THE CHIEF CAN'T GUARD ME!!!
Thursday 15 March, 2007

What's up everyone!

It may have been several weeks since streetball.co.uk brought you details of the NBA game scheduled for London later this year, but the official announcement and press conference for the event took place down at the o2 this week.

There was a lot of media interest, with crews from BBC London and Sky Sports down there. Kevin Cadle was in the house, as were Mark Webster and Dre Alleyne from five's NBA basketball programme.
Having been down to the Dome and spoken to Chief Exec Philip Beard a few weeks ago, I was kinda aware of all the details, and had already had the tour of the impressive site. So the main reason for going down there for me was to meet former Boston Celtics legend Robert "The Chief" Parish.

For those of you too young to remember, Parish was a part of the Celtics dynasty of the 1980s...teaming up with Larry Bird and Kevin McHale to form one of the sickest NBA frontcourts of all time. By the time he retired in 1997, he'd been named as one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, had 4 championship rings, had the record for most NBA seasons played (21) as well as the record for the most games played (1,611). In other words, dude was serious.

Before the press conference got underway, he did a little photocall playing a 1 on 1 with a kid from the London Towers...but, me being me, I couldn't let the moment pass without trying to play against the big man myself. Robert was more than happy to oblige….however, I felt sorry for him as he was wearing smart shoes, trousers and a shirt. Obviously I would kill him on the drive [/humour] so I just settled for a couple of jumpers...both of which missed. I'm such a scrub.

Try as he might, Big Rob couldn't stop me from getting my J off!!

After the press conference (also attended by NBA exec Andrew Messick, and Andrea Bassani from the Euroleague) I got to speak to the guys one on one. I started by asking Philip Beard how he felt about selling a tonne of tickets for the game before it had even been officially announced. The answer he gave was most flattering:

"I think that’s probably thanks to you, that piece (on the UKTV SLAM programme) – we got a huge response to that. We’ve already had 3,000 people buying tickets".

Deep!

Next up was Mr Parish. I quizzed him about what he thought of the standard of European ball, and how he felt about in influx of Euro ballers into the NBA. He said he was all for it:

"It’s very good that we have Europeans playing in the NBA and making a significant contribution. I think it's great for the basketball community, and I think the US has embraced the European basketball players because we are all about quality basketball…and the Europeans are playing quality basketball at a high level. And they're passionate about it...I think people in Europe as a whole are passionate about their sports."

Speaking about his struggling Celtics team, Parish was quick to point out that they have a bunch of young stars who should be coming into their own over the next few years. And he said he’s backing them to win the game against the Timberwolves on October 10th!

After finishing up at the o2, I shot straight down to Clapham to meet up with Matthew Bryan. He's back in the country for a month (on spring break) so I'd arranged to interview him for my UKTV Slam programme.

He said everything had been going well in America. He's about to finish at South Kent high school and next season will be battling in the PAC 10 as a University of Washington Husky. It sounds like he’s already a big star on campus there.

"I’ve been up there twice. The first time, I was walking around with the coach, and kids on campus were like 'what’s up Matt. You gonna be a Huskie?'

"The second time, I went to a game…and they have one of the craziest crowds – it’s called "the dog pack" and they were actually chanting my name as I was walking through the door with the team!"

Make sure you check the interview (as well as the stuff we shot at the o2) on UKTV G2 at 11am this Sunday morning.

In other news, it seems coming out was the best business decision John Amaechi ever made.
Not only is his new autobiography "Man In The Middle" up there on the New York Times best-sellers list, he's just become the first openly gay male athlete to be offered an endorsement deal by a mainstream company.
HeadBlade Inc., creators of a popular head-shaving razor, have had signed the Brit baller to a multiyear deal. Chief Exec, Todd Greene, said Amaechi "embodies many of the qualities representative of a HeadBlader."

LOL - a "HeadBlader"?!?!

"He is a man comfortable in his own skin and he's not afraid to go against the grain."

Presumably going against the grain whilst using the HeadBlade would be a bad idea though.

NBA now, and Dallas got their winning streak snapped by the Golden State Warriors the other night. Dirk and rest of the Mavs can now only drop 2 of their next 20 games if they want to do the 70 win season.

Meanwhile, Ron Artest has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons...again. He got nicked at his home in Sacramento after a woman called 911 and said she had been assaulted. A police report said Artest had slapped the woman's face and grabbed her repeatedly, causing visible injuries on her hand and leg. I wonder how my boys at k1x are handling this one.

Back home, the Guildford Heat are still top of the league after back to back victories this weekend. But the Sheffield Sharks remain hot on their heels, just two points behind.
Meanwhile things go from bad to worse for the Newcastle Eagles. After losing out to Plymouth in the Trophy Final the other week, they’ve now lost go-to-guy TJ Walker for the rest of the season due to a hand injury (sustained during that game). There’s speculation that TJ’s time on Tyneside may now be over.

The University of Worcester three-peated as BUSA champions at the weekend, with an overtime victory over London Met.

Picture courtesy Wendy Reeve @ Hosana

Streetball.co.uk did not attend (the first BUSA finals weekend we’ve missed since we started going in 2000!) but apparently it was an awesome game. Down 8 at the start of the 4th, Worcester fought back and took the lead near the end of regulation. A Santa Ataha three sent it into overtime, but with all five of London Met’s starters fouling out, Worcester proved too strong.

The weather’s getting better and people are itching to play ball (I played at my local park for the first time since November this week!!) So we’re putting the message out – GET DOWN TO BRIGHTON FOR BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY (9th April)!!

In non basketball related stuff, what the fuck is going on with Joss Stone? I used to have bare respect for her. She seemed like a really sweet, down to earth, cool girl (pretty too) with an absolutely amazing voice. But it all seems to be going wrong. She's dropped the "pretty hippy girl" look and is now flexing tight clothes, a simultaneously jet-black and bright-red hairdo and...even worse...an American accent!!!
Did anyone see her absolutely awful appearance at the Brits the other day? It was soooooo embarrassing. And now her record is flopping (she's being outsold by two X-Factor rejects).
I hope she fixes up fast, because it's a shame to see such an obviously talented and sound girl flopping this hard.

Oh yeah - Viacom is suing YouTube for $1 billion. The media company says the video website is showing tonnes of its content (such as Comedy Central, South Park, MTV stuff etc) without permission...and collecting money through advertising revenue. I see Viacom's point...but, in fairness, it ain't YouTube posting it - it's YouTube users. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out. I hope this doesn't mean the end of YouTube, where else am I going to watch all that Dave Chapelle stuff?

Right, that's enough from me for now. Until next time, keep ballin....