Jax and the Jazz

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/
 You can hear Emery's post-workout comments along with those of Jazz head coach Ty Corbin by clicking on the audio links in the "Cougar Cuts" box to the right.

Emery covered much of the same ground he went over with me in our Monday evening interview, reiterating his intentions to explore professional basketball options overseas.
"(The NBA) is kind of a long shot right now," said Emery. "The biggest reason is there is no summer league. For guys like me, I kind of need a summer league to show what I am capable of doing. A lot of these workouts are based on draft picks, so I'm fortunate to get this one and maybe a couple others. But for right now, I'm kind of just doing this to build my basketball resume, and hopefully just get out in the open so guys get familiar with me."

Asked is he is likely headed to Europe, Emery said "this year at least, I think so. Obviously if there's an opportunity here I'll pursue it to the fullest, but realistically, I know it's probably going to be overseas."

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Emery said Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor has a "pretty good relationship with Coach Rose, and hopefully Coach Rose kind of got me in here to get a look. There's good talent that comes out of BYU, so I think they want to establish a good relationship with them. It's just good to have local talent compete against these guys from around the country."

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On the workout with Michael Stockton (Westminster College), Mustapha Farrakhan (Virginia) and Brady Morningstar (Kansas), Emery said it was "good; I mean that's tough. It was a hard 40, 45 minutes right there. You're going up and down the floor, you're trying to show them what you can do when you're tired, they push you...and as well, the three-point line is a little farther back, I guess it's 'Jimmer Range,' right?"

Jazz head coach Ty Corbin was asked for his feedback on Emery's workout and said "he's a shooter; he can really step up and make shots. He can spot up in different ways, get open and make shots and that's one thing that will be an asset going forward, that he can make shots."

About Dave Rose and his BYU program, Corbin says "I think he's doing a tremendous job; he's getting good talent in there, and the guys get better every year they're there...he's doing a good job."

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On what he is going to need to work on in his transition from the college to the pro game, Emery sais "being a 6'3" shooting guard, you're a little undersized, and they like you to be a mixture of a point and shooting guard, so I need to improve my ball-handling; I've worked extremely hard at that the past month. Then obviously become a better shooter even, more so--you've got to improve your shooting range and be even more consistent."

At the same time, BYU's alltime steals leader and the MWC Defensive Player of the Year says "defense is kind of what puts me on the radar."

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Emery says Fredette was "really excited about" his performance at the NBA Draft Combine; he thought he did really well and that his stock went up, but he knows that with these workouts coming up that maybe it raises the bar a little more as far as expectations."

"I haven't seen (Jimmer) work this hard in a long time," said Emery. "People are doubting him; saying he can't do this, or can't do that, and he knows that. I think Jimmer's going to open a lot of eyes."

Asked if he hopes Fredette ends up with the Jazz, Emery said "it would be great for the state of Utah and for the Utah Jazz. Jimmer's a great player and he's a kid that's always going to work hard. You're never going to question his work ethic."

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2011 NBA Mock Draft: Amidst the NBA Prospects Lurks an Intriguing Dark Horse

There is a chasm that every superb athlete hopes to surmount on their way to greatness. It is the one that separates maturity from talent.

There is a reason that almost every sport sees their best and brightest peak at the wonderful age of 27. That is the time when maturity and mentality finally catch-up to physical ability.

Some players are so great that they can shine well before they truly grasp the game, and what it means to be a leader. Other players are still suffering from lapses in judgement when their skill was not nearly enough to deliver at the next level.

MUST READ: A Final Report Card for All 30 NBA Teams

Jeremy Tyler thought the world of himself. It may be the reason he skipped his senior year in high school to go pro in Israel. His immaturity saw him struggle on the court as well as fail to make it to practices on time.

Perhaps all he needed was a kick in the ego for him to get on board. He may have learned his lesson, that is if you believe what scouts are saying.

Tyler will finally get his chance to play in the NBA. After disastrous results overseas, he gets his chance in the NBA in 2011.

He may still lack a consistent scoring presence, but it is hard to knock a player of his size and leaping ability. This is the new NBA. It demands big men that can jump out of the building and run. Think JaVale McGee and DeAndre Jordan.

Tyler is of the same ilk. He may now have the presence to boot. He has been exceptional in interviews. He explained to Sean Devaney from the SportingNews all about the growth he enjoyed in Israel.

I was definitely immature when I got there. Obviously, it was my first year being a professional. They’re all asking me about it. They’re (Scouts) asking how it was for me and what happened over there. I tell them, I learned to grow up. The basketball part, that will take care of itself, I was still learning and staying in good shape. But it was all the off-the-court stuff and being a good teammate, that was stuff I needed to learn. And I have.

