Happy 1st Birthday Tru School Sports

Today June 20^th 2013 marks the 1 year anniversary of Tru School Sports. Time flies by fast when you are having fun I guess. It's been one of the greatest years of my life and I have add the chance to connect with so many great people worldwide. So before I get into this article shout out to a few people. Jerry Stackhouse,Jacorry Harris for retweeting my articles on twitter. Thanks to everybody who has ever been on this blog or gave Tru School Sports the time of day, you don't know how much it means to me. So without further ado I'm going to look back at the year that was and the people who made it just a bit more special along the way.

One of the very first “Throwback Thursday” articles I ever did was on Miami Dolphins Hall of fame quarterback Dan Marino. After tweeting it to him he actually responded, check the tweet down below.

@ThatboyBTaylor Good work
— Dan Marino (@DanMarino) October 11, 2012

 The most viewed article on this blog was my New York Knicks-Brooklyn Nets piece which I wrote before this past season got under way. After it garnered a decent amount of recognition I decided to tweet it out to several New York area sports writers and ESPN New York's Ian Begley responded to me, apparently he liked what he saw.

@ThatboyBTaylor good stuff, I like the breakdown
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) August 31, 2012

One of the reasons I even like basketball in the 1^st place is because of Baron Davis. Some of my earliest memories of the NBA are of him Dunking on Tim Hardaway in the playoffs and leading the 6^th seeded Charlotte Hornets to a 3 game sweep over the 3^rd seeded Miami Heat. I wrote a “Throwback Thursday” Article on the legendary NBA Street video game and he read it and gave me a retweet. So cool stuff to get from one of my basketball favorites. If your on twitter go follow Baron Davis.

RT : @Baron_Davis http://t.co/QjpkFaaf BD getting buckets is dope but did you ever play NBA Street ... http://t.co/rFw6U1qN
@ThatboyBTaylor
— Baron Davis (@Baron_Davis) August 2, 2012

Early when 1^st starting the Blog I remember writing a piece on how I thought The Memphis Grizzlies and how I thought they could go far in the playoffsand then Shared it with people who are around the Grizzlies on a day to day basis. On of the people was Memphis Native and former NBA Player Eliott “Socks” Perry. He liked and showed love so thank you Eliott!!!

RT @ThatboyBTaylor @ElliotPerry34 http://t.co/99BC12Sb… #Grizzlies #NBA Great Article. Thanks for sharing.
— Elliot Perry (@ElliotPerry34) November 25, 2012

 Earlier this year I had one of the most pleasant experiences in blogging so far when I got to interview Basketball legend “Pat The Roc”. He is honestly one of the most humble dudes I have ever talked to and it was a privilege interviewing him back in January. If you don't know anything about him check out that interview I did with him in the tweet down below it should be in a link.
RT @ThatboyBTaylor: Pat The Roc Interview from last month just hit 1k Views, im happ about that S/O to @PatTheRoc...

— Pat The Roc (@PatTheRoc) February 28, 2013

 I just graduated from South Broward less than a month ago and I did an article of the 5 greatest athletes to ever dawn the red and gold. After I was done I tweeted it to the one that are young enough to have social networks. So I hit up Former Bulldog/ Miami Dolphin and Current Kansas City Cheifs cornerback Travis Daniels and he responded. Shoutout to Travis Daniels, good luck with the photography career and football as well.

@ThatboyBTaylor Keep up the Great work
— Travis Daniels (@T_Daniels34) May 21, 2013

The other person the list of the best South Broward athletes happens to be the great Tamara James. The former Bulldog standout and WNBA 1^st round draft pick saw my article on South Broward athletes and responded. I kinda messed up so she had to correct me but it's all good shout out to Tamara James!

@ThatboyBTaylor How awesome was that. I spent 2 yrs with the Mystics tho. ;) Such a great article! Thanks.
— Tamara James (@TamaraJames_) May 27, 2013

 One of the better things that happened in the past year took a bit of initiative to manifest but I did it with the Help of my dad and friend Isaiah. In November I reached out to Former voice of the Charlotte Hornets and current voice of Charlotte Bobcats announcer Steve Martin on Twitter about meeting him and Charlotte Hornets great Dell Curry in Orlando at the Magic game and I got this response.

