As the NBA offseason drags on, we can only hope that the lack of news is because players are taking Hakeem Olajuwon’s advice to heart: ““Ask any NBA player and he’ll tell you that while stars shine during the season, it’s over the summer when the real work is done.” The Hall of Fame center continued, “Individual workouts are a crucial part of the game. These sessions can help a player cultivate a certain skill and get in the necessary repetition. But just as a pianist cannot better her ensemble skills by practicing alone, it is essential for a basketball player to accept the challenge of playing with and against others.””
Speaking of advice, in today’s strangest story, Phil Jackson had some for rapper Kendrick Lamar: “Even if his body tells him otherwise, Phil Jackson still has that itch for coaching. But who knew it would hardly involve basketball? Instead, it entailed giving rapper Kendrick Lamar some advice shortly after releasing a freestyle titled “Control” that contained these lyrics: “If Phil Jackson came back, still no coachin’ me/I’m uncoachable, I’m unsociable.” It’s unlikely Jackson will start producing beats, firing back in a freestyle or collaborating with Lamar for the sake of mentorship. But Jackson’s honesty isn’t just hilarious for the pure randomness. His comments also bode similar to feedback he’s given Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant at early stages in their career. Meanwhile, Lamar is considered a rising hip-hop artist, and he treats his latest song as a chance to shower praises on himself while dissing plenty of other rappers.”
@kendricklamar it’s okay to be cocky and sure, but we all need somebody to lean on. Let’s just call it mentoring.
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) August 13, 2013
In the second strangest story of the day, Amar’e Stoudemire will be a judge for the upcoming Miss America pageant: “New York Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire and former ‘N Sync singer Lance Bass highlight the list of judges for next month’s Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.Joining them will be Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell; comedian and performer Mario Cantone; and Barbara Corcoran, an investor from ABC’s entrepreneurial competition show “Shark Tank.” Also on the panel are Carla Hall, co-host of ABC’s food-and-talk show “The Chew,” and Deidre Downs Gunn, an obstetrician and gynecologist who was the last Miss America to be crowned in Atlantic City. Pageant officials announced the list of judges Tuesday.The pageant will be broadcast live from Boardwalk Hall on Sept. 15. It had been held in Las Vegas the past six years before returning to New Jersey.
In Yahoo! Sports latest ‘NBA A-through-Z’ piece, Kelly Dwyer detailed (Serge) Ibaka, Sam Presti’s choice: “Calling Serge Ibaka “Sam Presti’s choice” is probably a little unfair to the Oklahoma City Thunder general manager. Presti would no doubt prefer to pay his roster well into the luxury tax, rather than skirting just below it and thinning the marvelous roster he put together. The Thunder failed to return to the NBA Finals last June mainly because of Russell Westbrook’s untimely knee injury, and not because of the deal that sent James Harden to the Houston Rockets. Still, the prevailing aftermath of that deal could sink the Thunder for the next few seasons. In the end OKC lost Harden, a surefire All-Star and game-changer, for one year of Kevin Martin, rookie center Stephen Adams, and potentially a lost year that could have been spent working on Jeremy Lamb’s NBA-level reps. Not all of this is Presti or Ibaka’s fault. The blame should shift to the Oklahoma City Thunder ownership duo of Clay Bennett and Aubrey McClendon, two notoriously duplicitous owners who lied to fans in Seattle, and chucked away a chance at retaining Harden in the face of the luxury tax in spite of five consecutive years of sellouts in Oklahoma City.
The Lakers may lack depth, talent and all around experience, but forward Jordan Hill is looking forward to his expanded role: “While Hill was unable to go for a significant portion of the schedule because of a herniated disk in his lower back and surgery on his left hip, what about those three consecutive games in December when he didn’t play even though he was perfectly healthy? This hardly received the same attention as when coach Mike D’Antoni didn’t play Antawn Jamison for seven straight games later in the season and Jamison spoke up about it. Hill, who would tie Steve Nash for the unofficial but all-important Most Supportive Teammate award, kept quiet. When the season was over, however, Hill asked D’Antoni — who coached the player in New York before the No. 8 pick was shipped out of town just months into his rookie season — what he needed to do to stay on the floor next season.”
“He talked about what I need to work on for this coming summer,” Hill told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “My jump shot — he definitely wanted me to work on my outside jumper.”
Some athletes just can’t stay out of trouble. And for Michael Beasley, now we may know why: “It can be somewhat put in perspective when you learn in this report from The Washington Post that Beasley’s former mentor and father figure was arrested Friday night for cocaine trafficking during a Drug Enforcement Agency year-long investigation. The Washington Post reported that Curtis Malone, the founder of the DC Assault AAU club that produced Beasley and other stars over 20 years, was caught on DEA surveillance selling a kilogram of cocaine to a customer at his house. A search of his home turned up another kilogram of cocaine, 100 grams of heroin and other drug distribution paraphernalia. Malone also was convicted of cocaine dealing in 1990.”- More on Beasley: “Beasley played for DC Assault after his eighth-grade coach introduced his mother to Malone when Beasley was 12. When Beasley countersued his agent and Malone two years ago, he alleged there was a relationship in which they gave Beasley and his mother illegal benefits, including cash while he attended six high schools and one college over six years in six states. It was a countersuit to agent Joel Bell’s suit against Beasley, claiming that Beasley unlawfully terminated their contract in 2008 before he signed an adidas endorsement deal.”
Ben Baroff is a basketball journalist who blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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