We’re not going to get all up in Elton’s face for rupturing his achilles tendon like we did with Shaun Livingston about his knee.
Yeah, they’re both Clippers, and yeah, both of their injuries are horrible ones.
The difference is that we like Elton Brand, while we have nothing but indifference for Shaun Livingston.
Regardless, Brand is a good guy, and hurt it while going through his summer workouts. Afterward, he called Clips GM Elgin Baylor (who was busy signing Brevin Knight) and had what sounds like a really casual conversation about leg injuries.
“Elton called me after it happened and told me about it,” Baylor said. “He said it hurt, but he was in good spirits. I said, ‘I went through it. I tore mine [in 1970]. You’re young and healthy, you’ll come back 100%.’ It’s just a matter of how much time it takes.”
I said, he said, I said, we said, this said, that said.
Whatever – good luck to Elton getting back fully healthy asap.
We’re more concerned about the Brevin Knight thing. Not so much for the Clips, but for our Cavaliers. They’ve made ZERO changes this summer. None, zip, nothing.
There’s a sense of relief that GM Danny Ferry doesn’t just go sign people to sign them, and taking his time with free agents Sasha and Varejao is gonna net a couple favorable deals, much like it did with Drew Gooden.
THAT SAID, everything we’ve read says they’re not even bringing in an offensive oriented assistant coach. Not only that, both Ferry and Coach Mike have stated that such a thing isn’t necessary.
We think you know where we stand on this – offended. Highly, highly offended.
(NOTE: If you ever wanted to be an Official Roundie Henchman, like a real one – like wear the uniform and everything, now’s your chance. Email us at yaysports@gmail.com with “Henchman” in the subject line. UPDATE: Los Angeles area only! Thanks!)
Not to step all over Jack Cobra’s Friday toes, but we have to step in here and comment on two things – one on-topic, and one off.
First of all, the latest Kevin Garnett to Los Angeles rumor is as follows:
This rumor is flying around Celtic forums:
Wolves get: Andrew Bynum, Gerald Green, Theo Ratliff, Kwame Brown
Lakers get: KG
Celtics get: Lamar Odom
Look, the Timberwolves are not trading Kevin Garnett for Kwame Brown. Okay? This won’t happen. Even if another All-Star came with the deal, we refuse to believe even Kevin McHale is that stupid.
Kwame Brown is not an “up-and-comer” (as one Lakersground fan put it), he’s not a competent player, and he’s not even reliable from a health standpoint. (He does have an expiring contract, but that’s not worth the humiliation of trading KG for Kwame Brown.)
Also, Pierce/Allen/Odom/Jefferson is…actually pretty decent. Lamar is at his best as a third option, which he would be in this situation. Hrmm…still not happening.
Anyway, to something totally different. Barry Bonds is closing in on the all-time home run record, and we must make a statement regarding his alleged steroid use.
Why? Because there’s a growing, “Aw shucks, maybe Barry is just misunderstood and put on 40 pounds of pure muscle at age 38. He’s a good guy.” sentiment seeping out here and there.
Read this twice, so it really sinks in:
If you think Barry Bonds didn’t use steroids and human growth hormone, you are stupid.
Seriously. We’ve never been 38 before, but as an avid fitness person, we can tell you with all certainty – putting on that type of weight, at that age, that fast, is impossible. A 16 year-old who’s just starting to lift could maybe do that if they ate 10,000 calories per day of chicken breasts, tuna, and oatmeal, but even that’s a stretch, and it would take like a year and a half.
We don’t care if he cheated – no big deal. People cheat all the time – we’d do the same thing for an extra $60M bucks. But don’t sit here and pretend he didn’t cheat – c’mon.
And yes, it’s cheating, even if it technically wasn’t “against the rules of baseball” at the time. Last time I looked, it was against US law, which in most cases supersedes the MLB rulebook. Unless you think professional baseball players are allowed to murder people. Y’know, because the baseball rulebook doesn’t specifically state that players can’t commit homicide.
NOTE: “Needles” rhymes with “dresser”.
Well, free agents are officially allowed to sign today, and one of the people doing some signing will be former Jazz guard Derek Fisher, who will be going back to the Lakers for three years. They’ll be using their full MLE (mid-level exception) on the deal.
There’s no official word on this yet, but considering Lakersground.net has had a collective heart attack, we’re guessing it’s true.
This’d be a great move if the Lakers were like, a contender looking for one more piece of bench support. As it stands today, it’s…questionable horrible. At least Fisher is taking a pay cut on the Utah deal he got out of – this way we don’t have to be mean in reference to Derek.
(Interesting to learn that he switched agents this past weekend – was the other one, as we feared when the Jazz thing happened, looking for the highest payday no matter what?)
In other Los Angeles guard-centric news, Steve Francis got his $30M buyout from Portland, and all signs say he’ll go to the Clippers, where his “best friend” Cuttino Mobley is currently stationed.
According to the Post, [Francis's agent person] Fried said that the buyout allows his client to find the “right fit as opposed to the most money. He doesn’t need much to be made whole.”
Y’know, with all the rumors and such out there are those lads, you’d think they’d avoid using such odd phrasing such as saying that Steve is looking to “be made whole”. What does that even mean?
Anyway, with two new guards coming to the LA area, we’ve officially moved down two spots in the ranking of Southern California basketball players. Sad, but considering we’re #4,546,220 right now, what’s two more notches down the chart, right?
Be sure to keep your ears and eyes open – with free agents now able to sign, everything should start not happening today. We’ll keep you informed, albeit probably two or three days later than things actually happen. You should really be reading TrueHoop.
NOTE: The NBA is setting up a massive 2-on-2 tournament in China. Why can they do that there, but won’t run one during All-Star Saturday Night?
There are few things more horrific than the knee dislocation that Clippers guard Shaun Livingston suffered back in the wintertime.
You may remember that we claimed repeatedly this injury was preventable, and were yelled at for it by many a commentor.
Thankfully, it appears Mr. Livingston is able to walk somewhat normally already, and is even able to do things like drive and get snacks.
Clippers guard Shaun Livingston, who suffered a possible career ending knee injury in late December, was spotted walking around without any noticeable limp. Livingston was getting gas in Los Angeles at a station on the corner of Beverly and Fairfax late Friday night. He appeared to be upset when attempting to get a snack and realizing the station’s mini mart was closed.
Well, it also appears Mr. Livingston still isn’t taking care of himself, as we stated over and over. What are you doing getting snacks at that late hour, Shaun?
Furthermore, you shouldn’t be getting angry at buildings just because their doors are locked. It’s not their fault the proprietor closed them.
It is, however, you fault that your body is weak and frail from eating Funyuns at 1am on a Friday. Once again, we’re right, and snacks is a funny word.
The reaction to Shaun Livingston’s injury is far-reaching and diverse. People from here in Hollywood all the way into Burbank are discussing, discussing, discussing.
Most are horrified by the pure horror of the leg-bending action, and almost all are of the opinion nobody should have to go through such a thing.
We spoke at length with one Clipper season ticket holder yesterday who said he thinks the thing is awful on a personal level, but that the team will probably play better without him (despite Coach Mike D).
The thing that stuck out the most to us was this email we received from reader Nathan, however.
Please tell me how on earth you contend that Shaun Livingston’s injury was preventable. If you’re whole comment on his trainer meant to imply that there is some way to strengthen knee ligaments to resist the type of force they took when he knee torqued like it did, then you must have never been too much of an athlete or don’t know too much about the atheletes you write about. If you had been, you would have been around many more ligament tears that were 1000 less obvious than livingstons (and preventable in your eyes) and trained with weights where the emphasis is to create and maintain muscle, not strengthen every single ligament in your body to make them “more durable from injury” as you would say.
Couple things here. First of all, thanks to Nathan for writing in. While we don’t know that there’s much more to discuss about this, it keeps us from having to go read newspapers for things to write about.
Second, The reason his leg torqued like it did is because his strength in said leg was not sufficient, unless you’re seeing something we’re not. The angle was slightly off, but not enough for that to happen. Not in a properly conditioned elite athlete. (Note Livingston’s ongoing injuries the past three years, as well.)
We’re not sure if you’re actually agreeing with us or not, but weight training does strengthen ligaments – especially large free weight exercises like squats, bench press, etc. Moreso, these also strengthen all the little muscles around the bigger muscles, therefore making you more durable and less prone to weird injuries like your leg collapsing when coming down from a layup.
(This is why you should do squats instead of the quad/hamstring machines. If your quads are strong, but the smaller muscles that support the quads aren’t, you’re setting yourself up to get hurt.)
Third, we bring all this up mainly because guys like Livingston and Larry Hughes make us mad. There’s a reason Michael Jordan and Karl Malone rarely went down with little tweaks and sprains, let alone having their leg collapse when coming down from a layup. They built strong bodies and took care of them.
Finally, we think you all know by now that if you send us either a well thought out or horribly thought out email, we’ll probably use it as a crutch to get a post out of it, even if there’s a glaring misuse of the word “you’re”, which is a contraction of “you are”. Nathan, you’re looking for “your” in that case.
Regardless, it’s those middle of the road emails we just can’t use. So, either be horrible or be really good.
(We think this was the first ever weight training lesson on YAYsports! NBA.)
(Availability update: It’s not good. We’ll be out but likely commenting today. For some reason, this happens whenever ESPN mentions the site. “Today” in this scenario* refers to “Wednesday”.)
You may or may not have watched the video of Clippers PG Shaun Livingston dislocating his knee, depending on how much you enjoy cringing while vomiting.
We’re not going to embed that here, as we don’t want you feeling throw-uppy on our website. Obviously, the lad is out for the season.
A few of you have emailed us regarding this event – here’s a sampling.
The Cavalier-
I was staring at this picture of Livingston’s knee (ouch.jpg) and something looked so familiar. Then I realized why. It looks like E.T. But alas, I have no photoshop skills and you have many. So please. Lest I remind you that with great power comes great responsibility. And if it’s all the same to you, could you add a link to my blog. Thanks man,
Shaun
btw: long time reader, first time emailer.
Okay, first things first – here’s the link to your blog, Shaun.
Now on to your pictorial request. Below, the two pictures you sent us.
We’ve sat here for a bit and tried to decide what it is you’re looking for, and after said bit, we have no idea what you’re talking about. Does his knee look like ET? His face? Does ET look like a human knee? Regardless, you make a request, we’ve gotta comply. Here’s what we’ve got:
Now to the injury questions. Do Shaun Livingston and Larry Hughes have the same personal trainer? Does their weight lifting program consist of 3 sets of
nothing for each bodypart?
(*Anyone who can send us a good mp3 of “Scenario” from Tribe Called Quest (featuring Leaders of the New School) can be our best friend, and also freestyle for us a bit. iTunes doesn’t have it for some reason.
UPDATE: We’ve got it – seven times. You’re wonderful people, one and all – thanks!)
The big excitement in the post-All-Star NBA was the gallant return of PHX point guard Steve Nash, who came back last night to help the Suns beat up on the Clippers here in LA.
Despite taking a scary charge from Elton Brand, Steve was safe and sound and playing decently, although by everyone’s admission, he was also a little rusty.
That all works when you’re playing the Clippers, who were without Chris Kaman, Cuttino Mobley, and also kinda stink. Steve Nash weighs in.
“I’m going to fight through some soreness and stiffness just because the shoulder is protecting itself, but I think I’ll be OK,” Nash said.
“It was the urgency of where we were,” [the Suns' Coach Mike] said. “OK, we stumbled; let’s get back. We brought Steve back and Kurt so he can guard Elton Brand so we don’t have to run around as much.”
While the most interesting thing to note here is probably that Steve’s shoulder is self-aware enough to protect itself, we know what you’re wondering – what’s with the title of this post?
We can’t tell you – that’s the thing. The reason we can’t tell you is brave and kind in and of itself, so you should be thanking us for being so protective and generous.
This is blog is heady – remain calm. Or “clam”, as that sentence said before we fixed the typo. The main thing to remember is that every day between now and the end of the regular season, this blog is gonna get stupider and the Suns are closer than ever to locking themselves into the two seed in the West.
(BTW at four games under .500, the Clips should officially tank – they can still get that coveted 8th pick in the draft if they’re shifty enough.)
We had this while post written up about the Clippers being average, and it wa somehow wrapped around how they sent Danny Granger to the hospital yesterday in their loss to the Pacers.
When we had finished, we looked it over and realized that our Clipper knowledge wasn’t really all that deep, but moreso that the Clippers being average simply isn’t interesting, even though JA Adande says the Clips’ Coach Mike should maybe be canned.
Part of our inability to write a compelling post on this topics stems from our purchase last week of a massive bag of bananas from Costco. It was four POUNDS of bananas for $1.37.
We remember standing there in Costco contemplating whether to buy them or not, and it took like 10 minutes, at least. On one hand, they’re $1.37. On the other, we don’t really eat bananas, so what’s the point? We even walked away once and then came back to think it over some more.
Ultimately, we bought them. The bananas were large, cheap, and bagged.
Like, what kind of farmer grows his bananas in such a way that he then must bag them – these things seemed so serious. Even the Costco employee noted upon checkout, “Ay, those are some big bananas,” to which we responded, “Yes, I agree.”
Anyway, it’s a week later and the bananas have gone bad. We threw them away just now, and we can’t help but think that years from now we’ll look back on this and somehow wonder how our personal Banana Era went so very, very wrong.
For a more in-depth, intelligent, and entertaining breakdown of Clippers-Pacers, head over to the AOL FanHouse (gasp!) and check out Miss Gossip’s writeup. Then go check out this other Pacer commentary by her.
Well chronicled is the sad life of Doug Christie and his overbearing, psychotic wife.
For all the problems that woman has caused Doug in terms of reputation, it was hard for anyone to knock on his game. While never an All-Star, we was always a hard worker and did his part to be the best he could be.
Because of this, it’s somewhat sad to report that the Clippers have signed Doug to a 10-day contract, which are usually the things they give out to the third-leading scorer in the CBA.
A 14-year NBA veteran, Christie has averaged 11.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game over his career. Christie tallied 3.7 points and 2.6 assists in seven games played for the Dallas Mavericks during the 2005-06 season.
See, those are the numbers of a savvy vet who should’ve drifted nicely off into obscurity, save for the occasional reality tV show about your wife’s insanity. (That nobody watches.)
But no, Doug has to come back like this, and also those idiots at the acting school we live behind won’t stop making f–king monkey noises all afternoon.
Seriously, one day they’re singing, the next day they’re running around just screaming or yelling Shakespeare or some crap.
We’re sick – we don’t need it today, acting school people. Sh-t ain’t hard – just pretend you’re a monkey. There’s no reason to spend the entire afternoon hopping around “finding your inner monkey”. And we know you’re over there saying that to each other, in between your expensive coffees you can’t afford and don’t even really like.
WE HAVE THE FLU.
(Does anyone else find it hilarious that the title for their reality show has a massive grammatical error? “The Christie’s” what? It should be “The Christies”, unless the show is about a singular “Christie” who owns something, like “Christie’s Mirror”. Also, that Christie would have to be someone who referred to themself as “The”.)
((”Christie’s Mirror” sounds like some really classy British independent film.))
With their big win over the Clippers last night, the Cavaliers have cemented their West Coast trip destiny firmly as “scenario #1″, which is perfectly acceptable for us.
It was a nice, hard-fought win, and for whatever reason, makes us want to take a closer look at the struggling Clippers.
What’s wrong with them? Is it a subdued Chris Kaman? A slightly gimpy Sam Cassell? A Shaun Livingston who can’t fully develop because of the ‘u’ in his name? A sleepy Elton Brand?
We’re gonna say “probably a little of all of that”, but there’s another thing wrong here – the constant trade threat/rumor surrounding bench-man Corey Maggette. We’ve about had it with them, and here’s why:
Isn’t Corey Maggette good? Like, isn’t he way better than Shirtless Cuttino Mobley? Why does Coach Mike hate him so much?
Let’s take a look at his innovative-yet-useless NBA DOT COM widget (to the left) to educate ourselves.
Clearly, the man can score, rebound, hand out assists, and other things. There – case solved.
Seriously, what’s the deal here? We sit back and hear how nobody wants this guy and it’s just like, “But he’s good, right? Isn’t he good?”
We really don’t know what else to say here, except we seriously need someone to verify that Corey Maggette is good. He’s good right? The man can play the game of basketball? He can take the ball and then dribble it and then do something that results in an increase in his team’s point total, correct?
Is anybody even reading or all you all too busy watching the NFL Playoffs to worry about Corey Maggette? If so, that’s odd, because our weekend priority list looks somethiing like this: Eat/breathe, Corey Maggette realistic talent level concerns, work, sleep.
Get with it, go Cavs, that’s all.
