Ever wondered what happened to the lethal three point shooter named Dennis Scott. Here he is interviewing former teammate Shaquille O'Neal.
Enjoy, I did.
Joe Ingles had a Spanish Christmas to remember. Read below how.
Although many of us enjoyed a Christmas break, there were some Aussie hoopers that had no such luck.
Here is some information on how some of the Aussies are traveling abroad.
- Joe Ingles has had his Christmas wishes answered as he played big today. Ingles played all 40 minutes for his Spanish team Granada and rewarded his coach with a 23pt, 13reb and 6assist performance.
- St Mary's Gaels have been dubbed "AIS 2" and the argument can only get stronger. On Christmas Day the Gaels were in Hawaii eating turkey and taking on the locals.
The interesting story to me is, the Gaels played seven players in this game and five of them were Aussies. I doubt any USA college can lay claim to this type of stat.
Word out of Canberra is Gaels Head Coach Randy Bennett is asking AIS Head Coach Marty Clark to build the first ocean tunnel build from the nation's capital through to the Bay Area just to make the school's recruiting trips a little easier.
Back to the game, the best Aussie in the game was Ben Allen with 15pts and 3rebs as the Gaels got a victory over the Warriors.
- The Valparaiso Crusaders is home for two Aussies (Ryan Broekhoff, Cameron Witt) right now but their Christmas cheer was purely off court as they suffered a 20pt loss to Akron.
- David Anderson has been playing some solid basketball of the bench for the Houston Rockets. Today David and his team ran into a red hot Cleveland Cavaliers and lost by 25.
- Former Brisbane Bullet Spice Girl Wade "Gerri" Helliwell is still plying his trade in Europe. The lumbering centre plays in Greece for POAK as a backup big man.
Another familiar name playing over in Greece is Mark "Sparkie" Dickel. I would be interested to know what colourful language the Kiwi international has picked up in his time over there.
- Aussie, Swedish teammates Rhys Carter (1st in steals) and Neil Mottram (9th in rebounding) are performing solidly for their Gothia Basket squad.
- One time Boomer Daniel Kickett remains in Spain with Gran Canaria. Is still remains in a limited minutes role.
- Matt Nielsen and his Valencia team scrapped by with a 1 point win against Bilboa. "Nellie" turned in an all round performance with 12pts, 5rebs and 3assits.
- Former Perth Wildcat Alex Loughton was on the wrong end of a butt kicking. Loughton is currently playing in the Spanish Leb Gold league.
- Aron Baynes continues to play some solid basketball as he had 12pts and 4rebs for his Lietuvos Rytas coached by the legendary Rimas Kurtinaitis, heading into the Christmas break.
- Julian Khazzouh suffered a defeat at the hands of former NBL import Rod Grizzard in the top Israel league.
- Former Sydney Spirit forward Matt Knight is currently 6th (8.7/game) in rebounding in the Hungarian league.
I'm a little under the weather with my nose dripping like a leaky tap, but here is this week's Old School Sunday edition of You Tube highlights from the past. (Hope you like them Tom Abercrombie!)
Larry Johnson of the Grandma Ma fame gets top billing today. A little highlights package from his athletic Charlotte Hornets (remember them?) days.
Shawn Kemp was another high flying power forward. Him and Gary Payton made the Seattle Supersonics (remember them?) one of the most watchable teams during the 90's.
When talking of power forward with flair, I couldn't leave Charles Barkley off the list.
Two years ago Isiah Thomas and the New York Knicks went into a tail spin, due to various reasons. And to this day the legendary basketball franchise is still trying to recover from those bleak Knick days.
Most of the staff involved in this dark period have recovered and moved on with life, but for Jeff Nix who was a long time scout for the Knicks is still paying the price.
I found this article (below) by Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski a good read and it just makes you remember how so many people can be affected by some poor judgement made by others.
