NBA SEASON STARTS NOW!!!

[grishnak boss]

Interesting facts:

For the first time in NBA history, the Larry O’Brien Trophy is headed to Dallas.

The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat 105-95, becoming the fourth franchise in the past 20 postseasons to claim their first NBA title (2006 Heat, 1999 San Antonio Spurs and 1994 Houston Rockets).

They became the fifth team to win the NBA title as a No. 3 seed or lower since the current NBA playoff format began in 1984.

Jason Terry led the Mavericks with a game-high 27 points off the bench, scoring 19 in the first half.

Terry tied for the most points off the bench by a player in a series-clinching NBA Finals win since the NBA-ABA merger, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Manu Ginobili had 27 points when the Spurs beat the Cleveland Cavaliers (and LeBron James) in 2007.

Dirk Nowitzki
Nowitzki
Despite shooting 9-of-27 from the field in the series clincher, Dirk Nowitzki finished with 21 points including 10 in the fourth quarter.

Such efforts down the stretch, in addition to his overall performance for the series, earned Nowitzki the NBA Finals MVP. Nowitzki is just the fourth player born outside the U.S. to win the Finals MVP.

Nowitzki entered this postseason having scored 22,792 points in the regular season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the fourth-most by a player at the time of his first NBA title, trailing only Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, and West.

LeBron James led Miami with 21 points and Dwyane Wade added 17 points, but the two combined for 11 of the Heat's 17 turnovers.

For the series, James and Wade combined for 62 fourth-quarter points. Nowitzki, by himself, scored a total of 62 points in the fourth quarter of the series.

While James had a better showing in the fourth quarter in Game 6 than in previous games, his overall scoring was still well below his standards.

He finished with a 17.8 scoring average for the series, 8.9 points worse than what he averaged during the regular season (26.7).

Largest Dropoff in PPG
Regular Season to NBA Finals
Diff
2010-11 LeBron James -8.9
1963-64 Wilt Chamberlain -7.7
1971-72 Jerry West -6.0
1986-87 Kevin McHale -5.6
1980-81 Moses Malone -5.4
2006-07 LeBron James -5.3
>Min. 25 PPG during regular season

>Source: Elias Sports Bureau

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 8.9 points per game differential is the largest dropoff from the regular season to the NBA Finals in NBA history (among players who averaged at least 25 PPG during the regular season).

Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle improves to 11-3 all-time in potential series-clinching games, the best record in such games in NBA history (min. 10 games).

Carlisle joins Pat Riley (1982 Lakers) as the only coaches in the last 30 seasons to win an NBA title in their Finals coaching debut with a team that had a worse regular season record than its opponent.

And at 38 years old Jason Kidd became the second-oldest player to start in and win the NBA Finals. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was older. He won in 1987 and 1988 with the Lakers at ages 39 and 40.

Kidd and Nowitzki become the fifth and sixth players in NBA history to win their first NBA title after already making 10 or more All-Star teams.

The others? Jerry West, Kevin Garnett, Oscar Robertson and Elvin Hayes.

[Space Bear]

http://governor.ohio.gov/LinkClick.aspx ... D&tabid=70

[johnk5150]

When the two sides meet this summer and the owners try to ask the players to take less money, I hope the first thing Hunter tells Stern is 'Kill the fucking WNBA'.

For every dollar the owners want the players to give back the players need to add back a dollar for how much the NBA has dumped into that losing league.

[Subhuman Yeti]

NBA owners now offering players ‘flex cap’

What NBA commissioner David Stern described as a “critical’’ day for labor negotiations in hopes of avoiding a lockout turned into a four-hour session that resulted in progress but also more questions.

After offering a $45 million hard cap the past few months — an offer steadfastly rejected by the Players Association — Stern called the league’s new proposal a “flex cap’’ that would set a median salary cap at $62 million and eliminate the large disparity in spending among teams.

This past season, the Los Angeles Lakers had the league’s highest payroll at $91 million, while the Sacramento Kings spent a league-low $44 million. The owners want to implement an “NHL-type’’ system, according to deputy commissioner Adam Silver, one that would allow teams to exceed the $62 million cap but would also place the financial onus on the players if the average payroll of all 30 teams exceeded $62 million.

