Hooped Up

Technically Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t really need an introduction anywhere, but yesterday the Cavaliers did their civic media duty and allowed the Big Freeze Diesel to re-introduce himself. Cavs GM Danny Ferry, coach Mike Brown and owner Dan Gilbert were also in attendance and were kind enough to give Shaq a pair of rubber boot sandals and a shovel for those cold  Cleveland winters.

Shaq also spoke about a potential nickname he could use in Cleveland, ripped on Danny Ferry and unveiled his new motto, “Win a ring for the King”.

Do yourself a favor and check out the entire press conference below, you won’t regret it.  Shaq is in rare comedic form.

The entire press conference after the jump.

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An opening day Cleveland Cavaliers starting line up of Mo Williams, Ron Artest, LeBron James, Anderson Varejao and Shaquille O’Neal would be kinda sick and Danny Ferry thinks so too.

According to several league sources, the Cavs have been been in contact with Houston Rockets free agent forward Ron Artest. It even included a face-to-face pitch from LeBron James on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, as both were in Southern California for various events.

Offensively the Cavs would be slightly better than last year if they added Artest. Defensively, they would be the best team in the NBA. If Ron Artest wants to win, more than get paid adding Ron-Ron would be big for the Cavs.

Let’s hang out and see how the dollars play out on this one.

Via Cleveland Plain Dealer

Hip-hop artist and part owner of the New Jersy Nets Jay Z and NBA MVP LeBron James roll deep. Even though talk of LeBron James to what will be the Brooklyn Nets in 2010 has died because his asking price is going to be through, these guys seem down for one another.

Anyway the hardest working retired rapper in the game is back with a new album dropping in September “The Blueprint³ ” and one of his latest singles on the album is “Death of Autotune” (lets hope) with new video to match.

Watch for LeBron James at the 3:57 mark not paying basketball on the ball court with Jay-Z. Harvey Keitel makes an appearance in this video too, but he didn’t average 28ppg, 7 ast and 7 rebs this past season so nobody really cares.

The NBA is changing by the day and, it seems, it always affects the Cavaliers. In a move that was considered shocking in corners Monday, the Milwaukee Bucks decided not to offer young free-agent power forward Charlie Villanueva a qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent. He now will be unrestricted, which makes him significantly easier to sign because the Bucks will not have matching rights. According to sources, Villanueva now will be one of the Cavs’ free-agent targets when teams are allowed to speak with them Wednesday.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Amid a wealth of midseason rumors that he was headed to Cleveland in February at the trading deadline, Shaquille O’Neal says another team also was trying to land him — the Portland Trail Blazers. O’Neal says he vetoed the potential trade to Portland in a conversation with Suns GM Steve Kerr, who this week dealt Shaq to the Cavaliers in exchange for Ben Wallace,Sasha Pavlovic, a second-round pick in next year’s draft and $500,000. “During the middle of the season, Steve said Portland was interested,” said O’Neal. “He said was I interested in going to Portland? I told him no, so he stopped that.” The Blazers, however, are adamant that they didn’t try to trade for Shaq in February. “Why would we when we’ve got Greg (Oden) developing and we’ve already got (Joel) Przybilla?” said a Blazers official who asked to remain anonymous. “If were in go-for-it mode, maybe we would be more interested.”

SI.com

A Cleveland Cavaliers player is under arrest in Tampa, Florida on suspicion of driving under the influence.

The team says it has been made aware of Tarence Kinsey Jr.’s arrest. According to Tampa Police, Kinsey was pulled over just after 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning on I-275. Police say Kinsey was drifting within his lane of travel and then observed going 70 miles per hour on I-275. The posted speed limit was 55 miles per hour.

Officers who pulled Kinsey over say he failed field sobriety tests and placed him under arrest for DUI. Kinsey later refused a breath test at the station.

Kinsey lives in Tampa.

WKYC

Oh my damn! The Cavs must really mean business because they have pulled of a Shaq size trade on the eve of the NBA draft by acquiring Shaquille O’Neal to give their front line some extra pep.

The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns have come to an agreement on a blockbuster trade that sends Shaquille O’Neal to Cleveland to team with LeBron James, according to sources.

The deal has been agreed to in principle and is expected to be finalized Thursday, according to sources.

Cleveland will send Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic to Phoenix for the future Hall of Famer. Sources said the Suns will also receive the 46th pick in Thursday’s NBA draft and $500,000.

I kinda liked a scenario where Vince Carter or Antawn Jamison landed in Cleveland a tad more, but getting Shaq if he can stay healthy the entire year will make Cleveland pretttttttty, pretttttttty, prettttttty, pretty good. I won’t say this trade will send the Cavs over the top, because I thought LeBron James would be wearing Kobe Bryant’s fourth ring. But the eastern semis should be a lock at the very least with this team. Continue »

Shaquille O’Neal, Antawn Jamison and now Vince Carter has popped up in trade rumour talks to Cleveland.

The Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers have discussed Vince Carter again, sources said. As financial losses mount for New Jersey’s ownership, it appears more likely that the Nets will try to move Carter and the two years and $33.6 million left on his deal. The Nets would have to take Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic in return.

If the Cavs and Nets completed this deal, life for LeBron James becomes easier instantly and for Vince Carter and his legacy things could be looking up. Lets see how this one plays out.

Via Yahoo

The Orlando Magic proved that the Cavaliers need a big mobile forward with active legs and Antawn Jamison fits that description perfectly. Now can the Cavs and Wiz make a deal?

While plenty of media outlets are speculating about a potential deal between Cleveland and Phoenix, we’ve heard some talk of a possible trade between Cleveland and Washington actually. The deal would essentially be a cost-cutting move for the Wizards, sending Antawn Jamison and filler (Mike James) to the Cavs for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic. Wallace seems likely to retire, and Pavlovic is on a non-guaranteed contract for next season. It’s not clear whether the Wizards would need to surrender the #5 pick.

I have no idea why the Wizards would want to do this trade, but if Cleveland can make this deal happen it would be on par with and maybe even slightly better than landing Shaq.

Via DraftExpress.com

Puppet Kobe finally won his 4th championship and he’s celebrating every chance he gets. Just not in from of puppet LeBron proving that even puppets have etiquette.

Now crank up the Montell Jordan and dust off that two step.