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The Lord of the Rings - the title that I think deserves to be given to the Los Angeles Lakers’ newly designed championship ring.

images are from nba.com

Wanna know  why?

• 15-Karat white & yellow gold
• ring is comprised of 15 diamonds with a total weight of 2.85 carats
• the ring mirrors the shape of the exterior of the Staples Center.
• The “roof” and “sides” of the court can be seen if the ring is viewed from the side
• each player’s face is laser-engraved in the ring
• a diamond-engraved L on each player’s ring and can only be seen using a high-powered   microscope
• each ring has a serial number stored in a database which only the lakers and jeweler can  access

images are from nba.com

Jason Arasheben – the man behind the masterpiece

On its 64th season the NBA will start the 2009 – 2010 season tomorrow, 27th of October 2009 (ET).

As always the NBA has been giving us great season opener. The 2008-2009 champs Boston Celtics against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The big 3, Kevin Garnette, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce will take on its eastern conference rival  Cavs led by their King Lebron James and the newly acquired big daddy-cool-diesel Shaq.

7:30 P ET

The Dirk’s Dallas Mavericks up against the Washington Wizards with Gilbert Arenas fully back into the roster.

8:30 P ET

Last year’s playoff contender Brandon Roy’s blazers will try to avenge their lost in the playoffs to the new Houston Rockets team.

10:00 P ET

And of course, the main event for los angeles and die hard laker fans, The Ring Ceremony for the defending Champs Kobe Bryant’ s Los Angeles Lakers.

10:30 P ET

2009 FIBA Asia Championship for Men started last Thursday August 06, 2009 in Tianjin, China. And the Philippine team started strong with its 2 win – 0 loss card as they seek to qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

They defeated Sri Lanka on a 115–31 lead and just recently gave the japanese its 2nd loss with a 69–78 margin.

They will be up against the koreans this saturday battling for the first spot in their Group.

It has been 3 decades since the Philippine Team made its mark in the World Championships

See the full schedule of the ongoing 2009 FIBA Asia Championship for Men.

In 1984 NBA Draft have four players named among the 50 greatest players of all time.( Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and John Stockton) The four players accumulated seven MVP awards. Jordan has 5 MVP awards while Barkley and Olajuwon have one each. They all combined of 23 All NBA First Team appearances and 45 NBA All Star game selections. Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon are currently in the Basketball Hall of Fame and Michael Jordan and John Stockton are eligible in 2009.Many other solid players were drafted in 1984 including Kevin Willis, Sam Perkins, Otis Thorpe, Jerome Kersey, Alvin Robertson and Michael Cage.

In 1996 NBA Draft contained three players that won NBA MVP awards ( Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash) and seven other all stars ( Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Ray Allen, Stephon Marbury, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Jermaine O’neal, Peja Stojakovic, Antoine Walker ). The draft class also produced two NBA defensive Players of the year ( Ben Wallace and Marcus Camby).

In 2003 NBA Draft is known for having one of the most talented draft classes in draft history. 4 of the top 5 picks are NBA All Stars and ” Redeem Team” Olympic Gold Medalist. ( Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wayde, Chris Bosh ). Dwayne Wade was named NBA Finals MVP in 2006, Boris Diaw won the most improve player in 2006, Jason Kapono won the three point shootout back to back years in 2007 and 2008. Leandro Barbosa won sixth man player of the year in 2007. Other players drafted were all star David West, Josh Howard, TJ Ford and Kirk Hinrich.

From NBA.com

In 2008 NBA Draft , the No. 1 pick, Derrick Rose, had back-to-back 20-point, eight-assist games; the No. 1 pick from a year ago, Greg Oden, gave us a glimpse of what we’ve all been waiting for with a double-double against the Hornets and 22 and 10 against the Warriors; four other players hit for 25 points in a game in O.J. Mayo, Robin Lopez, Rudy Fernandez and Anthony Morrow (who scored 37 points on 15-for-20 shooting against the Clippers accounting for the most points ever for an undrafted free agent in his rookie season); Luc Mbah a Moute had a 19-point, 17-rebound game and he was a second-round draft pick; the Nets’ Ryan Anderson went 7-for-9 from three over four games; and the Kings’ Jason Thompson, who dominated for Ryder University at center in the mediocre-at-best Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, racked up 16 points and 11 rebounds in his first game starting at power forward. Other players that were contributing well in their respective teams are Heat’s Michael Beasley, Thunder’s Russell Westbrook , Timberwolves Kevin Love, Nets Brook Lopez(twin brother of Robin Lopez) , Bobcats DJ Augustin , Marc Gasol of Memphis.

It’s really hard to choose among ( 1984, 1996 and 2003 ) what’s the best draft class of all time. For 2008 it’s still too early but so far they look special and talented.

If I were to choose, I without doubt select the 1984 draft class as the best draft class in NBA Draft History.They had the superstars Jordan, Hakeem and Barkley, but you also had solid contributors down the line in John Stockton, Alvin Robertson, Otis Thorpe, Kevin Willis and Jerome Kersey.

The visiting Detriot Pistons defeated the previously unbeaten purple and gold (lakers) , 106 – 95. Lakers have never sustained any momentum throughout the game, defense of pistons was solid.

