NBA News Blog – Page 1571 – NBA Blog

Golden State Warriors PR staff, Monta Ellis disagree

The Golden State Warriors are an interesting basketball organization. On the positive side, the team is extremely fun to watch. Their fans are amazing. And the San Francisco Bay Area is beautiful. But on the negative side, the team loses constantly. Key front office members reportedly don’t see eye-to-eye. Chris Mullin is the team’s general manager yet multiple media outlets have said no one actually listens to him and he’s been pushed aside in negotiations. Coach Don Nelson likes to use players out of position, unleash wacky rotations, and he recently decided it would be fun to sit key guys out of entire games for no reason at all. And the Golden Warriors PR staff recently released a statement about star guard Monta Ellis that Ellis himself now says is totally false.

Comcast SportsNet (Matt Steinmetz) reports:

Monta Ellis hasn’t played since scoring 14 points in a 133-120 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 21. After that game, the Warriors announced that Ellis would be shut down for one to two weeks because of lingering stiffness in his left ankle. Turns out, that might not have been the case. On Monday, Ellis said the ankle is fine and that it always has been fine. “There’s nothing wrong with my ankle,” Ellis said. “I went to see my mom. … It had nothing to do with that. I went home to see my mom. My mom was sick. I went to see her. That’s why I took the time off. It had nothing to do with my ankle.”

The Warriors PR staff aren’t usually off like this.

Ellis and the Warriors need to hug it out this summer and start fresh in 2009-10.

Australia: Kirk Penney wins 2009 NBL MVP

New Zealand Breakers star shooting guard Kirk Penney has been named the winner of the Andrew Gaze Trophy as the National Basketball League’s Most Valuable Player for the 2008/09 season, becoming the first New Zealander ever to win the NBL’s top award.

Penney registered 92 votes to narrowly take out the award from Sydney Spirit big man Matthew Knight on 90. Melbourne Tigers’ Nigerian import Ebi Ere came third with 89 votes, while Mark Worthington of the South Dragons (87) and Shawn Redhage of the Perth Wildcats (86) rounded out the top five in an extremely tight race.

Penney, who previously played for the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Clippers in the American NBA, averaged 24.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 28 regular season games for the Breakers in 2008/09. He shot the ball at 45.6% from the field, 37.3% from three-point territory and 80.4% from the free-throw line.

The Tall Blacks star also led his team to their best-ever season, helping the Breakers to the Semi-Finals for the first time in club history.

Whilst Penney was delighted with the award, he was also disappointed that the Breakers’ season ended with a 2-0 sweep at the hands of the Melbourne Tigers.

“We, the players and coaches, definitely had a bit of a sour taste in how we lost to the Tigers. We felt like we should have played better and had a chance of winning the series,” Penney said of the award.

“I guess it is a little [bittersweet] because you want to win a championship, and they’re the memories that never leave you. But as a personal accolade it’s just a huge honour.”

Voting for the MVP award is conducted following each regular season game by the coaching staffs of each team, with the player amassing the most votes at the end of the season being declared the winner.

The NBL’s MVP award is named after Melbourne Tigers great Andrew Gaze, with the trophy being a specially commissioned sculpture of Gaze in action.

In Australia’s Finals, Chris Anstey charged with elbow strike

The National Basketball League (NBL) has announced that Melbourne Tigers’ player Chris Anstey has been cited on a charge of ‘Striking – with elbow’ and will face the NBL Tribunal.

The charge arose from an alleged incident with South Dragons’ player Rhys Carter in the third quarter of the Tigers’ Grand Final game against the Dragons at Hisense Arena on Sunday 8 March.

Anstey was charged after NBL General Manager Chuck Harmison viewed video footage of the incident and decided to refer the matter to the Tribunal.

The Melbourne Tigers have already informed the league office that they wish to have Anstey’s charge heard informally via telephone interviews.

Under League rules regarding Finals games, the charge must now be heard by NBL Tribunal Chairman Ken Madsen prior to the Tigers’ next match, which is Game Four of the Grand Final series on Wednesday 11 March at the State Netball Hockey Centre. A decision in the case is expected to be handed down no later than Wednesday morning.

Kevin Garnett out another week

The AP reports: Boston Celtics All-Star Kevin Garnett will miss at least two more games with a right knee sprain. Coach Doc Rivers said Sunday that Garnett won’t be back “earlier than next Sunday.”

InsideHoops.com note: Without KG and Rajon Rondo (minor ankle sprain), the Celtics today lost to the Orlando Magic, who are without starting point guard Jameer Nelson for the rest of the season.

Jazz assign two to D-League

Utah Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor announced Saturday that the team has assigned second-year guard Morris Almond and second-year center Kyrylo Fesenko to the Utah Flash of the NBA Development League (D-League). The two are expected to be in uniform as the Flash host the Idaho Stampede on Monday, March 9 at 7:00 p.m.

In 25 games this season (one start) the 6-6, 215 pound Almond has averages of 3.7 points, 1.4 rebounds and 0.3 assists. Almond has been inactive 19 times this season and DNP-CD 18 games. The guard notched a career-high 12 points and six rebounds in a 99-94 win on December 2 at Sacramento.

