Okur out tonight
Gary Collard
--
Gary Collard
SABR-L Moderator
gmcollard at yahoo dot com
http://sarcastipundit.blogspot.com/
"If Obama had been the King of England, the [Boston] Globe
wouldn't have covered the American Revolution"
-- anonymous Boston Tea Party attendee
VicXnews
> According to ESPN text alert
>
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jXSH7bBcHJuSSzDTh_f3uY8l9grA
Hamstring injury will keep Jazz centre Okur out out Game 3 against Lakers
18 minutes ago
SALT LAKE CITY - Utah centre Mehmet Okur will miss Game 3 against the Los
Angeles Lakers with a hamstring injury that has kept him from playing in
the first-round playoff series. Okur said he tried to work out Thursday
morning, but was still not able to run at full speed or jump. Okur has not
played since straining his right hamstring in a regular-season game last
Monday against the Clippers. The Jazz look to avoid falling behind the
Lakers 3-0 in the best-of-seven series without their second-leading scorer
and No. 3 rebounder. Okur said he also wasn't sure about his status for
Game 4 on Saturday. "I don't know yet. This is the worst part," Okur said.
"I can't say a couple days, a couple hours, four days..." The Jazz planned
to start Jarron Collins again in place of Okur, who averaged 17 points and
7.7 rebounds during the regular season and was Utah's top three-point
shooter. Collins had seven points and nine rebounds in the first two games
of the series. Utah coach Jerry Sloan said he also planned to start Andrei
Kirilenko at small forward, hoping for some defensive spark to slow down
the Lakers, who shot 58 per cent in the first two games.
Magic-MARK-er
news:gsqe0v$fjl$1...@news.motzarella.org:
> Gary Collard <garyc...@netscape.net> wrote in
> news:gsqc4j$vib$1...@news.motzarella.org:
>
>> According to ESPN text alert
>>
>
> http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM
> 5jXSH7bBcHJuSSzDTh_f3uY8l9grA Hamstring injury will keep
> Jazz centre Okur out out Game 3 against Lakers 18 minutes
> ago SALT LAKE CITY - Utah centre Mehmet Okur will miss Game
> 3 against the Los Angeles Lakers with a hamstring injury
> that has kept him from playing in the first-round playoff
> series. Okur said he tried to work out Thursday morning,
> but was still not able to run at full speed or jump. Okur
> has not played since straining his right hamstring in a
> regular-season game last Monday against the Clippers. The
> Jazz look to avoid falling behind the Lakers 3-0 in the
> best-of-seven series without their second-leading scorer
> and No. 3 rebounder. Okur said he also wasn't sure about
> his status for Game 4 on Saturday. "I don't know yet. This
> is the worst part," Okur said. "I can't say a couple days,
> a couple hours, four days..." The Jazz planned to start
> Jarron Collins again in place of Okur, who averaged 17
> points and 7.7 rebounds during the regular season and was
> Utah's top three-point shooter. Collins had seven points
> and nine rebounds in the first two games of the series.
> Utah coach Jerry Sloan said he also planned to start Andrei
> Kirilenko at small forward, hoping for some defensive spark
> to slow down the Lakers, who shot 58 per cent in the first
> two games.
>
I wonder if that is all for a hype.
What if at game time.... all of a sudden Okur somehow makes a
gallant effort and plays. You know, to help rally his team and
really get the fans into it. Sloan doesn't strike me as the
kind of person to plan something like that, but it would be
almost like the "wheelchair" incident at Boston last year in
the finals.
Mark
VicXnews
news:Xns9BF694823FA09ma...@198.186.190.162:
officially out per video...
http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-story-jazz-prep-four-game-3,0,4233627.story
Gary Collard
> Gary Collard <garyc...@netscape.net> wrote in news:gsqc4j$vib$1...@news.motzarella.org:
>
>> According to ESPN text alert
>>
>
> http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jXSH7bBcHJuSSzDTh_f3uY8l9grA
> Hamstring injury will keep Jazz centre Okur out out Game 3 against Lakers
> 18 minutes ago
Maybe they can move Boozer over from Powre Forward, eh?
--
Gary Collard
SABR-L Moderator
gmcollard at yahoo dot com
http://sarcastipundit.blogspot.com/
“We must eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book
is acting white.” -- Barack Obama
Gary Collard
They have to submit the actual active roster an hour or so before the
game, but also the league would really frown on what you are talking
about anyway.
