If you thought I wouldn’t post a video Big Baby Davis made of himself dancing to a rap song, you don’t know me at all. AT ALL.

Thanks, Jake!

Last week, it was reported that 7′7″ Sudanese basketball player Manute Bol passed away at the age of 47. Among several interesting tidbits about his life, Bol is also credited with popularizing the phrase ‘my bad’.

-St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 10, 1989: When he [Manute Bol] throws a bad pass, he’ll say, “My bad” instead of “My fault,” and now all the other players say the same thing.
-USA Today, Jan. 27, 1989: After making a bad pass, instead of saying “my fault,” Manute Bol says, “my bad.” Now all the other Warriors say it too.

Here’s a feature about Manute from the SI Vault, which I continue to suggest is one of the better resources on the web.

Thanks Andy and Jonah.

Didn’t see a whole lot of crazy from Rasheed Wallace this year. He actually didn’t do much of anything until the playoffs. After they were over, he wanted to talk to referee Joey Crawford. Anyone know more?

Interesting look at Marvin ‘Bad News’ Barnes who had immense talent, but flamed out because of drugs and other trouble. At one point, it was hard to focus on basketball because he was making so much selling pot. Also this:

There is the legendary story about the Spirits getting ready to depart on a flight that left Louisville, Ky., at 8 p.m. and would get into St. Louis at 7:56 p.m. due to a time-zone change. Upon looking at the schedule, Barnes said, “I ain’t getting on no time machine,” and rented a car for the trip.

There are 3 different things in this picture of Yao Ming’s Bike that make me giggle.

More than half-court, actually. Too bad iit didn’t count.

Bill Simmons’ new book, The Book of Basketball, came out this week. ESPN celebrated by posting 5 excerpts from the book. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

In case you didn’t know, Unlikely Words hates sharks.

Via

I wasn’t going to post the Ron Artest Michael Jackson Tribute video below, even though it’s pretty awesome. But then I found out, from Dave, that Ron Artest chose his new number with the Lakers, 37, because that’s how many weeks Thriller was #1. And then I had to share it.

Why choose failure? Last week’s mention of Rick Pitino made me giggle about this quotation and then I couldn’t help but post it:

Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door. And if you expect them to walk through that door, they’re going to be gray and old. What we are is young, exciting, hard-working, and we’re going to improve. People don’t realize that, and as soon as they realize those three guys are not coming through that door, the better this town will be for all of us because there are young guys in that (locker) room playing their asses off. I wish we had $90 million under the salary cap. I wish we could buy the world. We can’t; the only thing we can do is work hard, and all the negativity that’s in this town sucks. I’ve been around when Jim Rice was booed. I’ve been around when Yastrzemski was booed. And it stinks. It makes the greatest town, greatest city in the world, lousy. The only thing that will turn this around is being upbeat and positive like we are in that locker room… and if you think I’m going to succumb to negativity, you’re wrong. You’ve got the wrong guy leading this team.

–Rick Pitino