Video: Jimmer Fredette is still good at shooting
Posted on | Sunday, July 31, 2011 | No Comments
Apart from being a stand-up young man with white teeth and a friendly disposition, newest Sacramento King Jimmer Fredette has impressed people for having legitimate skills on the basketball court. Chief among those is his impressive shooting ability, which he showed in virtually every notable game of his BYU career. Sure, Jimmer may have taken what are typically called "bad shots," but he made them with regularity. There are legitimate concerns about his ability to defend or play point guard in the NBA, but everyone thinks he'll make open shots.
Recently at the youth camp that bears his name, Jimmer showed he can still shoot. In the video above, Jimmer shows off his range with two shots near half-court and swishes them easily. We don't know if this video was edited to cut out a few misses, but based on the crowd reaction, I'm going to guess Jimmer spent 30 minutes making shots from all over the court. Either that or the Beatles walked into the gym.
We can only hope that Jimmer's shooting does not leave during the lockout. Watch out for the Monstars!
(Via PBT)
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Video: LeBron James plays summer league game, wows crowd
As every NBA fan knows, LeBron James is a big stupid loser. He still matters as much as any player in the league, though, so we tend to care when he does something surprising.
That's why people cared when LeBron stopped by the Drew League in Los Angeles on Saturday for a game. Except he didn't just watch -- he decided to play, too. Yahoo!'s Marc Spears was there:
"Seeing him on that court in this community with those kids and the impact he made in that hour and a half of play, this was by far the best day we've had in the Drew League," Drew League director Dino Smiley told Yahoo! Sports.
Smiley said he received a call Thursday from a representative for�Cleveland Cavaliers�guard�Baron Davis�saying�a major NBA star was attending Saturday. Smiley initially thought it could be�Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose�or�Blake Griffin.�Kevin Durant,�Ron Artest�and�Derrick Williams�have already played this summer.
Smiley eventually received another call Saturday afternoon revealing that James was coming to the Leon H. Washington Park gym near the neighborhood of Watts. James arrived shortly after in a SUV. He was wearing a T-shirt and khaki shorts, and was joined by an entourage of about a half dozen people including Davis. To Smiley's surprise, James wanted to play. James was given a No. 2 jersey for a team called "Cheaters II."
"I thought LeBron was coming just to hang out, but he asked for a uniform," Smiley said. "The crowd was just electrified when he walked in."
The video above proves that they were excited for good reason. James impressed with his usual all-around game of dunks, jumpers, lay-ins, passes, and blocked shots. Plus, he did it all for a team called Cheaters II, which turns the whole thing into some bizarro alternate basketball universe.
At this point in his career, fans and writers tend to discuss LeBron more as a mess of failed expectations and missed opportunities rather than as a basketball player. These highlights are useful, then, for proving that when you strip away everything else, it can be pretty darn fun to watch him play basketball. The Drew League isn't the NBA Finals, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.
(Video via EOB)
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Timofey Mozgov is heading back to Russia
At this point in the NBA lockout, it's become relatively clear that many players that sit near the end of their teams' benches aren't going to wait around for next season and will take decent offers from European clubs. We've seen it several times already, and there will likely only be more cases as the lockout drags on until the end of summer.
For the most part, these players will not be missed much on the court -- they occasionally have good games but are by no means regular contributors. Many, though, are strong personalities that make the league much more interesting to follow. We've already lost Sonny Weems and Sasha Vujacic to foreign teams. Now, you can add young center Timofey Mozgov to the list. From the official EuroLeague site (via PBT):
BC Khimki Moscow Region brought a familiar face back and announced a new player with the signing of Timofey Mozgov and Chris Quinn on Thursday. Mozgov (2.16 meters, 25 years old) played four seasons with the club from 2006 through 2010. He averaged 6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 0.9 blocks in 16 Euroleague games as a reserve in his final season with the club, 2009-10. Last season Mozgov played for New York and Denver in the NBA, where he amassed 3.6 points and 2.7 rebounds over 45 games.�[...]
"I am glad that everything turned out perfectly. I grew up as a player in Khimki and spent great days in here. I have a lot of friends in the team and the adaptation period to the team will not be a problem," Mozgov said. "Khimki is my second home and we quickly reached an agreement. I hope I can help the team in the upcoming season."
Mozgov is obviously comfortable playing for Khimki, so this move looks like something of a no-brainer. He'll be able to develop his game with a guaranteed contract for a club he already knows very well. What's the downside?
Still, NBA fans are going to lose out, because in just one season he proved to be a fascinating figure. In November, he was dunked on by Blake Griffin for perhaps the best slam of the entire season. Over the All-Star break, he got married in Las Vegas at a drive-thru chapel. A few days later, he unexpectedly became the final piece of Carmelo Anthony's trade to the Knicks. If he'd stuck around the NBA longer, he probably would have wound up starting a Russian novel club with the J.R. Smith.
Hopefully he'll be back when this lockout mess is resolved. If he isn't, we'll have lost a true character.
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Video: KG and Steph, back when their bond was ?real?
"This is the real, right here."
To be a sports fan, a rabid one, is to live in perpetual disappointment. Even if you make a point to follow consistent winners, there will still be something that brings you down. And even though we've seen Kevin Garnett follow MVP-worthy (and winning) seasons with a championship in 2008, and have become rightfully disengaged with our one-time hopes of Stephon Marbury, few things as an NBA fan hurt more than the out-of-nowhere news that had Marbury forcing his way out of Minnesota during the lockout season of 1999.
Maybe it was because the Timberwolves were everyone's second-favorite team, at that point. Maybe it was because my favorite team was limping toward 13 wins that year. Maybe we just wanted to believe. Whatever the reason, less than a year before, those youngsters (with greybeards like Terry Porter and Sam Mitchell in the starting lineup) pushed the respected Seattle SuperSonics to five games in an opening-round series.
What we have here is a video, found by Ben Polk of Wolf Among Wolves, featuring an interview with KG and Steph before their Game 5, one that they would lose as Hersey Hawkins floated to the corner again and again on his way to 24 killer points:
And, of course, the killer is Marbury arguing against (at around the 2:40 mark) the mindset that enervated and then aggravated him enough to force a trade away from Minnesota the year after this clip was filmed.
