Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee: “Twenty years ago, the notion of a Petrovic, Divac, Marciulionis, Paspalj or Volkov becoming a legitimate NBA player – a possibility long championed by the league – was greeted with a collective roll of the eyes. Drazen who? Yet at the start of the current season, 75 players from 32 countries were listed on NBA rosters, the vast majority having never played for an American high school or college. Imagine the Spurs without Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili? The Los Angeles Lakers without Pau Gasol and Sasha Vujacic? The Houston Rockets without Yao Ming and Luis Scola? Imagine the Kings without Peja Stojakovic, Hedo Turkoglu and Divac? While the influx of foreign-born players shows no sign of abating, Divac’s imprint lingers.”
Israel Gutierrez of the Miami Herald: “This is going to feel different than most of the jersey retirements you might have caught on television. And it’s not just because Zo is our local hero, or because, outside of football, there are no other pro athletes here who have been honored this way. It will carry additional weight because for the past 14 years, Mourning didn’t just have a great basketball career with the Heat — he has experienced a complete metamorphosis. And just thinking about that for more than a few minutes should be enough to make Mourning let it all out. ‘I really expect it to be a very emotional moment for me,’ Mourning said. `I’m truly, truly happy to have contributed to the franchise.’ Mourning usually isn’t one to understate matters. Quite the opposite, actually. He specializes in over-the-top. So to say that he has ‘contributed to the franchise’ is easily among his most uncharacteristic comments. He helped create a franchise.”
Marc Berman of the New York Post: “When Duhon chose the Knicks over Orlando last July, he didn’t realize the team was more concerned about 2010. Duhon accepted the Knicks’ offer because he was promised a starting job. In retrospect, he would have been much better off in Orlando, which is competing for a championship. Duhon could have moved into a starting role there after Jameer Nelson went down. During the season, the Knicks discarded seven players from the roster that came out of training camp — Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph, Mardy Collins, Malik Rose, Jerome James and Anthony Roberson through trades, and Stephon Marbury via buyout. Another player, Tim Thomas, was obtained, then traded three months later. Coach Mike D’Antoni said the Knicks were three different teams this season because of the trades and feels it contributed to Duhon’s late-season demise, because the point guard has had to adjust to different rotations.”
Mark Bradley of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “There’s a toughness about the Hawks, a toughness born in that Boston series and cultivated over a season that has exceeded expectation. If they split their final eight games, they’ll finish 47-35. That would constitute a 10-game upgrade without adding a real starter, although the guy starting in Marvin Williams’ stead had a bigger impact Sunday afternoon than the famous Kobe Bryant. Philips Arena was packed for the occasion, with at least a third of the patrons wearing gold and purple. The Lakers drew within a point at the half, whereupon you figured Kobe would do his thing and that’d be that. Instead it was the promoted sub Maurice Evans, known as Mo, who did the Kobe thing. (The MoBe thing?) Evans hit a trey 17 seconds into the third quarter. Then he hit another, and another. (The Hawks made six three-pointers in the period.) In the final 20 seconds, he scored off a dunk spawned by Johnson’s strip of Bryant, and now it was 72-58 and the Lakers were finished. ‘This was definitely important for our confidence,’ Evans said. ‘We’d won seven in a row before we lost, and you don’t want to lose momentum now. There aren’t many games to get it back.’”
Tom Enlund of the Journal Sentinel: “First-year coach Scott Skiles knows the Milwaukee Bucks showed no mental toughness last season when they lost their final eight games and finished with a dismal 26-56 record. He knows the Bucks lost 13 of their last 16 games two seasons ago to finish at 28-54. So considering how quickly the bottom has fallen out of this season, Skiles referred to the past when he was asked whether his players’ mental toughness was being tested. ‘That’s been the reputation of our franchise the past couple years late in the season,’ he said. ‘(The mental toughness) just goes. This is what we will be finding out right now.’ The theme in the Bucks’ locker room has changed from making the playoffs to just winning a single game.”
