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The Fourth of July weekend is approaching and I’ll be out of the loop until next week. I’ll be traveling back to Lexington to see friends and family, enjoy some fireworks and eat until I pop. I hope all of you have a safe a Independence Day — Go, Andy Roddick — and please, don’t blow yourselves up like that factory in the lead video.
Thanks for your continued support of IntentionalFoul.
Andy Roddick survived a marathon match against Lleyton Hewitt to advance to the semi-finals of Wimbledon. Roddick’s win was powered by 43 aces and sets up a just-in-time-for-Independence-Day match against “British” hopeful, Andy Murray. Only this time, it’s the United States that’s doing the invading. I know, I know, Andy Murray is technically Scottish, but considering Scotland is still under the Queen of England’s rule, we’ll go ahead and force the Battle of Independence Day Eve storyline a little. Normally, I try not to act like a dumb American, but for some reason, my devilish side would absolutely love it if, after beating Murray, Roddick jumped up on the referee’s chair and screamed, “No taxation without representation, bitches!!!”
Of course, he’d probably be banned from ever coming back to not just Wimbledon, but the entire British Isles themselves.
Look, growing up, I absolutely adored Michael Jordan. I bought his shoes, his jerseys, his basketball cards. Hell, I even had a copy of Rare Air sitting on my coffee table. So I think I have a good idea about fan worship. This find, however, goes a little too far, even for a confessed Jordan lover like myself. What we have is an enterprising fellow who has a serious LeBron fetish, and he isn’t afraid to take to the YouTube airwaves to get his message across:
Can this whole Xavier Henry saga be done now, please? First of all, I’m not really sure why this subject was even topical to begin with. If Carl Henry gives normal, trained-by-a-publicist responses to the Kansas City Star, instead of throwing the KU team under a “my son should be front and center” bus, there would be no legs for the story to walk with. Instead, the fallout of the KC Star interview required two revisions and led to unnecessary revelations about Xavier Henry perhaps leaving Kansas for John Calipari and Kentucky. But at the end of the day, and after reading what Evan Daniels and Jeff Goodman tweeted, it’s hard not to get the impression this was much ado about nothing — or an unnecessary grab for additional spotlight.
Look, I know it’s summer and people tend to forget about college basketball, or at least put it on the back burner; however, manufacturing stories for the sake of keeping your son’s name topical is not the way to go about fostering good conversation… Or to win over the fans.
An interview in the Kansas City Star with Carl Henry, one that was semi-refuted, has caused some eyes to open about whether or not the Henry boys, Xavier and C.J., will be suiting up for Bill Self this fall. While the primary reason this is even a topic has to do with the NBA’s “one year out of high school” rule, the story received its legs when the elder Henry dropped a number of bombs in the interview in question. The KC Star article was controversial enough, Daddy Henry felt it necessary to clear the air. Twice.
The details of the initial interview are everywhere if you feel like catching up.
Now that they have the two Williams sisters on opposite sides of the bracket, perhaps we can see what we should’ve seen at last year’s US Open: the Williams sisters battling in the final, this time, at Wimbledon. If you remember just how competitive their US Open match was, this is something you should be waiting for with open arms. Both sisters advanced today, as Serena beat Victoria Azarenka and Venus dispatched Agnieszka Radwanska. With seven Wimbledon titles between them, five for Venus, how can you not want to see these two square off against each other on Saturday?
