3/26/11: James Johnson Is A Karate Master

I think this is old news, and I appologize for not being up to date on my James Johnson fun facts, but I learned last night from Clippers commentators Ralph Lawler and Mike Smith that James Johnson of the Toronto Raptors is a black belt.  A 6’9, 250-pound, freakishly athletic black belt.  Yikes.  And check out what I learned about his family history from an old Yahoo! blog post…

James was called Little Ali because of his footwork, but nicknames are standard in the family. Willie (his father) won five world and 10 national karate titles as Tuqik (pronounced TOO-quick). Vi (his mother), a Samoan immigrant who began street fighting as a teenage gang leader of the Krook City Bloods in Oceanside—”I would go after the bullies,” she says, “and beat up more men than women”—won five nationals as Vicious.

And get a load of the following story from Mike Smith.  One day at a Raptors practice, guys were shooting around on one basket.  Three balls were launched at the same time, and they all became lodged in the net.  Knowing he was a karate master, James’ teammates challenged him to dislodge the basketballs.  Why the hell would you need a karate master to do something like that in a room full of 6′something NBA players?  Well, that’s because the guys wanted to see the balls removed not with a punch, but with a kick.  Legend has it that Johnson successfully kicked the three balls free of the hoop.  My question: in the current age where every electronic has a video camera, why was nobody filming this?

The “I know more about the NBA than you” answer to the question “who’s the last guy in the NBA you would want to f@ck with?” has always been DJ Mbenga, who is also a humongous human being and a master of some sort of martial art… but I think that needs to change.  I’m sorry, but I’ll take the guy who’s mom is a blood, dad is a world-champion karate expert, and had already won an MMA fight at the age of 18.  So don’t cross James Johnson… it seems that he’s capable of knocking your block off.  I’ll never type another bad word about that guy, that’s for sure.

Random Observations:

  • Highlight Recap, Raptors @ Clippers Edition: This is just the game’s highlight reel, but it’s like 90 percent dunks (and LA’s bench does the wave)…

 

  • Highlight Recap, Everyone Else Edition:

  • Aforementioned ninja James Johnson scored 14 points as he dunked the ball repeatedly in a variety of ways (although never with his feet), but the Craptors choked a lead and lost 90-94 to the Clippers.  Andrea Bargnani sat this one out, which explains how the Craps managed to match the Clipps with 14 offensive boards, but also explains how they shot 38.8 percent from the field, 4-15 from three, and put just 90 on the board.  Rookie Ed Davis did have a great showing filling in for the league’s softest center with 21 points and 11 boards.  As for the Clippers, they were on the opposite train of the one that they usually ride: they trailed by seven entering the fourth, but out-scored the Craps 28-17 in the final stanza.  Normally LA comes out looking like champs in the first quarter, and then they slowly start to play worse and worse as the game goes on, eventually looking so bad that you wonder how they’ve even won 29 contests this season.  In this one they were completely out-hustled for three quarters, appeared to be dead in the water with 12 minutes left, and then suddenly woke up and decided to take it.  I’d be impressed if the opposition was someone other than Toronto.  Blake Griffin had 22/16/5, and Chris Kaveman had 17/12. 
  • The Bulls took their first lead of the night over Milwaukee–89-87–with just 1:53 to go in the game on a Derrick Rose layup.  Rose would proceed to score the next four (finished with 30) and then set Ronnie Brewer up for the game’s final bucket (career-high 17th assist) as Chicago scored the final 12 points of the game… eight of which belonged to Rose, and the other four assisted by Rose.  Derrick had his hands in on 66 of Chicago’s 95 points… that’s 69 percent of their offense… and that’s just the box score breakdown.  I’m sure he probably set up most of the eight freethrows made by his teammates and made his share of plays that led to scores but weren’t his assist.  Milwaukee led by double figures in the second half of this game… but Derrick essentially, yet again, dragged his squad to victory.  Former Bull John Salmons did his best Rose impersonation with 25 points of his own, but none of them came in the fourth quarter (he clunked a pair of jumpers as Milwaukee was going scoreless over the final 2:50).  Said Brandon Jennings, who was not at all Rose-like with 13 points on 15 shots: “It’s really tough. Fading away, just fade-away jump shots, off balance. That’s why he’s one of the MVP candidates right now.”  Pretty sure he’s the MVP candidate right now, Brandon.
  • Indiana choked another one to a bad team, and their grip on the East’s eighth spot is becoming weaker and weaker.  With a 100-88 loss to the Pistons, the Pace Makers are now just one game ahead of Charlotte and two ahead of Milwaukee.  If these Charlotte Bobcats make the postseason… keep in mind they essentially tried to trade their hopes away when they sent Gerald Wallace to Portland… I really would suggest that it may be time to adjust the playoff format, or have some sort of expansion-draft-type of thing for the East’s bottom half to help them out a little bit.  Obviously I’m kidding (kind of), but seriously, this is bad.  Anyway, Rip Hamilton led Detroit with 23 points.  Charlie Villanueva didn’t play until the fourth quarter, but he came in and knocked down five of five shots on his way to 13 points. 
  • Speaking of the Bobcats, the Knicks lost to them… by eight… and they trailed by 17 at one point.  New York was looking decent at the end of one… they were up 31-30… but they would then fail to score over the next three and a half minutes, resulting in an 11-point defecit.  Matt Carroll and Kwame Brown then collaborated on a 7-0 run of their own, making it 50-35.  New York still trailed by double figures at the end of three, and would never again lead.  Carmelo Anthony did cover his own ass with 36 points on 13-25, but the rest of the Knicks shot just 22 of 63.  Boris Diaw led Charlotte with 20/8/5.  Dismantled by Boris Diaw, Matt Carroll, and KWAMAY BROWN… depressing.  Said Carmelo Anthony: “For the most part, these are teams we should be beating. We talk about that among each other—that some of these teams shouldn’t even be on the court with us. But they’re winning games and it’s just something we have to figure out.”  Hey Toto, you’re not in Denver anymore.  Your team f@cking blows right now, and has blown since you showed up.  I’m not saying the Knicks aren’t talented, because they are… but talent alone doesn’t get it done in the NBA.  Some of Isiah Thomas’ Knicks squads could’ve been considered “talented”.  The Clippers are extremely talented.  Right now the Knicks are playing like crap, and it’s them that don’t belong on the court with… anybody, even the Cavaliers (hey, don’t laugh at me, you’re the ones that have lost to ‘em three out of three times this season).
  • The Other Games: The Mavs pulled off their first ever four-game sweep of the Jazz with a 94-77 victory.  My main man DeShawn Stevenson had zero points on 0-1 in five minutes.  New Jersey closed a 30-point gap to 10, but lost 87-98 to the Hawks.  Joe Johnson left with a thumb injury and will miss ATL’s next game. 

Quote of the Day: At least one Knickerbocker understands what’s going on.  Chauncey Billups:

“I don’t care how good your offense is, you’ve really got to score 120-something to beat a team like that. And that’s just too much pressure on your offense. Our defense is what’s going to make or break us, I believe.”

…and that’s why you’re currently breaking, not making.  Good luck explaining that to Melo, STAT, and Coach Pringles.

Photo of the Day:

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