We don’t get into the habit of defending Lebron James very often, but all the talk (much of it coming from Deshawn Stevenson) about Lebron ‘checking out’ in this Finals series is all a bit much. Granted, he’s not played at his usual standard offensively. The numbers tell that alone where James’ scoring has dropped to 17ppg down from the 25.8ppg he averaged against Chicago in the Eastern Conference Finals. Hate away, but in the end…..he’s defending well, he’s playing hard, he’s competing. He IS deferring to Wade more, yes. But if we took a poll with Miami Heat fans as to ‘who do you want taking a big shot at the end of the game?’…we are guessing that Dwayne Wade would receive more votes. And we’d agree. So Lebron is deferring offensively to a guy who is a better option? And what’s so bad about that?

Even so, Chris Sheridan from ESPN recently said ‘I asked Lebron if he could break a dollar and he said he could only give me three quarters.’

The Mavs are 3-0 in the NBA Finals against Miami…. when Brian Cardinal plays.

The New York Knicks recently held their free agent camp with Javaris Crittendon and Bonzi Wells both playing extremely well.

Allen Iverson wants to return to the NBA, but he couldn’t even muster a full season in Turkey? Don’t get us wrong, we’d love to see AI back in the NBA but we just don’t know he’s got enough in the tank.

We don’t want Isiah Thomas involved with ANY NBA team, but if it has to be the Pistons to keep him from destoying the Knicks again then we’ll live with that. Reality is, Joe Dumars is a better GM than Isiah Thomas will ever be a coach so the NBA is safer with Thomas in Detroit.

While we are talking about coaches, we would love to see Larry Bird back on the sidelines.

But we’ll settle for Mark Jackson… YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!! Could we be happier?  Probably not…

1. The NBA heads to London.
2. Ricky Grace, the basketball legend, is to be inducted into the NBL hall of fame.  Via A Stern Warning.
3. The NBA is losing money?  That’s bad news for fans…
   “If the NBA owners and player’s union don’t reach an agreement with the collective bargaining agreement that expires after next season, the NBA could lockout on July 1st, 2011. Insiders and experts are anticipating a lock-out which would delay training camps and possibly the season.”
4. Must be because of contracts…
5. Who wants to go to the Basketball Australia Hall of Fame Dinner?  On hand will be Ricky Grace, Patty Mills, Andrew Gaze, and the Australian Men, Women and Wheelchair teams.
6. The Dream Team is cheaper than before.
   The average 2009-10 NBA salary for the 15 players now on the roster is about $5.8 million, just 30% above the average annual salary of all NBA players. There’s never been a gap that small in the eight other major international events that featured NBA stars. The next-cheapest team was in 2002, when the average salary was 56% above the league average. That team came in sixth place.  The 1992 Dream Team’s average NBA salary was about $3 million, more than triple the league average. Via Wall Street Journal.
7. Social change through hoops.
8. DO.  NOT.  MISS.  THIS…
9. Games to watch out for in the next NBA season.
10. Isaiah Thomas as a Knicks consultant.  Lots of buzz and discussion about this controversial re-hiring.
11. Speaking of which, buried among the bad blood there is still love for Thomas.
12. Scottie Pippen will be inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame this month.  Guess who’s introducing him?  Now there’s a speech to look out for.
13. Rasheed is retiring.  Could he be the most underrated PF in history?
14. No.  I refuse to post this link.  It’s just trash gossip, with no real impact on the game we love.  Nope.  Will not.  Cleveland will win a championship before I post this link.  (Sorry Dan Gilbert.)  No No No.  Dammit.
15. Kevin McHale had a temper.  Via Basketbawful.

1. How the mighty can fall…
   “The feat? Isiah Thomas’ fiscal irresponsibility became so extreme during his time as Knicks president from 2003-08 that he paid $120 million for a total of 82 games played. ” Tom Haberstroh.
2. I once had the privilege of having JJ Redick destroy my UGA Dawgs.  A look at his year.  Underrated?  Yes.
3. Ray Allen…
   “Allen’s 0-for-13 performance ranked as the second-worst oh-fer in Finals history, falling one miss short of the record of 0-for-14 shared by Seattle’s Dennis Johnson in 1978 and Baltimore’s Chick Reiser in 1948.” Chris Forsberg.
4. Patty Mills will be playing for Australia against Argentina.
5. Derek Fisher – seems before every series he’s described as the “weak link”, then we end up calling him Clutch by the series’ end.  So how does he rate?  HoopSpeak.
6. Take the best NBA players who can play football, and enter them in the World Cup…  Round Ball Fever.
7. Gary Payton as a Coach?  Excellent interview with The Glove.  On Lebron James:
   “I would make everybody wait. My opinion, where you’re at right now, you’re not going to win anymore basketball games if you go to another team. The only place you could do that would be if you went to Boston or the Lakers. You’re with a team that needs something to help them out.”

