Waving Off Melo

Team USA took on Brazil yesterday in our first real test during the FIBA competition this summer. America won by two points. Phew. 3-0, baby! What do I take away from the game? Something I have felt and believed for a few years now that, "Mr. Big-Shot" Chauncey Billups needs to have his name revised to, "Mr. Ball-Hog" ASAP.

Forever engraved in my mind is an image of Billups from this past NBA season which defines my assertion that his nickname needs a makeover. The Nuggets were playing the Cavs and the game was tight the entire way. Melo was on fire, and dominant for Denver. With the seconds ticking away at the end of regulation Billups was bringing the ball up with the score tied. Melo, open in the front court, called for the rock. Billups, with a looked that screamed, "I'm Mr. Big Shot, I got this," waved Anthony off, dribbled the clock out and jacked up a brick as time expired. Classic. In OT, Melo drained a 17 footer in the face of King James at the buzzer to win what was maybe the best game of season. Ruthless.

I flipped when I witnessed Billups wave off Melo that night. Similarly, I flipped yesterday when I witnessed Billups call his own number over and over again down the stretch in a close game, miss bad shots, and refuse to pass to better scorers in Durant and Rose. Painful. If Carmelo leaves Denver this season Chauncey's career is finished. He had some great years with Detroit in which he hit a few clutch shots but every hog has his day.

Who do you think you are, Mr. Ball-Hog?

Top 5 Player Tweets of the Week - In Pictures!

From Skillanueva's half-time tweets to Gil's fateful outburst, we're keeping tabs on this whole Twitter thing. Each week we wade through the rants, shout outs and sheer insanity to bring you the best micro-blogging the NBA has to offer.

5. "Just got back from date nite. Took my lovely wife @Candace_Parker out to a nice spot in santa monica."

- Shelden Williams

4. "@DeMar_DeRozan WTF u know abt some lobster pizza??"

- Patrick O'Bryant

Happy Birthday, James Harden

Don't get any cake stuck in that beautiful beard.

Musical Chairs: Rondo Withdraws from World Championships

Who would have thought our WBF video of Rajon Rondo finding himself without a seat would have been so prophetic. Yesterday Rondo announced that he will be withdrawing from competition in the FIBA World Championships, an obvious face-saving move for the man who was a starter just a week ago. A man who as a starter, was doing this:

No Regard Required Viewing: Jordan Rides the Bus

Speaking of Jordan, this is your official reminder that Jordan Rides the Bus, Ron Shelton's look at MJ's year playing baseball with the Birmingam Barons, airs at 8 pm tonight as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series.

These films have been pretty consistently stellar, and I'm especially excited for this one, not least to see exactly how the Simmons Conspiracy is tackled.

Watch the trailer over at the 30 for 30 site.

Kwame Mans Up

Holy shit! Kwame Brown just signed a 1 year deal for next to nothing with the Charlotte Bobcats. Why the, "holy shit!" you ask? Frankly, I just can not believe he has the balls to do such a thing. Do what, you ask? Come within earshot of Michael Jordan, that is what. What is wrong with MJ you are wondering? Well, that is a loaded question, inquisitive reader, but my shock behind this comes from remembering the rumors that Jordan nicknamed Brown, "the flaming faggot" and made him cry during practices after Michael drafted Brown first overall out of high school for the Washington Wizards in 2001.

Kudos to you Kwame, much respect for you and this decision. God knows if the best basketball player ever was sending homophobic slurs my way on a regular basis I would absolutely bawl like Brown did. I would also never even consider getting near Jordan ever again after taking this sort of abuse.

Seriously, "the flaming faggot?" Christ, that is offensive and hurtful.

In Flight Change

Here at No Regard, we have a strange relationship with the movie Just Wright. It's a basketball movie starring Common, Queen Latifah, some other people, and Dwight Howard. Our relationship is strange in that we love it, and yet none of us have seen it. All of that changed yesterday. On a plane bound for Texas, Endless Pat was presented with the unavoidable opportunity to witness this small miracle: Just Wright in flight. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Well, he did.

LIVE BLOGGING IN-FLIGHT FILM REVIEW: JUST WRIGHT

- First things first. Who doesn’t love a good punny title? I mean honestly, raise your hand if you think you’re above a good old-fashioned character-name-including movie title? Now you, with your hand raised? Go watch Octopussy. Right now. I’ll wait.

