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NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
Rapper Lil Wayne has made a song about Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant.
Tonight in L.A. the Orlando Magic visit as Game 1 of the 2009 NBA Finals tips off.
Just from hearing this, I assume some Lakers-related people were involved in producing or putting it together. I base this on the audio footage they chose to include.
Listen to Lil Wayne’s Kobe song:
The New York Times (Charles V. Bagli) reports: It’s official. Frank Gehry is out as the architect for the Barclays Center, an exotic, $1 billion glass-walled arena that is the centerpiece of the long-delayed and financially challenged Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, according to government officials and real estate executives who have been briefed on the plans. The design by Mr. Gehry, the award-winning architect behind the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, has been replaced with a less-expensive, $800 million arena. The new design comes from Ellerbe Becket, an architectural firm based in Kansas City, Mo., that specializes in convention centers, stadiums and arenas, and designed Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, where the Indiana Pacers play.
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), the nation’s leading provider of entertainment, information, and communications products and services, has entered into a long-term agreement with NBA Digital to expand its distribution of NBA TV, providing live games, original programming, and exciting video on demand (VOD) and broadband content to millions of customers.
Comcast will make NBA TV, the league’s 24-hour digital television network that offers more than 100 live NBA games, available to millions of Comcast’s Digital Classic customers before the 2009-10 NBA regular season. Additionally, these customers will have access to a wide array of NBA content On Demand, including Top 10 Plays of the Night, nightly game recaps, basketball news of the day, and NBA Entertainment-produced specials. Comcast will also offer NBA content on its online properties, including Comcast.net.
“We appreciate the commitment of our longtime and valued partner Comcast to expand NBA TV’s distribution and provide more of its customers with the network’s wall-to-wall NBA coverage and innovative programming,” said NBA Deputy Commissioner and COO Adam Silver. “Through this agreement, millions of additional fans will be able to experience NBA TV’s more than 100 live NBA games, its signature studio shows and Emmy award-winning on-air talent.”
“We are excited to bring more NBA action live, on demand, and online to our Digital Classic customers,” said Matt Bond, Executive Vice President of Content Acquisition at Comcast Cable. “Whether a fan of the hometown team or one of the NBA’s incredible players, our customers will have access to all of the great NBA moments in time for next season.”
Comcast will continue to offer NBA LEAGUE PASS, the league’s subscription package that provides subscribers with up to 40 out-of-market, live NBA games each week. As part of the package, subscribers will have access to NBA games online at no additional cost through NBA LEAGUE PASS BROADBAND.
“This is a perfect marriage of two multiplatform strategies,” said NBA Digital Senior Vice President and General Manager Bryan Perez. “Through this expanded agreement, NBA Digital and Comcast will deliver millions of fans the finest in NBA content via broadcast, VOD, and broadband distribution.”
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College star forward Blake Griffin will work out for the Los Angeles Clippers Saturday afternoon.
Griffin is widely considered the best player in the upcoming 2009 NBA draft, and the Clippers have the #1 selection in the first round.
They are expected to select Griffin, but it’s still standard for the player to work out for the team, meet his future employers, let the two sides get to know each other a little better, talk about their favorite colors, etc.
And, seeing Griffin on the basketball court having him do whatever they tell him to will help the Clippers get an even better read about what he’s good at, which helps make roster decisions. Par for the course.
There are some rumblings that the Clippers are open to trading the first pick, but nothing serious. And frankly, every team in the draft is always “open” to trading any player or pick, if the price is right.
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The New Orleans Hornets announced today that guard Devin Brown has exercised his player option for the 2009-10 season. Per team policy, terms of the contract were not released.
Brown (6-5, 210) averaged 5.2 points and 1.9 rebounds in 13.8 minutes off the bench for New Orleans during the 2008-09 season after being signed as a free agent on August 22, 2008. He has appeared in 415 career games (90 starts), averaging 7.1 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 19.2 minutes per game during his seven-year career.
