Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun: “Shaquille O’Neal got lots of mileage from his RuPaul line about Chris Bosh, but the Raptors star didn’t see the humour at being compared to the cross-dressing singer/model. Bosh came home from the trip still stung by O’Neal’s jab, that came after he wondered aloud why officials let the flamboyant O’Neal get away with three-second violations during his 45-point outburst in last week’s win by the Phoenix Suns. ‘I didn’t laugh or anything, it wasn’t funny,’ Bosh said yesterday at the Air Canada Centre. ‘I was kind of upset with that. ‘He has been around the league for awhile and I expected a lot more professionalism out of him. I thought we were cool. Whatever.’ Bosh said his comments were misconstrued by the time they reached the Suns’ locker room. ‘The sad thing about it is that I never said some kind of bold statement. I said he was in the key and they never called three seconds on him one time. I expressed that and it got around that I said he cheated to get 45 points. Why would I say somebody cheated? I wish I could stay in the lane and get 45 points.’”
Alan Hahn of Newsday: “Curry told a group of us beat writers while we were in San Francisco on that last West Coast trip that he planned to get back on the court for practice right after the all-star break. He offers all of the believable rhetoric about how being on the court is his “safe house” and the game allows him to escape from the drama going on in his life. But then the three-day all-star break comes and Curry is nowhere to be found at the MSG Training Center, where the best equipment money can buy — did you know they have a Zero Gravity treadmill? — and willing staffers awaited him to get in critical rehabilitation and conditioning work so he could do just what he said and be back on the floor, practicing, right after the all-star break. [Bloghost note: because it was the all-star break, the NBA does not permit teams to order players to do any work, but players may use the team's facilities and resources voluntarily]. It’s been almost three weeks since the break and Curry is still not on the court. You don’t see him anywhere near the court. Not even in the hours before home games, in the empty Garden, where a 4:30 p.m. arrival and some work with the always-willing Herb Williams might show you are really serious about getting back out there.”
Bob Wojnowski of The Detroit News: “I’m sure the Pistons and their fans are feeling pretty good without Iverson, having won three straight. But come on, let’s not pretend Iverson’s quick-burst scoring can’t be useful, and let’s not turn him into some gigantic scapegoat, either. He’s played hard, he just hasn’t fit, and it’s not entirely his fault. Iverson said in a statement Thursday he’s willing to accept the reserve role, and coach Michael Curry said they’re eager to get him back. All appropriate words, awaiting the appropriate actions. I’m guessing Iverson isn’t ecstatic about it, but frankly, if he’d shot better (41.7 percent), it wouldn’t be an issue. Here’s the key point, the one that will determine how much time Iverson, 33, still has in this league: If he really has matured and just wants to win, this is his chance to prove it. If he’s just a chemistry-killer because of his need to control the basketball, this will cement that reputation, or diminish it. The Pistons and Iverson should do everything possible to make this work because the unique skills that gave him the third-highest scoring average in NBA history (27.7) remain intriguing.”
The Knicks Blog: “Nate has been brilliant at times but the thing is he’s needed to be because no one else is getting shots in rhythm out of great half court possessions. Now you want to tell me that Nate is great because he can score without getting into a possession, fine. But there has to be a combination. For some reason I really believe Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni aren’t sold on Nate moving forward. D’Antoni was especially gitty last night and maybe that was because his players knew that they won a game with great balance. When Nate is on he’s is electric, he is the star in the spotlight when everyone else is off to the side. These aren’t the best players in the NBA so they really need to work off each other and, sure, they feed off Nate’s energy but far too often guys are standing around watching the Nate show. Of course, no one can hate on Nate for doing his thing. No one admires the guy as much as I do. He should have legions of fans and he should get paid. He’s incredibly unique. But I’m a fan of winning basketball, and I’ve seen far too often, playing with a guy who plays MAJOR minutes who’s never seen a shot he won’t take rarely results in winning basketball.”
