Bill Walker, on the brink of making the NBA despite two major knee injuries, has reportedly injured his knee again. More on that. If he ever wins an NBA title, somebody will probably make a major motion picture about his knees, because they have been through some wars.
If you believe Tim Donaghy when he says referees cost Sacramento Game 6 of the 2002 conference finals, here's where you can buy your belated Kings 2002 Western Conference Champions T-shirts.
John Martin, who was J.R. Giddens' high school coach in Oklahoma City, talking to Rivals.com's Andrew Skwara: "We also had a game that year against Midwest City when they had Darnell Jackson, who played with J.R. at Kansas. He and J.R. had grown up playing against each other and were good friends. We were up by eight to 10 points late in the game and were just trying to slow the game down. J.R. had the ball near halfcourt in the corner and Darnell was guarding him. He blew right past Darnell, made two dribbles, jumped over a player trying to take a charge and dunked it. I wished YouTube was around back then because I would have put it on there. The guy he jumped over was about 5-10. My jaw just dropped when he dunked it. ... When we first had him, people warned me about behavioral issues, but he was always one of my favorite kids. He would do anything to play. If I dismissed him from practice, he would be distraught. He'd come back the next day and apologize to the whole team."
Dwight Jaynes of the Portland Tribune: "Nearly every NBA person I've spoken with about this - people who work inside the league - believe some or all of what Donaghy said about game results being manipulated for the good of the league. That, in itself, is mind-boggling. 'I'm not sure it's the size of the market as much as it's the superstars,' one of them told me. 'They want the superstars in the finals. That's what delivers the ratings. I don't think they tell that to referees because if they did, it would have gotten out by now. But I think certain referees know what the league wants and are happy to please.' ... This stuff is the direct result, I think, of the league continuing to condone an officiating system that allows special dispensation for superstars and that inconsistently administrates the rules, based on situations, players and teams. Nobody knows what a foul or violation really is, because of that inconsistency, and that allows referees to pick and choose what they call."
Some people will certainly find it odd, I guess, that in a time when the NBA has been accused by Tim Donaghy of trying to extend series, there was an ad courtside during Game 5 -- potentially the clincher -- promoting Game 6.
Why most teams don't draft for position, example number 569, as told by Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Jerry Sloan, meanwhile, told a story from his days coaching the Chicago Bulls and a mistake they made in the 1979 draft. The Bulls missed out on the chance to draft Sidney Moncrief because they already had Reggie Theus on the roster and felt they needed a forward. They used the No. 2 pick on UCLA's David Greenwood; Moncrief went on to become an All-Star. 'We felt like we had to have a forward so we took a forward and passed on a guy who's an All-Star player,' Sloan said. 'That doesn't help the value of your franchise, in my opinion, when you make decisions that way.'"
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.
