Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? Jim Boylan's first move as coach of the Chicago Bulls? Bench Ben Gordon and start Chris Duhon. New coach, same whipping boy. Matt from Blog-A-Bull's reaction: "...benching Gordon sucks, it won't work and even if it 'works' it'll just keep him on the bench, which doesn't work."
Gordon Giricek is back with the Jazz. Well, that should solve all of their problems.
Smush Parker has been called back to be with the Heat, although when they will let him back on the court remains to be seen. Even as a Lakers fan who used Smush as a whipping boy for the last year he was in LA, his fall has been sad to see. He is a potentially great story -- a kid who played on the playgrounds of New York growing up, adjusted his game well enough to play at Fordham, then refined his game in Europe and finally, when given a shot on the Lakers Summer League team, he impressed. He's athletic, he can shoot the rock. He'd make a decent backup PG in the league, if he could just accept the role. But he has chaffed under Phil Jackson and now Pat Riley, been disruptive to the teams off the court, and you can't do that if you're a backup who plays questionable (at best) defense. I still want to see the kid make it, but he keeps shooting himself in the foot.
As Brian Windhorst pointed out, the Cavs beat the Maverick's last night because they played good defense. You remember defense, don't you Cleveland? It's the thing that got you to the Finals last season.
Kevin Garnett leads everyone in the All Star balloting. Not shocking and well deserved. If things continue as they are the East will start Jason Kidd, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, KG and Dwight Howard in the game in New Orleans.
The All Star starting five out West as of today are Kobe Bryant (leading all vote getters in the West) and Tracy McGrady at guard, Carmelo Anthony and Tim Duncan at forward and Yao Ming at center. I love McGrady, but who is voting for him over Steve Nash at guard right now? Heck I'd also vote for Chris Paul ahead of McGrady. And Baron Davis, too. Voting continues until Jan. 20.
Just a tipping of the hat to Stu Nahan, a fixture in the Los Angeles sports television scene for years who passed away recently.
Manute Bol is in Iowa, pressing presidential candidates on how they would handle the situation going on in Darfur and the Sudan. It's a good question. I'm sure the candidates are all giving him well thought out, detailed answers not just meaningless platitudes. Right?
Indy Cornrows had great seats for the Seattle/Boston game last night and blogs about how intense KG is and how stupid it would be to let the Sonics leave Seattle.
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