Patrick Ewing: Talent Assessor

Patrick Ewing has a lot of experience in pro basketball. He was a great player for a long time, went to the NBA Finals, and is now an assistant with the Magic where he's helping Dwight Howard become the league's next great big man. Naturally, one would assume that he can spot talent.

Wrong.

Here's what Ewing had to say about the Knicks, courtesy of the bastion of the journalism world, The Daily News:

"They have a lot of talent, they're a talented bunch of guys. How talented they are has yet to be seen. Sometimes you may have too much talent. There's only one ball and you can't have 12 guys who want to score."

I would think this is partly just Ewing trying to say kind things about his old team, while maybe also taking a subtle shot at Isiah.

But could he be right? Could the Knicks be too talented? I guess I might as well take a look.

Stephon Marbury - Talented at being a talented player who's a team cancer and perpetual ball hog.
Jamal Crawford - Same as Marbury, but with less cancer.
Nate Robinson - Extremely talented at being psychotic and missing dunks.
Jared Jeffries - Talented at somehow remaining in the league, and being paid exceedingly well in the process, when he should be playing in Europe.
Jerome James - Talented at eating, and being paid $30 million for doing nothing.
Eddy Curry - Talented at being 6-11 and unable to rebound. Also talented at eating.
Fred Jones - Talented dunker, not much else.
Zach Randolph - Actually talented. However, also talented at getting into a lot of trouble.
Mardy Collins - Talented at getting superior players thrown out of games and suspended.
Malik Rose - He's still playing?
David Lee - Actually talented, but can thank talentless coach for not playing him enough.
Quentin Richardson - Talented headband wearer.
Randolph Morris - Talented at never showing any emotion.
Renaldo Balkman - Sort of talented if used properly.
Wilson Chandler - Um, who?

Just to sum up how talented the Knicks are, here's a fun story involving James. He's been out all season after having surgery to remove a cyst and a bone spur on his right foot. During that time he's bulked up to well over 300 lbs. He recently returned to practices and is waiting to pass a league-mandated fitness test before he returns to the court. But that may take a while, because when asked if he thought he could pass the test, James said, "I haven't been running."

Or apparently been trying to stay in shape in any way whatsoever.

This is definitely one talented team.

-WCK

Lighted Santa has mad game

I don't know about you, but I hate boring Christmas lights. I like my Christmas lights to be garish, and preferably moving. And if you can somehow manage to get an animated dunking Santa in the lights, even better.

Luckily, because we live in America, such a product exists. Yes, below is the 20-foot high Animated Dunking Santa light system. As you can tell, Santa has mad game, and a better vertical than Dwight Howard. Isiah just signed him to a 10-day contact.



If you think this thing is "some assembly required," you're damn right. As the site says - Requires 8 tracks to configure all positions of arms and balls. I don't know what the hell that means, but it sounds time-consuming and difficult. Two things I avoid like the plague.

And if you're wondering how much this light system costs, it's only $6,200. Hmmm, I guess I'll only get three then.

-WCK

Eddie Jones is still playing in the NBA?

This video has already made it around the interwebs a bit, but it's the Friday before Christmas and I don't feel like writing much. And odds are you're either half-drunk as you read this or you're already out of the office and aren't reading it anyway.

Anyway, this video is proof that Eddie Jones is still playing in the NBA, which was a total shock to me. It's from last Friday's game against the Hornets. Eddie is his usual savvy veteran self.

-WCK

The strange disappearances of three basketball players

I'm not sure strange disappearances in pro sports are unique to basketball. In fact, I'm sure they certainly aren't. But for whatever reason, pro basketball has had some truly bizarre disappearances of several athletes over time. And I'm not talking about players just leaving the game or losing their talent at the drop of a hat. I'm talking about guys literally disappearing.

The most recent bizarre disappearance involves former Washington State University player Tony Harris. In 1994, Harris, a guard, led a Cinderella Cougars team to the NCAA tournament. The team lost in the East Regional to Boston College, 67-64. Despite this, Harris never played in the NBA. After college, he played in Asia and South America. He starred in Brazil from 2000-05, earning Player of the Year honors and winning a championship for Uberlandia before retiring. But this year he decided to return to Brazil to get a "financial cushion" before the birth of his first child with his wife Lori.

