The NBA Thread

[JohnU]

Shaq's trainer seemed like a cool dude. Totally down to earth... not fake at all.

I love that there is a heavyweight NBA thread here in August.

Artest is going to be fun to watch with the Lakers this year. ...I say that even though I despise LA as an obsessive Portland fan. 

I wish Memet Okur would make another appearance on the Best Show. Those were good interviews. 

[kevin_]

I enjoy Top NBA Tweets over at the Sporting News Baseline. http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/The_Baseline/tag/160299/nba_twitter

Recently, the tweets havent been as awesome as they were a couple months ago but there are some gems. Like: @DwightHoward Question. Does lol mean. Laughing out loud. Or lots of laughs

Lots of laughs!

[jbissell]

I enjoy Top NBA Tweets over at the Sporting News Baseline. http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/The_Baseline/tag/160299/nba_twitter

Recently, the tweets havent been as awesome as they were a couple months ago but there are some gems. Like: @DwightHoward Question. Does lol mean. Laughing out loud. Or lots of laughs

Lots of laughs!

Live Out Loud

[dnk]

P.S. One thing you will notice about me is that I DESPISE LeBron. I acknowledge that he is very, very, very good at playing basketball. But I do not like him at all. Some brief reasons: how he always checks his mouth and nose for blood when he gets body checked, what he did to Gil at the line in the '06 playoffs, and his enormous ego.

I don't know, for someone with his level of fame at such a young age, he seems pretty well adjusted.  I don't see how you could be the best basketball player in the world and not have some kind of ego.  I love watching him play, but I wish he had a better team around him.

I'm sure he's a nice enough guy. And a lot of people have egos, let alone professional athletes. My favorite player is Gilbert Arenas. But I hate LeBron so I don't feel bad about using it as rationale. And he's got an extra big ego. And it's not like it's impossible to still be awesome at something and still be humble.

Here is a fun site with a URL that was easy for me to find.

I don't think his non-shaking hands was as big of a deal as the media played it out to be. But he won't even come close to apologizing or saying he should have done something differently.

Also, I don't even really love watching him play as much as I do other people with his level of skill (and lower). He just kind of bullies his way into the lane, expecting a foul to be called when a charge could be, traveling every so often. His shot always shocks me when it goes in (I don't know why anymore, though, he's improved a lot). On the other hand, players like Kobe, Chris Paul, and Gil are people that come to mind that I just love watching play. They all play exciting basketball, with so many different ways of getting the ball in the basket or in another player's hands.

Again, disclaimer: I know LeBron is one of the top two basketball players in the league right now, but he could still dominate the league without resorting to his patented lip-check and phony appeals to the refs, without taking advantage of refs not being willing to call him for travels (and some charges).

Random questions: I know Tom used to work in some way with the NBA (he's talked on the air about doing stuff with the Celtics more than once). What did he do? Just regular sports journalism? And who does he support, team-wise?

[jbissell]

P.S. One thing you will notice about me is that I DESPISE LeBron. I acknowledge that he is very, very, very good at playing basketball. But I do not like him at all. Some brief reasons: how he always checks his mouth and nose for blood when he gets body checked, what he did to Gil at the line in the '06 playoffs, and his enormous ego.

I don't know, for someone with his level of fame at such a young age, he seems pretty well adjusted.  I don't see how you could be the best basketball player in the world and not have some kind of ego.  I love watching him play, but I wish he had a better team around him.

I'm sure he's a nice enough guy. And a lot of people have egos, let alone professional athletes. My favorite player is Gilbert Arenas. But I hate LeBron so I don't feel bad about using it as rationale. And he's got an extra big ego. And it's not like it's impossible to still be awesome at something and still be humble.

Here is a fun site with a URL that was easy for me to find.

I don't think his non-shaking hands was as big of a deal as the media played it out to be. But he won't even come close to apologizing or saying he should have done something differently.

