SH Blog: Lawyer states Sterling will fight to bloody end, Stephenson regrets making comments about LeBron James

YOUR ALL-TIME STARTING FIVE:

Pick your $15 All-time Starting Five pic.twitter.com/NPsa7VmDkA

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) May 28, 2014

So lets have a little fun with this (thanks to Ballislife for the tweet/idea). My team: Magic Johnson ($5), Michael Jordan ($5), Scottie Pippen ($1), Kevin Garnett ($1), Wilt Chamberlain ($3).

Here’s the logic:

Johnson is regarded by most as the greatest point guard of all-time. Easy choice.

Jordan is regarded by most as the greatest player of all-time. Easy choice.

It’s time to use my money wisely, so for the small forward position, I’ll go with Jordan’s partner, Pippen – the best defender on the list. If I wanted better offense, I’d go with Kevin Durant since he can space the floor much better than Pippen. However, his scoring isn’t needed with Johnson and Jordan already on the team, and his defense doesn’t compare at all to that of Pippen’s.

Again, I’m running low on money, so going with Garnett at power forward makes plenty of sense here. He can space the floor with his outside shooting, is one of the best passing power forwards of all-time, averaged nearly 14 rebounds in his prime and is a supreme defender. Again, I could go with Dirk Nowitzki for better spacing since his range extends to the 3-point line, but I am looking for the whole package here, so Garnett for $1 is a bargain.

As great as Jordan is, you still want another reliable scoring option if he’s having an off-night. Who better to rely on in the low post than a center capable of dropping 100 points on you? I only have $3 left at this point but even if I had more, Chamberlain is more dynamic on both ends of the floor from an overall perspective than anyone else on the list (respectfully). The man once averaged 50 points and 25 rebounds. That’s freaky, no matter how you look at it.

All in all, here is what I’ve created: a team that shares the ball extraordinarily well from every position with two of the most devastating scorers from inside and out, all orchestrated by arguably the most creative play-maker ever. Oh, and all of them can dominate on the defensive end as well.

So that’s my list, but there’s no right or wrong here. Who’s on your team and why? Go crazy.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE:

Tiago Splitter has been fined $5,000 by the NBA for this flop job. Was there contact on the play? Yes. Did Splitter act like he took a bullet to the chest? Yes.

Stephen Curry is a great representative of the league, and here is just another example of it, from The A.P.: “Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry has won the NBA’s 2013-14 Kia Community Assist Seasonlong Award. The league recognized Curry on Wednesday for “his numerous charitable contributions, fundraising and remarkable generosity in the Bay Area and across the globe.” Curry’s charity of choice, ThanksUSA, will receive $25,000 from the NBA and Kia Motors. ThanksUSA provides college, technical and vocational school scholarships for children and spouses of active-duty military personnel. Curry has served as a spokesman for the charity since 2010. Curry’s other charitable works included distributing 38,000 bed nets in Tanzania last summer with the “Nothing But Nets” campaign. Curry also helped raise money for the fight against malaria in Africa by donating three bed nets for every 3-pointer he made during the last two seasons.”

Donald Sterling continues to be a pain in the neck for everyone, from Ramona Shelburne of ESPN: “Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling responded forcefully Tuesday to the NBA’s charges to terminate his ownership, while his estranged wife, Shelly Sterling, continued to move quickly to sell the team by the end of the week. Donald Sterling’s lawyer, Max Blecher, told ESPN on Tuesday that his client “is going to fight to the bloody end” and has effectively “disavowed” the agreement he reached with his wife last week that would allow her to negotiate a sale of the team. “I don’t know what agreement she has with him, but I’m saying to you today, he disavows anything she’s doing to sell the team,” Blecher said. “He says, ‘It’s my team, and I’ll sell it when and if I get around to it.'” Asked why Sterling seems to have had a change of heart, Blecher said, “He was in a state of shock at first. Now he’s recovering and he’s much more feisty.”

Sterling’s lawyer says what the league is trying to do to him is illegal: “I believe what they’ve done is illegal and it will not hold up in court,” Blecher told ESPN. “I believe what they’re doing is a blatant invasion of his constitutional rights because they’re using a tape recording that he did not consent to, and under California law, that recording cannot be used for any purpose, for any proceeding. “So if the basis of their case is illegal evidence, they don’t have much of a case. … The whole thing is a pile of garbage.”

Blecher also compared what Sterling did with what Kobe Bryant said some years ago against a referee, from Mark Medina of Daily News: ““Sterling was engaged in a lovers’ tiff stemming from his jealous reaction to Ms. Stiviano’s statement that she was going to “bring four gorgeous black guys to the game,” Sterling’s lawyers wrote in their legal response to the NBA. “Mr. Sterling’s ego was obviously bruised by this remark suggesting that she was cavorting with younger, “gorgeous” men. It’s facially ludicrous that what Mr. Sterling said in these circumstances could produce the equivalent of a death penalty while Kobe Bryant called a referee a [homosexual slur] on national television sustaining only a modest $100,000 fine.”

Paul George has been fined by the league for criticizing the referees after Game 4, from Candace Buckner of Indystar: “One day after Indiana Pacers All-Star Paul George complained about the Miami Heat’s “home cooking,” the NBA responded. George was fined $25,000 Tuesday for public criticism of officiating he made after the Pacers’ 102-90 loss in Game 4. The Heat attempted 34 free throws compared to the Pacers’ 17 and following the loss, several players commented on the discrepancy. However, George took it further by blaming the loss on the Heat’s advantage at the free throw line.”

Lance Stephenson appeared to have some regrets about what he said about LeBron James before Game 5, from Zak Keefer of USA Today: “”I think this stuff bothered us a little bit,” the Pacers’ fourth-year guard admitted after shoot-around at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, referring to his poking-of-the-bear comments directed towards LeBron James prior to Game 4 of these Eastern Conference finals… “It’s part of the game,” Stephenson said. “I think I said some things that shouldn’t have been said. Also Paul (George). We just gotta play basketball and stop worrying about all the other stuff.”… “It’s part of the game, but it’s between you and the guy on the floor,” Stephenson said of trash talking with James. “And that’s where I think I messed up. It was between me and him, not everybody else.” “I been learning since I got in the league,” he added. “I came a long way. And I’m gonna keep learning ’til I get to that point where I’m a real pro.”