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Here’s Arizona Sports reporting on former NBA player turned college coach Dan Majerle:
Former Grand Canyon University men’s basketball coach Dan Majerle is suing the school that fired him, according to court documents obtained by Arizona Sports.
Majerle is suing under three causes for action, including breach of contract.
The court documents detail Majerle’s firing and the wrongdoing he alleges, including not providing a severance provision.
Here’s the New Orleans Times-Picayune reporting that the Pelicans practice facility has reopened, with severe limitations for safety reasons due to the cornavirus pandemic:
At the Ochsner Sports Performance Center, there are arrows taped to the floor to instruct players where they can and can’t go. Only two baskets inside the entire facility are available to shoot on. And anyone who goes in must have their temperature checked.
These are just a few of the precautions the Pelicans are taking at their practice facility, which reopened Monday for voluntary individual workouts. David Griffin, the Pelicans’ executive vice president of basketball operations, said seven players worked out. There were three players in the first group and four players in the second group. Both groups spent two hours in the building.
The rules the NBA has put in place about reopening practice facilities are so restrictive, Griffin said he believes some of the players who are social distancing outside of the greater New Orleans area are better positioned to keep their skills sharp than the ones here.
Here’s Boston.com with an update from Boston Celticvs head coach Brad Stevens:
As the NBA’s hiatus continues due to coronavirus, Brad Stevens and the Celtics are just waiting for their numbers to be called.
The coach of the Celtics, appearing Monday on Kentucky coach John Calipari‘s “Coffee with Cal” show, said he’s encouraging his players to be “a week away from their best shape” in the event that NBA commissioner Adam Silver decides to lift the league’s suspension that came down on March 11.
“In an ideal world, I don’t think there’s any question, everybody associated with all these teams, especially with all of us that are in playoffs, we want to play,” Stevens said.
Here’s NBA.com reporting on Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic:
Utah Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic will undergo season-ending wrist surgery.
Bogdanovic hurt his right wrist sometime in 2019 and the injury continued to bother him throughout the season…
Bogdanovic was averaging 20.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists in his first season with the Jazz.
Here’s NBC Sports Washington reporting on what Wizards guard John Wall thinks Michael Jordan would put up in today’s NBA:
Everyone has their take on the subject, and while some think Jordan would be just another guy today, people like John Wall believe he’d be even better than he was when he rattled off two separate three-peats.
“Imagine someone averaging 37 [points] when you’re getting beat up, no [defensive] three seconds, hand checks,” Wall said in an interview with 247 Sports. “Now, if you hit somebody like that you get suspended 10 games.
“Jordan’s averaging 45 and whatever else he wants,” he said. “You can’t touch nobody. You can’t hand-check. No hand-check, you playing 6’6 guys at center. The league is totally different. Like, I’m not knocking it, but if you can’t score right now and get a bucket one-on-one, you don’t belong in basketball.”
Here’s the Oklahoman reporting on Thunder center Steven Adams, who plays like his life depends on it and can use rest whenever it’s available:
A defensive anchor. A steady rebounder. A guy who didn’t care if he ever touched the ball. All kinds of entities have people like Stone Cold. Businesses. Families. Teams. Things just go smoother when he’s around. It’s always a little strange when he’s not.
But I’m also delighted when Adams sits. Because I know he’s resting. Adams is big and physical. He deals out plenty of punishment; some day, make yourself watch an entire game without following the ball. Just keep your eyes peeled to Adams and watch how many shoves and bumps and collisions he causes. But for every one of those skirmishes, there’s punishment coming back his way. Adams hits the deck a lot, in part because he does play hard and he doesn’t give up on plays, and it doesn’t take too far into the season before you can see him rising gingerly from the hardwood.
Worries me greatly. Adams hasn’t missed much time – like I said, 16 games total over the last four years and just 31 in his entire seven-season career. But Adams always looks injured. Wrapped up. Worn out. Then like Samson tied to the pillars, his feats of strength break through.
Adams always appears to need about two weeks off, though he never gets it.
Here’s the Detroit Free Press summarizing the latest tech-inspired creativity from Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie:
Since the Detroit Pistons traded him during the 2016 offseason, Spencer Dinwiddie has established himself as one of the NBA’s best point guards and most creative thinkers.
In his Twitter bio, he describes himself as a “tech guy with a jumper,” and some of his recent ideas have supported that. In September, he attempted to convert his three-year, $34 million contract extension with the Nets into a digital investment. The NBA rejected his plan, citing collective bargaining agreement rules.
Dinwiddie’s latest idea is also likely a violation of CBA rules, but that won’t stop him from trying. On Friday, Dinwiddie announced a GoFundMe with a $24,632,600 goal — the rough value of 2625.8 bitcoin. If met, he will allow fans to choose where he signs his next contract. If he falls short of that goal, he’ll donate the money to charity.
Here’s NBC Sports Philly reviewing some of the worst Philadelphia 76ers trades in team history, listing the Sixers’ Moses Malone deal as their worst ever:
Malone had been the missing piece in helping Dr. J get over the hump in 1982-83. His numbers as a Sixer were outstanding (23.9 points, 13.4 rebounds, 1.5 blocks per game) and it was the best era of Sixers basketball during his four seasons here.
But in 1986, the Sixers traded the 30-year-old Malone along with Terry Catledge and two first-round picks to the Bullets for Cliff Robinson and Jeff Ruland. The move was not received well by the players — especially by a young Barkley — and Malone made three more All-Star appearances.
Robinson was a pretty good player here, but not an All-Star. Ruland, who already had foot issues during the previous two seasons in Washington, played just five games with the Sixers before retiring. He made a brief comeback during the 1991-92 season but played just 13 games. This began what Sixers fans call “The Curse of Moses Malone.”
Here’s the Chicago Sun-Times reporting on Bulls head coach Jim Boylen and his plans beyond this season — the one that’s currently on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic — regarding one of his assistants:
Boylen won’t retain assistant coach/player-development coach Shawn Respert when his contract is up at the end of the season, but it was obvious weeks ago that Respert was looking for a new career path long before the season was shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Respert had long hinted that he wanted to be a head coach at the college or pro level and couldn’t really envision achieving that goal with his role on the Bulls’ staff.
Here’s NBC Sports Chicago reporting a fun item from the Bulls’ past:
In news that really only would have made sense in 1997 or 1998, it appears current Warriors coach Steve Kerr used “Austin Powers” as his alias to check into hotel rooms on road trips while playing with the Chicago Bulls.
NBC Sports Chicago’s Rob Schaefer deduced Kerr’s nom de plume after examining a list of road-trip room assignments that ’97-98 Bulls reserve Rusty LaRue shared on Twitter. Schaefer found that the list, which wasn’t presented in alphabetical order, closely corresponded with an A-Z list of Chicago’s roster from that season.