The Dark Knight, The Academy, and Respect

We hate the Academy Awards.  Imagine another industry getting together to congratulate itself in such a way.  They create awards like 'Best Cinematography'.  That's like having 'Best Rivet Job on a Construction Sight in a Non-Living Space, Office Building, or Edifice'.

The fact that it's so covered and so hyped feeds the ever-inflating sense of self-importance of Hollywood.  We're dorks.  We know that.  We loved the Dark Knight like late-night cheese fries and cannot imagine a better movie experience than seeing it on opening night in IMAX with our dorkbot friends.  We also liked Slumdog Millon-air, but the complete lack of respect for the Dark Knight in favor of flicks like 'Benjamin Forrest Gump in New Orleans Button' and 'The Reader' really chapped our buns.  How do you not nominate for best director!?!?!?  The dude had a truck flip over in a city street.  Christopher Nolan directed that.  Whatever.

Moving on, here is a look at some of the most disrespected athletes, people. and teams of all time.  These guys never got the credit they deserved and we never understood why.

-Ricky The Dragon Steamboat.  Not one title in the WWF.  This dude invented high-flying and was one of, if not the, best athletes in the ring of all-times.  He was awesome.  And yet, for some reason, he never got shots.  When we were kids and went to the Capital Center in Landover, MD to watch the WWF, we sat in horror as the fans treated a Steamboat match like it was a poetry reading in a hipster coffee shop.  So aggravating.

-Andre Dawson.  For whatever reason, The Hawk can't get any Hall of Fame love.  Is it the 8 gold gloves, being the 2nd player in history (at the time) to hit 400 homers and steal 300 bases, or the MVP award when he dropped 49 bombs and drove in 137 in an era where no one who wasn't roided did that?  What's confusing you?  People forget.  They forget about the HOSE that dude had or the fact that he had the most outfield putouts for 3 straight years stalking balls in Montreal.  

-Kate Beckinsale.  The headline of every gossip column, entertainment page, or any news item not about war should read: 'Beckinsale Continues to Be Hot'.  This should be every day until further notice.

-Run TMC.  Beauty.  Joy.  If you were lucky enough to catch a Golden State Warriors game during the 1990-91 season, you were treated to 3 guys all averaging over 22 pts per game, 3 guys who were buckets, and 3 guys that just needed some semblance of a post player to be great and all they got was Alton Lister.  The tightness of Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond, and Tim Hardaway has long since been forgetten.  They were always undervalued and were a symbol of entertaining basketball until Pat Riley murdered joy forever with a rusty scimitar named Anthony Mason.

-Airwolf.  This show never got its props.  Other tight shows like The A-Team stole the headlines and Airwolf flew under the radar (HA!).  Jan Michael Vincent people.  Also, Ernest Borgnine... and how about the guy playing polo?  We used to get SO fired up when JMV rolled into the secret mountain and it was time for Airwolf to go and fight planes and always win.  The soundtrack/intro were exceptional.  Jack the volume on this and feel it:

-Lawrence Moten. - You all already know how we feel about Randolph Childress.  Here's another guy that we can't figure out.  When we were growing up in DC, this dude was the biggest deal around.  He left as the Big East's all-time leading scorer... and then was a 2nd round pick by the Grizzlies?  LM had incredible game and got fewer ticks than a plastic dog.  Unreal.  Now no one remembers.  Just know this, when everyone else's socks were down, his were up.  So tight.

Who else is getting Dangerfielded?

Randolph Childress Addendum

There was also this:

You'll never get us to believe that he wasn't so game tight.  Wow.

Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis... and Randolph Childress

The year was 1994.  We were rocking the Sega Genesis.  We woke up early that Saturday morning because we had to be at school for the team bus by 10AM.  The JV squad rolled in school vans over to Good Counsel High School where they got beaten by 13.  An amazingly skinny 14 year old freshman had 8 points, 3 assists, and a team high 7 turnovers to go with his 2 poutings on the bench, 1 talk-back to the coach, and 3 interactions with an opposing player that could be used against him in court.  Before we left the house, we set the VCR to tape the Wake Forrest/Duke game at 2:30 PM.  We were taken back when we turned on ESPN Classic last night.

Wow.

How tight was the ACC?  This is from memory because we couldn't find historical roster data.  Why is that so hard to find by the way?  To us, this is the sort of thing the internet was invented for.

Duke: Grant Hill, Jeff Capel, Cherokee Parks (he was bootsy but still played in the NBA for a spell)

Wake: Tim Duncan and our favorite college player ever, Randolph Childress.  More on Randolph in a moment.

UNC: Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Eric Montross, and one of our 37 least favorite college players ever: Donald Williams.

Maryland: Joe Smith, Keith Booth, Ugly Johnny Rhodes, X-Ree Hipp, and Duane Simpkins

Note: Our boy Joe believes that Johnny Rhodes also should have been a star in the NBA.

Georgia Tech: Travis Best and we think Drew Barry?  Remember Drew Barry?

UVA: Curtis Staples, Harold Deane, and we think that Junior Burroughs was on the squad, also Cory Alexander played in the NBA although we have no idea what his game was.  What did he do?  No one knows.

Clemson: Sharone Wright,

Florida State: Bob Sura, Charlie Ward

Note: Bob Sura!

NC State: Not sure they fielded a team for a couple years after they lost Gugliotta.  We literally can't remember a single player off this team.

Back to what inspired this blog.  Sometimes, in life, there are mysteries.  The greatest mystery of all time to us is how Randolph Childress was not a star in the NBA.  He was incredible.  Is there anyone here who carried his squad (a squad that included Duncan) to an ACC title over one of the greatest college teams ever and set a record for points in a tournament?  OK, Randolph we have you... anyone else?  No?  No one that tight ever?

His game was incredible.  He was buckets, great handle, saw the court and was always under control.  So smooth.  His game was literally like an infant's buttocks... in terms of the smoothness.

We taped that game back in '94.  After we got home, showered, played through Revenge of Shinobi on Genesis (we always got unlimited shurikens and tons of extra lives so you could beat it the tight way of saving the chick and killing the boss), we rewound the tape and watched an all-time classic.

In the 1st half, Childress passed on a lot of shots and was a distributor.  Duke put the uber-athletic Grant Hill on RC.  The game went back and forth with Wake trailing by a hoop in the final minute.  Duncan was all tawkward and lanky at this point and his offensive game was like that 51 year old at the Y with rec specs.  So, Wake works the ball around to Childress with about 20 seconds left.  They clear out the side.  16 seconds.  Childress drives on Hill.  14 seconds.  Childress steps back with his super tight stepback move that no one has ever done better ever.  13 seconds.  Childress launches a 3 over the 6'8" frame and outstretched arms of Hill, the same Hill that caught a ball above the square on an alley-oop and was one of the most athletic guys ever before the injuries.  11 seconds.  Buckets.  3 pointer puts Wake up 1.  No one at Cameron Privileged Suburban Stadium knows what to do.  Hill misses a shot at the buzzer.  Wake wins.

It was a great Saturday.  Note: We did not talk to any girls.

After he was drafted by the Pistons, he hurt his knee.  He resurfaced a few years later playing in dumb leagues overseas.  We can't help but think of what he would have been in today's league with the handchecking rules.  We think he'd be 20 and 8 and be a feared crunchtime scorer.  Wow he was tight.  We'll literally never forget.