Category: Rumors & Gossip (Page 104 of 225)

      Stoudemire ‘would love to stay’ in Phoenix

      January 18, 2010 /

      The Arizona Republic reports that the Suns are going to speak with Amare Stoudemire’s camp about an extension.

      Suns General Manager Steve Kerr and Managing Partner Robert Sarver will meet with Stoudemire’s agent, Happy Walters, this week for their first formal discussion. Walters declined comment.

      “We’ll definitely talk about it,” Kerr said of an extension. “We have a lot to consider.

      “Amar’e has been great all year. We’re thrilled with the way he’s played and the effort he’s put forth, returning from the injury to his eye.”

      “It’s always about what’s the best situation for the Suns organization and myself,” Stoudemire said. “Wherever there is an equilibrium or common denominator, we can settle on that. Winning is the most important thing to me. Being a contender. If we can do it here, then I would love to stay.”

      Stoudemire says that winning “is the most important thing,” but he also thinks that he’s a max contract player, so one wonders if he’d sign an extension with the Suns if Kerr offered him a deal for less than the max. Chris Bosh is more coveted because he’s a better defender. Stoudemire is a superior offensive player and is a nice fit with a team that pushes the ball and doesn’t stress shutdown defense. The Knicks immediately spring to mind.

      While the Suns are 24-17, they started the season 14-3, so they have lost 14 of their last 24 games. If that trend continues, the Stoudemire trade talk will heat up.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Bosh to OKC? Unlikely.

      January 18, 2010 /

      While Art Garcia wonders on NBA.com if a Jeff Green-for-Chris Bosh deal makes a lot of sense for both the Raptors and Thunder, Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman thinks there is probably too much risk in trading for Bosh before the deadline.

      The organization’s long-term motives have not changed, although Bosh certainly would fit the bill of a player that makes sense both now and in the future.

      The problem is, trading for Bosh now doesn’t guarantee he’ll be around in the future. Acquiring Bosh would be a big-time risk that could blow up in July if he decides to bolt for, say, the beaches of Miami or Broadway in New York. The Thunder will have then traded valuable assets for nothing. It’s that risk that partially explains why Phoenix was unable to move Amar’e Stoudemire last season after all the fuss and trade rumors regarding where he’d land.

      For the Thunder to pull the trigger on a Bosh trade, especially one that included promising youngster Jeff Green (who is averaging 14.0 points and 5.9 rebounds this season), they would have to feel like they had a great chance to re-sign him this summer. The weather in OKC is not as nice in Miami nor is the city as glitzy as New York (or even Chicago), but if Bosh wants to win, the Thunder are a great fit. Maybe a half season with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook would be enough to convince him to re-sign, but what if it wasn’t? Then they would have lost Green and have nothing to show for it.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, Rumors & Gossip

      Arenas doesn’t feel the Wizards have supported him

      January 15, 2010 /

      Get this — Gilbert Arenas feels disrespected by the Washington Wizards. Per the Washington Post…

      A person close to Arenas said Thursday that Arenas believes President Ernie Grunfeld and the Wizards management failed to support him following his locker room confrontation on Dec. 21 with teammate Javaris Crittenton.

      Arenas, the person close to the player said, has told NBA investigators that his flippant behavior following the incident, including the pantomiming of pistols before a game that led to an indefinite suspension from Stern, was because he felt the Wizards organization had turned its back on him.

      “If your own franchise, the people you considered family, weren’t there for you when you needed them most, would you want to play for them and be around them anymore?” said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Arenas “was wrong for bringing guns into the locker room, and it’s going to mean pleading guilty to a felony. It’s serious business. But the way this came out and how Ernie and the organization handled the facts makes you wonder if he will ever play for them again.”

      Let me get this straight: This clown brings guns into his place of business, threatens (jokingly or not) a teammate over a gambling debt, and expects the team to “support” him? When they don’t live up to his expectations, he mocks the situation during pregame festivities and them blames the organization’s lack of support for his complete lack of tact (and common sense)?

      A quote later in the story sums it up best…

      “Until Gilbert realizes none of this would have happened if he hadn’t brought guns in the locker room and accepts responsibility for his actions, he won’t be welcomed back anywhere,” said an NBA official on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

      The Wizards need to do everything they can to void Arenas’s contract. They’ve already paid him $40 million of a deal worth $121 million, so it’s not like he’s going to walk away with nothing.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, Rumors & Gossip

      New details emerge in Marvin Harrison shooting

      January 15, 2010 /

      In the February GQ story, “The Dirtiest Player,” Jason Fagone tells the tale of eyewitness Robert Nixon, who witnessed the Harrison shooting.

      It was a scene* to make anybody stop and watch. Broad daylight in North Philadelphia. April 29, 2008—a Tuesday. The corner of 25th Street and Thompson, about seven blocks north of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the steps Rocky climbed. A block of brick row houses, a church with a rubbed-out sign, a Hispanic grocery, a vacant lot. In one sense, the presence of a future Hall of Famer at this seedy vortex of the city—Harrison, eight-time Pro Bowl wide receiver with the Indianapolis Colts, then at the tail end of a thirteen-season career and a $67 million contract—was incongruous. Especially given that Harrison, who is usually described as “quiet” and “humble,” was noisily stomping the fat man in the face and gut.

