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[Skate or Door -- 500 block of Florida Avenue, NW - Washington, D.C.]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Links!

First … Josh Howard is back in D.C.! Michael Lee of the Washington Post reports the details, and Mike Prada puts down some thoughts on the signing at Bullets Forever. I’ll have some more in-depth thoughts soon … but until then, I’ll say I love the move (especially at $4 million for one year).

Second … 17th pick Kevin Seraphin has signed with the Wizards after a buyout agreement was reached with his team in the French pro basketball league.
[Wizards Insider]

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Antawn Jamison doesn’t get Twitter. Neither does my 70-year old dad (okay, he’s 69, will be 70 next June).

He, my dad, was recently in town and Twitter came up in the dinner conversation. I tried to justify its relevancy by citing how it provides those in the media, bloggers, such as myself, the ability to extend personal branding (as HRO would call it), and even more so, how it’s great for late-breaking news, especially in the sports world. I trailed off and cut the list of merits short after seeing the look on my dad’s face, not mentioning how I’ve actually made friends with people via Twitter.

My pops, mind you, is not completely tech oblivious. He does have a ‘net book’. And I suppose Antawn is in the same boat.

Tom Sorenson of the Charlotte Observer has the first Antawn Jamison, ‘Here I Am’ article of the summer. Sorenson recently caught up with the Gentleman Jamison at his basketball camp in North Carolina. You should read the whole piece, but here are a couple select quotes: Read more »

“Having been from Cleveland and everything we’ve gone through, you’d like to see your hometown do well, so I’m disappointed from that standpoint.”
-Flip Saunders

Yep, ol’ Flip is from Cleveland. But you probably already knew that. The high school All-American and 1973 Ohio Class A Player of the Year averaged 32 points per game during his senior year at Cuyahoga Heights, a school located in the burbs of the Mistake By The Lake.

Actually, my bad. I shouldn’t make fun of Cleveland. Even though Cavs fans lined up by the miles to witness and laugh at the Wizards after the Arenas gun fiasco and the rest of the implosion (including gladly taking the Gentleman Jamison), I cannot laugh at them at this moment. I feel very, very bad for those guys. And with that I say, ‘Join me people of Cleveland, in your distaste for Lebron.’

One quick question … who’s now more indefensible, LeBron or DeShawn Stevenson?

What? Too soon?

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Dammit. I did it. I used that LeBron fella’s name in the title of this post. I know, I know … I shouldn’t have.

If it’s any consolation, I refused to watch the “decision” when the option was offered to the awaiting media to do so in the Wizards’ family room (the usual press lounge was unavailable).

Oh, the “awaiting” media part … well, yea, we were all waiting to speak to John Wall after he’d gone through his first day of mini-camp with the Wizards. The team’s opening session went from around 6:30 to 8:30 pm on Thursday; it was well after 10 pm before Wall spoke. Can’t blame him, he had to watch his buddy Bron Bron and then ice down some sore muscles.

Which makes me step back and think … back in February, would you have ever imagined that by July Cavs fans would (likely) want to trade places with Wizards fans?

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Flickr/next2landon

OVER THE PAST SEVEN YEARS, you’ve accomplished some incredible feats.

You are a two-time league MVP; you won NBA Rookie of the Year; you’re a six-time NBA All-Star; a NBA Scoring Champion; one of five players in NBA history to average over 25 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists in a season – which you have done four times; one of just three players in NBA history to average at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists in a postseason series; and you hold the record for the most consecutive points scored for a team in a playoff game with 25 straight hero-points against the Detroit Pistons in 2007, just to name a few.

(For additional ego-stroking, click here)

If you would allow me to speak freely, you should stay far, far away from Miami.

For starters, oil from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe (surely, you’ve heard of this) is likely to keep moving east because of the so-called “loop current,” according to NOAA officials.  To make matters worse than they already are, the likelihood of the Gulf oil spill hitting the Keys and the southeastern coast of Florida is greater than the likelihood of you making a free throw (80 percent)!  I know.

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I get it. You’re just about tired of hearing about LeBron James. Blah, blah, blah.

Nonetheless, you’re still reading about him and the whole ordeal still makes for fun conversational fodder. So deal with it. And besides, this post isn’t about free agency and LeBron’s “decision.”

So there’s a report out there today (via TMZ, of course … but I first saw it on Ball Don’t Lie) about how some dude filed a suit in Federal Court against LeBron and his mother, Gloria James, claiming that he’s the father of LeBron. The guy, Leicester Bryce Stovell, is trying to sue for millions.

