Tag Archives: basketball
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The impact of players-only meetings are vastly overrated. Vastly.
And they are usually conducted after an ugly loss that should be the bottoming out of a streak (but rarely is, back to the vastly overrated thing).
But in what has been an unusual season for the Lakers, Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher decided to call one after a blowout win over Portland Monday night. That according to Chris Broussard of ESPN.
Their message was clear: Trade rumors do not matter; your feelings about management or the coaching staff don’t matter; all that matters is that the 14 men in that locker room support and believe in one another. If they stay together and stay on the same page, they can get to where they want to go as a team.
The trade rumor thing is obviously a message to Pau Gasol, although Andrew Bynum and others that will hear there name come up in the next three weeks should take heed.
As for being disgruntled with the coach… welcome to any basketball team anywhere. Yes Mike Brown is different in style than Phil Jackson, what did you expect? Yes Mike Brown is experimenting with lineups and rotations, every coach is doing that because of the lockout and no training camps. This season is one big Petri dish for coaches.
Being disgruntled with management is a hot new trend for the Lakers, but pretty much every player in that locker room has been there before, too.
So the “it’s us against the world” message is swell. Good for them. Keep the issues in house.
Not going to mean much, really, these meetings are overrated. And it doesn’t really solve the point guard issue that is the bigger problem. But good for them.
AP
It’s been 14 years since Michael Jordan stepped on an NBA court (Washington? I choose not to remember that stop) and he is still the most valuable brand in basketball worldwide. By miles and miles and miles.
Which is why NBA legend and current Bobcats owner Jordan — along with — Nike has a team of lawyers that protect that brand. And they have turned their guns on a Chinese firm, Qiaodan, and sued the company that manufactures sports apparel and shoes.
You don’t know that name but that is the nickname Jordan has gone by in China since he first came to popularity nearly three decades ago. This is a clear attempt to profit off his name.
In a statement released through his spokeswoman, Jordan says he’s worked hard to establish his name and calls the issue “deeply disappointing to see a company build a business off my Chinese name without my permission, use the number 23 and even attempt to use the names of my children.”
Jordan says he’s “This complaint is not about money, it’s about principle and protecting my name.”
It’s about money.
It is about protecting his name — which when put on Nike shoes and apparel is worth a whole lot of money. Particularly in the emerging massive market that is China. (Most all of which is made in China anyway.)
This follows from the “any time someone says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money” principle. That doesn’t mean Jordan and his army of lawyers is wrong here. Enforcing it in China may not be so simple, however.
From the AP:
San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili is expected to miss two weeks with a strained left oblique…Forward Tiago Splitter also is expected to miss two weeks with a strained right calf, but he traveled with the team to Salt Lake City and will continue his rehab during the road trip.
Ginobili has been playing great basketball when healthy this season, but has only appeared in 9 regular-season games so far because of injuries. Splitter has blossomed this season, averaging 9.4 points on 62% shooting in 20.7 minutes per game. The Spurs have been surging, and are currently on a 10-game winning streak, but these injuries will make it tough for them to sustain their incredibly high level of play.
Reuters
UPDATE 4:13 pm: Rose is back and in the starting lineup.
Remember that while he was out for back spasms, he had played through a turf toe injury before that and this time off certainly will help a little with that as well.
3:50 pm: After missing five games due to a back injury, Derrick Rose is expected back in the Bulls lineup Monday afternoon against the Hawks.
The Bulls guard injury information like it’s the nuclear football, but Rose took contact in practice on Sunday then Monday K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune tweeted this:
DRose is gametime vs. ATL. Rip, CJ out. CJ has migraine. DRose has been cleared by trainers. So barring warmup setback, he’s in.
Rose has been battling back spasms and the only long-term answer was rest. He needed some games off and while the Bulls struggled a little (splitting a pair against Boston) they were able to maintain their hold on the top seed in the East (and get coach Tom Thibodeau that All-Star coaching gig he didn’t really want).
The only people happier to have him back than Bulls fans are a bunch of fantasy hoops owners.
