Those players who don't have any amazing skills, but work their butts off? People love them. But they really don't get NBA jobs very often at all. One exception: Atlanta Hawk Mario West. Sekou Smith writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "West solidified his position with one hustle play after another in practices, scrimmages and exhibition games, each one of his jaw-dropping efforts in games eliciting the same reaction - a standing ovation - from the players on the bench. 'I played with Ron Artest in Indiana, so I like to think I know a little something about playing hard, but this guy does it in every practice, every game, every shootaround. He never stops,' Hawks veteran point guard Anthony Johnson said and then relayed a story about a fantastic West sequence during an exhibition game in Charlotte. 'Mario got a tip dunk and sprinted back to half court and was denying his man the ball, and Charlotte hadn't even thrown the ball in bounds yet. It was ... a sight to see. Unbelievable.' Fellow Hawks rookie Al Horford played with Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer, two players revered for their non-stop motors on back-to-back NCAA title teams at Florida. Neither, Horford said, has the extra gear West does. 'Rio is on another level,' Horford said. 'Consistently, play in and play out, he plays harder than anyone I've ever played with or against. Joakim plays extremely hard, you know, that's what he was known for. But this dude [West] ... he's on another level, man. I'm just glad he's on our team. We need somebody like that.'"
You probably don't want to follow every twist and turn of the Etan Thomas vs. Ivan Carter debate. It's just kind of long. It started with Thomas saying that many media outlets, including the Washington Post, had been careless in decribing Thomas's heart surgery in a context with people like Jason Collier, who had a fatal heart condition. Thomas says his condition was nothing similar. Carter, who writes for the Post, fired back, upbraiding Thomas to get his facts straight. Today Thomas responds on Real GM, essentially, that his facts are straight, and Carter has some explaining to do: "I should let you speak to my wife or my mother or my brother or my grandfather so you can hear from their mouths how they felt. Imagine opening the paper only to read cases where the person died, and those cases being linked to what your loved one has. Just try to imagine that before you blog about how way off base I was, and how I didn't have my facts straight." I haven't done the forensics it would take to pick sides in this debate. But I will tell you this: athletes don't need traditional media outlets to be heard anymore, and in ways obvious and subtle, I think that'll be having a profound effect on how sports are covered.
With Mike Bibby sidelined for months by thumb surgery, somebody gets to step up in Sacramento. Orien Greene, this is your big chance. Also, this is Sacramento's chance to see what life is like without Bibby, who has long been rumored to have been on the trading block. An anonymous NBA scout talking to Sports Illustrated: "They were trying to trade Mike Bibby last year, and I can see why. It isn't going to work between him and Ron Artest. They don't play well together. I'm sure they'll talk about how well they get along, but when they're on the court, neither one seems to want to help the other. When one of them holds the ball too long or misses a shot, you often see a reaction from the other -- you'll see Bibby rolling his eyes. It's not like they're at war -- it's not Kobe vs. Shaq -- but it's not good chemistry either ..."
ESPN's David Thorpe has been saying some time that a lot of NBA coaches don't really coach their players. John Denton of Floriday Today quotes Keith Bogans: "(Last season) I made a mistake, I came out and nothing was explained to me at all. This year, they're taking the time with me and letting me know when I make a mistake. That makes a big difference as opposed to a coach taking you out and just sitting there frowning. I don't respond well to that. I've always played for coaches who coached me."
Creative Golden State preview. Best-case scenario for Stephen Jackson is that he's like Latrell Sprewell. Worst-case scenario? Ditto.
Does your team have a player stashed overseas that you're interested in getting to know more about? Wish there was some magic bat phone you could use to reach them? In at least one case, that magic bat phone is called MySpace.
Amazing player on a fantastic team who thankfully never insisted on being more than a third banana: All hail James Worthy. (And take notes, Shawn Marion.)
UPDATE: Lamar Odom tells The Guy Report about meditating with Phil Jackson: "We meditated one time, that was really different. He talked us through it. I never did that before. One thing I've learned in my seven years: is the mind can take you places where the body can't. And then take your body with it, because that's how strong it is. ... It was like a laid back type of thing. And after that we had practice. We really had a good practice. So I imagine we'll probably do more of that."
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