Thunder have huge first sales day

In its first day of season ticket sales, the Oklahoma City Thunder sold more than 6,300 season tickets. The team’s select-a-seat event hosted fans who were selected in random order based on an initial ticket request list. Monday’s sales also reflect significant support from corporate sponsors.

“The response has been fantastic. We are trying to accommodate as many fans as possible with the seats of their choice but demand is very high,” said team spokesman Dan Mahoney. Mahoney said the select-a-seat process continues Tuesday, starting at 8:00 a.m. for fans with randomly selected appointment times.

Mahoney said the team expects it will hit its limit on season tickets before the weeklong select-a-seat process is complete and will have to put fans on a waiting list. “We have set aside more than 4,000 seats for single game tickets, group sales and eight-game partial season ticket packages,” Mahoney said. “We have taken steps to make Thunder basketball games as accessible as possible for a wide variety of fans”

The team also is limiting fans to six tickets per account. Fans not able to purchase full season tickets will be placed on the list for the partial ticket plans. That will also put them on the waiting list for future full season tickets.

The Thunder opens its 2008-09 regular season on October 29 at home vs. the Milwaukee Bucks. The team’s preseason schedule includes an October 13 game vs. the Houston Rockets in Tulsa and an October 14 game vs. the LA Clippers at the Ford Center.

Channing Frye out 8-10 weeks after surgery

The Portland Trail Blazers announced that forward/center Channing Frye underwent arthroscopic surgery today to remove bone spurs from his left ankle. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Saturday and Computed Tomography (CT) Scan today revealed the spurs.

“Channing underwent arthroscopic surgery today on his left ankle after recently experiencing discomfort,” said Trail Blazers General Manager Kevin Pritchard. “We expect him to make a full recovery in 8-10 weeks.”

Dr. Richard Ferkel performed the surgery at the Southern California Orthopedic Institute in Van Nuys, Calif.

Here’s the Oregonian (Jason Quick):

Frye was in the best shape of his career this summer, and was the most frequent participant at the team’s practice facility over the off season. A big man who can shoot, Frye was expected to enter training camp as the backup power forward to LaMarcus Aldridge, a valuable piece to a second unit that expects to spread the floor and play uptempo. Frye spent much of the summer trimming his frame and working on his three-point shooting.

This hurts the Blazers a bit, but they’ll still be OK. The main changes the team is ungoing are mixing Greg Oden, Jerryd Bayless and Rudy Fernandez into the mix. Frye being out weakens their bench.

No new composite ball

ESPN (Ric Bucher) reports: The NBA will use leather basketballs in its developmental league next season, temporarily ending its attempts to re-introduce a composite ball at the NBA level, a league official has confirmed. “We are committed to leather for the foreseeable future,” said league spokesman Tim Frank. “We just realized leather is what our guys wanted.” … The D League will begin next season using an eight-paneled leather ball and then switch to a two-paneled version sometime around midseason, Frank said.

InsideHoops.com editor says: The old composite ball felt good to hold, but was rough on the hands, and changed for the worse when wet. I hope they just stick with the leather forever.

NBA TV announces Fan Night

Mavs Courtisde View (official team blog by Art Garcia) reports: To help celebrate its 10th year, NBA TV is offering up a free preview week and a new interactive feature called Fan Night. For the first time ever, fans will have the chance to vote for games they want to see televised nationally on NBA TV each Tuesday night. “We’re proud to launch the new NBA season on NBA TV and NBA.com with the introduction of Fan Night, a landmark multi-platform experience that takes fan interactivity to an unprecedented level,” said Bryan Perez, SVP and GM of NBA Digital. “This is a great example of our commitment to increase fan involvement and take full advantage of all our platforms in an integrated manner. Fans voting online to consistently program a major, national sports network pushes the boundaries of sports digital media.”

Pistons likely to open with 14 players

True Blue Pistons (official team blog by Keith Langlois) reports: It’s appearing more and more likely that the Pistons will open training camp with 14 players under contract, one under the league maximum. That’s Joe Dumars’ preferred mode, giving him roster flexibility as the season unfolds in the event of injury or opportunity to add a veteran free agent – maybe one who gets bought out, a la Chris Webber two seasons ago, or someone who comes out of retirement late in the season for a playoff run – to fill a niche role.

Why is Kobe delaying finger surgery?

Kobe Bryant needs surgery to fix ligament damage in his right pinkie finger. This has been known for a long time.

For reasons I cannot even guess, he still hasn’t had the surgery, and is instead just making announcements. First he made an announcement as to when he’ll announce what he’s doing to do about the surgery. Now he’s announced that he will have the surgery, and announced that he will announce a date, sometime soon.

