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basketball / bluesky / photo / Rowan / Tuesday — Comments Off
23
Sep 25

The Good Time Blimp

It was a long day and a long night on campus. About 10 hours, in total, I think. I had two classes, of course. We talked about sports stories in the criticism class, of course. And in org comm we discussed branding, of course, which we’ll do for another two days, of course. When classes were over it was back to the office, where I did some work. And then we went over to one of the auditoriums for … well, you can see for yourself.

We were sitting some distance away, but in reserved VIP seats. Very Important Professors. The good seats went to our students, as it should be. Charles Barkley hasn’t played in the NBA in their lifetimes, but he’s still a hugely important sports figure locally, and nationally. Being on Inside the NBA doesn’t hurt that, nor does his huge personality.

The guy up there with him is one of of our faculty members, and an institution in local sports media. They go way back, and from time to time Barkley comes to share his wisdom and good humor. He was very generous with his time tonight. They started taking questions from two microphones on either side of the stage, this went on for a good long while, with young people nervously reading their questions from their phones for some reason. There was still no way that they were going to answer all of the questions, almost all of which is stuff Barkley probably fields a dozen times a week, but still, some of them were good, and the man has a way of making everyone feel welcome around him. As the time was drawing late, they said, we’ll just take one more, and Charles said, no no, how about we take three more questions from each side of the room, and that was another 20 or 25 minutes.

After that, there was the after-party, where you feel a bit like a hanger-on between the tables and the gladhanders and the oddly lit photo room and bar, and the more-than-reasonable food spread. Charles Barkley stood there and took pictures with everyone who wanted one. It’s not work, and he knows it, but they love him and he knows that, too. So it is work, and he’s gracious about it all. Tomorrow, he said, he has to fly to Atlanta to finally find out what his broadcast schedule will be for the upcoming season.

Anyway, I wrote some notes from his talk.

Sir Charles!

[image or embed]

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:15 PM

Says Inside the NBA will be different on the new platform, “for sure.”

Talks about post-game to studio pitches.

(The new format seems like a very in progress effort to Charles Barkley.)

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:17 PM

Says probably 200 Inside the NBA crew made the job. Keeping jobs in TV is a huge win.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:19 PM

Charles is bringing a blue collar work ethic to load management-oriented players.

He has thoughts on where the games will be aired and streamed, how fans are being left to figure that out.

He’s taking an adamant pro-fan stance,and is critical of these early days on the new platform, schedule-wise.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:23 PM

We’ve spent a lot, A LOT, of time on the showering-in-my-jersey story. One of the longtime Sixers guys is here and he confirmed the story.

So that’s settled.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:39 PM

He’s taking student questions. The first is about pushing through hard times.

“You have to make sure you just keep grinding. It ain’t good all the time, but it ain’t bad all the time … it’s always going to get better.”

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:46 PM

After a Shaq story he repeats the best advice he’s received.

You can’t make everyone happy. Says you’d go crazy trying.

And then cites a lesson he learned from football coach Herm Edwards: my last name is not my name; it’s my family’s name.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:55 PM

Can we get a Michael Jordan story?

{long pause}

“Michael Jordan’s nuts.”

Tells a 36-holes-of-golf story during the Dream Team run. MJ says he was covering the point guard.

Says he was sticking on him like it’s Game 7, screaming at the PG.

“He is going to win at all cost, no matter what.”

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:55 PM

A player asks for some on-court advice.

“Rebounding. Rebounding got me to college and the NBA.”

The coach is here, and the coach approved of that answer.

“People ask me what’s important — or offense or defense? I say, ‘Probably the ball.’”

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:00 PM

Talking about team chemistry. Says maybe five of his teams had great chemistry, because there are many agendas.

“Getting chemistry on a team is really hard. Same thing in the studio … we have to work with each other. It’s the same way on a team.”