The league is seeking to lower overall player salaries, limit guaranteed contracts, and reduce player basketball-related income. Stern promised during a press conference at the Omni Berkshire Hotel yesterday that player revenues would not dip below $2 billion per season.

However, the new proposal is dramatically different from the current plan, which has a $58.044 million salary cap and levies a dollar-for-dollar penalty for teams that exceed the luxury tax of $70.3 million, which the Celtics have done the past several seasons.

The Players Association said it will spend the next three days determining whether it interprets this proposal as a hard cap with different language. The players asked to meet again Friday in New York.

“The owners believe that the system modifications that we have requested make a lot of sense to make sure that our teams are both competitive and profitable,’’ Stern said. “We have modified our proposal to a ‘flex cap,’ where there is a targeted salary but teams can go above it and teams will have a minimum below it, which is more flexible than our last offer.

“We think this is virtually the best shot we have to demonstrate to the players our good faith, our desire to go as far as we can to avoid a lockout.’’

Stern would not say whether this was the owners’ final offer, but he did appear close to the end.

“This makes 10 proposals that have gone back and forth, at least,’’ he said. “We think we’ve demonstrated that we’re here to try to make a deal.’’

According to Players Association president Derek Fisher of the Lakers, the sides have not agreed on any of the smaller issues because they are interconnected with the hard cap and guaranteed salaries.

“So far, there hasn’t been much movement at all,’’ Fisher said. “It’s been characterized in different ways; essentially they want to create a hard salary cap.

“We just don’t see it, for the reasons why we’ve been given, as necessary. We feel that teams have shown the ability to be creative and pay the guys they want to pay and not pay the guys they don’t want to pay. We feel that teams should have that opportunity independently and be able to run their businesses the way they see fit.

“We continue to toss ideas out and express our willingness to move on certain parts of the deal, but there are certain parts we have no interest on moving on.’’

Players Association executive director Billy Hunter did not sound optimistic, but like Stern, he refused to close the door on striking a deal before the current collective bargaining agreement expires June 30.

He repeated that the players will not strike if the owners continue to negotiate in good faith, and he asked the owners to refrain from a lockout.

“I would think someone has to make a big move, that’s a good way to characterize it,’’ Hunter said. “I guess there are some concerns on their side to stem their expenses and obviously they have been calling for a guaranteed return on investment, which we have difficulty with.

“We’re hopeful that something can transpire, that we can structure a deal. It has to be a win-win. We have said all along we’re not going to accept a bad deal, not at least without a fight. The question is whether or not we can avoid the fight.’’


http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball ... _flex_cap/

A$$HOLE says, "Smell my finga!"

[johnk5150]

A$$HOLE says, "Smell my finga!"

The godfather is in for a hella fight. I believe he'll win because his main employees are athletes for a reason. They're not Harvard graduates investing their millions wisely.

[Space Bear]

Oh great, Stern... thanks to your contract dispute, the Chinese Democracy of the Magic is still out of reach:

NBA's labor problems lead Fran Vázquez to spurn the Orlando Magic yet again

The NBA's gloomy labor situation has helped prompt Spanish big man Fran Vázquez to spurn the Orlando Magic yet again.

The former Magic first-round draft pick on Tuesday extended his contract with Regal FC Barçelona by one year to run through the 2011-12 season, ending the Magic's immediate hopes of adding Vázquez to their roster.

But Vázquez's Spain-based agent, José Cobelo, said in a phone interview with the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday that his client would be interested in joining the Magic after his contract with Barçelona ends — assuming the NBA's labor woes are cleared up by that time.

"Of course Fran would give serious consideration to the Magic," Cobelo said. "That has been his intention all of these years. He signed with Barçelona for a year to keep that door open. Once we get a tangible offer we will evaluate it. Unfortunately, we can't do that now with the potential of a lockout lurking."

Indeed, the NBA's current collective bargaining agreement with its players is set to expire on July 1, and a lockout seems all but inevitable.

