Beautiful basketball shoes

This is more or less a poker blog, but my favourite sport is basketball.
(Quick digression – I don’t consider poker to be a sport. It is competitive, it requires skill, but there is absolutely no athletic ability necessary to succeed at it. It is a contest of intellect, math, psychology and strategy. Thus, it is a game, not a sport).
At any rate, as a hoops-head, I have a natural obsession with basketball sneakers. If I won the World Series of Poker main event, one of my first “investments” would be a few pairs of sweet shoes.
The reason I bring up the topic is, I had a rare chance to see some true collector’s item kicks last week at the Abbotsford Collegiate Snowball Classic, a local high school boys basketball tournament.
Tournament organizers imported a team from Los Angeles – the Fairfax High School Lions. Fairfax is one of only a handful of U.S. high schools that are sponsored by Nike. Part of their deal with the Swoosh is, they get special-edition shoes produced each year featuring the school name and colours. This season, they’re rocking the LeBron Nike Zoom Soldier IV. Note the word FAIRFAX printed vertically on the heel, and the LeBron lion logo on the ankle, which matches the team nickname. (Check the sneaker blog nikelebron.net for looks at more special edition Fairfax LeBrons dating back to 2007).
The photo at the top of this post is of Fairfax’s white shoes that go with their home uniform; the one at the bottom is the corresponding black road edition. Sooooo cool.

LeBron James, Villain

The very first day of our New York trip, my buddy Matt and I dragged our wives to the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue.
For an NBA fan, this place is pretty much Mecca. Jerseys and shorts and hats for every team in the league. All kinds of memorabilia. There was no way I was walking out of that store without buying something.
And you know what I bought? A LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers jersey I found on the discount rack for $30. It was the super-snazzy wine-and-gold road jersey, with the old Cavs logo on the chest. Just a great-looking piece, and an unbelievably good price for an authentic uniform.
What made this garment even more awesome to me is, it felt like I was making a political statement of sorts. Maybe political isn’t quite the right adjective, but I was taking a stand on an issue by buying that jersey. I don’t like that LeBron dissed his home-state fans. That was some mean stuff. And every time I wear that jersey, I’ll remember that it was the one he was always meant to wear.
Yup, I’m definitely chugging the Haterade when it comes to the artist formerly known as King James. I caught the first half of the Heat’s season-opener in Boston, and thoroughly enjoyed watching James, Wade and Bosh stumble around trying to figure out what their roles were as the boos rained down. I’ve also been doing a fair bit of reading on the Heat, and here are some of the more interesting factoids I’ve come across:
-- LeBron had eight turnovers against the Celtics, and nine the following evening against Philadelphia. In 548 career games coming into this season, he’d only had eight-plus turnovers 10 times. Interesting.
-- TNT, which broadcast the Celtics-Heat game, said 7.4 million people tuned in, making it the highest-rated regular season game on cable in NBA history. Interestingly, after Boston and Miami, the highest local ratings came out of Cleveland. Amazing how collective loathing will tend to galvanize people.
-- Cavs owner Dan Gilbert kind of went ballistic post-Decision, firing off an insanely angry letter. He went on ESPN radio after the Celtics game, and dropped this little nugget: "That was sort of a surreal experience . . . I guess they are only going to be 81-1 now.” Bazinga.
-- Bill Simmons caught both of the Heat’s first two games, and his fascinating take on the whole thing was on ESPN.com. Definitely worth a read. Perhaps the most interesting passage:
“The best thing about Pre-Decision LeBron? How he connected with his teammates and fans. He wanted to win, he wanted to have a good time, he wanted to put on a show, he wanted to be liked, and most of all, he wanted to amaze. Watching Post-Decision LeBron talk cryptically about taking mental notes, retweet vicious messages, broach the race card and prance around preseason games with an Eff You edge was like seeing Will Ferrell play a war criminal or something. It just didn't feel right.”
LeBron, if you happen to stumble onto this obscure blog in your cyberspace wanderings, this is why everybody is upset.

