The Open Run With Will Strickland

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 190 – Rock Bottom Are we talkin’ Dwayne Johnson, the depth of an addition… or like the foliage of Fall, where every team starts at the beginning of a new NBA season? You already know the deal! This week, Wall $t. enlists the co-hosts of Hip Hop Hoops, Iggy and Woods, to run their resumes and swap bars on This Thing Of Ours called Basketball. In a special e...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 189 – Blackronyms “IBYAYABM!” Meaning? “I’ve Been Your Age… You Ain’t Never Been Mine!” One could lose count of exactly how many times this phrase, and other variations, have been uttered to a someone who’d violated the sanctity of an child-to-adult family interaction. SOGFB. Coded language as a means of survival was a necessity for a group of people forci...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 188 – Late Model Sedan Is 50 the new 40? Is everything old new again? The soon-to-be 40 year old all-time great of the Los Angeles Lakers embarks on another record-setting and history making campaign during The Association’s 78th season, the man whose longevity record is being tied by #HWSBN is once again at the centre of controversy in Toronto, and tired...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 187 – Deep Cover There is an argument in these rough interweb streets as to who the most famous rapper alive today… Many names may come to mind, and when you weigh the pros and cons of your decision, perhaps there will be consensus on who just may fit that bill. What is also fitting as Fall is officially here and with that, so too are the WNBA playoffs, th...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 186 – Winds Of Change In the words of that Immortal Poet, the late, great Marcel Theo Hall: “Can You Feel It? Nothin’ Can Save You, ‘Cuz This Is The Season Of Catching The Vapors!” And vapors indeed you will catch as we blow into fall and that means a couple of things: ·      Playoffs for the most exciting and the most important WNBA season are on the hori...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 185 - #FiF In Toronto, the end of the Canadian National Exhibition on Labour Day Monday generally marks the end of Summer. Similar scenes play themselves out across the country and maybe even the continent as the younglings head back to school and the rest of us wrap our minds around the dawn of Fall: football and foliage. Back to help Wall $t. bring the g...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 184 – Failed Hate Watch You could hear it in their voices, and tightly clinched Arthur fists, whether on screen or off of it, watching the games with baited breath. Rabbit’s feet, rosary beads, voodoo dolls, Infinity Stones and various boxes of Lucky Charms cereal were initiated in full for the fall of American hoops exceptionalism in France. Alas, it was...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 183 – Haliwood, Halifornia “Home Away From Home” seems pretty self-explanatory, but have you ever truly found and enjoyed one? The last stop on the 2024 FC21CA Canadian National Tournament Tour feels like a home away from home for Wall $t. as the community comes together like an Olympic Village to ensure the absolute best presentation possible. And, maybe...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 182 – Viva Las YEGas When you have to reinvent yourself, do you look to the Olympic opening ceremonies for fashion forwardness… or do you sponsor an entire Olympic sport? If your name becomes a verb like Jeffrey Atkins’ did, can you reinvent yourself in something that is so fleeting like celebrity? The answers to pressing questions like these can be found...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 181 – Basking In The Light It is said that what is done in the dark must soon come to… well… You see the title of the episode! Could that glow of America’s promise come in the form of its first woman president, who just so happens to be Black? We may be a bit away from that, if it is ever to occur, but we’ll burn a candle for those who value the idea of de...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 180 - Time In this Life, you may find that Love is the most elusive commodity… and that Time is the most expensive. The continuum offers conundrum in that it eventually ends. And while that feels like a contradiction, and perhaps it is, it waits for no man, woman or child. The End shows up at your door and tells you without ever actually uttering a word: I...

The Open Run With Will StricklandEpisode 179 – Nobody’s A Nobody Not sure if being a star in your role in Life is so much about effort as it is understanding. The clarity, effort and focus it takes to live your dream can’t be understated. But we ain’t gotta dream no’ mo’… because we got MOMO! This week, Wall $t. calls on Toronto Raptors Registered Massage Therapist and owner of the world’s best la...

The Open Run With Will StricklandEpisode 178 – The Stuff In The Basement You gotta do something you never did to get something you never had… Read it again. What does it truly mean to you? Plenty have the talent to go get it… Few have the habits and discipline to not only get it, but keep it. Sustained Greatness. That is the subject matter for the day as Wall $t. tests your chest, doing a deep div...

