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Blazers’ Aldridge says he contracted a ‘deadly blood virus’
LaMarcus Aldridge of the Portland Blazers (nba.com)
LaMarcus Aldridge of the Portland Trailblazers posted on his blog that he was recently in the hospital due to a ‘deadly blood virus.’
“On (May 26) I came down with a blood virus,” he wrote. “I quickly became sick and had to be rushed to the hospital. I thought it was a case of bad food or a bad cold, but I was wrong. It turned out to be a very serious virus that if not treated quickly could actually be deadly! One thing I know for sure is that I’ve never felt worse in my life and there were times I wasn’t really sure where I was going. Thankfully I had a lot of family support and great medical care that helped me fight through it and now I’ve turned the corner and I’m feeling much better.”
Hopefully this all-star will be fine in the future. The Blazers have had enough fortune the past few years!
Hornets winning the 2012 NBA Draft Lottery reeks of suspicion
Monty Williams celebrating his team winning the rights to the #1 pick in the 2012 NBA Draft (BallerStatus)
After taking a night to soak in that the New Orleans Hornets, who I still frequently call the Charlotte Hornets for some reason, their winning the 2012 NBA Draft Lottery is quite suspicious.
Isolating that they had a 13.6% chance at receiving the #1 pick, I can accept that the Hornets just had good fortune. However, after thinking about events which have happened recently I don’t believe in this mere coincidence.
These following events are why the Hornets winning the #1 pick, aka the Anthony Davis sweepstakes, is highly suspicious.
1. They were the fourth favorites to win the lottery last night.
2. The NBA are desperate to give the Hornets as much value as possible.
3. This comes a year after they lost their franchise player, Chris Paul.
4. This comes after Eric Gordon the player who the Hornets now deemed as their franchise player was injured for effectively the whole season declined a contract extension with the Hornets and now is a restricted free agent.
5. This comes a year after the Cleveland Cavaliers lost LeBron James to the Miami Heat and then won the 2011 NBA Draft Lottery.
6. The team with the worst record hasn’t won the NBA lottery since Orlando in 2004. (The Magic selected Dwight Howard).
All of these reasons combined have made me quite wary of the Hornets winning the 2012 NBA Draft Lottery.
Maybe this is what happened…
Shaq to the Magic as a GM would have been a joke
I laughed hysterically when I heard that the Orlando Magic and Shaquille O’Neal were talking about the possibility of him taking the GM position. There is no way that Shaq as the GM would have worked out. I will list a few reasons why Shaq as the Magic GM would’ve been a massive failure.
It’s widely known that there is a beef between Shaq and Dwight Howard. Shaq has taken exception to Howard calling himself Superman because Shaq didn’t pass him the torch. Shaq on multiple occasions has refused to call Howard the best center in the NBA, instead labeling the mercurial Andrew Bynum as such. It’s illogical for a team who wants to keep Howard beyond next year to have a GM who he doesn’t have a good relationship with. The Magic have already got rid of their head coach and former GM in an attempt to try and appease Howard. Howard and Shaq would be far from a match in heaven.
2. History
Shaq is the same person who left Orlando high and dry after four seasons. Why would the Magic franchise want to have the man who screwed them over after the 1996 season. After he left every destination in his NBA career, someone else took the blame and he wasn’t willing to accept any for himself. This isn’t a good leadership characteristic.
- Orlando: Market too small
- LA: Kobe
- Miami: Stan Van Gundy fired
- Phoenix: Steve Kerr fired
- Cleveland: Mike Brown fired
- Boston: Team was too old and injured
3. Distractions
According to First Take’s Stephen A. Smith, Shaq has a lot of things going on in his life. Being an NBA GM requires undivided attention, if you want to be successful. Shaq as an NBA GM would be split in too many different directions and it wouldn’t be a good match.
Shaq is much better suited to be an owner than an NBA GM.
Dwyane Wade the hypocrite…
Dwyane Wade watching the Indiana Pacers celebrate their game 2 victory (Reuters)
After the Miami Heat lost game 2 to the Indiana Pacers, Dwyane Wade was irritated with the Indiana Pacers victory celebration.
Dwyane Wade said “I heard they wanted to be like the Dallas Mavericks, in a sense…I saw their little celebration at the end of [Game 2]. I don’t know if they didn’t expect to win, but every night we go out on the court, we expect to win.” Then asked specifically about the celebration, Wade said “They say their identity, they say they want to be like Dallas. So they celebrated like Dallas, I guess.”
After first hearing and the then reading Wade’s post game comments, I have to admit I started laughing.
Was this the same Dwyane Wade who was part of the Miami Heat celebration before they even played a game where LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and himself guaranteed “not one, two, three, etc..[championships]” Is this the same Dwyane Wade who started strutting around with LeBron James after taking a 15 point lead in fourth quarter in game 2 of the NBA Finals?
