Hooped Up

Former Hornets coach Byron Scott is rejoining ESPN as an NBA analyst.

Scott was fired last month after more than five seasons in New Orleans. He coached the New Jersey Nets from 2000-04, leading them to two NBA finals appearances.

Scott previously worked as an ESPN analyst during the 2003-04 season. He won three NBA championships as a player with the Lakers.

Scott will start his role as a studio analyst next month.

Press Release

Wow, even the Clippers broadcast team is way below mediocre. Clippers announcers Ralph Lawler who has been the voice of the Clippers for 31 season and analyst Mike Smith, were suspended by Fox for their negative comments regarding Hamed Haddadi of the Grizzlies.

The comments too place during their broadcast on Wednesday in Memphis and after a viewer complained, Fox Sports Prime Ticket cable network took action. Haddadi is the first Persian born player to play in the NBA.

After the jump, read the exchange Smith and Lawler had when Haddadi entered the game, that got them deservedly suspend.

Read More »

The Wizards are so bad,  that the Washington Post and Washington Times did not send a beat report to cover them on their current 4 game west coast road swing starting tonight in Utah.  

“Wizards beat reporters from both the Washington Post, and the Washington Times, the money just wasn’t there to send them romping through Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Denver. Both scribes cite budget issues for not being on the road trip. But what’s the real reason? Is it ”in this economy” or ”this team is crappy”?

If the Wizards were in the playoff conversation, would these money hemorrhaging entities dig deep in their pockets to satisfy the DMV’s thirst for a winner? Most likely.”

My damn! Print media is dying a fast digital death, and it’s not surprising that they have to make cuts somewhere and why not start with the wonky (16 – 53) Wizards. Washington has been crap-tastic this season due to injuries, and the Post and Times are hardly reporting news because the Wizards lose almost 80% (76.8% to date) of the time . Even when they win, nobody cares because they are too far back in the east for it to matter and if they lose it’s only expected.

However, if the Post or Times would like to send me to cover the Wizards I’ll do it for free if I can hang out with the Wizard dancers in Washington D.C. — and beer.

Via NBC  + (H/T Truth About It)

Andre Aldridge and Rick Kamla are my boys but, adding more Melanie Collins to the NBA TV broadcast is a change I could live with. Collins is the newest member of the NBA TV broadcast team and she is a Penn State communications grad, that began her broadcasting career with the Big Ten Network and was hired less than a year out of college by NBA TV.

See her in action on NBA TV below.

 

Now that you’ve been introduced to Melanie Collins the broadcaster, meet Melanie Collins the former Tempe12 bikini model below. Disappointing it is not!

More bikini-clad Melanie Collins after the jump…

Read More »

Just when I thought this was the most racist thing I would witness in 2008, along came an article by Mark Hasiuk of the Vancouver Courier to steal the show. Last week, Bill Simmons of ESPN sat down with David Stern and the Vancouver Grizzlies was Stern’s answer as to his greatest NBA regret:  ”I wish we hadn’t had the Vancouver experience,” he said. “Great city, and we disappointed them and we disappointed ourselves.”

Since that interview, the Vancouver Grizzlies topic became a relevant story again and it sparked many discussions, posts and articles about the failed NBA Vancouver experiment. Now, I don’t know if Mark Hasiuk was a fan of the NBA or the Vancouver Grizzlies, but what I do know is that the 1940’s called and it wants him and his views back. In Hasiuk’s column titled “NBA: a ghetto gutter run by money grubbers”, all Hasiuk proves is that he’s about as culturally diverse as an Arby’s roast beef sandwich. Read More »

Who would leave the NBA and fake a non-curable disease for attention? Well according to radio host Chris Baker of KTLA, Magic Johnson would.  What???  You heard me. According to the Star Tribune, Chris Baker and co-host Langdon Perry are convinced that the former Lakers superstar and part owner “faked AIDS”.

Below is the transcript of the comments made yesterday and here is the audio . Read More »

Talk about your screw ups.  Anytime you want to reference or compare something to Hitler…it’s probably a bad idea right?  Jemele Hill of ESPN.com didn’t think so.

In her original column railing against the Celtics, Jemele Hill wrote, “Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim. It’s like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan.”

Hill’s piece was posted on ESPN.com late Saturday, and a spokesman for the sports powerhouse said yesterday that the crude comparison was edited out within hours.

The newly edited version of the piece, “Deserving or not, I still hate the Celtics,” is still online.

The Boston Herald

It’s just Game 5 not the holocaust lady.