@ThatboyBTaylor you certainly can. Tweet when u get to the arena on the 18th.
— Steve Martin (@BobcatsMartin) November 21, 2012

Steve and Dell were gracious with their time we talked basketball, Dell Currry signed my basketball card and I was one happy camper.

Being a Charlotte native it's only right that I like speaking with other people from my hometown. So with Donte Clark who is a Charlotte native being an ESPN Top 100 recruit and going to play college basketball at Virginia Tech next season I felt it would be cool to interview him. He was a pretty chill laid back dude and equally as humble I'm expecting big things from DC this upcoming season so Shout out to Donte Clark.

Check out this new article on me... S/o to @ThatboyBTaylor http://t.co/Mo2RvPQPJj
— Donte' Clark (@d_clark4) February 27, 2013

 Shout out to the dude that Follows Donte that said my blog was dope!

The blog on @d_clark4 is dopeee👌 Continue to grind kid. #vtech #hokies 🏀
— Lex Hampton (@LexHAMP_SPU) February 27, 2013

Several weeks ago when writing my “Tru School Of Kicks” segment I wrote about the Grant Hill Fila's that are coming out pretty soon so stay tuned for that. I tweeted to the Iconic sneaker brand and they showed love back so Shout Out to Fila. Being a hip-hop fan I know how iconic Fila is even though they aren't as big as they used to be but they are coming back!!!

— FILA (@FILAUSA) June 6, 2013

 Several days ago I shot this video featuring the new Shaq soda by the Arizona drink company. I shared it with them just yesterday and they gave me a positive response and a follow back so shout out to Arizona beverages, I just had one last night #WatermelonTea

@ThatboyBTaylor @PaulMartinez305 Great video! Thanks for the review!
— AriZona Iced Tea (@DrinkAriZona) June 19, 2013

I live in South Florida so odds are if you turn on a TV at any point from the evening to late in the night you will see Donovan Campbell on the air talking about sports in our area. Whether its the Marlins, Heat, Dolphins or the Panthers DC does his thing with his own unique flavor. I sent him my Pat The Roc interview and he liked it. So Shout out to Donovan Campbell stay tuned for him on channel 7 if you live in the South Florida area.

@ThatboyBTaylor good stuff keep up the good work
— Donovan Campbell (@donovanc7sports) January 11, 2013

Also a special thanks to someone who I think is a very cool person Charlotte Bobcats dancer the beautiful, Jennifer Embler. If your in the Charlotte area and at the Time Warner Cable Arena watch out for her and the the lady cats doing their thing. Shout out to her for reading my basketball analysis on Kemba Walker, Kyrie Irving and Damian Lilllard.

@ThatboyBTaylor stumbled upon a nice little bball analysis of yours someone retweeted 😉
— Jennifer Embler (@JenEmbler) February 28, 2013

This shouldn't even be called a shout out, this is more of a scream out. So HUGE thank you to the guys at Bring back the buzz, helping get the Charlotte Hornets name back to to Charlotte. These guys have so much passion for basketball in the Queen City I feel most people won't ever rival it. These guys have been supporting me since day 1 so thanks to them. Follow them on twitter @Bringbackthebuzz

@ThatboyBTaylor love the Kendrick Lamar reference! Great Artist, Great Song!
— The Buzz is Back (@BringBackTheBuz) July 30, 2012

@ThatboyBTaylor you have no idea!!! That was all we played Jamal and baron!
— The Buzz is Back (@BringBackTheBuz) August 2, 2012

Got to give a huge amount of credit for this dude right here. Paul Martinez Aka Fynishline is the reason there is even a “Tru School Sports” he encouraged me to start a blog and I thank him for believing in me. He is an up and coming rapper and will soon take over the hip hop game so If you don't know who he is get to know him in the video below.Follow him on twitter @Paulmartinez305

Everyone check out the future of sports writing @ThatboyBTaylor http://t.co/5Bor7fKh MJ vs Lebron is dropping soon!!!!!!!— Paul Martinez (@PaulMartinez305) October 18, 2012

Big thanks to Aydian for showing me love throughout the year. You better be playing basketball next year homie!!

Everybody read @ThatboyBTaylor 's blog on November 1st #GoodRead #MustRead
— Aydian Ahmad (@AydianAhmad) October 22, 2012

 Thank You Ricky for showing me love on the Alfred Morris/T.Y Hilton article.

