NBA

Am I the only one that’s interested in the goings-on of the ever entertaining former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury? Guess so…well for the few that may care I ran across this tidbit of information today from InsideHoops.

The Associated Press is reporting that Mr. Marbury has agreed to three or more years with a Chinese basketball team.  But the real catchy part is that the teams owners are also planning to set up a company to produce and sell his line of athletic apparel and shoes.

In 2009:

Marbury played 15 games last season with Shanxi Zhongyu of the Chinese Basketball Association. The point guard was a fan favorite in the rustbelt city of Taiyuan, showing none of the defiant personality that had alienated management, teammates and fans in the U.S.

According to Inside Hoops, Marbury, 33, will play two more years and may be asked to become an assistant coach in the third.

Fascinating!  This man has parlayed his antics in America into a lucrative financial and athletic deal for himself.  I’m impressed!

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From ESPN

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Relatives and friends of Lorenzen Wright gathered Wednesday and grieved for the former NBA player who has been missing for 10 days, as police investigated the discovery of a man’s body outside of Memphis.

Wright’s uncle, Curtis Wright, told The Associated Press that police called the player’s father, Herb Wright, on Wednesday afternoon with the news he had died.

Sgt. Alyssa Macon-Moore of the Memphis Police Department wrote in an e-mail to the AP that police were investigating the death of an unidentified man beside a wooded area about 15 miles south of downtown Memphis. Asked if the man was Wright, she wrote they could not confirm the victim’s identity Wednesday night.

The family issued a statement through a cousin of Lorenzen Wright, Camella Logan: “Lorenzen’s family has come together to mourn his loss and honor his legacy. We appreciate your thoughts, prayers and condolences as they are comforting at this very difficult time. Additionally, we ask that you please respect our privacy as we try to cope with his sudden loss.”

Wright’s mother, Deborah Marion, arrived at the scene Wednesday night with a handful of family members. She crossed the crime scene tape and tried to talk to police when she was told to move back. She sat in a TV van before returning to the tape. Two officers then let her through.

The distraught Marion then started running down the road toward the crime scene before being stopped by an officer. She spoke with officers and then walked back past reporters without speaking straight to a van.

The 34-year-old Wright was last seen July 18 when he was expected to fly out of town. His family filed a missing person report July 22.

(Continue reading…)

Impressing MJ

Michael Jordan’s words carries a lot within the basketball community. Considered the greatest to ever handle the rock by many, MJ still holds numerous records. So it’s only natural that when anything monumental happens in the NBA, Jordan’s opinion is highly sought. Hence, it was only matter of time before his thoughts on the “Miami Thrice” of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh would appear. When asked about the teaming of the three superstars, this is what MJ had to say:

“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team. But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”

Jordan is known as an assassin when it comes to competition, so his comments should come as no surprise. In fact, his comments are an example of the backlash that LeBron has been receiving from basketball purists that didn’t care one way or the other if James left Cleveland. It’s seeing him join Wade in Miami that has left them sour. Having two of the top three players on one team has somewhat taken some of the competitive edge out of the game. It’s quite fair to say that Wade and James along with Kobe Bryant can be seen as the Bird, Magic, and Jordan of today’s game. Could you honestly imagine how boring the game would have been watching any of those three teaming up and running through the league? All of the classic Lakers/Celtics games erased. The seven years of watching Jordan mature and come into his own, non-existent. Apart of those great players’ legacies is that they had to go through one another to win. With James joining Wade, who has already won a ring, his road has become a lot easier. From a legacy standpoint, James would have been better off joining the Chicago Bulls where he would have had a better supporting cast than he ever had in Cleveland. His pairing with Wade puts him in the supporting role to many who argue he needs Wade to win a ring.

