Baron Davis Better Cool It Now

You may have already seen this video but if you haven't, you have no idea what you're missing. Basically Baron Davis is the funniest human being alive and clearly doesn't care how ridiculous he looks.

Josh Howard's Protégé's Mentor... Josh Howard

"Wait, So You're Telling Me That No Black People Celebrate The National Anthem?"

As some of you might know, I recently posted an article about how some NBA up-and-comers have been exhibiting some less than model behavior. Well, this should come as no surprise given their role model is Josh Howard. After having a notable career at Wake Forest (and receiving an honorary "Josh Howard Day" in Winston-Salem), Josh Howard was undervalued in the draft and is currently employed as a standout player on the Dallas Mavericks. Unfortunately, he made headlines when he readily admitted to the use of marijuana in the off season.
Of course, I am not expending my 101st post spot to just rehash Howard's past (reHASH, get it?). He made headlines, or at least internet toolbars, again with some comments about the National Anthem he made during Allen Iverson's charity flag football game. During the song, he told a cell phone camera that, "'The Star-Spangled Banner' is going on. I don't celebrate this [expletive]. I'm black.'"

This comment is offensive and wrong on so many levels that I won't even bother to report on them here. I really like Howard as a player and he seems like a nice enough guy, but the media stories he is creating are making me reconsider my opinion of him.
Josh Howard, as you read this (which I'm sure you will be doing), I want to warn you that you are on very thing ice here and if you don't stop all this noise, you will lose your favor with GRG. That should straighten things out.

It's Gonna Be Me... Who Breaks My Knee Getting Off The Couch

The Portland Trailblazer's 2nd year rookie, Greg Oden (an avid reader of this blog), must have seen Shaq's wildly successful freestyle video, because he has produced a musical work of art himself. His album, entitled "Gregory Covers Allegro Moderato - Tres Doux", is set to drop in early 2009.



Fun fact, Greg Oden was actually one of the original members of N'Sync. He was that one with frosted tips.

Josh Howard's Protégés?

Recent NCAA Tournament champions, Darrell Arthur and Mario Chalmers, were caught with marijuana and asked to leave the mandatory "rookie transition" seminar in a New York-area resort. They have been banned from the entire rookie transition program, will be fined $20,000 and are subject to any punishment that their individual teams decide to implement.
Initially, this is really disappointing from two players who have a very bright future in the NBA, but according to Darrell Arthur, he wasn't involved in any situations involving marijuana. This is a pretty standard claim to make once you've been accused of possession, but the lack of evidence against the two has me questioning if this punishment is too severe.
Security claims that Arthur and Chalmers initially refused them entry into their room, at which point the police became involved. They found women and "evidence of marijuana use" a little bit after 3 a.m. on Wednesday. Officially, they were kicked out for having prohibited visitors, as no actual drugs were found.
It's one thing to kick the players out for having visitors that they knew they couldn't have, but adding a $20,000 fine seems a little excessive given that there's no proof of drug use. I'll admit to being a little biased for Arthur and Chalmers, given that they seem like good guys. If Ron Artest or Chris Anderson were caught in this situation, I would probably assume their were some dead guys in the closet as well.

Breaking News!

This tiny basketball is the most revealing piece of NBA related evidence since the plaintiff's underwear in the Kobe case:



This is a ball allegedly released by the new Oklahoma City franchise and it reveals a) the name, b) the logo and c) their crazy idea to have their players use a toy basketball. How could these 6'8" athletes even dribble or shoot it? Despite its obvious flaws, I actually commend the Thunder (name pending) for making this bold move. What better way to make a splash in your first year as a franchise than change what is possibly the most fundamental part of the game?

What's Spanish For "Wunderkind"?

"Tastes Like A Silver Medal"

The biggest basketball related story of the 2008 Beijing Olympics isn't how the US totally dominated every opponent. I'm pretty sure everyone saw that coming. The most intriguing player was Spanish 17 year-old Ricky Rubio. Now, I've been a fan of this player since he was in SLAM a year ago, but he had a chance to highlight his skills against the worlds elite and he proved himself a legitimate future NBA talent.
This phenom has an incredible basketball IQ, unbelievable court vision and he was able to shine on a team filled with current NBA players who were playing America's finest at a high-school age. Draftexpress.com has him ranked as the number one pick in next years draft and as far as I can tell, that would be a solid choice. His highlight tape won't be filled with dunks but, given his age, there are some incredible defensive plays and an experience level well beyond his years on display. Also, it's accompanied by R.Kelly's epic, "The World's Greatest"

Stop Euro-Stealing Our Players

I am seriously tired of all the NBA stars who will be “going to Europe in 2010” or whatever. Actually scratch that, they’re all going to be going to the same team, Olympiakos (Greece) in the future. It’s true that European clubs have no salary cap, and sure Olympiakos might be owned by two billionaire brothers (pictured below)…

…but still, they can’t possibly employ Kobe, LeBron and Dwayne Wade each for 50 million dollars a year. Even if they could, do you really think any of those superstars would be willing to move themselves and their family to a foreign country where they don’t speak the language or know the location of the hottest nightclubs?
It’s one thing when Josh Childress, Earl Boykins and Carlos Arroyo or geared up to leave the U.S. but NBA players who can actually find employment here would be more inclined to stay.
I’ll admit that global branding would probably be improved by, you know, going around the globe, but it’s not like Nike and Adidas don’t use these guys overseas to sell sneakers.
Call me old fashioned but I just don’t see superstars leaving the NBA, even if it means 30 million more a year in salary. It would be kind of like when David Beckham came over here. Sure he makes more money, and it got us sort of excited about soccer for a little bit, but ultimately he sacrificed being in a country where people really cared about what he did on the field. Besides, the Europeans have a very different definition of athletics than we do: