The Thread of the 2009-2010 NBA Season

[Chief Rum]

Good Gawd, I hate how this Clips team plays. Davis is like a shell of himself. All of the good qualities are gone, leaving just a guy who jacks up miserable shots at 33%. And Dunleavy is hands down the worst bench coach in the league, who yet somehow combines it with a presumption he's right about everything.

They can't do anything about Baron, but for Gawd's sake, please finally fire Dunleavy.

[Groundhog]

Elton Brand actually looked like... well... Elton Brand today. 19 pts, 11 rebs, 6 blks. When's the last time he had a line like that?

Also, EDDY CURRY sighting! 10 points and 4 boards in 12 minutes. Is that a career high in rebounds?

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Elton Brand actually looked like... well... Elton Brand today. 19 pts, 11 rebs, 6 blks. When's the last time he had a line like that?

That would be about the time he was promising BD to come to LA, so they could win championships together.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Ah yeah, sorry, missread your post. Definitely agree with you though, Tyrus hasn't really improved at all from a basketball IQ standpoint since college IMO.

He thinks he's a perimeter player. Heard him do an interview on Monsters of the Midway one morning and he kept saying how he has always been an outside player and his game is not inside. If he'd learn a couple moves in the post and play within the flow of the game, he could be a nice 15-10 guy who is amongst the league leaders in blocks. Wouldn't be able to handle the bigger power forwards defensively but could outrun them and cause havoc on the breaks.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Also, EDDY CURRY sighting! 10 points and 4 boards in 12 minutes. Is that a career high in rebounds?

on a per 36 scale it might be

Another return : Jamison gets 31/10 on his season debut, Wizards beat the Cavs by 17.

Raja Bell plays for the Warriors despite his hand aching. Won´t put off surgery but wanted to play once and help his new team out.

Dallas beats San Antonio in a duel of aching teams (Dallas missing 3 starters, spurs miss Parker and loose Ginobili with a groin strain in the first quarter), Nowitzki with 41 points.

Going to have to emphasize it again, even risking sounding like Kelly Dwyer at ball don´t lie blog on yahoo (who is a nice read btw) : Zero TOs. The guy scores 41, takes 29 shots, goes to the line 12 times. And doesn´t turn it over once (and yeah, no assists this time, i know ), only 1 TO in his last 4 games averaging 30+ points. As a 7 footer handling the ball and putting it on the floor... He´s one of those guys who made the absolute most of themselves due to hard work. Him and his personal trainer made him the perfect player for his abilities.
Never could have been more than an average traditional post guy so they made him the best face-up big man in the history of the league.

Spurs don´t look too good right now, their defense flat out sucks right now.

[Karlifornia]

Originally Posted by whomario

on a per 36 scale it might be

Another return : Jamison gets 31/10 on his season debut, Wizards beat the Cavs by 17.

Raja Bell plays for the Warriors despite his hand aching. Won´t put off surgery but wanted to play once and help his new team out.

Dallas beats San Antonio in a duel of aching teams (Dallas missing 3 starters, spurs miss Parker and loose Ginobili with a groin strain in the first quarter), Nowitzki with 41 points.

Going to have to emphasize it again, even risking sounding like Kelly Dwyer at ball don´t lie blog on yahoo (who is a nice read btw) : Zero TOs. The guy scores 41, takes 29 shots, goes to the line 12 times. And doesn´t turn it over once (and yeah, no assists this time, i know ), only 1 TO in his last 4 games averaging 30+ points. As a 7 footer handling the ball and putting it on the floor... He´s one of those guys who made the absolute most of themselves due to hard work. Him and his personal trainer made him the perfect player for his abilities.
Never could have been more than an average traditional post guy so they made him the best face-up big man in the history of the league.

Spurs don´t look too good right now, their defense flat out sucks right now.

I enjoy reading your recaps. You know your stuff and keep it neutral so much so that I don't even know what team you're a fan of. Thanks.

[bulletsponge]

Originally Posted by whomario

Nowitzki with 41 points.

