The Perpetual NBA Thread

[empy]

Sergio Rodriguez nalang.

Or trade with the celts since they're trying to get rid of CBass hehe.

CBass, hehe. another one of Danny Ainge's brilliant ideas. didn't he essentially trade away the rights to draft Randy Foye for him? :bwahaha:

Bill Simmons from ESPN described him best - "a shoot-first PG who can't shoot" :hysterical:

bobby brown - cal state fullerton
http://www.nbadraft.net/admincp/prof...obbybrown.html

dunno about this guy...he might have a lot of emotional baggage from his drug addiction and failed relationship with whitney houston

[cardo]

bobby brown hehehe 'its my prerogative'

[theveed]

Korni! hehehe

[ssaloon]

Age defiance
By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
February 28, 2007

It was gruesome and grotesque and almost impossible to forget – Shaun Livingston, his left knee virtually torn in half, crumpled and writhing in pain Tuesday.

There is virtually nothing positive that can come from a potential career-ending injury to the likable, determined Los Angeles Clippers point guard.

Yet perhaps Livingston can serve as a reminder to the supposedly sound, wise voices who always are telling these young athletes about the benefits of staying one more year in college, the ones defending the NBA's ridiculous age limit, the ones more concerned about their own entertainment or profit than the fact that even the brightest of basketball futures rides on a single, skinny ligament.

Because while the NBA's window of opportunity closes, colleges never do. Because while you might get just one shot at draft day millions, an education is there forever.

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If the TV announcers and establishment defenders, when imploring the stay in school mantra, always are going to bring up some bust from the past – are we still talking about Korleone Young? – then let Livingston serve as the unfortunate (yet fortunate) poster child for the other side, the take the money and run route.

He turned down a scholarship to Duke in 2004, choosing at age 18 to jump to the NBA where his fabulous yet fragile body was drafted fourth by the Clippers. He had a contract that guaranteed him more than $10 million in salary even before Reebok signed him to an endorsement deal worth millions more. The kid from Peoria, Ill., instantaneously was set for life.

Yet there still were those who cried he should have gone to college. And if he had they'd have begged him to stay and play the same way they do right now with Kevin Durant and Greg Oden.

But it seems Livingston never was meant to last. The body that allowed him that insane crossover at 6-foot-7 always was cursed. In three seasons in the NBA he's been a hobbled medical mess – dislocated right knee, sprained right ankle, torn cartilage in his right shoulder, a stress reaction in his lower back.

Then came Tuesday, when the knee just ripped apart while he went for a simple layup. He tore his anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and lateral meniscus. It is a wonder the thing stayed on.

“It's probably the most serious injury you can have to the knee," Clippers physician Tony Daly told reporters. "He might miss all of next year. It's a freak accident, that's for sure.”

The freak part was there was no contact to set off the injury. There was no awkward cut on the floor. There was no reason for it to happen. This, essentially, was what the 21-year-old's knee was destined to do. This is what his body was about.

And so all Livingston can do is rehab, pray and rest assured that he not only made the wisest choice of his life when he jumped to the league but also that David Stern hadn't decided that his marketing plans were more important than Livingston's individual rights.

Had Livingston gone to college, he never would have gotten out, each injury serving as a red flag to the NBA that would have kept him from being drafted. And eventually Livingston's knee was destined to fail him. It just would have been in Cameron Indoor rather than the Staples Center.

Instead he got when the getting was possible, and smart, savvy and mature, he then protected his money. One of his business advisors said Wednesday that Livingston has perhaps $6 million in the bank. He is set to earn additional NBA and shoe company millions while he rehabs over at least the next eight to 12 months.

He probably will play again. But even if he doesn't, even this is a worst-case scenario and he never sees another minute in the NBA, he forever has changed the economic realities of his family.

And, of course, that worst case would include the chance to do what so many think is the best case to begin with – go to college. Livingston still can get all the education the world can offer because the SAT doesn't care much about lateral quickness.

So maybe you should hear about Shaun Livingston when the college announcers are barking their self-serving slop about how the NBA's age minimum is such a great thing for these young stars, for the game. Or how another year is always the good, safe option.

The age rule may be good for a lot of people, but college players aren't among them. Having institutions take the freedom of choice away from individuals never can be a positive.

Especially when the risks are so great, the money so grand and a college education always, eventually, a possibility.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

[empy]

aye carumba! the season of star injuries claims another victim!!

Lakers' Odom out again with left shoulder tear

Associated Press





EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom was diagnosed Saturday with a left shoulder injury.

