Fame - Lady or Demon?
Perchance, your adventure brings you here from FoxSports.com. Mad props to Petey Schraeger and the whole crew at Fox. In the annals of FreeDarkdom, our scribes will recall your vision as a true treasured legacy.
Where others have refused to enrapture the chaos of these pages, you smiled upon us and have brought our message a bit closer to the ethereal world.
Leave it to Fox, the "upstart fourth network", to acknowledge that our will to dream big, fight hard and pillage our way to success was worth mentioning. We will merrily forget past indiscretions such as Temptation Island and that weird glowing puck! Now done with those networks that whore the beginning of the alphabet, Fox and its excesses seems like a caring partner for long.
It is often said that brilliance is found on the edge of madness. It is true, too, that that fine line, that space, is often occupied by a fleet bitch of a temptress. Succubi of hubris, conceit and silk trousers fill the sky with their cries of fame: "Men of FreeDarko, you have made it so very big, here come lie by our bosoms and taste this sweet nectar, this sweet poison!"
Bitch better stop playing. As FreeDarko now camps at that place - nearly brilliant, nearly mad - have no fear, dear reader, that we will grow too big for our britches. We will not secure a meeting with the Man. It is not over. Things will not change.
We will keep bringing you the unedited ponderings of a baker's dozen worth of individuals-gone-wrong. Because, regardless of what fate presents for FreeDarko.com, bigger and better is in store for you - not for us!
Past revolutions gazed upon icons to fuel their determination. We keep our gaze firm on those individuals whose strange otherworldliness guide us forward.
What follows is a sample of our heroes. On both sides of the aisle. They toil themselves, as beacons that the brilliance is in the battle and not in the after party.
Darko Milicic
I have no better way to explain how this prince of a man feeds our soul than that which was said by Bethlehem Shoals to Mr. Schraeger.
PS: What exactly are you freeing Darko from?Shoals: Solitude. Adversity. The burden of history. The endless mockery of a thousand under-informed miscreants. Chad Ford's watchful gaze. Sure, we'd like to see him freed in a basketball sense, for the good of the league. But there's also a
spiritual, almost political, dimension to our mission.
It is that tense stasis that which Darko inhabits - toiling in fame, shunned from success - that fuel our fervor. Darko's European features show far greater signs of age and worry than Sam Bowie's ever did. We will ride this fair steed as far as he allows us, success or failure persistent. Because even in three short years, he has given us enough inspiration for many lifetimes.
Alonzo Mourning
Zo is a choice here without consensus. As readers of holy scriptures often bring their own baggage to an evaluation of the worth of Job, so too is animosity, contempt and jealousy wrought on Mr. Mourning. Say what you will - from his days as a hold-out rookie, to fist fights with the Knicks - Alonzo has always triggered an opinion.
Does he know suffering? We do not purport that his ills are greater than most in the world. After all, we here eagerly await in mockful laughter for this Sunday's Curb Your Enthusiasm, eager for the dumbing revelation of whether Larry David will donate his kidney to Richard Lewis or not.
Yet, there is nothing hysterical as we watch Zo play a few times each week, in wonder at the new poster child for organ transplant. His body is as fierce as ever, yet spots on his shaved head make us shake in the fear that he is not truly healthy. 9 blocks last night. Are they proof of his triumphant return, or the last reaches from a waning man?
His love for the game may or may not be his ultimate undoing. And that is why we watch this warrior. Zo sums it up best, "I play each game like it is my last."
Kyle The Blogger
Our own Mark Clayton went knee deep into the travails of this young man a few posts before. Recent news is that he has been kicked out of University of Miami public housing for his role in releasing the infamous 7th Floor Crew rap song. Opinions aside, there is little doubt that Kyle's story is a sad, sordid tale. Part of him reflects the irreverent, uncaring spirit that we pride ourselves in. He seemed to not give a shit, and the administration crushed him down.
It was ultimately, Kyle's naiveness that were his undoing. Feelings burned, lessons learned. Among the ashes, we here at FreeDarko poor out a MadDog 20/20 for Munzenrieder, just as NBA veterans give out a game check to that rookie that has just been cut.
We do so regardless of the cold, callous way in which he ripped words from Marky Clayton's post, now occupying his Myspace page. Taboo for the pit fight is that Kyle the Blogger did so without giving due credit, props or a hyperlink. Kyle, are you a man of the worth of Bill Simmons, his intern, or worse?
Kyle will still be invited to our next retreat. Maybe groomed for eventual greatness if he can occupy the jock.
Tom Cruise
He is the great aversion. A hero in that he leads the forces of evil, serves as a beacon of what we plot and fight against.
