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The Incredible Life and Trying Basketball Times of Kobe Bryant, Part 2
Editor’s note: You can read part 1 here. In 2003 Kobe Bryant was going through a myriad of issues off the court. There was talk of his jealousy toward teammates, talk of a feud between Bryant and soon-to-be-former head coach Phil Jackson, and his team was about to lose the services of one of the…
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The Incredible Life and Trying Basketball Times of Kobe Bryant, Part 1
“We’ve learned Kobe Bryant has been asked to run the Federal Reserve. The feeling is, he can do more with three quarters than most of us can do with a whole dollar.” —Peter Vescey, the New York Post What are the makings of a titan? In Greek mythology, a titan is an immortal deity of great…
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Did Jay Z Give Up Cheddar to Stack Bread?
For Jay Z, aka Shawn Carter, no recent month has been more favorable to his image as hip-hop’s preeminent renaissance man than his birthday month, December. As reported previously by The Shadow League, Jay recently secured a 10-year, $240 million contract for 31-year-old All-Star second baseman Robinson Cano with the Seattle Mariners on Dec. 6. This came…
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Dear Black Professional Athlete
Or perhaps I should say “dear brother athlete”? You should know you are kindred to your community, not simply from a genetic perspective but from a socioeconomic aspect as well. Do you recall when you were a child playing the game? You most certainly remember those days practicing your craft in cutoff corduroy shorts and…
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On the Rise, MMA Tries to Figure Out the Hip-Hop Generation
As throngs of former collegiate wrestlers, contact sportsmen and current street fighters look to the new beacon of athletic hope that is mixed martial arts, one must recognize the shift in the talent pool. It is a shift that, although gradual, came from a place of desperation once the prospect or at least the perception…
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Making the Case for the MMA
There was once a family that hailed from beautiful Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The family was surprisingly stocked with boys who all seemed to walk to the pied piper movement of their father, a martial artist. However, his form of combative exercise was not atypical to his surroundings, which spawned the fighting dance of capoeira.…
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Mike Tyson's Undisputed Truth Set to Premiere on HBO
Mike Tyson is a walking, talking anomaly. People fitting the pedigree of the former heavyweight champion of the world rarely get to tell their side of the story. Their lives and tragic deaths are usually cautionary tales whispered by school teachers, guidance counselors and group-home workers to children in need of “straightening out.” At one time, he was…
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Dear Kanye: We Used to Love You
Dear Kanye, I must admit that you had me going for a while. Your musical genius was once without precedent, and no one this side of Wu-Tang’s the RZA could match your ability to turn even the most obscure audio clip into the bedrock of a hit record. I truly believed you were the “new…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
