A former NBA All-Star. A Texas energy company chairman. A rough diamond trader. An indicted Rwandan warlord. An innocent flight attendant. This has the makings of an intriguing but short-lived Starz series or a terrible movie staring Bruce Willis but unfortunately this is the real life of Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo.
Kelly Shannon, a flight attendant, is suing Mutombo for unspecified damages after “suffering severe emotional trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder” following 42 days in Congolese custody.
According to her suit, flight attendant Kelly Shannon was part of the crew aboard the plane Mutombo chartered to fly his associates and $7 million to pick up the gold … back in February 2011.
In the docs, Shannon says their departure from the Congo was delayed for 2 days, and when the gold was finally being loaded onto the plane … armed guards showed up, arrested everyone, and held them at a hotel for the next 42 days.
Mutombo has one up on Mark Thatcher. He made it look as though he made out with nothing while avoiding arrest let alone the stain of involvement until much later. The incident doesn’t seem to have affected his popularity.
The armed guards mentioned in Shannon’s lawsuit were under the command of Bosco “The Terminator” Ntaganda who you might remember from such slaughters and rapes as Rwanda and eastern Congo. The former warlord is now a guest of the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Before his European sojourn, he was busy pillaging and terrorizing Congolese civilians and jacking gold shipments.
The Houston Chronicle broke the full story about Mutombo and his involvement in the gold smuggling scheme. The saga ended with Congolese officials arresting everyone on the plane except Dikembe’s nephew, Reagan who left with Ntaganda’s people and the gold.
It’s unclear who ended up with the gold and money but it would appear that the Congolese government, Ntaganda and Mutombo made out like bandits while Shannon ended up with PTSD from being cooped up in a Goma hotel. Maybe she would have preferred Hotel Rwanda or a luxurious government jail. People never know when to quit when they’re ahead. In the words of the gold smuggling humanitarian, “No no no!”
Ugh, remember that dunk? See, when there are dunks like the one below during the All-Star game, what is the point of having an NBA slam dunk contest anymore?
That, friends, is a sick dunk. A sicker dunk than I saw during the whole dunk contest at least. Its a shame superstar player like LeBron didn’t participate in the slam dunk contest this year and that instead we were left with B list performers using black lights from your local midnite bowling alley and jumping over people. Not really all that interesting to me. The utter lack of defense played in the All-Star game these days allows for dunks like the above all.the.time. I mean the final score of the All-Star game was 152-149. There was NO defense being played as evidenced by this awesome alley-oop dunk by Kevin Durant and Chris Paul:
Just nasty. How about some more LeBron?
Ok, for real, its far more interesting to watch guys cut lose in the flow of a game rather than have 10 attempts at a lame dunk that once you’ve seen botched three times you could give a rats ass about. Maybe changing the structure of the dunk contest is in order, maybe paying out premiums for actual All-Stars to participate in dunking contests is called for but personally i’d rather just let the contest die the death it has deserved since Brent Barry won it lo these many years ago. Dumping the contest even might make for some more entertaining dunks throughout the actual game since it would be the only place to showcase one’s dunking prowess. The All-Star game itself is one step away from a Harlem Globetrotters game as is, just let them go wild.
All the information you probably already knew about New York Knicks’ guard Jeremy Lin’s story as well as some info that you don’t all provided for you in one handy infographic. Or should I say, LINFOGRAPHIC?? You should click it to enlarge it.
Former Sun, Laker, Raptor, Maverick and Piston Cedric Ceballos hasn’t been in the news much lately since his retirement from the NBA in 2001, but yesterday changed all that when it came out that Ceballos survived “a series of small heart attacks” and luckily cheated death. Here’s what the former All-Star’s publicist had to say about the event:
Crystal Guy[publicist] says Ceballos, a former NBA All-Star, was scheduled to undergo surgery in Phoenix.
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The 42-year-old Ceballos issued a statement saying how fortunate he was to have decided to have his symptoms checked out at a hospital Sunday. Ceballos thanked all who called in support but the family asked for privacy at this time.
How baller is Cedric Ceballos? This is a man that just “decided” to go get himself “checked out” after SURVIVING multiple heart attacks. No AMBER LAMPS for him. That is the definition of ballerhood right there, (well that and congestive heart disease probably, but i digress). I’d like to see some wannabe sucka ballers do that! You youngins might not remember how badass Ceballos was…luckily, I am here to remind you.
Washington Wizards rookie point guard John Wall is one smooth customer. He is in the middle of answering a reporter’s question when someone dares to rip a fart right in front of him. While he does pause mid-sentence for a brief second, he keeps going with the answer with only a mild smirk entering his face. Definition of smooth, yes? Check it:
Like silk. This kid is going to be a superstar if he keeps his cool like that. Oh wait…whats that? He doesn’t always keep his cool you say? Well dang. There goes that.
