Max Huang-Debow
Senior Graphic Design Fall: Collaboration
CFA AR 483
Boston University Department of Graphic Design Fall 2021
Professor: James Grady Typefaces: Expulus & Study
Thesis Statement: The Current Dangers of Idolization (With an emphesis on Basketball Players)
Previous Work
A Hooper’s Lexicon Semester Weekly Research Future Project Ideas
My thesis idea is to work around the idolization of celebrities, specifically basketball players from the NBA. When you idolize people, they tend to get a rose colored film around them. Kind of like the honeymoon phase of a relationship. This can be good when the person being idolized is doing good for the world, but it can also be harmful when they are not.
“Idolizing forces you into blindly worshiping imperfect humans. Learning, on the other hand, allows you to observe, synthesize, and pave your own imperfect path”(Polina Pompliano, The Profile).
My experience with celebrities is through the NBA, I don’t follow movie stars, tik tokers or politicians— in the personal sense. So my experience with celebrities and their influence is through NBA players.
I think another reason that I am so invested in the lives of NBA players off the court is because the Celtics (hometown team) have a lot of members who do a lot in their personal lives or in their communities. Some examples are:
Jason Tatum— a prime father figure, always with his son if not on the court.
Marcus Smart— who spends much of his free time meeting with cancer patients (without media), due to the early death of his brother, who is an inspiration to him.
Jaylen Brown— a social activist who also is the Vice President of the Players Association, which vouches for the rights of players in the NBA (kind of like a union).
These are just the top few players of the organization! I am sure that I can find other positive influences all across the team.
Idolization of positive influence can be an amazing thing. Jaylen Brown is informing people of injustices, Jason Tatum is setting an example as a father-figure, and Smart is reaching a hand to those in need, without chasing for clout. These are all people to look up to.
The thing is, all idolized people, good or bad, begin the same way. There is a skill / attribute that people find admirable about the idolized person, and they become fantasized with them.
There are also people who carry negative messages with them. One of these players is a former Celtic. Kyrie Irving. His views have often been opposed to many others. He has stated that the Earth is flat, and is also opposed to vaccines. His views are not an issue, but having such a big fan base who he influences can be a breeding ground for misinformation. It becomes a bigger issue when someone who already thinks outside the box accidentally spreads a hateful message and does not apologize in the proper manner for it. The base of fans (and others just hoping on the bandwagon) idolizing him become empowered by his views and further them, often to extremes that were not intended.
I think it is important to note that the response to Kyrie Irving’s mistake was also extreme. Instead of either being fired or put on leave, he was required to go through reformative training and some people believe this is to make a martyr out of Kyrie, in order to make other players watch their feet (will find link to tweet).
long-exposure photo of Max dribbling a glowing basketball
I really appreciated the Land Acknowledgement project. I knew of surface level issues that indigenous people face, but I talking to Jean-Luke about it put everything into much deeper persepective.
When he mentioned how he had lost aspects of his indigenous language— escpecially with the passing of his tribes last native speaker— I felt a deep sadness for what he had lost.
I had a personal connection, which I think made me feel more empathy for this specific issue in the indigenous community. My father never learned Chinese as a child, and while my grandparents are fluent in English, I feel like I cannot connect with them as I also do not know how to speak Chinese.
The reason he did not learn Chinese is becasue his parents wanted him and his sibling to assimilate to American culture. In doing so, they never became fluent in Chinese, and their grandchildren (me and my generation) also never learned it.
As I kept considering this I began to consider how language is being used in the modern day. That is where the issue of AAVE appropriation comes in.
AAVE stands for “African American Venacular English”. An interesting subject, it is a dialect of American English. Misinterperted as “slang”, AAVE is how Black people in America speak. This is an overarching understanding, of AAVE, and there are many different types of AAVE (based upon geographical and historic factors).
Something happening in the morder day is that the internet and the world as a whole has begun to inherit AAVE from Black
Americans. This is a bigger issue in scope of other races using “Blackness” to seem more appealing or cool. This can be seen in stolen TikToks dances/ trends, Music, and especially language.
The age of the internet has furthered this appropriation of black culture. I do not believe there is a way for it to be undone. Less marginalized people will continue to appropriate from those who create content.
I thought the idea of language appropiration was a fitting contrast for language assimilation, as the antagonists of both issues are the same, but the result on the affected people is the opposite. Both groups (Black Americans and Inigenous people) lose an aspect of their language, but for the opposite reasons. One forced to fit in, the other to become what is the “hip” standard.
“Having seen such hateful attacks on trans rights through legislation, fighting for trans rights and trans equality is something that I’ve become much more passionate about and want to pursue.”
—Lia Thomas
Designed for Lia Thomas during her NCAA Champtionship competition
It might be hard to understand how West, in no time at all, has become a poster child for antisemitism and white nationalism — but that’s partly because so much has happened so quickly. Beginning with an October 3 appearance at Paris Fashion Week, through a controversial Fox News interview — and unaired footage from it that was even more controversial — and then on social media, Ye has revealed the latest phase of his bizarre political evolution: A growing embrace of antisemitic conspiracy rhetoric, a turn toward white supremacist rhetoric concerning the death of George Floyd, and the surprise purchase of a controversial right-wing social platform.
On October 25, amid growing pressure, sportswear powerhouse Adidas announced it was ending its longtime partnership with the rapper amid the controversy. Kanye’s relationship with the company spanned almost a decade and included multiple collaborations with Kanye’s billion-dollar clothing line, Yeezy.
Overall, Ye’s behavior and statements have raised public concern and debate over his politics, the nature of his growing extremism, the state of his well-known mental health issues, and whether anyone in his position should be given a platform at all.
Jaylen Brown cut ties with Donda sports a couple months ago after being their first signed NBA athlete. This was due to Kanye’s irratic behavior. JB has always been someone to stand up for what he thinks is right, but his signage to Donda, (after the whole Kanye openly supporting Trump), and further defense of Kyrie has created a new persona for himself in the Celtics community. There are fans all over twitter and reddit constantly asking him to stop talking to the media. Personally, I want to hear more from him. I want to know what is going on with him. I believe he thinks outside of the box like Kyrie, but has a more logical understanding of the world in comparison to him (thus him cutting ties with Ye before it got really bad).
Boston Celtics’ legend Bill Russell’s NBA accolades speak for themselves.
Playing 13 years in the league, Russell led the Celtics to 11 championships along with five Most Valuable Player awards, 12 All-Star selections and an Olympic gold medal in 1956.
Russell revolutionized the game with his supreme athletic ability, defensive prowess and relentless penchant for winning, cementing himself as one of the greatest players in NBA history.
“He thought that any team he plays on should win every single game,” said Russell’s Celtics teammate Tom “Satch” Sanders. “So that kind of permeated the whole team. That was Russell’s gift.”
While his dominance on the court is unmatched in NBA history, his impact off the floor has been felt for generations to come as he continually fought for racial justice in America throughout his playing career. Even still to this day, Russell remains a Civil Rights icon.
In 2011, former United States President Barack Obama awarded Russell with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, describing the Hall of Famer as “someone who stood up for the rights and dignity of all men.”
Not only did Russell change the game of basketball, he redefined the role of the Black athlete, utilizing his platform for the betterment of others. Fast forward to 2021 where it has become commonplace that NBA players use their voices to provoke social change, with the league’s biggest stars like LeBron James, Chris Paul, Stephen Curry and many more taking an active role in the fight for racial justice, following in the footsteps of the Hall of Famer and Civil Rights activist Russell.
Russell was a star in the NBA during the era of Jim Crow — laws designed to marginalize African Americans by denying them education, the right to vote and employment — but the Celtics legend stood tall in the face of racism.
In 1961, Russell led a player protest refusing to play after several Black players on the Boston Celtics were refused service at the Phoenix Hotel coffee shop in Lexington, Kentucky, while they were in town to play the St. Louis Hawks.
“I don’t think we ought to play,” Russell told his four other Black Celtics teammates Sam Jones, Satch Sanders, K.C. Jones and Al Butler, who met with Russell in his hotel room.
The Hawks’ Black players joined them in protest as their white teammates played the
game.
When he returned to Boston, Russell told the media, “I will not play any place again under those circumstances.”
In 1963, Russell stood alongside Dr. Martin Luther King in the March on Washington and in 1967 he was one of the most vocal players at the Cleveland Summit, a meeting of influential Black athletes joining together in their support of Muhammad Ali.
Ali, the boxing heavyweight champion of the world, faced intense backlash and public scrutiny over his refusal to be drafted for the Vietnam war. Facing jail time and having his boxing titles stripped, Ali was joined by athletes including Russell, NFL stars Jim Brown and Bobby Mitchell, Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and others, holding a press conference in Cleveland.
“It is the first time in four centuries that the American Negro can create his own history,” Russell wrote in the 1960s. “To be part of this is one of the most significant things that can happen.”
In 1964, Russell’s Celtics were the first NBA team to ever start five African-American players, 14 years after becoming the first franchise to ever draft an African-American when they selected Chuck Cooper in the 1950 NBA Draft.
“I wasn’t even aware of it,” Celtics head coach Auerbach once said about the first all-Black starting five (according to an ESPN story written by J.A. Adande). “They brought it to my attention later on. All we were trying
to do here, all the time, is play the guys that, in our opinion, whether I’m coaching or someone else is coaching, is going to win the ballgame. That’s all.”
While Auerbach and the Celtics were putting their best available team on the floor, they created history in the process.
Shortly after in 1966, Russell and the Celtics broke another barrier as he succeeded Auerbach as the head coach of the Celtics, becoming the first Black head coach in all four major sports leagues in the United States, doing so as a player-coach.
“I wasn’t offered the job because I am a Negro,” Russell said to reporters of succeeding Auerbach. “I was offered it because Red figured I could do it.”
In 2021, nearly 25 percent of the league’s head coaches are Black, but in a league where Black players make up 80 percent of the players, there is still much work to do to close the gap, but Russell’s trailblazing opened the door for generations to come.
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minnesota police officers in 2020, which sparked worldwide protests of racial injustice, NBA players took a leading role in using their platforms for change, with many joining protesters in cities around America.
During the NBA bubble in Orlando, the Milwaukee Bucks led a league-wide protest as players refused to play following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The actions of players in the NBA sparked a movement in professional sports around the world, following the lead of Russell all those years ago.
“Because of you, it is okay to be an activist and an athlete,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said in a recent tribute video to Russell.
“Because of you, kids that look like you believe that they can win. Because of you, there is a standard for being a human being and being an athlete. Because of you, it is okay to be more than just a basketball player. Because of you, I am proud to be a Celtic.”
NBA players of the past, present and future will forever carry the legacy that Bill Russell has embedded into the league’s pursuit in raising awareness to create change in the fight for racial justice.
