You can't step into the same river twice

The Suns
Thursday's game was a big win. I didn't get to see a lot of it, but I appreciate that even after (or while) adjusting to Shaq, they can still get out there and play small ball with the Warriors.

All that, and 4 technicals. I kind of love that (as an isolated incident), because it shows an injection of spirit into the team that's been lacking this year. I hope it continues, although without the Ts. I also really love the bit in that article about the triangle offense. D'Antoni finally says what I've been thinking since I heard of it: Any time anyone has three guys on a side of the court, someone can call it a triangle. Exactly!

Game recaps: Associated Press, Arizona Republic, East Valley Tribune.

Shaq is an pretty good playmaker. In his words, the great John Wooden said the true definition of a great player is how you make everyone else play around you, so it's my job to take (my teammates) to the next level.

Barbosa knows his shortcomings, and wants to work on them. His goal? To be number one in steals for the league. I have nothing but ridiculously positive things to say about that.

Shaq sends the bench scattering in the game against the Grizzlies. I love stories about what happens on the bench, and I love to see these guys poke fun at one another. This article gave me the warm fuzzies.

There's more about that in this article about Gordan Giricek. Highlights for me included Shaq apologizing to the man who split his lip when Shaq dove into the stands, and Iavaroni coining the word Shaqlimated. I already had been using Shaqceptance, this is a great new one to use. Thanks, Marc!

Other NBA News
Caron Butler comes back, is the leading Wiz scorer, helps win a game against the Cavs, and turns 28. All on the same day. I hope he plays again on Saturday against the Clippers when I'm there watching.

LeBron James is on a very misguided Vogue cover.

FIBA and Other International Stuff
Nene is recovering, doesn't know how he'll be for the Olympic qualifiers this summer, and really likes God. A lot. If that's how he gets the strength to beat cancer, more power to him.

Glendale, Arizona wants to become the home of USA Basketball. No big surprise, Jerry Colangelo is pushing for that to happen.

Apparently, Switzerland attracts Brazilian basketball players. Who knew?

The WNBA
The Mystics are helping to sponsor a walk to raise money for people with breast cancer. It's May 11th at 9 am. It sounds very cool.

WNBA Moves:
* Bo Overton has resigned from his post as the head coach and GM of the Chicago Sky amidst allegations of sexual harassment. I hope we get more news on that. Steven Key, formerly assistant coach, has been named GM and head coach.
* The New York Liberty have re-signed Janel McCarville and her faux-hawk.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

The Suns
Another good game! I mean, it was against the Grizzlies--but it was a big forceful follow up to Sunday's win. Now they need to keep it going.

Recaps: Associated Press, East Valley Tribune, Arizona Republic.

According to the Republic, the Suns have been improving on both ends of the floor.

Grant Hill is doing better on defense. I guess he feels like he has something to prove. (Also in that first link, how cool is this? Phoenix recorded its 1,800th victory in club history in its 3,229th game [against the Spurs]. Only the Celtics, 76ers and Lakers won 1,800 in fewer games.)

Shaq has to resort to hitchhiking, because he can't park his huge truck anywhere. Thank goodness he's flexible. (More pictures here.)

Other NBA News
Caron Butler has returned to practice. Antawn Jamison is like a kid at Christmas.

Nellie's been asked back, now it's up to him to decide what he wants.

Pat Riley has decided that the Heat's season is over, and has shut Wade down to recover from his injuries. This makes me feel bad for Marion. He's going to really end up appreciating what he had with the Suns. Or he's going to be happy being the number one guy for the first time in his career. It's a toss up.

FIBA and Other International Stuff
What the Olympics mean to players in the NBA. The article mostly looks at international players (I'm not complaining on that count), and mostly at the Lakers (blah).

After reading this article, I really want to go to games in other countries. It reminded me strongly of watching the Mexico v Argentina game at the FIBA Americas.

The WNBA
Becky Hammon from the San Antonio Silver Stars has generous and thoughtful fans.

WNBA Moves:
* In a move that shouldn't surprise anyone, the Detroit Shock re-signed their big three.
* The Silver Stars re-signed Becky Hammon ( to a contract extension through 2011) and Ruth Riley (to a two-year deal).
* The Phoenix Mercury re-signed Tangela Smith to a three-year contract.
* Connecticut Sun forward Nykesha Sales is taking a year off to recover from injuries. She should rehab with Dwyane Wade. Or not.
* The Washington Mystics signed Amber Jacobs (of the Minnesota Lynx) to an offer sheet. The Lynx have until Saturday the 15th to match or beat the offer. I know this one isn't too big a deal, but I'm a Mystics fan, so I'm putting it in here.

Get down off the cross, we could use the wood

Today's post is going to be loooong, as I've been reading and collecting things to post, but I just haven't done it. So let's get to it.

The Suns
Wasn't yesterday's game just what the doctor ordered? Let alone the beautiful +1 in the win column and the fact that it was against the evil Spurs, it made me so happy to see hustle like this:


Game recaps: Associated Press, East Valley Tribune, Arizona Republic.

Suns.com gives us the secret to beating the Spurs in five easy pieces.

Don't expect D'Antoni to go any deeper in his rotation. There's a surprise.

Bell isn't against the trade, but he thinks the team was doing fine before it. And just in case you were wondering--yes, Bell is still a good defender.

Old news, but the Suns did, in fact, sign Giricek. And apparently he has something to prove.

Kevin Johnson is running for mayor of Sacramento. From everything that I know about him (which, admittedly, isn't a ton), I think he'd do a good job. Let's go, KJ!

