May

31

Bobcats Sign Higgins As G.M.

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00a219.jpgThe Charlotte Bobcats announced on Thursday, that they have hired Rod Higgins as the team’s new General Manager. Higgins had served as the Golden State Warriors General Manager for the last three years.

The move reunites Higgins with his former boss and team mate Michael Jordan, a part owner of the Charlotte team. Higgins was assistant General Manager when Jordan was the G.M. of the Washington Wizards. Jordan earlier in the week hired former team mate Sam Vincent as the Bobcats new bench boss.

(C) Copyright thesackattack.com 2007

May

31

Memphis Hires Iavaroni As New Bench Boss

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00a220.jpgThe Memphis Grizzlies introduced their new head coach on Thursday. He is former NBA player, and Phoenix Suns assistant coach Marc Iavaroni. Iavaroni was highly regarded as an assistant coach, and his name was mentioned prominently in a number of coaching vacancies.

The new coach was originally drafted by Philadelphia and has been in the league either as a player or an assistant coach for the past 17 years. besides serving as an assistant in Phoenix he was also on the staff of Pat Riley in Miami, and Mike Fratello in Cleveland. Iavaroni said at his introduction to Memphis that the Grizzlies are committed to winning, and that was what swayed his decision .

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May

31

Published Reports State Donovan Is Going To Orlando

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According to published reports the Orlando Magic will announce the signing of University of Florida head basketball coach Billy Donovan as their new head coach. The reports state that Donovan will sign a five year pact believed to be worth $27.5 million.

Donovan has led the Gators to the NCAA Title for the last two years. There was speculation after the NCAA Tournament ended, that he would move on to the University of Kentucky, but he declined the opportunity.

An unnamed team source said that the parties are ironing out the final details and the announcement could be made as soon as Friday.

(c) Copyright thesackattack.com 2007

May

31

Jim O’Brien Named New Coach By Pacers

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It looks like Larry Bird still likes to utilize his Celtics connection. The Indiana Pacers announced on Thursday that they have hired former Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers head coach Jim O’Brien to be their new bench boss. O’Brien replaces former head coach Rick Carlisle who was dismissed from the job following the end of the NBA regular season.

O’Brien was head coach in Boston for four years compiling a record of 139-119, including a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2002. They were defeated in that series by the New Jersey Nets. O’Brien resigned as coach in the midst of the 2003-2004 campaign because he was unhappy with the direction the team was headed in.

O’Brien then coached in Philadelphia for the 2004-2005 season going 43-39, and making the playoffs. However he was released after that year as the 76′ers brought in Mo Cheeks as his replacement. Pacers President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird said that the team was very happy to have O’Brien on board.

(c) Copyright thesackattack.com 2007

May

31

Spurs Silence Jazz 109-84 Head To Finals

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This was a contest in name only, the San Antonio Spurs took control from the opening tip, and absolutely dominated the Utah Jazz 109-84 Wednesday night. The win put the Spurs in the NBA Finals for the third time in five years, and the fourth in the past nine.

San Antonio defeated the Jazz 34-15 in the first quarter, and never looked back. Spurs big man Tim Duncan scored 21 points in just 28 minutes of play.Point guard Tony Parker also had 21 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds. The Jazz never were a factor in this game as point guard Deron Williams suffering from a sprained ankle, scored only 11 points, and Utah’s other weapon this post season Carlos Boozer was held to only 9 points and 12 rebounds. The Spurs will meet up with the victor in the series between Detroit and Cleveland currently deadlocked at two games each.

(c) Copyright thesackattack.com 2007

May

30

Now Kobe Wants To Stay

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00a-kb.jpgHours after saying that he had come to a point where he wanted to part ways with the team, and there was nothing that could be done to salvage the relationship Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant retracted his statements. Bryant asked to be traded from the team that he won three championships with, on Wednesday, a day after saying that the front office situation is “a mess.”

Bryant during an interview on ESPN Radio said that the reason relationship had soured on his end, was due to a lack of trust. Bryant says that he and Lakers coach Phil Jackson were told totally different scenarios, about the teams long term plans. Bryant said he believes that ownership, and upper management misled him. But just hours later he went on a Los Angeles radio station saying he had had a heart to heart conversation with Lakers coach Phil Jackson.

 Bryant said that the conversation he had with Jackson was to figure a way to overcome the obstacles that the guard perceived were team issues. He went on to say he rescinded his request for a trade and that he loves Los Angeles. Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss had earlier issued a statement saying that the club had heard the media reports, but had had no contact with Bryant or his represenatives. He went on to say that the team had made it clear of their intentions to build the franchise around Bryant, and would have no further comment until speaking with the player.

