NBA News Blog – Page 1191 – NBA Blog

David Stern thinks NBA needs deal by Tuesday to save Christmas Day games

Commissioner David Stern said his “gut” tells him there will be no NBA games on Christmas Day without a labour agreement by Tuesday.

That day, when owners and players are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator, is a “really big deal,” he added.

Owners will then open two days of board meetings Wednesday, and without an agreement by then Stern believes further cancellations are coming.

“Right now, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, just before my owners come into town, having brought in the labour relations committee and Billy (Hunter) having brought in his executive committee, it’s time to make the deal,” Stern said Thursday. “If we don’t make it on Tuesday, my gut — this is not in my official capacity of cancelling games — (feeling) is that we won’t be playing on Christmas Day.”

Stern cancelled the first two weeks of the regular season on Monday when the sides couldn’t reach a deal before a deadline he had set.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Manu Ginobili suffers minor ankle sprain

Manu Ginobili is hobbling around his Argentinian home after suffering a slightly sprained right ankle earlier this week.

The Argentinian paper La Nueva Provencia reports today that Ginobili sustained the injury while working out with several members of the Argentinian national team during a pickup game in Bahia Blanca, Argentina. (Hat tip: Project Spurs.com)

The injury, which is not considered serious, apparently occurred when Ginobili landed awkwardly on his ankle after attempting a 3-point shot.

— Reported by Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News Blog

Mark Cuban decides Mavs players will get championship rings, not some alternative

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, after careful deliberation, has decided that the Mavericks will receive championship rings for their title that was won in June.

By “careful deliberation,” we mean it probably came after one night of partying with the players after the Miami series. Back when those things were legal.

As you recall, Cuban had an off-the-cuff remark after the championship series against Miami that he thought rings had become too old-school for this day and age.

— Reported by Eddie Sefko of Dallas Morning News Blog

InsideHoops.com editor says: Mavs players would have probably revolted had they not gotten a conventional championship ring. Now they can breathe easy.

Tiger Woods bummed out by NBA lockout

Tiger Woods, when asked about the NBA lockout:

“Yeah, of course I’m bummed,” he said. “I think anybody who is an NBA fan is certainly bummed. I know that probably one person who is happy is probably Doc Rivers. I mean, with the age of his team, it’s nice for them to only play half-a-season. It’s true. It’s a fact, come on.”

Woods then shifted gears to the his hometown team.

“But as far as us out west, I’m looking forward to the Lakers getting back there and we’ll see what they do,” he continued. “The problem is, you can’t talk to anybody. You can’t see who is potentially on the block of being traded, what kind of deals can we do? Nothing can be happening.

“So as a fan, it’s disconcerting because I’m excited about what we could add to the team, but it’s also I understand this is business, and everyone in this business wants to make money. I know the owners were losing a bunch of money, and some of the markets were feeling the effects. They can’t draw certain players, so they’re just trying to make it fair for everybody so everybody can win.”

— Reported by Jessica Camerato of CSNNE.com

Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha signs in Turkey

Turkish champion Fenerbahce Ulker strengthened itself on the wings with the signing of Thabo Sefolosha, who is among the game’s premier defensive players. Sefolosha (1.99 meters, 27 years old) arrives from Oklahoma City of the NBA, where he averaged 5.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals over 79 games as a starter last season. He has played a total of five seasons in the NBA between Chicago and Oklahoma City and appeared in 367 regular season games. Sefolosha began his professional career with Tege Riviera Basket in his native Switzerland before joining Elan Chalon in France. He spent two seasons there between 2003 and 2005 and took part in the Eurocup both seasons.

— Reported by Euroleague.net

InsideHoops.com editor says: I assume he has an out-clause to return to the NBA when the lockout ends.

Carmelo Anthony reveals extent of surgeries on elbow, knee

Carmelo Anthony revealed the severity of his left elbow and right knee surgeries yesterday and confessed he didn’t want it out in the public after it was performed in early May.

Anthony said he had loose chips removed from his left elbow and a broken-bone fragment cleaned out from his left knee.

“Something I like to keep off the radar,” Anthony said on WFAN’s “Boomer & Carton” show on why he kept it secret until late September. “I just wanted to go in there and get it done and not have a big movie surrounding that. Eventually it came out. It came out when I was healthy.” …

The Knicks normally announce their players’ surgeries. But the club needed permission from Anthony because of recent medical disclosure laws, and got denied.

— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post

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Seattle Seahawks want LeBron James

Miami Heat superstar LeBron James and Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll have been tossing playful messages back and forth on Twitter. LeBron digs football and wouldn’t mind being an NFL star in another life.

But as the NBA lockout continues, perhaps that life could be this one?

No. Of course not. But it’s fun to think about.

Here’s the jersey the Seahawks made for LeBron:

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NBA, players heading to federal mediation

The NBA’s owners and locked-out players will meet with a federal mediator in hopes of resolving their deadlock and saving the 2010-11 regular season, which has already lost two weeks.

Union executive director Billy Hunter said Wednesday in an interview on WFAN-AM in New York that the union had agreed to meet with a mediator.

George Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, told The Associated Press he will oversee negotiations between the sides starting Tuesday in New York.

In a text message, NBA spokesman Tim Frank said “We are working on scheduling a meeting for early next week,” USA Today reported.

Earlier Wednesday, Hunter told WFAN that the meetings with the mediator would begin Monday. But later in the day, an NBA source directly involved with the talks told ESPN.com TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott that the meetings would start Tuesday.

Hunter is expected to meet with NBA players Friday afternoon in Los Angeles, sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN The Magazine’s Chris Broussard.

Cohen said he already has been in contact with representatives of both sides “for a number of months.”

“I have participated in separate, informal, off-the-record discussions with the principals representing the NBA and the NBPA concerning the status of their collective bargaining negotiations,” Cohen said in a statement issued by the Washington-based FMCS.

— Reported by ESPN.com and the Associated Press

Brooke Olzendam is new Indiana Pacers TV Host/Sideline Reporter

The Indiana Pacers and FOX Sports Indiana announced Wednesday the hiring of Brooke Olzendam (OHL-zen-dam) as TV Host/Sideline Reporter for Pacers TV broadcasts.

Olzendam joins the Pacers and FOX Sports Indiana after a two-year stint with CBS College Sports Network as their prime time football sideline reporter. She has also performed sideline and reporting duties for Comcast SportsNet Northwest, covering a broad spectrum of sports, from professional baseball to horse racing; and hosted pre and postgame shows for the Portland Trail Blazers.

Prior to her time with Comcast SportsNet Northwest, Brooke was the sideline reporter for UCLA football telecasts on FOX Sports West and Prime Ticket. She began her career covering the University of Washington, both as host of “Huskies All-Access,” as well as doing sideline reporting for both football and basketball. She also hosted “Runnin’ with the PAC,” a nationally televised magazine show focused on the Pacific Ten Conference.

Pacers Sports & Entertainment’s Vice President of Broadcasting Jamie Berns is thrilled to have Olzendam join the Pacers broadcasting team on FOX Sports Indiana. “Brooke is a talented, experienced broadcaster who lights up the screen,” said Berns. “She will be a great addition to our team not only on-air, but also in the community.”

“We were familiar with Brooke’s work at FOX Sports West,” said FOX Sports Indiana General Manager and Senior Vice President Jack Donovan. “She’s been successful on both the national and regional level, as a host and live reporter. We’re excited to add Brooke to our broadcast team.”

Born in Spokane, Wash., and a graduate of the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University, Olzendam also has a passion for basketball that stems from her father Dave Olzendam, a member of the Washington State Coaches Hall of Fame.

Ronn Torossian PR book excerpt: Helping Jalen Rose shine

The following is an excerpt from new Amazon best-selling PR book by Ronn Torossian “For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations.” Ronn Torossian is the CEO of 5WPR, one of the 25 largest PR firms in the United States. Clients have included Jalen Rose, Allan Houston, Roy Jones Jr., Snoop Dogg, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Ice Cube and others. The book is available for purchase at Amazon.com, here.

A Rose by Any Other Name Smells as Sweet

Jalen Rose hired us in 2004. Rose was a good basketball player, famous for his role in Michigan’s Fab Five and a former NBA all-star. He knew he had a few years left in his professional basketball career and wanted to build a stronger brand to accomplish his post-career goals of being a broadcaster and eventually a general manager or team owner. He is a soft-spoken, decent man and is smart with his money (in contrast to many of his peers who made and lost tens of millions of dollars).

Our PR efforts weren’t about getting any media for Rose—this was a guy who’s been interviewed daily for the past 20 years. Our strategy was making sure he appeared in media that people wouldn’t expect to see him in, and that the media saw him in the right light. He differentiated himself with his sense of fashion; he was very proud of his clothes, which allowed him to get media in fashion magazines, outlets where he wouldn’t usually be featured. This despite the fact that when he first hired us, he was playing outside the United States for the Toronto Raptors, regarded at the time as the worst team in the NBA.

We maximized his charitable giving via his foundation, the Jalen Rose Foundation, and promoted and hyped his social media activities, all things that allowed him to be seen not only as a basketball player but as someone who takes responsibility and cares about his community. This effort appealed to many. We highlighted his many donations, like his scholarship fund and his donation of $100,000 toward a hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His charity work helped position him for the next phase of his career, namely to make him a marketable broadcaster and off-the-court personality.

We were able to secure interviews and features with Rose in major print and broadcast outlets across the country. We worked around his NBA schedule, generating feature stories and one-on-one interviews with Fox News, BET, and The Source magazine, Vibe, Penthouse, Hemispheres, Complex, Black Men, Dime, and a slew of others.

Rose is one of ESPN’s lead NBA commentators and is a fixture on the network’s programming. While many athletes speculate about what they will do when their careers are complete, Rose’s ability to successfully make the transition during his career through strategic public relations has served him well. And I really do think a lot of it had to do with positioning Rose as a person who was deeply committed to charity, doing the right thing, and helping others. We created the persona of a smart, well-rounded man, not just on the court but off it as well.

The book is available for purchase at Amazon.com, here.