Empty the Bench

- The Sporting Blog – Since when does using guile and savvy make somebody a bad GM?
- NY Times – Kevin Pittsnogle, now a middle school teacher, hasn’t forgotten about hoops.
- Tom Socca – If 33-10-11-7 is almost a quadruple-double Tom is almost 8′6″.
- AOL FanHouse – Mark Cuban to Mr. Mariotti: “Get your (bleep) together, Jay.”
- Rocky Mountain News – Chris Tomasson has some of the best NBA pranks of all time.
- Hugging Harold Reynolds – Could a team of writers beat LeBron in a game of five-on-one?
- Akron Beacon-Journal – That Delonte West is one tough SOB. Crazy, but tough.
- Toronto Star – Jermaine O’Neal sounding very much like a man on the outside looking in.
- The Hoop Doctors – Kobe Bryant measuring up to Sam Cassell’s clutch shooting.
- Ball Don’t Lie – Rafer “Skip To My Lou” Alston has nothing on Tim “The Wizard” Duncan.
- Root Zoo – Not everybody thinks King James will be holding court in New York come 2010.
- Sports Rubbish – Now you can live out that Mike Breen fantasy in your own home.
- The Sports Hernia – Checking in with Scott Layden and his Utah Jazz khaki trousers.
- Hardwood Paroxysm – How about putting some D-League talent in the dunk contest?
- The Globe and Mail – Could hoops eclipse hockey as Canada’s national sport?

And last, we leave you with the high-flying heroics of young Jerryd Bayless, throwing it down in the collective faces of the New Jersey Nets. I had the pleasure of being about 30 feet away from Bayless as he executed the maneuver and it looked even more impressive in person, bringing the relatively small crowd to their feet in an otherwise humdrum game:

The 2008 NBA Las Vegas Summer League MVP has game. He can play at this level, no question. Maybe all it took was a Steve Blake injury to get his foot in the door of the starting lineup – he already has Brandon Roy’s vote of confidence. Portland is unlikely to challenge Los Angeles with Blake at the one this season, it’s time to give some more run to a kid who can do that.