All about NEW

Three topics I'm touching today share one same old word: NEW

The New England Patriots used one quarter to destroy one of the defense team of the year, the New York Jets. That's sad.

When everything is looking perfectly on track, the Jets would bring out some drama.

They can trail by two touchdowns near the end of fourth quarter in a game but then came back strong and pulled out within one second their opponents' exciting fire of one yard away from beating the Jets.

They are the Utah Jazz in the NFL, who "completed five straight double-digit come-from-behind victories in one week." (Ben Golliver.). They enjoy offering their opponents yummy cake that is just coming out of the oven and drop the cake on the ground right before their eyes. They always make the opponents feel like you can finally have a bite of the winning taste when all of a sudden it's gone with the wind, blowing from a jet.

So how come the result of the pre-Super Bowl this Monday came out in such a lousy way? It's not that the Jets never made efforts. It's just that they spared no efforts not to help themselves to pull together. Instead, they did a terrific job in helping their the Patriots. That's sadder.

However, it's not like the end of the world. Above all, it's the Patriots they lost. Other than the poor final score, there's nothing to be ashamed of. It's just a huge lesson learned by a young proud apprentice from his elderly experienced Master Shifu.

I have complete faith in the Jets to come back stronger in the Playoffs. Then sadness ends. 



Cam Newton "has had the greatest year in the history of college football" (Lee Corso, ESPN analyst), which I don't disagree. While Cam Newton has no knowledge of his father's illegal dealings and thus is greenlighted to play in the SEC title game by the NCAA, which I can't disagree more.

True, Cam Newton is not Reggie Bush, who's ruled to have full knowledge of his stepfather's improper contacts with agents. But I can't stop thinking about the rumor I heard from my friend that the only reason that Cam Newton was ruled clear, unlike the same-case Reggie Bush, is that he is the money magnet for the NCAA, who are in desperate need of a super star, an unprecedented college guy to help attract attention, lure fans and increase ratings and sponsorships.

Rumor may be fake, but the influence will fade.

The amazing model settler, Cam Newton, has role-modeled all college football players and those potentials that you can have your beloved parents take as much illegal money as possible from as many illegible sources as possible as long as you claim, you swear that you "have no knowledge" of their illegitimate conducts. How smart and how sad!

I'm not just saying it because I am a Trojan, poor victims of their then-SC-pride high-profile star's low-profile acts. I'm saying it because my school has to suffer for our already-gone player by being outcast members of Bowl games while Auburn can feed on the glory of theirs and striding toward the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game.

I have no faith in the NCAA to retreat their previous rule and take sanction against Auburn and Cam Newton. That's not what we Trojans need.

I had thought that we were chosen to become victims and also negative teaching examples for all colleges and universities to take tolls. Sadly, as of today, our sacrifice hasn't worked out the way it's supposed to be working out. I weep for all schools.

A must-read article about the case. Matt Hinton's

Cam Newton will live in NCAA infamy, but he's not Reggie Bush.

"New Orleans doesn't care about the NBA",what a heartbreaking sentence to swallow. But I have to admit. When a pro team in your town was the only team in the National Basketball League that never lost a game since the start of a new season, and yet fewer and fewer fans showed up to witness the amazing performance, it's nobody's fault. But the Hornets have to pay for it.

As a die-hard CP3 fan, I can never imagine the names "New Orleans", "Hornets", "Chris Paul" go separate. I love the city of New Orleans because Chris Paul and his New Orleans Hornets. It is them that made me know my currently favorite team in the world, the New Orleans Saints.

I don't have comments on the NBA's purcahse of the Hornets. I know clearly that this is not the ultimate solution for the competitive team. When every one in the Crescent City is swarming into Superdome to cheer for the Saints and never moving their eyes a little bit farther to the Arena next door where the Hornets play, fans on the other side of the States are thinking about inviting the Hornets to settle down.

I'm thankful for the passion of Seattle's NBA fans. I'm just unable to piece Seattle and Hornets together. It takes time, maybe longer enough for the Hornets to win a championship.

