Chris Kaman Is Not a Fan of Dwyane Wade but Likes LeBron James
Say what you will about the Dallas Mavericks’ Chris Kaman, but the man is as honest as they come.
Speaking with BaD Radio 104.1 FM The Ticket, Dallas’ center admitted to liking LeBron James and not being a fan of Dwyane Wade (via The Dallas Morning News):
I’m actually a LeBron James fan. I’m not much of a Dwyane Wade fan, but I’m a LeBron James fan. I’ve been watching him play, and we were in the same draft together. He’s had a great career already. I don’t want him to win everything, but I’m ok with the winning streak. I’m not against it or really for it. I just never really go along with (Dwyane Wade). I guess I just don’t like his style or whatever. I didn’t like the year the Mavs lost when he got all the foul calls. I didn’t like that.
Let’s be honest: We’re not surprised by his respect and adoration for The Chosen One. Save for Kobe Bryant, who’s not about to divulge LeBron is rip-rolling the competition?
As for Wade, Kaman is clearly harboring some resentment.
Is he perhaps upset that the Miami Heat chose Wade over him, leaving him to dwell at the bottom and be used as eventual trade fodder with the Los Angeles Clippers?
Kaman does mention he’s still reeling from the whistles Wade received in the 2006 NBA Finals, but that doesn’t exactly constitute holding a grudge.
Had Dirk Nowitzki been giving this interview, then we get it. He was there. He watched Wade and Shaquille O’Neal waltz away with the title.
But Kaman?
He was probably watching from his couch at home, still recovering from the shock that was the Clippers making the playoffs, but also coming to terms with their loss to the Phoenix Suns.
Perhaps there is some unwritten code in the league we aren’t yet privy to, though. A loyalty by extension or association type ordinance. Kaman’s a member of the Mavericks now, so he must hate who they hate.
If that’s the case, then there’s a decent chance he’s still irate at the San Antonio Spurs for beating the Mavs in the Western Conference Finals in 2008. Depending on how far this statute goes back, he’s realistically not a fan of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Los Angeles Lakers, who sent Dallas home in the 1988 Western Conference Finals when Kaman was only five or six.
Anyway, kudos to LeBron. You’ve got a fan in a bearded Mr. Kaman.
Unfortunately, Wade’s not so lucky. Kaman isn’t about to order No. 3 jerseys anytime soon.
This may force the Heat to take Kaman off their wish list of free-agent centers they can’t afford anyway.
That’ll teach Wade to win a championship and not apologize to Kaman for it.
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Mavericks’ Chris Kaman Says L.A. Lakers ‘Trying to Buy a Championship Team’
Chris Kaman has a history of being both soft-spoken and extremely outspoken, given the circumstances under which he is speaking. A recent interview during the Chris Kaman show with Dallas area radio station 104.1 The Ticket is definitely an example of outspoken Kaman.
The interview included Kaman giving his views on the success of the San Antonio Spurs, David Stern’s disapproval of their success and the recent trend of teams throwing together superstars in order to win a championship.
Kaman complains about the lack of chemistry with the Lakers, and their near-adamant insistence that they can build a team through the pairing of very good basketball players, rather than having the team build together over time.
I think that’s just a big joke, all that crap with the Lakers and stuff. I don’t know, they’re trying to buy a championship team instead of working hard and jelling, getting guys to go out there and play. They have all the talent potential in the world it just doesn’t seem like they can make it fit together.
It seems like that’s quite a large accusation to toss Los Angeles’ way, especially since it’s exactly what the Dallas Mavericks had planned over the summer.
You see, the Mavericks took a run at signing Deron Williams over the summer, a move that would have essentially been an attempt by the Mavericks to team a superstar point guard up with their superstar power forward.
Not only that, according to Jean-Jacques Taylor of ESPN, there’s now talk about the Dallas Mavericks attempting to trade for Dwight Howard, should the All-Star center become available, for some far-off, unknown reason.
Throughout all this talk about the Lakers being a part of the bad in basketball, the part that exhibits teams doing their best to create superstar tandems, Kaman has been a part of a team that’s been trying to do just that throughout his entire tenure with the team.
In fact, it’s pretty easy to make the argument that the Mavericks are in the exact same boat the Lakers are in, only they’ve had far less success in attempting to put together a team with multiple star players.
As far as building through the draft goes, the Mavericks only have Rodrigue Beaubois, Dominique Jones, Bernard James, Jared Cunningham and Jae Crowder who have all been on the roster since they were drafted.
Los Angeles has Robert Sacre, Devin Ebanks and Darius Morris on the roster since the day they were drafted.
Basically, both teams rely more so on players they’ve traded for or picked up via free agency than anyone else, and neither has drafted any of the players who have contributed the most on their rosters.
In fact, even Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe Bryant were both traded for after they were drafted by different teams.
It just seems to be a strange thing for Kaman to complain about when he’s playing for a team that has attempted to do the same thing the Lakers have over the past year.
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Kaman hurts back in first Mavs practice
Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle offered glowing reports on the physical condition of Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion and Elton Brand. Meanwhile, three of the younger guys, Rodrigue Beaubois, Dominique Jones and rookie Jared Cunningham, remained on the floor long after it was required. The Mavericks feel good about the work accomplished on Saturday morning, the first of the day’s two-a-days on this initial weekend of training camp.
