- Lang Whitaker suggests that being big on blogs might be bigger than being big in magazines. His example: "I’m wondering how much of Gilbert’s forthcoming All-Star appearance is directly related to the blog explosion and Gilbert’s starring role within the blogosphere. We put Gilbert on a SLAM cover six months ago and it didn’t make much of a splash. Now, just over 100 days later, Gilbert’s voted a starter on the NBA All-Star Team? The general public has taken note of Gilbert, fast, and I’m not sure that would’ve happened six months back. Heck, a year ago the coaches didn’t even put him on the team."
- This is a couple of days old, but John Hollinger runs the numbers (Insider) on whether or not it is worth tanking games to get a better lottery pick. As a Blazer fan, I think about this all the time. To me, the reason not to is this: winning and losing are both habits, like getting up early in the morning or eating healthy food. I'd like the players on my team to get in that habit. To feel like if they're down twelve with six minutes left, it's time to play harder, not softer. We're on a long-term mission to build a winning culture. Winning helps that more than anything. And Hollinger makes another great point--the whole thing is a freaking crap shoot anyway: "Even if a team wins the sweepstakes for a no-brainer superstar, as Cleveland did with LeBron James, it might not get the best player in the draft -- as Miami fans certainly would argue for that draft, in which Dwyane Wade was the fifth pick. Allen Iverson turned out great in 1996, but was he that much better than No. 5 pick Ray Allen? Same goes for Danny Manning and Mitch Richmond in 1988, or David Robinson and Scottie Pippen in 1987. And sometimes the consensus No. 1 flops -- as top pick Michael Olowokandi did in 1998. The fifth pick that year? Vince Carter. Or how about when Joe Smith was the first pick in 1995? The fifth pick that time was a high schooler named Kevin Garnett. That's not to say you'd rather pick fifth, mind you ... there are some years when you'll end up with Nikoloz Tskitishvili instead of Yao Ming, for instance."
- Wages of Wins has a seperate analysis of tanking to win the lottery.
- 37 and 23 for Kevin Durant. Maybe it's worth tanking a couple games.
- Here's my latest thinking on the MVP race: it's Dirk Nowitzki's to lose. The only way he should lose it if either Phoenix, Miami, zLakers, Cleveland (or, I guess, being charitable, Washington) is positioned as a major title threat at voting time. Those teams each rely heavily on their star perimeter players, any one of whom would have to be a major MVP candidate in the event their team is acheiving greatness. If Steve Nash hadn't just won two of the things, I imagine my thinking would be entirely different, and I'd be arguing for him.
- A big ol' NPR look at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's book.
- 7-9 Sun Ming Ming in the ABA.
- The Sports Law Blog on the O.J. Mayo debacle. New York Times too.
- Coming back from major surgery, Tony Allen is drawing inspiration from great gimps of the past. Steve Bulpett reports: “Leon (Powe) is a big motivator for me,” Allen said of his teammate who had two ACL reconstructions. “I look around the league, too, and I see the big guy from Denver, Nene. I saw him take off the other day and hit a big jam. The dude from Philly, (Willie) Green, I saw him take off the other day and hit a big jam. So I’m basically just staying in tune with (trainer) Ed Lacerte. Once I get healthy enough to get with Bryan Doo and Walter Norton, the strength and conditioning guys, I think I’ll be great.”
- This summer, I might see if I can go the entire season in t-shirts from basketball blogs.
- How's Bobby Jackson's blog going?
- That Leandro Barbosa, you know, he's pretty fast.
- Ira Winderman on Eddie Jones in Miami: "Should Jones show anything, it could open the door for a trade of James Posey, who holds an expiring contract and likely would not be coming back, anyway, after the recent body-fat fiasco."
- NuggetsNoise with the best Blazer insult ever: "Rookie standout Brandon Roy lit up J.R. Smith for 25 points and eight assists. One-time Denver draftee Jarrett Jack badly outplayed Steve Blake with 14 points and eight assists. Rookie big man LaMarcus Aldridge played one of his better games with 11 points and six assists.The Nuggets were out-shot, out-rebounded and were simply outplayed by a poor team."
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