Team China in 2007 Vegas Summer League

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Guess who's playing in the 2007 Vegas NBA Summer League? Yeah, yeah, we knew about soon-to-be new NBA players Kevin Durant and Greg Oden already, but how about a new team?

Perhaps as part of the recent NBA-China partnership, according to the NBA Summer League website, the Chinese National Team will be playing in the league this summer! It's probably a good deal for Team China too, getting valuable experience against top-notch talent one year before the Olympics.

Based on the modified look-and-feel of the site, the NBA appears to be taking over management of the league, as there are no more references to the league's founder, NBA coaches' super-agent Warren LeGarie, who had hinted recently (I can't remember where I read it) that the NBA could be aiming to do just that.

Don't forget how deep a draft this year is going to be! And can you picture Yi Jianlian going up against his former comrades?

Well, this just reinforces the probability that dreamleague will be hosting a tournament there to coincide with what's going to be the best Vegas Summer League on record -- probably the tail end, July 14-15.

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Cuban came close to selling the Mavs -- yeah, right

[From Stephen B. Snyde, for Friday tidbits...]

Preetom Bhattacharya of Hoopsworld.com had a One-on-One with Mark Cuban, in which Cuban reiterated his dismay with the NBA and how close he came to selling the team last summer...

"I hated dealing with the NBA, the league itself. I love the players, I love the organization, I love the fans, I love being part of the community - there's just so much that's so positive. I hated dealing with the minutia of the NBA. They specialize in administrivia a lot of times and that's not me. We just have a different view on the business side of things and from there, it's my choice."

Uh, dude. You're a billionaire. Money grows on trees in your backyard. For chrissakes, will you just hire someone to deal with the administrivia for you? What's that, like 8 bucks an hour?

As for the whole charade about selling the Mavs, there is no way to describe it other than visually (above).

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76ers keep oversized rabbit for 10 years

[From Stephen B. Snyde for Friday tidbits...]

Heard this past week on a random NBA telecast on ESPN: a pre-game ceremony in Philadelphia to honor the tenth anniversary of their mascot, Hip-Hop.

The Sixers have a mascot?

Ewww, what the hell is this thing? Attack of the giant killer bunnies!!!

Seriously, who's the genius over there in Philly who thought of this?

Who's his boss who decided to keep it around for ten years?

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NBA China = NBDL affiliate?

Surprisingly, no other blog or news outlet has followed up on this, but according to this week's SportsBusinessJournal (online access for subscribers only), the NBA is going to create a new "entity" based in China -- not another "office" like the three they already have -- complete with its own CEO, courting of "outside investors", and "possible creation of a league and arena development". The entity will be unveiled at the next NBA owners' meeting in New York City on April 20.

We'll have to wait another month for details and the most profound issue, the possible creation of a league, doesn't come without political complications involving the government-run existing CBA (Chinese Basketball Association). However, if you think about it, starting an NBDL-like league or affiliate in China would make a lot of sense.

This is the perfect time for the NBA to come in and partner with the CBA. My guess is that the CBA is losing money. This is all speculation, but with the NBA China Games II this October and the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, if there's ever a time of lower-than-usual political barriers and preparation for a "high tide that lifts all boats", this is it.

Btw, dreamleague will be at Beijing Olympics '08. More details coming soon...

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#1 GSW "shoulda woulda coulda"

If you check out the GSOM blog today, aside from a theoretical trade involving Adonal Foyle (among others) for Kevin Garnett, you'll see this reference to a blogpost from last June, perhaps the greatest "shoulda woulda coulda" ever made: Jordan-Pippen 2.0. In other words, the Warriors could have drafted Kobe Bryant in 1996 and Tracy McGrady in 1997.

dreamblogue did the due diligence for you. Only two other teams had draft picks earlier than the GSW in either year: Vancouver (now Memphis) and Philadelphia. In theory, either of those teams could've also drafted "Jordan-Pippen 2.0" as well, but at least Vancouver got Shareef Abdur-Rahim (who was eventually traded to Atlanta for, yes, Pau Gasol) and Antonio Daniels. Philly got Allen Iverson and Keith Van Horn.

Bear in mind, though, that Vancouver had the #3 and #4 picks those years while Philly had #1 and #2 -- back in those days, no way do you spend a top-five pick on a high schooler (which actually makes the Warriors picks stink even more). We all know how far AI took Philly and Pau took Memphis, so you can't really fault either of those teams. Meanwhile, the Warriors had picks #11 and #8 and chose Todd Fuller and Foyle. Obviously, no playoff appearances, let alone consistent starting contributions.

A quick glance at both drafts suggests that as a GM, you are best off drafting for basketball skill, not size. But then again stating the obvious is beyond the scope of dreamblogue. "Jordan-Pippen 2.0" is the best shoulda-woulda-coulda I've ever heard.

