[McDunkin]

Shout out to Dhamp!

Sigh…It feels so incomplete. So much good material unreleased. He left us even before his magnum opus, "Mookpacalypse 15: Friar Tucked" could be mixed and polished.

Let us ponder the cavalcade of works by one of Syracuse’s most influential artists of the last 18 months. 15 records [14 EPs and 1 remix tape] in just under 2 years. His star shined so bright, it was a mushroom cloud. Mookie, thank you for the soundtrack to my life.

After his stunning debut, ‘Mook’ pulled no punches in letting his rivals know where they stood:

Mook avoided the sophomore slump, and soon released a remix that had every club bouncin’:

The relatively-long 2 week tour ended, but Mook could never shake the pain of some of the images he saw on the road. Thus, he entered his "sadist’ phase…leading to increasingly dark and violent material. It was here that he received his first award nomination for ‘Kicks Magazine Upstate NY New MC of the Year":

The follow-up went further down the spiral:

Having seemingly exercised his demons, Mook began to dabble in funk and jazz-fusion. While the urban markets didn’t quite dig it, Mook found a new audience in indi radio and college students looking to be ‘hip’ with the ‘hop."

At this point, Mook knew he had the cross-genre, cross-demographic, and cross-generational success that allowed him to really push the boundaries of his craft. Thus, he released what is presumed to be a double-album. These records were only released a week apart, each with different tracks and cover art. The only common thread seems to be the number ‘6.’ The casual listener will contend that these are not, in fact, intended to be a double album:

However, Radiohead fans killed time between ‘In Rainbows’ & "The King of Limbs" by meticulously listening to these albums in hopes of finding the secret common thread. A group on an MIT intranet community eventually deduced that several tracks, when run through a spectrograph, produced several identical spikes. These were found on every track on both records. When confronted with the evidence, Mook’s producer simply said "Yeah dude, that’s the 15hz sub-woofer. If you ain’t blowin’ the gate to your trunk off with this s***, you shouldn’t be listening to it." When asked directly if this was a secret double album, Mook said "nah man, I just lost count." The Radiohead fans remain unconvinced.

Compiled mostly from polished outtakes from the ‘6’ sessions, Mook had a more fun-loving and jovial approach to his next effort:

Then, 2 truly lost albums. The demand for something genuinely experimental challenged Mook to deliver. He took a whopping 4 weeks in the studio with Pharrell, Steve Lillywhite, and Jack White. Sadly, upon hearing the final product, his label ‘Wilco’d’ the project. To this day he is still looking for a distributor. Anonymous sources say it sounded like a cross between Emerson, Lake & Palmer, John Cage, and Cam’ron. Maybe someday we’ll hear it…

 

With ’10’, Mook got a little randy. Quote: "The number 10 makes me think of a girl that’s a perfect 10. I think my fans finally deserved some good sex rhymes."

At long last, Mook collaborated with the football team:

Mook got the attention of a mainstream artist, who was so eager to appear on a record that he even committed to performing at Midnight Madness.

As can be gleaned from the album cover, the lack of a secondary picture and much pizzazz indicates right off that this is Mook’s very personal acoustic effort. This featured the first rap track where the beat was constructed solely by bouncing basketballs and bricking rims. The biggest challenge came when his producer tried to capture the sound of him passing the ball.

 

No one’s quite sure what to make of this cryptic last formal release. The cover alone sends the analytical types digging into 3rd and 4th-level inside jokes and alternate meanings. Even on this tepidly received swan song, there’s still flashes of the true pain, hope, joy, and humor Mook imparted to us all in his transcendent career.

We miss you already…

http://www.nunesmagician.com/2012/1/25/2732176/mookie-jones-syracuse-basketball-leaves-program

[TRC1991Participant]

what… on… earth…

[eyoxsoowaoParticipant]

what?