"Two years have passed on Jeff Nix’s testimony, and, still, so many old friends in the NBA don’t return his calls, his emails. It’s like he disappeared, like he’s dead to them. The irony is that no one liked Isiah Thomas, but he was still one of them, an NBA executive. Maybe they all think that Nix had an obligation to protect the New York Knicks president in that sexual harassment case anyway. Only, Nix refused. He told the truth under oath, and looking back, maybe it cost him a career in pro basketball.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo greets children participating in the Camouflage for Kids program.
“I guess the most disappointing thing is seeing all the people that I really knew and trusted, and thought I had a good relationship with, just putting me so far in their rear-view mirror,” Nix said the other day from his home just outside South Bend, Ind. “But do I regret what I did? Do I regret telling the truth? No, I’ve never second-guessed myself on anything. I knew what the consequences would be, and I can live with it.”
After 15 years as a scout, coach and front office-executive with the Knicks, Nix testified to witnessing and hearing of the harassment that Thomas had heaped on a co-worker, Anucha Browne Sanders. He told the truth to the lawyers in the deposition, repeated it in the trial and it turned out be some of the most credible and compelling testimony against the defendants, Madison Square Garden and Thomas.
Nix testified to witnessing Thomas hug Browne Sanders in a Garden corridor, and her pushing him away. When Nix asked her about what he had seen, she said that Thomas had told her that he loved her. Nix testified to conversations with Browne Sanders when she complained of “uncomfortable” and “unprofessional” encounters with Thomas.
For all the damage that Thomas’ regime leveled on the Knicks organization, you have to wonder: Who paid a steeper price than Nix? Browne Sanders won an $11.5 million settlement and landed an athletic administration job at the University of Buffalo. Most of Nix’s scouts still have jobs with new general manager Donnie Walsh. Thomas left in disgrace, yes, but with a $14 million buyout and a college coaching job at Florida International. Life goes on, but it’s been almost two years since Nix gave his deposition testimony and still nothing.
Around Madison Square Garden, the cutthroat culture demanded a code of silence, but Nix kept telling himself: How could I ever face my parents, how could I ever honor my small-town upbringing in Olean, N.Y., and protect my boss’ behavior with a lie? In Nix’s mind, this was true when he had a $250,000-a-year scouting director job with the Knicks, and it’s true now.
“A lot of people had the same opportunity to tell the truth there that I did, and they didn’t do it,” Nix said.
“They have to live with themselves. But, yeah, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I don’t ask myself why I can’t even get an email response back from people I had known a long time in the league. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it’s really disappointing. … Do I wonder if I’m blackballed in some way? Well, I hope not. I hope that’s not the case.”
Life is funny sometimes, and here’s the most amazing part of these past two years: Nix has never felt so needed, so worthwhile. Perhaps it spares him some bitterness, recedes some anger. Perhaps it’s taught him that things do happen for a reason, that a nasty ending in New York gave him a gateway to the most important work of his life.
Five years ago, Nix bought some tickets for an Air Force Academy game, where an old Knicks scout, Jeff Bzdelik, was the basketball coach and donated them to some military children at Fort Carson in Colorado. The kids had a blast and it got Nix to start thinking bigger: Let’s get more military kids, more coaches and schools involved with it. Eventually, they gave the program a name, “Camouflage Kids,” and started to hold summertime fundraisers in Indiana with big-time college coaches.
Cam Kids started to get busloads of military families who had a father or mother away overseas at war, and got them onto campuses for basketball games. Now, there are hundreds of kids going to games on dozens of campuses.
It costs Cam Kids roughly $25 a child for each game. Each one gets a T-shirt, a hot dog and popcorn and a private pregame talk with a college basketball coach. Mostly, they get some joy in what can often be a gray, grim world for them. Most military families couldn’t afford to take their kids to the games in these economic times. They keep growing the experience with campus tours and motivational speeches – anything to keep those kids’ spirits up, to keep them going until a parent comes home again.
