FanHouse Robin Lopez

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Does Braylon Edwards, of the NFL's Cleveland Browns, have some sort of one-sided beef going with LeBron James? It sure seems like it, if you read the quotes from the man Edwards allegedly assaulted early Monday morning outside a Cleveland area night club.

But while Edwards may have a problem with James, LeBron's response made it seem like the two have never even met, much less exchanged any unpleasantries.

PHOENIX -- There aren't a lot of teams in the NBA who would choose a starting center based on their ability to shoot three-pointers. But the Suns, looking to repeat last year's performance as the top offensive team in the league, are apparently doing exactly that.

With Shaquille O'Neal having been dealt to Cleveland over the summer, the starting center spot for the Suns was suddenly up for grabs. It was a two-man race between second-year big man Robin Lopez and the newly-acquired Channing Frye, who was signed in the offseason as an unrestricted free agent.

Suns' head coach Alvin Gentry confirmed to the media on Monday that he's giving the nod to Frye.

The biggest surprise in Rookie of the Year balloting wasn't (sniveling) Kevin Love's low placement (sixth) -- it was Suns rook Robin Lopez earning a second-place vote.

Robin's season in Phoenix wasn't too bright. He played in only 60 games despite flawless health; in those contests, he averaged only 10 minutes a game. His campaign ended with per-game averages of three points and two rebounds. Not exactly awards material ...

... which means that in all likelihood one of the voters -- a fraternity of writers and broadcasters -- meant to vote for Robin's twin, Brook, who ended up in third place in balloting. As far as I know, the ballot isn't a "fill in the bubble" affair -- you write in the names. Some voter really can't keep the Lopez brothers straight. (Hat-tip to Phoenix Stan.)

A few weeks back, the Phoenix Suns held their annual Suns and Stars charity benefit, and there was talk amongst the players afterwards that Goran Dragic stole the show with his rendition of the theme from "The Greatest American Hero."

They weren't lying. Goran was amazing, and so were a couple of other Suns' players. Lou Amundson performed "Ice Ice Baby" with Shaquille O'Neal and Alando Tucker as members of his on-stage posse, and Robin Lopez deftly worked the mic while singing the theme from "Cheers."

The mythical video of all three of these incredible performances, after the jump.

In the latter stages of the Suns' 129-109 loss at Portland on Thursday, Shaquille O'Neal had finally seen enough of the easy baskets and laughter from the Blazers.

It was time to do something. And he did, first calling out and then chewing out rookie Robin Lopez, who apparently wasn't putting up enough defensive resistance with the game out of hand.

It took a little while, but O'Neal was finally asked about the incident on Sunday, and sure enough he didn't disappoint. So, what was Shaq trying to tell Lopez late in that game?

Put it this way, commissioner David Stern is not going to be happy about it.

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Yesterday we had the overview; today we have the predictions. The Pacific Division appears to be no better than a two-team race, with a third team potentially in the mix, and the last two teams, well, finishing in last. Let's start things off in the cellar and work our way up, shall we?

The Los Angeles Clippers (again, regal) are going to have a tough go of it due to the enormous drop off in talent they have between their starting lineup and the players coming off the bench. In fact, if you want a visual of said drop off, go watch this, and pretend the guy jumping off the building is falling in the space between the talent of the Clippers' starting players and that of their bench players. And the parachute not opening represents the gigantic FAIL that the Clippers can expect this season anytime the bench takes the floor to try and hold onto a lead. It's not going to be pretty, folks.

Up north where the Golden State Warriors play, it won't be pretty either, at least for the first few months of the season. That's because their best player (apologies, Mr. Maggette) decided to engage in low-speed moped riding during the off-season (this still amazes me ... the moped = injury part), which will lead to his absence from the lineup, and an unavoidably bad start for the Warriors.

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A season ago, the Pacific Division was able to send just two of its teams to the playoffs, but one of them went all the way to the Finals. And while that's not likely to change this season -- at least the part about the two playoff teams -- each club definitely has its share of intriguing story lines.

Let's start off in Los Angeles, where the Lakers' playoff run last season took place with one of the team's key components on the sidelines. There are always many stories in Laker-land, but a lot of the team's fans seem to be most interested in this one: With the return of Andrew Bynum, do the Lakers have a shot to win 70 games?

Despite the recent flood of positive Andrew Bynum stories hitting the L.A. papers lately (seriously, his P.R. machine is working overtime), I'm not convinced that his addition to the lineup automatically makes the Lakers unstoppable. There's the whole thing about figuring out how to co-exist with Pau Gasol, and how Lamar Odom will perform (likely) playing further away from the basket. When you add in the fact that even if the team was capable of winning 70 games, there's really no motivation to do so, unless someone else is on the same ridiculous pace and it would mean home court advantage.

If you're like me and going through some serious NBA withdrawals right now, this clip should provide a little basketball methadone to take away some of those shakes. The first minute and a half or so we get to see Amare Stoudemire, Steve Nash, Robin Lopez, and a couple of others going through some contested shot drills, then comes the good stuff: Amare discussing his offseason, which includes, (at about the 2:10 mark) piano lessons.



I'm not sure what I enjoyed more here: Amare thinking that piano lessons would be, um, instrumental in attracting the opposite sex ... because being an NBA superstar with millions in his bank account probably doesn't help that cause at all, right? Or the fact that he was running through those drills rocking a fairly sizeable gold chain around his neck. Both were fantastic, so here's hoping Amare provides some piano-related updates as this offseason drags on.

[via TrueHoop]

There's already been plenty of movement around the league leading up to this draft -- including the Clippers/Sonics rumor and the Richard Jefferson to Milwaukee (sucka!) deal -- and no one really knows what's going to happen tonight. (Except the guy above, Rose, who's kicking it because he's going early, he's gonna be rich, and he knows it.)

We think Chicago is going to take Derrick Rose, but really, with the loose cannon that is John Paxson running that ship into the ground they might not. As for number two, Pat Riley could do anything. He's been posturing all week and acting more like Phil Helmuth than the GM of an NBA team, pretending to have "secret workouts" and such, in an attempt to scare Chicago into doing whatever it is that he wants.

Which is anyone's best guess. Anyway, I'll be hear live blogging the event with some special guests* throughout the evening, so swing by and drop your comments in the live blog.

The draft starts at 7:00 pm but we'll try and get things going a little earlier for everyone's sake.

Jeff Goodman posted the list of NBA Draft green room invitees today, and you best believe that there is gonna be some heartbreak going down on this list. After all, there are 16 players invited ... and only 14 lottery spots. Mu-ha-ha.

Actually, there's a decent chance that no one on this list will get Quinned (read: fall too far), mainly because NBA teams are much more likely to draft based on "best available" than positional need if someone starts to drop, but draft day can always be surprising. Anyway, here's the list of who will be hanging out back while the cameras catch every instance of shock, surprise and tearful regret.