The Boston Celtics have a history of having a notoriusly racist fanbase. This made headlines when Bill Russell was a Celtic, and happens today with modern NBA players. That being said, I do not believe most Celtic fans to be racist. I actually think the opposite, Boston is a very progressive city, and the players would (and do) speak out againsts the fans if they do things out of pocket.
The team itself is very progressive. They were the first team to have a black player, and were also the first to have a black headcoach— Mr. Bill Russell himself. Even in the
cmodern day, the Celtics organization is a very progressiver organization. A recent scandle arrose when the last headcoach of the Celtics was found to be having an affair— possibly with questionable consent— with someone on staff. The Celtics promptly suspended the headcoach, and found a perfect replacement in Joe Mazzulla. On the outside looking in, fans (and haters), do not know what the organization knew about the situation on a whole, but the swift replacement of the previous headcoach points towards their progressive selection in staff as well as players.
The players on the Celtics are equally as vocal, something I go over in the rest of my lexicon. Jaylen Brown and Malcolm Brogdan are both Vice Presidents of the National Basketball Players Association, as well as vocal advocates for social justice. Marcus Smart routinely meets with cancer patients (without media presnet), and the star of the team, Jayson Tatum is a father figure for anyone thinking about having children.
I became a fan of the Celtics (and basketball) when Kyrie was traded to Boston. I was involve with his quick handle and his ability to speak his mind and not back down from his opinions. As I personally grew I began to reconsider my idolization of Kyrie, but the actions of other Celtics players and the organization as a whole kept me a fan.
... also they’re a really good basketball team that built themselves up to play at this level.
“It’s honestly a common conversation I have with guys, just about appreciating where they are. Marcus, Jayson, Jaylen, Grant, these guys haven’t seen other teams, so they don’t know how other organizations, other teams, how everything works in other places. So there’s a lot of good here, from the top down — the leadership down to the PTs, the players. There’s a lot of good here. I remind the guys of that when times get tough because there’s always going to be times and days when there’s lulls, guys can get a little unhappy. It’s just part of the nature of the business, but for me and Blake (Griffin), we’ve been in situations where the team is not winning, and the team is really struggling and there’s chaos. I try to encourage guys to be appreciative of what they have here.”
— Malcolm Brogdan
Journalist Laura Ingraham sought to rebuke the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James for “talking politics” during a recent interview — something the Fox News host believes is out of bounds for an athlete.
Ingraham said she was not interested in the political advice from “someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball.”
James is one of the most decorated American athletes of all time, and last month, the 14-time All-Star became the youngest NBA player with 30,000 career points.
During a 17-minute interview with ESPN broadcaster Cari Champion alongside Golden State’s Kevin Durant last week, James discussed family, personal growth and the challenges that come with being black and a public figure in America — including his reaction to the racial slur that was graffitied on his Los Angeles home last May. He also discussed politics and President Trump.
“The No. 1 job in America, the appointed person is someone who doesn’t understand the people,” the athlete said at one point during the interview, adding that some of the president’s comments are “laughable and scary.”
Ingraham responded to his comments Thursday, calling them “barely intelligible” and “ungrammatical” on her Fox News program The Ingraham Angle.
“It’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball,” she said. “Keep the political comments to yourselves. ... Shut up and dribble.”
The backlash was swift. “Almost all the stories accused me of ‘dog-whistle’ commentary, and many claimed that my line that LeBron should ‘shut up and dribble’ was ‘racist,’ “ she said Friday.
The journalist insisted that she’s “been using variants of that title to call out celebrities for 15 years,” citing a book she wrote in 2006 called Shut Up and Sing.
Indeed, the comment was hardly the first Ingraham made telling left-wing celebrities to stay out of politics. Recently, she hurled this apparent zinger toward Jimmy Kimmel, a critic of the GOP’s efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act: “Shut up and make us laugh every once in a while.”
Ingraham’s comments came in the run-up to Sunday’s NBA All-Star game, in which James captained the winning team. He said Ingraham’s criticism only enlarged his message: “The best thing she did was help me create more awareness” during the “best weekend” at the NBA, the athlete said Sun-
day. “I get to sit up here and talk about social injustice.”
“We will definitely not shut up and dribble. ... I mean too much to society, too much to the youth, too much to so many kids who feel like they don’t have a way out,” James continued.
“I had no idea who she is ... until now,” the athlete quipped. “So she won in that case.”
Even as student-athletes benefit from preferential treatment, some of the negative effects that come along with it are actually pretty harmful to the athlete. “On one hand athletes are put on a pedestal and protected, but on the other hand they’re being taken advantage and prevented from maturing and gaining a sense of personal responsibility,” says David M. Reiss, a psychiatrist of a sports psychiatry program in San Diego (Feynmanwebteam). One way this is problematic is that these young athletes are more likely to develop a “distorted view of what their future is going to be” (Feynmanwebteam).
Ultimately, most athletes at some point have fantasized about making it big and playing in the pros. Some will realize that it really isn’t a possibility based on their athletic abilities, but others will hold on to the false hope that they might make it.
In regards to the latter group, this can become a very slippery slope if the athlete has not developed a plan B because they are so focused and determined to use their athletic abilities for their future job or career. Another way that preferential treatment manifests in a negative way is with the behavior of certain hotshot athletes. The ones that receive all the praise from their classmates, teachers, teammates, and coaches. Gassing their head
up in such a way can lead them to think they are above the law and can get away with wrongful behavior. And they often do get away with misdeeds that get covered up by the institution they are a part of in order to keep that player on the field. In the long run, this might be the most detrimental aspect of favoring athletes, because it breeds individuals that may not have developed a sense of responsibility and accountability and are more likely to act in destructive ways that harm themselves and others.
This works both ways though, and the athlete can be at risk of emotional harm even when they are not the ones initiating it. As Dr. Reiss has noted, athletes can tend to have problems relationally, because some people will operate as a leech and only befriend the athlete so that they can share in their glory or exploit them financially and emotionally. It makes you feel like a bigger person when you are connected to someone who is favored and idolized. It makes an athlete wonder who his true friends are (Dr. Reiss, Feynmanwebteam).
Being a student-athlete is difficult as you must try to balance an intense athletic schedule with school work. Higher education offers the opportunity for such students to sculpt their college experience the way they
seem fit but at the same time dictates the extent to which one can pursue their goals. If you’re looking to make it to the league great! But that is such a small percentage of the student-athlete population. More student-athletes than not want to get an education and begin to prepare themselves for the real world. Being an athlete first makes that difficult though and many schools are unfortunately putting athletics in front of academics, putting student-athletes at a disadvantage in that aspect. At the same time though, they “try” to balance it out by giving student-athletes preferential treatment, but it ends up creating an unfair system for other students and can negatively impact the student-athlete if they are not matured enough. The value that higher education places on athletics over academics is traced back to our society’s tendency to praise athletes based on physical appearance and performance. So if we truly want the young men and women who participate in varsity athletics to have a better opportunity to succeed in life, we should reconsider how much power we give student-athletes through our adoration of them, and make academics the top priority in institutions of higher education.
Footwork is about efficiency. I needed to be able to get to my attack spots in one or two dribbles. The key was knowing how to move the defense with just my feet and my eyes and the positioning of my body, by knowing how to manipulate them left or right without having to put the ball on the floor.
During my early years in the NBA, I was surprised to learn that I took a different, more fundamental and serous, approach to footwork than a lot of players. A lot of players solely focused on improving off the dribble, but I also always placed added emphasis on playing off the catch. Only after mastering pivots – reverse pivots, inside reverse pivots, outside reverse pivots – did I work on the sexier between-the-legs, behind-the-backs, and crossovers.
God gave us two hands. Whether dribbling, pivoting, or spinning; it was important to me that I felt comfortable with either hand.
I never shied away from contact. Understanding the importance of contact and physicality is only half the battle. You have to love it, and I did.
When fundamentals are no longer fundamental. It’s weird, actually – fundamentals aren’t really fundamental anymore. A lot of players don’t understand the game or the
importance of footwork, spacing. It’s to the point where if you know the basics, you have an advantage on the majority of players.
I took boxing out a big man as a personal challenge. You want to, obviously, establish a good base and get your body in front of the opposition. But you also want to make sure you get lower than their hips so you can move them and alter their positioning. If you try doing that at the shoulders, it won’t work because they are stronger at the top. When most players look at basketball, as a competition, they consider scoring and defending. In truth, even this little aspect – boxing out – is a competition within the competition.
All about footwork. Footwork on the court is comparable to the way you use your head while riding a motorcycle. If you want to turn left or right, you have to start by looking and leaning your weight, starting with your head, in that direction. It’s the same thing with your feet on the basketball court.
I built my game to have no holes. Yes, you might have known I preferred to go one way. That didn’t ultimately matter, because I could just as easily go the other way. Yeah, you might have also thought you knew my cadence and rhythm, except – I didn’t have one. I made a point to adjust the pace of my attack to throw defenders off. In essence, the more you thought you knew about my game, the harder it would actually be to guard me.
What separates great players from all-time great players is their ability to self-assess, diagnose weaknesses, and turn those flaws into strengths.
https://justhoopscolumbus.com/8-24-kobebryant-day/
Q: What did it take to get the win tonight?
A: Kept Boston safe.
Q: What is it like having a guy like Brogdon lead the second unit?
A: He does a fenomental job making sure the entire team is locked in, and in order for us to be special, we have to be locked in at all hours. Night in, night out.
Q: Defensively what was different?
A: Best part about this team is that we take care of each other. Defensively, it is all that we can accomplish—
yo what the fuck are you doing? —Tatum
Q: Who was the best Batman?
A:
Q: Other than you?
A: Christian
Q: How does it feel extending leads with the second unit, even with Brown and Tatum off the floor?
A: We’re just as good in the lights as we are in the darkness. It’s the best to have two guys: Superman, Green Lantern. We do our best job as a leauge to not only keep this city safe, but this team secure.
Q: How much of an emphasis has there been on forcing teams into the right type of shots for you guys, midrange, taking away the layups, dunks, and threes?
A: As best as we can, we try to prevent as much crime as possible. Where crime does is on the three point line and layups, so whenever we can, we try and funnel everything into the team that are. We protect each other in the mid range. No one’s course, no one.
Q: When Luke jumps, to prevent the view of the rim, has he done that against you in practice? Do you get a sense if that works?
A: Some people it works, Batman, it does not. Ready for anything.
Q: Do you actually live in the corner?
A: I live in Gotham
ROSLINDALE, Mass. – Guira & Tambora Restaurant is a home away from home here for many Dominicans living in New England. The restaurant prides itself in offering a “sophisticated layer of flavors” like a bowl of the Dominican national dish sancocho as well as tostones, mofongo, fried red snapper and Barcelo rum.
