Who is Farhan Lalji?

Officially: Baron Davis “Framed” by Emmanuelle Chriqui
Actress Emmanuelle Chriqui (HBO’s Entourage) directs a short film starring Golden State Warriors’ star Baron Davis. Novice director Chriqui sets her sights high by using some challenging filmmaking techniques while coaching Davis through the process of getting into character for her first film.

Unofficially, this series of videos with actors/singers and atheletes is pretty funny. This is B Diddy in short shorts while Cool it Now by New Edition plays in the back (facebook readers you might need to view the original post on the blog). In a word hilarious.

Great story on Azcentral.com about Shaq dedicating a reading centre to a Boys and Girls club.

Shaq has to be one of my favourite athletes! The guy went back to school, got an MBA and is - according to the video - now working on his doctorate. More young men and athletes should take Shaq’s example.

Donnie Walsh is the new president of the New York Knicks. Hallelujah. Finally. For the past two years I’ve had a draft blog post saying that until Isiah Thomas was history I wasn’t going to be able to say “I’m a Knicks fan” with a straight face. We’re half way there.

I like Walsh, think he did good things with Indiana over the past 25 years – till he brought in Larry Legend and then things kind of went downhill. Still, it’s an upgrade over Isiah who basically took a sinking ship and made it sink a heckofalot faster.

It’s turnaround strategy time. How should Walsh turn the ship around?

This is a tough one. If I was Walsh, I would do 4 things, change the leadership, clean the house out, find and promote the talent, and improve relationships.

Changing leadership; I would fire Isiah, take the GM role for a while and bring Herb Williams in an interim head coach role ASAP. Bring in strong leadership at the top, Herb isn’t the long term guy but he shows promise and has the players respect. Let Herb have a go next season if he succeeds it turns out like the Raptors and Mitchell, if he fails he’s likely not to fail as dramatically as Isiah.

Clean the house out; buy out Steph Marbury, trade Eddy curry for a bag of peanuts to whoever will take him, get rid of Zach Randolph, and stop and breathe. Try and clean up some significant cap room so when players like Lebron, CB4, Wade, Melo come on the market in a couple of years the Knicks are an attractive situation.

Find and promote the talent, the Knicks have some good players, some good personnel, Nate Robinson and Crawford are decent, I would package one or both of them if it gets Curry/Randolph out the door, otherwise no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Renaldo Balkman, David Lee, and their draft pick, plus Nate - if he keeps him – are a decent foundation. Add to it a strong pick in the draft – again if he keeps it – and we have a decent core with the Knicks.

Improving relationships; keep it authentic. Be real, be true, speak to the other GMs in the league and let them know there will be no more sucker trades, but the Knicks have got some assets and some needs.

This is a sweet situation, there’s absolutely no worse it could get. Walsh has a chance to be the King of NY. Or could it get worse? F***, I hope not.

Just finishing Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Fooled by Randomness and just finishing the NCAA basketball tournament. What do these two events have in common? Well in it Taleb discusses how we rely on past performance too much, how survivor and hindsight biases effect our decisions and the value we place on things.

I filled out two tournament brackets and with the knowledge that never before have more then two number 1 seeds made the final four. The phrase “Never before have more then two number 1 seeds made the final four” played over and over again in my mind as I filled out my brackets.

Imagine my dismay as I watched Kansas beat Davidson last night to ensure that four number 1 seeds were in the final four.

My life is filled with semi-randomness at the moment. The book made for timely reading indeed.

Jeremy Shockey got hurt, Tiki Barber retired and the New York Giants won the Superbowl. Thierry Henry left Arsenal and they’re having a monster season. A few years ago the Toronto Raptors traded Vince Carter to the New Jersey Nets, the Raptors have gotten better and better, the Nets worse and worse. What does all this mean? It means that getting rid of ego-centric star players can help teams build a sense of team and focus on winning games rather then on the mechanics of the game.

Eli Manning, Cesc Fabregas and Chris Bosh all benefited from the fact that the “star” player on the team was gone. The focus had moved from “getting the ball”, “scoring baskets” or goals, to winning through a system.

Some general managers and coaches really understand the fact that a team needs time to form a team culture. Others, like Isiah Thomas, think having a lot of stars on a team will help a team win.

