Wednesday, January 9, 2008

NBA TV Fantasy Hoops: Low Five

NBA TV Fantasy Hoops: Low Five
NBA TV's Rick Kamla looks at five more teams included in his New Year's resolution column.

Kidd's Third Straight Triple-Double
Jason Kidd's 10th triple-double this year, 97th of his career, the first time for three straight. Too much math? Then just watch him at work.

Assist of the Night: Kobe Bryant
Watch Kobe Bryant give teammate Kwame Brown a behind-the-back on the fly for Tuesday's best assist.

NBA TV Daily: Jan. 8
Watch highlights from Tuesday's nine games, including Jason Kidd's third straight triple-double.

Gino Vanelli catches on
You may have missed it, I originally blogged about the phenomenon on Christmas Eve and it was pretty early in the morning to boot, but Boston Celtic fans have found a new reason to get deliriously happy while watching Celtic home games.

At some point, usually late in the contest, the team's in-arena entertainment usually busts out an old American Bandstand clip, and plays it to the tune of KC and the Sunshine Band's "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" or some other ancient disco hit. Toward the end of the clip, a rather hairy gentleman sporting a tight t-shirt with the name "Gino" emblazoned on the front shows up, and the crowd goes wild.

Celtic fans have taken to calling him their latest victory cigar, Gino t-shirts are available on Cafepress (and, likely, some altogether skeevier outfits all over the Boston area), and Gino Fever will likely go on for as long as the Big Three keeping winning games for the C's. Probably longer.

The "Gino" in question, however, isn't our hairy dancin' friend. It's Gino Vanelli, what we in da biz call "a popular artist of the day," and the Boston Globe's Marc Spears has recently got in touch with the singer to get his take on this wonderful bit of nonsense.

Gino's got a good sense of humor, but he does bring up one important point. We'll let Marc start it:

"Vannelli, however, said that the website has not received permission to sell his old concert T-shirt.

"I have no connection with that," said Vannelli, who splits time living in Holland and Oregon. "I believe that they have to get the permission from the record company and my permission. I want to make sure it's on the up and up."

("Holland and Oregon," how dope is that?)

Ah, yes. Royalties. I can't exactly proclaim that the Gino Party is over, but we're at a little fork in the road, here.

One thing I alternately derive a little evil pleasure out of is the fact that, for a while now, most Celtics fans thought that the dancer in the video was in fact "Gino." Partially because disco dancers of great renown love to sport shirts with their first names prominently displayed, but mainly because it was hard to see the Gino Vanelli cartoon from the TD Banknorth Garden (what a miserable name, I get depressed every time I have to look these newish corporate names up and type them out) seats while gawking at a Jumbotron.

But it's probably best that we reveal the wizard behind the curtain here. Still, for every 1/20th of a cent that Vanelli is losing out on seeing his likeness on bootleg shirt dot the seats of the, uh, "Garden," he's probably going to make up for in scads of records sold to Celtic fans for kitsch value alone, the exposure could lead to personal appearances (20 bucks for Gino to sign your "Gino" shirt!) in New England, and the odd concert or 12 (say, on the floor of the TD Banknorth Garden after a game) can more than make up for that.�

It's no fun to be bootlegged, I watched with disgust as Calvin stickers blossomed all over our great, Toby Keith-listenin' country, and as someone with years of experience working in clubs and theaters, I know how much merch can bring in for artists. That's direct money.

There's not a lot Gino can do at this point, save for tracking down the original artist (or whoever holds the rights to his likeness on that particular shirt, 30 odd years later), and creating his own shirt that would net him ... very little money, actually.

If he's smart, though, he can take advantage. And Vanelli is hardly raising a fit here, he's just pointing out a subtle frustration that comes with his newfound notoriety, as is his right. In the meantime, it wouldn't hurt those who decide to buy a bootleg Gino shirt to drop a few bucks on a Vanelli album at the same time. After all that he's given us, it's only fair.



YouTube of the day: Elliot Perry and the passing lanes
I don't really recall Elliot Perry acting as much of a ballhawk in his career, but a quick turn to basketball-reference.com reveals that his best season (1994-95) saw him average 3.2 steals per 40 minutes, a mark that would lead the league this season (Chris Paul is tops at 3.1 per 40).

As such, the guys and gals at Adidas must have known what they were doing when they signed the backup Suns point guard to an endorsement deal, which resulted in this commercial.

Big thanks to Goathair from The Blowtorch for the heads-up.



Steal of the Night: Kobe Bryant
Check out Kobe Bryant's effort in Tuesday's SOTN that leads to a round-the-clock trey.

Gatorade Call-Up: C.J. Watson
The Warriors recalled C.J. Watson from the D-League on Tuesday, making the Vipers sharpshooter the 100th call-up.

NBA TV Fantasy Hoops: Jan. 8
NBA TV's Rick Kamla takes you through all the fantasy action from Tuesday night.

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