NBA News Blog – Page 1109 – NBA Blog

Josh Smith says politics behind All-Star snub

Josh Smith

Can dunk on your entire family

Hawks forward Josh Smith looks at the reserves voted to the Eastern Conference All-Star team and figures there must be behind-the-scenes forces that explain why some of the players made the team ahead of him.

“You’ve got to factor in there is a lot of politics involved in the All-Star selection,” Smith said Friday. “Once you get that it’s really about politics, then nothing really surprises you. I call it ‘Nothing But Associates,’ NBA. It’s all who you know.”

Coaches vote for the All-Star reserves, so there is the potential for lobbying by fellow coaches, other team personnel, and player agents. For example, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle reportedly lobbied coaches to vote for forward Dirk Nowitzki, who was selected for the team even after he had said he didn’t deserve it.

Smith said “I guess I don’t know the right people” and didn’t have people lobbying on his behalf.

— Reported by Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Kevin Love returns from 2-game suspension

Kevin Love

Beats suckers down

Kevin Love’s return from a two-game suspension means the Minnesota Timberwolves are regaining their leading scorer and rebounder, and losing a 6-foot-9 cheerleader.

Love was suspended for stepping on Rockets forward Luis Scola last weekend. He missed a win over Sacramento on Tuesday and a loss at Memphis, reducing the two-time All-Star to a role he wasn’t used to playing while he watched the games from his couch at his downtown Minneapolis home.

“I felt like I almost needed some pom-poms I was cheering so loud,” Love said on Friday morning after the team’s shootaround in preparation for the game against Dallas on Friday night.

Love is averaging 25 points and 13.7 rebounds this season. He also leads the NBA with 39.4 minutes per game. Rookie Derrick Williams started in Love’s place the previous two games and delivered two solid performances, but certainly not to the level the Wolves expect from Love.

— Reported by Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press

Kevin Love may participate in 3-point shootout at All-Star

Kevin Love

Wants to do it all

Western Conference coaches on Thursday invited Timberwolves forward Kevin Love to his second NBA All-Star Game, one year after Commissioner David Stern named him as an injury replacement for his first.

“It definitely feels different,” Love said on Thursday evening.

It feels different because his team has won more times in 24 games during this lockout-shortened season than it did in the first 48 games a year ago.

It feels different because he had an “inkling” coaches would select him and because he was invited Thursday morning to appear on TNT’s announcement show hours later that night.

He’ll also soon accept an offer to participate in All-Star weekend’s three-point shooting contest.

— Reported by Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune

Cavaliers sign Ben Uzoh to 10-day contract

The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed guard Ben Uzoh from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA Development League to a 10-day contract, Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant announced today. The signing of Uzoh marks the 22nd NBA Call-Up of the 2011-12 season. Uzoh will wear No. 6 for the Cavaliers and is available for tonight’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks.

In 12 games (all starts), Uzoh has averaged 16.8 points on .525 shooting, 6.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.8 steals in 34.4 minutes per game with the Vipers. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound point guard was named the D-League Performer of the Week for games played Jan. 16-22 after averaging 22.3 points on .651 shooting, 8.3 assists and 7.3 rebounds in 37.0 minutes and leading Rio Grande Valley to a perfect 3-0 week. He scored a season-high 31 points to go with 10 assists for his first double-double of the season in a 116-104 road win over the Reno Bighorns on Jan. 21.

The 23-year-old from Tulsa spent the 2010-11 season with the New Jersey Nets, playing in 42 games and posting averages of 3.8 points on .424 shooting, 1.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 10.4 minutes per game.

Andrea Bargnani not returning anytime soon

Andrea Bargnani

Not a rebounder

The Toronto Raptors will be without Andrea Bargnani for the foreseeable future.

Having already missed 14 games this year because of a strained calf — six in mid-January and eight more since re-injuring the left leg on Jan. 25 in Utah — Bargnani is poised to miss much more action. It would not be a surprise if he sat out until the all-star break, two weeks from now, although that is just an extrapolation of head coach Dwane Casey’s comments.

“His timeframe is extended, whether it is two weeks or three weeks, whatever it is,” Casey said Thursday afternoon after the team’s practice. “We’re not putting a day on it. Extended is beyond day to day, I think.”

