Branson Wright of the Cleveland Plain Dealer explains some of the medical challenges Carlos Boozer's family has been facing: "Boozer's son, Carmani, born in May 2006, was diagnosed with sickle cell disease. Boozer missed almost two weeks of training camp because he was with his son after he underwent a bone marrow transplant this summer, which hopefully will cure him of the disease. Carmani has responded well to treatment, but it's still unknown if it worked. Boozer, however, knows his son will have a better life because of the transplant. 'It's one of those things,' Boozer said. 'I'm just trying to focus on hoops when I can, but as soon as hoops is over I'm calling back home. As a family, we're doing good and I just thank everyone that has prayed for us. My son's getting better and through God's will, hopefully he'll be here with his dad soon.' The bone-marrow transplant Carmani went through is a risky treatment. It involved CeCe undergoing in-vitro fertilization to give her two healthy embryos with the hopes one would take. Both did and twins Cameron and Cayden were born July 18. Stem cells from CeCe's umbilical cord for Carmani were used in the bone marrow transplant"
On Saturday night, I watched Chicago lose to Toronto, and it was really quite shocking. I'm not surprised some Chicago fans are starting to freak out. First of all, Toronto is pretty darned good. They move the ball around, almost everyone can shoot, and they are super deep (someone should make an offer for Jorge Garbajosa, who is a real player who can barely even get on the court, and now even former Globetrotter Jamario Moon is productive). But mainly -- wow -- Chicago was as unimaginative as any NBA team I can remember seeing on the offensive end. That'll probably all look better when Kirk Hinrich gets out of his rut. But for now, wasted shot clock, guards creating for themselves, a blatant lack of coordinated offensive movement ... all that is common on teams that pound it into the big man all night, but this team doesn't do that either. I'm not smart enough to know exactly what the problem is. This is also a story for basketball experts to assess. There's also some really weird stuff going on statistically. Check out this chart! Joakim Noah is killing it, in terms of plus/minus (they call it on court/off) he is easily the best player on the team. Ben Gordon has been miserable so far as far as that stat is concerned. Andres Nocioni and Chris Duhon are also bright spots. No one thinks +/- over a few games is super valuable, but it's a good place to start asking questions, especially when the traditional stats tell a totally different story. Also, can you ever remember Ben Wallace being this unnoticeable? More thoughts on what's wrong with the team, from those who watch most closely.
Not entirely unrelated, here's Britt Robson of the Rake on Rashad McCants: "Out with a sprained ankle versus the Lakers, Shaddy was inserted into the Kings game late in the first quarter, and wound up playing a little more than 26 minutes, enough time to jack up 14 shots and do a credible imitation of someone fantasizing about being Michael Jordan while working on moves alone at the playground. The most memorable stretch occurred when McCants replaced Gomes with 5:53 to play in the third period and ran amuck until he sat with 20 seconds left in the quarter. During those five and half minutes, he performed some beautiful things, including a trey caught and shot in rhythm right off the bench, and a couple of strong, literally beautiful moves through traffic to get to the rim. But the predominant vibe was palpable, purposeful narcissism -- McCants uber alles."
Golden State of Mind interviews "Welcome to the Terrordome" author Dave Zirin: "Golden State of Mind: Near the end of your book in the chapter titled "In Their Own Words" you illuminated the depth, insights, and consciousness of some of this generation's athletes, in particular Etan Thomas, Sheryl Swoopes, John Amaechi, and Jeff Monson. Are there any players in the NBA that you think undeservedly get a bad rap from the media, despite being good folks dedicated to making the world a better place? Dave Zirin: Here is a name: Ron Artest. Artest is a good man who spent a good part of his summer in Africa working with HIV afflicted children. It changed his life. This year you will either see a disinterested Artest whose mind is just on some other issues bigger than hoops OR you are going to see the Kings be the surprise team in the West (my prediction) with Artest resuming his pre-Auburn Hills place as one of the best all around players in the L."
A fine look at what the numbers tell us about how the Celtics beat the Nets. Offensive rebounding and small lineups made a huge difference. A whiz-bang analysis of how the Cavaliers beat the Clippers also revealed offensive rebounds as the culprit.
Brian McCormick is not pleased with what he has seen so far of Reggie Theus as a coach. He went to see the team on Friday: "Why call the last timeout? 12 seconds to play and Martin is isolated in transition 1v1 on the left wing with the Kings down 2 and only one other defender within the three-point line. Instead, the Kings call timeout, their last, and do not get off a good shot. Martin is almost guaranteed to get to the FT line if he goes 1v1 in transition. Maybe he gets a 3-point play. Worst case scenario is he misses with about 10 seconds to play, the Kings foul and use a timeout after the Cavs' free throw to move the ball to the front court. The Cavs are not a good free throw shooting team. How do you expect to run a play that gets a better scoring opportunity than Martin 1v1 in transition?"
Wizznutzz over the weekend (before Washington stuck it to the Hawks): "Some say 0-5 is a disaster. I say it feels like home."
Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star: "I bet some of you probably wished you hadn't guzzled down some of the Pacers' Kool Aid so quick. Their 3-0 start against teams that are currently a combined 3-13 got you excited about the blue and gold. The Pacers were brought back to reality when they showed they don't know how to hold a lead. Last week was one of several reasons why I think the Pacers will have a hard time making the playoffs. They lack a killer instinct."
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