According to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein, Clippers forward, reigning Rookie of the Year, reigning Dunk Contest Champion, and former Oklahoma college superstar Blake Griffin will not be playing in a star-studded exhibition game this Sunday because of a cut he suffered while in the ocean: While players like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Paul will also be participating in the game, CBS’ Royce Young does make the point that Griffin being out takes away from the game’s “battle for Oklahoma” storyline, as Durant is the best player in Thunder history and Griffin had one of the best Oklahoma college careers in recent memory.
-NBAPA chief Billy Hunter at the NBPA press conference, regarding David Stern’s comments about the possible cancellation of games until Christmas if a new CBA deal doesn’t get worked out soon.
Columnist and ESPN host Dan Le Batard recently had Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire on his show, and at around the 3:00 mark of the interview, he asked Stoudemire who the smelliest players in the league are.
Udonis Haslem’s twitter account is less than 24 years old, but he’s already using it to post major news and his opinions about the lockout: A foot injury caused Haslem to miss most of the regular season and the playoffs, but he was able to come back and give the Heat some very good minutes in the Conference Finals as well as the NBA Finals.
Rudy Gay, who was forced to sit on the sidelines and watch the Grizzlies’ incredible playoff run last season, recently sat down and talked with Grantland’s Jonathan Abrams about his recovery from the serious shoulder injury he suffered: Gay goes on to talk about how he thinks the Grizzlies would have done in the playoffs if he had been healthy, Zach Randolph’s breakout playoff performance, how he’s at about “90%" right now, and how he doesn’t think he could guard LeBron, or himself, for 40 straight minutes with the way the NBA is now.
Over the lockout, there have been a lot of very good stories about what NBA players are doing to keep busy while they wait for news on when the season is going to start.
Via The Orlando Sentinel’s Zach McCann, here’s video of Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy talking at a coaching clinic at Oivedo High School last Tuesday afternoon.
It baffled a lot of folks when Rick Adleman, generally considered one of the better coaches in NBA history, took a head coaching job with the Timberwolves, who have been a fixer-upper franchise since Kevin Garnett’s prime.
From CBS’ Ben Golliver: The Blazers’ front office has been a soap opera in recent years -- hopefully the Blazers can find someone to hold down the GM job successfully this off-season and spare Blazer fans from any future front-office drama.
Rumors of players going overseas to play during a possible lockout have been constant this off-season, but Nets guard Deron Williams is the highest-profile player so far to have actually signed a contract with an overseas team, Turkey’s Beskitas.
