dlpin

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3840234 10 games. And he is looking good too. I dont know how they convinced anyone that the injury was career ending. 10 points 7 rebounds yesterday.

I lived for a year in rural michigan. Winter was so depressing. Some saturdays I wouldnt even go out to pick up the mail just so I wouldnt have to dress up, put on the winter boots, hat, gloves, etc just to walk the 20 yards outside to the mailbox. If I remember correctly, the first time it got above freezing after new years (this was 95-96) was january 21st, or something like that. Not only that, but the weather was wild too. I was in High School, and one day in march I got up and it was 60 degrees outside, so I decided to just wear a t-shirt to school. By the time I got out, it was 20 degrees and snowing so bad you couldnt see more than 10 feet in front of you. The worst day was this day in december, -27 degrees, with a -47 wind chill. I remember the day I decided I would never live in Michigan again. It was the day I came back from spring break. I had spent a week in Southern TN, right by the AL-MS-TN border and the weather was beautiful, spring was in full bloom, flowers and green everywhere. Then we drove home to Michigan and everything was still gray and dead.

Yes. If I had to guess, I would say that they black out games that have local transmission live, so that technically you still can watch the game, just not how you want it.

total for the night: 13 points in 12 minutes. Rudy gay scored less shooting 3 times more and playing 3 times more. And he actually looked good today. Granted, it was mostly against Szerbiak (dont know how to spell this one), but still... Now, is the punishment retroactive? If/when that money goes back to the Blazers books, will they have to pay extra luxury taxes for last season as well?

and Miles is actually looking good today. 5 points in 4 minutes so far.

one more game down, just one more to go before the blazers are screwed.

I think he is doing the right thing. There are multiple QBs that are rated ahead of him this year, and most scouting services already put him as a round 3 pick at best. So it's not like he is giving up 15 to 20 mill in guaranteed money. And quarterbacking is a tough position to develop in the NFL. If you are not being specifically groomed to be a starter, you end up needing to be "lucky" that the guy in front of you gets hurt, and as a 3rd rounder, he wouldnt be groomed. The parallel here is to Eric Crouch, the Heisman winner who went pro, was selected late, forced to switch positions and refused, essentially ruining his nfl career. With Stafford, Freeman and potentially Bradford coming out this year, Couch would have less competition next year, and could work even harder to prove he could cut it in the nfl. As far as injuries go, nowadays most players can be insured against career ending injuries.

he signed a new 10 day deal with the grizzlies

I seriously sprained my ankle a couple of years ago playing basketball and this is definitely true. Besides the mental part of being able to put stress on your ankle without fear, there is also the very real issue that with sprains, even without any sort of tear, often ligaments/tendons will be stretched a bit, taking a while to go back to the way it used to be and making the foot feel "loose." Besides, I would never trade an undisciplined 23 with tons of potential for an injury prone center (played more than 70 games in a season only once in his career) who really only performed well for one season.

Well, the reason I post here is because I have lived in Atlanta for 7 years. If any of the mods feel that I dont contribute anything, they can feel free to remove me or ban me from the hawks specific boards. But if you look through my 100+ posts, you will see that not once have I trash talked, gloated, diminished the hawks in any way. Quite the contrary. The other reason I post here is because talking to people who are fans of different teams in a respectful manner brings a new perspective, something that I appreciate as a basketball fan first and foremost. Sometimes its tiring to read fans of your own team talk. I need a little distance from the "let's trade tony allen for jr smith" posts. In any case, my point here and in other threads is not that Garnett is the greatest guy ever. Its just to bring a perspective of someone who does not dislike the celtics. I wish KG and Paul Pierce would take a cue from Ray Allen and shut up, but that doesnt mean that I dont appreciate the fact that, outside the lines, KG seems to be a pretty decent guy who was contributed more to charity than any other superstar. I wish he would be quiet for a while, I wish he would pick a fight with Shaq instead of Zaza, I wish people stopped talking about this team as one of the best celtics team ever. This one does not come close to the Bird or Russel teams. I say this because you will not get homerism from me. Yeah, I cheer for the celtics but I like a little perspective. But at the same time, I wanted to remind people of how they saw the celtics one year ago. Not because I think they are being unjustly vilified. Not because I think people are unjustly calling out KG. Quite the contrary. When I point out that one year ago people treated the celtics differently, it was not to say that those who criticize them now are jealous. It is to point out that the free pass he was given in the past is now being given to others. He has always been this guy. Just read what people who cover the league every day are writing about this. This is what JA Adande had to say:"Garnett has always unleashed a stream of expletives on the basketball court. He has always blocked any shot put up after a play is blown dead. The only difference now is that there are more cameras trained on him." Hollinger: "Garnett has been doing it for years" Marc Stein: "KG has been doing the same stuff for almost 15 years. It's just that now his every move is closely scrutinized because he's a Celtic and because they're the champs. No one called them "antics" when he was clapping in guys' faces and woofing all the time on a slew of mediocre teams in Minnesota. " Now, again, this is not to say that his coverage is too negative now. It isn't. It is just to say that his coverage was too positive in the past. THAT is the parallel to the Cavs situation. Last year at this point, KG led two polls, one among players and the other among fans, which asked "other than players on your team, which player would you most likely to see win a championship." Again, not saying that KG and the celtics are being unfairly criticized. Just that they were given a pass in the past, just as cleveland is being given a pass now. But we dont need to worry. If things continue as they are the hawks should face the cavs in the 2nd round of the playoffs. THEN lets talk about how you like them.

