Kory Bailey, former UNC receiver and currently #6 on the all-time receptions and receiving yards list, spoke to HeelsBlog last week about what he's up to now. He keeps busy with an interest in the Chapel Hill nightlife scene, marketing a fitness club, and not giving up on professional football just yet.
Kory's still in the area, working in marketing and promotions for O2 fitness. He primarily works at the Cary location.

"I was working out here and knew that they were getting ready to expand the gym," Bailey says. "I started doing some great things out here as far as marketing and promotion."

Kory is a minority owner in Avalon nightclub, Carolina Blue Bar, and W.B. Yeats Irish Pub in Chapel Hill as part of HC Bar Group.
"November 2003 is when I got involved with that," he says. "Myself, Danny Davis (who's an ex-football player and is involved with that too), and one of my friends from high school, Greg Boone." There are a lot of ties to UNC, Bailey says. "It's actually a group of about 7 of us and 6 of us went to Carolina."

Playing in the Canadian Football League gave Kory some capital to invest in the bar group.

He says each bar has a different atmosphere. I mentioned to Kory that I played open-mic nights at W.B. Yeats during my time in school.

"We haven't done open mic nights in a few months, but we have live music at least twice a week," he says. "We do an 80s night on Fridays." He says Yeats hosts mixers and events for greek organizations, and sometimes musicians bring their instruments to jam. "You pretty much play for free."
In addition, Yeats has hosted comedy nights. "There are soem pretty funny comics," he says. "There are a number of different things that we're trying to do."

"Avalon is an 18 and up club and it's a dance club," Bailey says. "You get a younger crowd." He says some of the basketball players frequent the 21 and up VIP lounge upstairs at Avalon. "It's a pop culture crowd."
"At Yeats we have a number of regular customers that are older," he says. There is an after-dinner crowd and after-hours bar crowd. "And for a game of bar golf - they always hit Yeats."

"Carolina Blue Bar is beer only," he says. "There are 8 TVs in there; it's kind of a sports bar. It was absolutely packed for the national championship."

Next time - Kory's experiences with reality television.
After that - reflections on football and what's next.

It looks like UNC alum (and fellow Wayne County native) Greg Warren will be on the Pittsburgh Steelers' roster when they open the season next week.

From the above-linked article:

Mike Schneck, the team's long snapper the past six seasons, will be cut today in favor of rookie Greg Warren. Linebacker Alonzo Jackson was told that he will be released today, and it appears that rookie fourth-round draft pick Fred Gibson will be waived.

Bad news for Schneck, of course, but he'll find a job. Congratulations to Greg and good luck!

Tonight was the World's Greatest Alumni Game as hosted by Jerry Stackhouse and Antawn Jamison at the Dean E. Smith Center. A bunch of Carolina alumni and former area players hit the floor for charity and fun.

The game turned in to the J.R. Smith show before long. Smith played with the Tar Heels. At first, I was a little elitist about it. "He said he would come and didn't; he shouldn't be playing with the Heels."

Well I didn't mind for very long. The kid is incredible. I was disappointed he jumped from high school, but he made the right decision for himself. I don't have official stats, but he had to be the leading scorer.

Chris Paul, Daniel Ewing, Dahntay Jones, Darrell Armstrong, Rodney Rogers, Josh Howard, Flip Murray, Rasheed Byrd(?) and Chucky Brown put up a good fight, but fell 139-126. I think that's the right score.

Noticeably absent: Rashad McCants, Vince Carter. Allen Iverson was announced as the guest coach for the second half, but did not show.

Present but not playing: Antawn Jamison, Marvin Williams, Melvin Scott and Jackie Manuel.

All in all, it was a good night. I'll post some pictures soon.

In addition to the four drafted rookies, at least four former Tar Heels will play summer ball for NBA teams. Jawad Williams will hoop it up with the Warriors, Ed Cota will try to make the Wizards, Kris Lang with the Blazers and Jason Capel with the Bobcats.

I don't expect the summer league games will be broadcast on regular cable (like they were when LeBron James was drafted), but it should be interesting to follow how the drafted guys play as well as if anyone else gets picked up.

Where's Jackie Manuel?

Well, tonight's the big night. Marvin goes to Atlanta at #2, Raymond and Sean to Charlotte with picks 5 and 13, respectively. Rashad right after at 14 to the T-Wolves.
I'm proud of our guys and look forward to following their professional careers.
As of right now (11:00 pm), Jawad Williams has not been drafted.

The Bobcats did themselves a huge favor both on the court and financially. Their selections of two Tar Heels will work wonders for their ticket and merchandising sales. Plus, grabbing the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four in 2004 worked out for them (Emeka Okafor was Rookie of the Year).

So you won't have to go far to see your Tar Heels. Raymond and Sean get an excellent opportunity to learn the pro game together on a young, improving team. I won't say they'll make the playoffs next year, but they're building a foundation.

I'll post links and more reaction tomorrow.

