Just Lounge

Novelty Man Shaped Coaster

2009-03-05T19:52:00.000-08:00

If you're having a bad day and looking to take it out on something, check out this coaster. Made of flexible silicone rubber, this coaster comes in the shape of a very unfortunate fella who's had a gigantic glass of beer accidentally placed on top of him. An interesting gadget for a mere $1.49.

Actually the man should have a name ,you can give him a name....

So..

Pound it

Original Source : Novelty Man Shaped Coaster

34 Mindblowing Advertisements of Shoe Brands, I have ever seen!

2009-01-11T19:21:00.000-08:00

One of the best ways to pass on your message or point to your targeted audience is advertisement. Nowadays, lots of companies are selling their products & services through advertisement. The aim of advertisement is to catch the attention of their targeted audience. There could be so many ways of advertising your product or service.

Here’s a compilation of 34 creative advertisements from leading shoes brands. These brands are making ads to promote their products & through these ads they are getting the more business. You can easily notice in these ads how shoes companies express their marketing idea for their products.

Adidas: All Day I Dream About Sneakers, Tree

Brantano Shoe City: Chewing gum

Columbia: Ocean - Wind falls at the foot of Columbia.

Nike Shox Breakdancer

Better than handmade - Saint Vacant. Better than handmade

Nintendo DS: Shoes, “Never unplug”

ID Shoes: Tattoo artist, Be the cult.

ID Shoes: Biker

ZU shoes: Trail of Destruction

Adidas: All Day I Dream About Sneakers, Cloud

Bergqvist Shoes: Use the door, We know our shoes are hot. But next time, use the door.

Reebok “Plane Window”

Bradesco: Skills, 2

Puma Light - Be Light 1

Puma Light - Be Light 2

Jack Shoes: Bathroom

Converse shoes: White mask

La Sportiva: Frostbite

Artengo/Tennis shoes: Macadam, 671C Shoes. Resists everything except the desire to play.

Gabor: Fits perfectly, 3

Adidas: Wariner, I run with 600 million legs

Dr. Scholl’s: Blue, Highlight yourself baby.

New Balance: Heart, Run with the heart.

Artengo tennis shoes: Ming vase, 611 tennis shoes. Highly effective shock absorption.

Red Tape Shoes: Traffic Jam

Walking shoes

Converse: Star

Converse: Tattoo

Piero sneaker shoes print Ad

Lamode: Morgue, Last wish - Lamode fashion footwear

Last wish - Lamode fashion footwear

ID Shoes: Traveler, Be the cult

Mizuno Running Shoes: Magic cup, Designed to accelerate.

Havaianas: Flower Beds,

30 Unforgettable Christmas Advertisements Around the World

2009-01-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

At the time of Christmas here’s a collection of 30 Unforgettable Christmas Advertisements from leading companies included are British Airways, HP, McDonalds, Mercedes-Benz, Pfizer, etc.

I hope you enjoy this collection of Christmas Advertisements and if I’ve missed your favorite, please let me know.

All the precious viewers and rest of the world Wish you a very Happy Christmas!

Mazda: Christmas Tree, 2007

Heineken: Santa

Don’t drink and drive.

Publicis: Christmas

British Airways: Embrace

What i want for christmas

Translation is something like “Colors to the finest tone”, By Damjan Stankovic

Christmas of Rio Sul Mall: Two

Santa Claus

CreAds Christmas Pencil

Whispering lips by IrinaH

McDonald’s: Merry Christmas

Tide Christmas

Suzuki Swift: Christmas

Childhope Asia Philippines: Fireplace

Bola Amiga

A “christmas gift” was sent to company directors and managers, encouraging them to donate money during the holiday season.

Mercedes-Benz: Christmas tree

Coffee machine ads

Pfizer: Ashtray

Christmas card for “be!” - producer of clothes for children & pregnant women, 2007

Mercedes: Santa’s Little Helper, 2007

The Salvation Army 2006 Christmas Ad Campaign, Canada

Telepizza Delivery “four season’s greetings” - 2001

Cultura: Christmas

Almere Vandaag: Christmas ball origami

SUNA GPS Traffic Updates: Christmas

It’s a little premature, but Happy Christmas.

Volkswagen “Flake”

Don’t let irresponsible driving wreck Christmas, 2007

Happy Holidays. Always Fun. M&M’s, 2008

Childhope Asia Philippines: Christmas tree

Over 200,000 children are spending Christmas one the streets.

All given images are copyrights of their respected owners and creators. The only idea behind this post is to show the interactivity and creativity of these images to the world with the essence of exploratio

Give a Hand to Wildlife - 23 WWF Most Heart Touching Advertisements Around the World

2009-01-11T19:12:00.000-08:00

World Wide Fund or WWF is doing a great and enormous job for all of us by protecting future environment, as its goal is to build a future where people live in harmony with nature. WWF is the world largest multinational organization for the conservation of the natural environment. Here, I am presenting 23 Most Appealing WWF Advertisements that convey the message in a very tasteful and discerning manner. I am very much sure you will be inspired and enthused by these attractive ads.
Come, Join WWF to save This Beautiful World!

Stop Climate Change Before it Changes You

15km of rain forest disappears every minute

Imagine This is Yours

WWF

You Can Help - Stop Global Warming

Where is your Home?

Don’t buy exotic animal souvenirs

When you throw away a SEED you throw away a tree

You can help. Stop global warming

Animals around the world are losing their habitats due to climate change. By choosing a hybrid or fuel efficient car, you can help prevent this. Take action right now.

Save the tiger - Print Ad

WWF: Dog, Beach

Save his life, save yourself

WWF: Dog, Home

Save his life, save yourself.

Not recycling this newspaper is the same as cutting down another tree

Save the next generation

Give a hand to wildlife

Save the world with a few coins

Search

A single tin of paint can pollute millions of litres of water

The only thing standing between their survival or extinction is you

WWF - Black cloud

Drive one day less and look how much carbon monoxide you’ll keep out of the air we breathe

Wildlife is Disappearing

Hello Kitty，so cute

2008-12-18T00:32:00.000-08:00

Hello Kitty Flip Mino can't stop recording self in mirror

by Ross Miller, posted Dec 15th 2008 at 12:51PM

Pure Digital Technologies' Flip Video lineup is getting Hello Kitty-fied with the Mino and MinoHD. Like their not-as-adorable kin, the camcorders sport one-touch video recording, a built-in USB port, and are able to record 60 minutes of video with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Most importantly -- and sure to tip the scales in Flip's favor over the Vado HD 720p Pocket -- the camcorders come in eleven different Hello Kitty designs. Far East Gizmos says the price will be $179.99 for Mino and $229.99 for MinoHD, which is the same price as the respective models without these adorable skins. Between this and last month's C1 netbook, we hope this is a sign of an uptick in lip-bitingly cute Hello Kitty-branded tech gear

Hello Kitty gets her own automatic toilet paper dispenser

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 25th 2007 at 7:48PM

Sadly, automatic toilet paper dispensers are nothing new to this gadget-crazed world, but the latest from Sanrio puts a bizarre twist on an already zany contraption. The Hello Kitty TP dispenser is gushing with obligatory cuteness and can be programmed to dole out exactly the right amount of paper with each button press; of course, there really should be a couple of buttons to satisfy the whole family, but we digress. The unit reportedly rings up at around $220, which sounds about two bills too high unless you're already devoted to collecting all things adorned with Ms. Kitty. Ah well, at least your Hello Kitty toilet paper won't seem so out of place now, right?

Okwap's C150T gets mauled by Hello Kitty

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 12th 2007 at 1:03PM

Hello Kitty has certainly claimed her fair share of cellphones in the past, but she's going totally diva on the Okwap C150T. From top to bottom, side to side, this GSM handset is smothered in cuteness, and reportedly, it boasts a built-in media player, a two-megapixel camera, and a myriad Hello Kitty themes / backgrounds. Regrettably, there's no word on a price just yet, and it's doubtful you'll find this thing anywhere in America, but go on and click through for shots of the interface if you just can't get enough

Blazers getting defensive

2008-12-11T20:12:00.000-08:00

Nate McMillan is a defensive minded coach. Always has been, always will be. He wants his teams to play 48 minutes of defense and let that defense fuel the offense.

Despite this inclination for strong team defense, McMillan hasn't always had the personnel necessary to carry out the task. Zach Randolph, Darius Miles, Sebastian Telfair, Jarrett Jack, Dan Dickau, Juan Dixon, Voshon Leonard, Charles Smith, etc. None of those names listed ever earned any type of post-season defensive honors. But now, the Blazers have some players who compete with that "defense first" mind state. Greg Oden, Nicolas Batum, Joel Przybilla and now other players who are developing an appreciation for defense.

Throughout this preseason and training camp, McMillan has instilled in his team defense first. We heard it from players across the board, from LaMarcus Aldridge to Brandon Roy and Greg Oden, preaching about the increased defensive effort we'd see this season.

"We feel like if we put defense first, we can do anything," Aldridge said during Blazers media day interviews.

This was something Aldridge and Roy repeated throughout post-practice interviews during training camp. The increased focus on defense by the players came from the added attention, and new concepts injected by McMillan and his staff. And as Jason Quick wrote back in October, it started with Roy and Aldridge:

The Blazers, it appears, really are serious about this defending stuff.
The first hour of each Blazers practice has been spent on defensive drills; the next hour in executing the concepts. The last half hour is usually spent scrimmaging.

"We drill it, we drill it, we drill it, we drill it, we drill it," coach Nate McMillan said. "Then we talk about it, we drill it, we talk about it, we drill it."

McMillan, who considers himself a defensive-minded coach, said he didn't coach-up his players to talk about defense to the media. And he said he hasn't harped on them so much that it has seeped into their mindset.

Rather, the team's top two players - Aldridge and Roy - both came to their own conclusions at the end of last season, after the Blazers finished among the league's worst at forcing turnovers and grabbing defensive rebounds. McMillan said he asked his two stars what needed to improve next season for the team to succeed, and he said both emphatically pointed to defense.

Now, for all this talk and practice on containment and "overloading," the Blazers were not a very good defensive team to start the season. Through the first eight games, Portland was allowing an average of 99 points per game, which ranked near the bottom. That includes Greg Oden's return against Miami on Nov. 12 (the eighth game). During those first eight, the Blazers also faced some very stiff competition in the Los Angeles Lakers (first in the league in scoring at 107.8 ppg), Phoenix Suns (100.6 ppg), Utah Jazz (99.9 ppg) and Orlando Magic (100.4 ppg).

But over the last 10 games, the number of points allowed by Portland has dropped significantly, from 99 per to 88.2. And over the total of 18 games, the Blazers are now near the bottom of the NBA in points allowed, at 93 per, along with defensive-minded squads such as Boston (90.1), Houston (90.9), Cleveland (92.6), San Antonio (93.0) and New Orleans (93.0). It's a fairly rapid change for a team that struggled to get stops early on.

So what's the reason for this sudden uptick in defense? Well, it seems to boil down to a number of things. As this team came into the season, there were a number of new faces on the roster, with a handful becoming major contributors early (Oden, Nicolas Batum, Rudy Fernandez). With so much fluctuation from one season to the next, there was obviously a lack of familiarity among some of the players. A lot of these guys were not yet used to playing with each other and didn't know how to play off each other. That help-and-containment defense McMillan was harping on during the training camp wasn't there yet because a bulk of the roster was still figuring out how to play with one another. And while no one on this team is (yet) an elite individual defender, there are enough pieces to make the team a good defensive unit.

Add to the unfamiliarity the fact that Martell Webster (a starter) went down in the preseason and Greg Oden (also a starter) suffered a minor injury in the first game of the season, and there was even more change. Batum has done an outstanding job of stepping into the starting small forward role and becoming one of the team's better defenders in a very short period, routinely drawing the other team's best offensive weapon. Joel Przybilla (averaging eight rebounds and just over a block per game in 23 minutes), another of the better Blazer defenders, has gone from starting the season on the bench, back to starting, and now back to the second unit.

With the return of Oden and new familiarity of the team, opponents are having an even harder time getting points in the paint (the Blazers average 5.6 blocks per game) and second-chance points (the Blazers lead the league limiting opponents rebounds) and the Blazers are in the top 10 statistically in limiting opponents' assists. *Clarification from Casey Holdahl, of trailblazers.com: "Blazers play at the slowest pace in the NBA at 88.9 possessions per game, which is why our opponents don't get as many assists or rebounds." For more on the numbers game, check this post.

But what seems to be the main reason for the improvement is that this team's comfort level is extremely high right now. The Blazers are comfortable with how they are playing on both ends of the floor. There's finally some continuity in the rotation and guys are getting used to each other. Comfort and confidence. There's always room for improvement, more steals, creating more turnovers, but such a quick improvement defensively is encouraging.

Stan Van Gundy high on Kevin Durant

2008-12-11T20:01:00.000-08:00

What will Kevin Durant be like when he grows into his body?

Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy predicts Durant, who faces Van Gundy and the Magic tonight at Amway Arena, will be a nightmare.

"The key to being great in this league is you have a defined game of what you do well and continue to do it better and better,” Van Gundy said. "Will he become a better post-up player? Yeah. But if he’s spending all his time trying to become a low-post guy, honestly, I think he’s spending his time the wrong way.”

Van Gundy agrees Durant must improve weaknesses to reach All-Star status. But Van Gundy’s witnessed a similar transformation with his center, Dwight Howard, a beast inside who critics said needed to expand his shooting range.

Now in his fifth year in the NBA, Howard’s steady improvement earned him a spot on Team USA. He is an MVP candidate. But Howard’s forte is, and always will be, a dominant inside presence. Get Howard 15-feet away from the goal too often, and Van Gundy says you’re not playing to his strengths.

Same goes for Durant, who needs to improve his inside game, defense and rebounding. But Van Gundy is such a huge Durant fan that he’s puzzled why critics are quick to pick apart the 20-year-old small forward.

"He’s unique,” Van Gundy said. "I don’t think we’ve ever had anybody in the league that size playing the perimeter. He’s as big as most people’s 4’s (power forwards) and 5’s (centers) but plays on the perimeter. And he is so talented with the ball.

"With his size he can get a good shot almost every time, and there’s not a whole lot you can do. You try the best you can to take away easy baskets. You try to get back in transition and try not to foul him too much and send him to the line. Then you hope he doesn’t make seven or eight jump shots in a row.”

Van Gundy said Atlanta’s Joe Johnson is the closest to Durant’s physical attributes, but Johnson is two inches shorter.

"And Joe Johnson doesn’t have the wing span Durant has, someone who height-wise is a legitimate-sized NBA center,” Van Gundy said. "Not bulk-wise but his wing span. (Durant) will continue to get stronger. But his body is never going to look like LeBron James.”

When Scott Brooks took over as interim coach, his first move was to move Durant to small forward, in large part to help him defensively.

During Brooks’ six-game tenure, Durant has averaged 24.7 points. Under P.J. Carlesimo, Durant was averaging 21.1 after scoring 20.3 to earn Rookie of the Year honors.

"That’s what I don’t understand,” Van Gundy said. "This is a guy who already is averaging more than 20 points, has all kinds of skills and size and everybody tries to keep finding things he can’t do. His size on the perimeter is unheard of. There’s no telling how good he could be.”

Original Source

Top 10 Photos of 2008

2008-12-09T17:12:00.000-08:00

1. Campaign Reflections

The long hard-fought Presidential campaigns were marked by vast stretches of downtime, like this moment of respite enjoyed by Cindy McCain in a hotel room in Dallas, Texas. As her husband John worked on a speech, TIME photographer Christopher Morris grabbed this shot of her enjoying a glass of white wine.

2. The Phelps Surge

At the Summer Olympics in Beijing, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps held the spotlight, as he pursued a record for gold medals at the Games. On Day 8, he hit the water in search of his seventh win, in the 100M Butterfly. Trailing Serbian Milorad Cavic for most of the race, Phelps (left) caught up with him in the last few meters, miraculously beating him to the wall by .01 second.

3. The Children of Zion

In April, Texas authorities raided the The Yearning for Zion Ranch, home to several hundred members of a breakaway group of polygamist Mormons, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The state, which had received a "tip" that suggested that some of the children living on the compound were the victims of sexual abuse, proceeded to remove hundreds of kids from the Ranch. In June, photographer Stephanie Sinclair was given a rare opportunity to document the daily lives of the sect. In this frame, Teresa Jeffs, 16, a daughter of FLDS founder Warren Jeffs, shows off some of her best trampoline moves in a house they had moved into in New Braunfels, Texas, while the courts sorted through the complex legal issues presented by the case.

4. Line in the Sand

After years of discussion, construction of the $1.2 billion fence on the border of the U.S. and Mexico began in earnest. Engineers projected that 650 miiles of the wall, about one-third the length of the entire border, would be completed by the end of 2008. This section, watched over by agents of the U.S. Border Patrol stretches across the desert near San Luis, Arizona.

5. Washed Away

Iowa was ravaged by floods in June. The rising waters carried these boat houses downstream until they collided with a railroad bridge in Cedar Rapids.

6. Pancaked

Earthquakes in China's Sichuan Province claimed the lives of more than 87,000 people. For several days, emergency workers labored to find survivors in the rubble. This team of rescuers carried a wounded man out of a collapsed building in Mianyang.

7. Untended

Ethnic and nationalist tensions boiled over in South Ossetia in August, as Russia and Georgia fought for control of the separatist enclave. These coffins, containing the bodies of Georgian soldiers killed in the fighting, remained unburied for five days. When TIME photographer Yuri Kozyrev asked a local official why the coffins had not been interred, he was told that no digging equipment was available. Later in the day, he watched backhoes destroy homes that he was told belonged to ethnic Georgians.

8. Masked Man

Fighting returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the fall. Rebels battled government soldiers, above, all across the eastern portion of the country, forcing the relocation of tens of thousands of civilians.

9. Handshake

The United States and Iraq negotiated a new security agreement that foresees the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. In September, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, center, met with reporters at Camp Victory in Baghdad, while a sandstorm swept across the city.

10. Mother and Child

Siamoy, an Afghan woman from remote Badakhshan province in Afghanistan, feeds her one-month old baby. The remote, mountain region has the highest maternity mortality rate in the world.

European Roundup: Jennings Managing Expectations

2008-12-09T00:45:00.000-08:00

In this week's European roundup we take an extended look at the most intriguing storyline in this year's NBA Draft with Rome's Brandon Jennings. Also, the play of 7-3 Mirza Begic, arguably the top center in the Euroleague thus far. The latest African prospect to emerge in Spain is Joventut's Christian Eyenga. Emil Prelzdic and Sergio Llull continue to provide their team with late-game heroics in the Euroleague. Omri Casspi snaps out of his funk. Adriatic League prospects Vladimir Dasic, Nemanja Gordic and Dragan Labovic all love playing in the EuroCup.

Player of the Week: Brandon Jennings

Brandon Jennings seems to be settling into his role in European basketball thus far, to the point that it seems safe to begin preliminarily analyzing how he’s playing. With nine games underneath his belt (five in the Italian league, where Rome is 4-1, and four in the Euroleague, where they stand 3-1), Jennings is averaging 18.5 minutes per game, scoring 8 points on 35% shooting from the field and 31% from beyond the arc, pulling down under 2 rebounds and dishing out 2.35 assists compared with 1.35 turnovers. Not really the stuff legends are made out of, but fairly impressive nonetheless considering what he’s going up against at his age. Numbers are typically not the best way to evaluate players in Europe, and this definitely holds true in this case.

VirtusRoma.it

To fully understand Jennings’ role on his team, you must look at the players that are around him, particularly in the team’s backcourt. Former Ivy League player of the year Ibrahim Jaaber (an athletic, defensive minded player) is the starting point guard for all intents and purposes, while former Villanova and Boston Celtic Allan Ray sees over 20 minutes per game as a combo guard.

The most important backcourt player is clearly Slovenian Sani Becirovic, though, a very aggressive and extremely skilled combo guard who is having easily his best season ever as a pro. Becirovic is averaging 15.5 points per game in just 23 minutes per, shooting outrageous percentages, getting to the line at an amazing rate, playing almost no defense (as usual), and doing a fair amount of ball-handling in most minutes he’s on the floor. He has the green light to do basically whatever he pleases on this team, and he can seemingly do no wrong this season thus far.

Alongside them we find the 19-year old rookie Jennings, sometimes coming off the bench (typically for the 2nd and 3rd quarters), at times getting the starting nod, but rarely a major focal point in the offense. This is quite normal considering the quality of players around him (big men Andre Hutson and Primoz Brezec are both major back to the basket threats) and the level of competition Rome competes at. As Jennings gains more experience and earns the trust of the very patient coaching staff led by Croatian Jasmin Repesa, he may feel more comfortable showing his full array of talent.

Right now, Jennings appears to be at his best receiving outlet passes and pushing the ball up the floor in transition. His outstanding combination of speed and ball-handling skills make him absolutely impossible to contain in the open floor, and he is able to change the tempo of the game immediately by turning a defensive rebound into an easy basket.

Another positive impact Jennings is making is with his shooting stroke, which appears to have major potential down the road. He does a very good job spotting up on the wing in catch and shoot situations, looking quite reliable with his feet set, while he can also make some shots off the dribble as well, although his accuracy drops significantly in the process.

As Jennings earns more trust from Repesa, we see the coach letting him get more involved in pick and roll situations in half-court sets. Jennings has great potential here too, as he turns the corner on screens with a tremendous burst of speed, and has the court vision to find the open man rolling to the basket with terrific flair and creativity. He’s shown some terrific sparks of talent with his passing ability at times, having the added benefit of being left-handed, and already being featured on some highlight reels thanks to the flashy assists he can dish out.

Where Jennings has struggled at times is in his ability to get to the basket and finish strong against contact in half-court situations. His lack of strength hurts him here, as he is not the toughest or most physical player around and seems to have trouble operating in the very crowded paint that Europe is famous for, not getting much love from the referees in the process.

He seems to be settling way too much for perimeter jumpers in turn, which helps explain the very poor percentages he’s shooting from the field (35%) and beyond the arc (31%). He has a tendency to pull-up off the dribble early in the shot-clock while fading-away awkwardly for no particular reason, adding a significant degree of difficulty to an already difficult shot. He can certainly make shots of this nature, but not at a high enough percentage to justify taking them.

Jennings’ shot-selection and overall decision making are still a work in progress in general, which is not a surprise considering his age, even if the talent he displays is undeniable. He needs to do a better job of valuing possessions and not getting careless with the ball, as he doesn’t always read what the defense gives him and tends to struggle with things like managing the shot-clock and controlling tempo. Occasionally you’ll still catch him looking more concerned with making a flashy play over a more simple one, but for the most part he looks very focused and willing to learn, and is definitely making strides from week to week.

VirtusRoma.it

Defensively, Jennings is making noticeable strides, but still has room to improve. On one hand, he seems to be putting a pretty good effort into his man to man defense, showing really nice lateral quickness staying in front of his man and better fundamentals than we saw in the past. On the other hand, he lacks significant strength and seems to get pushed off the ball far too easily, having a difficult time getting around screens as well. His team defense is definitely a work in progress, as he looks a bit lackadaisical staying aware of where the ball is on the floor, and is not showing the greatest hustle going after loose balls or trying to help out on the glass.

Even though Jennings has been fairly up and down early in the season thus far (particularly in the Italian league, where he has struggled badly at times), its hard not to come away impressed by how he’s fared, all things considered. He walked into a very difficult situation and seems to be making the best of it thus far, holding his own against hostile crowds and tough gyms in places like Vitoria, Berlin and Ljubljana. There is absolutely no question that he will become a significantly better player from the experience he’s gaining every day, as he’s competing at an incredibly high level under an outstanding coach and is being allowed to latitude to learn from his mistakes.

Jennings looks to have the makings of a very high draft pick at the moment, even if it is very early in the season. We will have to wait and see how he progresses over the next few months, but the early returns look pretty promising.

Follow Brandon Jennings’ advanced stats throughout the season in both the Euroleague and Italian League on his DX stat page.

Looking Beyond the Draft

Begic Blossoming for Olimpija

One of the most pleasant surprises and notable performers thus far in the Euroleague is Slovenian center Mirza Begic. Not long ago a marginal draft prospect -he actually went undrafted in 2007- he’s developing into an extremely productive big man (averaging 16 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks in 23 minutes in the Euroleague), showcasing the kind of back-to-the-basket skills that are so rare to find nowadays among big men.

There’s no wonder that Begic’s most intriguing abilities revolve around his low-post game. Begic takes advantage of his superb length, showing solid footwork, body control and consistently connecting on his hook shots (preferably with his right hand). Certainly not a hustler or a banger, he doesn’t avoid contact down low, showing good hands to catch the ball, a good feel for the game, and decent quickness executing his moves. When you package all these abilities in a 7-3 body, you know he’s going to do some serious damage.

