2010 was another watershed year for Kenai Andrews Online. The efforts of 2009 and previous produced an exciting opportunity at Postmedia News in December 2009.
Video views increased 250% compared to 2009. Thanks for your continued support.
Kenai Andrews, George Chuvalo, and Rick Smiciklas. Image courtesy Rickey Lee.
Let's take a look back at the year that was.
January 2010
I was settling into my new role at Postmedia News for the most part. There was a lot of new stuff to learn and I needed to buckle down at the expense of writing.
Imagine these two pulling up on your driveway to pick you up. I didn't have to worry about much that day, shooting the breeze and feeling like a wrestler "on the road" to a show.
February 2010
It was much of the same in February, concentrating on Postmedia News but started to organize the beginning of a mixed martial arts blog. The goal would be a hard-hitting blog that would feature expert commentary...
The Crossfire has been the focus of 2010 and will be going into 2011. Since March, there have been approximately 100 posts, and we have a few interviews:
MMA gurusCassie Wiseman and 3-time K1 Grand Prix champThe Black Sniper Michael McDonald have joined the team. We also have an official band, called Spewgore, which creates much of the rockin' tracks we use.
It's been an exciting year in the world of MMA and boxing, with MMA now legalized in Ontario for 2011 and the UFC 129 event taking place April 30th in the Rogers Centre.
We are glad to be a part of it.Let's see what's out there in 2011.
We'd like to thank the following for their efforts: My Family, Postmedia News, Tim Doyle, Del F. Cowie, David Kates, Adam Frisk, Todd Aalgaard, Diana Ng, Canada.com team, UFC, MMA, Thomas Bink, Greg Oliver, Jon Waldman, Trish Stratus, Spider Jones, Spewgore, Rick Smiciklas, Dana White, Sam Babarinde, Taylor Wilde, Dr. David Reiss, Dave Bautista, Bill Anderson, SVD & RVD, Paul Heyman, Del Cowie, David Kates, Chris Jericho, Anthony Wolf Williams, Scott Chaplin, Harlem, Marcel Jones, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Shazelle, Joey B., The Red-Headz Society Crew, Matthew Lynch, Big Dog, Gail Kim, Angelina Love, Burt the Hurt, BSE Pro, Madison Rayne, Bob Kapur, Dave Blezard, Marlena Shaw, Dawn Langfield, Ite Lemalu, Nick Anthony, OWW Radio, Sun Media, Dave Pollard, Alan Vernon, Sway Magazine, Don Ferguson, Erin Murphy, Bern Nadette Stanis, Tonya Lee Williams, Artie Artwell, Keith Jardine, UFC, Martin Mathers, Fighting Spirit Magazine, Neil Springer, Canoe.ca, SLAM! Wrestling, Nikki Riches, Mike Mastrandrea, WWE, Professional Wrestling, Michele Mupo, Christy Hemme, Jaime D, Emmanuel Melo, Dana, Jade Chung, Cary Silkin and ROH, Cynthea Galbraith, K-OS, Ricky Black, Yush Magazine, Marijke, and especially the Home Team for their efforts.
Owned by news mogul Ted Turner from about 1988 to around 2001, WCW provided a roller-coaster package of memories throughout its existence for professional wrestling fans.
So when we read Jane Fonda's fascinating 2005 autobiography, My Life so Far, we were expecting her thoughts on Ted's baby.
Unfortunately there was none.
What is Jane's experience with professional wrestling? Did she accept it for Ted's sake or was it easy to like from her actress perspective?
Curious, we emailed the question to the two-time Oscar winner via her website janefonda.com, and to our suprise, recieved a prompt response.
So, here it is:
"Shucks, forgot to talk about wrestling," she acknowledged. "Actually, Ted and I went a few times. I discovered it to have the most diverse audience from every aspect, gender, age, race. I enjoyed it–a little…all the made up moves and guys in heavy make up but not too keen on seeing them throw each other around. Liked watching the audience."
Thank you for your thoughts Jane. We'd like to discuss it further at your convenience.
Kenai Andrews Online has some big things coming down the pipeline. First off, Kenai's new blog for the Canwest Global Media network is close to being launched. MMA Crossfirewill focusprimarily (but not exclusively) on the Mixed Martial Arts world.
