ESPN NBA

Weird day today. With all the NBA on TV this afternoon, I'm going to spend much of the afternoon watching games and doing a little liveblogging. There are way too many games to follow in any kind of sensible format. My plan is to watch about a million at once and write what I can. Should be nuts. Stop on by.

In the meantime, bullets:

• Magic Johnson is out stumping for Hillary Clinton. Cool. I'm all for involved athletes. But according to this article, the exact point he is making is that experience is what it's all about. Magic Johnson -- who was the NBA Finals MVP and a champion as a rookie -- is living proof that if you're good enough, experience is secondary. Can't they have him talk about savvy management or something?
• Samuel Dalambert shows that not all Canadians know hockey. And for the record, I have no problem with calling the puck the "little ball." The guy pulls it off nicely. And he's huge. You tell him.
• The other day, Laker assistant coach Kurt Rambis told us that the Lakers were worried this season might mirror last season: great first half, then injuries and disappointment. Now Trevor Ariza joins the ranks of the injured.
• The Blazers visit the YMCA in Atlanta where Martin Luther King, Jr. played basketball. UPDATE: ESPN's J.A. Adande was there, and gives us an excellent long-form version, including the wisdom of Jarrett Jack: "'It's an amazing thing that one man helped change so much. Of course, he didn't do it alone, but it was mainly his vision. Giving up his life, which he did, just for us to even have these possibilities is an amazing sacrifice. Most of us probably would have been like, 'Let's just keep it the way it is and ride it on out.' But he was a dude that stood for change, went about it the right way in a peaceful manner, and it's great that they keep him in remembrance."
• Hilarious use of Jerry Stackhouse vs. Shaquille O'Neal imagery to explain how a lot of clients manage designers. (Via Kottke)
• The Warriors owe their recent good fortune to amazing fans, Chris Mullin, Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, Don Nelson, and -- if you believe this account -- the New Orleans Hornets.
• Jermaine O'Neal's contract may be a little extra desirable for one lucky reason: it comes off the books at the same time LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are free agents. And he's presumably available. The Nets, for instance, could consider a Vince Carter-centric package, as part of a scheme to nab a real star at about the time they will be moving to Brooklyn.
• One of my favorite bloggers, C.J. Watson of the Warriors, is said to be at risk of losing his NBA job to Gary Payton.
• Basketbawful on the Blazers: "The Trailblazers' contagious confidence is spreading across the country. I got so high on the Blazers magic sauce that I tried to walk into a Bulls practice in my Kirk Hinrich jersey. I won't bore you with the rest of that story, but let's just say it didn't have a happy ending and leave it at that. In other news, Portland has lost three of five games. Is that the sound of the Blazers' rocketship coming back down to earth?" My response: Keep your pants on. They lost to Toronto in double overtime without their starting point guard. They lost to the Celtics in a close one, in Boston. And they lost to Orlando five games into a seven-game trip. Their rocketship ride has been from the cellar to the kitchen, and they're still in the kitchen, for sure. In fact, if you're hungry, they're serving all afternoon.
• Just about nothing hypnotizes New York. That's not a city that's like "ooh, the Rockettes are in town ... drop everything!" But the Super Bowl is big. Very big. Maybe even big enough that between now and the big game the Knicks could introduce a new coach without getting quite so savaged by the local sports media. With a little recent winning under his belt, the next few days could be the best chance Isiah Thomas will get this season to part ways with the Knicks with some dignity intact.
• Sactown Royalty is running a poll about whether or not the Kings should keep Ron Artest. Most are voting "no" and having watched some Kings games recently, I can absolutely see why. His trademark fiery defense has become intermittent, and on offense he is hell-bent on seeing to it that his team does not get the best available shot.
• Underwhelmed by O.J. Mayo.
• Get your Seattle pride up.
• Michael Grange of the Globe and Mail: "So the difference between hockey and basketball is .... pretty big. In the build-up to the Flyers-Senators game Sunday night the theme of revenge and retribution was standard stuff, given it was the first time the teams had met since Steve Downie tried to decapitate the Senators Dean McAmmond in, you know, an exhibition game. I didn't see any interviews where the players were putting out bounties or anything, but no one was rolling their eyes when reporters asked about it. The game itself, judging from the summary, was fairly routine - a couple of fighting majors, nothing more. But there was a legitimate expectation that a wrong would be righted. That's hockey, right Todd Bertuzzi? Roll back to Friday's Raptors-Hawks game and the difference couldn't be more stark. Not only did you know there was going to be no extra stuff in teams' first meeting since Al Horford nearly decapitated T.J. Ford , you felt like a caveman for even thinking about it. Granted Horford's slap to Ford's head was much easier to write off as an accident or error in judgment than Downie's hit on McAmmond, but it was just kind of interesting that from where I sat no one on the two teams seemed to give it a second thought. Horford laid out Ford with a reckless foul at a pretty meaningless point of the game and Ford has been out going on six weeks and no one so much as gave Horford the cold shoulder. What would Bobby Clark think?"
• Byron Scott might have the inside track on coaching the West All-Stars in front of a home crowd. (Mike D'Antoni is ineligible as he did it last year, Phil Jackson is coaching an injured team, and the Hornets have a favorable schedule.)
• The Wizards easily lead the league in nicknames.
• Gilbert Arenas talks about coming off the bench as a possibility when he returns from injury, possibly in early March.