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On Deadspin, Anthony Tao has had a front row seat (PG-13 for language) for the Chinese debut of Stephon Marbury. It's an amazing tale of globalization -- an NBA star, of sorts, has come to a bleak, polluted urban Chinese landscape. What's even more amazing is that, again, thanks to globalization and the efforts of Tao, it's easier to have a sense of what Marbury is like when he's in Taiyuan than it was when he was in New York.

The article is a must-read. Here's a moment from Marbury's first game:

Fans begin to toss objects onto the court. A few minutes later, they make it rain, hurling anything close at hand that's replaceable or inexpensive. The floor is soon peppered with lighters. The PA announcer — a guy who has alternatively started "Fenjiu team, jiayou! (add fuel)" chants and asked fans to "please sit down, please sit down, there're lots of people today, please sit down" — futilely tries to maintain order. Marbury saunters about, not quite sure what to do. He pats the air with his hand as if to say, Calm down, but for the first time tonight fans are not under his spell. They chant, Heishao, heishao! — "black whistle," a reference to the mafia — and while point-shaving and match-fixing is not uncommon in Chinese sports, the chant itself is banal.

If this happened in the U.S. it would lead off 80 ESPNews segments and make a magazine cover. Here it is just another day at the old ballgame. Either Marbury realizes this or he appreciates, for the first time, what it means to be in China, because he smirks, just a little.

The game resumes, and with five seconds to go and Shanxi down by one the ball is inbounded to Marbury. When he drives right the defense collapses on him, so he zips a pass to Maurice Taylor at the top of the arc, whose buzzer-beating three-pointer is just short.

Fans are too shocked to react. The Dongguan team celebrates on the court. Marbury kicks a water bottle as he leaves the floor, grabs his stuff from the locker room, blows off a small group of fans and journalists, and bee-lines it with his assistant into the night.

You can now see all of Marbury's first game online. You can also see statistics from his second game, when he had 15 points and 15 assists in a loss to an elite team.

A decade ago, the Nets were sad, divided and disappointed.

They had an alpha-dog point guard who had arrived from a better team, ready to show what he could really do. They had a coach who was really smart and friendly but maybe a tad too soft-spoken and thoughtful to take command of the situation. They had a big man, drafted high, who went long periods without touching the ball.

Which is all true today.

Back then, the leading characters were Stephon Marbury, Don Casey and Keith Van Horn.

Now it's Devin Harris, Kiki Vandeweghe and your choice of Brook Lopez or Yi Jianlian.

I hear you Devin Harris fans. You're saying: How dare you compare this talented young player to the icon of self-centered gunners?

By now it's well accepted that Marbury was more or less a bust just about everywhere he went -- the kind of super-talent who could always get his but never cared much about the rest of his team, and as a result did a heck of a lot of losing.

Harris is a long way from that. But maybe not as far as you might think.

Did you notice that the Nets had their best game of the season on Wednesday, when Harris sat out with a sprained wrist?

That got me thinking more about the idea that Harris might have a little Marbury in him, exactly a decade later. Some things I have learned:

• The Nets have been shockingly bad when Harris is on the court. When Harris plays, the team scores about 100 points per 100 possessions, and gives up more than 116 -- a devastating number. When his replacement Keyon Dooling is in, according to basketballvalue.com, the numbers are dramatically better: The Nets score about two fewer points per 100 possessions, but instead of giving up 116, they give up just 101. 15 points better on defense! Wow. (There are lots of reasons to take this analysis with a grain of salt. Harris generally plays with and against starters, while Dooling plays with and against backups. However, adjusted plus/minus, which attempts to account for those differences, ranks Harris as percentage points from being this season's worst Net.)
• Dooling ran the show last night, and keyed the win. In the game-deciding fourth quarter run, Dooling had two buckets, two assists and a steal. He made all five of his shots in the fourth quarter. Notable was that not only did Dooling play well, but he also got several Nets in the mix. Terrence Williams, Brook Lopez, Kris Humphries, Chris Douglas-Roberts ... there have not been a lot of Harris-led games with so many Nets shining.
• You who say Harris is not nearly as selfish as Marbury, let's compare. A decade ago, yes Marbury used more possessions than Harris does now: 28.2% compared to 24.9 for Harris. And Marbury shot more about 20% more per minute. But he also shot more accurately (53% true shooting percentage compared to 49%), and most importantly passed the ball far more. Marbury had an assist rate of .39, while Harris is just .32. Harris is 14th in usage rate among point guards, but his assist rate is way down the list at 39th. What's more, Harris has a PER of 14.9 this year, while Marbury was at 20.7 a decade ago. Also worth noting: Harris is 26. Marbury, then, was just 22.

You could keep going on with the comparisons between the teams. Harris had played with an MVP big man in Dirk Nowitzki before coming to the Nets. Marbury had played with Kevin Garnett. Kerry Kittles -- an athletic "D and 3s" guy is not dissimilar from Courtney Lee.

And there's one last similarity. Today's Nets are essentially praying for a savior from out of town who will show up, change the culture, and lead them to the Finals immediately. LeBron James, perhaps. It might seem like a crazy gambit. But stranger things have happened. Jason Kidd arrived in the summer of 2001, and that very next year those same players who had been so miserable for so long were in the Finals.

I'm always skittish about calling attention to an episode like Brendan Haywood's appearance on Hardcore Sports Radio, in which he implied, rather explicitly, that the spiraling Stephon Marbury is gay:

• On a given day -- even in the offseason -- there's so much insightful stuff out there to aggregate, highlight, and discuss. Why offer a platform to ill-informed commentary that does little, if anything, to advance the conversation?
• Stephon Marbury is over-exposed, and the rubbernecking is becoming unseemly.
• On a personal level, I have a steadfast desire to never become the designated "gay NBA blogger" who functions as a quasi-watchdog on this issue. Tribal and identity politics bore the hell out of me and, sadly, I'm always underwhelmed by the contributions of those who enter a cultural conversation with a grievance as their primary motivation. I'm in this business because I love the pro game. Some of my happiest moments come when I'm analyzing the on-court choreography of these incredibly talented athletes. I recognize that the socio-political features of the NBA can't be ignored, and often provide us a chance to discuss larger issues and we'd be remiss to pass up those opportunities. That being the case, I'll enter the fray when I think there's something valuable to add to the conversation that isn't being discussed.

