LeBron James updates his Basketball Mount Rushmore comments

Here’s the Boston Globe reporting on LeBron James, who has gotten attention recently for his opinion as to which NBA legends would belong on a basketball version of Mount Rushmore:

lebron james

LeBron James has had all weekend to reconsider the list of players on his basketball version of Mount Rushmore.

Last week, the four-time MVP said his top four players were Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Oscar Robertson, adding that one of those will eventually be replaced by him. Those statements sparked a debate at All-Star Weekend about the game’s greatest players.

James stuck to his original list, but said there are plenty of other names who could be considered.

“Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], Kobe [Bryant], it’s hard to knock anybody off,” James said. “There needs to be another mountain. It’s too many guys. I was definitely thinking of Kobe as the top four of all time. I think about Kareem for sure. There’s so many greats that played this game.”

All-Star Dirk Nowitzki plans to take it easy this weekend

Here’s the Dallas Morning News blog reporting on veteran Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki, who would be perfectly happy spending most of Sunday’s All-Star game on the bench watching the action:

dirk nowitzki

The Mavericks played 54 games before the All-Star break, and Nowitzki played in all but two of them. Like most of his teammates, he was rolling in the weeks leading up to the NBA’s annual intermission.

Unlike most of his teammates, he doesn’t get to kick back on a beach or at the house to chill out for a few days. But he still doesn’t plan on putting in much of a workload in New Orleans. With his sprained left ankle still healing, plus a playoff race ahead of him, he values all the rest he can get.

“A couple minutes,” was all Nowitzki said when asked what he expects to do in Sunday’s All-Star Game. “I got a couple days now, and I probably won’t do much, including the game.”

President Obama is a big Stephen Curry fan

Lots of basketball fans appreciate the shooting ability of Stephen Curry. Count President Obama in that group. Here’s the Bay Area News Group reporting:

President Obama is a big Stephen Curry fan

All-Star Stephen Curry has a fan in President Barack Obama, who offered high praise to the Warriors guard for his shooting ability.

“I gotta tell you, Curry is the best shooter I have ever seen,” Obama told TNT’s Charles Barkley in a portion of a taped interview released Friday. “I believe that.

“In terms of being able to, you know, off the dribble get his shot off from anywhere that fast, best I’ve ever seen.”

No clues to the future of Kevin Love

Here’s the New York Post reporting on Timberwolves star Kevin Love, who for now is… on the Timberwolves.

future of Kevin Love

Love’s name has made the speculation rounds, and with his ability to join the free-agent ranks in 2015, that is not changing. He would be a hit, with his talent, personality and flair. When asked about his future and if he ever gives a thought to New York, he replied with a straight-faced deadpan.

“New York? Right now, I’m thinking about Derek Jeter’s decision. How about that?” Love said.

His standard line is “I want to win” and he’ll think about what he wants to do in 2015 in, well, 2015. He is sharp enough to realize it is a no-win situation.

“If I say that I like Charlotte or ‘Charlotte is a great city, I love spending time there,’ then all of a sudden I’m going to Charlotte,” Love said. “Anything I say is going to be a misconception or be some sort of a headline. It’s silly.”

David Stern will be inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame

David Stern is going from the NBA commissioner’s office to the Hall of Fame.

The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. 8 in Springfield, Mass.

Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Kevin Johnson and Spencer Haywood are hoping to be part of the class. They were chosen as finalists, with the full class to be unveiled April 7 during the NCAA men’s Final Four.

Stern retired on Feb. 1 after exactly 30 years as commissioner, during which he brought the league to its greatest success. Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the Hall of Fame board, said the Hall hopes to have a special spot to display a tribute to Stern.

— Associated Press

Nets stuggle in back-to-back games

The Brooklyn Nets struggled to start the season, but picked things up once 2014 rolled around. But they still tend to drop the second game of back-to-backs. Here’s the New York Post reporting:

Before any questions could be asked at his postgame press conference after the Nets’ 92-76 loss to the Bulls on Thursday night, Jason Kidd knew what the first topic of discussion would be.

“Back-to-backs,” he said.

Once again, the Nets came up on the short end in the second half of a back-to-back this season, dropping to 2-10 in those games this season, with eight more sets of back-to-backs left to be played.

“We fought. We were right there,” the coach said. “We had a couple of great opportunities, and we just couldn’t get the stop, or we had a great look with the ball and the ball just didn’t go in for us at that point.

“That’s just basketball. The guys fought and gave us a great opportunity to win on the road, and it just got away from us there at the end.”

College: Suspended Marcus Smart to stay in locker room

Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart is expected to watch Saturday’s game from the locker room instead of the stands.