As the story goes, according to Stovell’s suit, Gloria, from Akron, Ohio, was visiting a cousin who lived in D.C. in 1984. At the time she was 15-years old, but going to the club and telling dudes she was in her early 20s … at least according to Stovell, who was 29 at the time.

The club where they allegedly met was called “D.C. Space” — more on that in a second — and on the March night in question, Stovell took Gloria back to his home in Annandale, Virginia where the magic was supposed to have been made. So, LeBron wasn’t conceived, conceived within the boundaries of the District of Columbia, again, allegedly, but you get the point.

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John Wall is the Summer’s big move according to Bethlehem Shoals of NBA FanHouse. I agree … potentially.

If you eat and breathe the Washington Wizards as much as I do, you’ve considered the slim chance of crazy scenarios like the Wizards getting John Wall (via winning the draft lottery) followed by LeBron coming to play with his boy Wall in front of President Obama in D.C., along with Gil, ‘Dray, ‘Vale, Quinton, Nick and Al, and also joined by some veteran free-agents willing to sign for cheap within the remaining cap space*.

After all, LeBron is boys with Caps/Wizards owner Ted Leonsis (well, at least LBJ offered a testimonial on the back of Leonsis’ book, The Business of Happiness) and he just might realize the potential benefits of playing in an international city and forming a basketball/hockey MVP conglomerate with Alex Ovechkin. It’s not like these three parties have met or anything like that though … oh wait, the picture above.

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{via Ball Don’t Lie}

LeBron James likes wearing his own name-bearing shoes that fuel his ego. He wears MVP shoes. He wears New York Yankees shoes.

One upon a time Mike Miller wore LeBron James shoes to practice. This created a minor hubbub in Wizards Nation. In hindsight, the blog-worthy occurrence was probably a distraction. Not a distraction that amounted to much, but when added to everything else … exactly.

Sure, team captains Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler chimed in about not liking it. But DeShawn Stevenson … Mister 50/50, I Can’t Feel My Face … the Wizards’ protagonist in their rivalry with the Cavaliers (or antagonist depending on what side you’re on) … was the most vocal about Miller’s shoe selection, drawing scorn for his antics.

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The Wizards play the Thunder at 8 pm tonight in Oklahoma City. I’ll be Twittering and perhaps chatting a bit on ESPN’s Daily Dime.

We’ll see if the Wiz have the consistency, energy and focus it takes to win. Word out of Oklahoma is that the Thunder practiced their zone offense at shoot-around today.

Watch out for that Thabo Sefolosha cat. His on-ball defense is something to get excited about … when not playing the Wizards, obviously. It won’t be easy for Mike Miller or Caron Butler, whomever Thabo is guarding. That means … no dribbling around and trying to force things, Caron.

Brendan Haywood will also being going against his old buddy,  Etan ‘The Poet’ Thomas. Wizards Insider has more on the game’s matchup.

Finally, it’s Zero vs. Zero tonight, as my fellow ESPN TrueHoop Network blog, Daily Thunder, points out. Russell Westbrook vs. Gilbert Arenas … hopefully it will be fun to watch (and Gil’s not throwing up stink bombs from deep).

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Mike Miller is keeping his LeBrons …

Okay Mike, I get it and it’s cool with me. Although I may think what I think about LeBron James, I’ve got no beef with you.  LeBron’s shoes are your most favoritest in the whole wide world … and you are BFF with the guy who chose to have a tattoo artist ink ‘Chosen 1′ on his back.

I’m not sure who LeBron thinks actually “chose” him to be whatever it is that he thinks he is (maybe Sports Illustrated is god to him — whatever the case, it’s kind of arrogant).

On a side, but related note: It’s funny … when an athlete is good and some sort of athletic freak-of-nature, he is said to have “god-given talent” (aka chosen). But when someone is born with a disability, it’s called a “being tested.” Oh well and whatever, I’m digressing way beyond my worldly means of comprehension.

The point is, Mike, you named your son after LeBron James’ friend and now you want to keep wearing his shoes. They are light and no other shoe will ever, ever hold you with the same embrace. You say you’ll wear them until they hurt you. Basically, LeBron’s shoes are like a girl you’re seriously dating (but not necessarily one who’s achieved ‘girlfriend’ status … yet).

