Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle says Baron Davis has been picking the brain of Jerry West: "Talking to West, Davis talked tough, said he was going to let the Warriors know he was unhappy. Davis expected that West, who had his contract squabbles as a player, would lend a sympathetic ear. He did not. 'That's the wrong approach,' West told Davis, quietly. Davis said, 'He gave me a lot of Basketball Business 101. Did it cause a shift in my thinking? Yeah.'"
Michael Wilbon of The Washington Post reports: "Opponents feel the ball moves better, that the Wizards take better shots, that the players who defer to [Gilbert] Arenas when he's on the floor are more assertive without him. Told of that growing sentiment yesterday, Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld said: 'His teammates certainly don't think that's the case. ... Gilbert can put us on a different level. ... When we get Gil back we can be extremely dangerous.' It's a fascinating quandary, how to reintroduce the NBA's third-leading scorer from 2007 into a lineup that scores just fine without him most nights. The Wizards still have eight, sometimes 10 minutes a night when they struggle to score, which would be solved with Arenas back. But he's a player who needs the ball a disproportionate share of the time. As problems go, this isn't the kind the Wizards traditionally have."
Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports the Cavaliers loss to the Spurs in the NBA Finals motivated LeBron James: "The Cavaliers star did something every day to improve his game, especially his shooting. He said he didn't need to watch replays of The Finals for motivation. He felt it in his gut every morning when he got up. It was the first time he felt as if he'd failed on the big stage. 'It bothered me because I wasn't able to dominate like I feel I can,' he said as the Cavs prepared to meet the Spurs tonight for the first time since then. 'I knew I needed to get better before, but after that I knew I had a lot of work to do.'"
Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News reports George Karl and Jerry Sloan are still trying to outdo the other: "Karl and Sloan are called complete opposites by those who know them, the former being flamboyant and the latter conservative. They don't have much of a relationship other than saying hello when passing in a hallway. Still, they have been linked since their intense matchups in the 1990s. 'Utah was the best rivalry we had then,' said Sam Perkins, a Seattle center from 1992 to 1998, the final 5 1/2 seasons of Karl's 6 1/2-year tenure with the SuperSonics. 'Those were some great coaching battles. It's great to see that coach Karl and coach Sloan are getting that rivalry going again in the same division.'"
Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News is one of many New Yorkers feeling the team is misguided even in winning: "The Knicks are at a place in their season where they need to lose. At 12-26, they're not going anywhere, not even in another bad Eastern Conference whose third-best team is a deep mystery. They might as well make the most of it. As far as anyone can tell, Thomas has not agreed to ship this year's first-round pick to the Bulls after sending them the last two in the Curry trade. So why not maintain their overall losing ways - they're on pace to finish with 26 wins - and get a top player out of the draft? ... So maybe, if the Knicks lose enough, and that shouldn't be a problem, even if Stephon Marbury misses the rest of the season, Thomas can find a future star this June in Kansas State's Michael Beasley, Memphis' Derrick Rose or Southern Cal's O.J. Mayo."
According to Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star, the NBA drug policy leaves teams in the dark: "When the NBA office called Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird the other day, the news was as shocking as it was disheartening. The Pacers' underachieving and monumentally disappointing young center, David Harrison, had tested positive for marijuana for the third time in his career, drawing a five-game suspension. Turns out, Bird and the Pacers organization had no idea that Harrison had tested positive for anything. Ever. That's league policy as it relates to marijuana. And that's ridiculous."
Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News reports: "If Dirk Nowitzki could impart one piece of advice to Tony Romo, he would tell the Cowboys' quarterback to get over it. Dwelling on the negative for too long can be unhealthy for anybody, Nowitzki said Wednesday. He and the Mavericks went through it last spring when they were upset in the first round of the playoffs. A week later, Nowitzki collected the MVP trophy in an uncomfortable ceremony. 'Everybody deals with stuff differently,' Nowitzki said. 'I just had to get away [to Australia] and get my mind away from basketball.'"
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