Agent Zero: “Everybody Should Visit Manila”

I came out of a quick retirement for this blog. I wanted to announce that I’m happy to remain a Washington Wizard. Wizards fans, go ahead and renew your tickets. We got the team back, we’re going to be healthy and I don’t know what the slogan is for next year, so I can’t say it. Before I could say like “Ready to Rule” or “Go All In,” but they haven’t told me the new one yet, so I can’t say it. But really, I wanted to blog to tell you all about my trip.

Shanghai, Beijing

I was gone for a total of 12 days. We started out by going to Shanghai, the kingdom of Yao. You know how when you’re on a plane for 13 hours and you start thinking about everything in the world? Well I was watching an episode of Dave Chappelle in Asia and he was like Godzilla compared to everybody so I was having the same little thought process like, Damn, am I going to be like four feet taller than everybody over there?

Wrong. Everybody was tall. I felt short. I was surprised. It wasn’t what you thought. Everybody was tall and long. All the basketball kids were long and lanky. Anyway, when I got to the airport there was probably 100 fans out there, plus media and paparazzi … you know, it felt nice.

D-League Ambassadors Set Roster For Rocky Mountain Revue

The NBA Development League today announced the ten players and three coaches who will comprise the 2008 NBA D-League Ambassadors roster that will play a three-game schedule at the Rocky Mountain Revue presented by StoresOnline, at Lifetime Activities Center on the Redwood Campus of Salt Lake Community College.

“While players from the NBA D-League have always been well represented in the NBA summer leagues, we are excited to formally field a team constituted of D-League players to compete in this great event,” said Dan Reed president of the NBA Development League. “This is yet another opportunity that we provide for the NBA D-League’s up-and-coming player prospects to showcase their skills to NBA executives and scouts.”

The Ambassadors’ roster features former college standouts like Errick Craven (Los Angeles), who led the PAC 10 in steals in each of his first three seasons at USC (2002-04); Glen McGowan (Sioux Falls), who earned All-West Coast Conference honors his junior and senior seasons at Pepperdine (2004-05) and Carl Elliott (Sioux Falls), who concluded his college career at George Washington as the winningest Colonial ever.

Lakers Hand Grizzlies First Loss

Coby Karl tallied a game high 16 points as the Los Angeles Lakers topped the Memphis Grizzlies 85-76 on Sunday, handing the Grizzlies their first loss of the 2008 NBA Summer League Presented by EA SPORTS. The Lakers first half effort was led by Cedric Bozeman with eight points, while Joe Crawford added six. The Grizzlies first half effort was led by Mike Conley with six points.

Los Angeles continued their dominance through the third quarter building their lead to 11 behind Karl’s nine points and in the period. The fourth quarter proved no different than the third as the Lakers built a 16-point lead early in the quarter and held off the Grizzlies late surge. The Grizzlies who have played three straight days were led by O.J. Mayo who tallied 15 points while Ebi Ere added 14 off the bench.

Notes: The Grizzlies will play their fourth game in as many days on Monday as they play the San Antonio Spurs in the final game at Thomas & Mack. The Lakers will take Monday off and will play host to the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday at COX Pavilion. Denver Nuggets Head Coach George Karl was among the fans in the crowd watching his son Coby play for the Lakers.

Kevin Durant

Kevin Wayne Durant (born September 29, 1988 in Washington, D.C.) is an American professional basketball player for the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics.

A 6′9″ shooting guard/small forward, Durant was the consensus 2007 National College Player of the Year, in addition to being selected as the 2006-2007 Big 12 Player of the Year, amongst other awards. After his freshman season at the University of Texas, Durant opted to enter the NBA Draft,where he was selected second overall by the Seattle Supersonics.

There, he went on to claim the NBA Rookie of the Year Award after his debut season. Durant signed an endorsement contract with Nike in 2007[9] and wears size 18 shoes.

Saglietti, Diez and Romano added to Argentina group

Argentina coach Sergio Hernández has added Nicolás Romano, Alejandro Diez y Marcos Saglietti to his preliminary squad for the Beijing Games. The trio will be in the group that begins the preparations for the Olympics on July 4.

