Bill Raftery and Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson. Photo Credit: Ismail “Calligrafist” Sayeed/Calligrafist Photography

Bill Raftery checks in with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson’s Scoop B Radio. Press Play Below To Listen!

Bill Raftery has done it all, bar none!

On the television side, Raftery, a two-time Emmy Award-winning analyst has a broadcast career that spans over 30 years.

He’s literally created his own dictionary with catchphrases like “onions” and “the kiss” regularly at his disposal as a mainstay at CBS and ESPN during the NCAA Tournament, Final Four, Big East Championship, Big Ten Championship, ACC Championship, and SEC Championship.

A head coach at Seton Hall University from 1970-81, he guided the SHU Pirates to a 154-141 record.

During his collegiate playing career at La Salle University in Philadelphia from 1960-63, Raf was also a pretty decent basketball player. He averaged 17.8 points in his sophomore season and co-captained the team to the NIT in his season season.

Raftery was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame last month. I first got to know him during my childhood Nets days when he and Ian Eagle were a tag team tandem broadcasting New Jersey Nets games on Sports Channel and Fox Sports New York.

They were great together!

I’ll never forget being on deadline and having to turn in a feature on him by noon during my freshman year of high school at Seton Hall Prep. Raf broadcasted a Net game the night before and told me to call him at 7:00 AM the next morning to do an interview.

That’s kinda early.

Should I or shouldn’t I?

I did.

The phone rings, his wife answers and she hands the phone to her husband who is wide the heck awake!

Gracious as ever, he knocked the interview out of the park in the early AM!

“You have a good memory,” Bill Raftery recounted in a recent interview. “I do remember that happening though, because at that point Prep had moved off campus.”

Added Raftery:

“But we loved Prep when it was on the campus because there was just a wholesome atmosphere with these young kids and I used to throw them in the car because I knew they were from Prep and the kids were always so sharp. Father Kelly was just one of those special guys as you well know but seven in the morning back then I might have just be coming in, think about that. You know how us Irish guys like to do.”

By the way for those keeping score at home, below is a list of some of the top Bill Raf-isms:

• ‘send it in Jerome!
• ‘lingerie on the deck!’
• ‘the kiss!’
• ‘nylon’
• ‘nickel-dimer’
• ‘tear drop’
• ‘onions!’
• ‘attack the tin!’

Frank Grimes of Sporcle.com actually created a quiz where you can test your knowledge of Raf’s catch phrases.

Check it out here

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The post Scoop B: Catchphrases & all, CBS’s NCAA basketball analyst, Bill Raftery is a class act appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson appearing on NBA Inside Stuff. Photo Credit: NBA Entertainment

Check out Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson’s feature on NBA Inside Stuff with Willow Bay and Ahmad Rashad. Press play below to watch!

This Thanksgiving is special to me! In addition to good food and family, I’m reflective of where I was during Thanksgiving weekend 20 years ago.I was watching NBA Inside Stuff in my parents living room in November 1997.

Ahmad Rashad and Willow Bay did a feature on my show, Nets Slammin’ Planet that I co-hosted with Amy Scheer and Albert King.

The show was my entry point into my career and I never forgot the early days.

Conducting interviews, navigating the studio, learning how to move around a locker room and the ins and outs of radio, tv and print at an early age was a blessing.

This Thanksgiving I celebrate the journey!

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The post Scoop B: Thanksgiving makes me thankful for NBA Inside Stuff & sticking with journalism for 20 years appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Rapper & Everyday Struggle Host Joe Budden & retired NBA forward Kenyon Martin. Photo Credit: VIBE

Kenyon Martin Chatted With RESPECT Magazine’s Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson about EVERYTHING on Scoop B Radio. Press Play Below To Listen In

Summer 2003 was big for both Kenyon Martin and Joe Budden.

For Budden, a former cast member of Love & Hip Hop New York and current host of COMPLEX’s Everyday Struggle, his self-titled debut album, Joe Budden released June 10, 2003 via Def Jam.

The Jersey City, NJ representer’s album had hits guest appearances from  Lil’ Mo, Busta Rhymes and 112 and had top singles Focus, Fire and the Just Blazed-produced crossover hit, Pump It Up.

