Bobby Hurley Interview
Bobby Hurley is an NCAA basketball legend. From 1989 to 1993, the former point guard led Duke to three Final Four appearances and back-to-back national championships in 1992 and 1993. He was the MVP of the Final Four in 1992, and his 1076 career assists still stand as an NCAA record.
In 1993, Sacramento Kings selected Hurley with the seventh pick in the NBA Draft. He had a promising career ahead of him, but on his way home from a game in December of his rookie year, Hurley got into a serious car accident. Hurley was thrown from his vehicle and suffered life-threatening injuries.
Hurley returned to the NBA in 1994, and played four more seasons with the Kings. In 1998, he made a comeback with the Grizzlies. Due to the accident, Hurley never developed into a superstar at the next level. He became involved in thoroughbred horse racing and eventually got into coaching. He now serves as an assistant coach at Wagner College, where he works with his brother, head coach Dan Hurley.
For this year’s March Madness tournament, Hurley is teaming up with Magic Johnson, Georgetown coach John Thompson III and Dove Men+Care for a campaign called “Journey to Comfort.” During the campaign, these basketball greats will reveal “personal milestones that helped them become comfortable in their own skin – on and off the court.” The spots will air throughout the NCAA March Madness tournament.
As part of the campaign, Dove Men+Care is giving fans a chance to win a trip to Los Angeles and hang out with Magic Johnson at a basketball game. From now until April 5, fans can visit the Dove Men+Care website to play “Trivia Timeout” for a chance to with the meet-and0greet with Magic, autographed basketballs, tickets to the 2012 NCAA Men’s Final Four in New Orleans and other college hoops prizes.
During our interview with Bobby Hurley, we discussed the Dove Men+Care campaign, how his life changed after the accident, who he likes in the tourney, potential bracket-buster teams, who he modeled his game after, and which team he thought was better – undefeated UNLV or the Fab 5.
Mar 15th
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – Recut As an Indie Film Trailer
Cool editing job, this. Some dude created an indie film, Sundance selection-style recut trailer of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off set to some moody serious music (“A Slight Return Home” by Wood Pigeon). Take a look:
Mar 14th
Jessica Perez Wins the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2011 Model Search
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2011 Model Search is over and the winner is Jessica Perez from Costa Rica. Perez was born in Costa Rica and grew up in Honduras and Ecuador before moving to New York. She received a national scientific grant for research in Biopsychology and she supports charities like the Heartland Alliance and Dog Habitat Rescue.
Jessica’s modeling career has included advertising spots for Victoria’s Secret, Sephora, Levi’s and American Eagle. She has appeared in countless European magazines and she’s also been featured in Cosmopolitan, Elle and Glamour.
Perez is now guaranteed a spot in next year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. It’s the first time that SI has ever opened up the swimsuit action to a public vote. It’s also the first time that anyone has been guaranteed a spot in the Swimsuit Issue.
You can see Jessica and all the other Model Search contestants in a series of Sports Illustrated/Nissan videos that we posted last week. Today is the last day to enter our iPad giveaway contest so take a look at the vids and enter to win!
Mar 14th
Ward Shelley – The History of Science Fiction (Map)
Caught this on boing boing today. Pretty interesting stuff. Artist Ward Shelly maps out the history of science fiction in a crazy illustration that starts with ancient myths and legend and meanders through different philosophies, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Jules Verne and into the 20th Century. Crazy detailed and a solid way to get lost in one big image. Take a look:
Mar 9th
Coco Crisp Interview
Whether it’s the nickname, his cheerful personality or his epic brawl with pitcher James Shields, Coco Crisp is a guy you don’t forget. Born and raised in LA, Crisp has been on four teams during his 9-year Major League career. He came up with Cleveland, won a championship with the Red Sox, and played one injury-plagued season in Kansas City before joining the Oakland A’s last year.
