated to keeping our readers looking so fresh and so clean clean.
Jordan Brand – Money Walk$ ($30)
The Jordan Brand, which first seperated from Nike branding after the release of the Jordan XIII in 1997, has been pumping out Jumpman merchandise with the release of every new shoe and colorway for over 10 years. While I have really dug many of the kicks produced during that time, I always found the gear to be slightly uninspired. Many of the key designs made the gear extensions of the shoes, and I’m not really the type who likes to rock the same colors/patterns head to toe.
The Jordan Brand got it all right with the “Money Walk$” t. Done up in classic Bulls colors, this shirt has the phrase “Money Walk$” on the front and a silhouette of 23 walking off the court on the back. Simple design, great result. I also love how they incorporated one of MJ’s greatest nicknames into the design.
Head over to pickyourshoes.com to pick up one of these bad boys. Your closet will thank you. And remember that Jordan Brand t’s usually run big, so order a size smaller than you would wear normally.
Filed under: Links, MLB, Sports | Tags: Barack Obama, Baracklyn Cyclones, baseball, Brooklyn, June 23, Mets, minor league baseball promotions, NY
Obama is so hot right now. Everyone wants a piece of his action, even NY’s best borough. The Mets Single-A affiliate, the Brooklyn Baracklyn Cyclones, are dedicating June 23rd to the new president. Check out some of the highlights:
The June 23rd festivities will feature:
* Alternate red, white, and blue jerseys adorned with the team’s new name
* FREE Barack Obama bobbleheads to the first 2,500 fans in attendance, featuring the President in a Baracklyn Cyclones Jersey
* The Economic Stimulus Package: From 10am on January 20th – Inauguration Day – to midnight on January 23rd, ticket prices for the June 23rd game will be “rolled back” to the Cyclones’ inaugural 2001 season rates: $10 Field Box Seats, $8 Box Seats, $5 Bleacher Seats. Beginning January 24th, tickets will be priced at the regular 2009 rates ($15, $12, $8.)
* Universal Health Care: Free Band-Aids to the first 1,000 fans
* Naming Rights: Anyone named Barack gets in for free (Bring your ID on the night of the game)
* Joe the Plumber special: any plumber named Joe gets two free tickets – one for himself, and one to “spread the wealth” with a friend (Bring your ID and a business card or proof of employment on the night of the game)
* Bi-Partisan Consolation Prize: anyone named McCain or Palin will get a free Bleacher Seat (Bring your ID on the night of the game)
* A clear-cut Exit Strategy: fans will receive American Flags and discount coupons as they leave the ballpark
Minor League teams kill it with their wacky promotions, probably because they all get together and attend Minor League Baseball Promotional Seminars. I need to get a job working for the Cyclones.
Filed under: Kicks, Links | Tags: AF1, Air Force One, B.A. Obama, Barack Obama, Celebrate, custom shoes, Nike, President, Trend Hunter, tshirts, Yes We Can
I don’t know who this Barack Obama guy is, but somebody painted him on a pair of Air Force One’s and they look fresher than a spring daisy. Check out Van, he’s the dude behind these ill Nikes.
And if t-shirts are more your thing, check out B.A. Obama. I pity the fool that doesn’t like baby blue.
If neither of these ideas tickled your fancy, check this video from Trend Hunter for other ways to celebrate the Big O.
Filed under: Images, Links, NCAA, Sports | Tags: 3:16, Heisman, Jebus, NCAA football, Tebowisms, Tim Tebow, Tim Tebow's girlfriend, toast
If you watched the NCAA Championship game last week, you know all about what a sterling example of Christian humanity Tim Tebow is (click the toast for a refresher). If I had a girlfriend like Tebow, I’d believe in God too.
What you probably didn’t know about God’s second-favourite QB (Kurt Warner is #1), is that Tim Tebow once stiff armed a horse. That animal became what is now known as the giraffe. Read more incredible exploits of Tebow 3:16 at the Sporting Muse, where they have put together an excellent list of Tim Tebowisms.
And why do people think this guy is going to fail in the NFL? He is a beast with a laser-rocket arm and 50 times the brain of Vince Young. If I was a GM and he was on the board in the late first round, I would scoop him up in a second. Imagine him on a team like Miami, running 5-10 Wildcat plays a game. Jebus help the NFL if he gets utilized right.
Filed under: Download, Hip-hop, Links, Music | Tags: alchemist, Cali, Cunninlynguists, free, Hip-hop, Inverse, Kno, LA, MP3, QN5, So True EP
After a long Tuesday, I rode home and wanted nothing more than to chill out, watch a little ball and listen to a couple new albums that had crossed my path. I decided to flip on the beats as soon as I was in the door and I went straight to this new album I had just downloaded from a group of younguns from Cali. They go by Inverse and the album is So True EP. So true indeed.
I downloaded this because it had Kno of Cunninlynguists helping with some producto, so I knew it would be good. But it is better than good. It is great. And it is completely FREE.
Yes, free. Not downloaded from a torrent free. But artist making their own blog to give it away free. I don’t normally discriminate between degrees of free, but in this case I have to make an exception.
Check their MySpace. Be their friend on Facebook.
And support these cats when they come through your city. These guys are the future. QN5 is really on some next level shit.
Oh, and the Kno track. It is “Goodnight Goodnight”. It is the best song on the album and you won’t believe who the sample is. Maroon 5. No shit. And somehow, it is awesome. Kno is the alchemist.
Filed under: Comedy, Links, Music, Television | Tags: Bret, Episode 1, Flight of the Conchords, HBO, Jemaine, New Zealand, Season 2
Flight of the Conchords are back! Season 2 starts this Sunday on HBO Canada. However, Liger Beat has discovered that you can stream the first hilarious episode right now!