Fortunately, there are enough eloquent voices making sense of this issue. To wit, if this interests you in the least, please read Kelly Dwyer's piece over at Ball Don't Lie. Dwyer first highlights Haywood's comments, which sadly, to fully understand the fracas, need to be processed:

"At first it was cool, but after a while it just became disturbing. He's on YouTube crying with no shirt on for no reason, sweating while his boy's rubbing his shoulders. What's that about? That's like gay porn. I don't understand it. He's dancing to a song called 'Barbie Doll', doing like stripper moves. I have no idea what's going on with the guy, it's almost like he's trying to end his own career. There's not a GM out there that would touch Marbury right now.

Have you seen the 'Barbie Doll' clip? Click on YouTube and go to Barbie Doll. There's no way any other professional athletes would wanna get dressed around this guy, because you gotta think something is a little, he's swinging from both sides of the fence."

Dwyer then goes to work:

... Haywood is freaked out. And because he's never had to think about this sort of thing, weird = gay. Different = gay. Shirtless = gay. Stephon = gay.

And it's pathetic. It's as sad and pointless as Marbury's ego-driven trip down Dementia Ave.

Brendan, guess what? You've likely had a gay teammate, at some level, dressing around you since you started playing basketball. More than likely. Even more assured is the absolute fact that you've had a gay member of the media in the locker room after the game while you dress.

And somehow - and I know this is shocking, but just try to hang with me here - they've managed to not jump your bones as you walk around in a towel, or less...

Somehow they've managed not to hit on you. Somehow they've managed to act ... well, like you would in a situation like that. You think a gay man dressing near you is some sort of threat? Why? Do you flip out and start dry humping women at the beach when they pass by you in string bikinis? Do you think that typical levels of restraint and tact and human dignity fly out the window just because a person's orientation is different than yours?

This is basic, almost numbing, stupid stuff. This is stuff I shouldn't have to type out in 2009, because it's so obvious. So plain. So ridiculously simple...

We can cheerfully think of a downright nauseating phrase like "no homo" as some sort of progress. Progress for troglodytes that we still keep needlessly making excuses for, perhaps, but hardly progress of any sort.

And we're still chuckling off Haywood's comments as a "boys will be boys" thing. Totally, bro.

The problem isn't that boys shouldn't be like that. Boys, in 2009, should be smart enough to know better. Boys, in 2009, should have people in their ear; not telling them what is politically correct enough for public consumption, but informing them. Educating them. Telling them that it's quite possible for an initial and incorrect assumption likely fostered sometime around the week when Haywood first developed underarm hair might not be the case, in reality. Telling them, bro, it's not like that. It really isn't.

I'm one of those gay members of the media Dwyer's referring to.

Over the past season, I've overheard a talented second-year player in a locker room, overwhelmed with amusement that cigarettes are referred to as fags in many Angolphonic countries, go on a Rain Man-ish recitation of the word.

"Fag, fag, fag, *laughter*, fag, fag, fag. *more laughter*"

What followed was a longer conversation -- one that included a superstar widely regarded as one of the NBA's most enlightened players -- ridiculing gay men and discussing how to avoid them ("stay away from San Francisco!"). All the while I waited five feet away for an interview.

It may come as a surprise, but I don't take a lot of umbrage at these incidents. It's par for the course. These are young guys who, by virtue of their preternatural talents, have existed in a bubble for the majority of their lives. Does that make their behavior acceptable? Of course not. Do I feel guilty for not being more offended? You have no idea. How do I attenuate that guilt? By hoping that, over time, my presence in those locker rooms and the work that comes out of it will do much more to educate these men than a public scolding would. Is that naive? Perhaps.

To this end, I invite Brendan Haywood, savvy, ambitious, cutting-edge media voice that he is, to join TrueHoop in a thoughtful discussion of these issues.

UPDATE: A nominal apology from Haywood on his blog.

Posted by Kevin Arnovitz

• As of right now, the small-market Jazz are carrying at least $94 million (maybe more) in salaries and potential luxury tax payments into next season. Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune asks, "Nobody from the organization has portrayed it as such, but doesn't spending $28 million more this season than last season constitute a crisis?"
• Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes that Sportando.net, a Spanish site, is reporting that Cavs' first-rounder Christian Eyenga has signed a deal to play for Ricky Rubio's (once and former?) team, DKV Joventut. 
• Blazers Edge tackles fatalism and the sports fan when an e-mailer asks, "If you knew the Blazers weren't going to win a championship in the next ten years would you stop watching or like them less?" Blazers Edge then answers Nate McMillan's question about whether former players make better coaches. 
• Miami re-signed center Jamaal Magloire on Wednesday. Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel on the Heat's current 13-man roster: "The rotation order at power forward will be decided during camp. But for such a center-centric roster, it sure seems a bit limited at small forward and point guard."
• Zach Harper tells you why you're wrong about Greg Oden: "Greg Oden is a beast of a man, ready to unleash hell on the rest of the NBA. He's a rebounding vacuum. He's a shot-blocking, missile defense system that the Pentagon would be envious of ... He's a decent enough free throw shooter and he moves as smartly without the ball as any young center in the NBA. Greg Oden is not only a good player; he's a sure-fire perennial All-Star who will help his team win a couple of titles. He's a Defensive Player of the Year a couple times over."
• Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer to Bobcat fans: "Sean May never gave up on you. You gave up on him. I have this contrarian hunch his second act might make you wish you'd been more patient."
• Brian Robb of Celtics Hub explores whether Stephon Marbury is worth bringing back to the Celtics. 
  
