Dear Kobe.

Posted on by yougotthejuicenow

I told myself tragedy wouldn’t be the reason I started writing again, yet here I am. Man, where do I even start? 

Sundays. What a day you’ve become. I’ve lost the two male figures in life who I ever saw as heroes. Kobe and my dad, even though I don’t often speak about the latter. Frankly, I don’t know when I ever will but this one I can. So here we go. 

You were my hero, man. Still are. Speaking about you in the past tense still doesn’t even feel real to me. I don’t know if I’ve felt like this 2017. Not only me, but my brother as well. Sundays used to mean the world to us. For one, I was born on a Sunday but for the most part I just see it as a grim day now. My brother and I would watch football in the mornings, something you loved as well. But as we waited for Sunday roast, we’d congregate to watch you. We looked forward to it, every weekend. It’s the only occasion my mom would look past her then 10 and 15 year old son’s bedtime. So we would be able to watch you, our favourte sportsman. Kobe and Laker sunday white’s. What a time. Man, this hurts.  

I’m gonna be honest, as 10 year old kid I couldn’t quite comprehend why others adored you so much. As a near 24 year old now. (How fitting, I know) I completely get it. You embodied greatness on the floor. For that, my brother followed you closely, so like every younger brother. So did I. And I couldn’t be more thankful that I did. 

I had to have just been coming into my own around ’06 when the playoffs came around. By far my favourite moment and memory. Not because it was your best, but because it made me aware of your greatness. It made me want to emulate that. Albeit, in a different sport. Your sheer will to win was outstanding to see. So was the uplifting of teammates who were clearly not on the same wavelength as you. It made me understand sports, how to lead and more importantly life. 

I could go on and on about Kobe moments, any one who followed basketball can. That’s not what this post is about. It’s about paying homage to my childhood hero. It’s about saying thank you. Thank you for your 20 years in LA, for your 18 All-Stars, for your MVP, 2 Finals MVP’s, 33,643 Points, 7047 Rebounds and 6306 Assists. Thank you for the 5 titles you brought to our franchise. Thank you for instilling a Mamba Mentality into everything I do, making sure that I’m never satisfied with 2nd place. You gave this 12 year old boy in Manchester a license to dream; and taught him to work hard for each of those dreams to come true.

Looking at you after retirement, I thought my admiration for you would have ended after your mic drop on “Mamba Out,” it didn’t. It was surreal to see how as a father and outside of the basketball realm, you were still in your zone. Mamba Mentality throughout. Just in different areas of life now. People work for an Academy Award for decades, and then there was you. Kobe Bean Bryant. Coming in clutch a mere 2 years after retiring, conquering that world too.

Your bond with Gianna was special to me. She would have grown up to be special too. That’s why this is so much more heartbreaking. Mambacita was really going to run riot in the NCAA and WNBA the same way you did in the latter’s organization. It would have been fun to see. She had the same glint in her eye as you did, and you could just tell how proud you were of her and vice versa. You could tell that her excelling was more important to you than what you accomplished in your playing days.

Man this sucks. To sum it all up, this has been therapeutic writing to you. I really couldn’t come to grips with you not being here anymore. I still can’t to some degree. A world with no more Kobe Bryant. Wow. I still can’t talk about you in the past tense. That said, you wouldn’t want me to be distraught. You would have wanted all of us to instill Mamba Mentality even in these tough times so that’s what I’m going to do. All my achievements will now be dedicated to you two, my idols.

Hopefully, our paths will cross someday, in a place that none of us really understand. Till then, say hi to Five for me. My heroes. Love y’all forever.

    Is Jose Mourinho’s Time Up At Manchester United?

    Posted on by yougotthejuicenow

    BY CARLINGTON SAMUELS

    Manchester United crashed out of the Champions League yesterday after an embarrassing  2-1 loss to Sevilla at Old Trafford. Since the first leg in Seville, both teams have gone on completely different streaks. Sevilla lost two of their previous four, including a 5-2 thrashing by Atletico Madrid while United had won their last three including wins against Liverpool and comebacks against Chelsea and Crystal Palace. Needless to say, United were the team in form.

