S. Samuel
The Clipse's Pusha T recently talked basketball and why seeing mega trades like Dwight Howard getting shipped to Kobe Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers have him feeling down.
Rather than embrace superstars teaming up, Pusha pointed out his personal issues with the blockbuster moves.
“[What sports am I into?] As far as sports go I’d say tennis first, boxing second. The whole basketball thing, I’m like really, really depressed about basketball in general. This new style of basketball: the teams and the trading and players getting together to be on one team, trying to create the superteam. I’m just not into that. The musical chairs, it’s like, you can’t actually love a team because either the players or the owner are always thinking so far ahead in trying to be better for the next year or the years to come. Like you couldn’t tell my dad in the years of Magic and Worthy that [the Lakers weren’t] the best team. You couldn’t say anything about his team. Now I feel like these days, we have LeBron have a 60-plus-win season with Cleveland, then he goes to a team that’s already made their mark. I just feel like you can love the players, but you can’t honestly love the team, the franchise, like you once could because of all the musical chairs.” (Sports Illustrated)
Earlier this month, Hollywood director Spike Lee talked about Dwight joining the Lake Show.
“That’s a blockbuster. It tilted the power again,” Spike told MTV News after hearing the news Friday morning. The way Lee figures it, if his beloved Knicks aren’t in contention for the NBA title next season, he wouldn’t mind seeing L.A. win their 12th championship since moving to Los Angeles more than 50 years ago. For Spike, anything would be better than seeing New York rivals LeBron James and his Miami Heat win another championship. “I rather the Lakers win it than the Heat,” he said. “I do not want the Heat to win back-to-back. Hell no, hell-to-the-nah.” (MTV)
Recently, New York rapper N.O.R.E. revealed his issues with rooting for the Big 3 in Miami.
“Nah man, I’m such a hater,'” he said. “Once the Knicks got out, I was rooting for OKC [The Oklahoma City Thunder]. It was hard going to bars out here [in Miami]. Don’t get me wrong, congrats to LeBron James, congrats to Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem, but the New York in me wouldn’t allow me to cheer for them.” (XXL Mag)
Music producer 9th Wonder previously talked to SOHH about big stars like LeBron James going for big bucks and superstar-built teams.
“We could follow players back then because you weren’t only following Magic but the Lakers’ dynasty too,” 9th added. “Now it’s harder because everyone wants a dollar. With LeBron, I wish he would have stayed in Cleveland, I know it’s kinda hard for him under the circumstances but I think it’s a situation where he could have built a dynasty there. You’ve been there six years, Jordan was in Chicago for seven. They keep comparing him to that benchmark. Everybody wants him to make the noise and make the impact that he did but don’t want to work hard like the way he got it. Now it’s a situation where he’s down in Miami and they can pull it off. Now if they ‘don’t’ pull it off, if you go down there and you got Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, three big superstars down there, and you don’t pull it off, there’s something wrong. You have to win everything. There are no [excuses].” (SOHH)
