It’s Not Fun Being Stalked Like Luke Walton

People think life is all gravy for NBA players.  Making millions for playing a game is nice. 

It’s not nice when you are being stalked by a fan like Luke Walton of the Lakers was.  He tells his story to the Orange County Register.  Stacy Beshear, 34, of El Segundo was the lady who just went way over the line.  She is NO looker.

“Once I moved out of the gated community, that’s when I started noticing. I’d come home, and the same car with tinted windows would be parked across the street all the time. One time, I was like, ‘I swear I see someone there.’ So I walked up and saw her, and she had a hat on, and I said, ‘I can’t believe this is the same chick from the practice site.’ And then for a while, everywhere I went, I’d see her park like a street down. As soon as I took off, she’d start following me.”

“I’ll be going somewhere, and she’ll be following me everywhere I go. I’ll start really driving nuts, and she’s right behind me, staying with me. It sucks, because you figure you just go out and play basketball and you have your personal life, but then you have to start worrying about stuff like, ‘I don’t want to drive to my teammates’ houses if she’s following me, because I don’t want her to know where my teammates live.’ “

“It was more an annoyance than anything else until recently when she did that gun thing (gesturing at him with her hand as if shooting at him). And then I was like, ‘All right. Now she’s crossed the line.’ ”

Mavs Fans Get Racial On Mark Cuban

First off, sorry for the lack of posts this week. I have been very sick.  I’m about 50% and plan I going to Green Bay to cover the Sunday night Cowboys-Packers contest which airs on NBC 5.

Back to today’s post….Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has gotten some very angry emails about Josh Howard’s anti-American stance about how his negativity toward the national anthem at an Allen Iverson flag football charity game this summer.

I understand the anger, but the racism is just overboard.  This is one from Mark’s blog.  I caution you, it is pretty sick.

From:	“stephen rogers” <stevadore@cableone.net>
To:	<mark.cuban@dallasmavs.com>
Date:	09/17/2008 09:34 PM
Subject:	Ask Mark Cuban

Mr. Cuban,

Just saw your nigger Josh Howard  disresepct the national anthem because he is black. According to the news you say he is a really great guy. Of course he is because he makes you lots of money you greedy bastard.

You would rather sell out your own country that my dead father fought for in WW II than than lose a buck by firing this black bastard.

You are nothing more than a nigger slave owner milking him for all his black ass can get you.

YOU, SIR IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY. YOU AND THAT NIGGER YOU CALL NICE.

There’s lots of black dick on that team, get busy. White power is coming back because of race traitors like you.

Know what you get when you cross a nigger and a white nigger lover ? a  WHIGGER. THAT IS YOU !!!!

Mark WHIGGER Cuban. A White storm is brewing Mr. Cuban, you and those niggers like you better evacuate.

Cowboy Camp Goes Hollywood

The stars came out to watch the afternoon practice.  Former Laker great Magic Johnson, actor Rob Lowe, and Terrell’s own Jamie Foxx.

Wade Phillips let Magice Johnson address the team.   He told them about his experience in losing the 1984 Finals to the Boston Celtics.  He used the next year to fuel him and the Lakers.  They beat the Celtics in Boston to win the 1985 NBA Title.

He emphasized the Cowboys have to police themselves.  If a player is messing up, someone needs to say, “Hey, you’re messing up my ring”.  By ring, Magic means championship ring. 

“You can’t win the Super Bowl today. What they have to do is come here to work on their skills and timing and get in shape. Then they have to start with the four preseason games. But then against Cleveland, that’s when it starts. Win your division and have the best record in the NFC. You can’t worry about the Super Bowl until the playoffs get here.”

Magic think the Mavericks are done.  He spoke of how the Cowboys needed to “take advantage of this window before it closes.  The window closed on the Mavericks.”   That’s gotta make new head coach Rick Carlisle feel great.

Foxx was trying to leave the complex after the practice, but NBC 5 tracked him down.  He is a big time Cowboys fans and started rolling off old school names like Bob Lilly,  billy Joe Dupree, Drew Pearson, etc.

T.O. came by and they both talked about each other and their experiences working the film, Any Given Sunday.  Foxx played quarterback Willie Beamon.

I didn’t have enough time to get over and talk to Rob Lowe.

We’ll have more on the 10PM News on NBC 5.

