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TJ & Texas360Now

Posted by on July 19th, 2009 under Basketball, Football, Recruiting

Came across this story on the always excellent Texas Sports:

Catching Up with T.J. Ford.

TJ took me to New Orleans to watch the Horns play in the Final Four and for that trip, I’ll always be indebted. When you lose a National Semifinal to ‘Melo and Mc but are able to salve those wounds with copious Abitas and a full steak dinner at Dickie Brennan’s which starts at 1:45 a.m., it’s a great trip. Put ‘Melo on TJ’s team and you win it all.

Anyway, TJ is launching a new venture on the web tomorrow (along with Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Roayl Ivey, DJ Augustin and it’s called: Texas360Now

A bit about it courtesy of Texas Sports:


Q: We’ve heard you are about ready to launch a new web site in conjunction with several other former UT players who are now in the NBA. Fill us in on the details.

A: Our web site will launch on Monday, July 20 and fans can find it at www.Texas360Now.com. I’m doing the site along with Royal Ivey, Kevin Durant, D.J. Augustin and LaMarcus Aldridge. We’re going to start with some videos of things we’ve been doing this summer. It will show our workouts and the five of us messing around with each other. The site will let people into our worlds and show people who we are. It hopefully can show people what we put into training and what goes into being a professional athlete.

We also thought we should create something that the whole state of Texas can follow. We understand that it can be a hard task for everyone to follow you like they did when we were in college, so basically this site is designed so that you can follow any professional athlete who is from the state of Texas. We’ll also have a high school section, where we will profile the high school kids. It should be a one-stop shop, so we hope all our fans go check it out when we launch it on Monday.

Q: Where did the idea of this site come from?

A: I went to a fashion show in Houston and met a photographer, Dan Rios. I wanted to get some photos done of myself hanging around my house. He dropped by my house and the photos turned out great. Royal and I are obviously great friends, and he liked the photos as well. We talked some more and decided to get the five of us together and shoot some videos of just us being ourselves. We ended up shooting the videos together in Austin earlier in the summer, and it turned out well. We weren’t really trying to create anything but once the videos were shot, so instead of just doing the video we might as well make it as big and as good as we could.

Texas

Q: How close are the former Texas guys who now make a living in the NBA?

A: The five of us who are doing this site together are close. The web site is our vision and our ideas together. We’re trying to show people that we do work together and how we keep that bond. We’d like to show people what kinds of things you can do when you show support for one another and put your heads together.

I’ve also heard from Gerry Hamilton of Burnt Orange Beat about this who as always is very plugged in and involved. The guys plan to really offer a more candid and informative view of Longhorn players (collegiate, NBA, NFL, etc.) – daily workouts, blog updates, etc.

They will also be giving away a lot of cool stuff like jerseys, autographed basketballs, etc. My only request is more footage of these dudes scrimmaging at the Denton Cooley facility.

Another interesting angle concerns high school sports. TJ and Royal’s vision is to look at some of the best players in Texas, but additionally check in some prospects flying under the radar. Royal Ivey gets this like few others and TJ has a real desire to help all sorts of kids get scholarships and succeed.

So head over tomorrow and get an account. We Barkers are looking forward to hanging with the Horns.

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18 Responses

  1. Vasherized said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 4:08 am

    Badass.

    A huge testament to the program Barnes has built and yet another great recruiting tool.

    Incidentally, BC was launched in a similar fashion after Sailor invited a dude over to snap some casual glamour shots. They just haven’t been posted yet.

  2. The General said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 5:45 am

    Those photos are also awaiting recognition by the State of California of the official ceremony. Someday, Scipio and Sailor’s private lives will be legitimized by the state.

    Hope.

  3. Nordberg said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 5:52 am

    I’m really not interested until Jose Nassar and Hank Dudek are on board.

  4. srr50 said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 6:26 am

    Another interesting angle concerns high school sports. TJ and Royal’s vision is to look at some of the best players in Texas, but additionally check in some prospects flying under the radar. Royal Ivey gets this like few others and TJ has a real desire to help all sorts of kids get scholarships and succeed.

    Really? My first thought reading the begining of this was “This is a nice way to showcase UT as a basketball destination to recruits.”

    That paragraph however, strikes me as a huge red flag to the the NCAA. They consider former players (especially professional athletes) as “agents” of the University. I cannot imagine the NCAA would let former players comment on possible recruits, much less publicly promote them, even if they aren’t pushing them to Texas.