Lori said her husband left Seattle for Brasilia in central Brazil on Oct. 31. She last heard from him early Nov. 4, when he spoke to her, fear in his voice, from a Brazilian taxi driver's cell phone. Two days earlier, he called and said "he didn't feel safe and that if he didn't come home now, he wasn't going to make it home," she said.

Harris said her husband had expressed concerns about people involved with the team, and was hearing upsetting rumors about himself. The basketball team's organization, she said, apparently held his passport, and her husband was trying to get to another city in Brazil where a friend could help.

And that's it. No one knows what's happened to Harris and so far no one is exactly going out of their way to help Harris' family find him.

But if you think think that's a strange tale, it's not even the strangest tale to come out of Seattle, which is where Harris hails from. By far the weirdest disappearance, maybe in sports history, is that of former Sonics player John Brisker. Brisker was a tough, bruising, and menacing player who spent time in the ABA before joining the Sonics in the early 70s. However, only a couple of years after he was cut during the 75-76 season, he pretty much inexplicably traveled to Uganda during the height of Idi Amin's reign of terror. Brisker told some of his family members he had plans to get into the import-export business. 1978 was the last time his family heard from him, which was one phone call from Kampala. After that he was never heard from again.

The legends about Brisker's disappearance are just as strange as his decision to go to Uganda.

Brisker's family said he had been invited to Uganda as a guest of Amin, a wild basketball enthusiast. One line of thinking is that Brisker was executed in Uganda. After Amin's government was overthrown in 1979, the theory goes, Brisker was shot by a firing squad of anti-Amin revolutionaries.

Another somewhat credible account is that Brisker didn't just want to go to Uganda as a guest, he actually wanted to fight for Amin. One night around 1978, former Pittsburgh Condors public relations director Fred Cranwell played back a message left on his home phone. It was a collect call from Brisker, who cryptically said he was going to Africa to fight in a war.

There's even a thought that Brisker simply became an anonymous individual in Uganda or somewhere else in Africa to begin a new life.

But perhaps the weirdest theory of all is that Brisker got on Amin's bad side, was killed, and eaten by the dictator.

Regardless of what happened, Brisker was declared legally dead in 1985 by the King County, Washington medical examiner.

The last bizarre disappearance should be somewhat familiar to those of you who grew up watching basketball in the 90s. In 2002, Bison Dele - who used to be known as Brian Williams - disappeared at sea in Tahiti along with his girlfriend and the ship's captain. Initially, no boat was recovered and the only person who made it back to land was Dele's brother, Miles Dabord (born Kevin Williams). However, after an extensive investigation that even involved the FBI, the boat was found 2 months later off the coast of Tahiti with its name plate removed and some possible bullet holes patched up. Since Dele's disappearance Dabord had also forged his brother's signature in order to buy $152,000 worth of gold under his brother's name. He had also used Dele's passport as identification. The FBI concluded that Dele, his girlfriend and the skipper were probably killed, and then thrown overboard, by Dabord.

Dabord, the only major source of information regarding the case, intentionally overdosed on insulin shortly thereafter and slipped into a coma. He died within a few weeks, effectively shutting the book on the case forever.

All three cases are truly bizarre, and while Brisker and Dele are in all likelihood dead, let's hope that Harris is found safe and sound.

-WCK

Phil Jackson likes Brokeback Mountain

Phil Jackson is still the Zen Master. After Tuesday's brutal loss against the Spurs, Jackson told reporters that "We call this a 'Brokeback Mountain' game, because there's so much penetration and kickouts. It was one of those games."

Yikes. I understand the penetration analogy, but the kickouts I'm not so......oh. Good God that's gross.

Naturally the NBA has taken definitive action, and by "taken definitive action" I mean "basically did nothing at all."

"The remarks are in poor taste, and the Lakers have assured us such remarks will not occur in the future," league spokesman Brian McIntyre said.

And people wonder why John Amaechi didn't come out when he was actually playing in the NBA.

It's a total mystery.

-WCK

Children Of The Corn starring Steve Nash

You know you're famous when your likeness is carved into a cornfield. That's exactly what happened to Steve Nash yesterday when Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek, Arizona announced to Nash that they'd recreated his image in their cornfield.

Needless to say, Nash found it a little weird.

"It's bizarre I don't really know what to make of it. It's just pretty cool," Nash said.

This is the fifth year that the farm has portrayed a celebrity within the cornfield. Past cornfields have depicted Larry King, Jay Leno, Oprah Winfrey and "Louis Gonzales."

