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• I, too, find myself wondering just a little if what's happening with the Lakers is part of some diabolically clever Phil Jackson plan that will be unveiled ... sometime soon. Here's one such tongue-in-cheek theory.
• Friendships that are a little tricky just now: George Karl and Gregg Popovich, Tony Parker and Yakhouba Diawara, Marcus Camby and Francisco Elson, Eduardo Najera and Michael Finley.
• Scot Pollard tells the Washington Post's Michael Lee about being there for Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who is still bouncing back from the tragedy of stillborn twins: "'At our age, with as much money as he's made in his career, a tragedy like that can make you question if you want to continue playing,' Pollard said. 'When I was a kid, my dad died when I was 16 and I thought about not playing. Turns out it was the best thing for me [to keep playing]. This keeps his mind on basketball, the happy things in life.'"
• I get the feeling that Raptor writers aren't totally sold on Sam Mitchell as the best coach in the league. For instance, note the phrase "strategic obviousness" in Dave Feschuk's Toronto Star article: "Instead of doing what he does best - creating for others - Calderon played into the hands of the defence and took nearly half the Raptor shots in the fourth quarter's first eight minutes. He made two of six. So when Andrea Bargnani, the struggling rookie, tossed up an ill-advised jumper in the throes of the chaos - squandering yet another late-game possession in which Chris Bosh, the Raptors all-star, never touched the ball - Calderon should have been the hand of reason. Instead, he followed up the illogical act with a trio of no-flow jump shots that missed. Thankfully for Raptor fans, Sam Mitchell, the Raptors coach who'd been handed the Red Auerbach Trophy as NBA coach of the year before the game, only stood idly by until the game was nearly lost, the Raptors down four points with 3:37 left. It was at that moment that strategic obviousness prevailed and T.J. Ford, the starting point guard, replaced Calderon."
• RaptorBlog on Sam Mitchell's qualities: "He has mastered the art of being a hardass without wearing out his welcome. Don't kid yourself -- that's harder than it seems."
• The tattoo that saved Matt Barnes' career.
• If Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant are both out of the playoffs shortly, that may be bad for short-term TV ratings. But I have a feeling it may be great in the long run -- forcing casual fans to catch on to some more modern storylines.
• Andrei Kirilenko's wife Masha is talking to journalists, and Brad Rock of the Deseret News is impressed: "She said Kirilenko doesn't want to demand things, he just 'doesn't want to look bad and have a big contract and not play.' It was then I decided this was not your typical play-me-or-trade-me NBA story. It was a story of an honestly nice couple in a business that is largely unforgiving. If she wanted, she could always play the diva wife, living in another city during the season or complaining that she isn't in Paris or New York. But she has gone on record saying she likes her two kids being raised in Salt Lake. Her commitment seems real. She just opened a clothing store at The Gateway that caters to upscale, urban buyers. Instead of berating Sloan or owner Larry H. Miller, she said almost apologetically that she just wants to figure out her husband's problem. She worries about him the way everyone should worry about his or her spouse. She wants to know he's all right."
• Boston's Tony Allen is cleared of criminal wrongdoing in that shooting from the summer of 2005, but he may still face a civil case.
• The talent search in Memphis is reported to include an interview with Larry Brown, and another with Kiki Vandeweghe. Ronald Tillery reports in the Memphis Commercial Appeal that Jerry West is said to favor Sun executive David Griffin as the next GM, and Sun assistant Marc Iavaroni as the next coach.
• I made a note yesterday about Greg Oden and Mike Conley allegedly hoping to play together in the NBA. ESPN's John Hollinger (who just published an interesting Insider article saying, essentially, that numbers show Denver and Golden State could win) points out it could happen without a trade: "If Atlanta gets the top pick and Indiana doesn't finish in the top 3, then the Hawks will pick 1st and 11th. They'd definitely take Oden No. 1, and if Conley stayed on the board that long they'd definitely grab him at No. 11."
• Where are Raptor fans? Online, and ready to attack. Raptors.com is the second most popular NBA team website, and when Bill Simmons wrote that the Raptors weren't great some time ago, he felt the heat from the Northern border.
• Yesterday I linked to Sactown Royalty's claim that Kevin Martin was, based on numbers, better than Richard Hamilton. After taking us on a tour of objective vs. subjective, with detours into Nazi Germany and eugenics, Michael Bloom disputes the case this way: "Bill Walton once said -- and I never thought I'd be quoting Bill Walton -- that when a good team finally comes of age, individual stats take a hit. And that makes some sense. The best teams are composed of unselfish players that don't play for individual stats but for team wins. And team wins don't necessarily correlate with individual stats. I would argue that Richard Hamilton has done his part to contribute to team success exceedingly well this past year -- in a way that Kevin Martin might have if he were surrounded by the kind of players that surround Rip. But Martin wasn't surrounded with that kind of team, and so his contribution has less traction. So, Kevin Martin's stats may have been better than Richard Hamilton's. I don't know. I didn't bother looking them up. But Richard Hamilton had a better season. For the simple fact that Richard Hamilton is still playing well, whereas Kevin Martin isn't playing at all." Of course it's not that simple -- Mengke Bateer has more rings than Karl Malone -- but Bloom isn't totally wrong, either.
• Dave D'Alessandro of the Newark Star-Ledger on Anthony Parker: "Anthony Parker is a terrific all-around player and a class act. As you know, he was away for seven years, playing mostly in Israel, where he was widely regarded as one of the best players on the continent. It almost seems like a waste that this guy -- not only a lights-out shooter, but a terrific defender and a natural leader -- didn't get back to the league until he was 31. But that's absurdly short-sighted, yo
  u find out: He wouldn't trade those five years at Maccabi Tel Aviv for anything (a voracious Bible reader, he'll go on for hours about the Sea of Galilee, the Wailing Wall, Jerusalem), loves the Israeli people, and probably wouldn't have become one of the Raptors' most important players without the experience."
• Video of Caron Butler and his straw-chewing problem.
• Jermaine O'Neal on his future: no comment.
• Mike Wise of the Washington Post on worries about keeping LeBron James in Cleveland and Gilbert Arenas in Washington. Arenas, for his part, is making noises about wanting a nicer locker room.
• Ideas about who might replace Eric Musselman in Sacramento.
• More from Alternadad Neal Pollack's conversations with his toddler son:
  

"You know what I call the Lakers?"
"What?"
"The Evil Donkeys."
"That's a good name."
"The Suns are going to defeat those Evil Donkeys tonight."

• UPDATE: Pressing needs for the Pistons: figure out how to get Rip Hamilton, Chris Webber, and Jason Maxiell to shower after shootaround. They also are trying to reach Chris Webber how to whisper so everybody else can't hear. Lindsey Hunter and Rasheed Wallace are on the case, on camera.