Empty the Bench

Hosted by three-time Emmy Award winner James Brown (CBS Sports’ “NFL Today”), the 16th Annual Make-A-Wish Ultimate Sports Auction is coming up in just a few short weeks at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL. That means now’s the time to think about getting in on this wonderful charitable event, which has to date raised over $3.5 million dollars towards granting wishes to kids with life-threatening medical conditions.

Past athletes and celebs in attendance include Hall of Fame NBA coach Pat Riley, Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland, 19-time Emmy Award winner Bob Costas, Washington Wizards forward Caron Butler, supermodel Carol Alt, and PGA Tour golfer Paul Azinger amongst many others. Obviously, this promises to be a fun night for a great cause; here’s more info from the event’s organizers followed by a short video.

The Make-A-Wish Ultimate Sports Auction, held on Friday, March 27th at the Broward County Convention Center in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, is your opportunity to rub elbows with celebrities from the world of sports. This is the only South Florida charity event that features coaches and players from ALL South Florida teams and more! You CAN’T MISS the Silent Auction – with more than 125 items including special, one-of-a-kind packages, sports memorabilia and sports experiences. The Live Auction is always a hit as the players, coaches, and celebrities take turns “one-upping” each other – often with entertaining results! CBS Sports “NFL Today” host James “JB” Brown hosts. Tickets are very limited. Call 888-773-9474 or visit us on the web at www.ultimatesportsauction.net.

For more information, please visit the official Make-A-Wish Ultimate Sports Auction website at http://www.ultimatesportsauction.net.

Over his admittedly illustrious career Shaquille O’Neal has proven himself one of the most dominant big men in the history of basketball. He’s a 4-time NBA Champion, the 2000 NBA MVP, was the ’92-’93 NBA Rookie of the Year, has been a NBA Finals MVP three times, was the NBA scoring champ twice and has earned a trip to 15 All Star games.

You can’t argue with that success. What you can say, though, is that he’s an obnoxious ingrate that doesn’t deserve a lick of it.

Shaq hit the genetic lottery and he’s translated that into a remarkable career. Good for him. But it’s been a decade since we can actually say he worked hard for an entire season. He takes more games off than any player in the league and more often than not shows up to camp woefully out of shape, content to rest on that raw physical supremacy and never push himself to his fullest potential.

He’s never bothered to learn to shoot free throws. He hasn’t made a 12-foot jumper in about four years. He’s never made an effort to foster team chemistry or to get along with teammates or coaches. He’s never put the team before his own bloated, sweaty ego.

He’s fueded with Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson, ending a Lakers dynasty that could have been one of the best in NBA history. He’s made racist remarks about Yao Ming. He’s dug on nearly every former coach and former city and team he’s played for. There’s a reason fans in every city he’s ever played in have learned to hate Shaq shortly after his departure (usually by virtue of a trade demand): he’s an ass. Be careful where you devote your idolatry, Phoenix. You’re next.

As my colleague Brian put it so well last summer, nobody in NBA history better personifies petulance than Shaquille O’Neal.

Of late he’s been spouting off with renewed vigor. His idiot manchild brain unable to process his own increasing irrelevance, he’s lashing out. Hot off his unprovoked attack on NBA good-guy Chris Bosh in which he called the Toronto Raptors center, “the RuPaul of big men,” Shaq proved to be just getting warmed up. O’Neal tried to start a war of words with the gregarious Dwight Howard prior to their meeting on Tuesday, one which Dwight wisely didn’t want anything to do with. Dwight, the NBA’s current best center despite Shaq’s indignance, and the Magic prevailed. Poor Shaq didn’t like it. The big man’s response proved the axiom: jealousy is ugly.

After the game Stan Van Gundy, his former coach from Miami, expressed dismay at a Shaq flop. It’s understandable because not only is O’Neal the biggest man on the floor but he’s also been the most outspoken critic of flops in the NBA for ten years. Van Gundy said after the game, “I was shocked, seriously, shocked. And very disappointed cause he knows what it’s like. Lets stand up and play like men, and I think our guy did that tonight.”