Reuters
Dwight Howard heads to New Jersey Wednesday night to play the Nets in the building that team will not play in next season. The Nets are going to Brooklyn, and they want Howard to join them there.
So they are pulling out all the fireworks. Literally.
Here is the tweet from Andy Vasquez, the Nets beat writer for the Bergen Record (he has photo evidence).
Nets appear to be setting up a special pregame pyrotechnic show, with Dwight Howard in town. What a coincidence.
Yes, a fancy intro should do it. It will end the entire debate.
Okay, maybe not. It goes like this: First, will Orlando’s front office decide they have to move him at the deadline, or will they take the risk and keep him through the season. If the Magic keep Howard, he will opt out of the last year of his contract, at which point the question becomes does he think he stands a better chance of winning a ring in the future in Dallas, Brooklyn or Orlando. (And pretty much not Orlando, or he would have stayed already.) The Nets have Deron Williams, but does he trust that management to put a team of good role players around them? You know Dallas will spend, but Dirk Nowitzki is not young, do you think they can transition after he leaves?
Howard will get asked all those questions at All-Star Weekend, and he will dodge them all.
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UPDATE 9:43 pm: Roburt Sallie spoke with Gary Parish of CBS Radio today and wanted to clarify a few things. As you thought he might. Here are the key parts, via Eye on Basketball.
Two things he attempted to clarify in this absolutely must-listen interview: 1) He did not take “Extends” but a male enchancement pill called “Black Ant.” The difference is that “Extends” is to enlarge your penis while “Black Ant” is just something to increase sexual potency….
2) Sallie says he disclosed that he took the enhancement pills and also says he has not been paid. He wasn’t “cut” as the team says, but actually released himself.
There are about 8 million jokes here, you can write them yourself. We are simply conduits of information in this case.
3:35 pm: I have always held a grudge against Roburt Sallie, but I wouldn’t have wished this on anyone.
If you’re a college basketball fan you may remember Roburt Sallie, who played for the Memphis Tigers. I remember his as the guy who dropped 35 on my alma mater in the first round of the NCAA tournament a few years back. Hence my issue with him.
He never played in the NBA but spent last year playing in Europe until he was cut from his Spanish team a couple months ago. What is interesting is why — via Draft Express, here is the story, translated by Google from the Spanish on Tubasket.com.
On November 18, his team won the ENIAC Knet & Rioja, 83-75, with 5 points in his 20 minutes of play. After the party had to pass the drugs test and was then was nailed. When asked if he was taking any medications, acknowledged that yes, some pills named ‘Extenze’, to lengthen the penis.
Nothing bad if not for the ‘small’ detail that can give doping test for testosterone, and worse, because no one knew at the club, with consequent damage to the Tarragona in case of receiving a sanction. It was then understood why the player, formed in college Memphis and graduated a year before finishing his basketball career in the NCAA, his poor relationship with peers, and almost never take a shower in the locker room, or after games or practice.
‘Extenze’? Oh, that is the hard way to get caught doping. So to speak.
Man, you know that is coming up in every locker room he steps in for the rest of his career.
It’s not a surprise — we told you yesterday it was coming — but now it is official.
Well, if you can believe J.R. Smith himself. Smith tweeted this Friday morning:
New York Knicks it is
Smith will join the Jeremy Lin show, along with Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire. Which is kind of the order it feels like in New York now.
Smith had interest from a number of teams — Orlando, Minnesota, Los Angeles Lakers — but had narrowed the choices down to the Clippers and Knicks. Both are good teams (the Clippers likely better) and both could offer a lot of minutes. But the Knicks could offer more money — the $2.5 million mini mid-level exception — and for a guy who went all the way to China for a paycheck during the lockout you had to figure money mattered a lot.
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It all seems so simple in hindsight. Greg Oden will soon undergo his 3rd microfracture surgery since being drafted in 2007, while Kevin Durant will continue to be one of the best players in the Western Conference and, more than likely, lead his team into the playoffs. Oden spent much of his college career nursing a wrist injury, while Durant spent most of his one year at Texas demolishing his competition with a silky-smooth inside-out game on his way to being named the consensus national player of the year.