Kenai has been preparing, interviewing luminaries such as Canadian boxing icon George Chuvalo for the blog.
We hope you will check it out. More details to follow.
The Fab 4: L-R, John Cena Sr., Trish Stratus, Kenai Andrews, Jaime D.
This past weekend saw the opportunity to hang out a bit with some friends, with a bonus of making a new one. Jaime D, who SLAM! Wrestling and KAO readers recognize as the subject of Kenai'sDecember SLAM! story, and I made the journey to the Toronto Convention Centre to catch our friend Trish Stratus's address at the Travel convention.
Trish discussed her experiences traveling to an audience mostly unfamiliar for the most part with her wrestling career.
Personally, its always great to hear and see someone from the wrestling community represent in an intelligent and oratorical way. Trish is a great public speaker. Don't take our word for it though, check out the clip below.
Yes, that's John Cena Sr. in the first row.
All footage was taken with an IPhone 3GS by the way. The quality is adequate, but there doesn't seem to be a zoom, or we don't know where it is yet. We'll have to play with the camera functions more as it seems to need a lot of light for effective videos. The major drawbacks early on seem to be the lack of zoom and the ton of battery power it needs.
This could replace the video camera, which seems to have amnesia at the moment.
At any rate, Cena Sr. is a great guy who loves the business and is pretty quick on his feet. It was fun to shoot the breeze and talk wrestling, and everything. Classic Massachusetts accent. Take it from him when he says wrestling is all about having fun.
It was one of those tender moments seeing Cena Sr. meet Trish after the presentation for the first time and express their admiration for each other and their work.
Jaime and I smiled and watched as the wrestling fans who attended posed with both Trish and Cena Sr. for pictures and autographs afterwards. Some familiar fans were there.
Trish is doing great, and she mentioned she is going to be in a movie in which she plays a bounty hunter. More on in a future column. She also has her travel show, which will be on Discovery HD.
Cena Sr. and Jaime have a million stories and it was great to soak some of them in. Jaime and Cena Sr. had shows all weekend, but we have just heard from Jaime that they went great. Cena Sr. managed Jaime for them.
She's working hard, getting ready for the next level. We believe she will make it.
In any case, it was great putting some fun in the fundamentals.
The layoffs represent 6% of the Rogers Media Television company workforce.
On-air personalities Anne Mroczkowski, Lara Di Battista, Pam Seatle, Farah Nasser, Jee-Yun Lee, Marianne Dimain, Merella Fernandez, and Michael Serapio were amoung the layoffs.
In Toronto, City News at Noon, City News at 5, and weekend newscasts will be cancelled.
The cuts also effectively signal the demise of local news programming in the Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver markets.
Kenai Andrews Online salutes the affected employees with hopes that they will land on their feet in positions elsewhere. Writers and production staff behind the scenes were also affected.
It's been a tough year in media in 2009 and it continues to look that way in 2010. It's unthinkable that there will be no weekend newscasts on CITY-TV, one of the stations that we have been watching newscasts since 1979.
We've grown up with people like Martineau, Anne, Peter Gross, Jojo Chintoh, Suneel Joshi, Lance Chilton, Monika Deol, Lara DiBastista, Pam Seatle et al. We believe Francis D' Souza and Dwight Drummond continue to remain on the roster.
Which gives us the idea of running a vintage all-star newscast team, but we digress.
Kenai and Marcel, at Reelworld photo courtesy Kenai Andrews
2009 will be remembered here as the summer that never was. Lousy weather certainly put a damper on the outdoor activities but when life makes lemons, we're supposed to make lemonade, right?
It's ironic that a glass of lemonade is in the holster as we write this.
By the way, it was pleasantly surprising to interview the fighters as they seem to have the personable, easy-going demeanour of the wrestlers.
Ring of Honor returned to Toronto in July, and Kenai covered the story for SLAM! He was also in the newsroom when Michael Jackson passed away and it was an unforgettable moment to see the story come through on the wires.
A conversation with Jackson family friend Bern Nadette Stanis was arranged. Bern, who many remember as Thelma Evans in the classic sitcom Good Times, spoke candidly on the situation.
MJ, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Misawa... a lot of people passed away in a relatively short period of time.