— Reported by Eric Koreen of the National Post

Rockets assign center Greg Smith to D-League

Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey announced today that the team has assigned center/forward Greg Smith back to Houston’s single-affiliation NBA D-League partner Rio Grande Valley. The assignment marks the 35th time an NBA player has been assigned to his NBA D-League affiliate during the 2011-12 season. It also marks the first official assignment of Smith’s career.

Smith (6-10, 250, Fresno State), who yesterday was selected as a 2012 NBA D-League All-Star, has averaged 16.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.28 blocks and 1.06 steals in 18 games (14 starts) with the Vipers in 2011-12. The current D-League leader in field goal percentage (.677, 130-192 FG), Smith also stands tied for third in the league in double-doubles (eight), eighth in rebounding average (8.3) and 10th in blocks per game (1.28).

In his first stint with the Rockets, Smith averaged 1.5 points and 2.0 rebounds in two preseason games with Houston before being waived on Dec. 22, 2011. In college, Smith averaged 11.7 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game as a sophomore last season at Fresno State. He was also the 2009-10 WAC Freshman of the Year, which was voted on by the WAC head coaches.

With Jeremy Lin’s emergence, Knicks games added in Asia

Jeremy Lin

International Linsation, at least this week

Jeremy Lin is making the Knicks must-see TV in Asia.

The NBA says Thursday its Asian TV partners have added Knicks games to their broadcast schedules following the emergence of Lin, the first American-born NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent.

Sina in China will show Friday’s game against the Lakers, while stations in Taiwan will televise Knicks games this month against Toronto, Sacramento, New Orleans, New Jersey and Atlanta. ESPN Philippines also added the Feb. 17 Hornets game in New York.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Nets guard Keith Bogans has fractured left ankle, torn ligament

New Jersey Nets guard Keith Bogans has been diagnosed with a complete tear of the deltoid ligament as well as a fractured left ankle, Nets General Manager Billy King announced today. The injury occurred during last night’s contest versus the Detroit Pistons. Bogans will undergo surgery on Monday, February 13.

Bogans, who signed with the Nets as a free agent on February 1, 2012, has played in five games this season, averaging, 4.2 points and 2.2 rebounds in 18.8 minutes per game.

The Nets are currently 8-19, and 11th in the Eastern conference.

Although Bogans was a new addition to the team, it seemed like he was going to play a real role on the team going forward.

Kobe Bryant says right wrist injury has healed

Kobe Bryant

Rather competitive

Kobe Bryant told me after Lakers practice on Wednesday the torn ligament in his right wrist is completely behind him. “I got through it,” Bryant said.

When I asked him if he would use the term “healed,” Bryant said: “Yes.”

Bryant said he stopped using the pregame injection that would numb the wrist to pain two games ago in Utah on Saturday night. He then played in Philadelphia on Monday night without the supportive tape he has used all season on the wrist. Without the tape, Bryant can return to his usual shooting mechanics with full follow-through, which is particularly helpful to him on 3-pointers.

“I’ve got more flexibility on the shot,” Bryant said.

— Reported by Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register

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Arena in Anaheim ready, waiting for NBA team

If they renovate it, will the NBA come?

The groundbreaking ceremony outside Honda Center on Wednesday was for a $20 million arena renovation project, which will benefit customers who attend NHL games, concerts and other events in a building that will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year.

But there also appeared to be a not-so-hidden message behind the carefully staged photo op in which Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli, arena executives and Anaheim politicians wearing yellow hardhats posed with gold-plated shovels:

Let’s show the NBA we’re ready and waiting.

And it’s safe to assume the photos and video already have reached Sacramento and the NBA offices in New York.

It was nine months ago that the Sacramento Kings owners ended protracted negotiations with Anaheim Arena Management, the Samueli-owned company that owns and operates Honda Center for the City of Anaheim, on the morning of the relocation deadline in May.

But Henry Samueli made it clear Wednesday that he remains committed to bringing an NBA franchise to Anaheim, even if it’s not the Kings.

— Reported by Randy Youngman of the Orange County Register