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.

There are more than a million reasons for the NBA lockout to end, not least of which is the following question: do you really want the NBA D-League to be the most competitive basketball in America?

But the 1,287,493rd reason to end the lockout came yesterday within a Chris Sheridan column.

Sheridan discussed who might play for the United States during the 2012 London Olympics. After reading the first ten players who Sheridan considers mortal locks to make the roster, I suddenly realized, “Holy box of crackerjacks. Sheridan hasn’t included Derrick Rose, the defending NBA MVP.” Then I looked at the ten locks (Dwight Howard, Kevin Durant, Chris Bosh, Blake Griffin, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Carmelo Anthony), thought about the situation rationally, realized that Bosh and Griffin were around for size, and thought, “Jumping bag of Kit-Kats, maybe Rose doesn’t deserve to be a mortal lock.”

In the remainder of the column Sheridan advised that after his ten mortal locks, the USA should select at least one center to keep pace with Spain, which added Serge Ibaka to an already potent frontcourt. That would leave Rose to compete for the 12th roster spot, about which Sheridan writes, “If you want a third point guard, 2010 Team USA members Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose are your guys (in fact, it’ll be interesting to see whether either of them can beat out Paul and/or Williams at training camp next summer in Las Vegas).”

I’m not here to call Sheridan correct in his belief that Rose should be firmly on the roster bubble, nor to confirm his suspicion that Rose is a candidate for third point guard. I’m not here to call Sheridan wrong, either. All I’m saying is that if you can have a legitimate conversation about the United States Olympic roster and advocate leaving the defending NBA MVP off the roster entirely, NBA talent is off the charts.

End the lockout. Sooner rather than later.

Please.

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.

Brandon Roy's sad story illuminates The Decision.

As I emerged from The Hangover: Ad-libs, my  Twitter timeline was flying with tweets about LeBron James and his clutch performance in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. NBA Twiteratti were telling a story of vindication–140 characters at a time.

James’ nailed a series-clinching free throw jumper, advancing to the NBA Finals in his first season with the Miami Heat, proving James’ clutchness, greatness, and wisdom for  making The Decision, all in one moment.

Engulfed by flaming James rhetoric was a tweet from Portland that whispered a truer tale:

@JohnCanzanoBFT: Canzano: Asking Blazers’ Brandon Roy to retire is not the answer: The Trail Blazers Inc. brain trust wants to fl…http://bit.ly/jh9sBu

The link brought me to OregonLive.com, where I read in disgust that the powers of the Portaland Trailblazers were considering asking Brandon Roy to retire.

The same Roy who led a beleaguered franchise away from mugshots and jailhouses, towards title shots and penthouses. The same Roy who led the team in points, assists, steals and minutes during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. The same Roy who won Rookie of the Year, made three All-star teams and two All-NBA teams in just five NBA seasons.

And, after all that, when Roy’s balky knees wore down from the pounding of so many minutes, of carrying such a heavy burden for the Blazers, Portland is asking Roy for more. It’s not enough that he sacrificed his starting spot, his playing time, now they want him to sacrifice his career so that Paul Allen can save some luxury tax.

On a rapidly-moving Twitter stream, I expect most of Canzono’s followers didn’t see how sad news about  Roy could unlock a window into James’ mind, how timely the news was in light of James’ achievement. But I’m guessing James would see the connection.

LeBron was blasted my media and fans alike for deserting the Cavaliers, for leaving the hometown team for a better opportunity. James was disloyal, a traitor, the story goes.

But James knew what Roy is now learning. The NBA is about business, about serving one’s personal interest, about looking out for number one.

NBA owners, GM’s, and coaches want a player only as long as he is productive. As soon he can’t make an owner money, or win a coach basketball games, the player is forgotten, dismissed.

Now, I don’t know if the rumor is true or not, but yellow snow usually means a dog peed there. Portland may not ask Roy to retire, but they certainly have thought about it.

Paul Allen is not loyal to Brandon Roy and Dan Gilbert has shown how much he cares about James. Why should the players be held to a higher standard?

