NBA’s Best Dunker?! LeBron James vs. Blake Griffin

Incase you’ve been under a rock these past few days – Blake Griffin MOZGOV’D Kendrick Perkins while LeBron James JUMPED OVER John Lucas III for the alley-oop. Both players are not human. Who’s the better dunker? And for all you dunk enthusiasts out there, enjoy 2 bonus dunks after the jump: LeBron posterizing Bill Walker and Andre Iguodala going off the glass to himself.

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Charles Barkley Says Dwight Should Go To Chicago

Two Superstars, the same shoe deal, but the same team?

It could happen.

The Magic’s four-time Defensive Player of the Year winner wants out of Orlando, which we already know. He’s made that statement public a few times and listed his top destinations as either L.A. (the Lakers, not the Clippers), the Dallas Mavericks or the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets. But what about Chicago?

Sure, they already have the reigning MVP in Derrick Rose — who is a superstar, by the way — but what else? They don’t have another go-to guy but they have a bunch of role players that mesh perfectly and are easily the best defensive team in the entire league right now.

Dwyane Wade passed on the opportunity to come home to Chicago and bring the city another championship in the Post-Jordan era, but he chose to stay in Miami with ‘Bron and Bosh. Carmelo Anthony said he’d love to play for the Bulls, but his heart was really in New York. Rose hasn’t tried to lure in any players because he feels like the team is perfect where their at now, but what happens when you never get passed the 2nd round in the playoffs and you keep getting older, and older, and the team you once felt could win a title is no longer intact?

That’s when you wish you had another superstar right by your side.

Early Wednesday morning, Charles Barkley joined ‘The Waddle & Silvy Show‘ to discuss the Bulls and Heat, Joakim Noah and the possibility of Dwight Howard coming to Chicago:

“You want to play with another great player if you possibly can, but the thing about wanting to be the man, that’s just silly,” Barkley said Wednesday on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000. “He should want to play with Derrick Rose. That would be a beautiful combination for the city of Chicago.”

Barkley has a real point: Why doesn’t Dwight want to play with Rose? Every big man in the history of the NBA needed a point guard to pass to them. For some crazy reason, there has been speculation that since both stars are sponsored by Adidas, the company doesn’t want both of their players in the same market (Okay? Rose you take Nike and Howard stays with Adidas. There, everyone’s happy. Just get this done).

Barkley, who isn’t exactly the sharpest tack, doesn’t even get these guys:

“I don’t understand what these guys are thinking,” Barkley said. “Him and Derrick Rose would make the Bulls a championship contender for the next 10 years. You just want to play with as many good players or great players as possible. I think him and Derrick Rose would make a fabulous combination. I don’t know what’s going on with [the Howard situation].”

To me, I believe that in Howard’s mind he thinks that if he leaves Orlando he’s going to continue to be “that guy,” but he’s sorely mistaken. The only reason he’s “that guy” with the Magic is because who else do they have? A bunch of 3-point shooters? Yeah, about that ..

If Howard somehow ends up in a Bulls uniform this season, he’ll learn to be second fiddle because you don’t want to fight over shots with the guy who runs the show. Another big problem with Howard is that he continually disappears in big moments of the game because he’s a such a terrible free-throw shooter, which means teams give him the ‘Hack-a-Shaq’ treatment. So if Howard’s smart, he’d grow up and realize that most need help.

Team USA 19-Man Preliminary Roster

Four years ago seems like nearly a decade by the way time flies these days. I was just 19 years old and entering my sophomore year at Indiana University when Team USA’s ‘Redeem Team’ took the gold medal at the ’08 Olympics in Beijing. The ’92 Dream Team is still the hardest team ever assembled with a Starting Five that consisted of Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, and Magic Johnson.

But the ‘Redeem Team’ were no slouches, either.

LeBron James was their best all-around player with Kobe coming in a close second, Dwyane Wade regained his ’06 championship form, and we got a chance to see both Chris Paul and Deron Williams be taken under Jason Kidd’s wing.

