Live-blogging the 2009 NBA Draft

The big trade has hit the world of basketball! The Philosopher-Diesel, Shaquille O'Neal has been traded to play with LeBron James with the Cleveland Cavaliers! This is the big news of the day, which, no doubt with dominate and affect the NBA Draft. As we speak, the PTI power-duo is discussing this.

We will be live-blogging the NBA Draft in the next few hours so please stay tuned!


Live Blogging the 2009 NBA Draft (latest updates first)

It looks like the TarHeels have done better than expected so far! And so did the PitinoVille players with T-Will and Earl Clark into the lottery.

The haters are now eating their words! Tyler Hansro, getting yelled "overrated" by the NYC crowd, is picked at #13 by the Larry Bird Pacers.

The European version of Pistol Pete (maybe) is the fifth pick and he goes to the TimberGophers who are picking next as well.

And the Sacto Queens get a Calipari recruit, Tyreke is #4!

Getting picked #1 by the Clippers? Do it still sting? Is it still a career-ending omen?

Apparently David Stern likes to get boo'ed, he kept repeating the LA Lakers :)

7:30pm eastern time! It is about to get started! Of course we all know who is going to be the #1 pick, so the big question really is for the #2 spot!

Vince Carter to Orlando. Is that how you go for finalist to Champion? Because the last time they made the finals, it didn't exactly turn out well the years after!

Jay Bilas to appear on Pardon the Interruption discussing the NBA Draft in the next five minutes!

20% off Adidas with exclusive coupon!

We have a new special for you, from now until the end of day on July 5, you can save an additional 20% off at shopadidas outlet. Be sure to use the limited time with code TAKE20

NBA Draft 2009: IN or OUT?

With the NBA Draft just two weeks away, ESPN's super-guru Chad Ford has just updated his NBA Draft page (as of early Tuesday morning) with who is in and who is out. It still needs a few more "returns" to come in before it is FROZEN for the NBA draft, but it can help you get a pretty good idea so far.

Some college teams and college basketball coaches are certainly going to cry, but others are smiling because they are getting some of their promising young players back!

The thieves of the 2008 championship are certainly smiling, both Sharron Collins and Cole Aldrich are returning!

Tim Floyd is out of USC (again!)

The Coaching Carousel took a not-so-unexpected spin when Tim Floyd bolted (or was pushed out) of USC - breaking news of the story, both in text and in video on espn.com.

As many had predicted, "touching" OJ Mayo would have caused them troubles, and it looks like the $1000 rumors are indeed directly linked to the OJ Mayo recruiting.

You can watch the 7-minute video at the aforementioned website, with the one and only Andy Katz talking to the studio guy over the phone.

And this brings up the question, who is going to want to be the next USC coach after this mess, with players bolting out, the NCAA investigators drooling, and things like that.

One year worth of Sports Illustrated for $20 (limited time offer)

Amazon is currently running a Gold-Box promotion where you can get a one-year subscription to SI (Sports Illustrated) for $20 with free shipping. The deal is in your Amazon Gold-box, you have to check there or add the magazine to your shopping cart to see this price.

However, please note this is a very limited time promotion, the $20 price is good only until 5pm eastern (2pm pacific) today, Monday May 4, 2009!

Their regular annual subscription price is $39 per year.

Coach K confesses he is a socialist dictator!

Yes, basketball fans, it took Stephen T. Colbert, DFA, to get Coach K, aka the Ratzilla, to confess to the world that he is a socialist dictator! That's right, he confessed to that! The only exception, Coach-K said, was when he was coaching the 2008 Olympics Team. Other than that, he is a socialist dictator.

But don't take my word for it, watch the interview for yourself! It's only six minutes long.

Also of interest is how Ratzilla answers the question about letting babies play in the NBA. His only concern was "when do we start recruiting?" and he seemed eager to be in the delivery room to start recruiting newborns!

Coach K has been able to fool many people with his mumbo-jumbo, but Colbert has EXPOSED him for the RAT that he is ;-)

Whatever you do, you must watch the interview!

