I like Adrian Wojnarowski?

The Lakers are up 2-0. I’m probably gonna cry if they win (I want to say “when they win” but I don’t want to jinx it.) Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports is becoming one of favorite sports writers in an interesting twist of fate because I used to really hate him. This is probably because he’s not writing too many anti-Kobe articles anymore. Yeah I’m biased as shit, but in my defense, even when he wote blistering diatribes crucifying the Artist Formerly Known as The Ocho, I always respected his writing ability which has always been top notch. This probably why I still read every article he wrote even though they were blasphemous. He recently wrote some great articles about Shaq’s pettiness and Pau’s not-softness that you should check out.

John Hollinger has a good article?

I normally hate John Hollinger but this article is great. After reading it I understand more where he’s coming from. I’d hate Kobe too if everytime I said X basketball player had a good game I got The Laker Nation flooding my inbox calling me an X player dick rider. I also thought it was hilarious that after the Magic beat the Cavs he got more mail from Laker fans dogging on Lebronze.

Lebronze!

On a funny note, I call Lebron Lebronze because of he always seems to come in third in world competition. Seeing as how the Nuggets were eliminated before the Craboliers, Lebronze came in third again.

The Mighty Fed!

Roger Federer finally won the French and I couldn’t be happier. In my opinion this victory should easily make him the greatest of all time and it kind of bugs me that it’s still up for debate. Think about it: 14 titles, career grand slam, 20 straight semi-finals (17 of which were finals appearances), 237 (i think) weeks at number 1. That’s easily better than Sampras. Don’t even bring up Rod Laver. Rod Laver was definately more dominant for his time, but that was a long time ago. If they played today at their primes, it would be over in straights. Bringing up his shaky record against Nadal is valid, but during his prime The Mighty Fed only played Nadal on clay. Nadal couldn’t even meet him on the hard courts. Hell, he couldn’t even meet him at this year’s French.

I think now that he has the monkey off his back he’ll start playing more like The Mighty Fed of old, instead of The Mighty Old Fed.

Kobe called D-Will a bad boy. He averaged 19.4 points and 10.7 assists. Terry Kim averages 0 points and -0.7 assists. But he has sideburns

New Art Scene Writer For the LA Examiner!

Sorry it’s been awhile since I posted. Normally I would make some comment about how since I get like 1 hit a day, like, who cares, but I just checked my hits for yesterday and today I’ve been getting like hundreds of hits over the weekend. Is that a computer error? Iono. I hope it’s not because that’s pretty cool. Anywho, The reason I haven’t posted in a while is actually not due to laziness this time. I recently got a position at the Examiner as the art scene editor and I have been working really hard at that. I’ve already have three posts up. I have lot of big plans with that position so stay tuned for more announcements on that.

New Shows!

It’s been too long since I’ve done some art shows so I got myself in some shows. Check the upcoming shows sidebr for more details.

(Maria Sharapova Does Not Approve)

I hate life.

Pau Gasol says: “I’m tall.”

I know this is pretty late, but since nobody really reads these, I’m not too worried about it Anywho, this game, as anybody who would be concerned already knows, was what was known as a laugher. There wasn’t much to analyze. Basically The Lakers realized that the Rockets’ center was 6′6″ Chuck Hayes 6′10″ Brian Cook (who, although he’s 6′10,” plays like he’s 4′2″) and that their centers were seven foot Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. And they played accordingly. They played hard, but not all that hard. It was interesting to note that I think this was the first time all year they didn’t blow a big lead.

After the game, the buzz making the rounds was whether or not the Lakers had finally woken up, or if they are still just playing inconsistently and game 5 happened to be on their good day. By and large, most of the pundits have consigned to the fact that the Lakers are just a real up and down arrogant team and that this game wasn’t really a return to form or anything like that. I tend to agree. This team has maybe the worst case of Piston-itis I’ve seen since……… well, the Pistons. And we all know have that turned out.

