At the end of the third quarter of a game that was a blowout from the fifth minute onwards, Raptors point guard Jarrett Jack holds the ball at the top of the key. Noticing his shoelace is undone, he tucks the ball under his arm while the clock continues to tick, and ties it back up.
That basically summed up the whole game. The Bulls played worse than any team has ever played in any game at any standard in any season of any decade in any league in any country of any sport ever. They were listless, talentless and overmatched, with the playbook of a Corleggy cheese and all the energy of a bag of spanners. They fought like a Frenchman on their way to losing 110-79, in front of a sold out crowd of men in suits who refused to boo as if they cared. It's the only time I've ever turned off a game because I couldn't stand to watch it. Bad, bad, bad times.
If you happen to own or run an NBA team and are looking to hire someone to work 80 hour weeks as a professional nerd, hire me. Because then I can stop supporting the Bulls.
Lang spent last season with the Flash, averaging 6.4ppg and 4.1rpg, and was named as one of their returning players this season last month. However, he was waived out of training camp on November 18th due to "injury."
Kirk Snyder ordered back to jail after cutting off his electronic ankle bracelet
Yesterday, I tweeted that Kirk Snyder - who had been rumoured as a possible returnee to the Chinese Basketball Association this season - had been denied entry to the league, as officials saw him as undesirable what with his whole burglary/vicious assault/incarceration/suicide watch/forcefeeding medication story thing. It surprised me that there was even a possibility of Snyder's return. The last I heard, he had been released from the mental ward and found competent to stand trial, but no news that he had been released from jail.
However, today, we found out that he HAD been released from jail, but only while wearing an electronic tagging device. And we know this because he was just sent back to jail for cutting it off.
The question of you would do that is an obvious and entirely valid one, yet considering that we're talking about a man who had to be force fed, savagely beat a man to a pulp in full view of his wife, and who was recently deemed by the courts to be mentally incompetent, then nothing can be a surprise any more. The hope that Kirk Snyder had merely had a mini-drug-induced-freakout - which would be incredibly little solace, but which was a better thing to hope for that this - is now completely dead. Kirk Snyder would appear to be oh so very irrational right now, and it's not fun to think about.
So, because it's more fun to do, let's instead remember Kirk Snyder the basketball player. Here he is with a much underrated dunk over Von Wafer (here pictured as a Laker; no one seems to remember that he used to be a Laker, but it happened.)
They were good times. Simpler times. Happy times. But they ain't coming back.
Shannon Brown being beaten up by a man in white socks
Today, the L.A. Lakers announced that they have agreed to terms with unrestricted free agent guard Shannon Brown, who will re-sign once the moratorium is over. Lakers fans can now pretend that they have found their point guard of the future, ignoring for a minute his entirely underwhelming jumpshot, wild flails to the rim or inability to bring the ball up court. For those people, this is good news.
You may have already known that, though, since no one comes to this website for breaking news. But what you may not have known is something that I only just rediscovered.
Back in his Cleveland days, Brown got into a bit of a rum-do at a nightclub. (Or a Tête à Tête, if you'd rather. Or a kerfuffle. Or a shindig. Or a broo-haha. Or a shaboodle. Or some other juvenile word for "incident.") Brown was inside a club called Liquid when he was kicked out for wearing his baseball cap, a brazen and hellacious violation of the club's dress code, even though he was initially allowed to wear it in. Somehow, that escalated into him being subdued outside by the club's bouncers, kneed in the goods and hit in the face. And that's where the camera picks up the action.
Brown was not arrested. The bouncers threatened him with a taser - insert "don't tase me bro" joke - and Brown sued the club almost a year later. I don't know if he won. This whole story is old news, but I forgot about it, and you might have done too. Besides, some people may have missed it before. And they need to know, I think.
If an NBA player manages to get into some kind of trouble that gets Youtubed for the sake of comedy, then we're there to talk about. See also: Rafer Alston and Keith Closs.
ShamSports.com: Hypocritically perusing the problems of others.
A judge sentenced Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith to 90 days in jail Tuesday night for causing an auto accident that killed his friend, though Smith will likely end up serving only 30.
Municipal Judge Debra J. Gelson suspended 60 days of the sentence providing Smith performs 500 hours of community service consisting of visiting sick children at hospitals.