Jordan’s comments ultimately calls out James competitive edge. When “the decision” of James leaving Cleveland was announced, many spoke out on his competitiveness. One Orlando Magic official even questioned his desire, saying he thought James had more fight in him. However, I don’t feel that was Jordan’s only purpose behind his statement. Since James entered the league he has shown nothing but admiration and respect for Jordan. Jordan himself doesn’t seem as taken with the young star. In many ways it feels as if Jordan is making him work thrice as hard for any type of respect due to the reputation that preceded James. While his new running mate Wade shares a business relationship with Jordan, he was chosen to spearhead the Jordan brand for the next generation. Wade also has a budding relationship with the legend; he was quoted in the June issue of VIBE magazine as saying:

“Everyone that’s part of the label, he takes time to build a personal relationship with. I can talk to him about anything. I hit him up and within minutes he’s calling me back.”

Jordan doesn’t seem impressed with the talents of James as many other greats have been. At a recent camp Jordan was caught on tape declaring Kobe Bryant the better of the two players. When it comes down to it, Jordan’s words are the thoughts that millions share, particularly in Cleveland. So here’s what’s really good? The situation down in Miami is both intriguing and disappointing. The question of the trio winning is a no brainer. The real question is how many? However, the intrigue is evenly matched with disappointment. The thought that the league could possibly become monopolized by a team that holds two of its top three players, does remove a bit of excitement from the game. In the end, can you really fault James for leaving to chase a ring? It seems that even the great one forgets that he did not win six all by himself. While he may not have had a Wade, somehow I don’t think anyone would argue against the importance of his running mate Scottie Pippen.

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If you’ve been comatose for the last few days maybe you haven’t heard that LeBron James is going to Miami to join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. It’s a historic joining of forces rivaled only by the Superman and some buddies deciding to form the Justice League. On paper that is the best top three of any team in NBA history. Think about this: Bosh is clearly the third option and he’s a 26 year old, 5 time all-star who is leaving Toronto as the best player in their franchise history. (Miami is also adding former 2001 Rookie of the Year Mike Miller as 6^th man so they’re starting to round out the rest of that roster.) The Heat should be able to get a couple more solid veterans to join this team at the minimum salary for a chance to get a ring. The most intriguing part of this whole story, at least on the basketball court, is that the “Miami Thrice” are all in the prime of their careers.  The most recent Big Three in Boston were all on the wrong side of thirty when they got together. In Miami, Dwayne Wade is the greybeard of the group at the ripe old age of 28. You’ve got a two time MVP in LeBron James. You’ve got an NBA Finals MVP in Dwyane Wade. Both of them have led the league in scoring as well. Oh and Bosh? He only averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds per game last season. Fans are going to line up to jump on the bandwagon or to root hard against this group and everything they think it stands for. Either way the NBA wins.

Expectations are going to be high and they’ll only get higher as the rest of the roster starts to round out. One question that people ask is “whose team is it?” LeBron is the best player of the three but Wade is as close as they get. They both have completely well-rounded games and are great rebounders and passers as well as guys who can get you 30 points on any given night. They both love to handle the ball but LeBron is a better decision maker and Wade is a better shooter. I expect to see LeBron as the de facto point guard. The guy taking the last shot? Not as big a deal as you’d think. Wade and LeBron are both unselfish enough that it’s not going to be an issue of either one demanding the ball, but instead they’ll look for the best shot, the open shot.  Expect the two of them to push each other and keep each other sharp all season. The 2010-11 MVP race will be tight but they might very well cancel each other out with parallel spectacular seasons but if they win a championship there will be plenty of credit to go around to the biggest contributors.

The free agent frenzy that built up to Thursday night’s shit show was an exercise in ego for LeBron, but so what? It was entertaining and sports are all about entertainment. Let’s face it millionaires– who are used to having their egos coddled from their preteen years- don’t always have values that are in line with everyday folks and that’s the fun in following their antics.