Games of the year: Cleveland State at Syracuse (Monday)

ESPN Classic has started a new series where they are showing some of the best games of the 2008-2009 season at the 9pm eastern (6pm pacific) time slot on Monday nights. Last week they showed Davidson at Oklahoma in the pre-season NIT semi-finals. This Monday they will be showing Cleveland State's dramatic game at the Carrier Dome against Syracuse. So be sure to set your timers, alarms, calendars, VCRs and DVRs since this game was not (as far as I recall) broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2 when it originally aired.

Early Top 25 for 2009-2010 by Andy Katz

It's amazing how time flies. It's already time for 2009-2010 pre-season Top 25s! With just 11 days before the deadline for NBA Draft entries, Andy Katz takes a stab at an early 2009-2010 Top 25, and the team at #1 may (or may not) surprise you.

You will also find (as it is usually the case), the two National Championship teams high in the rankings, but Andy has a couple of surprises up his sleeve further down the list.

Probably another list would be due on April 27, at least when we know who is NOT entering the NBA draft, and of course when the dust settles recruiting-wise for the next season, after all the dominos fall, both coaching-wise and commitment-wise.

Isiah Thomas press conference tomorrow on ESPN-News

ESPN News will be carrying live the Florida International press conference tomorrow (Wednesday April 15, tax day) that introduces the former Indiana and Pistons great as their next men's college basketball coach.

After a failed career as an NBA head coach and executive, Isiah wants to get a fresh start at a program where there is potential, but there is no pressure, bright lights or expectations. In other words, just like Mike Jarvis and Rollie, he is going where coaches go to relax, or retire or escape the "microscope".

Tape-delayed tidbits from the Final Four

These are some things that we forgot to mention during the Final Four :-)


Tom Izzo
Izzo's game plan to tire out the Tar Heels back-fired because of the way the TarHeels jumped to a 20-point lead. From there on, the slugfest was actually in favor of UNC, and that took the legs off the Michigan State players who needed them a lot more than the TarHeels because they had to score 20 points more than UNC in the second half.

And yes, Izzo should have called at least two time-outs earlier on in the first half to stem the tide. Even a high-school coach knows that! Ben Howland and Pete Gillan would have used up all of their timeouts before the first TV timeout :)


North Carolina
It is really amazing, that after soooo many years of college hoops only thirteen coaches have won multiple national championships. Only 13! And one of them is "dum' ol'roy". This is amazing, just thirteen! Of course Wooden ate up a whole decade on his own :)

Soft this, soft that, but this UNC wine-and-cheese team managed to do something historic: Win the most crowded road game in the history of college hoops, facing a hostile crowd of over 60,000. I do not believe anyone played in front of a bigger hostile-road crowd?

So while they were "wine and cheese" during the regular season, they got an injection of toughness from the Felton/McCants/May team of 2005 and may have actually played a little bit better on average. With the exception of the Lawson-toe-v*g*na-LSU game issues, when Lawson was warmed up and ready to go, it was Tar Heels all the way!


What did Draymond Green say?
In one of the interviews Izzo mentioned that Green said something to the team, that was so good and mature and profound that it surprised him. We forgot to google it, and by now it may be too late.

What was it?


Star vs Role player
I'm glad Bob "Guitar Hero" Knight brought this up a couple of times. It is extremely frustrating to see analyst after analyst use the stupid and divisive categorization of players into "stars" and "role players". This is just stupid.

Pigeon-holing players like that is for small minds and idiots who can't seem to understand anything that is not binary.

It's one thing to get this gibberish from play-by-play guys and TV anchors who are usually clueless anyway, but TV analysts, most of whom are former coaches and players, should know better!

So, Bob, please, the next time someone says something stupid like that, please stop them and yell at them live on TV!

Tell them, Bob! Tell them!

Wooden recites poetry in Gatorade commercial

You have to hand it to John Wooden. Almost 100 years old and he is reciting poetry in the latest Gatorade "G" TV commercial. It is amazing that a man close to 100 years ago has the mental clarity that most people never had even in their prime.

If you want to live long, read every single book and word he wrote and follow it! Because it worked!

Best of 2008-2009 on ESPN Classic every Monday

ESPN Classic is launching a nice new series, they will be showing some of the best games of the 2008-2009 college basketball season every Monday at 9pm eastern (6pm pacific). Each game will be edited accordingly to fit into a 2-hour slot. Some of the games planned include the Cleveland State at Syracuse (April 20), and things like that. Check local listings or espn.com for more details.