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Lessons of colon cancer:Life = Love + Care + Knowledge

Last week our NYC commish announced that he would participate in the 4-mile New York Colon Cancer Challenge, which occurred yesterday. He would be running in support of his best friend Ben Kim who, at the tender of age of 33 and otherwise healthy with no symptoms of anything, had been diagnosed with Stage II (very beatable) colon cancer only several weeks before.

These things always put life in perspective. All of a sudden, all the problems our NYC commish had on his plate seemed so trivial in comparison to what his buddy had to deal with. Appreciation for the gifts of our lives, the relationships we have, the very earth we walk on, became more apparent.

When an obstacle so ominous as cancer gets in the way, sometimes it's like Life is all about Love, Care, and Knowledge. Here are some starting points to Life -- be they through the doorway of Love, Care, or Knowledge -- with a heavy hoop flavor...

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Watch racial stereotypes run rampant when Yi Jianlian gets drafted

I guess I'm kind of glad this happened, even though it knocked out a whole day's list of other to-do's. This stuff opens your eyes. It makes you wiser, stronger, more appreciative of each person's individuality. I'm glad I spent a whole day thinking about it.

Today, our otherwise-revered TrueHoop, written by Henry Abbott, made the following bullet-point post:

• Footage of Yi Jianlian making a bunch of dunks that look to me like they would likely be blocked, or stolen on the way up, in the NBA.

For the 100+ teams and players of those teams currently playing in our SF Bay Area and New York Asian American leagues, you know the feeling already.

It's kind of like the hoops blogger (Bill Simmons? Chad Ford? Henry Abbott himself? Honestly, I can't remember where I read it) who said in response to the major uproar following the Vegas All-Star Weekend in which arrests and violence were referenced strongly with the African American and hip-hop community:

[Reminder: I'm paraphrasing by memory here.] "I couldn't tell you if an African American, with corn rows and baggy pants, approaching me on the street is really a gangsta or a student at UPenn..."

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UPDATED: See comments
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All-Star violence and Tommy Davidson

There's a rather hot debate in the NBA blogosphere right now, summed up best by TrueHoop, that doesn't paint a beautiful picture for the Average Joe (or Poor Man Commish) to attend All-Star Weekend. It also reaches into the problems of violence in American society, with which we've previously compared to Iraq.

Interestingly, in this month's issue of Black Enterprise (which has a terrible archive search section where I couldn't find a link to the article), comedian Tommy Davidson was profiled by Kenneth Meeks. Davidson disclosed his very profound beliefs and passion in life to try and fix these very ills...

Read the rest of the story

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Behind the scenes at Vegas All-Star

Hottest tickets in town, Celine Dion be damned. (All photos courtesy of D. Ho.)

[From Seoul Shibuya...]

On my way back from Cali, I swung over in LV and caught up with our very own Danny Ho, Moe’s Tavern power forward and employee of the National Basketball Association, and got to ask him what it’s like being him. Over 10 plates of food at the Wynn buffet, here’s how it went...

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I dunno, Colangelo, I just don't know

Jemele Hill of ESPN Page 2 just interviewed Jerry Colangelo. Here's some bread-and-butter of what he said about Team USA:

"When that game ended against Greece, in the locker room, I know how they all felt. We don't ever want to feel that way again as long as we're together. I think that's going to bond us even more...It had nothing to do with the player-personnel (or)...having the right talent. We did a poor job in preparation in defending the pick-and-roll against Greece. It's as simple as that. And a team beat us that shouldn't have. They deserved to win because we didn't get the job done. If we played them 10 times, we'd win nine out of 10."

Sounds a lot like our Dream League All-Star squad, which coming off a heartbreaking championship loss to the L.A. Tigers Blue in 2005, went down to Vegas for the 14th Annual LVI this past September 2006 and promptly got slapped in the face by Arizona Desert Jade. Two consecutive weeks of open gym run/practice (heh, it'd be a crime to call them practices!) for our guys leading up to the tournament proved to be a non-factor.

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Charles Barkley opens the door to the Iraq at home

Thanks to TrueHoop (and no thanks to TNT.tv or NBA.com which gave no indication there were NBA telecasts on Monday), Poor Man's Commish saw this...

Charles Barkley from TNT last night: “If (Dr. King) were still alive today, as a person who preached non-violence, would he be disturbed at all the violence we have going on in the black community? It does a great disservice to Dr. King with all this black on black crime going on in our communities.”

Remember, I wrote back in the first dreamBlogue entry that I would delve into the scariness of the numbers that our very own James Love fell victim to.

I've been waiting to find the right time to bring this up and thanks to Chuckie, now is the right time...

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Wat the Ute, not Yuta!!!

While looking for some blogs about whether or not people think the Golden State Warriors are, at this rate, going to get into the NBA playoffs (I personally don't think so -- to finish, say, 4 games above .500 and if they keep going barely above the Mendoza line on the road at .250 or so, they would have to finish 16-3 in their final 19 home games and there are at least 4 elite teams left to play at home), I ran across this post at The City blog:

"Notable players on [Warriors draft pick Patrick O'Bryant's NBDL Bakersfield Jam team] are Syracuse PG Gerry McNamara and Yuta Tabuse — the first Japanese player to play in the NBA."