The complaints about KG taunting have only appeared after he won the title. Wait until Lebron wins one. Before last year's playoffs, everyone, here and otherwise, thought that these were the nicest bunch of guys. Lebron, on the other hand, has been acting like that before even winning anything. And please, Lebron gets as many favorable calls as anyone, if not more. Before the crab dribble incident he traveled in at least two lay ups in that game. The guy travels the most out of anyone in the league, and rarely gets called. Just look at the numbers: Jordan only averaged more than 8 free throws a game 3 times in his career, while Lebron has averaged 8plus 5 out of 6 years. The guy averages almost double the free throws a game than bird. In any case, just wait.

when/if the hawks play the cavs in the playoffs, I guarantee everyone here will think the celtics are the nicest bunch of guys ever. You think people cant stop talking about garnett? wait until its a series against Lebron. You think the celtics gets favorable calls, wait until the hawks play the cavs in a playoff series. You think Pierce is a cry baby and a flopper? Wait till Varejao comes to town. You think the celtics like to talk trash then back off... well, you get the idea. I can't stand the man crush announcers and columnists have on Lebron. This season people have lost all pretense of impartiality. Just this past week I've heard that: Lebron is already better than Bird's best and that he is already equal to MJ. Not "is going to be" or "has the potential to be," but "is." And the thing is, I am old enough to remember how MJ was treated before he was "MJ." Heck, MJ couldnt get the respect Lebron is getting even after having won 3 mvps and 2 titles, as Barkley was getting all the attention and treated as a favorite in the 93 finals. It took a while before people started talking about him as the "best ever." There was serious discussion when he retired the first time between him and russel (which, on a side note, is an interesting subject: everyone who saw Russel play was sure that he was the best until MJ came along, but nowadays people look at the numbers and assume Chamberlain was better). Nevermind that Lebron has never won a title, mvp, anything. Nevermind that he was a complete non-factor the last two times the cavs were eliminated from the playoffs, nevermind that in his last two playoffs he shot 41%. This is all, of course, without mentioning his obvious character flaws. Even cavs fans are the first to admit that he is not about winning first, but about the 'lebron james" brand first. A guy who shuts up and even avoids a teammate over the darfur genocide to avoid upsetting his chinese sponsors, a guy who one day is all about a "lebron james team this and that" and the next is complaining about his teammates and floating rumors about leaving in 2010. I despise the guy, and would prefer anyone, even the lakers, to win a championship over this guy.

I dont know how all the anti-trust exceptions work and if they would cover this, but this lobbying to avoid having teams sign Miles could certainly be construed as an anti-trust violation in other industries. I think its beyond classless what the blazers are doing. "Dont sign a guy who is trying really hard to make a come back after devastating injuries and who has matured significantly because then the league might see through our ploy." I mean, career ending=/=career debilitating. Playing worse because of injury is completely different from not being able to play at all. I was pretty surprised when the league granted this to portland. When Reggie Lewis died, the celtics were denied a similar deal and had his salary still counting towards the cap.

every fan base is like that. Read the threads around here during that 3-6 stretch and you would see a lot of panicking too. People and the media often get too carried away with the regular season. Just you watch as espn and other will now hype the cavs , and then when the cavs face real opposition they will also get the same treatment, and so on.

I really dont see the appeal of all these plastic surgeries most actress seem to go through. Farrah Fawcet, Melanie Griffiths, and so many others look so horrendous after undergoing so many of them. Pamela Anderson just looks like a leathery blow up doll these days. Women who never had them, or just had a few sensible ones, still look much better, or at least looked better for longer, like Andie McDowell, Sofia Loren, etc.

