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There's all kinds of rumors swirling around the Elton Brand to Philly deal right now. Did he dogpile Baron? Did the Clips issue an ultimatum? Is David Falk power hungry? Or does he just want his new baby to move closer to home? Lots of questions and very few answers exist at this moment too.

Which makes the following press conference -- a most outright, open and funny affair -- all the more bizarre. Highlights: Santa didn't bring "no gifts" (1:02), his "intention was to try and work out something with the Clippers ..." (1:30), the "Philly-max" (2:35) and Shaq as a "top five forward in the game" (4:00).



What's not mentioned though, and what you can see on the full press conference vid at Philly.com (scroll down) is Brand stating that he had no under the table handshake with Baron Davis to go to the Clippers, and that LA gave him an ultimatum and he didn't exactly dig that.

In other words, if you're willing to believe Elton Brand, this wasn't so much about external factors as it was a perfect storm of incompetence (Clipjoint), great marketing (Philly) and a personal attitude (Brand).

Via The700Level

The Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society of Gentlemen is one of the true American traditions revolving around the NBA Draft. Just like Stephen A. himself, the Society gets in everyone's face and yells a lot. Only with a sock puppet.

In the video below, you will see nine minutes of heart gripping hilarity along the lines of Triumph the Comic Insult Dog. Highlights include (the entire freaking thing really) attacking Kenny Smith (2:25), "E tu, Bilas?" (3:00), the parading of the first round draft picks (3:25) in which Kevin Love drops a Cheesy-Doodle line (3:50) and Stephen A. "writes" a letter to ESPN (6:00). But seriously, watch the whole thing.



Thank you, kind sirs, for making my Friday less painful. Oh via AA, and of course, it's dedicated to Leitch, who's leaving or something today.

The buzz out of Charlotte is all about D.J. Augustin. And how could it not be? The Bobcats passed over Brook Lopez, a.k.a. the scoring big man they need to move Emeka Okafor to the four, in favor of Texas' point guard. And they did this when, in theory, they already have the point guard of the future, Raymond Felton.

But obviously, Larry Brown does not care for Felton. I am making that conclusion based on a) the drafting of Augustin, b) Brown getting on national television and saying (paraphrase) that a strong connection to your point guard is absolutely necessary for success and c) my amazing ability to connect dots.

Now, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer is saying that, with very few exceptions, anyone on the roster is fair game to be moved around.

The Bobcats were in serious discussions with the Toronto Raptors about a deal that could have swapped [Gerald] Wallace for T.J. Ford. It didn't happen, but that's the clearest indication yet how active the Bobcats are in seeing what their players might bring in trade.

I assure you Wallace isn't alone. Raymond Felton could be moved, and so could just about anyone else with perhaps the exception of Jason Richardson.

That shouldn't be surprising, and Richardson is only off limits because of his contract. What is shocking is how quickly Michael Jordan, Brown and Co have given up on Felton (all three Carolina grads) given they spent a high lottery pick on him just a few years ago.

All the time we spent fretting over who the Timberwolves would take with the third overall pick (hey, you spend five hours live blogging the entire NBA draft and you're allowed to come up with headlines like that too, okay?) is all for naught because of a deal that broke shortly after the draft.

Minnesota and the Memphis Grizzlies have apparently made a monster swap -- a far bigger deal than that new Minny logo -- that revolves around their two first round picks. The Timberwolves will receive the draft rights of Kevin Love, Brian Cardinal, Jason Collins and Mike Miller. In exchange, the Grizz will receive O.J. Mayo, Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker and Greg Buckner.

Obviously, Mayo and Love are the two big components in this deal. Kevin McHale has made no secret of his Love-love leading up to the draft, but knew he had to take Mayo in the third slot, because of their draft position. However, the addition of Miller is pretty ridiculous, as is the dumping of Jaric's contract (although the loss of his ladyfriend Lima certainly hurts).

For the Grizzlies, they get Mayo, of course, and he could be a pretty nice shooting guard addition beside Mike Conley in the backcourt. The Grizzlies have also been trying to dump Cardinal's contract ever since they gave their last good tradable piece away moved Pau Gasol to the Lakers. Buckner, Collins and Walker are essentially throw-ins to make everything work.

Honestly, it never occurred to me, while watching Kevin Garnett's insane post game interview with Michelle Tafoya, that he might be taking a whole slogan-savvy approach to the whole thing. But then I read Darren Rovell's article about the celebration, and I gotta admit, the idea that the Big Ticket was pimping out Adidas ("ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!") does hold a little water.

For a second, I thought that is so great. How often, in the first interview after you win the championship, do you quote the slogan of your shoe sponsor (adidas pays Garnett for his endorsement)? And then I thought, wait, did he just say, "Anything is possible?" That's not adidas' slogan. Their slogan is "Impossible Is Nothing.

One of Rovell's readers points out that Li-Ning, a Chinese shoe company, already has "Anything Is Possible" pegged as their slogan, albeit in Chinese (yiqie jieyou keneng). So either Garnett messed up or he just didn't mean to do any advertising at all.

The "There Can Only Be One" commercials were awesome at first. Cool idea, they spawned tons of spin offs, and it was always enjoyable to see who would get matched up. Then Brett pointed out the simultaneous blinking ... and things got weird. Eventually, they ran so much that they became stale and we started debating the merits of the matchups.

Fortunately, the NBA came through with what would ostensibly be the final version. They just bumped it up and started running it when the Lakers lost the grip on Game 4. Conspiracy? Ha. Who saw that coming. Anyway, it was amazing.



