NBA Oddities - And Other League Issues

[Bklyn]

You are Pat Riley.

It's December 2011. The lockout has come and gone. The salary cap has been sliced, leaving the Miami Heat organization with even less wiggle room than it had before the owners and players decided to go to war. Spending power is nearly nonexistent.

It's free-agent season. The Heat need a center to anchor the paint for the future, but there just isn't anyone qualified for the job willing to take the necessary pay cut. Tyson Chandler? The biggest fish on the market won't be paid like a guppy. Nene? Dream on. Sam Dalembert? Not the answer.

Sitting in front of a desk along Biscayne Bay, you evaluate the other options. Going the trade route is a possibility. Problem is, no one's knocking on the door for Mike Miller or Udonis Haslem after their injury-riddled campaigns in 2010-11. The only organization that values Joel Anthony enough for a five-year contract is yours. You're not trading any of the Big Three for obvious reasons. So, the void at center for the Miami Heat hopelessly remains.

Then the phone rings.

Otis Smith, the general manager for the Orlando Magic, is on the other end.

Dwight Howard for LeBron James.

That's the proposal on the table.

Preposterous, the idea that someone would willingly trade the most talented and wildly productive player in the game. Oh, and he's entering his prime. Throw in the fact that he's under control for two seasons and paid about a third of his on-court value. You respond to Smith with a polite thanks-but-no-thanks and cordially end the phone call.

And then, the scenario starts playing out in your head.

This would be like filling the Grand Canyon with the Grand Teton. At center, Howard is the best defensive presence in the league. Erik Spoelstra is a defensive architect who, in 2009-10, managed to scrap together the third-best squad in defensive efficiency with a frontcourt of Michael Beasley and Jermaine O'Neal. Put Howard and Spoelstra together and it's hard to imagine the Heat not becoming the basketball version of the Steel Curtain.

Looking purely at the individuals, there's a considerable drop-off going from James to Howard on the offensive end of the floor. However, basketball is not like baseball, a sport in which you can add offensive pieces with little to no regard for how they'll fit together. Yankees GM Brian Cashman didn't have to worry about any potential negative effects of sticking Alex Rodriguez next to Mark Teixeira in the batting order; they're offensive juggernauts no matter whom they play with.

Basketball isn't that simple. Putting together a fluid and effective offense is a lot like fitting puzzle pieces together, except the shapes aren't as well-defined as cardboard cutouts. When the Heat combined the forces of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, coexisting was initially an uncomfortable exercise. They fulfilled nearly identical roles on offense, and although their immense versatility prevented a completely redundant relationship, there is a substantial overlap of skill sets. As a result, James took a step back offensively (his turnover rate soared to heights unseen since he was 19 years old) and the Heat weren't the offensive machine the world expected.

For the Heat, swapping James for Howard would put Wade back as the primary option and, perhaps more importantly, allow the Heat to space the floor with a knockdown shooter. Having James or Wade stand in the corner wasn't a threatening formation, but deploying a sharpshooter such as James Jones as a decongestant? There's a reason the Heat's offense was at its best (113.3 points per 100 possessions, according to basketballvalue.com) when Jones took the floor.

Would the Heat lose some offensive punch with Howard instead of James? Perhaps, but be very careful about discounting the effect of better spacing. Chris Bosh could play in the high post and midrange, where he's most comfortable. Wade wouldn't have to worry about taking turns. (In November, Wade went as far as to say, "You don't want to take two shots in a row.") The Heat couldn't trot out two sharpshooters at the same time last season without taking something away defensively, but with Howard, that wouldn't be an issue.

For the Magic, the benefits are obvious. James is perhaps the greatest two-way player in the sport. Sure, he might not be the heavyweight anchor like Howard on defense, but he's a lockdown defender on the wing (just ask Derrick Rose and Paul Pierce) who can play virtually any position on the floor. After James dedicated himself to being a defensive force under coach Mike Brown, he has buoyed an elite defense ever since. That won't change in Orlando under coach Stan Van Gundy even though James isn't as dominant physically as Howard.

