Inside Hoops – Page 1879 – NBA Blog

Amare Stoudemire has no plans to play basketball overseas

Justin Terranova of the New York Post reports:

Amar’e Stoudemire will wait out the lockout in New York.

The Knicks star put an end to any rumors that he would play basketball in Europe if the NBA’s labor issues persist.

“Europe teams are calling, I think I’m going 2 stay here in the states,” Stoudemire wrote on Twitter on Saturday night. “My loyalty is with the State of New York and the NYK’s. Who’s with me?”

It came a day after Stoudemire hinted at playing in Israel on the social network site.

“Should I go to Israel an play for Maccabi Tel Aviv during the lockout?” Stoudemire asked his Twitter followers on Friday.

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Shane Battier did not want trade from Rockets

Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle reports:

“The end of my career is closer than the start of my career,” said Battier, who just finished his 10th season in the league.

Though a natural for the broadcasting booth, Battier isn’t in a hurry to get there.

“I can see myself playing for three or four more years, then moving on to the next phase,” he said.

Battier expects to draw interest from contenders, which is one of the reasons the Rockets elected to trade him. Don’t be surprised if the next time the Michigan native takes the court he is spotting up outside the 3-point line for the Chicago Bulls or taking charges for the Miami Heat.

One thing is certain: He won’t be with the Houston Rockets.

Battier was disappointed, bothered really, that the Rockets traded him at midseason. With as much as he had put into the organization, he left thinking the job wasn’t done.

“I was disappointed that I couldn’t see to the finish what I started out,” he said. “It would have been nice to go through one more stretch run with those guys. If it didn’t work out, I would have been happy with time I put in over the five years.”

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Jeff Van Gundy says Yao Ming should make Basketball Hall of Fame

Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports:

The question, repeated dozens of times through the day, will no doubt be posed to Jeff Van Gundy as long as he can answer. Van Gundy was the second of Yao Ming’s three NBA coaches, and for all  he has or will accomplish, Van Gundy will be asked about the unique, iconic center he coached for four seasons with the Rockets.

Van Gundy had his  answer, for a question not yet asked, ready.

“No. 1 to me, he’s a Hall of Famer,” Van Gundy said. “Idon’t care if you put him in as player, as a contributor or put him in with his own heading. This guy definitely gets in for the greatness as a player when healthy or what he did as ambassador.”

He then added a thought he would repeat often.

“People forget,” Van Gundy said, “just how good he was.”

With Yao’s decision to retire rather than attempt another comeback from another injury, discussions about his career always will include thoughts of what could have been. Yao, 30, played in eight of his nine seasons since he was the first pick of the 2002 draft, including the five games he played this past season.

InsideHoops.com editor says: I disagree with Van Gundy. Yao didn’t play enough to make it as a player. And as for helping spread basketball to China, it mostly the efforts of the people in charge, using him to help bridge various basketball gaps. And Yao gets lots of credit, too, of course. But I don’t see him in the Hall.

Los Angeles Sparks name Joe Bryant new head coach

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The Sparks have fired Jennifer Gillom as coach and replaced her with assistant coach Joe Bryant, the team announced Sunday.

The coaching change was made after the Sparks fell to fifth place in the six-team Western Conference with a record of 4-6. They have lost five games in a row, their worst skid since 2007. Three of those losses have come after 2008 WNBA most valuable player Candace Parker suffered a knee injury in a June 26 game; she is expected to be out about six weeks. Parker played in just 10 games last season after needing surgery on a dislocated left shoulder.

“This was a very difficult decision, but I felt it was necessary to take the team in a different direction at this point in the season,” Sparks General Manager Penny Toler said in a statement.

Bryant, a former NBA player, was first hired by the team as an assistant under Henry Bibby in 2005. Bibby was fired with five games remaining in the season, and Bryant took over as coach. He went 4-1 and the Sparks finished with a 17-17 record.

Darius Songaila signs in Turkey

The Philadelphia Daily News reports:

His NBA future uncertain because of the lockout, 76ers free-agent forward Darius Songaila signed a 1-year, $1.5 million contract with Galatasaray in Turkey, according to his agent, Mark Bartelstein.

Published reports say that his deal includes incentives, but has a no-escape clause in the event the lockout ends, so he will play the entire season in Turkey.

Euroleague.net reports:

Songaila’s only Euroleague season to date was in 2002-03 with CSKA Moscow in which he averaged 12.8 points and 3.9 rebounds per game to help the team to the 2003 Barcelona Final Four, the first of eight in a row that would follow for CSKA. Since then he has played a total of 516 games for Sacramento, Chicago, Washington, New Orleans and Philadelphia in the NBA. Songaila’s best individual season was in 2005-06 in which he averaged 9.2 points and 4.0 rebounds in 62 games for Chicago.

