Nick Young Documentary

"Second Chance Season" is an inspirational story about Wizard's player Nick Young. It chronicles his life before USC and the NBA. The movie aired on ESPN2 last night, and it was incredible. It shows him battling on the court against former UCLA legend and Laker star Jordan Farmar in high school for bragging rights to the best player in the city, to his off court battle of the SAT, to his life battle in trying to cope with the death of his brother, and even several in depth interviews with the murderer of his brother and the drama that happens when the murderer and the family attempt to arrange a meeting.

The documentary was incredibly well made and almost made it feel like you were Nick Young's best friend that was going through these struggles with him. I believe that many NBA fans take for granted how hard some of these players had it before the NBA. Many fans look at the finished product of the player and are quick to criticize. This documentary really puts basketball and life in perspective. Young has had a lot more to deal with than just the pressure of putting the ball in the hoop. You see all sorts of levels of disappointment for Young and you get to experience it through him, seemingly in person. I can't give the movie justice through these couple of paragraphs. After watching the documentary, I have a new appreciation for Young's game and a new understanding of his life and others that have gone through a similar situation as him. Some people ask why professional athletes get paid ungodly amounts of money, but after seeing how Nick Young perservered through all of these hardships, it begins to answer that question.

If you did not get a chance to watch the movie then try and get a hold of it. If you haven't heard of the movie, here is the trailer.



Izzy

Quick thoughts on Josh Howard and Chris Paul

I'm not going to post the Josh Howard video because you all have seen it a million times by now. Apparently, Josh Howard has been sighted around campus (Wake Forest University) today. He has a house and some family members in nearby Lewisville, so it is not outrageous that he is around town. The interesting point is that The Chris Paul Foundation is sponsoring a concert by Ludacris tonight, and bought up a bunch of tickets that he gave to Wake students for free. A guess could be that Howard is in town to make an appearance at the concert for PR purposes (Rumor has it that Dwade, Lebron, Byron Scott, George 'The Iceman' Gervin, and some other Hornets players are making an appearance at the concert tomorrow). Or, he could just be waiting around until his court date next week for his racing violation he received earlier in the summer. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see two of the most high profile people to ever come out of Wake Forest both be in town simultaneously. One is just scratching the surface of his career and is one of the most loved athletes in the country, and another one who could be on a dark path in his career. I am a huge Howard fan, I love his game and I can't forget how much he has helped the Dallas organization, and I sincerely hope that he gets his name out of the news for negative things he has done, and gets his name in the news more for good things he is doing.

I can't stop reading all about this movie that is coming out about Lebron and his younger years. Here is an interview with some of the players, and check out this picture of a young Lebron.

What is the worst draft pick in the history of the NBA? No, not Kwame or Olowakandi...it is clearly Sam Bowie. Here is a stat analysis by WOW showing that Bowie was actually a very efficient player.

Team USA's go-to guy

One of the questions about the USA Redeem Team was whether they could fit all of those egos onto one team. As well all know, it worked better than planned. Some of the best players in the world found themselves in unfamiliar positions and adjusted to the situation. For my generation, it was our version of the Dream Team. It was some of the purest basketball I have ever seen, and it was beautiful to watch. Here is an article by Bill Simmons that a friend emailed to me talking about how the USA team unanimously chose Kobe to have the ball in the final moments of the game. It is a great read (Simmons always is). This post is less about promoting Kobe and more about highlighting the humility of the rest of the players, all of which, are the superstars on their respective teams. We may not see this again for a long time.

Here is the story.

Izzy

Introducing Greg Johnson to the DishingDimes team

We have picked up a new writer this past week. His name is Greg Johnson. He has written us a post before. It was the Game 1 rundown of the NBA Finals. Greg hails from the great or not so great (depends on your perspective), city of Boston. Some of you might be thinking, how can a Laker fan and Celtic fan coexist? Well, that is a good question. Surprisingly, Greg is one of the most level headed Boston fan I've ever come across, but I make that statement with some reservation seeing as I have not talked to him since Brady's injury. He has a very realistic view on everything Boston, and has a great knowledge about the league as well as history of the league. He is a great talent evaluator, and brings great opinions to any sports discussion I have with him. He is further from a Steven A. Smith and closer to a Hubie Brown in terms of his basketball comments.

He has a lot of real basketball experience. Standing at 6'5 he has played AAU ball, high school ball, and was a manager for the Wake Forest Basketball Team his freshmen year. If you ask him about the most memorable moment of his bsaketball career, he is less likely to tell you about the Division 1 basketball players he hung around with for hours on end, and more likely to tell you about the time when he was in a layup line for pregame warm-ups and fell after a dunk and attempted to brace his fall, like anyone would, with the palm of his hand, which caused his arm to bend up to the centimeter before it would break. I can imagine that his arm looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It may not have been his defining moment in his career, but it has proven that he is unbreakable, and he will be able to endure the criticism that bombards bloggers in the blogosphere without being phased. We are very proud to have Greg as a writer on the site, and we are sure that you all will enjoy his writing and his insight.

Welcome, Greg.

Izzy

When the real estate market and the economy is bad, it is tough to sell your house. Just ask Sheed and AI.

This is a really good review of a new documentary that is coming out about Lebron's old high school team. Check it out.