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On Monday, October 13th physicians successfully removed the benign growth from D.J. White’s jaw, the Oklahoma City Thunder announced today.
Team physicians will perform the second phase of the surgery, where they will mend the jaw with a bone graft taken from White’s hip, in approximately six weeks.
White’s expected recovery time remains 4-6 months.
Current Memphis Grizzlies Assistant Athletic Trainer Jason Biles was promoted to strength and conditioning coach, General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Wallace announced today. In a related move, former University of North Florida Head Athletic Trainer Jim Scholler was named the club’s new assistant athletic trainer.
Biles enters his second season with the Grizzlies after he was appointed the team’s assistant athletic trainer in August 2007. In his new role, Biles will oversee the off-court conditioning of the Grizzlies, enhancing their performance through exercises in flexibility, strength, speed and power, while assisting Grizzlies Head Athletic Trainer Drew Graham with rehabilitation of injuries.
Prior to joining the Grizzlies, Biles worked at Athletes Performance in Las Vegas, where he served as the performance physical therapy manager and developed and implemented performance training programs for professional athletes in the NBA, NFL, MLB, PGA and ATP. He was also the lead physical therapist at the Bollettieri Sports Medicine Center at the IMG Academies in Bradenton, Fla., where he traveled with professional tennis players and provided rehabilitation for athletes training for the NFL combines and NBA offseason training programs.
Scholler spent nine of the last 10 years as an athletic trainer for the Ospreys, including the last four as the head athletic trainer, where he oversaw administration and supervision of all athletic training services provided to UNF student-athletes.
He served as UNF’s graduate assistant athletic trainer from 1998-2001, covering baseball and men’s soccer and as the Ospreys assistant athletic trainer from 2001-03, providing care to the men’s basketball, volleyball, men’s and women’s tennis, cheerleading and dance teams.
Scholler, who also served as the athletic trainer for the Greek National Baseball team in 2003 and 2005 that competed in the European Baseball Championships, spent one season as the assistant athletic trainer at Notre Dame in 2003-04, where he oversaw the health care of the men’s and women’s cross country and men’s lacrosse teams.
The Grand Haven, Mich. native earned his bachelor’s degree in movement science from the University of Michigan in 1998 and his master’s degree in healthcare administration from UNF in 2001.
The Miami HEAT announced tonight that they have requested waivers on forward Omar Barlett and guard Eddie Basden. Both were initially signed as free agents by the HEAT on Sept. 26, 2008.
Barlett appeared in one game in the preseason and totaled four points and two rebounds in 9:22 minutes against Detroit on Oct. 5.
Basden also appeared in one game and was scoreless with one assist and one steal in 9:08 minutes against the Pistons on Oct. 5.
The Los Angeles Times (Wally Skalij) reports: A second medical examination Monday confirmed that Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic has a fractured left ankle and will miss most basketball activities for at least another 10 days, the team said today.
Sebastian Telfair of the Minnesota Timberwolves has been suspended without pay for three games for pleading guilty to criminal possession of a weapon, in violation of the laws of the State of New York, the NBA announced today.
Telfair will be suspended for the first three games of the 2008-09 NBA regular season for which he is eligible and physically able to play.
The following statement is from Minnesota Timberwolves VP of Basketball Operations Kevin McHale regarding today’s three-game suspension of Sebastian Telfair by the NBA: “I’ve talked to Sebastian about the incident. This is something that happened in the past, and he is looking forward to putting this behind him. Since he has been a member of the Timberwolves, Sebastian has been a great teammate and has been actively involved in the community. I couldn’t be more proud of Sebastian’s continued improvement as a basketball player and as a young man.”
The Charlotte Bobcats today requested waivers on guards Donell Taylor and Marcus Williams. The Bobcats roster now stands at 15 players.
Taylor appeared in two preseason games with averages of 1.0 point, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 8.0 minutes. Williams averaged 1.0 point and 1.5 rebounds in 5.5 minutes.
The Charlotte Bobcats will host their annual Cool School preseason game presented by Harris Teeter for middle school students at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, October 16 against the Orlando Magic. Approximately 16,000 students and teachers representing 31 regional cities and 14 counties will take part in this educationally geared event.
The Atlanta Hawks today requested waivers on Marcus Hubbard and Frank Robinson, according to Executive Vice President and General Manager Rick Sund. Atlanta’s roster stands at 15 players.
Atlanta hosts Phoenix in preseason play tomorrow at Philips Arena (7 p.m.).
InsideHoops.com editor says: They were ‘training camp’ players with nonguaranteed contracts. It’s standard that most such players wind up getting cut.
Reuters reports: The National Basketball Association is laying off nine percent of its work force over worries about the U.S. economy, but is looking to expand operations in China, Commissioner David Stern said. “We made a decision some months ago that the economy was going to be a bit wobbly, so we began a belt-tightening that will result in a work force reduction of about nine percent domestically,” Stern told reporters on Sunday. This translates into about 80 jobs, he later told Reuters. “There is a season-ticket renewal rate decline, and new sales are also being hit,” he said. “My guess is when (the regular season) kicks off, we will be down modestly in season ticket sales.”
The Associated Press reports: “We made the decision some months ago that the economy was going to be a bit wobbly so we began a belt-tightening,” Stern said in London, where the New Jersey Nets beat the Miami Heat in a preseason game. The NBA continues to hire in other countries, he said, as it seeks to grow internationally.
Philadelphia 76ers President and General Manager Ed Stefanski announced today that the team has exercised the third-year options on the contracts of Jason Smith and Thaddeus Young.
Young (6-8, 220) was selected with the 12th overall pick by Philadelphia in the 2007 NBA Draft. In 74 games with 22 starts last season, he averaged 8.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 0.99 steals in 21.0 minutes per game. He had the highest field goal percentage (53.9%) of any rookie qualifier and was named to the NBA T-Mobile All-Rookie Second Team.
Smith (7-0, 240) was originally selected by Miami with the 20th overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft before the Sixers acquired him in exchange for the rights to Daequan Cook (21st overall pick), a future second round pick and cash considerations. In 76 games with one start last season, Smith averaged 4.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in 14.6 minutes per game.
China is a big place with a lot of people. They also like basketball there. The NBA knows this and figures it into future plans to keep growing NBA basketball around the world.
AEG, one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world, and NBA China, have formed a joint venture to design, market, program and operate multi-purpose, NBA-style sports and entertainment arenas in major cities throughout Greater China, it was announced at a press conference today at AEG’s O2 arena in London by Mr. Timothy J. Leiweke, President and CEO of AEG and NBA Commissioner David Stern.
The assumption is that there will eventually be an NBA-affiliated basketball league in China.
The full story is here.