Category Archives: Basketball News
Mike Barrett, a member of the legendary 1968 U.S. Olympic team that won gold in Mexico City has passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was 67.
Barrett was considered undersized even at the time, standing just 6’2”, but he impressed everyone he played against. He played his college ball at West Virginia University Institute of Technology (also the alma mater of Sedale Threatt) but went into the Navy after college.
He was still invited to the tryouts for the U.S. Olympic team in 1968 — a team that included Spencer Haywood and Jo Jo White but was expected to struggle. They didn’t, winning every game and capturing the gold.
After that Barrett played three seasons in the ABA, where he made the All Rookie Team. In 2003 West Virginia Tech retired his jersey.
Barrett is survived by his wife, Carolyn, and his brother, Scott.
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Kobe Bryant on his annual tour through Asia, promoting the game, himself and selling some Nike shoes along the way. And he’s the biggest NBA star in Asia because he has been doing this for years.
How much do they love him in the Philippines? Watch the video below.
Kobe laced them up for an exhibition game and the video below is him making a steal and getting a runout for a dunk. Over here we would say Kobe is taking it at half speed and is not as explosive as he once was anyway. There, they don’t care. Listen to the crowd. They react like he just won the NBA finals (even the other guys on the bench are going nuts).
(Via CBSSports Eye on Basketball)
Chris Mullin is headed into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame on Friday, maybe the most legendary of Warrior players to enter the Hall (you can argue Rick Barry if you want).
Fittingly Matt Steinmetz of CSNBayArea.com has done a series of interesting interviews with Mullin talking about his career.
Wednesday’s installment: Who was the best….. For example, Mullin said Chris Webber was the best big man teammate he ever had. As for a couple other categories.
BEST TEAMMATE: Mitch Richmond. “No doubt,” said Mullin. “I still remember the day he came to my hotel room — it was before a game — and told me he’d been traded (by the Warriors to Sacramento). We were both — like — in shock.”
TOUGHEST DEFENDER: Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. “They could smother you,” Mullin said. “Those two … I didn’t really play against them a lot playing here (in Golden State). In Indiana — I wish I would have been a little younger, but those two were the toughest.”
Also interesting, his most underrated player: Sarunas Marciulionis.
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Orlando’s Jason Richardson is officially a free agent, you can tell because he has now said what every free agent is compelled by some law of nature to say.
It’s not about the money, it’s about winning. It’s never about the money. Why would you even think that?
Anyway, here is the quote, via the Saginaw News (which caught up with him at a golf tournament).
“I want to go to a great place for my family,” Richardson said. “I’ve been blessed by God to play in the NBA for a lot of money. I’d like to go someplace that has a chance to win a championship.”
Richardson is at the “I want a ring” stage of his career, so maybe he really means it. As Zach Lowe pointed out at Sports Illustrated, if he really is willing to play for less money, Richardson could fit as the third or fourth option on a contending team. His skills are deteriorating, he is not a number two guy on an elite team anymore. But he could find a role on the right team.
Can you picture Richardson as the two guard in Chicago? As Kobe’s backup in Los Angeles? As one of the 1,532 veterans playing a role for Dallas? A backup for Ray Allen and Paul Pierce in Boston? Returning to Orlando? Coming off the bench in Miami? As the two guard for the Knicks?
All of those are potentially good fits — and every one of those teams very likely will be at or over whatever the new salary cap looks like. They are not going to be able to pay much if anything.
So we’ll see how committed Richardson really is to winning, he will be in demand. But he’s going to take a steep pay cut to do it. (He’s going to take a steep pay cut anyway, but there may be larger offers.)
After letting Donnie Walsh go — because all he did is return the team to the playoffs while slashing the payroll in half, why would you want to keep him around? — the question became who was on dock? What would owner James Dolan do next to screw up the stability of the franchise?
Turns out, looks like nothing. The inhouse guys that stepped in when Walsh was pushed out may be keeping their jobs for a while. So tweets Alan Hahn of Newsday.
Meanwhile, as in the Fix, hearing #Knicksmore content to keep Grunwald/Warkentien hierarchy in place and groom Allan Houston. Thoughts?
Well, those two haven’t made any bad decisions since July 1.
Seriously, this is the smart and stable move. Hahn is talking about Glen Grunwald and Mark Warkentien, who are fully capable of doing the job and keeping the rebuilding going.
Grunwald worked for Isiah Thomas in Toronto and came to the Knicks, but don’t hold that against him. He also served at the right hand of Walsh for years. Grunwald is respected around the league by peers. Warkentien came over from Denver (before the Carmelo Anthony trade, go ahead and think that’s a coincidence if you want) and is another guy who has had success building a team. They both report to team president Scott O’Neil.
Those are guys who intimately understood what Walsh was trying build, and they are guys with experience and know how to run a team. This is a good bit of stability.
Well, until Dolan wants to play with his toy again and screws it up.
Despite what David Stern seems to think is a franchise-crushing financial system, and despite the threat of a protracted lockout, NBA franchises seem to be selling for record prices. And healthy profits in some cases for the former owners. The latest is the just agreed-to deal for Joshua Harris to buy the Philadelphia 76ers.
But there is a trend in the new buyers — many come from private equity firms.
It’s not a new trend, but over at Fortune they broke it down.