Part of the chatter that is out there is that LeBron took the easy way out.  As a New Yorker my only problem with him is that he didn’t sign with the Knicks and help improve my team. But the unbiased observer hidden deep down thought Chicago made a great situation for him because there seemed to be a great chance to win multiple championships. LeBron said all along he wanted to win more than anything else. In Chicago, Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah and newly imported Carlos Boozer already make for one of the best teams in the East. If they added LeBron they’d at the very least be the favorites to come out of the East. Miami just didn’t seem like the right play to me. There were only three guys signed to the Heat for next season when LeBron decided to go to Miami. James actually made his winning curve a little steeper by going to a team with so many question marks, but you can definitely see what he saw when he looked down 95 South. There’s potential for greatness but this is not LeBron James joining the Lakers and piggybacking his way to a championship. The reason Miami had so much salary cap space to begin with is because there was nobody on that roster that Miami’s front office felt compelled to keep besides Dwyane Wade. Miami was out in the first round of the playoffs this year and would have been swept by Boston if not for Wade having a 46 point game and carrying his awful teammates on his back in their lone win. That’s saying a lot about where they are starting from. You can see why James would sign, but you can see why he’d pick another place as well.

As much as the NBA is a stars’ league, championships aren’t won without role players doing their jobs. Shaq and Kobe in L.A. and Tim Duncan in San Antonio would all have different legacies if not for a guy named Robert Horry. The Kobe and Pau Gasol one-two punch wouldn’t be so staggering if not for Derek Fisher taking and making big shots when those guys were facing double teams.

Another thing people are saying is that he should have been loyal to Cleveland.  Loyalty has no place in the business that is pro sports. Organizations are rarely loyal to players, they’re loyal to wins and dollars so why do we expect different from the athletes? LeBron’s hour long announcement special was an exercise in ego but was ultimately harmless. Sports are entertainment after all and last week has made for a lot of great internet speculation and water cooler chit-chat.

Dan Gilbert’s letter lambasting LeBron to Cleveland season ticket holders is more entertainment. It casts LeBron as the villain who burned the village and rode off into the night. This notion that James was somehow beholden to Cleveland or making Gilbert richer is ridiculous. Athletic skills at a professional level are a commodity that one only has a small portion of life to market. Some guys are just thrilled to be pros. Others have plans and priorities beyond just putting up numbers. LeBron has reportedly said he wants to be a global icon and he realizes that championships are a part of that blueprint.  He also seems to realize that making the best big three ever is a visionary career move -if you can finish up with the rings.

Rewind back a month or so to when Boston eliminated LeBron and the Cavaliers and you may recall Kevin Garnett pointedly telling anyone who was listening that loyalty is overrated. KG intimated that he wouldn’t have stayed in Minnesota for so many years had he known as a young man what he knew in his thirties. One lesson: it takes more than big name to win a championship. The Big Ticket became a part of The Big Three in Boston and a ring followed. The Celtics were 12 minutes away from another one this spring until Kobe Bryant and his teammates managed a Game 7 comeback in the Finals to win Kobe his 5^th ring. That would be Mister Laker, Kobe Bryant. The same Kobe Bryant who demanded to be traded from the Lakers a few years ago before the Lakers managed to swindle Pau Gasol away from Memphis. Even the now ecstatic Dwayne Wade made some noise this year about leaving Miami if he didn’t get some help this offseason. Let’s not fool ourselves. It’s not about staying in one city or choosing the media approved landing spot if you decide to leave town.

If you really want to be a King then the ring’s the thing.

From MKRob Sports

Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s open letter to Cleveland fans will cost him more than just a star player. Gilbert was fined $100,000 for comments made about his former franchise player LeBron James.

Gilbert wrote the open letter the night that James decided to choose Miami over the Knicks, Clippers, Bulls, Mavericks and his former team, Gilbert’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

You can see what he said in that letter by clicking this link Dan Gilbert’s Open Letter

Miami Heat fans you have won the biggest name in NBA Free Agency. LeBron James just announced he will be joining the Heat to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

The Eastern Conference All Star team to take on Kobe and the Lakers is now complete and many rings will be won in South Florida. On the downside LeBron’s legacy is dead…no commander needs to join an army to win battles he assembles them around him for war. Dwyane Wade is the leader of that team and he’s already won a ring. So LeBron will play second to that and will have to deal with a legacy more like Magic Johnson than Michael Jordan.

Congrats to the Heat fans for snagging up half of the NBA Free Agents and assembling their team for the 2011 season!

