Holy damn, what a 24 hours of sport! First of all, props to the All Blacks for their Bledisloe/Tri-Nations win last night. It was a pretty tight game and a well deserved win. Our loosies were killing it, and man it’s good to see Weepu back - shot boys. Then today I managed to shake a slight hangover in time to see the Warriors under-20 side win their quarterfinal against St George convincingly. Heapsa talented dudes in that team man, Kevin Locke and Russell Packer especially… Kiwi league’s future looks pretty promising. Then there was the big one, the Warriors vs the Storm. Understandably we weren’t really expected to win, but somehow we did. Un-fucken-believable. I’m still a bit lost for words, but this is pretty much the greatest day in my life hahaha. I was fist pumping and all that shit during that last play from Ropati and Vatuvei which saw Witt (eventually) put the ball down and score in the last minute. The even better news is that we get a home game next Friday now to decide who makes the semi-finals. As soon as those tickets go on sale I’m in there. Man, getting up Monday morning for work is gonna be all that much easier after this weekend of sport, yessss.

There’s just nothing better really. For the athletes, the Olympics drives them to surpass previous physical limits imposed on the human race by the gods - all for the glory of a medal. For people like myself, the Olympics simply drives you to watch more TV in a 2 week stretch than you’ve watched in the 4 years since the last Olympics - that’s what’s up. In all honesty I haven’t felt like doing SHIT since the Olympics started, and I don’t see that trend discontinuing, at least until the good track and field events are over. However during my viewing of this XXIX Olympiad I’ve been getting increasingly pissed at TV One’s coverage, or more specifically the events they choose to cover.

I hadn’t intended to watch the womens cycling road race cause I thought it would suck, but after 15 minutes viewing I found I was quite engrossed by it. This Russian chick had made a break and was a minute ahead of the Peleton with like half an hour to go, the race was reaching an exciting climax. Then TVNZ, true to their name come through with a deft show of nationalism and cross over to the kick off of NZ vs Brazil…. in Soccer. WTF ? Are you serious ? I wanna watch individuals surpass human limits and win medals, I want the excitement of competition, I don’t want to see our fifth tier soccer nation getting their ass kicked by the best in the world in fucking pool play. That’s a foregone conclusion, that ain’t exciting. I know there’s people that DO want to see the game (families of the players etc), but fuck, we don’t need to see this shit from minute ONE ! Let’s catch them up in the second half TVNZ ! don’t leave me hanging when there’s actual victories to be seen.

This brought me to a realisation, for the most part I don’t really like seeing any sports which are “games” at the Olympics. Soccer, Hockey, even things I like watching like Tennis and Basketball. I wouldn’t really bat an eyelid if these were all canned. The wack ones take up hours of coverage time, and the good ones we see all year anyway (Grand Slams, NBA, Premier League etc). When an Olympic medal ain’t really the pinnacle of achievement for your sport, which it isn’t for a lot of these.. it just makes it wack. Back to “games” though, I’d make the exception for Indoor Volleyball, cause it’s bad ass and I never see it normally. Anyway here’s my viewing wishlist for the rest of the Olympics, someone word up TVNZ

No more Equestrian - I know NZ is in this, I don’t care. It’s boring as fuck.
No more Board Sailing - Same as above.
Rowing - Coverage has been all good, it’s good to watch, and NZ has been goin hard. Win/win
Swimming - They’re covering this all good, keep it up. How was the Mens 4×100 relay ? Ho-ly
More Weight Lifting - They’ve showed fuck all, this is some real Olympic shit.
More Boxing - Only seen 1 fight.
More Wrestling - Gladitorial activities is what the Olympics is all about.
No more Beach Volleyball - Fuck this, too much court and too few players = boring spectacle.
No more Shooting - Guns aint sport, I’ll let Archery ride.
More Gymnastics - Seen hardly any gymnastics, which is a shame cause people doing flips is all good.
Diving - Diving’s all good.
Cycling - Will be mean once the indoor shit starts, Pursuit is ill.
Heaps of Track and Field - Bar maybe the 15000 meters which i only wanna see the end of, any Track and Field is all good.