You get a "racially motivated act of violence" from this? "In May of 1994, however, Kevin’s life began to crumble around him. A fight broke out at school between a white student and several black classmates, and Kevin happened to be nearby. (This version of the story has been questioned since. One report indicates that Kevin was part of a group of black students who beat a white freshman with rolled-up newspapers. The victim suffered injuries that required hospital care.)" A disputed report that Kevin Garnett may or may not have been a part of a fight in high school when he was a junior? And horford dusted the ball more than once in the series. First time, and best known one, was in game 3. But he also did that in games 5 and 7. Probably trying to come up with a mutombo like gesture, but still.

I am sorry, but is this even serious? Fights in high school? Talking about bringing an uzi? That is the worst you can think of? And you talk about "dirty screens" as if they were a regular occurrence, or even the worst type of foul that goes on within the court. And based on what do you claim he made all these trade demands and so on? Heck, his trade-or-not situation was extremely well documented. Horford not only taunted pierce in that play, but dusted the ball after a block during the game five blow out, with the hawks down, and trash talked numerous other times. And Boston sold out every game from about 85 to 2002, including a 7 year playoff-less stretch that included a 15 win season. Read everything you can about KG and you will see most people will talk about what a great guy KG is off the court. Paul Shirley, the well known player/blogger, even guest blogged at length during last year's final about how he was rooting for the celtics because he was so impressed with what a nice guy KG was. And this is a guy who went through an entire training camp with KG one season and Kobe Bryant the other. Now, as far as wanting (or not) your kid to be like him, I always remember what Charles Barkley said" "I don't believe professional athletes should be role models. I believe parents should be role models." Still, KG is miles ahead of serial adulterer Shaq, rapist, serial adulterer and prima dona Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, who got in trouble for accepting gifts in high school, always complains about his team, and, worst of all, shunned teammate Ira Newble who was collecting signatures for a letter concerning the genocide in darfour, because he was afraid of losing the endorsement of chinese companies. This all not to mention stephen jackson, sebastian telfair, rubben patterson and so many others so much worse than him. You may not like KG and think he is a punk on the court. But few players have done more for the community, while remaining as clean in his personal life as he has.

Huh? So trash talking on court= no morals and the scum of society? The guy stuck around a sucky franchise for a decade without once demanding trades, me first treatment or causing off court drama. Meanwhile, Lebron James has driven Cleveland to acquire a bunch of scrubs with huge contracts by floating rumors that he is going to bolt any time the cavs lose a couple of game. How many times have we seen Lebron talk about "a lebron james team" only to ask for more help once he loses and then float all sorts of rumors for 2010? Within the community, he is even more of a stand up guy. Heck, he even won the J. Walter Kennedy citizenship award. This whole rivalry thing sometimes gets out of hand. Hawks players also talk trash. Heck, Bibby and Horford did quite a lot of it for an 8th seed last year, and people here loved them for it. Garnett has never had any problems with the law, is married and takes care of his kid, and donates a boat load of money to charity. http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/community/...ist_051205.html There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that had things not been tainted by the rivalry with the C's most people here would much prefer him to some of the real scum of society, like Stephen Jackson, Marbury, and Kobe Bryant. It is amazing how people have completely forgotten all of kobe bryant's shenanigans and have started to pile on garnett for trash talking. Trash talking!

Tim Duncan, anyone? The only trade worse than this one that I can think of is the Pau Gasol trade. Heck, people talk about "giving away" garnett, but the t-wolves got 2 1st round picks (one in the lottery), a future all star, a few back ups, money and lower salaries for a guy over 30, making 20 million a season who would bolt a year later for free as a free agent. With this trade, the wolves would give up a player who is not even 24 (and most centers only really mature around 25. 26) for one non lottery pick, one decent starter who is one year younger, and a few back ups. A late 1st round and the back ups are worth almost nothing for a team rebuilding. Why would they give up an up and coming star for a guy who is just the 3rd best player on his own team? If al jefferson was in his thirties and a year away from free agency and no chance of resigning, maybe theyd consider it. Currently, absolutely no way.

I doubt he ever considered signing with anyone other than detroit. This whole thing with him "considering" these teams is made up BS to avoid getting detroit into trouble for doing the deal knowing he would be back. I mean, all teams could offer was the same deal, so its not like there were real negotiations going on. What was there to talk about with the other teams? They did the trade having agreed he would sign back with them, and then he floated these rumors to avoid a situation like that with stackhouse and dallas last year.