What gives Dwyane Wade the right to celebrate and boast and then at the same time lambaste the Pacers for celebrating a game 2 victory in Miami. This victory was much more of a cause for celebration than guaranteeing multiple titles without playing a game or dancing and celebrating a 15 point lead that your team would eventually blow.
If you’re going to complain about the way which a team celebrates don’t do it yourself.
So Dwyane Wade in this case can described as one word…hypocrite
How many MVPs will LeBron win?
LeBron James with his 3rd MVP trophy (Associated Press)
Congratulations to LeBron James for winning his third MVP. Coming off the best statistical season of his career, in terms of percentages, how many MVPs will LeBron wind up with by the end of his career?
At 27 years old, LeBron is now in the prime of his career and is the best player in the NBA by a pretty good margin. Dwyane Wade has already conceded that LeBron is going to the #1 option for the Heat which will enable him to dominate the ball more without question- something similar to what he experienced when he played for the Cleveland Cavs.
With LeBron working on his game every year, it’s quite feasible that he’ll continue to improve. For example, LeBron’s work on his post game this past offseason will help him for years to come especially when his athletic superiority starts to diminish.
Currently LeBron is already a first ballot hall of famer; if he continues to play at his current regular season level it’ll be amazing to see where his career statistics will put him in comparison to the all-time greats.
By the end of his career, LeBron will wind up with at least three more MVPs which will give him at least six. Those six would tie him for the most MVPs all-time with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
However, in the opinion of many, LeBron’s regular season prowess doesn’t mean anything anymore because he still doesn’t have a title. For a player with his unbelievable ability, he should already have at least one NBA title. I am sure that he’ll win a title at some point in his career which will firmly cement him as an all-time great. Then he’ll finally have earned his nickname “King James.”
Thunder and Heat too good for their opponents…
Durant and Westbrook celebrating in the Oklahoma City Thunder game 3 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. (Newsok)
My my have times changed in a year for the Dallas Mavericks. A year after the Mavs won their first NBA Title, they are a game away from getting swept in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. This series feels as there is being a changing of the guard-last year the Mavs defeated these Oklahoma City Thunder who have almost the exact same team they had last year in 5 games.
After the first two games of the Mavs/Thunder series many people believed that the Mavs should have won at least one of the two games in Oklahoma City after blowing late leads in both games 1 and 2. So, going in-game 3 many analysts believe that this was the game the Mavs were going to win to get back into the series; unfortunately for Mavs fans and neutrals it didn’t happen.
In a game that Jason Terry labeled as a game 7, the Thunder played as if it was a game 7 and the Mavs didn’t. As a result, the Thunder hold a 3-0 series advantage and have the opportunity to sweep the team who knocked them out of the playoffs last year.
LeBron James being guarded by Carmelo Anthony in the Miami Heat game 3 victory against the New York Knicks. (SbNation)
After watching the Miami Heat last night, you understand why so many people believe that the Heat are the best team in the NBA. Last night was the opportunity for the Knicks to get back into the series against the Heat. In the first half, it looked as if the Knicks had a chance to take game 3 against the Heat, although the Heat played a borderline terrible first half. However, in the second half the cream rose to the top with Dwyane Wade taking over in the third quarter and LeBron James taking over in the fourth quarter.
When the Heat are on their game, especially defensively, they are the best team in the NBA. There are many comparisons when the Heat are on their defensive game to the 1990s Chicago Bulls teams which had Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. The Heat smothered the Knicks defensively last night, particularly in the second half, and have essentially gave the Knicks zero chance of getting back into this series.
When you’re predicting an outcome to a playoff series, you can typically predict that the team that has the best player will win the series. So, when one team in the series has the two best players in the series the other team has no shot. The Heat with Wade and James have the two best players in the Knicks/Heat series and the Thunder with Durant and Westbrook have the two best players in the Mavs/Thunder series-the result 3-0 leads for both teams.
J.R. Smith fined 25k for tweet of a half naked woman who had the “the biggest ass ever,” wearing a thong in his bed
J.R. Smith celebrates dunk against Cleveland Cavs (Newsday)
In something that can only be described as J.R. Smith being J.R. Smith, Smith was fined 25k by the NBA for tweeting a picture of @TheRealTahiry wearing a thong in his bed.
The photo that J.R. Smith Tweeted.
J.R. Smith is prone to lapses in judgement, so this should be no surprise to anyone. However, you hope at some point he’ll get it and mature into an adult who thinks before he tweets. At least this time Smith said that he made a poor decision in tweeting the picture.
When will J.R. Smith troubles outweigh his talent?
