Thursday Bolts – 8.4.11
Serge Ibaka returned to Brazzaville to help kids: “He faced many of the challenges that these kids are currently going through while he was growing up in Brazzaville. Serge’s story serves as a great example of how hard work and focus can allow you to follow your dreams and his visit was a great chance for these children to hear about it first-hand. Serge’s good work will be continued as he is planning to start a project for street children in Brazzaville through UNICEF.”
Beckley Mason of HoopSpeak on lockout wars: “A part of me just wants to players to cave so we can have a season next year. Another part, the part that hopes the fantastically skilled and entertaining laborers can get a reasonable deal, wants a world governed by transparency and rationality. That part can just barely stomach the NBA owners leveraging all they have to get a revolutionary new deal, but not the misrepresentations about why they want it, or how they’re going about getting it.”
ESPN.com 5-on-5 talking about the Grizzlies.
Via the Baltimore Sun: “NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter said Wednesday that if he “had to bet on it,” he would wager that the entire 2011-12 season would be wiped out by the lockout. “We’re $800 million apart per year,” Hunter told about 200 people during a seminar at a conference in Baltimore of the National Bar Association, an organization of predominantly African-American lawyers and judges.”
90-81 in CBSSports.com’s top 100 players.
Pete Carroll invited Nate Robinson to camp: “Robinson said via Twitter that he was ready to show Carroll he still had some football skills. “Coach give me a chance and I’ll prove it to u,” he said. Carroll said practice started at 1:30 p.m., and requested Robinson bring his cleats. Practice came and went without an appearance from Robinson. “He may be a little distracted with basketball, I don’t know,” Carroll said afterward. “If he is, he probably won’t be able to do it. But if he can get focused, there’s always a chance.”
Jim Rome is loving KD’s summer.
Lester Munson of ESPN.com on the players’ secret weapon: “The owners might be underestimating Kessler. He is a creative and brilliant advocate, and he is not limited to a one-trick pattern. Kessler and the players could have some surprises for the owners. My guess is that there will be no decertification and no litigation from the players. But that does not mean we will see a complete NBA season. It means that negotiation will replace litigation as the centerpiece of the lockout.”