Celtics' E'Twaun Moore and the "White Mamba" suit up for Benneton Treviso

The Italian team Benneton Treviso has started their exhibtion season and some of the lockout affected NBA stars were there. And by stars we mean 2nd Round Draft pick E'Twaun Moore and ex-Celtic practice squad member player Brian Scalabrine. Moore went 8-of-9 FGs and 5-of-5 from 3-point range for 22 points in the exhibition game.

More importantly is the emergence of a new nickname for Scaly/Veal/Jackie Moon/etc: Brian "the White Mamba" Scalabrine.

One can only hope the Robert Rodriguez directed short is in post-production.

While the White Mamba scored just 6, as always the Mamba's impact doesn't necessarily show up in the boxscore, which can be seen by these action shots:



The behind the back is so smooth.

Delonte's Home Depot Ap and the Best(?) Game of the Summer? That includes Jeff Green?!?!

Highlights include:
"When Can you Start?
Only When Rajon Rondo is in a COMA, and even then I'm not Sure.
and..
"Remember that Antonio Banderas movie? Desperado? I was kinda trying to do something like that - Not the killing and stuff, just the looking cool part." - Delonte West

Fyi. El Mariachi (the original) is way better than Desperado.


Scan to the 1:18 mark to see Jeff Green's brief appearance in this mix-tape (which is mostly LeBron/Durant highlights).

Doc runs into Yao while in Beijing

Questions, questions and more questions

So many questions...


The Boston Globe is asking a "Huge Question" on what the real value of Albert Haynesworth is? A great quote from Bill Belichick in that piece on why they took on the troubled player:

“I think we can look at every player, every person in this room’s past, and find something that was a mistake and is less than ideal - on any team, in any group of people. We’ve all made mistakes."

Haynesworth has not had a Full-Pad practice let alone played a down for the Patriots, and the Herald asking an even bolder question: If Haynesworth is convicted of groping a Washington, D.C., cocktail waitress and gets the max, will it be 6 months before he even has a chance to don #92?



Delonte "@CharleeRedz13" West is asking a question too, if Home Depot is hiring?

Delonte's wasn't stopping with his twitter update, maybe he should've, but the follow up was just as quoteworthy:

“I actually might have work with Sam’s [Club], BJ’s, selling knives. That’s pretty cool too. I get a microphone and everything. “You gotta get with it, do something that you love. I’m an architect, I was an art major. At Home Depot, I get free discount on hammers and nails.”

A guy with weapons charges stemming from carrying a Bowie Knife, a Beretta 9mm handgun, a Ruger .357 magnum handgun, and a Remington 870 shotgun probably shouldn't be joking about selling knives while still under probation.



Finally, Malcolm Gladwell asks what are the "Psychic Benefits" of the NBA Lockout for the Owners? This is a really good read and not just for his blasting of Tom Yawkey's unforgivable racism ("Yawkey was not just a racist, in other words. He was a racist who put his hatred of black people ahead of his desire to make money.").

Here are a few of the points made by Gladwell:

• Since 2000, there have been eight basketball stadiums either built or renovated for NBA teams at a cost of $2 billion — and $1.75 billion of that came from public funds.4 And did you know that under the federal tax code the NFL is classified as a nonprofit organization?5 Big genial Roger Goodell, he of the almost $4 billion in television contracts, makes like he's the United Way.
• Pro sports teams are a lot like works of art. Forbes magazine annually estimates the value of every professional franchise, based on standard financial metrics like operating expenses, ticket sales, revenue, and physical assets like stadiums. When sports teams change hands, however, the actual sales price is invariably higher. Forbes valued the Detroit Pistons at $360 million. They just sold for $420 million. Forbes valued the Wizards at $322 million. They just sold for $551 million. Forbes said that the Warriors were worth $363 million. They just sold for $450 million.
• The big difference between art and sports, of course, is that art collectors are honest about psychic benefits. They do not wake up one day, pretend that looking at a Van Gogh leaves them cold, and demand a $27 million refund from their art dealer. But that is exactly what the NBA owners are doing. They are indulging in the fantasy that what they run are ordinary businesses — when they never were.