Still fairly skinny, much of the progress he has enjoyed as of late is consequence of his body development, as he looks now visibly stronger, which allows him to take contact and operate much more comfortably around the basket. Besides, despite his great size he can get off the floor or run the court reasonably well, even if his limited quickness emerges as one of his shortcomings on the defensive end (the biggest one might be a certain degree of softness). Anyway, he’s a solid rebounder, a fairly intimidating presence on the paint thanks to his length.

We’ll see how the season unfolds for Begic. Despite his Euroleague achievements, his performance at the Adriatic League appears to be significantly less consistent. He’s always carried a rep for being somewhat of an underachiever throughout his career, as he reportedly is not the most enthusiastic worker around, so it will be interesting to see if he can maintain his extremely hot start. Anyway, if he shows some solidity in his outings, chances are he won’t be playing for Olimpija next season, as someone will throw significant money his way in the search for quality size on the paint. In fact, considering that his contract is up this summer, there is some talk that he may be bought out by a rich team in Spain or Russia this season already. And if he keeps developing, the NBA is not out of the question.

Quick Hitters

-The African Wave stays alive in Spain. One of the last imports made his debut in the Euroleague this past week, and answers by the name of Christian Eyenga. He only stayed on the court for a few minutes, but he plays regularly for Joventut’s related LEB Silver team Prat, where we had the chance to watch him. Unlike most of his continent mates crossing the Mediterranean, Eyenga is not an inside player, but a small forward. Born in 1989, he’s a very athletic guy, listed at 6-5, even if he looks more like 6-6. He enjoys a nice wingspan, shows a nicely built body, not bulky, but ripped and pretty strong, good enough to clash against the veterans he faces on a weekly basis in the Spanish third division (LEB Silver).

Eyenga doesn’t particularly stand out for his skills or basketball IQ. Still, he can knock down three-pointers, even if his high-released jumper is pretty inconsistent (he struggles finding balance in the air to ignite a fluid release). He also shows a very nice first step to beat his opponents off the dribble -although he lacks the ball-handling skills to change directions reliably- and he shows decent criteria passing the ball. At least, he seems aware of what he can do on the court. Defensively, he’s pretty intimidating, and regularly collects spectacular blocks. Still, he sometimes relies too much on his athleticism while defending, not properly doing his job on the ground.

Not likely to develop into a big-time prospect, Eyenga’s athleticism makes him moderately intriguing as a defensive-oriented small forward (who plays bigger than his size) with –hopefully- a decent outside stroke.

-For the second straight week, it was Slovenian forward Emil Prelzdic the one making huge plays for Fenerbahce Ulker in a dramatic winning effort. The 21 year-old had another big outing, coming up with 18 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists in a double-overtime victory over Olimpija Ljubljana. The 6-9 Prelzdic is impressing with his ability to handle the ball, make plays for himself and others, and play multiple positions in Fenerbahce’s offense. His shooting stroke remains streaky and he really didn’t look like much of a defender in certain possessions today, but there is no question that he is deserving of an extensive look sometime soon.

-Another young hero in the Euroleague today was Sergio Llull, who sparked his team back from a 5-point deficit with a minute to go to help Real Madrid defeat Armani Jeans Milano. Llull’s energy, defense and aggressiveness were huge keys. With Raul Lopez again on the shelf, Llull had 11 points and 4 assists in 24 minutes.

-After three disappointing outings in which he was basically a non-factor, Omri Casspi finally had his first good Euroleague game of the season today in a blowout loss against Olympiakos, scoring 16 points in 18 minutes after getting the nod to open in the starting five. Casspi has received little to no credit from new Maccabi Tel Aviv coach Effi Birenboim in the Euroleague thus far, but a shakeup was probably in order considering how poorly his team has performed in virtually every match they’ve played this season. This was supposed to be Casspi’s coming out party this season, after removing his name from the draft last June while despite being considered a borderline first round pick. This week started off well for him with a solid 19-point in 22 minute performance in the Israeli league against Nahariya, and he will attempt to build off his first good Euroleague game next week at home against Unicaja Malaga.

-Following up on last week’s post about Vladimir Dasic, Nemanja Gordic and Buducnost’s surprising result against Turkish power Galatasaray in Istanbul, we should mention that the return game of the EuroCup qualifier was barely a contest, as Buducnost embarrassed Galatasaray 93-62 at home in Montenegro. Gordic and Dasic both scored 16 points each. That win puts Buducnost in the Group stage of the EuroCup now, alongside Czech club Nymburk, Serbian club Hemofarm and Spanish side Bilbao, which is quite a manageable draw. Gordic and Dasic will now enjoy the exposure of competing twice a week in both the Adriatic League and EuroCup, which is a nice bonus for them. They are both overdue for write-ups on this site, which is likely to happen within the next few weeks as we continue to evaluate them.

-Also qualifying for the group stage of the EuroCup is Serbian club FMP Zeleznik, who managed to knock off Ural Great from Russia in the second qualifying stage, after disposing of MyGuide Amsterdam in the first. The star of the team thus far has clearly been 6-9 power forward Dragan Labovic, who is averaging 21 points per game in their four EuroCup games this season. Labovic has been scoring right around 20 points per game in the Adriatic league as well, which qualifies him as the league’s #1 overall scorer. Even though he doesn’t enjoy the same potential as some of his International counterparts, it’s hard to ignore the production he’s delivering on a weekly basis.

Original Source : DraftExpress

Top 10 Gadgets Of 2008

2008-12-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

1. Optoma Pico PK-101

Of all the gadgets on this list, this is the one that James Bond is most likely to carry. That is, it's the coolest gadget of the year. It's a pocket projector — meaning you plug the 4.1-inch gizmo into your iPod or iPhone, and it projects your movies on a wall, or even on the seat back in front of you on the plane. It displays images crisply on a surface as close as 8 inches away and as distant as 8 feet away, even in daylight. The super-bright Pico weighs 4 ounces and is smaller than many cell phones. Two cautionary notes: The sound output is dinky, so you'll want to use it with headphones, which makes it less fun for the whole family, or an external speaker, which makes it bulky. (Or, see the FoxL Bluetooth Speaker, at No. 5 on this list). And the rechargeable battery lasts 1.5 hours. Luckily, it ships with two. Price: $399

2. Mitsubishi LaserVue 65-inch HDTV

If you've got several thousand dollars to blow on a TV, chances are you've also got all kinds of other ways to entertain yourself. But this is, quite simply, the best TV money can buy. The first HDTV to use lasers for its display, the LaserVue has a wider gamut of color than any TV on the market — a palette that rivals films in movie theaters — and consumes two-thirds less electricity than similar-sized LCD and Plasma HDTVs. Price: $7,000

3. Apple iPhone 3G

It doesn't handle email as well as the cheapest BlackBerry, and as a telephone, it's no better than most cell phones. But this is the gadget that launched the era of mobile computing, and what an epoch that promises to be! With 10,000 free and paid applications, tethered to on-board GPS and utilizing an array of sensors that include a motion-sensing accelerometer, what can't the iPhone do? Price: $199

4. Nikon D90

It's a single-lens reflex camera! It's a single-lens HD video camera! It's two digital cameras in one, and that's what makes this the first camera you should consider if you're ready for a hefty upgrade. With a set of features that will please the most demanding of photo prosumers, the D90 does it all. Price: $1,200

5. FoxL Bluetooth Speaker

It's a pocket-sized Bluetooth speaker for your MP3 player and a hands-free communication system for your car. Critics love the FoxL speaker, which, though no bigger than an eyeglasses case, transmits sound that's rich enough to please a cranky audiophile. Wirelessly tether it to your cell phone, take it along in the car, and a built-in microphone allows you to handle phone calls on the road. (Note: The Bluetooth streaming feature works on any A2DP-compatible device; Apple has not turned on the protocol for the iPhone so you need to use a standard audio cable.) Price: $249

6. Sennheiser MX W1 Wireless Headphones

Five hundred shekels is a lot to lay out for headphones. But these babies are worth it. The ear buds deliver Kleer Corporation's patented, uncompressed sound, wirelessly. (You attach a transmitter, smaller than a deck of cards, to your sound source — an iPod, TV, stereo or anything else with an out jack — then synch the earbuds.) The earbuds and transmitter come in a pocket-sized case that will recharge the unit three times when you're on the road. Price: $499

7. Flip MinoHD

This iPod-sized camcorder shoots high-definition video. That means you get an image crisp enough to view on your HDTV, which is a pretty cool feat in such a small, easy-to-use package. Mino's product line stresses one-button simplicity, and the MinoHD comes with its own editing software on board. The first time you connect it to your Mac or PC — via a flip-out USB plug — you install the software, which automatically lets you post your videos to YouTube and other places. The bitty viddy has 4 GB of internal memory, or enough for about an hour of video, and an internal rechargeable battery that provides two hours of shooting time. Price: $230

8. Kindle

Amazon unveiled its digital-book reading device at the end of 2007, but in such small quantities that you couldn't really get one until 2008. While it definitely takes some getting used to — the awkward placement of the page-forward and page-back buttons makes it easy for newbies to lose their place — this is simply a terrific tool for people who love to read books. Travelers will especially enjoy the luxury of taking a veritable library on the road, and the Kindle can connect to a high-speed cellular network that delivers books ($9.99, even for new titles) on demand. Price: $359

9. Roku Netflix Box

If you've got a Netflix account, the decision to buy this is a no-brainer. Connect the Roku box to your TV and it automatically finds your home's Wi-Fi network and you're good to go. It streams 12,000 movies and TV shows for free and you can hold on to them as long as you want. Netflix is constantly adding more programming. One day, video-on-demand streaming through devices like the Roku box will completely replace DVDs. Price: $99, plus Netflix subscription

10. Sony Playstation "Home" for PS3

After a number of launch delays, Sony's virtual world, "Home," gives folks one more reason to buy its pricey PS3 video game console. Users create their own human-looking avatar and get a virtual apartment near the "town square," a base of operations from which to socialize, play games and purchase an endless variety of Sony goods and services (think games, movies, music and more.) A cross between Second Life and the Sims, the service shows the promise of a commercial Metaverse. Price: free

Original Source: TIME

Looking for a commitment? Try these Blazers

2008-10-14T02:29:00.000-07:00

The Portland Trail Blazers are about to put one of the world's oldest quandaries into play: should you value looks or personality?

Uncommitted basketball fans who fell in love with the dazzling Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors are single again. Those squads aren't the way they used to be. The Suns are now Shaquille O'Neal in the low post, not Mike D'Antoni on the sideline, frantically waving them down court. Steve Nash is another year older and gone are the days when they averaged 111 points per game.

Golden State lost Baron Davis, is missing Monta Ellis and added Corey Maggette, whose weapon of choice is the free throw.

And there are the Blazers, sitting alone at the bar, inviting your attention. They're young and don't have any baggage. They flirted with you last year, when they won 13 consecutive games in December and looked like playoff material before fading in the second half of the season. Now they have a little more experience and a lot more talent with Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez -- their two main acquisitions from the summer of 2007 -- finally in uniform.

But they won't be running nonstop into your heart. They'd rather take it a little more slowly.

Their best player and leader, Brandon Roy, admits that he plays an old man game and their coach says he wants the emphasis this season to be on defense. They're not trying to give the scoreboard operators carpal tunnel syndrome. They won't do anything wild and crazy to get attention. This isn't "Flavor of Love" or "I Love New York."

"We're not going to really woo you," Roy says. "But we're going to be a little bit more exciting this year. We're young, and people kind of want to cheer for the young team."

Not just the young team, the nice team. People crave good guys, athletes you can root for without explanation or apology. After too many headlines dominated by Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Pacman Jones, isn't it time for a squad like the Trail Blazers?

You won't find so much as a scowl in their locker room. They play ping-pong together and take group trips to the movies. They're involved in the community, not a threat to it.

And if any city in America deserved this crop of kids, it's Portland. This is the city that suffered through Isaiah Rider, Gary Trent, Zach Randolph and the worst of Rasheed Wallace. (The low point was captured in this 2001 Sports Illustrated article, which was accompanied by a photo of disinterested Portland players ignoring kids and talking on their cell phones during a community outreach event.)

Blazers fan Arri Maskell said he used to check The Oregonian's Web site every day for news of the team, telling himself, "I hope nobody got arrested today."

General manager Kevin Pritchard has purged all of the bad guys and in the process assembled one of the most talented rosters in the NBA.

It's already won over the locals. The night before the limited amount of single-game tickets available (about 500 per game) went on sale, Fans camped out, Krzyzewskiville-style. They bought about 6,000 tickets in the first day.

Fans in line struck up impromptu conversations and couldn't contain their excitement.

"God, I'm so excited for our team," one fan told a stranger standing next to him. "We're coming back. We're coming back with a bang."

Army private Nathan Emery was back in town from Iraq for 21 nights. He bought tickets to spend two of those nights at the Rose Garden watching Blazers exhibition games.

"To me, it's remembering the good old days," Emery said. "I'm 29 now, so I remember Terry Porter and Clyde Drexler and all that. Seeing these young guys get up, they're really trying now. It's nice to see them back in it."

In a place as small as Portland, there's no way for the players to escape the fan frenzy. They're the biggest names in town.

"It's crazy," Roy said. "I never felt excitement like this for a season. We had our fan fest, there were like 12,000 people in there. Not just how many people, it was the energy."

The fans are already acting like it's the playoffs. True story: They were chanting "De-fense" in the second quarter of the first exhibition game.

That's the same message coach Nate McMillan is trying to sell to his team.

"Our attitude, the focus is on the defensive end of the floor," he said. "Getting better defensively, and offensively trying to establish a post game. We want to go inside. We're going to take advantage of that. That was one of the things we didn't do last year, was get points in the paint.

"We're not going to walk the ball up the floor, but we're not going to run-and-gun. We want to run, and if there's nothing there, we want to execute a half-court offense establishing a low-post presence. We feel we have that this year. It's fundamental basketball."

Fundamental basketball is for the people who would rather read the book than watch the movie adaptation. And if you like the fundamentals, you'll like this team. It plays intelligently and unselfishly. No one's obsessed with touches or shots. The focus is on making the best play every time down the court, a tone set by Roy.

They have just about every component you could ask for: low-post defenders in Oden and backup Joel Przybilla. An up-and-coming power forward in LaMarcus Aldridge, who could be even more effective now that Oden's around to handle the big-boy work. Fernandez provides the fun factor, whether he's making slick passes or throwing down alley-oops from Sergio Rodriguez.

The Blazers improved by an average of 10 victories per season in McMillan's second and third seasons. Another 10 W's in Season 4 would get them to 51, which would have enabled them to sneak into the playoffs with the eighth spot in last season's ultra-competitive Western Conference.

They won't be sneaking around on anyone this season, not with everybody talking about them as the league's up-and-coming team. It's a dangerous combination of inexperience and expectations -- people expect them to make the playoffs, even though only two of their top players (Przyzbilla and Steve Blake) have ever played in the playoffs.

"We have some young talented players with potential," McMillan said. "But right now it's potential. What we have to do is put them out there and allow them to grow, allow them to blossom and build with this group."

In other words, the Blazers might not make your jaw drop right away. Give them time. This could turn into a long-term relationship.

Peugeot HYmotion3 Compressor Concept combines C1, MP3 and Prius tech to create most advanced scooter ever

2008-10-06T20:48:00.000-07:00

The BMW C1's safety cage brought it an unprecedented level of crash safety. The Piaggio MP3's two front wheels bring it unprecedented levels of stability. The Toyota Prius's hybrid powertrain brings it unprecedented levels of fuel economy and low emissions. The new Peugeot Hymotion3 Compressor Concept -- presented today at the Paris Motor Show -- improves on the technology of all three to create the most stupefyingly high-tech scooter of all time. Of course, it does more than just adapt other people's innovations. Did we mention it has three-wheel drive?

On the C1, riders were kept safe and dry inside a steel safety cage, but the passenger was left out in the cold -- literally, the rider had heat vents -- forced to ride behind the cage on a little jump seat. The HYmotion3 makes room for a passenger inside its safety cell; even incorporating natty grab handles into the integrated roll bars.

The Toyota Prius (and the Honda Insight before it) uses an electric/gasoline hybrid powertrain. The HYmotion3 does the same. Although here it's only regenerative braking and not the engine, that recharges the batteries. It can still run in electric only mode at low speeds, just like the Prius, but unlike the Toyota, the Peugeot locates its electric motors inside the front wheels, meaning there are no packaging compromises.

Those in-wheel electric motors, each capable of producing 4bhp, power the front wheels independently of each other and the gasoline driven rear wheel. Everything is kept in check by the ride-by-wire system. Where the MP3's front wheels merely serve to eliminate the possibility of front-end washout and to improve braking distances, the HYmotion3 uses its to increase performance, allowing more power to be delivered to the road earlier in corners through all three wheels being driven simultaneously.

The main source of motivation is a supercharged 125cc engine with 20bhp (that's a lot for a four-stroke 125). Combined with the electric motors, that means there's a maximum of 29bhp on tap. This means the HYmotion3 has equivalent performance to 400cc rivals. Combine that with a stop/start engine that turns itself off when stationary and fires up instantaneously when it's time to pull away and you have a machine that's not only capable of out-cornering a traditional two-wheeled scooter in any weather while carrying two occupants in car-like safety, but one that's able to do all of the above while delivering 118mpg.

Right now the HYmotion3 is just a concept, but Peugeot is one of the biggest scooter makers in the world. Selling most of its machines in the European market, where there's high demand for large, practical scooters and other fuel-efficient vehicles, the company is uniquely placed to bring a machine with the HYmotion3's capability to production. Let's hope it does so.

One Day in the Life of Isiah Thomas

2008-10-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

Gone, but nowhere near forgotten, Isiah Thomas still occupies our hearts and minds, if not an MSG office. Russ Bengtson imagines Zeke’s post-Knicks life.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Russ Bengtson
Special guest appearance by Jake Appleman*.

Last week, Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn passed away at the age of 89. His most well-known works, The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, exposed many to the grim life of inmates in mid-20th century Soviet labor camps. For a time, Solzhenitsyn was one of them.

While I have never spent any time in a Soviet labor camp (and given the dissolution of the Soviet Union I never will—score!), I did attend a preposterous number of Knicks games during the Isiah Thomas era. Like Mr. Solzhenitsyn, I endured my share of suffering. And like Mr. Solzhenitsyn, I choose to purge those memories through writing.

Isiah has been out of the news lately, deposed but not forgotten. We can merely speculate—or in this case fantasize—about his day-to-day activities. So with apologies to the late Mr. Solzhenitsyn, I present One Day in the Life of Isiah Thomas:

9:14 a.m. Alarm goes off.

9:17 a.m. Hits snooze.

9:27 a.m. Alarm goes off.

9:29 a.m. Gets up.

9:33 a.m. Places blocked call to Marbury residence. Gets machine. Adopts high-pitched voice. “Hey Steph, nice head tattoo. Is that your IQ?” Hangs up. Giggles.

9:36 a.m. Takes shower.

9:43 a.m. Makes breakfast.

9:44 a.m. Ruins breakfast.

9:45 a.m. Sexually harasses toaster.

10:06 a.m. Falls asleep on couch.

10:27 a.m. Dreams of trading Eddy Curry, David Lee, Wilson Chandler and eight first-round picks for Shaquille O’Neal, Boris Diaw and Steve Nash. Phone hand twitches.

10:49 a.m. Dreams of f*cking a marketing executive b*tch.

11:46 a.m. Wakes up in cold sweat screaming “DON’T EAT HIM, JEROME, HE’S GOT A GUARANTEED CONTRACT!”

12:01 p.m. Sexually harasses television.

12:14 p.m. Heads into city for lunch.

1:38 p.m. Spends entire midlevel exception on meal. Calls Jim Dolan (“the whiskered one”) to officially make it a business lunch. No one picks up—of course, it’s before 7 p.m. Bills Knicks anyway.

1:52 p.m. Drives by Madison Square Garden. Yells “FIRE ISIAH” out window just to see if anyone notices. They don’t.

2:27 p.m. Runs out of gas three miles from house.

2:36 p.m. Arrives home.

2:43 p.m. Makes popcorn.

2:44 p.m. Burns popcorn.

2:45 p.m. Sexually harasses popcorn maker.

3:13 p.m. Puts in highlight DVD of Knicks tenure.

3:17 p.m. Finishes watching entire DVD.

3:24 p.m. Hires 12-year-old neighborhood kid to mow lawn for next three summers. Agrees to pay him $3.2 million.

*3:27 p.m.: Sends Marbury text message that reads, “the D in Duhon stands for Defense.”

3:37 p.m. Stands and watches with lips pursed as kid mows over flowers, newspaper, cat. Gets rid of him after paying him the full amount. Since the newspaper still contained the sports section, this is a business expense. Bills Knicks.

3:46 p.m. Receives response from Marbury: “What the f*ck is a Chris Duhon?”

3:58 p.m. Edits Wikipedia entry on “bitch.”

4:02 p.m. Flips past Brazilian soccer match on Fox Soccer. Satisfies international scouting duty for week.

4:04 p.m. Sexually harasses couch.

4:14 p.m. Calls Joe Dumars. No answer.

4:16 p.m. Calls Rick Mahorn. No answer.

4:18 p.m. Calls Bill Laimbeer. No answer.

4:20 p.m. Calls John Salley. No answer.

4:22 p.m. Calls Vinnie Johnson. No answer.

4:24 p.m. Calls Chuck Nevitt. Hangs up after one ring.

4:26 p.m. Picks up Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success

4:27 p.m. Puts down Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success

4:28 p.m. Picks up dictionary, looks up “pyramid”.

4:36 p.m. Drives to Costco.

4:48 p.m. Looks in vain for “Bulk Max Contracts.”

4:52 p.m. Sexually harasses shopping cart.

5:06 p.m. Buys 67-inch flatscreen, Playstation 3, NBA Live 2009, case of Cool Ranch Doritos.

5:47 p.m. Hooks up PS3. Undoes Renaldo Balkman trade, swaps Gallinari for D.J. White, trades Marbury for Jermaine O’Neal. Plays game against Celtics, loses 168-3. Blames Sony.

*6:12 p.m. Forges letter to David Lee, in which he, as Donnie Walsh, threatens to make Lee a “space year compensation” player and blast him into orbit.

6:36 p.m. Updates resume. Submits to Monster.

7:10 p.m. Heads back to city for dinner.

8:12 p.m. Goes to Waverly Inn, gets booed.

9:33 p.m. Drives to practice facility by mistake.

10:17 p.m. Arrives home.

10:42 p.m. Attempts to prank call Michael Jordan. Realizes Jordan gave him wrong number. Hangs up.

10:44 p.m. Looks at own Basketball Reference page.

10:46 p.m. Sexually harasses computer.

11:13 p.m. Pours glass of water.

11:14 p.m. Spills glass of water.

11:15 p.m. Blames someone else.

11:26 p.m. Brushes teeth.

11:30 p.m. Checks smile in mirror.

11:33 p.m. Sexually harasses self.

11:34 p.m. Breaks gaze away.

11:35 p.m. Looks back.

11:48 p.m. Picks out suit for next day.

11:52 p.m. Realizes he doesn’t need to wear suit anymore.

12:06 a.m. Turns on Home Shopping Network.

12:12 a.m. Orders $36,000 worth of Bad Boys Pistons memorabilia. Bills Knicks.

12:21 a.m. Calls Spike Lee to pitch movie on Knicks tenure.. No answer.

12:23 a.m. Calls Woody Allen to pitch movie on Knicks tenure. Allen agrees only if he can cast Scarlett Johannson as Anucha Browne Sanders. Thomas agrees only if he can be cast as himself. Allen hangs up.

12:31 a.m. Calls Michael Bay to pitch movie on Knicks tenure. Makes multi-million dollar deal.

12:33 a.m. Calls Fred Jones. Signs him to multi-million dollar personal service contract.

12:37 a.m. Goes to sleep fully content. He’d had many strokes of luck that day.

Original article : [SlamOnline]

Dramatic Draping at Salvatore Ferragamo Spring 2009

2008-09-26T01:54:00.000-07:00

A model walks the runway during the Salvatore Ferragamo fashion show at Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2009 on September 23, 2008 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images Europe)
The Salvatore Ferragamo Spring 2009 exhibition at the Milan Fashion Week was marked by dramatic elegance. Models swathed in expertly cinched and pleated fabrics swept the stage, some of their bodies completely concealed beneath yards of luxurious fabrics in the season's hottest colors--fuschia, as above, and lime green.
Most of the designs in the collection are asymmetrical and elegantly draped, emphasizing the wearer's shape by the way the fabric falls.

original

French Fried

2008-09-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

The Frederic Weis Story.

by Matt Caputo

When all was said and done, the New York Knicks needed nine years and a guy named Patrick Ewing to rid their organization of Frederic Weis. But when they acquired the son of their former franchise player yesterday for the rights to Weis, who never played a day in the NBA, the team took it’s biggest step toward erasing a draft choice that some New Yorkers still believe might have cursed their troubled NBA squad. Without ever suiting-up, Weis became one of the most talked about draft picks in Knicks history because of who the team didn’t select in his place.