"Louis" Gonzales? I guess the paper means Luis Gonzalez.

Anyway, while it may be weird for Nash to have his face carved into a cornfield, it's better than having this carved into a field.

-WCK

Tractor Traylor gets sentenced for aiding a drug kingpin

The Tractor Traylor saga isn't quite the same as the Vick saga, primarily because Traylor isn't as well known as Vick. But it's still interesting nonetheless.

Traylor's name was used, of his own accord, to make it appear that he purchased two Detroit rental properties several years ago. The properties actually were owned by his cousin Quasand Lewis, a convicted drug trafficker and money launderer, according to federal prosecutors.

When Lewis was finally busted by federal authorities in 2004, he had sold an estimated $178 million in marijuana and cocaine in metro Detroit and had associates with suspected links to nearly a dozen murders and four fire-bombed houses, according to federal prosecutors. They declared Lewis as the kingpin of a massive and ruthless organized crime ring and deemed him Michigan's biggest pot dealer, perhaps ever.

It was never really determined why Traylor helped Lewis, aside from the fact that they're family. Traylor wound up helping him launder about $4 million.

Anyway, Traylor pleaded guilty in January to a charge of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return. He could have been sentenced to up to 14 months in federal prison.

Instead, Traylor received three years of probation on Friday.

He'll serve the first three months of his probation in a halfway house and the next three months in home confinement. Since he's currently playing pro ball in Puerto Rico - which is a long, long fall from being the 6th pick in the 1998 NBA Draft - his sentence will be served in the offseason.

Although Traylor's specific story is different from Vick's, it still begs the same question, why in the hell do some athletes do stuff like this? It's sort of depressing to watch certain pro athletes continually get pulled down by some of the people they happen to associate themselves with. We've seen this a million times in sports, from Vick to Pacman to Pete Rose.

Whatever, it's not like it's ever going to change anyway. Hope you're enjoying the legal cock fights in Puerto Rico, Tractor. Maybe when Vick gets out of prison he can join you there.

-WCK

Did Oden Dance Dance Revolution himself into an injury?

Let me be the first to say I think this story has no merit whatsoever, simply because it takes significant time to get the kind of injury Oden did. But I guess Portland fans need something to do other than whittle wood all day. Portland's all sports radio station - 1080AM The Fan - has started a rumor that Oden may have gotten his injury from playing too much Dance Dance Revolution. According to them, Oden is quite the fan of the stupid Japanese game.

Honestly, I can't even tell if that's Oden in the picture. And I actually think the real story here is learning that Oden is a huge fan of Dance Dance Revolution - which makes him a huge nerd. Even though I don't think Dance Dance Revolution led to his injury, if it did, it would be one of the more bizarre ways that an athlete got injured during his career. Although I'm not sure anything will ever pass Kevin Mitchell injuring himself while eating a cupcake.

-WCK

It looks like someone's headed to Vegas

There was a lot of talk over the NBA All-Star weekend about whether or not an NBA team would move there. After the Donaghy scandal played out, I think we all naturally thought there was no way this could happen anymore.

Guess we were wrong.

From Yahoo Sports:

Casino giant Harrah's Entertainment announced Wednesday it is partnering with AEG, the company that brought David Beckham to the Los Angeles Galaxy to build a 20,000-seat arena capable of housing an NBA or NHL team. The arena, behind the Bally's and Paris hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, is projected to open in 2010.

"This arena is being developed with the capability of hosting an NHL or NBA franchise from day one," said Timothy Leiweke, the president and chief executive of AEG, which owns the Galaxy and the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"We continue to have productive conversations with potential owners and are optimistic that either basketball or hockey, or both, will be played in Las Vegas when the venue opens," he said in a statement.

The arena to be built on 10 acres of land that Harrah's owns is to be privately financed. Construction is set to begin on the project in the summer of 2008.

I must admit I'm a little surprised by this. Hockey is essentially dead in the US and Las Vegas seems like an even weirder place for hockey than Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, the NBA All-Star game was a nightmare and with Donaghy set to name 20 refs who he said he'd seen gambling - which is against NBA regulations - this proposed arena seems like a money pit. Would Stern really let a team go to Vegas after the Donaghy fiasco?

Sure, why not. Despite what Stern or anyone else might say, money is always the bottom line. I would totally root for the Las Vegas Point Shavers.