Jeremy Tyler has loads of talent. That has never been the issue. His one glaring problem was with himself. If he has indeed learned to ready himself for the next level, Tyler could be the steal of the draft.

Couch Slouch: Everything you need to know about the NBA Finals

 http://www.nba.com/
so, will Pat Riley regain his rank as smartest hair-and-tan in sports? Or will Mark Cuban — a.k.a. “When I Die, I Want To Come Back As Me,” a.k.a. Smarmy Is As Smarmy Does, a.k.a. Greed Is Good — finally get the crowning achievement of his post-pubescent life?

The Heat-Mavericks NBA Finals are here. We are also here to tell you about them:
The games are on ABC, in the capable hands of Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy. A generation ago, Dick Enberg, Billy Packer and Al McGuire set the standard for a three-man basketball booth. As much as I miss McGuire — an American original — this grouping is superior. Breen is a solid play-by-play voice, with a playful sensibility. Jackson and Van Gundy each would be good alone, and each makes the other better. I never invite anyone into my home to watch games with me — my sultry wife Toni, in fact, usually leaves to seek safe harbor elsewhere — but any of these gents is welcome anytime.

I should take a moment out here to give a nod to TNT’s Marv Albert. I love Mike Breen, but it seems like a crime against basketball nature that Albert doesn’t call the NBA Finals. Albert, who will turn 70 in June, still delivers as smart and measured a call of any basketball broadcaster ever. Unlike some of his younger, juiced-up peers such as serial screamers Gus Johnson and Kevin Harlan, Albert understands precisely when to raise the level of his voice.

Either the Heat’s LeBron James, in his eighth NBA season, or the Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki, in his 13th NBA season, will win his first title. Talk about a couple of losers, huh? And this Nowitzki fellow played pro ball in Germany with DJK Wurzburg for four years before coming to America and didn’t win any titles there, either. What good is a 7-footer who shots 50 percent from the field, 40 percent on threes and 90 percent from the line if he can’t bring home the bratwurst?
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Actually, Dirk Nowitzki probably has been underappreciated by nincompoops like Couch Slouch. How do you overlook and underrate a former league MVP and 10-time all-star? Simple — you live on Stupid Street, my home since 1984. In these playoffs, Nowitzki has been spectacular and sublime.

Who is J.J. Barea and who let him onto the court? The Mavericks’ backup point guard is listed at 6 feet tall. Please. I ran into him a couple of weeks ago at the Santa Monica Pier amusement park, and he wasn’t even tall enough to ride the Frog Hopper. Then again, I saw him run a pick-and-roll at the video arcade to perfection. He’s a dribbling whirling dervish.

If the Heat wins, will it finally shut up the LeBron haters? No. You can never shut up The Haters in Sports Nation. Of late, hating is the engine that drives our culture. People wake up, look around and think, “Who am I gonna hate on today?” Sports radio and the Internet were invented for hating. Heck, if microwave ovens had a setting for “hating,” they’d sell twice as many.

Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Three-on-five cannot win a championship. Yes, the Heat have the Three Tenors – LeBron, Dwyane Wade and the other guy. And who else? And who else? Go ahead, I challenge you to name, say, three other Heat players. (To be honest, some of you don’t even know who “the other guy” is.) The other Heat players don’t even have their names stitched to the back of their uniforms; rather, it just says, “HEAT TEMP.”

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Some of you may recall that I have loudly said LeBron’s Heat would not win an NBA title. The key to effective prognostication, I’ve always believed, is to repeat your errant predictions early and often. Before the NBA season began, I stated the Heat would not win the championship, and I reiterated this same notion as the NBA playoffs began. It appears I might end up being incorrect, which raises the question — how many times can I be wrong in a single lifetime?

In for a dime, in for a dollar: I guess I’ve got to take the Mavericks in seven games. Of course, I could be mistaken.

