Where Are They Now?

This is a five year old story from ESPN about a North Carolina high school student who scored 61 points when he was a senior in honor of his grandfather who was murdered at the age of 61 a few days before. If you like having your heart strings tugged at, give it a chance, it's touching.
If you're a big basketball fan--this is a story you need to see, and you'll know why after you get to the 20 second mark.

Fun With Drunk Fans

Yeah, it's a slow day here at the Reach Blog Offices. Here's one of my all time favorite moments involving drunk fans. It takes place at Turner Field in Atlanta during a rainout sometime last season. As soon as the video begins, you know where it's headed and it's marvelous. Hope you like.

Derek Fisher's Foul And Vanessa Bryant's Foul Mouth

Quite an ending in San Antonio last night. Brent Barry's three pointer was off the mark at the last second and whether or not you thought Fisher fouled him (he did), the Lakers have a 3-1 lead heading back to Los Angeles on Thursday night. A win on Thursday and the NBA has half of it's dream matchup set (if only the league could do something about those unpredictable Pistons).
It has been an interesting couple of days for Kobe Bryant. Last week, a rumor emerged claiming that he was cheating on his wife with a Laker Girl who mysteriously was fired from her job (lawsuit?). This week, along with a potential birth in the NBA Finals, Kobe's has to deal with his wife Vanessa who is...shall we say irritated with ESPN The Magazine writer Laura Lane for a piece she wrote about Vanessa. The article was--gasp--about Vanessa Bryant's outfit and how she spends her time with her kids (how dare Lane!).
So Vanessa Bryant spots Lane at the Lakers game Sunday and lets her have it. The follwing is directly from Lane's blog:

Last night, I got cussed out by Vanessa Bryant. Seriously. At the Lakers game. In front of her kids. In front of the Lakers locker room. It was awesome. She is mad about an article I wrote where I mentioned her. That means one of two things - she either reads the ESPN blog or she has herself on Google alerts. Both are fantastic.
So as I’m walking out of the Lakers locker room after some post-game interviews with the players, I pass Vanessa, who is sitting outside the locker room as usual with her two girls.
“Laura!” she screams (yes, she apparently knows my name). “F--- you! You f------ b----!”
“Excuse me?” I say, completely baffled as I look around me to see if there is someone else named Laura. No, there’s not.
Her daughters – ages 5 and 2 – are sitting next to her on the bench looking at their mom as she screams.
“F--- you! How dare you write about me and my daughters and their schedule! You didn’t say you were writing an article! F--- you! You f------ bitch. You have no journalism ethics! F--- you! You b---- - ”
I just stare at her. I’ve heard many stories about her from reporters, but this was unbelievable. Two of my friends from the LA Times told me how she cussed out one of them last season, because he said hi to her daughter. “Join the club, this means you’ve arrived,” said one reporter when word spread of my run-in with Vanessa. “She’s insane,” said another. “Everyone knows it.”

It's a good thing that Lane didn't bring up anything too personal...like how she got the $4.3 million purple ring or the world's only automatic Lamborghini. That might have really set her off.

Awful Announcing: ESPN Writer Gets Cussed Out By Kobe Bryant's Wife

If Only Will Ferrell Movies Were Two Minutes Long

I'll be the first to admit, Will Ferrell movies have pretty much sucked since "Anchorman" ("Stranger Than Fiction" was a movie Will Ferrell happened to be in). "Talladega Nights" started this trend of sports flicks for Ferrell which more or less follow the same formula: Will Ferrell's character has an oversized ego, he wears funny outfits, spits out a catchphrase or two, throw in a scene with a wild animal, roll credits. "Blades Of Glory" was one of the longest 90 minutes of my life because both the movie was awful and because I seem to be the only person who doesn't think Jon Heder is funny.
I learned my lesson after "Blades of Glory"--don't pay $8.50 to see a Will Ferrell movie in theatres. "Semi-Pro" is available today at Blockbuster so I'll see it at some point I'm sure, but the reason for this post is the new trailer for "Step Brothers". "Step Brothers" is the new comedy starring Ferrell and John C. Reilly (does anyone remember Reilly was nominated for an Oscar?!). The one thing Ferrell movies have going for them is the trailers. They always seem to be funnier than the actual movie, which I guess is the point of trailers--to sell you on the movie. But I'm not fooled. The trailer makes me laugh, the movie will make me want to hit someone. So, I'll just show you the trailer--just promise you won't shell out $8.50 for the ticket when the movie opens. Do we have a deal?
By the way, this trailer is NSFW (once again: Not Safe For Work, since I've gotten complaints from people who don't know what that means--it means they say fuck a lot in this trailer, so don't play it while you're at work).

Atlas

Reason #1 I'm bummed about missing out on Lollapalooza this year: Battles. This New York City band sounds like they would put on a great live show. The band itself is made up of members of Helmet, Don Caballero, and Storm and Stress. Their first album "Mirrored" is their first material to have lyrics, as their previous EPs have only been instrumentals.
The music video is their album cover come to life. It reminds me of the future scenes in the movie "The Fountain"--but with an experimental rock band and without a script that makes me want to mash my head against a brick wall for six hours (damnit that movie was awful--I slept through the last hour of it and STILL feel like my time was wasted). I'm rambling. Enjoy "Atlas" by Battles...

Woody Harrelson To Surf Hungry

Get your Woody Harrelson fix while you still can. The actor, and marijuana spokesman, plans on killing himself just as soon as he gets a break in his schedule. Harrelson plans on traveling to an island and starve himself for 40 day. Did we mention he's a marijuana spokesperson? Does this really seem like a good idea--actually, does this even seem possible? Celebitchy.com has all the details:

"Woody Harrelson plans to live on a remote island and eat nothing for 40 days - to see how the experience affects his brain.
The actor, 46, will go ahead with the experiment as soon as he gets a break in his work schedule.
‘I’ve always wanted to do it,’ he says.
‘I know it’s going to be really hard. But can you imagine it? Eating nothing for 40 days? Swimming and surfing every day in a remote place? Where does the mind go?’"

Call me crazy, but you need energy to surf or swim--otherwise, as logic would have it, you would be too weak and you would drown (imagine how that would effect the brain).

Celebitchy

Joakim Noah Surprises No One

True story: I was working the second job Sunday night when someone who knew I was a Bulls fan told me that a Chicago Bull was arrested and they found marijuana. My first, last, and only thought was Noah. Actually, if you've seen an interview with Noah, this will probably come as no surprise to you (see video below), in fact, his father Yannick Noah admitted a few years ago that he too smokes the grass.
Apparently, Noah was seen by police in Gainsville (his former college town) drinking out of a plastic cup on the street. They found an amber liquid that was found to be alcoholic. After a search at the police station they found the weed.
Since Noah lead the Florida Gators to back to back National Championships, he is held up on a god like level, so it really makes you wonder if something else happened that isn't being reported. I mean, I went to the University of Minnesota, I've been caught with an open container of alcohol on the streets and even though I was a nobody at the school, I never got arrested--I just had to pour it out. So, perhaps there's more to this story than we're hearing now.