At 7-foot-2, Weis’ game was only beginning to grow into his massive frame when the Knicks took him with the 15th pick in the 1999 draft. He’d played well in the top professional league in France, his native country, the year before he was picked. Weis averaged 13 plus points and 7 plus rebounds in the 98-99 season. Although he’d sustained a back injury at the end of the season, Weis appeared to be making the right progress toward being in the NBA.

The Knicks were coming off a run to the championship in the labor dispute shortened season. After 50 games and a record of 27-23, the Knicks hung around the playoffs long enough to be beaten by the Spurs in the Finals. The series gave David Robinson his first title and kept Patrick Ewing Sr. that much further away from the chip that had eluded him his entire career. Although it was a short season, the Knicks were on a high and their position in the draft was only going to help them.

1999 was a solid draft that did birth a few stars. Elton Brand, Baron Davis, Lamar Odom, Jason Terry, Shawn Marion and Richard Hamilton are among some of the top players to come from via the ‘99 draft. However that same draft class included William Avery, Leon Smith, Trajan Langdon and Aleksandar Radojevic, who are numbered among several others who didn’t pan out in the League.

When it came to the 15th pick, the Knicks still had options. The typical objection of Knick fans was that the team didn’t take local beast Ron Artest. However, James Posey, Devean George, Andrei Kirilenko and Manu Ginobili, who was not selected until second to very last pick, were all still in the player pool waiting to hear their names called.

At the time, the Knicks were so high on Weis they felt he was too good to be floating around Europe another year. Even Weis himself wasn’t sure he was ready. He didn’t play well in Summer League and earned the nickname “French Toast” in the process.

Weis was a no-show at Summer League in 2000. He chose instead to be forever posterized in the hearts and minds of hoop fans everywhere at the Sydney Olympics. Vince Carter didn’t so much as dunk on the Frenchman as he did totally leap over him with a blatant disregard. It was like Weis wasn’t even there.

After the 1999 NBA Summer League, Weis went home and played in the French ProA league, but his numbers dropped a bunch. He signed a two-year contract worth $1.3 million to play in Greece in 2000, but left after only five games. He has played the majority of his career in Spain having never averaged 10 points or 10 rebounds in a season since being drafted by the Knicks.

Weis made an unexpected return to the French National Team in 2007 to help them through EuroBasket’07. Although the French finished 8th, he did play alongside Tony Park, Ronnie Turiaf and Boris Diaw, providing tough post defense. Aside for being totally humiliated by Vince Carter, he helped France to a Silver Medal finish at the 2000 Olympics. So, in all fairness, Weis has played fairly well in International competition and his strong defense and massive post presence might not always show up in stats.

Ewing Jr., 6-8, 240-pounds, was taken by Sacramento with the 43rd pick in the 2008 draft. He was traded to the Rockets on Aug. 14 as part of a multi-player deal. A 24-year-old Boston native, Ewing Jr. played his first two collegiate seasons at Indiana University before transferring to Georgetown. As a senior, Ewing averaged 6.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 34 games, winning the Big East Sixth Man of the Year award.

The Knicks acquisition of “Young Ewing” probably won’t make or break their playoff chances. But if the kid makes the team it might be another reason to leave the game on this season, seeing as going to a Knicks game is out of the question. As it is likely that Ewing Jr. knows he’s got some work to do before he fills his father’s uniform, especially considering he’s a bit shorter than his dad, Knicks rookie Danilo Gallinari, an Italian import via first round draft pick, can take a lesson from this trade. The last thing the Knicks need right now is another Frederic Weis.

the original source:
slamonline.com/online/2008/08/french-fried/

North Carolina's talented class leads the way

2008-09-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

The fall signing period for college basketball, Nov. 12-19, is about three months away, and we are on the brink of college coaches' fall contact period, which begins Sept. 9 and extends through Oct. 5. So players' verbal commitments could really start multiplying.

Already, 60 players in the 2009 ESPNU 100 have chosen their future college. Of those players who have made their decisions, 14 of them are ranked in the top 30 and 27 are in the top 50.

Only three of the top 15 prospects, however, have decided where they'll attend college. These highly rated and still-undecided players, including the top two prospects, 6-6 G/F Xavier Henry, and 6-9 PF Derrick Favors, could significantly impact the final positioning of the 2009 fall recruiting classes.

Although these current recruiting rankings undoubtedly will change during the coming months, we thought it timely to revise and update the pre-summer recruiting list from May. North Carolina, with commitments from five players in the ESPNU top 50, retains the No. 1 spot.

Villanova, with a recent commitment from one of the nation's top sleepers, No. 27 6-9 C/F Mouphtaou Yarou (Woodstock, Va./Massanutten Military Academy), vaulted to No. 2. Three of its recruits are ranked in the top 35. Georgetown, Texas A&M and Marquette complete the top five current classes.

ESPN.com's top 10 recruiting classes

Chris Johnson/Reebok

John Henson is the No. 3 prospect in the ESPNU 150.

1. North Carolina, five verbal commitments

The Tar Heels struck early and assembled a highly talented class with five top 50 players who could make up a formidable team. This group is headed by No. 3 prospect power forward John Henson, who recently moved with his family to Tampa, Fla. He will play his senior year at Sickles High School. Henson had a tremendous summer, after which he made a considerable jump in the player rankings, and he has unlimited potential as he adds strength and weight. Other top newcomers for coach Roy Williams are No. 19 prospect Dexter Strickland (Elizabeth, N.J./ St. Patrick), a 6-3 combo guard; No. 25, 6-5 guard Leslie McDonald (Eads, Tenn./ Briarcrest Christian); and the highly skilled Wear twins, No. 49 David Wear and No. 50 Travis Wear (Santa Ana, Calif./ Mater Dei). The Tar Heels could lock up the top recruiting ranking if they can get No. 12 prospect, 6-9 forward Ryan Kelly (Raleigh, N.C./ Ravenscroft).

2. Villanova, three verbal commits

Coach Jay Wright's Wildcats ascended to No. 2 by securing commitments from three players among the top 35, led by No. 22 Maalik Wayns (Philadelphia/ Roman Catholic). The 6-footer projects as the consummate future floor leader at Villanova. The Wildcats also have Yarou, a native of of Benin, Africa, who emerged as one of the nation's best power players this summer; and No. 31 Isaiah Armwood (Rockville, Md./ Montrose Christian), a versatile 6-8 P/WF. Villanova could challenge North Carolina for top honors if it lands No. 11 Dominic Cheek (Jersey City, N.J./ St. Anthony) -- a sweet-shooting, 6-6 guard -- and No. 33, 6-10 C Aaric Murray (Concordville, Pa./ Glen Mills).

3. Georgetown, three verbal commits

Coach John Thompson III and the Hoyas have a strong three-member class of two ESPNU 100 players and one of the nation's top prep school talents. Six-foot-8 PF Chris Braswell (Chatham, Va./ Hargrave Military Academy) was a 2008 Hoyas signee, but he did not achieve the academic requirements to enroll at Georgetown this fall and will spend next year as a postgraduate player at Hargrave Military. Braswell, a force inside, will be one of the top-rated prep school players. The Hoyas also have No. 32 DaShonte Riley (Beverly Hills, Mich./ Detroit Country Day), a talented but inconsistent 6-10 C/F, and No. 75, gifted 6-7 WF Hollis Thompson (Los Angeles, Calif./ Loyola). Several highly ranked prospects are considering Georgetown, so it could advance in the final rankings.

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Les Bentley for ESPN.com

Is Dashonte Riley going to be Georgetown's next great center?

4. Texas A&M, three verbal commits

Coach Mark Turgeon and his hard-working staff continued their outstanding recruiting success for the Aggies; Texas A&M has received commitments from three ESPNU 100 players. They are No. 59 Naji Hibbert (Hyattsville, Md./ DeMatha), a multitalented 6-5 2G, No. 64 Khris Middleton (Charleston, S.C./ Porter Gaud), a high-scoring 6-6 WF, and No. 87Kourtney Roberson (Acadia, La.), a powerful inside operative.

5. Marquette, three verbal commits

New head coach Buzz Williams has recruited well since replacing Tom Crean at Marquette. The Golden Eagles already have three ESPNU 100 recruits and are looking to add more. Marquette's class is headlined by Junior Cadougan (originally from Toronto, but attending classes at the Christian Life Center in Humble, Texas). The 6-1 Cadougan was one of the top point guards on the summer circuit. No. 76 Jeronne Maymon (Madison, Wis./ Madison Memorial), a 6-7 power forward, is the state's second-best player. Six-foot-7 WF Erik Williams (Cypress, Texas/ Cypress Springs) is ranked No. 97.

6. N.C. State, three verbal commitments

Coach Sidney Lowe has again landed recruits from the talent-rich state of Georgia; among them are two ESPNU 100 players. Lorenzo Brown (Roswell, Ga./ Centennial), No. 48, can play both backcourt positions, and 6-8 PF Richard Howell (Marietta, Ga./ Wheeler), rated No. 58, will join him in North Carolina. Howell played on the same travel team as N.C. State's freshman standout of last year, J. J. Hickson, who was drafted by the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. Howell has the potential to make an impact comparable to that of Hickson for the Wolfpack next year. Coach Lowe also has a commitment from one of the nation's best perimeter shooters, potential ESPNU 100 prospect 6-5 2G Scott Wood (Marion, Ind.). Although the Wolfpack now have players for all three of their available scholarships, they are still involved in talks with No. 81, 6-5 G/F Garrius Adams (Apex, N.C./ Middle Creek).

7. Connecticut, two verbal commits

Coach Jim Calhoun and the Huskies have received commitments from two players in the top 40. One of the top big men of the summer, No. 20 6-8 PF Alex Oriakhi (Tilton, N.H./ The Tilton School), is headed to Storrs. Joining him will be his high school teammate, No. 38 Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, who's a versatile, high-scoring wing. UConn will move up if the Huskies can close on any of the highly rated targets they are pursuing.

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Kelly Kline for ESPN.com

Erik Murphy is athletic enough to play in Florida's up-tempo system.

8. Florida, two verbal commits

You can always count on coach Billy Donovan to have a nationally ranked recruiting class, and this year is no exception. The Gators now have commitments from No. 24, 6-10 PF Erik Murphy (Southborough, Mass./ St. Mark's School) and No. 36, 6-10 C/F DeShawn Painter (Chatham, Va./ Hargrave Military Academy). Murphy is one of the most talented all-around big men in the nation. He is a perfect fit for Donovan's playing style. Painter is a superb athlete, but he must get stronger. If the Gators can grab shooting star 6-3 2G Kenny Boynton (Plantation, Fla./ American Heritage), who is ranked No. 13, their class could move up to No. 2.

9. Georgia Tech, four commits

Coach Paul Hewitt and his staff have gotten four talented recruits, including two ESPNU 100 players. The group is led by No. 41 Kammeon Holsey (Sparta, Ga./ Hancock Central), a versatile 6-8 forward, and No. 47 Mfon Udofia (Lithonia, Ga./ Miller Grove), a hard-nosed, 6-3 combo guard. The Yellow Jackets also have commitments from two other nationally ranked players, 6-5 G/F Glen Rice Jr. (Marietta, Ga./ Walton) and hot-shooting 6-6 WF Brian Oliver (New Castle, Del./ William Penn). Georgia Tech appears to be one of the top schools for No. 2 prospect Derrick Favors (Atlanta, Ga./ South Atlanta). The Yellow Jackets could challenge for top honors if they add Favors.

10. Illinois, four verbal commits

Based on our revised ESPNU 100, the Illini fell from the No. 2 spot to No. 10. Coach Bruce Weber now has two ESPNU 100 commitments -- No. 56, guard D.J. Richardson, who will attend Henderson, Nev./Findlay Prep for his senior year and No. 69, 6-9 PF Tyler Griffey (Wildwood, Mo./ Lafayette). Both Richardson and Griffey had outstanding performances in July and could elevate in the final player ratings. Illinois signed two other highly regarded backcourt players, 6-4 Brandon Paul (Gurnee, Ill./ Warren), who could turn out to be the Illini's top recruit next year, and 6-3 combo guard Joe Bertrand (Sterling, Ill.).

Honorable mentions

Louisville, three verbal commits

Once again, coach Rick Pitino and his Cardinals will have a highly ranked recruiting class. Louisville now has two ESPNU 100 players. No. 28 Peyton Siva (Seattle/ Franklin) is a tough, talented point guard. Athletic big man Rakeem Buckles (Opa-Locka, Fla./ Monsignor Pace), ranked No. 74, is well-suited for the team's style of play. The Cardinals also have gotten unranked sharpshooter, 6-5 2G Mike Marra (Northfield, Mass./ Northfield-Mount Hermon). Do not be surprised if Coach Pitino adds more talent to this class.

Oklahoma, three verbal commitments

Coach Jeff Capel's Sooners have three commitments, including two ESPNU 100 players. No. 37, point guard Tommy Mason-Griffin (Mouth of Wilson, Va./ Oak Hill Academy) is the Sooners' top recruit. He is joined by No. 92, 6-5 G/F Steven Pledger (Chesapeake, Va./ Atlantic Shores Christian); and unranked, but productive, 6-9 PF/C Kyle Hardrick (Norman, Okla.). Mason-Griffin is a strong, compact, spark plug lead guard who stood out against the nation's top point guards in July. He will be an outstanding future floor leader for the Sooners.

Other programs that could rank in the top 25:

Arizona (3 verbals), Arizona State (2), Auburn (2), Baylor (2), Clemson (3), Duke (1), Indiana (4), Iowa (2), Kansas State (2), Kentucky (2), Memphis (2), Michigan (2), Michigan State (2), New Mexico (3), Oklahoma State (3), Pittsburgh (2), Purdue (4), Southern California (2), UAB (2), UCLA (2), UNLV (4), Virginia (2), Virginia Tech (4), West Virginia (3), Wisconsin (2) Rutgers (2) and St. John's (2)

Position rankings: TOP 10 Centers

2008-09-19T02:31:00.001-07:00

Dwight Howard is a long, long way from reaching his lofty goal of being one of the best to ever play the game, but he certainly is pointed in the right direction.

At age 22, Howard already is the best center in the NBA as he prepares for his fifth season with the Orlando Magic, who are building their franchise and their future hopes around him. At a time when his position's prominence in the game has diminished, Howard has risen to the top with a rare combination of power and athleticism, showing just a hint of how dominating a great center can be. His breakout season -- a league-leading 14.2 rebounds, along with 20.7 points and 2.1 blocks -- might be only a preview, merely a tip of his vast potential. While most of the contenders are banking on perimeter play to carry them, Howard will show that his position has not grown obsolete or insignificant.

Here are the top 10 centers in the NBA, based on players' projected impact on the 2008-09 season:

1. Dwight Howard, Orlando:

Howard still has plenty of room and time to grow as an NBA star. The Superman cape he unveiled last All-Star Weekend might not be too much of a stretch. He should start leaping tall buildings soon, eager to continue expanding his game. The Magic have no excuse if they can't build a serious contender around this inside force.

2. Yao Ming, Houston:

It's time for Yao to start acting and playing like a former No. 1 pick and lead the Rockets deep into the playoffs. With both Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest alongside him, there should be no reason why Yao can't get the Rockets past any of the Western contenders.

3. Andrew Bynum, Los Angeles Lakers:

After missing all the playoff fun last season, Bynum could either disrupt what the Lakers had or put them over the top. Now going into his fourth season (directly from high school), he has shown some enormous talent. His trick will be making it fit on a team that reached the NBA Finals without him.

4. Shaquille O'Neal, Phoenix:

Sure, he has slowed considerably. He is not as hungry anymore, but he still is a dominating presence around the basket. He is counting down the days to retirement, but if Shaq takes his conditioning seriously, the Suns will give him a chance to add one more championship ring before he leaves the game. And that could motivate him this season.

5. Marcus Camby, Los Angeles Clippers:
It's hard to ask for anything more than 13.1 rebounds and 3.6 blocks a game from a center, which still makes Camby valuable, even if Denver didn't want him anymore. From a fantasy perspective, his value will go down when he has to share the lane with Chris Kaman. Together, they should give the Clips a defensive presence.

6. Andrew Bogut, Milwaukee:
Another former No. 1 pick who has been viewed as a disappointment because expectations were too high. Won't ever be a star, but he can be more than adequate. Watch for new coach Scott Skiles to ramp him up a notch. If he can raise his intensity level, Bogut can help bring the Bucks back to respectability.

7. Tyson Chandler, New Orleans:
Although their point guard gets all the credit, the Hornets would not be a contender without Chandler, who has begun to shine after a slow start in Chicago. He needs to block more shots, but averaging a double-double (11.8 ppg and 11.7 rpg) makes him comfortable in his role. Should score a little more this season.

8. Greg Oden, Portland:

He missed all of last season after being the No. 1 pick in the draft, but he will join the league now with a vengeance, making sure his presence is felt. The year off will relieve the pressure of being a No. 1 pick, making his debut season even more impressive.

9. Chris Kaman, Los Angeles Clippers:

His role looks a little uncertain with Marcus Camby on the roster, but that doesn't take away from a career season. Kaman averaged 15.7 points, 12.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocks with Elton Brand on the sideline. If Baron Davis will pass him the ball, Kaman will score, but it's unlikely he will get the opportunities he had last season

10. Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Cleveland:

His toughest assignment is making sure he stays out of the way of LeBron James. Ilgauskas' skills have eroded, but he still can hit the open jumper, make a good pass and guard the slower centers in the league. He needs lots of help trying to guard the younger centers.

'3 Points' shows basketball's Tracy McGrady's African aid journey

2008-09-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

Josh Rothstein

On a visit documented in “3 Points,” basketballer Tracy McGrady walks with an African boy.

He helps the poorest of the poor as he visits refugee camps.

Basketball all-star Tracy McGrady certainly enjoys a good life. "Am I spoiled?" he asks. "Yes, I'm spoiled."

McGrady's first paycheck came from Adidas in a $500,000 endorsement deal, and his first job was playing in the NBA. The Houston Rockets guard/forward lives in a mansion, has no shortage of jewelry and clothes, and flies on private planes.

Unlike so many professional athletes, though, McGrady chose to leave all such luxuries behind and see firsthand how the world's least fortunate survive. His riches-to-rags journey is chronicled in the new documentary, “3 Points,” an account of McGrady's visit last year to three African refugee camps.

Africa's genocidal crisis, sparked by a civil war between Sudan's Arab leaders and the country's ethnic Africans in its Darfur region, has triggered any number of documentary films, including George Clooney's "Sand and Sorrow," Don Cheadle's "Darfur Now" and former Marine Brian Steidle's "The Devil Came on Horseback."

But few of those films have at their center as compelling a chronicler as McGrady, who travels to Africa “3 Points,” openly admitting he knows next to nothing about what's going on in Darfur.

His honest reactions

"I had no clue what genocide was, and I'm still learning about it," he says in the film before he travels to refugee camps in eastern Chad. "I really don't know what I am going to see."

Teammate Dikembe Mutombo helped spark McGrady's concern for Africa's dispossessed. McGrady contributed to a Congolese hospital Mutombo opened last summer, and soon thereafter McGrady saw Luol Deng (a Chicago Bulls player whose family is Sudanese) talking about the steep cost of the civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of Sudanese.

McGrady organized a visit, working with documentary filmmaker and photographer Josh Rothstein and humanitarian John Prendergast of the Enough Project. Yet it's not simply what McGrady observes during his trip that anchors "3 Points," which was just completed and is now in search of a broadcast or theatrical distributor. Rather, it's how he reacts to the tragedy that he witnesses: He doesn't really know what to do.

After encountering children playing soccer without a field, McGrady says he'll pay $1,000 for a new pitch only to be told that green grass isn't really the refugees' greatest need.

"A lot of the film has to deal with his being out of his element," says Rothstein. "And he realized that was maybe the most important part of the trip for him."

McGrady's journey was both personal and emotional. To visit the barren camps, he had to forsake any number of usual niceties. That included McGrady's having to sleep in a tent for the first time. His trying to get along without air conditioning. Eating food that wasn't prepared in a four-star restaurant. As McGrady's wife, CleRenda Harris, notes in the film, "Tracy is definitely stepping out of his comfort zone."

But it wasn't all such trivial concerns. He had to worry about land mines. Listen to stories of rape, murder, torture. And his eyes were quickly opened.

Precisely because he is not an expert in Sudanese politics, the 29-year-old McGrady can serve as a conduit for the audience. He may be supreme on the court, but he's like almost everyone else when it comes to the outside world: He's unsure of what's going on.

"People are really hesitant about expressing that they don't know something -- but what's the big deal?" McGrady says in an interview to discuss the film. "I'm not ashamed about that at all. And my going out and saying, 'I don't know a lot about this' will make people feel OK that they don't know about it, either."

Adds his longtime manager and assistant, Elissa Grabow, who accompanied McGrady on his Africa trip: "This is not to market his brand. It's not about that, but about what I don't know, and that I am not afraid to say that I don't know."

"By the end of my trip," McGrady says, "I started to realize what they really needed -- and that's schools." When he returned to the United States, McGrady decided to try to help build them.

Others in the game

So this week, McGrady is taking his film to -- and asking for more donations from -- players in the National Basketball Assn., which is helping to show "3 Points" to teams. (In addition to the long-range field goal, the movie's title refers to three strategies to fight genocide: peace, protection and punishment.) The goal is to raise awareness and money; players who, like McGrady, contribute $75,000 can build a new school in a camp, train teachers and purchase educational supplies.

McGrady has enlisted his Florida high school as a sister school to a new school in Chad, the first of which is to be built later this year. So far, Grabow says, six NBA players have made donations, including Derek Fisher and Jermaine O'Neal.

"Some of the players need to be educated," McGrady says. "But some of them are caring guys, know that something has to be done and are willing to help."

Taking Bad Names To The Next Level ,Bad Signs

2008-09-16T02:11:00.000-07:00

Choose Your Fonts Carefully

But can you clean my blouse?

How do they answer the phone?

I hope it's not a school crossing!

Oh...so that's where it is

You have been warned

A service I'd like to find in more places

Look Out Neiman Marcus!

YES! These actually exist!!!

Seems Bea be pimpin'

Where do they keep the swings?

Yes you are.

Maybe the Eagles are going to win the Super Bowl

Not much of a line forming

...and you can get fu-king take out.

Oh...OK

Are men this bad?

So this is where you get it done.

Sssshhhhh!

...use headlight at night.

I wonder how they got that tang in their chicken.

Someone has to be the best

my favorite Top 10 Movies of the 90’s

2008-09-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

For those who grew up in the 90’s, I’m sure you miss everything about that decade. The grunge music and fashion are definitive of the decade. Everyone was wearing plaid shirts with torn jeans and muddy Chucks while listening to Nirvana in their walkman. To remind you more of those glorious years,add these DVDs to your collection.

1. Dazed and Confused (1993). No other film captured high school like this film did. While freshmen face fear of the painful and humiliating initiation, seniors make the most of their last days by trying to get high, drunk and laid.

2. Clerks (1994). This undeniably hilarious work gave us the unforgettable line “I’m not even supposed to be here!” With Smith’s first movie, we came to know two iconic stoners – Jay and Silent Bob. If you haven’t seen this movie, stop reading this and get your copy now.

3. Forrest Gump (1994). Who was not moved by this movie? Tom Hanks did a remarkable job playing the mentally challenged but very much adored Forrest Gump.

4. Pulp Fiction (1994). If there’s one thing Quentin Tarantino is great at, it’s putting violence on screen. If you dig stories of hit men and mobs, watch this classic.

5. Romeo + Juliet (1996). You cannot go wrong with the most romantic story of all time. Baz Luhrmann took a brave step in putting this Shakespeare story in a contemporary setting while keeping the poetic dialogue. A work of genius.

6. Scream (1996). After this movie came out, everyone went crazy about serial killer films! Watch this and you’ll surely feel nostalgic of the 90’s.

7. There’s Something About Mary (1998). This is simply hilarious. Who does not remember Cameron Diaz taking off “hair gel” from Ben Stiller’s ear and putting it on her hair?

8. American Beauty (1999). Lots of great movies came out in 1999. One of the best is American Beauty. Depressed with mid-life crisis, Lester (Kevin Spacey) gets tangled in a lot of issues.

9. Fight Club (1999). From the masterpiece novel of Chuck Palahniuk comes a great film adaptation. Everyone dreams of having Tyler Durden’s eccentric but violent character.

10. Dogma (1999). Another work from Kevin Smith, Dogma is both funny and satirical. Definitely a must-have in your DVD collection.

After the Olympics, Yi Arrives

2008-09-11T02:44:00.000-07:00

East Rutherford, NJ — Yi Jianlian hasn’t gotten much rest these past 12 months.

After the Milwaukee Bucks drafted Yi with the sixth pick in 2007, the 20-year-old forward arrived just in time for training camp, battled through a rookie season that started strong before it ended early with an knee injury, was traded to the New Jersey Nets on Draft day 2008 and competed for the Chinese National Team at the Olympics in Beijing.

