Stories Since the Lockout: NBA Players Trying Out New Professions

Since some have predicted the NBA Lockout to last longer than next year's entire season, some players have already taken their talents somewhere else.

Brandon Jennings is working as an intern at Under Armour. With Under Armour Jennings has been working with the sports marketing department focusing on shoes. It's a pretty sweet gig for him since Kevin Plank, Under Armour CEO and founder, got Jennings a condo in Baltimore, lets him use his jeep, and gives Jennings access to their beautiful 10,000 square foot workout facility. To top it off, his position title is "Curator of Cool".

On the other side of the spectrum Delonte West is looking for more of a blue collared job. Due to a court order, Delonte can't leave the country to play basketball overseas. Because of this, he's applied to take his talents to Home Depot. Delonte has been diagnosed with a serious case of being  bipolar and that could play a part in him helping you carry your new shrubs to your car. I guess it would gice that particular Home Depot an increase in customers just to see Delonte there also. He's no Ray Allen or Kobe but people would still think it's cool to see him at Home Depot. Maybe Lebron's mom will now be  a frequent customer there.

Ron Artest has been doing some stand up comedy since the lockout. He actually had good reviews from his show at Caroline's in New York City and also had another showing at the Brea Improv Comedy Club in California. The LA Times had some videos here's one below. You're a therapist? I love therapists.

Ten Basketball Stories Since the Lockout

In honor of billionaires fights with millionaires, I'm going to do ten interesting basketball stories since the lockout has started. I'll do one a day for the next ten days with some days having multiple stories about a specific topic.

Put Me in the Studio with Magic and Barry!

Last night I talked about what the Mavs must do to win, and I basically hit it right on the spot of what actually happened. I'll go through step by step what I said last night:

1. Tyson Chandler needs to own the boards while making noticeable but not huge contributions on offense.

This is the only must that is iffy. Chandler was definitely a presence in the paint even if his rebound stat line didn't show it. On offense he put up 13, which is a solid contribution for him.

2. Jason Terry, Jason Kidd, or Peja Stojakovic need to have a big shooting night, or all three need to do well.

Well I said only one of them had to have a big shooting night, but both Terry and Kidd shot extremely well from the trey zone as both shot 3-5.

3. Dirk needs to keep getting to the line for freebies (at least 8 ft attempts)
Again last night Dirk went 10-10 from the charity stripe. I believe this is essential because the line is his comfort zone and it helps him get in a groove.

4. J.J. Barea does not need to be dominant or tantalizing, but he needs to be effective at times.

Well we'll just say Barea was more than effective with his 17 points and 4-5 from three point range. Barea has been a pest the past two games and also dropped five dimes.

5. Lebron can score 20 points but needs to be limited to pull ups and cannot be effective around the rim.
 This was the biggest factor. Lebron settled for plenty of jumpers and I don't even know if he hit any of his shots that were outside of 10 feet. he was 8-19 shooting and 0-4 from the three point line. The most imporant stat is 1-2 from the free throw line. The Mavs obviously didn't let him bring it to the rack much because he barley got to the line.

I just absolutely crushed predicting this game. I'm expecting a call from Magic himself saying, "Jeff been reading the blog. Big Fan. Especially the Power Rankings, good job putting Cougar Bait where they belong. I see you're team is loaded at point but if you ever need an older guy to give you some minutes let me know. To get on track here, great job with the Mavericks evaluation of you ever wanna give this analyst gig a shot and be in the booth with me and Jon I can hook you up. I know a couple people in this business."

If anyone else tries to call me today get ready for my voice mail.

NBA Finals: Winner Takes It All Game

Tonight is game five of the series that is tied 2-2. I firmly believe tonight's winner is gonna have that trophy in the end. People can argue that the Celtics won a game five then lost both on the road to the Lakers last year, but they lost their starting center for Game 7 which they almost won anyways. Here's what the Mavs need to do to win.

1. Tyson Chandler needs to own the boards while making noticeable but not huge contributions on offense.
2. Jason Terry, Jason Kidd, or Peja Stojakovic need to have a big shooting night, or all three need to do well.
3. Dirk needs to keep getting to the line for freebies (at least 8 ft attempts)
4. J.J. Barea does not need to be dominant or tantalizing, but he needs to be effective at times.
5. Lebron can score 20 points but needs to be limited to pull ups and cannot be effective around the rim.

If all ] of these things happen then there is no way the Mavs lose tonight.

Stern Says Players and Owners "Very Far Apart"

This could be the worst year in sports history if no football or basketball is played due to lockouts. Rumor is the owners want the NBA to have a hard cap which is ridiculous. This means whatever the salary cap is, a team cannot go over it no exceptions. In the NBA now, teams can go over the cap as much as they want when resigning their own players. That's why many teams do sign and trades because the teams can't afford to sign guys when they're over the cap while players' original teams can. There are other exceptions also, but I don't really feel like going in depth right now because I gotta leave for work in two minutes. In both sports this is just billionaires fighting with millionaires and its pissing off all the blue collar people. From what it looks like the owners are not losing money right now, so why are they being such penny pinchers when they know there is no chance some of their demands will happen. The only owner demand I agree with is the NFL rookie contract structure because the rookie deals now for the first ten to twenty picks are ridiculous. In no way should Sam Bradford be making more money than 90% of the league before he even takes a snap in the NFL. With Stern saying that owners and players are "very far apart", it just makes every fan cringe.