- Common’s character name is Scott McKnight (I’ll be calling him Common). He’s a point guard for the Nets (who in this universe, win games and don’t have Brook Lopez) and is inexplicably good. No particular part of his game is emphasized, we’re just made aware that he can dribble while looking up-court and when he shoots, the ball has a habit of going in (we know this because we get a cut to close up of the hoop).

Team Dreamin' 2011: PACERS

The Pacers are going to be a very fun team to watch this season, no doubt about it. They drafted Paul George and Lance Stephenson, they picked up Darren Collison, and they got rid of Troy Murphy, who, let's face it, doesn't scream fun. Okay, sometimes he does scream "Fun!" when he is playing checkers with his sister, but we will unfortunately not be able to watch those games on national television.

The point is, Indiana has done exciting things. But no one is foolish enough to think they will be an elite, Finals-caliber team, even if Granger takes it to another level this season. The East is just too strong. They're too young. No way. Never happen.

UNLESS:

They build a new stadium in the next two months.

Weekend Edition: Nenad Jailed, Thunder Sound Off

Oklahoma City Thunder Center Nenad Krstic, generally known for his jumpshot and aversion to physical contact, spent last night in jail after throwing a chair in a brawl that erupted during an international game between Serbia and Greece.

The Thunder met their demise this post season due to their lack of a true big man. Krstic's tenure with the Thunder has been regarded as a stopgap, a space-filler until the team can develop one of their young Centers. We've offered a few ideas for them, but so far none have taken. So at 8.4 points and 5 rebounds per game, Nenad Krstic remains their man. A Krstic suspension could spell bad news for the young guns of OKC. The Thunder have plenty to say about Nenad's brawl. Here are some highlights:

Top 4 Player Tweets of the Week - In Pictures!

From Skillanueva's half-time tweets to Gil's fateful outburst, we're keeping tabs on this whole Twitter thing. Each week we wade through the rants, shout outs and sheer insanity to bring you the best micro-blogging the NBA has to offer.


4. Just got done watching death at a funeral...not what I was expecting

- Shelden Williams











3. They really play this shake weight commercial too much man

- Anthony Morrow








2. I basically got pulled over & towed for being FLY!I was eating LemonHeads the whole time.Oh well...my garage ain't empty.Shii is minor.

- Chris Dougey-Roberts

1. @StarburyMarbury for example. When you rinse with mouth wash after you brushed your teeth, your mouth feels refreshed. Refreshed being CLEAN :)

- Stephon Marbury

No Regard Exclusive: Kobe and Kanye Transcript!

So the "Power (Remix)" finally dropped, and it's pretty momentous. But as we've learned, it's a miracle that it turned out so well. It's not news that Kobe was in the studio with Kanye helping him unpack the idea of "power," but we've got the exclusive transcript of their conversation.

Kanye: Aight Mamba, man, what you got for me? How can I make my verse legendary?

Kobe: Me and Ron-Ron, gonna beat LeBron.

Kanye: Uh, that's sorta weak, fam. This is for my song remember. Artest would love the shout out, though... What else?

Kobe: Gonna beat the heat, Three-peat skeet, skeet.

Kanye: Anybody ever tell you what skeet is?

Kobe: Yeah, here's another rhyme: Eagle Colorado, you know I'm gonna score...

Kanye: You don't wanna go there fam.

Kobe: I was gonna rhyme it with "whore."

Kanye: Stop.

Kobe: Beware of the mam-ba, I gonna drop a bomb-a, da explosion clear the lane, Kobe gonna bring the pain.

Kanye: Well it's your best so far, fam. But I'd say "Kanye" instead of "Kobe." Cause again, it's my song.

Kobe: Then you can't use it.

Kanye: ...

Kobe: 'Bron got nothin on me, I don't need no Witness.

Kanye: Alright alright, that's hot, where you goin' with it...

Kobe: I moved so much Coke, put Pepsi outta bidness.

Kanye: Come on fam, everybody know I never sold drugs to get by.

Kobe: LeBron can't win, he's a really big bitch, Miami Big Willie-style, I really liked Hitch.


Kobe: In West Philadelphia, Born and raised...

Kanye: Forget it. We'll go with the Eagle, Colorado line.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf's Coming Back!