As a Bulls fan, I can safely say that J.R. Smith is someone I've discussed a lot over the years. J.R. was included by the Hornets, somewhat needlessly, into the Tyson Chandler/P.J. Brown swap that pissed me off for a good few years. And from speaking to my fellow Bulls fans, I know that a lot of you miss J.R. Smith. He has crazy range, athleticism, potential (if not much sense) and a special shot making ability. It would be easier to stomach his loss had the best returning player for him not been Aaron Gray. (The players were; JamesOn Curry, who never played a game for the Bulls; the unguaranteed contract of Howard Eisley, who also never played for the Bulls; and Aaron Gray, who needn't have.)
Scott Skiles didn't even take one look at Smith before deciding he wouldn't tolerate him. Smith never reported to the Bulls, and John Paxson tried to turn him around straight away. The Bulls couldn't get a first round pick for him, though, and instead settled on Eisley and the two second rounders .(They later waived Eisley and used the money opened up to sign Adrian Griffin. Yippeeeeeeee.)
Perhaps we needn't miss him too much, though. In his time with Denver, Smith has been charged with assault, disturbing the peace and destruction of property, had his drivers license suspended three times (all three of which came after the fail accident detailed here, amazingly), crashed teammate Carmelo Anthony's car, and has now seen his troubles culminate in this jail sentence.
In this incident, Smith was charged with of improper passing, failure to stop at a stop sign, reckless driving, speeding and failure to wear a seat belt, but mercifully not of vehicular homicide. He also failed to appear in court for his first hearing back in January, drawing a further fine.
That list of bad times also does not include consistent affronts with his coach, George Karl, whose tolerance for Smith's erratic play and mild entitlement is varied at best. Smith has been suspended twice for a combined 13 games, and benched numerous times on top of that. He has never managed to avoid trouble. Seemingly, he's never really tried to.
And he is, after all, just a backup shooting guard.
Still, it's not all bad news; Smith played sufficient minutes last season to earn himself a $600,000 bonus on his contract for next season. So, at the very worst, it's swings and roundabouts.
I have been too snowed under with school work in recent times to keep you informed of that scrub news that you know and love, but the work is now clear, and so the news is back on. Unfortunately, we start with bad times.
Former Kansas star and Miami Heat first round draft pick Wayne Simien retires from professional basketball, as explained in this email (courtesy of Eurobasket):
'The family and I are un-jet-lagged, unpacked and officially settled. It is great being back', said Simien, who lives with his wife and two children in Lawrence. 'We had a fabulous time in Spain and it was a great cultural experience. I had a good season on the court and we made some really great friends.'
'As far as my basketball future is concerned, I am officially retiring from playing professionally. I still love the game of basketball, can play at a high level and make a great living, however I have more of a passion to pursue other things. That passion being for Christian ministry and youth athletics.
“I will be ministering through the ‘Called To Greatness’ organization (iamctg.org) that I started last year, as well as working with Morningstar Church ministering to the youth and college students.”
Simien had been playing in Spain this past season, for a team called Caceres in the LEB Gold (second division). It wasn't the greatest standard of basketball in the world, and Caceres only finished 11th with a 15-19 record, but Simien produced, averaging 16.8 points and 8.2 rebounds on 62% shooting in the 15 games that he played.
More importantly, the stay in Spain represented a return to basketball and to full health for Simien, who hadn't played the previous season, and who only played 8 games in 2006-07 due to contracting salmonella. This, sadly, is what many people will mainly remember him for. God knows how you catch it twice, but Simien did, and it's a legacy he probably doesn't want.
Simien's college career was brilliant, but his NBA career was less so. Drafted by the Heat with the 29th pick in the first round of the 2005 draft, Simien had a fairly promising rookie year, averaging 3.4ppg and 2.0rpg on 48.3% shooting in limited minutes, on a Heat team that won the championship that year. Unfortunately, Simien contracted his first case of salmonella during the NBA finals that year, and was sick for much of the summer. He returned for training camp, and began the season with the team, but then the disease recurred around about Christmas time. The illness, recovery, fatigue and hefty weight loss ended his season, and he played in only 8 games in the 2006/07 season. Worse still, in the 2007 offseason, Simien suffered the indignity of being salary dumped to the Minnesota Timberwolves as a part of the Mark Blount/Antoine Walker/Ricky Davis trade thing. Minnesota waived him the same week they got him, and Simien didn't play at all that season. In the summer of 2008, got a roster spot on the Cleveland Cavaliers summer league team, but couldn't play due to a hamstring injury. After that, he signed with Caceres....and now we're back to the start, with Simien retiring to join the church.
