NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.
1. NY Post: Alas, Stephon Marbury will not be allowed by the Knicks to practice with kids from his old High School. The NBA: Where inactive means inactive.
I don't know about you all, but there's something that I find absolutely fascinating about the inner workings of the lives of players in the NBA. Like, I would think that a player's team, agent, or somebody they were close to would be the one that broke the news to said player that they had just been dealt out of town. But I would be wrong. It didn't go down like that for Ron Artest, and it didn't go down like that for Damon Jones. Observe:
Damon Jones made a guest appearance on ESPN's First Take on Wednesday morning, when he and host Skip Bayless debated about the lack of moves by the Cavaliers this off-season.
A few hours later, as he was getting into a limousine to take him to the airport, the driver told the veteran guard he'd been traded to Milwaukee.
[Jones remarked] "I appreciate the organization for moving me if they weren't going to have a significant role for me in the last year of my contract. At the same time, I'm upset they weren't able to find a role for me."
Going from television analyst discussing your team's off-season moves one minute, to becoming one of those moves and being informed of it by your freaking driver the next? That's cold. As for Damon thanking the Cavs and being upset with them in the very next sentence ... well, I don't know what else you'd expect from someone who lets the fans have a say in his hairstyle, or wears the same jacket to All-Star weekend two years in a row.
Last week, FanHouse brought you a couple of greatinterviews with Dwyane Wade and Alonzo Mourning, who were doing the media circuit in order to promote their charity All-Star game that was going down in Miami over the weekend. Besides watching a bunch of sick dunks and alley-oops with zero defense, fans were treated to a dance off between D-Wade, LeBron James, Damon Jones, and Zo. Here's a little sample.
Looks like LeBron is the big dancer of the group, and if you ask me, D-Wade looked a little tentative out there. I guess a 15-win season will do that to you.
If you want to see more, including Damon Jones getting on the mic and encouraging the best looking ladies to come down and dance with him, there's a 10 minute version after the jump. (Hey, it's the off season. What else are you going to watch?)
Ah, Mike Bibby. Have you learned nothing from DeShawn Stevenson? Don't get me wrong, I find it very refreshing to hear NBA players call out the opposing team's fans or star player. But if you don't perform after doing so, prepare to feel the wrath of those you taunted. In DeShawn's case it was Damon Jonesof all people; in Bibby's case it was the Celtics' fans.
In case it wasn't abundantly clear, that was a chant of "Rondo's better" that rained down from the Celtics' faithful. I'm not sure how much of a burn this really is for Bibby, considering the fans are merely pointing out what has been -- at least in this series -- simply an irrefutable fact.
Damon, I hate to break it to you like this, but as bad as things are for DeShawn Stevenson right now, I'm guessing he probably wakes up, looks in the mirror and says to himself, "well, at least I'm not Damon Jones." Those were your only three points of the entire series, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were your last three points. Please go away. Now.
Damon Jones has played pretty well this season for the Cavs, averaging over 20 minutes per game since the beginning of January, while shooting over 45% from downtown during that period. But his numbers have dwindled recently, and now so has his playing time, as coach Mike Brown made it known that Damon won't be in his plans for the postseason.
Jones has been a bit of a defensive liability for the team at times, and with so much depth at the guard position, Damon's going to be the odd man out. Fortunately, he's keeping a positive attitude about the situation.
''It seems like the same trend, the only thing I can do is be ready when called upon,'' Jones said. ''I'm going to try to be a positive influence, if you try to go prove something you end up trying to do too much.''
This is a nice change from the way Damon handled things last season. He was much more disappointed with his demotion, and asked to be traded: first formally, then by singing passive-aggressive Christmas carols. Well, maybe there's a bright side to all of this. Now Damon can focus on the new trend that he's promised to start, in light of the fact that his mohawk-wearing days have come to an end.
I didn't know that preserving the hairstyle of Damon Jones was a crusade worth taking up, but apparently it is. And not only is there a blog devoted to saving the man's mohawk, but it appears that in the short time the thing has been up, they might have actually succeeded.
Damon Jones had announced plans to shave off his Mohawk after this two-game road trip. But the style has caught on among basketball players and, apparently, fans. A group of fans started a blog aimed at getting Jones to save the 'do, at http://savedjsmohawk.blogspot.com/. Jones has heard about the site.
''Maybe I'll have to reconsider,'' Jones said. ''If enough fans feel that way, I don't want to disappoint them.''
All hail the power of the internet! The creators of the site aren't celebrating just yet, but this definitely sounds promising. I just have one question: where were these guys when we really needed them? You know, to save Drew Gooden's neckstache?
What does it say about me that I pay this much attention to Damon Jones? Oh wait, I can't help it -- he's omnipresent (even though Barkley wondered aloud earlier, "Is Damon Jones still in the league?"). Anyway, he looks like he's wearing the same burgundy velvet jacket at All Star 2008 that he was rocking at All Star 2007.
As our own Will Brinson points out, Damon has become the unofficial mascot of the All Star games. So I guess this is just his costume. Much love, Damon, I ain't mad at ya.
If you recall, Darfur has been a pretty hot topic in the NBA for a while now: first there was Ira Newble starting a petition on the Cavs to help out, then there was LeBron James and Damon Jonesdeclining to sign the petition, and then more recently Tracy McGradyvisiting the refugee camps and then starting the T-Mac Alliance to raise money for refugees. No word on whether or not he actually spoke with Kobe Bryant about it, but judging by this Public Service Announcement for AID Still Required that landed on Youtube today, there's a pretty decent chance.
Good for Kobe. The cynical part of me wants to look too harshly at his 180 degree publicity spins over the past few years and question this, but all skepticism aside, we need more athletes to speak out for the causes that inspire any sort of emotional response out of them; the big corporate images that people like LeBron are so wanton to protect oftentimes make us lose sight of that secretly fine line that separates athletes from the rest of the normal population.
I'm surprised this incident didn't get more (any?) play earlier in the week, but Bob Finnan of The Morning Journal reports(via HW) that Damon Jones refused to enter the Cavaliers' Christmas Day match against the Miami Heat when Mike Brown called his number with about a minute remaining in the third quarter:
Everyone involved in the controversy clammed up on the subject on yesterday.
''About the situation that happened on the bench, it's an internal matter and I'm going to keep it that way.'' Brown said before [Thursday's] game.
Jones met with Cavs general manager Danny Ferry before the game. He might have been fined, but it wasn't confirmed.
Honestly, this situation is getting a bit ridiculous -- Damon Jones apparently doesn't realize that he's just not good enough to get away with creating this kind of controversy. And besides, he's apparently just not smart enough to know how to get traded -- refusing to enter a nationally-televised game is passing up on the opportunity to impress scouts across the nation. When asked about the incident, the usually talkative Jones refused to specifically address what went down:
''That game is behind us,'' he said. ''The guys went out and had a great effort against a good team and we were able to get a win. It's in the past now.
NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.
I don't know about you all, but there's something that I find absolutely fascinating about the inner workings of the lives of players in the NBA. Like, I would think that a player's team, agent, or somebody they were close to would be the one that broke the news to said player that they had just been dealt out of town. But I would be wrong. It 
I'm surprised this incident didn't get more (any?) play earlier in the week, but 