Quotes Pat Riley: voluntary cooperation.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:04 PM

Gets asked if franchise segments from the old show will be on the new version.

He doesn’t know yet. (Production meetings are forthcoming, which is a good thing considering the season is rapidly approaching.)

Said they found about the fate of the show while golfing with some of the crew.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:08 PM

Charles talks about teachers, which is one of his favorite subjects. And he’s now naming his grade school teachers.

It’s a pretty special thing to be remember all those years later, I’d bet.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:11 PM

He does a riff about college, opportunity, cost and how we limit some people by design. I’d honestly rather get more of that than the next question about some famous funny bit from a chat he had on Inside the NBA. Where would you rather be?

(Yes, he drags Galveston. And then picks San Antonio.)

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:17 PM

“I love sports because sports has given me every single thing I have in my life.”

He lists his bucket list, sitting on the green monster, football at Notre Dame, Michigan … tells a story about playing two days of golf at Augusta National.

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:24 PM

He gets asked about players being able to speak their minds — team and league policies, etc.

Charles: “Free speech is not free … Players have to be smart … I just feel a sadness.” He goes in on political leaders.

“I believe we’ve got more good people than bad people. They’re just louder.”

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:29 PM

Says Kevin McHale is the best player he played against.

Fanbases: “Philly, New York and Boston, they’re different. When they talk about your mama, they mean it.”

“I think east coast fans are most intense.”

— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM

At the after-party, surrounded by brilliant scholars and talented educators, I talked volleyball and ChatGPT with our new dean. It felt just as natural as you’d imagine.

cycling / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
22
Sep 25

I’m not saying I rode with a ghost; I’m also not not saying that

I’ll just tell you, straight away, that this is going to be a full week for me. I’ll probably feel it for the next three weeks. Which is to say that this week is busy, and I’ll insist upon taking an extra moment or two next week to recover. And, because of that, the week after that, I’ll be in this same boat again.

Also, I have papers to review, extra meetings to attend and some things to write. And I’ve been writing other things. Maybe some of them will see the light of day at some point. Plus the regular work, of course. Well, it keeps you busy, as they say. Anyway, you’ll probably just get a lot of scenes this week. So let’s do that!

Here’s a little sunset montage I made, but I don’t think I ever shared it. Nothing to it, just a few extra photos, literal over-the-shoulder photos.

I went on a circular ride on Saturday. A crude circle. A child’s unsteady drawing of a circle, if you looked at the map, and if the child did not yet understand circles. The wind was in my face for about three-quarters of the ride. Especially right here. I’d been ducking one breeze and then took a hard left, thing I could be relieved because that wind would be on my shoulder, but, no, an even more annoying breeze was in my nose.

A bridge near us has been closed for a good long while. Closed in a “Yes, this applies to you” way. But now it is open. If you go over that bridge you’re pretty quickly into another township, which makes for three or four in one quick effort out that direction. This was from today’s ride.

And on that same ride, as I paced myself back toward the neighborhood and the approved low-light roads … the sun is telling these spent cornstalks good night.

It’s not as dark as I look, and I made it back into the evening roads. It’s a nine-mile route with bike lanes or extremely low traffic or both. And, if you’re really desperate, you can add in another five miles of pre-approved neighborhood roads to the mix. (I have negotiated this with my lovely bride in a safety-first way and, since, have only annoyed her with my choices twice.)

So I made it back to that area, and that’s where this photo is from.

I was on that road because one stretch of those 14 miles of evening roads is now being undone and redone. It’d be great for the gravel bike, but that’s not what I was riding. I suppose the good news is that I was able to share that chip and seal news with the local bike ride group we’re forming up. Way out here, where the heavy land and the green sands meet, we have a hardy little bunch of eight people in that riding chat, and that doesn’t include one of other just-too-far-away riding buddies and a few of the notorious no-one-can-hold-their-wheel beasts that I see out from time to time.

