Before we get started again on the subject of the NBA dress code, here's something hysterical: Ali G (in a clear wardrobe violation; there, we've started) "interviewing" Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant, as part of TNT's NBA promos (Windows player req'd).
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| Clearly in violation of the NBA's dress code. |
Wouldn't you love to see Ali G on VC? Um, maybe not. We'll be back here around lunchtime with some fresh word from the ACC on Vince Returns, and maybe a little Ali G-style Re-speck, with the Nets in for a preseason "contest" against the almost lifelike Raptors.
This just in: Vince Carter. In the dark corridors of the Air Canada Centre, he says -- well, nothing special. In baggy sweats and a wool hat. With a couple dozen media and the Raptors logo looking on. Some highlights -- a loose term, I know -- in this condensed version of the 11-minute original:
Q: How much happier are you now, in your situation with the Nets, than you were at the end (as a Raptor)?
A: It's great. I'm in a great situation. A great team, we've added some great people ... it's always fun when you're on a team that's a contender.
On the dress code: "You're not getting me started on that. I'll leave it to the guys who are mad about it. It is what it is. The only thing I believe is guys should be able to express themselves, whatever that may be. I totally understand if you're injured you should wear a suit, but guys should be able to express themselves, however they wear it, whatever they wear."
On the Raptors: "That's a thing of the past."
Q: Is there a part of you that hopes one day the fans of this city will remember you --? A: -- "Aw, Barry, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. ... Leave it alone."
On his old teammates: "I called Alvin, and Mo Pete. I had dinner with Alvin, talked to Jalen. I know Alvin's playing. I told him I might flagrant foul him." *chuckles* "I told him, are you sure? Are you healthy enough to play? He said, 'I'm not going to get any better'."
Q: Have you changed anything as far as your knees?
A: My knees. Not really. Same approach. Same routine I've been criticized for. I stick with what I think works. It's been good for me. It's just taking time, letting your body recover before you go back on the floor.
Q: What do you think of the perception of the Raptors around the league?
A: I don't know. I try not to get into it. What's done is done. I've tried to separate myself from that... etc, etc.
Riveting stuff, and you read it here first.
Meantime, some links:
Much reaction off said dress code announced Monday night, Dave Feschuk taking NBA commissioner David Stern to task:
"Muzzles are not required attire, although Stern would no doubt appreciate voluntary compliance on the matter."
Stephen Jackson isn't impressed either, calling the code a "racist statement". With even one of his owners, Mark Cuban, calling this one "a failure of management skills", Stern offers up a defence: "There are different uniforms for different occasions."
Like, say, a hairshirt and paper-bag headwear for Raptor fans.
We've already said our piece on this nonsense -- as Cuban points out, it's obliterated the league's newest charitable initiative, and it came on the same day that the University of Central Florida's annual report on gender and diversity (pdf file) gave the league an A one one count, and the WNBA A's on both counts. Let's hope once it blows over the NBA can do something useful, like going out and finding the real killers of the Raptor franchise.
Couple more basketball notes: Alvin Williams should indeed get some p.t. tonight. We might even get a Lamond Murray sighting, after having had a Lamond Murray sounding on the state of the Raptors (and what would an NBA season be without a Lamond Murray sounding?):
"They don't know basketball up there. I you don't know what you're doing you keep on guessing every year and that's all that's going on, guessing every year."
In baseball, Rich Griffin is with the NLCS as it shifts back tonight to Busch Stadium for at least one more game before the wreckers' ball moves in. The Sun's Bob Elliott asks whether this is Larry Walker's last stand. And Dave Perkins wonders why Cito Gaston hasn't been a manager for nearly a decade.
Oh, it's a Champions League day, and maybe Freddy Adu will get there someday -- but first, he has to get off the Washington bench. And uh, that Toronto soccer stadium? All it appears to need now is municipal approval.
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