Thursday Bolts – 10.20.11
Mick Cornett wasn’t one of the mayors to send a letter to the league: “I just felt like the players and owners are on the same side as we’re on. Everybody wants it to be resolved,” Cornett said Wednesday. “It just seems disrespectful to sign a letter that seemed to imply somebody was necessarily at fault.” One paragraph later though, Cornett takes a side: “If forced to take a side, I would side with the owners in this deal,” Cornett said. “If anyone believes commissioner (David) Stern or the owners want to start canceling games, I just can’t imagine where that line of thinking is coming from. That’s the last thing anybody wanted to do. “They (owners) obviously are serious about getting a better business deal with the players. The players are going to have to see that the economics have changed, and they’re still getting a good deal, even if it is not as good as it was (in the previous CBA).”
A wonderful feature from ESPN the Mag on KD: “Kevin Durant has seen the YouTube videos. The ones where he drains so many threes the crowd rushes the court to touch the hem of his garment. The ones where his step-backs and crossovers turn defenders into extras from The Walking Dead. The ones where, with his Bambi gait, he shuts down more crap than Congress. The ones where he out-LeBrons LeBron. On his extended summer vacation, Durant took his game to the playground courts of LA, DC and NYC. The highlights became the “Lazy Sunday” of the lockout. On them, freed from the formality of the NBA, Durant plays with frivolity. Nothing is at stake. The game is just the game. And he is just a kid, standing on the court, letting the crowd love him.”
Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless rank the top players in the league. Oh my.
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com on the labor negotiations: “That is the point I believe these talks have reached, and it is in this intersection where hope for an NBA season ultimately will rise or perish. In the absence of information due to Cohen’s insistence on confidentiality, it is impossible to know for sure. But Cohen’s gag order hasn’t merely eclipsed details; it also has squelched the rhetoric from both sides. And in my blissful isolation from spin, I have been able to do some thinking — and some figuring. My conclusion: As simple as it would be to reconcile their differences on economics and system issues, it is when you inevitably have to merge them back together that the numbers and goals don’t add up.”
The NBA’s most over and underpaid players. The Thunder do well.
Thabo notched the block and steal of the night in Euroleague last night.
HoopsWorld with five position battles to watch: “Harden, on the other hand, is a scoring machine. He’s a decent defender, but he needs the ball in his hands to be effective. There has been a lot of talk about what Harden could do in the starting role, but the reality is there may be no better fit for the Thunder as the third guard than Harden. He brings instant offense off the bench and should be a Sixth Man of the Year contender. By moving him to the starting lineup Durant and Westbrook would have to be more focused defensively, which could make them less effective on offense, and the bench would lose explosiveness. Frankly, putting Sefolosha on the bench is wasting his best talent: defending the league’s best scorers.”
KD and Westbrook are part of a group planning a big overseas exhibition tour.