Behind the scenes with LeBron

So a couple weeks back I bought an issue of GQ. That's something straight guys do, right? RIGHT?
Regardless, I had a good reason: The September issue contained a feature on LeBron James written by J.R. Moehringer. I came across a promo for the story on ESPN.com. Apparently Moehringer had rare access to LeBron around the time he made "The Decision": Two exclusive interviews before, and one interview after.
I was even more intrigued when I realized Moehringer was the dude who wrote an amazing profile of Pete Carroll back in 2007, excellently entitled "23 reasons why a profile of Pete Carroll does not appear in this space." I came across that piece in a sportswriting anthology book, and it simply blew my mind. You can read that story at the following URL: www.lamag.com/article.aspx?id=6918. It's well worth the 45 minutes it'll take to read. Trust me - print it out, read it on the can if you have to. Moehringer is wicked talented.
At any rate, the LeBron story doesn't measure up to the Carroll piece, but it was still well worth the $4.99 I paid for the magazine. Here are some of the highlights:
-- Best line: "He sounds like a big kid," Moehringer says of LeBron, recounting their final chat. "Maybe that's why it all unfolded this way. Kids get into all kinds of trouble. Especially during the summer." Bazinga.
-- Worst line: "I arrive in Cleveland at the start of July. James's decision hovers in the humid air. Poland must have felt this way in the summer of 1939. Except it's not an invasion Cleveland fears, but a departure." Point taken. But while LeBron was culturally important to Cleveland, his departure seems somehow less impactful than Poland being invaded by the Nazis. A bit of an exaggeration, J.R.
-- Moehringer was on set for "The Decision" and got all kinds of deadly behind-the-scenes stuff. My favourite part was that James arrived at the shoot with Kanye West. Surreal. Also, the kids who sat in the bleachers behind James, serving as props for TV, had chugged a bunch of free Vitaminwater before the show (the company was one of the sponsors) and were pretty much bursting with pee by the time the show was over. This is the random stuff that makes a story come to life.
-- Moehringer talks to Maverick Carter, one of James's advisors, after the decision, as everybody was ripping James to shreds. "He (Carter) sounds baffled and woozy, like a science buff who was mixing chemicals in the garage and accidentally blew up the neighbourhood. 'How did it get so big?' he asks plaintively." Classic stuff. I'm no genius, but it seemed patently obvious to me that the only way the TV special would go over well was if James was returning to the Cavaliers. Memo to LeBron: Next time, don't listen to a guy named Maverick. Unless he's teaching you how to cheat at cards or dispose of a body.
-- There's a recurring scene where Moehringer negotiates with LeBron's publicist to find a private interview room. "This won't work," the publicist says at one point, evaluating a potential interview location. "LeBron's never been in this room before." Are you kidding me? Classic.
-- In the end, Moehringer more or less concludes that by heading to Miami with his buddies Bosh and Wade, James is trying to recreate the tight-knit vibe of his high school team. Seems logical.
-- A quick word on GQ. In between the pages and pages and pages of ads, there were a lot of interesting features worth reading. I'd buy it again. But I'm not going to become a metrosexual.

Roughriders roll

Let's talk a little CFL football.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm a Saskatchewan Roughriders fan. Have been since I was a wee lad. Thus, it did my heart good to watch the Riders rough up the B.C. Lions last Saturday at Empire Field. Final score: 37-18.
Random thoughts:
-- The temporary stadium at Empire Field is everything it's hyped up to be. Seating just north of 27,000 fans, it's a wonderfully intimate spot to watch a football game. It's everything that cavernous, character-less B.C. Place is not.
-- The fans at Empire, on the other hand, leave a little bit to be desired. I attended the game with a crowd of vacationing in-laws from Saskatchewan - Riders season ticket-holders - and they were roundly disappointed with the general lack of football knowledge in the bleachers. In football, it's generally understood that the home fans are to make noise as the visiting team's offence approaches the line of scrimmage, so as to make it difficult for them to communicate. I could count on one hand the number of times Lions fans tried that tactic against the Riders - and then, only after they were instructed what to do by the P.A. announcer. Weak sauce, Lions fans.
-- One more rant on Lions fans. Seems like every time I go to a Lions game, at least one fight breaks out in the stands. On Saturday, there were two brawls. I've attended a lot of sporting events in venues across Western Canada and the States, and I can honestly say that 90 per cent of the scraps I've seen have come at Lions games. I hate to apply the "white trash" label, but . . .
-- I guess I should say something nice about the Lions now. Geroy Simon, with two highlight-reel TD catches, was one of the only Leos with a pulse - I was stunned how much gas he has left in the tank for a 34-year-old. And Travis Lulay's resilience was a credit to him. The Lions backup quarterback entered the game just before halftime after Casey Printers went out with a leg injury, and the Riders spent most of the second half treating him like a pinata. But Lulay stuck with it. With the game out of reach in the fourth quarter, and just one play after being virtually de-cleated by a Sask defender, Lulay stepped up and threw a TD bomb to Simon. I've always liked Lulay.
-- As for the Riders, they looked an awful lot like the best team in the CFL in improving to 2-0. The offence has so many weapons - the score would have been even more lopsided if not for a couple of first-half mental errors - and it's scary to consider the upside as QB Darian Durant (pictured above) continues to improve. The defence, which was porous during a Week 1 win over Montreal, dominated against the Lions. It's hard to put too much stock in that performance, given the atrocious play of B.C.'s offensive line, but it was encouraging regardless.
-- In closing, since I can't seem to successfully embed video in this blog, here's a link to a hilarious YouTube video featuring Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd roasting LeBron James for his "Decision:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtIaMr2hGeI
And just for the heck of it, another surreal clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

