TNT’s Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith shares with Scoop B Radio what it was like to sit on the bench during Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals concurrently with the O.J. Simpson Ford Bronco chase. Photo Credit: Gen X Misfits

It seemed like a zillion years ago. A 90-minute slow car speed chase with O.J. Simpson and his friend, Al Cowlings stopped everybody’s flow on a Friday night watching the NBA on NBC’s game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and the New York Knicks.

Craziest part of it all?

While the Rockets’ Hakeem Olajuwon led all scorers with 27 points and 8 rebounds in game 5  against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, his Rockets teammates were keenly aware of the chase. Apparenty, during timeouts, players were watching the Ford Bronco/LAPD chase on television’s sitting on the scorer’s table. “I go in the huddle, I’m like, “O.J.’s on the run,” TNT’s Inside The NBA analyst Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith told me.

Check out Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith’s recount of Game 5 of the 1995 NBA Finals with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson on Scoop B Radio

USA – 1994: Kenny Smith #30 of the Houston Rockets dribbles up court during a 1994 NBA game. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1994 NBAE (Photo by Andy Hayt/NBAE via Getty Images)

Smith was a member of the Rockets and recalls vividly how it all went down.

Head coach Rudy Tomjanovich comes into the huddle and yells: “What are you guys doing?”

“O.J.’s on the run,” Smith yelled back.

“What are you doing? We’re in the middle of the NBA Finals,” retorts Coach Tomjanovich.

According to Smith, Tomjanovich drew up a play and as players were walking back on the court after the timeout, Tomjanovich pulls Smith to the side and asks: “Is he really on the run?” 

“So that’s how we found out about it,” said Smith. “It was like what the hell is on? This guy is running!  Like no one ever did that.”

A Lefrak City, Queens native, it was a shock for Smith to see a an active police chace on the Los Angeles Freeway”It was going on in California, I live there now. I didn’t know about the slow speed chase; they do that all the time. In New York, they’re gonna shoot your car. So I’m like: ‘are they gonna shoot the car down?’ ‘Are they going to shoot the tires out?’“

Simpson would eventually surrender to the LAPD and would be taken into custody.

The Knicks and Rockets dueling it out on the court in the ’94 Finals was way before today’s current social media era, which means you had a better chance of undivided attention then.

But now? Forget about it!

“It definetely was a distraction,” Smith said.

Rightly so. The Knicks ended up edging the Rockets out in game 5 91-84. No worries, the Rockets won the series and were crowned 1994 NBA Finals champs. They’d win another the following year against the Orlando Magic.

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The post Scoop B: TNT’s Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith Recounts O.J. Simpson Chase During Game 5 of 1994 NBA Finals appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Jesse Ventura and Donald Trump. Photo Courtesy of: Politico

Jesse Ventura has always told it like it is and did it his way in the ring and in politics.

In the ring, Ventura had classic feuds with former WWE Champion Bob Backlund. He also was the man in the ring with Adrian Adonis, as he and “The Body” made up The East-West Connection.

On the microphone as a commentator in wrestling, he was Charles Barkley before he took over “Inside The NBA” with Ernie Johnson, Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith and Shaquille O’Neal on TNT!

 He kicked butt working alongside Gorilla Monsoon and Vince McMahon as a broadcaster.

Think I’m lying? See for yourself!

As a politician, or a statesman as he calls himself, he was the mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minneapolis before becoming the governor of Minneapolis in 1998.

Post political career, Ventura has been a political watchdog. In his book, DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans: No More Gangs in Government, Ventura states that ‘both parties are street gangs warring with each other for power over the country and the American people.’

On Scoop B Radio Overtime, Ventura addressed regulation in how much time politicians should spend in office. “Well you know you look at it this way, we have term limits on the President,” Ventura told me.

Check Out Jesse Ventura and Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson on Scoop B Radio

“You know the President can only serve two four year terms that’s it, you know but then again it comes back to us. When you strip everything away from it all it comes back to us. We can implement term limits, vote him out of office.”

Ventura continued:

“We have the ability to do that so ultimately all problems in this country could be resolved by the people but the problem is the people aren’t vigilant, and the people aren’t paying attention, and also I found this out you know people tell you that they wanna hear the truth and all that and this and that I don’t believe they really do and I’ll tell you why. I don’t think people like the truth because many times the truth takes them out of their comfort zone, and people do not like to be taken out of their comfort zone and the truth can do that, when you learn the truth like a lot of the things our country does internationally, then you learn about it we don’t look so good but you notice that we never come back, that’s one thing I notice about this country, we never admit to a mistake.”

