NBA News

[MrHyeSev]

Re: NBA News

Bryant ‘optimistic’ Odom will re-sign with Lakers




SINGAPORE (AP)—Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant is optimistic the NBA champions will re-sign key free agent Lamar Odom.

“I’m optimistic that he’ll be back,” Bryant said Wednesday at a news conference in Singapore as part of a six-country Asian tour. “He makes us a much, much stronger team.”

Negotiations broke down last week and the Lakers retracted a contract offer to Odom. The Miami Heat are also wooing the 6-foot-10 forward.

Odom played a key role off the bench in the Lakers’ championship run, averaging 12.3 points and 9.1 rebounds during the playoffs.

Bryant said forward Ron Artest, who signed as a free agent with the Lakers earlier this month, will help bolster the team’s chances to repeat as champions.

“I think Ron’s going to be a great addition to us,” Bryant said. “It’s about how well we play together. No matter how much talent you have, it’s about how you put those pieces of the puzzle together.”

Bryant downplayed speculation that Lakers coach Phil Jackson may take some games off next season because of health problems.

“Who said he’s coaching less?” Bryant said. “Phil likes messing with you guys. He’ll be there all the time, unless he has a doctor’s appointment to get to.”

Bryant also said he was more likely to agree to play for Team USA at the World Championships in 2010 and the 2012 London Olympics now that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has committed to lead the team.

Bryant and Krzyzewski won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics last year.

“I’m very excited to see that he signed on,” Bryant said. “It influences all the guys just because we’ve been through that experience before and it becomes like a family.”

“It definitely influences me.”

Bryant, an 11-time All-Star, said a possible showdown against LeBron James(notes), former Lakers teammate Shaquille O’Neal(notes) and the Cleveland Cavaliers in next season’s finals would be “crazy.”

“Just the hoopla that surrounds it and all the stories that would come out of it,” Bryant said. “If that match up is to happen, we have to take it one day at a time, we can’t get caught up in it being a given that we’re going to be in the finals.”

“We have to take care of our business, but that being said, it would be a heck of a show.”

https://www.yahoo.com/nba

[MrHyeSev]

Re: NBA News

Parker injures right ankle against Austria

PARIS (AP)—Spurs guard Tony Parker(notes) has a sprained ankle and injured thigh after colliding with an Austrian player during a recent basketball game.

Parker is unlikely to be available to play for France in Thursday’s game in Paris against Hungary in Eurobasketball 2009, according to sports daily L’Equipe.

The Spurs’ star hurt his right thigh and ankle in a collision with Stjepan Stazic in a game Friday. Parker issued a statement saying he was hit in his thigh and turned his ankle.

The statement also said tests on Saturday showed no sign of ligament tears or other serious complications, and that he could resume training later in the week.

https://www.yahoo.com/nba

[MrHyeSev]

Re: NBA News

Amare Stoudemire: (Eye) Back in Action
Update: Stoudemire took part in a workout Tuesday for the first time since having his eye drained on July 10, the Arizona Republic reports.

Recommendation: He didn’t do too much, being limited to shooting drills and some conditioning work, and he’s about two weeks away from being cleared for any kind of game action. Stoudemire has all the motivation in the world to prove both that he’s healthy and that he’s worth a huge contract extension, so while the Suns offense likely won’t be as potent as it was a few years ago, Stoudemire could be worth gambling on.

https://www.yahoo.com/nba

[MrHyeSev]

Re: NBA News

Popovich: Spurs’ Big Three will be healthy


SAN ANTONIO (AP)—Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili left being busy this summer to the rest of the San Antonio Spurs.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Tuesday that his two aging stars have taken it easier than usual this offseason to get healthy, while the Spurs front office was unusually active and swinging deals for major additions like Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess.

Duncan, hobbled by knee problems down the stretch and in the playoffs, has pushed back the normal start of his normal preseason regimen by a month. The 33-year-old will begin workouts next week that the All-Star typically gets going in early August.

Ginobili, meanwhile, has limited his summer activity to a treadmill and some walks after appearing in just 44 games last season because of bad ankles.

“He is healthy,” Popovich said. “He’ll come back out of shape but healthy.”

Popovich spoke to reporters Tuesday for the first time since the Spurs ended their busiest—and costliest—offseason in recent history. The typically frugal Spurs will be hit with the NBA’s luxury tax after picking up Jefferson’s remaining $29.2 million owed over the next two years in a trade with cost-cutting Milwaukee.

San Antonio also used their midlevel exception, about $5.85 million, to sign McDyess and give Duncan a hand in the frontcourt. The Spurs also signed veteran big man Theo Ratliffand drafted Pitt All-America forward DeJuan Blair.

Popovich said spending money was a necessity.

“The face of the league has changed significantly over the last two years,” Popovich said. “We’ve hung in there as long as we can, and this year we’re going to have to spend money like some other people.”

San Antonio approached the summer looking to spend and not squander the remaining years of the Duncan era. Between Duncan’s ailing legs and a weak supporting cast, the Spurs limped into their earliest summer since 2000 after a first-round playoff loss to Dallas.

