young people just want to be rebels, that's all. They want to do everything that are forbiden...that's just part of being stupid.

Ok, now I understand you!

Dude, thats just young people just being young!

Rock and roll and elvis was once considered inapproriate devil worshipping! Gyration of the hips was the devils work!

Long hair was rebelous. Bell bottoms.
Every generation steps it up. Now its body modifictions. Piercings, tats, tongue splitting, etc. Young girls bending over rubbing the butt into the crotch of young men is not seductive, its down right foreplay!

While I don't disagree with you, you gotta understand this is the way it is and why not embrace it?

35 years ago the youth changed the world! Protested the status quo and opened up society with different views toward sex, marriage, war, race and music!

It was groovy man!

Se this in this morning's paper? Steph's playing pickup ball with kids staying in the dome.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/sports/basketball/11houston.html?oref=login

In Houston, Pickup Basketball New Orleans Style
By LEE JENKINS

Published: September 11, 2005



HOUSTON, Sept. 10 - The toughest pickup games of all can be found on the hot blacktop in the Astrodome parking lot.

Fifteen basketball hoops, spread across makeshift courts, have become the recreational center for a new society. Children practice free throws. Teenagers stage slam-dunk contests. Adults play five-on-five fullcourt games and do not call fouls.
"Back in New Orleans, I used to always catch the bus and go to the park," Anthony Fernandez, 21, said. "We played on courts just like these."

The rich tradition of playground basketball in New Orleans has migrated to Houston, along with much of the city's population. Famous pickup games at A. L. Davis Playground, on Washington Avenue and LaSalle Street in New Orleans, can resume 350 miles away, outside the stadium that serves as a primary shelter for displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The courts opened Friday night, and within a couple of hours, they were filled with about 100 players and spectators, finally able to run, finally able to cheer. Stephon Marbury, the Knicks' captain and a New York City playground legend, was among several N.B.A. players to help christen the court. He shot baskets with children, signed autographs and led a prayer circle during a four-hour visit to the Astrodome.

"Just being able to make them happy meant everything to me," said Marbury, who wept openly when he announced Tuesday that he would donate up to $1 million to the hurricane relief effort. "I'm glad they have basketball now. It's an avenue to take their mind to another place."

Tobbie Stevenson, 15, threw down a tomahawk dunk over two friends Saturday afternoon and flexed his biceps. Mark Rayfield, 17, blocked a shot out of bounds and lobbied for possession. Joshua Butler, 15, made a reverse layup around three defenders and shook his head.

"I was just sitting there all day in that dome, waiting for something to do," Butler said. "I had to get out and do something with the ball."

Some players wore slippers on the court and some wore Air Jordans. Some had LeBron James jerseys and some needed wheelchairs. Everybody received Texas Tech T-shirts, bottled water and their own ball.

Anthony Williams, 14, shooting shirtless in a steady rain, said: "All I know is that I have got to play basketball. Basketball keeps me out of trouble."

Last week, when Williams moved into Houston's Reliant Center, he found a garbage can and made it his personal hoop.

Soon after, Sanford Mouton, a former high school coach, started volunteering and noticed youngsters dribbling basketballs around the parking lot. He ran them through various drills - calisthenics, plyometrics and agility exercises - exhausting them so they could get to sleep.

"We started out just playing catch," Mouton said. "All of a sudden we had 20, 40, 60 guys. A lot of them are phenomenal athletes. They just want a chance to play."

The basketball courts are part of a larger "town square" erected outside the Astrodome in the past two days.

Open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, the square also includes a playground and an arcade. It is financed by the Gallery Furniture owner Jim McIngvale, with staff members from the Houston Y.M.C.A.

The square is meant to give anyone living in the shelter an outlet and a diversion. It is one place where parents feel comfortable letting their children go free.

Mouton said he was planning to establish an intramural basketball league at the square, one that lasts as long as necessary. The league would consist of several teams that practice on a regular basis and play a full schedule. Whenever players relocate from the Astrodome, the rosters will consolidate and the league will continue.

"We still want to have an area here where guys can play around and freestyle on the court," Mouton said. "But we also want to have something a little more organized."

At the beginning of one pickup game Saturday, nobody seemed to rebound at full strength or run at full speed. By the end, players were calling for the ball, shouting updated scores and warning their opponents not to venture into the paint. One player left the court with a bag of ice on his eye after catching an errant elbow.

Basketball can hurt, but perhaps it can also heal. Some young players at the town square are going to Houston's Toyota Center on Sunday to watch Marbury and others participate in a charity exhibition to benefit hurricane victims.

Those who cannot get tickets will stay behind and make their own game.

As much as I would love to agree, I don't think that anyone should be using this for anything than what it should be...to help the people of NO.

Posted by joec32033:

As much as I would love to agree, I don't think that anyone should be using this for anything than what it should be...to help the people of NO.

i'm not saying steph should milk it. steph needs to be the innocent lamb here. i think the knicks PR dep't needs to.
yes, it sounds selfish, but this makes the most sense business-wise for steph, the knicks, and the league.

what i'm saying they should do is start showing this side of steph. show him in the community. show him playing the pick-up game. have LB and isiah come out and talk about his contributions to not only new olreans, but the community. it's just taking advantage of a very unfortunate situation.

bonn - this has nothing to do with donations and being anonymous.

i think steph wanted to donate the money. and billy hunter used his generosity to milk it a little bit. i don't think steph had any other intention than to help the people down there.