October 3, 2008 3:13 pm  |  43 Comments

Links: WNBA Friday

Fri-Day! Yes!

by Lang Whitaker

What, you have questions about the NBA? Sure, so let’s talk about energy and off-shore drilling. See, in my state, we…

Sorry…too much Palin last night.

Actually, I was going to do a thorough breakdown of The Pedowitz Report, but I couldn’t finish it today; Monday we’ll comb through that in The Pedowitz Retort. It’s entertaining, amazing and occasionally hilarious.

Instead, let’s check in on Muscle Watch 08!

Reader Alexander noticed that Michael Finley obviously misinterpreted things, as he actually lost 15 pounds over the summer.

Rajon Rondo added a measly 7 pounds of muscle this summer.

Other than that, nothing. So far, Ronnie Brewer is still in the lead, with an amazing alleged 25 pound gain.

Anyway, lots going on around the NBA. Let’s hit The Links…

QUOTES OF THE DAY
“I guess it’s good to have goals.” — Phil Jackson, when told Andrew Bynum plans on being an All-Star this season.

“I don’t think people understand how good of a shot-blocker Joel Anthony is.”  — Marcus Banks. No, Marcus, we know exactly how good he is. Or isn’t.

“I don’t handle pain well.” — Jared Jeffries.

“He’s not in shape. Lamar’s not ready to play. That’s a conditioning thing that still has to be found, but they’re starting to find their conditioning little by little … In our exit meetings with Lamar [in June], we talked about the fact that he hasn’t had an opportunity to work on his body in the off-season for the last three or four years. This was really an opportunity for him to strengthen his shoulder and do some things that were going to help him in a pivotal year for him. Not only for him, but for us.” — Phil Jackson, motivating.

THE LINKS…
• The Heat are so desperate at the point that they’re about to sign a point guard with one leg. And this will be considered an upgrade over the guys they already have under contract. Chris Quinn must be loving life right about now.

• I have not yet completed The Pedowitz Report but you can download the whole thing as a PDF here.

• So not only does the Oklahoma City Thunder have the worst logo and most disappointing uniform in the NBA, but thanks to the Thunder, the Warriors had to fire their mascot. I don’t altogether understand this — couldn’t the Warriors have just changed the name of their mascot? — but either way, let’s all blame Clay Bennett.

• Ryan Jones passed along this link and suggested that Joe Kinnear take over the Knicks. Fantastic interview.

• Here’s what my main man Howard Beck wrote:

“In a signature moment of a promising week, Jared Jeffries elevated and slapped away a layup attempt by Stephon Marbury late Thursday. The play exemplified Jeffries’s rise in the Knicks’ lineup, but it also ended his training camp, and his bid for a starting job.”

And Jeffries cracking his leg on the play is about as exemplary of the Knicks franchise and Jeffries’ career as I could imagine.

• Speaking of the Knicks, so they have this guy who’s is definitely talented, but he’s overpaid, gets in trouble off the court, is reported to be a bad teammate, has been mentioned in trade rumors and he gets crapped on by the local media, yet he’s still a member of the Knicks.

So I don’t get why everyone is only talking about Starbury being an issue when Zach Randolph, as I described him above, is still on the team?

• Spencer “Big Baby” Hawes decided to give in and he finally finished the running test everyone else on the Kings had to do. Reggie Theus threatened to put him in detention with Anthony Anderson.

• I hate to do this, I really do, but the stories coming out of Minnesota need to be addressed. There’s excitement! Optimism! Hope!

As Mike Miller told the Star Tribune:

“I like what I’ve seen so far, and we haven’t even thrown Big Al in the mix so far. I’m telling you right now: If we keep this core together, the future is really bright for this team.”

Yeah, Mike! Throw Al Jefferson into the mix…and watch Kevin Love go to the bench because they play the same position!

• A positive report on one of my darkhorse teams, the Charlotte BETcats.

• Finally, it’s WNBA Friday! Our man Joel Kimmel emerged from nowhere with this one:

I joked about doing it before, but I actually painted a portrait of Candace Parker. I wanted to paint a woman for once after painting so many basketball men for such a long time. And, I’ll admit, I started to pay attention a bit to the WNBA this season and even attended a couple games (which were really exciting and incredibly inexpensive). I used to poke fun at the league now and then, as a lot of people do, but I’ve noticed there are some serious ballers in the WNBA. Candace Parker seems to have helped bring some attention to the league and in doing so she has shed some light on the women’s game which seems to be improving.

I know it’s a pretty picture, not really manly or anything (lots of birds, flowers and butterflies), but with the same idea as my Brandon Roy piece from a while back it shows what seems to be a flourishing league with Candace Parker as their marquee player.