No sport will acknowledge the reason injury reports exist, but you
better believe they police them anyway. The NFL even issues massive
fines for false info, but they obviously are more beholden to gambling
than the NBA.
--
Gary Collard
SABR-L Moderator
gmcollard at yahoo dot com
http://sarcastipundit.blogspot.com/
“We must eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book
Magic-MARK-er
> Magic-MARK-er wrote:
>> VicXnews <ne...@news.com> wrote in
>> news:gsqe0v$fjl$1...@news.motzarella.org:
>>
>>> Gary Collard <garyc...@netscape.net> wrote in
>>> news:gsqc4j$vib$1...@news.motzarella.org:
>>>
>>>> According to ESPN text alert
>>>>
>>> http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALe
>>> qM 5jXSH7bBcHJuSSzDTh_f3uY8l9grA Hamstring injury will
Sorry.... I was just think about what drama that would make.
Mehmet being wheeled onto the court in a wheelchair and he
gingerly gets up out of the chair and tries to play. Guess
I just was getting a bit carried away.
Mark
VicXnews
news:Xns9BF69DF404155ma...@198.186.190.162:
>>
>
> I just was getting a bit carried away.
>
> Mark
>
>
now we're talking stretchers...
$Bill
>
> They have to submit the actual active roster an hour or so before the
> game,
10 minutes.
RMJon23
> "Magic-MARK-er" <magicmar...@inAbox.com> wrote innews:Xns9BF69DF404155ma...@198.186.190.162:
>
>
>
> > I just was getting a bit carried away.
>
> > Mark
>
> now we're talking stretchers...
Speaking of stretchers, sorry to see 'Ol Deke go down, for good.
Eventually his pic should be on money in Africa; his humanitarian work
there has been some epic jit. Good guy.
And by way of that: was the finger waving "Not on my watch" schtick
Deke pulled after a blocked shot sorta "grandfathered in" (sic) as not
some incitement/worthy of a technical foul? It seems to me lots of
guys get T-ed up for doing less, but the Deke thing was "his" thing.
And he's a good guy, so we let him go. I always thought it was a bit
obnoxious/pretentious. But now that he's gone, can someone else pick
up on it, or some variation thereof, w/o getting T'ed up?
Imagine if Dwight Howard blocked a shot, then pointed at the guy who
put up the shot and then gave a "thumbs down" gesture while shaking
his head "No"? Is that "style"? Some sort of "theater" within the flow
of the larger theatricality of the game? Or would he be T-ed up for
unsportsmanlike conduct? (Superman IS very popular...)
Terraholm
http://www.nba.com/news/inactive_rules_0506.html
Now, the active and inactive list can be set on a game-by-game basis,
one hour before tip-off, with no length of stay required for either list.
VicXnews
4419d8...@v1g2000prd.googlegroups.com:
> On Apr 23, 3:35�pm, VicXnews <n...@news.com> wrote:
>> "Magic-MARK-er" <magicmar...@inAbox.com> wrote
innews:Xns9BF69DF404155mag
> icmarker...@198.186.190.162:
>>
>>
>>
>> > I just was getting a bit carried away.
>>
>> > Mark
>>
>> now we're talking stretchers...
>
> Speaking of stretchers, sorry to see 'Ol Deke go down, for good.
> Eventually his pic should be on money in Africa; his humanitarian work
> there has been some epic jit. Good guy.
>
the NBA should honor him someday for his work...
> And by way of that: was the finger waving "Not on my watch" schtick
> Deke pulled after a blocked shot sorta "grandfathered in" (sic) as not
> some incitement/worthy of a technical foul? It seems to me lots of
> guys get T-ed up for doing less, but the Deke thing was "his" thing.
> And he's a good guy, so we let him go. I always thought it was a bit
> obnoxious/pretentious. But now that he's gone, can someone else pick
> up on it, or some variation thereof, w/o getting T'ed up?
>
> Imagine if Dwight Howard blocked a shot, then pointed at the guy who
> put up the shot and then gave a "thumbs down" gesture while shaking
> his head "No"? Is that "style"? Some sort of "theater" within the flow
> of the larger theatricality of the game? Or would he be T-ed up for
> unsportsmanlike conduct? (Superman IS very popular...)
>
it's that endearing cookie monster smile ...
it'd be like giving Mr Rogers a T =8-)
$Bill
I mis-read for the starting lineup for the game.
ra...@yahoo.com
> Speaking of stretchers, sorry to see 'Ol Deke go down, for good.
