Lakers Showing UP

Just six months ago the Celtics taught the Lakers a lesson by coming back from a 20 points deficit to win Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals. All talks about Kobe being like Mike came to a halt, people were beginning to doubt his ability. I mean how can you doubt the skill of 10 times All-Star, All-star MVP, 3 times NBA Champion, League's MVP, All-NBA First Team and All Defensive First Team, I mean he got skills on top skills. But then again people have a mine of the own and they choose who they want to support and who they don't want to support. Anyways, the Christmas rivalry was always a big hit and the Lakers and Celtics are no strangers to this big day's event. As a matter of fact the match was well over anticipated after the Celtics won the Championship. I held my breath throughout the game even though the Lakers had a lead throughout the game it was not a big enough a lead to keep the Celtics out of it. Remember they had let them back in the game in the Finals but this time they stood their course and grind it out. The Celtics on the other hand....well from my stand point....did not bring their A game, maybe they though it would be as easy as it was in the Finals. Well if that was the case they thought wrong cause Kobe and his troops came to play. Kobe got it going from the get go the jumpers were right on target. Everyone stepped up and play, defensively they could have done a better job, but they got the job done in the end. They put an end the fourth longest winning streak in the NBA.

The Hornets were not so lucky as they were railroad by Dwight Howard and the Magic 68-88. Maybe they were blind sighted by that all those Superman t-shirt as the Magic theme for the game was Superman in honor of D12(Dwight Howard) or maybe CP3(Chris Paul) was stage fright playing on Christmas because he was held to just 12 points and 4 assist and marked he did not get a steal ending his 108 consecutive games with a steal. Lebron James and the Cavs rallied back to take the win over the Wizards 93-89. San Antonio Spurs are right back in the mix of things after getting off to a slow start they are now second best in the West. They took on the Suns and with 4 seconds to go in the 4th quarter Roger Mason hit a 3 pointer off a Tony Parker assist to give the Spur a 1 point victory over the Suns. Dallas on the shoulders of Dirk Nowitzki and a strong backcourt led the Mavs 102-94 win over the Portland Trailblazers after Josh Howard was ejected from the games with a Flagrant foul with a little under 5 minutes in the 3rd quarter.

Christmas

Christmas is the time of year were we celebrate peace on earth and goodwill to men. But this Christmas seems weak and boring. The spirit is not in the air so to speak. Normally this time of year there would be singing of carols and decoration, but this year you have to look and listen hard enough to feel or see the spirit of joyful giving and love. The economy has taken it's toll on everyone. There is not enough money to shop and enjoy Christmas the way we use to. For me, I use to love this time of the year, but now it's just another day like any other day. The one thing I will do that I do every Christmas is to reflect on the year that has gone by, my accomplishments and disappointments. I will see what I did wrong and how I can correct them in the year to come. I will set my usual New Year's resolution and steps I need to follow to accomplish my goals and ways not to make the same mistakes that I did in the old year. Usually not all goals that are set will be fulfilled and there will be achievements and disappointments just the same. But to take the new year head on is one thing and being prepare is another thing. As we all know danger comes from the direction we least expect it but when you are prepare for the unexpected, it's easier to overcome obstacles or live them down, cause there is nothing in life that you cannot live down, rise above or overcome. Sometimes we just have to live in the moment while we think about the future. Cause the future is not yet hear and the present is, so live for the moment but always, always keep the future in mind. I know sometimes we think that life is too hard, but when you think about it, it's as hard as we make it to be. Life is LIVE IN FULFILL ENJOYMENT. Sometimes you think there is no hope and that with the failing economy and global warming we as the poor can't make it. But as Mohammed Ali once said "Imagination is the highest kite one can fly, and to be a great champion you must believe you are the best, if you are not, pretend you are". We are all pretenders until it becomes a reality. So even though the spirit of Christmas is a distant feeling this year lets pretend that it is like every other Christmas happy, joyous and peaceful.

Carmelo Making His Presence Felt

Just the night before close friend Lebron James took the spotlight by becoming the Cleveland Cavaliers Franchise record holder for steal recording 735. Last night Carmelo Anthony started the game against Minnesota with just a win in mind. He never planned on making any records just a win would be fine. At the end of the 1st Melo had only 9 points. After 2 minutes into the 3rd quarter Melo took over the game and went on to match George Gervin record of 33 points in a quarter. Gervin scored 33 points for the San Antonio against New Orleans in the 2nd quarter in 1978. Now 30 years later 24 years old Melo stepped up and equal the record. He ended the night with 45 points a season high as the Nuggets beat the Timberwolves 116-105 taking them to 15-7 on the season. With his teammates urging him to go for the record he did so in fine style making a Franchise record and equaling the NBA record.

Dreams Do Come True

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

These are the word of Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister who was a driving force for racial equalities in the 1950's and 1960's. He organized a massive march on Washington DC, on August 28, 1963. His partners in the march include other religious leaders, labor leaders, and black organizers. They marched down the Washington Mall from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King evoked the name of Lincoln in his "I Have a Dream" speech, which is credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

He dreamed the dream and many African Americans and Africans around the world started dreaming that same dream. Some have given up hope that the dream will come true and some still carry that dream. I was born 20 years after Martin Luther King, Jr declared his dream to the world. I became apart of the dream. Even though I was not born into slavery I was born into mental slavery, and I too began to dream.

Rosa Parks was arrested because she refuse to give up her seat on a Montgomery Bus to a white passenger. After she was arrested this is what she said "People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in". she was tired of being second best. The Montgomery bus boycott was also the inspiration for the bus boycott in the township of Alexandria, Eastern Cape of South Africa which was one of the key events in the radicalization of the black majority of that country under the leadership of the African National Congress.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr a National Hero of Jamaica, a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black nationalist, orator and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League was the first man of color to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny. And make the Negro feel he was somebody.

Malcolm X, Booker T Washington, Nelson Mandela, and many more have fueled the dream, a dream that have been dreamed for decades. They have paved the way for us and generations to come. Black people have always been outcasts, not because we are unimportant but because we are strong. We have overcome so many obstacles, so many have died fighting the fight we are still fighting today.

Barack Obama born to a Black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas. He too had the dream and he too sought to make that dream a reality. He wants to make a change. Over the years we have seems the black race overcome and become dominant forces in societies. But never have we seems a black American President. Obama made that change. In his route to change he stated that "Now make no mistake: the change we need won't come easy or without cost. We will all need to tighten our belts, we will all need to sacrifice and we will all need to pull our weight because now more than ever, we are all in this together". He have given back hope to black poeple across the world.

I believe that the change was already here. I have seen black people made their mark in history. Barack Obama made it clear that we have always been the forerunners, he proved that we are more mighter a race than we think we are, more so he proved that dreams do come true. He made the dream a reality, a dream we have far to long been dreaming. A dream that have been the hope of our race.

I love history. I love to read about the past, a time when we were courageuos and brave. A time when we know how to fight for humanity. I have seen so many thing change in my 25 years in this world. I have witness my race rise to the top slowly but surely. The inevitable have come to past and I can say I have witness a major change for the black race. There has to be a first for everything and now a flame of hope burns brighter than ever before.

As Mandela once said "A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination".