Thanks for the shout out, Marcellus Wiley

Our old friend Elie Seckbach caught up with Marcellus Wiley at the premiere of "The T.O. Show" (p.s. love the show!). The conversation starts out about Michael Vick, but in typical Seckbach fashion somehow segues into an Alana G shout out (at the 1:30 mark):



Thanks for the love, Marcellus. When are you starting a Yardbarker blog? You know you want one!

And thanks Elie, as always, for the video!

Elie Seckbach: Lil Wayne's new muse

Our friend Elie Seckbach has been making videos about the Lakers for years and he's probably said the words "Kobe Bryant" on YouTube hundreds of times. Now that distinctive voice has been forever memorialized in Lil Wayne's new jock song about #24. If you're familiar with Elie's work, listen carefully at the 0:45 mark and again at the very end.



You can read Elie's account of the whole thing on FanHouse. Hat tip to Steady Burn for the song.

Video: Manny Pacquiao and his boxing coach Freddie Roach

Contrary to what some may think, I don't spend all my time at the Playboy Mansion! Recently when I was in L.A. for Yardbarker my good friend Elie Seckbach pointed out that my hotel was right down the road from the Wild Card Boxing Club, where Manny Pacquiao was training for his upcoming fight against Ricky Hatton. So we decided to stop by when Pacquiao was working out. Elie is buddies with Freddie Roach and the folks at Wild Card, so big thanks to him for getting us in the door to film this video:



Freddie Roach of course pumped up Pacquiao and his chances against Hatton. He also had some interesting thoughts on MMA versus boxing and some of the MMA fighters he's been training like Anderson Silva and Andrei Arlovski.

Local News in L.A. Shows Yardbarker Video, Credits YouTube

Ohh mainstream media! I took the time to add a Yardbarker logo to my Andrew Bynum hula hoop video, and I even put the link to my Yardbarker post about it on the YouTube page of the video. But Fox's Channel 11 in L.A. covered the logo and credited the video to "YouTube." Oh well, at least the local news viewing population got to enjoy Bynum and his hula hooping.

Here's the clip of the newscast, courtesy of "Television."



I mean... courtesy of Elie Seckbach of ESNEWS. Thanks for adding a Yardbarker.com subtitle Elie!

Alana G Goes 'Big-Time,' Appears in Elie Seckbach Profile

I caught up with my old friend Elie Seckbach in L.A. this weekend and he insisted on embarrassing me with this video...



First of all, my apologies for the voice, I have a cold right now. Second of all, no, I'm not high in this video, the sun was in my eyes and I was also mad sleepy. Third, ummmm thanks a lot Elie for including the part at the 3:20 mark where those girls at the Playboy party try to strip me down.

But in all seriousness, thanks Elie for the video, I'm honored to appear on the ESNews YouTube channel. And I love the title: "Alana G, the Leading Sports Blogger in the Nation" -- prototypical Elie Seckbach hyperbole!

Bill Dwyre vs. Elie Seckbach: Another Jealous Jab from Old Media

My old friend and internet colleague Brett Pollakoff tipped me to this story, noting that I love "media wars." Jeah!!

It seems that columnist (and former sports editor) Bill Dwyre from the L.A. Times took a couple of cheap shots at our dear friend Elie Seckbach, whose one-man-show you may have seen on YouTube. As Brett points out, Elie's entertaining and informative videos have been viewed millions of times in the short time he's been posting them, which is traffic that a newspaper columnist can only dream of.

Dwyre describes Elie's interview of Coach Popovich in a condescending manner, closing with, "You can catch the interview on MyHighSchoolFilmClassAssignment.com." Oooooh burrrnnn!!! The thirty-something-year-old man who is helping to forge the way for new media and kill your own antiquated notions of sports reporting is nothing but a high school film student! Good one, Billy!

Keep up the good work, Elie. Nothing motivates me more than haters, so I hope you feel the same.

P.S. I would be doing a disservice to the interwebs if this post didn't include a shout out to the sports blogosphere's favorite bumbling newspaper "reporter" Niki D'Andrea of the Phoenix New Times. When you get a minute, check out her new blog 'Anal Hipster' (that's not a joke) in which she takes her own nameless pot shot at me. Apparently she's salty that Alana G appears all over the first page of search results for Niki D'Andrea. Google page rank is a b*tch, ain't it! UPDATE: the Anal Hipster post has been removed, but here is the cached version. DANG Google, you really are slaying it!