February 2014 – Page 14 – NBA Blog

David Stern will be inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame

David Stern is going from the NBA commissioner’s office to the Hall of Fame.

The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. 8 in Springfield, Mass.

Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Kevin Johnson and Spencer Haywood are hoping to be part of the class. They were chosen as finalists, with the full class to be unveiled April 7 during the NCAA men’s Final Four.

Stern retired on Feb. 1 after exactly 30 years as commissioner, during which he brought the league to its greatest success. Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the Hall of Fame board, said the Hall hopes to have a special spot to display a tribute to Stern.

— Associated Press

Nets stuggle in back-to-back games

The Brooklyn Nets struggled to start the season, but picked things up once 2014 rolled around. But they still tend to drop the second game of back-to-backs. Here’s the New York Post reporting:

Before any questions could be asked at his postgame press conference after the Nets’ 92-76 loss to the Bulls on Thursday night, Jason Kidd knew what the first topic of discussion would be.

“Back-to-backs,” he said.

Once again, the Nets came up on the short end in the second half of a back-to-back this season, dropping to 2-10 in those games this season, with eight more sets of back-to-backs left to be played.

“We fought. We were right there,” the coach said. “We had a couple of great opportunities, and we just couldn’t get the stop, or we had a great look with the ball and the ball just didn’t go in for us at that point.

“That’s just basketball. The guys fought and gave us a great opportunity to win on the road, and it just got away from us there at the end.”

College: Suspended Marcus Smart to stay in locker room

Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart is expected to watch Saturday’s game from the locker room instead of the stands.

University spokesman Mike Noteware told ESPN that Smart — who’ll be serving the second of his three-game suspension for shoving a fan at Texas Tech — will not be in the crowd when Oklahoma State hosts rival Oklahoma at 2 p.m. Saturday on ESPN.

Smart is not allowed to travel with the team while suspended but has been permitted to practice. His suspension ends after Tuesday’s game in Waco against Baylor.

The Cowboys (16-8, 4-7 Big 12) lost their first game without Smart on Tuesday at Texas and have dropped five straight and six of seven.

— ESPN.com

Ernie Johnson talks All-Star weekend

Here’s the Oklahoman talking NBA All-Star weekend with TNT/Turner Sports analyst Ernie Johnson:

Q: How many All-Star games is this for you now, and what’s your favorite All-Star memory?

Ernie Johnson: “Oh man, I don’t know how many this is. This is a lot. I mean, this is my 23rd or 24th year in the studio. And for Turner, you know we’ve had the All-Star Game itself since 2003. Up until then we didn’t do the game, we just had everything leading up to it. But we’ve been to a lot of All-Star Weekends, that’s for sure. And I think, really, one of my favorite moments of all-time was 1997, the year they announced the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history. And this was not something that was on the air, but it was happening on Saturday afternoon when they were having the rehearsal for what they would do Sunday with all the 50 legends. And so I was there, just kind of hanging out in the arena and watching the 50 greatest as they put on their jackets for the first time, those great letter jackets that they had. And just watching all of these guys getting autographs from each other, it was just tremendous as they milled around and got their matching orders for how the ceremony would happen on Sunday. And I’ll never forget that. It was watching every great who’s ever played the game right there. It was tremendous.”

Q: What would you like to see added or even eliminated from the weekend to make the event better?

Johnson: “Oh, I don’t know. You know, they tinker with the events now. I still like the events. I love the events themselves. Certainly there have been years in the past where you shake your head kind of at the slam dunk because you see a guy trying time after time to complete a dunk and then the arena gets a little stale. In 2000, that slam dunk contest in Oakland was incredible. And it wasn’t with a lot of props or any of that stuff. It was just Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Steve Francis I believe was in there. Guys just doing their thing and making dunks in their first attempt, and it was just electric in there. It was like it was a playoff game. People were just going nuts. You wish that you could have slam dunk contests that resembled that one with the big names and the guys who can really dunk doing their thing. And we’ll see what happens this time. I think it’s en vogue for people to criticize it, and they look at the format this year, East against West, and they (grumble). Give it a chance. We’ll see what happens on Saturday night when they have this freestyle round for both sides and then you have these head-to-head battles. We’ll see how that works out. I know that when it comes to the battle round this Saturday, it’s going to be one guy against one guy. You get three chances to make your dunk, and then the judges decide who won that. And so I think it has the potential to be really entertaining.”

Close loss to Jazz a moral victory for Sixers

Here’s the Philadelphia Inquirer reporting on the 76ers, who at this point have to appreciate any game where they don’t get blown out:

The 76ers scored only four second-chance points. They were outscored, 56-10, in bench points, and they didn’t have an answer for Utah Jazz reserve Alec Burks.

Ye, the Sixers believe Wednesday’s 105-100 setback to the Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena was a positive step.

