Public Enemy, Steven Stills. "He Got Game." He Got Game (Soundtrack), Island Def Jam Records, Inc., 1998.
Basketball legend Ray Allen (Jesus Shuttlesworth for those of you paying attention) announced Tuesday that he would be retiring from the NBA this year. Allen wrote a beautifully written piece in the Player's Tribune as part of their "Letter to My Younger Self" series, which included these gems, among other golden nuggets of wisdom.
Listen: God doesn’t care whether you make your next jump shot.
God will give you a lot of things in life, but he’s not going to give you your jump shot. Only hard work will do that.
Sometimes you’ll be afraid.
Sometimes you’ll think you’re out of your league.
But you’ll keep showing up every day, putting in the work.
In every locker room you’ll ever be in, everybody will say all the right things. Everybody says they’re willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to win a title. But this game isn’t a movie. It’s not about being the man in the fourth quarter. It’s not about talk. It’s getting in your work every single day, when nobody is watching.
The message in Chuck D & Flava Flav's lyrics on this track, written for Spike Lee's classic film by the same name and which samples the opening verse of Buffalo Springfield's classic "For What It's Worth," still feels appropriate today almost two decades later.
🎶 More than your eye can see and ears can hear
Year by year all the sense disappears
Nonsense perseveres, prayers laced with fear
Beware, two triple O is near 🎶
And from Flava Flav (I never thought I'd be writing these words, but here we go)...
🎶 He-hey!!!
Aiyo, these are some serious times that we're livin in G
And a new world order is about to begin, y'knowhutI'msayin?
Now the question is - are you ready, for the real revolution
Which is the evolution of the mind?
If you seek then you shall find that we all come from the divine
You dig what I'm sayin?
Now if you take heed to the words of wisdom
That are written on the walls of life
Then universally, we will stand and divided we will fall
Because love conquers all, you understand what I'm sayin?
This is a call to all you sleepin souls
Wake up and take control of your own cipher
And be on the lookout for the spirit snipers
Tryin to steal your light, y'knowhutI'msayin?
Look within-side yourself, for peace
Give thanks, live life and release
You dig me? You got me? 🎶