Let's look at the broader picture. Instead of watching their franchise cornerstone walk for nothing in the summer of 2012 (as many fully expect), the Magic could cash in on the greatest talent in the game and keep him through at least the 2012-13 season, after which he can become a free agent. The Orlando front office understands the catastrophic and equally plausible scenario of entering 2012-13 empty-handed. If it can avoid that organizational disaster and reel in a two-time MVP in the process, that's a home run for a franchise with a cloudy future.

If you're Riley, there are plenty of logical reasons not to entertain the idea of swapping James for Howard. In the first season of a long-term commitment, the Heat came within two wins of a title despite absorbing Mike Bibby's disastrous postseason. The team is not broken, so there's no pressing need to make a fix. Considering Wade's age and crash dummy playing style, dealing the Marquette product, instead of James, probably would be the safer choice, but the Heat front office might not have the stomach to deal the longtime face of its franchise to an intrastate rival.

In the end, here's the reality of the situation: With James, the Heat are title contenders; with Howard instead, they are still title contenders. On one hand, inserting Howard into the equation would produce a defensive powerhouse with a balanced scoring arsenal. On the other, keeping James would allow the Heat to build on a foundation that is already elite on both ends of the floor.

So, James or Howard? If you are Pat Riley, there is no wrong answer -- just the easier one.

Tom Haberstroh covers the NBA for ESPN Insider and ESPN The Magazine. He also is writing about the Miami Heat this season for the ESPN.com Heat Index and contributes to Insider's college basketball, college football and baseball coverage. He contributes to ESPN The Magazine and ESPNNewYork.com and previously worked as a consultant for ESPN Stats & Information and as an analyst for HoopData.com. You can find his ESPN archives here and follow him on Twitter here.

[Bklyn]

SIMMONS MAILBAG...

Q: Kobe is just the latest NBA star to film an awkward commercial set on an airplane. We all know about Hitler-stash Michael Jordan, but what about 12-inch PowerBook Yao Ming? If you take Michael, Kobe and Yao, and fill out a starting five with the chef from Kobe's commercial (room for improvement) and Verne Troyer from Yao's (why not), I'd still take the Airplane All-Stars over my 2011 Raptors any day of the week.
— Max, Montreal

SG: And you forgot Wilt Chamberlain's TWA ad! You could also sub Mike Bibby for Troyer and claim that Bibby was CGI'd to look tiny in the PowerBook ad — Troyer and Bibby have always been dead ringers. And if we're making it the Airplane All-Stars, we could easily sneak Kareem Abdul-Jabbar into this game (because of his Oscar-winning performance in Airplane!) — suddenly we have the Twin Towers (Yao and Kareem), Mike Bibby, Kobe and MJ going against the 10 Raptors who currently have signed contracts for the 2011-12 season (Andrea Bargnani, Jose Calderon, Leandro Barbosa, Amir Johnson, Linas Kleiza, Jerryd Bayless, DeMar DeRozan, Ed Davis, James Johnson and Solomon Alabi). In a full court game, the Raptors would crush them, obviously. But what about a 4-on-4 half-court game with subs? Can't we pay-per-view this during the lockout or something?

That reminds me, here's my dream Lockout Pay-Per-View to raise money for NBA players during the lockout. We'll charge $74.99 for Hoopapalooza and make a killing.

Event no. 1: Round 1 of our eight-team, 2-on-2 contest. Games to 30 (3s count as three, 2s count as two, plus FTs). The teams: Kobe and Gasol (the old guard); Durant and Westbrook (a new format for the Stringer/Avon subplot to bubble to the surface!); Zach Randolph and O.J. Mayo (I couldn't leave Z-Bo out, he might win this tournament by himself); Wade and LeBron (the favorites, obviously); Nowitzki and Nash (the sentimental favorites); Odom and Humphries (a.k.a. The Kardashian In-Laws!); Amar'e and Carmelo (they could take turns shooting, just like in real life); Griffin and Gordon (our young guns).1 It's basically the greatest version of NBA Jam ever. And wait, before you say, "Come on, Wade and LeBron would cruise to the title," um, didn't we say that before the 2010-11 NBA season?