If there is a truncated season or if the season must be scuttled altogether, players will not get paid for missed games.

"The Magic, with the potential of a lockout, weren't a viable option for Fran," Cobelo said. "We don't know with any degree of certainty what the conditions would be or whether he'd get to play [any games because of the labor situation]."

Regal FC Barçelona announced Vázquez's extension on its English-language website, and Cobelo confirmed the length of the extension.

Vázquez, 28, was selected by the Magic with the 11th overall pick in the 2005 NBA draft and has never signed with the team.

The Magic will continue to hold his NBA rights.

Magic team officials had hoped Vázquez would make the jump to the NBA this summer because his contract with Barçelona was about to expire.

But General Manager Otis Smith and Assistant General Manager Dave Twardzik said all along that the NBA's uncertain labor situation would play a role in Vázquez's decision.

Smith did not return a phone call Tuesday.

"In an ideal situation, we'd like to sign him," Smith said in March.

"But with the CBA, it's not in his best interest to sign a contract if there is a work stoppage. What if? I'm not saying that there will be, but what if? Then he misses an opportunity to play and make money, at least for a while. That's the rub."

Fran Vázquez starts now!

[Subhuman Yeti]

Chinese Democrappy fucking sucks, Fran Vázquez sounds like he is playing this situation smart.

Despite showing his stupidity by actually wanting to play for one of America's wang teams...

[Space Bear]

For all I know, Fran could be the greatest player ever. Or not. Regardless, it's par for the Magic course... they can't do shit right. Here's a fun read showcasing their awesome decision-making skills.

[LAglamrocker]

does NBA store have 2nd place Heat shirts yet?

[Subhuman Yeti]

Police: Timberwolves' Michael Beasley ticketed on marijuana, speeding charges

Michael Beasley averaged a career-high 19.2 points a game in his first season playing for the Timberwolves in 2010-11.

Michael Beasley, who had hoped to put marijuana issues behind him when he came to the Timberwolves last year, was ticketed June 26 for allegedly speeding and having marijuana in his car, according to police.

Beasley, who told police that the marijuana belonged to a friend, according to the police report, appears safe from any potential action by the team or the NBA with the league in lockout mode. But a prosecutor said Wednesday he'll take Beasley back to court after the 22-year-old allegedly violated terms of an earlier plea deal.

Beasley had been placed on probation for a year in March in Hennepin County but agreed to a deal to dismiss the charges if he could go 12 months without a traffic violation.

But about 3:14 a.m. June 26, a Minnetonka police officer on Interstate 394 spotted Beasley's car allegedly going 84 mph in a 65-mph zone. When the officer stopped the player's black 2009 Dodge Charger, the officer said, he smelled marijuana.

Officers searched the car and said they found a bag containing 16.2 grams (about a half-ounce) of marijuana under the front passenger seat - a discovery that elicited an expletive from Beasley, according to the police report.

Beasley, the officer later wrote, "appeared overly nervous while I searched his vehicle."

Golden Valley City Prosecutor Francis Rondoni said that, because of the new charges, he'll seek to send Beasley back to court for re-sentencing on the March case and that this time "we may not be so lenient with him."

Emanuel Serstock, the Minnetonka attorney who has represented Beasley in other traffic cases, did not immediately return a call for comment. Timberwolves spokesman Mike Cristaldi said nobody in the organization can comment because of the lockout, instituted by the league when its collective bargaining agreement expired June 30.

If this were deemed his third violation of the league's marijuana policy under the old CBA, Beasley could face a five-game suspension. The No. 2 draft choice in 2008 for the Miami Heat was kicked out of the NBA's rookie seminar for alleged marijuana use. He spent 30 days in a Houston rehab clinic in the summer of 2009 for substance abuse.

Despite the 6-foot-10 Beasley's talent, his work ethic and off-court issues made him expendable, especially after the Heat signed free agents LeBron James and Chris Bosh last offseason. Miami traded him to the Timberwolves for two second-round picks. After coming to Minnesota, Beasley acknowledged he made some bad decisions in Miami.

