NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog
NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
NBA news blog
The AP reports:
 |
Spain point guard Jose Manuel Calderon will miss the basketball world championships after hurting his leg in an exhibition against the United States.
Tests Monday revealed the Toronto Raptors player tore a muscle in his left leg in Sunday’s 86-85 loss. Calderon had headed to the locker room late in the game. He went scoreless with three assists.
The Spanish federation says Calderon needs four weeks to recover.
Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press reports:
Matt Dobek, 51, died unexpectedly at his Rochester Hills home on Saturday.
Dobek spent 29 years with the Pistons organization before he was fired in May as the team’s vice president of public relations.
Hired by former Pistons executive Tom Wilson, Dobek was a confidant to many of the players during the Bad Boys era of Pistons basketball, including Isiah Thomas, Rick Mahorn and Joe Dumars.
Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post reports (via blog):
 |
Billups wants to finish his career in Denver, his hometown. But if the team deteriorates around him, he’ll think about ending it somewhere where the wins will potentially be more plentiful.
“I have hopefully four years left of playing,” Billups said, “and I’m not the kind of person to just ride it out. I want to win. I want to go out on top; I want to go out winning. …I want to get out there, get after it and play. And I want to win as a Nugget the rest of my years. In a perfect world that’s what I would want, that’s what I would hope for.”
InsideHoops.com editor says:
Tough to say how what Billups does affects the Carmelo Anthony situation. On the one hand, Melo knows he needs a guy like Billups next to him to win, but on the other, if Melo is thinking about his future a few years down the road, he’d rather be next to a young Chris Paul (or young anybody) than an elderly Billups.
 |
Delonte West, who played last season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, has been suspended without pay for ten games for pleading guilty to carrying a concealed weapon and wearing, carrying, and transporting a handgun, in violation of the law of the State of Maryland, the NBA announced today.
West is currently a free agent. If he signs a contract to play again in the NBA, West’s suspension will begin with the first game of the NBA regular season for which he is eligible and physically able to play.
InsideHoops.com editor says: Despite his personal issues, I still think West eventually will get signed, though probably to a short and possibly non-guaranteed contract. He’s too good a player to fall out of the league.
Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.
 |
The Milwaukee Bucks have signed guard Earl Boykins (5-5, 133) to a contract, General Manager John Hammond announced today.
An 11-year NBA veteran, Boykins played 35 games for Milwaukee during the 2006-07 campaign after a mid-season trade with the Denver Nuggets. He enjoyed his best statistical season in 2006-07 when he combined to average 14.6 points, 4.4 assists and 2.1 rebounds over 66 games with the two teams.
Last season, Boykins played in 67 games (one start) for the Washington Wizards and averaged 6.6 points, 2.6 assists and 1.1 rebounds in 16.7 minutes.
Not drafted out of Eastern Michigan in 1998, Boykins began his NBA career with the New Jersey Nets in the 1998-99 season. He has also played with Cleveland (1999, 2000), Orlando (1999-2000), Los Angeles Clippers (2000-02), Golden State (2002-03), Denver (2003-07) and Charlotte (2007-08). In 2008-09, Boykins played 14 games for La Fortezza Bologna in Italy and averaged 14.4 points, 5.5 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 33.1 minutes per game.
Boykins, 34, has played in 587 career NBA games (34 starts) and holds averages of 9.1 points, 3.3 assists and 1.4 rebounds per contest.
Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.
Darren Rovell of CNBC reports:
 |
Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose is known to eat a lot of candy. So when the folks at Wrigley found out that he likes to down their Skittles brand, they decided to do something a little special for the hometown boy.
Earlier this month, they brought a custom, tricked-out Skittles vending machine to his house and promised to keep it stocked with Skittles for at least three years.
Rose gets the machine and the Skittles for free; the Skittles brand has a chance of getting more love from Rose; and the Bulls, I guess, hope Rose’s sugar highs peak at the right time.
InsideHoops.com editor says:
I wonder if the machine has 22-inch rims and a booming sound system.
A total of 17 outstanding basketball personalities from 12 different countries will be inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame on 12th September during the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Istanbul (Turkey), the International Basketball Federation announced today.
National icons Oscar Schmidt (Brazil), Arvydas Sabonis (Lithuania), Dino Meneghin (Italy) and Vlade Divac and Dragan Kićanović (both from Serbia) are among the inductees for the 2010 Class of the FIBA Hall of Fame.