As of late at Guira & Tambora, the local Dominicans have also come to cheer on one of their native sons in the 2022 NBA Finals: Boston Celtics center Al Horford.
“It feels tremendous. We’re so proud to have a Dominican in the NBA Finals,” Belgica Martinez, whose son, Al Martinez, owns Guira & Tambora, told Andscape in Spanish. “We have watched every game until the end. On Monday night, we were packed with folks cheering on Al.”
There have been 10 Dominicans who have played in the NBA, including Minnesota Timberwolves forward Karl-Anthony Towns, whose late mother was Dominican, and Indiana Pacers guard Chris Duarte. Horford, however, is the first Dominican-born player to participate in the NBA Finals, which also means he could be the first to bring the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy back home.
Horford, who turned 36 on June 3, was born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, and is the son of former NBA player Tito Horford and Arelis Reynoso. In 2000, the Horfords moved to Lansing, Michigan, where Al Horford starred at nearby Grand Ledge High School before playing at the University of Florida.
In Puerto Plata and throughout the Dominican Republic, Dominicans are rooting for the Celtics because of their beloved Horford. Horford’s wife, Amelia Vega, a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and the winner of the 2003 Miss Universe pageant, says they have received a lot of messages from back home about the excitement over Horford in the NBA Finals.
“It’s the first time a Dominican has made it to the Finals, so everyone is over the moon,” Vega said. “Obviously, they are expecting that we can win this. I’m getting pictures sent to me of gatherings and people printing things and putting them up in their house. They cancel everything else and plan for the game. It’s party time and NBA night no matter where it is in the Dominican Republic when Al is playing.”
Besides Puerto Plata, Horford says, he has family supporting him in other Dominican Republic cities like La Romana, Santo Domingo and Santiago De Los Caballeros. He
is also receiving support from the political realm.
“The amount of support is unreal,” Horford said. “This guy made a song about me, and they sent it over to my wife. She played it for me, and it was really cool. People over there are rallying for me. The president. Former presidents. A lot of people. I’ve really been blown away by all the support we’ve been getting.”
Baseball is by far the most popular sport in the Dominican Republic. The two most popular Dominican athletes to play professionally in Boston are certainly former Boston Red Sox stars David Ortiz and Pedro Martinez. But basketball has a strong following in the Dominican Republic, most notably because of Horford. Horford has also played for the Dominican Republic in five competitions, which includes winning a gold medal in the 2012 FIBA Centrobasket.
Horford hopes that he inspires aspiring basketball players of Dominican descent.
“My impact is to make sure that they believe from seeing me on this kind of stage that they one day can be in a similar stage like this,” Horford said. “And just believe in general that if there is anything they want, they can work and strive to try to get it done.”
Dominican immigrants are the fourth-largest Hispanic group in the United States after Mexicans, Salvadorans and Cubans, according to the Migration Policy Institute. While New York-Newark-Jersey City by far had the largest Dominican population in the States from 2015 to 2019 with an estimated 641,000, Boston-Cambridge-Newton was second with 81,000. Eight percent of the
Dominican population in the U.S. lives in Massachusetts, the fourth-largest Dominican population behind New York (44%), New Jersey (16%) and Florida (12%), according to Migration Policy.
“Dominicans are always very proud of me,” Horford said. “A couple of guys who have played with my dad in the DR league live here. I’m in touch with them and see them from time to time. I leave them tickets. Our relationship here with the Dominican community is very strong.
“One of the guys that helped me was David Ortiz. He helped me find a barber and the
Be careful what you believe.
We’ve become a society with wandering eyes. We idolize, worship, and envy relationships, careers, and lives of people we’ve never even met. And then we clutch our pearls in horror when we find out that Bill and Melinda Gates are filing for divorce or that Jeff Bezos has been sending “below-thebelt” selfies to, well, anyone.
In school, we were taught to suspend disbelief when reading works of fiction. We were urged to become immersed in the narrative and get emotionally invested in the characters even though we knew the story wasn’t true. Now, we’re doing it in real life. You don’t know Bill and Melinda, and you certainly don’t (nor would you want to) know what Bezos does after dark.
I’ve been thinking about this since someone recently told me, “I feel like I know you, but I don’t actually know you.” They meant that after reading The Profile for years and seeing some of my tweets, they had an idea of the real me. Of course, they were seeing the version I wanted them to see. They didn’t see the days where I was mourning the loss of a loved one, having a private conversation with my husband, or spending 17 hours in
bed as I recovered from COVID.
To you, dear reader, I am words on a page that reliably appear in your inbox every Sunday morning. You’ve suspended belief to allow me to exist in your life.
My point is this: There’s a certain performative nature to all of us. In a society that expects transparency and over-sharing, we end up seemingly showing our “true nature” that is completely disassociated from reality. Author Tara Westover says that for most people, “sharing themselves” online means carefully curating an identity that exaggerates some qualities while repressing others that they consider to be undesirable.
“Online, no one has acne or dark circles or a temper; no one washes dishes, does laundry or scrubs toilets,” Westover says. “Mostly, we brunch. And we take exotic, rarified vacations. We pet sea turtles. We throw ourselves from airplanes.” Online, we repress our ignorance, and therefore, we deny ourselves the capacity to learn. We repress our faults, and we deny our capacity to change.
I know what you’re thinking: “Polina, you share profiles of successful people all the time. Aren’t you just helping propagate this culture of worshipping success?”
This is not what I ever want The Profile to be. This is why I strive to highlight the good and the bad. After studying and interviewing so many people, I’m not enamored by any of them. It’s because I understand that success doesn’t exist in a vacuum — people are dealing with family drama, money problems, insecurities — all sorts of human messiness on a daily basis.
It would behoove us to understand that there’s a difference between learning and idolizing. Take world chess champion Mangus Carlsen as an example. Carlsen was only 13 years old when he became a grandmaster, so interviewers loved to ask him about his idols.
He explains that he’s learned a lot from players including Vladimir Kramnik, Garry Kasparov, and Bobby Fischer, but he doesn’t idolize a single one of them.
“It’s never really been my style, according to my philosophy, to idolize players, to try to copy them. I just try to learn and get the best from the great masters, contemporary and from the past,” he says. In other words, learning allowed him to understand his strengths and the weaknesses while forming his own original style.
In a 1983 ABC News interview, Al Pacino is asked: “What is acting?” He looks at the interviewer in the eyes and says: “It’s what we’re doing right now. That’s acting.” Even off screen, he was performing.
Because of Pacino’s illustrious career, he is considered one of the most iconic actors that’s ever lived — yet he had a pretty tumultuous personal life.
At age 81, Pacino has three children but he’s never been married, a choice that likely stems from his early experience with his own parents, who divorced when he was only two years old. Pacino is self-aware enough to know that he’s given up certain things along the way in order to fulfill his goals of excelling in his professional life. “The actor becomes an emotional athlete,” he says. “The process is painful — my personal life suffers.”
Remember, if you could follow in the exact footsteps of someone who has achieved the upper echelons of success in your field, would you? Ask yourself: Am I willing to make the same sacrifices, the same missteps, and the same trade-offs? Remember that with the good also comes the bad.
Idolizing forces you into blindly worshipping imperfect humans. Learning, on the other hand, allows you to observe, synthesize, and pave your own imperfect path. https://theprofile.substack.com/p/the-danger-of-idolizing-imperfect
“Since when did Nike care about ethics?”
—Jaylen Brown
Celtics star Jaylen Brown has some thoughts for Nike.
“At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism,” the company said in a statement. “To that end, we’ve made the decision to suspend our relationship with Kyrie Irving effective immediately and will no longer launch the Kyrie 8. We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone.”
On Thursday, the apparel giant’s founder Phil Knight said his company’s relationship with Kyrie Irving was likely over, saying the Nets star “stepped over the line” in sharing the link to an anti-Semitic movie.
“Since when did Nike care about ethics?,” Brown said in a tweet.
Brown’s comments allude to the accusations that Nike has come under that they use forced labor and sweatshops in East Asia to produce their products. The 26-year-old is currently without a sneaker deal, though he has worn Nike shoes during games this season.
Brown, vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, told reporters he believes the union will appeal Irving’s suspension because “a lot of the players expressed discomfort with the terms” of the suspension. Irving was given a list of things actions to complete before he plays for the Nets again.
Brown’s comments come on the heels of LeBron James decrying the Nets punitive measures earlier in the day.
Irving, currently serving a minimum fivegame suspension from the Nets after sharing the link, defiantly refusing to apologize, and reportedly ghosting owner Joe Tsai, among other offenses, saw the sneaker giant put a stop to the release of his Kyrie 8 basketball shoe last week.
“I told you guys that I don’t believe in sharing hurtful information and I’ll continue to be that way but Kyrie apologized and he should be able to play,” James tweeted. “That’s what I think. It’s that simple. Help him learn- but he should be playing. What he’s asked to do to get back on the floor I think is excessive IMO. He’s not the person that’s being portrayed of him.”
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown organized a peaceful protest march through Atlanta on Saturday.
Brown said during a livestream on his Instagram account that he had driven 15 hours from Boston to lead the march in Atlanta, which is just outside his hometown of Marietta, GA. He was joined by Indiana Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon, former first-round pick Justin Anderson and rapper Lil Yachty on the march that began at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta.
“I drove 15 hours to get to Georgia, my community,” Brown said. “This is a peaceful protest. Being a celebrity, being an NBA player, don’t exclude me from no conversations at all. First and foremost, I’m a black man and I’m a member of this community. […] We’re raising awareness for some of the injustices that we’ve been seeing. It’s not OK.”
The group gathered to protest for justice and the end to police brutality. Brown marched with a sign that read “I Can’t Breathe,” a reference to George Floyd, who died while handcuffed in Minneapolis on Monday after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeled on his neck for several minutes. Chauvin was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
The death of Floyd, along with the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY, has sparked
nationwide protests against racial injustices.
“As a young person, you’ve got to listen to our perspective. Our voices need to be heard,” Brown said. “I’m 23 years old. I don’t know all of the answers. But I feel how everybody else is feeling, for sure. No question.”
NBA Champion, 7-time NBA All Star, 2014 All-Star MVP, Rookie of the Year.
“the person I’ve most enjoyed watching play basketball, in all my years of consuming the sport, is Kyrie Irving. So, please imagine for a moment, my frustration while seeing the road that was once clear for him to become as loved and revered as any contemporary athlete. And then watching that road close. And then the highway that road sat on collapse into the sea. And then that sea catch on fire.
Damon Young is a contributing columnist to The Washington Post Magazine. He is the author of “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays.” He is a writer in Pittsburgh.
