Hooped Up

Much like every single album that has come out in the last 10 years, the 2010 all-star reserves list has been leaked and Yahoo! Sports has obtained the list to be reveled Thursday night in their NBA logo sports mug.

The Eastern Conference reserves include Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo from the Boston Celtics, Toronto’s Chris Bosh, Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace, Chicago’s Derrick Rose and Atlanta’s Joe Johnson and Al Horford.

The Western Conference reserves include Utah’s Deron Williams, New Orleans’ Chris Paul, Los Angeles Pau Gasol, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki , Zach Randolph from Memphis and Brandon Roy from the Portland Trail Blazers.

David Lee, Carlos Boozer, Marc Gasol, Josh Smith, Chris Kaman, Monta Ellis and Chauncey Bilups will all have to wait for next season.

H/N Yahoo! Sports

The 2010 Season can’t start fast enough and the anticipation is in the air and hidden throughout this NBA ad. Thing of this advertisement as a Where’s Waldo type exercise and see if you can find “Anticipation” in each shot.

Another van glorious season of NBA basketball is about to begin and Hooped Up does a quick and dirty preview of all 30 clubs.

These are not your Dad’s Atlanta Hawks and that’s a good thing! In each of the last five season, ATL has been better every single year and they’re a long way from their 13 wins 2005 nightmare season. If this group makes it to the second round of the playoffs again, don’t be surprised. Read More »

Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson said he will not sign a contract extension with the Hawks and will play out the final year of his contract this season.Johnson will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

The Hawks extended a four-year, $60-plus million contract offer to Johnson this summer. But Johnson said he decided not to sign the extension after mulling it over during the offseason.

By not signing Johnson will enter a deep free agent crop next summer headlined by reigning MVP LeBron James as well as fellow All-Stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

All-Star Joe Johnson turned his right ankle on a layup attempt with 3:32 to play in the third quarter.

He limped to the bench with a severe ankle sprain and the Hawks trailing by 32 points, both of them done for the night long before the final buzzer.

While the reserves were on the court finishing the Hawks’ fifth consecutive blowout loss in this postseason — the Cavaliers’ biggest lead was 36 points — Johnson was in a wheelchair being pushed by one of the team’s doctors. They were leaving the Cavaliers’ locker room, where Johnson’s right ankle was being X-rayed.

The results were negative. And Johnson was upbeat on his way out of the building in a walking boot.

“I’ve got a boot on, but I ain’t walking out of here on crutches,” Johnson said. “I can’t see me not playing in Game 3 [Saturday at Philips Arena]. I’m looking forward to getting back out there with guys. And we’ve got 48 hours to get some treatment and try and get better, and we’ll see what happens.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution

Last week, LeBron James hit a full court underhand shot and the Internet blew up with over 3 million views and counting. Joe Johnson even peeped it out, and he’s issued a new challenge for James via YouTube.  LeBron’s mission, should he choose to except, is to hit a 3 pointer from out of bounds — siting down. 

Hitting an NBA trey is hard enough standing up, but J.J. can hit them sitting down with ease. Can James do it too?

Watch and learn youngins, it’s all in the follow through!

The NBA H-O-R-S-E competition happened on Valentines Day,  and I totally missed it because my girlfriend had a way better offer.

All I know is that the OKC Thunder ride Kevin Durant like a horse so, it was only fitting that he won this weekends game of
H-O-R-S-E. 

So if you missed the competition because your girlfriend had an “offer” for you too. Enjoy the spliced together footage of the event above and continue to regret nothing.

The latest Air Jordan commercial hit the Interweb a few days ago, and sure it has Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Joe Johnson and Richard Hamilton. But still, in my opinion Nike missed something and the talk online about it so far has been all over the place.

What do you guys think?

The competitors for this weekends all-star game of H-O-R-S-E, renamed G-E-I-C-O because insurance is required everywhere you don’t need it, are set. 

Kevin Durant, O.J. Mayo, and Joe Johnson have been selected and will shoot it out, to see who’s the best. Each player will have 24 seconds to create or re-create their shots, with an NBA referee ruling if they’re re-created correctly and dunking won’t be allowed, which was a great call by the NBA.

I’m really expecting this all-star weekend to be better than last years and this universal H-O-R-S-E contest, should crank up the level of fun the all-star weekends of past have missed.

That being said, bet the house on Joe Johnson because his accuracy for difficult shots are silly like dat!

Classic footage of what you can expect from this weekends game of H-O-R-S-E, after the jump.

Read More »

All-Star Joe Johnson missed another game Friday night against the Bobcats due to viral infection. This is what happens when your Norton Anti-Virus is not up to date. NBA GM’s take note.

Coach Mike Woodson said he was holding out hope that Johnson will be healthy enough to play Saturday against the Los Angeles Clippers.

“He’s feeling better, but we won’t know his status until we get back (to Atlanta),” Woodson said. “He doesn’t miss too many games, so he had to be pretty sick.”

Maurice Evans got his second straight start in Johnson’s place against the Bobcats.”

USA Today