Apologies for the armchair psychology, but Kevin Garnett was exactly what Stephon Marbury needed, on several levels. And he made sure that, from 1999 onward, KG wasn't a part of his life. "Disappointment" isn't a strong enough word.
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One agent planned ahead for his clients? lockout income
Whenever observers discuss which side may blink first in a lockout staredown, they mention the prospect of players getting tired of sitting around not getting paid. It's a legitimate problem, especially considering the lifestyles these men are used to as professional athletes. Plus, in many cases, they're the primary breadwinners for their entire extended families. They have lots of responsibilities and need money to fulfill them. We can laugh at the prospect of athletes going poor, but it's a serious issue nonetheless.
On the other hand, the lockout was a predictable event for several years now, so players and their representatives could have planned ahead. In fact, at least one agent negotiated his clients' NBA contracts with the lockout in mind. From Jeff Zillgitt for USA Today:
[Al-Farouq] Aminu, a rookie last season, is one of four clients of agent Raymond Brothers who spread their 2010-11NBA�salaries over 18 or 24 months to continue receiving paychecks if the league-imposed lockout forces the cancellation of games.
Memphis Grizzlies�forward�Zach Randolph,�Dallas Mavericks�forward�Caron Butler�and�Detroit Pistons�guard�Ben Gordon, all Brothers clients, have similar setups.
If games in 2011-12 are lost, "They will not know financially that they're in a lockout," Brothers said. "If there is a lockout, you'll able to pay your bills. And you're already used to a certain way of living because your paychecks will be consistent."
Players normally receive bi-weekly paychecks from Nov. 15 to May 1, although some opt for a November to November schedule. But Aminu will receive payments from last season until Nov. 1, 2012. Randolph will be paid through May 1, 2012.
It's a shrewd move by Brothers, one that's likely to help his players at a time when lots of players will rue their lack of regular paychecks. Ultimately, consistent paychecks for a few players will not sway the opinion of the greater group as to whether or not they should accept a new collective bargaining deal. But Brothers' approach is a sign that these athletes may be better prepared for the lockout than they were in 1998.
It's also the kind of tactic that could help Brothers' agency in the future. I have no idea if other agents planned contracts in this manner. If they didn't, Brothers stands as a forward-thinking agent, the kind of guy who will look out for a client's long-term well-being instead of chasing quick-fix profits. This maneuver is the kind of thing that sets agents apart.
Plus, now Al-Farouq Aminu is guaranteed to throw the best party of the offseason. When other players will be able to afford only a few two-liters of Safeway Select cola, Aminu will spring for Coke and Pepsi. Then everyone's happy!
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Video: Dwayne Schintzius is asking weird questions, and scaring people
We're not sure where we found this video, but it is apparently for an electronics website that never launched. In an attempt to go, um, viral (?), Dwayne decided to skulk around like someone who is under the influence of too many trucker poppers, and ask random twentysomethings if they'd Vazzoo'd that particular day.
The youngsters (along with one gentleman unfortunately wearing sunglasses�indoors, and a life-sized cardboard cutout of Alex Rodriguez) appearing in the video with Dwayne seem as confused as we are -- and they purportedly were in on whatever the heck "Vazzoo" is.
Watch:
(Honestly, only take pills that you've been prescribed by a reputable doctor, and only ingest the allotted amount he or she recommends. And never, ever Vazzoo.)
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Video: Taiwanese animators? tribute to new retiree Yao Ming
Since Yao Ming decided to retire from the NBA, the lion's share of the post-mortems have struck serious, reverential, even wistful notes. Writers of all stripes have dumped barrels of ink lauding the grace of both Yao's game and his exit, cursing the injuries that kept his unique gifts sidelined for too much of the last five years, considering what a Yao-less Association means for the future of both the sport and the league in China, and so on. By and large, it's been a sober collection of reflections, which seems appropriate for a widely beloved and respected player whose absence will make our basketball-loving lives at least a little poorer.
But it's also a bit too stiff a sendoff for a guy whose response to the stress fracture that effectively rendered his career all over but the shouting was, "I haven't died ... Right now I'm drinking a beer and eating fried chicken. What were you expecting, a funeral?"
Sure, Yao's a giant human being whose life and career impact the world in ways that reach far beyond the basketball court. But he's also just kind of a funny dude,�which is why it's pretty great to see the vaunted Taiwanese CGI content studio/viral video farm Next Media Animation put its unique spin on the news of Yao's retirement.
NMA's seemingly hallucinogen-fueled 104-second retrospective on Yao's career ? which begins with a fully clothed baby Yao hatching from a basketball that his mother expels from her netherparts in broad daylight on a schoolyard basketball court, and actually kind of gets weirder from there ? is an Irish wake for our dear Chinese departed, a brilliant bit of blithe, abject nonsense that lets some air out of the big retirement balloon and lets us have a nice, context-free laugh at the end of Yao's career. And if there's anything we know about Yao, it's that he loves to laugh.
In a hastily assembled ranking of NMA's recent sports-themed winners, I'd slot the Yao retirement video ahead of its hot-off-the-YouTubes take on Tiger Woods�firing longtime caddy Steve Williams, but behind the studio's epic�send-up of English soccer star Ashley Cole shooting an intern with an air rifle. Now, had NMA tacked on a brief epilogue in which Yao defends Shanghai from zombies by turning into an oversized, thinly veiled Big Bad Beetleborg who fires molten spectral sharks from his off-brand Astral Sword, it might take the top spot. But I guess you can't always think all�the way outside the box when you're an animator on deadline.
Hat-tips to Deadspin and With Leather.
Kevin McHale George Mikan Earl Monroe Shaquille O Neal Hakeem Olajuwon
Video: Dwayne Schintzius is asking weird questions, and scaring people
We're not sure where we found this video, but it is apparently for an electronics website that never launched. In an attempt to go, um, viral (?), Dwayne decided to skulk around like someone who is under the influence of too many trucker poppers, and ask random twentysomethings if they'd Vazzoo'd that particular day.