As I’m writing this, Kyrie Irving just returned from an eight-game suspension from the Brooklyn Nets for being “unfit to be associated” with the team. By the time you read this, he might be suspended again. Or he might have just scored 58 points against the Denver Nuggets. Or he might have just retired from the NBA, to question the legitimacy of snow (Is it really true that no two snowflakes are alike?) while walking the flat Earth like Caine in “Kung Fu.” Anything is possible.
One of the fallacies about Irving’s predicament is that he was suspended for sharing an antisemitic documentary in his Instagram stories. The reality is that he was suspended for what he did the following week, when he refused to apologize, had two belligerent and tone deaf news conferences and ignored texts from the team owner while the crisis he sparked spun out of control. It wasn’t solely the antisemitism that got him banned. It was him just being a jerk — a status he’s earned during a five-year span where he’s made increasingly dangerous decisions that have led to, among many other things, support from Sen. Ted Cruz.
When I think about how we got here, I keep coming back to the same word: unanchored. The internet has effectively democratized
information. We have access to so much of it, with so much of it hurled at us, that the spiritual, emotional and intellectual principles that dictate how we process, assess and synthesize it have never been more paramount. Irving is a genuinely curious man, and I believe he has a good heart, but he’s navigating this journey without an intellectual anchor.
He’s on the right side of many progressive causes — helping to build a solar water center in Pakistan, buying a house for George Floyd’s family, donating food and N95 masks to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas, giving $1.5 million to help supplement the incomes of WNBA players. And he does this without being a self-conscious NBA politician like his former teammate LeBron James or a rebranded phony like his idol, the late Kobe Bryant. But Irving is also wildly susceptible to the sort of unhinged conspiracy theories found in the internet’s hairiest rabbit holes. This is how a grown man, in the 21st century, comes to believe that the Earth is flat. And what leads him to go on Instagram, and “like” a post stating that secret societies are implanting vaccines “to connect Black people to a master computer for a plan of Satan.” And what compels him to share, on his own feed, a decade-old video from Alex Jones (yes, that Alex Jones), where the world’s worst and soonto-be brokest conspiracy theorist rants about secret societies.
I’ve written before that Irving sometimes reminds me of a young man who just finished his first semester of college, comes back home, and thinks he’s Neil deGrasse Einstein Tesla. Smart enough to do some memorizing and superficial analysis, but not yet seasoned or wise enough to realize that just because you don’t know something doesn’t mean it’s unknown by
everyone. (I’ve been that person, and I apologize to anyone who had a conversation with me in the summer of 1998.)
There’s no shame in not knowing things. Both the universe and our lack of knowledge about it is infinite. The problem is the refusal to do something that the smartest people always do, and that’s humble yourself when receiving new information. Maybe you haven’t finished that book, but someone else has. Maybe you don’t get why that one thing is a problem, but somebody else does. Maybe the Earth’s curvature is a difficult concept for you to grasp, but it has been studied for hundreds of years and there are scientists who can explain it to you, if you allow them to.
The arrogance Irving has shown, when questioned about some of these beliefs, is magnified by his basketball prowess. Compared with other NBA players, he’s not a freak-of-nature athlete, and at 6-foot-2 he’s a relatively normal-sized human. His otherworldliness is mostly due to his work ethic and his brain just processing information, angles and body calculus … differently. I’m tempted to say that he hoops in cursive. But my handwriting has always been bad, so that’s not much of a compliment from me. Instead, the way he plays reminds me of what Kiese Laymon once said about revisiting and revising your writing: “Revision required witnessing and testifying. Witnessing and testifying required rigorous attempts at remembering and imagining. If revision was not God, revision was everything every God ever asked of believers.”
Irving is known as the best ball handler the NBA has ever seen — a status bestowed on him by the best ball handlers the NBA
has ever seen. Each counter, each hesi, each sleight of hand, each act of basketball alchemy, is a revision of a culmination of revisions. Which means it’s an act of love. Not in a romantic sense, but a love of craft that finds limitless time and space in the ephemeral. You watch him and you wonder how he managed to do seven different moves in a two-second span, but then you remember that the universe was once the size of a Pepsi
can, and you stop questioning God. His game is less about bending the rules to see what he can get away with than subverting them to pursue the basketball equivalent of the most beautiful death.
But this basketball-specific genius — honed through tens of thousands of hours perfecting his craft and assisted by his God-given
spatial intelligence — is untransferable. And so now you have a man without an intellectual anchor, armed with the confidence of decades of positive reinforcement of one particular type of unrelated genius, and backed by thousands who see him as an unusually principled martyr instead of an intellectually immature man lost at sea.
I doubt he even watched the bloated,
An irony with Irving — one in an ecosystem of ironies; there are enough ironies to fill the Itaimbezinho Canyon in Brazil; the known universe is a mastodonic abyss of Kyrie-related ironies, cold, callous, cruel, and we are mere clumps of space dust staving off an external swallow from the walloping void — is that it wasn’t too long ago when a path was clear for him to become one of the most beloved athletes ever. Along with his crowd-pleasing game, he’d already amassed a hall-of-fame-worthy level of accolades and accomplishments by 24. Rookie of the year. All-Star Game MVP. FIBA World Championships MVP. NBA champion. Olympic medalist.
Why this context? I am a basketball junkie — the cliche oldhead who can tell a 30-yearold that I’ve forgotten more about the game than they currently know. And the person I’ve most enjoyed watching play basketball, in all my years of consuming the sport, is Kyrie Irving. So, please imagine for a moment, my frustration while seeing the road that was once clear for him to become as loved and revered as any contemporary athlete. And then watching that road close. And then the highway that road sat on collapse into the sea. And then that sea catch on fire.
sloppy and dangerous “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” before he shared it on Instagram. If he would’ve just said that, or that he didn’t realize it was antisemitic, or even that he was just looking for outfit tips for the “Wakanda Forever” premiere, I doubt this saga would’ve stretched as long as it has. But instead of apologizing for his recklessness, he doubled down, got suspended, and has become a sentient Rorschach test for so many things.
And now, today, he mostly exists as an entry point to larger conversations about antisemitism, social media, vaccine mandates, Black athletes and white supremacy. I don’t mind talking about those things. But when someone as polarizing as Irving is the subject, the conversations are mostly reductive, split into easy binaries, when the reality is a bit messier.
There’s no shame in not knowing things. Both the universe and our lack of knowledge about it is infinite. The problem is the refusal to do something that the smartest people always do, and that’s humble yourself when receiving new information.
The arrogance Irving has shown is magnified by his basketball prowess.
For instance, one of the more popular criticisms of the Irving backlash is that an Instagram share isn’t an endorsement — an argument that reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of social media. I have just under 25,000 followers on Instagram. If I share something on my decent-sized platform, without any caption providing context or criticism, it would be considered an endorsement. That’s just how that works. Brands have even offered me money, for just a share. Kyrie Irving has almost 18 million followers. A share from him is a mega-endorsement as effective as a billboard in Times Square. (This is why someone like Kim Kardashian can charge up to $1 million for one post.)
Another argument is that if the documentary was so bad, Amazon shouldn’t be carrying it. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) There’s a lot of whataboutism happening here, sure. But it is also not wrong. A platform should be accountable for what they carry. How should it look here? I don’t know. I just know that more accountability is rarely wrong.
Many supporters of Irving, particularly some of the more opportunistic bad-faith purveyors of anti-Blackness and anti-wokeness (essentially the same thing), cite everything from “free speech” and “body autonomy” to “cancel culture” and “Jewish hypocrisy” in his defense . If you go to Twitter and search for #IStandWithKyrie, you will find binders full of deplorables. But then there are people who just feel queasy about his suspension and some of the media coverage — a well-earned skepticism
grounded in the reality that nothing in this country is unaffected by race. Was Irving suspended because he’s Black? No. But is he covered with more disdain and vehemence than someone like Brett Favre, who is accused of committing crimes against vulnerable people? Yes. Of course, it’s important to distinguish here that Favre is a retired athlete, while Irving is in his prime. The analogy is imperfect, because the expectation of coverage and consequence are different. But still, does race matter here? Yes.
I have not yet addressed antisemitism, because I’m not quite sure where to start. So, let’s just go somewhere easy and safe and a little weird: my vertical leap. My freshman year of college, I had the highest vertical leap on the team: 36 inches. (The mark was surpassed a year later, by a teammate who recorded 40. I still hate him.) Jumping is something that’s considered natural for Black athletes, based on the theory that we have inherent bone structure and quick twitch advantages allowing us, on aggregate, to jump higher than non-Black athletes. Of course, the truth is a bit more complicated than that, but this widely held belief is an example of what’s believed to be a positive stereotype. Because who wouldn’t want to be known for jumping high? What’s the downside in embracing that?
The problem is that any conversation about athletic advantages possessed by Black people is threaded to the idea that we are naturally bigger and stronger and tougher than White people, which is threaded to the idea that we’re specifically built for physical labor, which is threaded to the idea that we are brutes, which is threaded to the idea that we have inherent intellectual defects, which
is threaded to the idea that we are inferior and meant to be colonized and subjugated by the people with the bigger brains.
I think there is a vast lack of literacy on what constitutes antisemitism. Many non-Jewish folks consider it to just be overt hatred of Jewish people. That’s not very dissimilar to thinking that possessing anti-Blackness means you must be in the Klan. Some people who’ve been oppressed, like Black people have, might consider it a good stereotype that Jewish people are known to have influential positions in law, banking and entertainment. Many of us don’t realize that seemingly positive stereotype was one of the Nazis’ justifications for genocide.
I don’t think Kyrie Irving has any personal animus against Jewish people. I think, at the moment, there is a heightened sensitivity to antisemitism because of the words and actions of people like Kanye West and Donald Trump, and the response to Irving is connected to that. But you can say or do something antisemitic without being hateful. I’ve probably been guilty of that myself. Intent matters, but not as much as action. Not as much as how your actions made someone feel.
There is also a legitimate sensitivity among some Black people about how anti-Blackness seems to be culturally permissible in a way that antisemitism just isn’t. I think this interpretation is myopic, but the hurt expressed there is real. More education is always better. More understanding is always better. And Irving’s actions and the reaction to them are an opportunity for radical and equilibrium-shifting empathy.
I hope that he is working toward an in-
tellectual anchor. I’m disheartened by the reality that so many of us seem to believe that true equality is just the freedom to be the worst possible person. And given how popular and influential Irving is, maybe a sincere, contrite and transparent response to this very public accountability could help shift us the other way. His extensive apology, with SNY’s Ian Begley, and his reinstatement to the Nets, suggest that he is moving in that direction.
It has always been absurd to me that apologizing is seen, by some people, as weak and cowardly, which are synonyms for “unmanly” — in itself is an indictment of how we define gender and what we expect from it — when learning new information, acknowledging wrongdoing and apologizing for it is much harder than standing firm in a puddle of wrong. Maybe he’ll help change that for us too. It’s Kyrie Irving, so anything is possible.