Also, I don't even really love watching him play as much as I do other people with his level of skill (and lower). He just kind of bullies his way into the lane, expecting a foul to be called when a charge could be, traveling every so often. His shot always shocks me when it goes in (I don't know why anymore, though, he's improved a lot). On the other hand, players like Kobe, Chris Paul, and Gil are people that come to mind that I just love watching play. They all play exciting basketball, with so many different ways of getting the ball in the basket or in another player's hands.

Wow, I'm not sure how you could love watching Kobe but not Lebron.  Arenas is not someone I've ever thought of as a creative passer but maybe you were mostly talking about Paul in that statement (though I admit to not watching many Wizards games).  Personally, everytime I watch Lebron he does at least one thing that amazes me (and it's not always on the offensive end) or that I've never seen before.  Re: your dislike for his barreling through the lane, he's certainly not the only guy who's guilty of it.  He's also not the only who makes phony appeals to refs (Duncan is quietly very good at this).

[jbissell]

A question for anyone who watched Shaq vs. last night - is it worth watching?

Interesting article on how Shaq ripped off Nash's idea.

[nec13]

A question for anyone who watched Shaq vs. last night - is it worth watching?

Interesting article on how Shaq ripped off Nash's idea.

That's The Big Aristotle being The Big Aristotle.

[dnk]

P.S. One thing you will notice about me is that I DESPISE LeBron. I acknowledge that he is very, very, very good at playing basketball. But I do not like him at all. Some brief reasons: how he always checks his mouth and nose for blood when he gets body checked, what he did to Gil at the line in the '06 playoffs, and his enormous ego.

I don't know, for someone with his level of fame at such a young age, he seems pretty well adjusted.  I don't see how you could be the best basketball player in the world and not have some kind of ego.  I love watching him play, but I wish he had a better team around him.

I'm sure he's a nice enough guy. And a lot of people have egos, let alone professional athletes. My favorite player is Gilbert Arenas. But I hate LeBron so I don't feel bad about using it as rationale. And he's got an extra big ego. And it's not like it's impossible to still be awesome at something and still be humble.

Here is a fun site with a URL that was easy for me to find.

I don't think his non-shaking hands was as big of a deal as the media played it out to be. But he won't even come close to apologizing or saying he should have done something differently.

Also, I don't even really love watching him play as much as I do other people with his level of skill (and lower). He just kind of bullies his way into the lane, expecting a foul to be called when a charge could be, traveling every so often. His shot always shocks me when it goes in (I don't know why anymore, though, he's improved a lot). On the other hand, players like Kobe, Chris Paul, and Gil are people that come to mind that I just love watching play. They all play exciting basketball, with so many different ways of getting the ball in the basket or in another player's hands.

Wow, I'm not sure how you could love watching Kobe but not Lebron.  Arenas is not someone I've ever thought of as a creative passer but maybe you were mostly talking about Paul in that statement (though I admit to not watching many Wizards games).  Personally, everytime I watch Lebron he does at least one thing that amazes me (and it's not always on the offensive end) or that I've never seen before.  Re: your dislike for his barreling through the lane, he's certainly not the only guy who's guilty of it.  He's also not the only who makes phony appeals to refs (Duncan is quietly very good at this).

Kobe is so creative at getting himself free for a shot. Like:
here
here
(Heh, although if those clips included either the words "vs. Wizards" or "LeBron," I'm sure I'd be examining more closely for traveling.)

Re: Gil's passing, I was talking MORE about Paul there, but Gil does have very good vision, and some of my favorite plays I've seen him do were passes, a lot of times just awesome football outlet passes to a soon-to-be-dunking-or-laying-up Caron Butler, DeShawn Stevenson, or Larry Hughes. I love those.

I know LeBron's not the only person guilty of doing things I dislike him for, but perhaps it's best to say I disliked him because of '06 playoffs against the Wizards, and then these other things I'm mentioning I notice because of that dislike and further it.

EDIT: I didn't know the videos would embed. So I made my post a little more reader-friendly.

[jbissell]

I know LeBron's not the only person guilty of doing things I dislike him for, but perhaps it's best to say I disliked him because of '06 playoffs against the Wizards, and then these other things I'm mentioning I notice because of that dislike and further it.

