Great Hip Hop Show

I recently checked out a great hip hop show, it’s called Hip Hop Flavas and it airs every Saturday night at 10 PM on 91.3 FM The Summit in Akron.

The show features old school rap from Public Enemy and KRS One to new school rap like J. Dilla and Kanye West as well as cultural topics.

Is Larry Hughes Really Selfish?

Recently former Cleveland Cavalier, now Chicago Bull Larry Hughes was quoted in saying, “I play to enjoy myself, some people take this the wrong way, but winning a championship is not what I base everything on. ... I didn't come here to play the point guard, that's just it. I came here to run the wing, just like [LeBron James] was running the other wing. I was asked to sacrifice for the team to win and for everybody, I guess, get paid. That is what was told to me and I wasn't happy with that."
Afterwards, media types picked apart Hughes’ statement and some proceeded to call Hughes “selfish.”

OK, let’s be honest, there are probably more athletes in sports who feels like Hughes than his former Cavs teammate Lebron James, who is driven to win a championship.

For the average sports fan, the goal for every athlete should be to win a championship, because that's their (the fans) dream. But in reality, there are probably more professional athletes who see sports as a job and not their destiny.

For Larry Hughes, although he enjoys playing basketball, the sport was a way to pay for his young brother Justin's heart surgery. Because of the high cost of the heart transplant surgery, Larry Hughes left college early, so he could obtain the funding necessary for his brother’s surgery, (how many “selfish” people would do that for their family?)

Although Larry was able to pay for his brother’s heart transplant surgery and Justin survived many years afterward, he ended up dying a few years later at the age of 20, (shortly after his brother’s death, Hughes’ wife contracted a serious illness.) For Larry Hughes, life and family has been more important to him than winning a championship.

In the end, it’s not up us or the media to dictate if Larry Hughes’s statement is right or wrong, it’s up to the Chicago Bulls and only time will tell if they embrace Hughes’ comments or look for someone else who has different philosophy .

Baseball and Steroids: Who Cares?

By Kevin Lockett

Watching the congressional hearing where Roger Clemens and his former trainer Brian McNamee sat only feet apart accusing each other of lying was quite comical

The righteous former CY Young winner Clemens swore that McNamee only gave him a B-12 shot, not HGH (Human Growth Hormone); even though Clemens’ ex-teammate and friend Andy Petite as well as Clemens own wife Debbie admitted to receiving a HGH shot from McNamee.

Brian McNamee, the former ex cop turned trainer tuned snitch, who seemed to shrink in his chair as the congressional hearings went on, said that he did inject Clemens with HGH, not B-12 and to prove his point, kept the blood-stained syringes and gauze pads that he used to inject Clemens years ago, (which was smart, but very creepy)

These congressional hearings were funny to me because I could care less if Clemens used HGH. At the end of the day , Clemens, Bonds, Mcgwire and countless others who have been accused of taking steroids, HGH, etc simply play a game involving a ball and piece of wood, that’s it.

Theses guys are not curing cancer, they are not making policies that shape the world, they merely play a sport and I as a tax payer is supposed to be happy that congress is wasting our tax dollars to see who may or may not have used steroids?

Instead of investigating steroids, why not look at what a mess the gulf coast is still in nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina!

Instead of investigating steroids, tell me why gas has hardly dipped from $3.00 gallon the past few years, while oil companies are making record breaking profits in the billions!

Instead of investigating steroids, tell me why Osama Bin Laden can still put out more tapes than 2pac!

It is unfair that we as Americans are watching congressman waste our time and money on baseball, ( and football too, since Representative Arlen Specter is having is investigating the NFL’s handling of New England Patriots cheating scandal !?!l)

The sad thing is that more Americans probably do care more about steroids in baseball than Hurricane Katrina, where people are now being moved out of their trailers, not because they have better living situations, but because the trailers were still living in was filled with gases that were causing respiratory problems.

The fact that Hurricane Katrina victims are still having problem nearly three years after the hurricane is uncontainable and this issue should be on the President’s and Congress’ agenda every month and not when its time for photo-op in August.

But I get it, sports is about escapism; a way to forget one’s problems for a few hours and enjoy the euphoria of a win or the pain of a devastating loss. The steroids era, some would say, has ruined the “sanctity” of the game.

Really, that’s odd, because Major League Baseball has benefited greatly since the “horrible” steroids era. To put in perspective, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were battling it out for the Home run crown back in, baseball was dying.

After the baseball strike of 1994 attendance dropped significantly, but Sosa and McGwire’s homerun chase in 1998 towards Roger Maris’ single season record of 61, brought people back to game (38. 4 million), even though Mark McGwire can’t get into the Hall of Fame. The attendance increased even more when Barry Bonds blasted 73 homeruns to break Mark McGwire’s record of 70.

Now these sanctimonious fans are now treating Bonds like he’s Sadam Hussein, even though a record breaking 79.5 million fans attended baseball games last year and Major league Baseball made $380 million in profits, (Contrast that to the $36 million in profits baseball made when Barry Bond’s broke the home run record in 2001 (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2007-12-04-baseball-online_N.htm)) .

Now I am supposed to believe that the fans, along with the owners and Commissioner Selig (whom have received very little criticism congress for the “Steroids Era”) are now outraged…Please! .

As Ex-NBA great Charles Barkley pointed out, steroids saved baseball. Should kids use steroids or HGH, of course not.

Buy my tax dollars shouldn’t be used for useless hearings for game that “fans” swear that is tainted, yet will be in stands when the season starts in April