Going to have to emphasize it again, even risking sounding like Kelly Dwyer at ball don´t lie blog on yahoo (who is a nice read btw) : Zero TOs. The guy scores 41, takes 29 shots, goes to the line 12 times. And doesn´t turn it over once (and yeah, no assists this time, i know ), only 1 TO in his last 4 games averaging 30+ points. As a 7 footer handling the ball and putting it on the floor... He´s one of those guys who made the absolute most of themselves due to hard work. Him and his personal trainer made him the perfect player for his abilities.
Never could have been more than an average traditional post guy so they made him the best face-up big man in the history of the league.

Dirk looking good in games that dont count again!

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by bulletsponge

Dirk looking good in games that dont count again!

What? Maybe I'm misremembering, but wasn't he aces in the season and playoffs that they made the finals?

[whomario]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

What? Maybe I'm misremembering, but wasn't he aces in the season and playoffs that they made the finals?

he has allways been great in the playoffs and has by far more outstanding games than bad games in big games. He´s averaging 25.5/11.6 (5th and 6th among current players, 12th and 24th all time respectively btw) for his career in the playoffs.
He averaged 25/10 in the playoffs in 6 of his 9 seasons and his worst playoffs is that 20/11 line against the warriors.
He is 8th all time in terms of PER, is 5th among active players in terms of win share in the POs.

But that´s what selective memory will do to you. One bad series against the Heat (where he still had 23/11 with an ok TS% despite bad shooting from the field) with one distinctly unclutch moment followed by a bad first round series (where he still had 20/11 !!) a year later where they were terribly prepared to play an unorthodox warriors team and suddenly he´s a soft and unclutch guy ...

people don´t grasp that a great player can win games but a great player can also play great and still loose at times. It´s 5 on 5 (+ reserves) ...
I mean, look at this past season. He put up 35/12 against the Nuggets (who defended him well !) with good passing and they still lost. Because the Nuggets were the more talented team. Because he had to play and attack for 48 minutes and got tired in the end. Which isn´t his fault. Credit the Nuggets.

call me a homer, i´m fine with that

[Arles]

I'm not a huge Dirk fan, but I remember that game 7 in San Antonio he pretty much won by himself in the final minutes to get Dallas to the Semis that year.

EDIT: He had 12 points in the 4th quarter and had 37 points, 15 boards, shot over 50% and 0 turnovers for the game. That seems like a pretty "clutch" effort to me.

[TroyF]

Dirk is ridiculously under appreciated. He's an incredibly gifted basketball player. We've been hearing about the next "Dirk" for years and he never appears.

That should tell people something right there.

The Spurs do look like garbage.

Chris Douglas-Roberts has looked good this year.

Reading The Big Book of Basketball by Simmons. It's better than I thought it would be.

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Reading The Big Book of Basketball by Simmons. It's better than I thought it would be.

Cool. I think I'll ask for this as a possible birthday or Christmas gift.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

It's 12.50 on Amazon right now.

Amazon.com: The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy (9780345511768): Bill Simmons, Malcolm Gladwell: Books

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

It's 12.50 on Amazon right now.

Amazon.com: The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy (9780345511768): Bill Simmons, Malcolm Gladwell: Books

Dammit, I just bought it for $37Cdn.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

It's 12.50 on Amazon right now.

Amazon.com: The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy (9780345511768): Bill Simmons, Malcolm Gladwell: Books

Awesome, thanks for pointing that out.

[RainMaker]

Bulls-Lakers should be good tonight. Undereported story of the year for the Bulls is that Derrick Rose has been bad this season.

[Mr. Sparkle]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Bulls-Lakers should be good tonight. Undereported story of the year for the Bulls is that Derrick Rose has been bad this season.

Yeah, what's up with that? Ankle still bothering him?

[Groundhog]

Combination of ankle and rust from not playing much in the preseason, according to an article I read today. He's at about 80%.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey32

He has no outside shot. Players are daring him to shoot from the outside.

Bingo.

He's shooting 37% on jumpers right now. That's 73% of his shot attempts. His roland rating is a -7.3.

Last year he hit 41% on jumpers, 60% of his total shots. So the ankle is bothering him and not letting him drive as much. The jump shot sucks. And the Bulls offense is really suffering.

The Bulls offensive efficiency rating is 27th in the league. Their defense is 3rd. That adds up to a very average team. The offense gets better, they'll get better.

[whomario]

Just saw large chunks of the Lakers-Bulls game.