Yi has had 10 days off, but after a 13-hour flight to the United States, a sleepless night and his first practice, he’s a little tired.

“I feel I’m able to take a breath now,” Yi said. “I was preparing for the Olympics for a long time. (I’ve) had enough time to recover and get back to 100 percent.”

The Nets are banking on a healthy Yi, who’s likely to start the season at power forward after coming over with Bobby Simmons in the deal that shipped away Richard Jefferson.

Last season, Yi averaged 8.6 points and 5.2 rebounds in 25 minutes per game for Milwaukee, though the quality of his play arced like a bell curve. He started solidly (9.7 PPG and 5.8 RPG in Nov.) and improved in December (12.1 PPG; 6.6 RPG; .503 field-goal shooting) before fatigue set in. Yi’s scoring declined each month thereafter, a period during which he shot no better than .426. By February, Charlie Villanueva had replaced Yi in the starting lineup.

“I think it’s important to go through these experiences to improve as a player,” said Yi, through a translator (whom he needs occasionally). “That’s part of the whole learning experience.”

Coach Lawrence Frank is looking forward to working with Yi, who he watched during the Olympics. Yi struggled at times – particularly against Team USA – but hit a game-sealing jumper against Germany to push China into the medal round, where they finished eighth. Frank would like Yi to display initiative and assertiveness on the court, and will discuss goals for the sophomore’s season after spending some time with him.

“We’re going to define what we want from him (soon),” Frank said. “We haven’t defined it yet because it’s the first day we’ve been with him. But in due time, we’ll make it very clear what we expected and what we need.”

Yi said he aims to improve his overall play, and feels confident that the early jump on training camp will ready him. Having Simmons around will help ease the transition to New Jersey; the two players became friendly after living in the same area of Milwaukee.

Yi’s not worried about developing on-court camaraderie with his new teammates, pointing out they’re all professionals and there’s plenty of time left before the Oct. 29 opener in Washington.

“I came earlier this year to practice with the team and had time to meet my teammates,” Yi said. “I have more time to settle in and have a better transition than last year. I think the situation this year is much, much better.”

Rockets retire ‘It’s Time’ to run with ‘Get Red’

2008-09-09T01:36:00.000-07:00

The Houston Rockets have drafted a fresh slogan for the new season. “Get Red” has been recruited to replace “It’s Time,” which is being retired after one year.

All things red stood out in a recently conducted brand awareness survey by the National Basketball Association team.

As a result, “Get Red” will be the rookie tagline this week when the Rockets roll out the marketing campaign for the 2008-2009 season. The campaign kicks off Sept. 7 with the first of a series of billboards depicting players melded with a Houston skyline or inside the Toyota Center, dominated by the team’s red uniform color.

Chris Dacey, vice president and chief strategy officer, says the Rockets chose the color theme to promote the team’s distinct brand, ties to the city and emphasize a lively atmosphere at home games.

“Get Red” is a stark contrast to the tagline used during the 2007-2008 season. “It’s Time” made a bold statement suggesting that the team was ready to be a serious playoff contender. Although the Rockets captivated fans during a 22-game winning streak — the second-longest in NBA history — the team was unceremoniously bounced by nemesis Utah Jazz in the first round of the post-season.

Says Dacey: “Any time you come out with a bold statement, it weighs on the perception of the team.”

Higher price expectations

While a sea of red flows through the stands, fans returning for this season will pay more for seats.

Many of the least expensive seats at $10 or $15 in the upper bowl area will be unchanged. So will some of the most expensive club seats at $350. The majority of the price hikes affect midrange seats. For example, the 4,274 seats in the lower bowl priced at either $58 or $70 will now cost $5 more, at $63 and $75, respectively.

With the off-season signing of Ron Artest and the high-profile showing of Rockets players Yao Ming and Luis Scola representing China and Argentina in the Beijing Olympics, the team reports surging season ticket sales — due to even higher expectations for this year’s on-court performance.

Officials say the Rockets are well ahead of last season’s 7,000 in season ticket sales, though they did not divulge the number. A more concrete indication of the team’s surge is the fact that only two of the team’s 91 upper-level suites are vacant at this point, according to Seliece Caldwell, the team’s vice president of ticket sales.

Caldwell says the team is also in the process of building out four new courtside suites previously used as the locker rooms for the Houston Comets women’s basketball team, which moved out of Toyota Center to play at Reliant Arena this year. The existing 14 courtside suites are also sold out for the 2008-2009 season.

The new suites — which sell in a range from $225,000 to $275,000 — include 12 courtside seats and a private bar and lounge.

‘Red-ification’

Dacey says the Rockets’ marketing department will be running a full-court press to hype the “Get Red” theme until the regular season home opener Oct. 29 against Memphis.

Houston players will wear their all-red road game uniforms on opening night to emphasize the point, and Toyota will hand out red Rockets T-shirts to fans — when the team also hopes to set a new Guinness World Records mark for the most people wearing face paint at a game.

More details inside Toyota Center will also be subject to what Dacey describes as a “red-ification” of branding, from the color of plastic drink cups to the color of the Toyota vehicles parked along the concourse.

“We’ll be using the ‘Get Red’ message for everything we do out in the community, and hope it’s reflected with an association with the brand,” says Dacey.

Adam Nisenson, owner and creative director of Active Imagination, a Houston sports marketing and branding firm, says it makes sense for the Rockets to move away from a marketing campaign that makes promises of success, as was the case last season.

“The key to a marketing campaign is that it should last the entire season whether a team is winning or losing,” Nisenson says. “In this city, the main thing is that a campaign has to cut through the clutter. The Rockets season overlaps with pro and college football and all those other entertainment options like the Theater District, so your messaging has to really hit your target audience at a gut level. You’re trying to connect with a fan outside the season-ticket base who might only come once or twice a year.”

SourcingMap Launches New Affiliates Program

2008-09-08T20:44:00.001-07:00

Refer Buyers and Affiliates, Earn $ Commissions
What is a SourcingMap affiliate?
If you refer someone to SourcingMap online, and that person places an order, you get paid 6% commission on that sale. You just need to put your unique link on your web page or in your email and our system will track the referral. There is no limit to how much you can earn in commissions. If the buyer you refer makes a large purchase, you get more commission.
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Do you have multi-tier affiliates?
Yes, we do! We support two-tier affiliates. You can earn money by promoting the Affiliate Program itself.
If someone follows your affiliate link to SourcingMap, and signs up as an affiliate, you will get commission from THEIR referred sales! You will get paid 1% of the order on any sales that they refer. They will be identified as your 2nd tier Affiliate forever. So whenever they get referred sales commission, so do you!
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Plays Well With Others

2008-09-08T01:35:00.000-07:00

The recent Outlaw topic brought up another side discussion that is worth keeping an eye on as this team continues to evolve. There’s emphasis on the word team in that last sentence. For the first time since the walls were torn down to renovate the franchise, we have what I’d call a solid team coming into the season. Not group of hopefuls, not one or two potential stars with a ton of building yet to do, but a real, live team. Part of being a team rather than just a developing farm club is playing not only well, but together. Players will begin to be judged not just on how they excel as individuals, but how they fit in with each other. In that light we’re going to run down the roster today, seeing who will have the easiest time playing with others and who might be more limited.

NBA basketball provides multiple avenues to team play and fitting into a lineup or rotation. Consider:

OFFENSE-- The archetype of a “team” guy offensively is somebody with great passing skills who knows how to set others up. That model is certainly applicable, but there are other approaches to consider. Some players bend the opponent’s defense through their overwhelming offensive capabilities. These are the guys defenders have half an eye on at all times. They mandate near-automatic double teams, thereby freeing up their teammates for easier cuts, drives, and shots. They could be considered an asset to many lineups even though they’re not in the business of passing the ball. Some guys also fit into multiple lineups because of a particular skill. Outside shooting is notable, as it requires defensive attention at all time and makes defenders pay for helping to defend other players.

DEFENSE-- One of the most basic ways to be a great teammate defensively is simply being able to stop your own man. Dominant defenders who control entire areas of the floor are also a boon to their cohorts. When you relieve a teammate of the responsibility of watching your back you allow him to concentrate more on his individual assignment and you make his decisions fewer, and thus easier. Leaky defenders, on the other hand, place burdens on their teammates. Fewer players can be effective beside them. Another defensive asset is court awareness plus the speed and willingness to help your teammates out of a jam.

MISCELLANEOUS-- Some players have strong attributes that allow them to fit with multiple lineups. Being the right size, or even oversized, for your position is one. Being able to play multiple positions is another. Few people mind playing with teammates who can rebound on the defensive end, can stand up to opponents nose-to-nose, or who are willing to scrape their knees diving for loose balls. There’s also something to be said for being able to do your job without having the offense set up for you or the defense set up to cover for you. Extra bonus points for those who create or cover for others.

With these things in mind we’re going to list the Blazers roughly in order of flexibility in terms of team play. Note that this is NOT a measure of overall talent! The “best” players will not necessarily be at the top of the list! This is simply an attempt to delineate each player’s ability to play with a variety of teammates and in a variety of situations. There is no argument here that the best or most effective lineup would be the top five players listed.

Brandon Roy: Brandon Roy’s combination of multi-directional dribbling, shooting, vision, and passing make him fit with any combination you throw out there. While he’s played primarily shooting guard so far he could have the tools to fill multiple positions. He requires so much attention that he guarantees somebody on his side is going to be open. Some might quibble with his need/desire to keep the ball in his hands but you’d have to argue there are few better in the league to possess it. Also he’s plenty unselfish with it, so there’s no harm there. He can also rebound and is willing to do what it takes for the team to win. Part of the reason Coach McMillan finds it so hard to keep Brandon on the bench is that he’s the best fit for nearly every lineup you can draw up.

Steve Blake: Blake ranks high on this list because he is the ultimate team player. He knows how to set up an offense. He knows how and when to pass. He needs zero shots to be effective but he can hit a shot when he’s open. He’s an adequate defender, though his body isn’t built for locking people down. The only blemish on his suitability for any lineup is his relative lack of ability to create his own shot. In critical situations this allows opponents to pay less attention to him, which makes it harder on his teammates. Nevertheless Blake is a guy who can be inserted almost anytime, almost anywhere with success. He’s a good utility player.

Rudy Fernandez: Naturally the discussion of all rookies is speculative, having not seen them play in the NBA. However Rudy has assets that will allow him to blend with multiple lineup configurations. Like Steve Blake he can hit a shot without having to take every one. Unlike Blake he can also get his own shot when needed. He is good when taking over a game but is also capable of laying back. He’s an eager help defender and has the quickness to get to a spot. He has good height and might turn into a scrappy player as well. His weaknesses will be point-of-attack defense and rebounding.

Greg Oden: Oden’s biggest blending asset is going to be his defense. Simply put, everybody is going to love playing with him because he’ll be a one-man wrecking crew watching their backs. “Ooops! I made a mistake and let my guy get by. Coach is gonna…never mind. Nice block, Greg!” Once he gets adjusted to the league the entire paint will be his territory on that end of the court. He’ll be like a bigger, stronger Tim Duncan from the days of his defensive youth. If you remember the days when the Spurs had Duncan and Robinson patrolling the middle nobody went in there. This made them (still makes them) one of the best defensive teams in the league no matter who else they suited up. Blazer teammates will love the “Oden Effect”. Offense may be another story at first. Oden has shown some passing ability but that is among the last skills to develop for NBA big men. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the offense stall after the ball has been entered to Greg while he’s still finding his way. Even so if he hits his shots (or better yet rams it through on a regular basis) he is going to draw double-teams which will make life easier for his cohorts. Once he gets rolling nobody is going to want to play without the big man on the court.

Sergio Rodriguez: Sergio’s love of the pass and his ability to thread it anywhere pulls him fairly far up this list. His teammates already love playing with him on offense even with limited exposure. You cannot fall asleep if the ball is in his hands. His ability to penetrate increases his threat potential. The holes in his game right now are finishing at the rim, hitting the jumper, and defense. Those keep him farther down the list than his game style would otherwise merit. At some point it becomes hard to find a lineup in which he’d be the ideal choice unless you want to forget it and just run.

Lamarcus Aldridge: Lamarcus’ greatest strength is his variety of offensive skills. He’s not shy about putting up a shot and is looking to be the endpoint of the offensive plays he’s involved in rather than a conduit. The thing is, he’s so talented that he will be one of those endpoint players we keep out there. Everybody else (except Roy) who wants to be the play finisher is going to have to get in line. Lamarcus is long and has great perimeter defensive skills for his size. If the Blazer defense is designed for him to help he should be good at it. Still, he’ll likely be less of a true team guy just because of his disposition. You can’t put him out there without giving him the ball if you want to see his greatest strengths. Defensive rebounding could also be an issue if he doesn’t have a front-line beast rebounder to protect him.

Joel Przybilla: Joel’s defense and rebounding are his calling cards. His ability to block shots cleans up a lot of backcourt mistakes. He’s capable of getting defensive boards in droves and is clearly the Blazers’ best glass cleaner until Oden takes his title away. Even more importantly from a team perspective, Joel sets the best picks seen in these parts in ages. Joel has the minor fault of not always being aggressive and impactful enough. His major fault is not being a viable offensive threat. Over the years his minutes have been limited compared to his potential contribution simply because opposing teams don’t need to guard him closely. In some situations that doesn’t matter as much. In others it keeps you from playing him.

Channing Frye: Channing’s mid-range jumper lets you use him out to 20 feet. He doesn’t have to handle the ball or dominate it to hit his shot. This makes him fairly versatile on the offensive end. His rebounding came around towards the end of last season but still needs to be shown consistently. He’s neither a bruiser nor an interior defender, so he needs to be paired with someone strong in the middle in order to be most effective.

Jerryd Bayless: Jerryd’s biggest asset in terms of lineup suitability appears to be his hard-nosed play and willingness to do what it takes to win. In Summer League his stand-still jumper looked spotty until the game was on the line, then he drained a couple of threes like he was making pancakes on Sunday morning. He is willing to take contact and can stay in front of his man. How much he can share the ball or be effective without it in his hands remains to be seen. If his gritty offensive play translates into a willingness to go all-out for loose balls and take no crap from opponents (and if he can pass a little) he could rocket up this chart.

Travis Outlaw: Travis is another one of those guys who can bend the game with his offensive skills. He is guaranteed to be able to get a shot up anywhere, anytime on anyone. Though he has excelled in critical moments he’s still a relative novice to them, but if he continues his crunch-time heroics opponents will be forced to throw double-teams at him, making him even a greater asset. When he gets an angle for the weak-side or from-the-back block Outlaw can also be a champion at help defense. His length and leaping ability let him cover space quickly. He’s still working on his overall game, though, even on offense. He seldom passes the ball and really needs to dominate with his scoring in order to make the lineup better at this point.

Martell Webster: Martell’s outside shooting is his ticket to playing time at this point. We saw last season how James Jones could fit with a variety of lineups because he never missed beyond the arc. Martell is not that consistent yet but his shooting can still spread the defense. He added a few thunderous dunks and improved defensive effort to his repertoire last season, which was to the good. Every skill he develops makes him more useful. However even with all of that he has a tendency to fade when not give a steady diet of shots. Plus he’s either going to take those shots or make a bail-out pass. He’s not skilled at directly making his teammates better. Unlike Outlaw he needs a fair amount of help himself in the form of screens or set-up passes in order to prosecute his offense.

I have not included Raef LaFrentz, Ike Diogu, or Nicolas Batum on this list. Raef is a veteran who will give his all no matter where he’s inserted but is unlikely to see non-emergency playing time. Ike has been injured and there’s no telling how he’ll come back. His rebounding and physical abilities would be an asset to most lineups. Nicolas is not going to see the light of day for a while.

Obviously you need a variety of talents and styles to make a team. You can’t put five pure set-up men out there any more than you could put five ball-dominating scorers. But all other things being equal (keeping in mind that often they’re not, as a single, overwhelming skill can often trump a variety of lesser skills), the guys at the top of this list are going to give their coaches more options as to when and how to play them.

Utah Jazz: An experience good as gold

2008-09-07T23:56:00.000-07:00

Deron Williams was so excited about one particular souvenir he picked up while on a recent business trip in China, he didn't let it out of his sight during his 24-hour-long return flight to Utah.

And, FYI, this souvenir wasn't one of the ones he enjoyed bartering for while visiting the Great Wall.

It was, of course, the Olympic gold medal he won with Team USA in Sunday's epic international battle against Spain.

"I wore it the whole trip home," Williams admitted, "just because I didn't want to lose it."

Or stop admiring it.

Still a bit jet-lagged and definitely still basking in Olympic glory and pride, the Utah Jazz point guard took some time out of his suddenly wide-open schedule Thursday to show off his newly acquired prize possession he obtained in Asia, and to share a few memories of his adventures as a contributing member of the mission-accomplished "Redeem Team."

Williams' favorite Beijing experience was his team's grand finale, which ended when he, Carlos Boozer and 10 other American basketball stars stood atop the Olympic podium, received gold medals and soaked in every note of the national anthem while the world watched.

That golden moment not only capped off what he and the U.S. hoops team did over the summer, but it was one of the greatest basketball moments of Williams' life.

"It was real special," he said.

Making it all the more special for Williams was the fact that winning the Olympic tournament also marked the first time in his career — on any level — that his team won a championship. He came close at Illinois, losing in the NCAA championship game, and then advanced to the Western Conference Finals with the Jazz two seasons ago before getting eliminated a round too early.

"It was just a great experience for me," Williams said. "Playing against the competition we did in the Olympics, it was just a great experience — a great way to spend the summer, basketball wise and personal wise."

Though he enjoyed China, Williams didn't do many touristy things. He learned how to say "hi" and "thank you" in Mandarin, but he admitted to not eating outside of the hotel except for visits to the California Pizza Kitchen and Tony Roma's in Shanghai.

Williams reluctantly took a trip to the Great Wall but was thankful he did afterward — in part because of the enormity of the world wonder and partly because he got a kick out of trying to make deals with the locals on trinkets.

"Once I got up there and saw how special it was and to think about how many people died building that and how it big it was, it was just amazing that that could be man-made," he said. " It was a great experience for me. I'm glad I went."

Many of Williams' favorite Olympic memories revolve around interactions he had with American athletes — from Boozer and the rest of this teammates to time spent with participants such as Michael Phelps — he's excited about a picture he got taken with him and Chris Paul — and Utah beach volleyball player Jake Gibb to watching events like women's hoops and beach volleyball.

"We respect every other athlete out there," he said. "Maybe we're more recognizable than a lot of people, but we recognize them and their talents and respect what they do."

Williams didn't start, but he played his way into the U.S. three-point-guard rotation, even getting time at the shooting guard position. During the Olympics, he averaged 19 minutes, eight points and just under three assists per game while splitting time with Paul and starter Jason Kidd.

Williams is proud of how Team USA players put individual glory and stats on the back burner in the interest of team unity as the squad tried to regain its spot atop the world after only earning bronze in 2004.

Defense, he said, was their "greatest asset."

"It was all about the benefit of the team and about the USA on the front of our jerseys and not the names on the back," he said.

As for his future plans, Williams said he'd love to keep his summer schedules clear for 2010 and 2012, when international play heats up again.

"If you asked me right now, I said, 'Yeah, I want to play,"' he said. "If they want me back, I'm there."

Williams, however, has two bigger priorities for the immediate future. He needs to find a safe spot for his gold medal, and he needs "to get caught up on my sleep."

funny pics

2008-09-05T02:42:00.000-07:00

lol, heres some more

lol, heres some more

iPhone 3G Craze

2008-09-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

The iPhone 3G has been selling out across the country, leaving Apple Stores trying refill their inventories and satisfy customers. Even though the iPhone 3G has been out for a while, customers are still waiting hours in line for a chance to buy the new iPhone.

The latest iPhone product from Apple is actually a marvel, a unique beautiful design with lots and lots of functions and applications. This great new product is already making waves with many retail sales outlets, both online and offline

The 3G iPhone is better when compared with original iPhone. It is more sophisticated with a sleekly design. Moreover, it fits perfectly into the user's palm because of its curved back. the most talked about differences are the speed of the internet and the quality of the GPS and map software. The 3G technology that is in the new iPhone is certainly a key feature to make this an improvement to the original, with the sluggish browsing speeds and downloads being a chore being a huge low point for the original iPhone.

Often, many use cell phone accessories to make their phone truly unique. Even with all of the variety there is, some still like to do something to make their iPhone look different from everyone else's. Before the release of the iPhones 3G, it was already making a huge noise. People expects great things about it. Now are you have already got some iPhone 3G Accessories?

There are a variety of less essential iPhone 3G Accessories that have been released, and no doubt there will be an ever increasing list of similar to what was seen for the incredibly popular iPod.

Apple Stores and most other consumer electronics specialty shops carry these. Do a careful search at an online auction site, such as eBay, and you may find them there, too. It's a great time to personalize your iPhone by choosing any accessories that suit your personality and lifestyle.

Moments Frozen In Time 3rd Part

2008-09-03T00:09:00.000-07:00

Moments Frozen In Time is going to be a regular theme here.It will contain interesting pictures from the web that captures people, animals and things in interesting moments in time. Here’s a 3rd part of Moments Frozen in Time.

You guys named this bird “The DrillBird”

Are you rubbing it or jumping over?

Did she pushed him or did he fall by himself?

Is this photoshoped? I think it is.

Aaawwwww…the fish is so beautiful.

I don’t think he’s going to make it.

Back wheelie in the mud. Not something everybody can do.

Do dogs eat plants?

Here we go….ups, direct into the mouth.

Triple front flip with broken leg.

If you tilt your head it looks like a flower.

The Future of Team USA

2008-08-29T00:06:00.000-07:00

Redemption. It is so sweet. It means all the world in 2008.

But does it mean that the United States is once again established as clearly the best basketball team in the world?

Not so fast. If we learned anything in that thriller of a gold medal game, it's that the competition is excellent, and no team will waltz to any titles. Proving you're the best, in a global basketball environment, means proving you're the best again and again.

Ironically underscoring that point is the reality that after this summer's stellar performance the U.S. has dropped to second in FIBA's bizarre world rankings, which account for several years' performance.

So, when you look ahead, what can you see? What does the team look like down the road? What have we learned?

2010, not 2012
It amazes even those who are involved in Team USA itself. American fans, for some reason or another, refuse to believe that anything other than the Olympics could be the pinnacle of international basketball. But the people who work in international basketball, and fans in most of the world ... they prefer FIBA's World Championships. You know how in soccer the World Cup is head and shoulders above the Olympic title? It's almost like that in basketball.

The world championships has a larger number of teams and a much longer single-elimination portion of the tournament. It's a tougher tournament to win. So when you're looking down the road at the future of Team USA, don't look all the way to London in 2012. Look first at 2010 in Turkey. Even if it does not yet mean more to you, then at least consider this: If Team USA can win in 2010, they get a free pass to London in 2012. And that would mean training camp and exhibition games in the summer of 2011, instead of must-win qualifying games. Aging superstars, worried about their NBA careers, like light summer schedules.

Permanent Team
It's a whole new way of thinking. In the U.S.A., we talk about our national teams by year, as if each is a distinctive entity. 1992 was the Dream Team, 2002 team was the Paul Pierce debacle, 2008 was Redemption.

But did you hear Team USA's braintrust -- executive Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski -- after winning gold? They were in lockstep that the key to victory was not just stellar players, but stellar players who had been playing together for some time.

Indeed, a roster much like this one lost to Greece at the 2006 World Championships.

Think about it, though. That means that this summer was the time to start having the 2010 players playing together. And 2010 would be good time to start working out the 2012 squad. And so and and so on, until it's clearly time to stop thinking of the national team as an annual event. It's a permanent thing. It's the kind of institution that probably ought to actually have a building (beyond, I guess, the Wynn in Las Vegas), and the team has announced that they will have just that in the near future.

Top NBA players all play basketball somewhere in the summers. The idea that Jerry Colangelo has wisely gotten across is that if you're one of the players in his sights, you ought to come to his place and learn to play with those other top players who will have the privilege of representing the nation.

Sure, the roster will be a little different each time around. But changes should be tweaks, not earth-shattering imports of whoever happens to be hot at the moment.

The second trick -- and Colangelo is on the ball here, too -- is to have a much bigger pool of players training than competing every summer. If you have thirty players mastering the art of playing together in training camp, then the injuries, weddings, births, and national team retirements that could draw a player or two away unexpectedly are easier to deal with.

Along those lines, on USA Basketball's website, the current national team roster is Carmelo Anthony, Gilbert Arenas, Shane Battier, Chauncey Billups, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Bruce Bowen, Elton Brand, Kobe Bryant, Tyson Chandler, Nick Collison, Kevin Durant, Kirk Hinrich, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Antawn Jamison, Joe Johnson, Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, Brad Miller, Mike Miller, Adam Morrison, Greg Oden, Lamar Odom, Chris Paul, Paul Pierce, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, J.J. Redick, Luke Ridnour, Amare Stoudemire, Dwyane Wade, Deron Williams.