August 13th saw Kenai's story grace the pages of the U.K.'s Fighting Spirit magazine. A profile piece on Scott Chaplin, a true mixed martial artist was featured. Thanks Martin!
Special thanks to Martin Mathers for the image
Bern's thoughts on Michael were posted to the channel in late August.
September saw Kenai cover the WWE's RAW return with Trish as the special guest host. In fact, Kenai saw the show with good friends Jaime D, Emmanuel Melo, Jade Chung, Dana, and Melissa Coates. The kicker was meeting Trish's husband during the show.
The Toronto International Film Festival was also in full swing, which allowed Kenai the opportunity to cover Tonya Lee William's invitation-only ReelWorld gala event. Kenai rubbed shoulders with local industry heavyweights Dawn Langfield, Richard Leacock, and Marcel Jones, while making new friends including the South Austrailian Film Corporation's Defrim Isai, who marvelled at TIFF's movie muscle. It was interesting to hear his perspective on the industry over there, and how in many ways they are struggling even more to get their films produced and showcased. They do not have a TIFF and it opened our eyes a bit to see that perhaps the grass is not always so green on the other side.
It was cool to hang in the VIP with Dawn and Vivica Fox. As she observed to us during a break: When people stop asking for pictures or autographs, then magic time is over and out. Covering Chuck D's TIFF closeout event was especially important.
Kenai Andrews poses with Vivica A. Fox
photo courtesy Langfield Entertainment
Chuck D signs some autographs at TIFF photo courtesy Kenai Andrews
Back to wrestling, Chris Jericho was an interesting interview as he talked about his work with Big Show, and gave us the deal on the next Fozzy record. Not much of a gamer, but enjoys his guitar hero.
Kenai interviews Chris Jericho
photo courtesy Kenai Andrews
October saw Kenai interview Dolph Ziggler for a pair of articles for SLAM!
Unfortunately MMA continues to be ignored by the Commission, but there is no doubt that eventually it will recognized as a legitimate sport in Ontario.
Kenai attended several local wrestling events with Jaime D and got the lay of the land. Wrestling is so much more than a show, and its funny sometimes to hear people from other sectors of show business put it down when we're all in the same gang.
Look out for Jaime D in 2010. Kenai did a story on her in December and its clear she has her eyes on the prize.
Kenai appeared on the OWW Radio triubute to Eddie Fatu. It was an honor to pay respects to a man and a family that stands tall not only in wrestling but in life itself. Special thanks to Nick Anthony, Dr. David Reiss, Ite Lemalu and the OWW Radio crew.
Finally, Kenai joined Canwest Digital Media's editing team in late 2009.
And that was all she wrote, more or less. There;s a lot we are probably missing, but this recapis pretty much off the top of the noggin.
We'd like to especially thank: Canwest Global Digital Media, Tim Doyle, Thomas Bink, Greg Oliver, Jon Waldman, Trish Stratus, Taylor Wilde, Dr. David Reiss, Bill Anderson, SVD & RVD, Paul Heyman, Del Cowie, David Kates, Chris Jericho, Anthony Wolf Williams, Scott Chaplin, Harlem, Marcel Jones, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Shazelle, Joey B., The Red-Headz Society Crew, Matthew Lynch, Big Dog, Gail Kim, Angelina Love, Burt the Hurt, BSE Pro, Madison Rayne, Bob Kapur, Dave Blezard, Marlena Shaw, Dawn Langfield, Ite Lemalu, Nick Anthony, OWW Radio, Sun Media, Dave Pollard, Alan Vernon, Sway Magazine, Don Ferguson, Erin Murphy, Bern Nadette Stanis, Tonya Lee Williams, Artie Artwell, Keith Jardine, UFC, Martin Mathers, Fighting Spirit Magazine, Neil Springer, Canoe.ca, SLAM! Wrestling, Nikki Riches, Mike Mastrandrea, WWE, Professional Wrestling, Michele Mupo, Christy Hemme, Jaime D, Emmanuel Melo, Dana, Jade Chung, Cary Silkin and ROH, Cynthea Galbraith, K-OS, Ricky Black, Yush Magazine, Marijke, and especially the Home Team for their efforts.
