When I think of the New Jersey Nets I think of Jason Kidd.  When I think of St. Joseph's High School in Oakland, California I also think of Jason Kidd.  My high school played against Jason Kidd twice growing up (I think we were 1-1), then he stayed in the Bay Area for college at UC Berkely.  I have followed Jason very closely over the years and he is a class act all the way around.

After we beat the Nets tonight Mark Blount and I were talking about the job Jason does as a point guard for his team.  Jason is just so fast pushing the basketball and he is a monster when it comes to rebounding.  The fact that Kidd is the leading rebounder for the Nets shows you the kind of desire that he plays with.  Blount was talking about how Jason's knee is just finally starting to show the kind of full recovery from the mircro-fracture surgery he had a few years ago.  "He's been playing injured the past couple of years out there," Blount was telling me.  And tonight we saw his speed and his quickness with his knee at 100% once again.

All I can say is that Jason Kidd must be like the really expensive kind of French Cheese that gets better and better with age.  I don't think I've ever seen someone of his age rebound the ball, or push the ball up the court the way he does.  His play is a credit and an asset to the game of basketball at every level.  He seems to get better, faster and stronger with each year that passes.

On a different note, I saw an old friend in Memphis two days ago--Jerry West.  Jerry West drafted me as he was the General Manager of the Lakers at the time.  When we walked in the FedEx forum in Memphis for shootaround, Jerry ducked in to say hello to KG and a few others.  When I was talking to him, different people would stop by and say to him "What's up logo?"  I always knew that everyone considers Jerry West to be the person from which the NBA logo was fashioned, but I had never really heard anyone call him "LOGO" in L.A.   It was pretty cool.  To this day I will never forget the way that West mentored everyone on the team in Los Angeles.  He would talk to us, build us up and spend time with us outside of basketball.  I will always remember being invited over for dinner at the West's home in the Bel-Air area.  He gave me some pointers and a few thoughts on what I could do differently on the court to become a better player.  When West took the Memphis job, Magic Johnson came out and commented publicly about how Jerry was always the first one to call or go over to the house of someone in the Lakers family when there was a death in the family, a sickness or a tragedy. 

Tonight we lost a very close game to the Los Angeles Clippers.  We were down by one point with 4.3 seconds left and we needed one basket to win the game.  During our timeout, Coach Casey drew up a play that got KG open for a pass with time expiring. From my angle, Kevin's shot looked like it was going in.  I thought I was seeing the Philadelphia game all over again with Kevin nailing the last second shot and our team running off the court victorious.  Well, Kev's jumper barely missed and we lost the game.  Such is life in the NBA.  Kevin wants the ball in those situations.  He knows he's either going to be the hero or the goat and he's got the courage and the skill for those moments.

I had to ride the bike for 15 minutes in the training room after the game because I need to stay in shape.  Kevin and Trenton Hassell were in there too and we kind of talked about what happened throughout the game.  Kevin was in his normal spot--on the first training table cooling down and unwinding after the game.  Trenton always comes in the training room to change clothes too and to have some privacy from the media.  A few minutes later our old buddy Sam Cassell came down to talk.  It's always great to see Sam.  He told us about the refs called a foul on him while he was guarding Randy Foye.  He said something like this:

"Randy Foye is athletic! Randy Foye jumped over me and almost dunked it!  Then the ref called a foul on me!  I said, 'How can it be a foul on me, when he jumped over me!" 

Allright well, it's 1am and I am tired.  I can't think about the game anymore so I'm going to call it a night! 

Our last three home games have all gone into overtime!   After our overtime win on Sunday, Coach Casey came into the locker room and said something like, "OK guys we're going to practice tommorrow."  The locker room went silent....most of the guys were hoping for a day off given how well we've been playing as well as how busy our schedule has been.  Then he smiled and said "Just kidding....take tommorrow off and stay away from each other!"  He was joking but made a good point because we've been together so much as a team lately I think he wanted all of us to rejuvenate a little bit and come back on Tuesday mentally refreshed. 