    Jose Mourinho’s time at United has been disappointed for the most part. Simply put, he hasn’t matched United’s ambition.  A year ago, one would argue it’s insulting to suggest Jose’s time has been disappointing. In his first season in charge of the club, he won the Community Shield, the League Cup and the Europa League, which got them into this years Champions League. However, if you look back to United’s Europa League run, it was not all that impressive. In fact, if it not wasn’t for a John Guidetti horror show over the two legs, United would have been eliminated in the semi-finals of last year’s competition

    Since taking over from Louis Van Gaal, Mourinho has spent $5.6 billion on very quality players. But two years in, and the team looks just as mediocre as when he arrived. Paul Pogba arrived at United on the back of his inclusion in the UEFA Team of the Year. That same summer, Mourinho also managed to get Zlatan Ibrahimovic on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain –Ibrahimovic was Ligue 1’s top scorer the previous year. To add to that, they also brought in Borussia Dortmund’s talisman Henrik Mkhitaryan. With all that talent, United only managed to finish sixth in the Premier League.

    One of Jose’s best, and damning qualities throughout his career has been his ruthlessness. That ruthlessness hasn’t transcended to his time at United. There was obvious deadwood remaining at the club when he took and over and Mourinho hasn’t only spared them a spot in the squad, he has called upon them at starters. In their defeat against Sevilla Tuesday evening, Mourinho started Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia and Marouone Fellaini.

    On the contrast, Pep Guardiola learned from his mistakes in his first season in England with Manchester City. Pep shipped out Joe Hart, Eliaquim Mangala, Samir Nasri and Martin Demichelis. He brought in immediate and better replacements for those players. They cost the club an enormous amount of money, but they’ve already had lodged a trophy in the cabinet this year and are well on their way to winning the Premier League title being 16 points clear of everyone in the table.

    Mourinho’s reluctance to get rid of players he knows aren’t good enough might be down to the fact of how his last couple months went at Chelsea. The players essentially forced him out of the club. They weren’t playing for him anymore and part of the reason was because of their feelings towards Mourinho as a coach. With this United team, he seems to be trying to create harmony within the squad in hopes that he doesn’t find himself in a similar situation as he did at Chelsea.

    Looking back to the two legs against Sevilla, Mourinho’s approach to the matches were terribly negative. Much like his approach to most big games he’s managed in. The difference here is this is one of the worst Sevilla teams in the the last 4 years. They were on a bad run of form. They’ve also conceded 5 goals this season to Atletico Madrid, Eibar and Real Betis so United only managing 1 goal over 180 minutes is abysmal to say the least.

    This loss was Mourinho’s loss. It’s on him. He set up so negatively against a side with not nearly as much quality as his. The game plan in both legs looked like it was to protect a non existent lead. In his post match presser, Mourinho spoke as if the Old Trafford faithful should be grateful that he manages the team. Quotes that didn’t sit well with much of the fans.

    All in all, the team looks disorganized. The players look lost on the pitch. There were no scapegoats for Mourinho this time around. It was his “soldiers” in Ashley Young, Fellaini and Valencia who were on the pitch for the majority of the match. He can’t point fingers at the likes of Anthony Martial or Luke Shaw or even Paul Pogba anymore as he’s done in the past. This is one all on the boss.

    With all but the FA Cup to play for, you have to think of how much further this team could go under Mourinho. Does Ed Woodward and the board keep handing him money in hopes he fixes it? Or does he follow Pep and get rid of players who aren’t good enough to play for the club and replace them with quality players? But even then, this Manchester United team doesn’t need that much more to compete with the likes of Manchester City, but who cares about competing with their noisy neighbours when they can’t even get over hurdles like Sevilla.

    Woodward needs to sit and think long and hard from now until the end of the season. The pressure lies on him again and not with Jose. Most fans want him out now more than ever. The team doesn’t seem to be improving and his brand of football doesn’t bode well with the Old Trafford faithful. Manchester United is a machine made for winning, a footballing juggernaut defined in part by its success in Europe. If Mourinho has hit a buffer here then buying another Sánchez, another Pogba, won’t solve a basic issue of coaching, the point where defensive control becomes a more risky hand, less likely to bring victory than trusting his team to play in those tighter moments with a little winning freedom.

    Goalkeeping: Football’s loneliest job.

    Posted on by yougotthejuicenow

    Goalkeeper

    BY CARLINGTON SAMUELS

    The goalkeeper is a thankless position.

    Who would be a goalkeeper? You stand on your own, cut off from the rest of the team, taking abuse from the opposition fans. Your job is to prevent the very reason supporters come to games – goals. You voluntarily put yourself in the way of flying balls. And no matter what you do, you always get criticized.

