Honestly that elbow was so ridiculous I couldn't help but laugh, I mean he was so insane and his apologies were even more so.
MWP = a more vicious Dennis Rodman. To be fair, both Artest and Rodman have/had to play with a lot of intensity to overcome their lack of natural talents. But both take/took it too far.
BTW, Dennis Rodman has gone much more mellow lately, almost phlegmatic. He must live within one or two blocks from me, in North Miami, because I keep running into him at my most conveniently located gas station, at the Aventura mall and at my in-laws' jewelry store. He is no longer wearing brightly colored clothes, behaves normally, I've had a few pleasant conversations with him. He does drive a Hummer and dates an attractive tattooed blond chick.
Surprising to hear about Rodman I thought i heard he was broke and was sick due to alcoholism. But on Artest all the media people in Indy say he was one of the nicest/coolest athletes theyve ever met. He would be walking around downtown and stop and talk to anybody if they wanted to talk to them. Just think he snaps occasionally.
What's that Russian word for someone like Artest? atmorozhini or something? That's exactly the type of person he is. Friggin' retarded. Rodman to me always seemed like a cool dude and not a typical black guy in terms of taste and personality.
Is Dwight Howard a doubt now for the Olympics? Wonder if Big Roy will nab a spot. Would be happy for him and awesome to have a Pacer represent team USA again but sucks cause its a contract year
Howard is out, and it will probably be quite some time before he wears the USA jersey. We have Tyson Chandler if we need need a true 5. Honestly, I think much of the time Kra-zhu-ski will go with a scoring 4 in the 5 spot as many college coaches do when they are not deep enough at center. I would also like to see Lamar Odom get the boot.
I'm excited about the Olympics but Simmonds article was the only thing I read. He seemed concerned about not having a big man.
How could Odom be on the Olympic team if he couldn't hack it in the D-League. Howard was such a bum this season mentally, what a big baby. I wish Rubio was there, some of those games Spain played last Olympics were awesome. I watched like every Olympic basketball game. After USA I'll be pulling for your boys Loko.
That's conflicting because my buddy's sister is a pediatric RN at UC Davis Med Center and treated Ron Artest's daughter, Diamond Artest (I think we need a separate thread for the ridiculous names that celebrities give their kids but I hate pop culture so never mind). The family had a private suite and were absolute a**holes the entire time. They treated hospital staff poorly and left the room in shambles. None of the RN's wanted to treat Ron's daughter. My buddy's sister technique and work ethic was constantly critiqued and the family made numerous complaints about the docs and nurses, all onto deaf ears I hope. As the old, or new, adage goes "You can take a person out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the person." Furthermore, one of the hospital employees wished Ron a speedy recovery (I think he had an elbow injury at the time). Ron turned around and told the employee to "shut the f**k up or I'll slam your face into the wall."
Thats a whole new pot of cold beet soup. After flopping so hard in Euro, we need to place 3rd or higher in the qualification tourny in Venezuela. IF (a big if) Kemzura can get all the big guns into camp, then we should. I still have little faith in Kemzura, after his total mismanagement of a tourny on HOME SOIL.
So Derek Rose is out for the season and Olympics. What's our team looking likely to be at this point? C Tyson Chandler: Al Jefferson: Andrew Bynum PF Kevin Love: Chris Bosh: Lamarcus Aldrige SF Kevin Durant: Lebron James: Carmelo Anthony SG Kobe Bryant: Joe Johnson: Jason Terry PG Chris Paul: Deron Williams: Russell Westbrook This is of course based on my very limited knowledge of the NBA.
So Howard's out through the Olympics? I imagine Griffin would be selected as he'd physically maul the softer international sides. I personally would take Rondo over Westbrook, U.S. has no use for a point guard who shoots that often.
As of sometime earlier this year the roster was set to be: G: Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose, Chauncey Billups, Russell Westbrook, Eric Gordon F: Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Love, Lamar Odom, Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge C: Dwight Howard, Tyson Chandler Howard, Odom and Rose are out. In there place, I would take 1. Nazr Mohammed, 2. John Wall and 3. Zach Randolph 1. Williamsaul:Westbrook:Rose:Billups:Wall (1/2. Paul:Rose:Westbrook) 2. Bryant:Wade:Gordon 3. Durant:James:Anthony:Iguodala:Gay 4. Bosh:Love:Griffin:Randolph:Aldridge (4/5: Aldridge:Griffin) 5:Chandler:Mohammed Aldridge would get the back up min.s at 5. Mohammed is just there to clean up late vs. the cupcakes and add depth.
Griffin will see time at the 4. Hes not a hybird 4-5, despite his body type. He is a true PF. LaMarcus Aldridge and Tyson CHandler will likely split time at the 5 spot. Rondo would be a good selection. The US needs to be adaptable. We have the depth at every to be able to play any type of game. When we play faster teams, we need to go with a college style line up, with 2 4s, or a 4 and a 4-5, push up the floor and look to play in transition. When we play the high skill teams, we need to use the combo guards to get better jump shot looks, when we play the big and long teams, use a pure PF and a combo guard to manufacture inside chances for our bigs.
Footy, what did you think of Pacers performance vs. Magic? They've played well, but I think they can do better. I hope they turn it to another level next round.
I was only able to watch a few quarters of Game 1 and the 1st Qtr last night. I've read all the reviews and checked all the highlights I could find. Yea they can play a lot better, and will have to if they want to compete with Miami. In the past 9 Playoff games dating to last season, we've had 4 massive choke jobs. Game 1 at Chicago let a 10 point lead under 5 min get away, Game 4 with Orlando let a 10 point lead with 8 min left evaporate and lucky to go to OT. Somehow we've gone 2-2 in those 4 choke jobs lol. But its completely inexcusable to me that level of choking. I understand you blow a game like we did to the Magic in Game 1, a 5 point lead ok that's normal. But these monumental collapses need to end. Can't wait for the Heat series, will try to watch as much as I can. If the Pacers don't play scared and freeze in the 4th Qtr, and Bron and Wade aren't in video game god mode, Pacers should push the Heat 6 or 7 games and possibly even win the series. We are a better team than them and match up GREAT against them. We'll probably lose epicly in Game 7 like all those legendary battles in the '90's
I thought that if Sixers beat Bulls, Pacers would play Celtics. Either way, it'll be extremely tough. They really have to step up on D big time.
Its going to be a low scoring defensive series I think man. It will play into our hands if we extend the series further I think. We can beat them, I know it. But if Bron and Wade are god mode we can be smashed in 4 or 5 also. We are going to cause them some serious problems though I think. Hope the refs call it fairly even, all the typical dumb ass All Star voting fans will be livid if we win lol, NBA doesn't want that. Celtics sitting pretty for the ECF now. So sad to see a good guy like D. Rose go down, really a shame the way it happened.
The refs will likely call it in Miami's favor especially considering how tough Indiana play. Still I think Miami wins that one in six. They'll have a harder time with Indiana than Boston I think,