URI:
   DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Chicago Bulls Central
  HTML https://chicagobullscentral.createaforum.com
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       *****************************************************
   DIR Return to: Chicago Bulls Central
       *****************************************************
       #Post#: 231--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Around The NBA
       By: Phill23 Date: November 12, 2011, 3:23 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Krause won't get in.
       #Post#: 238--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Around The NBA
       By: Phill23 Date: November 26, 2011, 3:09 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Tentative NBA labor deal reached
       NBA owners and players reached a tentative agreement early
       Saturday to end the 149-day lockout and hope to begin the
       delayed season on Christmas Day.
       Neither side provided many specifics but said the only words
       players and fans wanted to hear.
       "We want to play basketball," NBA commissioner David Stern said.
       After a secret meeting earlier this week, the sides met for more
       than 15 hours Friday, working to try to save the season. This
       handshake deal, however, still must be ratified by both owners
       and players.
       Stern said it was "subject to a variety of approvals and very
       complex machinations, but we're optimistic that will all come to
       pass and that the NBA season will begin Dec. 25."
       Barring a change in scheduling, the 2011-12 season will open
       with the Boston Celtics at New York Knicks, followed by Miami at
       Dallas in an NBA Finals rematch before MVP Derrick Rose and
       Chicago close the tripleheader against Kobe Bryant and the
       Lakers.
       President Barack Obama gave a thumbs-up when told about the
       tentative settlement after he finished playing basketball at
       Fort McNair in Washington on Saturday morning.
       The league plans a 66-game season and aims to open training
       camps Dec. 9. Stern has said it would take about 30 days from an
       agreement to playing the first game.
       "All I feel right now is 'finally,' " Dwyane Wade told The
       Associated Press.
       Multiple league sources confirmed to ESPNLosAngeles.com's Dave
       McMenamin that the NBA All-Star Game would be held in Orlando as
       scheduled, though a date has yet to be finalized.
       Just 12 days after talks broke down and Stern declared the NBA
       could be headed to a "nuclear winter," he sat next to union
       executive director Billy Hunter to announce the deal.
       "We thought it was in both of our interest to try to reach a
       resolution and save the game and to be able to provide the kind
       of superb entertainment the NBA historically has provided,"
       Hunter said.
       A majority on each side is needed to approve the agreement. The
       NBA needs votes from 15 of 29 owners. (The league owns the New
       Orleans Hornets.)
       Stern said the labor committee plans to discuss the agreement
       later Saturday and expects them to endorse it and recommend to
       the full board.
       The union needs a simple majority of its 430-plus members. That
       process is a bit more complicated after the players dissolved
       the union Nov. 14. Now, they must drop their antitrust lawsuit
       in Minnesota and re-form the union before voting on the deal.
       Because the union disbanded, a new collective bargaining
       agreement can be completed only once the union has re-formed.
       Drug testing and other issues still must be negotiated between
       the league and the players.
       "We're very pleased we've come this far," Stern said. "There's
       still a lot of work to be done."
       Participating in the talks for the league were Stern, deputy
       commissioner Adam Silver, Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman
       of the labor relations committee, and attorneys Rick Buchanan
       and Dan Rube.
       The players were represented by executive director Billy Hunter,
       president Derek Fisher, vice president Maurice Evans, attorney
       Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy.
       Owners locked out the players July 1, and the sides spent most
       of the summer and fall battling over the division of revenues
       and other changes owners wanted in a new collective bargaining
       agreement.
       They said they lost hundreds of millions of dollars in each year
       of the former deal, ratified in 2005, and they wanted a system
       where the big-market teams wouldn't have the ability to outspend
       their smaller counterparts.
       Players fought against those changes, not wanting to see any
       teams taken out of the market when they became free agents.
       "This was not an easy agreement for anyone. The owners came in
       having suffered substantial losses and feeling the system wasn't
       working fairly across all teams," Silver said. "I certainly know
       the players had strong views about expectations in terms of what
       they should be getting from the system. It required a lot of
       compromise from both parties' part, and I think that's what we
       saw today."
       But it was never easy. The day required multiple calls with the
       owners' labor relations committee, all the while knowing another
       breakdown in talks would mean not only the loss of the Christmas
       schedule, but also throw the entire season in jeopardy.
       Stern said that despite some "bumps" Friday evening, "the
       greater good required us to knock ourselves out and come to this
       tentative understanding."