Tom Crean hosts games at Indiana and does fundraisers for Nix. So does Tom Izzo at Michigan State and Mike Brey at Notre Dame. Nix has taken two trips to the Middle East to bring basketball to the troops. It doesn’t pay his bills now, but it pays back.
“If I didn’t have this,” Nix said, “I’d be going crazy now. There are just moments with Cam Kids that keep you going. We just had an event at Michigan State and I asked a little 6-year-old girl if she was excited about Santa coming soon, and she told me, ‘I’m more excited that my dad is coming home in two weeks,’ and it just hits you so hard the sacrifice that they are all making. We’ve had a chance to visit Iraq twice and Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] and I’ve never seen spirit like this: Guys with legs blown off, complaining that they’re not running the 50 fast enough with prosthetic legs. … Imagine that compared to the [bogus] complaints you hear every day working in the NBA.
“Hey listen, I had a great run with the Knicks. I was fortunate to make two NBA Finals, coach in an All-Star game. I got to coach at Notre Dame. I’ve gotten to do so much, but this by far is the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
This is a lousy time to be trying to find a job in the NBA because cost-cutting and video technology have decimated the scouting profession. Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy used to call Nix the best advanced scout in the league, but those jobs are fewer and fewer in the league anymore. Those who made good livings are begging for teams to assign them $100-a-game advance scouting assignments. Owners want a leaner bottom line and scouting positions are disappearing at an alarming rate.
Nix knows it, and that’s why he’s trying to find work in the college game, maybe administration, too. Crean has had Nix spend time with him at Marquette and now Indiana, and marvels over the way that Nix has thrown himself into Camouflage Kids the way that he did scouting and coaching.
“The one thing about Jeff Nix is when he commits to something, I really haven’t seen many peers in terms of his singular purpose in what he wants to accomplish,” Crean said. “The passion that he had in coaching and scouting, you just see it with our military families now. … What he’s done is absolutely remarkable.”
There are still tough days for Nix, still times he tries to understand what he did to become, in his words, “a black sheep in the NBA family.” Does it bother him that Isiah Thomas is coaching college kids now? “Yeah, it does,” he says. “It does…” It bothers him that he wrote to NBA owners and executives about possibly getting some donations of old summer league jerseys and worn-out sneakers to bring American soldiers in Iraq, and barely anyone beyond Washington Wizards assistant general manager Tommy Sheppard, Chicago Bulls vice president John Paxson, New Orleans Hornets coach and GM Jeff Bower and ex-Nets coach Lawrence Frank took the time to help him.
Sure, it all bothers Jeff Nix. Sure, it gnaws at him.
And, sure, sometimes that all hangs over him until he has one of those Saturdays with Camouflage Kids, when the bus comes rolling into campus from a military base and all those tired, young faces come flooding out, come pouring into a gymnasium or arena, and suddenly brighten. He thinks about the fathers overseas, and how thrilled they’ll be to hear about it, and all that angst can wash away fast.
And, mostly, he thinks about his parents in that tiny town in Western New York, about lessons learned long ago, and it always comes back to this: “I wouldn’t change how it’s all worked out for me, and what I had to do. …I’d say what I said all over again.
“I can live with the truth.”
What did you get for Xmas?
Just wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
I'm just spending some quality time with the family while I can so the blogging will be back in action tomorrow, plus I'm figuring out how to use the iPod touch.
All the best for the holiday season but don't forget there is NBL action on Boxing Day as the Melbourne Tigers take on the Wollongong Hawks at the Cage.
Once again Sunday has been a long travel days for the New Zealand Breakers. After touching down in Auckland and restocking the fridge I'm a little shagged and in need of beauty sleep.
Last week was the same scenario and I posted a few You Tube highlights from NBA players in the 80's.
Breakers young gun Tom Abercrombie loved it, so I've dug up a few more for Tom and everyone else to enjoy.
For mind this is still the best playoff game I have ever witnessed. Enjoy this Dominique Wilkins/Larry Bird match up. (I have watched this game so much the video tape has worn out.)
