Venerate Henry Abbott

All in all, there's only a few things on the internet as useful as True Hoop. I can't think of any other site that can be at once so informative and so editorial without getting the two confused.

This post may be unnecessary, since I'm sure most of you read Henry on the daily. Still, though, I would like to call your unwavering attention to two recent items of his. First, from today's Bullets: this Beacon-Journal article, which more or less vindicates a lot of my thoughts on NBA players and fine weaponry. In the comments section of said post, Henry applauded the general direction but discouraged me against making Stephen Jackson the poster child for anything sympathetic. And while recent events have proven him right about the pitfalls surrounding one-time Spur and hidden Finals hero Jackson, I'd say this linked piece vindicates my bigger point.

I don't have too much to add to Henry's thoughts on Scoop's interview and the subsequent comments. Dude's references are corny if you get them, and are borne out of a dissonant need to seem both current and knee-deep in tradition—one that seems to this white boy like a looming mid-life crisis. I did, however, feel it was my BASKETBALL IS NOT JAZZ duty to heap special attention upon one single phrase, one that has possibly done irrevocable damage to my already-shaky opinion of Scoop: "something deep from an Oscar Peterson song." Let me roll that one more 'gain:

SOMETHING DEEP FROM AN OSCAR PETERSON SONG.



And no, I don't need anyone to remind me that Blowout Comb is classic. Or to try and convince me that Oscar Peterson is the Chuck D of showy, post-Tatum piano fluff.

BONUS: One more vital bit of knowledge for today, this via the indispensable Inside Hoops: the Chicago Tribune reports that "the Knicks say they'll at times use guards Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford together."