News From Around The World: September 12

09/12/12

Written by: DHawes22

September 12

Trail Blazers: Elliot Williams To Undergo Surgery For Torn Left Achilles Tendon
"Williams, 23, sustained the injury during voluntary workouts at the team’s Practice Facility on Tuesday. A date for the surgery has not been set."

Oregon Live: Trail Blazers guard Elliot Williams suffers torn left Achilles tendon, faces surgery
"But historically, this injury features a laborious recovery. When Los Angeles Clippers guard Chauncey Billups snapped his Achilles on Feb. 6 last season, he missed the rest of the season and faced an eighth-month rehabilitation. According to published reports, Billups has returned to the court, but has not yet resumed five-on-five scrimmaging. "

DIME: The Trail Blazers Haven’t Shaken Their Injury Bug Yet
"What had Northwest fans cautiously excited about Williams was his quick, but efficient, trigger. He’d scored 21.3 points per 36 minutes on 50 percent shooting. His best game was Feb. 21 against San Antonio, when he scored 17 points in 17 minutes on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor. His three-point shooting, at just under 30 percent, was underwhelming but his slashing could look like the best on the team from the perimeter in his few glimpses. Achilles injuries are nasty things to return from; the severity of Williams’ injury isn’t known but even a partial tear could leave him out until the neighborhood of the holidays. If it’s worse, it’s another lost season for a young standout in Portland."

Trail Blazers: New Trail Blazers Trading Cards
"The folks at Panini, the "worlds largest sports and entertainment collectables company," were kind enough to hook us up with images of some new Trail Blazers trading cards, including the "Prestige" rookie cards featuring this year's draft class, which go on sale Friday. And due to the lockout, no rookie photos were taken of the 2011 class, which is why both Nolan Smith and Elliot Williams get rookie cards this season, too (2011-12 was technically Elliot's rookie season since he missed the entirety of the 2010-11 season)."

Blazersedge: Transcript: Coach Terry Stotts Interviewed On Blazers Courtside
"The West is tough, the NBA is tough. Every night. That's one of the things people forget, every night out on the NBA court, you have a chance to lose but you also have a good chance to lose. You've got to bring it every night. The West is the West. It's been tough since I was in Seattle 20 years ago. Those teams that you mentioned [Thunder, Lakers, etc.] are all very good. My priority is that we're going to be prepared, we're going to compete, we're going to play hard every night. We're going to bring it every night. Whether it's Oklahoma City or the Lakers on opening night, it's my job to have the guys ready to play and compete. The results will take care of themselves. That's the priority."

Trail Blazers: Michael Peck Named Idaho Stampede Head Coach
“The Idaho Stampede warmly welcomes Michael as our new Head Coach,” Stampede Managing Investor Bill Ilett said. “Obviously, his record speaks for itself. In addition, he has proven he can develop players of NBA caliber and we look forward to him bringing future success to the Idaho Stampede.”

Trail Blazers: Trail Blazers Courtside Podcast
"Listen to the latest edition of Trail Blazers Courtside, your weekly internet, television and radio show devoted to all things Trail Blazers and NBA. Mike Barrett, Mike Rice, and Brian Wheeler are your hosts."

Trail Blazers: Fan Blog: A Message For Elliot
"I couldn't believe the news! After waking up from a glorious cat nap and grabbing some brunch (turkey and gravy...my fave!), I logged onto blazers.com for my daily fix to find out that one of my favorite players suffered another setback :( . Get better, Elliot! And as always, hang in there, baby!"

Trail Blazers: Meet BlazerDancer Ashley
“Dancing with all the veterans is what I’m looking forward to. Some of the girls like Leisel and Rea have been on the team since I was in middle school and I’ve always looked up to them,” Ashley said. “And I really like community service. Anything to do with kids or stuff that makes people happy and makes a difference in somebody’s day.”

Ball Don't Lie: Rajon Rondo hauls in the deep ball in Bristol as his summer media tour continues
"On the plus side, the dreadlocked defensive back isn't the first defender to be put on a poster once Rondo's gone vertical. Chris Bosh knows how the DB feels all too well. It's not like we needed another reminder that Rondo can get up after that sick box jump video dropped last month, but one can never have too many signposts of his athletic dominance, I suppose. We hope that Rajon cherishes this one."

