Paul Pierce reportedly committed to play in a pair of exhibition games next month in Mexico. The games will be hosted by Eduardo Najera, whose Wikipedia page says scouts “boasted about Najera’s quick first step” while he was in college. Presumably, said scouts have long since been fired.

The games will be hosted by Mexico native and Charlotte Bobcats forward Eduardo Najera. Organizers of the event said Tyson Chandler, Trevor Ariza, Marcus Camby, DeAndre Jordan, Corey Maggette, Jerryd Bayless and Ryan Hollins are among the other players who will participate in the games. Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash has also been invited to play.

Marc Spears also reported that Pierce will possibly travel to Mexico City on October 4, when a group of players are meeting Mexico President Felipe Calderon (no relationship to Jose, I don’t think) and businessman Carlos Slim Helu, considered the world’s richest man.

The exhibition games were hatched by Najera with the hope that the event will bring positive attention to a country battling a violent drug war. But if forgetting about drugs is the goal, I’m not sure why anyone invited Marcus Camby.

Most people saw the Milwaukee Bucks’s offseason additions (Corey Maggette, Drew Gooden, Larry Sanders, Keyon Dooling, Jon Brockman, and Chris Douglas-Roberts) and figured the Bucks had improved. Maggette and Gooden presumably helped in areas the Bucks needed to improve: namely scoring, rebounding and accumulating copious amounts of free throw attempts.

Not me. Oh no way, not me. I realized just what the Bucks had actually done. They overspent on middling talents who impress with their physical abilities but lack the required basketball IQ and teamwork to utilize said abilities. Corey Maggete and Drew Gooden, on paper and in name, aren’t bad players. But if you ever sit and watch them, you’ll inevitably come away with the same impression: umm, are you sure those guys have been playing basketball all their lives?

Drew Gooden, if you look at his stats and production, ain’t bad. In fact, looking at only stats and then comparing him to fellow overpaid big men like Darko Milicic or Brendan Haywood, one might think Gooden is a steal. (I laugh at the thought.) But anyone who has ever watched Gooden for an extended period of time knows how much truth the following paragraph holds (by John Krolik at Cavs the Blog):

Gooden was an excellent rebounder, had a decent touch from mid-range, could occasionally score in the post, and could attack off the dribble. On paper, Drew Gooden was and is a very passable NBA power forward. However, Drew was always far worse than his package of skills would suggest he was. He was never a very efficient scorer, wasn’t very tough around the basket, would settle for too many midrange jumpers, and would often start dribbling towards the basket without any sort of plan. Defensively, he never had any clue what was going on, and would regularly miss rotations. He was a tentative finisher around the basket, often pivoting a few times and tossing up an oddly angled hook instead of just catching the ball and dunking.

Maggete’s very similar. He posts big scoring totals and gets to the free throw line far more often than a mediocre player should. He shoots a great true shooting percentage (61.5% last year), mostly because of his ability to draw fouls but also because he shoots a damn good percentage from the field (51.6% last year). That high shooting percentage helps Maggette shoot a very solid effective shooting percentage (52.3% last year), which does not account for his obscene ability to draw fouls. But Maggette is also a chemistry killer and — for lack of a better term — a ball hog.

If I had to use one sentence to describe Corey Maggette, it would be this: “He’s the man where ball movement comes to rest.” Maggette catches the ball and puts his head down, charging toward the rim like an angry bull on steroids. He draws an insane amount of fouls and scores at an efficient rate, but when I watch Maggette play I come to one conclusion: he’s one of the very last NBA players I’d want to play with.

Which brings me to my next point: The Bucks acquired two paper champions (okay, not champions) who have never shown a real ability to improve teams. And not only that, but they will pay the two players $49 million over the next three years (and Gooden an additional $13 million for the two years after that). To top it off, they spent another $40 million this summer to re-sign John Salmons — another mediocre player in his own right. Salmons at least fits into what they Bucks are trying to accomplish, but when you commit $24 million per year to that trio it’s tough to field a contender.

