Lamar Odom on the lockout year spent in Dallas: ‘Basketball just wasn’t there for me at that time’ (Ball Don’t Lie)

 LA Clippers  No Responses »
Dec 052012
 

Lamar Odom won’t have to visit Dallas on Wednesday night, he won’t be faced with the indignity of playing his former team in Texas until late March, but he and his Clippers will face the Mavericks in Los Angeles on Wednesday and the press has already started to round up quotes from the forward in anticipation. The Mavs dealt for Odom a year ago in the hopes that his all-around game would serve as the perfect placeholder for a team rebuilding on the fly following its 2011 NBA title, and instead Odom turned in a one-year drop off for the ages. Lamar didn’t even make it back to the postseason with the Mavs, while they attempted to defend their title, as the team sent the out of shape defending Sixth Man of the Year home after tiring of his lackluster play.
[Related: Where do Clippers stand in latest NBA Power Rankings? ]
With the Mavs and one-time combatant Mark Cuban in town, Odom has responded with an expected — if still somewhat worrying — shrug of the shoulders. From the Los Angeles Times :
When asked after practice whether he had any emotions about playing Dallas, Odom said, “Naw.”
Why?
“It was a blur, man,” Odom replied. “I wasn’t there either, like mentally.”
“The people are nice,” Odom said of Dallas. “Great fans.
“Sometimes we make pit stops in some places. I remember the people and the city. Basketball just wasn’t there for me at that time.”

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Mark Cuban slams the NBA for sham energy bracelet licensing deal (VIDEO) (Ball Don’t Lie)

 Sacramento  No Responses »
Nov 262012
 

Around sports, there’s a trend of athletes wearing special bracelets and necklaces that purport to unlock previously locked energy potential via holograms, ions, and other cool-sounding methods. Unfortunately, the science behind these products is quite dubious, if not absent altogether. One of the biggest energy bracelets, Power Balance, even paid a $57 million out-of-court class-action settlement after consumers alleged rampant false advertising regarding the bracelets’ capabilities. That payment forced them into bankruptcy, but they’re still making products . Reach for those profits in any way you can, guys!
Despite these issues, the NBA has gladly taken on Power Balance as a business partner. Although the company no longer lends its name to the home arena of the Sacramento Kings, it does make versions of its bracelets emblazoned with the logos of all 30 NBA teams. Naturally, that means the league also wants players to wear the bracelets as a form of advertisement.
Outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner isn’t having it. In a video posted to his YouTube account (via PBT ), Cuban spoke out about the junk science behind the bracelets, threw them into the trash, and asked the NBA what it could possibly have been thinking. Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com has more :

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Cuban ‘going to boo the hell out of’ Kidd

 New York  No Responses »
Nov 092012
 

In August on a Dallas sports radio talk show, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he was “pissed” about Jason Kidd bolting to New York.

Before the Mavs-Knicks game Friday night, Cuban didn’t feel any different.

“I’m going to boo the hell out of him and hope he has about 15 turnovers,” he said while addressing a group of reporters courtside. “I’ll (boo) happily and with a lot of warmth.

“He plays for the Knicks. I don’t care about the Knicks, other than we want to beat their a– like we do every other team.

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Chandler, Kidd reflect on Mavs break up

 New York  No Responses »
Nov 082012
 

GREENBURGH — Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler want to make one thing clear: they’re both happy to be playing for the Knicks this season.

But Kidd and Chandler, both ex-Mavericks, believe that they could have done something special in Dallas if they decided to stay with Mark Cuban’s club.

“I’m very happy with this situation, but to speak past tense I definitely think that we had an opportunity to go back-to-back and unfortunately things were blown up,” Chandler said on Thursday.

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Mark Cuban heckles former Mavericks center Brendan Haywood, now on the Bobcats but still cashing Mark’s checks (Ball Don’t Lie)

 Charlotte  No Responses »
Nov 052012
 

At first glance, you kind of want to rip Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban for heckling opposing players. Mark’s in his mid-50s, now, and has been associated with the NBA as a team owner for nearly 13 years. He doesn’t exactly have to show up to his bench-side seat in a suit and clap politely, but shouldn’t some decorum have taken over by now?
Eh, forget that. It’s probably not how we would have acted in the same situation, but Cuban is well within his rights to give former Mavs center Brendan Haywood a bit of stick during a recent performance in Charlotte that bore no resemblance to Haywood’s iffy three-year run with the Mavs. From the Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell :
Haywood had a good night — 14 points and 11 rebounds — and he got a little playful with the crowd. After hitting a fadeaway jump shot, he back-pedaled to the defensive end while making the finger-to-the-lips “shhhhhh” signal.
I laughed because it was the most swagger I’d seen from a Bobcat since Stephen Jackson departed. And it was fun, not combative.
Somebody in the stands responded well, though. During the next timeout a fan shouted, “Hey Haywood! It would have taken you a month to score 12 points last season!”
I asked Haywood about all the joshing post-game. He told me the real trash-talker was from Mavs owner Mark Cuban, who shouted something at him every time he took a shot.

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