Bringing you the latest NBA news, rumors and analysis ...
No Further NBA Lockout Talks Scheduled ... It remains radio silence as far as the NBA lockout goes: since NBA commissioner David Stern set Monday as the deadline to get a deal without the cancellation of regular season games, the two sides have not scheduled additional meetings, reports Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski. With Friday gone and Saturday dedicated to Yom Kippur, Sunday and Monday remain the final days of negotiation to get a deal in the hopper by Stern's deadline.
Don Vaden Replaces Bernie Fryer As NBA's Head Of Referees ... Hey, there's some non-lockout NBA news to report today. The NBA has named Don Vaden as Director of Officials, according to a press release from the league. I hope Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Spike Lee, etc. are reading so they know who to take their grievances to.
Readers' Choice Awards 2011: Tablets And Ebook Readers ... Generally, we look at aggregate scores for the vendors in our Readers' Choice surveys. As mentioned, we looked at specific products here, and these results brought some surprises, especially for Apple. The first is that, while the company does take the lead, it's not as wide a margin as one might expect. The mega-popular Apple iPad 2, which is indeed the best on the market, scored only slightly ahead of the other Readers' Choice product in this survey: the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101. Both have overall scores of 8.8 out of 10 and a likelihood to recommend of 9.2. The TF101 might have been helped along by being the most affordable Honeycomb-based tablet currently on the market.
Kobe To Players: 'Stand Behind The Union' ... During a series of meetings in which union officials are updating players on the status of collective bargaining this week, one voice stood out: that of Kobe Bryant.
Paul Pierce Comes To Home And Garden Television Saturday ... Paul Pierce went to Inglewood High School, a stone's throw from the Fabulous Forum, where Magic Johnson ran the Showtime Lakers. But the neighborhood around that building has always been one of the poorest, more troubled hoods in all of Los Angeles.
Some Clarification Of The Top 100 Rankings ... I attempted - and there is no right answer here - to spotlight the 100 best players in the NBA right now. What a player did in 2004 or 2007 or 2009 had no bearing on the rankings. I focused almost entirely on 2010-11, using the past only as a guideline to consider whether what a player did last season was a career outlier related to health, improvement or some other factor.
The Next Ten: Frontcourt Players On The Verge ... Last week, we took a look at the backcourt players on the verge of becoming NBA legends, so today, we continue with frontcourt players. I'm sure there will be some dissent from readers, but that's fine. One thing about a list like this is that we won't truly know its validity for at least several more seasons. By then I may have a different identity. In any case, the criteria to make the list is to have four or less seasons in the NBA and from there I look at statistics and potential.
Former 'Fab Five' Member King In Court On Child Support Claim ... University of Michigan "Fab Five" member and ex-Toronto Raptors player Jimmy King said he is working with authorities to resolve a child support claim after being arrested earlier this month. The state says he failed to pay $17,000.
Rypien Death Leads NHL To Another Fight: Depression ... I had this friend once: she was beautiful, whip-smart, creative, tortured. One night the tortured part won out, and alone in the dark, she swallowed a pile of pills. Before it was too late, though, she made a call, and the person at the other end was home, and got to the phone just before the machine picked up, and half an hour later she was at St. Paul's Hospital in downtown Vancouver. They gave her charcoal, pumped out the poison, she lived. She's a great mom now, happy and still beautiful, with a girl and a boy. She was lucky.
Kobe Drops 45, Game-Winner At Drew League ... Looks like Kobe-s still got it on the streetball court. Black Mamba went off for 45 points, including the game-winning jumper, at the Drew League-s final game before its showdown with the Goodman League in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.
China Will Vote To Curb NBA Influx By End Of Week ... Some of the biggest names in the NBA - Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and others - are looking hard at China. There are good reasons for this. First, there is good sponsorship money there . Also, the league doesn't start until November, so they can see how things stand with the lockout before deciding.
Love Says Players Want Compromise But Will Not Roll Over ... The players are not winning the public relations battle with the lockout. Frankly, they can't. The average sports fan knows the owners are ultra-rich, but they don't relate to 20-somethings making millions. The players tend to get blamed for a lockout, no matter whose not budging.
Report: No Love For Owners' Proposal ... Any sense that the sides are warming up to each other-s perspective in the NBA-s labor dispute was doused a bit after a regional meeting attended by nearly 60 players in Los Angeles Tuesday.
Kobe Bryant Drops 45, Hits Game Winner At Drew League ... A couple of weeks after LeBron James dropped by the Drew League in Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant came down Tuesday night and put on a show - he scored 45 points. Then he dropped the game winner in right over James Harden.
Ex-NBA Ref Raymond Found Dead ... Raymond, a 46-year-old who was also a college basketball referee, was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the head Friday afternoon, Constable Tim Holifield of Montgomery County Precinct said.
Mailbag: On Street Ball, Lockout, And NBA's Need For Shrinkage ... So, quite a few people responded to my recent column about the players breaking away from the NBA and forming their own league. Among them was someone who already has a league in place for the players to join.
Investigation Into Kobe Altercation Postponed ... San Diego Police want to find out more about what happened between Lakers guard Kobe Bryant and a fellow churchgoer last Sunday, but they're going to have to wait at least another week.
Minnesota May Get Around To Choosing A Coach This Week ... When Pistons GM Joe Dumars was asked why he moved quickly to bring in new head coach Lawrence Frank in the middle of the lockout, he said that if you want to change the energy of your organization you should not wait.
Charlie Ward Out Of The NBA Life And Happy About It ... Charlie Ward was an impressive two-sport athlete at Florida State - remember he won the Heisman as quarterback - who went on to have an 11-year NBA career, mostly with the Knicks.
Referee Commits Suicide After Police Find Wife Murdered ... College basketball and former NBA referee Troy Raymond committed suicide in a New Orleans hotel room late last week just hours after police found his wife's body in their Houston-area home.