June 10, 2003 for Martin was a tad bit different. He and his New Jersey Nets were preparing for Game 4 of the 2003 NBA Finals after dropping Game 3 84-79 to Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs two days before at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.  

New Jersey’s Jason Kidd, left, and Kenyon Martin watch as San Antonio celebrates a 93-83 win in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. The Spurs won the game Friday in East Rutherford, N.J. Photo Credit: Lawrence Journal

Martin would score 23 points and hauled in 11 rebounds in Game 3. and would would lead all Nets scorers in Game 4 with 20 points and 13 rebounds in New Jersey’s 77-76 win.

The Nets would lose the series 4-2, but K-Mart was the man around the Garden State.

So was Budden.

Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic gave his album four stars out of five, Chris Ryan of SPIN gave the album an eight out of ten and HipHopDX’s K.B. Tindal gave the album a four and a half out of five. Pump It Up was placed on the soundtracks for 2 Fast 2 Furious, You Got Served and EA Sports’ Madden NFL 2004.

Fire even found it’s way on the Mean Girls Soundtrack.

With all of the success going on that summer for said rapper and said NBA baller, can you believe that the two were mistaken for each other in public?

Everywhere,” Kenyon Martin told me on Scoop B Radio.“Everywhere! You name it!”

Martin says that their mistaken identities would mostly happen while he’d go shopping in downtown Newark, New Jersey. “I used to go onto Clinton Ave a lot and in the hood on Clinton Avenue shopping,” he said.

“It would be at a distance and then they would get up on me and see the height differential and say: ‘Oh hey! It’s K-Mart.’”

While you listened to part two of Martin’s interview above, make sure to also check out part one of our discussion. He talked about his Nets days and the 2002 NBA Finals against Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. “I have never been afraid when it comes to basketball, period,” said Martin.

Check Out Kenyon Martin’s Part 1 Interview Scoop B Radio

“I’m not afraid to mix it up with guards or big men. But that experience there was a good team and we got to, but Shaq was dominant that series. We got to being out there and playing on that level, me holding my own, helping my team and putting them in a position to win. That meant a lot that I was there for my career and my confidence moving forward.”

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The post Kenyon Martin Says He Would Get Mistaken For Joe Budden During His New Jersey Nets Playing Days appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Bob Huggins and Kenyon Martin. Photo Credit: Twitter

Kenyon Martin chatted on Scoop B Radio with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson about his playing time at Cincinnati with Coach Bob Huggins. Press Play Below to Listen

Two things that go together like peanut butter and jelly is Kenyon Martin and Bob Huggins. Currently head men’s basketball coach at West Virginia, Huggins guided Cincinnati to a 399–127 record during his 16 years as coach of the Bearcats. Huggins directed Cincinnati to ten conference regular-season titles and eight league tournament titles. He’d coach future NBA players like Lance Stephenson, Ruben Patterson, Danny Fortson, DerMarr Johnson and Nick Van Exel.

One of his gems was NBA vet Kenyon Martin, the greatest power forward in Cincinnati history. K-Mart holds school records for field-goal percentage (.586) and blocks (292). Drafted by the then-New Jersey Nets in 2000, Martin lived his best life catching alley-oops from future Hall of fame point guard and current Milwaukee Bucks head coach Jason Kidd. The two would make two trips to the NBA Finals.

Martin relished in how influential Bob Huggins was to his career. “It was great for me,” Kenyon Martin told me on Scoop B Radio. “A lot of people’s experience with Hugs is not the same; because I play basketball the way Hugs wants you to play basketball,” Kenyon Martin told me on Scoop B Radio.

Martin says the thing he learned early was just to go out there and stay on your grind under Huggins. “Go out there play hard get better and don’t complain,” he said. “Go straight forward. That is the way that I came to Cincinnati and that is the way I left. All he had to do was coach me, he didn’t have to get on me about playing hard.”

An emotional Kenyon Martin hugs Bob Huggins before his last game at the Shoemaker Center. Photo by Lisa Ventre.

Martin was both a Wooden and Naismith Award winner in his senior year despite breaking his leg in a collision with a St. Louis player that kept him out of the NCAA tournament. He was the big man on campus and it magnified on the basketball court under Huggins. That didn’t mean that there weren’t some enjoyable and funny moments too! “Oh s*** that is a laundry list,” Martin said.

