- That’s the strategy, Anthony Bennett. Bennett, continuing his
dogged pursuit of undisputed status as the worst No. 1 pick in NBA draft
history, is fresh off washing out with his fourth NBA team in as any seasons
and rather than toil in the humiliating obscurity of the NBA Developmental
League or sit by the phone waiting for another NBA team in need of a warm body
at the end of the bench to call him, he’s taking his career to a place where -
here’s hoping - pretty much no one has any idea who the hell he is other than
being a failed American basketball player willing to take their euros. Yes,
Bennett's next stop is Turkey after his release earlier this week by the
Brooklyn Nets, as he’s hammered out what is surely a lucrative deal with
Turkish club power Fenerbahce that would give him an opportunity to play in the
Euroleague this season. How much does a European team pay a guy who was drafted
No. 1 overall out of UNLV by Cleveland in 2014, traded, then released by his
next two teams and broken off after playing in 23 games this season with
Brooklyn, averaging 5.0 points and 3.4 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per game? It
can’t be a real bidding war to secure Bennett’s services, but now he can play
out what remains of his failed career off the basketball grid in a place where,
if he’s lucky, he’ll make some extra cash and avoid any riots and bombings over
the course of what remains of the season……..
- Harlem is a hard place. It’s the sort of place where you
make sure you don’t walk down the wrong street after dark and the sort of place
where a normal middle school lunch room squabble over processed, nutritionally
suspect globs of chicken blows right past shoving someone into their locker and
reaches the point of a 12-year-old shoving a gun in the face of a female
classmate. According to the New York Police Department, the boy pulled a gun on
a classmate and demanded she give him a chicken nugget, the punctuation mark on
a story that began when the boy noticed the girl buying chicken McNuggets at a
Lexington Avenue and East 103rd Street McDonald's. At that time, the boy asked
his classmate to spare a McNugget for him and she refused, probably for the
same reason any middle school girl would, possibly because she’s selfish, maybe
because she was just really hungry or even because she thinks the boy asking
her for a McNugget is weird or ugly or uncool. Regardless, the boy allegedly
followed the girl into the 103rd St. No. 6-train station, pointed a gun at her
head and demanded a McNugget again. At that point, the girl showed the sort of
hard edge that comes with growing up in Harlem, smacking the gun away from her
head, telling her stalker to leave her alone and boarding the train unharmed.
Amazingly, the boy also boarded the train and his victim later saw him showing
the gun to another child on the train. The following day, the girl reported the
incident to school officials and the gun-toting, would-be McNugget thief was
taken into custody……..
- How strong is the draw of being part of Hollywood’s
8,746,615th remake/reboot/sequel this decade? That’s apparently a question to
be answered by two of Hollywood’s biggest names, as Will Smith and Tom Hanks
could be set to star in a reboot of Disney’s “Dumbo.” Both are reportedly top
targets to appear in a remake of the 1942 animated movie to be directed by Tim
Burton, who previously remade “Alice In Wonderland.” Fans of a legit animated
classic will recall the sappy, overly emotional tale of a mocked baby circus
elephant, who, with the help of a mouse, worked to achieve his full potential. Burton,
the frequent auteur of weird and kooky takes on reality, will craft his “Dumbo”
vision using a mix of live action and animation and word on the street is that
Smith is wanted to play the father of kids who develop an interminable bond
with the titular character after seeing Dumbo perform at the circus. The
problem for Smith is that he’s committed to appear in the forthcoming, latest “Bad
Boys” sequel and if he takes the “Dumbo” gig, the start date for his latest
unnecessary extension of his law enforcement action franchise with his pal
Martin Lawrence would likely be delayed. That’s interesting because Smith has
signed on with Martin Lawrence for two more Bad Boys films. As for Hanks, he’s
reportedly the favorite to play the “Dumbo” villain, a role he could play if he
can sandwich it around his obligations starring in and promoting the
forthcoming dystopian sci-fi movie “The Circle,” a film in which he appears
alongside Emma Watson………
- There’s a lot to be angry about in Russia on any given
day, at least for those who don’t enjoy living under the oppressive, tyrannical
and dissent-stifling reign of despot Vlad Putin. However, raging against the
machine of the Russian Orthodox Church isn't typically one of those reasons -
unless you ask the several hundred people who staged a semi-violent uprising
this week outside a St. Petersburg landmark cathedral to protest plans to give
it to the Russian Orthodox Church. The culprit in inciting the rage of those
who gathered to lash out was the local governor, who announced this week that the
city was transferring the iconic St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Orthodox Church,
a move that enraged residents and museum experts in Russia's former imperial
capital. In response, protestors massed up and headed over to St. Isaac's,
which has been an important museum since Russia's 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, to
protest the move. "The Church should know its place!" one sign at the
protest declared. Critics of the move have decried it as emblematic of what
they view as a growing trend toward social conservatism in Russia, where Putin
has appealed to traditional values as opposed to Western liberalism in a bid to
consolidate his grip on Russian society. Any reason to rise up against the
heinous rule of the oft-shirtless dictator is a good one, even if it’s likely
to end with a long-term gulag visit for those involved and probably their immediate
family members……..
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