I don’t know if you want to post this, as it is WNBA related, but if you’d like to I’d be happy to see in online. I’ve been busy putting a book together lately of 31 portraits from the NBA Friday series. I think I told you about that a while back, or at least that I was thinking about doing it. I’ve received a couple in the mail from the publishing place and they look great, so I’ll let you know when they go up for sale online so you can check it out and maybe encourage SLAMonline readers to buy two copies each!

Sounds great, Joel. I’m in for a copy. And here’s Candace below. (Calm down Khalid.) Have a great weekend everyone, and catch you all on Monday…

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This story is filed under: Blogs, NBA, The Links, Womens

Read more like this in:

  • James The Baller Posted: Oct.3 at 3:26 pm
    first

  • Ken Posted: Oct.3 at 3:29 pm
    Nice work on Parker. She’s responsible for me trying to watch WNBA games again.

  • DP Posted: Oct.3 at 3:32 pm
    Mike Miller is such a funny guy. He thought the same thing when Darko came to Memphis. I like this guy.

  • Ryne Nelson Posted: Oct.3 at 3:35 pm
    Joel: I like the ‘flourishing’ concept in the portrait…Also, I’ll double your suggestion and get four copies! :-)

  • Lang Whitaker Posted: Oct.3 at 3:40 pm
    I like that Joel nailed her baby hair, too.

  • DP Posted: Oct.3 at 3:48 pm
    That’s her real hair? she fooled me.

  • Eboy Posted: Oct.3 at 3:50 pm
    Joel has a way with the ladies. Nice work. Oh and Lang, f you and your BETcats bandwagoning ass. :) One leg is better than no legs in a sea of double amputees.

  • Ron Posted: Oct.3 at 4:05 pm
    The WNBA needs more TnA. That’s why the rating suck. Imagine if the played in T.O. under armor style tight unis, that would at least get men interested in seeing something during the game.

  • chiqo Posted: Oct.3 at 4:06 pm
    how in god’s name is shelden williams tapping that? the real person, not the picture.

  • Diesel Posted: Oct.3 at 4:26 pm
    She must have a thing for guys that look like they have down syndrome. have you seen how close that dude’s eyes are? You could land a crop duster on his forehead.

  • truce Posted: Oct.3 at 4:34 pm
    She got the MVP and rookie of the year.

  • B. Long Posted: Oct.3 at 4:40 pm
    Sheldon Williams looks like the perfect Extra for the set of a Star Wars sequel.

  • Paps Posted: Oct.3 at 4:40 pm
    Joel: Hands down your best piece yet. Great use of the medium, comp, style etc…

  • TADOne Posted: Oct.3 at 4:46 pm
    My girl Candace. Word. Good work Joel.

  • what Posted: Oct.3 at 4:49 pm
    It’s too bad the Hawks traded Shelden, cuz I’m sure the Georgia Aquarium would have been happy to give him his own exhibit.

  • fluxland Posted: Oct.3 at 4:52 pm
    Bah! Joe has nothing on Sitton - the legend of all tirades. “When I tell ya to do summtin, do it. And if ya come back at me, we’ll have a right sort-out in here, alright? And you can pair up if ya like, and you can pick someone else to hold yer hand and you can bring yer f**kin’ dinner, cos by the time I’m finished with yer you’ll need it.” LE -GEND!! I hope Sam was saying something like this to Rafer and Vince.

  • TADOne Posted: Oct.3 at 4:56 pm
    I just read that Palin flow chart. That sh*t was hilarious and quite fitting.

  • Khalid Salaam Posted: Oct.3 at 4:58 pm
    This pic inspires me. F*ck it, i’m growing my baby hair back!

  • Z Posted: Oct.3 at 4:59 pm
    Shelden effin Williams. Wow. Makes me think about the time when Chris Rock hosted some kind of awards (MTVs I think) and he was talking about JD and Janet. His comment was : ‘damn! i had a chance!’

  • chiqo Posted: Oct.3 at 4:59 pm
    yeah, the flow chart got posted on facebook immediately.

  • Jack Posted: Oct.3 at 5:12 pm
    Oh my God. As a fan of Newcastle United (the team that Joe Kinnear is the interim manager of) and a fan of the Knicks…. Oh my God. You know the sad thing is, aside from all of the swearing, Kinnear was spot on about the media in Newcastle…..

  • fluxland Posted: Oct.3 at 5:13 pm
    That Joe interview makes me think it’s something similar to what a Bengtson-Paxon/Zeke exchange might sound like or Rubenstein-Sussman.