-WCK

Joakim Noah and Jeff Green can't dance

Pro athletes are so good at their given field of work that it's always fun to learn that they absolutely suck at something. Well, Joakim Noah and Jeff Green suck something fierce at dancing. This video comes from what I guess was some NBA rookie photoshoot sometime shortly after the draft.

There's nothing amazing in the video, as in no headspins or people doing the worm. Alando Tucker is the winner by far, as his shimmy-shake suggests he's at least capable of busting a move from time to time.

Noah is pretty awful, but worst dancer goes to Jeff Green who does the most horrible robot I've ever seen in my life.

-WCK

Rafer Alston had a productive weekend

If by productive you mean getting drunk and getting arrested. Which is probably what happened to you this weekend as well. Anyway, it's leaked out that Rafer "Skip to my Lou" Alston was arrested early Sunday morning on charges of assault and public intoxication. I guess that's better than a DUI, unless he beat the crap out of someone.

The Rockets, naturally, were ecstatic.

"We are aware of the situation and are attempting to get more details about the incident," Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said in a statement. "While we do not have all the facts yet, it is nevertheless very disappointing to have one of our players involved with any police activity. We will continue working with the authorities in order to get to the bottom of the situation."

Next to nothing is known right now about what exactly happened. All I can hope is that this forces the Rockets to actually go out and get a real point guard for T-Mac and Yao's sake. Having a point guard on your team who can dribble the ball off of someone's forehead is great for pickup games, but not so great for the actual season.

-WCK

NBA Ref Scandal vs. Michael Vick/NFL Scandals vs. Roids in the MLB...

After a couple weeks of everyone bitching about how there's been no good sports stories to write about, good lord! I mean this NBA Ref Scandal, and Michael Vick dogfighting indictment, not to mention Bonds getting to the point where he's about to break the most sacred record in American sports in the next week or so (bringing the Steroid controversy to the forfront), is just an unprecedented amount of sports-related news. This is like the 1919 Black Sox scandal, Mike Tyson rape indictment (back when boxing mattered - and hell no I didn't pay $50 bucks to watch Winky Wright and Bernard Hopkins fight), and Roger Maris's home run record asterisk in 1961... but this is all happening in the course of 10 days! Unreal...

Interestingly enough and contrary to a number of polls I've read, the NBA scandal is by far the least important of the three scandals. Here's why. The reason that Major League Baseball and the NFL have reached unprecedented levels of popularity over the past decade is largely based on the issues addressed by these scandals. The Sosa/McGwire home run chase and Bonds's and Clemens's performances over the past 10 years at advanced ages have been a major reason behind the resurgence of baseball after the destructive strike in the mid-90's. And guess what? All of that is potentially, if not almost definitely, directly related to illegal and unprecedented steroid use. Look at the statistics on players in the late 80's and early 90's. Players would be near the top of the league with 30-35 home runs! Can you even imagine that today?

And for football I don't think that people realize that this Michael Vick scandal and Pacman Jones suspension represents a lot more for the sport than people realize. What is unprecedented about the players in the NFL today is the amount of immoral and illegal behavior that is tolerated and even encouraged in middle school, high school, college, and into the pros than ever before. Yes, the NFL has always been a haven for the toughest and craziest of American athletes, but shoot-outs in strip-clubs and electrocuting innocent animals??? I mean this shit is insane and if you think that this isn't only the tip of the iceberg, you're crazy. I've said this before, but I can't wait until the Jose Canseco-esque autobiographies about this era in MLB and the NFL start coming out in about 10 years. If you think the stories about the '86 Mets doing blow in NYC and a roided up A's team in the late 80's is interesting, I can't wait to hear what comes out about what's happened in the last 5 years in sports.

The main problem is that these athletes today have been protected from the minute they showed the potential to throw a football 60 yards and run a 4.4 40. And even worse a lot of them have been encouraged to act this way. The crazier you are, the tougher you are and the farther you are willing to push things the better. I've had friends who played State Championship level football in high school in Texas in the 90's talk about doing roids and coaches essentially encouraging it (to the point they ended up dropping out of high school because of drug abuse); I went to a strong sports high school and saw a star running back who went on to play D-1 football slap the shit out of a girl in front of about 20 students and everyone laughed and no one said a thing. I had friends who played Division 1 football in college who were suspended for steroid abuse and buddies who were walk-ons being asked in detail about fights they'd been in as if it were their entry-pass to making the team. This is really, really sick and while there's little question that football is almost incomparable today to what is was 15-20 years ago in terms of the skill level, size, and speed of the players. But what's the cost?