I rode with one of those guys for a while today. I was just a few miles in and then I heard the noise come along side. Big man. He turned his head to look at me for about two pedal strokes, wordlessly, and then moved to the front. I sat on his wheel for about three miles, turning out 25 and 26 mile per hour splits. I had to let him go, and he had the decency to turn a different direction at the next road.

I see him on Strava. I think I saw him off in the distance on a ride earlier this year, when I chased a taillight for miles, but then it disappeared I know not how. The locals say that, on a quiet evening, if you listen really closely, you can hear him sigh, shift gears and pedal into the phantom world.

I bet he would have enjoyed Saturday’s wind.

adventures / cycling / Friday / photo — Comments Off
19
Sep 25

Our hydrangeas do not fluoresce at night, but …

Fridays are meeting days this term, it seems. I sit on a lot of committees and they all demand a bit of time. Friday is the most common day of the week that everyone has ~~available~~ on their calendar, and so there we all are. In Zoom, in person, you name it. Last week it was an experiential learning committee. This week a student relations committee, and so on.

Also, I need to call together a committee I chair. Note to self …

One day, when I am not pulled in four other directions, I will consider making a photo study of the hydrangeas. Their flowers are lovely throughout the season, whether upright, or bent over by the weight of rains.

There’s a unique trait to some hydrangea plants. Did you know that? The color of many hydrangea blooms acts as a natural pH indicator for it soil. Blooms that are blue are living in acidic soil. Those shrubs with red or pink sepals are growing in more alkaline soils. White varieties, such as ours, grow white in either soil. But you can manipulate the color of some of the flowering shrubs in this way. This is thought to be a singular trait of the hydrangea.

Our yard is full of plants and trees that aren’t from around here. The landscapers that put all of this in, long before we bought the place, were going for a united floral nations theme. And the hydrangeas are no different. Their taxonomy was first discussed in Virginia, there are more varieties of this sort of plant in east Asia. We have two. One by the northern gate and one by the backdoor. They both sit in the shade of the house. One gets a perfect dose of morning and midday sun. The other lives in a bit more shade. They’re both huge.

I just can’t get them to survive, upright, a late summer heavy rain. The water comes down, sits on those leaves and pulls the whole thing over. But they do flower lovely, and even at this later stage of their season, they are satisfying to look at. (But I’d prefer them upright.)

We did a 20 mile bike ride this evening. It was a late start for reasons of work and ennui. So we did most of the time trial route. It was almost curtailed by the new neighbor’s angry dog. He was out in the yard and aggressive. Took nips at both of us. No skin was broken. One sock was punctured.

Usually, when you’re riding, you can see a dog coming. Being field-trained in trigonometry, they’ll often take a good angle. But they don’t understand gearing, and you can usually mitigate the interaction. And then there’s a good old fashioned yell. In my experience, every dog speaks the parlance of my people, “GITOHNOUTTAHEA!!!” works surprisingly well. And no dog is expecting a spray from a water bottle.

But all of that works when you’re up to speed. Since this dog lives directly across the street, all of the dynamics were absurdly different, and I was reduced to using bike frame and tires as a shield when he came back for a second try and we were, stupidly, still standing there.

The neighbors never came outside to observe the ruckus.

Which is good, I suppose. That’s not how I want to meet the new people. We weren’t here when they moved in and we have so far just been waving at one another, all pleasant like, but “Hey, could you watch out for your dog?” might set a tone.

But also bad. My concern is for the young families that walk their kids through this strip of road, the other cyclists that come by, and the people down near the end that drive way too fast on a closed residential street. And, you know, we’re on this road too.

Anyway, it was a pleasant ride, and now we’re going to bring in the weekend with a local outdoor pizza. what a pleasant way to start a lovely few days.