The type of activities that trigger flow will vary from person to person, depending on what they find interesting, enjoyable, or challenging. Some examples of activities that might induce a flow state include:
• playing sports
• playing games
• reading
• creative hobbies, such as playing an instrument or drawing
• doing crafts and making things
• solving puzzles
• gardening
Tasks that tend to encourage a state of flow often share similar characteristics. These tasks may be:
• challenging, but not so much that they are impossible
• rewarding, meaning that a person gets a sense of pleasure or purpose from doing it
• in-depth, involving an investment of some time or energy to make progress
Some signs that a person is in a state of flow include:
• Focus: It is not easy to distract people in flow from their task. They may not be thinking about anything else.
• Lack of self-consciousness: Flow is associated with a decrease in “self-referential thinking,” which means that a person in this state is unlikely to be thinking about themselves, their performance, or how others might see them.
• Enjoyment: People may enjoy the task, encouraging them to immerse themselves in it.
• Persistence: Some evidence suggests that being in flow can offset the frustration of a difficult task, allowing people to keep going.
During a state of flow, several changes take place in the brain. Studies have shown that the dopamine reward system plays an important role.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that supports feelings of motivation, pleasure, and reward. It can also help suppress bodily sensations, such as hunger. People in a state of flow have higher levels of dopamine, which could explain why they might not notice that they are hungry or tired.
A 2021 mini-review argues that the brain’s locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system is also involved in flow. This brain system helps regulate decision making and engagement with tasks. During flow, a person must have high levels of engagement with a challenging task that matches their skill level for this system to regulate task engagement properly.
It is unclear whether entering a state of flow causes these changes or whether these brain changes cause or enable flow. It is possible that both are true.
For example, activating the dopamine system might enable flow. Flow might then further stimulate dopamine, creating a cycle.
Researchers have proposed two main theoriesTrusted Source for how flow affects the brain:
• Transient hypofrontality hypothesis: In this theory, executive function temporarily declines. This decline prevents a person from actively thinking about themselves, enabling them to immerse themselves fully in the task. Functional MRI (fMRI) studies suggest that there is lower activity in the prefrontal cortex, an area involved in executive functioning, during flow.
• Synchronization theory of flow: In this theory, regions of the brain communicate better during flow. A person is better able to control and coordinate their activities, suggesting higher executive functioning. Supporters of this theory point to neuroimaging studies during hypnosis and meditation, which suggest higher levels of activity in the frontal cortex.
People sometimes enter flow unintentionally without thinking about it. However, if someone wants to induce flow, there are a few strategies they can try.
First, it is important to understand that a person cannot always put themselves into a flow state. Instead, it is more about creating the right circumstances for flow. A person can start by thinking about previous occasions when they entered a flow state and the factors that may have helped.
For example, they might take note of:
• the type of task
• the environment
• their mental state at the time
Once someone has a rough understanding of what allows them to enter flow, they can apply this to other tasks.
Strategies that may help include:
Allowing enough time: It takes time to enter a flow state. Therefore, it might be easier to use flow for longer tasks rather than shorter ones and to block off a set period to work on them.
Minimizing interruptions: Distractions and interruptions make entering a flow state more difficult. People can ensure that they have uninterrupted time to work on something by going somewhere private, turning notifications off on their devices, telling others they will be busy, or blocking out time on their calendar.
Practicing mindfulness: The skills that a person uses to become and remain mindful are similar to those involved in a flow state. A small 2019 studyTrusted Source of baseball players in Taiwan found that practicing mindfulness improved both performance and flow state in the athletes. Learn more about practicing mindfulness.
Adjusting the task: Tasks that are dull, repetitive, or too easy may not induce a flow state. If possible, a person should try adjusting these tasks so that they are more enjoyable, meaningful, or challenging. Conversely, they can break down tasks that are too hard or complex into simplified steps.
It’s still winter in America, with downtown Milwaukee lined by banks of dirty snow, but there is sunshine in this room. Donald Trump remains in office, as anger and disillusion festers, but Malcolm Brogdon defies these downbeat days. Fiery eloquence and hope pour out of the NBA’s 2017 Rookie of the Year who plays for the most exciting basketball team in America. The Milwaukee Bucks lead the Eastern Conference and have the best record in the league.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, a 6ft 11in Greek immigrant of Nigerian descent, is the Bucks’ exhilarating star who now bears comparison with LeBron James and Steph Curry. But Brogdon is the steady heart of this young team. Antetokounmpo is called the Greek Freak while Brogdon’s stately nickname is The President. Having come late to the pro ranks after completing his post-graduate degree, the 26-year-old talks with the resolve of a man destined for more important matters than his current drive to help the Bucks become NBA champions for only the second time in their five-decade history – and the first since a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was in their fold.
“It speaks to America as a whole,” Brogdon says as he considers the perennial question
of race in a country where Trump sits in the White House. “We’ve elected someone who allows hatred and racism to continue and, in some way, supports it. It was shocking when we put him in office but having him there has allowed everyone to see what people in the country really feel. Now we can rebuild the country properly. It’s about electing someone that unites people and supports progressive ideas. We no longer need a president who tries to destroy people.”
Brogdon, a quietly impassioned orator, pauses. “It’s ironic because, while Trump tries to break people down and tear them apart, he’s brought so many of us together. This is especially true for the black community. One of our main problems is that, after the Civil Rights movement, black people did not look after each other. But having Trump in office has brought us together.”
An hour-long conversation with Brogdon is very different to a routine sports interview. I am struck by the cool intelligence and defiant optimism that surges through him and can understand why a superstar like Antetokounmpo has stressed his teammate’s nickname is not a joke – but echoes a belief among the Bucks that they could have a
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/01/malcolm-brogdon-interview-milwaukee-bucks-nba
‘People think if you’re black you can’t be both educated and a sportsman’
giant of a man in their midst.
Brogdon takes a difficult subject such as racism and turns it over to find something new to say. “It builds mental toughness. It builds character. It builds identity. From a young age you figure out I can be a smart, articulate, educated black man and still identify as an African American. I’m named after Malcolm X and Malcolm always said: ‘If you don’t have education then you have no future.’ My parents are huge Malcolm X fans and raised me according to his guidelines.
“But I went to a school [in Atlanta] where many racist situations occurred. The basketball was pretty racist; the classroom was very racist. The teachers were so blatant in their targeting based on colour. I went to a private school and I only had one or two black friends. We were always the ones in detention. My mom knew to get me out of there. But I’d go to basketball practice with my black friends, in my neighbourhood, and me and my brothers were called white because we went to private school and were articulate.”
We discuss my interview last year with Jaylen Brown, of the Boston Celtics, another impressive young NBA player. It was rumoured that an unnamed executive said Brown was “too smart” – a euphemism for being too educated and political. “Absolutely. Me and Jaylen went through the same [2016] draft. I went into draft interviews and they would say: ‘You went to college for four years, and got your master’s in your fifth year. Are you sure you want to be an NBA player? Don’t you want to go into politics?’ It seems as if you’re black you can’t be both educated and a sportsman. I’d rather they said: ‘You
showed so much dedication and perseverance in your studies we know you will show it on the court.’”
It does not sound like an isolated incident. “There were multiple teams. But it’s not disheartening. It’s empowering and a chance for me to break the mould for younger black athletes get their degree, their master’s, and come into the NBA and shock the world.”
Tim Donaghy was an NBA official from 19942007, making him a verteran in his field of expertise. Oddly enough, it didn’t always look like it out on the court. So, in 2007, when the NBA and FBI launched an investigation into NBA officials fixing games that they officiated for gambling purposes, it was no surprise to see that Donaghy was the center of attention.
Throughout the history of the NBA, there would always be games that were poorly officiated or hinted at favoritism towards its star players, but there was never a game that allowed someone to think that either the NBA or the NBA’s officials would be fixing games. Then, came the 2002 Western Conference Finals.
There had never been anything like it, and it is without question that this series was the reason people started to believe there was more than the surface level excuse of bad officiating. It was game six of the Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings. The Kings had the best team in the Western Conference at 61-21, with the Lakers three games behind at 58-24. The Lakers were two time defending champs, and were looking for the threepeat. However, their backs were against the wall, as they were behind 3-2 in the series, and the Kings had looked like the better team throughout the
playoffs as well as in the series. It looked like the dynamic duo of Kobe and Shaq were headed home before the NBA Finals. Then, the officials stepped in.
What would ensure was a three hour bloodbath between the two teams, both fighting tooth and nail for their playoff lives. They both knew that whoever survived this series was more than likely to kill the New Jersey Nets, who were patiently waiting to take on the winner. The officiating was absolutely terrible from tip-off.
The Kings attempted 25 free throws to the Lakers 40, and Kobe and Shaq shot more free throws than the entire Kings’ roster. The Lakers attempted a ridiculous 27 free throws in the fourth quarter to Sacremento’s nine. In fact, foul calls favored the Lakers at a rate of 7-2. There were blatantly obvious fouls committed by the Lakers that went unnoticed, while it seemed that the Kings’ big men couldn’t breathe without a foul being called on them.
The most noticeable and absurd call of the game came with 12.5 seconds to go in the game. The Lakers led 103-102 and were inbounding the ball. During the inbound, Kobe Bryant flew his elbow into the face of Kings’ guard Mike Bibby, leaving him down on the court. It seemed that the officials
turned the other cheek because there was no foul call, and the Lakers got the ball in and would end up winning the game by a score of 106-102. NBA fans were outraged, claiming that the officials and the NBA had rigged the game for the Lakers to win because they thought it was best for business. This would be a hard theory to dismiss, as the Lakers would win an overtime thriller in Game 7 to punch their ticket to the NBA finals, where they would crush the Nets in just four games.
Fast forward to 2007, when Tim Donaghy was now being investigated for the possibility of him fixing games. There was no question he had been betting on games after he had pled guilty. Now, the investigation had to prove that he had fixed games that he officiated in order to further prosecution against him. The investigation found that Donaghy’s gambling habits were an addiction, and that the ties went further than anyone would have ever imagined.
The New York Post found information that connected Donaghy to the mob, saying that he got in trouble “wagering with mob-connected bookies”. This troubled the situation even more, and really opened the door to the possibility that Donaghy had fixed games to get himself out of a jam with the mob. However, Michael Franzese, a former member of the Colombo crime family, went on a whistleblower podcast and spoke on the topic. He claimed that the mob had their foot in the door when it came to officiating in sports, and that he had two NBA officials on the payroll during the 90s. He claimed that neither of those officials were Tim Donaghy, but he also refused to release the names of those officials. The remainder of
the investigation found no conclusive evidence that Tim Donaghy was fixing games, and he was sentenced to just 15 months in prison from the felony charges from a result of his gambling.