> Eventually his pic should be on money in Africa; his humanitarian work
> there has been some epic jit. Good guy.
>
> And by way of that: was the finger waving "Not on my watch" schtick
> Deke pulled after a blocked shot sorta "grandfathered in" (sic) as not
> some incitement/worthy of a technical foul? It seems to me lots of
> guys get T-ed up for doing less, but the Deke thing was "his" thing.
> And he's a good guy, so we let him go. I always thought it was a bit
> obnoxious/pretentious. But now that he's gone, can someone else pick
> up on it, or some variation thereof, w/o getting T'ed up?
>
> Imagine if Dwight Howard blocked a shot, then pointed at the guy who
> put up the shot and then gave a "thumbs down" gesture while shaking
> his head "No"? Is that "style"? Some sort of "theater" within the flow
> of the larger theatricality of the game? Or would he be T-ed up for
> unsportsmanlike conduct? (Superman IS very popular...)
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Mutombo's legacy to last beyond hoops
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Chris Sheridan
ESPN.com
There are a million Dikembe Mutombo stories to be told, and it boggles
the mind to imagine how many more millions of stories will be told in
the future by all the people in Africa whose lives would have been
lost had it not been for the $29 million hospital Mutombo built on the
outskirts of the Congolese capital of Kinshasa.
Twenty, 30, 100 years from now, Mutombo's legacy will be that hospital
in his impoverished home country, the place Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo
Mukamba Jean Jacque Wamutombo was born and raised, where he learned to
speak five African dialects along with French, Spanish, Portuguese and
English.
There is a story about the money Mutombo had to pay to squatters who
were farming on the hospital site when funds were still being raised,
battles with the government over land-use permits, the story of
Mutombo's personal $3.5 million down payment on the facility in 2001,
and his subsequent $15 million donation toward operating funds after
the facility -- the first modern medical facility built in that
country in 40 years -- opened its doors in 2006.
There are stories about elbows (ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy told one on the
air the other night, about insisting that Mutombo always wear elbow
pads during practice to protect his Houston Rockets teammates),
stories about nightclubs, stories about his trip to the White House.
Too many stories to tell in one place, really, although there was one
story that was being retold Wednesday after word spread around the NBA
and the world that Mutombo's career apparently had come to an end.
It's a good story, and it concerns what will be Mutombo's non-
humanitarian legacy, or what we'll remember him for from his time in
the NBA.
The finger wag.
It was Mutombo's distinctive gesture, the raising of his right index,
the shaking of said finger from side to side -- a universal gesture
familiar to babies, grandparents and everyone in between, all across
the planet: "That was a no-no."
Well, once upon a time, a certain NBA official tried to take that
gesture away from Mutombo, and that was the story Rod Thorn told
ESPN.com on Wednesday -- a day after Mutombo's illustrious career came
to a premature end when he injured his knee and was wheeled off the
court on a stretcher in the Houston Rockets' 107-103 Game 2 loss to
the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night.
"It was one conversation, it was on the phone, and no, it was not a
short conversation," Thorn recalled. "There were never any short
conversations with Dikembe, because he was always trying to tell you
how what you were explaining to him was wrong."
Thorn, currently the president of the New Jersey Nets, was Stu
Jackson's predecessor in the job commonly nicknamed VP of Violence,
what the NBA officially calls the executive vice president of
basketball operations.
It was a different NBA a decade ago, a league in which fights were not
commonplace but were somewhat tolerated. Handchecking was allowed to
keep the quick guards out of the paint, and those who got in there
anyway against Mutombo's teams often found their shots emphatically
rejected by a 7-foot-2 giant who would then stand over them or stare
at them, waving that long, pointy finger in the air.
Tolerance for the gesture varied, but there was a rising tide of
discontent by the time Thorn and his boss, NBA commissioner David
Stern, decided intolerance would be the most prudent way to prevent a
future finger wag from turning into a bench-clearing brawl.
Yes, Mutombo was en route to becoming an eight-time All-Star and four-
time Defensive Player of the Year. But the NBA was beginning its way
down the path toward making the game much less physical and more
nonconfrontational, and the decision was made to telephone Mutombo and
tell him to knock it off.
"We thought he was getting carried away with it; players were getting
upset. I told him: 'You've already blocked his shot, and now, in his
mind, you're trying to humiliate him, too,'" said Thorn, who chuckled
as he recounted how Mutombo reacted to the call.
As gravelly as Mutombo's voice was, it could boom, too.
And what Thorn heard coming out of the earpiece of his phone was an
unhappy, deep-voiced lecturer giving an impassioned plea for this
unfair and unwise decision to be repealed.
"What are you guys doing to me? You are taking away my trademark?!"
Thorn recalled Mutombo arguing, refusing to accept the notion of an
outright ban, and pretty much refusing to let the conversation end
until Thorn backed down.
What eventually emerged was a compromise, with the NBA allowing
Mutombo to perform his signature finger wag as long as he was looking
toward the stands when he did it. The rules were clearly spelled out,
and Mutombo was on notice that he couldn't make the gesture toward an
opposing player or toward the opposing team's bench. And if he claimed
he was gesturing toward the fans directly behind the opposing bench,
well, that excuse was not going to fly.
"He became a recidivist every now and then, and then we'd call him on
it, and after a couple T's he got the message," Thorn said.
The Mutombo Rule eventually seemed to lapse, and it was not uncommon
over the final couple of seasons of the 42-year-old's career to see a
referee turn a blind eye (along with the slightest of upturned grins)
toward Mutombo when he crossed the line and gave that old-school
finger wag, the one with the stare attached.
In the end, they'd let him get away with it, knowing that this giant
of a man was one of the game's gifts to the planet, and the money that
a technical foul would cost Mutombo (a player's first five techs in
any season come with an accompanying $1,000 fine) was better off
staying in Mutombo's wallet, since some of that money would inevitably
cycle back to the sick people in Kinshasa whose health would not be
getting restored had it not been for Mutombo, his famous finger wag
and his huge heart.
The feeling seemed to be that we would see that finger wag only a few
more times on the court. Sadly, it now appears we've seen it for the
final time.
But happily, it is not the most important thing he'll be remembered
for.
Chris Sheridan covers the NBA for ESPN Insider. To e-mail Sheridan,
click here.
Terraholm
>> Eventually his pic should be on money in Africa; his humanitarian work
>> there has been some epic jit. Good guy.
>>
>
>
> the NBA should honor him someday for his work...
They have.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iUqYFKFURAHFn4qh42ut72TeWP0w
Dikembe Mutombo, who announced his National Basketball Association
career is over after suffering a knee injury Tuesday, was named the NBA
Citizenship Award winner Thursday for humanitarian works.
Other finalists for the honour, voted upon by a North American media
panel, included San Antonio's Bruce Bowen, Chicago's Ben Gordon, New
Jersey's Devin Harris and Orlando's Dwight Howard.
(And left out of this article... Turiaf was the pacific division finalist)
==============
Deke was also honored nationally at the "State of the Union" speech last
year. Sat him next to the first lady.
http://www.nba.com/media/rockets/content_notes012407.jpg
Bush:
"Dikembe Mutombo grew up in Africa, amid great poverty and disease," "He
came to Georgetown University on a scholarship to study medicine, but
coach John Thompson took a look at Dikembe and had a different idea.
Dikembe became a star in the NBA and a citizen of the United States. But
he never forgot the land of his birth — or the duty to share his
blessings with others. He built a brand-new hospital in his old hometown.
"A friend has said of this good-hearted man: 'Mutombo believes that God
has given him this opportunity to do great things,'" "And we're proud
to call this son of the Congo a citizen of the United States of America."
zcar...@yahoo.com
winning game 4.
Gary Collard
> On Apr 23, 3:35�pm, VicXnews <n...@news.com> wrote:
>> "Magic-MARK-er" <magicmar...@inAbox.com> wrote innews:Xns9BF69DF404155ma...@198.186.190.162:
>>
>>
>>
>>> I just was getting a bit carried away.
>>> Mark
>> now we're talking stretchers...
>
> Speaking of stretchers, sorry to see 'Ol Deke go down, for good.
> Eventually his pic should be on money in Africa; his humanitarian work
> there has been some epic jit. Good guy.
Word. As should the pic of the "First African President."
> And by way of that: was the finger waving "Not on my watch" schtick
> Deke pulled after a blocked shot sorta "grandfathered in" (sic) as not
> some incitement/worthy of a technical foul? It seems to me lots of
> guys get T-ed up for doing less, but the Deke thing was "his" thing.
They ruled it ok as long as he did not do it toward another player, in a
taunt. As celebration, cool.