Each Day is a Lifetime of Others, 8.4.08

Welcome to the future. From the inner recesses of Shoals's grand imagination comes our version of daily links, a smattering of the outside world, from our perspective. With the millenial progress that the internet and the sports-tubes have made over the past few years, we have made it patently clear that Free Darko is not the source for breaking news or obligatory analysis of the day's events. We do, however, intend to banter appropriately enough on recent topics so that this site expands its reach rather than becoming an excess of my personal mobius strip-like catharsis. So, we're gonna give this a test run as a daily thing and see how it goes. Don't expect them all to be so extensive as this one. Read Shoals's Josh Howard exploration first, then lock arms with us below:

-Lost footage of a 1976 Muhammad Ali roast. There's a lot going here. First of all, Freddie Prinze DESTROYING SHIT. Back in the day comedians had a sense of f--king timing, people. Second, is that Orson Welles? Why is Orson Welles there. Third, Wilt Chamberlain takes the stage around the four-minute mark on some real quasi-Shaq presence. Classic stuff. (Dr. LIC)

-We call Artest crazy, he calls himself ghetto, but the best Ron Ron is when he's legitimately fascinating. Like in this Leader sitdown with SAS. He knew Yao was joking, but still wanted to put it down for his culture, which he then has to, as usual, explain is not the same thing as being a thug. If Ron Artest were actually dumb, he would've been out of the league years ago. Dude is an old style city politician running a global campaign for inner truth and outer recognition. (BS)

-No one likes the big 50 anymore, but when Arroyo goes to Israel, all of sudden you get thoughts of LeBron, scoffing at a potential $40 million a year Greek deal and whistling along to "Not Like Me." It's like the anti-clout. (BS)

Dr. LIC: So many teams need a point guard, and Carlitos can't even get more than 2.5 mil? Dude has become, like the Puerto Rican Steve Francis in terms of a fall from grace.

-Nate Jones respectfully goes toe-to-toe with old fogey, stuck-in-the-past ABA player/lawyer/broadcaster Len Elmore on the age limit, Jennings, and all that jazz. His best point: Sport isn't synonymous with Black higher ed, and to pretend that "student-athletes" should be regarded as potential braintrust is just weird. Of course, there are exceptions. But for the most part, D1 athletes want a shot at the big leagues, and there are others who would be more focused on the student part.

-This bit about J.R. Smith going to the Cavs has got me thinking some fairly outrageous visions. This would be like Ferry's last shot on some so-crazy-it-just-might-work philosophy. I like the idea of Mike Brown letting J.R. be J.R. and hoist eight threes a game while actually doing other important stuff like playing defense. (Dr. LIC)

Shoals: With Delonte West, the Cavs tried to play the "everybody wants to play with LeBron" card. Now, with Ferry going after house favorite J.R. Smith, you've got to ask yourself: Isn't the opposite true? Another superstar would give James a real foundation, and a reason to stay. The eternally-promising Smith, whose stock miraculously neither rose or dropped after his brief, incandescent playoffs, could be broken by it. LBJ is beginning to look like the Godfather of passive-aggressive.

-E-mailed last week:
Shoals: Wait, who was Ricky Davis even on before?
Ty: I don't even know. His own team, maybe

-This bit about Michael Redd changing into a suit in Jerry Colangelo's hotel room is a bit too "shine ya shoes?" disturbing. It's really sad too, because Redd was obviously the first f--king guy they should have called after the 2004 Bronze debacle. What the hell does a guy like Redd need to audition for? Also, I'm getting damn tired of all the (impending) stories on Colangelo/Coach K as the driving forces behind Team USA's (golden) turnaround. Let's make no bones about it, there is no bigger motivator than embarrassment, and that avoidance of that emotion will be the sole reason why Team USA takes gold. (Dr. LIC)

-This story is old and I think Henry shouted it out a while back, but this quote highlights why Rodney Carney is my new favorite Timberwolf despite not having even played a summer league game:

"The way I look at it is, they traded me and Booth to get Elton Brand," Carney said. "So I say I got traded for Elton Brand. You put it that way, it sounds pretty good." (Dr. LIC)

-This is my friend Denzil's Knicks Blog. Some great stuff on here, making me really want to do a roundtable with insane Knicks bloggers once the season rolls around. Also, guy has taken to calling himself Denzillo Galinari. lolz. (Dr. LIC)

-Finally, the best Nas track post-Illmatic. I know it's been around for a second on that Green Lantern mixtape, but this version is NO-DJ (A "Five Heartbeats" reference? Over.) (Dr. LIC)

-Stay fresh to death. Plus an informal Spirits archive (BS).

-I 've been visiting with the Blue Angels all weekend, and have to say: I don't really see the big deal with "liberal fascism". Aesthetics sells. So does power and weapons and guns. And football and tits. The problem with the left is that, outside of the Panthers, no one ever realized this. I have no problem with shit that looks like Triumph of the Will as long as its pure salesmanship, with somewhat unremarkable centrism underneath. Does that make me evil? (BS)