No NBA players will be hitting up Bank of America if they’re in need of loans during the lockout. Why, just go to Kobe Bryant. He’ll hand out loans. Seriously. Billy Hunter, president of the Players Association, told the Los Angeles Times that the Laker star is intimately involved in the talks and negotiations and that he’s (along with other unnamed players) prepared to offer loans to players who may need help during the lockout … Will Rashad McCants be the first to ask Bryant for money since he’s been “locked out” for two years and doesn’t want to play with anyone in the whole league besides Kobe? … While everyone, including us, were busy praising John Wall for taking over the Impact League, we all forgot about Kyle Lowry. Lowry, who has to be one of the 10 best players in the league that NO ONE ever mentions, went undefeated for the week. He also dropped 25 & 14 on Wall (even though Wall had 42, nine and eight himself) and had a game of 49 points (on 18 shots!). Lowry still balls like he’s a ninth grader trying to make the JV team, and it’s super refreshing … We’re still looking at SU and Pitt’s exodus from the Big East kind of backwards since it’s a great basketball conference as-is. So, with Syracuse and Pitt skipping town, where does Big East stalwart and 2011 NCAA Tournament champion UConn weigh in on the possibility of switching conferences? Well Jim Calhoun recently dropped his two cents with the Associated Press (via The Washington Post) and gave a few hints. The coach stated, “From a basketball standpoint, I would love to be at the most powerful conference in America,” but said the decision to stay or jump ship is in the higher ups’ hands. Then he followed with this quote. “If you are going to keep that relationship with Syracuse and try to build that long-term rivalry, and build it with Pitt, that type of thing, then the only way evidently that would happen is if Connecticut went to the ACC…” The potential to maintain old rivalries as well as build new ones with UNC and Duke seems too appealing to pass up. Hoops would still play second fiddle to college football. Still, a possible trifecta of SU, Pitt and UConn to the ACC could continue the trend of creating monster conferences … Is Jerry Sloan good on coaching again? Yep, well at least for the time being. The Salt Lake Tribune‘s Steve Luhm talked to the ex-coach as well as his wife Tammy and others on the chances that Sloan returns to the league (great read by the way). Sloan’s wife says that Sloan is fine when he’s working on their farm, but gets really bored whenever he’s in Utah and that “I just don’t see him staying retired. I just can’t see that happening.” We don’t mean to be smart asses but Tammy, who wouldn’t be bored out of their mind in Utah? Of course the piece wouldn’t be complete without hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth. Jerry Sloan told Luhm, “I don’t think you can ever say, ‘No.’ But I’m not agonizing over it, that’s for sure… I think I’ll always be able to find something to do. The camaraderie we had with the players and coaches all those years was special and now, all of a sudden, it stops. There’s a void there, no question about that. But do I miss it that much? I’d say, ‘Not really.’ But we’ll see.” These old heads always leave folks hanging on a string. In all seriousness, we wouldn’t be surprised if he returned to the NBA at some capacity. He doesn’t have much else to prove from the bench considering he’s a Hall of Famer but he has a wealth of basketball information to share. It’d be a shame to keep it all to him. If that’s what he wishes, we have to respect his decision … Quick, seven-on-seven game of football, who are you taking from the NBA? Is Brandon Jennings one of them? … In one of the greatest celebrity hookups of all-time, more details leaked on the White on Rice one weekend stand. At the time of the encounter, Sarah Palin apparently was really into black guys. Did that play a part in the hookup? Maybe. But then what did Glen Rice have? A fetish for terrible accents? … NBA 2K12 released another Developer Insight on the controls, and drove home the point that it’ll be all about giving the user more options. From the dribble to changing shots in midair to defending shots, 2K took basically every canned animation out of the game so that we’d never feel helpless. Also, some of the ratings have been released and not only is LeBron rated higher than Kobe (98 to 94), D-Wade is also higher (96). How do you feel about that?. And get ready. If the demo hasn’t released yet, it will be out VERY soon … We’re out like Ray J/Fabolous beef.
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