  • Myles Brown Posted: Oct.3 at 6:26 pm
    Hawks fans have little to no room to be making fun of the TWolves. Or any sports franchise for that matter.

  • tealish Posted: Oct.3 at 7:23 pm
    Sarah Palin! The flowchart had me laughing into a depression.

  • Lang Whitaker Posted: Oct.3 at 7:48 pm
    I still want to set up a Sussman/Rubenstein footrace…

  • Lang Whitaker Posted: Oct.3 at 7:50 pm
    No Myles, there’s always the L-Wolves!

  • BETCATS Posted: Oct.3 at 7:59 pm
    it was nice they wrote a postive article about my Cats, but ZERO mentions of Gerald Wallace. Thats like writting about the Hawks without mentioning Josh Smith or the Pistons without mentioning Tayshaun Prince

  • Cheryl Posted: Oct.3 at 10:17 pm
    “Baby hair” huh? I guess I won’t touch that.

  • hoodoo Posted: Oct.3 at 11:07 pm
    “So not only does the Oklahoma City Thunder have the worst logo and most disappointing uniform in the NBA…” Give me a break. You like the Blazers logo better? And the uniforms are the most disappointing in the NBA? Define disapointing. They’re certainly not the ugliest. The Wizards away uni has no competition in that category. The Hornets and Magic new uni are ugly too. It’s usually not good when teams get creative with their unis, and you would have been delighted to slam OKC if they’d tried to do something original too. I think they look great.

  • Sari Posted: Oct.3 at 11:44 pm
    hoodoo are u out of ur fuc#in mind? wen i see the okc logo the first thing that comes to my mind is a small n fuzzy carebear (yea i used to watch that wen i was young), i mean it looks like sumthin an 8 year old would wear, and yes the portland logo does look better… and im dead serious that they got the worst team unis by faaaar; the away wizard jerseys are sick, i mean their unis are so ugly that if a pitbull saw them hed b like: “dammm, i kno vick was fuc#in us up, but wat does he got against jerseys?” i couldve made better lookin jerseys and i aint jus sayin watever, im pretty sure any of us could have. oh yea and i aint even a seattle fan or anythin, those jerseys and logo are jus that ugly….

  • Sari Posted: Oct.3 at 11:45 pm
    o yea and lang y the hate vs joel anthony? wat u dun like us mtl ballers?

  • hogfan Posted: Oct.4 at 2:11 am
    Lang, Sekou Smith reported a couple of times that the Hawk’s Soloman Jones gained 25 lbs this summer.

  • Cub Buenning Posted: Oct.4 at 9:59 am
    Rookie of the Year and MVP???
    That’s some Fred Lynn type stuff.
    My daughter needs a Candace jersey pronto.

  • RV Posted: Oct.4 at 12:20 pm
    there’s planty of ugly uniforms in the NBA, but at least they were trying TOO HARD, the Thunder obviously wanted to wrap things up and head to lunch because there’s no way much thinking goes into a blank uniform with a line or two. Its like they did it themselves using the paint program. I’ve seen better high school uniforms.

  • Caleb Posted: Oct.4 at 6:46 pm
    The OKC logo is the most generic piece of crap I’ve ever seen. And the new Hornets and Magic Jerseys are both rockin… especially the Hornets.

  • Lang Whitaker Posted: Oct.5 at 1:51 pm
    @hogfan: You can’t trust Sekou Smith. (I wrote that just for Sekou.)

  • riggs Posted: Oct.5 at 3:21 pm
    my girl candace, thats wifey material right there.

  • floe Posted: Oct.5 at 6:56 pm
    yo RV are we doing another slam league this year or what ?

  • Dma Posted: Oct.6 at 11:32 am
    can we all agree candace parker is better than anthony parker?

  • MENDEL Posted: Oct.6 at 1:10 pm
    That was very very very refreshing. It has been a couple years since I got some good wholesome refreshing links, almost brkedaon to back in the day style. The onlyu thing missing was some off beat stuff but hey it was soothing anyway. Thank you.

  • meli Posted: Oct.9 at 10:32 am
    that is nice!! you should do more WNBA portrait’s!!!

  • mesha Posted: Oct.17 at 9:29 pm
    Oh Nicee portrait Joel. it really looks awesome!!! Good Job. She looks quite good.

  • Carl Posted: Nov.6 at 12:52 pm
    I love the portrait of Candace Parker, but please put her on the cover of SLAM, make a full cover like the Dwight Howard, Superman one that would be great. She is AMAZING, ROY & MVP in the same year… who can say they did that?

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