The Hoop: “According to italian site basketcentral.it Olympiakos is preparing an offer for Kobe Bryant(?!?!) for next summer. The italian site claims that they have information from “inside the club” insinuating that the Angelopoulos brothers will offer the superstar a contract of 60 million dollars for 3 years with an option for the player at the end of each season. In that contract there will be an incredible list of benefits, a villa in the Mediterranean Sea, pay all the taxes at the expense of the club, to pay the bills for the staff and for a private boat for Kobe Bryant.”
Ramona Shelburne of The Los Angeles Daily News: “He has been poked and prodded, goaded and perhaps even demoted if Phil Jackson does indeed elect to turn him into the Lakers’ sixth man. But at the end of a very long day of practice, following a very long first two weeks of training camp, Lamar Odom said there’s no place he’d rather play out the final years of his career. ‘I do love it here,’ Odom said in a lengthy, heartfelt interview after the Lakers 32-hour practice Monday afternoon. ‘I’ll be 29 years old when the season starts. More than likely, it’ll probably be my last contract. I know it’s a tough business … but if I could finish it (my career) here, I would.’”
Mike Kahn of FOXSports.com: “It sometimes makes you wonder what the pre-requisite is for having a radio show, particularly in a market the size of Minneapolis, that those guys would be so irresponsible about such a delicate subject involving a superstar of Johnson’s magnitude. Obviously, they don’t care, but you would think the station might. Not only has Johnson been such a staunch advocate and contributor for HIV/AIDS research, but Magic Johnson Enterprises has produced what Fortune says is an $800 million net worth from fostering franchises of Starbucks, Burger King, TGI Friday’s, 24-Hour Fitness and others in urban areas chock full of local minority employees. While Charles Barkley doesn’t want to be a role model, Magic Johnson IS a role model.”
Jason Fleming of HOOPSWORLD: “The idea is sports and movies are cheaper alternatives to big ticket purchases or travel, so people still want a little something to distract them from reality, but in smaller, cheaper doses – and as expensive as it is to go to a game, it’s still cheaper than a ski weekend or flying anywhere. Today, though, that doesn’t seem to be the expectation. Baseball and the NFL have both discussed internally and externally about the probability of making less money in the next year or two, not just the NBA. Many expect this time to be different, that spending on sports will go down along with spending in general instead of maintaining. Why is that? There are a few reasons, in this writer’s opinion, most notably the prevalence of so many alternative outlets to see the games.”
Bethlehem Shoals of The Sporting Blog: “For all intents and purposes, all the Warriors want to do is not pay Ellis while he’s on the bench; why not just fine him? The “suspension” label smacks of disrespect on both sides which, again, is the kind of thing that creates permanent wounds. There’s major money at stake here, probably around $3 million. But wouldn’t it be enough to just collect it as a big-ass fine, and let the guard hang around as part of the team — rather than cast him off in exile?”
D.C. Sports Blog: Gilbert Is But a Leaf on a Tree
Gilbertology: Arenas talks about sponsoring the number #1 ranked video game team in Halo 1, 2, and 3
Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: “I buy that Adam Morrison didn’t play against the Atlanta Hawks and Matt Carroll played little Monday because Bobcats coach Larry Brown needed to get another look at Andre Brown and Shannon Brown before trimming the roster. However, that’s probably not the whole story. Brown has made it clear he has an over-abundance of jump-shooters and is short of players who think defense-rebounds-loose balls first.”
Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune: “Hornets center Tyson Chandler dunked the basketball 192 times last season, and 106 of those came off assists from point guard Chris Paul. There might not have been anything more exciting during last season’s division championship run than seeing Paul find a soaring Chandler near the basket and having Chandler, 7 feet 1, emphatically ram the ball through the basket. No two-man combination in the NBA last season had more alley-oop dunks than Paul and Chandler, who teamed for the spectacular play 60 times more than their nearest challengers, according to the Hornets.”
