Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com: “On a rainy morning in a working class neighborhood, an NBA player continued what can only be called a revolution. New York Knicks forward Al Harrington and Golden State’s Stephen Jackson are promoting an affordable shoe line they started called Protégé. This day, Harrington arrives at a Kmart, where the NBA has turned a parking lot into a glamorous outdoor arena. The rain beats down steadily, but a line forms 50-60 deep as fans, mostly without raingear or umbrellas, wait for Harrington to arrive. He does 20 minutes early in a white Escalade ESV, steps out, waves and then dances for several seconds. He gets a big cheer. A DJ with two turntables blasts old-school rap while cheeky and bouncing kids shoot jumpers on three sets of baskets. Harrington works his 6-9 frame up onto a stage and begins to take pictures with fans. Each person gets a handshake and sincere smile before the camera snaps. The rain drones on, and the line grows longer. ‘You’re doing a great thing for all of us,’ one woman says. ‘Thank you,’ Harrington politely replies. A girl on crutches with her left foot in a cast waits dutifully. Parents wait as well. The crowd is composed of all ethnicities and age ranges, and they each seem to understand what Harrington is trying to accomplish. He’s making low-cost shoes specifically for people like them at a time they need them most.”
Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal: “Rudy Gay wants to be an NBA All-Star.That’s nothing new. He said the same thing last year. The difference now for the Grizzlies’ 6-8 forward could be the strength behind his words. Gay carries, by his estimation, about 15 pounds of added muscle. He’ll tell you his level of focus is immeasurable behind a strong showing during USA Basketball’s July minicamp. His desire to elevate the Grizzlies is off the charts with training camp less than a month away and three consecutive losing seasons in the rearview mirror. ‘I want to be an All-Star. Everything I do now is trying to help me get to that point,’ Gay said. ‘If I’m at the top of my game and recognized as an All-Star, it’ll mean we’re winning.’ Having won over Griz brass with his offseason work ethic and maturation, Gay aims to carry that momentum into his fourth season. He’s spent most of the summer in Memphis building up his body with the help of Griz strength and conditioning coach Jason Biles. Gay will play at more than 240 pounds this season.”
Sekou Smith of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Whoever thought that late August and early September would be a quiet time for the Hawks didn’t count on Twitter changing the game. Hawks captain and All-Star Joe johnson, known around the NBA as one of the league’s more subdued stars, has suddenly taken the gloves off on his Twitter page. He hasn’t mentioned anything about that extension the Hawks offered and whether or not he’ll be agreeing to sign on for another four years after this one, the final year of a five-year, $70 million deal. But he’s sharing plenty of other things with anyone interested in following him. In fact, he’s sharing more than I can remember him giving up at anytime before now (and he might be sharing a bit too much for some of our more sheltered members, so be warned). I’m still scratching my head over this one, what with all the work it takes some days to get JJ to open up. Maybe he’s shedding that hard shell of his and taking some steps in the direction of being a more vocal and engaged leader, which I’d argue is a blessing in disguise of peculiar Tweets (or whatever I should call them) from a usually reserved man – he went almost two months, from late June to late August, without a single update.”
Alex Pham of the Los Angeles Times: “For most of his career in the NBA, there have been two Kobe Bryants, each evolving in mirror universes. One is a 6-foot-6 Los Angeles Lakers guard who grew up playing Double Dribble, a video game released in the 1980s, with his cousins during summer visits to his grandmother’s house. The other is also a basketball player, albeit a digital one created 10 years ago by Visual Concepts, a video game developer in Novato, Calif. If the real Kobe built up his shoulders, so would the virtual Kobe. When he became leaner and faster, his digital doppelganger also became sleeker and more fleet-footed. And if Kobe grew more hair, digital Kobe would also have longer hair. This year, the virtual player will acquire another trait when NBA 2K10 comes out Oct. 6: He will sometimes jut out his chin in the heat of competition, just like the real Kobe. The game’s developer, now owned by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., has added facial animations to its franchise, which over the years has become the bestselling basketball simulation video game on the market. Much of the franchise’s success is due to the studio’s near-fanatical devotion to replicating the details of the actual sport in the video games.”
