Sports News Written By Sports Fans
Larry Hughes is out of the rotation as the Bulls continue to shop him in advance of the Feb. 19 trade deadline.
Hughes played only seven minutes Monday night against Portland and didn’t play by coach’s decision Wednesday night for the first time this season.
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LeBron James is staying tight-lipped about his new teaser ads running on television that depict him about to make a big announcement at a press conference.
Informed sources say it is part of a new campaign for State Farm and will depict James as a wide receiver for the Browns, complete with a No. 23 jersey with “LeBron” on the back. It will be a series of commercials leading to a climax, which won’t be revealed here.
James, a former All-Ohio receiver in high school, filmed the spots at the University of Akron’s indoor football complex. He also plays with friends in the off-season.
“We’ve got a flag football league we play down at St. Vincent-St. Mary,” James said. “I am a football player, it just so happens I play a little basketball, too.”
The News Herald is reporting that Michael Reghi will move into the 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. slot on WKNR-AM 850 starting today, an industry source said. Reghi will replace Mark “Munch†Bishop in that time slot.Bishop will remain at the station and sell advertising, according to a source. His show, “Munch on Sports,†started about April 2007.
The source said the ESPN station quickly realized there was little middle ground with Bishop’s show. Listeners either loved him or hated him. Reghi has a huge following in Northeast Ohio and is the former play-by-play man on Cavaliers television broadcasts. There are no other changes to WKNR’s lineup. However, the station is launching a new Web site.
The Cavaliers did to the Celtics what they’ve been doing to every other club when they visit the Q handing them their 4th loss in a row. The Celtics never led as the Cavaliers playing without injured center Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
Including last year’s postseason, the Cavaliers have now reeled off 10 straight wins over the Celtics at The Q. In those victories, the Cavaliers have defeated Boston by an average of 11.0 points per contest.
The Celtics got within three points early in the third quarter, but LeBron James took over the game at that point – scoring seven straight point. “We have to continue to protect home court,” said the young King. “We want to continue to get better and we got better tonight. You don’t want to take a step back because we have a big picture and a goal. You don’t want to waste a game and not get better. We got much better tonight.”
Lebron as usual stuffed the state sheet with 38 points, seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and three blocks.
Anderson Varejao had a solid game. He flirted with his seventh double-double of the season on Friday – tallying 14 points and nine boards. In the last seven games, the Wild Thing is averaging 13.0 points on .586 shooting, averaging 9.4 rebounds per contest. In seven starts this season, Varejao is averaging 15.0 points on .569 shooting, grabbing 9.4 rebounds per game.
“I’m working hard every day on my jump shot and my offensive game,” said the fifth-year forward from Brazil. “I feel pretty good out there. I am playing with a lot of confidence and they are passing the ball to me.”
Boston resorted to a Hack-a-Ben strategy past the midpoint of the fourth quarter. Boston fouled Wallace on five consecutive Cavs possessions, but end up making 5-of-10 at the foul line.
LeBron James scored 38 points to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to an emphatic 98-83 home victory over the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics on Friday. The All-Star forward filled out the stat-sheet with seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and three blocks as Cleveland improved their league-best record to 29-6.
Cleveland Cavaliers hand deliver message to Boston
Before the Cavaliers took the court to battle the Boston Celtics last night at Quicken Loans Arena, LeBron James had one simple statement, “It’s not just a January game.”
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James then proceeded to score 38 points as the Cavs controlled the entire game on the way to a message-sending 98-83 victory that was not only delivered to the Celtics, but to the rest of the NBA.
The last two days many of the Cavs constantly said they were going to prepare for the Celtics like all of the rest of the teams in the NBA. Their preparation might have been the same, but their intensity level was raised a few notches as soon as the game started.
Air of Superiority
The Celtics have a four-game losing streak and appear to have lost some confidence, along with their ability to dominate the opposition. But captain Paul Pierce insists the swagger has not turned into a stagger.
The Celtics (29-9) have lost seven of nine games since Dec. 25 and dropped their fourth in a row for the first time since the 2006-07 season. Cleveland (29-6) extended its home record to 19-0 and boosted its lead atop the Eastern Conference to 1 1/2 games over the Celtics.
The Portland Trail Blazers president Larry Miller sent an email to rival team executives late Thursday threatening possible litigation to any franchise that signs free-agent forward Darius Miles for the “purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers’ salary cap and tax positions.”