Now, of course they only got to take a dozen of those guys to Beijing, but I like the idea that all these players are still part of the team. But if you're wondering who might be on Team USA in the future, that list is a good inspiration, as those players have all been through some or all of the training.

Another list to look at is the team of young players who were invited to scrimmage against Team USA in Las Vegas this summer. That team included LaMarcus Aldridge, Jerryd Bayless, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Luther Head, Al Horford, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Love, Kevin Martin, O.J. Mayo, Derrick Rose, and Rodney Stuckey.

Big-Time Commitment from a Coach
At times, in recent years, I have thought it might make sense to hire a top coach to just coach Team USA. That coach could spend his long offseason getting to know his roster, and the competition, better. He could also put some time into spreading the gospel of national team basketball to fans, corporate sponsors, and players. Make the team stand for something.

And then, when the players come available in the summer, that coach would be more than ready to hit the ground running. The players may arrive with flagging energy levels after 100 NBA games. But the coach would be fresh as a daisy, ready supply the wholesale enthusiasm that is required to win single elimination tournaments.

A good NBA coach, on the other hand -- one that sees action in the playoffs -- is ready for a month of naps by the end of June.

I suspect that's part of the reason a college coach was chosen this time around. If a full-time national team coach is too expensive a proposition, a college coach is a nice compromise. Not only do they have longer offseasons, but they also have that rah-rah high-energy approach that you need in a shorter contest.

"I would love to see Tubby Smith, Rick Pitino, Tom Izzo, Roy Williams or Billy Donovan," says ESPN's David Thorpe. "Did you see what Team USA did when they won the gold? They circled up and jumped up and down. I didn't see the Celtics do that when they won the title. But you see college teams do that. It's just a different emotion. In college, and on the national team, you play for a short time together, and keep the energy level high. In the NBA, you play 100 games and wear people down. It's a different meter."

Dreaming about Rosters
So, with all that in mind, who can you expect to have on this team in 2010?

We learned two important, and interlocking, things this summer.

Some of Team USA's youngest players are keepers. Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, and Dwight Howard were all excellent, and all have something to prove. When I think of any team, I think first of point guards and big men, and this roster is blessed with two of each who can more than get the job done. To me figuring out the next four years of this roster is really a question of finding the wings to run alongside these four.
The United States has a big advantage over the rest of the world: Big, strong, long, multitalented wing players. LeBron James is the poster child, but Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant are right there. Carmelo Anthony has played that role. Other national teams will have to think long and hard about how they are going to get more size and athleticism from their wings. It's always good, as a team, when you have your opponents adjusting to what you're doing. So, by all means bring back James, Wade, and Bryant if you can. If any of them are not available, I'd start inviting from a list that includes Kevin Durant, Kevin Martin, Brandon Roy, Shane Battier, and Rodney Stuckey.

Wild card: As we talk about the summer of 2010, don't forget that it's the summer of 2010. As in, the free agency period we have been anticipating forever. At the moment, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, LeBron James and many other top players are scheduled to be free agents that summer. Any of them that does not have a new contract squared away in early July would have a hard time committing to the national team. No way you'd risk getting injured while the biggest contract of your life is in play.

So, without further ado, here are the returning players I'd want to see on Team USA in 2010 and 2012:

Chris Paul: Runner-up for the NBA's MVP award. Good place to start.
Deron Williams: Big, strong guard who can shoot, defend, and win.
LeBron James: No one has any idea how to stop this man.
Dwyane Wade: The revelation of 2008 faces a history of injuries, and free agency in 2010. But if he wants to play, he's welcome on my team.
Kobe Bryant: He's not getting any younger, and he still looks awkward trying to be selfless. But there's no arguing his talent is supreme.
Chris Bosh: The U.S. lost nothing on defense when he was on the floor, and he's very efficient with the dunks and layups that result from all the attention paid to James and Wade.
Dwight Howard: One of the biggest and strongest players in the tournament was also one of the most nimble.

Then I'd add in some players who could help on a long, athletic, multi-talented squad:

Kevin Durant: The very definition of a long multi-talented athlete, and he'll be much better by 2010.
Brandon Roy: If this young All-Star can stay healthy, he can be another powerful multi-skilled wing, and also the third point guard you'd need if someone gets hurt.
Kevin Martin: Remember Michael Redd? Our zone buster? He didn't play much because his defense was low energy. Martin is one of the most efficient shooters in NBA history, and he has the speed and length to thrive in high-energy defense.
Al Horford: A rapidly developing young big man who is a leader, a finisher, and a fine open-court athlete. About the only thing he lacks is an American passport. The Dominican has lived in the U.S. since he was a young child, and has expressed interest in doing the paperwork necessary to join Team USA.
Shane Battier: He demonstrated during Houston's big winning streak that he is the best at stopping elite wing scorers. And he can hit the open shot, all while being a great veteran teammate.

So, that's my twelve.

But of course there is a good chance many won't be available. So waiting in the wings I'd have:

Greg Oden: I would have stuck him on the main team, but for the one little snafu on his record: He has yet to prove he can play one game, let alone 100 or so NBA games. Signing him up for an extra summer season just seems mean, until he has been around a while.
Carmelo Anthony: He has been a major part of this team for so long. And he has talked about missing his child. I'm guessing he might want some time off, which is why he's not the top twelve. But if he wants to play ...
Tyson Chandler One of the best in the league at defending power forwards, he can also handle plenty of centers. On offense, if Chris Paul is there, it always seems like Chandler ought to be, too.
Rodney Stuckey: In his first playoffs, the young Piston guard showed more than enough promise.
Derrick Rose: I say give him a couple of years to get used the next level of the game, then sneak the "next" point guard onto the roster so he's ready to unleash his game on the world in 2012.
Rudy Gay: He's showing all the signs of developing into the kinds of wing player that sets the U.S apart.

Rehashing Why Greg Oden is the Key

2008-08-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

I’m sure I have talked about this once before, but it’s been a while and with all of the talk about the impact of new players and talent depth it’s been on my mind.

Depth, talent, and versatility are important. Those things are valuable in getting through an 82-game grind and positioning yourself for the playoffs. The more arrows you have in your quiver the better chance that some of them will strike home over the long run. However once you get to the playoffs it becomes a different game…not so much about the number of arrows (as the chances to fire are more limited over seven games than eighty-two) but about how accurately you take your best shot and how much damage you do with it.

Fast forward eight months down the road. The Blazers are entering the playoffs for the first time since back in Ought-Three. For fun let’s say it’s against the L*kers. (If you don’t like that, figure instead at some point we’ll have to face them to make it to the promised land.) I guarantee you somewhere--could be a fanpost here, could be another site entirely, might even be in a print publication--somebody is going to offer some version of the following analysis. (I’m using last year’s L.A. roster and foregoing the explanations which would be included.)

Derek Fisher vs. Steve Blake: Push

Kobe Bryant vs. Brandon Roy: Edge L*kers

Lamar Odom vs. Martell Webster: Edge L*kers

Pau Gasol vs. Lamarcus Aldridge: Edge Blazers

Andrew Bynum vs. Greg Oden: Edge Blazers

Bench: Edge Blazers

Blazers have three edges, L*kers have two, Blazers should win.

Sounds logical on paper. Reality doesn’t follow that logic, however. The fly in the ointment is that the NBA playoffs don’t depend on edging out your opponent in more positions as much as they depend on who has the best overall player on the floor. Even in this new, team-game-friendly league the gap that matters most is the superstar gap. You can edge a team out in three or four of six positions (including bench). They’ve got Kobe or Kevin Garnett? They win a lot of seven-game series. That one mismatch weighs more than the others.

The key to playoff success is simple: You have to have a guy on the floor who has the potential to be the best, most dominant player out there on a given night, who fulfills that potential more often than not, and who warps the whole game for both sides when he does fulfill that potential.

Consider Portland’s own history. Back in the late 70’s Maurice Lucas was an all-world player. There weren’t many other power forwards who could stack up to him. Lionel Hollins was a star as well for those couple years. The Blazers also had a renown supporting cast considered one of the most cohesive in team history. But the player who owned the court every night was Bill Walton. In 1976-77 he was healthy and Portland won it all. In 1977-78 he goes down near the end of the season with a foot injury and the Blazers--with that same cast of other stars and supporters--go down in the first round. A decade or so later Terry Porter was a fantastic point guard, Kevin Duckworth an All-Star center, and Buck Williams and Jerome Kersey were feared forwards. That group made your knees shake. But the guy who made the difference was Clyde Drexler. With him that team is a Finals contender. Without him the team is decent, but decent doesn’t win over the long haul in the playoffs.

Fast forward once again to today. Brandon Roy is an incredible leader, a clutch player, an amazing scorer…in many ways he’s the Terry Porter of his time. (Keep in mind that while we think of Terry as a point guard he really shaded towards a hybrid who marked scoring and team leadership among his strongest gifts.) Lamarcus Aldridge is going to become dominant, perhaps as much as Mo Lucas ever was offensively. The young talent surrounding those two has everybody salivating. But Brandon is not going to be Kobe or LeBron. He does have this weird knack of bending the space around him to his will and he will win plenty of games for the Blazers. I’d even go so far as to say he’ll be the game-bending player on many nights. But on a night-to-night basis even if he’s capable of scoring in Kobe-like droves that’s not the strength of his game. Nor is he able to shape the game defensively as strongly as Kobe does. Brandon is a smart, consummate team player. It’s just not his style to thrash the entire court and strangle it in that “I’m League MVP So Whatcha Gonna Do, Brother?” way. Lamarcus is going to be a multi-time All-Star himself but he’s probably not going to be Bill Walton or Tim Duncan 50-Greatest-Ever dominant. Who is the guy with the potential to just destroy everything that moves around him…not the sleek fighter jet or the tricked-out tank, but the freakin’ nuclear bomb? For the Blazers that’s Oden. Both Brandon and Lamarcus make the opponent go, “Oh no, we better have our stuff together.” Greg Oden is the type of guy who could make the opponent go, “We quit!” That last part is what wins playoff basketball.

Greg Oden will have the potential to trump any opponent mismatch in the same way Kobe Bryant does…not just an edge, but THE edge that makes the opponent edges not matter anymore. Whatever happens or doesn’t happen in the regular season, when it’s go-time in April, May, and eventually June, that’s going to make the difference. You can win a series here and there without him, but if you want to dream about Finals appearances, Oden is your guy.

12 Action Flicks Not Just For Dicks

2008-08-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

You know the scenario: It's Friday night and you're too lazy to do anything but stake out some hot property on your couch with your honey, some take-out and a rental. So you're loitering in the nearest Blockbuster, where the lady would like to see "PS: I Love You" (worst title ever, btw) and the senor is trying to go home with "10,000 B.C. (you know it sucks, right?). You've played out the Judd Apatow collection and you're this close to choosing "Superhero Movie" to just get it over with, dammit. Nono. Save yourself from the pain and heartache, you poor soul, with this handy guide to action flicks that everyone can enjoy. This way, the dude gets his explosions and the woman gets her end-of-the-movie make-out scene. Happy endings for all!

CATEGORY 1: MOVIES THAT ARE KIND OF LIKE CHICK FLICKS

Speed
Synopsis: Hero cop (beefcake) and lady hero bus driver (adorable, yet sexy). Bad guy. Hostages. Bomb on bus. Explosions.

Yup, this choice is way predictable - but for good reason. Despite Keanu Reeve's questionable acting and some so-lame-they're-amazing one-liners ("pop quiz, hotshot"), this movie delivers the high-octane adventure with satisfying/sexy results. The bad guy dies, the heroes kiss and the nail-biting chases are still fresh in our minds. Plus hey, we kind of love Keanu's one-dimensional "there's a bomb on this bus" delivery, and one-liners are what action movies are made of.

Him: Keanu kicked some ass! A BUS jumps over a GAP in the HIGHWAY! Dennis Hopper plays the bad guy!
Her: Keanu is hot! Sandra saves the day! They love each other in the end *shriek*!

Charlie's Angels
Synopsis: Heroic trio of bad-ass women. Bad guys. Friendship. Plenty of ass kicking.

No scoffing, please. This movie is a hootenanny of a good time no matter how you slice it. (What?! Just roll with it). You've got your team of fighting femmes who don't need guns to get the job done, and the three leading ladies who rock the roles. There's tongue-in-cheek humour, sleek cinematography and Bill Murray. It's campy and ridiculous and totally worth watching even if just to see Drew Barrymore beat up three dudes with her hands tied behind her back.

Him: Cameron Diaz in underoos! Crazy fight scenes! Race cars!
Her: Fierce lady heroes! Humour! Luke Wilson!

Bad Boys
Synopsis: Hero cops (beefcakes). Camaraderie. Bad guys. Car chases and explosions.

Ok, basically anything with Will Smith in it could go here. Especially shirtless Will Smith. (See: I Am Legend [work out scene], I, Robot [shower scene], Independence Day. I'm gonna go take a cold shower now). So, this isn't really much of a chick flick (it's a buddy flick!), but if you're a girl and you appreciate the general Woll Smoth aesthetic, you will like this movie. That's a fact. Plus, Will and Martin Lawrence have an irresistable chemistry on screen, and though it's not the best movie ever (far from it), sometimes it's just fun to put your brain on hold and watch some hijinks.

Him: Cops! Drugs! Sweat!
Her: Hot cops! Laughs! Sweat!

Italian Job (2003)
Synopsis: Protagonist heist team. Heist. Bad guys. Exotic locations. Car chases. Love interest.

If well done, a heist movie can be much more than just eye candy. It can engage your inner geek, bring forth thrills and wonderment and sometimes shift your perception. While not being one of the best heist movies around, the Italian Job remake should satisfy your popcorn requirements. The car chase scene with the Minis is of course a stand out, while Matt Wahlberg & Charlize Theron are pretty good-looking and stuff. Bonus content: The 1969 version is even better!

Him: Crazy stunts! Gadgetry! Charlize Theron!
Her: Plot twists! Cute cars! Mark Wahlberg!

Princess Bride
Synopsis: Hero. Love interest (also hero). Adventure. Avengement. Heartache and happiness. Ass kicking.

Is it a misstep to call this an action movie? Maybe. But who cares - it's close enough, it's amazing and it has universal appeal. There's a classic storyline, fantastical elements and romance that even the most hardened soul can get behind. Best of all? You loved it as a kid and you can love it now - repeated viewings are encouraged.

Him: Outlaws! Pirates! Andre the Giant!
Her: Romance! Fairy tale! Obedient farm hand!

Mr. And Mrs. Smith
Synopsis: Protagonist married couple (secret assassins). Deception. Predicament. Bad guys. Explosions and ass kicking.

Remember a time when Brangelina didn't yet exist? Just think - all it took was a delicious mixture of pure sexified action and heads exploding (from the never before seen pairing) to create a phenomenon. Yep, this movie was like a Big Bang. Not coincidently, the movie itself includes many a gun bang, explosion bang, laugh bang, banging bodies, and eventually, girl + boy banging. Just call them Bangelina.

Him: Brad! Angelina! Fire!
Her: Brad! Angelina! Passion!

True Lies
Synopsis: Hero (secret assassin). Love interest hero (unknowing wife). Bad guys. Deception. Vulnerability. Laughs.

One of the movies that introduced the modern concept of blockbuster, True Lies gave Arnold's typical killing machine some personality and Jamie Lee Curtis' slight awkwardness some fantastic bitchery. It's always a good time to get lost in a story that makes us laugh, makes us take notice and warms the cockles of our hearts while blowing things up in the process.

Him: Sexy dancing! Spies! Death defying!
Her: Sexy dancing! Laughs! Rekindling romance!

CATEGORY 2: MOVIES THAT ARE PRETTY MUCH AWESOME

Bourne Identity
Synopsis: Amnesiac hero (beefcake). Bad guys. Conspiracy. Teamwork. Car chases and explosions.

Most of the movies on this list are pure popcorn affairs - they're not quite up to par for the typical film snob and "tour de force" isn't really the first word that comes to mind. But Bourne Identity? Exception. Well acted, well crafted, well written and well received. Matt Damon isn't your typical action hero but is easily one of the stand-outs on this list. Bonus: the two sequels are also excellent, with the third film, Bourne Ultimatum, being the best of all.

Him: Truly likable hero! Danger! Hand to hand combat!
Her: Well written! Emotional! Matt Damon!

Kill Bill
Synopsis: Hero (lady assassin). Bad guys. Revenge. Ass kicking. More ass kicking.

If you've never seen this movie (je m'excuse?!), prepare to be stunned. Stunned by its simple yet powerful plot, stunned by the colours, stunned by the martial arts, stunned by the sensory overload, stunned by the gorgeous visuals. Basically, you may finish the movie and wonder what just happened - and then you'll want to see it again. Do you sense favouritism? Cause it's true. Bonus: Volume II is a totally different experience, and just as faboolous.

Him: Revenge! Swords! Anime!
Her: Phenomenal woman hero! Beautiful cinematography!

Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Synopsis: Hero. Bad guys. Exotic locations. Adventure. Teamwork. Otherworldly awesomeness.

This flick is universally popular for a reason, you know. Even though you're aware of how things pan out in the end, you darling couples can cuddle on the couch - the dude, biting your nails when Indiana finds himself in a pile of snakes while the girl, cringing, reaches for a protective arm. Romantic, isn't it? Plus, you know, the movie is kind of crazy awesome and stuff, or whatever. Who hasn't wanted to be an Indiana Jones-like hero at some point in their life?

Him: Indiana Jones! Knives! Arch Nemesi!
Her: Harrison Ford! Shiny things! Good story!

Casino Royale
Synopsis: Hero (beefcake). Love interest (intelligent, sexy). Bad guys. Car chases and explosions. Ass kicking.

Those who doubted James Bond's latest depiction by Daniel Craig - haters to the left. The latest Bond is the man most dudes want to be and most females want to be with. Then there was Vesper Lynd, the love interest most girls want to be and most men want to be with. But in reality, many of us were too busy getting swept up in the incredible action sequences, dangerous predicaments and wonderful cinematography to notice that we're just dirty slobs on a couch. Maybe that's just me?

Him: Man's Man! Poker! Aston Martin!
Her: Man's Man! Cool as ice female lead! Amazing stunts!

Die Hard
Synopsis: Hero cop (beefcake). Bad guys. Hostages. Negotiating. Explosions and ass kicking.

Sometimes touted as the best action film of all time, Die Hard launched a sub-genre of flicks sticking the hero in a hostage situation while using wit and bad assery to get out. Bruce Willis' John McClane is a hero to men and likable by ladies despite being kind of an ass. It's a nail-biter, a roller coaster and the very definition of terrific. Basically, if this movie were a president, it would be Thrill Clinton.

Him: Bruce Willis! One-liners! Weaponry!
Her: Bruce Willis! Alan Rickman! Christmas!

What would you add the list? My personal faves are Terminator 2 and Face/Off, and I'm so furious that they're not mentioned. Who wrote this, anyway?! What a jerk.

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2008-08-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

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World Will Be More Like N.B.A.

2008-08-26T01:21:00.000-07:00

To reassert its global pre-eminence, the United States men’s basketball team overhauled its program, stuffed its roster with N.B.A. stars and did everything but rewrite the rules and restripe the courts. That last part is coming, though.

Winning Olympic gold in Beijing depended partly on Team USA’s ability to cope with the unfamiliar geometry of the international game: a trapezoidal lane, a shallow 3-point arc and a contorted array of driving lanes.

But in two years, the trapezoid will be dead, the arc will be a little deeper and the international game will be a bit closer in style to the N.B.A.’s. The lane will become a rectangle, emulating the United States model. The arc will move to 6.75 meters (22.1 feet) — closer to the N.B.A. standard of 22 feet 9 inches — from 6.25 meters (20.5 feet).

The changes were among several adopted, to little fanfare, by the International Basketball Federation, known as FIBA, in April. The new rules take effect after the world championships in 2010, so they will be in place for the 2012 Olympics in London.

The intent is to sharpen the international game and to make it more uniform from one hemisphere to another, at all levels of play. But the changes will undoubtedly provide a subtle lift to a United States team that probably needs no help.

“I think it’s going back to our roots and will be more of an advantage to us,” said Tony Ronzone, USA Basketball’s director of international player personnel. He added, “It will help us and our game in international competition.”

Geometry has never been a major concern for Americans. The trapezoid lane has been part of the international game since the 1950s and did not stop United States men’s teams from winning gold medals in nearly every Olympics since then. Nor was it the primary reason the team stumbled to a bronze in 2004.

But the adoption of a rectangular lane and a deeper 3-point arc will give the international game a decidedly American look and could change the way the world plays the game.

The N.B.A., with a 16-foot-wide lane, has long been dominated by burly 7-footers who play with their back to the basket and score from the low blocks. FIBA’s trapezoidal lane, which spans 19 feet 8 inches along the baseline, keeps those players far from the basket, diminishing their size advantage. The short 3-point arc also makes it easy for guards to double-team the post and still recover to the perimeter.

“Post-ups are a little bit harder,” Chris Bosh, a center on the United States team, said in Beijing. “In the N.B.A., you can be a little more patient. Here, if you get it in the post, you have to be aware of guards collapsing and trying to swipe down on you to steal the ball.”

The different rules have bred a severe contrast in styles. The best United States-born centers are generally in the Wilt Chamberlain mold: big, powerful and effective around the basket. The European big man is typified by Dirk Nowitzki of Germany, a sleek 7-footer who is more comfortable on the perimeter.

The rectangular lane can be expected to encourage players to develop a post-up game.

“This obviously is going to change kind of the style of game, and probably give more room to the post-up players,” said Zoran Radovic, the development director for FIBA who formerly starred for Yugoslavia. “Every winning team in the N.B.A. has a dominant center. In Europe, a dominant center is not that much of an effect under current rules.”

Basketball officials in the United States welcomed the changes, although they did not specifically push for them.

“It’s also probably an endorsement of our game and our rules,” said Jerry Colangelo, the managing director of the senior national team for USA Basketball.

Although it appears that the international game is moving toward the American model, “that is not the way the FIBA board who made the decision actually felt about it,” said Patrick Baumann, the secretary general for FIBA. The goals of the association’s board, he said, were much broader than merely standardizing the game.

In FIBA’s view, the 3-point shot has become too common. In 1984, when the arc was added in international play, only 14 percent of all field-goal attempts were 3-pointers, Baumann said. Now, he added, that number is 40 percent and players routinely make 38 to 40 percent of them.

“The board felt that’s no longer now an exceptional shot,” Baumann said. “It felt something needed to be done.”

The board stopped short of adopting the N.B.A.’s deeper 3-point line because FIBA also governs women’s and youth basketball leagues.

FIBA is looking for the combination of a deeper arc and a narrower lane to help open up the floor and allow more movement.

“The game was becoming a little bit too crowded under the basket,” Baumann said.

Of the 213 nations under FIBA’s jurisdiction, only the United States uses the rectangular lane. Baumann said uniformity in the game was merely “the cherry on the cake.”

Not everyone believes the changes will benefit the United States and other teams (notably China) with dominant post-up players.

“I don’t really see a difference,” Sasha Pavlovic of Serbia, who is a guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, said of the rectangular lane.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas of Lithuania, a center for the Cavaliers, predicted that players around the world “will adjust pretty quickly” to the new lane.

Other rules differences mean that the style of the N.B.A. and the international game will remain distinct for a long time, Baumann said. Whatever advantages the United States may gain with these changes, he said, will be short-lived.

“You may feel it’s an advantage tomorrow,” he said, “but the day after tomorrow, all the teams will be on the same level, and the better will win.”

Pete Thamel contributed reporting from Beijing.

Team USA has already won hearts and minds in China

2008-08-25T01:35:00.000-07:00

Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images

Team USA has elevated the image of the NBA with its play and sportsmanship at the 2008 Olympics.

BEIJING -- Win or lose Sunday against Spain, the members of the U.S. men's basketball team have been golden ambassadors for their country and their sport.

It happened so many times and in so many ways, no one could possibly count off how many hearts and minds they've won over -- both among the Chinese, and among other American athletes.

But a few random stories can help paint a picture of how gregarious and down-to-earth Team USA has been.

LeBron James said he has signed more than 1,000 autographs since arriving in Beijing, but he had given away only one pair of his sneakers. That happened earlier this week, when James looked up toward the balcony at Beijing Normal University, where the team was practicing, and saw a 12-year-old girl watching with her mother.

James motioned for her to come down, took her around to meet the other members of the team, took a photo with her (recounting the story Saturday, he remembered her name was Katherine), then removed his shoes, signed them and handed them over.

For Kobe Bryant, the aftermath of a simple handshake will stick in his memory.

"I was just walking out to the bus after a game," he said. "She was one of the volunteers, and she just started crying. That was a trip."

