Tom Ziller of NBA FanHouse: “Duncan has eight all-defense first team appearances. Garnett has seven. KG sits just a touch lower on all-time rebounds and blocks per game lists than Duncan, which can be in part attributed to Garnett’s rookie season, where as a 19-year-old he played less than 30 minutes a game. In fact, during the pair’s primes, KG led the league in rebounds four times. Duncan only finished as high as second once. All this begs the question: is Garnett as good a defender as Duncan?”
Jonathan Abrams of The New York Times: “Surveying his team Thursday at practice here before the Knicks play the 76ers on Friday night, an optimistic D’Antoni made two predictions on his inherited cast. First, despite his shoot quick, then quicker, offense, which is prone to turnovers, D’Antoni believes the Knicks will be, he said, among “the top three or four teams in the league with the least turnovers. And second, he said: “I think you’ll have career years out of a lot of guys on this team, starting with the point guard.””
Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: “Bryant and Gasol seem to have something natural. Not necessarily best friends, but easy friends. After a 107-80 exhibition loss to the Clippers here, Bryant stayed late in the training room getting his usual medical maintenance. The only other player sitting there — not getting treatment, but just listening to Bryant tell a funny story — was Gasol. Part of that is Bryant being different than he was during the O’Neal era. Part of it is Gasol being wholly different from O’Neal.”
Lakers.com: “Question: OK, if you could be a WWE wrestler or an international soccer player, which would you choose? Odom: A WWE wrestler. Question: Shocker. And your name would be… Odom: Handsome. Question: Right. That’s what I figured. Odom: I’d be kinda like a Rick Flair type of dude. I’d have the craziest interviews, be talking about doing all kinds of strange stuff.”
Pickaxe And Roll: “Aside from the collective impetus to improve, there are also individuals who are seeking some type of redemption. Nene has a chance to establish himself as the Nuggets starting center. He will be motivated to excel this season. J.R. Smith knows that he can be an all-star caliber player if he continues to work hard and the three year, $16 million contact he signed last month will look like a pittance compared to what his next deal will look like should he reach his potential. Melo spent a good deal of the summer playing with Kobe, LeBron and Wade. All of those guys have been to the finals in the last three seasons and Kobe and Wade have rings. If Melo does not reexamine how he has gone about playing basketball for the Nuggets after the events of the previous six months he probably never will.”
The Painted Area: Tim Hardaway’s Hidden Provocative SLAM Quote
Steve Kroner of The San Francisco Chronicle: “Dickau since has played with the Blazers (twice), Mavericks, Hornets, Celtics and Clippers. Dickau actually spent a month in the summer of 2004 on the Warriors’ roster. They had acquired him from Portland in the Nick Van Exel trade in July and then sent him to Dallas as part of the Erick Dampier deal in August. As for why his time with Avellino was so brief, Dickau gave few specifics - “It just wasn’t the right situation, basketball-wise, city-wise,” he said - other than to say team officials overreacted when he had some back spasms. “They took that to mean that I didn’t come over there healthy, which was completely wrong,” he said.”
Tom Enlund of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Detroit Pistons asst. coach Dave Cowens is one person who knows something about playing center in the National Basketball Association. After all, he is a hall-of-famer and one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players of all time so it seemed fitting during the Bucks’ visit to Detroit on Wednesday to ask Cowens about the progress being made in the league by Bucks center Andrew Bogut. “He’s a pretty skilled guy,” said Cowens who played for the Bucks in 1982-’83 before retiring. “He’s certainly got the size. He’s already been tested so he’s tough enough. He gets after it. He’s a good shooter and a good passer. He’s got nice hands and he seems to understand the game. He’s been coached well. If you don’t pay attention to him, he can hurt you.” But, added Cowens, a players’ rate of development can sometimes depend on what system he is playing under in and he used himself as an example coming out of Florida State and being drafted by the Celtics in 1970.”"
Cuzoogle: NBA hairstyles that would get suspended in Tampa
Truman Reed for Bucks.com: “When Skiles came to Milwaukee, his reputation preceded him. In each of his previous stops, he coached with the same intensity he displayed as a state champion in high school, an All-American in college and a 10-year pro’s pro. Bucks guard Charlie Bell was only 7 years old when Skiles was a senior starring at Michigan State University, so Bell can be forgiven if he doesn’t vividly remember his coach’s heyday in East Lansing. But Bell became familiar with Skiles’ legend when he followed in his footsteps as a guard with the Spartans. “I’ve seen highlights of him,” Bell said. “The thing about it is you hear about him going so hard on the court. He left it all on the court in every game. Seeing him play and watching him make a pass and seeing somebody finish one of his passes, and seeing the excitement that he had, with his fist pumpin’ … He’s just one of those guys that you would love to play with, because he would do anything for you. You have to respect that, and want to do anything for him.”"
Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: “The Indiana Pacers have hired Calvin Hill as a consultant to help the team with its image reshaping. Hill, a former NFL running back and father of Phoenix Suns guard Grant Hill, will work with Sam Perkins, the Pacers vice president of player relations. Hill has played a vital part as a consultant in helping the Dallas Cowboys clean up their image.”
Brian Hanley of The Chicago Sun-Times: “The credit crunch and the failing economy have put the brakes on the sale of the Cubs, said Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, one of the finalists to buy the team. ”Yeah, it’s going to affect the deal structure,” Cuban said Thursday at the United Center, where the Mavericks played the Bulls in an exhibition game. ”It’s going to create a challenge. Anytime the cost of capital goes up, the cost of assets goes down, which is what you’re seeing in the stock market. Honestly, they’d be crazy to do something now because it’s not optimal for them and it’s not optimal for the buyer. So there’s not really a rush.”"
Hooped Up: Michael Jordan and the Mystery Girlfriend
Tim Buckley of The Deseret News: “He had two teams that went to the NBA Finals with Karl Malone and John Stockton. But coach Jerry Sloan on Thursday declared this season’s Jazz “the most-talented team” he’s ever had. Then he added the caveat.”But talent doesn’t win for you,” he added. “You’ve got to have guys that can play. I mean, they’ve got talent. … But a lot of teams can’t win with talent.” If the 2008-09 Jazz want to maximize their talent, Sloan suggested, they’d be well-advised to start playing better defense than in recent seasons.”
John Jackson of The Chicago Sun-Times: “His performance wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad considering the 20-year-old was playing in his first professional game and was matched up against all-star Jason Kidd in the first quarter. Rose, though, didn’t see things that way. “Terrible, if you ask me,” he said when asked to assess his game. “Turnovers as a point guard, you don’t want that many. I had five in the first half.” Rose, though, rebounded from the shaky first half with a solid second half. In nearly 10 minutes of playing time in the third quarter — he didn’t play in the fourth — he had six points (3-for-3 shooting) and one assist and one turnover. But despite the obvious struggles, he showed flashes of the athletic ability that makes him such a coveted point guard.”
Mario Latilleon for 3 Shades of Blue: “I spent the 4th quarter doing more yelling at the Grizz than the Wizards. When the game was over, the Wizards left the bench and were walking across the court fifteen feet away from me. While I was looking at my cell phone responding to a text, I saw a hand towel flying towards me out of the side of eye. The towel was soaked in ice cold water. I did not see which Wizard was the thrower, but I originally thought it was Caron Butler because I noticed he was grinning at me. There he was, sneaking around Butler with Roger McDowell like stealth was Soulja Boy himself, Deshawn Stevenson. The most telling fact of the wet towel was the hit was below my calf on my leg. With a shot like that, Stevenson had to be the thrower. Soulja Boy is not only no Lebron James, he’s no Big Shot Bob either.”
Tyson Chandler: “I’ve watched debates in the past, and I never knew what was going on. I never realized what the President was talking about. But Obama breaks it down so that I can understand, my grandparents can understand, anybody can. He bridges the gaps and brings everybody together. I was sitting at the rally yesterday and I saw this older black gentleman with a camcorder. He had grey hair and he was recording it. I was just watching him and he looked so proud. It looked like he was gonna record it and go back, show his grandchildren and say “I was here on this day.” And next to him were some older white ladies, who when Obama was making his speech, were jumping up, screaming and raising their hands. So, I was thinking, “Wow, look at that.” You had different nationalities there, different ages and different genders, and everybody was there for the same cause. We haven’t seen this in a long time. And it was just a great thing to be a part of.”
Jamal Crawford for New York Newsday: “I was looking around the Toronto arena yesterday before the game started and playing in front of 20,000 fans every night is what I dreamed about as a kid. For some reason, just looking around brought back thoughts I had when I was a kid.. I would gave anything to be in the NBA playing at the highest level….sometimes when you’re actually going through this you don’t get a chance took take a step back and reflect. You think of the negative stuff that comes along with being in this position, what people expect from you, the many people you try to please…life is too short… God choose me to be in this position, he gave me the talent and it’s up to me to do something more with it. You only go through this once, so I’m gonna make the most of it.”