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Former Houston Rockets forward Robert Horry. Photo Credit: AL.com

Robert Horry, Paul Pierce, Stephen Jackson and Rachel Nichols discussed Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith’s notion that the 1994-1995 Houston Rockets would beat the Chicago Bulls had Michael Jordan not retired.

Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith originally stated this in an interview with RESPECT Magazine’s managing editor, Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson on Scoop B Radio Overtime.

The post [VIDEO] Robert Horry Agrees With Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith’s Belief That Rockets Would Beat Bulls In ’94 appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

While the basketball world reacted to Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith’s belief that the ’94 Houston Rockets would defeat the Bulls (H/T Dime/Uproxx’s Oliver Maroney) had Michael Jordan not retired and Scottie Pippen’s response to it, there was something lost in the traslation: The Jet admired the 90’s Orlando Magic. 

That Magic team was special: Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway, Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott were young, tough and one of the Eastern Conference’s biggest threats not named the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls.

Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith thinks so too! Smith, who suited up against the Orlando Magic in the 1995 Finals as a member of the Rockets saw potential in that young team.

“You know, anytime you have a guard and a big man it’s the perfect balance,”  he told me on Scoop B Radio.

“They had the perfect balance and you had Penny who was so versatile that he could play inside, outside,” said Smith.  “And you had Shaq with everything that he’s done and being so young. That was the dynasty missed; dynasty missed by the Orlando Magic, for sure.”

After a brief run with the Magic, Shaq realized his worth and signed a mega contract via free agency with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was the center of the future and he, Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson would rule the NBA and the Western Conference in the early 2000s.

Check out the interview with Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith and Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson below (the chat about the Orlando Magic begins at the 5:22 mark). 

O’Neal ended up with the better career, winning multiple rings with the Lakers and then with the Miami Heat. Hardaway wasn’t as lucky. After O’Neal’s departure, he’d be the team’s lone star, but struggled with a devastating injury that cut short his promising career. After his time with the Magic, he’d bounce around the league playing for the Phoenix Suns, New York Knicks and Miami Heat before retiring in 2007.

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TNT’s Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith chats with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson about everything on Scoop B Radio. Photo Credit: Angie Vasquez

TNT’s Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith has one of the coolest jobs in the world. He talks about probably one of his favorite topics in the world: basketball.

The NBA veteran and two-time NBA champion as a member of the Houston Rockets teams with Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley and gives his expert analysis on all 30 NBA teams and more. On Scoop B Radio Overtime, the Jet and I talked about a range of topics including his North Carolina teamate, Michael Jordan and even his taste in fashion.

Yo Jet, tell me about those suits! You’ve been pretty dapper throughout the playoffs! 

“Well for me my sister had been in fashion for a long time,” he told me. “She was a buyer for Nordstrom, she was a buyer for a lot of stores, Macy’s, and men’s department stores all kinds of things. She always would tell me how: ‘oh you can’t wear that color with this, you gotta wear darks on the outside.‘ She would tell me these things and it would go in one ear and right out the other until I got older I would shop like that and then she would be like: “oh you were listening? So I gotta credit my sister and my dad for that style sense.

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Basketball Hall of Famer and TNT’s Charles Barkley chats with RESPECT Magazine’s Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson on Scoop B Radio Overtime. Photo Credit: Angie Vasquez / Scoop Vision Media

Over the last week, we’ve seen two instances where journalists, TV watchers, radio listeners and folks who read articles can get a quote from a notable figure and misinterpret it. For print and multimedia journalists: we get the spicy headlines, report what we saw and go about our day. But in cases where you’ve got unorthodox figures who are either very direct, don’t care or you have to know them to love them, what you see on tv cannot be easily translated to print.

The first instance came this past Friday when New York Knicks team president, Phil Jackson suggested that Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks might be better off going their separate ways. 

The Knicks did finish their season with a 31-51 record. New York has endured their fourth straight season out of the playoffs.

“We have not been able to win with him on the court at this time and I think the direction with our team is that he is a player that would be better off somewhere else and using his talent somewhere he can win or chase that championship,” Jackson said Friday.

New Yorkers, Knicks fans and NBA fanatics were ticked! 

Honestly, reading the quote vs. seeing Jackson on television discussing Anthony seemed entirely different. It was reminiscent of the perception that viewers had in watching vs. listening to the 1960 Presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

Radio listeners thought Nixon won the debate. Television watchers thought Kennedy won the debate! Seeing and hearing are truly interesting things!

