Last week, when we discovered Old Spice’s amazing video game, Dikembe Mutombo’s 4 ½ Weeks to Save the World, and once I was done playing it for 72 hours (catch the damn ballots, you morons!) I slipped into one of my very common NBA nostalgia wormholes. And what started out as a search for Mutombo finger wag GIFs actually turned into me revisiting Manute Bol’s career and subsequent extracurricular activities.

Of course, Bol passed away in 2010 due to kidney failure and a rare skin disease, but his legacy has lived on through the Ring True Foundation, which was Bol’s most important effort in aiding the people of his native Sudan. Unfortunately, as I looked through a number of pictures, videos and articles about Bol’s life, I was disappointed by the overwhelming use of the words “side show” and, even worse, “freak show” to describe the way that some people exploited his height.

What a lot of people either don’t remember – or just choose to ignore – is that Bol traded this perceived nnotion of exploitation to support his foundation. So even when he was “shamefully” boxing William Perry or hanging out with jockeys and riding horses, Bol was doing his part to make the lives of others that much better. After all, the cause may not matter in the long run to a lot of people, but George Clooney thought it was enough to get arrested over, so hopefully Bol has been bragging to St. Peter and the boys about that.

This isn’t news, but I thought it might be fun to remember Manute Bol, not as a sideshow but more of the main event. Big shoes, son of Manute. Seriously, huge shoes.

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With the table now set for the NBA Finals, as the Miami Heat will take on the Oklahoma City Thunder starting tomorrow night at 9 PM, I wanted to address a very important topic before we get all analytical on your asses. People have been talking and complaining about the rapidly-spreading fad of NBA players wearing “nerd glasses”, with the most notable attention directed at Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. For some reason, the fact that Wade even wore glasses without lenses has been something that should be talked about.

Fine. Let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about how this fad isn’t anything new. NBA players have always been notorious trendsetters, starting with their eyewear. It goes back to the very first days of the NBA, as star players like Joe Dribbleguy and Kevin Bouncepass were generating buzz with their own ridiculous glasses.

After the jump, I’ve put together a gallery of the NBA’s biggest legends all wearing their own unique eyewear, on and off the court. And if these players are guilty of anything, it’s wearing glasses that apparently don’t have arms. I mean, what’s up with that?

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(Grover is Bosh.)

One of my professional goals is to make an appearance on Sesame Street and teach Grover the difference between two obvious things he should’ve organically learned about at some point over the last forty years. Sadly there isn’t a lot of room for bloggers on children’s programming (“hey kids, this is the difference between CREDITING your source and claiming you ARE the source, even if you just typed ‘cheerleaders’ into Flickr!” etc.), so here’s a clip of New York Knicks Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire living that dream for me.

Watch as they teach Grover what it is to “compare”. Carmelo can shoot the ball into the basket. Amar’e can shoot the ball into the basket. Grover can shoot the ball… way below the basket. They should’ve had Patrick Ewing walk on and say, “I can also shoot the ball way below the basket”.

I feel like he should’ve just transformed into Super Grover and started traveling all over the place. Super Grover is too popular for traveling calls.

They should bring on Stephon Marbury and have him call Elmo a sellout for doing the “Elmo’s World” segment instead of talking to kids on the street.

[h/t Sportress of Blogitude]

Cast photo from Roots: The 9th Generation

Adrian Dantley, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, Pat Riley, Cathy Rush, and (ugh) Dick Vitale were all inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend.  Unfortunately, Ewing had to leave early for his induction into the Corporate Picnic Hall of Fame.  Those linen shorts aren’t going to rock themselves, you know.

(thanks to flubby)