The Oklahoman: “Big-name free-agent signings and blockbuster trades annually get fans charged for the season during these dog days. Help facilitate a faster turnabout, too. But the Thunder has held firm in its slow-and-steady approach. And although it’s been painfully peaceful around these parts, the Thunder is making strides to come back a better bunch through a behind-the-scenes process playing out in every corner of the country. It’s called player development. Thunder coach Scott Brooks assembled an off-season plan for each of his players back on April 16, the day after the season finale. Some instructions were player-specific. Some contained general developmental concepts. For the better part of the past four months, Brooks and his assistants have traveled far and wide to meet with returning players for workouts and one-on-one attention geared toward maximum improvement. ‘We’ve basically touched every player somewhere, either in their hometowns or they came back here or we met them in summer league,’ Brooks said. ‘Our players are committed to getting better, and I think they’ve executed it.’”
Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “David Kahn has remade the coaching staff and appears on the verge of cleaning house in the front office. He signed head coach Kurt Rambis to a four-year contract earlier this month in a move Kahn called the most important he’ll probably ever make as president of basketball operations, and the Wolves will announce an eclectic coaching staff that includes Dave Wohl, Reggie Theus and Bill Laimbeer. But if Kahn returns home with Rubio signed, it will be the most telling example of his expansive thinking yet. Any deal likely will include not only the $500,000 the Wolves can pay but also a tapestry of other creative financing expected to include endorsement deals for Rubio (most of the buyout money technically will come from his own pocket) and the promise of a Timberwolves exhibition game or games against Joventut in Spain (Oct. 10, 2010, already is a targeted date). It also could include such ‘out of the box’ thinking as this: On draft night, Kahn used a second-round pick to select Henk Norel, a European prospect whose selection had at least one ESPN draft analyst puzzled. Norel also plays for DKV Joventut. Might Kahn offer Rubio’s Spanish team $500,000 to buy out Norel’s contract, too, invite him to training camp and thus, in essence, fund $1 million of the buyout that way?”
Vincent M. Mallozzi of The New York Times: “In an effort to fill seats during difficult economic times, many N.B.A. teams are hoping to lure new fans with incentives. Perhaps no other team has enhanced its marketing game the way the Nets have. They are offering ticket buyers free jerseys, complete with the names of their favorite players — and their favorite opponents. The Nets are promoting a 10-game plan that includes tickets to see the Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic. Any fan who buys at least two tickets for the 10-game plan (mininum 20 tickets) will receive a reversible jersey from each of the five marquee games, one side featuring the name of a Nets star, like guard Devin Harris, and the other featuring the name of a marquee opponent: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce or Ray Allen. ‘I don’t think it has ever been done before,’ said Chris Granger, the N.B.A.’s senior vice president for team marketing and business operations. ‘I don’t think any team has ever given premium items as part of a promotion that highlights someone from another team.’”
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: “Don’t be stunned. It’s nothing new. It’s one of the most consistent things in the NBA, really. Stephen Jackson wants out, satisfying the tenets of Cohan’s Law: If the Warriors can screw something up, they will. Of course, if the Warriors had a different owner, a different team president, a different general manager, a different coach, and a different roster … everything would be great! Until then, this latest Jackson episode is only the latest instance of typical Warriors foppery. What’s special: This is a nightmare identifiable to team president Robert Rowell, who befriended Jackson and then personally negotiated an unnecessary three-year extension for the aging player last year. Contrary to the better logic of the rest of the league, owner Chris Cohan and Rowell believed Jackson would be their ambassador and team leader for the long term. Now Jackson is telling them — via an unrefuted interview with Dime magazine — that he doesn’t want to waste his time on a team as bad as the Warriors. It’s not a betrayal so much as it’s a wink at the Warriors’ flagrant idiocy.”
