NBA Players Jammin’ on "Jam in the Paint"
January 14, 1997

NBA legend and SPORTSLINE contributor Bill Walton has lent his pipes to "Jam In The Paint" , a CD featuring lots of NBA current and past players. Bill doesn’t exactly sing(good for us) but instead uses the spoken word to do his verses for a song called "Old Playground". The song was written by musician Bruce Hornsby, whom Bill got to know when Bruce was playing with The Grateful Dead.They have mutual admiration for each other. Bill’s favorite band is The Grateful Dead and Bruce is a huge basketball fan.

"Old Playground" also, features Vin Baker of the Milwaukee Bucks singing lead vocals in the chorus and Dana Barros of the Boston Celtics and Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves with a raps in the verses.

The title song "Jam in the Paint" was written by Phoenix Suns Wayman Tisdale and features lead vocals throughout by Jerry Stackhouse of the Philadelphia 76ers and a spoken word section by Seattle SuperSonics’ Shawn Kemp.

One of my favorites is "Yearning" written by New York Knickrookie and former Kentucky Wildcat Walter McCarty, who wrote the song during last year’s winning season with Kentucky.

"Playmaker" is a fun rap song featuring four guards from New York City—Kenny Smith of the Detroit Pistons, Malik Sealy of the Los Angeles Clippers, Stephon Marbury of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Mark Jackson of the Denver Nuggets.

The "Jam in the Paint" CD has something for everyone. "I Want to Thank You" is a gospel song sung by Denver Nuggets’ Mark Jackson and his very talented wife Desiree.

Dr. J. plays host and leads the listener through the 11-song CD. "Jam in the Paint" is expected to be released around the NBA All-Star Game in February.

A Bitter Buckeye Fan…

Look what came over my fax machine last week from a big Buckeye fan…

"I’m thrilled for the Ohio State team, especially the seniors and the fans but believe me, there is still an argument for a co-national championship nod considering the fact that that Ohio State University had far away the toughest overall schedule and beat an undefeated team (who just so happen shut out Nebraska) on the last game. Who did Florida beat? A team which already beat them. Big deal. Both Florida and Ohio State are great football teams and yet, had OSU blown out Arizona they still would have been #2 because no one considers the schedule. The roses smell sweet anyway as do the prospects for next year. And I don’t mean a decent relationship."

A Little of This and a Little of That…

Country music legend Hank Williams, Jr. sang the National Anthem in addition to debuting his new single "I’m Gonna Knock You Out," which he wrote especially for Don King,at this past Saturday’s Showtime Championship Boxing Card in Nashville, Tennessee…

Mario Andretti, Indy Car Champion, Formula One World Champion and Indy 500 winner is now looking to be a champion in the wine growing business. Mario is now part owner of AWG, LTD-a winery in Napa Valley, California…

Speaking of racing, director Renny Harlin (better known as actress Geena Davis’ husband) and his production company will be producing a feature film about Formula One racing-about time -in my opinion. The last good film about Formula One racing was the 1960’s film "Grand Prix" which starred James Garner.