The youngsters (along with one gentleman unfortunately wearing sunglasses�indoors, and a life-sized cardboard cutout of Alex Rodriguez) appearing in the video with Dwayne seem as confused as we are -- and they purportedly were in on whatever the heck "Vazzoo" is.
Watch:
(Honestly, only take pills that you've been prescribed by a reputable doctor, and only ingest the allotted amount he or she recommends. And never, ever Vazzoo.)
Kevin McHale George Mikan Earl Monroe Shaquille O Neal Hakeem Olajuwon
One agent planned ahead for his clients? lockout income
Posted on | Saturday, July 30, 2011 | No Comments
Whenever observers discuss which side may blink first in a lockout staredown, they mention the prospect of players getting tired of sitting around not getting paid. It's a legitimate problem, especially considering the lifestyles these men are used to as professional athletes. Plus, in many cases, they're the primary breadwinners for their entire extended families. They have lots of responsibilities and need money to fulfill them. We can laugh at the prospect of athletes going poor, but it's a serious issue nonetheless.
On the other hand, the lockout was a predictable event for several years now, so players and their representatives could have planned ahead. In fact, at least one agent negotiated his clients' NBA contracts with the lockout in mind. From Jeff Zillgitt for USA Today:
[Al-Farouq] Aminu, a rookie last season, is one of four clients of agent Raymond Brothers who spread their 2010-11NBA�salaries over 18 or 24 months to continue receiving paychecks if the league-imposed lockout forces the cancellation of games.
Memphis Grizzlies�forward�Zach Randolph,�Dallas Mavericks�forward�Caron Butler�and�Detroit Pistons�guard�Ben Gordon, all Brothers clients, have similar setups.
If games in 2011-12 are lost, "They will not know financially that they're in a lockout," Brothers said. "If there is a lockout, you'll able to pay your bills. And you're already used to a certain way of living because your paychecks will be consistent."
Players normally receive bi-weekly paychecks from Nov. 15 to May 1, although some opt for a November to November schedule. But Aminu will receive payments from last season until Nov. 1, 2012. Randolph will be paid through May 1, 2012.
It's a shrewd move by Brothers, one that's likely to help his players at a time when lots of players will rue their lack of regular paychecks. Ultimately, consistent paychecks for a few players will not sway the opinion of the greater group as to whether or not they should accept a new collective bargaining deal. But Brothers' approach is a sign that these athletes may be better prepared for the lockout than they were in 1998.
It's also the kind of tactic that could help Brothers' agency in the future. I have no idea if other agents planned contracts in this manner. If they didn't, Brothers stands as a forward-thinking agent, the kind of guy who will look out for a client's long-term well-being instead of chasing quick-fix profits. This maneuver is the kind of thing that sets agents apart.
Plus, now Al-Farouq Aminu is guaranteed to throw the best party of the offseason. When other players will be able to afford only a few two-liters of Safeway Select cola, Aminu will spring for Coke and Pepsi. Then everyone's happy!
George Gervin Hal Greer John Havlicek Elvin Hayes Magic Johnson
NBA ref puts stop to the state imprisonment of a friend who burglarized his house
NBA referee Mark Wunderlich just showed amazing restraint in helping to come to the aid of a former family friend that has been found guilty of breaking into Wunderlich's house.
Imagine befriending a friend of your family for years, sending him all sorts of ducats and autographs that could at best cost you credibility amongst your co-workers and at worst cost you your job, only to see that particular friend betray your trust as an adult by choosing your house amongst thousands to break into and steal from.
Now, you can watch this guy get what your anger tells you he deserves. Or you can help to aid in the sort of recovery that your brain tells you he needs -- by keeping him out of a state prison cell.
A year after the break-in, 21-year old John Jardine pleaded guilty to using an automatic garage door opener (lock those cars at night, friends) to help his accomplice break into Wunderlich's house, stealing cash, credit cards, a Satellite Navigation unit, and a laptop. Jardine is addicted to heroin, which no doubt played some part in his role in this and another burglary he participated with his partner in crime.
Though he wasn't the person who actually went into the house to swipe the goods, Jardine was still facing 15 months in a state prison, not exactly the best rehab center for those who are struggling with a problem -- in some of these state prisons, the access to narcotics is even easier. This is where Wunderlich stepped in, working with the District Attorney and the presiding Judge to send Jardine to a County prison for at least 15 months.
From Pennsylvania's Daily Local News (via Matt Moore at Pro Basketball Talk):
"He was very specific," Wheatcraft told Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Sarcione in proposing the plea agreement she had worked out with Jardine's attorney, Robert J. Donatoni, of West Chester. "After all this, he still likes the defendant. He did not think he would make it in state prison."
Jokes about being able to hack it in a state prison don't always have to come down to beating someone up on your first day in the clink to be thought of as a bad dude. Heroin withdrawal and recovery is no joke, and Wunderlich likely knows that a County jail is the best chance Jardine has at getting over these issues at a relatively early age.
And for Wunderlich to overcome his obvious anger (the DA quotes him as being "offended" at Jardine's actions) and do what was right for this young man that has gone all wrong says just about everything you need to know about Mark Wunderlich, the person.
Now, let's get this lockout over with so that we can go back to calling Wunderlich and the rest of his ilk a bunch of bums.
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Kevin Love is talking himself into a volleyball career
Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Kevin Love gave interviews to several outlets on Tuesday as part of a sponsorship deal with a prominent brand of tequila (you can probably guess which one by the T-shirt posted above). I don't know if he's sneaking pops of the supply, or just getting more and more upset with the NBA's lockout because apparently now he's all but asking to be on the Pro Beach Volleyball series.
And though he isn't the highest jumper the NBA has to offer, he is certainly the quickest off his feet. It's hard to think of an NBA player more suited for beach volleyball than Kevin Love, at least now that Sherman Douglas has retired.
In an initial interview with The Big Lead, Love mentioned the possibility that he could make a pro team for a tournament next month, and how his sponsorship role with the league could be extended "if he does make one of the squads and gets to play in the $200,000 Manhattan Beach (Calif.) Open, taking place Aug. 26-28."
