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 »

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?

Five young Indian players will take part in the ‘Basketball without Borders’ program, the first NBA-backed event in the India, to be held here from July 3 to 6.

The Indian players selected for the event are Pratham Singh, Hirendra Singh Rathore, Shadab Khan, Vishesh Bhriguvansh and Arjun Singh.

Kyle Korver (Utah Jazz), Ronny Turiaf (L.A. Lakers), Pat Garrity (Orlando Magic) and Linton Johnson (Phoenix Sons) will join the 53 under-19 players from 15 countries and territories in the four-day camp.

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), are organising the camp at the American Embassy School.

Hooped Up

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

Dwight Howard believes that the Orlando Magic need to step up in order to put themselves in the same conversation as the best in the Eastern Conference, according to The Ledger.

“They say Detroit, the Celtics, and then Cleveland, and it’s like we’re a forgotten team in the East. So we’ve got to step it up when we play those guys,” Howard said.

“Nobody is looking at the Magic as any playoff or championship contender team, which is good. Every team that I’ve been on has always been looked at as a team that everybody could beat. But you know, we know how to play basketball, and one day we’re going to get the respect that we deserve from everybody,” Howard added.

The Ledger

Orlando’s Dwight Howard won perhaps the best dunk contest in NBA history to close a memorable All-Star Saturday, as reported by the Associated Press.

Howard scored perfect 50s from judges on his first two dunks before the contest was turned over to fan voting for the first time in the final round.

The Magic need a true power forward, a rebounder and defender, preferably. If they can get a starter — hello, Kurt Thomas — they can move Rashard Lewis back to his natural small forward spot and slide Hedo Turkoglu to shooting guard. Lewis is frustrated and can’t play power forward forever, trying to defender bigger guys inside. Turk can play shooting guard, although he’ll take on quicker players defensively. But the Magic have to find some rebounding help for Dwight Howard.

Orlando Sentinel

Frustrated for a second consecutive season, Orlando Magic shooting guard J.J. Redick said Wednesday that he had his agent explore possible trades to see if he could find playing time elsewhere. “We want to see what’s out there,” Redick said. “I want to stay here, but it’s been frustrating.” Magic General Manager Otis Smith, however, said he has told Redick’s agent, Arn Tellem, that he currently has no plans to deal the club’s 2006 first-round pick out of Duke.

Orlando Sentinel