Have a lovely few days yourself. We’ll catch up on Monday.

adventures / history / photo / Rowan / Thursday / video — Comments Off
18
Sep 25

The goal is the goal

It was a busy day on campus. In my Criticism class we watched a documentary about the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. It’s titled “Fists of Freedom.” You can find it in a few places online, including on the HBO app, but here’s a little tease from the night the doc won a Peabody.

Watching it took the full class. Tuesday we’ll talk about it, both the story they told, but also the craft of documentaries. We’ll watch a lot of documentaries in this class, and for these first two we’ll talk a tiny bit about the filmmaking as a format of criticism, too. I have worked diligently to create a wildly varied menu of documentaries. This one is historical and about track and field. (Good as it is, Bob Beamon’s world record long jump is my favorite part of that film.) The next one is contemporary and about tennis. We’ll look at an unconventional documentary centering on a diver after that.

In org comm today we discussed the overarching concept of the uniqueness of sport communication. Anyone that comes back next week will get to laugh at a lot of commercials as we talk about branding.

My godniece-in-law (just go with it) is a high school senior and playing some of her last field hockey games. So we went to see one of them this evening. Her little sister, my other godniece-in-law (again, go with it) played in a JV game, so we got to see both.

Now, I’d hoped to take a few photos of the senior, thinking maybe I could get one or two of her to share with her. The problem is I know nothing about field hockey. I’ve been to, I think, three or four games, and it’s still largely inscrutable to me. Fortunately, one of my students is a field hockey star. She gave me some tips today.

So we went to the games, I followed the suggestions of my field hockey folk hero. The game is played on the school’s football field, which serves quadruple duty as football field, soccer pitch, field hockey pitch and some of their field events for track. The field has a play turf surface, which feels like it’d be fun to run on.

I can say that because I set up shot behind the cage, which sits under the mobile soccer goal, which rests under the football field goal. The game is getting underway, I sneak back there. Sneak by walking at a normal pace. And as I’m fiddling with the settings on my camera, my godniece-in-law scores a goal. Missed it.

At the start of the second half the two teams swapped sides, so I walked over to stand behind the other goal. And back there, was this, which covers the high jump pad. For some reason, they’re really quite serious about staying away from this cover, which is just all kinds of dangerous.

Soon after, a gentleman walked over and told me to leave. So I walked back over to the stands, properly chagrined. It was the first time I’ve gotten in not-trouble at a high school in decades. Such a rule breaker am I.

Leaning against the post of the soccer goal felt comfortable. I haven’t done that since I was 20 or so. And, from back there, watching the game come toward me, I understood what was going on much better than the side-view you get from the bleachers. I have been assured by the people I’ve asked — including a chat tonight with my godniece-in-law’s grandfather, who is my godfather-in-law (just go with it) — that there many rules about what you can and can’t do in field hockey. They mysterious and inscrutable rules to us mere fans, but grounded in safety. He was a field hockey coach for 20 years. He’d know the rules, right? He did not tell me all of the rules. I’ve come to conclude they’re meant to be secret.

Most importantly, the home team won both games.

photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
17
Sep 25

Extra photos

Somehow, I do not know how, and I’m not really sure why, I spent the entire day in front of my work computer. So we’ll just fill this space with a few photographs from earlier that I haven’t shared here yet.

These first two are from last weekend and my bike ride into not quite nowhere. I just happened to be in the middle of it when the light was right, with the light dancing in the trees and the shadows falling on the hay bails.

Nearby, the sheep were sheeping, sheepishly.

That was Saturday afternoon. This was Monday evening. I don’t know this house, or the people who live in it. I don’t know if they had it built, or built it, or just moved into it later.

But whoever put that place up knew something about the compass, directions, and sunsets. This is the view from their front porch every night.

And until they cut down the corn stalks later this fall, they’ve got a pretty sweet deal.

After that, it’s just sun over a dirt and mud field, I guess, but maybe they just turn their best chairs to another view for a few months.

I should probably do that, too, at least for the next little bit. I’ve been in this chair a lot today — but I still don’t know how.