So after 7 solid games, the Lakers finally dropped a game, and fell to 7-1 on the season. They’ll have a long time to think about the loss before the Bulls come to town on Tuesday, which probably isn’t great news for Chicago.

Kobe scored 29 points and passes Larry Bird and Gary payton on the all time scoring list.

Congrats Kobe, your now 22nd on the NBA’s all time scoring charts.

Scottie Pippen may have been the most significant figure in the history of the NBA. Pippen may never have had a title without Jordan. But there’s a good chance Jordan would never have had a title without Pippen.

Growing up I’m a big fan of Pippen’s game. He do a lot of things in the court, score the basketball, directing traffic, talking on defense, rebound the ball, can handle the ball well, giving advice to younger players………

Pippen was that rare superstar talent who was willing to play second fiddle and sacrifice individual glory for the sake of his team.

Michael Jordan:

“When we went into battle, I knew I had someone to watch my back,” Michael Jordan said. “I love him like a brother. He pushed me to be the best basketball player every day in practice. And I pushed him to be the best Scottie Pippen he could be.”

Pippen’s Accomplishments:

Gasol never has been known for his defense, for being a stopper, for being something other than a skilled offensive player.

But there Gasol was Tuesday night, grinding it out against Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, putting the clamps on the Mavericks’ All-Star forward during the Lakers’ 106-99 victory over the Mavericks.

It was Gasol’s job to contain his counterpart at power forward, and he did.

Nowitzki finished with 14 points, but he missed 12 of his 17 shots. Gasol had a lot to do with that.

Pau is really a great player, both at center and power forward.

At 7 feet, Gasol has the length to bother his man.

From ESPN.COM

ESPN:Shaquille O’Neal had a conversation with the Sacramento Bee’s Scott Howard-Cooper, which included some amazing insight about all that bickering with Kobe Bryant back in his Laker days:

I think it was all designed by Phil (Jackson). Because if you think about it, Phil never called us into the office and said, ”Both of you all, shut the (heck) up.” Never did that in four years. He knew that when I read something, I was going to get upset. And he knew Kobe was going to always come out and play hard. So I think it was all done by design.

You think he just wanted to light a fire under you guys?
Yeah. I think that’s exactly what it was. I think it was all done by design. Really. He never called us in a meeting and said, ”Shut up.” And basically, it was never a face-to-face … thing. It was always, he’d say something to you, I’d say something to another guy, I’d say something to you. That’s all it was.

Now that I look back on it, that (stuff) was kind of fun. It really was. It was kind of fun. ”What did he say, what did he say?” I tell people if we would have had a reality show, we’d have had the No. 1 reality show in the world. It was fun. It was actually fun. (Brian) Shaw would be, ”Oh, man, why did you say that?” And then Karl (Malone) would be like, ”Yo, that was (messed) up what you said.” Then we’d try to out-do each other in the game.

But while we were trying to out-do each other, the two best players in the game, we’re out-doing everyone by far.

Writer Roland Lazenby, who has followed just about the entirety of Phil Jackson’s coaching career, has been saying for ages that one must not undersell the notion that Phil Jackson plays a lot of psychological games.

I learned about this interview from Sactown Royalty, which highlighted a different amazing part of the talk, wherein Shaquille O’Neal has no idea who Spencer Hawes is.

Maybe he’s kidding. But I don’t think so.

Hawes is not even a rookie. He was a lottery pick. And he plays O’Neal’s position. I don’t think Hawes and O’Neal have played against each other, however — owing to the schedule, O’Neal’s trade last season, and the two players’ various injuries.

With two of their stars out with an injury. Spurs fans are now in question as to how well this team will compete. Manu Ginobli’s injury surely affects the team’s rotation and offense but with Tony Parker being out as well will bring the Spurs in big trouble thus leaving the San Antonio spurs with two point guards in their roster. The 10-year veteran Jacque Vaughn who’s on its 3rd year as a Spurs and and rookie George Hill. Who will you think coach Gregg Popovich will give the point role to ? or will the management opt to sign a new point guard on their roster ?

A trade was made 2 days ago making Allen Iverson a piston in exchange with Chauncy Billups, Antonio Mcdyess and Cheikh Samb. A positive effect on Denver and might be a risk for
Detroit ( I think ) .

Billups a natural pointguard replaced by a points-guard / former scoring champ and mvp. I like the way the Pistons is playing, everything is a team play, well balanced player and well executed plays resulting to a smooth transistion offense. Unfortunately the management sees something that needs improvement which led to the changing of its roster.

Detriot’s offense will surely change since Billups is out. Adding in a former scoring champ to the line up will help the half court offense of Detriot which had been a problem whenever they’re having a bad execution on their plays. An ellite player as he is, Iverson helps create room for his teammates for plays and most especially can easily create shots on his own.

We can partially tell if it’s worth the trade for both players as the pistons will try to get their 4th straight win while Denver will visit the warriors.

7:00 pm ESPN
at

10:30 PM ESPN
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*** Detroit is also showing their interest on Carlos Boozer (Utah Jazz) and eyeing on Lebron James (Cavaliers) however in would be a long 2 year wait before they have the chance to acquire King James.