Hooped Up

Okay, this is only happen in “White Men Can’t Jump”, but this fool really when to the crib and brought back an AK-47. This is taking getting heated at the ball court to another level.

A 16-year-old Brooklyn teen was arrested after police said he shot several times at a group with an AK-47 at a basketball court Tuesday night.

According to state police, the teen was playing basketball behind Our Lady of Lasalette Church on Route 6 when he got into an argument with some of the other players.Witnesses said he bragged about having an AK-47 rifle and threatened to return to the court to shoot them. After the argument, the teen allegedly left the court and returned 10 minutes later, dressed in black and carrying that rifle, police said.

NBC

At least this guy is a man of his word. If he showed up to the court wearing a Kirilenko jersey that would have been the icing on the cake. The funniest thing about this story is when he came back to the court he still couldn’t hit anything.

“You couldn’t hit a basket with an AK-47!, fool!”

Even when only a few teams are left actually playing basketball. The Knicks are always in the thick of the news, especially for Hooped Up.  In the latest chapter of the Isiah demotion chapter, Knicks management has sent there former president/coach now advisor to Europe on a “scouting trip” to Europe.

The Knicks have sent former coach Isiah Thomas on a scouting trip in Europe, according to The New York Post. Donnie Walsh dispatched Thomas overseas to France and Italy last week to take a look at draft prospects Nicolas Batum and Danilo Gallinari. That was the first task Thomas has been given since the team fired him on April 18. There is also a chance that Walsh will send Thomas to the pre-draft camp in Orlando at the end of May.

New York Post 

Is it me or is Isiah kinda getting treated like Milton Waddams in Office Space that kept on getting demoted until he set the place on fire?

Kenny Anderson is one of my favorite college players of all-time and Hooped Up is pulling for him to land a job with the Knicks.  Hopefully, he can talk some sense into Marbury and Robinson.

The affable agent, Billy Diamond, emailed a few of us New York writers he knows to suggest his guy, Kenny Anderson, would be a good candidate to join the Knicks in some capacity. Diamond, whose also Charles Oakley’s agent, writes, in part, “Kenny is trying to get into the NBA as either an Assistant Coach or Director of Player Development. He has been a Mentor to Stephon Marbury since high school. Who better to be a mentor than Kenny who played over a decade in the league in the NYC area. Two months ago, Kenny attended an assistant coaches seminar put on by the NBA and will be coaching/teaching in the Orlando Pre-Draft Camp later this month. Two years ago he was a volunteer assistant coach at St. Thomas Aquinas in Ft. Lauderdale, near where he lives and this past season he was the head coach of the Atlanta Krunk of the CBA and coaches Steph’s brother Zach.”

NY Post

With this kind of debt Barkley is going to be working at TNT until the earth crashes into the Sun or the Cubs win a World Series, both are a longtime from now.  I wish I could be cool as shit if I owed somebody $400, 000.  Damn son!

Charles Barkley acknowledged he owes a $400,000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas Strip casino and promised Thursday to repay it after a prosecutor said the retired NBA star faced criminal charges. “My mistake,” Barkley said in an interview at a pro-am golf tournament in Hoover, Ala. “I’m not broke, and I’m going to take care of it.” Barkley was responding to comments by Clark County District Attorney David Roger, who said prosecutors would file a criminal complaint if he did not pay the debt cited by the Wynn Las Vegas resort. “He’ll have an opportunity like anybody else to make restitution to the hotel,” Roger said.

AP/Globe and Mail

I wonder if Charles has resorted to answering the phone saying “Mista, Barkley no here” yet.

Who ya got? The Thunderbirds, Barons, Outlaws or Thunder

With The Oklahoman’s NBA Team Name Contest now whittled down to the Final Four nicknames — Thunderbirds, Barons, Outlaws and Thunder — opinions still vary on what the team should be called. But some, like Moody, are among a growing segment who thinks black and gold could work as the team colors no matter the nickname or mascot. “It’s just different,” said Moody, who designed the black and gold “Oklahoma City Barons” jerseys that appeared on the cover of The Oklahoman’s sports section on April 14 as one of hundreds of reader-designed jersey submissions. But unlike the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose team colors are athletic gold and black, the color scheme used for the popular Barons design is varsity gold and black, closer to the shade found in Notre Dame and George Washington’s school colors.

Oklahoman

Sucks to be a Sonics fan right now in Seattle!

There are alot of reasons these days to like the New Orleans Hornets. They have the best coach in Byron Scott, Chris Paul is the future of the league, they are getting rid of the boring Spurs and instead of those lame inflatable dildos they give fans behind the opposing teams basket. They give out pictures of the visiting teams girlfriend.

Since I have to catch up with my Top 25 distraction list for 2008, here’s another entry to the mix.  Denise Milani, is Miss Bikini World 2007 for good reason which begs the question who was Miss Bikini World 2008?  She’s also a big basketball fan, here is a pic I posted earlier with Denise Milani and the great Kareem Abdul Jabbar at a Lakers game.

It’s official Tayshaun Prince and the Pistons are alive and well, after sending the Magic packing last night. In the defining play of the game Hedo Turkoglu took it to the rack as hard as he could and Tayshaun Prince gave him the block of the playoffs and maybe the year.  This is ugly!

If there was any doubt about Kobe Bryant’s health heading into game 5, that was squashed by the man himself today!

Kobe Bryant left no doubt after the Lakers’ practice today that he’ll be on the court Wednesday for Game 5 against the Utah Jazz at Staples Center in the Western Conference Semifinals. Bryant said his lower back, which he injured in Game 4 on Sunday in Salt Lake City, was “sore, tight and stiff.”

LA Times

The NBA will review the play and it is possible Turiaf could be suspended by the league for Game 5 on Wednesday night at Staples Center. The league has cracked down on fouls to the head in recent seasons, accidental or not. “I hope the league sees that I went for the ball,” Turiaf said when asked if he expected to be suspended. “I tried to grab the shot. I didn’t do anything dirty. I didn’t undercut him. It’s one of those freak plays that happen in basketball. “Everybody jumped up and started calling me names, acting like I tried to hurt somebody. For me, I was just trying to make a play on the basketball. I don’t know, man. I don’t know.”

Press-Telegram