• Bust-a-Bucket's diagram of NBA off-season moves is a thing of beauty. If the diagram were a route map, the Pistons would be Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the busiest hub in the world.  
• At Dime, Ben York makes a strong case for the WNBA.
  
• Go ahead and add Derek Fisher to the pro-Odom lobby in Los Angeles. 
• I could watch old NBA on CBS intros from the 1980s with Brent Musburger all day. Just one question: Did the network really join Game 1 of the 1983 Finals already in progress?

Can the Lakers do what the Blazers couldn't? Will Jason Kidd turn around his erratic Game 1 performance? What would the NBA look like without guaranteed contracts? Is Ben Gordon a temptation worth passing up? 

Kurt Helin of Forum Blue & Gold: "The Rockets offense is about Yao Ming -- it is where their plays start, where they will need to get the majority of their offense ... The Lakers cannot just do one thing all series long against Yao -- he is too good and too smart for that. One thing the Lakers need to do is make him work for post position - but unlike [Greg] Oden doing it without fouling. Portland had some success fronting him in the post ... while earlier in the year the Lakers had success sending a slow double to the block (not when he first gets the ball but when he starts to make a move). The Lakers may even go with a little one-on-one -- although let's be clear, while we should expect more out of [Andrew] Bynum, expecting him to stop the best center on the planet one-on-one is asking too much of him. (And before you say Dwight Howard is the best center on the planet, look at his head-to-head with Yao.) The goal is to both Make Yao hesitate and make him think and pass out -- he is a smart player and in recent months he has become much better to passing out of the double, out of trouble. But that is still the preferred option."

Rob Mahoney of Two Man Game: "[Jason] Kidd has done plenty to validate his acquisition, but the heady floor general was actin' the fool during the most critical stretches of Game 1. I can confidently say that I've never seen so many poorly timed and poorly executed bounce passes from such a talented point guard, and Kidd made it easy for Denver's defense by bouncing the ball right into their laps. Obviously the Dallas brass didn't dream of Kidd double-dribbling away fast break opportunities or hurling passes out of bounds when they traded for him a year ago, but that's exactly what he was doing with the Mavs' most critical possessions. I can accept Kidd's weaknesses. I know he won't be an impact scorer, and I know that his defensive abilities are impacted by his age. But I'm not prepared for Kidd's strengths to suddenly disappear before our very eyes."

Mike Kurylo of Knickerblogger: "There's a problem with the league when fans can't analyze a trade without consulting an accountant ... The issue stems from guaranteed contracts, or more specifically bad contracts ... Falk suggests the owners will push for a hard cap and shorter contracts. And I hope they win, because the soft cap/guaranteed contract is bad for the league and its fans. Imagine if player deals were only guaranteed for the first 3 years. Almost instantly the Knicks could have jettisoned any unwanted players and reshape their team in a single offseason. On his first day Donnie Walsh could have cut Stephon Marbury, Zach Randolph, Eddy Curry, Jerome James, Jamal Crawford, and Malik Rose. With the players cut from other teams, Walsh could have had a wider berth of players to chose from when building the 2009 roster. Unfortunately the current cap rules forced Walsh to stick with these undesirable players and allowed him to trade them only for matching salaries ... It's easy to see why this would benefit teams and their fans. Bad franchises would be able to fix their mistakes quicker, which means fans wouldn't have to wait years for the hometown squad to turn things around. And since winning correlates to ticket sales more than anything else, it means the owners would see more money in their pockets."

THE FINAL WORD
Roundball Mining Company: No 'Melo, no Chauncey ... no problem.
Raptors Republic: "Ben Gordon is fool's gold." 
By the Horns: The comedown.

(Photos by Lisa Blumenfeld, Ronald Martinez, Mike Stobe/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Boston-Chicago series continues to achieve unprecedented levels of insanity. Ben Gordon has no conscience -- but that's part of the deal. And the Spurs went out with a whimper, playing an uncharacteristically passive brand of defense -- which was never part of the deal in San Antonio.

Zach Lowe of Celtics Hub: "In the last two minutes of regulation and overtime, Boston shot 8-of-10 from the floor, and Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo combined to hit seven of those field goals, including an epic five straight from the Captain. They manufactured points when [Kendrick] Perkins was too tired to score, Ray Allen had fouled out, [Stephon] Marbury was afraid to shoot, Tony Allen was a non-factor and Glen Davis was forced out of the game by the Bulls small line-up. The last four Pierce baskets were jump shots, and the last three, including the game-winner with 3.6 seconds left, were simple pull-ups over John Salmons. I'm not sure where this ranks on the list of all-time clutch Pierce performances, but it's up there. Paul Pierce is gassed. We can all see it. Kevin Harlan called him slow. He took just six shots combined in the second and third quarters. John Salmons was beating Pierce off the dribble -- a guy with a bad groin was coasting around the man who helped hold Kobe Bryant to 40 percent shooting in the Finals last season. And yet Pierce found something inside of him to move a little quicker and jump a little higher when the Celtics needed him most."

Graydon Gordian of 48 Minutes of Hell: "The Spurs were 3-16 from beyond the 3-point line and gave up 106 points ...  Throughout the season I attempted to play the role of augur. Each 3-point shot that flew overhead painted a disturbing portrait of the offensive inconsistency to come. All I asked is that a single shooter rise to the occasion this evening. I guess that was too much to ask. But my disappointment in our outside shooting pales in comparison to the frustration I experienced as a result of our defensive effort. The Mavericks would have had a more difficult time shooting from outside had they been in an empty gym. In between the catch and release, their 3-point shooters had time for a quick nap. Failed rotations weren't seen as opportunities to reorganize and retaliate. Instead, we shot one another incredulous looks in the hopes of passing the buck. I've never thought of the Spurs as an elite offensive team, even during the championship runs. But our defensive struggles this series shook the spirit in a way to which I am unaccustomed."