Other NBA News
Anderson Varejao's parents both had to have surgery this past summer, making his time even more stressful and up in the air.

Gilbert Arenas and Etan Thomas are back to practicing with the Wizards. Caron Butler hopes to return to practice this week, maybe as soon as today.

Sam Cassell did sign with the Celtics, making them a better team and probably limiting House's minutes all at the same time. I don't know if he's starting for them or coming off the bench behind the much younger Rondo.

First Isiah Thomas intimated that Marbury was going to need to find a new job next year. Then he refused to talk about his player, multiple times. Then Marbury sounded sad. Now there are hugs and trade rumors. The last one is poorly timed, as any way that he managed to get to another team right now, he'd be exempt from being able to play in the playoffs. Such a toxic organization.

Apparently there were a lot of ejections in the Spurs v Pacers game last week. Including one on Indiana's David Harrison, who earlier in the quarter had taken an elbow from Bonner, turned to an official and declared, "I'm going to (expletive) kill him." Crazy.

Last week Dirk got suspended for a flagrant-2 against Andre Kirilenko. Want to see it? Here:


FIBA and Other International Stuff
Since I expressed interest in how they're picking the host country of the 2014 FIBA World Championship, here's the press release. Speaking of that, Russia has officially become a candidate.

Yao Ming expects to be recovered from his season-ending foot surgery in time to play for China in the Olympics. I wonder if that would be true if the Olympics were not in Beijing.

Lisa Leslie is looking forward to playing for Team USA this summer. And I'm looking forward to seeing how well she plays after having a year off (and y'know--having a baby).

The WNBA
Shannon "Peewee" Johnson is heading to the Comets. That's a big (if unheralded) move. Much like Sheryl Swoopes, she's a great motivator and teacher. The Comets are lucky to have her.

Is your game MVP like Steve Nash?

Another disappointing game on Saturday night. They need to pick it up. If they're only 2.5 games in front of the 8th ranked Warriors, it's entirely conceivable that they might not even make the playoffs. Sad, but true. Really sad.

The Suns aren't just interested in adding Gordan Giricek, they're are also interested in Tyronn Lue. Also, apparently Shaq's been practicing a lot lately and D'Antoni says that we shouldn't hold our breath to see Skinner on the floor anytime soon.

Butler will not be having surgery for his hip injury, but he's not going to be playing for awhile either. Here's a lot more information on that.

Two men plead not guilty in the Donaghy betting case. Donaghy himself gets sentenced on April 18th, and these two men go to trial on April 28th.

In keeping up with the major signings in the WNBA free agency period, I need to note that the Detroit Shock resigned Plenette Pierson.

God put you in front of me, so how the hell could you front on me?

Brent Barry went back to the dark side. It looks like Gordan Giricek will be the newest member of the team, but that's not 100% yet. According to the first two articles, even though Sam Cassell got waived by the Clippers, he's almost definitely not going to Phoenix, but instead will most likely become a Celtic.

I was linked to this by a friend, and it is kinda amusing even if I don't know anything (or honestly particularly care) about wrestling.

Oh no! The Wizards just can't catch a break.

The Storm are going to stay in Seattle no matter what happens to the Sonics. Yay separate (and female) ownership!

Tamika Catchings signed a four year deal with the Indiana Fever. She still might not be ready to start playing when the season begins due to the torn Achilles that she suffered in the playoffs.

Here's a very interesting (if long) overview of the future of international players in the NBA. The conjecture is fine, but what I really like is the discussion of what role they play now.


Charles Barkley is seriously awesome. If you don't want to read all that, just watch the youtube clip that is in that post too:

Jesus can kill you if you don't get along

Oh, Cedric. What were you doing driving with a suspended license? And more to the point, what's going on with the clerk calling the cops for an invalid credit card? I want to hear more about this story, but I bet this is all that will come out about it.

I've never felt that Barkley hated the Suns, just that he doesn't want to be seen as playing favorites so he's hard on them. I think he wants them to be better, wants them to win a championship, so he gives what he feels is honest criticism.

Here, have an interesting comparison between Sir Chuck and Shaq.

It looks like the deal is going through to send Kidd to the Mavericks. This bums me out a little, but whatever. Mostly I'm happy that I actually remember who Van Horn is considering he last played in the 2006 Finals, and I was still trying to figure out what was going on then. I can't wait for the trade deadline when all this juggling will end.

Juggling like this. It's just a rumor, but man do I not want it to happen. It would make the Lakers better and the Wizards worse, and neither of those makes me happy.

Arenas and Thomas have started practicing with the team. No solid idea when either will return.

Arenas will probably not be asked to join Team USA in Beijing. This has got to be rough for him, considering that he once said that he'd rather win Olympic Gold than the Larry O'Brien trophy (scroll down because Gilbert loves to write novels instead of entries).

I saw this suggested somewhere else last year and still wish it would happen. I would love to see a team of international All Stars. Even if it couldn't be the new face of the ASG, I'd love to see it happen as a part of the weekend.

Speaking of the NBA making international play a regular part of the season, my guess is that this won't happen, but how cool would it be? I would love to watch an NBA team play in an actual international competition.

Team France has picked their new coach. It's Michel Gomez. Apparently he used to coach for them in the mid-nineties. What does Diaw think about him? So glad you asked.

Denmark has just thrown their hat into the ring of potential hosts for the 2014 FIBA World Championship. Again, I'm mostly just interested to see how this process works.

Today marks the first day of the WNBA free agency. The first blockbuster trade? Swin Cash has reason to believe it'll send her to the Storm.