By the time he got around to talking to the Associated Press, however, Love was giving writers impressions of "plans to play in next month's Manhattan Beach Open on the pro volleyball tour," pointing out that he "began practicing Tuesday." And I can't think of anything better. Provided, of course, Love prevents sun damage to his skin and sports the proper eyewear. Looking out for you, guy.
At 6-9 and with touch for days, the NBA's leading rebounder in 2010-11 (and, for two years prior, the second-best rebounder in terms of caroms grabbed versus rebounds available) would seem to be at home under the net. Or, barely under the net -- as regulation rules for men's volleyball list that the net's top should stand 7-11 in height. Love doesn't have a partner in the two-man tournament, and I'd make another Minnesota Timberwolves joke here, but I think we're just about beyond that at this point, aren't we?
It's possible that some pro or even amateur volleyball enthusiasts will take offense to my assumption that someone like Love can just waltz right in and qualify for a professional tournament. You're probably right to take offense, but in fairness to us gawkers, we're not watching if Love isn't around, so enjoy his volleyball run while it lasts.
Love, in close proximity to those who are taking this much more seriously than we do (though not the sponsors, who were handing out tequila shots at Times Square to passersby midday Tuesday), is acting humble as he prepares. "I'm training and working hard," he told the Big Lead. "I don't want to embarrass myself."
That's nice to hear, because being embarrassed on the beach is no laughing matter. Especially because we don't have Charles Atlas to rely on anymore to pump our guns up should we get sand kicked in our face.
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Friday?s Seattle Mariners game will feature a whole lot of SuperSonics
Friday night's contest between the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Devil Rays will have a greenish tint to it. Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp and George Karl will be in town as both the Mariners and the city of Seattle are set to pay tribute to a litany of Seattle SuperSonics legends. Tickets can be purchased here, and here's a snippet from the press release:
The hands of time will move backwards for one night as fans will get to listen to Kevin Calabro, "The Voice of the Sonics," introduce Seattle's former hardwood heroes. � Players from every era will be in attendance, including:� Freddie Brown, Michael Cage, Tom Chambers, James Donaldson, Dale Ellis, Hersey Hawkins, Spencer Haywood, George Karl, Shawn Kemp, Nate McMillan, Gary Payton, Detlef Schrempf, Jack Sikma, Slick Watts, Gus Williams and Lenny Wilkens.
"The Sonics fan community is thrilled that the Mariners have planned this amazing event to celebrate our region's rich basketball history," said "Sonicsgate" documentary director Jason Reid. "We would never miss this opportunity to witness the largest ever gathering of Sonics legends in one place.� Momentum is at an all time high in the movement to bring back our Seattle SuperSonics!"
I suppose Jason is right about momentum being at an all-time high to return a team to Seattle, but from where? I just don't get where this stuff is coming from.
The NBA has locked out its players, claiming massive losses and a wide gulf between the haves and have-nots, in spite of a "have-not" from San Antonio essentially working as the most consistently great franchise of the time between the 1998 lockout and this one, and a "have" from New York acting as the league's most consistent go-to punchline. But revenues are at an all-time high, and if the owners could get their act together on a better revenue-sharing model, things should continue apace.
So who goes to Seattle? Memphis, a team that made it to the second round this year while playing under a rabid fan base in a new arena? Sacramento, a team that has been flirting with leaving the area for years but has shown absolutely no interest in Seattle? Charlotte, a team that was put together to make up for a once-proud organization leaving Charlotte, and also a squad that is working with a new arena?
The only hope Seattle would seem to have would be the New Orleans Hornets, a team the NBA currently owns and runs as it tries to find a new owner. But what would be the difference should the Hornets move to Seattle, and play at ancient Key Arena. Seattle needs an NBA-ready arena, but right now there's no current movement in place to build one. Most of us always thought moving the Hornets to New Orleans was a dicey move even before Hurricane Katrina devastated the area in 2005; but the team would be at best making a lateral move should it move to Key Arena.
This is where the Sonicsgate creators have stepped in:
The creators of "Sonicsgate" are encouraging fans to make their voices heard by filling out a new online survey form at www.arenasolution.org that asks how many NBA and NHL games they would attend in a new multipurpose arena.� The results will be used to demonstrate the viability of an arena facility to local politicians and potential team ownership.
This shouldn't preclude Seattle -- and, really, NBA fans -- from hoping for an NBA return to a city that deserves a team and didn't deserve the duplicity and outright lies the current owners of the Oklahoma City Thunder tossed in their faces during the team's last two years in Seattle.
And it certainly shouldn't preclude Seattle fans from attending Friday's Mariners game en masse to cheer on their SuperSonics.
(Photo credit: Getty Images)
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Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul would like to play in China. Also, they won?t
Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, conveniently speaking live from China, say that they'd love to play in a Chinese league later this year, should the NBA continue to lock out its players. Which is interesting to think about for as long as it takes you to remember that they're speaking live from China, and that neither player will ever, ever play in China.
Once again, of the 50 or so proclamations you'll hear from American-born NBA players as to how anxious they are to play overseas during the NBA's current lockout -- excluding those that have already signed -- believe in about five of 'em. If that. Not only will NBA players chafe at the lack of creature comforts in international leagues, but international leagues aren't exactly keen to sign NBA players as rentals for half a season. And, especially with the global economy in shambles, this also goes for superstars.
Even Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony. Here's the story, from the Associated Press:
Both players are on a promotional tour of China while monitoring news from home about the NBA's labor impasse.
[...]
Asked by SNTV where they would go, Anthony replied "China." Paul said "Same, no question."
The answers may have been designed to compliment their hosts, but Anthony added "it's a lot of history here, the fans are great; why not, why not try it out?"
Probably because you're not going to, Carmelo.
I submit that the Chinese pro leagues, and this isn't a shot, might be more amenable to taking on an NBA player for an indeterminate amount of time. European leagues are wary of trying to break NBA veterans into their style of practice, travel and play; only to have the star jump ship as soon as it becomes clear that the lockout is on its last legs. China is mad about its basketball, and its fans know the game, but its leagues aren't as established and set in their ways as some of the more Western versions. But the money and amenities aren't enough to pull CP3 and Melo over.