On James’ greatest night as a basketball player, it was Roy’s darkest day that showed us why James made the right decision.

Related articles

• VIDEO: Luol Deng Dunks As LeBron James Goes For Block In Pursuit (sbnation.com)
• LeBron James apologizes for “The Decision” (probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com)
• NBA Playoffs: Heat make stunning comeback, reach finals (probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com)
• Video: Watch Brandon Roy’s amazing fourth quarter (probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com)

Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? The Cleveland Cavaliers, and Lebron James, used to have a policy — no excuses.

“We’re a no excuses team,” echoed both Lebron James and Mike Brown, after a late (and pretty obviously intentional) Bruce Bowen foul went uncalled in the 2007 NBA Finals. Which brings me to the irony. Since then, there has always been an excuse waiting to escort James away from failure. His latest excuse invokes the Boston Celtics, but, first, a history of LeExcuses.

Brown’s offensive sets were never good enough. Neither was Lebron’s supporting cast. Lebron’s elbow hurt so bad. A teammate had sexual relations with Lebron’s mother. Lebron didn’t actually know what contraction meant. The karma tweet didn’t even consist of his own thoughts. And did I tell you about that Cleveland supporting cast? You try winning with those bums.

There aren’t many more excuses to go around. James has a coach who he, all shoulder bumps aside, finally respects. Don’t want to take my word for it? Listen to Bill Reiter, who has covered Miami for Fox Sports all season long. Hell, listen to Lebron himself: “Me and Spo are still learning each other,” LeBron said after playing OKC. “It’s not like me and Spo have been (together a long time). We’re still learning each other. I’m going to continue to trust Spo. He’s our coach and he’s going to continue to trust me.” And Reiter’s take on Lebron’s quote: “The key here isn’t that LeBron said these words – it’s that he appeared to mean them.”

The supporting cast, too, leaves little to be desired. I mean, sure, I bet Lebron wishes he could see a little less of Mario Chalmers, Joel Anthony and Carlos Arroyo. But when Lebron James teams with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the supporting cast can’t be blamed. It can’t. The Heat have three of the top ten (or, in Bosh’s case, perhaps 15) players in the NBA, and a few pieces (read: Mike Miller, James Jones, and maybe Zydrunas Ilgauskas) who aren’t at all half bad. And Udonis Haslem should return later this season to add another impressive role player. Nobody would argue Miami’s the NBA’s deepest team, but the talent is there.

As for knick-knack injuries? Nobody’s going to fall for the elbow trick twice. Same goes for the whole “mother” thing. I’m not even trying to say the accusations were false. Nor am I trying to say they were true. I’m just saying nobody’s going to fall for it twice, true or not.

Some of the excuses weren’t even made by Lebron himself. Lebron stood in Brown’s corner, even when the media blamed him for Cleveland’s troubles. Lebron never, to my knowledge, verbally disparaged his supporting cast in Cleveland (although leaving for Miami was a sure sign of where Lebron stood on the issue). We — the media, and the fans — enabled Lebron to avoid accountability, to play six years in Cleveland while hardly ever taking fault for a loss, and we hardly ever mentioned, “Shit, maybe it’s Lebron’s fault this isn’t working.” In the seventh year, after Lebron’s epic disappearance against Boston in Game 5, we’d finally had enough. That loss was Lebron’s fault, no matter how that damn elbow felt, no matter how many times Delonte West had pleased Lebron’s mother.

As scarce as excuses seem to be nowadays, Lebron isn’t done with them. He doesn’t have many left, so he created a new one. The Heat can’t possibly have Boston’s chemistry, said Lebron yesterday, because they haven’t had enough time together. (ESPN)

“We’re way behind those guys,” LeBron James said following the Heat’s practice on Wednesday. “Just look at the number of games played, the number of playoff series those guys have had. We’re only a few months in together — 40-something-plus games. I’ve seen the statistics. Boston has like 250-plus games played together. We’re way behind those teams.”

