Earlier today, a Chinese report stated that Paul Pierce and Michael Beasley had undergone an asthma attack while playing in a cigarette smoke-filled Chinese stadium. That report was incorrect, says Pierce.

“Me and Mike had a great trip to china,” Pierce tweeted, “and since when did I ever have asthma?”

Fair enough. The Truth has spoken. But his confession reopened one mystery:

If Pierce did not have an asthma attack, how did he only score three points in the consolation game of the Chinese Intercontinental Basketball Tournament?

The world may never know.

After promoting Mike Longabardi and Jamie Young from within the organization, the Boston Celtics will not make any more additions to their coaching staff.

I was trying to lift weights three weeks ago, but as normal, I spent far too much time flapping my gums instead.

I meant only to say hello to my friend’s father, but hello turned into a 15-minute conversation. Procrastination makes me talkative.

After less than thirty seconds of talking about real life, the topic changed to basketball.

“Remember Matt Hall?” he asked me. “He’s playing overseas now. Doing pretty well, too.”

“He was such a late bloomer,” I responded. “Sophomore year he played junior varsity, then the next season he killed the entire region. Windmill dunks, pull-up jumpers, everything.”

“Yup. He got even better in college, too.”

“I know. I saw him a couple summers ago at Hubbard Park, playing against John Williams.”

Williams, the best player ever to play at my high school, became a Division II All-American, started for the D-League’s Bakersfield Jam in 2009-’10, and now stars in Holland or Germany or some other country that I once knew and I’m now forgetting. My high school obviously doesn’t churn out NBA players very often, or even Division 1 players. UConn’s Kevin Freeman is Longmeadow High School’s most famous basketball alumni, but in high school, Williams was better.

“Because of that night, there’s still a warrant out for Matt Hall’s arrest,” I continued. “He’s wanted for the murder of John Williams. John could not handle him. It was the first time I ever saw someone outplay John.”

Two or three years after the fact, I was still talking about a summer league game.

Kevin Durant and Lebron James met yesterday when the Melo League battled the Goodman League for world supremacy, err, or something like it. Durant continued his assault of the summer tour, scoring 59 points. Lebron threw an alley-oop  to himself off the backboard, dropped either 32, 38, or 42 points, depending on who you believe, and won the game.

“People will say KD got the best of [Lebron],” wrote SB Nation’s Andrew Sharp, “but for every vicious crossover Durant threw, Bron countered with, say, an effortless fadeaway. For everything backbreaking three from Durant, there was LeBron wreaking havoc on the fast break. And yeah, Durant scored 59 to LeBron’s 38, but LeBron had to split his shots with Carmelo.

“Much as I’d love to give to the edge to KD, LeBron was every bit as unstoppable, and in the end, there was no clear winner.”

5,000 individuals spent $40 per ticket to watch several NBA stars compete in a contest that was at once  meaningless and the most important game ever played at Morgan St.’s Talmadge L. Hill Field House. Summer league basketball has always been played and stars have always participated, but the entire experience has never been so mainstream.

The NBA lockout has pushed previously unimportant games off grocery store shelves and into the kitchen of basketball-starved fans. If Durant had scored 66 points at Rucker Park last summer, we would have heard a brief whisper about it before going back to our “Stephen A. Smith reports that Dwyane Wade and Lebron James will — gasp — team up in Miami” headlines. But now there is no free agency to divert our attention, no NBA rumor mill, no promise that the NBA will return at the end of October. So we spend more time caring about summer exhibitions than ever before.

ESPN covered last night’s game. The Washington Post reported on it. SB Nation too. Tweeters tweeted about it. But only 4,500 people saw it in its entirety. There’s an exclusivity to summer league basketball that can beget legends and tall tales and myths, an aura that comes from the fact that this game won’t ever show up on ESPN Classic and it couldn’t be DVR’ed.

Whether you like it or not, our society gets facts more correct than ever before. We end arguments with simple Google searches. We check advanced statistics to explore players in more depth. We write blog posts expanding on blog posts which already expanded upon a column in the Boston Globe. We have become, or maybe we always have been, an information-crazed society. Our knowledge of sports can now be supplemented with facts that are more easily attainable than at any other point in history. But sometimes our easy access to undisputed truth can cloud the best stories in sports.