So This Is What Happened to Greg Williams Of The Ticket

Man, the tale of former Ticket talk show host Greg Williams is wild.  Dallas Observer sports writer Richie Whitt pens an all timer. 

Greg spent a lot of time on the radio going after guys like Michael Irvin, Roy Tarpley, Quincy Carter, Steve Howe, Leon Lett, and Barry Bonds for drug use…only to be a drug user himself.  Karma is a strong thing.

This one is really long, but worth the read.

I feel for current Hardline talk show host Corby Davidson.  He gets shed in a bad light in this article.  Having been through radio breakups, I know there is more to what Whitt wrote.  Corby can’t go on the record because his bosses want him to just let the situation go away, but we know it won’t.

I’m glad Greg didn’t take his own life.  I hope he can move on.  There is more to life than sports radio.  Trust me. I know.

Funny, I asked Greg one time what he was doing to lose weight.  He told me he was doing boxing and he stopped eating anything white, like rice or potatoes.   After reading this story I realized he had lap band surgery.  I was lied to, but it’s all good.

 

Tracy McGrady Gets Off Easy In Paternity Case

NBA star Tracy McGrady makes some fat dollars.  Try $21 million a season to play for the Houston Rockets.  Well T-Mac has a little one who was born in Florida and the baby’s momma wants him to pay up. 

He is currently married and has three kids already.  The court papers says his daughter Tracy was born in the fall of 2005.  One month before his son was born and a year before he was married.

A Florida court says he has to pay up.  Just 54 thousand a year.  Not a month…a year.  Talk about a guy who got off easy.  T-Mac had one heck of a lawyer.

The amount is far less than the $204,000 a year that Pearl Vega, 36, had argued would be more in line with McGrady’s $21.6 million annual income and give their child a lifestyle more equal to that of McGrady’s other children.

Vega’s attorney immediately filed a notice the mother would appeal.

In a trial in December, Vega’s attorneys highlighted exactly what it means to be the child of an NBA star:

McGrady shares a six-bedroom, 23,000-square-foot house with a pool outside Houston with his wife and three children. He spends $5,000 per month on a chef and $1,732 for a housekeeper.

One of the children had a $16,000 birthday party for about 40 children, with a magician, clown, face painter, games and music.

McGrady and his family spend about $45,000 per month for personal travel, sometimes on private jets. The children went on trips to New York, to North Carolina a dozen times — to Florida about the same number — and to Atlanta, California, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, Mexico, the Virgin Islands, and Rio de Janeiro.

They stay at Ritz-Carltons, have private preschool and tutors, and get thousands of dollars of clothes every month.

here is the story.

Mavs Jason Kidd Says Avery Johnson Was Crazy

Jan Hubbard of the Star-Telegram catches up with Mavs point guard Jason Kidd at Team USA Olympic practice in Las Vegas.

Kidd the coach killer says he didn’t lop off Avery Johnson this spring.

Kidd has been accused of being a “coach killer,” a label he has disputed. But he’s aware of the talk, so when Avery Johnson was fired by the Mavericks, Kidd told a friend: “They can’t blame that one on me. When I got there, the players all thought he was crazy. And he was.”

The story just confirms what everyone thought, Avery didn’t let Kidd do his thing so it was a waste to make the trade:

When he joined the Mavericks after the Feb. 19 trade from the Nets, he thought Johnson would employ an up-tempo style that would take advantage of Kidd’s considerable passing skills. Instead, he found that Johnson was a rigid coach who was a domineering presence on the sidelines.

“We ran the first couple of games,” Kidd said. “And then we stopped. A lot of times, our offense was used to set up our defense. We slowed it down instead of getting out and running and putting pressure on [opponents] after missed shots or even makes. We were pretty much — not just myself, but everybody — looking over to the sideline, trying to figure out what was going to be called.”

Kidd is at his best in the open court, operating without constraints and creating easy shots for teammates. But he found that he had little freedom with Johnson.

It was noted during the season that Kidd probably spent more time looking at the sidelines for instructions in three months under Johnson than he had combined in his 13-year career. When asked Saturday if he had any problem with that observation, Kidd said: “That’s fair.”

The Sad NBA Draft Tale Of Dallas Native Darrell Arthur

How did former South Oak Cliff star Darrell Arthur fall so darn far on draft day?  A kidney issue.  Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn as the details of Arthur’s fall from lotto pick to almost out of the first round.