No one can ever get sick of this Tom Chambers dunk.
1984 Slam Dunk Championship
A little You Tube footage of Ty McKee being interviewed about his first Player of the Week award.
Besides the award, McKee talks about the return of Allen Iverson to Philadelphia and has he (McKee) been stealing soft drinks from a local burger joint? It's good to see the rookie import is still learning the ropes of being a pro as his teammates keep him on his toes.
McKee also took out this week's award making him the second player this year to take out the award on back-to-back weeks. Townsville Crocodiles Corey Williams was the other.
If McKee is to get his third consecutive award he will need to be on his game as the Hawks tackle Cairns and the Gold Coast on the road this weekend.
Australia or Serbia! Who you got Aleks Maric?
When you talk about the depth of the Australian Boomers frontcourt, names like Bogut, Andersen, Nielsen and Jawai roll off the tongue without a stutter.
But there is another Aussie "big" that is making a name for himself in Euroleague and just reminding Boomers Head Coach Brett Brown that all is not set in stone for the 2010 World Championship team.
Aleks Maric has just received his second Euroleague Player of the week award.
Maric who plays for the Serbian based Partizan club had 34pts and 16rebs as his team snuck past Turkish team Efes Pilsen in Round 7 of the second best basketball competition in the world.
But the most interesting point to come out of the success that Maric is currently enjoying, who will he support or play for in Turkey come World Championship time? (you may need google translator for the above article)
My understanding of the FIBA rule is Maric has to play for Australia because he has already represented the green and gold. But it seems if I translate the translator correctly, Maric may be able to suit up for Serbia if Basketball Australia gives him the ok. (I will endeavour to find out the ruling on this over the next few days.)
It would be a shame to see Maric suit up for someone else, but if Australia cannot find room on their roster for him, should you really be able to hold someone back from pursuing a dream?
I'm sure we will hear more about this over the next few days.
Mika Vukona (#7) and Pero Cameron (#11) will be joined by fellow Kiwi international Craig Bradshaw (back) on the Gold Coast.
Julius Hodge would be a great addition to the grape stomping circuit. There's plenty of room for him.
I cannot let the Julius Hodge stomp saga die completely without me having a say on the matter.
The city of Adelaide was still a buzz a week after Hodge and his teammates left town with the win and a new found dance step dubbed the Mahercarena.
In my sixteen years being involved as a player in the NBL, I have never seen one single incident hold court like this one has in the media.
Here is my take on the situation.
At a quick glance it seems that Hodge has over reacted during an emotional time, which was sealed with a victory. Walk off the court with your head held high and fans may have to rethink their opinion of Hodge as a person.
Instead Hodge seeked out the signature of Adelaide 36er legend Brett Maher and proceeded to stomp until his teammates dragged him from the arena.
This is where I become somewhat confused with the whole situation.
If Hodge had some built up emotion towards the club, why not seek out the 36ers logo that is in the same vicinity of the court and give me your best grape stomping technique?
In my opinion on both occasions when stomping he seeks out Maher's "John Hancock" on the hardwood.
I have no personal opinion of Hodge as a person or teammate but it seems there is some "beef" between Maher and Hodge. (Hodge would not appear on his former captain's weekly Internet show if he was present. Phil Smyth was brought in to help Kevin Brooks interview the New York native while Maher made a coffee.)
To me there is more to this story than meets the eye. My life experiences tell me the truth is somewhere in the middle.
I'm sure like any incidents such as this the whole truth will never be known, but my hats off to Hodge for playing the villain to the best of his abilities.
Sorry it has been a few days people but there was no WiFi available at our Adelaide hotel.
It has been a long day of travel back from the Croweater state so I need a little shut eye before I can come up with something half decent for you guys to read.
In the meantime, enjoy a little old school from the NBA.
Once we drop a few of these (dagger), the Breakers season will be back on track.
For the second straight week, we (the New Zealand Breakers) have found a way to cough up great second half lead to be caught with our pants down when the final buzzer sounds.
Now, for a team that has found a way to get themselves into these situations there are a couple of ways this can go for a team.
Obviously, any team we play in the near future will rightly be playing on this trend. Opposition coaches will reinforce to his team and throw out phrases such as "they will let us back in the game" and "stay with it, they will give us a chance".
This will happen for sure. Sport is just as much a mind game as it is about physical prowess.
But I like to look at it like this. We have played and out played the two best teams (Wollongong and Perth) over the past week for the majority of the contest. This shows me that we are doing something right, most of the time.
There is no getting away from the issue that we need to discover a way of closing out games but with the makeup of our roster, I can see this issue getting resolved rather soon.
We have game winners and several guys that can deliver the dagger in tight game situations. We actually have options, something not all teams posses.
Until we show the rest of the league that we can close out games, the opposition will always feel they are a chance.
What we have shown is that we can hang with the "top dogs" of the NBL. It would be a different story had we been losing by a large margin.
I feel we are right on the cusp of turning our form into a winning streak.
The good thing is we get another chance Saturday against the Adelaide 36ers on their home floor.
He was one of the hardest working players I have ever been associated with and the basketball world has lost a good one. Former Melbourne Tigers and Brisbane Bullets scoring machine Dave Colbert passed away on the 4th of December in a single car accident.
Colbert was a high school basketball coach at his Alma Mater, John Marshall High in Cleveland.
I used to love watching Colbert and fellow import James Bullock when they were teammates of Andrew Gaze at the Melbourne Tigers.
When he moved to the Bullets I began to hear stories about his legendary individual workouts. He was old school. He would be in an empty gym do shooting drills using chairs as defence and even getting the broom out imagining that Terry Dozier was closing him out.
Besides possessing a smooth jumper, the one thing that I remember the most about Colbert was, he loved to dunk of the wrong foot. Most righthanders will jump off their left leg to elevate upstairs, but "Colby" was at his best off his right.
I got to see his abilities first hand when in 1995 the Bullets called him back to fill in for injured import Chris Monk for a month.
Dave Colbert was truly one of the great scorers this league has seen.
RIP.
Here is a little footage of Colbert when he scored the winning bucket for the Dayton Flyers in an upset win over DePaul.
Wollongong Hawks import Tywain McKee continues to have a huge impact in his rookie NBL season and he has been rewarded with this week's NBL Player of the Week award.
This week it was a two horse race between McKee and Perth Wildcat Luke Schenscher.
McKee once again took over the fourth quarter of a game as he led his team to a come from behind win of the New Zealand Breakers.
While I'm on about Player of the Week honours, Aussie big man AJ Ogilvy has received the award in the USA. Ogilvy plays for the Vanderbilt Commodores (NCAA) in the highly ranked SEC.
Ogilvy averaged 22pts and 6rebs as the Commodores took care of Missouri and DePaul during the week.
After a slow start to the season, Ogilvy seems to have found his groove. Great timing as conference play is just around the corner.
A couple of NBA stories to wrap it up.
Joakim Noah and LeBron James got into a little jaw jacking the other day and LeBron just danced it off in the end.
And check out the intro and Allen Iverson's reaction on his return to the Philadelphia 76ers.
- Julius Hodge and his stomping antics (see post below) have him splashed across all media outlets (great for the NBL). I have just linked all things Julius Hodge below.
A Stern Warning Kevin Brooks Boti Nagy The Age Fox Sports
- Pero Cameron is rumoured to be the player/coach in New Zealand NBL for the Wellington Saints.
I come across this article that mentions that Cameron is playing "coy" about the coaching situation and he "can't hide".
- Although a lot of attention has centred around Julius Hodge, the Adelaide 36ers should never have given Hodge the opportunity to parade around after the final buzzer.
The 36ers is not the only team guilty of this behaviour of the past week. My own New Zealand Breakers, we found a way to cough up a seemingly unbeatable situation to the Wollongong Hawks.