In hindsight, it all seems so silly. How could we not have seen this? Why did we think that Kevin Durant’s inability to lift the weight bar once or sprint down the court during the draft combine would keep him from being a dominant force in the NBA? It’s hard to remember how sure we all were about Oden after we read things like Chad Ford’s awed recap of Oden’s pre-draft workout:
Oden measures 6-foot-11½ in socks and 7-1 in shoes, and he weighs around 260. His wingspan is an impressive 7-5, and his standing reach nearly 9-3. Those measurements provide the biggest reason most scouts think Oden should be the No. 1 pick. In a league devoid of big, traditional centers — Oden’s numbers add up to a perfect 10.
Everything else is supposed to be gravy.
But when St. Vincent director Ralph Reiff warned that I was in for a surprise, he wasn’t kidding.
Oden’s agility, flexibility, balance and explosiveness are remarkable for a player his size. He’s a 2 guard in a center’s body.
Clearly Oden is more than a big stiff who’s learned how to play basketball. He’s an athlete who happens to be 7 feet tall.
In the span of an hour, there wasn’t a drill point guard Mike Conley could do that Oden couldn’t do. In the strength department, we’d expect that and more. But in terms of athleticism and agility, you have to see it to believe it.
Remember that ridiculous dunk he tried against Georgetown — the one when he took off from a little inside the free-throw line? That type of play should be a staple of his NBA game…
…As the workout continues, Oden plants down low alongside Purdue’s Carl Landry and works on a number of post moves around the basket. His hands are soft. His hook shot is smooth. And most everything Oden lobs up finds its way in the basket. While he’s been working on a midrange jumper to increase his arsenal, it’s his work down on the post that is most impressive.
We’d seen so many pure scorers, shooters, and tweener forwards struggle in the NBA, especially ones with less-than stellar athleticism. Oden was supposed to be the sure thing. 3 microfracture surgeries, 1 Thunder Conference Finals appearance, and 2 Kevin Durant scoring titles later, it’s easy to see just how wrong we were.
However, Blazers acting GM Chad Buchanan, who was in the room when Oden was drafted, says he has no regrets about picking Oden over Durant all these years later (hat tip to Ben Golliver of Blazersedge and CBS’ Eye on Basketball):
Buchanan, speaking at the team’s practice facility on Monday afternoon, told CBSSports.com that he remembered the phone call declaring the team’s intention to select Oden was being placed to NBA commissioner David Stern, thinking that the team’s braintrust was in the process of acquiring a title-delivering talent.
“I was very excited,” he said. “A chance to draft a player who could potentially get your franchise to your ultimate goal. Looking back on it, we were all excited. We had visions of Greg being a great player for us for years to come.”
But just like his predecessors and Blazers president Larry Miller before him, Buchanan said that he still stands by the team’s selection of Oden over Durant.
“Looking back on it, I would still draft Greg,” he said. “Hindsight, it’s easy to make an assumption [now]… You can’t predict the injuries that would come. Going back on it, I wouldn’t have changed anything in drafting Greg.”
Asked if the decision was unanimous among those in the room, Buchanan politely declined to reply.
At the time, there wasn’t much of a debate across the city: a vast majority supported selecting Oden. “Even Caveman Knows: Pick Oden,” read the headline of one letter to the editor that was published in the June 17, 2007, edition ofThe Oregonian. “Oden Possesses Championship Aura,” read another.
Well, it’s safe to say that aura has worn off, and it’s now an open question whether the player who was once a lock to be a franchise center will ever play in the NBA again, let alone play another game for the team that took him over Durant. It’s easy for the Blazers front office to say they would have made the same pick again if they had the same amount of information now that they did them, but it has to be hard to watch Durant continue to light up the league as Oden can do nothing but watch.
