League News...

Don't Shoot!!! You Got The Wrong Guy!!!

After plenty of speculation over the weekend, Terry Porter was officially ousted as Head Coach of the Phoenix Suns Monday. Coach Porter was just 4 seasons into his tenure as the Suns' head coach, replacing current Knicks head coach, Mike D'Antoni, at the end of last season. The Suns are 28-23, 9th place in the West, and had a 5-game losing streak heading into the All-Star break. Porter will be replaced by Suns' assistant coach Alvin Gentry, who is expected to return the team to it's fast-paced style from the D'Antoni era after Porter had tried to make the Suns a more defensive-minded team this season.

Porter's dismissal made him the 8th coach to lose his job this season, and it's here where I've got a problem. Marc Iavaroni (Grizzlies), Randy Whitman (T'wolves), Reggie Theus (Kings), PJ Carlesimo (Thunder), Sam Mitchell (Raptors), Mo Cheeks (76ers), Eddie Jordan (Wizards) are the other coaches who have gotten the pink slip this season. 

I'm sick of seeing quality coaches lose their jobs when it should be their respective teams' dumbass management that gets the shaft. Teams fire their coaches as if they're the reason the team is not performing. In the cases of Iavaroni, Whitman, Theus, and Carlesimo - all Western Conference coaches - they were equipped with young, inexperienced players who would have no shot at making any immediate noise in the West if Red Auerbach was the coach. So you have to wonder, what exactly are these GMs expecting from their terrible rosters? For the Grizzlies, who are in a division with the Spurs, Hornets, Rockets, and Mavs, Darko Milicic is your starting PF. How many games were you actually looking to win this season? In Oklahoma City, Johan Petro was the starting C on opening day...enough said.

But the major issue I have is with the remaining half of the coaches who have been shown the door this season. The Raptors, Sixers, and Suns all came into the season with through the roof expectations. The Raptors acquired Jermaine O'Neal over the summer (traded to Miami last week) and their management had the blasphemous impression that teaming him with Chris Bosh would make them legit contenders against teams like Cleveland, Boston, and Orlando. Philly picked up Elton Brand and got gassed up the same way. The Suns made their major move last season, trading for Shaq (which didn't pan out last year). The aforementioned teams all got caught up in the hype of how good their teams "could be" due to a couple big name acquisitions yet failed to look at the rest of the roster in comparison to other teams. Coaches have been put in positions where teams expect immediate results, regardless of whether their teams' talent is actually capable of performing at that high of a level. 

The Suns added Shaquille O'Neal to a team that tries to score within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock. Now Amare Stoudemire can't operate, and the Suns can't run. That's not Terry Porter's fault, it's management. Toronto added injury-prone Jermaine O'Neal to the team and thought that would put them in title contention. They must've overlooked the fact that, other than Chris Bosh, no one else on the roster is proven. Jose Calderon had one good year - last year - and Toronto thought he was Jason Kidd. In Philly, Elton Brand had a dislocated shoulder for much the time Cheeks was there. 

It's not the coaches fault that their teams don't win. That's why, when coaching changes are made, there are no drastic improvements. No team that's fired a coach is any more of a threat than they were before. Sacramento, Toronto, Oklahoma City, and Washington have the four worst records in The League. Instead of firing coaches as if they're the issue, GMs need to man-up and fire themselves for putting together wack-ass teams. 

John Paxson can be the first to kick off the new trend.

CP3, Magic, Bill Russell, Grant Hill, & Steve Nash talk President Obama's skills and swagger...

My President Is A PG!!!!!!!!

The Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award...

Bill Russell was never an NBA Finals MVP.

Now the award is named after him.

Starting this year, the Finals MVP will receive the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award, commissioner David Stern announced Saturday.

"This is one of my proudest moments in basketball, because I determined early in my career, the only important statistic in basketball is the final score," Russell said.

Russell's wife, Marilyn, recently died of cancer, and he was visibly moved as he accepted the honor.

"This is a bittersweet award," Russell said. "I just lost my special person. But I wanted to thank my teammates because we played a team game quite well. I accept this for my team, and my team included our coach, Red Auerbach, and all my teammates over the years. This is quite flattering."

Russell, a cornerstone of Boston's NBA dynasty in the 1960s, was a five-time NBA MVP and won 11 championships as a player and coach. But he never won the Finals MVP award.

The NBA first named a Finals MVP in 1969, after the series between Russell's Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics won the title but Los Angeles' Jerry West won the MVP trophy -- the first and only time the award has gone to a member of the losing team.

"Who better to name this prestigious award for than one of the greatest players of all time and the ultimate champion," Stern said.

The award, presented at the end of the Finals, is voted by writers and broadcasters covering the series.

"What I'm going to do next week is visit my father's grave, because he was my hero," Russell said. "And I'm going to share that with him."

Via: ESPN & worldstarhiphop