But …
“It was a really good practice,” Carlisle said. “We had one casualty. Chris Kaman went out with a sprained lower back. It’s not considered serious. So we’ll see how he’s doing tonight and tomorrow and go from there.”
Brand jumped into the first-team center position at practice, which gave Carlisle a chance to note that his starting lineup — presumed to include Kaman at center upfront with Dirk and Marion and featuring newcomers Darren Collison and O.J. Mayo in the backcourt — is far from set in stone.
Kaman’s injury might allow him to participate as early as Saturday night. So “not serious” is likely accurate. But as recently as two years ago Kaman missed 50 games due to injury. The Mavs — having given him a one-year, 8 million contract — are counting on him to serve as the best offensive center Dirk has ever teamed with. Kaman averaged 13.1 points and 7.7 rebounds
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Ranking Chris Kaman Among the 5 Best Centers Dirk Nowitzki Has Ever Played With
Over the course of his storied career with the Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki has rarely had the privilege of playing alongside many great centers.
Although he has played with All-Star players like Steve Nash, Michael Finley, Jason Terry and Jason Kidd for whatever reason, the centers in the Cuban/Nowitzki era have been consistently below average.
However, Nowitzki has been able to play with at least a few capable big men, as he will this year when former All-Star Chris Kaman comes to town, along with Elton Brand (who I am considering a power forward for this article).
Including Kaman, here is a list of the top five centers that have played alongside Dirk Nowitzki in his career.
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5 Reasons Why Chris Kaman Will Have a Career Year with Dallas Mavericks
When the Dallas Mavericks possessed Tyson Chandler during their championship 2010-2011 season, they boasted what they had lacked for so many years—a formidable big man to situate next to Dirk Nowitzki.
Chandler’s presence was dearly missed last season (he departed for the New York Knicks), as the Mavs had to fight to simply make the playoffs before being swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Entering this offseason, it was clear the Mavs needed to address their center position. While Dwight Howard would be a wondrous fit, there was no plausible trade the Mavs could pull off to land “Superman.”
Therefore, the Mavs decided to go with savvy veteran Chris Kaman.
While Kaman may seem like a consolation prize after missing out on Howard, he actually will be an X-factor for the Mavs this upcoming year (last season, Kaman averaged 13.1 points per game and 7.8 rebounds per outing for New Orleans).
He’s an ideal fit for Dallas and could impress so greatly that he pushes the Mavs back to the NBA Finals. Here are five reasons why Kaman will have a career year for the Mavs.
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Mavs reload with Brand, Kaman, Collison… and cap space
The Dallas Mavericks faced a lot of criticism in the year after winning the NBA championship in 2011. Dallas let defensive linchpin Tyson Chandler take a lucrative offer with the Knicks and declined to negotiate a long-term extension with Jason Terry (now taking off for the Celtics).
It seemed the Mavericks were content with getting a year older, losing out on their title defense and maintaining cap flexibility.
Dallas did not have a bad season, going 36-30 and falling to Oklahoma City in the first round of the Playoffs. That 36-30 mark though would have meant only 45 wins in an 82-game season, marking the first time since 2000 that Dallas had a winning percentage worse than .610 (or 50 wins).
That incredible streak is not thrown out lightly. Certainly not after winning a championship and certainly not after all the success Dallas has had.
The Mavericks took to their reloading effort with decent seriousness then when they won the bidding for Elton Brand’s amnesty rights, acq…
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Kaman tweets that he agrees to deal with Mavericks (Yahoo! Sports)
DALLAS (AP) — Chris Kaman has agreed to a deal with the Dallas Mavericks, giving the 7-foot center a chance to play with friend Dirk Nowitzki.
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Kaman tweets that he agrees to deal with Mavericks
Chris Kaman used his Twitter account to announce that he will be signing with the Dallas Mavericks.
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Report: Mavericks set to sign Kaman
The Dallas Mavericks are set to sign free agent center Chris Kaman, reports The Dallas Morning News.
The deal is expected to be for one season.
Kaman confirmed the news himself via Twitter.
“Partnering up with @swish41 (Dirk Nowitzki) and heading to the Mavs…” Kaman posted on @ChrisKaman.
Kaman spent last season in New Orleans, playing in 47 games and averaging 13.1 points and 7.7 rebounds.
This will be the second time that Kaman and Nowitzki have partnered up on the same team. Kaman is a dual citizen of the United States and Germany, where he played with Nowitzki on the German national basketball team in the qualifying tournament for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
An avid hunter, Kaman posted on Twitter one thing he is very excited about with his move to Texas.
“I want to say thanks to the Hornet fans for all the support, even though our marriage was a short one!!!” Kaman tweeted. “I do love Texas guns laws tho! Pretty excited…”
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NBA Free Agency 2012: Why Miami Heat Have No Chance of Signing Chris Kaman
The Miami Heat are the current NBA Champions, but that does not mean they can just expect to win next year with the same roster.
LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are still among the top players in the league, but outside of these there, the Heat lack other consistent talent.
That is especially true when looking at their center situation. Reports indicate that Chris Kaman has drawn the attention of the Heat. This of course makes perfect sense as Kaman is one of the better centers in the league when healthy.
Will the champs land him? Highly unlikely.
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