Martin recounted a time that Huggins literally barged in on Ryan Fletcher while he was in a bathroom stall. For those keeping score at home, in 1998, Fletcher threw a length of the court pass to Kenyon Martin, who passed to Mel Levett for the game winning dunk in the final second of the game to beat #1 rated Duke University.  

“Fletch played hard but Huggs used to be on him all the time like riding him riding him riding him,” said Martin.

“So one day Hugs was on Fletch, like he knocked the bathroom stall door off the hinges. I heard it so I went and looked I came back around the corner and told Hugs: ‘you might not want to f*** with Fletch today.’ So he started laughing. Huggs is one of those guys if you let him get to you, he is going to be on you daily. He wants you to play harder and if he gets to you, he wants you to be annoyed, he doesn’t want anybody that he can break. I have seen a few guys quit and I have seen a few guys cry from the tongue lashing. They can’t take it, it’s like transfer. Its real. If you have thin skin man, it’s not for you.”

Bob Huggins is the winningest coach in terms of victories and percentage in the school’s basketball history. The Bearcats appeared in postseason play in each of Huggins’ 16 seasons. They appeared in the Final Four in 1992 and advanced to the Elite Eight twice.

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The post Kenyon Martin Recounts The Time Former Cincinnati Bearcats Coach Bob Huggins Stormed A Bathroom Stall While A Player Was In There To Motivate Him appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Rapper Fabolous and sports and entertainment journalist Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson. Photo Credit: Angie Vasquez

Rapper Fabolous Chatted With Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson about rapping the intro of EA Sports’ NBA Live 2003 on Scoop B Radio

In today’s video game world, face and tattoo recognition and a soundtrack littered with hot tracks is a must for gamers. After an unsuccessful run with NBA Live 2002, EA Sports went back to the lab and brought in some fire power. NBA Live 2003 featured then-New Jersey Nets All Star point guard Jason Kidd as their cover athlete and keyed in on the halfcourt game; much to the delight of San Antonio Spurs fans everywhere.

The defensive strategy was also a focus with Dikembe Mutombo and Kenyon Martin having nightly block parties on their respective teams. But quite honestly, the thing that stood out the most was the game’s soundtrack.

Anyone who purchased a copy of NBA Live 2003 got an added bonus. They got a copy of the NBA Live 2003 soundtrack on a CD. The tracklist included cuts like Busta Rhymes and Flipmode Squad’s Here We Go, Angie Martinez’s If I Could Go, Joe Budden’s Drop Drop, Freeway and Memphis Bleek’s Let’s Go.

“It’s In The Game,” the game’s intro song performed by Fabolous and also featured DJ Clue. Fabolous’ wordplay was insane especially when you say things like:

‘I’m the crowd favorite and I believe the fans love the way I finger roll it with either hand, my handles pull it through presses plus I can play the lane and block shots like bulletproof vestes.’

 

Fabolous had a buzz going strong on the mixtape circuit at the time and was also coming off of a successful album, Ghetto Fabolous, that he’d dropped two years prior to NBA Live 2003’s release. The Brooklyn rapper was in a league of his own, rapping about sports and donning the most exclusive of exclusive Mitchell & Ness throwback jerseys. Fab was a natural fit as the game’s intro vocalist. “I was a bigger video game fan then,” Fabolous told me on Scoop B Radio. 

“It was a cool experience. The whole video game. I actually got to visit the EA Sports headquarters and got to see the stuff behind games; the real geeky, techy side, that was even cool. It was really, really, really a cool experience.”

The song’s producer, DJ Clue had fun working on it too. “I think that sometimes  you get caught in the moment and you don’t realize how big something is that you are doing,” DJ Clue told me on Scoop B Radio. 

“They gave me no restrictions on how to be with sound, but they gave me sound effects that they wanted me to actually incorporate into actually beats.The whistle, the feet squeaking, the dunk, they gave me all those sounds. So I was in the studio, I was doing a beat and I came up with the beat and they came up with the rap and I had to go back and put the sound effects in from what he was rapping about.”

According to the Fabolous, the coolest part was that while being on tour. He did a promotion in conjunction with EA Sports.”I did a tour stop where in each city somebody would come on the bus and play me in NBA Live,” Fabolous said. 