  5. Facebook User said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 7:07 am

    srr – We’ll see what they have in store but I think the idea is less about steering kids toward specific destinations and more about just showingcasing their talents.

    Of course the fact that these dudes are all badasses who played at Texas is great for the overall halo effect of the program. Obviously these dudes are in close contact with Barnes and wouldn’t do anything to get him in hot water.

    That said, the idea of the the NCAA recognizing in red flags in the world of the college basketball recruiting is sort of silly.

  6. srr50 said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 7:49 am

    That said, the idea of the NCAA recognizing in red flags in the world of the college basketball recruiting is sort of silly.

    Except this strikes me as “low hanging fruit” where the NCAA can make noise about regulating the sport when all they are doing is just making noise.

    And I can’t believe that Kansas and OU won’t be bitching about it from the start — unless of course it starts a trend and all the schools have websites like this.

    Who knows, maybe we can solve the street agent problem internally.

  7. Facebook User said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 7:55 am

    …unless of course it starts a trend and all the schools have websites like this.

    To be clear it’s not a school site. It’s a site run by alums. If Blake Griffin wants to start a site with Mookie Blaylock and Hollis Price where they blog and post videos of themselves working out or whatever, more power to ‘em.

    Anyway, I hear what you are saying but must believe they’ve considered this and are doing it in a way that doesn’t give Barnes or DeLoss a lot of heartburn.

  8. srr50 said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 8:31 am

    If I’m Bill Self and I see a site like this run by UT players in the NBA I sure as hell would want one. I also would want to know who is behind it (who designed it, who is in charge fo the day-to-day operations, and do they have any connection with UT, etc.

    I love the PR value of this site for Barnes and Texas, but the idea of it also getting into recruiting is sure to bring in the other Big 12 schools for a look.

  9. Bob in Houston said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 8:47 am

    I’m with srr, can’t imagine the NCAA would allow this, at least not with the Texas tinge.

  10. Bob in Houston said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    …OTOH, I can’t imagine them putting up the site without clearing it with their former coach and the compliance office first.

  11. Facebook User said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    Bob –

    Just as I said:


    Anyway, I hear what you are saying but must believe they’ve considered this and are doing it in a way that doesn’t give Barnes or DeLoss a lot of heartburn.

    As for Bill Self, let’s just keep an eye on his assistant coaching hires. I have to think Bill Self is the last person in the world who is going to start winging rocks at houses.

    It’s not like these guys are working the shadows of the sneaker scene. It’s a very public web site that deals with what they are up to now.

  12. The General said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 2:03 pm

    Because it is illogical and the wrong thing to do, I expect the NCAA to go on a crusade against this site.

  13. Vasherized said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 2:03 pm

    I caught up with Gerry on this earlier today.

    It’s not going to just be UT-centric. Eventually guys like Jason Kapono, Acie Law IXV, Mo Williams, and other NBA players will blog on the site.

    Per TJ, the high school recruiting aspect is more geared towards guys that normally wouldn’t get the attention of a Texas or OU to help generate some recognition for lesser known players.

    Since it’s the first site of its kind, I’m sure it will attract some attention from other programs and perhaps the NCAA but it’s hard to prove anyone is violating any NCAA rules. As opposed to, say, Memphis boosters just hand delivering briefcases of cash.

    Theoretically, of course.

    Gerry’s analogy is how is it any different from former players sponsoring AAU teams and paying for a recruits’ travel, expenses, and clothing?

  14. Bob in Houston said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 6:02 pm

    Sailor, occasionally I am guilty of not reading threads closely…

  15. Facebook User said:

    July 20th, 2009 at 6:55 pm

    Well, if there’s one guy to just skim, it is I.

  16. HenryJames said:

    July 22nd, 2009 at 5:38 am

    Statesman article about it.

  17. Vasherized said:

    July 22nd, 2009 at 1:58 pm

    Drew Stubbs is onboard. He’s in AAA for the Reds, hopefully figuring out how to hit a MLB curve ball.

  18. SA Bitch-ell said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 6:03 pm

    Nothing better than late night Dickie Brennan’s with someone named Stew Dog that skips out on the bill and then laughs about it as he’s drinking his next free beer right down the street.

    Only the real round ball fans stayed for the KU v Syracuse final…which btw was awesome.

    My seats were right next to Mack and Ricky. Where did you sit?

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    Nice job with this – and welcome to the network, on behalf of Better Off Red. See you at the Fantake retreat in Vegas that Sailor Ripley is sponsoring this summer!

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    I volunteer myself.

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    TP welcome to the network.

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    I’m convinced.

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