Dunk of the Week:
Paul Pierce does the high school equivalent of ball-tapping Chris Bosh, then dunks on him. Ouch!
Honorable Mention: Jeff Green, Derrick Rose
“ Michael would turn, face and pivot, which Kobe will get to in the next phase. We’re seeing the evolution of an outstanding basketball player who’s not satisfied. ”
Jim Cleamons, Lakers assistant coach and former Bulls assistant when MJ played in Chicago. It looks and sounds like the Black Mamba has yet to peak, which still makes me think he’ll be the best basketball player ever when it’s all said and done. Read about Kobe’s continually evolving game here.
Dunk of the Week:
Dwayne Wade is a bad man. Watch as he dunks Varejao into the goal’s support system, literally. Guess that’s what Varejao gets for having such silly hair.
And if that is Alton Lister getting dunked on in the video below, that is even more of a bummer. Check out this video of the Reign Man dunking on Lister.
Two things I love here:
1. Shawn Kemp further embarrassing Lister by giving him the double pumping finger point. Kemp couldn’t have nailed that taunt any better.
2. The announcer - he also couldn’t have done a better job with the call on this dunk: “POWER SLAM! TOMAHAWK JAM! YEAHHHHHHHH BABY! INTO LISTER’S FACE!”
Watch the Reign Man’s top ten dunks here, it’s worth it.
Here is a video of the aforementioned Carey Scurry doing dirty work on who I believe is Alton Lister. It’s only three seconds long and gets cut off at the end, but it gives you a pretty good idea of Scurry’s athletic ability.
I read an article today about the mob’s influence in Taiwan’s professional baseball league. According to the article, the league has “been plagued by game-fixing scandals” in order to fatten the pockets of gangsters and politicians; players have even been pistol-whipped and abducted for not performing badly enough to effect the outcomes of games in the mob’s favor.
My Dad used to coach college basketball. This article reminded me of a story he told in which one of his players, Carey Scurry, was abducted by another college that was also recruiting him. When that college found out that Scurry had decided to go to Northeastern Oklahoma instead of their school, some of their boosters drove nearly seven hours south to Miami, Oklahoma, abducted Scurry at gunpoint from the dorms in the middle of the night and held him hostage in a Ramada Inn for a couple days. That is pretty crazy to think about, huh.
Scurry made it out unharmed and ended up playing for NEO (the two schools played each other later that season). After his first semster, he went home to Brooklyn for Christmas break and never went back to Oklahoma. He eventually played college basketball for Long Island University and in the NBA for the Utah Jazz, New York Knicks and in Greece for Olympiacos.
I came across an article today from 1995 where John Stockton was asked about some of the greatest catches that resulted in an assist for him. At the time, John Stockton had 9,911 assists and was on the verge of setting the NBA record for most assists in a career. Stockton mentions three catches that really stuck out in his mind - one by Karl Malone, one by Mark Eaton and one by Carey Scurry. About the assist to Scurry, Stockton said, “I just cut loose and I thought it was going in the stands and he jumped - maybe this sounds like a kid saying it - but it seems like he jumped to where his hand was above the backboard. I thought it was going into orbit and he dunked it.”
Pops seconded Stockton’s statement about Scurry’s athletic ability, he told me today that when Scurry dunked, his head was above the rim and that sometimes he shot down at the basket. Carey Scurry averaged 4.7 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game during his three year NBA career. He was only abducted once.
Ruh roh. Carmelo Anthony welcomes Paul Milsap to the 2009 NBA season. Nice lollipop outlet pass. My recommendation, Paul, is to sit in the back row during today’s film session. It ain’t gon’ be fun for you.
Also, this should serve as fair forewarning to the Madison, Wi. YMCA. Y’all up in the 608 fin da get tea bagged cuuu!
“ What shocked me is that there are people like Shane Battier out there who take such a clinical perspective to basketball. From a recreational standpoint and playing, you just go out and play. To find guys who think about it in such analytically was nice. Pretty much everything he does in his preparation and during the game has a purpose. That was fun to see, there’s a reason for what they’re doing most of the time. Not everybody, obviously, but a lot of people. ”
Chris Ballard in a Q&A about his new book “The Art of a Beautiful Game.” Learning about what, why and how athletes prepare is interesting; the nuances of sports are intriguing. A guy like Shane Battier, it seems, takes it to a different level when it comes to preparation and doing the “little things.”
Ballard also briefly talks about how Dwight Howard blocks shots out of bounds and into the stands, even though it’s not fundamentally sound, because it is fun to him. Not to brag, but that reminded me of the time, as legend goes, that I traumatized some poor kid for life by blocking his shot into the wall at the Boy’s Club so hard that it dented the aluminum siding. Play on, Dwight. That shit is fun.
NBA maximum salaries
NBA minimum salaries
I love me some good NBA salary cap talk:
Maximum salaries are based on years of service, with players broken into tiers. In 2010, the top free agents — James, Wade and Bosh — will be entering the tier for seven- to nine-year veterans. This year, the leaguewide maximum salary for a seven- to nine-year veteran is about $16.2 million, and like the salary cap, this amount changes yearly, based on league revenues. Given the league’s salary-cap projections, the leaguewide maximum salary for a seven- to nine-year veteran in 2010 will probably fall in the $14.2 million to $15.1 million range. Players also have a personal maximum of 105 percent of their previous salary, and can sign for the greater of their personal maximum and the leaguewide maximum. For James, Wade and Bosh, this is about $16.6 million, which is the figure each will be able to command in the free-agent market.
- Larry Coon, NBA salary cap extraordinaire
The pictures above chart out salary restrictions for NBA players based on years of service, which coincidentally looks nothing like my pay scale at work. If you ever want to know more about the NBA salary cap, which I doubt most of you do, check out Larry Coon’s NBA Salary Cap FAQ. If you like the NBA even a tad bit, something you might actually do is check out Off the Dribble, an NBA blog at The New York Times.
And the Renaissance Casino and Ballroom had one other thing that the Cotton Club didn’t have: an all-black championship basketball team, the Rens. Between band sets, the dance floor would be cleared and the Rens would play basketball to the enthusiastic cheers of the patrons. When the game was over, the hoops would be stored away and the dancing would continue, sometimes with team members joining the customers on the dance floor. More important, the team barnstormed throughout the Midwest, South, and Northeast. Through the team’s athleticism and courage in the face of constant racism, they helped spread the gospel of the Harlem Renaissance without even knowing it.
via NPR
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is making his book, On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance, into a documentary-style movie. The scene at the Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s - with the music, the dancing and the basketball - must have been amazing. The Renaissance Casino and Ballroom today is, as you would correctly assume, quite different. Spike Lee actually cast its decrepitness as a crack den in the movie Jungle Fever. Not long ago, talk of reviving the old building and Harlem basketball tradition briefly came to surface when NBA Commissioner David Stern toyed with the idea of placing an NBA D-League team in the Harlem area.
The Harlem Rens compiled a record of 2,588 wins with only 529 losses and won the first professional basketball title in 1939 by defeating the Oshkosh All-Stars at the Chicago Coliseum. For more on the Rens, click here.