Power of Positive Thinking
So all it takes to keep an NBA championship contending team intact is everyone being a little nicer to each other. Out in Utah, Andrei Kirilenko is believed to have backed off of his trade requests after Jerry Sloan agreed to — while not exactly being less critical of AK — balance out the negative with some more praise. “That’s not to say kiss his butt,” Jazz owner Larry Miller said in a radio interview. Then in that same interview, Miller called Kirilenko one of the 10 best players in the League. If that ain’t butt-kissing … And can you imagine Sloan during that meeting with AK and the Jazz front office, trying his best not to roll his eyes and/or chew Kirilenko out right on the spot? … Is there any way you can make a serious case for Jermaine O’Neal as a Hall of Famer? Not really, but we gave it a try. Check out the latest in our “Hall of Fame Watch” series … Of course, one of the biggest things holding J.O. back from being a truly great player has been his health. We feel like we’re going to end up saying the same thing about Sean May, who may not have perennial All-Star ability, but can be a solid contributor in the mold of a Zach Randolph. But May’s injury problems continue. He’s gonna miss this season following microfracture knee surgery … Another guy we feel like we’ll never see at full strength is Robert Swift. For two straight summers it’s been, “Wait until you see Swift this year,” and we still have nothing to show for it. Now reports say he’s already missing practices while dealing with tendinitis in his knee, and may not be at full strength until midseason … When we were in Vegas over the summer and watched Team USA practice, we saw Dwight Howard hard at work addressing his jumper. Early reports out of Magic camp say he apparently worked on his passing in the offseason, especially passing out of double-teams. That’s gotta make Rashard, Redick and Hedo happy … We keep hearing how nasty Andray Blatche is/could be; he just hasn’t had enough PT to show it. With Etan Thomas‘ status up in the air due to his medical issues that surfaced this week, the Wizards might get Blatche some meaningful tick at the center spot. Blatche has more overall talent than starter Brendan Haywood, no doubt, but learning a new position will keep him in the backup role if Etan can’t go … It’s starting to get heated on High School Hoop, of course sparked by the New York vs. New Jersey “Border Wars” debate … While Jamal Crawford picked up almost 20 pounds of muscle in the offseason, Eddy Curry reportedly dropped 20 pounds of, um, not muscle. Eddy weighed in at 275 at Knicks camp, saying he wants to be quicker and play more minutes this year. All jokes aside, Curry has become very good at what he does. And as good as he is offensively, Tyson Chandler is as good defensively in New Orleans. Both guys are borderline All-Stars, and their success just makes Kwame Brown — the guy drafted ahead of both Chandler and Curry — look even worse … Zach Randolph to the New York Daily News: “If I was the (Blazers) GM I would have kept me and Oden.” Agreed … WWE will never learn. It wasn’t long ago that the Vince McMahon “death” storyline blew up in their faces when Chris Benoit died in real life. So we flip to “Smackdown” last night and what do we see? Teddy Long having a “heart attack” at his “wedding” (why do wrestling figures keep getting “married” in the ring, knowing that something always goes wrong?) while the announcers tried to pull off the “this is serious” subdued voices. Unbelievable … We’re out like May …
October 6th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Bron42 says:
seriously man, its official, the real reason for the nba age limit is cuz they realize how fragile all these high school kids are. Tmac and j oneal have injury plagued years. Shaun livingston is built like a 12 year old asian girl. And swift hasnt even tried on his jersey yet hes hurt so often. only like 2 have had any real longevity while playin good minutes
October 6th, 2007 at 9:05 am
seth says:
this smack must have been posted early. my thoughts go out to monta ellis. i want to have the priviledge to watch him play again, but more importantly let’s just hope he can regain movement and have a regular life.
October 6th, 2007 at 9:10 am
seth says:
check that…monta’s cool, day to day with a neck sprain. great news.
October 6th, 2007 at 10:16 am
CCB says:
I run a high school and JUCO hoops website. The site is primarily setup to get exposure for guys who work during the summer can’t afford to travel extensively but are very talented ball players. My goal is to implement a league in the spring that will allow player to compete in a league that will operate around track and field and baseball so that the athletes can play other sports but still be seen during the viewing periods. This will cut back on travel and focusing on one muscle group. Why am I writing this?
I’ve been involved in hoops for over 12 years. First as a JUCO player then as an assistant varsity coach, head high school varsity coach and as a JUCO recruiter, and I have been recoginizing a rash of injuries over these 12 years, that may or may not have something to do with the fact that many players are specialist now. I am not a doctor and I can’t make any medical statements, but the idea of kids playing year round basketball, in search of the elusive D-1 schollie, has taken its toll on the players. I just don’t recall this many injuries when I was in school wearing Patrick Ewing Adidas or Dominiques Brooks. (This is a comment on all the false notions of technology in shoes protecting players from injury, yeah the shoes are better but the amount of wear and tear on a young body without recovery can not be prevented by a fresh pair of J’s).