“This is two blocks away from Ground Zero. They will have culinary school in this community center. They will have a gym with Muslim point guards…”- Sen. Al Franken on the Ground Zero mosque controversy

Dwight Howard gets Bored on Buses

There is probably a lot I could do to set this up for you, but then again, it probably wouldn't matter. Dwight Howard has been in Asia for good chunk of this offseason. He's doing charity and promotions and the usual stuff famous athletes do in foreign countries. He spends an awful lot of time on buses, and he often gets bored.

"LeBron James"

Take my talents to Manila? Vanilla? Banana? Whatever. Keep it up Dwight. Somebody buy that man an iPhone.

Bibby's World: Pilates & Social Norms

Don't know how we locked this down, but we'd like to introduce you to No Regard's newest blogging sensation... Mike Bibby! He'll be checking in whenever he can, just to remind us: It's Bibby's World, we just live in it!

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Hey all,

I know it's been awhile since I last took a swim in the blogosphere, but I'm back, and I have news: I've gotten really into Pilates.

And now you're laughing.  You're laughing because you just did a google image search of Pilates and found it humorous that I'd participate in something so 'female-centric'. Well that's disgusting. It's disgusting that people can be so close-minded, so status quo, so judgmental. Yeah, I'm talking to you. Take off your sheepskin coat, cause it looks awful on you, and get ready to find out how it feels to be an individual again...

If You See Something, Say Something

[Photo credit: Joe Murphy/NBAE/Getty Images]

IYSSSS is our semi-regular Internet intelligence report, a liberal arts approach to following the NBA on the Web. E-mail us at jewsforjesusshuttlesworth@gmail.com if you've got any suggestions.

NBA.com: This year's rookie photo shoot. Always the best.

NBA TwitVid: I certainly don't believe this dunk contest at the rookie photo shoot was impromptu, as the title claims, but do take note of the "Terrico White!" part. In the video's slow parts, look for Demarcus Cousins; the kid just likes to dance.

TrueHoop: An interview with the man who's constructed the each NBA schedule for the last 25 years (and who will probably keep doing it forever, because no one else really knows how to do it).

Ball Don't Lie: Kelly Dwyer ranks the league's top 30 point guards, in three separate posts. Best part is that he made sure Ty Lawson was in every picture posted. Related: Ty Lawson should be ranked higher than 25. If he had his own team he'd be better than Jarrett Jack, Aaron Brooks, Lou Williams. And Goran Dragic deserves a spot in the top 30, even if only for last year's playoff heroics.

Team Dreamin' 2011: Clippers

At No Regard, we love basketball. We love the spectacle and strategy of the game, but sometimes the league's lack of imagination confounds and disappoints us. Call us optimists, visionaries, or kids who watched too much Space Jam, but we have ideas. Damn are we gonna share 'em.


During the 09'-10' season the Clippers ranked 20th in the NBA in attendance averaging a meek 16,343 fans per home game. The team they share an arena with, who also happen to be the best team in the league and start Kobe Bryant at 2 guard, were far better at bringing in fans averaging 18,997 attendees per home game. The Clippers should shed their role as the younger, uglier and dumber little-brother franchise of Los Angeles and head to greener pastures. Well maybe not greener, but certainly brighter.

Clip-Show, please move to Las Vegas.

Beautiful City, Beautiful Festival

The 2010 World Basketball Festival concluded Sunday in New York City, leaving us with quite a hangover. After spending a week on a basketball high, one can come down pretty hard realizing the NBA season is still two months away. We had a blast. We'd gotten used to the Nike street teams, the cool subway ads, and the United We Rise T-Shirts. Now we miss them.

If You See Something, Say Something

IYSSSS is our semi-regular Internet intelligence report, a liberal arts approach to following the NBA on the Web. E-mail us at jewsforjesusshuttlesworth@gmail.com if you've got any suggestions.

Andy Gray Twitter: If you're not following @si_vault on Twitter, you're missing out on photos like the one above showing brazen New York Red Bull Thierry Henry. That empty seat Longoria is clearly holding belongs to her husband, San Antonio Spur Tony Parker. We know because we saw them on The Kiss Cam. Henry, you've got to calm it down buddy.

AdonalFoyle.com [via TrueHoop]: The veteran center calls it a career, and does so by stomping his mind grapes into a decedent goodbye poem. New best quote by an NBA player ever: "Don't be fooled by the magicians' nibble fingers." Truth.