Many were unhappy with the ending of the investigation, claiming that there had to be some evidence of games being fixed. Then, someone spoke out about the fixing of NBA games. However, the source wasn’t incriminating Donaghy, it was incriminating the NBA. The source was Tim Donaghy himself. For years, he would throw out serious accusations against the National Basketball Association, claiming that they incentivized officials to fix games for the benefits of television rating and ticket sales. He would claim that the NBA encourages officials to allow teams back into games, to prolong playoff series, and do what must be done to keep viewership high. The most damning accusation, however, was one that incriminated the NBA in fixing one of the most controversial playoff series of all time.
In a legal document submitted by Donaghy’s attorney, the following statement was made: “Referees A, F and G were officiating a playoff series between Teams 5 and 6 in May of 2002. It was the sixth game of a seven-game series, and a Team 5 victory that night would have ended the series. However, Tim learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games. Tim knew referees A and F to be ‘company men,’ always acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA’s interest to add another game to the series. Referees A and F heavily favored Team 6. Personal fouls [resulting in obviously injured players] were ignored even when they occurred in full view of the referees. Conversely, the referees called made-up fouls on Team 5 in order to give
additional free throw opportunities for Team 6. Their foul-calling also led to the ejection of two Team 5 players. The referees’ favoring of Team 6 led to that team’s victory that night, and Team 6 came back from behind to win that series.”
This statement was an absolute bombshell in the sports world, and all eyes turned to the NBA commissioner David Stern for answers. He denied the allegations made, and instead attacked the character of Donaghy, claiming that these claims were just a desperate act made by a felon. However, these allegations were no question talking about the previously mentioned game six of 2002 Western Conference Finals. Though the statement left out real, concrete verification that it was the game being talked about, it was quite obvious that it was.
What gave it away was the fact that the 2002 Western Conference Finals was the only seven game series in that playoffs, and that it had taken place in may. It was clear that the Kings were referred to as Team 5 and the Lakers as Team 6. It seemed that Donaghy had completely flipped the switch, and now the NBA was looking corrupt. Additional claims of orders by NBA executives to referees only fueled the flames of a burning building. The NBA now had to clear their name while also calming the fans from having such intense suspicions, especially since the accusations were in the midst of the 2008 NBA Finals between the Celtics and Lakers.
In time, the suspicions and paranoia seemed to subside, and things began to go back to normal. However, when Donaghy exited jail, he continued to slander the NBA’s name with accusations for tampering with
referees in order to have a favorable outcome when it came to monetary value. In order to remedy these types of allegations, the NBA made lots of changes to policies pertaining to referees. As an example, they wouldn’t reveal to the public who was officiating until the day off the game. In addition, they added replay reviews and the two minute report, which reviews all calls made by officials and verifies or corrects them.
Donaghy also put himself back in the spotlight, and some people weren’t so sure about the FBI and NBA’s findings and did some digging on their own. On ESPN’s The Jump, it was revealed that ESPN writer Scott Eden conducted his own research that spanned for about two years, and his findings couldn’t be further from what was found by the FBI and NBA. He studied 40 games in which Tim Donaghy officiated, and found that Donaghy’s calls favored the side with more betting dollars in 23 out of 30 games that were competitive and were affected by the calls on the floor. That means that 77 percent of the time, Donaghy called games that favored the higher coveted team in the betting world, which is an imbalance that has 6,155 to 1 odds of being produced. It seems that in this case, numbers don’t lie, and those numbers are rather eye popping.
Unfortunately the case was closed, and Donaghy served his time. Even the FBI backed him, so it seems that not much is going to change, even if that study is 100 percent accurate. Even so, there is no doubt that there is still conspiracy about the NBA and its officials. Officials are still messing up easy calls on a daily basis, and the NBA has very controversial moments hanging over their head, such as the frozen envelope in the 1985
draft, where is has been theorized that late commissioner David Stern rigged the draft to give the Knicks the number one pick so one of the NBA’s most loved teams were back on top. It’s situations like this that made it hard for sports fans to perceive things as black and white, because it seems to be so obvious that there are grey areas all around.
In the meantime, NBA fans and players are going to have to watch and play the game that they love, and investigators are going to wait for the next slip up, where they will do what they must to exploit what they feel is a corrupt system.
I thought that a pocket pass was a pass that went to a teammates shooting pocket. The ideal pocket pass would allow the receiver of the pass to go right into their jumpshot, in rhythm. This is very hard to do and requires a great deal of chemistry between the passer and reciever of the ball. Every player shoots differenly, so every player’s ideal pass for a shot will be in a different spot. The spot also changes based upon if the reciever is in the motion of running or standing still. A pocket pass (as I understand it), is a very difficult pass to make consitently. Something to strive for as a good teammate on the court though.
(Note on these notes): I normally don’t pass to where people’s hands are. Asking for the ball with your hands is normally not where you want the ball for shooting off a pass.
People will catch the ball regardless, knowing where to force their hands to move for their individual shots in fundamental for being a good passer.
Apparently a pocket pass is a pass through the defence. In this sense the pocket is open space made by either cuts or screens. The pocket is then exposed by the passer, leading to the reciever getting a pass in the open pocket. Hopefully the opening leads to a shot, or a layup, in which the reciever will have an easier time scoring without a defender contesting their shot attempt.
What is the purpose of anything in relation to the scale of the universe? After we pass (humanity as themselves. What can we do on this Earth except help each other. I would like humanity to coninute headed (globally), the more and more depressing it becomes. Weirdly I find sollace in the idea that even to our path in the universe, whatever that path is. It’s kind of like the idea that “the water we drink now continues. So will the universe without us.
We could literally be an experiement. We have been around for a blink of an eye iterms of how long physics and all that other coll stuff, but wehre did it all begin? What triggered the big bang? How does future that can recall EVERYTHING that happened in the universe, they will probably not even consider
a whole) the universe will continue to expand and stars will continue to explode and expand on on, but I cannot see us surviving ourselves. The more and more you look into the path we are even if we end up destroying ourselves, or when humanity does eventually collapse, we will return now used to be drank by the dianosausrs”. I don’t think this is necessarily true, but the cycle of water
the universe has been around. We can figure out how the universe began using science and astrodoes something begin? I doubt we will ever know the end. If there is some omnipotent being in the consider us noticable.
Matt Baskin, Arun Rath and Fernando Cervantes Jr. | August 2st 2022
Massachusetts is mourning the death of Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell, and reckoning with the racism that he faced as the franchise’s first Black icon and as a committed civil rights activist.
The basketball center powered the Celtics to 11 NBA championships between 1957 and 1969, winning five MVP awards in the process. His hiring as the Celtics’ head coach in 1966 made him the first Black person to lead any team in major North American sports. Russell was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. He died Sunday at the age of 88.
At a statue of Russell located just outside Boston City Hall, fans have been leaving flowers and Celtics jerseys to honor the legend. Gregory Baker, a lifelong resident of Roxbury, came downtown to pay his respects Monday.
Gregory Baker stands next to a statue of Boston Celtics player and coach Bill Russell in downtown Boston on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
“He was the best player I ever saw, he was
a winner,” Baker said. “People talk about Michael Jordan, Lebron and everything like that — but their stats, they don’t have the winning percentage that he has.”
Baker and other fans also applauded Russell for being a formidable force with his offcourt activism. As a staunch social justice advocate who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and publicly backed Muhammed Ali’s refusal to be drafted into the Vietnam War, Russell faced criticism for his willingness to mix his play with his politics.
“We expect the athlete to be grateful for everything they get,” said sports journalist Howard Bryant, author of “The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism,” a book that in part profiled Russell and his activism. “‘You’re just playing a kid’s game, you should be happy.’ We’ve heard all those tropes and cliches before, but Bill Russell would not separate those two.”
In a 2001 interview with GBH’s Basic Black, Russell cast his civil rights stance as a matter of civic duty. “I was born with full citizenship. My citizenship has never been a gift of my friends and neighbors,” said Russell. “I’m a citizen and I demand everything that goes along with being a citizen.”
Russell’s advocacy and the color of his skin won him enemies, including in Massachusetts. His home in Reading was broken into and vandalized; the intruders scrawled racial slurs on the walls and defecated in the beds.
Though his ties with the Celtics remained warm after his retirement in 1969 — Russell once described it as a “love affair” — his relationship with Boston was complicated and, at times, frosty. At one point, he referred
to the city as a “flea market of racism.” Still, Russell recognized that Boston’s problems with race were not unique.
“I think you would find the situation the same in every major city,” said Russell in the 2001 Basic Black interview.
Boston still has a reputation for racism, particularly among athletes, some of whom have been the target of racial slurs from the stands. In a recent interview, basketball star Lebron James called the city “racist as f***.”
But some fans say Russell did help move the city forward. Rhonda Morris, a lifelong resident who also came to pay her respects at Russell’s statue in downtown Boston, credited him with pushing many Bostonians to reflect on racism and recalibrate their behavior.
“Going to school in 10th grade to Hyde Park High, our buses got stoned because they didn’t want African Americans in the community,” said Morris. “Today you can go to Hyde Park and there’s no issues. I would thank him for everything he’s done.”
Peter Roby, former athletic director at Northeastern University and currently the interim head of athletics at Dartmouth, said Russell’s fight against racism has left a lasting mark on many levels.
“I think the city of Boston, despite their protestations, would recognize that they’re better for it,” said Roby. “And certainly our country is better for it. And the people that he advocate[d] for [are] better for it, for sure.”
image taken by Pete Souza
1. Receive a pass with both hands. You’ll want both hands on the ball from this point forward.
2. Square up toward the basket. You’re only a threat to score if you have a good angle toward the basket, so position your torso properly.
Masterclass | June 7th 2021
A triple-threat basketball position is a posture where a player can do one of three things: dribble the ball, pass the ball, or shoot the ball. A player in triple-threat stance keeps their center of gravity low with one foot forward, and they hold the ball close to their hip away from the defender.
3. Establish a pivot foot. You cannot walk with the ball in your hands (that’s a traveling penalty), but you can pivot around one planted foot. Practice your footwork to get this pivot move exactly right.
4. Extend the elbow of your dominant hand. Extending your elbow
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/triple-threat-basketball-guide
5. Fake out your defender. Try faking out your defender by taking a jab step with your non-pivot foot. You can also try head fakes to get the defender moving in one direction before you shoot, pass, or dribble in the other direction.
Check out the typefaces I’m using!
This is Expletus Sans! (12/12) <-- heading size
This is Study regular (9.5/12) <-- body size
Working on a project that may involve verification, the complete failure of Elon Musk to properly verify users and allowing people to purchace verification is a big alarm for apps or products featuring verification.