Hope it's not just a dream: if I have enough money, I'll pay everything to help the Hornets stay in New Orleans. Only with one NFL team and one NBA team can a city be called "New Orleans".

I used to love new things. But all the NEW stuff above just broke my heart. I wish there's one day, in the near future, that I can find some NEWs that will help put my heart back together.

NEW YEAR is coming. Let's just hope that is not a year of the above-mentioned NEW.

The gos and gones

First of all, farewell to my New Orleans Hornets this season.

I've got more reasons to be excited about next season, shouldn't I?

I've got a lot to keep me motivated about my Chris Paul and Hornets. 

Am I talking gibberish or not... Or in Chinese, Mars-language...

Back to earth:

When upset is no longer shocking news, the March Madness is showing more madness.

It's a sad story for Kentucky, but it might be a great news for NBA, who is expecting everything from the number-one-draft-to-be kid-John-Wall but his injury before the opening of his rookie season this October/November.

From Sweet Sixteen, to Elite Eight, to Final Four, so many underdogs have come, so many updogs are gone.

Go Duke! Go Michigan St.! Go Butler! Go WV!
So long Kentucky, So long Tennessee. So long Baylor. So long Kansas St.

Two new guys moved me in today's two Elite Eight games: LaceDarius Dunn and the guy who's hot both in game and name: Durrell Summers and his Team Michigan State Spartans!
I love summer! I love Summers even more!!!
I love all the superb names starting with S: Su, Super, Shoot, Spartans and Summer!

If you don't understand my craziness about Summers, you may want to watch today's game featuring Michigan State and Tennessee. If you missed the game replay, hope this and that can help you at least get to know the stellar Summers!

It's Summer time! And it's time to defend for March Madness. To respond NBA snobs, this interesting piece told us that most amaze of NBA originated from NCAA where No.3 Chris Paul (Wake Forest University), No.3 Dwyane Wade (Marquette University), No.3 Brandon Roy (University of Washington), No.4 Chris Webber (University of Michigan), and No.34 Paul Pierce (University of Kansas) were all amazing performers in the March Madness.

Another amazing thing is: their numbers are all about 3 and 4. I love three, I love four more!

Speaking of defense, there are two articles in defense of Google leaving China that I can't wait to share. One is from New York Times and one of my greatest professor at Annenberg, USC, Andrew Lih was interviewed and quoted in the article. The other one is even more thought provoking. It drove me to start realizing that the motive to block all the Western websites is not just out of political censorship, it could be a sugarcoated or pillcoated way to protect the made-in-China websites like Baidu, Tecent. Chinese censorship equals protectionism, meaning Beijing maybe violating its WTO obligations.

Google is not the only word starts with G that has trouble. The golf course, designed by Tiger Woods, is facing trouble as the designer does. Like designer like course.  And the Master's game is coming on April 14 where the troublecoated golfer will make his first appearance after the first affair. (let's hope so)

Picked up a new strategy to break ice with the amazing guys I spot on the basketball court:
-"Excuse me, is your name James?"
-"No, it's ..."
-"Oh, I thought you were LeBron James."
-"Haha..."
-"I'm kidding, just want to say that you're...."
-"#$%%^&^"

March Madness or Upsetness

When all the mad upsets in the March Madness become normal, March Madness should change its name to Upsetness. Kansas is no longer alone, the Jayhawks can walk off the stage hand in hand with Orange, who's ripped off by Butler Bulldogs.

NBA Where AMAZING Happens, where 2010 playoff seeds are easy to predict happens.
NCAA Where UPSET Happens, where nobody's bracket is still intact happens.

The idea of bracket is smart for promoting the games. In the world gradually dominated by the user-generated contents, an interactive bracket is a non-second-choice for the games to attract more followers. My friend Mofee seldom watches basketball, let alone college basketball. But he is deadly fixed on the games this month because, guess what, he joined his classmates in a bracket bet. Hardly had he get over the fact that Kansas's loss had robbed him when the-make-matter-worse Syracuse sent him penniless.

I'm wondering if there's anyone is still pretty decent. Let's follow the "Magic Sticks" LeBronJames and Obamas' brackets.  FYI, magic sticks in Chinese pronounces 神棍, indicating those amazingly accurate predictors.