NBA Fanhouse: Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller have been writing The Works, their daily views of the NBA's biggest stories, for a week now. I said they are the new Red and Meth, Ziller prefers Raekwon and RZA. Today's talks Bosh as villain, the Melo "report," and James Dolan's communication problems.

6 Questions Raised By USA vs. France

"Did Granger just foul out?"

"He has to learn there are consequences for his actions."

The above exchange was just one of many questions that had to be addressed during No Regard's field trip to Sunday's exhibition game between USA and France. The game was great, but for some reason, the afternoon spent at the culmination of the World Basketball Festival's takeover of New York City raised more questions than it answered. Here are a few of them.

1. Is Team USA's lack of bigs going to hurt them beyond repair during the tournament?
Don't think so. The Gasol brothers will surely prove a tough match-up, but that would be the case even if the US trotted out two or three all-star caliber big men. Instead, Coach K is going to champion this team's outrageous athleticism until he's hoarse. Using Sunday's match as a barometer, this tactic should work well against every team not named "Spain."

2. Have Rudy Gay and Andre Iguodala always been this good?

Udonis Arrest: Heated Reactions

Haslem was arrested Sunday
for Marijuana possession.

Udonis Haslem was pulled over for speeding on Sunday afternoon and was later arrested for possession of marijuana. A search of his car yielded less than 20 grams. We can only speculate as to why the Miami Heat Forward would feel the need to drive under the influence. Perhaps he saw what Russell Westbrook was up to this weekend and decided he too had a serious snack attack. Haslem will be drug-tested and faces a maximum 5 year prison sentence.  


The Heat made quite a fuss about re-signing Haslem this summer to play alongside their newly minted triumvirate of LeBron, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. Time will tell how this may or may not affect the Slumber Party Boys, but with not even a day gone by, everyone affiliated with the Miami Heat organization is speaking out on the issue. We've sorted through the numerous press conferences to bring you some of the thoughts of Udonis's colleagues and coworkers.

Erik Spoelstra
Head Coach

"I've never tried pot before. We watched a video on it in health class that said if we smoke dope we'll be homeless."

Pat Riley

Team President

"I knew I should never have hired my neighbor's kid to coach this team. This was totally his fault. I'm getting thirsty."

NBA Happy Hour: United We Step Up

TGIF basketball fans! It's the end of the week, so that means NBA Happy Hour! Grab a beer, follow the rules and start the weekend with a Don Nelson-level buzz.

We may be a week behind on this, but our staff finally got out to the theaters to see, and yes, we drank during it. If we could embed an entire feature film and distribute 3D glasses via email, we would. Instead you're just gonna have to take our word for it and go see it yourselves. We know that basketball players and fans alike share our passion for ridiculously amazing dance moves. If you don't believe it's worth your time and money, well then just watch this:



Make sure and smuggle in a frosty can or two of your favorite malt liquor, and DRINK ANYTIME...

Top 3 Player Tweets of the Week - In Pictures! Special Friday the 13th Edition

From Skillanueva's half-time tweets to Gil's fateful outburst, we're keeping tabs on this whole Twitter thing. Each week we wade through the rants, shout outs and sheer insanity to bring you the best micro-blogging the NBA has to offer.

Things are a little crazy over here at No Regard this week with the World Basketball Festival taking place in our fine city, so your regularly scheduled Tweets of the Week will resume next week. But for now, here are a few Friday the 13th themed Tweets to get you through until then.

3. "Uh oh just realized its friday the 13th!! Yall dressing up tonight? haha!"

- Sheldon Williams

2. "'Friday the 13th, guess who's playing Jason!!'. Haha I Meant Me!!"

- Jason Thompson

1. "Friday the 13th! Jason Vorhees is one of my favorites. Still don't understand how he caught people running and he just walked though."

- LeBron James

No Regard Video Exclusive: Russell Westbrook Gets The Gold Treatment

NRVE (No Regard Video Exclusives) are our videos. We shoot them, we cut them, we post them. You watch them. It's that simple. Check back for more on-the-spot video updates from major basketball events and original content that hopefully makes you laugh as much as Steve Nash's YouTube channel.