Yesterday’s match between the Warriors and Wests Tigers marked Ruben Wiki’s 300th game in the NRL and I just wanna give props to one of league’s greatest ever players and to quote Tofiga on Off Work, “a role models in the gommunity”. The game yesterday was a fitting way to mark the occasion because the venue, Leichardt Oval, was where Wiki made his debut for Canberra (with their U-23s) and the coach of Wests, Tim Sheens, was Wiki’s coach at the Raiders when he first started. Since his early days with the Green Machine, Wiki has gone on to achieve a lot. He has the record for the world’s most capped test player (55), is the most capped NZer in the NRL (300*), is only the 10th player ever to play 300 NRL games and 1st Kiwi, was part of the 24-0 tri-series hiding of Australia, won a premiership with the Raiders in ‘94, has captained his country and club, was named in the all-time Kiwi team, and was made an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit for his services to rugby league. As well as his achievements on the field, Wiki has been a role model off it, renowned as an all-round good guy and inspiration to young Polynesian players in the NRL, and has been involved in anti-violence and healthy eating campaigns to name just a few. Personally I’ve always looked up to Ruben Wiki, and along with Tana Umaga, he’s made me proud to be Samoan, even if I am only 1/4. So yeah, shot Ruben, congratulations on the feat and I hope your teammates can get you into the playoffs in your final NRL season because you deserve better than a 12th place finish!

If your views differ from that of the homie Racial (”hip-hop > sports!”) you will probably agree these finals were the most interesting since the Bulls dynasty.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about how the big three dominated the Kobe Show, which is true, but when it comes down to it the championship equation is easy… Thoro niggaz = rings. Look back at all the championship teams of the past few years. whether it was Bruce Bowen, James Posey, Robert Horry, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant or whoever, they all had multiple dudes who’s job it was to do nothing but down and out dirty shit and get under the skin of the other team.

It became evident early on that the Lakers bench were a group of frightened puppies compared to the pitbulls on Boston’s squad. Posey & PJ Brown didn’t show up much in the stats, they just annoyed the shit out of lames like Farmar and Radmonovic. The most telling point of the series was when lil’ ol’ Sam Cassell slammed Sasha Vujacic A.K.A David Dallas to the floor and just laughed. In the final game while up by about 37, Big Baby ran the floor and stuffed in someone’s grill and Tony Allen caught a reverse alley-oop. The Celtics role players were ruthless. The Boston Three Party is no stranger to thoro’ness either. Between them they have been stabbed 11 times, repped Bloods on court, had a threesome in a Spike Lee movie, and named their dog Big Pun. So with that in mind, here are the two things L.A. needs to do next season…

1. Get a thug/thug’s
The Lakers need to do anything they can to get Ron Artest. He would be the perfect fit. Solves the confusion at small forward, can score sufficiently, exceptional on D, and crazy as fuck. Either him or give Kimbo Slice a one year contract. Even if he cant dribble a ball, his intimidation factor would suffice.

2. Embrace Compton, not Hollywood
The Celtics come out to 50 Cent, the Cavaliers come out to Jigga, the Lakers come out to…. The Who. Classic band but, when you rep the home of N.W.A and Death Row there are countless hits that I feel would top the CSI theme. Dre Day, Straight Outta Compton, Bow Down, Hit Em Up, the possibilities are endless. And fuck Beckham and Ashton Kutcher, how about Suge Knight and the Boo-Ya Tribe courtside.

Let’s hope to see more of this on May 9th:

The Kangaroos team was named on Sunday and holy fuck their backline is mean. Every player is dangerous and it’s gonna be damage control for our backs. Thankfully their forwards are average though and just a bunch of dirty cunts really (there should be at least one fight with Gallen in their side). Even though we’re AGAIN tryna scratch a team together because of injuries and UK-based players being held back by their clubs, I’m an eternal optimist when it comes to Kiwi league and I think this is the team we could cause an upset with:

Fullback: Sam Perrett (Roosters)
Wing: Jason Nightingale (Dragons)
Centre: Iosia Soliola (Roosters)
Centre: Steve Matai (Sea Eagles)
Wing: Chase Stanley (Dragons)
Five-eighth: Setaimata Sa (Roosters)
Halfback: Benji Marshall (Tigers)
Prop: Roy Asotasi (captain) (Rabbitohs)
Hooker: Nathan Fien (Warriors)
Prop: Nathan Cayless (Eels)
Secondrow: Simon Mannering (Warriors)
Secondrow: David Kidwell (Rabbitohs)
Lock: Sonny Bill Williams (Bulldogs)