The Basketball Jones: Rajon Rondo won’t talk about Ray Allen
"That’s not surprising, considering we’ve heard these sort of reports for the past couple of seasons. However, I must ask you, why do these guys not like each other? I’m not entirely certain of the causes and why it continues. Is it because Rondo’s extension made Ray expendable and therefore led to him showing up in a thousand trade rumors? I’ve seen that suggested as the cause. Did Ray just want the ball more and had trouble adjusting to not handing the ball as often as he did in Seattle? He seems like such a professional that that wouldn’t matter. Was it because they both realized how much better they made each other, but that was tearing them apart, like a Joy Division song come to life? I have no idea."

The Basketball Jones via NBA Hangtime Podcast: Roy Hibbert and Chelsea Peretti went for chicken and waffles and dancing after Roy broke his nose
"We went to Roscoe’s. I had never been to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. I know Snoop Dogg frequents that place a lot and I just wanted to go see celebrities. I felt that was the best place to go. So myself, another person from the Pacers organization and Tyler Hansbrough, we met up with Chelsea and some of the writers. We ate and then we actually didn’t want the night to end. We heard there was a club across the street and it was Jamaican Gold Night. So we walk over there, we get a table — and it’s very hood, a very hood club, black people in there just acting crazy and everything like that…"

The Basketball Jones: Who is the coolest player in the NBA?
"Once upon a time, Tony Allen blew out his knee dunking after buzzer, immediately becoming a laughingstock around the league. Now, he gets interviewed about what the nonsensical ramblings on his Twitter really mean and makes All-Defensive first teams while guarding the league’s best scorer with his hands literally behind his back, just because it’s more fun that way. He is our generation’s Ron Artest and might not even be the coolest Tony Allen in existence."

DIME: The NBA's Top 5 Dancers
"The parallels between Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal are plentiful – extending right down to their propensity to get down. For his part, Dwight cranked that Soulja Boy (fitting given his Superman nickname), put a ring on it, and battled Shaq Diesel in a dance-off during the 2007 All-Star Weekend. With the Lakers, Howard can now put on a show in the entertainment capital of the world. We’ll see if his recent back surgery has any negative effect on his ability to get jiggy with it."

SLAM: Q+A: Muggsy Bogues
"Oh man (laughs). There‘s just no comparison. Kobe, to his credit, is a competitor. What else is he going to say? But the Dream Team had eleven Hall of Famers on its roster. It‘s the most amazing team ever assembled. There will never be anything like it again. I recall how we went over in ’86 and competed in the World Championship. And in ’88, it was the last time that college players competed in the Olympics and it didn‘t turn out too well. So I guess that‘s when they decided to send the pros and it turned out to be a special, special team with the Birds, the Magics, the Jordans, the Ewings … That was an amazing team."

ESPN: Dwyane Wade: LeBron can get better
"It's here. This is the time," Wade said of James. "(He's) 27, you won a championship, you had success, it's not going to go anywhere. You can see him now taking that next step to that next elite level. I thought he proved it this whole season. I thought he was dominant from Game 1 all the way until the end, and he proved that that's not easy to do and there's not many that have ever done it."

Sports Illustrated: Barnes close to joining Paul in Los Angeles; other free agency notes
"He told Brazilian website UOL Esporte that Los Angeles, Brooklyn and Phoenix were all in the mix for his services, though The New York Times immediately refuted the claim about the Nets. Barbosa struggled last season in Indiana (8.9 points, 1.5 assists, 19 minutes per game on 39.9 percent shooting overall) but played well for Brazil in the London Olympics and clearly has plenty left to offer. Whether the offers follow before training camp next month, however, remains to be seen."

The Basketball Jones: Kevin Willis would return to the NBA if someone seriously asked
"No offense to Kevin Willis, who is one half of the legendary “Did you mean Otis Thorpe?” joke and 100 percent of the even more legendary “Look how short this guy’s arms are” joke, but I have a feeling that none of the teams in the NBA are going to be serious. Maybe I am crazy and there is a market for 50-year-old journeymen power forwards who made one All-Star team literally 20 years ago and have been retired for five years, but I suspect that is not the case. If it were, Otis Thorpe would have got a job years ago. (Still works.)"