The Open Run With Will StricklandEpisode 177 – Price Of The Ticket When the late great James Brown said he’s paid the cost to be the boss, it was understood that he’d chosen to do something he never did to get something he’d never had. Are you willing to do the same for whatever your passion is? Wall $t. calls on The Man They Call Twin aka Hussein Abdullahi, Commissioner of the Toronto Pro-Am Summ...

The Open Run With Will StricklandEpisode 176 – The Uncertainty Scale Self doubt can be an evil temptress. One could possess all of the necessary tools to find success and ultimate glory, only to be hamstrung by any number of obstacles, real and imagined. We traverse the sum of all fears with Friend Of The Program and host of Touring The AFC South, Mike Patton, vacationing above the 49th Parallel i...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 175 - The Standard How many of us measure our success and happiness on the accolades and accumulations… of others? Having examples to review as an indication of bar setting is great; using those examples as your bar? Not so much. Well, level up as Wall $t. assesses the first two game of the NBA Finals, primes Vancouver for the start of Full Court 21 Canada...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 174 – Paralysis By Analysis The old phrase “Piss Or Get Off The Pot!” may sound disturbing, but decision making reveals certain character markers that oft times separates the champsfrom the chumps. Choose Wisely. The first round selection to help Wall St. earn them rings and things you sing about (bring ‘em out) is Canada’s biggest Dallas Mavericks fan and...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 173 – Shattered Dreams It is said that there are two sides to every story… three when you include the truth! But with the line between reality and the virtual version of it being so very blurred by disinformation, bombast, prevarication and duplicity, where would any reasonable person when facts are a must?   You’re not saying we’re Number One… Welpington....

The Open Run With Will StricklandEpisode 172 – Exit Ramp Sometimes, it’s tough to know when to say “when”… Imagine being married to the game and knowing, no matter what you did, you could not divorce yourself from it. This week, Wall $t. collabs with a lifer who may never walk away from basketball: Canadian legend and hoops multi-hyphenate Leo Rautins, who has seen the heights and depths of an exi...

The Open Run With Will StricklandEpisode 171 – The World Is Grey How do you dream? Is it in black and white?  It is in Technicolour? During a time where things ain’t always how they appear orwhat they seem, do these dreams get muddied by the doubts, criticisms and insecurities of many who can’t do what you do or see what you see? Never worry as Wall $t. helps sharpen the focus on everything from C...

The Open Run With Will StricklandEpisode 170 – Survivor’s Remorse Regrets in Life have a place for some. Whether you live with them or not, the mere contemplation of what could have been seems to riddle us at one point or another on our respective journeys. How do your remedy the feelings and set your sights on all that lay ahead? Former Boston Herald reporter and NYC political press scribe Ed Mol...

The Open Run With Will StricklandEpisode 169 – Fuzzy Memories Everything Ends. It's not profound; it’s a simple, harsh reality. Whether we’re talking jobs, school, careers or incredible eras of basketball, Time has a way of forcing you to accept the only constant: Change. To evolve and thrive is a sublime samba into the excitement and anticipation of the Unknown, offering opportunity to craft...

The Open Run With Will Strickland Episode 168 – The Wait x The Weight When Age and Time factor into your decision making, we often opt out of the real effort part in making up our minds as desire wanes. But how do we get it back? Not time… we can’t age backward. But we can reignite our Discipline and accept our Responsibility to care. You can pay for it now or pay for it later, but one way or anot...

The Open Run With Will StricklandEpisode 167 – Dream A Whole Dream “We Ain’t Gotta Dream No Mo’, Man…” Those fateful words uttered by the late Russell “Stringer” Bell of the greatest television show e’er writ or spit (NOTE: not subject to debate here) were as true then as they are now when looking at unprecedented time of growth and visibility for basketball that just so happens to be played by wo...

The Open Run With Will StricklandEpisode 166 – Diet Racism Weaponizing words and phrases to mask your truest intent is an art mastered by many, especially those who feel their way of life in being threatened by those who… Well… We won’t do a deep dive there! But, in an election year and divisiveness on the rise, it’d be tough to imagine someone reading this and not understanding our truest intent....