My son did not make the 8th grade basketball team. He called me early on Saturday morning to give the disappointing news, but he was pretty candid about why he did not make it. He told me that in the weeks leading up to the tryout, he had not worked on his game the way that he should have, and he thinks he wasn't as comfortable with the ball as some of his classmates. I told him that I was cut from my 8th and 9th grade teams, but I worked hard on my game, went to basketball camps, played against older kids, and by the 10th grade I was right in there. I asked him if he wanted to bail on basketball, and go back to football (which is his first love) and he said hell no..he wanted to stick with basketball until he made the team. For good measure, I told him that Michael Jordan got cut from his 9th grade team, but my son told me he knew that already.

If Branford Marsalis and Terence Blanchard come to your city, please go see them and support good jazz music. The wife and I went to see them at the Kennedy Center on Saturday night, and it was excellent. They performed about 45 minutes each with an intermission in between the two acts, and it flew by. They did beautiful ballads, songs that showed off their bands impeccable improvisations skills, and you could tell both bands were definitely simpatico (although Branford's band had a little more personality). My only regret was that the two guys never performed together which I found odd consider they shared top billing. They at least could have performed a song from Mo' Better Blues or something..

And finally I saw Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's documentary, "On the Shoulders of Giants" yesterday and it was excellent. If you have cable, its on demand under movies, and its only $5...its definitely worth it.

On the Shoulders of Giants | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Leonard Maltin | Maltin on Movies | Movie Trailer | Review