NBA 2011-2012

That's an ironic like, btw. Because seriously, fuck Dolan.

Kevin Love broke his hand and is out 6-8 weeks. That sucks. TWolves just can't get a break (ooh, bad choice of phrase).

The Seattle arena deal was officially approved by the city and county last week. There are certain things required before construction can began on the preferred spot, and some lawsuits around that, but it looks like the kind of thing that will get resolved one way or another.

The question now is what team the prospective owner goes after. The Kings obviously remain the most notable, but there have been rumblings about the Bobcats situation not being very stable coming from non-Seattle sources. The prospective owner has already said he's willing to have the team play in what used to be called Key Arena for a few years if he is in a position to move a team sooner then the new building is complete.

Unless the league forces the Maloofs to sell, I doubt the Kings are going to Seattle. The Bobcats on the other hand, that would be interesting. And Seattle certainly deserves a team.

Thats the real question with the Kings. Mainly because the only way the Maloofs seem to have the money to stay owners would be a sweetheart deal, and that means the Anaheim offer. But its pretty clear the league doesn't favor another team in the LA market, so something has to give.

Who is the "prospective owner"? A local Microsoft Billionaire? A Partnership? or is Seattle expecting someone to move the team while remaining the owner (a la Al Davis.)?


Also, fuck Stern, lets hope he is remembered for the lying ego-maniacal prick that he is. Also, while I'm at it, fuck Howie Shultz and his overpriced monopolistic coffee house with its shitty over rroasted and bitter coffee. Assholes.

I've been hearing a lot of "greatest commissioner ever" lately, so I was thinking your hope was in vain, but then one of the first articles about Stern from a fairly major internet publication totally trashes him. (Also it says that the investment group trying to bring back the Sonics is lead by local Microsoft billionaire Steve Ballmer).

The main guy is a Seattle born hedge fund investor named Chris Hansen, currently a resident of the Bay Area. Balmer and the Nordstrom family are also involved, though the details are not clear. That group is paying for most of the cost of the new arena and then will buy an NBA team to move into it. The arena will also be built with the NHL in mind (in fact, the county doesn't put up any money towards the building unless an NHL team is acquired) but that would involve someone else as owner of that team.

Harden to Houston for Kevin Martin and picks. I'm okay with that.

Amare Stoudamire out up to six weeks with a problem with his left knee. Yes, that knee.

Mavs cut ties with Delonte West. I swear, has a team ever won a title and made such an endless series of bad decisions after that? On the other hand, I feel bad for the guy given his personal issues and having to deal with the neverending rumors about his time in Cleveland.

So begins the slow, inevitable decline of Stoudemire. Very glad the Suns did not give him a max contract.

I can't think of a team that went downhill so quickly in the NBA than the Mavs. The only team I can think of offhand in U.S. professional sports that was worse may be the Marlins after the '03 championship.

I was trying to figure out who was scoring on Washington, and apparently the answer is "everyone". Depth is a good thing, but going 11 deep is probably too much.

Or the Marlins after '97. Both times it was because they decided to blow up the team because of the cheapness of the owner. Which isn't the case with the Mavs.

James Harden is trying to show the Thunder they made a mistake and is doing a fantastic job of it.

Kevin Calabro (former play by play man for the Sonics who is still in Seattle now doing local sports radio) said today he thinks Harden will prove to be a very good player now that he isn't blocked by Durant and Westbrook in OKC. And that OKC will regret trading him and not getting one more year out of him, even though they wouldn't have gotten as much in return.

Getting 12 Assists with 37 points is pretty amazing. 6 boards don't hurt either.

What a surprise. Turns out Dwight Howard and Chris Paul really wanted to play together and talked about making it happen, settling on the Mavericks. But guess who was indecisive in the end? Lol.

Haha, I had forgotten the Bobcats were still on a 23-game losing streak.

Also, Harden, damn.

Harden being good during the regular season is not news. I'll reserve judgment until the playoffs.

Lakers fire Mike Brown. I hope they have someone else in mind and this wasn't purely a panic fire. I like Stan Van Gundy, but that might not be the best option for obvious reasons.

Sounds like it was an ownership move and not something Kupchak was in favor of. CBS Sports website says D'Antonio and Sloan are under consideration.

D'Antonio would be as bad as Brown but in a different way. I'm not sure Sloan would be a good fit, but if the Lakers management decided he was I'd be okay with that.

At least the Celtics are almost as bad as the Lakers.

I always disliked brown and thought he was overrated as a coach. And I agree about D'Antoni, too. As fun as that team would be to watch, they would go nowhere in the playoffs. I would really like the Sloan hire though.

Heavy rumors that it will be Phil.

New reports say its D'Antoni getting a four year deal.

Weird. I wonder what happened with Phil Jackson. Supposedly he was asking for too much money and would miss some road games but he says that isn't true. Will be interesting at least...

Lol.

No matter how unfairly, I blame this all on Jim Buss. Ugh.

Wasn't he the one who decided Brown was the right choice?

Its hard to say what D'Antoni can really accomplish this season. I guess if they can improvise something and win enough games on talent, then maybe they can jell enough to make a nice playoff run. But they could also struggle all year.

Magic Johnson was ripping Jim Buss on Sportscenter this morning (although he said he loves Jerry Buss). I think a lot of Lakers fans would agree. I really, really hope we aren't heading for James Dolan land.

Huh, the Knicks might be legit.

#18 pick Royce White says he's willing to walk away from NBA because of how Rockets are handling his anxiety disorder. What a weird situation.

Also, I wonder how long it will be before ESPN sets up a "Chasing the Bulls' 72 wins" page for the Knicks. It doesn't seem to exist yet, but I know they're getting it ready.

The entire Royce White situation is weird, and sad. Don't draft a kid and say you'll work with him regarding his disorders and then shut him out. Good for him for putting his health above a game though.

ESPN can only have blatant favoritism towards one team on their NBA page at a time, and the HEAT index isn't going anywhere anytime soon. On a related note, fark ESPN.

I dunno. It's hard to say how much of it is the Rockets not being supportive enough and how much of it is him not accepting their support (which may, of course, be largely due to his illness). I don't care enough one way or the other to try to judge who is more at fault here. Maybe nobody is.

OKC is up 64-24 on the Bobcats at the half. Not quite outscoring them 3 to 1, but close.

82-29 in the third. They are outscoring them 3-1 in the third. This is amazing!

Aww, Bobcats closed out the third strong. Only 88-43 now.

What a horrible game by the Lakers. Other than Dwight and Kobe, the team shot 13%. At least Kobe got a triple double if you can count turnovers. Oh, you can't?

Bleh, Stern needs to go, how the hell do you fine a team for how they manage the rest of their players? The Spurs are an OLD team and had just played 5 road games in 6 days, I trust the team to know far better when and how it needs to treat its players then the league does/