If I could become an NBA game analyst, commentator, or court-side reporter, I'd like to be the female Chuck Barkley (my first NBA idol when I was in 2nd grade) or Craig Sager for one day, one and only on April 1. Mwa-ha-ha.

LeBron James my imaginary buddy Chris Paul's real buddy, he's never on my Fav 5 list, but he's the first one treated me the way I'm longing for from Chris Paul. LeBron seldom gets my support in terms of team leader, but he gets my hats off the most as a fantastic basketball guy. Born a basketball prodigy, maybe even more talented than the peerless Michael Jordan, there's not a single second when LeBron doesn't show sincere respect to the everyone's idol.  His proposal of retiring the No.23 jersey in the whole league is terrific and touching! His statement of putting aside the easy-peasy scoring champion for the sake of the world champion is bold but not boastful. There are braggadocios all over the world proficient at blatant lies, but when LeBron says something, there's just no reason to not believe.

Quote of the day:
"If I really wanted to be the scoring [champion] every single year---every single year---I could really do it. But it doesn't matter." ---LeBron James.

To get to know LeBron, to refresh my previous opinions about him, the movie "More Than A Game" serves more than a great way. I shared my tears of joy at the beginning and the ending. I have to admit, I don't like Boston Celtics' green, but I do love that on Irish.

Where there's angel, there's demon. The same in NBA.

While LeBron is concentrating on the basketball court, another NBA star is forced to focus on superior court. The best part of the worst news for Gilbert Arenas, no need to go to jail. Go to China, a suggestion from me to Agent Zero. I bet he can outshine Stephon Marbury who just got an MVP award in the all-star game! While of course, the CBA all-star game.

But that's still amazing, isn't it? Since China's international stance is skyrocketing faster and higher than the current Houston Rockets.

Even in the shoes industry is China becoming more competitive spearheaded by Li Ning, who opened the Lining USA store in Porland, the US shoes town where ADIDAS, NIKE, COLUMBIA are dwelling. A even great news is that their first product, Baron Davis BD Tees are sold out and the BD Doom shoes brought a long line outside the store already.

How can I not be proud of my country without regard to the douche government's every douche action?

The more concealed, the more conspicuous

欲盖弥彰. That's the Chinese translation of the proverb in the title. That's for the Chinese government's actions and reactions toward Google.cn's shutting down.

The more the red power is trying to conceal the three Ts that they consider as taboos: Tibet, Tian'anmen Square and Taiwan, the greater curiosity aroused among its people.  There's even an article to testify the fore-mentioned theory.

If all the mainstream news outlets have trending topics like Twitter does, "Google In China" tops the charts unquestionably. Ironically, it's not a trending topic on Twitter, not for a second yet. Check "In The News" section on LATimes.com

Google.cn's gone, but the spirit of an enduring fight for freedom of information searching survives.

Forgive me if I'm talking too much about politics. I am everything but one who gives a hoot about politics.

But I do love the way they are using basketball as a bridge better than political strategies to fill the gap between China and the U.S.

Many Americans would assume that the best ambassador from NBA would be Yao Ming. What's shocking is that to most Chinese fans, Kobe Bryant would be a more ideal candidate.

Yet, the most shocking fact is, believe it or not, Tracy McGrady outpowers Yao and Kobe combined. Evidence? If you missed the heated discussion about the 2010 All-star game Western starters' voting nightmares, especially to Steve Nash/Chris Paul/Deron Williams/..., then you can't miss the latest news that a recent poll on Chinese website Tecent showed that Tracy McGrady's New York Knicks got four times more favoring votes from Chinese fans than the so-called Chinese people's team Houston Rockets before the game between the two.


Speaking of the 2010 NBA All-star, I just stumbled upon an interesting article about the advertising over this year's all-star, thanks to which I got the unbelievable stats: NBA fans are 60 percent male and 40 percent female.With almost half of the NBA lovers women, how come I always felt like I was the only female online, fascinated and crazy about the game.