If the Bucks were looking to field a competitive team, to remain a mediocre 5th- or 6th-seed in the playoffs every year, they likely accomplished their goal. But if they were looking to contend for a championship at some point in the near future, I don’t see it.

And about the Bucks’ latest acquisitions, the ones that were supposed to bolster their chances of becoming a top-four seed in the East? The following quote might be telling.

“I think team chemistry in the NBA is very underrated,” said Bucks coach Scott Skiles. “You need chemistry to be successful and we don’t have that at the moment, but we’ll get it hopefully.”

Paul Pierce 23 points shy of 20,000

Do you know how many points 20,000 happens to be? Yeah, me too. A lot.

If (when?) Pierce scores 23 more points, he will join three current Celtics on the 20,000 point list. Pierce would be the 36th player in NBA history to accomplish the feat. Besides the current Celtics who already have 20,000 points (Shaq, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett), three former Celtics have scored 20,000: Larry Bird, John Havlicek and Robert Parish. (Note: Apologies go out to Gary Payton and Dominique Wilkins, who also scored 20,000 points. No, I cannot consider you guys Celtics.)

Clearly, Pierce will be in elite company.

So I was surfing YouTube in an attempt to find a Highlight Reel of the Day, and I decided to choose the single worst officiating call I could find.

Long story short, I couldn’t pick just one. So here is a compilation of the top ten worst calls in NBA history, or at least the one I could find a tape of on the internet.  I had only one guideline; I chose these calls based on how egregious the call, NOT on how much the call affected the outcome of a game.  If they all seem recent, you try to find tape of a bad call that existed before the 90′s.  I dare you.

They’re unranked because, well, because it’s tough to differentiate between such atrociousness.

Corey Maggette walks halfway to China

There are a lot of no-calls on switched pivot feet floating around on YouTube. I chose Maggette’s as the worst, partially because it was arguably the worst but mostly because I can’t stand watching the way he plays basketball. (Catch the basketball. Drive the basketball. Avoid open teammates at all costs. Create contact. Shoot free throws. Repeat from step one.)

By my count, Maggette only switched his pivot foot five times. Then had the audacity to argue with the ref about a foul no-call.

Joey Crawford gives Tim Duncan a good chuckle

No bad NBA calls list would be complete without a Joey Crawford quick-trigger technical foul. Can you really get thrown out of a game for laughing?

Carlos Boozer refrains from touching Lamar Odom

… but is called for a foul anyway. On first glance, it actually looks like Boozer might have shoved Odom in the back. On second glance, that was air that he was shoving.

As close as Boozer gets to touching Odom? That’s about as close as I’d ever want to get to touching Odom’s wife Khloe Kardashian. Her sisters, though…

And the Academy Award goes to…

Robert Horry, for his performance in this NBA game. Jeff Van Gundy, announcing the game, said, “He didn’t throw him. Robert Horry — every time he comes up to set a screen — if there’s any contact he’s going to fall to the ground.”

Jeff, you’re wrong. It doesn’t take contact.

Chauncey Billups called for ref’s foul

So a ref trucks Damon Jones, who falls out of bounds and loses the basketball; what does the ref call? A foul on Chauncey Billups, of course.

Devin Harris’ pirouette

In the NBA, it often works to up-fake, lean in and shoot. It’s a great way to draw a foul…

Even when there isn’t even any contact.

Sean Marks hits the “E”!

Sometimes, an out of bounds call can be impossible to miss. On second thought, never say never.

Lebron does double duty

Lebron not only manages to travel twice on the same play, but he also lets me put a Jiri Welsch highlight (okay, lowlight) on the site. Plus, the Master of the Crab Dribble took about five steps before even thinking about dribbling.

Keyon Dooling runs into a brick wall

When you run into your own teammate, it’s never a good thing. Unless, that is, the ref mistakes him for your opponent.

Player goes Mike Tyson on ref

This isn’t in the NBA and isn’t even that bad of a call. It’s actually a pretty decent no-call. But it had to be on the list because this player certainly reacted like it was the worst call ever.