Upon first viewing of the following video involving UCLA teammates Malcolm Lee, Reeves Nelson and Jerime Anderson mixing metaphors between playing basketball and saving the Earth through green initiatives such as recycling, turning the lights off and, um, driving Benzes (??), we thought that Paul Thomas Anderson had to be somewhere behind the scenes directing this thing.  With the musical score reminiscent of  movies such as Magnolia or There Will Be Blood, we figured that he had to be associated with this clip in some odd way.  Alas, PTA briefly went to school at NYU, not UCLA, and Philip Seymour Hoffman was nowhere to be found, so we don’t think he was actually there; nevertheless, it’s certainly an interesting and novel way to get a message across — take a look.

So what do you think about this thing?  We’ve certainly seen far worse efforts from collegians — especially those who play basketball — but despite the professional editing and polished look of the piece, it still seems a bit hokey, right?  This is the school of John Wooden, so a healthy dose of down-home folksiness is ok, but we’ve watched this thing three times and we still can’t get a sense as to how to feel about it.  About the only thing we can say without question is that we haven’t seen anything quite like it coming from the sport, and it’s certainly more interesting at a fundamental level than another “Free Enes” video from a bunch of fans.  Then again, ask us tomorrow.  One final note — what’s up with the gal wearing a Virginia shirt halfway through the video?  We thought that the school, along with Dave Matthews, went out of style in the  late 90s.

(h/t Malcolm Lee via Twitter)