While we are dealing with these deep-seeded societal issues in baseball and football, this NBA scandal appears at the outset, at least, to be a rogue referee who carefully and intentionally carried out a deliberate scheme on his own (meaning without other NBA players, refs, or administrators) and I suspect will be severely punished for it. This behavior has been common-place in sports for years. Boxing obviously is one example with a history of corruption and blatant violations of players shaving points in college football and even premiere soccer leagues in Europe have occurred quite recently as well. When sports and money are involved these are the risks that are run. This current NBA scandal doesn't reflect anything but a single person's weaknesses and greed. Not a huge deal. The second Lebron starts throwing dunks down next year and Wade comes back at full health this will all be forgotten. I mean people joke about the Ewing draft envelope being frozen or creased or god knows what else so that the Knicks amazingly ended up with THE NYC center for the decade. If that were true, that would be a WAY bigger scandal than one ref shaving a few points over the course of a few years without anyone noticing. Not to mention the fact that the baseball and football scandals truly involve deeper societal issues about the acceptance of cheating in our modern society, winning at all costs, and coddling high-performing individuals to unprecedented levels.

--dwyermaker

Someone thinks former Oregon player Aaron Brooks is representin' for the Crips

We've all read those lame stories before by crusty old white sports columnists talking about how when a player throws up three digits after nailing a 3-pointer that he's "representing" for some gang.

This, of course, is totally hilarious, because we all know the player is just letting the world know he hit a three - not that he's a member of some gang.

But sometimes things get a little fuzzy. And sometimes there is a real question about what signs players are throwing up mean.

Well, it appears that former Oregon player Aaron Brooks (who's now with the Rockets) may in fact be doing more than just letting people know he hit a big three. There's one columnist out there who thinks Brooks actually flashed a Crips sign during the 2007 NCAA 3-point contest (which Brooks won), and he has some proof to back it up. Although I should mention the columnist, Gary Toms, made the mistake of calling Brooks a freshman in his article - which I guess should instantly make me wary of whatever conclusions he comes to. But here you go.

• On March 31, the ESPN Network covered the "NCAA 3-Point Shootout". The event was nationally televised, and something happened during the contest that prompted me to write this article. The winner of the contest was a freshman named Aaron Brooks (Toms is wrong, Brooks was a senior), who plays for the University of Oregon Ducks. I was watching the shootout with a dear friend of mine, who happens to be a veteran law enforcement official. At the end of the contest, Brooks walked into the frame of the camera and flashed a hand sign. My friend looked at me, and I at him, and we both said, "Oh, hell no he didn't!" It appeared to be the sign of "The Crips". My friend said cops and federal agents are given a list of signs that some of the most lethal gangs in the country identify with, and he alleged Brooks was showing his loyalty and love for The Crips.

I realize this isn't exactly like having a picture of the incident up for all to see. And even I know law enforcement officials aren't always right and can get things wrong. Like the "Blood Killers" sign is the exact same sign as what most players use as their three-point sign. We know they aren't secretly showing their allegiance to the Crips.
And besides, sometimes guys just come up with weird hand signs to show amongst friends. But this is an interesting thing to think about.

Toms, who is African-American, goes on to question whether colleges are recruiting known gang members and also whether broadcasters like ESPN should let kids flash any signs at video cameras.

I'm not going to step into that sticky argument, but I will say this. Brooks, who I'm not accusing of being a gang-banger at all, grew up in Seattle. And despite what you may think, the police have definitely had many a run-in with the Crips there.

UPDATE: We couldn't find the YouTube video, but reader Eric did. It's at about the one minute mark. Draw your own conclusions.





-WCK

Chinese players not lookin' so good

Last night China faced the U.S. 19-and-under team, and got crushed 91-75. Yi Jianlian had 15 points on 3-8 from the field and 8-12 from the stripe. Meanwhile, Lakers second round pick Sun Yue came off the bench and scored 2 points in 13 minutes.

Yi, of course, is still not happy that he was drafted by the Bucks. I think after yesterday's performance Yi should be glad he was drafted at all.

For the U.S., Tajuan Porter of Oregon (and quickly becoming one of my favorite college players) had the sure shot working and went for 20.

-WCK

KG, BDizzle and What Army?