Well done marketing people. Well done.

Kobe Bryant could just be making some sort of really in-depth analogy, and I am missing it, but it would seem, from his postgame press conference (you may watch the video here) that he is going to get flat out stinking drunk.

Assuming, of course, that he consumes all the alcohol that he claimed he would. Obviously there was nothing fun about losing to the Celtics, and certainly nothing enjoyable about having to answer questions re: the same choke job. Which could explain Kobe's visible frustration after the game, when he was asked how the Lakers would "bounce back".

Whine about it tonight, a lot of wine, a lot of beer, a couple shots, maybe like 20 of them, digest it, get back to work tomorrow. Nothing you can do.

Mamba -- who had an extremely quiet game, particularly after Paul Pierce shut him down after halftime -- also pointed out that there was nothing unfathomable about the loss, saying that he is a "realist" and that "It happened."

The other thing that happened? The Mamba and Co. could not step on the Celtics' collective neck. And Kobe knew it too, judging from his reaction to a question about going in "for the kill" and how the Lakers reacted.

Nothing. We just wet the bed. A nice big one, too, one of the ones you can't put a towel over. It was terrible. Nothing you can do about it. They played great in the third quarter, we played like crap. They pulled out a great win, now it's time to move on to the next one, period.

Kobe's press conferences have been nothing short of entertaining during the Finals but while Game 3's was just funny, the visible, below-the-surface frustration tonight was way past palatable. I know no one's ever won an NBA title down 3-1 in the Finals, but I guarantee Kobe will at least make this a series before it is over.

For those that missed the petty announcer banter during last night's NBA Finals Game 3 (presumably you missed it because you were attending the most BA Live Blog in the land) about celebrity ladies, well, you better catch up quick.

Basically, Jeff Van Gundy was asked who the hottest celebrity in the Forum was, and he yelled Alyssa Milano's name. Milano, while a diehard LA fan who blogs about the Dodgers, was not there. He was referring to Vanessa Minnillo and proceeded to butcher the pronunciation of Nick Lachey's last name.

In other words, utter Van Gundy celebrity-related chaos. That's where Jimmy Traina, of SI Hot Clicks fame, comes in. Traina caught up with Van Gundy on the phone today to see if he had figured out how to distinguish hot female celebrities and if he wanted to change any of his picks, including his NBA Finals selection. He did not.

We just got off the phone with Jeff Van Gundy. He says he did mean Vanessa Minnillo, not Alyssa Milano. He said Minnillo was sitting behind the broadcast team and "her beauty made me starstruck and I just choked." We also asked Van Gundy if Milano was there, would he go with Minnillo or Milano. "Minnillo. That girl, wow," was his answer. When asked if he pronounced Nick Lachey's name wrong on purpose, Van Gundy said, "no, I had no idea how to say his name." Lastly, we figured we'd get a prediction from Van Gundy. "I said Lakers in 6 before the series and I still think it'll be Lakers in 6."

Aggressive all the way around for JVG, but I totally respect his refusal to back down. Sure, his celebrity knowledge is pretty weak, but I didn't hear Mark Jackson correcting him or anything.

The Mamba, and Kobe Bryant in general, is a carefully cultivated PR machine borne out of number 24 losing his sponsors with that whole Eagle Creek thing. So to see him slip up and drop an "s-bomb" on the press following game three of the NBA Finals, especially in a win, is pretty surprising.

But he did anyway, even if it was in a humorous manner. Kobe was asked what he would say to all of the "thousands of ESPN talk show hosts" (which is funny in and of itself) that pronounced the Lakers finished after they lost the first two games. And he got honest, albeit obscene. (You may watch the video here.)

It wouldn't be talk radio ... it wouldn't be talk radio if, you know, if everyone was all optimistic and positive.

That's not fun. You gotta have hosts that are just gonna throw s--- to the window, you know?

If you don't have that, nobody's gonna listen to it, so, you know, amen to them. It's entertaining.

Cue ... the overlaugh. You would think his swear-word reaction came about re: the foul shooting question that followed. And while it was slip-up (mainly on whoever was manning the censor button and/or the ESPN live feed people) it is both funny and true.

Controversy drives talk radio and much of the media; it would be highly hypocritical not to point that out.

I am not entirely sure that asking "what strikes you most about that game?" to Phil Jackson after watching the Lakers come up short in a weird comeback attempt during Game 2 of the NBA Finals was such a smart idea. Unless you were a reporter looking for a quote where Phil laced into the officiating.

'I'm more struck by the fact that Leon Powe gets more foul shots than our whole team does in (Powe's) 14 minutes of play,' Jackson said, even mispronouncing the Celtic forward's name to add insult to his 13-10 free throw edge. 'That's ridiculous

'You can't play from a deficit like that; that we had in that half, 19-2 in the first half. I've never seen a game like that in all these years I've coached in the Finals. Unbelievable.'

See that? Two pot shots in one set of quotes. First he takes a dig at Powe and then he points out just how many freaking years he has been an NBA Finals coach. So you know. Officials, fans, David Stern, Doc. Just in case you didn't realize.

Phil certainly has a point though -- 38 to 10 in terms of free throws is bad enough. But when one player, specifically the guy that made the biggest difference in the game, gets more free throws (13) than your entire team in 14 and a half minutes, well, that's absurd. Thirteen free throws in 14 minutes is ridiculous enough by itself without needing that extra boost.