Mike Moreau with a great line in a Hoopsworld article: "After working out a group of NBA players a few summers ago, I was sitting in the bleachers with a former first round draft pick talking about his first season in the league. I made the comment that it must have been great playing for a coach who played his same position for over a decade in the NBA. His comment to me was, 'Man, I don't ever want to play for a former player again. I didn't learn anything. Just give me some nerdy dude who watches tape all night and can help me get better.'"
ESPN's Chris Sheridan writes a nice little preview of the US vs. Argentina game, then ends it like this: "[Kobe] Bryant, by the way, said he 'hadn't really had a chance to speak to' Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, who was in attendance Wednesday night."
You could make the case that Kobe Bryant's excellent play is, essentially, a move to entice Chicago or some other team to make an amazing offer to the Lakers, so that Bryant will be granted his liberation. You could also make the case that the better he plays, the harder it will be for the Lakers to ever let go.
TrueHoop reader Steve emails: "On a recent trip to Mexico City, I visited the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, which has a big display about an Aztec game that's kind of an ancient precursor to basketball. Judging from this description looks like they had some of the same problems with betting that the NBA does, although I'm guessing they had a lot less of a problem with flopping given the harshness of the penalties.
Sergio Rodriguez is a young, mistake prone, very poor man's version of Steve Nash. But the question is, how do you maximize his chances of becoming Steve Nash? Use your hammer to pound out the kinks in practice, and not let him on the floor much until he has some old school respect for the game? Or do you figure Portland's still not in win-now mode, and let him learn on the job while making mistakes? I agree with Dave from BlazersEdge, that Nate McMillan is almost certainly not going to set this particular butterfly free: "Best guess: the season ends with Sergio muttering and giving unsettled interviews to Spanish papers, with Nate shaking his head, with the fans wondering openly why Nate doesn't play him more, and with Kevin Pritchard saying 'It was a tough year for him but he's young and we still believe in him.'" (Also, if you're a Blazer fan hoping to get in the mood for the upcoming season, you have to read this and, this.)
The Minnesota-based blogger who used to run IHeartKG.com is now blogging at TWolvesBlog.com. But she warns the city of Boston: no they can not have her old domain. She's keeping it.
Maybe LeBron James is doing Pilates, according to NBA's Finest: "Jay Z and Beyonce watched Team USA beat Uruguay 118-79. As a tribute, Lebron threw up the roc, something he hadn't been doing (thankfully) as much during the tournament. I just don't get the point of the whole roc thing. First of all, it's a Pilates move. I can never remember the names of all the moves, so I just give them my own names, such as "Jesus H" and "no way in hell." Anyway, there's one exercise on the reformer -- I think the original name is shaving or shave to the head or something -- where you make a triangle with your hands on your forehead and then extend your arms at a 45 degree angle. When my Pilates instructor first showed me, I just called it the roc to make it easier. Finally, she was like, "Why do you keep calling it that?" So I explained to her that it's an asinine thing Jay Z does that he gets all his followers to do, too. She then asked me why, to which I responded I don't know. So I'll ask this time, why? What's the point of throwing up the roc? And what makes it any different from Doug Christie's hand signals to Jackie? They're both meaningless and insipid and worst of all, unoriginal. It makes the headbop look inspired."
There can never be enough tributes to the wit of Rod Benson, who will reportedly be in training camp with the Nets. Also, I just learned that this NBDL big man's blog played a role in the NBDL championship game. Benson writes: "Half way through the 4th quarter, Pooh Jeter got hot. He made some big shots and started to get real emotional. He starts yelling out: 'Put me in your blog! Put this in your blog!' I laughed but it kind of bothered me because it looked like we were going to lose. With a few seconds left, Pooh got fouled and had a chance to put his team up 3 and essentially close us out. As the second free throw went in, he repeated the whole 'Put this in your blog!' thing. We are friends, but at that moment I wanted to throw his little a-- in a goddamn trash compactor I was so mad ... In overtime, after I scored to put us up by six, then blocked Pooh's layup on the other end, he was complaining to the refs about a foul call he wanted. I walk right up to him and say 'THIS is going on the goddamn blog!" He was so angry, he started yelling out any and everything about the blog, but it didn't matter. We won the championship."
The Sun-Sentinel's Ira Winderman: "The shame of the NBA's restricted free-agent system is best exemplified by Mickael Pietrus. The Warriors have little need for him and the forward wants nothing more than playing time elsewhere. The Heat could offer that, but also lacks anything tempting enough to make Golden State take on a matching salary."
If you want to see Ron Artest in New York, read this.
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