Am I worried? Yeah. However, this Laker team is far better than any of the Piston-itis teams. Also, even though their collective arrogance played a huge part in their failure, I felt that their biggest deficiency was a lack of a real center after Ben Wallace left. That and they had no respect for their coach. Neither are problems this Laker team possesses.

The Bill Russell MVP of the Game Award: Kobe. Why? Because he’s Kobe. And he has an adam’s apple the size of my fist. Granted I have a small fist, but still.

The Jerry West MVP of the Losing Team Award: Normally I would just automatically give this award to the Fabulous Battier, but he played really, really not fabulous so I can’t in good conscience give it to him. I’ll give it to Aaron Brooks because he looks lik Chris Rock.

The Dominique Wilkins Highlight of the Game: Sasha’s Block Followed by a Breakaway Dunk. That sequence was what I like to call a Pinnochio moment. A Pinnochio moment is when somebody suddenly grows into a real boy (or in Sasha’s case, a real basketball player.) Sadly, it didn’t last very long as Sasha managed to brick everything else. Still though, it quite a change of pace for Sasha to go 1-7 and his one made basket was a dunk

I’m gonna be real with you, I didn’t really watch much of this game. I was up until six in the morning making waffles (I swear that sounds more weird than it actually was) and woke up during the middle of the second quarter. I watched until around the middle of third quarter when I became completely convinced that the Lakers were not making a comeback. Sadly I was right.

I’ve watched nearly every Laker game over the last three seasons so I know this current squad pretty well and if there is one thing that just blows their minds more than anything else it is undersized centers. I don’t know if it’s a failing on Phil jackson and the coaching staff, Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, or just the team as a whole, but they just cannot take advantage of size advantages down low. The fact that the Rockets sans Yao Ming was able to be beat the Lakers may have come as a surprise to some, but I expected the Rockets to play better without him. However, I didn’t expect the Lakers to just roll over and die.

No, actually I kind of half expected it. Sigh. These Lakers…….

Fortunately though, the odds of the Lakers rolling over two games in a row is actually pretty rare and the odds of Shane Battier and Aaron Brooks being hotter than July for two games straight is even rarer so I don’t expect a repeat performance for game 4.

The Dominique Wilkins Highlight of the Game: About halfway through the third quarter I turned the TV off and went to Coffee Bean for a latte. That was the highlight of the game for me.

I used to do postgame reports for the very wonderful Lakers’ website The Lakers Nation, but this season I wasn’t asked back to do them which made me very sad (either that or I was supposed to volunteer to do them again and I didn’t. Either way, I’m sure it’s my fault.) I really enjoyed doing them. So today I was like, I’m gonna do post games again.

Unfortunately for me though, I’m retarded and decided to do my hour of running at 6:00 at night, completely forgetting that this game is in Houston. Long story short I missed the first quarter and a half. Epic Fail.

After watching game 2, I basically knew the series was over. A lot of pundits were talking about how it’s going to be a long tough series and a real test for the Lakers and yada, yada, yada…… but what they failed to realize is that the Lakers are just plain beter than the Rockets. Like by a lot. And on top of that, they match up extremely well with them, turning that difference in quality into a yawning chasm. Sure Pau Gasol is really just a giant marshmellow in a man suit, but if there’s one thing Pau can do on defense is stand in front of a giant chinese guy. For all his height and gifts as a basketball player, for some reason if you put a really big marshmellow in front of Yao Ming you stop him cold. Think I’m crazy? Just look at the numbers. Watch the game. Yao + Marshmellow = DEATH! Basic algebra.

And on the much debated subject of toughness, after watching that game I’ve come to the conclusion that the Rockets’ much vaunted toughness is highly overrated. Do they play hard? Absolutely. Do they play physical? Again yes. But tough? I’ve always felt that toughness had less to do with the physical and more with the mental and watching the Rockets bitch and complain over the Lakers’ aggressiveness really exposed them as being very, very not tough. For a comparison, look back at Kobe and the Lakers’ reaction to Raja Bell’s clothesline a few years back. Or to make a more contemporary point, The Celtics’ reaction to Eddie House getting slapped. Pushing someone or hitting someone doesn’t define you as being tough. It’s about what you do AFTER you get pushed or hit that shows how tough you are.