Matt McHale of By the Horns: "[Ben Gordon] gets full marks for logging a team-high 51 minutes on an injured hammy, but damn, that dude is a straight-up gun. A lot of times, an injured player will try to work himself into the offense. Not Gordon. He's more likely to grab the offense by the throat and try to wrestle it to the ground. Ben discharged eight shots in the first quarter, two of which hit the target. Hey, sometimes the only bad shot is the one you didn't take, right? I don't know why I'm complaining, though. That's the Air Gordon package. Complaining about his gunnery is like using a pack of wild, angry dogs to protect your home and then feeling guilty when they maul somebody."

THE FINAL WORD
Orlando Magic Daily: Rashard Lewis expands his game.
Two Man Game: A different kind of Mavericks team.
Daily Thunder: Exactly how big are OKC's "Big Three"?

(Photos by Brian Babineau, D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images)

Both the Celtics-Bulls and Spurs-Mavericks series are positively schizophrenic. Dahntay Jones is making a name for himself as Denver's Paul-stopper. And NBA fans should sentimentalize hand-checking at their own peril. 

Graydon Gordian of 48 Minutes of Hell: "The formula that produced tonight's blowout loss against the Mavericks seems simple enough. The Mavericks came out with a level of defensive intensity they had yet to show this series. The Spurs were out of sync offensively from the outset and continued to miss open looks for a full 4 quarters ... even if each game makes sense in and of itself, this series has yet to develop a rhythm. The power dynamics of the individual match-ups fluctuate wildly from game to game. Players who seem unstoppable one night are decidedly mortal the next. Although the details are quite different, the tone of this series reminds me of last season's schizophrenic Western Conference Semifinals between the Spurs and the Hornets: The only game that was close in the closing minutes was Game Seven. I would not at all be surprised if this series ended in a similar manner."

Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game: "If you'd like a face for the Mavs' exemplary defense, I'll give you three: Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, and Erick Dampier. Tony Parker was obviously in the Mavs' crosshairs, and they successfully held TP to 14 points on 5-14 shooting with 3 turnovers. If that surprised you, then brace yourself: that defense on Parker was keyed primarily by Jason Kidd. Kidd hardly guarded Parker exclusively, but he provided the groundwork and a point of reference for J.J. [Barea] and Parker's other defenders. He hustled to get into position, tried his damnedest to slow Parker even half a step, and used timing and hustle to irritate Tony into turnovers or misses ... the defense's accomplishments were even more pronounced because of shot-blocking from the weak side. Enter Howard and Dampier ... Howard played the passing lanes and forced his share of turnovers, but cemented the Mavs' defensive game plan by coming out of nowhere for huge blocks. Dampier followed suit, protecting the rim from Parker and [Tim] Duncan ... without fatally injuring anybody. Parker wasn't knocked flat on his back, but he might as well have been."

Matt McHale of By the Horns: "Chicago suffered a meltdown so complete that at one point I started to wonder whether the United Center had been converted into a giant microwave. These couldn't be the same Bulls that almost swept the first two games in Boston, could they? Seriously, I was ready to storm the locker room and check for Body Snatcher pods. I mean, newly minted Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose (9 points, 4-for-14, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 7 turnovers) wasn't just thoroughly outclassed by Boston's Rajon Rondo (20 points, 8-for-15, 11 boards, 6 assists, 5 steals), he was even outplayed by Stephon Marbury (13 points, 4-for-10, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, zero turnovers). Welcome to the Twilight Zone, folks."

THE FINAL WORD
Celtics Hub: It's the offensive efficiency, stupid.
Hoopinion: A smart take on the great hand-checking debate.
Roundball Mining Company: Dahntay Jones -- game-changer.
Beyond Bowie: What to wear, what to wear?!

(Photos by Glenn James, Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Hornets prevail in a must-win game over the Spurs, in which Bruce Bowen records a DNP-CD. Stephon Marbury is starting to figure out his role with the Celtics, while Iverson will have to adjust to his in Detroit. Read all about "Sixth Men: Past, Present, and Future" at the TrueHoop Network: 

Ryan Schwan of Hornets247: "Simply put, Chris Paul came out at half time and proved he was the best player on the floor.  I could fill up an entire observations section just with all the incredible plays he pulled out in that game.  It's such a joy to watch him play. As what usually happens in good wins with the Hornets, [David] West carried the team in the first half, scoring 14 and serving as the focal point for the offense.  In the second, Paul shifted from fourth gear to Warp 9 and carried the team to victory ... That was a big game, and it went into the 'Do Not Delete' section of my TIVO, so when I am without a game to watch in the off-season, I can fire that one up.  Winning without Peja, Tyson and Posey was pretty big."

Timothy Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell: "As Coach Popovich creeps closer to setting a rotation, it appears that Ime Udoka will get minutes behind Michael Finley. I'll stop short of making bigger pronouncements. It was only one game. Popovich is certain to use [Bruce] Bowen as a spot defender between now and the time he retires.  But I have to say, Pop is taking a gamble. Udoka is a tough-nosed defender, but even at his best moments he is not a versatile, game changing defender like Bruce Bowen. Bowen is a special player in that way. Or, reading into Pop's decision, Bowen was a special player in that way.  But Udoka does do some things better than Bowen. His offense is more varied (and erratic), he can handle the ball, and his rebound rate is 10.6, making him one of the better rebounding small forwards in the league. Defensively, Udoka does a better job against balky players like Ron Artest. But unlike Bowen, Pop won't call his number against Chris Paul -- he'll put George Hill into the game. If Sunday's rotation more or less sticks for the postseason, Popovich's gutsy decision to favor Udoka over Bowen will play a prominent role in determining San Antonio's championship aspirations, for good or ill."