Two of the best female players of all time, Cheryl Miller (USA) and Natalia Zassoulskaya (Russia), complete the list of players.
A combined 14 Olympic medals and 15 FIBA World Championship medals underline the prominence of the seven players and three coaches inducted.
The selected referees and contributors were at the top of the game for decades and belong to the most decorated in their field.
“The 2010 Class has stardom, character and countless merits for the promotion of our game,” said FIBA President Bob Elphinston.
“The inductees were and still are brilliant on and off the court. We are very proud to host the 2010 ceremony in the presence of all these great women and men during the FIBA World Championship and give them the public platform they deserve.”
Here is the full list of the 2010 Class:
PLAYERS:
Vlade Divac Serbia
Dragan KiĆanoviĆ Serbia
Dino Meneghin Italia
Cheryl Miller U.S.A.
Arvydas Sabonis Lithuania
Oscar Schmidt Brazil
Natalia Zassoulskaya Russia
COACHES:
Lindsay Gaze Australia
Evgeny GomelskY Russia
Mirko Novosel Croatia
TECHNICAL OFFICIALS:
Jim Bain U.S.A.
Konstantinos Dimou Greece
CONTRIBUTORS:
George Killian U.S.A.
Hans-Joachim Otto Germany
Ernesto Segura de Luna (posthumously) Spain
Abdoulaye Seye Moreau Senegal
Al RAMSAY * Australia
* Al Ramsay was selected for the 2009 Class, but will officially be enshrined in 2010.
The AP reports:
 |
Stephen Curry is eager to overcome an ankle injury, hopeful it won’t impact his chances of making the U.S. roster for the world championship.
Curry didn’t practice Thursday after suffering a mild sprain to his left ankle a day earlier. The U.S. team said Curry’s recovery was ”progressing” but he remained day to day.
With one player still to be cut from the 13-man squad — and most likely a guard — Curry looked slightly anxious after watching his teammates practice.
InsideHoops.com editor says:
It’ll be close. The ankle sprain definitely hurts Curry. I think he had around a 50 percent chance of sticking with the squad before getting hurt. Now I’d guess it’s around 25 percent.
Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times reports:
Two advance scouts for the Clippers have been locked in a pay dispute with the team.
Jerry Holloway, employed since the 2003-04 season, alleged the Clippers quit paying him this spring and breached his contract. Documents filed June 4 in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County said the Clippers owed Holloway $22,920 in unpaid salary.
After the suit was filed, the Clippers settled with Holloway for $20,000, a source familiar with the situation said. Court papers said Holloway asked for nearly $36,000, which included the unpaid wages, liquidated damages and legal fees.
Another scout, Scott Wissel, alleges he is owed slightly less than Holloway. Wissel, in an interview, said he is considering his legal options.
The Clippers contend the two scouts were “at-will” employees and did not have written contracts.
InsideHoops.com editor says: This owner is really setting himself apart from the rest, in a bad way. No other owner has consistently gotten into disputes of this nature so often.
The Dallas Mavericks announced today they have re-signed free agent forward Tim Thomas. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Thomas (6-10, 230), a 13-year veteran, was the seventh overall selection in the 1997 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers and has played with seven teams during his career (Philadelphia, Milwaukee, New York, Chicago, Phoenix, L.A. Clippers and Dallas), including two stints with both New York and Chicago. In 824 career games, he holds averages of 11.5 points and 4.1 rebounds, while shooting .437 from the field, .369 from behind-the-arc and .758 from the foul line.
In 2009-10, Thomas played in 18 games with Dallas (starting once) and averaged 7.5 points and 2.3 rebounds. He missed the first 11 games of the season due to right knee surgery and 41 games due to personal reasons.
The Patterson, N.J., native has seen action in seven different Playoff runs (55 games). Thomas’ postseason averages show an increase in every major category over his career regular season numbers with averages of 13.3 points and 5.1 rebounds while shooting .468 from the field, .436 from three-point range and .772 from the foul line.
Thomas was a standout at Villanova University where he played for one season before making himself eligible for the NBA Draft. In his only season as a Wildcat, Thomas averaged 16.9 points and 6.0 rebounds. He was named The Sporting News Freshman of the Year and Big East Rookie of the Year.