You and me could write a bad romance.

The Suns
First off, the (kinda old) video that brought me back to the blog:

As this person says, the Phoenix Suns are probably the most fun-loving team in the NBA. Hence, my love for them.

Amare on kids radio!

Maybe Goran can be the Point Guard of the Future!



Lakers v Suns
Tonight is making me hate the Lakers even more. Fouling Grant Hill so hard that he loses his contact and requires stitches. Lou Amundson getting flagrently fouled and not getting the call, causing Alvin Gentry to be ejected. Evil usually wins, I guess.

As a pick me up, have a picture of a napping Earl Clark:














(Courtesy of Jared Dudley's twitter account.)


Mystics News
It's not actually news yet, but on Tuesday the Mystics are having a press conference to announce an apparently awesome new signing. My guess is Katie Smith, which would be super good, but I'm also holding out hope that it's Deanna Nolan (even if she's not a free agent). I don't think it could possibly be Penny Taylor, and she's the only other option of this magnitude.

So I guess we'll see...

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.

It was a long walk in a slow rain and nobody tried to be John Wayne

The weird thing about the Suns' shortcomings after the trade (to me) is that Shaq seems to be a pretty terrible defender. I knew he was a good inside offensive presence, and I knew that he wasn't about to shoot the three--but I figured that he would be able to stop the opposition down low. So far I'm not seeing it.

Paola Boivin has an excellent list of things that need improvement for the team to start winning. I also worry that D'Antoni's not going to be coaching in AZ long after this season if things don't get better soon. Which is kind of unfair considering what he has done for the team.

(At left: D'Antoni is ready to box anyone who thinks he should lose his job over the difficulty post Shaq trade.)

In the "Free Throws" section of Coro's latest article for the Arizona Republic, he says that Gordan Giricek may play with the Suns as early as tonight against the Trail Blazers and that Tyronn Lue decided to go with the Mavs.

James Jones is realistic about his on-court performance, and I want to give him a hug. For a good part of the time I was there, I was inconsistent and had trouble with my shot.... Even though there were times I struggled and thought I was the worst player in the league, I guess people still felt I had value. He *was* inconsistent. He *did* struggle. But he was pretty far from the worst player in the league. He wasn't even the worst player on the Suns. Man, would I love him to still be in Phoenix.

Another piece of evidence that Steve Nash is awesome. I wonder how he is as a coach.

There is a witty way to link to this I'm sure, but since I can't think of it: the do-over between the Heat and the Hawks is happening on Saturday with the new rosters.

Sam Cassell should be winging his way to Boston today to sign with the Celtics. They're just so stacked. I bet this means that House gets fewer minutes. Thank goodness I just traded him for Bell in my fantasy league.

Arenas is going to practice today, but judging from his attitude and possible fear, don't expect him to play anytime soon.

Nowitski takes Kirilenko down. Everyone seems to be fine.

WNBA moves:
* Sheryl Swoopes joins Swin Cash as new additions in Seattle. This is huge. She won't play much, but having a player of that character and caliber on the bench and in the locker room is a big confidence builder. If the new coach is any good, the Storm is going to be amazing. She will be missed in Houston.
* The Sacramento Monarchs resigned Rebekkah Brunson and Nicole Powell.
* The San Antonio Silver Stars resigned Sophia Young and Shanna Crossley.
* The Mystics resigned Laurie Koehn. Now maybe they can play her. 46% career 3-point shooter? Amazing.

Cheryl Ford is up for a Nickelodeon Kids Choice award. My guess is that she won't win because she's up against the Williams sisters and Danica Patrick (all three very famous and popular), but I'm hoping that she does well. It's very cool regardless.

Some bigotry in Colorado high school basketball. Fun! I hope that gets changed.

Because of some issues with the feed, I haven't posted here in forever. I think the issues have been resolved, and so now I just have to deal with the inertia of not writing for months.

The season has (clearly) started, and the Suns are doing great. This two game slide notwithstanding. (Although, can I just say, WTF is up with losing to the Timberwolves? I guess in an 82 game season the Suns can spare a loss, but still.)

On Friday I got to see them play live against the Wizards (in DC). It was very fun, I had terrific seats and they won 122-107. Plus Nash set a Verizon Center record with his 19 assists. I was sitting among a lot of fellow Suns fans, which caused my friend to remark that our section sucked.

Strawberry got big cheers from the crowd (even the Wizards fans) when he got to play in the fourth quarter, which wasn't too surprising but it made me smile. In a world where Grant Hill can get booed by Orlando fans, anything is possible.

(As an aside, those Magic fans really didn't have much cause to boo. Hill points out that his health was fine last season when he played 65 regular-season games. "I sat out a lot of games last year because the team wanted me to sit, not because I necessarily wanted to sit." From here.)

Also worth mentioning, this article is a good recap of the game, especially notable for the assist discussion and the sidebar about Barbosa's flagrant foul.