Brian Robb of Celtics Hub: "Starbury only scored 2 points on 1/4 shooting but he did have 7 assists compared to just 1 turnover in 22 minutes to go with a +12 on the floor. There have been some growing pains in the past 10 plus games for the point guard but he is finally starting to look comfortable with the bench unit by distributing the ball to his teammates in the right spots ... a lot of these assists came off of some nice penetration, allowing him to draw multiple defenders to create dunks and open jumpers for his teammates. Great news to see him putting it together at the right time."

THE FINAL WORD
Piston Powered: Allen Iverson, Sixth Man -- A History.
Daily Thunder: Are OKC's best players named Sefolosha and Weaver? 
Raptors Republic: Toronto is putting all the pieces together ... in late March.  

(Photos by Layne Murdoch, D. Lippitt/Einstein, Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)

Odom and Marbury haters -- you gotta look at the big picture. Tony Parker is picture perfect.  The Toronto Raptors?  Not a pretty picture. The TrueHoop Network paints the picture. 

Kurt Helin of Forum Blue & Gold: "So do the people here who thought Lamar Odom had turned the corner a few months back still feel that way? He's had three games that have been down a little. I'll go back to what I've always said about him - you need to accept Odom as Odom, the moments of brilliance and the moments he disappears. It's all a function of just who he is. He is going to forever be inconsistent. He is going to be up and down in the regular season, but he tends to rise up in the playoffs. And he still provides a versatility that fits what the Lakers do very well. If you live and die with Odom night to night it is a roller coaster, but when you step back you see a picture of quality."

Graydon Gordian of 48 Minutes of Hell: "If I had to give away the game ball, it would go to Tony Parker and not just because he put up another 30-point game (12 of which came in the 4th for those of who you don't think Parker can make shots in the clutch). He was also a key piece in our defensive stands. Duncan sat for much of the 4th quarter. During that time, Parker dictated the outcome of the game on both ends of the floor. He made crisp rotations, swiped a couple of the previously mentioned steals, drained mid-range jumpers, and finished at the rim. This afternoon we did not see Parker's most impressive offensive performance of the season but we received a balanced, focused effort from our All-Star point guard."

Brian Robb of Celtics Hub: "The Marbury haters out there will use his performance today (4 points, no assists, 3 turnovers, -14 +/- in 23 minutes) as an omen that Marbury's presence will be a negative for this team the rest of the way. I think the key here in evaluating Marbury's play must be patience. We have to remember this is a guy who has only played 4 NBA games in the past 13 months. He is still going through his own training camp right now and with the injuries piling up for the C's, Doc put him in a tough spot today by starting him against one of the top teams in the league.

Am I excusing his play entirely? Absolutely not. However I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for the next few weeks as he tries to learn the system and find his niche in the offense. As long as Marbury's legs and his basketball IQ are up to par come May, it will be worth enduring the hiccups in his play for now. The majority of the team, not just Marbury did not show up to play today (10 assists to 17 turnovers!) so the reality also makes it hard to put too much of the blame on Marbury."

THE FINAL WORD
Raptors Republic: 10 signs your team isn't very good.
Daily Thunder: The glue guys are giving OKC a big lift.
Celtics Hub & Forum Blue & Gold: The Great T-Shirt War of 2009. 

(Photos by Nick Laham, D. Clarke Evans, Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)

Business as usual for the Celtics and Cavs, as both clinch playoff berths. The Spurs fail to take care of business on the defensive end of the floor.  Russell Westbrook means business in the ROY race. The TrueHoop Network is open for business: 

Zach Lowe of Celtics Hub: "What do you do with a game like this? Do you praise the 72 percent true shooting mark or worry about the 62 percent true shooting mark the Celtics yielded to a mediocrity like the New Jersey Nets? Do you wring your hands over the slower-than-usual rotations and the open threes, or do you smile at yet another Paul Pierce performance you can add to the dozens and dozens he's piled up over 11 seasons (12-of 14 for 31 big points)? Or do you savor the thought of having Rajon Rondo on your team for the next 11 seasons?

There's a third option we'll call the My Dad Option, and that's to laugh at the idea of even caring about a regular-season NBA game -- let alone one in which a lineup of Eddie House, Bill Walker, Mikki Moore, Leon Powe and Stephon Marbury plays the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. For my sanity, I'm going to take that option (not really, of course) and assume that the Celtics will bring the defensive intensity and precision on Friday that were missing until the very end of the game tonight."

John Krolik of Cavs the Blog: "Delonte West absolutely gave the Milwaukee Bucks the howling fantods from the opening tip to the final whistle. He was absolutely everywhere on the court tonight, especially on the defensive end, where his eight steals were actually more impressive than they look on the stat sheet because of how little he was gambling. He was picking passes coming towards his man, stripping guys clean off the dribble, snatching a pass directly out of the air, everywhere. He was all around the ball with his energy, and his toughness had him coming up with it almost every time and pushing the break.

On offense, he was making the plays and working with the ball and making sure everything went smoothly and nobody was settling for contested jumpers, and was even working a very nice two-man game with Andy. The great thing was that he wasn't really even shooting the ball all that well and he still had this much of a positive impact on the game. If you don't love Delonte West, you are a bad man."

Graydon Gordian of 48 Minutes of Hell: "It is infrequent that I criticize Popovich's defensive decisions. Our defensive woes are most often the by-product of lack of effort, poor execution, or just plain inability. But tonight I felt Popovich made multiple tactical errors down the stretch.

