Eddie House Spanks LeBron to the Ground

It was a moment soaked in drama.  The Bulls, trailing 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals, switched into desperation mode as they trailed by 6 points in overtime with less than a minute left.  The reigning MVP blew past LeBron and soared to the rim, only to be detonated by Dwyane Wade at the rim.

Expect to see this clip again in all manner of NBA highlight reels and compilation clips.

But there's something else going on here.  What was that going on in front of the Heat bench, shortly after the scramble that netted the Heat possession of the ball?

Eddie House comes over to celebrate with LeBron.  But the play is still live, and James is trying to get set to head back down court.  That's when the fun begins:

Frank Vogel on David Letterman's "Stupid Human Tricks" as an 8th Grader

Frank Vogel can brush his teeth while balancing a balancing a spinning basketball on the toothbrush.

Vogel took over as interim coach of the Indiana Pacers in midseason and helped them negotiate a 20-18 finish to their season, plus the eighth seed in the playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Despite his success and a competitive first-round series against the Chicago Bulls, Vogel hasn't been able to secure the Pacers' gig permanently.

In the meantime, Vogel has interviewed with the Houston Rockets about their coaching vacancy, but is rumored not to be among the three finalists being considered.  According to the Indianapolis Star, other potential candidates include Dwane Casey, Chuck Person, and Mike Brown. 

Below is a clip from a 1986 episode of "Late Night with David Letterman"

Wizards Unleash Fan-Friendly, Phallic Logos

It's long been said that the Washington Monument is the world's largest phallus.  So most would consider it a bit of a surprise then that the Washington Wizards today unveiled their new logos and jerseys, and despite incorporating a new basketball/Monument logo into the design scheme (multiple times, in fact), the Monument logo is not the most phallic representation.  That honor instead goes to a design that harkens back to the Wizards glory days of Unseld and Hayes.

This new logo is phallic in a
first-person point-of-view way, isn't it?

Mavs-Lakers Predictions: Nailed It!

Chris Bosh's Surreal Post-Game Press Conference

Does Chris Bosh know the meaning of the word 'juxtaposition'?

After a game where Rajon Rondo had his elbow dislocated (in HD, in prime-time, with dozens of gruesome, ultra-slow motion replays) and then used that same arm to steal a pass from within Bosh's grasp, Bosh countered with the smoking pile of a post-game interview shown below.

After dislocating his left elbow, Rondo uses
 the same arm to steal a pass from Bosh.

Which Point Guards Help Their Teams Shoot Well?

After watching far too many Milwaukee Bucks games this season (in my gig as writer for We're Bucked), I came to a conclusion that I was sure had to be true:  the Bucks shot better from the field without Brandon Jennings on the court.  Unlike the league's top point guards, who strove to set up their teammates with high-quality shots, Jennings ran a ragged half-court offense that too often resulted in a forced isolation play by John Salmons with time running out on the shot clock.  I wanted to see the numbers on the Bucks field goal percentage with and without Jennings on the court to see if this hypothesis was true.

Eventually, I settled on using effective field goal percentage (eFG%), which takes into account the value of quality three-point FG attempts, and limited the data set to starting point guards who spent the entirety of the season leading their teams.  The data below were obtained using the newly revamped Statscube feature of NBA.com.   

KJ Finds an Interested Buyer

Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento made his presentation to the NBA Board of Governors today.  After the meeting, he took time to send the following tweet:

The problem is, though, that the ownership of the Kings -- including the Maloof brothers -- have previously indicated an unwillingness to sell.  But the Maloofs will need the approval of over half the NBA teams to get permission to relocate.  Would the other NBA teams be interested in having the Maloofs take ownership of the Hornets instead of the Kings?  In other words, could the NBA force the Maloofs to sell by not approving the relocation?  Burkle could then purchase the Kings, giving the Maloofs enough money (probably with some left over) to purchase the Hornets from the league.  The other owners would be happy to have the Hornets off their hands, the Kings could stay in Sacramento, and the Maloofs would then have a team to take to Anaheim so that they can get the lucrative cable TV deal of a large market.  Or the Maloofs could leave the Hornets in New Orleans where they currently have a viable NBA arena.

The Man Who Traded the Celtics for the Clippers:  Irv Levin.
He seems a bit Maloof-ish. (copyright: Dick Raphael)

An exchange or swap of NBA teams is not an unprecedented move.