Letter from Mozambique: Hoop Dreams and Real Life

[Editor’s Note: In September 2006, Dream Leaguer Marshall Cho moved out to Africa, shortly after tying the knot. In the first of what hopefully will be a semi-regular feature here on the Dream League website, Cho shares the adventures he’s had in basketball, relationships, and life in general. Be careful, there’s some knowledge headed your way.]

...Let me start back with last September when we [Marshall and his wife] came out this way after getting married in August. Before coming out, I had contacted the folks at the NBA about volunteering for the Basketball Without Borders camp. I was fortunate to have a FIBA contact who referred me to the right person at the NBA and ended up working as a "junior" coach alongside Dikembe Mutombo and Manute Bol. The camp consisted of the top 100 prospects in Africa who were invited to participate in the week-long camp...

Read the rest of the story

__________

Hey Cubes, EVERY WEEKEND is already Basketball Day!

Basketball Day, Mark? C'mon now.

Via TrueHoop via AOL's NBA Fanhouse via Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News, late last week we got wind that Mark Cuban thinks having a "Basketball Day" would be a cool idea:

"It would have to be a weekend, but we could have NBA, college and high school games all day long and market the heck out of it," Cuban said.

Yo, Cubes. In basketball, Mutombos do fall in the paint when you happen to not be there. Trust me, while Superman is saving Earth, Bizarro is surely dooming Htrae.

Translation: every Sunday, the Asian American community alone is running about 35 games here in the Bay Area within a 20-mile radius, which by its sheer size results in some perhaps made-for-TV happenings, such as Ryan Mateo's 48 points (details below) yesterday in only 36 minutes of dreamleague running-clock format. More notably, Mateo outscored his opponent's entire team total.

In the post-Wilt Chamberlain era, the only thing that comes close to this Bizarro world wonder is Kobe Bryant's 62 points in three quarters against Dallas on 12/20/2005, outscoring them 62-61 (no, Kobe's 81 on 46 attempts in 42 minutes played most certainly does NOT compare to this, and we will discuss this in detail below).

Read the rest of the story

__________