Before you watch this video, you're going to need SOME context. Russell Westbrook had just finished playing for the White Team at last night's World Basketball Festival. Unfortunately, Westbrook's team lost, but you wouldn't know it if you compared Rondo's post-game treatment to Westbrook's. Though the Celtic's PG was denied a seat at the Jay-Z show, our man Russell was given center stage tickets and TWO bags of Cheetos upon losing. We know that this video is just a really long clip of one of our favorite OKC boys eating chips, but pay attention to the way he signs every autograph and high-fives a dude even though he's got cheesy-fingers! What a man.

Want to know what Rondo thought about all this? Keep reading...

No Regard Video Exclusive: Rajon Rondo Wins, Then Loses

NRVE (No Regard Video Exclusives) are our videos. We shoot them, we cut them, we post them. You watch them. It's that simple. Check back for more on-the-spot video updates from major basketball events and original content that hopefully makes you laugh as much as Steve Nash's YouTube channel. 



We told you there was more.

Our second NRVE showcases two of our favorite moments from Thursday night's WBF Radio City festivities: Rajon Rondo throwing an insane, game-winning, alley-oop pass to Tyson Chandler during sudden death overtime, and then subsequently standing around awkwardly trying to find a seat in a packed Radio City Music Hall.

Rondo's alley-oop was a moment unlike anything we've ever seen in a basketball game. Granted, there was really nothing but pride on the line for this game, but we still couldn't believe it. You see, basketball just doesn't do sudden death overtime. They do double-overtime, or triple-overtime, but never 'you get dunked on, you lose'. Not unless there's a good reason, and the good folks at the WBF had one hell of a good reason.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, Jay-Z."

No Regard Video Exclusive: LeBron James Bored By Basketball

So we were wrong about missing out on tonight's festivities at Radio City Music Hall. Really wrong. So wrong that we were given exclusive courtside access to cover the game with a high-def video camera. SO wrong that we were there to capture incredible on and off court moments, including Rajon Rondo being denied a seat to watch Jay-Z perform, LeBron James texting while his friends play ball in front of him, and Russell Westbrook eating Cheetos. Yes, we know it's epic. And of course we're going to share it with you. Look, here's one for you right off the bat. It features LeBron James' lack of interest in basketball and his incredible interest in... well, you'll see:



We hope you enjoy our very first NoRegard Video Exclusive! NRVE brings you the very best in on-the-spot NBA coverage, as well as topical, yet hilarious, edited video content. Subscribe to our YouTube page for immediate updates on all our latest videos!

And now, for our take on the LeBron video above.

From Down Town

The World Basketball Festival kicks off tonight at 6 PM featuring a Radio City Hooptacular event punctuated by a Jay-Z concert.

I won't be there. Try as I might, I was not granted access to this opening ceremony of sorts, not as a journalist, (Yes, thank you Nike, I'm aware that blogging does not count as news) nor as a lucky fan. I followed @nikebasketball and @usabasketball all week, desperately following them around the city as they gave away tickets. My hopes of getting into Radio City died hard last night, culminating in a public breakdown as I ran laps around Madison Square Garden screaming to the basketball phantasms, "GOOD GOD, WHERE ARE YOU PEOPLE??!!" I also, rather embarrassingly, tweeted these things.

Money Points

Last week, Sports Illustrated published its annual list of the "Most Fortunate Athletes," combining salaries/winnings with endorsement incomes to paint a picture of the jocks who are making it rain more than a high pressure system in April. Of course, many of these 50 athletes are NBA players (sidenote: none of these 50 athletes are women).

We decided it would be interesting to look at these take-ins in comparison to how many points each player scored in the 2009-2010 regular season. Sure, this is an oversimplified way of looking at a player's value, and sure, it doesn't account for injuries, suspensions, or any other freak occurrences. But if you're willing to think about pure offensive production as a good measure of a player's ultimate bargaining potential, the below figures are a good indicator of how much certain teams--and companies--must be feeling like they've been straight up had.

As an added value, we've figured out what one point for each of these players could buy them:

World Basketball Festival Brings The Roc

Yes you heard correctly, it was announced today that Thursday's World Basketball Festival Opening Ceremony at Radio City Music Hall in New York City will be headlined by none other than Jay-Z.

For those of you who hide in caves, let me back up a bit. We admit we've neglected our obligation to keep you informed of the mania that is New York this week. We often assume that everyone lives in a tiny Brooklyn apartment and reads twenty basketball blogs a day.

