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[OnePiece]

'Linsanity' explored in book about Knicks' sensation

Posted Feb 22 2012 10:32AM

NEW YORK (AP) -- A new book promises to give a Lin-side look at the NBA's newest sensation.

Hachette Book Group says it is publishing "Jeremy Lin: The Reason for the Linsanity," by Timothy Dalrymple. It is due in stores in May, the company announced Wednesday.
Harvard graduate Jeremy Lin recently became a New York Knicks phenomenon. He's the NBA's first American-born player of Taiwanese descent. And his recent prominence has spurred countless puns on his name.

The book will chronicle Lin's high school, college and early career in the NBA, while highlighting the media explosion ignited by his success as starting guard with the Knicks.

[OnePiece]

Lin's success making impact in ancestral Taiwan

Posted Feb 21 2012 10:53PM

TAIPEI, Taiwan(AP) -- In achievement-oriented Taiwan, where studying seems to be the preferred pastime activity among young people, the outdoor complex of basketball courts near National Taiwan University is normally a pretty lonely place, more used to hosting raindrops and discarded food wrappers than pivoting feet and jump shots.
All that is starting to change as the island of 23 million people enters its fourth week of Linsanity, the worldwide phenomenon following the improbable success of New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin, whose talent has helped energize the team and whose parents spent their formative years in the central Taiwanese county of Changhua.
Though Lin himself was born and raised in the United States, Taiwan is proud to claim him as its own, seeing in the Harvard graduate's rapid rise from basketball obscurity to global stardom the same virtues they say propelled their island from agricultural backwater to high-tech powerhouse: hard work, devotion to family and modesty.
On a recent weekday afternoon the NTU basketball complex featured a spirited one-on-one matchup between Jake Chang and Spencer Wang, two 19-year-old economics students who share a dream of playing in the NBA, even if their modest size and less than lightning speed suggest their studies will lead to a more conventional career.
"I admit it," said Wang, smiling broadly. "Banking is probably a better bet for us."
But that doesn't diminish Lin's importance to them or their regard for his accomplishments on the biggest basketball stage in the world.
"Lin really inspires me to be a better player," said Wang, who hits the NTU courts 3-4 times a week. "The main thing is he's Asian."
Adds Chang: "How can you not be inspired by Lin? He wasn't very famous, but he worked hard in the offseason and now he's a star."
Their comments underscore the durability of the "no shortcuts to success" ethos on Taiwan, a vital cog in the global information technology industry, where parents of third graders routinely exchange tips on how best to approach their children's math homework.
But Lin's achievement appears to be promoting an increased appreciation for the importance of sport in creating well-rounded individuals, even on bookish Taiwan.
Noting an upsurge in basketball interest - both in watching and playing - Mayor Eric Chu of the suburban cluster of Xinbei City near Taipei ordered officials to replenish missing nets at community and school basketball courts, and to ensure that night lighting at outdoor facilities was working properly.
"Jeremy Lin's success tells Taiwanese parents that good players can be good students too," he said.
His message may be getting through. On Tuesday morning 4,000 Xinbei high school students were allowed time off from classes to see a televised broadcast of the Knicks game against the New Jersey Nets - a contest the Knicks lost after Lin fouled out.
"The students pleaded and I agreed to do this on an experimental basis," explained principal Wang Chi-kuang, as his charges jumped up and down and clapped red noisemakers to cheer their hero on.
Another Lin convert is Taiwan President Ma ying-jeou, who invoked the star's name to underscore the closeness of the island's relations with the United States, while greeting a visiting congressional delegation on Tuesday morning.
"We are both democracies, we are both concerned with human rights and peace, and we both appreciate the basketball skills of Jeremy Lin," Ma said.
That seems to be an understatement. On the day that Ma spoke, all four Taiwanese morning newspapers ran full color front page photographs of Lin in action against the Dallas Mavericks, while TV news stations aired endless commentaries on his exploits.
While some American publications have tried to outdo each other with Lin-based puns, their Taiwanese counterparts refer to him simply as the "Hao" kid, a play on words that exploits his second Chinese name, which means both "good" and "heroic."

