Culture of Hoops

News and Rumors Week of 01.05.2014

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Baller Mind Frame’s News & Rumors are quick blurbs mixed with personal opinion from our very own Aaron Lanton. Check it often and absorb the NBA goings-on. For more news and rumors visit our archives – June 2013 I July 2013I August 2013I September 2013I October 2013 I November 2013

1/8/2014 – Ex-NBA player caught stealing from Air Force base: Former Phoenix Suns forward Richard Dumas was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service and charged with eight counts of organized retail theft. According to police, the 44-year-old Dumas is accused of stealing nearly $800 worth of merchandise from the Luke Air Force Base’s exchange store. Items taken included cigarettes, alcohol, food items, DVDs and shoes, according to police. Dumas played five years in the NBA. He was named to the All-Rookie Second Team in 1993, helping take the Suns to the NBA Finals that year. USA Today

1/8/2014 – Lakers waive Shawne Williams to maintain roster flexability: Shawne Williams was waived Monday, but the Lakers don’t plan on filling his roster spot any time soon. Unless, of course, another guard is injured. Lakers were down to 14 players, one below the NBA maximum, after cutting Williams before his contract became guaranteed the rest of the season. They want to maintain roster flexibility and will not add free-agent forward Hedo Turkoglu because they think his skills are declining. And, of greater importance, they have two healthy guards, Kendall Marshall and Jodie Meeks. There’s a just-in-case wariness permeating the Lakers while Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Steve Blake, Jordan Farmar and Xavier Henry sit out with injuries. There are still a few weeks before any of them return, with the possible exception of Henry. Nash is targeting a Jan. 28 return against Indiana. He has played only six games this season because of nerve damage in his back but was seen working out individually at the Lakers’ shoot-around Tuesday. Bryant is expected back shortly after Nash, his approximate six-week healing period for a fractured knee ending in late January or early February. Los Angeles Times

1/8/2014 – NBA shoelace wars: J.R. Smith was interrogated by the NBA concerning Sunday’s shoelace caper, but got only a “warning’’ and no fine, according to an industry source. “The league told him it can’t happen again,’’ the source said. Yet Smith was still up to his old mischievous ways Tuesday against Detroit, when cameras caught him with his hand near Pistons center Greg Monroe’s sneaker as they waited for free throws in what appeared to be goofing around. Monroe stepped away. “I wasn’t really too concerned about [getting fined],’’ Smith said after the game. When asked if he understood the message from the league, Smith said, “Yes and no. I’m not really supposed to talk about it.’’ Smith told the NBA during his meeting Rockets center Dwight Howard pulled the shoelace stunt on him in Houston on Friday. Smith, however, got caught and Howard didn’t. Smith wouldn’t confirm the Howard incident Tuesday. ‘“I’m not saying that,’’ he said. New York Post

1/8/2014 – Damian Lillard drops 41 in loss: The record book will show that Sacramento defeated Portland 123-119 at Sleep Train Arena on Tuesday, but anyone who saw the game won’t forget what Damian Lillard pulled off – or almost pulled off. The Blazers point guard scored a career-high 41 points, including 26 in the fourth quarter, breaking Portland’s franchise record for most points in any quarter. “My teammates, they just keep encouraging me because they know with threes, you can put points on the board fast,” Lillard said. “If I make a few, I can get going.” The Oregonian

1/8/2014 – Nuggets get Gallinari discount: As Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari continues to work toward a return from a knee injury, his time missed is approaching a level for which the team will get some of his money covered. The magic number is 41. If Gallinari misses 41 consecutive regular-season games — and this goes back to last season — an NBA insurance policy will pay for part of his salary per game in every contest after that. Gallinari has missed 40 consecutive regular-season games, dating to the final six games of last season, as he rehabs a left ACL injury. Starting Saturday in the Nuggets’ home game against Orlando, the insurance policy pays for 50 percent of his base salary per game, meaning the Nuggets will get about $61,800 covered each night he does not play until he returns. Gallinari is making more than $10 million this season, the second of a four-year contract. Denver Post

1/8/2014 – Metta World Peace has blood-spinning procedure on both knees: Metta World Peace confirmed he had a blood-spinning procedure on his troublesome left knee on Monday, while also admitting that he had the same technique —platelet-rich plasma therapy — on his right knee as a precautionary measure and that his knees feel good after the procedure. “I did both knees because I didn’t want to be off balance,” World Peace said before Tuesday’s game. “And I know it’s going to help me a little bit, and if it did, I didn’t want to come back off balance and hurt my other knee.” New York Daily News

1/8/2014 – Ray Allen talks “He Got Game” sequel: Jesus Shuttlesworth returns to the court this week. Jesus Shuttlesworth may return to the big screen in the future. Related StoriesMiami Heat guard Ray Allen, who played the Shuttlesworth role in the 1998 movie “He Got Game,” says he and filmmaker Spike Lee have spent time over the last couple months discussing a sequel and are currently throwing ideas back and forth about the project. “Sequels to most movies are always fluff and not as good as the first,” Allen said Tuesday night before the Heat played the New Orleans Pelicans. “But it’s something we’ve been talking about for the last couple months. If we get a really good story line and are able to bring everybody back, then it would be something worth doing.” Yahoo! Sports

1/8/2014 – Nelly walked Bradley Beal to elementary school: Most know him as Nelly, platinum-selling rapper and part owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. Bradley Beal also knows him as Cornell Haynes, the family friend who would occasionally walk him to elementary school before hitting it big. Nelly was a former star athlete at University City High in suburban St. Louis, where Beal’s mother, Besta, was a physical education teacher and athletic director. So, Beal can’t remember the first time he met Nelly, only that it was “ages ago.” “I knew who we was, but I didn’t know,” Beal said of the now 39-year-old Nelly. “He used to walk me to school sometimes, when I was a little kid. He wasn’t as big as he is now, but he was an up-and-coming rapper and eventually ‘Country Grammar’ came out” in 2000. Washington Post

1/8/2014 – Vlade Divac’s father dies in car crash: Serbian police say the father of former NBA center Vlade Divac has died in a car crash. Police say on Wednesday that 77-year-old Milenko Divac died at a hospital after the car he was in struck a pole and overturned several times near Cacak, central Serbia, on Tuesday. Divac’s 72-year-old mother, Radmila, who was reportedly driving the car, was seriously injured but is expected to survive. ESPN

 

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