Whiskers and the Mick Man do LA, BIG3 Style!

Greetings all!

I come to you with a brief recap from our time in LA for the Big 3 Championship. This would have come sooner, but I have absolutely no idea how to upload videos over a certain size to the blogging website. I pushed buttons for WEEKS to no avail, but that’s neither here nor there. Thanks to Blattman for whipping this up and Devlin for uploading the video for me.

There’s a lot to like about LA. I mean the perfect weather and insanely attractive people are one thing, but the ability to rub elbows and hobnob with the stars really sets it apart. And by “rub elbows”, I mean hiking half a mile directly uphill to get to Joe Johnson’s palatial estate. And by “hobnob”, I mean freaking out at the sight of Mitch Richmond and meeting up with Snoop Dogg to discuss those royalties I never received for writing a good portion of “Doggystyle”. I asked Snoop when I could expect to see that check coming my way and he told me to go fuck myself. He is such a kidder! We are friends.

In addition to Joe, we got to sit down with Coach/Author Jason Brown, Stephen Jackson, Charles Oakley, and Corey Maggette to name a few. Coach/Hall of Famer/Future President Nancy Liebermann was kind enough to let us join a Power practice to see what Coley and I had. Spoiler: We did not have a lot. Still, it’s incredible to watch professional athletes in practice to see how effortless they make everything look. Big Baby Davis was a career 18.2% 3P shooter in the NBA regular season and a career 0.0% 3P shooter in the NBA postseason and we watched him drain three after three, in low top all Black Air Forces no less! Maggette was working his way back from injury and a near scuffle with the Mick Man, and I’m not sure he missed a shot.

It was great to lace ‘em up and practice where legends Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper, and Cheryl Miller played in the Women of Troy practice gym. I remember putting that 1984 team together as Athletic Director and then promptly being banned from the facilities, as well as the NCAA, after betting heavily on them to win the title. Good times.

With the Big3 officially wrapped up and the NBA preseason kicking off, I should take this time to thank the Big3 and team Triplets. Jamario Moon, Al Jefferson, and Joe were all nice enough to speak with us through the course of our trip and even let us go back to the locker room with the Champs after they won it all. Fun fact: the jersey I had around my neck that afternoon still smells of the champagne that Ice Cube sprayed all over us. What a wild series of words to put together.

At this time, I’ll ask everyone to lift their champagne stained jerseys for a brief toast: To the champion Triplets and Coach Leslie letting us have a little fun before evicting us from the locker room. To an offseason of rest and another year of growth for the Big3. To Joe, for a tremendous season and an even better campaign this year with the Pistons. And most importantly, to me for not revealing that I also wrote most of “Death Certificate”. Please do not tell Ice Cube that I told you this.

Cheers!