1. There is FAR TOO MUCH Lebron talk out there.  We know it’s exciting, and is the most amazing group of free agents in NBA history, but we’re already sick of hearing about it, we’ve all been talking about it for 2 years now!  Some reporter from New York has even been on a stakeout outside Lebron’s mother’s house in Akron, Ohio.  It’s all getting a bit much…
2. If an NBA team makes a play for the Magic’s Brandon Bass…that could be a great move this off-season.  Bass is due $16M over 4 years and if you actually give the guy minutes, he could be a very good player (perhaps the next Paul Milsap style of PF), and end up being a bargain at $4M a year.
3. Hedo Jerkoglu has openly told the Turkish press that he wants out of Toronto.  We’re sure Toronto are ok with this too… but after a season of sulking, b*tching in the media about not getting enough touches, and an overall poor performance on the court all season…who will take him?  Probably Isiah Thomas…even though he doesn’t have an NBA job, Thomas loves a player with a bad attitude who is burned-out… he’ll make the calls to the Raptors, you’ll see.
4. Hedo, you are a douche…
5. Sacha Vujacic… you also, are a douche…
6. Antoine Walker…you are the biggest douche of all.
7. Patrick Ewing is keeping his fingers crossed for a phone call from an NBA team looking for a head coach.  We’d love to see Pat on the sidelines in a head coaching role!
8. Matt Barnes is going to test free agency…good for him.  Lots of teams need someone who can piss Kobe off.
9. Doug Collins (the new 76ers coach) is apparently a big fan of Derrick Favors and considering passing on Evan Turner to take Favors with the no.2 pick.
10. Sad to see the Suns out after such a great run to the Western Conference Finals… could it have been Amare’s last game in a Suns uni?
11. As much as we talk about him, we STILL think Steve Nash is underrated.
12. It’s a Celtics-Lakers final!  Could there be anything better than a matchup from two teams with such rich history?  And clearly the two best teams right now, too…going to be an awesome series regardless of the outcome (and this is coming from a Lakers Fan…and Celtics Hater).
13. We think that loss against the C’s in the 2008 finals will haunt the Lakers more than they let on, and it’s such a factor that it COULD end up being the difference in the series…we’re just sayin’.
14. It was very cool that NBA players & coaches on both teams could put aside all competitiveness & egos…and all be a little in awe of Kobe’s 37 point outing against the Suns in game 6.  Even Alvin Gentry said with a smile after the game, ‘was that Michael or Kobe, I couldn’t tell!’
15. Not everyone is a Kobe fan.  But let’s be realistic for a second…against Phoenix he averaged 33.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 8.3 assists in the series while making 52.1 percent of his shots.  And that was against Grant Hill & Jared Dudley, who are stellar defenders.  If you compare that to MJ’s 1996 playoffs, where he was ALSO 32 years old, MJ averaged 30.7ppg, 4.9rebs, 4.1ass & shot 46%.  Quite comparable numbers…mind you, Kobe hasn’t changed the game like Mike, pioneered the marketing of NBA players, created the most successful basketball brand/shoe line in history, won 6 championships with lesser supporting talent, won two Olympic gold medals and is the all time scoring (per game) champion….but Kobe’s numbers at this stage of his career are definitely up there with the greats.
16. While we are on the subject, here are the 3MW NBA Guff top 10 of all time:
    1. Michael Jordan
    2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
    3. Wilt Chamberlain
    4. Bill Russell
    5. Magic Johnson
    6. Kobe Bryant
    7. Larry Bird
    8. John Havlicek
    9. Oscar Robertson
    10. John Stockton/David Robinson/Hakeem Olajuwon (yeah it’s a cop-out, but we couldn’t decide).

We welcome your retort!