If you could ask Golden State Warriors superstar point guard Baron Davis just two questions under some serious time pressure what would you ask him? If Baron Davis asked you what fans would like to see from athletes on their blogs what would you say?
Well thanks to Pete Vlastelica and Dewey Hammond from Yardbarker and of course my longtime potna in blogging crime Miss Gossip (the artist formerly known as Miss SunsGossip) I got to do just that in a fun, laid-back phone conversation last week. But I of course wasn't only one in this festivity as I was joined by:
- Bethlehem Shoals from Free Darko and FanHouse
- Jamie Mottram from Mr. Irrelevant
- Tas Melas and J.E. Skeets from The Basketball Jones
- Kelly Dwyer from Yahoo! Sports
- And of course GSoM extended fam Jason Gurney from the godfather of sports blogs Ballhype and Guthrie Dolan and Dan Turman from the East Bay's finest Fear the Beard
Some good folks not in attendance, but with us in spirit were:
- GSoM friend Henry Abbot from ESPN True Hoop
- Matt Ufford from With Leather
Sadly because part of the conversation contained a segment where Baron disclosed the as of now unknown way the Mavericks can beat the Warriors in a 7 game playoff series, the audio from this phone chat has been locked away and is unavailable for larger public consumption. If someone can break into Nellie's office... actually don't risk it, I really loved that whole WE BELIEVE and SHOCK THE WORLD thing, so I'll just transcribe it for you.
[Photo courtesy of Hash Photography]
Trust me we get hyphy after the jump with a transcription of my 2 questions, Baron's answers, and Dan and my ideas on how to make his blog even more BOOMing!
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Atma Brother #1: Whassup Baron?
Baron Davis: Okay.
Atma Brother #1: Just wanted to say, so we know you're West Coast- straight Cali. But you're originally from LA and not from the Bay.
Baron Davis: Uh huh.
Even though he's from LA, Baron's still so Bay 'wit it!
Atma Brother #1: Everyone knows the Yay Area OWNS LA in the Hip Hop department.
Baron Davis: Hahaha
Atma Brother #1: So who are your favorite Bay Area Hip Hop artists and do you keep it super duper hyphy hyphy hyphy hyphy?
Baron Davis: Aw naw I don't get too hyphy.
Atma Brother #1: Aw man.
But Baron- that's ma word!
Baron Davis: I mean I love the Bay. Too Short has always been one of my favorite rappers. You know E-40. I grew up watching E-40. And you know right now the only dude I listen to from the Bay is Ya Boy from San Francisco.
E-Feazy + Too Sheazy- and K-Ci!
Atma Brother #1: Okay.
Baron Davis: I think he's the hottest thing going. He's going to be the next Bay Area legend a la E-40 and Too Short, that's going to have a long lasting and successful career to where he's going to be able to have a lot of platinum and gold records.
Atma Brother #1: Are there any Bay Area rap artists you hang with?
Baron Davis: Ya Boy.
Atma Brother #1: All right. So I just wanted to ask you real quick, we see all the highlights of people throwing it down and putting up big points, but we don't always get to see the great defensive plays. So who would you say is the toughest player you've ever had to score on or who's guarded you up one-on-one?
Baron Davis: The toughest dude to score on for me is LeBron James. He's huge. I mean he's like 6'8 and he's quick and he's got long arms. He's probably the toughest dude for me to score against.
Witness the D.
Atma Brother #1: How about anyone in the Pacific Division?
Baron Davis: Ron Artest.
Atma Brother #1: Artest aight.
We Believe Ron Artest wants to bring his D down to the Bay.
(Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)
Baron Davis: Yeah.
Seriously Ron-Ron's a Tru Warier!
Atma Brother #1: Aight man thanks a lot for taking those two questions.
Baron Davis: Thank you.
Atma Brother #1: I'll pass the mic.
[Fast forward about 4 minutes to Baron's segment where he's asking questions about blogging]
Baron Davis: So what are some of the things you would want to see from athletes blogging?
Atma Brother #1: Well you ever watch that Fun Police commercial from awhile back with KG and I forgot who else?
My sincerest apologies to Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning for the letting that one slip.
"CEO's in the cheap seats, fans on the floor"
Baron Davis: Yeah.
Atma Brother #1: Well they're sending the kids down to the lower seats and sending the corporate fans back up to the top like directing them up there.
Baron Davis: Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Yup, THIS one.
Atma Brother #1: So we've been trying to give away some tickets on Golden State of Mind to some people because I mean the price of games is just really expensive. We interviewed Dave Zirin from Welcome to the Terrordome and he was like- ask your biggest hoops junkies, your friends, how many games they've actually been to and it's really surprisingly low. It's sad. So I think it'd be kind of cool if athletes like yourself, you know hooked up the common folk, the real hardcore hoops junkies with some tickets- you know whatever.
Dan Turman (Fear the Beard): Or just get out into the community. You know you killed it with the McDonald's spot last year.
Baron Davis: Yeah!
Dan Turman (Fear the Beard): That was tremendous.
It sure was tremendous.
But keeping it real- I used to work at Taco Bell and I can tell you Baron would get fired for this!
Atma Brother #1: Yeah I mean blogging contests, like throwing in some tickets in the Happy Meals! Haha
Man WHAT IF the prizes in Happy Meals were Warriors tickets?
You can Super Size me anytime!
Baron Davis: Hahaha
Atma Brother #1: Yeah something like that.
Dan Turman (Fear the Beard): I mean it has to be kind of strange for you in your life to be just walking the streets and you know collecting data on humanity also because people are reacting a certain way. And that's one of the things that we like to trip off. It's just seeing how much different life can be you know what I mean?
Baron Davis: Yeah absolutely. I dig. I can dig it. I can dig it.
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I want to highly recommend heading on over to check out our friends Daniel Turman and Guthrie Dolin's recap and analysis of the interview as well: Fear the Beard debate topic: ‘hood loyalty versus personal responsibility part II, Baron Davis interview edition. [Fear the Beard]
Thanks again to Pete, Dewey, and AlanaG for treating me so golden and rest of the good people on the conversation who made it so lively. And course special thanks to Baron for taking time out of his incredibly busy schedule to talk shop. I really appreciate it. I think it speaks volumes about Baron's character and personality that he would take the time to take our questions in such a laid-back venue and genuinely care about what fans would like to see in his blog. Also shout out to my cognitive ethnography classes from back in the day for giving me the skills to transcribe like a fiend.
And apologies to my main man Hash. I was supposed to tell Baron we'd come up with another cool nickname for him at GSoM if he was up for it on Hash's behalf, but it just slipped my mind. Oooops.
Baron- the offer's still on the table if you're interested. If you want some new nicknames you know we keep it unstoppable baby 'round these parts!
Make sure to check out Baron's blog on Yardbarker on the regular.