When I open the doors to BSO back in 2005 I wrote down my three main goals:

1-      To give sports opinions from a black man’s perspective.

2-      Not to show any bias and give reasonable opinions based off facts.

3-      To become a nationally recognized sports web site.

Over 5000 articles later I can look myself in the mirror and say I did exactly what I said I was going to do.  Some bumps and bruises along the way, but I did it.

As BSO moves into 2010 the next set of goals will be even higher.

I wouldn’t have been able to any of this without the BSO Empire, so I appreciate every one of you.

So I have narrowed down the 10 Greatest BSO Articles of all time.  Each one for various reasons has a special place in my heart and I will give you a brief description why (you will notice the various designs of the site from god awful to it’s present state).

10- Karma Kobe

This was the article right after the Lakers lost to the Celtics in the NBA Finals.  I had wrongly predicted a Lakers win because of Kobe, but I didn’t take into consideration why he couldn’t win, not yet anyway.  I will always remember the picture of Kobe standing alone in the Boston Garden as the Celtics celebrated. I wrote this at 1am and many considered it my most well thought out article of all time.

9- Five Reasons Manny Pacquiao Defeats Oscar De La Hoya feat: Robert Littal & Floyd Mayweather Sr

Beyond the US guess what country has the 2^nd biggest BSO readership?

The Philippines

They asked 30 people in the sports media who would win the Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya fight and 29 of them said De La Hoya. Guess who was the one person who didn’t?

But it isn’t the predication that makes the story memorable it is the video.

Done in one take and no video better illustrates “Robert Littal” more than this one.

8- 50 Greatest Charles Barkley Quotes /The Greatest Emmitt Smith Quotes of All Time

When I first got on twitter I was told that the best way to get followers was to get an athlete to “Retweet” something.  So I decided to write “Shaq Greatest Quotes” to get his attention since he was the only athlete I knew on Twitter at the time, alas Shaq never responded, but the article was well received, so I decided to do some more greatest quotes articles.

None funnier than the Charles Barkley one or more infamous than the Emmitt Smith one.  Hours of laughs were had from these two.

7- Shaq’s Pimp Focus is Strong Sleeping With Gilbert Arenas Fiance’

This story has only been on the site for a month and is already the 4^th most viewed of all time.  Indirectly this article will be responsible for me being able to “make it partly cloudy” in the club in 2010.

6- Kenneth Darby Gets “JACKED UP!!!” by NFL Ref Garth Defelice

This particular article holds a special place in my heart because it’s the 1^st article ever from an independently black owned website to be featured on the front page of Yahoo.com

I was repeatedly told:

“You will never go mainstream with a website with the “Black” in front of it.”

Guess I proved them wrong.

5- Smarten Up JR Smith Gang Signs Are “Unapproved”

I remember telling Sam the African after this blew up bigger than I imagined:

“Dude it was a throw away article.”

That is what it was.  I needed some content for the site and JR Smith did something stupid so I wrote the article and went to bed.

I woke up the next morning with at least 50 text messages saying:

“Rob they mentioned you on SportsCenter.”

17 radio appearances and a run in with some Nuggets players at the ESPYs later my site had doubled it’s readership because of this“throw away article”.

4- Top 28 NBA Wifeys/Confession of a Groupie 1-3

I would say that the majority of my audience I have acquired in the last 18 months or so.  I always find it funny when one the new readers says:

“I can’t believe you talking about these athletes’ groupies, mistresses & wives.”

Because I wrote the Blueprint back in 2006 with Confessions of a Groupie & The Top 28 NBA Wifeys (which turned into the Top 100 hottest Athletes Wifeys).  I interviewed groupies, mistresses, wives of athletes and even an athlete himself.  You could say I was ahead of the times speaking about nohos, before I even coined the phrase.

3- Who Really Murdered Steve McNair? I’ve Broken The Case

The death of Steve McNair from the beginning I knew wasn’t right.  So I put on my detective hat and did my own investigation.

Months later many of the things in this article were confirmed by Dateline NBC and CBS News.   Of course they didn’t give me any credit, but the fact is while the case is closed questions still remain.

2- The Tim Duncan “Exteme Makeover” (Open Letter Series)

The 1^st article ever written by me for BSO.  It was so deep in the archives I had to go to an old desktop to just retrieve in a back up file.

I have written many open letters since then (ARod, T.O., AI to name a few) it has become a staple series of BSO.

So much has changed in my life since that first article was written, but ironically they way I write hasn’t which makes me happy.  I haven’t been influenced or swayed and I have always stayed true to myself.

1-Darth Kobe

In any craft you are striving for perfection.  That perfect game, that perfect song, that perfect performance and etc.

Like I said I have written over 5000 articles, but I never see any ever comparing to:

“Darth Kobe”

It is my Mona Lisa, my Wu-Tang Triumph and my Jordan 98 game winner in the Finals all wrapped in one.

It is the article that put me on the map, it is the article that put BSO on the map & it is the only article that correctly predicted how Kobe could come out of being the most hated man in sports.

It is all mine.

I was mentioned on TNT Inside the NBA, there was T-Shirts and while Bill Simmons is credited with the “Black Mamba” the origin of “Darth Kobe” starts and ends with me.

It has branched out (Kobe Skywalker, Jack Bauer, Neo Bryant, Karma Kobe and The Silencer).

But similar to most sequels none of the other Kobe articles while good never stood up to the original.

It is when I came into my own and found what I was trying to be as a writer & a sports personality.

It isn’t the most viewed article and it was written when my audience wasn’t near as big as it is now.  For many of you this will be the first time you every even heard of it.

But make no mistake it is the foundation of BlackSportsOnline.

I will never forget being in a McDonalds in Louisville, Kentucky (don’t ask me why I was there).  I was reading a newspaper and two old white guys were sitting behind me and the conversation went something like this:

Old guy #1: “Kobe had 33 last night.”

Old guy #2: “But they lost again, you hear his new nickname they gave him on tnt?”

Old guy #1: “Mamba something”

Old guy #2: “No Darth like Darth Vadar, but Darth Kobe.”

Old guy #1: “That is a dumb nickname.”

I smiled and thought to myself.

“This BSO thing might work out.”