NBA Basketball 2006-07: The Thread

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i vote neither.

 

[LMP]

Dwayne Wade hurts his shoulder, and he is pushed off the court in a wheelchair.

Figure that one out.

 

[tpsreports2424]

^I saw that live...

man I hope he's okay

 

[impy13]

Ladies and gentlemen, Dwyane "Hot Wheels" Wade:

Fall down seven times, get up seven. Get carried off in a wheelchair for an injury that doesn't involve your legs once.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i don't really like dwyane wade, but he was taken off in a wheel chair because they wanted to immobilize his shoulder so as not to damage it any further.

 

[Hewson]

Looks like Pacman Jones wasn't the only one having fun in Vegas recently:

http://sports.aol.com/whitlock/_a/mayhem-main-event-at-nba-all-star/20070220103009990001

Mayhem Main Event at NBA All-Star Weekend
'Police Were Simply Overwhelmed' in Sin City
By JASON WHITLOCK
AOL
Sports Commentary

LAS VEGAS -- NBA All-Star Weekend in Vegas was an unmitigated failure, and any thoughts of taking the extravaganza to New Orleans in 2008 are total lunacy.
An event planned to showcase what is right about professional basketball has been turned into a 72-hour display of why commissioner David Stern can't sleep at night and spends his days thinking of rules to mask what the NBA has come to represent.

Good luck fixing All-Star Weekend.

The game is a sloppy, boring, half-hearted mess. The dunk contest is contrived and pointless. The celebrity contest is unintended comedy. And, worst of all, All-Star Weekend revelers have transformed the league's midseason exhibition into the new millennium Freaknik, an out-of-control street party that features gunplay, violence, non-stop weed smoke and general mayhem.

Word of all the criminal activity that transpired during All-Star Weekend has been slowly leaking out on Las Vegas radio shows and TV newscasts and on Internet blogs the past 24 hours.

"It was filled with an element of violence," Teresa Frey, general manager for Coco's restaurant, told klastv.com. "They don't want to pay their bills. They don't want to respect us or each other."

Things got so bad that she closed the 24-hour restaurant from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.

"I have been spit on. I have had food thrown at me," she said. "I have lost two servers out of fear. I have locked my door out of the fear of violence."

All weekend, people, especially cab drivers, gossiped about brawls and shootings. You didn't know what to believe because the local newspaper was filled with stories about what a raging success All-Star Weekend was. The city is desperately trying to attract an NBA franchise, and, I guess, there was no reason to let a few bloody bodies get in the way of a cozy relationship with Stern.

Plus, the NBA's business partner ESPN didn't have time to dirty its hands and report on the carnage. I'm sure ESPN's reporters were embedded in the rear ends of the troops -- Shaq, Kobe, King James, D-Wade, AI and Melo.

But there were multiple brawls, at least two shootings, more than 350 arrests and a lot of terror in Vegas over the weekend.

And the police might want to talk to NFL player Pacman Jones about a nasty shooting spree at a Vegas strip club. Jones and the rapper Nelly were allegedly at Minxx Gentlemen's Club Monday morning shortly before (or during) the shooting.

Two victims, male employees of the club, were listed in critical condition at the hospital; a third, a female patron, sustained non-life threatening injuries after being grazed by a bullet.

There were so many fights and so many gangbangers and one parking-lot shootout at the MGM Grand that people literally fled the hotel in fear for their safety. I talked with a woman who moved from the MGM to the Luxor because "I couldn't take it. I'll never come back to another All-Star Game."

There are reports of a brawl between rappers and police at the Wynn Hotel.

Vegas police were simply overwhelmed along The Strip. They were there solely for decoration and to discourage major crimes. Beyond that, they minded their own business.

I was there. Walking The Strip this weekend must be what it feels like to walk the yard at a maximum security prison. You couldn't relax. You avoided eye contact. The heavy police presence only reminded you of the danger.

Without a full-scale military occupation, New Orleans will not survive All-Star Weekend 2008.