       He denied the litigation was a factor in accelerating a deal,
       but things happened relatively quickly after the players filed a
       suit that could have won them some $6 billion in damages if the
       court ruled the lockout was illegal.
       "For us the litigation is something that just has to be dealt
       with," Stern said. "It was not the reason for the settlement.
       The reason for the settlement was we've got fans, we've got
       players who would like to play and we've got others who are
       dependent on us.
       "And it's always been our goal to reach a deal that was fair to
       both sides and get us playing as soon as possible, but that took
       a little time."
       And led to the second shortened season in NBA history, joining
       the 1998-99 lockout that reduced the schedule to 50 games. This
       time the league will miss 16 games off the normal schedule.
       #Post#: 241--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Around The NBA
       By: Phill23 Date: December 8, 2011, 9:17 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Source: Chris Paul to Lakers in peril?
       ESPN.com news services
       The Los Angeles Lakers trade to obtain New Orleans Hornets point
       guard Chris Paul for Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom has hit a snag,
       sources tell ESPN.com's Marc Stein.
       Sources said that a group of NBA owners, assembled in New York
       for the ratification of the league's new labor pact with the
       players, protested vigorously that the league-owned Hornets were
       trading Paul to the star-studded Lakers and convinced NBA
       commissioner David Stern to intervene.
       "The deal is off," one source told ESPN.com.
       The Houston Rockets were the third team in the trade and would
       have obtained Gasol from the Hornets in return for Luis Scola,
       Kevin Martin, Goran Dragic, and a 2012 first-round pick that
       Houston received from the New York Knicks, sources said.
       Paul can opt out of his current contract with New Orleans after
       this season, and the Hornets have been fielding trade offers in
       an effort to acquire new players for the star guard rather than
       letting him walk in free agency.
       Paul averaged 15.8 points and 9.8 assists last season.
       The Rockets, who lost Yao Ming to retirement, coveted the 7-foot
       Gasol, while the Hornets didn't, a source told ESPN The
       Magazine's Ric Bucher.
       Furthermore, the Rockets have the rebuilding pieces Hornets
       general manager Dell Demps wanted in a trade for Paul -- namely,
       young talent such as Martin and the 2012 first-round draft pick,
       the source told Bucher.
       Speaking earlier Thursday, Hornets president Hugh Weber said the
       franchise has been preparing for months for the possibility that
       Paul would resist signing an extension in New Orleans, a move
       that would all but force a trade.
       "We've been preparing for this moment for over a year and it's
       not like we were surprised or caught flat-footed," Weber said.
       "This is not a surprise. This is not something where we've been
       sitting around waiting to see what would happen. We've been
       managing this and taking control of the situation as best we can
       and we're going to have a team that we believe achieves that
       objective of making this community proud."
       While he never said publicly that he wanted to play in a larger
       market, he did say before last season that he wants to play for
       a team that has a chance to contend for a title right away --
       something he should get if he joins Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.
       The Hornets have been owned by the NBA since last December, when
       the league bought the club from founder George Shinn.
       Despite the lockout and uncertainty over Paul's future, fan
       support has been building in New Orleans, where the team has
       advertised their season-ticket drive as an effort to lure a
       permanent local buyer who is committed to keeping the team in
       Louisiana.
       The Hornets have increased their season ticket base from a
       little more than 6,000 last season to just over 10,019 as of
       Thursday afternoon.
       Owners and players ratified a new collective bargaining
       agreement Thursday, the final step to ending the five-month
       lockout and paving the way for training camps and free agency to
       open Friday.
       There was hope in small markets like New Orleans that after the
       lockout it would be easier for teams to hold on to their biggest
       stars. However, that apparently is not the case.
       If this deal is approved one of the NBA's biggest stars from the
       league-owned small-market Hornets will be moving to one of the
       NBA's largest, richest markets.
       Paul was drafted by the Hornets fourth overall out of Wake
       Forest in 2005.
       #Post#: 273--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Around The NBA
       By: Phill23 Date: February 1, 2012, 3:30 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Kenyon Martin Choosing New Team Soon?
       Kenyon Martin is expected to decide by this weekend which NBA
       team he’ll join, league sources told Yahoo! Sports. The Los
       Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat, San Antonio
       Spurs, Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks have expressed interest
       in signing the veteran forward.
       Martin signed with Xinjiang Gyang Hui of the Chinese Basketball
       Association, but has since returned to the United States. He’s
       not eligible to sign with an NBA team until Xinjiang’s season
       ends, which could be as soon as Feb. 16.
