Hooped Up

Derrick Rose is going home, and a record crowd of freshmen are following him to the NBA. The Chicago Bulls selected Rose, who grew up on the city’s South Side, with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft Thursday night, choosing the Memphis guard over Kansas State forward Michael Beasley.  Below are the rest of the NBA draft results.

Round 1 NBA Draft Results

Second round results after the jump Read the rest of this entry »

It was a real bitter sweet day for Carmelo Anthony.  Getting named to team USA sweet, getting suspended 2 games for a DUI bitter.  Ouch!

The Denver Nuggets suspended NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony for the first two games of the next season as punishment for his April arrest on suspicion of drunken driving.

The announcement by the team Monday comes a day before he is scheduled to enter a plea in the case. Anthony was also named to the U.S. Olympic team Monday.

Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien said in a written statement the team will continue to support Anthony as he “strives to live up to the high expectations” set by the Nuggets and by Anthony.

CBC

Team USA is official and here are the members selected by the USA basketball comitee.

Carmelo Anthony
Carlos Boozer
Chris Bosh
Kobe Bryant
Dwight Howard
LeBron James
Jason Kidd
Chris Paul
Tayshaun Prince
Michael Redd
Dwayne Wade
Deron Williams

This is an awesome squad but, who is going to take a back seat to who and who leads this team?

Why Denver would want to trade the best defensive player they have and arguably in the league is a mystery to me.

Nuggets center Marcus Camby, a possible moving piece during offseason roster shuffling, reiterated his desire to remain with Denver: “I want to be here, but I also want to be where I’m wanted.”

Asked if he currently felt wanted, Camby said, “I don’t know, I don’t know. Every other day there are (trade) rumors and stuff like that. I’m just trying to enjoy the offseason. That’s all I can really do at this point.”

Denver Post

Maybe the Nuggets know of a great rebounding and defensive center tree somewhere and will just pick on off to replace Marcus Camby.

Carmelo Anthony has been named a member of the US Olympics squad for Beijing.

Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball managing director, confirmed Friday Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony will be among 12 players selected later this month to play in Beijing, The Rocky Mountain news reported.

“Yes, he will be,” Colangelo said of Anthony, who was a member of the 2004 Olympic team.

Colangelo hopes Anthony in Beijing will be the same player who has been one of Team USA’s top players the last two summers.

ESPN

After months of paying attention to 4th quarters and cursing the Knicks for existing…again! The most holiest of times are upon us my friends. Here are my predictions for the first round. Now I could use my crystal ball to also predict how many games each of these match ups will go but, I left my crystal ball in the Thunder Tank.

Round 1
Western Conference
Lakers vs. Nuggests - Lakers
Jazz vs. Rockets - Rockets
Spurs vs. Suns - Suns
Hornets vs. Mavericks - Mavericks

Eastern Conference
Celtics vs. Hawks - Celtics
Cavaliers vs. Wizards - Cavaliers
Magic vs. Raptors - Magic
Pistons vs. 76ers - Pistons

Nice move “Melo”! So by now, everybody’s heard about Carmelo Anthony’s run in with de law last Sunday night. Today LaLa is denying reports that she refused to pick him up from the thug jug.

Basketball star Carmelo Anthony and his fiancée LaLa Vazquez are speaking out about his DUI arrest – denying Internet reports she was unsupportive and wouldn’t pick him up from the police station.

“I want to make sure the public understands that I fully support my fiancé, Carmelo Anthony, and stand by him through this ordeal. I will always have his back and never refused to pick him up from the police station. In fact, they offered to bring him to me.”

The NBA star reiterated his love for Vazquez in his own statement: “LaLa continues to be a rock in my life, she’s always been there for me through thick and thin.”
People

Sure LaLa…sure.

We all no that the Supersonics already have one foot on the bus out of town and that bus ticket reads “destination: anywhere but here”.  Last night the Supersonics let there fans miss them less, with a mega loss by fitty-two to the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets put up 168 total points in this beat down thriller, that left current Seattle Supersonic fans to think  for a moment that they were trapped in an online game of NBA 2k8.  Hey at least they covered the spread!

Kenyon Martin had this to say after the game.

“A lot of people are going to think it’s a misprint,” Martin said. “A lot of people will think there’s no way they scored that many points. It’s unbelievable. There are no words for it.”
USA Today

Hooped Up

A Denver city prosecutor was suspended when Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin was allowed to keep his driver’s license despite receiving two tickets for going over 100 miles an hour. “At a minimum … there’s an appearance that (Martin) did receive preferential treatment,” said Vince DiCroce, the top prosecutor at the Denver city attorney’s office. DiCroce said the prosecutor who handled the cases, Russell Stone, was suspended for three days without pay.

AP/Toronto Sun

Check out the Carmelo Anthony’s girlfriend La La Vasquez, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit wives photo shoot here. Well done Carmelo!