Basketball Fiend

Posts Tagged ‘pop-a-shot’

The other day I referenced busboy Ricardo Reyes’ victories over LeBron James and Charles Barkley in Pop-A-Shot and wondered aloud who his next challenger would be. Unfortunately, my prayers for Robert Horry weren’t answered — damn you, Kimmel! Instead we got to see the next best thing (okay, let’s be honest, the 3,567th best thing): Kobe Bryant.

Kobe was respectable. He put up a score in the 50s. But Reyes still worked him like Emilio Estevez in Men at Work. (Yeah, I don’t blame you. I don’t get it either.) His final score was higher than Regis Philbin’s age.

Kobe swatted the 5-foot-7 mini-ball savant for good measure, but Reyes had the last laugh: hoisting the Pop-A-Shot trophy high over his head as Cousin Sal looked on with delight.

I’ve never seen Kobe smile so big after a loss. More importantly, I’ve never seen the winner smile back with so few teeth.

Ricardo se ganó!

(H/T, Lakers Nation)

Today I was shooting hoops at the gym. A kid walked by and told me I was awesome. It was his fifth birthday. I gave him a high five. Life’s pretty awesome when you’re five. Here are your top NBA stories for Wednesday, June 9.

1. The Nets have reached a verbal agreement with coach Avery Johnson that will make him the team’s new head coach. I agree with Sebastian Pruiti when he says Johnson is the perfect fit for New Jersey. Yes, Johnson has struggled in the postseason (remember Dallas’ epic meltdown in 2007?), and, yes, he has had run-ins with Nets point guard Devin Harris in the past, but he’s a defense-first, no-nonsense disciplinarian who has had great success in the regular season. Also, his high-pitched voice will excellently complement Mikhail Prokhorov’s thick Russian accent. You couldn’t script a better post-game press duo.

2. The NBA scored high marks in diversity once again, according to a report from the University of Central Florida, which does an annual report examining gender and race in each of the major professional sports. David Stern and Co. earned an “A,” but I’m curious as to why. The report says that 77 percent of NBA players are black, 18 percent are white and 3 percent are Latino. In other words, the league is dominated by players who are black. That’s not diversity! That’s majority! I don’t have a problem with the league being dominated by one or another race of people, but I do think there’s a misinterpretation here about the meaning of the word.

3. An L.A. busboy named Ricardo Reyes trounced LeBron James and Charles Barkley in pop-a-shot competitions on the Jimmy Kimmel Show coinciding with Games 1 and 2 of the Finals. Reyes is crazy good. He reminds me of Kyle Korver, only if Kyle Korver was a 5-foot-7 Latino with buck teeth. Needless to say, I’m waiting with baited breath to see who he matches up against in Game 3. Please be Robert Horry. Please be Robert Horry. Please be Robert Horry.

4. The Miami Heat threw a big surprise party for Udonis Haslem on Wednesday to celebrate his 30th birthday. Attendees included Alonzo Mourning, James Jones and over 200 team employees in “We Want U Back” shirts. Haslem was impressed by the turnout, but I’m pretty sure he would have preferred a new contract (seeing as he’s a free agent this summer and Miami is looking to fill its cap space with two max contract players).

5. Former NBA power forward and resident bad ass Charles Oakley was reportedly beaten up by a Las Vegas security crew earlier this week. Oak suffered a broken arm in the melee. The details of the incident are sketchy at best, which leads me to believe it wasn’t a team of security guys at all, rather a black ops special forces group commissioned by Reggie Miller to put the hurt on his former rival. The code name? Operation Winning Time.

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