| LAKERS NOTEBOOK: Coach Brown got his foot in NBA… | |
Lakers coach Mike Brown maintains a special fondness for the Denver Nuggets. After all, they gave him his first job in the NBA. Actually, his first job wasn’t a job at all. Brown served as an unpaid intern during the summer of 1992 before he finished his final course work at the University of San Diego. Then-Nuggets general manager Bernie Bickerstaff then hired him as the team’s video coordinator. “All I can remember is he offered me 15 grand,” Brown said Saturday. “In my head I was, like, `Sucker, I got you fooled. All you had to do was offer me a couple pairs of sneakers and some sweat suits.’ He paid me 15 grand and I thought I was rich.” Brown initially turned down the job in order to finish school. Bickerstaff held the position open for Brown until he completed his final semester Dec. 15 and gave several assistant coaches the tasks of breaking down game film until Brown arrived. Unlike today’s video coordinators around the league, who don’t work with tape anymore, Brown worked with two clunky decks. If he needed to make a tape of all the Nuggets’ fastbreak baskets, he watched the game tape and put it together. If he needed to make a tape of all their plays when passing inside to their big men, he had to watch the whole tape over again and put together that tape. It was arduous, time-consuming and thankless work. Patrick O’Keefe, the Lakers’ video coordinator, works with a laptop and DVDs. “It’s so advanced now, I have no clue how it works,” Brown said. Watching more film than a movie reviewer wasn’t Brown’s only job, however. “I landscaped our assistant GM’s yard,” he recalled. “I’ll never forget I had a Nissan 4×2 pickup truck. It was maroon. It was one thing to help him landscape his yard, but it was another thing finding out that 4×2 was going to be the stone hauler. “I did it all, trust me.” Brown spent five seasons with the Nuggets and eventually graduated to scout before he began his coaching career as an assistant with Bickerstaff for the Washington Wizards. His career in video and landscaping finally paid dividends. Barnes starts Devin Ebanks didn’t start for the first time in five games this season. In fact, he didn’t play a minute in the Lakers’ victory over the Nuggets. Matt Barnes took his place as the Lakers’ starting small forward and had seven points and seven rebounds. Brown said Barnes would start again in today’s rematch in Denver. He couldn’t say who would end up with the job, but Metta World Peace would not budge from his spot as a key backup on the Lakers’ second unit. “I thought Matt was going to give us a lift after the way he played (Thursday),” Brown said, referring to Barnes’ defensive work against Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks during the Lakers’ victory. “Devin didn’t do anything wrong. We wanted to give Matt a shot. I would like to name a starter. Matt started (Saturday) and will start (today). Will that change (for the next game)? It might until I say, `Hey, this is the guy we’re going to go with.”‘ What are your opinions. Posted in nba, Uncategorized | Comments Off
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| Nene looking to sign with a contender | |
“I learned last season that this was a business,” Nene told Spears. “No matter how nice you are to people, no matter how nice people are to you, this is a business. I did my best for the team and they waited and waited to extend me. I was like, ‘Oh, OK, all these years playing good, doing your best and they still test you.’ That’s not about family, love and somebody liking you. It’s a business.” According to Spears, before the lockout occurred this summer, the Nuggets offered the 6-11 Brazilian a four-year, $50 million contract extension, which he would have taken during the season but “felt disrespected because the Nuggets waited so long.” So he’s opting to be a free agent and wants to sign with a team that is likely to contend for a title, Spears notes. And there should be plenty of folks interested in signing the man who averaged 14.5 points, 7.6 rebounds and one blocked shot per game last season. Don’t forget to follow Scoop du Jour on Twitter or Facebook. Source: Yahoo! Sports Related: Denver Nuggets Leave your comments on the news below. |
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| Nene looking to sign on with a contender | |
“I learned last season that this was a business,” Nene told Spears. “No matter how nice you are to people, no matter how nice people are to you, this is a business. I did my best for the team and they waited and waited to extend me. I was like, ‘Oh, OK, all these years playing good, doing your best and they still test you.’ That’s not about family, love and somebody liking you. It’s a business. According to Spears, before the lockout occurred this summer, the Nuggets offered the 6-11 Brazilian a four-year, $50 million contract extension, which he would have taken during the season but “felt disrespected because the Nuggets waited so long.” So he’s opting to be a free agent and wants to sign with a team that is likely to contend for a title, Spears notes. And there should be plenty of folks interested in signing the man who averaged 14.5 points, 7.6 rebounds, and one blocked shot per game last season. Don’t forget to follow Scoop du Jour on Twitter or Facebook. Source: Yahoo! Sports Related: Denver Nuggets Leave any suggestions in the comment box. |
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| Sources: Chinese team offers Chandler contract | |
Updated: November 20, 2011, 3:07 AM ET One NBA star named Chandler is not enough for the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions in China. Having already signed Denver Nuggets restricted free agent Wilson Chandler, Zhejiang Guangsha has extended an offer to Dallas Mavericks free-agent center Tyson Chandler, according to sources with knowledge of the talks. Teams in China are permitted, under new league rules enacted for this season, to sign NBA free agents. Chinese teams likewise can’t offer in-season outs to return to the NBA, meaning any player who signs there is obligated to stay there until the end of the Chinese season in March. Wilson Chandler decided early in the summer that he could live with those terms, but sources told ESPN.com that Tyson Chandler — projected to be one of the top free agents in the NBA along with Nuggets center Nene and New Orleans Hornets forward David West when the 143-day old lockout ends - That’s all the news for today. |
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| J.R. Smith Closing In On Record Deal To Play In… | |
By Mike Prada – Editor
Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith is reportedly closing in on a deal that would make him the highest-paid player in the Chinese Basketball Association. Follow , and Like SBNation.com on Facebook. Sep 8, 2011 – Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith is closing in on a record contract to sign to play in the Chinese Basketball Association next season, according to a report by Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski. Smith, a free-agent guard from the Denver Nuggets, is looking at a deal that could pay him $3 million for next season, according to the report. Smith is a talented, but erratic scorer who has been in and out of Denver coach George Karl’s doghouse in his five-year career with the Nuggets. He is still only 26 years old and has averaged 12.5 points in just 23.9 minutes per game during his NBA career. He is slated to be an unrestricted free agent. It’s unclear how wed to retaining Smith the Nuggets are; Denver also has a number of other free agents to deal with this summer and was likely going to put Smith on the backburner. Smith becomes the second free agent to flirt with signing in China. Teammate Wilson Chandler signed there a couple weeks ago. For more on Smith, visit Denver Stiffs and SB Nation Denver. Read More: J.R. Smith (F – DEN), Wilson Chandler (G – DEN), George Karl (H – DEN), Denver Nuggets Follow , and Like SBNation.com on Facebook. Do you like this story?
Gotta run!. |
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Nene has spent his entire nine-year NBA career playing for the Denver Nuggets, is married to a Colorado native, and plans to retire to the Centennial State when he eventually stops playing pro ball, but none of that is going to help him stick with the team, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Marc J. Spears. 
