NBA News Blog – Page 1465 – NBA Blog

Dennis Rodman making coaching debut

Although the article mentions that he has no interest in really becoming a coach, Dennis Rodman is about to give it a shot in the very-minor leagues.

The Dallas Morning News reports:

Former Dallas Mavericks star Dennis Rodman will make his professional coaching debut tonight.

Rodman will coach the Elmira Bulldogs, a minor league team from Eastern Basketball Alliance for games on Friday and Saturday night.

“I want to show people that I am different than the character they see on TV. Everyone always sees me on TV, they see me doing crazy stuff,” Rodman told thedailyreview.com. “They see me on shows like rehab. I’m the sanest guy on that show.”

According to the-leader.com, Rodman is being paid to coach two games as a publicity stunt.

First Arena general manager Robbie Nichols thought it was a home run idea, but pre-order ticket sales have been a disappointment because he told the-leader.com that people weren’t sure Rodman would show up, given his freestyle nature.

Hard to shoot in big stadium, says Kevin McHale

It’s 2010 NBA All-Star weekend, and instead of the main events taking place in a regular basketball arena, they’re in massive Dallas Cowboys football stadium. What’s it like to shoot a basketball in such a giant building?

Howard Beck of the New York Times reports:

In past games played in domes, the N.B.A. has placed the court in one quadrant of the field and reduced the seating area, creating a slightly more intimate feel. That will not be the case Sunday, with the court placed around the 50-yard line and nearly every seat filled.

Playing in cavernous buildings can cause havoc for shooters, who rely on depth perception, as well as form and muscle memory. Players have complained in the past about Chicago’s United Center and Los Angeles’ Staples Center, two modern arenas with high ceilings and, because of their design, a distant-looking backdrop of faces.

“If you asked anybody who could shoot,” McHale said, “they’d tell you they’d much rather play in the smallest place, with the background right behind the basket.”

Although All-Star Games often devolve into dunking competitions, it will be interesting to see how the N.B.A.’s best shooters, such as Denver’s Chauncey Billups and Phoenix’s Steve Nash, cope in a carnival funhouse.

The organizers will have their own challenges navigating a foreign building, particularly one as massive as Cowboys Stadium. At 3 million square feet, it is three times bigger than Texas Stadium, the Cowboys’ former home, and twice the size of the new Yankee Stadium.

It’ll be fun to watch the shooting percentages.

Slam Dunk tickets in demand at 2010 NBA All-Star

Jeff Mosier of the Dallas Morning News reports:

Attendance at Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game at Cowboys Stadium will be Texas-size, but ticket prices in many cases are far more modest this year.

The cost of seats – or space in standing-room-only decks – in the resale market is down dramatically from recent years. The 92,000-plus sellout crowd in Arlington is expected to be the nation’s largest audience for a basketball game. That’s more people than the combined attendance of the last five NBA All-Star Games.

“Given the much larger venue size, this is the most affordable NBA All-Star Game we’ve seen since we’ve begun tracking prices,” said Joellen Ferrer, a spokeswoman for online ticket marketplace StubHub.com.

So far, the average price for the basketball game is $186 on StubHub. In the previous five years, the averages ranged from $508 in Denver to $2,546 in Las Vegas. The huge numbers of upper deck seats and standing-room-only tickets, which have a $30 face value, probably brought down the average…

However, the toughest tickets in town won’t necessarily be found in Arlington. Seats at the All-Star Saturday Night event, which features the three-point shooting and slam dunk contests, start at $225 on FanSnap.com. And with some seats on sale for $3,450, VIPs will pay nearly as much for a prime spot there as at the All-Star Game.

“That can happen now and again, but the norm is that the game is the bigger draw,” Anderson said. “It depends on what participants are in the dunk contest. … If you’ve got a big showdown brewing, that can be the case.”

Snow hits Dallas at start of 2010 NBA All-Star

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports:

The NBA and the Dallas Mavericks are not going to let the nasty snowstorm both here and in Eastern half of the United States spoil All-Star Weekend.

“It ain’t gonna matter,” Mavs general manager Donnie Nelson said. “Nothing can stop this event. Rain, snow, sleet, fire ice — bring it on. We’re in the comfortable confines of the [Dallas] Convention Center. People are going to want to be [in Arlington] come Sunday [for the All-Star game]. That’s going to be a historic event.”

However, hundreds of flights have been canceled over the past few days and might prevent fans on the East Coast from getting to the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

The Dallas Morning News reports:

Neither snow, nor slush, nor sleet, nor gloom of ice shall keep the hardcore NBA fan from soaking up the All-Star basketball action in North Texas.

But Thursday’s snowfall made it treacherous for some who ventured to the opening day of the NBA All-Star Jam Session at the Dallas Convention Center.

Today might not be any easier, as the slush from Thursday night was expected to freeze, creating potentially icy driving conditions…

Hundreds of flights at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport were canceled or delayed Thursday, thanks to the wintry blast here and snowstorms that have battered the East Coast.

Those botched flights have led some basketball fanatics to worry whether they could get into here in time to catch some of the weekend events.