It seems to me that the death of the crosstraining athlete has led to a number of not only NBA players being fragile but also collegiate athletes. It use to be that a kid played more than one sport which worked different muscle groups, thereby leading to an increase of flexibility and strength, once the player adjusted to the hoops season. Now kids play AAU as soon as the season is over. They don’t run track, play baseball (especially in the Black community, baseball not hip-hop is dead), they don’t play football.
Most kids don’t have coaches who are certified so they are not eating correctly and they are definitely not training the correct way. Quite possibly the same system that has ceated superstar athletes is injuring those who have not missed a single month of playing hard since seventh grade.
If you look at Lebron and Kobe, two of the more successful straight to the league guys, Kobe played soccer, Lebron played football. I’m sure a certain amount of research on Livingston, JO, May or any number of guys who are often injured will reveal that they rarely if every played different sports.
Sorry for the long post this has been sitting with me for a while and I decided to post it.
October 6th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Bron42 says:
well tmac played baseball I know that, but I agree with you that alot aren’t being trained the right way since most schools want you to specialize in a sport if your any good. but at the same time as a trainer myself, any amount of year round training for any sport can take its toll on your body since its alot of mileage in a early age. But at the very same time, you have NO IDEA how many comments I get from younger kids (13-16) asking me “how can I work on my vertical without using weights? I don’t want to stunt my growth.” Which is a complete myth but they think its true and avoid weights till their 18, hence the shaun livingston body frame which most prep to pro high school guys have no (minus the eddy curry/al jeffesons of the world)
October 6th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Christian Grant-Fields says:
Bron,
Good point. If you notice now many top tier high school programs are implementing vigorous workout regiments to their practices.
Look at Moe Hicks at Rice (NY). They stretch and run and do polymetrics for weeks before they even touch a ball. Montrose Christian (MD) has Alan Stein as their personal trainer!
I agree with the theory that these kids coming out of h.s. Aren’t physically prepared for the L. But just to play devil’s advocate….what about guys like Kobe and K.G.? They not as injured as T-Mac and J.O. ……?
October 6th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
doc says:
Players who go to college be broke up too. Look at Sean May. He aint do shit since the final 4.
October 6th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
JamesinVA says:
Ok straight up DIMEMAG yall got NO LOVE for Lamarcus Aldridge. Oden and Randolph together? I have read yall be lookin down at my team like 3 times now in the past month and a half reading this shit DAILY. Randolph was traded for MANY reasons.
1. to make room for LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE who you guys always seem to disregard
2. cap space
3. the deal helped get rudy fernandez fornext year and james jones for this year
4. to make this more of a running team. zach is slow and slows down the game
5. and is channing frye THAT bad? the so called UNTOUCHABLE player after his rookie season. what, because he had a bad year last year means hes no good to deserve any ink? wasnt ALL OF NEW YORK bad last year minus maybe curry and david lee?
sorry but david lee is not going to have numbers like he did last year with randolph playing the PF.
I just think its funny how you guys agree with a oden randolph combo when you guys are debating if a zach and curry frontcourt clogging up the middle will even work.
October 6th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Austin Burton says:
Personally, I think the Oden/Zach frontcourt would have been the best move for Portland. The two of them together compensate each other’s weaknesses. They’re not gonna clog up the lane because Oden isn’t a scorer who has to set up shop on the block all day. Let Zach have that, and Zach can score, and Oden can focus on D and rebounding. On the other end, Zach’s defensive deficiencies are covered up by Oden’s help-side D and ability to block shots. Aldridge is good, but I worry about him staying healthy. Frye is good, but he’s more of a face-up shooter from the 4 spot than a back-to-the-basket guy. Giving up an established 20-10 lefty (makes him harder to guard) because you’re hoping youngsters like Aldridge and/or Frye pan out isn’t the right move if you ask me.
October 6th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Bron42 says:
well I was leavin kobe and kg out cuz I didn’t wanna kinx anyone lol. but ya I agree, but thats how many out of how many? And sean may kinda proves the point too…look how much mileage he had on his knees by the time he was in college? same with greg oden? he did so much aau, camps, leagues, etc.. year round, his knees matched his face… Trust me, as a trainer I see this all the time. actually just yesterday I was working with an 11 year old whose dad already has him a nutritionish and shooting coach with me focusing on his strength and vertica. Comine that with year round aau and basketball stuff.
October 6th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
jamesinva says:
im not gunna bs and say portland will be great due to trading randolph or oden being out. but i stand pat when i say thank you for getting rid of zach. 20 10 player? yea he was. but that lead to how many wins for portland? big stats isnt everything. now the blazers can play more of a TEAM game rather than a throw it down low while everyone watches. yea oden and zach might have complemented each other, but IF randolph was still in portland and oden WAS healthy for this year, i bet you portland still loses by ATLEAST 15 by the Spurs on opening night. hey im a blazers fan but im also realistic
October 7th, 2007 at 1:27 am
Kayce Online says:
i’d love to see Kirilenko on the Miami Heat squad somehow.. too bad he’s worth about 8 Antoine Walkers put together :/