BLUE SKY THINKING
Saturday 31 March, 2007

What's up everyone,

Well, the clocks have gone forward and we are officially in British Summertime!!!

The weather's been heavy, and me and my boys have starting balling at the local park again for the first time since about October last year...so all is good.

With the streetball season just around the corner, I thought now would be a great time to do a feature about Midnight Madness on my TV show (it is, afterall, the hottest event on the summer basketball calendar).
So, on Wednesday, I went down to a court in Willesden and interviewed Midnight Madness organisers Nhamo Shire and Jack Gibbons, as well as MM veteran players Pierre Henry-Fontaine, Dru Spinks and Mike Martin.

The big news is that this summer, Midnight Madness are going to be hitting up bare places across the UK. They're going to be holding 15 roadshow events the length and breadth of the nation, where they'll be giving out seeded spots for the two main qualifier events (one to take place in London, the other in Manchester).
The top players at those will then go through to a grand final (probably at Wembley!!) for the chance to make the final team, which will be flying out to L.A. this year!

More details are on my UKTV SLAM programme this Sunday (UKTV G2 at 11am). If you miss the show, you'll be able to catch it on uktvslam.tv afterwards.

As well as the main Midnight Madness events, Nhamo confirmed that he'll be taking a team back to Quai 54 in Paris this summer...and this year, they're looking to go at least one stage further (which means semi finals, minimum). There are also a few other interesting bits and pieces that could be happening, so it's all looking pretty exciting.

Last year's Quai 54 was absolutely sick!!

Last year's Quai 54 was absolutely sick!!

Anyway, as the weather is getting so nice, people on the messageboard have started suggesting we get a run going down at Brighton. So, here's the plan, everyone head to the beach court for Bank Holiday Monday (9th April). I'm guessing midday is probably a good time. Any questions, holla @ me. Here's a reminder of what happened last time a few of us hit the beach...

I'm off to Athens in a month for the Euroleague Final Four. I'm already sweating the flights, but they're only 3 and a half hours though, so it shouldn't be too bad. The trip itself should be sick. Those Greek fans are nuts, and I reckon the atmosphere will be awesome.

So, what's been going on in the world of hoops? Well, Luol dropped a career high 38 points on the Blazers the other night in a Bulls victory. BRRRRRRRAP! But that's nothing compared to how Kobe's been going on lately. 65 points, then 50, then 60...god damn. It's sick and everything, but Mr Bryant's scoring spree has got some people talking like they're on crack (claiming 24 is better than 23!!!).

The Mavs look like they could still be on for 70 wins. They can only drop 2 of their final 11...so it's definitely do-able. Dirk for MVP? Smart money says the German will win it.

The NCAA Final Four starts tomorrow. Florida will be looking to become the first team to repeat in 15 years, but anyone of UCLA, Georgetown or Ohio State could win it, in my opinion. Speaking of Georgetown, I saw former TarHeel Steve Bucknall at a meeting on Monday and he was pissed that the Hoyas had knocked UNC out in overtime the night before! The biggest upset though was Duke going out in the first round...that completely fucked my bracket!!!

Oh yeah, it was my birthday last weekend. Shouts to everyone who was there...it was off the chain! But the next day, reality hit me....I'm now 29. One more year left before I'm old :-(

Anyway, I gotta jet....shit is absolutely hectic at the moment.

Holla

GT