Lately, our team has been playing very well.  Mark Blount is having an all-star like season this year and has been shooting incredible percentages from the field.  Now our opposing teams have to decide how to cope with our frontcourt of KG and Mark Blount along with trying to slow down our perimeter players who are also playing great.

After the Houston game I saw Charlie Ward in the "family and friends" section of the Target Center.  Charlie Ward is now Coach Charlie Ward as he is one of Jeff Van Gundy's top assistant coaches for the Houston Rockets.  I keep telling charlie that he should still be playing in the NBA as good as a player as he was. 

Here's a question I wanted to address from the "comments" section found below.  This question is from Rachel.

Mark,

With the word that just came down from Stern that Melo would be suspended for 15 games, are you surprised? Do you think that the punishment fits the "crime"? Do you think that he (and/or the others) should have gotten harsher suspensions and/or fines? And, lastly, do you think that the Nuggets and the Knicks should also fine their players that were involved?

Thanks and Happy Holidays.

Let me begin by saying that when we first heard about the brawl, we were at the Milwaukee Bucks game in Wisconsin.  We weren't able to see it because there was no TV in the Buck's visitor's locker room, so when we got to our charter that night we tried to download it using a Verizon Wireless internet card.  We only got bits and pieces but the entire team was huddled around KG's plane seat trying to see a little bit of what happened.  I think universally, all of us felt bad about the incident and the players, fans and coaches that were involved.

What happened out there was wrong and I think that every player involved would tell you that.  Carmello got the most of the punishment.   Carmello also came out immediately and issued a public apology.  (see below).

I think the NBA is basically saying, hey, if you are going to throw a punch, there is going to be a big consequence.  After the Detroit incident, there was talk of doing away with courtside seating.  Personally, I think that the courtside seating is one of the biggest differentiators between NBA games and most other major sports leagues. 

As far as each team fining their own players, that could get awkward for a few reasons.  First the player is already getting fined a huge sum because they go on "unpaid" leave from all games.  Secondly, their punishment in the media is incalculable.  It would be tough for a GM to come into the locker room and give the player a third tier of punishment.  That's just my opinion though.


Here is Carmello's public apology:

"Last night's altercation with the Knicks escalated further than it should have.  I take full responsibility for my actions in the matter.  In the heat of the moment I let my emotions get the best of me. I apologize to the fans, the Denver Nuggets, the NBA, my mother, and my family for the embarrassment I have caused them. I ask you all for your forgiveness.

I also want to make a personal apology to Mardy Collins and his family.  My actions were inexcusable, and I am sorry for making this an even more embarrassing situation.

What makes this all the more painful is that this was one of the most important weeks of my life.  I just realized one of my biggest dreams when we opened the Youth Center in Baltimore that bares (sic) my name.  To see the community excited and hundreds of kids smiling was an incredible feeling. Now the thought of thousands of kids seeing this incident on TV pains me. This is not the example I want to set.

It's my hope that we work to move forward from this event, and never let something like this happen again."

I wanted to thank Adam for his comment (see below).  His input poses a great question about our locker room dynamics.

Is anyone in the lockeroom hurt from ticket's [Kevin Garnett's] excitement over the chance to bring in [Allen iverson]?   

10:16:01 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)

I got the phone call I have been waiting for all season long this morning!!  Michael Curry of the N.B.A. administrative offices called me on my way to practice and told me that the old leather ball is coming back.....THIS SEASON!!   He asked me to go into the locker room and find out how long it would take the guys to adjust back to the leather ball.  Troy Hudson said it would take him "one practice" to re-adjust to the leather ball.  Kevin Garnett said, "Let me practice with it (The old leather) three or four days and I'll be ready to go again."   I can't tell you how happy the guys on the team were!  It was a great day.  

The additional good news is that the NBA is going to form a committee including a wide range of NBA players getting a cross-section of superstars and role players to be part of any ball decisions in the future.  I think what the league is saying is that if we do away with the leather ball down the road, let's work together to find a solution that works for everyone.  Michael asked me to approach Kevin Garnett to see if he would like to play a major role on the committee.  When I told KG about it, he was excited and regardless of whether or not he is able to make every meeting, I think he is going to be giving a lot of input on the ball situation in the future whether he chooses to do it formally or informally. 

