We’re ticking down the last days of the offseason in the NBA. Training camps are on the horizon. It’s almost over, folks.
But it’s not over yet. Which means the only NBA basketball we have right now is video games. Speaking of which, I just scored 29 points with Luke Ridnour in NBA 2K13, and then got caught in a YouTube loop trying to find videos of unlikely dunks. Here’s one from JJ Barea. If you have any favorites, post them in the comments or send them to me on Twitter (@dmalone01).
Now let’s get to the latest news from around the NBA:
- Click through on this link for an interview with Derrick Rose from CSN Chicago. The most interesting part is excerpted here: ” “I think I am a 100 percent,” Rose said. “I’m doing almost everything. I’m squatting, running, lifting almost every other day, just being back on the court after you have an ACL injury, you’re kind of hesitant at first about how you step, what way you should step, learning how to run, accelerate, accelerate while you run and while you’re slowing down. For me, I’m reacting right now where all I have to think about is if I have to get to a spot, I’m going to get there no matter what. It kind of feels good having that feeling again.” “
Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star has a stellar interview with Tracy McGrady up looking back on the NBA veteran’s career, with special attention to his time with the Raptors: “With his three-year rookie contract expiring at that the end of a 1999-2000 season that saw the Raptors make the first post-season appearance in their then five-season history, McGrady was an impending free agent with no end of suitors, the citizens of Toronto among them. Fans carried signs that urged: “Come Back T-Mac!” Shirtless young men painted the same message across their chests. The Raptors set up an email address with which fans could flood their six-foot-eight hero with pleadings he stay. He didn’t stay, of course. McGrady, who grew up in tiny Auburndale, Fla., fled to nearby Orlando only months after his 21st birthday, and his return trips to the Air Canada Centre would be accompanied by the vicious boos of a jilted populace. But more than 13 years later, in the days since he announced his retirement from the NBA last month at age 34, McGrady has been looking back fondly on his time in the NBA’s Canadian outpost. “In hindsight, looking back, obviously I wish I had stayed in Toronto,” McGrady was saying in a recent telephone interview from his home in the Houston area. “There’s no doubt we could have contended for a championship. I think about that often. But if ‘if’ was a fifth, you know?” If “if” was a fifth, as the hip-hop lyric goes, Raptor fans would have been drunk on dunks for years to come.”
One of the top prospects before this year’s draft, Dario Saric pulled out late in the process and decided to re-enter a loaded 2014 crop. Mark Woods of ESPN.com caught up with the Croatian big man: “Talking to scouts and personnel people who have watched him mature over the past few seasons, the reviews are overwhelmingly positive, as close to a can’t-miss draftee as any European in recent times. I asked someone in attendance at EuroBasket for his assessment. He said: “There is a lot to like about his game: his work ethic, the way he can get out in transition, the way he sees the floor. He’s a complete player. When you have a 6-10 guy and you can put the ball in his hands, that’s huge. The only thing is his shooting has to improve. But that will happen when he gets to the NBA because it’s that kind of league.” Of course, Saric could have been coming to America this season. Tabbed to be a lottery pick this summer, he withdrew his name late in the process and opted to postpone his departure for at least one more year. It’s a decision, he confirms, that was based on his own assessment of his readiness. Last fall, he was sitting idle, practicing but not playing, left without a team in a tug of love between KK Zagreb and a number of other European clubs who were actively recruiting him away. Spain’s Euroleague entrants Bilbao thought they had agreed on a four-year contract. The deal fell through, with reports in Croatia claiming that a fee of $730,000 was demanded for the trade. Others circled. Eventually, Saric stayed close to home, joining Cibona Zagreb and signing a contract which is understood to have an NBA escape clause which would see his current employer receive a percentage of his future earnings.”- Robbie Kalland of HawksBasketBlog.com talked to new Hawk Elton Brand about joining the team and his role this season: “Yeah, I see myself playing a lot of center which I’ve played the last few years guarding those big guys, the [Dwight] Howard’s, the [Roy] Hibbert’s in the post and I’ve done pretty okay against them. We’re going to have to scramble, we’re going to have to be quick, and make them pay on the other end. Get the rebounds and go. We will be undersized height-wise, but I think we’ll use our quickness, strength, and other things to make them pay on the other side. … On the court, you can definitely expect a post presence defensively and offensively. Definitely looking forward to it, and I’ll be mixing it up and being tough in the paint for us. Like you alluded to there’s not a lot of size, but we’ve got some strength and quickness. Off the court, being a veteran leader, getting us prepared every night. We have a great group of guys that just want to win. Just knowing these guys from working out here, no one’s selfish, no one’s worried about contracts or anything, they’re just worried about getting better and winning. So, that’s the type of team I want to be a part of.”
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Dan Malone is in his fourth year as a journalism student at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and spent this summer as a features intern at the Cape Cod Times. He blogs, edits and learns things on the fly for Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on Twitter.