NBA

by Ben Osborne
Back in the ’70s and early ’80s, when, in general, the NBA’s dress code could best be described as “flashy” and “funky,” one player still managed to stand out: World B. Free. A personal favorite of mine from his latter days with the Cavaliers, his charisma and flair made the Brooklyn-born streetballer one of the League’s most colorful personalities.

According to both men, everything is coming up roses: ” Carmelo Anthony and George Karl have had their differences during an up-and-down four full seasons together. But both say this has been their best season together, despite an incident of insubordination March 1 when Anthony refused to come out of a game at Indiana. Karl suspended him for one game. ‘This season me and George haven’t had no beef or nothing, no going back and forth,’ Anthony said.

Scary stuff for one of the game’s greats: “Three months ago, Bernard King fell down 17 stairs, cracked his head open and nearly died.

Everything - including fouling out - is absurdly funny when going up against this toothless bunch: “Odom hadn’t agreed with the five fouls he’d gotten earlier, although he has tried hard not to let the officiating get to him in recent weeks. When Odom went back into the game with 8:32 left, he smiled at courtside reporters, made like a left-handed batter getting one more pitch to hit and asked how long he thought he could last with his five fouls. The answer: 15 seconds.

by Marcel Mutoni
Team owner Bob Johnson has no qualms with letting his employees know this. And this reality drives Larry Brown crazy.
The Charlotte Bobcats have had a raw deal over the last few years with their scheduling, and this season is no different. They have Johnson’s daughter (and her horsies) to blame.
From the Charlotte Observer:

This shouldn’t surprise anyone, I suppose: “According to legend, it all began — as many of the team’s old, crazy ideas have — with former Cavaliers guard Damon Jones. A couple years ago, the loquacious guard developed special handshakes with each of his teammates. He’d go through each of them during player announcements, spending the most time on a special, ever-morphing handshake with James just before he went to the scorer’s table [...Read More at Source]

And that lesson is going to cost him a hefty sum: “Pistons star Allen Iverson must pay $260,000 for standing idly by and watching his bodyguard beat up another man in a 2005 bar fight, a federal appeals court ruled today. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the guard’s attempt to throw out the verdict decided by a jury in 2007.

The Warriors’ captain isn’t going to be playing for a while due to a bum toe: “Ever wonder why Jackson, who is right-handed, almost always jumps off his right foot (which is what a left-handed shooter does)? It’s because his left big toe has been killing for more than two years now. And he’s fed up with it…But now he has an appointment in Houston on Friday to get his toe checked out.

by Marcel Mutoni
Um, that’s according to Ryan Hollins of the Mavs, a man who has played in a whopping 18 games this season, and clocked about 9 minutes per.
Hollins, appearing on a sports radio talk show, gave the Lakers (and their leader) some great motivational material should the two squads meet in the first round of the postseason.
The Dallas Morning News has the details:

by Holly MacKenzie
Okay, back to the daily grind we go.