Duncan sat out several back-to-backs down the stretch because of a nagging right quad injury that Popovich said has healed.

“He’s got more flexibility in that leg than he ever has,” Popovich said. “Significantly more. He’s cranking his knees during the day and at night when he goes to bed. It’s paid off.”

Tony Parker also gave the Spurs a scare this month when he hurt his right ankle playing for the French national team, but Popovich said the injury was minor.

[mikek]

Re: NBA News

Spurs have a Big 4 not a Big 3 these days, at least in my opinion. Four players who can go off for 20 points during any given game. Lack of size is still whats going to kill them again this year. Sure, they added solid depth in McDyess & Blair, but they still need one more big. Brian Skinner would be a good fit for his defense and could work well with their other bigs up front.

[MrHyeSev]

Re: NBA News

Spurs have a Big 4 not a Big 3 these days, at least in my opinion. Four players who can go off for 20 points during any given game. Lack of size is still whats going to kill them again this year. Sure, they added solid depth in McDyess & Blair, but they still need one more big. Brian Skinner would be a good fit for his defense and could work well with their other bigs up front.

I agree, I'm still upset that they got rid of Malik Rose, he was an awesome defender. McDyess will make some impact on improving the Spurs. I hope they don't get Skinner I don't like him.

[MrHyeSev]

Re: NBA News

Air Jordan reaches new heights with place in Hall

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP)—From the coach who cut him to the players who disrespected him, Michael Jordan never forgot a slight.

Not even on the night he was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

Jordan’s thank you list went well beyond friends and family, including any doubters who provided him the inspiration to become a better player—perhaps the greatest one ever.

“You guys, I must say thank you very much for giving me that motivation that I definitely needed,” Jordan said.

Jordan recalled all of it Friday night, when he joined David Robinson and John Stockton, a pair of his 1992 Dream Team teammates, and coaches Jerry Sloan and C. Vivian Stringer in a distinguished class.

Related Video Jordan speaks on honor Jordan speaks on honor

More NBA Videos RelatedWojnarowski: Defending MJ The $1 billion man Is there a next Jordan? Jordan insisted during a press conference that the weekend wasn’t just about him, but he was clearly the star before a crowd that included former teammates Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman.

“He makes one big shot and everybody thinks he’s kind of cool,” Stockton joked. “I don’t get it.”

Jordan cried before beginning his acceptance speech, then entertained the crowd with memories of any slights that sent him on his way to basketball’s birthplace:

— The coach who cut him from the varsity as a North Carolina schoolboy.

“I wanted to make sure you understood: You made a mistake, dude.”

— Isiah Thomas, who allegedly orchestrated a “freezeout” of Jordan in his first All-Star game.

“I wanted to prove to you, Magic (Johnson), Larry (Bird), George (Gervin), everybody that I deserved (to be there) just as much as anybody else, and I hope over the period of my career I’ve done that without a doubt.”

— Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy—Jordan called him Pat Riley’s “little guy” — who accused Jordan of “conning” players by acting friendly toward them, then attacking them in games.

“I just so happen to be a friendly guy. I get along with everybody, but at the same time, when the light comes on, I’m as competitive as anybody you know.”

— The media who said Jordan, though a great player, would never win like Bird or Johnson.

“I had to listen to all that, and that put so much wood on that fire that it kept me each and every day trying to get better as a basketball player.”

— Lastly, Utah’s Bryon Russell. Jordan recalled meeting Russell while he was retired and playing minor league baseball in 1994—and with Sloan looking on in horror—told of how Russell insisted he could have covered him if Jordan was still playing. Russell later got two cracks at Jordan in the NBA finals, and he was the defender when Jordan hit the clinching shot to win the 1998 title.

“From this day forward, if I ever see him in shorts, I’m coming at him.”

The enshrinement ceremony took place at Springfield’s Symphony Hall, because Jordan was too big for the Hall of Fame. The move to the other building allowed for a crowd of about 2,600, more than double what the Hall can accommodate.

Robinson was enshrined first on Friday before a large San Antonio contingent that included teammates Tim Duncan(notes) and Avery Johnson, and coaches Larry Brown and Gregg Popovich. Stockton told the Spurs that his running mate, Karl Malone, was the best power forward, not Duncan.

Stringer, the first coach to lead three different teams to the Final Four, still couldn’t believe a coal miner’s daughter had made it, calling it the “most unusual, unexpected thing in the world.”

She thanked her players—“basketball daughters”—and praised her 2007 Rutgers team for the class and dignity it showed after the racially insensitive comments made by Don Imus.

“I know that I stand here on the shoulders of so many,” Stringer said.

Sloan also thanked his players, his former coaches from high school to the NBA, and late Utah owner Larry Miller for sticking with him even during the team’s bad years.

“Loyalty is the No. 1 reason I’m still coaching the Jazz,” Sloan said.

Most of the attention was on Jordan, the five-time NBA MVP, but the others in the class are some of the most accomplished in the sport. Stockton is the career leader in assists and steals, Robinson won an MVP trophy and two titles in San Antonio, and Sloan is the only coach to win 1,000 games with one team.

“Unique, unique competitors,” Stockton said during the morning press conference.