A couple weeks back we had a good chat with the A’s center fielder. After appearing in only 124 games the last two season, Crisp is healthy and excited about his team’s chances this year. During our interview, we talked about his nickname, his charity work, baseball brawls, the A’s outfield, speed vs. power, Charlie Sheen’s UCLA batting practice, who’s got the nastiest stuff and who’s the most underrated pitcher in baseball.
CS: So you started last season on the DL and you’ve had to deal with some injuries in the past. Are you fully healthy going into this season?
CC: Yeah, for the first time in a long time. I think last year was really a challenge for me to even be ready to start the season. Then I end up breaking my finger to start the season which probably was a little blessing in disguise because I don’t know if my shoulder was really 100% ready, but I was good enough to play at a level to compete. So I broke my finger and it was very disappointing to the guys before the season started. But you know like I said, it was probably a blessing. Maybe I would have re-injured my shoulder and then I’d be out the whole year. Right now I feel great. I’ve been in really good shape, able to work out just like I normally would. I’m just ready, ready for the season to start.
CS: Is the team as a whole healthier this year than they were last year?
CC: At least to start this season. We got a little banged up towards the end of last season. To start the season last year, we were pretty healthy I think. Sheets was coming in as a question – whether or not he was going to be ready. Myself, I was a question mark. But for the most part, I think this year there’s no question marks on if anybody is going to be healthy – with the exception of maybe Sweeney and I think he’s doing really well. I know Penny was dealing with some stuff this year. But I think everybody is ready to go and I think our health and our team is really good.
CS: What do you think about the team’s chances this year?
CC: I think they’re greater than last year. I thought we had a great chance last year to win our division, the way our team was structured. You know the thing that we were just talking about—the injuries last year—that kind of changed our season a little bit and made it difficult for us to compete. And we still did a great job of competing, because of our pitching staff was so phenomenal, or is phenomenal.
I think with the addition that we have this year and with some luck and just being blessed and staying away from injuries, I think this year our team is stronger. We have filled the need that we were lacking last year – which are some power players. I think that bringing those players – I mean we still have speed, we have defense and our backbone is our pitching. The only thing that I felt that we were a little low on was power, and they did a great job of addressing that this year.
CS: Do you think with all the additions in the offseason that you’ve got a crowded outfield or is that a good problem to have?
CC: Well for the team (laughs). For the team, that’s always a great thing because you have that many good players that you don’t know who to play out there. You have a lot of options. For the manager, it can get a little bit difficult I think because of those options. It puts a little strain on him. Because they’re so good and probably so close – I mean I’m trying to say “they” but I’m in there I guess – it can be difficult on us to try and shuffle and maneuver guys so they don’t get upset.
On a personal level, you want to be out there every day playing. That’s the heart of the champion and a winner and those are the type of players we have on our team. You want to be out there helping the team. You want to play, you don’t want to just cheerlead. From the top, it’s a good look, but all the way from the bottom it’s kind of like, I want to be out there playing you know. But you don’t want to be that guy to mess up team chemistry either. So I think with the crowded outfield, and the personalities that we have in that outfield, I think we can deal with what might happen or the toughness of being in a crowded outfield. But I think everybody wants to be out there playing. I think depth is always a great thing on the team though.
CS: So are you fired up to be playing with David DeJesus again?
CC: Yeah, that’s my boy! We had good chemistry in the outfield when we’re playing. You know, we didn’t play that long together, because I did get injured in 2009 very quickly in the season. But in spring training, we grew that chemistry and through that first month, it was easy playing alongside him because his moves were easy to see. If he was going for the ball, it was easy to read you. That’s kind of how me and Sweeney were last year as well. That’s just because they are really good outfielders and the communication level and they way they go about it is very similar, and it makes it easy to play alongside them. That’s always a great thing. There’s no fear of running into each other, getting injured.
And as a center fielder, there’s that respect that if I’m calling for it, he backs me up proper. I mean just being a good outfielder makes it easy.
