60 posts tagged “nba”
With T.J. Ford all-but-officially on his way to Indiana, you had to figure it was only a matter of time before the Raptors wrapped up Jose Calderon to a long-term contract. That deal apparently was reached early yesterday, as Calderon agreed to remain a Raptor, according to the point guard’s official website. Terms of the contract were undisclosed, though it’s reported Calderon will receive around $8 million per year – not a bad deal for one of the league’s most efficient players.
Calderon averaged 11.9 points and 8.3 assists while playing all 82 games last season. His 5.4 assist-to-turnover ratio was tops in the NBA, and his play in Ford’s absence had many around the league picking him as an Eastern Conference All-Star.
Ford, of course, suffered a neck injury courtesy of Hawks’ rookie Al Horford in December. After his return in early-February, he served as Calderon’s backup before his complaining and erratic play in limited minutes eventually led Calderon to sacrifice the starting spot.
Something had to be done this off-season, and I’m certain general manager Bryan Colangelo did the right thing. By the end of the season, Ford had burned just about every bridge with teammates and fans alike, and it became increasingly evident that Calderon would, deservedly so, be the Raptors’ long-term investment at the point. It’s disappointing how quickly Ford fell from grace – he was instrumental in the team’s remarkable turnaround two seasons ago and was inspirational in his comeback this past season. Nevertheless, he’s responsible for his own falling out.
In Calderon, the Raptors have a point guard that’s improved in each of his three seasons in the NBA and should continue to do so. Aside from his assist-to-turnover ratio, Calderon’s shooting percentages (51.9% from the field, 42.9% from three and 90.8% from the stripe) were also amongst league leaders. He did, however, seem to wear down towards the end of the season – a trend he’ll have to avoid should the Raptors hope to get past the first round of the playoffs in coming seasons.
Admittedly, I don’t follow college basketball much from April through February. From what I understood though, Andre Iguodala was a solid NBA prospect – an athletic swingman expected to go anywhere as high as third overall in the 2004 NBA Draft. So when Iguodala was still available when the Raptors chose eighth, I was excited.
It was then that David Stern delivered those fateful words: “With the eighth pick in the 2004 NBA Draft, the Toronto Raptors select Rafael Araujo from Brigham Young University”.
Sweet. I can’t believe Iguodala was still available that late. He’ll definitely help out our perimeter defense, considering Vince Carter stopped trying a couple years ago. Wait…hold on…Rafael Araujo? From Brigham Young University?
It was true, and Rob Babcock officially became “Lord of the Idiots”. Iguodala, who was drafted by Philadelphia with the following pick, led the Sixers to the playoffs last year, averaging 19.9 points and 2.1 steals per game. Araujo, in the meantime, also enjoyed his best professional season in 2007-08, averaging 11.5 points and 7.8 rebounds per game – for Spartak St. Petersburg of the Russian Super Basketball League.
That answers the question of “Where is he now?”. However, in order to fully grasp how horrible of a pick Araujo was, it’s important to look at how he did with the Toronto Super Raptors of the National Super Basketball Association.
Araujo was drafted following his senior season, supposedly “NBA ready”. Ready, that is, to average 3.3 points and 2.7 fouls per game for the 33-49 Raptors. “Hoffa” took a slight step back in his second season in Toronto, averaging 2.3 points and 2.0 fouls while shooting 36.6% from the field, despite the majority of his attempts coming from within three feet of the basket.
With Babcock gone following the 2005-06 season, new general manager Bryan Colangelo was able to dump Araujo on the Utah Jazz, where he averaged 2.6 points in just under eight minutes per game. When Utah opted to fill their roster with mighty Ukrainian Kyrylo Fesenko prior to last season, Araujo signed a one-year, $500,000 deal with Spartak St. Petersburg.
I get upset every year around draft time. Still, I suppose you can’t blame Araujo – I’m sure he’s a good enough guy and I know he tried his hardest (those foul per minute numbers don’t lie). With the 17th pick in this year’s draft, it’s unlikely Colangelo will drop the ball the way Babcock did in 2004. That is, unless he trades for the first pick and grabs an Andrea Bargnani clone.
No, it certainly doesn't. I've yet to find a better toupee than that in my life...
(from Deadspin via The Sports Hernia)
In case you're not down with Fisher's story, he was a key player on last year's Jazz team that reached the Western Conference Finals. Prior to one of Utah's second round games against Golden State, he flew to New York to be with his eleven-month-old daughter, who was undergoing surgery for eye cancer. He made it back to Salt Lake City in the second half of the game against the Warriors, in time to nail a late three to send the game to overtime. After the season, the Jazz agreed to void the remainder of his contract to allow him to play in a city where his daughter could receive treatment.
Now, according to Bleacher Report, he's getting mocked by Jazz fans with chants of "cancer, cancer" and a picture even shows a Utah fan covering his eye to mock Fisher while shooting a free throw.
Man, that's brutal. I've heard just about every heckle in the book at the sporting events I've been to (not ALL of them directed at me, of course), but nothing near as nasty as that. I realize certain fans' behavior doesn't represent Salt Lake City or Jazz fans as a whole, but I'd be pretty embarrassed right now if I was rooting for them.
Step aside DeShawn and Rocket Roger, a new contender for Pervert of the Year has emerged...