The Basketball Jones via Seattle Weekly: ‘Mommy, What’s a SuperSonic?,’ a children’s book
"As my interest and hope for the return of the NBA to Seattle began to regenerate, I thought about putting out something simple and quick about the Sonics, in hope of renewing fan interest and discussion about who the team was and why they left. And the fact is, it’s pretty sad that kids growing up in Seattle today will literally be asking their parents the question of who the Supersonics were and why they left,” says Gall. “I thought that I could create something that would be a nice way for parents to be able to take a trip down memory lane, through the good AND tragic times, at the same time teaching their kids an important civic history lesson about what was among many Seattleites’ fondest memories–the Sonics.”

The Basketball Jones: Video: Watch the Raptors get punked in the new NBA 2K13 trailer
"But watching the trailer, I couldn’t help but noticing just how many highlights there were against the Toronto Raptors. So I did what any bro with a rudimentary knowledge of video editing would do — I made a compilation of all the anti-Raptors moments in the new spot. Andrea Bargnani gets some particularly rough treatment."

The Basketball Jones: Enes Kanter is loving Los Angeles
"The offseason is a time for players to recuperate, relax and rebuild their bodies. After a lockout smashed a whole bunch of games in to not much time, NBA players really needed to take advantage of their time off to get ready for the 2012-13 season. Perhaps no player has done a better job of this than Utah Jazz center Enes Kanter, who just spent a weekend in Los Angeles working out, taking hilarious pictures and then posting them to Twitter. It’s the perfect summer fitness regiment."

The Basketball Jones: The NBA really went for it at New York Fashion Week
"Honestly, at this point I am used to Russell Westbrook looking like this and have maybe even been brainwashed a little in to liking his outfits. Well, not that black shirt with a jellyfish or whatever that is that’s on the far right, but everything else is fine. For him, at least. I guess this what Westbrook is going to look like for a little bit, so we might as well embrace it. And even though he got called some pretty horrible things, he looks like he’s having fun, so that’s nice."

The Basketball Jones: Brad Miller and Jared Jeffries killed an alligator
"Even in retirement, Brad Miller is still the best. Maybe not at knowing the exact spelling of his hunting buddies’ names, but definitely at everything else including but not limited to wearing a camouflage Chicago Cubs hat and Nikes for a hunting excursion with a random NBA guy who I didn’t even know was a hunter but is indeed a hunter. Brad Miller is the gift that keeps on giving."

DIME: Andrew Bynum Is Going To Blow Up In Philly
"Malone is the basketball parallel to Will Smith’s Fresh Prince in all this. He spent his first six seasons, made two All-NBA teams, and won a ring elsewhere before getting traded to the Sixers; Bynum was a Laker for five years, where he was named to one All-NBA selection, and won two titles. Malone’s breakout seasons came prior to his time in Philly, when he averaged 27.8 and 31.1 points a night, and led the league in rebounding twice with almost 15 boards a game. Meanwhile last season, Bynum had career highs in scoring (18.7 points a game), rebounding (11.8 a night), and finished third in field goal percentage (55.8). Their biggest nights – Malone’s 53 points on the San Diego Clippers or 21 offensive boards versus the Seattle SuperSonics … Bynum’s 21 points/22 boards against the Houston Rockets or his 30 boards on The Big Fundamental’s Spurs – just showcased their talent."

SLAM: The Bomb
Let Reggie Miller tell it… “I know I’m not the best player around.” Agreed. “I’m lucky to be here.” True. “But I’ve been able to make a lot of things work for me.” Bullshit. The only thing that works for Reggie Miller is luck. Maybe, fate. It’s not his fault that he happens to score at will on teams in the closing moment of HUGE games. Playoff games. Knick games. Something else beside skill is involved here. He can’t be that good. He can’t be that clutch, that “fourth quarter.” Imfk’n possible. His shot looks so awkward and off he needs to thank the basket for getting in the way every time he lets one go. He’s a pure shooter with a contaminated release. He has game only his sister could love because her’s is better."