Could Dr. J grab a nickel off the backboard? Did Bill Russell really average somewhere in the vicinity of ten blocks per game in his prime? Did Pistol Pete Maravich once shoot a halfcourt heave to end a game, put his index finger in the air, turn his back to the basket, and trot off the court as the shot fell through the nets? I can’t prove that any of these events happens, but I can’t prove otherwise either. And maybe I’m better off not knowing. Maybe I’m better off left to contemplate whether such exploits are even possible, never mind whether they actually happened.

There’s something mystical about hearing that Kevin Durant scored 59 points but not knowing exactly how it happened. About hearing that Lebron scored 42 points, or 38 points, or 32 points, and not being able to prove which count was correct. About breathlessly following Michael Lee’s tweets about the game and imagining how the plays actually occurred.

Summer league basketball is becoming more popular than ever, but maybe it’s better off left in the shadows. Keep ESPN out of it and let the 5,000 people in attendance at these games weave tales and stories and try in vain to explain how majestic Durant’s performance was, how he stood toe-to-toe with Lebron and got the better of him, or how Lebron answered every call Durant made and also helped his team to a win. Learning all the facts is great and our knowledge of sports has never been better, but sometimes I just want to hear about a player’s accomplishments and wonder if they’re even possible without any proof one way or the other. I want to watch a game and remember it exactly how my mind tells me to, not how it looks when I re-watch it on YouTube ten years later.

In my mind, Matt Hall scored 50 points against John Williams on that day two or three summers ago. He drilled improbable fadeaway jumpers and impossible pull-up threes. He jumped so high that he kissed the net before laying in a finger roll from about a foot above the rim. The crowd buzzed, knowing we were witnessing something special, and Hall’s right hand kept getting hotter and hotter.

I can’t Google that game and tell you my facts are right. I can’t YouTube it and watch the highlights. I can’t search for the box score or explore the advanced stats or re-watch every play on Synergy Sports. Memory is all I have.

But damn it, that’s one hell of a memory.

Paul Pierce reportedly suffered an asthma attack while playing for the Kentucky Bisons in the Chinese Intercontinental Basketball Championship, according to the sports website NuiBBall.com.

A report from NetEase says Pierce and teammate Michael Beasley both suffered asthma attacks due to the amount of cigarettes being smoked in the arena. Ironic, no — Michael Beasley suffering an asthma attack from inhaling too much smoke?

Beasley reportedly later suffered some sort of weird injury or illness in his hotel room, falling to the floor and rolling around in pain. An ambulance was called and Beasley was taken to the hospital.

That would not be poor Beasley’s only trip to the hospital while in China. Some time during the final game, he hurt his wrist. Not appreciating the extent of the injury, Beasley participated in a dunk contest after the game. He hammered down two dunks but woke up the following morning in enough pain to return to the hospital, where his injury was determined a likely fracture.

Pierce didn’t have all of Beasley’s bad luck, but The Truth’s trip, at least from a basketball standpoint, didn’t go as planned. The Bisons lost to Cairns Taipans 88-63 in what I believe was the tournament semifinals, and Pierce and Beasley were reportedly underwhelming. Or they did not play at all due to physical discomfort, depending on which report you trust. Chinese reporting, being that it is in Chinese and translates rather poorly, is cryptic and difficult to follow.

It seems that Pierce and Beasley suffered from asthma during the semifinals game. Though reports differ as to whether they actually played, the Cairns Taipan team blog describes Pierce and Beasley’s play as unimpressive.

“As expected the crowd went crazy for NBA superstars Paul Pierce and Michael Beasley,” wrote the blog, “but they would be quickly quietened by a tenacious Taipans defense.”

After a first half in which Pierce and Beasley were reportedly “kept well under control” (remember, this is the Cairns Taipans team blog, so judge the veracity for yourself) and the Bisons fell behind 43-19, Pierce and Beasley were said to show signs of life.

“The Americans did lift in the second with their NBA stars showing some signs of brilliance; however the boys were never going to give an inch and still claimed the half by a point to ensure the 88 to 63 victory,” wrote the team blog.

Unrelated to anything, the team blog also described an earlier win as “a great win where the group learnt much from the experience, mainly to never use public toilets in China.”

Pierce played only 14 minutes in the consolation game and mustered three points on 1-4 shooting. It’s unclear how well he felt, but with that Marquis Danielsian statline, I would assume he was not feeling 100%.

NBA labor negotiations will resume today, when the players and owners are expected to meet in New York for the second time since the lockout began. (Yahoo!)

