Author: a.aiken

My Final Project:

Frank Ntilikina is the New York Knicks rookie from France and his nickname in the NBA is the French Prince. Every time he scores, Madison Square Garden plays the “Fresh Prince of Belair” theme song which gave me the idea to do a skit mixing his NBA rookie season storyline and the famous tv show together.

 

 

The link below is the final version of episode 1.

“I will always be apart of this community, regardless of where I’m at. I will always come back here. I will always have business here. I will always have family here. So, those things will never change. So, I will always be, you know, tied to New York.” – Carmelo Anthony

This Anthony Aiken reporting from Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Knicks. The blue and orange maplewood tiles still shine bright underneath the concave ceiling of the arena. The sounds of the ball bouncing is still electric, the screech from the players sneakers are still piercing, and the excitement and optimism from the fans outside still add to the anticipation of New York Knicks’ returning. Lets go Knicks! But something is different. On September 23, 2017, Carmelo Anthony was traded from the New York Knicks to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“What you’re asking Melo to do is ‘Here is the ball’. Oh lord have mercy I can’t wait to see him in that position.” – Stephen A. Smith (ESPN)

NBA fans always expect the unexpected and this trade, was just that. I mean, who could’ve seen this trade happening. Well, there is one person. A New York City based photographer Josh attended fashion week a couple of days before the trade occurred.

“Under assignment, you are supposed to be capturing the atmosphere of the event, of what is going on over there. So ofcourse when you see A-list celebrities, people that are so influential such as Carmelo and Russell, your first instinct is to just start shooting. Whether or not you going to actually get something usable, you know, you don’t know. I know that the quality of my work is good, but I cant control what they are going to talk about or what they’re going to do.”

Josh captured the perfect picture worth a thousand words. Hoodie Melo and Triple Double Russ. Carmelo’s last days in New York. The instagram captions are endless. The instagram post on High Snobiety’s instagram page is now over 22,000 likes.

“I was lucky enough to see them joking around with each other, just talking like friends. So, I was getting shots. I had seen them getting a little bit more friendly and then joking around. And then once I saw Carmelo start to laugh, Russell start to tell some jokes, it was the perfect timing. So, I really capitalized on it and got some good shots.”

When you first look at the photo, before the trade, you see two NBA Players, Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook, smiling and enjoying fashion week. Now, when you look at the photo, you see the beginning of what could be a championship collective.

“I’m a basketball fan but in the offseason I wasn’t neccessarily thinking about where he would go. So at the time when I took the photo of Westbrook and Carmelo, I didn’t really think of it too much as a premonition to whats going to happen, you know. I just looked at it like two friends talking to each other. So it was shocking, honestly. When I found the news and it wasn’t until like a hour or two after i found the news. That I realized I had…I was like wait. And I  looked through my photos, I’m like wow, I have a shot of them from last week. It didn’t click right away.”

Now, Knicks fans look forward to the start of the Kristaps Porzingis Era and the youth movement at the garden.

“From Latvia, number 6, Kristaps Porzingis.”

Rovin, a season ticket holder for the New York Knicks, is excited for the future and what Kristaps Porzingis can bring to Madison Square Garden.

“Kristaps Porzingis is quite possibly the best thing that has happened to the New York Knicks since they drafted Patrick Ewing all the way back in ’85 with the very first number one lottery pick.”

Carmelo Anthony will face his old team this Thursday, October 19th on TNT. As far one thing, photos live forever. Shout out to Josh! Feel free to follow Josh on instagram @Josh.Sobel. And that’s all we have for today ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for tuning in to the Anthony Aiken Jr podcast.

 

 

When the creator of a podcast names their podcast, “The *insert creator’s name here* Podcast” you are in for a treat. Joe Budden is a retired Hip Hop artist/lyricist who represents the older generation of Hip Hop fans who simply don’t enjoy the newer acts the genre has to offer. His rants on today’s ‘mumble rap’ era has led to viral memes and gifs that anyone can use to express their emotions on social media.

Joe Budden is joined by his friends Rory and Mal, and occasionally a special guest to discuss Hip Hop and the culture surrounding it. The podcast produces episodes that are around 2 hours long and you can listen on soundcloud, or download the podcast episodes on iTunes. You can also watch the video podcasts on YouTube. The podcast has over 106,000 subscribers on Youtube and 37.5K followers on soundcloud. A good introduction to the podcast is “Kill Jay Z & The Story of O.J.” which is a episode where Joe Budden goes into depth with the first two songs off Jay Z’s new 4:44 album. It is a 8 minute snippet and if you’re a hip hop fan and you enjoy that, I recommend watching the full hour episodes.