1) The Bulls offensive system is terrible. Don´t say "but it´s the Lakers" and they shot 45%. The Lakers didn´t even try on defense, they didn´t have to, and those were as bad and inefficient a 45% shooting than you´ll see in the NBA.
Doesn´t help that they still don´t have any sort of lowpost threat.

2) The Bulls defense is pretty good.

3) The Lakers offense is better. Especially with Gasol.

4) Gasol was born to play in the triangle.

[TroyF]

Deeper into The Big Book of Basketball.

He lays out a great case for Russel over Wilt (not that it's especially hard, but he does it well) He then has a pretty good retrospective of the history of the league. (cliff notes version)

I've looked through his player ranking and the only one that jumps out now is Allen Iverson. He's WAY off on that one. Good forward by Gladwell. I'm enjoying the book.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Deeper into The Big Book of Basketball.

He lays out a great case for Russel over Wilt (not that it's especially hard, but he does it well) He then has a pretty good retrospective of the history of the league. (cliff notes version)

I've looked through his player ranking and the only one that jumps out now is Allen Iverson. He's WAY off on that one. Good forward by Gladwell. I'm enjoying the book.

I read the first chapter last night (The Secret). I like that concept and like how he spells out out pretty simply (i.e. basketball and hockey are different in terms of chemistry being so high up in importance).

[RainMaker]

The ankle excuse has gotten old with Rose. He's just not real aggressive, seems to settle too much. I see him in transition and he seems fine with passing it off or shooting a jumper instead of taking it to the hole.

The offense also seems really disorganized. It wasn't as apparent last year as Gordon bailed them out of a lot of bad trips. My biggest concern is they have this phenomenal talent in Rose and are letting him develop under Vinny Del Negro.

[whomario]

Has anyone here read Big Game Small World by Alexander Wolff (who writes for SI.com nowadays) ? Pretty damn great book containing essays (10-15 Pages) on basketball arround the globe. From Illinois to Bhutan, from Ontario to Brazil. Some pretty interesting stories told here about the ever cited "love for the game" all over the world.
Includes an excellent write up on how the balcan war impacted the legendary Jugoslavian national team with players like Kukoc and Divac.

I also immensely enjoyed loose balls by Terry Pluto, very informative book on the history of the ABA with all it´s crazy annecdotes

John Feinstein wrote a couple very fine books as well, Let Me Tell You A Story is a sort-of biography of Red Auerbach where Feinstein mixes biographical paragraphs with annecdotes as told by Auerbach himself during meetings of a lunch group of him and a number of close friends he met over the years (from ex players , coaches to his brother, lawyers and guys from the secret service) as well as info on those persons and how Red sees them and they see Red. Fenstein originally wanted to participate just once to write a piece about that group, ended up becoming a regular when Auerbach invited him and let him tell his stories for him.
Very much loved the idea and setting in which he told Auerbach´s story here.

Also found The Punch very good, here he tells the stories of both Rudy Tomjanovich and Kermit Washington before and after the Incident that shocked the NBA.
Shows Washington as a man who made a colossal mistake but who also was a great person and not just "the guy who almost killed Rudy Tomjanovich" and that he was a product of a very misguided way of thinking around the league. If people talk about "the good old days where there were still enforcers" they certainly haven´t seen this punch ...
He just has a knack for telling stories and both Washington and Tomjanovic give plenty of material to tell from.

[Big Fo]

Nice win for the Magic in Boston tonight. Orlando's excessive turnovers were matched by Boston's inability to hit open threes. Carter didn't shoot a high percentage and had some iffy moments but he made some key buckets in the second half. Hopefully at some point this season they'll get all the big guns together for a decent stretch, Carter, Lewis, and now Nelson have all missed some games but they're still 10-3.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

The ankle excuse has gotten old with Rose. He's just not real aggressive, seems to settle too much. I see him in transition and he seems fine with passing it off or shooting a jumper instead of taking it to the hole.

The offense also seems really disorganized. It wasn't as apparent last year as Gordon bailed them out of a lot of bad trips. My biggest concern is they have this phenomenal talent in Rose and are letting him develop under Vinny Del Negro.

Del Negro, in my opinion, is indeed part of the problem.

