Rondo looks good in red, white, and blue

Despite rumblings that Rondo would be left off the 2010 World Championships roster, he has survived the first round of cuts for Team USA, according to USABasketball.com. The four players cut were JaVale McGee, Gerald Wallace, Tyreke Evans, and O.J. Mayo. (USA Basketball)

Named as finalists for the USA World Championship Team were Chauncey Billups (Denver Nuggets); Tyson Chandler (Dallas Mavericks); Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors); Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder);Rudy Gay (Memphis Grizzlies); Eric Gordon (Los Angeles Clippers); Danny Granger (Indiana Pacers); Jeff Green (Oklahoma City Thunder); Andre Iguodala(Philadelphia 76ers); Brook Lopez (New Jersey Nets);Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves); Lamar Odom(Los Angeles Lakers); Rajon Rondo (Boston Celtics);Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls); and Russell Westbrook(Oklahoma City Thunder).

The 2010 FIBA World Championships will be held August 28-September 12 in Istanbul, Turkey. Director Jerry Colangelo and Coach Mike Krzyzewski will have to make three more cuts to trim the roster down to 12 before the tournament.

Team USA will reconvene in New York City for more training on August 10. On August 15th, USA will begin a series of exhibition matches, taking on France at Madison Square Garden. Team USA will also play Lithuania on August 21st  and Spain on August 22nd–both games in Madrid, Spain– and Greece on August 25th in Athens, Greece.

The U.S. will open the 2010 World Chamionships on Aug. 28 against Croatia.USA will play in Group B, with Croatia, Brazil, Iran, Tunisia, and Slovenia.

Danny Ainge said that Semih Erden might be ready to play minutes this season. (Boston Globe)

“We think Semih is capable of playing backup minutes for us,’’ Ainge said. “We have Jermaine and Glen Davis, but for the long haul of the season I think we’d like to add another big guy and a shooter.’’

I think Erden’s got a little talent. He’s a pretty agile big man with nice size. But I’d rather have Regular Season Sheed than Semih at his best. And Regular Season Sheed broke the record for most times a player made me rocket my remote control at the TV screen.

(I want this to happen again. Maybe this coming June?)

It was a heart-breaking loss. The toughest loss, I would say, any team has endured during my lifetime. Game 7, after being ahead by 13 points in the second half, against their most-hated rival. Ugh, it doesn’t get any worse than that. (Sorry guys, I didn’t mean to bring it up. I’m currently smacking my head against the computer table. Repeatedly.)

But if you listen to Doc Rivers, the Celtics are coming back hard and with a vengeance. They have a renewed sense of energy that dwindled at times last season. (Andy Katz, ESPN)

But Rivers said he wasn’t going to come back unless he was certain free agents Paul Pierce and Ray Allen were, as well.

“I wasn’t coming back unless they were coming back,” Rivers said. “I was first and I thought that was important for them. We all talked. I can tell you that. I made sure. I knew they had to do their business. And Ray scared me a little bit with the money out there. They had said they were coming back and then you see what everyone was getting.”

Rivers said that at one point after committing to return next season he called Ainge and said, “Oh my gosh, someone is going to come in and blow them away and [Ray's] going to have to say yes.”

“Thank God they want another crack at it — him and Paul,” Rivers said Monday. “In a lot of ways there is a lot of energy on our team. Our team has a lot of energy.”

God damn I love this team. I love them all. Pure warriors, every single one of them. (Except for Regular Season Sheed.) I know the Celtics are hated by a lot of people for their trash-talking ways, but aren’t they also an easy team to love? They play as hard as any team in the NBA, they sacrifice for the good of the team, they don’t get in much legal trouble whatsoever, and they share what seems to be an undying love for each other. I don’t know about fans around the league, but the Celtics are the type of team I want to root for.

By the way, read the article. It’s a really good one. And yeah, I know it’s from yesterday. I’m on vacation in Maryland visiting my girlfriend. It’s a miracle — a miracle! — that I am still waking up at six in the morning to write posts. So give me a break, will ya?

DeShawn Sims

Via Chris Forsberg, ESPN Boston:

Add DeShawn Sims to the youngsters that have been extended invites to Celtics’ training camp in October. From the Ann Arbor News:

Former Michigan basketball forward DeShawn Sims is heading to camp.

“I got invited to Celtics training camp,” Sims said in a text message Tuesday.

Sims, a 6’8″, 225-lb. combo forward, played his college basketball at Michigan, where as senior he was second-team All Big Ten. He was undrafted in the 2010 NBA draft, but played four games for the Celtics in the Orlando summer league and four games for the Mavericks in the Las Vegas summer league. In the Orlando summer league, he averaged 7.5 points and 1.8 rebounds. Sims is the second player invited to training camp from the Orlando summer league team, joining Northeastern guard Matt Janning, who has yet to accept his invitation.

As troubled as he's been lately, West can ball.