This is the fourth time in recent years that private equity executives have purchased an NBA team. The first was in 2002, when the Boston Celtics were acquired for $380 million by a group led by Steve Pagliuca (Bain Capital) and Wyc Grousbeck (Highland Capital Partners).… Next up was the Golden State Warriors, acquired last year for $450 million by venture capitalist Joe Lacob (Kleiner Perkins).…
Most recently Tom Gores and his firm Platinum Equity purchased the Detroit Pistons, in a transaction marked by its unusual structure (the team technically is majority-owned by the firm, but since Gores controls the firm…).
Now we have the Philadelphia 76ers going to Harris, and I’ve heard word that another group of PE execs is beating the bushes for their own NBA franchise.
A lot of these guys, like Gores, specialize in buying and turning around distressed businesses. Does that make the NBA something that fits their business profile, or just a fun toy for really rich guys?
I’m not going to pretend to know what this means, if anything, for the league. Just pointing out a trend, but something to watch to see if there is an impact on the NBA.
It’s one of the fears of players going to play for their country, although this appears not to be that serious.
Here is the tweet about former Kings now Cavaliers forward Omri Casspi from international basketball journalist Dubi Pick:
Omri Casspi slipped during national team’s practice. Pulled a muscle but was able to walk off court alone and went to get an MRI
It’s pretty standard practice to have an MRI done even on relatively minor injuries, just to make sure it is not something more serious that isn’t obvious. (We will update when we hear the results.)
Most likely this will mean just a couple days off for Casspi as the Israeli national team prepares for EuroBasket.
Israel is considered a long shot to get one of the two Olympic qualifying spots out of EuroBasket (which starts in Lithuania at the end of August). It will not be easy for them to get out of a group that includes Italy, France, Germany, Serbia and Latvia. But the chances of Israel doing anything without Casspi are much longer.
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Rumors had Andre Iguodala almost traded to the Lakers for Lamar Odom, to the Golden State Warriors for Monta Ellis, and to the Clippers for Chris Kaman.
None of it was true.
The Sixers may be gauging the market, but that is different than making a deal. No deal was really likely before the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was in place (nobody was taking on big salaries until they saw the new rules), but even now Iguodala does not expect a move, he told CSNPhilly.com.
“I can’t say I would be surprised, because I wouldn’t be surprised, but I am not expecting it to happen,” he said.
He then went on to say he would be happy to be a Sixer next season.
“I definitely enjoy being here,” Iguodala said at a local basketball camp on Saturday. “Evan [Turner] and I were speaking late last night. We had a really good conversation about how we can really play well together, how we can make each other better so we are looking forward to next year. We even talked about what we were going to do after practice next year. So I am definitely looking forward to improving myself and playing ball…
“Whatever happens will happen, that’s why I made the statement I did right when the season was over,” Iguodala said (he said he’d be happy to be in the NBA next season, not mentioning Philly). “I am just happy to be playing basketball in the NBA. That’s my childhood dream and then it kind of got taken out of context but who wouldn’t want to be living that dream? I am living the dream so why worry about things I can’t control.
“I am just happy to be in this position that when the season starts back up to be on a roster. Where do I want to be? It would be great to be back with the young guys along with Elton Brand and I think we have room to pick up a free agent, so it will be an exciting next year.”
So, Iggy is good with whatever, keep him or ship him out. It’s all very Zen of him. He sounds numb to the rumors. Which is good, because once there is a free agency period again, expect his name to start flying around in trade rumors. Just as it has the last couple seasons. But he is a Sixer when the season tips off, don’t be shocked. Iggy will not be.
We told you how Lakers swingman Matt Barnes lost it and punched an opponent at a San Francisco pro-am game, refused to back down from the action and got suspended a game for it.
Now, we get the words of the guy on the wrong end of the swing.
First things first, Dillon Sabia says he dodged the punch, it never connected. Sabia — a player at the College of Marin, a community college in the Bay Area who redshirted last season — also told the Marin Independent Journal he is no fan of Barnes.
“He was pretty mad the whole game, being a little whiner and being really immature,” said Sabia…
“I guess he didn’t like how I boxed him out. He tried to wrap his arms around my neck and throw me on the ground, then I turned around and ran at him and we started talking smack to each other,” Sabia said. “He pushed me, I pushed him in the chest and then he took a swing at my head. I turned my head, he barely clipped my ear.
“Everybody out there is either playing professionally overseas or playing college ball. Everybody’s out there for a reason. There’s no need for him to be, like, all pissing and moaning and being immature about a situation.”
Sabia was suspended for a game as well. Barnes has said guys were being overly physical with him all night, pushing on him because he was the NBA player and he had to stand up for himself. Barnes is not always the most level headed of guys, but I didn’t see the game so I’m not going to say if he was justified or not. But you still can’t throw a punch.
Reuters
When we told you about a wild kidnapping and beating case in Los Angeles that involved gang members, orders from Shaquille O’Neal, and an alleged sex tape involving the former NBA center, we had doubts. Shaq denied everything and was never charged. We took that story with enough salt to make a nice prosciutto.
The judge in the case wasn’t buying it either.
The judge threw out the charges against the alleged gang members on Tuesday saying the key witness — the man allegedly kidnapped — was not to be trusted, reports the New York Daily News.
“We did not have the necessary confidence in the victim Robert Ross to proceed,” District Attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison told the Daily News.
A law enforcement source said one major red flag was an electronic message Ross allegedly sent to O’Neal’s ex-wife Shaunie O’Neal during the case that warned her it was time to “pay up.”
The victim claims to have had an affair with Shaunie. I don’t know, I don’t care if it’s true.
This, however, is not the last of the wild lawsuits Shaq needs to fend off.
Whenever we get a season Shaq will be on the TNT studio set as an analyst and foil for Charles Barkley.
