Things are heating up for Chris Paul.
So, if the Lakers want to keep Bynum, that means Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom are on the trade block. It makes sense to want to keep Bynum because of his age and his promise, but has he ever played a full season?
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Things are heating up for Chris Paul.
So, if the Lakers want to keep Bynum, that means Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom are on the trade block. It makes sense to want to keep Bynum because of his age and his promise, but has he ever played a full season?
Defensive specialist Shane Battier took to Twitter to announce his decision to sign with the Miami Heat. Battier will obviously improve Miami’s lack of depth on the bench and maybe a strong emotional leader.
Free agents will be able to officially sign with teams starting on Friday. It should make for an interesting weekend of stories and rumors. Just remember, don’t believe anything that ESPN’s Chris Broussard and his sources tell you. Even if he tells that the earth is round and that water is wet, still handle that with an extreme amount of skepticism.
Art Garcia highlights the upcoming free-agent class of 2011 and beyond.
Sweet horns, Ronnie Brewer.
The Brad Miller era in the City of Wind is over…. : (
Miller is going to the City of Syrup and back up Yao Ming and hang out with old coach Rick Adelman and the twee Kevin Martin.
See, just like Raja Bell, Matt Barnes has a history of Kobe getting heated at him. Ok…so almost everyone has annoyed Kobe during his career, but I think tomorrow Barnes announces: “I’m taking my talents & tattoos to 1111 S. Figueroa Street.
(winston wolfe)
In addition, Juwan Howard may/will join the Heat as well.
So, The Heat have the big three and two old dudes at center. Have fun defending Dwight Howard in the playoffs!
From ESPN’s Marc Stein:
The seemingly hard-to-picture prospect of Kobe Bryant and old nemesis Raja Bell playing for the same team remains alive.
The longtime rivals will sit down for a face-to-face chat Wednesday in Los Angeles to further discuss the feasibility of the Lakers signing Bell in free agency, sources close to the situation said.
Bell is traveling to Los Angeles this week to watch the ESPYs and has arranged to meet with Bryant to hear the Lakers’ face of the franchise make yet another recruiting pitch to the 33-year-old swingman.
For those who don’t remember the bad blood between Bell and Bryant, watch this. What’s interesting though is that Bryant is the one pursuing Bell and asking him to join the Lakers this season. Granted, the Lakers do not have a lot of money left over to sign Bell, but it could be an interesting mix for the defending champs.
No word yet if the Lakers will resign Shannon Brown; in theory Bell would replace Brown in the back court. Yes, I’m a fan of Shannon Brown’s dunks, but Bell despite his age would be a great improvement in terms of back court defense.
(Photo by Jeff Topping, Reuters)
(D.R.)
Michael Jordan was always very image conscious, of course, but his image was always that of the consummate competitor. He was driven. He wanted all of us to know that what he was driven. That what he cared about the absolute most was competition, because through competition comes the valor of winning.
Michael Jordan wanted to win, but he wanted to beat the best to be the best.
The best: Magic, Drexler, Isiah, Ewing, Riley, Barkley, Reggie, Shaq, Payton, Stockton and Malone. He beat them.
Competing to win means fearing not to lose, and that is the major criticism of LeBron right now, in the wake of his Miami move. It’s that, while certainly he has put himself in a position to win, he did it at great sacrifice to the spirit of competition.
Competitiveness means that you want to beat your friends, not take less money to join them. It means that when you run into Paul Pierce in L.A. you wish him well, because you want another shot at beating him in the Finals, as Phil Jackson famously did.
It means that you make a good friend at the Olympics, but then you try to rip his heart out in the Western Conference Finals, as Kobe and Carmelo did. You don’t plot to team up with him so that you can hang out on the beach together and make it look easy.
The summer of LeBron is notable for so many reasons, but the one that sticks out for me most is fear. Fear of taking the challenge. Fear of leading your hometown to its first ever title; fear of leading a mecca like New York from the doldrums back to glory; fear of taking up a mantle in Chicago bequeathed by the best player ever to play the sport. fear of saying no to easy vices; fear of saying no to good friends. Fear of failure.
It made me think of this particular Jordan commercial- sober and surmising. What made Jordan commercials so good was that they were all angles on what was most important about the product, and what was most important about the product was what was most important to the man. Most people consider that to have been winning, but I assure you it was not. Winning was the desired conclusion. What was most important was the competition.
Brian Windhorst breaks down how the Wade-Bosh-James partnership came together, with the seeds planted way back in 2006 during the World Championships in Japan. In the end, it doesn’t sound like Cleveland was even LeBron’s second choice.
Windhorst also nails down some of the non-basketball reasons that contributed to the decision:
“It was also made known to James that the Heat would take care of his friends the same way the Cavs did — special treatment at the arena, changing practice and travel schedules to allow for money-making late-night parties in various cities, and perhaps even hiring a James associate in a high-paying position in the organization.”
Another solid vet looking to join the NWO Heat.
He averaged 7 points, 5 rebounds, and a block a game last year, while playing about 20 mins a game.
The Heat are now linked in varying degrees of interest—a couple probably have agreements already while other will use Heat as leverage to sign for more $$ elsewhere— to the follwoing players to round out their roster:
LeBron James met Fisher at the airport and gave his own pitch as to why the five-time NBA champion should join forces with James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in South Beach, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
It was a short meeting, as James was at the airport and on his way to New York to attend Denver star Carmelo Anthony’s wedding Saturday evening.
But James clearly went out of his way to wait for Fisher to arrive and meet with him for a few minutes.
Your move Lakers.
There is at least a certain amount of speculation that Tracy McGrady might end up signing with the L.A. Lakers. McGrady has always been an enigma, but then again is he any more flaky than Odom on a sugar high? Perhaps just more injury prone.
What McGrady can do for you is put up 35 without sweating. He can control games offensively, and take it at great players, when he’s motivated. He has legendary talent. And in L.A. he would have a legendary coach and a legendary player motivating him. Just a thought.
We’ll see what shakes out, but don’t be shocked to see the Lake Show make a couple more moves in reaction to the Miami tsunami. After all, this is Phil’s last dance.