@ThatboyBTaylor @sunsportsfoxfl Love it man
— Ricky Hester (@R_Hester14) January 3, 2013

 Big thanks to my friend and Duke student Mayank for supporting. He's going to Duke so obviously this mans about big things.

@ThatboyBTaylor nice bro! Keep writing, ur articles are great!
— Mayank Dubey (@m_dubey1) January 11, 2013

Thanks to my main man Brian who's been supporting me pretty strong throughout the year just like on this Vince Carter “Throwback Thursday” right here. Watch out for him he has something big in the works coming soon. If your a basketball fan I suggest you follow him if you have a twitter dude is a well of basketball knowledge.

@ThatboyBTaylor Good stuff on that throwback vinsanity 2k dunk contest. Still got that one on tape
— BJC (@CarthensBC) February 11, 2013

Even though I just met him Shout out to Brian Rzeppa for all the support. He like myself is a writer he does stuff for Rant Sports and The League news, So Google him!

@ThatboyBTaylor thanks alot! i just bookmarked that site, so ill be waiting on new stuff
— Brian Rzeppa (@brianrzeppa) May 22, 2013

Last but certainly not least shout out to Roman Perez for all the encouragement. Thanks for Reading!!!

@ThatboyBTaylor Word! Nice blog!
— Roman Perez (@Romanp43) June 11, 2013

 If you supported me at any point throughout the course of this past year in any way, shape or form let me say thank you if I didn't single you out. It's been one of the greatest years of my life and I'm glad you are on along the ride with me this is just the beginning.

 

For All My Card Bloggers in the Blogosphere

Alright been wanting to write this for awhile but just haven't got to it so this is for my Baseball card bloggers and just card bloggers in general. I want to connect with each and every one of you. I want to know what type of cards you like, sets you prefer and players that you collect. I know you all have your lists of that on your blogs but I want you to comment in the box below so I can know without having to look and we can get to trading. I have a decent amount of Baseball cards but my collection isn't limited to just that I have much better artifacts that transcend cards so if the right amount of cards were ever presented my way, then I would part ways with it.

Let me tell you guys some of the Players and cards I like to collect. 2003 Marlins are my favorite team so any Marlins card you have of anyone on that team I will take, so that means Dontrelle Willis, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Lowell,Juan Pierre,Jeff Conine and Luis Castillo are all guys who will make me jump on a trade because I will always love my Marlins. Other players I like to collect are Ken Griffey Jr, Derek Jeter, Adam Jones and Justin Upton just to name a few.

If you are one of those bloggers who collects basketball cards here are some ballers I collect. Being a bigtime Charlotte Hornets fan (Happy about the name change) I obviously collect Muggsy Bouges, Dell Curry, Alonzo Mourning, Larry Johnson, Kendall Gill, Baron Davis, Jamal Mashburn, Glen Rice and Anthony Mason. Other Basketball Players I collect are Kemba Walker, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan,Oscar Robertson, Chris Webber, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Penny Hardaway and Magic Johnson.

So yeah there you go If you follow this blog comment if you have any Rookies,Autos or Jersey cards of any of the following players I just named. If you know any bloggers who don't follow this blog tell them about this post and tell them to follow it.

Now lets get to trading!!

Larry Johnson 1991-1992 Upperdeck

 The NBA draft is rapidly approaching by the day and I can only begin to wonder about all the different ways my Charlotte Bobcats will screw up whatever pick they get I look at this card for hope. Larry Johnson pictured in the card above was selected 1st overall in the 1991 NBA Draft and would go on to win Rookie of the year honors in 1992. LJ was a franchise changing talent and fresh off a national Championship at UNLV gave the Hornets instant credibility. Although it was before my time I have a deep appreciation for those Muggsy Bouges-Alonzo Mourning-Kendall Gill-Dell Curry and LJ teams of the early to mid 90's it represents a golden era for basketball in my hometown. This picture captures one of the greatest draft picks made by any Charlotte sports team, I can only hope that who ever we draft this year turns out to be what LJ was during his time with the Hornets.

