It’s January 14th & Scott’s saying…..
…..in-seat service needs to continue on during overtime games at the ACC. I was hungry and thirsty, dammit!!!!
Two things have flummoxed me today:
- Joakim Noah getting benched by his teammates. Um, excuse me? First of all, if it was me, I’d be making a call to the players union PDQ. Two people can bench me: club executives (head coach and upward) and my momma. But BEN WALLACE??? Get the hell outta here. Sure, throw him up against the wall of a Motel 6 and threaten to shave his head, but benching the guy???? You’d best be checking your shampoo bottle for piss for the rest of the season, because I’d be coming after your ass….and maybe your girl. Besides, it’s not like you are playing well as a team anyway.
- Mike Brown receiving a 2-year extension. I can bet 50% of you just said "Who?". Exactly. To me, this is a guy who I had pegged for maybe beating Isiah to the door. Sure, the Cavs have had hold-outs and injuries to deal with, but how many games have you seen them play this year that reminds you these guys went to the FINALS last year? Not to mention this guy looks like he downed a bottle of Pepto before every game. I kid you not that every time I see him on TV and the 3 times I’ve seen him at the ACC this year, I say to myself "dead man walking….dead man walking….". LeBron or not, this is amazing to me.
Speaking of LBJ, if he asks to take you for a spin in his car, you might best think about your answer.
Lookie-here….Dwight Howard is a father!! You know Dwight Howard? Big guy, plays for the Magic, dunks better than is given credit for, dances like Michael Jackson? Yeah, the same guy who is a devout Catholic and just popped out a kid with a former Magic dancer. Paging Dwight Howard to purgatory…Dwight Howard to purgatory. Thank you.
Not too far away, Alonzo says he is done. He takes with him my one opportunity to boo heartily at a Raptors game this year.
Staying where it is warm, but on the other coast: Andrew Bynum is gone for 8 weeks with a subluxation of his left kneecap and bone bruise. No idea what that is, but I’d still rather have that than be told by Kirk Hinrich that my attitude sucks. I’m just sayin’.
Following up on the whole in-arena experience, now a scribe in Utah is wondering aloud what to do for Jazz games. The comments section of the article comes up with some nifty ideas.
Hey look, another reason for me to cancel RaptorsTV. Not only do their shows suck large this year, but now NBADL games are being streamed live on line for free. I love watching them on RapsTV. Some great games.
Speaking of Raptors related propaganda, they’ve released a new version of their Insider Desktop application. Oh, and did you know that they have a Jamario Moon ticket package? Neither did I. Nothing says "he’s our man" like offering tickets to see the Knicks, Kings and Heat. Yikes.
Hats off to Bosh for being named the Eastern Conference player of the week. See what happens when you attack the hoop, big fella?
Kapono is saying his lack of playing time is what is causing him to, well, suck. He doesn’t mind, though. He says "it is nothing I am going to get down about. I am in a good situation here.” No..really?? $6mill a year to basically catch & shoot 13min a game and miss half the time? What? Me worry? HAVE YOU SEEN MY WIFE????
Homework: here is the new box motion offense the Raptors are using. Study it. Live it. Learn it. Buy into it. There will be a test.
As always, if you want up to date newslinks sent to your cell or email, sign up for our Twitter feed which will let you know when our blogs are updated and send you the latest media reports every day. Of course, feel free to speak your mind in the comments below or in our forums.
w00t.
Jan 14th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I wouldn’t have a problem with the Noah situation if it didn’t seem like it came from veterans threatened by his playing time. The fact that the incident leaked out at all (hi, Ben Gordon!) is an indication that things are wrong — these things NEVER leaked in previous seasons. But it’s pretty moot: had they come out and demolished the Hawks, it would have been a great move. Instead, they were completely embarrassed by Atlanta, which makes it look like the wrong person was benched.
This is actually an awesomely unique situation. The Bulls players don’t have any personal chemistry for sure, but on-court, they seem to hate each other as well. Wallace hates Nocioni for forcing him to guard the biggest opposing player by necessity — both are 6′7″. Hinrich hates Gordon for doing the same in the backcourt. “Hate” is maybe a strong word but on an average night you have at least 3 of your top 5 guys in inferior defensive positions — for a supposedly superb defensive team.
This is a team that wins by going 100%, but only young players trying to win fame do that, for real. A few years ago, the day after a game in which Eddy Curry went 0-5 with 0 rebounds and was booed by the home crowd for the first time, I was coming home and passed a swanky Bentley dealership on foot. In the window I saw Eddy and his posse looking at cars. The question here is how do you tell a guy that he’s gonna live and die on the basketball court when he can make up for a bad game by buying himself a(nother) Bentley? You have it or you don’t, and some guys (Jay Vincent, Juwan Howard) lose what they had before. In this situation, I’d think that most of the players probably haven’t quit, but they absolutely look at other teams and think about how much better it would be with (fill in blank: Jason Kidd passing you the ball, Dwight Howard cleaning up the glass, Pau Gasol cleaning up the glass, etc).
Big changes coming. If the right deal doesn’t come up by the deadline I’m told that you can look for an insane leveling in the off-season. Thank God none of those extensions were signed, and that Pax frontloaded all of the contracts he did hand out. Might not make a huge difference but he’ll never put himself in a situation like with Starbury, where a now-mediocre PG is one of the 5 highest paid players in the game.
Jan 14th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
That was really long. Thank you for your indulgence.
Jan 14th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I love how in your last paragraph we might replace “Starbury” with “Ford” in a years time. Won’t be in the top 5 salaries, but could be in the mediocre category.
Jan 15th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Actually, at the risk of arguing with myself, I have to take some of that back. I just heard what it was exactly that Noah said. Ron Adams, the assistant in question, was telling him that they’d gone over this play a hundred times, that he couldn’t just come to work and play but had to learn the playbook in his own time, that it’s part of being a pro and being prepared — riding him in practice, but nothing out of the ordinary for a coach and a rookie.
Apparently, Noah told him “What have you done? What kind of a basketball player were you? I’ll bet you sucked shit, otherwise your name would mean something. Don’t take your loser bullshit out on me, old man.” Etc.
Probably happens more than we hear in this league but that’s why Adrian Griffin and Ben Wallace were so freaked out and wanted to take the kid down a peg.
Jan 15th, 2008 at 12:44 am
did he actually say that? doesn’t sound like something a rookie would say…without knowing the whole situation, except that the team decided to bench him for another game, i assumed they were doing the right thing. now this..i would be fouling him a bit harder than usual in practice.
carters face looks classic in that video. that has to be one of the stupidest questions ever asked of a pro athlete…hands down.
Jan 15th, 2008 at 6:29 am
That is pretty much what he said.
Jan 15th, 2008 at 8:15 am
the balls on this kid! i’d tea bag him if i were wallace.
Jan 15th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
What did you really expect from Noah? He’s just what everyone said he was coming out of college.
An over-emotional player with a lack of common sense (and arguably bad hair).