- Highlights of a recent ALBA Berlin vs. Lottomatica Roma game. Most NBA fans are thinking: Who cares? But I'll tell you something: The Rome team in red includes future lottery pick Brandon Jennings (#11), recent NBA starting center Primoz Brezec (#12), former Celtic Allan Ray (#15), and personal favorite Penn grad Ibrahim Jaaber (#21). The victorious Germans feature #4 Casey Jacobsen. Not to mention: Just watch. It's great basketball. It lacks some of the size and skills of the NBA game, but it's amped up and exciting like college. I bet a lot of fans could fall in love with this style of play.
- Highlights of Josh Childress earning his Big Fat Greek Paycheck. (Via Ball in Europe, where I learned that European fantasy basketball apparently has a unique ranking system.)
- Writing for PopMatters Craig Fehrman notes that there are a lot of books about LeBron James, but none of them really dish much dirt. "Sports memoirs," he writes, "should self-mythologize. They should reveal what was expected, what was sacrificed, what was felt. Beat books, in contrast, should self-destruct. They should show what was censored by the athletes and in the game recaps. In short, sports memoirs and beat books appeal to different sensibilities. One is "Live Earth," the other "Behind the Music"-in both cases we get musicians, sometimes even the same musicians, but we expect and appreciate very different things."
- Britt Robson of The Rake on Kevin Love: "Kevin Love was 1-10 FG tonight. Witt correctly noted that many of the misses were highly makeable buckets that Love usually converts in his sleep--he had a big off-night. The numbers during this preseason likewise say that Corey Brewer's 1-7 FG was an aberration. But I think Love is a 20-year old rookie who stands 6-8 and is warring in the NBA paint for the first time in his life. If he distinguishes himself appreciably more than the past three first-rounders--McCants, Foye and Brewer--during their respective rookie years, I will be pleasantly surprised."
- Nike commercials: The Charles Barkley Show. Love the "bigger schnoz" line from Humpty Hump.
- An opposing scout tells Sports Illustrated about Greg Oden: "It's hard to go crazy over Greg Oden coming off his knee surgery before he's played a real NBA game. He's going to be a very good player, no doubt. But a superstar? I'm just not ready to go that far yet. He has great size and hands, he's good around the basket, he can finish, he's decent at the line and he's a good paint rebounder, though he's not really good moving around to get extended rebounds. But I don't know how smart he is on the court, and I can see him getting into foul trouble."
- ESPN's David Thorpe on Oden: "Oden has played just OK in the preseason, which is to be expected due to his long layoff and the type of knee surgery he's coming back from. But if the NBA's Most Improved Player award was based on in-season play as opposed to play from one season to the next, I think Oden would be the favorite. When his mind and body catch up to the speed of the game, he should be a monster every night out."
- Basketbawful explains the pickup phenomenon of the "karma call": "Someone on my team seemingly knocked the ball out of bounds. However, he called a foul, claiming his defender had whacked his hand. Now, that's where things should have ended, because -- in a perfect pickup world -- people are supposed to respect the call that was made. But the other team didn't respect it, not one bit, and the guy I was matched up against said, 'Oh yeah? We got next call.' About three or four possessions later, somebody partially deflected a pass to me and I had to battle for possession with a couple opposing players before finally gaining control of the ball. My guy immediately called traveling on me and made a determined beeline to the other end of the court. It was obviously a bogus call, but he wouldn't back down. I walked up to him and said, 'You know that was a crap call, right?' He just said, 'You guys got your call. That's ours.'"
- The Sun-Sentinel's Ira Winderman: "The Heat ran a few sets for Shawn Marion at the start of the second half, with mixed results. A case of showcasing?"
- Nene.
- Lindsey Hunter still needs an NBA home.
- The Painted Area is looking at over/under lines, and making eight picks for the season. Just for fun, I made eight picks too: The Celtics over 54.5 wins. The Pistons over 50.5 wins. The Sixers under 48.5 wins. Miami under 37.5 wins. The Lakers over 54.5 wins. The Hornets over 51.5 wins. The Warriors under 37.5 wins. The Timberwolves under 32.5 wins.
- Mike James interviews Mike James.
- Mark Cuban says entrepreneurial spirit will save this country.
- Any time all of your teammates are talking about your sweater, it can not be good. The Blazers have all been talking about Rudy Fernandez's sweater.
- Matt from Hardwood Paroxysm on the Spurs' signing of Roger Mason, Jr.: "Hmm... a few years in the league. Old enough to be a veteran but young enough to not be decrepit. Shot 40% from the arc last year. Wow, I wonder what the Spurs will do with a guy like that. Boy I just don't know... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is vintage Pop-Buford. Snag a guy who's drifting, no flash, no sexiness, and plug him into the system. I'm horrified. This guy scored 9 points on the freaking Wizards last year. Just keep an eye on him."
- This Gilbert Arenas sneaker movie strikes me as WAY scripted and fake. But I totally love it.
- ShamSports on Scott Skiles: "I've watched all bar about seven games of Scott Skiles's tenure, and while I used to defend him vigorously, those days have passed once his flaws became more evident. I've witnessed Kirk Hinrich become temporarily brilliant, and yet I've witnessed T
yson Chandler emerge into an elite rebounder and useful offensive presence ... for someone else. I've seen Chris Duhon play 8000 minutes, and yet I've seen Thabo Sefolosha become damaged irrepairably. I've seen a Bulls roster overhauled, gain an identity, assume a certain style of play, overachieve, tune out their coach, and fall apart. And it's affected my bias somewhat. I refuse to apologise for this. Scott Skiles is a coach, whose CV screams 'short term improvements'. He has been united with a previously mismanaged team, now primarily focused on finding 'short term improvements'. That team's weaknesses fit in perfectly with Skiles's strengths. And yet, I'm not convinced. Because I've been there." - Paul Shirley is podcasting. He has some very high praise for British Airways, some not-so-nice things to say about Aeroflot. (It's a little PG-13.)
- David Stern makes noises about having talked to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about having a team in Seattle.
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