Latest news with #AbovetheRim
USA Today
28-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Former Lakers guard on how LeBron James could've become the G.O.A.T.
Former Lakers guard on how LeBron James could've become the G.O.A.T. Even though they won the NBA championship under very unusual circumstances, the 2020 Los Angeles Lakers seem to hold a special place in the hearts of the franchise's fans. The team started to establish itself as the best basketball team in the world early that season and cruised to the best record in the Western Conference. It then convincingly won it all inside the Walt Disney World Bubble and held a 3-1 lead in each playoff series it was involved in. However, that squad got dismantled shortly afterward, leading to a period of purgatory that lasted until the franchise landed Luka Doncic in that massive trade nearly four months ago. Guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was one of three viable role players who were shipped out for Russell Westbrook in the summer of 2021. That was the trade that sunk the Lakers for the duration, and Caldwell-Pope felt that the team had plenty more left in the tank. During an appearance on "Above the Rim with DH 12," he said it would've won two more rings had it been kept intact. "That team, we had a lot of moments where everything just clicked for us," Caldwell-Pope said. "Off the court, on the court, inviting to each other's houses, we were just hanging out with each other. Those were my brothers, I spent more time with my team than my family… I think if we kept that team together, we would've run off two more." In fact, he said that keeping that squad intact would've helped make LeBron James the undisputed greatest of all-time (G.O.A.T.). "… There would be no more G.O.A.T. talk, that would've put [LeBron] at six,' the guard added. James won his fourth NBA championship that year, as well as his fourth finals MVP. While an increasing number of people seem to think he's the greatest player in league history, more seem to still believe that honor belongs to Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls legend. James is a poor 4-6 in the NBA Finals, while Jordan won six rings and never lost in the championship series. However, the 40-year-old could have a great shot at getting his fifth ring next season with Doncic now by his side. Caldwell-Pope was a key player on that 2020 Lakers team due to his deadly 3-point shooting, disruptive team defense and ability to score in transition. He found his way onto the Denver Nuggets for the 2022-23 season, where he won another championship, and he now plays for a rising Orlando Magic team.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Deion Sanders turns heads with new alter ego
The man who once outran NFL receivers and MLB fastballs is now charging the net—on the tennis court. Deion Sanders, head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, has picked up a new passion, and he's not doing it quietly. 'I got a new hobby because I've got to have something that I can personally compete,' Sanders said in a recent Instagram post. 'Give me 6 months and I'm gonna be PRIME BLACKENROE!' Yes, you read that right. Sanders is learning tennis. And not just for fun—he's aiming for domination. At 57 years old and down two toes following foot surgery complications, Sanders is proving that retirement from pro sports doesn't mean retirement from competition. Advertisement Sanders posted a selfie courtside, tennis racket in hand, donning his signature confidence and an eye on his next opponent: actor Leon Robinson. Known for roles in Cool Runnings and Above the Rim, Robinson is also apparently a strong tennis player. Deion made the challenge personal: 'Leon, I'm coming for you man.' Buffs fans may be used to Coach Prime's animated pressers and recruiting flair, but this latest venture shows a more human side: a legendary athlete still looking for the thrill of competition in a new arena. 'I'm working with 8 toes and a lot of pain but baby I'm working,' he added. That trademark grit helped him lead the Buffaloes to a 9-4 season in 2024, a major improvement over the team's 1–11 campaign in 2022, the season before Coach Prime took over. The tennis courts may seem like an unusual place to find Coach Prime, but nothing about Sanders' story has ever followed the norm. Whether leading a college football program or learning to serve and volley, Deion always brings Prime Time energy. Advertisement So what's next? If you're in Boulder and hear a racket—on or off the court—it might just be Coach Prime chasing another win. Related: Travis Hunter claps backs at Cam Ward in viral NFLPA moment Related: Shedeur Sanders not emerging as Browns' QB1, per report