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Back in late May, Mike Miller professed his ‘man-crush’ on LeBron James via Twitter. When coming across this sometime in early September, I thought, ‘okay, let’s give this guy the benefit of the doubt.’ For one, his proclamation occurred way before he joined the Wizards. And let’s be honest, despite my hatred of LeBron, the guy is a damn fine basketball player.

Unfortunately, Miller just doesn’t seem to know any better. It’s kinda like the greasy-faced tween-age boys who have crushes on Megan Fox. Grown men know better. Sure, most so-called grown men wouldn’t kick Fox out the bed, i.e., wouldn’t mind LeBron James on their team. However, neither of these happen without compromising personal beliefs (and cheating on whomever you’re with/your team … especially if you’re a Wizards fans, but a distaste for LeBron is growing around the league).

My point: LeBron getting “Chosen One” tattooed on his back is just as douchey as Fox getting Marilyn Monroe tattooed on her forearm. (Cavs fans, I know you’re wondering, where does getting Abe Lincoln’s face tattooed on the front of your neck fit in? I’m not sure, and I won’t even begin to explain.)

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Ok, if you’ve ever read this blog, you’re probably aware of how I feel about LeBron James. Hell, I’m a Wizards fan, you shouldn’t have to read the blog, you should just know. But I’m not going there (this time).

And oddly enough, my opinion of Dunk Gate is somewhat similar to Cavs blogger John Krolik. Here’s what he had to say:

….it’s obvious and it has been said before, but the coverup here is far worse than the crime. If nobody had said anything, there is no way that video ever becomes news. It’s not all that impressive, and you wouldn’t know it’s LeBron unless someone told you. Unless Jordan Crawford is on the cutting edge of viral marketing strategies, this thing would have gone away instantly if nobody had made a stink. Just another lesson in how turning the other cheek is pretty much always the way to go.

So now it comes out that at one point in high school LeBron smoked weed.

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Update: a better version

The buzz around “the” dunk has been building for what seems like months now …. Twitter, blog posts, FaceBook groups, national media attention, and the like.

And now that the masses have actually seen the Jordan Crawford over LeBron James dunk, the Internet is predictably calling it over-hyped and overrated.

Sorry J.E. Skeets, maybe ‘anticlimactic’ has a seat at the table, but words like ‘over-hyped’ and ‘overrated’ are irrelevant.

Sure, they could be used to describe a grainy video of a far-away jam. But the dunk was never the point.

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via photobucket/d_julien

It first started with a report from Gary Parrish of CBS Sports. Then it spread like wildfire: True Hoop, Slam, Deadspin, The DC Sports Bog, The Sporting Blog, The Hoop Doctors, Mouthpiece Sports, Dime Magazine, The Dagger, Waiting For Next Year, NBC, Cleveland.com, Zoner Sports, The Same Intensity, and surely many more to come …

Yes, the dunk of Xavier’s Jordan Crawford on LeBron James, a video of which was confiscated by Nike officials, has seemingly caused more of an uproar than if it were posted on YouTube with a press conference held by the “Chosen One” himself,presenting the clip for all to see.

The worst part is that according to reports, it was actually LeBron who whispered into the ears of said officials right before they accosted various videographers around the gym.

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Some links as I waste my Sunday away, preparing for a couple game sevens, wearing my smelly, dirty homemade Ron Artest shirt, hoping for a Rockets win, or two close games in the least.

This past week, the Washington Post hosted a roundtable of Wizards bloggers. Each blog weighed in on what the team should do at a given draft position. Pretty cool when you think about it … MSM and Bloggers hanging out and stuff.

Pick #1: Keith McMillian, Washington Post
Pick #2: Truth About It.net (this place)
Pick #3: Wizards Extreme
Pick #4: Bullets Forever
Pick #5: WizzNutzz

Misunderstanding Media
Detroit Pistons blog, Full Court Press (on mlive.com), cited four paragraphs from the Bullets Forever contribution on Wizards Insider. Problem being, author Dave Dial failed to accurately represent that it was a blogger roundtable. He quoted three paragraphs written by the Pradamaster of Bullets Forever and one from Michael Lee of the WaPost without distinguishing the two authors. Dial also led with, “The Washington Post’s ‘Wizards Insider’ gives more credence to the fact that if the Wizards do not land in the top two picks they will look to trade the pick,” which is inaccurate. Yes, it is well known that Ernie Grunfeld sees the pick as an “asset”, i.e., trade-bait. However, the roundtable was speculation, and not necessarily an official team report as Dial’s use of the word “credence” seems to implicate.

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