Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports: “On his way to three NBA championships and an Olympic gold medal, a Naismith Hall of Fame induction and the league’s model front office, Dumars’ days of grace and accomplishment made him the most famous son of McNeese State University. ‘But when we got the alumni newsletter in the mail,’ Dumars’ wife, Debbie, said, ‘it would always be addressed to me.’ So Dumars picked up the phone some 18 months ago, called McNeese State University and enrolled in the online course needed to complete his bachelor’s of science in business management. He thought about his parents, Big Joe and Ophelia, a truck driver and a custodian, who had the intellect for college but never the opportunity. He thought about his wife, a teacher. He thought about his son and daughter. He thought about his front office, his players and everyone else with whom he felt obligated in life. He called McNeese and told them: It’s time.”
George Gervin as reported by Matt Caputo of SLAM: “When I went, I played for a team in Italy called Banco Roma, which had a great support. They had good players, some of those Italian guys could just flat out play. One of the guys I can remember guy by the name of Galapatchi or something like that. He was an older guy at the time, still dropping 40, 45 and 50 points. I think me and Bob McCadoo were the first big names to go over there. They had a great basketball team. The Coach Mike D’Antoni was also on that team with McCadoo in Milan. He came back and became a pretty good coach. I like to see the international flavor injected into the NBA. It gives you that global presence and obviously the Europeans have gotten better. One of the things they got on us right now is that they have more basketball academies. They teach kids at an early age to understand the game of basketball and working on their skills. The Europeans can flat out shoot the ball. I wish here in America we would develop more basketball academies where we can start working with 7th, 8th, and 9th graders to really prepare them for their future in basketball, not just on the floor but off as well. Dealing with the media and having values. I think that is important to make a kid whole. It’s more than just shooting, dunking and running on that floor, guarding people. You still got to have the ability to work with others.”
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John Canzano of The Oregonian: “From now on don’t let anyone tell you that naive parent’s are the only ones doling out buckets of money to our nation’s AAU coaches. The administration of some public universities are just as gullible, apparently. Hill coached Beasley in the AAU ranks, and Beasley called him like a big brother.’ Must have been some heavy brother-to-brother talks during that five-state, six-school prep career, too. Beasley committed to Charlotte while Hill was still an assistant there, but swapped when Kansas State hired Hill.”
Sports Law Blog: “So why is KS paying him almost $200k more than the next highest paid assistant coach and $300k more than most assistant coaches make? Apparently, it has something to do with Hill’s recruitment of Michael Beasley, who McClellan says ‘made Kansas State basketball relevant for the first time in more than a decade last season, and his presence put a few extra dollars in the pocket of the man responsible for luring him to Manhattan, Kan.’ Hill was Beasley’s AAU coach and Beasley referred to him ‘like a big brother.’ According to McClellan, KS athletic director Bob Krause told the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World that Hill put the K-State program on a different plane when he secured the signing of Beasley. Krause told the newspaper, ‘I’d hate to put a value on what the exposure, both print and electronic, has been on Michael. That’s an identification with a guy who’s a very strong advocate of K-State and, in his own words, will always be a part of the K-State family. Michael’s love for K-State – it’s priceless, just priceless.’”
Jeff Caplan of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Traded by Boston to Minnesota, then dealt to Houston and finally cut by the Rockets, all in a span of eight months last year, the long and lean, 6-foot-8 Green knows the emptiness of unemployment. His rocky transition from the pedestal of high school hot-shot, he said, has not been an issue of arrogance or entitlement, but rather one of maturity and self-preparedness.”
Paola Boivin of The Arizona Republic: “Palubinskas helped O’Neal during the 2000-01 season when his free-throw percentage with Los Angeles had dropped to 38 percent. It appeared to work, and he shot 68 percent over the last 15 games of the season. When O’Neal was left to his own devices, his struggles continued. His free-throw progression is a study in erraticism. Last season’s 50.3 percent mark is worse than his rookie effort of 1992-93, when he hit 59.2 percent. He incrementally shot worse Seasons 2 through 5, stayed around 52 percent Seasons 6 through 10 and hit his career high in 2002-03, when he shot 62.2 percent. He’s remained below 50 percent since, until last season. That number was the worst percentage in the NBA for those who qualified for league rankings based on participation.”