Tom Cruise disgusts us. Not a day goes by that we do not bring him into our thoughts, knowing that he is exactly what we do not want to become. He is that bloody albatross around our necks, signifying the cutting dual edge of great fame - promised by talent, not past corruption and perversion.
We will not succumb as easily as Maverick. And neither will those heroes that signify the good. This sample of four occupy a range that we leave for you to decide where they reside.
Finally, clarity is needed for the record... recent rumors that Darko is a Scientologist are unbased and untrue. Our mascot may be a troubled lad, but a cuckold he is not.
Come back, come often. Order a shirt and keep on message. There are things occuring that are bigger than all of us. Jump on the ride.
posted by El Huracan Andreo @ 11/29/2005 11:28:00 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
dudes, i am NOT sharing a cabin in the woods with a guy who likes a band called "the homosexuals." fuck that. but anyone who listens to xiu xiu can't be half bad, right?
(in the spirit of welcoming our widening audience: i hate xiu xiu. the homosexuals are amazing. i am not a hombophobe but might call something "really fucking gay" on occasion.)
more importantly, i am glad you did this post, since i thought of doing something similar last night but was forced to accept defeat when i snared my neck on the gate. i have been warring within myself for the last eighteen hours over who who is currently more freedarko: gerald wallace or ricky davis. in some weird way, i feel like ricky went so far out there (too far, in my opinion), that this recent rush of accomplishment seems like selling out. also i am not sure he is insane anymore, and i want my crazy players to harness their powers and visions (gilbert), not be rehabilitated.
gerald wallace is this year's hughes, if hughes were josh smith and had been around long enough to be on the kings when they were a lo-cal dynasty, but not so long that we were all frustrated by him.
if we at freedarko live and die by potential, he is proof that there is such a thing as "the too long that is not too long."
I'm not sure whether I actually heard this on the TV or dream it, but I swear that the thought was proposed to me (again sportscenter or dreamscape) that Ricky Davis' athleticism is waning. Meaning, he can't move as insane as before, he is more contained athletically and therefore he is being more productive both in the stat line and for the Celts.
Digesting it, doesn't seem something that ESPN would suggest so I attribute it to my subconcious.
And anyway its clearly Gerald Wallace. For more reasons than I care to say in a comment.
And either way, that thought was proposed to me last night at some ungodly hour - so maybe when you were hanging yourself on the fence you delivered a cry of passion that hit my brain on the bounce.
i don't know why his athleticism would wane now--he's somehow still only like 26, even though it feels like he's been in the Association longer than i have--but it seems equally ridiculous to think that he would have somehow subdued his athleticism. usually the idea with a player of his peculiar talents is that you get them to use that athleticism for the greater good, sublimate it into a real understanding of the game. not do things that mask it.
i know i've probably mentioned this before, but for me ricky's career-defining moments was when he stepped on steve nash's face. it is hard for me to imagine a more viscerally unbelievable (think on that last phrase for a second) dunk that that.
Athleticism has to have a quality that can be used up. Carl Lewis might be one of those with an extraordinary reserve, but I don't think that's the standard.
Anyway - on the idea of athleticism waning. I am sure we can all agree effectiveness in the NBA isn't directly related to pure freak measurements - those human pogo sticks like Miles that can literally jump out of a gym are a mixed-bag as we all know.
Timing, it seems, is also an important quotient. Or control - whatever we call it. Basically that buffer that allows for athleticism to exist outside of another reaction and make one the victor.
Zo's block party last night is proof point enough. Ariza, Stephon - all the leapers - tried to come at him, and mainly because of timing he swatted 9 of their shots.
i think of it as being something that dulls, with age (and is often then totally overtaken by timing), not something that you have a finite amount of to expend and can blow too soon if you're as prodigal as ricky was with his. i'm more fascinated by the idea that in your athletic prime, you can be so concerned with timing and competence so as to negate physical ability. kobe kind of plays like that, actually.
Kobe is a pure joey to watch on the court. No one gives me the same feeling as watching a player with unlimited athleticism and jerry seinfeld's timing. I love Amare and Gilbert as much as the next guy, but there is just something about watching Kobe and his obsession with perfection that is truly something special. The beauty, is that he's one of the most athletic players in the nba on top of his incredible timing and professionalism on the court. I love watching him execute the jordan turn around fadeaway that is harder to defend and pull off than the sky hook, then when in the same position, spin around his defender and dunk over some center. He seems even more fun to watch now that he's playing with a chip on his shoulder. The only thing i could ask for from him is to get lamar odom involved. Man do i love my big point guards in a sg/sf's body. At least boris diaw is around to fulfill my out of position pg lust.
Congrats on the long overdue recognition by the way.
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