Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “So what’s the Heat’s biggest concern? Some say it’s at center, considering there is none. Some say it’s at point guard, because four play but none play well. There’s the lack of a bench. The injury to James Jones. The rookie coach. But all of this sidesteps the issue burning like a small rag fire today, one that could either blow out in coming weeks or ignite the entire franchise: Dwyane Wade already has the look and sound of someone serving an 82-game sentence. Which leaves only 79 games to go. And, yes, it’s nearly time to start counting. Wade surely sees better than anyone the potholes on this roster that say any steps taken this year will be baby ones. So he’s frustrated about losing two of three opening games to NBA lottery teams and stares at young teammates after questionable plays. He talks of having a hard time getting into the offense ‘mentally,’ because of what is or what isn’t going on. He runs through defenses, like suicidal Jim Brown in The Dirty Dozen, before tossing up strange shots.”
Ken Berger of Newsday: “At 33, Iverson is a half step slower and a world wiser than he was when I last covered him in Philadelphia nine years ago. One of my lasting Iverson memories was seeing him watch Shaquille O’Neal fall short of the 40 points he needed to win the scoring title on the last night of the regular season, giving A.I. his first scoring crown. Iverson scored 33 points in a 105-100 overtime victory over – who else? – the Detroit Pistons and left the arena not knowing if he’d done enough to hold off The Diesel. He said he wasn’t going to watch Shaq’s game on the West Coast, but I had a feeling he would. So I went to the TGI Friday’s I knew he frequented, and sure enough, there he was. Shaq finished with 18 points, and Iverson and his friends hugged, popped a bottle of champagne, and enjoyed a subdued celebration. There were tears in Iverson’s eyes.”
Detroit Bad Boys: “Say what you want, but at 33 he’s two years younger than Jason Kidd and one year younger than Steve Nash. He averaged 26.4 points (despite sharing the ball with Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith) while playing in all 82 games last year. Not only that, he shot 45.8% from the field, which is actually pretty respectable for a volume shooter, and got to the line nearly 10 times a game. There’s no way he averages 41.8 minutes in Detroit so his raw numbers will decrease, but like Kevin said, fewer minutes may result in greater efficiency. Above and beyond what he brings to the court, his arrival also puts the national spotlight on the Pistons. Everyone is watching to see how this works, and while you might not think that counts for much, it brings back a sense of pressure and urgency that’s been lacking for years. With AI and Rasheed in a contract year, there are no longer any second or third chance; either this team gets it done in the playoffs or the two highest-paid guys on the team will be replaced with younger, better options this summer.”
Michael Grange of the Toronto Globe and Mail: “There’s plenty to be concerned about without looking too far into the future, when the Pistons — thanks to the salary-cap implications of the Iverson trade — will have money to wave at the elite members of the potent 2010 free-agent class. ‘I’ll worry about that boat when it gets here,’ Bosh said when asked about free agency and the way teams such as Detroit are jockeying to have the resources to sign top players. ‘I just stay focused on what I’m doing. If I get too far ahead, I’m not going to do well and then they’re not going to want me. No one will. I just try to stay grounded in what I do right now and it’s been working out for me.’ It’s been working out for the Raptors. After three games, head coach Sam Mitchell has them pretty much where he wants them: undefeated, yes, but aware of their shortcomings. The main problem is rebounding. The Raptors are the worst rebounding team in the NBA, giving up an average of 12.3 rebounds a game more than they grab and chasing down just 42.4 per cent of those available.”
Jason Quick of The Oregonian: “What’s in his head is the way opponents are attacking Roy and the Blazers’ bread-and-butter play – the pick-and-roll. Teams are aggressively trapping Roy like they always have after he runs off a screen. But in a slightly different twist, the Blazers first three opponents have used another player to run at LaMarcus Aldridge, which complicates Roy’s option to pass back to Aldridge. That tactic was best illustrated on Saturday in Phoenix, when Roy was trapped near the sideline. To get out of the trap, he passed toward Aldridge at the top of the three-point line. It was exactly what Amare Stoudemire anticipated, and the Suns forward stepped in front of the pass and took it the length of the court for a dunk. ‘It’s almost as if the defense is reading our plays,’ Roy said after his three-turnover performance against the Suns. ‘It seems like I’m looking for the open guy, but it seems like there is two, three guys to deal with: a dude guarding me, a guy trapping, and then another man helping. It’s like OK, how do I deal with this?’”
Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee: “Kevin Martin, John Salmons, Beno Udrih and Mikki Moore inexplicably failed to realize that tipoff was a week ago, that while four road games is a brutal way to start the season, the pay grade stays the same. Diving for loose balls. Contesting jump shots. Stretching for rebounds. Rotating aggressively. Sliding into the passing lanes. Last I checked, these activities are permissible in both the blue and red states, yet there were the Kings these last few days, and mostly the veterans, doing little of the above in Minnesota, Miami, Orlando and Philadelphia. With the exception of the narrow defeat to the Timberwolves, the Kings embarrassed themselves, their coach, their owners and their once-impassioned fans. ‘I can take the losing,’ a hoarse Reggie Theus said Tuesday while watching tapes. ‘What bothers me more than anything is that a year ago we had a reputation as a team that played hard every night. That doesn’t seem to be the priority this year.’ While it’s early, it’s never too soon to change. We believe: Start Thompson immediately; the rookie is the best rebounder and most skillful power foward on the roster. Give more minutes to rookie point guard Bobby Brown; he will make mistakes, but his quickness can awaken a slumbering, sluggish lineup; remind Martin that his idol, Michael Jordan, dictated outcomes at both ends.”
Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal: “They’re packing a brick wall, too. Memphis is holding opponents to just 85.3 points per game on 37.5 percent shooting, which ranks second in the NBA. Last season, the Griz surrendered 106.9 points (28th) on 48-percent shooting (30th). In holding each of its opponents to less than 100 points to start this season, Memphis already surpassed the longest such stretch from the 2007-08 campaign. The Grizzlies only went three consecutive games (Dec. 19-22) holding opponents to fewer than 100 points.”
Jeff Caplan of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Terry’s insertion into the starting lineup was one of several obvious changes in a game in which the Mavs were nearly as desperate for a win as the Spurs, who will play without the injured Manu Ginobili until at least mid-December. The all-reserve second unit that played extended minutes successfully at Minnesota, but dreadfully against Cleveland, did not make an appearance as Carlisle reverted to a more traditional substitution pattern, which allowed Terry more time to play with more familiar teammates. Backup point guard J.J. Barea and Gerald Green, whom Carlisle said slipped into poor defensive habits again Monday, didn’t hit the court until the final two minutes of the game. Carlisle kept the rotation at nine players, while allowing Josh Howard (14 points, 12 rebounds) and Nowitzki to play 37 and 38 minutes, respectively. Terry also logged 38 minutes, easily his high of the season.”
X’s and O’s of Basketball: Should the Knicks Run the 7 Seconds or Less Offense?
Alan Hahn of Newsday: “‘You’ve got an owner who will spend the money, you’ve got a franchise that our league needs badly to be successful, you’ve got fans who love the game, and that’s why I went there,’ Brown said. ‘I thought if I did a good job as coach, it would help our sport. ‘My only advice to Donnie was to deal directly with Mr. Dolan, and make sure that he allows you to make basketball decisions – and I thought he would do that. I told Donnie if that’s clear, then it’s phenomenal.’ Brown said he and Walsh talk regularly and as recently as Monday night. And though he tried to brush off the remnants of his forgettable season here in New York, Brown clearly is still hurt by how it all went down in flames so quickly and dramatically. (And, perhaps, he wishes Walsh was in charge in 2005-06, so he could have done with Marbury what D’Antoni is being allowed to do).”
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: “There have been murmurings about the Monta Ellis situation for a while now, beneath the Warriors-led initial discussion of the great amount of penalties they must impose upon him while he’s injured. That’s the surface stuff. The real murmurings around the league: If Warriors colossus Robert Rowell isn’t careful, Ellis could eventually decide to make his own judgement. The real decision to watch: Ellis could decide that he wants nothing more to do with the team, whether they decide to void his contract or not. If he feels his recovery is coming along, Ellis could say by mid-December: Either void my deal or trade me, your choice, because I’m never playing for a franchise that would do this to me after I admitted my mistake and was ready to accept singular punishment. That Ellis judgement is a very live possibility.”
Red’s Army: “Question: ‘And the tattoos? Is this your most recent one?’ [Points to the tattoo on Pierce’s arm] Paul Pierce: ‘Yes. This is a dagger going through a ball, because basketball is my gift and my curse. Obviously it’s all the good things that come from playing basketball, but you also have to deal with the negative things that come from your gift of being a basketball player. I was stabbed in a nightclub [in Boston in 2000] for just being somebody who is popular. You have people who are envious. That’s all part of being who I am. And that’s why there’s a dagger through the basketball.’”