On top of that, it doesn't hurt that both Paul and Anthony were in China with the express written consent to sell lots and lots of shoes.
So, "why not?" Because they won't.
Willis Reed Oscar Robertson David Robinson Bill Russell Dolph Schayes
Video: KG and Steph, back when their bond was ?real?
"This is the real, right here."
To be a sports fan, a rabid one, is to live in perpetual disappointment. Even if you make a point to follow consistent winners, there will still be something that brings you down. And even though we've seen Kevin Garnett follow MVP-worthy (and winning) seasons with a championship in 2008, and have become rightfully disengaged with our one-time hopes of Stephon Marbury, few things as an NBA fan hurt more than the out-of-nowhere news that had Marbury forcing his way out of Minnesota during the lockout season of 1999.
Maybe it was because the Timberwolves were everyone's second-favorite team, at that point. Maybe it was because my favorite team was limping toward 13 wins that year. Maybe we just wanted to believe. Whatever the reason, less than a year before, those youngsters (with greybeards like Terry Porter and Sam Mitchell in the starting lineup) pushed the respected Seattle SuperSonics to five games in an opening-round series.
What we have here is a video, found by Ben Polk of Wolf Among Wolves, featuring an interview with KG and Steph before their Game 5, one that they would lose as Hersey Hawkins floated to the corner again and again on his way to 24 killer points:
And, of course, the killer is Marbury arguing against (at around the 2:40 mark) the mindset that enervated and then aggravated him enough to force a trade away from Minnesota the year after this clip was filmed.
Apologies for the armchair psychology, but Kevin Garnett was exactly what Stephon Marbury needed, on several levels. And he made sure that, from 1999 onward, KG wasn't a part of his life. "Disappointment" isn't a strong enough word.
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Video: Kobe Bryant and Derrick Rose connect on an MVP-to-MVP alley-oop
An MVP-to-MVP alley-oop. Excluding anything tossed from either Magic Johnson or Steve Nash's hands to any lucky All-Star game recipient, it's a rare sight to behold. And it's certainly made all the more rarer when the throwdown artist on the receiving end is a sprightly-but-smallish point guard. And yet, Kobe Bryant and Derrick Rose delivered the goods.
The setting was an exhibition game that took place in Manila on Friday night, North American-time. The Philippines is a basketball-mad country that more than deserved an all-star game of sorts between NBA players and the cream of the crop from the Philippine Basketball Association. And, via a tweet sent our way on Saturday, we have this clampdown from Kobe to D-Rose:
The smile on Alex Cabagnot's face (he's No. 5 in the video) says it all. Hurry back, NBA.
Wilt Chamberlain Bob Cousy Dave Cowens Billy Cunningham Dave DeBusschere
Dwayne Schintzius got traded because of his awesome hair
Do you remember Dwayne Schintzius? If not, you should. After being drafted in 1990, Schintzius spent eight seasons as a backup big man for several NBA teams. He was a journeyman, but he was also a character, remembered best for a certain arrogance and one of the greatest hairstyles in league history.
Not surprisingly, he loved that hair. One time, it even got him traded. From Tampa Bay Online (via TBJ):
Former University of Florida basketball center Dwayne Schintzius, of Brandon High, was the NBA draft's 24th overall pick in 1990. He liked the San Antonio Spurs and anticipated a long career there. But Spurs general manager Bob Bass didn't care for Schintzius' "lobster'' hairstyle.
"He told me to cut it,'' Schintzius said. "So I got it cut and sent him the shavings in an envelope. I'm not sure he appreciated that. And then, away I went.''
Some people may think that a young player like Schintzius was at the time should have done what management told him and shut his mouth. After all, he hadn't proven anything in the league. Then again, maybe a person should be able to wear his hair however he pleases, especially when it's as majestic as Schintzius' mullet. Would you have asked Oscar Gamble to cut his afro? Only if you were anti-fun.
Schintzius was not a particularly successful NBA player -- he dropped in the draft due to concerns about his attitude and didn't turn out to be very talented, either. But he made the league more interesting, and for that we should be thankful. Asking him to cut his hair was like requesting he sacrifice part of his personality. There's a fine line between discipline and unnecessary harshness.
Plus, if a GM feels the need to trade a guy, he shouldn't make him cut hair that probably took him 20 years to perfect. That's like telling Tim Duncan he can't take bank shots from the post anymore.
Bob Cousy Dave Cowens Billy Cunningham Dave DeBusschere Clyde Drexler
In case you were wondering, Stan Van Gundy is still exasperated
Posted on | Friday, July 29, 2011 | No Comments
Even within the relative security of a coaching clinic, Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy is still finding ways to rant and rave, however accurately.
The Orlando Magic last played on April 28. And in those three months, quite a bit can happen to lessen your frustration -- even if nothing much has happened on the NBA front over the last month or so. Still, one would think that could act as enough time for SVG to chill out a little bit, but as the Orlando Sentinel recently quoted, there really is nothing basketball-related that's too innocuous for Stan the man to fret over.
Like, say, over the question about potentially fouling the other team in the final seconds of a game when you're up three points to send them to the line for two points, to prevent the other team from tying the game. As the Magic failed to do in the pivotal Game 4 of the 2009 NBA Finals.
Stan?
"Let me just tell you this: We have screwed it up every single time," he said. "Every single time, we have screwed it up. We have said to foul and not fouled and given up the three, which we did to Miami. We have said to foul and waited till the guy was in his shooting motion. We have screwed it up every single time. There are plenty of things you gotta weigh ? Time is the big one."
Nothing works, apparently. Except it does work, way more often than not, when you do foul to send a team to the line for two free throws when you're up three late in a game. But that doesn't serve Stan's dyspeptic view on the game he coaches quite well.
The lesson here? It isn't about fouling when up three points. Become baseball coaches, kids. You get to wear the uniform, and everything.
