View full post on Yardbarker: NBA

View full post on Yardbarker: NBA

Obviously, the hottest trade topic this entire season has been where Denver Nuggets superstar forward Carmelo Anthony will end up…if he even ends up somewhere else this season.

As the Lakers continue their up and down ways though, a new scenario is presenting itself.

The LA Lakers have the ability to win its third-consecutive NBA Championship. The pieces are all there—yet could the Lakers use Andrew Bynum to secure a championship this season and next?

Could they acquire Kobe Bryant’s successor?

This is what the Carmelo Anthony trade saga has brought upon us as last week’s rumors swirled that the Lakers were dangling Andrew Bynum in the center of trade discussions revolving Carmelo Anthony.

Yet should the Lakers really trade their potentially dominant, young center?

Begin Slideshow

View full post on Bleacher Report – NBA

The storied career of Gilbert Arenas added another chapter on Wednesday.  Arenas has been fined by the Wizards for faking a knee injury so he didn’t have to play in their preseason opener.  His reasoning?  It was all in the spirit of the team.  He was trying to get teammate Nick Young more time on the court. 
“I told [Young] I’d sacrifice playing tonight so he can get some time in because I know he’s kind of frustrated he’s not getting a chance to crack the [small forward] position, especially since we’re going three guards.  So I told him I’ll go and fake an injury or say something’s wrong with me so you can start.”
And, yet again, to him it’s much ado about nothing.  Here’s everyone else making a big deal about something Arenas has done.  To listen to him, the media is piling on.
“I screwed up again, so I just want to say sorry.  I wasn’t really thinking that this was going to be another media outburs…

View full post on Yardbarker: NBA

View full post on Sports – Men’s College Basketball

View full post on USATODAY.com Mens College Basketball – Top Stories

The Internet has been thick with Pittsburgh sporting rumors in the last week that have run from the truth to folly and everywhere in between.  We’ll quickly touch on the first two, but in this corner of the ‘net we’re going for the folly this time.

Ok, quickly.  Mario Lemieux made a substantial offer to buy the Pirates off Bob Nutting.  Nutting is making too much money losing to sell.

Second:  The Big Ten expansion includes the University of Pittsburgh.  Gee, that’s news to the Big Ten.

Finally:  The NBA is coming to Pittsburgh.  Ok, let me get off the floor first, wipe the laughter from my eyes, and continue.

Karen Davidson has put the team on the market after the death of her husband and has indicated that she needs to move the franchise sooner rather than later.  No serious offers for the team have materialized yet but that hasn’t stopped at least one Detroit writer from indicating Pittsburgh is one of the possible destinations.

Its easy to see why there is some well founded worry about the Pistons bolting.  Unemployment in the Detroit area is running 25 percent by most estimates and underemployment is nearly twice as bad. 

Those auto making jobs aren’t coming back anytime soon as Pittsburghers know from the collapse of our steel industry 25 years ago.  Whoever would buy the Pistons and keep them in Detroit stands to lose a giant chunk of money.

But suggesting that anyone is moving an NBA team to Pittsburgh gets an “F” in Pittsburgh sports history.   It also doesn’t understand the economics of the city either.

Those who would bring an NBA team here would have to step over the carcasses of the Condors, Rens, Pipers, and Ironmen.  All are failed pro basketball franchises who were driven to extinction by shoddy management, fan apathy, last place finishes and the presence of minor league and expansion hockey teams outdrawing them every night. 

The NBA also doesn’t have a present fan base in Pittsburgh.  Sure an exhibition between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Dallas Mavericks drew just over 10,000 at the Peterson Events Center this past fall.  It’s not known how many of those tickets were comps, but it’s the first five-figure crowd at a pro basketball game in Pittsburgh since Michael Jordan’s last appearance.

NBA playoff games draw a seemingly respectable 4.2 share on TV here but are light years behind the 10-15 shares the Pirates draw for a last place baseball team and are laughably small compared to the 42 share the Penguins drew on their run to the Stanley Cup last year or the 70 share the Steelers draw an given Sunday.  Truth of the matter is that NASCAR outdraws the NBA in every meaningful demographic in this market.

Finally there is the problem of the Penguins.  The shiny new arena that the Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp mentioned in a Jan. 23 column belongs to them.  Mario Lemieux made it happen and while the state is paying for a big chunk of the Consol Energy Center, Mario and his front office have had their way with the design of the building and take home most of the revenues generated by the building on hockey nights and most nights in between. 

Those arrangements would leave an NBA team with no revenue streams from its home court, rent payments to the team they would be competing with for recreation dollars virtually no fan base to start with. 

The Pistons might be going somewhere.  Maybe back to Seattle or off to a shiny new and empty Sprint Center in Kansas City but the chances they are coming to the ‘burg are about the same that you are shooting a hole in one tomorrow with a winning Powerball ticket in your back pocket.  

Good luck with that.

Read more NBA news on BleacherReport.com

View full post on Bleacher Report – NBA