The way all that talented meshed together as one was a thing of beauty for a daily hoop-head, especially since most in my generation don’t remember watching the ’92 Olympic games. I grew as Carmelo Anthony grew into The Bully, and he’s since grown into my favorite player ever.

Although only 12 of the best players in the world will be selected to attend the 2012 Olympics in London this year (18 attend practice and try to earn a roster spot), but former ESPN beat writer Chris Sheridan is reporting that they’re planning on bringing in one more heavy hitter for his chance to shine: LaMarcus Aldridge.

From Sheridan:

The Portland Trail Blazers forward has gained the attention of Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski with his strong start to the season, averaging 22.6 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Blazers (6-2), who are tied with Philadelphia for the NBA’s fourth-best record. The Blazers are coached by Nate McMillan, an assistant under Krzyzewski on the national team staff.

“Everybody has had the number at 18, and everybody had Blake Griffin as the only guy who wasn’t on the ’08 (Olympics) and ’10 (World Championship) teams. But they don’t know about Aldridge,” a source with knowledge of USA Basketball’s plans told SheridanHoops.com.

With Aldridge added, this is what the 19-man roster would look like:

LaMarcus Aldridge
Carmelo Anthony
Chauncey Billups
Chris Bosh
Kobe Bryant
Tyson Chandler
Kevin Durant
Eric Gordon
Blake Griffin
Dwight Howard
Andre Iguodala
LeBron James
Kevin Love
Lamar Odom
Chris Paul
Derrick Rose
Dwyane Wade
Russell Westbrook
Deron Williams

Just by looking at that roster I see growth, more experience, and a better team than the ’08 squad. I don’t see Russell Westbrook knocking D-Will off the list, and as of right now I don’t see Lamar Odom beating out Kevin Love for a spot.

Which players do you think will make the cut? Training camp begins July 5.

LeBron Dishes To D-Wade For The Game-Winner

A lot of folks are rooting against the Heat this year (I’m one of ‘em), but I don’t see anyone stopping them, at least right now. We’re only 5 games into the season. Both LeBron James and Dwyane Wade look like they’re in excellent shape and it seems that they’ve figured out who to-go-to during the 4th quarter: the franchise player himself. Wade’s nailed two game-winning shops in 3 nights since the start of the season, and the second one came on a ridiculous alley-oop pass from ‘Bron.

Video: LeBron’s Missed Dunk On Gerald Henderson

One thing’s for certain this season: LeBron James is out for blood ..

This Is What Nike Basketball x Jordan Brand Rocked On Christmas Day

Above (from l-r): Carmelo Anthony wore his Jordan Melo M8 Christmas Day kicks in a win against the C’s, Chris Paul wore his Jordan CP3.V XMas day kicks in his debut with the Clippers, and D-Wade rocked his Jordan Fly Wade 2 XMas day kicks in the Heat’s blowout over the Mavericks.

Below (from l-r): KD rocked the Nike Zoom KD IV “Coppers” against the Magic, LeBron put on the XMas Day LeBron 9′s, Kobe laced up Nike Zoom Kobe VII “Cheetahs” in a loss against the Bulls, and Amare wore his special XMas colored Air Max Sweep Thrus.

All of the shoes are in stores now!

Carmelo Anthony Is The Knicks New Point Guard

When you think of Carmelo Anthony, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Scoring. There’s no question that ‘Melo can put the ball in the hole from anywhere on the basketball court — he’ll give you 26 a night, easy –, what about his passing, though? For starters, his career average of 3.1 assists doesn’t exactly jump-out at you, but Ive watched this guy play ball since his days at Oak Hill and I’ve seen him make some incredible passes, when he chooses to do so. I’ve seen him make no-look passes, behind-the-back passes, half-court passes and plenty of other jaw-dropping passes.

This video is a perfect example –

Amazing, right?

