The dream is alive (photo courtesy SadFans.com)
Right. Because this column did not appear last weekend due to the tsunami of Eurobasket 2009 games, this week’s Best of The (Basketball) Net includes good stuff still enjoyable and written that long, long, 14 days ago in some cases. Enjoy!
The most discussed basketball event of the off-season – besides Dude Perfect and The Shot, that is – is without question the Mikhail Prokhorov-in-Brooklyn story. After first denying any such interest in buying the now-New Jersey Nets back in August, the news soon slowly leaked out that a crisp $1 bill from Prokhorov would get him majority ownership in the NBA franchise in exchange for investment in the swell new stadium in Brooklyn.
This prompted Prokhorov to craft a manifesto of sorts, proclaiming the significance of this acquisition and hinting at a few future plans. One reaction was immediate and surely universal: “Really? Mikhail Prokhorov uses *Live Journal*?”
The best European basketball-related piece that’s come down the pike in a long time is an extensive article entitled “The Frenchness of Tony Parker” written by Guillaume Deschamps at 48 Minutes of Hell. Talk about everything you’ve always wanted to know about Parker … whoa. A great, great piece on the man, the myth, and the symbiotic relationship with French basketball.
The ever-reliable, always-good heinnews.com is now running an interview with Rony Turiaf and a few thoughts from Zoran Planinic on the 2009-10 edition of CSKA Moscow.
On the issue of NBA teams disallowing their players from representing their home nation in international play, DimeMag.com comes down on the right side.
And here’s True Hoop asking “Should the NBA hire FIBA referees?” in response to the anticipated labor lockout. Sure! Why not?
Pooh Jeter signed with Unicaja Malaga this month, which is a good thing from the sometime-blogger; he was just starting to get a little antsy in this post at least. Jeter’s entry “The G.R.I.N.D.” over at Draft Express is worth a glance for both the prose and the video highlight reel from the 2009 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. Draft Express: Can we get more blogging from Jeter?
The interestingly-named Hardwood Paroxysm asks: Is Ricky Rubio’s NBA career fated to resemble Juan Carlos “The Running Floater of Doom” Navarro’s?
Maurice Ager, now of Cajasol Sevilla, kicked off a blog. Let’s see if he keeps it up, eh?
How Steve Nash spent his summer: Playing football – the non-American kind – with the likes of Baron Davis, Hasheem Thabeet, and some Vancouver Whitecaps. (I thought the ‘Caps went down with the NASL…)
And finally, amidst the continuing misery of the Big Apple’s basketball fans, LeBron James gets his first public offer to play for the New York Knicks.
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