“This is a telltale meeting,” said agent Billy Duffy, whose client roster includes Steve Nash(notes), Rajon Rondo(notes)and Greg Oden(notes). “I think we will know the seriousness of both sides’ position after Wednesday.

“I don’t think the season starts on time. There really has been no progress. The union has been patient on hoping there would be movement on the league side. The league hasn’t demonstrated any movement whatsoever while the union is flexible.”

This entire process reminds me of an ugly divorce. The two sides are trying to bleed each other dry for every concession possible. The players want full custody of the children, but the owners, who want full custody themselves, are wrongfully accusing the players of domestic abuse.

Note to the NBA: the league has more talent than ever. Young stars are blossoming, old stars are hanging on, and there are storylines galore — can Lebron James finally stop choking? Can Kevin Durant take the next step? Does Kobe Bryant have enough left in the tank to lead one more Lakers title run? Did Dallas’s clock already run out, or can Dirk Nowitzki — who put together one of the better playoff runs in recent history — carry them to a successful title defense?

I don’t know enough about the state of the NBA to say whether the league will or will not lose a lot of fans in the case of an extended lockout. All I know is that if I were part of the NBA, I would actively seek a fair compromise to reinstate the season immediately. Momentum is being lost. Fans are being put off. The general public becomes disgusted when millionaires and billionaires argue, and rightfully so. The Celtics won’t lose much money if peripheral fans lose interest in the NBA. But the Timberwolves or Raptors certainly might.

Both sides need to stop striving for full custody. Accept joint custody and let the kids split time evenly between their mother and father. Split the assets right down the middle and share an amicable handshake when the divorce proceedings are done. At the very least, start meeting more often than once a month. It would be nice if the two sides would at least pretend they want a resolution before the season evaporates.

Avery Bradley began his career swimming upstream. A broken ankle kept him out of training camp. He was learning a new position on the fly, playing behind an All-Star point guard who averaged close to 40 minutes per game. Bradley’s coach Doc Rivers notoriously keeps rookies on a short leash, if he allows them any leash at all. And Bradley played on a veteran team whose one real goal was a championship, pushing the development of a raw rookie from the University of Texas to the back of the team’s to-do list.

When Bradley received any playing time at all, it was brief and far between. Defensively, Bradley still stood out. His knowledge of Boston’s schemes wasn’t ideal, but whenever Bradley’s opponent caught the basketball, Bradley tried his best to imitate a hungry pitbull attacking a piece of steak. Yet his offense was not nearly as refined or aggressive as his defense.

With the ball in his hands, Bradley played like a deer staring straight into approaching headlights, unnatural at his new point guard position, uncomfortable playing alongside Hall of Famers, unable to prove Doc Rivers’s perception of rookies wrong. The best NBA players carry themselves with a certain amount of grace — even Paul Pierce, whose game is more herky-jerky than most stars, flows from one move to the next, a strong dribble to his right seamlessly morphing into a stepback jumper or a strong finish at the rim or whatever other move Pierce’s mind might concoct. Bradley showed little or even none of that grace during his maiden professional season. His dribbles looked awkward, his shots appeared reluctant, and his moves, though we know otherwise, seemed unpracticed.

Some of the struggles were expected; as a freshman at Texas, Bradley — his game unpolished and jagged around the edges — failed to live up to his sizable high school hype. The Celtics knew they were taking a risk by selecting Bradley with the 19th pick of the 2010 NBA Draft, but it was a calculated one. Yes, he underwhelmed for the Longhorns. Indeed, there were other players more NBA-ready (Landry Fields, for one). But Bradley possesses physical traits that make scouts drool and he puts them to good use whenever he drops into a defensive stance. If and when Bradley develops ball skills to rival his defense, the Celtics know, Bradley will become a hell of a player.

If and when.

I have a theory about the development of young NBA players — a player’s growth relies as much on his mentality as it does on his talent. The NBA landscape is filled with wings who can jump into the air and stair straight into an eagle’s eye, shooting guards who can swish nine out of ten jumpers in a practice session, centers who are seven feet tall with 88-inch wingspans, point guards who can turn the light off and sprint out of the room before darkness takes over. Some of these players succeed in the NBA. Others don’t. Often, the difference between Gerald Green (golden body, tin foil brain, out of the NBA before the age of 25) and Ryan Gomes (semi-limited physical talent, plays his role without complaint, started 62 games last season) rests in the brain rather than the body.