If basketball were the only part of the equation, if resume-builders like “once slung a guitar case filled with guns over his shoulder,” “battles severe depression” and “may or may not have slept with a teammate’s mother” didn’t count one bit, it would be easy for the Celtics to choose Delonte West instead of Rudy Fernandez. Don’t agree? Hear me out.

West is a better playmaker. He can take the ball to the hoop off the bounce. He’s strong enough to absorb contact and finish at the rim. He’s a much better defender than the Spaniard, and even though he gives up a few inches Delonte is far more rugged when defending bigger players. He can stroke from the outside too. Delonte has hit 37% of his three-point attempts during his career, which is the only area where he really falls behind Fernandez. By one percentage point.

Fernandez cried about his role on the bench. Delonte embraced it. The Celtics would need Rudy to play a backup role with limited minutes, but Nate McMillan told the Oregonian, “Rudy is a team player, and his style of play requires minutes. He’s not a guy who is just going to come down and jack up a shot. He needs to get into a flow, into a rhythm, and that’s not a backup role.” I don’t have any quotes from Mike Brown, but I imagine one would have gone like this: “West doesn’t need to find a rhythm. He often comes into the game and makes his presence felt immediately by changing the game’s pace.”

But character stains don’t just wash away. For all the positives Delonte West brings to the court, for all he does better than Rudy Fernandez from sideline to sideline, there will always be those doubts. Can he keep happy? Can he stay away from legal trouble? Are those rumors really true? Those are doubts that probably won’t go away, no matter how well West plays next year or the year after that.

Yet I still remember West from his Celtics days, as a player meant for a better team. A player meant to find a niche on a contender. Tough. Rugged. Willing to play whatever role the team needed. West’s talents were somewhat wasted on that young Celtics team destined to go nowhere, but they still shined through.

That’s why it’s hard for me to discard West. He’s a better player than Rudy, a better fit for the Celtics on the court. But those red flags just won’t go away. There’s a whole lot of baggage there. And if the past rears its ugly head, West could make whatever team offers him a contract look very bad.

On the other hand, if it doesn’t? If West can somehow move forward from the last two troublesome years? Then some lucky NBA team will soon pick up a versatile winner for a more than reasonable price.

He may not be a king, but he sure does live like one.

Depending on who you are, Lebron James’ party will either make you sick with envy or sick with ego-induced disgust. Or maybe a little bit of both.

I’ll run down the details for you.

UPDATE: ESPN has pulled the story. Why? Beats me. Anyway, here’s a recap.(ESPN)

1. It was at a “bustling hotel” in Vegas call the Tao.
2. Lebron had five security guards surrounding him at all times. Said security guards wouldn’t let anyone get anywhere near Lebron without Lebron’s approval.
3. A “scantily  brunette with a tattoo of a heart on her right shoulder” was able to secure Lebron’s approval to approach him. She then asked for a picture, to which he replied “I can’t right now. Maybe later, upstairs, I’ll remember you’re the one with the tattoo.”
4. Lebron was given a cake. It was in the shape of a massive crown. Lebron also wore his own initials around his neck. I want to say the initials were life-size, but what size are life-size letters? Anyway, they were ginormous.
5. After dinner, Lebron and his crew were directed “to a roped off section on the dance floor of Tao next to a couple of apparently nude women in a bathtub full of water and rose petals.” Not the worst spot to be, unless the apparently nude women were real heifers. Something tells me they weren’t.
6. Lebron wore sunglasses inside the dark club. Ya know, designers shades just to hide his face. He must think he’s cooler than me.
7. Glen Davis either wasn’t invited to the party or thought it was too crazy for him. Either way, at one point Davis walked by, looked at the crazy scene, shook his head and kept on walking.
8. Remember Lebron’s crown-shaped cake? Well, it was delivered by “go-go dancers dressed in skimpy red and black outfits” who raised four letter placards spelling K-I-N-G. I think they were looking for me, guys.
9. Countless bottles of champagne were delivered to Lebron’s table by a costumed man flying on a wire from above. To which Lebron said, “I wish they’d have one of these girls with no panties do that instead of the guy.” Don’t we all?
10. Lebron out-Dougie’d Lamar Odom, then celebrated with a shot of patron. To which fans of Lamar’s simply pointed to their ring fingers. Which, as most of you know, is where Lebron has nothing but a finger.
11. For his role in the three-day party, Lebron was paid six figures. If anyone would like to pay me that much to be serenaded by half-naked (or fully naked) women and fed bottles of champagne by a flying, costumed man, my email is jayking@celticstown.com. Something tells me I’ll say yes to any such request.

After I hearing about this party I want to be Lebron and  I want to pop a pin through his oversized head, all at the same time.

P.S. – While Lebron was busy living the good life, I am willing to bet Kevin Durant was completely without the entourage, the go-go dancers, the six-figure payday and the nude chicks. In fact, I’d put my life on it that he was either a) working on his game or b) sleeping, so he could wake up early in the morning to work on his game. Different styles for different people.