I think this system/strategy would work in business as well. At all levels, when you’re struggling you have people inside who are used to doing things their way. Who are used to being given responsibilities and leadership and this is seen as a badge rather then a sense of team, a sense of playing to win.

So when I see teams or companies that are winning the common element seems to be everyone wants to win. The focus is not on who does what, the focus is on what does it take to win.

News from the blogosphere hit one of my favourite tv shows today, ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption – I say TV show, but I listen to the podcast here in the UK. The news was that Greg Oden(GO), a basketball center with the Portland Trailblazers, had publicly endorsed Barak Obama on his blog. The post was followed by over 170 comments (mostly positive) and a bunch of other blog posts like this (mixed results).

Both hosts from PTI were giving GO dap – i.e. credit –for taking a political stance and being vocal about his political leaning. I was born during the later stage of a time when many athletes were thought leaders, to a certain extent, in the US. On PTI Michael Wilbon rattled off the names Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali, and basketball players like Bill Russell, Bill Walton and Bill Bradley (who’s now in politics, not just talking politics in the locker room) who were all vocal about their political beliefs. Before these athletes there was Jackie Robinson, the black power salute at the Olympic Games, and other acts of politics and sport mixing. Whether you agreed or disagreed with these athletes you had to respect their strength in character to discuss their views. Some, like Ali, even suffering financially and reputationally (yes I know it’s not a word, don’t care) because of their views.

Today, I can only think of one other athlete, the Canadian 2 - time MVP of the NBA - Steve Nash, who also has made his political views known on occasion and has suffered some backlash for some of his views.

Personally, I think there’s too much money in endorsements for professional athletes today, and an athlete today can suffer significant financial set backs by saying the wrong thing or upsetting the wrong person. Being like Mike meant drinking Gatorade, wearing Air Jordans and buying into Brand Jordan not believing in some of the things that Mike believed in. Being like Tiger means wearing an expensive watch or investing a mutual fund or whatever else Tiger’s associated with. I’d love to see GO’s stance to be seen as a new trendsetter, one of athletes speaking their minds.

Maybe I’m a little partial to this as I’m reading Obama’s Dreams of my Father right now and I like the fact that he comes from a diverse background, something I can really relate to. Not to mention that I think he could do a whole heap of good for America’s reputation across the world and… well this wasn’t meant to be a political post so I’ll stop there. Maybe I’d feel differently if GO had endorsed McCain or Clinton on his blog. Don’t know, can’t say. But I like it in this case.

As someone who studied sport, who works in technology and has a passion for entrepreneurship, I love it when the three meet. So when Don Dodge wrote a post about the Giants, Pats, Mavs, Larry Bird, and other sporting teams and heroes and the lessons for entrepreneurs through sport I enjoyed reading every word.

The New York Knicks basketball team and the English football side are both sporting disasters. New York has one of the highest payrolls in the league and finds themselves last in the weakest division in basketball. England is full of superstar players and personalities, but just paid their ex-coach 2.5 million pounds to bugger off.

The Knicks – a team I’ve supported since 84, when I got a Knicks hat as a kid, to 99 when Toronto was given an NBA franchise – really stink. So does England. Both teams are struggling having implemented the same strategy. Load up on big name stars and talent will win. What both need is to build a consistent, cohesive, supporting team.

Isiah Thomas has gone out and signed or traded for every big name he could sign for and he’s got a team that on paper could beat a lot of other teams on a position by position basis. The England squad have the same strong line up in comparison to other nations. And yet both teams lose, badly, to teams they supposedly should beat.

The problem is neither of these teams is actually a team. They’re both a bunch of individual players. Not a team. Both teams are full of guys who play one way and can’t adjust to playing with the other players they’re on the court/pitch with. And so both lose, badly, to teams they should beat.

Here’s my solution. Blow them both up. Starting from the Head of the FA and the President of the Knicks. Get rid of both managers – at least England has already done this, I give Zeke till the end of the year. And then figure out what kind of teams you want to model the squads after and get players who fit the mold, play that style and want to win. Look at teams like San Antonio, Detroit, Dallas in the NBA and squads like Italy, France (when they were winning everything) and figure out systems that work. Then go out and stick to a playing strategy and play that strategy.

