Gary Payton referred to most of today’s point guards as “two-guards”, from Sean Deveney of Sporting News: “We don’t really have point guards in the NBA right now,” newly minted Hall of Famer Gary Payton told SN. “We got, really, two-guards, and that’s just a fact. They score a lot and things like that. Nowadays, we have a lot of two-guards that’s ones, and they score and that’s what basketball is about right now. Basketball is about excitement and putting up points and that’s just the way it is. In my day, we had a lot of true point guards and we competed with each other every night. It is a little different now, it is different eras.” Payton said the league has, basically, three legitimate point guards: Chris Paul, Rajon Rondo and Tony Parker… “I like my era better,” Payton said. “I went against point guards every year, and we just played tough. You had Tim Hardaway, Kevin Johnson, a lot of them guys who were playing. John Stockton—that’s what I like about my era. We could hand-check, we could do a lot of stuff defensively. We could control our teams, all five guys. We didn’t have to score 25, 26 points. We get 17 points, 10 dimes and three or four steals. That was my era. I loved that era.”
Jim Buss explained his side of the story on why the Lakers passed on Phil Jackson and says the key reason was actually out of respect, from Ramona Shelburne of ESPN: “We did the coaching search and interviews and fed him all the information,” Buss said. “And he said, ‘This is who I want. D’Antoni’s the man.’ Knowing that in the future we had to rebuild, he felt that Phil was not a guy to rebuild. It’s not fair to him. It was actually more of a respectful thought towards Phil.” Jim said he and Kupchak had come to the conclusion that Jackson simply wasn’t sure if he wanted to return to the sidelines after their interview with him, and if he was reluctant, so were they. He noted that Kupchak and Jackson also had lunched over the summer and Jackson told Kupchak then that he had no intention of ever coaching again. Still, Buss said they wanted to reach out to gauge Jackson’s interest again after firing Brown because “he’s the best basketball coach of all time.”… “My dad said, ‘You know what? D’Antoni’s the guy. I’ve always liked him. Showtime. I think it will be fun basketball as we make the transition [from the Kobe Bryant era],’ ” Jim said. He said his father also told them to hire D’Antoni quickly. “He said, ‘Do it by Sunday night,’ ” Buss said. “He wanted to get it done before the weekend was over.”
Kobe Bryant still does not know whether he will be ready to start the season, from Mark Medina of Daily News: “More time has passed in Kobe Bryant’s recovery from a torn left Achilles tendon. But the Lakers star still hasn’t received any clarity as how that will translate when he returns to the basketball court. ‘I don’t know [whether] that means I’ll start the season – I hope so,” Bryant said in a recent interview to Time Out Dubai to promote his upcoming trip there later this month to host a basketball clinic. The Lakers start their season Oct. 29 against the Clippers, giving Bryant a little more than seven more weeks to rehab his Achilles. When Bryant suffered the injury April 12 against the Golden State Warriors, the Lakers estimated he’d sit out at least six to nine months. “I’m feeling pretty good,’” Bryant said, ‘stronger than I was. I’m ahead of [my recovery] schedule.”
Whether he starts or finishes, all Harrison Barnes cares about is winning, from Marcus Thompson of Mercury News: “His expression was straight forward. His wording precise. His point emphatic.Warriors budding star Harrison Barnes said he isn’t concerned about whether he starts. He isn’t even consumed by being on the court at the end of games. “Winning the game matters more to me,” Barnes said… “I can imagine much worse problems,” Barnes said. “I feel confident about this team and where we can go. Regardless if I’m starting or coming off the bench, I think we have a chance to make a serious playoff push.”… He also listed consistency and better shooting percentage as areas he wants to improve. “Just be better than I was last year,” Barnes said of his individual goal. But, fittingly, before he revealed that, he harped on the greater challenge facing the team. “We’re not going into the season like we were last year,” Barnes said, “Saying, ‘Let’s just roll the dice, see how many games we win and hope we end up in that eighth seed. Now we have expectations and we’re trying to fulfill that.”
Tyler Zeller has gained weight and is looking to gain more, according to Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plane Dealer: “How else to explain the 10 Krispy Kreme donuts in one sitting? Really. Ten. “They’re so good,” he said, unabashedly. “If you get them hot….” Yeah, yeah. We know. “I ate about six in probably 10 minutes, maybe less,” he said. This was not his diet all summer. But after a bout of flu near the end of last season caused the 7-footer to lose about eight pounds and left his weight at 238, he spent the first three weeks of his vacation eating anything he wanted. In spite of his high metabolism, when he returned to Cleveland in late June, he was up 20 pounds, about eight pounds more than the 250 he played at most of his rookie season. “I’m not going to say I was fat, but I felt very out of shape,” Zeller said. “I had to transfer that into ‘good’ weight and muscle. Now I’m between 255-260, and I’m pretty happy with that, although I’m trying to gain more.”
Here’s the story behind how a man found a locker full of Dikembe Mutombo memorabilia, from TMZ: “It’s the kind of “Storage Wars” story that would make Dave Hester proud — some guy in Maryland bought a unit for $300 at a storage auction recently only to find more Dikembe Mutombo memorabilia than you can shake a giant finger at. The winning bidder is Adrian Petrus … who competed for the contents of a forceclosed unit — and just like on “Storage Wars,” Adrian had no idea what was inside. So you can imagine how pumped he was when he opened the locker and realized the whole thing was packed full of Mutombo items — signed basketballs, shoes, jerseys, trading cards and photos of Dikembe with celebs like Michael Jackson and Nelson Mandela. The locker also contained works of art painted and signed by Mutombo’s brother. So who would abandon such an incredible cache of Dikembe stuff? Turns out, the unit belonged to one of Dikembe’s brothers … who lost the locker recently after missing several rental payments.”
