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The NBA is coming back to London with a regular-season game between the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks in January.
The NBA says the Pistons and Knicks will play on Jan. 17 at the O2 Arena, the site of this year’s Olympic gold-medal game.
The Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets played a pair of regular-season games at the same venue in March 2011, but the NBA skipped London on its preseason tour this year.
— Reported by the Associated Press
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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
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.
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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.
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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
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
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For all the Oklahoma City Thunder followers worried about whether the team will be able to afford a new contract with the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, there’s one person who doesn’t seem fazed by it: James Harden.
Harden heads into this season as possibly the odd man out in the Thunder’s young nucleus. Like Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka before him, he’s eligible for his first contract extension and would become a restricted free agent if he doesn’t get a new deal by next July.
The difference for Harden is that small-market Oklahoma City, approaching the salary cap with all the others already locked into long-term deals, may not be able — or willing — to pay the luxury tax likely to come along with Harden’s price tag.
“Everything will figure itself out eventually,” Harden said at the team’s preseason media day Monday. “Right now, training camp is starting. I think everybody is excited to be here and just to enjoy each other’s company. We really missed each other.”
— Reported by the Associated Press
The Miami Heat announced today that they have exercised the third-year Rookie Scale Option on guard Norris Cole.
Cole appeared in 65 games (two starts) with the HEAT last season and averaged 6.8 points, 2.0 assists, 1.4 rebounds and 19.4 minutes. Among rookie league leaders, he finished 17th in scoring average, tied for 11th in assists per game and eighth in free throw percentage (.776). He appeared in 19 postseason games during Miami’s championship run and averaged 1.8 points in 8.9 minutes of action.
Cole was originally drafted by Minnesota in the first round (28th overall) of the 2011 NBA Draft before his draft rights were acquired by the HEAT in a draft night trade.
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When the Portland Trail Blazers gave Adam Morrison – the No. 3 overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft – a chance to return to the National Basketball Association by signing him to a training camp deal, I’m not sure anyone knew this could probably be his last chance.
After being out of the league the last two years, Morrison, 28, told CSNNW.com that if he didn’t make the Trail Blazers’ regular season roster, he has plans to end his professional playing career and start a new one.
“I’m going to finish school and start coaching (If he didn’t make the Trail Blazers roster)…I did the Europe thing and it just wasn’t for me,” Morrison told CSNNW.com. “Not saying the (Europe) culture or anything like that, (or) the people, it just wasn’t for me. So, yeah, if it doesn’t work out, I’m willing to look myself in the mirror and say, ‘I gave it a honest shot’ and turn the page. Do something else.”
Coach Morrison has a nice ring to it.
— Reported by Chris Haynes of CSNNW
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After losing restricted free agent Omer Asik to the Houston Rockets over the offseason, the Chicago Bulls don’t want to take the same risk with Taj Gibson, whose contract expires after this season.
The Bulls have always been confident they could retain Gibson, whose agent Mark Bartelstein told ESPNChicago.com in June that the two sides had already started discussing a new deal.
“I can only worry about basketball,” Gibson said after practice Tuesday afternoon. “I can only worry about what I can take care of on the court. I’m listening to my agent Mark Bartelstein and I’ll let (Bulls GM) Gar Forman and (Bartelstein) worry about that. Right now I’m just worried about getting better with my teammates, and so far it’s been great.”
Given what happened with Asik, Gibson really finds himself in the driver’s seat.
— Reported by Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago