Shaq Could Return To Basketball; Knicks New Jerseys Are Revealed

Just a day after we heard Allen Iverson say he was willing to take the Starbury detour and head to China to play ball, we’re hearing another former star could be coming back to basketball: Shaquille O’Neal. That sound you hear is TNT fans everywhere screaming in delight. No one is talking about anything permanent, however. Sorry to kill the excitement. Yes, O’Neal should be back to possibly submarine “Inside The NBA” again, but there are also some plans in the works for the Big Fella to restart his pro career on the court. Marcelo Bousquet of ESPN tweeted (courtesy of a translation from HoopsHype) that the president of Fuerza Regia, a club in the Mexican Basketball League, says Shaq could play one or two games during the upcoming season. We gave Iverson some of this same advice in the past, but is there anyone who was more destined to become the real life Kenny Powers than Shaquille O’Neal? We don’t think so. The similarities are too eerie. A show on O’Neal’s exploits in that league could be awesome … As we wrote this weekend, the Nets traveled to Houston to check in on Washington castaway Andray Blatche, and sure enough, it sounds like there are closing in on a deal with the 6-11 pile of underachievement. ESPN.com reports the two are on course to get a deal done this week (UPDATE: Marc Spears of Yahoo.com tweeted that the two sides have agreed to a one-year deal paying Blatche the minimum). This comes after Avery Johnson said earlier today that the Nets aren’t a championship-level team. When you’re signing guys like Blatche, who is one strike away from permanently being banished to local rec leagues, you can’t really call the lil’ General a liar … Did y’all catch the Muggsy Bogues Collection from K1X? Those t-shirts are so fresh we wanted to buy up the whole collection. And while the gear is obviously officially nice, we spent parts of yesterday reminiscing on Mr. Tyrone Bogues. Even more amazing than the fact that a 5-3 point guard lasted 14 years in the NBA, is the fact that a 5-3 point guard was chosen No. 12 overall in a loaded draft class. Check out all the big names that came out of the ’87 Draft: David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, Kenny Smith, Kevin Johnson, Olden Polynice (wanted to see if you were paying attention), Horace Grant, Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson, and Reggie Lewis (RIP). Could a player that small ever get drafted that high in today’s game? No freakin’ way, even if that player was as much of a defensive pest and as much of an offensive genius as Muggsy was at Wake Forest. Everyone is too caught up in things like height, wingspan and vertical leap … And thank God for Kevin McHale. We make fun of the man (he’s an incredibly easy target), but in an interview with NBA.com, the dude lit up the present “me-first, mo money, mo problems” NBA culture. The only way you can win, according to McHale, is by finding the right mix of guys who will go above and beyond for the sake of the team, and are willing to sacrifice more than just a few shots for the good of the group. It’s a cliche, but it’s still very true. McHale also dropped this gem: “Again, that is not the sexy, ‘Oh you’re in the NBA, you get paid.’ That’s why half these clowns in this league don’t win anything.” … Keep reading to hear what those crazy OKC fans did this time …

Courtesy of a trailer from NBA 2K13, we knew the Knicks were going to be dropping new uniforms soon, but we didn’t realize Amar’e Stoudemire would reveal them on “Live With Kelly & Michael.” New York’s new joints look cool, but honestly, if you had never told us they were getting new unis, we would’ve never noticed. The black was taken out, yes, and so were the pipes along the side of the jersey, but only because this is New York is this news. They are super simple, super unoriginal, which in this case is probably good news considering the old school jerseys were dope, but too bad for New York fans they won’t help the team anymore than these earlier-than-usual workouts the guys are running. The Knicks are like the Cowboys of the NBA: we can’t stop talking about them, even though they’ve routinely broken their fans’ hearts, rarely win anything, and their stars always get picked WAY too high in fantasy. The more we think about it, the more we feel like the Knicks just swindled us. These aren’t “new” uniforms. They’re just slightly altered. But hey, it kept them in Smack and got them gigs on “Live With Kelly & Michael” so they’re getting what they wanted out of this whole thing … The Thunder are always catching jokes about how no one wants to play there or live there, and that all they have are cornfields next to more cornfields. And while this is really cool, it’s certainly not helping OKC’s reputation. A few Thunder fans created a 35-acre tribute to the team, turning what’s billed as the largest corn maze in the state into a collage of basketball images. This isn’t the first time this particular cornfield received this kind of treatment. Turns out they’ve done monster Star Wars images in the past as well. We might love the Thunder, but seeing a building-sized Yoda is infinitely better than checking out a big ol’ Kevin Durant jersey … And not only did 2K Sports release another trailer for NBA 2K13, this one centered on how Kinect will be utilized in the game, but they’re also announcing a brand-new experience called NBA 2K Everywhere. This will include an all-new mobile companion application, a social game on Facebook, and a full-featured mobile version of NBA 2K13 for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android devices, letting gamers experience it all at any point. There will also be a free companion app called MyNBA2K, which will let gamers experience a series of entertaining mini-games including shooting practice, free throw drills, a dribbling course, and autograph signings. It’s being marketed as a way to stay connected to MyPlayer when you aren’t at home. NBA 2K: MyLIFE will also be launching on Facebook, and will be a social game designed to have players matchup against their friends and live the life of an NBA superstar. The rewards? You’ll be able to unlock things like clothing and dunk packages in the actual game … We’re out like New York’s “new” uniforms.

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