U-M's Darius Morris trying to work his way into NBA first round

 http://www.usatoday.com/sports/default.htm
Former Michigan point guard Darius Morris, who decided to enter the NBA draft after his sophomore season, is making his way up many draft boards.
At 6-foot-4, Morris impressed many scouts with his size and ball-handling, and is predicted by be drafted in the first round, after initial uncertainty when he declared for the draft last month.
NBADraft.net predicts that the Knicks will draft Morris with the No. 17 pick and thehoopsreport.com has him going to the Trail Blazers at No. 21. ESPN.com's Chad Ford thinks that Morris is just outside the first round, but one of the "next five" to be selected.
Morris participated in a three-on-three workout with the Indiana Pacers on Thursday at Conseco Fieldhouse, along with Purdue forward/center JaJuan Johnson, Georgetown point guard Chris Wright, Kansas guard Josh Selby, Richmond power forward Justin Harper and Villanova point guard Corey Fisher.
In a video interview on Pacers.com, Morris was confident about Thursday's workout for the Pacers, who have the No. 15 pick in the first round and 12th pick (No. 42) in the second round.
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"I feel like I did well. We've been working out hard all that time and you expect to do well out here. Everybody here belongs here and you just have to go out there and practice hard every day," Morris said. "I have to show that I can come in and provide a different look at the point-guard position, being tall and lengthy and also being able to get in there and my passing ability is a plus on my side. They already have two great guards here, but I can just add a different look."
Morris knows the importance of showing scouts and coaches his skills in individual workouts as teams to prepare for the June 23 draft
"You have to focus on each workout coming up. For a lot of us, it was a combine and now it's each individual one — you can't overlook any one," Morris said on
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 the video. "You have to cherish that moment and take advantage of it. Before you know it, you'll look up and the draft will already be here."
He said teams have expectations — as he does — for prospects in the workout process.
"(They expect) you to work hard every day and take advantage of the opportunity of being on the NBA level. You can't take it for granted. It's my dream and I'm going to push at it and go hard every day. I expect that they believe I'm going to get better," Morris said.

You might hate to hear it, but Heat playing the right way Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sixers/122626913.html?cmpid=15585797#ixzz1NVi2om00 Watch sports videos you won't find anywhere else

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/
PHILADELPHIA IS NOT an NBA town. If I've heard it once, I've heard it a million times. The Sixers' annual struggle with attendance is about the product more than the people, I am repeatedly told, and that includes the now trite use of pyrotechnics and general loudness that attack the senses far more than anything that happens once the ball is jumped.

Philadelphia is a basketball town, I am told. Big 5, Palestra, Catholic League, Sonny Hill on Sunday mornings talking about back in the day. Philadelphia is about playing the game right, about team defense and selflessness and giving up the ball. Some of the city's most revered stars played by these staples and leagues and buildings are named for them.

All this is a way of introducing an appreciation of the Miami Heat, which, after a season in which their stars spent too much time holding the door open for one another, are slamming it on the fingers of their Eastern Conference contenders, to the consternation of decent, hardworking NBA fans everywhere.

But why, really? Because the Heat took advantage of the rules last summer, stacked the deck by adding two superstars to the existing one? Kind of the way the Los Angeles Lakers somehow managed to pick first twice in the late 1970s and early '80s, adding Magic Johnson and James Worthy to a team that already had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Or kind of the way the Boston Celtics acquired Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish inside the same time frame?

At least one of those teams appeared in every NBA Finals of the 1980s.

Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end. Right? These two teams reclaimed the NBA, swatted away teams that dared to compete against them with just one star: the Knicks with Bernard King, the Hawks with Dominique Wilkins, the Bulls with a young and still unsavvy Michael Jordan.

The Lakers were "Showtime," the Celtics liked to beat you up, and the rest of the league tried to measure up. The Sixers added Moses Malone and won a championship. The Bad Boy Pistons became the Celtics' bastard child. The Rockets drafted Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon in consecutive years.

How did that happen?

The point: For those who think what the Heat did last summer was distasteful, immoral or some other haughty description, well, it's nothing new. For those who will never forgive LeBron for that televised announcement or the Heat for an over-the-top ticket-selling event, well, you might not have liked Magic's act too much back in the day. Or that of Jabbar, who asked to be traded out of Milwaukee because it did not fit his cultural needs.
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What can't be overlooked is this: After that uneven regular season, Miami's three musketeers are playing inspired, unselfish and tough-as-hell basketball. James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are every bit the unselfish superstars that made watching those dynasties of the '80s so much fun. They defend, especially in big spots. They hit big shots. They grind, they persevere, they demand your respect.

In Game 2 of the Eastern finals, they win a fourth quarter against a Bulls team known for its defense, 14-10. They survive Tuesday night's Game 4 with big stops at big times, with Wade searching for his shot, with James bullying Bulls star Derrick Rose into a scoreless final 17 minutes.

"I love the situations like that, where we're tested and we have to overcome something," Bosh said after the Heat prevailed, 101-93, to take a 3-1 lead into tonight's Game 5. "Because it's not easy staying in the game when you're having a bad one."

Said Rose, "Everybody on their team - well, all the stars on their team - are playing at the same time."

Someday Rose may have the kind of cast the Heat does now, may be able to win despite an 8-for-27 shooting night.

Right now, though, he's feeling real Bernard King-like.
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Like 'em, hate 'em, the Heat has created a fresh Kobe-less story line that the public is consuming at a greater rate than in recent springs. Ratings for the postseason are up 30 percent, almost all of that increase attributable to Miami's presence. The Heat entertains. It dazzles and gets dirty.