Ross Siler of The Salt Lake Tribune: “For more than two decades, the Jazz have been tracking deflections as a measure of defensive activity that goes beyond steals, blocks and shooting percentages, posting updated totals for each player in the locker room before every game. ‘Not all of it comes from getting up and getting in a guy’s face and getting a piece of the ball,’ Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said by way of explanation, ‘but a lot of times it does when you’re playing the game. A lot of it’s blocked shots and that sort of thing. You can get a pretty good idea of how you’re playing when you look and see. If we have 40-something deflections in a ballgame, you’re usually right there in the game.’ The Jazz have set a goal of producing 10 deflections a quarter as a team while inspiring some friendly competition among their players. With 10 games left, Ronnie Brewer is poised to end Andrei Kirilenko’s seven-season run as the team’s deflections leader. Yet Brewer has no idea about the most deflections he’s ever had in a game in his career. Neither does Kirilenko, though he holds the team record with 24 deflections in a game, as well as the single-season record with 697 in 2003-04. Such is the elusive nature of the statistic.”
George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press: “Iverson said he was frustrated by people questioning why he had been out so long. ‘You get all the praise in the world for being a warrior … and then when I get an injury that I’ve never had before and an injury that actually bothered me the way it did, people started to question me,’ he said. ‘That was the toughest thing. I had this warrior image my whole career, and then I get one injury where I can’t go — I think it’s more or less people can’t believe it — so they expect me to play the Superman role every time.’ Iverson said no matter what positive things he does, people always will look for the negative with him. ‘If you can come up with a negative story about Allen Iverson, then everyone will want to listen,’ he said. ‘They don’t want to hear nothing positive about me.’”
Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register: “All the talk about home-court advantage over Cleveland is geared toward championships, but Jackson termed it merely a ‘bonus’ to achieve. After all, Jackson, Bryant and the Lakers beat San Antonio in the 2001 Western Conference finals without home-court advantage. They did the same to Sacramento in the 2002 Western Conference finals. Bryant mentioned those results Sunday night when trying to explain why he had little to say about his race with Cleveland beyond: ‘It’s fun. It’s a good challenge for us to continue to push for and see where we end up.’ Bryant believes 2001 and 2002 are applicable reference points to what would happen if the Lakers have to start the NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena, where Cleveland is 35-1. ‘I just feel like we’re a very, good road team,’ he said. Bryant also mentioned Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals, lost in Boston in part because of no home-court advantage. Yet Bryant spun it to say that these Lakers have learned from that game — Bryant called the experience “the worst of the worst” — and were driven to become the outstanding road team they are this season.”
Paul Flannery of WEEI.com: “The coach is encouraged by what he’s seen of Moore and Marbury. ‘Slowly, but it’s coming,’ Rivers said. ‘The only thing I told Steph at halftime is I thought he had open shots and he was thinking pass. Even the one, you remember when he bobbled it out of bounds, that was a layup but you could see him. He was catching the ball to pass. He has great instincts and I thought he did that in the second half. And Mikki’s starting to understand when he’s open, shoot the ball, because he can really shoot the ball. Honestly, I thought he didn’t think he was worthy. It’s an adjustment when you’re on the floor with Paul, Ray (Allen) and Kevin (Garnett). You’re open and you think that there’s no way I should shoot the ball.’ Adjusting to the Celtics way has been tricky for Moore. Not only is he learning to be more aggressive offensively, he’s also learning to adjust to the way the Celtics play defense. It’s a different kind of strategy then most teams play, and after his experiences in Sacramento (not exactly a defense-first team), he’s had to unlearn some bad habits. ‘Letting go,’ Moore said. ‘Knowing that if I leave my man somebody will help me. That’s the biggest thing. When I got here my reaction time was slow. I was worried about leaving my man. Everybody was telling me, your man is not your man anymore.’”