Bryant and his teammates set the tone for how they were going to act on their first night in town, when they arrived at their hotel, immediately went downstairs and said they wanted to go to the athletes' village to have a look around.

They were mobbed to such a degree that Chris Bosh said it was borderline scary, but they spent a couple of hours there, walking around and mingling with athletes from other countries -- just as they would do two nights later when they attended the Opening Ceremony and made it a point to work the crowd.

Four years ago in Athens, the American basketball players had isolated themselves on a balcony, away from the other athletes as the American federation was waiting to march into the stadium, and other athletes took such offense that they sought out journalists to tell the stories of how aloof and disconnected the basketball players had seemed.

Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images

Dwyane Wade was surprised to find a bottle of Gatorade with his picture on it for sale at the base of the Great Wall of China.

That '04 Athens team rubbed a lot of folks back in the United States the wrong way, too. One of its signature bad moments came when the players arrived at the arena to watch the U.S. women's team play and were shown on television not really paying attention, sitting in a row with their headphones on, off in their own worlds. Away from the cameras, they were standoffish as well, such as the time in Belgrade on a pre-Olympic tour when they dined at a reception with the president of Serbia and stayed huddled in a corner, offending their hosts.

"The tough thing about that is it wasn't everybody, but we were guilty by association," recalled Carlos Boozer, one of four holdovers from the '04 team. "Hopefully we can change people's perspectives about us because we don't want people thinking we're jerks or a-------. We want people thinking we're representing our country correctly and are doing it the right way.

"We weren't told we needed to fix our image; this is just who we are. We're good people anyway."

One of the better stories to make the rounds Saturday as the Americans prepared to face Spain in the gold-medal game (2:30 a.m. ET Sunday) was a game of P.I.G. played between Bryant and Adam Wright of the U.S. water polo team, which also trained at BNU.

First shot: A dunk. "P" for Wright.

Second shot: A 3-pointer from the left wing. "I" for Wright.

Third shot: A launch from behind the backboard, up and over the glass and through the net. "G" for Wright, although he at least got a piece of the rim on his attempt.

Several players have made appearances on Chinese television's late-night talk show programs, and officials who travel with the team each day said the number of autographs and sneakers given out to young volunteers, security guards, police and military have been too numerous to tally.

Michael Redd described an endless stream of fans following him through a mall as he went shopping. People were asking him to stop and pose for a quick picture, or thrusting a piece of paper and a pen toward him for an autograph.

"They know all our stats, they know where we come from, they know everything about us," he said. "It's amazing -- it really is -- just how popular basketball has gotten. It really has gone global."

Still, in a country of 1.3 billion, there are some who remain oblivious to the stardom of the American players they have randomly bumped into. Take, for instance, the pair of middle-aged women running a concession stand at the base of the Badaling section of the Great Wall.

They met Dwyane Wade and had no idea who he was … even as he pointed to his own face on the bottle of Gatorade they were trying to sell him.

Wade recounted the story:

"Once I get down from my long journey, like a 45-minute walk, now I'm thirsty. So I'm looking for something to drink, and lo and behold I see a Gatorade. And I'm like: 'Can I get a Gatorade?' and they asked for some crazy amount of money, like 3,000 [yuan], and I looked at it and I saw my picture, and I looked at them and said, 'This is me,' and she was like, 'No, no. Money!' So I have to come up with the money. I had to buy three or four of them because of how thirsty I was, and I didn't even haggle her down. The kid in me came out. I was shocked to see my face on it. I've been with Gatorade [as an endorser] a couple years, but it just shocked me at that moment that I was there, on the bottle. So I invested into Gatorade as well."

If all goes well Sunday against Spain, this team's legacy will be the redemption it brought to USA Basketball after three straight international tournaments that ended with someone else winning gold medals: Yugoslavia at the 2002 World Championship in Indianapolis, when the Americans placed sixth; Argentina at the 2004 Olympics, when the Americans took bronze; Spain at the 2006 World Championship, when Team USA finished third.

But what will stick in the heads of the players who competed are the snapshots of the people they met, the places they've seen and the treatment they've received.

"The way they've treated us over here, that's what's going into the memory bank," Tayshaun Prince said. "People are treating us like we're on top of the world -- which we're not."

But the top of the world was only one more victory away, and the Americans were hoping to finish this tournament in the same manner in which they've played it -- with one last display of unquestioned supremacy.

"We want to win, we want to dominate and show we can still dominate the game," Wade said. "I know myself, as a fan, I want to see a good game; I don't want a see a team win by 20.

"But right now I'm not a fan, so I'm not worried about that."

iLuv 9200 iPod speaker system

2008-08-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

When you want to combine your old favorite CDs with the latest iPod technology, a device like the iLuv 9200 iPod speaker system comes in very handy. iLuv call their product a “vertical audio system”, as it features 4 CD bays on each side of the console. The CD bys have sliding doors created from transparent plastic, which ads well to the white surface of the iLuv 9200. The iPod docking station and the FM/AM radio bring the final touches to this interesting home entertainment option.

Although there is no subwoofer attached to the iLuv 9200 iPod speaker system, you do get the option of adding one via a dedicated output. The speakers can be wither placed on detachable stands or mounted on the walls. The speaker cord is long enough so you don’t have to worry about running out of it in larger rooms. The upper part of the iLuv 9200 iPod speaker system also houses the iPod dock. The dock is not visible when not in use and it also serves as a charger for your iPod.

The system works well if you’re not after the best quality out there. The price is also on the budget side. The plastics and materials used to create it are ok, but the remote control is a bit too large. Some noise is heard when the CD doors are opening up, but other than that the iLuv 9200 iPod speaker system offers above average quality. The sound quality coming from the iLuv 9200 iPod speaker system is, however, very good. There is unnoticeable sound resonance and the device is prompt to answer remote control commands.

While the iLuv 9200 iPod speaker system is not packed with the latest in iPod technology and it has a few flaws that will probably annoy users every now and then, it is a device that delivers, for the kind of price it sells for (£160 in the United Kingdom). Direct competitors of the iLuv 9200 iPod speaker system should also be looked at when shopping for this sort of home entertainment electronic device.

Dunks, Mom, and Apple Pie

2008-08-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

The marketing genius of USA Basketball's "Redeem Team."

On Aug. 11, USA Basketball formally sought to trademark the nickname "Redeem Team," including, in its application, a list of 64 pieces of apparel that might one day incorporate the phrase. Among them: Redeem Team hosiery; Redeem Team basketball shoes and Redeem Team basketball sneakers; Redeem Team aprons; Redeem Team undergarments; Redeem Team beach coverups, Redeem Team bathing suit coverups, and Redeem Team bathing suit wraps; Redeem Team bikinis and Redeem Team tankinis; Redeem Team "baby bibs not of paper"; and, of course, the Redeem Team "novelty headwear with attached wigs."

This has been the story all along with the so-called Redeem Team, which has vivisected the field in Beijing, including a 101-81 dismantling of Argentina on Friday morning. The Americans have played brilliantly, bird-dogging the ball, breaking out into transition, and shooting opponents out of their zone defenses. The Redeem Team's greater triumph in these Games, though, has been one of marketing, branding, and message discipline. With assistance from Nike, which partnered with NBA Entertainment to make a five-part Team USA documentary called "Road to Redemption," USA Basketball has relentlessly peddled the notion that this new bunch has embraced the virtuous and selfless habits of international ball. The New York Times helpfully called it an "extreme makeover," a clean break with the Dream Teams of recent vintage, which, to hear everyone tell it, had John Wayne Gacy running point and the Bloods and the Crips coming off the pine. "We needed to change the culture," said Jerry Colangelo, the managing director of USA Basketball.

If you believe any of that talk, I have a genuine Redeem Team tankini to sell you. Surely, by now no one reckons USA Basketball (the governing body that selects and manages the American Olympic team) to be anything but the NBA wrapped in an American flag. (Those with lingering doubts will please note that the preceding clothing list also appears verbatim, right down to the novelty headwear, in the bid by Sonics owners, since dropped, to trademark the name "Oklahoma City Supersonics." They will also note that NBC plays John Tesh's old NBA theme music during every game.) USA Basketball may stress its newfound adaptability to the international game, and the players may once again pose for post-game photos with their opponents (just like 1992, only this time choreographed by a film crew from NBA Entertainment), but in reality this has precious little to do with spreading global goodwill. From here, at least, these gestures look a lot more like signal flares sent up by the NBA to appease its allegedly disgruntled fans back home.

It's not as if the players' images need any buffing abroad. Right now, there is amateur video on YouTube of Kobe Bryant eating french fries in the Olympic Village; at last check, it's been watched just south of 25,000 times. When Bryant tried to take in a U.S. women's basketball game recently, he was mobbed by Chinese fans along the steps of the stadium and barely made it out of the scrum with his smirk intact. His jersey, we've been told time and again, is the top seller in China, outranking even Yao Ming's. (His unruly popularity in the Middle Kingdom may not be as mystifying as it seems. A friend in Beijing says that the idea of Kobe as the next MJ, having long ago been dismissed stateside, still resonates thereabouts, especially in TV commercials.) The team was even swarmed at a side entrance to the Great Wall, of all places. It's a funny quirk of Americans. We need foreigners to remind us of our occasional native genius, like the Rolling Stones with the blues or Jerry Lewis with the French.

Of course, the sporting press now judges the character of an athlete by the kabuki he performs in front of a television camera. And in that respect, the Redeem Team has been especially brilliant. The whole team sounds alike, which is no mean feat for a group that includes the genuinely funny Chris Bosh and Bible-thumpers like Dwight Howard and Michael Redd. In post-game interviews, they all take great pains to mention defense and ball movement and, in an occasional flight of fancy, the glory of hearing your own anthem from the medal stand. They talk about the rest of the Olympics, about hanging with the karate guys. They have made a point of being seen at other events: NBC's cameras have caught Jason Kidd at beach volleyball, LeBron and Kobe at the Water Cube.

The media have swallowed it whole. As one typical column put it: "The big names signed on—Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade—and they checked their egos at the door. Jerry Colangelo built the team and Mike Krzyzewski, a college coach, molded it. By the time they came to Beijing, they were a dedicated unit determined to show the world not just that American NBA players are the best in the world, but also that they're not the self-centered, spoiled brats that many people thought they were."

This is all Colangelo's handiwork. He has made a few substantive reforms. Upon taking the helm of USA Basketball in 2005, he required his carefully selected group of players to make a three-year commitment to the team, thereby allowing for more continuity and more practice time than in years past. He also wisely jettisoned the 2004 Team USA coach, Larry Brown, who still doesn't get nearly enough criticism for his and his squad's surly and indifferent performance in Athens. Yes, the team was a collection of mismatched parts—Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury pounding the air out of ball in the same backcourt—but Brown threw the match in the barrel of gasoline. Among many things, he inexplicably benched LeBron James, the American player who best embodies the supposed international ethic of all-around play, thought to be a lost art in the NBA by people who haven't watched a game since the Reagan administration. (Seeing Argentina's Carlos Delfino fire away like some World B. Free of the Pampas should force everyone to rethink the international-equals-unselfish stereotype.)

Otherwise, Colangelo's true accomplishment has been to sell the ridiculous idea that his team comes from a finer moral stock. Colangelo, who personally interviewed prospective players (and an unctuous plutocrat who represents his country far more obnoxiously than Derrick Coleman ever did), speaks fondly of his meeting in 2005 with guard Michael Redd. It seems that Redd, having driven from Milwaukee to Chicago, came into the executive's hotel room wearing sweatpants but carrying a garment bag. He excused himself, went to the bathroom, and emerged in a suit. "Pretty darn impressive," Colangelo has said of the interview. "In that kind of setting ... you find out a lot about individuals."

Which explains the anointing of Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. The sort of taskmaster who tends to grate on professional players, he is nevertheless perfectly tailored to Colangelo's purposes. Where Chuck Daly, coach of the original Dream Team, was a sort of genial uncle to a group of veterans that needed little guidance (and famously, not a single timeout), Krzyzewski and his towering persecution complex are well-suited to the kind of young players who masochistically self-identify as the Redeem Team.

More importantly, Krzyzewski telegraphs to the American audience a deep seriousness about Playing Basketball the Right Way (though LeBron's presence alone should be all anyone needed), not to mention a former West Point cadet's more muscular sense of patriotism. "Coach K and I were having dinner last summer and talking about ways to connect this team with America," Colangelo told the Chicago Tribune's Sam Smith. "We talked about engaging ourselves [with the military]: Can this become their team? America's team? It seemed like a natural."

And it's worked. Both men, with help from Nike and the players themselves, have managed to sell the spurious idea that Team USA is a Boy Scout troop in basketball shorts: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent. They sold this Redeem Team stuff so hard that a man in St. Cloud, Fla., named Tony Fletcher got it into his head to trademark the phrase, apparently a few hours before the thought occurred to USA Basketball. "I kept hearing Redeem Team all the time," Fletcher told me. He is now looking to partner with an apparel company.

LeBron playing team basketball while Kobe plays...Kobe basketball

2008-08-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

Dusan Vranic / APAs the USA rolls over its Olympic competition, LeBron James is clearly demonstrating he is a better all-around player than Kobe Bryant -- and not just because of his better statistics.

BEIJING -- Heading into these Olympic Games, as American men's basketball began its great image overhaul, two questions lingered over the group that has become known as the Redeem Team.

The first was whether the United States could win the gold medal. And while that will not be answered until Sunday, one does not have to be an oracle to figure it out.

The second was how the alpha-dog dynamic between the planet's two brightest stars, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, would play out. That answer, too, has been as clear as the U.S. dominance in this tournament.

From his persistent vocal leadership to his rugged rebounding to his ability to drive to the hoop at will, James has outplayed Bryant. He has played multiple positions, emerged as the vocal leader and has better statistics.

And while Bryant has not played poorly, he has continued to play like he is on his NBA team instead of adapting and adjusting to his more talented Olympic teammates. James has stood out precisely because he has blended in so well.

"I knew it had to come from someone," James said of his leadership role. "It doesn't matter how good individuals are, if you don't have a leader, it's not going to be right. I took that responsibility from Day 1, saying I'm going to be the vocal leader and I'm going to be the leader of this team."

Bryant, meanwhile, has looked a bit lost. He has seemingly yet to realize that although taking 16-foot fadeaways or pull-up 3-pointers in transition instead of passing to Luke Walton or Trevor Ariza may be a smart play in the NBA taking those shots rather than pass to Dwyane Wade or Carmelo Anthony with Team USA is not always wise.

Bryant had his best game of the Olympics on Wednesday, scoring 25 points as the United States beat Australia, 116-85. He had his best half of the games, too, scoring nine points during the Americans' 14-0 run to start the second half. In Friday's semifinal round, the United States will play Manu Ginobili and Argentina, which beat Greece, 80-78 in their quarterfinal, on Wednesday.

Even with his hot second-half shooting, Bryant still has not quite bought into coach Mike Krzyzewski's team mantra of taking "USA shots." It's been a subtle way for Krzyzewski to preach to his players that the shots they take in NBA team may not necessarily be the best ones for this team.

It is hard to criticize the play of the national team. It has won its six games here by an average of 32 points. But when the offense has stagnated, as in the first quarter Wednesday, when Australia trailed by just 25-24, it has typically been with Bryant forcing shots. Is that trying to find pimples on the Mona Lisa? Perhaps. But the numbers will show just how much better and more consistent James has played.

James has better statistics in every relevant category. He has averaged more points (15.8 to 14.7) by taking 13 fewer shots and nearly half as many 3-point shots as Bryant (36 to 19). James has grabbed more rebounds (31 to 17), dished more assists (25 to 10) and turned the ball over less often (12 to 10). And he has been to the free-throw line more than twice as often (20 to nine), reflective of James' greatest strength here and Bryant's greatest weakness.

James has shown that no defender in international play can keep him from driving to the basket, so he has barreled down anyone in his path. Bryant has played with too much finesse, flipping up turnaround shots and 3-pointers instead of attacking the basket or looking to pass to his teammates.

"For me, I'm a complete team player," James said. "I'm probably the ultimate team player. I'll sacrifice whatever for the success of the team. Kobe is a great, great, great player. It's not hard for me and Kobe to get along because of my game and his game."

If the great NBA bar debate over who is the best player in the world was based on Olympic play, it would not be much of a debate.

Perhaps what has been most impressive about James is his selflessness. He did a full body dive to save a loose ball in the third quarter against Australia. He has played out of position, at power forward, for much of the time and has given the United States the defense and rebounding production it has needed.

"I'm proud of him," Krzyzewski said. "I'm really pleased with where he's at."

Thanks largely to James's contributions, the Americans are very likely to be pleased at where they end up in this tournament. No one more than James. Not counting last summer's FIBA Tournament of the Americas, he has not won a title since he was a high school senior in Ohio.

"This means a lot more to me than anything," James said. "Representing my country and being out here playing against some of the best athletes in the world, this is big."

And he has played like winning the gold is bigger than he is.

by Pete Thamel, New York Times News Service
Wednesday August 20, 2008, 11:09 PM

Obstacles to Repeating as Champions

2008-08-21T02:50:00.000-07:00

We all know that it is hard for teams to repeat as champions. None of the Celtics championship teams of the 70's or 80's repeated as champions. They won in 1974 and 1976 and in 1975 and 1977, they didn't even make it to the finals. They had some lean years from 1977 until 1981 when they won their next championship, Once again, after winning in 1981, they failed to make the finals in 1982 and 1983. They won the championship once again in 1984 but in 1985, they lost to the Lakers. They won once again in 1986, but then came the 22 year drought until they won again last year. They had very good teams the year following each of those championships, but still weren't able to repeat as champions.

The Celtics are favored to win the East again next season. Here is what Marty Burns said in his Eastern Conference preview:

1. Celtics: The loss of veteran forward James Posey (via free agency to the Hornets) could hurt, especially come playoff time, but for now Boston has to be considered the East favorite again. General manager Danny Ainge re-signed key reserves Eddie House and Tony Allen, and Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen should be even better with another year together (assuming they're not too worn out from last season's long playoff run). The bottom line is that the defending champs didn't make any significant moves ... but they didn't need to.

Even without James Posey, the Celtics should be better this season. As Burns said, with a year together under their belt, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett should be better together. Ray Allen finally figured out where he fit in the scheme of things in the Finals and I expect him to pick up where he left off last year. The domination in the finals was the result of the three of them having the experience of the year together.

Not only will the three stars play better together, but Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins will be a year better. Tony Allen was finally coming on in the Finals and this could be the year he puts it all together. Eddie House returns and is determined to be better this season. Both Big Baby and Leon Powe are working hard this summer and will be improved. Just the experience of the playoffs and the Finals will make this team better. Add to this the addition of two very promising and athletic draft picks and on paper it seems as though the Celtics should repeat as champions.

But, there are several things working against any NBA champions repeating. One is the fact that all the other teams spend their summer trying to match up with the champions and make moves with an eye toward how they can beat the champs. Every team in the Atlantic Division are making big moves. The Raptors brought in Jermaine O'Neal to give their team a defensive presence to match up with the Celtics front line. The Sixers brought in Elton Brand to try to match up with Kevin Garnett. The Nets may have gone backwards by going young with Yi and breaking up their big three of Kidd, Carter and Jefferson. The Knicks are still making changes but will be a much different team than they were in 2007-08.

The Cavs have brought in a veteran point guard who can share the scoring load with LeBron. They came close to beating the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semi-finals and it is possible that the moves that they made this off season could be enough catch up with the Champions. The Pistons haven't made any major moves, but there are rumors swirling around them that they still may make a trade. The Bulls added the number one pick to a team that underachieved last season. The Heat should be much tougher with a healthy Dwyane Wade and Shawn Marion along with the addition of Michael Beasley. So, the competition will be much stronger and the Celtics will be playing with a bullseye on their backs. Every team is out to defeat the champions and will play their best against them.

Even with the improvements in the other teams and the fact that they go all out to defeat the champs, the biggest challenge may come from within the Champions themselves. Last year at this time, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen were all in Boston and working out along with the majority of the younger players who had been there much of the summer. They had a hunger right from the beginning to get that ring that had alluded all three of them throughout their careers. They were on a mission to win the title right from the beginning.

Fast forward to this off season and from all the reports, Paul Pierce is still celebrating the championship. He is in Las Vegas coming home from a club at 3:30 PM. He is hosting Mike and Mike. He is working out some, but no where near the extent he worked out last off season. There has been no word from Kevin Garnett and knowing him, he is already deep into his off season work out regimen. But, he isn't working with the other two as a team like they did last season. Ray Allen has been taking it easy and playing a lot of golf and that in itself isn't a bad thing. He needs to get some rest after the playoff run, but the point is, there just isn't that drive and that hunger like they had last summer.

The Star Tribune reports this:

Starting today and continuing for two weeks, the Timberwolves will have nine of their top players -- including Al Jefferson, Sebastian Telfair, Kevin Love, Randy Foye, Ryan Gomes, Corey Brewer, Chris Richard and Mike Miller -- working out every day at Target Center. They will be around until Labor Day, take 10 days off, then resume workouts out until training camp opens.

It was the Celtics last season who had the majority of their players in town working out together. This season teams like the Timberwolves have that hunger for a ring and are getting an early start. There have been a couple of the Celtics' young players in town all summer working hard, but where last season they were all there, this season the 3 stars have had their hunger satisfied with a championship and they don't have that urgency that drew them all together last season and that is bringing teams like the Timberwolves together now.

Finally, there is luck. The Celtics had a couple of minor injuries, but nothing major that would knock a major player out for a long time. Injuries can knock a contender out of the race no matter how good the team is or how many stars it has. If they can't play due to injury, they aren't going to win. The 1986 Celtics were virtually injury free with just a few minor setbacks. The 1987 team was beset with injury after injury as their aging stars struggled to stay healthy. For some reason, it is difficult for contending teams to remain free of major injuries two seasons in a row. The Celtics did it last season, can they do it again this year? Only time will tell.

On paper and in most of the rankings, the Celtics will be favored to win it all again. But, will they have the hunger to put it all out there on the court every game like they did last season? So far, they aren't showing the same hunger they did last season to come together early and work as a team toward that goal. Can they get past the improved competition? Can they stay healthy a second season in a row? A lot of questions must be answered before the Celtics can be crowned repeat champions.

August 18, 2008 by FLCeltsFan 6:01 PM

The Top Five IF's in the West

2008-08-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the week we looked at the Eastern Conference's biggest question marks. Today we look at the powerhouse conference that is the West. Last year was the most competitive that the conference has ever been, and it looks like we're going to have another extremely close race again this season. While some teams have improved dramatically, some have stayed right where they were at last season. In a conference that is always improving, we could see some of the traditional powers from the past few years fall from the top. Here's a look at the West's five biggest IF's:

IF Andrew Bynum picks up where he left off…
It took Bynum's knee a lot longer to heal than originally expected, but he has finally been cleared and is on track to be ready for training camp. Despite the fact that the Lakers came within two games of winning the NBA championship,it was obvious at times that they really missed Bynum's ability to rebound, block shots, and finish around the rim. With a healthy Bynum this Laker team could be very scary, especially if Odom makes a smooth transition back to the small forward spot. There's a lot of talk about a dynasty reforming in LA, but it hinges on Bynum being able to fit in and stay healthy.

IF Houston can stay healthy…
With the recent acquisition of Ron Artest this finally appears to be the year that Houston will live up to expectations. On paper they are close, if not even with the Los Angeles Lakers. The biggest issue with Houston though is staying healthy, something they have been incapable of doing during the McGrady-Yao era. Yao's early return from a broken foot to play in the Olympics certainly doesn't help the cause, but he has looked pretty impressive so far. The other wildcard is keeping Ron Artest in-line, but this Houston team is capable of making some major noise this season. An NBA Championship is a definite possibility should this team be able to stay healthy and get on the same page.

IF Portland can successfully integrate three rookies…
Portland's success was one of the biggest surprises in the NBA last season. The most frightening part about it was that they did it all without the number 1 overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft, Greg Oden. As if his return wasn't enough, Jerryd Bayless and Rudy Fernadez will also be joining him in Portland this year. This may be the first time that a team has had three viable candidates for the Rookie of the Year award. While last year's Portland team was very good, the success of their three rookies will make or break their season. They need all three to step in and contribute right away in order to hang in the West. Considering Oden's amazing talent, Bayless' impressive play in Vegas, and Fernadez's strong showing in Beijing, expect Portland to be a playoff team in 2009.

IF age has finally caught up with the Spurs…
The San Antonio Spurs have already cemented themselves as a dynasty and the team of the decade along with Los Angeles Lakers, but their championship days may be over. They are still one of the contenders in the West, but the rest of the conference has made up a lot of ground – and a couple of teams have even passed them up. The Spurs failed to make a big splash this offseason, despite trying to do so. Corey Maggette, J.R. Smith, and Jannero Pargo were all high on the Spurs' priority list, but financially they simply couldn't obtain them. Instead they settled for signing Roger Mason Jr. and bringing back Kurt Thomas and Michael Finley. This team remains one of the oldest in the league and they have only slightly improved. It's hard to imagine them returning to the Western Conference Finals if they don't make some additional changes.

