Here’s one straight from the Go Somewhere And Sit Down files: After Michael Jordan jokingly called out Bryon Russell during his H.O.F. speech, of course somebody had to go track down Russell for his reaction. And of course the 38-year-old Russell — who as recently as this summer was talking about trying an NBA comeback — had to go make himself look like the “Can’t let the game go” retired ballplayer, challenging MJ to a battle. “I’ll play his ass right now,” Russell told Yahoo! Sports. “This is a call-out for him to come play me. He can come out here in his private jet and come play. He’s got millions of dollars. He can pay for the jet. He can meet me at the Recreation Center in Calabasas. We can have Mark Jackson do the commentating. We can have Mitch Richmond do the officiating. We can put it on TV and see if Michael’s still got it.” Read More »

From the best (Shaq) to the worst (Russell Westbrook) on down to the weird (Stephon Marbury), NBA players who partake in Twitter are about to get put on blast. David Stern told Yahoo! Sports yesterday that he’s about to issue some restrictions on players using Twitter and other social media, similar to what the NFL has done. “You want to make sure that pop culture doesn’t intrude on what brought us here, which is the game, and that we show the right respect for the game,” Stern said. “We just need to make sure when it’s OK to Tweet and when it’s not OK to Tweet so it at least focuses around the game. It would look unusual for a guy sitting on the bench to pick up his cell phone, and I think we can agree that he probably shouldn’t be writing e-mails. It’s not about Twitter; it’s about the line of communication. That’s what we’re focusing on.” … Read More »

If you’re a Seattle Supersonics fan stuck in NBA purgatory waiting for somebody else’s team to come to town, the story breaking out of Memphis yesterday made you optimistic. If you’re a Grizzlies fan, it just made you shake your head. As reported in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the Grizzlies fired their entire amateur scouting staff, and for the time being will only employ one part-time guy to scout international prospects. Total cost-cutting move (”I prefer a smaller group,” said GM Chris Wallace), although it’s not totally indefensible since Wallace and the coaches can scout college guys … Read More »

Phil Jackson isn’t a yell-and-scream type of coach. So in lieu of a remixed Al Pacino “Inches” speech or some outright Bob Knight-ish threats, whatever books Phil passed out to his Lakers leading up to last night’s Game 5 got the job done. Sparked by a 20-4 run in the first half, L.A. looked like a totally different team than the one that got smashed on Mother’s Day: They were getting after it and flying all over the place on D, executing their stuff crisply and efficiently on O, and letting their two All-Stars set the tone. Read More »