       Martin, 34, has visited with as many as five teams over the past
       two weeks and has another meeting scheduled Wednesday, sources
       said. He averaged 8.6 points and 6.2 rebounds in 48 games with
       the Nuggets last season. Martin wants to join a winning team
       that gives him consistent minutes
       #Post#: 274--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Around The NBA
       By: Phill23 Date: February 1, 2012, 3:31 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Nets’ Williams Considers Picking Up Option
       Of all the possibilities for Deron Williams this summer, the one
       that has rarely been brought up is the option that would pay him
       the most money.
       It’s been assumed Williams wouldn’t pick up his one-year, $17.8
       million option because he could get a four or five-year deal if
       he becomes a free agent. But the point guard didn’t rule it out
       when asked Monday.
       “Yeah (picking up the option is something I’m considering). I
       don’t know what I’m going to do,” he told the Daily News. “At
       the end of the season, I’m going to figure out what’s going on,
       I’m going to sit down with my agent and look at every option
       possible.”
       #Post#: 275--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Around The NBA
       By: Phill23 Date: February 1, 2012, 3:33 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Toronto May Extend Offer to Chandler
       When Wilson Chandler returns from China in the next few weeks,
       he will be a restricted free agent. The Denver Nuggets can match
       any offer that Chandler receives, but that won’t stop the
       Toronto Raptors from pursuing the 24-year-old.
       Toronto is expected to make a large offer to Chandler, according
       to multiple sources close to the situation. The Raptors will
       have to wait for the Chinese Basketball Association’s season to
       end before they can attempt to sign the small forward.
       Chandler’s team, Zhejiang Guangsha, is on pace to make the
       playoffs, which means he won’t be available until Zhejiang is
       eliminated from the postseason.
       #Post#: 276--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Around The NBA
       By: Phill23 Date: February 1, 2012, 3:34 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Brown: ‘Just Conversation’ on Arenas
       Lakers coach Mike Brown acknowledged the Lakers’ inquiry about
       free-agent guard Gilbert Arenas but downplayed the prospects,
       noting there was neither a workout or nor any past Arenas video
       reviewed by Brown.
       “It’s just conversation,” Brown said Tuesday. “We’ve had
       conversations about a lot of players. There are a ton of players
       that we’ve had conversations with.”
       #Post#: 277--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Around The NBA
       By: Phill23 Date: February 1, 2012, 3:36 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Maloof Denies Having Issues with Petrie
       Kings co-owner Gavin Maloof sat courtside before tipoff against
       the Warriors at Oracle Arena on Tuesday night and expressed
       support for his head basketball decision maker and head coach.
       Maloof said any reports the team is considering replacing
       basketball president Geoff Petrie are “totally false.”
       “Geoff’s always been a part of the family,” Maloof said. “We’re
       in a rough stretch, but so what? Things will turn around.
       “I know sometimes the record doesn’t indicate (improvement), but
       I like the way he’s developing our young players,” Maloof said.
       “I like the way he’s working with them and helping them learn
       the science of the game. We’re really, really high on Keith
       Smart.
       #Post#: 281--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Around The NBA
       By: AndyMacFAIL Date: February 3, 2012, 1:00 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
  HTML http://i2.cdn.turner.com/nba/nba/multimedia/photo_gallery/1202/allstarjerseyunis2012/images/rose-jersey.jpg
       East Starters: No Rest for the Awsome
       If ever there was an All-Star Weekend designed for first-timers,
       it is the one coming up at the end of this month in Orlando. The
       prospect of having four consecutive days off – or five or, for
       some teams, as many as six – ought to shimmer like a desert
       oasis and beckon to any NBA veteran or even a
       been-there-done-that youngster who has had a previous All-Star
       taste and now mostly needs a nap.
       Savvy NBA fans – by that, of course, we mean you – understood
       this and voted for their rivals’ top guys to further grind them
       through a hectic weekend of exertions, obligations and
       distractions on the road. Alas, casual fans – they know who they
       are – went more traditional, clamoring for their favorite
       marquee guys already doing the heaviest lifting.
       more at:
  HTML http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2012/02/02/east-starters-no-rest-for-the-awesome/
  HTML http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2012/02/02/east-starters-no-rest-for-the-awesome/
       #Post#: 282--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Around The NBA
       By: Phill23 Date: February 3, 2012, 11:07 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Love it!!!
       *****************************************************
   DIR Previous Page
   DIR Next Page