JaVale McGee can get up!

If you’ve seen JaVale McGee play for the Washington Wizards, you’ll probably agree that he is one of the few bright spots for fans in DC this season. His ability to get up almost feels unnatural — like a video game. The JaValevator has given us plenty of high-flying highlights this season and this dunk last night against the Atlanta Hawks is no exception — check it out!

The thing is, hops like that have to be put in the right hands. McGee is still inexperienced and is learning to harness his super-human powers. Kyle Weidie at Truth About It has a nice demonstration of how McGee can get faked out in his hunger for shot blocking.

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2010 NBA All Stars “Boys 2 Men Idol”, Videos

2010 NBA All Stars “Boys 2 Men Idol”, Videos. During 2010 NBA All Star Game, during half times, and timeouts, they showed clips of the All Stars “Trying” to sing Boys 2 Men songs on the gargantuan Cowboys Stadium screen. Some did badly, whilst others strived to do exceptionally terrible.

Dirk did the worst. Pau did the best.

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The Mid-Afternoon Milk Mustache, featuring the pursuit of purity

The Mid-Afternoon Milk Mustache takes you on a trip around the League every weekday, bringing you the best posts from around the NBA blogosphere. Unfamiliar with the below ’stache styles? The American Mustache Institute will school you on that subject.

The Chevron: Is Carmelo Anthony the “purest” scorer in the league today? [My Expiring Contract]

The Dali: Seth Pollack breaks down the Amare sign-and-trade market. [Bright Side of the Sun]

The English: Might Sebastian Telfair be able to contribute to a championship-caliber team? Maybe? [Cavs: The Blog]

The Fu Manchu: The Kings frontline has noticeably improved since adding Carl Landry, and the evidence shows that the best is still to come. [SLAM Online]

The Handlebar: Zachariah Blott explains why Lebron will most likely stay in Cleveland, but also why he should consider New York and New Jersey. [Empty the Bench]

The Horseshoe: Sebastian Pruiti takes a detailed look at how exactly Tyreke Evans was able to notch the third rookie triple-double of the season. [NBA Playbook]

The Imperial: Our very own Mookie Schiralli passes along this video of Drazen Petrovic in an epic match up with Oscar Schmidt from the 1989 European Cup. [A Stern Warning]

The Lampshade: Tom Haberstroh invents a pretty revolutionary new statistic called “weighted assists,” in which assists that lead to higher efficiency shots are worth more. [Hardwood Paroxysm]

The Painter’s Brush: Royce Young checks how the Thunder match up against all of their potential playoff opponents. [Daily Thunder]

The Pyramidal: NBA hopeful, Kevin Owens, is now writing from Estonia, where saying it is cold is an understatement. [Hugging Harold Reynolds]

The Toothbrush: You know we love our over-the-backboard shots, so what did you think of this one by Tyreke Evans? [The Hoop Doctors]

The Walrus: Zach Harper delves into the parallel sagas of Budd, the assassin from Kill Bill, and Hedo Turkoglu. [Raptors Republic]

Got a post you think is Milk Mustache worthy? Send it to stacheketballtips [at] gmail.com or follow me on Twitter.

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Franchise Player: Steve Nash

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Far too often, we label players as franchise players before even seeing them do things that franchise players do. For instance, I like Danny Granger a lot, and so the Indiana Pacers. When healthy, he is one of the best scorers in the NBA. He does it in a variety of ways: jump shots, drives, put backs and occasional post ups. He is probably the Indiana Pacers’ franchise player. But is he an NBA franchise player? There is a difference.

Granger helps the Pacers sell tickets and helps his team be somewhat competitive. But does he shift the balance of power in the NBA? Not at all. The Pacers are unable to compete for a playoff spot in the weak Eastern Conference, so that settles the debate in my opinion. But I figured that we needed some guidelines when trying to decipher just who exactly is and is not a franchise player. Click here to get a list of the criteria required to be a franchise player. Here’s the list of players that I have covered so far. Feel free to click on their names to be redirected to the feature I wrote on them.

• Carmelo Anthony
• Dirk Nowitzki
• Dwight Howard
• Dwyane Wade
• Tim Duncan

Let’s get this started then… Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Mavs, Suns | No Comments »

The Mid-Afternoon Milk Mustache, featuring the wrath of Bateer

The Mid-Afternoon Milk Mustache takes you on a trip around the League every weekday, bringing you the best posts from around the NBA blogosphere. Unfamiliar with the below ’stache styles? The American Mustache Institute will school you on that subject.