Charles Oakley was on Jim Rome’s radio show today, and the former Bulls big man had some choice words for Kevin Garnett, Charles Barkley, and Kendrick Perkins. Here are the highlights, courtesy of Larry Brown Sports:
“Garnett left Minnesota and hollered and screamed and all that but hes not a tough guy,” Oakley said as Sports Talk Network shared with us. “He’s one of the weakest guys to ever play the game. He’s a complimentary player and went to Paul Pierce’s team and won a championship. I wouldn’t consider him a top 10 tough guy…
…“Barkley, for his size, was a good player but he’s a coward,” Oakley continued. “He was a good player for his size, but he wasn’t a leader and wasn’t a role model. Now he talks so bad about younger guys. I don’t respect that from him. He’s a fraud. He can criticize all the younger kids and if he got something to say, call them and talk to them before you just blast them. He’s wants to be funny, that whole TNT thing and all that, they’re like some clowns on that show”…
…Oakley wasn’t done there. He also said that Kendrick Perkins is similar to K.G. in that all he does is holler and complain, and that the Thunder would win championships if he would just play basketball. Oakley added that Perk’s attitude is the reason he got dunked on by Blake Griffin, and said throughout his 19-year career he only got dunked on three times. Somebody check the tape on that, please.
Oakley, who was named to both the All-Defense team and the All-Star team as a member of the famously physical New York Knicks in 1994, spent the 1st few years of his career as Michael Jordan’s teammate and unofficial “enforcer,” and Jordan was famously enraged when then-Bulls GM Jerry Krause traded Oakley for Bill Cartwright before the Bulls went on their historic title runs. By most accounts, Oakley and Jordan remain good friends, but it doesn’t look like he’s looking to make many new ones.
Reuters
At the time, Golden State was letting go a little-used guard who spent time in the D-League to clear the way for a $10 million a year offer to DeAndre Jordan, the big-time center the Warriors needed (and still need).
Now, they are the team that had Jeremy Lin and didn’t realize what they had.
That has left Warriors fans asking why team management didn’t recognize what they had and why they didn’t give him an opportunity to have this kind of magical run in the Bay Area.
Here is what Warriors consultant Jerry West said on the Dan Patrick Show (as relayed by Matt Steinmetz at CSNBayArea.com).
“He was a very good friend of the owner Joe Lacob and his son, and they played together. And they signed him. And they saw something there in him, and during the process of trying to sign DeAndre Jordan, there were certain players that had to be moved off the roster….
“To me, don’t place blame (for Lin being let go). You give credit. The credit goes to Jeremy. A lot of things in sports are about blame. There’s no blame here. It’s just maybe some people didn’t see what he had inside.”
Mark Jackson never even coached Lin — he couldn’t contact him over the summer and Lin was cut the first day of training camp — is getting the questions, too, even though he had almost nothing to do with it. Here is what he said to 97.5 The Game in San Francisco (via Sports Radio Interviews).
“(Lin is) playing with great confidence and is not afraid of the moment. That’s one thing I knew coming in. He was a guy that would compete and get after it. I’m happy for him because at the end of the day we have a point guard in Steph Curry. I was at Starbucks yesterday and a guy asked me about Jeremy Lin and Steph Curry and I asked him who was a better player. He paused and because he took the pause I just told him thank you, have a great day. Enjoy your cup of coffee.”
Lin simply did not play this well last year for Golden State. It’s why he was sent to the D-League — he shot 38 percent, he had a league-average PER of 14.8 while using just about 15 percent of the possessions while he was on the floor. He worked hard at his game in the off-season, clearly, but they didn’t take a look because they have Stephen Curry at the point. The Rockets picked him up but they have Kyle Lowry and Goran Dragic at the point and he wasn’t getting chances.
The Knicks had no PG to speak of and Lin’s skill set fits exactly with what they needed. Success for players not named Kobe or LeBron — who can succeed anywhere because of their skill — is about opportunity and fit. Lin improved his game, landed in a spot that was a good fit and great opportunity and took advantage. In the process he proved a lot of people — myself included — wrong about what his ceiling would be. That’s what makes this such a good story.
We Americans love the idea that if given the chance, we all could have that kind of success. And right now, in this economy, we need that story more than ever.
