(Sorry Jermaine. I know you had nightmares about this one.)

I think it’s safe to say Billy Hunter prepared NBA players for the worst. Amare Stoudemire is already discussing what he will do if the lockout last one or two years: He will band with other players and they’ll start their own league. (New York Post)

“If we don’t go to Europe, we’re going to start our own league, that’s how I see it,” the Knicks forward said. “It’s very serious. It’s a matter of us strategically coming up with a plan, a blueprint and putting it together. So we’ll see how this lockout goes. If it goes one or two years, we’ve got to start our own league.” …

“We want to play NBA basketball but if it doesn’t happen, what are we going to do?” Stoudemire said. “We can’t just sit around and not do anything. We’ve got to figure out ways now to play basketball at a high level against top competition and have fun doing it, so that’s the next step.”

If the players ever did start a league, which seems like Antoine Walker’s hypothetical four-pointer (an incredibly long shot), just like the lockout lasting one or two years seems like a long shot, they would have to do it right. The Impact Basketball League was supposed to be relatively competitive, featuring all NBA players and former NBA players. But, well, it devolved into this: Sebastian Telfair and WNBA player Cappie Pondexter effectively playing one-on-one while the four other competitors all picked their wedgies.

The new league would need coaches, training camps, and probably general managers. It would practices every day, refs (established ones), and it would need money to advertise. It would need stats to be kept, a national TV deal, and a number of owners (or one enormously rich owner) with the money to pay all the players, unless the players wanted to share all the ownership stake themselves and tie their salaries to the league’s profits.

Bill Simmons and Jay Caspian Kang wrote a fun column earlier this offseason about how they envisioned a players-led league would look. Of course, the whole thing’s probably as preposterous as the thought of Sasha Pavlovic winning MVP next year. But Amare brought up the idea, so I figured I would entertain it.

Rajon Rondo will reportedly compete in The South Florida All-Star Classic, a charity game at Florida International University on Oct. 8 at 7:00 p.m. hosted by Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The F.I.U. basketball team is coached by none other than the greatest NBA executive of all-time, Isiah Thomas.

A number of NBA players are slated to join the Miami trio on the court, including fellow Heat teammate Mario Chalmers, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, the New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, the New Orleans Hornets’ Chris Paul, the Washington Wizards’ John Wall, the Atlanta Hawks’ Jamal Crawford, the Houston Rockets’ Jonny Flynn, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Eric Bledsoe, the Dallas Mavericks’ Caron Butler, the Memphis Grizzlies’ Rudy Gay, the Boston Celtics’ Rajon Rondo, the Philadelphia 76ers’ Lou Williams, the Golden State Warriors’ Dorell Wright, and the Portland Trail Blazers’ Wesley Matthews and free agent Eddy Curry.

Cleveland Cavaliers first-round picks Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson also are possible participants in the game.

The squads will be headlined by Brand Jordan players (Wade, Anthony, Paul) vs. Nike (James, Bosh, Durant). Comedian Kevin Hart, who has appeared in Brand Jordan commercials with Wade, is expected to coach the Jordan team, while Miami-based rap star Rick Ross is expected to coach the Nike club.

If those players all compete like the game means something, this game has the chance to become legendary. Alas, players treat charity games like they are And1 Streetball games, so the game will probably be as watchable as Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star.

And please, don’t let Isiah Thomas meet Eddy Curry again. Looking at an overweight, excessively lazy center, Thomas may be struck by the desire to offer another $60 million contract. And that, my friends, would be against NCAA rules. Unless the recipient of the contract is Cam Newton.

Two days after reports that Kendrick Perkins routinely criticized teammate Russell Westbrook during the past season, reports from Oklahoma City described a mini training camp the Thunder held last week at the University of Texas. Two-thirds of the Thunder participated in the workouts, ten players. Nazr Mohammed called their games “the best pickup games in America,” and the Thunder used what could have been a wasted summer to step a little closer to an NBA championship.

All of which begs the question: should fans be concerned that the Boston Celtics haven’t met once this offseason?

Many teams have organized offseason workouts. Mike Conley brought the Grizzlies together. Amare Stoudemire rallied the Knicks. Durant rounded up the Thunder. But the Celtics have yet to gather in the same area.

Last week Kevin Garnett suggested he would plan a Celtics get-together soon, but his details were vague and the plan hardly seemed like one of his priorities. He said, “I’m going actually to the East Coast sometime soon and I am actually going to try to get everybody together just to be in the same area.” But when and where were not mentioned, and Garnett even admitted the workout likely would not consist of more than four or five players.