The reason most often given why a town with basketball in its DNA rejects the NBA is that it's not basketball, not the way it's been taught and nurtured here. Well, what the Heat is putting out there is. Three stars, unselfish, smart, driven.

Remember that as you root against them tonight. Hate the way they were assembled, envy them even, but at least appreciate the way they play.

The right way.

The Philadelphia way.

NBA players, it's time to stop dragging the words

 http://www.cbssports.com/

Three and counting. It is the perfect execution of days without NBA players screaming anti-gay insult in the game At least one was caught by television cameras. Good work, guys.

For now, have probably heard that was the Sunday Joakim Noah Chicago of the same band used two alliterative words against homosexuals as Kobe Bryant at the beginning of this year. Noah says one fan. I told Kobe, an arbitrator.

Now we know that the referee is twice as big as a fan, because Kobe was fined $ 100,000 and $ 50,000 from Noah.

The message that is sent to me as an innocent bystander, is that the league is not so serious stamping operations, as they appear.

After the application of Kobe, the league campaign to the horrors of anti-gay actions show started and we can all take this as a time to learn and change.

The fact that the second instance, he has is to pay a fine of less than the first, unclear. It should not be any worse?

Why not increase the fine of $ 50,000 each time happened? Noah fine, $ 150,000, and the guy next door with an insult to homosexuals (which I imagine will be sometime in the next four or five days) you will pay $ 200,000, and so on.

For now it's about $ 500,000 to clean up his act, the players and switch to a new epithet to throw around them.
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Maybe Fred Sanford large model would be safer.

Seriously, I can not help but be frustrated by this problem. At that time, the fact is that it is not shameful or address.

You probably do not speak the ads in the NBA playoffs, that promote waste, saw the word  gay as a derogatory term. Not good, not creative,  says the ad.

Take it from the biggest stars of the league can be annoying in trade Grant Hill and Jared Dudley, the Suns.

This is another indication that the league is not even serious. Why not LeBron, Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant or anyone in an All-Star in the last ten years?

No offense to Hill and Dudley, but if you are a fan of impressionable young for the NBA, like Kobe Bryant or Jared Dudley act?

The best is to come all this that the longer runs, the more they talked about the pathetic.

Here's the interesting part. I do not think Kobe or Noah, or the majority of people to say things like that are not necessarily homophobic.

The problem is that NBA players, and society as a whole at a point where the use of an insult to homosexuals are still often an automatic reflex.
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The term comes from the mouth of the players like an instinct, not as an indication of the philosophy of their belief system. The second I said, I'm sorry.

Slowly, but surely that will change.

An example of an NBA player Steve Nash as it goes.

He has just a commercial for the inclusion of gay marriage on Monday. A follower on Twitter Suns said, very disappointing Nash would be an announcement in favor of gay marriage. Steve, what should I know?

Nash A. Yes, tolerance.

NBA travel independently

 http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/

A year ago I had the opportunity to Amadou Gallo Fall, the Office of the NBA Africa in Johannesburg heads had interview from South Africa, the commitment of the federal transfer the popularity of basketball across the continent. I wanted to develop a series of interviews in which he interviews people running the offices of the NBA around the world that I am here to speak with Akash Jain, Senior Director, Business Development and Partnerships for the NBA in India.

It is not an official NBA office in India C, full-time employees on the construction of the sport's popularity is founded in the league office in New York. But as the game was adopted is not entirely clear. Jain noted that the participation followed in the league of NBA basketball in India are increasing by 25-30 percent this year, with a maximum of 600 teams in various leagues and tournaments.  Efforts to popularize the league of basketball in a country obsessed with cricket was good for the league to have a presence there only three years. Jr. NBA / Jr. WNBA program by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), HP, Spalding and local TV channels Ten Sports has been supported by his skills challenge, which introduced this year to 100 C schools in five cities Bangalore, Chennai conducted, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune.

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The NBA announced in December 2010 reached a new multi-year partnership with Taj Television and Multi Screen Media (MSM) to transmit live games, replays in prime time and original programs from the NBA. Two regular season games per week were transferred in ten sports every Thursday and Saturday with repeats every game in prime time. Thirty-six episodes of a reality show called weekly half-hour real NBA shot him a look behind the scenes of Major League history to air on Ten Sports and some of the most important channels of Zee Network regional dialects. Other original programming, such as the NBA and the NBA debuted in Action 30 in PIX, an English movie channel is part of the MSM.

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 Karan Madhok, operating at the BFI communication and writing this website and the website of the NBA in India, said India NBAS strategy worked.

I spoke at length with Jain on the efforts of others in the NBA has to imagine in a country of 1.15 million people.