By Alejandro de los Rios

Maybe I do know a thing or two about basketball. I said the Hornets were playing sloppy, that they needed to wake up and that coach Byron Scott would likely give his team a tongue-lashing at halftime. Well, looks like someone was right.

Though the Hornets escaped tonight with a 118-110 victory over the New York Knicks, Scott said he was less that happy with his teams performance against one of the worst squads in the NBA.

“We waited so late to really start playing defense,” he said. “I thought the first quarter we were terrible, the second quarter we were OK. … I’m not real happy about the way we played.” Read the rest of this entry »

By Alejandro de los Rios

Win and they’re in. It’s that simple: a victory over the listless Knicks would put New Orleans in the playoffs for the first time since they relocated from Charlotte. A loss and the Hornets would have to try again against a Golden State team with its own post-season aspirations (on national television no less).

But despite the Knicks’ dismal record, despite that they team just hired Donnie Walsh to be GM and could thus mark the end of Isaiah Thomas as head coach, and despite Birdman telling me before the game that the Hornets should “blast these guys even worse than the Heat,” the Knicks are not making any of this easy.

At least not for now. Read the rest of this entry »

Badge of Honor

By Michael Tisserand

“Screw him.” Those two words represent the first time I was put on notice by Ashley Morris. With typical bluntness, he had posted his thoughts about some first-person articles I had written for alternative weeklies (including Gambit Weekly) in Katrina’s aftermath. I had described my family’s decision to move from New Orleans and mentioned an upcoming visit for Mardi Gras. That’s what set Morris off. “He abandoned the city; he doesn’t get to go to Mardi Gras,” Morris wrote.

Ashley Morris was emblematic of the new wave of post-Katrina bloggers in New Orleans: fiercely local and quick to take to the guard tower against those who might malign or even misunderstand his beloved home. He was more volatile — and more entertaining — than most writers who cover the city in any media. He lived on the rough draft, which made him invaluable during rough times.

Morris died last Wednesday, April 2, at age 44. He leaves behind a wife and three young children. He is also survived by a legacy of postings on his Web site, www.ashleymorris.typepad.com. Read the rest of this entry »

“New Orleans must be rebuilt, and I say the levees should be armored with [Alan] Richman’s skull as a start.” — Ashley Morris to GQ, Nov. 3, 2006

“Rot in hell, f**kmook, and do it soon.” — Morris to Richman, Nov. 2, 2006

I didn’t know Ashley Morris personally, but as it would be with many people I don’t know but whose writing I enjoy, I was sad to hear he had passed. The news immediately made me think of my closest encounter with Morris, which came during the Chernobylesque fallout from GQ food critic/miserable misanthrope Alan Richman’s laughably bitter drive-by on New Orleans’ cuisine and culture in late 2006. Morris and I shared, via a few spirited messages, our mutual disgust over Richman’s asinine axe job. Of all the local rebukes, Brett Anderson’s was the most eloquent, Richard Peyton’s the most incendiary, and mine, well, let’s just say I succeeded in getting under the old codger’s shriveled skin. But Morris’ series of blog posts on the subject were undoubtedly the foulest — and the funniest. I link to them here out of equal amounts of contempt for Richman and consideration for Ashley. I didn’t know him personally, but something tells me he would’ve appreciated it.

By Alejandro de los Rios

With the Knicks in town tonight to get walloped over by the Hornets (unless something completely unexpected happens), I’ve decided that it might be time to start looking ahead. And what better way to look forward than by looking back? The question on my mind today is why there’s been so little love for the Hornets this season.

I mentioned before I don’t know much about basketball — when it comes to numbers, players and history I have an average scope Read the rest of this entry »

This blog post necessitates an embarrassing confession which I’ll just get out of the way now; I, dear reader, am a stringer for a celebrity magazine. That’s right - when you’re in the checkout line at Rouse’s, skimming a headline about Brad and Angelina’s latest baby or Britney’s latest self-inflicted debasement and wondering who comes up with this stuff, wonder no more. It’s shameless**, underpaid (hint, hint, Gambit Weekly) freelancers like me.

On a recent Saturday night, my cell phone buzzed multiple times, displaying an unfamiliar Los Angeles number. Like all good paranoiacs, I ignored it. But after five calls, curiosity got the better of me and I answered. It was the celebrity magazine.

A voice chirped: “Hi, this is Heather?** And we just got a tip that Brad and Angelina are getting married right now, in the French Market? Can you go check it out?” Read the rest of this entry »

By Alejandro de los Rios

All right, so most people would call it Opening Day, but with all the action on the field, not many may have noticed the field itself. I said it before, but I’ll say it again: It’s brand new, all $1.2 million of it. And the man you see in the picture in the green shirt hosing the dirt before the first pitch is Thomas Marks, the head groundskeeper at Zephyrs field going on seven years. So what was wrong with the old field?

“You get what you pay for,” Marks said.

Apparently, the team hadn’t paid for much. As Marks described it, the old field had no drainage system to speak of. A problem when you’re in a place like New Orleans where sudden, intense showers happen regularly during the summer. On the old field, sudden showers meant Marks and his crew would spend a good 40 minutes squeegeeing the water off the playing surface.

“You got a half acre of water that you gotta move and it wasn’t easy,” Marks said.

Read the rest of this entry »

by Sam Winston

According to several local blogs, NOLA blogger Ashley Morris has passed away. Judging by the reactions, he was certainly loved and admired.

I never met him personally but I’ve definitely read his blog as did many others. He was critical at times of blogofneworleans and I can honestly say we were better for it.

His most famous post probably captured Post-K frustration better than anywhere.

Most of the local blogosphere that knew him better has this covered, but just wanted to let everyone know that we are very sorry to hear about his passing.