February 2010 – Page 10 – NBA Blog

Sean Sutton arrested on drug charges

The AP reports:

Former Oklahoma State basketball coach Sean Sutton has been arrested and accused of attempting to illegally obtain prescription painkillers from out of state.

Sutton was arrested Thursday night when he arrived to pick up a shipment of painkillers under another person’s name, said Mark Woodward, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Sutton was arrested on charges of attempting to possess a controlled dangerous substance and use of a communications device to facilitate a felony, Woodward said Friday.

A phone message left for Sutton was not immediately returned Friday. Formal charges had not yet been filed by the district attorney’s office, and it was unclear whether Sutton had an attorney. His arrest was first reported by The Tulsa World.

Channing Frye a rare big-man three-point shooter

It’s 2010 NBA All-Star weekend, and Phoenix Suns center Channing Frye, who emerged as a terrific outside shooter this season, is in the NBA Three-Point Shootout.

Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reports (via blog):

Will Channing Frye be more 2008 Steve Nash or 2005 Quentin Richardson?

Nash finished last in his most recent try at the Three-Point Shootout two years ago. Richardson won the thing as a Sun in 2005.

Four-time participant and 1997 Shootout victor Steve Kerr, the Suns’ GM, likes Frye’s chances and figures he is a better candidate than teammate Jared Dudley, whose 46.9 percent 3-point shooting ranks third in the NBA and ahead of Frye’s 43.3 percent.

“He shoots it so easily,” Kerr said. “I always felt big strong guys might have a bit of an advantage, like Dirk. They just shoot it so easily. Channing’s got such a quick release and he doesn’t have to use a lot of legs. In theory, he could do pretty well.

Whether he wins the event or loses, it’ll be fun seeing the 6-11, 245-pound Frye go at it.

Dennis Rodman making coaching debut

Although the article mentions that he has no interest in really becoming a coach, Dennis Rodman is about to give it a shot in the very-minor leagues.

The Dallas Morning News reports:

Former Dallas Mavericks star Dennis Rodman will make his professional coaching debut tonight.

Rodman will coach the Elmira Bulldogs, a minor league team from Eastern Basketball Alliance for games on Friday and Saturday night.

“I want to show people that I am different than the character they see on TV. Everyone always sees me on TV, they see me doing crazy stuff,” Rodman told thedailyreview.com. “They see me on shows like rehab. I’m the sanest guy on that show.”

According to the-leader.com, Rodman is being paid to coach two games as a publicity stunt.

First Arena general manager Robbie Nichols thought it was a home run idea, but pre-order ticket sales have been a disappointment because he told the-leader.com that people weren’t sure Rodman would show up, given his freestyle nature.

Hard to shoot in big stadium, says Kevin McHale

It’s 2010 NBA All-Star weekend, and instead of the main events taking place in a regular basketball arena, they’re in massive Dallas Cowboys football stadium. What’s it like to shoot a basketball in such a giant building?

Howard Beck of the New York Times reports:

In past games played in domes, the N.B.A. has placed the court in one quadrant of the field and reduced the seating area, creating a slightly more intimate feel. That will not be the case Sunday, with the court placed around the 50-yard line and nearly every seat filled.

Playing in cavernous buildings can cause havoc for shooters, who rely on depth perception, as well as form and muscle memory. Players have complained in the past about Chicago’s United Center and Los Angeles’ Staples Center, two modern arenas with high ceilings and, because of their design, a distant-looking backdrop of faces.

“If you asked anybody who could shoot,” McHale said, “they’d tell you they’d much rather play in the smallest place, with the background right behind the basket.”

Although All-Star Games often devolve into dunking competitions, it will be interesting to see how the N.B.A.’s best shooters, such as Denver’s Chauncey Billups and Phoenix’s Steve Nash, cope in a carnival funhouse.

The organizers will have their own challenges navigating a foreign building, particularly one as massive as Cowboys Stadium. At 3 million square feet, it is three times bigger than Texas Stadium, the Cowboys’ former home, and twice the size of the new Yankee Stadium.

It’ll be fun to watch the shooting percentages.

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Slam Dunk tickets in demand at 2010 NBA All-Star

Jeff Mosier of the Dallas Morning News reports:

Attendance at Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game at Cowboys Stadium will be Texas-size, but ticket prices in many cases are far more modest this year.

The cost of seats – or space in standing-room-only decks – in the resale market is down dramatically from recent years. The 92,000-plus sellout crowd in Arlington is expected to be the nation’s largest audience for a basketball game. That’s more people than the combined attendance of the last five NBA All-Star Games.

“Given the much larger venue size, this is the most affordable NBA All-Star Game we’ve seen since we’ve begun tracking prices,” said Joellen Ferrer, a spokeswoman for online ticket marketplace StubHub.com.

