Category: NBA News Blog

NBA news blog

Violent fans harrass an Israel-league team in Turkey

A EuroCup basketball game in Turkey between Israeli team Bnei Hasharon and a Turkish team  was suspended after violent fans started making both verbal and physical threats towards the players on the Israeli team.

Two American players on the team are Shawn James, who attended Duquesne University and Sean Munson, who attended Wagner.
The Bnei team players had to flee under police protection to their locker room, and have had to stay there for a length of time for their own safety as uncivilized, violent fans took political anger and applied it towards innocent basketball players who are simply trying to engage in friendly sports competition.

The team from Turkey also left for their locker room, to avoid getting caught in any violence.

UPDATE: My source who is at the game tells me the players are now safe and back at their hotel.

UPDATE: Sean S. Munson exclusively to InsideHoops.com: “We are all good and safe.  We are in the hotel right now with police out side protecting us… We were in the locker room for 3 hours waiting for the police escort to clear the street back to our hotel.  They were throwing coins, pens, lighters, and one shoe during the warmups.  We finished the introduction of players and shook the other team’s hands and then it got quiet in the gym for about a minute.  Then the crowd rushed the court.  The game was seconds from starting.”

–InsideHoops.com editor Jeff Lenchiner

Jazz assign Kyrylo Fesenko to D-League

Utah Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor announced today that the team has assigned second-year center Kyrylo Fesenko to the Utah Flash of the NBA Development League (D-League). He is expected to be in uniform tonight as the Flash hosts the Anaheim Arsenal at 7:15 p.m. as part of the D-League Showcase.

In 10 games this season (one start) the 7-1, 278 pound Fesenko has averages of 2.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 0.3 assists. Fesenko has been inactive 13 times this season and DNP-CD 12 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.

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.

Suns release Dee Brown

The Phoenix Suns have released guard Daniel “Dee” Brown, the club announced today.

The 6-0, 181-pound guard appeared in two games for Phoenix in a reserve role, averaging 2.5 points and 1.5 assists in 14.0 minutes.  Brown hit a three-pointer in his first action with Phoenix on Dec. 29 at Oklahoma City and also finished with one assist in 13 minutes.  A night later in Memphis, the Illinois product scored two points, dished two assists and grabbed a rebound in 15 minutes.  The two-year NBA performer was signed by the Suns on Dec. 24 after appearing in 17 games (11 starts) with the Washington Wizards to begin 2008-09.

The Suns roster now stands at 12.

A season-high seven games above .500, the Suns return to action tomorrow night, Wed., Jan. 7, hosting the Indiana Pacers at 7 p.m. at US Airways Center.

Read fan reaction and discuss your opinion in this forum thread.

Antoine Walker charged with DUI

The AP reports: Former NBA player Antoine Walker was charged with suspicion of drunk driving in Miami Beach early Monday morning, further hurting his chances of playing again this season. Walker was driving a black Mercedes without the lights on when he was pulled over at 5:39 a.m., according to the arrest report. Officers detected a strong odor of alcohol and wrote in the report that Walker had a sleepy look on his face. He refused a breathalyzer test… Walker was being held Monday on a $1,000 bond and jail officials said they did not immediately know if he has attorney.

InsideHoops.com reader Goose says: Any word on the secondary charge of making a career out of jacking up careless jumpers?

Don Nelson job safe

The San Francisco Chronicle (Janny Hu) reports: Despite the dismal start and consecutives losses to the two worst teams in the NBA this week, Warriors President Robert Rowell reiterated Monday that coach Don Nelson’s job in not in jeopardy. “No, I’ve not given it an ounce of thought,” Rowell said before the game at Utah. “Nellie’s a great coach. I think he’s done his job as a coach. I think Nellie has done everything he’s done his last 30 years in the business. … “Unfortunately, we’ve had Corey (Maggette) out 15 games, we’ve had Monta (Ellis) out, we’re banged up. It’s still not an excuse – it’s the NBA – but we knew when Monta went down that this would be a tough start to the year.”

Lone Star teams break women`s scoring record

InsideHoops.com covers the WNBA, but we don’t do a lot of women’s college hoops stuff. Still, all basketball fans should take 20 seconds to skim this, below:

The AP reports: Jamie Meyer scored 49 points to help Abilene Christian overcome a 63-point effort by Renee Renz and beat Texas Woman’s 147-143 in quadruple overtime on Monday night in a record-setting game. The Division II schools combined to break the NCAA record for points in a game of 261 set by St. Joseph’s (Ind.) and Northern Kentucky in 1988. The 143 points by Texas Woman’s broke the NCAA record for most points by the losing team. The 112 points the two teams scored in the overtimes also was an NCAA record as was Abilene Christian’s 58 in overtime… Renz was 22-of-36 from the field and 15-of-17 from the free throw line. She also had 15 rebounds.

Heat will trade Livingston

UPDATE: They aren’t releasing him. They have traded him to the Grizzlies.

The NBA career of tall, lanky point guard Shaun Livingston began in 2004 with the Los Angeles Clippers. But despite showing flashes of potential over his three seasons in L.A., the 6’7″ 185-pound Illinois native appeared to be backup material rather than worthy of starting.

Still, his future was bright, especially considering he came straight to the league from high school. The kid was only born in 1985.

Then came his nasty injury. You saw it. Proably the worst thing to look at I’ve seen in the NBA.

Now in 2008-09 he’s been riding the bench with the Heat. Playing just four games, and just 10.3 minutes per outing, Livingston has scored 2.3 ppg, not done much else, and not looked too hot in practice.

And now, the Heat are ready to say goodbye. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Ira Winderman) reports:

The Shaun Livingston comeback is over. At least for now. At least with the Miami Heat. Livingston was informed of his release after Monday night’s 91-84 loss to the San Antonio Spurs at AmericanAirlines Arena, with the team expected to make a formal announcement later this morning… The contract Livingston signed with the Heat guaranteed only $370,000 for this season, a figure that keeps the team below the punitive dollar-for-dollar luxury tax on excessive payrolls.

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