The other part of the problem though, is the fact that the Bulls have no consistent outside shooters. They can close down Rose's driving lanes and leave the perimeter unguarded because there's nobody on the team who can consistently hit the outside shot.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Nice win for the Magic in Boston tonight. Orlando's excessive turnovers were matched by Boston's inability to hit open threes. Carter didn't shoot a high percentage and had some iffy moments but he made some key buckets in the second half. Hopefully at some point this season they'll get all the big guns together for a decent stretch, Carter, Lewis, and now Nelson have all missed some games but they're still 10-3.

boooooooooooooo

[TroyF]

Nuggets just getting raped tonight. Things were going well in the first quarter, then Kenyon chewed out a ref over a horrific call. After that, the Nuggets just stopped getting anything.

This is the perfect example of a game where the total fouls don't tell the story. Melo drives and gets hammered, still hits the shot and it cuts the lead to 14. Thornton cuts, gets blocked from behind by Melo, clean as day and the ref from teh three point line calls a foul. Karl finally had enough and took a T. I thought Karl was going to punch the ref for a second. Can't believe he's still in the game.

If I had to bet money, the Nuggets will get every call in the fourth quarter to "even" things up. But they are too far behind and will certainly lose this game.

Lest you think I'm putting this all on the refs, Telfair, Thornton and Butler have all had terrific games. And outside of Melo, no other Nuggets perimeter player is hitting shots. Denver would likely be down in this game without going up against two teams, but it'd sure be nice to find out.


edit: As I typed the post, Karl almost got his second T. A ridiculous touch foul on Davis gets called. Nuggets players just laughing at this point.

[TroyF]

FYI: I was unbelievably wrong.

The Nuggets made a run and the officials still won't give them a call. Melo attacks the rim, gets body parts ripped off an no call. I have no idea how GK is still in the game. He's done just about everything to get kicked out, somehow he's still there. My guess is he will not finish out this game.

[whomario]

Sheeeeed ! 7-45 from 3 in the last 8 games... Boston really needs a playmaker of that bench, no one there can really give them a boost on his own.

The Blazers played the dumbest game of basketball i´ve seen this season. There was no excuse to loose this game. Oden dominated in the first quarter and punished the Warriors for their small lineup (threw moore and Randolph around like rag dolls at times, on one of his dunks he ha Randolph on his back ending up a good 4 feet away lying on the floor ...) then doesn´t play the Rest of the half with ZERO Fouls and of course the Warriors then run, run, run... Then you bring him back cold when the warriors have gotten comfortable driving the ball ...
Nate McMillan is a serious problem, period.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by whomario

Sheeeeed ! 7-45 from 3 in the last 8 games... Boston really needs a playmaker of that bench, no one there can really give them a boost on his own.

The Blazers played the dumbest game of basketball i´ve seen this season. There was no excuse to loose this game. Oden dominated in the first quarter and punished the Warriors for their small lineup (threw moore and Randolph around like rag dolls at times, on one of his dunks he ha Randolph on his back ending up a good 4 feet away lying on the floor ...) then doesn´t play the Rest of the half with ZERO Fouls and of course the Warriors then run, run, run... Then you bring him back cold when the warriors have gotten comfortable driving the ball ...
Nate McMillan is a serious problem, period.

I hate how Boston matches up with Orlando. I look at the Celtics strengths like this:

Unbelievable interior defense
Terrific size at most positions, allowing them to take a lot of wide open 15 footers
Rondo penetration

Then look at Orlando. They don't give a damn about the size, because they are long and athletic as well. Plus they take KG out by the three point line most of the time. They don't care about interior defense, because they know they can shoot 38% from three land and know they can keep pace anyway.

They also have size, which really limits the amount of open shots the Celtics can usually get for themselves. I watched Garnett take a turn around 21 footer last night, how many teams does he have to do that against? As for the Rondo penetration, Orlando is long and athletic and can challenge anything he brings up.

Don't get me wrong, Orlando still has problems. But every single time I see them play the Celtics I come away thinking they can take them in a 7 game series, Garnett or no Garnett.

[Tigercat]

Since the Hornets fired Scott, they have played their both rookies. (When they barely played one beforehand.) Since then Collison has lead the team well in Paul's absence and Thorton has 5 straight double digit scoring games off the bench. So much for Scott's idea that the rooks weren't ready.

