FanHouse Darrell Armstrong

When Marcus Williams went down, my colleague Tom Ziller pointed out how the a lack of point guard depth behind Jason Kidd might haunt the Nets. Well, crisis averted: the team landed Darrell Armstrong, who will sign a partially-guaranteed deal for the veteran's minimum late this week. From the Star-Ledger:

"Darrell's very excited about it," said Glen Schwartzman, whose client also considered a return to Dallas. "He was very intrigued with the idea of going back to the Mavs, and they wanted him, but we just think that with Marcus (Williams) down for a little bit, it's a chance for Darrell to come in and play."
[...]
"And the Nets have a chance to get out of the East," Schwartzman said, "so Darrell can play with a winner again."

The Nets are lucky Armstrong turned down Dallas -- he's looking into getting into coaching when his playing career is done, and Dallas apparently indicated that they might have an opening on their staff. I'm sure it wasn't an official offer -- promises of future compensation would have violated the salary cap, no? -- but the fact that the team employs Avery Johnson is proof that they're comfortable putting former players on the fast track to the NBA sideline.

You knew it was only a matter of time before NBA players starting weighing in on Imus. First, it was token activist Etan Thomas, whose reponse was pretty much predictable. Now, fiery Pacers guard Darrell Armstrong is offering his own, umm, original solution to the matter. From The Indianapolis Star:

He offered another possible punishment when asked what Imus deserves. Armstrong, with a straight face, said all the women's basketball teams, "need to corner him and give him a good (expletive) whooping. I'm serious."

For Armstrong, whose fifteen year-old daughter plays basketball, the slurs hit a little too close to home. And the well-respected vet first says that Imus should have been fired immediately, so he's not being totally irrational. But it's pretty refreshing, in the midst of all the political correctness, to hear someone willing to go toe-to-toe with Imus's ignorance. Racial slurs aren't just a professional inconvenience--in the real world, that's the kind of thing that gets tempers seriously flaring.

Or whatever. You can call this just another thirty-eight year-old thug jumping at the chance to get thuggish.