Chris Herrington of The Memphis Flyer: “Mayo scored 26 points in 30 minutes on 10-17 shooting and 6-8 from downtown. Not only was every make a jumper, only one of the 17 attempts was from within seven feet of the basket, and it was technically a jumper. At some point this season, I’m certain, fans are going to start yelling “layup!” when Mayo, in the flow, rises up for a 25-footer. Mayo didn’t just shred the Pacers with jumpers tonight, he also played staunch on-ball defense and used his quickness to nab 5 steals, at least a couple of them leading to fastbreak conversions at the other end. But, while tonight showed Mayo’s strengths, it also showed his weaknesses. Mayo didn’t convert a single basket in the paint and didn’t attempt a single free throw. When he has gone to the whole this preseason, his relative lack of explosiveness has been apparent.”
K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune: “Want to know the level of detail with which Vinny Del Negro approaches his job? Just walk into the Berto Center. But dress down. The temperature inside the practice gym has been noticeably stuffier each day. And that’s not by accident. Finally asked if he was behind the heat increase, Del Negro confirmed and then smiled. ‘How do you think Aaron Gray lost those 25 pounds?’ Del Negro said.”
Fran Blinebury of The Houston Chronicle: “It seems the head coach is having none of those comparisons between the Celtics’ three-man tandem – Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen – of last year and the Rockets’ three amigos of Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest. This is what he said to Jonathan Feigen over the weekend: ‘I don’t see a comparison there right now. We have two-fifths of our starting lineup that have been out. When they (Celtics) started coming together last year, they had everybody and they were healthy and there was a whole new situation for them.’ Enough already with crying the injury blues. Yao has said he feels 100 percent in his left foot. Shane Battier is projected to be just fine for the start of the season. McGrady, of course, let everyone know on Media Day that he will play heroically through problems. So what else is new? And for crying out loud, they added Artest.”
Mavs Moneyball: “When you obvjectively look at last season, a lot of the things that you were hoping to see coming into the year actually happened: Assists were up, Dirk’s offensive game became a bit more unpredictable, Dirk was rested more, and some of the younger players got more burn. At the same time, the Mavs continued to stick around in the top ten in team defense and offense. With the improvement in teams in the western conference, I even expected the team to have a much tougher time in chalking up wins. So things looked pretty good on paper, but what happened? Avery Johnson happened, and as Fish and countless others will tell you–all those objective good-looking Hollingeresque number-crunching performance-based assessments of a team doing pretty well were wide of the mark. In no uncertain terms, the Mavs underperformed.”
Howard Beck of The New York Times: “While their fathers practiced on one side of the gym at SUNY-Purchase, Ewing and Grunfeld played pickup games with the sons of John Starks and Derek Harper. They picked up tips from Allan Houston (who is now their teammate) and Herb Williams (who is now an assistant). They also learned how unforgiving the N.B.A. can be. Ernie Grunfeld was fired as the Knicks’ president and general manager in April 1999, two months before the team made the finals. He is now the president of the Washington Wizards. Patrick Ewing Sr. was beloved, but also blamed for failing to deliver a championship. He was traded to Seattle in 2000. So Dan Grunfeld and Patrick Ewing Jr. are enjoying their unlikely New York reunion, but they know how quickly it could end.”
Michael Grange of The Toronto Globe and Mail: “Understandably, Raptors president Bryan Colangelo is careful to distance himself from any speculation about European coaches coming to the NBA. Mitchell is under contract for this season and the next. But Colangelo says it’s only a matter if time until Messina or another European-trained coach makes the leap, whether he’s involved or not. ‘Am I the likely person to hire one? I’d say there are 30 NBA teams canvassing the world for the best players, the best coaches the best strength and conditioning gurus,’ Colangelo says. ‘We’re all looking for an edge.’ There are some obstacles that any European coach would have to over come to have NBA success. Language might be one, but culture is probably even more significant. In Europe, practices are longer and more frequent, and players who aren’t on the same page as the coach are quickly shown the door.”