Event no. 2: Duke alumni vs. UNC alumni (full court, game to 60). Obviously we're being a little loose with the word "alums," but are you really nitpicking about a game that features Kyrie Irving, Shane Battier, Elton Brand, Carlos Boozer, Mike Dunleavy Jr., J.J. Redick, Josh McRoberts, Grant Hill and Corey Maggette playing Vince Carter, Antwan Jamison, Brendan Haywood, Ty Lawson, Ed Davis, Ray Felton, Tyler Hansbrough, Marvin Williams and Rasheed Wallace (coming out of retirement!). I have the Duke guys favored by four.

Event no. 3: The semifinals of our 2-on-2 contest. Added bonus: Kobe stink-eyeing Gasol in the stands and blaming him for their first-round loss.

Event no. 4: A hot dog-eating contest between Baron Davis, Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph, Chris Kaman and DeMarcus Cousins. Need to break up the basketball a little.

Event no. 5: Another full-court game to 60, although I can't decide on the right matchup. Some possible candidates: UConn alumni vs. Florida alumni; Big East alumni vs. Pac 10 alumni; tattooed guys vs. nontattooed guys; high school diplomas vs. left-college-more-than-a-few-credits-short guys; under 6 feet vs. over 7 feet; registered Republicans vs. registered Democrats; a pickup game in which Grant Hill and Jalen Rose pick teams; Euros vs. South Americans; and Players Whose Penises Have Appeared on a Sports Blog vs. Players Whose Penises Have Not Appeared on a Sports Blog.

Event no. 6: The Finals of our 2-on-2 contest. For the record, I think Durant and Westbrook would win as long as they didn't self-combust. Young legs, too easy for them to score, and they'd play the hardest. How can you not love any format in which LeBron and Wade could choke as favorites?

(The more I'm thinking about it, I might have to charge $129.99 for Hoopapalooza 2011.)

[T Dot O Dot]

Former Georgia Tech star wanted for homicide

By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
9:31 p.m. Friday, August 26, 2011

A former NBA player and Georgia Tech standout is wanted for allegedly shooting a 23-year-old woman to death, Atlanta police said Friday night.

Javaris Crittenton faces a homicide charge in the death of Jullian Jones, according to Carlos Campos, APD spokesman.

Crittenton is not in custody and is believed to be in the Los Angeles area, Maj. Keith Meadows said. The FBI is involved with the investigation, and Atlanta authorities are hoping Crittenton will turn himself in, he said.

Jones was walking with others near 2915 Macon Drive in southwest Atlanta around 10 p.m. Aug. 19 when she was shot, Campos said.

Police believe Crittenton fired shots from a black Chevrolet Tahoe, Meadows said. There were several witnesses to the incident, he said.

Jones, a mother of four, was struck in the hip and later died during surgery. Two men walking with Jones fled and were not injured. Investigators believe one of those men was the intended target.

Crittenton may have been seeking retaliation after being robbed April 21, 2011, Campos said.

Crittenton was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the 2007 NBA Draft and was traded his rookie year to the Memphis Grizzlies.

While playing for the Washington Wizards, Crittenton was involved in a December 2009 locker room incident with then-teammate Gilbert Arenas in which the two pulled guns on each other.

On Jan. 25, 2010, Crittenton pleaded guilty and was given a year of probation on a misdemeanor gun possession charge. Two days later, Crittenton and Arenas were suspended for the rest of the season.

Crittenton wasn't re-signed by the Wizards. The Charlotte Bobcats signed him to a non-guaranteed contract before last season, but he was waived Oct. 15. He has joined the NBA Development League's Dakota Wizards.

Crittenton is former AJC "Mr. Basketball" and high school star at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy. He is originally from Fayette County and still has ties to the area, Meadows said.

Please return for updates.

--The Associated Press contributed to this article.

[AugustWest]

ACC the Conference of Class!!!!