Along similar lines the Cairns Taipans surrendered a lead during the last sixty seconds of play against the Gold Coast Blaze on the road.
The ladder will show this season is tighter than myself. These are the type of games that can come back to haunt a team come the end of the season when you are scrambling for wins to make the playoffs.
Make a note in your diary to see if any of these results cost a team a playoff spot.
- The Cairns Taipans are once again "under the pump" with their financial situation.
- League leading Wollongong Hawks will have to stay focused during the holiday season. they have a tough schedule during this period, so there will not be too much Christmas cheer for Cameron Tragardh and his teammates.
- According to Townsville Crocodiles Head Coach Trevor Gleeson, it was a poor third quarter that cost the Crocs a road victory in Perth.
- After an impressive double double (22pts, 12 rebs) against the Townsville Crocodiles, Perth Wildcat centre Luke Schenscher feels like he is running into some form.
- Spend sixty seconds with Wildcat Drew Williamson.
- Former NBA ref Tim Donaghy has released a book. Here are some passages taken from the book. Interesting reading if you are a conspiracy theorist.
- The latest installment of "Pull The Trigger" is below for your viewing.
I have to thank host Cameron Tragardh for the "shout out". And yes what else is there besides the Gonzaga Bulldogs, Canberra Raiders and Texas Holdem Poker?
Since I'm so experienced in this field, my advice for Trigger this week is, don't be like Andrew Gaze and sit on the fence. If you are going to have a crack at somebody, let's say Jesse Wagstaff, don't try and put the vehicle in reverse once the damage has been done.
Trigger, I'm sure you will hear from the Perth fans next time you head west.
I have to admit it is a better episode than the last.
Yeah, I did it. What you gonna do about it?
Here is the footage of emotional Melbourne Tiger Julius Hodge doing his version of, "if you're happy and you know it stomp your feet". (Usual villain Mark Worthington apologised to the Adelaide community for the behaviour displayed by temmate Hodge.)
The only trouble was it was on the signature of club legend Brett Maher.
It has been reported that Hodge believes it would have been his name on the court, had he of stuck around Adelaide. Big call but I like the confidence Julius.
Too bad the Tigers have visited the South Australian franchise twice this year already. That could have turned into a pay-per-view event.
Allen Iverson has returned to the place where he kicked off his NBA career, Philadelphia.
Very emotional about his return to Philly and hoops is a must see.
Perth Wildcats CEO Nick Marvin is trying to get the Perth crowd in the mood for tomorrow night's game out there in the wild west.
This is what he (Marvin) had to say via Twitter moments ago, "Corey (Williams) not sure who would get more heat from the crowd - himself or PC (Peter Crawford) who returns to the Jungle in green for the first time."
Their clash against the Townsville Crocodiles is the first time that Corey "Homicide" Williams returns after knocking the Wildcats out of the playoffs last year. Here is a refresher for those with short term memory loss.
While there is no doubting the temperature will be blistering on court tomorrow night, the Crocs cancelled their practice today due to the 37 degree temperature in the west today.
In other Wildcats news, former Crocs import Galen Young has been confirmed as the man who will fill their second import spot. The Wildcats will push Sam Harris back to his development role within the squad.
Young will not suit up for the Wildcats in the much anticipated clash against the Crocs tomorrow night.
I'm not sure what the viewer is suppose to get out of this Perth Wildcats video. I have never been the artistic type so I'm looking for help in finding out the angle the Wildcats were chasing.
Brad Robbins, Kevin Lisch and Stephen Weigh oiled up does nothing for me.
Please help me understand this art by dropping a note (and your explanation)in the comment section.
Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors will enter free agency when this current NBA season concludes.
Although most of the attention is directed towards LeBron James and his free agency situation, but Bosh will garner his far share of attention when the time comes.
Bosh discusses his feelings on the topic, but be careful, he may change his mind soon.
My tip is he ends up in Miami.
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