Former Orlando Magic guard Darrell Armstrong talks about playing career, Tracy McGrady and Penny Hardaway on Scoop B Radio. Photo Credit: Outside The Hype

Click Here To Check Out Darrell Armstrong, the NBA’s 6th Man of the Year and Most Improved Player of the Year With the Orlando Magic Who Checked in With Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson & Scoop B Radio.

Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Darrell Armstrong has one of the diverse and impressive basketball portfolios out there.

Winning a ring as an assistant coach with the  2011 NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks, Armstrong’s accolades as a professional from 1991-2008 as a player were surely something to write home about.

Going undrafted out of Fayetteville State in 1991, Armstrong got his first gnaw at the NBA during the 1994–95 season where he played the last 3 games of the regular season for the Orlando Magic. While he manned the court as a floor general, Armstrong wowed the crowd and Magic management with his scoring ability.

As a member of the Magic, Armstrong simultaneously won the NBA’s Most Improved Player of the Award and the league’s Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1999. “After being in the league for three years, still on waiting on the opportunity and the chance,” Armstrong told me on Scoop B Radio.

“Putting in so much work, you know; to not only be a better player,  not only shooting the basketball, but also getting stronger in the weight room, helping me to be quicker and faster and stronger all those things adds up to one.”

 

 

Darrell Armstrong during Orlando Magic days. Photo Credit: Alchetron

Armstrong would end up sticking with the Magic through the 2003 season.

I first interviewed Armstrong when I was a Nets kid reporter and he was a member of the Orlando Magic during the 1997-98 NBA season.

Then and now, a few things stood out to me about him:

a). At 6 feet tall, he probably had the most hops imaginable for someone his size.

b). He’s a huge gospel music fan, with Fred Hammond and Kirk Franklin at the top of his list of his faves.

c). During his tenure with the Orlando Magic, Armstrong has had the distinction of being teammates with two of the most transcendent guards in the NBA not named Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Armstrong teammed with both Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway and Tracy McGrady.

With McGrady being inducted into Springfield, Massachusetts’ Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend, one can’t help but think about the excitement that was T-Mac, the scoring machine in the city that Walt Disney built.

Armstrong and T-Mac were on a team that included Grant Hill and coached by Doc Rivers and were supposed to make noise in the NBA’s Eastern Conference in the early 2000s. Grant Hill was starting at the point guard, Armstrong slid to the two-guard with McGrady staring at the 3 alongside Drew Gooden and John Amaechi at the 4 and 5, respectively.

That squad was loaded! Heck, Mike Miller came off the bench!

Man that team was potent, but Grant Hill couldn’t stay healthy. That is when Tracy McGrady took over with his scoring galore! “Tracy was very special,” said Armstrong. I’m fortunate enough to have that opportunity to wear that jersey; the Magic jersey alongside him and Penny. You know, I’m fortunate to be their teammate because, I mean every night you got the chance to see some type of greatness, some type of unbelievable scoring from both of them.”

Tracy McGrady. Photo Credit: NBA.com

Added Armstrong:

“With T-Mac, a lot of people don’t know or would know that T-Mac was a decent player when he left Toronto and he got the opportunity with that one playoff game where they played New York and Vince was being covered so much by all the guys on New York that T Mac started to get off. And people started to see T-Mac’s talent during the playoffs that year. That is when we went and got him and that is when he came to the Magic that next year and what he did from there was just amazing because that is what he was suppose to be doing when he got to Toronto. But it didn’t happen like that for his first two years and then people started to say: ‘okay this is what they were talking about.’ And he put in the work and he dedicated himself everyday when he got into the game that he was going to be one of the top players in the league and he did it. It was fun to see him and Kobe Bryant go at each other, Michael Jordan go at each other.  I was just amazed by it, the things that he could do. But he was something special.”

In 938 games, McGrady averaged 19.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists. In 704 games, Penny Hardaway posted 15.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5 assists.

