Hooped Up

The Suns could have landed their man in Thursday night’s draft before their pick ever came up. Golden State’s selection of Davidson point guard Stephen Curry at No. 7 was likely made for the Suns as part of an Amare Stoudemire trade that can’t be completed until Wednesday. That is because Phoenix would be acquiring Warriors center Andris Biedrins, a base-year compensation player, as part of a Stoudemire deal that would include more Warriors players, possibly power forwardBrandan Wright and/or shooting guard Marco Belinelli.

Arizona Republic

The Phoenix Suns select 14th overall in the 2009 NBA draft. Listen to who Fantasy Sports Girl TaraLee thinks the Suns are picking and then check out her selections vitals, strengths, 08-09 stats and draft demo reel after the jump.

For the rest of what’s going to happen in the draft tonight, throw your box of Jenga pieces on your local basketball court, and have LeRoy Smith interpret the results. I’ve heard his LeRoy Smith interpret the results. I’ve heard his Jenga reading rates are reasonable.

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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 »

An NBA executive told the Boston Globe today that the Minnesota Timberwolves are working a deal with the Phoenix Suns that would send former Celtics forward Al Jefferson and their sixth pick in next week’s NBA Draft for All-Star Amare Stoudemire.

The Suns, which have dangled Stoudemire for some time, fiound a suitor in Minnesota that is in transition. The team announced today that coach Kevin McHale has ended his 15-year association with the team. New basketball of operations David Kahn is looking to take the franchise into another direction.

Boston Globe

Steve Nash is a good dude and like Rod Tidwell said to Jerry McGuire “I dig that about him”. He’s also a charitable and funny dude too and in this commercial for his charity Football-For-Good, both of those sides of Nash are in full motion and it has made my day to find this hilarious video for a good cause.

BTW, as far as silent film actors go Steve Nash makes Charlie Chaplin look like Dane Cook plus Chaplin couldn’t go left like Nash either.

If you want to see some of these soccer stars play for free in NYC all expenses paid for on June 24th. With a small donation you could be on your way to the Showdown in Chinatown too.

Steve Nash will tell you how after the jump.

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For the second straight year, Steve Nash and US soccer legend Claudio Reyna are teaming up for some fun in Chinatown on the soccer pitch to benefit charity. The Showdown in Chinatown is free to the public, and it all goes down on June 24 at Sarah D. Roosevelt Park in Lower Manhattan.

NBA players such as: Steve Nash (Phoenix Suns), Tony Parker (San Antonio Spurs), Jason Kidd (Dallas Mavericks), Grant Hill (Phoenix Suns), Chris Bosh (Toronto Raptors) and Raja Bell (Charlotte Bobcats) will all be in attendence displaying their football skills for charity. Continue »

In short, Shaq catches legendary UFC tough guy Chuck Liddell at the gym and The Big Diesel chokes the ever living ice out of him.

Okay, maybe it was a cut out of Chuck Liddell and maybe his arms were stuck to his cardboard sides and maybe he was only 2D but still. Shaq, put a 2D hurtin’ on this dude and then kissed him in the 2D mouth.

Watch the cardboard 2D bromance and the rest of the beat down after the jump.

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The Phoenix Suns are still interested in solving their payroll problems by shipping Shaquille O’Neal to Cleveland.

Whether getting a 37-year-old center would be enough to enlarge LeBron James’ comfort zone with the Cavs and keep him in Cleveland long-term is another conversation.

The same trade was in play in February and now the Arizona Republicsays it remains essentially the same. The Suns, wanting to avoid paying the luxury tax, dump O’Neal’s $20 million salary on the Cavaliers. Phoenix cuts its salary cap number by taking on Ben Wallace — who may be ready for a buyout — and Sasha Pavlovic, who is in the final year of his contract and has only $1.5 million guaranteed.

USA Today

Further testament to Nike stepping up their game is the Hypermax STAT Amare Stoudemire player edition sneaker. I’m a dude that likes simple kicks especially for real basketball use and these Amare kicks fit that need perfectly. Due out in August, Amare’s STAT logo is on the tongue and they are black with sunny orange accents. Plus they also have a spiderweb type design on the heel as a nice touch.

Simple, stylish, solidly built with no fancy frills. What more can you ask for?

Via Kix-Files

It’s going to be a long, hot summer for Shaq, and in between Tweeting, “The Big Diesel” needs to stay a semi-lean ballin’ machine. So yesterday, he threw down a challenge to Lance Armstrong via twitter for a bike race. 

The Big Tweet sent out a challenge to race Lance Armstrong on his Twitter. “I challenge u to a race any time any place, it’s time someone challenged u,” Shaq Tweeted. Armstrong Tweeted back, citing Will Ferrell’s “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” in the process: “Alright Shaq, you’re on,” Lance thumbed. “To quote the great Ricky Bobby, ‘Bring it on trying to bring me down”.

YouTube gods, please let this one happen! 

Via Arizona Republic