So to all normal people, this weekend New York City will host the World Basketball Festival.

Sneakalicious: The Ugliest Shoes in the World

For this next installment of Sneakalicious, I could talk about the new Nike Festival Collection, Air Jordan Team USA, the Melo M-6, or the Air Jordan/Skull Candy "For the Love of the Game" colab, all in honor of the World Basketball Festival being held right here in New York in a few days.  But instead I'm going to talk about this:

Because these imitation Nike stilettos (found by Sneaker Freaker, sold by MadeinChina.com) are beyond offensive.

Guest Post: An Open Letter to James Dolan

This off-season has made everyone more passionate than normal. Casual fans started listening more intently, and die-hard fans started speaking up even more than usual. A long-time friend of No Regard, asking to be known here simply as Mugsy2Manute, is a member of the latter group. He's also been a Knicks fan since birth and sent us this piece not because we asked for it, but because he couldn't keep quiet under these circumstances. Besides, he's a smart NBA fan and who sent us a picture of James Dolan next to an Ewok; how could we say no?

Dear Mr. Dolan,

If your marriage was in shambles, and you needed outside help, would you hire Tiger Woods as your counselor? No? Didn't think so. What if you were Barack Obama, tasked with responding to the oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf. Would you send the disgraced, former head of FEMA Mike Brown to Louisiana to help get things under control? Doubtful. So, pray tell, what in God's good name are you thinking rehiring Isiah Thomas as a "consultant" after firing him two years ago for driving an already descending Knicks team deeper into the abyss? I mean, are you for real?

Steve Nash's Balls Violated By Hanes

Newish Hanes/Michael Jordan commercial that I just saw for the first time:



Look familiar? Yeah, Steve Nash probably thinks so too...

Official Summer OMG

We could just link you over to SLAM so you could watch this hot as shit video of Kevin Durant sonning the entire world down at DC's Goodman League. But we really want this video on our website. Because Kevin Durant is The Best, and we hope that Prop 8 stays repealed so we can marry his game on a beach in Santa Cruz, just like we've always dreamed (blogs marrying basketball skill sets is gay, right?).

Lazy Sunday

Four-Four with Rose and Noah. Talkin' straight Chi-City no doubt.
Photo Courtesy of the Associated Press.

Yesterday Barack Obama did something pretty cool. In an event honoring wounded soldiers, the President played hoops with a makeshift dream team. The roster, selected according to the big guy's famous biases, included LeBron, Wade, Melo, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, and of course those two guys from Chicago.* Of course, being able to witness this game in all of it's good-natured glory would be any basketball fan's dream. If it had been part of the Nike World Basketball Festival tickets would have sold out a week ago. If LeBron had organized it, it would have garnered twenty million television viewers. Instead, Big Barry shut the press out of the gym, emphasizing that this event was to be seen only by those it was organized for, the troops. 

Still, we hope some photos surface, even if they're something Malia took with her camera phone.

* It was a hell of a weekend for Joakim Noah. After getting to hoop with the Prez his agent announced that he's working on a hefty deal to extend Noah's contract with the Bulls.

At the Zoo with Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal got on Twitter yesterday to let us all know that he has figured out how to shrink a Giraffe. This makes him the second man to master this trick in a month...

Is that guy supposed to be Prokhorov?

Just some food for thought.  Hope everyone's having a lovely weekend.

NBA Happy Hour: Lep in the Hood

TGIF basketball fans! It's the end of the week, so that means NBA Happy Hour! Grab a beer, follow the rules and start the weekend with a Don Nelson-level buzz.

Shaquille O'Neal is a Celtic. Reactions to this news are mixed at best, but one thing is certainly worth celebrating: we will have another season of Shaq in the NBA. Sure, he will likely do next to nothing on the court, but his entertainment value is irreplaceable. Last night's Sportscenter aired a montage of some of his best moments. 

Drink Anytime...

Top 5 Player Tweets of the Week - In Pictures!

From Skillanueva's half-time tweets to Gil's fateful outburst, we're keeping tabs on this whole Twitter thing. Each week we wade through the rants, shout outs and sheer insanity to bring you the best micro-blogging the NBA has to offer.

