Wednesday Bolts – 2.23.11

Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports: “The Miami Heat, Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder have all inquired about Nene, but the Nuggets don’t plan to trade him, a source with knowledge of the team’s thinking said. The source expects the Nuggets to soon give Nene an extension offer.”

Adrian Wojnarowski: “The Oklahoma City Thunder have inquired about Memphis Grizzlies center Hasheem Thabeet, but haven’t decided on making an offer for the 7-foot-3 bust out of UConn. Thabeet was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft and shuttled between the NBA’s Developmental League and the Grizzlies’ bench.”

Brent Barry felt bad about shorting Serge Ibaka, John Rohde writes: “After Saturday night’s dunk contest at Staples Center, judge Brent Barry apologized to a Thunder official for not giving a high enough score for Ibaka’s dunk that wound up being the longest in the history of the competition. Each of the five judges — Barry, James Worthy, Dominique Wilkins, Clyde Drexler and Julius Erving — gave Ibaka a score of 9 on the dunk for a total score of 45. Judges are asked to flash their scorecards immediately and do not have the luxury of seeing a replay. Barry said he did not realize Ibaka actually had taken off from the free-throw line, which no dunk competitor had ever done successfully.”

Chris Tomasson of FanHouse tweets: “Nene reiterates he wants to stay in Denver. ‘This is where I want to be,’ Nene told FanHouse. I have family here’ … Nene says he wants to sign a contract extension with the Nuggets. ‘I  definitely hope I get one.’ Talks are expected to go throughout season.”

Video of Blake Griffin’s introduction.

I wrote the lead for the Daily Dime.

Darnell Mayberry on last night: “Give Green credit for this one. He started off in foul trouble but shook off those early struggles and bounced back with a nice offensive performance. What stood out early on is how Green was making the most out of garbage. He found ways to score and capitalized on opportunities when the ball was swung his direction. Classic game for the man known as Uncle Jeff.”

Berry Tramel on how Thunder fans played it cool: “First Griffin basket: no cheer. First Griffin foul: cheer. First Griffin missed foul shot: cheer. A throng that a few minutes earlier had waved palm branches at their worshipped hero suddenly treated Griffin like some nondescript Minnesota Timberwolf. Good for Oklahoma City. I’m proud of the crowd, which was no small reason the Thunder busted away from a monster Griffin start and waxed the Clippers 111-88 Tuesday night.”

Oh, and Deron Williams got traded. So that’s weird.