New York City wants Madison Square Garden to find a new location within the next decade, according to Charles V. Bagli of The New York Times: “Madison Square Garden, home to the Knicks, the Rangers, the Ice Capades, the circus and the “Fight of the Century” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1971, received an eviction notice of sorts on Wednesday. The New York City Council notified the arena that it has 10 years to vacate its 45-year-old premises and find a new home, the Garden’s fifth since it opened in 1879. By a vote of 47 to 1, the Council voted to extend the Garden’s special operating permit for merely a decade — not in perpetuity, as the owners of the Garden had requested, or 15 years, as the Bloomberg administration had intended. “This is the first step in finding a new home for Madison Square Garden and building a new Penn Station that is as great as New York and suitable for the 21st century,” said Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker. “This is an opportunity to reimagine and redevelop Penn Station as a world-class transportation destination.”
The Miami Heat will open next season against the Chicago Bulls and play against the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day (um, okay?): “The Miami Heat will be getting their 2013 NBA championship rings in front of theChicago Bulls. Their fans then will get to enjoy their Christmas dinner watching the Heat from afar, against the Los Angeles Lakers. At least that’s the preliminary word based on the nearly completed draft of the 2013-14 NBA schedule sent this week to teams and league broadcast partners, the Sun Sentinel has learned. ccording to the preliminary schedule, which is subject to revision, the Heat will open their second consecutive championship defense on Tuesday Oct. 29 at AmericanAirlines Arena against the Bulls.”
Shaquille O’Neal said he would mentor DeMarcus Cousins some weeks ago, but Cousins says he hasn’t heard a word from the TNT analyst, from Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee: “After meeting Kings principal owner Vivek Ranadive last month, O’Neal pledged to help “make DeMarcus Cousins the best big man in the game.” That’s fine with Cousins, but he’s still waiting to connect with O’Neal. “I have not heard from Shaq at all,” Cousins said. “Not a tweet, DM (direct message), nothing.” During his career, and especially with the Los Angeles Lakers, O’Neal taunted the Kings and dominated them on the court. O’Neal retired after the 2010-11 season with four NBA championships, three Finals MVP awards and one regular-season MVP honor… “I would be open to it,” Cousins said. “But I have not heard from him.”
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Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis took turns complimenting each other, from Ben Golliver of SI: “Anthony is the franchise guy,” Holiday said. “I just want to bring some heart. Not saying that there wasn’t heart there [in New Orleans before] but [I bring] heart, hard work, defense. Getting stops, getting out on the break. Trying to be a point guard, trying to be a leader.”… “Anthony showed me a lot more [this week],” Holiday said. “He can dribble, we know he’s athletic, hitting step-back jumpers, 15-foot jumpers and all that. I didn’t know he had that until now.”… “He’s one of the smoothest players I’ve seen,” Davis said. “Nothing bothers him, nothing worries him. He goes out there and does what he has to do to win. That’s excellent. … He’s an exceptional player. He can definitely come off the pick and roll pretty well. He can score the ball. A leader. He wants to come right in and get involved.”
- A woman named Jennifer Richardson claims to have given Lamar Odom a “Christmas Threesome”, from Stiletto Jill: “Lamar Odom’s alleged stripper girlfriend recently revealed more dirty deets of her year-long “relationship” with him. Jennifer Richardson claims to have met LO while he was playing for the Dallas Mavericks in January of 2012. She says she became “Mrs. Odom” on the road and that Lamar sprung for first class flights and car service to varied NBA cities over that time. She also claims she gave Lamar a threesome in December of 2012 because she was in the holiday spirit… Meanwhile Lamar has supposedly told Khloe that Richardson is nothing but a notorious groupie that follows teams from city to city. Like that ever stopped a player from hooking up with a chick. Rule number 202 for the 27th time, jocks LOVE a referral.”
- Coach Nick of Bballbreakdown broke down how Dwight Howard will change the Houston Rockets:
James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.