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Carmelo Anthony and his panda friend
Carmelo Anthony, currently on tour in China, said it best in 140 characters or less. He made the pun on Twitter that we'll all have to live with:
Luckily, he also posed for the picture that we'll never want to forget:
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Amar?e Stoudemire to start sports and fashion website
NBA players are pretty fashion-forward, at least in the context of professional athletics. Whereas baseball players still dress like 1995 and many football players consider jorts acceptable, the men of professional basketball seem to have heard of modern fashion and may even read magazines such as Gentleman's Quarterly and Esquire. They still require occasional visits from the fashion police, but they are not lost causes in need of a TV makeover show to set them on the right track.
New York Knicks big man Amar'e Stoudemire stands out among these basketball fashionistas. In just one season in New York, he has already worked with designer Rachel Roy and become a friend of Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Now, he has plans to become a tastemaker of his own by way of a new website. From Mark DeCambre for the New York Post (via TBJ):
The 6-10 power forward has struck a deal to launch his own website at BigLeadSports.com, The Post has learned. The 28-year-old all-star will focus his site on sports and fashion.
Stoudemire is expected to provide exclusive content for Big Lead, which was formed as a sports blog nearly five years ago, in exchange for a revenue-sharing agreement and small equity stake in the company.
"This is definitely a great opportunity," Stoudemire, a popular nine-year NBA veteran, told The Post yesterday.�Stoudemire is expected to try to boost fantasy basketball, which draws far fewer participants than fantasy baseball and football.
This site sounds like something along the lines of Jay-Z's Life and Times, although likely less flashy and expansive, and more focused on Stoudemire's chief passions of basketball and fashion. Big Lead Sports has a wide variety of sites in their network, so this partnership could be a good fit. Plus, their flagship site, The Big Lead, sometimes seems as interested in celebrities as in sports, so a domain that focuses on sports alongside a cultural pursuit won't seem out of place.
Since his arrival in New York, much has been made of Stoudemire's desire to gain an increased media presence, and the announcement of this venture suggests that he's on his way to accomplishing much of what he set out to do when he signed with the Knicks. On the court, Amar'e was about as successful as he was with the Suns, just in a clear starring role (at least up until the Knicks obtained Carmelo Anthony). If he'd performed in the same way for a team other than the Knicks, he'd still be a secondary star in the league. Now he's a media superstar.
You may think that's a minor gain in comparison to the chance to win an NBA championship. But that goal is dependent on luck and circumstances the likes of which are hard to predict. Amar'e went to New York and has already seen advances in his national profile. Along with the money, he got at least part of what he wanted in free agency. That's more than most players can say.
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is still angry at Michael Olowokandi
For Kareem, it was a frustrating few years. Though Olowokandi was probably overrated at the time of his top selection -- he was a project, no doubt, but also 23 when he finished his senior season at Pacific -- he did boast significant gifts that could have made him an All-Star at some point. But despite his age (for comparison's sake, Andrew Bynum, the more malleable Kareem student, is about to enter his seventh NBA season, and he's 23 as well), he was far from a willing pupil.
Abdul-Jabbar mentioned as much in a column he penned for ESPN.com Tuesday:
I have seen this process firsthand. When I coached for the Clippers, I had to deal with Michael Olowokandi, a player who perfectly fit the description "talented but uncoachable." At practice, I would attempt to point out Mr. Olowokandi's faults to him, ones he constantly repeated and resulted in lost possessions for the team or personal fouls that sent him to the bench. His reaction to my attempts to correct his bad habits was to take my input as a personal insult and embarrassment. He told me point-blank that he would not be criticized in front of the team. He stuck to his word and, as a result, had very few successful moments on the court playing the way he wanted to play. He took his place on the list of athletically gifted washouts who have been in and out of the league in the past 10 years.
This is not the crux of Kareem's column, but an aside in a well-reasoned piece that, as I did Tuesday morning, points to the fact that the NBA's owners have to decide how they're going to settle their revenue-sharing issues in-house before they can demand massive "piece-of-the-pie" cutbacks for the players who have earned those record revenues and inspired those increased ratings.
Abdul-Jabbar, though, is still smarting. He's long been known as someone who can keep a grudge with the best of them, and in 'Kandi (pictured above with former Clippers coach Chris Ford) not only did Kareem see a project with potential that he could claim his own, but also a possible entryway into the world of NBA head coaching. To be charged with, almost singularly, changing the fortunes of one player and then watching as that player continually tunes you out? I'd be ticked, too.
If Kareem does need a soothing balm after his ill-fated time with The 'Kandi Man, he can take comfort in the fact that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gets to wake up every morning as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Michael Olowokandi's name will be brought up only when discussions arise about the worst busts in NBA history.
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Jalen Rose gets pulled over for speeding hours after his DUI conviction
Forty-six in a 25 on your way home from being sentenced to time in jail for a drunk driving conviction? That's something else entirely. And that's what Jalen Rose pulled off, on Wednesday night. Come on, Jalen.
Rose is, truly, a good man. And in person I've seen him pull away from the United Center in Chicago in a very fast car, on an empty Madison street late at night, driving very sensibly. This isn't bad luck, but this isn't a bad person.
Still, his reaction to his drunk driving crash and this stupid (got another word for it?) reaction from Wednesday night should have everyone questioning his judgment when it comes to driving a car. Everyone's bound to make a mistake from time to time, but to be hit for an egregious mistake just hours after being sentenced to jail time over a really, really, really egregious mistake?
OK, Jalen. Low point starts ? NOW.
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Jalen Rose gets pulled over for speeding hours after his DUI conviction
Forty-six in a 25 on your way home from being sentenced to time in jail for a drunk driving conviction? That's something else entirely. And that's what Jalen Rose pulled off, on Wednesday night. Come on, Jalen.
Rose is, truly, a good man. And in person I've seen him pull away from the United Center in Chicago in a very fast car, on an empty Madison street late at night, driving very sensibly. This isn't bad luck, but this isn't a bad person.
Still, his reaction to his drunk driving crash and this stupid (got another word for it?) reaction from Wednesday night should have everyone questioning his judgment when it comes to driving a car. Everyone's bound to make a mistake from time to time, but to be hit for an egregious mistake just hours after being sentenced to jail time over a really, really, really egregious mistake?
