The Navaro Issue
Plus: Blazer sale?
I was flipping through my DVD collection last night when I happened upon the Hardwood Classics series. Since I hadn’t watched the series in quite some time, I decided to pop in a copy of Below The Rim: Little Men of the NBA.
My favorite part of the disk is the vignette on Kenny “Mr Chibbs” Anderson (who Dave Zirin writes about in the latest issue of SLAM). Anderson was, quite simply, one of the most exciting players to ever set foot on the basketball court.
As the DVD shows, he was already a very bad man in high school, and he continued to embarrass defenders (I see you, Bobby Hurley) during his college days at Georgia Tech. It baffles me that so little of his exploits have found their way onto YouTube. The sooner this gets rectified, the better off we’ll all be.
Onto to the news & notes…
-FC Barcelona, Juan Navaro’s Barcelona team, has given the Washington Wizards until next week to either sign their guy or trade him.
-Former NBA player Ron Mercer turned himself in to the cops yesterday to face charges stemming from a strip club fight in April.
Police said Mercer’s friend, 34-year-old Robert Edward Johnson, was also charged with felony aggravated assault for stabbing a bouncer at the club in the same incident.
A fight broke out among the three men and Johnson admitted to police that he stabbed the bouncer in the right side and shoulder with a knife. Battle was not seriously hurt.
Another bouncer, William Beels Jr., was punched in the face by Mercer, police said.
(Don’t you just hate it when you go to a strip joint and end up stabbing a bouncer? Total buzzkill, man.)
-Since no one else was willing to pay him, rumor has it that Mickael Pietrus will return to the Warriors next season.
I’ve heard that Mickael Pietrus, lacking other realistic options, has all but decided to come back to the Warriors this season either for the one-year, $3.4-million qualifying offer or possibly for a two-year deal at about the same terms.
-Milwaukee Bucks owner Sen. Herb Kohl might have an opportunity to work on relations with some influential Chinese delegates in Washington, D.C. today.
-Could the Blazers be up for sale? This article in the NY Sun claims that a Michigan-based group is interested.
32 Responses to “The Navaro Issue”
Jul.26 at 9:18 am
Adrian says:
Summer sucks….bring on next season already
Jul.26 at 9:38 am
A-Money says:
The Bucks head office is making a run for dumbest in the league.
Jul.26 at 9:41 am
A-Money says:
Marcel, lucky for me strip clubs in Canada suck so I don’t habe to worry abt random stabbings.
Jul.26 at 9:45 am
Keith says:
Rumour has it that whilst Senator Herb Kohl is at the special olympics cermeony, he’ll be trying to get Andrew Bogut onto the Special Olympics basketball Team.
Jul.26 at 9:46 am
whooo! says:
no video link of beyonce falling?
Jul.26 at 9:48 am
ForzaMilan says:
ah, mercer…he used to be pretty good. IMO he had the game to be a long term asset, but lacked the demeanor that separates a kobe bryant from an eddie jones. anyway, the wizards are silly. you become great by pulling off high risk-high reward manuevers. only fools try the same thing over and over again and expect diffirent results (someone else famous said that). think detroit (sheed) miami (walker, jwil, payton and that oneal person) SA (parker and gino). i’ll take a great player over 5 above average ones any day.
Jul.26 at 9:54 am
Keith says:
Forzamilan, are you saying you’d rather have a great player rather than Shaq daddy? Or a great player over Parker? Hmmm…
Jul.26 at 9:58 am
Vitor says:
Keith, Forzamilan didn’t say that at all…he said that those teams became champions because they pulled the high risk / high reward moves (sheed, shaq, parker). I can’t agree more with him. You don’t build great teams around good players, you build them around superstars. nbadraft.net had an article some time ago about how a team must have at least one top 50 ever player to get a championship, and that most championship teams have a top 50 ever player AND another player who’s top 20 in the league in the moment of such championship. As far as i can remember, only the 70’s Sonics and 2005 Detroit were the exceptions to the top 50 player rule.
Jul.26 at 10:00 am
Keith says:
My mistake Vitor. It was the mention of ‘Antoine Blockhead Walker’ which put me off. Dude just plain sucks.
