NBA Lottery 2010

Here are the highlights from today's NBA Lottery. As you can see, most of the later picks went to plan except for the Warriors and Wolves who fell down the order.

Its funny watching some of the reactions from team representatives ... obviously my boy Danny Granger would have liked a higher pick than 10th. Also, Aaron Brooks from the Rockets must be trying to look intelligent with those glasses.

Washington is in desperate need of a change of fortunes so hopefully they select John Wall rather than another Kwame Brown (their last #1 draft pick).

Teen basketball star revealed as fraud

By ninemsn staff

A Texas high school student who led his school's basketball team to the state finals has been exposed as a 22-year-old Haitian man posing as a teenager.

Guerdwich Montimere, a naturalised US citizen born in Haiti, registered himself as a 16-year-old student at Permian High School for the 2009/10 school year, the Associated Press reported.

Using the pseudonym Jerry Joseph, the 22-year-old was taken in by the school's coach when he said he was homeless in the middle of last year.

Since then the 194cm-tall man became a basketball star for the high school team, taking the team to the state playoffs and being awarded the best newcomer.

Montimere had previously attracted attention as an impressive high school basketballer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before he graduated in 2007.

He was caught after coaches from Florida recognised him and reported him to school district officials.

"This affected a lot of people — the whole school of Permian embraced that kid," basketball coach Danny Wright said.

"He deceived us and played on everyone's emotions."

Arrested on Tuesday night, Montimere could face up to six months in prison for the misdemeanour.

Steve Nash is a machine

Great to see my boy Steve Nash lead the Suns to a 4 game sweep of the Spurs and advance to the Western Conference Finals. What I didn't realise until after the game was how he did it and that the Spurs yet again put the hurt on him. Check out this video below for the highlights:



What they don't really focus on is the fact that Nash had that great last quarter despite playing with just one eye (open).



In the highlight package at the top, they mentioned Steve's nose injury (from Tony Parker), but they failed to mention another memorable one ... the "Robert Horry incident":

Goran Dragic ... explodes!

Definitely the most surprising individual performance of the NBA playoffs, came yesterday from Suns back-up point guard Goran Dragic.

Here's his ridiculous stat line:

Bench		Min	FG	3Pt	FT	+/-	Off	Reb	Ast	TO	Stl	BS	BA	PF	Pts
C. Frye		32:41	3-6	3-5	0-0	+15	0	5	1	0	0	2	0	3	9
J. Dudley		25:17	0-3	0-3	0-0	+13	1	3	1	1	2	0	1	3	0
L. Barbosa		18:35	5-7	2-2	1-3	+12	1	4	1	1	0	0	1	4	13
G. Dragic		17:27	10-13	5-5	1-3	+10	1	3	2	0	1	1	0	0	26

26 points in just 17 minutes. 10 of 13 from the field including a perfect 5 of 5 from deep.

Check out the highlights from the game below.



"Dropping people off like its the first day of school ... "

Andrew Bogut named 3rd team ALL-NBA

The big news today from the NBA is that Australian Andrew Bogut was named in the All-NBA Third team. This is significant because its the first time ever an Australian had earned an All-NBA honour. Bogut had a great year and if it wasn't for a couple of injuries, I'm sure he would have gone one better and made the Second Team. Maybe next year tho ...

For the full story, click on the title below. For the full breakdown of the All-NBA teams, click here. Good to see my boy Steve Nash make the Second Team.

National Basketball League: Bogut receives All-NBA honours
May 07, 2010, 11:25 AM AEST By: Basketball Australia Australian Golden Star Boomer Andrew Bogut has been named in the 2009-10 All-NBA Third Team, the league announced overnight.

Bogut, the first Australian to earn All-NBA honours, received the most votes of any player on the Third Team and the 11th highest tally overall.

The dual Olympian started 69 games for the Bucks this year, averaging career-highs with 15.9 points and 2.5 blocks (second in the NBA) and added 10.2 rebounds (second-highest total in his career). The fifth-year veteran was one of two players (alongside Dwight Howard) to average at least 15 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks per game this season.

Gold Coast Blaze load up

The other big mover and shaker so far this NBL off-season has been the Gold Coast Blaze. They took huge strides forward last season but weren't content with their semi-final finish and have definitely shaken things up again.

(Click on the links below to read the full story on each signing)

1. First they signed veteran forward Stephen Hoare.
   
2. They then brought in some youth and rebounding with Tom Garlepp.
3. Their biggest move was bringing in former Breakers centre Rick Rickert as a naturalised Kiwi so he will no longer be classed as an import.
   
4. They then signed Bennett Davison, former Tigers import who was a stand-out at the High Stakes Hoops tournament.
5. And finally (for now), they signed future star Jason Cadee.
   

The 2010/2011 NBL season is still a number of months away but the Gold Coast Blaze are showing they're serious about making a run at the title. It'll be interesting to see what other moves they make and what type of player they bring in as their second import.

Crocs go LARGE!

For the last couple of seasons, the knock on the Townsville Crocodiles is that they have been under-sized. They've essentially had Russell Hinder and (insert import name here) as their only bigs, surrounded by a gaggle of guards and swingmen.

After announcing they wouldn't be resigning current MVP Corey Williams, they have dramatically changed the balance and the look of their team. Firstly they announced the signing of talented youngster, Ben Allen and today the rumour from last week was confirmed when they revealed they had also signed the biggest of the big men, Luke Schenscher.

Along with Hinder, these additions give the Crocs three bigs all 208cm or taller. Expect them to cause a lot of match-up and rebounding headaches for opposing teams. Add to that front-court, gunners like Peter Crawford, Michael Cedar and maybe Brad Williamson again and the Crocs have a potent inside-out offense.

We'll see what imports they add to the mix but based on their Australian talent alone, the Crocs are definite contenders for the 2010/2011 NBL title.