Imagine if a member of Team USA Basketball - let’s say Kobe Bryant – had been traveling to an international tournament only to be seized by a foreign government and held in prison for three years without trial or even hearing the charges for which he was imprisoned. This is what has happened to Palestinian national soccer team member Mahmoud Sarsak. Sarsak who hails from Rafah in the Gaza Strip, was seized at a checkpoint on his way to a national team contest in the West Bank.

In the '60s they said, "don't trust anyone over 30." When it comes to remembering  Adam "MCA" Yauch, who died on May 4, I don't trust anyone under 30. Adam Yauch and the Beastie Boys stood for more than just hip hop and their personal “sounds of science”. They repped the soul of a city that no longer exists.

The Beasties were global ambassadors from a lost New York City since smothered under the weight of police violence and gentrification. It was a city that churned out hip hop and basketball legends with arrogant ease. It was a city where the question “what do you do” was less about your job than what you did after work. It was a city where the clubs you could get into were less important than the neighborhoods you could get into – and out of. It was a city where if you could see over the counter, you were getting served. It was a city where a scuffle on 42nd and Broadway might spark and you would not even blink.

Today brings news that the family of Junior Seau, the former 10-time All-Pro NFL linebacker who took his own life earlier this week, will be donating his brain for study. They want to know if brain injuries sustained during Seau’s 20-year career may have contributed to his suicide. The ramifications are incalculable.