Anways, since this is a postgame for game 3 I should probably, like talk about the game. The Rockets more or less played their game pretty well. I was surprised with Von Wafer’s inneffectiveness though since he has kind of been a Laker killer this season, but ultimately he sucks and has a pretty ridiculous haircut so I probably shouldn’t be too surprised. The Lakers played some crazy intense defense at times, but their old ghost of thinking the game was over before it was actually over did creep up at the end. A lot of people hold a lot concern about that, and to a certain extent that worries me too, but instead of letting that fester in my mind and give me ulcers I’ve just come to accept that as being apart of this team’s identity. Every team has its faults.

The Bill Russell MVP of the Game Award: Kobe He shot 11-28 and took a lot of really bad contested jumpers while wearing a Shane Battier suit. And missed most of them. For any other player he had pretty bad game, but that’s what makes Kobe the greatest player on the planet. Most players have to play well to take over a game and lead his team to victory, but Kobe can play pretty inneffectively and still dominate, and don’t let that 11-28 performance fool you. He DID dominate this game. Kobe Bryant is so bad, but still sooooo good.

The Jerry West MVP of the Losing Team Award: Shane Battier I like to call Shane Battier “The Fabulous Battier” and tonight he earned that nickname. On top of playing some fabulously ferocious defense on Kobe, he also snared eight ravishing rebounds, 7 sexy assists and one scintilating steal.

The Dominique Wilkins Highlight of the Game: Kobe’s 33 Foot Buzzer Beating Three Pointer of Artest I’m not putting this on here because it had some great impact on the game or anything like that (even though it did.) No I’m putting in on here because that had to be just about the flattest shot I had ever seen in my life. Earlier this season Kobe went on record saying that he unashamably steals other players’ moves. Who knew he would steal Brian Cook’s jump shot?

Zoom Kobe 4 Watch - A somewhat interesting observation about Kobe. Throughout the first part of the season Kobe played pretty well, but was pretty inconsistant and not at all like his usual dominant self. In the three games since getting his new sneakers? Sure the Lakers are only 1-2, but Kobe has been in beastmode.

Hyperdunk Numbers

PPG – 25
FG% – .46
3pt% – .31

Zoom Kobe 4 Numbers

PPG – 35
FG% – .51
3pt% – .50

Coincidence? Or a really, really, elaborate commercial?

Culture Monster – This a new arts blog on The LA Times. I think it’s new anyway. I don’t know anything about anything, so for all I know (or don’t know) it could’ve been around for ages. Well the point is I just heard about it and since this is also an art blog that means Culture Monster is now my sworn enemy and will has to be crushed.

CULTURE MONSTER UPDATE! Culture Monster is on a major newspaper and is read by more than one person (What’s up Dorothy! I hope you are still reading!) so I guess it has the jump on me. Culture Monster 1 Terry Kim 0. I’m not panicking though. I’m just laying in the cut.

mario’s bee outfit – It has recently come to my attention that this Bee outfit is hated by a lot people. Which isn’t really anything worth writing about in and of itself, but I think it’s kind of interesting seeing as how a lot of these same people will talk about what a great costume the raccoon suit was. I never understood the fascination with Mario’s raccoon suit. I mean, how the hell a raccoon tail was supposed to make you fly?

Monique Coleman – For those of you reading this that aren’t 16 years old you might not know who Monique Coleman is. She’s the black chick in High School Musical. She was born in 1980 which means she was……. I don’t know when High School Musical came out but whenever it did come out she was definately not a teenager. Other black actresses that were surprisingly old for their teenaged roles: Stacy Dash (28) in Clueless and Gabrielle Union (28) in Bring it On.