[OnePiece]

Erden, Gee suffer facial injuries for Cavaliers


Posted Feb 21 2012 8:18PM

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Cavaliers center Semih Erden and guard Alonso Gee were both taken to the locker room after sustaining facial injuries.
The injuries occurred in the first quarter of Tuesday night's game against Detroit.
Erden was poked above the right eye by teammate Antawn Jamison while the two were going for a rebound. He needed four stitches to close the cut and returned to the bench in the second quarter.
Gee suffered a nose contusion after being hit by a forearm from the Pistons' Tayshaun Prince. Gee was defending Prince, who was driving to the basket.
Both players returned to the game late in the second quarter.

[OnePiece]

Lin helping Knicks draw huge ratings on MSG


Posted Feb 21 2012 7:16PM

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jeremy Lin has people watching the New York Knicks in record numbers.
The Knicks said Tuesday that their past two games were the highest-rated regular season events on MSG since the network began tracking household ratings in the 1988-89 season.
Losses to New Orleans on Friday and New Jersey on Monday were each watched in more than 540,000 households and drew ratings above 7.3.
That easily beat the previous high in the regular season, a 6.78 rating for Michael Jordan's famed "double-nickel" game on March 28, 1995, when he scored 55 points in his first game back at Madison Square Garden since ending his retirement.
The Knicks also announced that an online auction for the autographed jersey Lin wore in a victory over the Lakers, plus four tickets to Wednesday's game against Atlanta and a chance to meet the former Harvard star, raised $42,388 for the Garden of Dreams Foundation.

[OnePiece]

Favors replaces injured Splitter in Rising Stars Challenge

Posted Feb 21 2012 7:00PM

Utah Jazz forward Derrick Favors will replace injured San Antonio Spurs forward-center Tiago Splitter (right calf strain) on TEAM CHUCK in the 2012 BBVA Rising Stars Challenge.

The BBVA Rising Stars Challenge will be televised Friday live on TNT at 9 p.m. ET and also will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio, while NBA.com will make live audio available to fans in multiple languages

[OnePiece]

Cavs sign Harris of D-League to 10-day contract

Posted Feb 21 2012 1:38PM

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed guard Manny Harris to a 10-day contract.

Harris has been playing with Canton of the NBA Development League. He averaged 21.4 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists for the Charge, and was named the D-League's top performer last week. Harris scored 46 points in a game against Rio Grande.
Harris played in 54 games and made 15 starts last season for the Cavs, who are short-handed in the backcourt with Daniel Gibson (ankle) and Anthony Parker (back) still out with injuries. The Cavs also needed another guard after Ben Uzoh's 10-day contract expired. Uzoh appeared in two games for Cleveland.
Harris is expected to be active Tuesday night when the Cavs host the Detroit Pistons.

[OnePiece]

Hawks' Johnson (knee) sidelined for two games

Posted Feb 21 2012 12:18PM - Updated Feb 21 2012 3:45PM

ATLANTA (AP) -- Joe Johnson, the Atlanta Hawks' All-Star guard, was returning to Atlanta for an MRI on his ailing left knee Tuesday and will miss at least two games, another blow to a team already missing star center Al Horford.

The Hawks said Johnson would not play in New York against the Knicks on Wednesday or the following night, when the team returns home to face Orlando.
Johnson, who leads the team in scoring at 17.6 points a game, left in the third quarter of a loss to the Chicago Bulls on Monday night with what was described as tendinitis. He did not travel with the team to New York, instead returning home for a more extensive examination of his knee.
The injury casts doubts on whether Johnson, selected to play in the All-Star Game for the sixth straight year, will be able to participate in Sunday's contest at Orlando.
Horford was injured early in the season and underwent pectoral surgery that will keep him out for most, if not all, of the regular season. There's still a chance he could return if the Hawks make the playoffs.
Atlanta started out with one of the best records in the Eastern Conference, but has lost seven of its last 10 games to fall to sixth in the overall standings.
The team did get a bit of good news. Forward Marvin Williams, who didn't play against the Bulls because he was attending a family member's funeral, is expected to return to the lineup against the Knicks.

[OnePiece]

Nuggets guard Miller ejected for arguing vs. Wolves

Posted Feb 20 2012 11:07PM

DENVER (AP) -- Nuggets guard Andre Miller has been ejected from Monday night's game for arguing an offensive foul call late in the third quarter.