David Stern seriously needs to consider moving the event out of the country for the next couple of years in hopes that young, hip-hop hoodlums would find another event to terrorize. Taking the game to Canada won't do it. The game needs to be moved overseas, someplace where the Bloods and Crips and hookers and hoes can't get to it without a passport and plane ticket.


Stern has spent the past three years trying to move his league and players past the thug image Ron Artest's fan brawl stamped on the NBA.

After this weekend, I'm convinced he's losing the battle. All-Star Weekend Vegas screamed that the NBA is aligned too closely with thugs. Stern is going to have to take drastic measures to break that perception/reality. All-Star Weekend can no longer remain the Woodstock for parolees, wannabe rap artists and baby's mamas on tax-refund vacations.

This was not a byproduct of the game being held in Vegas. All-Star Weekend has been on this path for the past five or six years. Every year the event becomes more and more a destination for troublemakers.

If something isn't done, next year's All-Star Weekend will surpass the deceased Freaknik, a weekend-long party in Atlanta, in terms of lawlessness. Wide-spread looting and a rape killed the Freaknik in 1999.

The NBA's image cannot survive bedlam in the French Quarter. And I'm not sure it can survive the embarrassment of a New Orleans standoff between its fans and the National Guard, either.

If Stern wants to continue to strengthen the international appeal of his game, he has the perfect excuse to move the All-Star Game to Germany, China, England or anywhere Suge Knight's posse can't find it.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

the nba... it's faaaaaaaantastic

 

[phanan]

A truly sad state of affairs.

 

[Hewson]

What happens in Vegas...leads to hospitalizations and funerals in Vegas.

 

[BEAL]

I wonder how much truth was in that article. I used to love the NBA, but the quality of play, and quality of human beings playing in it seems to have gone way down. Or at least all we hear about is the bad. I kind of like watching the Suns play, but it's almost painful to watch how some of these players act.

I really don't want to label the NBA as a league of thugs, but you keep reading these things. Maybe it's like what Barry Bonds is saying "It's you the media!!!!".....in his case I don't think so!

NFL better be careful. With nearly the entire Bengals team, and PacMan getting in trouble every even month, they're going to have the same NBA PR problems.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I really don't want to label the NBA as a league of thugs, but you keep reading these things. Maybe it's like what Barry Bonds is saying "It's you the media!!!!".....in his case I don't think so!

it's a combo of both.

 

[Hewson]

NFL better be careful. With nearly the entire Bengals team, and PacMan getting in trouble every even month, they're going to have the same NBA PR problems.

Don't forget the police blotter Colts and Tom Brady knocking up B list actresses all across the country.

 

[BEAL]

Guess we should throw Lienert in there as well for knocking up College Freshman Volleyball players too.

Then there's Ron Mexico and his masterful inventions and infected crotch.

 

[Hewson]

Plus Andy Reid's well behaved children.

 

[BEAL]

How screwed up is the Professional Water Polo league? They probably have players juiced up as well. And I bet their star players go around to clubs with a huge entourage.

 

[LMP]

The problem was the scheduling.

The All-Star Game was the 3rd most important event in Vegas that weekend behind the Chinese New Year and Fashion Week Event.

Put that much insanity into one weekend and crazy stuff is bound to happen.

 

[namkcuR]

Breaking News: Former Seattle Supersonics + Boston Celtics point guard Dennis Johnson, who won several rings with the Celtics in the 80s and had a brief head coaching stint with the Clippers in 2002, has collapsed and passed away.

 

[Lila64]

He was 52 and was playing in a pick-up game, and I think they said he had a heart attack.

R.I.P.

 

[impy13]

Wow, he was the coach of the NBDL team here in Austin.

That's crazy.

 

[LMP]

Oh man, DJ.

RIP.

 

[phanan]

As a Celtic fan who grew up in the 80's, this just blows me away. He of course was always overshadowed by the Big Three, but what a presence he was on the court. I'll never forget the play where Bird stole the ball and dished it over to him for the layup and win.

RIP DJ.