Links: NBA Finals Diary, Day 2
Practice? Media availability? A video camera? We got the inside stuff…
After a late night last night — by the time I got into bed after the postgame press conference and a stop off at the hospitality suite, it was about 2:30 a.m. — I woke up this morning at 8:30, just in time to see Ashanti and Ja Rule on “Good Morning America.” I’m pretty sure I really saw that. It was weird.
A few hours later, Ben and I were back on the bus, headed over to the FleetNorthBankCenterGardenGarden for practice and media availability. We grabbed breakfast there at an ESPN brunch where they ran out of coffee and Mike Grange told me my hair looked nice. Then we went out to the court for media availability.
Normally these sessions are unbelievably boring. Dozens of media members surround each player and ask the same two or three questions, over and over and over. And really, what am I going to do? Ask all the players about Paul Pierce being injured and then write about Paul Pierce returning from injury? No thanks. I don’t want to do that, and I don’t think you guys want to read about that, especially when I’m guessing there’s about a dozen similar columns out there.
So, I brought my video camera and tried to see what else guys were talking about…and I discovered that Tony Allen loves the camera.
44 Responses to “Links: NBA Finals Diary, Day 2”
Jun.6 at 5:15 pm
B. Long says:
First!
Jun.6 at 5:22 pm
B. Long says:
Great Vid! I love how Drew still sounds like a teenager.
Jun.6 at 5:27 pm
Ben Osborne says:
Lang killed it.
Jun.6 at 5:30 pm
Sparker says:
tony allen. not short of confidence. this was awesome. you gave marc jackson so many openings… but he just couldn’t be funny
Jun.6 at 5:30 pm
its just alex says:
Allen was so excited to be interviewed.
Jun.6 at 5:32 pm
B. Long says:
I love that Mark Jackson said to Van Gundy, “Your better than that.”
Jun.6 at 5:32 pm
Michael Tillery says:
Ben and Lang hit me up on my cell Sunday. I was sitting next to Scoop in the press conference when you two walked through.
Jun.6 at 6:09 pm
James the balla says:
Thats hilarious, i always said he looked like J Rich!!
Jun.6 at 7:22 pm
Eboy says:
Andre Bynum: “Some of them do 70, 80″ Lang: “Miles per hour?” Classic!
Jun.6 at 7:24 pm
Chris says:
He look at little more like me.
Jun.6 at 8:22 pm
Myles Brown says:
I saw you two on NBA TV Mizzo.
Jun.6 at 8:35 pm
adams says:
And if the Lakers lose it will all be about how the 12 year old was injured. Funny stuff guys.
Jun.6 at 9:36 pm
Dacre says:
AWESOMELY BEHIND THE SCENARIO.
Jun.6 at 10:29 pm
RV says:
Great work and cool video Lang, can’t get anything like that anywhere else
Jun.6 at 11:49 pm
Wongtouski says:
This video > any “Celtics/Lakers” rivalry bits on TV….in fact its > anything Espn has
Jun.6 at 11:50 pm
Hursty says:
D1*E can go eat sh!t. Slam represents. Cool vid Lang.
Jun.7 at 1:02 am
Will Lee says:
hey lang we need more stuffs like this please. I’d rather watch this than NBA TV
Jun.7 at 2:57 am
daHiVE says:
great video, hope it was not the last one of this kind(and that jvg is in one of the next ones)!
Jun.7 at 3:44 am
LSM says:
haha that was great, nice to see something a little different “he reached, you teached” nice!
Jun.7 at 4:26 am
Tariq says:
Lang: I’ve always wanted to tell you your hair looks nice, but never could conjure up the courage.
Jun.7 at 5:41 am
Oli says:
I like DJ wear K1X under his adidas NBA stuff…
Jun.7 at 6:03 am
Pro says:
This is great. We need more of these Lang!
Jun.7 at 6:43 am
Tariq says:
What’s K1X?
Jun.7 at 6:45 am
Tariq says:
I kept trying to figure out why Lang was getting a close-up of Mbenga’s gear, but couldn’t figure it out. Still can’t. Someone fill me in, please.
Jun.7 at 7:32 am
Russ Bengtson says:
German sneaker/clothing brand that Ron Artest endorses.
Jun.7 at 7:36 am
Tariq says:
Thanks.
Jun.7 at 8:54 am
Tariq says:
Lang’s hair is like silk. Plus, it smells like oranges and vanilla.
Jun.7 at 9:30 am
Gerwin says:
Great work Lang. That’s the way to cover it! Nothing like the regular comments, but just the real players.
BTW. On nba.com there is a poll about Finals heroics by injured players. MJ ‘97 is, of course, at #1, but I just can’t believe Paul Pierce (’08) is chosen ahead of Willis Reed (’70)!! To even compare him to what Michael, Willis and Isiah (’88) dit. He didn’t looked that injured to me. Hyped, in my opinion…
Jun.7 at 9:43 am
Penny Hardaway says:
God bless Atlanta’s children
Jun.7 at 9:57 am
Russ Bengtson says:
Paul Pierce should only be ahead of Willis Reed alphabetically.
Jun.7 at 1:52 pm
Eboy says:
Andrew Bynum: “Some of them do 70, 80″ Lang: “Miles per hour?” Classic!
Jun.7 at 1:54 pm
Krishan says:
WHY THE FU(K IS PAUL PIERCE GETTING ALL THESE ACCOLADES ALL OF THE SUDDEN?? First, he was The Greatest Celtic Scorer. THEN, he and LeBron dare compare themselves to Bird and Nique. Now his this hero that rose up from debilitating injury to topple the lakers. I mean, props for fighting through the pain, but better than that 1970 Reed performance? WHAT?
Jun.7 at 2:10 pm
John says:
David Aldridge is uncomfortable.
Jun.7 at 2:30 pm
Lakers Blog says:
This is great stuff… nice video.. thanx for the content!
Jun.7 at 4:03 pm
John E. Sanford says:
Awesome…
Jun.7 at 5:21 pm
Kevin says:
great idea Lang, definitely better than reading the same crap that gets regurgitated over and over..
Jun.7 at 5:44 pm
Lang Whitaker says:
@John: So is Andre Aldridge.
Jun.7 at 7:44 pm
Diogo says:
“He reached, you teached.” Classic. And I agree Pierce’s injury was hyped. Just like everything else in this damn series.
Jun.7 at 8:33 pm
B. Long says:
Is it true that the team that wins game one in this rivalry has never won the series? I either heard that on TV or I dreamed it last night….
Jun.7 at 10:49 pm
riggs says:
wow i never heard of an injury getting hyped. yall must be slow. great video lang
Jun.7 at 11:53 pm
The Last Kings Fan says:
@B Long: I’m too lazy to check all of them, but at least in 1987 the Lakers won game one and the series
Jun.8 at 2:07 am
Permaculture says:
ah, man, that video you added was — dare I say it –charming. Thanks.
Jun.8 at 10:58 am
Jukai says:
B. Long - That statistic is incredibly flawed.
Jun.11 at 9:44 pm
SLAM ONLINE | » Links: NBA Finals Diary, Day 7 says:
[…] The answer? Not much. Tons of media members, two dozen players. And today the guys were even more worn out than in Boston. The most interesting thing was that after I posted that video the other day, Big Baby apparently saw it online and took offense to Tony Allen’s report of dunking on him. Tony told me about this last night at the game, so today I decided to give Big Baby a chance to set the record straight. And set it straight he does. (While Gabe Pruitt does his best to stay the heck out of it.) […]