Clippers Fan Turning The Music Game & Hollywood Into His Own Personal Playgrounds

For the past 7 years, Harvey Mason, Jr. has sat just off the court, directly across from the Clippers bench supporting his lifelong favorite team.

“I used to go to San Diego to watch the Clipper games. My dad and I would drive down and watch the games down there,” said Mason. “I loved the Lakers and Magic Johnson as a kid growing up as well, but something about the Clippers just stuck to me. They were underdogs, and I like the way they play. I like that they have a lot of heart.”

Mason’s obsession with basketball emerged at an early age, but it didn’t blossom until his high school years at Crescenta Valley, where he led the state in scoring as an all-CIF selection before eventually ending up at Arizona to play for Lute Olson. A torn ACL ended his dreams of playing professional basketball.

But while basketball may have been his obsession, music was always his first love thanks to growing up as the son of Jazz drummer and producer extraordinaire, Harvey Mason, Sr.

"I always wanted to be around my dad. I love being in the studio. So I didn't really rebel like a lot of kids did. I just had a genuine love and interest in music," said Mason.

I didn't really know what I was going to do. Was I going to play drums like my dad? Was I going to write songs? Was I going to be an artist? But I knew I wanted to to be in the studio, so I ended up developing as a song writer and as a producer. All these years later, here I am."

And where he is is the top of the modern day music game. Having worked with artists from Beyonce and Aretha Franklin to Justin Timberlake and Elton John, Mason has not only been nominated for three Grammy awards, but he’s also the first producer to be nominated for three Academy awards in the same year for his work on the soundtrack to "Dreamgirls."

“For me, I use that competitive spirit and nature that I had in basketball to try and beat the next guy--trying to work harder than the next guy, trying to spend more time perfecting my craft than the guy next to me,” Mason said. “I’ve used my athletic background to hopefully further my music career.”

And that athletic background has also led to another venture: film-making. Mason recently produced the highly-acclaimed documentary, “More Than A Game,” centering around LeBron James and his childhood friends. It was a project that many studio execs either passed on or wanted to turn into a tv show, but when director Kris Belman brought some of the early clips to Mason, his vision went far beyond a Lebron highlight tape.

“I saw the story of these five guys and a dad who knew nothing about basketball,

trying to work together with these kids and grow these guys up as young men.

And to me that was the most compelling most interesting part of the footage,”

said Mason. “There was so much heart there. I just thought it was a story that

needed to be told. It was about basketball, it was about LeBron, but it was much

more than all of that and that’s the title, ‘More Than A Game’.”

The film has received much critical acclaim since it premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Some industry insiders and moviegoers are even comparing it to one of the best sports documentaries of all-time: “Hoop Dreams.” However, such praise was not the original goal of making this film.

“This was a movie that I felt we had a chance to really kind of make a difference.

It sounds like really corny, but people watch this movie and they feel good,”

Mason said. “You know the feel energized and motivated, inspired, and you don’t

get a chance to do that that often. I try to do it in music, and I tried to do it in this

film.

“And I want everybody to see this movie. I want kids to see this movie. I want

parents to see it. I want athletes, non-athletes, and moms because the message in

this story and this film are important and impactful. And like I said, it makes you

feel good.”

Tim Floyd Swept Up In The College Coaching Carousel

This off-season figured to be an active one for college athletic directors. Several good coaching jobs were set to be available, and with a few schools recently making new hires, the coaching carousel is currently spinning out of control.

John Calipari going to Kentucky was the big news Wednesday, but later that evening came the news that Tim Floyd was in Tucson interviewing for the Arizona job. A position that became available following the retirement of Lute Olson. Russ Pennell, who was supposed to be an assistant for Olson this season, served as Arizona’s interim coach but was told quite early that he would not be retained on a permanent basis—despite getting the Wildcats to the Sweet 16.

Floyd’s interest in Arizona was quite peculiar to some. It’s not that often you see a coach move from one job to the next within the same conference. Tubby Smith did it by going from Georgia to Kentucky. But certain programs, such as UK, UNC, KU and UCLA, are on a different level. Any coach would want to take that job. Arizona, however, is not exactly one of those schools.

