The Miami Heat are the NBA’s nWo

About two months or so ago, this amazing video montage of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade hit the net. The video portrays Miami’s trio as the nWo (New World Order). The nWo was one of, if not, the biggest and most important gimmick in the history of professional wrestling. It changed the world of wrestling for years, and it also meant that long-time good guy, Hulk Hogan, became the villain — it shocked the wrestling world.

Obviously on that mid-July night on ESPN, James’ announcement to join Bosh and Wade and “take his talents to South Beach,” did as well.

The video was put together really well and captures that nostalgic late 90′s big-time wrestling feel, but I do want to at least bring up the point that this blog was the first referencing the nWo gimmick with LeBron James. Regardless of who gets credit, the video is awesome. If you aren’t familiar with an nWo vignette, then check the original.

Luckily, the first exhibition game is less than a month away, only about three more weeks of complete boredom. Thankfully we at least have some World Basketball Championship action to watch in the meantime.

Chris Paul wants to stay in New Orleans?

Last week, the NBA rumor mill went nuts as Chris Paul reportedly expressed his desire to be traded from the New Orleans Hornets. His ties with LeBron James and James’ marketing team, along with a reported list of teams which Paul wanted to be dealt to only helped add fuel to the fire.

Today, after meeting with Hornets team president Hugh Weber, newly hired General Manager Dell Demps and head coach Monty Williams, Paul used his Twitter account to announce his desire to stay a Hornet.

The meeting went well.  It was great to get an opportunity to sit down with Coach Williams, President Weber and our new General Manager Dell Demps. I expressed my desire to win and I like what they said about the direction that they want to take the team.  I have been a Hornet my entire career and I hope to represent the city of New Orleans and state of Louisiana for many years to come.

Great news for Hornets fans, who didn’t have to witness “The Decision 2.0,” but the question is, do you really believe CP3?

Wade continuing his late-night tour, hits Jimmy Kimmel Live

Dwyane Wade did The Tonight Show earlier this week and continued his tour of the late-night circuit while hitting Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. The interview is pretty hilarious and Kimmel calls Riley out on tampering based on Wade’s statement, so that was sweet too. Kimmel is the best talk show host on television, make no doubts about it. His show is pure awesome.

Just to keep tabs, Wade is making his late-night rounds and LeBron is LeBron and had “The Decision.” I wonder when Chris Bosh is going to get sick of being the third wheel, same goes for Juwan Howard, why isn’t he getting any solo pub?

The interview is two parts, so make sure to watch both. The interview covers all the basic things we’ve already heard about this free-agency circus, and Wade says that he wouldn’t play for Cleveland if Bosh and LeBron both went there. The pain in Cleveland just never stops.

Oh that’s just great, Chris Paul demands a trade

Back in 2008 the New Orleans Hornets were an uplifting success story in the NBA. Chris Paul was making a strong case for the MVP and the Hornets won 56 games. They finished second in the West, and were only a game back of the first-place Los Angeles Lakers.

Even though they took a dip in the second round against the more experienced San Antonio Spurs — they were only one win away from the Western Conference Finals — the Hornets were finally making an impact in New Orleans, after leaving Charlotte in the early part of the decade.

The following season, the Hornets only won 49 games and lost in a downright embarrassing fashion to the Denver Nuggets in the first round and last season things took an even stronger turn for the worse.

Hornets General Manager Jeff Bower fired head coach Byron Scott just nine games into the season. The team finished last place in the Southwest Division, winning 37 games and missing the playoffs.

Now, Paul wants out.

Rony Seikaly releasing his first single

Rony Seikaly played in the NBA for 11 seasons, having quite a solid career with the Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors and Orlando Magic. His career came to an end after a brief stint with the New Jersey Nets in 1999. During his career Seiklay posted career averages of 14.7 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, in today’s game, Seikaly is an All-Star Center every season with those types of numbers.

Hailing from Beruit, Lebanon, Seikaly is the only Lebanese-born player in league history.

After his career, Seikaly made Miami his home and has played a role in a lot of the nightlife in South Beach. Seikaly invests in numerous bars down in South Beach and is also a DJ. I’m sure if LeBron James and Chris Bosh haven’t met Seikaly yet, Dwyane Wade will be introducing them

Seikaly is currently on an international tour DJing around the world, and on Aug. 3, he’ll be releasing his first single, “Come With Me,” which feature vocals by Polina (not sure who she is). The song has a nice groove to it, I can see it being played at upscale martini lounges where I wouldn’t be allowed to wear my throwback Seikaly jersey.