So who was the better player? Tracy McGrady or Penny Hardaway? “Both of them could play defense and both of them could score,” said Armstrong.

“Definitely Penny was the better passer because  Penny was a point guard. Mac could still pass the ball as well, that is hard to say Scoop. They both did it in their own way and in their own style; the only thing I will say, that Penny was better than T-Mac was passing the basketball. Like I said, they both could shoot the basketball, they both could score the basketball, that is a tough one to say. Penny went deeper in the playoffs,farther than T-Mac has ever been; besides being with T-Mac with Spurs, but he didn’t play. But when he played, you know Penny and he in the playoffs, Penny, you know Penny lost in the championship as a starter. So I mean it is hard to say if there is any edge the edge I give to Penny over T-Mac is that he was a better passer than he was.”

Fair enough.

Darrell Armstrong is one of the Dallas Mavericks’ assistant coaches. Photo Credit: Dallas Mavericks

Armstrong is an assistant coach of the Dallas Mavericks. In a game of shoulda-coulda-woulda, if he were currently an NBA head coach, who would he pick to start his team in today’s NBA? “Damn Scoop, once again you give me another tough one,” said Armstrong.

“I say: oh man you can’t go wrong with either one of them. Penny played a one and T-Mac played a two. So that is why I say it is so different. S**t Scoop, I would probably take Penny because the reason I say I take Penny is because Penny would be ready to run the offense as a point guard, knows how to play the point, but also you can just knock the ball with two points. Mac wasn’t a point guard. T-Mac never ran the point guard, so T Mac was more of the two/three player. I would probably have to say Penny I have a bigger guard that would cause a problem at the point guard position because he would be different.”

In addition to talking about T-Mac and Penny Hardaway, Armstrong also chatted about his time playing at a historically black college in Fayetteville State. “I was playing because of the tradition of so many people knowing and so many athletes from the Charles Oakley to Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe to Rick Mahorn,” he said. “And you know now, even Stephen A [Smith] played  for Winston Salem State. Ben Wallace and myself, so it was amazing with the athletes and the fans always love to hear the Black National Anthem [Lift Every Voice And Sing] whenever they sang it”

Armstrong even weighed in on the notion Tim Duncan would join he, T-Mac, and Grant Hill in Orlando via free agency, summer 2000.

Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady signed with the Orlando Magic during free agency in 2000. Photo Credit: Orlando Magic

According to Armstrong, the probabilities of Duncan coming to Orlando were zilch, zip, zero, stingy with the dinero. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich thought it was for real though! “It was a nerve-wrecking time,” Popovich admitted in an interview. (H/T CBS Sports’ Matt Moore)

Added Popovich:

“It was hell. You get close to a player and you don’t want to see him leave. I never let myself believe he was going to stay. I was just getting myself prepared, for sanity reasons. It’s no fun.”

“It also seems like it takes forever to resolve. That’s the worst part of it. We made our pitch to him and let him be, let him make up his own mind.”

Darrell Armstrong tells a different story on Scoop B Radio: “Tim wasn’t going nowhere,” he said.

“I mean where Tim played at and finished at, that was where Tim was going to be. Tim wasn’t going to go nowhere. We all love to entertain and see who is going to be out there. I don’t even believe he even thought about leaving San Antonio especially after winning some Championships. So I mean, no he wasn’t going anywhere. Sometimes you call the guys when free agency starts and you call them and talk to guys and they wanted me to call and I was sitting there like I am not you shouldn’t even call this guy he isn’t leaving.”

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The post Former Orlando Magic 6th Man of The Year Darrell Armstrong Says He’d Pick Penny Hardaway Over Tracy McGrady If He Were Starting An NBA Team   appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Nearly two years has passed since Stephen A. Smith began hosting his own radio show on Sirius/XM Radio via Mad Dog Radio. The ESPN personality saw his new platform as a good opportunity to prove that there are good African American radio hosts out there just as good—if not better.