It is also funny to see the worlds biggest baby collapse a couple weeks into becoming CEO of a company.
The best fasle verifications accounts (in my humble opinion), were the ones that poked fun at bigger corporations that have a negative impact on our world. I love a bit of rebellious satire that happens to cost big companies a lot of money.
yes... the hesi is definetly a travel...
Nowadays the hesitation is commonplace, from elemenraty school games to college and professional levels.
Jared Weiss— The Athletic, Oct 24, 2022
When he arrived in Boston as a rookie in 2014, he began making hospital visits quietly — no cameras, no media, no tweets. Smart wanted to spend time with kids who needed a friend and a distraction. Doctors and nurses would introduce him to those who had chemotherapy treatments that morning. They would explain to him how rough the past few days had been for their patients, hoping he could make their day a little easier.
“Then I get there and everything that the doctor just told me goes out the window,” Smart said as a smile finally began to peek through. “The kid has the biggest smile on her face. They’re getting up, they’re talking, they’re getting out of bed and that right there is what it’s all about for me.”
When visiting a patient’s room, Smart gets deja vu. The beeping equipment, IV drips, the linoleum floors, it’s all familiar. He remembers how it felt when his family was in the same situation, so he tries to be the shoulder he needed to lean on when he was younger.
“When you go to the hospital, you see how the treatments are being done and how it’s making the patients feel, how it’s affecting not only their lives, but their families and their loved ones’ lives,” Smart said. “That really clicked, because I’ve been in that situa
tion and I understand what it feels like to be just looking and wishing for anything.”
Smart goes about things quietly, spending one-on-one time with the patients he visits so he can establish a real connection. After his mother died in September 2018, he hosted a private dinner for families staying in Boston Children’s Hospital’s patient housing and sat down with each and every person there.
“I think it’s so personal to him and it’s a very emotional time for him, going through flashbacks and reliving some of that as he
sees kids with their parents,” longtime friend Phillip Forte said. “He knows exactly what they’re going through and the conversations they’re having with those doctors. He understands how personal it is to those families and he doesn’t want it to seem like he’s doing it for attention.”
Kenny Boren, his longtime confidant who helps manage his foundation YounGameChanger (YGC), sometimes doesn’t find out about Smart’s trips until weeks later. Boren and YGC director Bill Wilk have had to convince Smart to do even the most basic promotion for the foundation and his Smart Carts program.
“If no one knows what’s going on, then no one knows what’s going on,” Boren said.
Smart explained that he was taught that if he is going to genuinely do something for somebody, he shouldn’t expect anything back.
“As long as you can change one person’s life, put a smile on one person, then I’ve done my job,” he said. “Some of them go through it alone and it’s just really tough and
people don’t really understand that. We get so caught up in our own lives that we forget that there’s somebody out there fighting and battling something way worse than what we’re going through here. And maybe just saying hello is all they needed to keep going.”
But as much as his visits help, he is only there for a few hours. The thing Smart noticed the most was the monotony and boredom the children faced confined to their rooms. He wanted to find a way to keep them occupied and entertained daily. That’s how the Smart Carts were born. Created through his foundation, the Smart Cart is a mobile charging station loaded with tablets and video game consoles designed to become entertainment hubs for hospitals. The foundation partnered with Lenovo and Walmart to supply it with tablets and Nintendo Switches, donating 13 carts to nine hospitals since 2016.
“That is who Marcus is. He is the most genuine, kind and passionate person,” said Devine. “I think once you get to know him, that is who he is.”
https://theathletic.com/3700379/2022/10/24/ marcus-smart-boston-childrens-hospital-innovation/
All NBA 1st Team, 2022 Eastern Conference MVP, 3-time NBA All Star.
“I got sick to my stomach. This was a week or 2 before school was ending. So in my mind, I was like, ‘You’re about to leave Duke, get ready for the Draft, live my life.’ And then it’s like, no, you’re about to have a kid. I was selfish at first. I was more worried about being drafted than I was about being a dad.”
—Jayson TatumSelfishness and Fear Morphing into Stable Maturity, on and off the court.
Since entering the NBA, Jason Tatum has played well beyond his years, making the Eastern Conference Finals (and dunking on Lebron) as a rookie. His youthful success is so prolific that for several years after his rookie season it was a meme for people all over the internet to comment “he’s only 19!”, even after he was well beyond 21.
There is a reason for this: Deuce. In an interview with Graham Bensinger he states that “He made me grow up faster, and mature. ‘Cuz with all of this newfound, you know, fame and success, and money— at 19, that’s a lot to handle. I wouldn’t change it for the world, it motivates me. Seeing him come to all the games, practice, watching me workout. You know he modivates me to be the best player, the best father, the best role model that I can be.”
Tatum’s own father made him into the hooper he is today. He gave him a ball in the crib, and that was that. While pushing Jayson to be the best player he could be, the boundery between coach and father was often blurred. Tatum often regrets not having a well developed father-son relationship with his dad. The introduction of Deuce into his life could be a way for him to kindle something meaningful for his son that he never had.
Looking at how far Jayson Tatum has come in just five years of being drafted into the league, it’s safe to say that the Boston Celtics made the right decision in the 2017 NBA Draft.
From being a 19-year-old full of raw potential to using that talent to finally competing on the biggest stage in the league, Tatum has already achieved a lot. But if he wins the 2022 NBA Finals with the Celtics, he will have a chance at becoming one of the best players of this generation.
However, our focus today is not on what Tatum has achieved on the court. Instead, we will be focusing on how amazing the 24-year-old has been off the court. Particularly in being an amazing father to his son, Deuce.
Deuce was born in the same year when
Tatum was drafted and became a father at just the age of 19. Tatum recently opened up about how that journey has been for him and how he has coped with the task of becoming a role model for all the young fathers out there.
Jayson Tatum’s Heartwarm-
Answer To Being A Father To His Son Deuce: “If
I’m
Model For Young Fathers Around The World, That’s Great. I Think We Need More Role Models Like That. Just To Have More Male Fathers Present.”AIKANSH CHAUDHARY | JUN 8, 2022
“I think 2017 when I got drafted, I didn’t have Deuce, but he was born in 2017, so that was a big -- that was, like, the biggest year of my life, right? Starting this new chapter in my career, I just had a child. My mindset was not to sacrifice either, that I was going to be the best father as I could as well as the best basketball player. There was no guideline or there was no, you know, exact way to do it. It was all about what was natural.
“I think that’s what it is. I just do what’s natural. I’m around him every day. I think being able to go through this journey together, because I was 19 when I got drafted, it’s kind of like we’re growing up together. As he’s gotten older, I’m going through my career, sharing these moments, experiencing this together as we grow up.”
Tatum continued, “I think it’s the coolest part for me. I don’t know if it’s intentional as much as it’s just natural and what we do. I realize that I do have a platform and things like that. If I am a role model for young fathers around the world, that’s great. I think we need more role models like that. Just to have more male fathers be present and things like that, show that you can do both, regardless of whenever you work, whatever your profession is.”
You have probably seen Boubou design somewhere on Instagram or Tiktok. Boubou is a Senegalese designer who paints with whatever he wants. He is a very skilled painter who can draw with any part of his body and any inanimate or animate object. The amazing thing about Boubou is that he seems to have a consistent touch with all the tools that he uses. Many artists have a unique hand or style that can be seen throughout their work, boubou is not different in that sense, except that he paints without a paintbrush. Literally any object besides a paintbrush. The objects aren’t random, they usually coincide with the subject of his painting. He made a portrait of Sadio Mane
BY
DRIBBLING A SOCCOR BALL AROUNDON A CANVAS. Not only are these paintings created with unorthodox brushes, they are also very visually compelling. When not creating a direct portrait of someone, he either uses a flattering perspective or has an interesting composition: A painting of Kobe Bryant (RIP)— with an amazing composition that melded his profile with his silhouette— done with a basketball hoop. You may be thinking that it could all be video magic, no way he creates a perfect image of Chadwick Boseman with the heads of roses… but he does. His videos are time lapsed, but he also
does live portraits with the subject right in front of him. If he is not painting a celebrity, he usually uses some part of the subject, their purse, their hair, their feet to paint them. There is even a tiktok of him painting live, so there is no gimmick that many internet artists use, he is pure skill. Oh yeah, and he paints his subjects upside down. (Which I didn’t know is a method to accurately catch details when painting from real life, maybe something to consider when designing?).
I’ve been following Satori Graphics on Youtube for awhile now, and he has a lot of good design videos. He makes videos on macro topics such as Design Theory and micro topics like typography. Not only that, his channel also features redesigns and careers tips like portfolio examples with deeper analysis, not just going “wow this one looks cool”.”Confused about making your design portfolio?” is a great video about features clients / employers would like to see in a portfolio. I’ll go over some tips:
1. Tell what you do.
2. Show hi-profile / best work of projects (past experience)
3. Within each project, show your process, reaffirming at each step how important it is.
4. “Problem Solver” is a nice buzzword that any designer can use.
5. Need to demonstrate your work! (Awards, namedropping, how long you’ve been designing, degrees, etc)
6. Demonstrate problem solving and competence.
7. Keep a consistent theme throughout the portfolio.
There are a lot more videos that go deeper into portfolio design on his channel. But I think this is a good starting one that has plenty of good examples.
In a project I am working on I tried using a collage effect. Instead of having a real collage I just had words spreading out over a video with a paper effect. Not very collage-y. I looked up more extreme / modern collage styles and came across eclectic collage. Eclectic collage is essentially eclectic + design. The word “eclectic” means “deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources”— something the blog forgets to mention . I believe the blog was created just to plug a bunch of design templates, but it does give a brief history of collage as a medium and relates it to many different aspects of design: from graphic design to interior design. From what I can figure, eclectic collage is just collage. With a fancy verb added to it. While not very interesting, this blog made me want to experiment with mixed media so that I never accidentally create an eclectic collage.
1. Start with a rough concept: In this poster, Piasecki crafted an emotional tribute to his home. “The central idea was to represent the state of Paraná,” he explains. “I wanted to represent the place that I live and love.” Piasecki emphasizes that in collaging, the images and the process of assembling them often inform or transform the piece, so be open to change as you go along.
2. Gather the elements: “Starting from the idea of the state of Paraná, I then sought images that represent it,” he says. He looked for “all the monuments and important sights of cities and local nature across the state. The tree is the symbol of Paraná, behind you can see the Iguazu Falls and famous animals and elements that are representative of the state.” He was drawn to elements he felt personally connected to, such as the instantly recognizable elliptical structure of the Museu Oscar Niemeyer.