Check the stats:
SLAM! articles written in 2008: 31
Other print and online articles published articles in 2008: 0
KAO videos in 2008: 0
Radio interviews: 1
SLAM! articles written in 2009: 21
Print and online articles published in 2009: 2
Videos, Kenai Andrews Online: 41
Kenai Andrews Online blog posts: 54
Radio interviews: 1
All values approximate.
Thanks to all who stand beside Kenai Andrews Online. It is much appreciated.
Here's looking to 2010. Let's see what's out there.
Kenai Andrews and Jaime D in 2009 photo courtesy Kenai Andrews
SLAM! Wrestling broke through with a book in 2009.
photo courtesy Brendan McDonald
Hello, 2010!
This was a lot of the sentiment we received - off the record - when talking about the year of 2009. It was certainly a topsy-turvy year here at Kenai Andrews Online, but looking back we have to conclude it was a successful year. Don't take our word for it however. What we are going to do here is go back. Way back.
Our YouTube channel debuted in late December 2008. As of January 1, 2010, the channel has racked up about approximately 41 videos, generating 48,000 videoplays. This is a good start, and we have to thank our global audience for taking the time to check us out.
January 2009 was very interesting as Kenai interviewed Trish Stratus in late January 2009. In the process, we both found out there were several fakers imitating her on Facebook and sadly despite Trish and the article warning to beware, many of my Facebook friends still have some form of Trish faker on their friend list. Our advice is to report them and then delete them.
February was a relatively quiet front for SLAM! which allowed Kenai to interview Canadian hip-hop star K-OS for Format magazine and pen several stories for upcoming Caribbean magazine Yush and their website. From what we have heard, Yush's launch has been delayed but that it is indeed coming.
Kenai interviewed legendary actress Sheryl Lee Ralph and upcoming recording artist Shazelle for Yush, but because of the delay, put up some interview clips on the YouTube channel instead in anticipation of the print story coming out. This situation reinforced the lesson that a writer (actually anyone) should always have a backup as anything can happen.
March is always busy as it's the beginning of the road to Wrestlemania. Wrestlemania 25 took place April 5th , from Houston Texas. Kenai had the pleasure of interviewing legendary referee Dave Hebner who reffed some of the Fed's biggest matches. A follow up interview was filed in May for SLAM!
All the while, Kenai was working on a special story [since December 2008] on Rob and Sonya Van Dam's journey with cancer. The story came out in late May. Not much needs to be said, it's simply a special story.
June saw the MMA Expo come to Mississauga's International Centre. Kenai joined Canoe.ca's editing team around the same time, and interviewed several MMA stars, including Jason MacDonald, Frank Trigg, and The Sandman, James Irvin.
Kenai Andrews, with Santino outside The Score studios (2008)
photo courtesy Kenai Andrews
A trip down memory lane, folks. Keep the following in mind when we look back in 2009.
The following is taken from my MySpace blog on December 11, 2008:
Category: Blogging
Earlier, on January 3rd this year I made a pledge to myself to make 2008 the year of making it so. I had just been hired by SLAM! Sports and barely had 2 articles under my belt and a new challenge awaited me.
Now with 2009 beckoning, I believe it's time to evaluate my progress:
January 2008: New SLAM! Sports Member 2 articles written.
Result: Written in December 2007, Porter had not spoken with his estranged son for over 20 years. After the story was published, Porter recieved several offers to help find his son, and tracked him down to the western United States.
January 2008: Contributed on Remembering those we lost in 2007. Named as associate producer for The Spider Jones Show, on Newstalk radio CFRB 1010.
June 2008: Feature one-on-one interview with WWE star Batista in Toronto's Eaton Centre GNC store. Wrote Batista opens up. The story reached 2 on CANOE's top 100 most popular articles.
Profiled wrestling diva Dawn Marie's sister-in-law Carrie Deussing and her struggle with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RSDS). Wrote the story Dawn Marie battles to help ailing sister-in-law, the first of a series which chronicled her situation. Article ranked in the top 30 of CANOE's top 100 most popular articles.
Scored second feature one-on-one interview with WWE superstar Santino Marella. Wrote the article, A fresh start for Santino Marella. The article was ranked in the top 10 for CANOE's top 100 most popular articles.
Appeared on The Spider Jones Show on Newstalk radio CFRB 1010 as a guest along with SuperEyeSpex Optical CEO Mr. Samuel Babarinde to talk about the company. The interview can be listened to here in part 1, part 2, and part 3.
