John Marzulli of The Daily News: “The man who put away John Gotti, baby-sat Sammy (Bull) Gravano, raided an Al Qaeda bomb factory and helped uncover the NBA betting scandal says Tim Donaghy told the truth. Philip Scala, the recently retired FBI supervisory special agent in charge of the Gambino squad, which uncovered Donaghy’s scheme of betting on basketball games he had officiated, said he believes the disgraced referee’s claims that other refs were dirty.”
Ian Thomsen of CNNSI.com: “At first glance it is ludicrous to imagine that the NBA’s next big star would move overseas as he’s trying to win championships and replace Michael Jordan as a household name globally. But look at it this way: Neither the Euroleague nor Greek league impose any kind of salary cap on its teams, which means there would be no ceiling on an offer that the billionaire ownership of Olympiakos could make to James. As a free agent in 2010, his new contract in the NBA would start at less than $20 million annually. What if Olympiakos were to offer him $40 million per year? Or $50 million?”
Upside and Motor: “Personally, I want to see this team embarrass people. I want to be saying “THAT AIN’T RIGHT” when Dwight throws down a dunk, I want Kidd to do the slip n’ slide, and I want LeBron and Kobe to throw down and staredown as often as possible. If you want Team USA to win, I don’t see how you would want it any other way. Competitive games would be nice. But more than that, everyone should want this team to redefine basketball greatness in a way that is unrivaled by every other country. I want to run up Spain by 50, pound Greece into the ground, and send Manu home crying.”
Tim MacMahon of The Dallas Morning News: “Quite frankly, I don’t really care whether an NBA player lights up a blunt every now and then over the summer. Wanting to discuss the matter on the radio the day of a playoff game is pretty selfish and stupid. But I don’t believe anybody has ever died from inhaling marijuana. On the other hand, Howard should be well aware of the dangers of street racing. After all, ex-Hornet Bobby Phills died while racing a teammate in Howard’s home state. Too bad Howard didn’t learn a lesson from that tragedy.”
Paul Sullivan of The Chicago Tribune: “Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has gone from being a long shot to one of the favorites in the bidding to buy the Cubs, picking up support from NBA Commissioner David Stern and others as the field of prospective owners narrows. Crain’s Chicago Business recently quoted one of the bidders as saying Cuban is now “the lead guy” in the battle to buy the Cubs, while Boston Red Sox owner John Henry said in an e-mail to the New York Times that he could think of “no one better suited to reverse the fortunes of the Cubs for the long term” than Cuban.”
Ryan Schwan of Hornets 24/7: “When you watch the other teams, who are experienced with international ball, they initiate their offensive sets about six to eight feet back from the three point line. Their wing shooters hover a good three to four feet back from the line. The US, however, like good NBA players, initiate their offense at - or a few feet behind - the three point line. Their wings toe it. This is especially the case with slash-minded players like Anthony, Wade, James, and Bryant. In the NBA, this is fine - the wider arc of the 3-point line adds another 6 feet to the space within it, giving penetrators more room to operate, and generating greater spacing. But the international arc is so much shorter, when a player penetrates, the help defense has three or four fewer feet to cover to collapse on them.”
Mike Baldwin and Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: “More than 1,300 applications for jobs with Oklahoma City’s NBA team have been collected by the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. “There is this aura about being in the NBA,” said chamber president Roy Williams. “It’s very appealing to a lot of people. We’re even seeing a lot of out-of-state applicants submitting resumes, people from across the country.” It’s uncertain how many people employed with the Seattle SuperSonics will relocate to Oklahoma City. Williams estimates 75 to 100 jobs will need to be filled, but it could be more. It could be less.”
Bethlehem Shoals of The Sporting Blog: “Given that he has, however passive-aggressively, dug in his heels I’ll weigh in: Gordon can score — shoot, even. But he’s always been most effective off the bench. And no matter what he works on over the summer, he remains a man without a position or the dynamism necessary to overcome it. He’s an undersized Michael Redd, or Arenas sans ability to control the ball. Not only is that an unimpressive package — it’s one that, in a year where money is short, has no business whining and making demands. Far superior talents Josh Smith and Andre Iguodala remain unsigned, and neither one of them has taken such a public, or explicit, stance.”
Craig Harris of The Arizona Republic: “The first few years after you bought the Suns, the team posted a profit and was extremely competitive. After acquiring Shaquille O’Neil (who has two years and $40 million left on his contract) last season, were you profitable? And will the business be profitable next season?”
Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver: “No, we were not last year and we won’t be this year. We made a decision a year ago that this was a chance to make a hard run for a championship and because of that, this year and last year will not be profitable.”
Steve Kyler of HOOPSWORLD: “The real European threat is the middle class in the NBA. Every time a NBA player leaves the league, especially players with name value, this issue gets closer to getting ugly. There are roughly 40 top tier NBA players; there are easily 170 middle class players each year in the NBA – combined that is the bulk of the league, the next round of labor talks could get very ugly and you can point to Europe as why.”
