Category — Greg Oden

Do the Clippers vote David Stern a share of playoff coin if they win it all?
In a poll of 30 ESPN writers and personalities, 25 of them picked the Heat to win this season’s NBA title. Three of them picked the Bulls and 2 predicted the Thunder would win it all.
Us? As much as Miami is the safe pick, we’re rolling with our homies (Thunder). Now beam us up Scottie.
ESPN.com

Forget the Lakers getting the shaft in the Chris Paul deal. The Rockets are reeling too. And the reputation of Hornets’ GM Dell Demps. Can you spell s-l-a-n-d-e-r?
Adrian Wojnarowski pens 1 of the best pieces I’ve read so far regarding this hijacking by David Stern and the NBA.
Yahoo Sports

The NBA lockout has come to an end, with the players and the owners agreeing to a tentative deal early this morning. The season will tip off Christmas Day with a tripleheader, including Derrick Rose and the Bulls visiting the Lakers.
N.Y. Times

Watching David Stern politic and play on the ignorance of many NBA fans who solely blame the players for the lockout, we’re reminded of a solution the commissioner chooses to ignore. It’s called contraction. The league would be better off if they contracted teams such as Michael Jordan’s Bobcats or the NBA-run Hornets, among others. Instead, Stern and his misguided owners believe strong-arming the players for millions and hijacking the game from the fans is a better tactic.
ESPN.com

Just shopping, not buying anything. Damn, I thought she was hotter than that Mike. Just another reason Wilt is the greatest of all time.
I’ve been with the NBA players since Day 1 but I’m not the only 1. Here’s more reasons why.
SB Nation

The public perception is the players are greedy. David Stern and the owners know this and will bank on it to negotiate a deal. They would prefer to put the players in their place and make them pay for the stupid mistakes owners frequently make by rewarding some undeserving players with lofty contracts when they should be earning the NBA minimum.
You the fan? Seriously, do you really think they give a shit about you? They know you’ll be pissed about missing some games, but they also know you’ll eventually come back. You can’t resist.
CBS Sports

Almost on a daily basis, you can read several crybaby sportswriters whine about how no one cares about the NBA anymore. They complain about the season being too long and players being overpaid, yet the same standard isn’t applied to Major League Baseball or the National Hockey League.
As the cliche goes, sometimes you just can’t believe everything you read.
SI.com

The idea of NBA players telling the owners to shove it and forming their own league has been discussed in a few corners of the sports world. However, we’re partial to the approach and concept drawn up by our good friend Michael Tillery.
The Starting Five

The entire season is in jeopardy.
This lockout looks like a long 1.
Players and owners are far, far apart.
Nope, not talking football here. Expect the NFL to kick off the regular season on schedule.
But the NBA is a whole different story.
I always believed football had too much to lose. The powers that be will eventually get it together in time to save the day, or at least the cash cow that is the regular season.
However, pro basketball is not in the same boat, not even in the same ocean for that matter.
The NBA is a mess. Teams are struggling all over the place. Salaries are out of control and fan interest in a regular season, especially when there is football, well it’s just not there.
Anybody remember a score from November, December, January or February last season? Not unless you have a reason to, but everybody knows the score of their favorite football team’s games. The NFL’s regular season matters.
That is the difference.
So if the owners don’t care, and the fans don’t care, and by the looks of some games early in the season, some of the players don’t care, why have a full season? That is the question facing NBA’s big boys.

Here are some facts.
The owners feel they need to take back control of the game and limit the salaries they are paying the players.
The players want more control. They have offered to give up some cash, but not enough to save the struggling teams.
This is a train wreck because the league does not share its revenue, like the NFL or even Major League Baseball. So there are rich NBA teams and there are poor NBA teams. The playing field is not even.
If nothing is done, some teams would fold. Most already can’t win.
Look next season and see how many clubs are really in a position to compete for a championship. Maybe 6 or 7 and that might be a stretch.
Now look again and see how many just flat out suck. Seven is a low number.
So the bouncing ball is now left in the players’ court. The problem? There are really, really rich players and then the not so rich. Unions were designed to protect the common worker, not the overpaid scrub.
Even more of a problem is the fact that some players don’t seem to be worried about their fellow teammates. Deron Williams proved that by claiming he is ready to go to Europe if the lockout delays the season. The New Jersey guard is talking turkey about playing in the Turkish League.
He claims that getting something is better than getting nothing.
Let’s follow that line of thought. Here is a rich guy willing to play for a reported $250,000. Why won’t he take that in the NBA?
Those are numbers the owners could live with.
Williams should be one of the guys standing up and fighting for the rights of all players. But nope, he’s taking his balls to Europe.
Kobe Bryant wants to do a barnstorming tour in China. No wonder Yao Ming retired, he wants to go home and play with the big boys.
It’s not likely Bryant would give up some of that money to the players whose names don’t command such opportunities.
Yep, this lockout has all the makings of a long 1, unless the players cave of course.
That seems likely. There isn’t much solidarity.
Remember, all this talk is talking place and it’s July. Nothing is lost in this league until March.
At least we will have football—I think.
Jim Gazzolo, a frequent contributor, is an editor and writer for American Media in Lake Charles, La.

More lockout blues: My man Jimmy G and I agree to disagree on this matter, but it’s just another reason we’re great friends and partners in crime. However, since I’m hesitant to bang out a counterpoint to his wonderful argument above because it will run into my beer and baseball happy hours today, I’ll link to a column by Bill Simmons that’s more in line with my thinking.
Cheers!
Grantland.com