Selected by the Jazz out of Rice in the first round (25th overall selection) of the 2007 NBA Draft, Almond secured his place in the D-League record books last season when he broke the league single-game scoring record with a 53-point performance on Jan. 30 at Bakersfield. Almond also earned the inaugural NBA Development League Impact Player of the Year Award which is given to a player who joins a D-League team following the start of the season. The award honors an athlete who made the greatest contribution following his in-season acquisition.

In 18 games this season (one start) the 7-1, 278 pound Fesenko has averages of 2.4 points, 1.8 rebounds and 0.2 assists. Fesenko has been inactive 30 times this season and DNP-CD 14 games. His best outing of the season came at Houston on December 12 when he picked up his first career double-double, scoring 12 points with 11 rebounds in 34 minutes of action. Fesenko, who makes his second trip to the D-League this season, was last assigned to the Flash on January 6 and appeared in eight games (all starts), averaging 12.5 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 27.3 minutes per contest.

Originally selected by Philadelphia in the second round (38th overall selection) of the 2007 NBA Draft, the Jazz acquired Fesenko’s rights in a draft night deal that sent the draft rights to Herbert Hill (55th overall pick) and trade considerations to the 76ers.

Shaun Livingston joins Tulsa in D-League

The Tulsa 66ers announced today they have acquired the fourth overall pick in the 2004 NBA Draft, point guard Shaun Livingston.

Livingston, at 6 foot 7 inches, has played in 149 regular season NBA games, including 60 starts for the Los Angeles Clippers from 2004-07. He played in four games for the Miami Heat earlier this season. He has career averages of 7.3 points, 4.7 assists, 3.1 rebounds while shooting 44 percent from the field and 71 percent from the free throw line.

The Peoria, Illinois native led Peoria Central High to Class AA state titles in both 2003 and 2004 and was named Illinois Mr. Basketball as a senior in 2003-04, while also named to the 2004 McDonald’s All-America Team. Livingston became the fourth Illinois Mr. Basketball to jump directly from high school to the NBA, joining Darius Miles, Kevin Garnett and Eddy Curry.

Livingston will wear jersey number 14, and will be in uniform for tonight’s game against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. In order to make room on the roster for Livingston, the 66ers released guard Derrick Dial due to an injury.

Tyrus Thomas sets a Bulls blocks record

The Chicago Tribune reports on Bulls forward Tyrus Thomas: The third-year forward set a franchise record Friday night by blocking at least one shot in his 24th consecutive game. The previous record of 23 had been shared with Ben Wallace (Jan.-March 2007) and Jawann Oldham (March-April 1985). Thomas set the mark with a second-quarter block of Luc Mbah a Moute’s layup attempt. During the streak, Thomas, who had two blocks Friday, has 49 overall.

Eddy Curry returns to practice

The New York Post (Marc Berman) reports: Knicks center Eddy Curry was back on the practice court for the first time in nearly two months yesterday, but Mike D’Antoni made it clear he likely won’t be back in the rotation. Curry, who last practiced Jan. 9 in Houston because of a lack of conditioning and two sore knees, has played two minutes and 38 seconds this season. He could suit up tonight versus the Bobcats. But his role now – and for the forseeable future – is to play garbage time as the Knicks immerse themselves in a playoff race, two games out of eighth place in the Eastern Conference. They have no time to experiment with their 6-foot-11, 300-pound former franchise player, who has become an albatross – by far Isiah Thomas’ worst personnel move.

Glen Davis ejected after hard foul on Anderson Varejao

A flagrant-2 foul was called on Celtics power forward Glen Davis Friday night in Boston in a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Early in the third quarter, Cavs forward/center Anderson Varejao had the ball and drove at the rim, coming alongside the left baseline.

As Varejao went up for his shot, Davis jumped with both his arms up, but brought both arms down, making contact with Varjao’s neck and shoulder area. There was enough of a follow-through motion for the refs to call it a flagrant-2.

I think the refs made the right call.

A few players from both teams rushed over to make sure no one started to fight, but nothing happened.

A flagrant-2 foul results in an ejection. So, Davis is gone from the game.

Doc Rivers became furious as the refs told him what was up. He must have not seen the replay.

And then pointless, silly technical fouls were called on LeBron James, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Ray Allen for rushing over and sort of holding on to each other for a few seconds.

–Jeff

Mike Dunleavy out after surgery

The Indiana Pacers announced Friday that guard Mike Dunleavy underwent successful surgery for removal of a bone spur and repair of his right patellar tendon.

At the direction of the team, the surgery was performed by Dr. Richard Steadman at the Steadman-Hawkins clinic in Vail, Co., with the Pacers’ medical staff, Dr. Tim Hupfer, physical therapist consultant Dan Dyrek and head physical therapist/athletic trainer Josh Corbeil, in attendance.

Recovery will be lengthy and no timetable has been set. Dunleavy will miss the remainder of this season. Rehabilitation will begin immediately and will be under the supervision of the Pacers’ medical staff in Indianapolis. Updates will be forthcoming when appropriate.