Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic has been asking around, and doesn't think Shawn Marion can make more from somebody else than he's making from the Suns: "One agent said he considered Marion's value to be $10 million per year if he remains the No. 3 option, after Nash and center Amaré Stoudemire, with the Suns. Others say he could receive a deal starting at $15 million a season elsewhere. Only 11 NBA players will make more than Marion's $16.4 million salary in 2007-08."
Don Nelson is most proud of his Italian Stallion. Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News blogs: "Nelson basically put rookie Marco Belinelli into the starting line-up, replacing the traded Jason Richardson. Nelson mentioned Kelenna Azubuike and Stephen Jackson (better used as the small forward), but it's clear that his heart, for now, is with the long-ball shooting, gutsy Italian rookie. 'I'm assuming Belinelli's really ready to go,' Nelson said. 'The guy's got stardom written all over him.'" Note to readers: training camp has not even started yet. This could change.
TrueHoop reader "Pudge" emails with a story that is not new, but is amazing: "Apparently, according to this Frontline documentary, an airplane formerly used by the Sonics was bought by arms smugglers, who used it to sneak AK47s into Sierra Leone. What's remarkable is that the smugglers were in such a hurry that they didn't even bother to repaint the plane!"
Here's some real estate for the Sonics. Could get a little cramped, but it would really bring home the whole "SuperSonic" theme to play in a missile silo.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Remember when Marcus Camby pulled out of the U.S. Olympic team this summer? I can't remember now whom I was talking to, but they implied strongly that it would be idiotic to call Camby some kind of lame-o for doing that. He had a good reason, they implied. Now we find out, thanks to a Chris Tomasson article in the Rocky Mountain News. Turns out that this summer he had a baby born 16 weeks early. (40 weeks is on time. This one was born at 24 weeks. (Not, as reported elsewhere, 24 months.) Talking to a nurse once I heard that 26 weeks was really the minimum, but that if you were a parent you should really pray for a child that was at least 32 weeks.) Maya Camby was born weighing a scant one pound, five ounces. And now, coming up on five months later, she's home and said to be doing well, with her weight approaching nine pounds.
Grizzly business. Small market NBA teams struggle nearly everywhere, but especially in Memphis.
Somehow I missed this up until now. According to David Segal of the Washington Post, one of the things Anucha Browne Sanders is suing to get is her job back. That could be a little uncomfortable, I'd imagine.
Yesterday we learned that Ed Stefanski talked about the upcoming Nets season without mentioning Jason Collins. Now Lawrence Frank has done the same thing. Both raved about Jamaal Magloire, too, who could in theory take Jason's starting spot. You don't have to go to Stanford (although, you know, he did) to figure out that's a bad sign for Collins' future as a Net.
I love how seriously Mark Cuban takes this "Dancing With the Stars" thing. He's on a massive emotional high to be doing it, and borderline depressed at the thought of being eliminated. (Also, my mom, who seldom uses even the gentlest of swear words around her children, left me a voicemail saying "did you know that we all saw Mark Cuban's a-- last night? They showed us where he had hip surgery.") In a fantastical overdramatization of Cuban's emotional ride. I am reminded of this poem by Tennyson, which has that famous line about drinking life "to the lees." "Lees" are that nasty bitter sludge at the bottom of your wine glass. Drink it all, Mark. Drink it all.
Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "Glen Taylor, owner of the Wolves, said that the Kevin Garnett trade might have never developed had Garnett not come to Kevin McHale last spring and asked for a three-year contract extension. But Garnett, who was being paid $22 million a season, refused the suggestion of Taylor that KG take a cut in salary, so the decision was made to make the trade. Taylor said that the Chicago Bulls were interested in Garnett but not at the salary he demanded."
Three separate times yesterday, in conversations with three very different NBA insider types, people said to me something along the lines of "what the hell is Miami up to?" Miami's long-term roster strategy is certainly a major NBA mystery at this point. I think the real dilemma is not knowing if Shaquille O'Neal is an anchor or not. Will he be healthy and fit? Problem solved, at least for this season. Will he be sluggish and injured? Then everything but Dwyane Wade is a question mark.
Comments that include profanity, or personal attacks, or antisocial behavior such as "spamming" or "trolling," or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our terms of use. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
H