    Goalkeepers do a job that’s different to everyone else on their team. No one else can relate to their job except for one other person, the opposition keeper. They don’t exactly pally with each other through and that, along with the fact that they are a whole field length apart makes the job utterly alienating. You’re completely vital to the team, you’re a trained athlete just like your teammates. Yet, everyone else is doing something completely different from you. And the distance you are away from your team, doesn’t help.

    If you look at the other side of the field, a forward can miss an abundance of clear-cut chances, but “at least he still scores.” The keeper, however may have stopped a dozen shots but as soon as one goes past him, he becomes the villain and even the reason why they lost.

    Supporters watch and attend football matches largely in part of the joy of goal scoring. “A high scoring match is a football fans’ dream but if the team you’re supporting dare concedes, all hell breaks loose,” said Oakville FC’s goalkeeper Steven Vucic. At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the semi-final featured Germany and the hosts. The game ended in an embarrassing 7 to 1 defeat for Brazil. The German keeper, Manuel Neuer faced an onslaught of shots early in the second half which saw his team keep a clean sheet until the 78th minute. Oscar broke through and scored Brazil’s only goal in the match and fans were livid at Neuer. He was criticized heavily by the media for lacking concentration throughout the entire match even though he received an award for Player of the Tournament after they won the cup.

    It’s that very same reason why there’s a popular saying amongst footballers that “goalkeeping chooses its’ victims.” It’s a demanding job and if there were such a thing as footballing job descriptions, one would know why there are not many applicants.

    “Keepers get chosen,” said Cambridge United’s head coach Daniel Tilley. “No one really voluntarily wants to keep, it’s not why a kid is drawn to the sport. We see characteristics in kids that we think would fit the goalkeeping position and that’s how they’re made for the most part. I’ve coached for the vast majority of my life. I’ve also been playing since I was 4 years old. The only time I’ve ever heard someone want to be a goalkeeper is because their father was also a keeper. It was more of a legacy thing than anything. I’ve also never met a good keeper who always wanted to be a keeper. The best keepers are the ones who were forced to go in between the sticks.”

    The mental toughness one must maintain doesn’t help either. Physical strength will help you become a good goalkeeper but being even stronger mentally, is how you survive.  David Lens recalls a time where he had the best season of his career. Unfortunately, that season ended in misery for him. “We had a playoff game against Hull City. We lost the first leg and we were winning he second leg. A ball came across. I thought I could collect, I didn’t. They scored and went on to win comfortably and got promoted to the Premier League,” Lens said. ‘The toughest part was that you don’t get your shot at redemption.” An outfielder can make it up for you, but you can’t yourself.

    The best players in the world play for the best teams in the world. The same goes for goalkeepers. On the forefront of things, it sounds lovely. But it takes incredible mental strength to still stay alert and ready for 90 minutes when you haven’t done much the rest of the match. The top keepers in the world are very good at that. The position demands concentration levels to be high at all times. A defender, midfielder, or forward can switch off but a goalkeeper simply cannot. That is mentally draining. The mental toughness required for the position is why goalkeepers are sometimes called crazy.

    “You have to be strong mentally, you have to be brave and you have to be able to keep the ball out of the back of the net. I don’t think you have to be crazy but it definitely can help,” said Fletcher.

    The toughness required is why there is a goalkeeping union. A brotherhood of keepers who understand one another. “You bond with other keepers because you understand how tough the position is. Even if you have an outstanding game and the opposition keeper didn’t, you offer him a word of encouragement because you have been there. Earlier this season, Benfica’s 18-year-old keeper had the game of his life against Manchester United. That quickly came to an end though. In the 64th minute, Mile Slivar caught Marcus Rashford’s free kick and instead of parrying, he tried to gather. His backwards motion led him back into his own goal costing his team 3 vital points in the Champions League. Immediately after the match, Manchester United’s David De Gea was consoling the young keeper and told him, “we’ve all been there, keep your head up.”

    For 90 minutes, you can see a goalkeeper switching from shot stopper, to sweeper keeper, to leader. They have to find ways to integrate themselves into the team. Every match they have to innovate themselves. They play on the edge. A save away from being a hero, a mistake away from being the villain. It might not the football’s hardest position, but it is definitely the loneliest.

     

    Can I make a million dollars off a Rap tune?

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    Cole at OVO Fest 2015

    January 28th. Birthday of the self proclaimed God himself, J. Cole. September of 2011, Cole’s first studio album dropped and 15 seconds into track 15, I deemed him my favourite rapper at the time. Fast forward 5 years, Cole’s 31 today, and he still holds that title. If you’ve never listened the album or now what track I’m referring to, the link will be posted below. The exact lyrics were, “I just shed tears homie, now I ain’t too proud to admit it, seen my father for the first time in a minute, andwhen I say a minute I mean years man…” As a 15 year old listening at the time, who had just saw his father for the first time in a while the previous summer, this was mind blowing. How could someone relate to me in such a manner?