September 2008: Attended TNA's first ever Canadian pay-per-view called No Surrender. Met TNA President Dixie Carter and wrote story called No Surrender crowd runs hot and cold.
Interviewed OWW star and trainer, former WWE star Nick Dinsmore, better known as Eugene. Wrote the story Eugene makes u-turn back to training. The story made the top 30 of CANOE's top 100 most popular articles list.
Wrote the second piece in a series on Dawn Marie's sister-in-law Carrie Deussing and her progression dealing with Reflex Sympathetic Syndrome (RSDS). Carrie was back from her surgery in Mexico and I was pleased to report positive results. Also wrote on Dawn's fundraiser WrestlersRescue which was launched in part to help defray the medical costs for Carrie as well as help with older wrestlers medical bills. The story is called Dawn Marie's WrestlersRescue helps grapplers, sister-in-law. The story made the top 30 CANOE's top 100 most popular articles.
Attended the SLAM! Wrestling sponsored (in part) Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame fundraiser and wrote the story Camaderie the ticket at Titans in Toronto III. Met and interviewed several of the wrestlers, including Gino Brito, Al Campbell, Highlander Robbie, Duncan MacTavish, Big Mac, Waldo Von Erich, and Cyclone and Hurricane Smith.
Profiled HHCCW contestant and Bewitched child star Erin Murphy in the story Murphy bewitched by Hogan's wrestling show. The story made the top 40 of CANOE's top 100 most popular articles.
December 2008: One-on-one interview with WWE stars Natalya and Edge. Wrote the story Edge, Natalya, Rocky pitch in for the food bank. Also interviewed Toronto Daily Food Bank executive director Gail Nyberg for the story, which reached 11 on CANOE's top 100 most popular stories.
Wrote the profile on WWE star Natalya called Natalya by Nature which reached 29 on CANOE's top 100 most popular stories.
Profiled Reid Flair, the youngest son of Nature Boy Ric Flair and his wrestling debut which occurred December 6th in Charlotte, North Carolina. The story, Reid Flair about to strut into the spotlight reached the top 30 of CANOE's top 100 most popular articles list.
Wrote the feature piece Edge keeps it simple, which debuted today. The piece is on WWE champion Edge.
Total SLAM! articles written going into 2008: 2
Total SLAM! articles as of mid December 2008: 31
These are the highlights of 2008. I should also mention doing a Christy Hemme question-and answer for her official message board The Red-Headz Society, of which I am a member of.
I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of SLAM! Wrestling producer Greg Oliver, the SLAM! Wrestling staff and Mike Mastrandrea, our trusty SLAM! photographer for his great pictures. Mike is widely known as one of the premier photographers in the business.
Also the help of Nikki Riches, part of the administration team at WWE star Batista's offical site www.demon-wrestling.com. Her help was instrumental on several stories, especially the Batista-related ones. She helped take pictures on the Batista Holds Court in Montreal story and several others as well. I look forward to working with her in the future.
So there you have it. Did I make good on my pledge to step things up? You tell me.
I’m having a family kind-of-thing here at my home [in Nevada]. I have 7 grands [grand-kids] and 2 great-grands. Actually I have 8 grands; I forgot the baby was born in September. I generally do a lot of cooking, but this year, I’m ordering in honey (laughs). I’m not cooking the turkey myself this year; we’ve already had a big Christmas. I cooked everything, so now I’m going to order from a couple of places. Of course, I still have to cook the greens and make the sweet potato stuff. I have a daughter who makes a very good dressing so it’s mostly family.
My brother will be coming up from California this year so we are probably having a big family dinner and get-together. We usually do that with as much family as possible. I think last year my Mom threw out a message on the internet to family that she was having a BBQ in the summer and didn’t think anybody would really come and tons of people came, so I think she’s going to do that for Christmas this year. We’ll probably have some extended family from Trinidad and the States coming in. At least that’s what I think; I’m never really up to date on what’s going on. I’m so caught with here with the business that I have to check in and sometimes other plans have already been made or changed. (Laughs).
