A sad end....

By almost any measure, Stephon 'Starbury' Marbury has had an interesting last few years in the NBA. Even if you're not a basketball fan, the story is interesting. His career spans like this: Raised in Coney Island in Brooklyn, one of the most highly recruited point guards of all time, played one year at Georgia Tech, up and down NBA career (highs - 2x All-Star; lows - benched for the first 15 games of the season by the Knicks).
With his talent level, he had all the potential to become a great NBA point guard. Instead, at 32, the words mercurial and enigma, rather than great, come to mind. Almost three years ago, Stephon Marbury came out with a pair of affordable basketball shoes ($14.98) that he and a few other NBA players wore. Great idea and message. Yet, in the same year, he gave this now infamous interview:

Watch these segments in particular:
(1.46-1.55) - Not starting well
(4.30 - 4.51) - uh oh
(7.06-7.19) - no way
(7.27-8.07) - are you serious?
(8.41-9.15) - Unbelievable!



Fast forward a few years. The Celtics took a small risk and signed Marbury to a contract where they could release him at any time. He played as a backup point guard, and became at least serviceable by the end of the playoffs. They offered him the veteran's minimum (1.3 million/yr), and Marbury rejected it to look for more money. Heading into August, he is is still unsigned.
Now comes this. Marbury came up with an idea to post a continuous stream (24 hours a day) of his life for the next 7 days. Not 1 day, but seven. In this stream, he has done everything from freestlye rap, dance with shaving cream all over his face, cry while listening to a Kirk Franklin song, eat vaseline, etc. Here's an example:


(2.08-2.51)

And then there's this: (1.45-2.00)


Some team will sign Stephon Marbury this year. In fact, if I were an NBA GM, I would sign him because of his ustream on www.justin.tv. I'd feel remorse not signing a person whose career path has taken the proverbial u-turn time and time again. If you waded through the segments in these clips, it becomes much more sad than funny. If Marbury doesn't play another minute in the NBA, it will not be the last we hear of him. Something is seriously wrong with him. The sooner the people around him realize that, the better. The warning signs are there for EVERYONE to see.

The new Jay

Hip-hop's mystery man continues to be...well, a mystery. Saw this snippet of a new song a couple days ago called 'Dear Moleskine'. I know the song samples from the same song De La Soul used on their classic Stakes is High album. But with all the extra sounds, Jus Blaze places the beat into the modern age. I cannot wait to hear the full song. Already sounding like my song of the year.

Love

Doing a quick google search of the following popular items, you get these search results:

Jesus: 194,000,000

God: 469,000,000

Food: 742,000,000

Car: 927,000,000

House: 1,190,000,000

And then do search 'love'.

Love: 1,530,000,000

Not to put too much stock into a google search, but I take two things from this seemingly mindless study:
1)People place a higher interest/importance in love than material possessions (cars, houses), the most basic of needs (food) and faith (God)
2)Apart from food, love is the most universal.

Love is so universal, yet so hard to find for so many. Even when love has been discovered and marriage happens, it tends not to work out for Americans.

From divorcerate.org:
The divorce rate in America for first marriage is 41%
The divorce rate in America for second marriage is 60%
The divorce rate in America for third marriage is 73%

Evidently, you don't become a better lover with experience.

You certainly don't have much a chance in marriage if you weren't meant to be in the first place. Two quick examples: 1) Richard Jefferson (if y'all couldn't contact everyone to let them know the wedding was off and heads showed up, clearly this was no match. Luckily for Jefferson, he gave the group of people who showed up his Visa black card for the night. Now that's a mea culpa if I ever heard one) and 2) this couple that lives below us that argues constantly. They're scheduled to get married next month. We've heard them argue constantly for the past three months (which just so happens to coincide with when we moved in). I have a sneaking suspicion they've been arguing for a lot longer than just the past three months.
Couple #1 got out before the big day, albeit a tad late.
Couple #2 - Well...let's just say their wedding date and arguments are still on and poppin.

About six weeks out from my wedding, I know I have found a true love. Elizabeth is everything you could want in a life partner. Intelligence, motivation, sense of humor, care for others, beauty, etc. We can hang out with friends, run around together in the city, or just sit around watching tv (usually HGTV, and oh how's it growing on me). Whatever it is, I enjoy every moment of it. Before I met Liz, I had been a single guy for all but 2 weeks of my life. It was great and I enjoyed it. But it pales in comparison to being in a long-term relationship. It truly is indescribable. Poets and musicians have penned lyrics about the subject of love for centuries. Very few have captured it, and I won't attempt it with any words of my own. I know this much: I'm infatuated with love and the thought of my life with Liz. Coltrane's "Naima" describes how I feel perfectly.

John Coltrane - "Naima"