Interchange:
Sam Rapira (Warriors)
Greg Eastwood (Broncos)
Frank Pritchard (Panthers)
Isaac Luke (Rabbitohs)

If you care to know my reasoning for choosing these players read on…

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Just got finished watching game 3 of the Boston vs Atlanta NBA playoffs series, which the ATL somehow won. Besides Josh Smith goin’ nuts and putting on his own personal 3 point shootout/dunk display, the real noteworthy part came in the dying minutes.

When the Hawks’ Al Horton hit a jumper to ice the game, he started shouting at Paul Pierce who was on the floor. Pierce got up, had the look of death on his face, walked over to the Atlanta bench and threw up the Bloods sign. I’m guessing the Celtics will come up with some excuse to cover it up, but I know P Double is from Inglewood and didn’t seem to be fuckin’ around. We all know Pierce is no stranger to drama either, as he got stabbed 11 times, supposedly by affiliates of nut-job Ray ‘Nail In The Coffin’ Benzino.

The other showdown has been LeBron James vs DeShawn Stevenson in the Cavs vs Wizards series. When the Wizards were down 20, Stevenson hit a three over James and for some reason blew his fingers to say ‘I’m hot bitches!” (S.M.H). He also said Lebron was overrated. James said him replying would be like “Jay-Z replying to Souljah Boy“, so Stevenson flew Mr. Tell Em’ out to sit courtside at game 3, which Washington won. Madness.

All thuggery aside, the First Round of the Playoffs has been interesting to say the least.

• The Suns trading for Shaq seems to have backfired, as all O’Neal has been good at is lane violations and missing free-throws in the Phoenix vs San Antonio series. Tony Longoria is fucking unconcious, and the Suns are down 3-0.
• The Rockets won 22 games in a row during the regular season without Yao Ming, but lost their first two home games against eternal lames the Jazz. Houston is down 3-1.
• The Nuggets still look and play like its an And1 tour, and are about to get swept by the Lakers.
• Somehow the 76ers are beating the Pistons. The turning point will be when Rasheed Wallace intimidates a referee by looking at him.
• Im picking the Hornets vs Mavericks will be the only one to go to a game 7.

Man, is this video of Kobe jumping an Aston Martin for real or are they having a Maori on? That’s crazy if he did that for real, but I’m skeptical that it’s some viral Nike marketing campaign. If you can enlighten me, please do.

As a sidenote, man Kobe’s Adidas shoes were always stink, here’s a page full of wackness.

I just wanna give props to the NZ Sevens team for winning their 7th tournament in a row last night at the Hong Kong 7s. After we had a rough patch two seasons ago Gordon Tietjens has got the team back to its best. I dunno how he does it, but he must have the meanest eye for talent, especially when you consider the kind of players he’s helped mould in the past - Cullen, Lomu, Ai’i, So’oialo, Rokocoko, Messam, Masoe, Tuitavake. Now we’ve got guys like DJ Forbes, Alfred Pelenise (although not in Hong Kong) and Victor Vito on the come up. Shot boys on the win.

Now if the Warriors win tonight, my week at work will be a lot less of a pain in my life. *prays Vatuvei scores more tries than he lets in* Oh and how’s Israel Folau leaving the Melbourne Storm to play for the Broncos next season, holy heck.

Sneaker collector or not, you cannot deny that the Air Jordan is one of the most recognised shoes worldwide.

I stumbled upon this interview with the guy behind the designs of various Jordans, Tinker Hatfield. If you’ve ever wondered how much input MJ really has with the designs then this is for you.

Incredible to think that a lawnmower inspired one of the iconic pairs in the series. Phil, this is for you.

The NRL season kicks off this week *pumps fist* I can’t wait for this shit. Being the league Stan that I am I’ve been talking with friends about who will make the top 8 and decided to get my armchair expert on and chuck up my picks here at the blog. If you’re a league head, let me know your thoughts on the ‘08 season.

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