Stars in 6 Words
Snarking with the Stars
It's become common, in the Age of Twitter and text-messaging, to condense one's writing.  Twitter will permit no more than 140 characters per post, and tweets and text-messages both profit from space- and time-saving abbreviations like "cul8r."  Now the six-word memoir or epitaph ("Not quite what I was planning" could be an example of both) has become a new literary genre, a kind of Westernized haiku.  As it happens, I've been enjoying the narrative (intriguing story lines, like the Lakers flaming out) and lyric (slo-mo images of players moving with grace and power) poetry of this year's NBA playoffs.  Most of the games have been absorbing, many of the individual plays dazzling--enough so that I was motivated to write six-word tributes to some of the wondrous players who have entertained me.  Imagine my surprise when, willy-nilly, many of the brief poems turned out a bit snarky.

Carmelo Anthony     
New
worm                                                 
in                                
the                           
Big  
Apple

Amare Stoudamire
STAT
sheet
filled--
ring
finger
not

O.J. Mayo
Neither
item
featured 
on 
winning
menu

Zach Randolph
Earthbound
rebound
hound
refuses
to 
pass

Kobe Bryant
Black 
mamba
hisses,
another
jumper
misses

Lamar Odom
Anagramming
Lakers
find
doom
in
Odom

Pau Gasol
Wham!
Biff!
Pau!
Oops--
wrong 
cartoon

Phil Jackson, "Zen Master"
Koan:
why
couldn't
Lakers
go
on?

Dwight Howard
Unable
to
carry
Orlando,
Atlas
shrugged

Derrick Rose
MVP
Lone 
Ranger
or
turnover
Tonto?

Jamal Crawford
Seattleite's
jumpers
like
Seattle's 
rain--
unceasing

Chris Anderson
"Birdman's" 
plumage
has
evolved--
game
hasn't

LeBron James
With 
ball,
dynamite;
without
ball,
dud

Dwyane Wade
Harsh
defender,
fierce
penetrator,
promiscuous
shooter

Tim Duncan
Big 
Fundamental
goes
down
going
glass

Manu Ginobelli
Kamakaze
flier
crashes,
suffers
first-degree
floorburns

Kevin Durant
High
percentage
takes,
low 
percentage
makes

Russell Westbrook
Unstoppable
driver
settles
for
pointless
3-pointers

Rajon Rondo
Injured 
playmaker
unable
to
wing
it

Kevin Garnett
Angular
meanie
throws
elbows,
grabs,
hip-checks

Paul Pierce
Heart,
will,
not
quite
enough
skill

Ray Allen
Balletic 
balance,
quick-flick
3s,
no
penetration

Jason Kidd
Your 
shots
irksome--
get
Dirk
some

Dirk Nowitski
Titanic
Teutonic
master
of
one-footed
fallaway

Okay, I couldn't pull the snark trigger on Dirk.  These are all great players, but Dirk, in my opinion the NBA's best shooter ever, is a special joy to watch .

                                           

Latest comments

29.03 | 17:31

Hi Bruce,
I smiled a lot as I looked! Sometimes I didn't quite understand, other times I did! Keep doing this! You are a fun thinker!

05.07 | 23:04

hi! your blog is really fantastic! you are really lucky to have it. I have one but i did not have a single like apart from me

11.10 | 23:42

No longer pray for an outcome. Just do the footwork, if I can see any. I just pray for the grace to willing accept what the outcome will be.

30.06 | 02:37

yo that is so cool