This holiday I will be spending time trying to get my single ‘Keep the Peace’ out and about. I want to raise money for the guys and girls coming home disabled. They are fighting for us so that we can walk around the streets free. It’s a shame that when they come home hurt their life was not what they expected. I want to make it easier for them try to widen their doors, make the home they live in a little more handicap accessible. I have been very fortunate even in the past few years with all the people that I have met. They taught me that you need to appreciate life a little more. If everyone would take the time and do one good deed a day the world would be a better place. Try to forgive and forget…
Proceeds of ‘Keep the Peace’ will go to helping the disabled troops coming home fighting for us. You can go to www.myspace.com/therealfuchsia to listen to the song. Or look at some really cool slide show that Lady Cha Cha from Wales did on YouTube.
The second one is an intriguing choice as many will probably not have much of revered Haitian singer Carole Demesmin. However, she is no less fascinating. She studied at Berkley in California before becoming the country's laureate figure. Fluently bilingual in French and English, she starred in the movie Life outside of the Pearl:
Fiercely political, she discusses many other topics with unbridled passion and savvy. A story has been long planned for Yush Magazine, but the least we can do is put together a quick clip so that people can see that the world is indeed an interesting place.
It's been a busy year for Kenai and KAO and the pace continues to quicken. Much like professional wrestlers, there is no off-season and we do like to eat.
In other news, Kenai has finished a profile on Windsor Ontario native Jaime D, which was filed for SLAM! Wrestling. Look for that in December. Also check out Sway Magazine, as Kenai checks in with a story on fitness and health guru Mr. Roland Semprie.
Also Kenai appeared on OWW Radio's #30 tribute show to the late Eddie Fatu along with Dr. David Reiss and host Nick Anthony. It was an appropiate salute to a man and family who continue to represent professional wrestling to it's fullest.
Finally, Kenai has told us he plans to follow up with some kind of holiday plans story like last year's. Kenai is waiting for some replies to finish that one up. We wonder if anyone can top getting a pony for Christmas, like Erin Murphy did last year.
Brampton Ontario was the scene for wrestling action this past weekend, with BSE Pro Wrestling staging their Xtreme Xmas show at the Terry Miller Center.
We saw Textbook Tyson Dux emerge the victor of the first-ever steel-cage matchup, which also featured Extremo, Kushida, James Champagne, Anthony Fiasco, and Frankie the Mobster.
Extremo (left) goes to work in the cage.
photo courtesy Kenai Andrews
Even the jolly old elf himself made a suprise appearance and was given a warm welcome to the squared circle:
BSE play-by-play team Dave Blezard and Bloodthirsty Bob Kapur filed a special report for Kenai Andrews Online:
Deanna Conda and photographer Emanuel Melo backstage at Oshawa's GCW show
Photo courtesy Kenai Andrews
We had a chance to check out the owner David Wyldstar's GCW show, held in Oshawa last weekend that featured TNA star Cody Deaner, former WWE worker Virgil, and indy female sensation LuFisto. Former WWE developmental talent Melissa Coates also appeared on the card.
It was a good reminder of what makes local shows appealing; a small but active crowd, and good ol' meat-and-potatoes wrestling:
The action was raw and uneven at times in the beginning, but it was always entertaining. We had a good time taking in the talents of Deanna Conda, Sabrina, Jake O' Reilly et al.
Jaime D surprised the wrestlers and the Oshawa crowd with an unexpected appearance and former WWE talent Virgil was there too.
In talking to the Virgil, he seems to be a basketball fan. We shot the breeze about 60's NCAA basketball and the contributions players like the great Bill Russell (San Francisco) and Julius Erving (U Mass) made in their time. He also mentioned he makes rakes in some nice coin in quarterly residuals from Vince and the WWE. According to him, they tally up to the tune of five figures annually, all told, and we're assuming these figures are before the decimal point.
You may laugh at that last quip, but wrestlers - particularly former wrestling superstars - are notorious for big fish tales, so we were not sure how to take this info, given he is active on the convention and indy circuits. At any rate, he was nice to talk to and interacted with the fans well and even cheekily got involved at the end of LuFisto's Happy Holidays video, which is on the Kenai Andrews Online YouTube channel.
We had a blast with Jaime watching the matches and it was cool seeing the fan reaction to her:
Special thanks to Jaime D and Melissa: In case you haven't seen it on the channel, check out Melissa's salute to Kenai Andrews Online:
It looks like Kenai Andrews Online will hook up with Melissa in the near future. More details as they develop.