Shaq’s response? Take gutless, pedantic shots at everybody he could think of from Stan Van Gundy to his brother Jeff to Patrick Ewing. The transcript is below. I’ve never understood why he gets such a free pass for his childish behavior and remarks and why the NBA blogosphere is always all-too-eager to yuck it up at the latest instance of “Shaq being Shaq,” but I think we can all agree that this time he’s not just crossed but obliterated the line of decorum, professionalism and adult behavior. The man is an insufferable jackass by any definition of the term.

Can we finally stop shrugging his antics off and call a spade a spade? Shaq is the most classless professional athlete in America.

Read the entire transcript of Shaq’s remarks, after the jump…

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Doing my routine searches for videos of 20-year-old beer commercials I cam across this. A YouTube wizard, bless his heart, has combined two popular Miller Lite adverts from 1987 featuring former Green Bay Packers linebacker Raymond Nitschke and former Pistons great and Milwaukee Bucks not-so-great Bob Lanier. It’s fortunate because if you saw Lanier’s spot without having seen Nitschke’s you would just think he was on some kind of hallucinogenic drugs – especially with those crazy eyes he gives.

You see, it’s funny because Bob Lanier and Ray Nitschke don’t look alike.

When the Detroit Pistons traded for Allen Iverson just three games into the season we were pumped about the deal. The most significant factor was, of course, Iverson’s expiring $21.9 million deal – the second-largest contract in the NBA and the biggest salary cap relief to be found anywhere. After winning the NBA Championship in 2004 we had seen several seasons of stagnation in which the Pistons were annual also-rans, looking very good but never good enough to repeat. It was time for a shakeup, and the expiring deal along with Rasheed Wallace’s $13.7 mill coming off the books would expedite the process of a mini rebuilding around players like Rodney Stuckey, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Amir Johnson, Arron Afflalo and Jason Maxiell.

Nothing that happens this season will do anything to take that all-valuable cap space away, so we can’t call the deal a total bust.

Let’s be honest though: we all thought there was a decent chance that Iverson could have just as big of an impact on the court this season. Iverson was one of the premier scorers in NBA history, pound for pound one of the fiercest competitors in the league, a savvy and cagey player who can manufacture offense and a seasoned veteran with perhaps more desire for the validation of a title than any other. Nobody disagreed: Allen Iverson is a true sparkplug who knows how to win and can transform a well-constructed roster of role players into title contenders.

He’s a superstar, a difference maker. Right?

Not so fast.

Why Allen Iverson is no longer a winner, after the jump…

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There has to be a degree of concern about Rudy Gay in Memphis, and it has nothing to do with the fact that the franchise is, unfortunately, always going to have difficulty selling his jerseys in the team shop.

Now 22 years old and in his third NBA season, I thought this kid’s natural progression towards All-Star status would take the same kind of jump it did from his rookie to sophomore season.

All the periphery signs were there:

Another primetime scorer in rookie O.J. Mayo to help ease the pressure and attention of opposing defenses. A young point guard in Mike Conley who figured to better assert himself and deliver the rock in his high-flying wingmen’s sweet spots. Conley has improved in recent weeks, but the jury is still out. And finally, a steady presence in the middle to help keep defenses honest; rookie Marc Gasol (11 points, 7.4 boards, 1 block per) has done a much better job of that than Darko Milicic has (surprise surprise).

But, for whatever reason, the freakishly athletic Gay has struggled to meet expectations; if anything, his game has regressed. That’s not to say he’s been unproductive: 18.5 points, 5.7 boards, 1.7 assists, 1.4 steals, 1 triple, and 0.7 blocks per aren’t exactly throwaway stats.