CS: Now you guys are a young team but you’ve still got a lot of veterans, including yourself. Who would you say is the clubhouse leader in Oakland?
CC: Wow, I think from different aspects, I think this year it’s hard to say. I don’t know. I know I’m more vocal. Sheets is a very vocal guy. He was last year. Raj [Rajai Davis] was there last year, he was the leader of our chapels. So there’s different leaders in the clubhouse, and it’s not just about baseball sometimes. Elli [Mark Ellis], you know he’s been there for a long time. So you look at those guys. You look at the guys who are not just older guys, but guys who have also been there throughout the duration of their career. He’s one of those guys, so if I was going to pick somebody I would say him.
CS: What do you think is more important in baseball, having speed or having power?
CC: Wow, you can’t have both? (Laughs)
CS: (laughs)
CC: This day and age, it’s flipping to more of an old school game where speed was more relevant in baseball back then. Then it turned over into power and now it’s kind of coming back to that. But for a ball club I think both are essential in building a team.
CS: Right.
CC: I think you can get away with having less power and more speed guys, than just having a power hitting team, because speed doesn’t slump and power does. You know? So you have a lot of guys that just go for the gusto. It can be a tough time winning with those guys even though it’s going be a fun team to watch. Everybody loves to see the long ball. But the small ball – the bunting, the slap hitting, stealing bases – that can also be fun to watch. It’s just a completely different game. I think the consistency of speed, I think I would choose over power.
Mar 9th
Sports Illustrated Model Search – 16 GB iPad Giveaway
Last month, we told you about Nissan and Sports Illustrated partnering up to put on the first ever Sports Illustrated Model Search. Eight models from around the world are competing in the search, and the winner will be featured in the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. You can vote for your favorite model by visiting the Sports Illustrated Model Search website. Voting ends tomorrow, so make sure you visit the site today and cast your vote for your favorite model.
Nissan and SI rolled out a series of new videos to promote the model search this week. The videos feature Kowalczyk, the office-saving, donut-hunting driver from the Nissan Juke commercials and the extra-fine ladies of the SI Model Search. The series, titled “Rookie Slot,” follows Kowalczyk as he rides his Nissan Juke to Vegas to meet the models and pick up a very important bag. Take a look at the four videos in the series:
So how do you win the iPad giveaway?
Mar 7th
Time to Recycle All Your Old Cell Phones
If you’re like me, you probably have a pretty decent-sized collection of crappy old cell phones just sitting in some drawer at home all lonely-like. Whether it’s a late-90s Nokia or your very first flip phone, we’re all starting to amass out-of-date cell phone gear that we just can’t bring ourselves to throw away. With smartphones getting so much smarter all the time, the likelihood of you breaking out your old Zack Morris brick phone is slim-to-none. If you’re not gonna use that stuff, might as well get rid of it, right?
Well did you know that less than 10% of discarded phones in America get recycled? Most of these discarded phones just sit around unused or worse, they get tossed in landfills. So what should you do with those old phones you’ll never use again? We talked to Cat Schwartz, a leading tech expert, to get her take on recycling old cell phones. Here’s how the conversation went down:
CS: I have a lot of old cell phones lying around and I don’t really know what to do with them. Don’t want to throw them away. Don’t really want to just donate them or whatever. How do you go about recycling these things?
Cat: To me it’s just really interesting because when the iPhone story came out – that Verizon has a new iPhone – people started asking me “I’m going to make the switch but I can’t take my AT&T iPhone with me, what can I do with my iPhone? I don’t want to just put it in a drawer” which is where half the phones end up anyways.
So I started working with a couple companies and I found this company securetradein.com. You go to the website, enter in the make and model of the phone that you have, and then they give you a couple pictures to make sure it’s the right phone. Then they tell you how much they’ll give you for the phone, and you print out a FedEx shipping label that they give you and send it in. Then they send you a check.