I know these are some pretty lame news bites. They’ll get better, but if they don’t I probably wouldn’t be too surprised.

The Zoom Kobe IV – Kobe recently told the world that next shoe in his signature line will be a low-top which lit the basketball world on fire since for a good long time now there has been a commonly held belief that basketball shoes needed to be high tops in order to protect against ankle injury. Some folks are saying that if Kobe wears this shoe on the court and proves against that notion that it can single handedly revoulutionize the basketball sneaker industry. You know that’s all well and good but I can’t help but think how Gibert Arenas must feel. He’s already the most insecure basketball player in NBA history, I wonder if Kobe getting all the propers for something he honestly thought of last year will in some way affect his already fragile ego. There’s nothing on his blog yet, but you best believe I’m on GIlbert Arenas Blog watch.

Bad Porn – One of my favorite basketball players is Corey Maggette. This has less to do with his skills and more to do with the fact that he’s just about the shiniest, most ripped up player in the league. Seriously, he looks like a giant action figure covered in baby oil. Anyways, I was reading Basketbawful and I learned that his nickname in some circles is “Bad Porn”

“They’ve started to call him ‘Bad Porn’ at various Warriors boards. Their justification? ‘Sure, there’s penetration and scoring, but are you really happy with what you’re seeing?’”

Fabulous. Just fabulous.

Best in Show 2008 – This is LA Weekly’s list of the best art shows and things over the past year. If I made a list of the best shows shows I went to this past year I would have to include a lot of my own shows. That’s not because I think I’m so amazing (even though I do) but it’s largely out of default because I don’t seem to go to too many shows that I’m not in. Early New Years Resolution: go to more shows. I am particularly remiss for not ever having been to MOCA.

LACMA proposes a merger with MOCA - I don’t really have a whole lot to say about this. Apparently it’s happening because the MOCA has no money or something and the merger with LACMA will allow it to stay open. So I guess my stance is that this is a good thing since I’m guessing this means the MOCA will stay open long enough for me to finally visit it. Terry Kim 1, Recession 0.

“Vanity Fair Portraits” at LACMA – In keeping with my new resolution to see more shows I think I might actually maybe go and possibly see this show. Considering the fact that I learned how to paint by painting pictures from fashion magazines I feel somewhat obligated.

Review: Andrew Dawson’s ‘Quatre Mains’ at UCLA Live - When I first aw this headline I was gonna start clowning on it but after reading the article it actually looks pretty interesting. I’m normally not a big fan of performance art of any kind (it just looks like really bad ballet to me) so maybe it might just sound better than it actually is, but the writer seems pretty sold on it.

Michael Buitron on 2008 Biennial at OCMA – When I first started reading this my stomach started to turn because it sounded so corny. Apparently there’s going to be a lot of polotically bent artwork. Here’s a brief synopsis of my view of political art: it’s the most positively antiquated concept. This ain’t the sixties. Odds are, if a person are learning anything about world affairs from artwork it probably says more about that person’s inablitiy to keep up with current affairs than any qualities inherent in the artwork. That being said, when I finished reading the entire peice it did start to intrigue me. I have a lot of California pride, so this better not dissapoint.

Art Roll Pt.I: Jeff Soto/Riverside Art Museum – I’m not too impressed with this guy, but you know he did get a museum show. So, congratualtions and go guy.

Shepard Fairey’s Iconic Obama Image Makes Time Magazine’s ‘Person of The Year’ Cover - I don’t like Sheppard Fairey so this bugs me that he’s on the cover of Time. I often think about what the future will think about this current period of art and how it will measure up historically. I imagine it will measure up pretty badly.

Back when I first made my site I had this clip up because I thought it was a hype way to enter my site. I’ll have some real posts up soon, but until then enjoy the hypeness.

Here’s an additional clip of Mamba. I feel you Kobe. I too want to touch the sky.