October 3, 2012 – NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog

Melo is willing to sacrifice some scoring

Carmelo Anthony had some interesting things to say to ESPN New York 98.7 FM’s Dave Rothenberg about the Knicks’ offense and his approach with Amare Stoudemire this season.

Anthony reiterated that he is willing to sacrifice his scoring if it helps the team win games.

“(On) a night to night basis I want (the offense) be more well-rounded,” Anthony told Rothenberg.

Anthony says the Knicks need to “play within our means” on the offensive end.

Regarding his approach to scoring the ball, Anthony said he’ll “see how the game is going, check the flow of the game. I just want to win basketball games. If I score 10,11 points and we win basketball games, that’s my mindset right now.”

— Reported by Ian Begley of ESPN New York

NBA will now penalize players for flopping

This has been a long time coming, but now it’s official: The NBA will now penalize players they feel have flopped.

Flopping is a (relatively) easy and extremely cheap way to trick a referee into making a call in the player’s favor. But the player is “lying” by flopping. He’s faking it. He’s pretending to react to something in a way that isn’t genuine. It’s an insult to fans, and to basketball and the game in general.

So, this is good news.

Here is the official announcement: NBA announces anti-flopping rule

Read NBA fan reaction and share your opinion in this basketball forum topic.

Knicks sign Rasheed Wallace

Rasheed Wallace is old. His career seemed over. He’s brash and outspoken. But he was also a damn good player who knows the game. And now he’s officially a member of the New York Knicks.

Knicks Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations and General Manager Glen Grunwald announced today that the team has signed the free agent forward/center to a contract. According to the New York Post, the deal is for one year, $1.7 million.

Wallace, 6-11, 230-pounds, holds career averages of 14.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.33 blocks over 33.0 minutes in 1,088 games (956 starts) over 15 seasons with Washington, Portland, Atlanta, Detroit and Boston. He is a four-time NBA All Star (2000, 2001, 2006, 2008), who won an NBA Championship with Detroit in 2004, alongside then-assistant coach Mike Woodson.

He last played for Boston in 2009-10, averaging 9.0 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists over 22.5 minutes in 79 regular season games (13 starts) and 6.1 points and 3.0 rebounds over 17.1 minutes in 24 postseason games (one start). He was originally selected by Washington in the first round (fourth overall) of 1995 NBA Draft, following his sophomore season at the University of North Carolina.

Jeremy Lin in talks with Harvard on licensing deal

Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin and his alma mater, Harvard University, are in talks to create a co-licensed merchandise line, two people with direct knowledge of the negotiations said.

The line would be created with Nike Inc., which has Lin as an endorser and which outfits the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university’s football and basketball teams, said the people, who were granted anonymity because the contracts aren’t signed.

Lin, 24, the first Taiwanese- or Chinese-American to play in the NBA, became a global sensation last season after taking over as the starting point guard for the New York Knicks. He moved to the Rockets during the offseason on a three-year, $25 million free-agent contract that the Knicks chose not to match.

— Reported by Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg News

Bill Walton signs book deal

Basketball great Bill Walton is ready to recap his amazing career and even more amazing recovery.

Simon & Schuster announced Wednesday that Walton, 59, is working on a memoir that will come out in the fall of 2013. The book is tentatively called “Back From the Dead.” It will cover everything from Walton’s triumphs with UCLA to his overcoming a stutter and becoming a broadcaster to the collapsed spine that left him hardly able to move for three years.

— Reported by the Associated Press