Thursday Bolts – 9.11.14
Tom Haberstroh of ESPN Insider on NBA rest: “To be clear, the NBA has bigger fish to fry at the moment, which is unfortunate in more ways than one. Surely, the league would rather have the time to plug every hole, but that’s unrealistic. No one enjoys seeing Kobe Bryant, Paul George and Russell Westbrook looking on from the sideline. However, Czeisler isn’t the only one who is skeptical that the NBA’s schedule tweaks will improve the game. Some team officials around the league worry that the longer break, at the expense of rest days in the season, will make the players out of shape and more susceptible to injury upon return. Indeed, this was a trying first season for Silver, and he has certainly shown he is open to new ideas. This is just Year 1 of the Silver era and more changes might come down the road. This much is clear: The NBA’s problem of sleep deprivation will not be solved overnight.”
From a few years ago, KD recounted his 9/11 experience: “I heard a big boom and I saw some smoke, and I was like, ‘What?’ ” Durant told Yahoo! Sports on Monday. “They let us out of school early and they said the Pentagon got hit. My mom said [on the phone] she could see the smoke from her job, so I was worried about her. My grandma came and picked me up and we heard planes flying over. Everyone was scared. It was like something out of a movie.”
The Thunder’s Blue-White scrimmage is Oct. 5 in Choctaw.
Lang Whitaker of NBA.com on USA Basketball: “It says we didn’t have our best team on the court. Not to take anything away from Spain or the other teams in the World Cup, but a Team USA with, oh, let’s say some permutation of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Kevin Love, Tim Duncan, Russell Westbrook or even Paul George, I think it’s safe to say we would have a more powerful team. Are other countries catching up to the United States? Yes. Have they caught the United States? No. Not yet, at least.”
Caron Butler chose the Pistons because of playing time. (But don’t forget they’re paying him almost $5 million a year.)
Marc Stein of ESPN.com on Spain’s loss: “Spain’s demise, then, is an undeniable disappointment, both for Americans who were eager to see the toughest possible test for this fledgling squad and for everyone else hoping to see the game continue to grow internationally. The sudden exit of the team that, as recently as a week ago, fully deserved its promotion to the top of ESPN.com’s FIBA Power Rankings, after its brilliant play in Group A, certainly gift wraps this World Cup for what is bound to be labeled as Team USA’s third-string squad. Which only figures to discourage the rest of the world further. You actually start to fear, after studying what we’ve seen here in Espana, that the gap between the United States and the chasing masses is actually widening as opposed to shrinking. And I don’t think anyone here wanted to see that.”