"I'm excited to show my drive, my will and winning attitude," Beasley said at his introductory Wolves news conference last July. "This is a new beginning for me. A lot of my game hasn't been shown. A lot of my personality hasn't been shown."

At the same news conference, Timberwolves president of basketball operations David Kahn said he told Beasley he would be judged "on what he does here." Later that month, Kahn told a local radio station that Beasley was "a very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana" - a comment the league deemed "inappropriate" when it fined Kahn and the team $50,000 each. In the same interview with KSTP-AM 1500, Kahn also said he trusted Beasley when the player told him he was no longer smoking marijuana.

"He has developed a really good support system around him this past season in Miami," Kahn told the ESPN Radio affiliate. "He has hired people to help him grow up. He is growing up - he's not grown up. He's 21 ... and if you think back, as I do all the time, to when I was 21, and if you had given me this kind of money and put me in this kind of world with these kinds of pressures attached to it and some of the demands, I don't know how well I would have handled it, any easier than, say, he has. Some of these kids simply deserve the opportunity to make mistakes and grow up."

Last season, Beasley averaged a career-high 19.2 points a game and seemed to establish himself as a key part of the Timberwolves' rebuilding efforts.

Beasley also was a repeat defendant in Hennepin County court.

On Dec. 9, 2010, Beasley was charged with failing to obey a traffic control device and not having a valid driver's license. At a March hearing, he agreed to a deal for a year's probation with no plea. If he could go a year without any similar violations or moving violations, the charges would be dropped, although he did pay $500 in prosecution costs.

"I recall the fact it was not a particularly heinous crime," Rondoni said.

Two days after that, though, he was charged with speeding, for going 70 mph in a 55-mph zone Feb. 12. On April 18, he pleaded guilty, and Hennepin County District Judge Denise Reilly fined him $39 and assessed $78 in fees.

In his most recent case, Minnetonka police officer Jason Tait wrote that he was on routine patrol about 3 a.m. heading west on I-394 when he saw a Charger with Florida license plates traveling "at a high rate of speed."

He wrote that he used his car's radar to clock the car at 84 mph, then turned on his emergency lights and pulled the vehicle over.

After another Minnetonka officer arrived, Tait searched the car and said he found a bag with a "green leafy substance" under the front passenger seat, "within reach of Beasley."

"I showed Beasley the baggie I had located in his vehicle," wrote Tait. "Beasley shook his head and stated (expletive)!
http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_18419051?source=rss

(expletive)!

Stupid Minnesota, another US state run by stupid assholes.

[LAglamrocker]

wil Miami hang 2nd place banner? like other loser teams like Utah, or Dallas?

Cuban needs to take down the 2nd place banner

[Subhuman Yeti]

Nets guard Vujacic signs with Turkish club


Posted Jul 15 2011 3:45PM

ANKARA (AP) -- New Jersey Nets guard Sasha Vujacic has signed with a Turkish team for next season.

Anadolu Efes said Friday the 27-year old Slovenian guard agreed to a one-year deal with an optional second year. It did not say whether Vujacic has an option to return to New Jersey if the NBA lockout is lifted.

Vujacic averaged 11.4 points in 56 games last season for the Nets. He joined the Nets in a three-team deal in December from the Los Angeles Laker. He played there for six seasons, winning two NBA titles.

With the next NBA season threatened by the lockout, Turkish club Besiktas has previously said it is close to signing Nets All-Star guard Deron Williams. Nets' draft pick Bojan Bogdanovic signed with Fenerbahce of the Turkish League in June.

Istanbul-based Efes has won 13 national titles.

nba.comE ON ALREADY,YOU FUCKING A$$HOLES!

CHEERS SASHA!

[Subhuman Yeti]

The Big Dipper's status can't be eroded with time


A message to the generations of basketball fans who have grown up in the nearly four decades since Wilt Chamberlain retired or the dozen years since his death:

You have no clue.

There has always been big. Wilt was bigger.

He was always so large and so strong and so many of his feats so utterly overwhelming, it was simply not enough to call him the best player in the land or on the planet. Too narrow, too constraining. He needed an entire constellation as a description: the Big Dipper.

