Why doesn’t the NBA have it’s own Hall of Fame. Chris Bernucca has a column up on the site calling for one. Check it out. You wouldn’t believe some of the players who have been bypassed for induction. And to close the book on the offseason and turn ahead to the new season, be sure to check out Jan Hubbard’s column on what we learned about the NBA this summer and Chris Sheridan’s first power rankings for 2012-13.
Here’s the latest NBA news:
- Despite having a ludicrously successful offseason, Mitch Kupchak still has some reservations about the Lakers, as he says in an excellent interview with SI.com’s Sam Amick: “A perfect example is that a lot of people say, “Hey, Mitch, you’ve got a great starting five, are you worried about anything or could you possibly wish for anything more?” And the first thing that comes to my mind is, “Yeah, I wish they were all 25.” That’s how I look at things. Yeah, it’s a great group, but I wish they were younger.” There’s a lot more in the link, including how Kupchak thought acquiring Steve Nash would be unlikely, and it’s definitely a recommended clickthrough. Amick, BTW, was one of the inspirations for SheridanHoops.com, which turned 1 a couple days ago.
- Ben Golliver of CBSSports.com covered Reggie Miller’s Hall of Fame induction last night, which included an interesting note on one of Miller’s most famous plays: “Reggie Miller “confessed” that he got away with a foul during the most famous sequence of his career but justified his action with the unimpeachable, “But Michael Jordan did it all the time!” defense. The confession/explanation sequence was the clear highlight of the 2012 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Springfield, Mass., on Friday. During the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks, Miller famously scored eight points in nine seconds to push his Indiana Pacers to a shocking victory. After nailing a 3-pointer over John Starks, Miller stole the ensuing inbounds pass, knocking down Knicks guard Greg Anthony in the process, before stepping back to hit another 3-pointer to tie the game at 105. … On Friday, Miller admitted that he should have been called for a foul during the sequence and even issued an apology to Anthony, joking that the play was one of his basketball “sins.” “I’ve got to say here, in 1995, as you saw in the video, yeah, I pushed,” Miller said. “I’m sorry. The ref didn’t call it. I went with it. Like Magic [Johnson] says, ‘By any means necessary.’ So I apologize, Greg. I’ve never said that publicly. So, Greg, I shoved you and I kept you down.” Click through above for video both of Miller’s speech and the 1995 play.
- Marc Berman of the New York Post has some news that can’t be welcome for Knicks fans: “Knicks owner James Dolan staged a business meeting with Isiah Thomas yesterday morning at the Mandarin Hotel in Midtown, according to a person familiar with the situation. A band of security men surrounded the two men who were both dressed in business suits in a quiet corner of the lobby. Thomas has lobbied to return to the organization since he was fired as the Florida International basketball coach last spring. The meeting took place two days after the resignation of MSG sports president Scott O’Neil, who, according to a source, helped convince Dolan rehiring Thomas wasn’t a good move for the Knicks brand. … The Garden stated it would conduct a search for a new Garden sports president, which is a marketing position. It is possible Dolan was seeking Thomas’ advice on filling the position because he has maintained his friendship with Dolan. Hiring the unpopular Thomas would come at an odd time considering the franchise is dealing with the fan fallout of losing Jeremy Lin and are bracing for the Nets’ debut in Brooklyn. Knicks coach Mike Woodson is down an assistant coach after Kenny Atkinson left for Atlanta, and it’s possible the meeting centered on Thomas returning in some sort of coaching consultant capacity during training camp, which begins Oct. 2.”
- The excitement for the Nets’ move to Brooklyn is getting started with coach Avery Johnson, who, Nets Daily reports, had this to say: “We’re excited. Its sort of like when you have a low payroll and no expectations and your team’s not very good. that stinks, right? But when you got a good talent pool and Billy King, our GM, and Mikhail Prokhorov, our owner, they’ve done a great job in increasing our talent pool and we’re just excited. the key was getting Deron Williams re-signed. That was the main piece to the whole puzzle. We’re excited about it. We know we’ve got a lot of work to do, but at least going into camp, we’ve got a lot of versatility, experience and guys with playoff experience and guys who are really competitive at their positions and we just want to put together a really good team.”
- I've achieved making it to the @NBA, despite my anxiety disorder, my next goal is building a #conglomerate... Wish me luck #anxietytroopers
@Highway_30Royce White - The Rockets have signed undrafted rookie PG Scott Machado, the Associated Press reports: “The 6-foot-1 Machado played well on the Rockets’ summer league team, averaging 8.0 points, a team-high 5.6 assists and 2.2 steals in five games. He closed summer league play by leading the Rockets with 20 points and six assists in a 96-88 win over Chicago. Machado, a rookie free agent who averaged 9.9 assists as a senior, averaged 12.2 points, 6.7 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 132 games over four seasons at Iona. Machado is the Gaels’ career leader in assists (880) and ranks 17th in NCAA history.”
Question mark on that first sentence, Dan.