SLAM via CBS Sports: Chris Bosh Gaining Weight to Play Center
"When the Triad was formed in 2010 in Miami, Chris Bosh almost immediately let it be known through the press that he didn’t want to play center. Bosh is a stretch four in nearly the purest sense, and he’s never been the type to go to the block and do the dirty work. He has finesse game, which isn’t a bad thing, it’s a good and rare thing, and he didn’t want to mess with his timing or rhythm by having to add weight. He actually lost weight for the 2010 season. But after winning the title in 2012 with a model that saw Bosh used most often in the center role, or at least “in the least guard role” on a team redefinining traditional position elements, Bosh is starting to accept things. After all, it worked last year. The Miami Herald reports that Bosh has started adjusting his conditioning and training to prepare for a full-time center position."

SLAM via Mass Live: Kevin Garnett: ‘I Will Retire as a Celtic’
"As translated by HoopsHype, Garnett said, ‘I will retire as a Celtic for sure.’ For the past three years in Boston, the Celtics’ future was murky. The team vacillated between brilliance and disappointment, miserable January performances against the Toronto Raptors and long playoff runs that more than counteracted the rough days. Danny Ainge dangled his stars on the trade market and weighed whether to start a rebuilding process. The Celtics existed in a state of basketball purgatory, never fully sure whether they should add pieces with dreams of a Larry O’Brien trophy or shed them in hopes of improving their long-term stability."

SLAM via Mass Live: Kevin Garnett: ‘I Will Retire as a Celtic’
"As translated by HoopsHype, Garnett said, ‘I will retire as a Celtic for sure.’ For the past three years in Boston, the Celtics’ future was murky. The team vacillated between brilliance and disappointment, miserable January performances against the Toronto Raptors and long playoff runs that more than counteracted the rough days. Danny Ainge dangled his stars on the trade market and weighed whether to start a rebuilding process. The Celtics existed in a state of basketball purgatory, never fully sure whether they should add pieces with dreams of a Larry O’Brien trophy or shed them in hopes of improving their long-term stability."

Sports Illustrated: Which players nearing the end of the road will get the Hall call?
"Wallace is No. 8 in the NBA in rebounding rate, won a ring as part of a Detroit team that played in six straight conference finals, made five straight first-team All-Defensive teams and guarded Shaquille O’Neal decently during the 2004 Finals. But his career got off to a slow start, with three fairly low-minutes seasons in Washington, and it has ended with unspectacular (but solid) play in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit again. Wallace was a horrid free-throw shooter and less of an offensive threat than Camby, but he made up for it to some degree with nasty screen-setting and decent passing."

--> Trail Blazers: Weekend Plan: Specially Designed For Families And The Busy Nine-To-Fiver
"Built for the family-oriented fan with a busy work-week, the 12-game Weekend Pack maximizes the thrill-factor while keeping the competitions to Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A smattering of Western Conference rivals and Eastern Conference visitors during one-offs and key home stands, you can get your hands on this schedule-friendly pack for as low as $11/game and $52/game in the lower bowl."

Trail Blazers: The Rivals Plan: Two LAs, Oklahoma City And The Return Of Roy
"The smallest of the four big ticket plans, the eight game Rivals Pack packs a big punch. You’ll be in the building and eating a corndog while others are wondering how to get their hands on a way to see the return of Brandon Roy and the sure to sell out L.A. Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder."

Trail Blazers: Why The Value Plan Makes 'Cents' For You
"The Value Pack starts at just $5 a game. That’s 12 games for as low as $60! Talk about some serious bang for your buck. But that’s not even the best part about this ticket plan. Four of the 12 games take place in the month of January. And there is absolutely no better place to be during an Oregon winter’s night than inside the raucous Rose Garden. Not to mention this pack gets you into the arena to see some of the league’s biggest names and brightest young stars such as Dwight Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, Kyrie Irving, John Wall, and Rudy Gay."

Trail Blazers: Big Games Plan: 12 Of The Biggest Games
"This game has it all. Season opener, at home, against the loathe-inducing Lakers, in Steve Nash's first game in purple and gold and it's on Halloween night! Any game against the Lakers at the Rose Garden is going to be a lively one, but the confluence of circumstances in this particular game sets the stage for one of the all-time season openers in Trail Blazers history."