- Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: "Are you telling me that in today's high-tech world of chemical competition when Rashard Lewis could have easily purchased the Lamborghini of performance-enhancing drugs, he chose a cheap, obsolete 1985 Chevette instead? Sorry, but I don't think so. Lewis, in my opinion, is guilty of stupidity more than chicanery. And, frankly, it's hard to decide which indiscretion is worse. Seriously, why would any multi-millionaire athlete in a multi-billion-dollar league put any supplement into his body that has not been inspected and approved by the army of trainers and medical personnel NBA players have at their disposal? 'I've been taking nutritional supplements and vitamins my entire career,' Lewis said, 'but now I've learned a valuable lesson. Before you put anything into your body, make sure to check with trained experts' That's a very good piece of advice from Lewis. But I have an even better piece of advice for Lewis. If you're an NBA power forward and you're going to get busted for performance-enhancing drugs, you absolutely have to average more than 5.7 rebounds a game."
- Sekou Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "There were at least two premature reports about Marvin Williams, a restricted free agent, agreeing to and signing a new deal with the Hawks. 'It was crazy to look on the Internet and see stuff about me signing with the Hawks or that I was staying with the Hawks,' Williams said Thursday. 'Yet there was never anyone quoted. It was always some anonymous person saying it was done or saying it was going to happen. The truth of the matter is, I still haven't signed, yet.' That's a technicality Williams expects to take care of Friday afternoon now that he has agreed to a five-year, $37.5 million contract with the Hawks, a deal that with incentives could be worth as much as $43 million. The official announcement is expected early next week. ... 'We've all grown together,' Williams said. 'The one thing you hardly ever see in professional sports is that loyalty and teams staying together. When you do see it, like in San Antonio or Detroit when they kept their core guys together, you see championships. I think that's everybody's goal here. We've all started off together young in this league, and if we get a chance to grow old together, I think we can do some pretty special things.' "
- Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal: "Despite losing roughly 72 percent of their games over the past three seasons, the Griz function with a balance sheet that is tolerable. Team officials say the Griz are operating in the black, overcoming average attendance figures in the league's bottom third and skimpy overall local revenue streams over the past few seasons. The Grizzlies decline to reveal the profit margin. About the Grizzlies' fiscal state, a team insider said, 'we're not satisfied, but we're not hurting.' Four words sum up a major why: Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley. Critics argue that the Chicago-based billionaire's insistence on more fiscal responsibility in some areas combined with tightening purse strings in others cost him games. Heisley says that winning is still the goal but keeping a stronger eye on the business of basketball has the Griz afloat in a sinking economy. For that Heisley is unapologetic, especially given several other owners have privately sought his advice. 'We're definitely in the top third of the teams in the league (in terms of the bottom line),' Heisley said. 'It's because we've watched our expenses and we have the support of a good, hard-core group of people. We're going to survive no matter what. But we cannot compete salary-wise with places like Los Angeles and Cleveland. Some of my worst financial losses came during those (playoff) years. You can't sustain that. Now, we can't go on forever having 6,000 people in the stands. All we need is to have reasonable support from the people in Memphis. If we put a winning team on the floor, we'll do very well. But we've got a great arena and we're building a fan base by getting these people interested in these young players.' "
- Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Kurt Rambis seems like a smart guy, and he's been around a lot of championship teams. He'll get a chance to grow with a bad, and perhaps developing, team. He won't have to worry about whether he has the right in-bounds play for the last minute of Game 7 of the conference finals. He also won't have the luxury, at the end of a tight game, of nodding as Phil Jackson enters the huddle and says, 'Get the ball to Kobe and get out of the way.' There were a lot of intriguing, highly-thought-of GM candidates available this summer. The Wolves chose the one, David Kahn, who had been out of the NBA for seven years and never had been a general manager. There were a lot of intriguing, highly-thought-of coaching candidates available this summer, including Sam Mitchell, Jeff Van Gundy and Avery Johnson. The Wolves appear to be close to choosing one who never has been a full-time head coach. Maybe Kahn is a genius and Rambis will overachieve as much on the sideline as he did on the court. 'Maybe' is such a kind word."
- Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune: "Matt Harpring, who has been Carlos Boozer's teammate for the last five seasons, agrees with Mark Eaton. 'It's a matter of professionalism when you are at this level,' Harpring said. 'I've been on a lot of teams where people have said a lot of things in the summer time. But when it comes down to winning games -- once you have your team [together] -- you have to be professional and try to win. 'That's the bottom line in this league -- winning -- and you want to give yourself the best chance of that. You've got to believe, with Carlos or without Carlos, we can still win.' Tom Nissalke, a former NBA Coach of the Year who guided the Jazz for 21/2 seasons, believes Boozer's on-court performance would be the key to his reception by fans and teammates. Referring to the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez and his first game after admitted steroid use, Nissalke said, 'If Boozer comes back, I think the same thing will happen that happened with A-Rod. When he was announced the first time, there was a crescendo of boos. But on the first pitch -- boom -- he hits it over the wall. Those people didn't even get a chance to sit down before he changed their mind.' "
- Tom Knott of The Washington Times: "The wisest NBA players adjust with age. What they no longer can do with their legs, they compensate in part with their gray matter, with what they have gleaned from the game over the years. Allen Iverson is as he ever was, just not as fast and quick. It must grate on him that even the combustible Rasheed Wallace has found a new venue in Boston. Wallace, at his best, was not Iverson's equal. But an NBA team found potential value in Wallace, who never has wanted the responsibility of leading a team. Iverson eventually may land an NBA contract if the money and years are right and his
role ever can be satisfied. Charlotte, anyone? That is the latest home address of Larry Brown, who cultivated as good a relationship as possible with Iverson in Philadelphia. It had its share of spats. It also produced an appearance in the NBA Finals and a hard-earned respect between the two. Iverson, still popular, would put fannies in the seats in a challenging NBA market. He might even adjust to his age. Or not. His continued availability is a testament to the doubts." - Jon Gold of the Los Angeles Daily News: "There have been so many names. Shaquille O'Neal, of course, is a given. But then there's Shaq and Superman and the Big Diesel. Wait, scratch that. Forget the Big Diesel. Shaq has a new name. 'The big ethanol,' O'Neal said, laughing. 'Yeah. The big ethanol.' O'Neal has put his size-23 footprint on the world, and now it seems he's trying to remove it. As part of his whirlwind summer tour that has taken him from Phoenix to Cleveland, from Monday Night Raw to Tuesday night ABC, O'Neal has teamed with GreenHouse, a San Diego- based energy company in the production of The Microfueler, an in-home organic fuel microrefinery. 'I'm an every-day person who's won the athletic lottery three times,' O'Neal said. 'You know when you go to a store and buy a scratcher and all of a sudden you're a millionaire? That's how it happened for me. You see me here, no bodyguards, no entourage. I don't live my life like a celebrity. Luckily for me, I've done things the right way, I've marketed myself the right way and people seem to know who I am. My mother told me when I was young, 'Make them remember your name,' and do it for the right reasons.' "
- Tim MacMahon of The Dallas Morning News: "Mark Cuban certainly isn't the only guy around the NBA who can't stand Don Nelson. Cuban's beef with Nellie has been well chronicled for some time, and we got even more juicy details recently when transcripts from their court battles were released. Ex-Warrior Al Harrington and Nellie won't go to court, but it sounds like there could have been some legal issues if Harrington didn't get out of Golden State when he did. 'I just didn't feel like coach respected me as a man and I just felt like I had to make a move before I did something that I would regret,' Harrington said during an appearance on a Bay Area radio station. 'I was just happy that I was able to get out of that situation.' "
- Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Even if he doesn't retain the starting job at small forward he claimed at the end of last season, James Jones figures to be plenty busy this coming season. In addition to preparing for his second season with the Miami Heat, the seventh-year veteran has joined the negotiating committee that will try to work out a new NBA collective-bargaining agreement, serving as secretary-treasurer with the National Basketball Players' Association. ... 'They held an election, my name came up, and I was voted by my peers,' he said Thursday. 'I looked at it as an opportunity to just do something besides playing basketball. ... I've been a player rep basically my entire career, but on the board, this is my first time.' Already there are concerns about a league shutdown in 2011, similar to the six-month one the league experienced in 1998. Jones said it is too early to be talking about a lockout. 'Right now, we're trying to take the positive side, which is we're going to do everything we can to avoid a 2011 lockout, because no one wants a lockout,' he said. 'Everyone just wants a deal that's fair.' "
- David Aldridge of NBA.com: "The 2009 NBA Most Valuable Player shed light on the doings last month at his LeBron James Skills Academy in Akron, when a camper dunked over James during a pickup game. The dunk was taped by a freelance cameraman, who then had the tape confiscated by a Nike representative. Initial reports implied that it was James who ordered the Nike rep to take the tape, which was ultimately returned to the cameraman after online media outlets found other tapes of the dunk and aired them on the TMZ.com and eBaumNation.com websites. James denied ordering the seizure. 'First of all, I never told anyone to confiscate any tapes,' James said. 'Nike has a no videotaping policy at pickup games. They've always done that. It just so happened that LeBron was involved, so now it's blown up. But it's a play in the game of basketball that happens all the time. You can go on YouTube right now and see me getting dunked on by a lot of guys. I mean, I like to call myself a shotblocker sometimes, and that tends to happen sometimes, when you just don't judge the ball right.' "
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