GYGM: Frontin' Has No Future

Another oldie but goodie.

RIP, MC Breed!


Be thankful for what you have, folks! Happy Monday!

MYSM: Give Steve A Hand

An oldie but goodie. The Crocodile Hunter has a run-in with the Florida Gator.

RIP, Steve Irwin!

Quickie: Terry Porter Ain't Got No Rings

I try to avoid discussing my personal experiences so as to protect the innocent (and the guilty) but this one was completely anonymous and worth sharing.

I was out and about the other night, standing at the top of the stairs of a restaurant when I saw what looked to be an older basketball player coming up the stairs toward me. As he got a little closer, I said to myself - which ended up being out loud - "Oh, that's Terry Porter!"

The response from "Terry Porter" as he ascended the stairs: "You must be drunk, baby!" (I hadn't had a drop of alcohol)

The man next to me quickly makes the correct identification: "It's [insert name of (way) former role player who won several NBA championships alongside a superstar]!"

(I won't out him since I don't want to start any trouble)

Yes, upon further inspection, the man next to me was right. So "way former role player" ("WFRP") says to me, just to make sure I never got it confused again: "Terry Porter? Terry Porter ain't got no ___________ rings!"

I apologize, WFRP, you're right. I should have looked for rings. That would have totally cleared things up.

But mostly, I apologize to nice guy Terry Porter for getting him confused with this character. People really crack me up . . .

GYGM: Outstanding

Shaq's more than a shover, he was a humble rapper at one point, too.

I'm not entirely convinced that's actually his voice . . .

MYSM: Quit Pushing

I can't even fake like I've had time to watch sports these past few weeks. My apologies! Hopefully, I will be able to catch up soon, and have something to say about anything. Today is not that day.

NBA fights are usually pretty weak given that none of them a) are used to throwing punches much less taking them, at least not since they were the close to the same height as the rest of the general population (age 2), and b) nobody's trying to lose that much money being suspended.

This fight took place during the Houston Rockets - Phoenix Suns game last Wednesday, and a bunch of folks got suspended (Rafer Alston, Matt Barnes, Steve Nash) and fined (Shaquille O'Neal, Tracy McGrady). Although no real punches were thrown, this warranted MYSM status based solely on how Shaq singlehandedly ended the fight with a few monster shoves. Although T Mac's "stomp that almost was" on Steve Nash's chest is a close second. Nash almost died, but Sheriff Shaq's shove saved his life. And for that he should be forever grateful.

Happy Monday!

MYSM: Greg Oden's ESPN Commercial

When work lightens up, hopefully Pleats 'n Cleats will return to regularly scheduled programming. Until then . . .

Unfortunately, we've seen more of Greg Odwn in ads than we have on the court, but this is an oldie but goodie, plus behind the scenes footage. I'm still looking for that NBA promo commercial with Dwight Howard!

Happy Monday!

AI to the D

Ok, ok. Several of you have asked so I think I can take a two minute break from the Barack Obama campaign to give my two cents on this Detroit Pistons-Denver Nuggets trade, so here goes:

If you've followed my work here, you know that I'm a firm believer in blowing things up and starting all over again. You may not know that that goes for whether the team is good but not quite good enough, or very awful. The Pistons fall into the former category. Consistently very good but not quite good enough. Personally, I don't care if you win all 82 games in the regular season and lose in 7 games in the NBA Finals - that's not my idea of a good team. If you're getting that close every year and can never seal the deal, you need to try something new. And if you start out on a high and then get progressively less good every year, that's even worse.

So I would have blown up the Pistons a few seasons ago, like 2005 a few seasons ago. They haven't really added or subtracted anyone of substance since they won in 2004, but yet expected that they'd somehow just up and figure it out. Well, I am glad they figured out early in this season that if they want to get to the top, they're going to have to take some drastic measures.