Jul.26 at 10:07 am
Mike C. says:
Keith: I understand how any mentioning of Antoine “Baby Steps before dunks or layups” Walker can completely throw off your entire day. I still wake up in shouting and pulling a dagger from under my pillow after nightmares of Isiah trading David Lee for Walker and justifying it by saying “we need more outside shooting”.
Jul.26 at 10:09 am
Mike C. says:
That was Pat Riley’s reasoning for going after Walker in the first place. I can’t disagree totally. Walker does provide any team plenty of outside shooting. Too bad he provides very little outside hitting. And his head looks like a Milk Dud.
Jul.26 at 10:28 am
Keith says:
Ha ha! Nicely said Mike C. I first realise I hated him when I saw that his draft cap didn’t fit his head. I then saw him in sunglasses indoors and thought he was arrogant. I then saw his game when he was at the Celtics…and he was actually okay. He did a good-ish job.
Still, things could be worse for him, he could be Ron Mercer.
Rick Pitino = Ruins careers.
Jul.26 at 10:33 am
Mooks says:
A-Money: Strip clubs in Canada suck? Obviously you haven’t been to Montreal.
Jul.26 at 11:00 am
A-Money says:
Mooks: I’ve been to MTL enough times but I seem to always get kicked out of the strip clubs there lol. FYI: getting kicked out wasn’t due to stabbing anybody
Jul.26 at 11:01 am
A-Money says:
After going to an Atlanta strip clubs….the ones up here aren’t saying much anymore.
Jul.26 at 11:07 am
Keith says:
A-Money, Mooks..I think you guys need to spend less time in the strip clubs. Just a suggestion.
Jul.26 at 11:11 am
Mighty Mo says:
i wish Kupchak were sacramento’s gm.then riles couldve traded walker for artest, while convincing kupchak that the year is still 2001.
Jul.26 at 11:16 am
A-Money says:
Keith: I am in strip club rehab.
Jul.26 at 11:37 am
Ben Osborne says:
Mooks in love with a stripper.
Jul.26 at 11:44 am
Keith says:
A-Money, I thought you were going to say you were writing from in a strip club now.
Jul.26 at 11:45 am
A-Money says:
Keith: I wish but unfortunetly I’m stuck at work
Jul.26 at 12:25 pm
Ghost of Johnnie Cochran says:
ray mercer would kick ron mercer’s butt
Jul.26 at 12:25 pm
Ghost of Johnnie Cochran says:
spurs will sign ime udoka
Jul.26 at 1:29 pm
Mo Charlo says:
Lousy strip club fights. You know, if they legalized fighting and use of deadly force in strip clubs, we wouldn’t have these problems. Furthermore, Sen. Kohl sweet-talking some Chinese diplomats could be seen as a conflict of interests. I hope this doesn’t end up with us trading nuclear secrets to the Chinese in exchange for Yi Ginandjuice staying with the Bucks.
Jul.26 at 2:09 pm
Shiz says:
Every time a bouncer gets snuffed, an angel gets its wings…That is all.
Jul.26 at 5:59 pm
orteezy says:
BLAZERSS NOT FOR SALE…CHECK OUT THE OREGON LIVE BLOG FOR MORE INFO…
Jul.26 at 6:00 pm
orteezy says:
by the way…i got my spurs issue of slam yesterday and was sooo pissed i almost refused to read it…except it was the best of the year in pics…booo spurs booo!
Jul.26 at 7:29 pm
Chukaz says:
So, when are the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, BETcats, and Memphis gonna join the D-League?
Jul.26 at 8:14 pm
Herbert Hardin says:
we’re gonna trade navaro for udonis haslem
Jul.27 at 5:06 pm
Wu-tang is for the children says:
JN is trash. Please don’t trade Haslem.
Jul.29 at 1:02 am
Warren G says:
WeeeW, I definitely have that dvd. And yer right, we need to give props to Kenny Anderson
Jul.30 at 1:59 am
Jalapeño says:
It would be a crying shame if Navarro never made it to the NBA. He’s an excellent player, one of my favorites. And that despite the fact that he’s destined to end up alongside David Schwimmer in a “separated-at-birth” comparison.