Hooped Up

The Knicks might be willing to part with Jamal Crawford to land Al Harrington, and that move seems pretty backwards considering the level of play Wilson Chandler is at right now. Let’s see how this one plays out.

The Knicks appear to be close to landing athletic forward Al Harrington from the Golden State Warriors in a trade that possibly could send the team’s leading scorer, Jamal Crawford, out to Oakland, Newsday has learned. Details of the deal were only starting to slip out late last night and the only concrete piece of information so far is that the Knicks were getting Harrington, who Knicks president Donnie Walsh, while with the Indiana Pacers, drafted out of St. Patrick’s High School in Elizabeth, N.J., in 1998. Harrington before the season had demanded a trade from the Warriors after a falling out with coach Don Nelson. 

NY Newsday

Stephen Jackson has a slightly injured eye, after being poked in it by Chris Kaman, but he’ll be in Davy Jones’ Locker before he’ll wear protective goggles or stop taking shots at Rip Hamilton and his mask mi maties, tis true.

“No goggles. No, no, no. Never. I’m not going to be like Rip Hamilton, where my nose is broken eight years ago and I still wear a mask,” said Jackson, who injured the same eye during the preseason. “The only way I’ll wear a patch is if my eye’s closed. I’d rather stay with Captain Jack, not Pirate Jack.”

San Francisco Gate

In the words of Charles Oakley, “If it aint’ broke, don’t break it.” and according to Inside Bay Area, the Warriors did exactly that by signing work horse Stephen Jackson to a deal extension.  Jackson is currently leading the league in minutes played averaging 43.4 minutes per contest and is playing some of the best basketball of his career. He is also leading the Warriors in scoring at 22.1 points per game to go along with 6.4 assists and 3.9 rebounds. 

The new extension spans three years, and adds $28 million on top of the two years left on his current deal and will keep Jackson in the Bay Area until the 2012 -2013 season. Roughly the same year flying cars will be available world wide.

Harrington has been placed on the Warriors inactive list and is using bed rest to cure an ailing back. Doctors have also recommended that he use his favorite “blanky” to speed up his recovery.

“Perhaps in an attempt to quiet his clamoring for a trade, Golden State Warriors forward Al Harrington was placed on the inactive list with a strained lower back prior to Friday’s 109-104 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Harrington, who has had an ongoing feud with coach Don Nelson about his role on the team, was not in attendance at Oracle Arena. He asked to be traded one day before the start of the season.”

National Post

The New York Knicks are interested in adding disgruntled Warriors forward Al Harrington to their line up, but who will they have to give up in return?

“Knicks president Donnie Walsh continues to pursue Golden State forward Al Harrington, but may need a third team to make a trade happen. Harrington’s contract matches the salary of Eddy Curry, who fell out of Mike D’Antoni’s rotation even before suffering a knee injury. He is expected to be sidelined for two weeks.”

NY Daily News

Don Nelson feels for an unhappy Al Harrington that recently made it public that he wants to escape from Golden State.

“Al wants to be traded, everybody knows that, and we would like to oblige him. We’d like to get a good player for him. And he’s playing like he’s unhappy. I kind of feel for the guy because he doesn’t want to be here and it’s probably very difficult to really gear up and play up to his abilities. “I made a deal with him that I was going to play him as many minutes as he wanted. When he surprised me with going public with wanting to be traded, it made it pretty difficult for me. And he hasn’t been playing well to go along with it, so we might as well start making the change now.” 

San Francisco Chronicle

The 1 and 3 Golden State Warriors have more problems than just being crappy right now.  Stuntman and franchise face Monta Ellis is reportedly playing chicken with the Warriors management and is daring them to void his brand new shiny $66 million dollar deal.  This is gonna end bad.

“one source indicated this week that Ellis and his representatives told the Warriors on at least one occasion recently that if the Warriors want to void the $66M deal, they should go ahead and do it and Ellis will move on with his career. The Warriors, at that time, chose not to void the deal, I’m told.”

San Jose Mercury News

Gear down on this one Monta.

The list of unhappy Warrior campers grew by one more today.

The Warriors forward confirmed late Tuesday that he and his agent, Dan Fegan, met earlier with vice president Chris Mullin to reiterate Harrington’s unhappiness with coach Don Nelson and his desire to be moved. “If you ask me if I want to be traded, I’ve been wanting to be traded since the end of last season,” Harrington said. “With everything that happened in the summer and coming into training camp, I was hoping things were going to work out between me and Nellie, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. 

San Francisco Chronicle

With Monta Ellis out of commission for a few months, Warriors management might want to pay Stephen Jackson a few more bucks to keep him around and happy.  However if negotiations fail, I think Jackson should do figure eight’s on a moped real slow in the Warriors parking lot for leverage. 

“By the time the Warriors open the regular season a week from today, Stephen Jackson hopes to have a new contract in hand. Jackson said Tuesday that extension talks with Warriors President Robert Rowell were progressing smoothly and believes it’s a matter of when - not if - the two sides reach an agreement. The Warriors’ captain, who is signed through next season, is seeking the maximum allowed under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, which limits the number of years and annual pay raises that can be added to an existing deal.”

San Francisco Chronicle