So there's not a whole lot going on nowadays. Not a whole lot of news. Not a whole lot to read, recap and react to. Readership is down, but I expected that.

Right now I'm watching Game 3 of the NBA Finals, hoping Larry and Rasheed can get this thing together. It's interesting to think about the degrees of separation and how Carolina basketball permeates professional basketball. I bet you could connect any NBA player to a Carolina guy in less than two degrees. Either a) is an alum, b) has been coached by an alum, or c) has played with an alum. The next degree would be has played with someone who has played with or been coached by an alum. I haven't tried it, but I bet you could do it.

Russ Adams is mentioned in an article in the current ESPN the Magazine about young shortstops. Congrats to another Carolina guy.

The first student-athletes were recognized by the Carolina Leadership Academy in its first season.

Nine Tar Heels received the Carolina Leadership Academy's highest honor, the Three Dimensional Leader (3DL) Award. Winners of the 3DL Award for the 2004-05 school year were Darian Durant and Jason Brown (football), Emily Glunz and Julie Domina (rowing), Carey Fetting-Smith (field hockey), Alice Schmidt (cross country), Lindsey Stover and Gina Allen (women's lacrosse) and Katie Wright (volleyball).

The 3DL Award is determined by the ratings given to captains and team leaders by UNC coaches and teammates using the Team Leadership Evaluation, which measures a leader's ability to be an effective leader vocally and by example.

Congratulations to those folks.

Email me with tips. Thanks for readiong.

Well I was going to let you know exactly who was where in preparation for this month's NBA Draft, but Adam Lucas beat me to it.
He gives a great update on who's been where, who's hurt, who's sick, and who's climbing up the charts.

Thanks Adam.

You all remember Kory Bailey. A Durham native, he was one of the best and most consistent receivers in recent Carolina football history. He spent some time in the CFL as an Edmonton Eskimo.

Well he's back in Chapel Hill running some clubs and pretty much being an entrepreneur. In fact, he's a finalist on a show on Fox 50 called 'Entrepreneurs.' From what I understand, it's kind of like a local 'Apprentice.' But the winner gets to head an international business.
Ever been to Avalon? That's Kory's club. His group owns WB Yeats as well. I spent some time at their Open Mic nights back in my heyday.

Anyway, vote for Kory today and every day at this link.

I talked to Kory today. He's always come across as a good guy and he did some great things for UNC football. Let's help him out.

Yeah, I hate the NBA too, but I enjoy following our former Heels.  Here's a list of who's left in the playoffs.

Vince Carter - New Jersey Nets
The Nets will lose in 6 games or less to the Heat, unfortunately.

Rasheed Wallace & Coach Larry Brown - Detroit Pistons
Face the Sixers in the first round. Should be interesting, as it's a series featuring Brown against the team he took to the Finals a few years back.

Jerry Stackhouse - Dallas Mavericks
Nice 4/5 matchup between Mavs and Rockets. Jerry has been playing very well as the 6th man for Dallas.

Antawn Jamison & Brendan Haywood - Washington Wizards
Another good 4/5 matchup between Washington and the resurgent Chicago Bulls. Luol Deng and Chris Duhon play for the Bulls.  All the more reason for Washington to crush them.

Jeff McInnis just missed the playoffs with the Cavs (New Jersey claimed the #8 spot), but we almost had our famous "almost greatest team ever" with McInnis, Stackhouse, Wallace, Carter and Jamison represented in the NBA Playoffs.

P.S. If you ever wonder where Steve Bucknall or Dante Calabria are playing, check this website's ex-NCAA tracker. Some of the NBA stuff is outdated, but it's nice to know that our guys are out there.

So the HBG and I made the trip to see the Charlotte Bobcats play the Dallas Mavericks last night.  HBG's very generous boss used to work with the Hornets, so he had some Bobcats tickets we could use.  It was a lot of fun, in fact, more than I expected.  I normally don't pay much attention to the NBA, except to check on former Tar Heels, but I enjoyed watching the upstart hometown team.

For the first three quarters, however, it wasn't about the game, but rather about what celebrities (local and otherwise) one could pick out.  Here's who we found:

Bob Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Brian Vickers, Michael Jordan (all in the above picture), Charles Oakley, Muhsin Muhammad, Sam Mills, Mike Rucker, Julius Peppers, Mike Minter, Brentson Buckner, and actor Robby Benson. 

Also on the court were Emeka Okafor, Jerry Stackhouse, Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley, Josh Howard, and Gerald Wallace.

I'm sure I'm leaving someone out so HBG will have to log on and help me out.  She tried to stop Julius Peppers for a picture as he walked by us, but he just gave her a "Hey, what's up?"  He didn't even hang around for the answer.  He did, however, get a high-five and thug hug at halftime from Stackhouse.  That was neat to see.  Anyway, it was quite a spectacle and it will be interesting to see how the Bobcats improve in the next few years.

Now for the caption game:  What is MJ asking Jeff Gordon?  Your comments below, and the winner gets a fabulous prize!