The most notable of these errors was his decision to trap players (primarily Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki) who had control of the ball in the space from the top of the arc to the free throw line. Swift ball movement to the wings produced two common outcomes: A second pass to set up the corner three or successful penetration (sometimes by the wingman, sometimes by a third cutter). In some ways this flipped the strength of the Spurs' defense on its head: Our bread and butter is our interior and perimeter defense while we are often soft in the middle. This evening we allowed for easy penetration and open 3-pointers in order to protect against the mid-range jumper."

THE FINAL WORD
Raptors Republic: A taxonomy of the Raptors' defensive woes.
Daily Thunder: Russell Westbrook, trending upward. 
The Painted Area: Go Lord Jeffs!

(Photos by Al Bello, David Liam Kyle, Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)

Invisibility isn't necessarily a bad thing for Dirk Nowitzki.  Norm Van Lier was anything but invisible in the pantheon of Chicago Bulls legends...but Josh Smith was in Atlanta's tough loss to the Cavs.  Gain some visibility at The TrueHoop Network: 

Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game: "Dirk only had 24 points (8-19 FG), 10 rebounds, and 5 assists.  Yawn.  His typical brilliance was trumped only by his usual subtlety, 'invisibly' anchoring the Mavs' attack.  (On another note: why is the word invisible always used as a pejorative when it comes to basketball?  There's something wonderful about blunt domination, but I can see the advantages of killing an opponent without their knowing they're being killed.)  Howard continues to boggle the mind.  His 16 points tells you he did fine on the offensive end, which is true.  But 0 steals and 0 blocks?  Just another example of the deception of the box score.  The team continues to excel whenever Howard hits the floor, and his somewhat empty stat line is balanced by a +15 for the game.  Well done, chaps.

As someone who has watched Dirk's entire career, I feel obligated to comment on Andrea Bargnani.  Dirk was the hopeful projection when Toronto drafted Bargs with the 1st overall pick, and it's kind of silly.  It's not that Bargnani isn't talented, or that he doesn't have some of Dirk's skills.  Their approaches to the game are just fundamentally different.  Dirk's ungodly efficiency is a product of a natural high ground, a high release, and a sweet shooting stroke.  What he lacks in athleticism and mobility he makes up for in footwork and precision.  Bargnani doesn't share Dirk's dominant shooting touch, as much as he loves to shoot.  But he does show a willingness and an ability to drive and finish, which is something in it's own right.  He's 23 and has all the time in the world, but for those still hoping to see Dirk 2.0, keep this in mind: Nowitzki is the exception, not the rule.  There has never been a player that combined Dirk's size and shooting touch, and it may not be so soon before we see another."

Matt McHale of By the Horns : "At 6′1″, Norm [Van Lier] was small-ish, even for his day, and his game was about toughness, hustle, defensive tenacity and a team-first attitude…not the accumulation of gaudy, record-setting statistics. You might notice those are the same traits that made one William Felton Russell into the greatest winner in NBA history. Sadly, Norm wasn't part of 11 championship teams like Russell. In fact, he wasn't on a single title winner. But that shouldn't diminish his greatness, or our memory of him.

Fortunately for Norm, the people of Chicago came to adore him, and his teammates respected him so much they probably would have stepped in front of a flaming meteor for him. He was a member of the most beloved Bulls team that didn't include Michael Jordan. That 1970s squad featured a group of players who brought it every night: Norm, Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, Chet Walker and Tom Boerwinkle. None of those guys were what you would call All-World, but they played smart and they played together. And despite the lack of star power, they managed three straight 50-win seasons (four if you count the year before Norm arrived), an epic seven-game semifinal series against Wilt Chamberlain's Lakers in 1973, and two trips to the Western Conference Finals in 1974 (where they lost to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Milwaukee Bucks) and 1975 (where they lost a bitterly contested seven-game series to Rick Barry's Golden State Warriors, who would go on to win the title).

...As his old running mate Love said after he heard about Norm's passing: 'Man oh man, me and Norm were just together Tuesday night. As usual, he was expressing his love for the team and the franchise. He said, "Butter, a lot of times I may sound critical on TV but it's just because I love these guys so much and I want them to win." People might have taken that the wrong way. But he had passion like nobody else and just wanted to be loved.'

That was Norm in a nutshell. When Johnny 'Red' Kerr was honored a couple weeks back, President Barack Obama described Kerr as 'the fan on the bar stool next to us.' Which he was. Well, Norm was the rascally old grandfather filled with a mind full of wisdom and a belly full of fire. He was never afraid to tell it like it was, nor would he waste an opportunity to teach a lesson that needed to be learned, even if, at times, those lessons weren't taken to heart or (again) fully appreciated.

We'll miss you Norm."

Bret LaGree of Hoopinion: "The fourth quarter will likely lead to another round of questions about Josh Smith and whether the Hawks are better with or without him. It's a complicated question. His poor rebounding and shot selection are entirely his own fault. His help defense is a great benefit to the team. The deciding factor for me would be one for which (conveniently) I don't have an answer: Does Josh Smith spend possessions on the perimeter guarding the likes of LeBron James (last night) or Brandon Roy (last week) of his own accord (Be it fueled by competitiveness or laziness it's harmful to the team.) or because he's assigned, from time to time, to guard guys he can't guard? If it's the former then Zaza Pachulia and Marvin Williams need to play a lot more at the 4 as matchups dictate. If it's the latter it would be unfair to blame Smith for being put in a position to fail though it still doesn't get the Hawks closer to playing optimal basketball..."

THE FINAL WORD
Cavs the Blog: "There's always a better play than an ISO for Flip Murray."
Celtics Hub: A close examination of Stephon Marbury's defense against Detroit.
Hornets247: What's the "Palm, jab, jab, pump, jab, jab, fade-away flat-footed 20-footer, clank" routine?  Glad you asked.

(Photos by Glenn James, Noren Trotman,Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images)

Sam Rubenstein left SLAM some time ago to become a teacher. He returns today for a cameo, and it's a good one, neatly straddling his old and new careers, with some mythology thrown in for good measure.

