In choosing a video for you to enjoy (or intensely hate) I thought a band from New York City was appropriate, yesterday being 9/11 and all. Seven years ago yesterday wasn’t a good day in any of our lives. I hated that day. Really hated it.

However, for some reason, I remember it fondly. A lot of love came out of that day. A lot of nonsense came from it as well, but looking on the bright side of things, a lot of love came out of that day.

My FDNY hat is beat to hell and completely unwearable at this point but that says a lot. I was proud to wear it until the sun bleached the hell out of it and the threads were no longer, especially after reading this incredible book from the late, great David Halberstam.

Unlike yesterday, September 12th is any other day. It will always be that way.

The Slackers - “Have the Time”

Onto the links. The last is marked “extra special.”

-the great Tom Ziller of FanHouse and Sactown Royalty doesn’t see things going quite as smoothly for Shawn Marion now that Steve Nash isn’t feeding him the ball. Good luck with that max contract next year, Shawn.

-in the first of many stories on Black Jesus this week, we hear through Jerry Brown that Amare wants to be “the guy the other teams have to fear as a defender.” I love the attitude but I really have a hard time believing Coach D was the sole reason Amare has been a subpar defender his entire career.

-Basketbawful pisses in the Portland punch bowl by questioning Greg Oden’s rehab and wondering why it isn’t more like Amare’s.

-from Paul Coro comes Terry Porter reiterating his stance that Nash needs a lighter workload this year. Coach Porter loves the additions of Dragic, Lopez and Barnes and believes they more than fill the needs of the team.

-this means Bruce Bowen will soon disappear from the face of the Earth, right? HIYO!

-Skeets at Ball Don’t Lie gives a nice recap on the Amare stories this week and lets us know Black Jesus is possibly the most fit athlete the NBA has ever seen, taking the title from the one and only Karl Malone, aka the guy who knocks up 12 year olds.

-Paul Forrester of Sports Illustrated outlines the challenges ahead for Coach Porter and the Suns, rating their chances to truly contend as slim.

-one more entry from Paul Coro. Amare apparently believes this is the best team the Suns have had since, well, ever.

I understand being optimistic and talking up the team, but we all know it’s a ridiculous thought. Amare may have been wearing his “Standing Tall and Delusional” hat when saying that.

-last of the Amare links, I swear. It didn’t end well for those poor dinosaurs.

-using the always fun Venn diagram, KnickerBlogger illustrates that Shaq is big and slow. Tell us something we don’t know, fellas.

-we’ve all heard by this point that Shaq will retire once he plays out his contract. Henry Abbott at TrueHoop points out that Shaq’s math skills are suspect.

-last but not least, the second installment of Shaq n’ Nash.

// Click here to read the rest from Black Jesus Disciples

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