The undrafted product of the University of Texas-San Antonio had his best season as a pro with the Hornets during the 2006-07 season, averaging a career-high 11.6 points in 58 games (49 starts). He also had career-highs in minutes per game (28.7), rebounds (4.3) and assists (2.6).
Brown was a member of the 2004-05 NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs and has appeared in 32 career playoff games with Cleveland, New Orleans and San Antonio.
The Boston Globe reports: Kevin Garnett’s recovery from right knee surgery apparently is going well. Garnett expressed optimism in a recent conversation with team owner Wyc Grousbeck, who spoke yesterday at a corporate sponsorship event at the Boston Harbor Hotel. “I talked to [Garnett] and he guaranteed the championship in 2010 and in 2011,” Grousbeck said. “He was as fired up as he’s ever been.” Doctors removed bone spurs from Garnett’s knee May 26. He is expected to be ready for training camp in late September.
InsideHoops.com editor says: I have as much faith in Kevin Garnett and his awesome talent and fire as the next super good-looking, witty, famous pro basketball analyst, but such “guarantees” shouldn’t really be taken seriously. It’s fun to talk about, though. And on a side note, I guarantee I’m about to dominate this glass of chocolate milk.
The Boston Herald (Thomas Grillo) reports: Boston Celtics fans could soon have another way to watch their team play – online. The NBA franchise is in talks with Comcast to stream games live, and free, on the Web next season. “There’s a generation of fans that want that second-screen experience,” Celtics president Rich Gotham told the Herald yesterday. “They want the big screen hi-def, but they also want a computer open in front of them to delve into stats and chat with fans in real time.”
InsideHoops.com editor says: Watching a game on TV will always be better quality than watching online. If there are cool online features (like the InsideHoops.com message board, Twitter, chats, etc.) you can always keep that stuff open, while still watching on a beautiful television screen. But if you’re in a place where you can’t see the game on TV, seeing it on the web is obviously better than missing it.
When the basketball video game NBA 2k10 comes out, the player on the cover will be Kobe Bryant.
Fans will be able to vote for their favorite cover. There will be four different pictures posted of Bryant on the web. Three will feature Kobe in a Lakers uniform, and one will have Bryant in a Knicks uniform – but the latter is web fun and will be there as a joke, to stir people up.
Kobe definitely deserves the honor!
– InsideHoops.com editor Jeff Lenchiner
New York Newsday (Arthur Staple) reports: Madison Square Garden’s renovation won’t be completed until 2012, a slightly altered timeline announced Tuesday than the one Garden executives put forth a year ago in introducing a $500-million overhaul of the arena. “We made sure to get the planning right, because we don’t want to change it midway through,” said MSG and Cablevision vice chairman Hank Ratner, who Tuesday showed off to reporters the Garden’s Presentation Center, a state-of-the-art area near the Seventh Avenue entrance that will open this summer to give fans a preview of the renovations. Work has not yet begun on the renovation, though roughly 150 MSG Network and Garden facilities employees will move across the street to 11 Penn Plaza so that their offices can be converted into concourse space in the revamped arena.
The New York Daily News (Owen Moritz) reports: Madison Square Garden will undergo a $500 million top-to-bottom renovation that will feature wider concourses and more bathrooms in addition to a giant “supersuite” and lavish corporate boxes. There will even be a party deck and two 10th-floor bridges running the length of the arena with overhead views of the playing surface. The renovation will include 20 courtside “event-level suites” complete with kitchens and lounges. One top-of-the-line suite will even have a working fireplace.
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LeBron James underwent successful surgery today at the Cleveland Clinic. He had a right benign parotid growth (near the right jaw) removed by Dr. Frank Papay in a five-hour procedure.
LeBron and his family have been aware of this medical issue for several months but, with the clearance of the treating doctors and medical staff, decided to wait until the conclusion of the Cavaliers season to undergo the removal procedure.
LeBron is recovering comfortably at the Cleveland Clinic and will soon be returning home to his family.
The doctors are pleased with the outcome of the procedure, and at this time, are confident that no further treatment will be needed as LeBron is expected to make a full and complete recovery.
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