Another thing that might single me out might be the ones I'm rooting for: Chris Webber and his Sacramento Kings. I loved them the most when the NBA was in a purple and gold era. I hated their fate rival, aka the Lakers, the most when Robert Horry accidentally picked up the rebounded ball and made a even-if-it-was-a-two-point-ball-it-would-not-change-the-result's three point shot. I had always thought that I was an enemy of states since everyone, no matter in the west hemisphere or east, had the blood of purple and gold inside. 

It was not until the end of the Laker's OK era that I realized, everybody hated the Lakers, just the way everyone hates Duke.  Among all the theories talked about as why everyone hates Duke, I found the BIRGing and CORFing one particularly stimulating. Lesson 2: it's a common term in sports marketing and social psychology: Basking In Reflected Glory and Cutting Off Reflected Failure. 


I won't deny that the reason I supported CWEBB at first was in no small part because that made me special. Imagine a world where most people wear the jersey in purple and gold, wouldn't it be cool, unique and eyeballs-attracting to wear a white and purple one that has a crown as a logo instead of a "Lakers"? But that's just the way I picked my favorite team when I had no other options to make a decision.


And the greater plus side is love at first sight lasts long. That's how I became the one and only CWEBB&KINGS female freak in China. Hats off to my loyalty.

Even though I found out that I've got tons of anti-Lakers companions, yet still, there are geeks who are even experts at the celebrities with court-side Lakers' seats, whether Chinese geeks or American geezers.  

My pal Ronan, also a sports freak, but a male sports freak, has an amazing video website about American footballs. He has mania for English Premier Football: the Arsenal soccer team, and our school's football team: USC trojans football. 


As a student in Communication Management, I'd also like to share something from my reading assignments everyday.

Today's quote would be:

Six principles of successful ideas:
Simplicity + Unexpectedness + Concreteness + Credibility + Emotion + Story = SUCCESS

So long google.cn

Google,

So long http://www.google.cn, and within near future, so long http://www.google.com.hk/, if you trust the power of the Chinese government. 

It is a good thing that google.cn quitted mainland China, who above all, had nothing to compete with http://baidu.com, at least not in user numbers. That is also a great lesson for any American companies have had and will have work with China: lesson one, don't toy with the government of the Middle Kingdom unless you want to get swamped into the middle of nowhere. 

It is no big deal for Chinese netizens because no matter how great the Great Fire Wall is, there's always a FreeGate to pass through. Too bad the website that provides the download of FreeGate is blocked in the United States, just the way American movies and TV shows on youku.com and tudou.com are blocked in US.

It is wise for google to redirect users to its HK link. Apart from the users, this could also bring terminators. My sincere blessing for the life of google.com.hk, may you live long and prosperous.

The lesson also applies to major cities in the U.S, say Portland, a city just celebrated Tibet-Awareness-Day. Heartbreaking news for the fans of Trailblazers in China, no more games of Portland televised on CCTV5 any more. 

I hate the way when sports is affected by politics.
I love the way Google fought as a warrior.

Good news is, there is always a silver lining. 

Even though China's central television is trying to televise as many Houston Rockets and New Jersey Nets games as possible to instill the heroic images of Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian in Chinese basketball fans' minds,  the No.1 popular jersey in China's apparel stores belongs to Kobe Bryant. And in terms of teams? The Los Angeles Lakers. 

There is only one power greater than the power of the Chinese government, the Chinese!!!

That's why the 3D version of Avatar has not been pulled off from Chinese screens yet. 

And speaking of 3D, SONY is bringing an all-CGI "Popeye" to the big screen, to pop eyes in 3D. 

Speaking of cartoons in 3D, it suddenly strikes me which sports game will have the best effect if televised in 3D. To me, it's American football, even though I am a die-hard basketball fan. And ESPN already did a good dabble job in broadcasting USC-Ohio St. college football game last year.

Another question, would it be great for the sports video games to be in 3D version? Imagine one day we can play NBA live in 3D? Would that be lots of fun?

Just an hour ago, Nintendo seemed to have heard me, they are officially planning to sell a new portable 3D gaming devise that doesn't require special glasses.