It's not hard for Warriors center Ronny Turiaf to make an impact in an NBA game. Whether it's making a big-time block at the rim or taking a hard foul to prevent a bucket, Turiaf is pretty good at sending a message.
Well, Turiaf is trying to send another kind of message these days, this one about the important of heart health. That message is proving a little more difficult to send.
Turiaf held a conference call this week to announce that his foundation, The Ronny Turiaf Heart 2 Heart Foundation, is teaming with the American Society of Echocardiography to try to make more people aware of the echocardiogram – a heart ultrasound – which likely saved Turiaf's life.
This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
Today, we have enlisted Zach Bell and Max Mandel of the The Kennel Report to break down the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
Gonzaga has become one of the most recognizable college basketball programs in the nation. During his tenure, Mark Few has elevated the small, Jesuit institution to the forefront of college basketball. He's had guys like Adam Morrison, Ronny Turiaf, and Dan Dickau but the talent he has for the 2008 season is the best he has ever had at Gonzaga.
If you watched game two of the 2008 NBA Finals, you know what Leon Powe is all about. That's right, HUSTLE. My man is relentless out there, diving for lose balls, blocking shots, fighting for tip ins, and slamming it home on opposing player's faces. He's what most people like to call a hardhat guy.
But there are some real skills to go along with that hustle. I mean, according to John Hollinger's PER projections, Powe projects to be one of the top 25 most efficient players in the league (ahead of guys like Steve Nash, Jose Calderon, and Deron Williams).
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.
We can officially cross one name off of the NBA Overseas Defection Watch List (NBA-ODWL from now on, agreed?), and that's because the Lakers signed Sasha Vujacic to a deal this afternoon. The contract is reportedly for $15M over three years, not a bad raise for someone who took home just $1.76M last season.
That was before playing what will forever be known as the Josh Childress card though, which can be defined as "threatening my current team with the prospect of signing a deal to play in Europe if they don't make me an offer that I feel is appropriate." The Lakers' initial offer was for three years, $12M, but apparently the prospect of Sasha heading overseas as early as tonight to begin negotiating (he supposedly had a red-eye flight booked) lit a fire under the team to get a deal in place today.
This is good news for the Lakers, and good news for the league. Sasha's deal is by no means exorbitant for someone with his skill set, unlike the offer that the Lakers declined to match for Ronny Turiaf. And it's very possible that Sasha might have gotten a slightly better offer to play in Europe, but he accepted a fair one to stay and play in the NBA. I think we're likely to see the bulk of restricted free agents do the same thing that Sasha did: use Europe as a bargaining chip, but ultimately, sign with their current team ... as long as they receive a reasonable offer.
This NBA free agency thing has been absolutely bonkers, hasn't it? Baron Davis opts out, signs with the Clippers. Elton Brand now has no reason to leave, as the Clips finally got him some help, so he goes ahead and ... signs with the Sixers for similar dollars. Huh? Corey Maggette, despite all the rumors, takes the big payday with Golden State.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded NBA Correspondent, brings his exclusive NBA reporting to FanHouse. Check back here regularly for more videos.
In this video we talk to Football great Michael Strahan as well as Entertainers about the NBA finals. Around 2:20 into the video we find out from Marcellus Wiley who is cooler, NFL players or NBA players.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded NBA Correspondent, brings his exclusive NBA reporting to FanHouse. Check back here regularly for more videos.
The Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics are in the NBA Finals, and while both teams are pretty well matched, the Lakers have the edge when it comes to star power. In this video we catch up with B-Real of Cypress Hill who tells us about being a high profile Lakers fan. Around 2:15 into the video we find out from Kobe Bryant who he thinks should play him in an action movie.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded NBA Correspondent, brings his exclusive NBA reporting to FanHouse. Check back here regularly for more videos.
When the NBA season started way back in November only few believed the Lakers would be in the NBA Finals, but a brilliant trade along with the great play of MVP Kobe Bryant put the Lakers in a great situation. They are just one game away from making it to the Finals. In this video we talk to Kobe Bryant about the upcoming game. Around 1:50 into the video find out what the Lakers have in common with almost every Jewish wedding.
It's not hard for Warriors center Ronny Turiaf to make an impact in an NBA game. Whether it's making a big-time block at the rim or taking a hard foul to prevent a bucket, Turiaf is pretty good at sending a message.
This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
NBA FanHouse walks through the 
We can officially cross one name off of the 