OK, Jalen. Low point starts ? NOW.
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At its current pace, the NBA is in no hurry to follow in the NFL?s footsteps
The NFL lockout has ended, with the league's owners and players agreeing to a new collective bargaining agreement just a scant few weeks left in the offseason. Free agency and other personnel moves will be rushed, but the NFL will play all of its games on time. And both sides seem happy with their particular take of the billion-buck pie. The NBA, coming off a year of record revenues and sky-high TV ratings, would seem to be next in line, right?
It would seem to be, but it won't be, unless there is a significant change of mood from either side in this situation. And because the two sides haven't had a significant conversation in about a month -- even the last negotiating sessions toward the end of June mainly just served as treading-water sessions -- they won't have nearly the same style and familiarity as the NFL sides had heading into the meat and potatoes of their final bargaining sessions.
Sure, the NFL had a 14-week head start on the NBA, but that matters little when both ends of the NBA table are acting as churlish as they are, with so many factions within those two opposing sides threatening to take away from the main thrust of either the players' or owners' arguments.
No, the NBA is far away from getting it together, even if the owners and players are just a week or so away from getting together to talk about getting together (after only a month off, those devoted caretakers of the game).
The recent move within the Players Associations' ranks to potentially decertify complicates things. The antitrust suit the players would then file would potentially take months to go through the court system, with little to show for at the end save for another flexing of muscle by the small cadre of agents who represent a disproportionate amount of players and, more importantly, salary. And, most importantly, salary potentially lost either in the form of current deals that the owners are refusing to pay (even though they, y'know, signed them) or new deals to be negotiated in the offseason.
And even if the players stick together, and meet with the league as a union, the union still has more than a few steps to go as it walks toward the middle. The owners signed these players to a litany of moronic contracts, there can be no doubt, and a goodly chunk of them were negotiated with no clear No. 2 option for these players in mind. It wasn't always Team A vs. Team B, driving up Lucky Player A's eventual salary. And even when it was two squads going at it -- for, say, Hedo Turkoglu -- that doesn't make it any better, guys.
The players have to give in, though. The system is skewed in their favor, even if the percentage of revenue that they receive was argued and signed to in good faith by the owners back in 2005.
The biggest issue, as it has been since 2005 and for some years before it, are the owners. They're easy to pick on, because there are only 30 to deal with here, but they're going to be the reason the NBA likely loses games this year.
The factions are just too far apart -- and we're not talking about the players and owners. The owners alone have to come up with a better revenue-sharing system, and swallow the fact that certain small-market owners ignored the dozens of ways to� improve a team without spending like the New York Yankees.
You think the Los Angeles Lakers want to send a single penny to Phoenix's way after the Suns owner wildly overpaid for the team years ago, then spent the next six years either needlessly overpaying for middling talent or outright selling off draft picks to add to his bottom line? Why should the Lakers help fund the Suns' stubborn choice to hang onto Steve Nash instead of parlaying their best asset into something that can help them become a better (and, holy cow, cheaper) basketball team?
(As an aside, this is a sound take on the situation, as the Suns realize on average that teams that blow things up often take up to a decade to return to a point of prominence. But statistics also show that you have a slim chance of becoming a two-term president, a Supreme Court justice or a NASA engineer. If you're smart enough, you can pull it off.)
You think the Chicago Bulls want to help subsidize the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that has repeatedly made waves about moving into Chicago's suburbs to potentially compete against the Bulls? A team that has for years worked with a Chicago-level payroll, even while missing the playoffs? A team that refused to part with Pau Gasol for years to Chicago, only to sign off on sending him away for expiring contracts and Marc Gasol a year later?
You think the New York Knicks ? nah. Not much thinking there.
The point is that the owners need to get their own act together before they can come correct at the bargaining table, and with so many owners willing to sit out the season -- they don't have to pay the players, and they'll still likely get $900 million from the league's national television partners, so why not? -- this is a fractured group that doesn't know what it wants, it won't negotiate even if it did, and it's about to meet up with a group of players that likely don't want to budge an inch.
Marvelous.
I have a feeling that I might put together the first fantasy football team of my life sometime next month.
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Remembering the sale of the Sonics, five years later
The Oklahoma City Thunder are one of the more likable teams in the NBA, a group of young and exciting players who win with the kind of regularity we typically associate with veterans. However, the circumstances of their move to OKC have made the team difficult to embrace completely. The Seattle SuperSonics were one of the best-loved franchises in the league, and their sale to Clay Bennett and subsequent move irked a lot of people.
That sale happened five years ago Tuesday. At the SSSBDA Tumblr, Kevin Pelton, now of Basketball Prospectus and then an employee of Sonics.com, describes what it was like to be at the arena when the sale went through:
I found out about 10 a.m., an hour before the balance of my Sonics coworkers took the same gut punch at an all-staff meeting. By that point, I was already at KeyArena, preparing for the Storm's annual Kids Day game at noon. About a half-dozen people in the building knew what was about to happen, which we had to bear with stony silence. Anne Donovan, then the Storm's head coach, was one of them. The combination of the news and finding out about an injury to star Lauren Jackson left Donovan looking like she'd seen a ghost when she met the media. [...]
Word broke on the Internet a little before tipoff. That's when the emails started coming in. By halftime, the whispers had spread through the crowd, and the first of many "Noklahoma" signs appeared in the far end zone. It didn't help matters that the Storm couldn't get anything going without Jackson in a 13-point loss.
After the game, I made the short walk from the Key to The Furtado Center, the team practice facility where the press conference was scheduled. Thankfully, I wasn't assigned to write anything, so I just walked around in a daze, taking everything in and trying to figure out what just happened. After I went back to the office, my big assignment was trying to find a photo of Clay Bennett where he had even a hint of a smile on his face for the frontpage of supersonics.com.
It's a terrific and relatively short piece, so I encourage you to read the whole thing. Pelton touches on some tough emotions and tells a great story, including what he did after the game.
