Rockin’ Steady

Having gotten some sleep and watched the video again, I have a few more thoughts.

First, I’m even more amazed at how well this turned out given the utter dearth of material generated by SAS himself this year. The result was that we were pressed to dream a bit more creatively and edit a bit more judiciously, and really reach in and access the pathos of the character. I was terrified, maybe a bit saddened when I left the arena. Now, I’m nothing but relieved. To paraphrase the odious Klebanow from The Wire, this was a trademark example of doing “more with less.”

Second, people seem to have responded well to not only our humorously conveying SAS’ plight to the masses, but to SAS himself. If he comes across as a sympathetic character even with our mockery, there’s a reason. By the end of the night, I genuinely felt bad for him. As Oscar Wilde said, “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” SAS is a cartoon character, sure, but having watched the draft telecast since, I think it’s also clear that he’s a better draft analyst than Jeff Van Gundy and/or Mark Jackson. As 2/3 of a studio team, JVG and Jax are excellent (although I often wonder whether Jax could be interchanged with any verbally functioning former player). But they know nothing about college basketball (unsurprising) and, seemingly, about evaluating talent (more surprising). To have SAS sit in the corner and listen to these guys prattle on benignly borders on cruel. It actually made it hard to pile on, and to the extent we’ve kinda humanized him here, well, it’s intended. Although not everything he says is, in fact, important, ESPN really could’ve used more of him.

Third, I take back what I said in the earlier post about not having produced a signature line this year, a la “I hereby dub thee, ‘The People’s Princess.’” The fans seem to have latched on to “Et tu, Bilas?” and I can see why.

Fourth, I’m surprised how little the Kenny Smith “Your mouth ain’t big enough to be Stephen A.” line seems to be getting on the interwebs relative to some of the other stuff.

Fifth, it might be just me, but I am incredibly happy that we managed to squeeze in, “Quite frankly, you missed a spot” again.

Sixth, Kevin Love! I still can’t get over that. I have a million questions for him. Had he seen both of the previous videos? Multiple times? Is he just a Deadspin fan, or did he get a hold of these elsewhere? When he watched them, did he think to himself, “I might get the chance to talk to that Stephen A. Smith sock one day?” I had honestly wondered whether we’d run into a player who knew about our act, and my co-heckler Brian — I have to credit him here — predicted that Kevin Love would elevate the game after what had been a lackluster start.

Seventh, I worried about bringing back the Slava Medvedenko line, especially since the Lopez Brothers aren’t forwards. I was wrong to worry. Still hilarious. As is calling Robin “Brook.”

Eighth, Mad World! I was very close to using something else, but this, this was perfect. Please don’t sue me, major music companies.

Ninth, I cannot tell any of you how happy I am to have had my buddy Brian back for this one. Some of the die hard fans may recall that he couldn’t get in last year. Brian carried me for lengthy stretches this year — the SAS inner monologue, for example, was almost entirely him, as was the “bizarre twin language” bit. The reason I’ve gone to the NBA Draft since way back in the days when we heckled Tom Tolbert (tragically, before I owned a video camera) is that it’s a fun thing to do with good friends. Brian is the best kind of friend. Welcome back, big man.

Tenth, I am lucky to have a fiancee who kinda understands what I do here and still wants to marry me. Amazing. She is patient and loving and kind and brilliant and beautiful, and I hope everyone out there winds up as lucky as I am having her in my life.

Media coverage thus far: Most surprising, a mention in USA Today, albeit a slightly erroneous one…

Another fan wearing a Knicks jersey claims to be a Stephen A. Smith impersonator, and heckles Rose. And another, wearing a Bulls jersey, holds a poster featuring the franchises’ Larry O’Brien trophies, asking for an autograph. But the parade is on, and Rose can’t stop.

That kid actually wasn’t one of us, but a hilarious young dude named, I believe, Sivan Yacobian from Great Neck, NY (he was mentioned in Ben Collins’ Slam Online article). He was wearing a Kurt Thomas jersey (respect) and has been one of our biggest fans. I saw him at the ticket line at 6 am, and then later, at the draft, he offered Derrick Rose candy in what was an inspired move (even though it wasn’t Gummi Bears). Anyway, we were also going after Rose some, but not as effectively as this guy.

Other media: Deadspin more or less buried us in this Gallinari post — I kinda suspected Leitch had gotten a wee bit tired of us, and it was a special day around those parts anyway — only to do another post over the weekend. That second post featured what I believe is a first for us: a Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society of Gentleman tribute animation, which we have since gladly linked from the youtube page of this year’s video. Behold its glory:

Some may say it’s short and silly, almost willfully stupid. I say, it’s everything the Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society of Gentlemen is all about, and we grateful hecklers appreciate the kickass work.

The rest of the blogosphere has reacted warmly to us, from the tremendous folks at Awful Announcing (who also sympathize with SAS) to AOL Fanhouse (where Will Brinson called the “entire freaking thing” a highlight but also really enjoyed “Et tu”, to the Big Lead, which labeled the video “very, very aggressive stuff,” although that was mostly because they needed something that started with the letter “V”.

That’s it for now. Incredibly, as of 6:40 PM, more people have seen this that can fit in the arena at MSG, and we’ve got a 5 stars out of 5 rating on Youtube 200 votes in. I don’t think either of the first two graded that highly at ANY point, making this year’s edition something of a critical darling. What a country!

I haven’t slept more than 4 hours in the past three days, so forgive the probable jumbled nature of these thoughts.

I think this is the weakest video yet, yet in a lot of ways the most impressive. On the one hand, I think it’s lacking in genuinely “clever” moments — there is no “People’s Princess” line here, nothing close. On the other, we had to confront the unique challenge of dealing with no SAS on the actual panel, which meant no ridiculous SAS hyperbole upon which to feed, and I think the results were pretty solid. On the one hand, the player interactions are, on average, a bit less funny. On the other hand, Kevin Love turns out to be a fan of the SASHSG, and Joe Alexander a delightful gentleman. On the one hand, this was the first year in which we didn’t even TRY to have SAS hear us in the studio. On the other hand, we also had our most direct brush with SASness–purely by accident (which is why I sounded so unprepared. I was just plain stunned).

I don’t think it’s the Godfather III (or Police Academy 6) of the series, by any means. But I think 2007 remains the best of the bunch, by a lot. I did like that the overall mood was a bit darker this time.

Also, yes, thanks to Will Leitch for linking and filling our lives with the amusement that comes with minor internet celebrity, not to mention running perhaps my favorite website. He leaves Deadspin today, and will be sorely missed.