Lastly, I'm waiting for the A.I. situation to be resolved.  This morning in our locker room, we were all kind of aware that if the longshot odds come true and A.I. comes to Minnesota then some of us might be packing our bags.

Allen Iverson Trade Rumors

As a player in the NBA, we live our lives knowing that we can be traded at any time.  Right now is a time when all of us are probably watching the media pretty closely to see if anything will come of the Allen Iverson trade rumors.  My rookie year, we played against Philly in the NBA finals.  That year, we had not lost a single NBA playoff game until Allen came in and stunned us in the Staples Center at Game 1 of the NBA finals.  Ultimately, Shaq proved to be too much for anyone on the Philly team to handle, but clearly Allen Iverson is on the most unique talents to come to the NBA in decades. 

If I could have my way, I wouldn't want to be included in any trade nor would I want to lose any of my teammates, but we know it's a business and that management and ownership has to address things from the business/trade side of things.  That being said, I'm excited to watch the A.I. trade sweepstakes on SportsCenter and Google News. 

The New NBA Ball Update:

Today is honestly one of the happiest days of this NBA season for me.  As I was sitting here at my house, not able to sleep because I'm on the late night NBA shedule, (we fly in places in the AM and our games go late into the evening and after getting so wound up for games it's tough to sleep) I typed in "Billy Hunter" into the Google search engine.  It was a few days ago that our Union leader Billy filed a legal action with the NBA over the new nba ball and i wanted to see if there was any update.  Billy has done an excellent job of getting the feedback from pretty much every single NBA player in the NBA about this issue, so it's safe to say that this legal action was almost unanimous.

Well, Google spit out an article from the New York Times where David Stern was quoted as saying: “I won’t make a spirited defense with respect to the ball,” Stern said. “In hindsight, we could have done a better job. I take responsibility for that.”  He also added that everything was "under review" and that he was really listening to what the players had to say. 

A lot of people might look at the NBA Players Union and say "Why are they complaining so much about a ball?" and "Why did they file a grievance in a court of law over a ball?"   The reason is simple.  This is not only a game that we love to play but it is our employment.   When I compare the old ball to the new ball, it is like comparing Windows XP to the software used on a Commodore 64 over eighteen years ago.   If an accountant at Deloitte was given software that did not perform well or was archaic, that accountant would be stupid not to bring it to the attention of the IT department.  In essence, that is what we are doing as a union. 

I knew all along that David Stern would listen carefully to the feedback of the players.  I've said it here on this blog before and I'll say it again:  When I first joined the NBA, David Stern gave out his email address to every Rookie at our initiation training and he invited us to email him at any time.  I've emailed him maybe five times in my career about various things and he has responded every time. 

I think what happened was this:  Spalding came out w/ a new technology for a synthetic ball.  I truly believe that in the Laboratory the synthetic ball tests came back very positive because the NBA would have never switched balls unless there was some sort of empirical data.  The problem is that the laboratory cannot produce game like conditions of sweaty palms, etc.  A lot of guys have been complaining lately that the New synthetic NBA ball is cutting up their fingertips. Today Trenton Hassell told me that in our locker room.  I guess last week Steve Nash was wearing bandages on his fingers from cuts caused by the new ball. 

I have huge hands and I can barely palm the new ball when it's been broken in.  When it's wet there is no chance of me being able to palm it well.  The old ball, I could palm with ease and swing it around with one hand.  Most big guys in the NBA say that they can't palm it like the old ball.  Mark Blount and Kevin Garnett have pretty much told me the same thing in that it's just much harder to control with one hand.  Even though we don't dribble the ball as much as guards, we have to go up more inside with one hand and need the control of the leather ball.

Most guards say that the ball doesn't bounce right or doesn't go off the backboard right.  Dwayne Wade went as far as speaking out in the Miami Sun-Sentinel:

"My bank shot is no longer existent," said Wade, who feels the ball sticks against the backboard. "My game-winning shots, I'm telling you, it's past. But it's an adjustment we've got to keep trying to make."