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Lakers hire Ettore Messina as coaching consultant

The Lakers have hired Ettore Messina, who will serve as a coaching consultant for the team, it was announced today by Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

“I am honored to have received this opportunity from one of the greatest basketball organizations in the world,” said Messina. “I have great respect for Coach Mike Brown and I’m excited to work with him and his staff.”

Messina joins the Lakers after spending the last two years as the head coach of the Spanish League Club, Real Madrid. Prior to his stint with Real Madrid, Messina was head coach of CSKA Moscow for four seasons (2005-2009) where he led the team to two Euroleague Championships (2006, 2008) and four Russian SuperLeague titles (2006-2009).

Before coaching in the Russian League, Messina served as a coach in the Italian League for over 15 years. He earned two Euroleague Championships (1998 and 2001) as well as several Italian championships with Virtus Bologna, where he had two stints as head coach (1989-1993, 1997-2002). After leaving Bologna, Messina went on to coach Benetton Treviso from 2002-2005, guiding the team to an Italian championship in 2003.

Named one of the Euroleague’s 10 Greatest All-Time Coaches in 2008, Messina has earned numerous coaching accolades throughout his career including European Coach of the Year in 1998, Euroleague Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2008, and Italian Coach of the Year in 1990, 1993, 1998, 2001 and 2005.

A native of Catania, Italy, Messina also served as head coach of the senior men’s Italian national basketball team (1993-1997), where he led Italy to the silver medal at the EuroBasket in 1997.

Yao Ming retires: Rockets center Yao Ming will reportedly retire from NBA

By Jeff Lenchiner

Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, whose career has been constantly interrupted by injuries, is reportedly set to retire from the NBA.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Yao informed the league office within the past 48 hours of his decision.

The 7-6, 310-pound China native entered the NBA in 2002, and spent his entire career with the Houston Rockets.

His career average was 19.0 points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.9 blocks per game. He only managed to play just five games for the Rockets in the 2010-11 season before again having to sit out and heal.

Armed with truly skillful basketball moves, Yao wasn’t just a big guy, but a terrific talent who was a pleasure to watch. InsideHoops.com and the whole pro basketball world will miss him.

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Raul Lopez signs in Spain

Euroleague.net reports:

Spanish runners-up Turkish Airlines Euroleague debutante Bizkaia Bilbao Basket announced on FRiday the addition of point guard Raul Lopez for the next two seaons. Lopez (1.82 meters, 31 years old) arrives from BC Khimki Moscow region where last year he averaged 8.2 points, 2.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.5 steals in 10 Euroleague appearances. It was his second season with Khimki. Lopez grew up in Joventut Badalona of Spain and made his debut in 1997. He played there for three years until he was signed by Real Madrid in 2000. He was then drafted by the Utah Jazz of the NBA and was there for two seasons in 2003 and 2004. However, severe knee injuries kept his career from progressing as expected and he was back in Spain in 2005 when he joined Akasvayu Girona.

Hawks center Zaza Pachulia may play in Turkey during lockout

Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (blog) reports:

If the NBA lockout is not ended by the scheduled start of the 2011-12 season then Hawks reserve center Zaza Pachulia could end up playing in Turkey in the short term.

Pachulia, who is under contract with the Hawks for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons for a total of about $10 million, said he has a “verbal agreement” to play next season for Turkish club Besiktas.

“They have interest, I have interest and we have talked about price,” Pachulia said. “It’s not official now.”

Besiktas also has an agreement with New Jersey Nets guard Deron Williams.

Pachulia said the contract with Besiktas would immediately terminate when NBA owners and players agree on a new labor deal. The contract also would include some kind of insurance for Pachulia since his guaranteed contract with the Hawks would not be protected in case of an injury sustained while playing in another league.

Sonny Weems signs in Lithuania

Euroleague.net reports:

Zalgiris Kaunas added some athleticism on the wings with the signing of Sonny Weems to a one-year deal. Weems (1.98 meters, 25 years old) will make his European basketball debut this season with the Lithuanian champs. He arrives from Toronto of the NBA, where he averaged 9.2 points and 2.6 rebounds last season over 59 games as a part-time starter. It was Weems’s third season in the NBA, where he has also played for Denver.

InsideHoops.com editor says: A couple of bench-level NBA players in need of a better basketball job are slowly heading to Europe. The NBA lockout may cause a few players at the end of team benches to perhaps head to Europe a bit quicker than they might under normal circumstances, only because there is a limit on how many well-paying hoops jobs exist over there. The only big lockout-related surprise so far is that Nets guard Deron Williams is poised to temporarily take his talents to Turkey, but he’ll return to the NBA when the lockout is resolved. I do not expect many star or starter-level NBA players to follow D-Will’s lead. A couple might, but most likely won’t.

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