The email cites that if Miles plays in two more games this season, the remaining $18 million on his contract goes back on the Blazers’ payroll.
“The Portland Trail Blazers are aware that certain teams may be contemplating signing Darius Miles to a contract for the purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions,” Blazers president Larry Miller wrote in the email to representatives of every NBA team. “Such conduct by a team would violate its fiduciary duty as an NBA joint venturer. In addition, persons or entities involved in such conduct may be individually liable to the Portland Trail Blazers for tortuously interfering with the Portland Trail Blazers contract rights and perspective economic opportunities.
Please be aware that if a team engages in such conduct, the Portland Trail Blazers will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation.”
Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert emailed Blazers president Larry Miller to say he took exception with Portland’s threat.
Yahoo! Sports obtained Gilbert’s email because it was carboned to the rest of the league’s owners and executives.
“With all due respect”although the Cleveland Cavaliers have no interest in signing Darius Miles and will not be signing Darius Miles,” Gilbert wrote, “I find your email quite peculiar from two standpoints:
1. It’s dead wrong. I believe that all 30 NBA teams were and are fully aware of the terms and provisions of the collective bargaining agreement as to which all teams and the NBA are a party to, including the Portland Trailblazers.
2. Are legal threats through a mass email the best way to circumvent the known potential consequences that could result from the Trailblazers decisions and actions they took with respect to Darius Miles?
I fully understand the frustration you and your team’s ownership must be feeling in regards to this situation, but a preemptive threat of ‘litigation’ directed at all of your partners through a group email does not sit well with me and seems to be incongruent with the spirit of keeping a ‘fiduciary duty’ and good ‘partner-like duty’ to your ‘NBA joint venturers.’
I would think there has got to be a better tactic than this one.”
In partnership with Coca-Cola, we are giving away two Lebron James posters to two fans to help us choose the fourth dunker who will go against Dwight Howard, Rudy Gay and Nate Robinson in the 2009 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest at the NBA All-Star 2009 in Phoenix.
In order to win the poster, CavsNews will pick two fans. To qualify, you must cast your vote before next Wednesday, January 14th.
You must then subscribe to our daily newsletter. Two winners will be picked from the list to receive the poster.
The candidates are Rudy Fernandez (Portland Trail Blazers), Joe Alexander (Milwaukee Bucks), Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder).
These rookies are doing whatever it takes to get the support of their fans– check out these videos below:
[youtube width=”400″ height=”343″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKXFZKf28s4[/youtube]
Russell Westbrook Shares His Get-Out-And-Vote Song:
[youtube width=”400″ height=”343″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY80hvJ0vFE[/youtube]
Joe Alexander Tells You Why He’s the Flying Buck:
[youtube width=”400″ height=”343″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHGV9FMUK4I [/youtube]
Rudy Fernandez Shares a Bilingual Dunk Ballad:
[youtube width=”400″ height=”343″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPgo9feKJxY[/youtube]
The crab dribble has been a hot topic since referee Bill Spooner called James for traveling when he was driving for a potential tying basket. James insisted he had executed a legal hesitation move that he practices all summer with assistant coach Chris Jent. Coach Mike Brown said the move is usually used in the post or as a player gets into the paint and is about to execute a power move to the basket.
James was stunned and disagreed with the call. “Bad call, we all make mistakes, and I think I got the wrong end of the bargain,” said James “I watched it 10 times after the game and it was clearly a good play. We live with it.”
James has no plan to remove it from his game. “I’ve done that move plenty of times and I believe it’s a good move,” he said after practice on Tuesday. “If they called it more consistently, then I guess it ain’t a good move then and I’ll change my game. But it’s not called consistently.”
However, the NBA and Spooner stand by the call. Spooner explained in an email: “3 steps on the move to the basket. Basic travel call.”
An NBA spokesman said the league supports Spooner’s call.
So what is a “crab dribble”?
James described it as a hesitation dribble he uses to slow down the defense before he accelerates toward the rim.
“If they take it away like they’ve done before with the hop step, I’ll find a way to do something else,” he said.
During his first two seasons, James often was called for traveling when he would hop on both feet while taking a layup. But the league cracked down on that move.
“How have I fared after that?” James said. “I’ll be fine if they take this away, too.”
ESPN’s Jalen Rose discusses LeBron’s ‘crab dribble’
[youtube width=”400″ height=”343″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpQBD672HkQ&eurl=http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2009/01/talk_the_walk_bemused_james_de.html&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]