First of all, it appears I confused some people by saying I was interviewing somebody for TrueHoop. To quote and write about, is what I meant. Not to hire. But thanks for the résumés, and apologies for the confusion.
Now appearing on this here website, excerpts from the Brian Windhorst and Terry Pluto book about LeBron James called "The Franchise." A chapter on the draft lottery, and another on his sneaker deal. I interviewed Windhorst about this book on the Daily Dish on August 8. You can find that here.
You probably know that Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian will be face off against each other tonight in Houston. (The Rockets and Bucks will also be there.) You probably also know the game is expected to have one of the biggest TV audiences in sports history. But what I just learned is that those two players have never faced each other before in a real game.
A sick girl has her most precious possession, a signed Tim Duncan jersey, stolen. But Spurs fans are pitching in like crazy, (and here) spurred by a local TV station. I haven't yet seen if the Spurs will respond.
When global politics mess with your game. Remember Josh Moore? He has played in the NBA, but as we learned a while ago from Elie Seckbach's video report, he headed off to Iran. Seckbach emails today to say that Moore told him he is coming home -- the Iranian government has told his team he can not play. Also, I just learned that Moore has a cool blog.
TrueHoop reader Janson emails: "Is there a statistic on how many times a player falls down? After watching Dallas last night, I think Devin Harris is the new leader."
Gilbert Arenas on his blog, talking about that wounded knee: "[Richard Jefferson] was telling me I need to get a second opinion because I shouldn't be getting it drained this early on in the season. It was the same thing that me and Jason Kidd talked about after the game on the court. He said that I should get a second opinion and I shouldn't be playing so many minutes early. He said that it's the same thing that some of these players come back from. He had microfracture surgery, so he knows. His injury was worse than mine so he knows you have to take your time coming back. ... We play Denver tonight with Melo and A.I. A.I. hasn't been in our building in damn near two and a half years so it's going to be great to play against that combo. We haven't faced them yet. They're a powerhouse in the West and they're not playing as well as they should be, but it's the beginning of the season and we're not playing as well as we should be either. This is my second time trying the back-to-back thing on my knee and we'll see how it feels."
TrueHoop reader Roger emails: "I was in downton Portland after that first Blazer home game (which was sweet) and my friend and I stopped into Powell's [book store]. We were walking towards the bakery and my buddy nudged me. Paul Allen was there, no entourage, no bodyguard. He was just checking out a bunch of sci-fi books. We said hello, he said hello back, I got the feeling he was a bit shy. It was also, on some level, kind of hilarious. Sort of like, 'One of my two professional sports franchises just won their first game of the season, checking out some new space novel would be the perfect way to top it off.'"
Making a case that Shaquille O'Neal would get fewer fouls if he avoided collisions, Bill Russell-style, around the hoop. Also, the observation that under Riley, O'Neal has been having more of those collisions than ever.
We were just talking about him. A press release for the Retired Players Association has news of a Jayson Williams appearance: "The National Basketball Retired Players Association (NBRPA) has joined forces with New York City-based non-profit organization, New Heights Youth, Inc., for their first 3 on 3 Challenge Basketball Tournament taking place this Saturday, Nov. 10, from 2 4 p.m. at Chelsea Piers Field House (Pier 61) in New York City. All proceeds will benefit New Heights, one of New York's most innovative emerging youth development programs. Former NBA standouts John Starks, Jayson Williams and Anthony Avent will serve as celebrity coaches, as will current Knick Malik Rose, Celtics Assistant Coach Armond Hill and several other Legends."
Dallas knows all about revenge games, after beating Golden State last night. Now we can all know all about revenge games.
Funny 2003 mock-news article on the Brushback on LeBron James buying the Cavaliers and trading himself to the Lakers for a bag of basketballs: "There was no immediate report on how many basketballs were in the bag, but James insists the deal was a fair one. 'We're talking about Spalding basketballs, very high quality. The best money can buy. Plus, they're already pumped up. They can use these things at practice, during games, whatever. They certainly have a lot of options there.'"
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