One obvious reason Floyd would leave the beach for the desert would be money. Arizona will always pays its basketball coach more than USC. But even beyond that, Floyd is not exactly a big city guy. He grew up in the Hattiesburg, Mississippi and went to school at Southern Miss and Louisana Tech. Both of those campuses couldn’t fill up LA’s Memorial Coliseum. As much as money is a motivation for any coach, lifestyle is sometimes even more important.

So with Floyd reportedly going to Arizona, two prime jobs are now available—Memphis & USC. Calipari had tried to get Memphis Athletic Director RC Johnson to hire UTEP Head Coach Tony Barbee, who had served on Calipari’s staff with the Tigers. However, Johnson made it perfectly clear Wednesday that he has much higher aspirations.

Missouri’s Mike Anderson would have been a great choice for Memphis, but Anderson—the last coach to hand Memphis a Conference USA loss when he was at UAB—just re-upped with Missouri for another 7 years.

I think Johnson should make a serious pitch at Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel. He’s done a tremendous job in just three seasons leading the Sooners. Of course, having future number one draft pick Blake Griffin certainly helped. But Capel has also shown his recruiting skills are no joke. He currently has commitments from two McDonald’s All-Americans for next season.

Some might wonder why he would leave the Big 12 for Conference USA. Excuse me, but didn’t John Calipari just prove what you can do at Memphis even if you play in C-USA? Final Fours are Final Fours regardless of the conference in which you play.

Sean Miller is another hot commodity on the coaching circuit. Since moving from his assistant role at Xavier to replacing his boss, Thad Matta, Miller has turned Butler into a mid-major powerhouse. But the question is can he recruit the “best of the best” as Calipari said he did while at Memphis—something Tigers fans would certainly expect the new coach to do.

But even if he falls short of Calipari’s recruiting acumen—which he will—Memphis is a hotbed of athletic talent. A coach could recruit nothing but kids from the Mid-South and keep his program perennially in the Top 25.

With coaches and athletic directors all converging on Detroit this week for the Final Four, expect even more coaching news to start spilling out over the next few days.

Big Money Boosters Want Pitino Back at UK

Earlier tonight, one of my colleagues told me that Arizona was hot on the trail of Rick Pitino. UA school officials thought he would be the perfect choice to replace outgoing legend Lute Olson--the same man, of course, who stopped Pitino from winning back-to-back NCAA titles in 1997.

Arizona was prepared to pay $2 million or more for Pitino to move to the desert.

However, in pursuit of details on that story, I stumbled across this stunner: Pitino could very well be on his way back to UK!

Earlier tonight, Pitino hosted two of Kentucky's biggest boosters. I won't divulge the names of those who attended, but I will tell you that one is huge in the banking business, the other in coal.

According to multiple sources, the boosters traveled to Louisville to persuade Pitino to come back to Lexington and try to fix the mess created by Mitch Barnhardt and Billy Gillispie.

Initially, Pitino was pushing Travis Ford for the job, but the boosters said no. They were adamant about wanting Pitino, and only Pitino. So much so, that they said he could have anything he wanted. "Name your price" was a frequent response from the boosters.

Now, don't get too excited just yet. Pitino did not accept the offer, but he didn't turn it down either. After first being reluctant to even listen to any offers, Pitino gave the boosters the impression that he would seriously consider it before ending the meeting.

And if it was up to Pitino's staff at Louisville, which includes Steve Masiello, Walter McCarty, and Richard Pitino (all with ties to Lexington), he would have said yes during the meeting. Word is that Pitino's assistants are really pushing for him to take the job.

And why wouldn't they? Besides going back to the place were Pitino reached the pinnacle of his career, it would also be much easier to win SEC titles every year as opposed to the jam-packed Big East. If the money is truly as good as I am hearing, it would be a no-brainer for Pitino to go back to UK.

However, that doesn't mean he will take the job. I wouldn't be shocked if he did, but I would be somewhat surprised. Nonetheless, I seriously doubt anything official would come out until after the NCAA Tournament anyway.

But anybody remember when Roy Williams was grilled by Bonnie Bernstein about leaving Kansas for North Carolina after losing the NCAA title game to Syracuse in 2003?

Could we witness a similar scene this year in Detroit? UK fans can only hope!