Jan Hubbard of The Star-Telegram: “His track record with the media has made the past few months difficult because, although he deserves criticism for bad judgment, he has built credibility. It’s like the kid next door who is always polite and helpful yet he keeps hitting baseballs through your living room plate glass window. You want to break his neck, but you know he’s a good kid. The infamous radio interview when he admitted smoking marijuana, the ill-advised birthday party after the Mavericks lost three of their first four playoff games to New Orleans, and the recent attempt to emulate a NASCAR driver, which resulted in an arrest for going 94 mph in a 55-mph speed zone, are lamentable decisions on Howard’s part. But the conclusion reached by way too many people is that exercising questionable judgment in his personal life translates to a decline in ability on the basketball court, and that is ridiculous.”
Empty the Bench: An interview with Awful Announcing’s Brian Powell. “I’ve got a few of them, but my favorite was sneaking into the press conference that announced the signing of Gilbert Arenas. The crazy thing about the situation was that I was chided just before it for arguing with a season-ticket holder. A guy was thinking about canceling his package because of the way the team handled the Jordan situation, and I jumped on him for being a fair-weather fan. I was just fed up with the state of DC fans, and told the guy he was an idiot for wanting a 40-year-old waste of space over someone who “will get us to the playoffs.” My supervisor told me to walk it off and I found myself following a group of people into the media room where Gilbert was speaking. I walked up to Arenas and quickly gave him a rundown of the story and he smiled and responded, “He’ll be back on board soon. Don’t worry.” I guarantee that someone else got my commission when that guy signed back up a year later.”
NESW Sports: Pete Maravich demonstrates his “wrist pass”
Red’s Army: Precious Olympic Moments
Jon Saraceno of USA TODAY: “Continental expansion is designed to mostly benefit the NBA, but as agent Lon Babby observed this week, “We’ve now learned that the path of globalization runs in both directions.” The league’s offseason free agency market has produced a mini-surge in overseas relocations by a handful of mostly young reserves seeking more compensation, court minutes and perhaps a life-altering experience. The signing last month of Atlanta Hawks swingman Josh Childress by the Greek club Olympiakos for $20 million over three seasons caught many off guard because he is a young, emerging player. Troubling trend for NBA executives, or inconsequential trickle? “I’m reading all this B.S. that there’s going to be an exodus — the NBA’s not going to lose any great players,” said TNT analyst Charles Barkley.”
John Hollinger of The New York Sun: “Ginobili, of course, is the big star on Argentina, and even more dangerous in international ball than in the NBA. The U.S. knows this all too well — he thrashed them in Argentina’s semifinal win en route to the gold medal in 2004. Kobe Bryant will get the main assignment of guarding him, with plenty of help from Dwyane Wade and the long-armed Tayshaun Prince. The U.S. will have a major mismatch at power forward, where either Scola or Oberto will have to guard Carmelo Anthony; because of this, I expect Argentina to play zone for much of the game. Once again, 3-point shooting will be a key for the American side, but if they shoot the ball decently, their depth should overwhelm the Argentines.”
Mark Heisler of The Los Angeles Times: “”It was a cyclone brewing,” said Australian forward Brad Newley. “You could hear them talking out in the hall, ‘Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!’ “They’re a good team, and we can’t afford to give them easy points. Kobe made a couple of three-point shots. He was shooting 50-footers by the end of the game.” Of course, the U.S. may be missing out on one of the great grudge matches of all time. Bryant was asked if he wanted to play Argentina to avoid Greece, which beat the U.S. in the 2006 World Championships. “Avoid them?” asked Bryant, unable to believe his ears. “Yeah, because of what they did to you the last time,” said the reporter.”We’re scared to death,” said Bryant.”
Helene Elliott of The Los Angeles Times: “And so Australia met the same fate as Spain, which was supposed to be a formidable foe for the U.S. because of its physicality but lost by 37 points in the fourth game of the preliminary round. “We’re 25 down and I look over at the scorer’s table and they’re sending in Kobe and LeBron and Carmelo,” said Brian Goorjian, Australia’s coach by way of Crescenta Valley High. “I think Coach K has done a great job with the team defense. They’re playing great together, and everybody is contributing. They were too much for us.” They have been, and will continue to be, too much for everybody.”
Steve Politi of The Star-Ledger: “One image from Athens stands out: Tim Duncan had just won a bronze medal less than an hour earlier, but he was leaning against a wall in the interview area promising never to suit up for international play again. “I’m gonna say it nicely — it has not been fun,” Duncan said. Asked if the team’s poor performance in Athens would keep other NBA players from signing up to play in four years, Duncan answered, “I hope not. I’ll try not to share my experiences with anybody.” After these two weeks, what players could possibly pass on the chance? With two more victories, this team have proven that the benefits far outweigh the negatives of playing for the Olympic team.”
