October 18th, 2009

Season Starting Soon ... at SF (CD-R)

Yes yes!! I'm not in the best of moods these days (personal, don't ask) but I can't neglect y'all. Anyway, me playing small forward is a shock to everybody except the guys who have been in practice. It’s not really a shock to me – I’ve been getting all my reps at small forward since camp has started. Everybody thought that when C-Lee was injured, I was filling in for him, but that wasn’t the case.

The "outsiders" projecting I’d be a scorer off the bench really meant nothing to me. I was just paying close attention to what the staff was saying and how we were building this team. I paid ZERO attention to the outside, because I was getting most of my reps at the 3 anyway. I understand the "outsiders" now. They create their own truths and write about it, ha! They have to write interesting, controversial stories because nobody wants to read a boring story. The CD-R vs C-Lee thing was interesting to read so they ran with it. I kind of understand. Can't hate on anybodys hustle. Respecttt!

If you look at it, we haven’t been healthy. We haven’t had our whole team the whole preseason. When Devin and Jarvis were playing with us, we looked pretty good! The preseason is about looking at different lineups to see which ones work the best. To me, these games do matter, but to the rest of the NBA, the preseason is an evaluating process.

Last year was a new experience – I’d never been on a team that was under .500 my whole career. I understand this is the NBA, this is the highest level to play on, but I don’t want to be a part of that, and I’m not preparing like I'm going to be on a bad team. I prepare myself to be on a good team. All positive thinking.

I want us to be one of those tough, hard-nosed teams: more fights in practice!!! There's nothing like being on a team full of killers who have each other's back. That's how we were at Memphis. We WILL be that team.

Braylon’s Big Games
I was excited about Braylon Edwards playing well the other night in his debut against the Dolphins. I just support people from Detroit no matter what. LeBron James is my familia, we’re close, so whatever is going on with them has nothing to do with me. I was just happy to see a Detroit guy do well. But if it came down to siding with LeBron or Braylon, I personally know LeBron, and I don’t know Braylon. I’m just happy he’s doing well. Deeeeeeeeee-troittttttttttttttttt! Yes yes!!

True Religion, False Fit
Every time I post, I'll mention something about clothes: "Free Advice from Fresh on Being Fly." So everybody knows I'm not a fan on men wearing extra-tight or extra-small clothes. I went to the True store looking for a jean jacket and they make those jackets really small. They make them for guys 5-10 and under. They make them so short I couldn’t even fit a 3X. So I just settled for some Rock & Republic jeans instead (sigh).

Fellas if the pants or shirt doesn't fit, DON'T BUY IT! You end up looking Urkel. The Urkel look isn't in. Might as well get the wingtips and the bi-focals to top the 'fit off. I promise you that's not in. Promise.

Athlete of the Decade (Almost)
I seen, through Twitter, that the Memphis Flyer named me Memphis’ No. 3 Athlete of the Decade. Somebody linked that, and that means a lot to me, man, because I touched a lot of people in Memphis. You don’t know how much you mean to a place or how much a place means to you until you’re gone. And that’s what I’ve realized. I obviously mean a lot to the city of Memphis, and I’m proud of that. I love Memphis. Yes yes.

I didn’t know my mom had commented on the post. I had no idea. But my mom is really active with that stuff. That's fine, but I wish she wouldn’t be as active as she is with the other stuff because she sees some stuff she doesn’t want to see. Y'all know how a mother gets when she reads something negative about her son. Hahahaha. In her eyes, I'm still little Chris who needs help with his homework. It’s all good though.

It’s obviously great to have that support. She’s always been there, no matter what. When I left school early, she was behind me 100%. I feel like Kanye: "My mama told me go to school, get ya doctorate / something to fall back on, you could profit with / but still supported me when I did the opposite."

I am going to finish up Ma ... ;-) Maybe.

I got the neck tattoo of her name when I was 19. She didn’t want me to do it, but I just got it behind her back. She didn’t know, but once I got it, it was over. She couldn't tell me to erase it.

When I wear my suits and my longsleeve shirts, you can’t see my other tattoos. This is the only visible one because it means the most to me. I don’t care what someone says about my mother’s name on my neck – it’s my mother. There’s not anything they can say; it’s not a meaningless tattoo. Yes, it's on my neck but so what! The most meaningful tattoo I have is the one that will always be showing. Yes yessss!