Marc J. Spears of The Boston Globe: “Larry Bird didn’t want any more champagne, wasn’t worried about the pending parade in downtown Boston, and had already taken off his hat and T-shirt that proclaimed the Celtics the 1984 NBA champions. A day after winning the title, the Celtics star was actually out jogging in preparation for the next season, motivated by the fact that all of his opponents would be gearing for the champs. Unfortunately for the Celtics, the rest of the team may not have had that mentality. The repeat didn’t happen. Bird and the Celtics lost the 1985 NBA Finals to their bitter rivals, the Lakers.”I remember Larry and I going out the night we won in ‘84 and I figured you [celebrate] for a couple days,” said ex-Celtics guard Quinn Buckner. ‘I go to his house the next day and knock on the door and his girlfriend then, now wife, Dinah, said he was out running. ‘When he came back, I said, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘I’m getting ready for next year.’ This is like the day after, and he was already getting ready.’”
Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald: “One of the happiest people in this situation is Rivers, who now has two young, incredibly driven second-round draft choices having an impact on his roster. ‘They’re very similar,’ said the Celtics [team stats] coach. ‘I think that both of them coming back from knee surgeries has paid a benefit, because both have had to go through something early. With Billy it’s the knee surgeries. With Leon it’s the knee surgeries and his family. The other thing is that if Billy was 100 percent, he’d have been taken in the middle of the first round. If Leon had a clean bill of health, he would have gone in the middle of the first round.’ Those early snubs have also given Powe and Walker another weapon – long memories.”
John Canzano of The Oregonian: “By the way, it was a little ridiculous that Boston execs felt the need to point out that Miles had conducted himself as a model citizen while there. When did doing the decent thing and acting normal become so newsworthy? What outsiders don’t know is that Miles conducted himself brilliantly in landing that six-year, $48 million free agent contract from the Blazers, then promptly transformed into a turd when things weren’t going so well down the road. A listener to the radio show yesterday said that the last time he saw Miles in Portland was at the grocery store — during a Blazers game last season when Miles was supposed to be on the bench in street clothes. The Blazers injured small forward was buying a pack of diapers and a block of cheese.”
Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: “This is the week that Andrew Bynum turns 21, and he cannot wait. His big brother is planning a landmark party that promises surprise celebrity guests to go with all of Bynum’s childhood friends coming to town. (The bash has wisely been moved up to Sunday instead of being staged on Bynum’s actual birthday, which is the eve of the regular-season opener. You can be sure the big kid will need a little post-party recovery time.) This is the year that Bynum was also supposed to move out of his house and away from his mommy. That plan has stalled – in part because Bynum loves the six-bedroom, five-bathroom house he bought near Loyola Marymount as a rookie in 2005, in part because Bynum loves his mommy.”
TrueHoop: Super Luxury Tax Breakdown
Dave Feschuk of The Toronto Star: “If we’ve learned anything watching the Raptors in the mercifully concluded pre-season, it’s that when Chris Bosh, Jermaine O’Neal and Jose Calderon take a breather, the Raptors flash a decidedly different look: Call it disorganized chaos. As drop-offs go, it has often looked like Niagara Falls. Jason Kapono, the Raptors’ off-the-bench sharpshooter, was shaking his head at the state of the second-stringers yesterday. ‘It’s like, `Oh my God, dude, why are we always faced with four seconds on the shot clock, being forced to take a bad shot?’ said Kapono. ‘We’ve been, uh, slow to gel.’”
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Eric Musselman’s Basketball Notebook: Talent is overrated
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A. Sherrod Blakely of MLive.com: “In his six seasons with the Pistons, Wallace averaged 7.9 points, 12.9 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game. In the past two seasons, Wallace’s numbers have dropped to 5.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. But his former teammates in Detroit don’t believe health issues are to blame for his dropoff in production since his departure. ‘The team here was a perfect compliment for what Ben’s able to do,’ said Pistons coach Michael Curry, a former teammate of Wallace’s. ‘I thought you had a very good low-post threat in Sheed, and even when Cliff (Robinson) was here. And you had guards that were really good in pick-and-rolls, so because of that, Ben was able to get loose, keep balls active on the glass.’ Detroit point guard Chauncey Billups echoed similar sentiments. ‘You have to have the right talent around him, and you have to know how to use that,’ Billups said. ‘I don’t think Chicago or Cleveland really know how to use Ben. That’s why you see his numbers drop off. If he was here, I think he could pick right back up where he was at.’”