Miller was called for an offensive foul with 31 seconds left in the third quarter and Denver leading Minnesota 76-69. He argued the call and drew a technical from official Nick Buchert. After Kevin Love hit the free throw, Miller continued to talk and Buchert hit him with the second technical.
The Nuggets were already playing without starting point guard Ty Lawson, who sprained his ankle in the first half. Rookie Julyan Stone replaced Miller.

[OnePiece]

Lakers GM Kupchak responds to Kobe's rant

Posted Feb 20 2012 10:53PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Mitch Kupchak says he must explore every opportunity to improve the Los Angeles Lakers, even if Kobe Bryant doesn't like it.
The Lakers general manager issued a statement Monday night in response to Bryant's criticism of the club brass over the haze of uncertainty surrounding Pau Gasol. The 7-foot Spanish star is having the lowest-scoring season of his career amid rampant speculation about his departure in a trade ever since the Lakers attempted to move him for Chris Paul before the season.
After Sunday night's loss at Phoenix, Bryant said he wanted Kupchak to decide whether Gasol would be traded or not. Kupchak responded with a terse one-paragraph statement before Monday's game against Portland.
"As a former player, I understand how the days leading up to the trade deadline can be nerve-wracking for an NBA player," said Kupchak, a former Lakers center.
"Nonetheless, as General Manager of the Lakers, I have a responsibility to ownership, our fans and the players on this team to actively pursue opportunities to improve the team for this season and seasons to come," Kupchak said. "To say publicly that we would not do this would serve no purpose and put us at a competitive disadvantage. Taking such a course of action at this time would be a disservice to ownership, the team and our many fans."
Bryant said Sunday he hopes the Lakers won't trade Gasol, who is averaging 16.6 points and 10.7 rebounds while failing to make the All-Star team for the first time in four years. Although the Lakers were 18-13 and sitting in fifth place in the Western Conference heading into the Trail Blazers' visit, they've been inconsistent in their first season under coach Mike Brown, with a 5-11 road record and several embarrassing losses along the way.
Bryant is the NBA's leading scorer with 29 points per game, but he's worried about Gasol, saying it's tough for the four-time All-Star to "immerse himself completely into games when he's hearing trade talk every other day."
Gasol doesn't want to leave Los Angeles, and he acknowledged he's thinking about the March 15 trade deadline. He hasn't spoken directly to Kupchak about his future since the Lakers' preseason attempt to deal Gasol to Houston in a three-team trade for Paul was rejected by the NBA.
Yet Gasol's numbers are only slightly lower than last season's averages, and Brown attributes much of that slight decline to the improvement of center Andrew Bynum, who made his first All-Star team while averaging 16.3 points and 12.5 rebounds.
"I know there's been a surge from Andrew Bynum that wasn't there in the past, so Pau does not get the same amount of touches in the post that he has in the past," Brown said.
While Bryant and Kupchak addressed each other through the media, Brown professed ignorance about the latest kerfuffle in Bryant's rocky relationship with the Lakers' management, saying he hadn't even read Bryant's comments. The new coach had no interest in getting involved, either.
"I don't plan on going to talk to him," Brown said. "That discussion is done between Mitch and Kobe. ... It's not my place to address Kobe about trades. I don't have much to do with trades on this team."
Even with this round of public sparring, the Lakers have won seven of 11 since late January.
Although Bryant might be bothered by the Lakers' machinations, he was angry in previous years when the Lakers didn't make trades to improve the club, even demanding a trade himself in 2007. A few months later, the Lakers acquired Gasol and immediately made a run to three straight NBA finals and back-to-back league titles.
Metta World Peace is no stranger to displeasure about trade rumors. Back when he was Ron Artest, he sparred with the Indiana Pacers' management over rumors about his eventual departure to Sacramento.
"You can't really question (Kupchak), because he's looking out for the Lakers, and he does a great job," World Peace said. "That's his job, and we're supposed to go play."