      To Nixon, the fat man looked semi-conscious.

      After several minutes, Harrison and McCray walked away. The fat man slowly picked himself up. Shouting epithets, he staggered to his car. Nixon watched as Marvin Harrison got into his own car, parked to the west of the fat man’s. The fat man put his car into reverse. Thompson Street is one-way going east. The fat man backed up the wrong way until he was smack in front of Chuckie’s Garage, a car wash Harrison owns. The fat man was now blocking Harrison, who was trying to drive away.

      Nixon saw Harrison get out of his car and exchange words with the fat man. He couldn’t hear the words, but he could see the gestures of threat and counterthreat. The fat man stayed in his car. He called somebody on his cell. Harrison got back into his car and called somebody on his cell. After a minute or two, Harrison got out of his car for the second time.

      Marvin Harrison is six feet tall and 185 pounds. He has a neatly trimmed mustache and the body-fat content of an Olympic swimmer. He became the dominant wide receiver of his era not by outleaping or outwrestling defenders but by exploiting an almost supernatural talent for getting open: for feints, fakes, jukes, dodges, bluffs, stutter steps, sudden bursts of sick speed. But at this moment, Nixon says, Marvin Harrison did not run. He stood on the sidewalk and calmly raised his wiry arms. In each hand, Nixon clearly saw, was a gun.

      Nixon froze.

      “YOU A BITCH-ASS NIGGA!” Nixon heard the fat man scream at Harrison. “YOU AIN’T GONNA SHOOT. YOU AIN’T GONNA SHOOT. DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO.”

      Nixon was across the street and thirty yards away when Harrison started shooting. Pop pop pop pop pop pop—a great staccato gust of bullets. Steadily, Nixon says, Harrison unloaded both guns into the fat man’s car, stippling the red Toyota Tundra with bullet holes as the fat man ducked in his seat. Eventually, the fat man sat up and sped off, heading straight toward Nixon’s position as Harrison darted into the street and continued to shoot.

      Read the rest of the story here. It’s an eye-opening read. Harrison was always the consummate professional on the field, but this story paints a very different picture.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      News, NFL, Rumors & Gossip

      Lucas: Cavs tanked to get LeBron

      January 14, 2010 /

      Former Cavs coach John Lucas claims that the franchise tanked the 2002-03 season to try to get LeBron James.

      “They trade all our guys away and we go real young, and the goal was to get LeBron and also to sell the team,” Lucas told AOL FanHouse. “I didn’t have a chance. … You can’t fault the Cavaliers for wanting to get LeBron. It was hard to get free agents to come there.”

      The Cavaliers finished the 2002-03 season with a 17-65 record, tied with the Denver Nuggets for the worst record in the NBA. Cleveland won the NBA’s draft lottery and selected James with the No. 1 pick. Lucas was fired midway through that season.

      Gordon Gund, who was then the team’s principal owner but is now a minority owner of the Cavs, denied Lucas’ claims. He also told the Web site that the Cavaliers weren’t for sale during that season. The team didn’t get sold until 2005.

      “You don’t try to get the No. 1 pick,” Gund told AOL Fanhouse. “That’s why the lottery was designed. To not allow that. We had a young team that we were developing. … We did not tank the season. … To lose to get LeBron James, we would never do that. I wouldn’t do that. I couldn’t do that.

      “In the very last game of the season, we had nothing to gain and we were in sole possession of last place [in the NBA]. But we beat [the Toronto Raptors] and that left us tied with Denver [at 17-65]. … The chances of getting the first pick were only [22.5 percent].”

      While tanking at the end of the season is rather commonplace in the NBA, tanking an entire season has been, to this point, unheard of. Even the worst franchises would like to make the playoffs for the first half of the season. It’s not until after the All-Star Game that we generally start seeing teams give up trying to win.

      Gund has a point about the Cavs winning the final game of the season, but I’d bet that the Cleveland front office was upset after that victory, as it decreased the chances that the team would win the lottery. It’s not like the GM tells the players to lose games. The players go out and try to win. Like Herm Edwards says, “You PLAY to WIN the GAME!” When teams tank, the front office simply puts the team in the worst position to win. They shut down semi-injured stars and they start giving minutes to young players so they can “evaluate what they have.” They don’t go in the locker room and tell the players to lose the game.

      Don’t kid yourself, we’re going to see tanking at the end of this season. John Wall is far and away the best prospect in this summer’s draft, and teams that are out of the playoff hunt will be tripping over each other trying to lose to increase the chances that they’ll win the #1 overall pick in the lottery. The lottery is supposed to eliminate tanking, but even though the chances of winning the #1 pick only increase incrementally with every loss, they still increase. There is still incentive to lose, so teams will lose.

      For the ’03 Cavs, there was no upside to winning games late in the season. Every loss meant that they were that much closer to getting LeBron. This is why the lottery system is broken.

      The only way to fix it is to give every non-playoff team an equal shot at the #1 pick. This is the way that it used to be, and under such a system, a fringe playoff team will sometimes win the lottery. So be it. Why are we so focused on rewarding incompetence?

      NBA, NBA Draft, News, Rumors & Gossip

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