Vin Baker -- Another NBA Financial Casualty

Success came early for Vin Baker.  The 8th overall pick in 1993, Vin earned $80 Million in salary over 13 seasons.  He played on an Olympic Team, in four All-Star games, and then fought alcohol abuse while sitting on benches at the end of his career.  Everyone knew about his problems with alcohol while Vin was still apart of the Association as his expiring contract was used as a token to make trades work.  The Clips and T-Wolves tried to see if he could be revived as a basketball player at the end of his career to no avail.  He was released from Minnesota in November of 2006.

Vin opened up a seafood restaurant in his hometown of Old Saybrook, Connecticut which a bank is now forclosing on.  His 10,000 square foot house was also forclosed upon in 2008 and bought by a bank for $2.5 Million.
True Hoop explains this as yet another all too common situation of a retired NBA player blowing through all of his money.  But peep the Stan Smith Show for the full video of where Vin is at now and what he plans to do in the future.

LeBetard on James/Wade/Bosh Contracts

This guy wrote THIS ARTICLE about the new "Big Three" and how between the three of them they sacrificed $47 Million to sign Udonis Haslem.  Haslem then called up D-Wade and professed how much he loved him. He should do more than that.

Remember the old Big Three?  No, not those Boston misfits.  The real Big Three who won 3 Championships (thanks to @johnhollinger's twitter).  No love for Timmay!

Adidas Basketball: Slim Chin w/ Dwight Howard & Derrick Rose

Dr. Ken Jeong (yes, he's a real doctor and used to work at Kaiser) is expanding his comedy chops by being Slim Chin on Adidas Basketball's latest shoe campaign. I won't bore you with the video that lets you play a game as D-Rose and unlock some code but here is the main intro video from Adidas on who Slim Chin is and how he thinks Derrick Rose is cool because of his new shoes.




The "Fast Don't Lie" slowjam isn't that funny but the clips of Slim Chin and D-How are. I just don't get or like Dwight's comedy routine (and his "I'm totally Christian" routine of years past either). Oh well, I guess it's OK to not get someone and leave it at that without pointing out how terrible his post game is....ooops, that's already been done. Scratch that last thought.

Will you get these new Adidas? Personally, I'm still a huge corporate Nike flywire technology guy (who's currently rocking the Hypermax 360's) until Adidas man's up and makes a new Gil-Zero line.

Love For Hakeem

It's kind of sad that lame post move attempts by Dwight Howard got me thinking more of Hakeem Olajuwon these days.  That video on this here blog last week of Hakeem trying to teach Dwight something (...anything!) regarding post moves is stuck in my mind as I've probably viewed it 8 times in it's entirety so far.  And I'm not watching it because I want to see Dwight Howard shoot with a bent right arm and try to make jokes.  It's all because I can't get over how incredible The Dream still is and was.

So peep this video of Hakeem talking about, no, laughing about how he schooled everyone with the Dream Shake:



Also enjoy the recent Free Darko post on Dream Week (an apparent week of writing dedicated to The Dream).  This post really got me thinking about the what-if's of the Jordan era and that is something very fun to ponder....at least for me.

Monta Ellis' New Shot

The Warriors blew out The Clippers by 40 points in hot pre-seaon NBA action last Friday.  After their win on Monday 10/11, the Dubs sit at 2-0 in the season before the real season.  Across the bay in San Francisco, the 49ers went 4-0 in pre-season and have yet to win a real game now sitting at 0-5.  So obviously lame pre-records don't mean anything (so why do they even keep them?)

One has to have an eye for detail to learn something during pre-season games.  And one thing I've picked up so far is Monta's new Judo Kick Jumper.  The flying right leg creates space from taller defenders and presents a potential to pick up a shooting foul.  Ryan Gomes had no chance defending Monta's Judo Kick J in last Friday's Clip destruction.

ESPN 30 for 30

Tom Ziller writes a great preview of the latest ESPN 30 for 30 documentary titled Once Brothers. This story explains the relationship of Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac and I highly advise you not only read Ziller's piece but also peep the airing of Once Brothers at 8:00pm tonight (October 12th).

Warrior Open Practice 2010

Things are happy in Warrior land.  I've read few "experts" predict 49 and 50 wins for the Dubs this year.  I've also read a few who said 19 to 25 wins but I don't listen to those guys.  A new owner, a new coach, and a rebuilt roster have put smiles on people's pre-season faces.  Can't you just feel the good karma in the air?

The annual rookie right of passage took place after open practice last night.  Warrior Rookies had to dance the Dougie, sing happy birthday to Brandan Wright, and were presented with their season backpacks and lunchboxes as apart of the hazing ritual for first years.  Enjoy the video below:



A few other things I'm digging from the Open Practice. 1) I like how Monta is MC'ing the rookie hazing. That shows some leadership. 2) David Lee totally doesn't want to be there. 3) Curry was too busy to participate because he was signing autographs. 4) Reggie Williams is still considered a rookie?

Good times, Warrior fans.

Carlos Boozer Loses to Kid in HORSE

Man, the great content keeps coming from sponsors, teams, and media outlets as the NBA pre-season is getting revved up.  After months of "Big 3" breakdowns and Amare studying Judaism we now have some fun stuff to enjoy as evident in the many Nextians posts the past few days.

So I present to you Carlos Boozer losing a game of HORSE to a high school kid.  Of course they just shot a barrage of 3's which isn't exactly Boozer's specialty and once C-Los dunked the shooter got to tag in his taller dunking teammate.  Also, when Boozhound lost it meant that the school got some money from Gatorade.  So this isn't on the same level of some balding CEO beating Michael Jordan in one-on-one at a Jordan camp or a Brit in jeans and a v-neck sweater schooling Devin Harris on a drive to the hole.  This is all good fun.  Enjoy the last Boozer footage before he comes back from a broken hand in 2 months:



Thanks to Ball Don't Lie for the video.

Iguodola, Westbrook, Smith In-Studio

This could be one of the weirder NBA things I've seen in a while.  When Andre, Russell, and Josh visited Varney & Co. studios to talk about NBA 2K11 they never imagined having to defend themselves from this barrage.  I guess that's what you get when you go on Fox News.

Although it was tough for these guys to slip the question, I was impressed by Iggy's ability to drop a little knowledge on the viewers and not be taken for a fool.  The other guys did OK too.



Thanks to Free Darko for the vid.

Hakeem Helps Dwight

There's good reason to believe that D-How spent three days with Hakeem only because Adidas told him that it would be great for his image.  But the video below is still a lot of fun to spend nearly 9 minutes of your life.

I just love Hakeem's teaching style a passion for the game. Didn't we see this same type of video last year with Kobe getting some schooling from The Dream? If I remember correctly things seemed to work out pretty well for Kobe last year.



Thanks to True Hoop for the link to the vid.

NBA TV Commercial; The Season Is Almost Here!

Booblehead technology has taken quite a leap in this new NBA TV commercial.  This has heightened my anticipation for one of the most anticipated seasons in NBA history.  So stop anticipating and watch this hilarious commercial already:

New NBA Season, New Shoes

The official NBA basketball shoe has been released just in time for you to get your pair before the season begins!  At the price of $29.99 it's almost impossible to pass up this terrific value.  The NBA only puts its name and Jerry West logo on the finest quality of apparel.  Therefore I have little hesitation in recommending these kicks for your basket balling efforts

Golden State Warriors Win 50 Games

One thing the new owners didn't do was change ticket promotions away from "look who's coming in town".  I call this Loser Marketing.

Wages of Wins sees the Warriors winning (that's A LOT of w's) 50 games.  I am choosing to believe this guy over any other expert.  I don't care how they get to 50 wins (by stumbling into them) or who gets the credit (the fans for forcing Cohan out).  I just really want it to happen.

Joakim Noah's New Contract

Clownboy Joakim Noah is offically all growns up!  A 5 year $60 million deal by the Bulls all but says to the world that Chicago management thinks more of Noah than they do Carmelo Anthony.  His defense is solid, his hussle is great to watch, and his crazy attitude is something that his teammates actually rally around.  For however disturbing it seems to us on the sidelines, Noah's schtick works in the NBA.  Congrats to his crazy self.

Plantar fasciitis hobbled Joakim during the end of last season but the Bulls seem fine with his progress.  They also seem fine with allowing Noah to continue to wear his French brand Le Coq basketball shoes.  I guess his dad must have been sponsored by Le Coq back in his tennis days?  These look like they take a good foot and give it plantar fasciitis.