He seems happy, though, so good luck to him.
In other retirement news, Bucks draftee and mere technicality Eurelijius Zukauskas retired this week, as did former Denver Nuggets guard Predrag Savovic. But you haven't heard of them, so they're not important.
ESPN.com: Former NBA player Brian Grant is diagnosed with young onset Parkinson's disease.
With a huge black-and-white painting of Bob Marley peering over one shoulder and a half-dozen framed NBA jerseys visible over the other, Brian Grant took a deep breath, ignored his left hand shaking as if it were trying to put out a match, and let go of the secret that had tormented him for the last four months.
"I have young onset Parkinson's," he said.
That's Parkinson's, as in the disease that disrupts the brain's coordination and control of muscle movement and motor skills. A progressive disease for which the cause and the cure are unknown. A disease so rare for someone like Grant, 37, to contract that his case is identified as "young onset."
Tons more at the link.
It's not been a good few months for the retired stars. First, Rodney Rogers gets paralysed from the neck down in an accident. Then, last week, Wayman Tisdale dies young. And now this.
Kirk Snyder's hearing delayed, Darius Miles arrested
Middletown Journal:Kirk Snyder takes further steps to really help his own cause and become a better, well-adjusted person.
A competency hearing for former NBA player Kirk Snyder has been delayed because [he] has been uncooperative with medical experts, court officials said.
Snyder, 25, is accused of breaking in a home and assaulting a man on March 30 near his residence in the Beacon Hill Townhouses in Deerfield Twp.
A Warren County grand jury indicted him on aggravated burglary and felonious assault charges, both felonies, He was also charged with a misdemeanor assault charge for allegedly attacking another inmate at the Warren County Jail after his arrest.
Snyder’s attorney, Hal Arenstein, could not be reached for comment, but he has filed documents in court saying his client is not guilty by reason of insanity and he is not competent to stand trial.
Grizzlies forward Darius Miles was arrested Wednesday and released on bond after being charged with possession of marijuana following a routine traffic stop.
Miles also received a ticket for driving with a suspended license according to the Associated Press, which first reported the story.
.................
Although the Griz haven't publicly stated their intentions, their plan was always to start next season without Miles.
The Griz grew weary of Miles' waning work ethic and his relationship with rookie guard O.J. Mayo.
There was widespread concern in the organization about Miles' off-the-court influence on Mayo near the end of the season.
If there was ever any doubt - and there wasn't - Memphis really did only sign Darius Miles to screw Portland. His reasonably effective play notwithstanding, it was never going to be a long term solution, and there was nothing to gain in the short term either. But, if stiffing Portland was indeed their aim, it worked. Industrious? Yes. Successful? Yes. Embarassing? Definitely yes. Let's pretend it didn't happen.
But, enough of that.
To the bigger issues here: in addition to a fine and most underwhelming Twitter page, this webshite now also has a Facebook fan page. Why? Why not, I say.
If anyone wishes to help out by creating a logo that isn't a copyrighted picture of Ha Seung-Jin's face, then do please contact me.
I love to read when I'm on the toilet. Love it. Can barely go without it, in fact. Litotes help me to open my sphincter. Unfortunately, I don't own many books. So I tend to read the same ones over and over again.
True to form, I am currently midway through a repeat reading of "When Nothing Else Matters" by Michael Leahy, a exposé-type book about Michael Jordan's shoddy comeback with the Wizards. It's quite good fun, particularly if the Wizards era Jordan was the only Jordan era that you were around to see, as was the case for me. I'm particularly enjoying reading about all the other characters in the story, like Doug Collins, Tim Grover, Jerry Stackhouse, Rip Hamilton, Tyronn Lue, Chris Whitney, Kwame Brown (who, it's fair to say, struggles for good news throughout), Juan Dixon, Bobby Simmons, Courtney Alexander and others. But I am especially mindful of one name that I'd forgotten about, that of Tyrone Nesby, the former defensive specialist and hater of passing that had a few years of coming off NBA benches after picking up a surprisingly generous contract from the Clippers of all teams.
