Scribbler's Highlights of the Week: The NBA Finals Triple Play

Huge congratulations to the Miami Heat for winning their second straight NBA championship.  Truth be told, I was cheering for the San Antonio Spurs because I am a Tim Duncan fan and wanted to see "The Big Fundamental" get another ring before leaving the game.  However, I knew from the beginning that the Heat would win this series.  Although the Spurs came in healthy, rested and with momentum off of a sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies, I knew the defending champs would need every bit of seven games to beat the four-time champion Spurs and could beat them because they had LeBron James.  It is clear that he has vowed not to disappear from an NBA Finals like he did against Dallas in 2011 and to carry the team on his back if it means winning as many Larry O'Brien trophies as possible.  It took more than just James to win this series because, as we saw in 2007, even he couldn't topple the Spurs by himself as he and his "team" in the Cleveland Cavaliers were swept.  However, as Finals MVP for the second consecutive year, he was the major contributor for four out of the seven games--three of those being victories.  Thus, that's why I am giving you not one...not two...but THREE (see what I did there) of the greatest highlights of the week because they were three of the deciding factors in the franchise's third NBA championship and second in Miami's "Big 3" Era.

Scribbler's Hot & Bothered Topic of the Week: Poopin' Where You Eat

Welp, I made it, dear friends.  The big 5-0...post, that is.  (PLEASE don't rush me getting older 'cause I never have and never will rush myself.)  What better way to celebrate my 50th post than with a new post series?!?!  [In my Cleveland Brown voice] HOOOORAAAAAY!!!!  To break up some of the "monotony" regarding sports & entertainment, I have decided to do a series on something else on which I have a strong opinion and in which I have a decent amount of expertise: love, relationships and sex.  Henceforth, "Scribbler's Hot & Bothered Topic of the Week" is birthed...

Scribbler's Borrowers & Lenders of the Week: Jay-Z, "No Hook"

So the resident Jay-Z fan posted a Jay-Z song on his revamped series.  Surprise, surprise.  Ah well...deal with it because there will be more to come.  Anyway, the original Mr. Carter has been the beneficiary of "borrowing" many times throughout his storied career, and like last week's "Borrower" in Big K.R.I.T., he proves over and over again that he possesses quite the superb musical ear.  When he put out the super-dope American Gangster album and unoffical soundtrack (2007, Roc-A-Fella), "No Hook" immediately stood out.  (ASIDE: the song has a bit of sentimental value for me because whenever I think about riding around Philly with Mrs. Scribbler before she became the Mrs. and listening to this CD for the first time with her, "No Hook" is the first song that comes to mind.  That's enough of that sentimental ish...back to biz, kids.)  With Sean C & LV bringing the sample and Diddy calling upon the assistance of live musicians, the end result is a match made in heaven and the perfect platform for Jay to spit one of his many signature tales about the highs and lows of the streets:

Scribbler's Highlight of the Week: LeBron Says, "Not In My House"

In Game 2 of the 2013 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena, LeBron James wasn't having the most impressive game of his career.  He ended the first half with only four points, four assists, one rebound and was well under 50% shooting from the field.  However, after the Spurs had a 62-61 lead in the third quarter, the Heat just kept scoring...and scoring...and scoring...and never looked back on the way to a 103-84 trouncing of the Western Conference Champs.  Their defense turned up and forced 16 turnovers--which quadrupled the Spurs' impressively low turnover rate in Game 1.  LeBron ended up with 17 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, but shot 7-17 from the field.  Still not his most impressive stat line ever, but there were certain things that don't show up on a stat sheet such as the above play...

Living Legend or Urban Myth? The Concept of "Real Hip-Hop"

(First things first: I must give credit where it's due to my unofficial contributor for this particular post, Mrs. Scribbler.  Many of the issues that I plan on tackling in this potentially-controversial post are the end results of a conversation that she and I had on this topic recently, and for that, I say "thank you beeb" :-)!  Now, let's start the show...)

When I did a Google search for "real hip-hop", the image above was the first that popped up, including several variations of it further down the page.  The next image featured 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G. and Run-D.M.C. in the center with other hip-hop legends like LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Rakim, Ice Cube, Jay-Z, Nas, KRS-One, Public Enemy and a host of others on the outskirts.  Conversely, the sixth image in the search showed a picture saying "THIS ISN'T HIP-HOP" with an "X" through pictures of artists like Lil' Wayne, Drake, Big Sean, Rick Ross, Wale, Wiz Khalifa, J. Cole, Nicki Minaj and even Busta Rhymes--whose face ironically appeared on the aforementioned collage with the hip-hop legends.  I also saw images of graffiti, DJing, breaking, boomboxes, cassette tapes, microphones, headphones, and all of the typical associations with "real" hip-hop.  However, I write this post because I have become perplexed and somewhat annoyed by the notions of "real hip-hop" or "real hip-hop is not on the radio"--concepts that I believe are nothing more than "urban myths".

Scribbler's Highlight of the Week: Tony Parker's Improbable Dagger

In Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena, the Heat were starting to get some momentum back after the San Antonio Spurs reclaimed the lead in the middle of the fourth quarter for the first time since the first quarter.  After Manu Ginobili's ill-advised three-ball attempt from Jupiter and Danny Green's foul of Ray Allen beyond the three-point arc, Allen made three straight clutch free throws.  Although he took a few errant jump shots in the waning minutes of the game, LeBron James took the ball to the rim a few times to inch even closer.  In the last minute, they made sure that the Spurs couldn't get off any easy shots with swarming defense.  However, that didn't stop Tony Parker from exemplifying the age-old saying "nothing beats a failure but a try"...

Scribbler's Borrowers & Lenders of the Week: Big K.R.I.T., "Boobie Miles"

There's a huge reason why Big K.R.I.T. is one of my favorite rappers and producers among the newer breed of hip-hop artists: he has an awesome ear for good music, particularly in picking samples.  When I first heard "Boobie Miles" from 4eva N A Day (2012), I was absolutely in love with the song just because of the sample.  He could've been talking about penguins and polar bears over that beat and I would've thought it was the greatest song ever--or at least of 2012.  However, he actually spit something of worth and made an extremely motivational music video--a rarity among today's "creative" minds.  Hence, here's the version as made popular by this week's "borrower":