When the Flyers signed  former Ottawa Senators goalie Ray Emery earlier this month, two questions came to mind - what took them so long and how long will the marriage last?

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Soap box time.

Just like sports, everything is not simply about the here and now just to stroke the insecure egos of man and woman. Check yourself.

Call me ideological, but I can care less.

Is something wrong with me? Am I one of the few that listened to my Mom and Pop when they drilled into our psyche “If you can’t say nothin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all?”

I wonder.

Maybe it was the lackluster show that exacerbated a monstrosity of ridiculous and unrelenting criticism. Maybe it’s our current culture. I don’t know. I never watch BET because I’m not attracted to it’s superficial, bubblegum, stroke the mainstream programming.

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Because of Michael Jackson’s death, the 2009 NBA Draft was surreal. I didn’t watch as attentively as I have for almost 30 years. Blake Griffith obviously went one. Will he be as good as Boozer or end up like Marcus Fizer? Being from here, I wanted Tyreke Evans, but Jrue Holiday was a fine pick for the Philadelphia 76ers (will Allen Iverson return? I think so). He’ll provide versatility on both sides of the ball after the Sixers most likely lose Andre Miller to free agency (possibly somehow to the Lakers, you heard it here first). Elton Brand comes back, but the Eastern Conference just became a juggernaut after Orlando acquired Vince Carter (power move) and Cleveland acquired Shaquille O’Neal (not sold). Edge Magic. I thought after the Conference Finals that the team with more of an edge would win and now that Vince will have joined Orlando, I can see him lighting a fire under the coaching staff, bench and of course the players on the floor.

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I can’t even get into the draft. I had a post I’ve been working on all day, passed out from a lack of sleep the last week and woke up to 100 text messages. Most were friends, associates, co-workers, questioning if Mike had died or not. There was a period where everyone was waiting for confirmation because the first outlet to report his death was TMZ. Ultimately, when I heard it was a shock. I’m still in shock. The majority of the texts said Mike was a big part of my childhood. Whether you like it or not, Michael Jackson is the greatest entertainer of all time. He was the reason Black folk are on MTV. His videos were events. My family and I would sit around the TV and wait for his world premiers to drop. Thriller’s video was so unique it changed the game. I remember dancing to Rock With You with my first girlfriend in sixth grade. Nothing about his talent was fake or produced in a studio. It was all him. Talent learned from him. Like they say, often imitated, never duplicated. Any video where you see dancing was influenced by Michael Jackson. Remember the cocky dude who couldn’t stay in step at the end of the Beat It video? The magnitude of his death will be felt for decades. He transcended race, class, music, life. I hope his kids were able to learn from his talent and transfer Mike’s gift to whatever potential they have embedded in their soul. God bless the entire Jackson family. Read more »

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I think it was Jemele (via Stephen A.)who alerted the twitterspere about Shaq’s trade around 11 or 12 last night and for the next 3 hours the entire sports world was abuzz with reactions, rumors, and predictions for next season. I was debating Bomani Jones about what was the better draft…’84 or ‘96 and also my normal Nash smash for history when the news hit. Here’s my tweet after the trade went down. For all the criticism the NBA gets, when big stuff like this goes down, there is nothing like it in sports. Shaquille O’Neal does it like no one else. Shaq’s move to join LeBron in Cleveland put the entire draft in his sickdiculous shadow. Crazy stuff. I wonder how it’s all going to play out. Is it Super Bowl time so we can find out ASAP? IMO, trades like this only exacerbate thinking that teams are better than they actually are. Dwight Howard has to be licking his Leviathan chops. Bang on him Dwight like you are the prototypical John Connor trying to eliminate John Connor from the primitive back end of Krypton. In the NBA, the best team always wins. I’m still going with Boston over LA with Andre Miller working the triangle in his home town. I’ll have a draft preview up on Ebonyjet.com later.

A Cleveland breakdown. Hope it works out for you LeBron. (Plain Dealer)

Same thing from Phoenix. Steve Kerr better get this team back on track quick. (AZ Central)

Phil Jackson will not have a part time gig. (The Daily Breeze)

Yao’s still has a bad foot. (Houston Chronicle)

Ray Ratto on the US upset of top ranked Spain. Don’t follow soccer like that, but I know enough that his is a shocker. (SF Gate)

Cats are killing football coaches now? RIP (Des Moines Register)

When being underrated is a crime. Rass Kass is possibly the lyricist GOAT

So bad, had to rock Kass twice

The last and most provoctive part of Todd Boyd’s interview will go up next week.

Elaborating on the intro in Part I, one has to understand that my view of life is grounded in my view of history as it relates to sports. I went hard on Ricky Rubio (Dr. Boyd and I elaborate on Rubio and also Kobe Bryant in the next part) because I don’t want history to be affected by the here and now. It is personal to me, but nothing personal to Rubio no matter what you say or think. If we improperly over hype this kid now, history will be adversely affected regardless of how his career ends up. What about Evans and Holiday? Don’t they have size? Why are their weaknesses highlighted as well as Jennings? The post was a segue into this interview, but you’ll have to wait until the last part for our chat on the 18 year old hope. In this part, we start with Black ownership. We also get into why the NBA means more to Blacks than any other race, Black reporters and the effect we potentially have on history and why his first three books are written. Simply put, this was a great conversation I had with the good Dr. and I hope you find it entertaining as well as it continues.

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