20 Second Timeout: “Any Denver fans who entertained notions that Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson would ever lead the Nuggets to playoff glory received a very rude awakening when Nuggets management “traded” starting center Marcus Camby to the L.A. Clippers for the right to swap second round draft picks in 2010. Contending teams do not simply give away a valuable asset like Camby–and that is precisely the point: the Nuggets are not a contending team and their management is painfully aware of that fact.”
Aaron J. Lopez and Chris Tomasson of The Rocky Mountain News: “After blocking 1,126 shots in six seasons with the Nuggets, center Marcus Camby took a few Wednesday. Still trying to come to grips with his trade from Denver to the Los Angeles Clippers, Camby talked candidly about his disappointment in the hours after his abrupt departure. “Blindsided, distraught, disrespected. All those adjectives. I definitely feel insulted,” he said in a telephone interview with the Rocky Mountain News.”
Steve Weinman of CelticsBlog: “Over the course of this year, you came to be one more embodiment (on a team that featured many) of not only what this squad was all about but also about what it means to play Celtics basketball: Selflessness. Defense. Blood, sweat, tears and guts-out basketball. Hustle. Heart. Toughness. Clutch play. Poise. Ubuntu. Winning. You set the tone every game with the coolest and longest-lasting hugs of all time for each of the starters. You impressed us all season long with your throwback version of physical defense.”
John Reid of The Times Picayune: “When training camp begins this October, the Hornets will have a strength that was virtually non-existent last season despite winning a franchise-record 56 games and advancing to the second round of the playoffs. They will have veteran depth at both shooting guard and small forward after acquiring Boston Celtics free agent James Posey, who agreed to a four-year, $25 million contract Wednesday.”
John Hollinger of ESPN.com: “You knew this was coming — the inevitable overreaction to a role player on a championship team in free agency. Every year there’s one guy whom teams can’t stop fawning over, and this year it was James Posey. Sure, he was an integral part of championship teams for both Miami and Boston, but as with a lot of players who win rings it can be hard for us to look at him rationally. That’s why role players on title winners tend to get unusually generous contracts, and Posey appears to be the latest example.”
Ball in Europe: Brandon Jennings signs with European club Virtus Roma
Lance Pugmire of The Los Angeles Times: “Brandon Jennings has become the first American star to circumvent the NBA’s one-year-out-of-high-school rule and jump directly to professional basketball in Europe. His advisor, former shoe company representative Sonny Vaccaro, negotiated in Las Vegas during the weekend with Virtus Roma General Manager Dejan Bodiroga. Jennings has also retained an Italian attorney, Giovanni Imbergamo, to work with the team. Vaccaro described the terms as a “three-year, multimillion-dollar” contract with buyout considerations that will allow Jennings to leave the team and make himself availabe for the NBA draft when eligible next year. Vaccaro declined to discuss financial specifics of the contract.”
Jake Appleman of SLAM: “By the time Ginobili helped the Spurs to their second NBA title less than a year after the economy hit rock bottom things had started to improve. When Argentina won Olympic Gold in Athens the following summer, 23% of the people that had been living under the poverty line before Ginobili entered the NBA had risen out of the economic doldrums. Two years after that, over two thirds of those suffering from extreme poverty were extricated from green hell, and the percentage of Argentines staring up at the poverty line had shrunk by more than half.”
