New York Knicks Blog – Page 102 – NBA Blog

Bill Walker out 4-6 weeks after elbow surgery

The Knicks announced reserve forward Bill Walker will be out four to six weeks because of elbow surgery and might be back for the playoffs.

Walker, who had been in the rotation for January and half of February, probably could’ve soldiered on if the Knicks needed him, but they are so deep, he probably lost his rotation spot.

Walker sat out the past six games. He injured himself vs. New Orleans on Feb. 17th, though the Knicks aren’t sure why his elbow blew up. Coach Mike D’Antoni said he hopes he’ll be back for the playoffs.

“We’ll see where the team is then,’’ D’Antoni said.

“Too bad. It’s weird the way it happened. I thought it would get better. He needs to get it well.’’

— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post (Blog)

Rondo drops monster triple-double on Knicks

There was never anyone quite like Rajon Rondo in the Ivy League when Jeremy Lin played at Harvard.

The game that was supposed to signal a changing of the guard in the Atlantic Division instead turned into the All Star point guard from the Boston Celtics schooling the Knicks young point guard.

Rondo recorded a triple-double as the Knicks, who elected not to foul in the final seconds of regulation and instead gave up game-tying 3-pointer to Paul Pierce, suffered a heart-breaking 115-111 overtime loss to the Celtics on Sunday.

Rondo finished with 18 points, 20 assists and 17 rebounds as Boston improved to 19-17 and beat the Knicks for the 11 straight time at TD Garden. The Knicks, who face the defending NBA champion Mavs on Tuesday in Dallas, fell to 18-19.

— Reported by Frank Isola of the New York Daily News

Knicks send Jerome Jordan back to D-League

New York Knickerbockers Senior Vice President, Basketball Operations and Interim General Manager Glen Grunwald announced today that the team has reassigned center Jerome Jordan to the Erie Bayhawks of the NBA Development League.

Jordan, 7-0, 240-pounds, has scored 20 total points and grabbed 15 rebounds over 61 minutes in 13 games with New York this season. He had appeared in two games for Erie earlier this season, averaging 18.0 points on .500 shooting, 7.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.00 blocks over 32.5 minutes.

Steve Novak, three-point bomber

Shooting 3-pointers is what Novak does. He did it with the Houston Rockets as a rookie in the 2006-7 season, and then with the Los Angeles Clippers, the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs. And now, to far more acclaim, he is doing it with the Knicks.

The Elias Sports Bureau says that since Novak has entered the N.B.A., a little more than 72 percent of his shots have been from 3-point range, the highest percentage of any player in the league over that period, based on a minimum of 500 total field-goal attempts.

Most players who are as tall as Novak prefer to take shots closer to the basket. But not Novak. And certainly not this season, when the number of 3-pointers compared with his other field-goal attempts — 113 to 27 — means almost 81 percent of his shots come from behind the arc.

Only the Mavericks’ Jason Kidd is devoting a higher percentage (85) of his shots to 3-pointers this season.

But Kidd has converted just 29 percent of his 120 3-point attempts, nowhere near the 46.9 percent success rate that Novak has had (53 of 113).

— Reported by Jake Appleman of the New York Times

Carmelo Anthony says he loves playing with Jeremy Lin

Carmelo Anthony

Likes the feel of the basketball

Carmelo Anthony has heard the talk that he’s selfish and can’t play with Jeremy Lin. Both, he said on Friday, are not true.

“I love playing with Jeremy Lin,” Anthony said at the NBA All-Star Weekend media day. “I love playing with the guys on the team. As far as sharing the spotlight, I’ve been in this game a long time. I’m not going nowhere. The Knicks are not going anywhere. The spotlight’s not going anywhere. If we do what we have to do, everybody will share the spotlight.”

Anthony suffered a groin injury six minutes into Lin’s first Knicks start on Feb. 6 and didn’t play again until Feb. 20. In between, Lin became an international sensation and the question of whether Anthony could co-exist with him became front-and-center chatter…

For Anthony, the idea that he’s selfish doesn’t match up with what he was trying to do before Lin’s emergence, which was play point-forward while hurt for a struggling Knicks squad.

“The only thing that really affected me was the selfish part,” Anthony said. “I was really like, ‘Where did that come from?’ . . . I went out there and tried to play hurt. It didn’t work. I should have sat down, but I didn’t.”

