Hip Hop Dare

This week, the bad jersey site Straight Cash Homey featured the jersey of one Yinka Dare, the 1994 first round pick by the New Jersey Nets. As someone who has a tendency of making fun of draft busts, you might think that I would just chuckle at the poor soul who bought that jersey. In fact, I kinda wish I had one.

You see, Yinka Dare and I went to school together -- I graduated from The George Washington University in 1993 (wow, I feel old typing that). That year, led by SI's Freshman of the Year (in your face, Jason Kidd), GW not only made it into the tournament for the first time since the 50's, but actually made it to the sweet 16. Considering that the Colonials were coming off a 1-27 season when I got there, this was quite an amazing accomplishment. (This also reminds me that Dare was the inspiration for what has to be the world's worst sign: Every School Phears our Nigerian. Why ESPN didn't put us on TV, I'll never know) He left after his sophomore season for the NBA, where he went from program savior to laughingstock.

His rookie year, he played a grand total of 3 minutes, and I am proud to say that I witnessed those three minutes. It was the fifth game of the season, and it marked Yinka's return to Washington as an NBA player. We went out to the old Cap Centre to watch the Bullets (starting five of Googs, Cheaney, Duckworth, Skiles, and Chapman) take on Butch Beard's Nets. The Bullets built up a sizable lead, and yet Yinka sat on the bench. We yelled and cheered for the Nets to put Yinka in, and finally, with the game fully in garbage time, they did.

It was quite the confusing, conflicting moment. We were bitter that he had come out early and abandoned our team, but he was still our Yinka. We booed him when he got on the court, and demanded that they feed him the ball (there weren't a whole lot of people at the game to begin with, so by this point, everyone could hear us), and cheered when they did. He immediately threw up an air ball. We taunted him. The next time down the court, the ball just bounced off his hands and out of bounds. We roared. At the end of the game, his stat sheet read: 3 minutes, 0-1 shooting, 1 TO, 1 rebound, 2 PF. He didn't play again that year, and I didn't realize until I looked it up just now that I had witnessed the entirety of his rookie year's playing time.

As the years went on, I just felt sorry for him. He lost a lot of his money in a real estate scam/deal, he had an epic quest for an assist, his teammates teased him, after he was cut by the Orlando Magic he tried to sneak into the team picture, and he died in 2004 of a heart attack while making breakfast. He holds a special place in my sporting heart -- after all, he was the center (no pun intended) of GW's best basketball team ever and the only Colonial ever drafted in the NBA.

So here's to you Yinka Dare. Don't let the bastards get you down (posthumously).

I leave you with this awesome video that most of you will never be able to get through. It features an interview with Yinka by a student looking to be a journalist, Sonni Holland's flat top, and "Hip Hop Hooray" -- the '93 Colonials theme song. So Hip Hop Dare...