(Quick aside: Is it just me or is the NBA offseason easily the most fun of any sport?) Anyway, it appears, based on Woj's sources, that this rumor is likely to gain very little steam, primarily because Danny Ainge is dealing with "Bring in Rasheed Wallace to win a championship" Joe Dumars, as opposed to "Draft Darko, Trade Chauncey for Iverson" Joe Dumars.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
The Drew League in the heart of Watts is the longest, and most competitive, running summer league in the world, going strong for over 30 years. It's also where NBA stars like Nick Young, Baron Davis, Paul Peirce, Bobby Brown, Gabe Pruitt and many others show up to display their skills.
In this exclusive FanHouse video we visit the league and find out which NBA players have been dunked on and never returned. The Drew, as it's known, is much more than a basketball league; it's the only entertainment for a community that has no bowling alleys, theaters, or arcades.
There have been many debates over the MVP award over the last few years -- from Kobe v. LeBron to the merits of Steve Nash's back-to-back awards. You can debate all you want about who should have won each year's MVP, but it is clear that a particular season's MVP is no longer likely to have playoff success.
With LeBron James' elimination at the hands of the Orlando Magic, this season marks the eighth time this decade that the MVP hasn't won the championship, and the sixth time that the MVP hasn't even made it to the NBA Finals. Compare those numbers to the 1990s, when the winner of the MVP award made the NBA Finals seven times and the won the championship five times.
We should have seen this coming. Shame on everyone who wasn't paying attention.
So caught up in the amazement and wonder over LeBron James – greatest player in the game today – we forgot history and crowned King James a little prematurely.
History would have told us he really doesn't have a chance this year.
There are four teams remaining in the hunt for the 2009 NBA title – all good teams, too – but only three of the four have the essential ingredient that champions have had throughout the last 30 years.
My colleague Matt Steinmetz made a compelling case over the weekend that the Lakers are at a crossroads. If this team falls short of reaching the NBA Finals, should Mitch Kupchak do everything in his power to bring back the current core? Will retaining free agents like Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza and Shannon Brown result in a roster with a championship ceiling? It's too early to say, especially after the Lakers averted disaster with a Game 7 win over the Rockets.
But after watching the Celtics fall to the Magic in Game 7 at home, I can't help but think Boston's GM Danny Ainge now faces the same dilemma. Did the Celtics lose because they were unlucky victims of the injury bug, or did they lose because the roster is inherently flawed?
This will go down as a defining moment in the still-budding career of Dwight Howard, the series in which he went from another well-hyped NBA star without a resume, to a legitimate leader who proved he could take a team deep into the playoffs.
It should be the beginning of a long run for the Orlando Magic, who will meet LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference final for the first of what might be many times in the next several years.
The guard has changed in the East. The Pistons are history, and the Celtics aren't far behind.
What started this season as a chest-thumping NBA title defense is turning into an even more impressive testament to seat-of-the-pants resiliency and steely resolve.
The Big Three is long gone. The Gang of Unwanted has kept this one alive.
ORLANDO -- Dwight Howard just took matters into his own hands Thursday night.
He complained about not getting the ball enough in a Game 5 loss in Boston – even threw his coach under the bus in the process – so he went and got the ball himself in Game 6.
Howard got the shots he wanted – scored 23 points -- but it still was his 22 rebounds that made the difference. He had an incredible 10 offensive rebounds, dominating around the basket at both ends in a 83-75 victory to even this best-of-seven series.
This is a case where championship experience really came into play. One team had it, and the other team didn't know what it was.
The Boston Celtics may have struggled and trailed throughout the night, but they knew when and how to rally, protecting their home-court advantage with a come-from-behind, 92-88 victory over the Magic. The Celtics took a 3-2 lead in this best-of-seven series.
The Celtics were cool down the stretch when they made a 13-0 run, sending the Magic into a panic from which they never recovered. The Magic, who haven't been past the second round of the playoffs since 1996, unraveled like a team that never had played in this kind of pressure before.
Celtics 92, Magic 88: Recap | Box Score Celtics Lead 3-2 | Next Game: Thursday @ Orlando, 7 PM ET
When the Boston Celtics first assembled the Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, they essentially told untested young point guard Rajon Rondo to just stay out of the way.
Today, they are asking him to lead the way.
Rondo, 23, has progressed so rapidly and so impressively this season that he has gone from a role-playing afterthought in their championship run of 2008 to the key in their surprisingly-stubborn defense of a title in 2009.
"You could say my role has changed a little,'' Rondo said earlier this week. "People look to me more. I'm being asked, and expected, to do more. And I like that.''
There's a little NBA trading spice coming out of Woj's internet-making machine recently, in the form of (another?) rumor involving Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo. This time, they were reportedly offered to Detroit in a deal that would have sent Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey to Beantown.
The Drew League in the heart of Watts is the longest, and most competitive, running summer league in the world, going strong for over 30 years. It's also where NBA stars like 
There have been many debates over the MVP award over the last few years -- from Kobe v. LeBron to the merits of 
We should have seen this coming. Shame on everyone who wasn't paying attention.
Cherry Picking
This will go down as a defining moment in the still-budding career of 
ORLANDO -- 
This is a case where championship experience really came into play. One team had it, and the other team didn't know what it was.
When the Boston Celtics first assembled the Big Three of 