“I pretty much beat everybody that we played. A couple of them were girls, I had to beat them too.”

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The post Scoop B: Fabolous Recounts What It Was Like To Rap The Intro To EA Sports’ NBA Live 2003 appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Sports and entertainment journalist Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson at a recent appearance at Power 105. Photo Credit: Eric Salvary

RESPECT Magazine’s Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson recently checked in with the Million Dollar Mindset Podcast. Press Play to listen below.

It’s worth the hassle! I recently chatted with the Million Dollar Mindset Podcast and talked about my history in becoming a journalist, radio host and entrepreneur.

I discussed starting as a 12 year old Nets reporter from 1997-1999, co-hosting a show called Nets Slammin’ Planet with former New Jersey Net Albert King and Nets play-by-play man Chris Carrino. I also discuss being a writer and radio host at CBS and a staff writer at The Source Magazine and managing editor at RESPECT Magazine.

I also discuss the Scoop B Radio Podcast. Visit ScoopBRadio.com to listen. 

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The post Scoop B: Check Out A Discussion On Having A Million Dollar Mindset appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Tim Thomas and Kenyon Martin. Photo Credit: DJ Whoo Kid/Twitter

Retired NBA player Kenyon Martin chatted with RESPECT Magazine’s Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson on the Scoop B Radio podcast about his feud with Tim Thomas and a range of other topics. Click the player below to listen.

Kenyon Martin and Tim Thomas have had a long-standing feud that dates back to April 17, 2004. NBA Playoffs, first seeded New Jersey Nets vs. eight seeded New York Knicks.

With the Nets leading 94-74 midway through the 4th quarter of game 1 of the Hudson River matchup, Thomas, then a Knick, took Martin, then a Net off the dribble from the left side. Martin lost Thomas on defense as Thomas glided to the basket. Jason Collins, then a Net went to bail Martin on defense and attempted to block Thomas’ shot and instead knocked Thomas to the ground. Collins was charged with a flagrant foul. The hit not only required a stretcher for Thomas to get off the court, but Thomas was ruled out for the remainder of the series.

After being released from the hospital, Thomas expressed his frustration to the New York media, telling reporters that he would be looking to hit someone back when he returned to the court. When pressed by a writer on his stance on Kenyon Martin, Thomas stated that Martin was a “fugazi,” a mafia term which means ‘fake,’ and was popularized by former HBO original program The Sopranos, a hit during that time period.  

“I said what I thought that individual, Kenyon Martin is, which is a fake tough guy,” Thomas told me last year on Scoop B Radio.

“It kind of stuck. I’m from Paterson NJ, 10th Ave. and E. 29th. My city is called Pakistan right now. They call him Ken in his hometown, where he’s from. They call me Big Dog and Big Homie or OG where I’m from. So it’s a major difference right there.”

Martin would retaliate by cutting out the New York Post’s headline that read “Whiny Tim” and taped it to his practice jersey for all the media to see. The Nets swept the Knicks in that series, 4-0 and would lose in the Eastern Conference Finals to eventual 2004 NBA Champion Detroit Pistons.

The feud would escalate.

Martin would appear on a podcast with NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, a former Nets beat writer for the Bergen Record (NJ) newspaper. Martin discussed his time playing with the Nets and when asked by Woj about the topic of Thomas, Martin weighed in.

Apparently, after the playoff series between the two teams, the two got into an altercation at a Dallas-area night club.

According to Martin, the party’s hostess asked Thomas to leave and informed him that she didn’t want “any of Thomas’ blood on her hands.” To which Martin told The Vertical Podcast: “Ain’t no one going to let something happen to me in my area code and I don’t think he knew that, so it could have got ugly. He found out that night to leave me alone.”

When pressed on a way to resolve the issue, Thomas stated that he’d like to step into the ring and box Kenyon Martin for a charity of his choice.

“Brother let’s get in the ring,”  Tim Thomas told me on Scoop B Radio. “Let’s get in the ring! I know you got some charities you can send the money to. I’ve got plenty of kids to help out, plenty of organizations. We could give it to charity. Or we can get some boxing promoters. I can call Floyd and we can get this off my chest once and for all.”