[Bklyn]

1963 article on Bill Russell. He's an interesting dude. Shame he was a Celtic.

http://cnnsi.printthis.clickability.com ... rID=289881

[Owlman]

Sources: Blazers' Brandon Roy to retire

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/73350 ... ources-say

Bad break for the Trailblazers

[T Dot O Dot]

this is the former g-state employee who was sexually harassed by Monta

[Bklyn]

Anucha Brown, part deux

(or part ewwww)

[Bklyn]

Basketball (or Pro Athlete, to be more exact) Wives

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... iages.html

[T Dot O Dot]

nothing close to what Elin got, but Dayum

Vanessa Bryant appears to have made a three-point shot in her divorce settlement with Kobe Bryant, reports say. Allegedly, Vanessa will receive $75 million, as well all three of the couple's properties in Newport Beach, Calif.

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/vanessa ... K5mX5qNKRO

[T Dot O Dot]

heh.my buddy just replied when I emailed him the above link

Jeter >>>> MJ + Kobe + Tiger

[Bklyn]

Vanessa earned it. Kobe ain't hurting. He should've listened to his parents. Now we know the cost of that deafness.

[T Dot O Dot]

lol, more goodness

My favourite Vanessa Bryant memory was when she dropped 40.5 points on the Raptors

[Hizzy III]

"Earned". Heh.

[T Dot O Dot]

[Bklyn]

She did earn it...& I'm not a fan of her's & I can't stand gravy trainers.

[Bklyn]

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-a ... star/1025/

[Bklyn]

Bill Simmons gets his big boy pants on and scores a podcast with The President...

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-trian ... rack-obama

[Bklyn]

Fifty years later, so much remains in dispute about what's right there in black and white in the gaudiest box score line in the history of the NBA.

Exactly 50 years since Wilt Chamberlain laid an unfathomable 100 points on the New York Knicks on a Friday night in tiny Hershey, Pa., no one can seem to agree on whether Wilt's final basket came via dunk or layup.

No one can say for sure where the game ball went, either.

Fifty years removed from a magic show that came more than four decades too soon for Flip cams and video phones, 21st-century know-it-alls can't wait to tell you how Kobe Bryant's 81 points against Toronto in 2006 were actually gaudier that the untelevised, unfilmed, completely unrecorded damage Wilt inflicted at the Hershey Sports Arena on March 2, 1962.

So let's do the best we can.

On the 50th anniversary of Chamberlain's historic journey into triple digits -- with the Philadelphia 76ers hosting the Golden State Warriors later Friday and NBA TV ready to roll out its new "Wilt 100" documentary narrated by Bill Russell an hour before tipoff -- let's set the mood with an eyewitness account of what happened on the night that has come to define Chamberlain's harder-to-believe 1961-62 season stats.

In '61-62, you'll recall, Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds per game.

Averaged.

Al Attles certainly remembers. Now 75 and serving as a Warriors executive, he was one of Chamberlain's Philly Warriors teammates that night. In a recent visit with ESPN.com, Attles shared his 50-year-old recollections from what was just the Warriors' third game that season in their training camp home of Hershey … one that drew a mere 4,124 fans and virtually no media coverage from even the print or photo realms.

Here's Attles on:

The achievement itself

"There's two things that I always talk about when I talk about that game. One is that we won the game. So many people I've talked to over the years say, 'You played in the game where the guy scored 100 points and you lost the game.' We won the game, so that's a fact. It bothers me -- it shouldn't, but it does -- that a lot of people want to put a losing tag on it and say Wilt scored 100 points and they lost the game. We didn't lose the game.

"The other thing is that Wilt tried to come out of the ballgame before he got 100 points. A lot of people thought he was being selfish or trying to rub it in. No. He wasn't trying to do that. He tried to come out, but [then-Warriors coach] Frank McGuire would not take him out. He had driven up from New York [that day], and he was tired. He tried to come out because the game was won, but Frank wouldn't listen. But the thing I'm happiest about is that he didn't score another point after 100. One hundred points sounds a lot better to me than 102 or 104 or whatever it is."