IF Dallas falls out of contention…
You won't find a more competitive owner than Mark Cuban, but his best efforts to put together a contender in Dallas seem to have come up a bit short. The trade for Jason Kidd continues to look like a tremendous mistake, and Josh Howard's actions away from the court have really brought his status into question. We know one thing though, Cuban is going to do everything he can to put a winning team on the floor. If come the February trade deadline Dallas is struggling expect them to be extremely active. They have a staggering $32 million coming off the books next season, and could use that to make a deal with a team looking for cap space. Dallas is definitely a team to keep an eye on this season. Not because they're going to be overly successful, but because some major changes will almost certainly be looked at.

SORRY ABOUT SUNS…

James Lawton: Wenger betrayed as the last bastion of sanity descends into temple of gloom

2008-08-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

Though it is 2000-odd years since the money dealers had their tables turned over in the temple, and only less than a month before the start of a new Premier League season, isn't it surely time for a similar gesture?

Another question: where to start? The recommendation here is the dressing room at The Emirates Stadium, which was recently occupied by Alexander Hleb and a fond belief that has turned out to be quite groundless.

It was expressed here less than a year ago in the theory that not only would Arsenal survive the departure of Thierry Henry they would be a better, more competitive team and indeed might well finish up with the title, a stirring testament to the vision and team-building faith of Arsène Wenger.

Whether they might have done it if a kind of collective palsy had not possessed the young and hitherto brilliant team after the sickening injury to Eduardo da Silva we will never know. One thing is certain, however. It is that they simply do not produce enough funny cigarettes to induce a similar prediction now.

If all of the top level of English football has turned into a counting house, and placed at the heart of the universe a bunch of agents who are utterly impervious to the effects of oil and food prices, there is surely nowhere more depressing to view the phenomenon than at the club which seemed to be a bastion against so much of the madness.

Nor can it be surprising that if Wenger is not throwing over the tables in the temples of the game, he is issuing a passionate broadside against the "destabilising" of players by major clubs like Real Madrid, and ironically, perhaps Manchester United in the case of Dimitar Berbatov.

Wenger can speak with the clearest of consciences. He can do it because his way of making football runs deeper and is infinitely more idealistic than the grab-all catching of talent which may or may not be legally available. It is seeing that talent early and nurturing it. It is about values which go beyond the outrageous piracy attempted by Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon and endorsed so shockingly by Fifa president Sepp Blatter in the case of the despicably self-orientated Cristiano Ronaldo.

Wenger didn't load up on signings before last season, he didn't stockpile squad players, and some said this was a serious mistake. What he did say was that he was happy with his resources and he would give all his players the chance to prove that they could do it. It was a gust of fresh air in the business of the strong accumulating power and ransacking the weak.

Now Wenger is entitled to speak with a strong sense of grievance. It was bad enough that Mathieu Flamini and Hleb took flight and Emmanuel Adebayor was almost salivating in his desire to join the exodus. We now have to stomach fresh treacherous mutterings from Hleb, who finally looked an authentically brilliant player under the guidance of Wenger after his journey from Belarus via Germany to north London.

He tells his new captive audience in Barcelona that his former team-mate Cesc Fabregas, the star of Spain's glorious European Championship win, will quite likely soon hop on to a plane and rejoin his old club. This comes just a matter of days after Hleb was branding Fabregas a "selfish" person, an interesting view from somebody who has developed a track record of disloyalty and ingratitude that might have been considered remarkable on the tilting deck of the Titanic.

We cannot be sure Arsenal are holed beneath the water-line but the latest defectors' bulletin has captain William Gallas also heading for Barcelona, another development which makes last summer's optimism on behalf of the Gunners seem like the babblings of a congenital optimist.

Gallas is not everybody's idea of a natural leader, that possibility dissolved on the day of Eduardo's disaster and the Frenchman's embarrassing parody of how a captain should behave, but he did wear the band, he is an excellent defender, and from where else would a manager expect a show of loyalty than from the man he lifted from the ranks after rescuing him from his vendetta at Stamford Bridge with Jose Mourinho?

Perhaps it is from the foremost of Wenger's protégés, his great creation, Fabregas. The young Spaniard has shown such competitive maturity and silky touch that he is surely a quintessential example of someone you might build a team around.

But what kind of concept has that become? It is one that implies the possibility of growth from one season to another, of favours granted and received, of some allegiance beyond the urge to grab at the first hint of a better deal. So it is a huge over-baked pie in the sky.

Consider, for example, some of yesterday's headlines on the utterly responsible football pages of The Independent. They proclaimed a football world where team building has been pushed into the cupboard where you might keep a chocolate teapot.

In no particular order, here is a sample, 'Ince set to pay £4m for Chile's 'Pineapple Head', 'Chimbonda keen to join Keane', 'Hleb claims Fabregas is destined to rejoin Barcelona', and, perhaps, most resonant of all, 'Makelele on way out as Drogba is left behind'. We know that Drogba, on balance, would prefer to be bolted into an upright position than linger at Stamford Bridge. Meanwhile, Frank Lampard, the kisser of the shirt, has a precise value for his loyalty: £150,000 a week.

No doubt the morality lecture by Wenger might as well have been spat into the wind at Royal Birkdale, but he is right to make his point. Turning over the tables would be an equally futile gesture. But it might just make the point that this is indeed a suitable time for rage.

Transformers Optimus Prime iPod dock

2008-08-20T01:39:00.000-07:00

Check out this iPod Optimus Prime dock. Two iconic products have merged to create the new Convoy iPod Docking Bay! Convoy is presented in an entirely white iPod color scheme and fully functional iPod Docking Bay with Speakers.

This product is fully licensed by Apple. The trailer holds two speakers and all standard size iPods will mount in the center of the trailer to play your favorite tunes (iPod not included of course). Please note that the iPod Shuffle will not work with this product. An AC adapter cord is also included. Convoy himself will be the same size as the G1 mold and a brand new Convoy head mold has been used.

Dream Team or Redeem Team?

2008-08-19T01:15:00.000-07:00

BEIJING – With each successive blowout, each complete manhandling of competition exponentially greater than Magic, Michael and Larry could have fathomed, the question about the current USA men’s basketball team isn’t about redemption, it’s about greatness.

As in, is this the greatest basketball team ever assembled?

Could they even take the original Dream Team?

Immediate reactions of blasphemy aside, the debate is certain to heat up if Team USA continues its blitzkrieg of the Beijing Olympics and wins the gold.

The team play has been extraordinary, the defense suffocating and even the outside shooting precise. On top of its game, the 2008 team is a tour de force to behold, its 119-82 annihilation of world champion Spain being the finest indication that this, at the very least, is the best Olympic team since 1992. And that includes a rather dominant 1996 U.S. club.

“They wanted to show everyone they are superior, and they did,” shell-shocked Spanish center Pau Gasol said.

1992 DREAM TEAM
NAME	POS.	HT	WT	AFFILIATION
Charles Barkley	F	6-6	250	Phoenix Suns
Larry Bird	F	6-9	220	Boston Celtics
Clyde Drexler	G	6-7	222	Portland Trail Blazers
Patrick Ewing	C	7-0	240	New York Knicks
Earvin Johnson	G	6-9	220	Los Angeles Lakers
Michael Jordan	G	6-6	198	Chicago Bulls
Christian Laettner	F	6-11	235	Duke University
Karl Malone	F	6-9	256	Utah Jazz
Chris Mullin	F	6-7	215	Golden State Warriors
Scottie Pippen	G/F	6-7	210	Chicago Bulls
David Robinson	C	7-1	235	San Antonio Spurs
John Stockton	G	6-1	175	Utah Jazz

2008 REDEEM TEAM
NAME	POS.	HT.	WT.	AFFILIATION
Carmelo Anthony	F	6-8	230	Denver Nuggets
Carlos Boozer	F	6-9	258	Utah Jazz
Chris Bosh	F	6-10	230	Toronto Raptors
Kobe Bryant	G	6-6	220	Los Angeles Lakers
Dwight Howard	F-C	6-11	265	Orlando Magic
LeBron James	F	6-8	240	Cleveland Cavaliers
Jason Kidd	G	6-4	210	Dallas Mavericks
Chris Paul	G	6-0	170	New Orleans Hornets
Tayshaun Prince	F	6-9	205	Detroit Pistons
Michael Redd	G	6-6	215	Milwaukee Bucks
Dwayne Wade	G	6-4	212	Miami Heat
Deron Williams	G	6-3	205	Utah Jazz

Superior even to the original squad? Here’s why the argument, first broached by Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post, is at the very least a valid one.

The 1992 team didn’t need to bring its “best” team to Barcelona to roll through the Olympics. USA Basketball selected it in part based on personality, marketing and even lifetime achievement.

Magic Johnson had been retired for a year. The Larry Bird of ‘92 was long past his prime, six years removed from his final league most valuable player award.

John Stockton was chosen over Isiah Thomas because Michael Jordan didn’t want Thomas around. Twelfth-man Christian Laettner, the NCAA player of the year, was selected as a nod to the past days of collegians representing the country.

Those four players averaged the fewest points on the team. Not that any of it mattered. The U.S. outscored opponents by an average of 43.8 points per game and became a phenomenon in the process.

In 2008 there is no such luxury, not with the improved play of the rest of the world.

The final players on the current U.S. team are Tayshaun Prince and Michael Redd. Prince is a defensive stopper with his pterodactyl-like wing span. Redd is a dead-on outside shooter.

All 12 of the current American players are either in their prime or about to enter it. This team is younger, quicker and certainly more focused, mostly because it needs to be.

Comparing results at these games is almost futile. The 1992 team could party the night away in Barcelona, roll out of bed and still win by 40. There have been no reports of such a thing here, where preparation is paramount.

“We realize that we made a sacrifice to come out here, and part of it is our bodies need to sleep,” said Carlos Boozer. “This is what we signed up for. Let’s go do whatever it takes to get it. If it takes leaving the arena at one in the morning to get the gold medal, we’ll [do it to] get the gold medal.”

The thing is, had they needed to be, the 1992 team would’ve been just as focused. Jordan would have assured that.

If anything tilts the balance forever in the original team’s advantage, it is MJ. In the summer of 1992, he was 29 years old and in the middle of winning six NBA championships and five NBA MVPs, numbers that could’ve been higher had he not chosen to play baseball for a season and a half.

He is undeniably not only the greatest player in the history of the game, but arguably its greatest crunch-time player and, along with Bill Russell, the best at simply finding ways to win. If it came down to a final shot, who’s betting against him?

The current team, as talented as it is, would have no logical answer.

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, considered the three best players and outrageously gifted in their own right, are all a step down from MJ.

However, the idea of Kobe defending Jordan, his idol, would be intriguing.

Conversely, the 1992 team has nothing quite like the physical freak that is the 6-foot-8, 240-pound LeBron. Scottie Pippen on him would be a hellacious matchup, though.

As good as the perimeter talent on the 1992 team was – especially Jordan, Pippen, Clyde Drexler and knock-down shooter Chris Mullin – the current squad is deeper and certainly capable of its own fireworks.

It is inside where the 1992 team would hold a significant advantage and likely determine the game.

The Dream Team’s post combinations were breathtaking – Patrick Ewing and David Robinson at center and Charles Barkley and Karl Malone at power forward, all in their prime. The current group of Dwight Howard, a tender 21 years old, Chris Bosh and Boozer would be overwhelmed and perhaps systematically fouled out. Carmelo Anthony, an uninterested defender, would have to be counted on here to help.

The only way for the current team to win would be to push the ball, score in transition and find a way to prevent the 1992 club from dumping it down low.

Could they do it?

The most difficult thing to determine is effort level. The 1992 team didn’t need it. This team is focused almost exclusively on it, especially on the defensive end.

“For 40 minutes we (want) to be nonstop movement and chaos,” said Chris Paul. “That’s what we try to do. We wreck havoc. Every time down we’re all over the point guards. Our big men are up, we’re not relaxing.”

In a single elimination game, that may or may not be enough.

“You will see a team of professionals in the Olympics again,” 1992 U.S. coach Chuck Daly said at the time, “but I don’t think you’ll see another team quite like this.”

If anything, you could argue that while the 1992 version may remain the greatest team ever assembled and one that would be favored in a hypothetical matchup, no team has ever played the game at a higher level than the current U.S. team.

By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports

Who wins, who loses in Williams deal?

2008-08-18T02:49:00.000-07:00

Gary Dineen/Getty Images

Is Williams the answer at the point LeBron and the Cavs have been looking for?

Never let it be said that the Cavaliers won't spend money to make sure LeBron James stays put in Cleveland. Danny Ferry went to work with some of his $30 million war chest of expiring contracts, and came out of it with a point guard who should provide a major upgrade for the Cavs' beleaguered offense.

Wednesday's trade for Milwaukee's Mo Williams also sent Joe Smith to Oklahoma City and Damon Jones to Milwaukee and returned Oklahoma City veteran Adrian Griffin; additionally, Luke Ridnour went from Oklahoma City (if he ever bothered moving there) to Milwaukee and Desmond Mason went from Milwaukee to Oklahoma City.

Cleveland takes on the final five years and $44 million of Williams' deal, but that's a small price to pay to make sure King James stays put in 2010. Williams isn't a pure point guard, but with LeBron handling the ball so much, he doesn't need to be.

The important thing is that he's better at initiating the offense than the likes of Jones, Delonte West and Daniel Gibson, so the Cavs can allow LeBron to play off the ball more and not run the same tired high pick-and-roll play with him on 43 straight possessions. Williams also is a good spot-up shooter and is capable of playing good defense, though you wouldn't know it from his effort last season.

Although Williams has been around the block a few times, he's also only 25 years old, which is important on two fronts. First, his prime years should roughly mirror those of James, and second, the five years left on his deal become much less daunting as all but one are when he's still in his 20s. And although his contract has a long way to run, the dollars aren't that onerous at an average of just under $9 million a year.

Losing Smith leaves a dent, especially if Ben Wallace's descent continues, but the upgrade at the point more than makes up for the loss of Smith in the frontcourt. Cleveland also might play small more often this year with LeBron as the power forward. Besides, with the expiring contracts of Eric Snow and Wally Szczerbiak, Ferry still has $20 million left to chase other additions.

Less obvious to me is why Milwaukee did this deal. Granted, Williams is a shoot-first point guard on a team with three other shoot-first starters, and the play of Ramon Sessions down the stretch last season might have convinced the Bucks he was expendable.

The trade also has a positive financial impact, and at least one person in the know told me Ridnour will play better in Milwaukee than he did in Seattle.

With all that said, the Bucks took on a pretty hefty downgrade going from Williams to Ridnour, and the financial savings don't show up for another two years. Even with Ridnour's expiring deal, Milwaukee can't get under the cap in 2010 unless Michael Redd punts on his $18.3 million player option, which doesn't seem likely.

Additionally, the Bucks traded a valuable expiring contract in Mason -- leaving rookie Joe Alexander as their only wing reserve -- and now have a logjam at the point with Sessions, Ridnour and biannual exception signee Tyronn Lue.

The deal becomes even more puzzling when you consider all the recent "win-now" moves made by the Bucks -- trading Yi Jianlian for Richard Jefferson, signing veterans such as Lue and Malik Allen, and giving Andrew Bogut a big contract extension. A salary dump of Williams flies in the face of the other offseason logic.

It's so puzzling, in fact, that one has to wonder whether new Bucks GM John Hammond made the call here or whether Herb Kohl's shadow government in Milwaukee pressed it upon him.

But regardless of whether you think Cleveland or Milwaukee got the better end of the Williams exchange, one thing is absolutely for certain: Oklahoma City made out like a bandit.

OKC traded Ridnour and Griffin for Mason and Smith, straight up. When you trade two-for-two like that, you aren't supposed to get rid of the two worst and get the two best in return. Somehow, the Okies did. Dumping Ridnour is especially sweet because he had two years and $13 million left on his deal and wasn't going to play this year; I had suspected they would have to pay somebody to take him, not the other way around.

Instead, Oklahoma City somehow walked away from this trade with two decent players, also managing to shave $6.6 million off its payroll and set itself up to be as much as $30 million under the cap next summer.

And there's more to come. Oklahoma City can turn around and deal Smith and Mason at the trade deadline, or even earlier, and get a draft pick in return for an expiring contract of a less valuable player. Doing so would echo last year's maneuver with Kurt Thomas, when the artists formerly known as the Sonics got two first-round picks from Phoenix as a reward for taking Thomas, then a third one when they flipped him at the trade deadline.

Add it all up and the logic works for me for just two of the three parties. Cleveland upgrades its shaky point guard spot and makes nice with its star player, and Oklahoma City basically turns nothing into something by unloading Ridnour for two useful players.

Milwaukee? I'm still puzzled by that end of it, and at the end of the day, it appears the Bucks dumped one of their best players for pennies on the dollar.

By John Hollinger

Reliving Eight Years Of Jermaine

2008-08-18T02:32:00.000-07:00

It’s hot and humid in Indianapolis this month. Storm clouds have rolled in often, typical of this time of year. Some of the weather has been so tumultuous that brand-new Lucas Oil Stadium, set to publicly open later this summer, has incurred some substantial leaks.

However, looking down South Pennsylvania Street it’s obvious that some of those clouds haven’t decided what to do above Conseco Fieldhouse.

Should the clouds part and allow sunshine to bathe the arena, signifying the rays of hope that are now engulfing the Pacers?

Or maybe the humidity and clouds should combine to provide a heavy, dense fog. Supplying a substitute for the white smoke that signifies the election of a new pope, marking the departure of Jermaine O’Neal, the face of the franchise for the last handful of years, and handing the torch over to Danny Granger as the team’s new figurehead.

Another possibility is a few days of rain, representing the sorrow often felt when a franchise, city and its fans say goodbye to a player that has had as profound of an effect as O’Neal has with the Pacers.

His last four seasons with the team were respectable, but often forgettable because of both injuries and the well-documented struggles of his teammates.

Since Indiana fell just a two wins shy of an NBA Finals appearance in June of 2004, O’Neal has averaged 19.4 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in 206 games.

Prior to that, Jermaine averaged 18.1 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per contest. The one stark difference, considering his rather consistent play, is that he appeared in 308 games during his first four seasons with the Pacers.

It’s safe to say that had it not been for a myriad of injuries, namely to his knees, O’Neal would still be calling Indiana home. However, he admitted on Wednesday that he was excited to receive a change in scenery.

"It's probably been one of the worst situations any pro team has been through," O'Neal said of the Pacers’ recent struggles during his introductory press conference in Toronto.

J.O. even admitted that he broke down and cried when he heard the news of his trade from the Pacers to the Raptors, an expression that wouldn’t have seemed possible just four years ago.

“There are a lot more things that went on behind the scenes that kind of wore you down. It wore me down a bit mentally and I started to not really enjoy playing as much as I used to love to play the game,” O’Neal said with Bryan Colangelo at his side. “When I got the call from my agent and he told me about the possibility of coming here, it was like a rebirth. Sometimes you lose that love and you need a move or something to get that fire back in you.”

As hard as that may be to hear for Pacer fans, if anyone can relate it’s the surrounding community, who seem to have lost their love for the game as well. If you’re looking for evidence, check out the NBA’s latest attendance numbers.

No matter how badly Indiana and J.O. needed to part ways – and they very much did – the power forward definitely enjoyed some great times in blue-and-gold.

Here’s a chronicling of O’Neal’s greatest moments during his eight seasons as a member of the Pacers.

August 31, 2000
The Pacers acquire O’Neal and Joe Kleine from the Trail Blazers in exchange for Dale Davis.

October 31, 2000
Jermaine makes his debut against the Spurs in a 98-85 season-opening loss, tallying 16 points and 10 rebounds in 31 minutes. It would mark the first of many double-doubles he’d record for Indiana.

March 13, 2001
He notches 28 points, 18 rebounds and 8 blocks in 54 minutes of action in an overtime loss to the Rockets.

April 18, 2001
In a win over Cleveland, O’Neal posts 30 points and 20 rebounds, his first twenty-rebound performance.

April 21, 2001
In his playoff debut with the Pacers, he helps stun the 76ers in Game One of their first-round series with 12 points and 20 boards.

December 22, 2001
O’Neal scores 38 points, then a career-high, in a close 109-103 victory over the Cavaliers.

November 26, 2002
He records the second 20/20 game of his career, posting 26 points and 21 rebounds in a win against Washington.

January 22, 2003
Jermaine notches a triple-double (18 points, 10 rebounds and 10 blocks) in a victory over, ironically, the Raptors.

February 4, 2003
He tallies his third 20/20 game, contributing 23 points and 20 rebounds in a 97-94 loss to the Lakers.

April 21, 2003
The Pacers lose their first-round series to the lower-seeded Celtics, but Jermaine posts 20/20 game number four in the first of Indiana’s two wins. He narrowly missed the mark on three other occasions during the six-game battle, posting efforts of 25/19, 19/22 and 25/19.

November 4, 2003
In an eleven-point win over the Nuggets, O’Neal notches his fifth 20/20 performance with 25 points and 20 boards.

November 19, 2004
Jermaine scores 20 points and grabs 13 rebounds in a big 97-82 win over the Pistons, who eliminated the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals just months earlier. He is then forced to deck a Detroit fan that charges him during ‘The Malice At The Palace’.

January 4, 2005
O’Neal scores a career-high 55 points in a win over the Bucks, the second highest single-game effort in the franchise’s history (NBA).

April 27, 2006
He posts 37 points and 15 rebounds in Indiana’s win over the Nets in Game Three of their first-round series. The Pacers eventually lose in six games.

May 4, 2006
In his final postseason game in Indiana, O’Neal tallies 21 points and 6 rebounds as the Pacers lose 96-90 to end their season.

December 31, 2007
Jermaine notches his final double-double as a Pacer, with 20 points and 13 rebounds in a loss to the Bobcats.

In addition to all those memorable single-game performances, O’Neal took home quite a bit of hardware and led many a statistical category during his tenure in Indiana.

-Led the NBA with 228 blocks during the 2000-01 season.
-Took home the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award in 2002.
-Made the All-NBA Third Team in 2002 & 2003.
-Named to the All-NBA Second Team in 2004.
-Finished third in the 2004 MVP voting behind Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.
-Made six All-Star appearances (consecutively), the most in team history.
-Tallied 243 double-doubles as a member of the Pacers.

As his career currently stands, O’Neal will not make the Hall of Fame. However, it wouldn’t be hard to envision the Pacers retiring his jersey once the sun has set on his career. That’d be no small feat in Indiana, where just four players have their name and number hanging in the rafters.

With that said, it will likely be a long time before such an honor is discussed. However, Jermaine doesn’t have to play another game in the NBA to be considered among the greatest Pacers ever to grace the floor.

It would be hard to argue against referring to Jermaine as the second greatest player ever to play for Indiana (in the NBA), as no one else has enjoyed the same success on both an individual and team level. Some believe he led the greatest team the franchise has ever fielded in 2004, although the 2000 squad that made the Finals would certainly receive consideration as well.

Quite simply, Jermaine O’Neal is a class act. He’s helped dispel the negative stigma surrounding players that jumped straight from high school to the NBA, while at the same time defending what he feels is a man’s right to make his own decisions upon reaching the militarily-legal age of eighteen.

Regardless of how happy he is to be out of Indiana, there will always be a part of the heartland in his 6’11” frame. Even he’d admit that.

If the weather could be controlled, the proper conditions over Conseco Fieldhouse would likely vary over the coming days.

Maybe some rain drops in the early morning, followed by a slight fog around noon, concluding with bright rays of sunshine in the afternoon to honor the future that both O’Neal and the Pacers will hopefully enjoy.

Only this time, they won’t be enjoying it together.

Authored by Andrew Perna

China Loves Its Soccer. Its Team? Don’t Ask.

2008-08-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

China Loves Its Soccer. Its Team? Don’t Ask.

Roberto Candia/Associated Press

Chinese soccer fans before China played Belgium on Sunday. The fans' support has not been reflected in the results of the men's national and Olympic teams.

QINHUANGDAO, China — The kick in the groin was the low point of the Olympic Games for hundreds of millions of Chinese sports fans.

Times journalists and special contributors explore the Olympics in Beijing and on the Web from every angle — the politics, the culture and the competition.

It came 52 minutes into the China-Belgium men’s soccer match Sunday when a Chinese player, Tan Wangsong, having just missed the ball, swung his foot straight into the private parts of a Belgian player, Sébastien Pocognoli, leaving him writhing in pain on the field. The kick resulted in the game’s first red card and automatic ejection. The second, 12 minutes later, was charged to the Chinese team captain, Zheng Zhi, for elbowing an opposing player.

As usual, jokes about the Chinese team fanned across the Internet: “The Chinese team just won two red medals.” “Our soccer team won the gold medal in martial arts.” “China has had a weird year, with a freak snowstorm, the Tibetan riots and an earthquake, but the performance of our soccer team shows that some things never change.”

