Birth of A Nation

SupremeCommander - for that one day a week that it was not breaking the law to testify to the beat in Congo Square I'll give Noo Orleans its props. It doesn't get any better than Jazz Fess the first week in May on The Fairgrounds.

However, that one day a week did not allow Jazz to flourish. It simply provided a pressure valve for the same irrepressible energy that you experienced watching folks second line after a funeral, or celebrate after Saints loss, or return home after their entire city flooded for no good reason other than neglect. That unbreakable spirit is one of the reasons there is no city like NOLA in this country.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/klan_is_still_no_laughing_matt.html

But, hold up... if people masquerading in Klan robes are still holding meetings (and killing each other) just 60 miles away in Bogalusa MS in 2008, (2008) we still have a way to go in learning to live together as members of the human race.

Europe and South America, and now Asia are doing really interesting things with basketball. I love it.

Basketball is truly global, but it is still an American game first.

The worldwide development of basketball is the by-product of the U.S. sending coaches and players all over the world to bring this wonderful game to everyone, and teaching it to them.

Europeans and the rest of the world learned more about basketball watching in wonder Michael Jordan and other American players showing why this sport is so much fun and amazing to watch and play. It didn't just grown out of their soil, they emulated us and are now coming up with variations.

They are building on us. Or I should say they are building on the U.S. Anyone who thinks that American basketball doesn't pass and play defense, historically at least, should sit down and watch some NBA hardwood classic and the NCAA.

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I play hoop with Koreans regularly. I just played some hoop this weekend with people from many different countries: 2 Serbians, an Italian, Staten Island, Africa, Canada(!), and the good old U.S.A.!

oohah