The Associated Press: “A group that includes two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash submitted a bid Wednesday for a Major League Soccer franchise in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the family of Liverpool co-owner George Gillett applied for a team in Montreal. Seven cities bidded for two expansion teams, which the MLS said will be selected by the end of March. Also applying were Atlanta; Miami; Ottawa; Portland, Ore.; and St. Louis.”
The Associated Press: “Former NBA star Vlade Divac has become an adviser in Serbia’s government. The 40-year-old says he will be in charge of humanitarian issues and sports, and will work with Vice Premier Ivica Dacic. The ex-Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings center told reporters Thursday he has taken up the post to help promote humanitarian work in Serbia.”
Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: “Is the 2008-09 NBA Western Conference the strongest conference in the history of professional sports conferences? No offense, 1909 National League, but this is a valid argument for the simple reason that last season, the Nuggets had to win 50 games to claim the eighth and final playoff spot in the West, the first time that ever happened in NBA history. And now, some say the West is even stronger. Stronger at the top, stronger at the bottom — even the bad teams aren’t that bad, be it the Sacramento Kings (seriously!) or the Los Angeles Clippers (with Baron Davis, Chris Kaman and our old friend, Marcus Camby.)”
Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times: “This is a time for the young ones, not the veterans, in Jackson’s mind. It’s a time to tinker with lineups, zing 6-foot-10 ball-handling forwards about not being in shape and see which players will round out the end of the bench. ‘We always know that our game is going to take a little longer time to gel than most other teams,’ he said. ‘We do have most of our veterans back, but this is a time for us to play some younger players that we want to look it. Until the last of the exhibition games, I won’t be playing the regulars in heavy minutes.’ Jackson was 16-24 in exhibition games in his first tour with the Lakers and, after going 6-2 in 2005-06 in his first year back, the club went 4-4 and 3-4 the last two seasons.”
Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News: “The players didn’t play well, but coach Michael Curry blamed himself, too, for the team’s performance in Tuesday’s 86-64 exhibition loss to San Antonio in Grand Rapids. ‘After going back and watching the tape, our guys defensively were a lot better than I thought,’ Curry said Wednesday. ‘The mistakes they made, it was my fault. I had a couple of areas (defensively) that we had some uncertainty.’ Accountability has been a huge theme with Curry this preseason and he said he’ll admit mistakes when he makes them. ‘The biggest thing with a coach is, you have to admit to your players when you mess up, because you’re going to mess up, just like the players do,’ Curry said. ‘When I make mistakes, I let them know.’”
Steve Adamek of The Record: “At the moment, Mike D’Antoni’s team is surrendering a 49.2 shooting percentage and 111 points, the preseason’s worst scoring defense and third-worst field goal defense. He says he isn’t exactly happy about it. There are several ways to look at it, of course, beginning with the fact that the Knicks didn’t re-hire Jeff Van Gundy. Or Pat Riley. Or a coach who doesn’t believe what D’Antoni does, that by averaging 58 victories the last four seasons in Phoenix, his Suns played better defense than their opponents 58 times, no matter what the percentages or point totals said. He takes umbrage, in fact, that his teams didn’t play some measure of defense _ although during the times reporters have been allowed to watch practice this preseason, there certainly hasn’t been an emphasis on it as there was in Larry Brown’s practices, even Thomas’. And look where it got them.”
Alan Hahn of New York Newsday: “Donnie has been taken to task on this blog for failing to move Zach Randolph’s hefty contract. But as I watched Z-Bo sweat buckets at practice today, cutting and moving in an energetic two-man shooting drill with Nate Robinson, I found myself wondering, ‘How bleak would things be for the Knicks right now without Zach Randolph?’ Randolph and Robinson — the water fight buddies from last season — are two of D’Antoni’s favorites. Even D’Antoni admitted he mainly expected the worst from Randolph, whose reputation continues to preceed him. ‘It’s automatic that you jump to conclusions . . . As usual, most reputations are not right,’ D’Antoni said. ‘It takes a long time to get the tag off of you.’ Randolph has always been a scorer and rebounder. But he treated passing and running like most of us treat flossing and gargling. I mean, Zach Randolph as a passer? Wasn’t this the guy who was called a ‘black hole’ on offense?”