[eyoxsoowaoParticipant]

what… on… earth…

[eyoxsoowaoParticipant]

thanks

[eyoxsoowaoParticipant]

earth…

[eyoxsoowaoParticipant]

what… on… earth…

[eyoxsoowaoParticipant]

We miss you already…

[eyoxsoowaoParticipant]

hot

[eyoxsoowaoParticipant]

I like it

[eyoxsoowaoParticipant]

Let us ponder the cavalcade of works by one of Syracuse’s most influential artists of the last 18 months. 15 records [14 EPs and 1 remix tape] in just under 2 years. His star shined so bright, it was a mushroom cloud. Mookie, thank you for the soundtrack to my life.

[eyoxsoowaoParticipant]

The follow-up went further down the spiral:

[eyoxsoowaoParticipant]

The relatively-long 2 week tour ended, but Mook could never shake the pain of some of the images he saw on the road.

[nousejustParticipant]

But how will the roster look? Parker will have suitors if his game holds up over the next few seasons, and the road map going forward for San Antonio is murky. One wrinkle: Only $3.5 million on Parker’s $12.5 million salary for 2014-15 is guaranteed, a contract quirk that introduces a bit of uncertainty into the process and could make him an even more attractive trade target. But he should still be so good by then that it’s hard to see any team that has him in June 2014 deciding that buying him out is the right move.

[nousejustParticipant]

Paul Pierce: The Celtics have flirted with moving Pierce, most famously toward the end of the 2006-07 season and reportedly last year before the trade deadline. Pierce has two years left on his deal, but only $5 million of his $15.3 million salary in 2013-14 will be guaranteed by the time the 2013 offseason rolls around. That cuts both ways: On the one hand, the Celtics have spent so much on salary over the next three seasons that slicing Pierce’s deal away early wouldn’t provide meaningful cap room in next summer’s free-agent market. And they’ve already spent enough on 2014-15 salary that they might be right up against the cap in the summer of 2014 even before considering any future deal for Pierce, or his cap hold.

[nousejustParticipant]

The Heat may not want to pay the mammoth tax bills that will come every season these guys are around, but they still have the amnesty provision in the bag and a few mid-sized contracts (Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem, Joel Anthony) expire after 2014-15, providing at least a little relief. And the decisions on the Wade/James/Bosh trio aren’t really up to the Heat, unless they are willing to deal either Wade or Bosh for another franchise player who might become available. (Who?) Wade will be 34 when he hits free agency if he stays in Miami as long as possible under his current deal, right at the age where Nowitzki is now — the age of taking a massive pay cut and facing some interesting choices.

[nousejustParticipant]

Derrick Rose: Locked up through 2016-17 on a Bulls team that might have to amnesty Carlos Boozer to have meaningful cap space before the summer of 2015, depending on what happens with Taj Gibson and others between now and then.

[nousejustParticipant]

Johnson: Yeah. So around noon, I’m sitting there playing a video game, and I look at ESPN, and there it is: “Breaking news.” And I had just gotten off the phone with them!

[nousejustParticipant]

The Knicks’ wild 2011-12 season provides a window into this question. Charles Oakley can talk all he wants about how Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire need to play better defense – he’s right — but the basic fact that defined New York’s crazy season, and the one that will define its future, is this: New York scored only 98.5 points per 100 possessions with Anthony, Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler on the court together.

[nousejustParticipant]

Those are all fair questions. And even if Kobe “fails” at each of them, the Lakers should still have a top-five offense simply by virtue of their talent on the floor. L.A. ranked 10th in the league in points per possession last season, and its upgrades at center and point guard —

[nousejustParticipant]

Bryant is renowned for both his work ethic and his basketball intelligence. If you asked 100 players to name the smartest “basketball” guy in the league, I’d wager Kobe would finish among the top three or four vote-getters. (Nash would certainly give him a run.) Bryant’s footwork in the post is legend. That same nimble footwork, plus a heady sense of anticipation and space, makes Bryant a genius off-ball player when he wants to be.

[nousejustParticipant]

in any season, according to Basketball-Reference. Those 11 players pulled the trick a combined 23 times, with three players — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon — combining for 12. Players 36 or older under that Feb. 1 definition accounted for just eight of those 23 seasons, with the above-mentioned trio hitting the minutes/PER double six times in 36-plus seasons.

[Author]

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