Basketball Fiend

Posts Tagged ‘Delonte West’

With Shaquille O’Neal, Big Baby Davis and Nate Robinson already in tow, the Celtics added another colorful character to their bench Wednesday as they agreed to terms with guard Delonte West on a non-guaranteed deal.

Details, courtesy of the Boston Globe:

A free agent looking for a team to take a chance, West agreed to a nonguaranteed deal yesterday with the Celtics, his second go-round with the team.

The deal means West can be released before Jan. 10 without the Celtics being responsible for the remainder of his contract. West received $500,000 as a buyout from the Timberwolves when he was waived Aug. 3.

[Danny] Ainge has always admired West’s talents, and the swingman played his best basketball while in Boston. But his salary and Wally Szczerbiak’s, plus the draft rights to Jeff Green, were required for Ainge to obtain Ray Allen from Seattle in July 2007.

Parting was obviously sweet sorrow for Ainge the last time around — he has made no secret of how much he likes West’s competitive fire — so it makes sense that he’d give West a chance to prove himself this season. No matter how much Ainge likes him, though, there’s no guarantee that West will get playing time this year.

It’s going to be a pretty crowded backcourt in Boston with West joining Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Nate Robinson and Von Wafer, who also enters training camp with a non-guaranteed contract.

It’ll be interesting to see if West can beat out Wafer for the right to Tony Allen’s minutes off the bench. My money’s on West — if for no other reasons than he’ll commit to defense and he can rap circles around the Wafeman.

Whatever happens, one thing is clear: It’s going to be far from a boring season in Boston.

Hot sauce in my bag. Hot sauce in my bag.

Subscribe to Basketball Fiend.

Follow me on Twitter.

I wasn’t going to break my three-month hiatus from Basketball Fiend until Friday-when the new site will launch-but I’m too intrigued by this whole Delonte West-Gloria James, LeBron James rumor not to write about it.

It’s been five days since the rumor came out.

Since then, no reputable media source (sorry Deadspin, you’re only 85 percent of the way there) has published an account of the rumor. In fact, the only evidence we have that the rumor exists anywhere but in the blogosphere (and the Twittersphere) was a report from TMZ Tuesday that LeBron’s lawyer sent a “cease and desist email” to Terez Owens.com, the site responsible for the rumor.

It makes sense that nobody credible has stepped out on this one. It’s an allegation rife with potential for fraud, a case of libel waiting to happen. It may as well be a media landmine.

Terez Owens.com obviously doesn’t mind. They’ve decided to keep the report online despite the threat of legal action, thus perpetuating their self-described status as the “#1 most hated sports site.” This means either a) they’re right, or b) they have nothing to lose.

I’m not ready to discount the power of option b–putting your site on the map at all costs is blog philosophy many of us are familiar with–but I’m likewise hesitant to rule out option a.

As I told my dad and my brother last night at dinner, I had a gut feeling–judging by LeBron’s body language in Game 5–that his struggles were a personal problem, not a physical problem. Players with physical issues typically don’t let it take them out their game to the extent that LeBron was taken out of his in Game 5 (15 points on 3-of-14 shooting). With LeBron there was an air of detachment, something we rarely see.

There was a similar air of detachment in Game 6.

I’m not trying to discount LeBron’s triple double–he certainly played better than his teammates–but something about his demeanor at the end of the game and in the postgame press conference lacked urgency and, more importantly, anger.

Last season he was genuinely angry to be eliminated by the Magic; so angry, in fact, that he refused to shake hands after the game or show up for his post-game interview. This year, he merely looked defeated. And when someone that competitive–those who say he isn’t competitive are fooling themselves (did you watch More Than a Game?)–looks defeated like that, it is usually a symptom of something bigger.

That “something bigger” could arguably be the elbow injury. Or Mike Brown’s coaching. Or the myriad failures of his teammates. There are a lot of factors swirling around in the LeBron-o-sphere (yes, I use “sphere” to describe everything).

But it could also be the disappointment of finding out the person he is closest to in the world–again, watch More Than a Game–did something unexpected with someone he knows.

Given Terez Owens.com’s standing in the online community–somewhere between TMZ.com and MediaTakeOut.com–it’s easy to dismiss the rumor as complete bullshit. And if you have, I don’t blame you. The rational side of my brain wants to dismiss it as that too.

But something about this rumor seems too crazy to be made up–like the affair between Shaquille O’Neal and Gilbert Arenas’ fiance, or the Manny Ramirez fertility drug thing.

I’m not saying the allegations are true or that Terez Owens.com is a reputable enough source to trust–what with their “I have an uncle who works at the arena” approach. But if the rumor turns out to be true, let’s just say I won’t be surprised.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

In this case “entertaining” means anything from “throws down crazy dunks on a regular basis” to “hangs out in the hotel lobby in his underwear”.

It’s an all-encompassing list.

Bonus Runner-Up: Delonte West

I’m going to level with you. I didn’t intend on having 11 players on the list. But how could I leave off Delonte? His hot sauce in my bag freestyle was so funny I nearly coughed up a lung. You can’t script comedy like that. Delonte’s KFC masterpiece was absolutely, without a doubt, my favorite video of the year. He makes the list. Period. End of discussion.

Bonus Runner-Up #2: Stephon Marbury

If you thought I was done with the bonus section, you thought wrong. There’s no way in the fiery depths of Fran Drescher inhabited hell that I’m going to leave Starbury off this list. He gave us not one, not two, but three laugh out loud comedy moments this summer. The “Put Me in a Box” video, the “I Eat Vaseline” video, and the “Ain’t Nothin’ But the Devil” video. None of them were basketball related, but who cares? They were unscripted bits of comedy genius, and I couldn’t stop watching them. Neither could my friends. Neither could my professors. (Yes, you read that right. I sent Starbury videos to my professors.) He makes the list. Deal with it.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. According to Sports by Brooks, the Lamar Odom-Khloe Kardashian wedding may take place as soon as Sunday, September 25. I guess that means I’ll have to overnight my wedding gift. Anybody know how much it costs to next-day a tub of gummy bears?

2. Brian Windhorst discusses Delonte West’s ongoing struggle with bipolar disorder. So far the Cavaliers have been particularly tolerant of West’s behavior as a result of the disorder. I wonder how they’ll react, though, to West’s recent arrest on firearms charges. Will they still let him put hot sauce in his bag?

3. Chris Mannix of SI.com reports, via Twitter, that Antoine Walker is currently talking to 4 teams and plans to participate in camp next week. For Walker’s sake, I hope the Reno Big Horns aren’t one of the four teams in question. Walker hasn’t had much luck there in the past.

4. Heels on Hardwood previews the matchup between the Raptors and Kings next season. In terms of diagnoses, the hits keep on coming (so to speak). HoH sees the Raptors sweeping the Kings in every major category and winning the season series 2-0. I’ll try to keep my hurt on the inside.

5. Speaking of the Kings, Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty looks at the likelihood that Kevin Martin will make it to the All-Star game this year. I can’t say I like Martin’s chances, but I’ll certainly be rooting for him.

* Follow Basketball Fiend on Twitter @BasketballFiend.

* Get Basketball Fiend updates by e-mail HERE.

(Photo courtesy of celebrity-gossip.net.)