Doc: The Rise and Rise of Julius Erving is an attempt to shed some light on one of pro basketball's most mysterious figures. What it is not for the most part, is a groundbreaking source of new information. If one can accept this fact, then the book can be considered a general credit, albeit begrudgingly by intermediate Doc fans.
The author of Doc: is New York Times beat writer Vincent M. Mallozzi, who wrote Asphalt Gods and is an Erving fan. The book's handsome hardcover showcases Erving's classic1976 takeoff.
The book comes in with exemplary timing, in the midst of LeBron James and his controversial request to have Michael Jordan's #23 retired across the board, and his decision to honor Erving by wearing his #6 Sixers jersey next season.
Mallozzi cautions that this biography is for those 'who have never seen the great Julius Erving play basketball and for those of you lucky enough to share that pleasure.' Intermediate fans will able to tell fairly quickly that Erving was not interviewed directly for the book (the author did interview Erving for his other book and uses quotes from other interviews). This is a disappointment, but can be mitigated effectively if other credible sources are used.
Keep in mind we consider ourselves to have an intermediate knowledge of Erving's career having read and viewed most Erving accounts, including Loose Balls, Sports Illustrated stories, and the many Doc videos that can be found on YouTube and the internet.
Let's start with Doc's strengths: Erving's childhood and high-school career is examined in good detail, with interesting insights provided by Archie Rogers, a local playground legend who saw Erving come up through the ranks. Erving's high school evaluations are provided and discussed retrospectively by its authors Mike Cisinger and Howard Garfinkel. In this respect, the book does break new ground and makes it's strongest impression in terms of establishing Erving's early diamond-in-the-rough promise.
Doc's ABA juncture is also looked at in a respectable manner. Most of it is familiar territory, but new fans will get a good glimpse of how exciting and important The Doctor (and indirectly the ABA) was for basketball. Good sources are used, including former Nets owner Roy Boe, Doc's former coach Kevin Loughery. Later in the book, other former ABA personalities including Bob Costas, who announced the Spirits of St. Louis are utilized.
Erving's NBA career is covered in lesser detail, as are aspects of his post-career personal life e.g. Samantha Stevenson. We did like the coverage of his transition to Philadelphia and some new (at least to us) documenting of the chemistry problems the 76-77 Sixers team had despite making the Finals, losing to Portland.
Doc's major weakness is that not enough new information is offered from the pivotal colleagues in Erving's career. We would have preferred to have heard from people like Larry Bird, Erving's primary NBA adversary, coach Hubie Brown, whose technical insights are always invaluable, and Vince Carter, the player who most resembles Erving's play today. Issues like Doc's percieved lack of an NBA jumpshot, percieved defensive ability, his transition to shooting guard late in his career, or how he approached the game after his knees began to wear down are not meaningfully explored.
There are some interesting bits from people like former teammates World B. Free and Charles Barkley, opponents Michael Cooper and Dominque Wilkins, but not nearly enough in our view. Dick Vitale's endorsement on the back cover seems odd as there is no commentary from him in the book.
Which leads to the next major weakness, which is the editing. There are so many small and some serious errors in the book, one has to conclude it was rushed to the market. For example, the book states that Erving's legendary 'rock the cradle' dunk over Michael Cooper was during game four of the 1983 NBA Finals, which most fans know is not the case. Wilkins and Cooper are then quoted talking about the dunk as if it occurred during the Finals. This is a serious error, as even a cursory glance on YouTube will verify the play occurred during the '83 regular season:
Darryl Dawkins and his vague, 'Doc was great' commentary should have been left on the cutting room floor. We prefer World B. Free's storytelling ability, as he describes rarely seen examples of Erving's greatness, which is much more effective.
Finally, the selection of photos are absolutely an embarrassment, with little thought given to the lacklustre photos chosen. Better photos can be found in seconds on the internet. It's almost unforgivable and another huge indicator that the book was rushed.
Fortunately, there is enough information and research in the book despite what we have mentioned above to recommend buying this book. The author reveals certain people like Samantha Stevenson refused to speak, making one wonder if other personalities like Bird and Jordan did the same. In any case, score it a regular layup.