The problems are in geography and numbers. Garnett and Pierce live in California, and Pierce spent time barnstorming in China. Jermaine O’Neal and Avery Bradley work out in Las Vegas. Ray Allen was most recently spotted in Connecticut. E’Twaun Moore is playing professionally in Italy. JaJuan Johnson, based on his tweets, spends most of his time in Indiana. Rajon Rondo is working out at the University of Kentucky, sometimes with Lebron James. Glen Davis, Delonte West and Jeff Green aren’t officially Celtics. Neither are Nenad Krstic, Carlos Arroyo, Von Wafer, Sasha Pavlovic or Troy Murphy — Krstic left to Russia, Carlos Arrroyo competed with the Puerto Rican National Team this summer, and Wafer, Pavlovic and Murphy presumably are still picking splinters from their rumps and having nightmares of the end of Boston’s bench.

With only seven players under contract (eight if you include E’Twaun Moore, a second-round pick who does not have a guaranteed contract), the Celtics could not possibly host a ten-man mini training camp like the Thunder did. But meeting at least a few times, if only so JaJuan Johnson could have heard Kevin Garnett’s advice or Avery Bradley could have asked Rajon Rondo some questions about running a team, would have been beneficial. Instead, the Celtics — led by so many veterans, who we assumed would remain unfazed by the lockout, if only because the main Celtics already experienced one in 1998 and should have learned from it — have allowed the summer to disconnect them and leave them scattered across the country, working out (or not working out, you never know) mostly on their own.

It’s nothing to worry about, at least not yet, as the Celtics still have plentiful experience together and don’t necessarily need extra reps like the young Thunder or Grizzlies do. But you have to admit — you would have preferred that the Celtics spend at least a portion of this summer together as a team, working out, bonding, and pulling a successful season just a little bit closer to their embrace.

Juxtaposed, the two teams only seem more different. Boston, a defensive-minded crew whose core has molded itself through years of experience. New York, almost singularly focused on offense, thrown together at mid-season in an attempt to save basketball in The Big Apple. Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony are still feeling each other out, while Rajon Rondo could probably close his eyes and still pass the ball where Kevin Garnett will cut.

At their core, Garnett and Stoudemire share so many similarities. Two All-NBA power forwards. Two straight- outta-high school success stories. Two mutant physical specimens apparently designed specifically to play basketball. Two players crucial to their teams’ success, who have grown throughout the years to become leaders, who began their careers in one place and became beloved there, but saw greater opportunity elsewhere. Yet if they are atomically the same, they are molecularly dissimilar, like two very different blankets made from the same cloth.

Garnett has never seen himself as a force. Not in the typical way you expect a former MVP to view himself.

Not like Kobe Bryant, who needs the last shot like Bubs once needed his next fix. Not like a young Shaq, who considered himself the CEO, who wanted touches and needed things to go his way. Not like Derrick Rose, whose humble demeanor belies his late-game desire to shoot, to wound, to kill. Not like Paul Pierce, who can’t remember a time he ever wanted someone else to take the final shot. Not like Garnett’s own coaches want him to.

“I have no problem with shooting more,” Garnett told Jackie MacMullan. “The question I always find myself asking, is, ‘Will it be better for the team? Or am I shooting just to shoot?’”

“Basketball is so complex,” Garnett explained. “I feel like if there has been no ball movement, which is very needed in the game, I’ll sacrifice that elbow jumper that I know I can make nine out of 10 times to make the ball move. So when I tell you to move it, you can’t say to me, ‘Well, you’re not moving it.’

“I told [Celtics coach Doc Rivers], ‘I’m going to pass these next two shots up. I’m going to move this ball just so when we come back to the huddle I can say, “We need ball movement,” and the guys won’t look at me like I’m crazy.’”

Unselfishness, at once Garnett’s biggest strength and greatest weakness. We can imagine what he would have become with more of a killer instinct; with his unblockable fadeaway jumper, deadly midrange game and McHale-taught post footwork, could he have averaged 30 points per game? More? Could he have won a few additional MVP trophies? Labeled himself as his generation’s defining player? Has his unselfishness kept him from achieving all that he could have?

Or did it just change what made him great?