Oh, and the Hornets have beaten a conference leading team in two straight games, first the Suns and now the Hawks. Hornets will struggle to make the playoffs still, but the two terrific rookies suggest a not so dim future afterall.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Tigercat

Since the Hornets fired Scott, they have played their both rookies. (When they barely played one beforehand.) Since then Collison has lead the team well in Paul's absence and Thorton has 5 straight double digit scoring games off the bench. So much for Scott's idea that the rooks weren't ready.

Oh, and the Hornets have beaten a conference leading team in two straight games, first the Suns and now the Hawks. Hornets will struggle to make the playoffs still, but the two terrific rookies suggest a not so dim future afterall.

In fairness to Scott (or any coach that doesn't play rookies), we don't see what they are doing in practice day in, day out.

Some of these rookies may have nice starts and then collapse once the league has film on them. That said, NO was in serious trouble early and every minute Devin Brown plays is a minute too much, so maybe I see your point.

[DeToxRox]

Pistons complete a winless West Coast road trip tonight vs the Suns.

Kuester seems like a good coach, it's just a shame the roster he has to work with.

I really hope the Pistons move Rip and/or Tay, get something of use, and then pocket a lottery pick and add a legit PF. Then you can slide Charlie Eyebrows to the 3 where he is most effective and see what shakes out.

[Chief Rum]

Okay, this is pretty dern cool.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Video-Kobe-playin-H-O-R-S-E-hits-over-the-bac;_ylt=AhW8tbR_vW6UZ9Ah_IiSib28vLYF?urn=nba,204184

[Neuqua]

I thought it was illegal to shoot over the backboard?

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

I thought it was illegal to shoot over the backboard?

Way to miss the forest for the trees, lol.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

I thought it was illegal to shoot over the backboard?

Not for a while

[whomario]

Blazers finally with a really, really good game against a decent oponent.
Miller is coming off the bench again btw, Webster starts, and looked outstanding tonight and was truly leading the 2nd unit. The box score backs that up, a +30 in 27 minutes.
Outrebounded the Bulls by 20 and are definitely the best rebounding team in the league.
Oden dominated Noah on his way to 24/12, Aldridge 24/13, Rudy with a good game as well.

Grizzlies win their 4th in 5 games. Gasol continues to be rock solid, still averaging 15/11 with 2 blocks shooting 63%.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by whomario

Blazers finally with a really, really good game against a decent oponent.
Miller is coming off the bench again btw, Webster starts, and looked outstanding tonight and was truly leading the 2nd unit. The box score backs that up, a +30 in 27 minutes.
Outrebounded the Bulls by 20 and are definitely the best rebounding team in the league.
Oden dominated Noah on his way to 24/12, Aldridge 24/13, Rudy with a good game as well.

Grizzlies win their 4th in 5 games. Gasol continues to be rock solid, still averaging 15/11 with 2 blocks shooting 63%.

Oden is playing a lot better than earlier in the year. That said, I still need to see the Blazers beat a quality opponent. They still have 1 win against a +500 team this year.

Gasol is an all star if the game were played tonight.

[Groundhog]

Only in Golden State could Mikki Moore and Radmanovic be in a starting 5 at this stage of their careers.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Only in Golden State could Mikki Moore and Radmanovic be in a starting 5 at this stage of their careers.

Actually, at this point, I believe it is required they both start for either of them to start. As they are virtually the exact opposite of one another, they balance each other out. If one started and the other didn't, the resulting mismatch ripple effect would destroy the universe.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Actually, at this point, I believe it is required they both start for either of them to start. As they are virtually the exact opposite of one another, they balance each other out. If one started and the other didn't, the resulting mismatch ripple effect would destroy the universe.

You may well be right.

Have injuries hit the Warriors so hard that they are actually running with 6 players today?

[Neuqua]

[Groundhog]

He did well to avoid the block there, but you can see how impressive a shot blocker Oden is as well.

[whomario]

nice dunk Still, i think it´s allways a good thing if a big guy is willing to end on that post for the outside chance of blocking the shot. Shaq f.e. never did that and it pissed me to no end ... I swear, there hasn´t ever been a human being that big that could move out of the way that fast, he´s be a hell of a spanish matador One minute there´s this 350 pound obstacle in the way, the next it´s like a suburbian street at 4 in the morning ... Isn´t part of the job description to, you know, try to get in the way of people flying towards the basket ?

