It’s a well documented fact that Scarface has become an iconic movie for a lot of rappers. Maybe you’ve seen Trick Daddy on MTV Cribs, maybe you’ve heard of the rapper named simply Scarface. Lots of raps are written about achieving Tony Montana’s American Dream – up to and including the badass death in a me-against-the-world gunfight.

I would argue that Scarface is the official movie of gangsta rap. (If you want to argue, start some beef in the comments)

Today I was eating some jalapeno popplers from Arby’s and listening to some H-to-the-izzo V-to-the-izzay and noticed his album artwork for Kingdom Come. You, me and Jay-Z all know he owns a stake in the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets, so why is this dude wearing a New York Yankees lid on his first post-retirement album?

It got me thinking about LeBron James wearing a Yanks hat and every other fake Yinkees fan wearing that same damn black/blue NYY logo cap. Are they Yankees fans for real? Whether or not “real” Yankees fans (or Lakers fans, or Cowboys fans, for that matter) exist at all is a debate for another day. But do all those folks watch the games, follow the roster all season, or ever know the rules of baseball?

My guess is No on all counts. Yankees hats are like airbrushed Scarface tees. They’re like studded belts in emo bands and black shirts/pants/shoes/hair in metal groups. They’re essential, a part of the culture and uniform. But why are the Yankees the symbol?

Is it because they are successful every year (though Yanks fans seem to think they are only “successful” when they win the Series)? Is it because everybody loves the players (see fan reaction to A-Rod and/or Jeter on any given day)? No, I think it’s the hustling spend-money-to-make-money attitude of owner George Steinbrenner.

All those rims, all that bling – hip-hop culture is a lot of about proving that you made it, that you got Paid. The Yanks pay enough is luxury tax to pay of several teams entire rosters and they still rake in bigger profits than any other club in the league when they don’t make the playoffs. Throwing money at your problems and actually solving them – that’s the new American Dream.

George Steinbrenner is beating the system – has been for decades. His loose wallet and semi-undeniable success have made him, via his team as proxy, into an icon to hip-hop culture on par with Scarface. I’m sure Marge Schott is rolling in her grave.

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Mat sometimes. Don’t come hammering with your questions.
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out his usual cloak. He gazed spellbound at the sea.
Ako nemate pogodan Internet pristup, Mandrake Linux vam moze poslati
arhivirane izvorne fajlove po povoljnoj cijeni. One look at the shape
of an aircraft tells us that it’s a very difficult shape to
efficiently apply such energy to.
He goes about as usual, with his Miller-of-the-Dee air, I care for
nobody, no not I, if nobody care for me. Thought that Belfast would
fetch him.
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the protocols. Conversely, if one operand contains a one, the result
is exactly the value of the second operand.
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all he could do to put some meat and cheese between two pieces of
bread before stuffing it in his mouth.
When I’ve gone for long stretches of time, like when I was sick a
while back, I felt very uncomfortable. In the dark we fire on each
other and take our own grunts prisoners.

I found this one in my spam folder. I found the subject rather amusing. The body, not so much.

Cavs in 5.  Trophy presentation at home.  I will be there.

Spurs pick up one at home (I’m leaning towards game 2) and the rest is all Cavs, all the time.

For bonus points, I’m predicting LeBron’s 2nd son makes his debut after game 5.

Like Austin Carr (AC) I enjoy a good 3 bullet point list as a tool for explaining excellence on the basketball court. Here are my Keys to the Cavs:

1. LeBron James. Enough said, but more on him later.

2. Boobie Gibson. People are calling him LeBron’s Pippen. He may very well be/become LBJ’s right hand man (RHM) but he doesn’t play like Pippen. What he does is A) make 3 pointers or B) draw a defender. He does plenty of other stuff, but what you know every possession is that he will make the shot if given the ball, and he will draw 1 player away from the basket.

3. Team defense. Almost all of the Cavs are wildly inconsistent on offense and as a team they have no plan in particular. Their coach admits he lets them play “random offense” – in the Eastern Conference Finals (ECFs) no less – but preaches defense morning, noon and night. To be clear, the Cavs will be the best defensive team the Spurs have played in the playoffs this year.

I hate math, but I like simple math. Math with small numbers.

On defense, 5 guys on our team stop 5 guys on their team. 5 – 5 = 0. Even.

On offense Boobie draws 1 guy. 5 – 1 = 4. Then the 3 non-LeBron’s draw (at least) one guy. 4 – 1 = 3. Three professional basketball players, be they all-stars, all NBA defensive team members, defender of the year award winners, whatever, LeBron can and sometimes does refuse to be stopped by 3 guys. Triple coverage? Sounds like a layup to me! For reference, see Game 5 of the ECFs. 4 guys are tough, 5 is damned difficult indeed. But 3? Just try not to get posterized by him.

To recap: 5 – 1 – 1 – LBJ = -1 where values less than zero indicate an upset in the NBA Finals.

WITNESS the Cavs in 7.

I hope you watched this game, otherwise…  gosh, what’s the point of living?

A few notes:

• I have never actually seen someone that rich work that hard.
• I’ve never seen an NBA player tire himself out as much as James did and…
• LeBron resting his head on Gooden’s shoulder in the 2nd OT makes me want to cry for him
• Chauncy Billups seemed almost giddy in his post-game chat when discussing LBJ
• LeBron cannot, by definition, take “bad shots” because he can make them all look good

Media people were asking LeBron what he was thinking when the Pistons played a lot single coverage on him – this was poorly phrased because those few single coverage plays were only “a lot” relative to earlier in this game.  They asked about how easy it was getting to the rim. How easy was it? Easy enough that only the best player in the entire world could do it. He makes it look easy, and he made it look so for so long that before it was over people were already misunderstanding what he’d just done.

Understand this: LeBron finished regulation with 2 dunks and he had definitely given it everything he had in the tank during that last 8:30 or so that he played in the 4th. At the end of the first OT he had done absolutely everything on offense and he was positively out of energy.  At the end of the 2nd OT he’d done the 9pts thing again and was now so tired he couldn’t keep his head up during timeouts or to talk to his coach or do a post-game interview on the court.

Call him a basketball prodigy and one of the best athletes in the world, just don’t think that performance was skill alone.  It was the pinnacle of skill and talent, but the mental aspect was even more impressive.  The motivation: Game 5 to break the tie in a series where one team is guaranteed to face elimination next game. LeBron’s Mind was able to make LeBron’s Body, easily one of the best in basketball, do things that noone else’s body or mind could stop.  It wasn’t easy; he’s just that good.