This rumored KG trade for Brandan Wright, Monta Ellis, and pretty much the rest of the future of the Warriors franchise reminded me of a friend in college who had "You and What Army" in latin tattooed across the width of his skinny 165 pound, white, Redondo Beach-raised, shoulder blades. Yeah, it can look and sound good on paper (or skin in my friend's case after god knows how many shots of tequila), but is it really going to get you where you want to go? The Warriors were a few breaks from getting into the Western Conference Finals this year, played as good of basketball as anyone in the NBA for the last 30 games of the season, and knocked off the team that most people picked to win the Championship with relative ease. And the plan is to completely retool at this point and get rid of one of the lynchpins for all that success?

Three main problems with this plan. First, you have to buy low and sell high. Everyone is knocking JRich's defense, aggressiveness, shooting, etc right now, but the fact is that nobody except Warriors fans have watched him play until the last 4 months consistently. This is the first season that JRich had to deal with nagging injuries and it effected his play so people weren't seeing what Warriors fans have been watching over the past 5 years. So essentially the value we got for JRich is not what it would have been one year ago when he averaged 23 ppg or after an injury free season next year. So the last thing you do at this point is trade JRich or Ellis (who had rough playoffs and nobody got to see what HE did over the past year and a half), if anyone you trade Baron Davis who was arguably the best player in the playoffs last year, is a constant injury risk, at the absolute peak value he will ever be at moving forward, and he's not getting any younger.

Second, if you want to build a team to win a championship you need at least one year to gel. Look at all the recent Championship teams over the past 20 years, the only teams that got shoe-horned in were the Heat and arguable the Bulls the second year after Jordan's return. And even these teams needed to lose in tough situations to learn how to win it all so you are looking at earliest possible scenario this working out to improve the Warriors as 2009, probably more like 2010. By then, Baron Davis and KG will be on their last legs, meanwhile I can only imagine what Monta Ellis, JRich and the rest of the sacrificial Warriors' lambs will be doing for other teams in the league.

Third problem, other than Davis and KG, who else is going to make this a Championship team? SJax is definitely a piece of the puzzzle, but who else? Every other Championship team has had a number of proven veterans, up-and-coming players, and various character/role players that have helped out and the Warriors would be about 4 guns too short here. So what's the point in trading away essentially a Finals caliber team just to have a re-adjustment period where there isn't time to get everyone straight before it all falls down? If you're going to make a strategic move for a few years down the line, fine. But, if you're just going to play race the clock, sacrificing the future when the weapons aren't in place behind the top 2-3 guys, what's the point?

All I can say to wrap this up is I hope I'm dead wrong about everything I just said. Nothing would make me happier than looking back in 2 years or 10 years and saying, "damn, that column was crap. Thank God Mullin is running this team and not me. Even Stephen A. Smith saw this from a better view than I did. Hallelujah!" Only time will tell...

--dwyermaker

The Chinese hate Sir Charles

Some of you may remember that when Yao Ming entered the NBA in 2002, Charles Barkley was pretty hard on him. Sir Charles once said that he would kiss Kenny Smith's ass if Yao scored 19 points in his entire first season.

Well, this video is years late, but it's an absolute winner. China got pissed - real pissed - at Barkley. So what did they do? They made a Manga cartoon mocking the hell out of him. Which I guess is better than winding up in a Chinese prison.

The site, chinayao.com, no longer exists, so this video, complete with unnecessary Kenny Smith commentary is all we got. It's still worth it though to see a Manga-ized version of Sir Charles on his knees throwing rose pedals at Yao.

-WCK

JRich No Longer a Warrior? Say it Ain't So!

Well, it was a surprising NBA draft for a number of teams, the Warriors most definitely included in that. First, the upside to the Brandon Wright - JRich trade. Good players with amazing athletic ability that are 6'10 with 7'5 wingspans come around about once a year, at best, on average and there are generally 3-5 serviceable 6'5 2-guards in each draft. That's the good news for the Warriors. The bad is pretty much everything else. JRich has been a representation of the Warriors franchise and fans since he's been here, playing hard, sticking around, believing in the team through ups and downs, and has been the face of the franchise for the first part of this decade. Why not ship him off for a player who slipped in the draft because he's skinnier than Nicole Richie and has a questionable drive and work ethic?

