The New Orleans Hornets lost again last night, dropping their record to 8-27 before an announced crowd of 14,527. They are the worst team in the Western Conference, they are about to trade Chris Kaman for whoever ponies up the best bad offer, and all they are going to have to show for Chris Paul is Al-Farouq Aminu, Eric Gordon (if he doesn’t leave as a restricted free agent, and if his knee is ever going to be OK again), along
There’s still more than two weeks until the March 15 trading deadline, but the rumor mill already is churning. Most of the buzz is around Dwight Howard, whom the Orlando Magic don’t have to trade. Really. However, there are a handful of players who have to be traded for the greater good of their teams. Whether it be removing a problem, creating financial flexibility or moving someone one year early rather than one year late, some big names will be changing teams
// ORLANDO — Shall we call him “Daffy,” “Donald,” or “Floyd Mayweather?” Which “duck” moniker is most fitting? Because NBA commissioner David Stern, asked a fair question tonight by yours truly at his annual All-Star news conference, did the finest bob-and-weave in NBA history while refusing to answer whether squashing the trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers was the right thing to do. Here is a transcript of the back-and-forth: Q. It’s been two months now since you vetoed the
ORLANDO — We’ll begin this morning by offering our congratulations to Sam Smith for receiving the Curt Gowdy Media Award, which means he gets to join our own Mark Heisler and former AP colleague Jim O’Connell in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. Smith, like Heisler a victim of the Tribune company’s talent purge, now writes unfiltered for Bulls.com. You should read his column every Monday. He gets to write without being edited, which can be a blessing and
NBA commissioner David Stern said the field of potential buyers of the league-owned New Orleans Hornets as been whitted down to 2 or 3, and a sale could be imminent. “I’m optimistic and hopeful that we will complete the sale by the end of the month,” stern told USA Today in an intewview at NBA headquarters in Manhattan. “We’re talking with multiple perspective buyers, but we’re anticipating the ability to close by the end of the month,” Stern said. “We’ve had offers
Did David Stern unintentionally direct Jeremy Lin to the New York Knicks? The commissioner vetoed the first Chris Paul trade, which would have sent Houston Rockets point guard Goran Dragic to the New Orleans Hornets. The Rockets had five point guards in training camp – Lin, Dragic, Kyle Lowry, Jonny Flynn and Bulgarian combo guard Ibrahim Jabeer, who did not play in either preseason game. Lin didn’t exactly burn, either, getting eight total minutes. Lowry, Dragic and Flynn had guaranteed contracts, so the
Jeremy Lin’s joy ride was going to end at some point. But who believed it would be the bottom-feeding Hornets that channeled their inner Susan Powter to stop the Linsanity? Yeah, sure, Lin had another big stat line with 26 points, five assists and four steals. But he also had a league season-high nine turnovers, which went a long way toward an 89-85 loss that ended the Knicks’ seven-game winning streak. Lin committed eight turnovers in the first half. Five came in
When it comes to running franchises, David Stern is doing a great impersonation of Ted Stepien. Stepien owned the Cleveland Cavaliers in the early 1980s and spent most of his time firing coaches, overpaying mediocre players and trading away so many draft picks that the NBA instituted the “Ted Stepien Rule,” which now prevents teams from trading first-round picks in consecutive years. Stepien’s mismanagement of the Cavaliers had to be fixed by the NBA. But the NBA – led by Stern –