Joakim Noah explained what he had to do to calm his nerves before his photo shoot with GQ magazine, from Luis Gomez of Chicago Tribune: “The eccentric Bulls’ star revealed in the March issue of GQ magazine – which features the Miami Heat’s LeBron James on the cover — that he needed help to calm his nerves before his photo shoot with the magazine. Noah is sporting a tuxedo and bowtie and dribbling a basketball in his photo in the men’s magazine. “I was a little nervous,” Noah told GQ. “So I actually had a couple of tequila shots, and it helped me out so much.” Noah — who appeared on the cover of GQ France with is father, Yannick Noah, in 2009 – also addressed his reputation as a villain. “When you look at the people all the way at the top of the arena, and they look so small, right?” Noah said. “And they’re just jumping up and down, being like ‘(Expletive) you!’ — there’s nothing better than that.”
- Beno Udrih has been claimed by the Memphis Grizzlies, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.
Dwight Howard knows plenty about the process of free agency and offered up some advice to Carmelo Anthony, from Sam Amick of USA Today: “He has been in the league for a long time,” Howard said about Anthony. “He hasn’t made it to the Finals and at this point in his career he wants to win. You can see it every night when he plays. I know he has to take a lot of shots and all that stuff, but he just wants to win. “I can’t say (what he’ll do). That’s on him. He’s got to decide. (But) he can’t be what everybody else wants. In this situation, you’ve got to take your heart out of it…So I’d just say for him, take his heart out of it and think with his head and think about business.”… “If you don’t win, you’re not going to get all the (off-court) stuff you want anyway,” Howard said. “I saw that last year (in Los Angeles). I was in the biggest market for the NBA, and we lost, so those (companies) aren’t going to be coming to you for losing. “When I was in Orlando, a small market, and we were winning. I was very popular with a lot of different deals on the table. So it’s moreso about winning, and you’ve got to put yourself in a position to where you’re winning basketball games and you’re having fun doing it. Losing is not fun, and Melo wants to win.”
The one thing most of Jeff Hornacek’s players can vouch for is how calm he is under tough circumstances, from Jody Genessy of Deseret News: “He always has the answer. The most important thing, especially for our team because we have a lot of young players, is he’s always calm. He’s always calm,” Dragic said. “He knows what he’s going to do the next possession and that gives us players big confidence that we can play against the best teams in the NBA.”… “He just brings that calmness going through a season,” Favors said. “You have up and down games. He just brings that calmness like, ‘It will be all right, you just got to keep working and continue playing hard.’”… And this from Plumlee: “He never gets rattled. He’s a really calm presence on the bench, which is great, but (he’s) super competitive. … He’s definitely on us, but it’s in a way that doesn’t get us rattled. Especially us being a lot of young players, we relate to that well.”
Great news for the San Antonio Spurs: Kawhi Leonard is ready to return from a broken hand. The team struggles much more when he misses games than anyone else on the roster, from Jeff McDonald of Express-News: “Small forward Kawhi Leonard, out since fracturing his shooting hand in a Jan. 22 loss to Oklahoma City, is slated to become the next player off the injured list. Popovich says Leonard — who has experienced sporadic pain in the hand in workouts — will probably play against the Pistons provided he makes it through morning shootaround unscathed… Including the OKC game he left in the first half, the Spurs were 8-7 while Leonard’s broken hand healed. By comparison, they are 7-2 without Tony Parker and 4-1 without Tim Duncan. “He’s a big part of what we do, and we’ve been missing him for a while now,” Duncan said of Leonard. “We’ve found a way to work around him as much as possible, but to have him back out there is great for us.”
The Knicks have signed two new players, according to Ian Begley and Chris Broussard of ESPN: “The New York Knicks have agreed in principle to contracts with free-agent forward Earl Clark and free-agent guard Shannon Brown, sources told ESPN.com. The team is expected to sign both Clark and Brown to 10-day contracts on Thursday so they can have them under contract for seven games, sources say. Clark, a five-year veteran, averaged 5.2 points in 45 games with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The 6-foot-10 forward was sent to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Spencer Hawes trade and subsequently waived. Brown, a seven-year veteran, played 10 games with the Spurs this season but was released after the second of two 10-day contracts. He averaged 2.3 points and 1.2 rebounds, shooting 28 percent from the field. Last season, Brown averaged 10.5 points and pulled down 2.5 rebounds in 59 games for the Phoenix Suns.”
Jermaine O’Neal has been a vocal leader for the Golden State Warriors, and he is backing it up on the floor, too. Rusty Simmons of San Francisco Chronicle has details: “”I let the guys know that I had been going through a mental struggle, not really knowing what the end game would be for my wrist – especially going down the stretch run,” the 35-year-old said Tuesday, recalling a team meeting nearly a week ago. “Any time you’re out for eight weeks and away from the team, you’re there, but you’re not really there. I wanted to reiterate to them that I knew I had failed on letting them know where I was mentally. I knew I was a little bit different than I was when I was playing – emotionally and vocally – but I told them whatever I had left, I was going to give it for them.” The Warriors haven’t lost since that hour-long, post-All-Star-break meeting – having reeled off a four-game winning streak that marks the best active swing in the Western Conference and has the team three games clear of ninth-place Memphis.”
Raymond Felton did not address the media, but did release a statement, from Peter Botte of The Daily News: “This is not a distraction to this team,” Felton said in a statement after practice, without taking questions from the media. “You know, I’m focusing on finishing out this season, finishing out these games with my teammates and going down to Miami and focusing on this next game at task, versus the defending champs. “As far as what’s going on off the court with me, there will be no comment speaking on that. If you got any questions anything doing with that, speak to my lawyer. “But other than that, I’m here to concentrate on this team, finish this season out with the New York Knicks and see what happens, man, trying to make it to the playoffs. We’re 5 ½ games out, 25 games left, so I’m really focusing on that with these guys, with the team and trying to make that happen.”
James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.
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I guess it looks like Lakers aren’t going to get anything back for Pau Gasol in Free Agency
With the type of limited contract Gasol could expect to get from another team, there wouldn’t be any advantage to accept a sign and trade. Lakers had a chance to trade Gasol, as well as Hill and Kaman at the trade deadline to get under the luxury tax, and instead chose to be arrogant. They demanded good 2nd round picks for Hill and Kaman and got nothing.
In the end, they will still get nothing.
Regarding Melo, he’s not going to go to the Lakers either, as long as D’Antoni is coach and there is no evidence that Lakers will be a winning organization again.
Melo did this to himself. He should have listened to my advice and threatened to Dolan that he would go to Phoenix in Free Agency. That would have scared Dolan into trading Melo to a contender of his choice, such as Clippers or Houston.
Maybe now Melo will listen to Dwight’s advice and go to a smaller market team like Phoenix anyway, in Free Agency.
the knicks do not need to give melo all that money, and still suck. we’d be better served to let the contracts of all, expire and go with younger talent, and let them grow together. instead of losing with melo, the trade did not work, lets move on.