#TALLTAKES: Bring your Posse

Phil Jackson is not down with the Posse

New York Knicks team president Phil Jackson found himself in a bit of hot water when he referred to Cleveland Cavaliers superstar Lebron James’ circle of friends and business associates as a “posse”.

You can’t hold up the whole team because you and your mom and your posse want to spend an extra night in Cleveland

To put the quote in context, the former Lakers and Bulls coach was referring to the problems Miami Heat team president, his friend Pat Riley had with Lebron and his friends during Lebron’s four year stint in Miami, specifically Lebron’s friends insistence that they stay the night in Lebron’s home base of Cleveland when Miami played there.

Image result for lebron james and maverick carter
what a bunch of thugs

Lebron took offense to Phil’s comments, seemingly viewing them as some sort of racially based slight.  I personally think that Lebron is right, but only partially.

Lebron’s focus seemed to be on Phil’s use of the word “posse”, a word he took to mean as an armed group of thugs and not the outdated 90s slang that Phil meant it as. What he needs to be offended at is how easily Phil was ready to dismiss a group of young men from very humble beginnings who managed through business savvy and smarts to build Lebron a multi-million dollar empire that ensured, among many other things, that thousands of people from Akron, Ohio were able to get their education as some sort of hangers on like the goon squad that famously followed Allen Iverson around relieving him of all that extra money he made during his time as one of the NBA’s top players. 

Image result for allen iverson now with money
At least he paid for a lot of Strippers’ educations

 

Phil’s willingness to dismiss the work these young men do may not be explicitly racist, but his eagerness to talk down on a group of upstanding black men coupled with problematic statements he made in the past does not warrant him the benefit of the doubt.

I chalk Phil’s statement up to his discomfort with the rapidly changing player/management dynamic in basketball, where the superstar player has an increasingly larger say in which direction their career takes.

If he can’t get along maybe he should quit.

 

Tony Romo released a statement looking like a hostage totally reading this of their own free will.

Speaking of regretful statements, Cowoboys’ quarterback Tony Romo made an emotional statement regarding his relinquishing of his team to rookie sensation Dak Prescott.

Everything about this statement is weird as fuck.

When has a quarterback ever released a statement when they lost a game?

Are we really supposed to believe that Tony Romo lost his job to a 4th round pick rookie because of a freak injury and he’s cool about it? I definitely don’t.

Who’s idea is this? The team’s or Romo’s? Is he just going along with this so he can maintain his reputation until he signs with another team next year a-la Alex Smith when he went form the Niners to the Kansas City Chiefs?

It’s a sad way to go but it’s deliciously ironic.  Former Cowboys quarterback Drew Bledsoe was originally supplanted by Romo in the same manner. Otherwise I don’t really care because Go Giants.

Can Buddy get more burn please?

Image result for Buddy Hield New orleans pelicans

We thought that Buddy Hield had a breakthrough a last week when he dropped 18 points on the Los Angeles Lakers.  What we thought was the beginning what may have been Buddy’s peak for now, since the return of Pelicans point guard Jrue Holiday after his wife’s debilitating illness, Buddy has gotten about 5 minutes in each game since then. 

The decrease in minutes can be attributed to Buddy’s struggles from the field, he’s currently shooting 35% from the field and 25% from the free throw line, pretty terrible for a 23 year old who gained notoriety in college for his sweet shooting stroke.

If Buddy wants more regular season burn he’s going to have take his time and knock down some shots.

Some Football Coaches are outta there.

 

This weekend a number of stinging defeats occurred in college and professional football that may signal the end of a number of coaching tenures.

University of Texas head coach Charlie Strong lost to University of Kansas, a woebegone program that won 4 conference games since the start of the 2009 season, (that’s a 1 conference game every two year average for all my Jay-Z fans).

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And that’s so LAAAAAAME

Strong was on the hot seat all year given the fact that powerful UT boosters did not approve his hiring coupled with the slow pace in which the program was being turned around,  a loss to a garbage team like Kansas was the coup-de-grace to Strong’s tenuous hold on his job.

Texas announced it will fire strong yesterday.

Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy is probably done after a terrible loss to the Washington Racial Slurs 42-24.

The Green Bay Packers are now 4-6 in a season when they were heavily expected to go to the Superbowl. The Packers have largely underachieved since the won the Superbowl a few years back, having been unable to surround Aaron Rodgers, who has been considered to be the best quarterback in the NFL for awhile now, with a credible offensive line or a competent run game in essence, wasting Rodgers’ talents.

Image result for Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers
“how about an offensive line fam?” “How about you give your mom a call fam?”

McCarthy probably won’t make it out of this season alive.

LSU also lost a game it probably should have won to the University of Florida Gators, pretty much ensuring that interim head coach Ed Orgeron is done there. The Tigers have had an up-and-down season that involved their head coach Les Miles getting fired and many, including myself, thought that LSU’s close loss to an overwhelming Alabama squad may have saved his job. Apparently it won’t

Who am I kidding I just wanted to play a video of Coach O speaking. Listen to this guy, he sounds like the Cajun assistant coach from “The Waterboy”.

Blake Griffin made Robin Lopez his son.

On Saturday the Los Angles Clippers defeated the Chicago Bulls 102 -95. Clippers all-star power forward finished with 26 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists and one gross dunk on Bulls center Robin Lopez.

Lately Blake has been working on his jumper and handles in order to ground his game so that he can stick around the league a little longer. And while that’s cool and all, it’s great to see people getting dunked on every now and then.

Will Tye Milly rocks on any block

On any block rock militant…..

Go Giants!

 

 

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