With any luck, this sale will eventually become an unfortunate blip in the story of professional basketball in Seattle rather than the end of the line. The city deserves another team, and hopefully they'll get one soon.
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Moncrief may rejoin Bucks as assistant (AP)
Posted on | Thursday, July 28, 2011 | No Comments
The Milwaukee Bucks are in discussions with franchise icon Sidney Moncrief about returning to the team as an assistant coach, a person with direct knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The person spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity because the deal has not been completed.
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Video: Taiwanese animators? tribute to new retiree Yao Ming
Since Yao Ming decided to retire from the NBA, the lion's share of the post-mortems have struck serious, reverential, even wistful notes. Writers of all stripes have dumped barrels of ink lauding the grace of both Yao's game and his exit, cursing the injuries that kept his unique gifts sidelined for too much of the last five years, considering what a Yao-less Association means for the future of both the sport and the league in China, and so on. By and large, it's been a sober collection of reflections, which seems appropriate for a widely beloved and respected player whose absence will make our basketball-loving lives at least a little poorer.
But it's also a bit too stiff a sendoff for a guy whose response to the stress fracture that effectively rendered his career all over but the shouting was, "I haven't died ... Right now I'm drinking a beer and eating fried chicken. What were you expecting, a funeral?"
Sure, Yao's a giant human being whose life and career impact the world in ways that reach far beyond the basketball court. But he's also just kind of a funny dude,�which is why it's pretty great to see the vaunted Taiwanese CGI content studio/viral video farm Next Media Animation put its unique spin on the news of Yao's retirement.
NMA's seemingly hallucinogen-fueled 104-second retrospective on Yao's career ? which begins with a fully clothed baby Yao hatching from a basketball that his mother expels from her netherparts in broad daylight on a schoolyard basketball court, and actually kind of gets weirder from there ? is an Irish wake for our dear Chinese departed, a brilliant bit of blithe, abject nonsense that lets some air out of the big retirement balloon and lets us have a nice, context-free laugh at the end of Yao's career. And if there's anything we know about Yao, it's that he loves to laugh.
In a hastily assembled ranking of NMA's recent sports-themed winners, I'd slot the Yao retirement video ahead of its hot-off-the-YouTubes take on Tiger Woods�firing longtime caddy Steve Williams, but behind the studio's epic�send-up of English soccer star Ashley Cole shooting an intern with an air rifle. Now, had NMA tacked on a brief epilogue in which Yao defends Shanghai from zombies by turning into an oversized, thinly veiled Big Bad Beetleborg who fires molten spectral sharks from his off-brand Astral Sword, it might take the top spot. But I guess you can't always think all�the way outside the box when you're an animator on deadline.
Hat-tips to Deadspin and With Leather.
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Days of NBA Lives: Wherein Jon Brockman saves some money
At this point, seemingly half the NBA is on Twitter. It's a wild world of training updates, questions as to which movies they should go see, and explanations of their Call of Duty prowess. Every so often, though, you also get a picture into the more interesting aspects of NBA life. This feature is your window into that world.
Anthony Tolliver: Is it weird that I play in the league but I still got kinda geeked that ndumakong sue is on my flight? Lol #NFLfan
Evan Turner: Just drove past a cat fight. Wasn't bad
Jon Brockman: One of my favorite things in the entire world... Hitting up Costco on fridays with @kimipohlman4 when samples are in full force. Get some!
Brandon Rush: Only 8 episodes of entourage this season. #weak
James Harden: Just had dinner with The PRIME MINISTER of the Philippines. His house is Amazing!!!!!
You can also follow Eric Freeman on Twitter at @freemaneric.
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Alonzo Mourning?s alleged hit-and-run accident will see him in court
Today's Zo-related traffic report is a little sketchier. According to a gentleman by the name of William Candelario, Mourning was on the giving end of a hit-and-run accident last weekend, and Mourning is being sued for allegedly fleeing the scene of the accident in question.
According to Candelario, his Audi was stopped on the road after a previous accident not involving Mourning. Alonzo's Porsche allegedly slammed into the parked Audi, flipping it several times. Mourning reportedly took off, and this is where things get even more unseemly.
From the Sun-Sentinel, via Pro Basketball Talk:
The collisions occurred between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. Sunday on the causeway near the intersection with I-95.
The incident is still being investigated and charges are pending, [Sgt.Tom] Pikul said.
Candelario told his attorney the 6-foot-10 former All-Star returned to the crash scene about 45 to 50 minutes later in a vehicle driven by his wife, Tracy.
That early in the morning, no pun intended, and he allegedly returns nearly an hour later with someone else driving? This might not turn out well.
If you'll allow my car nerd-dom to take over for a second, I do have to question the idea that any typical Porsche could ram into a recent make of Audi, flip it over several times (that, to me, is dubious enough) and then be able to drive away.
Audis are famous for their all-wheel drive, a feature that results in heavier cars, whereas most makes of Porsches are prized for their light weight. It's hard to believe that the speed needed to crash into and roll over a parked Audi would still leave the Porsche in working shape -- even if the Porsche in question was either the sturdier four-door Panamera or the Cayenne SUV.
It's an odd story, that's all. Especially while you try to reconcile Candelario claiming he was "nearly killed" in the upcoming lawsuit, and Mourning allegedly hitting a car he wasn't even in at the time. After his parents drove him to the hospital, Candelario was treated for injuries�that were apparently unrelated to Mourning's crash-and-dash.
If it's true that Mourning was driving when he shouldn't have been, true that he destroyed this guy's car, and true that he initially left the scene only to return later with another driver, then he should have to pay up, and we should be questioning his judgement. But unless something is being left out by Candelario, taking Mourning to the cleaners over some near-vehicular manslaughter charge seems a bit much.
UPDATE: A more recent Miami Herald story sounds much, much more plausible than the Sun-Sentinel's take:
William Candelario, 20, said he was driving home from Miami Beach at around 3 a.m. when he collided with another car causing his Audi 2010 to flip over several times, according to Coral Gables attorney Spencer Aronfeld.
At some point, Mourning, driving a Porsche, collided into Candelario's disabled car.
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