Sports Archives

Billy King is an idiot. He got fleeced on this deal. To wit:

1) They get no young players from Denver. Not even a knucklehead like JR Smith. Yes they got Andre Miller, but it's not like he's going to resign there in 2 years when his deal is up.

2) The two picks they got, belonging to Dallas and Denver, will likely both be in the 20's. This draft is top heavy and they're not going to be able to package these picks together in order to move up.

3) The Sixers are over the cap but under the luxury tax limit, so getting Joe Smith's expiring deal is worthless. They'll still be over the cap when his contract expires, so they won't be able to sign anyone in his place. They'd have been better off getting a max salary that expires next year in return and then waiting for that contract and CWebb's deal to expire in 2008.

By now, you've probably seen the fight between the Knicks and Nuggets last night. If not, peep the "remix" above. Apparently the Knicks took exception that four of the Nuggets starters were still in the game with 90 seconds left when they were up 19. Quoth Nate Robinson, the most hated man in the NBA:

"From what they did, keeping their guys on the court, I knew a foul was going to come. It was a good, clean, hard foul, and after that things went down from there," Robinson said. "I've never seen a team up 20 keep their starters in. They wanted to embarrass us, and it was a slap in the face to us as a team and a franchise."

Yes, this is the same Nat Robinson that earlier this month attempted a dunk during the game by passing it to himself by bouncing the ball off the court, a la his 347 unsuccessful attempts in last year's Slam Dunk Championship.

What did Robinson have to say about the attempt, where he was correctly called for travelling?

When asked what he was thinking, he replied, "I was trying to dunk it. What did it look like? It was a dunk," to New York reporters. He added he wouldn't try it again — unless maybe his team was up 20 points.

Emphasis mine, obvs. What a punk ass little bitch.

That's what good friend* Bob Ryan said to me last night when I bumped into him in the press room at the Verizon Center. The question? "Mr. Ryan, do you think the Celtics are going to land Allen Iverson?"

Officially we are out of the running and Denver is now the lead team, but I honestly think the longer this thing is drawn out, the greater the chance The Answer is playing in Beantown very soon. We should know tomorrow, that's the first day that players drafted or signed over the summer are eligible to be traded.

The Wiz v. Nuggs game last night was a bit of a snoozer, but damn, 'Melo is pretty much unstoppable when his step back jumper is falling. And it was in the first half. He had 30 points midway through the 3rd quarter. And then, for some reason, they stopped passing it to him. I guess everyone wanted to go for theirs since they were down 18 by then. More photos here.

*I wish.

I expected AI to be in a new uniform when I woke up, not Freddy Adu! D.C. United traded the precocious youngster to Real Salt Lake today along with backup goalkeeper Nick Rimando.

Speaking of AI, is Orlando the front runner?

**Update** - More than a few (unreliable) internet sources are saying Iverson and Kevin Ollie are headed to Sacramento for Mike Bibby, Scoreless Williamson, Francisco Garcia and a #1 pick.

Word on the interweb is that the Philadelphia 76ers will be trading Allen Iverson sometime within the next 48 hours, which is leading to all sorts of speculation as to who is going to land him. From what I've read, the Sixers want cap relief in the next two years and want all the offers in by early this afternoon.

I'm too under the weather to link to everything out there so let me leave you with this. Although the Celtics can put together one of the best packages out there, I can't see Philly trading AI within their own division. Personally I wouldn't want to send Philly more than Theo Ratliff, Delonte West, Tony Allen and Sebastian Telfair. Perhaps we could throw in Wally if they send Sam Dalembert back as well. If we give up more than that, I'll be disappointed. AI's price was higher this summer, but it's significantly lower right now.

Dallas is supposedly offering Jerry Stackhouse, Austin Croshere and a pick. Golden State is ponying up Baron Davis and a pick. Sacramento is dangling Mike Bibby and a bunch of garbage. The Lakers, Denver and TWolves are also in hot pursuit. The Sixers already have 15 players under contract, so if they do a 3 or 4 for 1 deal, someone's going to have to be cut. That might gum up the works a bit or perhaps make this a three team deal.

As for me, I'm going to go back to sleep and hope I feel better when I wake up. And if AI is in another uni when I wake up, we'll talk about it then.

Also, the C's play the Sixers on Wednesday, so if something's going down between those two, I doubt a deal would go down before then. Philly's definitely going to want to put off the dreaded AI revenge game, where he's going to drop like 50 on them, as long as they possibly can.

Let me be the latest person to wish Larry Bird, aka Larry Legend, aka Basketball Jesus, a very happy 50th birthday. I remember sitting in my living room as a kid and going crazy as I watched this. NBA TV is running a Bird marathon today, I took some time before I left for work to erase every non-essential thing on my DVR so I can get as much of it as possible.

There's no better time than now to look back at the C's glory days, seeing as how the current Celtics are officially the worst team in the league. Perk is out three weeks with plantar fasciitis, so all three of the centers on our roster are hurt. Wally's ankle is banged up so he's been out the last two games. The only good thing about all of this is Doc has no choice but to give Al Jefferson and Gerald Green some burn. Green had 21 last night, so hopefully that will continue.

Lastly, I saw an amazing stat when I was at the bar watching the Wiz v. Knicks last night. New York is paying just over $61 million for five players that aren't even with the team any more: Allan Houston, Jalen Rose, Mo Taylor, Shandon Anderson and Jerome Williams. The Utah Jazz, Milwaukee Bucks, Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons, Seattle SuperSonics, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Hornets, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Bobcats are all paying their entire roster less than what the Knicks are paying out to those five players. Incredible.

The Nets loss to the Bobcats last night leaves the (not so) mighty Celtics alone in first place in the Atlantic Division. If the C's were in the Western Conference, they'd have the second worst record in the entire conference, ahead of only Memphis. Ouch.

The Nets and C's face off tonight for division supremacy.

More thoughts on the C's, this whole Doc Rivers thing and Bob Ryan v. Bill Simmons later this week.

LeBron and the Cavs laid an egg at the MCI Center on Saturday night. Check out the write up over at DCist.

Life as an honest-to-goodness NBA reporter is alright with me. That was my view in the first half last night. Not too shabby, eh? I sat in the press section behind one of the baskets, the nearest one to the floor. I was about eight rows back. Free wi-fi. Food and drink before the game. And free ice cream at halftime (although I did not partake). During the second half I moved farther down the row, towards the outside of the section and had a great vantage point for the shot Vince Carter hit to send the game to OT. I hate Vince with a passion, but he has incredible body control when he's in the air.

The whole night was a bit surreal. That was the closest I'd sat to the court since high school. Chris Ford was sitting beside me, doing some scouting for the Sixers. I was geeking out pretty hard about that. It looked like he had his 1981 championship ring on but I couldn't confirm. Before the game I sat a table over from Marv Albert and Mark Jackson in the break room. They were in town to broadcast the game for the YES Network. It's weird to hear Marv Albert discuss football with the voice you're used to hearing him call NBA games with.

My game recap is online over at DCist. I'm going to hit the Cleveland game on Saturday and bring my camera. Some guy was sitting in our section and taking photos from there, so I'm going to give it a shot if they'll let me. Stay tuned.

Much has been said of Redskin free agent acquisition Adam Archuleta, mostly about how he was a big waste of money and can't really play pass defense. I'm sure he gets his fair share of abuse from the fans. But at the end of the day, I doubt it worries him. He's dating Jennifer Walcott. Yes, that Jennifer Walcott. From Playboy. Links slightly NSFW. [via the always excellent DC Sports Bog]