Compared to his 07-08 campaign, however, all but his steals are down while turnovers are up (nearly 3). He still struggles some from the line at 77% on the season, and what’s equally disconcerting is that he’s currently in the NBA’s top 20 in shot attempts at just over 16 per, but only 6 of those 20 players have a lower shooting percentage (many of which are notorious chuckers like Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington, and Vince Carter). Gay has admitted that poor shot selection has a lot to do with the 44% FG, but knowing is only half the battle: he’s shot a combined 39% over his past five games.

When I look at the 6-9 Rudy Gay, I see a guy with the same kind of talents and jump-out-of-the-gym hops as we saw in Shawn Marion during his prime when he was averaging around 20 points, 10 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1.5 blocks, and 1 triple per. Hell, he’s already not far off that pace, but the overall influence he’s having on a winning end result isn’t even close.

And that’s why I’m starting to worry just a little bit about Gay, whom we’re big fans of here at ETB. I don’t want to see the constant losing, the blowout losses, work their way into his psyche. Maybe it isn’t.

But the fact is that the Memphis Grizzlies have gone 59-164 since he arrived via a trade-day deal with the Houston Rockets back in June 2006. They’ve only won five games since December 26. Hey, they’re the third-youngest team in the NBA and nobody was expecting many wins this season, but that doesn’t mean the mounting losses can’t or won’t take a toll on its youngsters like Gay and Mayo.

Both of us here at ETB want to see Gay and the Grizzlies succeed. Gay is a fun player to watch and his team is too, at times (unless, perhaps, you’re a diehard Grizz fan). Things haven’t yet gone like we’d hope they would for Gay this season, though, and we’re patiently, hopefully, waiting for him to snap out of it.

Related Reading:
- This Dunk Contest is Going to Suck
- Counting Down the Five Worst Teams in the Western Conference – Memphis Grizzlies

Rudy Gay Photo Credit: Icon SMI

A little over a month ago I swung a two-for-one trade in my fantasy league, with one of my main motives being to free up a roster spot and add free-agent Nate Robinson, a move which I’d say has since worked out pretty well.

In that deal I traded Louis Williams and Tyrus Thomas for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s rising star, Russell Westbrook, who at that time in late-January was a few weeks removed from being named the Western Conference Rookie of the Month. In December, he was one of just seven NBA players to average at least 15 points, 5 boards, and 5 assists, and broke out in a big way on the 6th in Miami when he went 10-18 from the field in racking up 30 points, 7 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

The fourth overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft had just turned 20 years old on November and was already filling up the stat sheet, a fact which bodes well for the Thunder and their young, talented core that’s rounded out by pretty good players in their own right named Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. (By the way, we’re big fans of the Thunder’s trade-deadline acquisition of Thabo Sefolosha, too.)

The young man has continued to thrive as the starting point guard, and will be leaned on even further with Durant in street clothes due to a sprained ankle. As far as Westbrook’s fantasy contributions go, that’s proving to be both a good thing and a bad thing–it all depends on which categories your team excels in.

Westbrook’s past four games have been rather monstrous by most accounts as he’s posted per-game averages of 22.2 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals. He’s also been killing it from the charity stripe, shooting about 94% on just under 9 attempts per. That includes his first career triple-double (17, 10, and 10) in Monday night’s 96-87 upset win over the Dallas Mavericks… which came on the same day he was again named the West’s Rookie of the Month.

Obviously, those lofty fantasy numbers have to make his owners exceedingly pleased. And don’t mistake this as a complaint (especially since I also picked up Nate “Fantasy Stud” Robinson as part of this deal), but for all the good Westbrook has done for my team, he’s absolutely killing my field-goal percentage and turnovers, two categories I’m gunning for.

During this four-game stretch, Westbrook has shot just 34% from the field, which is bad enough as it is but especially painful considering his volume of attempts at 20 per game. 20! That includes 32 (32!) on February 27 at Dallas. Turnovers have been on the rise, too, at nearly 5 per.

