Posts tagged ‘charles barkley’

Today the Wizards signed Shaun Livingston to a 10-day contract. Yes, that Shaun Livingston. The once Magic Johnson-esque prodigy who devastatingly injured his knee in just his third season in the NBA. On February 26, 2007 at the 8:10 mark of the first quarter, Livingston went up for a fast-break layup and came down awkwardly on his left leg, tearing his ACL, PCL, MCL and lateral meniscus. He also dislocated his patella and tibia/femoral. Ridiculously painful sounding doesn’t even come close to describing. Seeing it happen is even worse. I’m not going to even link the video.

But get this weird, connected sh*t. Not a week after Livingston’s injury, on April 4, 2007, Gilbert Arenas originally injured his knee against Gerald Wallace and the Charlotte Bobcats. Guess who Livingston’s then team, the Los Angeles Clippers, were playing on his fateful night. You guess it, the Charlotte Bobcats.

Video evidence confirms that at the time of Shaun’s injury, Wallace was on the court, but on the other end — remember, it was a fast-break opportunity for the Clippers. But do not forget that Wallace was on the court making contract with Josh Howard when he originally injured his ankle in 2008.

It would be really weird if Howard suffered his recent knee injury against the Bobcats and not the Chicago Bulls. However, guess who checked in for Livingston after he got hurt? Wizards assistant coach Sam Cassell. Exactly. Weird sh*t.

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Believe it or not, in the clip you are about to see, Charles Barkley doesn’t even talk about the trade that Mark Cuban just fleeced the Wizards for. Although, he surely will trash the move at some point.

In going down their All-Decade NBA lists and highlights, the TNT crew of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley couldn’t resist mentioning a specific sensitive moment in the Wizards’ failed history … The Michael Ruffin Ball Toss.

Ruffin’s infamous gaffe, the one where he tossed the ball in the air with around three-seconds left only to see Mo Peterson of the Toronto Raptors catch, shoot, and make a crazy buzzer beater to tie the game (the Wizards would go on to lose in overtime), wasn’t officially apart of any All-Decade list, but the guys could help but mention it.

“The second dumbest basketball play I’ve ever seen,” said Kenny Smith.

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Most know about the time Ernie Grunfeld spent in the New York Knicks front office. And many probably have an idea that Madison Square Garden was Grunfeld’s home court for the final four seasons of his nine year NBA playing career. But did you know that Big Ern was on the floor the night Patrick Ewing made his NBA debut?

After playing his first two seasons in Milwaukee, and his next three with the Kansas City Kings, Grunfeld began his tenure in NYC in ’82-83 with the likes of Bill Cartwright, Bernard King (Grunfeld’s teammate at Tennessee), Paul Westphal, and one of my all-time favorite NBA names, Rory Sparrow. Grunfeld was 10th in minutes per game on a Hubie Brown led, 44-win Knicks team that made it to the Eastern Conference semifinals. But the Philadelphia 76ers, with Moses Malone, Julius Erving, and Mo Cheeks, swept the Knicks, advanced to beat Sidney Moncrief‘s Milwaukee Bucks in the conference finals, and swept the LA Lakers to win the ’83 NBA title.

Grunfeld and the 47-win Knicks fell short in the ’84 playoffs as well. This time going down in seven games to the Boston Celtics led by Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and the Chief Robert Parrish. Just as the 76ers did the previous season, the Celtics subsequently beat the Bucks in the East finals, and won the ’84 NBA championship, taking the Lakers in seven.

Tough times found the Knickerbockers in ’84-85. Cartwright missed the entire season and King only played 55 games. Not even Darrell Walker, in his second season and averaging a career-high 13.5 ppg, could help. A mere 24 wins and a frozen envelope later, Patrick Ewing magically landed in the Big Apple.

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See that fella above? That’s “Dinner Bell” Mel Turpin, a member of the cursed Washington Bullets/Wizards draft history … sorta.

Turpin was taken by the Bullets with the 6th overall pick in the famed 1984 NBA Draft … the Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and of course, Sam Bowie draft. Bowie was a teammate of Turpin’s at Kentucky, and while both are known as busts, it’s Bowie’s name that most often gets mentioned amongst NBA basketball infamy.

