In a head scratching deal, the Toronto Raptors have acquired forward Rudy Gay from the Memphis Grizzlies in a blockbuster trade also involving the Detroit Pistons.
Gay, was the Grizzlies leading scorer (17.2 points per game) on a team that was fourth in the Western Conference at 29-15.
Gay was traded from Memphis to Toronto with Hamed Haddadi for Jose Calderon and Ed Davis. The Grizzlies then traded Calderon to Detroit for Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye.
By the Raptors acquiring a proven scorer, General Manager Bryan Colangelo is not giving up just yet on the 2013 season and is trying to tell fans they can still make a push at the Boston Celtics, even though they are 6.5 games back of them for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Toronto Raptors are struggling on the court, and now they’re struggling in receiving cooperation from the National Basketball Association.
After Toronto’s 98-97 loss to Charlotte Wednesday, the NBA issued a statement that officials Ed Malloy, John Goble and Violet Palmer missed a foul by Bobcats’ forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on Raptors’ center Andrea Bargnani with 2.4 seconds left. With the loss, the Raptors fell to 3-9 and are three games back of the Boston Celtics for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
What should the NBA do now? Should they allow the Raptors and Bobcats to replay the final 2.4 seconds with Bargnani given two free throws?
They have replayed a basketball game before. In fact four times, with the last coming in 2007 when Miami Heat all-star Shaquille O’Neal was mistakenly fouled out of a game against the Atlanta Hawks. The final 51.9 seconds was replayed three months later.
The most dominant football team in Alberta is not in the Canadian Football League, but in Canadian Interuniversity Sport. On Saturday night at McMahon Stadium, the University of Calgary Dinos (7-1) will host the University of Manitoba in the Hardy Cup semi-final (Saturday, SHAW TV, 5pm).
Quarterback Eric Dzwilewski of Boise, Idaho set a Canada West Conference record with a 70.6 completion percentage, and helped set team records for most points, touchdowns, first downs, passing yards, completions and total yards of offense in 2012.
In one of the more bizarre events in the history of the National Basketball Association, point guard Chris Paul is going to Los Angeles after all–just not to the Lakers but the Clippers.
Paul went from the New Orleans Hornets to the Clippers for Eric Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu, Chris Kaman and a first round draft choice.
Paul was originally dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers in a three-team deal involving the Houston Rockets. The trade however was blocked by the NBA, who controversially currently owns the Hornets. According to the Associated Press, NBA Commissioner David Stern told General Manager Dell Demps, the Hornets could do better than acquiring Lamar Odom, or better known as Mr. Khloe Kardashian. Odom, meanwhile, would be later dealt to the Dallas Mavericks.
Paul is the best player in the deal between the Clippers and Hornets. The four-time all-star point guard led the NBA with 2.4 steals per game in the regular season and 11.5 assists per game in the playoffs.
What is your take on Stern getting involved in the Hornets basketball operations? Should they have the right to own the Hornets when their original owner was cash-strapped and couldn’t find someone to buy the team?
In other NBA news, Richard Hamilton has signed a three year deal worth $15 million to join the Chicago Bulls. In three years with the Washington Wizards and nine years with the Detroit Pistons, Hamilton averaged 17.7 points per game.
With the Toronto Raptors naming Dwane Casey as their bench boss, it comes as no surprise that the Detroit Pistons have named Lawrence Frank their next head coach, replacing the fired John Kuester.
Both Casey and Frank were both considered co-favourites for the head coaching vacancies in Detroit and Toronto.
In my opinion, Frank actually has a better track record than Casey, having guided the New Jersey Nets to three second round postseason appearances in four years from 2004-07.
This past year Frank was the top assistant coach to Doc Rivers in Boston, and was instrumental in the Celtics’ 56 win season.
In one of the most remarkable four game sweeps in NBA history, the Dallas Mavericks shockingly swept the Los Angeles Lakers 4-0 to advance to the Western Conference Finals Sunday afternoon.
Jason Terry tied an NBA record for recording nine three pointers in one playoff game as Dallas trounced the Los Angeles Lakers 122-86. They will now either play the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies lead that series 2-1.
The Dallas victory was remarkable because the Los Angeles Lakers are the two-time defending NBA Champions, and their coach Phil Jackson has won eleven NBA Championships.
Jackson might also have coached his final game in basketball. The 65 year-old from Deer Lodge, Montana has been hinting retirement the last few months.
This is not the first time I have been stunned by a terrible playoff performance in a single series by the Lakers however. In the 2004, the Detroit Pistons stunned the Lakers in winning the NBA Finals in five games. The Pistons, led by Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton and the Wallaces (Ben and Rasheed) knocked off a Laker team that had Shaquille O’Neal AND Kobe Bryant.