Oden (and Aldridge) dismantled the Bulls big guys this game though, was no contest.

But i´m not so uptight not to enjoy the dunk by Rose Dind´t another bull have a good one that same game on/near Oden as well ?

Oden really is much more agile/mobile than last year, weirdly that has gotten him into trouble at times as he´s moving to much and challenges too much (and tries more wide-spread moves on offense).
Last year he got into foul trouble because he was slow to react, this year mainly because tries to do way too much and a lot of things that big men nowadays simply get whistled for by default ("he just checked a guy half a foot smaller ? That has to be a foul." *whistle* Wait, he moved around a smaller guy and another one had to jump in to draw the charge ? Nah, the little guy obviously was there all the way. *whistle* ).

I´m very optimistic about his play so far

[Groundhog]

A lot of Oden's fouls, from what I've seen, have been fairly stupid and avoidable. He just doesn't want to get beat, so he reaches and tries everything to stop the shot when he should just put his hands straight up and allow the odd basket here and there, realising that sometimes it's more important to allow a basket than foul, because you're more valuable to your team on the court than sitting on the bench.

Prime example was the Spurs game a few weeks ago. He picked up two quick fouls on Duncan in the first quarter, and both were just stupid fouls where he put arms forward instead of sticking them straight up. A rookie mistake, which is no big surprise considering how much time he has missed. Still, looks like he's improving on this already, and I like Portland's "one foul per quarter or it's to the bench" rule for him.

[whomario]

What i hate about the Blazers right now : There definitely is such a thing as being too methodical and the Blazers simply over-do it in the half court with just way too many predictable sets. Plus slowing down the tempo that often and considering their personell is just beyond me. Of course they shouldn´t suddenly become a run and gun team, but you have 2 bigs that can really run the floor, you bring a 3/4 on as your backup PF, you got a guy like Fernandez who is a terrific fastbreak player, you have a PG in Miller who is great at running the break.

I really like their upside in terms of the postseason as they have guys that draw double teams and attention in the halfcourt and can get the ball deep (not just Oden and Aldridge, also Roy and especially Miller post up) but MacMillan needs to get that stick out of his ass and be a lot more flexible as far as strategy goes.

Last season´s exit against the Rockets was telling in that regard where they flat out refused to look for early offense when that´s the one thing that can really hurt a team with an all-league Lowpostplayer that also happens to anchor the defense.

[miami_fan]

Take it for what is worth. AI announces his "plans" to retire.

TO ALL OF MY FANS:

I would like to announce my plans to retire from the National Basketball Association. I always thought that when I left the game, it would be because I couldn’t help my team the way that I was accustomed to. However, that is not the case.

I still have tremendous love for the game, the desire to play, and a whole lot left in my tank. I feel strongly that I can still compete at the highest level.

Stepping away from the game will allow me to spend quality time with my wife and kids. This is a reward that far exceeds anything that I’ve ever achieved on the basketball court. I have prayed for this day and I see it as my greatest gift.

I want to thank the people of Reebok International Ltd., for always allowing me to be me and for supporting me my whole career through all the ups and downs. I have enjoyed 13 wonderful seasons in the NBA, and I am grateful.

I want to first acknowledge my fans everywhere, who have been with me throughout my entire career. Without you, there would be no me. You should all know that I appreciate your support from the bottom of my heart. Thank you!

To Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Charles Barkley and Larry Bird, you guys gave me the vision to play the game that will be forever in my heart.

To my Mom, who encouraged and inspired me to play every day, and to all of my family and friends who stood by me from the beginning. Thank you!

To my high school coach, Michael Bailey, Coach John Thompson at Georgetown University, Coach Larry Brown and to all of my other coaches, teammates, administrators, owners and staff who’ve been a part of my career, Thank you as well!

I’d like to give a special thanks to the people of Memphis. I never played a home game for your beloved Grizzlies, but I want you to know how much I appreciate the opportunity given me by a great owner in Michael Heisley, and the support of the city. I wish the Memphis Grizzlies’ organization all of the success that the game has to offer.

And finally, to the city of Philadelphia: I have wonderful memories of my days in a Sixers’ uniform. To Philly fans, thank you. Your voice will always be music to my ears.

[miami_fan]

Michael Beasley does his best impression of Lorenzo Charles to give the Heat a good win at Orlando.