Knicks guard Roger Mason knows at least one owner who wished the NBA lockout ended with a labor agreement Thursday night: James Dolan.
Mason, vice president of the Players Association, has rubbed shoulders with the Knicks owner countless times this summer and fall in Manhattan hotel board rooms instead of the team’s plush practice facility.
“You can look at it and say the majority of owners don’t want a deal,” Mason told The Post yesterday from his Los Angeles home. “But there are owners eager to get a deal done. At this moment they are overshadowed by a contingent of owners who are trying to get everything they want in a new CBA.”
Asked if Dolan is one of the owners in the minority, Mason said: “Definitely. You feel excitement in the city. I know Dolan sees that, hears that. He’s definitely one of the owners who’s ready to get back to work.
Two-time scoring champion Kevin Durant can still fill up a stat sheet, Chris Paul can still orchestrate a team and LeBron James is still a highlight waiting to happen.
What they haven’t been able to do is find a deal with the NBA that they find acceptable enough to play real games again.
The All-Stars all took part in a charity exhibition game Sunday night in Oklahoma City, with hometown hero Durant recording a triple-double with 42 points, 26 rebounds and 11 assists to lead his team to a 176-171 victory in overtime.
Durant and a star-studded White team including James and Westbrook overcame a fourth-quarter deficit to beat a Blue team that featured Anthony and Paul.
James had three buckets—a pair of layups and a left-handed jam—in a 20-2 fourth-quarter run that put the White team ahead for the first time since the opening period. Durant finished it off with a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 152-143.
Harden answered with back-to-back 3-pointers before Beasley’s fast-break dunk during a string of eight straight Blue points, and Harden hit another 3 from the top of the key for a 159-158 lead with 54.3 seconds left.
Durant answered with a 3 from the left wing with 30.4 seconds left, and Anthony’s layup with 13.1 seconds remaining sent it to overtime tied at 161.
Durant missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer, and the game went to overtime. James put the White team ahead to stay with back-to-back jumpers early in the extra period.
Paul was the playmaker early on, dishing out 13 assists in the first quarter — more than one per minute. He zoomed past Durant for a layup, set up a pair of dunks by Beasley and just kept orchestrating the Blue offense. His last assist of the quarter came on a bounce pass that skipped high into the air for a James Harden alley-oop dunk, and then he finished off the period with a 3-pointer from the top of the key as the buzzer sounded.
— Reported by Jeff Latzke of the Associated Press
In a game featuring Durant, LeBron, Melo, Westbrook and Paul, would you believe me if I told you that Michael Beasley was the game’s top scorer? Be-Easy, as Rawls called him throughout the night, dropped a game-high 56 points and did it on an absurdly-efficient 25-for-35 from the field. But here’s something to keep in mind: Beasley did almost all of that during the first three quarters, when the game was an up-and-down, no-defense affair. When the game got serious in the final 11 minutes (including overtime), Beasley, who was on the floor, didn’t score, much less shoot.
The preferred shot of choice in this game? The 3. Of the 278 field goal attempts, 82 came from behind the 3-point arc (the Blue team finished 14-for-41 from 3, while the White was 13-for-41). The best shooter was Carmelo, who went 5-for-9 from deep. The biggest chuckers, though? Durant (7-for-17 from 3) and Harden (6-for-17) who went a combined 13-34 from deep.
Chris Paul had 25 assists for the game. While that number alone might impress you, consider this: He had 13 — yes, 13 — in the first eight minutes of the game. And they weren’t just easy alley-oops or drop-offs to Melo for a dunk. CP3 busted out an array of maneuvers and no-look passes to pile up his assists.
Josh Howard announced that he will host an all-star charity basketball game in Dallas, Texas featuring an all-star cast of professional basketball players. The Josh Howard Celebrity All-Star Basketball Game Presented by Free Move Texas will be held Saturday, Nov. 12, 6 p.m., at the P.C. Cobb Center, at the city’s fair grounds.
On November 11 it was announced that Howard has added Kevin Durant to the lineup. Dallas-area fans will be treated to basketball at its best in the charity game featuring Josh Howard, Kevin Durant, John Wall, LaMarcus Aldridge and many others at the P.C. Cobb Center and via live web-stream on TheBasketballChannel.net. Tip-off is 6 p.m. Central Time / 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
Team White: Josh Howard, John Wall, Reggie Evans, Marquis Daniels, Quinton Ross, DeSagana Diop, Anthony Randolph, Damon Jones, Jeremy Evans and Kevin Durant. Coach is Jason Terry.
Team Blue: LaMarcus Aldridge, Andray Blatche, Hamady N’diaye, Nick Young, Corey Brewer, Damion James, Isaiah Thomas, Jarrett Jack, Jason Maxiell and Damien Wilkins. Coach is Trevor Booker.
Tickets for The Josh Howard Celebrity All-Star Basketball Game Presented by Free Move Texas are available at www.JoshHowardFoundation.com,The Fade Shop and Ten Sports Grill. Ticket prices are: $15 in advance, $25 on-site and $50 for floor seats.