That makes more sense to me.

[dnk]

So Rubio's staying in Europe for at least another two seasons. I'm happy in that Flynn will hopefully get a chance to really shine without being forced to play some weird role he's not suited for.

Man, the season can't start soon enough.

[Gilly]

On one hand, Rubio is 18, he's going to be immature and change his mind a lot. But on the other hand, he entered the NBA draft with all intentions to join the NBA. If he didn't want in he should have said so and teams would have drafted accordingly. International players declare all the time and wait to make the jump... but it's known before hand that they aren't coming. I really hope the Wolves keep him just to give a message to international players that they can't pull this crap and expect to play in the top league in the world. College players don't whine, they prove themselves and let the situation work itself out when free agency hits... which is in 3 freaking years. The NBA system is completely fair, you get a good salary and you aren't locked down and as long as you are 1st round the money's guaranteed.

The oddest thing about this situation is his agent seemed to be on the Wolves side. Either he's the idiot or his family and friends are idiots.

[dnk]

On one hand, Rubio is 18, he's going to be immature and change his mind a lot. But on the other hand, he entered the NBA draft with all intentions to join the NBA. If he didn't want in he should have said so and teams would have drafted accordingly. International players declare all the time and wait to make the jump... but it's known before hand that they aren't coming. I really hope the Wolves keep him just to give a message to international players that they can't pull this crap and expect to play in the top league in the world. College players don't whine, they prove themselves and let the situation work itself out when free agency hits... which is in 3 freaking years. The NBA system is completely fair, you get a good salary and you aren't locked down and as long as you are 1st round the money's guaranteed.

The oddest thing about this situation is his agent seemed to be on the Wolves side. Either he's the idiot or his family and friends are idiots.

While I think Minnesota being Minnesota played a BIT of a role, I really think it was just more of a problem with the buy-out and where he was picked, draft-pick-wise, rather than team-wise. He makes a lot less money as the #5 pick, and thus has less money to use for the buy-out. NBA teams can only contribute $500,000. So whatever they whittled down the $8 million buy-out down to less $500,000 and whatever local endorsements (of which I read there were a decent amount, especially for a small market like Minnesota) would be coming out of Rubio's pocket.

[jbissell]

On one hand, Rubio is 18, he's going to be immature and change his mind a lot. But on the other hand, he entered the NBA draft with all intentions to join the NBA. If he didn't want in he should have said so and teams would have drafted accordingly. International players declare all the time and wait to make the jump... but it's known before hand that they aren't coming. I really hope the Wolves keep him just to give a message to international players that they can't pull this crap and expect to play in the top league in the world. College players don't whine, they prove themselves and let the situation work itself out when free agency hits... which is in 3 freaking years. The NBA system is completely fair, you get a good salary and you aren't locked down and as long as you are 1st round the money's guaranteed.

The oddest thing about this situation is his agent seemed to be on the Wolves side. Either he's the idiot or his family and friends are idiots.

While I think Minnesota being Minnesota played a BIT of a role, I really think it was just more of a problem with the buy-out and where he was picked, draft-pick-wise, rather than team-wise. He makes a lot less money as the #5 pick, and thus has less money to use for the buy-out. NBA teams can only contribute $500,000. So whatever they whittled down the $8 million buy-out down to less $500,000 and whatever local endorsements (of which I read there were a decent amount, especially for a small market like Minnesota) would be coming out of Rubio's pocket.

While that may be true, didn't he say something about being willing to play for free?  I think it probably boils down to the fact that he wasn't interested in entering that particular situation with Flynn.

[pizzaparty]

If the Spurs fail to win the Championship this season, I will promise to unfollow the real shaq.

[Gilly]

It's not about the buyout, his agent worked really hard to make it worth his while to come to MN. He just doesn't want to play here. I think it's good for Flynn, because he always would have been out of position and probably would have been developmentally stifled. I'm undecided if this is good or bad for the Wolves. My gut feeling is bad. But, there wasn't anybody that would have helped the Wolves at pick #5, so I think it was worth the risk.