The theme is Stephon Marbury as failed epic hero. Rubenstein writes:

I am in full command of planning and teaching a 9th grade English class now. We are working on Homer's Odyssey. One thing I noticed is that when people like Odysseus or Ajax or whomever, disrespect the Gods, terrible things happen to them.

This is also why there was so much kindness and hospitality back then. Everyone had to be nice or they'd catch a lightning bolt through the skull. As my students would say "That's OD!"

Anyways, I needed a modern day example of someone who was disrespectful and boastful, and all the other stuff that Gods hate.

"I'm the best point guard in the NBA." -- Stephon Marbury, January 1, 2005.

In the midst of a lesson on the themes of hospitality and manners and big fat Greek weddings and respect, I read the quote out loud, pulled my Marbury jersey out of my bag, and showed it to the children. The hatred, oh the delicious hatred ... One boy started shaking violently and just ranted 'He sucks!' over and over again. One girl compared him to Ajax, who proclaimed that he didn't need Poseidon's help to cross the sea. (As if!!!) Another said 'Yeah so what though, he's getting money!' and that led into the whole discussion of how this student was correct, but that Steph failed in his quest to be the boy from Brooklyn to go on a journey to exotic new places: the frozen twin cities, the ghastly swamps of East Rutherford, the bone dry desert, an ODYSSEY if you will, and then come back home victorious."

TrueHoop reader David with some practical advice, to help you avoid what has proved to be a stressful element of his morning:

I thought I would share this just to save your readers any embarrassment.

The Marbury quote you provided ("You're a bum. You're nothing. You're caught up in basketball. Get caught up in life.") is hysterical. It's something that I could easily see friends using to mock other friends. "Hey, Mike. You're nothing. You're caught up in the new Grey's Anatomy season. Get caught up in life."

Just a caution: if you're going to use that quote in a corporate environment, over instant messaging, remember two crucial things:

1. Use correct punctuation (i.e., quotation marks) and citations (attributive tags or at least a lead-in sentence that provides context) to avoid any confusion. No one wants to think you're insisting them to "get caught up in life," unless you're Marbury, which is just funny.
2. Select the right screen name to send the quote to. Otherwise, sending "You're a bum. You're nothing. You're caught up in basketball. Get caught up in life," to your supervisor in a time of economic instability may cause some unwanted stress in your life.

Thought I would pass along that piece of advice to avoid the debacle I will likely have to untangle soon.

Would Stephon Marbury fit into Boston's backcourt?  Does Nate Robinson fit into Mike D'Antoni's vision?  Wizznutzz doesn't worry about fitting in, period.

Zach Lowe of Celtics Hub: "The idea behind signing Marbury, I assume, is to have more offensive firepower on the bench. But where, exactly, does Marbury fit in with the second unit? If Doc sticks to the way he's been constructing line-ups so far this season, what you're really asking in the second question is this: Do you think Marbury is a better player than Eddie House? I say that because Doc essentially never plays a three-guard lineup or even a line-up with two small guards; Rondo and House, for instance, have been on the floor together for just 145 minutes this season.

So I don't think you can say, 'This is great, playing Stephon with the second unit frees up House to play shooting guard.' Because Doc has shown no indication he's willing to play two guys 6′2” or under at the same time, and I'm not sure he's willing to play a House-Marbury-Pierce/Ray combo during meaningful minutes.

It hurts the defense too much, especially against Cleveland, which rarely plays a small line-up. You can't just slide Marbury in for Tony Allen (who is 6′4” and a solid defender).

I just don't see how Marbury fits into the team - given the coaching staff's apparent preference for bigger guards - without severely cutting into House's minutes. Maybe Doc is willing to experiment with smaller line-ups or even play Marbury for Rondo alongside the other four starters in short stints. I ask you: Are you ready for that? Because I honestly don't know if I am."

Rob Mahoney of Hardwood Paroxysm: "For a long time, Nate Robinson has been a welcome diversion.  Unfortunately, that's all.  His success was always side by side with the prerequisite grain of salt as I looked for subtle ways to invalidate his glory.  No more.  I'm ready for the Nate Robinson revolution, and - friends, Romans, countrymen - I hope you'll join me for the ride.

The stigma of the short point guard is a painful one.  No player faces a steeper hill, nay, mountain to climb to NBA competence.  On top of that, there is no Myth of the Next Jordan/Kobe, or the next Maravich, or the next Garnett.  There is the Mythology of the Little Man.  If you can dunk, you are Spud Webb.  If you can't, you are Earl Boykins.  The confines of Nate Rob's world are bench sparkplug at best and sideshow at the most demeaning.  If given the proper opportunity, he's ready to make that abnormally low glass ceiling obsolete...

If Steve Nash taught us anything in SSoL v1.0, it's that a stellar point guard's offensive skill can overcome defensive inferiority.  When your defensive philosophy is predicated on making opponents take poorly planned shots after being lulled into a false sense of security and superiority and then run the ball down their throats, you're given such a luxury.  I think that once 2010 comes around, Robinson should be that point guard.  Last night, Nate put up 41 points on 18 shots…off the bench.  He turned the ball over once in 36 minutes.  He sealed the game with a nice, contested lay-up after a steal.  His ability to put the ball in the damn hoop certainly trumps his limitations, and his weaknesses (FG%, turnovers) have dwindled with NBA experience.

He's not of the Nash mold.  Not even close.  There are games where he looks exclusively to shoot, and that's precisely why I want him in there kicking ass and taking names.  The easier comparison is probably to Leandro Barbosa, but I think Nate's play is infinitely less trite.  If Walsh and D'Antoni put together the type of team we know that they are capable of given their market and clout, Nate Robinson doesn't have to be Nash…or Barbosa.  He's somewhere in between.  Part of the beauty of SSoL is that it can turn rotation players and sixth men into juggernauts if they have the right skill set.  Nate's got it.  He doesn't have Nash's court vision or Barbosa's unbridled speed, but he can make plays for his teammates and he makes people look foolish with his quicks.  If you put a playmaker beside him on the wing, that offense goes from 'fun' to 'deadly.'  LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, even Joe Johnson.  They would demand a subtle modification of D'Antoni's system, but the benefits could be enormous.