Related articles
- J.R. Smith Fined For Inappropriate Twitter Photo (tracking.si.com)
- NBA Fines Knicks’ J.R. Smith $25K For Twitter Photo (newyork.cbslocal.com)
- J.R. Smith Lives Up to His Reputation with Idiotic Twitpic (bleacherreport.com)
- J.R. Smith Tweeted A Photo Of “The Girl With The Biggest Ass Ever” Wearing A Thong In His Hotel Room Bed [J.R. Smith] (deadspin.com)
- Get A J.R. Smith’s-Eye View Of Tahiry From The Bedroom [PHOTOS] (hiphopwired.com)
A Take on ESPN’s Deleted Headline Regarding Jeremy Lin
By: Kelly Dwyer (From: Ball Don’t Lie)
In these early stages, we can’t tell you if ESPN copy editors using “chink in the armor” as a way to describe Asian-American Jeremy Lin and his New York Knicks losing their first game in 13 days on Friday night is on par with what Jason Whitlock pulled off a week before. Whitlock obviously, and admittedly, made an awful (and worse, to me, unfunny) joke at Lin’s heritage’s expense. The copy editors that OK’d this headline:
ESPN.com and ESPN mobile snapshot of the headline (Gothamist)
… and the on-air copy whose work you’ll hear on video after the jump could have just been making a pair of mortifying, awful mistakes. Endless amounts of writers from all fields still use that phrase, and for those of us that only think about Lin’s ethnic background about once-in-whenever someone does something stupid, we have to go easy until we find out just who put the mistakes together. Knowing ESPN, though, we’ll never know, we’ll never find out their real intentions, and this will “go away” quicker than rumors of a potential human relations violation regarding the preparation of the gruel in 1930s Siberia.
[Related: Reality: No Linsanity if he didn’t play in New York City]
Here’s the video, from ESPNNews on Wednesday. And while we can’t excuse this sort of phrase going through, think of the endless times you’ve heard it used on either 24-hour radio or 24-cable shows like these to describe a mitigating factor. Again, no excuse for someone on the floor not to raise a hackle and ask the anchor to switch his copy, but it could be an innocent, mortifying mistake:
As a writer, I’m not picking my poison in trying to be safe in failing to deliver some third-hand slamming of what happened in Bristol on Friday night. If the editor in question pulled this as a joke, then he or she should be fired in an instant; and this is coming from someone that wasn’t at all in favor of Jason Whitlock’s firing (though I did get one FOX News joke out of it on Twitter).
Whitlock’s was an unfortunate attempt at humor. This play on words was more of a play on an ethnic slur, if it was intended to reference “chink” as “Asian,” even if it was a smarmy joke from someone who is too dumb to know better.
It’s an ugly word that happens to double as a type of fissure that would serve as an Achilles heel of sorts in a knight’s suit of armor. I’m not being overly cautious when I tell you without looking that, honestly, I wouldn’t be shocked if I used that phrase in my breakdown of New York’s acquisition of J.R. Smith from Friday, or any other post that or any other day. It’s a go-to sports cliché. If it was meant as a joke, by someone who doesn’t think the word is “that bad,” then this is a fireable offense. If this was meant with malice, then this is a fireable offense.
If this really was someone using yet another sports cliché that he or she has to fit into about 20 characters or less? Than that’s different. A terrible, awful, oversight. A learning experience, no doubt, and a nice reminder that — holy crap, this Asian-American kid is amazing at pro basketball, and we happily have a whole new set of double-entendres that we have to watch out for as writers.
To have that oversight — using a phrase that would go unnoticed most other nights regarding just about any other NBA storyline that details a potential weakness to be exploited regarding a sports team — possibly paired in a post that mentions Jeremy Lin? That would be mortifying.
To serve as a headline directly below a picture of the most noted Asian-American basketball player in NBA history? I can see why you’re either up in arms at your angriest, or dubious at your most patient. You’re well within your rights to be both. If you want to be angry and assume the worst, believe me, you have more than enough reason to, and my own blessing. There’s a very good chance this was deliberate, and that’s astonishing in its insensitivity and tactlessness. Especially in describing someone who never wanted to identify himself with anything more than as “Jeremy Lin, NBA point guard.”
Until we find out more, which is doubtful considering ESPN’s history, I’m going to ease off a bit. Uneasy with the knowledge that it, honestly, could happen to anyone (especially on an understaffed Friday night) with nobody looking over their shoulder, with no malice intended. That’s just my take until I’m proven wrong or the creator, personally, apologizes. Even ESPN’s quick statement of apology, issued on Saturday morning, feels unsatisfying:
“The headline was removed [35 minutes after it appeared]. We are conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.”
You, sick of this, are more than welcome to demand a swifter, and more transparent and public reaction from ESPN.
Note: This article was retrieved from Yahoo! Sports. I didn’t write this article, however I found it interesting so I decided to post it.
Related articles
- ESPN Apologizes For Tasteless Jeremy Lin Headline (sbnation.com)
- Jason Whitlock Apologizes For Small Penis Joke Made at Jeremy Lin (inquisitr.com)
- Linsanity: Asian-Americans rejoice as Jeremy Lin breaks stereotypes (haleybehre.wordpress.com)
- Asian-Americans rejoice as Lin smashes stereotypes (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- ESPN Apologizes After Describing Jeremy Lin With Racial Slur (chicago.cbslocal.com)
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