Basketball Fiend

Posts Tagged ‘weed’

Photo courtesy of SITV.com.

1. While everyone else is busy previewing the 2009-10 season to death, The Baseline previews something different: the 2010 OFFSEASON. I was skeptical about the idea, but Shoals pulls it off beautifully. Warning: don’t read this if you’re a fan of the Raptors, Pistons or Warriors. It doesn’t bode well for you.

2. For better or worse, Carmelo Anthony has his own Tag body spray. What does it smell like? Weed and tattoo ink, I think. I’m kidding, Melo. I’m kidding. It actually smells like LaLa Vasquez’s anger.

3. Contrary to what I said yesterday, Andrew Bynum is the undisputed starting center for the Lakers this season. Source: Twitter report from Mike Trudell, quoting Phil Jackson.

4. Don’t expect any endorsements from Hasheem Thabeet for NBA 2K10. The popular video game gave Thabeet a rating of only 57. An unnecessary snub or a glimpse into Thabeet’s future? I’m going with the latter.

5. Darren Collison has no business singing anything, but I like the confidence he brings to this Beyonce impression. Any time you incorporate crowd participation it’s bound to be a good moment in rookie hazing.

* Follow Basketball Fiend on Twitter @BasketballFiend.

* Join Basketball Fiend and receive updates by e-mail HERE.

Photo credit: AP Photo

According to multiple reports, including one from Yahoo! Sports by Adrian Wojnarowski, second-year Miami Heat forward Michael Beasley has checked into a rehab facility in Houston amid concerns about his emotional stability and substance abuse habits.

Ira Winderman of Sun Sentinel.com is reporting that Beasley was at the Houston facility before a controversial photo of Beasley, which supposedly shows bags of marijuana in the background, surfaced this weekend. Others, like Henry Abbott of True Hoop, speculate that the controversial photo was one of the catalysts behind Beasley’s decision to enter rehab, citing Twitter messages from Beasley’s GorillaBeas account that said “I feel like the whole world is against me” and “Feelin’ like it’s not worth livin.”

The Twitter account has since been deactivated.

Beasley’s personal manager, Bruce Shingler, addressed the issue this morning in this quote from Winderman’s article, saying, “Mike is a little down right now because of all that’s going on. This is all added stress for him.”

“He’s compliant out in Houston, just trying to do everything that is asked of him at this particular moment,” adds Shingler. “He’s OK right now.”

Beasley’s mother, Fatima Smith, has thus far declined to comment on the situation.

According to Yahoo! Sports, Beasley will complete a minimum-30-day program in Houston under the watch of John Lucas, a former NBA player and coach who struggled with substance abuse himself during his time in the NBA and is now a respected counselor for players with substance abuse problems.

True Blood: The Complete First Season (HBO Series)

The NBA takes a three-strikes approach to substance abuse violations, with the third strike resulting in a five-game suspension.

Beasley has one strike against him, stemming from a marijuana-related incident during last year’s rookie symposium, but it is unknown whether entering rehab will count as a strike against Beasley or whether another strike against Beasley will be his second or third strike.

If you enjoyed this article, click here to receive Basketball Fiend updates by e-mail.

From this video (courtesy of Blazers Edge) it’s abundantly clear that Cavaliers guard Delonte West likes KFC.

What else does West like? Glad you asked. I’ve compiled a list based on West’s hilarious freestyle. Here it goes…

1. Chicken (original, not grilled).

2, Waiting 18 minutes for chicken that he paid for with a fat knot.

3. Parfaits (strawberry, sometimes choc-o-late).

4. Getting higher than the entire cast of Dazed & Confused.

5. Hot sauce in his bag. Hot sauce in his bag? Hot sauce in his bag.

6. Mickey D’s and Chipotle. (But only on days he doesn’t eat KFC.)

7. Jugs of ice tea, preferably in his lap.

8. Twista.

9. Getting higher than the second-hand smoke in la casa de Snoop Dogg.

And…

10. People from Jamaica.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson on Delonte West, my newest candidate for Funniest Player in the NBA (right up there with Dwight Howard, Donte Greene, and, of course, Shaq).

Say what you want about Ron Artest, the man is truly entertaining.