Wilt driving to the game all the way from New York City

"We went [as a team] from Philadelphia to Hershey on a bus, but Wilt rode up from New York with Johnny Green and Willie Naulls [of the Knicks]. Wilt tells the story that, on the way back, he had to sit in the backseat pretending to be asleep because Willie and Johnny were really giving him a hard time. They were saying things like they were going to put him out on the freeway or something. Pretty heavy stuff.

"But he actually told me [before tipoff] that he was going to have a hot game, because when he got to Hershey he went to one of those arcades. You have to remember that a lot of times we didn't have a hotel to go to before a game [on short trips] to take a rest like they do now so [teams] could save a little money. So we would just go straight to the arena. But first he went to one of those arcades to play a rifle game. And he said he was so hot shooting that gun that he knew he was going to have a hot game. Now, he didn't tell me he'd score 100 points, but he thought that was one of the reasons."

Why Wilt was allowed to live in New York during the season and drive to a game separately from the rest of his teammates

"Think about what you just said. There were a lot of things allowed back then that aren't allowed now. How about playing 18 games in 21 days? A lot of things went on back then that wouldn't be allowed today, but you have to understand that the league was in a different place. He followed all the rules he was supposed to follow. They knew that he would get to the game on time. You have to understand that we're talking 1962. There was a lot of that going on back then. For instance, I lived in Newark. If I wanted to go home during the season, I could.

"There's so many things that Wilt never did that people thought he did. He was the star of the team, but he still adhered to all the rules everybody else adhered to. It was kind of a loose business back then. He didn't get on the bus to Philadelphia from Hershey because he came from New York. He was the owner of Small's Paradise -- that's mainly why he lived in Harlem during the season [to run his nightclub] -- but he never missed a practice.

"Newark was 96 miles from Philadelphia, so he had to go another 10 miles to get to New York City. But think about this: After every practice, Wilt drove back to New York. And after every game, Wilt drove back to New York. So he's going up and down that turnpike basically every day, because you didn't have a lot of days off back then.

"But when you tell people that, usually the first thing they'll say is that you're saying that because he's a friend of yours. That upsets me, because it means you're telling me that I can't be objective about a friend, which I can. I only played in Philadelphia for two years, but I don't ever remember Wilt missing a practice. Now sometimes he wanted to be a guard in practice, but he never missed one."

The historic basket to get him to triple digits

"I don't remember the exact number, but what happened was, [PA announcer] Dave Zinkoff started calling out every point [after] every basket. I don't know exactly at what point he started, but Zink was such a great announcer with such a distinctive voice, you can still hear it in your head today. 'Thaaaaat's 82.'"

"But for the longest time -- and I was there -- I had visions of how he scored the 100th point, and I was wrong. I thought he had three offensive rebounds and finally put it in. It wasn't 'til later on that I found out that Joe Ruklick actually passed the ball to him and then he scored the 100th point. But that will happen to you as you get older. You'll see."

The farcical nature of the fourth quarter

"We were obviously trying to get [the ball] to him, and of course the Knicks were trying everything to stop him from getting to 100. The Knicks started holding the ball and fouling other players [besides Wilt], so Frank McGuire tried to counteract that by having us foul back to get the ball back. Wilt's teammates were egging him on to get the 100 and the fans wanted him to get to 100, but the Knickerbockers weren't too thrilled about it. So I can't deny that it turned into a foulfest, but there were fouls on both sides of the ledger.

"Opinions are like a nose -- everyone has one. So I'm sure there are a lot of people you could talk to who have an opinion on that night and were not really thrilled with what happened that night. There's always going to be people knocking [Chamberlain], but you're talking about someone who elevated this game of basketball."

Chamberlain's postgame mood

"He was very disappointed in the locker room. Teammates were going crazy, but he had a mad look on his face. So I asked him, 'Big Fella, what's the matter? He had just gotten the stat sheet in his hand, and he used to sweat profusely. Water was coming down just like he was in a rain shower. Wilt was looking at the stat sheet and he said, 'I never thought I would take 63 shots in a game.' So I said, 'But you made 36.'"

