Man, it's nice to have basketball to read about, write about and listen to people talking about, if even for a brief instant. The following is a quick wrap-up post on Sunday's events, which included a great double-header: The Basketball Jones in the afternoon and Portland Trail Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge's charity game in the evening.
First, quick links to previous posts: Media Row Report | Chris Johnson feature | Jamal Crawford Talks Blazers
OK, on with the show.
The Basketball Jones
- Here's a link to a picture-heavy wrap post from the TBJ event.
- The show's 45-minute audio podcast featuring Dwight Jaynes and I as guests. Warning: Rated at least PG-13 and probably R.
- Facebook photo set from the event.
LaMarcus Aldridge's Charity Game
Audio
- I did a radio hit with Chad Doing on 750 AM The Game this morning. Interview starts a few minutes in. We talk labor, the charity game, Brandon Roy and a few other topics.
Links
- Sean Meagher of OregonLive.com with the top 20 dunks
- Tim Brown of OregonLive.com with the top 10 plays.
- Thanks to 4ist in the FanShots for the first two.
- YouTube user virnigfamily with the Michael Jackson Dougie-ing kid and Nate Robinson going head-to-head.
- YouTube user KSKRtheScore with more highlights.
- Dwight Jaynes at CSNNW.com with some thoughts on the night.
- The I Gotta Shine blog with a very thoughtful reflection on the game and the lockout.
Leftover Notes
- LaMarcus Aldridge told me that he has not seen Brandon Roy during the lockout.
- Former Blazers big man Jeff Pendergraph told me that the accounts of Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen "delivering a message" during labor negotiations caught him by surprise because Allen was never negative during post-game conversations with the team.
"He was there a couple of times. When I was there, he was really sick. He wasn't there very much. When he could make it there, at the end of the game he would sit there, coach Nate would give his spiel and then Paul Allen would say his stuff."
"Never, not one time [was he negative]. 'Good game, good defense.'"
"[The reports] did surprise me. It didn't match up seeing how he was in the locker room and then hearing that stuff. There's always spins and sides to everything."
- Pendergraph on his current condition: "My knee is 100 percent. Right now it's just conditioning and getting the rust off."
- Blazers guard Armon Johnson said he has spent the lockout visiting family in Chicago and working out in Reno, Nevada. He told me that he scratched from the Las Vegas "Lockout League" in September because he "sprained [his] ankle right before it. The day before it started."
- Here's a link to a whole mess of lockout-related quotes from Kevin Durant, Jamal Crawford and a bunch of Blazers. Nothing earth-shattering. The gist: guys are starting to get a little nervous about Wednesday's deadline but still profess loyalty to the union.
-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter