Around the League: Week 21 3/16-3/22

[Superbone]

Knicks beat Spurs ... Lou Amundson goes for 12 pts and 17 boards.

He must have had Phoenix Suns flashbacks!

[pickle]

I'm happy to see Lou still around in the league wreaking havoc. Loved that guy. Wish we had never let him go. He only wanted like $1m to stay and we just let him walk; will never understand that. He was such a good soldier and was so great to have coming in off the bench.

any time i see players like lou working their ass off to make the most of their limited talents, i cringe to think what if... what if oliver miller had that kind of motivation, or amare... richard dumas... argh.

loved lou, still root for him. even though i have no good feelings towards the knicks, lou still puts a smile on my face. i remember reading that he used to bike to the arena when he played for the suns.

[Furlanfufi]

LB just tried a 3 point "layup" at the 3rd quarter buzzer that made the entire Warriors team jumping and rooting for it to go in.
I really miss this kind of atmosphere on the Suns.

[Superbone]

Chinese Shaq dunks on Marbury:

[youtube][/youtube]

[Cap]

Speaking of Marbury in China:

[youtube][/youtube]

Nice dribbling, Marbs.

[Indy]

Thunder just announced Durant is out indefinitely and has been removed from all basketball activities.

[carey]

Thunder just announced Durant is out indefinitely and has been removed from all basketball activities.

Oh man, everything Simmons said was on the money.

[Mori Chu]

Thunder just announced Durant is out indefinitely and has been removed from all basketball activities.

It's the right thing to do. He's got a bad foot, they rushed him back last time, and he re-injured it. You just can't rush back from foot injuries. Too many examples of guys (mostly big men, but still, Durant is a big fella) who rushed back from too many foot injuries and shortened their careers (Smits, Ilgauskas, Yao Ming, etc).

OKC is starting to get a reputation like Portland as a place where players go to die. Too many guys getting injured and re-injured. It's a sign of a bad medical staff IMO that clears guys too quickly to come back, and doesn't understand how to keep them limber and healthy enough to prevent (re)injury in the first place. Our guys are light years ahead of those clowns.

[carey]

Our guys are light years ahead of those clowns.

Well, it seems that way, but we're going to see. If they can somehow keep Len on the court for the next few years I'll be super impressed.

[Mori Chu]

LOL
https://twitter.com/LakersNation/status/578756176533319680

[Indy]

That is so fitting.

[Mori Chu]

Ingesting read on Grantland about how the OKC Thunder players are freezing out the local media.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-r ... rts-media/

[carey]

Ingesting read on Grantland about how the OKC Thunder players are freezing out the local media.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-r ... rts-media/

I read that yesterday and found it * interesting * also. The end of the article is telling. OKC is... well it's not much of a draw. No beaches, no night life, not much of anything. So in order to keep players they make them as comfortable as possible. That includes making their media responsibilities a cakewalk. You can't fault the organization for doing that, even though I think it's weak, but it really does screw the media over. Though does how players interact with local media even matter when the local paper reaches 500k homes and Russell Westbrook has about 12 Million twitter followers?

[Mori Chu]

Thunder are pretty solidly locking up the 8 seed with the Pelicans losing a few lately and the Suns with their head up their poopers. But with no Durant and possibly no Ibaka, that'll be an easy first round matchup for Golden State.

[AmareIsGod]

Wasn't somebody on here constantly trashing Westbrook? He had ANOTHER triple double today and continues to carry OKC without Durant.

[Mori Chu]

I trash Westbrook pretty consistently. I recognize that he's playing amazingly this season and is carrying a gimpy OKC team. But I still don't like me-first ballhogging PGs, and I think he's shot the Thunder out of more than a few games. I have to tip my hat to him for playing so well this year, though, and for forcing himself into the MVP conversation. He's also probably the most frightening freight train in the league right now, the guy who will race down the court and viciously dunk on anybody.

[pickle]

i think westbrook definitely doesn't fit the mode of the prototypical point guard... but he is so talented and in addition to scoring can perform enough point guard duties to remain relevant in the conversation that he's characterized as one. but i really think that he's more of the AI type player than a nash/chris paul type guard.

[LazarusLong]

Scott Brooks of OKC is from the "ride-them-tell-they-die" school of offensive coaching. Thibs at Chicago is the same way. My worry about Westbrook is that he'll be spent by age 30, if not earlier.

[Charlie Smithy!]

A la KJ I guess.

Fun fact: I didn't realize KJ was originally planning on retiring at 30:

http://web.archive.org/web/200112142203 ... 82487.html

[Indy]

Yeah, KJ had been saying for years that he was going to play 10 seasons, then move on to his "real life" after basketball.