Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:
While Chris Bosh’s recent “Hangover” style bachelor party has been well chronicled across the web, his South Florida wedding later this month became a bit more complicated by the lockout.
Under lockout rules, the NBA has banned contact between players and team officials or coaches. Bosh, however, already has several such Miami Heat members on his invitation list.
While the Heat declined comment Friday, citing league guidelines, the team apparently has already cleared the appearances of management and the coaching staff at the power forward’s nuptials through the NBA.
InsideHoops.com editor says: I never understood why players who are signed to contracts can’t talk to team officials during a lockout. They are already signed. They can’t do anything. Free agents are another story.
An Ohio woman is suing Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, accusing him of breaching a promise to marry her…
Selina Miller filed the suit last week in Orange County Superior Court, claiming that the married star gave her a “completed and signed agreement” to provide her with a ring, the OC Weekly reported…
It’s not the first time Miller has sued the hoops star. She filed a defamation and invasion-of-privacy suit against Bryant and the NBA, which was dismissed in 2009 as “frivolous.”
In an emailed statement to the Daily News, lawyers for Bryant said the hoops player was “aware of the lawsuit filed by Selina Miller and will defend, if necessary, the ridiculous, if not bizarre, allegations contained in the suit.
Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.
Wednesday night at Dyckman Park basketball courts in New York City, InsideHoops.com hung out to check out some streetball. At halftime, T.J. Fredette, the brother of Jimmer Fredette, came out to deliver a quick rap performance for the crowd.
Fredette’s rapping did not win over the hearts of the always tough-to-please NYC crowd. But he seemed happy afterwards. And with brother Jimmer drafted in the lottery one week ago, the Fredette clan is probably on cloud nine these days.
Here’s InsideHoops.com video of T.J. Fredette performing at the Dyckman Park basketball court:
UPDATE: Fredette also rapped at the same park a year earlier, in 2010, and received a warm welcome from an appreciative crowd
Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.
Say goodbye to Ron Artest and HELLOOOO to Metta World Peace … Mr. Metta World Peace to you.
Yes, Ron is going the way of Cassius Clay, Lew Alcindor and Chad Johnson. Ron’s filed a petition in L.A. County Superior Court to change his name to — World Peace.
FYI, metta means loving, kindness, happiness and all that jazz.
InsideHoops.com editor says: This all sounds perfectly normal.
If you enjoy seeing the stars of VH1 Basketball Wives yell and scream at each other while attending parties and navigating through their lives, InsideHoops.com has good news for you.
VH1 is expanding their “Basketball Wives” franchise with a new series set in Los Angeles featuring the wives and girlfriends of players both the Lakers and their cross-town rivals, the Clippers. VH1 has also given the greenlight to a new dating series, “Siggy Flicker” (working title) featuring the dynamic matchmaker Siggy Flicker and her match-making service in New York teaching the lovelorn to be dating powerhouses.
VH1 Basketball Wives Los Angeles premieres on Monday, August 29 at 8pm ET/PT.
Elbow throwing, trash talking and in-your-face action: forget the NBA, we’re talking about their wives! (Or ex-wives. Or girlfriends. Or ex-girlfriends. Or something!)
The VH1 Basketball Wives L.A. cast includes: Kimsha Artest (wife of Ron Artest, Los Angeles Lakers), Gloria Govan (fiancée of Matt Barnes, Los Angeles Lakers), Laura Govan (sister of Gloria Govan) and Jackie Christie (wife of Doug Christie, former player for the Los Angeles Clippers) and Imani Showalter (fiancée of Stephen Jackson, Charlotte Bobcats) as well as others.
This 10 episode, hour-long series will dive into the real-life locker room of these leading ladies, giving viewers a never-before-seen look at what it takes to live in La La Land and be connected to a famous professional athlete. For the most part, these women live the life with the best cars, biggest mansions and hottest bling but living the high life is not all glamour and often there is a price to pay. Cameras will follow these women as they attempt to juggle their relationships, infidelity issues, children and friendships while trying to find the perfect balance between supporting their families and realizing their own career ambitions. “Basketball Wives LA” brings a full court press to VH1 Monday, August 29 at 8 PM ET/PT. InsideHoops.com will keep you updated if there are changes to the premiere episode.
Shed Media is producing the series. Executive producing for Shed Media are Nick Emmerson, Jennifer O’Connell, Sean Rankine and Alex Demyanenko. Tom Huffman is a consulting producer. Shaunie O’Neal is an executive producer. Executive producing for VH1 are Jeff Olde, Jill Holmes and Noah Pollack.
Dirk Nowitzki’s weeklong run of championship celebrations was capped by a surprise birthday party thrown for him Sunday night by girlfriend Jessica Olsson and lifelong coach/adviser Holger Geschwindner at the Dallas wine club Graileys.