Because of this, I decided to look up what T-Nez was doing these days. The last I had heard, he'd become a rapper, but that was about two years ago, now, so I looked again. The news isn't good, hammer fred.
After the Wizards 2001/02 season, Nesby's $9 million contract had run out, and the Wizards looked elsewhere. No other NBA team seemed to want him, and Nesby hit the European trail, signing with Larisa in Greece and averaging 17.8 points per game. He then went to 2003 summer league with the New York Knicks, but didn't get a contract, and went back to Europe the following year visiting both Italy (13.4 ppg for Varese) and Serbia (21.1 ppg for Relfex Beograd). In the 2004/05 season, Nesby signed with Lietuvos Rytas in Lithuania, for whom he averaged 16.3 points in the ULEB Cup and 13.5 ppg in the Lithuanian league. Nesby's only other basketball stop was in the 2006/07 season, when he co-owned an ABA team called the Las Vegas Venom. (Note: if ever you've wondered what co-owning an ABA team is like, write yourself a cheque for $5,000 grand, then set light to the corner of it and use it to burn down your house. It's a bit like that.) They folded after a few months, getting little further than playing seven games and designing a logo in that time, and that was the end of Nesby's basketball efforts. (Nesby was also the head coach and the star player for the team. Four months well spent.)
You can't keep a good man down, though, and Tyrone Nesby found his true talents when he started to make it big in Lithuania as a rapper called T-Nes. Nesby released an album there called "Serious Business", and it featured Nesby rapping in English to some seminal Lithuanian choruses. Samples of some T-Nes songs can be found on Nesby's website, Nesby World, as well as a frankly stupdenous gallery, feature nude pictures of Nesby's upper body and a touching moment with a Luke Jackson lookalike. So, truly something for everyone there.
In addition to this, Nesby has also seemingly gone back to university to finish his criminal justice degree (he left UNLV after two seasons), information which I learnt from reading this. That page also gives an incorrectly spelled link to Nesby's other website for his non-profit foundation, the aptly named 'Tyrone Nesby Foundation'. (The foundation's site no longer works, even when spelt properly, and is only viewable via this frankly useless archive version. But it's something.) The Hoopcoach link also speaks of Nesby's desire to become a coach one day, and, on his Linkedin page, Tyrone alluds to his dream of becoming a casino host. The man knows what he wants at least occasionally. And I can respect that.
It's all rather positive stuff. A decent basketball career, playing to a decent standard for good money, a reasonable sideline in the music industry, many years spent running a foundation with genuine (if wildly overambitious) intentions to give back to his community, and a man who went back to school to complete his degree mindful of its importance to achieving what he wants to achieving. There's a potentially crap biopic to be made out of that somewhere.
And now, the crimes bit.
Nesby was arrested in the Wizards locker room back in April 2001 after a March 1999 arrest warrant was issued for him after an October 1995 incident. If that makes sense. In the initial incident, Nesby was alleged to have punched, kicked and broke the nose of a man named David Collins in the face during an argument about the verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial (which might explain his decision to major in criminal science), and the assault led to a charge of misdemeanour battery. Nesby was tried over the incident in a civil judgment back in 1998, and lost, having to pay the victim $16,500, but the criminal charges were later dropped, despite the 6 years they took to come to fruition. After this came two contempt of court arrests, the first in mid 2007 and the second in January 2008, both times for failing to appear in court at hearings for outstanding child support payments. (And by "outstanding child support payments", I don't mean "child support payments which he made with a rare yet special degree of charm, grace, elegance and suavity usually reserved only for superheroes and dead crooners." I instead mean "payments that he hasn't made yet.") The second arrest saw Nesby sentenced to 22 days in jail for contempt, with the initial hearing being about a child support case that saw him owing over $65,000. A lot of money.
If that was the end of the money owed, then it would be bad enough. But it isn't. Reportedly, at the time of that arrest, Nesby owed "at least $1 million" in child support in various other judgements, not least of which is a $300,000 or so debt in Illinois, where records of so-called 'deliquents' are made publically available on a website. Nesby's entry currently shows that, despite the most recent payment being in this calendar year, he owes almost half a million dollars in this one case alone, and that's not counting the judgments in other states around the country. At the time of Nesby's aforementioned arrest in January 2008, this debt was only - if you can call it that - around $300,000; apparently, subsequent payments notwithstanding, it's somehow gone up $100,000 in less than 18 months. Bummer.