“To get humbled the last few games the way we have been, and we were down . . . on the road in a loud building, I’m proud of what we did,” said coach Brett Brown, whose squad had lost its previous two games by a combined 88 points. “Our bench, ultimately, we are going to need more from them, and some of that is just newness with Arnett” Moultrie playing in his third game of the season.

But under the circumstances, the Sixers (15-39) can cope with that heading into the all-star break. So much so that Wednesday’s performance could be considered a moral victory for the team with an eight-game losing streak.

Nuggets guard Randy Foye hopes to heal over All-Star break

All-Star weekend is fun for fans, and even for some of the players involved, but the average NBA player loves the weekend mostly because it gives them a few days to rest and heal from various bumps and bruises. Here’s the Denver Post blog with more:

No Nuggets player needs the All-Star break more than guard Randy Foye. He simply gutted out the last two games on the team’s recent road trip, and probably shouldn’t have been playing in Minnesota on Wednesday night due to a bad ankle injury in addition to a hamstring ailment.

His hope is he didn’t do any damage that would cause him to miss any games after the four-day break. But on a team with no point guards, that desperately needed someone to handle the basketball, he played through his injuries instead of sitting.

“I’m extremely banged up,” Foye said. “It started in the New York game, where I tweaked my hamstring and then…it seemed like every game, it’s the first time this year where every game something happened to me.”

Derrick Rose not thinking about returning this season

Here’s ESPN Chicago with quotes from Bulls guard Derrick Rose confirming what was already assumed to be the case, which is that nobody should expect to see him in action this season:

Derrick Rose says he isn’t thinking about a possible return this season and is just focusing on his rehab as he makes his way back from a torn medial meniscus in his right knee suffered on Nov. 22.

Speaking to reporters for the first time in about two months at a Bulls’ charity event, Rose acknowledged that he hasn’t started running yet, but is staying in good spirits.

“I haven’t even had a chance to think about it, to tell you the truth,” Rose said of a possible return this season. “I’m just worrying about my next stage in this process and that’s running right now. I’m on the Alter-G right now running on that and hopefully be running without it pretty soon.”

After having surgery in late November, Rose was ruled out for the rest of the season by the Bulls. In his initial news conference after the injury he said he wouldn’t rule out a possible return for the playoffs, but he seemed to back off those comments Tuesday night. When asked why he was keeping the door open on a return if the organization already ruled him out, Rose hinted that he was still a long way from playing in games.

Blake Griffin not officially retired from Slam Dunk contest

Blake Griffin remains one of the world’s most exciting dunkers. Good news for NBA fans is he has not “officially” retired from participating in the NBA Slam Dunk contest again, someday. We advise you to not hold your breath waiting, though. Here’s ESPN.com reporting:

Blake on comparisons with fellow All-Star Weekend participant Karl Malone

“I’m humbled by that. That’s a honor. He was one of the best power forwards to ever do it, so obviously I have a lot of work to do to get to where [I can approach] what he accomplished. That’s not a bad person to be compared to … I’ve watched a lot of tape of him. I’ve watched mostly [from] his later years after he had really developed and had really become a force scoring the basketball. And the thing I love about him is everyone I’ve talked to about him talks about his work ethic and how hard he worked. And then on top of that just how he put together a complete game and used his strength to his advantage but also could step out and knock down shots.”

Blake on his future in the dunk contest
“I haven’t retired officially. It isn’t something I’ll never, ever do again. But for right now, I try to take my rest when I can. And this year I really wanted that Saturday night rest. So not this year.”

Suns hope to get Eric Bledsoe back in somewhat near future

Here’s the Arizona Republic reporting on Suns guard Eric Bledsoe, who has been out of action for a long time now. The team has done fine without him, but is still stronger with him healthy and on the floor:

The Suns players and staff get a pick-me-up at every practice and when they walk through the training room.

They have been seeing rehabilitating point guard Eric Bledsoe taking shots on the court and running on a treadmill.

Friday will mark five weeks since Bledsoe’s right-knee surgery. No timetable for a recovery or return was shared, but many believed he could return not long after the All-Star break.

“He’s making good progress on his rehab,” Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby said. “He’s progressing as expected. We’re still optimistic that he’ll return some time after the All-Star break.

“He’s been working diligently with our training staff and the reports are encouraging.”

No ads on NBA game jerseys just yet

Here’s ESPN.com reporting on the possibility of seeing ads right on NBA game jerseys. Sounds like we shouldn’t expect it anytime soon. But the possibility certainly still exists for the future:

Floated as a possible revenue stream five years ago, the NBA appears to be no closer to putting ads on its jerseys.

The league had even mapped out the dimensions — a 2½-inch by 2½-inch space on the front of the jerseys — but a simple idea turned into something more complex the more it was considered, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said.

In 2011, Silver said selling the space to advertisers conservatively would be worth $100 million.

“The sense was that we were a little premature on the program and we needed to think it through systematically a little bit more,” Silver told ESPN.com.

One of the problems was that teams would be competing for advertising clients. Another issue was how the ads would potentially compromise the league’s television partners, ESPN and Turner.