The Swing Pass: Gilbert in Memphis, Marbury in China, DeRozan in College
Wondering if you've missed out on any NBA news? Each week you'll find a collection of the best NBA-related content that the internet has to offer right here on The Swing Pass. From features to quick hits, hard-hitting news to YouTube clips, if you need to see it, it'll be here for you.
- Bethlehem Shoals tackles Gil Arenas to Memphis and explains why it works.
- I've been a Stephon Marbury apologist since I can remember and I'll continue to root for his successes and forgive his missteps as long as he's playing basketball. This SI feature on Marbury's journey is all sorts of wonderful. You can take the baller out of the NBA, but you can't take the game away from him if he loves it enough. So, so happy that Marbury is still hooping it up.
- Check out Marbury's cousin, Sebastian Telfair's awesome photo bomb in this photo of twinsies Josh Childress and Michael Redd, tweeted by Childress.
- Because I'm located in Toronto, I've gotten to cover DeMar DeRozan since his rookie season. While his game has been up and down (much like the Raptors he plays for), there's something really refreshing about DeRozan. He's a hoops junkie. He really, really loves the game and he has a way of being quietly confident while also remaining incredibly level regardless of what is going on around him. In this Dime feature, DeRozan's college coach, Tim Floyd, recalls a conversation he had with DeRozan before the first day of practice:
"The day before our first practice his freshman year–this is a guy who is a top-five player in the country; I’ve never had a player do this–he came by my office and was nervous about practice the next day...He said, "Coach, I want you to be patient with me while we’re out here tomorrow." I said, "Why DeMar?" He said, "Because I’ve never had to play man-to-man defense and don’t understand any of these drills that I saw a year ago. And it’s going to be an adjustment for me, but I’m going to listen and I’m going to try.’"
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- Here's CBS's Matt Moore on Serge Ibaka working to survive the pump fake.
- Remember yesterday, when we told you about how George Karl compared JaVale McGee to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Michael Lee takes us back to September, when Kenyon Martin also compared the two. Hint: He wasn't as kind.
- LeBron James collided with Grant Hill last night and hit the deck hard. It took him a few minutes to get up and get checked out over by the Heat bench. While the team and James both say he's okay, it was extremely disturbing to hear him say he didn't have a concussion because, he's "too tough" to get one. Here's Tom Haberstroh on James, his comments and the seriousness of taking concussions seriously.
- Beckley Mason? Not a fan of the Clippers. He explains why L.A.'s other team is "Hollywood as hell."
- One more ESPN link for you: Kevin Arnovitz shows you the best defensive lineup in the NBA, courtesy of the defending champion Dallas Mavericks. It includes "a bunch of old guys and Brendan Haywood."
- Finally, we'll leave you with the quote of the day, courtesy of Tyreke Evans (via Jonathan Santiago):
Great quote.