5. "AIRPLANE MODE BACK TO LA!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

- James Harden

4. "I call a pretty girl a "Fox", I say "jive" a lot, I call the police the "fuzz"....& I'm calm all the time. My shii is so 70s. #CatdaddyFresh"

- Chris Dougey-Roberts

King of the World

By now, you've probably all seen Artest's amazing quote from ESPN the Magazine about his favorite movie. But my favorite part of the interview is when he is asked where he's most at peace:

"At the beach. Man, give me a mango drink, some sand, that water, and it's all good. I love running in the sand. But sometimes I'm scared as hell of water. Whenever I'm out there, I'm thinking, 'Damn, some tidal wave is about to come!' Okay, so maybe I'm not totally at peace at the beach."

See! This is why we love him! He has just as much anxiety about unlikely death scenarios as the rest of us! Neurotic athletes: they're just like us!

No Regard Field Trip: Bring the Rucker

It had taken me six years of living in New York City to attend a basketball game at Rucker Park. This is unforgivable, and the excuses I could come up with--school, work, forgetfulness--are all unquestionably weak. Luckily, last Wednesday night, along with Rhymer and Spangler, I finally made it to the hallowed ground at 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

Bibby's World: I Accidentally Ate Cat Food

Don't know how we locked this down, but we'd like to introduce you to No Regard's newest blogging sensation... Mike Bibby! He'll be checking in whenever he can, just to remind us: It's Bibby's World, we just live in it!

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So, I accidentally ate cat food.

Here's what happened...

JaVale McGee Back In Bidness

JaVale McGee and a Muppet. Courtesy of truthaboutit.com

It's being reported that JaVale McGee has been added back to the Team USA roster. Presumably the real story here is that Brook Lopez has unfortunately opted to drop out of the world championships to fully recover from mono. As a blog that often blatantly favors the Nets, we should be troubled by this news, but after buying into McGee's Summer League hype, we couldn't be more excited to have another chance to see him this offseason, even if it's only for a few minutes, presumably at the end of a quarter of a blowout against Puerto Rico.

The Return of 3-D

I had forgotten about this, which is irresponsible of me.

For a good chunk of my basketball salad days, I had a go-to shot in Horse that I called "The Dennis Scott." I would set up for a corner three, then take one giant step to the side, so I was about two feet out of bounds. This came from Scott's turn in the '96 Three-Point Shootout, when he set up on the wrong side of one of the corner racks. Next time I play, I'm going to unveil "The Dennis Scott Remix": I'll pull an SUV onto the court, blast Biggie's Life After Death, scream out "Do not ask me for my autograph, ask me to explain the rage that's inside of me!" and drain a three. That'll surely be good for a letter.

[via Elitaste]

Team Dreamin' 2011: SUNS

At No Regard, we love basketball. We love the spectacle and strategy of the game, but sometimes the league's lack of imagination confounds and disappoints us. Call us optimists, visionaries, or kids who watched too much Space Jam, but we have ideas. Damn are we gonna share 'em.


Suns, we love you.

But who are you? You let all your children run away. And you had so many good children. Why did you pack their bags for them? With the amiable departure of Elijah and Leandro Barbosa this summer, Steve Nash is the only member left from the original Seven Seconds or Less squad. Your team's identity is being questioned, and if we've learned anything from "The Simpsons" (and we've learned so much from "The Simpsons"), we've learned that you need a soul to write your name in the condensation of ice cream freezers and history books. Look: I like off-season acquisitions Josh Childress, Hakim Warrick, and Hedo as much as the next blogger (I probably like Hedo more than most), but these three disparate role players will not pack a singular personality in the toiletry bags they bring to Phoenix; they will pack odd sizes for their positions and a touch more talent than you thought they had. But nothing more.

Suns, we mourn you.

But we've hatched a plan for you. We promise it will get people excited about your team again, let them know who you are, and in the process show you who you are.

Steve Nash should retire from the NBA. Wait for it...

Sacramento Drift

During Memorial Day weekend Tyreke Evans was caught ripping down some freeway racing a silver car. Now the police have released almost 13 minutes of aerial footage clearly displaying the event.

Nice. Good looks Tyreke.

Not much to say, quite frankly. Now we have indisputable proof that the young Kings star is good at driving his really expensive car brutally fast, and does not realize or care that said action is extremely illegal. Cool. If he's suspended, then that sucks because he's really fun to watch, but who would blame Stern. Dude proved he's got no regard for human life, but in a bad way.