To understand Kevin Garnett is to understand you can’t judge a man’s character based on a single action. He has reduced Glen Davis to tears during a game; yet Doc Rivers calls Garnett the best teammate he has ever coached.  He has crawled on all fours in a show of utmost disrespect for his opponents; yet to see him play and hear stories of his work ethic is to know he respects the game as much as anybody. He has turned off many opponents, players and coaches alike, who dislike his surly on-court demeanor and foul mouth; yet any of those players or coaches would salivate at the chance to coach or play alongside him. He will scream and pound his chest and curse for 48 straight minutes, then make a Family Guy reference in the postgame press conference. He has been known to shrink from the spotlight, but when the spotlight’s on him good things always seem to happen.

He’s an unselfish superstar, in an era where very few of those exist. He has been told over and over that he should play more aggressively, but that’s just not who he is, or, more importantly, not what he wants to be.

“I don’t play numbers,” he told MacMullan. “I hate it when coaches throw the numbers at me. You can be 100 percent, but it doesn’t tell me if you’ve got guts or not, if you have heart or not, or if you’re going to quit on me. I’m not into that.

“I guess I struggle with that because I’m a person who will give you my last. I’m a loyal individual and I wear my heart on my sleeve and what I like to say my greatest attribute is I can make the next person better. I believe that. I’m stating that. That’s a fact.

“When you’re a coach, and you’re outside of who I am, you see a force that could be something different. I’ve never seen myself that way.”

Not like Amare Stoudemire does. Where Garnett shoots a fadeaway jumper, Stoudemire targets the hoop like Ray Lewis hunts down running backs. Where Garnett’s mentality tells him to make an extra pass, Stoudemire’s tells him to break a rim in half. It’s not that Stoudemire’s selfish, because he’s not. He just exists permanently in attack mode.

In a summer when Chris Bosh and Lebron James moved across the country to join Dwyane Wade, Stoudemire relocated to New York, all by his lonesome. He was the first superstar to sign this summer, and he did not need another star to sign with him (at least not at the time). I don’t know why he chose not to collaborate with James and/or Wade, when he could have made the perfect pick-and-roll partner for either of them. Maybe he was sick of playing second-fiddle to Steve Nash. Maybe he got impatient and didn’t want to wait for them to make a decision. Whatever the reason, moving to New York showed an unshakable confidence. Not only did Stoudemire willingly sign where the media’s scrutiny would shine brightest, but he did so without a partner in crime. He did so knowing that if another superstar would join him, it would be because Stoudemire was enough of a draw. Carmelo ultimately did join him, but Stoudemire wasn’t afraid to initially tackle New York alone.

Now, he’ll have to tackle the Celtics. He’ll have to tackle Garnett, whose blood will simmer for the matchup, who is probably locked in a cage right now, growing hair and howling at the moon in anticipation of Sunday night. The two are atomically similar but molecularly different, and they’re after the same prize.

The Morning Walkthrough is a set of links to Boston Celtics articles throughout the internet, designed to get your day started the right way.

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “At that third-quarter juncture, the Celtics had just let Danilo Gallinari drain a 3-pointer from in front of their bench. Rondo, frustrated as he went to inbound the ball, pounded the ball in frustration, then committed an ugly turnover on the other end, sailing an entry pass over Kevin Garnett’s outstretched arms in the post. Rondo came back to the bench upset. Rivers took him out and put Robinson in. ‘He was struggling and that’s why I took him out,’ Rivers said. ‘He wasn’t really happy with it, but we don’t mind that. The bench makes everybody calm down. It always has, and he did. I asked him if he wanted to go back in and he did. He wanted to play, and you knew he would. It won’t be the last time. But my focus was on winning that game, and emotionally you always have to stay under control.’ Rondo came back in to start the fourth, drove hard through the lane, but planted awkwardly, spraining his ankle. ‘It hurts,’ said Rondo, who has missed four games with foot and hamstring issues. ‘But all ankle sprains hurt.’ He returned with 8:35 left in the game. ‘We needed him,’ Rivers said. ‘If Rondo couldn’t have come in, I thought we would have been in a little trouble.’ Rondo said he would have X-rays this morning and expects to play tonight against the Hawks. ‘Hopefully it doesn’t swell up,’ he said.” Read more »

This isn’t a rivalry, and it’s too early to consider tonight a big game. Most likely, the Celtics will run away with the Atlantic Division this year, regardless of what happens tonight.

But it sure is fun to have the Knicks relevant again. And it sure is fun that they’re returning to relevance with a team that’s, well, fun.

It isn’t often that a regular season game is met with as much hype as this one, especially a regular season game that includes one team that hasn’t made the playoffs in six seasons. But this is New York City we’re talking about, the land of hype. If the New York City hype machine can make Sebastian Telfair seem like the best point guard ever, it can certainly make a 16-9 Knicks team seem like a true contender. Especially when that Knicks team has storylines everywhere.