“I’m not just able to help myself but various African Americans within the radio industry that are looking for opportunities,” he told me. “I’ve got to be a trendsetter and make it happen because if I drop the ball, I not only drop the ball for me but I drop the ball for us.”

Check Out Stephen A. Smith chat with me about the move on my Scoop B Radio Podcast

Smith was contacted by Sirius after a controversial rant by shock-jock Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo. In Russo’s rant, he  said that there were no black sports radio hosts on his Mad Dog Radio Show because there were no good black sports hosts out there. “I have a national voice in television and I have a national voice in digital,” Smith told me.

“Why not have a national voice in radio?”

Smith’s show airs weekdays from 1-3 p.m via the World Wide Leader’s Bristol, Connecticut campus and is produced by ESPN’s staff.

ESPN had never given anybody employed by the network the green light to do Sirius/XM radio—Smith bucked the system. According to the Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre, Sirius is paying ESPN a licensing fee for Stephen A’s show. “It’s a trailblazing move because ESPN has a channel on Sirius/XM,” said Smith. “But I’m not on the ESPN channel; I’m on the Mad Dog Channel.”

Make sure to check out Smith on this recent episode of Scoop B Radio embeded above and also make sure to subscribe to all other episodes of the show at ScoopBRadio.com.

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While many shows have came and gone throughout the ESPN atmosphere, ESPN2‘s First Take has been a mainstay on the channel and a fan favorite among people everywhere. A big reason for that, was the always controversial opinion given by longtime reporter, Skip Bayless when he and counterpart, Stephen A. Smith would debate on topics such as Johnny Manziel, the NBA Playoffs, police brutality and more. The almost 9-year-run is apparently going to come to a halt with ESPN announcing that Bayless would be leaving the company after a lengthy 12-year-career.

It has been reported by Sports Illustrated‘s Richard Deitsch that Bayless would be leaving his long time employer for Fox Sports on a deal that in total could be worth than $25 million. It was reported that deal would be $5.5 million per year for four years accompanied by $4 million signing bonus. That’s ball player money.

Bayless’ loss leaves ESPN with some large shoes to fill going opposite of the over bearing Smith. Bayless’ controversial takes such as his thoughts on Denver Bronco’s QB Tim Tebow and his everlasting love for the Dallas Cowboys will be sorely missed on the show despite people tweeting about their dislike for the analyst. Fox Sports on the other hand, will be reaping the benefits of ESPN’s misfortune with the acquisition of one of the most well know sports journalist in the country right now. With all of that loot they’re throwing at the former Northwest Classen JV basketball star, one would assume that Bayless would be getting his own feature show and hopefully it’s one where he will be able to speak freely and make outlandish comments such as these gems right here. It is reported that the 64-year-old journalist’s last day with the company will be right after the conclusion of the NBA Finals.

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The post Fox Sports to Give Skip Bayless a Big Payday appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Earlier today a video of Stalley and Wale‘s new track, “Every Word Great,” hit the net and the end result certainly doesn’t disappoint. This joint will serve as the new anthem for ESPN‘s First Take, which airs every weekday from 10 a.m.-12 p.m EST. Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith certainly bring some flair to the ESPN studios, so it’s about time that they had an intro song to match. Be sure to check out the offering below, but also tune in to ESPN2 weekdays for your daily dose of sports banter.

The post New Music: Stalley & Wale – “Every Word Great” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

First Take might just have a new theme song. The relatively unknown rapper Bobby Sessions just dropped this ode to the charismatic sportscaster, asking, “Are you hating on this? / Analyze game nigga, Stephen A. Smith.”

The post New Music: Bobby Sessions – “Stephen A. Smith” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

(photo courtesy of philly.barstoolsports.com)

“I swear sports and music are so synonomous cause we want to be them, and they want to be us.” Drake had a valid point with that line. ESPN First Take has had its fair share of hip hop guest apperances including Wale, Joe Budden, and Lil Wayne. Today 2 Chainz has been added to that list.

The post Photo of the Day: 2 Chainz on ESPN First Take appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.