Earlier this year, 50 Cent announced that he and boxer Floyd Mayweather were setting up a boxing match with singer Chris Brown and rapper Soulja Boy as its headliners. 50 also indicated that retired NBA player Kenyon Martin, who played for the Nets, and Thomas, were on the event’s undercard.

Well, Floyd had a big fight last month, he fought some guy Irish MMA fighter named Conor McGregor! Maybe you’ve heard of him?

No sign of Thomas or Martin, though!

When asked about 50 Cent’s challenge, Martin told Billboard Magazine:

“Don’t be part of the circus, dog. You know what they say if you entertain clowns, right? If you entertain clowns, you become part of the circus. I’m a 39-year-old grown-ass man, dog. If that was going to happen, I would have took care of it seven years ago. I moved on. I got kids at home. I don’t got time for that. It’s childish. It’s just people reaching for something to talk about. I’m not gonna entertain that.”

Martin’s been pretty mum about it. Until now.

Appearing on today’s episode of Scoop B Radio, the NBA veteran and newly minted champion of Ice Cube’s Big 3 league had a lot to say about Thomas and that whole feud. “I would have whooped his ass is what I would have done,” Kenyon Martin told me on Scoop B Radio.

“And it would have been f***ing over is what I’m saying. It’s all it is and it wouldn’t have to go on as long. I would have taken care of it or I should have let someone else take care of it like they wanted to.”

Added Martin:

“The truth of the matter is, the man went at me for no reason. That is all that matters. I had nothing to do with the situation. I had nothing to do with the situation. The man got baited in like a dummy. He let the media bait him in and he fell for the bait like that is all it is. There is nothing more to it. There is no three sides to the story or nothing. The truth is he got baited in and went for the bait. Know what I am saying? They asked him a question and I had nothing to do with the situation. Jason Collins fouled him, I did not. They asked that man and he said when I come back I’m going to hit somebody. But they got Kenyon over there, that is where the question is at. I had nothing to do with the situation.”

Tim Thomas and Kenyon Martin. Photo Credit: Sports Illustrated

Martin says he wants to move on past their feud: “Listen man, I am a man first. F*** all the basketball s***, all the celebrity s***, all that bull****. No, I am not. I don’t play those kinds of games, bruh.”

He also weighed in on their altercation in the Dallas-area night club. “Listen man, the only reason he here right now and his homeboys are here right now is because I called the dogs off him in Dallas, man,” said Martin. “Ain’t no if ands or buts about it. Ask him if he did go to the club in Dallas and ask him if the lady asked him to leave. All that needs to be said. Hear what I’m saying?”

Added K-Mart:

“Club Blue in Dallas. Trust me bruh, he only here and his n****s are only walking around right now in one piece because I didn’t allow people to do something to them. Because I am smarter than them. I am not with all.”

The two men made a truce at a Los Angeles-area grocery store, even taking a picture together. 

Tim Thomas vs Kenyon Martin @Shade45 ?????? @SIRIUSXM ? pic.twitter.com/SvRjtRjRY5

— DJ Whoo Kid (@DJWhooKid) May 21, 2016

“My son took the picture with his phone at the grocery store, dawg,” Martin told Scoop B Radio. “You know what I am saying? I’m in flip flops. We are in the grocery store shopping for barbeque. I got on flip flops. He had to take the picture. It didn’t come from my phone. So if I’m such a hoe and I’m such a fan why do you want to take pictures with me and s**t?”

Closure needs to be a thing at this point. My NBA childhood is at stake! Martin is a versatile big that could bang with the big guys and even defend the guards. I hope that NBA teams were taking notes during his Big 3 play.

Tim Thomas, for the record is one of the most talented tall  do-it-all players with handle and a deadly three point shot when it is hot!

At his skill-set, he Al Harrington and Andray Blatche are my guilty pleasures to watch on Youtube.

But I digress!

Mr. Martin, in the words of ESPN’s Mark Jackson, may we have this last dance? “It’s old for me unless he tries something or says something slick,” Kenyon Martin told Scoop B Radio.

“I am done with it. I got other things in my life that I need to worry about other than that clown. Everybody know the way I feel about him and it ain’t a secret. He knows the way I feel about him. It is what it is at this point, man.”

Case closed!

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The post Kenyon Martin On Feud With Tim Thomas: “I would have whooped his ass” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.