First of all, no new news on The Tentative Official Player of The Links, Lukasz Orbzut. In fact, if you search Google News, yesterday’s post on The Links is the most recent bit of Orbzut news. We need more. C’mon, Indy Star, bring us the Orbzut mini-feature!
Oh, and anyone else notice Phil Ford is an assistant coach with the BETcats now? What’s so interesting about that? Well, you know who else is on their roster? Jeff McInnis. That’s all I’m saying about that.
• In an attempt to get the new and improved Celtics on the same page this season, Linkstigator Doc Rivers has them shouting “Ubuntu!” to break each huddle. Say what? From the Boston Herald…
The word has its origin in the Bantu languages of Southern Africa and is used to describe a philosophy of life that promotes the greater good rather than individual success. Rivers read about the philosophy during the summer as it related to the teachings of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and said it denotes a belief that one person cannot be successful if those around him are not. Nobody wins unless everybody wins, if you will.
The coach asked Gabe Pruitt, Glen Davis, Brandon Wallace and Jackie Manuel to study the concept of ubuntu, and the rookies made a presentation to the team last Saturday before the flight to Italy.
(We have to get video of that presentation — imagine them in front of the team with flow charts and a power point presentation.)
This all sounds very forward-thinking and a bit exotic. Doc Rivers was studying Desmond Tutu this summer? Cool.
Here’s the thing, though: I also read about “ubuntu” this summer as it relates to the teachings of Archbishop Tutu…in a Vanity Fair article written by Brad Pitt. Seriously.
I was on vacation in the Caribbean over the Fourth of July and the hotel had a copy of Vanity Fair’s Africa issue laying around. Seeing as I was similarly just laying around, I picked it up and started flipping through it, when I came to the interview of Archbishop Tutu conducted by Brad Pitt. I read the entire interview, which wasn’t bad, and I recall Brad Pitt asking Tutu about “ubuntu.”
I’m assuming this is where Doc Rivers came across the word. Thanks to this blog, we can read the snippet of conversation that gave Doc Rivers his Eureka! moment…
Brad Pitt: What is this concept of Ubuntu I keep reading about?
Desmond Tutu: Ubuntu is the essence of being human. And in our language a person is ubuntu, and ubuntu is a noun to speak about what it means to be human. In essence, it is something that you find especially in the Old Testament, where you’re not quite sure sometimes-when you are reading, say the Psalms-whether the Psalm is speaking, where it says, ‘I,’ only of an individual, or is it speaking in a corporate sense? We say a person is a person through other persons. You can’t be human in isolation. You are human only in relationships.
Brad Pitt: So that speaks to our interconnectedness.
Desmond Tutu: We are interconnected…
So, Celtics fans, just understand that your team will be shouting out Brad Pitt every time they leave a huddle this season.
That’s surely a good sign.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Food is killing if you not get used to it. Like my first year I was eating (so much) chicken Caesar salad I was … going ‘cluck, cluck.'”—Andrei Kirilenko
THE LINKS…
• You have to love Reggie Theus, because his ambition is so transparent that it’s almost cute. He’s rocketed his way from being an assistant at Louisville a few years ago to being an NBA head coach, and now that he’s in the L, he apparently thinks he’s still coaching the Deering Tornadoes. Theus has instituted all kinds of juvenile rules for the Kings, including banning cell phones on the team bus. The midnight curfew before road games is incredible, really, considering most teams don’t even get into the cities they’re playing until well after midnight.
Ron Artest said, “It just shows that it’s about basketball and you can always have fun later.”
Later, like, after the midnight bed-check?
Wait until Theus tries to put Julie Connor in the starting line-up.
• Nets training camper Rod Benson has my ultimate respect: His XBox 360 was giving him the red rings of death, so he took it apart and fixed it himself. Rod, if I bring my XBox over to your hotel, can you fix it for me? I’m not joking, either.
(Rod also disses The Sez blog — not a wise move from someone fighting for a roster spot. Better backtrack on that, RB.)
• If you ever decide to make a huge, fake open wound on your foot using bubblegum, here’s how to do it.
• Anyone notice that since Chris Kaman cut off all his hair, his game has gone down the tubes? Bigger news in L.A.: The Clips have signed Disaster Dickau! Get ready to win, LA! Disaster is about winning! Got that? WINNING!
• Mike Grange, who had the meanest black eye ever at the NBA Finals, has some good stuff on Isiah here.
• It sounds like Andrei Kirilenko is getting Horny. The Jazz have brought in Jeff Hornacek to work with AK47, and Kirilenko is downright effusive about Hornacek here.
• Marc Iavaroni is copping from Mike D’Antoni and plans on using an 8 or 9-man rotation this year in Memphis. Not that they have a lot of young guys who need developing or anything…
• Looks like Steph is still on Marc Berman’s good side.