Sox Triple Play Makes John Valentin a Household Topic (for a day)

It's been a long, looong time since John Valentin was whining about Nomar usurping his starting shortstop spot and was shifted to third base and anonymity. But the Redsox complete a triple play and who is the first name discussed, John freaking Valentin. From the Herald:

“It was a bunt situation,” Valentin said. “(Mariners manager) Lou Piniella put on the bunt and (Newfield) fouled it off. Then he put on the hit and run and the next pitch was a line drive right at my shoetops. I caught it, touched the base, and touched Keith Mitchell running from first, and that was it.

“Right place at the right time. If you’re going to turn a triple play, you’ve got to be a little bit on the lucky side. It was pretty exciting time.”

Wilfork name surfaces in Shapiro's allegations against Miami Hurricanes

Vince Wilfork and Nevin Shapiro in 2002

The allegations in the University of Miami scandal include the Pats' Vince Wilfork. While its unlikely Wilfork will receive any punishment it will definitely tarnish his image, and even more likely the 2001 Miami National Championship may end up being rescinded. Read the in-depth investigation by Yahoo! Sports' Charles Robinson here:
Renegade Miami football booster spells out illicit benefits to players

The first was Wilfork, thanks to Shapiro’s relationship and a $50,000 lump sum payment the booster said he gave to the defensive tackle during his junior season. Later, the booster said he provided a pair of $50,000 Cadillac Escalades to Wilfork and his fiancée shortly after the defensive tackle declared for the draft.

Tom "Satch" Sanders - Portrait of a Career (Hat-tip hoopism)

Image Courtesy of Robb Harskamp and Milton Un, in collaboration with Hoopism.com.

Nothing Is Sacred - The Hollywood Remake of Poltergeist

A new ongoing feature of this site will be the "Nothing Is Sacred" series on how Hollywood can take a classic film and completely ruin it. The first film we are going to explore is Tobe Hooper & Steven Spielberg's 1982 classic Poltergeist. Sadly, this movie is actually going to be remade, so here is our predicted cast:

Role	1982 Original	The Hollywood Remake
Steve Freeling	Craig T. Nelson	Aaron Eckhart
Diane Freeling	JoBeth Williams	Maggie Gyllenhaal
Dana Freeling	Dominique Dunne	Dakota Fanning
Robbie Freeling	Oliver Robins	Joel Courtney
Carol Anne Freeling	Heather O'Rourke	Willow Smith
Dr. Lesh	Beatrice Straight	Sally Field
Tangina	Zelda Rubinstein	Betty White
Marty	Martin Casella	Andy Samberg
Ryan	Richard Lawson	Donald Glover
Mr. Teague	James Karen	John Slattery

The recasting of 4/5 of the Freeling family is easy. Eckhart and Gyllenhaal get to recapture their chemistry from The Dark Knight and Joel Courtney fresh off of his Super 8 fame moves on to star with the older Fanning sister. Carol Anne Freeling however presents the opportunity of a lifetime to one aspiring young actress, until of course Will Smith hears about it and forces a rewrite of the role so his daughter can star as the now adopted Freeling daughter.

The rest of the cast just falls right into place and turns this home run into a grand slam. Sally Field pushing her acting ability to the edge. Betty White is BIG right now! Sanberg and Glover are hilarious and finally add some much needed comedic relief to the dark film. And John Slattery is the guy from Mad Men!

Low Risk, High Reward - Haynesworth gets traded to the Patriots

The big question for the Pats the past few seasons has been the defensive line, which had not seemed to recover from the loss of Richard Seymour. The 6'6" 310 pound Seymour was constantly doubled and opened up the entire defensive line for bigger opportunities, particularly in the pass rush. They have found a potential answer to that huge void in 6'6" 335 pound Albert Haynesworth III. There isnt a huge risk here, they are only giving up a 5th round pick and the majority of Haynesworth's $100 million contract with the Redskins has been paid out (the Pats will be paying more in the line of $5 million for his services this season).

He has had his issues on and off the field, but thats the epitome of the risk/reward situation. Were his two seasons/20 games in Washington aberrations from an otherwise productive career or an indication of where things are heading? That has yet to be determined. But one thing we have seen is that Mike Shannahan has not had too many happy players under his regime there and there is a firesale surrounding very talented athletes on their roster.