The problem is it’s easier to say this is what you should do and it’s harder to actually do it and finding the right guys to do it is almost impossible. England is talking about a bunch of guys who have never managed an international side! NYK is looking at peple like Chris Mullin, who haven’t won jack!

This is especially difficult when there’s so much money involved and most of the decision makers are more focused on the bottom line then they are on winning. The only people who seem to really care are paying for their seats to watch these sad states of teams play. And that’s a real shame.

All of this makes me wonder if the guys behind myfootballclub.com, where supporters get together and buy a team, had the right idea. The fans and their community probably would do a much better job then the guys with the suits!

The wife and I often get into a heated debate about how to solve the world’s problems.

One such problem is war and violence.  My take is that things like sport and business play a vital part in progress, and that politicking and government intervention isn’t enough.

I was reminded about this as I read a posting on nba.com that talked about the Seeds of Peace basketball clinic.  The clinic invites kids from Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan and America to learn more about the game and play the game together.  By cooperating on the basketball court kids have to learn more about each other and hopefully form a bond.  The theory behind camps like this is that when these kids grow up they’ll take these experiences and be less likely to resort to violence against other cultures.

But waiting for kids to grow up can take time that we don’t really have.  So companies like New Generation Technology can also provide a helping hand to peace through enterprise.  Getting Israeli money to flow into Palestine links the two regions and, hopefully, means that by destroying one another they actually destroy themselves.  I love this idea.  And it seems like Sir Ronald Cohen is catching the invest in peace fever as well.

I totally think there is a place for governments and peace discussions and whatever else Tony Blair et al are trying to do; I just think roadmaps and peace plans work politically but enterprise and sport actually can work socially.

I’m a huge, huge, huge sports fan and haven’t had an opportunity to write a great deal about sports on this blog… yet.  After hearing that Darko had agreed to terms with Memphis I thought it was time to look ahead at the coming NBA season.

Big free agent signings were not really a factor this season, with Billups, Rashard Lewis, Wince Carter, Grant Hill and other big names out off the market and with trade talk dying down a bit, I think it’s a good time to make some predictions.

I’ve got the Suns, Spurs and Mavs having the best three records in the West, think this is the year that the Suns pull past the Spurs.  Make that a promise if they get a deal for KG done before the end of the year, Amare, KG, Grant Hill and Nash on the floor at the same time would be a phenomenal combination!

I think Utah and Houston will round out the top five in the west.  But after that it gets interesting.  Golden State’s Belinelli is getting a lot of good pub, but I can’t see the Warriors making the playoffs again – think they got lucky last year.  The LA Lakers soap opera with Kobe seems to be going on forever and I can’t see the Lakers making a repeat appearance in the playoffs either.  Think Sacramento has way too many issues that even if they get rid of Ron Artest they’re a couple of seasons away from a playoff spot.  And I’m not sure the Clippers have done enough to turn the corner – if they sign Francis I think they’re done, the guy will never, ever, ever be a winner.  Whiner maybe, but winner, can’t see it.  I like what Seattle’s doing, but think they’re a good two or three years away.  And although Darko and a healthy Gasol might work, I can’t see Memphis really doing too much damage.  And I’m not even going to touch Minnesota.

So my crystal ball has Denver, New Orleans and … believe it or not … Portland squeezing in.  Aldridge, Frye and Oden is a great young but good front court, and with Brandon Roy, Jarrett Jack and Sergio Rodriguez all with another year of experience under their belt I really do believe the Blazers can make the playoffs.  And although the losses of Randolph, Magloire, and Dickau might hurt, think the team could really surprise people.  Nate McMillan has got to be rubbing his hands with glee and really looking forward to the upcoming season.

There’s still a couple of things that could happen to shift the power balance a bit – with Mo Pete perhaps signing in Utah or New Orleans or the Lakers getting KG or moving Kobe.  But my breakdown will stick to:

• The elite –Suns, Mavs and Spurs
• The solid – Utah and Houston
• The good but not great – Denver, New Orleans and Portland
• The on their way up – Seattle, Golden State and Memphis
• The sinking fast –LA Clippers and Lakers, Sacremento and Minnesota

The East is a lot more unsettled, but I’ll save a separate post for that.