Washington Wizards trade Antawn Jamison to the Cleveland Cavaliers
If an NBA team fails to have legitimate NBA players on the team, is it still an NBA team? The joke that is the Washington Wizards just became a bigger joke by trading away Antawn Jamison, their lone remaining quality basketball player, to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a three-team involving the Los Angeles Clippers. The Wizards will get center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the rights to non-NBA playing Slovenian forward Emir Preldzic and a worthless first-round pick from Cleveland. The Clippers are sending forward Al Thornton to the Wizards and the Wizards are sending Drew Gooden to the Clippers. The trade completes with the Clippers sending Sebastian Telfair to the Cavaliers.
A quick look at the Wizards’ roster shows just how pathetic the team is. The player with the highest scoring average is newly acquired Josh Howard with 12.6 points per game.
What are the Washington Wizards charging for seats? Unless the best seats in the house go for $5, they are over charging. Make no mistake, if you are paying money to go to a Washington Wizards game, you are paying to see the opposing team.
By dumping Antawn Jamison, the Wizards are clearly playing for ping pong balls in the up coming NBA draft lottery. Even if they do luck out and get the overall number one pick, they will surely waste it.
Remember Kwame Brown?
The New Jersey Nets make NBA history
The New Jersey Nets set a record last night by losing to the Dallas Mavericks. They have now lost there first 18 games to start the season.
The Nets are a really bad team. They have the lowest scoring average in the NBA with 86.6 points a game. They allow their opponents to score on average 96.1 points a game. That’s a really bad combination.
I couldn’t even name one player on the Nets. Looking at the roster, there best player is a 7-foot center named Brook Lopez. He’s their leading scorer (18.2 PPG) and their leading rebounder (8.9).
I’ve never heard of him.
The really silly thing about the NBA is that if the Nets gone on to lose every game this season, they still wont be guaranteed the first pick of the 2010 draft. They would only get more ping pong balls than any other team.
LeBron James to give up the number 23 and wants everyone else to do the same
Cleavland Cavalier all-star forward LeBron James has decided to give up his current number 23 and instead go with the number 6 out of respect of of former Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards guard Michael Jordan.
From Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
James wants to lead a movement to get every player who wears No. 23 in the league to give it up as a tribute to Jordan.
“I just think what Michael Jordan has done for the game has to be recognized some way soon,” James said. “There would be no LeBron James, no Kobe Bryant, no Dwyane Wade if there wasn’t Michael Jordan first.”
“He can’t get the logo, and if he can’t, something has to be done. I feel like no NBA player should wear 23. I’m starting a petition, and I’ve got to get everyone in the NBA to sign it. Now, if I’m not going to wear No. 23, then nobody else should be able to wear it.“
So if LeBron James decides not to wear a number, nobody should wear that number? I guess this is what happens when you are incapable of winning a championship. You have to resort to spearheading a movement to honor a former player of one of your team’s biggest rivals.
The game winning jumper Michael Jordan made over the Craig Ehlo in game five in the first round of the 1989 NBA playoffs is somewhat legendary. It even has it’s own Wikipedia entry. LeBron James now wants to honor the player that 20 years ago killed his team’s championship hopes? Classy.
Contrary to what LeBron James might think, there was an NBA before Michael Jordan. To think players like Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade wouldn’t have a league to ply their craft in if it wasn’t for Michael Jordan is just silly.
And Michael Jordan has a logo, it’s just not on NBA uniforms. He has his own line of clothing with a logo of himself spread out with a ball in his hand. I guess LeBron James is referring to the fact that the NBA logo features the likeness of Jerry West, not Michael Jordan. Does he have a problem with Jerry West being the logo?
I would say that LeBron James is shafting his fans by making them go out and buy another jersey with his name on it. He’s not making the number switch till next season and we all know that LeBron James will probably be wearing a New York Knicks next year anyway.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has leukemia
The greatest basketball player to ever play the game, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, has announced that he has a rare form of leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia. He’s taking an oral medication for the blood cancer. [ESPN]
Stay classy Denver
Nothing like taking an alleged sexual assault against one of your own and turning it into fodder to be used against the other team’s star player.
I’m not sure what this Nuggets fan will do with her t-shirt now that the Nuggets season is finally over.
Kobe Bryant was never convicted of raping 19-year old Katelyn Faber in a hotel room in Cordillera, Colorado back in 2003. Mostly that’s because Faber kept on changing her story as to what happened that night. She also refused to testify against Bryant in criminal court after she reached an out-of-court settlement with Bryant in civil court.
Terms of the settlement were never made public. [Photo: Deadspin]
King James
I’m pretty sure people will be talking about this shot long after LeBron James retires from the NBA, gets a pot belly, and invents his very own hot dog cooker or a solar powered crock-pot.
With time expiring, LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers launches a three-pointer from around 23 feet to win the game. This ties the best-of-seven series with the Orlando Magic to one game each.
This is why you watch sports. You hope that you might luck out and see a shot like this happen with time expiring. The proverbial buzzer beater.
I just want to go on the record and say that LeBron James is an awesome basketball player. I realize I’m really sticking my neck out on this, but that’s just the way I roll.