When taken alone, the quote isn’t that harmful. Actually, it makes all kinds of sense. Miami IS only 40-something games into its new experiment. Boston DOES have great chemistry, which IS aided by the amount of games the C’s have played together.

But being an obsessive follower of Boston’s Big Three, I can tell you they never made excuses about chemistry. They saw the Detroit Pistons and never thought, “Damn, those guys have more chemistry than we do. We’re way behind that team.” They thought, “We’ll do whatever it takes to get our chemistry to that level. Then, we’ll kick their asses.” The Big Three Celtics never once complained about chemistry, or how quickly they had to develop it. Never once. They were all working toward a common goal, they were all infected by Ubuntu, and chemistry developed quickly and naturally. And, though the bond was natural and unforced, the Celtics worked all season long to strengthen it. No excuses, no complaints.

The Celtics made it work. Ray Allen sacrificed so much of his individual game. Paul Pierce stopped being a ball stopper, and started facilitating movement. He took fewer shots, but he took better ones. And Kevin Garnett? He was always unselfish, but he took his charitable attitude to another level. Chemistry isn’t just about liking your teammates on and off the court. It’s about making sacrifices to maximize the talent that steps on the floor each night.

Which brings us back to the Heat. They could very well win an NBA championship this season. They have two of the NBA’s top five players, and another in the top fifteen. They’re a very good, potentially great team. But Lebron’s right: they don’t have terrific on-court chemistry yet, and, maybe more importantly, they don’t seem like they’re willing to make all the necessary sacrifices. Lebron still wants to launch the occasional ill-advised fallaway jumper, and both Wade and Lebron fall into one-on-one play too often. Isolations can work, because the two players are such talents. But solo tangents of individual greatness fail to maximize Miami’s production.

So Lebron, you’re right. Your team lags behind Boston in terms of chemistry. But that doesn’t count as an excuse. It’s on you and your teammates to get it right by season’s end. If not, the failure’s on your team, and nobody or nothing else. Accountability started the day you took your talents to South Beach, Lebron, and it should have started far sooner.

Dwyane Wade does not believe the Heat need to play together like the Boston Celtics do. Or something like that.

“We’ve proven sometimes it can be a lot of him and a lot of me,” Wade said of the Heat’s unique either-or, one-two perimeter punch with himself and James. “That’s the good problem that we have around here. That’s the reason we’re all playing together. It’s about figuring out which one.

“We’re not the Boston Celtics. We’re not these kinds of teams that need to play together. We have guys that have the individual talent, and sometimes the individual talent, one-on-one ability is going to take over. Boston has more of guys that have great individual talent, but they feed off each other. We’re a new team and we’re still figuring it out.”

Normally, I’d take the high road and say, “See? This mentality is why the Heat won’t get past the Boston Celtics in the East. This is why Lebron James still hasn’t won a title in his career. This is why Dwyane Wade needed Shaq — and a watered-down NBA — to win his one ring.”

But I don’t care if the Heat don’t play together perfectly. I don’t care if they sometimes resemble a team of mismatched parts. I don’t care if they don’t have a single NBA-caliber point guard or center. This team scares the hell out of me, and in a seven-game series I can’t say the Celtics have an edge. It was hard enough to take down Lebron or Wade on their own. Now they’re a tag team that comes at you from both ends of the court.

When Udonis Haslem returns and if Mike Miller finds his groove, these Heat will become even more dangerous. And you know what’s even more fearful? This — a year when the Heat still lead the NBA in point differential even while struggling through injuries and an identity crisis — is actually the year to beat them. Because with every year that passes, the Heat will become better at playing together. And every year from now on, they’ll add a draft pick and a mid-level exception player to bolster their depth and make the talent around James and Wade deep and scary. Hell, they might even add Nene before the trading deadline, a move that would bring me (and most of the NBA) to tears.

That said, I hope the Heat continue to think “we’re not these kinds of teams that need to play together.” Because, as much talent as the Heat have, it still takes a full unit to dispatch the Boston Celtics. They’re pretty good.

(H/T @MrTrpleDouble10)