Wilt was, as the song says, a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction. He is the only player ever to lead the NBA in scoring, rebounding and assists, but usually found it difficult to make a simple free throw.

Wilt once averaged 48.5 minutes over an entire season in a game that lasts 48 minutes (he played all of the overtimes) and yet somehow was constantly having his competitive nature questioned.

Those who played with him and against him always readily admitted that Chamberlain was far and away the strongest man in the house every time he walked out onto the court and still to many, the enduring image is the giant gentle too soft in the clutch.

Wilt was to basketball what Moby Dick was to whales what Paul Bunyan was to logging, what King Kong was to Manhattan skyscrapers. Though he played his last NBA game with the L.A. Lakers in 1973, he still holds more than four dozen records.

Frank McGuire was the coach when Wilt played for the Philadelphia Warriors and prior to the 1961-62 schedule, he called each of his players into his office individually for a discussion on goals and plans for the season.

"When Wilt came in, I asked him how long he'd like to play," the late McGuire once recalled. He said, 'Forever.' I almost fell off my chair. I said, 'No, Wilt, in a game.' He said, 'I don't ever have to come out of a game.' And he didn't."

That was the season that Chamberlain wound up averaging more minutes than are played in a regulation game and also averaged 50.4 points. It was also the season when he scored 100 points in a single game (March 2, 1962) against the New York Knicks. He also once made 35 shots in a row without a miss.

"You name it and there's not a single thing that Wilt couldn't do on the basketball court if he wanted," said the late Jack McMahon, who played and coached against Chamberlain for two decades. "He was that much the superior athlete."

At 7-1 1/2 and 275 pounds during his professional career, Wilt had been a speedy quarter-miler and cross country runner during his high school days at Overbrook High in Philadelphia and an athletic, leaping long jumper during his college career at the University of Kansas. His body was such a taut cord of muscles and possessed such power that nobody was so surprised when he came very close to signing a contract to box Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight championship of the world.

"In terms of power, you'd have given him a chance," McMahon said. "The only question is whether he would have pulled the trigger on his punches. I always said it was a damn good thing that God made Wilt such a nice guy, because if he'd have been mean, he might have killed people."

As it was, Chamberlain merely destroyed most of the statistical standards in the game. The basketball rule writers literally changed the game to try to stop him. The lane was widened to push him farther away from the basket. Inbounding the ball over the top of the backboard, where only he could catch it and drop it through the hoop, was banned. Leaping from the foul line to dunk free throws was outlawed.

When the topic of all-time greatest player was once raised, a fellow named Larry Bird didn't hesitate. "Let me tell you something," Bird said. "For a while, they were saying that I was the greatest. And before me, it was Magic who was the greatest. And then it's Michael's turn. But open up the record book and it will be obvious who the greatest is."

Michael Jordan would come along behind Chamberlain to score 50 or more points in a game 39 times over the entire course of his legendary career, the number that Wilt averaged over a full 82-game schedule. When Kobe Bryant scored 81 eye-popping points against Toronto in 2006, he was still 19 short of Wilt's total against the Knicks.

Yet for all of his tremendous feats and awe-inspiring numbers, Wilt's image perennially suffered in comparison with his friend and rival in dueling goatees Bill Russell, who won 11 championships with the Boston Celtics compared to Chamberlain's two (Philly and L.A.). All throughout the 1960s, the NBA seemed to exist in black-and-white images on small TV screens to show Russell and his superior Celtics teams outfoxing and outclassing Wilt's Warriors and Lakers.

Russell has been universally acclaimed as the greatest team player in the history of American sports and Chamberlain painted as his taller, stat-piling foil, who constantly came up short in the end.

However, one man knows the inaccuracy of the portrait that's been painted.

"Nobody seems to appreciate what an incredible player Wilt was," Russell said at 1997 All-Star Game when the league named and honored its 50 greatest players. "He was the best player of all time because he dominated the floor like nobody else ever could. To be that big and that athletic was special."

In a sky full of stars, the Big Dipper will always stand out.
http://www.nba.com/2011/news/features/f ... index.html

[Skate4RnR]

He played for the best.