So far, the average price for the basketball game is $186 on StubHub. In the previous five years, the averages ranged from $508 in Denver to $2,546 in Las Vegas. The huge numbers of upper deck seats and standing-room-only tickets, which have a $30 face value, probably brought down the average…

However, the toughest tickets in town won’t necessarily be found in Arlington. Seats at the All-Star Saturday Night event, which features the three-point shooting and slam dunk contests, start at $225 on FanSnap.com. And with some seats on sale for $3,450, VIPs will pay nearly as much for a prime spot there as at the All-Star Game.

“That can happen now and again, but the norm is that the game is the bigger draw,” Anderson said. “It depends on what participants are in the dunk contest. … If you’ve got a big showdown brewing, that can be the case.”

Snow hits Dallas at start of 2010 NBA All-Star

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports:

The NBA and the Dallas Mavericks are not going to let the nasty snowstorm both here and in Eastern half of the United States spoil All-Star Weekend.

“It ain’t gonna matter,” Mavs general manager Donnie Nelson said. “Nothing can stop this event. Rain, snow, sleet, fire ice — bring it on. We’re in the comfortable confines of the [Dallas] Convention Center. People are going to want to be [in Arlington] come Sunday [for the All-Star game]. That’s going to be a historic event.”

However, hundreds of flights have been canceled over the past few days and might prevent fans on the East Coast from getting to the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

The Dallas Morning News reports:

Neither snow, nor slush, nor sleet, nor gloom of ice shall keep the hardcore NBA fan from soaking up the All-Star basketball action in North Texas.

But Thursday’s snowfall made it treacherous for some who ventured to the opening day of the NBA All-Star Jam Session at the Dallas Convention Center.

Today might not be any easier, as the slush from Thursday night was expected to freeze, creating potentially icy driving conditions…

Hundreds of flights at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport were canceled or delayed Thursday, thanks to the wintry blast here and snowstorms that have battered the East Coast.

Those botched flights have led some basketball fanatics to worry whether they could get into here in time to catch some of the weekend events.

Jason Kidd, David Lee added to NBA All-Star game, replacing Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson

Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Kidd and New York Knicks forward David Lee have been named by NBA Commissioner David Stern to replace injured West All-Star guard Kobe Bryant (ankle) of the Los Angeles Lakers and East All-Star guard Allen Iverson (personal reasons) of the Philadelphia 76ers, respectively, in the 2010 NBA All-Star Game in Dallas.

Kidd, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time All-NBA First Team selection, will be making his 10th NBA All-Star Game appearance. Lee, in his fifth NBA season, has recorded 30 double-doubles on the season for the Knicks and will be making his first NBA All-Star appearance.

West All-Star head coach George Karl and East All-Star head coach Stan Van Gundy will determine which players will replace Bryant and Iverson in the starting lineup.

The NBA All-Star Game will air live on TNT, ESPN Radio and in 200 countries and territories in more than 40 languages worldwide at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 14.

Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.

Larry Bird wants Pacers fans to be patient

The AP reports:

Pacers president Larry Bird is urging fans to remain patient through the team’s struggles.

Indiana enters the All-Star break with an 18-34 record, well out of the playoff race after missing the postseason for the past three seasons. Last month, some players were openly wondering if their “weak-minded” defense could be righted and attendance woes have been a problem now for years, along with assorted off-the-court issues.

Yet Bird says the rebuilding phase that began when the Pacers traded Ron Artest in 2006 is on target, and will move into high gear after next season when the team gets salary cap space.

“We knew that we had to clean it out and rebuild it, and we knew we were going to go through some tough times,” Bird told The Associated Press this week. “Nobody likes to lose, and everybody wants to be a part of a winner. We think we’re on the right track to get there.”

Only 1,016 fans attend Bucks at Nets game during big snowstorm

Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News reports:

Even by Nets standards, the Meadowlands was e-m-p-t-y on Wednesday night.

You could find bigger crowds in ghost towns.

OK, that’s a stretch, right along with the official attendance listed as 12,873 in the Bucks’ 97-77 rout of the Nets. That number referred to tickets sold.

In terms of actual bodies filling actual seats, the Nets announced that 1,016 hearty souls braved the mega-snowstorm in North Jersey and congregated at the 18,974-seat Izod Center, giving it the feel of a high school game between Clifton and Passaic.

The Nets are famous for having some of the worst crowds in the NBA, but nothing comes close to this one. On this night, with entire lower tiers of the arena empty and not a single person sitting in the upper deck, fans were able to easily hear Bucks coach Scott Skiles yell at the officials. Conversely, when the Nets’ Courtney Lee misfired on a jumper, he clearly heard a fan say in not much louder than a conversational voice, “Hey, follow your shot.”