What the hell is going on?

Am I missing something?

Is there a medical reason for not having the surgery as quickly as possible? If so, I haven’t seen it mentioned by anyone covering this. It’s just weird.

Training camps open in a bit over three weeks.

–Jeff

Australia: Tigers fined for Ebi Ere use

The National Basketball League (NBL) has fined the Melbourne Tigers team $4,000 for playing import Ebi Ere in a pre-season game without an international clearance.

Ere suited up for the Tigers in their 125-106 pre-season win over the Townsville Crocodiles at the Mackay Basketball Stadium in Queensland on Saturday 6 September.

NBL interim Chief Executive Officer Chuck Harmison said that Ere played without obtaining the necessary Foreign Player Licence and International Clearance, and as a result the Tigers had been fined by the League.

“It’s a fairly basic rule that all import players need to get the necessary clearances from FIBA before playing for their new team, and unfortunately the Tigers failed to obtain these on Ere’s behalf before playing him on Saturday night,” said Harmison. “As a result, we were left with no alternative other than to impose sanctions against the Tigers.”

“As the infraction occurred in a pre-season game, we felt a fine was appropriate in this instance,” Harmison added. “If this had been a regular season game, they would potentially have faced the loss of competition points as well as a significantly larger fine, so this is a serious breach on their behalf.”

Z-Bo almost went to Clippers in July

The New York Daily News (Frank Isola) reports: Donnie Walsh has been actively trying to trade Zach Randolph and nearly had a deal with the Clippers in July. It is still unclear why Walsh passed on a trade that simply would have involved moving Randolph and his contract to Los Angeles without having to receive a player in return. Once Walsh passed, the Nuggets stepped in and traded Marcus Camby to the Clippers. Randolph had a strong year statistically with the Knicks, averaging 17.6 points and 10.3 rebounds. However, his presence in the low post rendered C Eddy Curry useless and the Knicks feel that Curry is more valuable to the club.

Fan Poll Results: 8 East playoff teams

InsideHoops.com ran a poll for the last week asking fans to pick the eight Eastern conference teams they feel will make the playoffs in 2008-09.

The voting for the first four teams was pretty close, with the Celtics (592 votes), Cavaliers (588), Pistons (582) and Magic (578) taking the home-court seeds.

The Raptors (504) came in 5th, though from our experience Toronto fans, being very enthusiastic, tend to bump their team up slightly higher than tends to be expected. Though, if new Raptor Jermaine O’Neal can stay healthy and play anything like his old former All-Star self, this is a very reasonable prediction.

One vote later, coming in 6th, was the 76ers (503), who played better than expected last season and now add star power forward Elton Brand, who is returning from injury, to their mix.

The Wizards (459) came in 7th. They welcome a healthy Gilbert Arenas back.

And now, a dropoff.

Fans feel that last year’s #8 seed, the Hawks, won’t do as well in 2008-09. Rather than pick them to return to the playoffs, fans went with the Heat (294 votes). This is reasonable. Miami welcomes a healthy Dwayne Wade back, alongside Shawn Marion, who needs a contract, and superkid rookie Michael Beasley. The supporting cast is still weak, but slightly improved from last year.

The Bulls (195) finished 9th, just outside the playoff seedings. The Hawks (180) were 10th.

Here are the complete final results:

1) Celtics 592 votes
2) Cavs 588 votes
3) Pistons 582 votes
4) Magic 578 votes
5) Raptors 504 votes
6) Sixers 503 votes
7) Wizards 459 votes
8) Heat 294 votes
—
9) Bulls 195 votes
10) Hawks 180 votes
11) Bucks 83 votes
12) Nets 68 votes
13) Knicks 53 votes
14) Pacers 53 votes
15) Bobcats 43 votes

Opinion: Knicks not for Allan Houston

If Allan Houston truly is attempting another comeback, as New York Newsday today reports, I don’t see why the Knicks make any sense for him. Considering his age and how long he’s been out of the league, at this point the best H20 could be is a poor man’s version of what he was before, and not contribute much more than nailing open outside shots.

Even in his prime, back in the 1920’s, perimeter shooting was the only truly exceptional aspect of Houston’s game.

If he’s going to join a team in 2008-09 he should join a winning team who can use a gunner for a few minutes off the bench to come in, shoot two or three 3-pointers, hit one or two of them and sit down. The Knicks are a team of the future. They need to worry about finding a legit superstar or two to build around and don’t need a player like Houston now.

Still, all the best to H20. I liked him a lot in his prime and hope he does find what he’s looking for now.

–Jeff