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From ESPN:

Carlos Boozer is the latest domino to fall, agreeing to a five-year deal for approximately $80 million with the Chicago Bulls, a source close to the negotiations told ESPN The Magazine’s Ric Bucher on Wednesday.

Boozer follows agreements by premier free agents Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami,Amare Stoudemire with the Knicks and Joe Johnson in Atlanta.

The Bulls are still in the running for LeBron James, who is going to make an announcement Thursday on ESPN. Chicago has enough cap space to take on a max contract, and a source close to Boozer said he is going to reach out to James about joining him in Chicago.

Boozer averaged 19.5 points and 11.2 rebounds per game for the Utah Jazz last season, his sixth with the team. In his eight-year career, he has averaged 17.2 points and 10.2 rebounds per contest.

Boozer’s name has come up in trade discussions involving the Bulls numerous times over the past few years. They nearly traded for him last summer in a deal that would have sentTy Thomas to Utah.

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On Tuesday night ESPN reported that LeBron James had decided to announce his NBA team choice on their network, Thursday night at 9:00 EST.  So after waiting days for a decision the sports world was granted a deadline on the speculation.  However, it came with a rather large stipulation in that the decision wouldn’t just be made it would be broadcasted in an hour of sports show dedicated to LeBron, by LeBron and from LeBron.

I had the pleasure of having a very contentious and heated debate with MKRob over what the grandeur represented, which left me more irritated than I entered it.  In our discussion MKRob laid out the history of James’ career in how he entered the NBA having not been able to have his, “all eyes on me moment”, as many top high school recruits do when choosing a college team.  And while I understood the logic behind what LeBron was trying to recreate for himself with his “personal signing day” and what that may have represented to him; the idea that this super star who already has the basketball world hanging onto his every word over the past week, just couldn’t rest until he had everyone’s full attention on national television, infuriated me.

I understand what he missed out on when he chose to skip college and go straight into the professional league having never getting his moment to shine at that time.  But the past has a funny way of upsetting your future when you’re not content on leaving it where it belongs and in LeBron’s case I couldn’t remember a time when the spotlight wasn’t on him.  So I decided to take a look back on how he has made up for that one moment he “lost” since entering the NBA.   Those of us who are not impressed by sheer name and reputation alone endured his self-appointed nickname “King James”… having not ruled over much thus far in his career being considered a king is a bit far reaching but a king he wanted to be and a king he was called from then on.  The Lakers nation sat back and watched as every season passed how they compared him to Kobe Bryant and often placed him above him because it was the popular thing to do, as many fans had grown tired of the Kobe machine that followed his every move, so they adopted a new leader in LeBron James.  The MVP titles and the quick exits from the playoffs that always followed never changed anyone’s opinion because he was “The Chosen One.”  Chosen for what is still unclear and despite it all the fans still loved him.  The cries from the Cavaliers faithful, to bring him a big man and to build a better team around him, as they did for Kobe, so he could finally “get over the hump” and get his ring were all met.  And throughout it all, the praise continued to pour in and the spotlight never diminished…it only grew.  And it continued to grow as speculation mounted that King James would be the heir to the throne in New York City by signing with the Knicks once he became a free agent.  He was given the red carpet treatment in the only city that could make his star shine brighter than it already had. The “King of New York” Jay Z *no offense Diddy* endorsed him and all but commanded the citizens of this great city to do the same.  In the end it all worked, New Yorkers love LeBron James, who has yet to even don a Knicks uniform.  Subsequently, every fan of every other team who has shown interest in signing the number one free agent has also welcomed him with open arms.   The citizens of Chicago, home of Michael Jordan, have cleared a path for him and are ready to build their newest super star’s statue and put it up next to their old one.

Yet none of it was enough.  The stage needed to be bigger, the spotlight stronger and the audience larger.  He couldn’t just sign like any of the other free agents in this year’s free agent market…nope he had to separate himself and make his signing a production in an effort that says “I am bigger than the game.”  This entire display has proven to be an enormous turnoff for many fans, but in the end the same fans of whichever team he decides to signs with will forgive him and the basketball world will embrace him as they always have…begging the question of why any of this was necessary in the first place.