Archive for January 15th, 2010

WATERCOOLER CHAT: ARENAS SUSPENDED, CAVS TANKED SEASON

BASKETBALL

90040591RM026_Washington_WiIn the NBA, Gilbert Arenas has been suspended for pulling out a gun in practice.  This extends beyond the suspension and has been ruled a felony.  What does this mean?  Well, essentially, the Wizards are hopefully going to try to void Arenas’ contract.  They signed a monster deal with Arenas in the off-season, but they really shouldn’t have.  He’s getting old, and is clearly not the same guy he used to be.  Voiding contracts is very difficult in the NBA, but the Wizards are hoping to shed themselves of Arenas and move on.  But they need the money that is currently in Arenas’ pocket if they want to rebuild.Elsewhere in the NBA, a very interesting nugget of history.  Former Cleveland Cavaliers coach John Lucas publicly stated yesterday that the Cavs tanked their 2002-2003 NBA season so they could put themselves in prime position to draft LeBron James.  They wound up winning the lottery, and we’ve seen how valuable LeBron has been to Cleveland.  But to hear a coach publicly admit that they tanked is quite shocking. Lucas said that the team’s owner traded away all their competitive players before the end of the season.  “We didn’t have a chance”, Lucas stated.  Cleveland needed someone as marketable as LeBron and badly because Lucas said it’s really hard to convince marquee free agents to play in Cleveland. 

Finally, some more crazy NBA news.  Blake Griffin was drafted #1 overall this season by the Los Angeles Clippers.  But many feared that joining the Clippers is essentially a curse.  Historically that has not boded well for celebrated rookies.  Well, at the beginning of the season, Griffin was told he’d miss the first 6 weeks.  They wanted his knee to heal.  Yesterday, however, the Clippers announced that Griffin would not play this season at all.  Apparently, he’s ok, but they just want to be safe, and bring him back full strength next season.  Plus, he’s more marketable next year with a fresh start and most likely another strong draft pick to throw in the mix.  This season is pretty much a wash.  Let’s hope that Griffin doesn’t disappoint. 

 

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