								Def Interceptions	Fumbles		Tackles
Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Sk	PD	FF	FR	Tkl	Ast	Sfty	AV
2002	21	TEN		91	16	3	1.0	3			21	9		3
2003	22	TEN	RDT	92	12	11	2.5	4	0	2	21	10		6
2004	23	TEN	RDT	92	10	10	1.0	3	2	0	26	11		4
2005	24	TEN	RDT	92	14	14	3.0	1	1	0	36	16		5
2006	25	TEN	RDT	92	11	10	2.0	2			23	7		4
2007*+	26	TEN	RDT	92	13	12	6.0	4			32	8		14
2008*+	27	TEN	RDT	92	14	14	8.5	2	3	2	41	10		19
2009	28	WAS	RDT	92	12	12	4.0	5	0	1	30	8		6
2010	29	WAS		92	8	0	2.5	1			13	3		1
Career					110	86	30.5	25	6	5	243	82		62
7 yrs		TEN			90	74	24.0	19	6	4	200	71		55
2 yrs		WAS			20	12	6.5	6	0	1	43	11		7

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/28/2011.

The Pats seem to have a precedent set with some other success stories and really dont have much to lose in this scenario.

2004 - Corey Dillon:

Dillon bristled at his lack of carries and told reporters he wanted out. After a loss to Cleveland left the Bengals 8-8 and ended their season, Dillon threw his helmet, shoulder pads and cleats into the stands at Paul Brown Stadium, convinced he would be traded with two years left on his contract.

"They don't need me," Dillon said afterward. "They've been winning, quote unquote, without me."

The Bengals of course have not manufactured malcontent after malcontent, right? And they have done so much in the years since Dillon, like creating a sitution where their "franchise" QB has told the team he will retire before playing another game for them. For the Pats, Dillon set a Franchise record with 1,635 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns in 2004 and helped lead them to their 3rd Superbowl.


2007 -Randy Moss:

That said, adding Moss, who will be playing for his third different team in four seasons and who now has been traded twice in three years, clearly involves some risk. Belichick and New England officials apparently have been candid in apprising Moss that there will be a zero-tolerance approach, and that the kind of behavior he has manifested at times in the past will not be acceptable.

Moss, 30, had not participated in any of the offseason conditioning sessions conducted by first-year Oakland head coach Lane Kiffin and the suspicion was that he would not show up for the start of training camp. Hoping to keep any distractions for his young head coach to a minimum, Raiders' owner Al Davis decided that Moss had to go.

The Raiders of course had a franchise QB that they did not want tarnished by Moss' attitude! For the 2007 Pats, Moss not only set a franchise record, he broke the Jerry Rice's NFL record with 23 TD catches.

E'Twaun Moore's Draft Day Diary

The behind the scenes look at the Celtics #55 overall draft pick, E'Twaun Moore. There have been rumors that Moore has signed with the Italian Serie A Team Cimberio Varese, but that deal supposedly will have a small window for him to opt-out should the NBA Lockout ever end.

From the Globe:

Team president Danny Ainge can’t give his approval or disapproval to Moore heading to Europe, or offer a guaranteed contract as incentive for him to remain in the States.

“It makes it tough, there’s no question,’’ Bartelstein said. “There’s things we’d like to be able to have a conversation with Danny about because I know how highly they feel about E’Twaun. But the problem at this point, we just have no confidence that the league wants to get a deal done.’’

Obviously the Celtics will retain draft rights for another year even if he signs with Varese, which could turn out to be a better option if he's Red Claw bound. But if they legitimately need SG depth, which they look like they do, it would be a big loss.

Sadly the NBA lockout has made it that

is a better and safer option in comparison to

Delonte West - The Lockout (Album Preview)

This is definitely unremarkable if I'm trying tp be nice (as we still want Redz to re-sign with Boston) but in reality just downright awful. I certainly hope Delonte did not pay real money for this "cinematography" and "production". The fact that they left the comments on youtube unmoderated is a BIG mistake. And I thought Marquis Daniels debut was bad!


Can this lockout end soon!

Don't quit your day job! (If you still have one)

With the lockout looming, its seems like some of the C's/ex-C's have been pursuing new careers. Needless to say based on what these guys are doing with their free time, the lockout needs to end soon!

