When the Goodman League competes against the Indy Pro-Am on Sept. 24,  Celtics draft pick JaJuan Johnson will reportedly suit up for the Indy Pro-Am squad. He will compete against Jeff Green, who could potentially be Johnson’s teammate whenever the NBA returns.

John Wall, Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley and DeMarcus Cousins have all committed to join Green in representation of the Goodman League, according to separate reports by Mike Wells and Michael Lee. Johnson’s Indy Pro-Am team will reportedly also include Zach Randolph, Mike Conley, Eric Gordon, George Hill, Lance Stephenson and Gordon Hayward.

Note: I am about to ramble about Gordon Hayward for a short period of time, just because his name triggered some great NBA League Pass memories. Bear with me.

On April 5, 2011, Hayward put on one of last season’s least-expected shows, metaphorically staring Kobe Bryant straight in the eyes until Kobe blinked.

Two nights before, Hayward had established a career high of 19 points against the Sacramento Kings, but nothing about his bland rookie season signaled that Hayward was ready to build on the career night, especially not against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Jazz had played the Lakers earlier in the week and Hayward was both inefficient and  unproductive. He finished the game with 7 points on 3-9 shooting, playing 29 minutes and barely putting his fingerprints on the game. The Jazz lost after leading by 17 points and Hayward scored only two points in the second half, an alley-oop from Earl Watson after the game was already out of reach.

The Lakers were on a typical tear, winning 17 of their past 19 games, and the Jazz were somewhere between listless and helpless, losers of eight straight, a franchise in shambles after Jerry Sloan’s retirement and Deron Williams’s trade, a franchise watching idly as the memories of two great decades burned slowly to the ground. Al Jefferson was acquired in the offseason, but he and Paul Millsap did not mesh in the front-court. Derrick Favors came to Utah as part of the Williams trade, and he could provide occasional entertainment with a fierce dunk or a high-flying block, but his prime was years away at best. Tyrone Corbin tried to fill Sloan’s enormous shoes, but Utah’s talent was lower than it had been in years and Corbin, well, Corbin was not Sloan. Meanwhile, the Jazz’s lottery draft choice, the league’s next white hope, Gordon Hayward blended into the background, struggling to deal with the strength and quickness of his NBA opponents.

Kobe Bryant is not normally the right prescription for a rookie struggling to find his NBA calling. But the second time Hayward played Kobe that week, he transformed into something different, something better, the player Utah hoped he would be, a player his parents and friends could be proud of, a player who dueled against Kobe Bryant and scored 22 points, including 10 in the final quarter, grabbed 6 rebounds, dished 5 assists, drilled the game-winning free throw, forced Bryant into a turnover on the game’s final possession, and walked off the court with at least one new fan.

“I’m very, very fond of him. He’s a very-skilled, all-around player,” said Kobe Bryant. “I think he’s going to have a very bright future in this league. He reminds me of a more talented Jeff Hornacek. Jeff couldn’t put the ball on the floor as well as (Hayward) can.”

Less than two weeks later, the Jazz ended their season by beating the Denver Nuggers. Hayward pumped in 34 points.

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.

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%.

Paul Pierce’s appearance in the China Intercontinental Club Championships did not result in a championship, and his team, the Kentucky Bisons — which also featured Michael Beasley and Tyson Chandler — failed to make the finals of the tournament. In the consolation game, Pierce reportedly mustered just three points in fourteen minutes of court time during a win against the Beijing Jinyu Ducks.

I am assuming Pierce was either not trying, sick, suffered a mysterious elbow injury nobody would stop talking about, or Delonte West recently had sexual relations with his mother. Because under normal circumstances Pierce — who looked in good shape during the miserable-sounding video below (your mute button will come in handy) — would shoot better than 1-4 against the almighty Beijing Jinyu Ducks.  For comparison’s sake, Beasley led the Bisons with 32 points while apparently refraining from fighting any fans.

In the championship game, former NBA player Kyle Weaver (raise your hand and eat a cookie if you remember him from his days with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and buy yourself a trophy if you know he played for the Jazz last season) won the tournament MVP as Alba Berlin ousted Cairns Tapans 84-67 — you know, just in case any of you were wondering.

The season is approaching (but not quickly enough), so that means it’s NBA preview time. Starting with the league’s worst team and working our way to the top, we’ll preview one team per day.

Love must hate being stuck in Minnesota. Cold weather and bad basketball. Is there anything worse?