LeBron James, and the dis heard round the world

LeBron James is a member of the Miami Heat, but boy, was that ever cold!

The Global Icon not only dissed his home-state team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, he did it on national TV, essentially inserting the dagger slowly and then twisting it.

I don't have a massive problem with LeBron signing with the Heat - he's entitled to do whatever he believes will make him happy, I suppose. I will say, I'm a fan of the romantic notion of one player sticking with one team for his entire career - think Tim Duncan, Steve Yzerman, Derek Jeter, etc. I'm old-school like that.

Anyway, it's how LeBron orchestrated his move that gives me the heebie-jeebies. His break-up with the Cavaliers and their long-suffering fans was the equivalent of turning on the TV and seeing your girlfriend getting it on with Flavor Flav and Bret Michaels at the same time.

Well done, LeBron. In one fell swoop, you went from being almost universally beloved, to giving folks the notion you're kind of a dick.

In one sense, I completely understand LeBron's logic behind the ESPN production. It's his stated goal to become a global icon along the lines of Jay-Z, and the TV show was simply a means of leveraging his free agency to the greatest possible degree.

Even the timing of his announcement demonstrated a global media-savvy. The FIFA World Cup has completely enraptured the sporting audience planet-wide, so when did James choose to steal the spotlight? On Thursday - the day after the soccer semifinals had wrapped up, and before the hype for Sunday's final shifts into overdrive. And to his credit, it worked. For one hour, James owned the singular focus of sports fans, yours truly included.

But I just never figured he'd do his home-state fans like that. When it was announced he'd go on ESPN, I was convinced he was going to pick the Cavs. All the rumblings that the Heat were his imminent choice had to be an elaborately designed smokescreen. I didn't think he had a taste for torture.

The ironic part of all this is, James is making an exceedingly selfless decision in picking the Heat. Sharing the spotlight with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will, to a degree, impact his ability to be "The Man." But we always knew LeBron was a good teammate. That's why we loved him.

But what we've always wanted from LeBron was for him to be the alpha male, the Chuck Norris, the ultimate beast of the NBA. What he's done, though, is establish himself as a follower. The Miami Heat have become Dwyane Wade's franchise over the past seven years, make no mistake about that. And Bosh picked the Heat more than 24 hours before LeBron, spurning The King's advances to join him in Cleveland.

What I'm trying to say is, Michael Jordan wasn't running around in the mid-80s looking to team up with Larry Bird or Magic Johnson. And while some might view LeBron-to-the-Heat as a selfless move, others might call it weak sauce.

At the end of the day, the James-Wade-Bosh trinity makes for a fascinating scenario for basketball fans. The North American sports scene has never really seen anything like it. The closest thing I can think of would be soccer's Galacticos - Real Madrid circa 2000-2005, featuring David Beckham, Zinedine Zindane, Ronaldo and Luis Figo, among others.

But before we see whether the Heat can become more than the sum of their formidable parts, let's shed a tear for fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers, victims of the most ruthless sports break-up in history.