Back in basketball land, Jackson recently inked a two-year extension with the New York Knicks to remain their team President. Anthony, 32, has one year left on his current deal, with his no-trade clause still in effect. Many believe Anthony will wave his no-trade clause with top teams like the Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat and the Portland Trail Blazers as likely suitors for the small forward’s services.

Tuesday night on TNT’s Inside The NBA, Barkley replied to the criticism, stating:  

“I want to address something that really bothered me,” Barkley said. “I heard that all these nitwits, fools, idiots were complaining what I was saying about Isaiah Thomas the other night making me uncomfortable. Number one, I don’t care what y’all think. I don’t care what your mom and daddy think either, just for the record. But to insinuate what I was trying to — what I was saying, I’m uncomfortable talking about his pain and then going to basketball. For all you nitwits, scumbags, idiots, punks, to try to make that a story because y’all don’t have ratings and use my name to draw ratings, don’t do that. You don’t have any talent, it’s the simple fact, you don’t have any talent. Let me be me.

“I’ve talked to Isaiah. He didn’t take any offense to that. What I was talking about, I wish him and his family nothing but the best. For you punks to try to make a big deal out of it, it just pisses me off.”

Charles Barkley, just like Phil Jackson, speaks his mind in a candor that is more suitable for a family cookout. You know that one uncle who says whatever he wants to say however he wants to say it, whenever he wants to say it? We all have those in our family. Barkley reminds me a lot of my grandmother; she’s kind, loving, opinionated and some would say that she doesn’t give a damn and she’ll tell you why. Barkley is the same way.

“It took me a while to realize that I couldn’t make everybody happy,” Barkley told me in a recent interview on Scoop B Radio. “I think I was 24 or 25 when I took over the Sixers team and I wanted everybody to like me and then I realized: ‘I can’t make everybody happy.’ No matter what you say, you can’t make everybody happy. I feel an obligation to try and be honest. That was difficult for me in the beginning.”

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Barkley meant no mal-intent, but if you have a question; darnit, he has an answer. If he’s wrong, he surely corrects himself. I was reminded of that, in a recent interview with Sir Charles on Scoop B Radio Overtime, where he, just like many Americans, amitted that he was wrong in assuming that Hillary Rodham Clinton would win the 2016 Presidential Election.

Appearing on Scoop B Radio Overtime, Barkley broke it down.

“We were dead wrong, said Barkley on Scoop B Radio Overtime. “You know what? I look at it like this: we didn’t win, it was difficult I was probably in a funk for a week, but you know what? I’m gonna try to do everything in my power to support the President because he’s the President of The United States.”

Charles Barkley Talks Trump, NBA TV Theme Songs and Michael Jordan On Scoop B Radio Overtime 

“I mean we got to get behind him, he’s done some things already that I don’t like, I’m against the Muslim ban, I’m against the immigration deportation, he’s got to stop trying to paint everybody with a broad brush. I mean It’s just wrong, most of these Muslim people here are amazing, hard-working people same thing with these illegal immigrants, they’re here, they’re hard working people. I think most people don’t want gangsters here, people don’t want terrorists here we all understand that, but people have to be able to be treated with respect and dignity.”

The cast of TNT’s Inside The NBA live in our living rooms.

They’re like family. Families have disagreements, families shoot straight from the hip and family apologies when they’re wrong. Phil Jackson has been wrong on a number of fronts throughout the season. Jackson is seemingly out of touch with today’s NBA in calling the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and his friends a ‘posse.’ and as an employer he’s publicly bashed his employee, Carmelo Anthony.

Jackson hasn’t admitted any wrongdoing. But Barkley has!

Where do we go from here?

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Last week, our nation elected a new president in Donald Trump. It also put to rest a year long media produced fascination that will continue forever and ever amen! With the race over it feels like the end of Christmas where it’s time to put the lights back in the attic and take the tree outside for the garbage truck to pick it up.

Yet, there’s a lot to de-clutter and plethora of pine needles to be vacuumed. Anything with Hillary Rodham-Clinton and Donald J. Trump’s name next to it was must see TV and viral ready for internet users consuming content like a Pacman arcade game.

Wikileaks, tax returns, locker room talk, ‘bad hombres’ and ‘grabbing women by the ‘pu**y’ are lexicons forever aligned into the minds of both young and old.

America’s fascination with the 2016 Presidential election campaign is reminiscent of the O.J. Simpson case. Although two human beings were murdered in a trial that Simpson was acquitted for, issues of race, wealth, conflict, slander, larger than life personalities and a nation divided on who was right and who was wrong were similar themes in the 2016 Presidential Race.