The private event to commemorate Nowitzki’s 33rd birthday — dubbed “Dinner For 41” — featured exactly 41 guests, including Mavericks teammate Brian Cardinal, Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson and various team staffers and close friends. Also in attendance were former Stanley Cup-winning Dallas Star Mike Modano and three award-winning scientists who are also Mavs fans.
As part of the evening’s program, Nowitzki was presented with a Larry O’Brien championship trophy cake and treated to performances from a Dallas Symphony Orchestra string quartet (Christopher Adkins, Diane Kitzman, Gary Levinson and Ellen Rose) as well as Dallas-based comedian Paul Varghese.
The Dallas Mavericks won the 2011 NBA championship Sunday night, and immediately on Monday, when people weren’t making LeBron James jokes, they were tossing cracks around as to how Mavs guard DeShawn Stevenson was going to celebrate winning it all.
And low and behold, one of the more crude jokes came true Tuesday night.
Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas reports:
Dallas Mavericks shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson was arrested for public intoxication in Irving, Texas, on Tuesday night, two days after the franchise won its first NBA championship.
Irving police were called to the Grand Venetian apartment complex at about 10:30 p.m. CT after receiving a call to report an intoxicated person walking in the area. Officers reported that Stevenson, who does not live at the complex, appeared intoxicated and did not know where he was.
He was arrested without incident on the Class C misdemeanor charge based on the results of a sobriety test, officer’s observations and his statements.
“They felt he was a danger to himself and others,” Irving public information officer John Argumaniz said. “Basically, he was intoxicated to a point where he didn’t feel comfortable letting him walk away or leave. They didn’t have any other options at that point.”
And here’s Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
According to Irving police, Stevenson was walking incoherently in the area of the Grand Venetian apartments near the 6200 block of Love Drive about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. Police were called, and when the officers arrived and checked on Stevenson, he reportedly didn’t know where he was.
Following field sobriety tests and Stevenson’s statements to officers, he was arrested without incident and later released on a $475 bond at approximately 5:30 this morning.
Anyway, Stevenson isn’t off to a great start as an NBA champion!
With economic troubles across the United States (and around much of the world) over the last several years, the city of Las Vegas has been hit especially hard. A vacation to a hotel casino is a luxury, not a necessity.
And now, the Maloofs have had to take a major step with their famous Palms casino:
Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee reports:
The owners of the Sacramento Kings have surrendered controlling interest in their Las Vegas casino, in a deal that they say improves their finances considerably.
After months of negotiations, the Maloof family announced Tuesday that it has reached a “recapitalization” agreement with the Palms Casino’s main creditors, investment firms TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners.
Co-owner George Maloof said the deal erases the Palms’ debt but leaves the family, which built the trendy casino a decade ago, with less than 50 percent of the equity. That gives controlling interest to TPG and Green.
But Maloof, who enjoys a high profile in Las Vegas, said he will continue to run the Palms. He said “it’s not disappointing at all” that controlling interest has passed to the creditors.
The deal could have significant implications for the Kings at a crucial time in the team’s history. The Kings passed up an opportunity last month to move to Anaheim, agreeing to give Sacramento a last chance to build a new arena. City officials and the NBA expect the Maloofs to contribute to the project, but the amount remains to be seen…
Brian Gordon of Applied Analysis, a Las Vegas financial consulting firm, said several casinos have had to restructure their debts in the past year or so. Typically, the creditors wind up owning a stake in the casino, he said.
I’m a fan of the Palms. They have some of the best bars/clubs in Vegas.
LeBron James will have to wait at least another year to make his Hollywood debut.
The Miami Heat forward has been attached to star in Universal/Imagine’s sports comedy “Ballers” since September 2009, and after an initial yearlong delay to accommodate his summer 2010 free agency, production was pushed to next month. However, in the wake of Miami’s NBA Finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks, exec producer Michael Rosenberg told Variety that because the script is still being developed, “we are not shooting this summer.”
Story follows five guys who attend the LeBron James Adult Basketball Camp in Las Vegas, but end up dragging the phenom into their myriad life issues.
Malcolm D. Lee (“Undercover Brother”) remains attached to direct and is working on a new draft of the screenplay originally written by Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz and re-written by Peter Steinfeld.
NBA point guard Nate Robinson made quite a splash on Main Street early Friday when police said he was spotted urinating on the sidewalk outside the City Center.
The 5-foot-9 member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who has also played for the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, was arrested shortly before 2 a.m. after cops said he was seen doing his business outside the Barnes & Noble store at 230 Main St.
He was taken Police Headquarters where he was issued a ticket charging him with a public urination violation.
InsideHoops.com editor says: At least he wasn’t jumping 28 feet in the air and trying to dunk while doing it. Because then bystanders might have gotten an unwanted souvenir from the experience.
