Denver Nuggets Latest Move Gets Strong Cosign From Hall Of Fame Coach

Karl was referring to Johnson playing collegiately at North Carolina. Karl also played at UNC. The move gives the Nuggets a rising player in Johnson, who averaged a career-high 18.8 points last season. He is also $12 million cheaper than Porter Jr.

Karl coached the Nuggets from 2005-13. Despite fielding strong teams, he only once led them past the first round of the Western Conference playoffs (2008-09). They won the Northwest Division three times.

AN ICONIC BIRD-JORDAN MOMENT IN SPIKE LEE FILM

As moviegoers celebrate the 36th anniversary of Spike Lee’s ‘Do The Right Thing’, the groundbreaking film is still remembered for an iconic scene that highlighted the rivalry between fan bases of NBA stars Larry Bird and Michael Jordan.

When ‘Do The Right Thing’ opened in theaters across the United States in July in 1989, Bird had just completed his 10th NBA season and was a three-time Most Valuable Player. He led the Boston Celtics to NBA Championships in 1981, 1984 and 1986. 

Jordan had finished his fifth season in the NBA, winning one MVP and leading the league in scoring four times. Jordan also had become a key player in Lee’s popular Nike commercials that featured Lee’s memorable line, “It must be the shoes!...”

Lee’s passion for sports, including his lifelong obsession with the New York Knicks, led him to develop a scene in ‘Do The Right Thing’ that magnified the impact Bird and Jordan had on American culture. 

The culture had a significant racial divide. Most of Bird’s fans were white. Jordan’s followers were mostly African-American. Lee skillfully incorporated this dynamic into ‘Do The Right Thing.’

‘Clifton’, played by actor John Savage, is walking down a New York City sidewalk with his bicycle and accidentally bumps into a young African-American man, rolling over the man’s gym shoes in the process. The African-American man is ‘Buggin Out’, played by Giancarlo Espositio.

Clifton, who is white, happens to be wearing a green Boston Celtics jersey displaying Bird’s name and his No. 33. Buggin Out is wearing his new pair of white Air Jordans, which he says he bought for $108. Buggin Out looks down and sees dirt on his shoes from the tire marks left by Clifton’s bicycle.

The sight of dirt on his new Air Jordans enrages Buggin Out and makes him follow Clifton home, leading to a tense, profanity-filled argument between the two. Clifton is more calm in the dispute, but several African-Americans, including a young supporter played by Martin Lawrence, gather around Buggin Out urging him to go after Clifton and ‘beat his a–!’

“Man, you might as well throw them kicks out,” Lawrence’s character says in the scene. “Those kicks are broke.”

Despite the instigators in the crowd, Buggin Out resists going after Clifton.

“You lucky a black man has a loving heart,” Buggin Out screams at Clifton. “You’re lucky I’m a righteous black man.”

Lee, who played ‘Mookie’ in the film, was not in this scene but his vision was all over it. He managed to start an argument between a Bird fan and Jordan fans over a pair of gym shoes - a black man fussing about his Air Jordans with a white man wearing a Larry Bird jersey.

Clifton eventually got the last word when Buggin Out asked him, “Why are you even living in this black neighborhood?”

“I was born in Brooklyn,” Clifton said.

Lee’s Do The Right Thing grossed $26 million worldwide, almost five times his original budget of $6 million.

MORE BACK IN THE DAY HOOPS COVERAGE

Fans go nuts over Caitlin Clark-Kobe Bryant connection

Looking at one of the most unbreakable NBA records