The Josh Howard Celebrity All-Star Basketball Game in Dallas, Texas will benefit The Josh Howard Foundation: all money will be used to continue its mission. During the past six months Howard has hosted multiple events in Dallas, Texas, Winston-Salem, N.C. and Mauldin, S.C. to fundraise, and has supported an equal number of charity events hosted by other professional basketball players.
NBA players with time on their hands due to the league’s ongoing labor dispute are finding that showbiz offers an opportunity to fill their schedules. While some star athletes have long maintained production companies or record labels, the lockout has provided a chance for new business.
Earlier in October, New York Knicks star Amare Stoudemire pitched to a handful of major networks a half-hour scripted comedy that he is developing with producers Jeff Kwatinetz and Happy Walters, who is Stoudemire’s agent and president of Rogue Sports, Relativity Media’s sports business.
In September, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant decamped to Baton Rouge, La., to play himself opposite Brandon T. Jackson in Warner Premiere’s Switch, a family comedy centered on a magic twist that transfers Durant’s skills to an enthusiastic fan.
— Reported by Daniel Miller of the Hollywood Reporter
Utah Jazz guard Devin Harris on pushing himself: I know what I need to work on and where I need to be. You would like to play against NBA talent, but you’ve got to make the best of the situation.
Harris on what he’s specifically working on: Yeah, I’ve been working a lot on my jumpshot. Pullups, 15 to 18 feet and the standstill 3. Just trying to shoot for a better percentage and knock it down at a higher pace.
Harris on keeping in touch with Jazz teammates: I spent a little time with Al working out in Santa Barbara … and Gordon, Jeremy, as well as Favors. That was the beginning part of the summer. Actually I just saw Al about two weeks ago.
— Reported by Brian T. Smith of the Salt Lake Tribune
Dirk Nowitzki plans to return to Germany to train with his personal coach after watching his hometown Texas Rangers play in the World Series—unless there’s progress toward starting the NBA season.
Nowitzki has said he would wait until early 2012 before considering playing for a European team. With only training camp and the first two weeks of the season canceled so far because of the NBA lockout, he is keeping to that timetable.
“It’s time to really get back in the routine,” he said after throwing out the first pitch for Game 3 of the World Series between the Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night. “Got to keep the options open, maybe see what’s going on overseas.” …
Nowitzki is still wearing a splint on the middle finger of his left hand— an injury he sustained during Game 2 of the NBA finals the Miami Heat. He aggravated it while playing for Germany in the European championships last month.
Here is Golden State Warriors assistant Michael Malone talking about the team’s defensive goals to CSN Bay Area:
“We’re going to be a defensive team. The Golden State Warriors are going to defend every night. We’re going to rebound. We’re still going to look to run but run with discipline — not just running and taking bad shots.
The last thing is taking care of the basketball. If we can do those four things every night, we feel we’ll have a chance to be a successful team. But it starts with the defense, finishing off that possession with a rebound — which they did a very poor job of last year – and then we still want to look to attack.
There’s a common misperception that you cannot be a good defensive team and still be a good running team. We don’t want to take away from our guys’ creativity and their ability to get out and run. They do that very well here.
The difference is we want to run off misses and rebounds instead of taking the ball out of the net and looking to run all the time. So, defend, rebound, run with discipline and value the basketball. Those are the four things we’re going to harp on day in and day out.”
Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley has kept busy during an extended, locked-out NBA summer when he played ball everywhere from China to Manhattan’s famed asphalt playgrounds.
He has also taken up ballet to transform his body and hired a public- relations agency to improve his image.
“I want everyone to know that I’m not this monster that they perceive,” he said. “I’m a really nice guy.” …
He has played with childhood pal Durant and Wall in exhibition games across the country and also has incorporated elements of yoga, karate and, yes, ballet into summer workouts intended to make his body stronger, more limber and help ensure a long, productive career. He has dropped about 15 pounds after playing last season at 240 pounds.
— Reported by Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune
Chicago Bulls superstar Derrick Rose strolled out of an LAPD station at 3:00 AM today … after his BFF was arrested for DUI … and Derrick was a passenger in the car.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ …. the 2011 NBA MVP was a passenger in a black BMW being driven by his close friend and personal assistant Randall Hampton … when cops stopped the car on a routine traffic violation at around 2:00 AM Friday morning.
When cops spoke to Hampton — who played junior college basketball with Rose in Texas — officers claim they detected the odor of alcohol.
— Reported by TMZ
Brown plans to handle his coaching staff differently than former coach Phil Jackson. Jackson assigned specific scouting responsibilities to his four assistants, Brian Shaw, Jim Cleamons, Frank Hamblen and Chuck Person. Brown said at a recent appearance for the release of the video game NBA2K12 that he plans to have all of his assistants, including Person, John Kuester, Quin Snyder and Ettore Messina, coach in all phases of the game.
“Our guys need to hear my voice quite a bit,” Brown said. “I’ll lead the charge in a lot of areas on both ends of the floor. But I’m not one to have my coaches sit back and do nothing. They have to get out there and work. I don’t care what side of the ball we’re on. I don’t care what we’re teaching at that particular time. They’re all coaches. None of them are specialists. They can all coach at both ends of the floor.”