Yao Ming out with a broken foot
If you were planning on watching Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinal series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets later today, don’t expect to see a 7-foot-6 Chinese Man playing basketball. Houston’s all-star center Yao Ming is out the rest of the playoffs with a broken left foot. It’s the same foot he has broken before. Before his career is over, he’ll probably break it again.
Yao Ming must have a really wimpy left foot. Maybe he should stop jogging in high-tops.
Houston has been without Tracy McGrady since he had season-ending knee surgery in February. Since then, Yau Ming has been the focal point of the offense. Luckily for Houston, they have one more weapon in their basketball arsenal. If you read the New York Times, you know that one of the greatest players in the NBA is Houston Rockets forward Shane Battier. It looks like Battier will just have to strap the team on his back and take care of business. Now that he doesn’t have to contend with either McGrady or Yau Ming getting the ball, the offense can finally flow through Battier.
It should be fun to watch.
Update: Well, that certainly was not fun to watch. Shane Battier was on fire and scored 23 points proving that once again, I know nothing.
Chuck Daly 1930 – 2009
Former NBA coach Chuck Daly passed away from late stage pancreatic cancer. He was 78.
Though I hated the Detroit Pistons when he was coaching them, I always liked Daly. Now that I think about it, it makes absolutely no sense. His Pistons were tough, physical, and liked to play a little dirty. They did this under the direction of Daly. They were the team he made them to be. So why would I like the man?
He also coached the Dream Team in the Olympics. The real one. The one with Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Christian Laettner.
He always wore really nice suites and he took great care with his hair. He was a very stylish man.
He went on to coach the New Jersey Nets and the Orlando Magic after the Pistons, but he didn’t win any championship with either of those two teams.
The Oklahoma City Thunder
I just read a headline on a sports website that said the Oklahoma City Thunder have fired coach P.J. Carlesimo. At this point, I’m not sure that P.J. Carlesimo getting fired from a coaching position qualifies as news. I’ve lost count of how many times the man has been fired from an NBA team.
The headline reminded me of the fact that Oklahoma City has an NBA basketball team. During the off season, the Seattle SuperSonics pulled stakes and moved to Oklahoma. No, they aren’t being punished by the league. The owner actually wanted to move the team from Seattle to Oklahoma City.
I’d say that Thunder was the dumbest name ever for a professional basketball team, but I’m sure there is a semi-pro basketball team some where in the Philippines called something even dumber, but since I don’t understand Tagalog, I can’t really tell. I bet they named the team Thunder just so they could play the AC/DC song Thunderstruck during timeouts.
I cannot imagine them signing any quality free agents. Who would want to live in Oklahoma City when they could live anywhere else? Maybe having a perennial lottery pick team in Oklahoma City will help keep more underclassmen in college. If they know they have a good chance of being forced to play in Oklahoma City, they might just stay in school.
So much for the Sirius-XM merger not requiring a new radio
To say I’m not happy with the reality of the Sirius-XM satellite radio merger is an understatement. I’ve already blogged about the fact that they removed one of my favorite music channels. I’ve now learned that my $150, 6-month old radio does not support the new A La Carte pricing packages.
Back when the two companies were attempting to get the federal government to change the law and allow the two competing satellite radio companies to merge, this was one of the things that would make the merger cheaper for the consumer. Instead of having to pay for channels you do not want, you could select 50 total channels that you wanted and pay less then the standard $13 bucks a month.
This past May I purchased a Sirius Sportster 5. It was (and still is) the most expensive radio sold by Sirius. It does not support A La Carte pricing.
Instead of paying less, I am now paying even more. The reason? To get some of the XM-only radio programing such as the NHL and NBA along with Ron and Fez, I had to cough up another four bucks a month for their “Best of XM package”.
You can’t tell me that they could have made the A La Carte pricing package available to everyone if they chose to. Instead they are using it to sell new radios.
Luke Walton has a stalker
For the past year, Los Angeles Laker’s forward Luke Walton has been stalked by Stacy Beshear, 34, of El Segundo. From the Orange County Register:
“I would drive out, and I would see her peeking through. It would suck, because I know I’m leaving my home, and I know she’s still there. What am I supposed to do? Is she planning on breaking in? Am I going to come home one day and she’s sleeping in my bed? Is she going to steal my dog?
And to think that I thought the worse thing that could happen to an NBA player is that he could be drafted by a team that is moving to Oklahoma City.
Could someone please do Shaquille O’Neal a favor and kindly tell him how his rectum tastes?
For some unknown reason NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal is curious what his rectum tastes like. In fact, he wants fellow NBA superstar and former Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant to taste it and tell him what exactly it tastes like. I’ve got to say I find the request to be extremely troubling. Why would someone want to know what their ass tastes like?
Somethings are much better left not knowing.
Also, why would he want Kobe Bryant to be the one to find this information out? This would require Bryant to place his tongue on O’Neal’s rectum. I would think O’Neal being the rabid heterosexual man — he has fathered five children to two women — that he would not want another man to place his tongue on his body.
That includes his rectum.
I’m not sure if the NBA has any rules against players tasting the body parts of other players. If there’s not a rule in place against it, there should be. Hopefully NBA David Stern will weigh in on this matter.
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