TrueHoop's Henry Abbott makes a list of all the "next Michael Jordans" that have come into the NBA in recent years. Harold Miner! I haven't thought about that guy in years.
Henry Abbott at TrueHoop picked up on a policy that Colin Powell had when he was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Here's Mike McConnell repeating what Powell told him:
Look, I have got a rule. As an intelligence officer, your responsibility is to tell me what you know. Tell me what you don't know. Then you're allowed to tell me what you think. But you always keep those three separated.
Abbott rightly comments that that's good advice for journalists and bloggers.
Henry Abbott reviews a documentary called Quantum Hoops which documents the Caltech basketball team, winless for 21 years because all the players are walk-ons and subject to Caltech's high admission standards.
What we are used to as college basketball is really basketball as a college major, or in many cases instead of college. Not basketball as an activity. The version at Caltech puts stuff like health, education, and love of the game first. I can't speak for basketball, but I think a lot of colleges would be better off with that kind of athletic presence on campus. Maybe all the professional development of basketball players should take place somewhere else -- somewhere that is not supposed to be about academics.
Henry Abbott reports on what he's learned about William Wesley, a behind-the-scenes power player in the business of basketball. "Enter William Wesley. How's this for a resume? He was right there in Michael Jordan's ear. The whole time. 'Wes' helped pull off one of the great feats of modern legend-making. He held the hand of one of the NBA's less likable characters -- an angry, cussing, yelling, gambling, adrenaline addict with some sort of over-competitive personality disorder -- as he became the most successful pitchman in sports history, complete with his own animated children's movie."
Henry Abbott: bloggers give credit, journalists typically don't. "When Sports Illustrated breaks a story that blogs catch on to, SI gets its name and inbound links all over the blogosphere. When blogs break stories, I don't see why mainstream media shouldn't reciprocate."
Henry Abbott lets us know about Flint Star, a documentary film about basketball in Flint, Michigan. "It's amazing to watch. Six year olds who can dribble between their legs and hit a fadeaway. Dribble penetration followed by vicious alley-oop dunks. Flagrant fouls that will make you bark out loud as you're watching the DVD in bed next to your sleeping wife."
In addition to the James Frey thing, we've got people digging into the identity of the secretive writer JT LeRoy (a denial). And True Hoop's Henry Abbott is trying to figure out who William Wesley is...a powerful NBA figure who came out of nowhere and appears to not have a job or any direct influence on anyone or anything but goes to fights with Michael Jordan and has LeBron James on speed dial.