Following last weekend's NFL Draft, it was reported that Demetrius Bell, a seventh round pick of the Bills, was the illegitimate son of Karl Malone. As the story goes, "The Mailman" didn't exactly deliver in the field of responsible parenting. Apparently Bell and Malone had no contact until Bell was 18, at which point Malone told him it was too late for him to be his father and that he'd have to earn money on his own. While that was the extent of the original story, the plot has since thickened...
Yesterday, the Buffalo News reported Bell's mother, Gloria Bell, was 13 when Demetrius was born and that Malone, who was a 20-year-old sophomore at Louisiana Tech at the time, could've served jail time for statutory rape had her parents filed charges. It wasn't the first time Malone had delivered, either -- he fathered twins in high school, one of whom is WNBA star Cheryl Ford. No word yet on whether the mother of the twins had finished elementary school.
All joking aside, this is gross. Like I said with Clemens, it seems like a lot of people are overlooking the fact that his affair (or one of his affairs, at least) was with a child. Though Malone may have gotten away with it at the time, I'd at least hope it leaves a stain on his reputation.
Alright, the Wizards actually won tonight in Cleveland to send their first round series back to Washington for Game 6, but I figure I'll go through with this post anyway...
I've decided to end my blogging hiatus with a tribute to DeShawn Stevenson, the winner of this week's Useless Person of the Week Award. You've likely heard all about the James-Stevenson saga (or the Cavs-Wizards saga, to a lesser extent). Are you kidding me? That's like comparing a one-hit wonder like Soulja Boi to a legend like Jay-Z. Has that been said before? Actually, I wouldn't even call Stevenson a one-hit wonder -- I'd call him a 38.6% wonder, a shout-out to his shooting percentage this season.
There's much more to Stevenson than the "Can't feel my face" routine he does each time he scores a basket. Here's a few fun facts, for those who may have been paying too close attention to his on-court theatrics to have taken notice: He was arrested for his part in a fight the night he was drafted by Utah in 2000, and was charged with statutory rape the following year after allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Last August, a man was shot at Stevenson's home, though the details of the incident remain a bit sketchy.
I don't care much for Stevenson, his "Can't feel my face" or his assertion that the best all-around player in the NBA is overrated. I do, however, care to share this famous video of Gilbert Arenas beating him with one hand in a three-point shooting contest at a Wizards' practice last season:
Greg Oden saw his first game action of the season Wednesday night -- well, sort of. According to a posting on an online forum, Oden took part in two pickup games at a Portland recreation center (I've heard the gym is reserved for 40 and over from 7-8) and "dominated". Sounds like the crafty old men at the local YMCA weren't able to handle Oden's overpowering inside game, which you'd think would go over great with Portland's front office.
Well, apparently not. By yesterday morning the Blazers had gotten word of Oden's comeback, and they weren't impressed. Why wouldn't they want their franchise player, coming off an intense knee surgery, to be banging bodies with local Joes? He's not allowed to see any game action with them, so the old fella's gotta get his somewhere. The funniest thing about this is that they found out through an Internet forum. This is the equivalent of your parents accessing your Facebook and finding out all the dirt you've been doing for the past three years, and then calling the parents of all your friends and giving them the down-low as well.
On a similar and even more hilarious note, a reader wrote a response to this article that was in Sports Illustrated a few weeks back. Apparently, the father of an Oregon student caught his son flipping the bird to UCLA's Kevin Love in the background of a picture (which isn't in the online version of the article, but can be seen here). Not long after, this showed up in the reader comments in the magazine:
"I was shocked to see, in a photo of the Oregon student section, my son partaking in the harassment of UCLA's Kevin Love. When he came home the following weekend, his car was taken away and he headed back to school on a bus. I am embarrassed and wish to apologize to Kevin and his family." — Armando Navarro, Clackamas, Ore.
What kind of a world is it where we can't go to college basketball games and give opposing players the finger without being caught by our parents? And even worse, they ground us and publish it in Sports Illustrated. Here's hoping the Blazers don't ground Oden for his pickup game antics, and if they do, that they don't publish it on the Internet and embarrass the poor old man even more.
Raptors’ point guard T.J. Ford proved an inspiration for whiners worldwide last night when starter Jose Calderon sacrificed his starting spot for his unhappy teammate. Wait a second – a professional athlete, in the last year of his contract, nonetheless, sacrificed his starting spot for the good of the team? Yes, that’s right.
Here’s the Coles notes version of the story, in case you’re not familiar: Ford, the starter on last year’s 47-win team, was injured in early-December. Calderon, already at the time a capable backup, filled in marvelously in his absence. Ford returned in early-February and has seen a reduced role since, something he hasn’t hesitated to complain about in recent weeks.
In the midst of a nightmarish 3-10 month, Calderon went to coach Sam Mitchell before last night’s game against Detroit and offered to give his starting spot to Ford. The immediate result? An 89-82 win over the second place Pistons.
It’s not often you see a player make as selfless a move as Calderon’s, especially in the midst of a career season and as mentioned earlier, a contract year. Though I’m of the opinion that Calderon is a better player and the best bet to lead this team in the future, I have to agree the decision to start Ford is in the best interest of the team this season. I’ve said it before and it’s been evident the past month-and-a-half – Ford will force his game (and complain) if his minutes are reduced, while Calderon will play the same regardless of whether he’s on the court for 10 minutes or 40 minutes. The game that Calderon plays, by the way, is the most efficient in the NBA – he’s leading the league with a 4.92 assist-to-turnover ratio and shooting 53.3% from the field.
Via Deadspin