I was talking with a couple friends about this trade earlier and we were trying to figure out when a project player with a questionable work ethic/drive has EVER turned into a strong NBA player. We couldn't think of one. You can come up with a list of players who were supposed to be too small for their position, too slow, bad jumper, questionable background, etc. These problems are associated with certain players every year and they are consistently overcome by superior players who have a strong work ethic and drive. This is the thing about Wright that scares me, I just don't see it panning out and to trade a consistently improving, hard-working, inspiring player like JRich is hard to fathom.

One thing that is clear in my mind after this trade is that Stephen A. Smith has a mental disability. Saying the Warriors fleeced the Bobcats on this is just ridiculous. I like how even the ESPN poll had 51% of people saying the Bobcats got a better deal on the trade and then he continues to go off like this trade was Adonal Foyle for Brandan Wright. Since when is a player who's an established star and considered a very strong #5 pick considered a poor trade for a totally unproven #8 pick? And this Michael Jordan fellow, how would he ever know how to judge the value of a proven shooting guard in the NBA? Clearly Stephen A. is a superior judge of talent! How could all be so silly! Stephen A. Smith represents everything that's wrong with sports broadcasting and sports journalism today. The theory that the more confidently and louder you say something, no matter what it is is superior to actually supporting your arguments and having some rational basis is absolutely killing sports journalism.

And I loved Stephen A's argument that the 2003 draft was deeper than this draft. Dude, Chris Kaman went #6 in that draft out of Central Michigan. You're telling me that Kaman was a deeper pick than Corey Brewer at #7? Or even Julian Wright and Al Thornton at #13 and 14? And if he was so sure Wade and Bosh were going to be superstars he should be scouting right now because I saw both those guys play repeatedly in college and had NO idea they would end up being this good. I doubt many NBA franchises knew this either otherwise trading up for Wade at #5 would have been worth pretty much anyone in the league at that point and nobody did it. Damn, I can't believe I just spent two paragraphs going off on that fool...

I do like the Belinelli pick, I marked him down as my Tony Parker Award for potentially stellar late 1st round pick this year, but other than that I'm not too thrilled about how the franchise went today...

--dwyermaker

Robert Horry needs to shut the hell up

Robert "Human Bandwagon" Horry seems to think that his current Spurs team could take the Celtics and Lakers of the 80s.

• “We would beat them,” he boasted.
  …
  “No disrespect to the guys back in the 80’s and the 70’s, but the guys now are so much better than those guys,” Horry said. “I don’t care what they say. If you look at old films, guys only went right. They turned and kept it in their right hand. Look at the things LeBron (James) can do, Tim (Duncan) can do, Tony (Parker) can do, Manu (Ginobili) can do. Little (Daniel) Gibson over there. There’s no way you can compare those guys. We watched what they did and expanded on that.”

So Daniel "Boobie" Gibson is better than Bird and Magic? Of course, how stupid of me to think otherwise. And I'm sure Duncan wouldn't have any trouble against guys like McHale, Parish or Kareem. No way at all.

So if you guys are so good, why haven't you repeated as champs yet, Rob?

He doesn't seem to have an answer for that one.

-WCK

Mr. Cooper must not have been available

Our scrappy neighbors the Sac-Town Kings now have an agreement in principle with Reggie Theus for him to become the team's next coach. If you're a guy older than 35, you may remember Theus as a 2-time NBA All-Star. If you're a woman older than 35, you may remember him as "Rush Street Reggie" from his days in Chicago when he used to party hard on Rush Street. If you're a woman, you may also know him because you had his illegitimate kid.

And if you're my age, you may remember him from the retarded Saturday morning TV show Hang Time. Let me tell you all one thing. There should be a law against Saturday morning TV shows with real people in them. I want cartoons on Saturday mornings. Nothing but cartoons. Not Reggie Theus. I'd like to give a nod to Deuce of Davenport for finding this great clip of Theus from his days as Coach Fuller on the show.

Congrats Sac-Town. Although personally, I would have taken Mr. Cooper.


Oh but that's right, Mr. Cooper never would have done that, since he once played for the Warriors.

-WCK

Smoking German weed gives you crazy super powers

Wait, I'm confused. Smoking pot gives me the ability to dunk from half court and I'm not supposed to want that? These Euro ads always confuse the hell out of me.

Anyway, it's a good thing Dirk saves this kid from the evils of pot. Otherwise weed would turn the kid into an NBA Jam character come to life. And we all know what a crime that would be.

Also notice how Dirk is in the "light" since he doesn't puff reefer. This commercial is seriously deep.

Don't worry though kids, drinking is still totally acceptable.


-WCK