Jeff Rabjohns of the Indianapolis Star: “The Indiana Pacers power forward has been on a tear lately, tying the franchise record for consecutive games with double figures in points and rebounds. Murphy has nine consecutive double-doubles, matching Detlef Schrempf (March 27-April 16, 1992) and Jermaine O’Neal (Jan. 20-Feb. 4, 2003). ‘I think he’s making a case,’ Jack said. ‘The stuff he does really, really goes unnoticed. His numbers are almost staggering for a guy his size, being able to shoot the ball at his height. The ability this guy has is unbelievable.’ The 6-11 Murphy leads the NBA in defensive rebounds (577) and is tied for seventh in 3-point shooting at 43.6 percent. He’s the only player in the top 10 in both. Pacers coach Jim O’Brien needed one word to describe his skill set. ‘Unique,’ he said.”
Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: “Gooden, who has battled a groin strain and a lower abdominal strain this season, declared himself fit, and ready to play immediately. If Spurs coach Gregg Popovich wants him to suit up in tonight’s game against the Washington Wizards at AT&T Center, it will be his first game in silver and black. Gooden was available to the Spurs, Lakers and several other teams with championship potential after the Sacramento Kings waived him late Sunday night, making him a free agent. He chose the Spurs as the place to continue his career, he said, because he believes San Antonio could be the basketball home he has been trying to find since he was the fourth overall pick of the 2002 draft after a standout career at the University of Kansas. The Spurs will be the sixth team for which he has played in six-plus seasons, an odyssey he compared to being a player in a fantasy league. ‘I’m ready to find a home,’ he said.”
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: “Now we all know that Ellis hasn’t been happy with Robert Rowell or Don Nelson for a long time–it’s the worst-kept secret on the Warriors, though the Warriors are frantically trying to keep it as quiet as possible. So have a lot of other people. Frantically. No coincidence, both Rowell and Nelson were apparently taken by surprise when Ellis decided to leave the team and had no solid update (possibly until reading Marcus’ story) on when Ellis would return. I also understand that there is a real medical issue with Ellis’ mother in Jackson, Miss., and that there are questions about some of the Warriors-announced stiffness in his surgically repaired left ankle. Questions that only doctors can answer. But there is no question that there has been displeasure between Ellis and the Warriors since Rowell decided to suspended him for 30 games (resulting in a $3M fine) after Ellis’ scooter accident wrecked his left ankle; Rowell also maintained that the team had an indefinite right to void Ellis’ $66M deal. Here’s what I don’t know: What can Ellis do about it?”
Dave Perkins of the Toronto Star: “The time for these Raptors to ‘buckle down’ was 50, 40 or 30 games ago. Now they’re into their final 20 games, many against some of the NBA’s other bottom-feeders, and talking large. But who will listen? They’re at 23 wins and might need 37 or 38 to have the privilege of being swept by Boston or Cleveland in the first round. Why would anyone think there’s another 14 or 15 wins in that roster, the way it plays defence? Could it get that many playing intra-squad games? ‘We’re approaching it with the mindset that we’ve got to win every game. We’re at the point we have to play every game as if it’s our last,’ Chris Bosh said after yesterday’s practice. ‘The goal is attainable. We still have a chance to make the playoffs.’ Does he really think that? ‘If I didn’t think we were capable of it, I wouldn’t even say it. There would be no reason to even say playoffs. But we believe in ourselves,’ he said. ‘We’ve had struggles, but all that will disappear if we make it to the second part of the season and the records are erased.’”
Kyle Hightower of the Orlando Sentinel: “His Toronto tenure was marred, however, by a two-game suspension in 2005 for ‘conduct detrimental to the team’ for what then-Raptors Coach Sam Mitchell called temper problems. After being traded to Houston, Alston also had run-ins with the law — first an assault charge from an alleged stabbing incident in Manhattan and then public intoxication charge in Houston three weeks later. All charges have since been dismissed. ‘It’s all timing,’ Lau said. ‘Unfortunately he had some setbacks along the way, but it made him stronger. He’s been to every level … but he’s stayed humble.’ So humble that Alston has spent his recent summers not on vacation but back in New York coaching in the same AAU program that he and fellow NBA players Lamar Odom, Wally Szczerbiak and Charlie Villanueva went through. It’s that mature person and player that so far has made Alston a welcomed addition in Orlando.”