In its quest for sports supremacy, China is placing its hopes for winning the medal count on a panoply of athletes honed to near perfection in sports like gymnastics, diving, rowing, table tennis and hurdling. It has shown its athletic prowess by climbing atop the medals table in the opening days of competition. The nation, though, demands much less of its men’s soccer team.

After a 3-0 loss to Brazil in this coastal city, the team exited the Summer Games with exactly what its legions of exhausted fans expected — no victories in three games.

Soccer may be the sport the Chinese care about above all else, but it is also the one that most frustrates and disappoints them. The men's national and Olympic teams are the objects of scorn, shame and much hand-wringing.

For Chinese men proud of international sports stars like Yao Ming in basketball and the hurdler Liu Xiang, the soccer team endures as the ultimate symbol of humiliation. After the Chinese women’s soccer team beat Argentina, 2-0, on Tuesday, its coach, Shang Ruihua, said, “Our strikers did such a great job that I even told them they should start playing for our men’s team now.”

After the men lost to Brazil, angry fans outside the stadium held a miniprotest that broke up when the riot police arrived.

“We play soccer like the Brazilians play Ping-Pong,” Li Weifeng, 30, the new team captain, said with a deflated voice afterward.

Many Chinese would say that is an insult to Brazilian table tennis players.

“It’s so beyond an embarrassment that it almost seems like a comedy,” a popular soccer columnist, Li Chengpeng, said in an interview before the match. “We’ve cried our tears dry, and now it’s time for us to enjoy the big show, because you never know how our team is going to lose this time.”

Soccer presents the biggest conundrum for the Chinese sports machine — the country has the money, the population and the fan base to put together a world-class team, yet has not succeeded. The men’s national team has been to the World Cup only once, when Japan and South Korea were the hosts in 2002, but it failed to score a goal in three games. In 2004, Chinese fans nearly rioted in Beijing when China lost the Asian Cup final to Japan, 3-1. The latest embarrassment came in June, when the team lost to Iraq in a World Cup qualifying match, 2-1. China was later eliminated from qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Chinese leaders generally try to silence widespread criticism of national symbols, but with men’s soccer, the government allows people to vent.

Everyone piles on, including state news media like CCTV and Xinhua, celebrity sports bloggers, even other athletes and coaches. Fans also openly deride the head of the government-run Chinese Football Association, Xie Yalong, a former senior official from Shaanxi Province. “Xie Yalong must resign!” became a loud chant at the last two Olympic matches, and Xie was seen leaving the Belgium match early.

Many Chinese sports analysts and scholars point to endemic corruption within the association as one cause of the sport’s ills. The association started the current league system in 1994, and soccer became the first sport to achieve commercial success in China, with sponsors pouring in millions of dollars.

Xu Guoqi, a professor of East Asian history at Kalamazoo College and the author of a new book on China and the Olympics, said Chinese soccer would improve only after the rule of law is established in China. He said disappointment with soccer could lead to the next “major revolution” in China. And he was not joking.

“Without rule of law, corruption will get involved, and nobody is responsible to anyone,” said Xu, who wrote an op-ed article in The Washington Post last month lamenting the state of Chinese soccer. “If Chinese continue to be obsessed with soccer, they’ll definitely demand something dramatic, something political or involving rule of law. It will start with sports, and then it will move onto something bigger.”

Big money is part of the problem, he said, with most Chinese male soccer players making annual salaries of more than one million yuan, or $146,000, in a country where the average citizen’s income is less than $3,000. It goes to their heads, he said.

The Chinese news media often report on the flashy lives that many soccer players lead. Players have been caught with drugs and prostitutes. Such behavior is not that unusual for international soccer stars, but is out of the norm for Chinese athletes.

Women’s players in China are much more grounded, Xu said, perhaps because their salaries are a fraction of the men’s. The women’s national team, nicknamed the Iron Roses, has seen relative success, reaching the World Cup final in 1999, when it lost to the United States in a penalty-kick shootout.

Lu You, who anchors a soccer show on CCTV, also said outsized incomes and high expectations had crippled men’s soccer.

“If they win, we treat them as heroes,” she said. “If they lose, we say, ‘Go to hell.’ ”

Other factors could be hobbling men’s soccer, experts said. Perhaps too few children are being encouraged to play. Also, the state system of training athletes works well in sports in which individuals excel — table tennis or gymnastics, for example — but falls short in soccer because of the cost of sustaining a team, some experts said.

Li, the columnist, said the government could easily invest $12 million to train a table tennis player, but the resources needed to properly develop a soccer team are beyond the means of the state. A market-based system has to be put in place, he said.

“It represents the most outdated management system that still exists in this country,” he said. “You can’t run a soccer team the same way you train table tennis players, which is exactly what they’re doing right now.”

Against Brazil, Chinese fans tried to leave their ambivalence at home. They came with red-painted faces, draped in flags and wearing red headbands that said, “China must win!” The 33,000-seat stadium was nearly full.

The sheer love among Chinese for soccer was demonstrated by the loud welcome they gave the Brazilian players, especially Ronaldinho.

The cheers went up again when Diego scored the first goal of the night for Brazil. “I love their technique,” said Cui Wei, 30, a high school teacher who had driven five hours to see the match. “It’s gentle and soft.”

She added, “They enjoy playing soccer, while the Chinese view it as a fight.”

After Brazil scored twice more in the second half, fans chanted for the resignation of Xie, the head of the soccer association. The fans began trickling home before the game ended.

Li, the Chinese captain, faced dozens of disappointed Chinese reporters after the game.

“The Chinese people have intense wishes for a strong Chinese team, but we need more tolerance and time,” he said. “Like you, we also want to improve, to make a change.”

His dejected look said that perhaps he had taken to heart a common assessment of the team by Chinese fans: “There are two things stopping the Chinese soccer team from going outside Asia to take part in international games: their left feet and their right feet.”

By EDWARD WONG

Published: August 14, 2008

A Tribute to the Box Art of Video Cards

2008-08-13T20:47:00.000-07:00

t might be a geek thing, but since I was a teen and started playing with computers I have always admired the box of video cards. They always had some beautiful graphic art. Dragons, knights and other creatures that inspired my fantasies about the games I would play.

Thinking about that I decided to create a collection with pictures of video card boxes. Enjoy.

On Redeem Team, Kobe has most to gain

2008-08-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

Wrapped around a rich and famous professional athlete, especially one defined by a me-first core, the stars and stripes can cover a lifetime's worth of blemishes and flaws.

Kobe Bryant surely recognized this when he was asked to play for the United States at the Summer Games in Beijing. Jerry Colangelo, chief elder of USA Basketball, made the call and informed Bryant that this wouldn't be any fly-by experience.

In the wake of Athens, a disaster of Larry Brown's design, Colangelo told Bryant he needed a three-year commitment. "That wasn't a concern for me," Kobe said, "as I was down to play for three years, four years or five years, whatever it was."

On the gold medal stand in Barcelona, a Nike client named Michael Jordan shamefully used the American flag to cover the Reebok label on his uniform. Sixteen years later, Bryant won't use the flag as a weapon in the war against a rival company's bottom line.

He'll use it to recover his own good name.

Bryant is the Redeem Team's No. 1 redemption seeker, the American basketball player with the most to gain. Kobe can't dominate these Olympics the way Michael Phelps can, and he can't touch his countrymen the way Yao Ming or Liu Xiang can.

But by winning a gold medal and reestablishing America's dominance in a sport it was supposed to forever own, Bryant can go a long way toward cleansing his legacy.

No, it shouldn't work this way. Victory is too often mistaken for virtue in the athletic arena; one usually has nothing to do with the other. Kobe's play in Beijing shouldn't impact the way he's perceived — outside of Los Angeles, anyway — after years of relentlessly selfish behavior in the Lakers' employ.

Yet the only thing Americans love more than a winner is a winner wearing red, white and blue. Bryant knows this. He knows that when history measures Brown's losers from Greece against Mike Krzyzewski's prospective gold medalists from Beijing, this will emerge as the most conspicuous fact:

Kobe was there in 2008, and he wasn't there in 2004.

So this is an opportunity for Bryant as big as Beijing itself. That's why he's been quoted as saying an Olympic gold medal would mean more to him than the three NBA titles he won with the aid of Shaquille O'Neal.

"A gold medal is different because you're playing for your country," Bryant said. "There is more at stake I think. When you're playing for an NBA championship you're obviously playing for a brand, you're playing for whatever motivates you, to prove people wrong or whatever it is.

"You put on the USA uniform and you're playing for something that's bigger than all of that. You're representing your country. It's one country going up against the other one to prove who's best at playing this game. To me that holds more weight."

In his first Olympics, Kobe Bryant will try to lead Team USA back to prominence ... and dominance. (Andrew D. Bernstein / Getty Images)

Bryant has put off surgery on an injured finger to play in these Games. He's still beaten up physically and emotionally from a long season that ended so painfully in Boston.

But Kobe wasn't going to miss Beijing any more than Tiger Woods was going to miss the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Consider where Bryant was four years ago, when the U.S. prepared to hit Athens without him.

He had been accused of sexual assault. He had lost the title in five games to the Pistons. He had run off Shaq and Phil Jackson, who would call Bryant "uncoachable" in his book.

Bryant would see the assault case dropped and his coach return to the bench. What he wouldn't see was the return of his Laker dynasty.

Kobe thanked team management for standing by him during the Colorado case by eventually demanding a trade. For the viewing pleasure of the YouTube world, he ridiculed Mitch Kupchak for declining to exchange Andrew Bynum for Jason Kidd, a move that would've been even more damaging to the Lakers than the Shaq deal with Miami that Kobe forced them to make.

Bryant ended up in a far better situation than he deserved. Kupchak kept the developing Bynum, made a steal of a deal in the form of Pau Gasol, and gave his megalomaniac megastar a supporting cast strong enough to reach the Finals.

The Celtics prevailed and now Bryant enters a tournament that could do more for him and his image than a fourth NBA ring could've ever done. This is his chance to play for his would-be college coach, Krzyzewski, who couldn't get Bryant to pick Duke over the pros and who returned the favor years later when Kobe tried recruiting him to L.A.

Coach K says he adores Bryant, and you don't need a job on Madison Avenue to understand the Coach K seal of approval means a ton. If Kobe realizes he'll never again be the wholesome and bilingual two-guard next door, he has to believe that a winning performance — shaped by tough defense and an eagerness to share the ball — will improve his marketability and, perhaps, restore him as a pitchman supreme.

This much Bryant has working in his favor: He playing for the most talented Summer Games team in Beijing by far, and it's an ideal time to be an American Olympic star.

China has come under intense scrutiny for its embarrassing human rights record and a long history of denying its citizens the most basic liberties. Against this backdrop, the U.S. athletes will be cast as freedom fighters, or something like that, adding a perceived (if bogus) significance to their victories.

Bryant is expected to be both the Americans' leading scorer and their lockdown defender. He wasn't around in Athens when Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury and Tim Duncan couldn't find the FIBA formula to save their overmatched coach, Brown, who preferred LeBron James on the bench.

LeBron will be out there this time around, and the world will be watching to see if he can back up the guarantee he made for Time. But guarantee or no guarantee, James doesn't need this one as much as Bryant does.

Kobe never stepped foot in Athens, and he's still the Redeem Team member who requires redemption most.

Pocket Watch - great gift idea

2008-08-11T21:01:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, it's not so much the message that counts, but how this message was expressed. The same is true of the presents you give to the men in your life - be they boyfriend, husband, brother, father, uncle, or a second cousin.

Pocket watches unlike wristwatches were designed to be carried in a pocket as opposed to being worn on the wrist. Developed in the sixteenth century they were popular until the wristwatch came about after WWI.

Pocket watches have been around since the 16th century. The early vintage model was of a more square design, and somewhat larger than today's versions. In the early days only the rich were able to own one, as it was a true status symbol of wealth and authority. In the same era, mechanisms were introduced to bring time-telling precision, and some of the earliest models even had an alarm.

The good thing about a silver pocket watch is that it looks distinguished. Thus, it can also double as a striking piece of accessory. You may purchase a fob to accompany the watch. A fob will provide your recipient with more choices on how to wear the watch. He could wear it as a necklace, for one, or a bracelet, for another.

To add a special touch to your gift-giving, have the silver pocket watch engraved. You could have the date and the name of the recipient etched on the back, for instance. Or, you could include a line or two that only you and your recipient would understand. The message should be one that aptly encapsulates your relationship with the person you are giving the silver pocket watch to.

Meanwhile, collecting antique pocket watches has become a pastime for folks young and old. To learn the value of the pocket watch, and what you should be paying for it, you can find numerous books available at antique pocket watch auction sites.

What does acquisition of Artest mean for Hayes' role with Rockets?

2008-08-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

What does acquisition of Artest mean for Hayes' role with Rockets?

Houston Rockets forward Chuck Hayes (44) makes a pass while being defended by Indiana Pacers guard Marquis Daniels during the second quarter of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

AP - Darron Cummings

By RON AGOSTINI

Chuck Hayes' summer had proceeded according to plan: a week-long big-man camp in Las Vegas, an appearance at Tayshaun Prince's clinic in Lexington, Ky., and, of course, daddy time with 16-month-old son Dorian.

What was unplanned was a text message from Houston Rockets teammate Tracy McGrady.

"It said, 'We got Artest,' " Hayes said. "I thought at first it was a joke. Then I thought, 'We had to trade somebody. Was I involved?' "

Hayes, 25, remains a Rocket, though his role surely will change now that Ron Artest -- the notorious ex-Sacramento King -- switched teams last month. Artest, a versatile scorer and one of the NBA's premier shutdown defenders, makes the Rockets a potential three-headed monster with Yao Ming and McGrady.

Where it puts Hayes, however, won't be known for a few months.

Here's what we know about Modesto's connection to the NBA:

He's one season into a four-year contract worth $8 million.

He's started 87 games over two seasons, a remarkable feat for an undrafted player who parlayed a 10-game contract in January 2006 into full-time NBA employment.

He's an undersized 6-foot-6-inch power forward who was forced into even more thankless work as a center last season following the foot injury to Yao. Hayes averaged 20 minutes, 3.0 points and 5.4 rebounds while fighting through dramatic size and height disadvantages.

He'll adapt to any situation.

Like Kentucky said about him in its All-American promotion four years ago, "All he does is win."

Sure enough, he carved himself a place in the NBA against all odds. Who's to say he won't survive in the Rockets' brave new world with Artest?

Besides, Hayes likes the Artest trade. He may not love it if he loses his job but, for now, he -- like the rest of the NBA -- thinks the Rockets have upgraded dramatically.

"He will bring skill, leadership and an attitude that we need," Hayes said Friday during a telephone interview. "He'll take a lot of pressure off Yao and T-Mac, and now Shane (Battier) doesn't have to guard the other team's best scorer every night."

As for the ex-Modesto Christian High Crusader, he'll accept whatever assignment coach Rick Adelman hands him. After Yao went down last season, Hayes logged time in the post in a three-way rotation with rookie Carl Landry and Luis Scola.

All of that changes this season. Suddenly, the Rockets' roster is overloaded with forwards, a glut they partially corrected last week by trading Steve Novak to the Clippers. The Artest acquisition means the Rockets will try to win right now. They won 107 games the last two seasons but twice fell in the first round of the playoffs.

"I'm all for this trade. We have one of the top big threes in the league with Tracy, Ron and Yao. You can't get much better than that," Hayes said. "I don't think we can creep up on people, but we can be one of the top teams in the West."

That said, Hayes' dance card is full. For all his attributes as a solid defender and a master of all the unsung duties that must be done to win, he's also labored on offense. Foul trouble and poor free-throw shooting also dog him.

Now that the Rockets have committed to a major playoff push, they'll demand more from Hayes.

"I have to stick with what I do. If I have to be a little less unselfish with the ball, I'll do that," he said. "I really want to be consistent. Last year, I'd have a good game and then I'd fall off the next three games. I want the team to know they can depend on me every night."

I'm guessing here, but I think Hayes sees himself as an island of reliability on a potentially combustible team. Picking up Artest accents that chemistry. Yao hasn't finished a season in three years. McGrady is pushing 30. And Artest is, well, Artest. The Rockets could either fly to the moon or blow up on the launch pad.

"He (Artest) is a pro. It was fun to play against him. He had his moments against me, and I had mine. Whatever happened to him in the past, he's been around for a long time," Hayes said. "He's made mistakes, and he's owned up to them. He's a different man now."

Rockets forward Artest’s competitive nature forged by roots

2008-08-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

Rockets forward Artest’s competitive nature forged by roots

By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

RICH PEDRONCELLI Associated Press

Despite having fame and riches, new Rockets forward Ron Artest, left, hasn't forgotten his roots.

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which one has overcome while trying to succeed.”

— Booker T. Washington

NEW YORK — After all the years and all the changes, the reputation remains intact.

Tough. Dark. Dangerous.

The brick towers of the Queensbridge Houses still look the part. On this weeknight, at 1 a.m., there is a stillness on the streets and in the courtyards. It is not unlike that of the safest tree-lined suburb, but here, where reputation tells different stories, it might seem the 3,000 families of Queensbridge have gone indoors for the relative safety offered behind the walls of the pre-war federal housing project.

But the light of day reveals more about the neighborhood that new Rockets forward Ron Artest once called home and considers a part of him. There are truths to be told that reputation belies.

There are plenty of concerns here in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge, incidents that cannot be denied. But life in the nation’s largest housing project has changed over the years and always offered more inside those 96 six-story buildings than many cared to notice.

It is a relatively desirable spot, just two stops on the subway or a ride across the bridge from the wealth and power on the Manhattan side of the East River. And success, even greatness, has sprung from these towers.

“Queensbridge was a rough place, a really rough place,” said Jose Morales, one of Artest’s closest friends for more than two decades. “Not anymore, though. It’s the same thing with Ron. People hear stuff about Ron and think, ‘I’m not going near Ron.’ People hear about Queensbridge and say, ‘I’m not going out there.’ But when you get out there, like I said about Ron, when you actually get to know him, it’s different. It’s a great place. Same with him; he’s a great person. They’re going to love him in Houston.”

After a pro-am game in which he played for a team naturally called “Queensbridge,” Artest was informed by Morales that he would be traded from the Sacramento Kings to the Rockets, inspiring Artest to shout the names of Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming to the crowds on Lexington Avenue. Not long after, Artest answered some Yao comments by describing himself as “ghetto.”

“I’m still ghetto,” said Artest, 28, who was unavailable to comment for this story while tending to his daughter, Diamond, who was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for a kidney tumor. “That’s not going to change. I’m never going to change my culture.”

“What is ghetto?” said Ron Artest Sr., 51, who looks more like his oldest son’s brother than his father. “I lived in a ghetto, but am I ghetto? Is Ron ghetto? He was born and raised in the projects, but he never got involved with all the negative stuff.

“It was not far from him. But the way he was raised, the house was one thing, and what happened in the streets was another thing. There were guns. Some bullets came into the house twice. I found the bullet holes.

“He never was in trouble. In Queensbridge, the neighborhood is rough. People did what they did. That doesn’t mean you have to get caught up with it. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. It was never a temptation for me. The type of person Ron is, the way he grew up, I don’t think the stuff outside affected him.”

Basketball mattered

By the time Artest was 7, he was playing Catholic Youth Organization basketball and turning heads. The neighborhood was becoming rougher, but friends shielded him. He had a large family — three sisters, two brothers and nearly as many nieces and nephews — squeezed into the apartment and a sense that family mattered.

Even after his father moved out when Artest was 12, Ron Sr. was there so often few knew he no longer lived in the first-floor apartment in Building 41.

“It was definitely a rough neighborhood,” Morales said. “Lots of violence, unexpected violence. We’d be on the court as kids, and something would happen, and you’d have to take cover, run to the closest building. You’d hear gunshots. I can’t say it’s like every other neighborhood in America. It was rough. But it’s a good place to live. Don’t get me wrong.

“You have to do what you have to do. Growing up in that neighborhood made him a tough man. We saw a lot, went through a lot. But he had a good father, a real good father, there for him. He had friends for him, telling him he had a special talent, telling him to stick on this path. But mainly it was his father.

“As long as it wasn’t raining so hard you couldn’t see, Ron and his father would be at Queensbridge, shooting hoops. It could be snowing. His father would shovel, and his little brother would be rebounding, feeding him the ball.”

Soon coaches were mentoring him. Artie Cox, a longtime assistant at Christ The King High School, coached Artest and Lamar Odom with the BQ Express AAU team locally, and Ernie Lorch of the legendary Riverside Church coached Artest’s traveling AAU team. Artest played for Lou Garnes at St. John’s Prep and still plays for his pro-am team. Bill Aberer coached him at La Salle High School.

Artest was thrown out of practices and banished from a few teams for practice dustups. But the issues were considered small, and coaches began trying to teach him to channel his aggression.

“People don’t know how hard Ron worked to get where he is right now,” Cox said. “They think he is this loose-cannon guy, goes to the beat of his own drum and doesn’t pay attention to the rules. You’ve heard all these things. It’s really not true. Ron, where he came from to get to the NBA, is a dramatic story.

“Ron was on his own a lot. He was a soldier. He could have quit many times, but he had it in his heart. He knew basketball was going to be his out.”

As each friend and family member argues that Artest’s image does not begin to reveal the truth about him, they refuse to make excuses for Artest’s mistakes. They don’t blame others for his reputation.

Ugly incident

There have been many incidents, but the night he went into the crowd during a game against the Pistons at Auburn Hills, Mich., triggering an ugly brawl and earning Artest the longest suspension (73 games) in NBA history not related to drug use or gambling, is what labels him more than the rest.

Artest blames himself for his actions. His friends argue that the image is wrong but that it is Artest’s fault.

“The image that he has, to me, he’s not like that at all,” Ron Sr. said. “He brought most of the baggage on himself, but he has a pure heart. He’s not a bad guy.”

The incidents are described as things that have happened. The rest are considered things that he does.

Artest has established a scholarship fund for Excel University. He sponsors teams and events in Queensbridge. Last month, he and Morales piled 300 kids into buses for a trip to Great Adventure Amusement Park. He has taken the La Salle basketball team to the Five Star Basketball camp. He formed Team Artest, which Morales said steers kids from trouble by keeping them busy.

But Artest’s hesitation to publicize his good deeds could be a result of his not considering it to be charity work as much as a part of his life, just another way in which he remains a part of Queensbridge, where he arrives by public transportation, blingless in shorts and T-shirts like everyone else there. When he sent players to Five Star, he slept in the bunks just like the players and went to the practices.

One of his favorite things is serving as a volunteer with Wheelchair Charities Inc., which he has done for 15 years, and doing anything he can for Hank Carter, its founder and chairman. Carter has taken Wheelchair Charities from a small entity that raised money to buy motorized wheelchairs to one that has purchased more than $10 million in wheelchairs, beds, computer labs and state-of-the-art technology for Coler-Goldwater Hospital.

Charity work

As an NBA player, Artest has played in the Wheelchair Classic game and attended the dinner, recruiting others to join him. Carter, who had been the community center director at Queensbridge and taught Artest’s father to box, has helped guide Artest for nearly 18 years, including the two years when Artest lived with him when times were particularly tough.

“We were so close,” said Carter, 65, a Queensbridge native. “I was into basketball. I was in Vietnam. I was very against drugs in the community. That’s how this started. I fought the drug dealers. I go to Mass every day. I tried to pull Ron closer to God, and he was. Ron will give you the shirt off his back. He’s a great human being. I kept Ron going to church every day. I believed if he gets closer to God, I don’t have to worry about him.”

Still, there have been incidents. Friends and family say the off-court problems have been misunderstood.

Artest was arrested in March 2007 and charged with domestic abuse and subsequently sentenced to 20 days in jail as well as community service. The sentence was reduced to 10 days in a work-release program. He has been accused of animal neglect, although charges were not filed.

Friends and family say Artest is devoted to his wife, Kimsha, and children, Sadie Jeron, Ron and Diamond, and that the arrest for domestic abuse was the result of an argument. They said the animal neglect accusations were because individuals Artest trusted to feed his dogs while the Kings were on the road did not.

But his on-court incidents made the off-court accusations easier to believe.

“Reputation is like that,” Cox said.

“Now, he’s married. He’s a great father, always doing something with his children, always giving back to his community.”

In some ways, nothing has changed. But Artest’s life has. He left the projects and poverty. He considers himself among the most elite of all-around players in the NBA and is so excited to be joining the Rockets that he picked out a home in Houston within days of learning of the deal and began trying to convince his father to bring his large family to join him.

But in many ways, Artest never left Building 41.

“He is so proud of being from the projects,” said Fran Fraschilla, an ESPN analyst who recruited Artest to St. John’s. “It drives him. He is proud not of getting out of Queensbridge, but of being from there. His body might have left, but his mind and his heart are still there.”