What did the Pistons lose? Not too much, in my opinion. In face, I may get jumped on for saying this, but I think Antonio McDyess is a bigger loss than "Mr. Big Shot" - whose shot has been M.I.A. longer than he's had that nickname. At least McDyess provided consistent inside scoring and solid defense, and he played hard every game - but he is getting up in age. Now, I know Billups had become Mr. Detroit, welcoming Obama instead of the mayor of Detroit, but I think it was time for him to go. Billups was inconsistent in terms of output and effort. The name Mr. Big Shot was only befitting if we're talking about shots he wasn't making, and on top of that, his shot selection became increasingly suspect. The irony of this trade is that the Pistons got rid of one gunner and picked up an even bigger gunner.

Which leads me to what the Pistons have gained. I mean, it's A.I. - I'd bet $100 that there are party promoters making up flyers for the official welcome to Motown party with his face splashed on them. Never mind, I don't want to take your money. This is huge for Detroit sports, especially when the stars on Detroit sports teams are few and far between these days. I'm far from a jersey person but I just might have to get his . . .

In terms of on-court gains, that remains to be seen. Iverson must have the ball in his hands to play well. Scratch that - to play at all. If he's not touching the ball at least 90% of the time his team has the ball, you're pretty much wasting him. He takes more shots than just about anyone in the game, but the thing is he almost always gets hot eventually, unlike some other people that I know. I actually enjoyed watching him and the 76ers in the NBA Finals back in 2002 when they lost in 5 games to the Los Angeles Lakers (featuring Kobe and Shaq). It was one of those LeBron James situations where he had pretty much no help but took his team much further than anyone thought was possible. But LeBron is a big man who takes over games. Iverson is barely 5'10" (I don't care what the NBA tells you) and just a scrappy player who leaves it all out there on the floor every night, and when he's on, he's dangerous. He may not like to practice, but he certainly likes to play. He has that heart that you just can't teach. And now that he's getting olderguy wants an NBA championship so badly he can taste it. He is one of the few who has been able to successfully get past a ton of off-court drama to get it together when necessary.

Fortunately, the Pistons are the most unselfish group of guys that you're going to encounter (sometimes to their detriment), and I think they can handle Iverson and his constant touching. As long as they can find themselves and their shots in the midst (i.e., after Iverson misses and the Pistons get the rebound) this could make the eastern conference very, very interesting this year. This is all neglecting the salary cap space that will be cleared because Iverson's contract will be up next year, allowing the Pistons to potentially pick up some other key players.

(Did I already mention that the Pistons instantly got more attractive?)

As for the gain to the Denver Nuggets . . . well, hopefully the thinner air and hometown factor will help Billups locate his shot again. McDyess . . . not really sure where he will fit in out there since they've already got a lot of big bodies who can score, but I think he was included as one of those unload situations to pad the deal (they also traded center Cheikh "Mr. Pad the Deal" Samb). The Nuggets with AI and Carmelo Anthony were supposed to be way better than they were (which wasn't terrible, but wasn't what they expected) and it looks like they weren't interested in giving that anymore time to work out.

This ESPN writer says the Nuggets got the better end of the deal because Billups will work better with Melo's style of play and now the Nuggets will have a true point guard rather than the shooting guard they had in Iverson. All I have to say to that is "OK." We'll see. I actually can't wait to see another exciting NBA season.

The bottom line is that this move is likely to either going to fail wildly (although it may still be a good move in the long run with the expired contracts issue) or result in a serious run at the championship - I don't think it can go any other way. But I love Joe Dumars for having the guts to shake it up.

This may call for NBA League Pass . . .

GYGM: HEY!

This may be more familiar to some of you as the "hey" song, but I guarantee if this played every morning as you got out of bed, you'd have a bigger pep in your step. Especially if Gary Glitter and his outfit were there, too.

This should be playing around the time the polls close on Tuesday . . .

MYSM: The Full Monty

Halfway through we get more than a post-game interview . . .

Some languages are just universal.