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 »

Miami Heat forward Shawn Marion will not opt out of the final season and $17.8 million left on his contract, his agent said Monday night. Agent Dan Fegan said he has reached an impasse with Heat president Pat Riley after a month of on-and-off negotiations on an extension. Fegan said he informed the Heat of Marion’s decision.

Miami Herald 

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?

One of the hot rumors surround the upcoming NBA draft is that the Miami Heat, drafting No. 2 behind the Bulls, want Derrick Rose so badly that might be willing to trade star Dwyane Wade to Chicago for a package around that top pick.

The Chicago Tribune has reported that the Bulls could attempt to use the first pick in the draft to acquire the Chicago native. Any trade likely also would include Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich going to Miami the Bulls could trade Hinrich if they chose Rose, and Miami has long been a rumored landing spot.

Hooped Up

Miami guard Dwyane Wade has been given the okay to play for the United States at the Olympics games later this summer, according to The South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

His surgically repaired left knee pasted an initial test, and Wade was informed that he will receive one of the twelve berths when the roster is formally announced Monday.

Jerry Colangelo, who heads the Olympic basketball committee, met last week with Wade and came away convinced that the guard is up to the challenge of the grueling Games commitment.

Sportsnet

After missing a ton of games because of his left knee and trying to secure first pick in the NBA draft by tanking games.  Wade believes he will be ready for Beijing.

Dwyane Wade still believes his knee will be ready for the Beijing Olympics.

The Miami Heat guard, who missed the final 21 games of last season because of chronic soreness in his surgically repaired left knee, said Sunday that he’s been playing 5-on-5 games for about a week with “no problems.”

Wade is spending much of his offseason rehabilitating in Chicago, with eyes on both getting a spot on the Beijing-bound team — USA Basketball will finalize its Olympic roster later this month — and ensuring that he’s fully healthy when the Heat open training camp in late September.

SI

Miami better be worried, Dwayne Wade’s market value would sky rocket with the Knicks.  

Some within the Heat organization are worried that Knicks’ Coach Mike D’Antoni will try to integrate himself to Dwyane Wade as an assistant on the U.S. Olympic team this summer, according to The Miami Herald. 

New York General Manager Donnie Walsh has made it known that he would like to clear up cap space for the summer of 2010, during which players like Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh will all become free agents.

The Miami Herald

If the Knicks don’t sign Ralph Sampson to a max deal over the summer, they could find themselves under the cap in 2010 and negotiate a young superstar.  The Heat management is keeping tabs on Dwayne Wades Facebook, if he adds D’Antoni after the Olympics it’s over.

I’d want Shawn Marion around if I lost that many losses too.

Listen to any Dwyane Wade offseason comments and the constant is the desire to play an entire season alongside Shawn Marion. It’s “Shawn this” and “Shawn that” as Wade goes through a roster that remains very much under reconstruction.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

A trio of Wade, Beasley and Marion would be Lethal!

Damn, this is even a worse decision than opting for the rehab instead of the surgery last year.  What is this guy doing?  I mean Star Jones? She’s in his 5?  Star Jones is fresh off a divorce from her “man” Al and Dwayne Wade has been on the market even when he was off the market.

“It’s been one whole day since news broke that Star Jones filed for divorce from Al — and already Star is being linked to Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade. A rep for Star Jones [said] that the rumors aren’t true.”

TMZ

If the leader of the Heat is making these kind of moves somebody else might have to wear the C next year.  Even Ricky Davis must be shaking his head. Star Jones? Damn!

Riley, who has two seasons remaining on a contract that allows him to serve as president and coach or exclusively in the front-office role, said earlier this week that he would decide on his coaching future quickly after next week’s season finale against Atlanta. On Thursday, he laid out his immediate postseason itinerary. ”I’m going to finish the season and we’re going to start the process of evaluation [and] exit meetings with our players,” Riley said. “I’ll sit down with [owner] Micky [Arison] and we’ll talk about the direction that we’re going to go.”

Miami Herald