High school stars actaully want to play in the Olympics?

In a bit of encouraging news, I ran into an article on Fox Sports about how top high school players passed up the opportunity to play at the LeBron James Skills Academy in favor of playing for Team USA in various international age group competitions.  Even better, some of the players sound genuinely excited about the idea of playing for Team USA in the Olympics:

"I’ve wanted to play for USA all my life,” [2011 college basketball recruit Michael] Gilchrist said upon his return from Germany. "To win a gold medal.”

While I completely disagree with the writer's view that having a "Team USA Attitude" is a positive after the disaster of the 2004, it is good to see that the nation's top young players are actually excited about the idea of playing for the gold medal.  I don't expect the weak excuses for passing up the opportunity to completely disappear, but hopefully we never see players pass up the opportunity in droves after the shot to our pride we took in 2004.

I'll have my take on an option that many (including coaching legend Bob Knight) have discussed for future US Olympic teams sometime in the near future.

Celtics to sign Von Wafer

After spending part of last season in Greece, Von Wafer is prepared to make his return to the NBA with the Boston Celtics.

Wafer, who will attempt to fill the void left by Eddie House's departure to Miami, wasn't even sure he would have the chance to make his return to the league after heading to Greece.

Coming off of a turbulent 2009-2010 campaign that began with him in Greece and ended with him returning to the States well before the end of Euro League play, the 6-5 Wafer is glad to be playing ball on this side of the Atlantic again.

“I wasn’t always sure I’d be back,” says Wafer. “it’s unbelievable. I’m just so happy to be back. I’m just so happy.”

I'm still not a fan of the guys who bailed on the dream millions of kids have of playing in the NBA due to greed, but I think that Wafer should be a pretty good replacement for House. Two years ago, he averaged 9.7 points per game for the Houston Rockets in just 19 minutes per game

Cavs to sign undrafted Samuels

When Samardo Samuels declared for the NBA Draft following his sophomore season at Louisville, I doubt he planned on going undrafted and fighting his way through Summer League to a contract, but that's how things turned out.

The Cavaliers have reached an agreement in principle with rookie power forward Samardo Samuels, according to agent David Bauman.

The agreement is for more than one year and the first is expected to to have a partial guarantee, which means Samuels will likely make the team.

I hear people talk about all of Samuels' potential, and I don't see it, however I think Samuels can definitely find a permanent place in the league, especially if going undrafted helps him discover the fire he seemed to lack during his college career.

Grizzlies, Henry in contract dispute

Weeks after the Memphis Grizzlies signed Rudy Gay to a max contract, the team is in a contract dispute with first round draft pick Xavier Henry.

Before reading this story, I didn't even know a holdout was possible in the NBA, due to the rookie scale. However, apparently teams are allowed to give anywhere between 80 and 120 percent of their pick's slotted salary. Teams customarily just give the 120 percent and move on, but the Grizzlies seem to be in pinch-penny mode after giving Gay so much money.

When I first saw it referenced, I thought that Henry was somehow being like all of the NFL first rounders who demand larger contracts than more proven players, but this situation seems to be the opposite--the Grizzlies are essentially the ones instigating the holdout by being cheap.

Fields proving doubters wrong

Moments after hearing local product Andy Rautins of Syracuse have his name announced at Madison Square Garden to a barrage of cheers, I watched as New York Knicks fanboys changed their tune dramatically with the announcement of Stanford's Landry Fields as their second pick.

The Knicks wound up selecting two players with two very different games as they translate to the NBA. To me, Rautins appears to be a one-trick pony in the League, and if his shot doesn't fall consistently he figures to be out of the Association pretty quickly. On the other hand, Fields is a jack-of-all trades type. I thought at the time that he was a good selection, as he has a number of qualities that could be developed up to NBA standards.

As it turns out, the outrage felt by Knicks fans toward the Fields selection appears to be a mistake. Fields has come off the bench for the Knicks in both of the team's first two games, but he has scored in double digits on high shooting percentages in both games, with 13 points on 6 of 8 shooting in Game 1 and 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting in game 2.

Obviously it's a small sample size and Summer League isn't a guarantee of future success, but it certainly doesn't hurt his chances of improving his standing with the team.

Wojnarowski article about the LeBron situation

After hearing that LeBron is going to have an hour long special on ESPN about where he will play for the next several years, I started writing a post about my feelings on the ordeal. Unfortunately, before I finished, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports pretty much summed up my feelings.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Whatever happens, James and the television network will hide behind some money going to the Boys & Girls Clubs. But this isn’t about kids and sports, and it sure isn’t about the credibility that comes with winning championships. Something’s changed here, and LeBron James has gone a long way to devaluing winning and losing in the NBA. David Stern has long pushed the individual over team, marketed showy over substance, and LeBron James represents the manifestation of it all.

While it probably won't make him any friends in NBA circles, Wojnarowski nailed it.

Durant signs 5 year/85 million dollar extension

In grading the NBA contract signings to this point, I would have to give the Oklahoma City Thunder the early lead. The Thunder locked up superstar Kevin Durant for 5 more years at 85 million dollars. Considering the ridiculous money that's being thrown around so far--Durant will be making as much as Rudy Gay over that period--locking up a guy who is already an elite scorer in the league despite the fact that he would be entering his senior season at Texas had he stayed in school is a pretty big deal.

It is true that they offered Durant the maximum allowable dollar amount, so maybe it's not an unbelievable move, but it certainly does make everything else going on this offseason look pretty ridiculous. Think about it, Durant is younger and better on both sides of the ball than Gay, yet over the course of the next six years he actually figures to make less money.

You have to love the way the Thunder and Durant approached this extension. It's been about as low key as the quiet superstar to this point in his career. No whining about not wanting to play in a city that isn't in one of the top 5 media markets, no ego-inflating charades about marketability, just a behind closed doors agreement and a signature.

Hats off to both parties--the Thunder are becoming the model for how to operate a small market team, and Durant is becoming one of the easiest superstars to root for.