University spokesman Mike Noteware told ESPN that Smart — who’ll be serving the second of his three-game suspension for shoving a fan at Texas Tech — will not be in the crowd when Oklahoma State hosts rival Oklahoma at 2 p.m. Saturday on ESPN.

Smart is not allowed to travel with the team while suspended but has been permitted to practice. His suspension ends after Tuesday’s game in Waco against Baylor.

The Cowboys (16-8, 4-7 Big 12) lost their first game without Smart on Tuesday at Texas and have dropped five straight and six of seven.

— ESPN.com

Ernie Johnson talks All-Star weekend

Here’s the Oklahoman talking NBA All-Star weekend with TNT/Turner Sports analyst Ernie Johnson:

Q: How many All-Star games is this for you now, and what’s your favorite All-Star memory?

Ernie Johnson: “Oh man, I don’t know how many this is. This is a lot. I mean, this is my 23rd or 24th year in the studio. And for Turner, you know we’ve had the All-Star Game itself since 2003. Up until then we didn’t do the game, we just had everything leading up to it. But we’ve been to a lot of All-Star Weekends, that’s for sure. And I think, really, one of my favorite moments of all-time was 1997, the year they announced the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history. And this was not something that was on the air, but it was happening on Saturday afternoon when they were having the rehearsal for what they would do Sunday with all the 50 legends. And so I was there, just kind of hanging out in the arena and watching the 50 greatest as they put on their jackets for the first time, those great letter jackets that they had. And just watching all of these guys getting autographs from each other, it was just tremendous as they milled around and got their matching orders for how the ceremony would happen on Sunday. And I’ll never forget that. It was watching every great who’s ever played the game right there. It was tremendous.”

Q: What would you like to see added or even eliminated from the weekend to make the event better?

Johnson: “Oh, I don’t know. You know, they tinker with the events now. I still like the events. I love the events themselves. Certainly there have been years in the past where you shake your head kind of at the slam dunk because you see a guy trying time after time to complete a dunk and then the arena gets a little stale. In 2000, that slam dunk contest in Oakland was incredible. And it wasn’t with a lot of props or any of that stuff. It was just Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Steve Francis I believe was in there. Guys just doing their thing and making dunks in their first attempt, and it was just electric in there. It was like it was a playoff game. People were just going nuts. You wish that you could have slam dunk contests that resembled that one with the big names and the guys who can really dunk doing their thing. And we’ll see what happens this time. I think it’s en vogue for people to criticize it, and they look at the format this year, East against West, and they (grumble). Give it a chance. We’ll see what happens on Saturday night when they have this freestyle round for both sides and then you have these head-to-head battles. We’ll see how that works out. I know that when it comes to the battle round this Saturday, it’s going to be one guy against one guy. You get three chances to make your dunk, and then the judges decide who won that. And so I think it has the potential to be really entertaining.”

Close loss to Jazz a moral victory for Sixers

Here’s the Philadelphia Inquirer reporting on the 76ers, who at this point have to appreciate any game where they don’t get blown out:

The 76ers scored only four second-chance points. They were outscored, 56-10, in bench points, and they didn’t have an answer for Utah Jazz reserve Alec Burks.

Ye, the Sixers believe Wednesday’s 105-100 setback to the Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena was a positive step.

“To get humbled the last few games the way we have been, and we were down . . . on the road in a loud building, I’m proud of what we did,” said coach Brett Brown, whose squad had lost its previous two games by a combined 88 points. “Our bench, ultimately, we are going to need more from them, and some of that is just newness with Arnett” Moultrie playing in his third game of the season.

But under the circumstances, the Sixers (15-39) can cope with that heading into the all-star break. So much so that Wednesday’s performance could be considered a moral victory for the team with an eight-game losing streak.

Nuggets guard Randy Foye hopes to heal over All-Star break

All-Star weekend is fun for fans, and even for some of the players involved, but the average NBA player loves the weekend mostly because it gives them a few days to rest and heal from various bumps and bruises. Here’s the Denver Post blog with more:

Randy Foye hopes to heal over All-Star break

No Nuggets player needs the All-Star break more than guard Randy Foye. He simply gutted out the last two games on the team’s recent road trip, and probably shouldn’t have been playing in Minnesota on Wednesday night due to a bad ankle injury in addition to a hamstring ailment.

His hope is he didn’t do any damage that would cause him to miss any games after the four-day break. But on a team with no point guards, that desperately needed someone to handle the basketball, he played through his injuries instead of sitting.

“I’m extremely banged up,” Foye said. “It started in the New York game, where I tweaked my hamstring and then…it seemed like every game, it’s the first time this year where every game something happened to me.”