FanHouse CharlesOakley

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Thursday, there are 5 days remaining.

It takes five years of retirement for a player to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Make it 10 for Dennis Rodman, who always did things differently. He did win five NBA titles.

If you think that Michael Jordan caused a commotion with an unconventional acceptance speech last month when he headlined the Class of 2009, just wait until Rodman shows up in 2010 wearing a dress and lipstick.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Deadspin: Photos of Charles Oakley getting his shirtless party on.

2. The Sporting Blog: The Celtics aren't a realistic model for success.

3. Chad Ford, ESPN: Draft approaching, rumors flying: Anderson Varejao, Leandro Barbosa, Linas Kleiza are some of the names in play.

4. Mike Bresnahan, L.A. Times: Lakers are in no hurry to sign Andrew Bynum to a contract extension.

5. OC Register: Clippers secretly worked out O.J. Mayo.

6. Paul Coro, AZ Republic: Amare Stoudemire declines an invitation to play in the Olympics.

Great read from Ira Winderman discussing the high stakes card games that go on throughout the league -- at 35,000 feet. Playing poker during flights between cities is a ritual as common as pre-game warmups for players on all 30 of the league's teams, and if it's not monitored by the team's authority figures, it's one that can get completely out of control.

Veteran guard Derek Anderson gives us an idea of how crazy things can get, and says he's seen players lose a ton of money in a very short amount of time.

I've heard guys who have lost $30,000 on an hour plane trip," Charlotte guard Derek Anderson, the former Heat reserve, says. "It's amazing - $30,000 in an hour."

"You leave Chicago, you have $30,000. You arrive in Detroit, you don't."

That was probably the longest one-hour flight in history for the poor sap who dropped $30K on a card game. Now anytime we hear outrageous stories about the gambling habits of athletes, it's important to keep perspective. According to the article, the average NBA player gets a game check of $66K, so while $30K seems like a ton of money to us common folk, it's not like these guys will be homeless or starving after a loss like that.

While the league has refused to adopt a policy on these types of card games, some teams have felt the need to put their own rules in place. When Alvin Gentry was with Detroit, he first tried limiting things to "cash only," before eventually putting a stop to it altogether. As he put it, the IOUs are where the trouble comes in. A legendary example of which is the story of Tyrone Hill and Charles Oakley, which was so awesome that I feel it must be recounted here.

Stella Foster's gossip column in the Chicago Sun-Times has a too-awesome-to-be-false tip on when we might next see Charles Oakley in the spotlight (via Hoopshype):

FORMER BULLS STAR and wannabe cooking king Charles Oakley cooked up a storm at a recent bash at the Northbrook home of jewelry giant Lester Lampert and wife Maureen. Oakley, who recently filmed a pilot for a possible cooking show, wowed guests with his secret recipe for chicken wings, cheeseburger sliders, his signature blackened cod, meatloaf and peach cobbler.

(Emphasis mine.) Fans have long endorsed a reality show set on following Oak; a cooking show might be even better. As someone whose basketball habit is occasionally matched by marathon sessions with Giada De Laurentiis, Alton Brown and (of course) Anthony Bourdain, this cannot happen soon enough.

By now, everyone has heard about Charles Oakley's desire to come back, and yesterday he made his pitch to the Orlando media that he'd be a fit with the Magic. From the Orlando Sentinel:

"Orlando has a good young team with a bright future -- I like Dwight Howard -- but I could help them develop some heart and some toughness," he said Tuesday on his cell phone from Las Vegas, where he was watching the USA Basketball team and conducting personal workouts. "I'm available. And I'm in shape, better shape than most of the guys in the league today."

Oakley may have the desire, and I'll even let him pretend to be in better shape than most of the league, but Magic fans need not get their hopes up just yet. For one, Oakley seems to be painfully unaware about Orlando's salary situation.

Yes, the team is was (update: Adonal Foyle agreed to terms!) in the market for a veteran big man, but the most they had to offer is the veteran's exception of roughly $1.2 million. That's not a bad payday for a 43 year old who's been out of the league for two years, but in Oakley's own words from an interview with ESPN.com earlier this week, anything less than $9-10 million over two years is "bulls--t money".

If that's really the case, Oak, then don't even bother waiting by the phone. The more I think about it, the more I doubt that he's going to come back with any team this year. You have to figure guys who were actually active last year like P.J. Brown (who may be old but is still six years younger than Oakley), Chris Webber or Brian Skinner will get contracts first, and this late in the summer, it'll be a surprise if any of them make as much as the mid-level exception. Unless Oakley lowers his demands, he'll spend next year just like he's spent the last two: hanging onto a thread of fame as Michael Jordan's wingman.

If this was planned in advanced, the young Pippen had some poor judgment and low self-esteem. And if it was improvised, well, Scottie doesn't look too good in the natural order of things.

Something tells me that no player, even a rookie, would let this be captured and broadcast on national television in 2007. Like they'd file a lawsuit or something. Then again, maybe this is the real reason Oakley got traded.

Charles Oakley is making a comeback. Forget the fact that he's 43 years old and hasn't played in a game since 2004. Forget that the most action he's seen in the last three years is serving as Michael Jordan's wing man at the club. He thinks that he's still tougher than 95% of the players out there, and he wants to make one last-ditch effort to prove it. Via TrueHoop's bullets comes this report from the New York Daily News:

He specifically mentioned the Knicks, Nets, Cavs and Mavs. "Look at how bad Cleveland was in the NBA Finals," said Oakley, proving his tongue is still as sharp as his elbows. "They had big guys who couldn't move and can't shoot. They never knocked Tony Parker on his butt.

"I'm not saying I'm better than guys who play every day. But I can play 20 minutes a night. I understand the game. I can shoot, make free throws and defend. A lot of teams don't have a general on the floor. I'm not trying to steal from anybody. Give me a tryout and if you don't think I can do it, then just cut me."

Is he driven by the love of the game, or is he simply hoping for one last NBA payday? Honestly, I could care less. If I was an NBA GM, the only question I'd want to know is, can he still play? Unlike his pal MJ, his game was never built upon extraordinary athleticism -- he's a physical banger, and as long as he can still get up and down the court at a reasonable pace, I don't doubt that he can still do his thing in the paint.

That said, he hasn't averaged 20 minutes a game since 2002 -- he combined for just 49 games and 11 minutes a night his last two years in the league. If he was fading then, I'd be worried about him now. But like he said, what harm could a tryout do? If nothing else, he'd help set a business-like tone at training camp.