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:

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.

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?

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.

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.