Minnesota Timberwolves

Last year’s record: 15-67
Head Coach: Kurt Rambis
Projected Starters: Jonny Flynn, Martell Webster, Corey Brewer, Michael Beasley, Kevin Love

Outlook:

Quite simply, not good. When the league’s second-worst team unloads its best player for a couple draft picks and a sack of potatoes (aka Kosta Koufos); re-signs the decade’s biggest bust for $20 million; holds its future in the hands of a pothead and a 19-year old Spaniard who may or may not play in the United States anytime soon; then takes out a full-page ad in a local newspaper to apologize; well, that team has been Kahn’d. And, for the foreseeable future at least, it has little hope.

X-Factor:

Michael Beasley. You know how he underacheived in Miami. He went to drug rehab, never found his niche, didn’t adjust well to the NBA game, couldn’t defend a soul — the list of Beasley’s shortcomings the past couple years is longer than Shawn Bradley’s arms. But underneath all the billows of marijuana smoke, there’s potential. We saw it at Kansas St., and we saw glimpses of it in Miami. If Beasley can get his life and game together, he could be a 25 and 10 type; he’s THAT talented. If not? He’ll be the second-biggest draft bust on the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Biggest Question Mark:

Will Ricky Rubio ever play a game in a Minnesota Timberwolves jersey? I know that question doesn’t have anything to do with next year’s team. Then again, it’s tough to find a question about next year’s Timberwolves team worth answering. They’re going to be bad, and probably 2009-2010 New Jersey Nets bad. Rubio is a rare Spaniard of hope for a franchise in dire straits.

Most important newcomer:

Beasley, simply because he has — by far — the highest upside. But don’t sleep on Wesley Johnson. The Wolves could regret choosing Johnson ahead of DeMarcus Cousins, but the 6’7″ jumping jack might make an immediate impact on both ends of the court. Emphasis on might.

Biggest loss:

Al Jefferson. What? Did you think I was going to say Nathan Jawai?

Most compelling storyline:

Can it be anything but David Kahn? Kahn spent the summer doing his best Isiah Thomas impersonation, then called Darko Milicic a “manna from heaven.” It’s just a shame manna’s suck at basketball. Anyway, Kahn’s ineptitude is the only reason anyone’s discussed the Timberwolves this summer. Not only is he the most compelling storyline, but he’s pretty damn close to being the only storyline.

Player to watch:

Kevin Love. Mostly by default, but also because Love’s damn good. His averages last season? 14 points and 11 rebounds, in only 28.6 minutes. Can somebody please let Kurt Rambis in on a secret the rest of the NBA world seems to know? Love deserves more playing time.

Descriptive movie quote:

“Look – you’re my best friend, so don’t take this the wrong way. In twenty years, if you’re still livin’ here, comin’ over to my house to watch the Patriots games, still workin’ construction, I’ll fuckin’ kill you. That’s not a threat; now, that’s a fact. I’ll fuckin’ kill you.” – Good Will Hunting

To Love, the only Timberwolf worth writing about. In twenty years, if Love’s still playing in Minnesota, wasting his unique talents on shitty teams surrounded by shitty players, I’ll fucking kill him. That’s not a threat; now, that’s a fact. I’ll fucking kill him. You know what the best part of my day is? It’s for about ten seconds from when I put on the TV to when I switch the channel to the Timberwolves game. Because I think maybe I’ll flip the station and Love won’t be there. No goodbye, no see you later, no nothin’. Just left. I don’t know much, but I know that.

Projected Record: 17-65. Mediocrity would be a drastic improvement for the Wolves. But mediocrity ain’t happening any time soon.

(If Beasley wasn’t high in this interview, I’ll eat my foot.) 

David Kahn thinks there’s a perfectly good reason that Michael Beasley underacheived in Miami: He was high all the time.

“He’s a very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana and has told me that he’s not smoking anymore, and I told him that I would trust him as long as that was the case,” Kahn said Thursday during an interview with 1500 ESPN Twin Cities.

“He has developed a really good support system around him this past season in Miami. He’s hired people to help him grow up. He is growing up — he’s not grown up. He’s 21 … and he just turned 21 last January, and if you think back, as I do all the time, to when I was 21 and if you had given me this kind of money and put me in this kind of world with these kinds of pressures attached to it and some of the demands, I don’t know (that) I would have handled it any easier than, say, he has.”

Don’t worry, guys. I know the player I just traded for does way too many drugs. But he told me he’s done with them. So seriously, no need to worry.

Because if David Kahn wouldn’t have handled it any easier than Michael Beasley has, then nobody could have handled it any easier. Can you smell what the Kahn is cooking?