Im not saying they are not a threat, just that their record is way inflated right now. I would not be surprised if they failed to win 60 games like everyone is predicting. I dont know who is in charge of doing schedules, but its ridiculous how easy they've had it. Of their 27 games, 17 were against losing teams, and many of these being the really bad losing teams, not the borderline 500. They've played OKC twice, charlotte twice, Indiana twice, GS, minny.... They only played 4 games on the road against western conference teams, one being OKC. If you look at their record against the top 4 in each conference, they lost to boston, havent played the lakers, havent played orlando, are 1-1 with the hawks, lost to NOLA, havent played houston, and only did well against denver. I bet they will lose at least 5 games in january. Against Boston the Hawks played their best and lost twice, in close games alright, but lost still, despite shooting 60% from 3 in Boston, and Boston shooting just 15% from 3 in here. Against cleveland in Atlanta, Lebron played one of his finest games in the season while JJ was subpar and the Hawks still won. I think the cavs arent that good, and I think the hawks match up better against them, than boston.

Why don't you think the hawks can beat cleveland? I think the hawks match up much better against cleveland than against boston. Cleveland is full of hot air right now. People look at their record and become impressed, but here is a fact that few people are talking about: Cleveland is 6-4 against winning teams (2-4 on the road). Their schedule has been ridiculously easy so far. Watch them take a major fall in January, when they play Boston, and @ lakers, portland, utah and orlando.

Do you know how defensive efficiency is calculated? That is the best all around indicator of how good someone is on defense, going well beyond steals. The fact that he is 3rd in the league in it is the best indicator of how good he is, and the fact that he is playing with 3 all pros would not help him here, but only hurt him. Defensive rating is a complicated stat that compares the performance of your team defensively when you are on the court vs out, controlling for the defensive rating of the people you play with. In other words, if rondo made no difference on how good defensively the celtics are, his number would not be anywhere close to where they are. The fact that rondo is also top 5 in defensive win shares only furthers the argument. And as I said, you seem fixated on PPG. Excellent shot selection, as evidenced by being tops among PGs in fg%? check excellent passing decisions, as evidenced by being 3rd in assist to to ratio? check excellent defense, as evidenced by every single comprehensive defensive statistic? check Proven D skill against top competition, as evidenced by how poorly allen iverson, chris paul, and so on played against the celtics? check The stats prove its not only his teammates (besides, is PP really all-pro this season with his 40% shooting? is ray allen any good defensively anymore?). And you still refuse to answer me: name 3 PGs in the eastern conference who are clearly playing better BBALL than rondo right now. If you cant do that, then he should get all the all star consideration he is getting. The same cannot be said for Josh Smith (Garnett, Bosh, Jamison - and it is much harder to go to the all star as a forward than a PG, as there are so few good PGs in the eastern conf).

I think Gray Mule was the only one who said he was the most important player on the celtics. I said that this season he is the second most important, and I backed it up with numbers, something you still havent. And you keep making the same mistake over and over. I mean: " Rondo does one thing really well and that is defense" That is like saying "Steve Nash does one thing really well, and that is offense." Defense is half the game. It goes well beyond stealing the ball (heck, if steals was what defense is all about, marcus banks would be an all star). Rondo is an excellent rebounder for a PG, defends the screen really well, is a great help defender, etc, etc. And Rondo is a great passer to boot. And did Anthony Johnson ever rank 3rd in steals in the league? 3rd in defensive efficiency? And the celtics brought in Cassel last season because they were unsure of how a sophomore PG would handle in the playoffs. Ask every single celtics fan, heck, ask anyone who watched the playoff games last year, who they would rather have on the court for them. Your argument so far is that he doesnt shoot well, that people dont guard against his J. So what? That was true for Jason Kidd for a very long time as well. He does a great job distributing the ball and involving everyone, and, most importantly, he is an excellent defender. Defense is not "one thing," defense is half the game. In truth, Rondo only does poorly on one thing: shooting. Everything else (shot selection, distributing the ball, stealing, screen defense, help defense, rebounding) he does really well. Heck, for a 22 year old to realize that his J sucks and not try to force shows incredible maturity (hello, Josh Smith). His shot selection is so good he leads all pgs in fg%. But hey, you can disagree all you like. It is just a matter of backing it up. If he is so far from being an all star in the eastern conference, tell me the names of 5 PGs you would rather have over him from eastern teams. Heck, tell me 3 who are playing better than him right now. I can think of devin harris for sure, and maybe Calderon. But who else? Derrick Rose will certainly be better, but right now his D is too atrocious. So, who else?

I am not sure about the tie breakers between the falcons and the cowboys, but if they falcons lose one game, they need the eagles OR tampa to lose one game. If the eagles and bucs win out, the falcons need to win out.