All of the above are trends that figure to continue for the rest of the season, and certainly while Durant’s out; along with the good will come the bad, it seems. So if you’re hurting for a multi-category contributor at the guard position and throwing out FG and TO, get your trade offers in now–the deadline in most Yahoo! leagues is this Thursday. And, on the flipside, now’s a perfect time to sell high if you simply can’t stomach this thrilling rookie’s fantasy shortcomings. Me, I think I’m going to ride it out.

Related Reading:
- Where’s the Love – Which Rooks Made the Rookie Challenge and Which Should Have
- This Dunk Contest is Going to Suck
- Counting Down the Five Worst Teams in the Western Conference – OKC Thunder

Russell Westbrook Photo Credit: Icon SMI

They weren’t more than a sub-.500 team to begin with. After losing their two best players in Andrew Bogut and Michael Redd for the remainder of the season, the Milwaukee Bucks were expected to take an even deeper plunge into the dark recesses of NBA irrelevancy.

A long-depressing franchise that’s failed to make much headway in a mediocre Eastern Conference or move forward with a solid blueprint for the future, the Milwaukee Bucks haven’t gotten past the first round of the playoffs since their Eastern Conference Finals defeat back in ’01 at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers. Since then, the Bucks have an average regular-season win percentage of .452, and it looks like they’ll further solidify that trend this season with a record that currently stands at 29-33.

Against all odds, however, the Milwaukee Bucks have somehow kept their heads above water in the race for swift first-round elimination at the hands of the Cavaliers or Celtics in the 2009 NBA Playoffs. Now, securing the East’s 7th or 8th seed will truly be a boobie prize, and there’s truth in the argument that the Bucks, Knicks, Bulls, Nets, etc. are better off heading to the draft lottery. But if (and that’s still a big “if”) the Bucks were to earn a playoff berth, that achievement would need to be recognized as one of the league’s surprising success stories of the 2008-09 season.

Even with Redd and Bogut out of the lineup for most of the season, the Bucks have already surpassed last year’s win total of 26 games. He has a habit of eventually wearing out his welcome and alienating his players, but give a lot of credit for this turnaround in Milwaukee to new head coach Scott Skiles. He has this depth-strapped group overachieving on both ends of the floor and has not allowed them to hang their heads in resignation after the loss of their two best players. We’re still miffed about his mishandling of Ramon Sessions in the season’s early going, but if the Bucks make the playoffs, Skiles will likely get a few votes for Coach of the Year (but won’t win).

And how about that Ramon Sessions?

The Bucks’ 2007 second-round pick has developed into one of the league’s most intriguing young talents. After Saturday night’s 109-93 win over the hapless Wizards, Sessions had averaged 18.5 points, 7.4 assists, 4.1 boards, and 1.6 steals over his past 11 games. That includes a masterful effort against the Detroit Pistons on February 7 when he went for 44 points and 12 assists on 72% shooting and 21 free-throw attempts.

Monster games aren’t anything new for Sessions, though, if you recall:

By the time he was through, the youngster had established a new NBA season-high in assists with 24 “dirty dishes,” as the Bucks’ broadcast crew said, and become the first Buck to ever go for 20 and 20 in a single game. Oscar Robertson never did it. Neither did Sidney Moncrief, Bob Lanier, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Michael Redd still hasn’t either. His final line: 20 points, 24 assists, 8 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block.

He’ll turn just 23 years old in April, and I like that at this early stage in his career Sessions seems to play to his strengths and not get carried away too often with forcing it. To that end, he knows that the three-point shot isn’t one of his strong suits yet, so he doesn’t take many, averaging just 0.5 attempts per on the season after not attempting any in his past six games; that restraint is a good sign.

The play of Sessions isn’t the only reason the Bucks are still alive in the playoff hunt, though.

More about the Milwaukee Bucks and their hunt for the 2009 playoffs after the break…

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