How the heck do we explain this to our kids?

“People don’t know what to do at this point,” New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony told ESPN’s Ian Begley and Adry Torres. “So I think it’s up to us as individuals to kind of just take that responsibility and lead, everybody got to lead in their own way. We can’t rely on a system or one person. We got to move on from that.”

The entry point for the O.J. Simpson case began June 17, 1994 on Los Angeles’ 405 freeway. A 90-minute slow car speed chase with Simpson and his friend, Al Cowlings stopped everybody’s flow on a Friday night watching the NBA on NBC’s game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and the New York Knicks.

Craziest part of it all?

While the Rockets’ Hakeem Olajuwon led all scorers with 27 points and 8 rebounds in an eventual 91-84 game 5 loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, his Rockets teammates were keenly aware of the chase. Apparenty, during timeouts, players were watching the Ford Bronco/LAPD chase on television’s sitting on the scorer’s table. “I go in the huddle, I’m like, “O.J.’s on the run,” TNT’s Inside The NBA analyst Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith told me.

Smith was a member of the Rockets at the time and recalls vividly how it all went down.

Head coach Rudy Tomjanovich comes into the huddle and yells: “What are you guys doing?”

“O.J.’s on the run,” Smith yelled.

“What are you doing? We’re in the middle of the NBA Finals,” Tomjanovic yelled back.

According to Smith, Tomjanovic drew up a play and as players were walking back on the court after the timeout, Tomjanovic pulls Smith to the side and asks, “Is he really on the run?”

“Where I’m from, when you run, you did it,” said Smith. “When you first hear it, you’re like, ‘why would he do it?’ It’s O.J. Simpson. In your mind you’re thinking, he’s got so many things to lose.”

Simpson’s defense attorney F. Lee Bailey predicted that his client would be found not guilty, to the chagrin of many. “I forecasted to anyone who would listen,” Bailey told me in an interview this summer. “And many of them snickered at me, but sure enough when the verdict came in they are not the kind of people that would say I was wrong, they said the jury was wrong, they were racist. They were prejudice. It was a sad display of American culture trying to defend its wrongheadedness.”

Fast forward to 2016, these same conversations are still going on, just now in an America that’s allegedly post-racial. “I don’t think there is any room to not face the obvious truth,” Golden State Warriors forward David West said last week. “[Donald Trump] speaks for the majority of the people in this nation. His attitudes about black people, about Muslim people, about women, about just about every sort of political group you could name, folks agree with his positions and you can’t deny that because folks voted for him.”

“This whole fairy tale about some post racial, post, this utopia that Obama supposedly created is all bull,” he added. “That’s the bottom line when you look at what the results say from last night this nation has not moved a thread in terms of its ideals.”

Clinton and Trump can’t undo the mudslinging and cattiness brought to debates and through media sound bites during their campaign. What’s done is done. However, conversation is at least a starting point. Last week, President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump met at the White House as the two held a transfer of political power meeting. Their wives also toured the White House. For years, Trump claimed that Obama was an immigrant, did not have a legal birth certificate and was the founder of ISIS and throughout Obama’s campaigning for Hillary Clinton, Obama expressed Trumps lack of adequacy in running a country.

In WWE fashion, the two turned-heel. President Obama expressed unity. “My number 1 priority in the next two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our President-elect is successful,” Obama said.

Trump called Obama a “very good man” and stated that he would seek President Obama’s counsel in the future.

Where do we go from here?

A good start is comic relief while telling some truths. Dave Chappelle took care of that on SNL on Saturday. USA Today put it best when they said: After the electoral college answered the call to “Make America Great Again,” the country was hard pressed to find anyone willing or able to make America laugh again. Comedian Dave Chappelle hosted SNL to do just that.

The next four years in this country will be interesting. The always thoughtful and poised Ernie Johnson from TNT’s Inside The NBA threaded the needle like Magic Johnson in his prime when he expressed his displeasure with both presidential candidates. Johnson noted that he wrote in his vote for the first time in his voting history and expressed that he was optimistic. “I just hope he’s all in fixing the wounds in this country and the divides that separate this country,” he said.

“And I want to be part of that too. And for me to part of it, I have to look in the mirror and say, ‘How am I going to be a better man? How am I going to be a better neighbor? How am I going to be a better citizen? How am I going to be a better American? How can I be a fountain and not a drain?’”

Brandon Robinson is a sports and entertainment writer and TV personality. Follow him on Twitter @SCOOPB and visit http://ScoopBRadio.com

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