I’ve been known to tell DJ’s that they suck, but seeing that Seikaly is 6-foot-11, even if I didn’t like the song, I’d keep my mouth shut.

Nice work Rony, keep the jams coming.

Props, Ball Don’t Lie

Please Penny, don’t do it.

I’m trying to avoid the fact that Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway says he wants to come back to the league and join the Miami Heat. Penny is a staple to guys in my age group who grew up watching the game of basketball. He killed it on the court, his shoe game was right up there with Jordan, and he’s responsible for the greatest basketball commercials ever.

Unfortunately, injuries changed things for Penny and his career was hindered. His last attempt to play in the NBA fell short with the Miami Heat, when he reunited with Shaquille O’Neal for the early part of the 2007-08 season. Hardaway played in 16 games that season for the Heat, but was released by the team before midseason. He hasn’t played in an NBA game since 2007.

As much as I’d love to see Hardaway return to the game, odds are if he went to the Heat to chase a ring with their “big three,” he’d probably just embarrass himself. Well, maybe embarrass is a harsh word, but I just don’t want to see Penny coming off the bench averaging four points and three assists on a championship caliber team.

My memories of him dominating still outweigh the injuries, unlike many, and I want to keep it that way.

My message to Penny:

“Penny, you’re a legend in so many of our eyes. You have nothing to prove and I hate the fact that you are saying you want a minimal role with this team, don’t chase the ring. Injuries stole your career, but when you were at your best, there weren’t many players in that era that out-shined you, let’s just leave it at that.”

If he does come back, then I guess I will somewhat be rooting for the Heat, and most importantly maybe it means Lil’ Penny will meet LeBron and Big Z’s puppets, if that’s the case and it means Lil’ Penny is returning, then I’m game.

It’s probably a good thing LeBron traded in his number ’23′

Michael Jordan is the best basketball player of all-time, and every great player that plays the game and at some point may have to face comparison to “His Airness.” Obviously, LeBron James entered the league with that “The Next Jordan” title. Wearing number’23′ probably didn’t help his cause in avoiding the comparison — along with his self-appointed and league-hyped greatness.

As James joins Dwyane Wade‘s Miami Heat along with Chris Bosh, he hands in his number ’23,’ and that’s probably a good thing. Jordan spoke about James’ decision at a celebrity golf tournament this weekend:

“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry (Bird), called up Magic (Johnson) and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,’ ” Jordan said on NBC after playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada.

“But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”

FOXNews

Obviously James is one of the best players in the game today, and one of the greatest players of the last decade, don’t think for a minute that anything I write about him is taking away from that fact.

I don’t want to take the comments out of context or make them out to be bigger than they are, but at the same time, that’s Jordan’s way of saying, “You are not me kid…none of you are.”

Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell mock “The Decision”

I don’t watch the ESPY’s because they already have a championship trophy for each sport, along with individual awards like MVPs, so I don’t see the point. I’ll admit that the year the Detroit Pistons took the show hostage, I watched with beaming eyes.

Other than that, I don’t really get into it.

I did catch this great clip though, and it’s hilarious. Sounds like there was plenty of other funny stuff on the show this year, so maybe people don’t watch it for the athletes, they watch it for the Saturday Night Live factor.

Here’s two of the funniest people on the planet, Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd, absolutely destroying Jim Gray and LeBron James in the spoof of “The Decision.”

Spot on job by Rudd and Carrell, classic!

LeBron James couldn’t live up to his own hype in Cleveland

LeBron James pissed off a lot of people last week, there’s no other way to put it. If you’re one of the 100,000 people that live in Miami, well, you’re obviously pretty damn happy. Same goes for front-runners of our universe — the bandwagon is filling up.

The people of Cleveland went into outrage, and rightfully so. They’re allowed to feel betrayed, that’s part of the business in sports. If LeBron is insulted that people raged the streets burning his jersey, he probably shouldn’t have made his announcement on a reality show-esque prime-time ESPN special.

If his announcement came in the middle of the day, via an update on ESPN or one of the other online sports outlets (as all other free-agent updates do), I’m sure the people wouldn’t have hit the streets in the fashion they did. The thing is, LeBron and his team of handlers, they wanted the build-up and they wanted this hype.

It was ridiculous, and that’s why so many people are angry. That’s why people are laughing at him and “witnessing” first hand just another example of how uncomfortable LeBron James is as a person. He’s a puppet and a follower, who craves the attention to validate himself.

We’ve never seen this type of display in all of sports, and hopefully we never have to see it again.