Why must a scoring point guard's works be invalidated by his height? ...It's hard out there for a point…so can't we remove the complications by letting a player play and dropping our notions of what a point guard should be and what he should look like."

Wizznutzz: "Everyone was anticipating the mega-trades, player moves that would realign the balance of power but lets face it this is what the NBA trade deadline turned into: a game called 'Osbournes' played by NBA GMs where they pretend Larry Hughes is a giant ham and they try and throw him over their neighbors fence when he's not looking. Whats astonishing about Larry Hughes (aka 'L-Boogie' aka 'Cold Mountain' aka 'His Majestys Secret Service' aka 'The Coy Mister') is not his game but the size of his dowry!

Larry's career has answered the question many league scouts had when he was first drafted and that question was: 'I wonder what would happen in we gave Victor Page 100 million dollars?'

There was even a crazy rumor that Cold Mountain would be coming back to the Verizon Center (home of the 'Unlimited Minutes' rookie plan!) But the Wizards and Ernie Grunfeld stayed put, hey if it aint broke why fix it! Even though they made no moves, The Big G said he got lots of calls all week from keen GMs. But it turned out they were mostly prank calls from John Nash posing as keen GMs begging for the contracts of Etan Thomas and Mike James."

THE FINAL WORD
Hornets247: Will the offseason be a horror flick for the Hornets?
Piston Powered: Is it time to sit Rodney Stuckey? 
48 Minutes of Hell: Michael Finley -- fearless elder.

(Photos by Kent Horner, Chris McGrath, David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)

As we embrace the notion of Stephon Marbury in Celtic Green, some reference points for your Marbury conversations:

• Ray Allen and Stephon Marbury were traded for each other on draft day 1996. Marbury was drafted fourth, by Milwaukee. Allen was drafted fifth, by Minnesota. The Timberwolves gave the Bucks a future first-round pick (it became Danny Fortson) to switch.
• Ray Allen played Jesus Shuttlesworth -- a point guard from Coney Island's Lincoln High, apparently modeled on Marbury -- in the Spike Lee movie "He Got Game."
• Stephon Marbury's early career was a fruitful partnership with Kevin Garnett in Minnesota. As youngsters they made the playoffs twice. Little did Marbury know those seasons would be among the highlights of his career.
• Marbury asked for, and received, a trade. He then became famous as a high-scoring loser in New Jersey (they headed for the Finals when he left in exchange for Jason Kidd), missed the fun in Phoenix (the magical D'Antoni and Nash era was born upon Marbury's departure), and New York (the team that has kindled hope by signing a mid-level free agent to play in his place).
  
• Despite his inability to win more than now and again, Stephon Marbury has always been able to produce. Knickerblogger's Mike K. writes: "As his career with the team comes nearer to its disappointing end, it's hard to remember that he was a productive scorer early on. He has the highest single season PER (21.9 in 2005) as well as the highest PER (18.4) during the KnickerBlogger era. His defense was mediocre and his contract was suffocating, had the two been reversed he would have been a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame."
• In 2002-03, his season in the sun, Stephon led Phoenix to the playoffs with a 44-38 record. As the successor to Jason Kidd and the predecessor to Steve Nash, Starbury scored more than 22 a game and was fourth in the league in assists. He was third-team All-NBA and an All-Star. In the Suns' first game of the postseason, Marbury banked in a 25-foot, buzzer-beating runner to upset San Antonio 96-95 in overtime, slowing down the Spurs on their march to the 2003 NBA title. Through it all, he earned rave reviews such as this one from Sports Illustrated: "a more mature Stephon Marbury has lifted Phoenix into playoff contention." With two years remaining on the Starchild's contract, Suns' GM Bryan Colangelo rewarded him with a four-year extension, giving the team a total obligation of more than $100 million for six seasons.
• One of the best basketball books ever written, "The Last Shot" by Darcy Frey, tells the true story of Marbury's Lincoln High School team. It paints Marbury as a complex, but not wholly likable, character.
• During this season when he has not worked, Stephon Marbury made an estimated $150,000 per day.
• Stephon Marbury convinced the nation he was more than a little crazy with this interview. And this is what it's like to talk religion with Marbury.
• Something to worry about: Earlier this year, when there was a lot of talk that Marbury might become a Celtic, Boston went into a slump. Some suggested the Marbury talk may have unsettled young Boston guard Rajon Rondo.
• "I said, 'Are you going to get in the truck?'" Marbury, in court, describing the words he used to lure a Knicks intern to have sex with him in his vehicle. Marbury's testimony created a sensation during Anucha Browne Sanders' harassment case against the Knicks. 
• One of Danny Ainge's worst moves as a general manager was to give up a lottery pick (later parlayed into Brandon Roy) for Stephon Marbury's cousin, Sebastian Telfair. After mediocre play on the court, and the second gun incident of his career, the Celtics' owner Wyc Grousbeck declared Telfair would never wear green again, and he was traded to the Timberwolves not long after that.
• Howard Beck of The New York Times recounts a preseason exchange between Marbury and a player he'll compete with for minutes, Eddie House: "After Marbury drew a foul on Kendrick Perkins and hit two free throws, he turned and screamed at House, from midcourt: 'You're a bum!' When play returned to the Celtics' side of the court, House chirped, 'Don't worry about me. You better worry about Ray Allen,' whom Marbury was guarding. Marbury shot back, 'You're nothing!' then added, 'You're caught up in basketball. Get caught up in life.'"