CS: So they cover the shipping costs?
Cat: Yes, they cover the shipping costs. It’s cool because then you actually have some cash for the device. I can’t tell you how many phones I have in my drawer, but when I was doing research I realized I have like 8 cell phones because I upgrade once a year sometimes.
CS: Right.
Cat: So this is the best way to get something for it. You have to know a couple things going into the process to make sure it goes smoothly.
CS: So this isn’t just for smartphones, this can be for any old cell phone, correct?
Cat: Yeah absolutely. It can be for any phone. It’s great because I have an old Sidekick that I put in there and it was not a lot of money, like six bucks, but I’m like, you know, that’s six more dollars than I would have had before. It’s great.
So if you’re going to do this there’s a couple things you need to know going into it. First and foremost, if you’re going to trade your phone in, you want to get as much personal data off that phone as you possibly can. Or make sure that the company that you’re going to be trading your phone in with is 100% guaranteed to wipe everything off the phone. Take the SIM card out as well because often the SIM card will store data.
It’s a cool thing to do that I highly suggest. It’s an eco friendly thing to do at this point because phones should not end up in landfills. They have toxic chemicals in them that can hurt the environment and they need to be recycled properly so this is a way to get that done too.
CS: So you mentioned $6 for a Sidekick, I think I have an old Mitsubishi phone from like 2001 or something that I doubt will be useful to anybody.
Cat: Right. So if it’s totally not valuable they will recycle it for you. They’ll send you the free shipping label or you print out the free shipping label and they’ll recycle it for you at least. There are phones that are not worth anything, but you should recycle them and this is a really easy way to do that.
CS: Can you get additional cash for things like accessories, car chargers, that kind of stuff?
Cat: No, they don’t give you extra money for those things. But it is good if you have them because you want to recycle them with the phone because who needs another charger?
CS: So where do these phones end up after they get recycled?
Cat: Well after they get recycled they use some of the parts for scrap metal. I’m not totally sure where the end result of the recycled product goes, but products that are able to be salvaged are refurbished and resold or they’re donated to the troops or latchkey kids. There’s a bunch of different organizations that take the phones that aren’t quite great enough to sell, but that are definitely still useful and make phone calls.
CS: Is there a way that people can shop for phones that have been donated just to find a basic use cell phone for a cheap price?
Cat: Personally, I go to eBay. I worked for eBay for a long time. I don’t anymore, but I still highly recommend that as the place to go to buy used electronics. Refurbished electronics on eBay are the best deal you’re going to find. You just have to look at the details of the listing and make sure they have a good return policy and that other people are happy with the place you’re buying something from. But hands down they’ve got the best selection.
CS: For the secure trade in, are there any restrictions in terms of where you have to be located? Is this open to only the US?
Cat: All over the United States, anywhere in the United States. Anywhere that FedEx will ship to that’s where they extend to.
CS: So outside of cell phones I know that we collect a lot of discarded electronics. Are there other similar type programs that exist outside of just cell phones?
Cat: Absolutely. Securetradein.com is going to be expanding, but there are definitely other websites that are fantastic for this. You just need to find out how much the device is worth and then figure out whether to recycle it or get the bit of money that you can.
To find out more about recycling your cell phones, or to learn about the latest gadgets and tech news, visit Cat’s website, HighTechMommy.com.
Mar 4th
Our Morganette Advances to the Sweet 16!
Quick BracketMaster update for you guys. Thanks to your support, our gal Erica has advanced to the Sweet 16 of the Captain Morgan BracketMaster Challenge presented by Spike.com! Now she needs your support to get to the Elite 8. So we’re asking you guys to go to bracketmaster.spike.com and cast your fault for Erica in the South region. You can also text ERICAM to 44686 as many times as you want!
If Erica advances, the MANjr team will get to go to Vegas, courtesy of Captain Morgan. Support our Morganette and get us to Sin City, folks!
Mar 4th