[SIZE=-2]Odom[/SIZE]
Odom, who was injured Friday night against Sacramento, underwent an MRI exam Saturday that revealed a torn labrum, team spokesman John Black said. He didn't travel to Phoenix for a game on Sunday and will see a doctor Monday.
Odom got hurt when he was fouled by Sacramento's Brad Miller with 2:47 remaining of a 116-108 loss. Odom finished with 26 points, 13 rebounds and six assists.
Black said the team would not speculate on whether Odom could be sidelined indefinitely.

[ILuvDetailing]

^^ There goes my keeper team

[ssaloon]

Shut up and play, T-Mac
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
March 2, 2007

Despite the $1.5 billion spent on security, Tracy McGrady declared the 2004 Athens Games too unsafe to honor his promise to play for the U.S. team. As it turned out, it wouldn't be the terrorists creating chaos for USA Basketball's personnel, but Larry Brown.

So now, McGrady is threatening to boycott the 2008 NBA All-Star game in New Orleans, because, well, he's behaving like a selfish baby.

"When they first mentioned to me that the All-Star game was going to be in New Orleans, the first thing I thought about is how much security they are going to have for the players and everybody there," McGrady said. "If I don't feel that I'm going to be safe, if I am on that team, I will look into probably not even going."

Besides NFL cornerbacks, it's hard to imagine what impending doom awaits the Houston Rockets star during All-Star weekend in the Big Easy.

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What, beads?

Breasts?

Because that'll be about all that comes at him and his peers in New Orleans or anywhere else. If McGrady feels that unsafe, he can hunker down in his Ritz Carlton hotel suite, play video games and order room service for three days. The way T-Mac is going, he's going to be a shut-in by his 40th birthday.

McGrady is a smart, likable guy, but this doomsday act is getting tired. What's worse, it's irresponsible.

As one of the Rockets' franchise stars and a face of the league, McGrady knows he has an obligation to go to All-Star weekend and sell his sport on one of its biggest stages. He is a chronic complainer to begin with – someone so self-defeating that he's turned Doctor Doom himself, Jeff Van Gundy, into Mary Poppins in an attempt to nullify his narcissism.

New Orleans is desperate for the boost, both spiritual and financial, that an All-Star weekend will bring. Of course, the New Orleans Hornets will lean on the All-Star game as a marketing tool as they re-enter the city post-Katrina. Maybe it won't be the easiest All-Star weekend, maybe it won't be the most convenient, but for goodness sakes, it is important.

Once in a while, maybe McGrady and the NBA's stars can do something that isn't easy, that doesn't indulge every remote scenario that that they can concoct in their minds.

"I don't think it's the right city to have this type of event right now," McGrady said. "I know the city is in need of trying to get back on their feet, in need of money. Safety comes first. I'm sure they have to do a lot of research and look into before they really make this decision."

Whose safety? What is he talking about? For all the talk about how horrible Vegas was two weeks ago – and all the sad, scared alarmists who sounded like frightened school children – do you know what Jermaine O'Neal told me was his biggest problem in Vegas? Getting stuck on the Strip in traffic. If McGrady hasn't figured this out in his multiple All-Star appearances, no one goes to that weekend to attack basketball players, but rather worship them.

Here's some advice, T-Mac: If you want to go marching down Bourbon Street at 3 o'clock in the morning, you'll take your chances like everyone else. Odds are, he'll get a beer spilled on him. That's life in the big city. If he goes to New Orleans to do his job, if all the league's players do, there won't be a problem.

Essentially, here is what McGrady is trying to say: The congestion of humanity and the police force will conspire to make it risky for the players to go out partying. If that's the case, McGrady is feeding into the stereotype of the selfish NBA star that sensible people believe is largely exaggerated.

Get over yourself, T-Mac, and do New Orleans – and do the sport – a favor and tell everyone that it's the league's honor to go do something for the punished people of that city and region. You need to understand that someone smarter than you will make sure you're tucked in safe and sound in New Orleans next February.

Until then, do something that has come easier on the court than off it: Think about someone else.

[jasprit]

lakas ni shaq last game

[rusem]

aye carumba! the season of star injuries claims another victim!!

there goes LA's 2nd rnd playoff hopes... still if LA be able to make a push in the homestretch and win a series or 2 in the playoffs... mr 81 should be the M-V-P!... wait, he doesn't need the playoffs! he should be the MVP! period!

[empy]

Breasts?

did somebody mention my favorite thing?