The gist of it, according to Arthur’s agent, Jerry Hicks: During medical examinations at the Pre-Draft camp in Orlando at the beginning of the month, Arthur’s blood was shown to contain higher-than-normal levels of creatine, which can be a possible indicator of kidney failure or malfunction. “Three teams inquired about those lab results,” Hicks told SI.com. “One called, we talked about it for 3-4 minutes, and they expressed no real concern. On the 24th [of June], Philadelphia asked about it, and I asked them, rather than doing additional bloodwork for them that day, when he had his final workout with Washington on the 25th, we’d do it in Washington.

“We did the bloodwork on the morning of the 25th, and by noon, [Arthur’s kidneys] were determined to be completely normal. I received a message from Washington — which is still saved in my voice mail in my office — that everything was normal. Philadelphia received word that things were normal. How this became an issue around the league is puzzling, to say the least.”

It appears that only two of the NBA’s 30 teams had the full story on Arthur’s kidneys; the rest were working off of the rumor mill, the details of which hit the airwaves by the time the first round hit the mid-20s. ESPN broke into its draft broadcast with a report that Arthur was slipping due to an “undisclosed kidney issue.” Arthur’s mother, Sandra, who was sitting beside him in the Green Room, looked up at one of the Garden’s video screens and shook her head. “I knew something had to have happened to make Darrell not get taken higher,” she said, “and that stuff was just not true.”

Mark Cuban Is Down On The Olympics

Mavs owner Mark Cuban is down on the Olympics.  He had two players who will play in the Games in August (Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki)  He told David Moore of the Dallas Morning News:

“It’s not that I don’t like the idea of them representing their countries,” Cuban said by e-mail. “If the Olympics were truly a nationalistic endeavor built on sport and part of the public domain, I would be willing to take risk and support their playing. What I don’t like is that we lie to ourselves and pretend that the Olympians represent our country.

“They don’t. They have taken relatively low paying jobs working for the Olympics, who in turn sell the broadcast and marketing rights for billions of dollars in profits, all the while creating enormous risk for those of us who pay them for their day jobs that support their families. It’s amazing how players who are free agents won’t participate, but those with guaranteed contracts will.

“I hate the fact that we lie to ourselves and pretend this is about representing country,” Cuban said. “It’s not. It’s about money.”

I wish I were a billionaire and could complain about meaningless stuff.

My Take On Mavs Coach Rick Carlisle

New Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle says he wants the club to run next season, “If you’re going to play at a faster tempo offensively, there’s an unbelievable physical commitment,” Carlisle said. “It’s probably going to be one of the tougher training camps. … The summer our guys have in terms of preparation and conditioning is going to be absolutely critical.”

He spent plenty of time talking about how much he wants Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd to be the guys who get the team back to championship form.

He wants Josh Howard back.  Carlisle said at his opening presser that he plans to have dinner with Howard and wants him in the fold, “My first message is that we need him.”

Carlisle praised the work Avery Johnson did and says the roster will undergo some changes.   He says they will keep playing the hard nosed defense Johnson put in.

Here’s what I liked from Rick.  He truly thinks this club can “find a way” to get the roster redone and get back to the playoffs.   He plans to travel to Germany and take time to get to know Dirk.

I liked his confidence that he can coach and win with this team.  I know he is supposed to say that, but I like the body language he had when saying it.  I didn’t think I was hearing a bunch of jive talk.

I liked the fact he saw positives in working with Donnie Nelson and Mark Cuban.  I like the fact he is reaching out to his players and is willing to change the style of play to fit this group of Mavericks.

Give Carlisle credit for trying to pump up Kidd’s worth at the presser.  Kidd is a known coach killer so it’s wise to get him on the side of the new coach and get him to champion his new style.

I like the fact he played with Larry Bird in Boston and sees things from Bird’s game that he could bring to Dirk’s to make it easier for him to play the game.

The guy has a winning record as a head coach and has been to the playoffs five of his six years as a coach in the NBA.  Carlisle is a former NBA Coach of the Year.

Carlisle’s Agent Says Rick Is The Mavs Man

Rick Carlisle will be named the next Mavs head coach.   We have been on this story for sometime, so why don’t the Mavs pull the trigger.

Jeff Caplan has the story.