Jerry Crowe of The Los Angeles Times: “Nobody ever double-dipped quite like Gene Conley. A three-time National League All-Star as a pitcher, the 6-foot-8 right-hander moonlighted as a reserve center and forward for the Boston Celtics. The only athlete to win championship rings in two major U.S. professional sports, Conley was part of a World Series-winning team with Hank Aaron and the Milwaukee Braves and won three NBA titles with the Bill Russell-era Celtics. He struck out Ted Williams in the 1959 All-Star game at the Coliseum, played against Jackie Robinson . . . and guarded Wilt Chamberlain.”
Basketbawful: LeBron James Sealed for freshness
NBA.com: “HEAT President Pat Riley was in attendance and offered inspiring words about the four-time HEAT All-Star. He said he is looking forward to a completely healthy Wade rebounding this season from knee and shoulder surgeries to being among the elite once again. “In my humble opinion,” Riley said addressing the crowd, “and I’m not biased, I’m knowledgeable. I think Dwyane Wade is the greatest player in the world.””
Hoops Addict: The Finals of the Floor Burn Tournament
The Associated Press: “Three moving trucks arrived in downtown Oklahoma City on Friday morning to unload at the NBA franchise’s office headquarters. Two box trucks and a tractor-trailer arrived at 10:21 a.m., and the first thing to roll off the truck was a basketball. As soon as the back door to the first box truck was lifted, the ball — stamped with an NBA logo — came rolling out. “It was a nice touch, wasn’t it?” said Pete Winemiller, a team vice president for guest relations who’s helped oversee the move.”
The Wages of Wins Journal: “In other words, the Suns will be good next year. Just not as good as Boston or LA. And probably not as good as they would have been had they convinced Marion to stay (which may have involved finding the money he wants to stay). When we look at these two scenarios we see that Kerr is not a moron. His team after 48 games last year was not good enough to win a title in 2008. And if Marion had his heart set on opting out of his contract, then Kerr had to do something. That something involves fielding a team of aging veterans in 2008-09. If a Shaq and Hill could go back in time a few years, the Suns would be an amazing team next year. But without time travel, Phoenix will likely be good in 2008-09, just not great.”
X’s & O’s of Basketball: Bill Self’s 2008 NCAA championship pre-game speech [Video]
The Sport Count: Rates the New York Knicks Roster
Steve Weinman of CelticsBlog: “The idea of a fresher Nash for the playoffs is a nice one in principle. However, there is only so much that can be sacrificed in the regular season to meet that end. Steve Kerr’s current plan for the 2008-09 season – a 70-game regular season cap for the Nashty one – seems like the sort of move that would cross that line. For the Suns’ sake, here’s hoping new coach Terry Porter vetoes this one as it’s hard to see it working out all that well. The combination of the toughness of the Western Conference and Nash’s importance to this Phoenix team make sitting the point guard for double-digit games such a risky proposition. In 2007-08, the entire Western Conference playoff bracket was separated by seven games, and every team had at least 50 wins, with the Warriors’ 48-34 record putting them on the outside looking in. A season later, the West doesn’t look to be any less tough, with Suns beat writer Scott Bordow of the East Valley Tribune stating outright that the Spurs, Lakers, Hornets, Jazz and Rockets are all definitively better than the Suns, with the Blazers and Mavericks on a similar level to Phoenix. If the Warriors get healthy or the Nugs or Clippers stay healhty, those three teams have the firepower to at least challenge for a spot as well.”
Margaret Stafford of the Associated Press: “Bol is oblivious to the stares after a lifetime of towering over everyone around him. He considers his height a gift from God, one that gave him a way out of his native Sudan and brought him fame and fortune in the NBA. Now he wants to give back by helping to build a school in the village where he was raised. Bol, who didn’t attend school as a child, understands that a quality education is the key to building a better future, for individuals and countries. It is why he moved to Olathe with his wife and four sons a year ago.”