Paul Pierce, professional gambler? Not for long after going all-in in the second round of the WSOP.



Rajon Rondo, Thespian? While he's making some serious Nike loot in this shoot, he doesn't quite look quite ready to follow in the shoes of Ray "Jesus Shuttlesworth" Allen!


Ray Allen, however, might be pursuing a career as a Children's Birthday Party Entertainer? This is actually from his kid's birthday, but hilarious nonetheless!



Marquis "Q6" Daniels, gangsta rapper? Perhaps on his next single he'll have Delonte West freestyle? One can only hope!





Glen Davis (& fellow LSU Alum Tyrus Thomas), Movie Producer? Apparently so. I have a strange feeling this potential new addition to the Criterion Collection is going to be released straight to youtube!



Shaq has moved on from retirement to TV, actually a legitimate career move, becoming a broadcaster for the next season (if there is one). We predicted a move to ESPN and weren't too far off.

Locked Out - Point/Counterpoint

NBA:

“We’re not going to lose any money. I’m not going to be commissioner of a league that is comfortable [losing money]. Because I don’t have a group of owners who find it acceptable for me to have that conversation with them."

“You don’t have $4 billion worth of revenue and pay out over $2 billion in salary and benefits to lose money. It’s something that we have sort of gotten used to as the revenues have gone up … but the world has changed about the prospect for all franchises, the world has changed for a lot of reasons – and economically – and now people who make investments in buildings and things expect not to lose money.”

-NBA Commissioner David Stern

Players Union:

As for the owners, they can inject all the fuzzy math they want into the equation about how many teams are losing money and how much, but humor me for a second while I get rhapsodize rhetorical:

1. How many of these billionaires actually rely on their teams to make ends meet?

2. How is it that every time a team gets sold, it fetches more folding money than the last time it was up for bids?

Stern orates about wanting the owners and players to be equal partners. I assume that means losses and profits. Fine, so fix it that the players get half the profit when the franchise is sold and half the annual write-offs.

You know who really deserves a seat at the table? No, not paying customers; they apparently enjoy having their pockets picked, no matter how deep.

It's the arena ancillaries, especially in smaller markets -- from team game-days to vendors to parking lot attendants, all whom badly need those 41-plus dates to help balance their own books -- in addition to neighborhood restaurant owners, whose existence might not totally depend on pre-and-post-game traffic, but get to maintain/increase staffs because of it.

These are the only people I'm really concerned about.

Don't make me pretend I care what happens to the owners or the players.

-Peter Vescey, NY POST

NBA:

"The expiring collective bargaining agreement created a broken system that produced huge financial losses for our teams. We need a sustainable business model that allows all 30 teams to be able to compete for a championship, fairly compensates our players, and provides teams, if well-managed, with an opportunity to be profitable."

"We have made several proposals to the union, including a deal targeting $2 billion annually as the players' share -- an average of approximately $5 million per player that could increase along with league revenue growth. Elements of our proposal would also better align players' pay with performance."

- NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver

Players Union:

"For anyone who wants to extrapolate these numbers to the rest of the league, caveats apply. These are six-year-old financials for a single team in the NBA, where market size is destiny and where, for instance, New York's books won't look anything like Milwaukee's. What's more, this is about as close a look as you'll get at the financial workings of a sports franchise, and even then the balance sheets are hopelessly opaque. But that's partly the point. In the modern era, franchises are owned by businessmen who approach their teams as one of many interconnected wealth-generating mechanisms. As in Fort's example above, the real value of one asset (the Nets) can't be known without looking at the numbers for another (the Barclays Center) and another (the rest of the Atlantic Yards development), and so on. There's nothing illegal or even wrong with that, but in such a system you can see very quickly why incentives for owners often fall irreparably out of plumb with the wishes of their fans — owners want to maximize revenue (which is their right), and fans want to win (which is their nature), and both Wayne Huizenga and the folks in the grandstand at PNC Park will tell you that these goals aren't necessarily compatible."

-Deadspin: How to make a $7 million Profit look like $28 million Loss

NBA:
“I’m not scared; I’m resigned to the potential damage that it can cause to our league.” -David Stern