Jason Kidd, David Lee added to NBA All-Star game, replacing Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson

Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Kidd and New York Knicks forward David Lee have been named by NBA Commissioner David Stern to replace injured West All-Star guard Kobe Bryant (ankle) of the Los Angeles Lakers and East All-Star guard Allen Iverson (personal reasons) of the Philadelphia 76ers, respectively, in the 2010 NBA All-Star Game in Dallas.

Kidd, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time All-NBA First Team selection, will be making his 10th NBA All-Star Game appearance. Lee, in his fifth NBA season, has recorded 30 double-doubles on the season for the Knicks and will be making his first NBA All-Star appearance.

West All-Star head coach George Karl and East All-Star head coach Stan Van Gundy will determine which players will replace Bryant and Iverson in the starting lineup.

The NBA All-Star Game will air live on TNT, ESPN Radio and in 200 countries and territories in more than 40 languages worldwide at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 14.

Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.

Larry Bird wants Pacers fans to be patient

The AP reports:

Pacers president Larry Bird is urging fans to remain patient through the team’s struggles.

Indiana enters the All-Star break with an 18-34 record, well out of the playoff race after missing the postseason for the past three seasons. Last month, some players were openly wondering if their “weak-minded” defense could be righted and attendance woes have been a problem now for years, along with assorted off-the-court issues.

Yet Bird says the rebuilding phase that began when the Pacers traded Ron Artest in 2006 is on target, and will move into high gear after next season when the team gets salary cap space.

“We knew that we had to clean it out and rebuild it, and we knew we were going to go through some tough times,” Bird told The Associated Press this week. “Nobody likes to lose, and everybody wants to be a part of a winner. We think we’re on the right track to get there.”

Only 1,016 fans attend Bucks at Nets game during big snowstorm

Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News reports:

Even by Nets standards, the Meadowlands was e-m-p-t-y on Wednesday night.

You could find bigger crowds in ghost towns.

OK, that’s a stretch, right along with the official attendance listed as 12,873 in the Bucks’ 97-77 rout of the Nets. That number referred to tickets sold.

In terms of actual bodies filling actual seats, the Nets announced that 1,016 hearty souls braved the mega-snowstorm in North Jersey and congregated at the 18,974-seat Izod Center, giving it the feel of a high school game between Clifton and Passaic.

The Nets are famous for having some of the worst crowds in the NBA, but nothing comes close to this one. On this night, with entire lower tiers of the arena empty and not a single person sitting in the upper deck, fans were able to easily hear Bucks coach Scott Skiles yell at the officials. Conversely, when the Nets’ Courtney Lee misfired on a jumper, he clearly heard a fan say in not much louder than a conversational voice, “Hey, follow your shot.”

Stephen Curry explodes for 36-point triple-double

The AP reports:

Taking over the offense with leading scorer Monta Ellis sidelined with a knee injury, Curry recorded his first triple-double with a career-high 36 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds as Golden State beat the Los Angeles Clippers 132-102 to snap season-high nine-game losing streak Wednesday night…

Curry had to wait until the very end of the game to notch his 10th rebound, grabbing Al Thornton’s missed 16-foot jump shot just before the final buzzer…

Anthony Tolliver added a career-high 29 points and Anthony Morrow had 26 points and 10 rebounds for Golden State, which led by as much as 38 while playing without Ellis.

Eric Gordon and Rasual Butler had 16 points apiece for the Clippers, who remained winless in three games since interim coach Kim Hughes replaced Mike Dunleavy.

Warriors now want injured players at games

Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle reports:

The Warriors are expected to do some serious soul-searching during the All-Star break, and team management has already decided to initiate one noticeable change when things tip off again next week.

Injured players will be expected to be in the arena cheering for their teammates on game nights, coach Don Nelson said.

“It’s a team policy that we just changed,” Nelson said during a question-and-answer session with listeners on the “Warriors Weekly” radio show. “Unless it’s a serious injury that calls them to be off of their legs, I think they should be at the games and should want to be at games.”

Dirk Nowitzki set to play in front of massive All-Star crowd

Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports:

“I always said the first time that I made [the all-star team], it was going to be my most special all-star memory,” Dirk Nowitzki said Wednesday at the Dallas Convention Center. “But this one is probably right up there with my first one, just because it’s in my home, I’ve got plenty of people coming, and obviously it’s the biggest venue.

“I’ve never played in front of 90,000-100,000 people. So just being a part of history, and plus in my new hometown, it’s going to be a little crazy and a busy weekend, but I’m going to enjoy it.”

The All-Star Game will be played Sunday at 7 p.m. at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, and officials are expecting a record crowd of more than 90,000.

Nowitzki kicked off his busy five-day, all-star festivities with the unveiling of his 7-foot, life-size bobble head at the NBA Jam Session. The nine-time all-star was impressed with the craftsmanship of the bobble head, although he couldn’t help but joke about a couple of things.

“I don’t think my head is that big,” Nowitzki said, laughing. “I don’t think I ever [had] that size hair, but they did a pretty good job for a 7-foot bobble head.