    At the time, it was very refreshing to find a rapper who it felt their musicrelates to you. Almost like you had written the song yourself, word for word, bar for bar. It was crazy for me. That’s when I started my discography on Cole, went back to his music as far as The Come Up. Haven’t been disappointed in the least as of yet. He really is a special artist, one that I will tell my children about and pass the wisdom of Cole’s music to them one day.

    From that time to now, 6 years have past since I listened my first Cole project, I own multiple copies of all 3 studio albums, a physical copy of Friday Night Lights and I’ve seen him live 6 times. Dollar & A Dream tour twice, free Mountain Dew Concert that was held in Toronto, Born Sinner tour and OVO Fest twice. His growth has been amazing to watch as these years have gone by. Proving the critics wrong, outselling the predicted numbers time and time again to now outselling arenas around the world. His music has a reach around the world like few artists these days and it’s been refreshing to see and most importantly, be apart of. He’s given new life and reanimated the game, not only as of right now, but for future artists as well.

    Just about all my friends and family are now fans of Cole and I have no doubt he’ll continue to connect with more and more people every day through his music like he has with me and my friends. He’s more than just a rapper or an artist. He’s a good person. I watched the Homecoming documentary with my mom and she said she couldn’t imagine how proud your mom must be. We, as fans, are proud as well. Supporting someone who’s as real as you and actually connects with the fans, not only through the music but in everyday life as well is a blessing. Keep on doing what you’ve done throughout the years and the success won’t ever stop. I’m thankful for your music and to call you my favourite artist at the moment. Happy Birthday, legend.

    The myth that are Yeezy Boosts 350

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    Last night I was having a conversation in the group chat with a couple people from my school, Kat and Daniel. We’re pretty much into these shoes, or “hypebeats” as a lot would say. Now, I’m a huge of Kanye’s music before anything else, anyone that knows me can vouch for me on that. Kanye was the prototype to a lot of dudes like myself growing up. From the bag-pack with the pink polos to the Jesus Piece and the Arab scarves to the Givenchy and the OG Retros to even the newest Chelsea Boots, when it comes to urban fashion, no one is more in tuned than Ye. Now, Kat works at the Nike store downtown and Daniel works at the Jordan store opening in Toronto for All-star weekend so we’re all pretty in tuned with urban fashion.

    In the build up to the release of Yeezus dropped and Ye was promoting the album, he went on the Breakfast Club and Sway In the Morning. During his epic “you aint got the answers” rant to Sway, he stated that him and Nike are at a stand off because he doesn’t have any control over the price of the shoes nor when they are dropping. He stated the same on Power 105.1. He then announced “I want to make affordable and I will make affordable [product]” and “on my next products, I will be pricing them” so did Ye price the Yeezy boosts? If so, where is the control that he supposedly gets from Adidas that he didn’t get at Nike? Is this all a front and he doesn’t have any control? I got some questions Ye! Think about all the people you’ve seen in Yeezy boosts since they’ve dropped. How many of those people aren’t celebrities or athletes? For most people, the answer in nil. I, for one, have only seem 2 people with them since they have dropped.

    I’m not complaining about the price of these shoes because I think they’re worth the regular retail price at around $200-250 CAD. My complaints lie with the absurd manner of how these shoes are being released. Before they drop to the general public, you can bet a plethora of celebrities will take to Snapchat and Instagram to show off their new shoes sent to them by Ye, then there’s the occasional glimmer of hope from the “everyday” person that they might get their hands on a pair of these but, for most, that’s hardly ever the case. About 3-4 -if that- stores are selected in various cities around the world that are supplied with about 10-15 pairs of shoes that they can sell. These stores then hold raffles for a ticket and a chance to come in and purchase the shoe. About 10 people are usually selected. I know that there are about 3-4 stores in Toronto that implements and carries out the same routine so by doing simple Math, about 30-40 pairs are sold in Toronto to the general public yet everyday you go on Instagram you can see a new celebrity in a pair. I follow football a lot in the UK and just about every footballer owns a pair, even League One players so the shoes are available, there’s just a huge limit to those who aren’t superstars.

    Now, I don’t expect the drop on these shoes to be infallible but I’m sure there’s a way to make these more accessible to the general public.