This week, the guys talk about the Edmonton Oilers and the fact that they won the first overall pick in the 2011 NHL entry draft. They go over four possible candidates who may be picked by the Oilers.
Then, in the GABBYs – On the good side: The New Jersey Devils go from laughing stock to relatively respectable, the National Hockey League sticks to their guns on suspensions, and Edmonton Oilers Jordan Eberle and Devyn Dubnyk are going to the world championships.
On the bad side: Detroit Pistons Charlie Villanueva acts like a child on the court, Texas Rangers outfieler Josh Hamilton breaks his arm, and the Colombian soccer player who kicked an owl upgrades to kicking someone in the chest. HONORABLE MENTION: Kobe Bryant gets $100,000 fine.
In Quick Hits: Now that the NHL playoffs are underway, who does Kerrzy think can make it all the way?
Check it out:
There’s a lot more after the jump. Click “continue reading.” ———————>
Losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers will drive a man to do crazy things, it seems.
The Detroit Pistons witnessed that first hand on Monday night when forward Charlie Villanueva completely lost the plot with just under six minutes to go in his team’s final home game of the regular season. Now, when I say he “lost the plot,” I mean it – responding to an elbow earlier in the game, Charlie V hit Cleveland’s Ryan Hollins with a “subtle jab to the groin” as Detroit Free Press writer Vince Ellis described it.
After being ushered away from the ensuing scrum, Villanueva tried to sneak his way back over to confront Hollins, but was dragged away once again by a teammate and a member of the coaching staff. It turns out it’s just not that easy for a 6-foot-11, 232-pound guy to be sneaky! (After the jump: Video of the altercation, plus a brutal Dunk Fail!) (more…)
It’s All-Star weekend in the NBA, which to me means just one thing: The Dunk Contest!
I’m the same way when it comes to any All-Star weekend; in hockey I like the Skills Competition best, I’m a fan of baseball’s Home Run Derby and when it comes to the NBA, count me in for the Dunks!
After winning the title in each of the last two years, Boston’s Nate Robinson has decided to sit this one out. Instead, it’ll be Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan (who lost a tight decision last year), Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka, Washington’s JaVale McGee and Blake Griffin of the LA Clippers. (more…)
Remember when Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert said that a “dreaded spell and bad karma” would follow LeBron James wherever he went?
That quote comes from the same “open letter to the fans” where he personally guaranteed an NBA championship before James wins one in Miami and promised that the team’s “energy, focus, capital, knowledge, and experience” would be directed towards that very goal.
Was all of that supposed to start this season?
With a 99-96 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers set an NBA record with a 25th straight loss…but the milestone week didn’t end there! A loss on Wednesday to the Detroit Pistons tied them with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the longest losing stretch in major American pro sports history! (more…)
Another week has come and gone and, wouldn’t you know it, Carmelo Anthony is still a member of the Denver Nuggets.
For weeks the rumors have persisted that Melo was on his way out of the Mile High City, with the NJ Nets listed as the most likely destination. He has stated that his preferred destination would be the NY Knicks, but at the same time I think he only really said that because he was asked the question.
Carmelo Anthony holds all the power in this situation and I’m quite sure that he knows it, too.
If the Nuggets don’t trade him, Melo will likely leave at the end of the season for nothing. If they try to trade him somewhere he doesn’t want to go, a refusal to sign a contract extension with that team will make the deal go sour. For the person trying really hard to hate Anthony in this situation, put yourself in his shoes: By accepting a trade, you’re helping out the team that brought you into the league – but why go somewhere you don’t want to go when you can just wait for free agency at the end of the season? (more…)
After months and months of speculation and denials, could Carmelo Anthony soon be on the move?
Reports from across the world of basketball say a deal involving as many as 4 teams and upwards of 13 players is being worked on as we speak that would, among other things, see Anthony shipped from the Denver Nuggets to the NJ Nets.
Not long ago the 26-year-old soon-to-be free agent reportedly said he’d only accept a trade to the NY Knicks…and while New Jersey isn’t quite New York, the Nets may soon be calling Brooklyn home. That would give them something in common with ‘Melo, who hails from that very borough.
ESPN reported on Monday that the Nuggets are riled up because so many details of the potential deal were leaked to the media, and so they’ve added a demand that another player be added to the mix. The Nuggets want to get rid of Al Harrington in the trade before they’ll allow it to happen – no word of if they leaked that info, or if it was another leak from the other side! (more…)
In a head scratching deal, the Toronto Raptors have acquired forward Rudy Gay from the Memphis Grizzlies in a blockbuster trade also involving the Detroit Pistons.
“Heat of the Moment”
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