Amare Stoudemire is grabbing the majority of the headlines, but this Knicks squad isn’t a one-man band.

Lets start with Landry Fields, the rookie who has already shattered expectations. Landry Fields isn’t as exciting as Blake Griffin (is any mere mortal?), but he’s overcoming steep odds to produce a rookie season Hollywood couldn’t have even scripted. From second-round pick to November’s Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month, Fields has come a long way in a short time. And his success is coming the right way; he’s all about grit, heart, unselfishness, and team play.

Fields’ story goes a little like this: you take a coach’s dream player; erase some of the dream’s skills (but not nearly all of the skills); force him to play his college days in the relative obscurity of today’s Stanford Cardinal, where he is ridiculously underrated; watch him be drafted in the second round; then see him become a fan favorite, and also a pivotal piece in New York’s quest to rebuild a contender. His story is not even real life. Except, ya know, it is.

Raymond Felton, too, has surprised in New York. There was a time (and it was only a month or so ago) when people doubted whether Felton could be Mike D’Antoni’s point guard. He didn’t excel in the pick-and-roll, wasn’t exactly pass-first and got off to a slow start in The Big Apple. Then, umm, he started to play the best basketball of his career. If the season ended today, Felton would be averaging career-bests in points, assists, and shooting. He’s still not Steve Nash reincarnated (is anybody?), but Felton is actually making a case for the All-Star game. If you guessed that before the season, you would have either been A) Felton’s family member, B) hammered, C) high as a kite, or, more likely, D) a hammered member of Felton’s family who was also high as a kite.

Wilson Chandler is another emerging player at D’Antoni’s disposal, and Chandler is learning how to piece together his impressive physical talents. Hell, he’s even learned how to shoot. He’s improved to the point where at least one scribe wonders whether the Knicks would be better off keeping Chandler, and their assets, rather than trading for Carmelo Anthony. Kelly Dwyer even called Chandler a “near-Carmelo.” That may be stretching it — if I’m Donnie Walsh, I’d trade for Carmelo any day of the week, and twice on Sunday — but still. Chandler has made New Yorkers smile.

I still haven’t mentioned the Knicks piece (non-Amare Division) who I am most intrigued by: Danilo Gallinari. He’s 22 years old, folks. He’s a 6’10″ shooter. And he’s already averaging 15 points and 5 rebounds per contest. When I was in college, and Gallinari was but a rookie, the Knicks held training camp at my school. I was a ballboy, and so I got to watch the practices. Gallinari couldn’t practice (his back was bothering him), but he shot around after one of the sessions. He made almost nothing but swishes from the three-point arc for about half an hour. Probably missed five times in thirty minutes. Then he switched hands, and started shooting with his strong hand. The first half hour, all those makes, had been with his left (and off) hand. I shit you not. He then proceeded to repeat his absurd shooting performance with the right hand.

I knew nothing about this kid, except that he was a highly-touted foreigner who’d just been selected in the lottery. But when you see a 6’10″ player drill shots from all over the floor, with both hands, it opens your eyes. When Mike D’Antoni called Gallinari the best shooter he’s ever seen, I understood where he was coming from. I still haven’t gotten over seeing him shoot that one day in the Skidmore College gym. The man could not miss, with either hand.

Has The Italian Stallion fulfilled all his promise? No. In some ways, he’s regressed this season after a big step forward last year. But, I repeat, he’s 6’10″ tall. He’s 22 years old. And he’s even kind of tough, despite his haircut.

These Knicks are actually quite enjoyable, and they have the New York City hype machine behind them, and so tonight’s game has taken on the feeling of an important one.

It’s not. It’s not a rivalry either. Just listen to the Knicks. (New York Post)

“We’ve got to make our mark first before we start any rivalries,” said Stoudemire, who is going for his ninth straight 30-point game after eclipsing the franchise record in that category Sunday. “We’re really just getting started, starting to regain some respect here as a team. We’ve got no room to start rivalries right now.”

Added D’Antoni, “We haven’t done anything yet. We’ll wait till we do something and wait till we threaten them. I don’t think they’re taking a whole lot of threat, this team is. We’re not there yet, but that would be our goal, to be that.”

But — rivalry or not, big game or not — we should enjoy tonight. Even if these Knicks aren’t true contenders (and I still strongly doubt they are), it’s nice to see them matter again. And it should also be nice to see two streaking teams collide, in what was supposed to be a boring December game.