in NBA Articles
NBA: The Road Ahead
by Charles Jay
Hey, This is the NBA
The Memphis Grizzlies (+10000 to win the Western Conference at BetUS) are a team that has a lot of talent, on paper anyway. Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo are big point-producers who should have a lot of basketball ahead of them. Hasheem Thabeet has the potential to be a true eraser in the middle. Marc Gasol may be on his way to becoming a useful big man.
Now you can add veterans Allen Iverson and Zach Randolph, both of who can put up 20 points a game, to the mix.
Because they are veterans, they are also well-versed in the art of telling people what they want to hear at the outset of a season, although at least one of them lets his tongue slip every so often.
Iverson is very quick to say he wants to win. That's natural; after all, who wants to lose? At the same time, thoug h he wants to help the younger players, he won't be the sixth man. "I'd be sitting here lying if I told you I wanted to be a sixth man after being a starter all my life," he says. "The important thing for me coming here is to be me. To be the player I am." That's a double-edged sword.
Randolph, who has been a reviled teammate and a coach-killer wherever he's gone, is ready to confound expectations. "I want to win. I haven't won since Portland so I'm willing to do whatever it takes. Sacrifices are going to have to be made and I'm willing to do that," said the power forward out of Michigan State.
A quote from Jason Terry of the Dallas Mavericks: "Those guys obviously put up some big numbers in the league for a while and they're going to look at those guys to be leaders on that team.''
The question is, who is going to be the leader when those two guys start skipping practices?
Remember, when you talk "Memphis" you have to start with "Me."
Hey, this is the NBA.
LeBron James (+275 to win the MVP at BetUS) has a little buddy who won't have to worry about Braylon Edwards anymore - for now.
Allegedly Edwards punched out a friend of LeBron's at a Cleveland nightclub called the View. According to a statement made by LeBron, who considers Edwards to be "jealous" of him, "You are a role model to kids and you should carry yourself that way on and off the field. And I carry that. I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize myself or my family. I'm one of the guys that look at being a professional athlete at more than just being out on the court."
The nightclub in question is known as a hangout for athletes and a place where plenty of fights, and sometimes shootings, take place outside. The owner has recently been flagged for paying off city inspectors, and the City Council would like to shut the place down as an establishment "unfit to hold a liquor permit" because of all this rowdiness. Naturally, it's "the only place LeBron goes to in Cleveland" according to someone named Sabrina Parr, who is a host on local radio station WKNR, and who apparently sleeps with one of the Browns players (maybe that's how she gets her "scoops"). Of course, LeBron's friend (i.e., hanger-on) is a "promoter" of events at this nightclub.
We'll have more of this when we write about football, but the bottom line is that, contrary to an account provided by Ms. Parr, Edwards may not have even been the one to throw the punch, but he is suddenly shipped off to New York, and the rumor is that the presence of Edwards in the Big Apple may actually preclude King James from going there, to the Nets or Knicks, when he explores his free agency next year.
Maybe LeBron can ask his good buddy Jay-Z (a minority owner of the Nets) to place a call to Jets owner Woody Johnson and get Edwards traded out of there too, so as to clear the way.
The funny thing is, Jay-Z would probably make that call.
Hey, this is the NBA.
Shaquille O'Neal is so happy with LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers (+300 to win the NBA title at BetUS), it seems, that he is going positively hyperbolic.
"It's probably the best team I've ever played on, on paper anyway," he recently told reporters. "I've always been on management to get me the power forward I've needed and the shooters I've needed."
I love the emphasis on "I" in those statements.
Hey, this is the NBA.
Shaq's former team, the Miami Heat (+2000 to win the Eastern Conference at BetUS) have given themselves a little more depth at the guard position by signing Carlos Arroyo to a free agent contract. Arroyo has played seven seasons in the NBA, but he is perhaps best known for his performance in the 2004 Olympics, when his 24 points led a Puerto Rico team that embarrassed the U.S. in the first round of action.
Arroyo played college ball at Florida International, and while he was there he was rather unruly, once punching out a team manager on a road trip to Hawaii and on another occasion punching out one of his teammates. An investigation by a local alternative newspaper revealed that Arroyo had continued to play at FIU even though he had officially flunked out of school. He also walked out on the team after a players-only meeting where they asked him to start passing the ball. He'll be making $1.1 million from the Heat this season.
Hey, this is the NBA.
Boy, I wonder if Stephen Curry (+500 to win the Rookie of the Year at BetUS) realizes exactly what he got himself into. Stephen Jackson, who is supposed to be one of the leaders of the Golden State Warriors (+8000 to win the West at BetUS) and had already been fined by the league for requesting a trade, was conspicuously absent from the Warriors' outdoor exhibition ganme in Dinan Wells, CA on Saturday night. That's because he had been suspended for two exhibition games - by the team - after he accumulated five personal fouls and one technical in just ten minutes of action in a game against the Lakers (in other words, he wanted to leave early). After all that, apparently Jackson simply headed off to the locker room and never came back. He doesn't want to play in Oakland any more, and maybe not at all, so they give him a few days off. Go figure. Or maybe not.
Hey, this is the NBA.
