Rudy Gay - The Most Interesting Man In The NBA

Remember back to the 2007-2008 NBA season. The Raptors were coming off their best regular season in franchise history. Chris Bosh was the face of the franchise and still relatively likable. Only one problem. Bosh was trailing Kevin Garnett massively in the All-Star vote. Garnett's stats weren't as good but he was playing his first year for the eventual NBA Champion Boston Celtics. The hype alone surrounding the Big 3 was enough to push Garnett into the starting lineup.
So Bosh dropped this video, which was then a pretty revolutionary marketing strategy. His votes skyrocketed but it was not enough to oust Garnett, or LeBron James for that matter, of a starting forward spot. Garnett ended up missing the game due to injury, and Bosh took his place in the starting lineup. The video worked (kind of), and Bosh earned his second consecutive All-Star start.
Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay recently put out a All-Star promotional video of his own, shown above. It parodies the Dos Equis commercials and is just as good if not better than Bosh's video two years ago. Only one problem. Gay, unlike Bosh two years earlier, doesn't deserve to be an All-Star. In fact, he's not even in the Top 10 vote-getters amongst forwards as of the last update on January 13th. It's not that he isn't a great player, but more due to the fact that he has names like Durant, Anthony, Gasol, Griffin, Duncan, and Nowitzki to compete with.
In that respect, it almost feels like a good video was wasted to fight a losing battle. Maybe next year. By then, Duncan and Nowitzki may be showing their age and Carmelo will be in the East. 

Panini's For Everyone, Part I

In addition to the 2010 Panini Classics football pack I opened, I decided to pick up its basketball counterpart -- a pack of 2010-11 Panini Threads. Randomly inserted are rookie autographed cards with a swatch of a game worn jersey. Yeah, I was hoping for one of those.
Again, visit the blog A Pack To Be Named Later where I lifted the idea from. They've opened hundreds of packs across sports and years that will keep you entertained for hours.

#9 Luol Deng. It's nice to get a Bulls player. I suppose I can add this to the collection and look back fondly in 20 years, even if Deng hasn't lived up to his contract.

#15 Vince Carter. Hey, there's an All-Star on this card! It's just not Vince Carter.

#8 Monta Ellis. I have nothing bad to say about Monta. I just wish he didn't play on the West Coast so I could see him play more often.

#10 Samuel Dalembert. Dalembert is referred to as "The Haitian Eraser" on the back of the card. Why has this nickname not caught on? This would catapult to top 5 NBA nicknames, easily.

#16 Pau Gasol Die-Cut Jersey Insert. This was the only insert I received in either of the two packs. It's cut in the shape of Gasol's jersey, put doesn't actually contain any game used jersey. Eh, I guess it looks kind of cool.