Fiery ones, too. Sloan, Stockton’s longtime coach, told two different tales of fights he was in as a hard-nosed player for Chicago.

Jordan remembered scoring around 20 points in a row late in a game to pull out a win, which was followed by a conversation with Bulls assistant Tex Winter.

“Tex reminded me that there’s no ‘I’ in team,” Jordan said. “And I looked back at Tex, I said, ‘There’s ‘I’ in win.’ So whichever way you want it.”

Jordan and Robinson were All-American college players who entered the NBA with high expectations. Sloan acknowledged he wasn’t so sure about Stockton at first—and turns out, neither was Stockton.

“I thought they’d figure me out pretty quickly. I thought the Jazz would figure out that they’d made a mistake, so first paycheck I saved every cent,” Stockton said. “I was pretty sure I was a one-year-and-out guy.”

Not Jordan—who still might not be done.

“One day you might look up and see me playing a game at 50,” he said. “Don’t laugh. Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”

https://www.yahoo.com/nba

[KanadaHye]

Re: NBA News

Top Video Memories of Michael Jordan

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/nba/09/11/jordan-video-highlights/index.html?eref=sihp

[MrHyeSev]

Re: NBA News

Boozer Will Report, But Not Because He's Nice

Some hot Jazz news from yesterday that was more important than I thought: according to the Salt Lake Tribune, Carlos Boozer(notes) will be in camp:

Despite a summer of tension with the organization, Boozer will report on time and be in attendance Friday when the Jazz host media day … Boozer and the Jazz have been at odds ever since the All-Star forward decided June 30 to play the final year of his contract at $12.7 million rather than opting for free agency. Only weeks later, Boozer asserted in a series of radio interviews that he and the Jazz had mutually agreed to a trade and went so far as to name Chicago and Miami as preferred destinations.
Boozer hasn't said anything in two months, but he certainly has all but checked out. The presence of Paul Millsap(notes) has made him semi-expendable, yet they market forced him to take that one-year option. He doesn't want to be there, the Jazz would prefer to not pay him and Boozer had been running around floating trade ideas on the airwaves. Has anyone ever boycotted Jazz camp? Doesn't Sloan then come after you with a chainsaw lined with human teeth? Well, we won't find out here.

However, we shouldn't take this as evidence that all is healed. Boozer really didn't have a choice, especially if he wants to cash in next summer and/or bring in value as a trade chip this season. He needs to show he can stay healthy, remind us he can still dominate and coexist with Millsap (albeit at the expense of his individual shine). There's no question that things will be polite-to-frosty, and Boozer will play as much as Sloan see fits to both help the team and fairly give the forward his time in the sun. It's in everyone's interest.

Ironically, though, all showing up in camp and playing with the Jazz to start 2009-10 may be doing is cleaning up the mess created by Boozer's decisions over the last year or so. Some were forced, some were desperate, others were borne out of frustration. But—and maybe this is how Stern still turns out the winner—the best solution to even this peculiarly contemporary pickle is to stay mum, play hard and just make sure you and the team are working together to move you on in a way that benefits everyone.
More from Sporting News: From Russia, No Love for Nets Buyer

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[MrHyeSev]

Re: NBA News

Morrow leads Warriors past Clippers


Anthony Morrow scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half and the Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers 108-101 on Sunday night in the preseason opener for both teams.

Kelenna Azubuike added 19 points and 10 rebounds and Corey Maggette had 18 for the Warriors. Stephen Jackson(notes) scored 11 and Anthony Rudolph added 10.












AP - Oct 4, 10:06 pm EDT 1 of 7 LAC-GS Gallery Stephen Curry, the Warriors’ first round pick, made his debut in the second quarter, recording six assists. He finished with nine and was 2-of-9 from the field.




“Anybody who plays with Curry is going to be the beneficiary of open looks,” Warriors coach Don Nelson said. “He sees the court so well. He doesn’t look like it but he has quick hands and quick feet. He’s going to be a special player someday.”

DeAndre Jordan recorded a double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Clippers. He made all eight of his shots. Eric Gordon added 19 points and Chris Kaman had 13.

“I foresee improvement in all areas,” Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. “There should be more fluid play, especially with the veterans. I’m looking for the positive.”

Ricky Davis, who finished with 12 points, hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the Clippers into the final period with a 79-78 edge.

Replacement officials working the game weren’t challenged much, although at one point late in the third quarter, Clippers point guard Davis, who scored 11 points to go with five assists and seven rebounds, clearly yelled, “no way,” and got into a prolonged discussion. The officials did appear to call more offensive fouls than usual.

Jackson earned a technical foul in the first quarter, though he was among the league leaders in technicals last year and served a one-game, mandatory suspension for going over the allowed limit.

The Warriors took a 59-53 lead at halftime courtesy of Morrow’s running jump shot, which he banked in, at the buzzer.

Warriors F Brandan Wright will require surgery on his damaged left shoulder, which he injured during Friday’s practice. … The Clippers opened their preseason in Oakland for the first time in franchise history. … Clippers F Blake Griffin,the first pick of the 2009 draft, sat out the game with a left knee bruise.

https://www.yahoo.com/nba