Memorabilia Memories: Autographed Dell Curry Fleer 91 Basketball card

A new year brings new ideas and today I will be sharing a new segment today called “Memorabilia Memories” Where I go into my rather large collection of Sports Memorabilia and share some of that with you. Today I bring you my newest piece of memorabilia that I just collected from My trip to Orlando which is my Dell Curry signed basketball card. Make sure you guys check out my article on my trip to Orlando by the way. 

Dell Curry to this day is not only regarded as one of the best 6^th man in NBA history but is still the New Orleans/Charlotte Hornets All-time leading scorer at 9,839 Points. Many of those shots were three pointers which Dell is known for in being one of the purest shooters ever. I met him in Orlando as Part of my trip to the Bobcats/Magic game and he was one of the nicest people in sports i've ever met. 

The Orlando Trip: Bobcats vs Magic

My best Friend Isaiah and I At the Amway Center

When you visit a new city you get exposed to a new way of life,people as well as feel a new energy. That's how I would describe my trip to the Amway Center in Orlando a few days ago to catch My Charlotte Bobcats. The trip was more then great I met 2 Charlotte Basketball Legends in Steve Martin and Dell Curry and the Bobcats won. Sounds pretty great right? Well it was...Let me breakdown the different aspects of the trip for you.

The Arena

The Amway Center is what everybody said it was and that’s one of the nicest arenas in the NBA. There were some cool little features that really stuck out to me such as the ability to be walking on the side walk and look into the Magic's practice court. Could you imagine just walking in a regular neighborhood and you get to see J.J Redick Shooting three's in the gym? Pretty cool if you ask me.

Although my dad Complained about the size of it the Magic museum located on the lower bowl of the arena I though it was neat. They did a really good job of chronicling the History of the team with numerous artifacts and newspaper clippings from the teams high's and lows. Also they were pretty fan friendly and have a playground for children located on the upper level of the arena.

Here are the negatives of the Amway Center. When I went to the gift shop and asked if they had any Penny Hardaway T-shirts or jerseys the employees looked confused and told me “No we don't”. They didn't have that but the team store is flooded with J.J Redick stuff. “This is a load of crap” I thought to myself, how can you not have stuff on one of your franchises best players who put you on the map I know for a fact that the NBA Manufactures Penny Hardaway items because the NBA and Addidas makes them as part of their “Hardwood Classics” collection. So that had me perplexed and pissed off.

Another negative is the Amway Center ushers who are VERY anal and I had to argue with to get a chance to talk to Steve Martin And Dell Curry. I know they have a job to do but they were a little rude. The fans of the Magic looked at my dad, Friend Isaiah and myself crazy when we were cheering the atmosphere at the Arena was very “Wine&cheese” like it's basketball game not an opera Magic fans. By the beginning of the 4^th my dad and I had been so loud that we cleared out the whole row in front of us and apparently had converted several magic fans to Bobcat fans (No eazy feat).

The Experience

Dell Curry(left) me(middle) Steve Martin (right)

Before the Game started I met up with former Charlotte Hornets announcer and now Voice of the Bobcats Steve Martin as well as Charlotte Hornets All-time leading scorer Dell Curry. It was the hands down the best part of the trip Dell signed my Basketball card and we talked about basketball and things such as shooting form, Bobcat defense, Kemba Walker. Steve Martin and Dell were gracious and humble enough to sign, Take pictures and even talk Basketball with me and I am so grateful for that.

Bobcat Gurad #55 Reggie Williams

After chatting it up with two QC legends I made my way toward the tunnel and waited for some Bobcats to make their way to the tunnel and sign some Autographs for me. I got signatures from Brendan Haywood,Ben Gordon,Reggie Williams and Hakim Warrick. So my night was made before the game even started.

The Game

The Orlando Magic intro's were cool....Until I heard the music and they use the Miami Heat song for their intro and I thought that was corny have your own style. The game tipped off and the Bobcats lead the whole game although Close they prevailed for Win #10 on the year. Kemba Walker who I am a huge fan gave me a treat watching him play in person for the 1^st time 25 points and 8 assists in 106-100 win.

Here are some more pics from the Magic musuem.

Magic artifacts

Nick Anderson

Dwight Howard Jersey (not burned yet)

Tracy Mcgrady Exibit

It was a great trip and maybe the best basketball game I have ever went to down below are the sights and sounds of the trip in Orlando.....ENJOY!