Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Tuesday, there are exactly 70 days remaining.
Whether he realizes it or not, Lindsey Hunter became the answer to a trivia question this summer: he's now the oldest player under contract in the NBA. Hunter was born on December 3, 1970, which means there are exactly zero players left in the NBA born in the 1960s. Dikembe Mutombo, who turned 43 in June, was previously the NBA's elder statesman, but he's now a free agent, after suffering a serious knee injury in April, he announced his intentions to retire.
To put into context just how long his Hunter's career has spanned, he shared the court with Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Bill Laimbeer as a rookie. He was the 11th overall pick of the 1993 draft, behind the likes of Chris Webber, Shawn Bradley, Penny Hardaway and Jamal Mashburn, all of whom are long since retired.
As Tim Povtak wrote earlier, Magic star Rashard Lewis has been suspended for 10 games by the NBA for testing positive for dehydroepiandrosterone, a substance on the NBA's banned peformance enhancing drug list.
But what is dehydroepiandrosterone? Is it anything like the steroids baseball and football players have been disciplined for?
Cherry Picking recaps the previous day's NBA playoff action.
Everyone's eyes were on Bulls rookie Derrick Rose heading into Monday's Game 2, and in hindsight that worked out perfectly for the Celtics. On the heels of his 36-point, 11-assist explosion in Game 1, expectations and accolades had skyrocketed out of control.
How did Rose handle the pressure? On the surface, not very well: he finished with just 10 points and seven assists.
As you can see, Stephen A. Smith talked with Lindsey Hunter yesterday. The whole interview is pretty interesting, but what lit up the local sports talk radio phone boards today was his story (last 30 seconds of the video) about how he and Rip Hamilton complained to Rasheed Wallace about Wallace being too nice to Kevin Garnett.
Several Detroit talk radio hosts (whom, I should add, are rarely actually in the locker room) tried to insinuate from Hunter's story there was some serious discord in the locker room. From the sounds of some of the callers, it set off a mini-panic among fans, or at least those fans who didn't see the clip for themselves and understand the lighthearted context in which Hunter's comments were made.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded NBA Correspondent, brings his exclusive NBA reporting to FanHouse. Check back here regularly for more videos.
In this video we ask members of the Detroit Pistons what do they think about Rasheed Wallace running for president of the United States. Around 1:35 into the video find out from Rasheed himself what kind of president would he be.
"I don't even know what we are. What are we? OK, 3-1," strength and conditioning coach Arnie Kander said. "To me, it doesn't make a difference. I look at purely the comfort level of a player, what they can do. He's getting much closer to it."
How close? For one, Billups hasn't had a single setback from day to day, and he's tested the hamstring with a lot of strenuous activity.
"He can do a lot of pretty intense things on his legs right now," Kander said, "and he has no pain." Kander said he worked with Billups "doing everything from hard dribbles, defensive slides; we box, we did all sorts of maneuvers and he didn't feel anything. So it's good."
The fact that Detroit has a 3-1 lead over Orlando certainly gives them a bit of cushion in terms of being cautious with Billups, as does the fact that Game 5 will be played at the Palace. But if he does sit again, it's not like the don't have a solid backup plan: rookie Rodney Stuckey and veteran Lindsey Hunter may have combined for only six assists while replacing Billups in Game 4, but they didn't turn the ball over once. Plus, the team frequently runs the offense through Tayshaun Prince, who had five assists himself in Game 4.
The Pistons don't need Billups to beat the Magic, nor do they need to win Game 5 to advance to the next round. Considering a sixth-straight Conference Finals appearance is seemingly in the books, getting Billups back at full strength, no matter how long that takes, should be the primary goal. As Pistons fans say, in Arnie we trust.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded NBA Correspondent, brings his exclusive NBA reporting to FanHouse. Check back here regularly for more videos.
In this video, long time NBA vet Lindsey Hunter stands up for one member of the media when he comes under attack in the locker room of the Detroit Pistons. Around 1:35 into the video Jarvis Hayes shares with us the Pistons' secret of success.
NBA players are athletic, but they're not built to do the splits. Chauncey Billups learned that the hard way four minutes into tonight's game against the Magic. He was in obvious pain the moment it happened, laying face down on the court for a few moments before collecting himself and limping to the locker room. He's not going to return tonight and is officially day-to-day with a strained hamstring. If there's any consolation for the Pistons, it's that Game 4 isn't until Saturday.
Losing Billups clearly threw a wrench into Detroit's plans, especially considering rookie Rodney Stuckey is the only other point guard active tonight with Lindsey Hunter and Juan Dixon watching in street clothes. Orlando simply stomped the Pistons in the first quarter, leading by as many as 18 at one point, though as I write this the Pistons have stopped the bleeding and have cut Orlando's lead to 67-60 with three minutes left in the third.
Update: The update wasn't meant to be: Orlando waxed Detroit 111-86.
You might be wondering why it is that we know what was in Lindsey Hunter's bloodstream. Moments after the news of this well-regarded Piston's suspension broke, we had a substance to go with it. Awfully strange, considering that I'm still in an office pool over what got Chris Anderson kicked out of the league.
According to the San Antonio News-Express, this is the result of a weird loophole in the Collective Bargaining Agreements:
Steroids and performance-enhancing drugs were added to the league's substance abuse policy in the last round of negotiations with the players' union. One interesting aspect of the agreement dictated that any time there is a penalty handed down when a performance enhancer is involved, the offending substance is to be identified.
The articles goes on to explain how little of a role performance-enhancers play in the NBA, including this Stern quotable:
"Illicit substances that could assist athletes in strength sports (such as weightlifting and football), power sports (such as baseball), or endurance sports (such as cycling or marathon running), are not likely to be of benefit to NBA players."
That's all fine and good, but why does this mean the drug has to be made public? In Hunter's case, the league could escape PR damage by chalking it up to an accident. I guess that, as far as the league's image is concerned, performance-enhancer abuse is better than weed. If an NBA guy is juicing, it just comes off as bizarre and misguided, as opposed to dishonest (other sports) or debaucherous (other drugs).
The NBA announced today that Lindsey Hunter has been suspended 10 games without pay for testing positive for phentermine, a substance banned by the league's drug policy. He'll begin serving his suspension with tonight's game against the Cavaliers. His absence puts Detroit in a serious bind, leaving the team without their first guard off the bench.
Phentermine is commonly used as an appetite suppressant -- you may remember it as being one half of the infamous Fen-Phen weight-loss drug. As a controlled substance, a prescription is required to legally possess it.
For what it's worth, there have been reported cases of athletes using phentermine to gain a competitive advantage in the past. Most prominently, former NFL linebacker Bill Romonowski ran afoul of the law when he obtained mass quantities of the drug through false prescriptions for his wife and friends.
"I'm as shocked as anyone," Hunter said after arriving at the Palace on Wednesday. "It was a diet pill -- we've all taken stuff and nothing ever happens."
Hunter said the pill was prescribed for his wife Ivy.
"We do that at our house -- if I've got a head cold, I might grab one of her pills," he said. "It was just a bonehead mistake on my part."
That may sound like a standard issue denial, but Hunter's sterling reputation around the league makes it easier to believe, or at the very least, easier to want to believe.
Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Tuesday, there are exactly 70 days remaining.
As 
You might be wondering why it is that we know what was in 
The NBA announced today that 