Well, we know from A-Mac's history lesson about Wataru "Wat" Misaka, former Utah Ute national champion and New York Knickerbocker, that that's not true!...

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Walt "Clyde" Frazier, my new hero

The SportsBusiness Journal (subscription needed) came out with a great interview with Walt "Clyde" Frazier today, with respect to his new book "Game Within The Game". He's pretty much on point with everything and the timing of this interview is impeccable given our blog entry on Saturday about the European vs. American system.

Here are some of the more profound excerpts and notes from which a lot of us can learn...

• First off, he was the first player to sign a sneaker deal (with Puma in 1971) -- much respect, let us "ballaz" and "sneakerheads" alike tip our hat and listen to what he has to say...

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European vs American system

Sarunas Jasikevicius took an increasingly more common (better?) route to the NBA.

Among other blog entries and articles we've wanted to share with dreamleaguers, here's an interesting look at differences in the basketball "systems" between America and the rest of the world...

Three Basketball Powers (Russia, Serbia and Lithuania's relationship with basketball and how its most talented children get to the sport's biggest stage) by Michael Lee, Washington Post. Lee and fellow Post writers have some really good articles about the U.S. system as well, but you'll have to do a search on the Washington Post website to find them, as we can't quite recall all of them (blame it on the pet peeve apprehension to using browser bookmarks).

Can the U.S. sustain its present path?

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Wat's in a Name?

A little history lesson from A-Mac...

At last Sunday's game, one of the refs looked at my jersey and asked me about the gold lettering emblazoned upon the back that reads "What Would Wat Do?" I figure that was the sign for me to roll out an explanation of my team's name for my next blog entry. In essence, the name is a tribute to the first Asian American to play in the NBA, Wataru "Wat" Misaka.

Read the rest of the story (UPDATED 1/16/2007 AND 1/15/2007)

Also, check out the online oral history project about Japanese American basketball leagues in Chicago during the 1940s and 50s.

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Ticketmaster.com: just another skills competition that boils down to one judge

I know how you feel, Iggy.

I just had the worst experience this morning trying to get tickets to the 2007 NBA All-Star Practice at the upcoming Vegas All-Star Weekend. I'll give you the short version and the long version. The long version only exists because I decided to cap off my waste of two hours in cyberspace with a four-page letter to the NBA, which you can read in detail further in this blog entry.

Here's the short version. Trying to get tickets to the All-Star Practice, which I estimate sold out in two minutes, was like a veritable skills competition on the keyboard. Only thing is, even if you were like Andre Iguodala and you thought you did everything right, a little computer program could be that final judge that keeps you from attaining glory.

It might as well have been a lottery.

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Wonder-trail of MJ DYK?'sPart I of III: The so-called "Love of the game clause"

It's amazing how interesting a particular strain of TrueHoop, YouTube, and Google can turn into. So let's surf this nice little wave that is the Internet, the first of a series of Did You Know ("DYK?" for ESPN watchers) nuggets I found on the O.G. Michael Jordan...

It all started when last week, TrueHoop.com came across an old 60 Minutes interview with Michael Jordan from 1986, posted on YouTube. I couldn't help but press the pause button when they flashed MJ's so-called "love of the game clause" up on the screen -- a camera shot of the actual document!

For those of you who grew up in the Magic/Bird/Jordan era, this is like finding the Rosetta Stone or a copy of the Declaration of Independence in your attic -- okay, terrible metaphors, but I think you feel me...

Rest the rest of the story

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dreamleaguer breaks finger playing with NBA ball

The previous Sunday 12/3, due to another one of those rich youth basketball leagues that pushed us out of the usual nice main gym, and as the league of the Poor Man's Commish, naturally, we were forced to play in a high school's "auxiliary" (read: "abandoned") gym.

Here, we found out that "auxiliary" really meant the older, dusty building across the way that looked like it could have been used as a set of the movie Hoosiers. The one that got overlooked by the district for earthquake retrofitting. The one even the janitor doesn't have the keys for.

Not surprisingly, we found a ton of dead spots on the floor.

Meanwhile, I had brought one of dreamleague's two new Spalding NBA balls with me...

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TrueHoop.com

Earlier this year, I stumbled upon TrueHoop.com, which is written by accomplished sportswriter Henry Abbott. TrueHoop is widely viewed as the best NBA-related blog out there, and I whole-heartedly agree. Here's why:

• It basically summarizes all of the latest topics around the Association for you...

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Goals and "Ground Rules"

In case you didn't know, we're in the midst of a website revamp here at www.dreamleague.org. Things are going rather smoothly, but when our web guru Big Monkey T said he didn't think we'd launch until March, I just had to scratch the blog itch. After all, I had been commenting on TrueHoop.com with the moniker "DRMLG" for quite some time now...

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