What Nesby is doing to earn the money to pay the debts is unclear, and not really any of my business. But whatever he's doing, he's not earning $3 million a year any more. Yet the payments would appear to have been set back when he was. Is that fair? I don't know. It doesn't seem it.
Either way, help out a struggling child. Put right world famine. Buy Tyrone Nesby's music. Together, we can make poverty history. Just buy two tracks a month, or whatever you can afford.
A psychiatric evaluation and suicide watch have been ordered for a former NBA basketball player arrested after he allegedly attacked a neighbor in Warren County.
Kirk Snyder, 25, was arrested early Monday morning for aggravated burglary and felonious assault, and reportedly attacked another inmate in the Warren County Jail Monday night. His attorney entered a plea of not guilty to the charges.
A woman called police to her home in the 5300 block of Commonwealth Drive around 3:40 a.m. Monday, according to the Warren County Sheriff's Office. She told police she heard glass breaking downstairs and when she went to investigate a "tall assailant" pushed past her and ran upstairs.
She said the man then began beating her sleeping husband. The attacker fled when she pulled back the hood he was wearing.
Investigators brought in a K-9 unit which led deputies to Snyder's residence, which is located on the same street.
Snyder's bond has been set at $500,000. Prosecutors called said the violent outbursts are cause for concern, though no reason has been given for either attack.
"The Portland Trail Blazers are aware that certain teams may be contemplating signing Darius Miles to a contract for the purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions. Such conduct from a team would violate its fiduciary duty as an NBA joint venturer. In addition, persons or entities involved in such conduct may be individually liable to the Portland Trail Blazers for tortuously interfering with the Portland Trail Blazers' contract rights and perspective economic opportunities.
"Please be aware that if a team engages in such conduct, the Portland Trail Blazers will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation.''
Now, I'm no lawyer, nor even a taxpaying member of the state. But if I understand anything, I understand this:
The whole concept of doctors declaring when a player's career is over due to injury is entirely speculative. It has to be, unless Nostradamus knows how to use a stethoscope. The doctors predicted Darius's career would be over, but it wasn't, and you can see that it wasn't by the fact that he's STILL PLAYING. Therefore, Portland's whole claim of "his career is over, can we have our money back please?" is somewhat invalidated. And all this silly posturing helps nobody.
As far I can tell, Portland has little, if any, legal footing. If Darius was out there in a wheelchair, or as a quadraplegic with a terminal case of lumbago, then they'd have a point. But he's not. Darius not thet player that he once was, but he can take an NBA court on merit.
Caught up in all this, though, is the most important point.
Darius Miles never got much of a fair shake in Portland. The blowups didn't help, but he could play, and yet he was reviled due to his perceived character and his novelty oversized contract. But while Darius may has always been a bit of a numpty, we must feel for him in this situation. His comeback attempt seems genuine, and yet this entire process for him is now nothing but a mockery. All the man wants is a fair chance at regaining the lifestyle and profession that he lost through no fault of his own. And we can't seem to allow him that without making it into a legal battle.
Former NBA and college basketball star Rodney Rogers is paralyzed as the result of an all-terrain vehicle accident, his college coach told the News & Observer of Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
Dave Odom, who coached Rogers when he earned All-America honors at Wake Forest and was the 1993 ACC Player of the Year, said Wednesday that his former star is paralyzed from the shoulders down, according to the report.
Those of us that used to play the Rodney Rogers game - the precursor to the Fred Tedeschi game - feel particularly bad about this terrible news.
You know, it wasn't all that long ago that I was wondering what happened to Rodney Rogers. Now, I wish I didn't know.
Sham is a miserable and self-effacing little bastard, whose basketball opinions are often riddled with bias, insecurity, and rank immaturity. He has also never played the sport, and the only game he has ever been to see was a Ware Rebels game back in 2001. The night bus didn't show up and he had to walk the 9 miles home. It was after this that his passion for basketball really took off.
He considers himself to be Britain's foremost NBA expert, an arbitrary title that carries with it no basis in fact, or any worldly significance. He also wrote this section of the website in third person narrative, purely for reasons of arrogance.
Copyright ShamSports.com, 2005-2010. Every published word on this website
is copyrighted to the website's owner, including (but not limited to)
the really stupid ones that I wish I'd never written.