Fox News
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Ex-NBA star names Trump as 'dream' guest for his podcast
President Donald Trump made the rounds in the election cycle on many podcasts, including some that touched on plenty of sports. Trump notably appeared on both "Impaulsive" with Logan Paul, and he was also a guest on "Bussin' With The Boys" with former NFL offensive lineman Taylor Lewan. Depending on his schedule, he has another athlete ready for him: eight-time NBA All-Star Dwight Howard. Howard, the future Hall of Famer who gained prevalence with the Orlando Magic, recently called Trump his "dream podcast guest" for his "Above the Rim" show. "Talk to him about upbringing, how did he get to where he is today, being the president and how difficult it is. I don't think people understand it, the tough assignment of being a president, but also trying to carry your own morals and everything like that," Howard recently said to "Front Office Sports." "I'm [not] taking up for any president or anything like that in history, but I'm just of the understanding that it is a very hard job. It's like being a king in your own land, and you have so many people that you have to try to take care of, and a lot of times your feelings and emotions have to be out of decisions and stuff like that." "I just like to have conversations with people just to see where their spirit and their energy lies," he added. "And a lot of times, when we see people online, we see people in the media or the face that they put on when they're on TV or whatever, maybe [it's] a little bit different than how they carry themselves and how they move when they're not on camera and stuff like that." Former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson interviewed former Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election. Howard and other current and former NBA players recently scored deals to bring their podcasts to Blue Wire. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
New York Times
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Barry Michael Cooper, ‘New Jack City' Screenwriter, Dies at 66
Barry Michael Cooper, who was one of the first journalists to explore the crack epidemic of the 1980s before turning to Hollywood, where he made his mark with screenplays for gritty films like 'New Jack City,' died on Jan. 21 in Baltimore. He was 66. His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his son, Matthew Cooper, who did not cite a cause. As a screenwriter, Mr. Cooper, who was raised in Harlem, was perhaps best known for the three films often called his Harlem Trilogy. The first, 'New Jack City' (1991), about a ruthless uptown drug lord (Wesley Snipes), presaged a wave of films from Black directors and screenwriters that touched on gang life in the 1990s. The trilogy also included two films from 1994: 'Sugar Hill,' another drug-hustling drama starring Mr. Snipes, and 'Above the Rim,' a basketball drama starring Tupac Shakur as a dealer, which Mr. Cooper wrote with Benny Medina and the film's director, Jeff Pollack. Whatever the medium, Mr. Cooper blended a rich literary sensibility with a deep knowledge of the language and status symbols of the ghetto. 'He was very aware of everything from Hemingway to Dostoyevsky,' the author, critic and filmmaker Nelson George, who worked with Mr. Cooper at The Village Voice, said in an interview. 'At the same time, he was very, very connected to the slang of the streets.' Mr. Cooper captured the glitter as well as the bloodshed of a new generation of 1980s and '90s hustlers who flashed thick gold ropes and hockey-puck-sized rolls of cash while upending communities in pursuit of overnight fortune. 'I wanted to detail their voices — the way the hustlers talked,' Mr. Cooper said in a 2007 interview with Stop Smiling, an arts and culture magazine. 'I wanted to put it in a literary context like 'The Great Gatsby.'' His goal, he added, was to 'take Harlem and the Renaissance and put it in a modern context.' In 1986, he published an early in-depth examination of the crack boom for Spin, the music and culture magazine. 'Sinewy arms folded across their chests laden with gold medallions,' he wrote in the article, 'a silent roar creasing their lips in the guise of a sneer, the young lions usher their prey in and out of video parlors and misty hallways.' A year later, he won the award for best magazine feature from the National Association of Black Journalists for his Spin article 'In Cold Blood: The Baltimore Teen Murders,' about the eruption of gun violence among teenagers. His 1987 Village Voice cover article 'Kids Killing Kids: New Jack City Eats Its Young' chronicled the exploding drug trade in Detroit, including the young street-level dealers who 'were making like $2,000 a day,' Mr. Cooper said in a 1991 interview with Terry Gross of the NPR program 'Fresh Air.' 