The Chevron: Mengke Bateer was the first Chinese (technically Mongolian) basketball player to win an NBA title. He’s also the first to kill someone with a coconut. [Sham Sports]

The Dali: The Clippers have officially relieved Mike Dunleavy of GM duties, thereby severing all ties. [Hardwood Paroxysm]

The English: Nets fans like to use Yi Jianlian as a scapegoat, but you can’t blame him for all of their troubles. [Nets Are Scorching]

The Fu Manchu: There are a lot of pressing issues facing Michael Jordan if he truly wants to be the savior of Charlotte basketball. [The Baseline]

The Handlebar: Last summer, the Pistons completely remodeled their team by adding free agents Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon. Looking back, those deals don’t really seem to be working out for them. [NBA Fanhouse]

The Horseshoe: Speaking of which, Richard Jefferson is looking worse and worse for the Spurs. [48 MoH]

The Imperial: Tom Martin explains that Jordan Hill is much more than just another big man project for the Rockets. [The Dream Shake]

The Lampshade: Rob Mahoney begrudgingly explains to us commonfolk why it’s not a big deal that the Mavericks are relatively poorly ranked in John Hollinger’s Power Rankings. [The Two Man Game]

The Painter’s Brush: Here’s a look a possible candidates that Donald Sterling might be considering to replace Mike Dunleavy as GM of the Clippers. [NBA Off-Season]

The Pyramidal: Sandy Dover explains that being sent down to the D-League is not necessary as bad as the stigma attached to it, and that some notable draft busts could have been very well served with some time there. [SLAM Online]

The Toothbrush: Everyone loves a good block, and there are few in the game with more exciting ones than LeBron. Here is a look at the top 10 Lebron blocks of the season. [Hooped Up]

The Walrus: Zachariah Blott explains why Dwight Howard is the most impossible player in the NBA to gameplan for. [Empty the Bench]

Got a post you think is Milk Mustache worthy? Send it to stacheketballtips [at] gmail.com or follow me on Twitter.

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LeBron James: Potential Terrorist?

Last month a London court ordered the British government to disclose confidential US intelligence showing that this man (see picture below) was detained and suffered “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” whilst in US custody.

Now, you’ve read the headline and seen this picture. After putting two and two together, some of you may have gotten five. This man above is indeed NOT LeBron James. He sure does look like him though, doesn’t he? For comparison, here is the real LeBron James:

Many would be deceived at first glance into thinking they’d just seen King James at the microphone. At this point, I should point out that the man in question was cleared of any wrong-doing and was declared not to be a terrorist, he was merely held on suspicion of being one. In fact, the article from AOL News, tells us that he was tortured in cruel and unnatural ways by the Guantanamo Bay authorities.

Among the many heinous crimes committed against this man, by far the most disturbing was the following (young readers, stop reading right now):

Mohamed was then taken to a “dark prison” run by the U.S. in Afghanistan, where he says he was forced to listen to a recording of rapper Eminem, played at deafening volume, continually for a whole month.

People need to be taken to task for this. This is beyond a human rights issue. This is a crime against nature. No one should be forced to listen to Eminem for more than three minutes straight, perhaps as they walk around a record shop or stumble into the wrong night club.

Just for clarity, this man below is LeBron James and whilst he has blown up in the league, he is not a terrorist.

Follow us on twitter @Stacheketball.

Posted in Cavs, NBA Pics | 5 Comments »

The Mid-Afternoon Milk Mustache, featuring Jordan’s tarnished legacy

The Mid-Afternoon Milk Mustache takes you on a trip around the League every weekday, bringing you the best posts from around the NBA blogosphere. Unfamiliar with the below ’stache styles? The American Mustache Institute will school you on that subject.

The Chevron: Kelly Dwyer berates Michael Jordan for marring his brilliant NBA career with his post-retirement actions. [Ball Don't Lie]

The Dali: Darren Collison set a Hornets rookie record with 20 assists last night, but some of them were a little fishy. Zach Harper checks the validity of each one. [Hardwood Paroxysm]

The English: Kevin Arnovitz asks if fans, of the Clippers specifically, should feel cheated if their teams are not doing all they can to be on the cutting edge of basketball analytics. [ClipperBlog]

The Fu Manchu: KWAPT hangs out with the Celtics before Sunday’s game against the Wizards and gets exclusive footage of a lopsided 1-on-1 match between Rajon Rondo and Brain Scalabrine. [Banner 18?]