[OnePiece]

Utah's Evans wins 2012 Slam Dunk Contest


Posted Feb 26 2012 12:41AM

ORLANDO (AP) -- His nickname is the Human Pogo Stick and Utah's Jeremy Evans set out to put some bounce back into the Slam Dunk Contest.
Evans endeared himself to the fans with a mix of props and creativity, and they voted him the winner of one of the marquee events of the NBA's All-Star Saturday festivities.
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Evans, who got into the competition as a replacement for injured New York guard Iman Shumpert, earned 29 percent of the 3 million votes cast. He beat out Houston's Chase Budinger, Indiana's Paul George and Minnesota's Derrick Williams for the Jazz's first-ever trophy in the contest.
In a departure from past dunk competitions, fans were given complete voting power and cast their ballots by text message after each of the four participants competed in three one-dunk rounds.
Evans dunked with a camera on his head, slammed two basketballs while jumping over a seated assistant and donned a Karl Malone jersey to dunk over mailman-dressed comedian Kevin Hart.
Evans said the Jazz didn't have any input in the Malone-themed idea.
"Not at all," he said. "I was just thanking the Jazz fans. You want to do something to get them in it. So I felt that was a good way. And Dwight Howard, he helped me big time. That was huge."
Budinger got just as many cheers from the Amway Center fans as Evans, and some in the celebrity-filled crowd sighed when the winner was announced.
Budinger got his biggest reaction when he donned a Cedric Ceballos jersey and imitated his 1992 blindfolded dunk, completing it with a reverse slam.
"I've very happy with my performance. I went out there, I had a plan and I executed the plan and the fans voted and I didn't win and that happens sometimes," Budinger said. "But I had great dunks and they're going to be great memories as well."
Kevin Love knows something about dunking. He does most of his dirty work inside for Minnesota, but he got to show off his outside touch on Saturday night.
Love beat out Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant to win the 3-Point Shootout. The former UCLA star was consistent throughout, but had to survive a tiebreaker in the first round and sweat out the last few shots from Durant to pull out the 17-14 victory in the final.
Love is in the middle for a breakout year for Minnesota, averaging 25 points and 9.9 rebounds a game. But he also has connected on 49 of 141 3-point attempts for the Timberwolves.
"You know, I'm a guy that loves to rebound the ball, a guy that loves to play inside, really a physical player," Love said. "But for me, coming into the league, I was told not to shoot 3-point shots, so to be where I am now and continue to work on my game; I think this definitely speaks to my versatility. I think I'll just continue to improve year in and year out."
Celebrities lined the court for the appetizer before Sunday's NBA All-Star game, and the first event saw the continuation of the good vibes that New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin has brought to the Big Apple recently.
With Knicks super fan Spike Lee looking on, Team New York had the touch from the outside and won the Shooting Stars event. Former Knicks star Allan Houston nailed his third attempt at a half-court shot to give his team consisting of current Knicks guard Landry Fields and Cappie Pondexter of the WNBA's New York Liberty the victory.
San Antonio point guard Tony Parker then won the Skills Competition. Parker was the only one of six participants to break 30 seconds in the first round (29.2) and this time of 32.8 in the final run on the obstacle course was better than Boston's Rajon Rondo (34.6) and New Jersey's Deron Williams (41.4).
Love was tied for third after the opening round of the Shootout and beat Miami's Mario Chalmers 5-4 in a tiebreaker. Defending champion James Jones led all shooters in the opening round with 22 and Durant was next with 20.
Orlando's Ryan Anderson just missed eliminating both Love and Chalmers, totaling 17 after missing his final 2-point money ball.
Love and Durant both had 16 in Round 2 to advance to the finals, with Jones posting 12.
Houston, Fields and Pondexter completed the shooting course in 37.3 seconds in the final round. It was better than the 47.6 posted by the Team Texas trio of former Houston Rockets star and TNT analyst Kenny Smith, current Rocket Chandler Parsons and Sophia Young of the San Antonio Silver Stars.
Team Orlando and Atlanta posted the slowest times of Round 1 and were eliminated.
The speedy Parker put together an impressive display on the skills obstacle course, which involves participants moving through a dribbling circuit, successfully throwing chest passes through a hanging tire and driving for a layup.
Williams, the 2008 winner, holds the record for the skills' course at 25 seconds, but had trouble completing a pass in the final round on Saturday.