NBA Celtics Blog: Video recap of the 1979 NCAA Championship between Indiana State and Michigan State
Jay Hubbard of The Star-Telegram: “Technically, that doesn’t matter. According to MLB insiders, even after final bids are submitted and all the finances are validated by the commissioner’s office, groups will be allowed to change their offers. So if Cuban’s bid was the highest, other groups could raise their bids to match his. From a practical standpoint, however, money talks. In an $8.2 billion deal last year, Chicago real estate developer Sam Zell bought the Tribune Company, the Cubs’ parent company. The deal included considerable debt, and the sale of the Cubs will be used to relieve some of that debt. Ultimately, Zell is the one who makes the decision on the buyer, and people close to the process say the decision will be an easy one — whoever bids the most gets the team. If Cuban blows away the competition, then Zell will sell to him. The catch is, however, that the new owner must be approved by 23 of the 30 teams, and that’s where Selig could have an impact, by campaigning with those loyal to him to vote against Cuban.”
AOL FanHouse: NBA Players Weigh In On Obama vs. McCain
Baron Davis: “OK. Hope ya’ll watched Barack Obama’s acceptance speech Thursday night. If he didn’t move you maybe the sound was turned down. When it was over I felt like I was ready to go out to Venice Beach and start registering people to vote right then at 9pm. We’ve got to show up on Nov. 4th to vote this man into the White House!!! FOR REAL! His ideas about recharging our education system by investing in early education and raising teacher’s salaries were seriously inspiring. It’s what I try to provide with my non-profit, TeamPlay, teaching kids leadership skills that show them the right way out of the cycle of poverty and violence. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the teachers and mentors who showed me positive definition of success. And Barak is planning to do it across the whole country. INCREDIBLE”
Beale Street Beat: “But as I posted earlier when the rumor that the Grizzlies were the leader in the clubhouse in signing Haddadi I was very skeptical and still am. First of all, Haddadi put up these numbers as the best player on a bad team, and as such was the focus of the Iranian offense. Secondly, beyond playing on the Iranian National Team he has no significant international experience, as, excluding a brief sting in 2003 with a Dubai team, he has been playing in the Iranian Super League for the last 9 seasons since turning pro at the tender age of 14. I would’ve liked to have seen some experience playing in some tougher European Leagues to help him transition from the Iranian league to the NBA, as beyond his participation in international tournaments with the Iranian National Team he has really nothing even closely comparable to the level competition he’s going to see in the NBA. My third and main concern is when he is going to get playing time at the center position this season and beyond, as you would have to believe he is behind both Darko Milicic and Marc Gasol on the Grizzlies depth chart.”
Ira Winderman of The Miami Sun-Sentinel: “Perhaps some time later today or over the weekend the Heat will announce its addition of a free-agent center. And that, Heat President Pat Riley said today, will be it when it comes to offseason spending. “Everything else then,” he said, “is going to come via a trade.” Why? Because after adding Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers in the draft, after adding James Jones and Yakhouba Diawara in free agency, and after passing around small partial guarantees and minimum contracts, Riley said the Heat is so close to next season’s $71.2 million dollar-for-dollar luxury tax threshold that it is not even in position to spend its $1.9 million lower-level exception. Even after often noting the situation this summer in this space, it remains rather astonishing that a team coming off a league-worst 15-67 season can be at critical mass against the tax without a single major offseason free-agent signing.”
Brian Lewis of The New York Post: Patrick Ewing Jr. in the college slam dunk contest [Video]
FanIQ: “Mike (D’Antoni) is a Basketball Lifer. A gym rat. After not getting the right opportunities in the NBA as a player, he headed overseas and created a legend for himself as essentially “The Michael Jordan of Europe”. This moniker wasn’t because of his pizzazz or otherworldly athleticism – he was little of either. It was because the dude just won. Winning drives him. Not only does he want to win, he wants to tear your heart out and show it to you in the process.”