Steve Aschburner of SI.com: “It is a simple sketch, really, a line drawing of a basketball with a shooter’s creed angled across it the way sailors often went with ‘Mom” back in tattoos’ drunk and tawdry days. In this case, the words are ‘Let it Fly” and the design is unobtrusively high on Mike Miller’s back, between the shoulder blades, just south of his neck. Which, come to think of it, might be the problem. Just as with real estate, the key to body art is location, location, location. Miller and his team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, might be better served if this particular one was smack dab in the middle of his forehead. Oh, and in reverse, the way ECNALUBMA gets painted on the front of an emergency vehicle. That way, the veteran swingman could read it every morning, a reminder each time he looked in the mirror: YLF TI TEL. Maybe then, he would practice what the ink under his skin preaches. This is the curious case of Mike Miller, a bona fide NBA sharpshooter who wants to do anything but shoot, as determinedly and as inexplicably as Brad Pitt’s Benjamin Button aging from old to young.”
Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: “The Bobcats keep tabs on the Bucks, Bulls, New Jersey Nets and Indiana Pacers. It’s fun finally playing with stakes in March. ‘I’ve got it in my mind the teams we’re trying to catch. It puts a smile on your face’ when one loses, said point guard Raymond Felton. Felton says that however this race turns out, it will be constructive for next season. The Bobcats are no longer surprised to succeed. ‘I feel like there’s no team that we can’t beat. No question,’ Felton said. ‘We beat the Celtics here, we went to L.A. – the Staples Center – and beat the Lakers there. That lets us know we’re a good team. ‘I feel a big difference: In the stands with the fans, with the team, with the organization, it’s a wonderful feeling. If we keep it going, we can slip into one of the last two spots.’ The guy least concerned with this is the one with the most experience. Larry Brown has led his team to the playoffs in 17 of his 24 NBA seasons. He says six weeks out is far too early to scoreboard-watch. ‘In terms of the race, the only team we have control over is ours,’ Brown said. ‘So that’s the only thing that matters.’”
Clips Nation: “In the current economic climate, when the NBA recently secured up to $200M in financing, Sterling’s Clippers are not among the dozen of so franchises in need of cash. Unlike many NBA owners who are leveraged to the hilt and facing major cash flow issues, Sterling and the Clippers have absolutely zero debt. None. BUT, whereas season ticket sales were down some last summer, and overall attendance has dropped 7%, the real bad news has yet to arrive. Season ticket renewals last season occurred before the worst of the economic news – not to mention that the addition of Baron Davis and Marcus Camby seemed to partially mitigate the loss of Elton Brand and Corey Maggette. The combination of another dismal season, little or no reason to expect improvement (the ‘someday we’ll be healthy’ sales pitch is getting threadbare) and a deep, deep recession no doubt presage a renewals disaster. But if the timing is logical, the few details of the tirade that have been made public certainly are not. The accounts of the Roeser meeting had the season ticket holders absolutely begging the club president to fire Dunleavy. So Sterling goes into the locker room and backs the coach/GM 100%? That seems weird. Then again, in one account of Sterling’s tirade he told Dunleavy to ‘Shut up’ when he tried to interject on Al Thornton’s behalf.”
Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic: “With 21 games left, the Suns are 2 1/2 games behind Dallas for the West’s eighth and final playoff spot. Five months after training camp, they are as flawed defensively as ever. ‘We’ll weather this storm,’ forward Matt Barnes said. ‘Each man’s got to take a stand. There are not too many lockdown defenders. You’ve got to want it. Defense is an attitude.’ An upset Sunday over the Los Angeles Lakers without point guard Steve Nash offered hope, but that was deflated in Orlando when the Suns struggled offensively and went six minutes in the fourth quarter without a field goal. On Wednesday in Miami, Phoenix turned soft defensively and allowed the Heat to score 104 points in the first three quarters, their highest total entering the final quarter in the past 12 years. ‘You kind of are who you are,’ co-captain Grant Hill said when asked how the Suns can improve defensively at this stage.”