Chamberlain's 28-for-32 showing at the free throw line and the role that the famously forgiving rims at Hershey Arena played in making history

"Evidently you've talked to somebody about that arena. Because we used to say that those rims were like sewers. As long as you got it up on the rim, there was a great chance that it was going in. But you can make any judgment you want. Both teams had to play with those rims, and both teams had to play in that arena. Unless you denigrate it for everybody, you don't denigrate it for him. He just had an incredible night. [Going] 28-for-32 was obviously what got him over the hump, but I feel badly when people try to poke holes in it. Both teams had to play in that gym."

The tragic lack of television footage from the game

"The problem was that they didn't have overhead lights in that arena. Now if that game had been in Convention Hall [in Philadelphia], they would have been able to film it. That picture with Wilt holding up the piece of paper [famed Philadelphia statistician] Harvey Pollack gave him with 100 on it, that's the only thing left that shows what happened.

"I feel badly that for whatever reason people want to knock him. We're talking about a feat that, unless they change the scoring even more dramatically [than adding a 3-point shot], I have a hard time seeing how anybody will ever score 100 points.

"I still talk to Wilt's sister quite a bit. And what I tell Barbara is, those of us who were there that night or even just played with Wilt, we have a story to tell. And it's very, very important to tell that story. First of all, it's important because, as everyone knows, there's no clear film of the game. A number of books have been written, but the thing about books, I've read books from people who were not there that came up with things that just didn't happen.

"But the main reason it's important is to keep his legacy alive. Not just the 100-point game, but his entire body of work. It's just human nature, but as time goes on, people tend to denigrate things that happened a long time ago. 'He scored 100 points, but who'd he play against?' You still hear things like that. People for some reason felt he had an advantage physically over everyone else, so then he should have done all these things. I don't buy that theory."

What happened to the game ball

"For a long time, I was thought to have the ball. [Various reporters] used to crucify me because they thought I had it. I don't have the basketball. And I don't really know what happened to the ball.

"I have a basketball that Wilt gave me, but it's not the 100-point ball. He gave me a ball and signed it and had a plaque made with it. And what it says is: 'To Al … who did all the right things at the wrong time.' And what he really meant was that I didn't miss a shot that night [going 8-for-8 from the field], but no one remembers. It's great to be the second-leading scorer … you think you're doing OK until you see that the guy who was No. 1 had 100 points.

"But when I showed people that ball, they saw the commissioner's name on the ball is Walter Kennedy. The commissioner [when Wilt scored 100 points] was actually Maurice Podoloff. We all signed the ball on the [team] bus, because we were told the ball was going to be sent to the Hall of Fame. But I don't know what happened after that."

Whether anyone will ever duplicate Wilt's feat or get any closer than Kobe's 81 points

"We're talking about something that has never been done before or since. For something like that to happen, lots of things have to fall into place. I just don't think that it can happen again.

"Today's coaches would make it almost impossible. The organized double-teams you see today didn't happen back then. The only team going back to when I was playing that would kind of have double teams would be Boston. For instance, they'd put [Jim] Loscutoff in back of Wilt and [Bill] Russell in front. But it wasn't organized.

"Then you have to talk about the skills Wilt had. I don't know if we'll ever see another guy who has the skills of Wilt playing that close to the basket. If there are 10 things that basketball players are supposed to do, maybe some guys could do seven well or eight well, but Wilt was the only guy I ever knew who could do nine out of 10 well … everything but shoot free throws. I know you've got the 3-point shot now, but I don't know who would physically be able to do it the way he did it.

"So I would be very surprised if it ever happened again. That's the beauty of it."

[Chuck Nevitt]

Good article.

I don't want to denigrate Wilt either - if he played in this era he'd likely lead any well-assembled team to a few titles. But back then he was typically guarded by guys who were shorter and couldn't hold position all that well. He was ahead of his time. Even in the Seventies you sometimes saw 6'9" centers. Not now.