'These were new examples of the privileged underclass, so to speak,' he said. 'The ones who carried beepers and cellular phones, and drove Jeeps and went out to the malls in Michigan and spent $10,000 at a drop at Gucci's and Fendi's. I had never seen that before.' The article was a showcase for a street term — 'new jack' — that Mr. Cooper made his own, albeit with a twist. 'My brother used the term a lot,' he told Stop Smiling. 'He used to say, 'Yeah, that kid is a new jack,'' meaning 'someone who's new to the game and frontin.' It's almost a derogatory term — almost like a rookie.' He added: 'Then I heard a song by Grandmaster Caz, and he used a line about this guy who was 'a new jack clown.' I took the phrase and wanted to flip it. It rang strong, new jack.' Mr. Cooper again invoked the term in 1988 with 'Teddy Riley's New Jack Swing,' an article in The Voice in which he gave a name to the blend of hip-hop, dance-pop and R&B pioneered by Mr. Riley, a prominent record producer and songwriter, as epitomized by artists like Keith Sweat and Bobby Brown. By that point, 'Kids Killing Kids' had already opened the door to Hollywood. Two weeks after the article was published, Mr. Cooper said in a 2007 interview with The Voice, 'I was on a first-class flight to Hollywood to meet with Quincy Jones. My head was huge.' Mr. Cooper was hired to retool a script by the screenwriter Thomas Lee Wright based on the story of Nicky Barnes, the heroin lord of Harlem in the 1960s and '70s. He updated it for the crack era, focusing on a fictional kingpin, Nino Brown, in what became 'New Jack City.' Directed by Mario Van Peebles, the film featured breakout performances by Chris Rock and the rapper-turned-actor Ice-T. It eventually earned nearly $50 million and was released at 'a pivotal time,' Sha Be Allah wrote in an appraisal for The Source magazine last year. In 1991, he wrote, 'the blaxploitation film genre had been defunct for over a decade, leaving a gaping hole in 'Black Hollywood.' 'New Jack City' was a harbinger of the resurgence of Black actors, writers and filmmakers in Hollywood, as well as the crystallization of Hip Hop's synergistic capabilities.' Barry Michael Cooper was born on June 12, 1958, in Harlem, the elder of two sons of Lafayette and Josephine Cooper. He spent his formative years in Esplanade Gardens, a cooperative high-rise complex. 'You had all levels of society in there,' he later said, 'from millionaires to people on welfare.' He recalled spending Saturdays at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, reading Harlem Renaissance writers like Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman. After high school, he spent a year at North Carolina Central University, in Durham, N.C., before transferring to Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. Along the way, he fell in love with the narrative nonfiction of Gay Talese, Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe and others associated with the New Journalism movement. In 1980, Mr. Cooper embarked on a journalism career of his own with a piece for The Voice, 'The Gospel According to Parliament,' about the funk titan George Clinton's celebrated ensemble. His career as a reporter thrived in the 1980s, but he largely abandoned print for Hollywood after 'New Jack City' became a hit. Success, he admitted, went to his head. 'I got so high on myself that I turned down jobs,' he told The Voice in 2007. He eventually found himself in a tangled relationship with a woman that resulted in his arrest on charges of assault in 1997, according to The Voice. The terms of his plea deal required him to leave Los Angeles for a year; when he returned, he found that opportunities had evaporated. Mr. Cooper tried to jump-start his career in 2005 with a semiautobiographical web series, 'Blood on the Wall$,' about a television producer who attempts to pull out of a tailspin by working as an investigative reporter. He was a producer of the 2017-19 Netflix series 'She's Gotta Have It,' based on Spike Lee's 1986 breakout film, and wrote three episodes. Mr. Cooper's son is his only immediate survivor. Another son, Timothy Michael Cooper, died in 2020; his wife, Charmaine (Lynn) Cooper, died in 2022. He lived in Baltimore. Although his run in the film business was brief, Mr. Cooper was proud of his legacy. 'If there was no 'New Jack,' there would be no 'Boyz 'n the Hood,'' he told Stop Smiling. 'There would be no 'Menace II Society,' because it let the public know, and more importantly let the suits in the studios know, that these movies make money.'