When ‘Melo was traded to the Knicks last February, things didn’t exactly go the way they had hoped. Did Amar’e and Anthony score a lot of points together? Yes. They even scored a bunch of points as a team, but their defense was non-existent and they had a 14-14 record post-signing. They couldn’t find the right spacing — which makes sense since both guys play from the same spot on the floor — and at times they looked lost. Shockingly, although not really since he’s playing under Mike D’Antoni’s offense, ‘Melo’s offensive stats skyrocketed once he could officially call Madison Square Garden his new home.

2010-11 stats with Denver: 25.2 points per game, 2.8 assists, 82.3% from FT, 33% from 3s and shot 45.2% from the field.

2010-11 stats with New York: 26.3 points per game, 3 assists, 87.2% from FT, 42.4% from 3s (which is just astounding) and 46.1% from the field.

Last month, D’Antoni stated that the Knicks offense would run through ‘Melo, not Amar’e (which makes sense). From high school, to college, to the pros, the offense has always ran through whatever team Anthony has played on. Offensively, he’s that good.

Kevin Clark of the Wall Street Journal put things in perspective when it came to Anthony’s new point guard duties:

So here’s how it will work — Anthony will decide when to run point (it’s mostly based on feel) and dribble up the floor. The former point guard will sprint to the corner and simply act as another shooting option or in some incarnations, there will be no point guard on the floor at all. Landry Fields, the team’s shooting guard, will be on the other side. From there, Anthony’s bottomless bag of moves will start. According to those that have guarded him, he is at an advantage because he is six-foot-eight, at least two inches taller than almost every guard, meaning he can see the defense in front of him without interference. He has fast enough feet to jet past even the peskiest of defenders and he has a quick release to his pass.

According to Iman Shumpert, the rookie who has guarded him in practice, he’s a threat to shoot as soon as he’s within 30 feet. Mostly, though, he’ll start a pick-and-roll, a play in which a player (Chandler or Stoudemire) sets a screen for the ball handler (Anthony) before slipping behind the defender. The big man not in the pick-and-roll will almost certainly be open for a jump-shot. It is, coaches say, an unguardable play.

Before this idea came to mind, ‘Melo always was an unarguable player. You can’t stop him. The only way he’ll be stopped is when he does it himself, which is when his shots aren’t falling and he decides to get trigger happy.

Although he’s basically done this his entire career, D’Antoni believes the Melo-run offense can be sustainable for at least 30 minutes a night:

“Oh yeah, it’s harder to isolate all the time and go one-on-one all the time. He did that 20, 30 minutes a game before anyway,” D’Antoni said. “I think it will be easier for him to run the point-forward, run the pick-and-roll and get easier shots. I think it will be easy for him.”

D’Antoni then went on to say that Anthony’s height is key:

“He’s 6-foot-9, he sees over the top of everything, he’s got good pace for it. Melo is a complete player, he understands the game, he has a finesse passing game with it and you can almost run anything with him at the point guard and it’s going to work,” Dan D’Antoni said. “I think Melo understands the positions to put Amar’e in, where can score, that’s what a point guard does. I think he has that mentality, he might be ‘Magic’ [Johnson] Melo, I don’t know.”

I mean, really, how do you stop a point-forward who’s 6-foot-9? Did you see how many guys struggled to guard Hall of Famer’s like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird? There’s a reason they have jerseys hung up in their respective team’s arenas. Those guys were phenomenal at what they did and paved the way for players like LeBron James and Carmelo to bring different attributes to the game than most would ever daydream about.

During the Knicks-Nets preseason match-up Wednesday night, I didn’t see a whole lot of the new offense, which is understandable considering that it’s only preseason (I wouldn’t want to play with all my new toys at the same time, either). The most important thing about all this doesn’t have to do with a new playbook, it’s the fact that ‘Melo has taken on an even bigger leadership role than he ever has. The ball is literally in his court now.

He’s now the guy who will have to develop a Chris Paul mind-state while maintaining his Michael Jordan scoring mentality..