Tim MacMahon of The Dallas Morning News: Dirk Nowitzki’s summer training regimen [Video]
Mike Monroe of The San Antonio Express-News: “The Spurs issued a media release Friday afternoon confirming Ginobili will have the surgery next week. Ginobili has been bothered by varying degrees of soreness in his left ankle and heel for several seasons. He jammed the joint during the Spurs’ first-round series against Phoenix in April and was hampered through the remainder of the playoffs. His production dropped off dramatically in the Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. He averaged only 12.6 points after averaging 20.1 points in the first two playoff rounds, against Phoenix and New Orleans. After the Spurs were eliminated, Ginobili had an MRI exam that showed significant swelling in the heel and ankle joint. He embarked on a rest and rehabilitation program, but Spurs coach Gregg Popovich urged him to consider forgoing the Olympic competition. Popovich reported that the MRI results showed a ligament in Ginobili’s heel was four to five times its normal size.”
Buck Harvey of The San Antonio Express-News: “Popovich isn’t above an I-told-you-so speech. R.C. Buford has certainly heard one before. But Popovich is far too smart to spend time dwelling on what is done. Ginobili has always been one of his favorites, and, just as Popovich has lived with his aggressive mistakes on the court, he will live with this. But Popovich didn’t stop there. He went to the airport to pick up His Guy. He showed Ginobili they are together, and it was an emotional act by an emotional man. Popovich confronts his players the same way. He’s yelled at Ginobili, and he’s told him to sit down. He has a sense of what needs to be said, and what people need to hear, and it’s worked in the Spurs’ locker room for a decade. And if given a chance? It would have worked in Beijing, too.”
Kyle Hightower of The Orlando Sentinel: “In part because of the local frenzy, the USA basketball teams didn’t stay in the main Olympic village. But that seclusion also had an unexpected effect on Howard and his “Redeem Team” teammates. During the NBA season, players often kill the downtime on the road by playing video games. There was no such luxury in Beijing, but it also forced interaction. “The video game actually broke when we got over there, so we had to play like Scrabble and lot of board and card games,” he said. “I thought it was good, though. We had a little player lounge and it kept us out of our rooms. I started to do that and we bonded not only with the guys on the men’s team, but also the women’s team.”"
Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: “The Suns have 500 season-ticket seats available to sell, but it’s not from fleeing fans. About 92 percent of last year’s Suns season-ticket holders renewed for this season. Only the Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Utah Jazz and Toronto Raptors have retention rates exceeding 90 percent.”
Ebay.com: Samaki Walker’s Championship Ring for sale [Via The Sports Count]
Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com: “Shaquille O’Neal is 7 feet, 325 pounds of Teflon. He’s untouchable. Impermeable. Truth is, I’m writing these words as fast as possible because at any second my computer could explode rather than be complicit in a critical column about O’Neal. See, the machines probably are in on this conspiracy as well. Lord knows enough people are. O’Neal can do no wrong. Even when he does wrong. Over the years he has been a Hollywood scab, a racist, a cheap-shot artist and a whiny little baby. In recent months he has picked up steam, rapping like a moron about Kobe Bryant and being the subject of a restraining order after allegedly threatening to have a woman killed.”
Jason Quick of The Oregonian: “”I saw Bayless have a great Summer League,” Outlaw says. “And Rudy, he’s having a great Olympics, you know? Shots are going to go down somewhere, and I feel I’m the lowest guy on the totem pole, so it may be me.” He came to Portland in 2003, right out of Starkville High. That makes him the longest-tenured Blazer, and he notes that he has seen a lot in his time — from the self-destruction of Bonzi Wells and the trade request of a disgruntled Rasheed Wallace to the franchise’s passing fancies that were Sebastian Telfair, Zach Randolph and Darius Miles. With that perspective, he ponders his place with the franchise’s upswing. He has experienced enough success — last season hitting game-winning shots at Memphis and Atlanta and finishing ninth in the sixth man of the year voting — that he thinks he could one day be an All-Star. But he wonders whether that potential will be stifled on a team built around Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden. And all of that feeds his apprehension of how the team perceives him as he enters what could be a contract year.”