Tom Ziller of FanHouse: “Sacramento hasn’t been able to put together a winning streak of even two games since the second week of November. The Kings boast (boast?) the fifth worst defense of the modern era. To date, Sacramento has racked up an 0-24 record against the East. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. What went wrong? What went wrong?! Wrong question, Holmes. Everything went wrong. The team executed the trade of Ron Artest for two reasons: Ron Artest does not do well on losing teams, and the Kings were able to slip two draft picks (one already consummated) out of Houston. But clearly, the trade made the team worse in the immediate term. The bad summer move was giving up the full mid-level to Beno Udrih — five years, $30 million. Udrih made people smile a bit last season, offering something wholly different than Mike Bibby, whom Kings fans had grumbled about for several years. (Grumbling and salary have a direct positive relationship.) In the end, Udrih really did offer something completely different than Bibby: Mike has been great this season, while Beno sucked. Too many turnovers, too little scoring, absolutely no defense … I mean, Beno is basically a microcosm for the entire franchise.”
Gordon Monson of The Salt Lake Tribune: “Jazz players just laughed at the thought of guessing or supposing about following or not following an order like that from Sloan. ‘I don’t even want to know what would happen if anyone tried that with him,’ Kyle Korver said. ‘That only happens when someone thinks they’re bigger than everyone and everything else. And that’s not going to happen here.’ ‘It wouldn’t be pretty,’ said C.J. Miles, half-laughing, half-shuddering. ‘You either wouldn’t play the rest of the year, or you’d get kicked off the team. And if you didn’t come out, he’d probably go out and pull you off the floor.’ Said Ronnie Brewer: ‘You don’t really touch a subject like that here. There’s too much respect for [Sloan], and for the game. You don’t embarrass the coach like that. If you embarrass him, he’ll embarrass you. There’s too much character on this team for anybody to do that.’ As they often do when he is asked about potential confrontational situations, Sloan’s dark eyes went dead and the sides of his mouth curled up, a sort of maniacal look took over his countenance, when he considered what he would do if one of his players pulled an Anthony. ‘Oh, he’d come out of the game all right,’ Sloan said. ‘I think I could get a guy out of a game if I had to. And if I couldn’t, that’s why they have security.’”
Grahame L. Jones of the Los Angeles Times: “It won’t show up in the NBA statistics, but that was some steal Kobe Bryant made Thursday. On an afternoon when Brazil’s Marta, the top women’s soccer player on the planet, was being introduced by the Los Angeles Sol in Carson, Bryant flew in by helicopter after Lakers practice and walked off with the show. By the time he left the Home Depot Center, he had the Sol players giggling like star-struck teenagers, all eager to be photographed alongside him. Naturally, Bryant obliged. He also did a little goalkeeping, a little ball-juggling, banged a shot in off the left post and generally enjoyed himself.”
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: “Rockets season-ticket prices will be frozen or reduced for 98 percent of tickets for the 2009-10 season, CEO Tad Brown said on Thursday, a day before renewal forms will be mailed to current season-ticket holders. Citing the impact of the recession, Brown said that prices for more than 20 percent of tickets currently selling for between $22 and $200, with most in the $40 to $200 range, will be reduced, with some prices cut by roughly 20 percent. The 2 percent of tickets to have price increases are the most expensive tickets in the building currently sold to suite holders or corporate partners, and all have a waiting list. ‘Mr. (Leslie) Alexander (the Rockets’ owner) is really sensitive to our most loyal and passionate fans,’ Brown said. ‘This is a response to the economy, for sure. We want to continue to give people an opportunity to root for the Rockets at Toyota Center and be a part of this organization. We’re all going through a tough time right now. Mr. Alexander recognizes that. He wants to make it as easy as possible to enjoy the Rockets experience.’ Rockets attendance is up slightly this season to an average of 17,345.”