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May

30

It’s Time For NBA To Give up on Lottery

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Memphis Grizzlies outgoing president Jerry West is a NBA lifer. Right after graduating from the University of West Virginia, he went to play a Hall of Fame career as a guard for 14 years for the Los Angeles Lakers. He was named the MVP of the 1959 NCAA Championship game, he also won an Olympic gold medal, and in 1997 was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history. His nickname as a player was Mr. Clutch, which just about tells you all you need to know about the man. After he retired as a player West became the General Manager of the Lakers and was the architect of the Lakers “Showtime Era” the man who put together the team, of Worthy, Kareem, Magic, and Byron Scott. Discovering role players, like Kurt Rambis, and one of the great defensive stoppers of all time in Michael Cooper. If a man ever qualified for a NBA pedigree, it would be Jerry West. He is so identified with the game that he is the model of the shooter on the NBA emblem. That silhouette on the NBA Logo is West during his playing days. So when Jerry West speaks about the state of the game, my ears automatically perk up.

Jerry West has asked the NBA to abolish the draft lottery, and I for one applaud him.The NBA Draft Lottery was a bad concept to begin with and has only gotten progressively worse over time. And this past lottery was a perfect example of why the system has so many flaws.

Up until the mid 1980’s the NBA draft was conducted just like the NFL and MLB put theirs into effect. The team with the most losses gets the first pick in the dispersal draft, and then follows in inverse order until you get to the team with the league’s best record who picks last each round. This was a system that was put into place decades ago to try to even out the playing field, giving the best prospects with teams with the greatest needs. And for close to 40 years that system worked just fine thank you very much, that is until Bill Fitch and the mid 1980’s Houston Rockets changed the parameters.

Houston Rockets coach Bill Fitch is one of the great characters of the NBA. He started his NBA coaching career, with the Cleveland Cavaliers the first coach the franchise which was founded in 1970 ever had. He was a great strategist and had a wicked sense of humor, which served him well during the Cavaliers embryonic stages. After leaving Cleveland, he became Larry Bird’s first NBA coach with the Boston Celtics, and helped them win a championship in the 1980-1981 campaign. But Fitch wore out his welcome in Boston, and resigned as coach after the 1983 season.

Fitch ended up as coach of the Houston Rockets, ironically the team he had beaten with Boston in the 1981 season. But it was not the same team that had made it to the Finals back in 1981. The star of that team was center Moses Malone  had been traded to the Philadelphia 76′ers and won a ring with that team back in 1983. As a result, the team bore very little resemblance to the team he had coached against, it more closely resembled his expansion Cavaliers. The next two years the Rockets played terribly, and as a result ended up with the two number one picks in the next two drafts. Ralph Sampson, the power forward who thought he was a shooting guard was the first pick. The following year, the Rockets acquired Hakeem Olajuwon the center who would eventually lead the Rockets to the promised land a few years later.

As that draft approached, there was a lot of grumbling that the Rockets, under Fitch had tanked games to get Hakeem. We can do all the conjecturing, and debating about it that we want. Bottom line is only Fitch and the Rockets organization know if they did purposely lose or not.

Because of all the controversy that resulted from the conjecture of the team tanking, His Eminence, NBA Commissioner David Stern decreed that starting in 1985 there would be a lottery. Teams would get ping pong balls, the more losses you had the more balls you got in theory giving the team with the worst record the best odds. Unfortunately more controversy arose from the Lottery, the first year’s winner was the New York Knicks. They ended up with Georgetown center Patrick Ewing, but skeptics protested. There were rumors that shady dealings went on to insure that New York got the pick. Things from the envelope having a bent corner, to the Knicks envelope was at a lower temperature than the rest started to pop up. Although the league tweaked the system it has never really worked out as they had originally anticipated.

The three teams with the worst records in the past regular season was Memphis at 22-60, followed by Boston at 24-58, and third worst was the Milwaukee Bucks at 28-54. None of these three teams got the first pick in the lottery, as a matter of fact none ended up in the top three picks! No number three went to Atlanta, who had a record of 30-52, number two was Seattle who had a record of 31-51, and number one was the Portland Trail Blazers who had a record of 32-50.

Now, tell me where is the justice here? I don’t see any all I see is a team that does not deserve it will end up with either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. This to me does not seem fair or just. What Stern and the NBA Brain trust is saying is we can’t trust our coaches and players. What kind of a message is that to be sending out to your fan base, that, your game is so messed up that you have to instill rules to protect the teams from themselves.

I worked NBA locker rooms for 11 years as I covered the Cleveland Cavaliers, and their opponents. In that time I have had one player Darius Miles admit to me that he did not give full out effort each time he stepped on the floor. That statement promptly got Miles sent out of Cleveland. Athletes are competitors, first and foremost, it goes against their inner grain not to go all out. I dare you to go into the San Antonio Spurs locker room and ask Tim Duncan if he has ever thought about tanking a game. I promise I will be right behind you to pick up what ever is left of you after he rips you apart.

By keeping this lottery in effect, Stern is sending the message to his league and his fans that they can not be trusted to do the right thing on their own. dealing with as many NBA players as I have in over a decade, I think Stern is way off base. Get rid of the controversy, get rid of the lottery, and bring equity back to the NBA.

(c) Copyright thesackattack.com 2007

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