Eighteen years too late, I watched Pistol: The Birth of a Legend for the first time this summer. Mostly the story of Pete Maravich‘s teenage years, partly a ball-handling instructional tape, the movie came to mind when I found out Allen Iverson was signing with the Memphis Grizzlies.

In Pistol, Maravich is a middle-school prodigy playing on a high school varsity team where the coach doesn’t like his style (too “Black”) and the older players don’t like him for being so good so young. Glued to the bench despite his talent, Pete just wants a chance to play, and when he finally gets it, predictably becomes a superstar and leads the team to glory. Ultimately, all that time he spent not playing was a colossal waste of time rooted in old-school values and silly stubbornness. Read More »

In a move reminiscent of these last two years of Brett Favre stalking in the NFL, Dwyane Wade kicked off another round of rumors regarding his 2010 plans when reports surfaced that he recently bought a $1.4 million townhouse in Chicago. Never mind that Wade is from the Chi, so that could’ve been a summer bachelor pad for himself or a gift to his Mom, but it still has people speculating now on whether Flash is interested in signing with the Bulls next summer … Read More »