— Reported by Anthony Rieber of New York Newsday

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Spike Lee make peace

Jeremy Lin

Invented basketball, apparently

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. who tweeted derogatory things about Jeremy Lin saying the Knicks point guard was getting all of the attention solely because he was Chinese-American, and Spike Lee were seen chatting courtside for an extended time last night.

“Jeremy Lin is a good player, but all the hype is because he’s Asian,” the WBC welterweight champion tweeted earlier this month. “Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.’’

Lee immediately took to Twitter to respond to Mayweather’s comments and defend Lin.

“Floyd Mayweather I Hope You Watched Jeremy Hit The Gamewinning 3 Pointer With .005 Seconds Left.Our Guy Can BALL PLAIN AND SIMPLE.RECOGNIZE.”

After last night’s chat, it appeared Lee and Mayweather had made peace.

“Floyd Mayweather And I Had A Great Conversation Courtside,” Lee tweeted after the game. “We’re MAD COOL.ALL LOVE.2 Brotha’s.YA-DIG.’’

— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post

Jeremy Lin now living in swanky NY hotel

Jeremy Lin

They see him rollin’

Breakout Knick star Jeremy Lin is renting an all-inclusive, impeccably furnished pad at the W Hotel in the Financial District, sources told The Post…

[… A vast improvement] over crashing on a couch at his brother’s Lower East Side pad, which was Lin’s living situation just weeks ago.

The two-bedroom W suite comes outfitted with $30,000 to $35,000 worth of Tui Lifestyle furniture.

Rents there range from $3,600 to $8,900 a month, according to Streeteasy.com. The owner of Lin’s unit had put the two-bed, two-bath apartment up for sale for $2.315 million before renting it out.

— Reported by Jennifer Gould Keil of the New York Post

Jeremy Evans replaces Iman Shumpert in 2012 Slam Dunk contest

Jeremy Evans

Has crazy hops

The 2012 NBA Slam Dunk contest just got shaken up a bit, with one of the bright young stars unable to throw down for the weekend.

The NBA announced today that Utah Jazz forward Jeremy Evans has been added to this year’s dunk contest that will be held on Feb. 25 at Amway Center in Orlando (TNT, 6 p.m. MT). Evans joins a group of three other players in the Slam Dunk that features a series of firsts, including four first-time participants, a new single-round format in which the winner will be chosen solely by fan vote, and the introduction of fan voting via Twitter.

A 2010 second-round draft pick (55th overall) out of Western Kentucky, 61 of Evans’ 88 made shots over his first two years have been dunks, 30 of those on alley-oops. His dunk percentage of 69.3 percent is the highest in the NBA over the last two seasons. The 6-9, 194-pound high-riser owns career averages of 3.2 points and 1.7 rebounds per game.

Evans becomes the sixth player in Jazz history selected to participate in the event, joining Darrell Griffith (1984, 1985), Blue Edwards (1990, 1991), David Benoit (1993), Jamie Watson (1995) and DeShawn Stevenson (2001).

In addition to Evans, the three other players who will vie for the Sprite Slam Dunk championship include the Houston Rockets’ Chase Budinger, the Indiana Pacers’ Paul George and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Derrick Williams.

A new format will be implemented for the 2012 competition. The contest will consist of only one round and each competitor will execute three dunks. Fan voting will open after all four players have completed their first dunk. Previously, the Sprite Slam Dunk contest consisted of two rounds, with the first round scored by a panel of judges which determined two finalists.

Full coverage of the weekend is on InsideHoops.com.

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Nets forward Shawne Williams needs foot surgery

New Jersey Nets forward Shawne Williams will undergo surgery on Wednesday, February 22 to remove a bone fragment from his left foot, Nets General Manager Billy King announced today. The surgery will be performed at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan by foot specialist Dr. Martin O’Malley and Nets team orthopedist Dr. Riley Williams III.

A timetable for his return will be determined following surgery.

Williams was signed as a free agent prior to the 2011-12 season. He appeared in 25 games, averaging 4.5 points and 2.7 rebounds in 20.6 minutes of action per contest.

ESPN apologizes for offensive headline on Jeremy Lin

ESPN has apologized for using a racial slur in a headline for a story on Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin.

ESPN ran the headline “Chink in the Armor” after Lin had nine turnovers in New York’s loss to the New Orleans Hornets on Friday night on its mobile website that could be seen on phones and tablet computers.

Lin is the NBA’s first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent.

— Reported by the Associated Press

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