Eric Musselman’s Basketball Notebook: In search of “energizers”
NESW Sports: Mike Fratello explains the Pistons’ Jordan Rules [Video]
Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: “Spurs coach Gregg Popovich turned a discussion on the importance of defense into a defense of the importance of the world championship as an entity, in and of itself. The subject was defense, Gregg Popovich’s favorite topic when it comes to basketball. Or is it? On a night when nationalism took center stage in America, Popovich segued from the importance of defense to NBA championship teams to the arrogance of calling the NBA title the world championship. ‘The Celtics,’ Popovich said, ‘were a great defensive team last year; Detroit was a great defender when they won it. When we’ve won, we’ve been first or second or third in all those defensive categories, and Miami was the same when they won it. If you’re going to get an NBA championship, that’s where you’ve got to go.’ Then, Popovich got on a rant about the importance of international competition. ‘Notice,’ he said, ‘I didn’t say world championship. There’s no such thing for these teams, although many haven’t figured that out yet. Did any of us who won a championship play anybody in Spain or Russia or Italy, or any other country, other than the United States?”"
Rajon Rondo: “I just got back in the locker room. We just got the W in Houston, and I had to blog. OBAMA IS THE PRESIDENT! I can’t even explain how I feel right now. All I have to say is that we have to repeat, because we have to go back to the White House to meet Obama. I’m glad to see that everyone got out and voted today. I made sure I voted last week before we left for this road trip because I knew how important this election was going to be. Every vote counted! Thanks to everyone that got out and voted today. God Bless America. We did it.”
Mark Cuban: “In looking at the Democratic platform, there are a few things I agree with, but on the economic side, other than being ok with him raising my effective tax rate to 40pct, there isn’t a lot of his economic policy that I do agree with him on. So why did I vote for him ? Its simple. Having an elected black President will do more to energize this country than any economic or social policy ever could. In a single day of voting, our amazing country once again reinvigorated the dream that any child in this country, no matter what circumstances they are born into, can grow up to be anything they want, including President of the United States. That dream, staying viable, being reinvigorated, will do more for this country than any economic policy or any legislation that could ever be passed. I have said it before, the power of the American Spirit is what separates our country from every other. We have been able to overcome the stupidity that politicians do every year, and will do for ever more. The election of Barack Obama is a shot of adrenaline for those who felt they could never participate in the American Dream.”
Mark Whicker of The Orange County Register: “He was 15 years old, 7 feet tall, black and terrified. ‘When I got there, the folks told me the places to go and the places not to go,’ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said Monday, in his office near the 710 freeway. ‘I did what they said. I wasn’t going to test the waters.’ He had been down South before. His mother Cora was from Wadesboro, N.C., near the South Carolina border, and his father Lewis was in an artillery unit at Fort Bragg. The two actually met in New York — ‘at the Savoy ballroom,’ Abdul-Jabbar recalled with a smile — and that’s where they settled. Anywhere north of Washington was a haven for a black man. ‘I remember going through D.C. and crossing the Virginia line and seeing all the signs about segregation,’ he said. ‘I saw segregated toilets, segregated water fountains. We’d seen them on TV, because Walter Cronkite was very good about showing the Freedom Riders and the others in the civil rights movement. But this was literally like going to another country.’ Abdul-Jabbar, 61, sat at a small table and looked absently at the wall. Now he felt like a country was coming to him. ‘My main feeling about all this,’ he said, ‘is that I wish my parents were still alive to see it.’”
Howard Beck of The New York Times: “The Pedowitz report, released Oct. 2, cleared Foster of any wrongdoing with a detailed explanation of the phone records. Pedowitz also recommended that Foster be allowed to speak with reporters, a request the N.B.A. granted this week. ‘I just didn’t think Mr. Pedowitz’s report is going to be enough,’ Foster said Monday, hours before officiating the game between the Houston Rockets and the Boston Celtics. ‘I think people are sick of hearing from a lawyer, and it would be better for me to stand on my pulpit and say, ‘Hey, this is not fair. I didn’t do these things.’ None of this comes easily to Foster, who despite his rise in the officiating ranks was relatively unknown until this summer. ‘I never wanted to be a celebrity referee,’ he said. ‘I’d rather just be kind of a behind-the-scenes guy.’”
Chris Mannix of CNNSI.com: “Since Foster’s close friendship with Donaghy first became public, Foster says he has been eager to tell his side of the story. Foster first met Donaghy in 1991, when both were invited to an officiating camp in Los Angeles. The two became friends in part due to their parallel lives. Both entered the NBA the same year (1994) and started families at roughly the same time. Their relationship was close enough that Foster asked Donaghy to be the godfather to his eldest son, Jake. The two continued their friendship as their careers moved forward but, as Foster said, ‘There wasn’t a lot of face time.’ Foster and Donaghy did carry on regular phone conversations. ‘I’m on the road 150 days a year,’ said Foster, crouching forward in his chair. ‘It’s not atypical for officials to play phone tag from time to time. Just today I’ve talked to two refs twice and two refs once. We go back and forth. I get to the airport and I’m in the security line, I’d give him a call. I’d be watching SportsCenter, I’d give him a call. It’s constant water-cooler chatter. That’s how we work out here. You have one or two buddies who you bounce things off of and share experiences with.’”