With Rick Mahorn and Jeff Ruland already holding down the paint, Turpin was immediately traded by then GM Bob Ferry to a team currently generally managed by his son Danny, the Cleveland Cavaliers. In exchange, the Bullets received Cliff Robinson and Tim McCormick, who was promptly sent to the Seattle Sonics, along with Ricky Sobers, for Gus Williams.

Williams lead the ’84-85 Bullets in scoring (20.0) and assists (7.7), while Robinson was fourth on the team in scoring (16.7) and second in rebounding (9.1). That Bullets team improved by five wins over the previous season’s mark to finish 40-42, but still lost to Barkley, Julius Erving, and Moses Malone in the first round of the playoffs.

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While Gilbert Arenas’ latest blog post is entitled This is Kwame’s Year, (more on than later) the bombshell that Arenas dropped was his opinion on the American political process.

Much akin to Charles Barkley, Gil kinda/sorta admits to being a Republican:

It’s hard for me to vote, because since I’ve been in the NBA I’ve been in the upper class so I’ve been a Republican. If you have any type of money, you’re a Republican, period. So, it’s hard because you see a better looking president in Obama – I don’t even want to say because he’s black, but he just looks the part – and then you have McCain who is Republican and I’m like, man. I know Obama is going to raise taxes on the upper class from 20-60 percent, that’s what I’m looking at.

Of course, Barkley “was a Republican until they lost their minds.”

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Charles Barkley threw the Wizards through a plate-glass window and spit on them like a little girl when he called Washington the “dumbest franchise in the history of civilization.”

flickr/vedia

Nowadays, when the Wizards talk, the ears of the media perk up, and the word on the street starts bubbling. Of course, we throw the entire Wizards team into the mix, but it’s really only two who are opening their mouths: DeShawn Stevenson and Gilbert Arenas. Their teammates are put in the position to back up their claims. Who knows what savvy vets such as Antonio Daniels and Antawn Jamison think of all the words. My gut feeling is that they don’t mind so much (and neither does Eddie Jordan). They’re competitors too and are just as ready to strap ‘em up and go to war on the court.

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We all know what transpired the last time the Washington Wizards and Cleveland Cavaliers really faced each other in the playoffs on May 5th of 2006. LeBron James talked trash to Gilbert Arenas before two crucial free-throws. Gilbert missed both. Damon Jones hit a deuce with four seconds left and the rest is history. Cleveland won 114-113 that night and took a very hard fought series in six games. Leaving the Verizon Center, my buddy Chris and I had only one choice: drink our troubles away in Chinatown with a boatload of scotch.

Even last year when the Cavs swept the Wizards without Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler in the playoffs, all seemed quiet on the Eastern Conference front between Cleveland and Washington….until 2008. Below is the time-line of the trash talk that’s gone since.

flickr/wizardsdotcom

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flickr/wizardsdotcom

Here’s the ranks:

1) You must know that Bullets Forever has gone through a pretty kick-ass revamp. Stop waiting and go join the community. By the way, that’s where the Game 82 blog vs. the Orlando Magic will be tonight.

2) Wow, it’s been a whole five years since Michael Jordan played his last game as a Wizard. The crew at We Rite Goode has an excellent run-down.

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The New York Knicks lost to the Boston Celtics 104-59 tonight. Would’ve set an all-time Knicks franchise low for points scored in the game had it not been for a Nate Robinson 3 pointer at the buzzer. And I laugh.

So I’m watching Inside the NBA on TNT at halftime of the Lakers-Nuggets game. First of all, Kenny Smith compares the Knicks to the Washington Generals….hilarious.

But Charles Barkley? I’m with you 99.9% of the time captain, but you feel bad for Isiah? Because the players quit of him? The key part of ‘the players quit on him’ is the Him and not the Players.

Now look, I know that coaches are supposed to coach and not play. I also realize that it’s the responsibility for the players to go out an win games. They are on the court. Coaches are on the sidelines.

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