With both Dwight Howard and Rudy Gay reluctant to participate in this year’s dunk contest, and Jamario Moon playing like the 12th man on a WNBA roster this season, we’ve taken it upon ourselves at BATB to find some worthy replacements for three of the competitors from last season.
We’re assuming that Gerald Green will accept an invitation if he gets one, because really, what else is he good for? Plus you know he’s been crossing out days on his calendar since last year’s contest.
Now onto the prospective dunkers…
Russell Westbrook – OKC Thunder
Bill Walker – Boston Celtics
Keep reading. We’ve got four more high-fliers after the jump.
Shortly after the firing of Sam Mitchell was announced yesterday afternoon, the attention turned towards possible replacements with the names being thrown including some of the top coaches currently collecting unemployment cheques. It appears that most of that speculation was premature, however.
Jay Triano – an assistant coach who served seven years in Toronto under Lenny Wilkens, Kevin O’Neill and Sam Mitchell – will reportedly get a chance to lead this team for the remainder of the season. Or until things get really ugly.
The Canadian-born Triano, 50, has been an icon in his native country as both a player on and, later, coach for the national team. He joined Toronto’s staff four years ago as an assistant under Lenny Wilkens, becoming the first Canadian assistant coach for an NBA team. He continued to impress Bryan Colangelo with his work as an assistant on the U.S. Men’s Select Team that trained with the U.S. Olympic team in 2007. Triano was picked by Jerry Colangelo, Bryan’s father and the majordomo of the U.S. OIympic men’s basketball program.
“Jay has an opportunity to cut his teeth in a significant way,” Bryan Colangelo said.
Here’s a couple videos we found of Wake Forest’s Jeff Teague doing his thing. The first dunk is just bananas. The second one is pretty ridiculous too, although the referee called it a charge. Don’t get me wrong, it was the absolute right call… but it’s still worth checking out.
The Boston Celtics avenged one of their only losses of the season, thumping the Indiana Pacers 114-96 last night in Beantown. The C’s got hefty contributions from the big 3 (Ray Allen – 31 points, KG – 26 and 14), but it was Rajon Rondo who ultimately stole the show. The third year guard got his first career triple double with 16 points, 17 rebounds, 13 assists and 3 steals.
Silver Performance
Kobe Bryan returned to his old stomping grounds of Philadelphia, a city that saw him become a high school phenom and likely helped develop him into the two-faced snake oil salesman that he is. Nevertheless, Kobe got busy against the Sixers – 32 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. The Lakers avoided dropping their second game in a row too, handling the Sixers 114-102 on the second night of a back to back.
Bronze Performance
The T-Wolves trotted out a number of different big men to try and slow down Dwight Howard last night, ranging from good (Al Jefferson), to not very good (Jason Collins), and all the way down to comically terrible (Calvin Booth!). As you might have guessed, their efforts were mostly useless. Howard had 23 points, 14 rebounds, 3 steals and swatted away 6 shots, and the Magic rolled over the Wolves 100-89.
Stinker of the Night
Chris Duhon has been getting a lot of love in New York this season, and for good reason. In a season filled with turmoil, Duhon is enjoying a career season on the court and carrying himself with a maturity and grace off of it that could serve as a good example for a lot of the Knicks (including the front office). He sort of stunk last night though – 6 points on 1-9 shooting and more turnovers (6) than assists (4).
Forbes Magazine is a publication usually read exclusively by intelligent people, but they just happened to drop something for all of us common folk out there this past month. They rank all 30 NBA teams in order of value, and also provide us with some financial trends for the league as a whole.
Despite the average American having to pawn off most of their belongings over the past 12 months, most NBA franchises are living pretty large.
Last season was a rousing success for the National Basketball Association. The league’s two marquee teams, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, met in the finals, and television ratings soared 51% over the prior year. The league’s two biggest stars, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, were on winning teams and getting a lot of prime-time exposure, wowing fans and sponsors.
League-wide revenues hit a record $3.8 billion during the 2007-08 season, 6% more than the prior campaign, and the average team posted a profit (in the sense of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $10.6 million, the highest amount since Forbes began tracking NBA finances 10 years ago.
Check out after the jump for some highlights from the 30-team ranking…
“This is a difficult but necessary step the franchise must take,” Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo. “We appreciate all that Sam has done for the organization, applaud him for his successes and wish him nothing but the best with his future in basketball.”
Mitchell will be replaced by Raptors assistant coach Jay Triano on an interim basis. He is in his seventh season as a Raptors assistant. A native of Niagara Falls, Triano coached the Canadian men’s national team from 1998-2004, posting a 52-42 record.
Well at least this is ending on relatively good terms. I always liked Mitchell on a personal level, and he did do a lot for the team and the development of Bosh and Calderon. TJ Ford would probably give Mitchell a lot of credit for revitalizing his career too. Read the rest of this entry »
The Indiana Pacers became the first team to beat the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers with their 118-117 comeback victory over the Lakeshow last night, and as you might expect, Danny Granger was a big part of that. The Lone Granger had 32 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds as the Pacers knocked off Kobe and Co. with a Troy Murphy tip-in as the final buzzer sounded.
Silver Performance
Should Chauncey Billups be getting some MVP buzz? Mr. Big Shot only had to play 32 minutes in the Nugs 132-93 destruction of the Raptors, but still found enough time to drop 24 points and 14 dimes. Maybe I should start reserving a spot on these nightly awards for whatever point guard happens to be playing against Jose Calderon or Steve Nash from now on… It seems to be a safe bet.
Bronze Performance
Dirk Nowitzki had 29 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks as the Mavericks mounted a comeback of their own over the lowly Clippers, 100-98. The Mavs celebrated like homeless people who had just won the lottery as the game concluded, which I don’t know is a good thing or not. Regardless, Dallas is above .500 with a record of 9-8 after their miserable start.
Stinker of the Night
After losing his starting spot to Spencer Hawes, Mikki Moore of the Sacramento Kings did little on Tuesday night to make Reggie Theus reconsider the decision. Moore had only 3 rebounds and 3 fouls in his 12 minutes on the floor. He was 0-3 from the field.
The economic crisis in America has claimed yet another victim – The Houston Comet franchise of the WNBA. It was announced Monday that the team was folding after failing to find a new owner to take the team off of Hilton Koch’s hands. It could be worse of course… it could have been something we cared about.
The Houston Comets will suspend operations for the 2009 season it was announced today by WNBA President Donna Orender. A WNBA Dispersal Draft involving Comets players will take place on Monday, Dec. 8.
“Multiple investors have come forward and expressed significant interest in purchasing the Comets and having them continue to play in Houston in 2009,” said Orender. “However, we made the judgment that we would not be able to complete a transaction with the right ownership group in time for the 2009 season. The WNBA is extremely grateful to the Comets organization, to the city of Houston and to the team’s loyal fans for helping build both the WNBA and the game of women’s basketball.”
The WNBA was just getting off the ground when I first began to fall in love with basketball, and I can vividly remember those first few Comets teams that dominated the league after it’s inception. I was so enthralled with the game of basketball at the time that I would actually sit through entire WNBA games, although I was like 10 and did all sorts of stupid things back then. So give me a fucking break.
Just sell off the entire league and put the $700 bucks towards that stupid money thing you American’s keep blabbering on about…
Posted by Fully. 
Posted by Fully. 
Posted by Fully. 
