Shaquille O’Nealsaid Saturday that his sore left hip hasn’t improved since he was shut down from basketball-related activity several days ago, and that he isn’t sure if the planned two-week break from playing will be enough time for the joint to heal.
Bucks rookie forward Yi Jianlian will be an all-star in the National Basketball Association, Bucks general manager Larry Harris is convinced.
And Harris is glad the Bucks were able to land the 7-foot rookie from China in the June 2007 draft, with the sixth overall pick. Yi, who will face off against countryman Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets at the Bradley Center in one week, has been in the Bucks’ starting lineup for all 44 games this season.
The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) announced today that they have entered into a new collective bargaining agreement covering six seasons, commencing with the 2008 season and continuing through 2013.
There’s embarrassment and shame in this admission, but you need to know: We forgot about Woody Sauldsberry.
He was the NBA’s Rookie of the Year in 1958, just the second black man to win the award. He played for four NBA teams and later the Harlem Globetrotters. Retirement wasn’t always easy. Diabetes claimed one of his legs and had its sights set on the other.
Shaquille O’Nealsaid Saturday that his sore left hip hasn’t improved since he was shut down from basketball-related activity several days ago, and that he isn’t sure if the planned two-week break from playing will be enough time for the joint to heal.
Bucks rookie forward Yi Jianlian will be an all-star in the National Basketball Association, Bucks general manager Larry Harris is convinced.
And Harris is glad the Bucks were able to land the 7-foot rookie from China in the June 2007 draft, with the sixth overall pick. Yi, who will face off against countryman Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets at the Bradley Center in one week, has been in the Bucks’ starting lineup for all 44 games this season.
The Bucks’ 2008 second-round draft pick out of the University of Nevada, who was assigned to the Tulsa 66ers of the National Basketball Development League last Nov. 8, is in contention to compete in the second D-League All-Star Game.
In the CLEVELAN PLAIN DEALER, Mary Schmitt Boyler writes “Earl Lloyd is extremely proud of the fact that he was the first African-American to play in the NBA. But please don’t call him the Jackie Robinson of basketball.’ I take polite umbrage,’ Lloyd said of the comparison. ?What I had to go through pales to what he had to go through. Here’s a guy, his own teammates didn’t want to play with him. The competition? They tried to maim him. The fans vilified him. For a guy to go through all that and perform in that hostile arena . . . then when it’s time for him to go into the Hall of Fame, he made it on the first ballot. Being black had nothing to do with it’. Robinson’s achievements have been well-chronicled. Lloyd’s are not quite as familiar.?
USA Men’s Senior National Team head coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University and USA Women’s National Team head coach Anne Donovan have been named co-recipients of the 2007 USA Basketball National Coach of the Year Award, USA Basketball announced today. Krzyzewski and Donovan each piloted their respective USA national teams to FIBA Americas Championship gold medals and qualified both the USA men and women for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In the ORLANDO SUN SENTINEL, Ira Winderman writes “before he can consider whether he will run again in NBA competition, Alonzo Mourning first must walk. In his first detailed comments since shredding the tendons around his right kneecap in a Dec. 19 game at Atlanta, the 37-year-old Heat center said Monday he has not closed the door on a return, but first faces months of grueling therapy. ?The thing about it is Dr. [Harlan] Selesnick said, ‘Even if you don’t come back to play, you have to rehab this like you are going to come back to play,’Mourning said outside the Heat locker room before the team faced the Cavaliers at American Airlines Arena. ?He said this is your focus right now, just being able to walk and get your strength back.?