If he makes the right decisions, the Knicks could be playing in the NBA finals come May.

And f he makes those decisions, he has a chance to do something LeBron never could.

Video: LeBron & Team Opens Their UNKNWN Store

If you live in Miami, you need to check out UNKNWN, the newest lifestyle boutique that is co-owned and managed by LeBron and his team of friends. One of the co-owners, Chris Julian, talks through the new space and what it means for them on the business aspect as well as what it means for their consumers of the city that they’re opening in.

Deron Williams Rejects Extension With The Nets

You know what the best thing about LeBron’s “Decision” and Carmelo Anthony’s “I’ll keep playing with the fans and teams head and act like I don’t know where I want or will be traded to but secretly I know it’s New York” is? It gives all the other superstars in the league that are about to be in the same situation a little advantage. They got to sit back and watch players like ‘Bron make a national mistake and guys like ‘Melo prove that the players can control their own destiny in certain situations.

Now, it’s Deron Williams turn.

With the new rules due to the lockout, any chance the Nets had at saving millions of dollars and getting Williams to sign an extension are now out the window. Deron’s agent Jeff Schwartz went public earlier today stating that Deron will play out this season in New Jersey and will ultimately become a free agent once the season comes to an end. Now that doesn’t exactly mean he wants to leave the Nets — although he probably does unless they get another superstar — but he’ll become richer.

Deron will not be signing the extension,” Jeff Schwartz told The Record this afternoon. “Based on the new rules it doesn’t make any sense for him to sign the extension. It has nothing to do with how much he likes New Jersey. Because of the rules, he’s going to play the season out and probably opt out of his deal.”

With the new rules now set in stone, Williams can either choose to sign with another team as a free agent and roughly get around $73 million for four years, or he can re-sign with the Nets — if they get a superstar — for a five-year, $101 million ext. The only way he comes back is if they can somehow land Dwight Howard, which means goodbye to Brooke Lopez. Nothing against Lopez but, he’s nowhere near Howard’s level of play. Not even close. And he’s definitely not the kind of player that’s going to help lead the Nets to an NBA title. They already have some solid outside shooters and a decent bench, but they could use a couple upgrades in those areas as well. All big men in the league need someone to feed them the ball, and who better than Deron Williams? The biggest/strongest PG in the league who many consider to be better than Chris Paul.

Danny Ainge Squashes Rumors, Rondo’s Staying In Boston

It’s been a little over a week now since the NBA lockout has ended, and already there seems to be more trade rumors floating around than last season when LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony all decided to leave the teams they started their careers with for a better opportunity at winning the ultimate goal: an NBA championship. One of the biggest trade rumors involves two point guards that dislike each other: Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo. There have been trade rumors that involve more players than fingers I have on both hands. But hey, that’s the beauty of sports. Celtics president Danny Ainge has heard enough. In fact, he’s heard so much nonsense over the course of the last two days that he had to squash the rumors himself.

From Sherrod Blakely at CSNNE.com –

“Rondo will be fine,” Ainge told reporters Thursday morning. “Rondo knows that we love him. He knows that we like him. He’s excited to come back and play basketball; that’s my opinion.”

Now I don’t want to speak for anybody but I can almost guarantee you that Rondo doesn’t want to leave Boston — especially for New Orleans — despite the Big Three consisting of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are all on their last leg. Rondo started last season as easily the best PG in the league until he battled injuries and the loss of his best friend and former teammate, Kendrick Perkins. Rondo isn’t as good as an overall player as Paul is but, he’s by far the best facilitator in the game.

For all we know Ainge could only be saying that because he knows CP3 doesn’t want to come to Boston and sign a long-term deal due to the that fact that after this season, they’re going to go through a major makeover. There’s no question that right now Rondo makes this team go. Hell, whenever he has a bad game the Celtics lose. Will he ever develop a consistent jumper? Yes, if he practices enough. But I’m not worried about that and neither should Celtics fans. We all know Rondo’s a hard worker.

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