Blog-a-Bull: “He should start. It’s comical in every instance he hasn’t, especially given this franchise’s recent history of ‘developing’ talent, re-emphasized in the offseason when Paxson did his damndest to try and lower expectations for Rose. Well even if there was some misguided yet good-intentioned reasoning behind Pax’s turd-in-punchbowl attitude, can it officially stop now? Derrick Rose is already the best player on the roster. He was getting to the paint at will, finishing over shotblockers and opening up shooting opportunities for teammates. Had 30 points and 7 assists in 37 minutes, and eventually had the Mavericks gameplanning to stop him. He showed both confidence and poise.”
Janny Hu of The San Francisco Chronicle: “If Jackson signs an extension this season, the most he can receive is three years at $28 million. If he waits until next season, he can add four years at $39 million. Jackson is scheduled to make $7.14 million this season and $7.65 million next season to round out the six-year, $39 million contract his former agent, Dan Fegan, negotiated in 2005. After splitting with Fegan about a year ago, Jackson is handling his own talks this time. ‘All I have to do is be myself,” said Jackson, who has been consulting with the players’ association. I’ve always been a guy who says what’s on my mind and how I feel. And I’ve been told no before.’ In this case, Jackson is being told that an extension is on its way, and though it’s unclear how many additional years the Warriors are actually willing to commit, bumping his salary doesn’t appear to be an issue.”
Alan Hahn of New York Newsday: “‘The door’s never closed, but at the same time, we’re not going to lower anything that we do down to anybody,’ D’Antoni continued. ‘They’re going to have to come up to us. If they want to play, they know where they got to go.’ These are strong statements by a coach who is reaching that point in training camp where tough decisions are going to have to be made and, yes, some people are not going to be happy. D’Antoni plays about 8 to 9 guys in a rotation per night in the regular season. And when Jared Jeffries and Danilo Gallinari are at full health, minutes will be even harder to come by. From the day D’Antoni got the job and his system was coming to New York, there were immediate questions about Curry’s effectiveness in a system that demands he do the one thing he just does not like to do – run. He had all summer to get his conditioning levels at all-time highs. He had his right knee scoped in March, which means plenty of time to recover and prepare.”
Steve Weinman of CelticsBlog: “I don’t know, nor do I profess to know the truth about the stories told by Crawford and Berman. I possess no desire to play blog police on assessing winner and loser in their back-and-forth. That’s below the scope of interest of this readership. What I do know is this much (soapbox alert): It’s disturbing to see this sort of conduct from the media, particularly from a beat writer whom I’ve long held in high regard. When a writer with access to a team mentions an ‘observation’ without qualifier, that refers to something he saw with his own eyes. By virtue of Crawford’s story and Berman’s own implicit admission in his rebuttal, that wasn’t the case here. He didn’t see the Marbury incident. Or Crawford waving the media over. Or any of it. So he misled his readers by labeling it an observation. He also never attributed it at any point until Crawford prompted him to by outing him in the blog post. Not to an anonymous source, not to anyone. Now, he won’t tell us who the source was or even which members of the media were involved. Not particularly encouraging.”
Linda Robertson of The Miami Herald: “During Spoelstra’s first two years with the team as video coordinator, he spent most of his time in The Cave. Riley noticed the kid, but had no idea what his name was. More recently, at the NBA’s predraft camp in New York, O.J. Mayo practiced with Spoelstra and thought he was a trainer. Yet Haslem argues that Spoelstra is not the unknown upstart many perceive him to be. ‘Everyone thinks he came out of nowhere,’ Haslem said. ‘They forget he knows more about this organization than anybody. He’s been a hands-on coach for a dozen years. He learned under the best. He’s definitely ready.’ The players see Spoelstra’s youth as an advantage. He can relate better to these guys than could Riley, whose hard-bitten, intimidating style had worn thin with today’s more sensitive athletes. ‘Two different personalities, but the message is the same: Defense first, work hard,’ Haslem said. ‘Of course, coach Spo is closer in age to us, and he listens to the same music and watches the same shows.’”
Gregg Bell of The Associated Press: “Greg Nickels said he hasn’t spoken to anyone with the NBA since the SuperSonics left Seattle in the summer, but the Seattle mayor feels ‘the door is open’ to the league returning to what would be a remodeled KeyArena. Nickels said Seattle has already presented the outline of a new plan to Washington state lawmakers, seeking to authorize the use of local tax revenues currently going to the Washington state convention center in Seattle. The city wants that money to be used instead to remodel the building the Sonics said was obsolete before they deserted it.”
SonicsCentral: “Currently there is a 7% tax on hotel/motel stays. 1% of this tax goes towards convention center maintenance and for the last several years this tax has been unused and into a reserve The city financial offices have determined that the convention center does not need these funds and reviewed with them for confirmation. Under the mayors plan 1% of the tax would be diverted to the renovation of Key Arena and that would be the final funding piece to satisfy our requirement and get Clay on for $30M, ostensibly getting us a new team.”