The Handlebar: It’s been said so many times before, but is still worth repeating. Are NBA teams making themselves inaccessible with their exorbitant ticket rates? What are some teams doing to fix it? [TrueHoop]

The Horseshoe: After a slow start, Ray Allen has been on fire in the second half of the season. [Celtics Hub]

The Imperial: Kevin Pelton uses his own metric to determine the best shooters in the NBA today and historically. [Basketball Prospectus]

The Lampshade: If you haven’t already had your fill of SSAC stories, here’s another 4000 words on what the conference meant for the Portland Trailblazers. [Blazersedge]

The Painter’s Brush: Sebastian Pruiti breaks down a last-second play by the Spurs, in which they did everything perfectly except make the shot. [NBA Playbook]

The Pyramidal: Jeremy Lin has been getting plenty of press this season, but the real question remains: Is he a pro-level player? [SLAM Online]

The Toothbrush: Is this the best movie pitch since Who Shot Mamba? Will James proposes that we combine Hot Tub Time Machine, Celtic Pride, and Back To the Future to create Will James’ Hot Dog Time Machine. [NBA Off-season]

The Walrus: J.G. Marking brings the good news and bad for Thunder fans by considering the five factors for playoff basketball. [Daily Thunder]

Got a post you think is Milk Mustache worthy? Send it to stacheketballtips [at] gmail.com or follow me on Twitter.

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Larry Bird Car Commercial (Video)

Honestly, I don’t know what else to say.

This looks like something I would see in 2 in the morning on the local channels along with those 1-900 ads.

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Kevin Garnett: Wilt Chamberlain was like an Angel

Kevin Garnett: Wilt Chamberlain was like an Angel. KG has been sold to us as an old soul. From the first day he joined the league, we have seen him being praised by the older players for his work ethic and respect for the games history.

This is what they were talking about. Both videos below talk about the first time Kevin Garnett met Wilt Chamberlain on one special night in Cleveland. KG said that meeting “The Big Dipper” was like seeing an Angel. KG was star struck, He had no idea what to say. I am actually surprised they had not met before because KG played Wilt in the HBO movie rebound in 1996.

As a side note, this furthers my point that KG was devestated last year when Bill Russell told Duncan that Duncan was his favorite player. Garnett is wearing Celtic green every night and Russell is falling in love with Duncan? That had to hurt, especially when you see how much KG respected Wilt. I am sure it was the same way with Russell.

Posted in 76'ers, Celtics, NBA Videos | 1 Comment »

The Mid-Afternoon Milk Mustache, featuring when the geeks inherited the Earth

The Mid-Afternoon Milk Mustache takes you on a trip around the League every weekday, bringing you the best posts from around the NBA blogosphere. Unfamiliar with the below ’stache styles? The American Mustache Institute will school you on that subject.

The Chevron: Stat geeks took over the sports world at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on Saturday. OCD Chick, Amanda Rykoff, brings the tale of the tweets for you to relive the experience. [OCD Chick]

The Dali: Haubs gives a comprehensive recap of the headline panel, “What Geeks Don’t Get: The Limits of Moneyball” featuring Bill Simmons, Mark Cuban, Daryl Morey, Bill Polian, Jonathan Kraft and Michael Lewis. [The Painted Area]

The English: We learned at the conference that stat heads have infiltrated most teams, but Zach Lowe wonders whether they can get the coaches to heed their advice. [Celtics Hub]

The Fu Manchu: Henry Abbott opines on what he thought about Adam Silver, Brian Burke, Steve Pagliuca, Randy Vataha, Matt Silverman and Daryl Morey had to say about “The Next Generation of Sports Management and Ownership.” [TrueHoop]

The Handlebar: Enough about SSAC, Jessica Camerato tells about how Glen Davis was one of the finalists for the role of Michael Oher in the Oscar-winning film, The Blind Side. [WEEI.com]

The Horseshoe: You know whenever new things come out about Who Shot Mamba, I have to link to them. Os Davis calls it “the best basketball movie of all time.” (Note: Maybe, I’m even selling the movie short, check out Os’ comment below.) [Ball In Europe]

The Imperial: Seth Pollack recaps Robin Lopez’s reaction to the upgrading of his flagrant foul and also his photographer’s close brush with death. [Bright Side of the Sun]

The Lampshade: A statistical study confirms that officiating bias, the scourge of all professional sports, does most likely exist in the NBA. [Celtics Hub]

The Painter’s Brush: MW remembers back to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and writes about how there are never any guarantees when it comes to basketball or life. [Hornets Hype]

The Pyramidal: Carl CR compares Hasheem Thabeet’s first 6 games in the D-League to the time that his replacement, Hamed Haddadi, spent there. [3 Shades of Blue]

The Toothbrush: As you undoubtedly have heard, Ron Artest’s hair was out of control last night. [The No-Look Pass]

The Walrus: Zack Harper laments not being in Boston for SSAC, but knows that our presence at the conference means that sports bloggers, or rather, internet sports writers are here to stay. [Hardwood Paroxysm]

Got a post you think is Milk Mustache worthy? Send it to stacheketballtips [at] gmail.com or follow me on Twitter.

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