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Songs are sign posts of our past

Everyone has certain songs that take you back to another place and time, songs that trigger physiological changes in your body. These songs may conjure up ghosts, pleasures, anguish, and broken-hearted pain.

They may be sad songs; they may be bad songs. They cast a spell on you. (Insert ‘Screamin’ Jay Hawkins here.) They may be classics. But when they come on, you turn that radio up. (Insert Van Morrison song here.)

My song for this episode of Signpost Songs is a song you probably never heard of. It’s called ‘Down South’ and it’s an original song by the two-person band (duo?) called A Brief View of the Hudson.)

I heard this song as I was driving home from work one night across the Richmond Bridge sometime around 2005,

Anyway, I called the Berkeley public radio show which had broadcast the song. He said something ‘like what song we talking about here?’ I said that’s why I am calling. I ended up having to hum a few bars with words that I remember. I’m singing “And we drive down south and we drive down south. OK, he says, that’s ‘Drive Down South’ (no? really?) by ‘A Brief View of the Hudson.’ He knew nothing about the song and he was busy, kept me on hold for 15 minutes.

So I put in a lot of effort to get this song. It remains one of my favorites, melancholy, laid back vocals that make you believe they knew heartache and then, the refrain.

And then we roll down south

And you try to figure out what you just could not figure out.

Relocating from California to Alabama was a big decision and the song provided the soundtrack.

And we drove down s

SOUTH VIDEO HERE:

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‘Mac Daddy’ McClung and Me

(This is an opinion article.)

I was going to write this sooner but I didn’t.

In case you missed it, Matthew ‘Mac’ McClung didn’t either. Miss, that is.

The newly signed Philadelphia 76ers guard soared to victory at the NBA’s AT&T All Star Slam Dunk Contest last month, making perfect scores on four of five dunks, hitting all of them on the first try, and bringing down the house in Salt Lake City.

Three weeks before the Feb. 18 dunk contest I met McClung in Birmingham after his Delaware Blue Coats beat the Birmingham Squadron of the NBA’s developmental league called the G-League.

Actually, I literally just bumped into him as I was beginning to exit. Being a little shaky due to my Lewy body dementia, I said excuse me before I knew it was him.

‘Mac McClung,’ I said, as I reached out my hand. ‘I’m a big fan. Ever since the mixtapes.’

It’s fair to say that neither one of us at that time knew how utterly big and famous Mac would be in three weeks.

Just winning the dunk contest doesn’t mean McClung will succeed in the NBA. But it does mean there will be more eyes on him, millions more. So, it’s his time to shine.

Speaking of eyes, I was eye-to-eye with him, and he didn’t seem to be the advertised 6’2.” I am 6′ and one-half inch. I felt like I had an inch on him. And I think I’ve shrunk a little bit. But it was close. Could have just been how we were standing.

Besides he can just grab an inch or two extra from his vertical and add it to his height. I think I’d need four-foot arms to start thinking about dunking like Big Mac.

I told him that I was a big fan and used to do some of those moves you showed tonight about 40 years ago. (I could never dunk.) He said something nice back like ‘I bet you can still do some.’ (Or something like that).

McClung’s was more or less in the minors playing for the Delaware Blue Coats when he got the call-up from NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. The Sixers are the Blue Coats’ affiliated team. He was signed to a two-way contract which allows him to play for both the 76ers in the NBA and the Blue Coats, depending on a team’s need at any given time.

Until now, the people who had heard of him, if at all, were because of viral videos of McClung’s dramatic dunks during games at high school in Gate City, a very small town in Virginia.

He broke Allen Iverson’s statewide scoring record in high school and played three years of steady but not spectacular college ball: Two seasons at Georgetown and one at Texas Tech, before declaring for the NBA draft. He averaged 14.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists for his college career.

I believe Mac McClung is an NBA player,” said Warriors Coach Steve Kerr, addressing media after Summer League.

But Kerr went on to explain that he was not taking him at Golden State because the team was looking for the stretch guard/forward position.

At 6’2” and a relatively short wingspan, McClung didn’t fit the bill. Others have questioned his defensive game. There were concerns McClung couldn’t guard the long 6-foot-7-inch athletes that teams are lining up with in the shooting guard and, even point guard, positions.

But McClung appears to be continuing to progress in harnessing his extreme athleticism. He’s tearing it up with the Blue Coats, averaging 19 points, 2.5 assists and 4.1 rebounds, hitting 57 percent of his shots.

At 43.5 inches, his vertical leap is among the top 10 in draft G League combine history, including the NBA.

But alas, following moderately successful college stints at Georgetown, and Texas Tech, he went undrafted in the 2021 draft. He certainly didn’t fit the usual mold of an NBA player at 6-feet-2-inches tall and 185 pounds. And yes, if you haven’t figured it out by now, he is white.

He now becomes the second white man to win the decades old NBA Dunk Contest. Brent Berry won it in 1991.

It was almost as if McClung has had to work harder to prove himself because scouts, coaches, and general managers can’t believe their eyes. McClung’s game and appearance don’t show up on the metrics being used to evaluate a player. McClung doesn’t meet the ‘eye test.’

In size and to a degree — basketball ability — he reminds me of Allen Iverson, mentioned elsewhere in this article. He won a dunk contest at an event hosted by Iverson in 2118, showcasing a between the legs dunk called an East Bay.

It didn’t take viewers of the latest slam dunk contest in Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City to know they were in for a special night. On his first dunk, McClung, soared over two people — one on the shoulders of the other — grabbed the ball from the top of the head of the highest individual, tapped the backboard with the ball and then reverse dunked.

That’s a lot of hang time.