BE LIKE MIKE?
Jadakiss to DJ Clue: “I should get a 10-day contract off that!”
That’s right. That’s me up there, posted on the wall at the Gauchos Gymnasium in the Bronx, somehow caught in the crossfire of Jadakiss (left) and DJ Clue playfully arguing like a couple of 12-year-olds about who had a better game at the Boost Mobile Jordan Brand Celebrity Basketball Challenge last night. Which proved a couple of things. First, sometimes, especially at this event — the first ever held by the good people at Brand Jordan — it pays to play the wall and just watch the action. For whatever reason, after playing in the 20-minute celebrity game last night, ‘Kiss came over and stole Ms. Checks’ seat right in front of me. From there, he introduced the #8 video for an episode of Rap City for the BET crew, traded barbs with Clue, signed some autographs for the kids (‘Kiss loves the kids) and asked a couple of his pals how many points he had scored at least a dozen times (For the record, he dropped 17, including five 3’s.) And, second, rappers and celebrities ain’t no different than me and you. Sometimes, it just takes events like these to bring that out.
The night started off with the introductions of some of the players invited to be a part of this year’s Jordan Classic, an All-American-type game penciled in for this Saturday featuring the best high school players in the country. Among those in attendance were Derrick Rose (headed to Memphis next year), Donte Green (headed to Syracuse) and Jeffrey Jordan (Undecided), the son of…Well, you know. From there, they brought out the racks and held a three-point contest, emceed by Clue, and Nick Calathes (Florida) took the title after a couple of overtime rounds against Duke-bound sharpshooter Kyle Singler.
Shortly after, a handful of celebrities, including Jada, Clue, Fabolous, Trey Songz, Nina Sky, Julissa, DMC and Webstar, took the floor to compete in the celeb game. Now, generally speaking, celebrity basketball games are usually competitive for about three minutes and then lose their appeal. Not so here. Songz and Jadakiss kept their squad in the game — T.S. with some fancy footwork and ‘Kiss with the long ball. Clue, on the other hand, resorted to distributing the rock and getting his teammates involved. And, by the end, while the crowd didn’t really care who won and lost (wait, who did win?), Fab looked like might pass out out there on the court.
While this was the first year Brand Jordan held a celebrity-driven basketball event leading up to the game, it was surprisingly organized in a very unorganized sort of way. After the game, during the relatively low-key dunk contest (won easily with a two-handed reverse by Donte Green), most of the celebrities hung around, sitting on the sidelines to sign ‘graphs and enjoy the rest of the night. Not sure if Jordan had anything to do with this, but save for one dude who basically got a section of seats to himself, there were no entourages and no celebrities fulfilling a duty and scrambling out of the gym. Maybe it was because the majority live here in New York but it had a great community feel that I don’t get at many other events, sports or otherwise. Definitely worth all the effort and something to keep on your calendar for next year.
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Free Throws:
For a couple of other perspectives on the game, head over to I Write Checks and Cashmere Thoughts.
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