The 1.88m Saglietti is a shooting guard of Libertad Sunchales in Argentina and was named Best Sixth Man and Most Improved Player of the Liga Nacional this past season. Center Nicolás Romano plays for Quilmes de Mar del Plata while Alejandro Diez is a power forward/center who’s on the books of Peñarol de Mar del Plata – the team that Hernandez led to the inaugural FIBA Americas League title earlier this year.

General Ronald A. Johnson Named NBA Senior Vice President, Referee Operations

The National Basketball Association has named United States Army Major General Ronald L. Johnson to the newly created position of Senior Vice President, Referee Operations, it was announced today by NBA Commissioner David Stern. General Johnson will be responsible for all aspects of the NBA’s officiating program, including recruiting, training and development, scheduling, data management and analysis, and work rules enforcement. He will report to Joel Litvin, NBA President, League and Basketball Operations.

The appointment of General Johnson to head the league’s officiating program formalizes the separation of the league’s referee and basketball operations functions, as previously announced by the league. Stu Jackson will continue as Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, responsible for all other domestic and international basketball matters, reporting to Litvin.

Posey is Celtics’ top target

For the NBA champion Celtics, free agency begins today with James Posey as the primary focus. Most other personnel matters will be handled after Posey’s situation is settled. One move was made last night when the franchise failed to make Tony Allen a qualifying offer, thus making the guard an unrestricted free agent, according to his agent, Mike Higgins. The arrival of draft picks J.R. Giddens and Bill Walker definitely hurt Allen’s chances to return to Boston.

“Obviously they had some tough decisions to make,” Higgins said late last night. “With the number they’re at [player wise] they couldn’t sign everybody. For the past month, he knew they were either going to make him an offer or they weren’t. He understood.”

The 6-foot-4-inch, 213-pound Allen averaged 6.6 points and 2.2 rebounds last season after missing most of the previous season following left knee surgery.

Baron Davis Opts Out of Contract With Warriors

Golden State point guard Baron Davis elected to become a free agent Monday night, opting out of the final year of his contract with the Warriors in a surprise move.

Davis had until Monday night to decide whether to turn down his $17.8 million contract for next season, the final year of a six-year deal. The Warriors didn’t expect him to opt out of the deal despite little progress in the parties’ long-term contract negotiation, but club spokesman Raymond Ridder said they received a letter from Davis’ agent, Todd Ramasar, late Monday indicating his intentions.

Davis still could return to Golden State as a free agent, but his opt-out clause was his only bit of leverage in forcing contract talks with the Warriors before next summer. The former All-Star also is now free to negotiate with other clubs, possibly facilitating a sign-and-trade deal with Golden State.

Karl Malone

Karl Anthony Malone (born July 24, 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player. Born in Summerfield, Louisiana, he was nicknamed in college as the Mailman for his consistency (“the mailman always delivers”) and his work in the post. Malone twice won the NBA Most Valuable Player award. He is generally considered one of the greatest power forwards in NBA history, and has scored the second most points in NBA history, trailing only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

On May 30, 2007, Malone was named creator of basketball promotion and assistant strength and dieting coach at his alma mater, Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. Malone spent his first 18 seasons (1985–2003) as the star player for the Utah Jazz forming a formidable duo with his teammate John Stockton. He then played one season (2003-04) for the Los Angeles Lakers before retiring.

Even though his teams never won a championship, Malone was more famous for his extremely well-defined physique, which resembled that of a bodybuilder. Along with Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Dominique Wilkins, Elgin Baylor, Reggie Miller, Pete Maravich, and his longtime Jazz teammate John Stockton, he is considered to be one of the best players never to have won a championship.

Malone’s jersey was retired on March 23, 2006, when the Jazz hosted the Washington Wizards. He was also honored with the unveiling of a bronze statue outside the EnergySolutions Arena next to teammate John Stockton, and the renaming of a portion of 100 South St. in Salt Lake City in his honor. The intersection where the Stockton and Malone statues stand is now the intersection of Stockton and Malone.

Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Kiyan Anthony (born May 29, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a freshman in college, Anthony led Syracuse University to a 30–5 record and the school’s first NCAA championship in men’s basketball. He was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 2003 NCAA Final Four and MVP of NCAA East Regional.

He was also named the consensus national Freshman of the Year and was a unanimous choice as the Big East Conference Freshman of the Year. Anthony was selected with the third pick in the 2003 NBA Draft and was named the 2005 Rookie Challenge MVP.