Artest, who has been trying to kickstart his hip-hop career for at least five years now, decided recently to install a recording studio in his Excursion. Right now the studio consists of a microphone - which is wired behind the rear view mirror and mounted on a stand which hangs from the roof of the car - and a small audio pad that connects to Artest’s laptop. But, according to Artest, a mixing board and production unit are soon to follow.

Ever the good host, Artest takes you on a tour of his new studio in the video blog below.

On the tour you’ll be guided through a world of intrigue that only a guy like Ron Artest can manufacture. Highlights include: a quick introduction to the studio (a.k.a. the front seat of the car), Artest name-dropping his new single (“Georgetown Girls”), a loosely detailed version of how the microphone was installed in Artest’s ride, an inclusive history of the Queensbridge hip-hop scene (breaking news: Black Poet’s back on the scene, looking fresh to death), promises of a future mixing board (which will be installed in the back seat), a guest appearance by Ron’s cigar (”I don’t smoke weed, that’s a cigar”), the revelation that when he gets an idea for a song Artest just randomly pulls off the road to record (”so [he] ain’t gotta waste no time”), and, finally, Artest’s keys to not getting pulled over by the police while recording live music in your whip.

And that’s just the first three minutes of the video.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of Artest or not, his antics are wildly entertaining and, in this case, relatively harmless. If you have five minutes of free time today, I highly recommend watching the video below.

If the video above doesn’t play, check it out here.

Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur are in hot water. Not only did they violate the NBA rookie symposium’s policy of “no guests, no reefer” by getting caught with both in their hotel room, they pissed off the Big Cheese (David Stern).

ESPN.com reports that Stern was the one who personally called security to investigate the issue. Not only that, he also had the players instantly removed from the hotel the next morning when he found out they were still there.

In other words, Stern wasn’t just perturbed. He wasn’t just angry. He was furious. In fact, that’s exactly the word that sources around Stern used to describe his mood: “furious”.

There are some people in high places who you can anger and walk away unscathed. David Stern is not one of those people. We’re not talking about the President of the PTA here. We’re talking about the Sheriff of the NBA. The guy who suspended Ron Artest for nearly an entire season, tore basketball away from the city of Seattle, and froze out Las Vegas after the 2007 All-Star game.

The lesson here? You don’t mess with Stern.

But Chalmers and Arthur did mess with him. They defiled his rookie transition program, spit on his initiative, clowned his attempt at moral bar-raising. And they did it all right under his nose.

The price is a return trip to the rookie program next year, a $20,000 fine, and (perhaps) an early-season suspension. But, realistically, the price goes further than that.

With their actions, Chalmers and Arthur have essentially black-listed themselves. There will be no favors for these two in the future. No NBA endorsements (unless they do really, really well). No All-Star appearances.

Stern is a powerful man, perhaps the most powerful NBA commissioner in league history. Chalmers and Arthur crossed him. No, more than that. They embarrassed him.

There are worse things in the world than getting caught with pot and women. Relative to the transgressions of Jayson Williams, Dennis Rodman, and Roy Tarpley, this stunt seems pretty harmless.

But in this case it wasn’t the the crime, it was the stage.

Chalmers and Arthur embarrassed the NBA Sheriff on the set of one of his biggest productions. The NBA Rookie Transition Program. The introduction to the world of all-things-NBA.

Sure, they may have just hot-boxed a hotel room. They may have just had a few girls over. They may have just been having a little fun.

But in doing so, Chalmers and Arthur flashed a middle finger at the very rules they were supposed to be learning. They said, in no exact terms, “f— you, David Stern.” And that was a big mistake.

Because David Stern is not a man you want to f— with.

Who knew that Mario “Big Shot” Chalmers was such a tokker?

Chalmers and former Kansas University teammate Darrell Arthur were found with chicks and weed in their hotel room on Tuesday night while attending the rookie transition program, a mandatory program for all NBA rookies. According to the rules of the rookie program, visitors are not allowed in player hotel rooms. Obviously, neither is weed.

The former Jayhawks were booted from the rookie program and fined $20,000 for their transgression. They will also be forced to attend the program at the beginning of next season.

Considering the uproar that Josh Howard caused during the 2008 playoffs, when he mentioned that he smokes weed during the offseason, this incident will spark controversy among NBA talking heads. That’s not good news for Arthur, whose stock has plummeted recently. But for Chalmers, it’s probably not so bad.

Maybe he’ll score a cameo on Entourage or something.