Loading ...Harold Brubaker of The Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pro athletes and the millions they make shooting baskets and hitting home runs can be a volatile combination. Some of them end up broke soon after their playing careers end, their potential wealth frittered away by lavish spending, gambling, and excessive risk in investing. “Competitiveness is good for basketball, but dangerous in other spheres, such as investing,” Marc Isenberg, who writes about pro athletes and money, told the Orlando Magic NBA team yesterday at a meeting in Villanova. The Orlando Magic players are spending the week in the Philadelphia area at the behest of team co-captain and former St. Joseph’s University star point guard Jameer Nelson.”
SpursReport.com: “Argentine basketball star Emanuel Ginobili is injured and will miss Sunday’s game for Olympic bronze against Lithuania, Argentine team doctor Diego Grippo confirmed Friday. “There is no chance that ‘Manu’ will recover. He will not play against Lithuania,” Grippo said. A recurring injury to his left ankle forced Ginobili to remain on the bench for most of Friday’s semi-final, which saw defending champion Argentina lose to the United States, 101-81.”
Loy’s Place: “It was determined that the damage to Miles’ knee was severe enough to be classified as career-ending, prompting the Blazers to request waivers for his release. They were given relief by the league from the $18 million left on Miles’ contract. This had to grate on every Celtic fan as when Reggie Lewis died, the league refused to give the Celtics any cap relief. Now that he signed with the Celtics, all he has to do is play in 10 games next season and he will be guaranteed the $18 million that was left on his contract with the Blazers.”
Aaron J. Lopez of The Rocky Mountain News: “The 22-year-old worked out with the Nuggets’ summer league team and the U.S. Select team in July, then attended an NBA camp run by Nuggets assistant Tim Grgurich earlier this month. “He demonstrated that he not only wants to be a good player but a good Denver Nugget,” Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien said. “There wasn’t a free agent that was in the gym this summer with his own team more than J.R.” As a restricted free agent, Smith received a one-year, $3.04 million qualifying offer from the Nuggets and could have signed an offer sheet from any other team (Denver would have had the opportunity to match). In the end, the Nuggets and Smith found middle ground, as he signed a three-year, incentive-laden deal that will include a first-year base salary between $4 million and $5 million.”
Bethlehem Shoals of The Sporting News: “I’m probably not the first person to say this, but tape delay has ruined Olympic hoops for those of us on the West Coast. I know, I could watch it on my laptop. Or go into a self-imposed media blackout until the game actually airs, which creates such a time warp-y mess that I might never recover from it. Those would be ideal, pure, and remotely enjoyable. Instead, I end up trying to do the latter, but ending up peeking at live blogs, and then end up only half-interested in seeing the (one-sided contest) to the end when it actually airs.”
Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times: “As perhaps the ultimate compliment, Bryant’s teammates here are raving about him in spite of his numbers. He is only the third leading scorer on the team, at 14.3 points a game. He ranks fourth in steals. He ranks sixth in assists. He is eighth in rebounding. It’s not about the numbers. It’s about the perception. His teammates can’t believe this is the Kobe Bryant who has, at various times in this career, cast himself as heartless and selfish. His teammates see him only as the leader of a defense that has scored 84 more points off turnovers than their opponents, and 91 more points off fast breaks.”
Art Thompson III of The Orange County Register: “He came to the campus as a small-town basketball star with ideas that stretched far outside the confines of a gymnasium. Now, 45 years later, Lakers coach Phil Jackson is being bestowed with an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the University of North Dakota. Jackson will receive his honorary degree Monday evening, during convocation exercises at the university. A 1967 graduate of UND, with emphasis in religion, philosophy and psychology, Jackson will receive his doctorate from the school’s College of Arts and Sciences.”
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports: ““I absolutely continue to worry about it,” Cuban said Friday in an email. “Maybe we should do something similar to the soccer approach and limit it to players 23 and under. The real question is whether or not the NBA, with our increasing global strength can create our own global tournament to replace the Olympics and make money doing it.” Sooner or later, the NBA has to take a look at the good of these Olympics beyond the needs of Nike and the commissioner’s global imperialism. Maybe the Americans are protected with the waves of talent that they can turn to, but that gap will just drive the rest of the world harder and harder to catch them. More risks with multi-million dollar investments, more Ginobilis crumbling to floors around the world. These are the NBA’s casualties, too.”
Clips Nation: “If forced turnovers are indeed the divining rod of the Redeem Team, the trend is not good. After averaging almost 23 per contest in pool play, they forced only 11 against Australia and 16 against Argentina in the quarters and semis. Of course, they still won both of those games, but I do think it’s safe to say that Spain has more talent than Australia, and I’ll mention again that Ginobili played only 6 minutes today. The health of Jose Calderon may play a huge part in this game. If Calderon is able to play, he’s Spain’s best option for protecting the ball. As promising as Ricky Rubio is, handling withering defensive pressure with a Gold medal on the line at the age of 17 is a tall order.”
X’s & O’s of Basketball: “Zone defenses can work extremely when used by a less athletic team trying to nullify the athletic advantage. Zone defenses can become a killer to beat offensively if your team is undisciplined and makes bad decisions no matter how athletic you are. In the first half, when Argentina reluctantly switched to the zone, that is exactly what happened. Team USA settled for 3-pointers, didn’t share the ball and just didn’t play smart overall. In the second half, they started to pass the ball, get offensive rebounds, and make smart decisions, and it worked.”
Dan Bickley of The Arizona Republic: “Casino owners are always happy. But there’s one in Las Vegas who must be very excited. His name is Steve Wynn. He’s a billionaire. And his wife, Elaine, is getting Jason Kidd’s gold medal if Team USA wins one more game in China. “No, it’s not a (gambling) marker or anything like that,” Kidd said. “She’s just a great friend and a really great person.”"