All art byFabiano Piasecki
recognizable elliptical structure of the Museu Oscar Niemeyer. To further personalize the piece, he added a handwritten poem to the mix. “An editor who I work with, Diego Gianni, created a poem that celebrates the state of Paraná. I wanted to put it on the image in a handwritten style to bring some romanticism to it, as if it were a letter.” The poem emphasizes the fragility of place, calling out extinct birds, vanished peoples, and ever-changing rivers while evoking the promise of a “beautiful unfinished tale.” (The full translation is at the bottom of this article.)
3. Assemble the composition: “In this piece I sought not to use a main image, so the challenge was to fit them all in without hiding any of them. There was a lot of trial and error until I found some harmony,” says Piasecki. Piasecki built the piece one layer at a time in Photoshop. Once he had the basic composition, he turned to Illustrator: “I used colored shapes to give more life to the art,” he says.
4. Fine-tune the colors and textures: “I used some filters and low saturation to give the impression of something that was lightly worn,” says Piasecki. “To create my collages, I use more Photoshop than Illustrator. In Photoshop, I insert colors, gradients, hue/saturation, color lookup, blending modes, work with brushes, newspaper clippings and other effects. I think it’s good because there are endless possibilities within it. In Illustrator I work only with forms that I can’t do so easily in Photoshop, such as more complex vectors and patterns. I can say that 80 percent of the work is done in Photoshop.”
Last week at the KMS Gallery I picked up this book titled “A Dictionary of Color Combinations vol. 2”. It is exactly what is sounds like and it was just the book I was looking for. There’s no long descriptions of any of the color palettes or choices, just samples of color based off of different subjects: Months of the Year, Kimono designs, other Clothing, Wrapping Paper/Posters, and also an “other” section (which is just prints and paintings so I think it could have been named “fine arts” or something. Regardless it’s a really fun book to flip through and I think it will be a helpful tool in my design practice from now one. Straight and to-the-point color palettes.
I watched Banksy, Kurt Cobain, and The Paradox that killed them over the weekend while eating some cereal. Much better than most videos I watch while eating breakfast. I recommend watching the video, but basically to spoil it: It is about how artists who want to send a message about the commodification of their work inadvertently feed the people they are rebelling against. Banksy disliked the art market, but his work is featured in it prominently. The more he rebels, the more value is added to his art. For example, the girl with the balloon painting that he shredded increased in value after the demonstration. Buying art just for its value is a waste of the art. It should speak to the person buying it, that should be their sole reason for buying it. I’m not a huge collector of work, but this video got me thinking that I should purchase more art that I like. Also I should listen to some Kurt Cobain.
1
I recently have been getting into Drone Shows. They are only possible over desserts or airspaces that have been reserved for them, so it’s not a crazy accessible medium, but I think the potential is unlimited. 2D printed graphics like posters and handouts are nice and easy to digest, but they are limited. Now, there are ways to manipulate 2D graphics to elevate a space or environment, but you cannot print a 600 foot tall poster easily. The medium of drone shows takes new things into account: time and space. Time isn’t that crazy, videos, animation and motion graphics all utilize time, but they cannot escape their medium—the screen. The closest thing is 3D movies, but at the same time those are restricted by the environment that you watch them in.Drone shows are different in that they can utilize both time and space. A Pattern can be created in the sky to illuminate the night, pokemon can be brought to life, and even faces can be made, like this one drone show from Burning Man.
Now, while this medium is very cool, there are a lot of draw backs.
1.You need to have a lot of money to do one of these shows.
2.The drones need space from each other, so they cannot make anything to complicated.
3.Each individual drone is fairly large, so you cannot make small scale shows. This is due to a number of factors, the battery, the propellers, etc all are fairly heavy, but this makes them sturdy. A drone show has to be in a large scale.
4.It is not a fast pace medium, the drones need time to change shape to create new elements / figures.
I think that if we could use smaller drones, it could be much more entertaining. Then more complicated patterns and images could be created. For now though, the medium is restricted and I doubt there will be commercial development for drones with artistic purposes.
2
pt.
I take back my last post about drones, I just saw this tweet about an advertising concept that would turn the night sky into ads. Horrible idea. Awful. I think it is a cool advertising technique to consider, but not necessary. A blimp does the same thing during the day. It would RUIN our night skies with light pollution, which is already an issue in cities. Also, what a complete waste of money, if a corporation has the money to do this, they could do something meaningful with it. Nothing sells better than doing good for others. Even then, advertising yourself as forward thinking can just be a masquerade (Shout-out greenwashing group, great installation!). I really dislike huge wastes of money on things that don’t help anyone and I’m taking some astronomy classes this semester so the idea of blotting out the stars got me pretty mad.I had to do a project grant proposal for the astronomy class (IN250— great for writing intensive course! fyi) and I proposed using drones to show the size of planets in comparison to each other. This video makes me want to undo it because it would be such a waste. How views change with the littlest things. Sorry for ranting, thanks if you read it.
This week I watched a Kelli Anderson Ted Talk called “design to change reality”. In it she stated that “the world is full of order, that doesn’t necessarily deserve our respect”. She approaches her projects with the theme or mantra of “the hidden talents of everyday things”. She does this by using humor to demonstrate how certain things are or aren’t meaningful. Kelli does this all through paper! She has many many projects, but some that she talked about in this video were a repetitive greeting card about getting a greeting card, as well as a a parody of the New York Times that was written for the futuristic Utopia and had was filled with bogus stories about the news that we hope for, but do not receive. I’m experimenting a lot with paper for this upcoming show through the posters and greeting cards, and one thing this video has shown me is that getting out of the digital space can very refreshing, expressive and fun. Something worth looking more into.
I did look more into paper design, creating a lenticular poster. Here’s some process photos.
I’ve been really angry recently and I’m not sure why, I think it could be the midterm elections, or the fall or twitter, or being busy, or something else, I don’t know really know what’s got me so wound up. I’ve been needing away to vent, and I want to try making some art related to it.
We are going to be doing monotype in etching tomorrow, so I was thinking of some design styles to consider:
• The first one I thought of was Brutalism, and I did more research and it is not exactly what I’m looking for. I think it would be fun to use in another project, but not this monotype one. I want to be able to express myself angrily with monotype.
• I think the Dada might be good inspiration, but it seems absurd in response to the world, I want rage and anger.
We had a guest speaker in class today, and I have mixed feelings about his presentation. Positives first! Blake Goodwin, from Proportional Design, seems like a really good designer—even if he says he is not and it’s just that he works with good designers— the ability to clearly and fluidly get across ideas is a real skill. His presentation was really good and he has a very good depth of knowledge on all of his clients! His casual but professional business approach seems very good for his cliental and I think the way he presented to the class was the same style he would present a pitch to a client. Also him talking about scale was very interesting, I’ve only worked with one person directly at a time, and I just considering that there could be multiple shareholders/clients is an interesting perspective. Now, this could be my personal bias, but I did not like some of the clients he was working with. Boston is in the middle of a huge housing / development boom and also crisis, and there are issues of gentrification all over the city. Boston is now the second most expensive city to live in (for renters). It is none of my business who Blake works with, and honestly, if I was in the same position—with a small design business— I would probably do the same. I also want to clarify I do not feel anything against Blake, this was just the first time I was faced with someone who was using design for something I feel personally against and it was a bit startling. I am sure this will become more common post-graduation, but it has also helped shaped my idea of who I would like to work with in the future.
One of the deliverables I am considering for my final thesis is a magazine. Since I haven’t taken a publication / bookmaking class yet (which I really regret), I plan on doing a lot of research on magazine layouts and magazine design. I started doing that this week with two articles. What are the 10 Key Elements of a Magazine Layout Design is a quick article about elements in magazines. It relates every design decision to how the reader will interpret it, which is very similar to UX design. (With a little bit of critical thinking I think it is easy to assume that publication design definitely influenced website design).
The other article I read was Here’s What You Need to Know about Magazine Printing. This article went much more indepth to how to print the physical magazine, not just design it. I learned a lot about magazines! For one thing, they are often perfect-bound, which is exciting because I do know how to do that. Another thing I learned is the dimensions of most printed magazines, which is 8.5x11 or 5.5x8.5. One thing that was a little confusing for me was the gloss finishing that they put on magazines, it lifts the ink and gives them that shiny magazine look and feel. I am unsure how to do that. I have been looking into it, and I think I have to buy paper, but if I have to run pages through some gloss-applying machine I might have an issue. My last resort is to send the magazine out and get it professionally done, but I’d like to work through the whole process.
I am open to any design work that comes my way. These next pages will function as ideas for projects or anything else I could consider doing. (Like a notebook)
I think one of my best strengths as a designer is listening to what problems people have and trying to find solutions for them.
I believe I will be able to take on any design challenge that comes my way: print, digital, 3D modeling, wayfinding, etc... I feel prepared for anything.
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/11/29/damon-young-how-we-got-herewith-kyrie-irving-explained/
• https://www.nba.com/news/boston-celtics-jaylen-brown-leads-peaceful-protest-atlanta
• https://nypost.com/2022/11/10/jaylen-brown-rips-nike-phil-knight-for-kyrie-irving-comments/
• https://www.vox.com/culture/23400851/kanye-west-fake-kids-antisemitism
• https://theathletic.com/3700379/2022/10/24/marcus-smart-boston-childrens-hospital-innovation/
• https://nesn.com/2022/11/malcolm-brogdon-calls-playing-with-celtics-treat-for-any-nbaplayer/
• https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/19/587097707/laura-ingraham-told-lebron-james-to-shutup-and-dribble-he-went-to-the-hoop
• https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/shut-and-dribble-thats-ridiculous-says-jaylenbrown
• https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nba/news/why-bill-russell-is-one-of-the-most-influential-players-in-nba-history-boston-celtics-civil-rights/p68jwhrqz4pb187y3sya3veix
• https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/34013007/trans-women-competing-women-sports-does-not-threaten-women-sports
• https://justhoopscolumbus.com/8-24-kobe-bryant-day/
• https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jan/09/jaylen-brown-boston-celtics-nba-interview
• https://andscape.com/features/celtics-being-a-black-player-in-boston/
• https://thegreyhoundnews.com/5474/sports/did-tim-donaghy-and-other-nba-officials-fixgames-throughout-the-2000s/
• https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/08/02/fans-credit-celtics-legend-bill-russell-for-standing-up-to-racism#:~:text=At%20one%20point%2C%20he%20referred,the%20 2001%20Basic%20Black%20interview.
• https://www.masterclass.com/articles/triple-threat-basketball-guide
• https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/flow-state
• https://fadeawayworld.net/nba-media/jayson-tatums-heartwarming-answer-to-being-a-father-to-his-son-deuce-if-im-a-role-model-for-young-fathers-around-the-world-thats-great-ithink-we-need-more-role-models-like-that-just-to-have-more-male-fathers-present