Every player on the NBA’s radar possesses gifts; the ones who succeed are not always the ones who possess the greatest gifts. Gifts afford players an opportunity to play in the NBA, but professionalism and work ethic will maximize their success.

Of course, the maximization of success is relative. Vince Carter has scored 20,520 points, made eight All-Star games, and finished in the top-10 in scoring six times. Did he realize a greater portion of his potential than Kevin Ollie, who turned limited athletic ability and a scant jewelry box of skills into 13 NBA seasons, $20.1 million and now an assistant coaching gig at UConn? Or Eric Snow, who wouldn’t beat anyone in a race, couldn’t score 20 points in an empty gym, but still started 551 career games and always found a spot in the rotation? There is something about Carter that made him fall short of expectations, just as there is something about Snow and Ollie that allowed them to survive in the NBA longer than their skills normally would have dictated.

By all accounts, Avery Bradley is a bright, good kid. He’s humble and unassuming, and he impressed Boston’s coaching staff and veteran players with his work ethic. He plays hard, he works hard, and he yearns to improve.

“He’s a great listener,” said Rajon Rondo in November. “For a young guy to come in, he’s humble, and works extremely hard. He’s going to be a great player in this league one day, whenever he gets the opportunity.”

But for most of last season, Bradley looked like a devout Christian in a strip club, uncomfortable and out of place in his surroundings. The tools are there — the quick feet, long arms, and 40-inch vertical — but in the NBA, the tools are always there. Even Brian Scalabrine, whose name enters the “least talented NBA player” discussion, is 6’10 with range that extends beyond the three-point arc. The aforementioned Gerald Green had Tracy McGrady-ish talent, and he was out of the NBA and playing in Russia before the age of 25.

Bradley has a long road to travel before he realizes his potential — such a long road that at this point, we really can’t judge his ceiling. Maybe he has the talent to become a top sixth man, a defensive change of pace like Lindsey Hunter. Maybe he can become a starter. Maybe an All-Star. Maybe his rookie struggles were more indicative of Bradley’s game than we suspect and Bradley will struggle to remain on an NBA roster when his rookie contract ends.

Bradley’s rookie struggles were actually historic. He was a 20-year old rookie last season, putting him in the company of 36 other 19- or 20-year olds who were 6’4-and-under in NBA history. As you might have expected, Bradley’s numbers compare unfavorably to his fellow young guards. Bradley had fewer win shares during his rookie season (-0.5) than any 19- or 20-year old, 6’4-and-under guard since 1954 (stats via Basketball Reference).

Win shares are based on total statistics rather than per-minute stats, so Bradley’s lack of playing time hurts him in the calculations. A more accurate portrayal of his season can be found by comparing his per-36 minute statistics. Even this is not nearly perfect, as Bradley’s lack of playing time affected so much — i.e., he could not get a rhythm because he played so sparingly. Another reason even Bradley’s per-minute stats are skewed — Bradley played many of his minutes in garbage time, when the competition isn’t stellar and players don’t necessarily play their hardest.

Still, 36-minute projections allow us to compare Bradley’s season more accurately than total statistics.  And Bradley compares more favorably when the statistics are adjusted. (Note: I chose a handful of current players rather than including everyone from the previous list. For the full list, click here.)

Young guards, per-36 minute stats

As you can see, Bradley struggles in the areas we expect him to: his playmaking ability is almost non-existent and he shoots bricks more often than he should. But he scores at a clip similar to many young (and, later in their careers, successful) guards. When his scoring instincts blossom and become coupled with his defensive tenacity, Bradley could have a bright future.

Still, there are mountains to climb and seas to swim across before Bradley even becomes a rotation player, never mind an NBA star. He needs to learn how to run a team. He needs to spend all summer shooting jump shots. He needs to gain confidence in his ability.

Nobody sees Bradley as a finished product and, quite frankly, very little he accomplished last year offered much hope for his future. But the soon-to-be (or maybe not-so-soon-to-be) second-year guard has a humble propensity for work and a handful of elite athletic traits that could allow him to grow exponentially when given the opportunity and a little confidence.

“I think Avery’s going to have a good career,” former college teammate and current Denver Nugget Jordan Hamilton was quoted in yesterday’s Boston Globe.

The jury’s still out.