>> For me, my hook shot was the one kick practiced 10,000 times I honestly think Kareem is being a bit modest here. His one weird shot completely changed basketball for a couple of decades. I went to school with one of Kareem's kids who's now a neurosurgeon (although, looking back, I have no clue how any of us even graduated high school). The father, Kareem, is an honest to God treasure of a human being who has just…
Kareem is always modest, a lovely human. His article of LeBron taking over his scoring record is a great showcase of this: https://kareem.substack.com/p/what-i-think-about-lebron-brea...
He was sort of a dick when he was younger. Very standoffish with teammates, fans, and the media. Definitely mellowed out with age.
Enter the Dragon was playing a theater near me recently, and for some reason never having seen a single Bruce Lee film, I figured I'd check it out. It was awesome and I ended up down a rabbit hole of reading about Bruce's life and accomplishments. There are some really great interviews with him on YouTube too. It's really irritating that the first thing many younger people will think about Bruce Lee is the near-libel…
> ...near-libelous portrayal of him Is it libelous or true? Are you assuming? You have to realize this is a person who was mythologized. A person who millions believe is the best fighter ever despite never having been put to the test. A great person who accomplished a lot, but reality never quite matches up with perception of the masses.
Near-libelous is fitting. I'm a Bruce fanatic since childhood and there are a lot of personal accounts of Bruce and they never painted him as the guy in Tarantino's movie. I love Tarantino but that was bad. Tarantino likes to play with his characters but in this case Bruce was a real person and a hero to a generation(s). That was unfair to do that to a real person for some comedy.
>> Motivational speakers are fond of saying it doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, it’s how many times you get up. But sometimes, it does matter how many times you get knocked down. He kind of breezed past this but damn, it really strikes a chord with me. As someone in their early thirties I'm only just beginning to appreciate the toll life takes, even as I grow more resilient. On an unrelated note, t…
Slightly off topic, but I recently started Kickboxing, and I finally have the impression that I start to understand the connection between martial arts/combat sports and spirituality as it is emphasized in e.g. Bruce Lee's movies. There is a strange wisdom operating in channeling rage to make a technique more effective while respecting (or even caring for) your opponent/partner. I tried Aikido in the past, in search…
When I started training Muay Thai a little over a year ago the first thing that struck me was how kind everyone was in the gym. There's something about training that hard that really starts to remove the ego. I've had a long standing, daily seated meditation practice, and it wasn't until I started training my body hard (first ashtanga style yoga, now muay thai) that the meditation practice really started to deepen.
Meh. I got bored and walked out to be honest. We all have our own tastes.
The phenomenon of walking out of a show I paid to watch, even if I'm not enjoying that much is so alien to me. The first thought I might have is "what am I missing", and throughout I'll be trying to either find something good in it or start joking about it in my head. Maybe it'll turn good, maybe it'll be so bad it's good. Maybe the way they tell the story is bad but I still want to know how the story ends. I feel li…
I watched it at home, so I didn't walk out technically, but I also turned off "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood". The only movies I've physically walked out of have been "The Departed" and "Tree of Life". I don't think it's a big deal to bail on something you're not enjoying, but have given a best effort to get into.
Enter the Dragon was playing a theater near me recently, and for some reason never having seen a single Bruce Lee film, I figured I'd check it out. It was awesome and I ended up down a rabbit hole of reading about Bruce's life and accomplishments. There are some really great interviews with him on YouTube too. It's really irritating that the first thing many younger people will think about Bruce Lee is the near-libel…
Slightly off topic, but I recently started Kickboxing, and I finally have the impression that I start to understand the connection between martial arts/combat sports and spirituality as it is emphasized in e.g. Bruce Lee's movies. There is a strange wisdom operating in channeling rage to make a technique more effective while respecting (or even caring for) your opponent/partner. I tried Aikido in the past, in search…
When I started training Muay Thai a little over a year ago the first thing that struck me was how kind everyone was in the gym. There's something about training that hard that really starts to remove the ego. I've had a long standing, daily seated meditation practice, and it wasn't until I started training my body hard (first ashtanga style yoga, now muay thai) that the meditation practice really started to deepen.
That's funny, I have exactly the opposite effect with meditation: in the last two years I have been following teachings with which I resonated a lot and helped my meditation deepen a lot, and I attribute my newfound sports skills to this deepening. I was able to run 20km 2 weeks after taking up jogging again after a few years break, which is a distance I never managed in the past. I can see how my meditative work helps me switch the perception of effort and push further than I ever thought possible. The work with pain, effort and strong emotions in boxing also has a lot of parallels with my seated meditation practice. There is definitely something to the stereotype of the martial artist meditating in a cave